October 2016

Today’s Nirvana, Facebook Live for Events, Snapchat’s New Ad Tools, and Influencer Marketing 2.0

Today’s Nirvana

1,000 Millennials Tell Us What Album is Today’s Nevermind

Nirvana’s Nevermind just turned 25 years old, which led us to wonder if millennials feel the same way about a recently released album as many young people felt about Nevermind in 1991.

So Fuse surveyed 1,000 18-24 year olds to see what recently released album they think they will still be talking about in 2040.

Before the data, just a quick reminder about 1991. Music fans, tired of the dance-pop and hair metal, embraced Nevermind for its sound and message. Fellow musicians were equally moved. Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney and Portlandia said upon hearing “Smells Like Teen Spirit” for the first time, “You could tell the weather had changed. I drove to school with a huge lump in my throat” (SPIN, Nirvana’s Nevermind Turns 25, September 24, 2016). And Nevermind changed the record industry. Initially expected to sell 50,000 copies, Nevermind has sold more than 25 million copies worldwide and over 10 million in the United States. (Forbes, Nirvana’s Nevermind Turns 25: How It Changed the Record Business, September 24, 2016).

According to Fuse’s survey, the albums Millennials consider their Nevermind are:

Adele's 21

Taylor Swift's 1989

Kayne West's Yeezus

Other notables included Rihanna’s Loud at 10%.
Noticeably absent from the survey responses was Beyoncé.

Can you guess which state voted most for which album?

75% of Iowa voted for 1989
42% of Illinois for 21
40% of Minnesotans voted for Yeezus

Facebook Live for Events

Facebook Live and Its Use for Experiential Marketing

When Facebook’s broadcast platform, Facebook Live, launched earlier this year, marketers were enthusiastic about its potential to impact the event landscape. Facebook Live offers event marketers a means to interact with viewers in real time, engage current fans, and provide content new fans can discover.

Just a few months after its launch, TechCrunch Disrupt NY became the first major conference to stream entirely on Facebook Live to its two million fans. That first large-scale event streaming experience was a success, which makes Facebook’s recent announcement of additional Facebook Live features even more exciting. The platform can be used by event marketers to improve the content experience and grow viewership.

Two Person Broadcasts

This new feature allows a “guest” to drop in to the stream from a different location and share the screen. Event applications for this feature include bringing a celebrity, athlete, or expert into the Facebook Live conversation. For example, let’s say a brand is streaming a demo at a tradeshow for a new product scheduled to launch in the next quarter. The on-site staff is doing a great job, but the brand has the product’s head engineer back at headquarters drop in, discuss her inspiration for the product, and offer a behind-the-scenes look at how the product came together. (Note: Facebook is rolling out the feature slowly to a small number of public figures and Pages, but it will be more broadly available soon.)

Pre-scheduled Broadcasts

When Facebook Live launched, some event marketers complained about not wanting to stream their event content until many of their fans had already tuned in. Simultaneously, their fans often got tired of waiting for the stream to get started and often left before the broadcast began. Facebook Live has solved that problem by adding features that allow event marketers to pre-schedule the time they are going live so fans can plan for it. In addition, marketers can send fans a notification before the stream starts.

For more on these features, see the TechCrunch article.

Snapchat’s New Ad Tools

Snapchat Gives Social Media Marketers New Ad Tools

Earlier this year in a Piper Jaffray study, 6,500 teens proclaimed Snapchat (inching out Instagram) as their “most important social media.” Fascinating, too, is the relative sluggishness by teen-focused brands to adapt, with many brands still investing most heavily in other social platforms. One reason is that Snapchat has only provided ad targeting tools based on age and gender and none to help marketers target interests. That all changed last month when Snapchat launched new ad targeting tools that put it on par with other social media ad platforms.

Snap Audience Match helps brands match their existing consumer email or mobile device data with Snapchat’s consumer data.

Snapchat Lifestyle Categories help advertisers target consumers based on the types of videos they watch.

Lookalikes uses a targeting algorithm that targets Snapchat users based on their similarities to the brand’s existing customers.

If you’re looking for a quick summary of how to use Snapchat for business, see the Entrepreneur article.

Few tactics are outperforming influencer marketing’s ability to deliver brand messaging in an authentic voice by a credible source.

Influencer Marketing 2.0

Whether in response to ad blocking tools or marketers’ embrace of peer-to-peer marketing, “influencer marketing” has seen rapid growth during the last year. Few tactics are outperforming influencer marketing’s ability to deliver brand messaging in an authentic voice by a credible source.

Across numerous product categories, Fuse has seen firsthand how credible individuals can influence consumers’ opinions and purchase decisions. While many influencer programs activate only social media, we have observed equally effective off-line activations.

Two questions we hear often about influencer programs are about selection and measurement. Below is a short point of view on each and some recommended resources:

Who should a brand’s influencers be?

A brand should resist the enticement to target influencers merely based on the size of their social media following. Yes, an influencer’s potential audience reach is important, but no more important than their expertise and the quality of the relationship with their followers. Forbes developed the following formula to help visualize those criteria:

Influence = Audience Reach x Brand Affinity x Strength of Relationship with Followers

You can read more about Forbes’ model.

Can an influencer program be measured?

Yes, an influencer program can and should be measured. We advise developing a customized reporting tool to track at least these three areas:

Engagement generated by your influencer (i.e. their mentions of your brand).
Impact on your broader targeted audience (i.e. target audience sharing your content).
Results on your business (i.e. leads or revenue generated).

If you’re considering an influencer marketing program for the first time, check out these tools at Hootsuite.