Author: Neha Mehta

TikTok Rival Triller Allegedly Reporting Inflated Monthly User Numbers

Tik Tok rival Triller has been allegedly inflating its monthly user numbers. As reported by Business Insider, some former employees expressed disbelief over the user numbers published by the company.

Triller executives have not been reticent about their intentions to overtake TikTok. In fact with the recent press releases on user numbers, the short video app appears to be gleeful about it. Triller CEO Mike Lu said at TechCrunch Disrupt on September 15, 2020, 

“We’re definitely on a rocket ship. It’s a true exponential curve in terms of our usage, in terms of our growth, and we don’t see that slowing down anytime soon.”

TikTok is bogged down in a legal battle with the President of the United States and Triller taking advantage of the situation, deployed the strategy of smash-mouth marketing. Surprisingly, Triller’s gambit appears to have thrived.

Last month, Teller announced in a press release that it had “over 100 million monthly active users” and “over 250 million downloads.” However, six former employees told Business Insider that the numbers were disputable based on their past experiences.

Triller Controversial User Data 

Triller, the Los Angeles-based short video app backed by media mogul Ryan Kavanaugh’s Proxima Media attracted many influencers and signed the TikTok star Charli D’Amelio and her family, last month. Back in December 2019, it said to have grown 500% organically year over year to 13 million monthly active users and 60 million total downloads. Triller CEO Mike Lu claimed that Triller became No.1 across 80 different countries at some point. In mid-August, President Donald Trump also launched his official Triller account to promote his political campaign. 

On 15th September, it announced to hit 100 million monthly users and over 250 million downloads. A week later while announcing a partnership with the body-grooming company Manscaped, the company claimed to have more than 140 million users. 

The pace and size of Triller’s user base have been the talking point by the company. Though Triller often positions itself as a different app than TikTok but is steadily working on the same set of influencers to get onboard that made TikTok popular. CEO Mike Lu describes that Triller “has always been around music, around content, and around creative discovery.” Meanwhile, Triller is in the process to raise another round of funding at a lofty valuation.  

What Are They Saying

As reported by Business Insider, 

“Four of the six former Triller employees Business Insider spoke with confirmed that they had access to the Localytics dashboard and remembered Triller’s MAU count ranging between 1 million to 2.5 million at the time. The other two said they remembered the MAU count being about that 1-2.5 million range at the time, but did not name Localytics in particular.”

None of the former employees understood the calculation behind 13 million active users in 2019. However, Lu told Business Insider, 

“As for our users, we can validate each and every one of our 239M plus of them and have two separate third party analytics companies preparing independent analyses based on transparent data access.”

Triller Challenges Third-Party Apps Analytics Companies

Tech Crunch first reported that the app store intelligence firm Apptopia estimated Triller app to be downloaded 52 million times since launch worldwide against the claims of 250 million times. It claims that the numbers published are inflated. However, Triller Threatened to sue the analytic firm over false information. But soon, Apptopia retracted its estimate after getting in touch with each other through a mutual investor. Now, the two companies plan to co-publish report on Triller’s data based on Apptopia’s final findings.

On the other hand, Sensor Tower estimates also differ from the company’s claims. Sensor Tower data indicates Triller had reached 45.6 million total global installs since its launch. The Sensor tower explains that the discrepancies could have to do with how Triller calculates its installs. Some companies consider different forms of installs like re-installs, updates, and direct installs of Android APKs whereas the third party doesn’t.

New Partnership Sealed

Amidst the dispute, Triller partnered with the digital advertising platform Consumable which will give the short video app access to its 250 million users. This partnership will help Triller further monetize its platform by inserting programmatic advertising between Triller’s short-form video content units.

Mark Levin, CEO of Consumable said,

“This is an exciting partnership given our collective focus on delivering innovative, bite-sized content. It combines Triller’s short-form entertainment with Consumable’s short-form digital advertising to deliver the first social video discovery platform on media publisher websites.”

Triller CEO Mike Lu commented that this partnership will create scalable monetization opportunities and a sustainable profitable business model.

Triller Hype Train

As reported by Adage, Triller recently started its first advertising service named as CrossHype. It will split the revenue with the influencers and alleges to guarantee the numbers of impressions. Triller videos can be shared with Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram. If influencers partners with brands through Triller, a portion of the reach will come from the audience across the platform. This can be one of the reasons to create Crosshype to assure brands about the potential size of the audience. However, industry players are skeptical about Triller’s Crosshype presentation. They believe that guaranteeing impressions with influencers can create pressure on them and incentivize bad habits like buying followers, inflating likes, and more. 

However, the world of social media is full of surprises. If Triller’s play for TikTok talent works and viewers follow creators, then there is no stopping. It will also be important for Triller to soon prove the claimed statistics true to reclaim its credibility. Particularly, when the app is under the public eye and can capitalize on the hype surrounding TikTok.

 

About Triller:

For the uninitiated, Triller an AI-powered music video app that allows users to create high-quality videos in a matter of seconds. Users can use sounds from the Riller library, Spotify, and Apple Music. The short video app has entered 35 deals with Fortune 500 and established brands. Triller also brought on music artists like Snoop Dogg, The Weeknd, Marshmello, Lil Wayne, and Kendrick Lamar as investors and strategic partners last year. For more details, visit  www.triller.co

Google Agrees To Pay News Publishers $1 Billion For Their Content

Highlights:

• Google plans to pay $1billion to news publishers over the next three years in licensing fees.

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• CEO Sundar Pichai announced on Thursday, Google’s biggest financial commitment to date will pay to partnered publications to create and curate high-quality content for a new product called Google News Showcase.

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Background

Google has been a longtime frenemy with the world of news. Regulators around the world have been intimidating Google with policies that would compel them to pay publishers. News publishers like Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and German media giant Axel Springer have been making noise for almost a decade that Google should pay for their content but the tech giant refused. To reclaim its credibility in the news publishing world, Google is launching Google News Showcase. CEO of the tech giant, Sundar Pichai said in its blog post that Google will pay $1 billion to news publishers in licensing fees.

Why it matters

In 2018, Google pledged $300 million effort to help news publishers. This announcement develops that effort further and its new product “Google News Showcase” would collectively pay selected publishers for high-quality content for new story panels that will appear on Google News. The initiative is live on Android devices and will eventually appear on Google News on iOS.

Details

The Google News Showcase will be first launched in Brazil and Germany. As quoted in Axios, Brad Bender, Google’s VP of product management for news said, 

Our approach with Google News Showcase is a very different approach for Google from a product standpoint … It’s a new way for us to connect users to stories that matter. It’s a new way for us to work with publishers, but to also make money from their content beyond Search and News. And of course, it’s a new way for Google to support the future of quality journalism.

• Google News Showcase features the editorial curation of award-winning newsrooms to give readers more insight into important stories and helps publishers drive high-value traffic.
• The highlighting feature in the Showcase is ‘panels’ (as shown in the image) which allow publishers to package stories with more context that appear within Google’s news products.
• Publishers can include features like timelines, bullets, and related articles in the story panel. Eventually, they will be able to embed other components like video, audio, and daily briefings.
• Pichai said, “This approach is distinct from our other news products because it leans on the editorial choices individual publishers make about which stories to show readers and how to present them.”
• Similar to Apple News, Google will help to hedge their bets by offering free access to paywalled articles on certain participating websites. This might help publishers to convert visitors to subscribers.
• Bender said the funding wouldn’t be able to cover all news organizations so selecting the publishers on a market-to-market basis, with a focus on newspapers or sources with established audiences and significant local or regional news outlets.

 

Go Deeper

The panels designed for Google News Showcase promote publishers’ brands within Google’s products which will allow readers to get more perspective from the publisher.

• Publishers have often accused Google of stealing revenue as well as minimizing brand value. However, in the new product, the panels are directly linked to the publishers’ site which in return can monetize the traffic.
• Taking lessons from the rivals, Google will allow users to personalize feeds within Google News Showcase which means users can follow specific publishers.

 

The Bigger Picture

Google and Facebook specifically have made millions in advertising in the last few years. The news publishers weren’t able to compete and therefore started looking for alternative sources of revenue.

• Regulators across the world have been trying to bring policies and reforms that would require Google and Facebook to pay publishers for their content.
• Google launching Showcase in Germany is notable and surprising given that publishers in the country are involved in a years-long legal battle with Google over copyright issues. In the end, Google won the case.
• Google has been facing a lot of anti-trust scrutiny in Europe and therefore the tech giant needs to rehabilitate the image.
• According to a Financial Times report, Angela Mills Wade, executive director of the European Publishers Council said that her members were “quite cynical ” and said,

By launching a product, Google can dictate terms and conditions, undermine legislation designed to create conditions for a fair negotiation, while claiming they are helping to fund news production.

What’s next

 Google initially launched in Brazil and Germany but will gradually expand to other markets in Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, the U.K., and Australia. Google says it has signed deals with more than 200 publishers. The first publications to launch will be Der Spiegel, Stern, Die Zeit, Folha de S.Paulo, Band, Infobae, El Litoral, GZH, WAZ, and SooToday. Pichai said that India, Belgium, and the Netherlands will be next on the list for expansion.

Facebook Ads Removing The 28 Days Attribution Model

Facebook has announced that it is retiring the 28 days attribution window option for Facebook ads. Post that, the attribution window will be its already existing 7-day option as default settings. This means that the advertisers will not be able to track direct actions based on their campaigns for a longer period.

Facebook attribution models enable advertisers to measure certain responses related to the campaign based on the rules set by advertisers. Currently, by default, Facebook Attribution selects a last-touch model with a 1-day impression and a 28-day click window which will soon change to a 7-day window.

For example, if you were to select purchase as your conversion, and apply this default attribution model and attribution window, your reporting will reflect purchases that can be attributed by Facebook to the last ad click that happened within 28 days prior to purchase or the last ad impression that occurred within one day of purchase, whichever happened last.

Facebook attribution models provide more specific insights and allow marketers to obtain more information on the actual impact the ad had.

Why This Change?

By the official email announcement sent directly to advertisers, it explains, 

“Upcoming digital privacy initiatives affecting multiple browsers will limit business’s ability to measure people’s interactions across domains and devices. Among those limitations is the ability for businesses to attribute conversion events back to an ad over longer attribution windows.”

Though not explicitly but the email refers to Chrome’s intention to eliminate third- party cookies in the near future. Due to the changes in data tracking policy, Facebook will no longer be able to provide a 28-day attribution window but a 7-day window option for direct response performance. 

Who Will Be Affected?

The change will affect everyone. However, it will highly impact advanced Facebook marketers who run large-scale campaigns as well as the automated systems that work out Facebook ad spend based on certain events.

When Will The Change Come Into Effect?

The changes will come into effect on 12th October 2020. Facebook recommends advertisers as well as it would be worth to download all the historical data before the change for future reference.

 

Read More: Facebook Debuts Shops In Its Mobile App, Instagram Expands Checkout Feature

Taboola And IAS Partners To Launch Industry-First New Pre-Bid Brand Safety Solution

Taboola, the world’s leading discovery and native advertising platform announced a partnership with Integral Ad Science (IAS), the global leader in digital ad verification, to introduce an industry-first pre-bid brand safety solution for performance advertisers.

The partnership will allow advertisers to directly deploy the pre-bid brand safety technology within Taboola’s native advertising platform. It will also help customers to place relevant content in front of Taboola’s large audience base of 1.4 billion people each month.

Adam Singolda, founder and CEO at Taboola said,

“Now Taboola’s large number of global advertisers can feel secure knowing that their content will only appear in locations that have been deemed appropriate by IAS technology. IAS has proven to be a brand safety innovator and a key strategic partner for Taboola. By extending our partnership and introducing this first-to-market offering, we’re giving advertisers yet another way to benefit from Taboola’s audience scale and ultimately ensure ROI.”

Pre-Bid Brand Safety: What It Means For Marketers?

IAS scores web pages across a range of suitability parameters and blocks brand ads from unsafe pages based on the brand’s own risk threshold.
In the press release, Taboola described the partnership as an industry first and, Taboola’s Corporate Communications Leader Dave Struzzi told MarchTech Today,

“IAS works with a variety of publishers, platforms, and advertisers, but to date, IAS pre-bid brand safety solutions are typically found in traditional demand side platforms. This integration is the first of its kind within a closed native advertising platform which operates on a CPC bidding model.”

Taboola has worked with IAS for several years to build new products and optimize their publisher inventory. The new product development will bring the power of IAS’ proprietary ad verification technology to Taboola Ads Console that gives advertisers the control to opt-in to pre-bid brand safety targeting on any campaign.

Craig Ziegler, VP Product Management, IAS said,

“Performance advertisers don’t have to sacrifice brand safety to obtain the scale they’re looking for.”
“We’re giving advertisers an intuitive way to ensure their ad placements are brand safe directly within Taboola’s technology as they begin a campaign.”

Why We Care:

Many advertisers make sure about brand safety by purchasing ad inventory from premium publishers. The trade-off is scale and exposure is restricted through selective buying. The latest integration will allow marketers and advertisers to leverage programmatic native advertising while ensuring brand safety.

 

Read More: Why Did The Most Anticipated Taboola-Outbrain Deal Collapse After A Year?

Trump Praises Tik Tok Deal As ‘Fantastic’  With Oracle and Walmart 

Key Points 

• In the eleventh hour, Tik Tok averted a shutdown in the U.S after President said he has given his blessing to a deal with Oracle and Walmart.
• The deal announced by the companies would create a new company Tik Tok Global that will be headquartered in the U.S.
• Silicon Valley giant Oracle will become a minority investor with a 12.5% stake in Tik Tok Global and a cloud partner.
• Tentatively, Walmart will own a 7.5 % stake in Tik Tok Global as a commercial partner and CEO Doug McMillonwould would serve as one of the five board members.
• Tik Tok’s Chinese parent company Byte Dance will own the remaining 80% of Tik Tok Global.

 

Tik Tok successfully averted the app store ban in the eleventh hour, with President Trump giving preliminary approval to the landmark deal with Oracle and Walmart. Meanwhile, the U.S judge issued a ruling early Sunday morning to block the WeChat ban.

Background: 

In August, Trump had issued an executive order to face a ban if  Tik Tok U.S operations were not sold to an American company by September 20, owing to its data privacy concerns related to Tik Tok’s ownership by a Chinese tech company. 

• Tik Tok denied it and said that 100 million American users’ data is stored in the U.S and back up in Singapore.
• Shortly after the announcement, Byte Dance was in talks with Microsoft or Oracle to sell Tik Tok’s U.S operations.
• Meanwhile, the talks went kaput after the Chinese government implemented new rules on AI technology exports that prevented Tik Tok from transferring its recommendation algorithm and technology.

 

Of note: Presently, The U.S. Commerce Department has announced a delay by week to September, 27 to the executive order deadline.

What he’s saying: After all the twists and turns, Trump approved the deal ‘in concept’ and said,

“I think it’s going to be a fantastic deal. I have given the deal my blessing. If they get it done that’s great, if they don’t that’s okay too.” 

He further added that the new entity to be formed will be exclusive for U.S operations.

“It will have nothing to do with any outside land, any outside country, it will have nothing to do with China. It’ll be totally secure. That’ll be part of the deal.”

• The President also noted that the new company will likely be headquartered in Texas and could bring at least 25,000 jobs across the country.
• One of the stipulations for approving the deal was a $5 billion commitment towards an education fund to teach kids about history, science, and other subjects.
• Trump also noted that “it’ll be totally controlled by Oracle and Walmart”.

 

Yes, but not completely true. Tik Tok Global will be a 100% subsidiary of the Chinese parent company Byte Dance. The company is planning to raise pre-IPO financing with new investors Oracle and Walmart taking 20% – 12.5% and 7.5% respectively after which Tik Tok Global will be a 80% holding subsidiary of  Byte Dance. 

However, Americans will hold a 4-1 majority on the TikTok Global board, whereas ByteDance shareholders —  will own a majority of shares in the company that includes American, Chinese, and international investors. This shows Byte Dance will have some control over the product’s intellectual property. Therefore, it is debatable to say whether the Americans will have total control over the company from governance, management, and technology standpoint.

What did Tik Tok say:

 “We are pleased that the proposal by TikTok, Oracle, and Walmart will resolve the security concerns of the US Administration and settle questions around TikTok’s future in the US.”

pic.twitter.com/jWxjnAIwZQ

— TikTokComms (@TikTokComms) September 19, 2020

 

What did Oracle say: Oracle CTO Larry Ellison said Tik Tok will run on the Oracle cloud. CEO Safra Catz said,

“Oracle will quickly deploy, rapidly scale, and operate TikTok systems in the Oracle Cloud. We are a hundred percent confident in our ability to deliver a highly secure environment to TikTok and ensure data privacy to TikTok’s American users, and users throughout the world.”

“This greatly improved security and guaranteed privacy will enable the continued rapid growth of the TikTok user community to benefit all stakeholders.”

What does this mean for Oracle:

• The cloud deal is a huge win for Oracle and shows its expertise in cloud computing which is majorly dominated by Amazon and Microsoft.
• Oracle can expect a nice ROI when Tik Tok Global has a public listing n a year.
• Oracle will be the ‘trusted technology’ partner who will use its cloud infrastructure to protect U.S data.
• Oracle Generation 2 will isolate running applications and responds to security threats autonomously.

What did Walmart say: The retail giant will be a commercial partner and outlined the following in a statement:

“This partnership will provide Walmart with an important way for us to expand our reach and serve omnichannel customers as well as grow our third-party marketplace, fulfillment, and advertising businesses.”

• Walmart said it will provide “eCommerce, fulfillment, payments and other omnichannel services to TikTok Global.”
• It would work toward a public listing of TikTok Global in the U.S. “within a year”  to bring more ownership to American citizens.
• The deal can help Walmart gain a foothold in social commerce and access to users who are younger than average Walmart shoppers.

What happens next: As reported by Bloomberg, The two companies would pay a combined $12 billion for their stakes if they agree to an asking price of $60 billion. However, the companies are yet to negotiate and finalize the valuation as they have worked out only equity and measures for data security.

As the deal inches closer, there are certain impending concerns :

• The Chinese government is yet to approve the deal. If sources are to be believed the deal will get a nod from China as it adheres to the new tech export rules.
• Given that Tik Tok is not completely cut loose of Chinese ownership, it is unclear whether it will satisfy the requirements of the U.S national security concerns.

This Tik Tok saga had many twists and turns and according to the U.S treasury, the deal still needs to be finalized and approved by the federal national security committee. More drama can be expected in the coming weeks.

Bottom Line: On the face of it, Tik Tok is here to stay and time-being influencers can do the happy dance.

Read more: Tik Tok Widens Ad Options With New Marketing Tools, Rolls Out New Feature ‘Stitch’

Why Did The Most Anticipated Taboola-Outbrain Deal Collapse After A Year?

Key Insights:

• The two biggest content distribution giant, Taboola and Outbrain, called off a year-long engagement.
• The merger of the giants would have created a $2 billion company and could have been a ‘meaningful competition’ for the walled gardens of Facebook and Google.
• Some publishers who relied on the two firms for ad revenue expressed their concerns that the merger would suppress the competition and decrease the payouts.
• Ultimately, the merger deal ended when Taboola revised the deal offer, renegotiating the cash component from $250 that it initially offered to $100 million.

 

Nearly a year after announcing the biggest Ad tech merger deal between the two largest content-recommendation companies, Taboola and Outbrain have now collapsed. The merger was meant to give advertisers more ‘meaningful choices’ outside the walled gardens of Facebook and Google that influence a large part of the digital advertising ecosystem.

A Year-Long Road That Changed It All

The delay in regulator scrutiny, the pandemic hit, and changing of the market led to the termination of the deal.

Outbrain and Taboola’s products are the “recommended for you”-type article boxes that are found at the bottom of news articles and are all over the web. The publishers have earned handsomely from Fox News to CNN by renting ad space at the bottom of the publishers’ article pages.

Under the proposed deal, Taboola would acquire Outbrain for $250 million in cash and 30% equity of the combined company. CEO Adam Singolda was set to lead the combined entity with the deal valued $850 million and would have more than 2000 employees. The pair pitched the proposed union as a way to help advertisers. The pair pitched that the combination of the platforms would be beneficial for advertisers looking to buy sponsored links across the web and the new entity would increase revenue for publishers owing to increased investment in technology and product. However, between then and today, a combination of factors changed the progress of the Taboola-Outbrain deal.

Scrutiny By  Regulators

The first of those was the delay in the regulatory process to approve the Taboola-Outbrain deal. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Justice Department was examining whether the merger would hurt competition raising antitrust issues and in turn, affect publishers who rely on those two companies for ad revenues. Publishers expressed their concern on the operation of the proposed entity

Though the U.S. Justice Department did not challenge the deal, the merger was still being investigated both in the U.K. and Israel. The U.K.’s Competition and Market Authority(CMA) after initial probing, proposed a “phase two investigation” this summer. According to CMA, Taboola and Outbrain have a combined market share of 80% in the U.K. content recommendation market. The regulators raised concerns for U.K publishers who would have a reduced choice in content recommendation services which could result in a drop in ad revenue. The Israel Competition Authority’s investigation was also outstanding. Israeli business newspaper Globes reported that ICA launched an investigation on a Taboola client, local news site Ynet, over alleged coordination between Taboola and Outbrain before the merger was approved. CEO Singolda reaffirmed that they will come out clean of the investigation.

As reported by Adweek, sources familiar with both sides of the deal said the competition regulators investigation took much longer than expected and the developments brought pressure on the financing. The financing deal with the participating banks expired in August.

Renegotiation Of The Taboola-Outbrain Deal, But Why

The pandemic hit and temporarily affected their ad revenue like many other ad tech companies. 

In a June 29 blog post, Taboola CEO Adam Singolda wrote, “We’ve had to ask our publisher partners to work with us through these challenging times by temporarily switching from a revenue guarantee to shared revenue.”

Though Taboola described it as a temporary pause, this caused tension with Outbrain which didn’t refrain from its existing guaranteed deals, as per Digiday. As a result, in July, Taboola’s biggest clients with more than 139 million unique visitors in July as reported by ComScore left for Verizon Media’s native advertising product. 

All this transpired for the breakdown of the merger deal. CEO Singolda wrote in the blog post that Outbrain agreed to be acquired by Taboola in October of 2019 but the agreement had an expiration after 12 months giving both parties a way to part ways. He further added,

“As part of the process, we exchanged financial information with each other. Based on the relative performance of the two companies, we decided the original deal does not make sense anymore. We could choose to pay the same price of 30% in equity + $250M, but our shareholders thought it’s too much for what we would get based on the relative contribution of the two companies. Nothing emotional, not about culture fit, just data.”

“Out of deep respect, we tried to do a deal that was equity only (but less equity), or equity and cash (but less cash) that matched Outbrain’s financial contribution to Taboola. We failed, and we called it off.”

It is believed that Raboola renegotiated the earlier agreed-upon fee of $250 million to approximately $100 million which was unacceptable by Outbrain. According to Digiday, a memo to Taboola staff by CEO Adam Singloda stated that 

“While we continue to grow and do better than ever since the merger announcement, Outbrain’s business continues to stagnate and in fact trend downward.” 

He also said that Outbrain remains underinvested in their company over the last two years and this finding also led to revising the original deal agreements.

On this, Outbrain co-CEO Yaron Galai replied to Digiday that the deal got terminated because Taboola didn’t carry out the original deal. He further added,

“Outbrain is profitable, hitting all of its key metrics, and experiencing strong growth. Importantly, Outbrain’s profits are achieved in alignment with our publisher partners, while standing by all of our commitments to them.”

Publishers Post-Covid:

Many publishers were skeptical when the proposed merger deal was announced but now breathe a sigh of relief. However, the sudden decreases in ad spending as the Covid-19 pandemic hit harshly, the not new but the old two competitors Taboola and Outbrain altered their priorities. Publishers pursued a more subscription-based model for healthy margins and making revenue forecasting more sustainable.

In the post-Covid landscape, Taboola and Outbrain are now moving to reinstate some of the past guaranteed deals. Taboola for its part is also eyeing commerce and TV advertising and CEO Adam Singolda said that they will send more traffic to publishers from other devices than Google sends.

Read More: A One-stop Guide On All You Ever Need To Know About AdTech In 2020

 

 

Australian Watchdog to Scrutinize Apple And Google App Store Practices

Australian watchdog is set for another confrontation after the proposed news bargaining law with the U.S tech giants Google and Apple, it’s now turning its attention to mobile apps stores. On Tuesday,8th September Australian regulator announced to investigate over a range of issues including the use and sharing of data by apps, the extent of competition between Google and Apple’s app stores, and whether more pricing transparency is needed in Australia’s mobile apps market.

ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard said in a press release that it is also “interested in how data is used and shared in the app ecosystem, including the data available to Google and Apple as a result of their control of the major app stores.”

This is Apple’s second antitrust investigation in two days, a day after Italy announced that it will investigate the fairness of Apple’s iCloud terms and conditions in a press release. ACCC invited consumers and developers to share their experience of using and working with the apps marketplaces and asked both marketplaces owners to cooperate related to how they use and share data.

Google accepted the request for its cooperation and said the company would participate with the ACCC as it has done since the release of the inquiry. According to The Guardian, a company spokesman said, 

In the interest of transparency, we’ve been open to dozens of meetings on request and provided thousands of documents to assist in the process.

However, Apple did not respond or comment regarding the matter.

One of the highlights of this inquiry is the growing tension over app store policies in many countries about Apple’s payment terms. The app developers and publishers have been calling out the issue for some time now of 30% and 15% fee charged by Apple and Google respectively. However, it came under the limelight last month after game developer Epic Games who created the popular game ‘Fortnite’ implemented a feature to let iPhone users make direct in-app purchases instead of Apple’s in-app purchases. This resulted in a ban on Fortnite game on both app stores and developers filing an anti-trust lawsuit against Apple and Google.

JUST IN: Apple doubles down in its legal battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games, filing a response and counterclaims alleging that the gaming company breached its contract, and seeking an unspecified amount in damages. https://t.co/QZotAJlWMd pic.twitter.com/wzll3QZu3v

— CNBC (@CNBC) September 8, 2020

 

ACCC deputy chairwoman Delia Rickard said

Apps have become essential tools for daily living for many Australian consumers, a trend that is likely to have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Apps are, in turn, increasingly important for businesses as they promote, grow and run their enterprises.

We want to know more about the market for mobile apps in Australia, including how transparent and effective the market is, for consumers as well as those operating in the market. We will also focus on the extent of competition between the major online app stores, and how they compete for app sales with other app providers.

The planned consumer survey on app purchases and use is a part of its ongoing 5-year digital platforms inquiry. Submissions of consumers and developers to the inquiry close on 2 October 2020. The final report will be handed down in March 2021.

This comes as the ACCC is nearing to finalize the mandatory code that would make Australia the first country to make Google and Facebook pay news media companies for using their content. However, Google launched a public campaign against the code and Facebook threatened to withdraw news from the feeds. It would be interesting to see how things unfold for the tech giants.

 

TikTok Widens Ad Options With New Marketing Tools, Rolls Out New Feature ‘Stitch’

The fate of TikTok in the U.S is looming amid negotiations with potential buyers. The future is a question mark now as President Trump said he plans to shut down the Chinese-owned app if it is unable to sell its U.S operations before September 20 over security concerns. Meanwhile, business is as usual for the short video sharing app as it rolls out a new marketing partner program that will be housed under TikTok business. The company also announced the debut of a new editing feature called Stitch which allows users the ability to clip and integrate scenes from another user’s video into their own. It is also testing the new in-app eCommerce feature.

Launched officially in June, TikTok business is the company’s advertising platform and a hub for all marketing solutions for the app. The new marketing partner program has nearly 20 partner companies that can support brands and marketers in creating, executing, measuring, and boosting their ad campaigns. It will include companies across categories like campaign management (e.g. Sprinklr and Bidalgo), creative development (e.g. QuickFrame and Shuttlerock), branded effects (e.g. Bare Tree Media and Byte), and measurement(e,g, Kantar). The complete collaboration list is given below.

It is common for social media apps to add marketing partners, that’s doubling down the money through ad tech-based on its growing and engaging audience. This shows that TikTok has expansion plans to work with big brands, leverage its strong audience growth to build advertising opportunities, and sell products to them in an innovative way.

Melissa Yang, head of Ecosystem Partnerships, TikTok, noted in the blog post,

“With the launch of TikTok For Business, we’re building new opportunities for marketers to be creative storytellers and meaningfully engage with the TikTok community.”

“We’re thrilled to collaborate with some of the most strategic and trusted leaders in the advertising industry and continue giving marketers access to more tools to successfully create, measure and optimize ad campaigns on TikTok. We can’t wait to collaborate with partners to bring a creative and joyful experience to our brand partners and the broader TikTok community.”

Stitch The Seams Of Your  Video

Stitch, is a way to reinterpret and add to another user’s content, building on their stories, tutorials, recipes, math lessons, and more. It allows users to include up to five seconds of a video clip from another user in their own TikTok post.

Stitch has been in testing form in April and now its rolled out to users globally to kickstart a new trend in videos. TikTok said like Duets, users can decide whether to stitch videos or not by changing the settings for all videos in the Privacy settings or toggle for each individual video whether to use the feature or not.

Every video made by Stitch will attribute to the original creator in the caption and link directly to the original clipped video. This move ensures that the credit is given to the original creator and not get lost in the mix which is quite unusual on social media.

eCommerce Feature: In-app Video Shopping for Shopify and Teespring storefronts.

TikTok recently introduced an in-app shopping button to some users that directly links to e-commerce platforms like Shopify and Teespring in their videos.  TikTok is partnering with eCommerce platforms to let creators sell merchandise directly through its app. 

This new development will help TikTok to compete with its social media siblings like YouTube and Instagram. The shopping button will appear at the bottom left of the video and will be visible only in-app and not on a mobile browser or desktop. Creators can monetize their influence through merchandising and direct-to-consumer sales and can secure their own deals for sponsored posts. As per Business Insider reports, Teespring’s CEO said,

Its partnership with TikTok has drawn new interest in its merchandise and e-commerce tools from TikTokers. The company registered 900 new TikTok accounts on its platform in the first 24 hours after the integration was made public — a 13% increase

Presently, the shopping link feature works only with Teespring and Shopify, and users are not allowed to add links to unsupported websites. To add an e-commerce button to a ToikTok video, select add link choose a product on the video publishing page, and to this TikTok will automatically add a #sponsred hashtag to each post. The feature is still under evaluation before a full rollout.                                             

Final List Of Collaboration With the Marketing Partners, As Per TikTok

Campaign Management –Partners that help plan, create, optimize, and measure marketing campaigns.

• Bidalgo – Bidalgo drives growth and reduces user acquisition complexity for mobile marketers,  leveraging AI to generate actionable insights and powerful automation capabilities for creative production and media buying.
• Bidshake – Empowers fast, efficient and reliable campaign management by enabling real-time, automated cross-channel actions based on aggregated data all from one platform. 
• Sprinklr – The world’s leading Customer Experience Management (CXM) platform. 
• WinClap – The marketing company that provides advanced AI analytics, expertise, and creative production to boost the performance of your campaigns
• MakeMeReach – Multi-channel ads management platform optimized for scale.

 

Creative Development – To build assets like videos that work on TikTok

• QuickFrame – More than a marketplace connecting bro content at scale.
• Shuttlerock – Transforms existing brand assets into stunning handcrafted video ads.
• VidMob – Leading creative analytics & post-production platform that uses data to understand your creaands to video creators. We help businesses grow by transforming the way they produce videtive, improve your ads and increase marketing performance.
• Vidsy – Helping brands achieve their business goals with effective digital ad creative.
• Cohley – Helps brands and agencies cost-effectively scale the creation of UGC videos for ads.

 

Branded Effects-  Partners that provide Virtual and Augmented-Reality services to brands from ideation to production for TikTok Branded Effects.

• Bare Tree Media – A full-service creative agency enabling brands to reach, engage and entertain consumers through the creation and digital publishing of augmented reality (AR), emojis, messaging stickers and GIFs within popular messaging platforms.
• Byte – Global specialists in branded AR, Byte is a martech agency that combines technology and creativity to  help solve brands’ challenges.
• Happy Finish – Global creative production collective studio, creating realities. We specialize in cross-platform services including Retouch, CGI, Animation, VFX, VR, AR & Mixed Reality and Creative AI, and craft experiences for some of the biggest brands and agencies in the world.
• IgniteXR – Ignite XR is an end-to-end creative solutions group for augmented reality, creating integrated AR campaigns for brands and translating ideas into engaging immersive creative experiences.
• Poplar Studio – A global creative platform that makes the creation of 3D and AR campaigns easier, faster, affordable and fun — including face filters, world effects, mini-games, portals and image trackers.
• Subvrsive – Subvrsive is an immersive innovation studio focused on creating content, software and experiences that transform businesses on a global scale.
• Tommy – A modern communications agency that uses technology, strategy and award-winning design to help brands earn the attention of their audiences.
• Unit9 – A production studio focusing on AR/VR, Digital, Experiential, Gaming, Innovation and Film projects.

 

Measurement – To target and analyze campaigns

• Kantar –  The world’s leading data, insights and consulting company.

New To Brand Activation, Here’s What You Need To Know

When I first heard about the term brand activation, I thought it was just another marketing jargon that I have to write about.

But as I researched about it, I realized activation is one of the stages of brand campaigns, and what piqued my interest further, is how this simple term has the power to help you connect with your customers in the noisy world of the internet.

In this blog, we will understand what is brand activation and why is it essential for your business.

What Is  Brand Activation?

It is often difficult for brands to get noticed in the world of the internet full of competition and media clutter. In this day and age, an average consumer is exposed to millions of products, how can a brand get noticed? Brand Activation is the answer.

Brand Activation forms a part of the overall brand strategy and helps the brand to connect with a consumer at a personal level, increasing brand engagement and awareness through brand experience. A study performed by Event Marketing Institute’s EventTrack study, 98% of users feel more inclined to purchase after attending an activation.

Brand activations are one-off, in-person events, experiences, and interactions that forge lasting emotional connections between a brand and their target audience.

–Hubspot

Let’s understand with a simple example when a person starts a new business no one knows about him/her and the brand, the brand is lifeless and needs to be activated to bring it to life and create a position in the mind of the customer. The same logic applies for the businesses who want to rebrand itself for people to notice it.

How Is Brand Activation Important For Business?

The term ‘brand activation’ is not merely another marketing jargon but is a very powerful tool in this advanced and well-connected world where customers are more demanding. Consumers are tired of promises that are not delivered and due to this, it becomes difficult for brands to build up because the success of building brands depends on trust.

It involves building trust in people for the product and services as well as the company. Trust guarantees that people will receive what is promised and the company gives more importance to value and content than advertising. However, to establish this trust, the brand has to be exceptionally different from the others and provide the right products at the right time to stand out.

Therefore, all successful companies have built a strong brand with strong followers using brand activation. This creates an emotional connection with your customer. The stronger the bond, the better the brand, and this reflects on the sales rate.

Evidently next question is, how to build trust in a brand using brand activation?

How Do You Implement Activations Of Brands?

It easy to write or talk endlessly about brand activation as its an abstract topic but it is equally important to understand how can it yield tangible results for a brand. So, what are the methods to start activations with a bang?

With increasing channels and touchpoints, there are many ways to create a brand activation campaign, and below is a comprehensive guide for brand marketers to understand ways to create an effective brand activation strategy. It will also act as a resource for marketers to enable marketing activations in this digital era.

1. Experiential Marketing:

Perhaps, one of the best ways to activate a brand is to allow people to experience it for themselves using experiential marketing.

To define experiential marketing in simple words, it not only advertises brands but allows customers to interface with the products, get engaged, and feel more connected. These event activations can be conducted physically or digitally. Participants are encouraged to play games and apps or take a virtual car ride or have the photos taken. However, brands prefer an external vendor to achieve the goal of reaching people, connecting with them, and provide them first-hand experience.

70% of users become regular customers after an experiential marketing event. (Event Track)

 

One such experiential marketing campaign that created a WoW moment for visitors is IKEA’S FURNISHED CLIMBING WALL.

Ikea stunned the marketing world with the incredible furnished climbing wall, an experiential marketing campaign to promote the opening of France’s 30th IKEA store. A simple stunt but visually an effective brand activation campaign was conceptualized by the best experiential marketing agency Ubi Bene of France. The company installed a vertical rock-climbing wall covered with the brand’s furniture. The wall that looked like one floor of the house was operated by experienced climbing professionals who guided any willing customer to scale the temporary exhibit. The creative activation campaign also showed the sturdiness of its furniture as it supported the weight of the participants.

2. Digital Campaigns

A brand activation campaign can happen online or in-person. Digital marketing campaigns enable brands to reach audiences beyond physical interaction. Brand activation online engages customers and provides marketers a chance to collect data and gain insights to improve their marketing and sales campaigns. Digital marketing is a part of the larger brand activation and supports in-market campaigns.

An interesting example is Pepsi’s interactive drink bottles to understand digital brand activation. During the 2014 World Cup, Pepsi led a football-specific augmented reality campaign with Blippar as a flavor of the month. 250 million interactive cans were produced where users can play a football game with the world’s five leading players. The result was 60,000 hours of engagement on the cans within a month and a conversion of 2 percent.

3. Sampling Campaigns:

In simple words, sampling campaigns are events where a potential consumer can try a sample product of a brand or get the product or service free. Determine the target audience and find relevant events or spaces to get the right audience to try the products. The positive brand experience from the audience can boost sales and create brand awareness. A study reveals,

80% of polled attendants mentioned that live demonstrations and free samples drastically helped solidify their purchase decision. (Event Track)

An unusual but brilliant sample and storytelling campaign by Lays in Argentina.

Pepsi Co salty snack brand Lays did the sampling campaign just right. Consumers of every participating store were given a raw potato with a sticker as a sample. The participant had to follow the sticker instructions and reach the endpoint – the snack aisle.  In an unusual vending machine that looked to manufacture Lays potato chips accepted potato as a payment mode instead of coins. The potato ensures that the machine rolls out the hot chips bag.

4. In-Store Brand Activation:

Another way for activations is through in-store campaigns or events. This also involves an experiential element of brand activation where customers can touch, feel, and interact with brands. These types of activations are suited more for a restaurant or a retail store where people can experience products than any service business.

IKEA has always surprised marketers and consumers with its unique campaigns. One such brand activation strategy was creating  a pop-up restaurant in London that allowed visitors to cook their meals for family and friends  and “celebrate the joy of cooking together.”

The event showcased their products (kitchenware to kitchen outfits) and their food product line. The event activation was for 2 weeks that offered guidance from chefs and press coverage. Such brand activation events help to reach a larger audience and create brand awareness.

5. Promotional Marketing

Promotional marketing is a technique of brand activation to promote the product and services of a brand to raise awareness, build a customer base, and increase sales. There are various ways for consumer promotion like a loyalty program, contests, sampling, giveaways, special offers, and digital campaigns especially mobile interactions. Business promotions include trade shows, events, email campaigns, or reward sellers.

An example of consumer marketing is Wrigley’s #5 Game On. No Pain, No Gain Contest.

Wrigley invited consumers to buy a pack of 5 Gum and upload the UPC code online to win daily prizes and a Grand Prize Trip to the EB Games conference. The brand gathered more than a thousand entries from the consumers who went in-store to purchase the pack of gum.

6. Social Media Engagement:

Social Media is a component of larger brand activation. It drives engagement, creates brand awareness, and generate buzz with compelling content and offers. With experiential marketing at its peak, it is essential to incorporate social media activity to ensure the campaign receives the exposure that is needed.

One of the finest and relevant instances is Carlsberg. Part of the campaign was promoted on social media encouraging user participation that gave the campaign an additional push and publicity.

I know that @carlsberg want me to tweet this – but I can't stop myself. Hats off pic.twitter.com/k7OCNv2Knk

— Stuart Aitken (@stuart_aitken) April 8, 2015

How To Plan A Brand Activation?

After learning and understanding what is brand activation and its importance, let’s explore how to plan it. It doesn’t need a big budget but a creative and strategic approach.  The momentum set by brand activation should be carried forward in all the marketing campaigns and messages. Simple steps to be followed to plan a brand activation campaign.

1. Set goals: Decide what you want to achieve through your market activation campaign. Set SMART goals:

• Specific: Who are the participants and what is the activation about?
• Measurable: What is the quantifiable change you expect to see through the objective?
• Achievable: Are the targets achievable with the available resources and time?
• Realistic: Set a realistic objective or goal to be achieved.
• Time-Bound: Decide a timeline to achieve the goal or objective.

2. Create a budget: Though brand activation doesn’t require a huge budget, you should allocate a budget for the marketing activation campaign. It will help you to measure the ROI after the campaign is over.

3. Know your audience: It is essential to know your target audience so you can plan your promotional activities and communication accordingly. Targeting the right audience will help in the success of the campaign.

4. Create a compelling call-to-action: Every brand activation campaign needs CTA. After reaching your audience, telling them about the product or service, and holding their attention – it’s time to create CTA that will help you achieve your goal. For example, if the goal is to increase participation in an event, then the CTA should be ‘to register.’

5. Choose the right platform to deliver the marketing message: The experiential brand activation would have been a success with all participants loving it but there is a larger audience on the Internet to be catered via the online campaign. Make the campaign viral to let more people know and engage users in the online brand activation. Let the participants tag the brand on social media platforms, share videos, or engage them in online activities.

Psychological Tactics Behind Successful Brand Activation

As a brand or marketer, one would want that its social media activation campaigns show results. Many times the likes, comments on the posts shared seem insignificant but it counts. What if one can understand the psychology of social media so that it can help to connect with the customer, create brand awareness, and build a better relationship.  Let’s decode the psychology of social media.

1.Color Psychology:

Every color associated with a brand has a specific meaning and conjures an emotion. The below infographic shows the emotional meanings of colors.  Take advantage of the color psychology for the activation campaigns on social media. A compiled research by Colorcom reveals,

Research reveals people make a subconscious judgment about a person, environment, or product within 90 seconds of initial viewing and that between 62% and 90% of that assessment is based on color alone.

2. Social Proof

It does what it sounds like.  It’s proof that people are happy with what you do. Social proof can be a review or testimonial from users or followers and engagement on social media.

When people notice how others trust and like a brand, they are compelled to learn more about your service or brand or purchase it. User-generated content (UGC) and positive reviews show the audience how happy and loyal customers are of a brand. It helps to distinguish a brand positively from its competitors. A study by Olapic states that 76 percent of consumers believe the content that the average people share is more honest than advertising from brands.

3. Visuals are appealing

Visual content like images, videos, infographics, GIF, or any other form is important for interactions with your audience. Visuals are the most effective way to engage the audience with the content.  Research compiled by HubSpot reports 80% of marketers to use visual assets in their social media marketing.

Another study reveals visuals are processed better–60,000 times faster than any text. Strong visual elements help to promote products successfully and create brand awareness.

4. Aspirational Content

Aspirational content inspires emotions and evoking emotion has a positive impact on the audience. Joy, excitement, sadness are some of the emotions that resonate with consumers. Create drool-worthy content that fits the brand and helps to connect with the audience’s real aspirations.

The surprising discovery that wields emotion power is ‘emojis’.  The study by Emoticons and Phrases: Status Symbols in Social Media supports this fact. After studying emoji use on Twitter, researchers found “individuals who use emoticons often (and positive emoticons in particular) tend to be popular or influential.”  Brands like Ikea, Coca-Cola, Burger King have created their own branded emoji for their fans to share.

Next time do not hesitate to use an emoticon in the social media content.

5. Build a brand voice

The internet and technology have given brands many ways to connect and engage with consumers. To attract a new audience and maintain a customer base it is essential to have a brand voice and a unique identity. Customers are likely to engage with brands that resonate with their values. Therefore, it is vital to know your audience and tailor your identity to increase engagement and build a customer relation.

6. Reciprocity

In general terms, it means when someone does something nice for you, instinctively you would feel to do something nice for them.

For brands, this could mean being generous with the audience with a product giveaway, any type of free content, or anything else that is suitable for the business.  Freebies are a type of promotional marketing and help to build trust with the audience. It encourages the user to return and that might be to purchase the product, follow you on social media or promote you in their network.

These are the general tactics for impactful marketing activations. Let’s explore the psychology specifically to individual platforms apart from the above and know the most popular social media platforms:

• Facebook

1. Show Faces:

To draw attention to the campaign, make sure to add a face to it. The study reveals that a specific part of the brain responds to only faces. People can easily recognize faces as well as read the emotions which are ultimate social tools. Hence, faces are a great way to gain attraction from users especially if they are of known personalities.

2. Emotions always win

Emotions rules heart and mind. Generally, people are more drawn to emotions in particular in their faces. Therefore, it a perfect blend of faces and emotions and a great way to use the above tactic.

Facebook campaigns get more attention with positive emotions but one may find a few ads that can use any emotions and get noticed. Below is a Snapwire Ad showing happy faces with positive emotions.

3. Color is the key

The color of Facebook ads is to stand out from the rest. The brighter and contrast colors are the best bet for Facebook campaigns. And red is the color for Facebook campaigns as it gets the most attention. The color red excites the brain cell most, reveals a study in 2008. A study suggests color increases readers’ attention spans and recall by 82%.

Other colors also work well but red signifies boldness, attraction, and strength. The opposite of red’s excitement is blue’s calm and friendliness. Facebook platform color is blue and it would be challenging to use the color on Facebook for any campaign as it wouldn’t stand out. The Elegant Times are surely gaining attention with the bold ad.

4. Fear of Missing Out (F.O.M.O)

In simple words, if there is scarcity then people feel they are missing something valuable. This is also the psychological tactic behind sales, exclusives, or events. You can see FOMO in any advertising. For instance, Banana Republic uses scarcity to drive sales and membership card.

Present cardholders would go shopping in the fear of not missing out and non-card members shall fear missing the exclusive offer. Double FOMO.

5. Visuals are appealing but so are words.

Images are king but words also weave magic and hold value. Therefore, words should not be neglected. Copyblogger Gregory Ciotti has picked out the 5 most powerful words – new, because, instantly, free, and you to be used in a context that is effective for the business and audience.

• Instagram:

1. Visuals are everything

‘A picture speaks a thousand words ‘, a proverb is made for Instagram. Images are a powerful tool and the photo-sharing app as it is all about visual content.

According to research from 3M, our brains process visuals about 60,000 times faster than they process text and visual aids have been found to improve learning by up to 400 percent. So, utilizing images makes a story effective and more efficient.

2. Engage your followers

Instagram is not only about posting drool-worthy images but interacting with your followers and building a community around your brand. Users don’t scroll social media feeds out of habit but because they feel connected. When participants post on social media and do not receive any response, they feel ignorant and affects their self-esteem.

Brands should proactively respond to all the messages and comments. Another way of interaction is by tagging people on the posts. They will share the content further in their network increasing the reach.

3.Evoke emotions

Most successful and memorable brand activation campaigns appeal to people’s emotions. In an analysis of the IPA dataBANK, campaigns with purely emotional content performed about twice as well as those with only rational content.  Images play a huge role as it is a great way to grab user attention to convey a message and evoke an emotional response. Brands should list down the emotions (joy, happiness, humor, or others) to inspire and then plan their campaign accordingly to connect with the users.

4. Reciprocity

The concept of reciprocity is important in social psychology and Instagram is all about connectedness. Brands can reward their followers with promo codes, frequent discounts, exclusive offers, or product giveaways. Brands can select followers of the week or conduct live Q & A sessions to create brand awareness, build customer relations, and increase engagement.

5.Post consistently

Brand activation campaigns should be lively, consistent, and interactive. Brands need to post regularly to create an interactive and engaging feed with a predictable schedule. They cannot show up once a while as the famous saying is true; ‘Out of Sight, Out of Mind.’ The more frequently the followers see posts, the more they will remember and value the brand.

• Twitter

1. Use image psychology

Studies show that images have the highest conversion or click-through rates but what kind of images? The close-up face of a person increases the success of an ad or webpage.  Similarly, tweets with images get more engagement. Research by Buffer shows sharing images on Twitter increases retweets by 150%.

To make the brand recognizable and build awareness for your Twitter audience, head up your profile image with the face of a company or founder. This will help the user to relate to the brand on a personal level. If it’s a SaaS company include images of happy customers within individual tweets and link it to blogs and articles.

2. Share Positivity

The campaign should offer positive messages and tweets. The audience is more likely to respond to positive tweets or funny posts over negative ones. Researchers believe such positive tweets have a psychological effect that spreads across Twitter and outside too.

https://twitter.com/DanEnglishby/status/1045694211092185089?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1045694211092185089%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makeuseof.com%2Ftag%2Fpsychological-tricks-twitter%2F

 

3. Usage of Initial Caps

A study by Conductor shows 64% of users favored sentence case when given a variety of headlines to choose from all caps to all lowercase.

The use of initial caps increases the speed of reading shows studies by  James Cattell. Brands should use initial caps in their tweets especially while promoting the headline of a blog or an article. This will catch the attention of more users and improve the speed of reading of the audience to digest the headline. Buffer is a classic example of initial caps while promoting its blog to engage readers.

4. Tweet on how-to-Type of content

While planning your campaign, understand what kind of posts gains attention and retweets. According to QuickSprout, tweets linked to a how-to or list-based articles received 3 times more retweets than any other text-based content.

The psychology behind the fact is simple. Such tweets fill in the knowledge gap of the users, receive more retweets, and following as well as more engagement.

Sourdough Bread – How it’s done

I’ve learnt myself, no training, just my own ‘technique’

I can guarantee my bread it’s a @RealBread #Soudough @HouseOfFeasts Bakery 😋 #HowTo pic.twitter.com/ptQp2JgDQa

— Damian Wawrzyniak 👨‍🍳 (@ChefConsultant) September 26, 2018

5. Images perform better than videos

QuickSprout suggests that users on Twitter tweet images 361% more than they tweet videos. Most people use Twitter by just scrolling through the feed and scan through the tweets for interesting and valuable information.

This implies that brands need to post tweets that are self-explanatory without clicking on it with a WoW factor.  Brands can embed images and videos in their tweets with valuable information in an effective way within the character limit to drive engagement.

The Rise of Robotics and AI #AI #infographic #tech #MachineLearning #BigData #IoT #VR #DataScience #blockchain #ArtificialIntelligence #robotics #technology #data #DataAnalytics via @AnsonMcCade @athis_news @JackChurch_AI MT: @MikeQuindazzi #AI #IoT #BigData #infographics MT pic.twitter.com/xlcJ3lvJXy

— Harry Miller (@Harry_Robots) September 30, 2018

6. Promotional Tweets

Brands should design their activation campaign in line with the concept of reciprocity. Brands can reward with giveaway promotions and prizes. The promotional tweet can also include an easy-to-follow CTA to boost engagement with a self-explanatory image.  This will also ensure brand awareness and grow Twitter following.

To kick off Monday and celebrate 400k followers on Twitter – we're giving away 2 Buffer bottles: retweet to enter 😃 pic.twitter.com/jditNMlV40

— Buffer (@buffer) November 2, 2015

5 Brand Activations That Will Inspire Your Next Campaign

Brand activations require the right strategy, content, and execution to engage consumers and build a loyal brand community for its products and services.

Below are five successful brand activation campaigns to learn from.

1. Google Home Mini

To activate its latest new home assistant, the Home Mini which is roughly the size of a donut, the search engine giant set up a tour of eleven pop-up donut shops around the States.

Well, what is the connection between a donut and a home assistant?

Image Credit: The Drum

The catchy slogan -The size of a donut, the powers of a superhero, Google launches its Home Mini. This quirky brand activation created an interactive Google home experience inside 11 pop-up donut shops. Every visitor inside can ask Google Home Mini a question and the donut box slides down from the conveyor belt. The fun and excitement part comes here- Will it be a new Google Home Mini or two delicious donuts?

A win-win situation, isn’t it?

2. Aperol Big Spritz

Aperitif brand Aperol executed a well-thought and fun brand activation in Shoreditch. It involved elements such as a rowboat on the orange river, swinging seats, and Aperol spirits which made it attractive. The bartenders were well informed and answered every product-related questions as well as explained about the Italian heritage and event. The orange palette, swinging seats, pizzas, and branded giveaway made it Instagram worthy. Following week after the event, there was a lot of outside advertising to continue the buzz about the brand and stay fresh in the minds of the people. Perfect Timing!

3. Sonic Square Shakes

Sonic prepared a delightful on-site campaign for Coachella, the music and arts festival in California for their celebrity-chef-backed brand activation. The highly designed campaign especially for Instagram to promote the brand’s premium flavors. Festival-goers could view, order, and post about the square milkshakes on Instagram and then the shakes would be delivered on the ground free of charge. After delivery, there would be a #squareshakes post made by the customers.

The aim is to build the brand among millennials by growing its social media presence and building a community and followers on Instagram.

https://youtu.be/AgKfH-G-q6E

4. Intel Drone Light Show

Activations allow brands to get more attention and transform themselves in more creative ways. It is not necessary that the brand activation campaigns should directly be connected to the primary function but gives a chance to consumers to see a different version of the brand outside the functional view. This is what happened with Intel, a company known for microprocessors transformed into a company for its spectacular world record-breaking drone light show at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Over 12 billion media impressions in under 12 hours and trending #1 on the internet made Intel memorable across the world.

5. Charity Water Waterwalk

 Charity Water is an organization that creates clean water sources for remote villages in developing nations. It participated in a trade show and is an excellent example of experience marketing.

It created a lifetime experience for their booth visitors by inviting them to walk two 40lbs jugs of water across 50 yd platform, which African villagers do every day. This gave a reality check to the visitors about the real and challenging situation faced by the villagers in the developing nations. This experience helped the visitors connect with the brand and boosting the chances of donation for the cause.

Tips For Effective Brand Activation

There are multiple types of brand activation and creative campaigns and the process would be different for every brand. However, no matter what method you choose but the ultimate goal is the same for all- to reach the target audience, increase sales, and help business leverage. Here are a few tips that will help you to build a brand and successful campaigns to stay ahead in the race.

1. Know your audience:

While planning the brand activation events, remember this simple rule -Put the customer at the center. Brand activations should be engaging and fun but not offensive, annoying, or inappropriate. Understand your target audience and market segment to engage with the brand. Avoid bad brand activation and inconvenient interaction which will lead to prospects and customers avoiding the brand. Ensure to prepare the brand activation while keeping the audience in mind.

2. Keep it simple:

AD Scholars have been managing brand activation campaigns for brands from various industries, and if there’s one tip that we can share from our personal experience is to keep it simple. Really, as simple as it sounds, most brands mess up in trying to be out of the box constantly without even identifying what their audience wants. Let the brand get acquainted with the audience using proven brand activation ideas, and gradually spread wings in testing out new ideas. Obviously there are certain brands that are new but still hit the bull’s eye at the first attempt and become viral. However, that’s an exception and not the norm.

3. Build connections:

Human interaction is the best way to begin meaningful relationships with the audience. There can be any method of brand activation but the crucial factor is to involve real human beings who are associated with the brand. Human interactions give a face to the company and a personal touch to the campaign. Humanize the brand in a way that makes it more relatable.

4. Include storytelling:

Storytelling is the most creative way of brand activation campaigns. It is the most crucial component of brand communication and marketing. It can be executed in several ways such as AR and VR experiences, other digital elements, face-to-face interactions to name a few. Brands should involve the audience to offer a personalized experience and encourage them to share on social media platforms. The positive experience will give way to extend reach to a wider market and help to boost sales and create brand awareness.

4. Listen to the responses:

Ensure to collect the feedback before, during, and after brand activation. For an effective campaign, the interaction has to be a two-way street. Document all the positive and negative interactions during the activation -digital or live event. Take a survey post-campaign to understand what worked,  what failed, and did it help to achieve the desired goal. This will also ensure that future activations are improved and assist brands to grow and learn.

Final Thoughts:

Rome wasn’t built in a day!

Building a brand is a gradual process and cannot expect any event or campaign to turn the brand into a phenomenon or increase your audience overnight. The ongoing branding initiatives and brand activation will help to build the brand and give the boost to achieve the set objective. It will help to build customer relationships, create brand awareness, and reshape the way customers perceive the product or service. Brand activations are an integral part of brand strategy and will help to engage with the target audience and establish an emotional connection. 

Read more: How Email Marketing Will Help Your Business Grow in 2020

Narrative Raises $8.5 Millions To Support The Growth Of Data Streaming Platform

Narrative, the software company is launching a new product design that will simplify the process of buying and selling data. The company has raised a new round of funding of $8.5m Series A, to support the launch of a new category: Data Streaming, replacing the data broker model industry with a transformation solution.

Narrative unveiled the new Data Streams Marketplace which is the industry’s first-ever e-Commerce solution for buying data. It would make the process of buying and selling much simpler, not much different from Amazon.

The new Marketplace offers data acquisition via an interface the firm says will be ‘familiar to anyone who has shopped online’: The new offerings enable users to browse and purchase the data they need ‘in minutes’ without the need for extensive training, ‘legal wrangling and red tape’. The marketplace provided comprehensive solutions for data discovery, onboarding, enrichment, identity resolution, and privacy and compliance.

As reported by TechCrunch, Jordan showed how a marketer can search and browse for different types of data. If a marketer wants to buy (say, the mobile IDs of people who have the Uber Driver app installed on their phones, or the Zoom app) at a price they are willing to pay (via subscription), they can add data to the cart, enter card information for payment, accept the terms and conditions, and check out.

“The premise is make it as easy to buy data as it is to buy stuff online.”

This approach has become enticing in recent months as companies need more data quickly. For instance, Jordan shared with Tech Crunch that large companies invest millions of dollars in advertising and “need a way to find and buy the data almost programmatically and have the whole thing take five minutes instead of five months — those are the orders of magnitude we’re talking about here.”

Founder and CEO Nick Jordan comments,

“As sales and services companies, data brokers have become intermediaries who are doing what they want with data in ways you don’t know. With a data broker, you get what they send to you. That’s how they make money. This is sub-par; it’s not agile – and you can’t optimize it. We have shortened the data supply chain by going direct – cutting out the broker, and making data liquid and transparent.”

The new round was led by G20 Ventures, with additional funding from existing investors Glasswing Ventures, NathCapital, Revel Partners, Tuhave Venture Partners, and XSeed Capital. The funds will allow the company to hire in areas like product engineering, sales, and marketing from across North America. Their focus is on hiring and outreach. 

Bob Hower, Co-Founder & Partner, G20 Ventures said, 

“With data being the lifeblood of every organization, Nick and his seasoned team of data experts have presented the industry with a different point of view.”

“They have become the Amazon for data, delivering a vital solution to a global problem: ensuring transparency, control, and quality when it comes to data acquisition. Narrative’s Data Streaming Platform simplifies what has been a complex process that typically takes months and delivers it in seconds on demand.”

 

About Narrative:

Narrative is a platform for Data Streaming, Data Acquisition, and Data Monetization. It is the world’s first leading data streaming platform. Leading companies use Narrative to fuel cutting-edge data strategies, monetize valuable data assets, and power innovation and growth. Narrative’s innovative approach to buying and selling data eliminates the inefficiencies in data transactions that cost money and exposure to undue risk. Narrative Data Stream marketplace gets the data needed instantly. It is fast and easy to find, buy, and activate first-party data from over 40 suppliers with just a few clicks. It’s online shopping—but for data instead of dog treats. The privately-held firm was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in New York City. Learn more at https://www.narrative.io/

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