The Scoop: 9.28.21

A CEO is telling us “normal life” will return in a year 🤔and Twitter is being touted as innovative because it will soon validate NFTs and support Bitcoin 🤯. Meanwhile, Apple is being forced to adopt USB-C as uniform charging in the EU. Are 🐷 finally flying? Either way, the big three are still stealing headlines: we’re continuing to lose ad effectiveness on Facebook because of Apple’s anti-tracking initiative as Google’s Alphabet tries to overturn a multi-billion dollar antitrust fine from Android software.  

“HIGHlights” from an LA Dispensary’s New Marketing Blitz

The need for creativity within regulated industries, such as pharma and others, is arguably more crucial than in any other, and marketers find they often need to perform regulatory gymnastics. Enter Gorilla Rx, LA's only dispensary owned by a Black woman. Its “cryptic” and creative “Black Women Get Us Higher” mural represents perhaps the most visible aspect of a new campaign that “‘HIGHlights’ the people, events and stories of Black feminine resilience, power and creativity.” The campaign can serve as a source of inspiration for brands in a regulated industry that are looking to make a splash. Here are our key take-aways from the mural:

• It’s hyperlocal: Situated in the heart of the Crenshaw district in LA, the mural is drawing major attention to the dispensary’s flagship location that opened on August 25. Find ways to appeal to people where and how they consume media.

• It’s representative: Stock imagery didn’t exist for this campaign’s audience – it had to be created and served as the inspiration for the painting. Put in the work to ensure authentic representation, even if it means doing things the hard way.

• It’s current: That’s a QR code on the mural. This trend is back and reminds us that these codes can be used to drive to social channel visitation just as well as they can drive to websites.

Sources: MARKETING BREW, GORILLARXWELLNESS, MUSE BY CLIO

What’s Old is New Again

As with the resurgence of flare leg jeans (woo!) and low-rise jeans (sigh!), content formats on social media also phase in and out of life cycles. Here are two trends we’re seeing making a comeback:

Text-based graphics: While a curated feed will always be visually appealing to Gen Zers (and all social media marketers 😉), we’ve noticed a slight departure from such a look as the increasing popularity of a text-heavy posting style, like memes, comes back into play. Although it may seem counterintuitive on video-driven apps such as Instagram and TikTok, a large part of its appeal is the ability to easily share one piece of content across multiple platforms and the “vintagey” charm of a meme-like graphic.

Designing for sound on: Thanks to the development of mobile apps, and our ability to consume social on the go, we’ve followed the mantra “design for sound off; delight with sound on.” While it is still important to appeal to audiences visually as they quickly scroll, audio is re-emerging as an important part of social media experiences. TikTok users prefer videos with sound because many of the platform’s viral trends revolve around music. In fact, 88% of users say sound is essential to their experience on the platform. TikTok even touts sound as the “anti-scroll,” keeping eyes on content longer because of sound. Instagram is also encouraging “sound on” experiences through the easy inclusion of music and “sound on” stickers. And given that we have spent so much time apart this past year because of the pandemic, social users are displaying a desire to connect on a deeper level online via sound on (hey LinkedIn Live!), and audio-focused networks like Clubhouse help do that. Brands are also incorporating more audio inclusive content through the development of audiograms.

Sources: EMBEDDED, MIT TECHNOLOGY JOURNAL, SOCIAL MEDIA TODAY, THE NEW YORK TIMES

The Thin Line Between Content Moderation and Censorship

Twitch users took part in #ADayOffTwitch, boycotting the platform to protest its failure to curb the rise of “hate raids” (when hundreds of automated bot accounts flood the chat with harassment, slurs and doxing). The platform shared its plan to revamp its current content moderation practices, which it expects to roll out later this year. This marks another effort to curb the rise of misinformation and hate speech across many social platforms – efforts that some believe unfairly silence select users.

A recent bill signed into law in Texas now requires social media companies with more than 50 million monthly users in the U.S. to issue public reports on suspensions and content removal. The bill aims to prevent social media companies from banning users or removing content based solely on users’ political opinions. Trade groups representing Facebook, Twitter and other companies filed a lawsuit against the state of Texas arguing that this new law infringes upon their editorial discretion. Whether or not you’re in favor of content moderation on social, one thing is for sure, this topic isn’t going away any time soon.

Sources: TWITCH, TWITTER, USA TODAY, CBS, FORBES

In Other News… 

Cameo launches Cameo Calls, which lets fans video chat for up to 15 minutes one-on-one with their favorite influencers and celebrities.

Meanwhile, in Charlotte, and across the internet, people were shocked by a "funeral home" truck with the slogan "Don’t get vaccinated" driving around Carolina Panthers stadium before the game. The truck was a stunt by a local ad agency to encourage COVID-19 vaccinations.

Real Chemistry’s The Scoop is brought to you by an editorial collective, featuring industry updates and insights from subject matter experts across social media, digital and influencer activation teams. 

Contributing writers and editors: Tiffany Bullock, Nick Cardillo, Ricki Kahn, Stephen O’Neil, Elaina Quade, Jennie Szink and Bre Thomlison

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