📰 Growth Daily - Thursday, Feb 23

Thursday's news, tips, & tools you need to know

Author

Nicole Tabak
February 23, 2023

🥸 Tumblr Increased iOS Revenue By 125% With a Parody

📰 TL;DR - In November 2022, Tumblr (yes, that blogging app you haven’t opened since high school) released their own response to Twitter’s paid verification confusion: double blue check marks. Double the verified. Anyways, joke’s on us because that parody campaign led to a 125% boost in iOS in-app purchase revenue. Just for the meme.

💡 Insight - First of all, this is absolutely hilarious and wild. But second, look what can happen when a brand truly understands online culture and runs with it. By listening to conversations in online circles, brands can better understand what’s resonating with audiences and, if you’re brave, have fun creating unique campaigns that might generate extra revenue. This won’t work for every brand, but it’s a good reminder to never take ourselves too seriously.

📱 Meta’s Bringing Promotions to IG DMs

📰 TL;DR - Meta has never been able to effectively monetize messaging platforms like Messenger, WhatsApp, or Instagram DMs… until now, maybe? Meta’s testing out a new option that encourages IG Business users to highlight relevant products in chats, but what those chats are is still a little unclear.

💡 Insight - Meta’s click-to-messaging ads are one of their fastest-growing ad products, so it makes sense that they would try to let brands into discussions. This could be an opportunity to get directly in front of consumers and hone in on hyper-specific creative to get higher quality leads. It feels a little too early to say how successful this feature will be, but definitely watch this space.

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👟 How Hoka Sneakers Went From Weird to $1bn in Revenue

📰 TL;DR - French mountain runners Nicolas Mermoud and Jean-Luc Diard wanted a shoe cover that would help them run downhill faster. Their solution? Creating Hoka One One, a sneaker brand that provides high stability and more cushion than competitors, while still being lightweight and fast. Early critics mocked the brand, calling the shoes “ugly” and “weird.” Over 10 years later, Hoka generates over $1bn in sales and was sold to Deckers for a reported $1.1M in 2012. How? Through a strong brand dedication to growth and commitment to their distinctive brand DNA.

💡 Insight - If people are talking about your brand, they’re talking about your brand. Hoka took an opportunity that others might deem as negative – being called weird – into a positive – being a unique brand standing out from the competition. Before rushing to fix what’s “broken,” consider if it’s actually broken or if your brand just needs to lean into what differentiates you from the rest of the market.

😵‍💫 4 Tips Marketers Need to Survive Uncertainty

📰 TL;DR - Trying to navigate marketing in challenging times can feel like the wild wild west. It’s bleak, there’s no knowing when it’ll end, and all bets are off. Instead of watching more depressing news, marketers can turn to these 4 tactical tips to actually survive uncertain times and remain resilient:

  1. Break through the noise by personalizing content

  2. Craft the perfect message

  3. Let the data be your guide

  4. Consistency is key

🧠 Microsoft Brings AI to Bing, Edge, and Skype

📰 TL;DR - Microsoft just launched the latest Bing and Edge iOS apps with ChatGPT integration alongside AI-powered tools on Skype for iOS and Android. Users can benefit from Bing’s AI chatbot producing more accurate, customized search results within Edge and use Skype’s voice input feature instead of typing out prompts. Essentially, Microsoft is betting high on AI for the future of their products.

💡 Insight - Adding ChatGPT and voice input will make a lot of users lives easier. But it also provides a huge opportunity for technology to learn the habits of consumers and allow companies to provide better solutions for them. Until we’re able to reap the benefits of this rich data, it remains even more important for companies to optimize digital marketing for search engines like Bing and whatever AI runs away with it.

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