Tag Archives: youtube

Next to Now: The future is always unfinished

Next to Now, , , , ,
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

Next to Now: The Road Ahead Edition

Next to Now, , , , , ,
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

Thelonious Monk

Next to Now: The Week in Reading Links

Next to Now, , , ,
The Week in Reading for the Week of April 10

April 3, 2015

Monk’s advice never gets old.

April 6, 2015

Top brands on Instagram know the difference between quality of posts and quantity.

April 7, 2015

Sports fans care more about speed than quality. Don’t let your ad slow down their experience.

The founding Executive Director of the Digital Public Library of America notices ebook sales leveling off, says (essentially), “Don’t believe the data.” Does he count as a disinterested observer?

April 8, 2015

Get your gifs here: Hulu does a deal with Tumblr.

Good tips for presentations.

Instagram’s carousel ads would be GREAT for book publishers. Now if we can just get them to come down a couple hundred thou on their minimum spend.

Used right, YouTube cards could be a great way to show more information in ads—always a plus for book publishers.

Get your word nerd on: A lovely piece on the use of quotation marks. (via @GroveAtlantic)

We aren’t going to London Book Fair, but if we were this is a presentation we’d love to attend. Sara Lloyd gives great talks.

Want to go write in the Antarctic for a few months? You might get a book deal out of it.

Welcome LitHub! A brand-spanking new website with a nifty pedigree: created by Grove Atlantic and Electric Literature.

April 9, 2015

A new video game lets you wander around de Chirico cityscapes!

Programmatic buys aren’t the end of creativity; they’re just the beginning!

April 10, 2015

iHeart Radio brings programmatic to broadcast. 

“Metaphysical Daring as a Post-human Survival Strategy” discussed in the French Embassy Ballroom at 5am. Who’s in?

Great take on advertising as seduction, excerpted from a book we were happy to work on.

The rise of the Instagram influencer (nice work if you can get it).

“This is terrifying and inspiring in equal measure,” says Google’s Ben Malbon about Chris Messina’s idea (reality) of “the full stack employee.” True dat.

Clay Shirky and the New York Times’ Margaret Sulllivan talk about the future of print news. Shirky’s “darker narrative” is about the print newspaper, but does it have relevance to the plateauing of print book share (versus digital)? Shirky says, “So it seems likely to me that after the early, rapid decline, we are now in a period of shallow, secular decay, which will give way to a late-stage period of rapid decline.”

Jason Fried on the differences between how platforms make you feel:

“Every scroll through Instagram puts someone’s good day in front of me. A vacation picture, something new they got that they love, pictures of nature, pictures of people they love, places they’ve been, and stuff they want to cheer about. It’s just flat out harder to be negative when sharing a picture. This isn’t a small thing – it’s a very big deal. I feel good when I browse Instagram. That’s the feel that matters.”

(via Almighty’s “Dark Matter” email)

The Vertical Video: An aesthetic disaster but a must for engagement. (via Almighty’s “Dark Matter” email)