Hello friends!
Heading into the end of August and the mythical âquiet summer weeksâ are still eluding us – if anything, weâve been busier than usual! We spent a few days in Boston last week catching up with clients and making new friends, and weâre planning more time out on the West Coast next month to attend SaaStr (if youâre in the Bay Area and want to catch up, drop us a line and weâll make it happen).
Weâre not sure whether itâs an early âback to schoolâ vibe or positive economic news but it feels like everyone is starting to look ahead to 2025 – planning, pitching and positivity all around. The vibes are, if not quite âimmaculate’ then at least pretty close to it.
Shameless Plug: You may have seen the news already – but we were super stoked to earn our B Corp Certification. Weâve been working towards this for a while now, and it is a real test of commitment to being a force for positive change. Weâll continue striving to be the best corporate citizens but this one was a really special milestone in our journey.
This week weâre providing some guidance on the latest trending buzzwords (because weâre so demure), a look into how Liquid Death is killing it (see what we did there) with their social-first strategy requiring minimal budget, and LinkedInâs latest response survey on how to effectively reach B2B decision-makers.
Speak soon!
Becky & Greg
Jumping on timely trends: Everything you need to know about the âVery demure, very mindfulâ trend
TL;DR: You see how we define trends for you so you can use them in your communications? Very cutesy, very demure, very mindful. If youâve seen this trend pop up all over your feeds over the past week, what you should know is: it originated from a TikTok by creator Jools Lebron in her satirical videos, but has historically been a part of the LGBTQ+ community and ballroom culture. âDemureâ in this context means articulating a feminine embodiment through a classy, iconic approach.
Takeaway: Itâs nearly impossible to predict the internetâs next favorite buzzword. âDemureâ sure came as a surprise since itâs use in the public zeitgeist was pretty light until now. But one thing is for sure: itâs everywhere now. When buzzwords blow up on the internet, they move quickly. Brands have anywhere from 48 hours to a week to jump on the trend. And donât get us started on brands who are late to the trend (most often audiences attribute lengthy legal approvals to belated posts). At this point, you may already be late to jump on the âvery demure, very mindfulâ trend in content, but there will be another buzzword soon. Be ready to strike while the trend is hot⌠or play it big like Verizon and start up an influencer marketing campaign with the trendsetter.
Consider:
- When the next internet buzzword drops, youâve gotta be ready. Thereâs no telling how long a trend will live on, and you donât want to invest effort into content just to post after the buzz has fizzled out. Create an urgency plan with your team on how to effectively and successfully jump on quick trends. Itâll help reduce stress on the team and help you stand out from competitors!
- Many of these trendsetters are smaller creators â like Jools, the creator of âvery demureâ. These creators pose a great opportunity for the right brands to jump on a collaboration. It may be worth allocating influencer marketing budget towards timely situations like this. Imagine how your brand could be on the forefront of the latest trend just by listening to trends and investing in trendsetters.
Utilize in-house experts: How your pros can help your brand story
TL;DR: Canned water brand Liquid Death has been connecting with consumers through its unique, irreverent marketing since its founding in 2018. Its Vice President of Creative, Andy Pearson, noted in a recent interview with Marketing Dive that the brand has often favored social-first content designed for virality over expensive media buys.
Takeaway: Liquid Death is a great case study on how to scale operations effectively. Their social-first strategy can be implemented with minimal start-up budgets or enhanced with the companyâs growing financial success. The companyâs decision not to invest in big media buys isnât just about conserving budget, itâs because they, âwant to be the best thing someone sees that day⌠weâre not going to keep interrupting the thing that youâre trying to watch.â So, instead of running the same ad playbook (that does have validity to it), it may be worth asking if the contrarian approach could work. Liquid Death is proof that good storytelling and great creative ideas can often lead to just as much success as major paid media.
Consider:
- Approach your current circumstances intentionally. If you lack a budget for paid media, maybe it doesnât have to be a bad thing. Use this as your opportunity to lean into storytelling, creativity, and contrarian approaches to what your competitors are doing.
- Just because Liquid Death doesnât engage in big media buys doesnât mean it doesnât go big. Itâs collaborated with other leading brands and even offered a Super Bowl ad alternative by auctioning off ad space on its cases. How could you make traditional paid media opportunities less boring or predictable?
Understand whatâs not working: Insights from LinkedInâs latest B2B campaign response survey
TL;DR: LinkedIn partnered with Magna Media Trials to survey over 1,700 LinkedIn users on the key drivers of B2B ad performance. Despite the study focusing on ad campaigns, the findings do provide a good sense of how certain pieces of content and topics perform across the board â for example, business decision-makers are overall underwhelmed by the B2B ads they typically see because they lack humor, emotional appeal, characters they can connect with, or a unique perspective.
Takeaway: The study overwhelmingly found that investing in a clear, creative, resonant message is the most effective approach to reaching B2B decision-makers, but most B2B campaigns are clearly failing. 49% of survey respondents said creative ads would make them more likely to look into a brandâs other products or services and the survey found B2B campaigns were 29% less effective if they didnât have a clear message. B2B products and services have the unique challenge of often being complex and difficult to summarize in a singular image or succinct message â but it could make the difference between your brand succeeding or getting overlooked.
Consider:
- Lean into creative pros (like us!) who can help your brand craft simplified, more memorable messaging. Sometimes, it takes a creative exercise or more research to develop a core message that stands out from the crowd.
- Start noticing how brands in your industry are messaging and advertising their products and services. Do you think theyâre boring or confusing? Identify whatâs not working (or working) in your competitorsâ communications so you can better understand how your brandâs messaging can stand out.
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