Monthly Archives: December 2016

Next to Now for December 2016

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For our final post of 2016, we wish you a happy holidays and terrific last-minute gift-finding success for all your loved ones (pro tip: look in a bookstore).

 

FACEBOOK EXPERIMENTS WITH GREATER AD CONTROL FOR CONSUMERS

This week Facebook announced that are allowing users greater control over which ads they see. First available for blocking: ads for liquor and parenting. This is ultimately a win for advertisers as well as consumers. It is a great way to prevent wasted impressions.

#facebook

 

MARKETING HACKS FOR INSTAGRAM

Instagram’s new save feature was good news for advertisers from the moment it was announced. But some marketers have taken it a step further, exploring creative ways to use the save tool to increase consumer engagement.

#instagram

 

HOW MEN SHOP

If you’re looking to reach men for holiday shopping, look to the last-minute. According to a National Retail Federation study on Christmas shopping,

“51.2% of men (compared to 48.3% of women) said they expect to buy the last holiday gift between Monday and Sunday.”

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#lastminute #men

 

WHAT’S NEW IN RUSSIAN AD FRAUD

The New York Times reports on a Russian criminal organization that specializes in using bots to fake ad impressions, pocketing millions a day from unsuspecting advertisers.  The best ways to avoid this ad fraud is to make sure you’re working with scrupulous partners. While all programmatic companies—whether it’s Google or Turn or another—are working hard to minimize the problem they haven’t yet been able to stamp it out. The surest way to avoid ad fraud is to buy directly from sites such as NYTimes.com, rather than going through dodgy 3rd party providers.

#adfraud

Next to Now for December 16

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As the holiday season lights the way from one year to the next, this week’s ad news gives us a glimpse of what’s working, what’s not working, and what’s worth testing.

 

BANNER AD TIPS FROM BBDO

BBDO has run a study of the best performing banner ads. What they learned is worth noting:

  • Keep copy less than 5-10 words
  • Treat them like billboards
  • Make them look like ads (don’t make them look like fake edit)
  • Keep branding consistent

#banners #bestpractices #creative

 

FACEBOOK ADMITS TO MORE MEASUREMENT ERRORS

In a recent announcement, Facebook admitted to more errors in reporting likes, reactions, and shares. While we applaud their transparency, it underscores how digital reporting is built on an inherently opaque set of data. There remains an enormous amount of trust involved in seeing data from advertising partners who have an incentive to inflate results.

#facebook #social

 

INSTAGRAM NOW ALLOWS YOU TO SAVE OTHER PEOPLE’S PHOTOS

Instagram has introduced a new feature that allows you to save photos from your timeline. This will be a nifty feature for users, but is perhaps even better for businesses since it makes it easier for consumers to bookmark products they like so they can look at them later.

#instagram

Next to Now: December 9

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SELF SHUTTERS PRINT, GOES DIGITAL ONLY

Conde Nast’s Self is ending the print version of the magazine, and ramping up the digital brand. Media Post reports,

“Since 2014, Self’s single-copy sales dropped from 148,000 to 44,000. Circulation has dropped from just over 1.5 million to just under.

“Meanwhile, video viewership experienced triple digit growth compared to last year, according to Condé Nast. In September, Self.com broke previous traffic records with 5.3 million unique viewers, representing a 56% increase year-over-year.”

#self #print

2017 LOOKS TO BE THE YEAR INSTAGRAM GAINS GROUND OVER TWITTER

eMarketer’s survey of marketers suggests that 2017 will be the year more advertisers choose Instagram over Twitter:

“By 2017, the research firm forecasts, 74.2% of U.S. companies (or at least those with more than 100 employees) will use Instagram for marketing purposes — markedly more than the 66.2% that will be using Twitter.”

#instagram #twitter #social

MARKETERS NEED TO BE ON SNAPCHAT. THAT DOESN’T MEAN IT’S EASY.

The case for using Snapchat to reach 18-24 year olds is clear:

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That makes the platform a great place to experiment reaching this age group, but as this tale “from the trenches” of a recent Ben & Jerry’s geo-filter campaign shows, it’s not the place if you’re looking for flawless execution.

#snapchat

SNAPCHAT INNOVATIONS

Digiday reports on the Snapchat campaign run by Birch Box: By using vanity urls, Birch Box was able to sell direct to its highly engaged Snapchat fan base and measure the results. It’s a model of a scrappy direct response campaign on an emerging platform.

#snapchat

NATIVE ADVERTISING TILTS TOWARD SOCIAL

MediaPost reports that advertisers and agency executives are looking to run more native advertising in 2017, with more going toward social (and more of social going to Facebook) than traditional sites such as NYTimes.com and BuzzFeed.

#native

FACEBOOK’S “DEDICATED MEDIA” TAB A HIT WITH MEDIA BUYERS

We’re not sure how consumers will feel about it, but Digiday reports that agencies love it:

“The company has been testing out a dedicated video tab inside its mobile app among a small group of users over the past year, as it aims to make video a more integral part of its mobile offering. The tab appears on its bottom menu alongside the notifications, timeline, marketplace and settings tabs, and opens up into a separate video hub, delivering a feed of live videos and other video content based on a user’s subscriptions or interests.

“For media analysts and media buyers, the dedicated video vertical firmly equips Facebook to grab more ad dollars from TV.”

Matt Heindl, director of social media at Razorfish, doesn’t think TV has anything to worry about in the near future, but Snapchat and YouTube? Yes, they might want to start to worry.

#facebook #video

TOP APPS

In a post on the continued growth of streaming music services such as Pandora and iHeartRadio, eMarketer reports that Pandora is the ninth most popular app of all, and the #1 most popular after various Facebook and Google apps. Here’s a chart that lists the top fifteen most popular apps according to comScore:

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In the continued Pandora or Spotify debate, it’s worth noting Pandora’s dominance in the app category.

#music #pandora #apps

Next to Now: December 2

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These are dark days in America—yet there remain sources of light. You might wonder if that’s a comment on the state of our polarized political discourse and the role books can play in revitalizing our national conversation. Maybe. Maybe not. But it is definitely a comment on the days getting shorter as we approach the first day of winter and raise a glass to the holiday season. Here are some highlights of news we’ve noted this week, shared here as part of our effort to stay on top of current trends and best practices.

 

PROGRAMMATIC FORECAST

The good news is that the programmatic community continues to make headway in combatting ad fraud. The bad news is that is likely to mean a 20% increase in costs. Even with a 20% increase, however, programmatic remains a highly efficient way to reach book readers. Weeding out bad ad impressions is definitely worth a slight increase in CPM. In a separate post, Digiday published five charts that indicate the global outlook for programmatic.   Related: you can now gain access to some influencer marketing  through programmatic channels. 

#programmatic

 

TABOOLA RESPONDS TO CRITICISM

The 2016 presidential election has created a firestorm around the question of “fake news.” Many are pointing to paid content distribution systems such as Taboola as a major culprit in a world-wide epidemic. Here is Taboola’s thoughtful response. Let’s hope they back it up with action.

#taboola #fakenews

 

CNN HIRES YOUTUBE STAR TO MAKE NEWS

In a move that echoes the creation of companies like Fusion and Mic, CNN has hired YouTube star and entrepreneur Casey Neistat to help make news “relevant” for a new generation.

#news #youtube #video

 

BEST PRACTICES IN PERSONA MARKETING

Persona marketing isn’t used much in book publishing, where we value the particularities of every book and honor the uniqueness of every reader. But we ignore it at our peril: it can be a great way to focus in on the target customer in a way that can be applied and tested across a genre. This ClickZ article shows how to think about persona marketing while still understanding that no one reader is exactly identical to another.  

#persona

 

THE STATE OF THE ART OF INFLUENCER MARKETING

Digiday takes a look at the highly public practice of influencer marketing: who’s doing it, how they’re paying for it, and does it work?

#influencer

 

Photo (c) 2016 Martha Otis