Forget 100k+! Marketing trends I learned in the United States

Today, Chinese companies are facing more and more opportunities and demands to go overseas, which requires marketers to adapt to local conditions and formulate strategies suitable for overseas markets. Just looking at the work done by American marketers, there are very different trends worth considering.

Walking into the New York headquarters of Ketchum, the world's seventh-ranked public relations company, what appears before your eyes are a series of transparent rooms. Ketchum proudly told us that it was their storytelling room. Every day, public relations people come up with countless creative ideas here, and they don’t think that what they are doing are emotionless business cases, but call themselves storytellers. It's just that vivid stories touch the listeners - consumers and other audiences.

This fits the two words I've come to associate with American marketers - "focus". They work diligently on data, research consumers using traditional, seemingly clumsy methods, implement campaigns accurately and powerfully, and create amazing creativity. The concept of 100,000+ does exist, but it is not so eye-catching. Compared with the gorgeous reading volume figures, I think they pay attention to more dimensions, which are surprisingly simple.

Today, Chinese companies are facing more and more opportunities and demands to go overseas, which requires marketers to adapt to local conditions and formulate strategies suitable for overseas markets. Just looking at the work done by American marketers, there are very different trends worth considering.

1. The “Please Check” Message That Can’t Be Quitted

Email is the mainstream communication tool for Americans and is very commonly used both at work and in life. Email marketing, which is lukewarm in China, is now very popular in the United States. How to write email titles, when to send emails, how to avoid being classified as spam, and when the open rate is the highest are all topics that marketers are concerned about. Take Apple as an example. Whenever a new product is released or a holiday event is held, a very "Apple" email will be sent to the user's mailbox.

According to statistics: emails with customized content, emails that are closely related to market segments or contain promotional content have particularly high open rates and conversion rates. When I was working at a fashion company in New York, the high-end membership system that targeted a small group of people was closely related to email marketing. Email was an important way to maintain customer stickiness and attract old customers to refer new customers.

In the background, we also use email-specific data analysis tools to monitor delivery effects, optimize email content, and conduct AB testing. This seemingly old-fashioned marketing method can actually reach customers in a very targeted manner and achieve high conversions at low marketing costs. Therefore, it can be regarded as a good way to adapt to local conditions.

2. Ads You Don’t Want to Skip

SEM, or search engine marketing, is already a familiar concept. In the United States, Google, the world's largest search engine, is also an important advertising service platform. The programmatic buying model is also very popular in the US advertising industry. Putting aside the familiar search marketing and programmatic delivery on Google, what is the second largest search engine in the world?

The answer may come as a surprise: YouTube.

Yes, it is this famous video website.

Implementing targeted advertising on YouTube has become a popular choice for major advertisers.

What YouTube can do is to create user profiles and market segments based on interests, psychology and behavioral factors, touch the user's true self, and match advertisements accordingly. The so-called “reach the undecided, not the uninterested”.

In order to attract advertisers, YouTube has also made many new attempts, including 6-second skippable short video ads.

Currently, one-third of advertisers use 6-second ads on YouTube, and the improvement in advertising memory effect is also obvious. In addition, various celebrities on YouTube are also favored by brands. An unboxing review might be more popular than a Times Square placement. On YouTube, watching ads has even become a pleasure. This is very interesting.

3. Death by entertainment, life by sharing

Facebook, which was once the most popular app, has been regarded by most young Americans as something their parents played with, and has been replaced by platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat. On Instagram, advertisers use their own accounts to interact with users in the form of pictures, short videos, self-destructing videos and live broadcasts. Users can directly click on the product image or swipe up to enter the purchase page, which is very direct and quick.

Instagram has inherited Facebook's targeted advertising genes and can accurately reach interested users based on their search and sharing behaviors. At the same time, Ins will provide advertisers with detailed background data for further delivery optimization.

The popularity of Instagram and Snapchat means more interesting and diversified social media marketing. Just look at those funny stickers and filters and you’ll know how much the American people love fun and self-deprecation.

Another interesting phenomenon is that it is rare to see large-scale sharing or forwarding of a hot topic on Instagram. It is surprisingly rare, unlike the overwhelming screen-filling of Moments. When American netizens encounter hot topics, they seem to be particularly calm and do not follow the trend.

This is partly due to the nature of platforms like Instagram, which are more entertaining and not as serious and social as Twitter. On the other hand, it also reflects the individualistic characteristics of Americans. They are more willing to share something personal and relevant to themselves rather than forwarding and following the trend. This brings opportunities as well as challenges to social media marketing.

4. Spread the voice of goodwill

In addition to commercial value, the social value of brands is receiving more and more attention and importance, and the concept that has emerged is CSR (corporate social responsibility). In the United States, CSR is a very important strategic component of a company, and sometimes a dedicated department is responsible for its operation. A good CSR campaign not only brings huge publicity, but also intangible yet profound corporate brand assets.

For example, Unilever’s “Help Children Live to Age 5” campaign in India is a good example. Madhya Pradesh in India has the highest diarrheal mortality rate. Unilever launched the CSR campaign in the hope of creating a good social effect. The fast-moving consumer goods giant opened a hand-washing course in primary schools. Over the course of 21 days, children learned hand-washing skills in class, then took the skills home and taught their parents.

The mission is to popularize hand washing hygiene knowledge to 1 billion people by the end of 2015 in order to save lives. The Unilever Lifebuoy team behind the campaign shot a moving video to explain the campaign’s concept, in which a father expresses gratitude on his son’s fifth birthday, saying that his son is the first of his children to reach the age of five. The video quickly racked up over 19 million views on YouTube.

Like this, more and more companies are incorporating CSR into marketing and even corporate strategy considerations. I think this trend not only affects European and American companies, but is also a direction that Chinese companies are paying more and more attention to. In the process of Chinese brands going overseas, CSR can also bring about the positive effect of softening the business environment and should provide us with a new perspective.

Another CSR case that people talk about a lot: the French brand Lacoste replaced the crocodile logo on its polo shirts with the logo of an endangered animal, which aroused people's attention to the protection of endangered species. The shirts sold out quickly after they were released.

Conclusion

Differences in cultural concepts, consumption habits, social environment, etc. have given rise to differences in communication and marketing channels and methods. In fact, American marketers who are proficient in email, Google, YouTube, and various mobile social media still feel unfamiliar with and eager for the vast Chinese market, and are curious about the marketing methods that Chinese consumers accept.

I remember when I showed the H5 about Kris Wu’s enlistment made by Tencent News to several friends from American agencies, they were very surprised by this form of interaction. Recently, more and more overseas friends have taken out their WeChat QR codes for us to scan and add as friends. The attitude and exploration of "crossing the river by feeling the stones" towards overseas markets are similar.

Finally, I would like to end with a point made by Rachel Morin, the current director of corporate communications at IBM's US headquarters, when I was communicating with her: "It is too easy for people to be overwhelmed by the massive amount of information they receive every moment. You have to find a way to reach their hearts on a very personalized level."

Source: Tucao Dawei