Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason
Speaker 1: Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. Well, Amber Atherton is with us.
Speaker 1: She's the CEO of Zipper based on in San Francisco.
Speaker 1: Here in New York City today. Welcome you very much,
Speaker 1: lovely to be hit well. Great to have you. Uh.
Speaker 1: This is so on point about so many issues that
Speaker 1: we talk about, and timely given that people are going
Speaker 1: to do a lot of shopping over the next few weeks,
Speaker 1: they already are. Uh. Tell us how people are being
Speaker 1: influenced digitally. And I want to start with Facebook because
Speaker 1: we talk so much about the outsized influence in electoral
Speaker 1: politics and so many different things, but I would imagine
Speaker 1: it influences consumer behavior as well. Yeah, and I think,
Speaker 1: especially if you're looking at gen Z as a demographic,
Speaker 1: Facebook's influence is falling dramatically. That is not the space
Speaker 1: that they want to be, That's not where they're hanging out.
Speaker 1: So how a brand is going to reach this new
Speaker 1: generation of consumers. What we believe at Ziper's brands have
Speaker 1: this opportunity to bring to recognize fans and really bring
Speaker 1: them into these brand fan communities. And I think with
Speaker 1: seeing a lot of success with driving kind of customer
Speaker 1: acquisition through this brand way. Who does it really well?
Speaker 1: I don't think you can ignore like a glossier or
Speaker 1: a cure ology. These DTC companies are doing it so well.
Speaker 1: And why it's because it's this democratized approach to brand building.
Speaker 1: It's allowing their customers in gen z want to be
Speaker 1: part of brand building, they want to be in focus groups,
Speaker 1: they want to create products together. So it's really that
Speaker 1: democratized approach that is winning with this consumer. I've amazed, right,
Speaker 1: I have a sixteen year old Jason has two teenagers
Speaker 1: and then a younger one. But I mean it's interesting
Speaker 1: my daughter just the things they reach out or like
Speaker 1: do this survey do and like they do a lot
Speaker 1: of giveaways, and it's brands I've never heard of. But
Speaker 1: it's just amazing the amount of market research and just
Speaker 1: reaching out to consumers directly to kind of pull them
Speaker 1: into a brand. And I think this is what traditional
Speaker 1: brands and retailers are coming to Zype four is they
Speaker 1: want to be able to identify who their top one
Speaker 1: percent of fans are and bring them into a space
Speaker 1: where they can get real time insights like a because
Speaker 1: group two point oh, and they can really work with
Speaker 1: their customers as their advocates. And why that's important is
Speaker 1: because of consumers trust their friends and family recommendations more
Speaker 1: than any other form of advertising. So I think that's
Speaker 1: you can't ignore about stat well. And they also it
Speaker 1: feels like for the past few years have trusted broadly
Speaker 1: defined influencers. We've been talking a lot about Kylie Jenner,
Speaker 1: her you know, vaulting into being the youngest self made
Speaker 1: female billionaire. Uh, the big deal she did with Cody.
Speaker 1: Obviously people have moved and made purchases based on folks
Speaker 1: like her. Have we seen that peak or is that
Speaker 1: going to keep going up? I think we have seen
Speaker 1: this peak. However, I would class Kylie Jenner as more
Speaker 1: of a celebrity, and I think that actually celebrity is
Speaker 1: going to have this come back because they're still trusted.
Speaker 1: But only four percent of global consumers trust what an
Speaker 1: influencers recommending no kidding, no kidding, And is that because
Speaker 1: they think they're sort of on the take, And so
Speaker 1: I think that you're just savvy. You know that someone's
Speaker 1: being paid to promote anything, So where is the trust there?
Speaker 1: It's just been completely eroded by every sort of microinfluencer,
Speaker 1: and I think consumers are just desperate to have a
Speaker 1: genuine recommendation. So when you know that your friend is
Speaker 1: recommending a Glossier product or Tom shoes, you're far more
Speaker 1: likely to trust that than you are seeing an ad
Speaker 1: And I think going back to Facebook gen Z, they're
Speaker 1: using appookers, they're not on Facebook, they care about their privacy.
Speaker 1: There needs to be a new way to reach these consumers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's really fascinating. Um. And I do wonder about kind
Speaker 1: of some of these bigger brands, especially in the retail
Speaker 1: sector that are are really struggling. Um, you know, are
Speaker 1: they figuring it out? Is it too late? Can they
Speaker 1: kind of change the model effectively enough. I think we're
Speaker 1: definitely playing an education role in this space. That community
Speaker 1: software is a new category, you know, it sits between
Speaker 1: loyalty and advocacy software exactly. And this is about brands
Speaker 1: involving their customers, getting closer to their fans to keep
Speaker 1: their brand relevant. So I think there's a huge appetite
Speaker 1: for this type of authenticity with brands and their consumers now.
Speaker 1: So I think our solution is sort of at the
Speaker 1: right time and So when we think about sort of
Speaker 1: the platforms that are most used, you know, you talked
Speaker 1: about Facebook obviously, Instagram, Snap and others that the kids
Speaker 1: are using. I don't use them the kids TikTok TikTok exactly.
Speaker 1: So what's around the corner or is there anything emerging
Speaker 1: that you see as a platform of swords where a
Speaker 1: lot of this branding is going to happen. Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: I think that gen Z are looking for a more
Speaker 1: raw kind of relatable aesthetic, which is why TikTok has
Speaker 1: done so well because it's unfiltered. It's funny. It's not
Speaker 1: about Instagram filters an avocado toast. It's about like raw aesthetics.
Speaker 1: So don't make avocado toast. Listen. I'm going to stand too.
Speaker 1: I'm a fan. But I think that what we are
Speaker 1: seeing as a trend across the board with this age
Speaker 1: range is this desire to be in a more private
Speaker 1: chat based environment. But if you look at things like
Speaker 1: Discord or read It, they're really catering quite heavily to
Speaker 1: mail or like gaming communities. But what zipas building is
Speaker 1: kind of social networks with brands. Now you love Tom's
Speaker 1: or you love Glossier, you can come in to be
Speaker 1: part of this kind of social network with brand that
Speaker 1: you love and meet other people are consumers that you're
Speaker 1: finding that you're you know, whether it's the younger generation
Speaker 1: that they're comfortable sharing their data points and if they
Speaker 1: feel like that they have a role in developing a
Speaker 1: brand or helping out a brand. Definitely, if they feel
Speaker 1: like they're playing a role in helping out a brand,
Speaker 1: they're much more willing to share that information because it's
Speaker 1: a two way relationship. But I think what Facebook has
Speaker 1: damaged so much is that trust in social networks. But
Speaker 1: this is where brands have an opportunity because I still
Speaker 1: you know, I still trust the brand. So it's an
Speaker 1: interesting way to bring these consumers back into the forefront.
Speaker 1: Uh just quick thirty seconds. You've worked in reality TV.
Speaker 1: Is TV sort of gone the way of the dinosaur
Speaker 1: in terms of branding and influencing? No, I think you know,
Speaker 1: DTC brands a spell ending a ton on TV ads, right,
Speaker 1: I think it's still relevant. We still want to lean
Speaker 1: into that kind of vorst reality content and Snap developing
Speaker 1: even more of their own vertical shows. So I'm not
Speaker 1: sure I'll be returning to reality to be anytime soon,
Speaker 1: but it's still a great medium. All right. Well, you've
Speaker 1: got your hands full with Ziper. Amber Atherton, CEO of Ziber,
Speaker 1: based out in San Francisco. Here with us in New
Speaker 1: York City today