Month: May 2020

TikTok’s premium is in part because the bulk of its ads are managed on behalf of media buyers by its own sales team. Ads on the social network are also new, which means it can get away with hefty ad prices safe in the knowledge that advertisers won’t ditch it for cheaper inventory on the likes of Snapchat and Instagram. 

Here’s a breakdown of what it costs to advertise on TikTok in the U.K., per the latest rate card it has shared with media buyers. 

Takeover ads

This format replaces the user post someone would normally see when they open the app with either a three-second image or a three to five-second video from an advertiser. Only one specific advertiser can take over a category each day. Cost: The minimum spend for this format is $53,000 per day, which buys 8.9 impressions.

Topview ads

Similar to Takeover ads, Topview ads appear when the app is opened. Unlike those ads, however, Topview ads are videos that last up to 60-seconds with the sound on. Advertisers can turn a Takeover ad into a TopView one by paying the difference. Cost: For 7.4 million impressions, advertisers must fork out $65,000 per day. 

In-Feed Video — One Day Max

These are five to 15 seconds long video ads are shown in-feeds for one day only. The ad is the fourth in-feed video shown to users. Cost: The starting price for this format is $26,000 for 3.6 million impressions. 

In-feed Video — Brand Premium

Unlike the other in-feed video format, this one is randomly placed among the first 130 in-feed videos someone watches on the app. Cost: The minimum spend for this format is $25,000. 

Hashtag Challenge

TikTok’s flagship format lets advertisers create bespoke dance or comedy challenges under a hashtag that works like a call to action for people to create their own versions over six days. unsurprisingly, tt’s one of TikTok’s more expensive formats. But in exchange for their cash, advertisers get a wealth of options including official music to accompany the hashtag and special content protection to avoid videos being restricted from the challenge. Both Brand Takeover and One Day ads are included in this package. Cost: This format is worth $130,000.

Hashtag Challenge Plus

This package gives advertisers the banner, hashtag, challenge page, special content protection, and ad formats they get with the standard package, plus additional features like directing people to their store within the app. Cost: The enhanced Hashtag Challenge costs $160,000. 

Branded Effect

The format lets advertisers add 2D animated lenses to their views that can be triggered by face and hand movements. The effects are created by TikTok’s in-house creative team. Cost: The format costs $45,000 for 30 days

While TikTok’s high-impact placements are pricey, there are other, cheaper options to test the waters. It’s why there’s so much interest in TikTok’s influencers via its Creator Marketplace, which is the official platform for brand and creator collaborations on TikTok.

“Influencers are the only way to advertise on TikTok because all the best viral content on the platform is made by them,” said Jide Maduako, CEO of the influencer platform Yoke Network. “Advertisers need to be paying closer attention to the consistency of views of influencers. It’s a strong indicator as to how successful your video will be when brokering deals.”

TikTok provides the following information in regards to the creator packages: 

Mid-tier package

This package consists of five creators, all of whom have less than a million followers on the app. Cost: It costs advertisers $12,000 to work with these influencers. 

Top-tier package

Similar to the mid-tier package, except these five influencers all have between one and five million followers. Cost: This group of influencers will set advertisers back $35,000. 

Value Hybrid Package

This smorgasbord of talent includes two top-tier creators and three mid-tier creators. Cost: This package costs $20,000. 

Premium Hybrid Package

This mix of influencers includes one ‘VIP Creator’, who has more than 500 followers as well as two top-tier creators and two mid-tier creators. Cost: This selection of influencers is worth $30,000.   

But, in having interviewed more than a dozen startups for this column over the past two months, a surprising number have reported seeing some of their best-ever sales days during the coronavirus pandemic, and/or seeing some of their highest month-over-month growth. Some of the bigger “winners” of the stay at home orders have been more obvious than others, like pet food and beverage brands. But others have been more unexpected, like DTC underwear brand Parade, which said that it’s been seeing 40% month-over-month growth on average. Or swimwear brand Andie, which is on track to report its highest month of sales in May after revenue plunged in mid-March.

Part of this growth was due to the fact that shoppers had fewer options. Soon, shoppers’ options will expand as stores open back up in more states. The coming months will prove just how much of the growth direct-to-consumer brands experienced was a flash in the pan. Did they win over customers while stores were closed because they were the only website with reasonable shipping times for weights or hand sanitizers? Or will these customers come back because these startups have truly built a better experience or product?

“People are going to go to stores mainly because there’s not much else you can do,” said Web Smith, founder of 2pm Inc. “Naturally, we are going to see a drop off in commerce over the next month, two, or three.” However, he said that could change if states re-issue stay at home orders should cases rise, as some epidemiologists are warning of the potential of a “second wave” in the fall.

When non-essential retailers were ordered shut, the DTC brands born online were in a better position to get goods to customers than legacy retailers who only recently invested in e-commerce. While many people are still hesitant to visit stores, that will change the longer they’re open. Over time, people are going to start to resume some of their normal shopping habits. For example, there’s signs that online grocery shopping is peaking. A survey conducted this week by CivicScience on behalf of Bloomberg found that over one-third of shoppers plan to stop ordering groceries online altogether, or use it less once stay at home orders are lifted in their area.

“I don’t think we are going to a world where consumers only shop online and that’s it,” said Caitlin Strandberg, principal at Lerer Hippeau. But, she said “we expect to see the longstanding incumbents lose market share from these 2-3 months of shelter in place, where they weren’t able to serve their customers effectively. Their customers were living online, living on Instagram, living on Facebook, doing more search and discovery.”

Continuing to win over customers when they have the option of visiting stores again depends upon, to use a retail cliché, startups’ ability to meet customers where they are. The promise of direct-to-consumer brands has always lied in the fact that, ostensibly, they are closer to their customers than legacy retailers. Now is their time to prove it.

In the early days of the pandemic, that meant quickly spinning up production of face masks or hand sanitizer, or donating to organizations in need. Now, that means introducing products to better meet the needs of what people are actually going to be doing this summer, and running marketing that isn’t tone deaf to what people are experiencing right now.

In years past, for example, swimwear company Andie’s customers may have been buying suits for trips to the Bahamas or Mexico. Now, they’re likely spending their summer in their backyard pool or at the local beach. So, Andie is introducing new product bundles, that are geared towards customers who will be camped out in their yard for most of the summer. Andie has partnered with other brands on a wholesale arrangement to sell tumblers, towels and sunscreen among other products on its website for the first time. And, in order to promote a new line of eco-friendly swimsuits it is also launching next week, Andie used its employees as models.

“In non-pandemic times, we have leaned into traveling to beautiful destinations…we’ve also done a lot more sort of what I would call ‘chest pumping marketing,’ like, ‘this is the best swimsuit of all time,”’ said Melanie Travis, founder and CEO of Andie. “In general now we have to show that we are aware of the situation, we are living in the same situation as everyone else.”

So far, attendees for its virtual events regularly reach the thousands, according to the company.

In some cases, virtual events have news clout. U.S. billionaire Ray Dalio made headlines during the first Bloomberg Invest series by saying his investment management company, Bridgewater Associates, estimates a hit of $20 trillion to the global economy. This specific event drew over 3,000 viewers asking over 350 questions for an average of 54 minutes, (despite the show lasting only 46-minutes long). The show airs across multiple platforms: Bloomberg TV, Bloomberg.com, social media and on the Bloomberg Terminal.

“These are news-making,” said Garrigan. “The mission of Bloomberg Live is to elevate stories and bring them to audiences who need them. Folks see these as moments to share their perspective, connect with audiences directly, using the Q&A and polling feature, to get closer to the speakers and what they are feeling.”

Interactions over webinars and Zoom calls can feel stilted or basic, but the volume of companies chewing over this problem — 32% of publishers said branded content programs and “virtual events” are taking up more resources and attention — are propelling forward improvements. Publisher in-person events teams have been cut deeply as businesses figure out virtual alternatives that take less of an operational heavy lift. In May, publishers revealed events revenue was down by 60%. 

Bloomberg Live’s most ambitious event to date, Invest Global, is a three-day conference covering the roiling economic impacts of coronavirus across four global regions in June. The schedule starts in Hong Kong before moving west to Dubai, London and New York throughout the day. Invesco QQQ, a previous client, is sponsoring the U.S. track for Invest Global.

The majority of Bloomberg Live’s upcoming events are sponsored by companies like healthcare company Optum and software company OutSystems. Upcoming sponsors are choosing to sponsor a series of four events.

In-person events cost more to put on but also drive more revenue than virtual events. In general, sponsorship rates for virtual events are about half the rate as an in-person event, said vp of marketing at digital events platform ON24, Tessa Barron. 

“From a sponsorship perspective, everything we knew had changed,” said Garrigan. “We asked [clients] ‘what are you solving for?’ We aim to be the strategic partner, so we ask ‘how do you want to be in this space, what does success look like?’ The perception around the value of virtual events has changed.”

Defining the success of virtual events is still being worked out. Reach, amplification across linear broadcast and social plays a part, as well as thought leadership, brand awareness and audience interactions. Garrigan said that clients view events as being part of a larger conversation rather than a more transactional value exchange. But how virtual events will drive business outcomes is no doubt on clients’ minds. 

Interaction data is the main advantage over in-person gatherings. These can be used to drive sales instantly if a sponsor promotes a related offer, like a demo or sales meeting, and uses the conversion rate as their metric.

“It’s very powerful to say ‘my virtual event drove 1,000 attendees and 10% of that audience raised their hand and said they were interested in our solution,’” said Barron.

Smart advertisers are using virtual events as elements of a broader digital campaign strategy, this means the return on investment calculations also change. Events are being used for branded content, reworked into podcasts or social video series. Publishers are also getting interest from packaging up the event footage for archives. 

“It’s no longer about signage or cocktail napkins, but content creation, audience engagement and measurable results,” said Barron. “Thinking about virtual events as a tentpole for a big digital umbrella will ultimately help drive more revenue.”

It’s probably the most benign request to get during the course of a workday, but for Alex, a social media manager at a startup, it causes a spiral of anxiety.

“First, I feel this intense urgency to respond straight away. I get worried if the green light on my Slack wasn’t on. I worry that I maybe was too late in responding. I am always available,” said Alex.

The issue of feeling overwhelmed and having performance anxiety isn’t new to Alex. But the current crisis and working from home, as he and millions of others are currently doing, has exacerbated the issues.

“I want to make sure they don’t think I’m slacking, so I go to absolutely every happy hour, respond constantly to everything ever posted. The problem has become bad enough that I’m probably doing that more than actual work.”

Several employees report the rise of the need to be seen as “present” at all times. Such performative workaholism isn’t new: the rise of #hustle culture and countless morning routines of “successful” people, the “Thank God it’s Monday crowd,” all told entire generations that work was only work if it hurt and went on for too long. But now, it’s even more than before. If your boss can’t see you feverishly working, did you even log a 60-hour week? For many, it means showing up, figuratively, if not literally. 

As work entered the home, and home became part of work, employees ought to have thought that work became less important, especially as other issues, like taking care of children while they’re at home, family, health, or just non-work life, should come into greater focus. Ideally, anyone would think this would be the much needed balance provided to work: Put the stew on while you finish that project, spend some time with your kids while taking a lunch break. Go for a walk. 

Instead, it seems to have been the opposite. (And the rise of surveillance software and always-on webcams doesn’t exactly help in creating warm fuzzy feelings of trust.)

“I feel an intense amount of pressure to make sure that I am always available,” said a 24-year-old associate editor at a lifestyle publication. “I carry my phone into the bathroom in case someone Slacks me.”

For this editor, she had a higher-up manager tell her that she really should make an effort to attend team-wide happy hours and the various “Zoom breaks” the company’s HR team provides throughout the day. “It’s good to be seen, is the prevalent mindset.” Added on to this is natural economic anxiety — those working who spoke to Digiday for this piece all said they felt they needed to “perform overtime” so managers knew they were around.

A Stanford study found a 13% increase in productivity for employees working from home — both for employees and their managers. At the same time, a LinkedIn study recently found that 86% of employees working from home feel a pressure to “overperform.”

“This isnt how remote working should look and feel like,” said Sarah Rabia, who runs the cultural strategy practice at ad agency TBWA and advises companies on culture and new ways of working. “We’re overcompensating. There’s a fear and anxiety.”

All-remote-since-day-one company Basecamp’s founder, David Heinemeier Hansson, and the author of It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work, cautions against trying to replicate bonding among colleagues virtually, instead exhorting people to improve the way they communicate. 

“When you’re in the office, you’re present. You know someone sees you, and you’ve seen them, and you’re done. But it’s almost like self-guilt. It’s a low bandwidth environment online, so you have to keep showing you’re present, you’re visible, make sure nobody feels like they’re waiting on me,” said one tech manager. 

Jaclyn Ruelle runs brand communications at The Martin Agency in Richmond, Virginia. She said she had an employee cautiously mention to her how unmotivated she was feeling. “I told her it was fine, and I was unmotivated for two days myself.” “She didn’t feel like it was fair to herself to have an unmotivated day,” said Ruelle, who said that there can be a danger in “over engagement” of employees. 

Ruelle’s colleague, Tina Chamberlain, who runs talent resources at the company, said that the agency has a “lot of communication” including an employee affinity group, department meetings, “five-minute fun Fridays,” happy hours, and so on. “We do talk about constantly engaging people in different ways,” said Chamberlain. “But at the same time we tell them they don’t have to come to everything.”

Trend watch

Perhaps no trend has experienced as many ups and downs as the four-day workweek. While the idea has been trumpeted in media, thanks to a couple experiments by companies like Microsoft Japan, who instituted the four-day workweek and found productivity jumping, it has never quite taken off. Until, perhaps, now: Former presidential contender Andrew Yang is the latest proponent, arguing that the truncated workweek during these remote times is necessary for mental health, productivity, and even creating jobs at the margins.

Roku continues to compete for advertisers’ TV dollars. But the company is playing the long game with its pitch. While agency executives expect streaming to play a bigger role in TV advertisers’ upfront allocations this year, those advertisers will still prioritize their dealings with TV networks, especially as networks’ streaming portfolios have grown with Disney taking control over Hulu and ViacomCBS pooling together inventory from CBS All Access and Pluto TV. 

Roku is pitching itself as a complement to TV networks’ linear inventory, which could help it to contend with the networks’ streaming properties. The platform will guarantee that TV advertisers will only pay for ads shown to people who did not see their campaigns on traditional TV. That will make it easier for TV advertisers to manage their TV and streaming campaigns.

“Typically we’ll go in with a Roku buy and say exclude [streaming inventory from TV networks that an advertiser is already buying from the network], but that doesn’t account for live TV inventory,” said an agency executive.

By enabling upfront advertisers to only pay for ads served to people an advertiser did not reach on linear TV, Roku is offering itself up as a safety net for brand advertisers who want the broad reach of TV but are wary of cord cutting continuing to accelerate and compromise that reach.

“That resonates so well. Especially for CPGs or anybody [that buys TV ads using the P2-plus rating to reach any viewer two years old and older], that’s where net incremental reach will be a core focus,” a third agency executive said of Roku’s incremental reach guarantee.

Roku is also looking to get advertisers to use its OneView ad buying platform, which stems from the company’s acquisition last year of ad tech firm Dataxu. For example, advertisers using OneView will be able to manage how often an individual is exposed to their ads each day for campaigns running not only across Roku’s own CTV platform but other CTV platforms, provided a media company sells that off-Roku inventory through OneView, Levin said.

Additionally, for advertisers buying through OneView, Roku will guarantee that those ads will lift the number of visits to an advertiser’s site or installs of its mobile app and will refund the money if it falls short. That will likely help Roku to attract digital-first advertisers, such as direct-to-consumer companies, that have begun to advertise on TV but are looking to measure their campaigns against business results, like whether an ad pushed people to visit their websites.

The performance guarantee “does resonate more with digital buyers than traditional TV buyers,” said the first agency executive. “We’re probably one or two upfront cycles away from a TV buyer looking at outcome-based buying as something that will drive the majority of upfront spending. But for a digital buyer that wants to pre-commit, that’s where Roku will have the most success this year.”

Ticket sales have dropped to zero and it’s unclear when fans will be allowed back through the turnstiles. Global sponsorship rights-fees are projected to fall 37% to $28.9 billion in 2020 as a result of the coronavirus crisis, according to sports marketing agency Two Circles. The total spend on sports sponsorship rights-fees was $1.8 billion in Germany last year, largely driven by the automotive industry, which has also taken a hit during the pandemic. The live sports hiatus has also decimated TV ratings the world over and some advertisers have asked networks to release them from their contracts.

In Germany, Discovery-owned broadcaster Eurosport is locked in a dispute with the German Football League, having sought to cancel its €70 million ($77 million) per year contract using a special termination clause, according to German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Amazon and DAZN, which previously sub-licensed the rights for Bundesliga games from Eurosport, both expanded their distribution deals directly with the DFL earlier this month to broadcast matches for the rest of the 2019-20 season.

The DFL has also been quick to cut international deals with broadcasters looking to maximize the benefit of German football being one of the first major sporting leagues to return. U.S. fantasy sports company acquired live betting streaming rights for the Bundesliga in the U.S. earlier this month, while Fox aired games on its FS1 channel. 

“What the Bundesliga has done well is to make as many games available to watch live as possible, including staggered kick off times to maximize the amount of games people can watch,” said Chris Beadle, partnership development director and head of football at CSM Sport & Entertainment.

The debut game drew record ratings on the domestic Sky Deutschland channel, as well as FS1 in the U.S. and BT Sport in the U.K.

New flexibility over broadcast deals and new interactive options, such as live stats and Sky Deutschland and FS1 viewers being given the choice to add artificial crowd noise, would not have happened so quickly had the season carried on as usual, said Matt Rogan, co-founder of Two Circles.

“It’s been an interesting petri dish test,” Rogan said.

A question lingers over whether the Bundesliga can maintain a high level of interest once more sports recommence. The German league has a lower international profile than the likes of the English Premier League and La Liga in Spain, which are both set to restart in June.

Daily active users engaging with Bundesliga clubs on Facebook and Instagram dropped 65% between March and May, according to an analysis of Facebook Ad Manager data by Alex Balfour, a sports and entertainment digital marketing consultant. Premier League clubs grew engagement in that time by 1%, while La Liga dropped 16%.

Balfour said, “The running assumption is that clubs are followed more because of the people they play against,” particularly in European competitions such as the UEFA Champions League and Europa League tournaments — both currently suspended but planned to finish in August.

The DFL and German clubs appear keen to emphasize that they’re not seeking to profiteer on their new international audience.

“We are talking about a pandemic — a major health issue — where sport is not the number one or number two [concern],” said Holger Tromp, communications director at Bayer 04 Leverkusen. “We have to be very humble on our channels. It’s important to be reliable, to show respect to people, to be emotional, to entertain — but … you shouldn’t simply try to take profit out of [the] situation.”

Tromp said Bayer 04 Leverkusen has worked with sponsors to create content for its social and digital channels as it looks to compensate for the lack of a full stadium experience. LinkedIn has also becoming an increasingly important channel for Leverkusen’s executives to communicate how they’re handling the restart, he added.

“There’s some mood music around moving to a significantly digital execution. You’d think this would accelerate that,” said Alex Balfour, a sports and entertainment marketing consultant. “The hassle now of putting together a hospitality program for a client is absolutely not going to be worth it for a significant period of time.”

Speaking on a SportsPro webinar in May ahead of the league’s restart, Moritz Muecke, head of digital innovation at the DFL, said the key focus was player and staff safety rather than attempting to convert new fans. Muecke also said he would personally advise against clubs introducing e-ticketing or virtual VIP experiences to monetize existing fans in lieu of ticket sales — though he added the caveat that some clubs facing financial insolvency may see no other option.

“A lot of fans at the moment are already giving back to their clubs by maybe not canceling the season ticket they already have [and] really partnering with their clubs in this crisis,” said Muecke. The DFL did not respond to requests for comment.

Shortly after the Bundesliga was postponed, the DFL launched its “Bundesliga Home Challenge” on Mar. 28, pitting professional footballers against gamers on the PlayStation 4 game FIFA 20. The e-sports coverage drove more than 2 million unique views per weekend, Muecke said. In May, once live matches recommenced, the Bundesliga debuted a series of real-time on-screen match statistics, powered by its technology sponsor Amazon Web Services. 

There are nuances to the German football market. Clubs are majority-owned by their fans, rather than commercial investors — meaning many teams have less leveraged balance sheets than their international counterparts. There is a strong “ultras” fan culture that has widely opposed proposals like replacing real fans with mannequins to recreate packed stands or piped in crowd noises as seen in the K-League in South Korea. Plus, most of its key club sponsors are German, rather than international, companies.

Still, there are lessons to be taken from the Bundesliga’s return that can be applied to almost other sports leagues as they begin to recommence — from taking a more agile approach to broadcasting rights to maximizing digital sponsorship activity in lieu of corporate hospitality.

“[The coronavirus crisis] hasn’t really changed the direction that global sport was moving in, it’s just put everything in fast-forward,” said Rogan.