To union or not to union

Since January, large news corporations have been making cuts to jobs after being deemed unprofitable.

Buzzfeed was the first to announce layoffs at 15 percent of their workforce (about 200 people). Next was Verizon Media Group, which owns the Huffington Post and AOL, laying off eight percent of their workforce (about 800 people). And Gannett was third.

Part of the reason these companies have to cut is because of slow advertising. Facebook and Google are at the top of the advertising food chain, getting more for their dollar than the rest of their competition.

New York Times media reporter Edmund Lee said this:

“The conceit around the Internet is it’s sort of vast and endless and all kinds of places to go. In reality, it’s really just Facebook and Google and sort of everyone else.”

All of the job cuts means journalism as a whole is in more danger than just the Trump administration goes. Lee mentioned that we might see companies merging in the near future (i.e. BuzzFeed joins Vox).

I think mergers would be a great way to join audience groups together to indulge on the same style of content in one place rather than many. Like I’ve said before, I never really considered BuzzFeed or likewise media to be news corporations, so consolidating them to one or two would be ideal.

Since the layoffs, BuzzFeed News employees have decided to unionize and encourage compensation of their then-coworkers.

The group published a letter on Medium urging Ben Smith, editor, to pay for the laid-off employees’ vacation days and paid time off that had not been taken. Smith et al. read the letter and chose to compensate all employees who had been laid off.

“We look forward to meeting with the organizers to discuss a way toward voluntarily recognizing their union,” Smith said.

If BuzzFeed recognizes the union, they will have to negotiate who would be covered. If not, the union leaders will bring forth a “union election with an official from the National Labor Relations Board present to facilitate a secret ballot,” according to the New York Times.

Co-founder of Twitter Steps Down from Platform after 12 years

Twitter despite having self-proclaimed user count of 321 million, has been under questioning concerning the stepping down of co-founder Evan Williams. It was announced through a series of tweets by Evan Williams, explaining his gratitude while working as a co-founder for so many years.

I’m very lucky to have served on the @Twitter board for 12 years (ever since there was a board). It’s been overwhelmingly interesting, educational—and, at times, challenging.

— Ev Williams (@ev) February 22, 2019

Ironically, Twitter has an interesting background concerning the stepping down of co-founders. Nick Bilton accused Twitter for having some backstabbing traits, based on some observations of people being forced to step down in the past. At first Williams served as the CEO of twitter in 2008, by replacing Jack Dorsey. Dick Costolo replaced Williams, who was then replaced by the orginal CEO Jack Dorsey.

Because of the power struggles from the past, users believe that his stepping down was probably a result of being pushed out of the company as a whole.

Throughout this whole announcement made by Evan Williams, Twitter has declined for any commentary concerning the matter.

Despite Twitter not getting involved, it is clear that Williams does not have all of his eggs in one basket. He is currently the CEO and founder of a publishing platform company called medium. He also states in his series of tweets that he mentions that he will now be focusing on other projects as he leaves the company by the end of this month.

Below the tweets are a series of replies from multiple employees of the company, thanking him for his leadership and mentorship during his work with the company.

I’m going to ride off into the sunset (or…down Market Street), so I can focus on some other things. I will always be rooting for the team (and, if someone lets me in, come by for lunch).

— Ev Williams (@ev) February 22, 2019

Reference: https://deadline.com/2019/02/twitter-evan-williams-leaves-board-co-founder-1202563497/

Is Twitch the new way to advertise?

Many of you have heard of the video game Fortnite and how successful it has been. Fortnite is one of the biggest reasons why Twitch exploded in popularity. Approximately 226 million hours were watched on Twitch last year, and that was just for one streamer. The streamer Ninja drew those numbers in himself and he doubled the number of hours watched from the second most watched streamer on Twitch. So where does Advertising play into this?

Well the newest battle royal game to be released is called Apex Legends. It is of the same style of game as Fortnite but it has its differences. Many people hadn’t even heard about it two days prior to its release. So how has it become so popular already? Apex Legends had over 24 million players after the first week. Apex Legends was announced on a Sunday night and was released the following Monday morning. Apex Legends specifically marketed itself through streamers and Twitch itself. They first just had streamers come to their office and play the game then had them advertise this mysterious new battle royal game. Then after the game was released, they gave incentives through Twitch that had players be given new items if they used their Twitch Prime account to sub to a streamer. It became a symbiotic relationship between Twitch and Apex Legends. Streamers were happy with the extra subscribers and Apex Legends was happy with the added support from streamers. They realized that in the video game world streamers are the most influential part. That is why I see more video games doing this in the future, especially after how successful it was for Apex Legends.

Subaru Capturing the Feelings of its Audience

This week, my current event focuses on Subaru’s technique in their recent ad campaigns: three ads that highlight three different emotions of owning a Forester. Each emotion builds a special co Screen Shot 2019-02-23 at 10.03.39 PM.png nnection with the ads. These three are sparked by: joy, anxiety, and the value of lifelong memories.

The first ad shows the worst fear of parents- their child not coming home because Screen Shot 2019-02-23 at 10.03.52 PM.png something has happened to them. In this case, it is featuring the distracted teens in car accidents. The teens (while somehow unharmed) are so distracted, that they go about their business, wether it’s texting, eating, etc, completely unaware that they were in an accident. Subaru uses this ad to tug at parents’ hearts and to get them to connect about teen driving safety. By the end of the commercial, Subaru shows a seen of their new 2019 Subaru alerting a distracted teen who is about to get in an accident herself, thus saving the girl. The mood changes from depressing the whole way through to relief as the mom of the teen gets to watch her teen pull into the driveway, unharmed.

The second technique that Subaru takes is capturing the value of lifelong memories that their brand is able to make and be timely with. The second ad follows the movement of the family’s dog as it hops out of the Subaru and walks through a line of different objects that have been in the car be Screen Shot 2019-02-23 at 10.12.31 PM.png fore. As he walks through, he grows younger, showing the memories and moments are moving back in time. Subaru uses this to show that their brand not only lasts a long time, but is reliable and durable. The dog pulled at my heart (but admittedly all dogs pull at my heart so no surprise there) as I watched, and I can assume it does for some others as well. While not much is happening through the commercial, Adweek makes a great point that Subaru is “unleashing a new approach” to the car advertising world. They are using a “reverse-chronology concept” to get their story across to their audience.

Lastly, the third technique is something of a little bit more traditional approach, but nevertheless, my favorite one of the three. Subaru captures a couple enjoying a road trip together in their Subaru. The ad uses humor and adventure to capture the audience. They wanted the ad to be as realistic as possible, so as Cavallucci states, ‘” the whole production [team] took the trip, stopping for beats (memorable interactions with people and places) along the way.”‘

Screen Shot 2019-02-23 at 10.31.56 PM.png Subaru takes a final approach in this commercial by capturing the joy that people get from owning a Subaru. I really like this one because the humor and storytelling of the couple as they set off for adventure. Maybe it’s because I’m not a parent yet and can’t relate to the first one as much, but this one just seems to resonate more with me than even the dog one. Sure, the dog was cute, but it didn’t scream “get this car” to be as the third possibly could do if I were searching for a car right now.

https://www.adweek.com/creativity/subaru-highlights-the-joys-anxieties-and-lifelong-memories-of-owning-a-forester/

The Secret is Out

Victoria’s Secret is bringing back their swimwear line.

They have been out of the pool of swimwear brands for the past three years to focus on their bras and underwear. Through this, their advertising has come under fire. They have been drowning in negative reactions to what has been deemed “un-inclusive.” The company tries to keep a certain brand image with their smaller sizes and specific model types. They have not kept up with the current trends of the market. Other brands are embracing a more inclusive or even feminist approach to their advertising. My question is how will Victoria’s Secret advertise their new swimwear banding in a very competitive market? They will need to change with the times to turn a profit. How the brand chooses to advertise their new swim line could set the tone for the company’s future. It is important that they follow the market trends and the largest player, Target. Target advertises as a practical and inclusive option with well.. a lot of options for different people. This would be a great opportunity for Victoria’s Secret to have a more inclusive size range and to target a larger segment of the market.

Pearl, Diana. Amid Declining Sales, Victoria’s Secret is Bringing Back a Once-Sure Thing: Swimwear. Ad Week. https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/amid-declining-sales-victorias-secret-is-bringing-back-a-once-sure-thing-swimwear/

Is Facebook on Target?

When you’re on Facebook you expect to see two things. Posts from friends or groups you’re a part of, and advertisements. Most people associate the later as a necessary evil in order to use the free social media platform. In a recent interview, Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook CEO) answers why there is currently not an option for users to pay to opt out of viewing advertisements.

Before reading this article, the thought of paying to eliminate advertisements on Facebook had never crossed my mind. The more I think about it however, I can see why people would be interested in this. Currently the only time I truly notice advertisements and recognize them as such are when I am watching a video on Facebook and I have to wait for an advertisement to finish playing about halfway through to finish the video. This is usually slightly inconvenient and at the very least annoying. At the moment I don’t watch videos enough on Facebook to see it as something worth paying to remove but I have paid to remove advertisements on other applications before, typically games on my phone.

During the interview, Zuckerberg made an interesting point about why people are interested in this feature. From the data Facebook has collected, he says that people’s issue is not necessarily with the advertisements but the methods used to collect data to target advertisements to them. The methodology for collecting data that is currently employed utilizes sources from all across the internet. This means that in order to give users this option of opting out of how Facebook collects their information, completely new features would have to be implemented. A “Clear History” function is currently in the works which will allow users to dissociate what they search for on the internet from Facebook’s data.

Something I applaud Zuckerberg on is his plan, that when the data controls are published making them available to all users not just those who are able to pay for a subscription. This aligns with his long time stance that Facebook needs to be a free site in order to successfully connect people across the world. By making this option available to all users, I’m not sure how necessary an option to pay to opt out of advertisements would be if the root issue truly is with data collection.

Wagner, Kurt. “Mark Zuckerberg explains why an ad-free Facebook isn’t as simple as it sounds.” Recode. Recode, February 20, 2019. https://www.recode.net/2019/2/20/18233640/mark-zuckerberg-explains-ad-free-facebook?

LinkedIn Debuts Live Video Feature In Efforts To Increase App Engagement

Earlier this week, LinkedIn announced that the company now supports live video in their app. The announcement of LinkedIn live comes off the tail end of Instagram and Facebook’s live features that debuted in the past. President Pete Davies said that “… live has been the most requested feature”. It’s simple, people enjoy taking a glimpse at other peoples’ lives through live features across social media platforms worldwide. In fact, statistics show that video content performs twenty times better than posts with text alone.

Live will allow more than 600 million users to stream their experience in the professional world. This may consist of keynote speeches, conferences, Q&A’s. In the future, LinkedIn plans to support third-party apps in the future that will allow users to edit their footage that they previously streamed.

I think Live is huge for LinkedIn, especially since it was the most requested update that the company received. In light of other social media platforms introducing live quite a while ago (Snapchat, Instagram/Facebook, etc.). While these introductions were more for social interaction, I think LinkedIn Live provides a way for people to explore other companies in a more formal and professional setting. I think LinkedIn should be cautious about is their regulations in which they allow users to stream. LinkedIn does a great job of providing a strictly professional social media service to its users. The last thing that they would want is for their Live feature to become just another casual social media site. Not that I think that it will happen, but I think that they should stay on top of it before it becomes an issue.

https://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2019/02/linkedin-makes-its-debut-in-the-live-video-space/

Managing Facebook Ad Campaigns Made Easier with Excel

Social media advertising can be hard to manage without organizational tools and planners. Having posting dates planned out ahead of time is a necessary factor in successful advertising.

Facebook Ads Manager for Excel allows businesses to better collect data from their campaigns on Facebook. With this feature, businesses can create a single report that includes the data from ad accounts and allows them to customize the data the way they like.

Features of Facebook Ads Manager for Excel:

Download performance data from your ad accounts.You can report on the performance of your campaigns, ad sets or ads and see breakdowns by demographics, actions taken on ads or time. You can also filter data based on date ranges, delivery status, ad objectives, placements and more.
Create a single report to download your ad performance data from multiple ad accounts.You don’t need to export reports from each of your ad accounts, and you don’t need to be a developer or work with a Facebook Marketing partner.
Create and save custom templates so you can quickly run the reports you need. You can create and download results from your Facebook ads in a report. You can also choose from preset templates.
Refresh the data in your reports as often as you need to.You can refresh your data once a day, or every 15 minutes.
Make use of Excel’s tools on your Facebook ad reports.Take your ad performance data and create your own analysis using Excel’s pivot tables or other tools.

This tool makes it easy to understand when the best times are to advertise and how your audience responds to certain ads. Knowing the most effective placement of a company’s ads will give them the power to create more successful campaigns time after time. Using Excel, you can compare the success of each ad to know what works for your brand and what doesn’t.

Audience demographics and engagement will be easier to track and keep record of, especially for those who manage multiple accounts at once. Instead of sporting individual reports for each ad, now it is as simple as keeping one single document.

https://www.facebook.com/business/help/248094205618729

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/using-excels-facebook-ads-manager-to-transform-your-ad-reporting/548717/

New Take on Tide

Procter & Gamble released their newest Tide campaign with a roll out a video featuring the slogan “Life, Not Laundry” developed by Saatchi & Saatchi to promote their new nationwide laundry service. This is a huge move for Tide within the millennial generation. They had started offering this service in select cities to see the initial reaction from their consumers. In metropolitan areas, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive because a lot of apartments don’t offer washer and driers. With this information in hand, P&G tailored their commercial to fit this demographic by not selling as a luxury, but for anyone who needs a little convenience in life.

“It’s critical we go for this because it’s a natural extension of the brand,” Raman says. “The time people spend on chores is decreasing, and there’s less and less consumption happening at home. The market for out-of-home laundry is just as big as for in-home, and growing faster.”

This campaign marks another huge step for tide because they are transitioning to a more localized strategy for the new services they are offering. We should expect a lot more guerilla marketing for tide including direct mail, e-mail, digital, and experiential to help drive this idea of Tide building relationships through direct interaction with the brand.