The summer holidays are just around the corner
But before we give the keyboard a rest and our content brain a break, we have found 5 digital news that you can read in the sun.
Gen Z has changed its search behavior, Amazon gives its best bid for a solution to the cookie phase-out problem, and Coca Cola shifts its focus in a new campaign.
The reading glasses get plenty to do.
Here you get the July edition of Xtracts, your digital news overview.
1. Gen Z turns to social media for product search
For many years, Google has been the place you visit when you want to discover and research products. However, Gen Z, the generation born between 1995 and 2012, has started to move away from this trend and towards social media like Reddit.
The study that discovered this changing behavior was conducted by Reddit in collaboration with the English consumer research company, GWI, and the Gen-Z creative agency, AmbassCo. It highlights the most significant changes in how young people discover and research products online:
- Use of traditional search engines is declining among Gen Z.
- Social media has become more important for product discovery.
- There is an increased skepticism towards influencer marketing.
- The current experiences with search engines often do not live up to users’ expectations.
- Community-based platforms (like Reddit) gain trust.
It can challenge traditional marketing strategies and force you to think in new ways to reach the younger segment.
Source: Search Engine Journal
2. X will provide better insight into user activity
Better late than never. X has finally decided to implement a feature that allows you to see when your audience is most active on the platform. It’s a feature that’s been available in third-party apps for a long time, but now it’s finally become an integrated part of the app—though only if you’re a paying premium member.
With such insight at hand, it becomes easier for businesses to plan when it makes the most sense for them to post and interact.
Then the question is whether it is a little too late that the function has become available. Because are there still enough brands that use X as part of their marketing strategy?
Source: Social Media Today
3. Amazon offers a cookie-less solution
Phasing out third-party cookies is not a new topic – nor yet a reality. Therefore, it does not mean that you cannot be at the forefront. And that’s Amazon. They have just presented a possible solution to the cookie phase-out problem, which they call Ad Relevance.
This is neither dependent on cookies nor other third-party data. Instead, it uses artificial intelligence to analyze billions of browsing, purchasing, and streaming data points across Amazon platforms and systems, and matches those insights with what content a consumer is watching in real time.
Then you might think “yes, but will it work once it is tested in practice”, in fact the system has already been tested – also over a longer period – on Amazon’s Audiences, Contextual Targeting and Performance+ offers. With good results according to themselves.
Maybe this is a solution? We will see.
Source: Marketing Dive
4. Google’s spam update awakens discontent
Google faces a lot of headwinds these days. First with their latest AI feature, AI Overview, and now with their latest spam update:
“Today we released the June 2024 spam update. It may take up to 1 week to complete […]”
In the past, these updates have been welcomed in the marketing world – especially among those involved in search engine optimization – but since the end of 2023, the mood has been different.
The updates aim to reduce low-quality and spam content from Googles search results. However, many believe that recent updates, as well as the rollout of AI Overview, have had the opposite effect and promoted these types of results. At the same time, many smaller websites have experienced that the latest updates have created problems for their traffic and give larger brands an advantage. There has also been no information about what the new updates contain.
There is therefore a strong skepticism and concern about whether it will end up creating even more problems.
Source: Search Engine Journal and Search Engine Journal
5. Coca Cola focuses on relations in new campaign
The product as the hero – the ultimate, which cannot be dispensed with. This is the premise in a lot of advertisements. But Coca Cola has now chosen to go in the opposite direction and shift the focus away from the product.
They have launched the campaign, Spills, which focuses on the close relationships – or rather, on the moments and relationships that are worth spilling your favorite drink for: your dog jumping into your arms, a reunion with your partner, a surprise party for your friend. Three scenarios used in the campaign. All with the same premise: the most important thing in the world is human relations, and you should focus on what matters most.
It pays to take a chance and think outside the box – of course it also helps with a well-established and recognizable brand, but if the premise is good, you can go a long way.
Soruce: Marketing Dive