In this episode of Marketing Adjacent, Mike Grinberg and Garrio Harrison discuss the creator economy, decentralized social networking, AI mode, luxury retail brand dupes and fakes, and issues surrounding ESG.
The conversation was recorded on May 15.
[00:02:29] BuzzFeed Leverages Creators for Content as Creator Economy Grows
BuzzFeed's new residency program will give creators access to its tools and distribution in exchange for cross-promoting content. With the creator economy expected to become a $500 billion industry in a few years, two major aspects to consider are the changes in revenue models and the potential increase in disinformation.
The creator economy is changing the unsustainable revenue model that currently exists for news publishers with hiring talent to a more rev share model with creators.
[00:09:38] Discussing ActivityPub and its impact on social networking
ActivityPub is a set of protocols that aim to make web and social networks interoperable, allowing users to bring their identities, audience and social graph to new platforms. With larger companies like Meta and Automattic working on these protocols, there may be potential for a significant impact on social networking business models.
When discussing the concept of decentralized social networks, the notion of affinity becomes central. Affinity refers to the spontaneous liking of someone or something, and can happen on a more one-to-one basis. With decentralized social networks, built-in affinity can be possible at scale as users move from network to network, making it easier for creators to connect with their audience. This idea, combined with businesses seeking more decentralized systems to avoid being beholden to companies like Google, Apple, and Facebook, could drive growth in the decentralized social network space.
[00:20:17] Is There An AI Moat? Exploring Ecosystems and Data Ownership
Concerns raised by a Google engineer about open-source potentially overcoming major players in the space. The discussion highlights the need for businesses to stay within established ecosystems like Google Workspace and Microsoft Office, as well as larger players still having an edge in the enterprise space.
[00:27:06 - 00:27:33] "Google has all your information from your business from its inception, right. Because you're a Google shop. So if a new employee comes on board, the model can now help them go sort through who's been emailing with this person the most, who's the best person to give me this information and it can look at who owns the docs and point them in the right direction."
[00:29:36] Lululemon's Offensive Move to Combat Fake Products
Lululemon combats knockoffs by offering customers an exchange program where they can trade in fake products for the real thing. Other retailers collaborate with fast fashion chains to disincentivize buying knockoffs.
It aims to convert knockoff buyers into loyal Lululemon customers in the long term and to influence the influencers in the short term, rather than just defending the brand against knockoffs.
[00:39:11] Navigating ESG and Corporate Political Theater
The hosts discuss how companies often participate in corporate political theater, basing their ad campaigns on highly politicized issues. This may raise questions about whether the approaches are sincere or just virtue signaling to generate attention. They use the recent Bud Light campaign as an example of such marketing tactics.
[00:40:56 - 00:41:22] "It's literally corporate political theater. It is individuals within organizations, the leaders usually of said organizations, that are taking it upon themselves to take their political views, no matter whether they're relevant to the business or not, and making it part of the business."
There are considerations CEOs and executives should weigh when responding to social and political issues. There are obvious negative effects of making poor judgments, like Budweiser's politically charged commercial, and there is positive impact of appropriately aligning with a brand's identity, like Nike's Kaepernick campaign.
[00:43:38 - 00:44:00] "So if you're a leader of an organization and you're backing the and you want to make a statement or you want to weigh in on something, your decision to do that has to be tied to the economic value of the organization for it to be worth the disruption that it's probably going to cause."
