Lola Red News + Digital Trends VOL. 11 PRESENTED WEEK OF JUNE 8, 2020 TRENDS GRAPHIC OF THE WEEK TikTok is (Apparently) the Future eMarketer’s Behind the Numbers’ podcast discusses whether TikTok has a future post-pandemic and what that might look like. Analysts describe the platform as a reflection of what their users felt and are currently feeling during COVID and stay at home orders. Young adults finding themselves back at home with their families and people who are curious about TikTok are the main driving force behind the surge in users in recent months. What is most likely the reason why TikTok blew up in such a short period of time? The many features (e.g., duet, #challenges), filters and effects easily allows TikTok users the freedom to be as creative as they can be. In addition, the ability to use the same common music track(s) gives people opportunities to be like their friends and/or other viral creators. Lastly, it’s fairly easy to share TikTok videos outside of the platform. Compared to Instagram, TikTok encourages users to share + post their videos everywhere. What should TikTok be concerned about? Zynn, another brand similar to TikTok came out in May; pays users to use the platform. Source: eMarketer 2 COVID-19 QUOTE OF THE WEEK EVOLVING TO A DIGITAL WORLD “Taking the time to learn and understand how to best change and pivot a location-based entertainment company—where our core mission is to bring people together and when you have a pandemic we have to do quite the opposite—we’re navigating how do you build those best practices?” Maryellis Bunn, CEO and co-founder of the Museum of Ice Cream 3 CONSUMERS BRANDS DELIGHTED BY A DIGITAL FOCUS COCA COLA → REAL-TIME CONTENT PRODUCTION ● As the world shutdown amongst social distancing, Coca-Cola downshifted its advertising. Now that world is slowly beginning to reopen, Coca-Cola is navigating a new path forward that includes revamped digital efforts. ● Barbara Sala, Coke's CEE strategic connection and media director reported that the lockdown period has shown how “digital has been very much able to, immediately and in real time, reach our consumers in many different forms … and some of them really astonished me.” ● As brands return to a new normal Sala predicts that how content is created will widely shift. “The decision to be dark is not sustainable in the longer term and especially now that our customers are going back to being active.” Real-time content production, streaming and distribution, she believes are things “brands will have to look at in the very near future.” ● During the shutdown, Coca-Cola signed on as the exclusive launch partner to BeApp, a new music streaming platform that integrates gamified and social media elements into the virtual concert-viewing experience. This experimental push could signal some of the campaigns that could come as the beverage giant pushes forward. 4 NEWSLOCAL NEWS + FACEBOOK BECOME BEST FRIENDS On Tuesday, Facebook launched its long awaited Local Why should we care? News tab to consumers. Facebook's relationship with the news Facebook’s research indicated that people on Facebook business is historically strained. The launch also comes at a time when CEO Mark want a wide variety of news, so they are staring by focusing Zuckerberg is taking a ton of heat for his on four main categories of publishers: general, topical, refusal to remove President Donald diverse and local news publishers. Trump’s violent threats against protesters last month. Facebook will personalize the news section by looking at people’s engagement and interest with topics across Our best guess is that the demand for stories and publishers. news content in 2020 may have propelled Facebook to push ahead with a full launch, To qualify as one of its partnered outlets, publishers need in order to capitalize on that attention. If to have a big enough audience and also pass the Facebook News can provide people with a company’s integrity standards, although the FAQ does not link to real-time, relevant coverage, aligned make clear where the line between objectionable and with their key interests, that could make it a passable content is. more compelling option than Twitter or other competitors. To help combat fake news, Facebook will rely on its It will be interesting to see if turns out existing third-party fact-checkers, the same ones who now better than the Trending Topics fiasco of help it check COVID-19 content and other sensitive subject 2016, in which Facebook was accused of areas, and the same moderation tools it uses to monitor harboring an anti-conservative bias in the clickbait, sensationalist content, and copyright-infringing articles it promoted on its website. material. 5 NEWSTWITTER BECOMES THE GO TO SOURCE FOR THE NEWS CYCLE In the extremely volatile news cycle, Twitter has reached record-breaking downloads and engagement due to the Why should we care? immediacy around news-sharing its platform provides. Twitter's platform suits it to be a go-to ● According to data from Sensor Tower, Twitter saw just place for news. The combination of over 1 million installs last Monday and around 1 million short-form content and its option to new installs last Tuesday — making last week the view a simple chronological feed most single-day installs since at least January 1, 2014. makes it a good tool for both the ● Police protest videos have proven wildly popular average news reader and journalists. online, per The New York Times, helping to spur the #DefundThePolice movement. Twitter has long stood out as the social media network with some of While it is a powerful platform, there is a dark side. With the the most news-focused users, per constant constant flow of content from everyday users with Pew Research Center. Around seven often unverified information, it also promotes polarization,the in ten adult Twitter users in the U.S. spread of misinformation and fake news. get news on Twitter. To help stop the spread of misinformation, Twitter announced Twitter also helps to set the news this week that it will begin testing a new feature that will prompt cycle's pulse because so many users to think before they tweet articles they haven’t read. journalists are power users on the ● From Twitter: “Sharing an article can spark platform. conversation, so you may want to read it before you Tweet it,” Twitter said. “To help promote informed discussion, we’re testing a new prompt on Android — when you Retweet an article that you haven’t opened on Twitter, we may ask if you’d like to open it first.” 6 SOCIAL + DIGITAL MORE TIKTOK, LESS YOUTUBE Why should we care? Time spent on TikTok increased during COVID-19 lockdowns, leaving the app now only minutes away from being equal to time spent on YouTube In the U.S., for example, kids’ average usage of TikTok hit 95 minutes per day during COVID-19 lockdowns compared with just two minutes more — 97 minutes — spent on YouTube. Source | Techcrunch 7 SOCIAL + DIGITAL TIKTOK’S BRANDED HASHTAG CHALLENGE This week, TikTok published a new case study, providing a high level Why should we care? overview of how to run a branded hashtag challenge on their This is another sign and opportunity for platform. marketers to continue challenging the lingo of “it’s always been this way.” Thinking A branded hashtag challenge is essentially the ideation of a unique outside of the box and building out content and specific campaign hashtag linked to a video challenge. By that is relevant, engaging and creative is utilizing a branded hashtag on TikTok, brands can then use this to critical in redefining or reinforcing a brand expand their messaging by facilitating an interactive, engaging video and attracting new followers. response campaign. If you can come up with an interesting, engaging idea, which enables users to provide their own creative takes, it can In recent reports, TikTok viewing is now on definitely have significant reach and brand awareness benefits. par with YouTube.Kids are now watching twice as many videos per day as they did The case study focused on ZALORA, a fashion eCommerce company four years ago. The app today is used by in Asia. Wanting to promote its upcoming fashion festival, ZALORA 69% of U.S. kids, 74% of kids in the U.K. used the hashtag #ZStyleNow to challenge TIkTok users in an instant and 88% of kids in Spain (see next slide). outfit change; the user would be able to show off their festival outfits after flashing a simple “Z” hand signal. To boost this campaign, In 2019, TikTok became one of the top-five ZALORA also used a financial incentive to prompt further most-downloaded apps globally that wasn’t engagement - they added a $200 giveaway of ZALORA products per owned by Facebook, and it has continued winner. to grow among all age demographics. Paid tactics aside, the real trick lies in identifying what will resonate Over 40% of TikTok users are teens and with TikTok users, and what they're likely to respond to with their own young adults, ages 16-24. videos, expanding your messaging. 8 MEDIAPR RELATIONS + MEDIA | STATUS REPORT This week our team sat in on a truly *chef’s kiss* webinar - "Preparing to Pitch the LR Pitching Tips: Media in a Post-Pandemic World" - by BusinessWire, featuring a panel of expert resources (not to mention LR favorites) Lydia Dishman (Fast Company), Jefferson Amplify diverse voices at your company (or outside Graham (USA Today) and Anna Medaris Miller (Business Insider).