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Category: Commentary

Commentary; our thought leadership, newsletter notes and long form pieces.

YouTube Strategy

Edition #389 A Youtube masterclass on strategy, TikTok is cheaper and Robinhood to launch new media arm. This week YouTube announced free streaming channels. ā€œA YouTube spokeswoman said the company is running a small experiment that lets a subset of viewers watch free, ad-supported channels and is using it to gauge viewer interest. ā€œWe’re always looking for new ways to provide viewers a central destination to more easily find, watch and share the content that matters most… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
January 20, 2023

2023 Begins

Edition #388 What Wall Street thinks will happen this year and what that might mean for marketers. Investment banks like Goldman Sachs release annual outlook reports, to keep their clients informed and to drum up business ????. This years report from Goldman is titled Heavy Fog. I thought I’d take a peek, from the lens of a CMO. What can their POV on the markets, provide as intel for marketers. After all, businesses march to the beat of… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
January 13, 2023

2022 Fin

Edition #387 Final thoughts on 22 and the year ahead. Top searches of the year & what is the color for 23? We finished out last years note, sending some NFTs out. Which was a fun exercise. I occasionally pull out my phone, and gaze at my NFT. But seriously, it was fun, make an image, mint it on the Solana blockchain, get folks addresses, send them out. However, I don’t think we’ll be doing that… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
December 16, 2022

Content rights

Edition #386 On why content rights will plague ChatGPT, ad growth slows in 23 and universities as the new media companies. ChatGPT debuted last week, to much fanfare, the NY Times called it “social media’s newest star”. How it works is, you can give it a prompt, and chat with the AI bot. Finding answers, writing scripts, or evenĀ interactive games. Leading to StackOverflow to ban AI-generated answers. Many calling that it may replace Google Search… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
December 9, 2022

Media Strategy Mastery

Edition #385 On Netflix coming into ads too late, Cognizant branded content and personal brands. This week I dive into a few loose threads, the absolute mastery behind Netflix’s timing on advertising. Why ROI is an education problem not a technical one. And will Twitter cause a flood of engagement to newsletters. Excuse the long note, we’re a couple of weeks behind šŸ™‚ If you like it more, let me know. Maybe we look to make them more… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
December 2, 2022

Population behaviors

Edition #384 Strategy first decision making, thanksgiving and BuzzFeed earnings. Heading into Thanksgiving week, I’m reminded of a study we did a few years ago. We went deep on analyzing where and how content was consumed on Thanksgiving, and other things like Super Bowl. One takeaway was how the device engagement changed through the day, desktop tended to be higher in the morning, then adjusted to mobile through the day. Which when you think about it, isn’t too surprising. But when it comes to large populations of people and their behaviors, it is easy to overlook these things. Populations don’t behave the same as each individual person, which is a common mistake marketers make. This comes amongst this piece from the UK, via Gartner that marketers are looking to analytics teams to find more efficiency. And they’re right, analytics folks, this is their time to shine. Helping their companies find pockets of opportunity and areas to invest more effectively. But to also frame up data in a way that makes sense - and aids decision making. This is an area that I think needs continual investment. Especially amongst younger marketers, who have grown up in a world of light analytics provided to them by social networks. In one respect, the analogy of being spoon fed shallow insights from a social network, who spoon feeds little dopamine nuggets is too perfect. Which is a pity. Education is vital, to give marketers & advertisers better skills and capabilities. Yes a new entrant to the market can get started but a lot of money can be lost without that upskilling. That in itself is not new, this sector changes so rapidly, that there is always a need to upskill on underserved areas, it’s just that this is the area for right now. Notable stories this week Creators query whether platforms punish branded content and linking out. How the buy-side of the ad industry is now defining ā€˜premium’ content. Pixability extends brand suitability analytics to CTV. Netflix with ads isn’t that bad. < this is a good preview of the experience. [Cartoon] By bots, for bots. This is too good. Nike continues decade of innovation with its new Web3 platform .Swoosh. [Long form] The unbearable lightness of BuzzFeed. Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
November 18, 2022

Data rooms

Edition #383 Google is fragmenting measurement, Twitter doesn’t get it & social hooks. One big thing I mean, every story has been about Twitter this week. The tldr; is, they don’t get it. At least they appear to have no idea when it comes to how to improve the ad product. Last week I shared a POV around how they need to improve the tools they give advertisers. Doing that, without changing the ad product, could help activate the millions of advertiser accounts - they already have - but are not spending. Given the wide chasm, I’m not clear where the dissonance is. What does Twitter know internally that we outside do not? Notable stories this week Marketers brace to defend their ad budgets in an unsteady economy. Why Google is building separate data clean rooms for audience targeting and measurement. Sharethrough launches CTV ad enhancements to drive viewer attention. Media buying briefing: media agencies look to Web3, influencers to grow content marketing. Newsletters are booming. Can their ad products catch up? Patreon adds a long-awaited native video feature. Twitter has never understood the creator economy. Bloomberg opens up its first party data to advertisers. The problem isn’t that Elon Musk owns Twitter - it’s that you don’t. And his biggest problem may be its advertisers. How MrBeast builds amazing social hooks. Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
November 4, 2022

Making Twitter Ads less sucky

Edition #382 How to make Twitter ads less sucky, MrBeast’s billion dollar valuation and LinkedIns original video push. One big thing Elon shared his vision for Twitter ads early Thursday morning, as he completes his buyout of Twitter. And on balance, this is pretty good and paints a positive picture for advertisers. Readers will know I’m a longtime user of Twitter, I even think there was a point in time where I was the top Twitter account in NZ. Granted, NZ is small :) But so, I’ve used the ad product numerous times over the years. And so have clients. Well, clients are always using Twitter ads. And there was a moment in time where I felt like Twitter Ads had a lot of potential, and that was the number of self serve advertisers they had. But if you asked me today, in 2022. I think the ad product is lackluster. (How long did they not have frequency caps?! Do they even now?) Where Twitter needs to invest, is better tooling, and free tools for advertisers. It’s not all about selling ads, it’s about engaging advertisers and giving them tools, that help them make advertising decisions. Take Google Analytics for example, this free tool, keeps advertisers engaged. And then when they look to change the numbers, Google Ads is a shoo-in. Also, all the insights from Google Analytics is a feedback loop, end to end, that Google gets to see. So they can see how their product is doing but also EVERY OTHER ADVERTISING PARTNER on planet earth. Twitter offers no such solution. One of their key competitors is the yardstick, and Google Analytics hasn’t had that much investment in 10 years. Why should they, it helps Google Ads. Twitter can and should have launched a solution years ago. Even TikTok is making moves in this space. The next area is Twitter Webmaster Tools. Bing has Bing Webmaster Tools, Google has theirs. And this acts as an insight tool for websites on how well their websites are being used in those search engines. Twitter should do the same, for URLs shared, quotes copied/pasted. And then webmasters could make adjustments to make their content more friendly for Twitter. LinkedIn doesn’t like it if you click out. Facebook doesn’t like it if you click out. But clicking out to interesting articles and links, is part of the Twitter experience. So this is an opportunity for Twitter to really set its ad product apart. B2B advertisers would flock to Twitter if they did a better job of offering them solutions. The best they have is, promote profile of the CEO. But that’s not everyone. And anecdotally I’ve heard mixed reviews of it. Last year they launched Twitter Site Visit Optimization, I also gave that a try, and found that Twitter was billing for a bunch of accidental clicks. An easy fix, see that a user clicked, and then was engaging back on Twitter within a couple of seconds, oh that must be an accidental click. The other area that I’ve heard from advertisers is, metrics. And that they’ve found them unreliable over time, and if they pull daily reports, often all the numbers don’t add up. Which of course, just makes advertisers pause. I say all this, with a POV of, hey these are all really addressable. They still remain opportune. But Twitter needs to take ads seriously and build better tools to help advertisers. Notable stories this week Elon shares his vision for advertisers on Twitter. B2B content marketing problem: readers aren’t robots. Why LinkedIn is stepping up its original video and audio content ambitions. Some advertisers were initially all-in on Netflix’s ad tier, but many are now planning to buy ads on competitors like Amazon or Disney instead. How the FT got more than 78,000 replies to a survey. TikTok denies it could use location information to track US users. Square sells your data. Let’s stop admiring problems, and start celebrating streaming’s progress. Apple to start charging Facebook for in app purchases when they sell ā€˜advertising boosts’ in its app. Unclear if this is meaningful revenue though. Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
October 28, 2022

First time CMOs

Edition #381 First time CMOs are on the up, marketing is soup du jour and Substack. One big thing The rate of first time CMOs is up 50% in the past 12 months. Curious. I’d been having a chat with a marketer, about how Peloton right now is a perfect opportunity for a CMO to cut their teeth. It’ll be challenging but they’ll learn a lot as they tackle the many challenges the business faces. So I wondered, has all the market activity created opportunities for new CMOs to break through? I looked at all the CMO announcements in the past 12 months. And then peeked their job history on LinkedIn, to see if they were a first time CMO. Using Nasdaq announcements as my source. It turns out, yes, in the past 12 months, 45% of the CMOs announced were first time CMOs as compared to 29% in the prior 12 months. An increase of 50%. Note a small sample size of 24. That’s refreshing to hear in some respect, bring in new blood, fresh perspectives. And there are new opportunities for new folks at the table. 45% of the CMOs named were female, and 55% of the first time CMOs were female. It’s a reminder, that change creates opportunity and enables people to move up. And that’s nice to see. That leads nicely into my other observation, it feels like marketing has got its mojo back, companies are leaning more into investing in marketing, view it as a strategic priority. And we heard this repeated at AdWeek. https://twitter.com/LouPas/status/1582373403914182657?s=20&t=dCYHjVRlRABr1nbP9aah4A Whatever this back to work recovery is, its still messy and marketing has to work hard, with digital experiences, to bridge customers lifestyle. An anecdote I heard was, at the moment, weekend flights are still high in the US. Every weekend is like a holiday weekend, as people can come back on Monday, and remote work as they go. All of this makes it harder for brands to cut through, and with growth in margins, they have room to invest. Marketing is soup du jour. Are you seeing the same? Notable stories this week Please stop calling it the ā€˜newsletter economy’. The rise of the VC publisher. Branded content on Facebook Reels rolls out globally. Walmart launches new content creator platform. Who are the Twitter creators? Semafor woos advertisers with promises of depolarization. Will include content options for advertisers. How publishers became addicted to the traffic hit from news alerts. The next Sims game aims to be a ā€œnest generation creative platformā€. YouTube’s providing more creators with access to shoppable links. TikTok announced a new performance monitoring tool which will charge advertisers based on users attention and engagement. Everyone wants to sell your attention. Netflix announces their ad tiers, and previews what ads will look like. Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
October 21, 2022

Ghost Tweets

Edition #380 Ghost writing VC tweets, CTV and WhatsApps ad in Piccadilly.. One big thing Mike Shields pokes the box this week - questioning, is CTV big enough? As in most of streaming isn’t ad supported. And that that is, will be eaten up by Disney, Netflix and YouTube. Which is the opposite of how it was with mobile. For years it was going to be the year of mobile, and mobile attention outpaced advertising allocation. Mary Meeker would do her presentation, and yes we were still under. But now we seem to have the opposite. Whether that is a reality, is hard to know, because measurement of the space is challenged. We also saw Bloomberg this week pull out of open web programmatic. So CTV appears to not be growing and not rushing to programmatic, unlike previous iterations of web advertising. What does this mean? There’s probably going to be a crunch in the space. The analogy I give, it’s almost like the businesses that pop up surrounding a mall. Not technically part of the mall but benefit from all the traffic to and from the mall. That’s where a lot of these players are aiming, hey you’ve made the decision to buy direct from CTV, why not do some extension over here. And no its not for everyone but it will be enough to sustain some business. IF the measurement challenges can be solved. The other thing I liked is this BI piece about superstar VC tweets, people freelancing and making good income working with VCsĀ to write witty tweets, I mean why not. This person, writes the tweets, sends via Trelo, and the executive assistants will post them. If it’s a banger, it stays up, if not it gets deleted. The point is that, being relevant on Twitter is worth enough to these VCs to do just this. And I’m sure as a creative, its a fantastic brief. Notable stories this week Nick Wignall made $3.9k from his Medium posts in the last month. I made $200k last year ghostwriting tweets for Superstar VCs. YouTube launches data stories in its analytics. Very neat. Twitter launches updated Professional Account analytics tab. Netflix signs up to ratings body Barb in the UK and announces two ad verification partners. Financial Times profit up after ā€˜strong rebound’ from covid-19. Digital revenue up 8% YOY. Newsletters don’t stay newsletters. ^ Good point. CMOS are on their toes and not conducting ā€˜business as usual’ as data privacy regulators get more assertive. Former Google ads boss launches Web3 search startup. DeliveryHero launches new own ad network. Bloomberg Media is shutting of its open-market programmatic advertising. Are we sure that ad-supported streaming is really that big? Google will support your first party audiences. Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
October 14, 2022