Tag Archives: pandora

Next to Now: December 9

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SELF SHUTTERS PRINT, GOES DIGITAL ONLY

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

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

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

#self #print

2017 LOOKS TO BE THE YEAR INSTAGRAM GAINS GROUND OVER TWITTER

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

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

#instagram #twitter #social

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

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

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

#snapchat

SNAPCHAT INNOVATIONS

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

#snapchat

NATIVE ADVERTISING TILTS TOWARD SOCIAL

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

#native

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

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

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

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

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

#facebook #video

TOP APPS

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

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

#music #pandora #apps

Next to Now for September 23

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THE FT: “HOW THE MAD MEN LOST THE PLOT”

In the FT, ad strategist Ian Leslie goes to battle with the notion that legacy media is dead and digital hypertargeting is the savior. Leslie cites the study that showed Pepsi’s decision to forego traditional advertising for a social media campaign delivered a large number of clicks and comments but very few sales. The FT goes on to talk about Byron Sharp’s provocative book, HOW BRANDS GROW:

“Sharp’s first law is that brands can’t get bigger on the back of loyal customers. Applying a statistical analysis to sales data, he demonstrates that the majority of any successful brand’s sales comes from “light buyers”: people who buy it relatively infrequently. Coca-Cola’s business is not built on a hardcore of Coke lovers who drink it daily, but on the millions of people who buy it once or twice a year. You, for instance, may not think of yourself as a Coke buyer, but if you’ve bought it once in the last 12 months, you’re actually a typical Coke consumer. This pattern recurs across brands, categories, countries and time. Whether it’s toothpaste or computers, French cars or Australian banks, brands depend on large numbers of people — that’s to say, the masses — who buy them only occasionally, leave long gaps between purchases and buy competing brands in
between.”

Not many book publishers have enough followers to employ retargeting, but for those that do, this article is worth reading to consider if retargeting is the best use of your limited marketing dollars. While all good marketing starts with the core audience, if you want to turn a predictably solid-selling book into a blockbuster, you need to reach beyond passionate, existing fans to a wider potential readership.

#retargeting #oldschool #mass

 

“ONLY DEAD FISH” REANIMATES THE ZOMBIE PLOT

On his blog, Only Dead Fish, Neil Perkin picks up Ian Leslie’s thread and runs with it in his commentary on a “Google Firestarter” event in London, along with reports on talks by Tom Goodwin and Tracey Follows. Worth a read for a dose of what advertising strategists are thinking these days: invisibility, authenticity, and bio-integration.

#onlydeadfish #googlefirestarter

 

PANDORA INTRODUCES NEW SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

In an announcement that included improvements to their paid model, Pandora also announced changes to their ad supported model: with opportunities for brands to sponsor more playbacks and skips. Pandora continues to lead in the business of offering listeners value in exchange for their attention. They have proved a strong partner for book advertising in the past, and this announcement makes it clear that they intend to stay that way in the future.

#pandora #streaming

 

ADIDAS SAYS SNAPCHAT USER ENGAGEMENT IS “INSANE”

Adidas has seen much more engagement from their Snapchat videos than they have from YouTube. Here’s Business Insider with more details about what’s working for them on Snapchat, from experiments with Stories to Geofilters.

#snapchat #sports

 

ARE VIDEO ADS WORTH IT?

New surveys from various video measurement companies—including Nielsen and Limelight—suggest that 52% of U.S. users skip pre-roll whenever possible, and a majority do not like video ads at all. In fact, nearly 27% of users surveyed in the U.S., Australia, UK and Canada say that without an option to skip pre-roll they’d abandon the video they’d wanted to watch. So, while video engagement remains strong, it may be that paid ad resources are better put to other outlets.

#video

 

FACEBOOK ADMITS TO INFLATING VIDEO METRICS

So if pre-roll isn’t the answer to getting people to watch your video, is Facebook? While the social network has touted itself as the premier advertising platform for video, Facebook recently revealed that it has inflated its users’ average time spent watching video for the past two years. Here’s CNET on the controversy. 

 

#facebook #video #metrics

 

TEENS ALL IN WITH YOUTUBE

A new poll from the National Cyber Security Alliance and Microsoft suggests that many more teens use Gmail than use social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat—and even more (91%!) use YouTube. Here’s the link to eMarketer’s story about the findings.

#teens #youtube #social

 

Photo (c) 2016 Martha Otis: A view from the Park during the fall PAMA event sponsored by Goodreads, and hosted by PAMA president Christian Toth

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: “Fall Back” Edition

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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