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Our mid-year Christmas-in-July spirit has passed and we now delve into all the wonderful things that August has to offer, (including spirits of a different kind, if you’re excited that the ‘dry’ month is finally over like our GM Rachel).  

  • Looking back to one of our stories from last month surrounding the ACCC recently presenting its final report on its recent Digital Platforms EnquiryIt appears that Google is trying to get themselves off the naughty list before Christmas rolls around this year, welcoming the opportunity to consult with the federal government, as they finalise their response to the regulatory body’s findings and recommendations. As a very brief overview, the report itself gives a total of 23 recommendations including establishing a code of conduct between big-tech and traditional media, as well as an urge to update relevant merger laws. While the recommendations may at an initial glance, appear to make things more tricky for those playing within the Google/Facebook marketing worldMel SilvaGoogle Australia MD, thinks that a big building block to solving this ever amplified issue, is to simply provide complete transparency, choice, and control over how data may be used

    Transparency means easy access and full visibility of your data and preferences, and the assurance that Google does not sell personal information to third parties. Choice means the user should get to decide how their information is used and deleted. Control is the ability to manage your settings and features depending on your preferences.”  

    Remaining transparent in this sense is undoubtedly going to be a stand-out factor for Google in satisfying their side of this ongoing conversation… Facebook, on the other hand, has given a more clear-cutting response, calling the regulator’s proposals unprecedented and warning they may risk restricting Australians’ access to online services. **Sigh** It appears this saga isn’t going to fade away any time soon. We wait with popcorn in hand (and mouth), as commentary and changes continue to unfold for this story in the coming months.  

  • Speaking of sagas, the most recent installment of the Bachelor Australia has finally been unleashed, and it seems everyone wants a piece of all the “Agnew” things this season has to offer. No, we’re not just talking about this year’s contestants or the loyal bachie viewers…we’re talking about the businesses, marketers and online media platforms jumping on the bachie-bandwagon, in the hopes of sucking-up some of the immense attention and love that all of us sucked-in fans will inevitably give the show. From online media outlets like Punkee magnifying their own presence and online engagement, through hilariously edited bachelor “recaps,” to more unexpected businesses like Realestate.com.au trying to piggy-back off the show’s success through thematic articles (AKA “newsjacking”) like “Where could the new Bachelor live comfortably on his astrophysicist salary?” or “The Bachelor presenter Osher Gunberg’s Bondi Beach apartment hits the market with $1m guide”. Before you let out a communal ‘huh?’ as the more outlandish businesses join the club, this phenomenon of “piggy-back marketing” is not a new one and it’s becoming more and more prominent – particularly on social media platforms, given the rise of lovable meme culture. While a viral bachelor doesn’t really sound like someone you’d want to be rubbing shoulders with too closely, harnessing the virality of trending news and topics like this can be a great way to breathe new life into your content and brand while harnessing new audience attention and boosting web traffic. So, one question remains… Will you accept this “rose” in modern marketing culture? Or do you think the traditionalist approach in building consumer-relationships is best? 

  • In other TV news, Facebook has recently partnered with TV broadcasters for exclusive content. Ah yes, our crystal ball has been correct over the past few months, anticipating that the television universe would be evolving. What we must admit we didn’t see coming was Facebook dictating part of the future “tele vision,” partnering with local free-to-air broadcasters and digital-only publishers (i.e. Seven, Nine, SBS, Junkee Media, and Pedestrian TV), to create content for Facebook Watchers, as it continues to build out its video offering. With a key focus on exclusive entertainment and news-related content, this will certainly be a mutually beneficial relationship for these broadcasters and Facebook, from both an audience and platform development perspective. For Facebook, we can’t help but notice it will also directly assist them in appeasing to those ACCC inquiry recommendations that was mentioned earlier, despite their initially scathing response … Yes Facebook, we see what you’re doing there.  

 

  • On a musical note, Spotify continues to groove into the future, announcing a few new funky features to make advertising more targeted. These two updates within its self-serve advertising platform, Spotify Ad Studio, will give greater focus to Interest Targeting and Real-Time Context Targeting. In short, this will allow advertisers to now reach certain users based on interests, as informed by which podcasts or playlists they may be listening to, as well as recorded platform preferences. Real-time Context Targeting will additionally allow advertisers to reach consumers at certain moments throughout the day, like when they’re studying, eating breakfast or at the gym. This news is certainly music to our ears here at Threesides, since better targeting in most cases inevitably leads to greater reach, memorability and prompted conversion levels. From a creative perspective, contextual targeting also gives those rocking-on within the radio/streaming copywriting realm more reign to play and get jiggy with their advertising strategies.  

  • Pinterest is starting to make moves to ensure it’s pinned ahead of the game in the world of online marketing platformsgrowing its revenue by 62% after strengthening its ad business. As a platform that often gets forgotten in the online advertising realm, this is huge news for both the platform and marketer’s considering extending their social media mix into the future. Along with this lead-on growth in revenue, Pinterest has also extended its monthly active user count to 300million. This is an increase of 30% and it doesn’t appear that growth for the platform will be wavering anytime soon

    We also continue to grow and diversify our advertiser base and improve advertisers’ ability to measure the effectiveness of their ad spend,” said Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann in an interview with AdNews, “This is part of our larger and ongoing effort to create value for businesses on Pinterest. Needless to say, Ben, we’re Pinterested.

  • Another social media platform that we love, despite them recently hiding our own love-react counts, is – you guessed it – Instagram. Instagram has recently released its Influencer Marketing Statistics & Benchmarks – Australia 2019 Report and it presents some interesting insights. Some of the key points: 
    • 85% of marketers say engagement is their primary KPI for influencer marketing. 
    • The average engagement rate in Australia is slightly higher than the global average. 
    • In Australia, only 1 in 3 followeron average is likely to see a post. This demonstrates that follower count does not necessarily equal the number of human eyeballs that will see a post.
    • Across all accounts, “suspicious follower” counts were at 28.1%, with increasing probability as account follower levels increased. This reinforces why it’s important for marketers and agencies like Threesides to conduct manual verification, to try and assess how “legit” different influencers will be in, well, actually influencing our targeted audiences.

To gain a better understanding of how and why Influencer Marketing works, chat to us today about how we can make Influencer Marketing work for you! 

That’s another wrap for this month in the world of marketing news. Watch this space for timely marketing insights and story updates in the coming months.