After Beyoncé’s Netflix Series “Homecoming,” Adidas released
an announcement last April with Queen Bey. The multi-layered deal with Ivy Park
spread across every social media platform within minutes.
Instagram @beyonce
Adidas partnership opened doors to rebrand Ivy Park as Beyoncé
co-designed a fashionable new sportswear which included sneakers. The cross
branding initiative helped women across the world through its campaign “She
Breaks Barriers” initiative and Beyoncé’s political voice for Black Americans.
Instagram @beyonce
Instagram @beyonce
Instagram @beyonce
Queen Bey agrees with Adidas mission to create boundaries
through stating “its philosophy that puts
creativity, growth and social responsibility at the forefront of business. I
look forward to re-launching and expanding Ivy Park on a truly global scale
with a proven, dynamic leader.” Challenging the status quo is what makes a
brand stand out the most. Beyoncé’s Ivy Park brand continues to spread a
conversation of hope and representation as the first black woman to own an athleisure
brand.
Celebrities across the world woke up to a special delivery
of a box the size of a human full of contemporary, sexy and athletic wear. Beyoncé
and Adidas released its collaboration in mid-January which sold out in its
first weekend.
Amazon has developed a new platform integrating the use of influencers
Amazon recently introduced a new marketplace for influencers to take part in. What first began as the Amazon Associate Program, has now developed into a new integrated platform for influencers who have a steady following on social media platforms.
The Associate Program allowed virtually all Amazon users to create a page to promote products they like/enjoy, with the opportunity to receive commission if products were purchased through their link. This new Influencer Program takes it one step further by setting higher standards in the application process, increasing exclusivity. Additionally, influencers will receive a free landing page and vanity URL (Influencer Marketing Hub, 2019).
Amazon is giving opportunity to influencers of all types and sizes! Whether they are a large influencer or micro influencer, on Youtube or Instagram, they can be accepted into the program. Requirements to qualify for this program include metrics pertaining to the number of followers they have and engagement by your followers. They also take into consideration the type of content the influencer posts and if it aligns with Amazons marketing initiatives. Amazon will track this data through the submission of their social media account information (Garrison, 2019).
This platform provides a collective, easy-to-access space for an influencer’s audience to purchase products that the influencer may highlight or feature in their images or videos. Instead of individually linking a product, the influencer can now refer to their common vanity URL, driving consistent traffic to their landing page.
Amazon promotes positive feedback by users on the webpage (Garrison, 2019). However, does this accurately represent the programs success and how much influencers are actually making?
“Creators say that revenue from the Amazon influencer program can vary from a few dollars to $1,500 a month. Commission rates range from 10% for Amazon’s private-label fashion line to 1% for video games and consoles” (Johnson, 2019).
According to Business Insider, the program was initially overlooked by many influencers. However, due to more persistent and informative marketing efforts by Amazon, new users have been hopping on board with this tool (Johnson, 2019).
With Amazon’s overall popularity exponentially increasing, it looks like this Influencer Program is only going up from here. What will Amazon think of next?!
Resources:
Amazon Influencer Marketing: Everything you Need to Know To Succeed. (2019, October 10). Retrieved from https://influencermarketinghub.com/amazon-influencer-marketing/
Garrison, K. (2019). The influencers. Retrieved from https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/influencers
Johnson, L. (2019, February 7). Amazon is paying influencers big commissions to sell its products, and it’s open to anyone. Here’s how to sign up. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-influencer-how-to-make-money-2019-2
Amazon has taken the world by storm since launching as a textbook company over 20 years ago. Amazon has continuously expanded its business by entering into new markets and/or acquiring potential competitors in emerging market areas. This business model has enabled them to become one of the largest companies in the world.
Ten years ago, the ability to stream entertainment while providing the most amount of content was enough to retain a competitive advantage amongst consumers. While Netflix remains the largest providers for streaming video content, Amazon comes in at second. This demonstrates the power of the company and its continuous evolution as the market changes.
A significant competitor for Amazon in the entertainment market is Apple. Apple may have launched iTunes, which enabled the consumer to stream music, movies, or TV Shows, before Amazon offered its streaming services, but Amazon developed original content for movies or TV Shows before Apple offered Apple TV or developed their own content. As the streaming entertainment market evolved, providing something new or different to consumers to compel them to use your product or service was imperative to longstanding success in the streaming entertainment industry.
In my opinion, it always seemed that Apple was innovative for its product production (iPad, iWatch, iPhone, etc) while Amazon was better at seizing opportunities to expand into new markets. Apple’s lack of original content for movies or TV shows would result in Apple not being able to match Amazon’s competitive advantage in movies and TV Show development and production. However, in late 2019, Apple launched its own streaming service with original content. In a short period of time, Apple has quickly become a leading contender for streaming services in an increasingly competitive field.
Not to be undone by Apple’s success in the video streaming market, Amazon is looking to expand into the music industry. Amazon has offered its music streaming services for several years and represents a significant share of the market. Amazon currently offers a variety of plans which make it appealing to the market. While Amazon has a significant portion of the music market, in part due to its variety, Amazon has been acquiring talent in emerging music genres to increase its subscribers and to develop original music content.
Afrowave artist Afro B performs in London: an emerging music genre that Amazon is looking to cultivate
In an age where just offering streaming services will not ensure a competitive advantage or long-term success, original content is a way to evolve. By setting the conditions to develop original music content, Amazon is positioning itself to increase subscribers. While Spotify remains the market leader for music streaming, Amazon is gaining more subscribers to its music services and the creation of original content in emerging music genres will undoubtedly increase Amazon Music subscribers. Just providing content is no longer enough of a competitive advantage in the streaming entertainment industry; with an increase in streaming services providers, originality and content production may swing consumers towards a particular service.
Amazon continues to demonstrate its business savvy by not only recognizing an emerging market but also working to establish itself as a market leader in original music content production from a streaming service. Consumers want options and originality. Amazon already offers listening options to entice consumers and the expansion into production will most likely continue to draw more consumers to their music streaming services. While the TV and movie industry adapted with channels like HBO offering their own streaming services, it will be interesting to see how the music industry adapts to streaming services providers producing and offering original music content.
Microsoft President Brad Smith, CFO Amy Hood and CEO Satya Nadella. (Photo by Brian Smale)
Microsoft announced this month that it’s going carbon negative – one-upping the green initiatives of its competitors and other leading global brands, and positioning it anew as visionary, socially responsible brand.
A step further than carbon neutral, which generally means offsetting carbon emissions, going carbon negative means the tech company plans to remove more carbon from the environment than it emits. Microsoft has pledged to go carbon negative by 2030, plus take measures to remove carbon it has emitted since its founding in 1975. It also committed $1 billion to a climate innovation fund that would jumpstart new technologies for reducing and removing carbon from the environment.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announces a “moonshot” plan to become carbon negative.
While Microsoft’s move is good for the environment and stands as an example for others in the tech industry, perhaps the most certain effect is on its brand. Globally, consumers and investors are demanding businesses adopt sustainable practices. [See asset manager BlackRock’s 2020 letter to investors stating sustainability will be central to its investment approach.] This month’s announcement is bringing Microsoft positive publicity and aligning it with the values of its customers. Importantly, the new initiative shows Microsoft is committed to sustainability in a way that puts the public good before profits.
That’s not to say Microsoft doesn’t stand to gain from being
a leader in sustainability efforts. Many of its products are sold to businesses
who are being pressured by their own customers to commit to environmental sustainability.
Aligning themselves with Microsoft will help them benefit from the reduced carbon
emissions as well.
Microsoft also appears to be positioning itself as a leading platform for green tech. One of its top products, Azure global cloud storage, is central to Microsoft’s AI for Earth initiative, which offers grants to use Azure-hosted AI for environmental projects, hosts public environmental data, and makes open-source technology available for connecting with Azure and its related AI tools. Through this project, Microsoft will already have a foothold in the green tech industry as it grows in the coming decades.
AI for Earth offers grants to use Microsoft Azure products for environmental projects.
The carbon-neutral trend has grown exponentially in the last two years, with expanding awareness of the effects of climate change on the health of the planet. Companies operating as carbon neutral – or who are on the path to carbon neutrality – include giants such as Google, Amazon, Lyft, JetBlue and Starbucks, which also made known this month its intention to become resource positive. In the past six months alone, at least five airlines – mostly in Europe – have pledged to become carbon neutral. This is in large part a reaction to Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg’s decision to sail to New York in August for the U.N. Climate Action Summit, calling attention to the amount of greenhouse gasses emitted by commercial jets.
Microsoft’s carbon-negative initiative only adds to its already-positive reputation for corporate social responsibility. Its CSR programs target responsible sourcing, environmental sustainability, accessibility and human rights. Additionally, Microsoft founder Bill Gates stepped down as CEO in 2000 to grow the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with his wife. The foundation uses the couple’s vast wealth to tackle challenges in global health, global development and U.S. education.
Facebook has been making several changes in their ad rules in recent months in an attempt to increase transparency with users.
This month, social media giant Facebook has very discreetly made their users aware that they can now control an advertiser’s ability to show ads to them through a Custom Audience list.
On a January 9th post made via their corporate blog titled “Expanded Transparency and More Controls for Political Ads,” Facebook informed users that they were implementing new features that would allow them to see fewer political and social ads on both Facebook and Instagram.
“People have always been able to hide all ads from a specific advertiser in their Ad Preferences or directly in an ad,” Facebook wrote on the blog post. “But now they will be able to stop seeing ads based on an advertiser’s Custom Audience from a list.”
These recent changes are a major win for users as Facebook has slowly begun to enforce policies that make their exposure to such ads more transparent and optional. Users are now given more personal power to opt-in and out of ads that appear on their page at their own choice. Rather than arguably passive-aggressive features that Facebook previously implemented to still give control to advertisers, users can now better decide for themselves what types of ads they want solicited to them.
This comes after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg received criticism for not committing the company to fact-check political ads. Now, users have the agency to remove them from their page altogether — something that was not granted to them before.
Translation: Serial online marketers on Facebook who have boasted huge profits from such Custom Audience features might have to reevaluate their strategies altogether now.
Marketers often solicited hack ways to target Facebook users with ads for personal profit.
Facebook’s road to user transparency regarding their advertising policy has been a long-time coming after a past year of government hearings, public complaints, and ongoing controversy.
In April 2019, Facebook began to give users the heads-up in the form of implementing the “Why Am I Seeing This Ad?” feature. Although this was a step in the right direction in regards to transparency, this did nothing to stop the ads from directly targeting consumers. Facebook would later that year enforce that advertisers be more forthcoming of their targeting when they updated their terms surrounding Custom Audience features. “When uploading a customer file, advertisers will need to indicate whether the information was collected directly from people, provided by partners, or a combination of the two,” Facebook wrote on their corporate blog in July 2019. “When ad targeting is done well, it provides value to both people and businesses. We hope these updates will make it easier for businesses to advertise efficiently and effectively, while providing more transparency to people.”
Overall, it’s become clear that public pressure and accountability has put Facebook in a position to be more forth-coming with their policies, terms, and procedures regarding their user’s experience. Although not widely talked about in the media, Facebook giving their users this kind of agency in denying advertisements is a notable push in a time where democratic values are under attack online.
TikTok has 500 million monthly active users worldwide
TikTok, a video-sharing social platform, has now become the de facto social media app for teenagers. Unlike other famous apps such as SnapChat, Instagram and Vine that initially captured the Western market successfully before taking the rest of the world by storm, TikTok is owned by a Chinese company, ByteDance. It is the first Chinese social networking app founded by Zhang Yiming gaining mainstream global success with a valuation of $75 billion.
TikTok’s rise in popularity has turned many teenagers into starlets and made them financially independent from posting short lip-syncing, funny and talent videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3QisKbfQDw
Duet Challenges on TikTok
Unlike YouTube, the popular Bejing-based app does not pay creators any money. Creators on TikTok make money from brands for products placements and artists who want to promote their songs. Brands like Crocs have gotten on the TikTok bandwagon, getting 100,000 followers within one week of creating a profile on the app.
Satisfying user-generated videos on TikTok for Crocs
TikTok has a feature that allows content producers to live stream and receive cash gifts from fans in their virtual wallet which the company takes a cut from.
Josh Richard is stereotypical 17 year old popular eBoy on TikTok with 1.3 million followers. An eBoy is a male teenager who has cool hair, nice teeth and an extensive online persona. He can be found on TikTok wearing skater clothes.
TikTok is another great new app that recently burst into the scene as a serious social media network contender. The app allows creators to express themselves easily and quickly while having fun doing so.
Brands should seriously consider looking into before and take Crocs successful campaigns as inspiration. Crocs #thousanddollarcrocs campaign on TikTok had more than 45,000 videos created in less than 36 hours.
Celebrities are now used in advertising formats to bring awareness instead of promoting a brand.
Is it possible to open your phone or watch your favorite show without seeing a celebrity endorsing a product? We are less than a month past the holiday’s and several television commercials come to mind, but for me, the one that stands out the most is Pepsi’s commercial with Cardi B.
Sure, everyone wants cash instead of a
sweater, Cardi.
Celebrities are used by marketers in
hopes that their status and attraction will reach a wider audience and
ultimately pass attention to the product or brand. With the use of social
media, celebrities can continuously promote the brand in a less cost-effective
way for the company. The use of a celebrity is a brand or company’s attempt to
reach potentially a large assortment of consumers and increase brand
recognition, recall, and differentiation which becomes an advantage to a
company with strong competitors or the launch of a new product.
However, the company isn’t the only one benefiting from the celebrity endorsement of a product. Celebrities often receive free product in agreement to wear/use and ultimately be seen with it to draw attention to the company. Between short clips on media sites such as Instagram or TikTok, celebrities are required by advertisers who are following the ethical code to disclose payment or indicate the free product with hashtags or acknowledgements in the caption. With all types of revenue going back and forth between the celebrity and the company, it is important that advertising remains held to the high ethical standards of consumers. The Institute for Advertising Ethics produced eight principles and practices for advertising ethics to keep companies honest and truthful as the ways of marketing and advertising continuously evolve. However, advertising campaigns have changed dramatically, especially when their product does not match the message they are trying to convey or how it relates to current events. It seems that the advertising ethics no longer apply when a company chooses to make statement about the current climate.
Looking at one of the biggest advertisers who hire celebrities in the form of athletes on a regular basis is Nike. In 2018, Nike’s campaign featured former NFL player Colin Kaepernick who was the first to kneel during the National Anthem to protest racial inequality and police brutality. The printed ad featured Kaepernick’s face with a quote, “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything” and was followed by a Kaepernick narrated television commercial. Consumers were torn as some believed Kaepernick and other player’s actions were disrespectful to the American flag and the military who have fought and continue to fight for the country and for Nike to celebrate this was unjust. Those who were offended by the campaign shared their disgust and viewed Nike as “anti-American.” It could even be argued that Nike failed to treat consumers fairly based on the nature of the audience to whom the ad was directed. After all, the company was celebrating it’s 30th anniversary and the printed ad lacked any product advertisement. However, the video ad shares a wider range of product placement among athletes of all levels and ages ending with “It’s only crazy until you do it. Just do it.” So, why does the printed campaign conflict with the video message? Nike’s slogan of “Just do it” made it to both ad’s but the final message was different. What is Nike really trying to sell the consumer and does it follow the ethical principles?
Yet, another opportunity for products
to partner with celebrities is impending as we approach Super Bowl LIV where commercials
are just as important as the game itself. Consumers will be faced with humorous,
traditional, and possibly even insulting campaigns. In a matter of seconds
after the commercial airs, social media users will descend their opinions,
critiques, and praise for both the product and the celebrity.
AdAge released a short, detailed list of advertisers who have purchased ad space in Super Bowl 2020. This list shows that some companies are revisiting their usual characters while others are indeed hiring celebrities to endorse their product. One ad in particular is using multiple famous faces to bring awareness to youth homelessness. Approximately ten of the ads listed contain celebrity endorsers, and while none of the celebrities have a background quite like Kaepernick’s, the National Football League has continued Kaepernick’s intention to create awareness of police brutality and police shootings of young black men. The ad stars a retired NFL player whose young cousin was shot and killed by a police officer in Florida as he waited for roadside assistance.
Principle three, says that content
online and offline must be clearly distinguishable between corporate communications
and news. With civil unrest within America and the response Kaepernick’s advertisement
garnered during the Nike campaign, is the NFL following in the footsteps of
Nike? Has the NFL used the news and blurred the lines with corporate
communication?
If not, can this campaign be argued that the NFL followed principle eight, and addressed their internal ethical concerns? The NFL has past and present players who are directly affected by these events and they are simply supporting their players. Or did the recent injustices hinder the NFL’s message of professional football as a whole?
References
Awasthi, A. K., Choraria, S. (2015-10-30). “Effectiveness of Celebrity Endorsement Advertisements: The Role of Customer Imitation Behaviour”. Journal of Creative Communications. 10(2): 215-234.
Belch, G. E., & Belch, M. A. (2012). Advertising and promotion: An integrated marketing communications perspective (9th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwan.
Dominguez, R., Herrero, A., Salmones, M. (2013). Communication using celebrities in the non-profit sector: determinants of its effectiveness. International Journal of Advertising 32:1
Lee, J., Throson, E. (2008). “The impact of celebrity-product incongruence on the effectiveness of product endorsement”. Journal of Advertising Research. 48 (3): 3.
Tyler, J. (2018). “Nike’s Colin Kaepernick ad isn’t the first time the brand’s commercials have made a social statement. See some of the most memorable campaigns in its history. Business Insider. Retrieved 1/21/2020 https://www.businessinsider.com/nike-ads-make-social-statements-2018-9
Peacock TV will have a free option, but with engaging ads. There is a $10 ad-free tier as well.
Peacock TV Is Unique Because Of Its Advertisement Model
In this new decade, the Hollywood streaming wars continue, but with a new approach. NBC Universal revealed last week that its new direct-to-consumer service, “Peacock TV,” will launch nationally on July 15, 2020. Peacock TV will feature NBC original scripted series, reboots of classics, live sports content, movies, etc. What sets it apart from its competitors like Disney+, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video? “Peacock TV” will provide consumers the opportunity to stream their content for free, but with some entertaining advertisements. Some of the content that they will be able to enjoy are: the revival of classics like”Punky Brewster” and “Save By The Bell,” TV shows such as “King of Queens,” and cartoons like “Curious George.”
Punky Brewster reboot will air on Peacock TV
Question: Is Advertising the future of streaming TV?
NBC Universal’s 21st century mission is to be the world-wide leader in ad-supported television, which they firmly believe is not being exploited by the media. Steve Burke, chairman of NBC Universal said, “No one is focused on primarily ad-supported premium content, and in effect, it’s a white space. In some ways, we’re creating the equivalent of a 21st century broadcast business delivered on the internet.”
Every hour, Peacock TV will provide around five minutes of advertisements, in comparison to the average 12 minutes of ads that could be seen on TV. Ampere Analysis recently conducted a survey that found that 39% of viewers do not hate seeing advertisements. In addition, they learned that what mainly causes people to switch to ad-supported providers is the price they have to pay. Matt Strauss, head of Peacock emphasized, “streamers want alternatives and are looking to access premium content with ads in exchange for a lower cost. This represents a growing white space opportunity in the growing streaming market and the place where we plan to squarely focus Peacock.” In my opinion, some ads could become annoying when the same ad is repeated multiple times throughout the TV series that I am watching. But I am enticed to see if Peacock TV will change my outlook towards ads. One advertisement strategy that I am actually really intrigued to see Peacock execute in July are “engagement ads.” With this approach, they aim to create interactive experiences for viewers like downloading a coupon directly to their smartphone while watching the advertisement, engaging with trivia questions during an advertisement, etc.
Peacock TV’s New Original Series “Intelligence” starring David Schwimmer.
Peacock TV Is Separating Itself From Hollywood Giants
For its streaming debut later this year, Peacock TV will be the only media giant that fully embraces advertisements. Will Peacock determine the future of streaming content? Will other streaming providers transition over to a model more like Peacock’s? Will streamers like myself transition over to a platform that is free despite it having commercials? As a consumer of providers like Disney+ and Netflix, the main reason why I enjoy those two providers is because I don’t have the patience for commercials that are trying very hard to sale me a product or brand. And like I mentioned before, I don’t enjoy being inundated with the same advertisement over and over again every 12 minutes. I think in order to entice me to sign up to Peacock, I will have to evaluate their advertisements for a few weeks and decide if they do in fact give me the opportunity to interact with their brand-focused messages. Creativity with advertisements will be the game changer in this new streaming approach and I am excited to see how this approach unfolds later this year.
If you take a closer look at the picture above, probably you’ve found something different between this logo and the iconic one: the streamer under the letter “C” turned into a tongue!
In early July, Coca-Cola launched this new logo for its global advertising campaign. By using “tongue” in the ads and the logo, this beverage giant hope consumers can feel their best memories in their life with them. Targeting on the young generation, the goal of this campaign is to deliver a message that Coca-Cola is always there in every happy moment, establishing an emotional association between Coca-Cola and happiness on people’s minds.
In fact, similar to this “tongue” logo, Coca-Cola tweaks its logo for many different campaigns. For example, in May 2019, it added the Islamic crescent moon symbol to the iconic logo when launching a Ramadan campaign in Norway. Through this campaign, Coca-Cola intended to establish a closer tie to Muslins in addition to boost the sales. According to the marketing manager of Coca-Cola in Norway, Coca-Cola also wanted to state its position on diversity and emphasize the importance of diversity to society, showing itself as a responsible social actor.
The use of dynamic logos In general, using dynamic logos could bring advantages to brands. First, dynamic logos enables brands to convey different qualities depending on the various situations to audiences. For example, the dynamic logo that Coca-Cola used in the Ramadan campaign helps Coca-Cola to communicate the theme and the story of this campaign better. Also, the dynamic logo could increase brand exposure.
However, the significant point for creating dynamic logos is to keep the essential elements of the iconic logo. Creating some unrelated logo will even take disadvantages to brand identity.
When the Chinese single’s day was approaching, my attention was drawn to the advertisement that DAPU launched on October 27. This Chinese bedding brand posted a 2 minutes video with the slogan “Our youth is in the sheets we slept naked”, trying to raise the emotional resonance of young consumers.
“Our youth is in the sheets we slept naked”DAPU’s video ads
The video records the process that a couple is going through from acquaintance to break-up by using the high angle shot. All the stories happen in the same room. In the video, everything except the bed change with the time passing by, including the relationship between them. DAPU intended to reveal the emotional life of modern young people: we are free to start and end up a relationship.
Creative or Outrageous?
“We are not in the society that all people are ashamed to talk about sexuality.” The idea of this video is to encourage the free-love and sexual freedom. There is no doubt that this idea is innovative, which could increase brand recognition among young people.
However, the way they tell the story is controversial. There are lots of nude scenes and explicit sex acts throughout the video. People started to wonder, “Is it too much?” Even though sex is part of people’s lives, it can be presented in a more obscure and ingenious way, showing the beauty of sexual relations.
The advertising video “I air you” that Durex released in China caught my eyes recently. (“Air” is a homophone for “love” in Chinese). The style of the “I air you” advertising video is soft and elegant. With the slogan “So thin to fit perfectly”, two performers, who are also the dancers, hold the hand, hug with each other and dance with the ASMR sound in the video. Comparing with DAPU, which adds sex in videos explicitly, Durex’s “I air you” is much more artistic and. Even though DAPU’s video created a buzz on social media, it’s hard to tell whether it’s a successful marketing campaign.
“I air you”
“I air you”
Where is the boundary?
We cannot ignore the fact that using sex appeal in marketing does attract people’s attention effectively. Many brands use sex appeal in advertising for capturing more attention, such as Victoria Secrets, Calvin Klein. However, since there is no fine line between appropriate and excessive while using sex in ads, it would be helpful if brands use the sexual innuendo in advertisements, which may decrease the possibility of being criticized. Also, considering that some cultures may be less favorable to sexually ads, marketers may need to do more researches on audiences’ perceptions towards sex.
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