Good morning marketers, has your brand dabbled in TikTok yet?
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg once compared TikTok to Instagram’s Explore page (according to leaked audio from a company meeting). PSA: Instagram and TikTok are definitely not the same.
The platform known for its amusing video challenges inspired by the ephemeral (and often satirical) nature of Gen Z is starting to become part of the marketing equation. If you’re still wrapping your brain around the strange, youth-centric platform, don’t worry. We created a TikTok primer for brands that covers all the bases, from the youngsters running the app to the beta forms of advertising available to brands. A word of advice to marketers: Don’t sleep on TikTok.
In other news, Amazon quarterly ad revenues surpassed $4 billion for the first time in the fourth quarter, an increase of 41% year over year. That brings the company’s annual advertising revenues in 2019 to roughly $14.1 billion, up 39% from $10.1 billion in 2018. The ability to directly tie advertising to sales on Amazon has been a key attraction for advertisers. “I think they appreciate the fidelity we can provide around shopping outcomes,” said David Fildes, director of investor relations at Amazon said on the earnings call, adding that Amazon is “uniquely positioned to do this given our retail business.”
Dentsu Aegis Network has acquired 4Cite, a first-party identification and analytics platform. 4Cite will become part of the Dentsu-owned marketing performance company Merkle Inc., leveraging 4Cite’s identity resolution capabilities with its own people-based identity and data platform. “The 4Cite acquisition plays a critical role in the future-proofing of our platform in a world where the third party cookie is crumbling,” said Merkle Americas President Craig Dempster. 4Cite will retain its company name and its 50 employees will join Merkle’s staff.
Are you proud of your martech stack? Our 2020 Stackies Awards is just around the corner – and we’re still accepting submissions. To participate, create a 16:9 slide that illustrates the way you conceptualize your marketing stack, the different tools you use, but more importantly, how you think they fit together. Here’s some inspiration. The contest is open through March 20.
Taylor Peterson,
Deputy Editor
