Back to the Future - TRIBETALK EP 6

Check out this TribeTalk from our Director of Operations, J.P. VanderLinden chatting with one of our Growth Specialist, Sarah Ratliff.

YouTube’s New Augmented Reality

Youtube is now offering augmented reality features for beauty influencers. Similar to Snapchat filters where you can put on sunglasses or a whole new face, this goes a step further, allowing viewers to try on new products right alongside the influencer. SAY WHAT?! 

AR has been around for a while now. Besides Snapchat you’ve probably seen it in places like interior design, Warby Parker eye-glasses, the Sephora app for foundation shades, and many others. We expect to be seeing more and more of this engaging, immersion content.

As marketers it’s good to be studying up on this new technology and thinking through how to use this for our client’s products. This kind of “almost tangible” technology does a great job of driving traffic to your website, social platforms, and creating more conversions. 

Facebook Announces Libra Currency

There’s a new cryptocurrency coming to the web-streets. Facebook recently announced Libra cryptocurrency. Although it is casually being called Facebook’s cryptocurrency, Big Blue is actually just one of 28 association members, joining others such as Uber, Spotify, Coinbase, Visa, and PayPal. Libra will integrate with Calibra (Facebook’s wallet platform) that is also built directly into WhatsApp. 

The big questions marketers are asking are: Will Facebook allow this purchasing data to be used for advertising? Will we be able to target people based on those purchases? Well, Facebook spun off a subsidiary company that will handle Calibra and their presence in Libra. That company will be a separate company so that purchasing data will not be directly available in Facebook for ad targeting (at least that’s the position as of now). 

Right now there is just alpha and beta testing in place, but we are expecting to see a full launch of Libra in the first half of 2020. There has been some pushback already. The U.S. government has raised concerns about the lack of regulation around this new currency. We will have to see how this plays out in the coming months. 

The potential benefit for marketers is a huge global reach opportunity, as the integration with WhatsApp and not being country-controlled open international doors. It will also be interesting to see how Libra will interact with eCommerce payments on platforms like Shopify, Amazon or eBay, or even direct purchasing from Marketplace/Messenger on Facebook. If you have bought anything from Marketplace lately you’ve likely seen that you can request payment through Messenger - in the future, it could be Libra powering this.

Will this be a more convenient solution for transactions worldwide or just another option to add to all the other payment solutions out there? Time will tell but in the words of the notorious B.I.G…..

Book Recap: Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior

After all the futuristic talk, we are bringing it back to the stone ages here with a good book review. 

But in all seriousness we recommend you check out the book “Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior”. The invisible influence is basically how social media influences us (whether we know it or not). 

We’ve all experience social influence, like wanting to try a product (like Starbucks new Tie-dye Frap for example). You forget where you saw it (maybe it was on your Insta-story?) and a few hours later you find yourself in the front of the Starbucks line. 

As marketers we have so much data, and this book helps you think through what do you do with it. It’s important to really dig into the persona of customers in order to influence them effectively. You have to get in the head of your audience and be relatable (though not desperate). The book mentions how people love a crowd, so creating a human imitation feel of crowded space such as limiting specific content to a certain number of people and having a “wait list” could be very attractive.  

We definitely recommend grabbing a copy of Jonah Berger’s book - it’s a quick, light read packed with actionable applications for all marketers, from performance specialists to brand designers. 

What’s your favorite marketing book? Tell us about it in the comments or send us an email.