2.12.20

5 Powerful Instagram Lessons

Virtual influencers are a growing trend now. Miquela and her creators are doing a fantastic job when it comes to developing storytelling and connecting to the audience. Marketers, influencers, and businesses have much to learn from her. From creating an excellent bio to selling a product, Miquela knows how to use her social media.
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Create a Good Bio

The bio is the first thing we see when we find a profile on Instagram. It is like the introduction of a text — it needs to make the user curious enough to scroll down and keep consuming your content. It’s the only opportunity to make an excellent first impression.

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  • What to write on the bio: She uses the bio to reinforce her values through the #BlackLivesMatter movement and to communicate that she supports @plus1org and @musicares.
  • The power of links: Miquela announces that her single, “Hard Feelings,” is out. She has a compelling call-to-action, followed by a link at the end that directs followers to platforms in which they can listen to the music.
  • Personality: “Change-seeking robot” demonstrates her uniqueness. She is a robot, and this makes her authentic. Miquela uses it to build her storytelling. She’s not a regular robot: she’s a robot on social media. At the same time, she’s not a typical influencer either, because she’s not human.

How to Sell

Miquela is not only a virtual influencer, but she is also a singer. Her account on Spotify has almost one million monthly listeners.

Repetition

The most substantial aspect of Miquela’s promotion is repetition.

  • Multiple posts: Since July 25, every single post on her feed references her song, “Hard Feelings.” That’s so far 22 pictures and videos, only on her feed.

Using multiple features

By promoting the song in different features, it’s simple to use the repetition strategy.

  • She uses multiple videos and pictures on the feed.
  • Her strategy includes both stories and story highlights.

Storytelling

Whenever Miquela releases a new single, she develops a story behind it.

Story Highlights

Let’s analyze Miquela’s story highlights:

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  • Titles: The titles of the highlights are in caps lock, which makes it easier to read. Besides, they are short — each of them in only one word since there’s little space there.
  • Music: All highlights refer to Miquela’s music. She heavily uses this feature to promote her work.
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  • Music: Miquela added her song to the “music” feature that’s available.
  • Icons: At the bottom, there’s the “swipe up” icon. This feature is a part of Miquela’s informal language, and this one is a clear call-to-action.

Adjust the Language to the Audience

This advice is as old as social media, but still overlooked by content producers: speak the audience’s language.

Captions

Miquela writes captions to every single post. She uses them to promote her sings — as seen before — and to connect with the audience.

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  • Emojis: She uses emojis at the end of the text.
  • Extended words: “Byyeeeee.”

Comments

The comments section is also essential for Miquela’s interaction with the audience. The picture below is a video in which she provides a sneak peek of her latest song, “Hard Feelings”:

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Miquela’s post on Instagram. Screenshot courtesy of the author.
  • Language: The style of the comment is remarkably similar to the caption. She maintains the same form of communication.
  • Emojis and abbreviations: Both elements present in the comment that make it informal.

Videos

Instead of long IGTV videos, Miquela focuses on short videos on her feed.

  • By making short videos, she gets the message across more directly.
  • Short videos are more engaging because they are faster to watch.
  • It keeps communication informal.

Other Features

Instagram is a platform with multiple features. Besides the ones mentioned previously, here’s how Miquela uses IGTV, location, and stories.

IGTV

IGTV is the least used feature in Miquela’s strategy.

  • Focus: Miquela uses most of Instagram features. The fact that she doesn’t use IGTV too much doesn’t matter, because she has plenty of good content for the other features, such as highlights and the feed.

Location

Miquela always uses exciting locations for the posts on her feed.

Stories

Stories are another Instagram feature that Miquela uses well. For the everyday stories, not the highlights, here are the different uses:

  • Reposting: Miquela often shares pictures from fans listening to her music.
  • Mixed content: both videos and pictures.

23.10.20

The Gun Violence History Book| Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence


Agency: FCB Chicago
Client: Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence
Country: United States

For over a century, gun violence has been a deadly issue in the USA. One of the reasons for this problem is a loophole in the law.

FCB Chicago needed to create a campaign, with a small budget, that could gather support for Universal Background checks which would help close the loophole. There has been so much gun violence in America that if it was all captured in a book, it would probably stop a bullet. Introducing The Gun Violence History Book.









Dracula Billboard| BBC

Agency: Talon Outdoor

Client: BBC

Country: United Kingdom

With so many incarnations of the horror icon already out there on film and TV, BBC Creative wanted UK audiences to engage with the Dracula legend in a really surprising way. 
So it created a special build poster using light and shadow to bring the out of home campaign to life, like the count himself, as night fell. It engaged viewers online with a 10-second time lapse of the transformation at sunset, which drove the online conversation pointing viewers towards the show.











Never Standing Still | Hong Kong Ballet




Agency: Design Army

Client: Hong Kong Ballet

Country: Hong Kong

In 2018 a new artistic director took the helm at Hong Kong Ballet, facing dwindling membership, a city in turmoil, and perceptions that ballet was for the elite. After successfully rebranding in 2018, the goal for the Ballet’s 40th anniversary was to establish it as a national institution and reach new audiences.

The strategy was to blend traditional and pop culture to celebrate the Ballet’s heritage and innovative spirit. Design Army’s work helped increase subscriptions by 33%, and elevated Hong Kong Ballet’s position as a cultural institution nationally and one of the most vital ballets in the world.


Eyes Say More Than Words| Georgetown Optician




Agency: Design Army

Client: Georgetown Optician

Country: United States

Georgetown Optician is a purveyor of luxury eyewear with multiple retail locations in Washington, DC. The challenge was to create an integrated brand campaign to showcase its 2020 collection. The campaign includes in-store, online, in product and print, but the focal point is the film. 
Our world is louder than ever before, so Design Army imagined a place where eyes say more than words. They took visual cues from eccentric 1970s style, specifically high school yearbooks. Georgetown Optician has since been recognised as one of the most creative and innovative retail brands in global eyewear.






AirPods – Bounce | Apple



Agency: Apple / TBWA\Media Arts Lab / Apple / TBWA\Media Arts Lab\Apple / Framestore

Client: Apple

Country: United States




Bounce captures what it feels like to experience the extra burst of freedom provided by the even-more-wireless new AirPods. In the film, the whole environment of a city becomes a trampoline, turning a young man’s everyday commute into a wonderful musical experience.



Sound Images| Berlin Philharmonic



Agency: Scholz & Friends Berlin

Client: Berlin Philharmonic

Country: Germany


In 2019, the Berlin Philharmonic – one of the world’s leading orchestras – was looking for an eye-catching visual concept for its new concert season. Scholz & Friends put the focus on what fascinates people the most about the orchestra: its unique sound. 
With a metal plate and the laws of physics, the musicians are able to portray their exceptional sound. Making visible what could so far only be heard, the Sound Images became a unique visual concept for the entire season’s communication, lending visual fascination to the orchestra’s acoustic perfection.












The Long Fight / Gender Gap| The New York Times



Agency: Droga5 New York

Client: The New York Times

Country: United States


The New York Times has a history of providing unparalleled coverage on gender in sports. When 2019 saw female athletes fighting a public battle for equality, it used the US Open as a backdrop to demonstrate how its journalism has been there at every step. This film takes 50 years of archival headlines and shows how hard women had to fight to level the playing field. 
As the rally unfolds, each word brings viewers through the years. The sound design mimics the setbacks and breakthroughs, bringing you to the headlines of the present day. Online, readers got a deeper look into the featured article.



Web of Infamy| Smirnoff

This is no fairytale. It’s the true story of how Smirnoff became the world’s number one vodka. It exposed all 155 years of deception, revolution, exile, bankruptcy, and resurrection with an evidence wall on Instagram. 
A peek inside the brand’s illustrious past, littered with secrets hidden within videos, images, carousels, and gifs waiting to be uncovered. Things no brand would ever admit to.

Agency:  72andSunny New York

Client: Diageo

Country: United States



22.10.20

Amazon DSP or Sponsored Display? by: Perpetua

 Every Amazon advertiser is now familiar with both Sponsored Display ads (SD) and Amazon DSP (DSP). Whether you should advertise with either is no longer a question: you should. The ultimate question has become, how should SD and DSP be employed as part of your wider advertising strategy?

At Perpetua, we're following Amazon's lead in making big bets by building products and services to support each of the two. In doing so, we believe we've developed a sound perspective in answering the following questions:

  • Is DSP is right for you?

  • Is SD is right for you?

  • Should SD or DSP be employed in tandem? If so, how?

While we may have strong convictions in answering these questions at the moment, we feel most confident stating that these views will become dated very quickly. Both the SD and DSP products and their available ad inventory will evolve dramatically over the coming months. It is vital that every advertiser monitor that evolution and adjust advertising strategy accordingly.

Is Amazon DSP right for you?

Your monthly spend on Sponsored ads provides a great benchmark for whether or not you should be advertising with Amazon DSP. Generally speaking, we recommend that advertisers who spend at least $10,000 each month on Sponsored ads consider matching that spend with DSP (for a minimum starting budget of $10,000).

This naturally leads into a discussion on media planning across Sponsored ads and DSP. For the sake of brevity, we believe that advertisers should feel comfortable matching ad spend across each. Some of our advertisers spend more on Sponsored ads, and some spend more on DSP. Depending on both performance or advertising strategy, a 1:1 ratio is a simple way to think about media planning.

If you don't spend more than $10,000 on Sponsored ads per month, DSP probably isn't a great fit for you - at the moment. If you do, you should be leveraging DSP to grow your business on Amazon. Here's everything you need to know about Amazon DSP advertising, and an insightful video on best practices.

Is Sponsored Display right for you?

This is a simple answer: Yes.

If you spend less than $10,000 on Sponsored ads, you should be advertising with Sponsored Display. If you spend more than $10,000 on Sponsored ads and are not on DSP - the answer is yes. And, if you spend more than $10,000 on Sponsored ads and are on DSP - the answer remains yes (more on this below).

At the moment (and we're quite sure this will quickly evolve), Sponsored Display (via the advertising API) has two primary advertising strategies: 1) Retargeting, 2) Product Targeting. Each of these tactics should be used by advertisers whether you're using SD or DSP.

Sponsored Display Retargeting

Retargeting works. There's a reason why Amazon introduced retargeting as one of the first strategies for Sponsored Display - they knew it would drive good results for advertisers and could serve as a gateway drug for display advertising.

Whether or not a smaller advertiser should activate retargeting, depends on a number of factors:

  • Budget

  • Product price and consideration period

If an advertiser is working with very tight budgets and is looking to squeeze as much value as possible with a limited budget, we generally recommend focusing on SP, SB, SBV, and SD product targeting ads. If an advertiser has a more flexible budget, they should absolutely activate SD retargeting. Again, retargeting works - and the results will likely be solid.

Advertisers that should consider retargeting, regardless of budget, are those that have high price point products with long consideration periods. Amazon will be the first to tell you that a customer must see an ad for your product multiple times before purchasing. If a product is >$50, and an advertiser has benchmarks of consideration period data from their ecommerce website, retargeting will be invaluable in following the customer along the purchasing journey.

If an advertiser is unsure if it's right for them, we recommend trying it out. There's no better way to discover its effect on your business than testing. Like all ad units on Amazon, we encourage you not to look at ACOS alone. Monitor the total sales of the products with retargeting turned on and measure total sales growth, with a keen eye in flagging if retargeting is capturing otherwise organic purchasers.

Sponsored Display Product Targeting:

Product Targeting for Sponsored Display really works, and every advertiser should leverage Sponsored Display for this advertising inventory.

We actually recommend that advertisers try not to even consider these as display ads. Sponsored Display product targeting are native ads on the Amazon marketplace, located on invaluable above-the-fold inventory on the product detail page. Similar to search ads, these ads feel less invasive and more organic, and that is why they're effective.

Given their location, an advertiser must now think of defending their product pages the same way they defend branded search. You have to bid on your own ASINs, otherwise your competitors will. A worst-case scenario for any advertiser is bringing a customer to their product page via a search ad, and then having a competitor steal that customer with a SD product targeting ad. Conversely, due to the nascency of these ads, unsavvy advertisers not advertising with SD product targeting leave themselves susceptible to conquesting opportunities - and we've seen a lower ACOS on these ad units than competitor terms on search.

Sponsored Display product targeting is now table stakes on Amazon advertising. Yes, this is yet another move by Amazon to extract more ad spend from its advertisers. But, you have to do it - otherwise your competitors will.

Should SD or DSP be employed in tandem?

Here's where things get interesting.

Amazon is notorious for pitting two teams against each other and seeing who wins. This is exactly what's occurring with the advertising inventory on SD vs. DSP. For advertisers who have activated DSP, this makes determining how, and if, you should leverage both, or either, a difficult question. Hopefully we can provide some clarity.

Retargeting:

We recommend using DSP only for retargeting.

The primary reason we recommend DSP only is that SD retargeting serves ads to your products and products that are similar to yours. Advertisers do not have any control what those other products are, and thus lead to poorer results. With DSP, an advertiser can be very specific serving ads on the exact product the customer initially viewed.

Inventory and placements are also key. DSP ad inventory is both on and off Amazon whereas SD is only off Amazon. We generally see significantly better results on retargeting campaigns when the ad inventory is on Amazon. With DSP, advertisers can also determine whether the retargeting ads appears above and below the fold.

We also feel DSP retargeting gives us controls that mitigate the risk of cannibalizing organic sales. We've seen that without restrictions on serving ads after a consumer views a product page, retargeting metrics may look strong, but organic sales may remain static or in some instances decline. To ensure retargeting focuses on incremental sales, we typically exclude serving ads if a customer viewed the product with in the last 3-5 days without purchasing the product. This can only be done with DSP. Further, audience insights (exclusive to DSP advertisers) provides data on the consideration window of purchasers of that advertiser. We use this data as a guide on when to show the initial retargeting ad, and the frequency with which to do so (another lever unavailable with SD).

Product Targeting:

We thought we'd have the same perspective on product targeting.

First let's clear the air: Sponsored Display product targeting and the contextual targeting line items in the DSP serve ads to the exact same inventory. (see inventory in the image below)

sponsored display product targeting

This advertising inventory is incredibly valuable. Prior to this inventory being available for Sponsored Display, roughly a third of all of our advertisers' Sponsored Ad spend and conversions (DSP excluded) occurred on product pages. The ad inventory that drove that amount of spend and conversions had been limited to the Sponsored Product product targeting carousel; and most recently Sponsored Brand product targeting carousels. In both instances, the inventory had been hidden below the fold.

Given our knowledge of the spend and conversion metrics on product pages, when Amazon unlocked above-the-fold inventory for both SD and DSP, we got excited.

Initially, we thought DSP would offer similar advanced controls and thereby better results than SD. We were wrong. In almost all of our initial tests, Sponsored Display product targeting outperformed DSP contextual targeting.

SD outperformed DSP for the very reason that DSP outperforms SD on retargeting: Control. SD product targeting allows you to target specific ASINs (DSP does not). We've also discovered that SD is "retail aware", meaning the ad will automatically stop showing if the product is out of inventory or loses the buy box, whereas DSP is not.

For this reason, we feel confident in stating the following:

  • Sponsored Display product targeting is the most assured way to win above-the-fold placements on a product page.

  • Every single advertiser should be activating Sponsored Display product targeting.

We still remain bullish on Amazon DSP advertising. DSP betas for inventory on the product page continue to pop up. But for now, we recommend Sponsored Display product targeting.

To reiterate our earlier stance, the only thing that's certain is that our perspective will change as SD and DSP continue to evolve. We're especially intrigued by the potential for new ad inventory on product pages (perhaps exclusive to DSP), and the ability to create custom audiences for SD. This is Amazon of course. Every advertiser must be comfortable with experimentation, and uncertainty. Display advertising with Amazon is the embodiment of both.

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