Snapchat Launches Discover

Snapchat isn't just for silly videos and photos anymore. They have officially launched Discover, a new way for media companies to publish content for Snapchat users. Discover will allow Snapchatters to access special content which will only be available for a limited amount of time, keeping in line with the app's general theme. Currently, content is available from media outlets like ESPN, National Geographic, People, and Cosmopolitan and features interactive articles and photos designed specifically for the app.

Snapchat Discover Media Platform

This is the first time outside media creators have been able to post content to the app, but it is not Snapchat's first attempt at monetizing its service. Already companies have begun to leverage the popularity of Snapchat by posting advertisements as "snaps" to users' apps alongside other user generated content.

It will be some time before we see whether Snapchat's new move is a win, but for the time being, it is one more digital door allowing media companies to deliver content (and thus market to) users.

Saatchi Art Gallery and its new mobile presence

http://news.artnet.com/in-brief/saatchi-arts-mobile-app-virtually-hangs-artworks-in-users-living-room-196036

Saatchi Art Gallery's mobile app virtually hangs artworks in user's living room. I'm telling you - if this cracks through social media platforms, the art world will transform! Already, Instagram is taking the role of catalogues in auction houses and galleries, and the art connoisseurs are discussing how to regulate this. In the midst of all this rapid transformation, this new application exemplifies an unprecedented way to engage audience in the art world via digital marketing.

The art world before the mobile app and digital marketing is outdated now; we must now pay attention to the innovative methods of targeting and engaging audience in the art world.

Tumblr Expands Sponsored Capabilities

Tumblr has introduced “Tumblr Sponsored Apps,” a new mobile ad unit to attract more advertising dollars. The new ad unit will allow publishers to target the Tumblr community with creative sponsored posts that are designed to encourage users to download mobile apps from the iTunes App Store and Google Play through an “Install App” button.

The main difference between Facebook and Twitter’s mobile app install ads and “Tumblr Sponsored Apps” posts is that Tumblr’s posts are overlaid with an “Install [the app]” call to action. These posts will initially show up on mobile users’ dashboards, but will also be displayed as regular posts on Desktop without the “Install” message. Essentially desktop users can still organically see the sponsored posts associated with the ad and will be able to further reblog or share the content.

Max Sebela, creative strategy manager at Tumblr explained, “The core is that the native functionality allows marketers to talk to the community the same way any advertiser would be able to on Tumblr. Users don’t just download the app, but they can also share the content that is treated like other posts on Tumblr.”

The platform debuted “Tumblr Sponsored Apps” with three business partners: Gree, Big Fish, and TwoDots, all of which are gaming companies. In addition to the sponsored posts and mobile app ads, Tumblr will test a variety of ad formats in the “Tumblr Sponsored Apps” program to gauge its online community’s interest.

Tumblr says currently it has 400 million global monthly unique users, and 65% of its users access content through the mobile app. Its total mobile engagement has grown 84% year-over-year.

Sources: Tumblr, TechCrunch, ClickZ

Yik Yak Raises another $62 Million For Anonymous Messaging App

As discussed in class this week, Yik Yak has recently raised $62 million in their latest round of financing. This is the third round of venture capital fundraising in the past seven months, bringing their total funding to nearly $73 million. This is extremely promising for a start-up that was only introduced a year ago, especially as funders include Jim Goetz, who also recently invested in WhatsApp when they themselves were relatively unknown in 2011. Since then, we all know that WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook earlier this year for over $21 billion.

Yik Yak is an anonymous messaging app that allows individuals to create and view posts from those that are within a 1.5 mile radius, and has been gaining popularity at high schools and college campuses across the country. This proximity-based requirement is what differentiates the apps from similar platforms such as PostSecret and Whisper that offer the sharing of messages to anyone using the app, regardless of location. Though there was quite a bit of backlash a few months ago regarding the opportunities these anonymous platforms open up to cyberbullying (including a piece written for The Huffington Post on “Why Your College Campus Should Ban Bullying”, Yik Yak claims to use geofencing to eliminate this, essentially “fencing off” certain areas such as middle and high schools, and disabling the app in those specified locations. 

For those of you, like myself, who are completely new to the Yik Yak world, here's some terms you should know:

• Yak: A single message that is posted (essentially an anonymous Tweet).
• Yakarma: A numerical score that measures the "success" of a user. The score fluctuates based on the number of up/down votes, replies and comments (kind of like your Klout Score, for people who remember when that was the next big thing).
• Upvote/Downvote: User rankings. Yaks can receive unlimited upvotes, but only 5 downvotes before it is permanently deleted from Yik Yak.
• Peek: This feature gives you the ability to anonymously view other Yik Yak community feeds. Essentially, you can peek into what's going on at Columbia University even if you're not within the 1.5 mile radius, but you don't have the ability to vote or post there yourself. You can peek into any college or city across the world. 
• New/Hot Tabs: While the app defaults to showing the newest Yak on top, you can toggle this setting to show the "hottest" Yak (aka the one with the most number of upvotes in the past hour).

Learn a little more about the Yik Yak platform and their most recent round of funding. 

What do you think? Are anonymous messaging sites here to stay, or are they just the newest fad that's sure to pass?

Toro helps developers manage and market apps on Facebook

Two co-founders of MyMiniLife, a startup key in creating Farmville and later acquired by Zynga, have now launched a new app-marketing product called Toro (under Red Hot Labs). Toro is focused on helping developers and the like more easily manage and optimize app install advertising campaigns on Facebook. Toro is able to generate a large array of ad variations for a given campaign, A/B test these campaigns to determine the winning ads, and subsequently adjust budgets in real-time so money is used in an optimal fashion. This means less time managing and optimizing campaigns for the developers and product team. In many ways, Toro is the Google Adwords for Facebook (although it offers a narrower use case).



The duo's focus on building a self-serve ad-tech product for Facebook versus other platforms follows their recognition of the ability to (easily) target users on Facebook given the wealth of user data. Next, the team looks to expand beyond driving app installs to building user engagement tools off of Toro in the near future. Toro has already secured clients covering the gaming industry, social discovery services, and mobile search and seems to be a promising tool as it claims to be able to cut user acquisition costs for a mobile user by 40 percent. Even more exciting are the fees being charged to customers, which are arguably lower than competitive products including Facebook's Ad Manager and Native Tools. The current revenue model for Toro follows a usage-based fee model, charging ~5% of marketing spend beyond a $1000/mo threshold. Customers can visit Toro's website today and try the product for free.

The company is also tapping into a mobile advertising market that is growing quickly, with companies spending more than half of their mobile ad budget on Facebook alone; Facebook experienced a 41% increase in mobile ad revenue in the last quarter. Only time will tell how quickly Toro takes off, but the company faces a promising start with strong VC-backing.

Source: Techcrunch; VentureBeat; usetoro.com

Can Urban get its cool back?

If you haven’t heard the term “omnichannel retailing”, then you’re missing out. Urban Outfitters is attempting to really integrate its marketing efforts in this way. The brand has been struggling a tad, and now the retailer is trying to get its cool back through mobile marketing.

Urban is putting beacons in 15 stores in Philly, Boston, New York, Atlanta, New Jersey, and Delaware. What are beacons you ask? They are small devices placed around the stores that ping messages to shoppers who have the app on their mobile phones. Swirl, the platform that powers the beacons, says that 2/3 of customers shop in-store with a smartphone so hopefully this will work well. 

Urban won’t be pinging shoppers with offers, but instead will focus on Urban’s loyalty program. The loyalty program is a section in the app that gives customers rewards and access to events. To start, Urban has identified 3 areas to focus on: 1) the entrance, 2) the fitting rooms, and 3) the checkout line. 

When shoppers first come in to the store, they receive a push notification that encourages shoppers to check-in on social media so they can unlock a special offer. Once they are trying clothes on in the fitting room, shoppers are prompted to take selfies and post them on Insta with Urban's popular hashtag #UOonYou and the selfie might even get put on Urban’s website. At payment time, shoppers get another push notification to show the loyalty card on their phone to earn a digital badge.

My concerns are:

1) Will shoppers download the app?

2) Will those who have downloaded the app actually use it?

3) Will the pinging get annoying?

Either way, pretty cool idea!

Domino's new voice-ordering solution: Dom

 

In the article "Forget Siri, Domino's Wants You to Meet Dom" ,Maureen Morrison empathize the novelty of Domino's voice-ordering app: Dom. Domino's is the first player in the restaurant industry that offers the  voice-ordering capability in an app. This moves reinforces Domino's commitment to technology, in the past the company has also unveiled a pizza tracker that allowed online customers to track the progress of their pizza from when it goes to the oven to when it's on its way for delivery.

 

Besides functionality, Domino's hope consumers to find Dom funny and easy to use. According to a Domino's statement, "Dom is available for a variety of personalized ordering needs – which include taking an order for carryout or delivery, handling saved Easy Orders, suggesting additions to a meal and finding coupons for the best deals. Whatever the ordering need, he is available and ready."

 

As mobile becomes the key channel for marketers, I consider Domino's strategy highly accurate to engage their customers while offering services with additional value. The highest challenge after launching Dom's app, would be maintaining the constant use of it and providing updates to increase its relevance over time.

 

 

Source: Morrison, M (2014, October 5). Forget Siri, Domino's Wants You to Meet Dom. Ad age

 

 

Is the Spring app the best future of e-commerce for brands?

How often do we see something on Instagram, Twitter or Pinterest and want to buy? I personally had a number of times when I wanted to buy something nice but couldn't do it easily and gave up. Entrepreneur and investor David Tisch has spent a year and a half building a startup that is betting that mobile shopping would be easy. 

“People love social media, but when brands come in, it gets awkward,” Tisch says. “We think that the best shopping experience is not user-generated content and brands then jumping in, but how to capture that feeling of walking 5th Avenue or your favorite mall.”

The new Spring app connects to the company’s own back-end system like Shopify and Magento and takes a cut “much less” than the 8-12% typically for affiliate fees. Offer free shipping and that fee gets cut in half, and Spring takes a smaller cut on exclusives, too.

Every item on the app has to be for immediate sale. You can browse for fun, but if Spring’s working, you’ll actually act on what you see. That means it’s critical to be able to check something out quickly and move on. Dissatisfied with that process, Tisch got his engineers to add a feature late in development: a Tinder-like swipe-down function that immediately takes you out of a product and back to the main group. It’s quick and impulsive to look at in item and move on, but you’re always a touch from buying.

That said, Spring looks a lot like Instagram but slicked-up. Tisch says he doesn’t want the app to be a repository for discount deals or clearance items–the hope is for pushing new launches and exclusives. Eventually, the app will have personal customization within the brands you follow as Spring learns what you like. 

More important than those features will be the group of brands committed to the app. Spring’s name is inspired by the diversity of stores on Spring Street in New York’s SoHo neighborhood, and its launched with 100 brands that run the gamut from Alice + Olivia to Carolina Herrera, Everlane and Citizens of Humanity. Stalwarts like Hugo Boss , Levi’s and Theory are on board, as well as trendier companies like Rag & Bone and Warby Parker. Another 350 are in the pipeline; for some, it’s their first way to sell direct.

As it currently stands, Spring has a few issues:

• First is the infrequency of content flowing through the app
• They are missing the kind of community that Instagram has attracted, a lot of which stems from people and brands sharing a much wider range of content than product imagery alone
• The seasonal schedule on which most designers operate. Even with the rise of pre-collections, there is going to be downtime and Spring will have to work hard to keep its stream fluid during the off-seasons

Finally, an immense challenge for Spring: convincing brands that their best shot is to let Spring control their customers’ shopping experience on mobile, which is undoubtedly the future of e-commerce. For brands to cede this kind of control to Spring seems like a huge leap of faith, especially in an industry as creative and fast-paced as fashion. 

As a result, perhaps brands will invest more seriously in their own e-commerce initiatives for mobile. This will generate some healthy competition for Spring, which will keep both parties on their toes.

Source: http://www.businessoffashion.com/2014/09/op-ed-sizing-spring-instagram-like-shopping-app.html; http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2014/08/14/how-david-tischs-new-app-spring-looks-to-crack-mobile-shopping/

Absolut-ly Fabulous

Reading Sophia's post title "An alcohol brand that knows how to engage young people..." reminded me of when I was younger...a time when you needed a quarter to make a phone call….a time when the library was your main source of information…a time when a former actor lived in the White House…life seemed simpler then….

This is a two part posting about Absolut Vodka of Sweden. The first part deals with the advertising campaign and the second speaks to the product variety.

PART 1: Absolut-ly Engaged: Engagement through Media Campaigns of Absolut Vodka

Absolut Vodka is a longtime believer of simplicity, ingenuity and innovation, as it related to the product and its process of continuous distillation and the bottle which resembles a 19th Century Pharmacy Bottle or its campaigns and artistic vision – by focusing on the bottle through art, fashion, music and everything else…Absolut worked with creative thinking people in all fields creating an “absolut world’ including Andrew Warhol >> Hirst >> Britto >> Blecker >> Ford >> Gaultier >> Newton

Absolut Timing
In 15th Century, the vodka distiller industry was growing and maturing.
In 1879, Lars Olsson Smith invented a new distillation method that is sill in use today.
In 1979, Absolut began exporting their vodka to the US after their improving and refining the vodka..
In 1981, Absolut began it longest and non-stop running campaign, selling 20,000 cases annually in the US
In 1985, Absolut is No1 in US, selling 444,000 cases in the US
In between, although I was not yet old enough to drink, I was old enough to initiate my collection of ads ripped from the magazines.
In 1995, Absolut was selling more than 3,000,000 cases annually in the US, by this time, I was able to contribute to their success.
Today, the Absolut trend of Ad Campaigns continues. One can keep up with the latest limited edition releases by visiting http://www.absolutads.com/.

Over the years, http://www.absolut.com/us has evolved with the changing landscape while staying true to its core in creating an “absolut world’ through an expanded reach online and across the world. With its website and mobile apps rich with drink recipes and links to their limited edition bottles and flavors, as well as a host of stories – whether a TV show, a short film or other worldwide engagement to the customer. The graphic above incorporates the current variety and creativity of Absolut’s media arm....To Be Continued....

Email marketing more effective than apps

Following our discussion in class about advertising on smartphones, it is interesting to come across this article in Equi Media about how mobile marketing is more effective than apps.
The article specifically mentions a study conducted by ExactTarget that found Email to be the most powerful form of mobile marketing, for driving online shopping.
Personally, I think it says more about email marketing than about mobile marketing.
I believe the data regarding what drives people to purchase is naturally, as we discussed in class about Email, that it is one of the most basic and successful forms of advertising and marketing. Also, we must take into consideration that most people read their emails over the phone these days.
Although these results should be taken into consideration when deciding whether developing an app is necessary for a company, more than anything I believe this is another reaffirmation of the power of Email.