There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

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🚀 Roblox-verse: Invisalign’s Roblox activation sees over 2 million users. The company’s head of marketing shares what was considered when creating the virtual world and what he’s learned since its launch.

💡 TikTok-ing: The best ads we've seen on TikTok + why they made us tap the link.

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Despite backlash, Netflix has announced this as a move that will diversify and broaden their audience. “We at Netflix have a huge opportunity ahead to grow our viewing and to attract more subscribers, and part of that is having a wide range of price and plan options for different viewer needs,” Greg Peters, Netflix’s COO and chief product officer, said during a press call Thursday.

In regards to how the advertisements themselves will work, ads will be divided into 30- and 15-second spots, and average 4 to 5 minutes, the same ad load that will be featured on Disney+’s upcoming ad-supported offering. The ad spots will be placed pre and mid show.

At launch, Netflix will have “hundreds of advertisers” worldwide, Gorman said during the press call, and there’s very little inventory left.

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Every time I see my dad in a new item of clothing or with a new dad-like gadget, I ask him where he sourced it and he enthusiastically replies ‘the Instagram!” A new report from Accenture estimates that 50% of US adults made a purchase via social media in 2021. Well, I’m not surprised. 

The report focuses on social commerce and predicts the industry will grow three times as fast as traditional ecommerce, more than doubling from $492 billion worldwide in 2021 to $1.2 trillion in 2025. US social commerce sales are expected to reach $45.74 billion by the end of this year (which is in only two months!) with more than a half of the country’s adults making a purchase on social media.

According to Accenture, those of us who hadn’t made a social media purchase cited a variety of reasons, including preferring to deal directly with a retailer (44%), distrusting platforms with payment information (43%), and being unsure if the products shown were legitimate (33%). I agree with them on that one - we’ve all seen those memes and TikToks accurately depicting that feeling of when you see an item online versus when it arrives looking very much unlike its shiny thumbnail…

Go deeper (4 min. read)

Entertainment comes first, the product comes second:

• People open TikTok when they’re looking for an entertaining escape. A great example of this is Nerf. To celebrate the launch of their new Hyper, they launched a TikTok campaign. 
• #NerfHyperTourney was TikTok’s first-ever interactive Nerf battle. By bringing on a handful of influencers as “team captains” and engaging Nerf super fans to participate in a series of challenges over the course of three months, we showed all the incredible product specs in action. Nerf saw a 348% increase in followers on the @nerf TikTok handle due to the tourney.

Don’t just participate in a trend for the sake of participating. Participate in trends that make sense for your brand and your brand’s story:

• TikTokers are smart and they can easily tell when brands are trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. If your brand can find an easy and authentic way in for a current trend, go for it, but if your brand can’t, then all good. Skip it this time and wait for the next hot trend. Trends come and go every day, and you’ll be able to participate in relevant trends more often than you may think.

If it’s safe, it won’t be cool:

• Content that is safe typically doesn’t stand out to viewers. It’s seen for a moment before being lost in the endless scroll. The challenge is to create content that isn’t safe (we’re talking riskier and edgier, not dangerous!) but is still relevant to your brand and engaging to your target audience.
• Having this sense of self-awareness and poking fun at your own ad and/or brand can be scary, but it humanizes your brand in a way that resonates strongly with Gen Z.

• ColdPlay partners with DHL for a sustainable tour that matters.
• Meghan Trainor is launching a music video in Candy Crush.
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