It’s hot off the presses — it’s your digital marketing news update. Let’s dive in.

 

AT&T is the first to block spam calls by default

An ever-increasing influx of robocalls has pushed both the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and phone carriers to prioritize killing spam calls. AT&T recently announced that it will now offer free and automatic fraud blocking and spam warnings to customers in order to reduce the number of robocalls customers are receiving. This new service is expected to roll out over the next few months and will be enabled by default. AT&T is also working to make sure helpful robocalls such as appointment reminders will not be missed, while still permanently blocking harmful — and downright annoying — spam. Once executed, this will make AT&T the first carrier to offer default spam call blocking, unlike any of their competitors.

>> Read more about the initiative.

 

Instagram says enough is enough

Instagram is putting its foot down on bullying. Cyberbullying has become a prominent issue among young, impressionable users of the app. According to a survey conducted in 2017, Instagram is regarded as “the worst social media network for mental health and well-being.” But help is on the way in the form Instagram’s new anti-bullying tools including the addition of a new, automated warning. This warning will prompt users to review their own potentially offensive comments before they are posted. In addition, users may also use “restricted mode” to lessen the impact of offensive users. Although there may be some flaws in the current plans, Instagram is definitely taking steps in the right direction in order to limit offensive material and promote an inclusive platform.

>> Learn more about how Instagram is fighting back.

 

Recent Pinterest updates encourage more video content

Not only has Pinterest recently gone public, but it also has incorporated features that make it easier to post videos and drive engagement. Since rolling out the changes, Pinterest says it has observed a lot of positive feedback including a 31% increase in searches for inspirational videos. Videos posted on Pinterest have also been proven to have a longer shelf life through resurfacing, allowing creators and brands to see more engagement. These statistics can be accredited to a new-and-improved video uploader, a video tab on business profiles, new analytics tools and the ability to schedule videos.

>> Check out the app’s new infrastructure.

 

Amazon may become your new internet provider

Amazon is getting ready to launch thousands of satellites into space in order to provide broadband internet service to the United States — is there anything Amazon can’t do? The goal of the 3,236 total satellites is to provide almost the entire United States (excluding Alaska) with broadband coverage. This would help to provide low-latency, high-speed connectivity to unserved and under-served communities around the country, serving tens of millions of people who lack basic internet access. These satellites may also be used by phone companies in order to provide better cell coverage in rural areas. Although there is no set timeline yet, once authorized, Amazon must launch at least half of the satellites within six years.

>> Get on board with Project Kuiper.

 

Make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to stay caught up until the next Digital Download!

We asked our in-house experts at Lessing-Flynn to part with a few marketing tips — consider it a free (mini) crash course in marketing strategy. You’re welcome.

 

Start with identifying your audience.

As much as we want every single person that happens upon our ad campaign to fall in love with it, that’s just not realistic. Identify a target audience to start with and, you may notice emerging audiences that you can cater to in the future. So how do we do that? First, look at your current customer base and ask yourself why they buy or use your services then look for common characteristics (age, location, gender, personal values, lifestyles etc.) and interests and cater your messages to those individuals.

 

“A lot of marketers like to create ‘personas’ for their target audiences and that’s great, just don’t use them for every tactic — they are best suited for individual campaign goals. I’d suggest starting with outlining a few of these general characteristics and speaking to your audience based on those findings.” — Rachel Wallace, Content Marketing Specialist

 

Take inspiration from anywhere.

Thomas Edison didn’t invent the light bulb. Seriously — hundreds of other prototypes were available at the time, his was just the best. And sorry Apple fans, but Steve Jobs didn’t invent the mp3 player, tablet or smartphone. These were all things. But again, Apple simply built the best versions of these products — making them iconic and 100% Apple in doing so.

 

“Don’t obsess over coming up with truly original ideas. Such things hardly exist these days. It’s okay to be inspired by the ideas of others. Like the font treatment you saw on a billboard or a certain video style that pops up on YouTube. Just don’t copy it. Make it 100% your own.” — Chris Hanson, Creative Director

 

Less is more when it comes to design and copy.

Both of these tricks stress the importance of simplicity. Sometimes we can overwhelm ourselves and try to force something that is too elaborate but doesn’t best suit the piece we’re working on. It’s good to take a step back and ask yourself if your key message is still the shining star. Consider your goals and the results you want to achieve. Don’t get distracted by a flashy new marketing trend that isn’t going to benefit your business.

 

>>> Read “3 Steps to Using Better Graphic Designs in Social Media” by Graphic Designer Kara Hoegh.

 

Identify short-term objectives for a long-term strategy.

From the client to the account team to the video team, everyone is operating on a time frame, and some are more grueling than others. That’s why it’s best to hash out short-term objectives that are part of a long-term plan. Not only can these appear more manageable to accomplish, but accomplishing short-term objectives can act as extrinsic motivation that will help fuel endurance to see the plan until the end.

 

“Let’s say we want to hit a certain number of new followers on a client social channel by the end of the year — that number may sound daunting at first but when you divide it up into a quarterly time frame and then create targeted campaigns and promotions it will be easier to achieve and work towards.” — Emily Nichols, Account Director

 

Stand out by being traditional.

We are in the digital age, and more and more businesses are making an impact using the internet as a marketing tool. That means overcrowding and burnout are not far behind. Stand out from the crowd by rolling out a physical magazine instead of an email blast, or run a unique print campaign in a popular magazine that shares part of your target audience as opposed to bothersome YouTube ads and pop-ups.

 

>>> Read “How to Make Print Ads Powerful on a Tight Budget” by Media Strategist Shannon Hughes.

 

BUT, don’t underestimate digital marketing.

Whether you find a certain comfort in traditional marketing techniques or you’re still in denial about the power of the internet, you need to recognize that the popularity of digital marketing is not unwarranted. Advertisers have the capability to place a link right to their product or service within the ad itself, boosting immediate engagement rate, an advantage over traditional marketing. That’s why research is such an important part of the process. Again, what is going to work best for you?

 

>>> Read “Making the Move to Digital Advertising” also by Shannon… she’s super insightful.

 

Collaboration makes everything better.

Whether you have too much on your plate or have reached a creative fork in the road, having team members to delegate to or bounce ideas off of is incredibly useful, even if your inner introvert protests. Don’t forget: Teamwork makes the dream work!

 

“Sometimes you’re your own worst enemy when it comes to creativity. Group brainstorms bring diverse thoughts and ‘idea nuggets’ to the table — one person might say something weird and it will send us all down a rabbit hole that eventually spawns a huge campaign.” — April Pearson, Senior Copywriter

Video Strategy 

I love a good steak — thick with a good sear, a little bit of sea salt and some fresh cracked black pepper. There are few things more mouth-watering than a properly-cooked dry-aged steak. In fact I’ve yet to have a bit of beef that I’ve not enjoyed. But I’m not here to wax poetically about the flat iron or share my favorite recipes. Maybe later.  Instead, I want to share how my love of beef serves as good inspiration for my second passion in life: producing great video content.

 

Beef isn’t cheap. Raising a steer to maturity, transporting and preparation are expensive.  Only eating steaks and rib-eye would cost hundreds of dollars per pound. Luckily, we’ve found ways over the course of time to make use of nearly every part of the animal. In doing so, we’ve stretched our food supply and used our resources to the best of their abilities.

 

Video production can also be expensive. Between paying our highly-skilled media professionals, buying or renting precision equipment, travel expenses and most of all the time it takes to produce great content, the costs can add up quickly. Yet, in the same way that we wouldn’t raise a steer just for one steak dinner, we use all the assets of video production to create a variety of effective and interesting content pieces for our clients.

 

By going into the production process with this mindset, we can better plan on creating and using our content. This is important. We should be asking ourselves what other resources we could generate for our client, what other messages we could be communicating and how. This may include asking our interviewees additional questions, filming additional b-roll and in general, thinking beyond the immediate task at hand. This way of thinking builds versatile tools and assets for clients to use.

 

One 90-second testimonial can be recut into a 30-second or even a 15-second spot. Photos and audio sound bites can be combined with animation to create short GIFs or Animatics. Again, striving to use every part of raw content can lower the cost per individual piece but increase ROI. So while one steak may sound expensive, if we’re using the rest of the cow as efficiently as we can it will be one of many meals.

 

In fact we recently applied this production philosophy to a two-day shooting event held by our client Equipment Technologies. We had five team members shooting video on-site with multiple cameras.

 

While the primary focus was to capture longer 2- to 3-minute Apache Sprayer testimonials, our team is now able to re-cut hours of footage into an additional dozen short 15- to 30-second videos. We also took stills and quotes from our video production and created static display ads and social media graphics — all from one scheduled video shoot that needed to happen anyways. We’ll be using all of these stored assets for future content needs.

 

So whether it’s an excellent steak dinner (primary video production) or a set of skirt steak tacos (re-cuts), it’s all a part of our process of getting as much content for our client’s dollars as we possibly can and leave them hungry for more. Bon apetit.

Summer is in full swing and there’s no shortage of new digital marketing intel, let’s get right into it with our latest installment of Digital Download.

 

Emma app officially launches in the U.S.

Emma, the U.K. money management app has officially launched in the U.S. and Canada. The launch follows Emma’s partnering with Plaid, U.S. fintech that specializes in bank account aggregation. The Emma app connects to your bank accounts in order to help you budget, track spending and save money.

As your “best financial friend,” it is said to help you to understand how much money you have left to spend until your next payday, how much you are paying for subscriptions, and how to avoid overdrafting. After Emma’s U.K. launch in 2018, there were over 100,000 downloads in the first year without any marketing budget — impressive!

 

Read more on this new money management app.

 

2019 trends from the eyes of Mary Meeker

Did you know for the first time, more than half of the world’s population is online? That equals 3.8 billion internet users across the globe. Former Wall Street securities analyst and current Bond Capital general partner Mary Meeker, recently shared the latest internet trends report at Recode’s Code Conference. Meeker presented a 333-slide presentation that covered tectonic shifts impacting the digital advertising world like using artificial intelligence to leverage better user experiences and YouTube’s machine learning-powered editing software. Meeker also highlighted new trends in video games such as Fortnight.

 

Check out more observations from Mary Meeker’s report.

 

World’s no. 1 CRM platform purchases the no. 1 analytics platform

The deal is done. Salesforce, the world’s no. 1 customer relationship management (CRM) platform, is buying Tableau, a data visualization company, in an all-stock deal. Salesforce lost out on the opportunity to purchase LinkedIn in 2016 to Microsoft, but the purchase of Tableau may now help them bulk up against the internet giant. Marc Benioff, chairman and co-CEO of Salesforce stated: “Tableau helps people see and understand data, and Salesforce helps people engage and understand customers. It’s truly the best of both worlds for our customers — bringing together two critical platforms that every customer needs to understand their world.”

Tableau’s customer base includes a slew of large company names such as Verizon, Netflix and Charles Schwab, just to name a few.

 

Dive deeper into this $15.7 billion deal.

 

Amazon says goodbye to their restaurant delivery service

Amazon has announced its decision to shut down its Amazon Restaurant service. You may be thinking, “Amazon had a food delivery service?” Yes, and that widespread lack of awareness seems to be a reason it didn’t last long. The service launched in Seattle in 2015 and expanded across more than 20 U.S. cities and London. It allowed Prime members to have meals delivered to their door by using the Amazon Restaurants website or the Prime Now shopping app.

Although Amazon Restaurants invested serious time and money in the service, competition was just too fierce in the food delivery market. Companies such as Uber, GrubHub and DoorDash have experienced huge growth in users in recent years, and when combined, hold more than 75% of the market share. Whether or not Amazon plans to regroup and try again in the future remains a mystery.

 

Read more about Amazon’s plans.

Have you ever heard of the term “agvocate?” Well maybe you haven’t heard that word before, but you probably know an agvocate or maybe you are one! An agvocate is an agriculture advocate — arguably one of the most important roles in agriculture.

 

THE AGVOCATE TEST

 

WELCOME TO THE AGVOCATE CLUB

If the points above sound a lot like you, welcome to the club — as a fellow agvocate and agri-marketing professional I’d like to offer some food for thought.

 

As farmers, we wear a lot of hats. We are the Albert Einstein of our land and crops. We know our soil make ups. We decide when it’s time to use cover crops, when to irrigate land, when to spray, when to practice no-till and so many other factors. We are the Rocky Bolboa of getting stuff done — working sunrise to sunset and even longer during planting and harvest seasons. And we are the Mother Theresa of caring for our livestock. After all, our family’s income depends on every single animal’s well-being.

 

But sometimes things go wrong. We spend sleepless nights — calving, farrowing, kidding — doing everything you can to give every newborn a chance only to lose them anyway. Sometimes we plan our planting and spraying meticulously only to have Mother Nature ruin our plans. When we think about how to reach consumers and how to connect with them, these are the kinds of life events that we should also be sharing.

 

TRUE AGVOCACY EMBRACES CHANGE

Agvocacy and agriculture marketing efforts should involve more transparency, recognizing that sometimes things are out of the ag industry’s control — we should always be open to ideas and solutions. We as agriculturalists can get so stuck in our ways that we are not open to others options and choices.

 

For example, we all know that meat can be an expensive food choice, and protein is important to our diets. But, the recent launch of the “ImpossibleTM Burger” by Impossible Foods stirred up a lot of negative talk in the agriculture community. The company said they created a better, meat-less hamburger patty using just plants.

Sure that can sounds a little crazy to most of us who love our juicy beef patties, and maybe it was the word “better” that rubbed us the wrong way. But consider the possible positive impacts that a plant-based protein can provide for world hunger, why not entertain the idea? If this product could reduce costs and help struggling families that’s a great thing! We don’t need to bash new ideas for fear of our market share — animal production will always be important and if meatless patties become in-demand they will need someone to grow the plants to make them, right?

 

DON’T FAULT THE UNEDUCATED (OR AT LEAST TRY NOT TO)

Consumers today are also more thirsty for knowledge than ever before; they want to understand where their food comes from and how it got to their plate. Can you blame them? As keepers of the agriculture flame, it is up to us to make a connection with those that are removed from the farm, not to decide what kind of food a consumer should be feeding their family .

 

It is up to us to have a conversation with classmates, coworkers and strangers sitting next to us on the plane to share what we do for a living. Not to instill in their brains that they need to love everything agriculture, but to be a person that they can ask questions to about things that they just don’t understand. For example, instead of getting mad when someone says they are anti-GMO — ask them to explain their rationale and then correct any misinformation with reliable resources and facts. The rest is up to them.

 

LET’S TAKE THE HIGH ROAD

If you are involved in agriculture, I challenge you be an agvocate that supports new ideas, corrects misinformation with facts and personal experiences, champions the importance of agriculture and answers the questions from critics and bystanders.

 

It’s easy to get frustrated, but it is up to us to have an open-door policy where consumers can learn. After all, we cannot fault the ones that haven’t experienced the magic of agriculture for simply not knowing the full story.

Digital marketing news is the best kind of news — there’s drama, there’s pizazz and if you’re lucky there’s an innuendo or two to give you a laugh. Every month the Lessing-Flynn digital team meets to decide which current events you need to know about — see which stories made our shortlist…

 

2019 Google Event of the Year

Google Marketing Live is an event every digital marketer looks forward to each year. It’s a time to get the 411 on all the flashy updates that Google is planning to implement. The 2019 event took place in San Francisco, May 14-15 and it’s safe to say it did not disappoint with more than 10 different product and feature releases. This live broadcasting event brings about new ideas and concepts to digital marketers to help them gain better insight into their consumers. It’s also a great opportunity to see Google’s latest and greatest inventions and the ‘how’ and ‘why’ behind each one. To really help digital marketers reach their targeted audience, Google released six new ad formats including SEM gallery ads, expanded local ad functionality and updated shopping ads just to name a few.

>> Read more about the Google releases.

 

Google’s Next Big Thing – Podcast Indexing

Surprise! Google is on to its next big thing. We not only live in a world where we need to optimize for voice search for search engine result pages, but podcast episodes too. And no, we don’t mean they are going to be indexing the title of the podcast. Google announced that they will be indexing the actual content of podcasts to help listeners find relevant content that peaks their interest. Podcasts continue to become more popular — if they are part of your marketing plan, make sure your SEO specialist is up to speed on this tactic because it can bring higher traffic and better content visibility.

>> Find out more on podcast optimizations.

 

Apple Plans To Make Ads More Private, But Give Advertisers Data, Attribution

As the world becomes increasingly digital, user privacy will remain a highly discussed topic in the world of advertising. Today, users are becoming more savvy and thus highly conscious of the information they put online. Apple just recently announced they will be the “middleman” in terms of satisfying advertisers and consumers alike with the Privacy Preserving Ad Click Attribution (yes, it’s a mouthful). In short, this approach will still allow advertisers to measure the effectiveness of online ad placements, but will do so while the consumer remains more anonymous. Currently, technology allows for cross-site tracking of users, where companies can create a robust “persona” of the consumer they’re tracking. With this new approach, the user will go unidentified, which will give privacy back to the consumer, while still allowing advertisers to monitor click attribution.

>>> Read more from Media Post and Tech Crunch.

 

INSTAGRAM’S IGTV FINALLY GETS HORIZONTAL VIDEO, AND ADVERTISERS SEE THE POTENTIAL

IGTV, Instagram’s long-form video platform, has set themselves apart by serving solely vertical videos and also, being an ad-free platform. To stay ahead of competitors, Instagram recently announced they will soon be expanding their “vertical only” services, which will allow Instagramers to also upload horizontal videos. Users have since been limited to vertical videos and this change is believed to spark increased content creation. What does this mean for advertisers? IGTV may soon stray away from their ad-free streaming services. While there has been no definite say on if and when these changes are rolling out, it is definitely something to keep an eye out for.

>> Learn more about IGTV from AdAge.

 

Catch you next month — in the meantime be sure to subscribe to our Lessing-Flynn newsletter below for more digital news, client case studies and more!

 

Out of more than 50,000 total entries submitted in the 40th edition of The Telly Awards, with many coming from the world’s biggest and best-known brands in video production, nine resulted in wins for Lessing-Flynn and six of its client-partners, including four silver awards and five bronze awards for marketing and branding videos produced in 2018.

 

CELEBRATED STORIES MADE FOR EVERY SCREEN

The Telly Awards recognizes excellence in all forms of video production — from traditional broadcast TV commercials to online video content — as well as individual crafts such as directing, cinematography, animation and scriptwriting. Considered to be one of the most prestigious awards programs in the realm of commercial video production, The Telly Awards draws tens of thousands of entries from thousands of brands and organizations each year.

 

SIX CLIENT PARTNERS

Lessing-Flynn, Iowa’s longest-standing advertising agency now in its 112th year of business, shares these nine awards with six client-partners: Ag Leader Technology, Bank Iowa, IMT Insurance, Kemin Animal Nutrition & Health (North America), Sage Oil Vac and Vermeer Corporation. The Des Moines-based full-service advertising agency started its video department in 2016 and today has four team members dedicated to all phases of video production and animation. The team produced 93 client videos in 2018.

 

FROM OUTSOURCING TO AWARD-WINNING IN-HOUSE TALENT

“In a few short years, we have gone from outsourcing all of our video production, to now orchestrating full-scale video productions and animated videos that tell our clients’ stories in creative and impactful ways,” said Lessing-Flynn creative director Joe Winn. “Clearly we’re on to something good and so long as we’re having fun and delivering high-quality content and results for clients, there’s no limit to what the Lessing-Flynn video team can do.”

 

2019 Silver Telly Winners

 

2019 Bronze Telly Winner

 

It’s time to catch up on the latest digital news and happenings with another Digital Download. Every month the Lessing-Flynn digital team meets to decide which current events our friends and clients need to know about — check out which stories made the cut…

 

Tell us how you really feel on LinkedIn

Be on the lookout for the newest update on LinkedIn. Users are now able to choose their reaction to a post, similar to Facebook. While LinkedIn previously restricted users to only “liking” a post, they will now be given five different options to further express their feelings towards a post. The newest reactions were created in response to the types of posts users were adding. With the addition of this feature, LinkedIn hopes to keep current users more engaged and bring new users into this top performing recruiting tool.

>> Discover LinkedIn’s newest reactions

 

Accenture takes a new turn

At the beginning of April, Accenture Interactive, a large consulting firm, announced they would be purchasing an ambitious ad agency, Droga5. For those that are unfamiliar with Droga5, just think big advertising campaigns. They have conquered campaigns for Under Armour, New Castle Brown Ale and most recently produced a standout commercial for the Super Bowl that included Bud Light and Game of Thrones. Ring any bells? This purchase is taking place in the hopes of creating a more customer focused experience. But now, concerns are rising on what will happen to the unique culture of Droga5.

>> Uncover more on this company merger

 

Think twice before trusting Amazon reviews

Are you an avid Amazon user? If you answered yes, consider the amount of times you have relied on product reviews before making a purchase. Have those reviews heavily impacted your likeliness of buying the product? While price is oftentimes the first determining factor of an Amazon purchase, reviews are seen to be just as important for some. According to recent third party analyses, this big time internet hub is polluted with fake reviews. But, with no liability for fake reviews, they have less incentive to crack down on this situation.

>> Find out the efforts Amazon is taking with their fake reviews.

 

Walmart accepts the challenge

Grocery shopping may not be the most glamorous task on a weekly to-do list. Walmart, however, is determined to change that. You will soon have the chance to start your grocery trip by simply sitting on your couch and stating, “OK Google.” Walmart’s recent partnership with Amazon intends to create a voice-based grocery shopping experience using Google Assistant-powered platforms.

>> Learn more about Walmart’s newest curbside pick-up.

 

That’s all folks — be sure to subscribe to our Lessing-Flynn newsletter below for more digital news, client case studies and more!

Welcome back for another Digital Download. This last month saw a flurry of activities in the digital marketing world (as usual), get the latest digital trends, news and more below.

 

Burger King App Lets Users “Burn” Rival Fast Food Ads in Exchange for a Free Whopper

Burger King is making its fiery appearance in a space that directly targets their competitors. Literally. Exclusively in Brazil, the “Burn that Ad” campaign allows consumers who launch the Burger King app to see its competitors burn into flames through augmented reality. After the flames subside, the user is given a coupon for a free whopper to be used at the nearest location. Augmented reality (AR) is said to be on the uprising amongst brands, so stepping foot into the AR space is a great way to keep up with the competition. And, because Burger King’s claim to fame is their use of the charcoal grill, using flames to burn their competition is only fitting.

>>> Learn more about the Burger Kind Whopper App.

 

Chipotle Gives $250,000 Away via Venmo to Promote New Loyalty Program

Chipotle recently made headway as they rolled out their long awaited Chipotle Rewards program. Having labeled a large volume of their consumers as being “digital-first,” the brand strategically partnered with Venmo to promote the rewards program. By submitting the number connected to your Venmo account to ChipotleRewardMe.com, customers could receive between $1 to $500 and then cash out to use during their next purchase. Chipotle may be one of the first brands to partner with Venmo, but with the foreseeable success of this campaign, we may see more and more brands follow suit.

>>> Get more details on the Chipotle Rewards program.

 

Google Stadia Gaming at GDC 2019: Everything Just Announced

We all know Google is known for its ever-changing digital landscape. But now, the company has decided to spice things up by stepping foot in the gaming arena with a streaming game service called Stadia. Stadia, which will be released later this year, will take on competitors such as Xbox, PlayStation and Switch.

Not every detail about the service has been released including the cost, but what we do know is:

>>> Read the full CNET recap about the launch.

 

Google Ads Rolling Out Budget Planner Forecasting Tool

The new Google Ads Budget Planner feature will aim to support the constant fluctuation of digital advertising spend and forecast success across digital campaigns. Once choosing a primary metric (clicks or conversions) as well as variables for the campaign, the planner will create a budgeted plan based on your specified target amount in the form of a chart. This chart will reveal predicted campaign results with its current settings, as well as display how changes in ad spend could impact your key metric. Although the Budget Planner will not outline a specific starting budget for the campaign, it will be useful to showcase how small changes in any campaign can lead to profitable results.

>>> Get more details about this new tool from Search Engine Land.

 

Over 389 films share a sound design cinematic universe, from Star Wars to Toy Story to Anchorman; They all feature the “Wilhelm Scream” in one way or another. The Wilhelm Scream (You’ve heard it before, somewhere, guaranteed) was created for the 1951 western Distant Drums. The sound effect became a part of Warner Brothers sound library and eventually became an inside joke among sound designers.

 

The scream made its first big break when George Lucas asked Ben Burtt to sound design his upcoming film, Star Wars. The scream lived on in every Star Wars and Indiana Jones film and exploded from there, to over 389 films and countless more TV show. Today it’s remixed and re-used in so many different ways well beyond the “Alligator biting man” of the original recording.

 

THE ARGUMENT FOR BRANDED AUDIO

While the Wilhelm scream is a fun inside joke, there’s something to be said for unique audio identity. The proliferation of affordable and high-quality stock music had led to a lot of brands unknowingly sharing the same music. I’ve worked with audio tracks weeks on end during the editing process, so they’re often burned into my brain. They’re inescapable in today’s media, I’ll hear stock music walking into Costco, in TV ads and at trade shows. I’ve heard one stock song over 20 times across multiple brands and genres.

 

Your audio brand is more important than ever, and music serves as a very powerful tool to quickly reinforce your brand in a sea of short attention spans and shorter run-times. Music works to set the tone for a spot and can be a short-hand to convey tone and location that’s not easy to do in a visual medium. Check out this video with the same footage and four distinct pieces of stock music. Everything else is constant but the emotion of each track is so varied.

 

CUSTOM VS. STOCK SOUNDS

The right stock music sets up the tone and emotional context in the right way. These emotional cues are extremely effective and can set a scene faster and more efficiently than visuals alone. Putting the audience in the right context is incredibly important for conveying the message of the spot in a limited time and with impact.

 

So high quality stock music is both incredibly important, yet many brands unknowingly share the same audio assets, lessening your brand’s unique identity. There are two different approached to this problem. First video content creators need to be mindful of finding new interesting music that’s not overplayed and overused. I maintain a list of ten stock music sites that offer deeper cuts that’s less well known and over-used. By being diligent in the production process we can ensure that each brand gets the song that fits them best without going to the “greatest hits” bin of stock music.

 

Custom music is a definite solution but can be pricey. But along with it comes incredibly control over the product, allowing content creators to create the exact sound they’re looking for to tell the story. While bespoke music isn’t cheap it’s become more affordable thanks to developments in the gig economy. New sites like MusikPitch allow you to describe your project, needs, budget and timeline and allow various creators to respond and bid for the work. This lowers the cost of custom music and allows content creators to work directly with composers and musicians. Moreover these artists aren’t limited regionally or nationally but often times are located all over the world, bringing in fresh sound and perspectives.

 

But custom music does have downsides; chiefly among them is time. Custom music isn’t fast — from finding, selecting and sharing the vision with musicians, their time to compose, revise and deliver can take several weeks, whereas stock or licensed music is just a click and credit card away. There’s no right or wrong approach, just whatever fits the vision, budget and timeline of the project.

 

DEFINE YOUR VOICE

Defining the voice of a brand using stock music is equally important; vastly different tracks from one spot to the next lowers the cohesion of the brand and created a scattered feeling. The voice of the brand must be considered during the post production process and must be something the creative team agrees on.

 

Affordable stock and custom music is more available than ever. But video creators must be conscientious to find the music that best fits the brand in both the right voice and uniqueness — avoiding the most popular bin is a must at all costs. It requires spending more time and playing with the right sound mix but the end product is much higher quality, it’s worth the effort.

 

We’re back at it again with another installment of Digital Download, providing you insights on all the latest digital marketing news and trends.

 

5 Digital Marketing Trends for 2019

As the digital marketing landscape is constantly evolving, it’s imperative for marketers to stay up-to-date with the hottest trends and best practices in order to stay competitive and improve their brand. According to Forbes, there are five key trends that marketers need to keep an eye out for this year. These trends can impact the way we market to consumers based on their geographical location and how we reach these individuals across social media platforms.

>> Read the full 2019 digital trends article by Forbes.

 

6 Things Marketers Should Know About Facebook’s App Interface

On January 25, Facebook announced its plan to fully integrate three platforms: Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. What does this mean to users? People will now have the ability to message and share posts or videos with their friends and family without having to use all three platforms. For consumers, this means more convenience, as they only need access to a single platform. For marketers, this means new ways to integrate marketing campaigns and more ad space. Positively, this new ad space fosters new opportunities for things such as chat and text bot landing pages.

>> Discover the trend Search Engine Journal believes will be most important to focus on for Facebook in the near future.

 

Google Home Devices Now Have ‘Interpreter Mode’ Capabilities

Google Translate is now a feature in all Google Home devices, and it is amazing. It gives people and businesses infinite capabilities for what they can do with their technology. Whether you are trying to order something in a different language or attempting to check-in at a hotel, ‘interpreter mode’ has you covered in 26 different languages. Get your translation started today with a simple: “OK Google…”

>> Marketing Land explains this new feature, all it entails and where it has been tested.

 

Domino’s Points for Pies

Where do we begin with Domino’s? With so many successful marketing campaigns, it’s hard to believe their newest may have just topped them all. In an effort to increase brand loyalty and gain new users, Domino’s is utilizing artificial intelligence with their app to award 10 pizza points to each individual for every ‘pie’ purchased. After reaching 60 points, a user earns a free medium two topping pizza. Oh, and did we mention that ‘pie’ can be from a competitor or even a frozen, take-home pizza?

>> Read more about the “Points for Pies” campaign.

WHAT IS KEY MESSAGING?

Key messaging is all about creating a strategy (with an accompanying document) to use as a quick reference guide for communicating about your brand. This is not about creating a catchy tagline or an advertising headline. This is meant to be an overview piece to be used internally and with external partners to help ensure your brand is providing consistent messaging in marketing campaigns and more.

 

THE KEY TO BRAND MESSAGING

 

A good key messaging document includes:

 

 

The real key? All of this should fit on one standard piece of paper — this should help you stay concise and be direct in your messaging (and make it easy for employees and others to print it off to hang at their desk).

 

RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH

 

It can be intimidating to just sit down and try to write key messaging, and that isn’t even the best way to do it. Start by spending time talking to others in your organization, including leadership, customer support and sales, to identify what they think makes the company unique. If available, you can also review your organization’s mission and vision, past customer research, as well as reviews and feedback. Starting with research will help your resulting key messaging be effective and, more importantly, accurate to the customer experience.

 

From there, venture into your target audience and brand personality sections. Once you’ve got alignment on those pieces, the positioning statement, differentiators and any other key messaging can be developed.

 

>> Download our Key Messaging template to get started!

 

DON’T BE AFRAID TO ASK FOR HELP

 

Want to get started on your own key messaging? Contact us for help from our team of copywriters and strategists, or download our template to get started on your own.

 

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