Category Archives: Next to Now

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

 

Next to Now: The Music of Advertising Edition

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DOES PODCASTING SELL?

Podcasts don’t provide traditional reporting for ads, but a recent study suggests that it does sell products (well, underwear anyway). Mack Weldon reports that doubling-down on humorous podcasts has doubled their sales. According to Digiday:

“Podcast advertising now represents 25 percent of Mack Weldon’s overall ad budget per month, 100 times more than a year ago. The medium has become more effective than display ads for the company, because when people listen to podcasts, they are fully engaged and they can continue listening while making a purchase.”

#podcasts

 

THE UPSIDE OF BEING POSITIVE ON FACEBOOK

Huffington Post has found that “feel-good” videos far out-perform hard news stories on Facebook. Of course, this tells you more about what the Huffington Post audience is looking for than other audiences. But it’s worth keeping in mind.

#facebook

 

SNAPCHAT BILLBOARDS

The hot social platform that’s about as digital and evanescent as they come recognizes the power of an old-school, well-placed billboard in real space. A new Snapchat billboard campaign manages to go both mass and hyper-local at the same time. Well played.

#snapchat #billboards

 

SPOTIFY UPS ITS MOBILE AD GAME

The music streaming service is popular with listeners but has under-performed Pandora for Verso clients. We’re glad to see they’re paying more attention to their mobile ad product, and look forward to trying it out:

“Starting today, the music streaming service is bringing Billboard—one of its most popular desktop ad formats—to mobile. The feature, dubbed Overlay Mobile, lets advertisers buy display ads for both iOS and Android mobile devices. It serves as the “Welcome Back” ad, and only plays when a user has the screen open, which Spotify says provides 100 percent viewability.”

#spotify #music #mobile

 

INSTAGRAM TOPS FOR MUSIC FANS

In a new Instagram-commissioned study (worth noting, not neutral), Nielsen found that Instagram was the buzziest social network for the most avid music fans:

“According to a new Instagram-commissioned study by Nielsen of more than 3,000 self-described Instagram users, the photo- and video-sharing platform is the most-used social network for music fans, festival attendees and artists during live events. The study also provides insight into what fans like, listen to and buy.”

Worth thinking about for the next music book.

#music #instagram

 

TEENS VOTE UP WISHBONE

Ad Age reports on the new tap-to-vote app, Wishbone, that’s proving a hit with teens, and inspiring creative engagement from brands who want to reach them–in both content and paid advertising plays.

#teens #wishbone

 

THE NEXT BIG THING

Salesforce CEO Scott McCorkle makes the case for “layered marketing”—marketing across different platforms and media, playing to each one’s strength—with an essay in Ad Age that points out how the wonders of the next big thing do not necessarily mean the death of what came before.

#layeredmarketing

Next to Now: The News from SXSWi, Influencer Marketing & More

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Spring 2016 unfolds with exciting new marketing platforms, a digital shout-out for an old but effective ad platform, new developments in looking at what readers want and more . . .

 

 

SXSW INTERACTIVE

Adweek points to the hot topics at the recently concluded SXSWi, and they’re not a surprise, but they do underscore areas all marketers need to be aware of as they develop on the near horizon: Messaging, VR, Snapchat.

#messaging #vr #snapchat

 

MICRO-INFLUENCERS FTW

Gnack, a start-up announced at SXSW is experimenting with ways to make labor-intensive influencer marketing work on a programmatic platform. They’re starting with micro-influencers, those with no more than 10,000 followers—the kinds of influencers, that is, that are more friendly to book budgets.

#influencer #programmatic

 

APPLE’S ENTRY INTO NATIVE ADS

Apple News is developing a native ad product, worth watching for:

“Apple News will be updated as part of the latest version of iOS, expected to be released next week. Eddy Cue, the Apple executive in charge of online services, told The Wall Street Journal that 40 million people had used the Apple News app in January.”

#apple #news #native

 

HERE COMES THE READER DATA! BUT WHICH READERS?

Everyone in publishing wants to get data on how people read—at least to get information as good as what Amazon and Apple have via Kindle and iBooks. For that reason we applaud Jellybooks’ efforts to democratize this data and read the New York Times article on their presentation at DBW with interest. But there are big limitations with the data collected here. Jellybooks only counts readers reading on special e-readers, who have sought out the Jellybooks platform, read whatever few e-books are available there, and then agree to share the specifics of their reading habits for that particular book. This is a very different kind of person from the avid book buyer who buys, reads, and buys more copies, often in print.

#data #readers

 

VIDEO HABITS OF MILLENNIALS

An infographic on Adweek provides great insight into the video watching habits of millennials (as well as which video ads are OK with them, and which are not). Top three video watching sources are YouTube (85%), Netflix (66%), and Facebook (53%).

#video #millennials

 

IN PRAISE OF THE BILLBOARD

From Digiday, a little rant in favor of the ultimate non-digital advertising product:  

“These days, billboards are viewed as, mostly, for local businesses only. Bull. Brands, if you took just a small part of your worthless social media budget and put up one billboard in a high-visibility spot, you’d see some big-ass ROI in awareness and sales.”

#outdoor

TARGETING

Ad targeting that relies on user profiling makes many users uncomfortable, and not just tinfoil-hatted privacy advocates. But it turns out that people also hate seeing ads that aren’t right for them. The younger the user the more s/he is likely to expect ads that are better targeted.

#targeting

 

 

Next to Now: The View from Here

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Thanks to Digital Book World for hosting another engaging conference on the state of the art of book publishing in a digital world. Verso’s Tom Thompson enjoyed the smart, focused crowd on hand for his Master Class on Paid Digital Media and the packed audience for his panel on the Book-Buyer’s Journey with deeply insightful colleagues Peter Hildick-Smith of the Codex Group, Peter McCarthy of Logical Marketing, and Jack Perry from Highlights for Children.

There were many highlights from the three day conference—including very informative slide decks from Peter McCarthy and Rand Fishkin, chock-full of free tools for audience research and SEO best practices.

Here is a link to Peter McCarthy on free tools for finding a book’s audience.

And here is Rand Fishkin’s presentation on how to apply SEO startup tactics to book marketing.

We’ll post a link to Tom’s Master Class slides as soon as Digital Book World posts them.

#dbw #moz #SEO #audienceresearch

 

FACEBOOK UPS ITS LEAD GEN GAME

Facebook is adding products that make it a better lead generation tool for advertisers looking to bulk up their direct contact lists—including partnerships with email companies like Mail Chimp and Constant Contact. There’s a lot of change happening in the intersection between email and paid advertising these days, and strong indications that advertising to your email lists significantly boosts actions taken on emails. Any book publisher looking to bolster their direct email marketing capabilities should look at integrating it with advertising.

#email #advertising #facebook

 

MOMS AND MOBILE ADVERTISING

eMarketer reports on a study that shows that not only do U.S. mothers spend more time online than the average population, but they are more open to mobile advertising than the average U.S. mobile user.

#mobile #moms

 

WHO LISTENS TO THE RADIO WHEN

A new study suggests that Millennials are the largest group of radio listeners, but the three generations each seem to prefer a different time of day:

“Interestingly, the top daypart for listening varies by generation, with Gen Xers most engaged during the morning drive (6AM-10AM), Boomers during the mid day (10AM-3PM) and Gen Xers during the evening drive (3PM-7PM).”

(Via @PeterMcCarthy)

#radio #millennials

 

PLAYBOY’S NATIVE AD OFFERING INCLUDES INSTAGRAM BUY

As part of Tullemmore D.E.W.’s native ad buy on Playboy, the publisher included a retargeting Instagram push for the whiskey.   Related: Digiday has a short article on Macallan’s Instagram push. There’s something about whiskey that works on Instagram

#instagram #native #whiskey

 

FACEBOOK PULLS BACK ON DSP OFFERING

Facebook is holding off on creating its own Demand Side Platform (DSP), which would have put it in competition with companies like Turn, Rocketfuel, and Google Display for running programmatic campaigns. The reason is that it’s really hard to find and sell clean ad inventory (i.e. ad impressions seen by people not robots) and that they don’t want to release an inferior product. But I don’t think we’ve heard the end of them on this one. The good news is they’re working on bringing the native and video ad experience to play on DSPs where they currently are not:

“Brian Boland, Facebook’s vice president of ads product marketing, told Business Insider that native and video formats delivered “7X” better results than banner ads. The problem right now is that the majority of ads being bought through demand-side platforms on the desktop and mobile web are banner ads, so Facebook is refocusing Atlas’ plans around “building a product in our mission to help marketers deliver and measure true business value,” according to the blog post.”

Watch this space.

A more pointed quote picked up by Ad Age, Facebook’s head of ad tech declared himself “amazed by the volume of valueless inventory.”

#DSP #native #watchthisspace #facebook

 

FACEBOOK ADDS PATH-TO-CONVERSION TO ATLAS

Joining Google’s DoubleClick ad server, Facebook’s Atlas ad server now can measure whether ads on desktop or mobile devices drove a digital sale. Given Facebook’s user attribution warehouse of data — now extending across the web with FB log in — this should be a powerful tool. Facebook’s VP of advertising, Brian Boland says:

“It provides insight into how real people—not cookies—see ads across multiple devices.” 

#facebook #atlas #pathtoconversion

 

NEW YORK MAGAZINE GOES NATIVE

New York Magazine is upping its commitment to the native advertising—announcing that 33% of 2015 revenue came from native formats—with a key new hire in its branded content department.

#native

 

NEW UNITS IN FB ADVERTISING

Click Z details the latest units in advertising on Facebook.

#facebook

 

BETTER ROBOT LEARNING THROUGH FICTION

Stanford researchers are using Wattpad stories to teach AI how to predict human response. This counts as a point for both arts and science disciplines.

#wattpad #data #AI

 

DARK TRAFFIC ON THE RISE

Websites rely on knowing where their audience is coming from so they can understand their audience. A recent article in the Guardian points out that it’s getting harder to do that, with about 15% of the Guardian traffic coming from unknown sources. Whether it’s email mentions, stray Reddit threads, or “Spotlight” searches on their iPhones (the biggest unknown according to researchers), the effort to understand the origins of this “Dark Traffic” is underway.

“‘It’s not just a referral agency problem; it’s a user problem deep down,’ points out strategy director David Carr at DigitasLBi. ‘The journey is broken for users who need to jump around in apps and on browser, because ad tech is getting in the way. That strips out the attribution. What could be a connected journey becomes disjointed. If we solve it for the user, we might solve the attribution.’ But that’s easier said than done.”

#audience #darktraffic

 

USING THE SECOND SCREEN

Broadcast isn’t dead. Americans still watch 5 hours of television a day. But that doesn’t mean TV advertisers should ignore the digital space. According to Google, two thirds of Americans watching TV have used their mobile screens to learn more about something they saw in an ad.

#TV #secondscreen #digital

 

IMPROVING AD VIEWABILITY ON MOBILE

In an article about how Google’s AMP project aims to improve the mobile advertising experience, Frederic Filloux points to an Adweek article about the problem with ad load times in mobile:

“44 percent of mobile ads served are deemed viewable compared with 52 percent of desktop promos, primarily because smartphone-wielding consumers often scroll faster than websites can load ads. Once someone is on a site, 76 percent of mobile readers choose to scroll down a website versus 63 percent of desktop users who do the same.

That spells bad news for publishers who don’t load ads at a lightning-fast speed. Per Moat, the average mobile user starts scrolling on a website 13 seconds after content begins loading. Desktop readers, on the other hand, wait 24 seconds before clicking down a page, which gives ads more time to load.”

#mobile #AMP

 

NEWSLETTERS ARE THE NEW BLOGS

On Twitter, @swissmiss, Tina Roth Eisenberg, says “Newsletters are the new blogs.” This may be true, but newsletters are a tool that have worked exceedingly well for advertisers since email began.

#email #blogs #style

 

Next to Now: Trying to Chart New Oceans of Data & More

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PODCASTS CONTINUE TO GROW

Digiday has an interesting article about the evolution of podcasts and the need for improved measurement. Measurement is still not there yet—even the link within the article to NPR’s proposed measurement guidelines is broken. But we expect it to happen. Fun fact from this article: NPR is working on a podcast that’s like RadioLab, but for the Supreme Court.

#podcast

 

PODCASTS GOING NATIVE?

While news and sports podcasts still dominate the top 10 most popular podcasts in the iTunes store, fashion bloggers are discovering the effectiveness of the podcast platform, and are expanding the ways sponsored content is integrated into popular podcasts.

#podcasts #native #fashion

 

BUZZFEED BETS BIG

Digiday writes about the strengths and challenges of the modern-day master of the cat video, Buzzfeed:

“BuzzFeed has mastered the art of distributed publishing, using platforms like Facebook, Snapchat and others to amass massive audience attention. The publisher boasts a mind-boggling 5 billion views per month of its articles and videos, spread out across 30 platforms, from Facebook to Pinterest to Snapchat. In a month it does 3 billion video views, less than 5 percent of which are on BuzzFeed.com. The bet is simple: publish content where people are, rather than forcing them to come to you.”

They’re the player to beat in this space, but wake us up when their minimum spend dips below six figures.

#native #buzzfeed

 

POP SUGAR MOVING AWAY FROM BANNER ADS

Pop Sugar’s Brian Sugar is going all in with native and affiliate marketing.   

#mobile #native

 

VIDEO DIDN’T KILL THE RADIO STAR, AND TABLETS HAVEN’T KILLED THE EREADER

eMarketer notes that eReaders continue to sell, especially with the 65+ age demo.

#ereaders #devices

 

BILLBOARDS ARE WATCHING YOU

As advertisers we have watched the continual evolution of billboards as they develop digital chops not just to display creative, but also to target users in their vicinity through geo-fencing app networks. Now, a New York Times article notes that billboards technology is able to track user information beyond mere app targeting to give you demographic information about foot traffic that is encountering your out-of-home ad.

Business Insider follows up with an article that goes into the objections and fears about this kind of tracking.

#billboards #digital #outdoor

 

SNAPCHAT EXPANDS AUDIENCE INFORMATION

New deals with Nielsen and Sizmek are allowing Snapchat to learn more about ad performance and audience measurement.

#snapchat #audience #data #targeting

 

Next to Now: New Shifts in Ad Ecosystems

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As our preparations for this year’s Digital Book World shift into high gear (including the Master Class in paid advertising and the panel on the book buyer’s journey), there is an abundance of ad news to take in. Below is a sampling of what we’ve been reading this week.
WHY IS THIS PAGE TAKING SO LONG TO LOAD?

In an article about how Google’s new AMP system works, AdAge connects to very clear graphics that show clearly how the complexity of ad exchanges and analytics tracking slows down load times—and how AMP fixes that.  

“When compared to traditional mobile websites, AMP pages load 85% faster, Google says.

‘The New York Times itself is running very fast,’ Ghostery CEO and founder Scott Meyer said regarding the desktop version of the site. ‘But once you get beyond the Times, and into the far reaches of the ad exchanges, a lot of those companies are going to be slow to load and there will be an impact on user experience.’

AMP is a response to similar but proprietary platforms like Facebook Instant Articles and Apple News. Unlike those, however, AMP is open source, meaning anyone can use it.”

It’s worth a click through to see the dynamic images, but here is a screenshot of the desktop ecosystem for a NYTimes.com story:

desktop_ecosystem

Here’s a shot of the mobile ecosystem:

mobile_ecosystem

And here’s a shot of the new AMP ecosystem for the same story:

AMP_ecosystem

#tracking #AMP

 

REDEFINING WHAT WE MEAN BY MOBILE CAMPAIGN 

AdAge has a fascinating article about the latest big brand thinking around mobile advertising. Long story short: It’s not about the campaign.

“The perfect mobile campaign isn’t a campaign,” said Carl Norberg, founder and chief experience officer of mobile-focused shop Monterosa/BBH Stockholm, which has created initiatives for clients such as Volvo, Justin Bieber, Google, Axe and others. “It’s a brand extension where marketing comes baked into the product.” While great TV is storytelling, great mobile is about “storydoing,” he said. “Instead of us telling the story, we hand over an app to let the consumer become an active part of the brand’s tale.”

While the takeaways for book publishing’s fleet of individual, smaller scale products is not great; it’s important to remember that “mobile” isn’t a platform any more. It’s how most people scan email, check Facebook, Tweet, research restaurants, and even (in some cases) read books.

#mobile

 

WHY HOLLYWOOD LOVES BILLBOARDS

The New Yorker has an interesting article on the “For your consideration” billboards that use a mass medium to reach a very targeted audience. Why do they use a mass medium when the target is so specific? Because they work in a couple different ways:

  1. The high concentration of  Oscar nominators in a few specific locations
  2. To show the wider audience that this might be a film worth seeing.  

#mass #targeting #billboards

 

PINTEREST BEST PRACTICES

Kirsten Oliphant has a good piece up on Jane Friedman’s blog about best practices for authors on Pinterest. It’s an especially good platform for lifestyle and cooking, and worth a read.

#pinterest

 

FOURSQUARE CONNECTS DIGITAL ADS WITH FOOT TRAFFIC

Foursquare announces that it can connect digital ads seen by Foursquare users with foot traffic in stores. Testing has already begun:

“Flipboard recently used the system to measure a campaign that it ran for an undisclosed retailer and found that the digital ads drove a 12 percent incremental lift in visits to the retailer’s locations within a week.”

Connecting the digital ad space to real world traffic is vital to understanding how our ads work with the people who see them. It will be exciting to see how this new product develops. In a followup article, Adweek mentions other players in this space. The interest in this is only growing.

#digital #instore

 

MAKE YOUR OWN SNAPCHAT FILTERS!

Marketers and party planners alike will be happy to hear of Snapchat’s new rollout of make-your-own geofilters for the platform.

#snapchat

 

EXPERIMENTS IN SNAPCHAT MARKETING

Dominos has run some successful experiments in marketing on the channel that marketers are scrambling to figure out to reach the post-Millennial generations

#snapchat

 

GOOGLE STUDY ON IN-STORE MOBILE USE

It’s not just show-rooming: a study from Google on in-store mobile use has a few key takeaways:

  1. Mobile is the new front door: Target found that 3/4ths of its customers start the customer journey on mobile
  2. Local search matters (for bookstores!): year to year growth in “Near to me” searches. A 2015 Google Consumer Survey found that 50% of consumers who conduct a local search on their smartphone visit a store within a day, and 18% of those searches lead to a purchase.3
  3. Ads that show local inventory drives users into the store (note, 3rd party servers such as Sizmer, a Verso partner, have this capability)
  4. In-store decision guide: 82% of shoppers say they’ve consulted their mobile phone while in store to make a purchase
  5. Omni-channel customers spend more: 250% more, according to MasterCard

#google #mobile #instore

 

INSTAGRAM CONTINUES DOUBLE-DIGIT GROWTH

eMarketer notes that, at this pace, more than a third of internet users will be on Instagram by 2017. The article includes projections for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr too.

#instagram

 

ADBLOCKERS ARE YOUNG AND MALE

There are 198 million ad block users worldwide. This infographic on Hubspot goes into detail about who are leading the charge, heavy into tech, gaming, sports and social. Not surprisingly it’s the young male demo. The older female demographic (core, avid readers) are the least likely to be using an ad blocker.

#adblocking #readers

 

PROS AND CONS OF PODCASTS

eMarketer talks to Digitas LBI Social Director about the pros and cons of podcasts for marketers.

#podcasts #audio #streaming

 

HOW TO USE TWITTER

ClickZ attended Twitter’s Flight Camp so you don’t have to. Good stuff here for social media managers.

#twitter #social #bestpractices

 

MEDIA PROS JOIN SNAPCHAT #FAILBETTER

A week travelling on the West coast with a pair of 15 year-old boys has shown me the vitality of Snapchat, the generational divide (and I mean the one that the millennials are starting to feel with the generation after them . . . ), and how Gen X just. doesn’t. get. it.

#snapchat #genx #fail

 

AOL FTW

More evidence that the digitally connected older generation are where the action is with digital marketing.

#email #boomers #politics

 

TWITTER UPS ITS GIF GAME

Integration with Giphy and Riffsy make it easier for Twitter users to post animated gifs.

#twitter #gifs

 

WRONG END OF THE FUNNEL

Why haven’t buy buttons on FB and Instagram taken off yet? Because they’re trying to force top of the funnel marketing down the funnel too far…. Customers aren’t interested in that (need a little more time and comfort before making the purchase).

#facebook #instagram #thefunnel

 

TUMBLR STRUGGLES

It’s still a great way to reach the YA audience, but Tumblr’s growth is slowing. Here are projections via eMarketer:

“Regarding its total user base, this will be the last year Tumblr will grow by double digits, signaling a plateau. In 2016, Tumblr will have 23.2 million users in the US. That’s less than half as many as Pinterest (which has 54.6 million) and less than a third as many as Instagram (which has 89.4 million).”

#tumbler #teens

 

The image at the top of this post is taken from the current Tara Donovan show at the Quint Gallery.

 

Next to Now: Feb. 19 Edition

Next to Now, , ,
ARE CONSUMERS STARTING TO VALUE NON-DIGITAL EXPERIENCES?

Yes. We’ve seen it in the plateauing of ebooks and the continued strength of print books. Now, other media are seeing it too (even marketing people at mobile companies!):

“‘We’re seeing that people really love their phones, but many are craving a digital detox,’ explains Meredith Vincent, executive advertising director at AT&T Mobility.”

In book marketing, we should always remember the reasons our customers value books.

#nondigitalplug

 

DIGITAL STUDY SUGGESTS PEOPLE WANT DIGITAL ADS TO BE MORE LIKE PRINT

An article on niemanlab.org points to a Swedish study that suggest that intrusive ad forms—such as video, interstitials and rich media—are so disliked that CTR is negatively correlated to an ad’s effectiveness:

“The study revealed that the most effective of these formats was the static image. Static banner ads had the greatest effect on a reader’s preference for a brand and intent to purchase the item advertised — and those are among the categories that matter most to advertisers who, at the end of the day, want to sell something.”

The research team discovers that a “good” ad is a relevant one. That’s the goal: An informative static ad that does not get in the way of what you’re looking for, but offers relevant information you can choose to follow up on.

#adtech

 

SEARCH ADS DECLINE WHILE DISPLAY SPACE STAYS STRONG

The effectiveness of pay per click search advertising is diminishing, but the realm of display advertising is growing in strength. In ClickZ’s report from Connect conference:

“WordStream’s @larrykim: 95% of time online is spent consuming content but just 5% searching for it.”

#display #search

 

INSTAGRAM PUSHES MORE VIDEO ADS

In the announcement that they will start counting video views, Instagram also says that, like Facebook, three seconds of view-time will count toward a view. The question is are these views more valuable than a Vine, where videos play instantly, or is three seconds still too little to count even if it’s user-initiated.

#video

 

DIGITAL AD SALES ARE UP REVENUES ARE DOWN

An article at Columbia Journalism Review, looks at the struggles of media platforms that rely on digital ad spending for their bottom line, even as they’re growing:

“And yet growth can have its downsides. Even as digital ad spending climbs, flooding into video and expected to surpass TV, it’s also pressure on media sellers to lower their prices, leading to what some experts are calling, “digital deflation,” and an overall slowdown in the ad spending market, The New York Times reported.“

#digitalad

 

The image in this post is a photograph of the Robert Ryman show at Dia's Chelsea Gallery, looking in at one of the galleries from the entrance hall.