Best of the week: Brands are cutting agencies, going directly to influencers
We’ve reached the weekend and there’s a pretty good chance you’re already headed out of town. But before you shut off completely, make sure to check out our top stories from the week – a full list is available at the bottom:
A former global media head of a multinational brand spoke to our UK editor Jess Davies in this week’s Confessions, noting how agencies have evolved into the procurement business, driven by clients prioritizing the road of cheap.
Perhaps on a related note, Shareen Pathak explored how an increasing number of brands are going straight to Instagram stars and social stars on other platforms to make creative, cutting agencies out of the process. “Between high agency markups, creative fees and imaginary fees, brands are saving money by just going direct,” said Delmondo CEO Nick Cicero.
On the video beat, co-executive editor Lucia Moses delved into how food brand Tasty is a template for Buzzfeed’s vertical expansion. Wrote moses: Tasty was followed in October 2015 by Top Knot, a beauty video page with 4.5 million followers; and in September 2016 by Goodful, a wellness page with 15 million followers. One of the most established spinoffs came in March 2016 with DIY page Nifty, which now has 28 million followers of its main page and its own offshoots, including Outdoors and Pets. In the first quarter of this year came Bring Me, for adventurous travelers (1.7 million followers); and bro-y Sweaty (about 1 million followers). Nifty, Goodful, Sweaty and Bring Me were among BuzzFeed’s top 10 Facebook pages in terms of video views. All told, these verticals are the fastest-growing part of BuzzFeed’s business.”
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Top stories of the week:
Confessions of an ex-brand global media chief: It’s all one massive arbitrage system
Brands are using influencers like ad agencies
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How food brand Tasty is a template for BuzzFeed’s vertical expansion
Snapchat is wooing ad buyers with discount coupons and bonuses
Complex is getting 400,000 views on its daily pop culture YouTube show
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In the marketing world, anime is following in the footsteps of gaming
As marketers look to take advantage of anime’s entry into the zeitgeist, they might be wise to observe the parallels between the evolution of anime as a marketing channel and the ways brands have learned to better leverage gaming in recent years.
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With the introduction of video ads and e-commerce, Roblox looks to attain platform status
Roblox is expanding into more areas than just ads in 2024. Much like platforms such as Amazon and Facebook have transcended their origins to evolve from their origins as online marketplaces and social media channels, Roblox is in the midst of a transformation into a platform for all elements of users’ virtual lives.
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PepsiCo wants to remain a ‘driver of culture’ as it turns to influencers and activations amid rebrand
The soda-maker says it can translate cultural relevance into sales volume.
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