Category Archives: Next to Now

Next to Now: Improve Your Social Life Edition

Next to Now, , , , , , , , ,
This weeks’s Next to Now includes links to articles on standing out on Snapchat, partnering with Instagram, and checking out an experiment that gives people a real, human stake in an outdoor ad campaign. 
HOW TO STAND OUT ON SNAPCHAT

This article gives a good primer about strategies to get a presence on Snapchat without shelling out the $750,000 per day spend. We’ve noticed that many of our clients are on board with recommendation number one: Replace your Twitter Avatars with Snapcodes.

#social #snapchat

 

INSTAGRAM ANNOUNCES PARTNER PROGRAM

Instagram announces a partnership with forty outside companies to help with various phases of Instagram advertising: from planning and execution to content partnerships. This Business Insider article talks about what this means. 

#social #instagram

 

EXTREME OUTDOOR

Reality TV meets outdoor advertising with an Xbox campaign: eight people are standing outside on a London billboard undergoing arctic blasts and continual video streaming while viewers can vote on what kind of conditions they should be subjected to. Last one standing “wins.” The real winner, of course, is Xbox.

#creative #outdoor

 

MILLENNIAL MOMS BUY ON MOBILE

According to this eMarketer article, mobile is the way to reach young moms, not just with information, but increasingly with buy links:

“According to September 2015 research by Roth Capital Partners (ROTH), almost half (46.8%) of mother internet users ages 20 to 35 primarily made digital purchases via their mobile phone or tablet.”

#mobile #moms #millennials

 

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BRAND AND DIRECT MARKETING?

This Seth Godin article articulates the difference between brand and direct marketing in a way that might have seemed self-evident 20 years ago, but has become increasingly clouded in a world filled with data where every ad budget has to respond in some way to data. This is a crucial question for book publishers, which used to be 100% clear that they were doing brand advertising — leaving the direct marketing to booksellers. But in the world of digital advertising and direct selling by book publishers (however low a priority it remains) those distinctions are getting cloudy.

#advertising

 

DON’T WORRY ABOUT BEATING AD BLOCKERS, WORRY ABOUT BETTERING YOUR GAME

The IAB makes the case that ad blocking is best addressed not by blocking ad blockers, but by fixing the “pain points” that cause people to want ad blockers: slow loading pages because of tracking software, roll-overs, endless surveys, etc.

#adblocking

 

SNAPCHAT GAINS ON FACEBOOK IN VIDEO

This article in the FT reports that Snapchat is generating 6 billion video views on its app every day. This is triple what they were seeing in May, and approaching FB’s 8 billion video views per day. This article in Business Insider is where you can read about it if you’re not an FT subscriber. 

#video #facebook #snapchat

 

PANDORA AIMS TO IMPROVE MOBILE USER DATA

As desktop use (and therefore use of cookies) declines, Pandora is taking steps to get better at identifying users on mobile devices.

#pandora #targeting

Next to Now: “Fall Back” Edition

Next to Now, , , , , , , ,
With the end of Daylight Savings Time on Sunday, we enter the homestretch of the year. Here’s some of what we’ve been reading this week—looking forward even as we “fall back.”
SHOULD FOLLOWER COUNT DETERMINE WORTH?

It’s a question that depends on context. For regular everyday products like shoes, toasters, or books, the answer is a clear yes—more followers means your promotional dollar goes farther. But for “high art”—where value is supposedly determined by long-term aesthetic value more than short-term commercial ups and downs—the question becomes more complicated. A Dutch artist is playing with this line, and in the process reveals some uncomfortable truths about what’s behind some of those large follower counts.

Related from AdWeek: “How Celebrities’ With the Best Instagram Engagement are Helping Brands.”

#social #instagram #caveatemptor

 

SERIAL IS COMING TO PANDORA

The next edition of the revolutionary podcast “Serial” will be running on Pandora. That means there should be many more ways to advertise on it than through a single sold-out sponsorship. They aren’t saying when the second season will start yet, but Pandora has announced that season one will be available for listening as of Nov 24.

#mobile #pandora #serial #podcast

 

APPS OR BROWSERS?

In all the debate about whether the present and future of mobile is in apps or on browsers, it’s good to see an article that draws distinctions. That is, it depends. And in some cases, especially news, readers are split:

“For example, 36% of respondents said they mostly used apps to read entertainment news. But 37% said they mostly used a browser. For human interest stories, 36% turned to apps and 38% to mobile browsers. And for science or technology news, the breakdowns were identical, at 38% each.”

#mobile #browsers #apps #news

 

WILL LOUSY CREATIVE SPOIL INSTAGRAM FOR THE REST OF US?

As Instagram opens up its API, some marketers are afraid of the coming wave of ads. Will a billion terrible ads ruin our sandbox? The answer, as always, is to make creative that’s the best fit for book, reader, and audience platform.

#mobile #adtech #bepartofthesolution

 

PROGRAMMATIC OUTDOOR

Google recently announced a test of adding outdoor billboard inventory to their DoubleClick system. While there are various programmatic options available to us among current outdoor companies–including geo-fencing and app network buys tied into outdoor displays–the scale of Google’s reach make this a potential game changer. According to Business Insider,

 

“If the project proves successful, advertisers might soon be able to buy billboard ads using Google’s DoubleClick technology, which will pull in historical and real-time data signals — including audience, weather, travel information, sporting events, and scores — to decide which creative messages to display, which billboards to display them on, and the best time for them to run.”

File this under experiments to watch.

#outdoor #programmatic #experimentstowatch #media

 

BOOMERS UNDER-INDEX FOR SMARTPHONE ADOPTION

Next to Now focuses on the near-future of marketing, but it’s worth remembering that our bread-and-butter work comes from selling books right now to readers who are buying them right now.  And that means the Boomer generation. So it’s worth noting that Boomers are not as easily reached with mobile marketing as the Millennials. Only 42% of Boomers own a smartphone, and those that do own a smartphone do not live through it to the extent that younger generations do. Worth considering when you’re putting together a media plan.

#mobile #boomers #media

 

“BUSTLE HAS A BABY”

A nearly-slightly-but-not-all-the-way-snarky article on the New Yorker’s site announces that Bustle (a site and magazine we like a lot) is starting a new website for millennial moms, Romper. Bustle’s managing editor, Margaret Wheeler Johnson, provides the money quote:

“The media talks about millennials as if they are the kids, and, actually, they’re having kids.”

Good point.

#millennials #moms #media

 

THIS MUST BE SERIOUS

Even Facebook’s worried about ad blockers. From a new regulatory filing:

“Revenue generated from the display of ads on personal computers has been impacted by these technologies from time to time. As a result, these technologies have had an adverse effect on our financial results and, if such technologies continue to proliferate, in particular with respect to mobile platforms, our future financial results may be harmed.”

#adblocking #facebook

NEXT TO NOW: HALLOWEEN EDITION

Next to Now, , , ,

The scariest  thing to advertisers this Halloween might just be ad blocking software. Never fear, we know how to make sure your ads are seen. Between new ad units, native options, social outreach, and possible deals with ad blockers, we’re always looking to stay ahead of the trends—and always on the lookout for the most effective ways to let readers know about great books. Here’s some of what we’ve been reading about this week:

AN OLIVE BRANCH FROM AD BLOCKERS?

One of the leading ad blocking apps, Adblock Plus, is offering websites and advertising agencies the opportunity to whitelist certain sites and ad-types. While representatives from the Washington Post and MediaCom are attending a meeting with Adblock Plus to discuss the plans, Jason Kint, CEO of Digital Content Next, a publishing trade organization with members from The New York Times, Vox Media and Condé Nast, declined the offer. Here’s why:

“I would look at these reports on [Adblock Plus’ parent company] Eyeo’s business model and their focus on consumers much differently if they were 100 percent open about it. If Adblock Plus publicly stated which companies were paying them for whitelisting ads and the terms under which this was happening, then my level of trust would increase dramatically.”

#adtech #adblocking #media

 

YELP PHASING OUT DISPLAY ADVERTISING

…and phasing in native advertising.

#native #media

 

NEXT STOP SMELLOVISION?

Stoli Vodka is using haptic technology to give their mobile ads a tactile edge: you can feel a buzz when the women in the ad makes a vodka in a shaker (and, less appetizing, when a dog pees).

#adtech #creative

 

IS FLIPBOARD IN TROUBLE?

Whether it’s due to the natural aging process of a formerly hot start-up that’s getting on in years, or the competition from Apple’s News app and others, this Bloomberg article points to some problems Flipboard is having. (On the upside for advertisers, ad rates are coming down!).

#adtech #flipboard #media

 

A BUYER’S GUIDE TO SOCIAL NETWORKS

AdWeek outlines the basic differentiators for ad buyers between the eight major social networks from large (Facebook) to small (Whisper).

#social #facebook #twitter #instagram #media

 

FACEBOOK LEAD ADS OPEN UP TO ALL ADVERTISERS

Lead ads make it easy to customize information you’re getting from Facebook users: whether it’s letting them sign up for emails, events, webinars or more.  

#social #adtech #newunit #media

 

THE NEW YORK TIMES LAB SAYS THE FUTURE OF NEWS IS NOT THE ARTICLE

They are experimenting with ways “to leverage the knowledge that is inside every article.”

#futureofnews via Only Dead Fish – 

#nyt #futureofnews

 

DOES FACEBOOK HAVE AN AD MEASUREMENT PROBLEM?

Group M’s Rob Norman thinks online video has a ways to go before it can compete with TV:

“Both Google’s YouTube and Facebook boast incredible video numbers. Yet for all the ad dollars flowing to both platforms, they won’t start to get a piece of TV budgets until there’s a common way to measure the effectiveness of video ads, which are often viewed fleetingly and with the sound off, against a TV commercial exposure.”

#video #social #facebook #media

 

INSTAGRAM’S BOOMERANG

Instagram enables animated .gifs backwards and forwards with Boomerang.

#social #instagram #creative

 

 

Next to Now: New Colors Edition

Next to Now

 

TWITTER INTRODUCES NEW NATIVE VIDEO AD OPTION

The new products are coming fast and furious under newly (re)minted CEO Jack Dorsey.

#social #video #twitter

 

YOUTUBE TAKES ON APPLE MUSIC AND SPOTIFY

YouTube unveiled its new music app, “Red,” this week. It’s entering a very competitive field. Will it succeed? Digiday says “it’s no slam dunk.”

#youtube #streaming #audio

 

MICHAEL WOLF’S “TECH AND MEDIA OUTLOOK 2016”

Michael Wolf’s “Tech and Media Outlook 2016” presentation from a WSJ conference is filled with good intel on the state of digital in the near future. Book publishers look away from slide 7 (share of reading in an average day), but there’s a lot to recommend it. For instance:

  • For insight into how many are using which platforms (and why YouTube is in a good position with “Red” to take on Apple Music and Spotify), see slides 13 and, especially, 42-47. 
  • For evidence that AM/FM radio still has more listeners than streaming, see slide 40.
  • To find out what makes podcasts upwardly mobile, see slides 54-57

#adtech #data

 

APPLE TRIES TO CUT DOWN ON MISTAKEN CLICKS

While some advertisers are objecting to Apple’s moves to cut down on accidental clicks, we applaud them. To help our clients and the books we are advertising, we need to have the most accurate numbers possible. It’s short-sighted to build your business on false numbers mistakenly inflating campaign performance.

#adtech #adblocking

FLIPBOARD OPENS UP PROPRIETARY DATA TO ADVERTISERS

The new “Interest Graph Targeting” feature allows advertisers to target much more specifically:

“Where advertisers could target broad categories such as sports or travel, they’ll now be able to choose from 34,000 different keywords or topics for targeting. The data involved includes reader behavior, social data and Flipboard’s Topic Engine tool, which can decipher the content of articles.”

As Ad Age mentions, the move comes amid increased competition in the news space, with Apple News, Twitter Moments, and Facebook’s Instant Articles making bold strides in news curation.

#news #targeting #flipboard

 

MOVING BOOK COVERS

Some of those classic book covers look pretty groovy when you  animate them. Check out this fun digital update to print art.  

 

FACEBOOK CAROUSEL ADS SEE GREAT PERFORMANCE

Facebook’s new carousel ads are performing 10x better than standard FB ads. But there is a useful caveat:

“’Carousels are a major push for Facebook,’ said Don Mathis, CEO of Kinetic Social, which helps brands market across social channels like Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter. ‘The pricing is competitive and the performances are stellar. But we don’t know if that continues forever, because it’s a new product, and they tend to get good adoption in the early days.’”

#social #facebook #data

 

Next to Now: The Structure of Innovation

Next to Now, , , , , , , ,
This week, the articles that caught our eye were about innovation in targeting and storytelling.

 

ONLINE VIDEO: IT’S NOT JUST MILLENNIALS

Once predominantly the province of Millennials, online video watching has now stretched to include Gen X as well:

“The average consumer between the ages of 16 and 45 watches 204 minutes of video a day, split equally between TV and online. Forty-five minutes of the average online viewing time is done on a smartphone, while desktop accounts for 37 minutes and tablet for 20 minutes.”

#video

 

FEWER ADS MEANS BETTER ENGAGEMENT 

This article in Digiday argues that the Atlantic’s recent redesign has upped ad performance by lessening the amount of content (including ads) on the homepage. It’s certainly worth paying more to be the only ad on a relevant page. If that’s the future of the ad-supported Web, we’re all for it.

#adtech #engagement

 

MARKETING WITH SHAZAM

ClickZ reports on the use of Shazam in print and TV ads for such retailers as Target.

“For about a decade now, marketers have been racking their brains trying to figure out the best way to link traditional ads with the Web. URLs came first, then hashtags and a call to action to visit Twitter. And while these tactics have certainly managed to boost engagement and interaction online, they don’t necessarily deliver the rich digital experience brands hope to provide.”

The article briefly mentions HarperCollins as well, which uses Shazam to link to Web content in their books (and, we’d add, has experimented with using it in ads as well). The jury’s out on whether the Shazam experiments will help enrich user experience or simply prove more popular with marketers than consumers. However it plays out, the ways physical products are linking up with information on the Web continues to be one of the most exciting frontiers of marketing innovation. We are pleased to see HarperCollins’s Shazam program gain wider recognition with the nomination in the “Marketing Campaign” category for the UK’s FutureBook Awards.

#shazam #adtech #futurebook

 

COSMO WINS 3MM VIEWS A DAY ON SNAPCHAT

Cosmo is showing how it’s done on the Snapchat “Discover” feature, growing their audience from 1.8 MM a day to over 3MM.

“Kate Lewis [VP and editorial director of digital at Cosmo] also said that people share Cosmo content in large numbers, which is an activity that is not typically associated with Snapchat, because sharing and retweeting are not common there. That may be changing, though. Cosmo’s Discover stories are shared up to 1.2 million times daily, Lewis said.”

 

#cosmo #snapchat #social

 

NEW GE CMO ON STORYTELLING

Buried in this article on storytelling and marketing is a GE program with Wattpad to sponsor new Sci Fi writing by the Wattpad community based on old GE materials. We know that fan fiction is often a consequence of a popular series such as Twilight and Harry Potter, but could sponsored fan fiction work as a marketing tool?

#storytelling #social #fanfiction #wattpad

 

INSTAGRAM AND EMAIL—TWO GREAT MARKETING TOOLS THAT WORK GREAT TOGETHER

This HubSpot article advocates bringing “inspirational” Instagram posts into the email marketing experience. Interesting stats from this article:

  • In 2015 more than 200 billion emails will be sent every day. 57% of those will come from brands (what’s the point when consumers just abandon email altogether because it’s too spammy?)
  • Instagram delivers 58% more engagement per post than Facebook and 120% more per post than Twitter
  • 4 fo 5 Instagram users give brands permission to share their images

#social #email #instagram

ARE EMAIL ADDRESSES THE NEW COOKIE?

Emails have remained a secret weapon for marketing departments for years. As this ClickZ article puts it,

“While only 20 percent of the people (and email marketing’s audience is overwhelmingly people, not bots) open the email you send them, that 20 percent does so happily. They click and convert enough to make your tiny and underfunded email marketing department punch way above its weight.”

But now Google’s Custom Match, Facebook’s Custom Audiences, and Twitter’s Tailored Audiences allows you to upload email addresses to their systems and use them to target ads specifically to opt-in audiences you know will be interested in your book. This kind of targeting is also available through programmatic campaigns with such partners as AdRoll and Turn.

#email #programmatic

Next to Now: Fall Harvest Edition

Next to Now, , , ,
Just in time for the fall harvest, a host of new ad units are announced from Twitter and Snapchat . . .
TWITTER’S NEW “MOMENTS” FEATURE A PLAY FOR MORE ADS

Watch for “Promoted Moments” in the next few days. The ad opportunity will only be as successful as the platform that offers it. 

#social #twitter

PRE-ROLL ADS COMING TO VIDEOS ON TWITTER

More new features are coming from Twitter all the time, including video pre-roll. Publishing partners get 70% of the revenue:

“So far, 200 publishers, sports leagues and television networks have signed up to run the ads in their videos via Twitter Amplify, including the WWE, MTV, Vox Media, Aol and HGTV.”

#social #twitter

GROWTH OF TIME SPENT ON MOBILE DEVICES SLOWS

But maybe that’s because we’re already on them all the time.

#mobile

ON THE BENEFIT OF SEEING THE COMPLICATIONS

In Fusion, Alexis Madrigal offers a nuanced take on “The Deception that Lurks in Our Data-Driven World” that’s especially relevant for advertisers in the age of data:

“Take the ad-supported digital media ecosystem. The idea is brilliant: capture data on people all over the web and then use what you know to show them relevant ads, ads they want to see. Not only that, but because it’s all tracked, unlike broadcast or print media, an advertiser can measure what they’re getting more precisely. And certainly the digital advertising market has grown, taking share from most other forms of media . . . But scratch the surface, like Businessweek recently did, and the problems are obvious. A large percentage of the traffic to many stories and videos consists of software pretending to be human.”

#data

SNAPCHAT TURNS SELFIES INTO ADS

For a cool $750,000, Snapchat will turn its new selfie “lenses” into an ad for your book:

“The Financial Times reports that the Venice, Calif.-based player is starting to sell sponsored “lenses” in the coming months. This will add to a new feature the app rolled out two weeks ago, which adds graphics like big eyes to photos and vomiting rainbows to videos. The one-day ad unit will reportedly cost $750,000 for big-ticket holidays like Halloween and Christmas and $450,000 the rest of the year.”

#social #snapchat

THE RISE OF DYNAMIC AND PERSONALIZED CREATIVE

Advertising is increasingly taking advantage of personalized creative to boost engagement—whether it’s making sure the creative reflects the time of day, the location, or the user’s age:

“Among agencies that did use data for dynamic creative, demographic data was the most common type employed for the purpose, with 58.4% of respondents claiming to use it. More than half (55.3%) of respondents said they apply location API. Time and weather data were also used fairly frequently.”

#data

Next to Now: Advertising Week Edition

Next to Now, , , , ,
Today is the final day of the 2015 Advertising Week, so the studies and new ad product announcements have been coming in fast and furious. Here is a selection of the news that we think will help book publishers reach their marketing goals in the coming year.

 

YOUTUBE ADS BECOME SHOPPABLE

YouTube is rolling out an ad product that makes any video shoppable—not just videos that you produce, upload and control, but those from other sources as well. This is a great opportunity to drive sales whether it’s directly to a retailer or to a page that offers several retail options.

#video #youtube #direct

 

PANDORA V. SPOTIFY

The two streaming services have proven to be very strong venues for advertising books. While they are similar in many ways, their differences are at least as important when planning your ad campaigns. When considering one service versus the other for an ad campaign, this article in Adweek is a good place to start:

“Pandora’s radio-like service is based on data—including email addresses, ages and gender— collected from 250 million registered users . . . 85 percent of listening is done on mobile, which is used as a major selling point in convincing brands to buy more smartphone and tablet-size promos. Unlike Pandora’s model, Spotify is an on-demand service that lets music fans listen to playlists or a series of songs . . . 50 percent of Spotify’s streams come from users physically pressing play.”

#streaming #pandora #spotify

 

ARE GAMING CONSOLES THE NEW CABLE TV?

Adweek says yes:

“Just as cell phones evolved into smart mobile devices capable of replacing laptops and desktop computers, gaming consoles have a chance to make cable boxes obsolete. In-console consumption habits have jumped in recent years, per Nielsen. On Xbox One, 51 percent of users watched video on-demand in 2014, up from only 26 percent of Xbox 360 users back in 2010. Likewise, 42 percent of PS4 gamers used streaming subscription services like Netflix and Hulu compared to just 23 percent of Playstation 3 users back in 2010.”

 

#gaming #targeting

 

REACHING MOMS WITH VIDEO

Google makes the case that YouTube is a great way to reach moms, especially through how-to and DIY videos:

“83% of moms search for answers to their questions online. And of those, three in five turn to online video in particular.”

#video #moms

 

BEN EVANS ON ADVERTISING ECOSYSTEMS

This 16z podcast features a fascinating conversation between Chris Dixon and Ben Evans about the advertising ecosystem: they touch on payment systems, first-rate journalism bundled with 3rd-rate ad products, user identity, and native advertising (“ads that people actually like”), and how ads have increasingly become unbundled from content.

#advertising #native

 

 

COMSCORE MOBILE REPORT HIGHLIGHTS

Highlights include:

  • All forms of usage are growing: desktop (+16%), mobile app (+90%), and mobile Web (+53%).
  • Mobile now represents 62% of all digital time spent.
  • App usage time skews toward smartphones for Millennials and tablets for older demos.
  • Mobile audience growth is being driven by mobile Web properties which are bigger and growing faster than apps.
  • Millennials mobile usage time is devoted to social, video, music, and communications.
  • Mobile ads work: they cause brand lift 2-3x greater than that of desktop ads

#mobile #data

 

IAB UPDATES AD GUIDELINES

Reflecting the industry shift away from Flash and toward HTML5, the Interactive Advertising Bureau has updated industry guidelines for the first time since 2013.

#creative #HTML5 #IAB

 

EXPAND YOUR LINKEDIN AUDIENCE

HubSpot has a simple step-by-step instructions on how to extend the reach of your LinkedIn posts with a sponsored post.

#social #linkedin

 

GOOGLE NOW ALLOWS YOU TO TARGET WITH EMAIL ADDRESSES

Google announces “Custom Match” which allows you to use email addresses you have have collected to target users through the Google ad network. Perhaps even better, Google also now allows you to use this first-party data to reach similar audiences (or “look-alikes”), who match the characteristics of readers who have signed up to learn more from you . . . but who themselves may not have heard of your book.

#retargeting #lookalikes #google

 

CINNABON GOES AFTER ORGANIC SNAPCHAT GROWTH

Cinnabon is using its marketing strength on Twitter and Instagram to grow its Snapchat presence (and reach the channel’s coveted Millennials) without paying for Snapchat ads;

“To help build a dialogue with teens going into the new effort, the brand hired two popular Snapchat creators—Danny Berk and Evan Garber—to take over its account and then ask fans to submit pictures of sweets last week. Within a couple of days, the brand gained 2,000 Snapchat followers.”

#social #snapchat #organicgrowth

 

CTR BENCHMARKS

We are often asked what average click-through rates are, and the truth is the number changes constantly depending on the year, the format, and the category. That said, Verso display ad campaigns tend to average at least a .10% CTR. An April 2015 report from Google suggests that we’re beating the industry average by a good forty percent.

#data

 

TARGET DISPLAY ADS TO OPT-IN CUSTOMERS

Verso partner AdRoll announces integration with Mail Chimp to allow you to use your opt-in email lists to target users with display ads.

#email #display

 

STREAMING IS GREAT FOR CUSTOMERS, BUT NOT SO GREAT FOR THE BOTTOM LINE

Books and Music are often too easily conflated, but it’s impossible to miss the fact that the same week that saw Oyster collapse, a new study reveals that vinyl LPs bring in more money than Spotify, YouTube, and Vevo combined.

#streaming

 

AN ARGUMENT AGAINST 3RD PARTY DATA COMPANIES

Cory Doctorow outlines some of the issues that have led to the growth of ad blocking and the three-way battle for control between Web publishers, advertisers, and users, and pointing the way to a possible solution.

#adblocking

Next to Now: First Week of Fall (Official)

Next to Now, , , , ,
According to the calendar, autumn began this week. We can feel the turn in the air even though the work pace has been fall-fast for weeks now. A lot has shifted in advertising this month—between Chrome dropping support for Flash and iOS9 enabling ad blockers—and as usual we’re keeping an eye on what’s about to change even as we’re working to sell great books in the here and now. These links represent some of the highlights we’ve read this week.

 

“THE WOMEN’S MAGAZINE FOR THE NEW GENERATION”

CJR on The Skimm, Broadly, and Refinery29:

“They’re paying more attention to news and politics, especially on women’s and social issues, but packaged with the right amount of edge (Broadly), twee (Refinery29), and Sex and the City references (The Skimm) to be taken seriously by the savvy millennial woman.”

#content

 

INSTAGRAM POSTING TIPS

AdWeek gives an hour by hour breakdown of what people post by time of day. The study finds that early morning is the best time to post. Other findings:

“The most popular hashtags were #TBT (throwback Thursday) and #WCW (woman crush Wednesday) . . . And millennial women between 25 and 40 years old are the best “micro-influencers,” the company concluded in its research, which—in addition to the larger study—examined the Instagram activities of 2,000 adult females.”

#social #instagram

 

VIDEO TIPS

Because we all need to start thinking like videographers, HubSpot offers three ideas for rethinking your video content: (1) Make it shorter, (2) Make it serial, (3) Make it real (they use the buzzword “disruptive”).

#video

 

BOOMERS DISLIKE MOBILE ADS

A new study suggests that the Baby Boom Generation is not a fan of mobile ads:

“Baby boomers…had a highly negative response to mobile ads. They were less than half as likely as millennials to say they would accept ads in return for something of value.”

#mobile

 

SNAPCHAT MARKETING DEVELOPMENTS

Evidence that the Snapchat experiments are working is in: brands as different as the NFL, Burberry and Goldman Sachs are expanding their presences on the app.

#social #snapchat

 

 

THE VALUE OF “OLD MEDIA” IN A NEW MEDIA WORLD

We don’t normally link to Shelf Awareness because we assume that a vast majority of our audience regularly read it.  But it’s worth underscoring this Shelf Awareness report from Carolyn Reidy’s talk at BISG on meta data:

“[Although most readers spend an inordinate amount of time online,] it’s still very much old media such as TV, radio and certain print outlets that drive sales for new titles, even if a consumer is looking at the online version of that media.”

This is a point that’s worth reflecting on when considering your media buy: Where are your readers online and offline, and what are their most trusted sources for information?

#oldmedia

 

 

SEX AND VIOLENCE A TURN OFF?

A new study suggests sex and violence not only do not sell, but may actually decrease the effectiveness of the ad. It sounds like a convincing study. Yet, oddly, this Business Insider article about the study is filled with examples of sex ads?

#creative

 

 

NEWS OF THE ADBLOCKOLYPSE

THE AD BLOCKER WHO HAD A CHANGE OF HEART

This report has been everywhere in the news for good reason. The maker of the most popular ad blocking app on the App Store, had a change of heart and stopped selling his popular app. Here’s why:

“Ad blockers come with an important asterisk: While they do benefit a ton of people in major ways, they also hurt some, including many who don’t deserve the hit.”

MILLENNIALS MORE LIKELY TO BLOCK ADS

There’s a reason native ads and working directly with social stars on Instagram and Vine are on the rise for reaching Millennials:

“Research suggests that a solid majority of internet users ages 18 to 34 are now blocking ads when they view digital content”

“JP MORGAN: EVERYONE NEEDS TO CHILL OUT ABOUT AD BLOCKING”

. . . So reads the headline of a Business Insider story on a JP Morgan report on ad blocking, that doesn’t see much of an affect (yet):

“So far, ad blockers on iOS 9 are only able to block ads on the Safari browser. JPMorgan notes that ad blocking apps have “impressively” made their way to the top of the app charts, but Safari’s share is just ~4% on desktop and ~23% on tablet and mobile, according to StatCounter.”

#adblocking

 

 

Next to Now: The Fall Sprint

Next to Now, , , ,

January may mark the start of the calendar year, but for everything else — including book publishing and advertising — the real starting gun seems to go off the day after Labor Day. Which is a good time to remember that when you’re moving at full speed you better have an eye on the road ahead:

 

MOBILE PREPAREDNESS FOR TV CAMPAIGNS

If you’re paying for TV ads, make sure you’re paying attention to mobile media at the same time, especially if you’re running ads on a live event:

“Digital research is a natural activity to pair with commercials when so many people are already using a second screen besides the television.”

#mobile #social #tv

 

ALEX CHEE ON ELENA FERRANTE AND SOCIAL MEDIA

A terrific writer who is prominent  on social media discusses the improbable success Ferrante’s found in part by opting out. It’s all good, but we admit that this caught our eye:

“When I see ads from publishers now on book blogs, I still mourn the old reviews.”

#social

 

FACEBOOK BOWS TO PRESSURE ON ADS

Facebook announces changes the ad industry has been calling for: the option of buying 100% video viewability (as opposed to counting partial views), and introducing third party measurement of ad performance

#social #video #tracking

 

MORE ON AD BLOCKING

A smart piece from the Verge about the angst in the industry around ad blocking:

“You might think the conversation about ad blocking is about the user experience of news, but what we’re really talking about is money and power in Silicon Valley. And titanic battles between large companies with lots of money and power tend to have a lot of collateral damage.”

#adblocking

 

CLUETRAIN AUTHOR SAYS AD TECH DOESN’T HAVE A CLUE

The coauthor of the Cluetrain Manifesto, Doc Searls, argues against trends of personalization and targeting and for old fashioned values of good product, service, and honest brand awareness

#adtech #data #targeting

 

THE RISE OF THE HUMANIST SANS SERIF

Bloomberg takes a look at changes in logo fonts of tech companies, and investigates what that says about the evolution of tech strategy.

#design

 

IS LIVE STREAMING THE NEXT CRUCIAL MARKETING PLATFORM?

This article for ClickZ suggests it is.

#livestream

 

AL ROKER, “RIGHT NOW I’M PERISCOPING YOU . . . “

“. . . and boom: 40 . . . 50 people. Bam.” Ad Week talks to Al Roker about live streaming, video apps, and why he thinks people should watch video horizontally (even if they won’t).

#livestream

 

GO HAWKEYES!

The presidential campaign in Iowa saw its first geo-filter ads: Ted Cruz in advance of the Iowa-Iowa State game.

#social #snapchat #geotarget

 

U.S. READERS (EVEN THOSE WHO PREFER PRINT) ARE ON THE MOBILE WEB

But you knew that. Here are the latest numbers to back it up: 

“One direct consequence of widespread smartphone and tablet use is vastly extended mobile internet access. About 60% of North America’s residents—more than 215 million people, eMarketer projects—will use a mobile phone to access the web in 2015.”

#mobile

 

WHAT’S YOUR READER’S MOOD: DISCOVER, LEARN, TRY, OR BUY?

When it comes to the marketing funnel, book advertising usually leans heavily toward discovery, but the whole route to purchase is important to keep in mind. What are readers looking to do when they see your ad: are they looking to discover a book? learn more about something? ready to buy? eMarketer shares a chart from the CMO Club that outlines the different platforms US and European marketers find best for the different stages of the customer journey.  

#marketingfunnel

 

MYSPACE?!?

New owners Specific Media are trying to convince us that MySpace still has legs. Here’s their argument:

“In March, measurement firm comScore reported that between December 2013 and December 2014, MySpace had grown traffic in the US by 469%, making it a bigger property than Snapchat and Vice. ComScore said the “surprising renaissance” was thanks to MySpace’s pivot to music and video content.”

#social #myspace #again?

 

DIFFERENT GENERATIONS SHARE DIFFERENTLY

This infographic from Accenture shows levels of social platform sharing and brand trust across different social networks, broken out by age. What family and friends share ranks much higher than what brands share. Facebook and print newspapers are the most trusted platforms for paid messages; Snapchat and blogs are the least.  

#social

 

 

IS DARK SOCIAL A GOOD PLACE TO ADVERTISE?

Yes, says Whisper. Coke, Fox, and MTV seem to agree.  

#social

 

DOES PROGRAMMATIC HAVE A COST ADVANTAGE OVER PRINT?

Not necessarily, says this article for Ad Age:

“Programmatic ad tech involves not just the ad inventory at the end, but a trail of fees and costs along the way to pay for expensive engineers and traders, data-management platforms, research and development and more. It adds up to make programmatic buying more expensive than ordering print ad pages or TV commercials through insertion orders and other routine methods.”

Applicability warning: This is an article about campaigns that range from the seven figure to the nine figure. At the levels that book publishers typically run, the fees and costs are less onerous, but it’s still important to keep in mind.   

#programmatic

 

VIDEO AD ROI

We’ve linked a lot to performance numbers for video ads in Next to Now over the months. But it’s worth remember that they are also more expensive to produce. It’s this discrepancy that leads many marketers to worry about ROI and video ads.

#video

 

REACHING YOUNG (BUT NOT *TOO* YOUNG) USERS ON SNAPCHAT

Jim Beam is using Snapchat to market it’s apple-flavored bourbon. While Snapchat does not allow much targeting — and this is on purpose — they offer enough age targeting to allow the bourbon maker to advertise only to users 21 and over. There’s still plenty of market there, since Snapchat’s 21-and-over audience represents 82 percent of its total user base.

#social

 

PODCASTS REMAIN HOT

Book publishers aren’t the only advertisers waking up to the power of podcast advertising.

#podcasts

Next to Now: Bird on a Wire Edition

Next to Now, , ,

This week’s links are dedicated to the idea that, whatever its form—voice, image, written word, or metadata—the art of advertising is the art of communication.

 

THE BANNER LIVES

According to programmatic powerhouse AppNexus, ads seen on desktop computers still see the majority of ad impressions compared with mobile. The positives to the platform — especially marketer familiarity and having a bigger canvas to work on — mean it’s still the go-to platform for most digital ad campaigns. On a side note, the journalist for ClickZ reports one of the desktop advantages being its click-through rate, “relatively robust with 0.043 percent CTR.” That may be the average click-through rate throughout all desktop banner advertising, but our benchmark CTR is 0.1 percent.

#desktop

 

EVIL GENIUS

What do you do if your handful of four star reviews is a little short of decent authoritative reviewers? Here’s one way you could go:  “A promo for the new Tom Hardy movie hid a negative 2-star review in plain sight.” We don’t condone this behavior! It’s clever, for sure, but a kind of one-off clever that puts a serious dent in your legitimacy with reviewers and consumers.

#creative

 

LONGER INSTAGRAM VIDEO

Instagram ups its maximum video length from :15 to :30, and allows posting in landscape mode as well as portrait. Whether longer video leads to better performance is another question.

#video #social

 

INSTAGRAM V. FACEBOOK

An early look at Instagram ad performance from Salesforce: Compared to Facebook, Instagram delivers fewer impressions but a higher click-through rate.

#social #performance

 

THE COMING ADBLOCKOPOLYPSE?

Will Apple’s mobile ad blocking block native ads as well as banners? This question is all the rage in advertising circles. We are sanguine about any potential changes. The best advertising proceeds by adaptability and curiosity, not panic.  

#native

 

THE FIGHT AGAINST THE ADBLOCKOPOLYPSE

Google is “punishing” (Business Insider’s word) YouTube viewers who use ad blocking software by not allowing them to skip pre-roll ads. Here’s some free advice: If you’re creating ads that feel like punishment to watch, you’re doing it wrong.

#creative