Tag Archives: mobile

Next to Now – Late July Edition

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IAB FAUs with VR, AR, and FAQ

The Standard Advertising Units are meeting new standards, as the IAB releases its new portfolio of Flexible Ad Units, including Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and other formats, spanning the latest in social media, mobile video (vertical! 360-degree!) and even emoji.

The biggest change is from fixed pixel sizes to aspect ratios. This may not be a big deal this week, but like the transition from Flash to HTML5 it will be changing our lives very soon.

OK GO!!!

 

 

PROGRAMMATIC NODS TO NATIVE

MediaRadar says more native is being purchased while programmatic spending is down.

This is partly due to brand safety concerns but performance plays in, our own experience suggests.

Print continues to descend – but readers gonna read. It’s not dead yet, especially among the kinds of readers who buy hardcovers.

Explore Nativity

A fuller look at ad spends this quarter HERE

 

 

SEARCH NODS TO DISCOVERY

Giving the people what they didn’t know they wanted.

“It requires a lot of tracking resources, which is not an easy thing to do, but success on the web is not easy either.”

Shop around

 

 

THE 10 MOST WATCHED ADS ON YOUTUBE

Help them to be watched still more.

Takeaways: Know what your audience knows and use that to tell a story they’ll relate to.   (Bonus: spend lots of money.)

Application: Utilize comps, fonts, art, and language to build familiarity, and if possible subvert the viewer’s expectations in a rewarding (amusing) way.

BEHOLD …

 

 

Next to Now Late February Edition

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WHY SHOULD I BELIEVE YOU?

“In the decision to trust a source, objective expertise appears to matter less than the determination that this person shares our beliefs, assumptions and suspicions, that they are, in a sense, a member of our tribe.”

Tell a story, earn some trust. 

 

TOP 4 BEST …

What makes you want to pay attention?  Here are VentureBeat’s “4 best practices to move the needle on digital advertising.”

“The only problem is that creating an exciting, engaging campaign is easier said than done.”

No kidding!  But food for thought as we select our review quotes.

 

COOL YOUR JETS, DIGITAL.

The advertising market is more diverse than some would have us believe, says SMI via MediaPost.

See from a different perspective. 

 

PAMA AND PAMELA PAUL

Pamela Paul speaks at the Publishers Advertising and Marketing Association’s event next week, Wednesday, March 1.

Full disclosure:  Poster Christian Toth is PAMA’s president!

More here if you’re interested. 

 

 

Next to Now for January 2017

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CAN THEY HEAR WHAT YOU HEAR?

Not always.  Here are 6 tips from Facebook for making silent videos speak.

Listen to the silence. 

 

“For mobile marketing, a moment of transformation is at hand …

… By year’s end, 75% of online content consumption will be mobile.”

Something to bear in mind when reviewing our ad stats, which often average mobile and desktop together.  (Not all CTRs are created equal.)

Tune in to Programmatic with Point 3.  A tool to remember as we plan our campaigns.

Read about the projections. 

 

“WE’RE PUTTING IT ALL INTO FACEBOOK!”

Maybe that’s a good idea … but maybe not.

Consider this. 

 

 

 

Next to Now for November 23

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Next to Now is thankful for . . .

 

Improvements in Mobile Ad Targeting

Nielsen reports that the ability to target specific demos on targeting has increased to 60% of mobile ad impressions (up from 49% a year ago). This indicates that post-Cookie targeting capabilities are improving.

#mobile #targeting

 

Facebook Working toward Measurement Transparency

Related: We’re also glad we never migrated to Atlas ad serving because they’re shutting it down. 

#facebook

 

The End of Black Friday as a Stand-Alone Event

Let’s spread the wealth among a few days and stop the stampede.

#blackfriday

 

Ad Agencies Waking Up to What People Are Really Aspiring To

Ad agencies rethink data and recruitment post-election. 

#data

 

Snapchat Spectacles

Especially that they’ve opened a pop-up store near us in time for Christmas.

#snapchat

 

 

Next to Now for October 21

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NEW SPOTIFY VERTICAL VIDEO ADS

Spotify announced a new product — Vertical Video Ads — which allows advertisers to sponsor playlists. Users agree to watch the full video in exchange for thirty minutes of free listening. These kinds of ads are wins for the advertisers, the users, and the platform. At launch, the branded moments are based around six categories: chill time, workout, party, dinner, focus and sleep—each of which could work well for books from novels (chill time) to cookbooks (dinner) to lifestyle (workout). As with any newly launched ad product, the initial minimums are too great for any but the largest brand budgets. But with time, costs will come down, making this an initiative to watch.

#spotify #audio #streaming

SNAP TO UNLOCK: A NEW FUTURE OR THE NEXT QR CODE?

The first outdoor ads targeting Snapchat users for movies are running now in subways in NY and DC:

“Universal Pictures, a longtime Snapchat advertiser, is among the first to test the Snap code marketing for its new movie ‘The Girl On the Train.’ Mysterious billboards will be showing up around subways in New York and Washington, D.C., and in parts of Los Angeles, according to Doug Neil, exec VP of digital marketing at NBC Universal.”

While the premise may induce a painful deja vu for marketers who went through the great QR code marketing hype of a few years ago, the fact that Snapchat is already being used and recognized by a sizable audience makes all the difference. For genres such as YA, a Snap to Unlock campaign could make a delicious teaser.

#snapchat #outdoor #YA

 

WHAT MAKES A GREAT MOBILE AD FOR TEENS AND TWENTIES?

A new study of teens and people in their twenties shows that users in this age range care about content that can be saved and accessed later and expect ads to be relevant to their interests. Here’s more from eMarketer on the survey. 

216997 #mobile #millennials

 

WHAT’S THE BEST TIME TO SHOW ADS?

A new study suggests that more users are inclined to engage with an ad in the middle of the day than at other times during the work week. While ad exposure is valid throughout the day, mid-day is when more users are taking breaks from studying or working and so more apt to click on an ad.

#time #engagement

 

 

Apples at Union Square Market (c) 2016 Martha Otis

Next to Now for October 7

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THE NEW YORK TIMES GOES ALL-IN WITH FLEX

For the past year, the New York Times digital team has been testing a “Flex frame unit” that works seamlessly across devices and integrates more smoothly with the reading experience—including several tests with Verso clients. The overwhelmingly positive results of those test has led the New York Times to begin phasing out standard display units in favor of  the Flex frame unit. This does not signal the death of the standard IAB ad unit—300×250, 728×90, 160×600—yet. But it does signal that sites and platforms need to continue to evolve the best way to show ads to readers in ways that inform and delight. Here is the WSJ on the story.   

#nyt #flexframe

 

“HOW ADVERTISING WORKS TODAY”

A recently released study from the Advertising Research Foundation, “How Advertising Works Today,” investigates best practices for advertising across TV, print, radio and digital in 45 countries. Here are the key takeaways cited by Marketing Land: 

  • “Spending across multiple platforms delivers greater ROI than investing in single platforms.” For example, a campaign across two platforms generally delivers 19 percent more return on investment than on one platform. For three platforms, it’s 23 percent more; for five, 35 percent.

  • “There is actually a “kicker effect” when television is added back to digital spending.” Digital plus TV, the report found, can increase ROI 60 percent.

  • “This is also true for millennials who consume both traditional and new media.” Even for consumers aged 18 to 24, for instance, the optimal mix was found to be 71 percent traditional media (TV, radio, print) and 29 percent digital (including video, display and paid search). In other words, it’s not just mobile.

  • “’Silo investing’ in some digital formats too heavily can have diminishing returns and even cause sales to decline.” However, this finding was derived primarily from banner desktop ads — not exactly the most engaging format.

  • And the most impact for creative comes from an approach that is unified/connected across platforms, but tailored to each platform. “When campaigns are unified [creatively] across platforms,” ARF SVP Dr. Manuel Garcia-Garcia told the audience at the presentation, “memory activation is enhanced.”

While book publishing budgets do not often allow for including TV in the ad mix, it’s worth noting the bolded bit again based on the 5,000 campaigns included in the study: “The optimal mix was found to be 71 percent traditional media (TV, radio, print) and 29 percent digital.”

#data #research #mix

 

“CAPTIVATE VERSUS AGGRAVATE”

The same article in Marketing Land points to a study conducted by mobile ad firm Kargo together with neuroscience research firm MediaScience called, “Captivate vs. Aggravate.” The study looks at performance of common mobile units—the Adhesion Banner, the In-Stream Banner, the Interstitial—as well as a unit proprietary to Kargo called the Sidekick. It found that of the three common units, the Adhesion Banner had “fewer people [looking] at these banners for less time. Interstitials were considered the most “annoying,” drawing attention mostly from people looking for the X to make the ads go away. In-Stream Banners got the most positive results for time spent looking at the ad as well as for feelings about the product.

#mobile

 

CAN A NEWS BRAND GAIN TRACTION ON INSTAGRAM?

A report from Digiday suggests that Fox News is taking advantage of Instagram’s recent approval of longer video clips to gain a major audience on the platform.  With over 3 million comments, likes and regrams in September—growing faster than Business Insider, Washington Post and BuzzFeed, and out performing such stalward social news powerhouses ads the New York Times, BBC and CNN. Digiday notes a similar success for the brand on Facebook, and we would add that this report is consistent with the high engagement we’ve seen with ads across Fox News platforms. If you provide content that appeals to the conservative audience, a digital campaign on Fox News is one of the best ways to reach them.

#instagram #fox

 

CELEBRATING AMARO

We are thrilled to welcome into the world a bouncy bundle of bitter joy, AMARO: The new book that gives you a delicious introduction to  the bitter liqueurs known as Amaro by drinks expert, Ten Speed author, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Director of Culinary Marketing, Brad T. Parsons. Here’s a link to the New York Times piece on the book. A book authored by a Verso client at one esteemed publishing house and published by another? That’s AMARO. Cheers!

#amaro #drinksforeveryone

 

Photo taken under the stars in Brooklyn during a celebration for AMARO's publication (c) 2016 T. Thompson

Next to Now for September 30

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NEW IAB MOBILE STUDY

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released a report this week on the mobile shopping experience, “Mobile Commerce: A Global Perspective”. While the global payment system is of less concern to U.S. book publishers, the ecosytem of research, engagement and purchase is critical to book buyer’s experience and offers relevant insight even when ads are not directly linking to a buy page. Top results include:

  • 76% of mobile purchasers say they have engaged with an ad in the last six months.
  • 51% of mobile users bought in a store after researching on mobile (this is a good argument for the discovery and research function of ads)
  • Top frustrations with mobile purchasing: Too expensive, Too slow, Hard to use, Previous bad experience, Unstable network

#mobile

 

MOBILE USERS SPEND MORE TIME IN APPS

An eMarketer study released in September suggests that “more than 80% of smartphone internet time was spent with apps” as opposed to the mobile web.

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If you are intent on reaching the mobile user, keep in mind that most of your audiences is using apps. The mobile app versus browser debate has been active since the first iPhone, with convincing arguments made at different times for each. But analysts at Gartner suggest the end of the debate is in sight—as the development of bots and Virtual Personal Assistants (VPAs) threaten to dethrone apps as our mobile device go-to.

#mobile #apps #bots #VPA #gartner

 

NEW VIDEO TIPS PLATFORM BY PLATFORM

This New York Times article reveals the great splintering of video standards and best practices in a world where some platforms (such as YouTube) are watched with full sound and some (such as Facebook) tend to be watched with the sound off. Do we have to cut a different video for every platform now? Well, if you want to optimize engagement for each platform, then the answer is yes.

#video #social

 

TWITTER RELEASES VIDEO STATS

Speaking of video best practices, Twitter released an infographic with insights into the best performing  video ads on the platform. Details include who’s watching, what they’re watching and responding to, and what types of video get the best results.

#video #twitter

 

SNAPCHAT UPS ITS VIDEO GAME

As Snapchat changes its company name to Snap, Inc., the company’s wider play for video content comes in focus. From distribution deals with Saturday Night Live to the expansion of the Discover channel to the launch of the company’s new hardware “toy”, Spectacles, Snap, Inc. is positioning itself as one possible answer to the question, Where does everybody go after TV?

#snapchat #video

 

Photo of Bruce Springsteen heading into his reading at the Union Square Barnes & Noble (c) 2016 by Martha Otis

 

Next to Now: Things Are Looking Up

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What’s the cause for optimism? Our latest readings on advertising and what it means for book publishers. The links below point to new intelligence on fresh data, smart research, inspiring creative, reader-centric design, and the potential for real world impact.

 

SNAPCHATS WANTS YOU TO AMP UP THE AUDIO

In a reminder that different platforms call for different standards, Snapchat is telling its video creators to pay close attention to the audio. This is in direct contrast with Facebook’s recommendation to create video that works without sound at all. They’re different platforms with different audiences and content expectations, so it makes sense to create different video for both. If you want to compare the platforms though, Snapchat says a recent study with MediaScience gives them an edge over TV, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. According to AdWeek,

“The study encompassed biometric testing to capture emotional responses, as well as eye-tracking and exit surveys . . . Snapchat says its ads garnered twice the visual attention of Facebook, 1.5 times more than Instagram and 1.3 times better than YouTube. When compared to those platforms and TV, Snapchat claims that its ads generated greater emotional response and twice as much purchase intent.”

#snapchat #social #video

 

BEN EVANS THINKS THROUGH MOBILE

In a recent blog post, Ben Evans does some smart thinking through the issues around mobile video and the problems of trying to compare TV ads with Facebook video plays with Snapchat Stories. They’re different animals with different metrics. Bonus video: Lyrical School puts it all in context for you with Run and Run.

#mobile #video #TV #facebook #runandrun

 

WHAT ADVERTISERS NEED TO KNOW

R/GA boils down Mary Meeker’s epic deck to the slides brand advertisers need to focus on. Here’s our boil-down of R/GA’s boil-down for book advertisers:

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#data

 

PANDORA REDESIGN

With over 1,000 different audience segments to use for targeting, Pandora has been one of our strongest ad partners in recent years. We are pleased to note that their redesign improves on their strengths. AdWeek notes:

“The streaming-music service is introducing responsive mobile display ads that automatically adjust to a phone’s screen size and that live in the square space housing album art. The format, which also applies to images that accompany audio ads and first impression takeover ads, is a move away from pop-up ads. A second major update for the app is the introduction of muted video ads, which will allow advertisers to serve promos within a responsive display unit that can be unmuted and watched in full-screen view.”

Other aspects of the redesigns go even farther to allow users some choice over the ads they see by allowing users to swipe right to dismiss ads. Anything that enhances the user experience is good news for book advertisers.

#streaming #pandora

 

MORE ON PANDORA TARGETING

AdExchanger has more on the new units in this interview with Pandora’s group product manager Eric Hoppe.

#streaming #pandora #data

 

IS IT OVER? DID FACEBOOK AND GOOGLE WIN?

No, but it can feel that way, especially after reading the New York Times piece that suggests Google and Facebook take up 85% of total US ad revenue. This article from April suddenly popped up in our feed this week with comments and criticism from The Motley Fool, AdWeek, IAB, Business Insider and more. As mammoth as the two platforms are, it’s unlikely that 85% number is accurate. And while book publishing is certainly not representative of the larger advertising market, it’s worth noting that Google and Facebook advertising products are nowhere near 85% of what we run at Verso.

#facebook #google

 

PINTEREST MEASURES REAL WORLD IMPACT OF PROMOTED PINS

Pinterest studied the effect of Promoted Pins on real-world store purchases:

“The study found that Promoted Pins drive 5-times more incremental in-store sales per impression when compared to other campaigns measured by Oracle Data Cloud, which include social media platforms as well as programmatic vendors and publisher websites, said Jon Kaplan, head of global sales at Pinterest.”

#pinterest #realworld

 

Photo (c) Martha Otis

Next to Now: Building Bridges / Moving Targets

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GEO-FENCING MOVING TARGETS

Geo-fencing can be a very effective mobile targeting tool. Now, that targeting option comes to the roving double-decker tourist buses that prowl the streets of major U.S. cities including New York, San Francisco, LA and Chicago. With the strong correlation between travelers and book buyers, targeting tourist buses could be a great way to target readers not just for travel-related titles, but for any title that gives particular insight into a city—whether it’s a celebrity biography that hits high points in key L.A. locations or a new edition of Bright Lights Big City on the streets of Manhattan.

#mobile #geotarget

 

2016 INTERNET TRENDS

Mary Meeker’s definitive Trends report is out for 2016. The main sections focus on the continued growth of mobile, especially in social channels, and the opportunities in transportation. Here are relevant highlights for book advertisers:

  • “Advertisers remain over-indexed to legacy media”: Mobile is solidly in place as the dominant format worldwide, but there’s still room for growth in ad spend versus hours spent on the device.
  • Online advertising efficacy: Problems and opportunities
  • Video ads that work are authentic, entertaining, in-context, and brief 
  • Some of the differences between Millennials and Generation Z: 2 screens vs. 5 screens; Curators v. Creators
  • The evolution of video: Live -> On Demand -> Semi-Live -> Real-Live
  • The rise of the new tools of engagement:  Lenses and filters 

 

#trends

 

BEYOND THE BANNER

The new LUMA presentation on the state of digital marketing is out (it’s a good week for definitive reports). Highlights:

  • The trend toward performance marketing (CPC, CPA) mitigates issues around ad blocking, bots, non-viewable ads
  • Value Exchange Programs are a win-win for advertisers and audiences. A good example is Pandora’s Sponsored Listening: early results have led to  >10% increase in brand awareness and 30% lift in purchase intent
  • 85% of incremental digital ad spend goes to either Facebook or Google
  • In order to make use of their significant first party data, telcos are eyeing ad tech companies for acquisitions. 

#marketing

 

FACEBOOK

Digiday reports that Facebook is expanding the walls of its walled garden:

“Last week alone, Facebook shut down its last pure programmatic ad exchange FBX, put the final nail in the LiveRail platform, and expanded its Facebook Audience Network, which is a closed platform.”

This means FB is taking its extensive and proprietary user data and serving ads beyond social. Bad news for independent ad tech, good news for advertisers.

#facebook #social

 

AUDIO MARKETING TOOLS

For marketers looking to create sound files in-house–whether as podcasts or to share across social media, startup Anchor is worth a look. Will it grow like Snapchat or vanish like Ello? ClickZ suggests the question is irrelevant:

“It doesn’t really matter if Anchor becomes a ghost town at some point in the future. As of right now, it’s the only platform that influential media figures and brands are using to drive audio interaction across channels. That should be reason enough to try it out and incorporate it into the mix of formats you use.”

#audio #social

 

VANITY FAIR

Vanity Fair is launching a new site—The Hive—dedicated to the intersection of business, politics and tech, and built for a digital first world. Digiday reports on the new site:

“What works brilliantly in the magazine is that sense of discovery, but that doesn’t really work on the web,” said Chris Mitchell, publisher and chief revenue officer of Vanity Fair. With the Hive, he said, “We get the halo of Vanity Fair, the built-in audience and SEO of Vanity Fair, but we also get to have it live in its own space, which is good for advertisers but also will be interesting to readers as well.”

#business

 

LISTEN UP: PEOPLE PREFER PODCAST ADS

AdWeek reports on a new comScore study that finds that people prefer podcast ads to all other types of digital ads:

“And not only do listeners not mind hearing them—they act on them. The study of 2,000 U.S. respondents ages 18 to 49 found that two-thirds of listeners have acted on ads they heard in a podcast either by researching a product or service or by actually purchasing something they first heard about in an episode.”

#podcasts

 

Photo (c) Martha Otis

Next to Now: The future is always unfinished

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THE RISE OF THE MICROINFLUENCERS

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

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

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

#targeting #instagram

 

NEW MEDIA TARGETING

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

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

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

#video #targeting

 

EXPERIMENTS IN OUTDOOR

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

#outdoor

 

YOUTUBE MOBILE

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

#mobile #video #youtube

 

ADBLOCKOPLYPSE NBD

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

#adblocking

 

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