Tuesday, December 08, 2015
Outdoor Ad Spending is on the Up
Outdoor ad spending continues to rise with growth starting to outpace total ad spending growth levels. In Q2, outdoor ad spending jumped 2.2% versus a 3.9% drop in total ad spend.
Interestingly, startups and tech companies are contributing more than ever to outdoor ad spending. NYC startups like Percolate and Jet.com have been spending increasing amounts on outdoor ads.
What's so great about outdoor ads versus digital branding? When advertising outdoors you ensure that real people see your ads! Simple and obvious, but a real consideration for advertisers with limited budgets. The WSJ explains why digital advertising is sometimes a bigger gamble than outdoor marketing: "Brands have been pouring dollars into online marketing, but are worried about ads that can be buried in corners of websites that aren't viewable, and about computerized "bots" that goose traffic results artificially without any humans seeing ads." Said differently, online marketers often end up paying for ads that were viewed by bots, not potential consumers. This results in lost advertising dollars that could have been used in a more effective way.
Obviously digital marketing spend isn't going anywhere. In fact, as mobile use grows and advertisers become more strategic with online marketing choices, we can expect ongoing growth in online digital spend. That said, outdoor advertising isn't going anywhere either. Most sophisticated advertisers will avoid just one advertising channel and instead focus on a diversified ad plan consisting of digital and outdoor, among others.
http://techcrunch.com/2015/12/05/outdoor-is-the-new-black/
http://www.wsj.com/articles/outdoor-ad-industrys-pitch-real-people-see-billboards-1443438000
Pinterest Acquires Hunt and Pext
As Pinterest is moving towards the e-commerce space, it has acquired Hunt and Pext to build out streamlined selling capabilities. The Hunt features a similar format to Pinterest, but lets consumers track down items they covet. On the Hunt, users can post a picture of an item they are looking for, and other users offer shopping suggestions in form of comments. Pext, on the other hand, allows users to turn text messages into memes by connecting them with relevant images as they communicate via text. Given that Pinterest is an image platform, Pext will serve as an interesting communication tool for Pinterest to take its user engagement to the next level. Pinterest is also testing its "buy button" that enables users to quickly purchase items they discover on Pinterest. The acquisition of Hunt and Pext is undoubtedly the next step to more monetization.
The merging of MarTech and AdTech
Previously MarTech (marketing technology) and AdTech (advertising technology) were very separate entities. MarTech refers to technology seeking to understand and ultimately predict consumers and their behavior. AdTech is the actual copy and strategies used to get clicks and conversions. These two technologies are quickly becoming one and the same according to this article.
I think this really refers to the futility of devising advertisements without know exactly how they should be used. I liken this to the end of Mad Men. A Don Draper, who has such insight into peoples' minds pales in comparison to what the aggregated data can tell us about those same minds.
The bottom line is great creative is good. Great creative with reasoned goals behind it is the future. It is one of those, "everybody is doing it" things now. Everyone else is going to get left behind.
MarTech + AdTech = ?
I think this really refers to the futility of devising advertisements without know exactly how they should be used. I liken this to the end of Mad Men. A Don Draper, who has such insight into peoples' minds pales in comparison to what the aggregated data can tell us about those same minds.
The bottom line is great creative is good. Great creative with reasoned goals behind it is the future. It is one of those, "everybody is doing it" things now. Everyone else is going to get left behind.
MarTech + AdTech = ?
Key Email Marketing Trends from 2015
This article talked about some of the key email marketing trends over the last year. The key highlights were as follows:
1) Email triggers on the rise
Email triggers were used more and were seen as more effective then in previous years - 7% of marketers said email triggers were very successful (up from 4%); 54% of marketers said email triggers were quite successful (up from 47%)
1) Making emails more mobile friendly
This has been one of the key changes - marketers focused not only on the design of the emails to make sure they display well on emails, but also on the content to ensure that it captures the attention of consumers in less space and less time (emails are read much quicker on mobile then desktop)
Key Email Marketing Trends
1) Email triggers on the rise
Email triggers were used more and were seen as more effective then in previous years - 7% of marketers said email triggers were very successful (up from 4%); 54% of marketers said email triggers were quite successful (up from 47%)
This has been one of the key changes - marketers focused not only on the design of the emails to make sure they display well on emails, but also on the content to ensure that it captures the attention of consumers in less space and less time (emails are read much quicker on mobile then desktop)
Will Super Bowl Ads be too expensive?
Super Bowl Ads have in the past been a great source of advertising for brands but as the slots for the super bowl get more and more expensive will social media and other avenues be used more. It will also be interesting to see what role snapchat plays in advertising during the super bowl.
http://www.adweek.com/news/television/cbs-holding-back-some-its-super-bowl-50-ad-inventory-168488
http://www.adweek.com/news/television/cbs-holding-back-some-its-super-bowl-50-ad-inventory-168488
Teens Think Facebook Uncool, but Still Use It
According to a recent study, American teens think Facebook has lost its 'cool factor', but still use it. 35% of respondents in the study said it wasn't cool anymore, but still use it.
My takeaways from this article are the following:
- it's hard to decouple how successful a business is / will be based upon what consumers say - in this case although teens say they aren't as attracted to Facebook it appears their usage is up and increasing
- Facebook has been on the verge of innovation in the social media space. We have seen this story play out with other social media sites (like My Space for example). Is this 'lack of coolness' perhaps a precursor to problems arising at Facebook?
Teens think Facebook uncool, but still use it
My takeaways from this article are the following:
- it's hard to decouple how successful a business is / will be based upon what consumers say - in this case although teens say they aren't as attracted to Facebook it appears their usage is up and increasing
- Facebook has been on the verge of innovation in the social media space. We have seen this story play out with other social media sites (like My Space for example). Is this 'lack of coolness' perhaps a precursor to problems arising at Facebook?
Teens think Facebook uncool, but still use it
Mobile is the remote control for our lives
This presentation repeated the idea that our mobile phones are becoming the remote controls for our lives. It is a really interesting concept. The justification is that we not only use it to communicate but to eat, sleep, meet other people, work, and do virtually any other task we need or want to do.
The application to digital marketing is how the value in integrating with mobile platforms and actually acquiring a customer is just rising. This presentation posited that the lifetime value of one customer on mobile is worth approximately 4$. As a result, companies and their marketers are going to great lengths to acquire those customers.
Ultimately, I think the best way to attract mobile users is to create a great mobile experience. This is easier said than done, but a few things would a long way. For one, there just shouldn't be any options to participate in anything (links, pictures etc) that are incompatible with the mobile platform. Furthermore, there shouldn't be any core functions of a particular business that its mobile app can't do. Those seem like basic requests, but I am baffled at how frequently they are violated.
Ultimately, we have a lot of options with how we want to spend our time on our phones. We are going to slowly congregate towards the best applications regardless of the marketing that encouraged us to do so.
Increasing value of mobile user
The application to digital marketing is how the value in integrating with mobile platforms and actually acquiring a customer is just rising. This presentation posited that the lifetime value of one customer on mobile is worth approximately 4$. As a result, companies and their marketers are going to great lengths to acquire those customers.
Ultimately, I think the best way to attract mobile users is to create a great mobile experience. This is easier said than done, but a few things would a long way. For one, there just shouldn't be any options to participate in anything (links, pictures etc) that are incompatible with the mobile platform. Furthermore, there shouldn't be any core functions of a particular business that its mobile app can't do. Those seem like basic requests, but I am baffled at how frequently they are violated.
Ultimately, we have a lot of options with how we want to spend our time on our phones. We are going to slowly congregate towards the best applications regardless of the marketing that encouraged us to do so.
Increasing value of mobile user
Future of Pinterest
In my view, Pinterest's main value proposition is the level of usefulness of its content. Users are able to find useful design inspiration for a specific room in their home, ideas of where to go on vacation, and hundreds of recipes for a specific type of peanut butter dessert.
According to Ad Age, Pinterest has recently acquired two companies: The Hunt and Pext. These acquisitions give us a little insight into the future plans for the platform. The Hunt is a shopping platform with a similar organization to Pinterest. Pext is a meme-generating application that allows users to add text to images.
I think both of these additional technologies will make Pinterest even more useful. One of people's main frustrations is they will click on the link in a pin and it is broken or old they can't actually find what they are looking for.
As far as the text, as long as it doesn't interfere with the beauty of the images and the user experience, I think this is OK. Ideally, it would be used for indexing only and not be really visible to users.
http://adage.com/article/digital/pinterest-acqui-hires-meme-pext-ecommerce-hunt/301650/
According to Ad Age, Pinterest has recently acquired two companies: The Hunt and Pext. These acquisitions give us a little insight into the future plans for the platform. The Hunt is a shopping platform with a similar organization to Pinterest. Pext is a meme-generating application that allows users to add text to images.
I think both of these additional technologies will make Pinterest even more useful. One of people's main frustrations is they will click on the link in a pin and it is broken or old they can't actually find what they are looking for.
As far as the text, as long as it doesn't interfere with the beauty of the images and the user experience, I think this is OK. Ideally, it would be used for indexing only and not be really visible to users.
http://adage.com/article/digital/pinterest-acqui-hires-meme-pext-ecommerce-hunt/301650/
Half of Southeast Asians Clicking on Mobile Ad Did It By Accident -
According to a recent study, half of people surveyed across 5 Southeast Asian countries who said they have clicked on or read a mobile ad said they did so bu mistake.
I think this ad is interesting because it highlights that there can be errors in data collection. While there is no doubt that mobile advertising is an increasingly important medium, it is important to understand that discrepancies may rise when judging the value of certain initiatives when we focus solely on quantitative metrics that may contain flaws (like click-through-rates for example).
A Simple Mistake?
I think this ad is interesting because it highlights that there can be errors in data collection. While there is no doubt that mobile advertising is an increasingly important medium, it is important to understand that discrepancies may rise when judging the value of certain initiatives when we focus solely on quantitative metrics that may contain flaws (like click-through-rates for example).
A Simple Mistake?
Predictions about Digital Marketing - Pay to Play
This article talks about big changes that are happening over the next 12 months in the digital marketing space. I wanted to highlight a couple that I thought were interesting:
"Pay to Play"
This has become more and more prominent in recent years, but recently it is become harder to get content across for free. Especially with Facebook Instant being launched it will be harder for those who don't pay to get their message across
"You can no longer count on Google as your top source of website traffic"
"Pay to Play"
This has become more and more prominent in recent years, but recently it is become harder to get content across for free. Especially with Facebook Instant being launched it will be harder for those who don't pay to get their message across
"You can no longer count on Google as your top source of website traffic"
SEO has become more difficult on Google, with the Company changing their algorithms several times in recent years. The article suggests focus shift to traffic acquisition from multiple, reliable sources that can be controlled
PRedictions about Digital Marketing
NowThis Raises $16.2 Million Round Led by Axel Springer
http://www.wsj.com/articles/nowthis-raises-16-2-million-round-led-by-axel-springer-1449576003
NowThis is a German digital media start up that distributes short video clips across social media networks. It focuses seeding videos on 25 different platforms, averaging 700 million video views per month. They are able to achieve all of this with only 50 employees.
NowThis has the potential to take significant market share from legacy media companies. They have many different sub-sets of videos, such as NowThisNews, which distributes short news video clips. In the past, people would go to CNN.com, NYT.com, ect to view the news of the day, but by distributing this content on social media, people can consume the daily news without ever leaving the site. Given the significant seed investment, they have the potential to become a force in digital media distribution on social media.
NowThis is a German digital media start up that distributes short video clips across social media networks. It focuses seeding videos on 25 different platforms, averaging 700 million video views per month. They are able to achieve all of this with only 50 employees.
NowThis has the potential to take significant market share from legacy media companies. They have many different sub-sets of videos, such as NowThisNews, which distributes short news video clips. In the past, people would go to CNN.com, NYT.com, ect to view the news of the day, but by distributing this content on social media, people can consume the daily news without ever leaving the site. Given the significant seed investment, they have the potential to become a force in digital media distribution on social media.
"Mass Personalization" is recurring current theme in the industry
The concept Mass Personalization refers to personalizing and customizing marketing to each individual consumer on a large scale. Personalization has many benefits, but broadly speaking allows marketers to cater marketing to individuals in ways that will most likely result in actual commercial behavior. This concept has been around for a while. What is new is the scale with which it can be carried out. We are getting closer to the point that all consumers can be targeted in a personalized fashion, rather than just those that have had a long enough relationship with a given business that their behavior is well known. This scale is a current aspiration, at least.
The concept of personalization is about content, timing, pricing and medium. Our profiles all tend towards certain behavior. We buy at certain times. We buy certain things. We like to research or view or actually purchase in certain places. We seek deals and discounts, or not, in certain ways. When marketers know enough about us, they can predict all of these behaviors. That type of information is now being collected at an unprecedented rate. Through places like Facebook and Google, all of our personal information can be collated with our online behavior. Our online behavior is increasingly becoming just our behavior, so knowing what this consists of tells a pretty holistic story.
I actually don't have strong reservations about this development. The idea that I would only be shown ads when I want them and for what I want is pretty attractive. In practice though, it still seems like I am still being delivered ads on a huge scale and basically just for things that I happen to have interacted with recently. For example, when I am on a site just researching a product that I am casually interested in, the ad for that product follows me everywhere, until it tapers off. I am pretty adept at ignoring these ads and rarely are reminded or encouraged to actually buy things.
My observation is that as quickly as marketers are learning how to reach us, we are learning how to distance ourselves from them. This dance will likely continue.
State of digital marketing
The concept of personalization is about content, timing, pricing and medium. Our profiles all tend towards certain behavior. We buy at certain times. We buy certain things. We like to research or view or actually purchase in certain places. We seek deals and discounts, or not, in certain ways. When marketers know enough about us, they can predict all of these behaviors. That type of information is now being collected at an unprecedented rate. Through places like Facebook and Google, all of our personal information can be collated with our online behavior. Our online behavior is increasingly becoming just our behavior, so knowing what this consists of tells a pretty holistic story.
I actually don't have strong reservations about this development. The idea that I would only be shown ads when I want them and for what I want is pretty attractive. In practice though, it still seems like I am still being delivered ads on a huge scale and basically just for things that I happen to have interacted with recently. For example, when I am on a site just researching a product that I am casually interested in, the ad for that product follows me everywhere, until it tapers off. I am pretty adept at ignoring these ads and rarely are reminded or encouraged to actually buy things.
My observation is that as quickly as marketers are learning how to reach us, we are learning how to distance ourselves from them. This dance will likely continue.
State of digital marketing
The circle is round: we're moving back to AOL-like portals
In his first interview as the new CEO of Huffington's Post, Jared Grusd talks about what he calls the "post-social era".
He sees a trend in which the majority of people are changing their behavior on social media from generating content to consuming content.
Additionally, companies like Facebook are taking a new stance towards third party content creators. Rather than referring the customers to their websites, they are now introducing tools to consume third party content on their own (e.g., Facebook) platforms. Recently launched tools are Facebook Instant and Snapchat Discover. Both allow third parties to publish articles directly on Facebook.
In fact, Jared Grusd believes that the circle is becoming round, as these moves by Facebook and others would, in practice, move people back to portal websites such as AOL. The difference remains that the content you see depends on your network and the companies that you follow.
While Jared sees the risk that Facebook will demand an ever increasing share of ad revenue, he also sees the opportunity for Huffington Post to expand globally.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/dec/06/huffpo-jared-grusd--facebook-huffington?CMP=share_btn_link
He sees a trend in which the majority of people are changing their behavior on social media from generating content to consuming content.
Additionally, companies like Facebook are taking a new stance towards third party content creators. Rather than referring the customers to their websites, they are now introducing tools to consume third party content on their own (e.g., Facebook) platforms. Recently launched tools are Facebook Instant and Snapchat Discover. Both allow third parties to publish articles directly on Facebook.
In fact, Jared Grusd believes that the circle is becoming round, as these moves by Facebook and others would, in practice, move people back to portal websites such as AOL. The difference remains that the content you see depends on your network and the companies that you follow.
While Jared sees the risk that Facebook will demand an ever increasing share of ad revenue, he also sees the opportunity for Huffington Post to expand globally.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/dec/06/huffpo-jared-grusd--facebook-huffington?CMP=share_btn_link
How big data will change marketing
Article discuss five main ways big data will change digital marketing industry.
- Large enterprises will be the first to adopt bigtechnologies, but small and medium businesses will adopt faster and benefit more.
- Marketing spend will become much more accurate and targeted by leveraging insights and having account-based strategy
- data-driven methodologies to target high-value prospects will be widely adopted by salespeople. They will also use it to keep existing customers on board, and expand existing opportunities.
- Sophisticated algorithms will dramatically improve sales forecast.
- Real-time sales data visualization and decision making tools will intensify sales competition further.
Millenials are not a niche "youth"
I was thinking last week about one question the teacher raised in class. Since the youngest consumers seem less interested in Facebook and more in other social media like Snapchat, will Facebook suffer from it or is that a specifity of their age and they will grow as Facebook users as they grow older. I could not make my mind, seeing pros and cons for every side of the argument. But then, after some research I stumbled on a very interesting summary of who are millenials in term of numbers. http://www.millennialmarketing.com/who-are-millennials/
That is when I realized that actually millennials are not a niche “youth” segment but a generation of people who will ultimately give way to a newer generation. Therefore, millennial-focused brands will have to change their game to stay relevant.
That is when I realized that actually millennials are not a niche “youth” segment but a generation of people who will ultimately give way to a newer generation. Therefore, millennial-focused brands will have to change their game to stay relevant.
Pinterest vs Snapchat: Purchase intent and valuation
Following is an interesting article comparing Pinterest and Snapchat. The 2 most probable candidates to become next facebook.
Online advertising is all about purchase intent, right? To quantify just how valuable the purchase intent of search is, it’s worth thinking about revenue per search. In 2006 Google’s revenue per 1000 searches was $45, in 2009 it was $35. (I’d like to put in a more recent datapoint, but my cursory Googling is coming up short.)
Keep in mind that Google search ads are non-interruptive units. By way of contrast, let’s talk about advertising on YouTube. These units either make you wait to watch the video, or takeover part of the video player while it is playing. Despite the fact these ads are designed to be more “engaging”, eCPMs for video are far lower vs search. Here are some approximations of revenue from top publishers on YouTube according to Peter Kafka:
[M]any big publishers say that after YouTube takes its 45 percent cut of the ads it sells, they frequently end up keeping about $2.50 for every 1,000 views their clips generate — that is, if their video generates a million views, they get $2,500. Other publishers say their split can be as high as $10 per 1,000.
I don’t want to spend more time comparing and contrasting eCPMs across different medium types, but the underlying point is this: some user experiences are inherently more monetizable via advertising than others. No matter how many fancy pieces of technology you throw in the mix to allow sophisticated segmentation, targeting, creative, etc, the context by which users are exposed to advertising sets the stage for the business.
Why compare Pinterest and Snapchat?
They are currently valued equally by the private market.
Advertising intent on Pinterest
I have always been optimistic about Pinterest as an advertising-supported company because of how users were using it from the very beginning. Pinterest is about organizing and planning things in your life. A big part of that organizing and planning has to do with products that you have bought or would like to buy. That seems like an ample amount of purchase intent which has always been a part of the core user experience. I imagine Pinterest could roll out Promoted Pins and most of the userbase wouldn’t notice.
Previous statements from strategic Pinterest investor Rakuten seem to agree with this analysis.
Advertising intent on Snapchat
This is a tough one. Brands pushing coupons with short timeouts to users? Geo-fenced push offers? How would a call-to-action work from a disappearing message? Would the ad unit stick around inside of the Snapchat UI? The smartest ad unit would probably take advantage of the fact users are trained that stuff disappears so they would need to act fast before it goes away.
Even if we assume some sort of amazing killer ad unit is released, are users in a state of mind to want to consume advertising? It appears that Snapchat is a new communications medium, which seems very fundamental and valuable. However, in other communication mediums such as phone calls, email, or SMS, interruptive messages from advertisers are historically not appreciated by consumers.
So why would the private market value them equally?
Snapchat has far more user base than Pinterest. The difference in the number of users somehow offsets Pinterest's superior business model.
Online advertising is all about purchase intent, right? To quantify just how valuable the purchase intent of search is, it’s worth thinking about revenue per search. In 2006 Google’s revenue per 1000 searches was $45, in 2009 it was $35. (I’d like to put in a more recent datapoint, but my cursory Googling is coming up short.)
Keep in mind that Google search ads are non-interruptive units. By way of contrast, let’s talk about advertising on YouTube. These units either make you wait to watch the video, or takeover part of the video player while it is playing. Despite the fact these ads are designed to be more “engaging”, eCPMs for video are far lower vs search. Here are some approximations of revenue from top publishers on YouTube according to Peter Kafka:
[M]any big publishers say that after YouTube takes its 45 percent cut of the ads it sells, they frequently end up keeping about $2.50 for every 1,000 views their clips generate — that is, if their video generates a million views, they get $2,500. Other publishers say their split can be as high as $10 per 1,000.
I don’t want to spend more time comparing and contrasting eCPMs across different medium types, but the underlying point is this: some user experiences are inherently more monetizable via advertising than others. No matter how many fancy pieces of technology you throw in the mix to allow sophisticated segmentation, targeting, creative, etc, the context by which users are exposed to advertising sets the stage for the business.
Why compare Pinterest and Snapchat?
They are currently valued equally by the private market.
Advertising intent on Pinterest
I have always been optimistic about Pinterest as an advertising-supported company because of how users were using it from the very beginning. Pinterest is about organizing and planning things in your life. A big part of that organizing and planning has to do with products that you have bought or would like to buy. That seems like an ample amount of purchase intent which has always been a part of the core user experience. I imagine Pinterest could roll out Promoted Pins and most of the userbase wouldn’t notice.
Previous statements from strategic Pinterest investor Rakuten seem to agree with this analysis.
Advertising intent on Snapchat
This is a tough one. Brands pushing coupons with short timeouts to users? Geo-fenced push offers? How would a call-to-action work from a disappearing message? Would the ad unit stick around inside of the Snapchat UI? The smartest ad unit would probably take advantage of the fact users are trained that stuff disappears so they would need to act fast before it goes away.
Even if we assume some sort of amazing killer ad unit is released, are users in a state of mind to want to consume advertising? It appears that Snapchat is a new communications medium, which seems very fundamental and valuable. However, in other communication mediums such as phone calls, email, or SMS, interruptive messages from advertisers are historically not appreciated by consumers.
So why would the private market value them equally?
Snapchat has far more user base than Pinterest. The difference in the number of users somehow offsets Pinterest's superior business model.
What if Virtual Reality was the next standard platform?
We know that Facebook growth mainly comes from mobile now. This shift in platform from the desktop to mobile is very interesting to me. The change happened so fast and it required digital marketers to adapt. What about the next shift? Maybe Virtual Reality. I found this article from TechnologyReview reinforcing this idea and giving it support by implying that Facebook acquired Oculus Rift because Mark Zuckerberg foresees virtual reality to be the next platform, the future standard platform that will replace the others in the long term. In my opinion, this would revolution the way to market products and services.
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/525881/what-zuckerberg-sees-in-oculus-rift/
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/525881/what-zuckerberg-sees-in-oculus-rift/
Yahoo is testing GIANT video ads in search results
Yahoo is testing giant takeover video ads in search results
pages. This is how it works: the video ads, expand to take over most of the
screen and autoplay on mute. The video does not collapse after ending, which
means the user has to scroll down to click on the actual ad or see the other
search results. The ads only appear to be running on desktop and not
smartphones.
Is this the future of visual brand advertising? So far this
seems to be an area that search engines haven’t been exploiting in a meaningful
way, but is thought to have great potential.There is speculation that Google is
prepping to roll out video in search, and Bing may be as well.
The Yahoo video is certainly interesting, however whether
the execution will resonate with search users remains to be proven .To me, it has
the potential to become an ultimate – annoying- way of forcing ads to the users.
For instance, what happens if your connection is slow? What if you are on a
meeting and just need to look something up in a rush? It looks to me that this
idea is much more focused in generating revenue from the advertiser side rather
than enhancing the customer experience.
How IoT will change marketing
The article discuss how IoT will change all aspects of marketing. IoT enables three things - smart and sensor-embedded devices and software, machines as users of information, all connected through the Internet. Let's see how IoT will influence all four traditional aspects of marketing:
Business Insider article
- Product - With IoT companies will have enormous amount of data on how customers use products. Manufacturers can use information to get crowd-based feedback in real time and marketers can use it to to better satisfy needs (like repair in time, suggesting optimal product for geography/environment etc.)
- Price - removing friction in the systems and lowering defects rate will low the price. Also IoT will allow price discrimination as "different prices to be dynamically offered to different buyers based on their purchase and credit history, loyalty, and importance to the company"
- Distribution - this space will be disrupted the least compare to smartphone experience, because main things just need location and screen (location-based marketing etc), which already exists with smartphones.
- Promotion - Main change is that customer gets marketing messages from everything - starting from Smart TV and adjustable billboards ending with fridges and other home appliances.
Business Insider article
Android regains market share and smartphone market will soon become about replacement cycle
According to comScore’s latest data (October 2015), Apple’s share is down nearly a point 2015 Q3, without including Q4 holiday-related device sales. Android’s market share is up 1.5 points compared with July.
Also, device forecaster IDC says that globally smartphone growth will slow next year to “single digits” for the first time. Even so, growth will be near 10 percent globally. Slowing growth in China is partly responsible. Many mature markets are now “replacement markets.”
http://marketingland.com/smartphone-data-android-regains-share-but-apple-maps-wins-the-iphone-154923
Also, device forecaster IDC says that globally smartphone growth will slow next year to “single digits” for the first time. Even so, growth will be near 10 percent globally. Slowing growth in China is partly responsible. Many mature markets are now “replacement markets.”
http://marketingland.com/smartphone-data-android-regains-share-but-apple-maps-wins-the-iphone-154923
Digital Shopping
As we learned in class, more purchases than ever will be made online this holiday season. Free shipping, shipping discounts or pick-up options are key attributes consumers look for when deciding where to shop. Additionally, mobile will be used to research products 38% of the time, and 21% of the time people will actually buy the products on their mobile devices.
It seems as though to stay competitive during the holiday season, retailers will need to ensure their websites are mobile optimized -- or they may miss out on 40% of potential customers. Additionally, offering shipping discounts will be critical to maintaining a healthy level of customer sales.
http://www.bsminfo.com/doc/almost-half-of-all-holiday-shopping-will-be-digital-0001
It seems as though to stay competitive during the holiday season, retailers will need to ensure their websites are mobile optimized -- or they may miss out on 40% of potential customers. Additionally, offering shipping discounts will be critical to maintaining a healthy level of customer sales.
http://www.bsminfo.com/doc/almost-half-of-all-holiday-shopping-will-be-digital-0001
Content Marketing: What Emoji Best Describes Your Presidential Campaign?
Found this interesting article talking about the impact of Emoji or more broadly social media in this year's election. Social media is no longer the advantage for Obama, and now it's a prerequisite.
In August, for example, Hilary Clinton asked people on Twitter to explain how student debt makes them feel in three or fewer emojis. This response just about sums it up.
Moreover, Marco Rubio joined Clinton and Bush as major presidential candidates who have used Snapchat as a platform to make campaign announcements.
https://contently.com/strategist/2015/12/04/contently-comic-what-emoji-best-describes-your-presidential-campaign/
In August, for example, Hilary Clinton asked people on Twitter to explain how student debt makes them feel in three or fewer emojis. This response just about sums it up.
Moreover, Marco Rubio joined Clinton and Bush as major presidential candidates who have used Snapchat as a platform to make campaign announcements.
https://contently.com/strategist/2015/12/04/contently-comic-what-emoji-best-describes-your-presidential-campaign/
Instagram Ad Performance Similar to Facebook
This article compares the ad performance of Instagram to it of Facebook and draws the conclusion that these two platforms have very similar performance in terms of click-through-rate and Instagram is slightly better in the mobile channel.
The study is conducted by Nanigans, a Facebook Marketing Partner and member of Instagram Partner Program, based on the data from its clients that advertise on both social networks from Aug.1 through Oct. 31.
http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/nanigans-instagram-facebook-benchmarks-report-december-2015/631104
The study is conducted by Nanigans, a Facebook Marketing Partner and member of Instagram Partner Program, based on the data from its clients that advertise on both social networks from Aug.1 through Oct. 31.
http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/nanigans-instagram-facebook-benchmarks-report-december-2015/631104
Where Virtual Reality will help marketers the most
Some unexpected companies like Unilever and started to think about using VR in future marketing campaigns. The article discuss main areas where VR can make a big difference. They found out three main areas:
Article
- Travel industry. Before traveling to location/hotel etc you can go to a model of the place, check it out and make decisions more consciously.
- High-value consumer items. customers can use "try before you buy" approach for jewelry, expensive furniture. It will not replace showrooms completely, because it will satisfy only visual experience - you still can't touch it, however it's definitely a big step.
- Complex creative services - like apartments design, etc. It's the most obvious are but potential for having opportunity to see architecture project "with your own eyes" is incredible
Article
New video Ad technology and content marketing
The article basically describes new video Ad technology - Outstream. Compare to traditional pre-roll technology, outstream doesn't "rely on a windows player to run" - instead video just plays at "natural breaks" and when user scrolls down it just stops. After video is seen it disappears. Interesting thing about the article though is that it is sponsored by company "YuMe" and it was so organically integrated into search result so i found it only in the middle of the article. Definetly brands spend more and more on content marketing.
Business Insider Article
Business Insider Article
The Top Marketing Trends That Will Define 2016
Forbes recently published a list of the top marketing trends that will define 2016. The overarching theme for these trends centers around relevance and effective delivery.
1. Embrace the Customer Experience Model.
Embracing the customer experience model focuses on creating seamless channels of communication with customers so that marketing efforts can serve as a natural extension of customer service to create the ultimate experience. Effective customer engagement will involve integrated efforts across digital media to track and measure the consumer experience.
2. Will Ad Blockers Change the Game?
With the debate about ad blockers in full swing, 2016 will see brands working towards creating advertisements that are much better integrated into webpages to enhance rather than interrupt the user experience.
3. Dream and Market in 3D.
As it becomes more and more refined, 3D technology will become much more mainstream and brands will innovate to put more of their marketing muscle behind content that incorporates virtual reality. The biggest opportunities for 3D tech lie in the gaming industry; however, as gaming continues to rise in popularity brands will to the social network of the gaming community as another marketing channel for customer communication.
4. Marketers Will (Finally) Recognize Social Media as a Channel, Not a Strategy.
Social media, similar to mobile, will find itself at the foundation of any marketing strategy. The solidification of social media as a true channel for integrated marketing communications will be reflected in increased marketing spend towards social and away from traditional media channels.
5. Omnichannel Will be Retail’s Best Friend.
With the rise of the Internet came the meteoric growth of digital and mobile consumption and a seemingly infinite choice set for consumers. Marketers are faced with an ever expanding choice of channels via which to interact with consumers. Therefore, retailers have begun taking a multi-channel approach in order to deliver an integrated and smooth customer experience. While e-commerce is on the rise, consumers still prefer retail establishments that have both an online and physical presence over pure e-tailers.
Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnewman/2015/11/03/the-top-10-marketing-trends-that-will-define-2016/
1. Embrace the Customer Experience Model.
Embracing the customer experience model focuses on creating seamless channels of communication with customers so that marketing efforts can serve as a natural extension of customer service to create the ultimate experience. Effective customer engagement will involve integrated efforts across digital media to track and measure the consumer experience.
2. Will Ad Blockers Change the Game?
With the debate about ad blockers in full swing, 2016 will see brands working towards creating advertisements that are much better integrated into webpages to enhance rather than interrupt the user experience.
3. Dream and Market in 3D.
As it becomes more and more refined, 3D technology will become much more mainstream and brands will innovate to put more of their marketing muscle behind content that incorporates virtual reality. The biggest opportunities for 3D tech lie in the gaming industry; however, as gaming continues to rise in popularity brands will to the social network of the gaming community as another marketing channel for customer communication.
4. Marketers Will (Finally) Recognize Social Media as a Channel, Not a Strategy.
Social media, similar to mobile, will find itself at the foundation of any marketing strategy. The solidification of social media as a true channel for integrated marketing communications will be reflected in increased marketing spend towards social and away from traditional media channels.
5. Omnichannel Will be Retail’s Best Friend.
With the rise of the Internet came the meteoric growth of digital and mobile consumption and a seemingly infinite choice set for consumers. Marketers are faced with an ever expanding choice of channels via which to interact with consumers. Therefore, retailers have begun taking a multi-channel approach in order to deliver an integrated and smooth customer experience. While e-commerce is on the rise, consumers still prefer retail establishments that have both an online and physical presence over pure e-tailers.
Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnewman/2015/11/03/the-top-10-marketing-trends-that-will-define-2016/
Is Social Search dead?
Source: Techcrunch
What’s more interesting than any of these things (that Facebook currently does) is giving people power and tools to take any cut of the graph that they want.People were amazed (some also were concerned) about how personalized and specific the search tool worked: You could ask queries like "friends in New York who like Harry Potter and Game of Thrones.” Many were convinced that this could mark the beginning of a serious attack on Google, as you could use the service for recruiting, product recommendations, travel, images, or even dating. The quality of the answers was supposed to be better as they had a "filter", a form of social approval and confirmation. Some even thought it was a feature to make people not leaving the site anymore, as now even search could be done there, but for many things better. Maybe all of that was a bit rash.
Graph Search did not take away significant traffic from Google, or Foursquare or Yelp. In fact, Graph Search was never completely rolled out to all users and its various search features are hidden in different places and subpages. Searching with Facebook again is so bad that Michael Morgenstern, a film maker from San Francisco build his own interface for searching with Facebook, searchisback.com.
As Google failed with its own social network Goggle+, social search still is unconquered territory. Even though Google uses insights about social connections and behavior for its search, Facebook's vast amount of data and user insights are much deeper and richer then that. We are social beings and many of our search requests could be improved by adding a social layer that works approving or just inspiring. Especially in commerce, news and entertainment, the opinion and recommendations of social connections can help prioritizing and filtering web content.
Maybe unbundling search and launching a powerful search app (with personalization features like Google Now) could be a way for Facebook to re-enter the game. I think search still is one of the most exciting spaces in the internet business. Alone because sponsored search is closer to transactions and its success is easier to measure, I think Facebook should keep on considering it a tremendous business opportunity.
An Instagram Video Success Story
Michael Kors is an example of a recent Instagram marketing
success story. As this article explains, they recently unveiled longer video
ads (the new “Marquee” tool) -- breaking the ground for all other brands. And
it worked, as proven by “increased awareness,” “ad recall,” and ultimately more
site visits. They also made sure to then market to the Instagram consumers on
Facebook, showing an integrated approach across the two platforms.
I have talked about Instagram/Facebook video marketing
before on the blog (e.g., regarding Macy’s holiday campaign), so I found it
super exciting to see how well this can work through this Michael Kors example.
The article notes how this brand has been known for being an “early adopter” of
social media (including Instagram) marketing. So, it will be very interesting
to see how other brands follow their lead and continue to use the tool moving forward
as well.
- Allison Kuncik
My Digital Journey
I signed up for the Digital
Marketing class with absolutely no insight into the Digital Marketing world.
But I have been a keen reader of the Digital business models and a recipient of the digital marketing products. After taking the class and going
through all the reading for the blogs or the project I believe I have at least
understood the thirty thousand feet view of the digital marketing world. And
guess what? It is not as random and confusing as it might seem from a distance.
There are systems and tools in place that are constantly driving agendas for
marketers or the typical users like me. There are also ways to measure the
input and output of the processes. And there are ways to create the impact on
the ultimate goal of customer journey. The best part about this world is the
constant experimentation to find the right answers and the ever changing nature
of the business.
It is fascinating to see how the
civilization has started to adapt to new ways of life and I am not sure if we
actually realize it. But asking someone to show me where the next gas station
is (google search) or seeking a review from a stranger than a friend (Yelp) or
connecting with a friend that lives across the pond (Facebook or Whatsapp) are
now billion dollar businesses and our day to day are heavily dependent on them.
All of these changes have led to many positives beyond the monetary benefits
such as efficiencies, expanded reach, connectivity and convenience to name a
few. It almost feels like how were we operating without all of this technology
before and marketers must have been banging their heads against the wall using conventional
means. Overall speaking, digital literacy, digital teams, digital models,
digital strategies, digital content and digital businesses are here to stay and
time to become proficient and practice them is now.
My next goal is to learn the
various Digital Business models and strategies to further build upon this class.
Since I am now a digital native (from a know-how perspective), I am ready to
explore my next digital adventure.
IP theft on Facebook?
Last month there was a video on Facebook which went viral, the title of which was 'How Facebook is stealing billions of views'. You can find the video here:
Crux of the argument is that videos embedded by facebook player in an anonymous fashion and they do not reference the videos to content creator's websites (Obviously facebook wants to maximise its engagement with users so that it can maximise advertising revenues). In this process, content creator does not get any credit and he even loses out on advertising revenue. Worse still, youtube has complained that facebook steals content from its website and that videos shown on facebook are not embedded but uploaded (If you embed, video is still being played by Youtube video player).
This is a serious allegation on Facebook and in my opinion, they need to quickly address this. You cannot let users post anonymous content without giving credit to its creator, As video describes, some smart and wily marketers are stealing these videos and uploading them on their facebook page. Facebook is not getting affected from such behavior and I'd be surprised if they instantly clamp on the activities of such people
For those reading this blog, please be careful when you play a video the next time. If you have seen the video elsewhere, please report it to Facebook and make them take it down. From Facebook's standpoint, their reputation is at stake if they do not do something about this quickly.
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