Takeaways from advertising and marketing articles making the rounds this week.
When Big Influencers Steal Content, Small Original Creators Lose Out
Mint
Amid the race to gain followers, content intellectual property theft has surged, with big and, sometimes verified, accounts stealing content from popular micro-influencers, then blocking the micro-influencer or turning off comments when they get called out on it.
Why it matters: Platforms like Instagram let users report cases of copyright infringement but by the time the violation is recognized and reaches Instagram, the damage—in terms of views and followers lost—is already done to the micro-influencer.
Unlike YouTube, which has better guidelines to safeguard creator interests, Instagram’s Reels makes it difficult to distinguish what’s original and what’s plagiarized as users must tap ‘more’ to see the caption and comments plus the video doesn’t show the date it was posted.
Boards Need Real Diversity, Not Tokenism
Harvard Business Review
The US stock exchange will now require all listed companies to disclose board-level diversity using a standard template and to have at least two directors from underrepresented groups, “including one who self-identifies as female and one who self-identifies as either an underrepresented minority or LGBTQ+,” or explain why they don’t.
Why it matters: To evolve boards’ views of diversity to go beyond tokenism, board members must work proactively to utilize circles outside of their current reach by creating new relationships beyond familiar ones. Boards can also accomplish this goal by engaging organizations specifically founded to help meet their diversity goals, such as Women on Boards, Board Ready and the Latino Corporate Directors Association.
AB InBev’s Natural Light Enters Vodka Category
Food Dive
In an effort to boost sales, AB InBev’s Natural Light has launched a vodka product in three flavors including lemonade, strawberry lemonade and black cherry lemonade.
Why it matters: The vodka category has been gradually growing for years. According to data from Statista, in 2020, nearly 76.8 million nine-liter cases of vodka were sold, an increase of more than 30 million cases from 2004.
NBCUniversal To Select Multiple Measurement Providers; Nielsen Submits A Pitch
Campaign
NBCUniversal sent RFPs to 54 partners after Nielsen, its current provider, requested its third service hiatus in a year. Eighty percent confirmed participation by the August 23 deadline and NBCU expects to conclude the review process the week of September 20. Six months after that, it plans to start data integration with its new partners.
Why it matters: In previous months, networks that use Nielsen for measurement, including CBS, ABC and Fox, have expressed grievances that it was no longer accurately measuring its performance.
TikTok Partners With Influential To Help Brands Find Creators
Ad Age
TikTok has integrated influencer marketing company Influential into its Creator Marketplace, enabling advertisers to invite influencers to campaigns and access key creator stats plus keywords, engagement rates, growth trends and TikTok audience demographics.
Why it matters: Influential, which has previously worked with McDonald’s and DoorDash on campaigns, claims that the new integration will provide clients better first-party data to support those partnerships.
