The Shoppe - The Hard Seltzer Industry, Voice Apps, & More
Welcome back to The Shoppe! This week we’re talking about the growing hard seltzer industry, the increase of voice-based apps, the unethical side to advertisements incorporating deepfakes, and more. Don’t forget to subscribe so you can be notified every time we post.
Similar to Budweiser and Corona tapping into the rapidly growing hard seltzer market, Heineken has announced the launch of their own hard seltzer brand, Pure Piraña, in Europe. In an effort to capitalize on the growing demand of health-focused beverages, Heineken is branching out of their beer comfort zone and implementing a “beyond beer” strategy. Unlike the US, the hard seltzer category is still relatively scarce in the UK. With this being said, Heineken plans on being one of the first to market their brand in Europe in an attempt to dominate the market share in the category. The company explains how the hard seltzer reputation is shifting from artificial and juvenile to a more adult and balanced concept, which is why the trend is growing. Pure Piraña was launched first in Mexico and New Zealand in September and will be introduced into the UK and other countries throughout the year and into 2022. Social media will be crucial to their next launch as influencers spreading the word was the key to success in Mexico where Heineken is now a market leader.
As the pandemic continues to influence and increase our online presence daily, Clubhouse has announced the launch of their first creator accelerator program. This program is designed to help aspiring hosts and creators boost their audience, associate with brands, and monetize their shows. Clubhouse’s success has induced the release of numerous voice-based apps from large competitors such as Twitter Spaces and the forthcoming app from
Facebook. Going hand-in-hand with this new program, Clubhouse has introduced new features that users have been inquiring about including link sharing and language filtering. Additionally, the app no longer requires users to give access to their contacts and, instead, allows users to personally invite new people to the platform by using their phone number. While Clubhouse may remain invite only and the app is not yet available for Android users, it was still valued at $1 billion during a recent funding round. The accelerator program will be accepting 20 creators and is now taking
applications through March 31st.
As more and more brands look to incorporate nostalgic themes in their advertisements, deepfakes are rising in popularity to easily broaden reach. Deepfake technology is used to recreate the likeliness of one person with another in video or other social media forms. However, in some instances, this technology raises the ethical red flag. Mountain Dew recently released the
15 second YouTube spot featuring a deepfake of Bob Ross who passed away in 1995. The spot presents the late painter adding “happy little droplets'' to the canvas with a Mountain Dew bottle incorporated in the scenery. PepsiCo opted out of responding to any moral or authenticity concerns. It will be interesting to see how quickly this type of dark media manipulation takes over advertisements as techniques grow stronger and costs shrink.
As TikTok users know when opening the app, one is immediately presented with a general or random advertisement. However, as the avid TikTok users now know, the app has begun to alert users and let them know that their advertisements will soon become personalized based upon your TikTok activity. If you’re someone who enjoys watching popular creator Charli D’Amelio, you will soon be viewing ads by all of the brands looking to sell you Charli’s favorite clothing, food, and artists. TikTok will base these personalized ads off of people’s individual data that third-party advertisers will utilize to target users that will potentially buy from them. The notifications seem to be coming off as misleading and are confusing some who think the app will no longer allow you to opt out of personalized ads. However, personalized ads will become the default setting and users will still be able to switch back to general ads if they wish to. Even though TikTok emphasizes their commitment to respecting user privacy, switching to personalized advertisements as the default setting is bound to cause some repercussion from privacy experts and consumer rights advocates. Be sure to keep your eye out as the company plans to make the switch on April 15th.
Never miss an update from The Shoppe! Subscribe to be notified every week.
Subscribe
Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates.
Subscribe
We respect your privacy.
