LOLA RED News + Digital Trends 20 VOL. 19 PRESENTED WEEK OF AUGUST 3, 2020 CHART OF THE WEEK Consumers’ shift in where, when, what and how they purchase evolve marketing strategies eMarketer’s “Behind the Numbers” podcast discussed customer retention, user experience and actionable steps marketers can take during the ongoing pandemic. NEWS + “Due to the pandemic, consumers are open to consider new DIGITAL brands and new channels that they hadn’t consider before. We see that in online grocery - before, many wanted to squeeze the TRENDS orange themselves but now they’re willing to ‘click’ and ‘give me two oranges.’ Marketers need to step back and ask themselves, “Am I meeting a need?” Numbers are important, but the essence of great marketing is the connection between the brand and the consumer, it’s about getting to know why you have brand loyalists - put your consumer hat on. “There’s no magic to building loyalty.” — Jaysen Gillespie, vice president and head of analytics and data science at Criteo. Source | eMarketer 2 Simon Sinek Author + Motivational Speaker NEWS + DIGITAL “Real innovation isn’t asking, ’what can a pizza oven TRENDS make?’ It’s asking, ’what can an oven make?’ This goes for people too. It should be, ‘I’ve got a lot of smart people, what can they do?’ It’s not, ‘what can my accountant do because accountants can only do accounting’. Or ’what can my engineer do because engineers can only do engineering’. It is ’what can smart people do when we give them a customer-focused problem?’ QUOTE OF THE WEEK 3 CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK Barilla Pasta brings people together! Friends Vittoria and Carola entertained each other during Italy’s lockdown by playing tennis together atop their respective rooftops. NEWS + When Barilla’s agency, We Are Milan Social, learned that the girls DIGITAL were huge fans of Roger Federer, they teamed up with the tennis TRENDS star to surprise the duo after the lockdown was lifted. The girls thought they were being interviewed for their viral video fame (10M + views) but to their surprise, Roger appeared and challenged them to a rooftop match followed by lunch featuring Barilla. “Personally, for me, it was a special moment in my career as a tennis player, to surprise fans like I have been able to do with Carola and Vittoria,” Federer stated. 4 Source // AdWeek How have fast casual restaurants pivoted during covid-19? Young adults have often been called out for their eating habits: takeout, delivery, dining out. However, Covid-19 is changing that. 64% of young adults say their dining habits have changed due to the pandemic. Compared to 2017, young adults have also said that cooking is a top way to spend their free time in 2020. At the same time, restaurants are pivoting to rapidly address these consumer shifts and to mitigate the loss of office lunch patrons they relied on. NEWS + DIGITAL Sweetgreen, known for its creative salads, is now offering heartier plate options - a main course with sides. The plates are essentially TRENDS salads reconfigured and served warm. The brand was originally planning to roll out this new offering in 2021, but made the idea a reality within a 30-day time frame to accommodate new consumer needs. Dig Inn, known for using locally sourced ingredients, is offering Dig Acres Farm Box, which contains fresh produce delivered straight from the farm to consumers’ doorsteps. Burger King France, alongside creative agency Buzzman, created fun graphics to showcase all the ingredients needed to create BK classics at home using products purchased at a local grocer. CONSUMER TREND: FAST CASUAL OFFERINGS CASUAL FAST 5 Source // CASSANDRA WTF IS GOING ON WITH TIKTOK? So, what’s up? The last few weeks have been a WILD ride for our favorite social media app, TikTok. Last Friday President Trump announced he would ban TikTok because of national security concerns. He then announced this past Monday that he’s giving ByteDance until September 15 to sell the app to Microsoft or another company or they will “be out of business in the United States.” What’s TikTok saying in all of this? In what was a direct response to President Trump, Vanessa Pappas, TikTok’s U.S. General Manager, posted a video to the platform over the weekend confidently saying “TikTok is here for the long run.” Within her post, NEWS + she thanked users on the platform and highlighted some of TikTok’s U.S.-based wins (re: thousands of jobs DIGITAL created for the economy), and the new $2B fund it has set up to support creators. TRENDS What’s in it for Microsoft? If Microsoft or another major U.S. company purchases the $50B-valued TikTok, it’s likely that the app as we know it would remain largely unchanged (thank goodness!). If Microsoft completes the acquisition, they will not only compete with massive tech giants like Facebook and Google, but will also have access to millions of Americans’ data. How have our favorite creators reacted? Well, they are devastated to say the least. The announcement sparked utter chaos amongst the creator community prompting tearful goodbyes to their fans and asking user to follow them on other social networks. 6 WTF IS GOING ON WITH TIKTOK? (ctd) Should you be worried? Short answer - no. The risk of a TikTok ban is low with a powerhouse like Microsoft weighing in on the purchase. Additionally, there has never been an outright ban on an app in the U.S. and the President hasn’t quite explained how he would navigate achieving one. In short, we should have no fear of a future where we can't waste an evening scrolling through endless content on our FYP. What’s Lola Red’s POV? TikTok has become the go-to channel for marketers in 2020 due to its emerging content and NEWS + advertising format. Smart brands will continue to lean heavily into TikTok and design campaigns DIGITAL that cater to it. In fact, American Eagle, Got Milk and Netlfix were all running ad campaigns throughout this week so they clearly see a future. Secondly, why not continue to engage where TRENDS your fans are? On Wednesday evening TikTok was still #2 in the app store, so consumers are still joining with vigor. Lastly, TikTok is handing out FREE ad credit for the platform, so why not give it a shot? (Let Lola know if you want us to manage your ad campaigns) ;) In all seriousness, if TikTok does get banned tomorrow, all of the content + campaign ideas would adapt well to other channels like Instagram, Triller, Snapchat as that is where the creators will flock to … and brands will follow suit. Social media … it’s always a wild ride! 7 4 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT REELS 1. This isn’t the first time Instagram (or *ahem* Facebook) has played copycat Facebook has an extensive record of copying features that other platforms are known for and rolling them out to their billions of users in an effort to squash younger competition. Remember back in 2016 when Instagram first launched Stories to insane backlash? The company was accused of being a Snapchat clone, but Instagram quickly surpassed Snapchat in daily users and has continued to gain massive success. This is the exact same success Instagram’s team can hopes to apply to pull Reels off. NEWS + 2. This is the first product that is geared towards creators not the everyday users DIGITAL Robby Stein, Instagram’s product director, said the company’s main goal is to “support the entire TRENDS creator ecosystem,” including giving creators the ability to scale their reach on the platform and adding new tools to make their videos pop. Vishal Shah, Instagram's VP of product also said this week, "We've not been historically good at helping new creators find an audience. The pitch for new creators is that Reels is a good way to get discovered, even if you don't have a follower base." 3. Reels is part of Instagram’s larger core focus Instagram’s product team is “really positioning the Instagram camera around a few core formats,” according to Stein. Stories is meant to serve as more of a social feature - quick hitting bites of everyday life. While Reels is designed with pure entertainment as the focus- an area that Instagram wants to really focus on for future development. 4. High-profile brands are already flocking to the new format Reels has already been out in 50 other countries, so some global brands have already began to test the new format. Every single one of Louis Vuitton’s Instagram Reels has gone viral, with an average of 5 million views. 8 ENGAGING VISUALS FOR THE NEW NORMAL This week, members of our team sat in on a webinar presented by AdWeek featuring leaders from Adobe Stock and Pantone titled: “Engaging Visuals for the New Normal” - which addressed consumer values through color and content. They shared insights and presented findings based on a study from the Adobe State of Creativity: COVID Pulse, July 2020. Some of our favorite takeaways below: NEWS + ● Creators face a growing struggle to keep up with rapidly evolving trends. ● 90% say trends in visual culture and topics are evolving faster today than ever before. DIGITAL ● 89% agree that 2020 has made their team think more creatively than ever before. TRENDS ● 71% say their company or clients struggle to navigate the shifting trends in visual culture and topics. ● Color palettes should focus around four main pillars: Simplicity, Positivity, Great Outdoors, and Contentment ● People's lives have drastically changed, so the content they want to consume is rapidly changing.