This Week’s Marketing Digest
This Week’s Marketing Digest Broken Down
Social
Pay For Insta? Meta adds UK subscription option - win-win for Meta, can say works and increase revenue per head or say advertising is so critical when it doesn’t work
Meta Chat Ads Meta also is going to use your chats with its AI assistant to improve its ad targeting…
Instagram Tests Opening To Reels as your main feed - the experience is about to be video
Live & Streaming
1m Subs Kai Cenat becomes the first Twitch streamer to reach 1 million.
TikTok Beauty Live Shopping Love - ‘QVC-style’ creators are thriving on TikTok’s Live shopping feature, with many worried about the new app swap over in US. Recently Fragrance was the fastest-growing segment on TikTok live…
Cracker Barrel Logo Saga Continues - Now logo is rolled back their consultancy who helped has been removed, and promoted 3 execs (non from Marketing…)
Podcast Deeper Dive
“Podcasting has clearly captured the cultural moment,” Shapo to The Hollywood Reporter at IAB’s upfront
“People still refer to the ‘podcast election’ for a reason.”
That interest is pushing podcast networks to rethink how they use talent (presenters/hosts), promoting audio shows alongside YouTube and broadcast channels, and, in some cases, leaning into social followings and live events.
“We’re really talking about a new influencer platform,” — Conal Byrne, CEO of iHeart Digital Audio Group, “In podcasting, our influencers are psychologists, historians, researchers, comedians, athletes—telling stories in genuinely new ways.”
Byrne on podcasts “the most compelling, highest-engaged” medium. Americans spend more time with podcasts than with social media.
Branded Experience
Taylor Brand Extensions - Starbucks launched in-store and digital experiences around Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl,” album launch. They have billed it as a global listening party across participating stores while kitting out Nashville Starbucks as Starbies as a vinyl pop-up, with photo booths, friendship bracelets, & glitter-dusted orange-themed cold foam drinks
Starbucks Shrinking: Starbucks are closing 900 stores in the US, The question that should come up for marketing leaders is when brand footprint reduction and vicinity become an issue.
Addictive Lawsuit Apple, Google & Meta are being call to face lawsuits over their addictive apps which has been dubbed casino-style gambling apps
AI
TV Ads OpenAI offense has increased and their TV ads have divided opinions. It’s 90s throwback has split how people
AI Ads Google switches on ads within Gemini / Ai mode
Agentic Savings Honey will be releasing an genetic service (an agent) on Google Chrome to help recommend and save consumers money around Black Friday & Cyber Monday.
AI Slop: Sora 2 was released this week in the US and despite the fun element, it’s raised a lot of issues. Copyright, opting out and AI slop all being issues. Keep an eye out for Sora, Buzzfeed’s island app and vibes from Meta, all AI-only social networks. Expect your feeds to be flooded with AI slop for a while. I suspect Sora 2 is going to be the sticky network for the longest. AI is still very much single player. Once you unlock the connections and shared intelligence, we might have something more connective and more powerful on our hands…
