09.06.22

Social Waves

Marketing today can feel a bit like surfing – scanning the ocean to choose the right wave to catch. Trends, like waves, are changing constantly and social media exacerbates the challenge for marketers to figure out what is worth jumping on.As I wrote years ago, brands need to ask themselves the right questions to understand if they should take a stand. Wendy’s and Dove presumably did this whendeciding to wade into the recent Lisa Laflammecontroversy. A few other brands surfing trend wavesinclude DuoLingo who is incorporating High Valyrian(the fictional language used in Game of Thrones) into its advertising andChipotle is one of the first brandsto test the new social platform BeReal.

If you’re looking for the next trend, social media analytics can help identify promising signals.Magasinhas put together avery cool live documentthat crowdsources shopping insights from Instagram stories. GQ has also published its annualHype List. To catch-up on social trends from the past week, check out theBornSocial Trendwatersreport for a rundown of what’s trending.
 

A.I. & Art

I hesitate to post much about A.I. because I don’t fully understand it. That’s why it was refreshing to read Kevin Roose’s latest NYT piece that calls on big tech firms to do abetter job of explaining what they are working on, without the P.R. spin. Are we on the verge of sentience, or are we still just messing around with gimmicks likehearing dead people talk? The NYT does a smart job ofshining a lighton how it uses A.I. to optimize its paywall. Would love to see more pieces like this that explore the practical applications of machine learning, even if they are haven't arrived yet.
The one area that does feel tangible - judging by my Twitter feed - is A.I. is test-to-image visual art. Apparently an A.I. image generator (operated by a human, I hope) recently produced something thatwon an art context last week. TikTok is alsointroducing a basic iteration of this technologywith its AI Greenscreen feature.Daniel Eckler(who has a fantastic tech newsletter btw) recently shared a tweet with25 other inspiring examples.

Fresh Reports

  • Retail Media (Accenture): A must download for anyone trying to figure out why and how retailers are evolving into media businesses. It includes helpful visualizations of the relationships between brands, customers, and retailers in this new flywheel.

  • Value Creation in the Metaverse (McKinsey): Another helpful visualization – this one illustrates the different ‘layers’ that make up the metaverse today. Smart way to frame such an ambiguous concept.

  • Overview of Nike’s web3 Strategy (Kahris.eth): In the 90’s we did SWOT Analyses, today we do web3 strategy overviews. Attention agency strategists: your clients will be asking for one of these soon.

 

Smart Reads

  • The Smartphone is the New Sun (Benedict Evans): My fav tech writer outlines why and how other tech hardware ‘orbits’ the smartphone, along with new data on how people miss their phones more than anything else.

  • De-Bossification (Rishad Tobaccowala): Smart POV on how we need less bosses and boss-like behaviours in companies today. What qualities, training, and incentives do the next generation of managers need?

  • Rewirement (Wunderman Thompson): Why retire when you can rewire? Love this concept. As someone who is incessantly thinking about what’s next (and approaching 50), this hits 100%.

Digital Trends: 08.23.22

It’s been 8 years since I went out on my own and started Kickframe. As I shared at my 5-year mark, I didn’t have some great epiphany about a business idea or dreams of building a large company with my name on it. I wanted to work on my own terms – that’s it. Over the last 2+years, many have had a similar opportunity with more flexible WFH arrangements. Taking away that ‘benefit’ is at the core of the struggle companies are now facing in bringing people back to the office according to the authors of ‘Out of Office’. While the authors encourage employers to get back to first principles and dramatically rethink how work gets done, I think this issue is so challenging because it is just so personal to those that have been fortunate enough to enjoy this choice/freedom. It’s more about life than work. Maybe that explains why people went batshit on poor Malcolm Gladwell for being a fan of the office. Scott Galloway also recently shared his perspective, which was also personal.  
 

Pandemic Bumps

As many businesses are trying to bring people back to the office and ‘return’ to pre-COVID times, there is evidence that other aspects of our lives and the economy are moving back to natural trend lines (much fewer ‘The New Normal’ proclamations on LinkedIn these days btw).

  • Gaming: consumer spending is down 11% prior to a COVID bump

  • Ecommerce: online shopping has returned to its pre-pandemic adoption curve

  • Movies: consumers are (mostly) returning to theatres for blockbusters

  • Travel: New (Canadian!) data on our return to planes, trains, and automobiles

  • Oh, and Peloton

As a father of 3, I’m most interested in the impact of the pandemic on kids who are unfamiliar with these trend lines. They don’t have the same benefit (or baggage) of history regarding what to return to.

Tiktokification & Creative 

3 years ago, many people were laughing off TikTok like it was a QR code (scan here to find out who is having the last laugh now!) Not so much anymore. New Pew research shows that that platform is tops for teens, and Facebook is falling sharply. From a marketing perspective, Foxwell has new research that shows strong advertising performance on the platform. So, what does the future hold? Mark Ritson criticizes TikTok clones for aping their features. Ben Thompson has a smart essay (as always) on how TikTok aligns with larger trends in digital media and UI. He also uses my new favourite analogy “would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses?”

Whatever your view of TikTok, brands need to master short, video, made-for-social creative formats. Here is a great resource with over 100 examples: Good TikTok Creative.

Strategy & Branching

Spotify is testing a feature to sell concert tickets through its platform. While it’s being spun as a way for the platform to support artists who feel they are being short-changed from streaming revenue, I thought it was an interesting example of branching from a position of strength in music. I’ve used mind map models with clients to explore they too can also branch out from a core area / offering. Below is an example focused on the topic of travel, and here is a template you can use to do something similar. [Insert go out on a limb pun here].


Good Stuff

Digital Trends: 08.01.22

AR, VR & Holograms

Augmented reality has always seemed like a technology looking for a reason to exist. Now, it seems that a dash of pragmatism has been added to this technofantasy stew and we are finally seeing some practical use cases. Last month,Google teased its AR glasses with Live Translate, and the company announced that it is now testing“helpful AR experiences”in the real world. Navigation is apparently one of the aspects that will be tested – here is acool (non-Google) demo from a retail example. Here’s another one built by Shopify for designing a room (fun thread on how it was built, here). And while not technically an AR activation, my personal technofantasy recently came to life featuring ahologram concert featuring ABBA.
   

TikTokification of Media

Less text, more video. Less desktop, more mobile. Less searching, more scrolling. Less follows, more recommendations. All of these general media trends have led us to where we are now – the TikTokification of media. Meta fast-follows (corporate-speak for “copies”) these popular trends and features, andfaced a backlashlast week for prioritizing recommended video content in a recent Instagram update. While Meta rolled back the update, the concept of the TikTok For You Page is here to stay. It’s actually been here for awhile, it has just been supercharged by AI and video.Video is apparently richer media than textto train algorithms, and these algorithms are so effective that people are asking“I don’t know if I like what I like or what an algorithm wants me to like.” Algorithm Anxiety is real people! Here’s a useful visualization of thedata-driven evolution of media and asmart framing of different ‘eras’.
So, what can marketer’s do? Don’t fight the current. Hire peoplethat know the platforms best, becomefluent in the creative languageof TikTok, and create native content with themindset of a publisher.
 

The Future of Advertising

“Remember, demand and supply always apply.”This was the mantra repeated by my economics professor years ago. It comes to mind whenever I read any “The Future Of…” reports - like this piece from Rory Sutherland. While technology, media, and the marketplace are constantly changing - there are fundamentals that always apply.
 
So, what is fundamental in advertising? The importance of a strong brief.Will Novosedlikhas agreat article in Strategythat highlights that 25% of marketing spending is wasted on poorly written and understood briefs. To help address this, the IPA has a useful resource to download“The Best Way for a Client to Brief an Agency”. If you’re interested in this area, check out myHow To Write a Marketing Briefonline course (free for the next week using the promo code FUNDAMENTALS).
  
So, what is changing in advertising? Experimentation with different technologies and media. Meta is the latest organizationoffering AI-powered image generation. Rethink recently released a video (ad?)using DALL·E 2 for Ketchup. Unilever released an update on itsinitial forays into the metaverse– what I find most interesting in here is their mention of an internal group“Web3 Collective, a cross-functional group of subject-matter experts representing areas such as marketing, finance, legal, media, procurement, licensing and more.”On the surface, it seems like a smart approach that acknowledges the multi-faceted opportunities and risks associated with Web3. It reminds me of how companies first tried to figure out how to organize around social media.
 

Fresh Reports

 

Stories, Scripts & Customer Scenarios

Over the years I’ve taken several writing courses. One that I particularly enjoyed was a screenwriting class, where I learned the basics of developing characters, creating dramatic scenes, and structuring story arcs. While my Hollywood career has yet to take off, the lessons I learned in that class have served me surprisingly well in my digital marketing / strategy career – particularly when creating customer scenarios.
 
Scenarios are often used to describe how a new product, service, or feature will work through a fictional story about the person experiencing it. The scenario typically takes place in the future, and brings to life the benefits of a new concept in a compelling and concrete way. They are often in pitches to sell-in new ideas.
 
I have had a hand in creating many customer scenario 'scripts' – some good, some bad, and some ugly. When good, scenarios humanize the benefits from complicated technology solutions. When bad, the audience is confused, distracted, or bored (ugly is a combination of all 3). While scenarios can be produced through any combination of sketches, storyboards, mock-ups, and video, the best are all:

  • Believable: Feature people acting in a natural way within a relatable and real-world context

  • Focused: Include the most important features and benefits in the most concise way

  • Feasible: Incorporate features that have been vetted for business value and technical complexity

  • Magical: Dramatize a future state vision that is surprising and appealing for the audience

Below is a framework that I have used to help map out customer scenarios. It helps me to align product vision, supporting features, customer insight, and business value into a single narrative. I hope you find it useful in your own work. After all, there is no phrase more powerful than ‘let me tell you a story’ :-)


For more marketing planning templates, as well as tips for choosing and using, check out theKickframe Toolbox.

Digital Trends: 07.01.22

How should brands think about the connected car? Interesting question from an interesting guy – my friend Trevor from Sheeva.AI. He posed this question to me in an email, inviting me on as a guest for his new podcast on the future of mobility. I took the bait, and you can listen to our fun discussion here.
 

VOICE, SEARCH & DEAD RELATIVES

One of the topics Trevor and I discussed was the natural role of voice / audio as the primary input and output mediums for the connected car. New research shows that 92% of consumers use voice to search the web – 40% on a regular basis. And new advances in voice search are coming, including the ability for to recognize songs from humming and the ability for Alexa (gulp) to mimic the voice of a deceased relative. I miss my dad, but I don’t need to hear him tell me when an Amazon package has arrived. But if it was the AI-powered voice of Val “Iceman” Kilmer? Maybe.
If you’re interested in exploring the fit of voice within the context of your marketing or customer experience plans, check out my post on “What Problems Can Voice Help Solve’”.

 

GENERATION Z, ANONYMITY & WORK

The marketing community has a new obsession: Gen Z (those born between 1997-2010). Poor Millennials have been pushed aside (I’ll save you a seat at the neglected Gen X table!) PR agency Edelman has recently hired a Gen Z cohort and appointed a gender fluid fashion designer as its ZEO. The agency founder has also hired his daughter as the Gen Z COO, proving nepotism crosses generational lines.
For marketers without a ZEO, there is always – you know – customer research. New findings show that Gen Z is seeking more anonymity online, turned off by the complications of managing a personal brand. This is consistent with the 0.5 selfie trend – and taking social media / self-projection less seriously. Research also shows that Gen Z is the group that is driving the push back into the office, seeking more face-to-face interaction. Love the framing of this article on the topic – “Gen Z employees are not ‘going back’ to the office. They are discovering it.” Many haven't been - and need / seek mentorship and modeling of IRL office communication and behaviour. Maybe us slacker Gen X’ers might be able to help out after all.
 

CANNES, ADVERTISING & RETAIL MEDIA

If you have anyone in your social network that was at Cannes a few weeks ago, you’ll know that Cannes happened a few weeks ago. Here is a list of all of the 2022 Grand Prix Winners, as well as a new LION State of Creativity report that summarizes perspectives from marketing and creative leaders. Worth a skim.
If you’re interested in what’s happening in retail media (retailers selling advertising on their owned channels), this McKinsey report is a must read. It highlights common myths / misconceptions and paints a convincing picture of how this area will continue to grow. An adjacent opportunity is what Simons is testing – allowing customers to search for any product from any retailer within their mall properties – through one interface (which can, presumably, be monetized as retail media).
 

GOOD, LONG READS

  • Spotify, Netflix, and Aggregation: New Ben Thompson piece on Aggregation business models, contrasting Netflix and Spotify. He dissects Spotify’s latest investor day presentation to highlight how it’s business model is evolving (and thankfully for my Spotify stocks) improving.

  • The Webpage: What does a modern, successful media company look like today? Are the days of the ungated SEO-optimized webpages numbered? Another smart read by Troy Young.

  • NYT Investor Presentation: Since I read the NYT’s Innovation Report in 2014 that went viral with digital strategy nerds like me, I’ve been keenly following their transformation journey. Their latest Investor Presentation is available – check out the section on Growth (page 132) to see how they think about (and present their strategy around) audience monetization.

 

FRESH RESEARCH & RESOURCES

  • Shopify Editions 2022: A great way to learn about the updated product ecosystem of Shopify, and trends in the D2C retail space in general.

  • The Behavioural Science Annual: A worthy download from Ogilvy with a collection of case studies on marketing programs focused on behaviour change.

  • ABCs of NFTs: A fun, clear read from Reddit on what NFTs are and how to launch them – using Reddit communities to do so. Best doc on the topic that I’ve seen.

  • State of eCommerce Advertising: A useful resource for media teams looking for benchmarks around ROAS and the use of Meta, Instagram, and PPC.

Digital Trends: 06.20.22

AR, AUDIO & DIGITAL BLINDERS

My first ‘real’ job after I finished my MBA degree many years ago was working for the Yellow Pages. I was responsible for exploring how the company might flourish in the dawn of the Internet era (narrator: not well). Looking back, the prevailing view (especially from digital-know-it-alls like me) was that everything that could be digitizedwouldbe digitized, and made better once put on a screen. I remember rolling my eyes whenRed Herring magazinepublished that ‘the future of online purchases is here – it’s called the credit card.” Digital blinders.
 
I was thinking about that article today, after reading that bothMetaandAppleare delaying their AR headsets. Is augmentation necessarily better if it is on a screen? Maybe the future of augmentation is here, and it’s called audio. No need to convince people to wear headsets in public, just keep those Air Pods in. No need to push buttons, just use your voice or be alerted geospatially. No need to disrupt your current flow or social context by switching focus, just listen.
 
But what are we listening to? From a content perspective, this is where I think some interesting changes are happening. Podcast pioneerBill Simmons recently gave an interviewwhere he shared that audio content is becoming increasingly reactive to news and culture (not just evergreen). Further, new shows are being launched withcompanion podcastswhere critics and/or creators discuss the episode immediately after it airs. Spotify alsorecently released researchon the audio habits of Gen Z (with Canadian data, eh!) that reinforces how young listeners are spending more time going deeper into their niche interests through audio. So, whilesocial audio is fading, Spotify is becoming like reddit or Google in audio form. I expect to find content and answers relating to anything that I am interested in right now. The audio longtail.
 

FUTURE OF WORK VS. REALITY

The conversation I seem to be having most often with my clients these days is around returning to the office. What does hybrid mean? How do I measure productivity? Can I build culture remotely? Microsoft released anexcellent report on the New Future of Workthat applies data and perspective to these questions. I found this table really useful – mapping different meeting objectives to different meeting modes. A smart exercise to do together with teams to establish a shared understanding of working together.


 The meeting objective that jumped out for me was #15: ‘Build trust and relationships with one or more individuals’ - it requires a face-to-face meeting (not Zoom). How does this play out in the Future of Work, as building relationships are a critical part of building a career and reputation?Scott Gallowayshares thoughts on the matter. I suspect that it’s what most bosses are thinking, but are careful not to say (except Elon Musk). This return-to-work bias is also being seen in some VCs, whoprefer to fund start-ups that work IRL.


ADVERTISING & CULTURE

If you’re a marketer confused about the death of third-party cookies, you’re not alone. According to Digiday, 71% of agency and brand execs “are worried and don’t know what’s next”.One thing that might come next is not using data at all – as Meta is apparently developing‘Basic Ads’that would not be highly targeted or expensive. A counter-intuitive offering from a platform known for hyper-targeting.
 
From a creative standpoint, I thought this quote from an ad exec was interesting –“TikTok is one of the places where culture is created”. We often get so focused on audience targeting and production in digital advertising, we forget about the distinct cultures within different social networks. It’s not about specs (does it fit), it’s about context (does it belong). You can’t blame the platforms who continue to put out useful resources to help advertisers:
How to Market on Twitch
How to Market on TikTok
The Long & Short of YouTube
 

MONEY & THE METAVERSE

It seems like one of the main way companies are making money in the metaverse is by consulting clients on how to make money in the metaverse. Snark (partially) aside, McKinsey recently published some useful background material oncommercially navigating the metaverseand Standard Chartereddid the same.
 
Publicis Groupe also recentlyintroduced a lion avatar named Leon as its new Chief Metaverse Officerto help educate clients since “the metaverse isn’t a destination, it’s a real-time learning moment for all”. The company released aYouTube videoof this announcement staring the animated lion. Shout out to the Publicis PR / Social team for the decision to not allow people to post comments.
 

SMART READS

  • Product Thinking: A smart piece by Julie Zhuo on Product Thinking. The P-word is used in many contexts and job titles these days – this is good grounding.

  • Economist & Education: Interesting perspective on how the Economist launched courses, leveraging its expertise, staff, and brand into a new revenue stream. An untapped opportunity for many.

  • Visualizing Media: Love this perspective from Troy Young on visualizing (or revisualizing) media, exploring how mental models are changing for different mediums (HT/ to Brian Clarey for the Substack reco).

  • Behavioural Economics Guide: Behavioural economics and nudge theory is all the rage in ad land, this is a good resource and here is a smart video from Rory Sutherland on the subject.

Digital Trends: 06.01.22

Media Platforms & Jobs to be Done

I have used this slide in my digital marketing training courses for years. I use it to discuss how marketing can feel more complex with each new change in the technology and media landscape. I use the curves to illustrate that there is no straight line, and that new innovations do not mean that channels that came before are now irrelevant. Instead, existing channels are often changed in some way.

 
This image has been swimming in my head as I’ve been reading more about changes in the media landscape – accelerated byrecent dramatic drops in stock prices for media / streaming companies. Many of these companies are now accelerating their own changes to find more users/subscribers, to attract more advertisers/creators, and to remain ahead of the curve in media consumption/engagement trends.
 
These changes lead to platforms often trying to reframe what they are and how they should be used. This then sets-up the challenge of trying to acquire new users and change the behaviour of existing ones – without alienating or frustrating them. It also sets up the competitive challenge of migrating users and behaviours from other platforms to yours, and reframing who you are now competing with. Hence, the impact on other existing channels (curves of change).
 
There are countless examples, here are just a few from the last 2 weeks:

The concept of competition was recently explored byScott Gallowaywho sees TikTok as a competitor to Netflix andBenedict Evanssees TikTok as a competitor to YouTube. These are interesting strategy thought experiments, but do users think this way? Does it matter? If you abstract out form and focus on content and engagement, you can argue that all of these platforms are competing with each other.
 
I find theJobs To Be Done frameworkto be the most useful tool to think this stuff through. If we start by understanding what a user ‘hires’ a media platform to do, we may have a better idea of how to evolve the platform without alienating existing users. And by focusing on Jobs To Be Done, we can explore the broader competitive context defined by these Jobs – not by existing product features. All of this to say, more curves and complexity ahead for marketers.

 

Google Trends & AR Translation

Google made news this month with its Google I/O conference announcements (see 12-minute summary here). The company isintroducing image search to Chrome, and a text-to-image AI productcalled Imagenthat turns text descriptions into images. It is also working on anew immersive mapto let you “explore and understand the vibe of a place before you go.” All cool stuff, but my favourite innovation by far is the Google Translation Glasses.Check out this concept videoto understand how it works, and how it can benefit different people and contexts. It’s a super-smart use case where AR glasses are the right tool to solve this problem, not a tool looking for a problem to solve (like 99% of other AR concepts I’ve seen).



Fresh Reports & Research

  • State of Martech 2022 Report: New report from Scott Brinker. As someone who spends way too much time moving boxes, circles, and arrows around in PowerPoint, these visualizations of marketing tech stacks are like catnip for me.

  • Podcast Report 2022: A fantastic overview of the growing podcasting market from the listener, creator, advertiser, and general business perspective (bonus points for a slick interactive format, too).

  • 2022 Reputation Rankings: The annual Axios Harris Poll on the reputations of the most visible brands in the U.S. Spoiler Alert: #1 is Trader Joes’, #100 (out of 100) is The Trump Organization.

  • Advertising Strategy in a Recession: A helpful (and hopefully not timely) study on how marketers need to adapt their advertising strategy in face of a recession by Eric Benjamin Seufert.

  • Multicultural Marketing Report: A fantastic resource from Google on one of the most important, overlooked, and misunderstood opportunities for marketers in Canada today.

Digital Trends: 05.11.22

Airbnb & Remote Collaboration

"If the office didn't exist, I like to ask, would we invent it? And if we invented it, what would it be invented for?"F*%#king excellent questionfrom Airbnb CEO Brian Chesney. He has been in the news recently because Airbnb announced surprisinglypositive business results, as well as a newlive and work from anywhere policy.I wish more organizations would try to answer this question, instead of“does hybrid mean 2 or 3 days in the office?”
 
One benefit of facetime (not FaceTime) is more creativity. Research now backs up what anyone who has spent even a minute on a Zoom-based brainstorm can tell you – videoconferencingdoesn’t work for generating ideas(but isn’t bad for selecting them).Another study backed this up, and researchers recommend turning your cameras off if virtual is the only option.
 

Snap & Augmented Reality

It’s odd how Snap gets overshadowed by the other social platforms, as it has anamazing historyof product innovations andusage continues to grow. The company recently announced a new (and natural)collaborationwith Cameo, a new program that lets users placeAR overlaysover physical objects / locations, anacquisition for a companythat lets you control virtual objects with your thoughts, and – for shits and giggles –a flying camera.I have a hard time sending a newsletter twice per month!

A big part of the Snap vision is leadership in consumer applications of augmented reality, especially in retail. The company recentlylaunched a new featurefor fashion brands (including Puma) to let users virtually try on merch. Here is a thorough report from the Foresight Factory onAR & the future of shoppingthat is worth a skim.Amazonis investing in this area, as is Meta – which recently authored a Sponsored Post / Propaganda on Vice from the perspective of someone wearing its AR glasses to Coachella for an entire weekend. I suspect they spent much of their time alone.


Navigating the Metaverse

If over half of all content about a topic is trying todefine the topic, there’s a problem. And that’s where we are with the metaverse today. From a marketing perspective, it is interesting to seeSpotifyestablishing a presence in Roblox (12.2 million users in NA, including my daughter). If you’re a retailer interested in how to get started in this space, my friend AJhas a new postthat’s worth a read.
 
A part of the metaverse milieu that has been in the news lately is NFTs (see ‘NFT Sales are Flatlining’from the WSJ). Peter Yang makes the case thatNFTs are the future of subscriptionsfor creators. Brands are starting to experiment with NFTs as a membership mechanism,including Starbuckswho sees NFTs as a way to “create an expanded, shared-ownership model for loyalty, the offering of unique experiences, community building, storytelling, and customer engagement.” If that means free coffee, I’m in.
 

Good Reads

Digital Trends: 04.25.22

SOCIAL CONTENT & CONTEXT

As someone who started writing a book that ended up as a website that ended up as aset of online courses, I’m fascinated by the relationship between story and medium. How does one impact the other? In social media we see this playing out with new types of content trends, such as posts with increasinglydeep analysisusing short visuals and videos. It is common to seelong explainer TikToksand tweets that are essentially multi-part blog posts – like thistongue-in-cheek classicfrom marketing shit-disturber Mark Ritson.
 
Another trend in social media is authenticity, or at least a seemingly authentic attempt at achieving it. Ogilvyrecently announcedthat it will no longer work with influencers who edit their bodies or faces, and a new app calledBeRealissurging in popularity. The concept is that your network shares a photo once a day at the same time (you are alerted by a notification)…no filters allowed!
 
If we remove photos and filters, we are left with text messaging. I love this new art book that explores life through people’s randomtexts. And if you’re ever tempted to ask someone why they stopped typing you via text,here are 2,000 smart words on why it’s a bad idea.

TEENS & THE SNAPCHAT GENERATION

Piper Sandlerrecently published some new research on teens (U.S.) that serves as a good reminder of how different social media habits are across generations - TikTok is the favorite social media platform (33% share) surpassing Snapchat for the first time (31%); Instagram was third (22%). Beano Brain also has a new report that shares themost 50 popular brandsfor teens (U.K.). And Snapchat has released theirSnapchat Generation 2022 researchon how people are using their platform – highlighting opportunities for social shopping and AR.
 

D2C RETAIL TRENDS

For the last 5 years, analysts have been preaching that legacy retailers need to learn from direct-to-consumer / born online retailers. It turns out that it’s not that simple. With online ad prices and shipping costs rising, many direct-to-consumerretailers are suffering - “there’s certainly a reckoning happening.”Some are now taking a page from legacy retailers andsetting up physical locations, with the help of cheaper leases and higher availability due to COVID. Here is the2022 guide from Googleon how to navigate the digital retail market.
 
Another trend is the significant growth of retail media – where a retailer sets up an advertising business to allow brands to buy space across their owned digital properties. I recently worked on a retail media network project, and it’s a big-time opportunity for retailers with scale and data chops.BCG has an excellent backgrounderon this topic. Dunhumby also has auseful reportthat provides data on the growth of retail media (increase of 38% in advertiser spending in 2022).
 
Amazon now makes $31Bfrom their retail media network. They are also launching what some analysts are calling ‘a Shopify Killer’. TheBuy With Prime programallows certain Amazon Merchants to place a Buy With Prime button on their 3rdparty websites and allow customers to complete transactions in the same way as they would on Amazon. This is similar to the distributed model ofShopify’s Shop Pay. Ben Evans has a smart read (as always) on how digital advertising and online commerce are blurring and the implications for management decision-making: “do you get a better ROI on Instagram ads or faster shipping?”
 

METAVERSE & MURDER

I remember working in Europe the day after Brexit. I was providing consulting services to a consulting company (always weird) and met the head of their new Brexit consulting practice. So it doesn’t surprise me that consultancies and agencies all now have dedicated metaverse offerings –you can read all about them here. If you hire one, perhaps you can ask them if it is safe to bring your child intothe Lego Metaverse. Or what you should do if you run intothe first homeless personin the metaverse? Or – even better – if there are any consequences if you enter the metaverse andkill someone!
 

NEW RESEARCH & REPORTS

  • Deloitte: New 2022 Predictions from the Technology, Media & Telecommunications Group. The consultancy also published a report on Gen Z digital media habits, with some interesting findings around the role that gaming plays for teens in expressing personal identity.

  • IAB: Internet Advertising Full Year 2021 Review, highlights digital ad growth of 35.4% year-over-year – the highest growth since 2006 (U.S. data).

  • HBR: New report on Marketing Metrics, which makes the case that senior marketers are fully aware of the need for strong brand equity but have basically nothing in place to measure it. Gulp.

TECHNOLOGY & CREATIVITY

Some random / smart / creative stuff that I love (see, we can have nice things!):

Digital Trends: 04.01.22

METAVERSE NO MORE

I’m going to avoid using the term metaverse anymore. It seems like such lazy short-hand that serves as an umbrella for more interesting ideas and tangible component parts.CNET makes the casethat the metaverse is a metaphor that represents the culmination of technologies like VR, AR, blockchain, 5G, and wearables. I think it’s far more worthwhile to focus on each of these individual topics.

Plus, this will hopefully free me from feeling the need to pay attention to marketing / agency teams dusting off old Second Life pitch decks tohost fashion shows,sell virtual real estate, and hostvirtual beer tastings- “it wasn’t so much the non-existent beer but the emotionless avatars of everyone in attendance that sucked the life out of the party”.

MORE STUFF LIKE THIS

I’m conscious of not writing (or thinking) like an old crank. I’m still as curious about the possibilities of the Internet as I was when I first logged onto the Online Guitar Archive over dial-up in 1992. I love the intersection of creativity, technology, and weirdness that comes together online. A few examples:

  • The Pudding: This ‘longform data journalism’ goes deep on deconstructing Ali Wong Comedy Specials and, most recently, NBA drafts. The best.

  • The Flemish Scrollers: A service that uses AI to automatically tag distracted Belgian politicians when they use their phones during live meetings, and posts images to Twitter.

  • Data Models: A deep-dive into how the Best Picture Oscar can be predicted based on the number of coughs in the movie (it incorrectly predicted Dune to win, but somehow projects that Viggo Mortensen will be cast as Batman in the future…nothing about Will Smith).

Would love to see brands that are interested in content marketing produce or sponsor these types of novel web-native concepts.

AR, VR & IMMERSION

Snapchat isopening up its platform to lens creatorsto build more AR experiences tied to specific public locations. People will be connected via a QR code, making the physical world a digital canvas. Facebook continues to move into the AR space with its Ray Ban partnership, which isnow expanding into new countries.Nike brought immersion to Japan for Air Max Day with anamazing 3D billboard. And if that's not immersive enough, there is work being done to bring thesense of touch to VR environments– including a Japanese start-up that aims tobring the sense of painto the (gulp) metaverse;“Feeling pain enables us to turn the metaverse world into a real [world]…”Sign me up!

STREAMING & SUBSCRIPTIONS

Netflix has been“working on ways to enable members who share outside their household to do so easily and securely, while alsopaying a bit more.”AKA stop sharing or we’ll charge you. 23% of Netflix users share an account, and approximately50% say they will cancel if charged. If they do, they will miss theSkip Intro featurewhich was launched 5 years ago this week, and has apparently saved members 195 years in cumulative time.
Apple is reportedly working on anew subscription service for hardware, allowing customers to pay a monthly fee for iPhone upgrades and presumably other devices and accessories. The company also just purchased afintech start upthat focuses on credit checks. Don’t they have enough of my money?
 

NEW RESEARCH

  • 2022 CMO Survey: Highlights trends over the last 14 years. Within the area of digital marketing, it shows a huge jump in investment in data analytics over the past year (+37%), along with a focus on testing & iteration.

  • The Infinite Dial 2022: This is the best annual survey on audio. It shows continued growth in podcast listening, flattening of smart speaker purchasing, and minimal use of audio-based social media services.

  • Email Benchmarks 2022: A new report from Campaign Monitor benchmarks results across several verticals. It has some interesting insight into the impact of Mail Privacy Protection (boosting open rates by +3.5%).

 

SMART READS

  • What Your Clients Wish You Knew: Funny, smart, inside-baseball perspective from a Strategy Director returning to an agency after a stint of client-side experience.

  • Martech Talent vs. Technology: Excellent post from Scott Brinker on the importance of training teams on martech in order to realize the benefit from the investment. This is backed by the State of B2B Marketing Training study that showed that only 1 in 5 (!!) marketers feel very prepared for their future in marketing.

  • Education in 2032: Smart deck from Zoe Scaman on shifts in how we learn. Some interesting connections (with examples) made between education and gaming, social media, and Web3 concepts.

Shaping Thinking

I’m not proud of how much time I spend monkeying around in PowerPoint. I’ve wasted full days shunning SmartArt for bespoke versions of simple process diagrams. Why? As a visual learner and compulsive whiteboard doodler, I’ve always been drawn to (pun intended) the relationship between what we see and how we think. Frameworks and visual cues play a huge role in how we interpret information. Visual models become mental models. As a consultant and trainer, I've found that incorporating the right visuals into a presentation can help me to explain things more clearly, structure sessions more effectively, direct the attention of participants, and ultimately influence outputs.

I’ve put together a quasi-periodic table of visual elements that can be used to help bring more clarity to presentations. Each includes what I want to communicate (the client’s question that I want to answer) and a visual element to help me do so. And yes, I created this in PowerPoint.


Canadian Digital Marketing Landscape - Q1/22

One of the most frustrating things about working in digital marketing in Canada is that there are so few research reports that focus on the country. I don’t know how many times I’ve been searching for data to inform or support a recommendation, only to come up empty. It often leads to uncomfortable presentations where I need to caveat that certain charts or graphs are based on U.S. data (or if I’m lucky, are North American) but “I’m confident that a similar pattern can be seen in Canada.” Gulp.

So, every quarter I update a Canadian Digital Marketing Landscape document with the best new Canadian data that I can find. The sources that I find most helpful are eMarketer, GWI, We are Social, CIRA, IAB Canada, Ipsos, Salesforce, Google, and Strategy. I share this document with all of the participants of my Kickframe Digital Marketing Strategy Bootcamp in-house training programs.

For visitors to this website, I’ll share it with you. Click here to view / download.


Digital Trends: 03.15.22

Wordle & The Nice Internet

Another day, another new Wordle-clone. This time it’s Heardle– a music trivia-based game that is actually pretty fun (sound on!) My personal favourite Wordle-clone is –Poeltl (pronounced ‘PER-tull), after former Raptor centre Jakob Peoltlthat focuses on basketball players. Netflix is even getting in on the trivia action, with a new daily trivia series called Trivia Quest starting next month. What’s behind this craze? The New Yorker has a great feature on the founder ofWorldle “Does Wordle Prove That We Can Have Nice Things On the Internet?” who shares his philosophy on designing online experiences that do not devolve into “spam and swastikas”. More please.

Amazon & Retail Innovation

Jeff Bezos famously called Amazon “the best place in the world to fail”, recognizing that “failure and invention are inseparable twins”. To that end, the company is closing all of its physical bookstores and other shops to focus on grocery. And the company is launching a new app to designed to help creators DJ their own live radio shows. I don’t see the fit – but I suppose that’s the point.

Amazon can continue to fund these experiments in large part due to its growing advertising business ($31 billion in 2021, and 34% growth). Here’s an excellent report on how brands are selling on Amazon. I haven’t seen a study like this before, as it breaks down average Amazon seller revenues and ad spend. It's worth a skim. SNL had a hilarious take on the Amazon Go concept, highlighting how the grab and go model might not sound appealing to everyone.

Smart Reads

  • Martech Use Cases: Scott Brinker reminds marketers that it’s not the size of your stack, it’s how you use it. And by use it, I of course mean the number of martech use cases that you have globally adopted.

  • Storytelling Canvas: Stronger Stories has blended Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey with the Business Model Canvas and come up with a very cool Storytelling Canvas. Check out the canvas here, and a completed version based on Don’t Look Up here. Framework catnip for me.

  • Strategy Aggregation: Roger Martin explains (and visualizes) the relationship between corporate vs. business unit strategy. He uses the metaphor of ‘reinforcing rods’ to explain how mechanisms can be put in place to benefit both levels.

Good Threads

  • B2B Campaigns: If you’re in B2B and looking for some creative inspiration this thread has a bunch of fantastic examples including this classic – The Power of Wind.

  • Generation-Defining Stats: Jeff Bezos started Amazon because the Internet was growing 2300% per year. Steph Smith has a fascinating thread on the potential stats defining our generation.

  • Product vs. Marketing Analytics: A useful table (and smart replies) in this thread from John Cutler on how measuring marketing campaigns differ from measuring products like a new mobile app.

Finally, I can’t mention Twitter without mentioning my favourite new follow @jaythechouwho photoshops Paddington the Bear into movies and TV shows - one image per day. We can have nice things on the Internet after all.

Digital Trends: 03.01.22

TECH, DESIGN & NOSTALGIA

What separates Apple from other tech companies is design, and the seamless integration between their hardware and software. Which makes them the company that I'd bet on for AR. They've reportedly tested their new AR hardware. Even if other companies are releasing impressive new headsets, I heard them referred to as ‘nerd helmets’ and I can’t shake that. How can new tech be perceived as cool? Taur is a company trying to solve the problem that Segway never could – how to you make e-scooter ownership cool. I’m scoot-curious tbh.

Maybe nostalgia is the answer, particularly for Gen X-ers. Here’s a cool reinterpretation of the original Macintosh. If you want to join me down a Nirvana-fuelled 90’s cultural rabbit hole, check out this essay by Douglas Copeland on why the 90s 'rocked' or pick-up Chuck Klosterman’s new book on the 90s(it’s excellent).

DATA TRANSPARENCY & TARGETING

Big Data feels theoretical, until it gets personal. The Guardian has a good write-upon how much Amazon knows about its customers beyond shopping (e.g., your reading speed and interests on Kindle). Tech companies are responding to privacy concerns by sharing more about what they know about us – as an example, Uber now shares how you have been rated as a passenger. (Full disclosure: 243 5-star ratings vs. 3 1-star ratings…I know exactly what happened on those 3 rides btw). Snapchat is also using location data (like Apple’s Find My) to try to help users set-up buddy systems for when users are en route. Finally, if you’re interested in knowing what Google knows (or algorithmically infers) about you –check it out here.

SOCIAL & ADVERTISING TRENDS

At a time when all social platforms are moving towards short video content, TikTok is actually moving the other way.This article explains their conundrum, including how TikTok recently tested 10-minute videos to try and capture some of the YouTube market. Meanwhile, Facebook is pushing its TikTok copycat Reels into every part of its app. If you’re interested in seeing how brands are using this newish format, check out the Good TikTok Creative Substack from Simon Andrews – 75+ mini-case studies.
And speaking of advertising trends, this is my new favourite - brands can now incorporate product placements backwards into classic old films. Retro-retro!

RESEARCH REPORTS & TRENDS

  • 2022 Commerce Trends: Excellent deck from 2PM on 8 commerce trends (usually reserved for subscribers). Interesting points around digital native brands moving offline, and ‘traditional’ brands moving online for D2C – Nike will be 70% direct by 2027.

  • What Digital Advertising Gets Wrong: A smart piece on how marketers must avoid confusing correlation with causation, and stop spending on advertising that focuses on people who are likely going to buy anyway.

  • Framing the Future of Web 3.0: Surprisingly readable report from Goldman Sachs. A refreshing framing of Web 3.0 from a financial perspective - not coming from tech-bros with buzzword-speak.


UKRAINE & TECH RESPONSE

Pivot had an excellent episode on how the tech industry is responding to the horrific events in Ukraine. There’s a lot of pressure on social media platforms to, well, de-platform Russian state media. Lots of misinformation happening to no one’s surprise on Facebook. Google is disabling certain live traffic Map features for fears that they can be used to track troop movement. Despite these crackdowns, people always find a way – Ukrainians are using Google restaurant reviews to communicate directly with Russians.

LONG, SMART READS

  • Shopify’s Evolution: Another fantastic piece by Ben Thompson that explores how integration with the modern value chain is where Shopify is going (and needs to get to quickly).

  • 50 Things: Fantastic list put together by BBH CSO Tom Callard on things he has learned over his agency career. Follows a similar list that Chaz Wigley put together that includes 100 lessons he has learned over his career as a planner. Makes me miss agency life.

  • Execution > Strategy: Love this visual and this post by Noah Brier. It illustrates the differences and relationships between tactics and strategy, and why strategy is only as good as its execution.

Digital Trends: 02.15.22

Super Bowl LVI

The Super Bowl combines my love of roman numerals and advertising (and this year, 90s hip-hop). Here is a run-down of all of the notable ads from the game, and USA Todayhas posted its audience ranking (congrats Rocket Homes and Rocket Mortgage!) From a digital-perspective, Coinbase stole the headlines with its bouncing QR code ad that directed people to its app (which crashed from all of the traffic). Here is a good thread estimating the ROI from the campaign. If you’re more into the classics, the editors from The Drum have a list of their all-time faves listed here. The Rams won, FYI.

Apple AirTags & Tap

Bit of Apple news this week. The company received criticism regarding its AirTags product, which can apparently be used by burglars and stalkers to, well, burgle and stalk. AirTags were also used recently by a researcher to uncover a secret German Intelligence agency. I use them to find my keys. The company is now rolling out new privacy warnings to protect people. Another innovation from Apple that I’m sure will lead to some nefarious edge use cases – iPhone users will soon be able to buy from each other by tapping their iPhones together.

Ottawa Protests

Lots to unpack in this ugly mess. From a digital perspective, a few interesting things caught my eye. This piece explores how counter-protestors are using social media to blur the line between activism and vigilantism in doxing protesters –“what is the difference between public shaming and vigilantism?” Websites like this are set-up to report encounters on a map, and accounts like this are posting photos and videos to identify people. One video has led to a police officer being investigated. Ethical debates have also spilled into the decision for GoFundMe to refund donations to the protest. Messy stuff indeed.

Digital Advertising Evolution

Ben Thompson is a brilliant thinker and writer on media and technology.His latest piece is a useful deconstruction of digital advertising in 2022 (worth the long read). He explores why lower funnel advertising for commerce is so profitable, which makes Google and Amazon so dominant in media and market capitalization. This is playing out in recent news, as Facebook is not growing(and its stock is suffering) and Amazon’s advertising revenues have increased from $10bn to 31bn in under 3 years.

Fresh Digital Trends

A few solid digital trends pieces were just published, and worth a skim:

  • Meta Trending Trends 2022: Matt Klein has done what I’ve talked myself out of doing every January – synthesize the overlaps among different cultural trend decks. He highlights 14. Well done, Matt.

  • 10 Ecommerce Trends: Shopify has a decent round-up of the trends that they predict will shape online shopping in 2022, building on their Future of Commerce research initiative.

  • New Normals for 2022: Digital marketing guru Ashley Friedlein shares similar views, more directed towards the importance of first-party data and D2C in this Econsultancy post.

  • Visions of the Internet in 2035: I’m still working my way through this one, but love it so far - big thinkers providing their big picture predictions about the future of the Internet (and hence, the world).

Good, Long Reads

  • Lessons from a D2C Failure: A super interesting post-mortem on the fall of D2C darling Casper, and why / how it lost to Purple. Lots of great lessons to take from this – from finance, to marketing, to culture.

  • Andy Warhol, Clay Christensen, and Vitalik Buterin walk into a bar: Another long-but-worth-it read from Tim O’Reilly (who first coined the term Web 2.0). He connects disparate threads to explore what’s ahead for Web 3.0 (aka the Metaverse).

  • We Don’t Sell Saddles Here: Part internal memo / part manifesto from Steward Butterfield from Slack. In it, he encourages staff to reframe Slack from a software product to a provider of organizational transformation. Using marketing strategy to move from product features to emotional / purposeful benefits. I see you Steward Butterfield!

Digital Trends: 02.02.22

NFTs & Idiot Magnets
The market value of NFTs is over $41bn and everyone is taking notice. Facebook is reportedly working on capabilities to help users create and sell NFTs, and Twitter is allowing users to feature their NFTs as avatars. So where does this leave marketers? The Drum highlights 4 ways brands can think about NFTs (storing memories, digital identity, play-to-earn, and physical ‘unlockables’). Mark Ritson profanely makes his way through the subject in his latest essay framing NFTs as magnets for idiots “vulnerable to bullshit.” If you want to learn more about NFTs and Web3 more broadly, Folding Ideas has an excellent video that you can make your way through over the course of a few coffee breaks.


Digital & Physical Retail
While the metaverse gets a lot of attention, I’m personally more drawn to how technology can augment existing businesses and behaviours. There are plenty of cool examples in retail. Wunderman has useful write-ups on how familiar e-commerce elements can complement IRL shopping (see the Lego Personalization Studio) and how digital content can add an immersive, experiential layer to stores (see Nikeland/Roblox). Amazon has also introduced a new physical fashion store concept called Amazon Style that weaves together familiar online shopping features into an offline retail environment – lots to unpack in this 1-minute concept video.

Innovation & Vaporware
Speaking of concept videos, I love them. I’ve spent countless hours creating storyboards for how technology can come to life and benefit users in new yet natural ways. It's easier said than done. One time I created a script that was perhaps a tad unnatural, to which a Creative Director accused me of writing “scenario porn”. I digress. Here is a framework I created to help in this area.
Some new concepts were introduced during CES that this writer really hopes come true (Carcopter anyone?) The NYT also has a good article on why Silicon Valley is still waiting for the next big thing after the iPhone (because hardware is, well, hard), and Google gives a glimpse on its latest AR headset work. Insightful quote on the impatience that we have with tech innovation: “When we hear about a new technology, it takes less than 10 minutes for our brains to imagine what it can do. We instantly compress all of the compounding infrastructure and innovation needed to get to that point….that is the cognitive dissonance we are dealing with.”


Spotify, Rogan & Social
I’m facing an existential crisis as a fan of both Neil Young and Spotify. Plenty has been written about the controversy involving artists leaving Spotify to protest COVID misinformation from Spotify-exclusive podcaster Joe Rogan. I thought Kara Swisher had a great take on the controversy during a recent Pivot podcast, making clear distinctions between:

  • Platforms (where others post on) vs. Media Companies (+ exclusive content you post)

  • Censorship (suppressing material) vs. Editing (fact-checking material)

That said, I love the UX of Spotify. Their Design Team regularly publishes stories about what they are working on, including their most recent social listening feature Blend – creating a playlist that combines peoples individual tastes. AKA “that song must be one of yours.”

New Research & Decks

  • Global Digital Report: We Are Social publishes this mother-of-all digital trends reports annually. If you’re looking for recent data on digital usage, you’ll likely find it in this 300-slide report.

  • Contagious Report: Here is the latest from Contagious that captures the trends from the 2022 advertising zeitgeist. Lots of great examples featured.

  • Social Commerce: Shopify has a new report on social commerce trends (lots of growth to come), with some very useful examples and descriptions.

  • Shopper DNA: Dentsu has published a trend report on the future of retail. It hits on some of the themes mentioned above regarding digital augmenting physical shopping environments and rituals.


Good Reads

Finally, I think I’m the only person on Twitter (and certainly in my family) not playing Wordle. Love that they sold quickly to the NYT before thousands of copycats stole their thunder. Now how much f&#king money will Sweardle sell for?

Digital Trends: 01.21.22

AR/VR & WTF New Tech

I’m bullish about AR/VR technology for certain use cases – mostly around place-based interpretation and gaming. But it’s hard not to be skeptical (or snarky) when you read of some of the new use cases that are being explored. Disney is now bringing their version of VR (called VW = Virtual World) to the one place that needs no extra stimulation – Disney World. In hardware, the creator of the OG AR device – Google Glass – is creating a smart device for the one place that needs no extra equipment – your mouth (See Smart Retainer).
Odd new tech was also unveiled during CES, including clothing that physically responds to digital interactions (“hits and hugs”). BMW also introduced a new mobile app that changes the colour of your vehicle. These are the problems we’re trying to solve in 2022? If you feel like drinking more AR Kool-Aid, see PWC’s latest report here.

WEB 3: The Good, Bad & Ugly

What happens when the media culture of ‘hot takes’ meets a buzzworthy topic that no one can clearly define? A bunch of arguing about Web3 is what happens. See articles with titles including ‘The Metaverse is a Giant Overhyped Nothing Burger with No Future’ and ‘Web3 is Bullshit’. Scott Galloway has a clear and convincing takedown of the Web3 buzz here, and Packy McCormick has responded with a comprehensive rebuttal. Confusing stuff, which I suppose is why a marketing community popped up on Discord to learn more about the topic.
Until there is a shared definition of Web3, I find it more useful to focus on the component parts bundled under this mushy umbrella term. I also find it useful to think more about ‘what is changing’ and less about ‘what it is’; below are a few visuals that attempt to do this (I unfortunately don’t know the sources).

Benedict Evans is brilliant at explaining emerging technology concepts and the resulting implications. He touches on the Web3 topic in his excellent year end presentation Three Steps to the Future, as well as his most recent essay Tech Questions for 2022.

Audio Content, Context & Community

As tech giants duke it out to build VR googles and metaverse environments, I’m still keen on the future of plain old audio. The size of the Apple AirPods business is quietly larger than Uber, Spotify, and Twitter (by revenue). Podcast listening continues to grow, and the audience base is starting to diversify. Social audio continues to gain traction as Clubhouse fights off competitors, and Twitter Spaces is gaining momentum. For marketers, Spotify is now evolving its platform to be more interactive (vs. just passive listening) to attract more advertising dollars – here is an interesting overview of what they now offer.

What’s also interesting is as audio is taking off, smart speaker growth is stagnant. Amazon’s Alexa business is forecasted to only grow at 1-2% per year, and up to 25% of first time buyers stop using the device after the first week. Perhaps the future of audio is both social and personal – but for your ears only.

Fresh Trend Decks

The Future 100 (Wunderman Thompson): This is a fun one to skim and worth the download, like a PDF coffee table book (in the best way possible).
12 Graphic Design Trends for 2022 (99 Designs): Another fun one to skim, especially for a non-designer like me. Helps to put language to design trends and impress Creative Directors.
Journalism, Media, Tech Trends (Reuters): An excellent annual study focused on trends happening from the media side of things. It covers new models, and how subscriptions are now a higher priority than digital advertising for publishers.

Fresh Research Decks

Shopify Future of Commerce: “Social commerce sales are set to triple by 2025 and 40% of consumers say they plan to pay with cryptocurrency next year.”
State of Mobile (App Annie): The best report on mobile app trends around: “7 out of 10 minutes on mobile was spent in social and photo/video apps in 2021.”

And finally, some Canadian content eh!
The HumanKind Study (Leo Burnett): Interesting new research on the attitudes of Canadians across ‘human’ areas (health, finances, government), and the implications / opportunities for brands.
Reader’s Digital Trusted Brand Winners: Wondering if your brand is trusted by Canadian Reader’s Digest readers? The wait is over. Check out the list and see where you fall (congrats to the big winner, Tylenol).

Digital Trends: 01.01.22

I refer to the first post of the year as Trendapalooza – a round-up of all of the decks, docs, and sites published over the last month that predict the year ahead for marketers. It’s interesting to see the themes that bubble up across different sources – this year it’s the metaverse, data / privacy in advertising, brand purpose / ethics, hybrid consumer / employee experiences, and “the new normal” – whatever that turns out to be. Lots of interesting stuff this year. Below are the 10 sources that I found most useful:

1. Deloitte Global Marketing Trends: This deck covers 8 different marketing strategy trends, geared for CMOs. Highlight: Brand Purpose needs to grow beyond a tool to be used to differentiate your brand and attract customers to be a tool to guide team actions. “High-growth brands are 66% more likely to see purpose as a means to guiding employee decision making.” Walk the talk.

2. Mintel Global Consumer Trends: An inspiring deck (worth the download) that covers 4 societal trends with commercial implications. Highlight: Related to the topic of Brand Purpose, Mintel research indicates that “consumers have moved beyond simply wanting brands to ‘be ethical’ and are demanding to see measurable, transparent and consistent actions”. This desire for greater transparency and answers connects with the trend highlighted below – ‘information layers’.

3. Fjord Trends 2020: Covers 5 macro societal themes, connecting to implications and opportunities for businesses. Highlight: In the ‘This Much is True’ trend, Fjord introduces (at least to me) the concept of ‘information layers’ – and how brands need to determine how much and what type of information they will provide to serve customers, “providing the right answer at the right time in the right way”. This is a useful mental model for considering AR opportunities – what informational layer will you place on a physical object or environment?

4. Foresight Factory: Covers a mix of cultural trends, with illustrative examples and fun creative extrapolations. Highlight: The trend of Mood-Making; being more conscious of your mood and active in trying to change it through monitoring, media, and – ahem - drugs. Brands can “help consumers rebuild the emotional deficit caused by the pandemic.” Also connects to the trend of helping customers better visualize, track, and manage personal health and financial data.

5. GWI Consumer Trends: Covers themes that intersect customer behaviour with technology and media. Highlight: In the Attention Economy section, GWI covers how media habits have changed over the past year. Interesting to see how gaming is booming and audio content consumption is changing due in part to the pandemic. Not just usage, but context. “Podcasts have always been linked closely with traveling to work, but that overlooks how much they’re ingrained in domestic environments.” Anyone else find themselves wandering around their house wearing AirPods?

6. Sparks & Honey Business Bets: Interesting deck that tracks different trends in part based on a ‘Cultural Energy Score’. Highlight: Related to the growth of audio content, this report calls for businesses to bet on audio as a gateway to the Metaverse. Lots of evidence of audio being an important opportunity for augmented reality (no goofy AR eyewear). The deck also includes my new favourite digital buzzword: “earable computing” – referring to how we can design experiences in sonic places.

7. Pinterest Predicts: A fun, visual report that covers global consumer trends based on search behaviour on the platform. Highlight: Lots to choose from here, but as the proud owner of a Covid-Puppy I have to shout-out the ‘Barkitecture’ trends – people searching for ways to build luxury dog rooms and to “catify” their homes. My dog received more presents under the tree than I did this year, so I suspect this trend is sure bet.

8. Hootsuite Social Trends: Covers 5 themes that are relevant to marketers involved in social media, along with practical advice. Highlight: Social Commerce will continue to grow, particularly for small businesses. Interesting to see how social plays a more transactional role for certain brands: “social used to be just a satellite of the business…it is the core platform to engage with, sell to, and service customers”. Some interesting implications for how social storefronts and transactional websites work best together.

9. We are Social | Think Forward: Similar to the Hootsuite material, this site also shares 5 smart trends related to social media strategy. Highlight: Trend #1 - In-Feed Syllabuses – social media is gaining new in-roads as an educational tool as 74% of Gen Z’ers have used social to learn practical life skills. Some fun examples of how education is becoming ‘edutainment’, with new formats, personalities, and methods of distribution. As a corporate trainer, I’m super excited about this space.

10. Deloitte TMT (Technology, Media, and Telecommunications) Predictions: This hefty document covers a lot of ground (and suffers from consulting-speak). Highlight: that said, there is a good section on NFTs and Sports where they highlight smart strategic considerations of the fit of NFTs in the sports business. How does an NFT initiative align with sports betting, physical collectables, tickets, and digital rights? The point stretches beyond the sports industry – sure NFTs are hot, but what role do they play in your larger business / marketing plans?

BONUS: Activate Tech & Media Outlook: Finally, a doozy of a data-filled presentation – if you’re looking for new US media figures, start here. Highlight: To start the document, Activate breaks down the average adult day per media type. Super interesting to see this visual breakdown, and how media multi-tasking leads us to a 32-hour + day as measured by media consumption. Now you know why your days may feel so long.

Digital Trends: 12.15.21

YEAR IN REVIEW

Before I do my deep-dive into 2022 trend decks, I thought I’d share a spoiler-filled compilation of Year-In-Review lists from different corners of the Internet. Together, they paint a fascinating picture of 2021. Let’s just say I’m looking forward to 2022.

Emoji:Did you know that there are 3,663 emoji, and that the top 100 emoji comprise 82% of all shares?Guess which one was tops for 2021?Let’s all just choose to interpret it as ‘tears of joy’ and move on.

Search:Google has listed the top searches in Canada for 2021(even breaking down what’s tops in Quebec). Lots of searches for vaccine appointments, vaccine passports, and – of course – Squid Game. See a dramatized YouTube video recap of global trends here.

YouTube:Speaking of YouTube, here is a list of the top videos and creators for 2021. The top 10 list includes the classics “I spent 50 hours Buried Alive” and “I spent 100 Days in a Zombie Apocalypse in Minecraft.” Isn’t it bad enough that we all just spent 2 years working from home?

Reddit:I find it fascinating how different topics are more popular on different platforms.Within Reddit, it was all about finance this year– from r/wallstreetbets to its most popular topic: Cryptocurrency. But Reddit wouldn’t be Reddit without some absurdity - 2021’s top AMA?“I’m a lobster diver who recently survived being inside of a whale. AMA!”Not sure how many hours he spent inside, but I’m sure it was covered.

iOS Apps:Not a lot of surprises on the most downloaded iOS apps for 2021– lots of games, productivity apps, and streaming services. I suppose the most emblematic for 2021 was that TikTok led the way for iPhone downloads, and Zoom was #2 for iPad.

TikTok:Speaking of TikTok, the company released a year in review of its most popular content. Super random, creative, and funny (as evidenced by the top TokTok for 20201 -Drone Dancing). If you’re still not familiar with TikTok, it’s worth going down this rabbit hole to appreciate the unique nature of what works on the platform.

Twitter:The top Tweet for the year was from newly inaugurated Joe Biden’s “It’s a New Day in America”, followed by other politicians celebrating post-Trump Twitter. Twitter also released a‘Best of 2021’ list featuring the most successful brands and campaigns on the platform.

Spotify:Which brings us to Spotify’s Wrapped year in review. If you’re not a Spotify user, read Vox’s feature on how “Spotify spies on us, and we kinda love it”. I’ll spare you my ‘Cool Jazz’ themed list from 2021, but if you have a few minutes check out this amazing spoof from Pudding:“How Bad is Your Streaming Music”. Connect your Spotify account to have an A.I. roast you for your “awful taste in music”. Equal parts hurtful and hilarious.

Memes: Buzzfeed has compiled a list of the top 21 memes of 2021.The fact that Bernie Sanders sitting cross-legged on a folding chair with mittens barely makes the list at #21 makes me question the writer’s internal ranking algorithm.

Start-up Ideas:As we move into more subjective lists, I love Glyn Britton’s annual list of new business ideas. He covers new start-ups trying to gain traction in the market – it’s a really interesting way to see where innovation and investment is heading (see: fintech).

Lessons Learned:Another favourite list of mine isTom Whitwell’s annual “52 Things I Learned”. The items listed have no connection to each other, aside from being oddly fascinating. For example, did you know that every day, one million people upload pictures of their coffee grinds to the Turkish app Faladdin and get a personalized fortune reading back in 15 minutes?
Make that one million and one…

Digital Trends: 12.01.21

SPOTIFY TRENDS

Spotify is the app that I use most, and I’m constantly impressed by how they continue to innovate. The company recently announced a partnership with Netflixto showcase audio content related to popular shows, and the app is now testing vertical video. On the PR-side, Spotify also won last week by acquiescing to Adele’s request to remove ‘shuffle’ from album listening.This article provides some interesting background on the culture of Spotify in its quest to dominate audio.

BLACK FRIDAY

This is likely the first email that you received this week without a Black Friday promo. In case you were wondering, online spending surprisingly decreasedfor the first time this year. However, more spending went towards Shopify merchants(more small / medium-sized businesses). A growing tailwind in online retail is Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL). The trend is forecasted to grow significantly, and platforms like Microsoftare now making it easier for advertisers to promote this flexible payment option. Scott Galloway has harsh words about BNPL, referring to it as “sleight of hand” that convinces young people to spend more.


HOLIDAY SHOPPING

Which brings us to Holiday shopping, and the new, sentimental Dolan family tradition of having my kids send me Google Docs with Amazon links to the products on their wish lists. It turns out I’m not the only parent using technology these days, as some folks are using shopping botst o scour the Internet for popular products. Warms the heart.
Some brands will be turning to live shopping over the holidays, and Twitter is getting into the action by allowing shoppable livestreams(weird fit IMO). Here is a smart read on how holiday shopping will be hybrid shopping, and you can get into the holiday (advertising) spirit with this round-up of the latest spots.


SNAP SHOPPING & MAPS

SNAP is gearing up for the holidays by working with brands like Amazon, Under Armour, and Coca-Cola to provide an AR Shopping Showcase.Users will be able to browse an AR Holiday market and interact with products. SNAP is also innovating around its maps with a feature called Layers, which will allow people to associate memories with specific places. While Layers is associated with the past, one of the risks of sharing location in real time via Snap Maps is apparently turning a low-key high school party into a rager.

ETHICAL ADVERTISING

No, that is not an oxymoron (holding snark in check…) A few interesting things bubbling up around taking a stand in advertising this month:

METAVERSE & BRANDS

So how will advertising look in the metaverse?A lot like virtual outdoor billboards and product placements according to this article. Digital collectables represent a more native way to think about opportunities for brands in this new immersive environment, as Nike recently announced a new virtual world called Nikelandon Roblox. Ana Andjelic contrasts the differences between collecting and buying in this smart piece.

FRESH RESEARCH

A few decks to skim:

INTERESTING BITS

Peter Jackson’s Beatles document was released on Disney+. Even if you skip the long movie,watch Paul stumble into the idea of Get Back at :45 in this clip. Incredible. I’m in a similar creative flow when writing this newsletter.

Digital Trends: 11.15.21

THE METAVERSE

It’s tough not to be cynical about Facebook’s (sorry, Meta’s) motives in trying to own the Metaverse, but at least they’re taking steps to define and commercialize this fuzzy concept. Meta has just purchased a VR fitness developer to create enhanced fitness experiences, and is apparently planning to open stores to sell its Meta products. Here isa useful Bloomberg article that explains the business interests around hardware that underpin Facebook’s move into the Metaverse, setting up an uphill battle against Apple - rumoured to be working on the most ambitious type of hardware:a car. (Aside: if I have to buy 3 adaptors for my MacBook, what I will have to buy for my Apple Car? Steering wheel sold separately!?)
The company has also rolled out its firstMeta ad campaign(produced by Droga5), only to be trolled beautifully by this parody by the Iceland tourism board.

AR, SNAP, & NIKE

While Zuckerberg’s vision of the metaverse is fully immersive (VR), the CEO of Niantic (makers of Pokémon Go) makes the case for why the future is mixed (AR). Hard to argue with his observation:“I don’t need to make a conference room look like a cartoon Tahiti. That doesn’t make it better for me.”
I love how SNAP continues to make AR more tangible with its strong push into retail, including new tools to try on and buy clothing. They recently collaborated with Nike on a very cool outdoor running experience, which makes sense given how Nike is apparently moving into selling digital goods. NikeFTs?

Speaking of NFTs, luxury brands in China are including exclusive digital collectibleswith physical purchases during Single’s Day (the world’s largest shopping day). Even Quentin Tarantino is getting in on the NFT trends by auctioning 7 never before seen clips from Pulp Fiction. No word if the digital collectible is Butch’s gold watch.

TIKTOK RESOURCES

Do you know who’s tired of shitty brand content on TikTok? TikTok! The platform recently released a bunch of resources to help brands help themselves:

  • Creative Exchange: A new platform that helps advertisers connect with creative vendors to help produce TikTok content.

  • The RoundUp: “An all-new content series” (by that they mean, a PDF) that highlights the best campaigns over the last few months.

  • TikTok Holiday Guide: Another more tactical guide to setting up holiday campaigns, including a few useful guides and templates.

TikTok was also in the news for its move into connecting users with their real-life friends (i.e., like FB’s People You May Know’ system) –positioning the network to become a social network. Stay tuned.

NEW STATS & RESEARCH

  • Digital Life Index: New global research (and slick web UX) from PublicisSapient reinforcing how customers expect more seamless digital experiences from brands and businesses.

  • State of Experience in Canada: A Medallia & Ipsos survey of Canadian executives and consumers that reinforces the importance of seamless experiences - only 23% of Canadians strongly agree that they receive consistent service across channels.

  • Adobe Holiday Shopping Report: Useful forecasts for ecommerce, showing growth in Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) and curbside pickup. Also predicting shortages and few discounts for the hottest products (make sure to order your Peek-a-roo Panda soon or you’re SOL).

  • Technology & Media Outlook: Deep data on the state of media and technology in the U.S., with some useful data visualizations on where people are spending time.

LONG READS

  • Exploration vs. Efficiency: Smart post from Rory Sutherland on how the real opportunity represented by digital for marketers is experimentation, not efficiency “It’s cheap to do and you can fail fast and kill off failures really quickly, in a way you can’t through larger scale, analogue activities.”

  • Brand in the Influencer Era: I’m a sucker for a good scatter plot diagram, and this piece delivers. An interesting post from a machine-learning company that tries to connect the dots between social media conversation and brand perception.

  • The Relevance Paradox: Neil Perkin highlights the trap of only looking within your industry when solving your problems. He argues – using a cool NASA example – that innovative ideas come from taking a much wider lens.