Inside Marketing

Google is in hot water in Europe, Hoka has just launched its largest-ever marketing campaign, and Nielsen is accelerating its data modernization strategy with its new Media Data Room. Stay tuned for more can't-miss marketing stories! As always, thanks for supporting Inside! 

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What happened: The European Commission has launched a formal antitrust complaint against Google’s Advertising business, alleging that it hinders the competition in the adtech industry. The commission highlighted that, since 2014, Google has abused its dominance in the European Economic area-wide markets by favoring its own ‘AdX’ ad exchange in the ad selection auction and avoiding competing ad exchanges by mainly placing bids on AdX. The commission argues that Google’s conduct skews a competitive advantage for AdX over rival ad exchanges. 

Why it matters: Google’s advertising business brought in nearly $225B in 2022 and has been growing its revenue each year since its launch in 2001. Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission’s executive vice president, has suggested that Google’s ad business may have to get broken up, but this is not definite. A recent press release from the European Commission said, “Structural remedies can only be imposed either where there is no equally effective behavioral remedy or where any equally effective behavioral remedy would be more burdensome for the company concerned than the structural remedy.” If Google’s ad business gets divested, it would be a significant loss for the company, as it is the source of 80% of its overall revenue, reaching $280B in 2022. 

Where to see the impact: As previously mentioned, Google’s ad business is by far its most lucrative. The search giant has been incorporating new AI technology into its core ad products, including PaLM 2, its latest LLM.      

Athletic footwear company Hoka has just launched ‘Murmuration,’ its largest-ever global marketing campaign. The branding content builds off the company’s ‘Fly Human Fly’ creative platform, which debuted in June 2022. 

More: 

• This marketing campaign comes shortly after the Deckers Brands-owned sneaker brand surpassed $1B in revenue. 
• The 1-minute long spot opens with a picturesque, mountainous landscape, with a bird-like flock of humans running together mid-air, sporting variations of Hoka sneakers and apparel. It then closes with the runners grouped in the form of Hoka’s bird-shaped logo with the caption “Fly Human Fly.” 
• The ad evokes feelings of community and togetherness, while the flying aspect breaks barriers and limits associated with running as a sport. 

Zoom Out: 

• Hoka's brand campaign will span owned media, OOH, CTV, digital, and social media channels. 
• Hoka is honing in on community by inviting regional run clubs nationwide to participate in local Hoka Fly Runs, which will be hosted in various locations in the U.S. 

A report from the Amsterdam-based Center for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) reveals that Amazon’s income from independent seller fees tripled from 2017 to 2022 and that this growth significantly exceeds the number of sales made by independent sellers in Europe. SOMO alleges that the e-commerce giant is leveraging its monopoly at the expense of independent European sellers. 

More: 

• SOMO found that Amazon’s fees doubled in several categories, based on an analysis of delivery and storage costs for sellers in Germany, France, the U.K., Spain, and Italy. 
• Margarida Silva, a researcher at SOMO, stated that Amazon is “so dominant that independent retailers who wish to sell online cannot avoid it” and that the company is essentially profiting off of “captive clientele.” 
• Amazon’s income generated by sellers’ fees reportedly increased by 6%, to $25.7B, while retail sales dropped by 1%, according to SOMO, citing data from Amazon E.U. 

Soundtrack Your Brand, a Swedish B2B music streaming service, has raised a $15M pre-growth round led by Matt Pincus’ investment fund MUSIC, with participation from Liontree, JS Capital Management, Schusterman Family Investments, and Dundee Partners. The company specializes in streaming music for commercial settings like shops, hotels, restaurants, gyms, and more. 

More: 

• Soundtrack Your Brand offers businesses an extensive range of songs, playlists, and artists. 
• According to the company website, the Swedish company provides the only commercial music that allows businesses to access songs that can be played on demand.   
• Businesses can also leverage Soundtrack Your Brand to create unique radio stations tailored to their customers. 
• The company has raised $64M and plans to use its fresh funds to look into mergers and acquisitions within the background music market.

Building relationship capital is about more than networking. Forging genuine connections with people who can help you grow your startup is the topic of this week's Inside Marketing Talk with BizFamous Consulting founder, ERock Christopher. Click the image for more.

Quick Hits: 

• Discover how brands can achieve incremental revenue growth, increased brand awareness, and more.*
• The Croatian Infobip and Google for Startups hosted the first B2B Marketing Forum in Croatia on June 13. The event featured several B2B companies, startups, and speakers from the U.K., Croatia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Bulgaria who discussed best practices for B2B marketing. 
• Crayola is looking to resonate with Gen Z and is working with digital content studio TheSoul Publishing to launch more of its creative content on social media platforms, including YouTube, TikTok, and Pinterest. 
• Actor Idris Elba is launching a marketing agency in London with Marc Boyan, owner of the independent media group Miroma. 
• Put the bourbon boom in your profile. CaskX is a revolutionary new platform helping individuals invest in full barrels of bourbon. Request access.*

*This is sponsored content.