Five things worth sharing from the last week or so, brought to you by a different member of the Browser Media team every Friday.
This week’s My Five is by Joe.
1. The End Of The Slogan?
It has been a bad week for slogans. As John Lewis announced that they are getting rid of their ‘never knowingly undersold’ promise after nearly a century, I see that KFC is dropping its ‘Finger Lickin’ Good’ slogan.
John Lewis’ decision is reflective of their increasing online sales, as their promise has never applied to online sales, and part of their overall digital-first strategy. I guess that makes sense.
KFC has made the change thanks to Covid-19 as it is felt that the slogan is at odds with current hygiene advice. Apparently, the Advertising Standards Authority here in the UK received 163 complaints about a KFC TV ad that features people licking their fingers.
“We find ourselves in a unique situation – having an iconic slogan that doesn’t quite fit in the current environment,” the company has said.
There is an interesting article on The Drum which looks at this decision and highlights how KFC has managed to get a lot of free publicity by announcing that they are not doing a campaign.
2. The SEO Gender Gap
I was really interested to read some fascinating insight into the apparent gender gap in SEO over at https://moz.com/blog/seo-gender-gap this week.
To be honest, I was a little surprised at the numbers but that is probably a result of looking through the Browser Media lens, where us men are outnumbered by our female colleagues. If I think about industry events, there is no doubt that there is a male bias in both speakers and delegates, so the MOZ findings should not come as a surprise.
I will always favour meritocracy over a gender / race / sexuality / etc. based hiring decision but it is an interesting read and does highlight some quite stark differences.
3. Is Apple Taking On Google At Search?
There have been rumours that Apple is working on a search engine for many years, but it feels as though momentum is building and there may well be a Google v Apple head to head on the search front sooner rather than later.
Apple is definitely recruiting in the search space and updated the “about Applebot” help documentation page earlier this year, including more information about how Apple ranks web results. Add greatly increased Applebot activity (check your web logs) and it all starts to point towards a possible end to the billions that Google pays Apple to be the default search engine on the iPhone.
This could be of real consequence to search marketers as Safari is the most popular mobile browser in many countries across the globe, notably including the US. An Apple search engine could instantly become a dominant force in the search space. I doubt that will have a huge impact for SEO but the biddable landscape could become interesting.
There is a good analysis at https://searchengineland.com/is-apple-getting-real-about-search-and-about-to-take-on-google-339893.
4. Storms Loom For Facebook
As Hurricane Laura batters the US, Facebook has warned that its ability to serve ads to iPhone users will be severely impacted by Apple’s new operating system (iOS 14) which is due to land in the coming weeks.
The crux of the issue is that the increased privacy of iOS 14 will render Facebook’s Audience Network next to useless. Facebook has warned its developer community that it will stop collecting unique identifiers for iOS 14 users, which will prevent advertisers from targeting users even when they are using non-Facebook apps.
It is ultimately a clash between Apple’s commitment to protecting user privacy and Facebook’s ad targeting practices, which have a history of being controversial.
Facebook is not revealing the exact percentage of its ad business that is tied to the Audience Network but has previously claimed that removing personalisation would potentially lead to a 50% drop in revenue, so this could be a big kick in the proverbials.
5. And Finally…
We are living in troubled times and it feels as though there is nothing but bad news out there at the moment.
I was therefore thrilled to read about a baby gorilla being born at Bristol Zoo:
?? VERY EXCITING BABY NEWS!! ??
A baby gorilla has been born to mum Kala here at the Zoo & we’re SO happy to share with you a first glimpse of mum & her newborn!
The tiny western lowland gorilla arrived in the early hours of this morning. Read more: https://t.co/wMA9S2FpCn pic.twitter.com/t0xbxpaquT
— Bristol Zoological Society (@BrisZooSociety) August 19, 2020
Some more photos and a video of Kala and her baby are available on https://metro.co.uk/2020/08/23/incredible-photos-show-endangered-mother-gorilla-cradling-newborn-baby-13166296/.
I hope that they also make you smile and I wish you a very happy weekend.
