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Revealed: how junk food and alcohol brands turned Covid-19 into the world’s largest marketing campaign

October 8, 2020 No Comments

Major producers of unhealthy food and drink used the pandemic to promote their products at the expense of public health, the report claims.

A new report has exposed the sinister ways in which leading unhealthy food and drink brands have exploited the coronavirus crisis to further corporate interests at the expense of public health.

Since the start of the pandemic hundreds of examples have emerged of ultra-processed food and drink companies trying to curry favour with consumers under the guise of philanthropic donations.

Some transnational corporations have even used the crisis as a way to boost partnerships with governments and increase brand loyalty within desperate communities, the report claims.

The paper, which was published by the NCD Alliance and Spectrum on Thursday, reveals how companies across the world employed various marketing stunts to champion unhealthy products as part of the solution to the ongoing public health emergency, despite their known role in exacerbating poor health outcomes.

One example referenced in the report saw fast food company Burger King evoke patriotism in the US and gamify government stay at home orders by awarding give-away products to those who caught a QR-code moving around TV screens.

In Mexico, Nestle, FEMSA (the giant Coca Cola bottling group) and YSA Pharmacies breached the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes by offering to ‘gift’ additional formula to vulnerable families for every can of infant or toddler milk purchased.

Closer to home, international donut company Krispy Kreme leveraged Covid-19 in a marketing campaign purportedly ‘serving smiles’, which offered 1,500 free donuts to healthcare and other frontline workers at the Royal Free Hospital in London.

“Since the early days of the pandemic, we have observed two trends: the growing epidemiological evidence that people living with noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are suffering worse outcomes from Covid-19, and that many producers of unhealthy commodities have rapidly adapted their strategies in an attempt to capitalise on the pandemic and lockdowns,” said Lucy Westerman, Policy and Campaigns Manager with the NCD Alliance and a co-author of the report.

“It is a bitter irony that companies such as tobacco, alcohol and junk food, whose products increase the risk of NCDs, thereby putting people at higher risk of suffering through the pandemic, have positioned themselves as heroes and partners in the response and have interfered in public policies that seek to protect population health.”

NCDs such as obesity, hypertension and diabetes, which can be exacerbated by unhealthy diets and excessive alcohol consumption, are responsible for more than 41 million early deaths each year.

Since the coronavirus pandemic first emerged obesity and accompanying conditions such as diabetes have also been recognised as a major risk factor for contracting a more severe form of the infection.

Last week the NCD Alliance published another study in the Lancet warning that progress in fighting such diseases has massively stalled and stated that the UN and WHO targets to reduce premature deaths from NCDs will be widely missed by 2030.

“Governments already know very well how to reduce the risk of NCDs,” Katie Dain, CEO of the NCD Alliance, said. “There is a well-documented history of unhealthy commodity industries infiltrating public health organisations, subverting science, and interfering with and undermining public policies.

“Pre-Covid-19 this is something which has been charted and monitored extensively, and it has been a major barrier to progress on NCDs.”

Alongside companies promoting unhealthy eating and drinking habits, the report also highlighted corporations who sought to use large philanthropic donations as a means to secure legitimacy and political capital.

Having received widespread criticism from NGOs for its refusal to contemplate abandoning single-use plastics at the World Economic Forum 2020, the largest bottler of Coca-Cola in the United States has partnered with the US Department of Health and Human Services to manufacture plastic tubes for use in Covid-19 testing kits.

The Coca-Cola Company described this initiative as “utilizing existing soda bottle preforms to produce more than 7 million tubes each week”, which featured as a prominent item on the Coca-Cola website as one of the “new solutions” developed to support local communities.

Meanwhile in Kenya, the Government chose to include tobacco, alcohol and processed food and beverages on their official list of essential items and services, describing such products as “essential to the sustenance of lives and efforts” and granting manufacturers special protection to continue the production and movement of these products during lockdown.

The special status of tobacco and alcohol was opposed by local civil society groups, who warned of the growing risk posed by non-communicable diseases and urged the government “not to replace one pandemic with another.”

However, the report points to internal factors which might have influenced this decision.

An emergency coronavirus fund launched by President Kenyatta has received significant donations from Kenya Breweries and BAT Kenya, the country’s largest cigarette manufacturer.

The situation in these countries is far from unique. Throughout the pandemic international organisations have placed substantial emphasis on leveraging resources and partnerships with the private sector to aid efforts to support the international Covid-19 response.

One such example includes the creation of the WHO’s Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund in April.

While its due diligence processes prohibit funding from alcohol, arms, and tobacco industries, this has provided opportunities for ultra-processed food and drink manufacturers to signal active engagement in the global response.

Both Pepsico, the Mondelez International Foundation, the charitable arm of the sweets company which owns Cadbury, and the Starbucks Foundation are all listed among the Fund’s supporters.

The widespread involvement of producers of unhealthy commodities in public health efforts, while initially helpful, sets a dangerous precedent, suggested Linda Bauld, Director of the SPECTRUM research consortium.

“The Covid-19 pandemic is ongoing around the world and this report should be seen as just the tip of the iceberg,” she said.

“It is abundantly clear that unhealthy commodity industries will continue to adapt their engagement with Covid-19 as the pandemic, policy responses and economic crises evolve. Mapping this activity is vital if we are to shape a fine-tuned response to Covid-19 and at the same time avoid further exacerbating the pre-existing NCD epidemic.”

Feature Image: NCDs such as obesity, hypertension and diabetes, which can be exacerbated by unhealthy diets and excessive alcohol consumption, are responsible for more than 41 million early deaths each year

By Jordan Kelly-Linden

Sourced from The Telegraph

In News

7 Unusual Ways to Increase Your Audience Response

October 8, 2020 No Comments

By NANCY HARHUT.

You’d like more people to respond to your emails.

But do you feel sometimes like you’ve run out of ways to make that happen? Then you’ll want to test these seven unusual tactics. You may never have heard of them, but science shows they work.

In fact, they are all based on behavioural science – the study of human action, of why people do what they do. And if there’s one thing behavioural scientists are sure of, it’s that people don’t always act rationally.

These scientists know that people are influenced by things they are not even aware of. We think we know why we do what we do, but often that’s not the case. Or, as behavioural scientist Dan Ariely explains in his New York Times bestselling book Predictably Irrational, “We usually think of ourselves as sitting in the driver’s seat, with ultimate control over the decisions we make; but alas, this perception has more to do with our desires than with reality.”

The truth is humans often rely on decision defaults – hardwired responses that we use without thinking. Some of these automatic behaviours can impact what people read, whom they trust, and when they buy.

Humans often rely on hardwired responses that we use without thinking, says @nharhut via @CMIContent. #ContentMarketingCLICK TO TWEET

And that’s why the following seven tactics can be useful to any marketer who wants to improve the response to their emails. (Pro tip: Look a little closer and you’ll find they also apply to other marketing content.)

1. Temporal landmarks (timing is everything)

Temporal landmarks are days that represent transition points in our lives. Social scientists have found that these days can be powerful.

For example, Dan Pink explains in his book When that people are twice as likely to run their first marathon at age 29 vs. age 30 or age 28. They’re also more likely to run a first marathon at 39 vs. 40 and even 49 vs. 50.

Why? The end of a decade and the beginning of a new one is a temporal landmark.

When we hit a temporal landmark, we feel it is time for a fresh start. We say goodbye to our old selves and feel open to new possibilities. We also feel more confident in our ability to reach our goals. Because of that, we’re more likely to take action. And that’s the important point for marketers.

Temporal landmarks can be birthdays, graduations, the birth of a child, retirement, and similar life events. They can also be related to the calendar. New Year’s Day, the day many people make resolutions, is a perfect example. However, the start of a season, a month – and even a week – is a temporal landmark.

How to use this:

Connect your email to a life event. Or send it at the beginning of the week, when people are in more of a mindset to start something new. Or, depending on your message, the start of the weekend might be an appropriate temporal landmark. For example, a paint company could say, “Now that the weekend’s here, it’s a great time to do this DIY project.” The key is to make your message hit when people are most receptive to trying something different.

Connect your #email to a temporal landmark –the start of a season or a week—when people are more receptive, says @nharhut via @CMIContent.CLICK TO TWEET

2. Inequity aversion (hey that’s not fair!)

Social scientists find that people have a deep-seated desire for fairness and react against instances of inequity. Brain-imaging studies even indicate that fair behaviours and fair outcomes activate the brain’s reward centre, while unfair ones do not.

The ultimatum game, an experiment devised by psychologists and economists, illustrates this thinking. In the game, two people are given a sum of money. One person is told to suggest how to divide the money. If the second person accepts the offer, it stands. But if that person rejects it, neither player gets any money.

From a purely rational point of view, it would make sense to accept any amount offered since it is free money, right? However, research shows that while 50-50 and 60-40 offers do well, most offers below a 70-30 split get rejected. People punish unfair behaviour even at a cost to themselves.

How to use this:

When writing your emails, appeal to your target’s sense of fairness. For example, a charity might say, “Every night children right here in our own town go to bed hungry. Do you think that’s right?” Or a martech company might write, “For years, large companies in your industry have had access to data that smaller companies like yours could not afford. We’re here to level the playing field.” Remember, people react to inequity, and as an email marketer, you want to channel that reaction.

Write #emails that appeal to your audience’s sense of fairness, advises @nharhut via @CMIContent.CLICK TO TWEET

3. Input bias (it must be good – look how long it took)

When people use the amount of effort as a proxy for quality, they’re defaulting to input bias. For example, an employee spends hours working on a report and that alone makes her colleagues think it’s good.

Two researchers at Harvard Business School ran an experiment using a fictitious travel website. Some participants saw a progress bar as the site searched for flights. Other participants saw the progress bar as well as the airline names and total number of flights being checked. The researchers found that participants were more likely to be satisfied with the wait time when they could see the effort happening as the progress bar inched forward. Plus, they valued the service more.

Predictably Irrational author Dan Ariely talks about people’s perception of locksmiths. He’s found that people feel more comfortable paying a large fee when the locksmith spends a lot of time and effort to fix a lock. But when, due to years of training and expertise, the locksmith fixes the lock quickly, people resent paying the fee even though they got the outcome they were looking for. People equate the amount of time and effort that goes into a product or service with its value.

How to use this:

Take advantage of input bias by talking about how much work went into creating your products or how much research time was spent to develop them. For example, you might say you’re introducing your new service after “five years of research across two continents” or say your footballs are “always hand-stitched, never machine-stitched.” You can use input bias as you write your email subject lines, headers, and bullet points. Remember, people make decisions quickly and reflexively, so this is a fast way to convey quality.

4. Eaton-Rosen phenomenon (save some time and make it rhyme)

Can you complete the following sentence? Nationwide is on your …?

If the word “side” immediately came to mind, it’s no surprise. The insurance company’s slogan rhymes. And rhymes are easier to remember. Not only that, but research from the Scandinavian Psychological Associations finds that rhyming slogans are more persuasive.

But the advantage to rhymes doesn’t stop there. According to the Eaton-Rosen phenomenon, rhyming phrases are judged to be more accurate than non-rhyming phrases that communicate the same information. For example, given a choice between “Woes unite foes” and “Woes unite enemies,” more people believe the first sentence is true.

Social scientists find that rhymes are quicker and easier for the human brain to process. When something is easier to process, it feels right. And if something feels right, it’s not a big leap to assume that it is – which confers a big benefit on lines that rhyme.

How to use this:

While it’s hard (and not necessarily advisable) to write your email as a poem, you can use rhyming phrases in key pieces. For example, a company offering a webinar might consider a call to action like “Don’t delay. Sign up today.” A clothing retailer could test a rhyming subject line such as “The tank you’ll thank.” Remember, if it rhymes, it seems more truthful.

5. Autonomy bias (just leave it to me)

People have a deep-seated need to be in control of themselves and their circumstances. We like to feel independent, and social scientists refer to this as autonomy bias. The ability to make choices feeds this desire and can be powerful.

Over the years, New York City disabled – but didn’t remove – most of the walk buttons on its crosswalk signs. Scientists studied the pedestrians’ behaviour at those crosswalks and found that people who pushed the non-functioning button were more likely to wait for the walk sign to appear. Even though the button didn’t actually trigger the sign, people felt they were in control and that influenced their response.

Christopher Carpenter of Western Illinois University researched the but-you-are-free (BYAF) technique. To use it, you make your request but remind your targets the choice is theirs. Carpenter found that it can double your success rate.

How to use this:

Instead of giving people a single option, let them choose from two or three. They will shift their thinking from “do I want this?” to “which of these do I want?” and have a sense of control. You can also frame benefits in terms of control. For example, a company offering training could emphasize that a person who has more skills has more options, which gives them more control over their future. Finally, let your audience members choose how they want to respond to your email. For example, you can invite them to call, go online, scan a QR code, summon Siri, or reply by email. The key is to place control in the hands of your audience members because that will increase the likelihood they will do what you want them to.

6. Hedonic bundling (ordinarily I wouldn’t, but it’s such a good deal)

Email marketers know that bundles work. Social scientists explain bundles can work because they reduce the pain of paying. Instead of a hit of pain accompanying each individual purchase, people incur a single hit when they buy several items at once.

However, not all bundles work the same way. Even when the cost is the same, how the discount is explained can make a difference. Researchers find placing the discount on the most hedonic or pleasurable item in a bundle can drive more sales than a discount on the entire bundle.

According to the Journal of Marketing Research December 2010 issue, when a discount was tied to the less utilitarian, more pleasant item in a bundle, sales climbed from 61% to 82%. In this study, the bundle included binders and chocolate, an odd combination. One was clearly utilitarian and the other obviously pleasurable. Researchers believe that people spending money on pleasurable items may feel guilty, the guilt is removed when they get a discount on the most indulgent item.

How to use this:

Bundle two, three, or four items into a package and emphasize that the discount is on the most pleasurable. For example, a telecommunications company bundles phone, internet, cable TV, and HBO. It promotes a discounted price for the bundle but notes that HBO comes free when people choose this package (as opposed to simply saying the discounted price for the entire package).

7. Labeling (what’s in a name – a lot)

Social science research shows that people behave in a way consistent with the group they’re told they’re part of. Basically, if you’re labelled, you have a tendency to live up to it.

In a study, researchers interviewed people about their voting habits. Then some people in the study were randomly chosen and told they were more politically active and more likely to vote based on their answers. Though that wasn’t true, 15% more of that group voted. It was the power of the labels of being politically active and more likely to vote. People want to be consistent.

Additional research found that asking people if they “intended to be a voter” – using “voter” as a noun – rather than simply asking if they “intended to vote” – using “vote” as a verb led to an 11% increase in voting.

The reason? Nouns give us a sense of who we are. Once we know that, we know what actions we should take.

How to use this:

Choose labels that reinforce how someone wants to be seen. For example, an insurance company might say, “As a responsible person, you know the importance of having enough insurance.”

Or use labels to get people to see themselves differently. Their behaviour will follow as long as the label isn’t objectionable to the person. For example, a celebrity magazine looking to convince people to subscribe might refer to the recipient of their email as “an entertainment influencer.” Remember, people start to act like members of the group they’re told they belong to.

Now you’ve heard of these seven unusual techniques. (Just think – your competitors are likely still in the dark.) You know the scientific research that shows these tactics work. All that’s left is for you to start testing – to see which of these techniques gives your emails the biggest lift in response. And remember, social scientists have proved that people often don’t act rationally or make well-thought-out, well-considered decisions. Often, they default to hardwired behaviours that may seem, well, surprising. Now that you know, you can use it to your brand’s advantage.

By NANCY HARHUT

Sourced from Content Marketing Institute

In News

Want to ditch Pinterest? Here are the best alternatives for visual inspiration

October 7, 2020 No Comments

BY LILLY SMITH

Creative inspiration without the workplace ethics violations.

It’s pretty difficult to go outside for creative inspiration right now. So it makes sense that people increasingly turned to Pinterest as a place to organize visual inspo for home décor, crafting, wedding planning, recipes, and a lot more during COVID-19 (Pinterest saw a 13% increase in monthly active users between Q1 and Q2 of 2020, though revenue dropped).

But there could be reason to think twice about using the popular platform. As Fast Company reported in July, two former employees sued Pinterest for pay discrimination based on race and sex, as well as retaliation for reporting it. In August, former COO Francoise Brougher alleged rampant “discrimination, hostile work environment, and misogyny” at the company. The platform may appear wholesome, but working for Pinterest may be a whole different story.

So if you want to put a pause on Pinterest—but not inspiration—here are some alternative tools actually worth pinning.

MIX

Mix has a grid setup similar to Pinterest, and you can personalize it by selecting categories that interest you, like architecture, arts, DIY, décor, and fitness. Once you’ve created an account, click “mix” to save for later, share to the community, or add to “collections” of your own curated content.

FANCY

This site is geared toward thoughtfully designed home goods, apparel, and upscale hipster gear you probably don’t need but might impulse buy (does anyone need a “classic leather apron”?). It’s a curated shopping experience by Fancy editors, with the option to “fancy” an item to save for later. In case you really do need to mull that apron over.

CUT OUT

Cut Out is a handy chrome extension that acts like Pinterest but isn’t actually Pinterest. In fact, they literally refer to it as a “Pinterest board for your Clipboard,” so you can clip what find online into your own personal bulletin board. Download the extension in your Google Chrome browser to save and organize images, text, and videos in a super visual grid for reference later.

ARE.NA

Don’t plan to save any wedding or home décor hacks with this platform. Are.na isn’t focused on products, but it’s a great starting point for cerebral, creative design inspiration and connection. Explore posts or “blocks” grouped via curated channels made by fellow users such as the somewhat vague “inspiration” and “memory and matter,” or choose the “random” option to roll the dice and see which posts pop up. They range from photos of a poster’s sketchbook to photography, and a huge array of creative projects in between. If you see something that strikes you, click “connect” to reach out to the person behind the work. Or post something yourself. It’s Pinterest for creators.

INSTAGRAM

I know, I know, it’s owned by Facebook, and it has a host of problems of its own. But if you’re already on Instagram, try its bookmark feature. You can save posts you might want to come back to and organize them into folders so they’re available for handy reference by clicking “saved” from the menu in the top right corner of your profile.

DRIBBLE

Dribbble is like a Pinterest for design nerds. Peruse designer portfolios via subcategories such as animation, branding, or mobile to find creatives you might want to work with (or just for creative inspiration on its own!).

SOME IDEAS JUST FOR CHEFS

A lot of people use Pinterest as a recipe aggregator. But there’s no need to be reliant on that platform alone—there are several great alternatives to save recipes from across the web, like Epicurious, Food52, and Serious Eats, which all have options to favourite and save tasty concoctions to your personal online recipe box. (Keep in mind you can only save recipes to the sites if they come from them, so you’d have to have a few accounts going at once.)

Paprika is a handy app that goes beyond recipe organizing—you can also interact with recipes you save (like crossing off ingredients or bolding text), and you can make meal plans and grocery lists. And with the ability to save recipes from anywhere, it’s probably the most universal option out there for at-home cooks hungry for new culinary ideas. Another option is the Big Oven app, which has similar meal prep and grocery list features, and also has feeds with editor picks and trending recipes. A lot of sites offer capabilities to make your own virtual recipe box.

HACK THE SITES YOU ALREADY USE

While they won’t tick all the boxes of Pinterest’s usability, there are also handy platforms to save combinations of text and images. If you already use Slack for work, try slacking links to yourself for future reference. Note apps like Evernote and Notion are great options too, if the mental bulletin board you have going needs an assist. Pocket is also a great way to save stories to read later. And Miro is another note keeper and project management platform, but it’s great for visual teams and organizing all your images. One colleague in Fast Company‘s art department says, “I really don’t know how the art team would be doing anything without it.”

BY LILLY SMITH

LILLY SMITH IS AN ASSOCIATE EDITOR OF CO.DESIGN. SHE WAS PREVIOUSLY THE EDITOR OF DESIGN OBSERVER, AND A CONTRIBUTING WRITER TO AIGA EYE ON DESIGN.

Sourced from Fast Company

In News

Brand reputation remains top marketing priority as lockdowns ease

October 7, 2020 No Comments

By John McCarthy.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) has interviewed 344 of its members to discover their priorities as lockdown eases. Brands treaded carefully during the pandemic and, it appears will continue to do so, with brand reputation being the priority for most.

The survey ran between July and August. With brand equity the focus over recent months, sales figures are a side-concern for the majority of marketers.

The Drum explores the research here.

Findings

Brand reputation remained the number one priority for six in 10 respondents, while sales-based activities were sidelined.
The communication of employee and public safety messages came in at number two.
Online sales were the highest-ranked of sales promotional strategies, emerging as a top priority for 15% of marketers.
Discounts and promotions to increase product sales and footfall was a “very low priority“ for the vast majority of marketers (73%). Only 2% said it was their top priority. Generating in store footfall was only a top priority for 3% of marketers.
Things have been tough. One in 10 (9%) of the respondents said that they had been made redundant; a fifth took a pay cut (20%) and that they had (17.5%) taken an enforced holiday. One in six (17%) said they had been placed on furlough during the period of the pandemic.

Analysis

Chris Daly, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, said it is reassuring to see reputation ranked first despite the very clear commercial difficulties right now.
“It is clear that the UK marketing community is not prepared to sacrifice short-term gain for long-term pain,“ he added.
He was concerned at a lack of confidence in promotional activity however: “Marketers have worked hard to maintain customer engagement during lockdown. As restrictions now ease it is key they make the most of this opportunity to help drive the recovery we are all hoping for.”
What state will the industry be in once the furlough period ends? The survey included estimates of the size of the UK marketing industry. It is estimated to employ 415,000 staff, 37,000 redundancies are expected and 83,000 are taking pay cuts.
However, good news may be around the corner. 87% of marketers felt confident or very confident that the marketing sector would bounce back after Covid-19.

By John McCarthy

Sourced from The Drum

In News

Doing These 3 Things Will Make You an Expert, According to a Google Mentor

October 7, 2020 No Comments

BY MINDA ZETLIN,

In a TEDx Talk, consultant David Mitroff explains when and why you can call yourself an expert.

Do you think of yourself as an expert in your industry? You may be more of one than you realize. In an engaging TEDx Talk, marketing consultant, Google mentor, and psychology PhD David Mitroff picks apart the question of what it takes to be an expert at something and when you should start saying that you are — because if you don’t, no one else will.

Mitroff began thinking about this after he gave a talk and two old men came up to him and said, “You’re really funny. You should be a standup comic.”

He wasn’t so sure, but he looked up the definition of a standup comic, and read that it was someone who interacts with the audience and is dynamic and fun. “I do that,” he thought. So he decided to put “standup comic” in his LinkedIn profile. After all, he figured, people who eat ice cream and post about it call themselves food bloggers, so why not?

The town where he’d met the old men asked him to return and give a second talk. On the basis of his previous talk and his LinkedIn profile, they promoted this new event calling him a consultant and standup comic. The presentation went well and the audience laughed. But an old friend of Mitroff’s called him up insisting that he couldn’t call himself a standup comic because he hadn’t performed at places like The Improv. Mitroff pointed out that if you Googled the name of the (small) town where he’d spoken and the term “standup comic,” results one through 10 were about him, on account of the promotion for his talk.

“So when are you an expert?” Mitroff asks. “Is it when others say you are? Is it when two old guys say you are or your friend says you’re not? Is it when you say you are?”

We all know the reasons for not calling ourselves an expert. There’s imposter syndrome, the feeling that your accomplishments are the result of luck and that you’re in constant danger of being exposed as a fraud. If you believe this, then claiming to be an expert only increases your danger of being called out as a fake.

More rationally, you may also be concerned about the Dunning-Kruger effect, a well-known and widespread phenomenon in which people believe themselves to be more expert than they are. “As you start learning something more and more, you realize you know less and less and less,” Mitroff says. “You’ve got to learn more and more skills about it.”

Mitroff is not suggesting that you should declare yourself an expert on fly-fishing, for instance, after one successful fishing trip. Instead, he says, if you want to become an expert at something, do these three things:

1. Spend three years learning your topic.

“After a lot of research, and a lot of time and pain, I believe it takes three years to become an expert,” he says. (He’s leaving aside fields where there’s a set certification path, for instance the four years of medical school followed by a residency required to become a physician.)

“Now does that mean you just wait three years and then say, ‘OK, I’m an expert now’? No, you actually have to do stuff,” he says. Begin by acquiring knowledge, and then keep on learning. “The research shows that experts continue to learn and educate themselves more and more and more, and they surround themselves with other people to become even more expert,” he says. “You don’t just become an expert and stop learning.”

Think about the smartest people you know. I’m willing to bet most of them do just this. Or think about some of the smartest and most iconic entrepreneurs, such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. They spend much of their time reading, studying, and talking to other experts to continue expanding their expertise. If, after decades of constant learning, these guys still don’t know everything they need to, chances are you won’t either.

2. Build your confidence.

Being an expert won’t do you much good if you never tell anyone about it. “You have to believe in yourself,” Mitroff says. “You have to believe in your product, or believe in your service. You have to believe in your community, and you have to believe in what you’re doing.”

If you’ve followed the first step and put in the time to learn your topic and practice your skills, then you’ve already gone at least some of the way to becoming an expert. Being an expert doesn’t mean that you’re never wrong, it doesn’t mean you know absolutely everything, and it doesn’t mean that other experts will always agree with you. It means you’ve put in the time and work to learn as much about your topic as you can, and that you’re continuing to learn more every day.

So if you’ve put in that time and you’ve learned a lot, own it! Declare yourself an expert. Don’t let naysayers like Mitroff’s friend get inside your head and shake that confidence.

3. Take action.

Your expertise will be of no use to anyone if all you do is sit around saying what an expert you are. So put your expertise to practical use.

As a marketing consultant, Mitroff made an astute observation: Most people who are nominated for awards don’t win them, but the mere fact of being nominated brings them visibility and prestige. Armed with that knowledge, he began nominating his clients and other people he knew for awards in their fields. “Why not?” he says. “They might accidentally win sometimes, but if they don’t win it doesn’t matter.”

Others began nominating Mitroff for awards in return, and he also began nominating himself. Along the way, he got nominated for an award as a changemaker in the city of Oakland, California, a nomination that made sense because, he says, he’s given free presentations to aspiring entrepreneurs and small-business owners at Oakland City Hall more than 60 times.

Did he win the award? No. But, he says, that nomination may have led directly to his being chosen for the very TEDx Talk he was now giving.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

BY MINDA ZETLIN,

Sourced from Inc.

In News

Use negativity at your own peril: Mars neuroscientist on emotional effectiveness

October 6, 2020 No Comments

By Kenneth Hein.

The somber, early pandemic ads with lilting pianos became something of a running joke. But they did raise the question of whether brands can successfully sell while focusing on negative topics. Mars’ consumer insights lead Sorin Patilinet says extensive neuroscience studies show that leaning into negativity often leads to bad results.

Many people have a negative enough reaction to seeing a video advertisement, period. So layering on a narrative that involves negative emotions is only making matters worse, right? Probably, according to Sorin Patilinet, global consumer marketing insights director, Mars, Inc.

The Mars team has been running one of the largest neuromarketing studies in the world these past five years. It has studied more than 700 ads in an effort to determine which evoke emotions that, in turn, build memory structures that are recalled at the point of purchase. Throughout this study, Patilinet has found that eliciting negative emotions is a tricky proposition. Here, he tells us why:

The negativity must be brief

“If there is a negative emotion, it has to be resolved very quickly or be a set up for something to laugh at,“ says Patilinet. “If not, you’re going to lose a lot of people along the way.”

He cites Cesar ’Love them back’ as an example of an ad that performed poorly because the negativity didn’t resolve fast enough.

The brand cannot be associated with down moment

“If negativity is used in a story arc, you want to show the brand at the moment of highest, positive emotion. You don’t want to showcase a brand during the downturn, but instead bring it in as a hero at the end.”

M&M’s ’Eating in bed’ scored well in this scenario.

Short ad formats are tricky for story arcs

“The challenge is that consumers prefer shorter formats where is it is difficult, but not impossible, to build emotional content.

“You have six seconds on YouTube, so there’s basically no time to create a story. We tried continuing a story by retargeting the same person with the next episode. The idea was great, but the execution at scale didn’t live up to the promise.”

You risk damaging your brand

“The worst thing that could happen is you make a negative imprint. Then, the consumer ends up correlating the brand with something negative, which you don’t want.”

Attention for the sake of attention doesn’t work

“We are looking for ‘polite attention’. We aren’t turning your screen yellow and bumping up our logo against you just to grab that attention, because we know that doesn’t help for the long-term.”

Creating ads for the Covid-19 moment is short sighted

“It’s difficult to try and nail creative for the moment. We believe in running executions for a long time rather than jumping on the Covid-19 ad bandwagon. The general truths and the humour we have used for our brands still resonate today. It takes years for a good ad to decay.”

Overall, Patilinet says the reality is that ads are becoming more practical because of the restrictions of the ad duration. “In shorter ads, the level of emotion declines, which is a challenge because we know that emotions that create memories can lead to sales. Creating a three-second Facebook execution is just your logo and a headline. That doesn’t elicit too much emotion, unfortunately. Those are the ads that are actually seen by consumers, not the ones that are featured in the advertising trades.”

Feature Image Credit: M&M’s “Eating in bed” scored well because it resolved a negative situation quickly.

By Kenneth Hein

Sourced from The Drum

In News

Three Steps To Using Automation To Keep Personalized Digital Marketing Alive

October 6, 2020 No Comments

By Anna Luo

Covid-19 has not only drastically changed the way we communicate with each other, but the economic impact of the pandemic has forced many brand marketing teams into a corner — charged with increasing revenue contribution while facing budget cuts. In fact, according to a recent Gartner Inc. survey, 76% of marketing leaders expected budget cuts as a result of Covid-19. These teams are being asked to improve business outcomes with fewer resources.

Bringing Life To Personalization

Brands executing a digital-first or direct-to-consumer strategy must move beyond a one-size-fits-all approach to digital marketing and create messages that are relevant to a consumer’s moment and context. To move the needle in sales, it is important to message more granularly. For example, creating messaging for individual consumers’ interests in specific products (like models or colors) and locations (like open locations vs. curbside pickup).

It is equally important to design specific content relevant to individual consumers regardless of where they may be — like Facebook, Instagram, streaming media or email. This means brands are in need of creating many variations of the content to fit new advertising formats and deliver personalized experiences that appeal to consumers. According to a report by IAB, “50% of digital device consumers will make a purchase and become brand loyal if they receive personalized brand content.”

Right now, many brands are leaning on production teams or agencies to manually design and build creative variations, which can be costly due to the hours it takes to do so by hand. While this method of creative production used to be a brand’s only option, it also meant that the creative outputs were not built in a way that could be easily modified and customized with language and product changes for local brand teams. Automation, however, paves a way for brands to quickly and efficiently spin up new creative variations that add an extra layer of personalization to marketing campaigns.

It Isn’t Just About Spending Less; It’s About Doing More

Automation isn’t just about spending less on production costs. It’s about creating endless possibilities with ad and content variations. It’s a powerful tool that lets us achieve tasks that weren’t humanly possible 20, 10 or even five years ago.

For example, at my company, Jivox, advancements in automation have allowed us to scale personalization for our clients while dramatically reducing production costs. This is done by automating creative versioning across all digital marketing channels (paid and owned) and enabling real-time dynamic assembly, re-sizing and delivery of creative assets. We optimize the best performing creative and the highest performing audience segments to increase the return on investment.

When it comes to personalized digital marketing and advertising, automation through dynamic creative optimization (DCO) technology allows brands to create millions of creative options — versus the hundreds possible through manual creation — that better speak to their audiences on an individual level. This means individuals will receive hyperpersonalized recommendations on products based on context, such as time of the day, weather, location, interests, real-time behavior and many more factors that make them the unique person they are. This increases brands’ chances of converting, selling and creating brand loyalty with those individuals.

How To Get Started With Automation For Personalized Digital Marketing

For marketers stepping into the world of automation for the first time, to those who are comfortable using creative management platforms to automate versions, and possibly using one or two data triggers to personalize creative, there are a few things to consider before taking a leap of faith:

1. Do a self-assessment.

No matter where a brand starts its creative journey, the goal should be to consistently achieve omnichannel personalization using automation. To figure out your maturity level, start with an assessment like the following:

• Are you A/B testing creative without using much data? Are you optimizing a few variations of the ads in the rotation?

• Are you personalizing the creative based on genders, age groups, geographical regions? Do you also mostly use behavior data from your website for retargeting?

• Are you using the creative management platform (CMP) for creative versioning, and data management platform (DMP) for prospecting? Do you run your campaign using more than one channel?

2. Home in on three key ingredients: data, channel and optimization.

There are three key ingredients to effective DCO: in-depth data, a broad array of channels and artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled optimization. True personalization should rely on more than just basic demographic information like age and gender. Establishing in-depth data points, like first-party data and data from your customer relationship management (CRM) software, or contextual data, is key.

When it comes to distributing those personalized messages, it’s also important to create a consistent experience across a broad array of channels — like display, social, video, website, email and more — versus taking a siloed approach to reaching potential buyers. Once you have the right data and channels in place, the last key ingredient is AI-enabled optimization that allows you to evolve your campaigns based on in-the-moment performance, not just when the campaign is over.

3. Choose a partner that’s focused on the future.

The demise of third-party cookies has been a hot topic for what seems like years now. As this change evolves, it’s critical for marketers to choose an automation partner focused on what happens after third-party cookies are phased out. One way to determine if a potential partner has these future changes top of mind is to ask how they’re currently using first-party data to replace third-party cookies, such as data from first-party-based identity.

We can’t expect things to return to the way they used to be, but automation creates a beacon of hope for brands, allowing them to increase output while decreasing the budget needed to get them there to adapt to this new age of business. The way I see it, automation is the key to keeping personalized digital marketing alive.

Feature Image Credit: GETTY

By Anna Luo

Anna Luo is VP of Customer Innovation & Marketing at Jivox, telling global brands’ stories with data, metrics, and business impact. Read Anna Luo’s full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

She Created the Tinder for Clothing. Then a $30 Million Competitor Came Along

October 6, 2020 No Comments

By Jason Feifer

How Madison Semarjian, who created her app Mada in college, is working to out-innovate a giant.

When Madison Semarjian was a college freshman, she had an idea for an app: It would be like Tinder, but for clothing. She imagined the app could use AI to learn her personal style and then pull together outfits from a wide range of retailers. If she liked what she saw, she could swipe right and even buy everything. If she hated it, she’d swipe left.

Semarjian couldn’t shake the idea, so she spent all of college creating it—developing the tech, raising money and signing partnerships with major brands like Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s and Prada. She called the app Mada, and she launched it in January 2020. It was a quick hit with the media and style lovers because nothing like it existed.

But that quickly changed.

One day earlier this year, as Semarjian was having coffee with two of her advisers, she saw a new app appear in Apple’s App Store. It was called The Yes, and had a similar functionality to Mada. It also had major backing; it’s run by the former COO of Stitch Fix and had raised $30 million from investors.

“Here I am, fresh out of school. And here is this industry veteran that has more experience in the industry than I have life on this Earth,” says Semarjian, 23. She was understandably freaked out. “But my adviser turned to me in that moment and she goes, ‘Blinders on, Madison.’”

Image Credit: Courtesy of Mada

To stay ahead of her well-funded competition, the adviser was saying, Semarjian couldn’t panic. She needed to focus on her strengths while speeding up her plans for marketing and growth. Here are three major things she did in response:

1. Build strong bonds with customers

When Mada first launched, it did so with a bug. Its product feeds weren’t updating fast enough, so sometimes customers would order something and then discover it was out of stock. “In that moment, I would reach out to them myself and be like, ‘I’m so sorry, this is out of stock, but here are 10 more options that we think you’ll love,’” Semarjian says.

She was stunned by the results. These customers turned into some of Mada’s biggest fans. It made her realize the power of personally connecting with her audience. It also gave her an idea to launch a kind of “style concierge” — someone whom customers could reach out to with any style-related question. She figured she’d develop it sometime in the future.

Then her new competitor arrived, and Semarjian decided it was time to launch the style concierge now. She wanted another way to differentiate herself, and to lock in long-term relationships with her customers. So instead of offering a style concierge as a premium service, she made it available to everyone who uses the app. All someone has to do is send an email and they’ll get a personal response.

The program launched over the summer, and Semarjian says the reaction was immediate. Users became even more engaged with the app and used it longer. And they asked questions she never expected, which gave her even more insight into her users. “One emailed in and was like, ‘I wear the same thing over and over again, and I’m bored but I’m kind of nervous to try something new. Any tips?’” she says.

Her team had many tips.

2. Market smarter, not louder

Semarjian has a modest marketing budget, so she’d planned to use it slowly and strategically. Rather than blow the budget on tons of pricy influencers, she started small with a program that paid regular sorority girls to promote the brand. But once her competitor appeared on the scene, Semarjian decided to step up her game — but remain just as strategic.

Many startups spend heavily and quickly on marketing, hoping to grab as many eyeballs as possible, but Semarjian didn’t want to do that. Even though she was feeling the pressure, she wanted to figure out how to make the most of her marketing dollars. She interviewed a lot of influencers, looking for someone who seemed perfectly aligned with Mada, and eventually decided to run a campaign with one of them. Semarjian figured that Instagram would drive the most attention, but she was surprised at the results. Instagram did fine … but the influencer casually mentioned Mada on her YouTube channel as well, and that triggered a huge response.

“People loved that, versus seeing this very put-together picture on Instagram,” Semarjian says. It was exactly the kind of data she was hoping to get. “I’m glad we tried that, because it completely changed my approach to how we’re going to do influencer marketing.”

3. Listen to customers and rethink assumptions

Every founder has a vision for their company, and this was Semarjian’s: Mada was an outfitting platform. It was special because it created full outfits for people to review.

But then her customers began asking for things other than outfits. “People started emailing to say, ‘I love this new brand that I discovered in an outfit, but can I see all the products you carry by them?’” she says.

At first, Semarjian didn’t like this. Mada was an outfitting platform, after all! But then she realized her error. “I am a planner. I know what I want, and I’m also such a control freak,” she says. And in business, that can be dangerous. “That’s why I’ve made sure to build up a team that has some people who are exact opposites of me, because I love when people on my team challenge me.”

She listened to her team and started expanding beyond outfits. They created a new feature so people can search by individual brand. “So it’s a little bit more of a typical ecommerce experience than just the outfit,” she says.

But users were happy, and that’s what matters most.

Want to hear more of Semarjian’s story?

Listen to her on Entrepreneur’s Problem Solvers podcast:

Feature Image credit: Taylor Jewell

By Jason Feifer

Sourced from Entrepreneur Europe

In News

Podcasts for B2B: how can you cut through the noise?

October 5, 2020 No Comments

By Rebecca Peel.

n the last few years, podcasts have exploded – but you don’t need anyone to tell you that. Every man, his dog, and his competitor have launched a podcast recently, and it’s hard to know where to start.

Podcasting keeps making the headlines, too. Joe Rogan went viral when he signed an exclusive deal with Spotify, and the streaming platform doubled down when they also signed Michelle Obama. In fact, journalists actually listen to more and more podcasts now to source quotes from people for their stories, quotes that are out in the public domain. And to make the case for B2B, one statistic found that there are avid fans of business podcasts in a massive 13 million households.

Podcasts are ideal for brand awareness and managing your personal brand, in an on-the-go, busy lifestyle. How do you get yours noticed in a landscape where the top 0.1% most popular ones reign and the market becomes more saturated every day?

You don’t need to create your own show to thrive in podcast land

People, and brands, launch podcasts on social media almost daily.

While this should be rewarded, people only have so many hours a day to listen to podcasts and don’t always have time for new ones. Plus, you need a lot of spare cash for ads and need to be ready to make a big commitment, having people lined up ready to guest each week.

If you’re starting out, you should dip your toes into the water first. Podcasts are fantastic for small and medium-sized businesses and their executives to grow awareness. By taking part in podcasts and guesting on existing shows, you’ll get:

1. Free advertising/brand awareness

2. Likely a 15-30 second slot to plug yourself

3. To promote yourself as a thought leader

4. See how other people run podcasts, for future reference in case you set up your own later

5. An opportunity to network and connect with key influencers.

How do I become a guest on podcasts?

There’s so many of them out there, it can be easy to become a deer in headlights at the vast number of podcasts available, but it doesn’t need to be scary.

If you start your own podcast, you need to grow it from scratch, develop a long-term content strategy, and invest a lot of time and money. But if you start by guesting on others – they’ve already done the hard work for you!

Research relevant podcasts by searching key terms

As of January this year, there were more than 850,000 active podcasts. The easiest way to filter down to find podcasts that are right for you to be on, to get in front of your audience is by searching for the key terms on your podcast app of choice.

For instance, if you search ‘SaaS’ on Apple, Google, Acast, Spotify etc, it’ll show the shows which mention SaaS in previous episodes, or their titles. Search for your job title, or for your audience base. For example, if your core offering is smart pay solutions, you can search for:

Smart pay
Finance
Young people + money
Retail

There’s also nothing wrong with just searching for top podcasts in your industry on Google, too – but some of these lists may be outdated, and the devil moves quickly, but podcasts move quicker.

Look at their relevance, not popularity

With almost a million podcasts, it’s impossible for them all to have high listening figures – there’s only so many hours in a day. Many should look at the reviews and ratings on the podcast to see how popular it is.

But Megaphone collected data on the US iTunes store which found that 80% of podcasts have no rating listed. Think about podcasts in the same situation as a microwave – who actually leaves ratings? Usually it’s those who think it’s the best microwave they have ever bought and it’s life-changing, or those who actively hate it. The millions of people who bought the microwave and think it’s good won’t leave a review. The same can be applied to podcasts.

You don’t need to guest on a podcast with 100,000 weekly listeners. All you need to do is make sure that they’re relevant. Don’t feel like you can’t ask the host or organiser who their target audience is, just to be sure, as they’ll have more of that data than you will be able to see.

If you do want to see what Joe Public has to say about the podcast, you’ll have a better chance by searching the name of it on Twitter and LinkedIn, where people tend to post about things they enjoy that are relevant to them and to others in their industry. At Hallam, we noticed that The Goat Agency’s podcast, The 30,000ft View, was being spoken about a lot on Twitter, and so pitched Susan Hallam MBE in to speak on one of their next episodes – which they said yes to.

Identify your niche talking point

You want to be seen as the expert, and that won’t happen if you’re just repeating what everyone else is saying.

What can you tell their listeners that someone else can’t? Think of it like a speaking slot – what’s your podcast USP? To identify what your brand, and your people can talk about, answer the following questions which might help you to identify your key talking points:

Do you have any major thoughts or controversial opinions on recent news in your industry?

What are you doing about consumer behaviour changes? Can you offer your thoughts on this?

Everyone’s favourite phrase – digital transformation. What are you doing to cater to it in your industry?

Do you have any major company hacks that you can share which have helped you to become more productive/successful/happier?

Are there any new regulations you can comment on?

What do you see people doing all the time that is wrong or you don’t agree with?

Any cool customer data you can share?

Securing the spot

Search on Twitter. Set up an alert on ‘IfThisThenThat’ which will help you to get alerted every time someone includes the word ‘podcast’ with the hashtag #JournoRequest or #PRRequest. This will save you scanning thousands of tweets a day.

Once you know which podcasts you want to go on, reach out to them and ask. They’ll likely have a website with their contact information, or it will be on their social media. Explain why you like their podcast, and what you can offer to their audience.

Connect with podcast hosts on Twitter and LinkedIn, and follow them on Instagram and Twitter. If you start to interact with them and build up a relationship organically, you’ll likely be ahead of the pack when it comes to securing that coveted spot. Kieran S-Lawler, Head of Content and Social Media at Hallam, was being vocal on LinkedIn, and his connections at Pitch Consultants noticed him. As a result, they invited him onto their podcast.

Thought Leadership 2.0

We all want to be thought leaders, and get in front of our audience. Adding value to a podcast will have people searching for you and your brand after, and one guest appearance can easily turn into ten. Once people hear you on one relevant podcast, they might invite you on theirs.

Guesting on podcasts will allow you to broaden your brand and reach out and build your reputation on the topic in your industry, whether it’s digital marketing, SaaS, hair and beauty, or finance.

It will also help you to increase your exposure and develop personal relationships, There may be an opportunity, should you eventually launch your own podcast, to invite them onto yours – with their raised following, you’re more likely to get a higher number of listeners.

Feature Image: Hallam comment on the growth of business podcasts and suggest that now might be the time to get in front of new listeners.

By Rebecca Peel.

Rebecca Peel is senior PR and content consultant at Hallam.

Sourced from The Drum

In News

Learn to Start Today’s Most Popular Side Hustles for Just $60

October 5, 2020 No Comments

Sourced from Entrepreneur Store

How to use the internet to make more money.

More than 70 million Americans have a side hustle these days. That’s 45% of the workforce! Now, as said workforce is more remote than ever, it’s even easier for people to start side hustles while they’re working from home. The Internet is rife with money-making opportunities for people who have the drive and savvy to identify them.

Want to earn some extra cash? It’s time to check out Online Income 101.

This 13-course bundle covers some of today’s best side hustles, from freelancing and affiliate marketing to selling on Amazon and more. The courses are led by Alex Genadinik, a business coach with expertise in SEO, marketing, and Amazon. He’s a three-time bestselling Amazon author, the creator of top entrepreneur mobile apps with more than two million downloads, and the host of a popular business and marketing channel on YouTube with more than two million views. Genadinik has made a career out of the Internet, and he’ll show you how you can too.

Here, you’ll cover a wide variety of money-making opportunities on the web. You’ll get an introduction to Fiverr, the top freelancing network on the Internet, and learn how to make a splash in influencer marketing. You’ll ascertain how to negotiate to get the best rates for yourself, too. There are courses on building an ecommerce business on Amazon (and growing it using SEO) and even a course on becoming an online instructor. Finally, the bundle takes a deep dive into affiliate marketing, teaching you how to earn passive income by recruiting affiliates, growing a network, and much more.

Want to make more money? The Internet is waiting. Right now, you can get Online Income 101 for just $59.99.

Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners.

Feature Image Credit: Ivan Samkov

Sourced from Entrepreneur Store