To Plural or Not to Plural: That is the Question(s)

[00:00:00] It is Tuesday, April 16th. Today, what a difference an S makes! Why one single letter could change

[00:00:08] the future of your brand? Also, Amazon runs in where others have bolted out. DMs are coming

[00:00:16] to threads, only they're not. The self-fulfilling prophecy of one heavily esiode article and

[00:00:22] the brilliant reason McDonald's latest billboards have nothing on them, literally not even their

[00:00:30] logo. I'm Tod Maffin, that's a head today in Digital Marketing.

[00:00:37] So you are launching a brand, a laundry detergent, and you can't decide on the company name.

[00:00:42] Should it be Stainbuster or Stainbusters? One letter could make all the difference.

[00:00:48] And some new research in the Journal of Consumer Psychology says there is a right answer. The

[00:00:54] study looked at more than 12,000 brand names and found that plural names like Stainbusters

[00:01:01] tend to garner more positive attitudes among consumers compared to non-plural names. Names

[00:01:07] in plural form were preferred by 13% more people than the singular version. For example,

[00:01:13] consumers were more inclined towards urban elves over urban elf for a delivery app. Plus, big

[00:01:19] brands with plural names like Snickers and Staples enjoyed a 12% better brand perception

[00:01:26] on average than those with singular names like American Express.

[00:01:31] So why does this happen? The plural form suggests a larger unified group which psychologically

[00:01:38] appears more substantial and inviting. This effect is particularly strong with names that

[00:01:44] relate to groups or teams like the Los Angeles Lakers or the Smiths, enhancing the brand's

[00:01:49] appeal as part of a larger cohesive collection. But the study also found that this plural

[00:01:54] advantage diminishes for premium brands focused on high quality where the naming

[00:02:00] convention has less impact. The findings were predominantly based on English names

[00:02:04] with similar experiments in other languages not showing the same effect. So if you're aiming

[00:02:09] for broad market appeal, consider adding an S to make your brand name plural but for high-end

[00:02:15] markets, the choice between singular and plural may not significantly sway consumer preferences.

[00:02:21] The paper is called More the Marrier. It was published earlier this year in the Journal of

[00:02:25] Consumer Psychology. Another day, another batch of AI stuff dropped into an ad manager.

[00:02:34] Today, Google added more generative image tools into its DemandGen campaign interface.

[00:02:40] DemandGen, formerly known as Discovery Campaigns, are primarily top funnel placements across

[00:02:46] platforms like YouTube, Discover and Gmail. This new tech in question is its ability to create

[00:02:52] images from text prompts. We've seen this in other campaign types so it's nice to see it

[00:02:55] come over to DemandGen. More interestingly, I thought is that you can use it to generate

[00:03:00] similar images to successful ones you've previously used. But be sure to mix it up.

[00:03:06] Google says advertisers using both video and image ads in their DemandGen campaigns

[00:03:11] get 6% higher conversion rate per dollar than those only using images.

[00:03:16] Specifically, the company advises using a mix of at least three images and videos

[00:03:21] in different formats, vertical, square and landscape. These tools are available today

[00:03:27] globally in English with additional languages expected later in the year.

[00:03:36] God helped on their trying platforms desperate to get a slice of the huge success seen in Asia

[00:03:41] of live stream commerce keep bashing their head against the wall hoping that someday,

[00:03:46] somehow they too can crack the code. Many platforms have tried, TikTok and Instagram

[00:03:52] being the most notable and in both those cases, those platforms have downscaled the priority of

[00:03:57] those efforts after adoption was low in the western markets. But that won't stop Amazon,

[00:04:02] which says it plans to launch Amazon Live, a free ad supported shopping channel on Prime Video

[00:04:09] and Free V. Amazon Live has existed before but was really only a web and mobile thing.

[00:04:14] Given the large consumer adoption of connected TV, Amazon wanted to put something there as

[00:04:19] well. Quoting TechCrunch, quote Amazon Live's channel will feature 24 seven programming from

[00:04:24] popular creators and celebrities such as reality TV stars, Lala Kent from Vanderpump rules and Page

[00:04:30] Disorbo from Southern Charm who is also launching her own original show on Amazon Live where

[00:04:36] she'll develop brand new content. Brands like Tastemade and The Bump will also host streams

[00:04:41] to sell their products. Viewers can browse and buy the items influencers show off by using

[00:04:47] the Amazon Shopping app on their mobile device. When entering shop the show into the search bar,

[00:04:54] users are directed to a shopping carousel featuring the products they see on TV in real time,

[00:04:59] unquote. Amazon Live has been around for about five years now it'll be interesting to see if

[00:05:04] there's any uptake now that it's on the big screens. Last year, Live Shopping accounted

[00:05:09] for less than 3% of total US online retail sales.

[00:05:18] Meta's Twitter competitor Threads will soon add DMs to their offering, one of the most

[00:05:23] requested features among early adopters, but don't expect to see a dedicated inbox in your

[00:05:28] Threads app because Threads is built on Instagram's code base which means DMs will go to your

[00:05:34] brand's Instagram inbox instead. Tests in the wild show a message button on profiles

[00:05:40] which when tapped open a little message window that says send on Instagram.

[00:05:45] Honestly this is probably a good thing for brands, many of us use third-party tools like

[00:05:49] Sprout Social or Gora Pulse or Hootsuite to monitor incoming messages. With this set up

[00:05:55] there's no need to connect anything additional as long as you have your brand's Instagram

[00:05:59] account set up, same with Meta's own in-house business platform. Even so Andrew Hutchinson

[00:06:04] from social media today thinks this might be temporary quote really both apps Instagram and

[00:06:09] Threads serve a very different purpose and the profiles and topics that people follow in each

[00:06:15] are logically also going to be very different so they probably need to be separated rather

[00:06:20] than having threads as an offshoot of Instagram but there's also logic in building the app

[00:06:24] off Instagram's audience as opposed to going in alone. Does that mean in the long term we'll

[00:06:29] eventually get Threads DMs separate from Instagram? That still seems difficult given Meta's messaging

[00:06:35] integration plan and with speculation that Meta has sought to merge its messaging features

[00:06:41] in order to make it impossible to divest Instagram and WhatsApp if compelled to do so

[00:06:45] which is still a possibility amid ongoing FTC challenges, the broader machinations at play

[00:06:52] do make it seem like a separate Threads inbox is a limited possibility but maybe if Threads eventually

[00:06:58] gets big enough to appoint its own separate CEO and splits away from Instagram that might still

[00:07:04] happen though I'd expect it won't even be a consideration till Threads reaches at least

[00:07:09] 500 million users unquote. One of the funniest things I read last week was a

[00:07:18] printer review from The Verge. Yes I know it sounds boring, it sounds like search engines spam

[00:07:24] and it was deliberately so. The Verge published a tongue-in-cheek piece which mostly mocked the

[00:07:30] fact that in order to be successful in Google all you need to do is claim to test and review

[00:07:35] products put lots of shopping links in them and pretend to update the article every couple

[00:07:39] of weeks. Some sites literally only update the published date but some people think that's

[00:07:44] enough to trick Google into thinking it's recent and therefore relevant. Anyway his article did

[00:07:49] recommend a printer, brother, like find the cheapest brother laser printer you can find,

[00:07:55] buy it and shut up. The editor-in-chief who wrote the piece has been the best printer for years now

[00:08:01] but then the piece continues quote I am including a box with buttons to buy a brother laser

[00:08:07] printer the buttons kick back a small affiliate fee if you press them and buy a printer

[00:08:12] don't feel compelled to do it my only ask is that you make this article go viral by sharing it

[00:08:17] in full outrage that the editor-in-chief of The Verge has published an article partially

[00:08:22] generated by AI because after the buttons I'm going to include a bunch of AI generated copy

[00:08:29] from Google's Gemini in order to pad this thing out unquote and indeed underneath was your

[00:08:36] typical gen AI output of pros and cons in bullet points but here's the thing it worked when you

[00:08:44] Google best printer for 2024 in the first few organic results is this piece this all happened

[00:08:51] last week Google search engineer John Mueller was asked on social media why if cheap AI garbage

[00:08:56] isn't prioritized by Google why is this piece doing so well his answer people seem to really

[00:09:03] enjoy it yes it turns out the popularity of the piece and in turn perhaps the number of social

[00:09:10] shares is what's driving this to the top The Verge says so far through the affiliate link in the

[00:09:15] piece they've sold more than 2000 printers the article is definitely worth a read you'll find

[00:09:22] it on The Verge's site the title is best printer 2024 best printer for home use office

[00:09:28] use printing labels printer for school homework printer you are a printer we are all printers

[00:09:38] and finally there are lots of industries which chase the latest flashy technology

[00:09:44] to fight irrelevance but i've always thought movie theaters had the best tech they've tried

[00:09:48] everything welcome to the movie theater of the future if you thought 3d was cool try adding

[00:09:54] moving chairs bubbles water strobe lights a feet tickler and smoke

[00:10:02] but i always thought their most interesting offer is the one that never really did get off the ground

[00:10:06] so-called smello vision smells like gunpowder and freshly brewed coffee are stored in canisters

[00:10:12] behind the theater and piped in at the right time smell some burning rubber

[00:10:19] sure it was tried in a couple of tester theaters and in showrooms of theater technology providers

[00:10:25] but it's not like it's ever really been a thing which is why i was a little surprised to see mcdonald's

[00:10:31] giving smello vision a try using outdoor billboards the billboards themselves in mcdonald's signature

[00:10:37] red or yellow colors are completely empty no words no pictures not even a mcdonald's logo

[00:10:46] but tucked away the back of the billboard is a compartment where workers put freshly cooked

[00:10:50] fries in and hope the smell brings consumers toward it the billboards are in two dutch cities right now

[00:10:56] and both are within 650 feet of a nearby mcdonald's outlet it's about two football fields in length

[00:11:02] this is of course probably as much about advertising agency award show nominations than

[00:11:09] actually trying to sell product but still kind of fun

[00:11:18] we have a bit of a sale on right now for our ad slots in the podcast and the newsletter

[00:11:22] if you're interested in reaching more than 5 000 marketing executives just go to today in digital

[00:11:28] dot com slash ads or tap the link at the top of the show notes you can book them right online

[00:11:33] i'm trod maffin thanks for listening see you tomorrow