Every year when April 22nd rolls around, our social feeds become saturated with brand announcements of new CSR initiatives and sustainable product collections. Unfortunately for most, it puts their performative marketing and greenwashing tactics on full show. Thankfully we've seen positive changes this year, with reports showing that mentions of Earth Day fell 22% YoY, and mentions of sustainability in emails from January to April increased 6% YoY. In other words - brands are now focusing on eco communications throughout the year and using Earth Day to share their progress instead.
Content farming - good or evil?
As marketers and content strategists, we are always preaching about the importance of creating authentic, relatable, and raw content to connect with audiences. However, when reflecting on the latest Revolve activation at Coachella, it begs the question - is creating “organic” content at scale (without it becoming performative or filtered) realistic? Or is it just a marketing pipe dream? No matter how you look at it, Revolve still achieved stellar stats with their “content farming” strategy, drawing millions of eyeballs to their social channels and the love of investors who snapped up shares on the Monday following the festival.
Netflix loses users for the first time in 10 years
I've been waiting for this one! Not their decline in users, but the platform's openness to ads. Following reports of stiff revenue growth, a loss of 200K subscribers, and shares plummeting nearly 30%, CEO Reed Hastings has announced that Netflix will now look to implement low-end, ad-supported plans over the next year or two. So hold onto your hats, the next frontier of advertising may be OTT/Streaming. Hopefully we'll see new creative formats and innovative ideas come from it too.
Will Reels monetization reach the same level as feed and stories?
Meta CPMs are getting high, and the theory for why amongst performance folk is that it's because DAU (daily active users) are falling out of the feed and into Reels (where there are few ads) and TikTok. You may have also noticed that Meta has recently invested more effort into improving the Reels experience and functionality for both users and creators. Which may mean that they're prepping to ramp up the ad load on Reels to match their more mature formats (stories and feed), so be sure to have paid reel strategies ready to go.
How startups are responding to inflation
According to a new report, inflation has hit a 40-year high. This article provides some good intel on how brands are responding to rising prices. TLDR: more price shopping with vendors, buying raw materials further in advance, emphasizing the durability or the value of their products in their marketing messaging, and betting that their less expensive products to drive more sales in the coming months.
ThirdLove bets its long-term growth on sub-brand acquisition
Embarking on IPOs has become a popular decision (especially last year) for DTC darlings looking to mature. But over the next year, I think we'll see a lot more brands find scale by merging or acquiring. The first of note to do so is ThirdLove, the top online bra brand for millennials, who announced yesterday the acquisition of Gen-Z underwear brand Kit Undergarments.
The rise and fall of Abercrombie & Fitch
Add this documentary to this weeks Netflix watch list. It's a crazy reminder of how toxic the early ‘00s were, the power that malls held and what brands were able to get away with when it came to advertising.
Meet Woo - the new Gen Z media brand
Most brands, products, and services in the wellness industry have been designed with millennials in mind, not Gen-Z, who are more skeptical of the “woo-woo” culture that comes with wellness practices. So this is where Woo comes in - a new wellness-focused media business will be funded by a product marketplace, alike Goop, but without the “eye rolls.”
Something to share in the office chat.
