Perhaps no sector of the marketing industry was more impacted by the start of the pandemic than OOH marketing. But every billboard has a silver lining: Advertisers said the roadblocks that Covid brought with it have helped brands using OOH ads craft more flexible, precise campaigns.

Talk it out: During a panel at Advertising Week New York, Ian Dallimore, VP of digital growth and GM of programmatic at Lamar Advertising, said that the pandemic taught OOH advertisers more about how to collect real-time data as well as the importance of being quick on your feet in putting these ads to use.

• For example, Dallimore said that throughout the pandemic, marketers have been able to find cities where foot traffic was up and buy OOH ads accordingly. After all, in 2020, marketers had to get comfortable with pivoting their OOH budgets quickly due to lockdowns starting and stopping on various timelines in different areas of the country.
• “You may have held off your budgets in New York and LA. But why have them just sit on the shelf? Utilize that data in Dallas, in Cincinnati, in Baton Rouge, and Birmingham,” he said, adding that, with the help of increased attention to data, he saw a “massive shift in funding as brands started to open their eyes” to foot traffic figures.
• “The ability to optimize the real-time [data] should be utilized with creative, like really fast,” Dallimore continued. “One of the things that the industry is doing on our end is print, to production, to post in less than two days,” he said, adding that this not only includes digital OOH, but also static installments, such as the painted walls that Lamar-owned Colossal Media specializes in.

Continue reading here.—PB

If you want to have a career in social media, Shanna Cook might be the person to talk to. Cook, now director of social media and influencer marketing at photo and video editing platform Picsart, has held several social roles over the past 12 years—arguably longer than many of her contemporaries.

Over that time, she’s learned a thing or two at companies like Too Faced Cosmetics, Intel, Nokia, and more.

Marketing Brew sat down with her to glean some words of wisdom about working in social media at brands for a decade plus.

Marketing Brew: What does a typical day look like for you in this role?

Shanna Cook: The mornings always start in meetings for me. Picsart is a global company; we have offices worldwide, so half of my team is actually 11 hours away from me—during winter it becomes 12 hours—so mornings are meetings, Slack, catching up on what happened overnight…Then, I usually will spend the afternoon doing reports, any strategy work like creative sessions, any brainstorms with my team that’s US-based, just to make sure that everyone gets some of my dedicated time.

MB: How many people report to you, and what do they do?

SC: I have five direct reports. Three of them oversee social channels—so they’re creating content for their channels and for each other, posting on their channels, and doing community management. One of them does social reporting, so we’re able to aggregate our learnings every month. But that’s three of them—social media managers/content producers in your typical sense. The fourth oversees our influencer marketing program. The fifth report is our editor of content marketing [who] oversees the editorial blog side.

Click here to keep reading the Q&A.—PB

Future Social is a weekly newsletter on social media, content, and creators from Jack Appleby, a Morning Brew creator who’s worked in social media for 10 years at companies like Beats by Dre, Microsoft, and Twitch. Check out an excerpt from one of his pieces below, and sign up for Future Social here.

I can’t listen to another marketer talk about authenticity. Not because it’s wrong, but because that’s where the conversation usually stops. We nod like Christian and Kermit, agreeing at the oh-so-astute note that marketing should be authentic, followed by absolutely no definition of authenticity.

Authenticity is contextual—it’s defined on a brand-by-brand basis. That’s true on the creator side, too! Movie makers, photographers, and artists strive to define their personal values and style.

The best influencer marketing confidently defines authenticity for both the brand and the influencer, ensuring the audience understands a product’s value in its creator’s words.

Teaching’s easier with an example, so let’s look at Insta360’s smart sponsorship of Casey Neistat’s latest vlog.—JA

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

Image-dot-final-dot-v2: Why the file names you choose for your images could impact your SEO.

Gimme five: Meta released “Performance 5,” a list of data-backed ways to improve ad results.

Inspo: Examples of how to meet marketing goals via email campaigns here.

Trend-spotting: We had our eyes and ears open at Advertising Week—and we noticed more streaming services investing in lean-back programming. Get the full roundup of new OOH trends in our latest article, sponsored by MNTN.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

Marketing Brew is hosting a full-day affair of industry exploration and navigation on November 15 in NYC. Complete with brand leaders, industry connections, and your favorite editorial team — The Brief: A Summit Presented by Marketing Brew is an event that cannot be missed.

Incredible speakers from VMLY&R, McDonald’s, Mischief, and more will take to the stage to tackle the dizzying industry topics we love so dearly. Rebranding, attribution, omnichannel, CTV, social commerce, brand values — we promise to tackle all the buzzwords in Brew-style with some of the most notable brands and individuals. Grab special pricing while it lasts. Register here.

Which headlines are real marketing news, and which one is fake?

1. Mentos taught raccoons to recycle its paperboard bottles
2. Netflix’s pop-up costume shop features looks from ‘Stranger Things’ to ‘Emily in Paris’
3. Pizza Hut will pay you not to share its new melts on social media
4. Tyson’s Twitch series pairs Friday night gaming with chicken

Keep scrolling for the answer.

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

• ‘An equivalent to broadcast:’ Why streaming services are investing in lean-back TV
• Creator management platform Grin removes key functions
• Uber, DoorDash announce ad business expansions