June Marketing Insights – Consumers Want Digital Experiences

News

Meta Continues Shift to Metaverse With Stock Ticker Change

The marketing news never stops, not even for summer. And it’s certainly been a busy news month for the Viral Octopus news team.

Meta has made a big step in its transition towards the metaverse, announced that the company is working on a new feature to allow the display of NFTs, and has updated Instagram Reels to accept 90-second clips.

Consumer preferences continue to shift towards an entirely digital shopping experience. Most customers now pay recurring bills with digital channels, and many prioritize shopping with brands that they have social commerce relationships with.

After a couple of years of downturn because of the pandemic, the marketing and advertising industry has started to make a comeback. Marketing automation budgets, as well as spending on search and display advertising, are both expected to jump in the next few years.

We’ll get into the fresh news details in a second, but first, we have a little bit of news to share.

Your Viral Octopus team will be taking a bit of time to refresh ourselves and our client offerings. This will be our last monthly news summary for the summer months. We expect to be back out patrolling our territory in the fall, bigger and better than ever before.

Let’s get into the news!


#1 Meta changes stock ticker to ‘META’; Jumps into NFTs

Meta changed its ‘FB’ moniker on the stock exchange to ‘META’ on June 9th. The change of its stock ticker is the final step in its metaverse-aligned transformation.

Updates to Meta’s Reels feature on Instagram this month included the option for 90-second video clips, engagement-focused stickers, and proprietary audio imports, while Facebook’s version is getting enhancements such as a tool for sound sync and desktop scheduling capabilities. Andrew Hutchinson notes that these changes show TikTok’s continued influence over social media formats.

Meta kicked off two new marketing campaigns this month that are aimed at highlighting the benefits of the metaverse. “The Impact Will Be Real” is an integrated marketing campaign aimed at explaining the company’s vision for the future of the metaverse, and it hones in on the potential value and societal benefits. “Fishing With Dad” demonstrates how Meta’s technology helps people connect in ways that would otherwise not be possible.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company is working on a feature that will allow the display of NFTs on Instagram and Facebook. The feature will first go active on Instagram. Zuckerberg also said that NFTs will be tested on Instagram Stories with Spark AR soon and hopes that people will be able to mint their own NFTs within the app. He has previously said that Meta is working on 3D augmented reality NFTs with its Spark AR software.


#2 Consumer Habits Continue to Shift Towards Digital

For brands, social media used to be a broadcasting tool, a megaphone to advertise their products and engage consumers on emerging channels. Today, if you’re not actively present on social, you simply don’t exist. Customers expect instant responses that guide them and reassure them along their journey. They want an ongoing conversation, a relationship that feels more personal than transactional. They want to be treated like VIPs.

With most consumers now paying their recurring monthly bills via digital channels, many are embracing convenience features such as automatic payment on the due date, according to a new report based on a PYMNTS survey of 2,913 U.S. consumers. The most common types of bills that consumers pay are mobile phone (72%), home internet (67%), insurance premiums (50%), and cable TV (47%). Quite often, they use digital channels to pay these bills.

A PYMNTS and Ordergroove collaboration that surveyed over 2,800 customers has found that millennials and bridge millennials are leading the charge surrounding changing retail relationship expectations. The survey found that 80% of millennials are likely to buy more from brands with whom they have relationships, and about one-third of consumers will spend more with brands with which they have relationships. The stronger the relationship, the greater the potential for sales.


#3 TikTok Gives Creators New Monetization Process

TikTok is launching a new creator monetization process with its new direct subscription for an upcoming comedy series in the app. The eight-part comedy series was created by Jericho Mencke and will cost $4.99 for the season. Each episode will be 30 minutes long which could help get more people consuming longer-form content that is more easily monetizable. TikTok has faced challenges in building an equitable monetization process.


#4 Quite Glance at the State of the Marketing and Advertising Industry

The worldwide marketing automation market is expected to reach $4.71B by 2028, up from $2.75B in 2021. Email marketing takes the largest share at a little over 32%, according to a Valuates report. The boom in marketing automation is being driven by digital transformation, internet penetration, and increased mobile use, spurring marketers to embrace tools to help them deliver personalized content and multichannel strategies.

Foundry has released its 2022 Data and Analytics Study, giving insights into data-driven initiatives. Data-driven projects continue to rise as 34% of organizations said that they have already deployed data-driven projects compared to 28% of organizations saying the same in 2021. Enterprises are further along in their data-driven plans compared to SMBs as 92% of enterprise organizations are considering or have already deployed data-driven projects compared to 79% of SMBs.

Spending on search and display advertising in the U.S. for e-commerce websites and apps will jump from $35.96 billion this year to $73.03 billion by 2026, according to reports by eMarketer’s Insider Intelligence. U.S. e-commerce ad spending is expected to account for 20.1% of digital advertising in 2026, up from the current 14.5%, with Amazon expected to capture the bulk of e-commerce ad revenue this year.

US digital advertising experienced massive growth in 2021. During the past year, the industry was able to capitalize on the resurgence of marketing budgets throughout the year and the influx of isolated consumers who relied on digital media as their primary connection during the pandemic. Overall, digital ad revenue increased 35.4% year over year, the highest growth since 2006.

Clevertouch Marketing surveyed senior marketers across North America, Europe, and the UK to create a picture of the current state of the marketing technology landscape. While 90% of marketers prioritize technology, 47% are still not confident when engaging in digital applications. This has led to nearly 70% o businesses outsourcing their campaign delivery to external consultants.


#5 Apple iOS 16 Update Brings New Features and BNPL

Apple has officially announced that the Apple Pay Later feature will be part of the new iOS 16 update. BNPL is a top trend with Gen Z students, with 30% of U.S.-based Gen Z students using the service and 21% of U.K.-based Gen Z students using it. The top five BNPL apps saw 11 million Apple store downloads and Google Play installations, but Apple’s own offering should be particularly compelling because of its ease of use.

Apple has previewed several new features coming with iOS 16. The lock screen is at the center of Apple’s iOS 16 updates, starting with the ability to customize fonts and colors used. It will also be possible to add widgets and configure multiple lock screens. Apple’s powerful Live Text feature will also be coming to video and it will have more actions available when you use it in photos and videos. To download iOS 16, you’ll need an iPhone 8 or later.


#6 iPhone Users Have Higher Incomes Than Android Users

A new survey is showing that iPhone users tend to have higher incomes and spend more on technology than Android users. People who use iPhones have an average annual salary of $53,251, whereas Android users have an average salary of $37,040. iPhone users are also generally happier than Android users and have greater spending power. Android owners tend to be more frugal and inclined to seek out deals and discounts.


#7 Twitter To Integrate Payments Including Crypto

Twitter is about to accelerate its move into the payments field and it’s likely to include cryptocurrency. Elon Musk made this clear in his all-hands virtual meeting with employees on June 16th. When asked about integrating payments into the social media giant’s platform, Musk said that money is essentially digital at this point and it makes sense to integrate payments into Twitter. Musk previously said that he’d want to see $15 million in revenue from payments in 2023.



We’ve really enjoyed keeping you up to date with the hottest marketing news and making sure that you have the information you need to crush your competition. And we don’t plan on stopping.

We’ll be back in the fall to make sure that you’re at the top of your game, in some new and exciting ways!


Have a great summer and happy marketing!


Your Viral Octopus Team.

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