Your Digital Intelligence Report

Digital Intelligence Report

July 2019

Influencer marketing is a powerful tool that has seemingly been sideswiped in agriculture. Food has a done a consistent job over the years in the vegan, non-GMO, Got Milk? arenas. But agriculture has been slow. Sure, testimonials have been a marketing staple for years but ongoing brand support through robust social vehicles is a powerful opportunity that has been missed.

In some cases, like Philip Shaw (the top influencer in agriculture according to one methodology), publishers have tried to lock them up, knowing that the reciprocal relationship shines positive light everywhere.

It is more than just picking the handle with the highest number of followers. Influence is less about reach and more about engagement. The influencer you are cultivating/hiring has to create real action. That is difficult to judge at scale.

The Peterson Brothers have more than 50 million YouTube views, but would their support drive the next combine purchase? Brian Scott has 13,300 Twitter followers but if he and Vance Crowe jumped on an unknown ag tech startup, would thousands follow?

That's why the upfront cost is an industry concern. There are important metrics that have yet to be determined. Until then, it's a worthwhile pursuit deserving of testing. MORE. What if you added strategic staff members to your influencer mix? MORE

AGRICULTURAL DIGITAL MEDIA SPENDING: The tools available for judging media spending across the competitive landscape are limited. The following chart is one tool's assessment of the money spent in digital January through June in agriculture.

PROGRAMMATIC: Value has long been missing from the traditionally robotic approach to buying programmatic impressions. But inserting it as qCPM or even as the cost per valuable impression would benefit marketers and premium publishers. What is value? Viewable, brand-safe, on-target and with optimal frequency. MORE

VOICE ASSISTANTS: More than one third of Americans use a voice assistant MORE ... Just because the core consumer only uses voice assistants for music and timers doesn't mean the potential is unrealized. Most televisions used to have only a handful of channels. MORE ... For instance, using voice as the delivery for an immersive brand experience. MORE ... Shopping is, of course, a major goal for these devices and it is slowly integrating into the buying process. MORE ... Smart users of smart speakers do everything from accessing credit card accounts to cancelling orders to adding items to a shopping cart. MORE

SOCIAL MEDIA: If you believe that a posting schedule and a few pithy headlines are going to carry the water for you, think again. It takes expertise to guide the social fabric around a product or brand. MORE ... Follow the teens and you follow the trend-setters. That means Facebook, Kik, Skype, Twitter, Instagram and SnapChat are on the outs. MORE ... Want to be a celeb? Get 30,000 followers. MORE ... Are you even aware of Twitter Chats? Here is how to be good at them. MORE ... Nearly half of respondents to one study said Pinterist was their product discovery and shopping engine. MORE ... Want some help with your social work? Here are a few tools to consider. MORE ... Here are some basics for B2B LinkedIn marketing. MORE ... Concerned you are spending too much time on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube? Check your metrics. MORE ... Facebook making some changes to improve content and ad performance. Facebook makes changes all of the time so plan for the best of these ideas to be yanked out from under you the moment you fall in love. MORE

MOBILE: Mobile adoption has outpaced home broadband, a key metric for us serving rural markets. MORE ... 5G holds great promise for rural connectivity, but the leading drivers for the technology aren't in the United States (see chart below). We may still reap the benefits. MORE ... App revenue continues to climb strongly, as does the vitriol for Apple and Android store fees to publishers. MORE

CONTENT MARKETING: When is content part of a public relations department and when does it sit with the content marketing team? Should they be separate at all? MORE

MARKETING: Does it matter whether it is digital, print, television, out of home, etc.? Does our siloed lexicon perpetuate creating media-specific (yet scattered) plans, agencies, etc.? Shouldn't it all be marketing and the media are the delivery vehicles for the best plan? Makes sense to me. MORE

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: Contentmaggedon is upon us and it is AI-penned material to influence SEO. Search engines aren't fantastic at determining quality anyway. This could be the end. MORE ... The machines can't take over completely. It rips the heart out of the messaging. MORE

SEARCH: Not knowing where to start is not the excuse to not start. SEO is a powerful growth strategy for any brand or site. If it is early, seek out low competition keywords to learn before diving into the battles. MORE ... Audit your SEO, do your research, change your pages and support in social and through content. That will get you started on the right foot. MORE

VIDEO: The FTC is considering having YouTube disable advertising on select channels in response to child privacy issues. MORE

FRAUD: According to a report and about every prediction out there, the OTT space is riddled with ad fraud. Great. Another perfectly cool new tool ruined by the industry's inability to police itself. MORE ... Chime in on Quora if you believe, like me, that programmatic OTT should be ignored in 2019 based on this. MORE ... For now, diligence is the magic pill in the battle against fraud. Partner with those you can trust. Don't bother testing with a complete unknown. There is not yet a cure. MORE

EMAIL MARKETING: The concepts that generate strong emails are not challenging. It's spending the few minutes it takes to think them through that often fails. MORE ... Litmus has expanded to include readability for the visually impaired. MORE

CHAT: Engaging with a consumer or prospect at a deeper level through direct communication has substantial benefits. Maybe there is a chat plan for you that doesn't include a bot. MORE ... The next level of chatbots won't be reliant on highly structured interactions. MORE ... Even the structured form of chatbots can be designed to offer real-time personalization. MORE ... And when you follow the money, chat interactions, especially AI-infused bots, are finding a foothold. MORE

DATA: If LiveRamp isn't your vendor of choice for onboarding, there are other options. MORE

OPERATIONS: Building a team to deploy digital strategies is not easy. Everyone wears multiple hats. Check out this infographic to see if all of the hats have a head in your organization. MORE

RESOURCES: If you are into digital marketing and digital technology, check out the AdExchanger Talks podcast. Each episode is an interview that gives me two or three ideas on how to better execute or deploy digital. MORE

THE BEST FROM THE DIGITAL INTELLIGENCE REPORT:

For more details on any of the topics covered here, contact Rooster’s Chief Digital Officer James Arnold:

Cell: (913) 291-6996

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james.arnold@roosterstrategy.com

The goal of the Rooster Strategic Solutions Digital Intelligence Report is to provide intelligence around the digital product landscape. What is coming next. How to use what you already have. Who might be doing it right.