Media And Marketing Gossip; Can TikTok Achieve Always-On Status?

 

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.

Setting The Scene

What would anonymous media and entertainment execs say about their fellow media companies?  

To find out, Bloomberg newsletter author Lucas Shaw pinged 50 media executives with questions about the choices they would make – as both studio execs and fans of great content. 

For instance, respondents cited NBCUniversal as the studio they’d choose to distribute a theatrical movie with hit potential. “Steadiest leadership, strongest commitment to theatrical, with a very capable marketing engine,” explains one exec. 

On the other hand, Apple TV+, HBO Max and Netflix came out on top (in a three-way tie) for which streaming service to pitch a show to. (No love for Peacock.)

There’s also the question of whether to release shows once a week, in batches (two or three episodes to start people off) or the Netflix-esque binge. Netflix has defended its practice of releasing seasons all at once, though it cited its ad-free subscription as part of why that worked. But the weekly episode is better for marketing (to build conversation over the week), according to the respondents. 

Also because, in advertising, there’s a lot of value in concurrent viewers. Netflix’s raw numbers will be great, but having a large audience watch the same thing at the same time counts for a lot, too.

Tik, Tik, Tik

Is TikTok running out of steam? 

It’s the next contender to take on Google and Meta. But TikTok could be overvalued. Its metaphorical stock has skyrocketed partly because the private company’s market cap hasn’t publicly disintegrated.

TikTok’s app install growth has mellowed, too. The Meta fleet – Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – is outperforming TikTok year over year, according to Sensor Tower data (h/t @Eric Seufert). By next year, Facebook may once again add more monthly installs than TikTok, while Instagram widened its lead over TikTok from less than 1 million more new users in November 2021 to almost 8 million more installs last month. 

But the consumer angle isn’t the problem. That would be the advertisers.

Many marketers who tried TikTok used the ad platform for special promotional campaigns or to put money behind an organic post that rode a lucky viral wave. 

TikTok hasn’t yet achieved the always-on advertiser status. 

Rabah Rahil, CMO of Triple Whale, an ecommerce measurement startup (a type we dub TikTokalytics), tweets that, though client TikTok spend is up on net, he is “still hearing thru the grapevine a lot of the ‘big spenders’ are transitioning back to FB and Googs PMax.”

When The World Cup Runs Dry

Budweiser is trying to turn stale beer into lemonade – or something – after a sponsorship fiasco, The New York Times reports. 

If you didn’t see, the Qatari decided to ban alcohol sales at the World Cup stadiums with two days to go before the tournament. Budweiser, the title sponsor, had beer stations and vendor setups all over the stadiums that had to be disassembled. 

Instead, the company is leaning hard into its alcohol-free beverage line – namely, Budweiser Zero – which is carried in the stadium and on promos during the game. 

Budweiser likely spent around $5 million just on specialized trucks and refrigerated equipment to Qatar, since the country has little to no internal support specifically for alcohol vending.

But on the plus side, the Times wrote it up. And here we are adding to the earned media ROI.

Budweiser also kick-started a new social campaign called “Bring Home the Bud,” since apparently the World Cup champ nation will receive an apartment building-size stack of beer.

But Wait, There’s More!

Microsoft seeks to settle EU antitrust concerns over Teams. [Reuters]

Some Twitter power users try business casual on LinkedIn. [WSJ]

Publishers prime their YouTube Shorts strategies ahead of next year’s revenue-sharing program. [Digiday]

Multicultural reach is a people problem, not a tech problem. [Adweek]

You’re Hired!

Netflix hires James Foster as VP of EMEA marketing. [Adweek]