Hey there, Content Connoisseurs and Strategy Savants,
As we inch toward February, are you still captivated by the digital world's ever-evolving dance, or do you find yourself longing for a pause amidst the whirlwind of pixels and plans? If you’re already feeling overwhelmed by 2024’s workload, allow me to simplify this week’s industry news for you. That’s just the kind of friend I am. Read on, dear marketer…
CES is back, baby!
If you didn’t know that CES happened earlier this month, where have you been?! Marketers have long salivated over all the industry tea spilled at this annual conference, and this year’s focus was on streaming ads. Most of the popular streaming services have already introduced an ad-supported tier to boost their profits, and it’ll be interesting to see what happens when Amazon launches their new tier this year. Will that ad you see 10 minutes into the latest ep of Reacher really be what pushes you to buy the hand cream you were eyeing on Amazon yesterday? I know Amazon sees this as an opportunity to capitalize on the advertising behemoth they’ve built, but I think it’ll be more of a learning experience for them. In other tech-giant news…
Maybe we predicted the death of Twitter too soon?
Mr. Beast tweeted that he made more than $250,000 on a single video on X as advertisers scrambled to capitalize on his off-the-charts engagement. He admits that this video may be a red herring, so it’ll be interesting to see if other high-value content creators can replicate his success or if we’ll continue to see brands shy away from The Bird (The X? Idk anymore…) because of their, um, lax content moderation as of late. And speaking of companies that sketch me out…
Temu’s going big on Ads.
They’re spending so much on digital marketing that they’ve driven up the cost of advertising across the interwebs. Which seems a bit overkill for a company that sells $2 shoes… Maybe they have some insights into LTV that I don’t, but I feel like spending $100 to acquire a customer who’ll buy $25 worth of cheap goods isn’t a sustainable business model. Am I bitter because I have to pay more in ad auctions to compete with their cheap, low quality products? Yes, but I’m also taking notes. They may be on to something… Speaking of unfair ad auctions, our friends over at Search Engine Land, ever on top of the latest dirt, have reported that…
Google Ads is threatening to suspend advertisers who aren’t in compliance with GDPR rules.
So make sure your consent banners are compliant, or you may get a bossy email from Google soon. Also, in random Google news, their updated restricted business policy has some weird rules.. For example, plumbers will no longer be able to advertise on Search, Display, or YouTube in the Netherlands. Bad news for Dutch clogged drains! (I’m punny!!). And lastly sigh let’s talk about AI…
Foundation’s State of AI in Marketing report had some interesting insights…
Tldr: an overwhelming 87% of digital marketers are using AI for content creation, but most think it still has a long way to go to compete with human-generated content. I wholeheartedly agree. I use GPTs to help me write from time to time, but I can promise you that if this newsletter were written by AI, it would be way less interesting… at least that's what I have to tell myself to stay sane. The article put it best - “Generative AI represents both the biggest threat and biggest opportunity to [marketers].” Every time I learn about a new AI advancement I get excited, but I also get a little scared…
Before I doom-spiral about AI, let’s wrap up this week’s newsletter. I know I’m a cynic but I genuinely hope this update was helpful for you, my little marketing mavens. Until next week, keep your content charming, your analytics astute, and your coffee strong.
You know you love me.
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