#SekereNews

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What Marketers Can Learn from Greta Thunberg

Greta Thunberg is a phenomenon. In just 16 months, she’s gone from an unknown Swedish schoolgirl to addressing the United Nations, meeting with world leaders and inspiring millions to protest against climate change.

While Greta is not a “brand” exactly, she has sparked phenomenal awareness. And brands and marketers can learn something from her. In our conflicted times, they can be inspired by her example to find new ways to grasp consumer attention. Greta appeals to a new breed of consumers. In a world of virtue-signaling and “clicktivism,” she’s an action figure who has decided that just talking about climate change isn’t going to help. She’s unafraid to call out adults who don’t make this stuff seriously enough, even if they’re world leaders. Others are following her example. People across cultures and generations are changing their behavior by being more action-oriented. They volunteer for nonprofits, fund good ideas on Kickstarter, wear fitness trackers and demonstrate to address climate change. These are people for whom doing, engaging and acting is the new badge. They are doers, not talkers. And they engage with brands they see as acting according to their values. In the absence of functioning governments, people want brands that act, help and do. They’re tired of powerful organizations that make empty promises and are instead looking for corporate action. It’s no longer enough for brands to just send their own messaging and wait for people to listen and act. Look at Greta: We’ve seen her demonstrating outside Sweden’s Parliament, meeting the pope, addressing the EU and the UN, giving a TED Talk, contending for the Nobel Peace Prize, gracing the cover of Time magazine and referenced by global leaders.  Her personal mission has become a global mission of gigantic proportions. While the rise of brands is hardly ever as comet-like as Greta’s, it is possible for most brands to have far more impact. Many brands are doing a great job by creating consistent brand moments at scale. However, most brands fail to be interesting or stimulating.   No matter how smart and inspired your brand strategy might be, it’s just strategy. People never experience brand strategies, they experience brand moments. So if you want to become the Greta Thunberg of brands you have to focus on these moments, concentrating on how your brand behaves and the actions you take at every touchpoint. Let’s call it “story-acting” rather than the popular “story-telling.” Take REI”s #OptOutside 2016 campaign, in which it physically closed its doors on Black Friday in order to discourage consumerism and encourage outdoor experiences. In October, Miller Lite encouraged people to unfollow it on social media, as it tries to tackle social media addiction. At Publicis, our recent work for Diesel has portrayed the brand as an outlaw. Its “Enjoy before returning” campaign encourages people to wear its clothes and then return them—something it knows people do anyway. Such campaigns exemplify how a brand story and purpose are more credibly brought to life through action than meaningless statements. So, how do you become a brand of action? First, search for your sweet spot between brand DNA, product strength and consumer tension to inspire marketing actions. Call it your purpose, belief or whatever else you choose. Define the persona who guides all your actions. Be a hero, a caregiver, a creator, an explorer or a sage. Go by archetypes or any other persona model you prefer. Whoever you choose will determine how you speak. Then capture your brand’s actions in an inspirational, behavioral statement to which every creative can relate. This can even work in a crisis. Take KFC’s “FCK” apology ad, which diffused the situation when its U.K. store ran out of chicken. You could even draw parallels with Greta’s reaction when Donald Trump characterized her as “a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future.” She trolled him by changing her Twitter bio to that description. While your brand might not be addressing the UN or meeting the pope, Greta’s attitude can inspire us all.  Source: Adage Read the full article

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Twitter Will Fund the Development of a Decentralized Social Media Standard

Twitter will be funding the development of “an open and decentralized standard” for how social platforms operate, according to the company’s CEO. 

In a tweet thread on Wednesday morning, Jack Dorsey announced that Twitter would be financially backing an independent team of five architects, engineers, and designers to develop the standard, with the goal of ultimately integrating Twitter’s platform as a client. Per Dorsey, Twitter will adopt an entirely hands-off approach to the project, dubbed Bluesky. The effort is being spearheaded by Twitter CTO Parag Agrawal, who will hire the initial team lead. “We’re facing entirely new challenges centralized solutions are struggling to meet,” Dorsey explained in his thread. “For instance, centralized enforcement of the global policy to address abuse and misleading information is unlikely to scale over the long term without placing far too much burden on people.” Aside from tackling the platform’s oft-reported issues over abusive content, this new standard would, ideally, shift the platform’s overall value for its user base away from the current recommendation algorithms, which are built to reward sensationalized or polarizing content that’s imminently clickable, but has garnered bad press for every platform. Second, the value of social media is shifting away from content hosting and removal, and towards recommendation algorithms directing one’s attention. Unfortunately, these algorithms are typically proprietary, and one can’t choose or build alternatives. Yet. The standard, in Dorsey’s words, will ideally “allow to access and contribute to a much larger corpus of public conversation, focus our efforts on building open recommendation algorithms which promote healthy conversation, and will force us to be far more innovative than in the past.” When asked for elaboration, a Twitter spokesperson added that Bluesky is ultimately “about exploring the fullest and most participatory vision of our service.” Source: Ad Week Read the full article

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Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria Names Burna Boy as its Digital Bank Ambassador

Standard Chartered Bank recently announced a new brand ambassador for its Digital Bank. The bank announced that Grammy Nominee and African Giant AKA Burna Boy as their Digital Bank Ambassador.

About Standard Chartered Bank’s Digital Bank

Standard Chartered Bank recently announced its fully Digital Bank. This is a huge milestone for the Bank as it moves towards innovation and productivity transformation in Nigeria. The digital bank was designed with continuous feedback from its clients. According to the bank, the digital bank empowers clients to bank on their terms, whenever and wherever.

Burna Boy is Standard Chartered Bank’s Digital Bank Brand Ambassador

The bank is known to bring disruption to the traditional banking sector and with Burna Boy, as their brand ambassador, they are hoping to bring more disruption. Burna Boy will be promoting Standard Chartered Digital Bank in Nigeria by lending his voice and image rights through a series of Marketing and other engagement activities over the next 12 months. Through the launch of the digital bank, Standard Chartered Bank and Burna Boy hope to bridge the gap between the traditional banking model and the new, digital-savvy generation in Nigeria, aiming to make banking services simple, more accessible and convenient.

Standard Chartered Speaks on the Digital Bank and their New Brand Ambassador

Lamin Manjang, CEO Standard Chartered spoke about the digital bank and their new brand ambassador. He expressed the bank’s excitement to be working with Burna Boy. Manjang called the artist a multi-talented artist. According to him, the star is not only an inspiration because of his musical excellence but also because of passion and commitment towards youth empowerment and placing Nigeria on the global scene. He stated that Burna Boy’s passion for empowering the youths and positively amplifying the Nigerian brand is very much in line with the Bank, making him an ideal partner for this momentous new offering. According to him, going digital also means progression, not just for their business, but also for their clients. Dayo Aderugbo, Head of Corporate Affairs, Brand and Marketing, Nigeria also spoke. He stated that the star was the natural choice for them. According to him, the partnership opens up a great opportunity to contribute to the social and economic wellbeing of the country where they have been operating since 1999. The campaign which Burna Boy will spearhead aims at not only raising awareness for their innovative digital offering but also at further enhancing financial literacy and inclusion initiatives across the country and this is an exceptionally important undertaking for the future of banking.’ Read the full article

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4 Visual Trends That Will Dominate 2020, According to Adobe Stock

Adobe Stock recently released a report detailing the 2020 creative trends. According to the team at Adobe Stock, these visual and creative trends will dominate 2020. To create this report, the view thousands of pages of imagery, reports, news and data. The announcement of the 2020 creative trends was made via a blog post. According to the Adobe Stock, these visual trends  are “deeply connected to larger cultural, economic and social movements that we’ve traced through a multitude of industries.” Adobe Stock’s highlighted four key visual trends. The trends are on topics ranging from inclusion to community to radical self-expression, which will help marketers and advertisers craft campaigns that resonate with audiences.

4 Visual Trends That Will Dominate 2020, According to Adobe Stock

All Ages Welcome Rather than being portrayed as slowing down or needing help, older subjects in advertisements will be represented as “attractive, productive and in their prime.” “Until recently, older subjects were typically portrayed in terms of needing help and slowing down. Even ‘active’ representations of folks over 50 tended to be patronizing or condescending—think frail, little old ladies dutifully power-walking in ads for hospitals or financial institutions,” Milis wrote in Adobe’s blog post summarizing the 2020 trends. “That’s changed, in a big way.” Milis wrote that “every major industry from finance and banking to travel and healthcare has gotten the message that older people expect more authentic representation of their lives and aspirations.” Express Yourself People in 2020 will increasingly demand that brands, politicians and other public figures be authentic, raw, honest and reflective of the diversity in culture. “With Express Yourself, we’re focusing on the way people around the world are sharing more of their raw, honest life experiences online and in public—and demanding the same from brands, politicians and other public figures,” Milis wrote. “This trend is our way of describing the prevalent, new, visual form of ‘inclusivity.'” Makeup Is Not a Mask Personal style is no longer about trying to attain a linear ideal standard of beauty. In 2020, it’s about “breaking all the established rules of beauty in pursuit of authentic self-expression,” Adobe said. “Contemporary grooming focuses on celebrating a person’s unique looks and style,” Milis wrote in the blog post, “and colour appears in expressive, artistic and inclusive ways.” From Me to We Mainly led by Gen Z and millennials, people will come together more than ever in 2020 to meaningful lifestyle choices” will resonate best. support causes, which is why images “presenting a strong sense of community and “When it comes to visual imagery,” Milis’ blog post said, “brands are finding that images presenting a strong sense of community and meaningful lifestyle choices resonate best, creating a quick connection between companies and conscious customers.” The trends are multifaceted, because, as Milis pointed out, visuals need to operate on more than one level. “Creative professionals need to work with topics the speak to viewers’ identities and interests as well as simultaneously knowing which kinds of images capture customer attention and successfully communicate their messaging,” Milis said. Source: Ad Week Read the full article

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YouTube Outlaws Insults Based on Race, Gender Expression and Sexual orientation, with Caveats

YouTube just expanded its definition of banned speech on the video service after months of criticism. The Google unit will now remove clips and comments that make “veiled or implied threats” against individuals or insult people based on attributes such as race and sexual orientation, the company said on Wednesday.

The new harassment guidelines are part of YouTube’s efforts to clean up its platform, which has been plagued by videos that advertisers, users and regulators find toxic. In June, journalist and YouTube creator Carlos Maza publicly accused Steven Crowder, a conservative comedian, of repeatedly harassing him with homophobic remarks on YouTube. The company said Crowder’s videos didn’t violate its policies and didn’t remove them. Employees at Google protested the decision. YouTube responded by pulling ads from Crowder’s videos, sparking accusations of bias from some politicians. “We will no longer allow content that maliciously insults someone based on protected attributes such as their race, gender expression, or sexual orientation,” Matt Halprin, YouTube’s head of trust and safety, wrote in a blog post published today. “This applies to everyone, from private individuals to YouTube creators, to public officials.” Channels that “repeatedly brush up against” YouTube’s policies may be removed from its advertising program, Halprin added. This means that the controversial Crowder videos would now be considered a violation of YouTube’s policies, a company spokesman said. But there are exceptions. YouTube said videos that include harassment languages in certain contexts, such as a documentary or a scripted satire, will not be removed. Neither will clips featuring or discussing powerful people “like high-profile government officials or CEOs of major multinational corporations.” YouTube will decide when videos meet these exceptions or not. Source: Adage Read the full article

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The Peloton Wife is Back in Aviation Gin’s Latest Ad

Peloton released an ad that was the centre of a lot of controversies. The ad was deemed one of the worst ads ever and it spurred a million think pieces and spoofs. Many accused the ad of pandering and being very sexist. The main actresses who are not called the Peloton Girl or Peloton Wife bore the brunt of a lot of the backlash and jokes. The actress who is called Monica Ruiz is back and this time she is the star of an Aviation Gin ad. 

About the Peleton Wife Ad

The really bad Peloton ad stars Monica Ruiz as a wife who gets an exercise bike from her husband and chronicles her year of staying in shape in the weirdest fashion. At the end of the year, she talks about how the bike had changed her life. As you probably guessed the ad was not well received with many calling it sexist and pandering.  In an attempt to build on the Peloton ad fiasco and probably help remedy it for the actress, Ryan Reynolds, owner of Aviation Gin recruited the actress. He decided to have a little fun at her expense in a humorous Aviation Gin ad, which Reynolds has tweeted out. In Reynolds’ tweet, he simply states, “Exercise bike not included. #AviationGin”, and lets the action unfold for the viewer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pShKu2icEYw

About the Aviation Gin Ad

The ad begins with a close-up of Ruiz’s face, much like her wide-eyed shot from the Peloton ad where she looks nervously into the camera before starting her year-long exercise routine. From there, it pans out to show two friends flanking her, not really knowing how to react for 10 uncomfortable seconds as the camera continues to pan back and reveal that the three are sitting at a bar with three gin martinis. Ruiz then breaks the silence by saying “This gin is really smooth.” That opens the door for the friends to tell her that everything is OK and that she’s in a safe place with them. They then cheer “To new beginnings” before Ruiz downs her entire glass in a prolonged chug as her friend offers her another. The action then moves to a glamour shot of the gin in a Christmas setting as we hear one of the friends say, “You look great, by the way,” in a final razz of the Peloton ad. In one more dig, the ad is titled 'The Gift That Doesn't Give Back' which pokes fun of the Peloton's 'The Gift That Gives Back' header. https://youtu.be/H2t7lknrK28     Source: The Drum Read the full article

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Infographic: What (and Who) Influences Women to Consider New Products

According to Nielsen, women consume dozens of hours of media a week. Within that consumption come ads, so the research firm also looked at how ads influence women to try new products in a disparate age of brand disloyalty. Data shows women are really looking for proven value, and are likely to be heavily influenced through recommendations of friends and family. Media that may sway women’s minds include billboards (27%) or social networks (22%).

But advertising is still falling flat with women. Laura McCullough, EVP of U.S. manufacturer client success for Nielsen, describes many changes over the last 40 years. “Women today are more empowered than ever to ask for what they need, to demand change or create it,” McCullough said. “As the pace of daily life has accelerated, women are looking for companies and brands that help them get more done in less time. They crave products and services that simplify their lives, and they want to buy them from companies that actually support their values.” Her advice? Be bold.

Source: Ad Week Read the full article

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‘What’s Your Whisky’: Diageo Launches New AI Whisky Selector to Help People Discover Their Favorite Single Malt Scotch

Diageo recently announced the launch of a New AI Whisky Selector. The latest innovation from the alcoholic beverage brand is called “What’s Your Whisky”. With the “What’s Your Whisky” AI selector, people can discover their favourite single malt scotch.

About ‘What’s Your Whisky’

‘What’s Your Whisky’ is an innovative digital experience which can be accessed via any mobile or internet-connected device. On launching the experience, people are asked eleven questions to understand their individual flavour preferences, such as “how often do you eat bananas?” and “how do you feel about chillies?”. Using new artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, ‘What’s Your Whisky’ analyses people’s preferences for a variety of sweet, fruity, spicy and smoky flavours found in Single Malt whiskies to create their personal “Flavour Print” and recommend a Single Malt whose flavour profile most closely matches the individual’s taste.

More about the Innovative Whisky Selector

The whisky selector experience is launching in nine European countries (GB, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Greece, Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands) and will be available in 6 languages. Source: Brand Sprung Read the full article

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GroupM: Global Ad Growth to Slow in 2020 Due to Weakening Economy

 GroupM’s recently released its worldwide media forecast for 2020. According to the GroupM’s report in 2020 and beyond the advertising industry should anticipate a slowdown in advertising growth as the global economy weakens.

About the GroupM Worldwide Media Forecast for 2020

GroupM’s worldwide media Forecast for 2020 was compiled by Brian Wieser, who joined the WPP company as global president of business intelligence in February. According to the report, global advertising (excluding U.S. political advertising) will end this year with 4.8 per cent growth, down from 5.7 per cent in 2018.  Group M’s report also predicts global advertising will decelerate further in 2020 and 2021, coming in at a pace of 3.9 per cent and 3.1 per cent, respectively. Growth is expected to range between 3 per cent and 4 per cent through 2024. According to the report, the reason for this sluggishness is due to a weakening global economy. “Although much worse than recent years, we note that this would amount to a similar pace of growth to what was observed during 2012-2014,” the report states.

U.S. leads

The report estimates the total advertising market to be worth $628 billion in 2020, excluding outlays on direct mail and directories globally, which would raise that amount to $700 billion. The U.S. remains the largest global advertising market, with $246 billion in spending, GroupM says. However, growth in U.S. advertising will constrict from 7.6 per cent in 2019 to 5 per cent in 2020 and 3.4 per cent in 2021, the report finds. Broken down by channel, the report states that “internet-related advertising is now unambiguously the most important medium globally.” It forecasts $326 billion in digital ad revenue during 2020, up from $294 billion in 2019. Digital will account for 52 per cent of total global ad tally in 2020, the report finds, representing a speedy growth clip of 11 per cent. TV advertising global growth rate will decline to 3.6 per cent in 2019, the report says, excluding U.S. political advertising (and 5.5 per cent including it). GroupM predicts just below $170 billion in global TV ad revenue through 2024. But while its median growth rate was just 0.1 per cent in 2019, the report predicts TV outlays to increase to 1.8 per cent in 2020, “illustrating that there are many countries where TV advertising is still growing.” The streaming effect Streaming continues to gain steam. Netflix accounts for 37 per cent of all streaming consumption on TV in the U.S., says the report, quoting Nielsen. The GroupM report suggests that Netflix has a 5 per cent share of viewing based on the Nielsen data. The company is expected to spend $3.5 billion this year on content production and $5 billion by 2024, per the report. Paired with spending on Hulu, Disney is also anticipated to spend $5 billion annually on content for Disney Plus by 2024. “For the media industry, the question is what media owners’ tolerance for margin erosion will be,” the report says. “For advertisers, some elements of television will worsen because ad inventory is likely scarcer, and reach is likely harder to come by. On the other hand, where advertising does exist in this new world—and many streaming services will embrace advertising as an element of their financial models—it will likely reach more engaged consumers, in potentially more valuable environments.” Combined, TV and digital make up 80 per cent of all advertising, the report says, leaving out-of-home, print and radio. Ups and downs Outdoor holds the most promise of the three with $39 billion in global ad revenue in 2019, according to the report. It predicts out-of-home growth will slow from 5.3 per cent in 2018 to 1.8 per cent in 2019, and then pick back up a bit with a growth of 2.5 per cent in 2020. Radio, worth $31 billion in activity this year, will decline 1.1 per cent in 2019 globally and grow a modest 1.8 per cent in 2020, excluding U.S. political advertising, according to the report. It says print “still struggles,” with newspapers estimated to account for $39 billion in ad revenue in 2019, down 11 per cent from 2018. Newspapers are estimated to decline by 10 per cent every year going forward. Magazines face a similar threat, with the report estimating a decline of 10 per cent in 2019. The takeaway? “Despite these generally unfavourable growth trends, all marketers should regularly assess the opportunities to use media beyond television and pure-play digital in their campaigns,” the report says. “Just because a medium is growing slowly or declining does not mean it cannot be impactful for a marketer now or in the future.”  Source: Adage Read the full article

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How Much Do You Actually Know About Online Marketing?

Take this fun quiz to put your online marketing knowledge to the test.

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5 Marketers Across Industries Share Thoughts on a Potential Recession

Many people in the industry say that they could be a potential recession and it has a lot of agencies, advertisers and practically everyone in the industry and beyond worried. At this year’s Adweek’s Brandweek summit, Adweek asked some marketers what they thought about the potential recession. These marketers shared their thoughts and predictions about the potential recession. Here is what they had to say:

5 Marketers Across Industries Share Thoughts on a Potential Recession

 Nancy Pekala, associate director of content, Grant Thornton Everyone’s concerned a little bit about how deep the recession might be, but I think from our company’s standpoint, what we’re seeing is clients will be innovating their way through the recession. We think they’ll be trying to grow through digital transformation. Shad Shelby, marketing and brand manager, Sage Veterinary Centers People love their animals like their family—98% of our revenue comes from private pay or out of pocket, so they’ll spend money on their pets like they will on their kids... Pets are recession-proof. David Simmons, vice president of brand, industry and influencer engagement, Concentrix Companies are always looking for the most efficient way to manage their business, so it could present an opportunity for us. It’s cyclical. Companies learn to adapt. Michelle Wald, U.S. manager, Tony’s Chocolonely I think chocolate is a total impulse buy. It’s something when they see it, it’s going to solve a good day or bad day. It’s kind of one of things that’s a treat and accessible enough from a price point so not to be something to opt out of. Michael Mancinelli, co-founder and CEO, Jadeo We hope it doesn’t happen, but we’re watching it. If a recession comes, in general, consumers no longer consume. It’s going to upset a lot of people. Source: AdWeek Read the full article

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Tripadvisor Acquires Menu Management Company SinglePlatform

Travel giant Tripadvisor recently embarked on a new journey. The travel giant recently announced the acquisition of menu management provider SinglePlatform. According to the travel giant Tripadvisor, they acquired SinglePlatform to improve its guest experience.

About SinglePlatform 

SinglePlatform offers restaurants a one-stop-shop for publishing and maintaining menus online, an important task with 93% of all diners scanning the food offering before booking a table. The service also offers to share contact details and opening hours on high traffic platforms such as Facebook and Google.

About the Acquisition

The acquisition of SinglePlatform by TripAdvisor will see the service expanding its digital marketing suite and provide the travel portal with more advanced integration of restaurant services for businesses and customers.TripAdvisor currently offers restaurants a range of services to update listing information and respond to diner reviews, although this can go awry as in the case of Pizza Express Woking.

TripAdvisor Speaks on the Acquisition

Bertrand Jelensperger, senior vice president, TripAdvisor Restaurants spoke about the acquisition. He stated that they are obsessed with making restaurateurs' jobs easier and more successful. According to him, their acquisition of SinglePlatform is an important step in offering them a place to conveniently manage their entire online presence across the web from TripAdvisor. He stated that they look forward to bringing SinglePlatform's technology and know-how to a truly global audience to help millions of restaurant owners and managers unlock more digital opportunities. Source: The Drum Read the full article

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Sephora Launches North American Media Review

Adage recently reported that Sephora has launched a North America Media review. According to the advertising online magazine, they were able to obtain an invite to pitch. Adage asked The LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton beauty retailer to comment on the media review reports, but they have not responded.

About the Sephora North American Media Review

Adage stated that the invite was sent Nov. 25 and it also stated that the review will begin immediately. The Sephora North American media review will last for about four months. The document said that the U.S. portion of the review will cover media strategy, planning and buying for all media channels excluding addressable TV. In Canada, the invite said that the review spans strategy, planning and buying for all media channels supporting only its e-commerce business, sephora.ca. The invite included a non-disclosure agreement that prevents agencies from discussing the review with the media. Should the agency accept, the invite read, it would receive an RFI. Here’s what the invite read: "We are looking for a strategic agency partner that maximizes media holding group talents, thought leadership, tools, technology and media buying potential while continuing to drive Sephora's leadership in prestige beauty retail,"

More about the Review 

According to the invite,  Global management consultancy ID Comms is managing the review. ID Comms has also declined to comment. People close to the review said Omnicom, Horizon and incumbent Dentsu Aegis Network are competing, and that the review is currently in the RFI stage. Those agencies declined to comment. A decision is expected to be made in March, according to the people close to the process. Sources close to the review said that the account is worth approximately $250 million. The review does not affect other LVMH brands including Dom Pérignon, Benefit Cosmetics, Marc Jacobs and Céline. It comes slightly more than a year after the French luxury goods conglomerate chose Dentsu to handle all of its North American buying and planning across all brands including Sephora. That decision followed a review that was also handled by ID Comms and concluded in August of 2018. At that time, Dentsu took the business away from Havas Media. Havas Media previously worked with LVMH for nearly a decade. Source: Adage Read the full article

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Essence Cosmetics is the Latest Brand with a Virtual Instagram Influencer

Essence Cosmetics recently introduced its latest Instagram brand ambassador. The cosmetic brand recently introduced its latest Instagram influencer called Kenna. They made this big unveil with Instagram. In the post, we see a freckled, sandy-blond influencer tossing beauty products up in the air. At first glance, Kenna looks like any other Instagram influencer but looking closer you will notice that she is computer generated. With the introduction of Kenna, Essence Cosmetics is the latest brand to get a virtual Instagram influencer.

About Essence Cosmetics Virtual Influencer Kenna

Essence Cosmetics introduced Kenna in a post on Wednesday on Instagram, where the brand has 2.1 million followers. In roughly eight hours, the post saw more than 7,500 likes The cosmetic brand has already created a personal Instagram account for Kenna, @thisis.kenna. For Kenna’s backstory, Essence Cosmetics matched it to their target demographic: She’s supposedly a vivacious, ambitious 21-year-old woman who wears the latest makeup trends and flaunts them on social media. Kenna also cares deeply about issues facing Gen Z, such as environmental concerns. She is also an intern in its product development department, and the brand says she's confronting things that many in her generation face, like living on a small budget and furnishing her first apartment. (It's not clear how many people who saw Essence's post realized that Kenna is computerized.)

The Rise of Virtual Influencers

Essence Cosmetics is the latest brand to tap into a social media trend. Other virtual influencers on Instagram include Lil Miquela (1.8 million followers), who kissed supermodel Bella Hadid in a spot for Calvin Klein and has worked with Prada, as well as Noonnoouri (332,000 followers), who has worked with Marc Jacobs, Dior and Versace. Balmain created digital models for Instagram, including Shudu (195,000 followers), and in April KFC debuted its own virtual Colonel Sanders, who had his own deals with Dr Pepper and Casper on KFC’s Instagram account.  Source: Adage Read the full article

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Home Depot Debuts New Tagline

Home Depot recently unveiled a new tagline. The home improvement retailer is still “doing,” but it’s “doing” a little differently. They are switching up its tagline as part of a broader marketing effort. The new tagline, “How doers get more done,” will replace the “More saving. More doing” line the retailer has used for more than a decade. The change in its tagline aims to showcase its updated digital and delivery options for modern shoppers. 

Why Home Depot Changed Its Tagline

The brand has been making a lot of changes recently. Since 2017, the retailer has invested $11 billion in its operations, pumping up its delivery capabilities and buy-online-pickup-in-store offerings, and improving its mobile app, adding augmented reality and in-store product-locator maps. These enhancements are now in full effect and they want to roll out the updated tagline.  Adolfo Villagomez, senior VP and chief marketing officer spoke about the rollout. “We believe we are ready and that’s why we are launching this new campaign,” he says. “We believe we are going above and beyond to help the customers.” The retailer has already proven its readiness. Earlier this year, its music went viral as part of a TikTok challenge. Home Depot reacted by making its well-known song available to customers by tweeting it out.

About the Campaign for the New Tagline

To help with the launch of the new tagline and to show its readiness the brand is launching a new campaign. The campaign will include a 30-second TV spot that showcases the new digital offerings, along with promotions on social media and in online channels. Lisa DeStefano, VP of brand marketing, notes the importance of keeping the idea of “doing” in the new tagline“Our purpose is to empower doers,” she says. “This grows and expands beyond more saving, more doing … Helping doers get more done is what this campaign is about.” Home Depot worked with longtime agency partner the Richards Group on the update; the two companies have worked together for more than two decades. Source: Adage Read the full article

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Pepsi Unveils ‘We Got Taste” Campaign for December

Pepsi recently unveiled its campaign for December. The campaign is called “We Got Taste” and it is part of the brand’s yearly activities in placing the consumers at the forefront of its brand awareness initiatives. The new campaign tagged: “We Got Taste” was unveiled today at a media session which held at the Seven-Up Bottling Company, Ijora Lagos.

About the “We Got Taste” Campaign

According to the brand, the “We Got Taste” campaign is part of their strategy to own December. The brand’s strategy involves owning December every year for the consumers to have a great and exciting experience. The brand is a brand that understands pop culture and consumer experience thereby combining the functionality of the product with its emotional attribute.

How the Brand is Owning December for Its Consumers

In an effort to own December for its consumers Pepsi will be hosting some of the best shows, parties and concerts. Here are some of such events Pepsi will be Hosting: Pepsi Rhythm Unplugged Livespot X Festival featuring Cardi B, Star Boy Wizkid, and Burna Boy.  Grammy-nominated Burna Boy’s ‘Burna Boy in Concert,’  MeganTheStallion  Teni ‘The Billionaire Experience’  Tiwa Savage with ‘Savage Experience’  Pepsi ‘Star Boy’s Wizkid Live Concert.’ DJ Cuppy’s  ‘Cactus at the Roof Party’  DJ Xclusive’s ‘All White Party’  DJ Spinall’s  ‘Party of your Dreams’

Pepsi Speaks about the Campaign 

 Marketing Manager, Seven-Up Bottling Company, Mr Segun Ogunleye spoke about Pepsi’s December campaigns. “There is a long line of events that will exhibit the true character of the taste that Pepsi stands for, through the intrinsic taste of the pop soda, the dynamic brand ambassadors, and the array of concerts planned out. All these have been put together to give Nigerians the ultimate taste experience this December,” said Ogunleye “Pepsi over the years has owned December with Music +football events which have become a driving force. As a brand we are in the forefront of driving contemporary pop culture, and we have done this again and again and that’s the spirit of what our brand is about”, he said. The Marketing Manager revealed that the new campaign “We Got Taste” which has been premiered on the digital platform received 80% applauds from consumers on the various social media platform. Source: Brand Sprung Read the full article