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Welcome to Stuff and Things - a newsletter for the marketer in you. If you stumbled upon this site or were forwarded this by a friend, join other marketing enthusiasts by subscribing below:
If you’re not a subscriber yet, here’s what you missed from Stuff & Things in January:
In the News
There are a lot of sleepless people embroiled in the Gamestop saga, Robinhood's PR team being one of them. Robinhood limited some trading last week, resulting in angry users who felt betrayed by the company. Unclear communication surrounding the decision caused people to point out the hypocrisy in the company’s mission and its actions. While perception has taken a hit, growth hasn’t. The app was downloaded more than 177,000 times on Thursday, twice the daily download rate over the previous week.
WhatsApp outlined a new privacy policy that no longer indicates that it’ll allow users to opt-out of data sharing with parent company Facebook. This caused ripples around the world, with users fleeing to other messaging apps. Signal, which was arguably unheard of until Elon’s tweet, hit #1 on the App Store and Google Play, with more than 1.3 million global downloads. The company shared WhatsApp templates for users to inform people that they’re moving to Signal. This frenzy caused WhatsApp to go on the defensive - it delayed its privacy update, and published front-page newspaper ads in its biggest market - India:
The Taco Bell marketing team got its CEO in a potato filter to announce the vegetable’s comeback on its menu. It got people talking, sharing, and retweeting but it missed an important element - closed captions. Because of the accessibility fail, the company deleted the widely shared tweet.
This will be the first Super Bowl in 37 years without a Budweiser commercial. Instead, the company is donating funds towards COVID-19 relief efforts and vaccine education. Coke, Hyundai, and Pepsi are sitting out too. Despite this, ad inventory is virtually sold out to new brands such as e-commerce company Mercari, freelance marketplace Fiverr, and used car retailer Vroom who will be broadcasting their first-ever Superbowl spots this year.
Burger King unveiled a new visual identity, including a return to its classic logo. I wrote about Fernando Machado, who orchestrated the company's first rebrand in over two decades.
Last year, US adults spent 3 hours a day on their smartphones. With the increasing consumption of on-demand media, total digital time is now on track to surpass 8 hours a day by the end of 2022:
Rabbit Hole Reads
As a marketer, if TikTok isn’t part of your channel strategy, it’s time to reevaluate that decision. In June 2020, TikTok had around 50 million daily active users in the US. For startups, it can be a goldmine for growth. Li Jin and Lila Shroff analyze 50+ startups and how they use TikTok as a channel to achieve their growth goals. Read more here.
Ads that caught my eye
The Lincoln Project had one final message for the outgoing President.
Bud Light took an apt metaphor, combined it with a timely product launch, and gave us this visual treat.
People were anonymously asked to draw ketchup. They all drew Heinz. A simple yet powerful way to demonstrate brand awareness.
Resources
Copy.ai: Describe your product, and generate marketing copy in seconds.
Good Email Copy: Search for marketing copy that brands use in their emails.
A Quickstart Guide to Positioning by April Dunford.
Until next week,
Shrikala