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

Snapchat - where is it going

After watching all my friends use snapchat nonstop and watch it's increasing relevance among the teens. It is now a way for me to discover products from my favorite brands or watch celebrity and brand ambassadors in many cases in their everyday life or promoting various products. In a world where sports-related content seems to be one of the few remaining things that large numbers of people will actually pay for, leagues like the NFL and MLB are becoming increasingly powerful. And they are looking further afield than just the usual streaming or cable partners, to new platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat, as a way of broadening their reach and finding new audiences. In one of the more recent examples of this trend, the National Football League signed a partnership deal with Snapchat to create original content and share advertising revenue.

http://fortune.com/2015/09/18/snapchat-nfl/

https://snapchatstrategy.com/five-reasons-snapchat-could-be-the-future-of-social-media-marketing-ca024a920e0#.3wl4gdf76

The Importance of Visual Content

I have noticed how my network has increased their own use of Facebook and other social media channels have dramatic changed to include pictures exclusively. I also remember the places a friend visited or the things I friends have experienced when I see the pictures of it.

This is very helpful for brands because many brands today have photographs and videos being created for their marketing material anyways and this can impact their interactions with their audiences.

http://thenextweb.com/dd/2014/05/21/importance-visual-content-deliver-effectively/

Tiff over rights for old seasons of the popular show Homeland

It was interesting to read this article after last week's guest speaker and the discussion around rights for the shows. How this has evolved especially in this age of streaming and instant viewing. 

Homeland is such a popular show and it's also interesting to note how the various parties in this transaction react and make statements. Netflix has told studios it will discount fees for streaming reruns by about 30% if TV networks make full seasons available on-demand. 

http://www.wsj.com/articles/streaming-era-sets-off-battle-over-tv-rights-1448793184

Here come the Holidays - retailers and marketers favorite time!

It feels to me like Black Friday has been getting pushed earlier and earlier in the year. For marketers, this is always amazing news but how do you differentiate your brand from all the noise and reach / be relevant to your target customer.

http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/data-targeting-offers-boost-holiday-sales/301192/

Digital Marketing might soon become the only form of marketing

Snapchat and instagram are becoming exceeding popular channels for marketing. I was a skeptic of instagram marketing and I still feel like it is exploiting a channel that I thought was private and for sharing pictures but is increasing becoming monetized.

I have also always been amazed at the way presidential candidate or political figures around the world are marketed. I was the Indian Prime Minister try to reach the youth of the country through his use of social media and now it's interesting to watch the presidential candidates in the US presidential race do the same.


http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/here-are-9-eye-opening-digital-marketing-stats-past-week-167644

Are the skills required for a career in marketing and finance converging?

As someone who came from a quant heavy background trying to transition into marketing, I was told by many that marketing is solely driven by creativity and quant isn't really a skill needed to make it in marketing. 

However articles like the one attached about Adobe Analytics and the use of other highly sophisticated and complex methods have made me believe that in this age of digital marketing being able to identify and reach your audience is just as important as the creative content that firms publish today. 

After the issues with Flash, Adobe is aiming to make ad buying simpler through personalization and data-driven decision making. To quote the article, "Using Adobe Media Optimizer advertisers are able to take direct control of automated ad buying for search, display and social media across ad exchanges and media networks from partnerships such as Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Rubicon Project, Index Exchange and more, providing full transparency into media costs, ad performance and revenue."

http://www.marketingtechnews.net/news/2015/oct/01/adobe-aims-deliver-new-levels-personalised-data-driven-ad-buying/

In a country that is just warming up to the concept of e-commerce. I am excited to see how the support of Facebook for the Digital India Initiative will change the way products are marketed. Indian firms still allocate a much larger part of their budget to traditional advertising mediums like television.

PM Narendra Modi was at the Facebook HQ on Sunday, Sept 27th where he and Mark Zuckerberg answered questions about this initiative at the town hall meeting.


http://thelogicalindian.com/news/we-support-pm-mods-digital-india-vision-but-not-facebooks-version-of-digital-india-free-basics/

http://mashable.com/2015/09/27/zuckerberg-modi-townhall/#pdt8HNufFSqs

Instagram's newest addition

Over the summer, Instagram added sponsored advertising to their services. I was very annoyed by it and didn't like this suddenly surge in completely irrelevant ads on my Instagram. I wasn't sure if these ads were even doing what the companies pumping valuable marketing money into these were accomplishing what they needed to.

Then I read this article about how this kind of advertising could make an impact on the non-profit world. As someone who is very keen on discovering new organizations that I could be involved with and also creative ways in which these kinds of organizations can build awareness and donations.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/instagram-gets-advertising-what-can-mean-your-nonprofit-wayne-elsey?trk=pulse-det-nav_art

Mobile Live Streaming

While on a Chazen trip to Israel, we met with a venture capital firm who spoke to us for an hour about his experience working in Tel Aviv. He told us that he was holding his cell phone up (recording us) because he wanted to live stream his talk using Meerkat. 

Meerkat is a mobile app that enables users to do live video streaming through their mobile device. Once signed up, Meerkat users have the option of connecting their Facebook and Twitter accounts, and stream directly to their followers as soon as they go live. The app had launched a mere week before our trip so the excitement was still new and the concept was even newer to me. 

Since my return from Israel, I have seen Meerkat and Periscope change the way we use social media but also noticed the way marketers have started to look at these channels along with channels like snap chat to connect with their customers on a more personal level. One of the first few companies to use Periscope was Nestle. Purina ONE Cat (a Nestle brand) tried its hand at Periscope with “ONE Cat Camp,” where the marketing team live-streamed lessons on pet wellness and pet care. http://www.dmnews.com/mobile-marketing/purina-one-makes-out-like-a-fat-cat-with-live-streaming/article/433400/