Media and Marketing News Headlines Update on November 18, 2020

Omni-channel marketing & content

There’s always been something unattainable about the idea of omni-channel marketing. Multiple data sources, connecting online and offline touchpoints, and providing a seamless customer experience. While many move it to the ‘too hard’ basket, it’s really about offering your customer different content options — multi-channel and multi-device, whatever they prefer using.

Why omni-channel matters

People consume content and shop in different ways. There’s no ‘one size fits all’ marketing journey. This journey doesn’t always happen online either. Consumers often move between TV advertising, online discovery, and visiting the physical store. Omni-channel content aligns across all these platforms for consistent messaging. With targeted TV advertising expected in 2021 (where different households could see different commercials at the same time), this alignment is becoming achievable.

Targeting fatigue

Not everyone is thrilled by more targeting though. While marketers like the idea of reaching consumers wherever they are, targeted personalisation can feel like stalking. The EU is even looking to ban micro-targeted advertising calling it “one of the most detrimental practices in the digital society”. Omni-channel doesn’t need to be so creepy, it needs to be relevant and helpful.

Social media & regulation

Former US President Barack Obama has been in the news recently, claiming social media platforms should be treated more like publishers, rather than the current legislation which considers them to be utility service like a telco. “They are making editorial choices, whether they’ve buried them in algorithms or not,” he stated.

Unchecked power

President-elect Joe Biden agrees and has suggested changing the law which makes these platforms immune from liability for what users post. It was one of the few things he and Trump agreed on. What this means in terms of regulation isn’t clear, but the US isn’t the only country worried about the growing power of big tech.

China proposes regulations

The Chinese government has its sights set on Alibaba and Tencent. In an attempt to curb monopolistic practices, the proposed regulations will focus on “colluding on sharing sensitive consumer data, alliances that squeeze out smaller rivals and subsidising services at below cost to eliminate competitors”. This follows similar concerns in the US related to the power of Google and Facebook. Could this mark a global attempt at digital regulation?

According to the German government’s latest coronavirus video, many of us have been fighting the pandemic for years without even realising it.

Michelin Star chef, Javier Aranda, shares his culinary inspiration over some exquisite video work. Shot entirely with a Xiaomi Mi 10T Pro for XIAOMI STUDIOS.
Cloud-based communications business, RingCentral, uses animation to show how its message, video and phone solutions work together seamlessly.
Capital One is changing the narrative when it comes to COVID stories by focusing on small business case studies that highlight success and resilience.

Apparently, all those James Bond gadgets weren’t necessary. The only device a secret agent requires these days is a Nokia 8.3 5G (Since when did Nokia make phones again?).

After ten years of building themselves into one of the world’s mightiest interaction design tools, Sketch is now a native Mac app. Check out this utterly beautiful blog post that celebrates this milestone.

Apple just gave your podcast more marketing muscle. Your show AND episodes now come with responsive web embeds. That’s right: an embeddable podcast player.

Anything that is digital will be commoditised. Including witty Instagram captions. Rubabb, a 22-year-old from Pakistan, writes captions for sale on Fiverr. She has three service packages for five, ten, and fifteen dollars each. “Her recent gigs included writing captions for a produce provider that operates in Florida and Texas, and for a cafe that serves acai bowls and coffee some 7,600 miles away from her, in Oakland, California.”

Apart from talent and quality production, there’s one other thing keeping the music business booming in Korea. That thing is packaging. It’s all about the album design, and CD sales are booming in a market where fans are collectors. “K-pop albums boast splendid and unique designs, and fans who purchase them have a discerning eye for [that].” Take a look — these things truly are works of art.

Now you can post your Twitter thread straight from WordPress. So if you want to tweetstorm your WordPress.com blog post, it’s now been automated. A nifty thing I love is that it will pop your images and videos right into the thread in the same order as in your original post.

The Twitter thread is a news/media product in its own right, but it wasn’t invented by Twitter. The birth of the thread — and of Media Twitter — happened because a guy named Dan Baum decided, in May 2009, to string together a set of tweets to talk about how he was fired from The New Yorker. When he “started spooling out the story of his ouster on Twitter in 2009, the media world was entranced — and a new kind of digital serial storytelling seemed possible.”

Dropshippers on Alibaba know how to use the platform. But what do you do when your product is fish? This is a great video that shows how fisherfolk are livestreaming their catch and selling fish on Taobao, their online shopping platform. Welcome to dropfishing.

Here’s a great way to take the predictability out of exercise. Be a secret agent… with a running app. Running Stories “gets you to explore new routes by using real-time data that turns your run into a story. It’s like Hollywood, Silicon Valley and your personal coach had a baby,” What other running app has half a million users? Zombies, Run!, where you get to be chased by a zombie horde. 🧟‍♀️

Reuters is launching a new product targeting the “decision-maker” segment. Reuters Professional will include news, analysis, and events, betting heavily on the 124 million executives it claims to reach around the world.

Google Photos promised that it would store all your (slightly compressed) images indefinitely for free. Guess they didn’t realise how popular that would be. So now, with more than 4 trillion photos uploaded, Google is withdrawing its promise.

Hopin, one of the more interesting virtual event products to emerge out of this pandemic, raised a $125 million funding round. That values the firm at more than $2 billion.

We’ve all spent more time at home this year. PropertyGuru created a video celebrating “home”. At PropertyGuru, we believe that every person – no matter what their circumstance – should have a place to call home. While “home” holds different meanings for each of us, at the core, it’s a feeling of warmth and protection, a sanctuary of comfort and connection. #LoveHome #StayHome #StaySafe

Alibaba shows how fishmongers on its online shopping Taobao platform are live-streaming their catch of the day and increasing sales. Follow Alibaba Group news and stories.

When you think Starbucks, you don’t think artisan hand blown glass, but that’s what the business used to create the lights in its Milan Roastery.

Google uses majestically inspired animation to tell the story of France’s Louis XIV and the universal search for knowledge. A Google search took five years back then.
BMW has one of the coolest videos we’ve seen in a long time. Their electrified wingsuit looks like the future we have dreamed of. #BMW #NEXTGen2020

Making sense of marketing buzzwords

Regardless of your industry, buzzwords are part of the working day. Some argue they’re a way for workers to relate to each other, while others believe they’re a fancy way to describe mundane and pointless tasks. It’s the content marketer’s job to come up with new and engaging ways to describe things, so it’s unsurprising we’ve developed our own unique jargon.

The buzzword effect

When it comes to content marketing, the use of jargon or buzzwords has its pros and cons. It really depends on your audience. If you’re speaking to people within the industry, it builds credibility and improves communication. To outsiders though it can sound inauthentic and robotic or just plain confusing. The trick is to know your audience via (jargon warning) personas.

What does science say?

Buzzwords aren’t going anywhere. The classics: ‘Synergy’, ‘Thinking outside the box’ and ‘Low-hanging fruit’ are still used frequently today. Science may have an answer as to why: insecurity. Apparently those in junior positions use more buzzwords.

The growth of Vimeo

You’ve heard of Vimeo right? It’s YouTube’s cooler cousin. We know there’s been an increased demand for video across marketing and now Vimeo is meeting that demand. In the last seven months alone more than 30 million people have joined and 60 million videos have been uploaded. That’s more growth than they’ve experienced in the last three years. To make the most of these numbers Vimeo has just raised US$150 million in equity funding from a variety of sources including Singapore-based GIC.

What does this mean for users?

According to Vimeo’s CEO, Anjali Sud, equity means a better video platform. “We’ll be using the funding to hire more talented people, to speed up our product roadmap, and to invest more deeply in cutting edge video technology,” she said. Some of the improvements emerged last month with free video messaging via Vimeo Record. Basically, it’s a video text message.

Vimeo vs YouTube

Does this investment mean content marketers are now going to opt for the cooler cousin? Probably not. YouTube still has a much larger user base, something which won’t change for a while. However, Vimeo does have some advantages when it comes to video quality, reputation, audience engagement and other features. So use it when you want to impress a client.

Google launched Journalist Studio, a set of tools that could help you do your job a little faster. In particular, check out Pinpoint. It’ll go through hundreds of thousands of documents — even handwritten notes — and pull out frequently mentioned people, organisations, and locations. There’s more – as is always the case with Big Tech, there is a non-existent line between having your mind blown by functionality and having it blown by how creepy it all is. You can upload your audio file — say, your interview — to Pinpoint, and it will be transcribed, ready for you to edit and “jump from selected text to the corresponding place in the track”. It will also separately list all the people and organisations you mentioned in your story. This thing is your new research team.

Netflix became the new way to watch tv because it served an audience that wanted to choose what it watched. Now Netflix wants the other end of that user spectrum: people who don’t want to choose. Also known as France. “In France, watching traditional TV remains hugely popular with people who just want a ‘lean back’ experience where they don’t have to choose shows. We’re trying a new feature for our members in France – called ‘Direct.’