Last week, I analyzed a fantastic promotional video from Apple through the lens of Audacious, a book that describes a framework for disruptive and bold marketing. After reading that post, fellow marketer Mandy Edwards sent me another new video — this one from KFC UK — and asked, “What do you think of this one?”

Today, I present a story of audacity that went horribly, horribly wrong! Let’s see what happened when a company tried to create a chicken-based cult …

Why we need to disrupt our marketing

Before I get to this ad fail, let’s back up one step and discern why companies need to focus on bold marketing today. Some of the main points in the book:

• About two-thirds of ads register no emotional reaction with their audience. If there were a CMO for the ad industry, the person would be fired. We wallow in a marketing pandemic of dull.
• Dull has been normalized in most industries. So if you break a norm, you just might find marketing gold.
• Consumers respond to storytelling that is refreshing and new. Young consumers today love quirky content and offbeat humor.
• Finally, if all you need is marketing “meh,” AI can accomplish that. If you’re only competent, you’re vulnerable to job replacement. Competent is ignorable.

The Audacious book presents a framework anyone can use to do this: disrupt the narrative, the medium, and the storyteller.

Now, let’s get to the heart of our story. KFC created a video that certainly broke industry norms. In this ad, UK agency Mother London urges customers in a busy world to believe in chicken as if it were a new gravy-based religion.

Take a look:

You’ll note that this is “Part 2.” Part 1 involved zombie dancers, who received more favorable reviews.

Audacity and gravy

How did KFC shake things up? Three ways:

1. Obviously, this ad broke industry norms. Perhaps there has never been a promotional video like this in the history of fast food … at least not one featuring a lake of gravy!
2. The company was appealing to GenZ’s penchant for quirky humor.
3. There is a subtle connection to “purpose” here. If you feel lost, you can still believe in chicken. Everything in the world is changing, but KFC has always been there for us.

There are precedents for this offbeat, bold marketing approach that have been wildly successful.

• Liquid Death disrupted a boring water market with cringe-worthy ads
• Nutter Butter tripled its cookie sales with fever dream TikTok videos
• Duolingo stood out in an established, dull market of language education with an unfiltered owl.

So if KFC was following the Audacious playbook like these brands, why would it receive YouTube comments like:

• “I cannot possibly imagine how any person thought this was a good idea.”
• “I’ll never eat at KFC ever again, nor will anyone in my household.”
• “They should fire their entire marketing team.”

This video is an unmitigated disaster. They took a big swing and struck out. Here are three reasons why.

1. Too much to lose

There is a common thread among the three successful case studies I mentioned: They had nothing to lose.

• Liquid Death was a disruptive startup going up against Coke and Pepsi.
• Likewise, Duolingo was a new way to learn that had to attack the industry establishment.
• Nutter Butter is an older brand but had no real meaning to consumers. It had been forgotten, so it had nothing to lose by re-introducing itself to Gen Z.

Should an established brand like Coke advertise like Liquid Death? No. Coke has built a century of goodwill in the consumer’s mind.

Would Oreo ever take a page from the bizarre Nutter Butter playbook? No. Oreo is the number one brand in its category.

KFC is the biggest chicken franchise on earth, by far. It has built decades of memories and thrown them away into a lake full of gravy. Instead of building on its heritage creatively and renewing its deep meaning with a new generation, it’s taking a step backward.

“We are being polarizing because we want conversation,” said Martin Rose, executive creative director of Mother London told Ad Age. “Essentially, we’re creating our own cult of fandom.”

But this seems to me like a desperate attempt to be the new cool kid. And besides …

2. Some taboos can’t be broken

My book is a rallying cry for those who will not be ignored. It urges people to break bad rules for good reasons. But I also caution that being audacious does NOT mean you’re doing something illegal, reckless, or offensive.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the U.K.’s independent advertising regulator, received nearly 600 complaints about KFC’s commercial, a spokesperson told ADWEEK.

The complaints include people saying the ad promotes cannibalism, that it glorifies cults and satanism, and that it mocks Christianity and baptism.

Now, a lot of famous ads receive complaints from the easily-offended. Is this really knocking religion or is it just silly?

Language in the company’s description of the ad reinforces the offense:

“Fear not, for salvation in sauce is near. Trust in the thumping sound of the golden egg. Trust in the liquid gold elixir. Trust in the divine dunk. And whisper the sacred words All Hail Gravy.”

The phrase repeated in the Bible most often is “Fear not.” So of course any Christian would be offended when a company compares their salvation to gravy.

And then there is the gravy dunk, where a person turns into fried chicken. No, no, no. Also, no.

3. It’s just gross

The ad didn’t just offend people who don’t prefer cannabilism; it upset just about everyone in the ad industry.

One commentator on Marketing Beat called the ad “disgraceful,” describing it as “degrading and disturbing.” Others labeled it “vile,” “uncomfortable,” and “horrendous.”

One marketing industry observer noted: “I’ve never complained about an advert before, but this is beyond the pale.”

Getting out of the gravy

I don’t want you to be dissuaded from bold marketing and taking risks because of one bad ad. But we should reflect on how something like this ever sees the light of day. When an ad becomes a public disaster, one of four things has happened:

1. Internal political fear.

This is the biggest problem I observe, by far. When a powerful company executive falls in love with an idea and forcefully champions it, agencies, hungry for that next paycheck, nod along like bobbleheads. Corporate minions, fearing for their cubicles, become a chorus of yes-people.

2. Lack of diversity in the creative process.

If the team behind an ad campaign lacks diverse perspectives and backgrounds, they may miss potential blind spots or fail to anticipate how certain groups could perceive the ad negatively. Having a homogenous team increases the risk of tone-deaf messaging.

3. Overconfidence and lack of external review.

Respected brands can sometimes become overconfident in their marketing abilities and fail to get sufficient external feedback before launching a campaign. Big brands often mistake their logo for a shield of invincibility. This insular approach prevents them from catching potentially offensive or controversial elements.

4. Failure to consider the current cultural context.

Ads that may have been acceptable in the past can become problematic if they fail to account for evolving cultural sensitivities and the social climate around issues like race, gender, body image, etc.

In other words, when executives put egos above common sense, gravy happens.

Being remarkable matters. Bold marketing matters.

But not all risks are created equal.

Keep pushing edges, but remember what you stand for.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

The post The Thin Line Between Bold Marketing and Brand Suicide appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

A new Apple ad is a marketing case study taking the world by storm. As I write this — four days after the video’s debut — it has already been viewed 19 million times on YouTube.

The visually stunning, cinematic long-form ad reunites Apple with Oscar-winning filmmaker Spike Jonze, who directed the brand’s lauded “Welcome Home” in 2018. Like its predecessor, the new work—called “Someday”—leans heavily on inventive choreography, catchy music, and lavish sets. And the new video features popular star Pedro Pascal.

Of course that’s going to be a winning formula. But something more subtle is happening in this video. The theory behind my new book Audacious is that by disrupting the story, where the story is told, and/or the storyteller, you’ve got a chance of catching viral magic. I thought it would be fun to dissect this incredible video and unravel the less-obvious, non-Pedro lessons of why it went viral.

Let’s start by watching the video:

OK, let’s tear this marketing case study apart and find the magic.

Never make an ad

While researching my book, I interviewed the great Michael Krivicka, the king of viral videos. He said:

“The first key to success is, never, ever make an ad. Of course, almost every customer wants to make an ad because they think they need an ad. Perhaps that’s all they know. But the moment you start with that mindset, you’re failing.

“We’ll make something so cool, unique, and entertaining that it’s worth sharing. As soon as it pops up in your social media feed, you want to see it immediately, watch it again, and share it. You start with the viral mindset, not an ad mindset. People rarely share ads.

“If people sense they’re watching an ad—the moment they think you’re selling something—they stop watching it, or they’re going to watch the content through a filter, knowing there’s an agenda. So, if you lead with ‘Nike presents …’ Boom. People stop watching it.”

As the ad begins, we know that Pedro Pascal is sad. And if he is sad, the whole world is sad. And dreary, and frigid, and hopeless. But the beloved internet daddy doesn’t stay blue for long, as the magic of music turns a frigid wasteland into a raucous dance party.

We don’t know for sure who sponsored the ad until the final moments.

Disrupt the medium

How did this marketing case study disrupt the medium (where the story is told)? It was just a YouTube video, right? Nope.

First, this breaks the mold because it’s an ad that’s nearly six minutes long. Next time somebody tells you that people have a short attention span, call B.S. on it. People don’t have a short attention span. Your marketing has a short interesting span. This epic video is worth every second.

Next, it’s literally a music video. Think about it. What ad format will AirPod fans love? A music video. Smart marketers don’t fight for attention—they earn it by respecting their audience enough to create something worth their time.

Apple is “leaning into the signal” because it understands that remarkable marketing doesn’t interrupt what people care about — it becomes what people care about.

Disrupt the story format

This is paradoxical, but sometimes, to be disruptive, your story should be the radically non-disruptive. Research shows that ads following a classic dramatic story arc create a heightened physiological response. Let’s dissect it into five parts:

• Exposition—Pedro has girl problems. He’s depressed.
• Rising action—In a lonely, frigid existence, he recalls a happier musical memory.
• Climax— Pedro is a joyful dancing machine! He goes from forlorn to fabulous.
• Falling action—The dance sequence ends and the “old Pedro” gives an encouraging glance.
• Denouement—Pedro’s problems aren’t over, but a small smile crosses his face as he trudges on.

This is an example of Freytag’s Pyramid, a classical dramatic model developed by German novelist Gustav Freytag. There is something magical about this sequence that taps deeply into the human psyche. Professor Keith Quesenberry and his research team discovered that this classic format and advertising success are so closely connected that they could predict which Super Bowl ads would go viral before they aired.

“Beyond any other technique like sex appeal, animals, humor, or celebrities, telling a full, five-part story made the difference between a great marketing narrative and an unremarkable one,” Keith told me. “And the likability of this story format can be tied to word-of-mouth buzz, purchase intent, recall, and other success factors.”

This insight doesn’t just apply to big-budget ads. Keith discovered that storytelling success holds true for YouTube videos and other social content. On average, four- and five-act videos were shared over 400% more compared to product-based or informational videos.

Beyond Vanilla Valley

There’s something unexpected that makes this video memorable: It’s sad.

Marketing has conditioned us to expect the emotional arc of a children’s birthday party—everything must end with smiles, high-fives, and neat resolutions. But real human connection doesn’t work that way, and neither does this video. This story starts sad and ends … well, a little less sad, but still sad.

Research by Dr. Jonah Berger shows memorable marketing doesn’t just come from “happy.” Something that makes you feel anxiety, sadness, and even fear can trigger a strong emotional connection. This video breaks an emotional norm — an Apple ad that ends with unresolved pain.

The genius here is in the emotional tension. The lingering pain isn’t a mistake; it’s the point. It signals trust in the audience’s emotional maturity and creates space for a deeper, more authentic connection.

Most brands are terrified of negative emotions. The remarkable ones understand that emotional authenticity—even when uncomfortable—is what separates the signal from noise.

Grab ’em fast

More advice from the great Michael Krivicka: “You have to grab the viewer in two seconds. You can have the greatest video in the world, but if you don’t hook them in the first two seconds, it’s over. It’s a sad reality, but that’s all you’ve got. Open with something incredible that people haven’t seen before. Surprise them immediately.”

The opening seconds of this video are profound. Not a word is said, but the pain is thick, and we need to know, “What is happening here?” This is not an ad. It’s high drama.

Disrupt the storyteller

This six-minute video is being sliced and diced into television-sized ads but the true success lies in the fact that fans are sharing the long-form video like crazy. It’s a beloved story. Apple isn’t promoting the product’s functionality, price, or durability. It’s promoting a feeling. Brand marketing at its best.

Today, the successful marketer isn’t holding the microphone, shouting about their product. They’re writing a script and handing the mic to their customers. This is the essence of modern brand building: create something so meaningful, so resonant, so worth talking about that your customers eagerly do your marketing for you.

The audacity story

Everyone reading this post has one goal for their business: You want to be seen, heard, and discovered. You want to be the signal against the noise.

And the noise is worse than ever.

To stand out, competent doesn’t cut it. Competent is the new invisible. Competent is what gets replaced. The middle of the road is where roadkill happens.

In a world drowning in meh, disruption isn’t just an option—it’s survival. The AI revolution isn’t coming for the remarkable; it’s coming for the replaceable, and most marketing today is precisely that.

Yes, this Apple video has advantages—a recognizable star, a visionary director, a budget with breathing room. But those aren’t prerequisites for standing out. In fact, as I demonstrate throughout my book, constraints often fuel creativity while abundance breeds complacency.

The barrier isn’t resources. It’s courage—the courage to stand for something, the courage to make something that might not work, and the courage to create marketing that feels nothing like marketing.

The choice is simple: disrupt or be disrupted. Make waves or drown in the noise. What will you choose?

Keep an eye on the marketing stories that break through the noise. Like the Apple video, you’ll see a pattern—the narrative, medium, and storyteller are disrupted. I urge you to climb aboard the Audacity train and take advantage of the hundreds of ideas in my new book, Audacious: How Humans Win in an AI Marketing World.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

The post Dissecting Apple’s disruptive marketing case study appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

It was March 15, 2023, and I snapped a photo that changed my life. And I’ll explain how it can change your life, too.

On that date, I was attending the annual SXSW festival in Austin, TX, and enjoying a wonderful late-night meal with my friends Joseph Jaffe and Eric Qualman. Suddenly, people stood up and quietly walked out of the upscale restaurant. It was surreal, like being in a Stephen King movie!

My back was to the door. Where were these people going?

Nowhere. They stood on the sidewalk, pointing their smartphones to the big Texas sky. My friends and I had to see what was going on. So we left our hot food and walked outside.

It wasn’t an alien invasion, but it was close. A dazzling drone show lit up the heavens, telling the story of a new sci-fi television program coming to the Paramount Network. Hundreds of drones were programmed along custom flight paths to depict scenes from the show.

To top it off, the display ended with a sky-high QR code that sent viewers to a website with the show’s trailer.

While drone shows have become a staple of city celebrations and sporting events, this was novel—the first time we had seen such a display.

We all took a photo of the drone-ad to share with our social media audiences:

In that moment, the line between marketing and magic blurred. We weren’t just watching an ad; we were living inside one.

The mesmerizing advertisement became the epicenter of buzz at SXSW, and with more than 300,000 influential people in attendance, that’s a perfect place to make a rumble.

Now, we get to the interesting part. How did this photo change my life, and possibly yours?

The revelation

I’ve spent nearly two decades researching and writing about one crucial problem—how can our marketing messaging become the signal above the noise in a world of oversaturated content?

I witnessed one of the most astonishing examples of a brand becoming “the signal.” Every person in this restaurant abandoned their hot food and cold cocktails to stand on a street in Texas to see an ad—not just see it, but record it and share it with social media audiences worldwide. It wasn’t just a signal above the noise—it was a supernova.

Remarkable.

Unprecedented.

Perfect.

For weeks, I couldn’t get this drone show out of my head. I played this mind-game: If somebody gave me the challenge to create an ad so disruptive that people would leave their hot meals to see it, could I do it? No.

What was the lesson for businesses desperately wanting to be “the signal” to their customers? Was there a scalable process behind this brilliant idea that could guide breakthrough marketing strategies? Was this a clue to the future of creativity and our place in a world dominated by artificial intelligence? I became obsessed with this story in the sky.

One word kept pounding in my brain: Audacious.

Audacious! Is that what it takes to stand out in the world today?

Audacity as a strategy

AI is here. Nipping at the heels of our skillsets and jobs.

Being merely competent won’t cut it. Competence doesn’t create conversations. Competence is ignorable. But audacity? That’s the currency of attention in our overstimulated world.

What if the key to becoming “the signal” isn’t shouting louder, bending AI prompts, or spending more, but the simple human bravery it takes to be … a little nuts?

I discovered that Giant Spoon had created this viral sensation, an agency behind many of my favorite marketing success stories over the years.

I called Marc Simons, one of the agency co-founders, and asked him if he and his team would reveal all their creative secrets to me for a new book. “Absolutely,” he said. The opportunity was irresistible, a siren call to a marketing geek like me. I jumped on a plane to visit him in New York City, the beginning of a journey that included meetings with some of the greatest creative geniuses from around the world — and they all gave me their secrets!

They helped me answer this question: In a world where AI is overwhelming our content world, how do we fight back? How do we unleash the uniquely human fireworks of marketing creativity?

And today, my friends, please welcome one answer to this question:

The reveal

After more than two years of research and writing, I’d like you to meet my new book, Audacious: How Humans Win in an AI Marketing World.

So, you see how the story in the Austin sky truly changed the course of my life. But how does it change yours?

Whether you’re a marketer, entrepreneur, or business owner, you’re longing to be seen, to be heard, to be discovered, and that is more difficult than ever. How do you establish brand awareness in a world where content from bots already dominates more than half the internet?

Here’s a little movie preview of what’s in store for you with this book:

Filled with inspiring stories, hundreds of practical ideas (for businesses with any budget!), and all-new case studies, Audacious describes the essential human elements needed to:

• Disrupt the story narrative
• Disrupt where the story is told
• Disrupt show tells the story

Early readers of the book have been delighted, calling it “a masterpiece,” and “an essential path forward.” This will fill your head with ideas and your heart with hope. And, it’s a lot of fun!

You might have noticed that the book cover is a one-of-a-kind AR experience — the first book of its kind in the world! The cover will display abstract art based on the stories in the book!

Inside the book there is a puzzle, videos, and secret surprises. After all, a book named Audacious better be audacious, right?

Why did I spend all this time writing and publishing this book? I’m desperate to get my ideas out to you. I’m a teacher. I know that people need help navigating this overwhelming marketing world, and I have ideas that will help. I’ve spent thousands of hours bringing this to you and I know you will love it. This is my best work.

And this cool little book does not cost much money. Please order your copy today, and let me know how you like it!

CLICK HERE TO FIND AUDACIOUS ON SALE!

PS I also have an all-new speech to go with my book. This new talk was recently the highest-rated speech at a national marketing event, and I would love to bring it to your company or association. Drop me a line! 

Need a keynote speaker about brand communities? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

The post The photo that changed my life (and maybe yours) appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Annual social media prediction posts deserve their own category of boring. They usually name the same obvious trends over and over! This is the year of video! (yawn) And yet, we are in the midst of unprecedented, cataclysmic change. Let’s consider some non-obvious social media trends that are insightful, bold, and important!

And you will be happy to know that I barely AI at all (too obvious!).

This post covers 10 non-obvious social media trends:

1. Marketing speed

2. Why social media will upend search

3. The big new platform on the horizon

4. Why influence is everything

5. Social listening platforms in trouble

6. The essential role of community

7. Social commerce

8. Designer commerce

9. Watermarked content

10. Local content hubs

1. Marketing speed

This is the year for video! Just kidding. Couldn’t help myself.

Response speed is among the most overlooked and important factors weighing in on social media success, and nobody is talking about it.

A few months ago, I wrote a blog post tracing the history of speed in marketing and the implications of meme marketing. Today, achieving relevance on a channel like TikTok might require a response time of hours, or perhaps minutes, as memes emerge and fade.

Most companies are not built for this response time, especially if there are legal consideration. The speed of marketing today has vast implications for measurement, customer service, legal, and agency relationships.

One financial services firm I work with hired a lawyer for their marketing team just to speed content approval. How are you adjusting to the need for speed?

2. Social upends search

Everyone seems to be focused on how AI will change the game for search. But nobody seems to be noticing a much more significant and non-obvious trend. According to information from Statista, Gen Z is now conducting almost as many product searches on social media as Google:

This ties closely to the influencer marketing trend. The primary reason Gen Z visits social media is to catch up with their favorite influencers. And the main idea being shared by most influencers? New products they love.

But this isn’t just a GenZ trend. GWI reports in their 2024 trend report there’s been a 57% rise in baby boomers using TikTok since Q2 2021 … and they’re more likely to have bought a product or service online in the last week than Gen Z.

This suggests that SEO needs to be tied more closely to influencer marketing. Anybody out there planning for this? Is it even on the radar?

3. The big new platform

There seems to be just one significant new social media platform every five years or so. What’s going to be next? Nobody can say, but I have some clues.

Social media platforms have fragmented along generational lines. The only group growing on Facebook is 55 and older. The Snapchat crowd averages about 28. The average age of people on Reddit is 23. TikTok is the homebase for GenZ in their 20s. Everybody seems to like YouTube and Instagram

I think the next fracture will occur for Gen Alpha, the digital natives marching behind Gen Z. They’re looking up at their big brothers and sisters, thinking, “Naaaaah. We want our own place.”

And they will get it. What will it be like? Certainly video-oriented, but also expressing their value for authenticity and relationships. It might be something with only verified non-AI content. Maybe a cross between TikTok, Snapchat, and BeReal.

This might be beyond the next 12 months, but perhaps it’s time for a decentralized social network powered by blockchain. Just don’t call it blockchain. Transparency, control, and security will be mighty issues going forward and blockchain can help solve for that.

4. Influence is everything

The marketing world is in a state of massive transition. Advertising is less visible in a streaming media world and more expensive than ever. Where are these brand marketing dollars going to go?

I recently reported on new research from Ed Keller that points to one answer: Influencers. Ed found that the creator economy is massive — three times bigger than previously estimated. This trend has largely flown under the radar because it’s been so hard to measure.

Top YouTuber Mr. Beast just completed two months where he received more than 2 billion views per month. That’s staggering, unprecedented reach. He is perhaps the most influential media company in the world. A product placement with Mr. Beast might have bigger reach than an ad on the Super Bowl.

Not many people like being interrupted by ads. If they see them, they don’t believe them. But we believe each other, especially digital creators like Mr. Beast who feel like part of the family.

A new report found that 39% of consumers are watching more creator content than a year ago. Let that sink in. Can you imagine any other media property getting a 39% boost in one year? Advertising alongside creator content can jump-start the purchase funnel process, collapsing the awareness, interest, and consideration stages together.

The impact, reach, and influence of creators is exploding and yet an influence strategy is not even on the radar yet for most companies.

Creators are the media. Creators will dominate our marketing future. Are you onboard yet?

5. Social listening is in trouble

According to Edison Research, between 2022 and 2023, the percentage of people actively using the social community app Discord rose from 13 percent to 20 percent. You might think, “Wow. That’s a lot of growth. But here’s a chart that will really blow your mind:

First, notice the decline of young people using TikTok. Interesting. Now, look at the growth on Discord. In the age 12-34 category, daily usage rose from 26% to 42% IN ONE YEAR.

When have we ever seen growth like that on a social media platform? Never.

But here’s where it gets really interesting. Many of these vital community conversations on Discord are invisible to social listening platforms like Sprout Social and Sprinklr. Brands relying on social listening to monitor sentiment, mentions, and competitors are becoming more blind month by month as young people huddle behind the Discord /metaverse firewall.

6. Community is the future of marketing

The other day, I saw a provocative quote: “Creators are the new priests.”

It’s not about religion of course. It’s about assembling people. I can see this. In fact, I wrote a whole book about the idea. In Belonging to the Brand, I explained how the world is in a belonging crisis and those who can bring people together in community can create a deep and lasting emotional connection … which of course is the goal of your brand.

I’m not suggesting that brands take advantage of the emotionally vulnerable. I’m saying that brands are a part of our lives and there is room for brand-based communities that truly connect, and even heal.

I’m not alone in this view. The day I finished writing my book, McKinsey published a white paper claiming community is the next big thing in marketing.

Social media is not a strategy. It’s the beginning of a process that leads to community, as I wrote here.

7. Social Commerce, finally

In 2022, we witnessed the steady rise of social commerce, which allowed social media users to purchase products directly on social media. In 2024, social media platforms are expected to continue to become popular shopping outlets for consumers.

Furthermore, it’s projected that by 2026, global social commerce sales will reach a whopping $6 trillion, with the US having approximately 108 million social buyers by 2025.

A HubSpot survey shows that 22% of social media users purchased a product directly from Instagram, followed by 21% of consumers who bought directly on Facebook.

“Live commerce” combining influencer, livestreaming, and impulse buying eCommerce has taken off in Asia and this is the year it makes its mark in the rest of the world.

8. Designer content

OK, dream with me for a moment.

The business of social media is a battle of recommendation engines. The platform that can feed you the most fascinating and addictive content wins, because the longer you stay there, the more information they collect, the more ads you see, and the more money they make. For better or worse, the goal is to develop algorithms that create addiction, which is another story entirely.

Now let’s say Instagram learns that you love photos of kittens. Specifically, you want cute kittens dressed in human clothes. Why wouldn’t Instagram simply connect you to an AI that generates endless photos of cute kittens, like this:

I generated this image on MidJourney in five seconds. Here is the prompt I used: Cute kitten dressed in a blue gingham dress, photorealistic. In other words, this was extremely easy to do.

Why wouldn’t Instagram make you even more addicted to its platform by giving you exactly what you want, every day, every click by literally harnessing AI to generate your ideal, addictive images?

Stay with me. Within 18 months, we’ll be able to create full-length AI-generated movies on our laptop. Why wouldn’t Instagram and other social platforms create exactly the video content you want every day? At some point, Netflix and Disney will be doing this, too. You’ll get custom movies delivered to you some day soon.

We’ll just sit there sucking down content all day because we’re so mesmerized by those kittens. Maybe that’s how the Matrix started! You heard it here first: We can blame The Matrix on kittens.

9. Watermarked content

This is the year we will see massive disruption from deep fakes. In fact, it will be more than disruption. It will be chaos. I’ll bet we see at least one death this year attributed to deep fake content/misinformation.

We simply must have some kind of safety watermark for content so we know what’s true. There is progress in this area, but the challenge is creating a watermark that can be universally detected yet can’t be faked.

If you’re working in social media and content creation, this will soon be a major priority for you.

10. Local content hubs

Bill Landry

In my hometown of Knoxville, we have a local celebrity named Bill Landry. I could argue that he was the first independent video creator to monetize an audience — but it wasn’t over YouTube. It was over local TV.

Bill was the writer, director, producer, and actor in a video project called The Heartland Series. He filmed 1,400 short stories about Appalachian history, food, crafts, and rural life. Bill was a remarkable storyteller and his little videos were broadcast on the local TV station, sold as DVD sets, and even put together in a book. Because of his self-made celebrity, Bill was an in-demand speaker.

The classic creator model — build an audience and then monetize. But this was happening in the 1980s!

This is the only partnership between a “creator” and mainstream TV I’ve ever heard of. But why couldn’t this format be widespread today?

Today’s local TV studio has plenty of unused production and ad sales capacity, while local creators need a revenue stream, production facilities, and an audience. It makes total sense. Why wouldn’t local TV stations produce local cooking, sports, and music shows for a livestreaming audience and create a new revenue stream?

This is actually a retro idea. The early local TV stations hosted lots of local talent to fill the airwaves. Today, there seems to be a wall between traditional TV and streaming content, but why? If social media is so crowded, why not reimagine local TV as a relevant community content hub?

Perhaps the most non-obvious social media trends involve posting content and earning audiences in non-traditional places.

So there you have it. I hope a few of these non-obvious social media trends made you think, and perhaps provoked thoughts about new marketing strategies and business opportunities. The world of marketing is endlessly fascinating, and these trends are just the tip of the iceberg of what’s ahead!

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Top image courtesy Unsplash.com

Kitten image was created on MidJourney

The post 10 Non-Obvious Social Media Trends You Need to Consider Right Now appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I recently visited Ernest Hemingway’s writing room at his home in Key West, Florida.

Ernest Hemingway is one of my favorite writers. He’s surely influenced my sparse style. If it doesn’t move the story along … get rid of it! He also offered me a fool-proof method to break writer’s block.

I recently re-read A Moveable Feast.  a fascinating account of his early years in Paris and beyond. It re-introduced me to one of the all-time best quotes about creating content, and I wanted to share it with you. Hemingway writes about his sure-fire way of breaking through writer’s block:

So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there. It was easy then because there was always one true sentence that I knew or had seen or had heard someone say. If I started to write elaborately, or like someone introducing or presenting something, I found that I could cut that scrollwork or ornament out and throw it away and start with the first true simple declarative sentence I had written. Up in that room I decided that I would write one story about each thing that I knew about. I was trying to do this all the time I was writing, and it was good and severe discipline.

I like this idea because everyone should be able to name at least one true sentence, right?

The way this works for me is simple. There is so much that is untrue on the internet, and specifically in the marketing world. Many of my blog posts come from thinking, “That is just not right. Here is what is true to me.”

Often, I’ll just write down a bare idea as a headline in WordPress to be considered later. If you look at the recent videos I’ve published on YouTube, they all emanate from just saying something true to me on that day.

• Developing a brand means being relentlessly relevant
• Stop blaming short attention spans
• Why the most human company wins

Just do it.

Matt Bell suggests not over-thinking the creative process. Don’t even do a draft. Let the draft come organically:

What I’ve found is that overplanning before beginning writing risks blocking opportunities for discovery and surprise. Rather than dutifully following an outline, I want to be guided by what appears on the page as I write, by the emerging desires of characters and the dramatic demands of drafted scenes as well as by the acoustics of my sentences and the possibilities of the narrator’s voice.

I’m not the only writer who proceeds in this way. Of his own drafts, Robert Boswell writes, “I come to know my stories by writing my way into them … It would feel dutiful instead of exciting.”

My approach

I have a hybrid approach. I often start blog posts with “one true sentence,” but when it comes to a book, I definitely need an outline to guide me. I don’t have the luxury of being a professional writer with loads of time to let a book work itself into being. I’m a busy guy and start with at least a roadmap of where I’m going.

Still, even with the most complicated of projects, I just let it flow. I write and write and write and then go back later to make it flow in a beautiful way.

One true sentence. It helped break writer’s block for Hemingway in 1964. It works for me, and it can work for you.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

The post Break writer’s block with one true sentence appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Over the past few months, I’ve been immersed in projects and research that have reinforced the idea that creators and community are driving huge changes in commercial strategies. These new dynamics are re-inventing what we used to think of as media and media buying. It’s already happening.

• Consider that a YouTube star like Mr. Beast has a bigger following than all the prime-time American news channels combined. One of his videos might get 100 million views. If you’re advertising on Fox News, you’ll be lucky to reach 2 million viewers.
• Many creators are branching off to create their own brands that have become some of the fastest-selling fashion, food, and cosmetic products on the planet.
• Young adults aged 14-32 are swarming onto Discord to find communities. The number of those active on Discord grew from 26% to 42% in one year!
• And Taylor Swift is arguably the biggest creator on the planet, influencing every aspect of entertainment and culture on a global scale.

This is what’s interesting to me: None of this was possible 10 years ago. Creators and their communities have re-written the rules of influence — and sales. Yet most corporate marketing departments are not built for these changes. How do you begin to adjust to an entirely new media world?

Well, that’s a good question, and we begin to unpack it on the latest episode of The Marketing Companion podcast. Join me and my guest, Sara Wilson, as we connect the dots between creators, community, and commercial strategies.

Let’s dive in, shall we? Click here:

Click here to enjoy Marketing Companion episode 277!

Please support our sponsors who bring you this amazing episode!

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Now any business can build automated customer experiences, email marketing workflows, and landing pages that guide your customer to your main message. We are here to support businesses successfully navigating their digital presence in order to strengthen their customer relationships.

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Illustration courtesy MidJourney

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On the latest episode of The Marketing Companion, I decided to take a deep dive into the nooks and crannies of social media marketing, and there’s nobody better to accompany me than marketing genius Dennis Yu.

Dennis studies the art and science of social media success to the Nth degree and we get into some fascinating discussions that include:

• The ROI of a blue check mark
• The viral power of feel-good stories
• A social media platform that is killing it right now
• How social media platforms are using facial and image recognition to elevate content
• Why replay rate is the key to success on TikTok
• Insights into what’s happening with Meta and the metaverse

Dennis also shares a unique perspective on how search engines and social platforms are turning over information to the US government. But TikTok doesn’t have to … which could be influencing the government’s position with that platform.

Click here to listen to episode 270

Resources mentioned in this show

TikTok Advertising book

Blog post: Why hate is good for business

Ocean Spray cranberry juice case study

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant. The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak at your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram.

Illustration courtesy MidJourney

The post What is the ROI of a blue check mark? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I’ve been immersed in the world of measurement and influencers since the beginning. I wrote the first book on the subject.

There has been a tremendous amount of progress in testing impact — a lot of money has been devoted to attribution models. But when it comes to finding relevant influencers, especially in the B2B space, it’s been disappointing. Today I will lament that we have made almost no progress in the last ten years.

Influence based on breadcrumbs

The first company to attempt assessing influencers was Klout. Around 2009, Joe Fernandez had his jaw wired shut after an operation and had a lot of time on his hands to watch how the emerging social media streams worked. He noticed that certain people could spark actions on the web better than others and wondered if there was a way to track it and assign influence value scores to certain individuals.

Joe hired a bunch of Ph.D. statisticians and social scientists and came up with a rudimentary system, scoring every person on social media from zero to 10.

The idea was met with outrage. How could Klout possibly measure a person’s influence? After all, they had no insight into our homes and workplaces!

But what the critics missed is that influence ONLINE comes from one thing: The ability to spread content and ideas to a relevant audience. If you look at this one slice of the world, Joe Fernandez was on to something. By analyzing the vast spider web of social media interactions, he could track how effectively content spreads. And that means a lot to brands seeking to spread content!

Klout’s use of social media “breadcrumbs” to assess influence was a blunt instrument, but it was a start. It highlighted tendencies and potential opportunities for brands to connect with the best information spreaders.

The problem is, the assessment of many digital influencers, especially in B2B, has not progressed.

Influence in a rut

A few days ago, one of the top platforms for assessing digital influencers made a splashy announcement about their innovations in measurement. I won’t mention the company … it’s not important.

But when you cut through the hype of the announcement, the basis of their measurement tool is still primarily follower counts and engagement levels on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Here we are, more than a decade past Klout’s early attempts at measurement, and the system is basically the same — and arguably much worse because in the early days, Klout also tapped into the data sets of YouTube, Facebook, and other platforms that have since pulled back on API access.

I am mystified that any company would still be offering such a blunt instrument, let alone be able to sell the service, after this length of time and so little meaningful progress on assessment.

What’s the problem here?

Ignoring true influence

On the social web, there is a continuum of influence.

Generally speaking, the lowest form of influence is social media engagement because these are weak relational links. When somebody engages with a post on Twitter or LinkedIn, it’s like a follower waving at you. They might be saying, “good job,” or maybe, “Hi there!” It doesn’t necessarily mean they will buy anything from you or ever see you again. And sadly, social media engagement can be easily gamed.

Although a weak signal of influence, follower numbers and social media engagement are important because they represent potential. A social stream is an opportunity to connect to relevant people who you can move into the second stage of influence — subscriber audience.

When people subscribe to your blog, podcast, or YouTube series, you achieve reliable reach. You’re no longer sending out messages into the wide ocean of a social media platform, hoping for a connection. These folks have opted-in to you. They’ve decided to follow what you have to say because they believe in you and they want your content.

A creator/influencer certainly has a tremendous amount of power over their subscribers/fans/audience.

The third and highest level of influence is community. Not only are people subscribing to your ideas, but they are also actively part of the process. A community collaborates, co-creates, and surrounds a creator with energy and ideas as a team.

Here’s the problem. The leading measurement platforms are stuck in a rut by obsessing on the lowest level of influence — social media engagement.

The next level measurement and influencers

Here’s my frustration. Nearly all the influence is happening in audiences and communities, and it’s not that hard to figure out.

Is it difficult to know that I have a blog? Is it hard to assess whether people are sharing or commenting on that blog?

Is it impossible to see that I have a podcast? Can you see reviews of the podcast? Can you see people discussing it online?

Does an influencer have a YouTube channel? It’s too bad YouTube hides all that information. Oh, wait. They don’t, you say? Right! Anybody can tell how many videos are posted and how many subscribers and views they have in a channel just by looking.

It’s just not hard.

An example: Noah Smith is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist and assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University. He has 26,000 Substack subscribers paying $99/year for his newsletter on business and world events. He does not have a LinkedIn account. Should we overlook him as an influencer?

It takes more effort to acknowledge audience and community platforms to super-power an influencer grading system, but after more than a decade, isn’t it time to figure it out? Shouldn’t the industry demand to move beyond the breadcrumbs of influence offered to us by Twitter and LinkedIn?

The next problem

The influence measurement problem is about to become much worse.

Younger generations aren’t hanging out on Twitter or LinkedIn at all — the bread and butter of the B2B influencer crowd. They’re on Twitch, TikTok, Fortnite, Roblox, and hiding out on private messaging services. If you’re trying to find a B2B influencer under the age of 30, the current measurement platforms are totally useless.

The response

I asked the marketing leader of the company that made this under-whelming announcement for a response to my criticism. It’s not the first time I’ve presented these concerns to this company and its competitors.

She responded with a detailed message, saying:

• “We’re 100% with you,” and
• “It is absolutely one of our priorities to get better at capturing the communities and networks that influencers own themselves – i.e. email subscribers, podcasts etc. We are working away in the background to take these lists to another level.”
• She pointed to the manual work involved as a major obstacle.

I can understand that. But aren’t we overdue for one of these platforms to drill down to where influence is actually taking place in this digital world?

I need to acknowledge that I made some sweeping generalizations in this post to make my point and keep it short. There are exceptions to everything. It is possible to have a community on social media, you can have an audience better than a community, and there are wide variations in how influencers are assessed, for example.

I wrote this because I care about the marketing industry and want to encourage our company partners to do better. A lot better.

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling digital marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram. Discover his $RISE creator community.

Illustration courtesy of Unsplash.com

The post The long ugly road of measurement and influencers appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I recently had the honor of giving a TEDx talk and it has just been posted to the main TED site. Many people wanted to see the presentation, so here it is!

The main idea of the speech — how to be relentlessly relevant in a fast-changing world — is inspired by my book “Cumulative Advantage,” but I tether this work to my personal experience and the fallout from the pandemic. The talk was very well-received and I hope you enjoy it! The video is about 15 minutes long …

If you can’t view the relentlessly relevant video above, you can find the video on this link.

Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling digital marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant.  The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram. Discover his $RISE create community.

The post How to be relentlessly relevant appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.