Marketing Spotlight May 2022

The Lead Generation Company: May Marketing Spotlight

Things that sort of look like other things. Unmitigated disasters. The longest Subway sandwich you could possibly imagine (yes, seven metres! That’s longer than… smaller sandwiches!). It’s been a packed month in the world of marketing; let’s take a look at what most caught our eye here at The Lead Generation Company. 

Guinness: Summer Billboards

Is Guinness the most recognisable pint in the world? AMV BBDO are certainly counting on it. 

The brewery giant partnered with the agency to get the public ready for the summer- and for Guinness- with three billboards featuring the iconic pint reimagined as a deckchair, a wave, and three surfboards. 

In order to make the most of their campaign, Guinness has located each of their billboards no more than 500 metres from the nearest pub. This was likely a far more attainable goal than locating them in parts of the UK where the skies match those featured in the billboards. 

It’s hard to give our own assessment of the ad’s effectiveness (because at the time of writing it’s pouring buckets), but… people like Guinness. And people like summer. So it can’t hurt! 

TikTok Pulse 

In recent years, TikTok has proved to be a brilliant choice for influencers trying to expand their revenue. The creators at the very top of the platform have long been making lucrative brand deals, and with the launch of TikTok Pulse, these brand deals will go directly through the app itself. 

The purpose of the new programme is to allow brands to partner with creators, or any other influential TikTok account, and split the ad revenue 50/50. 

If you’re a creator whose videos are in the top 4% of the platform, and if you have a minimum of 100,000 followers (that’s all?!), brands will have the chance to appear alongside your content on the For You page. The creator will net half of the revenue, while the brand will take the other half. 

Some have argued that only allowing the most popular creators to make use of this feature is unfair to those creators with smaller followings, but considering the programme is still in its infancy, TikTok could very well open up such opportunities for micro-influencers as well.

McDonald’s: Moving Day 

In another big win for things that kind of look like other things, McDonalds has side-stepped from last month’s subtlety for a campaign to celebrate Moving Day.

July 1st is a national holiday in Canada, and the day where literally everyone in Canada moves to a new home. Even if they don’t want to, they have to move on July 1st. It’s pretty messed up. But that’s the law!

With the help of communication agency Cossette, McDonald’s put together three posters, each depicting a moving truck containing the belongings of someone who’s moving. And, of course, each set of belongings resembles one of the more iconic McDonald’s orders.

The McMuffin has never looked so… unappealing. Yum!

Corona: Secret Message

To celebrate their ‘100% Natural’ campaign, Corona have installed a billboard at Brighton’s seafront, with a secret message only visible during the golden hour, when the setting sun casts a shadow on the billboard that says ‘Made from the natural world’. 

What better way to highlight Corona’s all-natural ingredients than using the highest light available? A lot more effort than just buying a ring light, but we’re pretty sure the sun burns longer, so…

Grubhub: Completely Free, But At What Cost?

Let’s sum this up as briefly as we possibly can. Earlier this month, Grubhub decided to acknowledge the fact that, according to their own survey, 69% of New Yorkers had reported to have skipped lunch. 

How did they go about this? Well, essentially, they said to New York City: ‘Would you like a free lunch?’ And, naturally, New York City replied, ‘Oh, sure! Yeah, that would be great!’ And Grubhub said, ‘WHAT? ARE YOU SERIOUS? OH, GOD! THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING! NOT TODAY!’ 

On Tuesday 17th of May, Grubhub informed their NYC users that between 11am and 2pm, they’d be offering a $15 discount on any order made within the area. 

This promotion would’ve always been, as one fast food employee who’d been working at the time recalled, a ‘war zone’. But the cherry on top (of a cake that, if it hasn’t been delivered by now, is likely never coming) is that Grubhub failed to communicate to many restaurants that the promotion was even happening. 

Check out the Guardian article for further details on this fascinating disaster. 

Subway: Street Party Sub

In celebration of the Queen’s upcoming Platinum Jubilee, Subway has offered fans the chance to win a one-off Street Party Sub, to be delivered to their own Jubilee street party. It’s seven metres, and can serve about 30 people. 

Seven metres seems like a bit of a copout when they could’ve just made a sub that stretched the entire circumference of the Earth, but in their defence, a lot of that sub would’ve probably gotten quite soggy. 

Instagram: Layout Changes

While the folks at Instagram in charge of improving UX continue their decade-long sabbatical, a rogue intern at the app’s headquarters appears to have overhauled Instagram’s entire layout. 

It’s actually not that bad. But, as is the norm with all social media platforms, it’s a change that quite literally no one asked for, which is now begging the age-old question: ‘Can we go back?’

The most sweeping change is that posts on the main feed are now displayed in a 9:16 ratio. That means that even if your photo or video is nowhere near 9:16, the post will still take up that much of the screen, and the rest will be filled with a blurred border. 

For those who have received this layout update (and not everyone will have, as they’re still testing the change), the feed now feels a lot closer to the layout of Instagram Stories. And given Instagram just recently added Likes to Stories, the line between posts and Stories is continuing to blur.

Time will tell if the outcry against this change will prompt Instagram to change tact, but if they’re as intent on replicating TikTok’s success as they appear to be, then we may just have to get used to it.