The TwoSix team is back and ready to share what’s On Our Radar for July so that you can stay ahead of the always-evolving digital marketing landscape. This month the TwoSix team discusses how to avoid hackers, Reddit conversation ads, destination email marketing, and much more! Keep reading to find out what we’re keeping On Our Radar for July 2024.

During the last month, I’ve noticed an increasing trend of receiving client messages regarding hacked Meta accounts.  This includes Facebook Pages and Instagram accounts mostly. Needless to say, these are always disheartening messages to receive. Here are some things you can do to help protect yourself from this giant time suck, and potentially increase your chances of recovering compromised accounts: Stop clicking links in emails: It can be so very tempting, but don’t do it. If you receive a message in your inbox, go to the network itself to view the notifications there. If there isn’t a notification there, chances are it was a bunk email trying to get you to make bad decisions. Another easy way to tell (but not always 100% reliable) is to look at the sender’s email. Most times, a suspicious looking sender email address is all you need to see. Turn on your two-factor authentication: It can be annoying, but it could save you immense pain and struggle. It’s there for a reason. Take the time to set up your two-factor options so that you add another layer of security to your accounts. Use strong passwords: This one is pretty obvious, but go beyond your destination name and the year or the classic 12345. We see this all the time when we’re conducting our Social Media Audits! The more complex your password, the better.

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Know who owns your Business Manager: Who created your Business Manager and what was the email that was used? Do you still have access to this account? You need to know this. In some cases, a past employee may have set it up. Knowing where notifications will go and who has the power to make changes can save you valuable time. Make sure you have multiple admins assigned: It’s perhaps one of the easiest things you can do to give yourself some options when tragedy strikes. Our clients often only have a single admin assigned to their Business Manager. Guess what, if you get compromised, you’re pretty much SOL in most cases. If you add multiple admins you can have some options when it comes to navigating permissions. If you’ve been compromised, you need to follow the process and be patient. A day can feel like a year in these instances, but you need to follow the process. Patience and persistence are going to be your biggest virtues. In some cases, I’ve seen it take several months to come to a resolution. If you haven’t heard anything in a week, submit another ticket. Sadly, things don’t always work out in your favor either, but I’ve seen with patience and persistence, things have a better chance of working out in your favor. If you’re having an issue, you need to start here: Facebook Hacked Account Ticket: https://www.facebook.com/hacked Instagram Hacked Account Ticket: https://www.instagram.com/hacked/ Some things that can help your case, would be to provide as many of the following documents along with your support ticket:

• Domain Name Assignment Agreement or Deed of Assignment of Intellectual Property
• Utility Bill
• Articles or Certificates of Incorporation, Formation, or Organization
• Business Licenses or Permits
• DBA documents
• Tax Certs. and Licenses
• Bank Statements, Summaries, Letters
• Credit Score Reports
• Trademark/registered/copyright document

You might as well gather these items now, so when the time comes, you’ve got it ready to go. That way you can keep momentum going on the case. Sometimes, that is all you need. Be nice: This is probably the hardest one. You’re frustrated. You’ve submitted your information multiple times with no response. I hear you, it’s maddening. But, once you make progress and reach a real or AI representative, be nice. Your tone plays a role in how quickly you can progress through these processes. Just be nice. Be smart. Be safe. Use good judgment! Lastly, share this information with your team so everyone knows the importance of not clicking those links! You’re only as strong as the weakest link in the chain.

The previous version of Google Analytics, Universal Analytics, is officially done. Google said it’s deleting Universal Analytics properties starting July 1, 2024. It’s being fully replaced by the new version of Google Analytics, GA4. This means you’re no longer able to access any Universal Analytics data. If you try, you won’t see any data — just 0s.

Time to sound the alarm? Absolutely not. If you accessed Universal Analytics in the last few months, you would’ve seen the countdown, warning you to export data before it was deleted. If hadn’t used Universal Analytics data since then, you probably didn’t need it. Back in April 2023, I compiled a list of reports I thought organizations might find useful to export. But now, I’m not even sure those were necessary. Sessions and users per year are probably have everything you need to know. Tourism has changed a lot in the past few years, and it’s not like apples-to-apples comparisons between GA4 and UA are possible, so you’re not missing much. All that said, knowing the basics of GA4 is more important than ever. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us!

It seems like we’ve been saying this for years now, but vertical video content is only growing more prevalent and more important for advertisers. As horizontal video ad placements become more and more limited, being replaced by vertical integrations in classic placements like the Meta newsfeed, YouTube in-stream advertising, Pinterest, and more, the value of reusable vertical video is ever increasing. Recently, Meta started taking vertical video ads and automatically adding a reflective blur to the top and bottom of horizontal videos, adjusting the aspect ratio so that any video uploaded to the platform can play in a vertical placement. This is just one example of the growing takeover of the vertical format. TikTok, being one of the first major and to-this-day primary vertical video platforms, has made it easier than ever to repost videos made on their platform without watermarks so that those assets can be reused on other vertical platforms. This update does not allow you to download the video without watermarks directly, but it does allow you to post the video to other platforms without a watermark. This was not previously an option through the app, and has made it difficult for social media management teams who rely on the app’s editing software to create content to get the same traction on other platforms, where videos are restricted for having another app’s watermark on them. Now that you can repost the video to other platforms, sharing a video with your YouTube account, for example, will make the new shorts video usable in ads as well as downloadable for use on other platforms where it needs to be directly uploaded – like Pinterest, for example. This new update will allow social media teams to be more nimble and create vertical video content with greater value on the fly, helping increase content creation efficiency.

Reddit ads have taken off recently and there have been some updates to their conversation ads, so let’s have a conversation about it. Reddit’s conversation ads appear in the comment stream where most reddit users are often found. We’ve already got a great location but now they will include larger media and carousel display’s with updated CTA buttons.

This new update brings a more appealing and engaging ad option placed right where people are engaging the most; in the comments. In fact 47% of screenviews are in the comments. Reddit is also testing a new type of ad placement that lives in between individual comments in reddit conversations. Combining traditional feed ads with conversation ads seem to be very effective for advertising on reddit. Reddit number are up above 80 million daily users with strong communities, it may prove to be something to try out in the future as they work to grow their ad opportunities.

In recent years, marketers have constantly been searching: “Is email marketing dead” and to their surprise, it isn’t going anywhere. While the flashiness of Instagram and the attention-grabbing nature of TikTok may seem more appealing, the facts don’t lie- marketing emails influence purchasing decisions. In 2024, email marketing remains the highest return on investment (ROI) for all types of marketing with an average return of $36 for every $1 spent. That’s a 3,600% ROI! If that’s not impressive enough- marketing emails influence 59% of people’s purchasing decisions AND 50% of people buy from marketing emails at least once a month. I mean… that seems like a no-brainer to me. People are going to their emails with the intention of finding deals and purchasing products, hotel stays, experiences, whatever it may be! So, be there.

Now, I’m not suggesting you abandon ship on your current digital marketing strategy- but if sending newsletter isn’t currently a part of it, it needs to be. Social media and email marketing actually work hand-in-hand to create the perfect strategy for your DMO: Step 1: Use social media marketing to reach new people and create interest in your destination. Step 2: Run lead-generation ad campaigns to increase email newsletter sign-ups. Step 3: Consistently send emails highlighting your destination to increase purchases, or in DMO language, “heads in beds”. The best part- anyone can do it! I am aware how cheesy that sounds but it’s true. TwoSix Digital has created Email Marketing Strategies for DMOs starting from scratch as well as organizations with hundreds of thousands email subscribers. Click here to read more about TwoSix Digital’s Email Marketing Strategy Service and contact us to get started.

By now, you’ve most definitely had a go at Generative-AI text and image tools like ChatGPT, Adobe‘s AI Image Generator or Generative Fill tools, and AI captioning tools built into many social media and advertising platforms. While still less widely used, and more difficult to access at no cost, Generative-AI video is next in line for the throne. Market.US published a report earlier this month, sharing that the Global Generative-AI in Video Creation Market is expected to be worth around 2.3 Billion USD By 2033, from 336.1 Million USD in 2023, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 21.2% during the forecasted period (2024 to 2033). The growing demand from marketers, educators, and businesses for mass-scale and efficient video production puts Generative-AI video in a pinnacle position as a solution that saves time, energy and money. It’s ability to almost instantly create video from text that resonates with audiences presents a significant opportunity for it to transform the way we approach video content creation. Why is this Valuable to Marketers? In 2023, the marketing segment held a dominant position in the Generative-AI Video market, capturing more than a 34% share. AI-Driven Video and Analytics Tools Produce Higher Engagement AI-driven video and analytic tools can examine vast amounts of consumer data to generate videos that match viewer preferences and behaviors, resulting in higher engagement rates and improved return on investment for marketing campaigns. AI Video Production is Cutting Costs It’s no secret that generative-AI tools can be a huge time-saver, and perhaps even moreso, the process of producing a video from its initial stages of screen-writing to filming and editing is a huge time and money suck!  Generative-AI enables marketers to produce high-quality videos at a fraction of the time and cost associated with traditional video production methods. The Impact of Video Marketing is Undeniable We already know that video content is often more engaging than static images and easier to digest than text. According to data gathered by WebFX, social media posts that contain videos generate 1200% more shares than text and image-based posts combined. The average conversion rate for websites featuring video content is 4.8%, as compared to 2.9% for sites that don’t, and video content has the potential to dominate organic results on a Search Engine Results Page. A Few Ways Generative AI Video is Currently Being Used by Marketers

• Editing raw footage, adding captions, music & voiceovers
  • Not only can AI be used to streamline the editing process of your raw video clips, it can generate and combine royalty-free stock footage to create video from scratch with nothing more than a text prompt. AI-voiceovers, captions, and royalty-free music can be overlayed as well. Here’s A Free Tool to Try!
• Blog posts & web content can be turned into scripts that generate narrated videos with custom avatars
  • Simply, type a speech-text, choose your avatar, add captions, music and more! Several tools also offer the ability to clone your own voice into hundreds of different languages.
• Generative-AI can intuitively transform long-form video into shorts for social media
  • So that blog post that you ran through an AI video generator? Might as well condense that content into a 15-second short for social media!
• The rising trend of virtual influencers
  • The concept of using fictional characters to promote a brand or product has been around since brand mascots and cartoon characters were introduced in print. AI-generated personas & avatars are offering brands an influencer devoid of human restraints, available around the clock and without demands for a pay-raise. This AI-generated influencer is pulling in almost $11,000 a month!

We are seeing more and more companies partner with Generative-AI software and tools. Here are a few key partnerships and developments to keep an eye on in the video market:

• io secured $15 million in a Series A funding round in April 2023 to expand its AI video generation platform and enhance its multilingual capabilities.
• Pictory introduced new features in September 2023, including AI-driven scene detection and automatic voiceover generation, enhancing the user experience for creating marketing and instructional videos.
• In October 2023, Canva partnered with Runway, the startup developing various generative-AI tools for creators, to create generative-AI videos.
• In December 2023, Lumen5 was acquired by Adobe for $250 million. They aim to integrate Lumen5’s AI video creation capabilities with Adobe’s suite of creative tools.
• In February 2024, Rephrase AI partnered with Microsoft to integrate their AI video creation tools into Microsoft Teams, allowing users to generate personalized video messages seamlessly.
• In June 2024, Runway announced its latest generative video model, Gen-3, just seven months after announcing “Gen-2” in November 2023.

Source Some Top Players in the Generative-AI Video MArket:

• Synthesia
• Runway ML
• Pictory
• Lumen5
• Rephrase AI
• DeepBrain
• io

Challenges Many Generative-AI Tools, especially those emerging in video, are still far from perfect. Challenges surrounding data privacy, copyright infringement and ethical considerations are a major concern. Managing biases in AI algorithms, and the potential for AI-generated content to be misused to spread misinformation need to be addressed to build trust and acceptance of advanced AI technologies. All that being said, use your better judgement when experimenting with these tools. They are far from full proof, but offer a great opportunity to transform and streamline your approach to content creation. Example of AI-Generated Video Footage & common limitations and inconsistencies of the technology:

With the ever-changing digital marketing world, we are here to keep you informed of new digital trends and what we are keeping on our radar each month. Have any questions? Contact us! We’re here to help. Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter  to receive monthly updates on trends and insights in the digital marketing and tourism industries straight to your inbox! Click the buttons below to connect with us on social media and stay in the loop on all things TwoSix Digital.