Facebook launch dynamic product ads for retailers.

In a blog post this morning, Facebook have announced they have launched a new type of ad format that will allow retailers to advertise multiple products at once. Called (somewhat unimaginatively) Product Ads, this new format allows retailers to promote multiple products, or even their entire product catalogue, across all devices. This new format is similar to Google’s Shopping Campaigns.

According to Facebook themselves:

“Product ads offer businesses a number of ways to highlight different products on Facebook. Marketers can upload their product catalog [sic] and create campaigns targeting certain products to specific audiences, or let Facebook automatically deliver the most relevant products to people.”

And these ads can help sell products at different stages in the customer journey. For example:

• Advertisers can automatically reach people who visited their website/app (via Custom Audiences), or reach people based on specific interests, locations, etc.
• Advertisers can curate ads as they see fit. For instance, they can highlight products that were viewed on their website/mobile app or showcase best selling products. Or they can create a multi-product ad that highlights the different benefits of a single product.

USA retailers, Target and Shutterfly, have been trialling the new placements with marked success. 

This new Ad Format follows a raft of new developments from Facebook in the last few weeks, including:

·      Brands can now use animated GIFs (Cinemagraphs) in their ads.

·      Users can now choose a Legacy Contact to manage their account after their death.

·      And Amber Alerts that will send missing children notifications out to people who are in the area the child went missing.

How to get 45,000 pieces of branded content in 2 weeks.

When you hear the term ‘user-generated content’ it probably conjures up images of poorly produced web-cam videos, or iPhone pictures of the family pet. But these days, almost everyone you know is producing content on a daily (sometimes hourly) basis. From Instagram, to blog posts, to Snapchats, to tweets, to Facebook posts, to Vine videos – in 2015 we communicate in content. And with so many different apps and websites out there giving people a way to express themselves through content, it’s no wonder that brands are starting to take notice.  

If you haven’t heard of it, there is a fantastic TV show called The Americans. It’s a cold-war period drama that centres around two KGB agents, posing as a married couple, living (secretly) in the USA. In line with the secrecy theme of the show, TV network, FX, collaborated with the app/website, Whisper, to help launch the show’s third season. The result was over 45,000 pieces of user-generated, branded content. 

The way Whisper works is by allowing users to share a secret (or ask a question) anonymously. Using keywords from the secret, Whisper will automatically suggest images that may relate, and then superimpose the secret over the image the user selects. The resulting content is then shared publically.

In the partnership with FX, when Whisper detected predetermined keywords that related to the show’s themes – e.g. family, espionage, neighbours etc. – it would serve up branded screen shots from the show. The campaign ran for 16 days in early January this year, and resulted in over 45,000 users selecting images from The Americans as their Whisper backgrounds.

This isn’t the first time Whisper has run such a campaign. In March last year Whisper ran a similar campaign for the show Deadbeat, for the online-streaming site Hulu. And in August last year, Paramount Pictures used Whisper to promote it’s upcoming movie Men, Women, Children – even going as far as to include the Whisper logo and a hashtag on the end of the trailer. 

The key to the success of The Americans campaign was that FX weren’t asking users to generate content especially for the show, they simply tapped in to an existing habit; users were going to be creating the content anyway, they simply gave them the option to use a range of relevant, high-res imagery for the low-low cost of also including a logo.

Finding new ways to get consumers to engage with a brand can be tricky, and a lot of ‘user-generated content’ concepts usually end up collecting dust in the ‘too hard basket’. But with the rise content-centric apps, and the proliferation of smartphones, perhaps what we need to be thinking is how we can get users to brand the content they are already making instead.   

Beyond Facebook: Marketing to Millennials in 2015

It wasn’t so long ago that if you wanted to talk to “the kids”, your first port of call was Facebook and Twitter. But as advertising grew more prolific, and their parents starting friend requesting them, Millennials began migrating to more obscure Social Networking sites. Today, it’s not unusual for a media schedule to also include Instagram, Pinterest and even Snapchat. But what’s next? In 2015, where will the Millennials be heading?

The following is a list of some of the more obscure social networking sites around the world. It’s important to note that not all of these sites offer advertising placements yet, and not all of these sites see a lot of New Zealand traffic yet. But in both cases, ‘yet’ is the key word. And, if nothing else, if you do use these apps and sites in your campaign, at least you know you will be talking to a niche market.

·      Wanelo (Want, Need, Love) combines shopping, fashion blogging, and social networking all in one. It's very popular among teens, allowing them to discover, share, and buy products they like.

·      Kik Messenger is an app-based alternative to standard texting that kids use for social networking. It's free to use but has lots of ads.

·      Ask.fm is a social site that lets kids ask questions and answer those posted by other users -- sometimes anonymously. 

·      Omegle is a chat site (and app) that puts two strangers together in their choice of a text chat or video chat room.

·      Yo. is a bare-bones social app that sends a short text message to friends and family, simply reading "Yo" (and speaking the word aloud). Users can also subscribe to receive a Yo when other events happen (like a sale?)

·      Whisper is a social "confessional" app that allows users to post whatever's on their minds, paired with an image.

·      Tagged is similar to Facebook in that it lets you set up profiles, message friends, play games and post photos. It has more than 300 million members and is the ninth most popular site in the US.

·      LiveJournal is a social blogging site that lets you share common interests with people from around the world. The site has more than 16 million journals and is the eighth most popular social site in the US.

·      Badoo is a site that helps you connect with new friends - or more commonly love interests - in your area. Currently supported cities and towns in New Zealand are Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Hastings, Tauranga and Invercargill.

•          Path is a mobile-only social journalling site (think intimate version of Facebook) that limits you to 150 friends.

•          Couple is even more intimate, created for sharing your thoughts, photos and videos with just one other person, usually your partner.

•          Highlight taps into your Facebook profile (when you sign in) to let you know when friends, or friends of friends, or other Highlight users with similar interests are nearby. Other similar options are: Circle, Banjo and Meetup.

•          CafeMom is an online coffee group for mums worldwide, CafeMom is 11th most popular social networking site in the US.

•          DeviantArt is where aspiring artists can share their creations with more than 25 million other members of DeviantArt. More than 160,000 art works including paintings, sculptures and digital art are uploaded to DeviantArt each day.

•          Dogster is a social site for dog owners to share pics and anecdotes and discuss all manner of topics related to their precious pooch. (Note, there is also Catster for cat lovers).

•          Flixster is for film buffs and has all the latest news from the movie world, actor profiles, video clips, forums and quizzes to test your cinematic knowledge.

Bonus!

Not quite Mellennials (although they maybe at heart!):

•          Grownups is a New Zealand-based social networking site for people aged 50-up. Members can message friends, read articles and blogs of interest, participate in forums and play online games with other users.

Has Facebook Video knocked YouTube off its perch?

Until very recently, Facebook was simply not a destination for video content – but as with all things in the digital world, change has come quickly. Today, instead of sharing YouTube videos, many brands are choosing to upload their content directly to Facebook – but is this the right move?

Since January last year, Social Media analytics company, Socialbakers, has been monitoring and measuring the differences in interactions brand content receives on different social media sites. As the graph below demonstrates, the trend is very clear; by December 2014 Facebook Video posts were receiving 80% of the total interactions a piece of brand content received.

It comes as no surprise then that Marketers are now turning to Facebook video first – and the trend seems to be picking up speed.

But is this the right move?

On January 13^th 2015 Marvel Entertainment ran an experiment of their own, posting the new trailer for their upcoming Avengers movie on both YouTube and Facebook at exactly the same time. Three days in (at the time of writing this post), the YouTube video has:

·      14,570,602 views

·      318,438 shares on Facebook

·      46,042 shares on Twitter

·      108,177 YouTube likes

·      16,134 comments.

In comparison, the Facebook video has:

·      6,391,150 views

·      120,776 shares on Facebook

·      40 shares on Twitter

·      170,830 Facebook likes

·      11,600 comments.

Where these numbers seem to suggest that YouTube is still dominating (at least when it comes to Marvel movie trailers) what this really highlights is that there are big audiences on both platforms. Combined the trailer has almost 21million views.

There are pros and cons to both networks. YouTube is a video sharing platform, and doesn’t require people to have an account to view the content. Facebook’s newsfeed algorithm, on the other hand, means that with one mouse click (like or share) the video can be shared to a much wider audience than is possible through YouTube alone.

When push comes to shove, the real question is what brands want to achieve with their video content. If views are all that matter, then YouTube is still by far the most dominate forum for viral success. But for those looking to drive conversation, and help spread their brand awareness far and wide, Facebook Video now offers a real alternative. However, as the Marvel example demonstrates, perhaps the best course of action for now is to use both platforms together.