Mo 5/22 - Facebook $1B Fine | Walmart Gets Social | Twitter Rival Launches

It's Monday May 22 2023. Let's nerd out.

The ad nerds podcast delivers ad industry news weekdays we are the go to source for people who spend money on advertising, covering Big brands, small businesses, and the latest marketing trends is me Spanky Moskowitz, the show's host and a nearly 40 year veteran of the ad industry. I have created campaigns for Budweiser m&ms. Frito Lay the NFL and NBA have created over 100,000 ads generating hundreds of billions and client revenue. If you're in or interested in the world of advertising and want to stay up to date with the latest news the ad nerds podcast is the perfect place to start.

Facebook or meta I still struggle with the rebrand has been hit with a huge 1.2 billion euro fine from the Irish government for breaching EU Data Transfer regulations. Now, Facebook's q1 profitability was nearly $6 billion. So this fine is relatively minor in terms of the overall financial scheme, but it has provoked a response from Facebook. The company's PR had Nick Clegg expressed his appointment at Facebook being singled out for the for using the same legal mechanism as numerous other companies providing services in Europe. He claimed the decision was flawed, unjustified and set a risky precedent for other companies transferring data between the EU and the US, and it's likely that meta will appeal this decision. Now historically, the Irish government has been criticized for making, let's just say lenient deals with major tech companies. Google, for instance, maintains its business is conducted by quote our account managers in Dublin. Despite having a significant workforce in London. The fine imposed on Facebook marks a shift in the pattern and suggest the tightening of control over tech behemoths, particularly regarding customer tracking. Now, this tightening of rules is mirrored in the US with the Biden administration striving to synchronize its regulations with those of the EU. This alignment, if achieved could present significant challenges for tech companies. Despite their huge deep pocketed lobbying efforts. media agencies as well as many of us advertisers, under the AMA trade body are resisting these stricter regulations. Remember, tracking is profitable for agencies and let CMOS perpetuate the narrative that their vast amounts of digital ads are reaching actual people.

Now, what does this mean to you, Joe, small business owner, or Jane? What it means is nothing. The reality is, if you build a brand, and continue to build your brand, and develop your brand awareness and grow your brand across multiple platforms, this doesn't matter. And here's why. You see data nerds, and I'm sorry, I know that a lot of data nerds in the performance marketing space data nerds, this is how they justify their existence, their jobs, their high salaries. But the reality is, is that today's marketing structures are a tangled web of multiple touchpoints. It's not just read an ad in a newspaper or a magazine, it's not just hear an ad on a radio. It's not just a television ad, right? The diversity of digital is so vast that it's it could come from anywhere. So I don't think that the data is as important. And again, I'm gonna get a lot of pushback. That's okay. I can handle the pushback. But I disagree that this is going to have a huge impact on the world. The reality is if you're building your business properly, and building your brand and telling your story, you don't need to worry about any of this crap.

Verizon says so long to Scotty we're talking about beaming them up. Scotty is Diego Scotty their former chief marketing officer? Yes former. Now Scotty he was known for his creative flair at Verizon. I mean, the man built up quite a reputation for pushing those big bold creative ideas. You know, the kind you can't help but notice on digital TV, etc. But he he's also been known to be pretty brash, his relationships with ad agencies. Let's just say they were tense to say the least. Scottie was all about defending creativity and about investing in brand building shocking But that didn't always sit well with the leadership at Verizon, especially as the company started focusing more on cost efficiency. So while the cost cutting is happening and subscriber losses occurring, Scotty was out there spending a record 3.6 billion in advertising in 2022. Now, I'm not going to make an opinion, or call an opinion on whether he was spending too much or too little or not enough for just the right amount. But you know, when the economy gets a little squirrely, people tend to cut back on their advertising costs, which by the way, it's a mistake. It's the greatest time to buy because when other people shrink their advertising budget, more availability comes on the platforms at a lower price. Let's just say his style didn't always mesh well with agencies. And so now he's leaving Verizon and some folks in the agencies are letting out a sigh of relief. Okay. But Scotties exit isn't just a farewell party, it's a signal. It's a big flashing neon sign that Verizon is changing things. Right now, they are grappling with market share losses, and a ton of pressure to make their marketing dollars work even harder. We all are. With Scotty out Verizon might be thinking it's time to bring in a number cruncher, you know, someone who's more focused on the data less the big brand guy like Scott he was known for. As for who's going to fill his shoes, no one knows yet. But they might just change the entire structure instead of appointing a new CMO.

Lina xao. Walmart's us Senior Manager of social campaign and commerce is making a name for herself in the world of social media shopping. That's right. She's taken the helm in leveraging platforms to make Walmart a front runner in this emerging arena. Her first project, a shoppable Snapchat recipe lens was a huge hit. And the innovative tool enabled users to scan their food at home and receive recipe suggestions based on that food. The impact the lens reached more than 4 million Snapchatters with an average daily playtime of 23 seconds. Not too bad for a first project right? But xao didn't stop there. When Twitter unveiled its product drops. Walmart was among the early adopters. All thanks to her. She cleverly tapped into the gaming culture on Twitter promoting Black Friday deals for PS five s which led to huge amounts of spending with the product drops racking up an average order value of $515. Can you imagine tapping into a culture on a platform and generating $500 A OVS. Like seriously, the woman is making her name for herself fast. Her creative drive and insight insightful approach have also extended to Walmart's hashtag. Is it Monday yet Black Friday campaign on tick tock and diversity representation in marketing as well. She used tic TOCs branded mission feature to initiate the campaign, equating Black Friday shopping to a competitive sport for finding the best podcast, the best deals that is

the San Francisco based creative agency butcher shop. Well, they've met the chopping block They've unexpectedly shut down leaving an estimated 100 employees jobless. The agency which operates under the mantra beat failure, allegedly closed with no notice and said it's contemplating filing for bankruptcy founder and CEO Trevor Hubbard was nowhere to be found for comment. Following the sudden closure, lots of butcher shop employees took to LinkedIn to express their sudden unemployment in need for work. Michelle Wang butcher shops art director wrote quote, I lost my job on Friday along with 100 other talented folks now I'm looking for freelance or full time roles in art direction or brand strategy, appreciate any leads or connects exclamation point and quote. So if you need someone like that, Michelle Wang very talented, very available. Additionally, butcher shop Executive Creative Director Britt Hall is now seeking full time or part time executive level role in design creative or branding with a studio agency or in house team. Butcher shop, by the way, has well I should say had a client roster heavily dominated by tech reported a $12,000,000.20 21 and a 50% increase from the previous year from 2020 and the agency projected a $30 million revenue stream for 2022 and 2021 butcher shop acquired MC maniac, a Mexico based web three design and development shop and opened an office in Vienna. The agency will strive to evolve from a creative design agency into a growth and transformation company appears to have transformed itself from growth to gone. Coming up Twitter is about to face a new challenge as Musk meets Zuck in the court of public opinion. Yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum.

Well, we started the show with meta and we're wrapping it up with them to meta is making moves against Twitter with its upcoming launch of a new app currently named Barcelona. Now Barcelona isn't your usual app. It's like a chat based Twitter that simplified and designed to be a giant group chat that anyone can join. Pretty cool, right? Because nobody's really competed with Twitter. It's tailored to the trend where Instagram users have been favoring DMS over public posts, making the main feed more of a discovery platform. Now let's get into the nitty gritty. You can sign on to the app with your Instagram creds, and it'll sync with your IG followers. You can post updates with up to 500 characters add links, photos and videos of up to five minutes. You can also reply like and repost right there from in the app, kind of like retweeting, you know, but the biggest twist is, it's built on a decentralized back end. Now, this is metas first shot at a decentralized network, which they say makes your profile compatible with other decentralized systems. So while the app may look like it's going up against Twitter, it's also met his way of aligning with changing user trends and experimenting with decentralized platform with a decentralized platform to serve social media users differently. It's worth mentioning that creators and celebrities of course are getting the VIP treatment with early access. Instagram is leaning into its DM engagement trend and their billion daily active users might just make this new app the next big, big thing, possibly giving Twitter a run for its money. Elon Musk himself must brace or might be thinking about like, Okay, what am I going to do here? Because a chunk of Twitter users could migrate to this similar yet slightly different platform. We'll see what public opinion says I'm The app by the way, is due to launch next month.

Hey, if you liked the ad nerds podcast, please subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen. Give it a five star rating and a great review. I'd really appreciate it. Well, that's the app nerds podcast for Monday, May 22 2023. Spanky out thanks for listening. Have a great day.