Happy Monday!
While the rest of the country is starting to experience some sweet fall weather, the LoudCrowd team is Austin, Texas just experienced another brutal 100-degree week 🥵
As I melt away at my keyboard, please enjoy this week’s social media and influencer marketing news:
TikTok gets its 30 minutes in US court today
TikTok will challenge the upcoming ban at a federal appeals court in Washington D.C. today.
Meta will hide “AI Info” tag on AI-edited photos on Facebook/Instagram
A prominent label will still be featured on images that are fully AI-generated.
Roblox and Shopify partner on virtual commerce
The new features enable creators and brands to sell physical merchandise directly to consumers via the Roblox digital experience.
Spotify is paying creators up to seven-figures to bring video content to its platform
The streaming platform is eagerly looking to beef up its video catalog, intensifying competition with YouTube.
MrBeast’s leaked PDF describes his approach to being successful on YouTube
And some people aren’t happy about the harsh realities and techniques discussed in the document.
Enjoy the rest of the newsletter!
Cheers,
Al & Alexa
Industry News by Al
Spotify eagerly expanding on-platform video offerings with seven-figure offers to video creators
Spotify wants to play in video land. There’s a growing selection of video podcasts, short clips, and music videos that are already live. In fact – over 250K of them (weird because I haven’t ever seen one? 🤔)
Now, some reports from Bloomberg, suggest that Spotify has some offers out, some at the seven-figure mark, to get certain creators to put their video content on Spotify. These aren’t even exclusivity offers, purely distribution in an attempt to bolster its video library.
In addition to the lump sum offer, Spotify is also offering marketing support if creators upload the content and make them free to watch.
Spotify has been explicit in its desire for video advertising dollars. It told Adweek that Spotify was “ready to play in the digital advertising pool and compete for more than audio budgets.”
And, a recently leaked pitch deck has Spotify selling brands aggressively on its video ads. It targeted big advertisers who normally spend video ad budgets on TikTok YouTube, and traditional TV.
Only time will tell whether Spotify can survive on YouTube’s turf.
For now, it’s safe to say that brand marketers can view Spotify as an experimental channel for now.
Brand of the Week by Alexa
Your head is going to turn when you hear about Love Island star, Molly-Mae’s, new brand, Maebe. (Sorry – couldn’t mention Love Island without including a cliche opening line).
Molly-Mae launched her new brand last week and before the brand even officially launched, the brands’ Instagram account already had over 400K followers.
What has made her launch so successful, before officially selling products?
Molly’s influential power – Molly-Mae is one of the most, if not THE most, recognized Love Island star, so when the announcement of Maebe came to be, her followers were already tuned in as they knew something big was coming. Molly-Mae had been teasing out a big project, noting she’s been working on something for the last TWO years.
Previous fashion experience – After Love Island, Molly-Mae was the Creative Director of PrettyLittleThing – and a successful one at that. Molly-Mae has also made it very clear to her followers that she doesn’t work with just any brand – only the brands she’s truly passionate about. So with that, her fans have built a huge sense of trust in not only the products that she recommends but in her fashion sense, too.
Emotional timing – Molly-Mae and Tommy Fury recently announced the end of their engagement, making Molly-Mae’s supporters rooting for her success even more as she navigates her new normal.
Content of the Week by Alexa
‘Tis the season for Black Friday planning 🛍️
Whether you’ve started strategizing or not for the holiday season, we’ve got you covered. Check out LoudCrowd’s Black Friday guide, which includes strategies such as:
Optimizing creator programs – increase the commission for your creators and the customer discount for their followers during your sale period.
Leverage Influencer List Pages – Ensure your entire marketing team promotes your influencer list page, to urge your customers to shop their favorite influencers this holiday season.
Maximize holiday whitelisting – don’t limit your ads to just 1 product! Run ads with your storefront creators to give your customers an entire gift guide to shop from on the creators’ storefront.
Read our entire Black Friday guide here.
Tool of the Week by Al
Social Blade
I recently came across Social Blade. It’s a public database that tracks statistics on YouTube, Twitch, Instagram, and Twitter. It aims to give marketers data-driven visibility into trends and creator metrics.
For free, you can search a creator and get their:
– Subscribers overtime
– Content views over time
– Estimated earnings
… and much more. Check it out if you’re a marketer actively working with creators on the supported channels.
LoudCrowd Updates by Alexa
Adding products to storefront pages have never been easier, thanks to LoudCrowd’s newest release!
Your storefront creators can now add products to their storefront page directly from your PDP’s, while they browse and shop your site. All they have to do is click on the purple “Add to Storefront” button and choose which collection to add the product to.
After they add the product, they’ll have the option to copy their storefront link to then share out on socials.
That’s right, influencer curation but… no separate app… no chrome extension!
