How Social Media Influenced Coachella Welcome to HubSpot Marketing News! Tap in for campaign deep dives, the latest marketing industry news, and tried-and-true insights from HubSpot’s media team. Coachella didn’t start off as the Met Gala for influencers. The festival was first held in October 1999 and was intended to be an accessible event for alternative music fans. Held just three months after the infamous Woodstock ‘99, the first Coachella had an audience of just 25,000 people and failed to make a profit, costing organizers nearly $1 million. After taking a year off, Coachella made its comeback in April 2001. While Coachella began picking up popularity in its first decade, the 2010s ushered in a distinctly new era for the festival and it became a profitable and style-defining event. So, what changed? In its first few years, Coachella featured predominantly alternative artists, with headliners like Beck and Rage Against the Machine. By the 2010s, mainstream artists including Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, and Beyonce started drawing bigger crowds. What started as a single-day event evolved into a six-day festival spanning over consecutive weekends.  By 2016, there were over 99,000 attendees at Coachella each weekend — combined to be nearly 10x the attendance of the first event. How Influencer Marketing Changed Coachella The rise of social media also had a major impact on Coachella’s growth. Influencer culture and "festival fashion" became nearly synonymous with the event. As content creators and celebrities began attending Coachella in droves, what they wore nearly overshadowed what was happening...

Wendy's Took #NationalRoastDay to TikTok — Did It Bring the Heat? Welcome to HubSpot Marketing News! Tap in for campaign deep dives, the latest marketing industry news, and tried-and-true insights from HubSpot’s media team.  Wendy’s has been serving up sass on social media since 2017. It all started on Twitter. After the official Twitter account of Mcdonald's mistakenly shared a tweet with typos, Wendy’s quote tweeted the post saying, “When the tweets are as broken as the ice cream machine.” When the tweets are as broken as the ice cream machine. https://t.co/esdndK1iFm— Wendy's (@Wendys) November 24, 2017 The success of this tweet marked the beginning of a new social media strategy for the fast food chain — roasting other accounts. Wendy’s first National Roast Day was in 2018. Twitter users could drop a Tweet asking to be roasted and the official Wendy’s account would counter with a ruthless response. No Twitter account was safe, and the made-up social media holiday became an annual affair that was a massive success. Finally! A place for men to feel safe online. #NationalRoastDay— Wendy's (@Wendys) February 11, 2021 In 2022, National Roast Day generated over 130 million impressions in a matter of hours and made Wendy’s an instant trending topic on Twitter. This year, Wendy’s moved National Roast Day from Twitter to TikTok, turning it into a three-day event...

The Meme-ification of Barbie Welcome to HubSpot Marketing News! Tap in for campaign deep dives, the latest marketing industry news, and tried-and-true insights from HubSpot’s media team. Come on Barbie, let’s go party. Last week the trailer and cast posters for this summer’s anticipated film Barbie the Movie got social media buzzing. The trailer itself is fairly vague. Outside of introducing the main characters of the film, the clip reveals few details about the actual plot to build intrigue among audiences. A few hours before the trailer dropped, official images of the cast were released on Twitter. Each image features stylized graphics of each Barbie character and their occupation. Meet our Barbies and Kens ✨#BarbieTheMovie pic.twitter.com/KO2pwszXNJ— Barbie Movie (@barbiethemovie) April 4, 2023 Upon the release of the trailer and images, Warner Bros. launched the Barbie Selfie Generator, an AI-powered website that allows users to put their own photos along with a Barbie-style occupation in a graphic that resembles the cast images.  An accompanying TikTok filter was also created. Almost immediately, social media feeds were flooded with AI-generated memes. Social media users who are excited about the film quickly created and shared their own images, distributing valuable user-generated content that has the potential to get further reach than the initial trailer or official posters. This UGC play touches on an important element of nostalgia for those who played with Barbie dolls...

Why the New York Logo Update Was A Rebranding Flop Welcome to HubSpot Marketing News! Tap in for campaign deep dives, the latest marketing industry news, and tried-and-true insights from HubSpot’s media team. Newer isn’t always better. At least that was the consensus among New Yorkers after the Partnership for New York rolled out its new logo for New York City last month. The “We ❤️ NYC” mark debuted in late March and was intended to be a modern update of Milton Glaser’s iconic “I ❤️ NY” logo. The imagery coincides with a new campaign aiming to diffuse the “divisiveness and negativity” stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. Image Source Notable changes to the logo include: Changing the “I” to “We” Updating the heart so it appears more like a heart emoji Replacing the typewriter-style font with a variation of Helvetica to match New York subway signage Adding the “C” at the end of “NY” so the logo refers specifically to New York City While the new logo was intended to bring people together, unfortunately, it has succeeded in helping people bond over how much they dislike it. This tweet asking folks to share what they think of the new logo has racked up over 2,200 responses that are overwhelmingly negative. What went wrong with NYC’s new logo? For starters, “I ❤️ NY” is a tough act to follow. The original logo designed by Glaser was introduced in 1977 to reinvigorate tourism and morale...

Does Demand-Driven Pricing Work? Fashion Brand Telfar Is Giving It A Try Welcome to HubSpot Marketing News! Tap in for campaign deep dives, the latest marketing industry news, and tried-and-true insights from HubSpot’s media team. This week, fashion brand Telfar took its reputation for price accessibility to the next level. During its latest clothing drop on March 27, the brand began testing a dynamic pricing model, letting customers determine how much they wanted to pay. Here's how it worked: When pieces from the collection dropped, they were listed at wholesale prices (around 50% less than retail). Prices raised incrementally each second, capping at the full retail listing. The price pieces sold out at then became the final price. In other words, the more popular an item was, the lower the price was for everyone. This style of pricing could be a win-win for the brand and customers. The brand now knows exactly how many units to order from manufacturers and won’t have to rely on steep price cuts to move product, and customers are able to get designer pieces that fit into their budgets. With this model, Telfar can immediately gauge which items its customers like most and gain valuable insights that will help influence future designs and prices. Affordability has been a part of Telfar’s ethos since the brand launched in 2005. Founder Telfar Clemons told Fast Company, “Many brands use price as a barrier for entry. I never wanted that for my...

Dove's Latest Campaign Takes On A Popular TikTok Filter Welcome to HubSpot Marketing News! Tap in for campaign deep dives, the latest marketing industry news, and tried-and-true insights from HubSpot’s media team. In late February a new filter called “Bold Glamour” took TikTok by storm. The Bold Glamour filter uses AI to drastically alter the facial features of those who use it and is less detectable than other filters. The filter has been used in over 30 million videos to date. As Bold Glamour gained popularity it was widely criticized by TikTok users for promoting unrealistic beauty standards, especially for young people. Beauty brand Dove joined the conversation with a timely campaign featuring original data. Per Dove research, 48% of girls who digitally alter their photos have lower self-esteem compared to 28% of girls who don’t digitally alter their photos. To amplify this message, Dove partnered with Ogilvy and DAVID to launch the #TurnYourBack campaign on March 7. The campaign featured influencers and celebrities comparing their digitally altered faces to their natural appearances while encouraging their followers to turn their backs on the Bold Glamour filter in hopes that they discontinue using it. @gabunion #DovePartner I am turning my back on the Bold Glamour Filter. I am enough! Join me and #TurnYourBack #BoldGlamour #LetsChangeBeauty ♬ original sound - Gab Union ...

Microsoft Launched Its AI-Powered Bing Image Creator - What That Means for Marketers Welcome to HubSpot Marketing News! Tap in for campaign deep dives, the latest marketing industry news, and tried-and-true insights from HubSpot’s media team.  Microsoft is keeping generative AI front and center in its search products. In January, the company extended its partnership with Open AI, the maker of ChatGPT with a multi-year investment believed to be worth $10 billion. The following month, Microsoft launched new AI-powered versions of its Bing search engine and Microsoft Edge web browser. This week Microsoft announced the launch of Bing Image Creator — an AI-powered tool that allows users to create images at the click of a button (a major upgrade from WordArt). One day you stopped using WordArt and didn't even know it.— Microsoft (@Microsoft) March 22, 2023 Users can type a brief image description into the chat window on Bing or upon clicking the Image Creator icon within Microsoft Edge to get custom images generated by OpenAI’s DALL-E. Image Source The feature is currently available for Bing and Microsoft Edge preview users. In addition to image generation, Microsoft is rolling out Visual Stories and Knowledge Cards 2.0 to aid Bing users in their visual searches. With Visual Stories, search results can include AI-generated video and audio clips. The Knowledge Card 2.0 update will include visual search results such as infographics generated by AI. What does this mean for...

How Marketers Are Preparing for A Potential TikTok Ban Welcome to HubSpot Marketing News! Tap in for campaign deep dives, the latest marketing industry news, and tried-and-true insights from HubSpot’s media team. A potential TikTok ban is looming in the U.S. After the app has been banned on government devices and some college campuses, the Biden Administration threatened a nationwide ban if ByteDance, the China-based company that owns TikTok, doesn’t sell its stakes in the platform. If the app does get banned, it could have major repercussions for marketers who have invested heavily in the platform over the last three years. Though overall social ad spend is trending downward due to economic uncertainty, TikTok saw a 20% increase in ad spend during the first three quarters of 2022 with some agencies reporting that 25% of their social spend is dedicated to TikTok ads alone. While many companies are continuing to invest ad dollars in more established platforms, TikTok has untapped potential to reach new audiences that aren’t on other platforms. In January 2023 TikTok reached 850 million global users, though 40% of TikTok users aren’t on Facebook, and 63% aren’t on Twitter. Some agencies and brands are pulling back their TikTok advertising spend to see how things shake out, while others are continuing to invest to continue getting reach on the platform while they still can. In the meantime, TikTok is trying to ease the concerns of advertisers to keep the ad dollars rolling in. It’s worth noting that...

Why the Sephora x TikTok Incubator Program Is A Smart Partnership Welcome to HubSpot Marketing News! Tap in for campaign deep dives, the latest marketing industry news, and tried-and-true insights from HubSpot’s media team. Earlier this week, Sephora and TikTok announced a new joint venture with agency Digitas: an incubator program to help new beauty brands leverage creator content. As part of the Sephora x TikTok Incubator Program, TikTok creators will teach select brands how to implement creator-focused social media strategies to drive growth and engagement.   The first round of participating brands includes Hyper Skin, Topicals, and Eadem, selected from Sephora’s Accelerate program. These BIPOC-owned brands will learn from popular TikTok creators including Amy Chang (@bondenavant), Nyma Tang (@nymatang), and Rocio Lopez-Jimenez (@rocio.roses). Why the Sephora x TikTok Incubator Program Makes Sense For years, users have acknowledged the persuasive power TikTok has on their purchasing choices through the hashtag #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt, and few spaces have been as influential or lucrative as #BeautyTok. From 2020 to 2021 consumption of beauty-related content on TikTok grew by 1,000%, and beauty brands have benefitted from the surge. Beauty retailer Ulta reported an 18.2% increase in sales from 2021 to 2022 with annual revenue exceeding $10 billion for the first time in the company’s history. During this same time period, Sephra saw a 23% increase in sales earning a record-breaking $82.6 billion in revenue. Sephora acknowledges the success of its stores is dependent on the success of the brands it carries. And the success...

Meta Is Ending Its Reels Play Bonus Program: What That Means for Creators Welcome to HubSpot Marketing News! Tap in for campaign deep dives, the latest marketing industry news, and tried-and-true insights from HubSpot’s media team. Last week, Meta announced plans to pause Reels Play Bonus payments — a monetization program that paid creators monthly based on the number of views their Reels received. While the program is on pause, Meta will focus on advertising within Reels with the hopes of developing a revenue share model which is currently being tested on Facebook. The program launched in late 2021 to incentivize Instagram and Facebook users to share short-form video content. Since its inception, creators report being offered between $100 to $35,000 to post Reels. Meta will continue honoring Reels bonus payments for those currently participating in the program for the next 30 days. Will the end of this program be a devastating blow to creators on Facebook and Instagram? Not necessarily.       ...