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| Despite an increasing return to in-person activations, marketers are continuing to embrace new channels like TikTok and synthetic experiences in games like Animal Crossing. Our recent coverage has charted what it means for the industry as a whole and how marketing leaders are taking advantage of the shift. Subscribe to Digiday+ to stay ahead of it all with exclusive briefings, original research, reports and guides, tutorials, unlimited stories and much more, including: By Kristina Monllos Last October, Ocean Spray experienced a viral TikTok moment thanks to TikToker Nathan Apodaca. At the time, it seemed like an unlikely “content miracle” that the brand simply needed to lean into and that the industry needed to recognize was impossible to duplicate. But earlier this month another unlikely brand, Adult Swim, got its viral moment on TikTok with hundreds of creators making their own versions of the network’s bumper ad spots for the platform. To be a part of culture in an organic way on the platform has a number of marketers looking to find ways to “go deep” on the platform, noted Noah Mallin, chief of brand strategy for IMGN, adding typically brands that do so looking to get the attention of Gen Z. “You can pair that [organic] content with ads and it’ll be much more effective than just going in with ads and ignoring all the other parts of the platform,” he said. As some marketers are looking to lean into TikTok more and taking note of a second out-of-the-blue viral moment for a brand, Bloomberg reports that TikTok is upping its ad prices, charging $1.4 million for a homepage takeover in third quarter, $1.8 million in fourth quarter and $2 million for that ad space during the holiday months. Ad buyers say it’s not surprising that TikTok is upping the cost of its premium ad units as the platform has grown in popularity and shown it can have an impact on culture. Per Digiday research, nearly half (43%) of agencies and brands now post on TikTok at least occasionally. That data is based on a sample of 117 brand and agency professionals. Quote of the Week “A lot of people forget that as Black and brown women, doing this type of work, we are also living and walking through it. There is no line of delineation. I’m still a Black woman. I still feel a lot of things that are happening in the world and it allows me to make sure that I understand my rooting in this role. And I have a great opportunity to be able to impact things from the space of who I am.” — Tahlisha Williams, chief inclusion, equity and diversity officer for Wunderman Thompson’s North American division, speaks to Kimeko McCoy for her story on diversity, equity and inclusion leaders. Subscribe to Digiday+ below to access the full briefing. SUBSCRIBEBy Michael Bürgi It’s almost trite at this point to note the decade-worth of digital and e-commerce transformation that’s enveloped the marketing world over the last 16 months since the pandemic started. Within that transformation, time spent in virtual video game environments has exploded at a faster clip since the invention of Pong back in 1972. Limelight Networks’ most recent State of Online Gaming study showed that gamers spent just under eight-and-a-half hours a week playing games, a 14 percent increase over its 2020 survey. Jeff Roach, president and chief strategy officer at SCS, a Los Angeles-based hybrid media and creative agency, believes that video games have actually become the primary expression of teenage cultural identity — taking over music — which has been the primary youth culture touchstone since the 1950s. That sea change has ushered in an era of “synthetic experiences” that’s attracting young, hard-to-reach consumers who are spending more and more time in online or virtual environments, courtesy of video game platforms such as Roblox, Fortnite, Minecraft, Animal Crossing, Pokémon Go and others. And where growing numbers of young consumers are, brands are never far behind. Roach shared his curated list of the best synthetic experiences of the last year or so, as he does his homework to find the right opportunities for SCS’ clients like Míele appliances or Vans sneakers. They include: Joe Biden’s presidential campaign immersed itself into Animal Crossing in 2020, creating a virtual headquarters on an island with prompts to help the campaign, get Biden T-shirts for your avatar to wear, and Biden’s avatar walking around shouting “No malarkey!” every once in a while. “It’s the perfect example of what normally may have been an event or experiential that became synthetic in Animal Crossing,” said Roach.Direct quote “There’s an inherent bias in every data set. The first step in eliminating bias is being aware of it, and our product and tech teams are super-aware of that. We have manual checks that look into the biases … No one has perfected the process, but being aware and addressing them head-on and constantly optimizing and re-training to make sure the machine is learning is the best way we can do it now. It’s at the forefront of our product roadmap. Our tech team’s motto is ‘machine learning but human insight.’” — Laia Pescetto, vp of marketing, Helixa AI, on reducing bias in machine learning Subscribe to Digiday+ below to access the full briefing. SUBSCRIBEFurther reading ‘Bullish on the space’: Why Anheuser Busch InBev is testing NFTs in its marketing ‘A symbiotic relationship’: Why social media platforms are getting in front of the growing creator economy Brands are starting to explore what events will look like going forward. Apartment Therapy’s hybrid Small/Cool Experience is looking to gain first-party data from the best of both worlds. SUBSCRIBE Digiday+ can help me do my job better
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