social media

The Social Media Landscape

  • Posted: June 6, 2023

Over the last six months, social media has received a lot of attention on numerous fronts, from economic challenges the platforms are facing to changing hands in ownership to the recent Congressional hearings. This event looked at consumers’ current relationships to social media and their perceptions of social media platforms and use cases. Experts from the Social Council reported on the results of a survey of 2,490 social media users that they had conducted in partnership with Dynata that took a deeper look at social media’s role and function in the daily lives and experiences of its users. The findings unveiled eye opening insights and opportunities to help marketers understand where and how they can engage their target audiences on social media.

The Future of Social Media for Marketers

  • Posted: June 6, 2023

On March 16, 2023, the ARF Young Pros led an exploration of the ongoing transformation and future trajectory of social media to help organizations navigate the landscape and create more strategic social media plans. Panelists discussed trends, the role of influencers, creative branding campaigns and more.

Metaverse: The Next Media Landscape

  • Posted: June 6, 2023

Vera Chien of Warner Bros. Discovery gave an overview of what the metaverse is and where it’s going. The metaverse will leverage gaming, social media, cryptocurrency, 5G, blockchain/NFTs, AI/ML and more as adjacencies, but it will not be controlled by any one of these or any one industry. The metaverse will be interactive, interoperable, decentralized, and will focus on creativity. The creator economy will likely flourish there. One helpful suggestion Vera made was to leverage digital assets and find other homes for them to give consumers unique and memorable experiences. While 39% of 18–50-year-olds have heard of the metaverse, almost all consumers have had some type of experience that will be commonplace in this “next version of the internet.” Millennials, Gen Z and Gen Alpha have grown up with such experiences.

How to Cut Waste and Fuel Growth with Incrementality-Based Attribution

  • Posted: June 5, 2023

With Trevor Testwuide (Measured) providing context and Ian Yung (Tonal) guiding the case studies from Pinterest and Google, the two presenters tested whether ads/channels were working and how far marketers can scale them. Trevor compared last-touch attribution to incremental ROAS, showing the significant discrepancies between platform-reported and media-driven incremental conversions. The incrementality experiment methodologies used in the case studies were cohort based first-party audience split testing and geo-matched market incrementality testing, which Trevor noted were must-haves in determining where to cut waste and where to scale. Results from the case studies measuring holdout cohorts showed overinvestment in Pinterest based on organic conversions, and a 13% increase in ROAS on Google Shopping from under-reporting of incrementality.

How Retailers are Connecting the Metaverse to the Real World and Revenue

  • Posted: June 5, 2023

AJ Dalal of Publicis Sapient defined the metaverse and outlined some pioneering moves certain brands have taken within it. He also shared advice on how to be successful in this burgeoning new phase of the internet. The interoperability of web 3.0 allows consumers to take their avatar and NFTs across platforms, which unlocks highly personalized and unique experiences and the ability to execute instant settlement in real time. To ensure success, a brand should remember its target market, which in this space is 16- to 25-year-olds, concentrate on what value their experience brings to the consumer, be authentic and specific and consider an evolving roadmap, being transparent with users that the experience rests on new technology and might evolve and improve over time.

The Future of Shopping: Where, How and Why People Will Buy Things

  • Posted: June 5, 2023

Elizabeth Harris and Melvin Melendez of Arc Worldwide covered how people are going to buy things in the future. The process will become seamlessly interwoven into experiences driven by technologies such as AI, VR and electric vehicles. They started with a quote from their parent company Publicis Groupe’s founder, Rishad Tobaccowala, “The future does not fit into the containers of the past.” The presenters then gave a number of examples of recent and future approaches which are highly personalized, immersive experiences that engage and entertain while solving problems.

Live InContext Retail Media Testing

  • Posted: June 2, 2023

Jeff (Ephraim) Bander from Eye Square explained that measuring shopper behavior and decisions in context (in the online ecommerce environment in which the shopping actually takes place) is more meaningful than only surveying consumers about their online shopping behavior. Collecting in context data about the online actions of the shopper provides detailed path-to-purchase metrics, such as attention, interest and purchase behavior. Participants are not aware of what is being tested in the live environment. Additional explicit data is collected via survey.

The Rise of the Confident Shopper

  • Posted: June 2, 2023

Vita Molis and Cassie Taylor of TikTok offered insights from four different studies conducted in the past six months: #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt, an ecommerce study, their Entertaining Ads study and one called Creators Drive Commerce. #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt was conducted in the U.S. and Canada, where over 1,000 respondents in each market filled out a 20-minute online questionnaire. They also had qualitative triads covering six categories.

Shifting Consumer Shopping Behaviors and Path to Purchase

  • Posted: June 2, 2023

Ian Essling and Jason Clough of Comscore uncovered trends in U.S. digital commerce, which  reached $1 trillion for the first time last year, a benchmark resulting from a buildup of year-round spending rather than mostly focused on the holiday season. Their data was comprised of two types, mobile (mobile or tablet) and digital (mobile or desktop) commerce. Each was defined as dollars spent online in non-travel, retail categories. Mobile now accounts for 40% of all digital retail dollars spent. Groceries, which includes pet supplies, health and beauty and baby supplies, saw record mobile and digital growth last year, overtaking apparel for the first time. In addition, while in the past, U.S. consumers were resistant to buying big ticket items, such as rugs, TVs, consumer electronics, a car or furniture, online, today such actions have become commonplace.

Engaging the Next Generation: Challenges and Opportunities in Marketing to Gen Z

  • Posted: June 2, 2023

With 90% of Gen Z using their platform, Snap’s Aarti Bhaskaran and Kara Louis shared six top trends gathered over three years of studying this cohort from a combination of consumer insights and media measurement. As the most diverse generation in the U.S., Gen Z values authenticity and looks for personal online experiences in ways that inform how they engage with content.

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