SOCIAL MEDIA

Twitter Spaces, Now at 50% Indoor Dining Capacity

This just in: Twitter is taking its Clubhouse clone to the next level. Today, Twitter said Twitterati members with 600+ followers can host Spaces, the platform’s live audio chatroom feature. You know what that means: It’s open to a wide variety of brand Twitter accounts now. 

• Spaces also basically just scaled from a living room game of Dance Dance Revolution to a pre-2020 music festival. Before, only a small group of celebs (hi, Taylor Swift) and beta testers had access to hosting privileges.
• Twitter also shared a few Spaces features that are still in the oven. One is ticketed Spaces, in which hosts can actually sell tickets to their discussions. Per Twitter, hosts will be able to set ticket prices and keep the majority of revenue. 

Why it matters

Twitter has been plugging Spaces as a more inclusive alternative to Clubhouse. But despite the brand safety pitch and increased accessibility, some argue that Clubhouse and Spaces have yet to become part of the core social channel rotation for marketers. Perhaps that’s because they aren’t sure if their audiences are into the whole live chatroom trend...and if they’ll still be interested in a post-pandemic world.

A marketer’s take: “My biggest advice for brands [testing out new platforms] is first and foremost, guide yourself by research. You really have to know your audiences, know where they are, and then decide,” ALSAC CMO Emily Callahan told Marketing Brew about researching Twitter Spaces and Clubhouse. ALSAC is the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. 

• “Just because something's new or cool doesn't mean it's necessarily right for your audience. People get excited about the next greatest thing, [but] direct mail might be the very thing you need for your audience,” Callahan continued. 
• She added that above all else, she’s a big believer in understanding your brand, doing the research to know where your audience is and who they are, then engaging. 

Where the magic research happens: Callahan’s team is taking lessons learned from testing out TikTok into its Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces trials.

• “There was a ton of secondary research out there that we could go get for free and read and study. But then a big part of it was [that] we participated,” she said.
• “Our teams who are advising in the strategy participated and explored the platform [and] really paid attention to who was popular [and] what they were talking about.”

Bottom line: Yes, the Twitter Spaces vs. Clubhouse race is heating up—but it’s important to slow down and figure out where your audience is before letting a few fancy new updates carry your brand to somewhere it might not belong. — PB

UPFRONTS

NewFronts on the Block

The cool kids are taking the stage. Today marks the start of the four-day Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) NewFronts, where platforms like Roku, Amazon, and YouTube try to convince media buyers why marketers should throw ad $$ their way. Later this month, the big TV networks will do the same dance at the upfronts. 

It shouldn’t be too hard a sell. Even though it still reaches millions of people, linear TV viewership slips every year. And TV ratings have been particularly bad over the past year, partly due to the pandemic and its effects on things like production. Streamers, on the other hand, did well in 2020. 

So who will be at the NewFronts?

• It’s Amazon’s first time at the rodeo. So far, it’s announced more inventory for its Fire TV, including “sponsored content rows.”
• Snapchat’s looking to drum up interest for its Snapchat Originals content.
• And NBCUniversal’s going too, pitching its Peacock platform, which just announced it hit 42 million subscribers in the US—even if we don’t know how many are paying.

Slice and dice

What’s slowing the great migration to streaming? Well, cost is one hurdle.

“Streaming inventory is still more expensive than linear inventory,” Group M’s Bharad Ramesh, who does research and analytics for the media agency, told Marketing Brew. “It’s like going from gasoline to solar.”

Plus, it’s complicated. Asking a brand to spend money across 10-12 different platforms (as opposed to a handful of big TV networks) comes with its own issues. As marketers aim to be more data-driven, they want to know the impact of each dollar across different platforms, and that can be hard to measure. 

“I’m looking for data and measurement models that’ll allow me to move to non-TV options with more confidence. Otherwise, each of them is a walled garden,” Ramesh said.

Zoom out: For now, the traditional upfronts are still the big game in town for advertisers. But marketers are increasingly eyeballing NewFronts inventory. — RB

SPONSORED BY ATTEST

Here’s an Insight: Do the Unexpected

When D2C flower brand Bloom & Wild was planning their Valentine’s Day 2021 campaign, they easily could have gone the default route, which in the flower biz means cranking out red rose sales. But instead, they turned to Attest to find out—get this—what consumers actually wanted.

What those consumers said: Roses? For Valentine’s Day? Snore. Consumers offering feedback through Attest surveys said they thought those crimson bloomers were a big ol’ cliché. 

So instead, Bloom & Wild sold no red roses, and had its most successful Valentine’s Day yet, with sales up 4x and 51% more press coverage. 

Not only did Attest’s surveys inspire Bloom & Wild to take a risk, it gave them confidence that the risk would pay off. 

Take risks in your campaigns, informed by what consumers actually want. 

Find out more about Attest here. 

CAMPAIGNS

Noid Noise

Some mascots are beloved by all—fixtures of Americana. Some make you want to punch a wall. We think Domino’s “The Noid” is the latter.

Huh? For starters, Domino’s released its “Avoid the Noid” campaign in the late ’80s. The “Noid” in question was a creepy villain who made life difficult for Domino’s delivery drivers faced with the franchise's 30 minutes or under promotion, which was wildly popular at the time...but resulted in reckless driving, crashes, and injuries (one of which led to a lawsuit that cost the franchise millions). 

The Noid was also connected to a hostage incident at a Domino’s restaurant, which takes up a sizable chunk of the mascot’s Wikipedia page. 

So, it’s a wonder the brand brought the ’80’s fixture back last week. Now, he’s disrupting the brand’s new autonomous delivery vehicles.

“We just trusted our guts that there’s just a love and a nostalgia that would make this successful,” Kate Trumbull, Domino’s VP of advertising, told Ad Age. “It hasn’t gone away in culture and people’s psyches and minds.”

Our take: It’s risky to try and cash in on nostalgia if your brand (and mascot) has a bit of a shady past. Maybe Domino’s thought people would forget the bad and remember the good? But Marketing Brew forgets nothing. — RB

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Apple heads to court with Epic Games today over its alleged app monopoly.
• The Association of National Advertisers is studying the murky world of programmatic advertising.
• Verizon is selling Yahoo and AOL (who and what?) to a private equity firm for about half what it paid for them.
• Facebook is working on completely encrypted messaging.

SPONSORED BY ROKU

This stream is strong. Roku is America’s #1 TV streaming platform, and when you advertise with them, they can help you reach an estimated 148 million people. And you’ll be in good company: Nine out of 10 Ad Age 200 brands have chosen Roku for their advertising needs. It's one of the smartest ways to reach cord cutters. TV starts here.

FRENCH PRESS

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

PPC: Open the door to data city and read about the six most important key performance indicators (KPIs) that pay-per-click (PPC) advertisers should be tracking (LOL) (BFF) (GTG). 

Sosh meeds: Anyone who's been doing this whole marketing thing on social media since March 2020 probably needs several mental health days. Check out these tips from five social media managers on how to protect your mental health in this always-on profession.

Holidays: Bad news: You can’t make those Justin Timberlake “It’s gonna be May” jokes anymore because it is, in fact, May. Good news: You can pop into this calendar for all the other meme-able holidays coming up in the next 30 days.  

Better live: DTC Day Live is a digital-first, virtual conference featuring the best and brightest DTC brands. Topics will include post-pandemic strategy, brand building, and more. Attend and you could even win a Tesla Model 3. Sign up here.*

AD ANTIQUES

We won’t be in your inbox on May the fourth, so we figured it would be best to get it out of the way now. Also <<<<< Vader Van Kit.

FROM THE CREW

• We reserved complimentary passes to Advertising Week Europe (5/10-13) just for Marketing Brew readers.
• If you refer three (or more!) marketers to sign up for Marketing Brew, you win a ticket.
• Remember: you must use your personal referral link to receive credit. 

ICYMI

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• How experiential marketing agencies are bracing for a return to ‘in the flesh’ advertising
• Facebook and Google report Q1 ad revenue
• CMO tenure hits a new low