Tag Archives: email

Next to Now for August 25

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IS THE FUTURE OF ADVERTISING A BOT?

Venture Beat details how messenger bots in services such as Facebook Messenger, Kik, and more are changing the nature of how we can advertise, bringing the promise of 1:1 customized marketing closer to fruition. While current messenger bots are fairly crude, more nuanced bots are in development:

“A.I. bots with advanced brains . . . will change the advertising industry — both online and offline — forever. They can create and deliver completely measurable advertising campaigns that bring together all the elements of integrated marketing: video, mash-ups, voice, music, images, photos, personalization, and mass coverage on an individual basis. They do this by automating their analysis of ‘conversation logs’ generated in the code’s back end when you interact with a bot — with your permission, of course.”

#bots #messaging

 

INSTAGRAM KEEPS UP THE PACE OF INNOVATION (OR IS THAT COPY-CATTING?)

On the heels of introducing its version Snapchat Stories, Instagram introduces a new channel called “Events” that will live within its “Explore” tab and allow for live video. Innovation or high-speed copy-catting, either way it will prove a serious entry in the live video market with Periscope and Facebook Live.

#events #streaming #video

 

IN HOLIDAY EMAIL MARKETING, IS GREEN THE NEW BLACK?

A study from Yes Lifecycle Marketing suggests that the best time to send a holiday marketing email might be December 12, 2016—a date dubbed “Green Monday.” A retail industry-created holiday like Black Friday or Cyber Monday, Green Monday  falls on the second Monday of December:

“Only 10% of retailers deployed Green Monday campaigns in 2015, according to Yes Lifecycle Marketing, indicating that competition for the inbox may be lower than more popular retail holidays such as Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

Green Monday saw an average email open rate of 14.5% in 2015, while open rates for Cyber Monday email campaigns has an average open rate of 12.9%. In addition, Cyber Monday open rates fell year-over-year while Green Monday open rates have increased.”

#email #holiday

 

THE STATE OF FACEBOOK (FOR MARKETERS)

eMarketer posts seven charts about the current state of Facebook: over-35-year-olds v. millennials, mobile v. desktop use, and more.

#facebook #userdata

Corn at Union Square Market photo (c) 2016 Martha Otis

Next to Now for August 11

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Highlights of the week: New announcements from Hulu, Instagram, and Nielsen released in the high heat of summer—with changes coming to the competitive landscape of  video, social, and email marketing that are so vital to book advertising.

 

HULU UPS ITS EFFORTS

With this announcement that Time Warner has taken a 10% stake in Hulu, the major cable player takes a stake in the platform that’s a redoubt for cord-cutters everywhere. It’s a smart move by Time Warner, and provides more cash for Hulu to invest in areas that are ripe for expansion including live events and new content.

#hulu #streaming #timewarner

 

NIELSEN GETS SERIOUS ABOUT SOCIAL

This article in USA Today reveals that Nielsen is now adding Facebook to its social ranking of TV shows. While Twitter remains a major player as a second screen to TV, any mention of social has to include Facebook. This shift makes the Nielsen social rankings much more relevant.

#social #tv

 

WHAT VERIZON’S YAHOO ACQUISITION MEANS FOR EMAIL MARKETING

ClickZ has a good article on how the combination of AOL and Yahoo’s email data is a boon to marketers:

“Scale in users is great. That’s more eyeballs for ads served via AOL technology on the plethora of media properties the combined companies own.

“Scale and depth of data are even better. Verizon will have ownership of consumer data not only on phones and mobile devices; it will be able to pair that with consumer behavioral data from the media sites that AOL and Yahoo own.”

There are dangers with any merger that a confused transition can alienate customers, but Verizon’s acquisition of AOL has proceeded relatively smoothly. So this will certainly be a merger to watch for email marketers everywhere.

#email #verizon #aol #yahoo

 

WHAT INSTAGRAM’S NEW “STORIES” FUNCTION MEANS FOR SNAPCHAT

According to this insightful article from The Next Web, Instagram’s “Stories” spells trouble for Snapchat: Instagram’s bigger, better monetized, and easier to use for both consumers and advertisers. That said, there is something to Snapchat’s difficulty from a teenager’s point of view, precisely because  parents can’t figure it out. As long as the Generation Z can claim Snapchat for their own, they’re unlikely to give it up.

#instagram #snapchat

 

A PRIMER ON ATTRIBUTION

User tracking is a major part of any marketing toolkit. As tracking has gone beyond desktop cookies to reach user log ins via Google, Facebook, and email, it has become easier to track users with a greater degree of confidence in the data. Digiday has a useful primer on the state of the art of user tracking across devices.

#tracking

 

EMAIL DELIVERABILITY IS DOWN

Email marketing platform Return Path reports that fewer emails are making into consumers’ inboxes:

“In the second quarter, the average inbox placement rate was 79% in the second quarter, down from 81% in the same quarter a year ago and 82% in the third quarter of 2015.”

As email marketing grows in prominence, this is to be expected. It’s worth noting that Verso email marketing partner LiveIntent only  counts emails that are actively opened and downloaded–making a LiveIntent buy the surest way to reach consumers by email.

#email #liveintent

 

Next to Now: The Millennials Edition

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VOX ALL-IN FOR SNAPCHAT

Vox Media is betting against the 97.9% of marketers who found Snapchat wanting in that ROI survey. At this week’s New Front presentation, Vox revealed that it’s expanding its Snapchat presence across all its brands and creating a Snapchat Studio.

#snapchat #vox

10 BILLION VIDEOS A DAY

A new statistic proclaims that Snapchat is now a major player in video views:

“10 billion videos are now viewed each day on the ephemeral photo- and video-sharing app, up from 8 billion per day in February.”

#video #snapchat

SNAP-READY OUTDOOR ADVERTISING

Adweek features a fun Netflix campaign that invites users to use Snapchat’s face-swap technology with their outdoor ads. We love the combination of digital and outdoor, and using Snapchat lenses is a great way to share with Millennials and younger. 

#outdoor #snapchat #social

GEEKS UPVOTED ON IMGUR

Imgur released results from a new survey that show why millennials are cool with being geeky, and why it’s hard to market successfully to them.

#millennials #geeks

IMGUR TARGETS ADS TARGETING YOUNG MEN

Imgur makes a convincing case that it’s the place to be if you’re interested in reaching males ages 18-34.

#imgur

EMAIL REMAINS STRONG EVEN WITH MILLENNIALS

While the link is available for subscribers only, this headline in eMarketer says it all: “US Millennials Are Frequent Users of Email”:

“Email is still very much alive for US millennials. While it may not offer users the “wow factor” that platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube often inspire, communicating via email remains a core digital activity for most young adults.”

#email #millennials

ON THE OTHER HAND . . .

Millennials don’t exist.

(via @GeniusSteals)

#millennials

VOGUE DIGITAL

Have we failed to mention Snapchat for a few posts? Just in time for the Met Gala, Vogue releases its first stand-alone “Snapchat-like” app:

“The iPhone app, out today, is a blend of site and magazine content, with a dash of Snapchat-like functionality. Using an algorithm, it pulls together a daily feed of eight stories tailored for the user by reading patterns. The feed’s interface is reminiscent of a Snapchat Discover story: users swipe right through headlines, and swipe up if they want to read the full article.”

#vogue #mobile

FACEBOOK FOR PRESIDENT

A survey of social media marketers found that over only 2.1% of the marketers said that the glitzy new kid on the block, Snapchat, provides the best ROI. 95% reported that Facebook provides the best ROI of all the social media channels. Twitter was second at 63.5% and Instagram a distant third at 40.1%. 

#social #facebook

 

 

 

Photo (c) TT: Central Park Purple Rain

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: 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: AD RESEARCH EDITION

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ARE BUY BUTTONS ON SOCIAL MEDIA A GOOD IDEA?

Marketers are very excited by social media buy buttons, but consumers? Not so much. This survey of user habits on social media is a useful reminder that just because an idea looks good on a marketing plan doesn’t mean it’s something that serves our customers well.

#social #media #adtech

 

DATA REVEALS SURPRISING, UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTH 

According to Spotify, the number one zip code for playing Justin Bieber’s “Sorry” is Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

#data

 

HUBSPOT ON THE BENEFITS OF NATIVE ADVERTISING

This HubSpot article on the benefits of native advertising is well-argued and cites a wealth of links to relevant studies. Of interest:

—Consumers look at native ads 52% more frequently than banner ads:.

—Native ads receive two times more visual focus than banners: 

—Native CTR performance can be 85% higher than banner ads. n.b. This data point is from a Stackadapt study that uses an “average” banner CTR of .06%. Since Verso’s average is more like .1%, the percentage improvement is not as high for our campaigns, but it’s still significant.

—Avg CTR for banner ads is .08%. n.b. This links to a useful tool from Google for identifying benchmark rates, that identifies the average click-through rate as .08% (.05% for Flash, in case anyone’s still using that format!). It’s important to keep saying this: we expect—and see—better average CTRs for Verso campaigns.

#native advertising #data

 

DIGITAL ADS ARE GETTING SMARTER. ARE ADVERTISERS?

A professor at the University of Chicago looks into advertising spend on search, email and mobile. Among his surprising discoveries: most sales do not result from users who click on ads:

“In fact, 78 percent of the increase in sales in the Yahoo experiment was from users who never clicked on the ads. ‘Even though clicks are a standard measure of performance in online-advertising campaigns, we find that focusing only on clickers leads to a serious underestimate of the campaign’s effects.’”

#research #search #email #clickthroughs

 

OLDER USERS RESPOND BETTER TO DIGITAL

Two former Yahoo researchers show that the effect of online advertising on sales increases with age, with the top performing group over 65. So maybe book publishers shouldn’t worry about Snapchat so much right now.

#research #sales

 

CREATIVE PERSISTENCE

A report from professors at the University of Chicago’s Booth Business School and Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management details the importance of persistence when it comes to creative breakthroughs.

#creative

 

NEW LUMA REPORT

Here’s LUMA’s new report on the state-of-the-art of digital marketing. The number one new trend is mass-personalization across channels. This of course requires very smart “identity” data. Slide 31 points to developments on this score. The second largest trend, content marketing, requires traditionally siloed departments such as advertising, PR, web development and email to work in concert. (Via BusinessInsider)

#adtech

 

IS THE VINE EXPERIMENT OVER?

Two years ago it was one of the hottest new marketing platforms, but AdWeek reports that today Vine accounts for just 6% of video marketing using advertiser-produced video (compared to 64% YouTube and 24% Facebook). That said, it’s still a viable platform if you use it right and partner with social media stars:

“Vine still shines when social stars are involved. Instead of brands posting their own content, Burns said that clients are looking to team up with top influencers who have amassed massive followings to create sponsored content.”

#social #video #vine

 

MOST MOBILE AND DESKTOP VIDEO ADS SERVED AGAINST SHORT FORM

Emarketer reports: “Q3 2015 research from FreeWheel found that 69% of digital video ad views served by its platform to smartphones occurred while users watched content shorter than 20 minutes.” Perhaps more surprising was the revelation that desktop video watching is still twice that on mobile and tablets:

“In 2015, US adults will spend an average of 12 minutes per day watching digital video on their smartphones and an average of 14 minutes on their tablets. Time spent on desktop and laptop is higher, with US adults spending an average of 24 minutes per day watching digital video.” 

#video

 

AGAINST BAD ADS

And by “bad,” we mean a bad experience for the user. As this NYT article says, there are far too many digital ads right now that try to work up the engagement numbers through forcing you to click on the content when you were just trying to get the ad out of your face. It’s a little ironic (but only a little), since the NY Times website is not immune to these kind of ads (this cat owner is looking at you, Purina dog chow video). But this might be the kind of culture we create when every marketing job is numbers based—judging a campaign by how many people clicked on the ad, rather than to how many people responded to what you were advertising.

#creative

Next to Now: Giving Thanks Edition

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We’re getting this week’s Next to Now out a little early so you can focus the rest of the week on family, friends, food, and giving thanks.

 

A STORY ABOUT HUMAN GENEROSITY (AND AD TARGETING)

This is first of all a moving story about a person in need reaching out and another person responding. But, in the context of this blog of marketing links, it’s also a reminder that serendipity in advertising can sometimes deliver results more powerfully than the acutest targeting.   

#targeting

 

MARKETERS SAY OTHER PEOPLE’S EMAILS WASTE THEIR TIME

An eMarketer survey reveals that U.S. marketers find excessive emails are tied with wasteful meetings for the biggest thing that’s getting in the way of doing their work. No comment on their own fondness for sending emails as a successful marketing tactic.

#email

 

SNAPCHAT’S AD BUSINESS IN TROUBLE

That is, it’s in trouble given its $16 billion valuation:

“Snapchat lost more than $128 million in the first 11 months of 2014, according to a financial statement leaked earlier this year, which also showed Snapchat had revenue of $3.1 million. Its advertising business began in mid-October. Tech media outlet Re/code estimated that Snapchat’s revenue could reach $50 million in 2015.”

Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel has stated that he is not in favor of hyper-targeting his users with ads, but that might have to change if he wants to make good on the promise investors saw in his company.

…which may be a reason there are signs that Snapchat’s loosening up its data restrictions. 

#snapchat #social

 

SERIAL PODCAST ON PANDORA

Streaming successful podcasts such as Serial on Pandora has a major advantage for advertisers over downloading—with streaming we can see click throughs and collect data. With downloaded podcasts, the ads have no ability to click through. If you were hoping to advertise on Serial through Pandora, however, you’ll have to wait until next year: Warner Brothers and Esurance have locked up the slots for Seasons 1 and 2.

#podcast #streaming #pandora

 

BILL SIMMONS

Is it a coincidence that the acronym for the Bill Simmons Podcast Network from ex-ESPN gadfly Bill Simmons is BSPN?

#podcast

 

GAWKER SHIFTS AGAIN

Once the shining star of internet snarkiness, Gawker has been publically wrestling with its own identity a lot recently. Their new turn is to politics. We’ll see if the grande dame of snark can pull it off.

#gawker

 

WHAT’S BETTER FOR VIDEO ADS, FACEBOOK OR YOUTUBE?

A study by Reebok compared the same video buy across Facebook and YouTube–comparing cost, view-throughs, and engagement rates. The results seemed to favor YouTube, but suggested a combination by might be better still:  

“The results showed that combining YouTube and Facebook buys is the most effective method for marketers. Reebok shared the data during Adweek’s Executive Lab, which was sponsored by Pixability, in New York on Thursday.

    YouTube had a higher video view rate (23.6 percent of people who scrolled past the video viewed it versus Facebook’s 5.4 percent) and video completion rate (20.4 percent versus Facebook’s 4.5 percent) as well as a lower cost per view. But Facebook had higher engagement.”

#video #facebook #youtube

 

THE FIRST VR ADS HIT FACEBOOK

Facebook puts that $2B purchase of Oculus Rift to work with a first look at virtual reality ads for brands such as AT&T, Nestle, Mondelez, and Samsung.  

#vr #facebook

 

ARE GIFS THE FUTURE OF ADVERTISING?

No, but they’re a great way to get attention right now—especially if you have a video-based phenomenon to market that has lots of moments you can edit, share, and plug into a gif search engine under “YOLO,” “What’s up,” or “OMFG.” The money quote comes from Riffsy CEO David MacIntosh”:

“Three to five seconds is the new three to five minutes.”

#creative

 

CATS ON MOTOBIKES

You’d think IAMS marketers would have it easy: cute cat and dog .gifs all day long. Turns out they’re not just churning the content out, but thinking carefully of editing spots to work differently on different media. A cute cat video for TV needs to run differently than a cute cat video on Facebook. Same shoot, different edit.  

#video #facebook #cats

Next to Now: The Structure of Innovation

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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: Labor Day Weekend Edition

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INSTAGRAM ADS PERFORMING WELL

While the minimum spend to work with Instagram directly is still too pricey for book publishers, those larger brands currently working with the platform are reporting highly efficient campaigns.

“For now, Instagram is still a premium ad space, according to marketing experts. Salesforce says Instagram ads get almost double the click through rate of Facebook, 1.5 percent compared to 0.84 percent.”

The good news is that we can access Instagram through beta programs with such partners as AdRoll.

#social #instagram #retargeting

 

INDUSTRY VARIATIONS IN MOBILE V. DESKTOP

While the pace of change is definitely tilted in the direction of mobile, different industries still see a majority of email opens on desktop devices:

“In the business products and services industry, for example, 73% of emails were still opened on the desktop—and the tablet open share was just half the average. Publishers, media and entertainment companies and travel firms all had slightly higher-than-average open shares on the desktop, while publishers and travel firms reported clearly lower-than-average open shares on mobile phones.”

#email

 

“FACEBOOK BEATS PINTEREST AS FOODIE’S GO-TO SOCIAL PLATFORM”:

“Foodies in the U.S. are particularly active on social media, especially on Instagram. Here’s a few of the U.S. stats that should be intriguing to food marketers:

  • 90 percent of American foodies use Facebook.

  • 36 percent of them visit Pinterest.

  • 73 percent scroll through Instagram (a big leap from 17 percent worldwide).”

On the other hand:

“Benjamin Bourinat, director of public relations and social media at Sopexa, explained that while Pinterest claims a low percentage of users, people come back repeatedly to the site and app. ‘What’s interesting about Pinterest is [that it’s] very niche—the level of engagement is high because loyalty is just stronger on Pinterest,’ he said.”

#social #food

 

WECHAT OPENS AD PLATFORM ANOTHER NOTCH WIDER

WeChat recently opened their “Sponsored Moments” platform to wider advertising. As the minimum spend drops from roughly $800,000 to about $31,000, the platform is now within the range of a large book advertising budget. The service does not have the U.S. presence that would make it useful to American publishers, but it’s a good development for the future of messaging as an advertising medium

#messaging

 

FACEBOOK AD PERFORMANCE UPDATE

New Facebook stats were recently announced, including average CTR, CPM, and CPC across the platform for Q2 2013 and 2014. Spoiler alert, everything’s going up: .36% CTR, $1.95 CPM, and $0.55 CPC for Q2 2014.  

#social

 

REACHING GAMERS ON YOUTUBE

YouTube NOW aggregates 25,000 gamer channels. It’s a huge market, especially good for reaching young males. But it’s not only about young males, which Kimberly-Clark makes clear, targeting women with a :30 spot for Kotex.

#video #gaming

 

NEW FACEBOOK AD UNITS

Animated .gifs come to Facebook . . . for Wendy’s and Coke, anyway. The good news is that this kind of test heralds the opening of the platform to gifs from other advertisers relatively soon.  

#visual

 

NEW MOBILE MESSAGING AND SOCIAL MEDIA STATS

Pew has released a new survey of mobile messaging and social media. Some key figures:

  • 36% of mobile users use messaging apps such as WeChat or Kik (49% of ages 18-29)
  • 17% of mobile users use messaging apps in which messages instantly disappear (as in Snapchat) — 41% of ages 18-29
  • 59% of Instagram users visit the site daily (70% Facebook, 27% for Pinterest and 22% for LinkedIn)
  • 62% of all American adults use Facebook (66% of male internet users, 77% of female internet users)

#mobile #messaging #social

 

NYT DIGITAL SUBSCRIBERS UP

The New York Times reaches 1MM digital subscribers.

#digital #news

 

NYT NEWSLETTER NEWS

New York Times gets 20% open rate in newsletters. How? Highly curated by trusted editors plus a seriously engaged opt-in audience. It’s why we love them.

#email

 

GOOGLE’S BEST PRACTICES FOR BANNER CREATIVE

Google released a pretty good  primer on banner ad creative.

#creative

 

SLOW JOURNALISM IS IN OUR WHEELHOUSE

Nieman reports on the value of slow journalism (that’s our specialty, book people) in the age of instant information.

#news

 

PROGRAMMATIC VIDEO DEVELOPMENTS

Hulu is experimenting with opening their video ad platform to programmatic buying.

#video #programmatic

 

IS INSTAGRAM CHANGING HOW AGENCIES APPROACH CREATIVE?

Spoiler alert: Yes, creative is getting much less spontaneous in look and feel. Our favorite quote comes from Chris Corley, group creative director at VML in Kansas City:

“I think we do have the obligation to sell, but we also have an obligation to not pollute the world with garbage.”

Fair enough.

#social #creative

Next to Now: “Everybody in the Pool” Edition

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PERISCOPE UP

Periscope now has 10 million users who watch 21 million minutes a day.

#social #video

FACEBOOK ADS OUTPERFORM OTHER SOCIAL NETWORKS

More marketers say they’re satisfied with Facebook ad performance than say the same about LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube. Those platforms all serve very different functions so it’s a little disingenuous to put them all together in a group as if it’s a single horse-race, but it’s worth keeping in mind. As is this tidbit in the last sentence of the post:

“The report also said paid advertising now accounts for 83% of marketers’ social spending, as it becomes harder to reach users on those social platforms without paying to do so.”

#social

NEW FACEBOOK AD PRODUCTS

The recently launched Carousel unit is already one of the best performing Facebook ad units and the Dynamic Product Ads are sure to be the same (though they are more relevant to retailers than to brand advertisers).

#social

MORE ON AD BLOCKING

Four charts that say ad blocking is something we need to face.

#adblocking

TIMING IS EVERYTHING

One way around ad blocking is increased native options, including new campaigns that target ads to specific real-time moments based on hundreds of factors, from biometric data collected by your cell phone to real-time events such as when your favorite team wins or if you attain a new level in a video game.

#mobile #native

“I AM VERTICAL / BUT I WOULD RATHER BE HORIZONTAL.”

That’s what Sylvia Plath wrote in her poem “I Am Vertical.” It’s a sentiment that applied to video shot for the Web–at least until recently, when platforms such as Snapchat, Periscope, and Meerkat definitely prefer vertically shot video. (Really? Turning your phone to the side to watch a video just takes too much time.)

Farhad Manjoo weighs in on vertical video orientation for the New York Times: “not a crime.”

#video

WHAT’S THE RIGHT MEDIUM FOR YOUR MARKETING: INSTAGRAM OR PINTEREST?

This ClickZ article does a good job outlining the pros and cons of each platform. But what it really comes down to is knowing the ins and outs of whatever platform you’re using to promote your books. Interact using each platform’s native trends, tools and tendencies.

#social

DON’T SLEEP ON VINE

Everyone has been focused on Snapchat, but meanwhile Vine continues to develop a healthy, responsive audience.

#social

ARE VIDEO ADS PERFORMING GREAT FOR ALL THE WRONG REASONS?

We know video ads work . . .

“When Q1 2015 polling by Aol queried US internet users ages 13 to 54 who watched video on a mobile device at least monthly about ad recall, more than eight in 10 remembered digital video placements on each option listed: 84% recalled those on tablets, 83% on smartphones and 82% on PCs.”

. . . .but do people remember them in the way because they’re particularly annoying? Maybe. That said, the problems cited in this survey are fixable: keep repetition down (not a problem for book publishers given our budgets) and keep the videos short (who’s going to tell the editor we can’t use *all* the quotes?).  

#video

EMAIL IS (STILL) NOT DEAD

Email marketing is not sexy but it has 3 things going for it: (1) ability to use big data to personalize communication, (2) ease of integrating with other marketing channels, (3) ability to measure and adapt every day

#email

INSTAGRAM, HASHTAGS, AND GOLDILOCKS

How many hashtags should you use in your Instagram posts? Three is too many, one is too few, two is *just* right.

#social

This week's cover art is taken from Ida Applebroog's recent show, "The Ethics of Desire," at Hauser and Wirth. It is from a series of scenes she painted on folding chairs.