Month: August 2018

Snapchat wants better relationships with creators on its platform, but it is so far resisting the short-term step of cutting creators in on ad revenue.

Snap in June at VidCon teased that it was experimenting with sharing ad revenue with creators, but that program has been limited to a select few individuals who have signed exclusive content deals with the platform. That includes Snapchat Shows like FuckJerry or Publisher Stories like Daquan. Yet for creators who aren’t contracted, Snapchat remains open to them participating in branded content deals but unwilling to introduce more ad revenue share.

For now, Snapchat has opted to treat a select group of creators more as publishing partners rather than ad inventory, something that transpired after nearly five years of Snapchat being reluctant to embrace its creator community. Only a select few — like YouTuber Patrick Starrr with his new Snapchat Show, announced at VidCon — can get a share of Snap’s ad revenue and both Snapchat and the creators are invested in the series’ overall success. Meanwhile, YouTube is often criticized by its community for not being committed to an individual’s success. Creators find themselves forced to change their styles, such as the length of a video, to win the favor of the YouTube algorithm.

Snap has side-stepped that constant backlash by slowly adding features that aren’t reliant on pre-roll or mid-roll ads.

“For me, as a creator who has monetized my channel for the past four years with little involvement from Snapchat themselves, I think the steps Snap is taking are great and an added bonus. My continued creativity on Snapchat isn’t dependent on it,” said Cyrene Quiamco, a creator who has invested the majority of her time in producing on Snapchat.

Snap’s team has been invested in building other money-making opportunities. For example, Snapchat has introduced native commerce, where celebrities like Kylie Jenner has sold her beauty products and Nicki Minaj has used shoppable AR. Snapchat isn’t yet taking a cut of that revenue.

Now, Snapchat is extending the in-app commerce feature to more of its community. Quiamco said on Aug. 21 she was working with Snap’s team to set up her own store, where she plans to sell her book.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel admitted to the “neglect” of its creator community during the company’s third-quarter earnings call in 2017. Over this past year, creators have become one of the company’s core initiatives, and that has materialized several big launches this summer. In May, Snap hosted its first-ever Creators Summit, where executives met with 13 Snapchat users to discuss how they could better work together. Some programs came directly out of that two-day event, including Snapchat Storytellers, where the app pairs creators with advertisers.

“Snapchat, I feel, has really stepped up in creating a real relationship with its creators this year. From the summit that flew 13 creators worldwide, promoting our branded stickers, giving us ad credits to boost our stories, direct support and an open door for ideas and suggestions, and the latest is the Storytellers program,” said Quiamco, who is one of the five Snapchat creators involved in the launch of Storytellers.

Quiamco said the Storytellers program has allowed her to feel comfortable with committing the majority of her time to create on Snapchat. No deals have been signed yet, she said, but brands contacted her over the last month for some opportunities.

YouTube has been writing checks to its top creators to serve as ambassadors for its new features, Bloomberg reported last week. That’s in addition to YouTube’s core business of sharing ad revenue with its creators after they reach a certain level of subscribers to their channels, as long as they abide by the platform’s community standards.

While Snapchat may be fighting for user attention from YouTube, it has yet to introduce more transactional deal-making that arguably could inspire more loyalty from so-called influencers. That resistance comes despite past calls from popular creators like Hank Green.

Snapchat’s inability to inspire creator loyalty reminds me that PLATFORMS SHOULD SHARE REVENUE.

— Hank Green (@hankgreen) July 15, 2017

But Snap’s resistance comes with benefits. The absence of a self-serve revenue sharing program allows Snapchat to avoid some scrutiny. YouTube creators, who are eligible for ad revenue share, are constantly calling out the platform for transparency issues. Philip DeFranco, popular for his news commentary on YouTube, is currently testing whether or not his videos about sensitive topics are being suppressed, for example. Meanwhile, the success of a creator on Snapchat is less at the whim of an algorithm.

The post Snapchat’s creator charm offensive stops short of ad revenue sharing appeared first on Digiday.

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Online waitlists have become de rigueur for DTC brands, but there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes than building a basic marketing buzz.

The post Retail Briefing: DTC brands embrace the online waitlist appeared first on Digiday.

When it comes to formats for branded or sponsored content, written articles are falling out of favor with marketers fast. Increasingly they’re using other formats such as video, interactive sites, and infographics instead.

Just one year ago, over half of marketers said the majority of their content marketing was produced in the form of a written article. Fast-forward to 2018 and the number of marketers who say they still rely on text has more than halved to 22 percent, according to a survey of marketers at the Digiday Content Marketing Summit in August.

The post Digiday Research: Marketers diversify content marketing formats appeared first on Digiday.

Less than a week after Facebook received a complaint from the Department of Housing and Urban Development alleging it violated the Fair Housing Act, on Tuesday, the platform said it would remove over 5,000 targeting options in Ads Manager and that all U.S. advertisers will have to complete a non-discrimination certification to continue advertising on Facebook.

A Facebook spokesperson told Digiday the majority of the targeting options being removed are exclusions, which allow advertisers to select certain audiences they do not want seeing their ads. Advertisers will no longer be able to include terms including “Passover,” “Evangelicalism,” “Native American culture,” “Islamic culture” and “Buddhism,” Facebook said.

While the move limits targeting options on the platform, ad buyers say they’re not concerned because they could use similar terms to exclude people of a certain race or ethnicity from seeing their ads.

Jesse Math, group director of paid social and display at PMX Agency said targeting will be harder now but that instead of targeting or excluding Hispanic audiences using the term “Hispanic” — one of the terms that Facebook likely cut — an advertiser could use common interests such as “Telemundo interest” or specific Hispanic artists that are less known by other communities.

“The only way to ensure advertisers within certain categories don’t discriminate is extremely manual,” Math said, who also said he isn’t looking to target using common interest terms.

Facebook is aware that cutting out certain terms will not completely eliminate discrimination from making its way into its ads; it’s not releasing the full list of targeting options it cut so bad actors won’t experiment with similar terms that can be used to discriminate, the platform said.

This is not the first time Facebook has removed categories from its exclusion-targeting options. In 2016, a ProPublica investigation found an ethnic affinity targeting option allowing housing and employment companies to illegally discriminate.

Since then, Facebook has been reviewing the issue. Last April, Facebook announced it had removed “thousands” of terms related to race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and religion. This is the first time the platform cited a number of terms it would remove, but would not say how many terms it’s removed to date.

“Those of us leaning on these types of tactics will have to adapt,” said Brandon Solis, director at digital agency R/GA.

Others are unconcerned. “You don’t need thousands of targeting labels to reach the audiences you need on Facebook,” said Ian Wishingrad, founder and creative director at creative and media buying agency BigEyedWish. “People aren’t so different. You end up reaching the same people. Facebook saying, ‘We are going to cut 5,000 targeting options.’ It won’t hurt advertisers. It’s all about the optics for them.”

Advertising is Facebook’s main source of revenue, and is not cutting out all exclusions available to advertisers. If a basketball team wants to exclude people who already expressed interest in the team and only target new fans with its ad, it could still do so, Facebook said.

“Facebook is built on serving the right ad and content to the right people, so I don’t think they’ll limit or water things down to the point where advertisers’ ability to do that is jeopardized,” said Math.

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Repeat after me: Netflix will not have ads anytime soon.

The post Video Briefing: Netflix isn’t embracing ads because it doesn’t need to (right now) appeared first on Digiday.

TJ Maxx is setting itself apart from competitors by emphasizing physical stores over online marketplaces. The company attributes recent sales growth to the draw of in-store bargain shopping, something difficult to replicate online.

“We have great confidence in the enduring appeal of our treasure-hunt shopping experience,” said CEO Ernie Herrman, in a call with investors on Aug. 21. “With the vast majority of overall retail sales occurring in brick-and-mortar locations and online retailers of all sizes starting to open physical stores, we’re convinced that our four decades of experience operating stores and responding to consumer trends is a tremendous advantage.”

TJ Maxx is focusing on experiential retail at the physical location — emblematic of trends that suggest customers are increasingly valuing experiences over things. And it’s not alone. As e-commerce gains ground, large retailers are promoting the in-store experience to differentiate. For example, Home Depot has in-store experts who can offer advice on home improvement projects; The Container Store is testing in-store appointments with organizational experts; and IKEA’s “destination store” model promotes store visits as fun family outings. At TJ Maxx stores, the company said more millennials were visiting physical locations in recent months, with the majority of new customers to TJ Maxx and Marshalls being 18 to 34.

The company reported same-store sales growth of 6 percent year over year — well above analyst estimates of 2.2 percent, compared to 3 percent year-over-year same-store sales growth the previous quarter. By focusing on the breadth of discounted brand merchandise available on site, TJ Maxx adds an element of discoverability.

“Off price wins because they don’t sell online; it’s ‘come in and get your hands dirty and you’ll find things,’” said Nomura retail analyst Simeon Siegel. “Amazon is on the other end of the spectrum — you know what you’re looking for.”

Despite the emphasis on physical retail, the company is slowly growing its online and e-commerce presence, a way to reassure investors that it’s going to evolve its model as customer behavior changes. But for now, its digital presence still largely directs people to stores. TJ Maxx’s digital marketing on Instagram, for example, features physical bargain-shopping moments. For the past year, it’s rolled out an Instagram stories campaign called the#Maxx50challenge where influencers take a $50 challenge to find bargains in-store. For U.K. shoppers, it’s rolled out “Click and Collect,” where customers can buy items online and pick them up in the stores — a feature still not available in the U.S.

Bill Duffy, associate director at Gartner L2, said TJ Maxx still has a long way to go in digital e-commerce customer experience, particularly regarding omnichannel capabilities.

“Where TJ Maxx is falling flat on digital is on search navigation, and finding products on their pages; the tools to help customers find products on the site are still bare bones,” he said. “Their app was launched last year, but it’s a hindrance to their performance due to low ratings from customers.”

According to Nomura, e-commerce currently represents approximately 1 percent of sales across the company’s brands, but it’s slowly building those capabilities. For example, it works with Like2Buy to let customers purchase items on TJ Maxx’s Instagram page.

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The post Why TJ Maxx is focusing its growth plans on physical stores appeared first on Digiday.

Fast-fashion brands are competing against each other for online marketshare, and visual search offers a way to gain ground.

Today, Forever 21 begins offering “Discover Your Style” on its web and mobile homepages through a partnership with visual search engine Donde Search. A shopper can click on icons representing features they want in apparel, specifying factors such as silhouette and color, to see corresponding results in Forever 21’s inventory.

This is an expansion of a pilot of the technology launched on the retailer’s mobile app in May, which was so successful at increasing conversions and average purchase value that the company decided to “fast track” its large-scale web integration.

Forever 21 president Alex Ok considers visual search one of the most important recent innovations in e-commerce. “Visual search bridges the gap between the convenience of online shopping and the rich discovery experience of traditional retail by enabling our customers to search for clothing in the same way they think about it — using visuals, not words,” Ok said, adding that he aims to develop “the world’s most intuitive omnichannel shopping experience.”

Donde founder and CEO Liat Zakay said that because the technology is “language agnostic,” it helps companies scale to global markets. In addition to the United States and Canada, Forever 21 currently operates in Europe, Japan, Korea and the Philippines.

“We are visual-centric, not text-based, so a user doesn’t have to question what ‘tunic’ or ‘cold-shoulder’ means,” said Jiwon Hong, CEO of visual search startup YesPlz. “It’s important to offer a smart and fun tool to help customers find their styles without getting annoyed.”

There are various manifestations of visual search, which generally refers to using an image, rather than words, to inform a search engine what you’re looking for. So, instead of typing in “black A-line dress,” a visual search — as is the case with Donde — may mean selecting illustrations that represent “dress,” “A-line” and the color “black.” It also might mean using a picture of someone wearing a black dress — taken either with a shopper’s camera or found online — to guide a query finding similar styles.

Visual search can be especially lucrative for fast fashion, where a quickly changing assortment can be overwhelming and shoppers are looking to mimic a specific trend — and they may not know the language to find it.

Zakay, of Donde, says that as fast-fashion brands have migrated to e-commerce, they are no longer limited to the number of items they can display in a brick-and-mortar store, but increased inventory produces a challenge both for the customer to search and for the retailer to classify. And because fast fashion adds new items so quickly, there is often not enough history to provide recommendations for related items based on what other shoppers have clicked on. Thus, Donde is able to automatically classify items and detect existing items in the catalog that are similar.

The technology isn’t bracingly new, but it’s gained steam in the past year.

Zara, for example, has added a button for shoppers to find “similar products” to the ones they are currently viewing, and Asos, H&M and Boohoo Group (which owns Nasty Gal) began offering the ability for shoppers to upload an image that can be matched to similar corresponding items in the brand’s assortment (which makes it easier to copy outfits seen on the runway or celebrities).

Visual search results on Forever21.com

Platforms and marketplaces are taking up the technology as well. Instagram, in addition to Pinterest, can identify separate items in an image and match them to items for sale. EBay just supplemented its existing picture-matching search with the option for shoppers to “shop more items that look like this,” after finding something they like within eBay. In July, coding sleuths found out that Snapchat planned to link up with Amazon with a visual search function in its Android app.

“Visual search is table stakes for most of the retailers we talk to,” said Slyce CEO Ted Mann, who has worked with Tommy Hilfiger to make live runway shows shoppable through visual search in the brand’s app. Slyce provides visual search technology to 60 brands, including Macy’s, Neiman Marcus and J.C.Penney, in addition to brands based in Europe and the Middle East, like international retail conglomerate Landmark Group. Mann said independent retailers using Slyce report 20 percent month-over-month growth of visual search usage for three years straight. Usage in the Middle East is “way higher than expected,” he said, but admitted, “it’s still a nascent tech — it’s where voice search was 10 years ago, when it was on the fringe, and then it took off.”

There are some differing opinions of which approach — uploaded photos, as is the case with H&M, or selecting from icons, as is the case with Forever 21 — is best.

Differing approaches notwithstanding, usage and familiarity is likely to increase as digitally native Gen Z grows into its earning potential.

Pinterest reports a nearly 70 percent growth rate in visual searches in the past year, with more than 600 million monthly visual searches. Pinterest retail vertical strategy lead Amy Vener said that retail is rooted in visual experiences, from window displays to “pathing” through the store. “With the rise of online shopping and mobile devices, the visual experience has been sacrificed, making it harder for retailers to inspire shoppers to make unexpected discoveries,” she said. “People want to search for and discover new ideas, even if they don’t have the right words.”

According to Salesforce’s 2017 “Connected Shoppers Report,” 35 percent of millennials said they wanted to search merchandise in a store or digitally by using an image to generate product recommendations — that number fell to 30 percent for Gen X and 23 percent for baby boomers. (Across the board, the “visual search” response was more popular than personalized recommendations and notifications, mobile wallets, chatbots or drone delivery.) That echoes 2017 research from Accenture that found 69 percent of young consumers are interested in making purchases based on visual-oriented searches alone.

Increased usage can turn into more sales. Vener, in speaking to eMarketer analyst Andrew Lipsman for eMarketer’s 2018 report on mobile retail apps, said shopping using visual search “translates into less price sensitivity” and bigger basket sizes. This is backed up by early reads using Donde on the Forever21 app. In the first month after launching “Discover Your Style,” Forever 21 saw a 20 percent increase in average purchase value.

“It’s more efficient for the retailer and more intuitive for the consumer,” Zakay said. “Searching visually is going to be the way people will search for every visual product, whether it’s a watch, a chair or a dress.”

The post Fast-fashion brands are launching visual search to gain a competitive edge appeared first on Digiday.

Facebook Inc. dismantled a new set of influence campaigns originating in Russia and Iran designed to sow division in global politics, part of the social-media company’s broader purge of bad actors on its site.

Facebook is reducing the targeting capabilities available to advertisers on the social network by 5,000 in hopes of curtailing discriminatory practices. The move comes amid a hail of public criticism contending Facebook’s advertising tools facilitate discrimination. It also helps deliver on an earlier agreement Facebook signed with the office of Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson…

Old MacDonald may have had a farm with a dog, cows and some chickens, but he also had something far more important to keeping said farm running–a daughter. At least according to Land O’Lakes’ “She-I-O,” a reimagined (albeit slightly hokey) version of the classic children’s nursery rhyme sung by country artist Maggie Rose. The aim…