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 March 7th to March 11th 2022.
LinkedIn Adds ‘Future of Skills’ Data Tool
This is interesting – this week, LinkedIn has launched a new ‘Future of Skills’ interactive tool, which enables you to dig into the latest skills trends for any job role, in order to glean more insight into what employers are looking for, and what people are listing on their LinkedIn profiles for each position.
The new tool, which you can try out for yourself here, enables you to select a country, industry and job title, each of which can be searched by entering keywords into the respective field.
You can then get an overview of key skills trends for each, based on how LinkedIn members have listed such on their profile.
The tool also enables you to more easily view each trend, and check out similar skills which may have changed name, by hovering over any listed skill, which will then show how it’s changed.
It could be a handy research tool, not just for job seekers, but also for marketers and those conducting audience research, as it could highlight potential new opportunities in each sector, based on shifts.
For example, if you’re marketing to artists, you can get an idea of key skill trends in that sector, which could highlight new opportunities to reach these consumers with more focused campaigns – like a tutorial on Adobe Lightroom, or insights on product photography to boost supplementary income.
Google Announces Marketing Live Conference 2022
Google Marketing Live is returning for another year, with Google today sharing its initial plans for the event.
As per Google’s announcement, Google Marketing Live will be held on May 24th, and will feature a mixture of in-person and live-streamed content – though the actual mix is yet to be determined, pending COVID restrictions.
Google’s annual marketing conference has become a key showcase of its latest ad tools, including YouTube ad changes, new ad formats, analytics offerings, and more.
This year, you can expect Google to share more details about its upcoming ‘Privacy Sandbox’ for Android, which will provide more data protection options for Android users, similar to Apple’s ATT update.
Given its own reliance on digital ad revenue, the expectation is that Google’s data restriction options will be less impactful for marketers, but they will be significant, while Google also recently announced the next stage of its effort to phase out web tracking cookies, with a shift to a new topic-based structure for digital ad targeting, reducing the need for individual data collection.
These, as well as other ad updates, will be part of the Marketing Live agenda for 2022, and it’ll likely be worth tuning in, and getting more insight into what’s coming next for Google’s ad tools.
Google says that its Marketing Live keynote will be live-streamed globally, while there’ll also be a range of on-demand, virtual breakout sessions “built to help you achieve your business goals”.
Google will share more specific info closer to the date.
Pepsi Scouts Next Pop Star on TikTok and TV
- Pepsi is partnering with TikTok and MTV to produce a new music competition, “Becoming a Popstar,” premiering on March 24, per information shared with Marketing Dive.
- The show will feature eight artists discovered on TikTok. During five episodes, contestants will also take part in a series of contests in addition to singing to woo the panel of judges that includes Joe Jonas, Becky G and Sean Bankhead. Each week, contestants will create original songs and accompanying music videos that will first air on TikTok.
- The show, marketed as a modern reimagining of the music competition genre, takes advantage of the longstanding partnership between PepsiCo and MTV, while also engaging younger generations by recruiting talent from the popular video sharing app TikTok.
Pepsi has long had ties to the music industry, including a longstanding partnership with MTV and sponsoring the Super Bowl halftime show. The new “Becoming a Popstar” show helps to deepen that association, especially with younger consumers, by going beyond sponsoring content to being a part of developing new programming from the very beginning.
TikTok is an app most commonly used by younger people, with 25% of its user base between the ages of 10 and 19, and 22.4% between 20 and 29. By casting popular creators on the app, Pepsi’s new show will most likely draw in younger generations who are familiar with such creators, increasing brand recognition in this population.
The contest leans heavily into trends that first emerged on the platform, such as a “Duets” competition, where contestants will pair off to create an original song and visual performance. The show also encourages fan engagement through the TikTok app, on which users can vote on their favorite videos each week. Pulling show concepts from the app’s features and collaborative nature aim to convey the influence and impact TikTok has had on culture and the music industry at large. On top of the grand prize of appearing in a Pepsi commercial during the Video Music Awards on June 5, Pepsi will provide a prize to each weekly winner.
The show aligns with Pepsi’s strategy of incorporating the music industry into its marketing. For example, this year’s Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show featured hip-hop artists popular in the ‘90s, and the company recently released a series of non-fungible tokens celebrating music history.
“Becoming a Popstar,” whose name appears to be a play on soda’s other name of “pop,” allows Pepsi to reach a wide audience of young people while also generating brand buzz across two media channels.
Reddit Expands ‘Creator Stats’
Reddit is giving more users more insights into how their stats are performing, with its updated ‘Creator Stats’ dashboard now being made available to 90% of users via the desktop version of the app.
Creator stats will be made available after a post has received at least ten views, and will be viewable by the original poster and by moderators in each community (relative to where you post).
“This information will help moderators understand the type of content that can grow and develop their communities. This can help users understand how well their post was received by the community.”
The insights data will expire after 45 days, so there won’t be a major backlog of performance data available. But it could be a valuable, interesting addition for Reddit users, in order to get an idea of who’s seeing their posts, especially users that are viewing their content and not voting or commenting.
The move is part of Reddit’s ongoing effort to upgrade and refine the platform in order to attract a broader audience, and maximize its revenue opportunities. Reddit has 52 million daily active users, and has undertaken significant work to clean up the platform, by removing its most controversial communities, while it’s also added new video tools and new ad options, in line with usage trends.
Ideally, that will eventually help Reddit shift habitual behaviors in the app, and make it a more attractive ad option – though it probably still has a way to go to in generating significant advertiser interest.
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.
604 E Joppa Road