Tag Archives: periscope

Next to Now: The Road Ahead Edition

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Does the road ahead look clear or is that just snow blindness from last weekend’s blizzard? This week we read about Facebook’s entry into live streaming, strategic shifts at Quartz, and new ways to target sports and gaming enthusiasts.

 

FACEBOOK JUMPS IN & PERISCOPE BETTER WATCH OUT

Facebook enters the live stream business: “The social network today announced it has expanded Live Video access beyond celebrities, verified users and journalists to any U.S. user with an iPhone.”

#streaming #facebook #social #video

 

INTENT TARGETING BEATS DEMO TARGETING, SAYS GOOGLE

Of course, they’re saying this because it boosts their ad model. But here are the facts Google lays out in their argument for intent targeting:

  • Only 31% of searchers for video games online are men aged 18-34. So if you want video game users and buyers and use only demographic targeting to find them, you’re missing 69% of the target audience
  • 45% of mobile searches for home improvement were made by women. So if you only targeted men for your home improvement book, you’d miss 45% of the market.

#intent #demographics #targeting

 

YOUTUBE A GREAT SOURCE FOR GAMERS

Another Google article (so, take it with a grain of salt), but YouTube is undeniably a great way to reach gamers, and the gamer audience is a good way to find entertainment enthusiasts for fantasy, science fiction, action-oriented YA, and thrillers. Some takeaways:

  • 40% of YouTube Gamers say they bought something because of a video they saw online
  • Of all the places to watch video online, YouTube remains the #1 site for gamer video
  • 88% of YouTube gamers give product recommendationos in Media & Entertainment category (a category that includes books, although it’s presumably far, far outshadowed by games and movies)

#gamers #video #youtube

 

FACEBOOK TARGETING EXPANDS BEYOND APPS

Facebook is taking its mobile network beyond the in-app ads it’s run so far–now including mobile display and native content. This makes sense:

“As popular as apps are, mobile Web browsing isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. According to a comScore report last year, digital media consumption in mobile Web browsers increased 53 percent from 2013 to 2015. Between 35 percent and 40 percent of traffic to news sites comes from mobile devices, with 93 percent of mobile audiences coming from the mobile Web.”

#facebook #mobile #targeting

 

WE INTERRUPT THIS AD-RELATED READING TO PRESENT AN AUTHOR’S POV

Chuck Wendig has some things to share with you if you’re thinking of publishing your book. Two that related to marketing:

“Said it before, will scream it again and again at the asylum walls until my spit-forth soaks the padding — social media will sell tens or hundreds of books, but not thousands. Social media is good for getting the word out! Social media is good for earnestly talking about your book. Social media is not a good long-term sales channel.”

and:

“The more money spent on your book means the more money gets spent on your book. This is both sensible and weird. Sensible because investments must be protected, and sometimes you protect an investment by adding money to it. Weird because, hey, why does Coca-Cola advertise? Do they need it? Is there anybody in the world who doesn’t know that Coke exists? But even Coca-Cola must remind the world of its presence (and if I recall, Coke’s sales are down, too).”

#marketing #social #advertising

 

HOW TO ADVERTISE TO THE SUPER BOWL AUDIENCE WITHOUT A MILLION BUCKS

In their effort to get advertisers thinking of YouTube as a viable, affordable alternative to Super Bowl advertising, Google makes good points about ways to advertise to this audience if you don’t have five million to blow on thirty seconds of air: find content the demo likes, advertise earlier at key moments (the draft, opening day, crucial regular season games, etc), and don’t forget that this game is relevant to other categories than sports, including tail-gate worthy food, music, video games and more.

Here’s a link to key moments in the course of the season. 

#youtube #targeting #sports

 

QUARTZ SHINES, SHIFTS, GROWS

From a Nieman Lab interview with Quartz publisher Jay Lauf:

  • 42% of revenue from mobile
  • Despite the strength in mobile, the introduction of mobile ad blockers haven’t presented a problem (this makes sense given the nature of the site and the style of ads)
  • After famously launching as a site only, Quartz is now introducing an app. They’re doing this primarily because they want in on the app notification game

Quartz remains a great platform for reaching smart, tech-savvy, business-oriented readers. They’re a smart choice for a business or cultural trend book.

#quartz #business

Next to Now: News for January Edition

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POLITICAL HEAT BRINGS VIEWS TO THE HILL

For the coming round of political books, take note of this stat from AdWeek: “The election cycle is already paying off for The Hill. According to comScore’s December 2015 numbers, the politics site garnered nearly 10.6 million visitors, a 175 percent year-over-year increase.”

#politics

 

BRINGING ADS TO MESSAGING

It’s one of the continuing questions: as mobile messaging grows by leaps and bounds (even putting the fear of god into Facebook), how will advertisers reach users on these new platforms in a compelling way that’s authentic to the experience. Kik continues to innovate in this direction.

#messaging #adtech

 

A WORD BUSINESS IN AN IMAGE-FIRST WORLD

AdWeek looks at Merriam-Webster’s experiments with the new visual-first social network Peach. Will this one stick, or go the way of Ello? Either way, this is an interesting read for all of us in the word business.  

#social #visual #peach

 

MOBILE APPS VS. MOBILE BROWSER

According to Dec 2015 research cited by eMarketer, mobile users are as likely to prefer using a mobile app as a mobile browser.  In the “app versus browser” debate, one conclusion remains: That depends. 

#mobile #apps #browsers #targeting

 

CJR DOES A DEEP-DIVE INTO RADIO’S REINVENTION

In an article that focuses on WNYC, Columbia Journalism Review looks into the ways that radio brands are trying to avoid the pitfalls that print journalism has fallen into by vigorously working to reinvent themselves for digital transformation. It’s a hopeful story.   

#radio #podcasts #journalism

 

SNAPCHAT KEEPS UP THE PRESSURE

Snapchat enters 2016 just as they left 2015: talking about new ad products, better targeting, more opportunities.

#snapchat #social #targeting

 

PERISCOPE NOW AUTOPLAYING IN TWITTER APP

This is good news for getting your Periscope campaigns discovered in realtime.

#periscope #twitter #streaming

 

THE CASE FOR PRINT ADVERTISING

The continuing case for print advertising: it’s an oldie but a goodie, especially for book publishers: “The Ten Advantages of Advertising Books in Print Media” from Book Business magazine (via Digital Book World)

#print

 

PINTEREST: THUMBS UP OR DOWN?

A long-read from Business Insider about the prospects of Pinterest: ranging from what they’re doing right (audience engagement) to what they’re doing wrong (sales, basically). Mid-way through is a fact that should make publishers of Etsy-friendly books (lifestyle, crafting, food) pay attention, “It drives nearly as much traffic to the online marketplace Etsy as Facebook does.”

#pinterest #lifestyle

 

WHAT THE SUCCESS OF NATIVE ADVERTISING SAYS ABOUT CONTEXT

Digiday has a story about the success Time Out is seeing with their native ads. Implicit throughout is the importance of context for advertising. In the rush to programmatic targeting, context has been sold short the last few years. With the rise of native options, context is back.

#native #contextual

 

“LEGACY” NEWS IS CATCHING UP TO THE FUTURE

Conde Nast, Heart, The New York Times, The Washington Post and more “legacy” brands are getting their digital growth up to the speed of digital specialists like BuzzFeed. How? Bloomberg Media global head of digital, M. Scott Havens, says,

“If you’re doing what the startups are doing and you have the brand equity and resources to build and hire, I’m not shocked at all how well some of the older guys are doing.”

#legacy #digital

 

2016 DISPLAY AD SPENDING TO EXCEED SEARCH

The first truly successful ad model on the Web was search, but as people increasingly turn toward mobile, display ad spending is beginning to catch up.

#display #search #adspending

New Year New Next to Now

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LONGER TWEETS: THUMBS UP OR DOWN?

The 140 character limit has been a defining feature of Twitter from the beginning—so it’s no surprise that the announcement that the company plans to extend that limit to as many as 10,000 characters has inspired mostly shrugs and scowls from users. AdWeek outlines six ways longer Tweets could work for marketers—most of which seem both obvious and missing the point. But regardless how the new limit plays out, marketers would be well-advised to continue to keep the message as short as possible.

#twitter #marketing #content

 

MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR CRM DATA

One third of current CMOs say they use CRM data in advertising to improve insights about their customers. This article in eMarketer advocates using CRM data in ads—both to improve your ad targeting, and to learn more about your most devoted customers. In an interesting side note, the same article quotes a University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth survey found that nearly half of top executives look to digital advertising to increase sales, while only 13% thought social media platforms would do the same.

#targeting #data

 

PERISCOPE UP FOR 2016

In this AdWeek Q&A, the CEO of Periscope talks about how marketers used the livestreaming division of Twitter in 2015 and what he’s looking for in 2016. There’s a lot of potential with Periscope for book publishers to experiment with author-reader interactions, book launches, and more. The traditional bookstore reading tour is a great way for authors to meet readers, but it’s hard to do well and profitably. Live streaming might be a more efficient way to get people talking.

#periscope #livestreaming #meetthereaders

 

ARE CARS THE NEXT MOBILE DEVICE?

Increasing connectivity within car operating systems is optimizing everything the mobile phone can do for the car experience. Combined with the in-roads being made by self-driving cars , this makes the future look bright for the audiobook market. Commuters  in self-driving cars will  be able to think about their entertainment options much more safely while on the road. But why wait for self-driving cars? These developments are already making it easier to target readers while they’re driving:

“In 2014, Pandora began selling in-car ads to marketers separately from its Web and mobile app promos (as well as combination packages). Pandora asserts that its audio ads are getting better marketing results compared to other digital promos.”

It’s a great new way to reach commuters that goes beyond the mass transit options we’ve had success with for years.

#cars #audiobooks #mobile #streaming

 

UNDERSTANDING THE FACEBOOK ALGORITHM

This Slate article does a deep-dive into the team that builds the newsfeed we see in Facebook—and along the way has a lot to say about machine-learning, AI, human curation, and how hard it is to make accurate predictions.

#data #facebook

 

“GEEK CULTURE AT A MASSIVE SCALE”

Imgur’s audience—millennial men in the U.S.—is typically one that shuns advertising, but surprisingly they’ve embraced ads on the platform. Wondering who exactly you’d be advertising to? Imgur’s VP of Marketing describes the platform’s most common user:

“These aren’t necessarily people who are really excited and into sports, or golf, or boating. These are people who are into video games, science, technology, movies, and internet culture in general. As you know, that’s becoming mainstream. What used to be seen as being on the fringe is now becoming incredibly popular. So whether it’s that video games now make more money than movies, or if you look at all the recent blockbusters and how they’re all populated with movies about science fiction, fantasy, dinosaurs, superheroes — and now we have Dr Who merchandise on sale at Target, which years ago would have been unheard of.”

Sounds like something publishers of fantasy, SciFi and a certain style of thriller should be aware of.

#millennials #men #scifi #imgur

 

Next to Now: Winter Solstice Edition

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Our last post before the end of 2016 is a meaty one.

 

WHAT BROUGHT WATERSTONE’S BACK FROM THE BRINK?

A great—and optimistic!—article in Slate about how the future of chain bookstores might be shifting, with a focus on the refurbished Waterstone’s.

#bookstores

 

DESKTOP EMAIL OPEN RATES STILL HIGHER, BUT DECLINING

According to eMarketer, more and more customers—B2B and B2C—are opening emails on mobile devices. So we need to design for that.

“According to the Q2 2015 data, 48% of all emails sent by Experian clients were opened on desktop devices and 40% of emails were opened on mobile phones and ereaders. Some 12% were opened on tablets.”

#email

 

THE RETURN OF “MAILKIMP”

The second season of Serial means a new round of ads for MailChimp. The ad creative from the first season had Serial listeners eager for the new round of ads (when does *that* happen?), the other two advertisers saw mixed results:

“On Twitter, MailChimp saw an 81 percent spike in mentions from Dec. 9 (the day before the premiere) to Dec. 10. Audible had a 19 percent increase, and mentions for Squarespace actually decreased.”

#podcasts

 

THE WASHINGTON POST MAKES DIGITAL PROGRESS

Ad Age reports that the investment of time and energy is starting to bear fruit for Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post. Two months after garnering more uniques in a month than the New York Times for the first time ever, the Washington Post is beginning to debut new native advertising units. They are undoubtedly beyond the budgets of book publishers at the moment, but worth watching to see what we might be able to use downstream.

#adtech

 

AGAINST IDENTITY

A new study (sponsored by Google, of course, so caveat emptor) suggests that targeting by intent is more effective than targeting by user profile:

“Researchers found that the people actually doing the searching aren’t always who marketers think they are. One example: video games. According to research conducted during the first half of this year, the majority of video-game shoppers are not millennial men. In fact, only 31 percent of mobile users searching for video games were men ages 18 to 24. The target market gets smaller when looking at YouTube demographics, which found that only 29 percent of searches came from men in that age group.”

The article goes on to suggest that this doesn’t mean we should throw demographic information out altogether, but it’s a useful reminder that demographic profiles are not the sum total of anyone.  

#adtech #targeting

 

THE MYTH OF THE EVERYREADER

In a guest post on Jane Friedman’s blog, Rebecca Faith Heyman does us the service of pointing out the benefits of targeting and reminding us that even the biggest “cross-over” titles of recent years (John Green, Suzanne Collins, J. K. Rowling) were written with very specific audiences in mind. Everything started with knowing the audience, and built from there.

(Via Digital Book World Daily)

#targeting

 

WHY BOOMERS MATTER

Advertising spends a lot of energy studying the habits of millennials, and as intent readers of advertising news we link to more articles about millennials than any other generation. But it’s worth underlining that boomers are the biggest market for book buyers and should earn an equivalent share of our marketing attention. An article on HubSpot reveals the larger buying power of the Boomer generation in 25 marketing stats. Including the following:

  • Baby boomers spend the most across all product categories but are targeted by just 5-10% of marketing. (Source)
  • 70% of the disposable income in the U.S. is controlled by baby boomers.(Source)
  • Boomers outspend younger adults online 2:1 on a per-capita basis, and they spend more than other generations by an estimated $400 billion a year.

#boomers #demographics

 

PINTEREST LIMITING AD FOCUS

This article in WSJ reports that Pinterest is pulling back its focus on advertising for all but its top categories: retail and consumer goods.

#pinterest #social

 

INTEGRATION OF OUTDOOR AND REAL-TIME ADVERTISING

Canon’s outdoor campaign in NYC is a great example of using creative that shifts in real-time in the “real-life” environment of outdoor. We love this blend of digital capabilities with physical space.  

#outdoor #digital #creative

 

TOP BRANDS EXPERIMENTING WITH PERISCOPE

The movement of corporate marketing attention to Twitter’s Periscope is coming at the expense of Twitter’s Vine (not to mention Meerkat).

#social #streaming

 

ANOTHER BILLIONAIRE DIGITAL GENIUS INVESTS IN PRINT

Alibaba’s Jack Ma buys the South China Morning Post post: another sign (pace Bezos purchasing the Washington Post) that traditional journalism with a healthy mix of significant print presence and fleet digital platforms is seen as valuable by many of the most forward-thinking minds in business.

#print