Good morning. Right about now you’re probably looking for a way to procrastinate answering the work emails you ignored over the long weekend. Perfect time to share Crashing Up with a friend.
If you’re that friend, sign up here.
No Ads, No Problem
In light of recent events, over 800 companies have announced that they will be pulling their ads from Facebook and other social media platforms. For years, Mark Zuckerberg has stood his ground regarding the censorship and policing of hate speech and fake news on the platform. Finally, advertisers have had enough.
“Starting on July 1, The Coca-Cola Company will pause paid advertising on all social media platforms globally for at least 30 days. We will take this time to reassess our advertising standards and policies to determine whether revisions are needed internally, and what more we should expect of our social media partners to rid the platforms of hate, violence and inappropriate content,” Coca-Cola CEO James Quincy said in a recent statement.
Coca-Cola is one only of the multi-national corporations that have pulled ad spends. Other notable names include, Unilever, Patagonia, Starbucks and Ford.
While the intentions of the boycott are pure, it probably won’t hinder Facebook or the companies doing the boycotting as much as it seems. Here’s why:
For Facebook: In 2019, Facebook generated nearly $70 billion in ad revenue thanks to the eight million advertisers who use their platform. Many of these users are SMBs (small and midsize businesses.) Facebook has generated over $17 billion of ad revenue in the first quarter of this year alone. Even with many big players boycotting the platform, this is nothing more than a rounding error for Facebook’s bottom line. It even makes advertising more attractive for smaller businesses who no longer need to bid on ads against companies with larger ad spends.
For Small Businesses: Facebook ads are the most effective marketing channel for the millions of small businesses that are desperate for traffic right now. If anything, this might increase the amount of ads that SMBs run on Facebook during this time, as they look to optimize ad spend. This is also an ideal scenario for all of the direct to consumer (D2C) e-commerce organizations who rely on social media ads as their primary marketing channel. I can assure you that you won’t see companies like Casper, Dollar Shave Club, or Glossier pulling advertisements, as it would be detrimental for them to do so. Instead they’ll actually become more profitable, as their CPCs and CPMs will most likely decrease.
For Large Corporations: Again while their intentions could be pure, there is definitely some strategy behind these decisions. Given the economic climate, it was already expected that companies would be decreasing their ad spend. For companies with seasonal products, like North Face and Patagonia, lower ad spend in the summer months is part of their cyclical marketing strategy. Nobody is looking to buy a jacket in the summer, so why burn money advertising to them? By boycotting Facebook, companies have an excuse to save money, while also benefitting from the PR boost that comes with participating in the holdout.
While it’s commendable that companies are finally taking a stand on crucial social issues, it’s important to note that in many cases it’s not as much of a sacrifice as it seems. Many of these boycotts are only for a few months and ultimately all major corporations will return to advertising on the platform. It would be fiscally irresponsible to do otherwise.
Bottom Line: Facebook is the lifeblood of many SMBs. No matter what Facebook says or does, there will always be millions of people who advertise on their platform.
Keep it Brief
By now you’ve heard me rant about the benefits of cold-email outreach. When I first started my own cold-emails, I’d write borderline novels that were often left unanswered or unread. If I did receive feedback, it was always to stop writing so much. So to reiterate again…when sending a cold-email, get straight to the point.
In sending these emails, I was always taught to be as formal as possible and to make sure that my grammar was impeccable. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be taken seriously. In some industries this may be true, but in most cases this approach is outdated. Clarity, brevity, and authenticity trump grammatical perfection and formalities. Especially with important people. Chances are that if these people do answer, their response will be shorter and less proper than your initial message anyways.
Here’s an example of a cold-email exchange from a high schooler Niraj Pant and Evan Speigel, the CEO of Snapchat.
Let’s take a look at one more. This time it’s from a friend of the Morning Brew to Mark Cuban.
See a pattern? Be straightforward in your ask, communicate the value you can provide, and keep it brief. Follow this formula and let the responses pour in.
Who Likes Short Shorts?
In the wise words of Dave Portnoy, “stocks only go up.” While we all know this isn’t true, the last few months have indicated otherwise. In this time frame, there are few companies that have had as amazing of a run as Tesla. Tesla stock has gained over 234% since its March low. As of February, it was the most shorted stock in the US with around 18% of its shares in the hands of short sellers who probably aren’t too happy right now. So what do you do when you prove a large portion of the population wrong AGAIN? You partake in some petty, not-so-humble bragging.
On Friday, Elon tweeted this:
On Sunday, he released these on the Tesla Shop site:
You may be wondering why it says S3XY on the back. These are the models of all the current Tesla’s on the market (S, 3, X, Y). Yes, he’s really been planning this from the start.
Moral of the story: The man played a large role in creating PayPal, built and launched the first private rocket to fly humans to orbit, while simultaneously creating the future of electric vehicles (EVs). Stop betting against him.
The Road to 250
The Crashing Up fam is starting to grow and I’m loving it. We grew 38% last month and now have a total of 70 subscribers. My goal is to hit at least 250 subscribers by 2021.
If you’re having fun and learning, I’d really appreciate if you helped spread the word.
Thanks for reading,
Randy