📰 Snippets

🏛️ I Knew You Were Trouble 

Google and Meta are both in the legal spotlight this week, each facing scrutiny over their market dominance. Facebook is currently accused of monopolization, while Google lost it's antitrust lawsuit (the second one) on Friday and is battling a UK lawsuit for allegedly falsely increasing ad placement costs. While these issues are widely known, the potential consequences are what's truly interesting. Will this mark a turning point towards a more equitable landscape?

What to Watch

Temu has dramatically reduced its ad spend (i.e., not spending). Will this result in cheaper ads for retailers, or will prices stay the same?

New Phone, Who Dis? 📱🤫

JC Penney has been taking an unorthodox approach to their new campaign, creating ads with limited explicit branding. Appealing to the more cost-conscious customers with the suggestion that they don’t have to give up on style if they’re tightening their budgets, these anonymous ads, if well-styled, I think have a real chance of breaking through.

Talking about breaking through, music choice is having a millennium moment, and influencers are looking to underconsumption as the trend to engage their followers. Finding novel ways to lean into this could be key to brand strategy in an economically challenging time.

😵‍💫 You’re Doing What Now? 

In the world of social media, there’s always a titan changing or a challenger talking big time. This week, it’s ChatGPT taking the fight to X (potentially) with the possible creation of a new socialmedia site. Kick is suggesting they are rivaling Twitch (word on the street is that they are a long way off from having credibility on this one). Patreon is looking to add Live Video to their site, taking that monetization of creator content further. Finally, there's the story that Facebook and Instagram are no longer “social” sites, as consumers choose not to post to feeds, but the majority of interaction is in DMs. My hand is definitely up – I rarely share, it’s pretty much all dms.

Finally, Who Says You Can’t Put Lipstick on a Pig? 💄🐷❓

The internet was full of TikToks featuring companies in China allegedly revealing the supply chain behind high-end products. The Drum has a PR guide should you face this problem. Their headline, though, is that they don’t really see it as a massive issue. I’m not so sure; any weakness in your brand messaging, and this is going to be a huge problem. I think it won’t be deadly for the strongest brands, but I do anticipate some really struggling to maintain their pricing structures.