Getting work done today is very hard for me because I just found out that there’s a guy out there who looks exactly like Robert Pattinson. Anyway, here are some must-read articles.
Bridging the digital and real world divide usually means bringing more of the IRL to the Web. It’s telling how the reverse is happening now too. Burberry is redesigning its physical stores in order to make them more like its Web experience. This is a trend we can expect will continue as people cease to clearly differentiate between digital and physical. (The Guardian)
Brands and startups are doing a strange dance. The worlds most occupy are completely foreign to each other. Life moves fairly slow at most brands, which are established businesses that don’t turn on a dime for good reason. Startups are the opposite, often moving so fast because they’re motivated to get hot and get bought. Can’t we all just get along? Pepsi certainly thinks so. It has embedded a digital marketing employee at WeWork, former home of Digiday. (AdAge)
Google may finally get some competition in the search space, and this is a good thing for brands. Mark Zuckerberg is saying Facebook is ramping up its social search focus, since it already processes over a billion searches a day without even doing anything. One way Facebook could monetize is paid search ads. We’ll have to wait and see. (BusinessWeek)
Marketers are really worried about engagement on social media, more so than social ROI. We are finally getting somewhere. A few months ago we were at a point where every brand was lamenting social’s lack of ROI and was, therefore, missing the whole point of social. It’s all about engagement, aka interactions. (Forbes)
One marketer’s loss is another’s gain rings ever true in this article. Apple isn’t running video ads to promote the iPhone 5, and so Samsung is prospering as a result, with tons of videos promoting the Samsung Galaxy phone. Video is so important in this day and age, when the value of sight, sound and motion for selling product is so very important. (Business Insider)
More in Media
Amid ban uncertainty, TikTok’s role in brands’ social presences has decreased
Even if TikTok finds a path forward in the U.S., brands and agencies that were previously focused on the platform have learned that this approach is vulnerable to the whims of platforms and regulators.
Digiday+ Research: Subscriptions and events gain steam among publishers’ most significant sources of revenue
Direct-sold ads continue to be the dominant source of publishers’ revenue as we move out of the first quarter. But other revenue sources are gaining in importance, particularly subscriptions and events.
Media Briefing: Apple News ad monetization still ‘abysmal’ for some
Publishers still can’t make meaningful ad revenue from Apple News despite its push to sell more ad inventory.