💀 Don't play it safe

👋 What’s growing: African cities. Projections put another billion people in the mother continent’s cities by 2050. Urban economist Astrid R.N. Haas says it’s the fastest urban transition we’ve ever seen — even greater than China’s 700 million person migration between 1978 and 2010. 

Africa is going to be a very interesting place in the decades to come.

TRIVIA

Which country spends the most time on social media? 

A) South Africa

B) Kenya 

C) Brazil

D) The Philippines

Scroll to the bottom to find out!

TACTICS

The Extraordinary Cost Of Being Dull

Happiness is the biggest driver of commercial sales. Why? Because feel-good ads become good memories.

However all emotions — positive or negative — can drive short-term sales. The point is, any emotion is better than none. 

Yet, you don’t need us to tell you that most of the 4,000-10,000 ads you see every day leave you unfazed. 

Here’s how bad it is really. Systems1, a marketing platform, tested over 100,000 TV ads and asked people to rank their response: Surprise, Happiness, Neutral, Sadness, Fear, Anger, Disgust, Contempt.

Almost 50% felt nothing, nada. 

Dull ads may not harm your brand directly, but they sure hurt your business.

The problem of dull isn’t damage. It’s waste. It costs more – sometimes a lot more – to get the same business impact with a dull ad as with an interesting one.

Even more interesting: the duller your ad, the more happy impressions you lose. Bad impressions stay the same.

In other words, playing it safe is a poor strategy.

So, what’s the cost of being dull?

US companies would have to spend an extraordinary $189Bn to make dull ads perform like non-dull ads. In other words, dull ads are costing US companies $189bn.

The best fix for your ROI then? 

Don’t be boring. 

Steps To Not Be Boring by System1 CMO Evan Jones:

1. Meet audiences where they care, using their language

2. Apply real-world standards for interesting content

3. Show genuine distinctiveness and character

4. Use emotion, drama and storytelling

5. Challenge assumptions to create surprise 

WRITE CONTENT THAT SELLS

FREE RESOURCE

How To Build A Content Strategy That Works

Could you go on and on about your job for hours? Perfect - time to let the world know what you can do. 

This free Content Marketing Starter Kit by Semrush helps you plan your content out for maximum effectiveness and minimal headache.

What’s inside: 

• Step by step guides

• How to build off your competition’s winning tactics 

• Templates for your content plan, calendar, funnel and more

DATA POINT

There Are 5 Billion Active Social Media Users

Yep, 5 billion. 

Out of 8.1 billion people total, in case you hadn’t checked on that in a while. 

This from We Are Social and Meltwater’s Digital 2024 April Global Statshot Report.

Other findings include: 

• More than two-thirds of the world’s population now uses the internet

• Smartwatches are on the rise, especially in India

• Yahoo! is still one of the most popular destinations on the (1 billion users per month on Yahoo! searc h)

• Reddit ads have 230 million users - understandable with 40% of people over the age of 13 in the US using Reddit each month

• Games are bigger than ever 

And a lot more actionable stuff. You can read the full report here.

MARKETING CULTURE

Double-Entry Bookkeeping Appreciation Moment 🙏

We all use double-entry bookkeeping nowadays, but most of us aren’t thankful enough for how smoothly it allows our world to run. 

It’s a type of accounting.

We heard you think: “boringggg” 🥱 .

But the benefits of accounting have been recognized since ancient times.

It’s said that it was the emperor Augustus’ attention to bookkeeping that allowed Rome to flourish under his rule. 

However, Augustus’ accountants did it the old way: they only tracked cash in, or cash out of their own account. If any mistake was made or fraud committed, it was really hard to detect. 

And everyone did it that way until the Venetians underwent an economic boom in the 11th century thanks to the crusades. That’s when they came up with double-entry bookkeeping, A.K.A. bookkeeping alla venezia.

Here’s how it works: they listed credits in one column, and debits in the other. If there is a credit, there is a debtor.

Here’s what’s great about it: If at any moment, the sum of the credits is not equal to the sum of the debts, you know you have an error somewhere. 

It improved bookkeeping to the point where double-entry is now a standard operating procedure for all accounting in the western world.

So simple, yet it took us a while to invent.

MEME-Y