News

Empower Wins Cincinnati Addy Judge’s Choice Award

The Creative Media Agency Also Takes Home Gold and Silver Accolades

CINCINNATI (February 25, 2020) – Singing the Queen City’s praises, Empower’s clever rap video “The City That Sleeps” won the American Advertising Award judges over in the Advertising Industry Self-Promotion category for Film, Sound & Video. Earning the prestigious title of Judge’s Choice, the ADDYS recognize and reward the creative spirit of excellence in the art of advertising.

“Empower – predominately a media agency – winning Judge’s Choice in the Film category makes a bold statement to the industry about Empower’s Creative Media model,” says Rob FitzGerald, president and chief operating officer at Empower and AAF Cincinnati Board Member. “Our content studio matched with media, data and analytics expertise all operating at the speed of today’s consumer is a force to be reckoned with,” he says.

The American Advertising Awards attracts over 40,000 entries every year in local AAF Ad Club competitions and is considered to be the advertising industry’s largest and more representative competitions. Empower was recognized in five areas at the award ceremony:

Gold ADDY
The City That Sleeps
Advertiser: Empower
Advertising Industry Self-Promotion
(Film, Sound & Video)

Silver ADDY
The City That Sleeps
Advertiser: Empower
Copywriting

Silver ADDY
Cirque Volta in the Spotlight
Cirque du Soleil Chicago
Ambient Media – Installations – Single Installations

Silver ADDY
See Yourself in Lights at Blink
Advertiser: Empower
Advertising Industry Self-Promotion
(Ambient Media)

Silver ADDY
Bush’s Hot Dooooooog
Advertiser: Bush Beans
Social Media (Single Execution)

This year’s judges included Mariana Costa, Executive Creative Director at Blue Sky Agency, Blaine Loyd, Creative Director at TraceyLocke and Chicago-based Creative Independent, Chris Roe.

About the ADDYS

The mission of the American Advertising Awards competition aka the ADDYS is to recognize and reward the creative spirit of excellence in the art of advertising. Conducted annually by the AAF, the local Ad Club phase is the first of a three-tier, national competition. Concurrently, all across the country, local entrants vie to win ADDY Awards—recognition as the very best in their markets. At the second tier, local ADDY winners compete against winners from other local clubs in one of 15 district competitions. District ADDY winners are then forwarded to the third tier, the national stage of the American Advertising Awards. Entry in your local Ad Club competition is the first step toward winning a national ADDY.

Awards

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Media

Google Set To Remove Third-Party Cookies

Google recently announced it would be removing third-party cookies and tracking.

Third party cookies are currently the ubiquitous and best available technology for cross-site user identification within browsers, necessary to enable marketing functions such as attribution, behavioral targeting and frequency capping. This same technology, however, allows user profiles to be easily collected and shared between companies, a practice which has recently come under heavy public scrutiny from privacy advocate groups.

What it Means Moving Forward

For the last couple of years, Safari and Firefox have progressively limited the default functionality of third party cookies in an effort to curb this practice, and now Google’s web browser, Chrome, is following suit. Back in August ’19, Google kicked off ‘Project Sandbox’ – an initiative to explore alternatives within Chrome to balance privacy while maintaining support for key advertising functions. This made it clear third-party cookies were on life support in the world’s most popular browser. Crucially, for advertisers, Google likely wouldn’t remove them without a viable replacement, but their announcement simply formalized that intent (to remove third-party cookies) and applied a generous timeframe to it (within 2 years).

The announcement did not provide much detail for what those alternatives might be moving forward. Fortunately, Google has been open throughout the whole process, documenting and soliciting feedback on the technical details for a range of potential solutions in a public blog. From that blog, we can infer that the eventual solution will take the form of a ‘Chrome API’ which advertising platforms can query for aggregated metrics such as a campaign’s reach, frequency and conversion rate, but that won’t return any details for individual users (similar to what is available for Facebook today).

As of Right Now, it’s More Wait and See

Beyond that, the proposals are best described as ‘conversation starters’ rather than anything employable when it comes to media plan decision making. While the API won’t expose all the unfettered functionality that is possible to achieve today using third party cookies, it means that many of the benefits of digital advertisement in the open web are likely to be preserved. We’ll need to wait and see how these proposals evolve before making any reasonable assessment of potential impact.

Note that when this does come into effect, it will only affect media served in browsers. Video, display and audio media served in-app, as well as connected TV use different methods of user identification.

Digital Google

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Media

Blind Trust: How True are Amazon Reviews?

The internet gets credit for a lot of things – good and bad. One of which, is the idea it’s given everyone a voice. The internet can’t take credit for that. What it can take credit for, however, is the potential for amplification.

To have one’s voice heard – not solely by those within earshot – but by the masses. One of the easiest ways an opinion gets amplified is via online reviews. Retailers in particular have embraced this process. They know highly rated products entice consumers to purchase. Consumer reviews can also help them gauge potential long-term success before product-level sales velocity hits high gear thanks to said reviews.

The Typical Reviewer

Certain types of reviewers make up the predominance of reviews. They fall into three main buckets:

Consumers who had an amazing experience
Consumers who had a terrible experience
Consumers who simply enjoy reviewing

Consumers who had an amazing experience are the ones with the best intentions. They want to buoy the brand and let as many people as possible know how great it is because of their own positive engagement.

Consumers who had a terrible experience have a mix of good/bad intentions. They want to ensure no one else finds themselves in the position they’re in, but may also want to inflict online vengeance on a brand that has wronged them (yikes).

Consumers who simply enjoy reviewing are the wild card. Sometimes they have a true opinion. Other times, not so much. In their case, there’s a sense of satisfaction that comes along with influencing the decisions of others. The idea of having your opinion heard and validated. They’re the type that will take the time to submit a review of “average,” as opposed to not leaving a review at all.

These are the archetypes that populate most review totals. The hope is that these three subsets of the population somehow provide a consensus for the product or service in question, seeing as so many people use them as a pre-purchase heat check. But what if those reviews – the ones everyone relies on – weren’t authentic? In that case – for the sake of the consumer – shouldn’t the retailer be motivated to thoroughly vet the process?

Amazon’s Reviews

Amazon knows reviews are one of the main cogs in the online decision-making process. They also know their reviews specifically help inform consumer decisions. Via Amazon:

50% cite positive product reviews as the primary factor that influences their purchases
90% would not consider purchasing a product that received fewer than three stars

In a world where people often can’t physically examine products before purchase, a trusted opinion means everything. The problem is, sellers know this as well.

For a reputable seller (and vendor) on amazon, this means ensuring their products meet the highest standards. From the moment of purchase all the way through to end-of-life, the highest level of quality is expected. It also means steadfast reputation management in those less-than-often instances where the highest standards aren’t met.

For a less-than-reputable seller, this means working the system to the best of their abilities. They know reviews are of the utmost importance. To buoy their overall rating – and counteract the effect of any anticipated negativity – they’ll sometimes flood their product detail pages (PDPs) with fake reviews. These counterfeit assessments will:

Appear in droves within a few days/weeks of the product appearing on Amazon
Have a similar tone and length, often brief and vaguely positive
Debunk common complaints found in the more critical 1 or 2-star reviews

These products also tend to have very polarizing reviews i.e. majority are either 5-star or 1-star. They will lack the natural disbursement from 5-star to 1-star of more reputable products.

Reputable Product:

Disreputable Product:

Mislabelled Reviews

Even when nothing strange is afoot within the review section, the issue of mislabeled reviews still exists. There are countless examples of products throughout Amazon that have amassed a large number of reviews that are a.) attributed to their product while at the same time b.) not at all associated with their product. Take the example below. This particular WiFi extender is listed on Amazon and has – at the time of this writing – accumulated 157 reviews. All 157 of those reviews are 5-star rated. One would think, based on the positivity surrounding this product, that it’s a must have and from a highly reputable seller. But digging a little deeper reveals the majority of these reviews are tainted. They’re for completely different products, despite being attributed to the above product. Below are a few examples of reviews credited to the above WiFi extender.

Each instance is a 5-star review for a completely different product. In certain cases, other consumers were compelled to comment on the reviews themselves, noting they were, in fact, not for the WiFi extender in question. In total, there were reviews for: a phone charger, a phone case, San Antonio Spurs memorabilia, a pacifier, a women’s jacket, a magnet, a bracelet, a moccasin, a shelving unit – and that was just after sifting through the first four pages of reviews.

All of these reviews were interspersed along with reviews for the actual WiFi extender in question, while also being considered part of the WiFi extender’s overall star rating. The other issue; none of these mislabeled reviews appear on the first page. They all exist beyond the point where most consumers end their search. This buries them beyond their field of vision, while still making them a contributing part of the purchase decision (i.e. they factor into the overall star rating).

Checks And Balances Exist Though, Right?

One would think, with a retailer as large as Amazon, there would be safeguards against faulty reviews, inaccurate claims and overall deception. There would be some type of automation or machine learning that could pick up on the character length, timeliness, or general tone consistent with counterfeit reviews. But the reality is, everything Amazon does is based on sales velocity. The more units sold, the more Amazon profits. Until that product begins to see returns/refund requests, there isn’t incentive for them to dig deeper.

Amazon does provide guidance via their Amazon’s Choice, Verified Purchase and Expert Recommendations. But again, there are inherent flaws in these labels.

Amazon’s Choice

The Amazon’s Choice designation represents products Amazon identifies as their choice within a specific category. Amazon identifies the classification as, “a way to simplify shopping for customers by highlighting highly rated, well-priced products ready to ship immediately for the most popular searches on Amazon.” Makes sense, but the problem lies in the exact criteria used to define their “choice”. There is no visibility into how this decision is gauged. It’s likely algorithm driven – based on a mix of sales velocity, review ratings and shipping options as noted. But how much do reviews really weigh on this type of classification? And if reviews are so easily manipulated, can a choice like this truly be trusted?

Verified Purchase

Amazon’s Verified Purchase badge is designed to highlight reviews made by actual purchasers of the product in question. It’s a simple linking process. A consumer leaves a review, then Amazon verifies whether the item was legitimately purchased via the account owner leaving the review. But what’s to stop a disreputable seller from ordering their own items prior to leaving a 5-star review to ensure the “verified purchase” badge is applied? Also, what does this say for the validity of reviews without the Verified Purchase seal?

Amazon Expert Recommendations

Amazon Expert Recommendations are banners shown within the product listings that display third-party product reviews via Amazon Verified Experts. These experts include review sites such as BGR, Reviewed, Wirecutter and more. They’re available for certain product categories. And often, the product chosen by the independent reviewer doesn’t mesh with Amazon’s review ratings – leaving the consumer without as clear a path as intended.

Where to Find an Honest Assessment

For Amazon consumers in search of review verification, they need to look beyond Amazon. Fakespot is an example of a tool designed to help consumers wade through the fiction found in most review sections. It works as both a plug-in and a URL checker. Consumers can simply copy/paste the URL and Fakespot will do the rest. It assesses product reviews (and product reviewers) by scanning them for common practices associated with forged reviews. After analyzing, the tool provides a letter grade based on how unreliable the reviews were for a specific product, along with a revised star rating. This new star rating provides an honest assessment of the product minus the misleading reviews. For example, in the case of the aforementioned wireless router, that same router with 157 solely five-star reviews ended up getting a D overall, with an adjusted rating of roughly 2.5 stars.

How Can Amazon Clean Up Reviews?

Flag/Remove Products with a Certain Percentage of 1-Star Reviews

These tend to be products that are not-as-advertised. They possess inherent flaws that lead consumers to cry wolf. Another route would be flagging products that have a certain percentage of sales returned. Amazon already does this on the vendor/seller side by penalizing sellers when too much merchandise is returned. They could use this same logic to shield consumers.

Incorporate More Reviews via Third Party

Their Expert Recommendations widget is a great start, but bringing more reputable, outside review sources to provide reviews for even more product categories could improve trustworthiness. Amazon could go so far as to fund additional product reviews for categories without a clear review source.

Enable Counterfeit Review Checks via Automation

If outside sources can provide the technology needed to police these reviews, Amazon can easily do it as well. Building logic designed to sniff out reviews that are obviously forged would go a long way towards ensuring unscrupulous sellers aren’t beating the system

Clean Up Mismatched Reviews

This would seem common sense, but it’s more rampant than people think. Ensuring the right reviews are attributed to the right products should be table stakes.

Punish Disreputable Sellers

In the world of online commerce giants, Alibaba tends to get pegged as the clearinghouse for counterfeit and shoddy merchandise. Similar, poorly crafted products make their way onto Amazon. There are thousands of examples of electronics, leather goods and other products sold on Amazon by foreign manufacturers that – based on the reviews – could only be described as shoddy, poorly manufactured products. Removing products (and sellers) like these from Amazon would go a long way towards improving the overall experience.

Will Consumers Ever Be Able To Trust Reviews?

Earlier this year, the FTC brought its first successful case against a weight-loss supplement provider on Amazon who had been paying for fake reviews. In 2016, Amazon promised to go after sellers pushing incentivized reviews, attempting to rid the platform of reviews posted in exchange for discounts or free merchandise. The year before that, they sued more than one thousand writers providing counterfeit review writing services via Fiverr, an online marketplace for freelance services. Steps are being taken by both Amazon and outside sources to clean up the review environment. But is it enough?

91% of 18-34 year-olds trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Ninety-one percent. Call it review forging, call it disreputable reputation management, call it black hat SEO for Amazon. Call it whatever you want. It’s not going away as long as such heavy emphasis is placed on reviews.

Disreputable sellers are always going to look for angles to game the system. It’s the only way for them to continue placing their products in front of potential consumers on Amazon. It should be up to the platform to find ways to eradicate this type of behavior. The problem is, it isn’t going to be eliminated until it affects enough Amazon consumers for the retailer to take notice. A dip in consumer confidence (i.e. can we really trust everything Amazon is selling?) is the type of shift in thinking that could change Amazon’s approach.

59% of U.S. households have an Amazon Prime membership. People trust them – to the point of literally providing them access to their household (see Alexa, In-Home Delivery, etc.). But what if a decent percentage of that population requested a little more in exchange for their trust? Would Amazon make the effort needed to tidy up a not-so-clean corner of their own household? That’s the question.

Amazon Programmatic

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Influencer

Emerging Opportunities On Facebook And Instagram

In order to maintain its dominance on the social media landscape, Facebook must constantly keep an eye on consumer trends and adapt accordingly.

As technology develops and people flock to new and exciting user experiences, Facebook follows, designing products that tap into users’ creativity and allow them to explore older platforms in an updated way. Recently, the platform has come out with a bevy of tech-focused options, aimed at initiating action and engagement.

Engaging and Exploring with Instagram

After the rise in popularity of Instagram Stories, Facebook has finally begun to capitalize on vertically optimized content. A lot of new offerings from the platform revolve around Stories, as research has shown that people hold their phones vertically about 90% of the time; vertical views feel natural and allow people to enjoy videos and photos in a way that works for them – they can easily scroll through everything in their feeds with just the swipe of a finger.

In-story engagement became the next evolution as Instagram rolled out polling stickers for story ads in March 2018, allowing viewers to engage with content in real time. Thanks to the observed success of the stickers on static content, Facebook recently introduced polling capabilities for video ads in users’ mobile News Feed – the dynamic, personalized collection of photos, videos, links and updates from Facebook friends where ads flow seamlessly in the mix of what is most relevant to the user. These polls provide an interactive experience that allows users to express their preferences and become involved in the brand’s decision making. By having viewers choose one of two options from a customized poll within an already eye-catching video ad, brands can gain valuable consumer insights into users’ opinions, preferences, and tastes in an accessible and engaging way. For example, a fast food chain could ask its customers which discontinued menu item to bring back using a video poll ad. The responses from the poll would help the brand determine which item consumers would likely buy while simultaneously increasing awareness of and facilitating discourse around the brand’s exciting new business idea.

Another major announcement is the addition of ads to the Instagram Explore page. Explore is where users go for content that aligns with their interests, allowing them to discover accounts with content akin to their normal IG interactions. The ads won’t appear on the Explore grid itself – they appear once a user taps on a post in the Explore tab and begins scrolling through that topic-based feed. Advertising on the Explore page is an obvious fit, since it’s where people come to look through accounts – including branded accounts – outside of they ones they already follow. While it’s not currently clear whether this ad placement will be available in an interest-targeted capacity, it’s a great opportunity for brands to branch out and reach audiences searching for something new.

Expanding Advertising with Carousal Stories

With Stories becoming all the rage across the social platform, it’s only natural that Facebook would also increase the ways brands can utilize ad placements within its Stories space. As such, the platform has begun offering a new Carousel Stories placement: Expandable Carousel Stories. While the Carousel format has been available for Native Stories ads, the Expandable Stories Carousel allows brands to create a more seamless ad experience for users by automatically tailoring the number of cards each person is shown.

Native Stories can show a maximum of three cards in a Carousel and is exclusively available in Instagram Stories (with Facebook Stories rolling this out soon), while the Expandable Carousel can feature up to 10 cards and is available with automatic placements across both Facebook and Instagram. Expandable Carousels will show the user the first card in their Stories and will allow them to tap ‘Keep Watching’ in the top corner of their screen for the remaining cards to unfold. Additionally, Native Carousel Stories support videos and static images on Instagram (the Facebook placement is still image only), whereas Expandable Carousel Stories support more content and media options across the board. This new Expandable Carousel placement not only supports mixed media on both platforms, but also allows for both a headline and written caption field – previous Stories only allowed a ‘swipe up’ link and Native Carousel solely offering the caption field. With all the extended creative options the Expandable Carousel Stories ad offers, it makes for another opportunistic placement for a brand’s story to unfold in the social landscape.

At Home with Augmented Reality

Another introduction aimed at increasing platform engagement is Facebook’s foray into augmented reality.

Augmented reality refers to a partially immersive overlay on real-life objects – whether that’s a face, building, or an outdoor landscape. While still in its early stages, AR is slated to play a big role in Facebook’s future and is important for marketers to explore. The company has already begun branching out into smaller-scale AR offerings as consumer preferences change but has significant plans to move into virtual reality in the future.

Though VR’s completely immersive experience is an intriguing prospect to consider, AR is currently the most widely used and available option for consumers to interact with. Most camera-based platforms have augmented reality options already with face and location-mapping abilities built in. Snapchat is likely the most recognizable AR platform because of its early adoption of biometrics-based filters that allow users to overlay different lenses onto their faces.

As technology has evolved, other platforms like Facebook have tapped into the trend. Recently, Facebook announced the rollout of Spark AR Studio, a portal allowing brands and consumers to create their own AR affects for Instagram Stories. While still an organic play, we would expect to see paid opportunities arise for branded lenses in the near future.

Additionally, as Facebook continues to build out its shoppable ads capability, virtual try-ons in the platform are right around the corner. Facebook is already testing a beta opportunity that would allow brands to add AR affects to their product pages, letting viewers try on new products without ever leaving their homes. This could notably expedite consumers’ path to purchase, effectively taking them through the marketing funnel in a singular step. Until these offerings are available as an ad unit, finding ways to test organically is an easy way to get in on emerging tech and reach consumers where they’re spending their time.

These sleek Facebook and Stories updates – and their constant evolution – are living testament to how critical emerging technology will be for advertisers moving forward.

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Analytics

What We Learned from Netbase Live

In late 2019, hundreds of social listening experts came together in New York for NetBase Live.

NetBase, our social listening tool of choice, hosted a full day of presentations from major brands and agencies (ourselves included!), covering innovative new technologies and products, the latest best practices, compelling success stories and expert tips. We came back energized and ready to take our social listening to the next level. Here are three key lessons we learned, plus a bonus from our presentation:

Social Stories with Human Interaction Pop

Keynote speaker Chris Malone set the stage for a common theme throughout the conference – we are in the age of the human brand. With more data comes less loyalty from consumers, and consumers are looking for more from their brands in order to stay loyal to them. In fact, Malone performed 10 different studies to evaluate over 45 companies, including Johnson & Johnson, Hershey’s, Domino’s, Lululemon, Zappos, Amazon, Chobani, and Sprint, showing how they manage to achieve success and sustain it, even recovering from major missteps. The answer? The companies that achieve customer loyalty do so by forging genuine relationships with customers. Using social listening, you find that stories that rise to the surface deal with human interaction – not something automated online.

Lesson Learned: Warmth & compassion is what moves us – this is where loyalty, trust and commitment come from. While you leverage data, understand that in this era of marketing, every human is a brand and every brand is a human.

You Can’t Get an Answer Without a Question

Researchers are constantly asked by their coworkers what’s going on in a certain industry or what is a certain demographic simply “talking about”. While these kinds of asks can sometimes be insightful, it’s imperative to ask a more direct question based on business objectives to provide a valuable answer. Many companies have put processes into place to make this approach actionable for all employees and the benefits are tangible in the work they do.

Lesson Learned: In order to most effectively utilize social data, have a strong idea of what you want to understand first. This will yield more actionable brand insights.

Align on Core Values to Make Social Responses More Effective

Hotwire gave a fantastic presentation on high stakes leadership in a post-B2B world, touching on the impact that aligning on core values can have on a company. The world we live in is predictably unpredictable, but one thing we know via social listening is that values drive choice. For instance, 76% of consumers make an effort to buy products and services in line with their beliefs. What’s more, 82% of people would consider dropping a brand if it worked with a partner or vendor who didn’t align with their beliefs. This spans into crisis communication and addressing missteps. Over 90% of people would stop using a brand if they ignored or didn’t address an issue that violated their company beliefs. We’ve heard time and time again the in past few years; it’s clear consumers want brands to take a stand; but, brands need to have strong value alignment first. To get prepared:

Check your mission
Pressure test your values
Ensure you have value-based communications
Prep your C-Suite

Lesson Learned: If you don’t have a solid foundation in your values, you’re going to weather a storm – and few companies are prepared to weather that storm. Take necessary steps to align on value-based communication and prepare for potential crises.

Bonus! Social Listening can Impact Influencer Marketing Every Step of the Way

With influencer marketing spend increasing to over $10 billion in 2020, it’s imperative to understand how to use the tools at your disposal to aid in discovering influencers, tracking their work and proving their impact on brand health. We spoke to the crowd at NetBase Live about our approach to influencer marketing and how to utilize social listening at every step of the influencer process. From utilizing social listening to identify unlikely influencers to measuring the impact of influencer content on brand health, NetBase offers our team a wealth of information to strengthen influencer programs.

Lesson Learned: Social data can add texture to any program. For influencer work, there are opportunities to leverage social listening throughout the entire process to bolster performance and uncover insights.

Influencer

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Marketing

2019 Holiday Predictions

With six fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, consumers need to prepare accordingly, and retailers must be proactive in understanding how this holiday season may impact their bottom-line.

Empower is keeping a pulse on predictions, anticipated trends to and potential implications for marketers to consider for the holidays. This review will dive into specific pre-holiday and holiday expectations based on results from prior years and forecasts from several experts like the National Retail Federation (NRF) and the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC).

As expected, projected holiday retail sales growth varies by forecaster (Figure A).The NRF expects online and other non-store sales to increase 11%-14%, which is anywhere between $162.6 billion and $166.9 billion. They have, however, previously warned that economic uncertainty from newly introduced tariffs and fluctuations in the stock market could impact consumer spending plans leading up to the holidays.

Rod Sides, Vice Chairman at Deloitte LLP, called out convenience as “the new retail currency,” positing that retailers offering “seamless experiences, ample inventory and speedy fulfillment” are most likely to win this holiday season.

Understanding and delivering on consumers’ need for convenience will be crucial in coming out on top during this abbreviated holiday season. To no one’s surprise, Amazon is leading the pack by promising new options for delivery and announcing last week that Prime members across the U.S. can choose free one-day delivery on over 10 million items. However, Amazon isn’t the only retailer ensuring convenience is king. Several big box retailers including Walmart, Best Buy, and Target are doubling down on click and collect or “BOPIS” (Buy Online Pick Up in Store) as an option that has been increasingly utilized by consumers over the last couple of years.

E-commerce sales between November 2018 and January 2019 (seasonally adjusted and excluding gasoline stations, motor vehicles/parts dealers and food services) grew approximately 11% to total $126.4 billion. Experts including Bain, Deloitte and RetailNext are forecasting between a 14-20% increase for 2019 compared to the same period in 2018. According to RetailNext, brick-and-mortar store performance will continue its current resurgence – initiated by 2018’s positive holiday results – and post year-over-year increases upwards of 3.5%. Top seasonal category performers are expected to include beauty, off-price, warehouse clubs, home improvement and home furnishings segments.

Regarding expected high-volume purchases this year, the NRF & ICSC predict that gift cards will be the top item requested and purchased this year followed by apparel, footwear, accessories, books, movies, games and toys. For children ages 0-12, the expectation is that 92% will ask for toys this year, and for those ages 13-19, gift cards are the hot ask (61%). Contrarily, Deloitte forecasts that clothing will lead gift cards/certificates and toys as the top gift. The Deloitte experts also believe that the average number of gifts will fall to 15 from a peak of 21 in 2007.

Despite potential economic uncertainty, the NRF says consumers will spend 4% more than they did last year at an average of $1,047.83. PwC supports this outlook and believes consumers are optimistic about holiday shopping this year with 86% reporting they will spend the same or more than last year. They expect the biggest spenders to be holiday travelers, college graduates and telecommuters. It is also expected that almost half of young millennials (age 24-27) will spend more this holiday season than they did last year, compared to 33% of consumers overall.

We did encounter conflicting information from JLL, Deloitte, and AlixPartners, all reporting that consumers say they will spend less this year on gifts than the prior year. According to Deloitte, only 7% of respondents cite general concern about the economy as a reason. AlixPartners believe tariffs threaten to dampen holiday spending. One-fifth of consumers with flat holiday budgets say they would forgo a purchase if tariffs boost prices more than 10%.

According to JLL, roughly one-third of consumers will start their holiday shopping before Thanksgiving this year. Some, believe it or not, have already finished their shopping. The NRF highlighted that gifts for family, friends and coworkers will account for 63% of spend, non-gift holiday items – candy, food, décor, greeting cards and flowers – will cover 22% while other miscellaneous non-gift purchases will account for the remaining 15%. The NRF sees holiday shopping shake out like this:

56% will shop online
53% will shop in department stores
51% will go to discount stores
44% will shop at grocery stores
34% will shop at clothing and accessory stores
23% will shop at electronic stores and local small businesses

Stay tuned for more Empower insights as the holiday shopping season continues!

Holidays Retail

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Influencer

3 Key Takeaways from the ANA Marketing Law Conference

The ANA Marketing Law Conference – while primarily aimed at educating lawyers in the finer points of talking to their marketing teams – made for an insightful overview of what lawmakers are looking at as social media continues to become a more prevalent part of people’s lives.

The majority of topics covered surrounded digital and social media and the issues that are beginning to arise as more people go online to shop, communicate and consume entertainment.

People want Privacy

With California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) coming down the pipeline and a host of other privacy acts in the works in different states, marketers are understandably anxious about what this could mean for the world of targeted ad delivery. A key component of most of these laws is a push for control over personal information. People want assurance that they have full clarity on what data companies are compiling, keeping or selling – and they want to be able to opt-out as they see fit. While CCPA only applies to companies who meet certain standards in the state of California, the precedent it sets will have implications across the rest of the United States. The ANA, however, has a six-step guide to help navigate the complicated world of consumer privacy and prepare for the CCPA.

Understand the scope – Currently, only companies that have a gross annual revenue in excess of $25 million, receive or disclose the personal information of 50,000+ California residents, or derive 50% or more of their annual revenues from selling California residents’ personal information are currently required to be in compliance with CCPA by January 1, 2020.
Comply with consumer rights – Consumers have the right to know what personal information is collected about them, whether (and to whom) their personal information is sold or shared and be able to opt out if desired, to access their personal information that has been collected, to have a business delete their data, and to not be discriminated against for exercising their rights under the act.
Meet necessary requirements – A primary requirement of the act is notifying consumers of data collection and making it easy for them to opt out of its sale. Generating a “do not sell my information” link and displaying it on company websites and creating a consumer portal that allows them to decline is important to establish as soon as possible.
Enable a cookie banner – Cookie banners should be used to notify consumers about what information you’re gleaning from them, what you need it for, and what you’re planning to do with it. Letting them know that cookies are being used to track their online activity is a key component of the CCPA.
Track verifiable consent – Use unique identifiers to track opt-outs and make sure they are integrated into existing systems to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
Map the personal data flow – Generate detailed data use reports and visualize data flows so it’s clear when and where consumer information is tracked (whether or not it’s sold) and enable fulfillment of consumer rights requests at key points in the process.

While preparing for a privacy overhaul is daunting, understanding and planning accordingly is an important step in safeguarding against issues with government regulations.

Keep it Real

Newer developments in false advertising, particularly fake reviews and fake followers, will likely be important issues for the FTC to monitor in 2020.

Hot tip: fake reviews can and will get you in trouble with the FTC; just ask Sunday Riley. Recently, the skincare company settled with the FTC after admitting that it had given its employees detailed instructions on how to get away with writing fake reviews. The CEO of the company even instructed employees to utilize VPNs before writing these reviews so that they couldn’t be traced back to company servers, as well as downvote consumer reviews that were critical of the brand because enough downvotes could remove the lackluster reviews. Under the Lanham Act, where claims can be made against companies who engage in false or misleading advertising practices, fake reviews or the manipulation of real reviews is a punishable offense. The FTC has plans to crackdown on claims akin to Sunday Riley’s, since false or misleading reviews are becoming a serious point of contention for consumers, especially on sites like Amazon.

Fake followers also run afoul of FTC regulations, since it can be argued that influencers with a high follower count have sway over consumers’ purchase decisions. By paying for that sphere of influence, the influencers in question are inflating their perceived social capital which, in turn, has an impact on consumers’ perception of brands and products promoted. The use of fake followers is also punishable under the Lanham act as it is a manipulation of consumer perception and has monetary impact on the marketplace; it can be argued that the number of followers an influencer has is correlated with the trust consumers place in them. Bot activity and the sale of fake followers is likely to be closely monitored by the FTC as well as the different social media platforms in 2020.

Avoid False Advertising

To keep from inadvertently slipping untrue statements into your advertising, transparency should be top of mind when talking to your target audience.

A central tenet to staying on the up-and-up is making sure that any claims you make can be substantiated with evidence. There’s a fine line between puffery and actionable language, so even qualifiers like “best” can get you in trouble with the FTC if it’s argued that it indicates measurement. Additionally, know the difference between express and implied claims; competitors can file false advertising claims if you make unsubstantiated statements in comparative advertisements.

Advertising via influencer isn’t an easy way around false advertising claims, either. A brand is directly responsible for any claims – substantiated or not – they make on the brand’s behalf. Proper review and vetting of influencer content should be built into branded content campaigns. Additionally, one of the biggest lessons learned about influencer marketing is that material disclosures have to be clear, concise, and close to the branded content they’re creating in order to align with FTC standards. If consumers can’t tell that an influencer is #sponsored and posting an #ad, they’re likely to end up on the FTC’s watch list. In fact, the FTC just recently released instructions for how influencers should let people know about their relationships with brands.

Thanks to social media, the consumer landscape is evolving at a rapid pace and government regulators are working double time to keep up. Following FTC rules and staying abreast of any privacy regulations that could affect your campaigns are measures to take to make sure your advertising is in line as we move into the new year.

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Media

The Reality of Voice Search

Every year since 2017 has been dubbed The Year of Voice Search. Multiple statistics have led the industry to believe this. The best example being the mention popularly attributed to comScore that “50% of all searches will be conducted via voice by 2020”.

This quote specifically though, was taken out of context and originates from a completely different source. It comes from then-Chief Scientist at Baidu, Andre Ng, who referenced the combined potential growth of both voice and image search relative to China and Baidu back in 2014. At that time, search via voice and image accounted for roughly 10% of all queries. Neither Baidu (nor Google) have recently commented on the market share of voice search compared to text-based search.

Voice Search Compartmentalized

We also need to keep in mind that voice search exists in two separate silos that are often incorrectly combined. There’s voice search via mobile devices, and there’s voice search via stationary home assistants. Both are growing, with home assistants seeing an anticipated global growth of 35% this year. And despite both serving similar purposes, they often ingest very different queries.

There exists a big difference between the commands normally associated with a smart speaker query and the questions normally associated with a mobile voice assistant. For example, a voice command provides a definitive answer (“Who wrote The Old Man and the Sea?”) or leads to a specific act (“Alexa, turn off the kitchen lights.”), whereas a voice query (“What’s the best pizza place near me?”) requires multiple search results as the output in an SERP format. Voice commands intended for digital assistants also aren’t included in Google Ads data, whereas inputs via voice on mobile phones are. For these reasons, the latter is what most advertisers interested in voice search should focus on when considering volume potential.

Where to Focus Your Efforts

Focusing on mobile queries is a start but diving deeper in relation to the queries themselves is even more important. As it relates to the queries associated with mobile voice, the focal point should be on the following:

Answering general questions
Location-based queries

Answering General Questions

Answering general questions is one of the main outputs of voice search. How Google Voice – for example – replies to questions is heavily based on what it deems to be the most relevant content. Often, the reply via a voice solution is a word-for-word reading of a featured snippet:

In order to be included as a featured snippet, a site has to be deemed a knowledgeable source by Google in relation to a particular query. In order to be deemed knowledgeable, that site has to be a provider of premium, original and trustworthy content. For most advertisers, this would mean the inclusion of relevant, thought-provoking (or thought answering) content that deserves to be elevated. Content that informs consumers without hinting at an agenda. If a site is aiming for inclusion into the query-based side of voice search, improving their site content and overall domain authority is the best route.

Location-Based Queries

When it comes to voice and location-based queries, Google’s recently released breakout of voice search categories (below) would lead one to believe it’s not a large piece of the pie. But in reality, we have to assume that a) it’s a big piece seeing as location-based queries are incredibly mobile-focused and b) the below is exclusively focused on smart speakers, not mobile devices. As noted, smart speakers (commands) will receive very different queries than mobile devices (queries).

In order to capitalize on location-based queries, advertisers need to focus on location-based keywords and local listings optimizations. Keywords containing the phrase “near me”, “nearest”, “closest”, etc. should be a part of a location-specific advertiser’s keyword builds. A large portion of the recent keyword expansion Empower is undertaking includes longer-tail versions of these types of terms. Head terms containing phrases such as “location” and “near me” will also capture traffic from longer tail queries (i.e longer format, natural language) normally associated with voice due to match type limitations expanding as of the last few years.

Local listings optimizations can go a long way towards voice relevance as well. It’s paramount for advertisers with physical locations to keep their Google My Business, Yelp, Yellow Pages, Bing and all other listings as up-to-date and fully fleshed-out as possible.

What’s Next for Voice Search?

Comprehension. In order for voice to be as widely adopted as most stats make it seem, it needs to be able to comprehend human speech at a near perfect rate. We mentioned this in a previous blog post, and comprehension rates are close, but not near the levels of accuracy they need to hit in order for language to be discernible regardless of context or environment. On the plus side, advancements in artificial intelligence are helping to bridge the gap. Google’s RankBrain is an example, a natural language processing AI with an end goal of establishing more predictive outcomes as it relates to speech combinations. When the tech encounters a new phrase or question, it produces a “best guess” answer based on the searcher’s meaning and intent. The ability to react to – and learn from – ever-changing speech patterns in a conversational manner is the type of functionality missing from voice’s current iteration. There’s a mile-wide chasm between a voice assistant programmed to answer canned questions and one that can truly participate in ever-evolving conversation.

Another possible next step was previously discussed as well, but this falls more in the wheelhouse of appointment-driven advertisers. The idea that digital assistants and voice search can be used as true personal assistants. Google Duplex is the perfect example. In this potential evolution, a person could ask their digital assistant to schedule an appointment for them, and it would be able to perform the act of setting up an actual appointment (based on the individual’s calendar) in the real world. This would entail interacting with someone on the other end of the line, maneuvering through scheduling options and finalizing the appointment while providing a confirmation notification for the person attending. This could lead to an increase in phone-based appointments and interactions as it relates to such advertisers as well as an uptick in call center interactions (which, in most cases, are trending downward as more and more consumers continue to favor online scheduling) in the near future.

Programmatic Search Voice Search

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Marketing

Focus on Experience Leads Toys “R” Us Revival

Toys “R” Us is bringing back its physical locations. This after announcing back in 2018 they would close all 800 of their physical locations. Some might see this as a poor financial decision.

Toys “R” Us’ physical locations were closed for very specific reasons. They were losing money via a dying format. They were driven to bankruptcy, then forced out of existence. This time around, however, consumers might just give them another chance.

When They Shut Their Doors

Online shopping is often portrayed as the scapegoat that did Toys “R” Us in. But in reality, their crippling debt and ballooning inventory levels along with the rise of big box competitors and other maladies drove the brand into the ground well before the world of online commerce took off. In an ancillary fashion, their uncanny ability to suck the joy out of the toy shopping experience played a part in their undoing as well.

Where They Really Went Wrong

Toy shopping is hard enough on parents. Even more so if their kids are with them. The Toys “R” Us in-store experience didn’t help matters. The combination of limitless SKUs teamed with limited staffing left parents fending for themselves from the moment they walked through the door. Each location specialized in overwhelming the senses of the child, while also lacking the empathy necessary to make the process easier on parents.

Despite their distaste for the Toys “R” Us format, both Generation X and Millennials still lamented the retail chain’s demise. They were a generation that grew up on the idea of a trip to the toy store. Something that wasn’t an everyday occurrence. It was this once in a while factor that made the occasion so special.

Their kids can take a trip to an online toy store at a moment’s notice. Even the weekly big box retailer visit can provide a certain semblance of that experience. But to Gen Xer’s, it’s not the same. The rise of ecommerce has robbed today’s kids of the tangible aspects; going to a toy store, seeing a toy in-person and playing with it prior to purchase. It’s the experience that’s lost – which is why Toys “R” Us sees potential in bringing it back.

The Toy Store Reimagined

The proposed reimagining (under parent company TRU Kids Brands) will begin with a new, more personalized format. There will be physical locations, but the phrase brick and mortar won’t apply. It’s too cold a term. Their new approach is designed to be engaging, but less overwhelming than typical retail interactions. Providing a play-focused experience via a few select toys, instead of forcing consumers to navigate a never-ending maze of packaged SKUs.

Starting Small

This new incarnation will only be available in two locations initially – Houston and Paramus. It’s a partnership with San Francisco-based retailer b8ta – a developer of experience-focused retail environments – so they won’t be going it alone. Empower Director of Account Services Kellan Smith believes B8ta’s involvement means these locations will likely “include high-impact visual and digital content meant to engage consumers in their path to purchase.” These new stores will range between 6,000 and 10,000 square feet – miniscule compared to the size of their previous locations. More physical stores are expected next year (as many as 10 have been reported) in higher traffic markets if these flagships prove successful.

They also recently announced the Toys “R” Us Adventure – described as “an interactive playland that goes beyond the store.” It’s a pop-up concept (dreamed up with the help of candy-themed pop-up Candytopia). It will be available initially in Chicago and Atlanta from mid-October to January, before moving along to other cities. The goal will be 100% immersion for attendees old and young alike. The only problem is exclusivity. They have a “come one, come all” mentality in promoting these pop-ups, but their admittance fee – $28 per adult, $20 per child – makes it tough for most families to partake. Throw in parking and it will cost the average two child family over $100 just to get through the door. For most, that would be a tough bill to foot – especially around the holidays.

According to Empower’s Associate Director of Word of Mouth Marketing, these new endeavors are all about creating an experience. “They’re meeting consumers 1:1 on their turf at a critical time in a nostalgic way – encouraging social sharing and increasing their footprint at the same time,” Katie Ross explains. “Experiential marketing may focus on moments in time, but it can leave a lasting impact on brand health overall. It will be interesting to see if they can pull it off in an impactful way.”

Eventual Goals

As with most retailers, one can assume Toys “R” Us is using their new sites as data gathering sources. In order to provide a uniquely customized experience, they need to know their customers. Data is the easiest path towards gaining an understanding. At this point, the collection process is likely limited to precursory information. Learning what consumers in specific locations are interested in (product focus by geography) to aid future store planning decisions. If a retailer is only going to carry select SKUs with an emphasis on interaction, then those products need to fit the interests of the target geography.

Is There Interest

Most toy manufacturers are extremely interested in this new direction for Toys “R” Us. The new format obviously has a few curious enough to participate. The question is whether this experience-led format can rival the current ecommerce/big box approach focused on efficiency.Will it be enough to entice consumers to make the effort to visit a location specifically to purchase a toy? Odds are most consumers will continue to make toy purchases part of a multi-item, big box trip or keep it a transaction handled online. The fact that Target just announced a new partnership with Disney to create Disney themed stores in specific locations could be an additional hurdle. But there will be that section of the population that jumps at the chance to take a trip down memory lane by visiting an actual, free standing toy store – this time with their kids in tow.

As It relates to media, toy manufacturers may look to eventually advertise with the new Toys “R” Us format. The retailer could capitalize on the same path laid out by other retail giants that have jumped into the ecommerce space. By harnessing their copious amounts of user data, manufacturers could have the opportunity to target ads to their most prized segments near the point of purchase.

This, of course, would require a site-based investment from Toys “R” Us alongside ponying up for data collection. But after that, they could be up and running in a relatively short period of time. At the very least, they could follow the path Target is laying down by selling their audience data. Advertisers can then use the data via whatever programmatic platform they choose. They’d simply sell data to interested parties and not have to invest as heavily in tech overhauls.

What’s Next?

There is growth potential here. It’s a disruptive format that needs to be monitored. The thought that Toys “R” Us could come back from the dead was something that seemed laughable only a short time ago. The notion of resurrection by bringing back brick and mortar locations likely drew an even larger laugh. But they’re doing it, and they’re going against the grain in the process. The upcoming holiday season – and the two planned test markets – will be telling as to whether this format can survive. Beyond that, it’s going to be interesting to see if they can take this new approach beyond basic survival. The real question: can they be profitable again?

Programmatic Retail

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Media

Quibi: The Bite-Sized Streaming Experiment

Quibi – launching April 2020 – is Jeffrey Katzenberg’s gift to Gen Z. He co-founded DreamWorks for their parents. He served as CEO of Disney, which was created for their grandparents. With Quibi, his focus shifts to the burgeoning generation of twenty-somethings by providing on-the-go, streaming content for those who can’t sit still long enough to stream content.

Quibi – which stands for quick bites – is a mobile-only streaming service featuring traditional serial themes (comedy, drama, reality, etc.) in a non-traditional format (7-10 minute episodes). As the name suggests, it’s designed to be digested quickly and easily. Each episode can be something viewers do while on the way to something else they’re going to do. And although other streaming services currently offer mobile, app-based options, they don’t really lend themselves to mobility. Consumers traditionally need to sit somewhere stationary to take in a 30-50 minute episode. Quibi deviates from that norm.

How Does its Content Stack Up?

It will come in both an ad-heavy ($4.99 per month) and ad-free ($7.99 per month) format. According to co-founder and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, the service will have over 7,000(!) titles within its platform upon launch, t-minus eight months from now.

Hollywood heavyweights like Sam Raimi, Lorne Michaels, Idris Elba, Steven Spielberg and Jennifer Lopez, have all signed on to create content designed with originality in mind. They also have the brains behind the brawn – stealing top execs from other savvy companies such as Google, Netflix, NBCUniversal, DC Entertainment and more, lining up what looks to be an incredibly alluring service.

Quibi’s content duration – as noted – goes against everything studios and streaming services have taught consumers to believe. Back in the days when linear TV was king, programming was twenty, or so, minutes of content with 8-10 minutes of commercials sprinkled in. In the streaming era, despite wavering attention spans, producers have asked for even more engagement. The content of each episode now covers at least 25 minutes – often dragging on towards the hour mark, with no commercial breaks. The trade-off has always been the ability to come and go as you please. Viewers can watch whenever they want, but they still have to take in the entirety of an episode to get the desired payoff. Quibi is designed for viewers who don’t want to wait that long.

Is the Market Saturated?

Is a single point of differentiation enough to succeed in an already crowded streaming market? If Quibi’s only selling point ends up being the brevity of each episode – probably not. HBOGO, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, YouTube TV, Hulu; they all have their own calling cards. One has access to world-class original series, a couple offer access to everyone’s favorite syndicated shows, one owns the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. They’re all very different, but all have one commonality: access to content consumers can’t live without.

How does a new entrant propel itself into that can’t live without category? Not only by providing a new format, but by providing content that excels within that format. Needless to say, Quibi won’t have a leg to stand on if it’s content can’t go toe-to-toe with its larger, more seasoned competitors.

Will Anyone Buy the Ad-Heavy Option?

With the ad-free format coming in a mere $3 more per month than the ad-heavy version, will anyone not go for the ad-free version? Where does this leave Quibi’s media-based offering? There are streaming services that have exceled with ads (Hulu). There are streaming services that have exceled without ads (Netflix). Media buyers are always looking for new formats in the streaming ecosystem. Quibi could be just that. The question is whether there will be enough of an audience for media buyers to target, seeing as most will pay the extra $3 per month to eliminate advertisements.

What Will the Ads Look Like?

Unique content calls for unique advertisers. Not every brand will align with Quibi’s offering, but most brands will want to tap into Quibi’s target audience.

Brands have a knack for tailoring their messaging to meet new and engaging platforms. Quibi will be no different. The ads themselves will be something to behold, since they’ll have to be on par with Quibi’s off-the-wall content. And this goes without even contemplating the length of these potential ads. A video ad spliced within – or as a bookend to – a 7-10 minute episode would likely be provided an extremely small window to get its message across. The idea of packing a truly engrossing ad into a six-second (or somehow shorter) ad placement would be quite the undertaking.

What to Expect Next April

With its turn-on-a-dime format and super-charged content, Quibi looks primed to – at the very least – tempt audiences. But to gain true share, it will have to define itself as the non-couch-bound streaming service. Viewers aren’t settling in for a nice, quiet evening at home when they click play on one of Quibi’s thousands of titles. Seeing as it’s built for speed, it has the potential to become consumers’ main on-the-go streaming option. Only time will tell though.

Mobile Programmatic Streaming

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