MARKETING
Double Down & Double Up [Hot Takes + Event Highlights]
![Double Down & Double Up [Hot Takes + Event Highlights]](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Double-Down-Double-Up-Hot-Takes-Event-Highlights.jpg "Double Down & Double Up [Hot Takes + Event Highlights]")
12+ state legislators have introduced bills reining in DEI programs in universities, more than 600 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced in state legislatures, and 1 in 3 DEI roles have been eliminated over the last year. Can DEI continue? It was a resounding “yes” at this year’s ADCOLOR 2023 Conference that encouraged DEI professionals to double down and double up to create lasting change in the face of adversity.
In a dynamic showcase of diversity, creativity, and inclusion, ADCOLOR 2023 brought together industry leaders, visionaries, and change-makers in the DEI space from November 9 to 11 at the JW Marriott LA Live in Los Angeles, California. The theme “Double Down & Double Up,” celebrated professionals at all levels and underscored the ongoing importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the creative industries. Sessions encouraged the consistent amplification of diverse voices, and reminded attendees that what happens in this world is a mirror of our world at large and by changing one, we can start to change the other. Tinuiti was honored to be on the ground at this event, gaining invaluable insights that will shape our future approach to advertising and DEI in the workplace.
In this post, we’ll cover our top highlights and key takeaways from ADCOLOR 2023. These are a sampling of just some of the stand-out moments.
“Our theme of ‘Double Down & Double Up’ makes it clear that even when there is a regression of support, the ADCOLOR community will stand strong and hold the line for diversity, equity and inclusion. ADCOLOR 2023 will be a safe space for our diverse communities and allies to activate inspiration and continue to push ahead the progress that has been made.”
– Tiffany R. Warren, Founder and President of ADCOLOR
Top: Chelsey Codrington, Sr. Director, Client Strategy and Chair of Tinuiti’s Diversity Council, Javier Carmona Program Manager, D&I | Tinuiti, Ronnie D’Amico SVP, Communications | Tinuiti, Jeff Batuhan Chief People Officer, Tinuiti Bottom: Ronnie Dickerson Stewart, Tinuiti’s DEI Leader-in-Residence, Devin Kates D&I Specialist | Tinuiti
ADCOLOR 2023 Sessions: Key Event Highlights
While ADCOLOR featured dozens of thought-provoking sessions, here’s a select glimpse of those that made the most impact on the Tinuiti delegation.
Inclusion Drives Impact: Where Marketing and Brands Converge for Real Change
In a captivating conversation involving marketing strategists and partnership leads, Disney’s Jan Coleman, Brittney Todd, and Erica Hansen explored the ways Disney elevated its marketing initiatives and collaborations, using films like “The Little Mermaid” and “Avatar: The Way of Water” to enrich narratives. The objective was to amplify and enhance these stories, fostering a positive impact on interconnected audiences, consumers, and the industry as a whole.
The leaders at Disney highlighted how the emphasis on inclusion extended beyond a business objective. They highlighted how inclusion became a fundamental requirement to ensure that audiences and consumers could see themselves authentically represented on screen.
“The person that is sitting next to me does not look like me and sometimes that’s a good thing so that you can learn from someone that’s different from you. Inclusivity starts with you as the individual and we don’t have to wait until someone tells us it’s okay to be inclusive. I think sometimes we feel discouraged if we don’t get permission from leadership, so don’t ever get discouraged. It starts with you and your passion.”
– Jan Coleman, Vice President, Global Marketing Partnerships at The Walt Disney Studios
Brick by Brick: Building Equity and Sustainable Growth for Black Women-Owned Brands
During this session, the discussion centered on the challenges faced by black women entrepreneurs in the U.S. Speakers noted that despite 17% of black women in the U.S. launching or running businesses, only 3% see their ventures reach maturity. Amazon facilitated a conversation featuring entrepreneurs such as Tracee Ellis Ross of PATTERN Beauty, Toyin Kolawole of Iya Foods, and Beverly Melbranche of Caribbrew.
These industry leaders shared practical strategies aimed at fostering long-term success for brands of various sizes…
- Consumer Research: Giving consumers what they are actually asking for, not what you think they need as a brand.
- Brand Creative & Messaging Alignment: Implementing messaging that resonates with consumers based on diverse voices.
- Resource Sharing & Investment: Tapping into resources in the market, specifically from other businesses who have done it well and sharing those between teams for amplified growth.
“It’s been very hard differentiating myself as a black woman in America but one of the things that I notice is that when we ask the right questions and get the right answers, we’re able to achieve that success. How do we get in touch with our customers in the right way? 2.7M businesses are black female owned. If you are in a position of power, call those around you to be a part of it, do that. It’s diversity equity and inclusion, people do the diversity and inclusion, but it’s the equity that fuels the inclusion.”
– Tracee Ellis Ross, Award-winning actress, producer, and CEO/Founder at PATTERN Beauty
Hidden Battlefield: Unearthing Safety Crisis in DEI Work
Lois Castillo, Head of DEI at Basis Technologies; Ronnie Dickerson Stewart, Tinuiti’s DEI Leader-in-Residence & Founder & Principal, Oh Hey Coach; Soon Mee Kim, Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer, Omnicom Public Relations Group, and Aisha Losche, Chief Diversity Officer at Draper sat down for an important panel discussion delving into the challenges faced by DEI practitioners, highlighting hidden dangers, systemic hurdles, and the often-overlooked mental health outcomes stemming from their work. The session emphasized the need for updated industry standards, leadership responsibility, and proactive measures to address and mitigate these risks.
A significant focus of the discussion was on the uncomfortable aspects of DEI work that practitioners typically endure in silence. The session provided insights into a playbook, listed below, of strategies to establish allyship and safety nets, especially in the face of online harassment and real-life threats that contribute to burnout…
- Educate other departments about your role and involve them in DEI efforts, emphasizing that DEI is a collective responsibility, not confined to one person or team. Recognize the importance of seeking support and accessing necessary resources.
- Gain a comprehensive understanding of the current and future requirements of your work in DEI.
- Review and redefine your job responsibilities by clearly delineating what you are paid to do, what you are asked to do, and what you need to do. Embrace the assignment with confidence, holding your head high.
- Assess the security measures required for your role and familiarize yourself with the existing company policies that support DEI efforts. Advocate for necessary changes or additions to enhance your support.
- Recognize that mutual support is a crucial resource in DEI work. Acknowledge the potential isolation and weightiness of the role, emphasizing the need for a network of trusted individuals around you.
The session’s bottom line conveyed a powerful message: DEI professionals are not alone in their challenges, and the importance for organizations to prioritize the well-being of those dedicated to taking care of their people in the realm of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
“People in positions of power need the audacity to reset the room.”
– Ronnie Dickerson Stewart, Tinuiti’s DEI Leader-in-Residence & Founder & Principal, Oh Hey Coach
Left to right: Jeff Batuhan Chief People Officer, Tinuiti, Devin Kates D&I Specialist | Tinuiti, Ronnie Dickerson Stewart, Tinuiti’s DEI Leader-in-Residence, Chelsey Codrington, Sr. Director, Client Strategy and Chair of Tinuiti’s Diversity Council, Ronnie D’Amico SVP, Communications | Tinuiti
Dismantling Disinformation: How to Reframe and Refocus DEI Efforts
Brands committed to inclusivity and DEI practitioners are in a perpetual struggle against misinformation surrounding equity and inclusion. During this session, industry leaders advocated for winning strategies to counteract this challenge, such as reshaping language to secure executive buy-in and investment, transforming “inclusion” from a source of inspiration into a tool for growth, and setting enduring, consistent goals.
They encouraged DEI professionals to ask the question, “What is your company doing internally to reflect the image you are showcasing externally? How are they matching?”
“Don’t ask for permission to do it, ask for the power to do it.”
– Adrianne C. Smith, SVP and Senior Partner, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at FleishmanHillard
Raise the Volume: Why Amplifying Diverse Voices is Good for Business and Culture
In this panel session, Scottie Beam, Joe Hadley, Kristin Jarrett, Sylvia Obell, and Jazmine Settles, discussed the impact of sustained support from brands on diverse creators. The conversation focused on empowering underrepresented talent and implementing strategies to broaden audience engagement and profitability, all while ensuring that external voices align with internal commitments to equity and inclusion.
Joe Hadley, Global Head of Artist Partnerships & Audience at Spotify, noted that you can’t support black, brown, or queer artists if your executive team isn’t reflective. He noted brands to be deliberate in budget placement, ensuring it goes beyond typical areas. Hadley also highlighted the importance of breaking historical patterns and showcasing diverse voices where they may not be expected.
The discussion delved into creating equity programs within brands, emphasizing the necessity of having the right leaders to empower the right people in the right rooms. Settles emphasized the importance of an “always-on” mentality, placing diverse creators at the center of campaigns and utilizing platforms to fill white spaces and close gaps.
The panel also provided “Green Flags” for working with partners, emphasizing honest and direct communication, understanding the audience, and addressing imposter syndrome. The significance of diverse agency partners was stressed, with a call to ensure diversity not only within the company but also among agency representatives, as they play a crucial role in representing brands.
“Hire people and agencies who are also very diverse – don’t just make sure your company is diverse but also your agency partners because they represent brands – you have to have like minded partners to learn from.”
– Scottie Beam, Podcast Host, Media Personality, Radio
Bridge The Gap: How to Increase LGBTQ+ Engagement in Advertising & Branding
Marketing leaders discussed GLAAD’s latest research around the current sentiment of brands investing in campaigns related to the LGBTQ+ community. The panel, featuring Meghan Barterly from GLAAD and Ravleen Beeston from Microsoft Advertising, delved into the study’s findings, offering unique insights into the evolution (and lack thereof) of LGBTQ+ representation in advertising.
Key points from the discussion included the industry’s fear of potential boycotts for including LGBTQ+ content and that one-third of the industry reported having no budget specifically allocated to target the LGBTQ+ community. GLAAD cited specific concerns often heard from brands: featuring the LGBTQ+ community doesn’t have enough value to include in campaigns compared to the risk and backlash they may face , featuring transgender and non-binary people will detract from messaging; potential risk of lawsuit was too high.
The main takeaway emphasized the need for executives to have tools and support, particularly from partners like GLAAD, to effectively engage with and represent the LGBTQ+ community. While recognizing the business growth opportunities, the panel stressed the importance of focusing on case studies to showcase the value of such engagements.
“Executives need tools to help them do the work and they need support from partners to show the work that drives value and business growth – show them the case studies.”
– Meghan Bartley, Director of Agencies, Brands, and Engagement, GLAAD
“We’ve been a leader in DEI policies and resources for our employees for 30 years – companies need fundamental policies and strategies to drive systematic change.”
– Ravleen Beeston, Regional Vice President, Microsoft Advertising, UK, Microsoft
Conclusion
“Let’s make the pledge to harness the power of our collective, to push forward even when the road is bumpy, to double down and double up.”
– ADCOLOR 2023
The 2023 ADCOLOR conference highlighted the enduring importance of DEI in advertising. This year, the imperative to double down and double up on DEI conversations is more vital than ever, emphasizing that DEI is not a passing trend but a critical part of our industry. The call is clear—to come together, renew our commitment, and engage in conversations that lead to substantial investments in organizations and brands to drive fundamental changes for a more inclusive and equitable future.
MARKETING
YouTube Ad Specs, Sizes, and Examples [2024 Update]
Introduction
With billions of users each month, YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine and top website for video content. This makes it a great place for advertising. To succeed, advertisers need to follow the correct YouTube ad specifications. These rules help your ad reach more viewers, increasing the chance of gaining new customers and boosting brand awareness.
Types of YouTube Ads
Video Ads
- Description: These play before, during, or after a YouTube video on computers or mobile devices.
- Types:
- In-stream ads: Can be skippable or non-skippable.
- Bumper ads: Non-skippable, short ads that play before, during, or after a video.
Display Ads
- Description: These appear in different spots on YouTube and usually use text or static images.
- Note: YouTube does not support display image ads directly on its app, but these can be targeted to YouTube.com through Google Display Network (GDN).
Companion Banners
- Description: Appears to the right of the YouTube player on desktop.
- Requirement: Must be purchased alongside In-stream ads, Bumper ads, or In-feed ads.
In-feed Ads
- Description: Resemble videos with images, headlines, and text. They link to a public or unlisted YouTube video.
Outstream Ads
- Description: Mobile-only video ads that play outside of YouTube, on websites and apps within the Google video partner network.
Masthead Ads
- Description: Premium, high-visibility banner ads displayed at the top of the YouTube homepage for both desktop and mobile users.
YouTube Ad Specs by Type
Skippable In-stream Video Ads
- Placement: Before, during, or after a YouTube video.
- Resolution:
- Horizontal: 1920 x 1080px
- Vertical: 1080 x 1920px
- Square: 1080 x 1080px
- Aspect Ratio:
- Horizontal: 16:9
- Vertical: 9:16
- Square: 1:1
- Length:
- Awareness: 15-20 seconds
- Consideration: 2-3 minutes
- Action: 15-20 seconds
Non-skippable In-stream Video Ads
- Description: Must be watched completely before the main video.
- Length: 15 seconds (or 20 seconds in certain markets).
- Resolution:
- Horizontal: 1920 x 1080px
- Vertical: 1080 x 1920px
- Square: 1080 x 1080px
- Aspect Ratio:
- Horizontal: 16:9
- Vertical: 9:16
- Square: 1:1
Bumper Ads
- Length: Maximum 6 seconds.
- File Format: MP4, Quicktime, AVI, ASF, Windows Media, or MPEG.
- Resolution:
- Horizontal: 640 x 360px
- Vertical: 480 x 360px
In-feed Ads
- Description: Show alongside YouTube content, like search results or the Home feed.
- Resolution:
- Horizontal: 1920 x 1080px
- Vertical: 1080 x 1920px
- Square: 1080 x 1080px
- Aspect Ratio:
- Horizontal: 16:9
- Square: 1:1
- Length:
- Awareness: 15-20 seconds
- Consideration: 2-3 minutes
- Headline/Description:
- Headline: Up to 2 lines, 40 characters per line
- Description: Up to 2 lines, 35 characters per line
Display Ads
- Description: Static images or animated media that appear on YouTube next to video suggestions, in search results, or on the homepage.
- Image Size: 300×60 pixels.
- File Type: GIF, JPG, PNG.
- File Size: Max 150KB.
- Max Animation Length: 30 seconds.
Outstream Ads
- Description: Mobile-only video ads that appear on websites and apps within the Google video partner network, not on YouTube itself.
- Logo Specs:
- Square: 1:1 (200 x 200px).
- File Type: JPG, GIF, PNG.
- Max Size: 200KB.
Masthead Ads
- Description: High-visibility ads at the top of the YouTube homepage.
- Resolution: 1920 x 1080 or higher.
- File Type: JPG or PNG (without transparency).
Conclusion
YouTube offers a variety of ad formats to reach audiences effectively in 2024. Whether you want to build brand awareness, drive conversions, or target specific demographics, YouTube provides a dynamic platform for your advertising needs. Always follow Google’s advertising policies and the technical ad specs to ensure your ads perform their best. Ready to start using YouTube ads? Contact us today to get started!
MARKETING
Why We Are Always ‘Clicking to Buy’, According to Psychologists
Amazon pillows.
MARKETING
A deeper dive into data, personalization and Copilots
Salesforce launched a collection of new, generative AI-related products at Connections in Chicago this week. They included new Einstein Copilots for marketers and merchants and Einstein Personalization.
To better understand, not only the potential impact of the new products, but the evolving Salesforce architecture, we sat down with Bobby Jania, CMO, Marketing Cloud.
Dig deeper: Salesforce piles on the Einstein Copilots
Salesforce’s evolving architecture
It’s hard to deny that Salesforce likes coming up with new names for platforms and products (what happened to Customer 360?) and this can sometimes make the observer wonder if something is brand new, or old but with a brand new name. In particular, what exactly is Einstein 1 and how is it related to Salesforce Data Cloud?
“Data Cloud is built on the Einstein 1 platform,” Jania explained. “The Einstein 1 platform is our entire Salesforce platform and that includes products like Sales Cloud, Service Cloud — that it includes the original idea of Salesforce not just being in the cloud, but being multi-tenancy.”
Data Cloud — not an acquisition, of course — was built natively on that platform. It was the first product built on Hyperforce, Salesforce’s new cloud infrastructure architecture. “Since Data Cloud was on what we now call the Einstein 1 platform from Day One, it has always natively connected to, and been able to read anything in Sales Cloud, Service Cloud [and so on]. On top of that, we can now bring in, not only structured but unstructured data.”
That’s a significant progression from the position, several years ago, when Salesforce had stitched together a platform around various acquisitions (ExactTarget, for example) that didn’t necessarily talk to each other.
“At times, what we would do is have a kind of behind-the-scenes flow where data from one product could be moved into another product,” said Jania, “but in many of those cases the data would then be in both, whereas now the data is in Data Cloud. Tableau will run natively off Data Cloud; Commerce Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud — they’re all going to the same operational customer profile.” They’re not copying the data from Data Cloud, Jania confirmed.
Another thing to know is tit’s possible for Salesforce customers to import their own datasets into Data Cloud. “We wanted to create a federated data model,” said Jania. “If you’re using Snowflake, for example, we more or less virtually sit on your data lake. The value we add is that we will look at all your data and help you form these operational customer profiles.”
Let’s learn more about Einstein Copilot
“Copilot means that I have an assistant with me in the tool where I need to be working that contextually knows what I am trying to do and helps me at every step of the process,” Jania said.
For marketers, this might begin with a campaign brief developed with Copilot’s assistance, the identification of an audience based on the brief, and then the development of email or other content. “What’s really cool is the idea of Einstein Studio where our customers will create actions [for Copilot] that we hadn’t even thought about.”
Here’s a key insight (back to nomenclature). We reported on Copilot for markets, Copilot for merchants, Copilot for shoppers. It turns out, however, that there is just one Copilot, Einstein Copilot, and these are use cases. “There’s just one Copilot, we just add these for a little clarity; we’re going to talk about marketing use cases, about shoppers’ use cases. These are actions for the marketing use cases we built out of the box; you can build your own.”
It’s surely going to take a little time for marketers to learn to work easily with Copilot. “There’s always time for adoption,” Jania agreed. “What is directly connected with this is, this is my ninth Connections and this one has the most hands-on training that I’ve seen since 2014 — and a lot of that is getting people using Data Cloud, using these tools rather than just being given a demo.”
What’s new about Einstein Personalization
Salesforce Einstein has been around since 2016 and many of the use cases seem to have involved personalization in various forms. What’s new?
“Einstein Personalization is a real-time decision engine and it’s going to choose next-best-action, next-best-offer. What is new is that it’s a service now that runs natively on top of Data Cloud.” A lot of real-time decision engines need their own set of data that might actually be a subset of data. “Einstein Personalization is going to look holistically at a customer and recommend a next-best-action that could be natively surfaced in Service Cloud, Sales Cloud or Marketing Cloud.”
Finally, trust
One feature of the presentations at Connections was the reassurance that, although public LLMs like ChatGPT could be selected for application to customer data, none of that data would be retained by the LLMs. Is this just a matter of written agreements? No, not just that, said Jania.
“In the Einstein Trust Layer, all of the data, when it connects to an LLM, runs through our gateway. If there was a prompt that had personally identifiable information — a credit card number, an email address — at a mimum, all that is stripped out. The LLMs do not store the output; we store the output for auditing back in Salesforce. Any output that comes back through our gateway is logged in our system; it runs through a toxicity model; and only at the end do we put PII data back into the answer. There are real pieces beyond a handshake that this data is safe.”
