An Ignoble Experiment: The balancing act of brand, user-generated content

Created for ignoble.experiment@arconati.us | Marketing manager at Amex

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March 29, 2021

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The Big Story

The balancing act of brand, user-generated content

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Brands competing against user-generated content on social platforms would be wise to consider tapping "ordinary users for inspiration, participation, and viral distribution," writes Debra Aho Williamson. The key is using social listening to spot general trends and brand discussions to spark user-generated content ideas and employing "guardrails" to avoid brand safety mishaps.

Full Story: eMarketer (3/26)

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Connecting & Collaborating

Facebook Shops gain favor as brand-building tool

Larger advertisers are beginning to tap Facebook Shops as a marketing tool to engage with its 250 million active monthly users, but its lack of direct sales capacity makes it a more valuable "showroom" to drive website traffic, writes Erika Wheless. "Facebook and Instagram Shops are good platforms to represent your brand ... But as a conversion platform, not so much," said Carlos Jorge, Fivestory's director of e-commerce.

Full Story: Digiday (tiered subscription model) (3/29)

Simple tips for maximizing YouTube Shorts engagement

YouTube Shorts' head of global content strategy, Madisen Dewey, highlights the value of its new vertical video tool in beta testing for content that's less than 60 seconds, the various creation tools available and how to utilize its biweekly Shorts Report for Shorts trends and tips. The latest Shorts Report suggests marketers focus on a relevant event or trend to enhance engagement, produce concise storylines and focus on educating or entertaining the audience.

Full Story: Social Media Today (3/26)

How B2B marketers can maximize LinkedIn features

Sherry Chiger offers advice and best practices on how business-to-business marketers can maximize three of LinkedIn's latest features -- Stories, Polls and Sales Insights. Use Stories to humanize B2B brands by sharing behind-the-scenes or client testimonial videos and employ Polls to interact with prospects and build a more in-depth understanding of your audience, Chiger writes.

Full Story: Chief Marketer (3/26)

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Marketer Moments

VMLY&R makes bacon-scented laces for Oscar Mayer

(Pixabay)

VMLY&R, with Black Ops Productions, has created shoelaces that smell like Oscar Mayer Hardwood Smoked Bacon. People can enter to win one of the 1,500 shoelace pairs by tweeting #Sweepstakes and #OscarCookMyKicks.

Full Story: Adweek (3/26)

Haagen-Dazs, Lena Waithe spotlight diverse talent

Lena Waithe, producer of works including "The Chi," is teaming up with Haagen-Dazs on "#ThatsDazs" to encourage creator diversity in a campaign running across digital, television, print and other platforms. Haagen-Dazs has pledged $1.5 million to support creators from traditionally marginalized groups over the upcoming three years.

Full Story: Marketing Dive (3/26), Adweek (3/26)

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Platform News

Twitter appears to be moving forward with community chats

(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

A reverse engineering expert recently spotted Twitter's foray into Communities in the back-end code of the platform. The social media site recently provided an industry preview showing how Communities will let users send tweets to specific pre-selected audiences.

Full Story: Social Media Today (3/26)

Microsoft eyes Clubhouse market with Discord bid

Microsoft is reportedly in the midst of ironing out a deal worth $10 billion or more to purchase Discord, a Clubhouse rival offering text, video and voice chat services for 140 million monthly active users. Microsoft had been in contention last summer to purchase TikTok, but has since shuttered the effort.

Full Story: The Wall Street Journal (3/25), eMarketer (3/26)

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Social Shareable

CarMax's new ad with Curry, Bird goes viral on Twitter

A CarMax spot starring the NBA's Stephen Curry and the WNBA's Sue Bird has gone viral on social media, so far attracting 1.5 million Twitter views. The ad shows Curry correcting a CarMax salesman who talks about selling a car to a four-times champion, only to realize the salesman is referring to Bird.

Full Story: UPROXX (3/28)