Insights from Nebo

It’s almost the most stressful exciting time of the year: Cyber Week! Marketers and consumers prepare for months leading up to these busy days, and while there aren’t as many midnight doorbusters happening as there were pre-2020, everyone is still eager to 1) snag a great deal, or 2) make some serious cash.

What was traditionally a one-day event at brick-and-mortar stores across the country slowly became more virtual, and sales hours kept expanding both before and after America’s busiest Friday. Eventually Cyber Monday took on a life of its own, and in 2020, dominated the eCommerce scene when Americans, reluctantly stuck at home, spent $10.8 billion online, making it the largest online shopping day in U.S. history. 

The cyber craze will no doubt continue into 2021 and beyond, so get ready for the biggest shopping season of the year with these tips for Cyber Week email marketing. 

For many in Atlanta, Pride means celebration — think rainbow confetti, marching for equality and, of course, partying the house down. But the last two years have reminded us that Pride is so much more than a parade. Last year, we took Pride season into perspective with the injustices that have disproportionately affected queer communities of color for decades.

And this year, Atlanta Pride is being held virtually once again due to COVID-19. So instead of building a float, the Nebo team created Free To Be, a digital Pride experience that not only celebrates our freedom to be ourselves, it also shines the spotlight on organizations doing good for the LGBTQIA+ community.

Anyone who watches RuPaul’s Drag Race knows that RuPaul Charles is more than a drag queen — he’s the Queen of Advertising. 

Every episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race is essentially 90 minutes of advertisements dressed up in ostrich feathers, from perfect product placements to schticky self-promotion. And yet, no one is changing the channel. In fact, the show’s 13th season just swept the Emmy Awards with a whopping six wins and a total of 24 trophies over the years. 

Somehow, Ru and his girls have taken advertising from ad nauseum to sickening success. What’s the show’s secret? Here’s the tea on what makes RuPaul’s Drag Race a marketing masterpiece.

As little kids, we’re always asked “What do you want to be when you grow up?” When I was 8-years-old, my answer was always something grandiose and awe-inspiring. (i.e. a ballerina or a movie star.) But at that age it’s hard to truly know what you’re passionate about and what aligns with your values. At such a young age, I didn’t even know what a project manager was. 

To be honest, I don’t even remember project management being talked about on career day. It wasn’t on my career aptitude test. If it had been, we would have matched perfectly.  If I think about what is needed to be a good project manager, my personality and career goals all align.

Marketers are in the midst of a big problem: The Privacy Paradox. Consumers constantly want more of their communications with brands to be personalized and tailored to their needs. However, simultaneously, more and more people are concerned with how their personal data is being captured and used. 

The problem is that marketers rely on data to provide more personalized experiences - but what kind of data should marketers be collecting and how should it be collected? Ultimately, how do we find the right balance between personalization and privacy?

The ground has begun to move crumble beneath our feet in the email world, ever since Apple announced its new Mail Privacy Protection features in June 2021. The announcement has left email marketers concerned restless in anticipation for its upcoming release in September 2021. We can’t help but wonder — will Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection kill the open rate as a KPI?