Author: rssmasher

Vans hired its first global executive creative director, Erwin Federizo, in January. The former agency executive is focused on improving Vans’ consistency on social media.

The streetwear brand is on a high, swept up in a flurry of celebrity endorsements, street-style sightings and high-end collaborators, but it’s trying to stay grounded. Federizo, for example, believes the brand’s “social voice needs to strengthen” if it is to venture into emerging markets.

A Brandwatch analysis of Twitter conversations that used one or more of Vans’ handles — @vans_66, @vansskate @vanssurf, @vansbmx66, @vanssnow or @vansgirls — between Feb. 15, 2017 and Feb. 15, 2018 revealed that 74 percent of the mentions came from the U.S. The U.K. was the next biggest market, with 3 percent of shares in the period. Twitter is banned in China, but each of the other three emerging markets Brandwatch tracked — Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia — accounted for 1 percent of shares each.

Federizo said finding ways to grow Vans’ following in emerging markets is at the top of his to-do list.

Asia, specifically China, is the growth opportunity for Vans: Sales in China rose just 9 percent year over year in its most recent quarter versus an 18 percent jump in Europe over the same period. In a market like China, where members of the younger generation are more eager to portray themselves as global citizens, Vans understands its focus on subcultures over the mainstream could be an advantage.

WeChat is Vans’ biggest social network in China and has become a staple in Vans’ marketing for most of the decade Vans has been there. Vans has had great success with publishing content on the app, said Nick Street, vp of global integrated marketing for Vans, whose team has turned photos and editorial features from events in China into magazines within the app. The brand has also bought WeChat Moments ads, which appear in a user’s feed in the app, and experimented with QR codes in the app. Street, who spent three years as Vans’ marketing boss in China, said “it’s a little easier” to gain reach there than in the U.S. and Europe.

Vans sees higher engagement on its livestreamed videos on WeChat versus those posted to other other social networks in other markets, said Street, who was unable to disclose figures by the time this story was published. He did, however, share that around 70 percent of Vans’ content on WeChat comes from its global team and therefore isn’t as localized as the output coming directly from the brand’s marketers there. Maintaining global consistency in a market like China, which has vast cultural differences from Western markets, is key to getting across the core of the brand, said Street, but it shouldn’t be at the expense of local relevancy.

The important thing the global marketing team at Vans must remember, he said, is to keep the curated content linked to the overall themes and identity of the brand. “We’re actually hearing from more followers [in China], asking that they hear more from our local creators and fellow fans in WeChat,” he said.

Less than two months into the role, Federizo described his plans beyond cracking China as “conceptual” rather than concrete. He reports to Jamie Reilly, vp of global creative at Vans, but will oversee the brand’s creative directors, who act as the day-to-day managers in a multidisciplinary team of around 30 in-house creatives. Vans has always worked this way, preferring to come up with its own creative ideas and work with agencies on a project-by-project basis.

Eventually, Federizo wants to make the brand’s products and marketing more customizable, while also developing a retail strategy that pushes stores beyond their product-focused role. The stores have become the face of Vans for many of its customers, said Federizo, who plans to bring immersive experiences around music, art, street culture and sports into those environments.

The post Inside Vans’ social media strategy appeared first on Digiday.

Facebook’s announcement about its news-feed changes in January continues to have ripple effects across the media industry. But whether this has a lasting impact on publishers’ strategies is debatable. In the latest installment of our Confessions series, where we trade anonymity for candor, we spoke to a publishing consultant specializing in social media, who advises legacy publishers in Europe. The conversation has been edited and condensed.

What are publishers saying about Facebook’s news-feed changes?
There’s a lot of shock and floundering and not knowing what to do inwardly, while outwardly, there’s a lot of posturing and big statements from publishers saying, “This is our new course of action; this is what we’re going to do.” It’s far too early to know what the path forward is. Of course, this will have an impact — we’re just not sure what.

What’s an example?
Publishers that are pulling their content from Facebook — it’s pointless, [like Brazil’s largest newspaper Folha de S.Paulo]. It’s a knee-jerk, posturing reaction. There’s an awful lot of showmanship right now. Publishers want to scare Facebook because there have been so many different gripes. Pulling content is a symbolic rather than strategic move.

What’s the problem with publishers’ response to the changes?
One major publisher said to me, “So, video is dead now. We should all forget about video because of the changes.” If you’re only making video in order to get Facebook views, then you’re doing something wrong. The smartest publishers are the ones who aren’t 100 percent sure what they are going to do, the ones that will test out 10 different new things over the next few months and see what works.

Are publishers reducing their reliance on Facebook, though?
Publishers are more cautious, but history could repeat itself. Publishers feel like they have to start a Group because Facebook has told them to. If they’re not starting these things to create value for people, they’ll be in a tricky situation down the line when they have staffed it with people, and it’s not something Facebook wants to prioritize. One legacy publisher said to me they would see if Groups make sense, and if it doesn’t, they won’t do it.

What’s the issue with Groups?
Groups are not traffic-driving. They are great if your goal is to increase hyperlocal engagement with readers, but the problem is they are not transferable: Groups don’t replace a page or a video strategy; they are not a one-to-one trade-off. If you lose 10 million views a month but you gain 10,000 comments, is that a net positive or a net negative? How do you communicate that to your higher-ups? Making a one-year detailed social media projection for benchmarking when all this change is happening is difficult, when you don’t even know if these metrics will be relevant in a year’s time.

How can publishers handle that challenge?
There’s a difference between strategy and trends or innovation. A lot of publishers have got very good at following trends and have lost track of their strategy. A publisher like Great Big Story will have an easier time navigating these changes than a generic platform-agnostic, social-only news publisher without a strong brand identity. No one wakes up in the morning and really wants to see one-minute videos on Facebook, but they do want to talk about documentaries, stories with strong characters or things they have learned.

Are publishers kidding themselves when they say the changes will ultimately be beneficial?
There’s a difference between saying, “this isn’t going to affect us” and “this is going to be good for us.” There’s a number of reasons why this will be good for publishers. For instance, having internal pressure to make content for Facebook, now there is a reason to focus on something people care about. Ultimately, anything that forces publishers to make better content will be better for readers and publishers themselves. Publishers have also remembered there’s more than Facebook out there. They are exploring YouTube, Apple News and working search engine optimization.

The post ‘There’s an awful lot of showmanship’: Confessions of a publishing consultant on Facebook’s news feed changes appeared first on Digiday.

Vogue and Vice are gingerly moving ahead with their editorial partnership, even after Vice’s sexual harassment saga has been blown open. The Condé Nast publication finds itself in an awkward spot with its editorial collaboration with Vice, now the subject of one of media’s biggest sexual harassment stories.

I wonder what’s gonna happen to Vogue’s collaboration with Vice? I mean never forget — when Anna was chummy chum chums with Harvey and now she ditched him and don’t forget Bruce and Mario and now Vice…. https://t.co/3rI824SPkL

— bryanboy (@bryanboy) November 23, 2017

The partnership, announced in October, was tentatively named Project Vs. A dedicated team of editors from both companies was to oversee content including photos, videos and articles that would run on a new site over a 100-day period and be promoted by both companies. Condé Nast was leading the ad sales effort, working with Vice. It was supposed to launch early this year.

But then, just before Christmas, The New York Times published an exposé on Vice’s history of bad behavior toward women, which led to the suspension of top executives. Vice has also been hit with a lawsuit alleging pay discrimination against women.

Condé Nast, meanwhile, was confronting its own awkward associations. It ended its longtime relationship with fashion photographer Terry Richardson after allegations of sexual misconduct emerged against him. Condé Nast also ended relationships with star photographers Bruce Weber and Mario Testino after allegations surfaced that they harassed male models, and it created new guidelines to protect models.

Project Vs is set to launch at the end of February, Digiday has learned. The project has an advertising sponsor, although its name hasn’t been announced. One concept being worked on for launch week is a short doc called “Model Citizens” about young models from places like South Sudan who are trying to break into fashion but whose futures are now in peril due to legal and immigration changes.

Vogue provided a statement that read: “Vogue feels optimistic about Vice’s significant commitments to a respectful, inclusive and equal workplace and are encouraged by the collaborative efforts their editorial team has shown during the past several months. We look forward to sharing the content we’ve created together in the coming weeks.”

Vice also issued a statement: “This is a unique opportunity where Vice and Vogue are coming together under the shared mission of offering our audiences a new platform to consume genre-bending content — from short films and multimedia collages to photo stories and essays featuring today’s leading talent.”

Lots of media companies have sought to partner with Vice, resulting in content partnerships including HBO in 2015, the Guardian in 2016 and Airbnb in 2017. News that the legacy fashion glossy and edgy news startup would team up initially caused surprise because of the contrast between the two brands. But in light of #MeToo, the partnership drew special attention because Vogue, like other women’s magazines, is reckoning with the subject of sexual harassment by its own editorial staffers.

Is vogue sure they want to keep working with vice? https://t.co/Kji3vQCyOP

— Modupe Oloruntoba (@DrivingMsDupsie) January 11, 2018

Vice has committed to a series of reforms, including a pay-parity audit, gender balance in staffing and a board to ensure workplace diversity, pledges that Vogue will no doubt watch closely to make sure it follows through.

The post Vogue and Vice push ahead, awkwardly, with their editorial partnership appeared first on Digiday.

More brands are developing their own augmented reality experiences, as the expense and technical ability needed to produce them have decreased and the desire for mobile entertainment has grown. Oreo is the latest, building its own mobile gaming app called “The Great Oreo Cookie Quest,” which engages users with a virtual scavenger hunt.

Oreo’s game gives users clues to find virtual Oreos in the world around them. Using object-recognition technology, the app can detect whether an object is correct and reveal hidden Oreos. For example, a daily clue like, “What puts hands on your wrist?” will prompt users to scan their watch, revealing an Oreo on their phone’s screen. Each virtual cookie is assigned a point value based on how difficult the clue is, and in a leaderboard, users can see how they compare to their friends on Facebook or Twitter, as well as users around the world. Users can scan real Oreos to enter a sweepstakes to win a trip to either Google’s headquarters in California or a trip to Africa.

“The Great Oreo Cookie Quest” involves Oreo’s partnership with Google, which began in August 2016. Prizes are randomly attached to virtual Oreos, and many are Google-related. For instance, users can win Google Play points or Pixel phones. In Europe and Latin America, the game connects even more with Google. There, the game will be promoted with an image of the Google Android robot.

The game is similar to that of “Pokemon Go,” which launched in 2016 and was one of the first popular AR games, where users search for virtual Pokemon in their surroundings. Users can even store their Oreos in their “Cookiedex,” like the Pokedex in “Pokemon Go.”

“We learned a lot from looking at cases like ‘Pokemon Go’ in terms of best practices for keeping players engaged, sharing with friends and building a groundswell movement about it,” said Justin Parnell, director of brand marketing at Oreo.

The Martin Agency created the game, which took six months to produce. It launched on iOS and Android at the end of January in the U.K. and will roll out across Europe, Russia, Latin America and perhaps the U.S. depending on its performance.

“We wanted to create a proprietary property that allowed us to do exactly what we wanted with regards to object recognition, in an environment that was 100 percent Oreo,” said Andrew Watson, vp and creative director at The Martin Agency. To promote the game, The Martin Agency is rolling out one spot for TV and four for social.

While it’s Oreo’s first social AR game, it’s not the first time the brand has used object-recognition technology. In February 2017, Oreo worked with Google on the Oreo Dunk Challenge app. Users scanned Oreos in the app and then, with the help of Google Earth, launched them into the stratosphere before dunking them into a glass of milk in different locations around the world.

“People are spending more time on mobile than any other device, and they are using it more and more for entertainment,” said Parnell.

The post Oreo hopes to see ‘Pokemon Go’ success in its own scavenger hunt AR game appeared first on Digiday.

The Federal Communications Commission’s Inspector General is probing whether Chairman Ajit Pai acted improperly in advocating for recent changes to the media ownership rules that could benefit
Sinclair Broadcasting.

NBC’s Pyeongchang Olympics prime time ratings took a bit of a tumble on Wednesday night. Per Nielsen live-plus-same-day data and digital data from Adobe Analytics, NBC Olympics’ Wednesday prime-time coverage posted a Total Audience Delivery of 19.2 million viewers, of which 17.2 million watched on NBC only. That means there was a 12 percent lift…

Once upon a time, beacons–Bluetooth-powered devices that can push messages to smartphones–offered brands an opportunity to connect with consumers in physical retail locations and gather data about them. For brands, beacons promised an expanded and expansive conversation at the shelf. Companies spend a lot of money trying to get consumers to the store and in…

The Jamaican bobsled team has been a world-famous underdog since first appearing on the Olympic scene in 1988. The team’s unlikely path to the global stage was made famous in the 1993 movie Cool Runnings, but returning to the Olympics has been a challenge ever since, with financial support often in short supply. This year,…

By Jerrid Grimm, co-founder and ceo, Pressboard

Sponsored content is seeing a massive surge in popularity among advertisers, ad agencies, and PR teams alike — but just like any other growing industry, it can be a bit like the Wild West out there. I know from experience.

Before Pressboard, I worked at an ad agency, and it was clear that brands were falling in love with sponsored content, defined here as brand content that’s posted on publishers’ sites. However, the process of finding the right publishers, negotiating the deal, creating a story, and finally measuring the results was labor intensive and expensive.

That’s why we created this five-step guide based on our own experiences building a sponsored content platform. From ideation to execution, the information below will help take your sponsored content campaign from idea to reality.

1. Picking a publisher

Publishers have spent years building trust with their audience, and that influence and authenticity can be leveraged by advertisers.

To choose the right publisher, make sure they align with your goals — consider content fit, location, audience demographics and social following.

Diana Walters, group director for digital media at OMD Canada, told me that she starts with the publishers’ social following. “I don’t just look at their numbers either. What do their followers look like? Unfortunately, I often have to do it (gather information) manually. It’s a resource intensive, time-consuming process.”

You can use tools like ComScore and SimilarWeb to help with your research, or you can easily discover and compare publishers and their sponsored content packages using Pressboard.

2. Negotiating a rate

Sponsored content is about paying to align your brand with a publisher’s authority and audience. Since most audiences discover content on social media, we’ve found that the most effective sponsored content product is also the simplest: placement of your brand article or video on the publisher’s site along with a social share, all while disclosing your brand’s involvement.

Anna Fertel, associate director, The Media Kitchen explains, “You’re paying for the partnership and deserve to have maximum transparency around all elements of it — where/how your content will be distributed, how many people you can expect to see it, what metrics you’ll receive afterwards, etc. Know your dealbreakers — if the partnership isn’t right, don’t force it.”

3. Creating the content

There are two ways to create sponsored content: by repurposing existing brand content, or by starting from scratch.

If you’re repurposing, analyze your content’s engagement levels. Consider your owned content as a testing ground for which stories might work well as sponsored content.

If you’re starting from scratch, there are a lot of free resources that can help you along the way with things like coming up with a story idea, crafting a headline, or creating a video.

Finding a balance between your brand’s messaging and the publisher’s tone is a blend of art and science. Resist overselling your brand too early or frequently in the story, because data shows that it negatively affects engagement.

4. Promoting the content

Without a distribution plan, even the greatest sponsored content can languish unseen. It’s essential to understand the distribution options available and select what’s right for your content based on its format, your target audience, and your budget.

Distribution options fall under three categories: owned, earned and paid. Organic (owned) reach is dwindling with Facebook’s recently announced newsfeed changes, so you should always budget for paid promotion. While there are hundreds of display networks and recommendation widgets available, we’ve found that paid social distribution is by far the best way to get sponsored content in front of quality audiences.

5. Monitoring your content

Measuring the success of your sponsored content is the final piece of the puzzle, but make sure you’re tracking the right metrics. Advertising metrics focus on impressions and clicks, but good content metrics highlight what happens after the click. To do a proper comparison between sponsored content placed on different publishers, use a standardized analytics tool that also accurately measures content metrics like Active Reading Time.

Here are a few of the metrics we track on every piece of sponsored content.

• Active Reading Time
• Average Scrolled
• Completion Rate
• Conversions

Even distilled into these five short sections, buying sponsored content is not a simple job. It takes media buyers and content marketers years of experience to perfect the art. That said, once you complete this journey, your sponsored content can change how people feel and think about your brand.

The post The 5-minute guide to buying sponsored content from publishers appeared first on Digiday.

iProspect has named Belle Lenz its U.S. chief marketing officer and Joel Grossman its first-ever chief technology officer. Lenz was formerly communications director of the Americas for the global digital marketing agency’s parent, Dentsu Aegis Network. Grossman hails from Leapfrog Online, the performance shop iProspect acquired last year, where he served in the same role….