The Silent Film Returns — on Social Media – The New York Times

Media evolution repeats itself, borrowing from the past to find a future.

The summer’s hottest destination for video entertainment is a U.K.-based social media brand called LADbible. In July alone, the viral clips that churn out of its Facebook page were viewed more than 3 billion times. Though the site is nominally branded around young British men, its offerings hold an oddly universal appeal. On a recent afternoon, it served up videos of a guy accidentally hitting himself in the head with a baseball bat; a pizza being made out of French fries; a dog bathing in a Jacuzzi; a woodworker crafting a salad bowl; a tourist riding a slide down the Great Wall of China and a manatee kissing a snorkeler.

Source: The Silent Film Returns — on Social Media – The New York Times

Why don’t facts matter? (opinion) – CNN

It’s important to remember that these studies don’t define us, but it is certain that we suffer from many biases. The headline on this story makes it an all-or-nothing proposition. But storytellers know there is truth in what Tali Sharot writes.

The very first thing we need to realize is that beliefs are like fast cars, designer shoes, chocolate cupcakes and exotic holidays: they affect our well-being and happiness. So just as we aspire to fill our fridge with fresh fare and our wardrobe with nice attire, we try to fill our minds with information that makes us feel strong and right, and to avoid information that makes us confused or insecure.

Source: Why don’t facts matter? (opinion) – CNN

Data scientist skills range from data prep to storytelling – TechTarget

“Ninety percent of data science is ETL [extract, transform and load] — the data wrangling aspects,” said Michael Li, founder and CEO of The Data Incubator, a data science training organization, during a presentation at TDWI Accelerate. “Focusing just on the analytics layer is not going to deliver the value and the insights you are looking for.”

It takes many different kinds to tell a story. Data science is exposing more, massively more, raw material for stories. However, automation will reduce the current workload from 90 percent on ETL (data prep and staging for analysis) toward interpreters and artists who work with data to tell stories.

Source: Data scientist skills range from data prep to storytelling

‘Ad fatigue’ drives viewers to on-demand TV | News | Research Live

Your audience grows tired of your ads. The independent producer — what has become popularly known by the industry jargon “showrunner” now holds more power to choose their channels and collect much of the subscription revenue. Marketers need to find ways to subsidize paid TV that provides subtle reminders to the viewer that they got the programming for less, or free.

In an important way, we are back to the dawn of television, when advertisers “presented” shows as a way of earning favor and attention. The Texaco Star Theatre, for example, that gave the world Uncle Miltie, was a transitional effort when, like now, the audience’s attention was ripped away from “traditional” media, such as radio and newspaper, which were only 30 and 250 years old, respectively.

Forty one per cent of respondents in On Device’s latest survey said that sitting through fewer ads was part of their motivation for watching paid on-demand TV services such as Netflix and Amazon, rather than old-fashioned TV.

Source: ‘Ad fatigue’ drives viewers to on-demand TV | News | Research Live

Influencers can also be poisonous

AdAge laments the risks of working with influencers. The problem here, even if “PewDiePie” has 60 million subscribers, is that he is not interested in the brands that sponsor his shows — he’s more like a television-era exec who thinks the only thing they provide to viewers is a distraction. In fact, people care about whether they support messages that align with their values.

“The fallen YouTuber known as PewDiePie, Felix Kjellberg, with nearly 60 million subscribers, used the “N-word” when his gameplay went poorly during the live stream. The slur was just the latest offensive outburst by Swedish-born Kjellberg, who lost a deal with Disney‘s Maker earlier this year for making anti-Semitic jokes.”

PewDiePie had 60 million viewers, but what will his numbers be next year? If they will be up, because people flock to the use of racial slurs, are those the right people to be engaged with? Brands need to genuinely engage and vet their influencers. Providing clear-cut guidance to consumers about the influencer’s role as a marketer on behalf of the brand is essential to consumer trust.

In fact, the FTC will make this a requirement, and the crackdown has begun. Brands need tools that connect them to traffic, but also that clearly delineate the relationship of the influence to the brand. Cutting off an influencer when they egregiously attack values the brand supports is one step, but basic public standard for disclosure of influencer relationships will also force brands to think more carefully about who they engage to speak to audiences.  Against that backdrop, we can intelligently judge companies’ social intentions as consumers.

 

Is Your Brand Compass Pointed In The Wrong Direction? — MediaPost

The kernel of a narrative strategy starts with the company, the people and processes it relies on to reach customers, and only then, the brand it wants to express through them. Tell your own stories internally to discover what stories you must tell externally to engage and keep a customer.

Marketers need to recalibrate and focus on understanding their own brand instead of pandering to Millennials (or any consumer, for that matter). Time and effort are better spent really understanding what their brand stands for, why they exist, and what they believe in beyond profits. (Special shout-out to Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why” philosophy.) It’s simply flawed logic to make the consumer — even the holy-grail of all consumers, the Millennial — a brand’s North star.

Source: Is Your Brand Compass Pointed In The Wrong Direction? 09/11/2017

Why Brands Need to Tailor to Each Social Platform to Win – Adweek

Media mix involves selecting the right message for a medium, coordinating messages across media to reinforce basic concepts, and choosing useful points of entry for customer engagement by media. Sometimes, for example, a short Snap ad could lead to a deep customer experience on a site or in an app — at which point the relationship turns into a transaction. Media are like steps between levels in a home, they can be arranged in many ways.

Besides thinking about the type of content that will perform well on each platform, brands also need to think about the length and visual style of each soundbite.

Source: Why Brands Need to Tailor to Each Social Platform to Win – Adweek

Apple and Nike Top the List of Millennials Favorite Brands | CMO Strategy – AdAge

Effective and inclusive Millennial advertising adds to the customer’s brand by extending their values into product and service purchases.

Basically, a brand has to improve a millennials own brand, whether it’s making them appear to be socially responsible (think TOMS or Warby Parker), stylish-looking or even help them be funny, if they can share brand content with their networks.

Source: Apple and Nike Top the List of Millennials Favorite Brands | CMO Strategy – AdAge

Not Even Twitter Knows When Brands Should Stop Tweeting | Digital – AdAge

This week, for example, is proving to be a risky time for brands to use Twitter to share a silly meme, playfully “clap back” at a customer or riff on a made-up holiday. The platform has been filled with outrage and terrible news since white nationalists and supremacists clashed violently last Saturday with opponents in Charlottesville, Virginia, and President Donald Trump blamed “many sides.”

Source: Not Even Twitter Knows When Brands Should Stop Tweeting | Digital – AdAge

Airbnb Is Deactivating Accounts Of People Trying To Attend A White Supremacist Rally — BuzzFeed

Here’s a real-world example of a corporate narrative taking a stand against hate speech. It will surely be controversial, and the targeted group, white supremacists, are going to complain loudly. There will be boycotts. AirBnB seems to have the nerve to live its principles, but this will be a real test of the unification of personal and corporate values.

In anticipation of a white supremacist rally scheduled for this Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia, Airbnb has started deactivating accounts of people it believes are booking units to host gatherings related to the rally.

Source: Airbnb Is Deactivating Accounts Of People Trying To Attend A White Supremacist Rally