Your 60-second read for 8/30: underestimating Snapchat; being selfie-absorbed; a TV ad is not enough; and more. This is what matters this week in digital media.
1/A TV ad is not enough.
This may pass as a this-couldn't-be-more-obvious observation, but if it is so obvious, why are many brand experiences challenged? Example: two cashiers open, lines of people: Whole Foods can make it hard for us to give them money. See also, British Airways, who the Economist laments is downgrading their service, but not their prices. Then there's Tom's, whose Venice, California outpost is 50% store and 50% wifi-enabled hangout. And a success. A brand cannot survive on TV ads alone. More from Ad Age.
2/We are underestimating Snapchat.
It is hard to picture the future when the roar of the present is deafening. Take Amazon circa 1997, when it sold only books. It's the opportunities we don't yet know about that may be the biggest. This is true for Snapchat, now forecast to have over 200 million global users by next year. Snapchat - with us always; empowering creativity for its users (and who doesn't want to be creative); and a highly addictive glue between people. What will it become? It's Facebook vs. Snapchat for our time. Kid, you've got potential. More from Adweek.
3/Being self-absorbed is a business model.
Who could have predicted that the art we love the most is the art of ourselves? The Economist has a great piece (sub. required) about this obsession: music festivals aren't about the music, they are about us being AT the festival, which is why a quarter million Instagram pics from #Coachella are selfies. Or take our present and future Queen Kim, whose Kardashian family can charge $75,000 for a gotta-try-this brand photo - but are running into trouble with the truth-tellers. More from The New York Times.
4/There's a hit YouTube series...from Kimberly-Clark.
I've said this before, the TV industry is not in decline, it is in transition to a streaming, more on-demand future. Kimberly-Clark created a YouTube series, which is sort of a U by Kotex ad, and it's a hit. This only works if the content is good, and 43 million views say it is, no TV network or ad buy in sight. Super Bowl ads aren't going away, and making a good series is incredibly challenging, AND whether there's an ROI here remains to be seen, but this is not the last time brands invest less in "TV spots" and more in...something else. More from WSJ.
Todd Lombardo advises Fortune 500 companies and world famous brands on embracing digital media. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter for fresh perspective every day.
Todd is the head of marketing at CakeWorks Video and the head of digital strategy at Hastings Digital Studios. Sign up for CakeWorks' Worth Reading Video News, the once-a-week must read video newsletter!
Photo: Snapchat