This Week in Marketing...

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Stay Social, MM

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This week in social…TikTok killed Instagram and Ronaldo changed the game for product placement.

Instagram announced big changes to the platform. Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri announced that Instagram is no longer a square photo-sharing app. Mosseri posted a video on his Instagram and Twitter accounts where he explained how Instagram is looking to lean into entertainment and video following the success of TikTok and YouTube. Instagram now wants to be known as an entertainment app with a focus on video. The other main areas of focus are messaging and shopping where it outperforms competitors.

Mosseri talks about some upcoming changes and experiments that the app will be conducting. Two main examples are a test to include recommendations for topics you are not following (maybe we’ll all get some views again) and making videos more immersive thanks to a new full-screen experience.

Instagram is already testing several experiments with algorithmic additions but recommending content and topics that users have shown no previous interest in would be a dramatic change for the platform and for creators.

 Instagram has made it clear through Reels, IGTV, and Stories that users appreciate a full-screen experience when it comes to video. And now Mosseri says the company wants to “embrace video more broadly.”

What does this mean for creators and marketers?

Rethink your strategy and shift your focus to video content that serves the platform features now – reels, IGTV, stories, shopping, and messaging. Vary your content and test. With more changes to come, the playing field will be evened and new creators will emerge.

NEW INSTAGRAM FEATURE:

Creators will now be able to share links even if you are under 10,000 followers. The feature is being rolled out.

Instagram has also started paying creators. The company announced several new features, including ads on IGTV videos, digital badges that fans can purchase through Instagram Live, merchandise sales through Instagram Shopping, and an expansion of Brand Collabs Manager, which facilitates sponsored campaigns between companies and creators.

In other news…

Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo was at a press conference and two coca-cola bottles sat on the table in front of him. Ronaldo, a health advocate, moved the bottles out of the camera frame and instead held up a bottle of water and said in Portuguese: "Water!"

The Coca-Cola Company (supposedly) lost $4Billion in market value in a blink.

What many don’t know is the water he held up was also owned by Coca-Cola but the damage was done.

Now we all get to enjoy the social media following…

Ikea responded with this:

The lesson here, brands are always at risk in the age of social media.

Trend to Watch:

Magazine covers are making a comeback. Because newsstands sales have declined, designers no longer have constraints, and creativity is unleashed.

Covers are more illustrative and designers have use of the full space without the need to include headlines and article call-outs.

“With newsstand sales being almost irrelevant, covers are a brand statement instead. They are to promote who you are and what you stand for and that’s been liberating,” said Charles Whitaker, interim dean of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications (via Adweek)

When was the last time you picked up a magazine?

What to read right now:

The Rise of the Personal brand: how selling out became cool in the 2010s

Brands: You Don’t Know Who Your Customers Are—and It Shows

Missed the last series, check it out here...100 Things I Know About Marketing

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Thanks for subscribing to my newsletter. I post regularly on branding, marketing, career tips, social media, and Linkedin. For more on me, check out my profile or visit kristingallucci.com. I'm also passionate about using social media for good, check out my TED talk.

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