The Message is the Medium
If you are unaware, in a week America will be glued to televisions, Twitter, and news feeds watching the 2020 Presidential Election. Biden has spent $92 MM to date on Facebook and the Trump ticket has spent $104.5 MM since January 1st, 2020.
$200 MM is an enormous budget but it is incredible to compare the front runners advertising cost to the total. Their combined election spending on Facebook equates to only 2% of the roughly 11 Billion that will be spent this election cycle!
Perhaps a more interesting story, between the 3 main pages of Facebook they have “spent” over $60 MM on their own platform this election cycle. Spent is in quotation marks as this is more aligned with the lines of an opportunity cost equation than a direct expenditure of cash on hand. Regardless, at an average CPM of $10 this means that Facebook Inc. has served 6,000,000,000 impressions since May 7th 2018 or roughly 6,637,168 per day.
We can profile several other large stats but we actually want to provide our readers with a very tangible opportunity to help their own marketing efforts.
One of the most powerful tools in the political vertical actually isn’t their ad spend, but instead is how they leverage tools like Facebook Messenger to build their marketing funnel. Specifically, it’s the ability to auto-respond in FB Messenger to any comments made by users in-feed.
Why is this so important?
For starters Facebook responses are public, Messenger conversations are private. This can be valuable for a variety of reasons, such as offering a unique discount to that one customer (versus everyone) or to address/resolve negative issues (versus airing it out publicly).
You can also tailor and collect information, drive to multiple CTAs based on the conversation flow, and have the consumer self identify key variables that can empower appropriate follow ups.
Take the example above. The question around committing to one candidate opens up five different response paths. Each of these has their own flow that takes a user down a different path.
- If you are already on Team Biden, then it prompts you with a question around Zip Code to help with local information on voting.
- If you are undecided, then the prompts you with a question around topics that matter to you and offers to set you up with a campaign volunteer for a live discussion.
- If you are Team Trump, then it just responds with a polite “Thank You” and on the backend likely will track you as someone to exclude from future targeting.
- If you are leaning Team Trump, then it prompts around key issues. Likely this funnel leads to a similar response tree as "undecided" with the ability to now inform the campaign volunteer with information the user freely provided (eg, this is now an in-market buyer).
So what does this mean for D2C and Performance Marketers?
This can be a game changer if used properly. We are living in the age of data where deterministic data is king. A proper Facebook Messenger flow can deliver self identified consumer information on a silver platter. Do they hate your brand? Great, tell us why and show us the path we need to take to fix the relationship? Do they love your brand? Even better, tell us how we can sell you more of our product and incentivize you to share it with your friends/family.
Let’s be real, User Acquisition can be a very expensive game to play (not even considering measurement). There are 8MM advertisers on Facebook and a large number of those are going to lose the UA game. So instead of trying to compete with the Wayfairs of the world on media spend, look to win over customers through a more engaged funnel.
If someone is taking the time to comment, whether good or bad, this is a person who is looking for a conversation. Are you going to be the brand that responds or ghosts?
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Photo by Parker Johnson on Unsplash
*If you are looking for more information, different 3rd party partners in the space offer different opportunities when it comes to enabling this feature. We have no relation with respond.io, but we found their blog helpful in explaining how to set up a basic automatic response system on Facebook Messenger.
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*This article originally appeared in Forbes on February 26th, 2024. Link HERE
Innovation doesn't always scream; sometimes, it whispers. This is a lesson I've internalized as the founder of Dysrupt, where we've navigated the fine line between groundbreaking advancements and the comfort of familiarity. The 3% rule of change, championed by the late Virgil Abloh, a visionary in both fashion and design, offers a compelling lens to examine this balance. Abloh's ethos, focusing on the transformative power of subtle alterations, challenges the conventional push for radical innovation. It's a principle that resonates deeply in the tech world, particularly when comparing the strategic approaches of Apple's Vision Pro and Meta Quest Pro.
Abloh's influence extended beyond the realm of fashion; he was a cultural icon who redefined creativity, making his principles universally applicable, including in technology. His 3% rule—the idea that significant innovation can be achieved with minimal changes—underscores the importance of nuanced, thoughtful alterations.
The 3% Rule In Technological Innovation
Abloh's 3% rule is epitomized by the advent of Apple's "spatial computing." This term, much like "horseless carriage" in its day, melds the familiar with the novel, bridging the gap between traditional perceptions and forward-thinking technology. It suggests a nuanced evolution rather than a complete overhaul, offering a linguistic framework that makes new technologies more accessible and understandable.
Spatial computing, as introduced by Apple, allows for the integration of digital enhancements into our physical environment, enabling users to place virtual screens within their actual surroundings. This approach is contrasted sharply with Quest Pro’s goal of creating a fully immersive virtual environment, which, while technologically impressive, may alienate users who prefer a connection to their physical world.
This distinction is demonstrated in Casey Neistat's review of the Vision Pro in Times Square. Neistat's experience underscores the unique proposition of Vision Pro: the ability to seamlessly blend digital content with the real world, enhancing one's immediate environment rather than replacing it. By choosing what to see and where to see it, users retain control over their experience, embodying the essence of the 3% rule by making technology adapt to the individual's needs and preferences.
Expanding The NBA Viewing Experience
The divergent paths of Vision Pro and Quest Pro are nowhere more evident than in their partnership with the NBA to redefine the fan experience. While the Quest Pro aims to place fans directly courtside with its fully immersive VR experience, Vision Pro takes a different route. It introduces an enhanced viewing experience that transcends traditional limitations, offering "better than courtside" content. This approach leverages spatial computing to allow fans to enjoy multiple screens in their living space, offering various angles and aspects of the game in high definition, without losing touch with their immediate surroundings.
Meta Quest Pro's ambitious VR technology has the potential to transport fans into the heart of the action, offering an unparalleled sense of presence at live games. This full immersion into a virtual courtside experience represents a significant leap in how technology is used to bridge distances and bring the game to the viewer. However, this approach, while groundbreaking, may not align with all fans' desire for a more integrated viewing experience that maintains a connection to their physical environment.
Apple Vision Pro, in contrast, capitalizes on AR's potential to subtly enhance the real world. By allowing users to overlay multiple screens onto their physical space, Vision Pro offers a customizable viewing experience that can be tailored to each fan's preference. Whether it's accessing different camera angles, real-time statistics or social media feeds, Vision Pro provides a multidimensional viewing experience that enriches fans' engagement with live sports. This "better than courtside" experience doesn't remove fans from their reality; instead, it enhances it with layers of digital information and entertainment, embodying the essence of the 3% rule.
The Future Of Viewing
The introduction of Apple's Vision Pro into the marketplace heralds a nuanced shift in how viewers engage with broadcast entertainment. This principle, which advocates for impactful innovation through minimal adjustments, suggests a future where broadcasters will increasingly lean into subtle, AR-enabled enhancements to enrich the viewing experience. Instead of propelling audiences into fully immersive virtual realities, the trend is toward augmenting the physical environment with digital overlays that complement rather than replace the live viewing experience.
This evolutionary step, subtly integrated by technologies like Vision Pro, signals a move toward more personalized and contextually rich experiences within the familiar confines of viewers' existing environments. It represents a pivot in strategy for broadcasters, who now have the tools to create and distribute content that enhances reality, offering audiences the ability to customize their viewing experiences with information, graphics and interactive elements that were previously unimaginable.
This approach does not aim to upend the viewer's world with drastic changes; instead, it seeks to introduce enhancements that seamlessly integrate with their reality, offering a glimpse into how minimal shifts can have a profound impact on the collective viewing experience. In this emerging landscape, the 3% rule becomes a guiding principle for broadcasters and technologists alike, emphasizing that sometimes the most meaningful innovations are those that refine and redefine our experiences without displacing them.
Subtle Shifts, Major Impact: A More Effective Approach To Innovation
Dysrupt is a 💎✋ marketing firm and not above the occasional meme trend. With all the news of r/wallstreetbets, RobinHood, $GME, etc. we want to take a step back and deep dive on this often used internet term with an interesting history - *meme.
Origin
Meme as a term predates internet culture. Originally coined by Richard Dawkins in 1976 in his groundbreaking book The Selfish Gene.
Dawkins conceived of memes as the cultural parallel to biological genes and considered them, in a manner similar to “selfish” genes, as being in control of their own reproduction and thus serving their own ends. Understood in those terms, memes carry information, are replicated, and are transmitted from one person to another, and they have the ability to evolve, mutating at random and undergoing natural selection, with or without impacts on human fitness (reproduction and survival). - link
Dawkins himself defined meme as a noun that "conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation."
The Selfish Gene was groundbreaking due to meme kicking off a deeper investigation in **academia around the extent of evolutionary processes that are unrelated to genes.
Memes though are units of cultural significance. If they are repeated then they carry more significance than those that fail to replicate.
Here is a silly example: the cleaning crew in a hotel folding the toilet paper into a triangular shape is a meme. This happens worldwide now - even in some gas station bathrooms - and is an artifact of culture. It is a transfer of information in the network of humanity. This is a recent invention of culture which now carries a significance. Namely that the room was cleaned by a professional who spared no expense as they even decided to fold the toilet paper end into a small triangle.
In this light, the modern use of meme just being easily shareable phrases, images, gifs, etc. is a limited use of the term. It can extend to anything that is imitated within culture. Everything from the mundane - Fork, Knife, Spoon placement on a table - to the absurd - Qanon.
r/WallStreetBets and Community
We are a marketing firm and the recent explosion of meme stocks has been a fascinating watch in the power of community and how it empowers a movement. If you are in the business of brand building, you are trying to gain attention and direct it to action.
r/WallStreetBets created a movement of directing a group of disjointed individuals via the glue of memes. These memes allow the group to have a shared language and jokes that bond via an in group mentality. Their “units of imitation” are simple to replicate and share.
The brazen ridiculousness of all the terms makes them even more mockable which requires sharing and imitation and bonding of the in-group.
I’m an Advertiser and Don’t Care about Stonks
Budweiser made a meme with its “Wassupp” ad. TikTok’s Duet feature and many other product features on platforms are meme engines. (Memegins?) Share buttons are littered throughout the internet. Every piece of content screams to be replicated.
Yes r/WallstreetBets has a lot of weird language but after about 15 minutes you’ll start typing 🚀 🌕 with little thought and will start judging the 📜 ✋ in the midst who cost you tendies.
Easy to imitate and through the imitation the group improves upon the original idea. The successes are repeated and become even more shareable and immitatable. This is the evolutionary process Dawkins keyed into. Failure is easy to define as it is just content that is not replicated and shared.
The flywheel is that the sharing and imitation increases further sharing. Understanding how to bring this to your brand, your community, can be key to kickstarting your own movement.
What’s the Difference Between a Bad, Good and Great Story?
Bad stories are forgotten. Good stories are remembered. Great stories are retold.
The retelling and sharing within culture is the power of brand advertising.
In fact, this might be the easiest way to differentiate between brand and direct response ads. Direct response ads are judged on product sales and perhaps help define a brand.
Brand ads should be judged on the great story criteria - are they retold? Shared? Imitated? Sales will come from causing this replication.
* How to pronounce: meme rhymes with gene.
** Aaron Lynch in his book Thought Contagion defined 7 patterns of transmission for memes: Quantity of parenthood, Efficiency of parenthood, Proselytic, Preservational, Adversative, Cognitive, Motivational.
