In short
Podcast Notes: Do This, NOT That - Episode 336
Episode Overview Title: What’s Up THIS WEEK: Subject Line Trends, Instagram CAROUSELS Crushing it, Karate Kid: Legends? Host: Jay Schwedelson Key Themes: Marketing Trends, Instagram Engagement, Subject Line Effectiveness, Business News
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Key Takeaways
Instagram Engagement
- Carousel Posts:
- Instagram's head, Adam Masseri, suggests focusing on carousel posts due to their high engagement rate.
- Carousel posts can increase average engagement rates by 30% over static posts.
- Users who do not engage initially may see subsequent images in the carousel, providing multiple opportunities for engagement.
Email Marketing
- Seasonal Subject Lines:
- Summer-themed email subject lines yield a 22% higher open rate.
- Examples of effective subject lines include:
- "Your summer starts with this email"
- "Hot summer, hotter discounts"
- "Beat the summer slump with this report"
Business Updates
- LinkedIn Layoffs:
- Microsoft announced a job cut of 400 to 500 positions at LinkedIn, attributing it to efficiency and a shift towards AI, despite user engagement increasing.
- Dick's Sporting Goods Acquires Foot Locker:
- Dick's Sporting Goods has acquired Foot Locker for $2.4 billion.
- Post-acquisition, Dick’s could represent 35% of Nike's sales, significantly impacting negotiations and market power.
Advertising Insights
- Top TV Ads:
- Liberty Mutual's ad featuring the "Limu Emu" was the most viewed, garnering 443 million impressions and costing $2.7 million this week.
- Wegovy's ad followed closely with 334 million impressions and a budget of $8.7 million, targeting higher-end markets.
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Additional Discussions
- Media Commentary:
- Jay shares his opinions on upcoming movies like Mission Impossible and expresses disdain for live-action adaptations of cartoons, particularly Disney's trend.
- Critique of the Karate Kid franchise and current cultural trends in film.
- Pop Culture Commentary:
- Commentary on Blake Lively and her media portrayal, suggesting she should take a step back from the spotlight.
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Closing Notes
- Engagement Encouragement:
- Listeners are encouraged to subscribe for more actionable marketing tips and insights.
- Call to action for reviews and participation in free virtual marketing events.
Upcoming Events
- EVENTASTIC: Largest event about events scheduled for June 5-6, 2025.
- Guru Conference: World's largest virtual email marketing conference on November 6-7, 2025.
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Host's Social Media
- YouTube: [Jay's YouTube Channel](https://www.youtube.com/@schwedelson)
- TikTok: [Jay's TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@schwedelson)
- Instagram: [Jay's Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/jayschwedelson/)
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This episode of "Do This, NOT That" provides valuable insights into current marketing trends and the dynamics of the business landscape, making it a must-listen for marketers looking to enhance their strategies.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:01What up? Welcome to Do This Not That, the podcast for marketers. I'm Jay Schwetelson. Let's dig into some tips and some randomness. We are back for what's up this week from the Do This Not That podcast presented by Marigold. This is our super short episode where we break down what's going on this week in business, in marketing, in life, and then we still have our other episodes. So what's going on? So let's talk Instagram first. Adam Masseri, the head of Instagram, came out this week and he was talking about what type of posts get the most circulation on Instagram. So basically, you should only be posting carousels.
0:37That's pretty much what I got out of what he said, because what he said about carousel posts, which by the way, are those posts that have like multiple images that you can kind of scroll through. He said that what happens on Instagram is if a user doesn't engage in the post in their feed, that's a carousel post, they will recirculate that same post, but show the second image in that post. So you get more bites the apple because they're actually serving up the same post multiple time. And it is increasing average engagement rates for carousel specific posts to about 30 % higher than other forms of posts.
1:10So that was straight from Instagram. Now, other cool data coming out this week. This is from subjectline.com. Summer oriented subject lines starting on June 1st for both business and consumer marketing campaigns have a 22 % higher average email open rate. So what does that mean? That really means incorporating summer into your subject line. So on the consumer side, I'll give you some examples. then I'll do B2B. So your subject lines may be something like your summer starts with this email or hot summer, hotter discounts, or your summer essentials are 30 % off, but not for long. And on the business side, it might be something like this tool doesn't take summer Fridays or what every CMO should download this summer or beat the summer slump with this report.
1:59Basically, we want to get excited about the fact that it's the summer, and we want to tap into that in all of our marketing. So if you're not testing or planning on testing summer-oriented subject lines, I think you're missing out in a big, big way. What else is going on this week? Well, this is not cool, slightly ironic, but LinkedIn is facing job cuts. Microsoft announced that they're cutting some people from LinkedIn, and they're cutting somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 to 500 jobs. but according to Microsoft, it's not because of revenue and usage because both of those are up on LinkedIn, but it's because of them wanting to be more efficient and they want to do more stuff with AI, shocker.
2:42So that's kind of, I said ironic because you go on LinkedIn to actually find a job. I actually wonder this. Like if you work at LinkedIn and then you get let go, do you have like glass in your teeth? Do you not then use LinkedIn to find your next job? like what would you do i feel like i would use it because what are you going to do not use it i don't know all right some other news going on in the business marketing world did you see that dick's sporting goods bought footlocker for 2.4 billion dollars and their plan is to maintain the footlocker name and to run the shoe stores as standalone businesses at least that's what they say they're going to do and they're 2400 stores across 22 uh countries it's pretty wild but the thing that's really interesting and i think the reason that they did this for real is that ubs is reporting that they now Dick's total sales, including now the footlocker portion, they could be a total of 35 % of Nike's sales, which is really interesting because I think in a lot of ways, Nike can bully a lot of the retailers in doing what they want to do.
3:42But when you control that much of another company's sales and you could bully them. So there's a lot of bargaining power that Dick's is going to have for Nike and Adidas and Hoka and all these other brands. Some other things and we'll jump into the nonsense um i've been starting to check out what are the most seen ads tv ads every single week because i'm so curious about uh how often some of these ads are running so what do you think the most seen tv ad was this week well it was liberty mutual's tv spot the limu emu okay i do love those commercials they're very very good limu emu but i didn't realize how widely circulated they are.
4:23So this past week, those TV spots got 443 million impressions, views. The ad aired 2 ,400 times and they spent estimated according to ispot.tv. Okay. Ispot.tv estimates that they spent$2.7 million on that ad this week. The second one, the most widely circulated one according to iSpot TV was Wagovi's TV spot, Discover the Power, which had 334 million impressions. It aired 1 ,900 times. You know how much they spent this week? $8.7 million because they're going after some more expensive markets. Dude, that's just this week alone. That is bananas. Do you have$8.7 million to spend this week on your ad campaigns?
5:10That'd be cool. All right, let's get into some nonsense stuff. So I really wanted to go to the movies in the next few weeks. So I'm like, what movies are coming out? I want to check out the movies. So first off, the movie that I am excited about that's coming out, not that you ask. I know you don't care. But I am excited about Mission Impossible. I've seen every Mission Impossible. And I could barely get in my car without tripping and falling down. And Tom Cruise can, like, jump out of planes. I mean, it's unbelievable what that dude's doing. So I'm very into seeing Mission Impossible. The other thing that's coming out this week, which I don't care about, which I think we need to stop.
5:46Lilo and Stitch from Disney. They're doing a live action version of the cartoon. I do not like these live action versions of cartoons. Like what is, what happened to creativity? We just have to turn cartoons into real things. This is ridiculous. I'm not a fan. I know I'm a downer. Who cares? Whatever. And then the ones coming out next week, which I definitely am not seeing, is Karate Kid Legends. come on they're making another film this is the sixth film in the karate kid whatever and this picks up right after cobra kai the show ends right and enough enough with the karate kid uh it's ridiculous i know everybody out there i get so much hate whenever i talk about cobra kai i get so much hate that i'm not that into it i don't care i really don't care um you know what else i'm not into i talked about this before but i'm not into blake lively sorry blake lively i know i shouldn't talk about this but i don't care so i saw that it was all over the news that she had a girl's night out who cares that she had a girl's night out and she was with her sisters and there were all these pictures that she posted all this stuff you know why she had a girl's night out with her sisters because nobody else wants to be in a picture with her right now she needs to hide if she just hid for a few months and let everything die down and stop being annoying everything for her would be fine i think anyway what are we talking about i don't know i appreciate you being here.
7:10Listen, check out the episodes later in the week and have a great week. Later. You did it. You made it to the end. Nice. But the party's not over. Subscribe to make sure you get the latest episode each week for more actionable tips and a little chaos from today's top marketers. And hook us up with a five-star review if this wasn't the worst podcast of all time. Lastly, if you want access to the best virtual marketing events that are also 100 % free, Visit guruevents.com so you can hear from the world's top marketers like Damon John, Martha Stewart, and me. Guruevents.com. Check it out.
From the publisher
In this episode of Do This, Not That, Jay Schwedelson breaks down what's trending this week—from Instagram’s push for carousel posts to summer-themed subject lines that boost open rates. He also covers LinkedIn layoffs, Dick's Sporting Goods buying Foot Locker, and some personal takes on movies and Blake Lively.
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Best Moments:
(00:34) So basically you should only be posting carousels
(01:34) Carousel posts... are increasing average engagement rates... to about 30% higher
(02:05) Summer oriented subject lines... have a 22% higher average email open rate
(03:15) Your summer starts with this email or hot summer, hotter discounts
(03:40) This tool doesn't take summer Fridays
(04:19) LinkedIn is facing job cuts
(05:12) Do you not then use LinkedIn to find your next job?
(05:48) Dick's Sporting Goods bought Foot Locker for $2,400,000,000
(06:27) They could be a total of 35% of Nike's sales
(06:58) Liberty Mutual's TV spot, the Limu Emu
(07:22) They spent... $2,700,000 on that ad this week
(07:33) Wegovy's TV spot... $8,700,000 because they're going after some more expensive markets
(08:00) Tom Cruise can like jump out of planes
(08:28) I do not like these live action versions of cartoons
(08:58) This is the sixth film in the Karate Kid whatever
(09:39) Sorry, Blake Lively
(10:00) She needs to hide. If she just hid for a few months...
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