Monthly Archives: April 2016

Next to Now: The future is always unfinished

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THE RISE OF THE MICROINFLUENCERS

Bigger is not always better when it comes to influencer marketing:

“For unpaid posts, Instagram influencers with fewer than 1,000 followers have a like rate of about 8 percent, while those with 1,000 to 10,000 followers have a like rate of 4 percent.”

That’s good news for book publishers and any advertiser whose budget is more micro than mega.

#targeting #instagram

 

NEW MEDIA TARGETING

Hulu’s SVP of Sales makes a good point in Adweek (caveat emptor: he’s a sales guy, so he’s trying to sell you something). It’s good to know how a site indexes for the target audience, what the most popular content is, etc., but . . .

“. . . those questions and answers come from yesterday’s play book. Hulu’s median age really doesn’t matter. What matters is that we can pinpoint any age group advertisers are trying to reach. It doesn’t matter how we index against millennials or any other audience segment. Why bother with indices? What matters is that we can deliver 100 percent of an advertiser’s target segment. And while popularity of programing is directionally interesting, what’s more interesting is the ability to buy against both heavily streamed shows and shows that are heavily viewed by your target audience.”

In the new media reality, the question becomes: where can we put our ad so it’s served to 100% of the audience and content adjacencies that are right for our book.  

#video #targeting

 

EXPERIMENTS IN OUTDOOR

Hubspot highlights seven interactive outdoor campaigns that caught their eye. We’ve noticed a couple of these on Next to Now over the past year — including the Women’s Aid poster in London — but it’s good to look at them in one place and remember how outdoor is changing thanks to digital innovation.  

#outdoor

 

YOUTUBE MOBILE

More stats from Google that will remind you why you don’t have to make broadcast TV spots any more, including the fact that YouTube reaches more 18-49 year olds on mobile alone  than any broadcast or cable TV network. 

#mobile #video #youtube

 

ADBLOCKOPLYPSE NBD

According to Mashable, fear of mobile ad blocking (FOMAB) outstripped the reality. The mobile ad business continues to do well. But it does look like the scare has helped publishers of all stripes take user experience a little more seriously; if so, then maybe it was a good thing.   

#adblocking

 

Today's image is Cy Twombley's "Untitled I-VI (Green Paintings)" Series on view in the "Unfinished" show currently up at the Met Breur

Next to Now: On Streaming, Targeting, and Cheating

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NATIVE AD PERFORMANCE

Commenting on a study of native advertising click-through rates, Media Post is surprised to see that native ads do better on mobile. We are not. Mobile remains the best platform for high engagement—and not just because of mistaken clicks:

“The research found that click-through rates (CTR) for premium native ads were highest on smartphones, at 0.38% in 2015, while tablets saw an average CTR of 0.33%. Native ads on desktop computers saw CTR rates of 0.16%.”

#native #mobile

 

SNAPSHOT: SPOTIFY LISTENERS

72% of Spotify listeners are Millennials, and they’re listening mostly in the afternoon. Here’s a link to Adweek’s infographic on the Spotify audience and its listening habits.

#streaming #spotify

 

GENIUS STEALS?

Creatives should have their eyes and ears wide open, looking everywhere for inspiration, including Reddit. Just remember, that if you’re using someone else’s idea (especially when you use it word-for-word), you should pay them. Ask Axe.

#creative

 

DEMOGRAPHICS ARE NOT A BLUNT INSTRUMENT

A little reminder from Google that easy assumptions about demographics—such as, “only men are interested in video games” or “only people with babies in the house buy baby products”—are often overturned when you look at the data.  

#data #demographics #targeting

 

FACEBOOK LIVESTREAM COMMERCIALS

Digiday reports that Facebook is testing commercials in their live stream.

#facebook #livestream #video

Next to Now: Communication

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This week, the news was all about communication: innovations in messaging, email rates, attention spans and more.

 

F8 INTRODUCES SPONSORED MESSAGES

Facebook’s F8 conference introduced their latest updates to messaging—now including sponsored messages. The announcement marks a significant opportunity for paid advertising in the U.S. messaging business.

#messaging

FACEBOOK SHARING IS DOWN

One reason Facebook is going all-in with their messaging app is that overall sharing on their regular Facebook platform is down. According to the website, The Information:

Screen Shot 2016-04-15 at 10.04.05 AM

#facebook

 

EMAIL CLICK THROUGH RATES DECLINE

While email  remains one of our most powerful tools for marketing and advertising, the overall click-through averages are declining:

“North American email engagement fell again in Q4 on a year-over-year basis, reports Epsilon in its latest quarterly analysis of clients’ email activity. The click-through rate of 3.2% was down from 4% during the year-earlier period and from 4.4% in Q4 2013, maintaining this metric’s gradual descent. Meanwhile, the average open rate stood at 30.6% in Q4 2015, down from 32.2% in Q4 2014.”

#email

 

DO YOU KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE’S ATTENTION SPAN?

A new study suggests that millennials prefer very, very short videos (as in ten seconds or less) while older generations prefer slightly longer videos (but not tooooo long: just thirty seconds).

#video

Next to Now: Does the Marketing Funnel Still Work?

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MARKETING PINBALL

The CMO of Publishers Clearing House writes on Ad Age about the death of the marketing funnel and the birth of marketing pinball. The article’s focus on brands means it’s only moderately useful for book publishers, but it’s still a good read about the current state of the customer journey—instead of traveling along a well-defined linear path from awareness to inquiry to intent to purchase, the current path-to-purchase happens in a field of touchpoints as the consumer bounces from desktop research to stores to blogs to coupons to stores to reviews to comparison shopping.

#data #marketing #pinball

 

OUR CROSS-PLATFORM WORLD

If you want to play marketing pinball, you have to start understanding our cross-platform world. One place to start is this recent comScore report.

#crossplatform

 

A CLOUD OF DON DRAPER MOMENTS

CMO online interviews Wunderman CEO Seth Solomons on creativity and data:

“Today it’s about delivering more experiences at the points in time that matter most to the brand’s consumers. For me, it’s no longer about landing on a single Don Draper moment. Data and an understanding of engagement expectations are what make multiple Don Draper moments possible, on the devices and platforms that matter most.”

Another way to think about this, is to apply the baseball metaphor business writer and blue chip consultant Ram Charan uses in his advice for companies: it’s better to hit a whole series of singles than to keep swinging for a home run.

#data #crossplatform

 

MESSAGING MARKETING IS HERE AND IT TALKS LIKE A BOT

The ability of AI to hold a conversation in messaging apps is beginning to show fruit in the messaging world, with implications for customer service—and, by extension, marketing.

To learn more start with this article in Adweek:

“[A] growing number of startups [employs] automated messaging to help consumers do everything from hailing cabs to paying bills. Some say these services, known as chatbots, could be the biggest digital to-do since mobile apps. The bots are forms of artificial intelligence that create personalized one-to-one interactions.”

Then you can read more on chat bots from Digiday.

#messaging #chatbots

 

THE BENEFITS OF TARGETING TRANSPARENCY

A new study discussed in the Harvard Business Review suggests that not only do ads targeted to user behavior outperform non-targeted ads, but they do even better when the users *know* that they’re being targeted because of user behavior. Score another one for transparency.

#targeting #transparency

 

NEW BILLBOARDS ONLY HAVE EYES FOR YOU

A new campaign for General Motors uses cameras that identify passing cars by their grills and deliver customized billboards explaining to drivers of Nissan Altimas, Toyota Camrys, Hyundai Sonatas exactly how the Chevy Malibu is a superior car to the one they’re driving. Creepy? Maybe. Or maybe it’s an extension of the online targeting that consumers are beginning to expect. Imagine a subway billboard telling a Cassandra Clare reader all the ways your new YA fiction title would make a great next read.

#billboard #digital

 

 

MOBILE ATE THE WORLD

Benedict Evans has updated his “Mobile Eats World” presentation—in case you still need convincing about the ubiquity of mobile devices.

#mobile

 

 

ADBLOCKING HOLDS STEADY AT 10%

A recent comScore report suggests that ad blocking is holding steady at 10% of desktop users, and is not ramping up as had been feared. Younger males are far and away the most likely group to block ads.  

#adblocking

 

 

Next to Now: No Fooling Edition

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April 1st is the first day of National Poetry Month, and, much to the delight of older brothers everywhere, April Fool’s Day.

 

 

In celebration of National Poetry Month, give Jonathan Galassi a call and let him read you a poem: 949-342-5374

 

In celebration of April Fool’s Day: Pigeons with backpacks.

Screen Shot 2016-04-01 at 2.39.05 PM

“Pigeons outfitted with lightweight backpacks soared over London from March 14 to 16, collecting air quality data across the city that was shared via Twitter. The Pigeon Air Patrol was a collaboration between Plume Labs and DigitasLBi to raise awareness for an even larger air pollution project to be crowdsourced from London’s largest moving flock: its humans.”

 

TIPS FOR REACHING PARENTS ON INSTAGRAM

An Instagram for Business post suggests that the visual platform is a great way to reach moms (and dads):

“Instagram found that 93 percent of moms access its network at least once per week, with 68 percent doing so daily.”

They also link to successful campaigns for Campbell’s and Gap Kids.

#instagram #moms

 

CRUZ AND SANDERS EXPERIMENT WITH FACEBOOK’S CANVAS

While brands have been slow to try Facebook’s new Canvas feature, the political campaigns of Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders have seen good success with it. Facebook client partner Chase Mohney told Digiday:

“Canvas is great for two big reasons. It provides these campaigns with the opportunity to tell an immersive story — their story — using video, stills and calls to action — really whatever works for them. And it’s designed for mobile, which is where the voters campaigns want to reach are spending their time anyway.”

One reason for advertiser reluctance that the article doesn’t mention? Cost. The CPM is in the $450-500 range. That’s just a *wee bit* higher than we normally see with Facebook ads . . . much less rich media available on blue chip sites.  

#social #facebook

 

SIMPLE IS BEST

A new study suggests that in the visually complex world of the current Web, simpler messages hold the key to ad effectiveness.

#creative #simple

 

INNOVATIVE OUTDOOR

A campaign for the upcoming release of Game of Thrones has dragons “landing” in major cities everywhere. As advertisers, we applaud the innovative nature of the advertising. As city residents, we suspect that if any marketer showed up outside our windows with another jack hammer, just in the name of pulling off a cool marketing stunt, we would ourselves turn into dragons.

#outdoor #creative

 

HOW MUCH DO WE LIKE OUTDOOR ADVERTISING?

Well, we like it a lot. For some reasons why, here is an article from Digiday pointing to smart, fun “conversation-starter” campaigns for Thinx and Caspar on New York subways:

“‘We like subway ads because we want to create a presence in New York City where trends are set,’ Miki Agrawal, CEO and co-founder of Thinx said on stage at Marketing Unbound, the annual conference hosted by the Economist. ‘And we want our ads to be conversation starters for New York subway riders.’”

#outdoor