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In Q2 of this year, Inmar Intelligence and Industry Dive’s studioID conducted a survey of more than 200 brand marketers and a survey of 1,000 US consumers to identify the impact influencers and social media have on purchasing decisions and how influential and important brand marketers perceive the marketing tactics to be. They uncovered potential opportunities that marketers are missing, owing to disconnected perceptions of influencer and social media marketing. Social commerce sales are expected to grow 35.8% this year to $36.62 billion, according to an eMarketer report. This represents an opportunity for marketers who know how to capitalize on that growth.
According to Inmar’s findings, “Marketers are undervaluing the role influencers play in driving sales, because up to 70% of marketers are looking for a linear connection between a post and a sale.” A multistep attribution framework may be better suited for measuring the effectiveness of influencer efforts, as the initial content may be just the awareness step in the full conversion funnel. Their survey to consumers found 84% of respondents have made purchases based on recommendations from influencers and 68% of those who purchased had spent up to $150. Ninety-five percent of consumer respondents find product inspiration from influencers and follow them specifically to learn about new products. Not only are influencers a great avenue for unveiling new products and gaining social proof for those new arrivals, but influencer partners are also suitable for promoting products priced just above impulse buys.
This month, Facebook announced that a form of Reels will be coming to the platform. This introduction to the new short-form video format appears to be an attempt to deter users from seeking out TikTok downloads to experience the format. Facebook Reels and Instagram Reels are going to be interconnected, allowing Instagram profiles to also share videos on Facebook Reels in the newsfeed or group feed placement. This format is expected to have a standard set of creation tools, including those for video capture, music selection, camera roll import, timed text, and more.
Walmart Connect, the e-commerce marketplace and advertising platform previously known as Walmart Media Group, saw year-over-year growth of 95% in Q2 of this year and is on track to hit $75 billion in global e-commerce sales by year-end. As part of the rebrand to Walmart Connect, the company has partnered with The Trade Desk to incorporate a demand-side platform (DSP) to boost ad revenue and offer this advertising option in time for the 2021 holiday season. According to Marketing Dive, “It also acquired Thunder, an ad tech solution focused on creative automation, and expanded its approved partners program to include HarvestGroup, Stackline and Tinuit to help advertisers run more efficient campaigns.”
Snapchat launched its new research tool for identifying trends specifically on Snapchat. Its operations are similar to Google Trends and Pinterest’s keyword research tool that auto-populates with related search terms based on your entered text alongside comparative mention volume. This new trends tool will undoubtedly help marketers and researchers identify relative popularity of topics on the platform to inform their content and media strategies. Regional trends can be identified using filters that are a native feature of the tool. Also on the home screen, Snapchat will display general trends identified in the previous week, case studies, insights into certain niches, and features for researching language trends in relation to how terms are actually being used.
TikTok adding Stories to the platform is possibly a strategic way for the platform to add content placements that are more suitable for monetization.
TikTok will be testing the Stories placement on its platform, following the likes of Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. TikTok Stories will disappear after 24 hours and will be displayed on the left-hand side of the main feed. Features include a dedicated camera and creation workflow that will make Stories easy to create and share.
The addition of a Stories option is likely a strategic way for the platform to add content placements that are more suitable for monetization, i.e., advertisement placements. According to Social Media today, some analysts anticipate that TikTok is on track to become the next billion-user social media app this year. As a natural progression, TikTok will continue this trajectory by developing more features and placements to facilitate monetization, more tools and revenue-share programs for attracting creators, and more attractive advertising placements and tools for marketers.
YouTube has rolled out automatically generated video chapters for improving YouTube and Google search results and user experience by quickly narrowing in on sections of content that are exactly what users are searching for. Not all videos are eligible for automated chapters, but YouTube intends to apply chapters to its library of video content. These auto-generated video chapters can be used as is or can be edited by the video creator, utilizing relevant keywords to improve ranking in search queries. These chapters have been developed to work with translation tools to improve international discoverability of desired content. Lastly, YouTube will be providing additional website links, sourced from Google, for queries about which the platform has little or no video content.
Discord, the server-based chat app, has surged in popularity over the last year and is also becoming a top social-listening tool and hotbed for cultural insights and trends, according to an article by Marketing Dive. The ad-free app is best suited for brands to interact and engage with users in a more intimate and non-intrusive manner. Jesse Nicely, a Discord specialist at Cashmere Agency, said that "Discord's fast-paced nature makes it fertile ground for emergent culture and trends and allows brands the opportunity to constantly engage with consumers on interesting topics. At the same time, users can curate more intimate spaces for themselves and their friends, while also scaling to larger communities, if desired."
Reddit is releasing its TikTok-esque short-form video format but taking a similar implementation approach to that of YouTube Shorts, tapping into existing libraries of content rather than allowing Reddit users to record new content and edit it into short clips. The editable video clips are user-specific and based on the subreddits to which they subscribe. The video editor is likely to integrate elements from the Dubsmash video app (acquired by Reddit last year). Features from Dubsmash allow users to lip-synch and dance to audio tracks, similar to TikTok. Reddit has seen a steady increase in video engagement over the last year and also saw its livestreaming functionality double in 2020, partially due to COVID-related behavioral shifts.
Thanks for reading this month's marketing and tech-related news. We found these articles insightful and helpful in navigating the changing marketing landscape and hope they are of value to you too.
Until next time.
Seth Slone | Digital PM
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