Doing some good can go a long way, especially when a company can sustain its initiative. So, how does a company sustain “good”? The answer is not by cutting a check every so often or doing once-off photo ops, but instead, incorporating good into your business strategy.

You may be thinking about why this is relevant to you. We all have a job to do and most of us spend our time focused on the bottom line. But, the next time you think about your bottom line, don’t discount “goodvertising” as a part of the plan.

Make Sustainable Changes

Times have changed. It is becoming more and more of a necessity for companies to take a stand and support social agendas and less of an option. Purpose-driven campaigns and initiatives are becoming integral, not only for bettering communities but for ensuring company success.

Organizations taking on the challenge of making an authentic and meaningful difference need to understand that it is not about a mission statement or a one-time donation. It is about diving into your company values and showcasing them in a way that is true to your business strategy. Consumers, investors, and employees won’t be fooled by a play at performative activism.

The kinds of things you can ask yourself as a brand are how can we use our resources to drive change, how can we make a sustainable change, and how does it fit into our company’s values?

When companies construct purpose-driven initiatives that don’t stray far from their business model, they are able to sustain the changes they aim to make for longer. Fewer external resources, fewer dimes spent, but a greater and longer lasting impact for the community and world at large.

 

Share Incentives

In order to make a sustainable and impactful change, it’s best to think of ways that all involved parties can benefit. As intermediaries and exchanges, ad tech plays an integral role in bringing other members of the chain together. Think about your goals. Think about your partners’ goals. How can we make our plan work for them? Beyond aiding a good cause, how can our partners sustain these initiatives?

For us at Primis, we considered these hurdles when creating Sustainable Stream, a green video marketplace. We wanted to help the environment by using our video player to promote eco-friendly content from NGOs. We knew by staying true to our business model, we would generate revenue and be able to sustain the impact we wanted to make.

But what about our content creators? Publisher partners? Advertisers? Our content creators promote their content further with our reach, our publishers give their users relevant and interesting content, and our advertisers receive an engaged user base. Win. Win. Win. Win.

More Than Just the Bottom Line

All companies are being called out to showcase their values to their current employees, future talent, and clients; it’s time for us all to rise to the challenge. Many companies such as GroupM and Scope3 are already making a lasting impact by pushing their ideals to the forefront. Organizations need to reflect on how they can do more, be authentic, and, most importantly, make it last.

This article was originally published by Advertising Week.

 

Thoughts From the Viral AI Bot… 

While attending a panel boldly titled “The Death of Social Platforms,” I heard an interesting take on AI’s effect on content creation. Instead of the usual “tech will replace us” cries, one of the speakers argued that tools like ChatGPT, Midjourney, and Dall-E 2 would raise the bar for “mediocre content.” This angle left me wondering: Is AI shaping the future of publishing by changing our appreciation for original content, as well as the overall standard of content? It made me question whether AI is pushing us to expect more from the content we consume, raising expectations for quality and creativity.

I turned to the co-founder of Guruz, the community-owned network powered by blockchain and AI,​ Gal Mor, who gave me some great insights to consider. “AI tools can change the standard for content by setting higher standards for content creators and allowing them to focus on human creativity, something that AI tools cannot replicate.” Mor’s analysis described AI tools as enhancements to human-generated content creation and efficiency aids, not as replacements. “Whenever you send 10 bloggers to unbeaten tracks, and they return with great original stories and visuals, no AI can match that,” Mor explained.

If AI cannot yet produce the nuanced storytelling that human expression can offer, where does it stand in the world of content creation? I decided to go straight to the source and ask Open AI’s bot what it thinks about the topic, and about the future of content creation for publishers and creators.

Here are the highlights from our conversation:

OP: I’m writing an article about how AI tools will affect the creation of content for publishers and creators on social platforms. It’s intended for a business audience, mostly in the publishing industry and the ad-tech space.

ChatGPT: AI tools have the potential to greatly impact the way content is created. Some specific ways in which AI is currently being used or could be used in the future include:

1. Content generation: AI-powered tools can be used to automatically generate written articles, video scripts, and even entire videos. These tools use natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) algorithms to understand the style and tone of a particular publication or creator and generate new content that is similar in nature.
2. Content curation: AI can also be used to sort through vast amounts of content and select the most relevant pieces for a particular audience. This can help publishers and creators save time by identifying the content that is likely to be the most engaging or successful.
3. Content optimization: AI can be used to analyze data on how users interact with a particular piece of content, such as how long they spend reading an article or watching a video. This information can then be used to optimize future content for better engagement, retention, and conversion.
4. Video editing and production: AI-powered tools can help with video editing and production tasks such as object tracking, video stabilization, and background replacement. With these tools, video creators can edit and produce content more efficiently, resulting in higher-quality outputs.

Overall, AI tools have the potential to streamline the content creation process and help publishers and creators produce higher-quality content more quickly and efficiently. However, it’s worth noting that AI writing and video generation are still in the development stages and not yet as polished as a human’s. And it’s important that the industry have a healthy dose of skepticism as well as hope.

 

 

OP: Some people claim these tools will raise the bar for mediocre content while making original content more appreciated and coveted. Do you agree? 

ChatGPT: It’s possible that AI-generated content could raise the bar for mediocre content by making it easier to produce high-quality, well-written, or produced pieces. As AI-generated content becomes more common, audiences may come to expect a certain level of quality from publishers and creators, which could make it more difficult for low-quality content to gain traction. Additionally, since AI-generated content could be less costly to produce than human-generated content, publishers and creators may be able to produce more content overall. However, it’s worth noting that the quality of AI-generated content could vary widely depending on the specific algorithms and data sets that are used to generate it.

On the other hand, it’s also possible that the widespread use of AI-generated content could make it more difficult for original, human-generated content to stand out. Audiences may become so accustomed to the “perfection” of AI-generated content that they may have a hard time distinguishing it from human-generated content, and original, creative content may be less valued as a result.

However, it’s worth noting that AI-generated content can be used as a way to augment human-generated content, it can help to save time and resources, it can even be used as an inspiration source to generate new ideas, but it’s not meant to replace the human touch on content creation. Additionally, human creativity and individuality should still be valued and original content can be more unique, heartfelt, and trustworthy. Therefore, It’s important for publishers and content creators to be transparent about the use of AI-generated content and to use it in ways that complement rather than replace human effort and creativity.

OP: What ethical issues could arise due to the growing use of AI tools for content creation?

ChatGPT: There are several ethical issues that could arise.

Transparency: It’s important for publishers and creators to be transparent about the use of AI-generated content, so that audiences understand the nature of the content they are consuming. Failing to disclose the use of AI-generated content could lead to audiences being deceived or misled, which would be unethical.

Bias: AI-generated content is only as unbiased as the data sets it is trained on. If the data used to train an AI model contains biases, the resulting content may also contain biases. This can be particularly problematic for sensitive topics such as race, gender, and politics, where bias can lead to harm and marginalization.

Labor and job displacement: AI-generated content has the potential to automate many tasks currently performed by human content creators, which could lead to job losses. Publishers need to consider the ethical implications of replacing human workers with AI tools and ensure they are being used in a way that complements rather than replacements for human effort and creativity.

Privacy: AI-generated content could be used for targeted advertising and personalization, which raises concerns about privacy and data protection. It’s important for publishers and creators to be mindful of the data they collect, how it is stored and used, and ensure they are following the law and protecting users’ rights.

OP: I want to focus on biases from a more general point of view. If content creation by AI is widespread, wouldn’t that limit the data sets AI tools can rely on? Will it create a cycle, a closed garden of AI-created content used to create more AI content? 

ChatGPT: This can lead to a situation where AI models are only trained on a narrow range of data, and the resulting content is less diverse and less creative.

A closed garden of AI-generated content can also perpetuate existing biases present in the training data, instead of challenging or breaking them, which could be harmful to society and to certain groups of people. 

The industry should foster an environment that encourages, rewards, and remunerates creativity and originality to ensure the human touch on the content will be maintained and creativity will be a key trait in the future of online content.

You’ve most likely heard the term “brand loyalty” hundreds of times, but do you know how important it is for your brand? Do you know how to get it? Do you know how to maintain it?

Fostering Loyalty

One of the major ways to foster loyalty is through shared values. 

A recent survey by Deloitte revealed that for members of Gen Z and Millennials, climate change was noted as one of their top concerns. Sustainability efforts and green initiatives speak to users when they are sincere and actively effecting change. 

There is a largely growing skepticism amongst younger generations as to which companies are committed to the contributions they claim to make. Mission statements are paper-thin to consumers when they aren’t backed up by genuine actions. ESG reporting and consistent purpose-driven initiatives that are woven into a pre-existing business model are two ways of generating a connection between you and your users.

Users = Consumers

Brand loyalty is usually a term used to describe consumers. There is a close association between brand loyalty and major fashion brands such as Nike or Adidas. But think of yourself as a user; maybe there are 1 or 2 sources you use to get your daily news, maybe you have a favorite publisher for entertainment updates. Yes, you may stick to one sneaker brand, but you probably also stick to your go-to publishers.

Major brands, such as Hearst, have purpose-driven initiatives and efforts that support their communities, the environment, and their internal governance. Users connect to genuine efforts. Loyalty is built up and must be nurtured, so once-off donations are not the best way to maintain the connection between you and your users. Instead, companies that commit to long-term campaigns and initiatives have more success retaining the connection to their users while also serving their cause for longer. 

Follow the Metrics

Brands need users who want to come back. Publishers want to keep users on their sites for longer, grow their audience, and build up retention. Brand loyalty is not just another way to muster up metrics, but it does bring results. The media industry has the highest average consumer retention rate, and retention brings in ROI.

Brands that want to improve ROI and boost KPIs need to put more energy into cultivating loyalty. Doing Some Good: Purpose as a Business Strategy is key to this approach—by understanding what your users care about, connecting with them on a deeper level, and building trust through sincerity, publishers can create lasting relationships that drive long-term success.

Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR, was created with the intention of holding businesses accountable. But the world’s most prosperous companies have increasingly shifted their emphasis to ESG. With this change has come a greater inclination for companies to prove their sincerity and values through more material pipelines.

What is ESG?

How does ESG differ from CSR and what does it really mean for organizations? These two questions are crucial to understand in order for a company to tackle its respective responsibilities.

ESG stands for environmental, social, and governance, and focuses on policy, action, and practices a company can take to ensure genuine accountability. CSR stems from a company’s values and sets guidelines in place from within the organization, while ESG relates to standards that are set externally and oftentimes require data, reporting, and practice of a CSR philosophy.

All Brands Need ESG

Not all companies think they need to commit to ESG practices; some believe they can produce a product, serve their clients, meet their bottom lines, and clock out. In today’s day and age, there is simply more that is required from organizations than just meeting the bottom line.

83% of consumers and 86% of employees think that companies should actively use ESG best practices according to PwC. CSR is not just a mission statement on a company site. ESG helps bring greater authenticity to CSR values by driving plans and initiatives to physically embody their principles.

Consumers, employees, and investors are increasingly taking note of how brands are living up to the ideals they preach. Brand loyalty drives sales. Employee outreach drives talent acquisition. Investors drive funds. All of these assets combined are vital for creating company success.

Authenticity is Everything

One of the most significant elements of having a successful ESG strategy is maintaining sincerity. Studies have highlighted the fact that a vast majority of consumers don’t trust brand sustainability claims. Companies that stay true to their business models and values are able to deliver purpose-driven initiatives in a more authentic manner. 

Whether you are a business leader with a passion project in mind, an urge to better your industry or community, or a mission near and dear to your heart, the chances are some of your users, partners, clients, and employees share some of those values. With a platform to voice support and make an actionable difference, consumers don’t just want companies to use their positions of strength and influence, they expect them to.

Goodvertising, purpose-driven initiatives, ESG policies, driving change… Call it what you want but, the days of sitting on the sidelines are over for organizations.

WHO IS CALLING BRANDS TO ACTION? 

Companies and organizations are being called to action, not as a mere want, but as a rapidly growing necessity in order to stay relevant in our current climate. A PwC survey reported that 83% of consumers think companies should proactively implement environmental, social, and governance (ESG) best practices in response to societal issues. 86% of employees want to work for a company whose values are aligned with their own. 

The dilemma for brands is not only deciding to be the drivers of change but deciding which issues to support and how to show their support in an authentic manner. 

We wanted to get down to the bottom of this issue and what we discovered was that no matter how you spin it, brands need to show they have a purpose beyond their profit margins.

So, can companies successfully target these issues, make a genuine impact, and be authentic in their expression of these efforts? Sounds like a tall order, but in reality, it’s simpler than most business leaders think. 

This white paper will discuss the growing calls amongst younger generations for brands to implement corporate social and environmental responsibility policies. We will take a deep dive into how companies are beginning to respond to consumer and employee needs and what challenges ad tech and the advertising industry must overcome to achieve these goals. 

Millennials and Gen Z members are demanding action. Are companies living up to their ideals? While the answer to this question is varied, both consumer and employee calls for brands to have genuine responses to societal and environmental issues are racking up – and the brand response is critical. More and more companies are adopting new policies, initiatives, and campaigns to meet these growing needs. But, many companies have also received negative backlash and have been accused of “greenwashing” or “social washing” for mustering efforts that fall short of being legitimate or impactful. 

 
How will brands successfully step up to the plate? Who is already proving this imperative task can be done with lasting impacts? Has the ad industry made enough of an effort to jump in?

Interested in learning more? See the white paper.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two of the biggest shopping days worldwide– but it doesn’t end there. The entire holiday shopping season has become bigger and bigger, expanding into a hyperconsumerism pipedream.

With an overwhelmingly saturated market, how can advertisers prevent consumers from succumbing to banner blindness and being immune to even their most creative efforts?

Trends Show Consumers Are Consuming, A Lot.

A Deloitte study revealed that consumers spent $33.9 billion in the five-day period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday in 2021. 

Once upon a time, the holiday shopping season was not a season at all: it was just a day. Black Friday, though the pinnacle of holiday spending and busiest shopping day of the year since 2005, is not the end all be all of festive purchasing. The truth is that the season for buying just keeps getting longer, with reports claiming that this year 56% of US consumers already started shopping in October.

Since the holiday season has expanded, advertisers need to consider following the trends and using this information to plan their budgets. If consumers are spreading out their shopping habits, marketers need to spread out their marketing tactics as well. Maybe your audience did their holiday shopping before Halloween, maybe they are holding out for the best possible deal; know what they want, know when they want it.

Advertisers Need Data 

Advertisers that want to succeed in capturing their audience’s attention need to plan ahead in order to have their strategy in place for reaching their audience and driving purchase decisions. 

When consumers see an advertisement that interests them, it will influence them to take action with greater intent than one that doesn’t. A single male shopper between the ages of 20-30 may be interested in the upcoming sale at his favorite shoe store, but he probably won’t bat an eye for Baby Gap.

 

Know Where to Find Your Shoppers

According to Statista, male consumers are the majority of in-store shoppers for the holidays, while Cyber Monday consumers are on average more likely to be female. Additionally, it seems like millennials are likely to take the cake this year when it comes to the age group spending the most.

Knowing where to find your shoppers, also means knowing where your shoppers go to shop. You can be creative here. Be prepared to go deeper and ask questions like who’s willing to take a drive to get what they want versus who wants to stay local and may scout out a quick solution. 

Turn to Video 

Advertisers need to know how to stand out. You may be thinking that’s an obvious part of the job – it’s their job to catch consumer attention – but the fact is that every advertiser will be bringing their A-game to reel in their audiences over the holiday weekend. During the holiday season, ad spend in retail in the United States hit $1.8 billion in Q4 2021. What sets apart one marketing team from another when everyone is yelling, “pick me!”?

Video advertising is a great way to make an impact. Video is a language in its own league because it allows you to emotionally reach and connect to your audience. If you are an advertiser looking for a more worthwhile place to spend, turn to video. 

Bottom line is, if you are planning on succeeding during the shopping frenzy you have to know where to look. With precise data, contextual targeting, and the right video, you can be sure that your consumers won’t be the only ones striking up deals this holiday season.

The creator economy has taken the world by storm over the past few years, which was bolstered even further by the pandemic. Even before COVID-19, the creator economy gave a population of artists, athletes, musicians, and so many more, newly found worth, meaning, and purpose. 

Today, almost every consumer interest has a representation in the creator economy. One notable success is MrBeast, who took a love for the extreme and turned it into a stunt channel with estimated earnings of $54 million in 2021 alone. 

Think of all the independent podcasts that have risen to prominence over the past several years. Many of those are independent creators who were given access to publish their work for all to enjoy. 

In general, an estimated 50 million people consider themselves creators, and according to a recent report by Yahoo Finance, the creator economy has a valuation of $104.2B USD.

But it’s not just the creators who are benefiting from this boom. 

Platforms such as Twitch and OnlyFans have millions of creators generating billions of dollars. Not to mention the likes of YouTube, Facebook, and any other self-publishing platform that has enabled creators to express their talents and passions. 

This sounds like a utopian society, where creators get paid for their contributions to the economy based on the appeal of their content. But, similar to most economies, there is an underlying big business that controls a lot of the power. That power is rooted in the tech platforms that provide the medium for which these creators publish content. 

Whereas folks such as MrBeast are in the top 1%, unfortunately, most creators don’t make significant amounts of money. It is a very difficult business and there are many factors that contribute to the success and financial well-being of the creator.

In order for many of these creators to get paid for their work, they must adhere to or comply with the platform’s ever-changing requirements and regulations. As history has shown us, sometimes the little guy gets squeezed out by the big guy. And we’ve already started to see that happen.

OnlyFans made headlines earlier this year when it said it was prohibiting adult material from its site. Think about that, a large majority of OnlyFan users offer adult content, and they were the ones that made OnlyFans a dominant player in the industry. Now, OnlyFans was going to shut out an entire segment of their contributors, thus killing the revenue stream these creators relied upon and came to expect. 

In some instances, there are discussions about the compensation for creators getting large sums of money prolonged over a period of time. 

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently declared that Facebook and Instagram will disperse $1B to creators over the next 18 months. While that seems like a lot of money, it’s less than 1% of the $150B those two platforms will generate in revenue over those same six quarters. TikTok similarly has committed very little to its creators. Even their top 4% ranking content generators make pennies from the platform’s multi-billion dollar valuation. 

Compare that to the 55% that YouTube returns to creators. Is it any wonder that creators are starting to go direct? Platforms such as Facebook need to do better if they want to remain relevant to the creator economy.

That’s like your boss telling you that you did a great job, but we are going to spread out your salary over a greater period of time which devalues its worth. What leverage do these creators have? They can switch from one platform to another, but that means transitioning an entire fanbase to a whole new platform. Gaming superstar Ninja tried it when he switched from Twitch to Mixer, but ultimately returned to Twitch when Mixer couldn’t get off the ground.

There is no easy solution because they are still reliant on large tech companies to survive. If OnlyFans wasn’t the wake-up call creators needed, it should be. Organic reach is shrinking in size as well as a part of the platforms’ attempts to increase their slice of the pie. The reach that was once free is now costly demand. In order to survive long-term, creators must start thinking about self-preservation and developing a way to build their own digital assets outside of social media channels. 

It goes without saying that they can’t avoid these platforms. But, creators should think about how they can become less reliant on a single platform and look for ways to syndicate their content through other channels and leverage their own websites. 

The creator economy is still young and there will be bumps in the road. There will be a struggle for power as the little guy try to work his way out from the grip of big industry players. Now is the time for creators to prepare for a future where they are less reliant on someone else to determine their financial fates. Isn’t that why most of them decided to start this endeavor anyway — financial, creative, and expressive freedom?

With great polarization comes great ad spending… 

In recent years, the political climate has become more polarized than ever before, and each side is running further and further from the other. With the “middle” slowly depleting into extinction, the effects of the ad campaigns on either end of the spectrum have become increasingly plausible for reaching the remaining and increasingly rare middle. Reaching these undecided voters and targeting swing states will continue to be a competitive battle — the winner will most likely be the side that learned how to best adapt to the changing advertising landscape.

Polarization Driving Ad Spending

Just as polarization is growing more apparent, ad spending is simultaneously climbing to new heights. Political campaign budgets aren’t simply growing, they are skyrocketing – and they are bringing in results. These immense budgets are forming a now billion-dollar industry that is proving its efficiency in more ways than one. 

Ad spending has also been deeply impacted by the 2010 Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The loss of funding regulations and limitations that resulted from this decision made for an even larger spike than what was initially expected, despite reforms that have been made in the 10+ years since the ruling. 

In the ten-year period between 2010 and 2020 political ad spending in the U.S. went from around 14 million to well over two billion dollars. This monumental jump signifies a new era in political advertising. Donald Trump and Michael Bloomberg alone were responsible for spending a combined amount of almost $200 million on Facebook and Google ads in just a five-month period during the 2020 election. 

Yet, this phenomenon doesn’t just apply to the big spenders at the top; local government campaigns are seeing skips and leaps in spending patterns too and all of the races, from major league to minor are feeling the pressure to spend more. 

The New Landscape of Budget Allocation

Not only are budgets increasing by the millions (or hundred-millions) each year, but the allocations of political campaign budgets are becoming more and more diverse as well. Gone are the days of solely investing in black and white newspaper columns or even creating two-minute commercial productions for cable TV. The internet, social media, and CTV have completely reshaped and divided up major ad budgets.

Another area of the landscape that is growing in influence is TikTok. The video platform is becoming a considerably efficient way to reach young voters. Although there are limitations to political advertising on social platforms, the potential viral reach is a way to spread information quickly and impactfully. 

Advertisers, campaign managers, media buyers, and even politicians need to consider casting a net that is as wide as possible without damaging KPIs. It is important to find content sites that generate high engagement from niche, coveted audiences. One way to do this is by investing in content types that are hubs for creating focused impacts, such as finance sites. 

Content Meets Reach

What campaign budgeting comes down to is not just knowing who the voters are demographically, but understanding their interests. Where are they investing their time? What kinds of content interest them? 

The answer is not as simple as advertisers may think, and, in fact, it involves some creativity. The truth is that voters are not pigeon-held to news sites. Voters are gamers. Voters are shoppers. Voters are music lovers. Voters care about money.

Today, advertisers need to reimagine the possibilities that exist for their campaigns. Allocating ad budgets in a way that is effective requires innovation, a deep understanding of your audience, and, of course, some thinking outside the box.