Marketing News Roundup: March 22, 2021
Welcome to all of my technokings and masters of coin…or whatever name you are going by this week! It’s time for another weekly roundup across tech, social platform and marketing campaign news. On the tech front, we go into Elon Musk’s wacky new job title, Telegram’s financial woes, the rise of NFT art thefts, and more. For social platforms, Clubhouse launches a creator accelerator program that makes us wish we were more famous on the platform, while Twitter allows top brands to duke it out in a March Madness inspired bracket. On the marketing front, we’re sinking our teeth into Pizza Hut’s augmented reality Pac-Man boxes, Cadbury’s virtual Easter Egg hunt, an Hermes made a handbag from mushrooms, and more. Sound interesting? Let’s jump in!
Tesla CEO Elon Musk Has A New Title: ‘Technoking’
In what could be the strangest news of the week, an SEC filing reveals that Elon Musk and Zach Kirkhorn have changed their titles to Technoking of Tesla and Master of Coin, respectively. Wait….wait!?
Why this matters: Before you jump to say that it doesn’t, humor me. In early February, Tesla announced that it purchased $1.5 billion in bitcoin and had plans to accept it as payment in the future. Elon Musk continues to use his Twitter platform to promote bitcoin and dogecoin. But how does investing in bitcoin justify a wacky new job title? Candidly, it doesn’t – but it makes for another classic PR stunt that Musk has been known for.
Will it work? For Elon Musk fans, I’m sure they ate this right up. The “un-CEO” vibe and gusto to dream up such a quirky new job title is…well, funny. However, not all in mainstream media seem amused. Opinion pieces in the FT called, The fratboy folly of Tesla’s self-anointed Technoking, and The Guardian called, Elon Musk declared himself ‘technoking’. He’s just a hyper-capitalist clown, both speak volumes. Ultimately, the test will be if Musk’s adolescent antics have an impact on the overall Tesla brand. There’s no disputing that people positively perceive Tesla for its innovation, brand and best-in-class vehicles at present, but if Musk is not careful, he could turn off potential customers one day.
Clubhouse promises its accelerator participants either brand deals or $5K per month during the program
https://www.joinclubhouse.com/creator-first-accelerator
Not to be outdone by other social media networks, Clubhouse announced that it too will launch a “Creator First” Accelerator program. The program will start with 20 creators to help them get their shows off the ground with financial support from either a brand sponsor or a basic income from Clubhouse of $5,000 per month during the three months of the program.
Why this matters: I’m dubbing 2021 the year of the battle for creators. Every social media platform either has or is building a program to offer compensation for top creators on their platforms. YouTube pioneered this, with the top creators in 2020 making between $15-29.5 million annually. No other social media channel has allowed creators to reach this level of financial success – yet. However, with more platforms than ever before, adding a monetization incentive will get more creators to invest time – and amazing content – on the platform.
Also, did anyone catch the reference to brand sponsorships above? While we’ve been seeing brands dip their toes into the Clubhouse waters, creating a formal way for brands to sponsor popular shows or creators could be an exciting step – well, for brands at least!
Will it work? Yes. The downside of the program is that only 20 creators will be in the first round. However, I do think if Clubhouse can find a way to integrate brand sponsorships into the platform in a way that doesn’t detract from the overall experience, the number could easily grow.
Telegram App Is Booming but Needs Advertisers—and $700 Million Soon
Messaging tool is selling more than $1 billion of debt to fund operations and repay existing creditors, as it races to attract ads
In rather dramatic news, Telegram announced that it owes creditors roughly $700 million by the end of April and will sell more than $1 billion of debt to fund operations and re-pay creditors. Yikes! How did it get to this point? Telegram cites costs to accommodate rapid growth and bandwidth expenses. In January 2020 alone, the company reported 90 million new accounts. The company also noted that it is on a rapid trajectory from 550 million monthly active users to one billion monthly active users by the end of 2022.
Why this matters: Telegram has become one of the top competitors to WhatsApp due to its use of encryption to protect the privacy of user communication.
Will it work? Telegram’s financial issues spark a bigger debate about how to monetize messaging apps. WhatsApp has been rumored to incorporate ads for ages, yet we have not seen anything. Messaging apps could look at running ads, subscription services or integrating payment solutions for monetization. It’s worth noting that Telegram has also introduced a Clubhouse-esque new voice chat feature this week. Will this be enough to keep Telegram afloat? I doubt it. File this under…one to watch.
Twitter Launches ‘Brand Bracket’ to Identify the Best Tweeting Business Handle
With the March Madness college basketball tournament underway, Twitter Marketing has launched a ‘Brand Bracket’, designed to determine the best tweeting business on the platform. In each ‘match’ two brands are put against one another, with fans voting in Twitter polls to determine which one comes on top. To follow the brand bracket and challenges in progress, follow the Twitter Marketing account. The Brand Bracket tournament will run for a few weeks, with the winners to be announced on April 2nd.
Why this matters: The initiative is inspired by the annual “brand bowl,” which runs annually during the Super Bowl in America. Fans and marketers alike come together to comment on the TV commercials in real-time. This has always been an organic effort, so it’s great to see the Twitter marketing team tap into this behavior as a way to shine a spotlight on top companies on the platform.
Will it work? Yes! Use of Twitter polls keeps the voting interesting. The tweets and polls have a good amount of engagement and it’s great to see the brands featured engaging as well.
With NFTs On The Rise, So Are The Art Thefts
https://designtaxi.com/news/413374/With-NFTs-On-The-Rise-So-Are-The-Art-Thefts/
https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7vxe7/people-are-stealing-art-and-turning-it-into-nfts
Sadly, the rise of NFTs has also ushered in a negative trend – the rise of digital art theft. This article highlights some of the issues that are rising from NFTs, such as people tracing over art and claiming people’s work as their own and hiding behind anonymous accounts to sell. The article also delves into copyright issues and rights for creators, which are sadly complex.
Why this matters: A rise in fraud could undermine the popularity of NFTs, both for creators and buyers alike. Nobody wants to be duped into purchasing a fake and creators certainly don’t want their work to be stolen or ripped off. Just like with the art world and luxury handbags, tools will need to emerge to protect both parties. Here are two good articles on how nuanced this issue is, plus discussions over what you own when you purchase an NFT, both from a legal perspective and from Coindesk.
Hermès Is Designing A Bag With Lab-Grown ‘Leather’ Made From Mushrooms
Here’s a random but cool one for you. Hermès is experimenting with a mushroom-based vegan leather called Sylvania. Hermès developed the vegan leather with California-based startup MycoWorks, with the goal of mimicking the properties of conventional leather, per The Business of Fashion. Consumers will be able to purchase the bag featuring the Sylvania leather, The Victoria travel bag, at end of 2021.
Why this matters: While vegan or faux leather is no new per se, the use of vegan leather by a luxury brand of the caliber of Hermès sets a powerful tone for the industry. Hermès says that the vegan Sylvania leather will serve as an alternative, instead of a replacement to its animal leather goods. This paves the way for consumers in the future to select if they want traditional or vegan leather, opening the brand up to new customers.
Will it work? I personally think the first vegan leather bag from Hermès is ugly! I think the brand is playing it safe by not re-making one of its more famous bags and I would love to know why. It could symbolize that the vegan leather is not quite ready for that level of craftsmanship or that the brand is not ready to take that level of risk. I do think that if Hermes can replicate its classic bags with vegan leather, it will be very successful.
This Pizza Hut Box Lets You Play Pac-Man In AR
It’s about time your pizza box did more than just cover your pie! In a clever move, Pizza Hut is introducing a series of limited-edition boxes with QR codes that let you start an AR game of Pac-Man which can be played on the maze printed on the box itself. The AR Pac-Man games are only available on select boxes for Pizza Hut’s large-size $10 Tastemaker pizzas.
Why this matters: The Pac-Man limited edition boxes are both new and nostalgic. Pac-Man has a cult, nostalgic following and the augmented reality experience via QR codes re-imagines the classic game on a pizza box. It’s also a great reminder that brands can tap into other popular brands through brand licensing. Pizza Hut had to obtain the rights (e.g. license) from Pac-Man to do this campaign, which is something you see often among other famous games, movies, characters, and more.
Will it work? I think this is a fun and easy to enjoy campaign. Super fans of Pac-Man will be inspired to purchase a Pizza Hut pizza to test the AR experience. Fans of Pizza Hut are likely to give it a try too. Why not, right? It just comes down to how well Pizza Hut executes on the AR experience.
Cadbury’s Virtual Easter Hunt Lets You Hide Eggs on Google Maps
Place a digital egg, then send personalized clues to loved ones to help them find it
https://worldwidehide.cadbury.co.uk/
With Easter approaching in early April, fans of the traditional Easter egg hunt can get an early “hop” on the holiday by hiding either a real or virtual Cadbury Egg. To hide a real egg, the cost is £15 and the egg will be hidden virtually on a map. Once friends or family have found it, they will get the real Cadbury Easter egg in the mail.
There’s also a free option of simply hiding the virtual egg. I went through this experience, and it was fun and easy. To hide your egg, you simply type in the location, put the egg there on the map. You then check Google Street View to ensure it is correctly placed. You can then put in your hint and it generates the option to share via email, WhatsApp or link. Here’s my link – let’s see if you can guess where I hid my Cadbury Easter Egg! Hint: I hid it in my happy place in London :).
Why this matters: With more people separated from their families during Easter (the UK is still in lockdown), this kind of virtual Easter Egg hunt is a fun way to come together. By opening the hunt to locations worldwide, people can hide eggs on famous landmarks or special places, offering a fun layer of personalization.
Will it work? I don’t see why not. It’s simple, clever and personal. There are a few bugs with the UI – for example the link copy function also copies all of the email text, as I discovered when trying to hyperlink my clue here, but overall it’s a good experience.
Jessica Gioglio is the co-author of The Laws of Brand Storytelling and The Power of Visual Storytelling. Professionally, Jessica has led innovative marketing and public relations programs for Dunkin’ Donuts, TripAdvisor, Sprinklr, and more. Today, Jessica is the founder of With Savvy Media & Marketing, a strategic branding, storytelling, and content strategy consultancy.