Tag Archives: Snapchat

Next to Now for July 21

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PREMIUM WEBSITE ADS PERFORM BETTER

A new study from ComScore underlines that ads on premium websites—such as the New York Times, WSJ, and various imprints of Condé Nast and Hearst media—deliver better results than ads on non-premium websites. From the Wall Street Journal article on this report:

“The study, which comScore said analyzed the ad campaigns of 15 large brands across a number of advertiser categories, concluded that ads placed on DCN sites were 67% more effective than non-DCN sites. According to comScore, that difference confirmed that ‘premium sites deliver premium performance.’

“The study also found that premium publisher sites were more effective in driving so-called ‘mid-funnel brand metrics,’ which measure consumer attitudes including favorability, consideration and intent to recommend.

“’The primary driver of this increased effectiveness is the halo effect that comes from the value of the contextual environment in which these ads are seen,” the report concluded. Basically, ads perform better when they appear alongside high-quality content.”

This is a value-proposition inherent in the way ads on premium websites are priced—with CPMs often 2-3x as expensive as non-premium sites—and matches with results we see at Verso. But it’s good to have more data backing up our observations.

Here’s a link to more detail from report from AdWeek. And here’s Niemen Lab’s take on the same study. 

#targeting #data #performance #ripepeachestastebest

 

GOOGLE ADDS NATIVE TO PROGRAMMATIC TOOLS

Google announced that it now can deliver native ads programmatically. The best performing native ads are those that are crafted in the unique voice of a particular website, and that ability is still beyond the reach of Google’s system. But adjusting headline and copy to each website’s particular style is a decent, and more affordable second option.

#native #programmatic #google #everypeachisdifferent

 

PRIME DAY BEYOND AMAZON

Amazon’s Prime Day was discussed (and dissed) as an expression of the company’s power, which it was . . . But that doesn’t mean the news was all bad for smaller retailers who took advantage of the “deal hunting” in the communal air to up their own business. In a study of last year’s Prime Day, BloomReach found that traffic to other retailers was up 21% and conversion improved by an average of 57% as a result of Prime Day. It’s a form of the real estate adage, “location location location.” Put your business where the action is, and use the wind as it is (even if you don’t like the source of the hot air) to power your boat.

#primeday #amazon #local #localpeaches

 

SPONSORED LOCATIONS IN POKEMON GO

You knew this was coming, right? Pokemon Go is introducing “Sponsored Locations,” a new revenue stream for Niantic, the maker of the app, and a good idea for marketers, especially if they’re a bricks and mortar retail store . . . or a company that sells its products there.

#pokemongo #geotargeting #peacheeoto

 

THE END OF LANDSCAPE VIDEO?

After Snapchat has declared the rise of vertical video, a new report suggests square video is not only the format needed for Instagram, it’s also proving to be the best performing format for video on Facebook in several head-to-head tests:

“For the past several months, we have started shooting videos for square crop and posting videos in square crop,” said Jason Stein, founder and CEO of Laundry Service. “We are doing this because in executing the media buys for these videos, we found that view-through rate and engagement rate are much higher on square than landscape videos. This is likely due to the larger amount of real estate that a square video gets in feed.”

#video #creative #uprightpeaches

 

CROWDSOURCED AD DELIVERY

A new company called Wrapify is allowing any car owner to let their car become a trackable, digitally connected, moving billboard. Spotify and PetCo are advertisers who have tested the technology for their own products. Here’s a link to the AdWeek story.

#digital #outdoor #peachesforeveryone

 

Photo: Peaches from Union Sq Greenmarket (c) 2016 Martha Otis

Next to Now for July 7

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SNAPCHAT MATURES

The Wall Street Journal reports that Snapchat is getting older—with 14% of US smartphone owners over 35 years old using the app. While they don’t use it with the same frequency and velocity we see with teenage users, the aging of the user population is a sure sign that the platform is going to give bigger rivals such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter a run for their money.

#snapchat #social

 

SNAPCHAT GAINS MEMORIES

As part of that maturing process, Snapchat introduced “Memories”—a way to save your own Snapchats for future sharing.

#snapchat

 

ADS ARE DEAD (LONG LIVE ADVERTISING!)

On Digiday, Copyranter asks the question “Does advertising even work anymore?” Then answers it: No! Then qualifies: Kind of. Then flips back to “No!” Then shows you how to sell to advertising-averse Millennials. See what he did there?

#advertising #millennials

 

GOOGLE HONES ITS TARGETING DATA

With their new “My Activity” page, Google is bringing together what they know about users from Search, Mobile, Browsing and more. This has everything to do with the advertising data wars and their fight with Facebook for supremacy.

#google #data #targeting

 

THE NEWS OF TUMBLR’S DEATH IS GREATLY EXAGERRATED

The New Republic does a deep dive into Tumblr that shows how the platform remains vital for teens (and, thus, vital for YA marketing strategy).

#tumblr #teens #ya

 

LOCATION-BASED ADVERTISING GETS AN UPGRADE

The Village Voice looks at whether or not the new LINK NYC systems are good for the city. For sure, they’re good for advertisers in general and Google in particular. Data collected at the kiosks from browsing history will tell advertiser a lot about the demographic profile of the outdoor audience and make for the best targeting we’ve seen from outdoor advertising yet. As consumers though (and we *are* citizens as well as advertisers), it’s worth remembering the internet adage: “If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.” And it’s worth thinking through the “devil’s advocate” position on ad targeting if we’re to do our jobs as advertisers and citizens equally well.

#outdoor #google #targeting

 

photo (c) Martha Otis

 

Next to Now: Independence Day

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DO MEDIA BRANDS EVEN MATTER ANYMORE?

Columbia Journalism Review asks the question at the heart of advertising: In a world where information is coming at you from all sides, does it matter who says what and where? According to  study by CJR and the George T. Delacorte Center for Magazine Journalism, yes it does matter:

“Readers are less likely to trust a longform story that appears to have run on BuzzFeed than the same article on The New Yorker’s website.”

While CJR is focused on journalism, the implications are clear for contextual advertising as well: it matters where information is coming from. While it’s true that some study members did not notice the media brand—a growing phenomenon captured by the Reuter’s 2016 Digital News Report—those that did notice  tended to be older and better read. That is, a better match for the core hardcover book buying audience.

#media #brands

 

LINKEDIN OPENS TO PROGRAMMATIC EXCHANGES

LinkedIn announced that it is opening its advertising to open exchanges to deliver increased banner impressions on the network. This is good news for anyone wanting to target the LinkedIn audience with a business or self-improvement book, especially those who do not have the budgets to take advantage of LinkedIn’s sponsored content opportunities.

#linkedin #business #programmatic

 

SNAPCHAT DROPS AD MINIMUMS

The minimum buy for a Snapchat campaign is reportedly dropping from $750,000 to $100,000. Book advertisers are likely to be waiting for another round or two before buying ads through the platform’s API. That said, there are co-branded Snapchat opportunities with such partners as People magazine that are workable for bigger book-size budgets. Contact your Verso account executive to learn more.

#snapchat #social

 

THE LIMITS OF ALGORITHMS

Facebook announces a new service that curates local events as selected by a team of people, not algorithms. This is good news for Facebook users (and other humans), but less good news for local media players such as Time Out:

“The product is launching in 10 U.S. cities: Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. The curated program appears to take on local publishers such as Time Out New York and the Village Voice as well as mobile apps like Eventbrite, Like a Local, Scout and Field Trip.”

#facebook #local #human

 

FOOD PORN MOVES TO SNAPCHAT

AdWeek reports that many of the most popular foodie brands on Instagram are moving to Snapchat. 

“‘As Instagram has really slowed down the last four months or so, you can just see what’s happened on that platform and it’s obviously changing a lot,’ said Andrew Steinthal, co-founder of The Infatuation, a restaurant review site that’s heavily leaned on Instagram to build a following since launching in 2009.

‘Our entire audience is on Snapchat now—it’s the most reactive social network that we have. You can just see the impact on Snapchat and feel it right away right now. People are so deep into Snapchat and reacting to it.'”

While Snapchat requires more hands-on engagement from brands, it’s precisely that hands-on quality that makes it an effective platform.

#food #snapchat #instagram

 

FOX NEWS DELIVERS FACEBOOK ENGAGEMENT

For years, the highly engaged Fox News audience has made the site one of our best performers with digital ads. Readers on the site are hungry not only for news and information you’d expect, but also for high quality commercial fiction, especially thrillers. While Fox News is not the biggest media property, this engagement is translating to superlative response from the brand’s audience on Facebook:

“Fox News had nearly 120 million likes, shares and comments on its page in the first six months of the year, well ahead of digital natives including No. 2 NowThis (80 million interactions) and The Huffington Post (61 million). Mark Zuckerberg himself recently cited Fox News in defending Facebook against charges that it’s politically liberal, saying Fox ‘drives more interactions on its Facebook page than any other news outlet in the world. It’s not even close.’”

As the digital landscape evolves, Fox News continues to draw a passionate, curious audience that loves books. Click here to read the Digiday article. 

#foxnews #targeting #facebook

 

HOLD THE VIDEO

Columbia Journalism Review reports that social media’s influence on news consumption is growing. While there are more and more social conversations around news topics, the fact that the conversations are taking place on social networks means that Facebook and Twitter are becoming more dominant as brands for news and traditional brands such as The New York Times and The Guardian are  beginning to lose some of their traction with readers. One surprising bit of information from the study was the continuing importance of text to news consumers despite the rise of video:

“Platforms and publishers alike have been pouring money into video sharing, such as Facebook Live. One Facebook executive even predicted last week that in the next five years video will replace the written word. But the report suggests that many news consumers are resistant to watching video because it is faster to read an article, and because of the ads that often precede videos.”

http://www.cjr.org/analysis/reuters_report.php

#social #video

 

Photo (c) Martha Otis

Next to Now: Welcoming in Summer with New Targeting, Better Engagement, & Mergers that Matter

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TWITTER INTRODUCES EMOJI TARGETING

Adweek announces that Twitter is set to allow advertisers to target by emoji. From showing a travel book to users of the airplane emoji to a soccer book to users of the soccer ball emoji, there are endless ways to put this new targeting to work for your title.

#twitter #emoji #targeting

 

HIGHER ENGAGEMENT WITH ARTICLE-EMBEDDED VIDEO

A new study using eye-tracking software suggests that video embedded in news articles has significantly higher levels of engagement than video viewed in social media. The report found that 50% of users scroll more in social media and cover more content, but engage less with any single piece of content.

#video #native

 

PODCAST LISTENERS: A SMALL BUT ENGAGED AUDIENCE

In a new study reported on eMarketer, only 21% of internet users said they listened to podcasts. But of those who had listened to a podcast in the last 6 months, 85% tune in at least once a month and 33% say they listen more than once a week. This is more evidence that podcast listeners are a highly engaged audience.

#podcasts

 

FACEBOOK SET TO TRAFFIC IN-STORE IMPACT OF ADS

Facebook is joining Google and Four Square with its plan to track in-store behavior of people who see ads on Facebook. This is potentially good news for real-world bookstores and we look forward to learning just how digital ads affect the in-store experience.

#facebook #instore

 

LINKEDIN PURCHASE MAKES MICROSOFT A BUSINESS COMMUNITY LEADER

The combination of LinkedIn’s social chops with Microsoft’s deep data-rich information about the tools used in most businesses means this merger could be good news for advertisers looking to reach the business community.

#business

 

THIRD PARTY ADS COME TO SNAPCHAT

Third party access usually mean technological assistance improves and minimum spends come down. So this is good news for advertisers looking to reach the Snapchat generation, but who don’t have the six figure budgets that have been the easiest way to promote stories. Here’s Adweek’s take on the Snapchat news. Here’s more on it from The Drum and from Bloomberg. 

#snapchat #social

 

LOOKING TO REACH ENTREPRENEURS?

A new partnership between iHeartRadio and WeWork promises to be a great way to reach entrepreneurs:

“According to WeWork CMO David Weiswasser, music has played an important role for WeWork during its history. The company already hosts a number of events each year centered around music, and in the past, it programmed its own streaming station and hosted a three-day event in the Adirondack Mountains featuring live bands for members. He said the iHeartMedia partnership is a chance to build in a way that’s both community- and member-driven.”

#business #radio #streaming #audio

 

CONTEXTUAL COMMERCE

Commerce is coming to a messenger app near you. Soon a conversation on Facebook Messenger about finally getting those “Hamilton” tickets could lead to an invitation to read the book that inspired the musical. You could then buy the book through one click, then go on chatting.

#contextual #targeting

 

photo (c) Martha Otis at Union Square Market

Next to Now: May 20, 2016

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WHITHER PODCASTS

This New York Times article explores how podcasts are expanding beyond Apple’s original vision, and asks what that means for the future of podcasts—especially in the face of real competition from the likes of Spotify and Amazon’s Audible. The market continues to expand:

“By last year, at least 46 million Americans listened to podcasts each month. This year, that number will reach 57 million, according to a survey by Edison Research.”

#podcasts #apple

 

WITHER VINE

Video darling Vine has seen a major decline as more than 50% of major influencers have left the platform. Facebook live is ascendant.

#vine #video #live

 

SILENT VIDEO

Video marketers pay heed: 85% of Facebook video is watched with the sound off. That should help with the audio line on the production budget at least.

#video #facebook

 

SIGNS THAT SNAPCHAT ADS ABOUT TO EXPAND

Digiday reports that Snapchat is developing a curatorial algorithm that will function to determine the content users “want” to see.  Whether or not this is good news for the users is an open question, but it undoubtedly means that Snapchat is developing new advertising projects. None of this is a surprise.

#snapchat

 

Next to Now: The Music of Advertising Edition

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DOES PODCASTING SELL?

Podcasts don’t provide traditional reporting for ads, but a recent study suggests that it does sell products (well, underwear anyway). Mack Weldon reports that doubling-down on humorous podcasts has doubled their sales. According to Digiday:

“Podcast advertising now represents 25 percent of Mack Weldon’s overall ad budget per month, 100 times more than a year ago. The medium has become more effective than display ads for the company, because when people listen to podcasts, they are fully engaged and they can continue listening while making a purchase.”

#podcasts

 

THE UPSIDE OF BEING POSITIVE ON FACEBOOK

Huffington Post has found that “feel-good” videos far out-perform hard news stories on Facebook. Of course, this tells you more about what the Huffington Post audience is looking for than other audiences. But it’s worth keeping in mind.

#facebook

 

SNAPCHAT BILLBOARDS

The hot social platform that’s about as digital and evanescent as they come recognizes the power of an old-school, well-placed billboard in real space. A new Snapchat billboard campaign manages to go both mass and hyper-local at the same time. Well played.

#snapchat #billboards

 

SPOTIFY UPS ITS MOBILE AD GAME

The music streaming service is popular with listeners but has under-performed Pandora for Verso clients. We’re glad to see they’re paying more attention to their mobile ad product, and look forward to trying it out:

“Starting today, the music streaming service is bringing Billboard—one of its most popular desktop ad formats—to mobile. The feature, dubbed Overlay Mobile, lets advertisers buy display ads for both iOS and Android mobile devices. It serves as the “Welcome Back” ad, and only plays when a user has the screen open, which Spotify says provides 100 percent viewability.”

#spotify #music #mobile

 

INSTAGRAM TOPS FOR MUSIC FANS

In a new Instagram-commissioned study (worth noting, not neutral), Nielsen found that Instagram was the buzziest social network for the most avid music fans:

“According to a new Instagram-commissioned study by Nielsen of more than 3,000 self-described Instagram users, the photo- and video-sharing platform is the most-used social network for music fans, festival attendees and artists during live events. The study also provides insight into what fans like, listen to and buy.”

Worth thinking about for the next music book.

#music #instagram

 

TEENS VOTE UP WISHBONE

Ad Age reports on the new tap-to-vote app, Wishbone, that’s proving a hit with teens, and inspiring creative engagement from brands who want to reach them–in both content and paid advertising plays.

#teens #wishbone

 

THE NEXT BIG THING

Salesforce CEO Scott McCorkle makes the case for “layered marketing”—marketing across different platforms and media, playing to each one’s strength—with an essay in Ad Age that points out how the wonders of the next big thing do not necessarily mean the death of what came before.

#layeredmarketing

Next to Now: Trying to Chart New Oceans of Data & More

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PODCASTS CONTINUE TO GROW

Digiday has an interesting article about the evolution of podcasts and the need for improved measurement. Measurement is still not there yet—even the link within the article to NPR’s proposed measurement guidelines is broken. But we expect it to happen. Fun fact from this article: NPR is working on a podcast that’s like RadioLab, but for the Supreme Court.

#podcast

 

PODCASTS GOING NATIVE?

While news and sports podcasts still dominate the top 10 most popular podcasts in the iTunes store, fashion bloggers are discovering the effectiveness of the podcast platform, and are expanding the ways sponsored content is integrated into popular podcasts.

#podcasts #native #fashion

 

BUZZFEED BETS BIG

Digiday writes about the strengths and challenges of the modern-day master of the cat video, Buzzfeed:

“BuzzFeed has mastered the art of distributed publishing, using platforms like Facebook, Snapchat and others to amass massive audience attention. The publisher boasts a mind-boggling 5 billion views per month of its articles and videos, spread out across 30 platforms, from Facebook to Pinterest to Snapchat. In a month it does 3 billion video views, less than 5 percent of which are on BuzzFeed.com. The bet is simple: publish content where people are, rather than forcing them to come to you.”

They’re the player to beat in this space, but wake us up when their minimum spend dips below six figures.

#native #buzzfeed

 

POP SUGAR MOVING AWAY FROM BANNER ADS

Pop Sugar’s Brian Sugar is going all in with native and affiliate marketing.   

#mobile #native

 

VIDEO DIDN’T KILL THE RADIO STAR, AND TABLETS HAVEN’T KILLED THE EREADER

eMarketer notes that eReaders continue to sell, especially with the 65+ age demo.

#ereaders #devices

 

BILLBOARDS ARE WATCHING YOU

As advertisers we have watched the continual evolution of billboards as they develop digital chops not just to display creative, but also to target users in their vicinity through geo-fencing app networks. Now, a New York Times article notes that billboards technology is able to track user information beyond mere app targeting to give you demographic information about foot traffic that is encountering your out-of-home ad.

Business Insider follows up with an article that goes into the objections and fears about this kind of tracking.

#billboards #digital #outdoor

 

SNAPCHAT EXPANDS AUDIENCE INFORMATION

New deals with Nielsen and Sizmek are allowing Snapchat to learn more about ad performance and audience measurement.

#snapchat #audience #data #targeting

 

Next to Now: New Shifts in Ad Ecosystems

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As our preparations for this year’s Digital Book World shift into high gear (including the Master Class in paid advertising and the panel on the book buyer’s journey), there is an abundance of ad news to take in. Below is a sampling of what we’ve been reading this week.
WHY IS THIS PAGE TAKING SO LONG TO LOAD?

In an article about how Google’s new AMP system works, AdAge connects to very clear graphics that show clearly how the complexity of ad exchanges and analytics tracking slows down load times—and how AMP fixes that.  

“When compared to traditional mobile websites, AMP pages load 85% faster, Google says.

‘The New York Times itself is running very fast,’ Ghostery CEO and founder Scott Meyer said regarding the desktop version of the site. ‘But once you get beyond the Times, and into the far reaches of the ad exchanges, a lot of those companies are going to be slow to load and there will be an impact on user experience.’

AMP is a response to similar but proprietary platforms like Facebook Instant Articles and Apple News. Unlike those, however, AMP is open source, meaning anyone can use it.”

It’s worth a click through to see the dynamic images, but here is a screenshot of the desktop ecosystem for a NYTimes.com story:

desktop_ecosystem

Here’s a shot of the mobile ecosystem:

mobile_ecosystem

And here’s a shot of the new AMP ecosystem for the same story:

AMP_ecosystem

#tracking #AMP

 

REDEFINING WHAT WE MEAN BY MOBILE CAMPAIGN 

AdAge has a fascinating article about the latest big brand thinking around mobile advertising. Long story short: It’s not about the campaign.

“The perfect mobile campaign isn’t a campaign,” said Carl Norberg, founder and chief experience officer of mobile-focused shop Monterosa/BBH Stockholm, which has created initiatives for clients such as Volvo, Justin Bieber, Google, Axe and others. “It’s a brand extension where marketing comes baked into the product.” While great TV is storytelling, great mobile is about “storydoing,” he said. “Instead of us telling the story, we hand over an app to let the consumer become an active part of the brand’s tale.”

While the takeaways for book publishing’s fleet of individual, smaller scale products is not great; it’s important to remember that “mobile” isn’t a platform any more. It’s how most people scan email, check Facebook, Tweet, research restaurants, and even (in some cases) read books.

#mobile

 

WHY HOLLYWOOD LOVES BILLBOARDS

The New Yorker has an interesting article on the “For your consideration” billboards that use a mass medium to reach a very targeted audience. Why do they use a mass medium when the target is so specific? Because they work in a couple different ways:

  1. The high concentration of  Oscar nominators in a few specific locations
  2. To show the wider audience that this might be a film worth seeing.  

#mass #targeting #billboards

 

PINTEREST BEST PRACTICES

Kirsten Oliphant has a good piece up on Jane Friedman’s blog about best practices for authors on Pinterest. It’s an especially good platform for lifestyle and cooking, and worth a read.

#pinterest

 

FOURSQUARE CONNECTS DIGITAL ADS WITH FOOT TRAFFIC

Foursquare announces that it can connect digital ads seen by Foursquare users with foot traffic in stores. Testing has already begun:

“Flipboard recently used the system to measure a campaign that it ran for an undisclosed retailer and found that the digital ads drove a 12 percent incremental lift in visits to the retailer’s locations within a week.”

Connecting the digital ad space to real world traffic is vital to understanding how our ads work with the people who see them. It will be exciting to see how this new product develops. In a followup article, Adweek mentions other players in this space. The interest in this is only growing.

#digital #instore

 

MAKE YOUR OWN SNAPCHAT FILTERS!

Marketers and party planners alike will be happy to hear of Snapchat’s new rollout of make-your-own geofilters for the platform.

#snapchat

 

EXPERIMENTS IN SNAPCHAT MARKETING

Dominos has run some successful experiments in marketing on the channel that marketers are scrambling to figure out to reach the post-Millennial generations

#snapchat

 

GOOGLE STUDY ON IN-STORE MOBILE USE

It’s not just show-rooming: a study from Google on in-store mobile use has a few key takeaways:

  1. Mobile is the new front door: Target found that 3/4ths of its customers start the customer journey on mobile
  2. Local search matters (for bookstores!): year to year growth in “Near to me” searches. A 2015 Google Consumer Survey found that 50% of consumers who conduct a local search on their smartphone visit a store within a day, and 18% of those searches lead to a purchase.3
  3. Ads that show local inventory drives users into the store (note, 3rd party servers such as Sizmer, a Verso partner, have this capability)
  4. In-store decision guide: 82% of shoppers say they’ve consulted their mobile phone while in store to make a purchase
  5. Omni-channel customers spend more: 250% more, according to MasterCard

#google #mobile #instore

 

INSTAGRAM CONTINUES DOUBLE-DIGIT GROWTH

eMarketer notes that, at this pace, more than a third of internet users will be on Instagram by 2017. The article includes projections for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr too.

#instagram

 

ADBLOCKERS ARE YOUNG AND MALE

There are 198 million ad block users worldwide. This infographic on Hubspot goes into detail about who are leading the charge, heavy into tech, gaming, sports and social. Not surprisingly it’s the young male demo. The older female demographic (core, avid readers) are the least likely to be using an ad blocker.

#adblocking #readers

 

PROS AND CONS OF PODCASTS

eMarketer talks to Digitas LBI Social Director about the pros and cons of podcasts for marketers.

#podcasts #audio #streaming

 

HOW TO USE TWITTER

ClickZ attended Twitter’s Flight Camp so you don’t have to. Good stuff here for social media managers.

#twitter #social #bestpractices

 

MEDIA PROS JOIN SNAPCHAT #FAILBETTER

A week travelling on the West coast with a pair of 15 year-old boys has shown me the vitality of Snapchat, the generational divide (and I mean the one that the millennials are starting to feel with the generation after them . . . ), and how Gen X just. doesn’t. get. it.

#snapchat #genx #fail

 

AOL FTW

More evidence that the digitally connected older generation are where the action is with digital marketing.

#email #boomers #politics

 

TWITTER UPS ITS GIF GAME

Integration with Giphy and Riffsy make it easier for Twitter users to post animated gifs.

#twitter #gifs

 

WRONG END OF THE FUNNEL

Why haven’t buy buttons on FB and Instagram taken off yet? Because they’re trying to force top of the funnel marketing down the funnel too far…. Customers aren’t interested in that (need a little more time and comfort before making the purchase).

#facebook #instagram #thefunnel

 

TUMBLR STRUGGLES

It’s still a great way to reach the YA audience, but Tumblr’s growth is slowing. Here are projections via eMarketer:

“Regarding its total user base, this will be the last year Tumblr will grow by double digits, signaling a plateau. In 2016, Tumblr will have 23.2 million users in the US. That’s less than half as many as Pinterest (which has 54.6 million) and less than a third as many as Instagram (which has 89.4 million).”

#tumbler #teens

 

The image at the top of this post is taken from the current Tara Donovan show at the Quint Gallery.

 

Next to Now: Valentine’s Day Edition

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SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGERS REJOICE

As a Valentine’s Day present to social media managers who like to keep their personal and their business identities distinct, Instagram announced this week that they are finally going to allow users to toggle between multiple accounts.

#instagram #social

 

INFORMATION OVERLOAD

From Quartz:

“Many people today struggle with information overload. We shift our attention between online and offline activities every 45 seconds, according to Gloria Mark, professor of informatics at the University of California at Irvine.”

In a world of information overload, advertisers need to respect their audiences and reach them in environments where the message can be heard

#attention

 

GOOD NEWS FOR QUALITY CONTENT

The FT hit a readership record: 780,000 paying readers, the highest in their 128 year history. In his latest newsletter, Ben Evans says,

“The FT now has the highest paying readership in its history. Remember how ‘pay walls’ were a staggeringly stupid idea? The Times is also now breaking even.”

This is also a win for advertisers (like books!) that match well with the audiences on these blue chip platforms (The FT, the New York Times, etc.). Reaching a committed reader in a place where s/he is reading relevant, engaging information. The best advertising shows its target what they want when they want it.

#thoughtleaders #targeting

 

WHAT GAME?

From USA Today on last Sunday’s Super Bowl: “According to Venables Bell & Partners, 78% of people were more excited about the commercials than the game last night.”

#superbowl

 

HOW DO YOU MEASURE AD SUCCESS?

That Mountain Dew ad freaked me out, but it was successful (especially when you remember that 40+ year old men are not the target demo):   

“Mountain Dew’s director of brand marketing Sadira Furlow told Adweek the Super Bowl campaign generated 11 million views across social media since its first teaser spot launched on Jan. 22.”

#roi

 

SNAPCHAT USER STUDY

While I watched the Super Bowl with my Twitter stream running, my 15 year old son was watching it with Snapchat running. While dedicated Snapchat users are a growing bunch, a recent study suggests they’re not engaging with the branded content as much as they are with their friends. To the question “How often do you buy something you saw on Snapchat,” 87% of respondents replied “Never.” 54% of respondents said they never watch Snap Discover Stories.  

#snapchat #streaming

 

THE TOP SUPER BOWL ADS

Hub Spot lists the top Super Bowl ads: Heinz, Snickers, Pokeman, Axe . . . Though it was the least flashy, I wonder if the most successful ad of the night wasn’t the one for the new Jason Bourne movie. It reached it’s target audience, delivered the message they wanted to hear (after taking a movie off, Matt Damon’s back as Jason Bourne!), and stuck in the mind. No tricks, just the right ad at the right time. Maybe only Beyonce’s ad for “Formation” directly following her performance was better targeted.

#superbowl #video

 

MOBILE USAGE WAS HIGH DURING THE 2016 SUPERBOWL

The second-screen phenomenon for huge live events is a regular thing. You probably knew that already, but it’s always worth a reminder. 

#mobile

Next to Now: The Super Bowl of Advertising Edition

Next to Now, , , ,

 

It’s Super Bowl weekend! That means most of the advertising industry is strutting, preening, and fretting in advance of the one event in which ads are at least as anticipated as the game. This time of year the industry’s worries are on full display: are we just making ads so people can see what fancy ads we’re making, or are we actually helping to sell products? We know where we stand at Verso.
IF A MARKETER DUNKS IN THE DARK, WILL ANYBODY SEE IT?

Only a few years removed from the Super Bowl power outage and the Oreo tweet that launched a thousand industry thought pieces — “Power out? No problem, you can still dunk in the dark” — the idea of social media “war rooms” is on the wane. It turns out that not only is a “free” social media onslaught expensive, it’s also not as wide reaching as it used to be:

“A couple of years ago, there was a lot more fun and opportunity in real-time marketing,” said Gareth Goodall, partner and chief strategy officer at Anomaly. “Those days are behind us. It’s a paid-media game today and with that, comes a lot more preparation than real-time inspiration.”

#social #freeisexpensive

 

POLITICS AT POLITICO

Politico has never been immune to the political turmoil it covers so well, but with two founders scheduled to leave at the end of the election cycle the question becomes: is this an orderly transition that signifies the site’s healthy growth or a sign of an unstable foundation for the future?

#politics

WHAT WILL A SUPER BOWL MARKETING BUDGET BUY ONLINE?

As a thought exercise, AdWeek asked marketers what a $5 million Super Bowl ad budget would buy online. For your weekly book marketing meeting, here are some alternatives: 1.5MM app installs; 5 custom Twitter emojis; 12.5 days of sponsored Snaps; 10.5 premium Instagram campaigns; 50 Tumblr takeovers; 8-10 YouTube masthead ads; and a gazillion Facebook impressions. But how many of those alternatives could possibly drive a conversation in the way that a first quarter Super Bowl spot can?

#thoughtexperiment #digitalvbroadcast

MORE THAN 50% OF US POPULATION WILL WATCH STREAMING VIDEO

EMarketer projects that 2016 will be the year that more than half of the U.S. population will watch TV shows online at least once a month.

#streaming #video

 

AUTO-PLAY GETS POPULAR (WITH WEBSITES IF NOT USERS)

Caveat emptor: Facebook’s move to auto-play has made it popular for many websites. It certainly gooses the numbers of video views. The question is are they *good* views, and do the readers like it or are publishers just asking people to install ad blockers?

#video

 

ON CONVERSATIONAL COMMERCE

Will 2016 be the year of conversational commerce? Uber’s Chris Messina thinks so. Platforms like Facebook Messenger, Peach, Slack and more are moving in this direction and advertisers should pay attention—especially since there’s more global traffic on messaging apps than there is on social networks:

“Suffice to say, the verbs we use with traditional apps are irrelevant in the conversational paradigm. We “buy”, “download”, “install”, and “trash” apps. The conversational paradigm is more social, and therefore less technologic. We use humane verbs like “add”, “invite”, “contact”, “mute”, “block”, and “message”. The language of conversation is more accessible to a broader audience, which will in turn accelerate the adoption of conversational agents faster than we saw with desktop apps.”

(via @onlydeadfish)

#messaging

 

MARKETERS NOW: DOWN ON FACEBOOK, UP ON SNAPCHAT

Visual marketing is in. That’s good news for Snapchat, Instagram and Pinterest:

“According to research from eMarketer, more senior U.S. ad buyers are planning to advertise on Snapchat for the first time this year over any other social media site.”

#visual #snapchat #instagram #pinterest