Hello- With the solstice now behind us, happy official start to summer! In this week’s edition of the newsletter, we’ll be covering the Cannes Lions festival, some LoudCrowd partner love with Caribou Coffee, and creator growth strategies from our CEO Gary!
But before that, here’s your DTC digest:
TikTok Symphony Digital Avatars:
TikTok will allow brands to use AI-generated versions of real people in advertisements. Brands will be able to manipulate the avatars to meet their specifications like location or language spoken. First impression… freaky!
TikTok admits the ban is inevitable:
…unless a court order blocks the ban from taking effect. The road for TikTok’s survival is looking grim.
LIONS Creator festival:
For the first-time ever, the prestigious advertising and communications event organized by Cannes Lion had a fringe festival dedicated to content creators. Some big names were in attendance like Alix Earle, Harry Jowsey, and Josh Richards. Read more below.
Walmart tests in-app generative AI shopping assistant:
Users will be able to ask in-app “”Which computer is best for gaming””. Like Creator Storefronts, this is another great example of personalized shopping in eCommerce.
Instagram now allows users to livestream exclusively to Close Friends list:
Released in 2016, Instagram Lives received little adoption from the mainstream because users couldn’t be selective on which followers were allowed. This is a welcome release from LoudCrowd as we continue to advocate that every brand should leverage their Close Friends for communicating with their creators, affiliates, and brand advocates.
Enjoy the rest of this week’s content!
Cheers,
Al & Alexa
🗞️ Industry News by Al
What the heck is Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity? After hearing about it 24/7 recently (despite never hearing about it before this year!), I did some research so you don’t have to ⬇️
Cannes Lions organizes the annual International Festival of Creativity. The event brings together the best and brightest from advertising and communications to Cannes, France for several days of educational and networking festivities.
Cannes Lions is making a big splash on social this year in particular because of its new LIONS Creator series – a fringe festival running alongside the traditional flagship event. Industry defining macro-influencers like Alix Earle, Josh Richards , and Harry Jowsey are sharing their day-to-days about Cannes as we speak. With a combined follower count of 40M from just those 3 creators – it’s no wonder so many people are learning about Cannes Lions for the first time. It’s like influencer marketing for an influencer marketing festival? How meta 🫠
The event looks to bring together creators, agencies, brands, and social platforms through several types of programming.
The Cannes Edit: a series designed to facilitate exclusive networking and events for creators to derive as much value as possible.
Exchange Roundtables: roundtable discussions between leaders from brands, agencies, platforms, and high-profile creators.
Main-stage programming: A content series dedicated solely to creator economy topics like entertainment, partnerships, content monetization, and more.
Cannes Lions’s investment in its Creator series highlights the creator economy’s continued chokehold over the ad industry. But not everyone is happy about it.
A quick reddit search will show event followers frustrated with the presence of influencers at the prestigious Cannes Lions festival: “Hear Me Out: Instagram Celebrities and beauty influencers shouldn’t be walking the red carpet of Cannes. Majority of these influencers have a career of less than a year in the industry.”
Despite pushback from politicians, older generations, and angry redditors, influencers have continued to demonstrate their ability to penetrate practically every aspect of society.
It’ll be interesting to see the chatter post Cannes Lions and whether the event will be able to woo creators in years to come.
🛍️ Brand of the Week by Alexa
Caribou Coffee, a beloved global coffeehouse brand with over 800 locations worldwide, is brewing up excitement with a brand ambassador program aimed at boosting buzz and love for their coffee across the U.S. They partnered with us to power their ambassador program, where their ambassadors are given monthly opportunities to earn rewards for posting about
Caribou Coffee on Instagram and TikTok.
Their community of 300 coffee connoisseurs drove:
📸 503% growth in total UGC posts
📈 28X growth in posts from brand ambassadors
🤝 3% engagement rate on ambassador content
Dive more into their case study here.
📺 Content of the Week by Alexa
More creators in your creator program = more sales. The best way for any business to grow is tapping into existing customers to promote the brand, as your existing customers are your most loyal, authentic, and cost-efficient creators out there.
In the article below, we walk you through how to recruit your customers to become brand ambassadors. This includes:
Passive strategies – this won’t require your day to day management. We’ll walk you through a few different ways to get new members, without too much of a lift.
Active strategies – recruiting your top customers can require a bit more work, but the payoff is worth it. We’ll walk you through ways to make your customers feel chosen, and not just another customer being marketed to.
📦 Product of the Week by Al
When RXBAR first launched, it got no attention in the crowded and competitive protein bar space. Every protein bar touts the same “differentiated” buzzwords like zero sugar, organic, plant-based, etc..
So RXBAR did a brilliant packaging rebrand. They showed what was in the bar and made it the entire focus of its packaging. The bars became a staple in its market and eventually led to a $600M sale to Kellogg.
Good things happen to innovative marketers 👏 Read original insights from Jason Feifer.
👑 LoudCrowd Updates by Alexa
Introducing LoudCrowd’s Creator Hub Resource Center: your ultimate guide to creator success.
Our new Creator Hub Resource Center is designed to empower your creators with all the tools and knowledge they need to be successful. Whether they’re setting up their storefronts for the first time, seeking answers to FAQs, or exploring our video tutorials, everything they need for success is now conveniently accessible in one place.
When your creators login to their Creator Dashboard, they will see a banner prompting them to explore our new resource center by clicking the ‘Learn More’ button below. We urge brands to take full advantage of this resource center by spreading the word and sharing out this link here, to further educate your creators on how to drive success.
