Happy Friday. How are you spending this strange Fourth of July weekend? I plan to continue my hunt for a well-branded inflatable pool (seriously, why has no one thought of this?) and ponder what edgy July 4th campaigns companies have in store for us over the weekend. 

In today’s edition: 

⏸️ See you later, influencers

Bozoma Saint John, CMO

Publicis’s diversity data

— Phoebe Bain

INFLUENCERS

A Pause for Influencer Marketing

It might be the alliteration, but Instagram and influencers are basically synonymous these days. 

No, seriously: In 2019, 89% of marketers said Instagram was important to their influencer marketing strategy, and the top two most effective forms of influencer marketing content were Instagram Posts (78%) and Instagram Stories (73%). 

The double “i” was cute—until the Facebook advertising boycott came along. Because Instagram is a property of Facebook, some influencers are feeling the burn too:

• Danielle Wiley, CEO of influencer marketing agency Sway Group, told Digiday that shifts in Instagram’s algorithm have made it such that influencer marketing relies on paying Instagram to boost posts, for instance by driving profile traffic.
• But paying Instagram is exactly the opposite of what most boycotters want to do right now. 
• Digiday also reported that “some marketers are asking agencies to prioritize Black influencers to follow up on their statements of support for the BLM movement in June.” 

The influencer’s POV: Influencers are staring down a second financial hit in 2020, as many marketers also halted influencer campaigns at the start of COVID-19. Plus, they now have to do their own reputational due diligence to figure out if the brands they work with live up to claims of supporting Black Lives Matter.

A meeting of the council

Despite what their Instagram posts might suggest, influencers aren’t simply laying on the beach watching the waves crash over their industry. Instead, socially conscious influencers are taking action with the newly formed American Influencer Council (AIC). Per a press release:

• The AIC was created by influencers for influencers and is, “dedicated to sustaining the integrity, viability and growth of the U.S. influencer marketing industry in a globally connected world.” 
• A key part of the AIC’s approach to delivering on its mission is developing standards on ethical conduct.  

The AIC was founded by Qianna Smith Bruneteau, who was recently given the 10th Annual Shorty Award for “Best Celebrity/Influencer Campaign on Snapchat.”

"Up to now, no resource has been available on how to best address events [and movements] like coronavirus or Black Lives Matter…it is the AIC’s responsibility to support the creator community if and when the country faces the next unforeseen event," Bruneteau said in an email to Marketing Brew. 

My takeaway: As the boycotts roll on, influencer advocacy work has the potential to standardize vetting processes for influencers and provide assistance with economic downturns. Plus, it could further the professionalization of influencers and help streamline influencer marketing decisions for brand marketers. 

TV

Enter Netflix CMO Bozoma Saint John

On Wednesday, Netflix hired arguably the most experienced young marketer in an increasingly saturated industry: 43-year-old Bozoma Saint John will become the streaming platform’s new CMO, per Deadline. 

Check out Saint John’s resume:

• CMO of talent and media holding company Endeavor
• Chief brand officer at Uber
• Head of global consumer marketing at Apple Music and iTunes
• Head of music and entertainment marketing at Pepsi-Cola North America

The list goes on. 

A historic hire: Netflix has finally added a Black person to its c-suite. Saint John is one of the very (very) few Black female CMOs in the U.S.  

Zoom out: The arrival of a CMO like Saint John is more crucial than ever given the recent launches of HBO Max and Peacock. Because while Netflix has historically been more churn-proof than its competitors, consumers are canceling services more frequently during the pandemic, per Adweek. 

Bottom line: If Netflix wants to continue being the crème de la crème of streaming services, it needs to hire crème de la crème of leaders.

SPONSORED BY SAILTHRU

Get Answers to Your Q4 Qs

Everyone who works in retail marketing knows that planning for the holiday season is something you never really put on hold. 

And the marketing pros at Sailthru know it better than anyone.

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• Adapting to changes in consumer behavior
• Triggered messages like cart abandonment
• Best-in-class examples from Target, Tory Burch, Sephora, and more

So if you’ve got a list full of Qs about Q4, Sailthru’s guide is the place to find some As.

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AGENCIES

Publicis Gets Public

Agency folks were on the edge of their couches waiting for Publicis Groupe to put out its U.S. diversity report after Dentsu and IPG released their numbers a few weeks back—and now it’s finally here. 

What’s inside: Even if you were expecting one of the oldest and largest marketing companies in the world to have a diversity issue, you probably didn’t see these numbers coming. Among the nearly 21,000 Publicis employees in the U.S. who reported their ethnicities, less than 6% were Black. Per Adweek, that includes:

• Less than 2% of senior leadership
• Less than 5% of mid-level employees
• 8% of junior roles

Publicis knows that’s a problem: In the same memo that contained the dismal statistics, CEO Arthur Sadoun announced that Publicis would commit more than $50 million to diversity efforts over three years, along with six other concrete social justice initiatives, per Ad Age. 

My takeaway: Publicis followed the formula that appeared after grassroots racial justice organization 600 & Rising called for agencies to address diversity issues. Step one, get transparent. Step two, take monetary action. It remains to be seen if this playbook will produce its intended change over time.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Employees at Periscope, a Minneapolis agency, participated in a walkout to protest its parent company’s response to racial injustice.
• The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ended its enforcement grace period on Wednesday, forcing advertisers to reckon with changes around data use and collection.
• The NFL has reportedly canceled two weeks of preseason games. Poor TV advertisers. 
• Instagram is testing a way for users to see more Stories at once.
• New Balance partnered with creative agency ZAK to create a YouTube docuseries on soccer subcultures. It’s meant to align the retailer with counterculture underdogs.

SPONSORED BY SAILTHRU

Get a jump on the holiday hussle. Q4 might seem like a ways away, but the marketing mavens at Sailthru are saying now is the time to start planning. Not sure where to start? Sailthru’s Holiday Marketing Playbook is packed with invaluable, actionable email marketing and CRM strategies to help prepare you for a holiday season unlike any other. Get the guide here.

FOLLOW THE LEADERS

You’re probably wondering how I stay up to date on emerging marketing industry trends (trust me, sometimes I wonder the same thing). 

Over the past few months, I relied on a few Twitter accounts to unknowingly guide me through launch prep. I not only trust them to tell me what’s cool and what’s outdated in the industry, but also to provide many inside jokes only marketers would understand. I wrote down a list of these fun, helpful accounts for you to turn to on the four days a week when Marketing Brew doesn’t grace your inbox.

BOYCOTT TRACKER

Francis Scialabba

• Almost there: On Tuesday, Facebook looked ready to embrace boycott-driven change: It banned a network of accounts associated with the far-right “boogaloo” movement and Zuck agreed to sit down with the boycott’s organizers. But in secret, Zuck is singing a different tune. On Wednesday, The Information reported that he brushed off the boycotts, telling staff he expects advertisers will return “soon enough.” 
• To boycott or not to boycott? For some—namely, big-name brands—that seems like a question with an increasingly clear answer: yes. But for smaller direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands that rely on Facebook and Instagram to drive sales, joining in is a much more challenging decision. Kevin Simonson, vice president of social for digital marketing agency Wpromote LLC, told the WSJ that DTC companies joining in “would be devastating to their business in ways that it won’t for a vast majority of the big brands participating in the boycott.”

AD ANTIQUES

Flickr

Is this 1969 Kotex ad wildly progressive for its time, or super antiquated in comparison to its U by Kotex black packaging rebrand in 2010?