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Generative AI is everywhere now. You see it in content, campaigns, customer experiences, and even internal workflows. It promises speed, scale, and efficiency, but there’s a harder question sitting underneath all that progress; Do your audiences actually trust it?

Trust in the Age of AI: What Consumers Really Think About AI Generated Content

Today, PR teams aren’t just tracking media coverage and share of voice. They’re also measuring how their brand shows up in AI-generated answers, search summaries, and large language models (LLMs). This new LLM visibility layer is quickly becoming a critical part of PR performance.

15 Must-Have PR KPIs and How to Track Them

See how one platform can power every decision across PR, communications, and marketing.

The Meltwater Blog

Blog Topics: Generative Engine Optimization, Media Intelligence, Media Relations, Social Listening, Consumer Intelligence, Influencer Marketing

Find out how you can leverage Facebook to boost your brand's online presence and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

Facebook Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage Instagram to boost your brand's visual appeal and gain a competitive edge. Explore our category page today!

Instagram Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage LinkedIN to grow your professional network and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

LinkedIn Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage TikTok to elevate your brand with creative content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

TikTok Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage X / Twitter to engage your audience effectively and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

X / Twitter Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage YouTube to create engaging video content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

YouTube Blog | Meltwater

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is transforming how brands show up in AI-powered search. Explore insights, strategies, and best practices to help your content rank and resonate across conversational engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.

Explore insights and strategies for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to help your brand stay visible and discoverable in AI-powered search.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Blog Collection | Meltwater

Every day billions of conversations take place on social media: tweets, posts, comments, blogs, reviews, podcasts, and much more.
Learn how to use social listening to make sense of all of that data.

On our social listening category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around social listening and social media monitoring. Read more.

Social Listening Blogs | Category

Business Reputation Management: What does it take to add reputation management to your marketing strategy? More importantly, how do you keep your reputation sparkly and shiny? Here’s your all-access guide to online reputation management for the long term.

On our reputation management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around business reputation management. Read more.

Reputation Management Blogs | Category

From your brand's logo to your website, your social media presence to your customer support—these elements combined are what constitutes a brand in the minds of customers. But, there are thousands of other businesses that have a logo, website, social media presence, and website. So, how can you position your business on the market and make it stand out from the competition?
The key to success is branding & brand management!

On our brand management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around brand management. Build your strategy and reach your goals!

Brand Management Blogs | Category

Competitive intelligence and the act of collecting competitive data can be seen as growth drivers for a company. Our guide will help you understand the concept of competitive intelligence (CI) by answering questions such as: What is the definition of competitive intelligence? How is competitive intelligence useful to organizations? What is the goal of competitive intelligence? And more.

On our competitive intelligence category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around competitive intelligence. Learn how to stay ahead.

Competitive Intelligence Blogs | Category

Let’s dive into the customer journey framework and how to optimize the process by creating a customer journey map and using metrics that matter when analyzing the customer journey.

On our customer journey category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Customer Journey Blogs | Category

What Is Data Analytics? [Beginner’s Guide 2023]
How can I grow my business? 
How do customers interact with my newly launched product?
How do I increase the productivity of my employees?
How do I know if my marketing efforts are working?
We have just two words for you...Data analytics!

On our data analytics category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around AI and data analytics. Technical and still easy to understand.

AI & Data Analytics Blogs | Category

Public relations and media relations can add impact to any marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity for brands to grow their reach beyond traditional sales messages. PR helps to shape the image you want people to have of your brand.
So, what is PR and how do you use it? This guide shows you everything you need to know to build a strong public relations foundation.

On our public relations (PR) category page, you find all our blogs covering public relations and communications topics. Step up your PR game.

Public Relations (PR) Blogs | Category

We all know exactly what the roles of sales or accounting are in a company, right? We might even have a slight idea of what the IT guys are doing.
But there is another business discipline, that plays a crucial role in organizations, even more so during the pandemic – internal communications!
But what exactly do we mean by that, what purpose does it serve and what steps can you take to ensure you and your employees will communicate effectively?

On our internal communications category page, you find all our blogs about internal comms topics. Learn about the intranet, internal newsletters, and more.

Internal Communications Blogs | Category

As the internet has taken root in more areas of our lives — everything from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and more — traditional marketing is becoming less impactful. As any marketer knows, you need to focus on where your audience is if you want to reach them. Since the average person spends about seven hours a day online, it’s no surprise that content has maintained its hold on marketers.

Here's a closer look at what content marketing is and why it matters more than ever in our digital-first economy.

On our content marketing category page, you find blogs about content marketing topics. Learn about strategies, KPIs, tips, and more. Make your content king!

Content Marketing Blogs | Category

The rise of the influencer marketing space – today a $10 billion industry, growing 50% per year – is one of the clearest examples of how social media is transforming traditional marketing. These days having a business website, presence on social, PR coverage, and your own content isn’t enough to compete.
We'll dive into the intricacies of influencer marketing to help ensure that you're equipped with the insights needed to be successful in this space.

On our influencer marketing category page, you find blogs about influencer marketing topics. Build your strategy, find influencers, and measure results.

Influencer Marketing Blogs | Category

Have you just launched a new product or service that you want to get the word out about? Maybe you want to share with consumers why it is awesome and how it is so much better than the one your competitors offer.

Well, then, there is one thing you can't do without...Marketing!

On our marketing category page, you find blogs about marketing topics. Learn about all the different angles and types of marketing and improve your results.

Marketing Blogs | Category

In this guide, we want to give you a peek into the definition of social media management, the daily schedule of a social media manager, social media platforms to promote your business, and the do’s & don’ts of social media management.
Are you ready to begin the journey of becoming a social media superstar?

On our social media management category page, you find blogs about social media management topics. Build and manage your online community.

Social Media Management Blogs | Category

Building a following and using social media platforms to reach a wider audience requires a well-planned social media marketing strategy. In this guide, we’ll be looking at why social media marketing is so essential and how you can make it work for your business.

On our social media marketing category page, you find blogs about social media marketing topics. Learn how to get the highest paid social ROI!

Social Media Marketing Blogs | Category

In the fast-evolving realm of digital marketing and public relations, utilizing the right tools is crucial for success. Our interdisciplinary category showcases all the pertinent tools for digital marketing & PR. These tools help in enhancing your online presence and effectively reaching target groups, whether through reputation management, influencer marketing, or social media management.

On our digital marketing and PR tools category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Digital Marketing & PR Tools Blogs | Category

Thought leadership and subject matter expertise are essential to an effective marketing strategy. Positioning company leaders as industry experts helps the brand express a point of view, vision, knowledge, and experience. Great thought leadership will help your audience gain a greater understanding about relevant issue and trends that affects them—and they’re learning about them from you and your company.

Jennifer Kutz, Communications and Public Affairs for Google, shares her insights on why and how publication bylines should be part of your marketing strategy.

Why Go After Executive Bylines in Publications?

An executive can always post their expertise and thought leadership on sites like LinkedIn or a company blog. But, contributed content in key media outlets provides deeper benefits. These include faster and deeper trust, as well as credibility, based on the idea that you know something of value that others don’t. Since the audience views those publications as reliable resources for information, attaching your name to that publication extends that credibility to you.

Public relations tactics have shifted from only increasing an executive’s visibility or getting them quoted to getting full executive bylined articles. The publications provide high-quality, relevant content for their readers. Meanwhile, executives and companies enjoy exposure in a reputable publication. Because of the mutual benefit, bylined articles and guest blog opportunities have gained in popularity. But, marketing isn’t the only thing that benefits from bylines.

“Often, company executives can raise the company’s profile, which goes a long way toward establishing a reason for potential investors to invest in that company,” Kutz says. “Having a bylined presence can be a deciding factor that sways those investors toward putting their money (and trust) in that company.”

Once you have a byline, you can get more traction by going back to LinkedIn, your company blog, and all other channels with a clip or link to that published article. If you stay with a direct-to-social media or direct-to-company blog approach, then you only have one pass at getting it in front of your audience.

A Strategy for Getting a Publication Byline as a Subject Matter Expert

Here are some strategic steps to start getting these executive bylines.

Identify the right publications and journalists that cover your expert subject areas.

Their audience is your target audience. For example, let’s say your company makes software that drives energy efficiency. Seek publications that target topics related to energy efficiency. There are many industry publications that cover that space.

Yet, Kutz says it’s important to go deeper with your targeted publication list. “You want to look for broader startup or tech publications that touch on sustainability and topics related to energy efficiency. If you are looking to attract the attention of investors, there are publications like VentureBeat that cater to venture capitalists.”

If you have never had experience identifying the most appropriate publications and journalists, then the best strategy is to hire a PR firm. These have this experience and have already developed media relationships.

Create a spreadsheet of publications and contacts, subject areas and guest post guidelines.

Work with your comms team to create and review a spreadsheet that will help understand these publications and effectively pitch for greater publication success. You cannot take shortcuts for this process. The only way to shorten the time to a certain degree is to again work with a PR expert.

As Kutz explains, “You can’t send a blanket email to an email address like news@mashable.com or to whatever publication you are trying to get your article in. You need to put in the time to explore the media website to see if you can find a contributor section. For example, is there a thought leadership section? Is there a perspective section? If you see that they accept executive bylined articles, then you can kind of look for a contact address, reach out, and gauge their interest.”

Also, go beyond the publication website to get this information. Many publications rely on social media, including Twitter and LinkedIn, to encourage interaction. On these channels, you can learn more about contributor content, bylines, relevant topics and key contacts. You can also use Google search engines to learn more about how to place executive bylines.

Use spreadsheets to track topics, subjects, and related areas that align with each publication’s focus and purpose. Match your unique perspective with these topics and publication angles. Doing so helps you achieve relevance and value for your intended audience.

Share your previous thought leadership results to prove your value to their audiences.

You can use blog posts, conference speaker materials, podcasts, videos, and other quality content. You can also include statistics about followers, likes, and shares. Get involved in industry groups to further your subject expertise and following. If you haven’t done much in this area, then expand these content areas first.

While it helps to have published content, you can also start from scratch. Kutz adds, “You don’t need extensive writing experience. What’s more important is what you are talking about, your story, and what you want to say. Where startup founders or business executives go wrong is thinking that a byline is a place to sell their product. Instead, it’s about defining and sharing your unique perspective.”

Interact with publications and journalists to start building relationships with them.

This is also a way to highlight your values and differentiating qualities, knowledge, and experience. Be persistent with sharing content samples and expertise.

It can be difficult because roles change and reporters move around. Yet, if you connect with journalists on social media, you can maintain these relationships across publications. Throughout moves and changes, the most important lesson is to always engage like a human being rather than just asking for a byline.

“Think about what you can do to help this person. Make sure you are familiar with their work before you approach them before pitching them any ideas,” adds Kutz. “You can find this out by looking at their Twitter feeds and seeing what type of content they are sharing.”

Kutz also suggests doing something a little different. Pitch article ideas to reporters that may have nothing to do with what you do. This shows the reporter you want to help them even when there’s no direct benefit for you. Then, you may be more likely to come to mind when they have a topic that does have something to do with your industry.

Getting an executive byline published doesn’t happen overnight. Think of it as a slow-building process. As part of your “long game,” creating successful thought leadership pieces involves nurturing content, relationships and connections in a targeted, thoughtful way. In time, you can see a big return that enhances your marketing and branding efforts.

Social sharing goes hand in hand with creating content. For a complete executive guide on building social influence, read our ebook, filled with recent examples of business leaders who are engaging their audience through original, meaningful content.

How to Get Executive Bylines in Publications

What does an influencer look like—and act like? You might be surprised. While you've got to keep an eye out for fake influencers, you also have to be creative in finding the right influencers for your brand. For a comprehensive guide to influencer marketing, download our ebook on influencer marketing, full of recent examples from brands who are doing it right.

The world of influencer marketing can be a lucrative one for both the influencer and the brand.

Kylie Jenner, for example, earns a reported $1.2 million per post on Instagram with her 141 million followers. While Cristiano Ronaldo, on the other hand, earns roughly $975K per post with more than 176 million followers.

But brands don’t need to land a top-tier celebrity and dish out nearly $1 million per post to find top paid influencers that will move the needle.

That’s why we’ve put together a list of 4 top paid influencers that you’ve never heard of on social media. Hopefully this will provide some inspiration to go out and find your own!

4 Top Paid Influencers You’ve Probably Never Heard of on Social Media

Chelsea Yamase (Influencer and Ambassador, Chelsea Kauai)

Travel influencer and model Chelsea Yamase has a vast network of people who love to travel and stay in amazing places around the world. That’s why it’s no surprise her picture-perfect posts leads to thousands of engagements and the attention of top brands such as Canon. 

What’s your favorite color? For this month’s #sponsored by @canonusa challenge, they asked me to share a photo honoring the vibrancy of life as seen through their mirrorless #EOSM50. Certain colors, especially pastel and earthy tones, spark so much joy for me and I think these two iconic spots in Jaipur attest to that universal wonder :) India could be a lifetime study in paying attention to proportion, culture, color and details, and there’s never a replacement for standing in front of the real thing - but this little camera does such a great job of capturing them all!

#TeamCanon
-
Shot on Canon EOS M50
EF-M 11-22mm, ISO 200, F/4.0 at 1/320 sec
#India #Jaipur

Brands such as Canon are sparing no expense to get the perfect Instagram shot through the lens of influencers like Chelsea. And why wouldn’t they? The content is delivered in a down-to-earth, authentic way.

This is just one example in a larger trend. Much like press tours, brands are putting together Instagram influencer getaways, sending influencers like Chelsea Yamase on vacations across the globe—inviting them to relax, hang out with their friends, and, of course, post all about it.

Dream come true above our glass igloo✨ anyone else see the face in the Northern Lights?! I didn’t notice it until I started editing and then I couldn’t un-see it.
Photo collab with @samkolder -
This past February I got to join @foursigmatic on an incredible trip in the through their home country of Finland learning about the Sami culture, harvesting chaga mushrooms, and enjoying the most beautiful light (both during the day and at night!). Giveaway is now closed and thank you to everyone who entered!! #foursigmatic #adaptogens #Finland #northernlights #arcticcircle #auroraborealis

Yamase has more than 750K followers and earns up to $10,000 per post on Instagram. Her attention to detail and uncanny ability to capture the perfect moment are exactly why brands continue to work with her.

Although influencer marketing isn’t as popular of a topic as it was just a few short years ago, it remains a key strategy for B2B brands promoting their business and products on social media.

Here we see that the topic of influencer marketing has dipped in the past 12 months compared to the previous 12 months in traditional media. Data supplied by Meltwater media monitoring. 

Ann Handley (Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs)

Ann Handley has been named by Forbes as the Most Influential Woman in Social Media and one of the Top 20 Women Bloggers. She is the chief content officer of MarketingProfs, and her book Everybody Writes is a bestseller.

Most importantly, she has a community of more than 50K loyal followers on social media that know and trust her.

It’s unclear just how much Handley makes from being an influencer in the B2B space, but she’s doing quite well for herself.

She is a prime example of how authentic and engaging individual influencers can be for your brand.

Ann Handley on Twitter: "Here we goooooooooo #CMWorld… "

“I value three things: quality over quantity, great writing, building an audience over stuffing a pipeline until it bursts at its seams with so-called leads. I value other things, too. But those three things are top of mind.” – Ann Handley

In B2B marketing, it’s not only about finding influencers with the most followers. It’s about finding influencers that are thought leaders in their space. In other words, influencers that truly influence the minds, hearts, and actions of your target customers.

To find influencers that fit your business, you need to have an in-depth understanding of your own brand and how you want to be perceived. Perhaps this statement is no more true than in the fashion industry where image and perception is everything.

Alexa Chung (Founder, Alexa Chung Clothing Line)

With a net worth of more than $12 million, a following up nearly 4 million people, and earnings of up to $15K per post, Alexa Chung is a superstar that you may never have heard of on Instagram.

What makes Chung’s content so effective as an influencer is her ability to “talk” like her audience and customers would on social media (even if there is an entire team behind it).

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

When life gives you an unexpectedly large number of apricots, pop them in a decorative ceramic bowl and head to the beach in your Jujus. That, our friends, is what we call #living.

Jujus are now back in stock. Link in bio. Apricots not included. 📸: @hannastefansson

The most important thing to remember with influencer marketing is that it’s not about you or your brand, it’s about the consumer. And more importantly, about building trust with the consumer so that they buy from you more than just once. 

Identifying an influencer like Alexa Chung that can build trust with her words is like finding a needle in a haystack.

Studies show that 70% of millennial consumers are influenced by the recommendations of their peers in buying decisions over brands. Micro-influencers such as Sweat&Tell with between 10,000-50,000 followers are behind much of that influence online.

Sweat and Tell is an Instagram blog run by best friends Jo and Jacqs. They’ve formed a community of over 30k health-focused women online. Each of their posts reviews a new workout class or routine, centered around health tips and trendy wellness locales in Southern California.

There are really 3 places to find influencers for your brand. Search engines, databases, and networks.

Search engines: A manual process of typing keywords, scanning webpages for contact info, and then keeping track of the info in spreadsheets. I would also lump social media into here – manually searching social channels and hashtags for relevant influencers for a given topic.

Databases: Do website scraping for you, pulling publicly available data. This is one of the best places to start as you’ll immediately gain access to a variety of qualified influencers.

Networks: In the middle of Google/social and databases. A network is like an agency that has relationships with the influencers, but will require that you go through them to reach out.

Learn more about how to find the right influencers to partner with.

So, what does an influencer look like? That just depends on the audience you are trying to reach. It could be someone with huge follower numbers, it could be someone with much smaller numbers. Either way, their audience is exactly who you want to get at. For a comprehensive guide to influencer marketing, download our ebook on influencer marketing, full of recent examples from brands who are doing it right.

4 Top Paid Influencers You Probably Never Heard Of—But Can Learn From

Communicators today have a tall order. It’s tough enough to develop messaging for brands in a constantly changing market. But when we have to not only craft the message but ensure that all the branches of the organization are consistently delivering the same version, it can be downright impossible. The larger the company, the more challenging it can become.

However, there are ways to ease the pain of this situation and get everyone on the same page.

Mixed messages confuse customers. Employees also suffer when internal and external messaging differ. For example, if you give employees a directive of increasing the value of stock options while promoting to customers that their wellbeing is the top priority, this creates confusion for everyone. Better to align the messaging so that all teams understand and are working toward a common goal.

What are some of the most effective ways to help ensure that every branch of the company is sharing the same consistent messages?

1) Allow the communications team to lead the way

When the communications team leads the charge, it may be easier to sync up the efforts and communicate in ways that will hit home with all audiences. Communicators have experience disseminating consistent messages in ways that will be compelling for various audiences. Allow them to leverage that expertise across all departments.

As lines blur among PR, marketing, and advertising teams, it may be time for brands who strive for consistent messaging to consider reorganizing. As Diane Schwartz has written at PR News, as more professionals realize “that digital and social media have made it easier for stakeholders to just bypass them,” and, “as the tools at our disposal work across multiple disciplines, it’s become more critical for brands to promote an omnichannel message that will resonate.”

So how can your organization promote better alignment and information sharing among PR, marketing, and advertising? Whatever solution works for you, it’s more important than ever that everyone shares their campaign calendars and considers centralizing their messaging strategy and execution.

3) Consider varying the wording to resonate across the organization

“The essence of a message across the organization needs to be the same, but the wording must differ,” says Ella Minty, an issues, crisis, and reputation management consultant. “For instance, to ensure it sticks and yields the desired result, the operational department needs to be differentiated in terms of action drivers from the sales department. Consistency of purpose or essence are paramount, but anything else must be tailored, even more so when dealing with international businesses which have many offices across the world.”

Getting buy-in from various parts of your organization on the messaging will go a long way toward their willingness to enact it. Asking for input upfront helps create trust. If people feel their opinions are heard and valued—and the final product reflects that—they’ll be more likely to want to share the message.

If your top-level executives aren’t incorporating the talking points, chances are others may feel it’s not essential to do so. Leaders can set the example for others, especially with new messaging that you’re trying to get both your internal and external audiences to buy into. If teams see the messaging in use by executives, they’re more likely to come on board, as well. Having trouble convincing your data-driven executives to participate? Read this tip sheet on measuring the tangible impact of your branding-building activities.

When teams are spread around the globe, it can be a challenge to work collaboratively. Meetings may not always be possible. Leveraging a tool like Slack can help you stay aligned.

“Tools like Slack are great for keeping all the key stakeholders in the loop in real-time,” says Amanda Burke, Director of Integrated Marketing and Communications at Welly. “So much of what we do is based on trends we read about or what a celebrity posts on Instagram that we don’t have time to wait even for a weekly team call or email recap to act. Slack gives us the opportunity to collaborate across disciplines in real-time and stay aligned in terms of messaging and brand voice.”

The Struggle is Real—But Don’t Let That Stop You

While organizations continue to struggle to keep all the moving parts aligned, communicators can help bridge the gap by leading the way to promote consistent messaging. It may not happen overnight, but if we make strides in the direction of complementary, coordinated messaging, companies will reap the benefits.

For a breakdown on all the steps involved in building strong customer relationships—and the role that consistent messaging plays in promoting brand awareness and loyalty—check out our consumer intelligence suite and read our ebook on Demystifying the B2B Online Customer Journey.

6 Tips for Enforcing Consistent Messaging Across Your Organization

Let’s face it… Social media platforms are crowded and building brand equity on these platforms is becoming more challenging by the day. For forward-thinking brand marketers, it’s time to look outward to an emerging branding opportunity: gaming.

There is a goldmine of creative and marketing opportunities in gaming, but few are paying attention to this exciting trend. 

The good news is it’s not too late. In fact, we’re just getting started. Here are 5 reasons why gaming is the next big brand opportunity (and how to capitalize).

Believe it or not, mobile games account for about 23% of all active apps in the iTunes App Store.

And according to a recent study from the Washington Post, a staggering 73% of 14- to 21-year-olds in the US identify as a competitive gamer. This same group isn’t just male-dominated—56% of 14- to 21-year-old US females identify as competitive gamers in 2019 as well.

Plus, there are now more than 2.5 billion gamers across the world. Combined, they will spend $152.1 billion on games in 2019, representing an increase of +9.6% year on year (according to research from Newzoo).

Everyone is always on the lookout for the next big marketing channel to emerge – and everyone should be looking at gaming.

Brands looking to find success with gaming platforms should think of games less as creative executions and more as populated virtual spaces that can act as media outlets for branded content.

In other words, games aren’t just a one-off advertising channel, they’re an entirely new social platform. And utilizing gaming platforms can benefit brands looking to target younger audiences.

And that’s not to mention the ever-growing world of esports as a whole. Activate estimates that there were 270 million global fans of esports in 2016, and projects that number to grow to 495 million in 2020. 

With a projected $1.5 billion market next year and a global audience of 385 million people, esports are arguably just as big of an opportunity as the games themselves. As more and more people flock to these entertainment outlets, opportunities will continue to arise for brands to get involved.

Multi-billion-dollar trends only come around so often.

3. Brands Are Finding Success with Gaming

When compared to hugely popular topics on social media, Fortnite more than holds its own. According to data analyzed in Meltwater, Fortnite received nearly as much social media exposure as Brexit and even more than Game of Thrones and Avengers in the first seven months of 2019.

Not many social media platforms or world topics can say the same!

In collaboration with R/GA, the mobile campaign consisted of partnerships with some of the world’s most well-known gamers and influencers that received real-life “Supply Boxes” – a play on Fortnite gameplay terminology—that contained the Galaxy Note9 smartphone with the exclusive Fortnite “skin.”

Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins was the first to unveil the Galaxy Skin during a Twitch livestream in front of his millions of fans:

IRL Supply Drop!! - NEW GALAXY SKIN UNVEIL Samsung x Fortnite Unboxing

Nike on the other hand took Air Jordan I trainers to the platform in May, giving players the chance to play in a pair of Jordans and embark on challenges to unlock exclusive skins and skateboard sprays.

Fortnite X Jumpman

This is the first specific clothing brand partnership that Fortnite has had, but points towards a very exciting future between brands and games. There is virtually unlimited creative paths that brands can pursue to get their products in front of a highly-engaged audience.

One of my favorite collaborations of the last several years is when Rocket League teamed up with Hot Wheels to create branded vehicles inside the game.

It’s a perfect example of native, non-intrusive branding and advertising that doesn’t bombard the user. 

What stands out most about this brand-game collaboration is that Rocket League and Hot Wheels are perfect partners. It’s only natural that Hot Wheels would advertise on a gaming platform dedicated to hot rods. 

This is exactly how brands should be approaching gaming marketing and advertising.

Start by identifying a game that aligns with your brand and then brainstorm creative ways to bring your brand to the game in a natural way. 

The key is to not wait for the opportunity to come to you. Seek out games (and game creators) that might make sense for a potential collaboration. Bring the creative ideas to them and you’ll have first shot at advertising and content on their platform.

5. Games Are On The Forefront Of Advertising

Gamers spend, on average, 7 hours and 7 minutes per week gaming, which represents a valuable window of opportunity for brands to share clear and engaging content with a captive audience. Interacting with gamers when they are fully immersed in play has a number of branding benefits.

The main advertising benefit being that the target audience isn’t distracted like on other social platforms. They aren’t split screening or scrolling through news feeds at high speeds – they are focused and engaged on the activity at hand.

Our consumer insights tool and Meltwater consumer intelligence solution help you get more information about the interests and demographics of your target audiences.

Tip: Take a look at what consumer insights are and check out the best consumer insights tools on the market.

One interesting concept is known as in-game advertising. In-game advertising refers to advertising in computer and video games.

For example, ahead of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Coca-Cola released its first-ever in-game advertising spot.

Uplifted Alex – EA Sports FIFA18

The advertisement, which features EA SPORTS FIFA 18 virtual athlete Alex Hunter is a nod to the brand’s classic 1979 “Mean Joe,” television spot, in which an American Football star is given a bottle of Coca-Cola from a fan after a tough game.

Traditional sporting events such as the Super Bowl (98 million viewers) are beginning to be outdone by events such as the League of Legends World Championship, which attracted an audience of more than 100 million viewers.

If this isn’t a strong signal in the direction of where the digital media and entertainment industries are headed, then I don’t know what is!

Gaming platforms open the door for brands, publishers, and advertisers to tap into a previously “unreachable audience” in numbers that have never been seen before in history.

To get yourself inspired to create engaging brand content on social, read our social content ebook full of great examples from top brands and strategy for getting it right.

5 Reasons Why Gaming Is the Next Big Brand Opportunity

Now that the formalities – and an extremely awkward atmosphere – are out of the way at the United Nations Climate Action Summit, environmental activists and climate change analysts are left frustrated with the paradox of inaction sitting in the cavernous hall. The biggest emitters – namely the US, China and India – have offered little to effect change.

Amid the fog of collective resignation at the assembly hall, there were a few rays of light flickering through the throngs of stuffy, suited bureaucrats discussing ways to settle their disputes. The positive outcomes – 70 countries pledged to boost their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in 2020, almost eight billion dollars in fresh funding from both the Green Climate Fund and Bill Gates and a band of countries and companies have committed to ending coal reliance.

However, a little voice of hope, despair and fury torched the conscience of the reluctant leaders at the summit like the inferno engulfing the Amazon rainforest now. Her braided pigtails slung over her fiery red blouse with eyes fixated at the cumbersome world leaders. The unassuming Swedish 16-year-old Greta Thunberg took them to task with a speech that unabashedly pointed the finger of blame to the bureaucrats in the room. Thunberg, who has addressed the British Parliament and staged protests against her nation’s administrators, admonished the weak steps countries have implemented like only providing financial aid.

The salience of Thunberg’s voice thundered in the media space. Between 20 to 26 September, there were more than 7.5 million social mentions of the young student-activist since her impassioned speech while news outlets around the world mentioned her 93,800 times. However there was a polarity between supporters and detractors on the merits of Greta during the summit. Supporters called the firebrand girl “inspiring” and praised her for being a role model to people who have Asperger’s Syndrome, a developmental disorder suffered by millions. Contrarily, there were some who believed she was a child being exploited by climate change activists and her efforts were unhelpful to the cause by shaming those who had the wherewithal to enact change.

A key point of discussion amongst the myriad of topics was Thunberg’s arch climate change nemesis, US President Donald Trump. Netizens and commentators on social media highlighted the divisive tweet that the “leader of the free world” made in response to Thunberg’s speech. In his tweet, Mr Trump professed that Thunberg “seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!”. This, in Mr Trump’s nutshell, dismissed any reciprocity from the US.

Donald J. Trump on Twitter: "She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!… "

Meltwater also discovered that 21.5% of the total social mentions of Thunberg originated from the US. This is unsurprising as the summit was held in New York and also included the highly publicised spat with the Commander-in-Chief. However, a quick glance at the top five countries highlighted an anomaly – the two other biggest emitters, China and India, were far from that number, with China not even on the list. In fact, there was not single Asian country, aside from India, in the top ten. Does this mean that social conversations on climate change were not prominent enough in Asian countries? Probably, and hopefully this insight can help spur key leaders to raise awareness in their regions.

Social media analytics on Global Climate Strike

Another event that preceded the UN Climate Action Summit is the ongoing Global Climate Strike (GCS). Climate change activists have been in full force globally with more than 3.58 million social mentions of the event since its launch on 20 September. Strikes were reported across numerous major cities including Melbourne, Singapore and even Thunberg’s home, Stockholm. The majority of the mentions were aimed to generate awareness of climate change and calling people – from students to postal workers – to go on strike on Fridays to pressure decision makers. While on the other side of the spectrum, topics ranged from conspiracy theories of the climate action movement and debunking facts put forth by the activists. 

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