Month: April 2022

TheSkimm wanted to create a newsletter to catch up its millennial women readership on what occurred the previous week and prep them for the week ahead. TheSkimm’s audience is “growing up, and are busier than ever with their careers and starting families,” Cassidy said. A weekend morning might be the only time they “have five to 10 minutes to themselves to catch up on that story they’re going to hear about at brunch, or from their children’s friends’ parents at the playground,” she said.

TheSkimm’s weekend newsletter includes a deep dive on the latest stories, book and audio recommendations and suggestions and reminders for the upcoming week. It differs slightly from the weekday version in that the Monday through Friday emails are focused on quick hits of news and interesting, timely topics, while the weekend version tackles “a story that everybody can’t stop talking about,” Cassidy said. Its first edition, for example, discussed the declining viewership and ratings of awards shows, pegged to the timing of the Grammy Awards on April 3 and the Oscars, which took place the week prior.

There are different sections, too: a section called Bookmark’d for the stories a reader might come across but don’t have time to read during the week. “This is our section to say: we are steeped in this every day. We have looked at all the stories and websites you and your friends are looking at, and here are the two to three articles that are really interesting and you probably didn’t have time to read Monday through Friday. And now you don’t have to search for them,” Cassidy said. A section called Downtime is for recipes or projects readers can take on with the time they have on the weekends, such as recipes from Julia Child, who is “back in the spotlight,” thanks to a new HBO Max drama. Other parts of the newsletter preview the upcoming week for readers and what to keep an eye on: such as the vote to nominate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, and a calendar of big events, including the March Madness Championship games.

TheSkimm’s weekend edition is created by a team made up of three new hires, a group of writers who work on the weekday emails, and other supporting staff, Cassidy said. The team works on the weekend edition throughout the week, and finalizes it on Friday night. It’s a similar editorial process and structure to the Daily Skimm’s weekday emails, she said. 

Walmart+ was a sponsor for the first edition of the weekend newsletter. The additional email opens up more inventory for theSkimm’s advertisers, as well as additional revenue for the company, Cassidy said. Advertisers can appear in theSkimm’s weekday or weekend emails, or both. theSkimm sells single day, directly-sold campaigns, including sponsored headers, full newsletter takeovers, custom sections and affiliate links. Cassidy did not provide pricing.

Other publishers have also extended their newsletter suite to the weekend. In November, The Information introduced a new lifestyle newsletter to go out every Friday, covering how the tech industry unwinds on their days off. Free to read, it includes long-form features, short interviews, recommendations and a parenting advice column.

About 85% of the publishers that work with email marketing platform LiveIntent and send email on the weekdays also send at least one email over the weekend, Adam Berkowitz, svp, corporate communications & industry relations at LiveIntent said in an email. And while the gap between weekday and weekend used to be “more dramatic,” LiveIntent has seen a trend of publishers adopting more weekend sends, he said.

Adding a weekend newsletter might also be a way to continue to engage readers who have gotten into the habit of opening emails from a publisher on weekdays. 

“Think about your inbox on a Saturday morning versus your inbox on a Tuesday morning,” said Melissa Chowning, founder and CEO at audience development agency Twenty-First Digital. “It’s really about standing out in an inbox that has gotten so crowded in the last couple of years,” she added, and there’s “more share of voice” on the weekend when inboxes are less packed with newsletters compared to weekdays.

Some of Chowning’s clients — which she did not name — that send out newsletters on the weekend recapping the week find them to be their most popular, with higher open and click rates than they see during the week. “We always thought it was because the consumer has had a little bit more time to sit down with their morning coffee, and just digest a little bit more of what they missed,” she said.

As a publication specializing in fashion and beauty, Vice Media Group’s Refinery29 has its origins in commingling content and commerce. Now the outlet is looking to extend its expertise to live shoppable video.

“We’re going to start live testing [live shoppable video] in the spring. We’re considering YouTube as a our starting place, and we’re probably going to start with beauty because it’s a strong category for us,” said Refinery29 global editor-in-chief Simone Oliver in the latest episode of the Digiday Podcast, which was recorded in front of a live audience at the Digiday Publishing Summit on March 29.

With live shoppable video, Refinery29 expects to take a similar tact that it has adopted with its commerce content overall: Allowing its audience to experience products vicariously through its editorial staff. “We know for us creating that sense of community, having our editors out front, having their faces in front is really important,” Oliver said.

As Oliver said of Refinery29’s overarching approach to commerce content, “we’re not gatekeepers. We’re here to experience the trends with you. Our audience is savvy as heck. They don’t need us to tell them the trends. What we do is we test-drive those trends for people. And that’s one of the ways we generate trust.”

Here are a few highlights from the conversation, which have been edited for length and clarity.

Getting into gaming

I didn’t want to just approach it through the lens of let’s make money off of gaming. We do community well, so what’s important for us? Women [and] underrepresented communities. Our biggest opportunity is not just the insider gamers and streamers. It’s also everyone else. The definition of gaming is broadening. There’s so many people who have identities and communities within the gaming world that we connect with and that’s in our wheelhouse.

Stepping up in search

We have someone who leads [search engine optimization]. Right now we’re going through an exercise, a mini audit, across different verticals to see are we stacking up as we should be. Are we really leveraging our search the best way we can be? An example of that is home well-being, but what does that mean? Home, to me, means office chair. My back is hurting; that affects how I perform. And we noticed that we haven’t been specific enough. So there’s a lot of room to grow there.

Contending with supply-chain challenges

The supply chain issue is always going to be there. We have very little control over that. One of the tactics that we try to work around that is knowing what our audience likes. We know there are certain price points that are the sweet spots for our audience. The other thing is the audience experience is vital. We don’t want to send anyone to anything that’s sold out. So we’re constantly checking or updating. If something is sold out, we will update that link in a timely fashion.

Closing commerce communication gaps

In recent months, our vp of commerce Samantha Baker slacked me and was like, “Listen, I’m noticing that only 70% of your articles across all of dot-com have [affiliate links from] Skimlinks.” I’m like, “70? Yo, we could do better than that.” Our fashion and beauty teams, all the other verticals, they’re on Slack all day with the shopping editors who have the expertise and they know the audience really well. To me, 70%, like that’s a C. I couldn’t come home with a C in school. We could do better as team; let’s close that gap. So closing those communication gaps across different teams is really important.

“Right now, many of our clients are focused on brand building knowing that price elasticity is tied to brand value,” said Kari Shimmel, chief strategy officer at Campbell Ewald. “Companies realize they need to think about their story and market position in ways that connect to the values and culture of today’s America.” 

Communicating to consumers that a brand is delivering some sort of necessary value despite price increases is crucial, according to agency execs, who say that without doing so brands may be dealing with consumers’ skepticism and ire on why they have to pay more. In recent years, there’s been an erosion of trust between consumers and brands with consumers now more likely to Google why a brand may be raising prices than trust that a brand is doing so because of inflation. 

“Among those raising prices, more and more are doing it with complete transparency,” said David Burfeind, chief strategy officer at Via. “No stealth increases, no ‘shrinkflation’ tricks with reduced quantities, no clumsy euphemisms for price adjustments. They’re saying it straight and explaining why. Because consumer psychology research has consistently found that attempts to obfuscate bad news or sneak something past consumers rarely go well. Their BS detectors are just too good.” 

That being said, some believe there’s a general understanding among consumers that increased prices aren’t coming from one company or another but that inflation will be felt across brands. “While the bad news is that it either takes a chunk out of profits or forces a pass-on to the customer, the not-so-bad news is that there is generally understanding among consumers that it is a situational crisis,” said Dipanjan Chatterjee, vp and principal analyst, at Forrester. 

“And while it hurts the pocketbook, consumers may not single out brands as culprits.” 

Aside from figuring out how to navigate price increase messaging, some say brands are also looking at their media investments amid inflation. 

“Beyond price-specific messaging, we’ve also been rethinking media channels in light of the inflationary environment,” said Via’s Burfeind. “For example, brands that have contractual pricing locked in for a year or more (think streaming services, cable, telco) can take advantage of gas stations or grocery receipts as a contextually relevant ad vehicles, juxtaposing their message against tangible signs of painful and surprising price hikes.”

3 Questions With Kathryn Swallow, global brand vp for Degree at Unilever

There has been a resurgence of out-of-home advertising as the pandemic has somewhat subsided. How is Degree thinking about it?

What we’ve been getting from an out-of-home point of view is obviously there’s geolocation, so we can really tie the reach right through to even product sales in an area. There’s a real direct correlation, even [in] things like where we’re situated, where we’re able to sample or what the take up is of the sampling in the stores nearby. There’s a lot of geolocation targeting and we’re able to measure that quite clearly. From a digital point of view, it’s all super measurable.

What about influencer marketing? What’s happening there for Degree?

I want to start trialing media with influencers in two ways. One of which is of course, they are a voice of what we want to say. Candice Parker is a prime example. She believes in what we’re doing, but she worked with us to create the content. Another way though, is to say we’re your partner, go for your life and talk about us and however you want. Let the reins go. That’s where you can start to get into some really powerful work, but you’ve got to let the guardrails go. It all comes down to kind of selecting the right partners, having the right shared values and believing in the right thing. 

What’s the takeaway in light of the ever-changing advertising landscape? 

Putting front and center the purpose of a brand enables lots of choices. Even if I think about our purpose, inspiring movement, even that links to our choice of media. Where are we showing up, why are we showing up, how are we showing up and obviously the message we’re crafting. The other thing I would say is really believing in the voice of others and not worrying too much. My third thing is think about it as a consumer, not as a marketer. Because you can read all the reports you want on reach and this and that, but when it comes down to it, how do other brands influence you? — Kimeko McCoy

By the Numbers

Brands have found their way into the metaverse, following shoppers who are increasingly spending their time and money in virtual spaces. As that environment continues to grow and the next generation of the web, or Web3, continues to come online, new research from Accenture reveals how CMOs are preparing. Find key details from the report below:

• 77% of global CMOs who responded to the survey say that the metaverse will have a positive impact on their organizations.
• 45% of survey respondents report the metaverse will be breakthrough or transformational. 
• 93% of global CMOs who responded to the survey agree that the realization of Web3 over the next decade will fundamentally change how businesses engage with users online.  — Kimeko McCoy

Quote of the Week

“There’s more that could go wrong than could go right. There’s a war, there’s Covid, there’s inflation. It’s going to be very hard for a brand to strike the right tone right now.”

— Rob Schwartz, chairman of TBWAChiatDay in New York, on why April Fools’ Day is riskier for brands in 2022.

What We’ve Covered

• How TikTok is getting more ad dollars as it has moved out of the innovation bucket.
• The gender gap is being exacerbated by paid family leave.
• What you need to know about Google’s plans for more Privacy Sandbox trials.

This conversation has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

Why did you decide to leave esports journalism?

It’s hard to explain all the context behind it. Back in the day, when you were reporting something about a team or a player and they didn’t want you to put it out there, you pretty much got threatened by that team in various ways. Like, the team itself would put out a statement or something and say, “This is false.” And then all of the fans of that team or player would come and attack you on your social media or a Reddit thread or whatever. It was super weird because you’ve never seen that in traditional sports, right? When journalists in traditional sports post a story, the football team it’s about isn’t going to release a statement on social media saying, “This journalist is wrong.”

Did that affect how you felt about your work?

Nobody appreciates this; it’s not exactly life-changing work. It’s just not worth the stress, it’s not worth dealing with all of this shit — I had a team threaten to sue me once because I said a player was going to join them. These days, the public-facing aspect has probably changed a little bit, but I’m sure, behind the scenes, you probably still get that kind of shit. Another thing I’ll throw out there is that it can be really difficult to maintain friendships in the scene, because you’re using them as sources of information as well, right? But it’s a personal relationship — you’re friends with these people — which can be really grating.

How has your experience in esports journalism influenced your work in the marketing sector?

It’s helped and hindered. Frustratingly, there are a lot of people who hold grudges. At times, as a journalist — and this might just be because I was a bit of an asshole — if you go back and talk to a team or influencer, and they remember you as the guy who used to have inside information on them and be publishing news about them and investigating them, that’s not very helpful. It’s certainly been helpful in having a bunch of connections, and just understanding the context behind all of the things that are going on in esports.

What’s your take on the endemic publication landscape now?

There’s not very many endemic options that seem to be built for long-term success. In the real world, more people read the Daily Mail than read the Guardian. Generally, people don’t want to sit down and read a big long story about esports, they just kind of want to read the CliffsNotes and find something to be upset or angry about.