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 Will.
1. Twitter starts advertising in your conversations
Twitter announced earlier this week that the platform is testing new ads that appear in Tweet conversations.
https://twitter.com/TwitterBusiness/status/1448320926307786757
According to Twitter, the aim is to place ads “right where the conversation is happening” with the promotions being displayed within the first few replies to a tweet. The feature is only currently in testing so it is only available to certain users at the moment.
I completely see the benefits for brands and agree with the sentiment, letting them get right in front of the consumers where they are having conversations on Twitter. It just feels like another step towards adverts becoming part of every aspect of our life, and I fear the impact could be lost for these brands as users start to become blind to ads and promotions.
2. Neeva’s ‘FastTap Search’ feature
When it comes to SEO and search engines, the first thing that comes to mind is Google, however, there are more search engines out there – shocker I know! Neeva is a private search engine that was created by ex-Google executives and aims to “only show you real results”, not ads or affiliate links.
While the platform itself raises interest by not running ads, it’s their latest feature that caught my eye this week. Users are now able to go directly from the search bar to the website of their choice, without loading SERPs by clicking an option from the drop-down menu. This feature is particularly interesting as it raises questions about the importance of SEO if SERPs are taken out of the equation.
This isn’t a feature that is ever likely to come to the likes of Google or Bing due to the fact that both search engines rely on advertising revenue which is gained from their results pages. However, if Neeva grows in popularity or gets adopted by a particular audience or niche it could become difficult for brands.
Ultimately the results are still ordered, and there is still a top spot, albeit not how we typically think of it, therefore, there is still the possibility to get your brand to number one. However, Neeva displays far fewer results which could result in increased competition. I’m not saying we should all stop worrying about getting to position one on Google, it just raises the question of what could happen should the Google monopoly be challenged.
3. Fishy marketing
If you’ve been anywhere on the internet over the past few weeks you’ll likely have come across Squid Game, the latest Netflix show to skyrocket in popularity. The Korean show has smashed all of the records and become Netflix’ most watched show with over 111 millions views in its first month, and rightfully so! I absolutely loved the show and binged the whole thing in a weekend.
I won’t go on about the show to avoid any potential spoilers, instead let’s look at some brands doing what they do best (or worst) – jumping on the bandwagon. Nowadays as soon as anything goes viral online brands all over the world will do whatever they can to jump on the trend and Squid Game was no different.
Here are some examples of brands getting it right, and so very wrong, when trying to incorporate Squid Game into their marketing strategy.
Company uses Squid Game trend to send message about getting out of debt .
Love this @startrelief pic.twitter.com/8zEDYM45io
— Carrie Rose (@CarrieRosePR) October 14, 2021
View this post on Instagram
https://twitter.com/LilPawsX/status/1448667527517642756
4. Spooky Facebook Marketing
October means one thing, Spooky season, and for brands this can be an extremely lucrative time of year, if they get their marketing correct. To help sellers on Facebook Marketplace, the social media network has released their 2021 Halloween Trends.
Halloween is a massive holiday in the US with an estimated $10.14 billion dollars expected to be spent on Halloween items this year in the US alone. While the popularity of the holiday is not a high in the UK its popularity is rising with over £400 million being spent in 2019. Therefore, if you’ve not incorporated Halloween themed campaigns into your marketing strategy, you could be missing out on a huge audience that is growing year by year.
While the data is focused on the US, the tips can certainly be transferred to brands across the globe. Additionally, the top tips can be applied to most holidays and popular times throughout the year.
Check out the full report here.
5. Sprinklegate
I have to start this story with a NSFW warning – there are a lot of swears ahead.
This week Get Baked, a bakery based in Leeds, went viral for using illegal sprinkles, yep you read that right, illegal sprinkles!
I usually find brands trying to be ‘edgy’ on social media cringey, however, Get Baked have managed to find the perfect way to let their personality shine. Just take a look through their social media accounts and you’ll see they manage to put an authentic twist on their posts to show the human side of the brand – it also helps that their cakes look incredible.
Again, be aware their posts are often NSFW – you were warned!
