Under The Influence
Influencer culture might be good for brands, but the shilling has serious implications for consumers.
A lot of viewers develop “parasocial relationships” that persuade them to buy anything their favorite influencer suggests, explained Mara Einstein, former marketing professional and author of the book “Hoodwinked: How Marketers Use the Same Tactics as Cults,” to The Verge.
Once someone spends enough time watching their favorite creator, they develop a feeling of intimacy, she said – and they’re much more willing to follow the advice of someone they trust.
Plus, with hyper-personalized ad targeting and increased media fragmentation, “there is no one TV commercial” that practically every household is seeing on a regular basis, writes The Verge. Instead, users are deluged with product recommendations everywhere they look, sometimes – like in influencer marketing – speaking directly to them.
This oversaturation has sparked waves of criticism, including blaming influencers for “perpetuating [the] cycle” of overconsumption in order to line their own pockets.
But despite pushback, “the draw of the influencer is powerful,” says The Verge. “Even if you cannot become her, you can own the same things she does.”
The AI Grocery List
One important difference between finding information via agentic AI vs. traditional web searches (e.g., Google.com) is that AI responses are extremely limited.
Google Search pages feature many paid placements, such as in the Google Maps sidebar, a shopping carousel, sponsored links, etc., often many at once. And then there’s the organic search content. That’s a lot to scroll.
A ChatGPT prompt for a place to see a movie, say, or for sugar-free sodas, is going to return a much narrower set of options.
This is an interesting conundrum for anyone trying to use AI to precisely insert themselves into how consumers are finding things out.
For example, yesterday, Walmart and Pinterest announced a new partnership that makes recipe ideas on the social platform as click-to-buy options for online groceries at Walmart. The New York Times and Instacart did a similar integration last year.
These solutions are enabled by AI. Retailers and recipe publishers have long partnered on preset, click-to-buy recipes. But a genuine integration across all potential recipe-inspiration content requires AI to understand what the recipe calls for and what’s available at that person’s nearby store.
The billion-dollar question for big CPG brands is how to end up on that AI’s shopping list.
If They Wish
There is an insidiousness to advertising. Anyone with a desirable product knows it. Mark Zuckerberg himself pushed an ad-free Facebook about as far as it would go. The founders of Instagram, Netflix, Uber and countless other consumer tech and media startups knew it as well.
Like a vampire, once ad revenue has been invited in, it can’t be kept out.
Which is a preface to FIFA’s decision that next year’s men’s World Cup will have mandatory three-minute “hydration breaks” during each half, regardless of temperature, the Athletic reports.
Advertising often disguises itself in other incentives: Advertising is personalization; it’s privacy software; it’s AI; and for brick-and-mortar chains with retail media networks, advertising can somehow fall under asset protection (jargon for anti-shoplifting).
FIFA frames the hydration breaks as entirely about player welfare. Which, fair enough, when games are played in the scorching heat.
But the new policy is also quite evidently a gift to broadcast partners. It manufactures six minutes of ad time per game that otherwise wouldn’t exist.
“The hydration breaks will also allow broadcasters to air more mid-game commercials, if they wish,” as the Athletic puts it.
But Wait! There’s More
Google has told advertising clients it plans to launch ads in the Gemini AI product shortly. [Adweek]
ChatGPT is good for publisher visibility, but bad for traffic. [Search Engine Journal]
Does Netflix’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery cross antitrust regulations? Donald Trump certainly thinks so. [Bloomberg]
That is, if the acquisition happens at all, now that Paramount has launched a hostile bid. [Variety]
Meta avoids daily fines in the EU with a new proposal to use less personal data for ad targeting. [Reuters]
Samba TV raises $60 million in debt with a plan to scale by acquisition. [Axios]
Uber launches a new insights platform using LiveRamp’s data clean room for improved ad targeting. [Business Insider]
