Mo 5/8 - Nick Rebrands What You Can Learn From It | The Gecko Gets A Frenemy | Meta Still Silent
It's Monday, May 8 2023. And it's time to nerd out.
The ad nerds podcast delivers ad industry news every weekday, where the go to source for people who spend money on advertising, covering Big brand and small businesses and of course, the latest marketing trends. It's me Spanky Moskowitz, the show's host and a nearly 40 year veteran of the ad industry. I've created campaigns for Budweiser m&ms, Frito Lay the NFL and NBA, I've created over 100,000 ads generating hundreds of billions in 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 endurance podcast is the perfect place to start.
After 14 years, Nickelodeon is finally getting a makeover with a new brand identity and a refreshed on air look that channels nostalgia and pays homage to its history. According to Sabrina lewrie EVP of global kids and family marketing it Nick and Paramount. The rebrand was prompted by the need to review the brand and its audience and Nickelodeon's internal research revealed that the core DNA of the brand still resonated with kids today. The portal to fun campaign launched with the first of five spots titled quartet, which follows a bored kid who sticks their head through an orange splat to discover a barbershop quartet performing above them. Nickelodeon partnered with six agencies to create the spots which represent Nickelodeon energy and identity using the new IP and of course, really focusing in on their main lineup of content SpongeBob Paw Patrol Blue's Clues Baby shark Loud House Monster High you know all those the brand's new foundation is based on what made it iconic initially including the orange colored splat and demonic and the unique brand voice. Nickelodeon plans to roll out the five spots across its linear and digital platforms in three phases. All spots will be on air and depict the splat as the portal to fun. The second spot titled roller coaster, depicts a kid in a waiting room who sees the orange splat and gets dragged along for a wild roller coaster ride. The third marketing phase is set to begin in July and runs through the end of the year when Nickelodeon is new branding look and feel will debut internationally. Of course, the refreshed look comes ahead of the big upcoming slate including theatrical releases of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Paw Patrol as well as upcoming Paramount plus films like good burger two and Zoey 102.
To further promote the rebrand Nickelodeon will be on the ground at 400 schools around the country reaching 250,000 Kids and hosting two large events both in Philadelphia and DC. Now, if you're a small business owner, and you don't have Nickelodeon's big pockets to hire six agencies to do a rebrand, like who does anybody, Bueller. If you're doing a rebrand here are the things you need to consider when doing the rebrand to evaluate your core identity and brand's identity as a whole. The things you need to do is first identify your brand color, logo, tagline messaging, and your target audience and their values. If you revisit these, and they don't align with what you currently have, that's the opportunity to change it to update it. And you want to make sure that you create a refreshed brand identity that resonates with your current customers and better represents your business. Additionally, if you have a team involve them to get their buy in during the rebrand process, because this will make it a much smoother rollout. And it will more accurately reflect your company culture and values as you roll this new identity out. Finally, make sure because I've seen this happen a lot. Make sure you roll out the brand identity consistently across all customer touchpoints that means your website, every social platform marketing materials, if you have a brick and mortar in store signage, your email headers you know you can miss one touch point and it's okay. But you want to make sure that there's a cohesive feel to the brand. And if you follow these steps you can create a successful rebrand that'll help your business stand out and attract new customers.
The Martin agency created a new campaign called frenemy, where Will Arnet is introduced as the geckos old friend. The campaign shows their relationship as friendly rivals who can't resist a playful verbal sparring match. Now the geckos persona as you know is designed as a kind and honest lizard. So instead of making him ever have an actual nemesis, the campaign uses Arnet as a friendly, albeit competitive foil. In one of the ads, the gecko and Arnet are at a hockey game, when one of the players slams into the glass.
The campaign's creative director said that working with Arnet brought depth to the interaction with the gecko that they never thought possible. The addition of a celebrity opens up new creative options for the gecko. The social campaign is being done in partnership with IPG media agency media brands, which is bringing in more influencers to expand the campaign and dynamic between our net and the gecko. The gecko, by the way, has become one of the most well known advertising icons because of its relatability. And it paved the way for other insurance brands, spokes characters, like you know, Limu emu. And what's that guy with Mr. The one who's got disaster, I can't think of his name.
But you know, the one we're like, everything goes wrong. You know what I'm talking about? Small businesses. Let's go back to you. Again, if you've got limited budgets, and again, I'm gonna, I'm gonna say this, just like I did in the last story, you don't have the deep pockets right of a GEICO, you can still use the principles of storytelling, and partnerships to create engaging effective ad campaigns. So first and foremost, collaborate with local influencers or other businesses, right? Look for people in business in your local community that have a strong social media presence that you could benefit from, and that your brand could benefit from, but they're gonna get something out of it to work together to create content that highlights your products and services and taps into their audience.
Also, remember the value of user generated content or UGC, encouraging your customers to share their experiences with your brand on social media, offering incentives to them or running a contest, this type of of content can be really engaging. And because it comes from real customers, right, it helps build trust with potential customers. Always focus on storytelling. Use your advertising to tell a compelling story about your brand, your product your service. Doing this creates an emotional bond, a connection between your audience and your brand, that can really differentiate your business from the competition. Also, leverage free and paid social media tools, use platforms like Instagram, Facebook, tick tock, and create engaging content, connect with your customers, right? Build your brand. And you can use the analytics tools that are on the platforms to to measure the success of the campaign and make adjustments as you go. And then lastly, if you're not doing it, and by the way, there are days where I go, boy, I really suck at that. Utilize email marketing. Use your customer email addresses and create campaigns that offer promotions, share news and updates about your business and drive traffic to your website. Remember, the key here is to focus on creating content that resonates with your audience and builds a connection with your brand. So you know, yes, a marketing budget can absolutely help you amplify the message. But it's not the only way to create effective advertising campaigns.
Coming up waiting on your refund. You're not alone. And I'm not talking about the IRS. I'm talking about meta. This next story is going to hit home for lots of you. And the reason is, is because I know many businesses advertise on the platform. While most of us can't recall what we had for dinner last night, none of us can forget what happened just two weeks ago, when the meta ad platform went nuts, leaving 1000s of advertisers with drained bank accounts. Well, I've got news for you. It's still not fixed. 10s of millions of dollars were wrongly distributed, maybe even hundreds of millions. And Meta has been juggling the issue ever since. Meta has already admitted to the issue in two different statements. The first one came on April 23. It was a simple and here's what the message was, quote, a technical issue that has been resolved, caused ad delivery issues for some advertisers, end quote. But a few days ago, on May 2, they said quote, as we continue to investigate the issue, and its precise impact on ads, we have determined some ad accounts will be getting compensation end quote.
So the big question here is when will advertisers be refunded? And how will they be compensated? metas official statement says some accounts will receive refunds, but they haven't specified who or when. Some ad buyers who have direct communication with human account reps have better chances of getting information and escalating their refund requests. But direct communications revealed that metas reps admit they know that the platform had an error or bug and are offering at least partial refunds. Six agency execs say they've been told to expect around half to two thirds of their ad spend from the day to be refunded, although compensation is likely to be meta ad credits. However, metas official statement and form emails only say that an issue has been resolved without acknowledging any company mistake or committing to general refunds. It seems to me like meta is treating account issues on a on a case by case basis even though executives company wide knew that the platform had a glitch.
Here's the kicker meta hasn't issued an input form notification or alert to the affected accounts. And there's no public blog about the problem. Like literally this what I'm doing right now is one of the most vocal pieces of content out there about the problem. That means that meta is not even trying to alert all the affected advertisers. They're trying to sweep this under the rug, leaving them to find out about the issue and bring their complaints to meta. Smaller business owners smaller businesses with no customer service or agency to handle those issues have had their refund requests rejected. And by the way to claim refunds, advertisers are asked to splice out the affected budgets and provide documentation showing the normal spend and ROI patterns going back weeks for real. Facebook meta sorry, Zack, for real. So you're gonna put it on somebody else's shoulders to fix your goof. By the way, advertisers who submitted flimsy refund request, expect metadata simply compensate them for a day or a period of time on Sunday. They were disappointed because they said no. And now they have to appeal. One of the most frustrating issues for advertisers is Metas insistence that the error and overblown accounts were within the parameters of the system and the advertisers own control. Setting aside that advertisers set a daily budget and metas rule is to not go 25% over the limit.
Meta systems that the overspend error on the 23rd was within the normal bounds of their platform and advertisers accounts is proposed and advertiser accounts is preposterous. Despite the assurances for meta smaller businesses that don't have the resources to deal with this are finding it harder and harder to get their refunds approved. One business owner requested a refund and was rejected suspects that Meta rejected her refund because she submitted what's Will the bear request and just the total amount that she had last meta has not set up a special refund review process for the debacle. And we all know right now that the human ad platform account reps, who made it through metas recent layoffs are probably in over their heads with problems and refund requests and are drowning in them. For many smaller businesses, by the way, this incident created a lot of financial burden. And while they still expect to be compensated by metal for the error, lots of them are struggling to manage the shortfall while waiting for ad credit refunds. In fact, some business owners are even having to draw on lines of credit to keep their business afloat. I'm going to tell you right now, if I'm a competitor platform,I would figure out a way to offer free ad units at a fixed value to try to woo some of that business away from meta. That's what I would do.
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That's the app nerd podcast from Monday, May 8 2023, a shortened version Spanky out thanks for listening and have a great day.
Attribution links:
Nickelodeon unveils new look for the first time in 14 years -
https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/nickelodeon-unveils-new-look-for-first-time-in-14-years/
Geico’s Gecko Gets a Frenemy in Will Arnett -
https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/geicos-gecko-gets-a-frenemy-in-will-arnett/
How Meta Has (Or Hasn’t) Responded To A Major Account Overspend Error,
Two Weeks Later -
https://www.adexchanger.com/ad-exchange-news/how-meta-has-or-hasnt-responded-to-a-major-account-overspend-error-two-weeks-later/
Ad Zombies - https://www.adzombies.com/