MarketingDojo#29: The Billionaire's Club 🤑
Facebook's New Highs, Roku's Shoppable Streaming, Fifa Women's World Cup Advertising & a lot more.
Hello Everyone,
I hope August brings in some good cheer & pleasant weather.
It feels so good to get back to the writing routine. It’s incredible how not feeling well can affect one’s thinking ability. I am/ glad to have my body and mind back. Thank you for the messages and comments. I am grateful for your concern.
This week we will cover:
🚀Facebook keeps getting bigger
😨An email that will freak you out
🏆Trendjacking - Duolingo style
🛒Making shopping easy
And a lot more.
Before we begin, I want to recommend a newsletter you might like.
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With that, let’s dive right in.
Sky’s The Limit: Facebook’s User Growth Story.
Facebook reached new heights last week- its monthly active users crossed 3Bn.
Not just that, Facebook, Instagram & Whatsapp boast 3.88 Bn users - almost half of all the humans on Earth.
The social media giant's gravitational pull can be felt in the furthest spaces of the internet - 64% of total website traffic generated via social media comes from Facebook. This number has been in a freefall ever since Facebook decided to deprioritize news, but there's no doubt that Facebook remains a strong online presence.
There are two big reasons why I believe Facebook continues to grow and will remain the numero uno social media site :
Facebook's unparalleled stronghold in the Asia Pacific region.
One in every three Facebook users is from the Asia Pacific. Facebook's advertising services reach 367 Million Indians, almost double its ad reach in the United States.
In countries such as the Philippines, Vietnam & Thailand - Facebook's advertising reaches more than 84% of the country's population. No digital campaign in these regions can be complete without including the platform.
Facebook's use case is unique.
According to GWI research, 70.8% of active social media users visit Facebook to remain in touch with friends and family. No other platform fulfils this need as effectively.
US-centric news articles have been keen to demonstrate the irrelevance of Facebook. But it remains the most important social media platform globally. Facebook has long outgrown its dependence on the US to fuel user growth & is reaping the benefits of its global dominance.
How not to email.
Did you know that on an average day, people receive between 100 and 121 emails? This includes work, spam, promotional, and social emails, making for a cluttered inbox.
It's no wonder crafting emails that stand out and get read is such an intriguing topic.
However, the athleisure company Feat recently sent an email that serves as an example of what not to do when trying to stand out in a busy inbox.
The subject line was "A message from your neighbour," the email was designed to appear as if a nosy neighbour wrote it.
The response to this email was so negative that it was covered in a Wall Street Journal news story, and a prominent influencer even distanced themselves from the brand.
So if you were looking for examples of how not to email, here’s one you should bookmark! If, on the other hand, you want a swipe file of all the good emails out there - head to really good emails.
Masterclass In Session: DuoLingo Aces Trendjacking.
Trendjacking is a clever marketing technique in which a brand capitalizes on a trending topic or popular phenomenon to enhance its visibility and expand its reach.
This approach enables brands to engage with their audience by becoming a part of everyday conversations. A prime example of a brand that excels at trend jacking is the language learning platform Duolingo.
Case in point, Twitter's rebrand to X. While everyone was mourning the demise of Larry, the bird, Duolingo's mascot Duo memefied the situation to emerge as the internet's alpha bird.
Then there's the Barbie trend.
Duo appeared at the pink-themed Barbie premiere, dressed on point.
Was Duo officially invited? Did Duo have the chance to meet Barbie? No one knows for sure. But the publicity generated effectively promoted brand recall.
Duolingo takes a bold approach that few other learning platforms can attempt.
Boasting a staggering 54 million monthly active users, it's one of the largest platforms of its kind. Its success can be attributed, in part, to its fun and memorable marketing strategy.
I highly recommend taking a few minutes to read through their brand values, which clearly and simply articulate the reasoning behind the Duolingo brand.
Shoppable Streaming: Roku’s Baby Steps Towards Revolutionising TV Advertising.
Connected TVs have grown rapidly in the last year, and businesses like Roku are revolutionizing how advertisements appear on these devices.
Roku's ad-supported on-demand video streaming service, connected TV operating system, and ubiquitous devices (if you are in North America) make it the ideal candidate for disrupting the traditional advertising model.
Roku has partnered with Shopify to enable on-screen purchases from ads. Viewers can interact with a Roku Action Ad from a Shopify merchant using their TV remote and buy products using Roku's payment platform.
The problem of attribution has been prevalent in TV advertising. That's led to digital channels claiming the lion's share of the performance marketing budgets.
However, Roku's efforts to establish a smooth shopping experience on connected TVs could be a small step towards bringing marketing dollars back to (connected) TVs.
Creative Excellence: 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup Advertising.
There's much to cheer for during the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, co-hosted by Australia & New Zealand.
The prize pool has been increased by 300% to $150 million (€134 million). Thirty-two countries will participate in the Premier event, the highest ever in the sport's history.
The audience interest in the event is at an all-time high - A survey in Britain showed that 76 per cent of the respondents were more interested in the Women's World Cup this year than in 2019.
Even Ad revenues for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup are up 50% from the last tournament in 2019.
No wonder several brands have created entertaining & thought-provoking creatives to catch their audience's attention.
Nike's What The Football campaign is perfect for hyping the star players this season. Admittedly, I know little about Football, but I watched and re-watched the ad for its entertainment value & making me a tad bit smarter.
Adidas' new campaign is in a similar vein to Nike's. It introduces us to star women players and features David Beckham & Lionel Messi in supporting roles!
The Belues' highlights campaign by Orange in France is thought-provoking and shows that incredible football skills are not limited to the men players alone.
The audience for this event is unique, with 60% of the total audience being female. This presents a great opportunity for advertisers to be a part of a cultural moment that has been in the making for years. And some advertisers are going all out creatively to make the most of it.
Short Stuff
Youtube advertising revenue grew at 4.4% after multiple quarters of no growth. (Big tech is booming).
Yet another TikTok trend has turned into a product offering - Popeyes offers a “girls’ dinner” on its menu to cash in on the #girldinner phenomenon on TikTok (The 1Bn people focus group).
From microblogging to blogging? X is working on a feature that will let you publish full-length articles. (It’s going to get confusing soon).
That’s a wrap for the week. Thank you for your time and attention. If you learnt something new thru the newsletter, please remember to give it a like or drop a comment. It is a zero-cost way to support all the effort that goes into creating the Marketingdojo.
See you in your inbox next week.
Regards,
Garima
P.S: A week and a half ago, I attended a marketer’s roundtable organized by the nice folks at Marketing Interactive. It was an intimate setup with Adidas, Diageo, Nespresso, Zespri, TreasureData & 3M marketers.
While we come from different industries, a few things felt common:
Marketing teams are stretched. There isn’t enough bandwidth to manage the ever-expanding channels.
Consumers want sustainable products but aren’t ready (yet) to pay a premium for them.
Short-termism is reining the roost in 2023 - all marketing expenditures are expected to show returns in a very tight time frame.
Restructuring is omnipresent.
AI is on everyone’s mind, but curtailed marketing budgets mean curtailed ability to experiment with new technologies.
Overall, being a marketer across the board is a tough time. Hang in there. The tide is hopefully turning soon.
