MarketingDojo #57: 🍰 Baking a Difference: Creativity vs. Cancer 🎗️
A bread exam for early breast cancer detection, Dark side of live-streaming, Gen AI is the new matchmaker in town.
Hello,
Welcome aboard the 57th edition of The MarketingDojo! If you're looking to catch up on the marketing world in less than 10 minutes, you've come to the right place.
February 28 marks a 'giant leap for mankind' – not in the vast expanse of space, but within the fabric of life itself. Seventy-one years ago, on this day, Watson & Crick (And Rosalind Franklin) discovered the Double Helix model of DNA. While Rosalind Franklin's crucial contributions were recognized later, this trio's discovery unveiled the blueprint of life, setting the stage for countless innovations like mRNA vaccines that have since saved millions.
It's sad and ironic that my P.S. section covers the crisis Science content creators face today. The P.S. section is a rant, an attempt at driving awareness and a sincere call to help.
In this issue of the newsletter, we will cover:
🎗️ Creative excellence: Bake bread & spread cancer awareness
😂 Meme-Time: Zuckerberg & me
🏨 The dark side of Chinese live-streaming industry
📌 Pinterest turns producer
🤖 New friendships in the A.I. race
And lots more.
Before we jump into this week's insights, I have a small favour to ask. If you enjoy what you read today, consider forwarding the email to one more person.
Thanks a million.
Creative Excellence: The Bread Exam.
Last week, I attended a readout of WARC's Marketer's Toolkit 2024.
Over time, I've become somewhat sceptical of the glossy brand case studies and their accompanying slick videos, primarily aimed at clinching awards rather than making a real impact. But one case study stood out.
"The Bread Exam" is a creative breast awareness campaign in collaboration between Lebanese Breast Cancer Foundation, McCann Paris & Spinney's, a popular local grocery chain.
In Lebanon, where cultural conservatism makes the topic of breast examination somewhat of a taboo, the campaign found a unique and sensitive approach to broach this critical subject. It featured the well-respected chef, Umm Ali, who cleverly uses kneading bread dough as a metaphor to demonstrate how women can perform self-checks for early signs of breast cancer.
The campaign's creative execution and ability to engage with the target audience through a culturally sensitive approach have been recognized and celebrated across various platforms.
It gained further momentum as influencers from Turkey, the UK, and Germany—countries with significant Muslim populations—came on board to create their iterations of "The Bread Exam."
The campaign has reached over 112 million people globally and has been praised by over 300 main media outlets, turning a traditionally silenced topic into a universal discussion.
What an incredible use of creativity to prove that the most challenging topics can be approached with ingenuity and sensitivity.
Meme-Time: Lone Marketer Among Engineers.
Today's meme is self-deprecating humour.
I returned from a long work trip where most of my meetings were with colleagues with PhDs or engineers. While I also have an engineering background, I found my core marketing skills to be as useless as Mark Zuckerberg's hands in the UFC match.
Have you handled marketing in companies or teams where marketing is strictly a support function? Would you relate with Mr Zuckerberg here?
From Stardom to Shackles: The Dark Side Of Chinese LiveStreaming Industry.
The scale of China's livestreaming industry is staggering, often beyond what many outside the region can easily grasp.
Take Zheng Xiangxiang, for instance, who astonishingly raked in 100 million yuan (approximately S$18.6 million) in seven days by briefly showcasing products for just three seconds each on Douyin.
In 2022, an impressive one-seventh of China's internet populace tuned into live streams, with a significant one-third venturing into broadcasting themselves. Among the intriguing applications of AI in this sphere has been the creation of AI-generated deepfakes, facilitating around-the-clock livestreaming.
However, beneath the surface glitter, a more troubling narrative unfolds - the exploitation of emerging livestreamers is gaining attention.
24,000 Talent agencies that scout and groom live streamers support the Chinese live-streaming industry. The agencies pocket commissions from the earnings of the influencers. Their aggressive recruitment strategies are driven by the need to meet the demands of social media platforms, tying revenue generation to providing a steady stream of influencers.
Newly recruited influencers are finding themselves in water-tight contracts which are too expensive to break. Courts usually favour agencies & business contracts.
Under China's social credit system, failing to comply with court orders can lead to severe restrictions, such as being barred from purchasing plane and train tickets, essentially cornering live streamers between a rock and a hard place.
New forms of consumer engagement will create new forms of occupations & with it, birth new types of problems. The latest article on the dark side of live streaming is essential to develop a complete picture of the second and third-order effects of what started as yet another marketing channel.
The Unexpected MatchMaker: GenAI.
Rapid AI development is giving rise to innovative and sometimes unexpected collaborations that promise to redefine user experiences across platforms. A couple emerged last week:
Google & Reddit's data sharing: Google has struck a deal to pay Reddit $60 million annually for real-time access to its data. This deal enables Google to use Reddit data across its various search products. Reddit will also receive Google's Vertex AI technology, enhancing its on-site search capabilities.
As Reddit gears up for a potential IPO next month, this collaboration offers a strategic revenue stream, particularly vital given the platform's struggles with ad revenue. Meanwhile, Google, facing increased competition and concerns over search quality, finds Reddit a valuable ally to bolster its search dominance.
Google & Reddit is an obvious partnership that no one saw coming.
Midjourney & X: The Gen-AI enable, text-to-image generator, Midjourney is reportedly collaborating with X/Twitter to bring image generation capabilities to the social media platform.
Elon Musk wants to turn X into an everything app that will compete with LinkedIn, YouTube, FaceTime, dating apps and even your banks. The move is especially intriguing given the historical tension between Musk and OpenAI. As AI technology advances at breakneck speed, collaborations like Midjourney and X's highlight the strategic alignments companies are willing to pursue to stay competitive in the AI arena.
As GenAI evolves, these partnerships will spawn new use cases, ultimately opening new avenues for consumer engagement and platform evolution.
Pinterest's Tasty Leap Into Shoppertainment.
Pinterest is giving shoppable ads a long-form turn.
In June, Pinterest will debut its first-ever streaming show, Deliciously Entertaining. The series is created by Tastemade, a global digital media company focused on food, travel, and lifestyle content.
Here are a few interesting aspects of this show:
Cookbook author and digital influencer Danni Rose will invite guests to cook and enjoy the food in settings ranging from BBQs to wineries.
Danni will take inspiration from the vast repository of Pinterest content for each episode's menu, decor, and overall ambience.
The series will be available on Tastemade, Amazon Live & Pinterest.
Each series will come with a QR code, which can be scanned to discover products on Pinterest.
This strategic move signifies Pinterest's ambitious foray into content creation, aiming to redefine the concept of 'finding inspiration' on its platform.
By intertwining entertainment with shopping in an organic and engaging way, Pinterest is trying to offer an advertising experience that's less intrusive and more meaningful to its user base.
Short Stuff:
Walmart buys TV maker Vizio for $2.3Bn as a foot-in-the-door into connected TV advertising. (Walmart goes shopping).
Woman undergoing chemo gets served cremation ads (digital advertising targeting going too far).
Amazon aims to dominate the programmatic advertising market by encouraging advertisers to extensively use its demand-side platform (DSP) (Amazon ads are growing from strength to strength).
Twitter competitor Bluesky now allows anyone to run their server for a decentralized social networking experience (Social media 3.0).
That’s a wrap on this week. Thank you for your time and attention. If you liked this week’s newsletter or found something interesting - please give me a like ❤️ or drop a comment🗨️. Your support helps drive the discoverability of the newsletter.
Once again, thank you for your time. See you in your inbox next Wednesday.
Regards,
Garima Mamgain
P.S:
The Science YouTuber Crisis.
Since the start of the year, many well-known science education YouTubers have been closing down their channels due to content creation exhaustion.
Simon Clark, a prominent science education YouTuber, is on the verge of calling it quits on YouTube. Simon holds a PhD in mathematics. He makes excellent explainer videos around mathematics & climate change and has about 500k subscribers.
For every 1000 views, Google Ad Sense pays him about 2 Pounds. For an average video, he gets paid about 40 Pounds! So much hard work and such little returns.
The problem that Simon faces is common.
a. Digital platforms, including TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, have dialled back the earnings content creators once enjoyed, making it an increasingly challenging landscape for creators.
b. Educational content, like Simon's, often falls victim to the platform's algorithms, which favour more clickbait-driven material.
c. There's a noticeable lack of support from brands. While 70% of a content creator's income typically stems from brand collaborations, those specializing in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) find it significantly harder to secure such partnerships than their counterparts in beauty, fashion, and gaming.
Watching Simon's potential farewell video was a deeply unsettling experience. It serves as a poignant reminder of these educators' invaluable role in fostering a sustained interest in STEM, particularly among the younger generation. Their contributions are vital, yet currently undervalued and under-supported.
I am reaching out internally to request support within my organization. If you are involved with influencer partnerships or can offer support, please consider backing science educators. Their work is essential for enlightening minds and inspiring the next wave of innovators and thinkers.