TikTok is About to Make Bus Stop Ads Cool Again

THE INTERNET IS COMING TO THE REAL WORLD

TikTok is about to start selling out-of-home advertising, which means you might just buy your next movie theatre ad there.

According to their recent announcement, they’ve identified that brands are using TikTok content in all sorts of media, so they want to get in on that action. The team has struck partnerships across a ton of traditional ad categories including billboards, cinemas, bars, restaurants, airports, gas stations, and retail stores.

They haven’t released a demo of the platform yet, but it seems that they’re testing it our with some of their partners, and soon we’ll all be able to use our TikTok Ads dashboard to manage much more than in-app ads.

If this works, it’s going to mark a massive shift for the ad space in general, especially how we think about the relationship between offline and online ads.

Up until the 2010s, most businesses spent the majority of their ad budget on tried-and-true media because it was just easier. You probably had a contact at the local newspaper, or your agency could buy ads at the bus stop, so you just did it that way. The internet was messy, and it was hard to understand exactly how banner ad views could lead to foot traffic in your store.

Today, the relationship is pretty close to the opposite. Our company credit cards are loaded into Meta, Google, etc. and they’ve done such a good job of creating easy-to-use dashboards with simple reporting, that the world of traditional media feels like a black hole. Imagine being forced to book a meeting every time you want you run an Instagram ad.

What hasn’t changed amidst all of this back-end turmoil is people’s attention. Yes, we look at our phones more than ever, but we still wander through the world noticing things. The shift to digital has meant that a lot of offline media has been almost entirely ignored, so a lot of it may be undervalued.

Pair that with the fact that campaigns that reinforce messaging by telling the same story online as offline can multiply their effectiveness, and the opportunity starts to make even more sense.

So if we’re able to marry the convenience and reporting of digital ads with the access to under-appreciated audiences, then the game gets flipped again.

Read the full “Out-of-Phone” breakdown from TikTok

WHAT GIVES YOU THE SOCIAL MEDIA “ICK”?

LATER SHARES THEIR TOP 7

As long as we’ve had branded social media, we’ve had cringe moments, crises, and clear misunderstandings of how the platforms are used; but until now there wasn’t such a poignant way of describing them. For those of us who may be a few years senior to the Gen Z authors of so many creative terms, an “ick”, according to Urban Dictionary, is “something someone does that is an instant turn-off for you, making you instantly hate the idea of being with them romantically.”

In this case, we can substitute romance for any desire to follow, consume, or otherwise engage with that brand’s content.

I have no doubt that the team at Later had a long list to choose from, but here’s their top 7:

1. Links in Instagram Captions
2. QR Codes on Social Graphics
3. Not Using Camel Case for Hashtags
4. Liking Your Own Posts (From The Brand Account)
5. TikTok Watermarks on Reels
6. Buying Fake Followers
7. Unrealistic Job Expectations

I’m going to go ahead and add my own: Re-posting a joke or quote without calling out the original creator.

Check out the full piece by Later

TAKING ADVANTAGE OF SNAPCHAT

EVEN IF YOU DON’T HAVE A SNAP ACCOUNT

Last week we shared the shocking (at least to us) news that Snapchat is the fastest-growing social channel of the year, so far. We didn’t want to leave you without a way to capitalize on the rising star, so we went hunting for the latest tools and tactics, and uncovered a gem that you may just want to pay attention to.

Here’s a quote from a recent Snap release: “In the coming weeks, we’ll be rolling out the ability for verified content creators to search for and tag an Official Business when posting their own Spotlight, Snap Map, and Public Story Snaps, right within our app. Brands can then approve the partnership right within Ads Manager, allowing them to see analytics and use the media as an ad”

That may seem like a minor detail, but it has major implications. If you’re a brand that doesn’t have an active Snapchat presence, but want to be able to tap into its growing audience, you’ll be able to access its Creator Marketplace which will pair you with a popular Snapchat creator, facilitate the creation process and the transaction, and then track that content once it’s out in the world.

Plus, Snap’s also launching a new ad placement option, with midrolls for those creator Stories.

This brings a significant level of professionalism and transparency to the process of working with Snapchat creators that is going to make it a much more attractive marketing platform for a lot of businesses.

See the full details from Snap newsroom

ALL EYES ON YOUTUBE

AT LEAST AMONG THE YOUNGER GENERATIONS

YouTube is where culture, media, and content are happening for pretty much anyone under 30.

If you were to ask anyone in high school for a list of their favourite celebrities, it’s a safe bet to assume that the majority of them are not going to appear at the Oscars or the Grammy’s. That’s because they’re not watching what we call “TV” – they’re watching YouTube, and we finally have data to back it up.

In a recent study by (of all people) an investment bank, they found that teenagers in the U.S. spend as much time watching YouTube as Netflix. Interestingly though, they still say that TikTok is their favourite social media platform.

So what?

If you’re trying to connect with a younger audience and YouTube isn’t in your media mix yet, perhaps it’s time to reconsider.

Check out the full report by Piper Sandler

A FEW MORE STORIES WORTH A CLICK

STUFF THAT WILL MAKE YOU JUST A BIT SMARTER THIS WEEK

• Turns out that Threads is not just a Twitter clone, it’s also really good for photos, as evidenced by this now-viral Thread from @fuji.hunter
• TikTok is turning on auto-captions for all videos
• This tool helps you test if Safari is removing tracking parameters from your links
• Google’s testing a busy new homepage, similar to Bing and Yahoo

Written by Conner Galway, Junction Consulting