The Trump Effect

Donald Trump is a former big businessman turned President of The United States.  As president he recently put some big businesses in a tough situation.  As a result of his comments on the recent NFL National Anthem protests, many businesses are having to make statements about their opinions on the protests.  Some companies are keeping their heads down and waiting for the storm to blow over.  While others are getting their statements out there as soon as possible.  

Companies' decisions to make a certain stance or statement can have a big impact on customers' opinions about the company.  Marketing and Public Relations departments of these companies are going to be very busy trying to decide what to do.  While others are immediately just putting out statements to get their opinion out there so people don't wonder what they think.

Under Armour, Nike, and Ford were part of the group of companies that crafted a statement immediately.  Nike was the only company that chose to support one side of the debate.  Nike basically stated that they were supportive of the players and whatever decisions they make.  This statement could anger consumers that support players standing for the National Anthem and the President.  Under Armour and Ford chose to remain on the fence when making their statements on this situation.

The smart decision could be, sit and wait to see what the consumers agree with.  This could be a good time for Marketing departments to set up focus groups and surveys to see what the consumers will do.  It lets the companies make a decision with as much information as possible.  President Trump is making things difficult for the NFL, their sponsors, and any other businesses related to sports.  Overall, it should be interesting to see what these huge companies do in response to the comments made by the President of the United States.                     

YouTube Adpocalypse

YouTube is the top place on the internet to watch all kinds of videos.  I'm sure you know what YouTube is so I won't embarrass myself by trying to explain it to you.  What you probably don't know is how YouTube makes a large portion of its money.  YouTube has advertisements on a lot of their most watched videos.  This has paved the way for YouTube to partner with some of the big content creators on their platform.  This includes businesses, sports organizations, and independent content creators.

YouTube has recently had many of their advertisers contact them and complain about seeing their ads on very inappropriate content.  This inappropriate were things like Nazi related videos or ISIS videos, with ads like Coke or Disney shown before them.    This has created a big event known as the "YouTube Adpocalypse".  Complaints about adpocalypse came when creators were seeing that their videos were making little to no ad revenue.  Many of these videos lost anywhere from 30%-99% of ad revenue.  Creators were mad because some videos they thought were appropriate were being demonetized.  For example, "Military Arms Channel" complained that they lost almost all their revenue because they made videos of gun reviews.  

Many of YouTube's largest creators such as Pewdiepie, Phillip DeFranco, and h3h3productions have all strongly criticizing YouTube for doing this, and the way they did it.  YouTube has responded but their reasoning didn't please too many people.  YouTube really has no reason to worry about losing their creators or audience because there is no good competitors out there.  This is a big deal that tells YouTube and everyone else that there could be a potential problem here.  This raises big questions about what YouTube and their users have to look forward to in the future.    

Creators are scrambling to try and find out what to do, because they were making enough money from ad revenue to make YouTube their full time job.  Many creators are being forced to change their styles to be more kid-friendly content and a lot more reserved.  This has ultimately brought people to complain about YouTube censoring their creators by not making videos with explicit language monetized.  Since YouTube is the biggest video sharing platform, they are paving the way for all other websites and social media sites like them.  Ultimately, people fear that the whole internet will be censored because advertisements are the main source of revenue for many sites out there.                

Apple Heads

Apple is doing something that few other companies or brands have ever done before.  In fact, they may be the only company to get people to go crazy for their new products almost every single year.  It is completely different in the way they get people so excited for a new product that is marginally different than the previous version.  Apple enthusiast's literally line up for days to give Apple their money for a phone or watch.  None of their competitors or peers in the tech industry are able to even get close to the amount of hype that they produce around their brand.

So what exactly do they do to get everyone so excited about Apple and their products?  Well to start off, they have big events planned to tell their customers what they've developed for them.  This could be the most important part of their process.  After each event, people can't help but talk about what Apple just revealed to them.  Customers and people in the industry share their thoughts and start their own conversations about what is going to be released in the near future.  This step is very important, because when people are talking about the product the most is when the product is released for sale.

These early adopters are the most important people in Apple's strategy.  If the early adopters are not as enthusiastic as they are about Apple's products, then the laggards will most likely not be interested in purchasing the product.  They show everyone all the tips and tricks to use the phone to its optimal ability.  Also, they test it against drops, bends, and water efficiency which is something that Apple doesn't show themselves.  Apple knows this happens on the internet and I'm sure they enjoy every bit of it.

Overall, their mastery is the exact process that they hype and release their products with.  Nothing happens without their planning and knowledge of.  People getting leaked photos or phones is all part of the plan.  Almost everyone still falls into their trap and gets excited about it or talks about it every time this happens.  Apple is so connected to the pulse of everything going on in the industry.  This is the reason that their loyal customers will do anything and pay any price to get the new products as soon as possible.

Can't Stop the Cord Cutting

Cord cutting is the term given to people who cancel their cable television subscription.  This is a new phenomenon that has been occurring more often since television became available on the internet.  It seems inevitable that cord cutting going to cut out cable television subscriptions all together.  With companies like YouTube, Netflix, Amazon, and others all having their own television or streaming services online, there is a huge shift to cord cutting.  Many companies that depend on cable television subscriptions for their revenue are hurting right now.  

For advertisers this could be a very bad thing.  Netflix currently doesn't have any ads on its service.  If the other streaming companies want to compete with Netflix then they have to eliminate or reduce the ads on their sites.  This sets up a lose/lose situation for many marketing and advertising firms that rely on television viewers to buy their products.  With fewer ads that means the harder it is for people to see your product.  It could also mean that the ads could get more expensive since there are fewer of them.

One of the biggest reasons for people not to cancel their television subscription is live sports.  Sports are being streamed online more often in recent years, whether it be illegally or legally.  There are illegal streams of sports events all over the internet.  This prevents consumers from having to buy different television packages to watch all the different teams.  One of the biggest sports events of our generation just happened, which was the McGregor vs. Mayweather boxing match.  This event was available in so many different ways that there was no need to have cable television to watch it.

Cable television will inevitably be nonexistent in the near future.  The only big question that remains is, how companies will adapt to it?  Will advertisers be kept off of streaming services like Netflix or will they be allowed on that platform?  If there there are advertisements on these services, how expensive will they become?  These are scary situations that marketers and advertisers need to start preparing for.