MARKETING

Something streamed, something blue

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the bride and groom are asking if you want chicken or fish. 

After a year of virtual clinks, IRL weddings are back. To mark the occasion, Zola—home of wedding registries, decor, invitations, and more—is debuting its largest single marketing push since the start of the pandemic.

The campaign is centered around a 30-second ad that strikes a celebratory tone, albeit with a few subtle references to the headaches engaged couples have dealt with over the past year. “Here’s to committing to each other, even when it’s complicated,” a voiceover says.

Rewind: When save the dates started dropping like flies last year, Zola cut its marketing spend.

• In 2020, the brand spent $8.7 million on US advertising, according to figures from Kantar (which doesn’t track social). For comparison, it spent $15 million in 2019. 
• Ari Gayer, Zola’s VP of growth, told Marketing Brew the brand saw that “demand for wedding planning tools began to rebound in a big way starting in March 2021” as vaccinations started to roll out. 

The new spot makes its official debut during the Tokyo Olympics. Gayer said the “heightened excitement of the return of the Olympics” pairs well with the excitement that couples who can finally say “I do” are feeling.

But, but, but: It’s not airing on traditional TV. Only people streaming NBC’s broadcasts of the game (hi, Peacock) will see the ad. “We decided to focus solely on streaming for this campaign. Streaming has always been one of our most effective marketing channels, and we wanted to focus our efforts fully where we've seen the most success historically,” Gayer told us, adding that the campaign will also run across channels like YouTube, Hulu, and paid social. 

• According to Gayer, Zola “can more directly measure performance” on streaming services (as opposed to linear TV), but noted that its latest campaign is “less about the products we offer and more about who we are as a brand.”

Search party: Last year, Zola’s former CMO told Digiday the brand was spending the majority of its ad spend on “hand raiser” channels like search, to reach couples who were actively planning weddings. While search remains a “primary channel” for Zola, Gayer said TV ads help it build a connection with couples earlier in the planning process—before they start fighting over deciding which vacuum should go on the registry. 

“TV provides us the opportunity for broad brand awareness—for couples, but also guests and vendors,” Gayer shared.—MS

SOCIAL MEDIA

“Don’t make ads, make TikToks. Don’t make ads, make TikToks.”—Gen Z chanting outside our bedroom windows

Over the past few days, TikTok has rolled out two new features for marketers, as well as one report. Unfortunately, none of them makes it easier to learn The Renegade. 

The partnership: Vimeo is integrating its video creation tools with TikTok’s Ads Manager. According to Vimeo, small and medium sized businesses can now “produce and publish ads directly into” TikTok Ads Manager. Plus, the two created custom video templates that are optimized for TikTok.

The format: It’s called Spark Ads . TikTok says the feature “enables brands to amplify existing organic videos,” aka sponsor preexisting creator posts, like beauty brand Isle of Paradise did here. Ad Age described the feature as another sign “that creator content is one of the biggest draws for consumers and therefore an area marketers want to tap.”

The report: On Monday, TikTok published a report with neuroanalytics firm Neuro-Insight suggesting that TikTok is a new global superpower has some powerful advertising capabilities. For instance, researchers found that In-Feed ads on TikTok “achieve 23% higher detail memory than TV ads,” while “TopView ads outperformed TV by 40%.” TikTok is, of course, biased (and the researchers only had 57 participants), but the report is interesting nonetheless.

+1: TikTok also added some new live streaming capabilities this week, such as Q&As and promotable events.—PB

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Learn more about Justworks here. 

CAMPAIGNS

What, like it's hard?

Few things signal the end of summer like sighting a back-to-school campaign. But after the year parents (and kids) have had, the ads might be more welcome than usual. 

• OshKosh B’gosh’s back-to-school ads imagine celebs like Mariah Carey and Muhammad Ali as kids. According to the brand, it was created to encourage “the next generation to dream boldly about who they’ll become someday.”
• JanSport has made a YouTube “comedy series” with Gen Z TikTok stars and drag queen Jan Sport. It’s also looking for a “chief mood officer” to make TikTok posts for the brand throughout the school year. 
• Dick’s Sporting Goods’s campaign involves a “Lock In” at one of its stores, per Ad Age. The retailer is inviting TikTok creators to spend the night at one of its locations and create content during their stay.

Brands are flocking to TikTok for their marketing efforts, but they’re also putting more $$ into digital channels overall. Ilyssa Bloch, an account director at Gupta Media, told Digiday that clients are coming to the agency with “bigger budgets for digital ad buys” ahead of the upcoming school year. 

Zoom out: Per recent estimates from eMarketer, US back-to-school e-commerce sales are expected to jump 13.3% year over year, to $41.3 billion.—MS

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• HBO Max is letting Snapchatters watch some of its shows for free. 
• Tumblr is testing a feature that allows bloggers to charge a subscription fee for their posts. 
• Coca-Cola doubled its marketing spend during Q2 compared to the previous year.
• Visa has a new look and feel. 

SPONSORED BY ATTEST

No dry spells here. With the high cost of shipping drinks across the country, beverage brand DRY thought the direct-to-consumer business model was out of reach. But with some help from Attest, they were able to stay on top of fast-changing consumer behavior during the pandemic, and thrive. Learn more about how top brands use Attest to master DTC sales here.

FRENCH PRESS

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren't those.

Instagram: These ten fun facts about the Instagram algorithm might just blow your mind.  

TikTok: Speaking of algorithms, The Wall Street Journal did a deep dive into TikTok’s.

Cookies: ICYMI, we now have a solid two years until they officially go away—click here for five things brands should do with that extra time. 

Breakups at work: Not with your cutie coworker—with creativity-crushing silos. We’ve decided it’s them, not us, and call it quits in a letter inspired by a better beau: Asana.*

METRICS AND MEDIA

Stat: A recent CNBC study found that 45% of companies plan to introduce a hybrid workforce model (goodbye, looking at ads on the subway and driving past highway billboards every day)—but the out-of-home sector is nonetheless returning to pre-pandemic levels.

Quote: “A lot of agencies got a bit leaner through Covid and now that we are all staffing up, it’s challenging to find talent and a lot of our talent is being approached as well. It’s creating a market where agencies have to really think hard about looking after their people and also how they attract people.”—Marty O’Halloran, global CEO of DDB, to The Drum.

Read: “The Fall of Manhattan’s Astor Place Kmart” from Retail Brew’s Julia Gray.

ICYMI

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• Five questions with Celestine Maddy, Pinterest’s global head of consumer and brand marketing
• Why advertisers start planning for the Super Bowl in July
• Let the ads begin: Brands are ready for the Tokyo Olympics