MAGnet #16 3/09/21

Magnet #16

Welcome to another week of Magnet. This time we’re discussing a clever radio campaign, a new Reddit advertising placement and Reels coming to Facebook.

Enjoy.

Reddit: Conversation Placement

Reddit has launched ‘Conversation Placement’; which allows advertisers to reach users where they’re most engaged on the platform.

 ‘Conversation Placement’ will appear within threads, in the space between the original post and the first comment. This allows advertisers the opportunity to reach beyond Reddit feeds and better connect with users within a very engaging space. 

 According to Reddit, 42% of Redditors’ time is spent in the threads of any of the 350,000 daily conversations taking place on the platform.

Reddit Global EVP and President of Advertising, Harold Klaje said: “Reddit users thrive on conversations and are highly engaged in unique dialogues around their passions. Conversation Placement is an opportunity for all Reddit advertisers to drive engagement on the platform, positioning themselves right where people are connecting with one another, in a way they can’t on any other platform.”

By entering the top of a conversation thread, brands can drive incremental reach and tap into new audiences. Many may even land in conversation threads directly from SEO searches-unreachable anywhere else on the platform.

The launch of this new ad placement comes after a beta testing phase, with more than 600 advertising partners, including HBO Max, Adobe, Monday.com, The Washington Post, and Nespresso. 

The beta ran campaigns across a number of industries and resulted in significant success for partners across all verticals and campaign objectives. In specific, beta test partners saw a 9% average increase in clickthrough rate,10% higher downstream conversion rate and 23% lower Cost Per Click rate when using both Conversation placement and Feed.

Campaigns: Times Radio

Although there has been doubt in the past that live radio is declining, data from Media Nations 2021 suggests that consumers are continuing to listen to radio and audio content on a wide range of devices. And although it’s true that listening to live radio on a radio set has been in decline for the past few years, the data shows that for adults overall it continues to account for much of their audio consumption.

Times Radio recently launched an advertising campaign with the message Retune Today for a Brighter Breakfast.

The clever wording here suggests that people tune away from ‘Today’ on BBC Radio 4, its closest rival breakfast show, and listen to Times Radio instead.

The campaign is timed to coincide with the public returning to normal routines; aiming to encourage listeners to switch over from their regular morning programming.

Designed and conceptualised by News UK’s in-house agency Pulse Creative London, the campaign is running across out-of-home, digital, social and podcasts from 6th September – 10th October.

 “We are exceptionally proud of the output on Times Radio, and this campaign is designed to encourage people to try out the radio station. It’s focused on Breakfast because that’s always the most important show for any radio station. A ‘brighter’ breakfast encapsulates perfectly what Times Radio offers. The start of a new term is the ideal time to launch this campaign, and we look forward to listeners changing their habits and switching to Times Radio,” Tim Levell, Programme Director of Times Radio said.

Social Media: Facebook Reels

After being rolled out on Instagram, reels are coming to Facebook in the U.S. It will give Facebook users the ability to create and share short-form video content directly within the News Feed or within Facebook Groups. The addition is an expansion of tests launched earlier this year in India, Mexico and Canada, which had focused on bringing short-form videos to Facebook users, including by sharing existing Instagram Reels to Facebook.

In addition, Facebook says it will also test a new feature that will give Instagram creators in the U.S. the option to have their Instagram Reels shown as recommended content on Facebook. If the creators opt in, their videos will appear in the “Reels” section in users’ News Feed, alongside other Reels created on Facebook.