What were some of the top stories from the world of marketing and video? Each week with Render Perfect Productions, your video marketing experts in Baltimore and beyond, we’ll take a look at marketing news this week. In this edition, we are covering some of the top stories from the week of February 7th to February 11th 2022.
LinkedIn tests switching off political posts in your feed
What if you could switch off political content entirely on each social platform? Would that improve your personal experience?
For many it would, and while not all platforms are looking to offer this as an option (possibly because it’s one of their biggest drivers of engagement), LinkedIn is, with a new test underway that will provide a way to simply switch off all politics-related posts and updates.
It’s an interesting experiment, which could help LinkedIn boost engagement among its 800 million members. And really, for the most part, political posts don’t fit on LinkedIn – but then again, many people do work in political and advocacy roles which could, theoretically, also be caught up in this cull option, which may impact platform reach and performance for some users and brands.
That’s a keynote, and something for related businesses to keep an eye on, because if enough people do indeed choose to switch off political posts, the impact could be significant – which is also relative to how LinkedIn identifies political content, and potential mistakes in its automated detection.
Influencer marketing is changing
Influencer marketing is evolving into what’s being called “the producer economy” consisting of content creators who seek to build their own media brands that are independent of social media platforms. This push for greater control over distribution also affects brands as they build their own media networks to engage consumers.
By taking full ownership of what they create, producers and brands can work on distributing long-form-content resembling TV channels and shows. They can deliver higher-quality content that builds on subject matter expertise over time and prolong the exposure to their own media brands. But while the approach offers flexibility and greater creator control, it isn’t without challenges. By ditching mainstream sites popular among consumers, creators and brands are gambling with the Wild West of independent platforms and may risk audiences passing them up for content already available on their preferred social apps.
Changing how we measure viewership
NBCUniversal has two marquee events this month, the Winter Olympics and Super Bowl, that still maintain power to generate viewer and advertiser interest, despite changes in consumer behaviors. But figuring out exactly how many people are watching the games — and the ads — across its portfolio speaks to ongoing issues with measurement the company and other media conglomerates are looking to solve as the video landscape becomes more fragmented across platforms that include broadcast, digital, CTV and beyond.
Despite a large swath of the TV advertising market questioning its long-running faith in Nielsen for accurate measurements, industry sources expect a very small percentage of ad deals this year to use alternative ad currencies. But by next year, a new measurement could be in place, which suggests the pace of experimentation, M&A and changing alliances could be dizzying in the months ahead.
To get to that point, all the alternative services will need to be tested by all the networks, along with blind tests by groups like CIMM, in addition to getting accredited by industry watchdog Media Rating Council (MRC). The fact that media conglomerates are incentivized to solve the measurement problem by integrating services could help the process along.
Instagram goes live for Valentine’s Day
Instagram’s taking another step in its growing eCommerce push with a new Valentine’s Day live-stream shopping event, featuring a range of platform influencers and brands.
As explained by Instagram:
“After the year we had, this Valentine’s Day is the perfect excuse to treat yourself and your loved ones to your favorite beauty, food, home and accessories brands – join us for a live shopping event, and explore our hand-picked collections of the hottest gifts trending on Instagram.”
As you can see in the post above, the main shopping stream will be hosted by Paige DeSorbo, who has 658k followers in the app. DeSorbo also hosts weekly fashion streams on Amazon Live, so she’s an experienced presence, which will help Instagram maximize its Valentine’s Day shopping push.
DeSorbo will also be joined by Celebrity stylist and reality star Brad Goreski (787k followers), Makeup artist Kelli Anne (128k), Reality stars Uche Nwosu (247k) and Clinton Moxam (409k) and more.
The event will essentially act as a showcase for Instagram’s evolving live shopping tools, which it’s hoping to use as a lure to get more creators posting to its app, as opposed to TikTok, by offering greater reach and monetization potential, along with increased exposure.
About Render Perfect Productions:
Render Perfect has been built from the ground up to service growing businesses and help them realize their full visual storytelling and digital marketing potential. We’ve created a service offering and skill-set that spans video production, post-production, motion graphic design, 3D animation, web development, and video marketing strategy. Our insight and experience allow us to help clients make better planning decisions and get more out of their video production effort.
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