Your Weekly Pencil - March 3, 2021

New Signals

• Only 15% of consumers across the U.S. and Europe are happy with their online shopping experiences, according to Contentsquare. Site crashes, late deliveries, and faulty discount codes leave the majority of customers unsatisfied—leaving a lot of room for improvement for DTCs.
• Twitter may no longer be a free platform—last week, Twitter announced that people will be able to charge their followers with something called a Super Follow—granting them access to extra content. This opens up the chance to explore new horizons, whether you’re a marketer or creator.
• Should you consider nano-influencers? A study by Planoly shows that influencers whose followers are between 1 to 10k have the highest engagement rate among all influencer groups—they are also the most trustworthy, according to consumers.

Pencil On: AdExchanger - "How can busy, short-staffed marketing departments test new creative messages constantly?"

• Sarah Sluis of AdExchanger explores with Will Hanschell how Pencil often goes against conventional wisdom, and how its tech is part of a bigger shift that’s happening as people use more predictive, AI-driven software.

Custom ads for custom pins—Wizard Pins this week's ad of the week! Watch the video here

• Wizard Pins is already a very creative company. So you may be wondering, where would they need help with ads? Well, exactly where a lot of creative marketers struggle— measuring results and pinpointing what's working! Watch the video above to see what's worked for Wizard Pins.

We're now on Quora! Check out what we've answered to - can AI replace digital marketers in 5 years?

• TL;DR - No, AI won’t replace digital marketers but, will be essential in making them better at what they do. For example, humans develop biases—creatives often lock into templates that work for one brand, when they could be unsuitable for another. AI doesn't. As technology like machine-generated creative (MGC) is inevitable, we believe AI + humans = superhumans.

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Something deeper

• Focus on the step in front of you, not the whole staircase.