WeChat to Pump £2.3m into African Startups

Chinese messaging platform WeChat has announced that it plans to invest R50m (£2.3m) in early-stage African startups, working with Cape Town tech strategy firm Batstone to search out promising companies worthy of funding.

The fund will be used to identify and support tech-enabled businesses by assisting with rapid market growth through the WeChat platform, which enables messaging, mCommerce, taxi booking and more. With access to markets listed as one of the biggest inhibitors to growth for tech-enabled businesses, gaining the keys to the WeChat ecosystem could have a huge impact for any companies selected.

WeChat, which is owned by Chinese internet titan Tencent and boasts over 600m users, has already made investments in African firms in the past, providing an undisclosed amount of funding to microjobs marketplace Money For Jams earlier this year, as well as making investments in apps like PicUp and Order In.

As smartphone adoption increases and messaging apps become more popular across Africa, several prominent messaging services have identified the continent as a potential growth market. Currently, WhatsApp, Facebook, WeChat and several others are all competing to gain a foothold in various markets, along with a number of homegrown platforms that are aiming to expand to neighbouring countries. By teaming with local startups, WeChat could well gain an advantage in this battle.

“Our fund aims to provide financial support to businesses so that they can effectively get on the WeChat platform,” said Brett Loubser, head of WeChat Africa. “This will include technical integration and communication tactics across the Naspers’ stable and other suited channels.

“We have been working with Batstone since mid-2014 and in that time have come to trust their purpose-led approach to understanding and supporting tech businesses. This approach, coupled with the networks, means our partnership is well placed to identify and vet the best possible investment opportunities for WeChat.”

Article Link: http://mobilemarketingmagazine.com/wechat-to-pump-3-4m-into-african-startups/

Facebook Shutters Creative Labs, Along with Three Apps

It seems Facebook has quietly closed down its Creative Labs initiative, that let employees design and create innovative and unusual mobile software in a startup-like environment, along with three of the apps that had emerged from the program.

Creative Labs ran for the past two years, and was based on the hackathons from Facebook’s earliest days, when programmers and developers would create prototype apps and services over the course of a day.

The first app to be killed off is Slingshot, Facebook’s ephemeral photo-messaging service that was a clear attempt to to compete with Snapchat. The app failed to gain traction with consumers, and certainly never approached the level of popularity that Snapchat claims. The app (along with the other two scheduled to be shut down) has been removed from the iOS and Android app stores, and has ceased working.

Rooms, an anonymous group messaging service from Creative Labs that aimed to emulate the chat rooms of the early internet, is scheduled to be shut down on 23 December, while Riff, which enabled users to create chains of videos based around similar subjects, will also be closed down in the near future.

“Since their launches, we’ve incorporated elements of Slingshot, Riff and Rooms into the Facebook for iOS and Android apps,” said a Facebook spokesperson in a statement to CNET. “We’re continuing to embrace the spirit of creative risk-taking by continuing to allow some smaller development teams within the company to experiment with new ideas for standalone apps.”

Facebook will continue to support some of the other apps that have emerged from Creative Labs, including news app Paper, photo-sharing app Moments, and Mentions, the app designed for celebrities and other verified Facebook users.

Article Link: http://mobilemarketingmagazine.com/facebook-shutters-creative-labs-along-with-three-apps/

Ad Fraud Costing the Industry $8.2bn a Year, Says IAB

The combined cost of ad fraud, ad blocking, pirated content and malvertising is costing the US marketing industry $8.2bn (£5.5bn) a year, according to a new study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the first to explore the impact of such problems.

The new study estimates that over half this money is lost due to ‘non-human traffic’ – fake advertising impressions generated by bots that lead to advertisers paying out for messaging that never actually reaches real consumers.

The study, carried out by Ernst & Young and MediaLink for the IAB, found that $4.4bn is lost to this kind of ad fraud, with another $169m spent trying to combat click fraud, bot farms and similar fraudulent tools.

Meanwhile, ‘infringed content’, which includes stolen editorial content, video and music piracy, takes another $2.4bn away from the marketing and media industry. While how much of this content would be paid for if not pirated is difficult to estimate, the IAB suggests that advertising around legitimate content would generate another $456m, while the content itself would earn publishers around $2bn.

Around $33m is spent each year combating pirated content, while a further $48m is lost by subscribers to online streaming services like Hulu, Netflix and HBO Go sharing their passwords with non-subscribers.

Finally, around $1.1bn is lost to malvertising, which includes deceptive downloads and hijacked links, and can lead to computers being infected with a variety of malicious software, viruses and spyware, and even lead to further ad fraud as infected machines are used as bots.

That figure also includes $781m lost when consumers adopt ad-blocking software, which the IAB groups with malvertising because it is often instigated due to security and malware concerns. Lost revenue from blacklisting due to malvertising costs around $57m, while the industry fight back against these issues adds another $17m to the total.

Altogether, the incurred costs of advertising fraud makes up 59 per cent of the cost, or $4.8bn, while lost revenue opportunities drain the remaining 41 per cent, or $3.4bn, from the coffers.

“No other report in the market today captures the full range and scope of the illicit activities identified and quantified in this study,” said Sherrill Mane, senior vice president of research, analytics and measurement at the IAB. “Its findings should mobilise the entire ecosystem to rally around collective solutions that will protect businesses and consumers.”

“Fraud is a big business, not a cottage industry, so we applaud the IAB for their unwavering support and dedication to surfacing these dynamic issues to all constituencies within the advertising community,” said Wenda Harris Millard, president and COO of Medialink. “We must remain wholly focused on bringing this conversation to the forefront and developing systematic ways of eradicating this activity, enabling both publishers and marketers alike to thrive in this new age.”

Article Link: http://mobilemarketingmagazine.com/ad-fraud-costing-the-industry-8-2bn-a-year-says-iab/

Black Friday in the UK: Slowing Growth and Broken Websites

The past few years have seen a sea change in UK retailing, as more and more UK-based stores and brands adopt ‘Black Friday’, the American tradition of offering massive savings on the day following Thanksgiving which signals the beginning of the Christmas shopping period. While this year sees more brands than ever offering Black Friday savings, is the UK already cooling on this new winter tradition?

2014 was the year that Black Friday truly broke out in the UK, with eCommerce sales up 74 per cent year-on-year on the day. However, this year, sales only increased six per cent on the previous year, a drastic slump of growth. Average order value growth was also slow, up 7.6 per cent on last year to £98.

“The data from our performance-based digital marketing network highlights how Black Friday fell short on the expectations of brands,” said Dan Cohen, regional director at performance marketing experts Tradedoubler. “Digital marketing strategies are still not harnessing and utilising critical insight from user journey data to inform digital marketing strategies. The key for digital marketers is to reach customers where they are – this means understanding how customers behave online, the devices they are using and their route to purchase.”

Not predicting the preferences of consumers saw many brands suffer problems beyond lower than expected growth, between 20 and 25 per cent of eCommerce sites suffered outages and downtime during Black Friday, with retailers including Boots, Argos, Game and John Lewis affected.

Many of the same retailers suffered similar problems last year, but have managed to once again underestimate demand and failed to adequately prepare their websites for the wealth of desktop and mobile traffic that Black Friday can bring.

“Black Friday has yet once again proven to be a poison chalice for some retailers, most notably Argos,” said Terry Hunter, vice president of eCommerce and client strategy at Astound Commerce. “The worst thing about it is they clearly didn’t learn the lessons from last year when their site buckled under the high demand.”

“It’s not just desktop, mobile traffic has grown significantly this year,” agreed Darryl Adie, managing director atAmpersand. “With the launch of new and larger devices, consumers are able to shop on their smartphones more comfortably. Brands fully optimised for mobile, such as House of Fraser, Topshop, BHS and Go Outdoors are likely to have had strong conversion rates.”

Mobile also had a strong showing in in-store usage, according to figures from wi-fi platform provider Devicescape. Electronics retailer Game saw a 71 per cent week-on-week increase in wi-fi connections made in-store, suggesting both a climb in footfall and a large number of consumers making use of free wi-fi to browse and compare prices as they shopped.

BHS and Topshop also saw week-on-week increases over 55 per cent on Black Friday, while Asda, which decided not to participate in Black Friday this year, saw reduced activity over the weekend.

Overall, 36 per cent of traffic to eCommerce sites came from mobile devices, according to figures from eCommerce consultancy Salmon, with the busiest shopping times between 8am and midday as shoppers started early to take advantage of sales. But despite a strong showing for mobile, it’s clear that retailers shouldn’t be putting all their eggs in the Black Friday basket if they want to make an impact this Christmas.

Link: http://mobilemarketingmagazine.com/black-friday-in-the-uk-slowing-growth-and-broken-websites/

Yahoo Locks Ad Blockers Out of Email

Yahoo Mail has begun preventing ad blocker users from accessing its free webmail services, instead displaying a message that asks them to disable their ad blocker to continue onwards and be able to read and compose emails.

The issue first appeared early on Thursday, with dozens of ad blocker users soon taking to social media and web forums to complain that they had been prevented from accessing their mail and served with an ultimatum.

According to Yahoo, the move is part of a test the company is running for a small number of Yahoo Mail users in the US, but it could indicate Yahoo’s plans for ensuring ad revenues continue to roll in from across its Yahoo Mail servers, or even its entire ecosystem.

There has been an increasingly level of worry about ad blocking among publishers and advertisers over the past year, as figures show increasing levels of adoption among consumers, and the rollout of iOS 9 brought ad blocking to mobile browsers using Safari. While some companies, such as Yahoo, have elected to fight fire with fire, blocking the ad blockers, many industry experts, including the IAB, have called for better ad design and deployment so that ads do not disrupt the browsing experience for users.

While Yahoo’s move is just a test and not a permanent implementation, and therefore may not be as rigorous as a final product would, ad blocker users had already found ways around the restriction within a few hours of it being added, suggesting that giving ad blockers a taste of their own medicine may not be the solution.

Article Link: http://mobilemarketingmagazine.com/yahoo-locks-ad-blockers-out-of-email/

Google Brings Programmatic to Native and Mobile Video

Google has introduced mobile video interstitials and native ad formats to its programmatic DoubleClick Ad Exchange, bringing these mobile-first ads to clients like eBay and others in a way that can use real-time bidding to ensure that the right audience is found for the best possible price.

The ads will available on Google’s open-auction and private marketplace, and will initially be limited to app-based ads before expanding to cross-screen native ads within the next few months.

eBay was among the firms who beta tested the new formats using programmatic, and the online marketplace saw strong results from its initial trials. The company recently rolled out its Native Mobile Programmatic solution, offering brands a new way to target consumers, and has seen a 260 per cent increase in ad engagement on average, with click-through rates of up to five per cent on some campaigns.

“We’re focused on leveraging DoubleClick’s technical footprint to bring scalability to our native mobile programmatic offering,” said Brian Brownie, director of US display operations & programmatic advertising at eBay. “Our success with desktop private marketplaces, backed by eBay insights, has unlocked massive client adoption and this next phase of mobile delivery is a continuation of the effort.”

The mobile video interstitials in apps that the DoubleClick Ad Exchange will offer are full-screen, immersive ads, making use of the higher engagement and click-through rates of video, as well as its popularity with marketers, to drive adoption of the new programmatic offering.

“Video is key to driving brand impact in the moments that matter, no matter where they occur,” said Jonathan Bellack, direct of product management at Google. “Together, these innovations help address a strong demand from ad buyers for native and mobile video formats that can be bought programmatically.”

Article Link: http://mobilemarketingmagazine.com/google-brings-programmatic-to-native-and-mobile-video/

JPMorgan Announces Apple Pay Competitor

The largest US bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co, has revealed it plans to launch its own competitor to Apple Pay that will enable customers to pay retailers using their smartphones in stores.

Chase Pay will allow for payments in-store, in-app and online, and already has the backing of the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), a consortium of US retailers including Walmart, Target, Best Buy and Shell.

The platform will use tokenisation technology, similar to Apple Pay and Google’s Android Pay, to ensure transactions are secure, and will reduce online checkouts accessed via mobile to a single click in some cases.

While Apple Pay’s high profile launch has seen it reach wide adoption, the mobile payments market in the US is still evolving, and the entry of a new player with strong credentials in the financial area will have tech companies worried, especially given the high-profile retailers that Chase has managed to secure.

Link: http://mobilemarketingmagazine.com/jpmorgan-announces-apple-pay-competitor/

Twitter Expands Pre-roll Video Ads

Publishers who post videos on Twitter will now be able to more effectively monetise their content by having Twitter add pre-roll video ads in front of the clips. This change will simplify the video advertising process dramatically, with advertisers no longer need to work with specific publishers. Instead, they will be able to simply choose a content category (along with any other targeting specifications) and Twitter will pair their ads with appropriate content.
This approach is very similar to YouTube’s pre-roll advertising, which enables content creators to monetise their videos. However, I believe it would be better Twitter to only focus on shorter ads, instead of 2-3 min ads which Youtube's currently focusing on, considering the typically fast-paced nature of Twitter.

Article Link: http://mobilemarketingmagazine.com/twitter-expands-pre-roll-video-ads/

The Top 7 Social Media Marketing Trends That Will Dominate 2016

While I agree with most of the trends below, some of them, like in the moment updates and buy buttons, may still be limited to niche segment customers. I have also seen an article that articulates negative aspects of buy buttons.

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The Top 7 Social Media Marketing Trends That Will Dominate 2016

Social media marketing has always been a peculiar animal. Since its early days, where platforms were finicky and critics insisted that social marketing was not a viable marketing strategy, we’re now witnesses to an era with rock-solid platforms, useful advertising options, and plenty of free opportunities to make our content public.

Still, the world of social media changes quickly, with dozens of new platforms arriving each year and most existing companies scrambling to stay ahead of the game with new features and innovations. If history and some recently emerging trends are any indication, 2016 will be a host for a variety of new trends and changes in the social scene.

1. In-the-moment updates will dominate. Social media is already “in-the-moment” by nature, but there are some posts that are more “in-the-moment” than others. For example, take Periscope, which was recently acquired by Twitter—it allows users to give a live video broadcast of some stretch of their lives. Compare that to simply taking a video and posting it later—Periscope users collectively watch 40 years of live video each and every day. Instagram and Snapchat also support on-the-go, in-the-moment updates as opposed to late-game retrospectives, and could collectively herald in a new era of immediacy in social media. If it catches on, you can forget about scheduling all your company’s social media posts in advance.

2. Buy buttons will take over. Facebook and Pinterest are just two of the platforms that gained attention this year by introducing new “buy” features for their advertisers and users. Mobile users of Facebook and Pinterest who see a product they like in a sponsored post can now use one click to purchase it, without ever leaving the app. Instagram isn’t far behind on the trend, and I imagine more social platforms will follow. By the end of 2016, most major social media brands will feature some kind of buy button naturally as an element of their advertising campaigns.

3. In-app functionality will diversify and spread.Facebook is the king of adding new functionality. In the past year, they’ve introduced Instant Articles (a new form of publishing), an in-post search engine (to find articles you’re referencing), and videos that play instantly when scrolling. Now, they’re developing their own digital assistant (though it’s technically a digital/human hybrid assistant). Other platforms are working similarly, with Twitter, Instagram, and others trying to expand their platforms to a similar degree, preventing users from ever leaving the app. Expect this trend to continue well into 2016, giving marketers ever more opportunities to engage with their audiences on one platform.

4. New publication options will be available.

Facebook’s Instant Articles are only the beginning. Publishers on board with the program can publish full-length articles to Facebook users, without having to link to an external source. As social platforms become more competitive and more aggressive about keeping users in-app for as long as possible, I imagine they’ll dream up even more sophisticated forms of publishing for businesses and organizations. Twitter’s upcoming Project Lightning puts publication in the hands of its users, but it still represents a dynamic way to present material to the public.

5. User privacy concerns will hit an all-time high.

After another year full of high-profile security breaches (like the one with Ashley Madison), user concerns over privacy are going to hit an all-time high. Snapchat’s explosive popularity is, in part, due to user demand for a more private, secure method of communication and engagement. Facebook is introducing more privacy awareness tools for its users, and it’s smart to do so, because as tension continues to rise, only platforms which offer a degree of privacy and security will continue to thrive. For advertisers, that might mean backing off of sometimes-intrusive forms of advertising.

6. Competition for organic visibility will increase.

Finally, as the ROI of social media marketing becomes more established and social marketing itself becomes more accessible for a wider range of businesses, there will be a greater level of competition for organic visibility. Already,Facebook is throttling organic visibility to force people to buy advertising, and as more businesses emerge in the market, that throttle will only increase, and among more social media channels. The cost of advertising, too, is set to rise over the course of the next year.

7. Fewer small platforms will emerge. 

For the last several years, we’ve seen at least a few dozen new social media platforms rise up and either blink out of existence just as quickly or settle in as a middle-of-the-road platform that never gets more attention but never really dies out. This past year, the trend has changed—platforms have tended to skyrocket in popularity to stand on their own, get enough attention to be acquired by one of the big three (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn), or die a quick death. In 2016, I expect we’ll see fewer small platforms as the big players race to gobble up the promising small fry, meaning you’ll have to worry about fewer up-and-coming opportunities.

I anticipate these trends will permeate the landscape of social media marketing, across multiple platforms and of course many audiences. Already, you can see platforms like Facebook and Twitter rushing toward these achievements at an alarming pace, but it’s the companies who adapt to these changes who stand to benefit the most. Prepare for these changes and beat your competition to the punch, and you’ll be rewarded with more visibility and a greater reputation.

Link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2015/09/28/the-top-7-social-media-marketing-trends-that-will-dominate-2016/

Digital Marketers Banking on Mobile, Social Channels

In this article, some statistics from Salesforce's research (survey of 5000 marketers worldwide) clearly states that marketers now view digital channels as the cornerstone of their strategy, and many of these channels now anchor marketing functions. 

According to the research, 45% of marketers plan to shift spending from traditional mass advertising to advertising on digital channels. The report looks at marketers’ top priorities across all digital channels, and how their budgets, metrics, and strategies are shifting to support their goals.

As part of the survey, Salesforce asked marketers to share their top challenges that they face while executing their strategy. And among the top concerns marketers worry about most is the need to constantly stay on top off all the new marketing technologies and emerging trends. 

The article also revealed some stark contrasts between marketing in 2014 and 2015 — significant changes for such a short period of time. In 2014, the top areas in which marketers planned to increase spend were scattered across multiple disciplines and disparate initiatives. In 2015, the top five areas are all tied to social and mobile channels.

According to the report, 78% of marketers today have integrated mobile into their overall strategy, and 46% rate mobile website or app traffic as the most important mobile marketing metric. The Salesforce report singles out two specific mobile opportunities: loyalty and location-based campaigns. Marketers running mobile-based loyalty campaigns say they are extremely effective. They also recommend that you don’t wait any longer to test location-based content. “The consumer appetite for location-based content is there,” says Salesforce. “You just need to discover how your business can respectfully and relevantly use customer locations to create a more cohesive journey in the real world as much as in the online world.”

Social media is no longer seen as the fringe marketing outlet that it once was. In the study, 66% of marketers rated social media as core to their business. 78% have a dedicated social media team, up from 57% in 2014. Salesforce says it’s time to get serious about social, and test new channels. you need to invest the resources — both headcount and budget — to support social as a viable channel. If you’re not yet seeing significant business results from social, they recommend starting small and focusing on just one platform. What’s the one channel where your social audience is most responsive? Direct more resources to growing that space instead of spreading your efforts too thin.

Link to full article:
http://thefinancialbrand.com/54470/digital-mobile-social-media-marketing/