Apple Increases the Stakes in the Consumer Privacy Wars

Apple Increases the Stakes in the Consumer Privacy Wars

by Tim Colucci Apple

Apple’s 2023 Worldwide Developers Conference generated a lot of news coverage because Apple unveiled its long-anticipated mixed reality headset, VisionPro. But the device won’t hit the market until 2024, and only early adopters with $3,500 to spare will use it (initially). Meanwhile, Apple announced something more impactful to the advertising world: a new privacy control.

Coming Soon: iOS 17

Apple’s iOS 17, the company’s newest operating system, will add greater protection for private browsing, both from trackers as a user browses, and from people who might have access to a user’s device. Advanced tracking and fingerprinting protections go even further to help prevent websites from tracking or identifying a user’s device. Private browsing will lock when not in use, allowing a user to keep tabs open even when stepping away from the device.

Apple will also add link tracking protection in Messages, mail, and Safari browsing. The default setting is private browsing, but the feature can apply to all browsing if it’s turned on under a user’s device settings.

Link tracking protection could have some major impacts. Some websites add extra information to their URLs in order to track users across other websites. Now this information will be removed from the links users share in Messages and mail. This information will also be removed from links in Safari private browsing.

Digging Deeper

Advertisers and analytics firms employ a method of tracking user activity across websites by adding tracking parameters to links. Instead of relying on third-party cookies, they append a tracking identifier to the end of the page URL. This approach evades Safari’s intelligent tracking prevention features that block cross-site cookies and other forms of session storage.

When a user visits such a URL, the analytics or advertising service at the destination can access the URL and extract the unique parameters. These parameters are then associated with the service’s backend user profile, enabling the delivery of personalized ads.

To address this practice, Apple is taking measures to curtail it across its operating systems this year. Safari will automatically identify the identifying components of the URL and remove only those parts, leaving the remaining URL intact so that users can still reach their intended web page.

This process occurs during browser navigation in Safari’s private browsing mode, as well as when clicking on links in the Mail and Messages apps.

As a partial solution, Apple has introduced an alternative method for advertisers to measure the success of their campaigns. Private Click Measurement, available in Safari’s private browsing mode, allows advertisers to track conversion metrics without disclosing individual user activity.

Implications of iOS 17

What are the implications? Well, iOS 17 won’t hit until likely September 2023, so no one knows for sure yet. But based on what we know, the new feature could disrupt the audience creation process on platforms such as Meta, Google, and Microsoft due to the parameters being stripped, but aggregated metric data will likely be OK. Apple will not be able to kill those nor the little redirects as they’re necessary for the marketplace and part of the auditing process.

But iOS could disrupt email marketing. In email marketing, links to websites often contain personalized identifiers that track user activity. Apple is taking steps to eliminate this personalized information from links clicked within the Apple mail client. This change may have implications not only for attribution but also for other integrations that rely on such information, such as how websites apply promotions. If you are currently building audiences or affinity models based on user click-through from emails, it is expected that these audiences will see a significant decrease as users adopt this feature.

In terms of marketing, it is important to anticipate how reporting will function in the future. As I noted, with regards to attribution, Apple has been advocating for the use of Private Click Measurement. This tool allows advertisers to track ad campaign conversion metrics without revealing individual user activity, striking a balance between advertising needs and user privacy. As attribution becomes increasingly challenging due to technical policies and regulations, it may be the right moment to embrace attribution methods that prioritize user privacy.

The complete impact of this update remains uncertain for numerous companies, posing challenges for those currently relying on query parameters for on-site personalization or deep linking. While there are potential workarounds, they are not without difficulties, and the overall user experience may be less than satisfactory for some individuals.

Contact True Interactive

At True Interactive, we’re following all latest updates to consumer privacy and adapting our own tools accordingly. We have our clients covered. Contact us to learn how we can help you.

An Explanation of the 30 Percent Apple/Google Tax

An Explanation of the 30 Percent Apple/Google Tax

by Tim Colucci Apple Google

Twitter’s well publicized spat with Apple has highlighted an unpleasant reality for any business that operates an app: Apple and Google both enjoy a costly app duopoly.

The 30 Percent Tax

Twitter owner Elon Musk recently accused Apple of trying to destroy Twitter partly by putting Apple’s Twitter advertising on pause and partly by threatening to remove Twitter from the Apple app store.

Both parties apparently resolved their building tensions. Apple is advertising on Twitter, and Twitter remains on the App Store. Perhaps all is well between Apple and Twitter now. But not all is well for any organization, including Twitter, that needs the App Store to do business on Apple’s iOS operating system, which, of course, includes iPhone users.

The App Store provides access to more than 1.5 billion devices. It’s a top way for people to get the Twitter app and any app. What many journalists accurately reported in their coverage of the Twitter/Apple skirmish is that businesses on the App Store must pay Apple a 30 percent commission on all transactions processed via Apple, known as in-app purchases. As The New York Times noted,

Mr. Musk’s App Store allegation resurrects a potent charge against Apple: that it has used access to millions of iPhone and iPad devices as a cudgel to extract more money from app makers. A key part of Mr. Musk’s plans for Twitter is collecting more revenue from subscriptions — but under Apple’s policies, up to 30 percent of those sales from iPhone users would go to Apple itself.

The commission applies to all app developers who make more than $1 million through the ‌App Store‌ on an annual basis. For small developers who make less than the $1 million threshold, Apple has cut its fees to 15 percent through the Small Business Developer Program.

The commission also applies to “sales of ‘boosts’ for posts in a social media app,” meaning boosted content (i.e., posts that becomes amplified for a fee) on Facebook and Instagram.

Apple is not alone. Google also offers its own in-app billing system that charges a 30 percent commission or service fee for any payment made for an app or in-app payments or subscriptions. In 2021, Google began to enforce this requirement. After withering backlash, Google said it would cut the fee to 15 percent earned by a developer through their app on Play Store in a year and the 30 percent commission will apply for the revenue earned beyond $1 million.

Apple and Google effectively hold a duopoly. No business can bypass that duopoly; trying to process payments outside the App Store or Google Play would result in being kicked off both. (However, it should be noted that reportedly Elon Musk is figuring out how to design a closed payments system for Twitter.)

In the United Kingdom, the Competition and Markets Authority is launching an investigation that is taking aim at this duopoly. In the United States, reportedly the Justice Department is investigating Apple, and Epic Games has gone so far as to fight Apple legally.

But the wheels of justice may turn too slowly for the businesses that are operating under the thumb of Apple and Google. What steps can they take? Here are a few suggestions:

  • As with any tax, it’s important to budget accordingly. If you have not done so already, adjust you advertising and marketing plans to take into account the 30 percent commission. (We can help you with that.)
  • Boost your advertising and marketing to attract more sales. (We can help you with that, too.)
  • Make your voice known, as Twitter, Coinbase, and Spotify are doing. True, few businesses have the reach and visibility of those companies, but going on record leaves electronic breadcrumbs that increase the pressure on the duopoly, however slightly. Remember, backlash caused Google to back down on its fees as noted above.

Meanwhile, True Interactive continues to work with our clients to maximize the value of every dollar they spend via mobile advertising. Contact us to learn how we can help you.

Photo by Rami Al-zayat on Unsplash

How Apple Will Grow Its Advertising Business

How Apple Will Grow Its Advertising Business

by Tim Colucci Apple

Apple changed the advertising industry when the company launched an important privacy control in 2021, Application Tracking Transparency (ATT).  ATT asks iPhone users to decide whether apps can track them across other applications and websites. After the introduction of ATT, 62 percent of iPhone users opted out.

This has created a problem for advertisers and ad tech platforms such as Meta that rely on the ability to track user behavior across the web in order to serve up targeted ads to them. Without tracking user behavior via third-party cookies, their ads are less personalized. Meta said that ATT would cost the firm $10 billion in revenue in 2022. Apple, for its part, justified the new privacy control as taking a stand for consumer privacy.

Well, we now know Apple had something else in mind with ATT: taking a stand for Apple’s advertising business.

As Bloomberg reported recently, Apple is now earning $4 billion in revenue annually by selling ads on its devices, and the company plans to grow that amount aggressively. Granted, $4 billion is a far cry from the $209 billion that Google pulled down from advertising in 2021, but Apple’s newfound focus on ads sure casts its consumer privacy push in a different light.

How Does Apple Earn Ad Revenue?

Apple makes money selling ads on spaces that people see all the time on their iPhones and connected TVs as they navigate their screens to download apps, read the news, and watch content. Those include:

  • The App Store, as shown here:

Apple Ads

  • Apple’s own News and Stocks apps.

The additional ad revenue will come from:

  • The Today tab (the home page of the home page of the App Store, which includes content ranging from App of the Day to Game of the Day).
  • The You Might Also Like section of the App Store (this is found at the bottom of the App Store).
  • Third-party app download pages.

Does ATT Apply to Apple?

How will Apple sell targeted ads? By collecting first-party data, meaning the information that users of Apple devices cough up to Apple whenever they use the App Store, News and Stock apps, and so on. And, by the way, Apple will not make it easy for users to opt out of having their data tracked. You can disable the ad personalization feature, but you have to look for it under Apple Advertising in the settings app’s Privacy & Security menu. There is no pop-up menu asking you if you’d like to have tracking disabled as is the case with ATT, as shown below:privacy noticeBut shouldn’t ATT also apply to Apple? Not in Apple’s view. According to Bloomberg:

You may ask then, why don’t Apple apps have to ask permission to track users via a pop-up message? That’s what happens with other apps under ATT.

The reason, Apple says, is that the system “does not follow you across apps and websites owned by other companies.” That’s what ATT is designed to prevent. If a third-party app doesn’t track across outside apps and websites, it also doesn’t need to show a pop-up.

The “we are exempt from our own policy” rationale is how Google justifies its plans to kill third-party cookies on the Chrome browser. Google apps such as YouTube are exempt because technically they collect first-party data, not third-party data.

It’s easy to connect the dots and see what’s going on here: by attacking third-party cookie tracking, Apple bolsters its own ad program, which relies on first-party data collection.

Apple’s ad business is far too small to threaten the lead enjoyed by Amazon, Google, and Meta. But Apple has the muscle and money to grow its business quickly. ATT was a declaration of war.

What Advertisers Should Do

  • Understand the big picture. There is no going back: tech firms such as Apple and Google are undercutting the value of third-party cookies. Accept the reality that as third-party cookies crumble and technology companies enact privacy controls, your ads will be less targeted than they were. This does not mean you should stop advertising online. Online advertising remains the most efficient and cost-effective way to reach your audience. At the same time, first-party data is more valuable than ever to advertisers as a means to creating targeted ads. Consider ad platforms such as Amazon Advertising and Walmart Connect, which give businesses entrée to a vast base of customers who search and shop on Amazon and Walmart. True Interactive offers services on both platforms in addition to our longstanding work on Google, Bing, and other platforms. Learn more about our services with Amazon Ads here and Walmart here. Apple and Google cannot undercut what these companies are doing.

True Interactive can help you navigate the ever changing world of consumer privacy and advertising.

Contact True Interactive

To succeed with online advertising, contact True Interactive. Read about some of our client work here.

Lead image source: https://pixabay.com/photos/apple-inc-mac-apple-store-store-508812/

 

 

 

What’s Next for Netflix?

What’s Next for Netflix?

by Tim Colucci Connected TV

Remember when Meta shocked the world by announcing a historic drop in its stock price? Well, Meta has some company now that Netflix realized a massive drop in its own market capitalization after announcing that the streaming service had lost subscribers for the first time in 10 years. The news shook investors, but it also inspired speculation about new directions for Netflix – notably the likely introduction of advertising, a move that Netflix has resisted for years. But times have changed, and now Netflix must adapt or die. Here’s what I think will happen next:

  • Advertising will happen sooner than you think. Netflix said it will take a few years to integrate ads into the platform. But I’m thinking it will take months. The company has endured two consecutive disastrous quarters and forecast another bad one on the way. Netflix is under too much pressure to wait two years. Plus, its audience is receptive: two-thirds of connected TV viewers in the U.S. prefer to see ads if they can pay less for the service, according to a recent survey conducted by DeepIntent and LG Ads Solutions. On top of that, Netflix is already set up to create an ad business. The company is sitting on top of deep first-party data. All Netflix needs to do is partner with an ad tech platform to get an ad business up and running. (The Trade Desk has been circulated as a likely partner.) And watching content on streaming is a pretty straightforward experience: it’s easy to drop in ad spots before or after shows, and during them, just like linear TV. And connected TV offers even more options such as ads appearing alongside the search bar or in the screen menu. Knowing Netflix’s aversion to advertising, I suspect the company will avoid interruptive ads even for a lower-price tier.
  • Ads will get creative. Sure, we’ll see plenty of traditional commercial spots like you see on Hulu. But Netflix has been quietly building a merchandising operation over the past few years. The company recently launched its own digital commerce site to sell clothing tied into its popular shows. Netflix will likely create merchandise licensing deals to feature products from other businesses in its shows, such as Stranger Things. So far, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has been reluctant to go down this route. But all bets are off now.
  • Netflix will get sold. I don’t think advertising will be a savior for Netflix. True, there is a receptive audience, but is there enough to sustain Netflix’s future? I predict that Netflix will be sold to Apple. Apple launched its own streaming service, Apple TV+, in 2019, and the company is hungry to grow. Apple has deep pockets and is eager to achieve brand cachet, which it lacks right now. But Netflix has plenty of brand cachet. I could see Apple buying Netflix but allowing the company to keep its own name. The most expensive part of owning a streaming service is creating contentNetflix gives Apple TV+ a way to accelerate content development.

What Brands Should Do

The Netflix news is a wake-up call for advertisers to embrace connected TV. The only reason Netflix has a future is because connected TV (CTV) has evolved far enough to allow for ads in the first place. Oh, and guess what? Executives at competitors such as Disney+ are doing exactly what Netflix is doing. Hulu, for one, already figured out how to crack the code with CTV ads.

According to Forbes, a recent study from the Leichtman Research Group estimates that 80 percent of TV homes in the U.S. have at least one connected TV device. That number represents a steady increase from the 57 percent logged in 2015, and 24 percent in 2010.

Predictably, CTV use soared during the pandemic: Forbes also cites a Nielson report, which notes that CTV viewing exploded from 2.7 billion hours during the pre-pandemic week of March 2, to 3.9 billion hours during the weeks of March 23, March 30, and April 6. Even during the week of May 4, when stay-at-home laws eased in some states, CTV viewing remained above pre-pandemic levels at 3.5 billion hours.

These stats are good news for advertisers embracing CTV. So is the fact that CTV allows brands to reach out to specific audiences. As Forbes notes, “CTV’s targeting capabilities are the ‘holy grail’ for advertisers.” Many CTV companies use ACR, or Automated Content Recognition, which collects data that can inform programming recommendations for users and better target ads to niche groups. Although audiences in the era of connected TV may not be as huge as the linear TV days, CTV helps brands better understand and reach their niche market effectively.

Contact True Interactive

Eager to capitalize on the opportunities CTV can offer your brand? Contact us. We can help.

Meta Misses the Mark; How Should Advertisers React?

Meta Misses the Mark; How Should Advertisers React?

by Beth Bauch Facebook Meta

Over the years, Facebook has been a Teflon brand. No matter how many controversies and setbacks the company has faced, it has seen its stock price and market capitalization soar. But all that changed on February 2 when Facebook’s parent company Meta announced earnings for the fourth quarter 2021. The company:

  • Missed its earnings estimates.
  • Reported that Facebook’s global daily active users declined from the previous quarter to 1.929 billion from 1.930 billion. Although Facebook has experienced drops in the United States before, this was the first time the world’s most popular social platform had experienced a decline in its user base.
  • Forecast weaker-than-expected revenue growth for the next quarter.
  • Said that the company would suffer a $10 billion revenue hit in 2022 because of the impact of Apple’s iPhone privacy controls launched in 2021.

Investors were stunned. The next day, Meta suffered a 26 percent drop in its stock price – the largest single-day drop in history. Not just for Meta. For any company.

Companies can have a bad quarter. But why did Meta suffer a historic drop in its stock price? There is no single, clear-cut answer. But a few factors no doubt played a role:

  • The drop in users, although not massive, stoked concerns that Facebook is finally beginning to feel the impact of its ongoing brand safety controversies and indifference from the growing Gen Z population. Losing members can be a red flag for advertisers, and Facebook needs advertising revenue to succeed.
  • Meta surprised investors by saying it still has not recovered from the impact of Apple’s consumer privacy controls. In 2021, Apple altered its operating system to require apps to get a person’s permission before tracking their data across apps or websites owned by other companies for advertising, or sharing their data with data brokers. This move curtailed the ability for advertisers and ad platforms such as Facebook to target digital ads across the web. Ad platforms such as Snapchat and Twitter said that the restrictions were either not hurting them or that they had figured out satisfactory ways to keep creating effective ads despite the existence of the privacy controls. It was alarming to hear that Meta had not figured out a solution yet.
  • Meta’s big bet on the next generation of the internet, the metaverse, is costing the company – a lot. Meta said that the company spent $10 billion in 2021 on various products that form the building blocks of the metaverse. That spend hurt profits. And the metaverse is still many years away, which has made investors ask: just how much is the metaverse going to cost Meta?

Even still, Facebook achieved $33.67 billion in ad revenue for the quarter, which was better than expected. Should Facebook’s advertisers be concerned? As an agency that helps many businesses build their brands and convert customers through Facebook advertising, we believe that if you advertise on Facebook, you should:

  • Keep advertising on Facebook if you are satisfied with your results so far. Based on our client work, Facebook continues to drive conversions even though the cost per conversion has increased and conversion rates are lower. Facebook remains an efficient and cost-effective alternative to competing platforms.
  • Adapt to the new reality of Facebook advertising. One of the challenges with Facebook advertising under Apple’s privacy controls is having access to less user data for targeting various audience segments with ads. We’ve been working with Facebook to develop workarounds such grouping our clients’ target audiences together to give the Facebook algorithm more data to work with a (as opposed to breaking up audiences into separate groups). We’ve also removed audience exclusions from campaigns. After we aggregated audience data and removed exclusions, we gradually began to see an improvement in ad conversions following a drop resulting from the privacy controls.
  • Keep an eye on the decline in users. Understand where they’re going when they leave Facebook. In particular, Facebook said that TikTok has emerged as a much stronger competitor. TikTok is especially red hot with the Gen Z generation. In addition, monitor sentiment among your audiences, foremost your customers. In light of Facebook’s ongoing controversies over privacy and the publication of harmful content, are your customers expressing concern? Is your brand safety at risk? (This may or may not be the case. As we’ve blogged before, social media will always be a messy place to live, and many brand have learned to live alongside that reality.

Advertisers have more choices than ever – emerging apps such as TikTok, retailer ad platforms such as Amazon Advertising, to name a few. The well-established ad platforms such as Google continue to launch new products. As always, we urge advertisers to stay on top of the evolving market. At True Interactive, we advocate for our clients by understanding how the ad industry is changing so that we can maximize clients’ return on ad spend. Contact us to learn how we can help you.

Photo by Dima Solomin on Unsplash

2022 Advertising and Marketing Predictions

2022 Advertising and Marketing Predictions

by Kurt Anagnostopoulos Advertising

Welcome to a new, adventurous year of advertising and marketing. The traditional tech giants are going to continue to fight each other for dominance – while TikTok will tap into the burgeoning creator economy to challenge them all for a slice of the advertising pie. Retailers everywhere are creating ad networks, but Amazon and Walmart have already established strong leadership early on. For the most part, businesses will be spending more – more on TikTok, more on Amazon, more on Google, and probably more on Apple’s fledgling ad business. But will they spend more on Meta? Read on for our insights into the year ahead.

Retailer Media Networks Proliferate – and Meta Loses Ground

One of the big stories of 2021 was the proliferation of media businesses operated by retailers such as Amazon, Macy’s, Target, and Walmart. In 2022, we’ll see more of them. Retailers are under great pressure to squeeze more margin out of their core businesses as the industry endures uncertainty. The most well established networks – Amazon and Walmart – are thriving because they tap into the data they collect about their customers (first-party data) to sell targeted advertising on their sites. In 2022, more retailers will use first-party data to help businesses create more targeted ads off-site, too, as an antidote to Apple’s privacy controls. In addition, non-retailers with large troves of first-party data, such as TikTok, will expand the same way.

I also believe Meta’s ongoing push into immersive reality will lose momentum. Meta has made an even bigger push into immersive reality (e.g., virtual reality and augmented reality) as part of its attempt to become the builder of the metaverse. Meta also intends for immersive reality to help the company maintain a dominant hold on social media and to squeeze upstarts such as Roblox out of the market. But the horse is already out of the barn: there are just too many players such as Roblox and Snapchat developing immersive reality applications for Meta to play copycat and use its size as an an advantage. And Meta has faced so much public blowback over its size and reach that squeezing out smaller players makes Meta more of a target for anti-trust regulation. Meta will lose ground, and gaming platforms such as Roblox will ascend in power.

— Tim Colucci, vice president, digital marketing

TikTok Dominates

TikTok is the world’s most visited site in the Internet in 2021, toppling Google, according to Cloudfare. TikTok will become the leader in paid social. Videos and fast-breaking cultural trends are becoming more prominent factors across all social media marketing, and TikTok has mastered both. Oh, and TikTok has another big trump card to play: the site is a magnet for Gen Z and Millennials, who together comprise about 42 percent of the U.S. population. As a recent New York Times profile noted, advertisers “are present like never before, their authentic-seeming advertisements dropped in between dances, confessionals, comedy routines and makeovers.” But TikTok is just beginning to monetize all that interest from advertisers. TikTok will follow the example set by Amazon Advertising and roll out more ad units that capitalize on the customer data the company is collecting. And look to TikTok to become a social commerce giant. If you thought 2021 was the year of TikTok, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

— Bella Schneider, digital marketing manager

The Creator Economy Gets Real

The creator economy refers to a class of businesses comprising millions of independent content creators and influencers. We are reading more about them partly because apps such as TikTok have given them more power and influence. The creator economy will become even more powerful. That’s because collaboration networks are proliferating. These networks give creators an all-in-one platform to create communities and build influence. In addition, gaming sites such as Roblox and Twitch offer creators opportunities to monetize their work with potential partnerships with brands, and crypto currency sites such as Rally.io make it possible for creators to mint their own currency. The big social networks such as Meta are responding by making themselves more attractive to creators. More businesses will tap into niche networks to partner with emerging creators who are lesser-known but possess tremendous street cred. Big-name partnerships with stars will still thrive, but the social media icons will need to make room for the new kids in town.

— Mark Smith, co-founder

Tech Titans Roar

We hear a lot about the big technology firms facing increased scrutiny from Congress and legislators around the world. But to me the more intriguing story is how the tech titans keep trying to outmuscle each other for advertising revenue, an example being Apple enacting privacy controls to hurt Facebook’s ad business. 2022 will ratchet up the fight:

  • Apple will start leveraging and monetizing the data they are collecting (and not allowing others to collect) in the form of some type of advertising platform. This is the culmination of Apple’s stricter privacy controls.
  • Google will remove more visibility and targeting options in the name of advances in machine learning and automation, thus protecting its core ad business by taking more control of it.
  • An increasing number of platforms will emerge that use first-party data to target and track and savvy advertisers will take advantage of this and diversify their advertising spend
  • Amazon will grow with even more ad units for Amazon Advertising and marketing offerings such as livestreamed commerce for businesses of all size, especially smaller ones. Google and Meta will lose market share.

Unfortunately, we can count on CPCs to rise across all platforms as they attract more businesses competing for ad inventory and keywords. It’s going to be a more expensive 2022, but also a more interesting one with more ad units proliferating.

— Kurt Anagnostopoulos, co-founder

Google Ads Become More Powerful

Given the evolution of keyword matching (now AI-powered to serve ads based on the meaning of a search query), and the simplification of the ad product offerings (as Google deprecating Expanded Text Ads next summer), we will see Google Ads become leaner but more powerful. Advertisers will be forced to rely more and more on Google’s algorithm to drive results – all this, at the expense of reduced control advertisers have over campaign settings (ad content, keyword matching, targeting choices, etc.). I believe the biggest changes will continue to happen on Google’s back end as it seeks to make the algorithm (automated bidding strategies used in ad campaigns) smarter. Thus, we will see increased focus on cookie-less conversion tracking and an expansion of first-party data collection capabilities in Google Ads (i.e., scaling up enhanced conversions).

— Héctor Ariza, digital marketing and analytics manager

Social Media Ad Dollars Get Redistributed

Lush Cosmetics recently said it is quitting Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok over concerns that those platforms have a negative impact on teens’ mental health. (The company will remain active on LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, and YouTube.) Lush said it will happily lose $13 million in sales because of the digital detox. It remains to be seen whether Lush will reactivate the accounts it quit (Lush quit some social sites in 2019 before returning), and of course a big question is whether more businesses will take such a drastic approach. I don’t think we’ll see more businesses take the Lush approach – social media is just too important – but they will shift some of their ad dollars away from Facebook and Instagram. In the past, businesses have remained loyal to Facebook (now known as Meta) because the site is critical to their advertising and marketing strategies. But the whistleblowing activities of ex-Meta employee Frances Haugen have raised the stakes. She asserted that Meta has kept internal research secret for two years that suggests its Instagram app makes body image issues worse for teenage girls. Businesses will monitor what their customers, investors, and employees say about Meta especially in this era of purpose-driven branding. Some will shift their advertising to Snapchat and TikTok while Meta takes the heat for brand safety issues. But this shift may be temporary. Meta will probably mollify brands with some updates to its products to create more brand safety, as it is already doing with its news feed to address concerns over lack of user control over their news feeds. In addition, Meta faces the ongoing threat of regulatory oversight. More accountability will come to Meta in 2022.

— Beth Bauch, director, digital marketing

Contact True Interactive

To succeed in the ever-changing world of online advertising, contact True Interactive. Read about some of our client work here.

Image source: https://pixabay.com/photos/year-2022-track-new-year-calendar-6786741/

 

2021 Holiday Ads: Hope and Realism

2021 Holiday Ads: Hope and Realism

by Bella Schneider Advertising

Ready for some memorable holiday ads? In response to widely reported supply chain issues, some brands have teed up their holiday ads to come weeks ahead of traditional schedules. And as was the case last year, the campaigns are tasked with addressing the elephant that hasn’t left the room: Covid-19 and its lingering effects. If striking the right tone somewhere between hope and realism can be tricky, a few reliable themes — from connection to music, humor, and cheer — are helping brands thread that needle. Here are some examples:

Connection

We may live in divided times, but Etsy’s hopeful Give More Than a Gift campaign for 2021, which highlights unexpected connections, reminds us of our best selves. In one spot, a friendship springs up between two people from different walks of life. The tightly edited ad runs a mere 30 seconds, but it packs a wallop. The e-commerce company’s focus on unique, handmade items figures into the story, and the implicit message — that Etsy’s constellation of DIY sellers may help shoppers avoid the headache of larger retailers with supply chain issue delays — doesn’t hurt the brand, either.

Music and Surprise

The right music is key to a successful ad campaign, and brands have long been incorporating modern interpretations of classic hits in hopes of connecting with shoppers on a nostalgic level. In fact, according to Chelsea Gross, director analyst at research firm Gartner, nostalgia is particularly resonant this year as consumers potentially gather with loved ones after a year or more of pandemic-era separation.

For financial reasons, advertisers don’t always use the original song. It’s also worth noting that employing a cover can also add a unique spin, beyond the song’s original interpretation, to a nostalgic favorite. Consider the spot from Dutch e-tailer Bol.com, which is set to a cover of Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors.” In the ad, a boy who originally asked for a doll turns the soccer ball he got instead into an imaginary friend. Cue all the expected cozy feelings — but Bol.com is mining a different theme here, and an unexpected twist at the end of the spot gives Lauper’s familiar song added resonance. (Spoiler alert: this kitten has claws!) By subverting expectations — of a familiar song, of a storyline that, at least initially, seems familiar — the brand grabs our attention.

For a brand like Amazon, deep pockets can mean the freedom to use a song in its original incarnation. This year, the e-commerce giant debuts “Hold On” from Adele’s new album 30; the song hits a home run on several levels, playing backdrop to a spot that doesn’t shy away from the lingering challenges people face from the pandemic. The storyline isn’t overtly festive: two women share a quiet connection over their love of birds. But the ad, which is aligned with the launch of Amazon’s Christmas gift shop, covers a lot of ground, addressing mental health, loneliness, and the power of connection in a subtle two-and-a-half minutes.

Humor

Like Amazon, Extra gum isn’t afraid to look at the curveballs life can throw, but it takes a different tack, using humor to lean into some inconvenient truths about the holidays. As Extra spins it, while it’s great to be gathering for the holidays in a way 2020 simply didn’t allow, some time-honored traditions — from passive-aggressive presents to long-winded relatives — remain as tricky as they ever were before the pandemic. The solution? “Chew it before you do it.” In other words, chewing a piece of Extra gum can give that extra moment of pause, and transform a potentially awkward moment into a time of grace and connection. And who can argue with that?

Cheer

Of course, holiday ads for time immemorial have succeeded by tugging on the heartstrings, and a few notable campaigns from 2021 take that approach and run with it. Consider the McDonald’s U.K. ad that introduces us to a little girl and her imaginary monster friend, who bond over the Christmas ritual of leaving out bags of McDonald’s carrots as treats for Santa’s reindeer. Time passes (a cover of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” plays in the background – apparently 2021 is Cyndi Lauper’s year), and we think the girl has outgrown her joyful friend. But — spoiler alert! — you might need to pull your hanky out. Some friendships are meant for the long haul.

Finally, consider Apple’s spot, which was filmed with an iPhone 13 Pro by the father-and-son team of Ivan and Jason Reitman. The three-minute short follows the efforts of Olive, a little girl determined to keep her snowman buddy alive all year ‘round. An unexpected finale doesn’t quite cue up as expected, but the overall vibe — and a dedication to the ones we’ve waited all year to be with — goes for the feels in a big way, and succeeds.

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