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- Meta reports revenue decline for the first time
- The rise of the 40-year-old influencer
- KFC Teams with TikTok Influencer
- Instagram to Roll Back Test Features After Backlash
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Great Reads
Instagram to Roll Back Test Features After Backlash
Instagram is temporarily pausing its roll out of product features seen by some critics as attempting to emulate TikTok after the Meta-owned platform faced backlash over the changes from high-profile users like the Kardashians and Chrissy Teigen.
Some of the new test features, which rolled out to some Instagram users over the past few weeks, included a full-screen feed that emphasized short-form videos on Reels and an increase in recommended posts from accounts that users are not following. Those features will now be paused or decreased, according to a Meta spokesperson, though there is no timeframe for when they may return to the platform.
“Based on our findings and community feedback, we’re pausing the full-screen test on Instagram so we can explore other options, and we’re temporarily decreasing the number of recommendations you see in your feed so we can improve the quality of your experience,” a Meta spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter. “We recognize that changes to the app can be an adjustment, and while we believe that Instagram needs to evolve as the world changes, we want to take the time to make sure we get this right.
LinkedIn Reports Demand For ‘Creator’ Jobs Up 3X
A new report from LinkedIn shows that job postings have tripled for creator-related positions as brands invest in new ways to drive engagement.
The growth in demand for creators is fuelling a whole ecosystem of new jobs, LinkedIn says.
In addition to hiring creators themselves, companies hire for administrative and support roles such as creator managers, creator educators, creator partnerships, and more.
Job opportunities in the creator economy are most abundant in the technology and information sectors. Social platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube are among the most used by businesses hiring creators.
The second-largest sector for creator-related jobs is advertising services, which indicates companies are looking for new ways to get their messages out online.
Search Engine Journal has the complete list of the top ten industries with the most open jobs for creators.
Travel brands expand TikTok presence to reach new audiences
Booking.com launched its first TikTok-centric campaign, called TikTokMadeMeBookIt, on July 20. The company is giving away seven trips. To be eligible to win, TikTok users must live in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany or Japan, “like” the video, follow @bookingcom – and be able to leave within 48 hours.
In making its TikTok debut, Booking.com aims to inspire people to travel, create positive brand interactions and get people to think of the brand as the leader in travel, says Laura Kaye, Booking.com’s director of social media.
“The TikTok community is already actively engaged in travel content – #travel has more than 90 billion views – so it is a natural fit for Booking.com to be an active part of this,” Kaye says.
The company’s experience on the app will be as much a chance for Booking.com to learn about TikTok users as it will be for the app’s users to learn about Booking.com.
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Sponsored
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Campaign Insights
KFC Teams with TikTok Influencer
Kentucky Fried Chicken and TikTok creator, Isaiah Garza, have launched the #KentuckyFriedGivingChallenge, a grant fund that will give away $500,000 in cash grants to nonprofits fighting hunger in communities across the U.S. on TikTok.
Through the #KentuckyFriedGivingChallenge, KFC will award $40,000 to 11 nonprofits. Inspired by KFC founder, Colonel Sanders, who once gave a hitchhiker who happened to be a college student a ride and a full scholarship, KFC is working with TikTok's Creator Fund and philanthropic creators like Garza, best known for spreading positivity and random acts of kindness on TikTok, to create the unique grant program.
"TikTok has become an influential platform for creators with a passion for philanthropy," says Nick Chavez, chief marketing officer, KFC U.S. "That passion is precisely what inspired us to create the first-ever grant program on TikTok benefiting nonprofits. We are excited to give creators with a cause an opportunity to shine a light on those working to end hunger in their communities."
Why Philadelphia's OCF Realty wants to be a TikTok influencer
If you're on Philly TikTok, chances are you've run into Naked Philly — the content arm of real estate company OCF Realty — over the last few weeks, as their viral videos have racked up tens of thousands of views.
Why it matters: Even on a hyperlocal level, brands want to use engaging content as a way to break through the noise and make a connection — and ideally, get your business — while you endlessly scroll.
With #phillytiktok racking up 1.4 billion views on the platform, that's a massive pool of potential local customers.
State of play: If you've seen any of Naked Philly's TikToks, chances are they're from the "Time Traveling Philadelphia" series, which compares developed corners around the city — like 2nd and Germantown in Northern Liberties — with how they looked back in the late 2000s.
OCF's creative director Patrick Fahy told Axios that the idea for the series came after someone tipped him off to Google Street View's time travel feature. "It amazed me, and I figured if it amazed me, then other people would find it pretty interesting," he said.
Influencer Dixie D’Amelio Teams with PUMA for Collection
Global sports brand PUMA welcomes social media star and music artist, Dixie D’Amelio as its newest women’s ambassador.
Dixie will be featured globally in various campaigns including PUMA’s latest women’s platform “She Moves Us,” which celebrates women who move together to achieve and connect through fashion, community and sport.
“I am so excited to join the PUMA family,” says Dixie D’Amelio. “Sports, fashion and music are a major part of my life and who I am, so I am beyond thrilled to be working alongside a brand where all three of these things meet.”
D’Amelio is working on many projects with PUMA, including a collection of her own set to release in 2022 across the Foot Locker family of brands and PUMA.com. D’Amelio officially announced her new partnership with PUMA on her Instagram account, where she sported the new Fierce 2 sneakers. The Fierce 2 can be found on PUMA.com, PUMA stores and select retailers worldwide.
Why Madewell upped TikTok ad spend despite bigger Instagram reach
Despite a low follower count on TikTok, apparel retailer Madewell is investing heavily in the platform for its latest campaign. The brand opted to shift spend away from other social platforms creators prove to be a strong marketing tool and a good return on spend amid a looming recession.
Madewell has around 6,000 TikTok followers (compared to J. Crew’s 21,000, and Everlane’s 7,000), but boasts 1.4 million followers on Instagram. So why focus on TikTok? Because consumers told them to—Madewell tapped into customer insights through its Madewell group chat, a pool of around 5,000 volunteer customers who answer surveys and questions that help guide marketing, according to Derek Yarbrough, Madewell’s chief marketing officer.
Usually, the brand’s summer campaign had been a “cross-channel effort,” but spend this year was shifted to TikTok. “We are always evaluating and evolving our allocations,” Yarbrough said. “It's really about keeping the pulse of where our customers are.”
For Madewell, TikTok attracts the brand's core customers. According to data library DataReportal, 57% of TikTok users are female, roughly 43% of global TikTok users are between 18 and 24 years old, and 32% are between 25 and 34.
Can TikTok Help Restaurants Succeed? It's Complicated
On a quiet, drizzly Monday night in December 2021, Madison Shapiro decided on a whim to review Skirt Steak on @sistersnacking, a TikTok account she shares with her three sisters. She saw that the New York restaurant was drawing buzz for its $28 steak dinners with unlimited fries, and she knew timeliness was key. She quickly pulled together her positive review and sent it to her sisters for editing. They posted it two days later and by nightfall it hit a million views.
Owner Laurent Tourondel was in the kitchen that day when the host called and said to look outside. More than 100 people were waiting in line to eat. Skirt Steak got hit by the viral effect—and it wasn’t from Instagram, the main driver of restaurant industry viral marketing in recent years. It was TikTok.
“It’s nuts,” Tourondel says. “One day you’re doing normal service, the next you’re doubling covers because [someone] posted a video of your food and the space.”
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Interesting People
Dan Weinstein, Co-founder And Partner At Underscore Talent, On Scaling Creator Businesses
Underscore Talent set out to build a scalable management experience that helps creators, artists, personalities, and entrepreneurs with all areas of their careers, including consumer products, brand deals, podcasting, content distribution, film and television, and more.
Dan shares, “Their businesses are incredibly complex and complicated. There are myriad ways to monetize the audience from subscriptions to this to that to whatever the case may be, and it’s just incredibly complex to navigate.”
He adds, “In our estimation, the representation business of creators hasn’t matured as fast as the opportunity, and so there was no scaled played in the space.”
As a result of this gap, Dan and his partner decided to create a management company dedicated to helping talent leverage their audiences and scale to new heights.
Underscore Talent is not a vertical management company, meaning they don’t focus on a specific niche of content creators, entrepreneurs, and artists.
“We want to work with people that are entrepreneurial, that are ambitious, that are creating great content, that are communicating with an audience.”
Underscore’s typical creators are top of the top in their niche. Many have been doing everything independently for years. Underscore Talent helps them build a supportive infrastructure to scale their business even more.
Out with the new and in with the old: The rise of the 40-year-old influencer
Jeremy Boudinet of influencer marketing firm Ubiquitous states that their maturity is a key factor in the public’s adoration of the couple. “They care less about what the public thinks, they’re more secure and have had more time to develop who they are and what they want and the public loves seeing the risks they are willing to take.”
Alongside this, trends like ‘blokecore’ and 90’s and 00’s fashion have seen huge viral interest over the past couple of years thanks to TikTok. Gen Z is now sporting classic football tops paired with Adidas Gazelles in fits that look more suited to your dad than teenagers. With styles and brands from the past making a reemergence, it makes sense to have influencers who were some of the earliest adopters of these trends back in the day. Alongside this, Love Island recently ditched fast fashion brands and partnered up with eBay in a nod to nostalgic fashion.
You may think that older influencers wouldn’t get the lucrative brand deals of the marketable young reality stars of today, but they could be even more valuable than their younger counterparts. “They’re just as trendy as younger contestants. They have twice the opportunities for brand deals thanks to being able to work with more mature brands that may be hesitant to work with younger influencers, not to mention parenting brands meaning they could possibly rake in double the sponsorships of past Love Island contestants,” explained Boudinet.
Ellie Zeiler: The 18-Year-Old Fashion Influencer Dominating Social Media
When the COVID quarantine went into effect in March of 2020, Ellie Zeiler, then a high school student, suddenly had more free time. She started actively posting on TikTok and quickly grew a following. Today, she has 10.6 million followers on TikTok and 1.7 million on Instagram.
“I realized there was an opportunity to turn creating content into a potential career path,” said Zeiler, who grew up in San Diego and now lives in Los Angeles. “I have many goals and feel lucky to have a jump start on a career at such a young age.”
On social media, Zeiler shows off outfits she’s purchased, skin care products she loves and travel accessories she’s using on her pages, often pairing her videos with music and taking pictures in places like Paris, Beverly Hills and local beaches. Her TikTok videos have gained the most traction, garnering her over 370 million likes. Since she has such a huge following, she’s been able to promote products from brands like Lancôme, Levi’s and Amazon.
“As a partner to these types of brands, my role is to create photos and video content that promotes their products and communicates their brand messaging,” she said. “I learn so much about business every single day.”
Playboy’s New Creator Chief On Future-proofing The Brand Through Influencers
“Influencers and talent have always played a central role in Playboy’s business, with a storied history of introducing talent,” Piretra says. Her task is to tap into Playboy’s existing talent pool and scout for up-and-coming influencers to feature on its Centerfold site.
The aptly named Centerfold went to beta in December. The platform hosts creators and influencers, and allows them to monetize through subscriptions and pay-per-view content. The platform is a core part of Playboy’s rebrand, which aims to future-proof the business after it wound down its print publication in 2020.
Playboy is probably keen to capitalize on the success of OnlyFans, which is on track to see its revenue jump from $1.2bn in 2021 to $2.5bn in 2022. It is well placed to enter the market as OnlyFans is the only adult self-monetizing platform that has broken into the mainstream.
Piretra previously served as global head of creator and influencer marketing at Twitch. She was drawn to the brand as it “has always been a welcoming space for revolutionary voices and ideas to push culture forward.” At Twitch, Piretra co-founded the Twitch Women’s Alliance, a program that aimed to amplify and support female creators on the esports platform.
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Industry News
Instagram CEO Mosseri explains changes after Kardashians complain
Instagram head Adam Mosseri shared a video on Twitter Tuesday explaining recent changes to the social media platform, a day after celebrities like Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian criticized the app for “trying to be TikTok.”
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has been pushing into short videos, a market that TikTok dominates on mobile. Many users have not responded well to the change, and a post urging the company to “make Instagram Instagram again,” implying it should focus more on pictures friends post, has amassed over 1.6 million likes and resulted in nearly 140,000 petition signatures.
In the video, Mosseri said that he knows there has been a lot of change to Instagram. He said the app is going to continue to support photos, but he believes it will become more video-focused over time since it is what people are liking, sharing and consuming on the platform.
He added that if users are seeing a new, full-screen version of their feed, it is just a test.
“It’s not yet good,” he said, noting that the experience will have to be improved if it’s introduced to the rest of the Instagram community.
Meta reports revenue decline for the first time in Q2 earnings
Facebook’s decade-long streak of nonstop revenue growth has come to end.
The social network reported its first-ever yearly decline in revenue for the second quarter, announcing a 1 percent drop to $28.8 billion, and predicted that growth in the third quarter could fall even more. The overall profit for its parent company, Meta, fell 36 percent to $6.7 billion. The Reality Labs division responsible for building Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse dreams lost $2.8 billion in the quarter.
While the first-ever drop in revenue growth was expected on Wall Street going into Wednesday’s earnings report, it solidifies how challenged Meta’s business has quickly become on all fronts. Apple’s “Ask app not to track” prompt on iPhones has made its ads much less effective, costing Meta $10 billion in ad revenue last year alone. And now a rapidly slowing economy has caused advertisers to pull back on their spending.
Meanwhile, in its effort to compete with TikTok, Meta is rearchitecting Facebook and Instagram to place an emphasis on short videos and posts that its system recommends to people. On a call with analysts, Zuckerberg said that the percentage of content people see in Facebook and Instagram that comes from accounts they don’t follow will more than double next year. Building the AI needed to make that happen is a costly investment, he said.
Want to become a social media influencer? There's a college course for that.
A community college in Ohio is appealing to the next generation of TikTok stars and Instagram influencers through one of its latest course offerings — a Media Influencer Certificate.
Owens Community College in Toledo, Ohio, said the program is ""one of the first of its kind,"" according to its website.
The courses required to complete the certificate are spread out over two semesters, the college's website says. Students will need to take classes on basic coding, business, visual storytelling, and public speaking.
Students can choose to exclusively pursue the certificate, or add it to any other degree they're earning.
"This certificate will appeal to a broad range of students, such as students in Broadcast Media Technology, Commercial Art Technology, Music Business Technology, and Entrepreneurship," Jen Hazel, the program's director, told the Sentinel-Tribune.
Hit record: Shopify partners with YouTube to scale the creator economy
“Bringing my commerce platform and my most popular viewer engagement platform together will be a game changer for me,” said Christen Dominique, YouTuber and CEO of Dominique Cosmetics. “As an entrepreneur finding new ways to build my business, it's so important that I show up where my customers are shopping, and more and more that's on YouTube. With the Shopify and YouTube integration, I can share new products from Dominique Cosmetics directly on my videos and lives, and make it easy for viewers to purchase as they watch.”
Because Shopify acts as a merchant’s retail operating system, product details including names, images, pricing, and shipping are seamlessly kept up-to-date across channels. If a product sells out, it’s automatically removed from YouTube. Merchants can also track performance of live and on-demand videos directly from their Shopify admin, with a full view of multichannel sales. And, for select eligible merchants in the U.S., onsite check on YouTube means consumers can purchase without leaving the platform.
"Commerce today is multichannel, and YouTube is one of the most influential channels on the planet," said Kaz Nejatian, VP of Product at Shopify. "Shopify's new YouTube integration will fundamentally change what opportunity looks like for independent brands in the creator economy. We're thrilled to expand our long-term partnership with Google to push the boundaries of D2C commerce on YouTube."
Pinterest partners with WhizCo for creator management
WhizCo, the influencer marketing and creator management agency has collaborated with the visual inspiration app, Pinterest for onboarding and managing content creators on the platform and helping build engaging communities on Pinterest.
As part of the collaboration, WhizCo has so far helped to onboard compelling content creators on Pinterest who actively create and share their inspiration with Idea Pins that enables Pinterest users to bring the idea to life. Idea Pins are an organic Pin format on Pinterest that features multiple pages of video & image content, created natively on Pinterest to tell a story and inspire Pinners.
WhizCo also stated that they will be scaling the number of content creators on Pinterest along with starting an experts project where professionals from various niches and fields will be joining Pinterest and providing valuable insights and informational content.
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Registration Required
Great Paywalled Content
Durex Taps Influencers For Correctly-fitted Condom Ad Campaign - The Drum
Sexual wellbeing brand Durex, alongside creative agency partner VaynerMedia London, has launched an initiative using influencers to encourage people to use the right condom to enhance their sexual experiences.
‘Fit Matters’ is the debut campaign from the agency and uses social media influencers to target consumers. Health expert Dr Emeka Okorocha and professional England rugby player and Calm ambassador Joe Marler feature in the spot.
“We always want to ensure our clients are linked to where attention is focused. Today’s brands are built on social, so we’ve partnered with people who can talk authentically about this topic with different engaged communities, sharing their personal lives and playing around with the campaign line,” said Daisy Domenghini, head of client partnership at VaynerMedia London.
“And we haven’t left the conversation there – we’ve also weaved their content into a bigger campaign launching across other formats, revealing the ‘secret’ that #FitMatters to as many people as possible.”
How TikTok Is Threatening Snap, Facebook, and YouTube's Advertising - Business Insider
"TikTok is a problem for all the social media giants," Laura Hoy, equity analyst with Hargreaves Lansdown, told Yahoo Finance. "TikTok is doing the same thing in the same space. That's the problem with social media. People are fickle and you never know how quickly their attention will change."
TikTok's growth isn't hitting every platform equally. Its video platform competes more directly with social-entertainment apps like YouTube versus Snap's messaging product. But when it comes to ad dollars, everyone is fighting for the same pie.
"Evan [Spiegel] and team have been right that the usage of Snapchat is not affected by the usage of TikTok," LightShed Partners co-founder Rich Greenfield told Insider. "The problem is ad dollars are certainly competitive and probably more so than he even realized. And now they're dealing with an advertising monster in TikTok that is putting pressure on Meta, on YouTube, on everybody."
Companies like Snap are innovating to keep up, but the economic slowdown may cramp their ability to do so, and TikTok's been quick to copy others' features. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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