babelfish: articles may2013 - july 2013 15-7-13

Babelfish Articles May 2013 - July 2013 15-7-13

Articles

May 2013 - July 2013

Brian [email protected]

Summary8 Management Lessons From A Great Boss............................................................................8

Brands Can Learn From Moms How To Create Content...........................................................8

Australians spend at least one hour a week shopping for a deal............................................9

The Mobile App & Shopper Happiness...................................................................................10

The new rules of the hyper-social, data-driven, actor-friendly, super-seductive platinum age of television........................................................................................................................... 11

Venda de tablets cresce 164% no 1º trimestre do ano no Brasil..........................................14

Social media generates ROI..................................................................................................14

Telefônica/Vivo vai lançar publicidade móvel através de SMS geolocalizado.......................14

Don't Advertise Unless You Need To.....................................................................................14

Wible's Weekly - SVOD Overlap, TV Everywhere Improvements, and COPPA Complication..15

Online Video's Growing Pains................................................................................................16

Mobile devices take more viewing time................................................................................17

DSPs: Still Not Enough..........................................................................................................17

Unilever, Mondelez test new ad tool.....................................................................................18

TV operators tap viewer data................................................................................................18

Future is bright for Australian OOH.......................................................................................19

Cannes 2013 Video: Proximity BBDO - Work That's Social by Design...................................19

Toyota Injects Too Much Of Itself In "Meals Per Hour"...........................................................19

These Speech Patterns Irritate the $#@* Out of Everyone Around You................................20

Unilever, Mondelez test new ad tool.....................................................................................21

BlackBerry anuncia prejuízo e que não atualizará SO do Playbook.......................................21

Venda de PCs em queda; tablets ganham liderança.............................................................22

How Meeker’s ‘Internet Trends 2013′ Became the Most-Viral Deck on SlideShare..............23

BBDO and Proximity Networks win the Grand Prix for Good and 98 other Lions at Cannes. .23

Making Big Data Work for Your Organization........................................................................24

Pandora hits 2.5M in-car activations, will come in a third of new vehicles sold in the US this year....................................................................................................................................... 24

Marketing gap exposed.........................................................................................................25

Showrooming ratios favour Amazon.....................................................................................25

18–29-Year-Olds Use Their Phones Totally Different From Older People...............................26

The effect of engagement with social media on purchase behaviors....................................26

5 reasons to benchmark costs and why agencies should not be worried..............................35

How To Rescue Unhappy Mobile Video Consumers...............................................................36

Mobile Broadcast TV Users Mostly Dyle News Programming, Study Finds Daytime Is Mobile Prime-Time............................................................................................................................ 37

Omnicom, Not WPP Or Publicis, Dominates Madison Avenue's Tech Story...........................37

Samsung faz a festa viral com Usher e Jay-Z........................................................................37

Consumers show mixed views on data.................................................................................38

Shopping Then and Now: Five Ways Retail Has Changed and How Businesses Can Adapt...38

A Fool and Their Data are Soon Parted.................................................................................40


Brasil consome mais notícias online.....................................................................................41

Fox investe nos 'hábitos da classe C' para crescer no país...................................................44

How Happy Is Your Organization?.........................................................................................46

Smartphones take off in UK...................................................................................................47

I Miss The Old Purchase Funnel.............................................................................................47

Coming Soon: Intel's Must-See TV.........................................................................................51

The Ultimate Trojan Horse: Game Boxes Take Entertainment's Center Stage......................51

Google Heightens Focus On Attribution Metrics For Marketers.............................................52

The First Wave of gTLDs Are Coming - Are You Ready?........................................................53

Nielsen Studies 'Multi-Sensory' Differences Between Young and Old....................................54

It's OK to be blamed for your co-worker's mistake................................................................54

O acesso à web atingiu 49% da população brasileira; uso de dispositivos móveis é tendência.............................................................................................................................................. 55

No Brasil, 40% das residências têm acesso à internet, aponta pesquisa..............................56

Why Mobile Advertising Has Quadrupled in Brazil.................................................................56

The Content that Brazilians Share the Most on Social Media................................................57

'I'm Not A Businessman, I'm A Business, Man'......................................................................57

In a Shift, Facebook Says It Will Make All Ads Social.............................................................58

Brazil drives LatAm adspend growth.....................................................................................58

Mídias tornaram-se técnicos, estrategistas e criativos..........................................................59

VivaKi Struggles For Reinvention in Digitally Savvy Publicis Network...................................60

Loducca usa tecnologia para otimizar ROI............................................................................61

Pay Attention To This New Audience Segment, If You Have Any...........................................61

Brasil registra mais de 14 milhões de celulares vendidos no trimestre................................62

A POV on Facebook’s new hashtag function.........................................................................62

The Smarter Data Manifesto.................................................................................................63

Your Data Was Never Yours..................................................................................................65

Local Link Building: An Easy Win...........................................................................................65

Google takes over half of mobile adspend............................................................................67

Fans Crush Brands When It Comes to YouTube....................................................................68

Big Cable Offering Producers Incentives to Stay Off the Web...............................................68

Mobile já responde por 7% da audiência dos sites de notícias, diz IVC.................................69

Marketing Technology Map...................................................................................................70

Mondelez International identifies the path to mobile success...............................................70

Oreo's "cookie or cream" campaign on Instagram engaged consumers...............................71

Let's Go Surfing Now…..........................................................................................................71

Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2012–2017.....72

Social TV and the Network Approach....................................................................................83

Kantar, TNS Want TRA's Case Against Rapid View Service Dismissed..................................84

Millennial Viewers Prefer Cross-Platform TV..........................................................................84

Ideas for Getting Started With Measurement Planning.........................................................85

Online video can challenge TV..............................................................................................85

Stop Starving Online Video And Start Feasting On ROI.........................................................86


The Gamification Of Email.....................................................................................................86

Ten surprising reasons you're tired.......................................................................................87

Omnichannel is the future.....................................................................................................88

CMO Council study: Content has significant impact on buying process................................89

Will NSA Revelations Bring Added Privacy Pressure To Ad Biz?............................................89

Xaxis' Lesser: The Sun Never Sets On WPP's Trading Empire...............................................89

STUDY: The State of Social Marketing – Vision, purpose and value drive a new era of digital engagement.......................................................................................................................... 90

A QR Code Walks Into A Zoo.................................................................................................96

Using Mobile to Help Consumers Buy In-Store......................................................................96

Data-Driven Tech Industry Is Shaken by Online Privacy Fears..............................................97

Meet PRISM / US-984XN - The US Government's Internet Espionage Super Operation.........99

Ideas for Getting Started With Measurement Planning.......................................................101

Estudo da PricewatershouseCoopers prevê que a receita dos jornais norte-americanos permanecerá em queda até 2017.......................................................................................102

A difícil missão de transmitir o significado emocional das marcas......................................103

The difficult task of conveying the emotional significance of brands..................................104

Facebook Drops 'Sponsored Stories' As It Pares Down Ad Formats.....................................105

Mobile devices attract TV viewers.......................................................................................105

How to increase your Facebook Post Engagement..............................................................106

Climbing The Slippery Slope Of Advertising........................................................................109

Social TV Ratings – Why Advertisers Should Be Careful Of What They Wish For.................110

Online Video Trumps TV In Engagement, Ad Shifts.............................................................111

DoubleClick Integrates Support For Native Ads, Brand Integration.....................................111

Is Quartz the Very Model of a Modern Publisher?................................................................112

Why gamification is serious business..................................................................................113

Guess who controls the future of TV...................................................................................117

Will Twitter Cards Revolutionize Lead Gen?........................................................................124

US digital adspend soars.....................................................................................................124

If Content Is King, Multiscreen Is The Queen, Says New Google Study...............................125

Kids Are Lying Little Weasels Who Lie: Study......................................................................127

As T/V Fragmentation Explodes, Need for Aggregation Increases.......................................127

DOOH Shines In Emergencies.............................................................................................128

Ad-ID for a Cross-Screen World...........................................................................................129

Get More Bang for Your Buck With Native Video Apps........................................................130

In Brazil, Be Careful What You Wish For..............................................................................131

Wearables and Sensors Big Topics at All Things D..............................................................133

SmartThings Mobile app (screen shot from company video)..............................................134

Sorry, Brands…Your Digital Agencies are Lying to You.......................................................137

The 11 Most Fascinating Charts From Mary Meeker's Epic Slideshow of Internet Trends. . .139

Research shows increase in marriage failures once children leave the home....................144

Mapping the Customer Journey with Social Intelligence......................................................146

5 Sparkling Ideas for Integrating User-Generated Content Marketing.................................148


Where Are Your Readers Really Coming From?...................................................................149

gTLDs' Analytics and Big Data Impact on Brands' Marketing Strategies.............................150

Heineken utiliza Vine para produzir replays da final da Champions....................................151

Twitter Launches TV Ad Targeting, Twitter Amplify For Real-Time Videos In Stream..........152

The Shift to Constant Connectivity......................................................................................155

Consumers fine with promos-for-freebies exchange...........................................................157

Nielsen Taps IBM's Watson for Measurement and Media Planning......................................157

Showrooming Overhyped, Mobile Key To Shopping Purchases...........................................158

Google introduces cash by email function..........................................................................159

Brasil ultrapassa 100 milhões de acessos de banda larga. Rede 4G já computa mais de 50 mil....................................................................................................................................... 159

Mobile já responde por 7% da audiência dos sites de notícias, diz IVC...............................160

Globo muda relação com Facebook - Novas regras da rede social geram questionamentos da emissora......................................................................................................................... 165

Preparing the Next Generation of Chief Marketers..............................................................167

Worlds Collide: The New Data-Focused CMOs and Their CIO Counterparts.........................168

No future for digital agencies..............................................................................................169

Social Media and Digital Agencies Will Vanish Within Ten Years Say Next Generation of Marketers............................................................................................................................ 169

Video RTB: Is An Impression An Impression An Impression?...............................................173

Crafting Moments: Mobile As A Reflex, Not A Medium........................................................173

When Is It Pointless To Advertise?.......................................................................................175

The Future of Media, as Seen at Internet Week..................................................................175

Excuses............................................................................................................................... 178

Social Media Calendar: A How To Approach........................................................................178

Do New Business Metrics Need To Convince Consumers To Watch Entertainment On New Platforms?........................................................................................................................... 179

Dish Debuts Social App, Pushes Viewers To Hopper DVR Unit............................................180

Top Charts in Google Trends—The most searched people, places and things....................180

Mary Meeker Predicts Wearable Computing Is The Next Phase - Here's Why.....................182

Two Out of Three Marketers Doubt Facebook Ad Effectiveness..........................................183

Venda de tablets deve superar a de PCs em 2015..............................................................183

Social media influences video choice..................................................................................184

TIM inicia testes com cartão de débito via NFC...................................................................184

Hearst Is the Latest Publisher to Jump On Native Ad Trend................................................185

When Will There Be One Metric for All Screens?.................................................................186

Turn Report Shows A 15 Percent Increase In Display Ad Costs And A 45 Percent Drop In Mobile................................................................................................................................. 187

Why Marketers Need To Think 'Audience First'...................................................................188

Google Mobile App Tracking, Remarketing Tools On The Way............................................188

Can YouTube Eclipse Facebook?.........................................................................................189

Measurement Challenges Abound As Marketing Ecosystem Evolves..................................190

Moving from Big Data into an Era of Smart Data................................................................191

A Performance Marketing Checklist for Small Advertisers...................................................192


From Clicks to Bricks: Online Retailers Dabble in Physical Stores.......................................193

Sports Illustrated Starts Live, Daily Half-Hour Video Show..................................................194

Latin American e-commerce grows.....................................................................................196

Five ways technology has failed us.....................................................................................196

Tween Girls Susceptible To Mobile Advertising...................................................................199

The Rush to Go Live With Mobile.........................................................................................199

Nearly everything you think you know about strategy and innovation is wrong.................200

Retail Success Still Depends on Core Principles..................................................................205

"Why shopping will never be the same," Retailers underuse customer data......................214

Three Lessons Digital Video Advertisers Should Learn from Direct Marketing....................214

The Number One Reason Kids Don’t Need Facebook? They Literally Don’t Need Facebook............................................................................................................................................. 215

Why some brands become uncool......................................................................................216

Double iPhone screen with Popslate...................................................................................217

Why events are the last bastion of integrated marketing...................................................218

How Walmart's mobile-led strategy drives a seamless shopper experience.......................219

Magazine Luiza want to include NFC in SIMcard with your brand........................................222

The Perils Of Google Glass..................................................................................................222

Why John McCain Is Trying To Blow Up The Cable Industry.................................................223

Yahoo Adds Tweets To News Feed......................................................................................224

Marketing-Mix Models Get Pushback As Media Landscape Changes Advertising Research Foundation To Look Into ROI Standard................................................................................224

Meredith Expands Program Guaranteeing Sales Lift for Big Advertisers.............................226

Content Curation: The Big Picture.......................................................................................226

Financial Services: The Mobile Vertical to Watch................................................................228

Start Listening: Why Testing Alone Isn't the Answer...........................................................228

The Tragic Beauty of Google+............................................................................................229

Agencies get incentivised...................................................................................................231

Pesquisa sobre o uso de hashtags no Instagram................................................................231

Car Paint, Heal Thyself........................................................................................................234

Scarcity is the problem By Sam Thielman...........................................................................235

The Most Important Thing In The Digital Age......................................................................236

'Loyalize' Customers by Remembering Their Needs...........................................................236

YouTube pay channels get mixed reaction.........................................................................237

How to tell if a couple will get divorced..............................................................................238

9 Predictions: Media Guy Sees The Future and It Ain't Pretty.............................................239

Why Persuasive Technology Just Might Redefine Advertising.............................................240

Will Target's Cartwheel Start Social, Mobile Revolution?....................................................240

For Auto Buyers, Online Reviews' Influence Rivals Professional Opinions...........................241

The One Infographic About the Digital Revolution You Need to Understand.......................244

MEC Launches Digital..........................................................................................................247

Spotlight On Brazil: RTB Gaining Ground In A Diverse Advertising Market..........................247

In Content Era, What’s the Role of Agencies?.....................................................................251


Survey Points To RTB's Growth...........................................................................................252

Tablets Grab Nearly Half of Mobile RTB Share Worldwide...................................................252

Será que agora até o Google paga bônus por volume (BV) no Brasil?................................253

Augmented Reality & the Move to the World of Flat Surfaces.............................................254

The Data Made Me Do It The next frontier for big data is the individual.............................255

Mobile Path To Purchase Starting At Searches Becomes Clearer........................................256

Facebook looks to video ads as it seeks new revenue streams..........................................257

14 Telling Signs You Love Your Job......................................................................................257

Nissan plans "scientific" marketing.....................................................................................259

Study - Understanding the Effect of Digital Signage in the Casino......................................260

How to Save the Life of Any Meeting..................................................................................260

5 Free Excel Add-Ins to Help Digital Marketers Decipher Big Data......................................260

Marketing in 2013 - Ads Are Only the Beginning.................................................................262

Financial Times 2013 special report on Digital & Social Media Marketing...........................265

The Easy Way to Create a Video Testimonial......................................................................272

Cross-platform marketing grows.........................................................................................273

Celebrity Endorsements are Dead, Long Live the Celebrity Endorsement..........................274

Moms Dote On Social Networks..........................................................................................275

DoubleVerify Uncovers Ad Fraud Tied to Copyright Infringement Sites, Costing Online Advertisers $6.8M Per Month..............................................................................................276

Video Convergence Is Here: Adapt Or Face Extinction........................................................278

Streaming Media Devices Rising, Connected TVs Lag In Online Use...................................279

What Does Programmatic Ad Buying Mean In A Cross-Media World?..................................279

Advertisers face IMC challenges.........................................................................................280

The Three Stages Of Funding A Startup..............................................................................281

Mobile Soars, But Future Appears Multiscreen....................................................................282

Advertising 2020.................................................................................................................283

This Is Why Advertisers Need to Get Serious About Video Embrace new formats...............284

Email Before Breakfast -- And Other Trends........................................................................285

SMG Strikes Exclusive 1-Year Deal For Online Video Optimization, Works Like A TV Optimizer............................................................................................................................................ 286

Havas Media, DG Ad Partnership Crosses TV, Online..........................................................287


8 Management Lessons From A Great BossOn Wednesday this week we will gather to mark the retirement of Jack Klues from the Publicis Groupe.

In a 35 plus year career, Jack spun out Leo Burnett Media into Starcom, managed its merger with Mediavest to form Starcom Mediavest Group, oversaw Publicis Groupe Media which combined Zenith Optimedia and SMG after being acquired by Publicis and along with David Kenny at first and then alone, headed VivaKi which combined Publicis Groupe’s media assets and the digital giants Digitas and Razorfish.

When he stepped down as CEO at the end of 2012 to take on a six-month transitory stint as VivaKi’s Chairman, VivaKi accounted for nearly 40 percent of Publicis Groupe revenue and over 60% of its growth. Jack was also the only American on a five member Publicis Board of Directors.

And as a last act he along with Maurice Levy, re-engineered VivaKi despite its success to position it for the next few years in a networked global world where collaboration will be an essential requirement since no one company will be able to do it all.

Not bad for a guy from Quincy Illinois.

I have worked directly for Jack for the past 15 years Jack has become not just a boss but also a mentor and a friend. Most importantly he taught me, as he has done so many others, some of the most important management lessons. Here are a few:

1. There is no substitute for hard work: Jack was always on and always in. He is wickedly smart but does not rest on his laurels and is continuously involved and focused on work. (While making sure he always spent time with his priority one his family) . He never called it in. Tim Ferris and all those books of 4-hour workweeks and stuff are full of absolute shit. If you want to do well you have to work your butt off. Period. Even if you are supposedly smart.

2. Constantly learn and keep upgrading your skills: One of the things Jack had me do every four or five months was to organize a “mind expanding trip” to expose him to people, firms, concepts that he had never seen or thought off. From Atom Shockwave Films, who were a pioneer in digital video and flash animation production a decade ago to Blue Fin Labs long before anyone knew who they were to folks whose sole mission was to destroy our business model, he saw and learned from them all.

3. Integrity and your word is everything: Jack hates losing. But he will not win at any cost. Integrity, fair play, transparency are his touchstones. If he makes a commitment he will keep it. No ifs or buts.

4. Be accessible and encourage challenges:A case can be made that Jack was one of the three most powerful and busiest men at Publicis Groupe, but you could always see him and tell him what was on your mind. If you were a student, a start up, a nitwit or someone who wanted to sell him an idea, he always found time to meet folks. There were no chiefs of staffs or bevy of executive assistants to shoo away people. His belief was it was essential for him to learn, to listen, to be available. Most importantly he encouraged people to challenge him. You always respected Jack but you never feared Jack.

5. Always take ideas to Clients and always tell them what you think: Jack loves Clients and getting involved in their business. He always was thinking about ideas for them and while very respectful often told them very inconvenient truths. He respects Clients but he cared that they respect him.

6. Your success is mostly not because of you: Jack believes that his success was due to a combination of many factors a majority that had little to do with him. First, it was the talent around him. Second, it was the company he was working for (Jack always kept company first and never became bigger than the company), third it was the prestige of the Clients he got to do work with and finally a lot of it was pure luck and timing. To this day, I never take any body that believes they are superstars who have achieved it all them selves seriously. Never forget where you came from and all those who helped you.

7. Celebrate the team and make stars of your people: Jack has over the years nurtured hundreds of talented people who he not only gave opportunities to but also put them in the spotlight. His belief was the more people he made stars around him it reflected not only the reality of their contributions, but allowed him to attract even more great folks

8. Put others first. Be Generous: Jack always thinks of others. He also gives back to charity like the Off The Street Club and to the University of Illinois among others. It’s never about Jack. It’s about the team and The Company.

Let me end with a story.

About 11 years ago we were involved in a critical pitch. Due to weather all flights had been cancelled from Chicago and Jack had got a private plane to fly us out from Urbana Champaign. I finished attending my elder daughters middle school graduation late in the evening and caught a train to Urbana where I arrived at a fog bound station at midnight.

In the gloom of the deserted station sat Jack Klues who said, “ After this long trip I thought you would need a ride to the hotel”

Brands Can Learn From Moms How To Create ContentBy Holly Pavlika Friday, July 5, 2013

According to eConsultancy and Outbrain, 42% of companies say they lack the human resources and the budget (35%) for content marketing. And a study by Curata revealed creating original content is seen as the biggest challenge for 69% of content marketers. But today’s social media moms are masters at coming up with the content they need to manage their multi-channel brands.

And brands challenged by content creation can learn a lot from them.

1. Crowdsourcing article ideas: moms will join forces and crowdsource an idea and cross promote on their owned channels extending their reach beyond just their own channels. Brands can select 3-4 employees to easily crowdsource material for the company blog.


2. Commenting on news and trends: many bloggers have Google Alerts in place for topics they write about. Brands should have alerts on their competitors.

3. Using/creating great infographics: more and more moms are creating or using infographics and sharing them on not only their blogs, but curating them on Pinterest.

4. Interviewing local people who are newsworthy: moms reach out people in their local communities to create relevant localized content.

5. Interviewing fellow bloggers: this is an easy way in which moms get content and leverage the interviewee’s social graph and reach.

6 Do article exchanges: moms will bargain with each other for guest post exchanges. Businesses can do the same by sharing thought leadership with non-competitors.

7. Curate lists: search any site and you will see curated lists on everything from top bloggers to sites and apps they recommend.

8. Scoop.it: many bloggers use Scoop.it to stay on top of topic areas relevant for their readership. It’s a great place for businesses to stay current and get ideas for articles and commentary.

9. Ask readers: most bloggers at some point will ask their audience what they want to see.

10. Recycle and update old posts: a trick many of the renown bloggers will use. Good content gets buried, but there’s nothing wrong with uncovering it, updating it and re-posting the good ones.

11. Capture everything: with Vine or now Instagram, it’s easy to create short video. And visual content gets the best engagement so do what bloggers do: carry a camera, camera phone or iPad with you wherever you go to not miss a content moment. It’s second nature to a seasoned blogger.

And last, but not least, you can always hire a blogger to create content for you. After all, organic is more likely to get clicked on than any paid advertising.

Australians spend at least one hour a week shopping for a dealby: LUCY KIPPIST From:news.com.au July 04, 2013 4:46PM

Whatever you want. Just cheaper.

AUSTRALIA, we love a bargain. At 8pm every Sunday thousands can be found scrolling through eBay - probably on our mobile phones - hitting up the 4000 different deals.

This is the peak time for the bargain-hunting website, but according to the results of a recent Galaxy poll, the average person will commit at least an hour every week to snaring the best prices.

Galaxy reckons Australia has become a nation so comfortable with the idea of haggling, that more than 60 per cent of us now flat-out refuse to pay full price for electrical goods, clothes, insurance, holidays and even eating out in restaurants.

Tim Wolfenden is managing director of Make It Cheaper, a site dedicated to tracking down the best deals on things such as broadband and utility bills. He says online shopping has transformed the average consumer's shopping habits.

"Being able to jump online and do research has given people who would normally not like to ask for a cheaper price the confidence to start negogitating," he said.


"Now you can pick up the phone to any provider and say 'I am reviewing my options, what's the best price you can give me'."

What's your favourite online bargain hunting site? Comment below

Reg Whitehall is a living, breathing example of this idea in practice. The 75-year-old pensioner from Wagga Wagga in central New South Wales is convinced we have the internet to thank for our new bargaining power.

"Before [the internet] you had to go down to the shops and pick up a catalogue. Then you'd come home and compare them before heading back and getting the best price. Now I just zap on the computer and have a look for myself," Mr Whitehall said.

Being in a regional area has real advantages for deal hunters. According to Mr Whitehall, the big stores such as Woolworths, Kmart or Harvey Norman are all within proximity in Wagga Wagga, which makes it easy for people to drive around and pick up the bargains.

But on the other hand, the distance from Sydney rules out their access to bargains from department stores that won't deliver outside metropolitan areas.

So perhaps that's where eBay comes in? Megan English, spokeswoman for eBay Australia, said that men were actually outspending women on the auction site.

"Two thirds of our customers on the site during peak times are snapping up the deals and they're mostly buying tools and electrical products," she said.

But the biggest deals by far are Apple products that apparently "jump off the virtual shelves". And here's a tip for diehard eBayers. Ms English revealed the best time for shopping is 10am Tuesday and Friday, when the week's latest deals are first posted online.

Back in Wagga Wagga, Mr Whitehall (who is also a recent eBay convert) told news.com.au that while the internet made life easier for shoppers, there was more to life than staring at a computer screen all day.

"I'm still from the old-school, so I don't use it every day. Some people I know are sitting in front of the computer all day [just to find a bargain]. But I don't want to do that. I'd rather be out fishing or walking in the fresh air, as long as the weather is good," he said.

And that sounds pretty good from where we're sitting.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/australians-spend-at-least-one-hour-a-week-shopping-for-a-deal/story-e6frfkp9-1226674899813#ixzz2YE1YE2Kl

The Mobile App & Shopper Happinessby Chuck Martin,

After writing about how mobile commerce is an end-to-end experience (Mobile Shopping & the End-to-End Cycle) a few days ago, I came across an interesting piece of research that examines many of the components of this shopping behavior.

Rather than reviewing the whole gamut of retail shopping, researchers at GigaOm Pro looked specifically at behaviors of only smartphone owners.

By types of physical stores, at least by the measurement of extreme satisfaction, there’s a range of view. By category of store where smartphone owners are very happy:

• 33% -- Membership warehouse clubs

• 32% -- Discount stores

• 30% -- Grocery stores

• 27% -- Home improvement/hardware stores

• 26% -- Drug stores

• 18% -- Consumer electronics/appliance stores

As a general benchmark, the majority (52%) of smartphone owners are very happy with Amazon compared to about a quarter (27%) very happy with other online stores, so Amazon continues to be commerce king..

I found the insight on the use of mobile apps to be one of the more intriguing points in the study.

For consumers using mobile shopping apps by purpose, finding coupons is at the top of the list, as you might expect, followed by other reasons.

• 28% -- Find coupons

• 27% -- Compare prices

• 25% -- Find upcoming events

• 25% -- Get offers and deals

• 20% -- Shop for gifts

• 20% -- Compare products

• 19% -- Check stock in stores

• 19% -- Remember products to buy


http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/australians-spend-at-least-one-hour-a-week-shopping-for-a-deal/story-e6frfkp9-1226674899813#ixzz2YE1YE2Kl

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/australians-spend-at-least-one-hour-a-week-shopping-for-a-deal/story-e6frfkp9-1226674899813#ixzz2YE1YE2Kl

• 18% -- Keep up with new products

• 16% -- Manage rewards earned

While many consumers access retail websites from their phones while they shop, this research indicates that merchants ignore apps at their own peril.

In virtually every category of shopping purpose, mobile app users were happier with their shopping experience than non-app users,

The obvious app development is to automate some of these functions and include them within the apps, which no doubt is being worked on.

Many of the functions already are available manually, such as price checking, coupon redemption and shopping lists.

Automating some of these functions can aid in the search for the friction-free mobile shopping experience.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/203946/the-mobile-app-shopper-happiness.html?edition=61929#ixzz2YDlASlgw

The new rules of the hyper-social, data-driven, actor-friendly, super-seductive platinum age of television BY TOM VANDERBILT 03.19.13

From Game of Thrones to the new Arrested Development, television is better than ever. And it’s not just a lucky accident. Turns out that networks and advertisers are using all-new metrics to design hit shows. Under these new rules, Twitter feeds are as important as ratings, fresh ideas beat tired formulas, and niche stars can be as valuable as big names. Case in point: Mad Men and Community’s Alison Brie.

Illustration by LAMOSCA

On February 7, the fourth season of Community kicked off on NBC. It was something of a shock that the show had survived for so long. It ranked 193rd among broadcast shows. In May 2012, series creator and showrunner Dan Harmon had been unceremoniously canned. And on the night it aired, the season premiere pulled in just 4 million viewers. That’s a mere quarter of the audience enjoyed by ratings juggernauts like Two and a Half Men or The Big Bang Theory. It even underperformed a rerun of the ABC reality show Shark Tank on the Nielsen charts.

Until recently, those 4 million viewers would have been the end of the story. Just a few years ago, similar niche favorites like Jericho and Firefly were summarily executed for such numbers. In fact, cult legend Freaks and Geeks averaged nearly 7 million viewers in its single, 1999-2000 season before getting canceled. But that night in February, Communityaccomplished something that none of those shows ever had the chance to do—it spawned two worldwide trending topics on Twitter.


http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/203946/the-mobile-app-shopper-happiness.html?edition=61929#ixzz2YDlASlgw

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/203946/the-mobile-app-shopper-happiness.html?edition=61929#ixzz2YDlASlgw

All of your favorite shows are ratings dogs. Breaking Bad, Girls, Mad Men—each struggles to get a Nielsen score higher than 3, representing about 8.7 million viewers. And it’s not just cable. NBC’s 30 Rock struggled to top a score of 2.5, and Parks and Recreation rarely cracks Nielsen’s top 25. There are two possible conclusions to draw from these facts: (1) All these shows should be canceled, or (2) maybe the ratings are measuring the wrong thing. Since the 1970s, television has been ruled by the Nielsen Family—25,000 households whose TV habits collectively provide a statistical snapshot of a nation’s viewing behavior. Over the years, the Nielsen rating has been tweaked, but it still serves one fundamental purpose: to gauge how many people are watching a given show on a conventional television set. But that’s not how we watch any more. Hulu, Netflix, Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Roku, iTunes, smartphone, tablet—none of these platforms or devices are reflected in the Nielsen rating. (In February Nielsen announced that this fall it would finally begin including Internet streaming to TV sets in its ratings.)

And the TV experience doesn’t stop when the episode ends. We watch with tablets on our laps so we can look up an actor’s IMDb page. We tweet about the latest plot twist (discreetly, to avoid spoilers). We fill up the comments section of our favorite online recappers. We kibitz with Facebook friends about Hannah Horvath’s latest paramour. We start Tumblrs devoted to Downton decor. We’re engaging with a show even if we aren’t watching it, but none of this behavior factors into Nielsen’s calculation of its impact.

Since Mad Men debuted on AMC in 2007, the cable channel’s subscriptions, licensing fees, and ad revenue have all grown dramatically. In other words, quality original programs mean big money.

Total Twitter followers

• Two and a Half Men: 14.1 million

(Ashton Kutcher: 98 percent, 13.8 million)

• Vampire Diaries: 12.4 million

• Pretty Little Liars: 7.4 million

• Community: 6.1 million

(Joel McHale: 50 percent, 3.1 million)

• Modern Family: 5.7 million

(Sofia Vergara: 69 percent, 3.9 million)

• Family Guy: 5.3 million

(Seth MacFarlane: 73 percent, 3.8 million)

• Parks and Recreation: 4.8 million

(Aziz Ansari: 58 percent, 2.7 million)

• The Big Bang Theory: 3.8 million

(Kaley Cuoco: 32 percent, 1.2 million)

• The Walking Dead: 2.1 million

• NCIS: 1.2 million

• Girls: 940,000 (Lena Dunham: 83 percent, 780,000)

• Sons of Anarchy: 690,000


• Game of Thrones: 640,000

• Mad Men: 570,000 (Alison Brie: 75 percent, 430,000)

• Homeland: 265,000

Networks are finding new ways to measure popularity. Thank God.

So far, advertisers don’t have a good way to track that viral activity. But many of them are willing to pay for it—even if the official Nielsen ratings don’t measure up. “It’s more about the social media zeitgeist of the program,” says Jackie Kulesza, a senior vice president at Starcom USA, which buys advertising time. 30 Rock, which managed to stay on the air for seven seasons despite perennially low ratings, “was very strong in this area.” That helps explain why Nielsen and others have been scrambling to generate a new kind of TV rating, one that takes into account all of the activity that occurs on screens other than a television. In November, Nielsen purchased SocialGuide, which analyzes “the social impact of linear television,” according to the company’s website. One month later, it announced a partnership with Twitter in an effort to devise a new social-TV rating, which will debut this fall. In February, Twitter itself purchased Bluefin Labs, a social-TV analytics company.

It all adds up to a potentially thrilling new era for television, one that values shows that spark conversations, not just those that hook us for 30 minutes. The stakes are high: Get it right and great programming will continue to thrive. Get it wrong and the $70 billion television industry is in jeopardy—and so is your favorite show.

In the years after its founding in Chicago in 1923, the A.C. Nielsen Company thrived, thanks to a commitment to math and technology. While its competitors called random households and asked them what they happened to be listening to on the radio at that moment, Nielsen developed more sophisticated sampling methods. Rather than rely solely on self-reporting, Nielsen employed a device called the Audimeter that used photographic tape to automatically record listening activity. When television arrived, Nielsen used similar meters for viewing—although they were supplemented with paper diaries. But by the late 1950s, Nielsen sat comfortably atop the media-ratings industry. It had few competitors, and since television habits remained static, it had little reason to keep innovating.

But the widespread adoption of the DVR in the mid-2000s roused Nielsen from its torpor. In 2007 the company hammered out its “C3″ rating, a metric that includes the number of people who watched a show—and therefore the commercials—up to three days after its original airing. (The company also came up with a C7 tabulation, tracking audiences for a full week.) Networks loved the number—it seemed a truer representation of their shows’ actual audience. But at first advertisers didn’t pay much attention. Viewers who recorded a show on a DVR were assumed to be fast-forwarding through the commercials and thus immune to sales pitches.

2012’s most engaging telecasts, by mentions online

• Election Day Coverage (multiple networks): 19.2 million

• 2012 MTV Video Music Awards (MTV): 19.2 million

• Super Bowl XLVI (NBC): 17.5 million

• Grammy Awards (CBS): 17.1 million

• Presidential Debate: Domestic Policy (multiple): 13.7 million

• 2012 Summer Olympics: Closing Ceremony (NBC): 11.7 million

• BET Awards (BET): 10.1 million

• Vice Presidential Debate (multiple): 8.1 million

• 2012 Summer Olympics: Opening Ceremony (NBC): 7.6 million

• Presidential Debate: Town Hall (multiple): 6.6 million

• Source: Trendrr

Over time, though, that meant ignoring more and more viewers. Today, it’s not rare for a huge portion of a show’s audience to watch it well after it originally aired. CBS, for example, recently released data showing that the viewership for its Sherlock Holmes reboot, Elementary, skyrocketed when seven days were tracked—its rating among the valuable 18- to 49-year-old demographic shot up 64 percent. (And there’s no reason to stop at seven days. Millions of hours of TV get watched beyond the one-week cutoff. Science fiction shows, it turns out, are particularly likely to be watched more than a week after they air.)

Eventually, advertisers began to find ways to reach even those ad-skipping viewers. They created campaigns that mimicked the look of the show they aired against—in some cases using the same locations and actors—in an effort to trick fans into releasing the fast-forward button. (There’s even a name for these spots: podbusters.) And they optimized their spots so that their brand could be recognizable even at six times the normal playing speed. Indeed, some researchers have found that fast-forwarders are even more attentive to ads, since they’re watching closely to see when the commercial block has ended.

The lesson is that once you identify and track how an audience actually interacts with television, it’s only a matter of time until advertisers create ways to sell stuff to that audience. And when a full 40 percent of Twitter’s traffic during peak usage is about television, it’s not hard to see where the action is headed. “This is a huge topic of conversation,” says Steve Hasker, Nielsen’s president of media products and advertiser solutions. “Their ad sales guys want to be able to go to the market and say, ‘Our program has three times the engagement, because we’ve got many more people tweeting about it—and by the way, they’re young, they’re tech-savvy, and they buy lots of products.’”

And that’s why, some day in the near future, a show’s tweetability may be just as crucial as the sheer size of its audience. It’s something that advertisers and networks already realize, albeit in a vague and unquantified way. But as Nielsen—and other analytics companies—race to capture a show’s true impact across all platforms, it will change the way those shows are valued. That’s good news for television that is worth talking about, watching again, chewing on, Tumbling over. It’s good news for all of us.


Tom Vanderbilt (tomvanderbilt [email protected]) wrote about autonomous cars in issue 20.02.

Venda de tablets cresce 164% no 1º trimestre do ano no BrasilPesquisa do IDC aponta que 1,3 milhão de unidades foram vendidas. Projeção é de 5,9 milhões até o final de 2013

Proxxima 03/07/2013 14:01

Os tablets estão cada vez mais presentes na vida dos brasileiros. Segundo um estudo realizado pelo IDC Brasil, a venda de tablets no País cresceu 164% no primeiro trimestre de 2013, em comparação com o mesmo período do ano anterior. Com isso, a pesquisa aponta que mais de 1,3 milhão de aparelhos foram vendidos.

Além disso, o crescimento do consumo de tablets fica mais evidente quando se compara o número registrado no primeiro trimestre deste ano, com o total registrado no ano de 2011 - quando foram vendidos 1,1 milhão de tablets no Brasil, segundo a consultoria. A expectativa do IDC é que 5,9 milhões de aparelhos sejam vendidos durante 2013, um aumento de 81% em relação a 2012.

Social media generates ROILONDON: Social media can be effective at driving brand sentiment, enhancing consumer engagement and increasing brand loyalty, as well as generating a potential ROI of more than 3:1, a new report has claimed.

Research for the Internet Advertising Bureau UK (IAB UK), a trade association for digital advertising, examined more than 4,500 quantitative survey responses and 800 research panel interviews, as well as the social media pages of three FMCG brands over an eight week period, in order to assess the impact of social media at various stages in the purchase funnel.

It found that four out of five consumers would be more inclined to buy a brand more often in the future after being exposed to a brand's social media presence, while 83% of consumers exposed to social media would trial a brand's product.

All three brands considered experienced an uplift in sentiment after implementing their social media campaigns, of 22% in the case of food business Heinz, 19% for tea company Twinings, and 17% for snack foods brand Kettle.

The IAB suggested that for every £1 spent in social media, a potential value of £3.34 could be generated.

The study also revealed that posting regularly about a new product drove greater likelihood to trial, as was demonstrated by Heinz Beanz's promotion of its new Snap Pots during the research period.

"In the case of encouraging trial for a newer product line, frequency becomes even more important to support the new concept, as the IAB study illustrates," commented Ian McCarthy, Heinz's Marketing Manager.

Ian Ralph, the Director at Marketing Sciences who conducted the research, noted that social media could turn brand customers into brand fans. "By making people love, not just like your brand, you're more likely to drive future purchases and increase sales," he said.

Writing in the current edition of Admap, Bryan Urbick of the Consumer Knowledge Centre, cautioned against reliance on the easily measurable metrics of social media, such as 'likes' and 'retweets', and argued that social must shift product.

He referred to the salutary example of Pepsi's Refresh project, which saw the brand reallocate substantial budget away from traditional media into a social-media driven cause-marketing program supporting local organisations.

The campaign was deemed a success according to standard social media metrics, such as 'likes' and 'followers', yet Pepsi lost 2.6% of the US carbonated drinks market over the same period.

Data sourced from IAB, Admap; additional content by Warc staff, 4 July 2013

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Telefônica/Vivo vai lançar publicidade móvel através de SMS geolocalizadoMarina Tsutsumi

A Telefônica/Vivo assumiu a necessidade de investir em mobile marketing e, como um dos focos dessa área, vai lançar no início de 2014 uma ferramenta de SMS em tempo real com base na localização do assinante. A empresa enviará mensagens publicitárias customizada de acordo com o posicionamento e com os interesses dos clientes.

“Somos a primeira operadora no Brasil a assumir o mobile para agregar valores, como um veículo de mídia. É claro que respeitamos a privacidade dos usuários, e com o SMS real time será possível oferecer mensagens relevantes, de acordo com os interesses dos clientes”, diz Andreza Santana, reponsável pela publicidade na Telefónica Digital.

Atualmente, a divisão digital da empresa possui sete produtos na área mobile no País e 55 milhões de assinantes que aceitam receber mensagens de publicidade (opt-in). “Sabemos que o retorno mobile é maior do que o online. Para se ter uma ideia, 97% dos SMS são abertos em menos de cinco segundos após o recebimento”, completa Santana.


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Don't Advertise Unless You Need To By Cory Treffiletti Wednesday, July 3, 2013

I finally got caught up on “Mad Men” this past week, and I was struck by the scene where Don Draper tells Hershey’s they don’t need to advertise. Can you imagine an agency person saying that now? I can, though not for the same reason you might think.

There’s a nuance to that line that I latched on to, though maybe not everyone else did. It’s the difference between advertising and marketing. To me, advertising is paid media, whereas marketing is more holistic of everything you do as a brand to engage your customers. Advertising is a subset of marketing. Even though you may market your brand, you may not advertise your brand.

There are many brands that have done well over the years with little to no “advertising.” For years Pabst Beer did not advertise, though it did lots of underground marketing and as a result transformed into a hipster brand, which served it well. For many years Apple did little to no advertising and managed to create a culture of fanaticism, which the company parlayed into a massive advertising campaign to become one of the largest and most iconic brands in the world. I still don’t remember having seen many, if any, ads for Hershey’s chocolates, but I know the company does a ton of marketing and it works.

Marketing is an art form powered by science, a dashboard with far too many buttons and levers to count (advertising is one of those levers). If you want to work at an advertising agency, you learn how to plan, spend and measure the effects of an ad budget. Working as a marketer is different because you have to learn about so many different ways to engage with customers. The industry likes to bucket these things into paid, earned and owned media, but it’s much more diverse than that.

In the ‘60s, I would imagine that most agencies focused on what was paid because that was what they had to work with. There was no clutter, few choices, and the mass audience engaged with the same basic media outlets: NBC, ABC and CBS. Radio was still strong, and print was focused on the newspapers, like The New York Times.

At some point along the way, brilliant people came along and developed experiential marketing, street teams, and other ways of reaching an audience. Branded content, product placement and sponsorships came to light. Advertorials, affinity marketing, CRM and loyalty programs were launched. Shopper marketing, point of sale, affiliate programs and cause-based marketing were created. Don Draper and his team would be shocked at the options they would have in 2013 -- and that’s without even touching on the Internet. I used to say that advertising is not rocket science, but in some ways marketing is closer to complex thinking than I ever would have thought it was.

My professors in college prepared me for a world of advertising, and my first job prepared me for a world of marketing. College prepared me for communications planning and how to allocate budgets, but my first job forced me to think outside the paradigms of advertising and examine new and interesting ways to reach people. It didn’t hurt that I started my first company at 21 as well, providing marketing solutions for artists and bands in New York. I had to come up with new ways to reach people using methods that didn’t cost money. That solution feels like the root of marketing: doing more with less, and doing it well.

So the next time you’re sitting down to think of how to speak to your customers, think about the role of advertising vs. marketing and how they differ. I think you’ll see an open opportunity to try some different things. Whether you’re a brand manager or an agency account person, you’ll start to find new ways to break through the clutter -- and they may not require advertising!

Wible's Weekly - SVOD Overlap, TV Everywhere Improvements, and COPPA Complication

By Tony Wible- Janney/MediaEntertainmentPublished: July 3, 2013 at 5:9 AM PDT

SVOD Updates – According to a report by NPD Group, there was a 34% YoY increase in SVOD viewers watching TV shows in 1Q13. NFLX captured 89% share of the viewing units, which was down a bit form 93% in 1Q12. Hulu Plus grew its share from 7% in 1Q12 to 10% in 1Q13, while AMZN Prime accounted for 2%. Subscribers are now more likely to try multiple services. NFLX only subs fell to 67% from 76% in 1Q12 while 10% now use both NFLX and AMZN and 8% use NFLX and Hulu. The market place may get even more fragmented, as DISCA is prepared to offer direct consumer subscription services in a new window between traditional VOD and SVOD.

TV Everywhere –According to comScore, TV Everywhere viewers across seven MVPDs grew 24% since January with a commensurate 27% increase in the number of videos streamed. However, CMCSA showed an odd 3% drop in viewers despite the fact that it has the largest platform. It appears that viewers are moving to TV Everywhere for must-see live programming based on the spike of XFinity viewership during the NCAA basketball championships in March. These are encouraging signs given the ratings, rights, and authentication headwinds that have plagued the service to date. However, TV Everywhere remains relatively small compared to SVOD providers with on a 1.6% combined share vs. 10.6% for NFLX.

COPPA Connection – Apps for kids are currently extracting more user data than most users are aware of, without parental consent, according to a WSJ article. Collecting data from kid-friendly apps will be more difficult after July 1, when the new FTC rules on children's online privacy (COPPA) take effect. A recent WSJ article notes that many apps collect more data than most users are aware of. This new hurdle will limit the effectiveness of targeted adverting, and while it is a very tenuous connection, we believe that makes traditional advertising incrementally more attractive to the benefit of names like VIA.

Digital Offset – NPD estimates that U.S. consumers spent $3.5 billion on games in 1Q13, which is flat YOY and reflects a 25% YOY increase in digital sales that offset weaker end of cycle packaged goods sales. The company estimated there was $559 million spent on used games and rentals and another $1.59 billion spent on all forms of digital media (DLC, social media, mobile, etc.). The numbers imply that digital is the largest component of overall videogame content spending. Separately, there are reports that GOOG is developing a videogame console that we suspect will push Android mobile games to TV screens. We do not believe this is a threat to console gaming and note that GME also recently made an investment in a similar hardware concept company called Game Stick.


Digital Marketing – According to a survey by marketing software company Vocus and Inc. Magazine, small businesses are quickly moving to digital marketing strategies (website and social media) as we suspect financial and technical hurdles for digital marketing tools come down and are now seen as a more attractive alternative to traditional media. Small businesses currently have relatively simple goals but increasingly use digital tools to help drive customer engagement and reach new customer segments. Over time, this may signal a potential shift in local marketing away from local print, radio, and TV - albeit we believe each media serves a different purpose.

Tony Wible joined Janney Montgomery Scott in 2008 and is a Managing Director covering the Media and Entertainment sector after spending the previous 10 years at Citigroup Investment Research—most recently covering the Broadcasting and Entertainment Services industries.

Tony can be reached at [email protected].

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, is a U.S. broker-dealer registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a member of the New York Stock Exchange, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the Securities Investor Protection Corp. Disclosures may be reviewed at Wible's Weekly.

Online Video's Growing Painsby admin , Tuesday, July 2, 2013

The fastest growing channel in online advertising, online video is exploding. How many times have you heard that before?

It’s all true. But what’s also true is that it could do a lot better.

Nielsen's recently released TV ratings don’t look good. Ratings of all shows of all broadcasters declined, some by more than 20%. And everyone saw it coming. So why didn’t video (TV and online) planners and buyers compensate for the lost TV viewership with increased online buying?

I think there are several big barriers preventing them from making the move.

The Price of Video

Online video is still very expensive -- in some cases, more expensive than TV.

If I have to choose between spending the same amount for an old beloved product (TV) and a new, somewhat unproven product (digital), I’m going to stick with my favorite, thank you very much.

Happily, this is going to change soon. Prices will go down, with more content flowing from TV (watch for new cable channel content via TV-everywhere platforms and new syndication agreements), and more production of made-for-Web premium content by YouTube, AOL, Yahoo! and Netflix when they become ad-enabled). Until then, online is simply too pricey for some brands.

Oh, the Complexity

Online video remains complicated to execute, with five or six different screens, three operating systems, a multitude of encoding specs and technologies, several ways to measure everything and myriad certifications and protocols.

Here, too, great progress has been made in the past few years. IAB’s VAST is perhaps the most important component to unlock the massive potential of online video. In the pre-VAST days, it was impossible to run online video campaigns at scale. Now it is standard. Same goes for VPAID and interactive video campaigns

Of course, there are ways to streamline the process and make sure every ad is served to the right user and screen without a lot of complexity. One is third-party ad serving, and if you aren’t using it, you are making your life more difficult than necessary.

Fear of the Unknown

Over the past year, I’ve had several conversations with TV folks that told me the ROI of online video is questionable.

“Seriously?” I responded. “You have completion rate and click-through rate and conversation rate. You have brand lift surveys and sales impact measurement tools and everything is tracked!”

But TV people still lack the confidence they have with TV, when they know, having done this for 40 years, what will be the impact on their brand or sales after buying a GRP point.

This barrier will take education and time to overcome. Online people need to have the patience and determination to prove, with every campaign they run, that this medium is effective. It’s up to us to explain the insights that can be drawn from analyzing online performance.

Apples and oranges

When marketers extend their campaigns across TV and online, tallying reach becomes problematic. They have GRPs for TV and impressions for online, but they don’t know how to consolidate the two.

Nielsen and comScore offer terrific data tools that solve this problem, and there are aggregation and visualization tools out there to make this data actionable for planners and buyers. Again, it’s just a matter of time until these tools are widely adopted.

Can’t see transparency

I addressed this issue ( last year, and it hasn’t budged much.

There are two major transparency issues with online video today:


1. Buyers don’t know what they are buying. The vast majority of online video is bought blind, and buyers cannot pick and choose the content their ads will accompany. Compared with TV, online is missing the contextual and psychological link between the ad and the content, which is what makes TV advertising so powerful.

2. Unfortunately, some video networks are not totally honest with their clients and deliver less-effective, but much cheaper, in-banner ads when they promised in-stream ads. Even absent deception, buyers don’t always know the player size, media mix (premium vs. non-premium content) and whether or not the ad was actually viewable.

There are two solutions to these problems: sellers must clean up their acts for the sake of the industry, and they must reveal to advertisers the content and environment (player size, format, viewability) around the ad. In the meantime, buyers can protect themselves by utilizing video verification and viewability tools.

Clearly, there are some hurdles preventing online video from reaching its potential, But soon, when there’s more quality content online, less complexity and fragmentation, more confidence in online, more tools for cross-channel analytics, and a lot more transparency is common practice, online video will finally take off. And that will really be an explosion.

Mobile devices take more viewing timeNEW YORK: Mobile devices are taking an ever greater share of video viewing occasions, with live streams viewed via the devices significantly more popular than video on demand, new research has stated.

Ooyala, the streaming media platform, measured the viewing habits of nearly 200m unique viewers among its partners in 130 countries, including Food Network, TVGuide, ESPN, Dell, the Times and Telegraph, for its Q1 Video Index report.

It found that video views on mobile devices rose by 19% in the first quarter compared to the final quarter of 2012 and now accounted for 10% of all views. The comparable figure for the first quarter of 2012 was 4% of all views, reported MediaPost.

More than half the viewing time was spent on long-form videos that lasted more than ten minutes, at 53% of smartphone video views and 52% of tablet views.

Some 40% of smartphone views were of videos that lasted 30 minutes or more, but for the longest forms of video (60 minutes or more) tablets were the most-used platform, accounting for 25% all video views.

Larger screens, whether tablets, connected TVs or gaming consoles, yielded higher engagement rates, according to Ooyala.

"With viewers tuning in to their favorite long-form premium programming on all connected screens, video publishers have more opportunities to place targeted mid-roll ads within their content," the report added.

"Savvy media publishers will use cutting-edge video analytics to understand and monetize plays on different device types."

Live streams were also far more popular than video on demand, as Ooyala established that the time spent on live video by tablet users was an average of 16 minutes, or four times longer than the time spent with on-demand video.

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DSPs: Still Not Enoughby Eric Bamberger, Monday, July 1, 2013

A colleague brought up some comments that I made two years ago about the weakness of DSPs and how they were just not cutting it for marketers. He now wondered if things had changed any: Had DSPSs closed that gap? It was a valid question – it wasn’t that long ago that all anyone could talk about were DSPs. However, times have changed and DSPs are no longer the hot new technology; in fact, they are far from the only game in town. It was true then and it’s true now: DSPs are not enough.

While programmatic media buying didn’t even have a name two years ago, everything seems to be real-time bidding (RTB) now. The old story was, you had to use a DSP to centralize your efforts, but the truth is that they could never scale to meet marketers’ needs. This still stands true, but for a different reason.

What has changed is the incredible amount of data available, and that the market’s emphasis has now been centralized around this fire hose of data. To this end, marketers are exploring all options for effectively leveraging this data across all marketing tactics.

It was this shift in attention that created an opening for DMPs. These data platforms have benefited from changes in the ad tech marketplace, but the new challenge is connecting the dots between all of these tools, the data they collect and resources with the knowledge to leverage it all. There is a very important human aspect and skill set needed for optimization and integrating all the data points together that gets lost in the focus on pure technology and self-service solutions.

So now, DSPs are trying to pivot to DMPs to keep a toehold, but DMPs have their own flaws.

What marketers need to strive toward is an integrated approach: a truly data-driven media strategy. To achieve this, marketers need not only to understand the value of their own data (first party) but also to figure out how to incorporate the immense amount of third-party data to complement it in a media setting.

Where does this leave stand-alone DSPs?

It’s clear that spending your display media budget in a single place didn’t work two years ago, and it doesn’t work now. There are just too many data variables, inventory options, and media partners available to centralize display efforts to one partner. It’s impossible to cover all bases, and the potential loss of opportunity is too large.


Marketers need to stay current by testing new technologies and DSPs, which should be a part of their strategy, but not the only part. Even after all this time, DSPs lack finesse and tactical expertise. They may be a good vehicle to get scale (up to a point) and avoid duplication, but they clearly fall flat with more sophisticated marketing techniques. And, in the end, those sophisticated techniques are impossible to achieve when focusing on a single channel. Marketers need not only to look beyond DSPs, but beyond single-channel solutions. It is not until you bring together all of your media touchpoints (and their data) that you can begin to leverage the magic of cross-channel attribution.

Unilever, Mondelez test new ad toolLONDON: Unilever and Mondelez International have become the first global brand owners to sign up to Nielsen's combined TV and online ad measurement system, which began beta tests in the UK last week.

Nielsen's Cross-Platform Campaign Ratings provide a combined audience figure for ads by measuring commercial exposure to TV and internet campaigns, in what the research company claims is a unique and previously-unreachable manner, reports Marketing Magazine.

This is especially important against a background of double-digit spending growth for online video advertising in Europe, as reported at a recent IAB Europe conference.

Several delegates at that event noted that multi-screening may prove a boost to online advertising, as TV shows are enhanced by the use of connected devices. Many also, however, expressed frustration at a continued lack of effective measurement.

In the UK, Nielsen's new system combines figures from its Online Campaign Ratings with data from the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board, looking at reach, frequency, gross rating points, unique audience and impressions at a daily level, explained ClickZ.

Derek Luddem, the area media manager for UK, Ireland & Nordics at Mondelez International, said: "Crucial for all advertisers is an understanding of how online and TV complement each other."

"Removing the technical barriers to measuring how people really view content and advertising is crucial if we want to understand the delivery of our campaigns holistically," he added.

Agencies and publishers that have signed up for the trial include Omnicom Media Group and Aegis Media.

The latter's chief research officer, Mark Greenstreet, said: "We've now entered the era where being able to measure and plan exposure to communications across all screen devices is essential in order to deliver efficient and effective display campaigns."

Data sourced from Marketing Magazine, Media Week, ClickZ; additional content by Warc staff, 1 July 2013

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TV operators tap viewer dataNEW YORK: Cable and satellite TV providers in the US are adopting contrasting approaches to utilising viewer data, and learning fast from broadcasters and online companies such as Google.

DirecTV, the digital television and entertainment provider, collects information from customers' digital video recorders and combines it with market research from other providers, reports Reuters.

Paul Guyardo, chief marketing officer at DirecTV, said: "We can target based on demographics, household income, geo-targeting, home owners versus rental – a wide variety."

This, he insisted, made advertising more relevant for each consumer, in a similar fashion to that of online advertising.

And, since January, DirecTV has been allowing 40 of its clients, including German carmaker Volkswagen, to run addressable ads, a move expected to net the US company $60m in revenue by the end of the year, according to someone familiar with the matter.

That figure compares to zero just 12 months ago, and revenues are anticipated to rise by double-digit percentages for the foreseeable future, as DirecTV targets its 12m subscribers.

Starz, the US premium film channel, piloted addressable ads for five days in March using data from DirecTV, and reported a 49% rise in sales among viewers exposed to these spots compared to a control group.

Dish Network, the US satellite provider, has adopted a slightly different method. Warren Schlichting, its senior vice president of media sales, said the company did not want to target ads based on viewing habits, as it might make subscribers uncomfortable.

He added that the issue of viewer privacy meant "the rules need to be worked out as companies and viewers get used to this kind of advertising."

Nevertheless, Dish is embracing the technology, signing six and seven-figure deals with its advertisers, according to Schlichting.

Cable provider Comcast is also investing in addressable advertising, and the growth of this phenomenon is concerning some consumer advocacy groups.

Jeff Chester, of the Center for Digital Democracy, said: "Consumers are getting little in return except an invasion of privacy."

Meanwhile , Jeff Minsky, of media agency OMD, warned there are technical hurdles to overcome, and suggested that despite the attractions of addressable advertising, "sometimes it's more cost-effective to just have a mass-market, national commercial."


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Data sourced from Reuters; additional content by Warc staff, 1 July 2013

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Future is bright for Australian OOHSYDNEY: Out-of-home advertising in Australia is growing strongly and new measurement approaches claim to be able to verify the sector's effectiveness with more precision than before.

Figures from The Outdoor Media Association, quoted in Ad News, show that OOH adspend increased 5.2% to A$126.5m in the second quarter, and 4.2% for the year to date.

The quarterly figures broke down between roadside other, including street furniture, taxis, bus and tram externals, on A$45.1m, roadside billboards with A$39.8m, transport on A$21.1m and retail with $20.5m.

Separate forecasts from PwC have recently suggested that the OOH sector will expand at a compound annual growth rate CAGR of 3.8% to reach $654m in 2017.

"People are spending a greater amount of time outdoors, shopping and commuting, solidifying OOH as the last true broadcast medium in today's fragmented media market," declared OMA chief executive Charmaine Moldrich.

Separately, a new study carried out in Sydney aimed to measure the impact and effectiveness of out-of-home advertising.

Posterscope Australia and Symphony Analytics & Research in partnership with APN Outdoor, used GPS technology and a mobile phone app to assess whether a 200-strong sample had been exposed to selected billboards and to check their recall and perceptions.

One advertiser was reported as seeing a 68% increase in retailer visit intention for those exposed to the ads, compared to a control group.

"Out-of-home exposure triggers attitudes and behaviours that consumers often have difficulty quantifying themselves," observed Cassandra Thomas-Smith, Posterscope Australia's Strategy & Insights Director.

But Thomas-Smith also argued that exposure could now be verified, with attitude and behaviour shifts measured, rather than measurement starting at claimed awareness.

Her comments were echoed by Eddy Hamad, Symphony's research director. "At the end of the day, clients want assurances as to whether their ads are truly memorable or not," he said.

"With our approach, we were able to leverage the GPS capability in today's smartphones to provide clients with an answer to that conundrum."

Data sourced from Ad News, Asian Media Journal; additional content by Warc staff, 2 July 2013

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Cannes 2013 Video: Proximity BBDO - Work That's Social by DesignMelanie White | July 1, 2013

ClickZ speaks with Andrew Bailey, chairman at Proximity BBDO, North America, who discusses the importance of coming to a festival like Cannes Lions, why it's an exciting time in the digital marketing industry, and what they're focusing on given the nature of this constantly changing environment.

According to Bailey, Proximity BBDO is focused on new formats and new opportunities to connect with consumers during this exciting and dynamic time in the business.

"What we're really focused on across the board is making sure that the work that we're doing is very much social by design, that it has very good digital and social bones about it at the core, it's based on big ideas, and really great platforms that allow us to connect with consumers on behalf of the brands that we work on," says Bailey.

Bailey comes to Cannes Lions "to see the standard of work that's established, what sets the bar for excellent work in the industry, and to make sure that we're up and educated on the latest trends and the things that are making great work great. It's one of the best ways to do that every year, and it's an inspiring time for our creatives and the leadership of the agencies alike."

"The secondary objective is that we obviously share the ambition to do great work with our clients, and it's a really important time for our clients to also experience where the bar sits in terms of fantastic work so that when we partner together we both know what awesome work looks like and how to do more of it," says Bailey.

Their goal is to help clients focus on what they should do versus what they could do, and to help them understand the things that they need to focus on to drive their business in the year to come.


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Toyota Injects Too Much Of Itself In "Meals Per Hour"By Larry Dobrow Thursday, June 27, 2013

Hi, I'm Larry. I'm the jerkhead who's about to write a few hundred words about why I don't like a brand video whose benefactors will donate a free meal to a needy family for every viewing. My parents only acknowledge my existence under oath. It's nice to make your cyber-acquaintance.

The brand video in question is "Meals Per Hour," which recounts how Toyota helped a local food pantry get its act together by schooling eager grasshoppers in the ancient, mystical discipline of common sense. By showing how the patented Toyota Production System can be adapted to help do-gooders automate and accelerate the process of doing good, the clip attempts to paint Toyota as the world's most dynamically pragmatic automaker.

Which is already Toyota's rep in the minds of everyone except American-car loyalists and individuals hung up on the floor mat/acceleration PR fiasco of Aught-nine. Toyota should be commended for helping Sandy victims in a manner more involved than writing out a check; I'm just not sure I understand all the preening that accompanies it.

Is the point to add "are nice people" to the company's brand-virtue checklist? Because if most consumers were asked to choose between a great product/so-so company and a so-so product/great company, they're choosing the great product. They're choosing the Toyota, no matter what a charity-stamped clip discloses about the production process, the people that lead it or the Japanese notion of "kaizen" (apparently there is no word or phrase in the English language that conveys "continuous improvement," besides "continuous improvement"). In automaking as in speed dating, "are nice people" largely gets lost in the mix.

The clip kicks off exactly as one would expect it might, with the storm-porn trio of waves, lines and ruins. We meet George, a cheery, decent warehouse manager charged with getting boxes of food into the hands of needy families. The problem is that he can only do so much for them; the clip's best and most empathetic moment comes when, perched on a forklift, he recalls not having enough boxes to meet demand. "That kills you," he says, his matter-of-fact delivery more devastating than if he'd choked up while saying it.

Enter a pair of Toyota production evangelists. One explains the general thinking behind the Toyota Production System (in a few words: "instead of doing things wrong, do them right"), while the other notes the benefits of such an approach ("things get done better"). As the soundtrack swells, we see the execs meeting with the food bank workers and pointing a lot, depicting the suggestion-making process with great and furious vigor. When we reach the mini-film's conclusion - it runs around six minutes long - that footage is cross-cut with clips from a Toyota plant. What works there works here, etc.

There's reason to be impressed with what we're shown. By adjusting the size of the food boxes, Toyota allows the food bankers to fit 400 more in each Rockaways-bound truck. By reconfiguring the box-packing set-up, Toyota reduces the average packing time from three minutes to 11 seconds. Toyota also manages to shorten the time affected families wait on line to receive the boxes, with a rosy-cheeked kid noting that it only took "about a minute." All of this is good. Want a Camry now?

Where Toyota goes wrong is inserting its production people into the mix. Me, I'd have centered the clip around George and shown us the transformation through his eyes, rather than larding it down with people in button-down shirts and khakis. Similarly, even as you see the hugely positive effect Toyota's production philosophy has had on a battered community, you can't help but want to flick the ears of anyone who says, turbo-earnestly, "Outside Toyota, 'problem' can sometimes have a negative connotation. I find that in many cases, it's better to say, 'We have something that we can improve.'" Wow, you're like the Elvis of self-congratulatory bromides.

By all means, watch "Meals Per Hour" to run up the meal count. And again: props to Toyota for contributing in a sleeves-rolled-up way. Next time, though, don't be so blatant in your attempts to build up your brand rep on the back of your benevolence. It's tacky.

These Speech Patterns Irritate the $#@* Out of Everyone Around YouJune 25, 2013

Years ago I worked for the poster child of buzzwords. He loved using terms like “cones of precision” and “silos” and “drill down” and… let’s just stop there. (He also bought one of the first Palm Pilots, which meant a roomful of people often sat waiting while he laboriously entered stuff on his calendar. Yep, he was that guy.)

One of my colleagues maintained a running list of this guy’s buzzwords. Whenever he whipped out his pad to jot down a new one two things happened: 1) our manager looked smug because he thought he had just said something so insightful my colleague wanted to capture it for posterity, and 2) the rest of us tried not to laugh because we knew what was really going on.

Unfortunately, Palm Pilot aside, we all have a little of that guy in us. We use the same words too often. Or we use irritating speech patterns. Or we simply fall in love with certain expressions (I once conducted an all-too-public affair with the phrase, “That’s neither here nor there.”) When we do, whatever we hoped to say gets lost in the noise of cliche or extreme repetition.

See if you’re guilty of any of these:

1. The Double Name: Using a person’s name twice (worst case using your own name twice) in the same sentence as a way to justify unusual or unacceptable behavior.

Typical usage: “What can I say?" Shrug. "That’s just Joe being Joe.” (Worse, “Hey, that’s just me being me.”)

Whenever you use the double name you’re actually excusing behavior you would not tolerate from someone else.

And everyone knows it.

2. The Fake Agreement: Pretending to agree while expressing the opposite point of view.

Typical usage: “I'm with you… but I just don’t think we should take on that project.”


In reality you aren't really with me because then you would agree with what I’m saying. (Plus beginning a sentence with something like, “I hear you…” is like a condescending pat on the head.)

Don’t try to couch a different opinion inside a warm and fuzzy Fake Agreement. If you disagree, just say so professionally.

3. The Unsupported Closure: Ending a discussion or making a decision without backup or solid justification.

Typical usage: “At the end of the day, we’re here to sell products.”

Really? I had no idea we’re supposed to sell products!

The Unsupported Closure is the go-to move for people who want something a certain way and cannot or do not feel like explaining why. Whenever you feel one coming on, take a deep breath and start over; otherwise you’ll spout inane platitudes instead of objective reasons that may actually help your employees get behind your decision.

Quick note: A Fake Agreement combines nicely with an Unjustified Closure: “I hear what you’re saying, but at the end of the day revenue concerns must come first.” Win-win!

4. The False Uncertainty: Pretending you’re not sure when in fact you really are.

Typical usage: “You know, when I think about it... I’m not so sure shutting down that facility isn’t the best option after all.”

Oh, you’re sure; you’re just trying to create buy-in or a sense of inclusion by pretending you still have an open mind… or you’re planting seeds for something you know you will eventually do.

Never say you aren’t sure unless you really aren't sure... and are truly willing to consider other viewpoints.

5. The First Person Theoretical: Pretending to be another person in order to explore different points of view.

Typical usage: “Let’s say I’m the average customer and I walk in your store and want to buy a shirt...”

You can get away with this one occasionally, but more than that is really irritating.

Don't believe me? Let’s say I’m the average reader and I know someone who uses the First Person Theoretical to pretend he's putting himself in another person's shoes. And let’s say I’m thinking it’s really irritating. And let’s say I’m…

Let's just say I’m thinking we should move on.

6. The Favorite Phrase: Using a phrase so often that word is all anyone can hear.

Typical usage: Any phrase that gets hammered to death. Here's an example.

I knew someone who never met a sentence he couldn’t find a way to shoehorn in a random “in other words,” "as it relates to," or “in general.” Often he could cram all three into the same sentence multiple times.

Fall in love with a word or expression and not only do other people tire of it, they start to hear nothing else. Then whatever you hoped to get across gets lost as they think, “Oh jeez, for once could he leave out the ‘that’s neither here nor there’”?

Ask someone if you overuse a word, phrase, or figure of speech. At first they’ll look uncomfortable and try to avoid answering. Insist.

Eventually they’ll tell you, and I guarantee you’ll never do it again. Trust me: Been there, been told that.

Unilever, Mondelez test new ad toolLONDON: Unilever and Mondelez International have become the first global brand owners to sign up to Nielsen's combined TV and online ad measurement system, which was launched in the UK last week.

Nielsen's Cross-Platform Campaign Ratings provide a combined audience figure for ads by measuring commercial exposure to TV and internet campaigns, in what the research company claims is a unique and previously-unreachable manner, reports Marketing Magazine.

This is especially important against a background of double-digit spending growth for online video advertising in Europe, as reported at a recent IAB Europe conference.

Several delegates at that event noted that multi-screening may prove a boost to online advertising, as TV shows are enhanced by the use of connected devices. Many also, however, expressed frustration at a continued lack of effective measurement.

In the UK, Nielsen's new system combines figures from its Online Campaign Ratings with data from the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board, looking at reach, frequency, gross rating points, unique audience and impressions at a daily level, explained ClickZ.

Derek Luddem, the area media manager for UK, Ireland & Nordics at Mondelez International, said: "Crucial for all advertisers is an understanding of how online and TV complement each other."

"Removing the technical barriers to measuring how people really view content and advertising is crucial if we want to understand the delivery of our campaigns holistically," he added.

Agencies and publishers that have signed up for the trial include Omnicom Media Group and Aegis Media.

The latter's chief research officer, Mark Greenstreet, said: "We've now entered the era where being able to measure and plan exposure to communications across all screen devices is essential in order to deliver efficient and effective display campaigns."

Data sourced from Marketing Magazine, Media Week, ClickZ; additional content by Warc staff, 1 July 2013


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BlackBerry anuncia prejuízo e que não atualizará SO do PlaybookEmpresa revelou prejuízo líquido de US$ 84 milhões. Além disso, CEO confirmou que não atualizará o PlayBook com o BlackBerry 10

28/06/2013 13:26

A BlackBerry divulgou um prejuízo líquido de US$ 84 milhões, ou US$ 0,16 por ação, no trimestre encerrado em 1º de junho. Um ano antes, a empresa teve prejuízo de US$ 518 milhões, ou US$ 0,99 por ação. Com o anúncio as ações caíram cerca de 18% nas negociações pré-abertura do mercado.

O CEO da empresa, Thorsten Heins, também comunicou que não atualizará o tablet PlayBook para o novo sistema operacional da companhia, o BlackBerry 10. A justificativa apresentada pelo executivo é que a companhia não estava satisfeita com o nível de desempenho e experiência do usuário do BlackBerry 10 no PlayBook.

Venda de PCs em queda; tablets ganham liderançaNo mundo, comercialização dos aparelhos acumulou marca negativa de 13% em relação aos primeiros meses de 2012

28 de Junho de 2013 • 16:57

Entre janeiro e março, houve um aumento de 15% na venda de smartphones, em comparação a 2012Crédito: Divulgação

No primeiro trimestre deste ano, usuários domésticos compraram 12% menos computadores, de mesa ou portáteis, em comparação ao mesmo período do ano passado, segundo a IDC. Nesse período, 3,4 milhões de PCs foram vendidos, o que representa uma redução de 10%, sendo mais acentuada na comercialização de desktops (-11%) do que notebooks (-9%). O preço elevado é um dos principais fatores para esse cenário, que alcançou a marca negativa de 13% no mundo.


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“O mercado de PCs é muito sensível a preços e qualquer variação reflete nas vendas”, comenta Pedro Hagge, analista da IDC Brasil. Para este ano, a consultoria estima uma redução de 8% no mercado brasileiro de computadores.

Smartphones e tablets

Já a venda global de tablets deve atingir a marca de 230 milhões de unidades neste ano, um acréscimo de 58,7% em relação a 2012. No ano passado, 144,5 milhões foram vendidos. No Brasil, deverão ser comercializados 5,8 milhões de unidades, o que representará uma alta de 89% sobre 2012. A projeção é superior a da categoria de desktops (5,5 milhões).

Os dados divulgados pela IDC apontam ainda que entre janeiro e março de 2013 foram vendidos 14 milhões de telefones celulares no País, um crescimento de 15% em comparação ao início de 2012. Os smartphones representaram 48% das vendas de aparelhos em abril. Cerca de 1 bilhão de telefones desta categoria devem ser vendidos no mundo até dezembro.

Leia Mais: http://www.meioemensagem.com.br/home/marketing/noticias/2013/06/28/Venda-de-PCs-em-queda-tablets-ganham-lideranca.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mmbymail-geral&utm_content=Venda+de+PCs+em+queda;+tablets+ganham+lideran%E7a#ixzz2XdMkYCdL

How Meeker’s ‘Internet Trends 2013′ Became the Most-Viral Deck on SlideShareBy Ross Mayfield on June 17, 2013 | 14 Comments

Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends 2013 report became the most viral presentation on SlideShare: It got 1 million views in just four days. How and why did it spread so fast? And how can others replicate such success?

We decided to take an in-depth look at the waves of traffic Meeker’s deck brought — when it got spikes, who picked it up, where it got shared. And we compared it to the waves of traffic we’ve seen with other viral hits on SlideShare. What we found: Meeker’s deck has more virality to come. Top presentations on SlideShare often have a second life, where a delayed wave of people find the deck via search and embed and share, making it viral once again.

Viral Waves on SlideShare from Ross Mayfield

The above presentation looks at three examples of viral distribution. First is the Mary Meeker deck, which is unique in how much blog and press attention it gained from the moment it was delivered at the D11 Conference last month. Meeker’s slides have become an annual bellwether for the internet industry. This year it got 11 times the views her report last year fetched, with most technology press reporting on it and embedding the presentation.

Second, is Netflix CEO Reed Hasting’s presentation on the company’s corporate Culture. Released in 2009, most of its views came from people searching and browsing on SlideShare. It is the 5th most popular presentation on SlideShare, with 4.5M views.

Three years after its publication, Culture experienced a second wave of virality. It continued to gain search visits, but also was repeatedly embedded in blogs, and Netflix promoted the deck on its own site for recruiting purposes. With the second viral wave, its embed views are now twice that of views on the SlideShare site. The deck has been embedded in over 1755 sites on the web.

Third, we have an example of a influential conference presentation. Sam Ramji originally presented on Darwin’s Finches, 20th Century Business, and APIs at the Web 2.0 Expo in 2010. It gained its initial views from SlideShare, a post by Sam, and a post that embedded the deck in ReadWriteWeb and some smaller blogs. Over time it prompted blog posts like this one in 2012.

The second wave of virality for Sam’s deck came when the API startup space heated up two years later. Three acquisitions happened in eight days for over $450M, and the deck was referenced in posts like this one on TechCrunch. This second wave made it so embed views of the presentation are almost twice that of on-site views.

Not everyone can post content as influential as these examples. But here are some tips for how you can make your SlideShare content a hit:

• -Publish content that is cutting-edge, informative and insightful, or news-breaking

• -Present it at a conference

• -Embed it in your blog or company blog

• -Promote it through your social networks or through your company’s social channels

• -Email a link to it if the content could prompt the media to write about it and embed it. Also consider if your content could add something to a story that has already been posted

• -Use good descriptive and unique language in your presentation, title, description and tags to aid search engines

• -Use SlideShare Pro analytics to monitor the traffic you get and take advantage of a second wave of virality if it happens.

Now, go make your own viral waves!

BBDO and Proximity Networks win the Grand Prix for Good and 98 other Lions at CannesAuthor: Jack Leonard 27 June 2013


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Altogether, the BBDO and Proximity global networks won the Grand Prix for Good, 20 Golds, 26 Silvers, and 52 Bronzes. Thirty-five agencies had shortlisted work, including, for the first time, Garnier BBDO in Costa Rica, BBDO Guatemala, Weapon 7 in the UK, Darw!n BBDO in Belgium and Graffiti BBDO in Bucharest.

BBDO and Proximity’s lions were awarded for 45 brands – more than ever before.

Here are a few notable winners out of the BBDO network that pushed the boundaries of tech for our clients. These three pieces of work are all still live, so click through the links and check out the work for yourself.

“GOLDEN CHAINS” from CLM BBDO

This music video for French artist ALB connected to eBay in order to auction off the artist’s personal gear featured in the video. The proceeds funded ALB’s upcoming album and revolutionized the way emerging artists connect with fans and finance their careers. (enable pop-ups to see the work on the link)

http://albgoldenchains.com/

“TRIAL BY TIMELINE” from COLENSO BBDO

In order to bring the daily atrocities happening around the world home to the people of New Zealand – the freest country in the world – Colenso BBDO and Amnesty International created this interactive webpage. The page used software to analyze users’ Facebook profiles, then showed a visual tour of all the possible crimes and punishments that their profiles qualified the users for.


#YOUDRIVE from AMV BBDO

This campaign for Mercedes-Benz A-Class was the first TV campaign ever to be entirely controlled by social media. Three commercials played during the course of a show, each ending with a choice for the viewers to make through hashtag voting. The action of the following commercial depended on which choice had the most votes. You can get the full experience on YouTube below.

http://www.youtube.com/user/mercedesbenzuk?annotation_id=annotation_63828&feature=iv&src_vid=VXO_WKe54jY

See more at: http://digitallabblog.com/digital-lab-blog/bbdo-and-proximity-networks-win-the-grand-prix-for-good-and-98-other-lions-at-cannes/#sthash.7nljt9sm.dpuf

Making Big Data Work for Your OrganizationDanny Camprubi 20 June 2013

The success of an organization increasingly depends on its ability to draw conclusions regarding the various types of data available. Staying ahead of competitors many times requires that organization to identify a trend, problem or opportunity microseconds before anyone else. That’s why organizations must be able to analyze this information if they want to find insights that will help them to identify new opportunities underlying this phenomenon.

People are spontaneously uploading large amounts of information on the internet, and this represents a great opportunity for companies to segment consumers according to their behavior and not only socio-demographic factors. Companies store transactional information from their customers by making them fill in forms, but the challenge for brands is to enrich these databases with information describing their customers’ behavior and daily habits. This information can be obtained through the online conversation and can be processed, crossed and enriched with many other types of information through different models based on Big Data. Following this procedure, we can complement the information we already have from our customers without having to ask them directly and therefore provide more value-added proposals to clients from a brand perspective.

Using the same technology with the right platform and the correct tactic, companies can achieve more ambitious goals that provide valuable information for the brand, which in turn could also enrich the customer’s experience, improving the customer journey for all types of clients.

Efficiency is a clear goal that is worth pursuing, but from a client’s POV, the use of Big Data gains relevance in the field of content or customer service. Now that consumers have seen what social media and mass customization are capable of doing, they expect these new “conversations” from their favorite brands. They aren’t passive users anymore waiting to receive a message; they want to have an active, participatory role. A Spanish company that exemplifies this is Mapfre (insurance company) with its YCAR policy that allows young drivers to receive discounts for their car insurance renewal. These drivers have a hidden GPS in their vehicle that allows insurance company to know how they drive, and depending on their driving habits, the clients can receive a discount. This way Mapfre doesn’t only focus on demographic information from its clients – they also depend on how each client drives. Over 80,000 young Spanish drivers have registered their car insurance with YCAR.

Listening to the online ocean of conversations may help provide better services, improving the user experience. This new relationship between brands and consumers is here to stay. Companies must invest in gathering, processing and synchronizing this data because it’s something distinctive among human interactions. In short, the future belongs to those brands that can transform data into insightful information to later be used for improving products or services.

Author Danny Camprubi recently collaborated on a Digital Lab thought piece covering applications of Big Data in marketing. For more on the topic, check out that paper here.

- See more at: http://digitallabblog.com/digital-lab-blog/making-big-data-work-for-your-organization/#sthash.kqLU2SBH.dpuf


http://digitallabblog.com/digital-lab-blog/making-big-data-work-for-your-organization/#sthash.kqLU2SBH.dpuf

http://digitallabblog.com/digital-lab-blog/bbdo-and-proximity-networks-win-the-grand-prix-for-good-and-98-other-lions-at-cannes/#sthash.7nljt9sm.dpuf

http://digitallabblog.com/digital-lab-blog/bbdo-and-proximity-networks-win-the-grand-prix-for-good-and-98-other-lions-at-cannes/#sthash.7nljt9sm.dpuf

http://www.youtube.com/user/mercedesbenzuk?annotation_id=annotation_63828&feature=iv&src_vid=VXO_WKe54jY



Pandora hits 2.5M in-car activations, will come in a third of new vehicles sold in the US this yearAuthor: Nick Summers Source: The Next Web 25 June 2013

Pandora revealed today that its Internet radio service has been activated in over 2.5 million vehicles to date, through integrations with 23 car manufacturers and eight third-party stereo brands.

The milestone is a small one considering the total number of drivers in the United States, Australia and New Zealand – the only countries where Pandora is currently available – but it points to a wider adoption of music streaming services by drivers.

Unlike Spotify, Rdio and Deezer, Pandora doesn’t offer any traditional on-demand streaming options. The service uses infinite playlists instead, known as ‘stations’, based on a particular music genre or artist. Competitors such as Last.fm have struggled to stay relevant over the last few years, but Pandora has shown consistent growth.

The company announced back in April that it had signed up over 200 million users in the United States to date, half of which were added in the last two years. It also revealed that 70 million of its users were ‘monthly active listeners’, clocking up just shy of 1.5 billion listener hours combined.

Radio is still a huge part of the in-car music experience, although that can arguably be attributed to the disc jockeys and presenters tied to each station. Nevertheless, Pandora sees this as a huge area for growth – and rightly so – and has therefore pushed to integrate its service with as many car radios as possible.

The company started in December 2010 by supporting Ford Sync’s AppLink technology through its Pandora for Android app. The service is now supported in over 100 different car models from a wide range of manufacturers: BMW, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Ford, GMC, Honda, Hyundai, Lexus, Lincoln, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, MINI, Nissan, Scion, Suzuki and Toyota.

Pandora estimates that a third of all new cars sold in the US this year will come with its Internet radio service pre-installed. It also plans to team up with Dodge, Infiniti, Jeep, Kia and Ram for the first time, extending its reach even further.

Most recently, the company launched a new HTML5 site built from the ground-up to be used on TVs and video game consoles. It’s alsopurchased its own terrestrial radio station in a bid to access lower royalty rates, and launched a new ‘Premieres’ feature in the US to give listenersearly access to new records.

Image Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

- See more at: http://digitallabblog.com/digital-lab-blog/pandora-hits-2-5m-in-car-activations-will-come-in-a-third-of-new-vehicles-sold-in-the-us-this-year/#sthash.BiZFnMng.dpuf

Marketing gap exposedLONDON: Marketers' enthusiasm for social media and mobile channels is not necessarily shared by consumers who continue to prefer email for product research and post-purchase follow-up, new research has said.

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) surveyed 409 consumers and 257 marketing executives in the UK and US about the effectiveness of different marketing channels and found that 37% of consumers preferred email as their initial introduction to a product, with printed catalogues (35%) and personal referrals (33%) close behind.

This compared to 21% choosing company social media or blogs, 18% third-party social media or blogs and just 3% mobile devices.

When it came to post-purchase follow-up, consumer preferences were even more emphatic. Fully 52% chose email, ahead of the 25% who opted for referral by a trusted website, and 21% personal referrals.

Company social media or blogs were favoured by 20%, third-party social media or blogs by 16% and mobile devices by 6%.

Consumers also indicated that they welcomed e-mail offers that had been customised with recommendations based on previous purchases. The survey recorded a net preference score of 28% on this aspect of personalised communications.

They were, however, less keen on communications with content that had been individualized for them personally, a net preference score of 10%, and customised web pages were even less popular, scoring 6%.

The majority of marketers surveyed by the EIU continued to stress simple personalisation, while 63% of consumers said that such an approach was now so common they no longer noticed it. Worse, 33% cited superficial personalisation as one of their top annoyances.

Some 45% of marketers said that one of the biggest stumbling blocks to more and better customisation was their inability to interpret Big Data. Over one third saw this skill as being vital to marketers in the future.

Data sourced from EIU; additional content by Warc staff, 28 June 2013

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Showrooming ratios favour AmazonWORTHINGTON: The efforts by bricks-and-mortar retailers to combat showrooming are ultimately falling short, but some, such as those of Best Buy, are proving more effective than others, as a new metric – the showrooming ratio – has demonstrated.

This has been devised by Prosper Insights & Analytics, the business intelligence firm, to indicate the likelihood that a mobile user will evaluate a product in a bricks-and-mortar store and ultimately may purchase the product via that store's site or a competitor's digital channel.

The findings have been derived from a survey by Prosper Mobile Insights, which included 330 smartphone and tablet users who completed the survey on their devices.

When compared to Amazon, Best Buy scored a showrooming ratio of 111.93 among mobile users in the market for electronics. These shoppers were therefore around 11% more likely to purchase via Amazon than a Best Buy digital channel.

But the equivalent score for other bricks-and-mortar retailers was skewed far more heavily in favour of Amazon.

Target returned a score of 125.96 while that for Walmart stood at 135.04.

A breakdown by gender revealed some further significant differences, particularly for male buyers.

The showrooming ratios for men looking at electronic purchases, were 106.59 at Best Buy, but 145.46 at Target and 152.88 at Walmart.

If men appeared more loyal to Best Buy, then women's allegiance leant towards Target. Comparable showrooming ratios for women were 118.98 at Best Buy, 109.40 at Target and 121.46 at Walmart.

"Men are more prone to looking for a variety of brands, in-store experience, and the latest technology when shopping for electronics, whereas women are generally more focused on a budget-friendly price point," said Pam Goodfellow, analyst for Prosper Insights & Analytics.

She noted that Best Buy's initiatives to improve its offerings and in-store customer experience had resonated with male mobile shoppers.

"The challenge for Best Buy going forward will be to maintain a great experience and retain loyal shoppers," she added, "because Amazon will continue to up the ante when it comes to winning over its competitors' customers."

Data sourced from Prosper Insights & Analytics; additional content by Warc staff, 28 June 2013

Read more at http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/EmailNews.news?ID=31592&Origin=WARCNewsEmail&utm_source=WarcNews&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WarcNews20130628#yADZzh0D5d6OKv8A.99

18–29-Year-Olds Use Their Phones Totally Different From Older PeopleJAY YAROW JUN. 27, 2013, 3:08 PM

Young people have a totally different take on acceptable smartphone usage than older people. We did had Survey Monkey conduct a nationwide survey on how people are using their smartphones. Below, you can see a split in attitudes among people aged 18-29 and aged 49-60. The younger people think it's okay to answer the phone during dinner. The older folks do not.


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The effect of engagement with social media on purchase behaviorsEdward Malthouse, Su Jung Kim and Bobby Calder Northwestern University, USA, Mark Vandenbosch Ivey Business School - University of Western Ontario, Canada

Introduction

The Internet and social media are enabling many new forms of advertising. The first decade or so of Internet advertising— largely consisting of display banner ads and email blasts—followed the approach of traditional print, broadcast, sales promotion and direct advertising, where the advertiser exposes passive eyeballs to some message, perhaps with a call to action inviting a click. The rise of social media and the proliferation of mobile devices are enabling new brand contact points that are more engaging and interactive. Such interactive contact points have the potential to be highly effective because they require the consumer to "lean forward" and actively process the brand meaning. But little is known about whether they affect purchase behaviors or how to design effective prompts.

One form of interactive contact point takes place in a social media forum, where customers create or consume user-generated content (UGC) about a brand. In some cases consumers are incented to participate by either receiving some compensation from the sponsoring company, or by having a chance to win a large prize. For example, Proctor and Gamble's "The Mess Behind the Glory" contest for Bounty paper towels featured Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson. The Pepsi MAX contest asked users to create an ad for Pepsi MAX. Kit Kat Canada sponsored the "game time give away on Facebook" contest where those who entered were eligible to win an NFL beverage pail, football, pen or other NFL merchandise. In a different Facebook Kit Kat "fan of the month" contest, people were asked to share a photo of themselves on Facebook taking a break with Kit Kat, with the chance of being voted "fan of the month." One winner posted a photo of herself on top of a mountain eating a Kit Kat after her strenuous climb. Last year there were social media "burger wars" in Germany. McDonalds asked customers to propose a sandwich and the winner—the "McBrezel"—was offered at stores in Germany for a period of time and the winner received recognition. The "N.Y. CheeseBeef" came in second place. Burger King, in contrast, offered a free Whopper for a "like."

The focus of this article is on such user generated content. We make three contributions. First, while such social media events and contests are becoming more common, there are no published studies measuring their effect on purchase behaviors. We test whether participating by contributing UGC affects purchase behaviors and illustrate ROI calculations. Second, we discuss explanations for the effect, which will help organizations create more effective contests going forward. Third, we will investigate the longevity of the effect—after participating, how long is behavior affected?

Description of data and possible theoretical explanations

We analyze data from the Air Miles Reward Program (AMRP), which has been operating in Canada since 1992 and is one of the largest loyalty programs in the world with over 10 million members representing over 67% of Canadian households. As a coalition loyalty program, members collect miles at over 100 sponsors in categories covering most aspects of routine purchases including


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those at grocery and drug stores, gas stations, home improvement centers, and credit card purchases. Collected miles can be exchanged for rewards such as travel (e.g., airline tickets, hotels), merchandize (e.g., toasters, coffee makers) and gift cards (e.g., gas, movies, groceries).

In March 2009 AMRP launched a social media website for members to discuss the program and benefits. Posts made by members could be linked to their mile accumulation. Since the number of miles issued is roughly proportional to the amount spent, mile accumulation measures purchase behavior. Thus, this data set provides a unique opportunity to measure the effect of participation in a social media forum on purchase behaviors with the brand, in this case AMRP. If activity on the AMRP social media site affects the behavior of members, then their accumulation should increase for two possible reasons. First, they could switch their purchases to AMRP sponsors. For example, Shell is the AMRP sponsor in the gas category, and members could increase their accumulation by purchasing gasoline at Shell rather than a competitor. Second, a member could already be shopping at an AMRP sponsor but not swiping the card at the time of purchase. If members change behavior by swiping the card, they would increase their accumulation. Both represent a change in behavior that is favorable to AMRP, since sponsors compensate AMRP based on the number of miles issued, thus increasing revenue to AMRP. While our focus is on the AMRP brand, it is interesting to note that the first behavior, switching purchases to AMRP sponsors, is also favorable to the sponsors, while the second, swiping the card when it ordinarily is not swiped, is undesirable to the sponsors. We have no way of distinguishing between the behaviors, but from AMRP's perspective it does not matter, since both increase its revenues.

We have one year of data recording activity on the AMRP social media site. Posting to the site is sporadic, with few posts on most days—the median number of posts per day for the date ranges studied here is only 12 and the third quartile is 119. There are, however, large spikes in activity with a maximum number of posts on a single day of 6,455. The spikes are driven by email promotions of several events/contests. There were three major contests in 2010, two of which will be discussed in this paper. The third shows similar results to the other two, but was substantially more complicated with additional possible confounds.

Figure 1: Distribution of the number of posts over time

Figure 1 shows histograms of the number of visitors to the AMRP social media site around the two contests analyzed here. For both we will use the four-week period before the contest as a pre-measure of mile accumulation controlling for heterogeneity across customers, and accumulation in the eight weeks after the contest as the dependent variable. The black down arrows on the top of the plot indicate when emails were sent to members announcing the contest and providing a link on which recipients could click and be brought to the social media site. The red up arrows indicate when AMRP posted announcement reminders on the community page. Emails are the main driver of participation, since the large spikes in activity come after the email announcements. It is noteworthy that there were very few visits to the social media site before or after the contest period, reducing the risk of other social media confounds.

The first contest (left panel) is labeled the "Block Party." On March 2, 2010, AMRP sent an email and posted a message announcing the one-year anniversary "Block Party," in which members were offered four chances to win 25,000 miles by becoming a member, posting a mileage-collection tip, uploading a picture, or making an "I like this" thumbs up to the community site. In sharing tips consumers are actively elaborating on their engagement with the AMRP. Some example posts include, "Safeway will give you 100 airmiles if you sign up for email direct"; "I always shop at Safeway, especially on Customer appreciation day to get 10X airmiles & then pay with my AMEX for double the points!!!" This contest gave an opportunity for members to share their personal experience with AMRP or listen to other member's experiences, which transforms customers from passive audiences to active players and increases engagement with the brand. Contributors are actively processing the main benefit they receive from AMRP, or how to increase their accumulation.

The "Winter" contest invited members to "simply share with us what rewards you are redeeming for this winter season and we'll give you 10 bonus reward miles." In writing about their plans, contributors are elaborating on a personalized benefit of their relationship with AMRP. One member may want a gift card, while another wants a trip to Europe. They are also actively setting a goal and declaring it in a public forum. We are unable to separate out the different causal explanations—setting a goal, declaring


the goal in public, processing and personalizing the core benefit of the AMRP brand—in this study, but all are part of engaging with a brand in social media.

Responses varied in length, and we will study how the amount of elaboration affects mile accumulation. Some wrote one or two words, e.g., "Digital Camera!" Others wrote several sentences explaining why they wanted a particular reward, e.g., "We redeemed some of our airmiles for WestJet flights for our family of four to go and visit my Mom and Dad on Vancouver Island in the new year [sic]. It has been at least four years since our last visit which our youngest daugher [sic] (now 8) is having trouble remembering. So it will be really nice to see them again and be able to picture their place on the ocean." All who participated were exposed to the same email and announcement messages from AMRP and given the same reward (10 miles). If the amount of elaboration affects behavior, then we will have stronger evidence that the effect is due to engagement with the brand and is not just a traditional advertising or promotion effect.

There are several possible theoretical explanations for why such participation should affect future behavior. Our analysis attempts to eliminate the history and selection threats to internal validity, and other explanations such as the effect being due to advertising or the reward. One possible explanation is that participants are elaborating on their relationship with the brand and its core benefit (rewards). The elaboration likelihood model (Petty and Cacioppo, 1986) predicts that high elaboration is persuasive in changing attitudes toward the brand, which then increases future behavior. Second, in the case of the Winter contest the participant is articulating a goal. Goal-setting theory (Locke and Latham, 2002) would also predict a change in future behavior. Third, in discussing involvement with the AMRP program and what rewards one has or will receive from it, the consumer is co-creating the brand and its benefits (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004). A fourth explanation is that the effect is due to engagement (Brodie et al, 2010). Engagement is a broad concept that is difficult to define precisely, but most definitions subsume the other three explanations mentioned before. It should be emphasized that these explanations are not mutually-exclusive, alternative explanations. All are plausible mechanisms for how such participation can affect future behavior. The theory outlined here predicts that active processing of the brand benefits will cause a change in purchase behavior.

Methodology

We analyze the two contests separately. AMRP provided the mile accumulation history for a stratified sample of 143,000 members, with all who participated in the contests and a random sample of non-participants. Black intervals on the horizontal axis of figure 1 show study periods, defining the main independent variable: for a contest, members who posted at least once during the study period are in the treatment group while others are in the control group. Study periods were selected to include most of the posting activities around a contest. The study period for the Block Party contest was two weeks and one week for the Winter contest, reflecting the fact that most posts for the Winter contest came within a week, while most posts for the Block Party came over a two-week period of time. Pre-measures of behavior are computed from the four-week period, called the pre period"0," immediately preceding each study period. The pre measures are averaged over the four weeks to give average miles accumulated per week.

We study how long participation affects behavior in the future by having eight additional post periods labeled periods 1, 2, ..., 8. Period lengths were round weeks because we suspect that accumulation behavior is at least somewhat periodic, with, for example, some households doing their grocery shopping every Saturday, etc. The dependent variables are yit, the number of miles accumulated by customer i during week t=0,1, ..., 8. Let yi0 be the pre measure, number of miles per week for customer i in the period before the contest.

Within each contest, we will analyze the effects of a hierarchy of five different "actions" (independent variables) sequentially. The first action (j=1) is AMRP sending a member an email. We will compare behaviors in the study and post periods between those who receive emails and those who do not, after controlling for behavior in the pre period. The second action (j=2) is opening the email: among only those who received an email, we will compare those who opened it with those who did not. The third action (j=3) is clicking: among only those who opened the email, we will compare those who clicked on a link in the email bringing them to the AMRP website with those who did not click. The fourth action (j=4), which is part of the main focus of this paper, is participating: among those who clicked on the email, we compare those who participate by writing something on the AMRP website with those who do not. The fifth action, for the Winter contest only, is elaboration (j=5): among those who participated, we study the effect of the amount of elaboration. Let xij= 0 or 1 be the value of independent dummy variable j for member i where j=0 is for being a member (xi0=1, for all i), j=1 is for receiving an email, j=2 is for opening the email, j=3 is for clicking on the email, and j=4 is for participating in the contest. We will dichotomize elaboration, splitting at the median of 10 words. Using only the observations wherexi,j−1=1, we study the effect of xij,On yit, controlling for yi0 (j=1, 2, 3, 4 and t=1, 2, ..., 8); for example, we study the effect of participation (xi4) using only those who clicked on the email (xi3=1).

The main focus of this study will be on participation in the contest (j=4) and elaboration (j=5), although the comments in this paragraph on validity apply to all four actions. Participants form the "treatment" group and non-participants are the control group. The control group attempts to address threats to internal validity such as history. Pre-measures account for observed customer heterogeneity. Although members self-select into participating in the contests, this before-after-with-control-quasi-experimental design is robust to most threats to internal validity (Churchill and lacobucci, 2008), since there are two separate bases for comparison, the pre measures and control group.

In summary, the dependent variables are the number of miles accumulated in each of the eight weeks that follow a contest. We will run separate analyses for each of the eight weeks. There are two independent variables: whether or not the customer took the action j being studied (xij) e.g., participated in the contest, and pre-contest mile accumulation (yi0. The focus of this study is participation (j=4) and elaboration (j=5) and we therefore devote most of our discussion to it. The other three actions, receiving an email promotion, opening it, and clicking on it, are of secondary importance because these are traditional ad effects that have been studied for many years, while the other two are examples of engagement.

Results

Our discussion of the results will be divided into two parts, and an additional part for the Winter contest. We must propose a statistical model incorporating the two independent variables (pre measure and participation). This task is complicated by the possibility of interactions between them and nonlinearities. The first part of our discussion will be devoted to an exploration of some graphs to help us propose a suitable model. Next, we use the model to study the effects of all four of the actions on future behavior. For the Winter contest only, we will examine the effects of the amount elaboration among participants.


1. Exploratory data analysis

To explore the data we assign members to three groups based on their behavior in the pre period: low members accumulated 0-10 miles in the pre period, medium members accumulated 11-45 miles, and high members accumulated between 46-500 miles. Each group constitutes about a third of the participants. One can think of these groups as customer segments, or as experimental blocks that account for heterogeneity among experimental units. Our final model (see table 1) will account for this observed heterogeneity at the individual, rather than block level, but we begin our exploration of the data with discrete blocks since the continuous model is more difficult to understand.

Table 1, Sample sizes used to compute the means for the party contest and open/click/participate rates

We begin with the Winter contest by examining the mean number of miles accumulated by period number, member segment and whether the member took a particular action. The Block Party produces similar results. Sample sizes are provided in table 1 for those who took the action and those who did not. For example, 97,846 were sent the Block Party email and we have a sample of 21,299 who did not receive the email. Of the 97,846 who received it, 50,827 opened it and 47,019 did not. All of the sample sizes are large. The estimates of the individual means in our plot and the Poisson regression coefficients in the next section will have small standard errors.

For each block-treatment combination the mean number of miles is plotted against time in the left panel of figure 2 and the natural logarithms of the means are shown in the right panel. (There were outliers in the data. All mile amounts less than 0 or greater than 500 were omitted from the analysis. Less than 1% of the data had negative miles, which probably indicate that the member returned something purchased earlier. Less than 1% of the data had values greater than 500 miles. Recall that each mile equals about 30 CAD and so earning more than 500 miles implies spending more than 15,000 CAD in a one-week period. These are probably businesses or individuals making an unusual rare purchase. Natural logs are used so that the plots will match the Poisson models estimated later.) The low-member block is shown by black lines with circles, the medium block by red lines with triangles and the high block by green lines with plus signs. The dashed lines show those who did the action and the solid line shows those who did not.

Figure 2: Mean miles by period number for different member segments (blocks) and exposure to treatment (X) for winter contest

The effects of participating on mean miles without logging are shown in the left panel. The difference between the solid and dashed lines shows the absolute magnitude of the effect. We begin with the lowest tier of customers accumulating 10 or fewer miles per week and shown with black circles. The black horizontal line between weeks 0 and 1 indicates the announcement. Prior to the line members in this block had low average accumulation (near 0) and there was little difference between those who participate and those who did not, suggesting that there is no selection bias. After the contest, the dashed line is systematically higher than the solid line, indicating that those who participate increase their accumulation over the control group. In weeks 4 and 7 there is little difference between the groups, but in other weeks the differences are sizable, suggesting the effects of engagement are long lasting.

For those in the middle block shown with read triangles, the story is similar: there is little difference between the lines before the contest, but after those who engaged in the contest have systematically higher accumulation in many of the weeks. The effect lasts a long time into the future. The story is different for the best customers, shown by green plus signs. Those who ultimately engage Babelfish Articles May 2013 - July 2013 15-7-13

have systematically higher accumulation before the contest—a selection bias. Also, both lines have substantially more variation, suggesting there are other factors affecting accumulation, i.e., history. Again, pre measures at the individual level address the selection bias, and the natural control group addresses the history. Thus, while there is self-selection into the treatment group, our design has substantial controls over confounds. The effect of engagement in the contest is short among the best customers, with a large difference in week 1, a smaller difference in week 2, and no difference thereafter. A possible explanation is that the most engaged customers are already using the AMPR card wherever they can, and so increasing accumulation will be difficult, since consumers are unlikely to increase their consumption in these categories to earn more miles. There are more opportunities to increase accumulation with customers in the other two blocks who, for example, could switch gas stations or start swiping the card.

The logs of the means are plotted in the right plot of figure 2 and show a similar, but slightly different story. The differences for the low and medium block are more evident. The difference between the solid and dashed lines indicate the log ratio of the means because log(μ1) - log(μ0) = logμ1/μ0, where μ1 a mean for the treatment group (dashed line) and μ0 is a mean for the "control group (solid line). Thus, the difference indicates the relative (or multiplicative) increase due to the action.

The plots show two interactions that must be accounted for in our model. First, the effect of engagement varies across customers. The effects are smaller for best customers than for weaker customers, and so the effect of the treatment should interact with the pre measure. Second, there is an interaction between treatment and time, with effects diminishing for best customers as the time since the contest increases.


Figure 3: Mean miles by period number for different member segments (blocks) and exposure to treatment (X) for party contest

Figure 3 shows similar plots for the Party contest. Again, we see that those who participated in the contest increase future mile accumulation more than those who do not.

2. Poisson models with interactions

We now propose a model that accounts for heterogeneity at the individual level and accommodates the interactions identified in the plots. We will estimate separate Poisson regression models predicting yit(t=1, ..., 8) for action j using only observations where xi,j−1=1:

This model includes an interaction term between the pre measure and treatment. We can understand the model better by writing out the fitted model for the different treatment values:


Figure 4: Illustration of poisson model with interactions

The model is illustrated in figure 4. The top line shows the model for those who do not participate (xij=0) where two of the terms drop out. The relationship between log mile accumulation in the future period and the log pre measure is a line with intercept β0 and slope β1. For those who participate (xij=1), the relationship is also linear (bottom line). The intercept is (β0+β2) and the slope is now (β1+β3). Thus, β2 measures the change in the intercept between the treatment and control groups, and β0>0 implies that those with low accumulation in pre period who participate have higher accumulation than those who do not. Likewise, β2=0 implies there is no difference in intercepts. Parameter β3 measures the difference in slopes. We can solve for the intersection of the two lines and find x=−β2/β3.

Parameter estimates are provided in table 2 for participation and elaboration. Estimates from the first three actions have been omitted, since they are not about engagement, the central focus of this article. With such large sample sizes all P-values, including those from the first three actions, are very small, indicating that all parameters are significantly different from 0. Consider the estimates for participation (j=4) in the Winter contest during period 1. The estimated lines are shown in figure 3, where the solid line is for those who did not participate and the dashed line is for those who did. The effect of participation is greatest for those who were inactive and decreases as the accumulation of miles in the base period increases.

The bottom rows show the effect of high elaboration (> 10 words) for those who participated. The effects of elaboration (β2) are substantially smaller than those for participation, but significantly different from 0. There is a similar interaction effect (β3<0), where the best customers who are already using the card wherever they can have less opportunity to increase accumulation. Those who have higher elaboration accumulate more.

In both contests and all eight future periods β2>0, and so the effect of participation is positive for those with no accumulation in the base period. Likewise, across contests and future periods β3<0, and so the participation effect diminishes as base-period accumulation increases.


Table 2: Parameter estimates

Estimating ROI

The ROI of a contest can be estimated by evaluating this model for each action (j) and customer both with the action (xij=1) and without (xij=0). The difference in estimated accumulation is the return on a particular action. Let y*ijt be the estimated mile accumulation of customer i during period t assuming action j and let yijt be the expected accumulation without action j. For example, when j=1 (email) y*ijt − yijt gives the expected return for receiving the email. The overall change in miles issued due to all actions in a contest can be estimated by summing this over customers, actions and time periods:

where (a)b equals a when b is true and 0 when b is false. The expected mile accumulations can be computed by computing the exponent of the log miles with and without action j:

The difference, which can be substituted into the above expression, is thus

We multiply the overall change (Δy) by the net value of a mile (revenue at issuance minus the projected cost of redemption) and subtract the cost of the contest for the ROI.

Conclusions and general discussion

We have examined two social media contests and shown that those who participate consistently have significantly higher accumulation of miles during and after the contest for eight weeks, controlling for pre mile accumulation. While the tables of parameter estimates have been omitted from this paper, the data also show that those who received an email, opened it, or clicked on it also increased accumulation. Among those who participated in the Winter contest, those who elaborated more on their goal increased accumulation. There were interactions with the pre measure of behavior (mile accumulation), with the effect size decreasing as the pre measure increased. This is likely due to the best customers, who are already using the card wherever they can, not being able to increase accumulation without increasing their consumption. Our models enable the calculation of ROI.


The first three actions (receiving an email, opening it, and clicking on it) can be viewed as traditional advertising effects, and there is nothing new in finding that exposure to an advertising message affects behaviors. It is our examination of the last two actions, participation and elaboration, that are the main contribution of this chapter. Among all people who were exposed to the message, opened it and clicked on it, we find that those who engaged by contributing content increased their future behavior further.

One could argue that this effect is instead due to the incentive that participants received (ten miles in the Winter contest and the chance of winning 25,000 miles in the Block Party contest), but we attempt to rebut this argument by examining elaboration. If those who participate increase accumulation behavior only because they received an award, then elaboration should have no effect, since all participants received the same reward regardless of the amount of elaboration. Among those who participated, however, the amount of elaboration does affect future accumulation. Thus, the change in accumulation must be the consequence of some causal factor beyond the ten-mile incentive and exposure to advertising.

We are unable to isolate the cause beyond this elaboration on the brand, but we have identified several possible explanations: the elaboration likelihood model, goal setting, co-creation and engagement. Further research is necessary and we now discuss important research questions unanswered by our data. First, the winter contest required the participant to declare a goal on the social media site, while the Block Party did not. The fact that we observed an increase in future behavior in both contests suggests that goal setting is not the only causal mechanism—it may contribute to the effectiveness of the Winter contest, but other explanations are required to explain the Block Party effect. Second, as with all UGC distributed in social media, the declaration of the goal occurs in a public, shared forum. If goal setting is part of the causal mix, to what extent is the public declaration important over setting a goal in private? For example, if AMRP members were asked to write what they would "redeem miles for in winter" on a piece of paper without showing it to anyone, would the change in future behavior be as great as declaring the goal in public? Such questions evaluate a core attribute of social media.

We now return to some of the examples given in the introduction and apply the theories developed in this article to illustrate how they can help companies design more effective social media prompts. Consider the two Kit Kat contests, and recall that the Kit Kat brand is linked to taking a break. One contest offered the chance to win an NFL beverage pail in exchange for being a fan, while the other asked consumers to post a photo of themselves taking a break with Kit Kat. The latter contest forces processing of the core brand positioning, while the former does not. As with the Winter contest, sharing a photo of a break asks the consumer to customize the brand benefit. The role played by Kit Kat in the consumer's life is accentuated and the consumer makes a public pronouncement of this role. Our theory predicts that the latter will increase future consumption of Kit Kat, while the former will have less effect.

In the case of the German burger wars, having consumers design a sandwich for the German market is an example of co-creation. Consumers are doing the work traditionally done by a new-product development team or franchisees. They are customizing and adapting the McDonalds brand by integrating the flavors and ingredients that they like into the product mix—in the case of McBrezel, Bavarian meatloaf with potato salad, mountain cheese and honey mustard all on a McRib bun. This requires a high level of engagement in comparison with the Burger King contest of simply liking a Whopper. The Pepsi Max and Bounty paper towel contests created similar high levels of brand engagement.

There are other questions about the nature of engagement. How can we classify engagement into different types and do the different types have different effects on future behavior? For example, one split that has been proposed is utilitarian versus hedonic versus those that express identity (e.g., Cotte et al, 2006; Calder et al, 2009). Should the organization prompt utilitarian engagement and elaboration such as share a tip on collecting miles, should it prompt more hedonic UGC such as sharing a picture or story about enjoying a reward, or should it prompt uses to express their identity to the social media community by associating themselves with the brand (e.g., by liking or sharing it)? The answer will likely partially depend on the nature of the brand. Brands designed to express an identity such as Harley or Gucci are probably more likely to benefit from identity-expressing engagement such as liking than brands that play a different role in their customers' lives, e.g., Kit Kat or fast food.

The answer likely also depends on a combination of which will generate the most responses and which will increase future behaviors. The main hypothesis posited by this article is that social media that prompts elaboration/co-creation around the brand—engagement, by some definitions—is the cause of the change in future behavior, but Baird and Paranis (2012) find that among a large set of reasons for visiting social media, interacting with brands is one of the least-checked reasons. Is it easier to attract participation when the prompt is not brand related, and are contests where the task required for entry is aligned with the brand more effective in changing future behavior than those that are unrelated? Marketers could find themselves in a difficult position, where interactions that are not focused on the brand have no effect on future purchase behavior, while consumers are not interested in participating in brand-focused activities. Answering such questions will provide guidance in designing future contests.

This study has limitations and raises other questions. The quasi-experimental design used here, with pre-measures and a control group, is fairly robust to threats to internal validity, but it would be desirable to run true experiments where participation is manipulated, and to isolate the cause. We have been unable to study the effect of reading, without contributing, UGC. Does reading UGC written by another customer change purchase behavior? Future research should address this issue to present a complete picture of how contests work for both active (i.e., creating messages) and less active (i.e., reading other people's messages) forms of participation.

Allowing consumers to co-create brand meaning and benefits would seem to be a more effective way to increase purchase behavior than simply exposing consumers to ad messages, but it also creates new challenges and risks. The meanings that some consumers create may not be "on strategy, in that they differ from what the organization intends for consumers to think about its brand. In some cases these alternative interpretations of the brand may be opportunities for the firm to expand the meaning of its brand. The firm may not have realized that this alternative meaning is the reason why a large number of consumers are loyal. It is also possible, however, to envisage situations where the alternative interpretations cause the brand to lose focus and confuse other customers who read them. Famous examples of such user-generated content discussed by Deighton (2008) are the Dove Cream Oil Body Wash entries by "Biker Dave and "Bed Vlog. Such ads are still available on YouTube and do not communicate the intended brand meaning. An important opportunity for future research is in devising communication strategies for responding to such user-generated content.

References


Baird, C. H. and G. Parasnis (2012), "From Social Media to Social CRM", IBM, IBM Global Services, Somers, NY.

Brodie, R.; Hollenbeek, L; Juric, B. and A. Ilic (2011), "Customer Engagement: Conceptual Domain, Fundamental Propositions, and Implications for Research," in: Journal of Service Research, Vol 14 (3), 252-271.

Calder, B J.; Malthouse, E. C. and U. Schaedel(2009), "Engagement with Online Media and Advertising Effectiveness," in: Journal of Interactive Marketing, Vol. 69 (1), 321-331.

Churchill, G.A. and D. lacobucci (2008), "Marketing Research Methodological Foundations," 9th edition, Thompson.

Cotte, J.; Chowdhury, T.; Ratneshwar, S. and L. Ricci (2006), "Pleasure or Utility? Time Planning Style and Web Usage Behaviors," in: Journal of Interactive Marketing, Vol. 20 (1), 45-57.

Deighton, J. (2008), "Dove: Evolution of a Brand," Harvard Business School case number 9-508-047 and teaching note.

Locke, E.A and G. P. Latham (2002), "Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey," in: American Psychologist, Vol. 57 (9) 705-717.

Petty, R. E., and J. T. Cacioppo (1986), "The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion," in: Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 19, 123-205.

Prahalad, C.K. and V. Ramaswamy (2004), "Co-creation experiences: the next practice in value creation," in: Journal of Interactive Marketing, Vol. 18 (3), 5-14.

About the Authors

Edward C. Malthouse is the Theodore R and Annie Laurie Sills Professor of Integrated Marketing Communication and Industrial Engineering, Northwestern University, United States.

Su Jung Kim is a post doc in the department of Integrated Marketing Communications, Medill School, Northwestern University, United States

Bobby J. Calder is the Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing, Psychology and Journalism, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, United States.

Mark Vandenbosch is the Kraft Professor in Marketing at the Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario, Canada.

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5 reasons to benchmark costs and why agencies should not be worriedPosted on June 14, 2013 by Stephan Argent

This post is by Stephan Argent, CEO of Argedia Group and a member of the Marketing FIRST Forum, the global consulting collective co-founded by TrinityP3

The old adage of “measure twice, cut once” is something that holds true in marketing communications just as it does everywhere else. And while benchmarking is usually something initiated by marketers seeking to verify assumptions, it should be an initiative that’s equally welcomed by agencies.

Far from being something to dread, a benchmarking exercise is an opportunity to bring clarity through methodical evaluation, reasoned thinking and calm discussion.

Here’s why:

1. No more guess work

A benchmarking exercise usually begins because a client assumes they’ve been paying too much for services. Without proper benchmarks, the key word here is “assumes” and benchmarking should be undertaken to specifically take the guesswork out of costs, and define what really constitutes fair value for everyone concerned.

2. Make budgets predictable

I often hear marketers say things like, “how is it that the same thing I asked for last week, costs twice as much the next?” What’s really being said here is, “I don’t know how much things [should] cost.” A benchmarking exercise will bring clarity to agency cost structures and empower marketers to make informed decisions, armed with an understanding of what they should budget for.

3. Alleviate agency / client tensions

A benchmarking study can help reduce friction between agencies and their clients because cost structures are clearly defined before projects begin. If an issue subsequently arises around costs, both agency and client can point to recent benchmarks to justify or pushback on costs, thereby promoting discussion around data rather than assumptions.

4. Set performance expectations

With cost benchmarks clearly defined, both marketers and agencies can discuss and agree on performance expectations and requirements at the outset. This enables agencies to knowingly undertake projects against a defined set of cost criteria and for clients to set aside adequate budgets that are in-line with expectations.

5. Manage change or integration


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During times of acquisition or major change – particularly when multiple agencies are involved – benchmarking can help marketers manage to define budgets and ensure multiple agencies are working within defined or accepted cost structures. Not arming yourself with up-to-date benchmarks can very quickly lead to unwelcome budget surprises that cause tension and dissatisfaction on both sides of the value equation.

While these are just five positive highlights of benchmarking, the key takeaway here is marketers need to arm themselves with up-to-date benchmarking data at least once a year. And it’s an exercise and discussion agencies should welcome just as much as marketers welcome being able to manage budgets with transparency and ease.

What benchmarks does your organisation use to define fair value and manage costs?

How To Rescue Unhappy Mobile Video Consumersby Jeff Glueck, Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Anyone who has recently upgraded a smartphone from one that runs on a 3G network (say, the iPhone 4) to one that streams video and downloads songs on a 4G LTE network (for instance, the iPhone 5) knows anecdotally and intuitively that these activities are generally a better experience on the 4G LTE network. For consumers, 4G LTE is less prone to buffering and stuttering, and is one that, most of the time, just works. Wouldn’t it be nice if that were simply the end of the story, and that the problems that have arisen from deluge of high-bandwidth video traffic onto mobile networks just vanished once everyone migrated to LTE?

Unfortunately, while the situation is improving in the aggregate, this by no means allays the concerns of the many remaining frustrated video viewers who can’t get their YouTube or Vimeo clips to start. These consumers generally aren’t concerned about how crystal clear or “HD-like” video is once it finally arrives – they simply want it to arrive quickly and to stream without interruption. Today, consumers perceive their mobile video quality of experience (QoE) by transmission quality, rather than visual quality. They’ll reward an operator by staying with them, and even recommending them, if mobile video simply works.

When operators look to manage and optimize the over-the-top (OTT) video traveling on their networks, so that each individual consumer receives a first-rate quality of experience - even when they’re at the edge of a cell, inside a building or behind a wall - there are three approaches that can be taken:

1. Operator-defined global optimization settings that are based on time of day or other static, outdated policies .

2. Using “probes” in the radio access network (RAN) to identify congested cells – then focusing optimization only on those congested cells.

3. Using the cloud to target network congestion on a per-user, per-stream basis, and optimize troublesome videos accordingly.

Option one is a legacy holdover from the recent past, in which expensive inline hardware was configured in mobile networks to reduce bandwidth on all videos at pre-defined times of day, effectively punishing all users on a given cell or even across the entire network whether there was congestion or not. It neglects to take into account the realities of modern mobile video traffic, where a previously uncongested cell may become overwhelmed due to an event or an unplanned spike in usage.

Option two, the RAN probe approach, is more surgical and can identify congestion where it is occurring on individual cells, yet is expensive to deploy and still suffers from a macro-level approach. Many quality of experience issues have nothing to do with cell-wide congestion, and are instead caused by impairments at the individual user level. This one-size-fits-all policy applies optimization across the board to everyone on a cell, while neglecting, say, a smaller number of individual users on a neighboring, uncongested cell who are abandoning their videos while cursing their operator.

It’s my belief, and that of many global mobile operators as well, that now that the technology exists to surgically optimize problematic video streams in the cloud on a real-time, per-user, per-stream basis, we’ve reached a new milestone in managing mobile video QoE. Individual users can now be saved from an unhappy video session, without bandwidth reduction for the other users surrounding them.

Operators also now have an insurance policy in hand that helps keep their users happy and satisfied with network performance, and not searching for reasons to blame their operator for poor video streaming sessions – as consumers are all too ready to do. Using the cloud to measure, quantify and mitigate video quality issues at the individual user level is more flexible, more cost-effective and delivers a much higher QoE than alternative methods. It’s enough to plug the remaining holes in LTE video quality, so that everyone -- you, me and that guy standing behind the wall -- can stream video to their heart’s content.

Jeff Glueck has served as CEO of Skyfire since July of 2009. Glueck is an entrepreneur whose first start-up, in 1999 -- site59.com -- grew to over $125 million in travel ecommerce sales in two years before being acquired by Travelocity in 2002.

Video Insider for Wednesday, June 26, 2013:

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/203362/how-to-rescue-unhappy-mobile-video-consumers.html

Mobile Broadcast TV Users Mostly Dyle News Programming, Study Finds Daytime Is Mobile Prime-Timeby Joe Mandese, Wednesday, Jun 26, 2013

Local and national news is the primary form of programming being viewed by mobile users accessing broadcast TV via mobile devices, according to estimates released this morning from TV audience measurement firm Rentrak. The data, which comes from Dyle, a new service enabling mobile users to access live broadcast TV signals on their handheld devices, indicates that news programming represents more than half of all viewing on mobile devices.


http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/203362/how-to-rescue-unhappy-mobile-video-consumers.html

Rentrak did not disclose the time frame being measured in the analysis or what the sample size, the composition, or specific methodology was, but said the findings also show that the average Dyle mobile TV user tunes in for more than 20 minutes per usage daily.

The findings suggests that mobile technology is a potentially powerful medium for extending the reach and vitality of broadcast TV, especially during scheduled and breaking news cycles when on-the-go users cannot access conventional television.

The study found that mobile broadcast TV usage “spikes during critical news cycles,” specifically citing the manhunt that followed the Boston Marathon bombings, during which total viewing minutes were nearly double (+96%) the same period the previous week.

The analysis also suggests that peak-time patterns are very different for mobile broadcast TV usage than in-home television viewing. Not surprisingly, daytime viewership between 6 a.m. and 4 p.m. represents the dominant share of mobile TV usage, with 45% of mobile TV usage occurring during that time period, compared with only 36% of in-home viewing during those hours.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/203343/mobile-broadcast-tv-users-mostly-dyle-news-program.html?edition=61565#ixzz2XKd1sRwh

Omnicom, Not WPP Or Publicis, Dominates Madison Avenue's Tech Storyby Joe Mandese,

If you follow the trade press (including this publication), you’d think that WPP and Publicis dominate Madison Avenue’s technology beat, but according to some sophisticated new research analyzing the impact each of the major agency holding companies -- and their most influential people -- have on the ad industry technology narrative, Omnicom dominates that story, and by a significant margin.

To understand the influence each of the major holding companies is having on the tech sector, including advertising and marketing technology, Online Media Daily partnered with Appinions, an innovative data-mining company that uses a proprietary method of measuring “influence” by extracting and aggregating opinions from more than 6 million sources, including blogs, social networks, forums and conventional news coverage from newspaper and magazine articles.

The holding company analysis, which was based on data from the past 60 days, shows that Omnicom indexed at 129 -- eight points higher than the second most influential company, WPP, and 20 points higher than third-place Publicis. In terms of tech influence, the rest of Madison Avenue were also-rans. Havas indexed at 51, and Interpublic, Dentsu (Aegis) and MDC Partners failed to index at all on the subject of technology.

The Appinions analysis suggests that the influence was driven primarily by topical events -- especially important news stories and deals, including Omnicom’s June 14th announcement of an exclusive partnership with Salesforce to power all of its social marketing and advertising services.

Similarly, WPP’s high-tech influencer ranking emanated from June 6th news of its partnership with Twitter to join its Data Alliance initiative. Twitter’s April 22nd announcement of a partnership with Publicis’ Starcom unit, as well as VivaKi’s June 7th deal with native at start-up Nativo, boosted its rankings, while Havas’ June 5th acquisition of data science firm MFG Labs and its May 16th deal to acquire ElisaDBI, boosted its standing.

While technology is a catch-all for a variety of things, it is short code on Madison Avenue for “innovation,” so it is seen as a strategic imperative and important bragging right for any holding company.

That said, the Appinions analysis also looked at how effective each holding company was at influencing its own story -- the conversations circulating specifically around each holding company’s own brand -- during the same period, and on that basis, WPP dominated with a 142 index, followed by Havas (138), Omnicom (127), Publicis (124), Interpublic (116), Dentsu (105) and MDC (69).

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/203345/omnicom-not-wpp-or-publicis-dominates-madison-av.html?edition=61565#ixzz2XKhOdPwN

Samsung faz a festa viral com Usher e Jay-ZVídeos protagonizados pelos rappers e criados por agências distintas foram os virais mais assistidos da semana

FELIPE TURLÃO| »

26 de Junho de 2013 • 10:10

"Looking 4 Myself", estrelada por Usher (foto), deverá ser ultrapassado por "Magna Carta Holy Grail", com Jay-Z

Duas ações criadas por agências distintas para produtos e objetivos totalmente diferentes entre si, garantiram à Samsung as duas primeiras posições entre os vídeos virais mais assistidos da semana, segundo medição da Visible Measures para o Advertising Age. A soma dos dois já garantiu 51 milhões de visualizações para a Samsung desde os lançamentos.

A primeira ação, “Looking 4 Myself”, lançada no dia 13 de junho, consistia em uma experiência de filme digital criada pela agência Huge para engajar as pessoas com a Smart TV da Samsung, mostrando uma batalha épica do rapper Usher contra o seu lado obscuro. A peça já teve 27,4 milhões de visualizações.

A outra, lançada três dias depois, foi um vídeo criado pela 72andSunny que mostra Jay-Z conversando com seus produtores sobre o novo álbum “Magna Carta Holy Grail”, para divulgar a iniciativa do anunciante de pagar US$ 5 por unidade do álbum que for baixada pelos seus clientes. A iniciativa rendeu o disco de platina para Jay-Z antes mesmo de o disco chegar às lojas, em 4 de julho.


http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/203345/omnicom-not-wpp-or-publicis-dominates-madison-av.html?edition=61565#ixzz2XKhOdPwN

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/203345/omnicom-not-wpp-or-publicis-dominates-madison-av.html?edition=61565#ixzz2XKhOdPwN

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/203343/mobile-broadcast-tv-users-mostly-dyle-news-program.html?edition=61565#ixzz2XKd1sRwh

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/203343/mobile-broadcast-tv-users-mostly-dyle-news-program.html?edition=61565#ixzz2XKd1sRwh

Para a Samsung, o vídeo rendeu mais 23,5 milhões de visualizações, mas com tendência de ultrapassar o esforço protagonizado por Usher nos próximos dias. Isso porque, se considerados apenas os últimos sete dias, "Looking 4 Myself" teve 12 milhões, contra 20 milhões de "Magna Carta Holy Grail" (veja a lista completa aqui).

Leia Mais: http://www.meioemensagem.com.br/home/comunicacao/noticias/2013/06/26/Samsung-faz-a-festa-viral-com-Usher-e-Jay-Z.html#ixzz2XLuQhYB0

Consumers show mixed views on dataNEW YORK: Consumers have a contradictory attitude to data, simultaneously wanting targeted ads but proving reluctant to share the information needed for ad targeting to work, a new survey has found.

Infosys, the business consultancy, surveyed 1,000 consumers in each of five countries – the US, UK, France, Germany and Australia – on their sentiments regarding big data as it related to the retail, financial services, and health care industries.

Some 72% of consumers worldwide thought that the online promotions or emails they received from retailers did not resonate with their personal interests and needs.

But 78% said they would be more likely to purchase from a retailer again if they provided offers targeted to those interests and needs, while 71% felt the same about incentives based on location.

The problem for retailers, however, is that just 16% of respondents were prepared to share social media profile information, making it more difficult for retailers to deliver the tailored offers people want.

But when it comes to financial services, a clear majority of respondents (82%) positively expected their bank to mine personal data in order to protect against fraud. And 76% indicated they might change banks if a competitor could reassure them that their data and money would be safer.

Overall, 39% of survey respondents described data-mining as invasive, but similar proportions said it was helpful (35%), convenient (32%) and time-saving (33%). German consumers were the least willing to share personal information.

Stephen Pratt, Managing Partner for Worldwide Consulting and Systems Integration at Infosys, called the survey results a "wake-up call" to companies.

He said there was an "enormous untapped opportunity to gain greater access to data by clearly communicating 'what's in it for me' to the customer".

"Our research shows that people will certainly share though they're very savvy about how they give up their personal information," he explained, adding: "Companies need to crack the code in mining data effectively to gain consumer trust and clearly articulate the benefit to their customers."

Data sourced from PR Newswire; additional content by Warc staff, 26 June 2013

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Shopping Then and Now: Five Ways Retail Has Changed and How Businesses Can AdaptTHE RUNDOWN

Constant connectivity, contextual relevance, and a multi-screen world are changing both online and offline shopping. As the digital and in-store experiences blur, it is opening up exciting new possibilities for forward-thinking retailers. Sridhar Ramaswamy, who as Google’s SVP of Ads and Commerce oversees the technology behind Google Shopping, explains how combining classic retail truths with digital savvy can help retailers do what matters most: serve their customers better.

Consumers no longer see a distinction between online and offline shopping. Whether it’s searching on a laptop, browsing main street shops or hanging out at the mall — it’s all shopping. To adapt to the competitive new reality, smart retailers are drawing on classic retailing truths of the past and augmenting them for the now.

Innovative retailers are embracing this new reality, using digital to extend their storefronts. These are my top five observations on how shopping has changed and suggestions for how marketers can adapt to join the retail revolution.

1. Shoppers know as much as salespeople

Then:

People came into stores with little to no knowledge and relied on a salesperson to advise them on what to buy.

Now:

Today’s shoppers have become accustomed to doing their own research to get the maximum value out of every dollar they spend, and to feel secure about the purchases they’re making. With this power shift comes a great opportunity for retailers; those that use tools and insights from the web have the opportunity to close the gap between the smart online consumer and the offline retailer, and to stand out in a competitive marketplace. Every moment in a consumer’s decision journey matters. To win these moments, smart retailers need to be there when inspiration strikes consumers and as they start researching purchases online.


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http://www.meioemensagem.com.br/home/comunicacao/noticias/2013/06/26/Samsung-faz-a-festa-viral-com-Usher-e-Jay-Z.html#ixzz2XLuQhYB0

http://www.meioemensagem.com.br/home/comunicacao/noticias/2013/06/26/Samsung-faz-a-festa-viral-com-Usher-e-Jay-Z.html#ixzz2XLuQhYB0

2. Retailers can deliver personal, relevant suggestions at scale

Then:

Retailing began with shopkeepers who would welcome in people from the neighborhood and then come to learn their customers’ needs and preferences.

Now:

In our constantly connected world, a device is just a proxy for what really matters — getting to know your customers. Devices provide context, helping us learn what matters to a consumer in a particular location and at a particular time. Coupled with the intent provided by search, this is incredibly powerful. It can help retailers deliver relevant suggestions, essentially recreating those shopkeeper conversations at scale. The right message at the right moment is the next level in customer service — it can quickly and easily turn intent into action.

Context also allows retailers to better than ever anticipate what a customer might need based on when, where and how they arrive at their site and help them decide how to respond to them. People are constantly looking for product information, deals, local availability and local discounts online — and retailers who aren’t there to supply the right information when people raise their virtual hand will lose out.

3. Mobile devices drive foot traffic to stores

Then:

Finding the right store — and the product you needed — depended on familiarity, or serendipity.

Now:

As the lines blur between online and offline, innovative retailers are integrating mobile into their brick-and-mortar store experience. When shoppers search for a store name or category, they expect to see a map with directions, a phone number that they can easily click-to-call, or special offers that match their location and time of day. Adidas worked with their agency iProspect to evaluate how mobile clicks on their store locator links were driving in-store sales, and found that for a mobile investment of $1 million, the value brought by store locator clicks in mobile ads generated an extra $1.6 million in sales.

The search element of shopping doesn’t end once the customer walks into a store. At some point, we’ve all been lost in the supermarket, searching the aisles for an elusive item. Mobile can be a map, a shopping list, a personal shopper, a salesperson and a product finder all at once.

4. Opinions carry more weight than ever

Then:

Retail therapy was an activity shared by friends and family — and word of mouth was a social force that transformed new products into must-haves and small shops into retail empires.

Now:

This is truer than ever. With YouTube and social networks like G+, people are now sharing their opinion on products not just with a group of friends, but with millions of people. This is why Google Shopping incorporates reviews and introduced shortlists to make it easy for people to discuss products and purchases with friends and family. Smart retailers are recognizing the opportunities that lie in digital where instead of basing campaigns on the broadest reach possible they can now zero in and speak directly with the individuals, or communities of fans, who love their products most. Retailers are also seizing the opportunities around online comments by advertising against terms like “reviews” and working to promote the positive and counteract the negative.

5. Products can jump off the screen

Then:

The internet was fine for researching, but there was no replacement for holding, feeling, inspecting a physical product on a store shelf or showroom floor.

Now:

Interactive video, 360 views, gestural controls are just a few of the options bringing products alive on customers’ multiple screens. Each digital stride opens exciting opportunities to close the gap between an on-screen image and that experience of holding a product in a store. Google Shopping has introduced 360-degree imagery to some product sets to give shoppers a better sense of what an item really looks like. Some innovative retailers are even offering shoppers virtual try-ons. Eye-glasses retailer Warby Parker, for example, invites customers to mix and match frames against their photo. When retailers showcase products online in a unique way, they create opportunities for customers to interact with products on an emotional level. When consumers’ emotions are activated, their desire to buy is sparked. We are only beginning to see the possibilities.

"A device is just a proxy for what really matters — getting to know your customers. Devices provide context, helping us learn what matters to a consumer in a particular location and at a particular time."

As digital weaves itself deeper into the fabric of our lives, smart retailers understand making the most of new opportunities is not about gadgets or technology. It’s about human nature. Forward-thinking retailers should be looking at how they are interweaving digital tools like mobile, context, and video with sales, marketing and customer service. When these things are used well, the technology becomes invisible. Customers simply see retailers as being very good at giving them exactly what they want.

• Sridhar Ramaswamy

SVP Ads & Commerce at Google


A Fool and Their Data are Soon PartedPosted October 8, 2012

In Fear & Loathing in the Ad Technology Stack (3/8/11), TOTSB posted about the latent dangers of having a tag management platform provided by the same vendor as the site analytics solution. Since then, IBM CoreMetrics joined the fray with their Digital Data Exchange solution. Earlier this week, the other and much bigger shoe dropped as Google announced their new free Tag Manager. With this latest development, it seemed like a good time to talk about the foolish handling of digital customer data, which may as well be money.

How Does It Work?

Signing-up for Google Tag Manager is easy enough and takes just a few minutes. Digital marketers can even "opt-out" of sharing their data anonymously for benchmarking purposes. However, this is a classic faux bone being thrown out by Google that is revealed on a subsequent screen. Later, users learn that are agreeing to share their data with DoubleClick, Google's advertising business and signing-up for AdWords, too.

Meanwhile, on the final screen you can add then add some tags. Conveniently this screen is pre-populated with Google's Ad Words, DoubleClick Floodlight and Google Analytics tags. Supposedly other tags will be coming soon with such drag-and-drop simplicity. It is not clear that Google Tag Manager is server-server with the other Google products yet but when that does happen, certainly it will be positioned as a speed benefit. Nevermind the looming centralized consolidated Google master cookie.

The Trojan Horse

Considering the success of Google's model of free analytics and past ethical challenges as modus operandi, this should not be a big surprise. If you weren't already sharing your data with the Google datamining machine, now there is one more way for them to get even more breadth of data capture. Combined with their the search, free email, social and display media business, Google is sealing up the entire digital stack. That means they also have maximum depth, i.e. the full picture of cause and effect. It is this rich, vast global data set that Google's engineers have trained their sights on and let's face it - it is a brilliant strategy.

At the same time, for most Tag Management System vendors this is a really big problem. The reality is that most digital marketer's aren't technically savvy enough to realize the free Google stack is a digital data Trojan Horse. Most of them have invested in non-server-server cookie-based solutions that cannot compete with a server-side cloud-based architecture. Google will now commence to eat lesser TMS' lunch. Ironically, many digital marketers are using a paid TMS to deliver their free Google Analytics. Even if digital marketers decide to forgo Google Analytics and upgrade to a real enterprise solution (not a fake one like Premium), they still have a hole in the data bucket thanks to Tag Manager. Let's just call it their data collection hedge.

The High Cost of "Free"

Most digital marketers have been blissfully unaware of the actual game that they are playing for years under the auspices of free and easy-to-use. Perpetuated by self-appointed experts and others, there is a notion that espouses that analytics technology should be cheap and that it is more valuable to have a well-funded well-paid analytics people than an expensive tool. The above meme is so Google. It is self-serving and self-reinforcing as it works especially well for the cottage industry of certified implementers and analysts. Unfortunately, it usually means weak display media measurement, gaping holes in data security/intellectual property control and potentially privacy concerns. It could also mean inadvertently feeding your competition while Google makes a buck off of it.

The layers of conflicts of interest are deep and include:

• Google Remarketing is conveniently baked into Google Analytics these days; the Google advertising cookie and the Google Analytics site cookie have been one and the same for some time now.

• Google Analytics overstates Paid Search performance

• Google recently changed how referral data is passed on landing pages obfuscating search performance


http://www.google.com/tagmanager/

• Google has thrown a bone on fractional attribution via Google Analytics and now DoubleClick Analytics, their credibility as an independent arbiter of their own performance is questionable

Being Ethically Challenged About Others' Intellectual Property

• The Power of Google: Serving Consumers or Threatening Competition?

• FTC’s Lawsuit Against Google Buzz

• Google's iPhone Tracking Web Giant, Others Bypassed Apple Browser Settings for Guarding Privacy

• Google 'in breach' of UK data privacy agreement

• Google opt-out -- another blow to web analysts?

• Should You Trust Google with Your Audience Data?

• Why You Shouldn’t Trust Google

• Google, what were you thinking?

• Obama-Google connection scares competitors

Digital Marketer's Fasutian Bargain

The question for today's digital marketers considering Tag Manager is the same as the Google Analytics question: Does sharing your company's most valuable asset (customer's behavioral data) with the best datamining conglomerate in the world worth more than the cost of the alternatives? For many smaller companies the answer could be yes, but for most advertisers the answer should be - thanks but no thanks.With smarmy analytics gurus and a cottage industry of Certified Google Analytics lackeys, smart advertisers need to really start paying attention to how much data they are really sharing with a company that Sir Martin Sorrel best referred to as a "frenemy." way back in 2007.

Google's latest self-serving, 3-for-me and 1-for-you offering should motivate digital marketers to think differently about their value of their data, how much they trust others with it and what they need to do next to securely and exclusively control their data. So much for do no evil.

How to Remove Google from your Ad Stack

As an advertiser-oriented analytics consultant, I cannot think of any reason that Google products are appropriate except for small businesses and the truly ignorant. Savvy digital marketers do have other alternatives, but you will have to go out of your way and it won't be free. Get used to using common-sense and ROI/TCO analysis to justify technology investments or get used to sharing your lunch.

Here are some thought-starters:

• Tag Management. Best choice at this point: BrightTag. Yes, I am an advisor. However, the reason I am is because only BrightTag has looked beyond tags on pages to the underlying problem of data. Unlike the other TMS platforms, BT has already a few years into developing a powerful tool and scalable cloud infrastructure to offer digital marketer's a real alternative to Google's subtle data glom. And these days, most everyone that matters is server-server integrated with BT...except of course (wait for it...)...Google's products.

• Analytics: Adobe, ComScore's Digital Analytix and if you must IBM CoreMetrics

• Ad Server: MediaMind, Pointroll, MediaPlex and if you must Atlas......not Google Analytics

• Search Management: Kenshoo, Adobe, Marin...anything but DART Search

• Attribution: Adometry, Visual IQ have better methodologies...C3, Convertro, Clearsaling...not Google Analytics or DFA.

• Demand Side Platform: MediaMath, Turn, DataXu...not Bid Manager.

The truth of the matter should be getting clearer. If not, bring in independent viewpoints that are not invested in this madness.

For publishers this is a much more complex proposition and the subject of a future post.

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Brasil consome mais notícias onlineÍndices atuais são similares a alguns dos nove mercados pesquisados pela Universidade de Oxford, mas brasileiros se destacam em redes sociais e no interesse em assinaturas digitais

IGOR RIBEIRO| 25 de Junho de 2013

Uma pesquisa do Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, órgão vinculado à Universidade de Oxford, atesta a predileção do brasileiro por meios digitais – especialmente redes sociais – e aponta uma novidade: o consumidor do Brasil está entre os que mais tem interesse em pagar por notícia online num futuro próximo. O estudo ouviu usuários de internet em outros oito mercados: Alemanha, Dinamarca, Espanha, Estados Unidos, França, Itália, Japão e Reino Unido.

Segundo a pesquisa, Brasil é o terceiro colocado no índice de acesso a notícias, por qualquer meio, diariamente, com 88% (Japão vem em 1º lugar, com 92%; Dinamarca em 2º, com 89%). Também tem o maior índice de interessados em notícias, 87%, seguido por Espanha (81%) e Alemanha (80%), e o maior índice de visualização semanal de notícias online, com 90%, acima de Japão (85%) e Dinamarca (81%). Babelfish Articles May 2013 - July 2013 15-7-13



Quando questionados sobre qual plataforma foi mais importante em seu consumo de notícia na última semana, 53% dos brasileiros responderam que a internet foi a principal, acima de TV (38%), rádio (2%) e impresso (6%). Os países que mais se aproximaram do Brasil na importância dada ao online foram Itália (42%) e Espanha (41%). Na comparação entre meios, rádio ganha na Alemanha (13%, mas TV ganha no país, com 43%), jornal ganha no Japão (20%, mas online ganha no país, com 39%) e TV reina na França (57%), onde também prevalece na comparação com outros meios.

Respondentes foram estimulados a apontar pelo menos cinco editorias ou assuntos que mais lhe interessassem no noticiário. Pautas nacionais são as preferidas pelos consumidores em quase todos os países, inclusive no Brasil, campeão na categoria, com 73%, seguido por Inglaterra (71%) e Alemanha e Dinamarca, empatados em terceiro (70%). Os EUA são o único país onde notícias locais são preferidas (59% dos americanos). Essa é uma editoria também popular no Brasil (52%), assim como pautas sobre educação e saúde, preferidas por 55% dos brasileiros.

O índice de compra de jornal impresso no Brasil é mediano: 34% disseram ter adquirido pelo menos um exemplar avulso na semana anterior (4º lugar); enquanto 13% são assinantes (5º lugar) e 4% tem assinatura combinada entre digital e impresso (3º lugar, posição dividida com outros três países). Está na frente entre as pessoas que pagaram por conteúdo digital no último ano, com 24%, acima de Itália (21%) e Espanha (16%). Também é o País com maior número de interessados em pagar por conteúdo digital num futuro próximo (veja gráfico abaixo).

A maioria dos acessos brasileiros se dá por meio de computadores desktop, quesito no qual é campeão, com 81%. Smartphones foram usados para ler notícias por 23% dos respondentes do Brasil, que também se utilizaram de tablets (14%) e e-book readers (4%), além de Smart TVs, índice no qual o País também lidera, com 12%.

O Brasil também é o lugar onde mais se acessa redes sociais e blogs (veja gráfico) e onde há o maior índice de compartilhamento de notícias nessas redes, com 44%, acima de Itália e Espanha. Brasileiros também se destacam nos comentários de links de notícias nas redes (38%).

O Digitial News Report foi conduzido em ambiente online pela empresa de pesquisa YouGov, entre janeiro e fevereiro deste ano, quando foram questionadas cerca de 12 mil pessoas e contou com apoio de empresas como BBC e Google.


Leia Mais: http://www.meioemensagem.com.br/home/midia/noticias/2013/06/25/Brasil-consome-mais-noticias-online.html?utm_source=ppblogs&utm_medium=twitter#ixzz2XH1aOCLW


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Fox investe nos 'hábitos da classe C' para crescer no país19/06/2013 - NELSON DE SÁ DE SÃO PAULO

Objeto do desejo de quase todo produtor de conteúdo nos últimos dois anos, a classe C encontrou abrigo, em parte, nos canais da Fox.

A principal receita da programadora, os recursos que recebe de operadoras como Net e Sky pela transmissão dos canais, cresceu 55% no ano fiscal que termina neste mês.

'Nação corintiana' estabelece canal de esporte da Fox no país

"A gente via que o público que estava chegando [à TV paga], de classe C, tinha hábitos diferentes", descreve o diretor-geral, Gustavo Leme. "E a gente tinha que perseguir esses hábitos."

A Fox partiu para dublar todos os canais, acelerou produções nacionais e contratou um vice de programação que vinha da TV aberta mais popular, ex-Record e SBT. Também lançou seu canal de esportes, concentrado em futebol e com programador também saído da TV aberta.

Mas o salto de 55% na receita com "eyeballs", globos oculares, como Leme descreve o faturamento junto a assinantes das operadoras, não se refletiu em anúncios, que cresceram 28%. Com o percentual menor de publicidade, a média do aumento da receita da Fox foi de 49%.

Folha - O que significou este último ano para a Fox?

Gustavo Leme - Muita mudança. Chegou um momento em que a gente falou, "Olha, a Fox precisa se estruturar de maneira mais sólida no Brasil". Foi há praticamente dois anos. E coincidiu com a Fox comprando a parte da Hicks Muse no Fox Sports. Com o controle de todo o canal, a gente lançou no Brasil.


Nesse período, final de 2011, início de 2012, a gente estava num escritório que era um terço deste e decidiu que iria fazer toda a programação dos canais. Contratamos Paulo Franco, que vem de SBT, Record. A gente via que, com o crescimento da TV por assinatura, o público que estava chegando, de classe C, tinha hábitos diferentes. E a gente tinha que perseguir esses hábitos. Uma decisão foi trazer essa cultura.

Um pouco de TV aberta.

Com o Paulo, a partir da metade do ano passado a gente conseguiu com os canais de entretenimento --a Fox, o FX, o National Geographic, o Bem Simples, o Fox Life-- um crescimento muito grande em audiência. O Fox hoje é o primeiro entre todos os canais de TV por assinatura. O NatGeo é o primeiro em termos de documentários, passou o concorrente. O FX estava lá em 25º e agora está ranqueando entre os dez principais. Foi essa aposta de TV aberta, de investir na dublagem.

Que virou uma política ampla.

Para todos os canais. E a gente passou a produzir muito mais no Brasil. Os conteúdos do Bem Simples, por exemplo, eram todos feitos na Argentina, em português.

"Homens Gourmet", Palmirinha, a Carla Pernambuco com "Brasil no Prato". E a gente está agora em parceria com a Casablanca para produzir a nova temporada.

Em São Paulo?

O estúdio é na Vila Mariana. A produção é terceirizada, porque esse é o objetivo da lei [12.485, de 2012], incentivar a produção independente nacional. A gente contratou a Casablanca também para o Fox Sports. E, para a programação, o Edu Zerbini, também um cara de TV aberta.

Você também convidou Patrícia Abravanel, para o Bem Simples?

Não era convite. A ideia era usar os produtos da Jequiti e eventualmente fazer um programa no Bem Simples. Não era tirar ela do SBT. Era uma coisa comercial, para vender produto cosmético. E não funcionou.

Um ano atrás, você previa um crescimento de faturamento neste ano fiscal que termina em junho. Ele aconteceu?

Aconteceu. Posso dar o número percentual. Comparado com o ano fiscal de 2012, que terminou em junho do ano passado, o de 2013 cresceu 49%, como total do faturamento. A gente teve aumento até da receita de publicidade, porque tem um pacote mais consistente, com entretenimento, esporte, "life style".

O vice da Turner reclamou que no Brasil a TV paga cresce em penetração, mas a publicidade não acompanha.

No caso da Fox, além do aumento na base de assinantes, tivemos aumento de audiência. Isso se reflete num número muito maior de telespectadores, só que a gente não consegue refletir isso no valor da publicidade.

Você vai no anunciante num dado ano e vende um pacote por R$ 1 milhão; no ano seguinte, você teve aumento de base, você aumentou em 50% o número de "eyeballs", de pessoas que estão assistindo, e não consegue repassar para o cara de uma vez.

Por que há essa lentidão?

Porque as verbas já estão em grande parte comprometidas com algumas estratégias. O cara, para tirar dinheiro de TV aberta e passar para TV por assinatura, é difícil.

Tem as bonificações de volume [recursos destinados pelos veículos às agências, para direcionar anunciantes]. Mas aí, no ano seguinte, você já consegue um pedaço maior e vai andando.

Danilo Verpa - 31.abr.2013/Folhapress

Gustavo Leme, diretor-geral da Fox

Além da publicidade, a receita vem das assinaturas?

É o quanto a gente cobra das operadoras, Net, Sky, Vivo, Claro. É o "fee", o valor que a gente cobra por assinante, por cada canal. O aumento foi muito grande, 55%. Foi o que mais carregou.

Além da publicidade, a receita vem das assinaturas?

É o quanto a gente cobra de Net, Sky, Claro. É o "fee", o valor que a gente cobra por assinante, por cada canal. O aumento foi grande, 55%. Foi o que mais carregou.

Com relação à produção nacional, você vê a lei como positiva, hoje?

Nunca vi a lei como positiva. Não mudou tanto o mercado, pelo menos para a gente, que iria produzir de qualquer maneira. Quando a gente produziu a série "9MM" nem se falava em lei, cotas, essas coisas. A gente tem muito mais conteúdo hoje, em termos de horas, do que determina a lei. A lei também não serviu para crescimento de mercado, porque o mercado iria crescer de qualquer jeito. E não serviu para mudar de mãos o dinheiro que é usado para produção independente, porque os mesmos estão produzindo, para os mesmos. As grandes produtoras continuam centralizando o dinheiro.

E houve consequências negativas?

O que teve um apelo negativo foi a questão de cotas de canais nas operadoras. Isso complicou muito a vida da gente. A gente já poderia ter mais canais, ter novos projetos, mas isso ficou inviável porque os canais obrigatórios acabaram tomando todo o espaço das operadoras. Eles estão sendo lançados e são canais que a gente pode ver que muito poucos têm alguma coisa a acrescentar para o telespectador.

A Fox cresceu, mas a Globosat ainda está muito na frente?

Muito. A gente nunca vai chegar ao tamanho que tem a Globosat.


Até pela limitação de canais.

Pela limitação de canais. Pelo tamanho do investimento que eles já fizeram todos estes anos. A gente tem muito o que correr atrás. Também pelos conteúdos que eles têm. Um canal como o Viva, por exemplo, é baseado em todo o conteúdo histórico da Globo. Isso não tem preço.

O canal Fox já está na frente da RedeTV! na TV paga?

Não consistentemente, mas em muitos momentos o Fox e o Fox Sports superam alguns canais de TV aberta, dentro do universo de cabo. Isso acontece. Não é ainda um comportamente sistemático, mas em muitos momentos a gente já supera. Em alguns, a gente ficou em segundo, só atrás da Globo. Isso no âmbito da TV por assinatura, porque, se você for contar o universo total de TV, não tem como.

Você considera que a maneira como é medida a audiência da TV por assinatura no Brasil está funcionando? Seria bom ter concorrência?

Leme - Seria excelente ter concorrência. Acho muito inconsistente ainda, em termos de quantidade de "people meters", em termos de representatividade da amostra. Podia ser melhor. E também há mudanças muito rápidas, em termos de operadoras e pacotes, e isso é difícil de acompanhar.

O Netflix estreou no Brasil há um ano e meio. Algum impacto?

Não, até agora não. A gente vê com atenção, vê que tem tido um crescimento. Mas não teve nenhum impacto, em termos do nosso negócio, ainda.

A Fox tem participação no Hulu [serviço concorrente do Netflix nos EUA]. Pretende trazer para cá?

Não, não temos nenhum projeto de lançar o Hulu aqui. O projeto que a gente tem é o Fox Play. Mas é um projeto, não está nada fechado. É como HBO Go, o Muu da Globosat, esses.

Através das operadoras ou direto na internet?

Sempre passando pelas operadoras. A gente não quer fazer concorrência ao nosso próprio cliente. Vamos oferecer esse produto através da TV paga. É para este ano.

How Happy Is Your Organization?by Susan David | 8:00 AM March 20, 2013

Today, March 20, 2013, marks the first ever International Day of Happiness. This was decreed last year by the United Nations following a meeting on well-being attended by government officials, economists, scholars, and business and spiritual leaders from around the world. It was hosted by Bhutan, a small but visionary country which famously uses Gross National Happiness (GNH) instead of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to index its progress.

The King of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar, has described GNH as "the bridge between the fundamental values of kindness, equality and humanity and the necessary pursuit of economic growth." He's talking, of course, about the well-documented connection between well-being and productivity — an interplay that should interest business leaders as much as it does political ones. As this issue of HBR makes clear, happy, engaged employees are good for the organization. Research shows they have better health, are more creative, produce better results, and are willing to go the extra mile. What's more, happiness is contagious; it creates a virtuous spiral that leads to further engagement.

So how can leaders create happier organizations?

Perhaps the first step is to clarify what we mean by "happy". Psychologists typically identify happiness by three distinct pathways. The first is the pleasant life, which involves positive experiences including contentment, hope, and sensory enjoyment. This kind of well-being is often referred to as hedonia, based on the Greek term for pleasure. The second is the engaged life, oreudaimonia. The ancient Greeks believed in a "daimon", or guardian spirit, that would guide you toward your destiny; the word also means genius. The engaged life thus refers to a person's ability to deploy his personal genius — to use his unique strengths and talents in a way that engages and absorbs him. The third pathway is the meaningful life, which relates to the desire to be part of something bigger than oneself — to belong and contribute to an institution that has purpose.

All three of these pathways — pleasure, engagement, and meaning — are important. And business leaders can use this knowledge to ask some important questions about their organizations:

• Do my employees enjoy their relationships and their environment at work?

• Do they laugh?

• Are my people in the right roles — ones that fit their skill sets and offer appropriate challenge?

• Do they get to use their genius?

• Do they understand the purpose of the organization?

• Do they feel they're a part of something that matters?

On this first International Day of Happiness, it's worth pausing to consider what contributes to happiness in your organization — your own happiness, as well as that of the people around you. I hope you will share what you discover.


Smartphones take off in UKLONDON: Almost three quarters of UK adult consumers now own a smartphone and over half of them are using the device to research and buy goods, a new survey has found.

Deloitte, the consultancy, commissioned independent researchfrom TNS, involving more than 1,000 adults who were polled online during May 2013, and found that 72% owned a smartphone, up from just 58% just ten months earlier.

In addition, some 57% had used a smartphone to check product availability and 50% had used it to buy goods.

"The exponential rise in UK consumer's reliance on smartphones means mobile must become a priority for retailers," declared Ian Geddes, head of UK retail at Deloitte.

"Customer experience, brand loyalty and ultimately sales will all increasingly stem from the mobile channel," he added.

Generation Y is leading the charge, with nearly 90% of 25-34 year olds possessing a smartphone, and Deloitte urged retailers to align their channels to meet the demands of these technology-savvy shoppers

One of the ways they are doing this is through the use of apps, which Deloitte found were increasingly being used to engage consumers, although a generational gap was evident.

Some 48% of Generation Z, those aged 16-24, chose to shop via apps, but just 14% of 45-64 year olds did.

But one of the great advantages of smartphones from a marketing point of view – its ability to deliver personalised content – was less welcome as far as consumers were concerned. Just 21% of respondents were happy to receive such communications.

They were, however, more open to the opportunities offered by the smartphone's ability to identify their location, as 40% welcomed search results that were relevant to their whereabouts.

Geddes warned that while personalisation could build brand loyalty, "push marketing can be seen as intrusive and consumers can sometimes feel bombarded". Those retailers who could find the right balance, he suggested, would "reap the benefits of a loyal customer".

Along with the uptake of smartphones, UK consumers were also starting to embrace mobile payments, with 31% having used an online wallet.

"This is the year that mobile moves from a project run by the IT department to a strategic priority in the boardroom," concluded Geddes.

I Miss The Old Purchase Funnelby Jon Bond, Jun 21, 2013, 8:07 AM

A long time ago, before Ogilvy, Bernbach and the real Mad Men, when advertising was taking its first baby steps toward being a legitimate profession, an early pioneer in advertising and sales techniques named Elmo Lewis invented a model to explain how it all worked. In 1898, before the car or airplane was invented and when the life expectancy of a man was just 48 years, the "AIDA" model was born.

Ye Old Purchase Funnel

AIDA -- which stands for attention interest desire action -- was the inspiration behind the classic purchase funnel, the accepted model for how advertising works for over 100 years. Nice and linear, it had consumers proceed along an orderly path from awareness to consideration to purchase, and for agencies and marketers, life was good.

TV got you awareness, print informed you enough to get into your consideration set, and retail/POS brought it home. Then came the Internet. Okay -- somewhat disruptive -- the funnel wobbled a bit, but still it survived. Certainly Google wasn't complaining. Search made them rich by owning the bottom of the funnel. Web sites and "clicks" grabbed hold of the mid-funnel and helped start today's actions-based orientation, which marginalized "soft" attitudinal metrics, expensive tracking studies, and printed magazines you couldn't click through. Again, the purchase funnel teetered a bit, but remained standing.

The Modern Purchase Funnel

It wasn't until the rise of social media, with its hyper-complex, peer-to-peer dimension overlaid on top of a bevy of marketing touchpoints, that the soothing predictability of the purchase funnel finally suffered a mortal wound. McKinsey dealt the final death blow, introducing a "modern" version of the funnel. Compared to Ye Olde Purchase Funnel, it is decidedly non-linear. You go around two circles. But you can also go backwards. Or sideways (i think). And the new model was called.... um, uh … Come to think of it, there is no good name for the frankenfunnel they created because it’s a shape not found in nature, which of course is brilliant for McKinsey because we have to call it "The McKinsey funnel" in order for anyone to know what we are talking about.

Killing off Ye Olde Purchase Funnel was the easy part. Replacing it with something simple -- well, apparently that's not so simple. I've been in 20 meetings where the McKinsey frankenfunnel has come up, and not once has anyone had the courage to admit that they didn't have a clue what to do with it. Another brilliant stroke by those folks over at McKinsey. You have to hire them; then they'll explain it. In business meetings, no one will ever admit they don't get it. Safer to trash Elmo Lewis' creation (God rest his soul) and say something like: "Oh, yes -- the purchase funnel -- well, we ALL know that's dead!" which is always followed by a chorus of laughs and knowing harrumphs from a crowd thankful to have something to say on the topic that people understand and agree with.

The conversation never progresses to anything practical, like what we should do differently. No one ever says anything like: "Hey, what are we going to do about those consumers entering the second loop?" At least with the old funnel, we knew what to do if we


were weak at the top (more TV) or the bottom (more deals, POS, search). So, just what shape is the purchase journey today? My friend Erich Joachimsthaler from Vivaldi knows, and has a great way of presenting it on stage.

Your Very Own Purchase Journey: Complexity Sells

Standing still as people mull the question, slowly the music comes up, giving away the answer -- it takes a few seconds and then the audience gets it .... flight of the bumblebees! Random. And that's the problem. The drunkard's walk. No one is solving it -- just making it ever more complicated -- complexity sells! In fact, that's why every consultancy or marketing thought leader worth their salt today has to have their very own purchase journey -- try Googling purchase journey if you want a real treat.

Forget the shape for a moment -- let's just agree it's "non-linear." What's more important is that the number of touchpoints in the journey has almost doubled in a few short years, from 5.6 in 2009 to 10.4 in 2012. So now, there's a lot more to manage. The result: a proliferation of specialist agencies, one for each and every kind of touchpoint. There's one for events, one for shopper marketing, one for social, which isn't always the same as digital. It might be a different agency when digital is targeting Hispanics, except for the media placement, which is consolidated with one shop to get better rates. Or not. I'm told the average F1000 client now has 18 agencies. That means the average brand manager never gets to manage the brand, because they have to brief the 18 agencies all day -- 22 when there's a pitch happening. Shouldn't we be simplifying, not complicating?

From Touchpoints To Trust Points

But how do you clean up such a mess? Perhaps, the answer is not "touchpoints," it's "trust points:" interactions with credible third-party "influencers" who provide enough assurance in one shot to leap over many touchpoints and buy the damn product. Influence produced by trust points is the 3-point shot of marketing. Today, third-party credibility is the accelerator -- not impressions, reach, frequency, or any of the old linear ideas from 1898. A few good trust points are better than a lot of low-impact touchpoints. Think of the journey as reduced to 3 key steps (that's one less than even the super-simple AIDA model!)

1. Before Trust: I may or may not have heard of you, but either way, I don't trust you because no credible third party has validated you for me.

2. Trust: I trust you because i've had a quality interaction with an influencer who recommended you.

3. Advocacy: you are a super-satisfied customer who has developed into a brand advocate, and is now able to accelerate others through the purchase process. Your "value" is not only the lifetime value of the purchases you've made yourself, but the aggregate lifetime values of all the people who you have influenced to purchase the product.

Retention Meets Acquisition

Marketers have always undervalued the impact of customer retention, and have seen their jobs as mostly acquisition. However, it is 5 times as expensive to get a new customer as to keep an old one, so most marketers are probably under-resourcing retention. And in a connected world, the value of current customers is even more significant, as the lines between acquisition and retention become blurred, and current customers -- be they advocates or dissatisfied detractors -- have a very significant impact on acquisition.

How do we know that the concept of trust-based marketing works? There is a lot of good data on third-party effectiveness. According to the Edelman trust barometer, we trust other people 78% of the time, but we only trust advertising direct from brands 18% of the time. Recently, BuzzFeed compared the results of the exact same content consumed by the end user with one key difference: the source. In test A, the content was delivered directly from the brand, while in case B the content was delivered via online sharing from a friend or other third party.

Test B outperformed test A by nearly 300% in the ability to create intent, accelerating the path to purchase. And that's the key point. Who cares what shape the funnel is -- what matters is the ability to compress it. Appinions -- the influence marketing platform that first came up with the term "trust points" -- has done some interesting research on the topic as well. They found that the most influential, engaged brands attribute much more of their performance to blogs and social than to traditional press coverage of push-style product releases in the news stream.

All of this is especially helpful in considered consumer purchases. Or in the B2B world where the decision is always complex, and influencer validation provides the time-honored "CYA" service for the executive who must make the final decision. In fact, 57% of all B2B decisions are essentially made before the first sales call based on brand reputation, fueled in large part by third-party recommendations. So only 43% of the B2B purchase journeys have any chance at all to culminate in a purchase win that wasn't already predetermined. I found this to be true in agency pitches. When the client had already "heard good things about us," our win percentage jumped dramatically.

Trust-Based Marketing Is The Future

Underlying the changes taking place in marketing is the structure of the Internet itself. As VivaKi thought leader Rishad Tobaccawala says: "The Internet is a connections engine." It is fundamentally about connecting people, which is the foundation upon which social media is built. That means social media is not so much a channel (Facebook, Twitter, etc) as a fabric that overlays everything.

Every step in the journey can be disrupted today by peer-to-peer influence, even TV ( via social TV). Every interaction with influencers creates a leapfrog effect, capable of moving the recipient from prospect to buyer in one shot. Trust-based marketing is the future. It's not the old purchase funnel, but at least I can explain it to my mother. "Son, the best form of advertising is word of mouth." And that was true even before 1898.

Comments on "I Miss The Old Purchase Funnel".

1. Steve Schildwachter from Draftfcb

commented on: June 21, 2013 at 8:47 a.m.


Jon, your article made me think twice about the fate of the purchase funnel. And I totally agree that word-of-mouth has always been the best form of advertising. Social Media's big benefit to marketers is that we can now monitor word-of-mouth, rather than guess what happens over the backyard fence. You overlook, however, the value of McKinsey's Consumer Decision Journey (yes, it has a name). The "CDJ" seems to have become an open-source for channel planners -- you see it used all over the place. It's not hard to understand or use, although I grant there's a lot of misunderstanding and misuse out there. I wouldn't blame the CDJ, I'd blame our industry which usually gravitates toward quick-fix solutions devoid of clear, critical thinking. Your article, however, is indeed well thought-through, and despite minor disagreement about the CDJ, I loved it. Thanks.

2. Tom O'Brien from Socialarc


Nice article - Trust Based Marketing is also the past! It was just disintermediated for a while by mass media! @tomob

3. Taylor Wray from Kantar Retail


Great article. I'm digging the Marshall McLuhan-esque undertones a lot. Electronic technology is driving EVERYONE in society away from the rational, linear decision-making process (remember how text-heavy and logically persuasive print ads used to be a la David Ogilvy?) and toward a cyber-enabled "tribal" decision calculus based on trust, emotion, and word of mouth. Forget mass marketing; we've entered the era of peer-to-peer advertising.

4. Leslie Nolen from The Radial Group


Pfui. Consumers and businesses have NEVER made rational/linear decisions. Pipeline/funnel/buying process/buying journey charts have always been tidy representations of a messy process. Yeah, the venues and delivery mechanisms have changed and multiplied. But objective information integrated with emotional triggers have always been part of the purchase picture - long before David Ogilvy. And they still are. WIIFM - in whatever way we choose to phrase it - remains the ultimate question that potential buyers are answering. The fact that people in the business of marketing (marketing their clients as well as their own 'unique expertise', of course) continue to find new trademark-worthy ways to slice and dice what they're doing shouldn't be confused with truly fundamental changes in how consumers and businesses decide to buy.

5. Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited


It sounds more like a Professor Irwin Corey (Best masterful double talker ever) justifying his job from mouth to mouth.

1. Nicole Lipson from Georgia-Pacific commented on 5 hours ago

It's true that trust points have more value than touch points, and third-party endorsements are almost always more favorably recieved than company-speak. Read Google's ZMOT-Zero Moment of Truth. The funnel is no longer relevant...Google says it's more like the airline industry's flight map...many key hubs and touches coming and going from one place to next. The question is...where is the most relevant hub, and who is your most trusted advocate? Finding both is the sweet spot!

2. Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited commented on 6 hours ago

It sounds more like a Professor Irwin Corey (Best masterful double talker ever) justifying his job from mouth to mouth.

3. Leslie Nolen from The Radial Group commented on 6 hours ago

Pfui. Consumers and businesses have NEVER made rational/linear decisions. Pipeline/funnel/buying process/buying journey charts have always been tidy representations of a messy process. Yeah, the venues and delivery mechanisms have changed and multiplied. But objective information integrated with emotional triggers have always been part of the purchase picture - long before David Ogilvy. And they still are. WIIFM - in whatever way we choose to phrase it - remains the ultimate question that potential buyers are answering. The fact that people in the business of marketing (marketing their clients as well as their own 'unique expertise', of course) continue to find new trademark-worthy ways to slice and dice what they're doing shouldn't be confused with truly fundamental changes in how consumers and businesses decide to buy.

4. Read more replies by:

Taylor Wray, Kantar Retail (7 hours ago)

Tom O'Brien, Socialarc (7 hours ago)

5. Follow this conversation

Join this conversation

The Mobile Coupon App That Didn't Make Itby Chuck Martin(MobileShopTalk - June 20, 2013) 4 replies in last 24 hours; 4 replies total

6. Chuck Martin from Chuck Martin commented on 4 hours ago

Your reasoning is dead on, Stephanie. Serious behavioral changes in coupon redemption and the notion of not being instantly gratified are challenging, at the least.

7. Stephanie Kovner Bryant from SKB Consulting LLC commented on 8 hours ago

IMHO there are two issues with this model. First, asking consumers to photograph receipts is a barrier to many consumers. (They need to remember to photograph it.) Second, they like get the discounts at time of purchase. (Nothing better than seeing the total


decrease at checkout as opposed to remembering what they have in their redemption account.) Endorse worked against both of these. Digital/mobile coupons should make the process seamless, easier and instant. Not make more work for consumers.

8. Chuck Martin from Chuck Martin commented on Yesterday, 11:02 PM

Thanks Stan, am working on finding that out. Was a pretty cool app, IMHO.

9. Read more replies by:

Stan Valinski, Multi-Media Solutions Group (Yesterday, 6:45 PM)



How To Create Real-Time Video: Five Things Brands Should Doby Eric Korsh(Video Insider - June 19, 2013) 3 replies in last 24 hours; 4 replies total

11. Pete Austin from Triggered Messaging commented on 4 hours ago

@Eric. Creative work requires a small core team who can focus on the task at hand and progress rapidly. I've seen on several occasions how broadening consultation can turn a 2 day task into a 2 month task. With the risk that it gets dropped as the client gets frustrated with the lack of results. Or, if you're not going to enlarge the team, but will replace artists with lawyers, then how does that possibly make sense? @Lane. I don't see how the culture of legal teams can adjust, because their job is to give very accurate advice and it would require superhuman powers to do that quickly enough during the rapid, quick-fire generation of ideas that happens at the start of a project.

12. Lane Murphy from Relevant24 commented on 9 hours ago

Eric, I could not agree with you more (and for that...disagree with Peter). Relevant content marketing is a completely new marketing discipline and a few innovative companies are hacking out the approval process as they go. A brand's biggest challenge to be relevant is to have meaningful content ready to publish the moment they want to enter a conversation. Of course this means setting up the content "guard rails" with a client's legal department to ensure timely approvals occur. The culture of legal departments is currently not set up for rapid approvals...however as the market for relevant content grows the culture of legal teams will need to adjust, or the brand will always miss the relevancy window.

13. Eric Korsh from Digitas commented on Yesterday, 7:53 PM

Pete! My favorite thing is when people disagree or dialogue around my thoughts. Too few people take issue with the POVs in this column in general. But - it would be helpful if you could do better than "your industry is screwed" - how do you think that consulting with colleagues at work portends the end of the global marketing industry?


Join this conversation There are 4 more replies.

Impatiens Face Mildew And Communication Crisesby Thom Forbes(Marketing Daily - Top of the News - June 21, 2013) 3 replies in last 24 hours; 3 replies total

15. Nina Lentini from MediaPost Communications commented on 5 hours ago

Thanks for letting us know, Jim. First day of summer AND a Friday ...

16. Thom Forbes from T.H. Forbes Co. commented on 5 hours ago

Ach! I am being punished for my penchant for puns - they seem to be self-generating. Thanks for gentle correction, Jim.

17. Jim Andrews from IEG commented on 6 hours ago

And apparently, Thom, guys like you will refer to the magazine (perhaps rightly so) as Harper's Bizarre instead of Harper's Bazaar!



Check, Please!by Ari Rosenberg(Online Publishing Insider - June 20, 2013) 2 replies in last 24 hours; 7 replies total

19. Tony Anderson from SF Ad Guy commented on Yesterday, 7:40 PM

Good one Ari. @Scott - Don't forget Torrey Pines in San Diego...one of my favs. :)

20. Tim Orr from Barnett Orr Marketing Group, Inc. commented on Yesterday, 5:21 PM

Even lunch is a problem. I've seen reps or vendors who frequently bought the lunch get an unfair advantage and the ones who did not run last. It reminds me of the old joke that begins, "Would you sleep with me for a million dollars?" Still, we probably have even less chance of stopping lunches than we have of stopping expensive gifts and trips. I worked in a highly regulated industry once. We couldn't give or receive anything worth more than $25, as I recall. It usually only takes one returned gift for a vendor to get the message. And, when it comes right down to it, they then have to begin focusing on how their business offering will benefit their clients. And that's a good thing!



Are Bad Mobile Shopping Experiences Poisoning The M-Commerce Well?by Steve Smith(Mobile Insider - June 20, 2013) 2 replies in last 24 hours; 3 replies total


22. Pete Austin from Triggered Messaging commented on 11 hours ago

If only 26% have "have found the [mobile] checkout process frustrating", this seems enormously better than conventional shops where I'm confident that 100% have found the checkout experience frustrating. Everyone must have experienced some problem with a till at some time in their life right? Frankly I don't find a difference of this scale credible, so the survey must either be wrong or, more-likely, it's using a cherry-picked number that doesn't represent real-world experience.

23. Carissa Ganelli from LightningBuy commented on Yesterday, 7:01 PM

Hi Steve - Terrible mobile checkout experiences have resulted in a self-fulfilling prophecy: the process is painful so customers only browse on mobile not buy. Since buyers only buy, it's not worth improving the purchase process. In an effort to combat customers' expectations of a painful mobile checkout process our clients state, "Try our new lightning fast mobile checkout." to let customers know that since LightningBuy was implemented, the user experience is much improved - in fact it's only a single click to buy. Really.



Late-Night Rivalry Heats Up, But 'Leno' Still Topsby Wayne Friedman(MediaDailyNews - June 21, 2013) 2 replies in last 24 hours; 2 replies total

25. Edmund Singleton from Winstion Communications commented on 4 hours ago

Leno is still in the lead in the ratings and must be replaced immediately...

26. Douglas Ferguson from College of Charleston commented on Yesterday, 7:16 PM

Letterman looks so tired. He's the Larry King of talk shows.


Coming Soon: Intel's Must-See TVBy TIERNAN RAY | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR

The chip giant readies a TV subscription service powered by a set-top box unlike any other.

Full disclosure, dear readers—I'm not a TV viewer. I chucked the set years ago and mainly watch things on computers.

But then, television hasn't changed much in decades, so I feel I'm still qualified to opine on the boob tube's future. And two weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to glimpse a possible part of that future at the Santa Clara, Calif., headquarters of Intel (ticker: INTC), where I saw a TV service that is novel, elegant, and highly desirable, even to a television Luddite like me. The service faces a number of hurdles, including potential obstruction by the cable and telephone industries, but what I witnessed could take Intel in a thrilling new direction.

Sometime this year, the chip giant will offer a set-top box at retail, with a subscription service that brings you live television over your broadband Internet connection.

It is, in industry argot, an "over the top" video connection, requiring no actual TV package from the four major "multiple system operators," or MSOs, as they're called—Comcast (CMCSA), Cablevision (CVC), Time Warner Cable (TWC), and Charter Communications (CHTR)—or from Verizon Communications (VZ) and AT&T(T).

WITHOUT GIVING TOO MUCH AWAY, the user interface seemed to hover beautifully above the currently playing show. An elegant simple menu made it easy to switch between channels or to pick and rent a recent film. It was light years from the cumbersome garbage that takes up most of the screen when using a standard cable-channel picker.

There was a wide array of popular channels to choose from that would be familiar to any couch potato, though the final lineup is still being formulated. Equally important, when you hit the button on the remote, the TV seemed to jump to the next channel faster than is typical on cable. There also is a time-shifting aspect that goes beyond DVR, allowing you to go back through recent episodes.

One wonders: Why hasn't TV always been this way?

Others who've viewed the project are enthusiastic, too. "The No. 1 thing I noticed was speed," says Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy. Intel's horsepower in the set-top is partially responsible for this, but multiple data centers that Intel is building to serve video also were a factor. "A lot of the value comes from what they've done on the back end," says Moorhead. "They have the highest-performance Intel servers and video-encoding technology." And he notes, "This is live television," unlike other over-the-top offerings, like those from the TV network consortium Hulu, Apple's (AAPL) AppleTV,Netflix (NFLX), or closely held Roku, which merely provide on-demand content from a back catalog. "It's something I've never experienced before" in an Internet offering, Moorhead adds.

No less thrilling is the fact that Intel, which makes $53 billion in yearly revenue from selling chips, and spends billions to make them, is becoming both a hardware and software vendor.

The project is the effort of Erik Huggers and his staff of 350 people. Huggers, 40, won praise for developing the iPlayer for the BBC, a piece of video software that allows one to follow the channel's TV and radio broadcasts. He came to Intel two years ago to advance efforts to sell chips to set-top makers. He made a bold move in telling his boss that the $4.5 billion TV-chip market wasn't desirable. "The market was split up between 20 or more silicon providers, and it was a race to the bottom on prices," says Huggers. "I said, 'I don't know how we ever turn that into a profitable market.' " Instead, he pleaded, "Release me to go after the $500 billion television market in a very different way." He got his wish.


The Ultimate Trojan Horse: Game Boxes Take Entertainment's Center StageAndrew Solmssen | June 20, 2013

If you care about the future of home entertainment, the week of June 10, 2013 was a busy one. We saw the latest salvos in the war for control of the living room (and beyond), and if you're a marketer, there's quite a lot to chew on when it comes to the future of home entertainment.

First, at the annual E3 gaming conference last Monday, Microsoft and Sony unveiled their new flagship products, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 respectively, in Los Angeles. Then, 24 hours later, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts was at The Cable Show in D.C. to debut the cable giant's new X2 platform.

These new products make for a transformative year and provide a roadmap for understanding the ongoing (and seemingly never-ending) struggle between the cable and satellite industry and newer "over-the-top" (OTT) digital platforms as these new technologies move ever-further into the zone of broadcast and cable TV.

To give full disclosure, I worked on the design of Comcast 's previous platform (X1) and my company does work with both Sony and Microsoft. So while I surely have bias, hopefully it's equal opportunity. In fact, having worked on a variety of digital content plays since the early 2000's, one of the most striking facts is how little the fight has changed.

On the one side is the cable and satellite industry (I'm going to use "cable" as shorthand for legacy providers), which has been the dominant platform for a generation. Currently servicing nearly 85 percent of all U.S. households, the traditional platforms have the huge numbers but are considered yesterday's technology. It's been blood sport for over 10 years to declare these legacy providers "dead," despite data to the contrary. In fact, it's only been in the last two years when there's been an actual dip in the cable subscriber base - dropping from 87 percent of U.S. homes in 2010 to the current number of 85 percent (SNL Kagan).

It's About the Hardware

The reason cable has struggled with the reputation of your grandfather's technology is because the guides and menus look so damn terrible. It's not that cable operators don't have taste; they just haven't had the hardware that could handle interesting interactive features. Before the web became such a strong force in consumers' lives, before there were thousands of titles available at any time, before DVR and OnDemand - all those little set-top boxes needed to do was change channels. Unfortunately, once millions of them were out there at no small investment from the cable providers, they couldn't just be replaced with better hardware.

Every time we worked on a project with a sophisticated, slick, feature-rich user interface and planned for no latency, we asked which box it was going to go on. Time and time again, big companies rolled out their master plan: build a TV experience that is so amazing that consumers will happily head to Best Buy and shell out $300 to $800 for a box that can run it.

Guess what? That never, ever worked. Turns out that like cellphones, people would rather pay monthly than buy up front. TiVo and ReplayTV couldn't get consumers to do it (TiVo didn't get critical mass until it was bundled with DirecTV). OTTs haven't gotten masses to pay even for cheap boxes (Roku, Vudu). And when Apple itself can't get large numbers of people to buy Apple TV, you can spot a universal truth.

Yet, two companies have been able to buck the trend.

The Ultimate Trojan Horses

There are two set-top boxes that consumers have rushed to purchase, and those are the set-top boxes that don't look like set-top boxes. Sony has sold over 70 million units of the current generation PS3. Microsoft has sold more than 76 million of the current-gen Xbox 360. Those numbers are staggering not just because they have driven a tremendous amount of revenue for the two companies, but because of the reach they have been able to achieve across U.S. households.

The PS3 and Xbox 360 dwarf the processing and graphics power of any legacy set-top box out there. Consumers are already using them for entertainment; PS3 is the most popular Netflix device in the living room and both platforms sell and stream a huge amount of non-game content. Today's console game leaders have taught consumers that their platforms are for more than just button mashing - and they are about to get much, much better.

Which brings us back to last week's announcements. Take a look at Comcast CEO Roberts' keynote. The interface is slick, it brings in IP-based content, it's intuitive, and any consumer would be happy to have it. One small problem: getting it to said consumers. Comcast's previous version of the TV guide and navigating software, X1, isn't rolled out yet. It's in a handful of markets and Comcast says it will be nationally available by year-end, but it's a familiar story; cable shows the future and they are serious about it, but I have a friend who designed products at a major legacy provider for six years before anything went live. When consumers aren't forking over money to upgrade, it's very hard to get hardware to your millions of customers.

Microsoft and Sony are unlikely to face that challenge. Amazon has already been reporting "unprecedented demand" for Xbox One. The "launch edition" of the PS4 on Amazon is even crazier; it's sold out. And both platforms (particularly Xbox) are looking to focus even more on entertainment with voice-activated control and tablet and smartphone integration. We'll see how many people choose to use what we currently call their "game box" as their "entertainment hub," running subscription TV, physical movies such as DVD and Blu-ray, watching web video, buying and renting TV and movie content, and so on.

For now, access to the many channels that cable homes are used to will go through the legacy provider before showing up on the Xbox One or PS4. But once that consumer behavior is established, will Microsoft or Sony pony up the cash to become the first "virtual MSO" and make their own distribution deals with the content providers?

If so, we'll see the largest advertising platform in the world break free of restrictions and become a fully interactive advertising environment. The revolution will be televised, connected, multi-screen, and of course, gamified.


Google Heightens Focus On Attribution Metrics For Marketersby Laurie Sullivan, Jun 20, 2013,

Google made Full Credit Measurement Attribution generally available Thursday to Google Analytics users, along with a handful of measurement tools, giving marketers more access to metrics that measure campaigns. It's also an attempt to educate them.

For example, On the Beach, a travel products and services company, wanted to understand the value of generic, non-branded search terms in the purchase funnel to drive up sales and grow business online. Marketers for the U.K. travel agency designed a model that credits campaign interactions by applying re-attributed CPAs into the budget. The move increased traffic from generics keywords, and grew market share to drive up ROI by 25%.

Perhaps it's a byproduct of an ongoing push for transparency, but there is a need by marketers to gain a deeper understanding of customer and engagement strategies. Attribution still remains one of the least used tools by marketers. Some say it's the cost; others point to complexity. Those who do use attribution admit the metrics drive better return on investments. Google continues to focus on bringing marketers new tools to make sense of the complete customer journey.

Last week, Google launched a streamlined dashboard to manage Google Analytics administrative settings available through a new landing page that organizes the data into columns, corresponding to the most prominent objects in Analytics: accounts, properties and views, formerly known as profiles. In the coming weeks, creating a new account, property or view will require markets to click the specific menu in the column heading and to see the option that creates new objects.

Google also published a Webinar, along with a series of links to posts, explaining digital attribution to help marketers calculate the impact of digital marketing channels. Bill Kee, product manager for attribution and multichannel measurement, talks about the process of getting attribution modeling set up.

Kee explains the building blocks, how to determine the interaction or trigger for the actual conversion in the funnel, and whether adding code to the Web site slows page rendering speeds.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/202938/google-heightens-focus-on-attribution-metrics-for.html?edition=61434#ixzz2XAr5umKS

The First Wave of gTLDs Are Coming - Are You Ready?Jennifer Wolfe | June 21, 2013

In this continuing series on the launch of the new generic top-level domains (gTLD) for brands, I've covered the many strategies that brands may use to evolve and strengthen the Internet consumer experience. While half of the world's biggest brands applied for a gTLD, many did not and the millions of mid-market and smaller businesses will need a strategy to respond. While most companies are still largely unaware of the coming paradigm shift of the Internet, the first wave of gTLDs are scheduled to begin launching this September.

IDNs - Global Impact of the First Wave

The internationalized domain names (IDNs) are slated by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers) to launch first. There were approximately 116 IDNs in languages including Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Cyrillic, and others. If you are operating globally, it is important to review the list and the translations and transliterations and consider where you currently do business, where you may do business in the future, and whether your domain name will impact your ability to connect with consumers in those markets by having a domain name in their home IDN. Also, think about whether your competitors will likely secure important domain names within these new IDN gTLDs. Once you've evaluated these critical questions, you can gather relevant information around when these domains will become available, what policies will govern the sunrise and land rush periods, and how much they will cost.

Second Wave - Generics Without Conflict

ICANN has committed to launch up to 20 new gTLDs per week once each domain is eligible for delegation. Out of the 1930 applications, approximately 518 have passed initial evaluation, which means these initial applications will move into contracting, delegation, and launch over the next six months. The gTLDs that are not in conflict with another applicant (meaning there is no competition for the same string) have a clear path to launch. For marketers, this means you have six months to prepare for the generics to launch and potentially reshape the way consumers experience the Internet. Much like the IDNs, the analysis begins with key questions. Which gTLDs could impact how your targeted consumers use the Internet? Can you improve the consumer experience with a category-based top-level domain versus .com? Or, are you just concerned that another party may secure it and want to lock it down for future use?

With hundreds of category-based generics ranging from .Moms, .kids, .families, .wine, .wedding, and .cooking to .pizza, .diamonds, .FYI, .cloud, and .wiki, there are a plethora of new categories that could impact how consumers think about your company. For example, should TripAdvisor secure tripadvisor.review? Or, should Century 21 Real Estate secure century21.realestate? At a minimum, you need to be informed about what's available, when it will be available, and how much it costs, to make strategic decisions. There are also geographic- and community-based gTLDs that will likely launch in the second wave that may be relevant to your business. Be sure to include these - particularly .NYC, .Vegas, and .Miami - in your review.

Final Wave: Brands and Conflicted Generics

The final wave of gTLDs to launch will likely be the brands and conflicted gTLDs. Brands are still developing strategies and will likely "slow roll" their launches due to typical budgeting, planning, and other internal issues. However, keep an eye on the big banks and financial sectors. They have the strongest value proposition for consumers and represent the biggest impact in terms of offering more security. They will likely be the first to offer the real advantage to consumers and start to reshape the way consumers think about .com with a promise of greater security through domains such as .jpmorgan, .americanexpress, .discover, .citi, etc.


http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/202938/google-heightens-focus-on-attribution-metrics-for.html?edition=61434#ixzz2XAr5umKS

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/202938/google-heightens-focus-on-attribution-metrics-for.html?edition=61434#ixzz2XAr5umKS

The conflicted strings, on the other hand, will need to resolve conflicts in order to move into the contracting and delegation process. Some of the top conflicted strings include .app, .home, .inc, .art, .book, .shop, .blog, .llc, .design, .cloud, .hotel, and .news. While some of these conflicts are in the process of being resolved, many may have to wait for the ICANN auction, which will not occur until October or later this year, pushing back the time frame for launch eligibility. The conflicted strings may be even more important to review because they were applied for by more than one company and often with many applicants, including digital powerhouses like Amazon and Google. Most of the gTLD applicants were driven by experienced companies in the domain name industry and likely reflect data analytics that support consumer usage of those top-level domains. Additionally, because these domains will require additional investment by the applicants at auction, they may have more of a vested interest to ensure their success.

Watch the Digital Leaders: Google, Amazon, and Microsoft

You'll also want to keep an eye on the big digital leaders launching multiple new gTLDs. Google, Amazon, and Microsoft will likely be the drivers of the consumer experience in an expanded Internet environment. When will they launch? How might they package their services? Should you partner, affiliate, or obtain a domain in one of their gTLDs?

For all of the gTLDs, it's critical to map your brand against the new brand gTLDs and categories of generic, geographic, and community-based gTLDs that will reshape the Internet. Make informed decisions about what gTLDs you may want to secure and know when they will become available and for how much. As you evaluate the new potential domain names, get your trademark house in order. Regardless of what you decide to do, in the future of the expanded global Internet, owning a properly registered trademark will become critical to protecting your brand.

The first wave starts at the end of the summer. You won't want to be on vacation when important Internet real estate to your company is up for grabs. In my next column, I'll detail the strategic approach to evaluating the new gTLDs for your business.

Nielsen Studies 'Multi-Sensory' Differences Between Young and Old by P.J. Bednarski, 30 minutes ago

It’s fairly commonplace at media conferences to hear a gray-haired executive extol his/her brand because it really grabs young viewers, and that means it’s perfect for advertisers. I always wonder why those older executive don't throw in a mitigating word for their tattoo-less demographic. I guess I’m too defensive that way.

Now comes a new Nielsen study that suggests that many of the modern (“multi-sensory”) media contrivances are ones older consumers can’t easily handle, and this of course, has ramifications for online advertisers and programmers.

Reaching younger consumers, it’s kind of easy to leave older consumers behind. But that is ignoring what still is the biggest, richest slice of the demographic pie.

A new Nielsen study, “The Me Generation Meets Generation Me” trots out some of the same broad marketing facts that you probably know already about relative wealth. Boomers control 70% of the disposable income, but that Millennials are driving the technology, and by extension--my interpretation--all media.

Three out of four Millennials own smartphones, about the same percentage as own lap tops, and 68% own gaming consoles. Nielsen points out in this device-acquisition contest, the Me Generation Boomers are catching up—hey, they have the money—and their adoption of tablets has doubled from 2011 to 2012. (And this year, they’ll learn how to use them by golly!)

But it’s the part of the report that speaks broadly about what young and older people can handle—media-wise—that makes me wonder if Boomers are being left in the wilderness, encouraged to stay current but then faced with media presentation that makes “keeping up” more than just a matter of determination, but a physiological challenge.

The Nielsen study says, for example, “Younger brains have high multi-sensory processing capacity—which makes them very amenable to (and almost seek) multi-sensory communications, especially with interaction—such as search tasks, interactive sites.”

And in another section, “Millennials can equally deal with the bleeding-over communication we see in most dynamic banner ads on Web portals, while older generations need a clear-framed separated communication to be able to engage.”

The reason older consumers don’t get it, is that, well, they’re changing, and the media they’re being asked to ingest doesn’t compute very easily.

“Nielsen NeuroFocus research shows that neurological changes that come with age result in certain types of communication being more effective,” the report says. Body chemistry produces less dopamine and serotonin in older people—starting in the mid-40s—which makes advertisers need to change their pitch. Those changes as also seem to make it more important for older consumers to keep current.

The aging brain, Nielsen points out, gradually “loses the ability to suppress distraction.” In the very next sentence it says, “However, the aging brain has a broader attention span and is open to more information.”

All of that makes sense but it’s complicated, and nuanced. In two other places, Nielsen makes some interesting observations. The Nielsen report says its research finds that Boomers “prefer clever, light-hearted humor (rather than mean-spirited) and relatable characters,” while “Millennials prefer off-beat, sarcastic and slapstick humor. Like Boomers, they respond to characters that are relatable to them.”

And in terms of color, “Millennials respond better to an intense color palette,” while with Boomers, in what might be unintended irony, “Contrast is the preference vs colors in online ads.” That contrast thing seems to be true.

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Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/203063/nielsen-studies-multi-sensory-differences-betwee.html?edition=61427#ixzz2Wshejhzx


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http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/203063/nielsen-studies-multi-sensory-differences-betwee.html?edition=61427#ixzz2Wshejhzx

It's OK to be blamed for your co-worker's mistakeby: By Sarah Michael From:news.com.au June 21, 2013 11:10AM

WHEN Adrian was blamed for his co-worker's $50,000 mistake, he had two choices.

He could tell his superiors that it was really the fault of the new guy, who made a careless trading error. Or he could take the fall.

Adrian, a manager at a Melbourne-based finance firm, decided to cop it on the chin.

"Based on the fact that I'm the manager, I knew that my bosses wouldn't like it too much that this new person made the mistake, so I just took it," he said.

"All said and done it was probably 20 per cent my blame and 80 per cent his mistake because it was such a rookie mistake he made and he'd had a few years' experience. But I did delegate the job to him so for me to take the full wrap was just easier."

Adrian is not alone. Every working person gets blamed for other people's mistakes at some point in their career.

Your first instinct is to tell your boss who was really at fault. But organisational psychologist Travis Kemp says if you take a step back you may realise you have a lot more to do with the problem than you want to admit to yourself.

"It would be nice if mistakes were so black and white and there was an obvious reason why mistakes were made but there never is," Dr Kemp said.

"The reality of most mistakes is that there are multiple factors and multiple people involved, it's rarely a single person's fault. When people feel like they've been exposed as incompetent or are being held solely responsible for something that's gone wrong, they tend to want to share it rather than own it all themselves."

The reason you tell your boss a mistake is another person's fault is to save your own reputation. But telling on your colleagues often has the opposite effect.

"A lot of people think they're taking the heat away from themselves. But as a leader I'm thinking regardless of the truth you're not taking responsibility for anything," Dr Kemp said.

"As a leader I want my people to be taking responsibility and taking action. I'm going to look much more favourably on people who can say this has gone wrong, this is how I contributed to it and this is how I can solve it."

Organisational psychologist Peter Langford says that there are times when the mistake is so bad you have to speak up to protect your reputation.

"If the error is significant enough you're going have to. It's walking the fine line of not coming across like you're blaming people but making it clear it wasn't your fault," Dr Langford said.

You also have to pick your battles. And if you let little things slide, you will win respect from other colleagues who know you don't expose people's mistakes.

"There is some benefit from copping some of it on the chin when some people know it wasn't your fault. That will come across as quite a noble act that you've absorbed some of the responsibility when really it wasn't your fault."

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/business/worklife/it8217s-ok-to-be-blamed-for-your-coworker8217s-mistake/story-e6frfm9r-1226667438995#ixzz2WpFyOkWdInternet chega a 80,9 mi de brasileiros

O acesso à web atingiu 49% da população brasileira; uso de dispositivos móveis é tendência Rodrigo Manzano| 20 de Junho de 2013

O número de usuários de internet no País alcançou, em 2012, 80,9 milhões de brasileiros, o que equivale a 49% da população nacional, revela a Pesquisa TIC Domicílios, divulgada nesta quinta-feira, 20. O número é dois pontos percentuais maior do que o registrado na pesquisa anterior e aumentou 12 pontos desde 2008. O total de domicílios com acesso à internet chega a 24,3 milhões, ou 40% do total.

A penetração da web nos domicílios continua sendo proporcional à renda: quanto mais elevada a classe socioeconômica, maior o acesso. A classe A tem penetração de 97%; a classe B, 78%; a C, 36% e a DE, 6%. No entanto, a classe C foi a que mais aderiu à rede: nos últimos cinco anos, a penetração nesse grupo socioeconômico saltou de 16% para 36%.

Outro dado apontado pela TIC Domicílios é o crescimento do número de brasileiros conectados na região nordeste do País. Hoje estimado em 27% dos domicílios, o acesso representa o maior crescimento entre todas as regiões geográficas do Brasil, tendo saltado de 7%, em 2008, para mais de um quarto do total de domicílios. A região com maior penetração da web é a sudeste (48%), seguida da sul (47%), centro-oeste (39%), nordeste (27%) e norte (21%).

Mobile

Entre os usuários de telefone celular, cresce o uso de internet. Segundo a pesquisa, 24% do total de proprietários de aparelhos móveis utilizaram a web nos dispositivos nos últimos três meses. Em 2011, esse número era de 18%. Em 2010, 5%. Outras atividades realizadas nos telefones celulares são efetuar e receber chamadas telefônicas (99%), enviar mensagens de texto (64%), ouvir músicas (47%), jogar (29%). A faixa etária com o maior número de usuários de internet móvel é a de 16 a 24 anos


(44%), seguida pela de 10 a 15 anos (33%). O acesso também é maior nas classes socioeconômicas mais elevadas (A, 59%; B, 35%; C, 22% e DE, 9%).

Redes sociais

O número de usuários de internet que acessaram redes sociais no Brasil hoje é maior do que o daqueles que enviaram e-mail, aponta a pesquisa. Do total de brasileiros conectados, 73% utilizaram redes sociais como Facebook e Orkut, contra 70% que enviaram ou receberam e-mails nos últimos meses. O número de usuários do Twitter entre os conectados é de 16%. O acesso ao Facebook e Orkut é bastante equilibrado em termos de classe socioeconômica (A, 78%; B, 73%; C, 72% e DE, 69%) e de acordo com o grau de instrução (analfabeto, 50%; fundamental, 69%; ensino médio, 74% e superior, 75%). A faixa etária com o maior número de usuários de redes sociais é a que compreende os jovens de 16 a 24 anos, com 86% de pesquisados que afirmam utilizá-las, seguida da de 25 a 34 anos, com 75% e 10 a 15 anos, com 73%.

Leia Mais: http://www.meioemensagem.com.br/home/midia/noticias/2013/06/20/Internet-chega-a-809-mi-de-brasileiros.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mmbymail-geral&utm_content=Internet+chega+a+80,9+mi+de+brasileiros#ixzz2WodUviN9

No Brasil, 40% das residências têm acesso à internet, aponta pesquisa20/06/2013 às 13h14

SÃO PAULO - Os acessos à internet nas residências cresceram no ano passado, chegando a 40% dos domicílios, ante 36% em 2011. O maior incremento foi observado na região Nordeste. Do total de domicílios, 27% tinham acesso à rede mundial de computadores em 2012, um avanço de 6 pontos percentuais em relação ao registrado no ano anterior.

A região Sudeste permaneceu com a proporção mais alta de acessos (48%), seguida pelas regiões Sul (47%), Centro-Oeste (39%), Nordeste (27%) e Norte (21%). Os dados fazem parte do estudo “TIC Domicílios 2012”, realizado pelo Centro de Estudos sobre as Tecnologias da Informação e da Comunicação (CETIC.br), órgão ligado ao Núcleo de Informação e Coordenação do Ponto BR (NIC.br).

De acordo com a pesquisa, feita em aproximadamente 17 mil domicílios em todo o país, 74% dos internautas acessaram a web de casa, sendo esse o local preferido para se conectar.

O acesso em lanhouses teve uma queda de 8 pontos percentuais em 2012, chegando a 19%. As lanhouses são o local de acesso mais citado por internautas das classes D e E.

A pesquisa também apontou um aumento significativo na frequência diária de acesso à internet. Do total de internautas, 69% acessam a web diariamente. Em 2008, esse percentual era de 53%.

O uso da internet em casa é mais comum em áreas urbanas. De acordo com o estudo, 54% da população urbana tem acesso à web em casa. Nas zonas rurais, 18% da população tem acesso à internet nos domicílios. O percentual de famílias nas zonais rurais desconectadas mantém-se inalterado desde 2008. O estudo também pesquisou domicílios sem acesso à web e identificou que 77% desse público reside nas zonas rurais.

“Essa é uma questão que precisa ser tratada por políticas públicas. O setor privado sozinho não consegue atender a esse público”, disse Alexandre Barbosa, gerente do Centro de Estudos sobre as Tecnologias da Informação e da Comunicação (CETIC.br). Ele observou que o setor privado tem investido mais em cidades com maior concentração populacional. Algumas regiões do Nordeste e do Norte, com menos densidade populacional e de mais difícil acesso geográfico são as que mais sofrem com a falta de acesso à web. “O acesso ainda é difícil e muito caro em algumas regiões do Nordeste e Norte”, disse.

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Why Mobile Advertising Has Quadrupled in BrazilBY SERGIO KLIGIN@US MEDIA CONSULTING ON JUNE 19, 2013 IN ADVERTISING,BRAZIL, MOBILE

The demand for mobile advertising has spiked enormously in Brazil. Recently, Opera Mediaworks released the results of a study that tracks requests for mobile advertising in the Brazilian market. Opera receives these requests because it operates a mobile ad platform that serves more than 60 billion impressions a month. As such, between January and April 2013, Opera received 3.72 times more orders for mobile ads in Brazil than it did between January and April 2012. In addition, the company observed an average increase of 11% per month in mobile ad orders during the past year.

So what’s driving this massive spike?

More Devices

As we’ve discussed before, there has been a huge increase in mobile device adoption in Brazil: Frost & Sullivan predicts 21 million smartphones will be sold in Brazil in 2013, compared to just 9 million in 2011. Brazilians will buy 5 million tablets in 2013, compared to 800,000 in 2011. In fact, during the first 3 months of 2013, Brazilians bought 5.4 million smartphones, 86% more than they did during the first quarter of 2012.


http://www.valor.com.br/empresas/3168852/no-brasil-40-das-residencias-tem-acesso-internet-aponta-pesquisa#ixzz2WoXFUFsz

http://www.meioemensagem.com.br/home/midia/noticias/2013/06/20/Internet-chega-a-809-mi-de-brasileiros.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mmbymail-geral&utm_content=Internet+chega+a+80,9+mi+de+brasileiros#ixzz2WodUviN9



More Time

Of course, deeper smartphone and tablet penetration is only the beginning. The spike in mobile ads targeting Brazil is also due to marketers realizing how much Brazilians use these devices. For example, a recent study from IBOPE showed thatBrazilians spend 84 minutes a day using their smartphones, just 10 minutes under the global average. When it comes to tablets, Brazilians spend an average of 79 minutes a day using their tablets—above the world average of 71 minutes a day.

More Uses

Another study from IBOPE showed that nearly 79% of Brazilian smartphone owners use their devices to go on social media, 76% use them for email, 58% to read news, 47% to listen to music and 43% for entertainment. As such, it’s not a surprise that Opera reports that the advertiser categories with the highest volume of mobile ad orders in the past year (44%) have been for music, video and content.

Another extremely important use of mobile devices by Brazilians is shopping, and it’s projected that we will see a 657% increase in shopping with mobile devices this year. This trend is likely to be yet another reason for the massive growth observed by Opera.

The Content that Brazilians Share the Most on Social MediaBY SHEILA [email protected] ON JUNE 19, 2013 INADVERTISING, BRAZIL, SOCIAL MEDIA

When creating a digital marketing plan for Brazil that incorporates social media, it clearly makes sense to favor major sites like Facebook and LinkedIn,along with hot new sites like Ask.fm. However, it’s also helpful to consider the websites whose content are shared the most on social networks. Knowing this can help you maximize the reach of your ads. Recently, research firm E.Life released a study on how Braziliansuse social media. Part of the data involved the websites whose content Brazilians share the most on social media.

News

More than half (52%) of Brazilians share O Globo’s content on social media, while Folha de São Paulo is in second place with 14%. Other news sites in the country garner considerably less shares by Brazilian social media users, including Exame (7.3%), Veja (7%), R7 Noticias (4.7%), UOL Noticias (3.5%), Terra Noticias (3.5%), Vírgula (2.5%), Extra (2.5%) and Estadãö (2.5%).

Videos

Brazilians are among the world’s most avid watchers of online videos, and the E.Life study shows that 90% of the videos they share are from YouTube. Only 4% share videos from Vimeo and 1.5% share videos from Dailymotion.

Photos

Six out of ten Brazilian social media users share photos through Instagram, while 26% share photos via Twitpic and 12% do so with Flickr.

Other Key Data Points about Brazilian Social Media Users

Beyond discussing the media content most shared by Brazilians, E.life’s study also highlighted certain aspects about social media users in the country, including:

• More than half (53.9%) report that they use mobile phones as their #2 way of accessing the Internet (a home computer is still the #1 way of going online)

• Desktops are still the primary device that Brazilians use to access the Internet(74% use them), but the other two major devices they use for going online are notebooks (65.7%) and mobile phones (61.8%)

• 54% of Brazilians report going online at least 30 hours per week and nearly 35% go online more than 40 hours per week

• While a small percentage of Brazilians report using tablets to go online, 46% oftablet users in Brazil spend at least 20 hours a week on the Internet with their devices

• Facebook is still the #1 site among 81% of the Brazilians surveyed by E.Life, while Google+ grew by 10 percentage points in popularity in Brazil since the 2012 E.Life survey and LinkedIn gained 21 percentage points

• Instagram seems to be one of the hot new sites in Brazil: 22% of survey respondents report registering on the site at least 3 months before the survey

• A third of survey respondents reported becoming recent users of Pinterest

• 71% of Brazilians watch TV while on the Internet and 50% listen to the radio while on the Internet

• Nearly 67% of Brazilians report that they follow brands on social media to get online customer service whenever they need it

• 93% of Brazilians like company pages on Facebook and nearly half (48.5%) like companies more after following them on Facebook

'I'm Not A Businessman, I'm A Business, Man'By Cory Treffiletti Wednesday, June 19, 2013

What would you do with three minutes of prime airtime during the NBA Finals? If you’re Jay-Z and Samsung, you take that time to announce a new album released in a whole new way.


I saw the long-form commercial that Samsung aired to announce Jay-Z’s new album, “Magna Carta Holy Grail,” which should be out in a month and apparently comes as an app rather than, or in addition to, a traditional record release. The spot shows Jay, Timbaland, Swizz Beatz, Pharrel and Rick Rubin sitting around making beats and talking about the theme of the record. I have to confess that I’ve been and will continue to be a big Jay-Z fan, so whenever he does anything my ears and eyes perk up, but this was a new level of hype that’s unlike anything I’ve seen to date. It’s more proof that Jay Z is "more than a businessman -- [he's] a business, man.”

Other artists have released the “album as app” model, but none of them have really caught hold. I would argue that no one of this stature has done it to date -- and with the exception of the rumored Lady Gaga app/album that’s supposed to come out sometime this year, there’s no one else who could truly pull this off on a massive scale. Beyond that, though, offering the album free to the first one million Samsung Galaxy owners is a stroke of brilliance for Samsung, which immediately takes on the “street cred” of Jay-Z and adds flavor to its marketing that can certainly help it immediately rival the “it” factor of Apple. Apple and Samsung are in a technology war, and this campaign is helping to even the playing field.

I also love to look at this move in terms of the record industry: the business behind the business of music. For years the record business has been damaged by digital media, flailing to find a business model that will survive. If, as implied in the spot, Jay releases this album without a physical version or through traditional record stores, then this is on par with the Radiohead move of price-your-own copy from “In Rainbows” and could signal a watershed moment for the record business.

We’re at a stage where Bluetooth is everywhere and widely used, so all your music no longer has to be played through iTunes or any other music playing app. Your phone as a pure device could become the hub, and for many it certainly has.

When I drive in my car, I routinely throw the Bluetooth to my phone and listen to comedy shows from YouTube just as easily as music through Spotify or iTunes. The phone is simply a device for accessing content, and Bluetooth makes that content -- in most cases audio content, but just as easily video -- accessible everywhere. Having artists sell apps as albums with multimedia elements feels like a legitimate opportunity now, much more so than five years ago.

The surprise in this announcement for me is that this campaign comes from Samsung and not Apple. The latter has done a lot to provide a viable model to the record business with iTunes, but it has lagged on the concept of rich experiences for artists. If this effort is a success, it could signal another opportunity for the phone manufacturers themselves to become interesting partners for the distribution of content. This could be a whole new paradigm for the music industry.

Samsung went big with this announcement, and my gut says everyone wins. The fans get great music. Samsung gets an amazing boost of cred. Jay-Z gets a ton of buzz for an album NOT named “Blueprint” something or other. The record industry gets an entire new avenue for releasing albums. On all sides of the discussion, this is a positive move.

What do you think?

In a Shift, Facebook Says It Will Make All Ads SocialBY RYAN TATE 06.07.13

Facebook may have sold $5 billion in advertising last year, but that doesn’t mean the social network had its ad strategy firmly under control: the company has announced a sweeping overhaul that will cut its number of ad units in half and put less pressure on advertisers to give their ads social features.

Advertisers have been complaining for the past year – the $5 billion one — about Facebook’s unwieldy collection of advertising products, Facebook product manager Fidji Simo said in a blog post. As a result, Facebook will pull many ad options it had previously touted, like allowing owners of Facebook pages to embed native coupons, or “Offers” in Facebook parlance. The number of ad units will fall from 27 to less than half of that.

Facebook had also previously required advertisers to choose between inserting ads in users’ news feeds strictly by paying Facebook or by paying Facebook and generating social context, such as a “Like” from a friend. If advertisers opted for the social option, their ad would show up as a “Sponsored Story,” so that when friends “Liked” and commented on the ad, those “Likes” and comments would stick around for a long time in other people’s News Feeds.

Now, Facebook will bundle both options together, so that every ad is automatically retrofitted with a social component. Each ad, in other words, will be both a regular ad and a “Sponsored Story.”

“We know social enhances ad resonance; people are influenced by this type of word-of-mouth marketing,” Simo wrote. As Peter Kafka at All Things D notes, this new approach de-emphasizes the uniquely social aspect of Facebook marketing by treating social as an automatic enhancement to any ad.

Of course, Facebook’s advertising has been performing well enough in raw dollar terms that the company may not have to worry about encouraging advertisers to design their ads especially for social sharing. Facebook is so big at this point that many advertisers will do that on their own.

This post has been modified from the original, which misstated the number of ad units Facebook offered. June 7 1:15pm ET

Brazil drives LatAm adspend growthNEW YORK: Total adspend in Latin America is expected to increase 7.5% in 2013, with Brazil leading the way as it gears up for the World Cup in 2014, new figures have shown.

Estimates from eMarketer, the insights provider, forecast a 9% rise in Brazilian advertising expenditure to $20.2bn this year, when it will account for 54.6% of the $37bn total for the region.


And Brazil will continue to be the main driver of growth for the continent up to 2017, when its share of total advertising expenditure will reach 56.8%.

Mexico is also predicted to post above average growth this year, with an 8.4% rise taking it to a value of $4.6bn, accounting for 12.4% of the spending in the region.

Argentina, however, is expected to record a 6.7% drop in advertising spend, as the industry struggles with inflation and exchange rate fluctuations.

But eMarketer anticipated that advertising activity in those countries outside the top three would more than offset Argentina's losses, with an 11.1% rise taking the share of ad spending by these other countries to 22.6% this year, up from 21.8% in 2012.

Digital ad spending in the region is also growing fast, up 21.5% in 2013 to a total of $4.1bn, a figure which is predicted to double to $8.3bn by 2017.

Once again, Brazil dominates this channel, its total of £2.5bn in 2013 accounting for 60.1% of all digital adspend in the region.

But Mexico is the fastest-growing country in terms of digital spending, up 32.1% in 2013, and its share of the total is forecast to grow from 16% this year to 18.5% by 2017.

Argentina's growth is expected to be considerably slower, with only single digit increases predicted over the next four years.

Data sourced from eMarketer; additional content by Warc staff, 20 June 2013

Read more at http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/EmailNews.news?ID=31556&Origin=WARCNewsEmail&utm_source=WarcNews&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WarcNews20130620#ugOwSE3eJjF7F3H7.99

Mídias tornaram-se técnicos, estrategistas e criativosProfissionais da área atuam em diversas frentes das agências

Mídias evoluíram e passaram a ser profissionais multifacetados

“Se a mídia era uma área essencialmente técnica e especialista, hoje pede profissionais conectados com os expertises das turmas de planejamento e criação: mais do que trabalhar com técnica e criatividade estratégica os investimentos, a mídia tem que contribuir com o fortalecimento do posicionamento das marcas que maneja, com a originalidade e o frescor dos espaços que essas ocupam.”

A declaração, de Paulo Camossa, diretor-geral de mídia da AlmapBBDO, expressa bem o papel do profissional de mídia atual, e que irá cada vez mais se intensificar à medida que os meios se multiplicam e a tecnologia avança. Ele deixou de ser “um leitor de pesquisas” para se tornar, inclusive, um criativo. Sim, alguns dos grandes cases da publicidade mundial, hoje, partem da mídia.

“A sociedade mudou, os meios de comunicação se multiplicaram e as audiências se fragmentaram. As plataformas digitais estão revitalizando conceitos clássicos e criando outros absolutamente novos – tudo pode ser revisto, controlado, redirecionado. Nesse sentido, um profissional de mídia tem que combinar conhecimento técnico com capacidade de observação, e estar disposto a contribuir com ideias e iniciativas capazes de enriquecer os planos de comunicação”, completa Camossa.

Diretor de mídia da Africa, Paulo Ilha lembra que no passado o mídia era bom em negociação, planejamento e pesquisa de mídia, que já o colocava entre os principais do mercado. “Hoje, para se destacar, é ir bem além disso. O profissional deve ser autor ou coautor de projetos criativos. Mais do que ninguém dentro da agência é responsável por administrar o investimento do anunciante, cada vez mais preocupado com métricas e resultados, pois isto que o cliente quer: inovações atreladas aos resultados”, comenta.

Estratégico

Lica Bueno, diretora nacional de mídia da F/Nazca S&S, diz que o mídia é um cara mais estratégico. “E a pulverização de sua atividade é um prato cheio de referências para o planejamento e fornece subsídios para a criação”, afirma, lembrando que os meios digitais e as redes sociais estão permitindo testar formatos novos, principalmente em relação ao mobile, a “grande dúvida” da comunicação atual. “Estamos sempre testando com nossos clientes. O mídia tem que ter é curiosidade”, ressalta.

“Nos anos 80, o mídia tinha que ser um excelente negociador, até pelas instabilidades econômicas do país na época. No início da década de 90, também ficou mais técnico. No final do século, veio a necessidade de ser criativo. E hoje somos mais estretégicos. E todas essas responsabilidades se acumularam”, acredita Gustavo Gaion, VP de mídia da Y&R, que diz ser o grande desafio do mídia identificar esses conteúdos e criar vínculos sólidos das marcas com seus consumidores, antes até de pensar em qual ponto de contato. “Estamos no momento de entender como inserir a comunicação dentro desse perfil de comportamento do consumidor, que compartilha informações com todos, sem ser invasivo.”

Comportamento

Luiz Ritton, VP de mídia da Lew’Lara\TBWA, também aborda o comportamento do consumidor, dizendo que entendê-lo continuará a ser o papel do mídia para os próximos anos. “E é esse comportamento que indica tendências de onde colocar as marcas dos clientes dele. Temos que entender as pessoas e para que caminhos estão indo. Por exemplo, o que elas buscam quando estão em um show”, diz. “Mas nunca vamos deixar o lado técnico. A diferença é que a mensuração de resultados é outra: como irei avaliar o cara que viu a novela pelo smartphone, e não pela TV? O que ele quer?”

“Não há como estar apenas em um tipo de meio. Assim, não há como pensarmos em uma campanha sem termos todos os meios – sejam eles offline ou online”, afirma Flavio Rezende, diretor nacional de mídia da DPZ. “Os cases de hoje obrigatoriamente são complementares – um meio avança na área do outro. É muito difícil vermos um case vencedor em um meio apenas, pois eles se complementam e são encaminhados direto para as redes sociais”, completa, lembrando que o papel do mídia é transportar para todos os envolvidos o pleno conhecimento do consumidor e que tipo de afinidade ele tem com os múltiplos pontos de contato,


http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/EmailNews.news?ID=31556&Origin=WARCNewsEmail&utm_source=WarcNews&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WarcNews20130620#ugOwSE3eJjF7F3H7.99



inclusive o que ele consome ao mesmo tempo. “Além de contribuir na grande ideia, na estratégia de comunicação, temos o conhecimento da cadeia de reverberação e do consumidor”, acrescenta.

Diretora-geral de mídia da JWT, Aline Moda diz que conhecer qual tipo de conteúdo é mais consumido pelo target ganhou tanta ou mais relevância do que saber qual meio ele consome. “Pois, hoje, um mesmo conteúdo pode ser encontrado em diversas plataformas, o que faz com que tenhamos que partir da afinidade com o conteúdo para chegar à recomendação de canais. Ou seja: um profundo conhecimento sobre os hábitos do consumidor continua sendo a nossa ferramenta mais eficaz.”

Também falando sobre o comportamento do consumidor, Renata Giovannetti, diretora de mídia da Talent, diz que o papel do mídia de hoje vai além. “Temos que ter uma dedicação extrema e constante também sobre os meios de comunicação. A grande mudança é a busca constante pelo imediatismo de informação. O que temos que fazer é pensar em um sistema orgânico de comunicação, facilitar as buscas do consumidor e suprir a necessidade deles.”

Criatividade e inovação

Técnico, criativo e inovador. É assim que tem que ser o profissional de mídia de hoje, na visão de Rosana Ribeiro, diretora de mídia da Borghi/Lowe. “E tem que apresentar um pensamento multiplataforma, que ultrapasse a linha imaginária entre o ATL e o BTL, o on e o offline”, diz. “E está cada vez mais difícil prender a atenção do consumidor, pelo número de canais aos quais ele é exposto. As redes sociais potencializam isto. Pesquisas mostram que 76% dos internautas fazem comentários na internet ou por celular sobre o programa que estão assistindo na TV”, completa.

Diretora-geral de mídia da Loducca, Adriana Favaro enumera três caraterísticas fundamentais para o mídia: ser consumidor de todas as mídias; ser estrategista, para definir o caminho de maior eficácia e eficiência para uma marca; e ser crativo. “Para isso é imprescindível entender como funciona a tecnologia e como se cria para cada um dos canais de comunicação com o consumidor.”

Diante de todas essas características citadas, Mônica de Carvalho, VP de business da DM9DDB, prefere destacar a qualidade do profissional de mídia brasileiro: “Ele é muito bom!”, ressalta, e credita isso à formação. “As agências sabem fazer a sucessão. O próprio Grupo de Mídia se preocupa em formar o mídia, por meio de cursos e outras atividades.”

Para a executiva, além de estratégicos e bons negociadores, eles são inquietos, inconformados. “Nossos mídias são muito criativos e agregam bastante para o planejamento estratégico, e, claro, para a criação. Enxergar diferente é nosso diferencial.”

VivaKi Struggles For Reinvention in Digitally Savvy Publicis NetworkSpecialty Unit's Reason for Being Was to Educate Its Media Shops, But That's No Longer Necessary

By: Michael Learmonth Published: June 17, 2013

The brass at Publicis Groupe's VivaKi are logging an excessive number of miles in the first half of 2013, even for ad-agency execs. The reason: to prove to colleagues around the globe that their unit still has value even after achieving its original goal of pushing Publicis into the digital age.

Five years after the operating unit with the headscratcher name was formed, VivaKi faces an identity crisis. What is the role of a specialty unit created to inject digital into traditional agencies when digital savvy has trickled down into nearly every shop?

VivaKi CEO Frank Voris and Chief Strategy Officer Rishad Tobaccowala are in the midst of a road show to explain just that, hitting two Publicis agencies a week and making quarterly trips to India and China. Their pitch is that there's still a big knowledge gap in advertising that needs to be filled, and the new VivaKi can help solve client problems and boost business -- whether its media, creative, PR or research.

“A lot of people are talking about disrupting stuff; we have disrupted ourselves. We have changed our model,” Mr. Tobaccowala said.

VivaKi's journey started in January, shortly after Publicis announced that the media-firm heads reporting through VivaKi -- SMG CEO Laura Desmond, Razorfish CEO Bob Lord and ZenithOptimedia CEO Steve King -- would report directly to Publicis CEO Maurice Levy.

VivaKi was stripped of its operating role and refashioned into more of an internal consultancy, still managing global digital partnerships and automated ad buying, and offering its services to Publicis' creative shops like Saatchi & Saatchi, Leo Burnett and Bartle Bogle Hegarty.

VivaKi identified four areas of focus: data-driven marketing, next-generation commerce (“commerce plus,” according to VivaKi brass, who apparently love to name things), next-generation storytelling and a regional focus on China, India and the Americas.

For Publicis' creative agencies and PR firms, VivaKi might offer some media-buying capability, particularly through its Audience on Demand technology or data to power dynamic creative, where the message adapts to the viewer. VivaKi will also vet startups, consolidating the due-diligence agencies might do in that space, and manage startup investments, as well as Publicis-wide relationships with Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft and other platform players. The approach will be “here's tech that you can use and we will help facilitate the connection,” said Kurt Unkel, president of product and head of Audience on Demand.

That pitch is being well-received. “We don't need every creative agency to reinvent the wheel with some of these partners,” said Leo Burnett Chief Innovation Officer Mark Renshaw, who got the visit from Messrs Voris and Tobaccowala. “Anybody who turns away a source of competitive advantage or a way to lower your cost of doing business is kind of crazy.”

When VivaKi was formed in 2008, the global economy was on the verge of collapse, but new technologies that automated the buying and selling of digital ads were starting to emerge. That was the year Google acquired DoubleClick. Facebook and YouTube were ascendant powers.

Publicis wasn't keeping up with that rapidly transforming world. Prior to the acquisition ofDigitas in 2007, digital made up just 8% of Publicis' revenue. VivaKi was formed to infuse the company's old-line media firms -- Starcom, Mediavest, Zenith, Optimedia and


Denuo -- with digital know-how and allow its newly acquired “digital” agency, Digitas, to benefit from the media-buying power of those agencies.

Today, many of those digital-buying skills are now distributed throughout the agency, and digital accounts for nearly 33% of revenue at Publicis following the acquisition of Digitas and Razorfish. That's roughly equivalent to rival WPP, meaning VivaKi's original goal is largely met, leaving it to sing for its supper.

The criticism since day one of VivaKi and similar groups at rival holding companies is that they force one-size-fits-all tech solutions down the throats of the various agencies to save costs. Agencies have started to resist. “When push comes to shove, the battle is always going to be won by those that are closer to the budgets and closer to the clients,” said Tim Hanlon, former exec VP of VivaKi Ventures, who now runs his own consultancy, Vertere Group.

Even the old-line agencies are getting more adept at managing digital, making it harder for VivaKi to stay a step ahead. One example is Ms. Desmond's giant Starcom MediaVest, whose clients includeCoca-Cola and Procter & Gamble, signing a multiyear agreement with Twitter in April that includes hundreds of millions of dollars in ads bought in advance, as well as the ability to provide input into the startup's products.

In years past, that might have been a VivaKi deal, much like the partnerships it struck with Google and Microsoft. That said, most individual agencies are focused more on specific client problems, not forging global platform deals or watching where the world is headed next.

“We are challenged to provide world-class solutions to the agency,” said Mr. Voris. “At the same time, we have a group focused on the future and looking at new technology so we don't lose sight of where the spaceship is traveling.”

Loducca usa tecnologia para otimizar ROI17 de junho de 2013 • Atualizado às 09h15

A agência de publicidade Loducca e a empresa de soluções de Marketing Mix Optimization Libring, baseada em Boston - EUA, acaba de lançar no Brasil a plataforma MMO Compass, que permite criar cenários e simular a melhor distribuição da verba de mídia nos diferentes canais, off-line e online, levando em conta a interação entre todas as mídias.

A plataforma usa algoritmos inovadores de atribuição, otimização e alocação que permitem (1) quantificar a contribuição de cada peça publicitária, (2) otimizar o retorno a partir do uso de modelos de análise preditiva para criar cenários, e (3) alocar ou distribuir a verba nas atividades de mídia de acordo com os cenários otimizados.

A partir do cruzamento da base de dados de audiência, de vendas e do investimento em publicidade nos vários pontos de contato com o consumidor, a solução identifica as taxas de resposta a um elemento ou inserção em cada uma das mídias utilizadas.

“Essa iniciativa é o mais recente capítulo de uma longa história de análise de ROI que a Loducca tem," diz Daniel Chalfon, sócio e vice-presidente de Mídia da Loducca. "Até agora trabalhávamos no que chamamos de versão 2.0 da metodologia desenvolvida pela nossa equipe. A parceria com a Libring amplia muito as possibilidades de análise, visualização e otimização”.

“Com a MMO Compass, oferecemos a nossos clientes uma melhor compreensão da interação entre as mídias e ajudamos a planejar o investimento com a verba certa nos pontos de contato que influenciam a tomada de decisão do consumidor”, diz o engenheiro Marcelo Ballestiero, CEO da Libring.

Uma solução interativa - Como uma bússola, o MMO Compass tem uma interface amigável, que permite que dados complexos sejam facilmente compreendidos, agilizando o processo de decisão e facilitando o planejamento. Um mapa digital dá uma visão geral do investimento histórico de mídia de uma empresa e serve como a base principal de navegação dentro do sistema. O mapa mostra a distribuição de publicidade em cada mídia, o correspondente investimento em marketing, a resposta atribuída a cada campanha e por fim o ROI por país, cidade ou região. Essa divisão torna mais fácil a visualização dos mercados mais importantes para a empresa.

Ao clicar em um determinado local no mapa, o usuário visualiza um detalhamento completo do investimento para cada tipo de mídia, digital ou tradicional e em qualquer meio. O painel identifica o investimento por mídia, a atribuição de vendas, e até mesmo o retorno proporcionado. Para cada canal de mídia, essas estatísticas podem ser divididas ainda mais para mostrar os mesmos valores para veículos ou programas.

A função mais importante do sistema é a da otimização, que utiliza dados passados para prever como um determinado mercado irá responder aos investimentos de mídia no futuro, e, portanto, orienta a desenhar a melhor estratégia de alocação da verba de mídia da empresa.

“Este é um diferencial importante, pois fundimos dados de pesquisa de mídia dos principais institutos do país, com os dados específicos de cada cliente tornando o banco de dados de cada marca único e proprietário”, explica Chalfon.

Segundo Ballestiero, a missão da Libring é tornar a vida dos clientes mais fácil e garantir que eles possam usar e tirar proveito dos dados: “Se por um lado, a era digital permitiu o acesso rápido e irrestrito a um oceano de dados, por outro, extrair informações valiosas para alcançar os objetivos de negócio passou a ser uma tarefa necessária e bastante complexa. Queremos ajudar o cliente a navegar no mercado orientado por uma bússola que permita maximizar o investimento em marketing” afirma.

Redação Adnews

Pay Attention To This New Audience Segment, If You Have Anyby Joe Mandese, Monday, Jun 17, 2013


If you’re like me, then you believe that one of the unintended consequences of the hyper-acceleration of real-time media are some corresponding attention disorders, including ADHD. Now, according to at least one popular media research source, it is now a media planning attribute. Or at the very least, a new form of audience segmentation being used by TV programmers and advertisers to target social TV users. Speaking during Maxxcom’s first global media collaborative in New York last week, Trendrr Co-Founder and CEO Mark Ghuneim, said the company now breaks social TV users down into segments known ad “Hyperactives” and “Massive Passives.”

The Hyperactives, as you might imagine, are the ones who are always on, following the conversation about their favorite shows, personalities and programmers “minute-by-minute.”

“The water cooler effect is happening in real-time,” he asserted, noting that while the Massive Passives aren’t nearly so glued to their social media screens as their TV screens, they also follow TV pretty closely on the second screen.

The Maxxcom meeting was noteworthy for other real-time and programmatic targeting reasons, especially a presentation by Justin Evans, executive vice president-product strategy at Collective, “the audience engine” company that has come up with an ingenious way of using online media to effectively re-target TV viewers.

The “targets people online based on what they watch on TV,” Evans said.

The method integrates a mix of data from Rentrak, TRA and comScore that matches TV audience segments with corresponding audiences online.

He showed an example based on a hypothetical redeployment of Sears’ massive 2012 “back-to-school” TV advertising schedule, noting that a significant portion of the $1.3 billion TV impressions bought via the estimated $11 million TV buy were wasted on extraneous frequency to TV’s heaviest viewers, while a significant portion of Sears’ target audience was either under-exposed, or didn’t get to see its TV ads at all.

Evans calls these two segments to “under-served” and the “un-reached,” and hemade the case for peeling back a portion of Sears’ TV buys and redeploying them online to reach those audiences where TV could not.

The approach is interesting, and reminded me of the “under-delivery” pitch cable networks used to make to advertisers and agencies before cable viewing became more ubiquitous.

Evans’ presentation made a strong case for using online to make up for TV’s under-delivery. What he stopped short of making a case for, was cutting back on the excessive frequency being wasted on the heavy TV users. And I can understand why. No need stirring up a hornets nest until people are comfortable with the underlying logic of using online video to re-target TV viewers.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/202661/pay-attention-to-this-new-audience-segment-if-you.html?edition=61227#ixzz2WVentQuZ

Brasil registra mais de 14 milhões de celulares vendidos no trimestreEstudo da IDC revela que foram vendidos 5,4 milhões de smartphones e 8,7 milhões de feature phones

Proxxima 14/06/2013 10:52

O IDC confirmou que o mercado brasileiro de telefones celulares atingiu a marca de 14,1 milhões de aparelhos vendidos no primeiro trimestre de 2013, o que significa um crescimento de 15% em relação ao mesmo período de 2012. O estudo indica que do total 5,4 milhões são smartphones e 8,7 milhões são feature phones. Sendo que o preço médio do smartphone passou de US$ 439 no primeiro trimestre de 2012, para US$ 384 no primeiro trimestre de 2013.

“O bom resultado alcançado no trimestre é atribuído a fatores como o aumento do mix de produtos por parte dos principais fabricantes que, atentos aos mercados emergentes, começaram a oferecer aparelhos voltados para diversos bolsos e necessidades, acelerando a competição entre eles e gerando uma redução de preço para o consumidor final”, explica Leonardo Munin, analista de mercado da IDC Brasil.

O primeiro trimestre de 2013 também ficou marcado pela retomada de compra de aparelhos por parte das operadoras junto aos fabricantes. Esse segmento representou 50% das vendas nos últimos três meses do ano passado, saltando para 60% no primeiro trimestre de 2013. Até o fim do ano, a IDC espera que sejam comercializados pouco mais 28 milhões de celulares inteligentes no Brasil.

A POV on Facebook’s new hashtag functionAuthor: Caroline Melly 14 June 2013

This week, Facebook announced the introduction of clickable hashtags, which will allow users to add content to a post that is part of a larger online discussion or community. Once one of the hashtags is clicked, the user will be brought to a feed where people and pages have posted related content about a topic, brand or event (it could be anything). As of now, with the introduction of the hashtag one can:

• search for a specific hashtag from the search bar

• click on a hashtag that originates on other services, such as Instagram

• compose a post directly from the hashtag feed and search results

The outlook for advertisers


http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/202661/pay-attention-to-this-new-audience-segment-if-you.html?edition=61227#ixzz2WVentQuZ

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/202661/pay-attention-to-this-new-audience-segment-if-you.html?edition=61227#ixzz2WVentQuZ

This addition to Facebook will help people and brands easily discover what others are saying about a certain topic and participate in a public conversation in the heavily tangled Facebook web. There has yet to be advertising support with hashtag use, but that would logically ride on the curtails of this new additional tool. Coming from an advertiser’s perspective, it will be beneficial for brands to figure out what their audience (likers and followers) is talking about and what they want to hear on a much more natural level.

Due to the fact that Twitter allows advertisers the option to pay to promote their own hashtags in the “Trends” section, it will be interesting to see if Facebook opens up the option to purchase similar hashtag floodgates. By using a branded hashtags, marketers would be able to participate in millions of real-time conversations via Facebook, and thus amplify their trending numbers in a manner similar to Twitter. But how much will Facebook users like that? Already people feel a little overwhelmed by the “suggested pages,” to the point that they are almost completely ignored.

But how much control will advertisers have over what is said about their brand?

With hashtags now tracking what is said on pages and in conversations, it is important to take note that their use will leave a trail, leading back to who or what dropped the hashtag. Cyber-bullying big brands gives a voice to the voiceless, and although their commentary is taken into consideration, it is more often than not dismissed (can’t be too sensitive in the ad world). What advertisers and brands need to understand is that whatever they say and whatever is said about them is now easily searchable and will represent the brand in either a positive or negative light.

Responding to around-the-clock real-time posts will prove to be a tedious task for brands who have already spent endless time and money building up their Facebook pages. Brand marketers may not have as much control as they once did over the conversations between brand-customer, and what is said. Hashtags on Facebook will without a doubt alter the way the Newsfeed and Graph Search function, but as we all know Facebook is always changing. We as users just have to deal with it.

- See more at: http://digitallabblog.com/digital-lab-blog/a-pov-on-facebooks-new-hashtag-function/#sthash.4pXQJcBM.dpuf

The Smarter Data ManifestoBryan Eisenberg | June 14, 2013

"An organization's ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage." - Jack Welch

Fifteen years of working with many organizations (it is an impressive list) has taught us most organizations have not yet achieved a point where marketing analytics is like financial reporting: simplified; fairly universal; with a clear line of sight to business financial statements and tied to specific goals and objectives. If everyone had a simple marketing analytics framework that made reporting simple, then everyone in the organization could help steer the organization in the right direction at maximum speed.

Data drives (or should drive) marketing efforts, and now we are able to use data in ways, in quantities, and at a scale previously not possible. However, over 90 percent of the data we collect is noise, not signal, in terms of understanding our customers. This is why since the earliest days of digital analytics people fell in love with vanity metrics like HITS (a.k.a. how idiots track success). Social media and mobile technologies gave birth to even more vanity metrics.

Signs of a Data-Driven Organization

The point of being data-driven is not the collection of data and not the distribution of reports, even if they contain brilliant insights. The true value of data comes from how we use it to drive action (keep in mind that data, by itself, has no intrinsic value).

The main benefit of collecting data is to use the data to:

• Improve the experience of your customers.

• Understand and optimize how your internal business processes are performing.

• Determine how you can outperform your competitors.

At the heart of using data effectively is the need to understand and define the evolving, complementary roles of analysts and marketers with the complete support of the organization's infrastructure.

Of Auto Mechanics and Data Scientists

John Lovett, senior partner of Web Analytics Demystified, and I debated the role of analysts (increasingly, the need is for data scientists), what the terms "data" and "analytics" mean, and how to help organizations become data-driven. John and I debated from different perspectives - John is a statistician/analyst, and I am a marketer. Please take a few moments to watch this interview conducted by Bryan Kramer, CEO of PureMatter.

I suggested how, in order for an organization to become data-driven, a few key things must happen:

• First, the organization must agree on a few key line-of-sights metrics that can be used to drive a business, much like a driver can look at a couple of key dials on the dashboard.

• Second, the technology dimensions of using data must be communicated in a way that not-mathematically-inclined people can understand so they can apply them to answering business questions. I also explained how we need to make data more accessible within the organization to ask questions from our data sets - like having a "Google Now"-type voice command interface.

John responded that, while he agrees business people need simplified dashboards like an automobile, when you have car trouble, you go and see the auto mechanic.


http://digitallabblog.com/digital-lab-blog/a-pov-on-facebooks-new-hashtag-function/#sthash.4pXQJcBM.dpuf

I then agreed that, while businesses need technicians to ensure data is being collected and processed properly - as an auto mechanic would do for a wounded car - their roles are changing. Today, few mechanics need to repair the things they used to in the last decade.

To diagnose the problem, auto mechanics plug the car into a computer and then use the results to guide replacing parts. No one rebuilds carburetors like they used to when I was younger. These technicians are necessary, but the scope of their involvement has become limited, and as digital analytics become morestandardized, their roles will continue to change.

What Is Holding Your Organization Back From Being Data-Driven?

A division of labor has always had its advantages, and in one way, technological changes require an even greater degree of transparency among all parties and require all to become cross-skilled and cross-functional. However, the expertise of each party is changing enormously, and that will change how an organization evolves in using data to drive marketing decisions.

Many organizations are unwilling to adopt or even acknowledge the importance of these changes. The failure in organizations to become data-driven is self-imposed, and rarely does the resistance come from departments within. No matter the training of individuals within the company, it is the C-suite's responsibility to promote and support the expanding technologies, making it possible to refine the use of data. This is notthe obligation of the data folks.

Making non-technical people work with reports in the form of charts and graphs is not going to magically transform them into data people. This is why we're seeing some technologies today humanize the people-data interface with visualization tools like Tableau and narrative tools like Narrative Science ( which just got additional funding from the investment arm of the CIA) and Automated Insights. Some technologies in development will offer a voice command interface to the data just like Google Now.

The Data - Information - Insight - Action Cycle

"The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it is what a man or woman is able to do that counts." - Booker T. Washington

The best way to explain the possibilities that live in the changing role of data analysts in emerging technologies and the continued importance of marketers is to look at an example.

A friend recently told me that an automated report from one of his narrative tools identified a new referral for people searching on the terms "Shaq 2 year old." No one had to sit back and wait for someone else to analyze this and decide what to do about it. The tool itself took data, processed it to create information, and then related that information to achieve insight: recommendations for action. My friend received this report:

Data: new referrals coming from "Shaq 2 year old"

Information: identify a viral video featuring Shaq O'Neal competing in a basketball challenge against 2 year old Titus (Go Titus!) is driving these new searches, driving new traffic that may or may not be relevant to this toy business.

Insight: the business has a few options:

1. The traffic is relevant and you might attempt to drive it to a landing page that features the basketball-oriented products with some messaging around customers' kids being the next Titus, then possibly embed the video on the page.

2. The traffic is irrelevant and, if you are paying for those clicks through PPC, add a negative keyword for "Shaq" or drop the bids on those terms until the viral surge slows down.

Action: let's start designing that landing page.

What most analysts do today, if you're lucky, is identify this new keyword (it will probably take some time) and then get the report to you a week later, when it is too late to capitalize on it. This isn't the fault of the analyst nor the marketers; it's the fault of the current ways the organization uses data.

What Do Your Current Reports Look Like?

Are they Excel spreadsheets with numbers and graphs, or more like a to-do list with research and data behind it? Very few analyst reports would include the fact that there was a viral video making the rounds, and virtually none of them would contain an insight so you could develop an action plan to create a new landing page and organize the resources in near real time.

An organization becomes data-driven when it supports using data in near real time to make lots of small changes that allow you to improve the customer experience (bring visitors to a more relevant landing page), outperform your competitors because they were neither data-centric nor agile enough to create a dedicated landing page, or smart enough to reduce the costs associated with bidding on this irrelevant query that is surging and may eat up the budget on unqualified visitors.

Even without the exciting new technology becoming available, existing technology is good enough to provide intelligent data points to your analysts and business teams. Still, the organization needs to be structured so that small, agile teams can gather insights from the data, empowered by technology and processes to act in ways that make a difference.

The Illusive Data Scientist


Image via http://drewconway.com/zia/2013/3/26/the-data-science-venn-diagram

I have a ton of respect for those talented data scientists, but in reality, even if they have the title of data scientist, they do not possess the same business skills as marketers. These are not just people who have the coding and hacking skills to make sure the data is collected properly with tags, etc., or those who can perform the proper SQL or R queries. These are professionals who have the business chops to drive revenue with their technological skills.

Vincent Granville said, "Talented data scientists leverage data that everybody sees, visionary data scientists leverage data that nobody sees." The problem is, as I said in the video, we need to find somewhere between 150-180,000 new data scientists in the next few years, and this isn't going to magically happen.

Driving a Data-Driven Organization

As an organization, what you need most is the equivalent of great auto mechanics who know plugging your car into a computer isn't going to offer a perspective beyond basic service. You want a skilled core team with an ace auto mechanic who can offer insight and respects that you know how to race your car.

You need to look beyond the ways data used to be collected to how technology can help you use your data far more effectively, because you have important goals. You have customers you want to satisfy. You want to know how to structure a good experience so it becomes fabulous.

The ability to accomplish these goals exists. You have to decide today if you are going to keep up with the world by learning and adapting and becoming a truly data-driven organization. Then again, you could keep paying lip service to the future, throwing away resources in the process and having your reports...ignored.

Your Data Was Never Yours By Kaila Colbin Friday, June 14, 2013

Did you really think it was? Did you really think the government could access none of it, that the miracle of an effectively free Internet was just a gift from the universe? Did you really think the companies that make their money by selling our body parts -- eyeballs, mostly -- could never be compelled, as telecommunications companies and banks can be compelled, to hand over that data to the government?

Did you think that sharing anything with your 300 closest friends left that thing imbued with even the smallest shred of privacy?

Did you think the companies that spill your data like oil, that share it like candy, that hack your WiFi and follow you around could be trusted to protect you?

Did you think their systems are so magical that, even if they did in fact have the world’s most benign intentions, they could never suffer a breach? Did you think the system originally born from the government would somehow morph into being off-limits to its father?

None of this makes it OK. It is not OK for the government to indiscriminately spy on us. It is not OK to avoid due process, and it is not OK for private corporations to track us without our consent.

It is not OK -- but it happens, all the time. And yet we continue to be surprised when it happens, stunned at the magnitude of the revelations. We continue, Homer Simpson-style, to put our hand back on that hot stove and then whip it off again: “Doh!”

Do you think Google or Faceook usage has gone down since the Prism scandal came out? Out of the more than 171 million people who visited Google.com in May, how many of them might be so dismayed by the idea of being watched that they will change their search habits? I’ve used Google seven times so far just in writing this article. And even if you did change search engines, which one is better? Which one keeps you “safe”?

The bounty of our digital age is a feast for anyone who would access our data. Corporations. Governments. Criminals. Terrorists. If we put it online, we make it instantly vulnerable.

So here is the rule: if you don’t want the world to see it, if you don’t want it splashed across the front cover of The New York Times and The Guardian, if you don’t want people to know the intimate details of that oh-so-personal side of you, don’t publish it. If you want to be truly anonymous, don’t use computers that are connected to the Internet.


http://drewconway.com/zia/2013/3/26/the-data-science-venn-diagram

It is wrong for governments to break the law, and I can only hope that anyone responsible for doing so gets held to account. But it is also wrong to assume it won’t happen. Put enough of your digital valuables on display, and some hungry magpie will come along and peck at them.

The only way to fully avoid the magpie is to avoid creating and displaying such valuable items in the first place.

But will you? How many times have you used Google today?

Local Link Building: An Easy WinJon Ball, June 14,

SIM Partners technology empowers major brands to maximize digital marketing results at a local level.

Local link building is too often overlooked within link building campaigns. I’ve had great experiences involving local link building throughout campaigns, gaining traction within very competitive search verticals, helping drive relevant and converting traffic.

The trick to optimizing links for local search is two pronged – building great national industry links using geo-specific anchor text, and building great links from local authorities.

For this post, I’ll be covering how to build great links from local authorities – which time and time again has proven to require human creativity and leveraging relationships.

Why Local Links are Important

Dr. Pete at Moz wrote a fantastic post about the effect of SERP crowding for organic spots, due to features such as local listings, advertisements, the knowledge graph, rich snippets, etc.

Said plainly, Google is working to evolve. They want to go beyond being a search engine returning relevant websites and become an information provider, social tool, and really, world changer.

I recently read an article in Businessweek that really helps highlight this, specifically concerning their Google X department. The quote involves Google Glass, the latest hot item from Google X:

Parviz wants the world to see Glass in the context of Google X: It’s aimed at making access to knowledge so fast and seamless that it “fundamentally changes the meaning of knowing things.”

One easy way to tap into Google’s effort to provide deeper information within their SERPs – and secure an easy win – is to tap into local link building.

Creating a Local Mindset

The first and foremost step in launching a local link building campaign and building local authority links is establishing a local mindset. This is different than national link building, where it’s supremely important to build links only on sites that are highly relevant to your industry, with a measure of authority.

For local link building, the main consideration is who has authority within the community.

Two primary questions you should ask when beginning a local link building campaign:

• Who has authority within your community

• Have I interacted with any local:

• Businesses

• Service providers

• Charities

• Media organizations

• Social events

• Universities, colleges, high schools, etc.

• Groups, associations, societies, etc.

Truly, that should be enough to get a local link building campaign off the ground and open creative opportunities.

Let’s dive a bit deeper into each of these questions.

Local Authorities

The first targets you need to identify are those who have authority within your local community. This is important for two reasons:

1. So you can work to build a link from their site to yours, which will clue Google into your own local authority

2. To establish what gives them their local authority, and further your own pursuit of local authority.

Step 1 is the goal, with Step 2 being an extra ‘above and beyond’, depending on how involved within the local community you wish to become.

Step 1 — convincing local sites to link to yours — can only be taken by reaching out and building a relationship with local authorities, one at a time.


It’s extremely important to create positive interaction between your company and the local authority before attempting to secure the link. Get involved in some positive way with your target and the community before asking for a link. A few possibilities:

• Sponsor/participate at an event of which they’re a member

• Create a community event and ask them (and other local authorities) to join

• If possible, employ their services

• Don’t forget to write a review/give a testimonial – a great way to secure a link

• Ask to interview them based upon a local topic they’re passionate about, then feature it on your site

• Ask to write a relevant article for their site, if they have a blog/host news

• Create (and promote!) content useful to the community:

• Local maps showing important community spots

• Pet friendly locations within your local community

• A local entertainment guide

• A map/review of nearby great outdoor opportunities

• Offer to be a source for any local journalists – odds are they won’t have a story right away, but when they do they’ll know who to come to

• Release positive news about yourself periodically, that is relevant to the community

Those are just a few suggestions that should help get your creative juices flowing. There’s no one solution for local link building; every campaign will be different based upon industry, locality, and current standing within the community. Thinking creatively will always net you the best results.

Step 2 is important in understanding the level of involvement necessary to become a local authority. If you want great local links to flow in, the best way is to become perceived as a local authority.

Some actions that help create authority within a community:

• Invested time, money, or energy into the community

• Providing news, information, or purpose to the community

• Leading discussion on community hot topics

• Organizing community events

• Multiple ties throughout the community

Again, spend time brainstorming how you can use assets, relationships, and current business strategies to further boost your local authority.

Have I interacted with anyone local lately…

The second piece of a local link building campaign that’s all too often overlooked is bringing current relationships into the online world.

Take a moment and consider your current local relationships. These can include:

• Your current office complex

• Real estate groups you used to find your current offices

• Local vendors

• Local service providers

• Local charities

• Coverage in local media

Anytime you have a positive interaction with a local business, provide a review on your site or offer to give a testimonial. SEER wrote an article about this, and covered it pretty well.

Local link building is 100 percent about finding local authorities, creating positive interaction, and bringing your relationships into the online world.

How far you want to take it is fully dependent upon how much you want to invest, your current level of involvement with your community, and how important local is to your business.

The best link building tool is your own brain. Creativity and unique thinking will build high quality, great links that no tool will ever match.


Google takes over half of mobile adspendNEW YORK: Google, the internet services giant, accounted for more than half of the $8.8bn spent globally on mobile internet advertising last year, and its share is expected to rise as the world market almost doubles in 2013.

Insights provider eMarketer estimated that Google took a 52% share of net mobile internet ad revenues in 2012, and that this would rise to 56% in 2013.

Total mobile internet advertising spending has increased dramatically, from just $1.53bn in 2011, to $4.61bn last year and a forecast $8.85bn next year.

Other companies are also growing fast, albeit from a far smaller base. Facebook, the social media site, had no mobile ad revenues in 2011, but recorded $470m in 2012, a figure which is predicted to increase 334% to $2.04bn in 2013.

In 2013 Facebook is predicted to earn more in mobile ad revenues than Google did just two years ago, but will account for only 13% of the total market.

Just as Facebook is a long way behind Google, so Twitter is a long way behind Facebook. eMarketer suggested that growth for the micro blogging site would be much slower than its competitors.

Twitter's net mobile internet ad revenues have grown from zero in 2011 to $140m in 2012 and are forecast to reach $380m in 2013, by which time it will take a 2% share of the market.

Combined, these three companies account for "a consolidating share" of mobile advertising revenues worldwide, said eMarketer. It predicted that the share of other players, including YP, Pandora, Apple and Millennial Media, would decrease.

However, eMarketer added that these firms would still see their mobile advertising revenues growing rapidly.

In particular, it said that YP, the online directories service, which accounted for 2.9% of mobile internet ad revenues last year, was well positioned in the mobile search market.

Google and Facebook are also the leading two companies in terms of ad revenues across all digital platforms, taking shares of 31.5% and 4.1% respectively in 2012. And eMarketer expected that Google's share would increase further, partly due to its continued monetization of YouTube.

Despite the dominance of Google and, to a lesser extent, Facebook, eMarketer observed that over half of all digital ad revenues worldwide went to companies in the "other" category.

"There is space for other players to emerge and potentially gain significant share," it said.

Data sourced from eMarketer; additional content by Warc staff, 14 June 2013

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Fans Crush Brands When It Comes to YouTube Branded content pales in comparison to user-produced fare,

per Zefr By Zach James June 13, 2013,

YouTube is increasingly becoming the most influential social network, and the place where pop culture is born. In fact, according to Cisco's new Visual Networking Index forecast, video usage is projected to outperform Facebook and Twitter by 2017. With the proliferation of video, we are seeing a transformation in how consumers interact with brands. Consumers are no longer just a passive audience; they are now passionate fans who are actively participating in driving value for brands.

And while there's been lots of talk about brands acting as publishers, we’re increasingly finding that fans drive more value by creating videos about the brands and products that they love. Take CoverGirl, for example.

Of CoverGirl's 251 million total views on YouTube, 249 million (or 99 percent) are from fan-created videos, according to data compiled by Zefr. We see a similar trend with other leading brands: 92 percent of Oreo’s views and 99 percent of Revlon’s views come from fan content. Sometimes, original fan videos go viral, causing lots of other fans to create their own version of the original video. Swiffer’s commercial of a woman mopping her kitchen floor and breaking out into dance inspired a trend on YouTube. More than 150 people uploaded their own rendition of the "Swiffer dance."

Swiffer fan views don't just outnumber the actual brand views (10,451,334 vs. 225,220); they indicate a larger shift in the way consumers are interacting with brands and using YouTube.

We're seeing fans take action in four distinct ways on a platform where they not only upload videos, but also comment live and experience instant shareability. First, fans tend to upload commercials that resonated with them. Examples range from a funny commercial like Old Spice to an exciting product release like an iPad or iPhone. These fans don’t just watch a commercial; they engage.

Another big trend we've seen is brand fans expressing themselves through the "unboxing" of items they love. What is unboxing? Think of videos of fans literally opening up the boxes of products they’ve just purchased. From high-tech consumer products to cars to toys, these videos serve as instant reviews, where instead of going to Amazon to read feedback, people now search YouTube to get even more.

YouTube is also the place consumers turn to find out how to use a product. Basically, YouTube has become the place for pre- and postpurchase conversations.


http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/EmailNews.news?ID=31532&Origin=WARCNewsEmail#sgFE4ElGFXGRhUD9.99

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Some fans take things even further, creating original content based on brand enthusiasm. Whether it's a Lego stop-motion animation or painting with a can of Coke, fans are showing their love for brands in unique ways.

Lastly, we see some brand fans capitalize on a pop culture moment. A recent example of this is when Charles Ramsey, who saved a captured Amanda Berry, mentioned McDonald's during his press interview. Posts of the Ramsey video received more than 11 million views in less than 24 hours. Eighty percent of those views came from fan uploads (many of which specifically mentioned McDonald’s in the title of the video), and McDonald’s was mentioned in user comments more than 6,000 times across those videos.

McDonald's reacted to the buzz by tweeting out support to Ramsey and giving him free burgers for a year, but imagine what else they could have done had they reached out to the super-fans that created the content that generated millions of views for them.

In order to best harness the fans and leverage these opportunities on YouTube, brands need to listen and respond. Listening means digging in to all of the real-time data associated with your brand on YouTube, and making sense of the noise. This will allow brands to discover who their superfans are, understand their global footprint and compare performance to their competitors.

Brands can use this intelligence to respond and better influence future marketing spends or work with fans to amplify messaging. These marketers can empower the fan base that was otherwise invisible by building relationships with them and teaming up with them and their respective networks. For example, Skittles did this by bringing on superfan Nathan Barnatt to create official Skittles videos. Barnatt's work tallied more than 5 million views and 190,000 subscribers—more than the official Skittles channel itself.

YouTube is a platform that is ripe with data, passion and fans of brands. And it is now 1 billion people strong. Now, more than ever, is the time for brands to capture all that value.

Big Cable Offering Producers Incentives to Stay Off the WebInclude higher fees as well as threats to drop programming By Maura McGowan

June 13, 2013, 12:22 PM EDT

Television

Time Warner Cable and other pay-TV operators are offering incentives to producers to withhold content from Internet services, Bloomberg reported. Bloomberg's unnamed sources said the incentives take the form of higher payments or threats to drop programming.

Though the controversy goes back to June 2012 when the Justice Department announced it would investigate whether cable companies violate antitrust laws by shutting out online video competitors, the issue has gained renewed attention this week during the industry's Cable Show summit in Washington, D.C. During one meeting with analysts, Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt indicated that the cable provider has programming contracts in place that prevent media outlets from licensing content to online pay-TV services.

Time Warner has rebuffed any accusations of anticompetitive practices.

"The amount and scope of exclusivity and windowing in Time Warner Cable's arrangements with programmers pales by comparison to that found between other players in the entertainment ecosystem," a representative of the company told Variety.

Maureen Huff, a Time Warner spokesperson, told Bloomberg, "It's absurd to suggest that in today’s highly competitive video marketplace obtaining some level of exclusivity is anticompetitive."

Time Warner compared its practices to NFL's exclusive deal with DirecTV and the Netflix distribution of Arrested Development.

Variety reported that DirecTV, Dish Network and Cablevision Systems may have similar, contractually mandated provisions to discourage cable networks from distributing to Web services. Many news outlets cited a report from BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield, who wrote that the provisions "most certainly [are] bad for consumers" and thinks that the cable companies should be investigated by the FTC.

"Virtual cable systems, or over-the-top providers, would be wonderful for consumers," Greenfield told Bloomberg. "It appears certain pay-TV operators don't want that to happen."

Greenfield rejected the cable companies' argument that they are simply providing exclusivity at a premium.

"They are not paying for exclusivity," Greenfield told The New York Times. "They are saying you can sell to X, to Y and Z, but you are forbidden from selling to this new class, called A."

Mobile já responde por 7% da audiência dos sites de notícias, diz IVCPublicada em 23/04/2013 13:06

Os smartphones e tablets já respondem por 7% da audiência dos sites de notícias auditados pelo Instituto Verificador de Circulação (IVC). Em janeiro de 2011, os dispositivos móveis respondiam por apenas 0,6% das impressões de páginas, contra 7% em janeiro de 2013. E esse índice continua aumentando. Em fevereiro deste ano, a participação foi de 8%. Contribuiu para isso o expressivo crescimento do acessos internacionais, via tablets (5,8%) e smartphones (20,1).

Já as redes sociais, que despontaram em 2011 como grandes redirecionadores de tráfego, acabaram não apresentando um crescimento expressivo, mantendo-se abaixo dos 10% entre as quatro categorias analisadas: acesso direto, busca, redes sociais e outros.


O destaque é a inversão de importância do Twitter e do Facebook. Em janeiro de 2011, o Twitter era o maior gerador de tráfego. Em Janeiro de 20133, o maior gerador entre as redes sociais passou a ser o Facebook, embora o Twitter continue gerando mais visitas a partir dos smartphones e leve pequena vantagem nos acessos via tablets.

Participaram do estudo 60 dos 75 filiados do IVC, segundo João Torres, gerente de comunicação do instituto. Entre eles estão os principais jornais do Brasil, com exceção da Folha de São Paulo, e algumas das principais revistas, com exceção das publicações de Editora Globo e alguns títulos da Editora Abril. E as análises têm como fonte primária os dados brutos dos logs gerados por webanalytics, repassados pelos veículos de comunicação ao IVC. Os sites utilizados no estudo são, portanto, sites de notícias, exclusivamente, alguns deles integrantes de grandes portais.

João chama a atenção para o fato de o crescimento dos dispositivos móveis como o meio de acesso a Internet apontado no estudo não levar em conta, ainda, os aplicativos de cada veículo, o que provavelmente tornaria o crescimento mais vigoroso. O IVC considerou apenas os acessos via browser. “Ainda estamos no preparando para medir o uso das apps no acesso a informações digitais”, conta o executivo, ressaltando que o instituto já iniciou um trabalho junto aos fornecedores de plataformas/desenvolvedores de apps de notícias _ como Adobe, Digital Pages, etc _ para credenciá-los e pré homologar formatos de geração de informações para auditoria.

“Nos Estados Unidos a Adobe já fez algumas experiências junto com o IVC nesse sentido, e a ideia foi bem recebida pelos fornecedores aqui. O próximo passo é envolver os próprios veículos, para que os apps já sejam criados prevendo a geração de dados para auditoria”, diz João, ciente de que esse será o maior obstáculo a ser superado, já que muitas empresas têm receio de abrir os números, considerados por elas ainda pouco expressivos.

Evolução de Unique Browsers

Como o foco do estudo é o mercado publicitário, a análise considerou duas métricas: Impressão de Páginas e Unique Browser, que representam volume e alcance dos veículos auditados. O volume de acessos aos 60 sites participantes cresceu, em média, 23% de janeiro de 2011 até janeiro de 2013. O incremento por regiões aponta altas mais fortes nos estados do Nordeste (69%), Norte (41%) e Centro-Oeste( 32%). Já o número de dispositivos/browsers utilizados para acesso aumentou 18%. Esses dados indicam uso mais frequente, com forte crescimento do volume, e alcance um pouco maior, crescendo a taxas menores na variação anual.

O estudo analisou ainda quais são os browsers e dispositivos mais usados. Entre os browsers, há um crescimento expressivo do Chrome (impulsionado também pelo crescimento do uso de dispositivos Android) e redução de uso do Internet Explorer (tabela abaixo). Isso teve reflexo direto no aumento do tráfego gerado a partir das ferramentas de busca sobre o tráfego direto, já que a barra de endereço dos browsers passaram a funcionar como a caixa de entrada das ferramentas de busca do Google e da Microsoft.

No caso dos smartphones e tablets, a utilização de browsers diferentes dos fornecidos junto com o aparelho ainda é pouco comum. Nos gráficos a seguir, podemos perceber aumento considerável do sistema operacional Android entre os smartphones e tablets, superando o iOS no início de 2012 em impressões de páginas e no fim de 2012 em Unique Browsers. “Mas a perda de share da Apple não quer dizer que os acesso via iPhone tenham diminuído. Cresceram. A questão é que houve aumento de consumo a partir de outras plataformas Android _ notadamente equipamentos Samsung, Motorola e LG _ que, juntas, ampliaram a participação do sistema operacional da Google.

Entre os dispositivos, os PCs concentram maior utilização no horário comercial (dias de semana, das 8h às 18h). Já os smartphones são usados de modo uniforme ao longo do dia e da noites, com picos de acesso nos horários de maior mobilidade (8h, 13h e 19h). Os tablets, por sua vez, são utilizados de maneira mais uniforme no horário comercial, com intensificação de acesso às 8h e durante a noite, a partir das 19h. Nos fins de semana os três dispositivos apresentam usos semelhantes: 0 pico de acesso começa às 10h e se mantém elevado até às 23h, com prime time às 20h.

Segundo João Torres, os usuários de tablets passam mais tempo nos sites acessados. “É uma leitura mais demorada”, afirma.


Marketing Technology Map

Mondelez International identifies the path to mobile successSarah Shearman

Mondelez International, the snacks company, has seen "pretty spectacular" results following the decision to shift 10% of its worldwide marketing budget into mobile, according to Bonin Bough, the firm's vice president of global media and consumer engagement.

This strategy, known informally as "Getting to ten", was unveiled in October 2012, as Mondelez prepared to be spun off from Kraft Foods. And speaking at the Mobile Media Upfront conference, a trade event held in New York in May 2013, Bough suggested he had been "blown away" by the performance of its mobile campaigns to date.

Having first discussed the company's broad intentions at the Mobile Media Upfront in 2012, he used the 2013 gathering to re-examine his prediction from a year ago that, "We have to make it happen, because that is where we believe we will see the most dramatic impact to our consumers' buying behaviour."

"The good news is: we were right," Bough said. But Mondelez has greater ambitions still, given that 5.1 billion people possess a mobile phone, more than own a toothbrush, and 24% of media is now consumed in this way. "Most people tell you they are not distracted, but multitaskers. But we have become the most distracted society in human history," said Bough. More specifically, he asserted that the 10% benchmark reflects "who we are as a society".

"What remains clear is that mobile will be a driving force. It is a cornerstone that is very important to us," he continued. Mondelez's plan to ensure a tenth of its marketing spend goes to mobile thus has two strategic pillars. The first is the "partnership track", represented by alliances such as those forged with Facebook, Google and Catalina. The second is the "Mobile Futures" accelerator programme, which will help Mondelez navigate and discover new technologies.

Bough then identified four "buckets" that are attracting the company's attention on mobile. One is video, a format performing better on mobile than any other medium, Bough said. This is in large part because mobile video has increased penetration levels and supplemental reach thanks to its synchronisation with other ads.

Social TV is also a core area of focus. As an example of its activity in this arena, Bough cited chewing gum brand Trident's recent partnership with music network Fuse TV and Twitter to create a TV show, Trending 10, based on consumers' tweets. Efforts


undertaken on behalf of Cadbury, the confectionery brand, during the 2012 Olympics and a tie-up with media giant Viacom on Mobile Futures serve as further case studies of Mondelez's emphasis on this emerging opportunity.

Indeed, by combining social media with TV ads, the packaged goods group has enhanced the effectiveness of its television spots two to three times over, as well as fostering longer periods of engagement. Meanwhile, all the main social media metrics, such as tweets and "Likes", have experienced a "dramatic" increase. "If you think a marketer spends 90% of their budget on TV, imagine if you can make that 90% work twice as hard? It's a cash register," Bough said.

Mobile media is another "bucket" that has allowed Mondelez to fuel sales. Consumers with a mobile device in-store are likely to make 18% more impulse purchases, making this a valuable audience. The final issue Mondelez is seeking to address is building loyalty. "All four areas have seen huge success," said Bough.

One example of the strong creative ideas that Mondelez has produced on mobile was an Instagram campaign for Oreo cookies in January 2013, when it asked users to post images revealing if they were a "cookie or cream". "The definition of great marketing is getting cut through and driving people to share and have awareness, which this campaign did," Bough said.

He added that this initiative proves earned media "matters more and more", because "it attaches you to culture in a way that on your own you cannot achieve."

Oreo's "cookie or cream" campaign on Instagram engaged consumersSource: instagram.com/p/VR5_ADxtGO/

In his previous role at PepsiCo, Bough also pioneered a start-up incubator scheme, but he suggested Mondelez's mobile accelerator is "one of a kind", as it is aiming to facilitate a process of "cultural transference" that will help the firm's marketers understand the nuances of new technologies and buy into the mobile space.

Mondelez announced the first nine partnerships between the winning start-ups and its brands in January, having received over 300 applications. "Few organisations can say they are set up to look at volume of emerging tech players that we have," said Bough. In this first wave of Mobile Futures, Trident was paired with second-screening music app Lisnr, Oreo was coupled with location-based social content specialist Banjo, and Stride was matched with the crowd-sourced navigation app Waze.

Brand managers will liaise closely with these start-ups. In the second phase of the accelerator scheme, executives from Mondelez will come up with their own proposals for start-ups. Two will ultimately be selected and developed in-house in 90 days, before being pitched to venture capitalists and co-funds.

For Bough, this demonstrates "where the future is going". "The best way to predict the future is to be part of its invention," he said, to which end incubators will also be introduced to international markets this year.

One of the challenges Mondelez has faced in "getting to ten" is accurately measuring the contribution of each medium. To solve this problem, it has asked Carat and MediaVest, its media agencies, to explore attribution based-modelling. "We have been systematic in getting to 10, because aspiration without allocation is pretty much meaningless. We wanted to put something into market, and deliver results," said Bough.

"We have good sense across multichannel what delivers. So what does mobile deliver to TV and what does TV deliver to mobile. And that nuance is where we can dial things up and down," he said. "It's not about channel versus channel."

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Let's Go Surfing Now…David Toner | June 13, 2013

The online video wave is coming, and it will be bigger than…well, anything! According to the recently released Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI), by 2017 more people will be consuming video online than any other media - including social networks, online music, gaming, or digital TV. In addition, it forecasts that consumer Internet video traffic will be 69 percent of all consumer Internet traffic in 2017.

VNI is Cisco's ongoing effort to forecast and analyze the growth and use of IP networks worldwide - which the company predicts will double from 2012 to 2017 - and it presents a remarkable evolution in the online advertising space. Today, online video ad units are still a sparse commodity mostly found on PC devices, with publishers pushing to create additional video consumption and more video inventory. Based on these projections, video ad inventory will not be the problem in the future because Wi-Fi and mobile devices will account for 55 percent of IP traffic. Instead, the marketing challenge will be defining and delivering meaningful, integrated ads within this hyper-growth area and across device platforms.

In last month's column, I explored how the online video creative has dynamically moved beyond the pre-roll to provide multimedia canvases that can live and run anywhere - social, mobile, within traditional IAB units, and elsewhere. The forecasted volume of online video consumption presents an incredible opportunity and challenge. And it raises plenty of questions: how will consumption patterns evolve? What will ad units look like? How will brands distinguish themselves?

Taking Shape

The interesting thing about the media forms that online video will begin to overtake is that almost every one of them presents more opportunity for online video. Video is inclusive and additive to social networks, online music, gaming, and digital TV. So those mediums will not go away; they will just be filled with more videos and potentially less text, posts, and pictures. Online video's


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growth will not replace other mediums, but rather they too will catch the wave as videos will become the dominant form of consumption, just as photos have grown to dominate today's online mediums.

Catching the Wave

While traditional video ads are on their way to becoming passé, a future filled with online video appearing throughout various communication mediums is rich with opportunity. The online video ad units of the future will be less interruptive - e.g., "before consuming your desired content you must watch this" - and more a part of consumer consumption patterns, woven into social networks, streaming music, gaming, and digital TV experiences. In a way, this is building upon the sponsored TV shows of the '50s and the initial successes of native advertising. But rather than "brought to you by" addendums or content integrations, video ads in these mediums must be incremental to the user experience - enhancing the user experience and adding value.

The future will require deeper integration into game playing or digital TV consumption, which in turn will position hybrid content/media companies like Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and potentially wireless carriers with an early advantage to do this right. They will be able to layer hardware, software, and behavioral characteristics to deliver meaningful, relevant videos in line with user expectations. This is not unlike the long-discussed model of "addressable TV," but I believe the online video model has leapfrogged the in-home TV model. This advantage is due to the inherent volume of user-initiated sharing of personal interests and activities.

In other words, your gaming console will know a lot more about you than your cable provider ever will. It also helps explain the recently rumored partnerships between ESPN and wireless carriers. ESPN knows a lot about its users, but only with respect to a single passion point - sports. Working more closely with the carriers to underwrite data consumption would also (likely) enable them to target and deliver advertising in a much more sophisticated manner.

Standing Out

So if consumers move en masse to consume more online video and every brand is looking to reach and influence their target audience, how does a brand stand out? Quite simply, by taking a few chances. When you are looking to catch a wave, you cannot place your bet on a single break, rather you have to take a few floaters. There will be new platforms and new ad units from the major players, as well as startup and homegrown solutions.

As online video grows and evolves, the winners will intersect with consumers where they live and play. There will be a couple of years of a "Wild West" mentality as we develop, define, and refine these new models. Just as posting :30-second TV spots to the web didn't work, shifting standard web video units to these new mediums will not work. Figuring out what to do and how to react will require applying test-and-learn principles, understanding your consumer audience, and working very closely with publishing partners - including social networks, online gaming, music, and digital TV companies.

It's in each party's best interest to collaborate and evolve together - design, build, deploy, then redesign, build, deploy. Rather than filling the pipe with volumes of irrelevant video, let's work together to develop and deliver video that is more meaningful to consumers in every way.

Image on home page via wonderisland / Shutterstock.com.

Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2012–2017February 6, 2013

The Cisco® Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update is part of the comprehensive Cisco VNI Forecast, an ongoing initiative to track and forecast the impact of visual networking applications on global networks. This paper presents some of Cisco's major global mobile data traffic projections and growth trends.

Executive Summary

The Mobile Network in 2012

Global mobile data traffic grew 70 percent in 2012. Global mobile data traffic reached 885 petabytes per month at the end of 2012, up from 520 petabytes per month at the end of 2011.

Last year's mobile data traffic was nearly twelve times the size of the entire global Internet in 2000. Global mobile data traffic in 2012 (885 petabytes per month) was nearly twelve times greater than the total global Internet traffic in 2000 (75 petabytes per month).

Mobile video traffic exceeded 50 percent for the first time in 2012. Mobile video traffic was 51 percent of traffic by the end of 2012.

Mobile network connection speeds more than doubled in 2012. Globally, the average mobile network downstream speed in 2012 was 526 kilobits per second (kbps), up from 248 kbps in 2011. The average mobile network connection speed for smartphones in 2012 was 2,064 kbps, up from 1,211 kbps in 2011. The average mobile network connection speed for tablets in 2012 was 3,683 kbps, up from 2,030 kbps in 2011.

In 2012, a fourth-generation (4G) connection generated 19 times more traffic on average than a non-4G connection. Although 4G connections represent only 0.9 percent of mobile connections today, they already account for 14 percent of mobile data traffic.

The top 1 percent of mobile data subscribers generate 16 percent of mobile data traffic, down from 52 percent at the beginning of 2010. According to a mobile data usage study conducted by Cisco, mobile data traffic has evened out over the last year and is now lower than the 1:20 ratio that has been true of fixed networks for several years.

Average smartphone usage grew 81 percent in 2012. The average amount of traffic per smartphone in 2012 was 342 MB per month, up from 189 MB per month in 2011.


Smartphones represented only 18 percent of total global handsets in use in 2012, but represented 92 percent of total global handset traffic. In 2012, the typical smartphone generated 50 times more mobile data traffic (342 MB per month) than the typical basic-feature cell phone (which generated only 6.8 MB per month of mobile data traffic).

Globally, 33 percent of total mobile data traffic was offloaded onto the fixed network through Wi-Fi or femtocell in 2012. In 2012, 429 petabytes of mobile data traffic were offloaded onto the fixed network each month. Without offload, mobile data traffic would have grown 96 percent rather than 70 percent in 2012.

Android is now higher than iPhone levels of data use. By the end of 2012, average Android consumption exceeded average iPhone consumption in the United States and Western Europe.

In 2012, 14 percent of mobile devices and connections were potentially IPv6-capable. This estimate is based on network connection speed and OS capability.

In 2012, the number of mobile-connected tablets increased 2.5-fold to 36 million, and each tablet generated 2.4 times more traffic than the average smartphone. In 2012, mobile data traffic per tablet was 820 MB per month, compared to 342 MB per month per smartphone.

There were 161 million laptops on the mobile network in 2012, and each laptop generated 7 times more traffic than the average smartphone. Mobile data traffic per laptop was 2.5 GB per month in 2012, up 11 percent from 2.3 GB per month in 2011.

Nonsmartphone usage increased 35 percent to 6.8 MB per month in 2012, compared to 5.0 MB per month in 2011. Basic handsets still make up the vast majority of handsets on the network (82 percent).

The Mobile Network Through 2017

Mobile data traffic will reach the following milestones within the next five years.

• Monthly global mobile data traffic will surpass 10 exabytes in 2017.

• The number of mobile-connected devices will exceed the world's population in 2013.

• The average mobile connection speed will surpass 1 Mbps in 2014.

• Due to increased usage on smartphones, handsets will exceed 50 percent of mobile data traffic in 2013.

• Monthly mobile tablet traffic will surpass 1 exabyte per month in 2017.

• Tablets will exceed 10 percent of global mobile data traffic in 2015.

Global mobile data traffic will increase 13-fold between 2012 and 2017. Mobile data traffic will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 66 percent from 2012 to 2017, reaching 11.2 exabytes per month by 2017.

By the end of 2013, the number of mobile-connected devices will exceed the number of people on earth, and by 2017 there will be nearly 1.4 mobile devices per capita. There will be over 10 billion mobile-connected devices in 2017, including machine-to-machine (M2M) modules-exceeding the world's population at that time (7.6 billion).

Mobile network connection speeds will increase 7-fold by 2017. The average mobile network connection speed (526 kbps in 2012) will exceed 3.9 megabits per second (Mbps) in 2017.

In 2017, 4G will be 10 percent of connections, but 45 percent of total traffic. In 2017, a 4G connection will generate 8 times more traffic on average than a non-4G connection.

By 2017, 41 percent of all global mobile devices and connections could potentially be capable of connecting to an IPv6 mobile network. Over 4.2 billion devices and connections will be IPv6-capable in 2017.

Two-thirds of the world's mobile data traffic will be video by 2017. Mobile video will increase 16-fold between 2012 and 2017, accounting for over 66 percent of total mobile data traffic by the end of the forecast period.

Mobile-connected tablets will generate more traffic in 2017 than the entire global mobile network in 2012. The amount of mobile data traffic generated by tablets in 2017 (1.3 exabytes per month) will be 1.5 times higher than the total amount of global mobile data traffic in 2012 (885 petabytes per month).

The average smartphone will generate 2.7 GB of traffic per month in 2017, an 8-fold increase over the 2012 average of 342 MB per month. Aggregate smartphone traffic in 2017 will be 19 times greater than it is today, with a CAGR of 81 percent.

By 2017, almost 21 exabytes of mobile data traffic will be offloaded to the fixed network by means of Wi-Fi devices and femtocells each month. Without Wi-Fi and femtocell offload, total mobile data traffic would grow at a CAGR of 74 percent between 2012 and 2017 (16-fold growth), instead of the projected CAGR of 66 percent (13-fold growth).

The Middle East and Africa will have the strongest mobile data traffic growth of any region at 77 percent CAGR. This region will be followed by Asia Pacific at 76 percent and Latin America at 67 percent.

Appendix A summarizes the details and methodology of the VNI forecast.

2012 Year in Review

Global mobile data traffic grew 70 percent in 2012, and growth rates varied widely by region. Western Europe, in particular, experienced a slowdown in mobile data traffic, with growth of 44 percent in 2012, substantially lower than the global average. (Reasons for the slower growth of European mobile data traffic growth are outlined in the subsequent section.) Mobile data traffic in Asia Pacific, on the other hand, grew at 95 percent in 2012, a near-doubling of traffic. Table 1 illustrates the continued strong growth in many Asia Pacific countries, compared to the slower growth in Western Europe.

Table 1. Examples of Mobile Data Traffic Growth in 2012


Region Mobile Traffic Growth Examples

Korea As reported by Korean regulator KCC, mobile data traffic on 2G, 3G, and 4G networks increased approximately 80% between January and November of 2012.

China China Mobile's mobile data traffic grew 77% from mid-2011 to mid-2012.

China Unicom's mobile data traffic grew 112% from mid-2011 to mid-2012.

Japan As measured by Japanese regulator MIC, mobile data traffic grew 113% from September 2011 to September 2012.

AustraliaAs reported by Australian regulator ACMA, mobile data traffic grew 40% from mid-2011 to mid-2012.

Italy As reported by Italian regulator AGCOM, mobile traffic in Italy in 3Q12 was up 32% year-over-year.

Global Telefonica's total year-over-year mobile traffic growth was 35% in 1Q12, down from 75% in 1Q11.

Vodafone's year-over-year mobile traffic growth was 34% in FY2012, down from 69% in FY2011.

Why Was 2012 Growth Slower than Expected in Some Regions?

Reasons for the slower growth of mobile data traffic growth in some regions include:

1. The implementation of tiered mobile data packages. First introduced in 2009 and 2010, the majority of mobile users have now been migrated to tiered plans. Many operators across the globe have eliminated unlimited data plans.

2. A slowdown in the number of mobile-connected laptop net additions. We estimate that the number of mobile-connected laptops in Europe declined from 33.8 million at the end of 2011 to 32.6 million at the end of 2012. Europe was the only region to experience a decline; all other regions exhibited flat-to-positive growth. Globally, the growth rate in mobile-connected laptops dropped from 28 percent in 2011 to 12 percent in 2012. Since mobile-connected laptops have historically been a major contributor to mobile data traffic volumes, the slowing growth has had a significant impact on our estimates.

3. An increase in the amount of mobile traffic offloaded to the fixed network. Operators have encouraged the offload of traffic onto Wi-Fi networks, and offload rates continue to be high around the world. Tablet traffic that might have migrated to mobile networks has largely remained on fixed networks.

In the long term, mobile data and fixed traffic should settle into the same growth rate, although the mobile data growth rate is likely to remain higher than the fixed growth rate over the next decade.

Global Mobile Data Traffic, 2012 to 2017

Overall mobile data traffic is expected to grow to 11.2 exabytes per month by 2017, a 13-fold increase over 2012. Mobile data traffic will grow at a CAGR of 66 percent from 2012 to 2017 (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Cisco Forecasts 11.2 Exabytes per Month of Mobile Data Traffic by 2017

The Asia Pacific and North America regions will account for almost two-thirds of global mobile traffic by 2017, as shown in Figure 2. Middle East and Africa will experience the highest CAGR of 77 percent, increasing 17.3-fold over the forecast period. Asia Pacific will have the second highest CAGR of 76 percent, increasing 16.9-fold over the forecast period. The emerging market regions of Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe will have CAGRs of 67 percent and 66 percent respectively, and combined with Middle East and Africa will represent an increasing share of total mobile data traffic, up from 19 percent at the end of 2012 to 22 percent by 2017.

Figure 2. Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast by Region

In the sections that follow, we identify 10 major trends behind the growth of mobile data traffic.

Trend 1: Device Diversification

Figure 3 shows the devices responsible for mobile data traffic growth. Laptops generate a disproportionate amount of traffic today, but smartphones and newer device categories such as tablets and M2M nodes will begin to account for a more significant portion of the traffic by 2017.

Figure 3. Smartphones Lead Traffic Growth

The increasing number of wireless devices that are accessing mobile networks worldwide is one of the primary contributors to traffic growth. Each year several new devices in different form factors and increased capabilities and intelligence are being introduced in the market. By 2017, there will be 8.6 billion handheld or personal mobile-ready devices and 1.7 billion machine-to-machine connections (e.g., GPS systems in cars, asset tracking systems in shipping and manufacturing sectors, or medical applications making patient records and health status more readily available, et al.). Regionally, North America and Western Europe are going to have the fastest growth in mobile devices and connections with 13 percent and 10 percent CAGR from 2012 to 2017 respectively.

While non-smartphones have the largest share of all mobile devices and connections, after 2015 the number of overall non-smartphones in use will start declining for the first time (Figure 4). While Asia-Pacific and Middle East and Africa will still show a low single digit growth for non-smartphones, all other regions will experience a decline. The highest decline will be experienced by North America (negative CAGR of 37 percent) and Western Europe (negative CAGR of 17 percent).

Figure 4. Global Mobile Devices and Connections: M2M, Smartphones and Tablets Drive Growth

The overall share of non-smartphones will decline from 75 percent of all mobile connections in 2012 to 50 percent in 2017. The biggest gain in share will be M2M (5 percent of all mobile connections in 2012 to 17 percent in 2017) and smartphones (16 percent of all mobile connections in 2012 to 27 percent in 2017). The highest growth will be in tablets (CAGR of 46 percent) and M2M (CAGR of 36 percent).


The proliferation of high-end handsets, tablets, and laptops on mobile networks is a major generator of traffic, because these devices offer the consumer content and applications not supported by previous generations of mobile devices. As shown in Figure 5, a single smartphone can generate as much traffic as 50 basic-feature phones; a tablet as much traffic as much as 120 basic-feature phones; and a single laptop can generate as much traffic as 368 basic-feature phones.

Figure 5. High-End Devices Significantly Multiply Traffic

Trend 2: Growth in Average Traffic per Device

Average traffic per device is expected to increase rapidly during the forecast period, as shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Summary of Per Device Usage Growth, MB per Month

Device Type 2012 2017

Nonsmartphone 6.8 31

M2M Module 64 330

Smartphone 342 2,660

4G Smartphone 1,302 5,114

Tablet 820 5,387

Laptop 2,503 5,731

Source: Cisco VNI Mobile Forecast, 2013

The growth in usage per device outpaces the growth in the number of devices. As shown in Table 3, the growth rate of new-device mobile data traffic is two to five times greater than the growth rate of users.

Table 3. Comparison of Global Device Unit Growth and Global Mobile Data Traffic Growth

Device Type Growth in Devices, 2012-2017 CAGR Growth in Mobile Data Traffic,

2012-2017 CAGR

Smartphone 20% 81%

Tablet 46% 113%

Laptop 11% 31%

M2M Module 36% 89%


The following are a few of the main promoters of growth in average usage.

• As mobile network connection speeds increase, the average bit rate of content accessed through the mobile network will increase. High-definition video will be more prevalent, and the proportion of streamed content as compared to side-loaded content is also expected to increase with average mobile network connection speed.

• The shift toward on-demand video will affect mobile networks as much as it will affect fixed networks. Traffic can increase dramatically even while the total amount of time spent watching video remains relatively constant.

• As mobile network capacity improves and the number of multiple-device users grows, operators are more likely to offer mobile broadband packages comparable in price and speed to those of fixed broadband. This is encouraging mobile broadband substitution for fixed broadband, where the usage profile is substantially higher than average.

• Mobile devices increase an individual's contact time with the network, and it is likely that this increased contact time will lead to an increase in overall minutes of use per user. However, not all of the increase in mobile data traffic can be attributed to traffic migration to the mobile network from the fixed network. Many uniquely mobile applications continue to emerge, such as location-based services, mobile-only games, and mobile commerce applications.

Trend 3: Mobile Video

Because mobile video content has much higher bit rates than other mobile content types, mobile video will generate much of the mobile traffic growth through 2017. Mobile video will grow at a CAGR of 75 percent between 2012 and 2017, the highest growth rate of any mobile application category that we forecast. Of the 11.2 exabytes per month crossing the mobile network by 2017, 7.4 exabytes will be due to video (Figure 6).

Figure 6. Mobile Video Will Generate Over 66 Percent of Mobile Data Traffic by 2017

Because many Internet video applications can be categorized as cloud applications, mobile cloud traffic follows a curve similar to video. Mobile devices have memory and speed limitations that might prevent them from acting as media consumption devices, were it not for cloud applications and services. Cloud applications and services such as Netflix, YouTube, Pandora, and Spotify allow mobile users to overcome the memory capacity and processing power limitations of mobile devices. Globally, cloud applications will account for 84 percent of total mobile data traffic in 2017, compared to 74 percent at the end of 2012, as shown in Figure 7. Mobile cloud traffic will grow 14-fold from 2012 to 2017, a compound annual growth rate of 70 percent.

Figure 7. 84 Percent of Total Mobile Data Traffic will be Due to Cloud in 2017

Trend 4: Traffic Offload from Mobile Networks to Fixed Networks


Much mobile data activity takes place within the user's home. For users with fixed broadband and Wi-Fi access points at home, or for users served by operator-owned femtocells and picocells, a sizable proportion of traffic generated by mobile and portable devices is offloaded from the mobile network onto the fixed network.

As a percentage of total mobile data traffic from all mobile-connected devices, mobile offload increases from 33 percent (429 petabytes/month) in 2012 to 46 percent (9.6 exabytes/month) in 2017 (Figure 8). Without offload, Global mobile data traffic would grow at a CAGR of 74 percent instead of 66 percent. Offload volume is determined by smartphone penetration, dual-mode share of handsets, percentage of home-based mobile Internet use, and percentage of dual-mode smartphone owners with Wi-Fi fixed Internet access at home.

Figure 8. 46 Percent of Total Mobile Data Traffic will be Offloaded in 2017

The amount of traffic offloaded from smartphones will be 46 percent in 2017, and the amount of traffic offloaded from tablets will be 71 percent in 2017.

A supporting trend is the growth of cellular connectivity for devices such as tablets which in their earlier generation were limited to Wi-Fi connectivity only. With increase desire for mobility and mobile carriers offer of data plans catering to multi-device owners, we find that the cellular connectivity is on a rise albeit cautiously as the end users are testing the waters. As a point in case we estimate that by 2017, 34 percent of all tablets will have a cellular connection up from 29 percent in 2012 (Figure 9).

Figure 9. 34 Percent of Global Tablets will be Cellular Connected by 2017

Trend 5: Mobile Network Connection Speeds to Increase 7-Fold

Globally, the average mobile network connection speed in 2012 was 526 kbps. The average speed will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 49 percent, and will exceed 3.9 Mbps in 2017. Smartphone speeds, generally third-generation (3G) and higher, are currently almost four times higher than the overall average. Smartphone speeds will triple by 2017, reaching 6.5 Mbps.

There is anecdotal evidence to support the idea that usage increases when speed increases, although there is often a delay between the increase in speed and the increased usage, which can range from a few months to several years. The Cisco VNI forecast relates application bit rates to the average speeds in each country. Many of the trends in the resulting traffic forecast can be seen in the speed forecast, such as the high growth rates for developing countries and regions relative to more developed areas (Table 4).

Table 4. Projected Average Mobile Network Connection Speeds (in kbps) by Region and Country

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 CAGR

2012-2017

Global

Global speed: All Handsets 526 817 1,233 1,857 2,725 3,898 49%

Global speed: Smartphones 2,064 2,664 3,358 4,263 5,284 6,528 26%

Global speed: Tablets 3,683 4,811 6,082 7,624 9,438 11,660 26%

By Region

Middle East & Africa 219 371 640 1,101 1,837 2,898 68%

Central & Eastern Europe 551 909 1,458 2,288 3,426 4,760 54%

Latin America 200 349 586 956 1,492 2,207 62%

Western Europe 1,492 2,233 3,124 4,168 5,429 7,013 36%

Asia-Pacific 316 506 806 1,318 2,039 3,036 57%

North America 2,622 4,083 5,850 8,023 10,793 14,399 41%


Current and historical speeds are based on data from Cisco's GiST (Global Internet Speed Test) application and Ookla's Speedtest. Forward projections for mobile data speeds are based on third-party forecasts for the relative proportions of 2G, 3G, 3.5G, and 4G among mobile connections through 2017. For more information about Cisco GIST, please visit http://ciscovni.com/gist/index.html.

A crucial factor promoting the increase in mobile speeds over the forecast period is the increasing proportion of 4G mobile connections. The impact of 4G connections on traffic is significant, because 4G connections, which include mobile WiMAX and Long-Term Evolution (LTE), generate a disproportionate amount of mobile data traffic.

Trend 6: Impact of 4G Connections on the Increase

The explosion of mobile applications and phenomenal adoption of mobile connectivity by the end users on the one hand and the need for optimized bandwidth management and network monetization on the other hand is fueling the growth of Global 4G deployments and adoption. Service Providers, around the world, are busy rolling out 4G networks to help them meet the growing end-user demand for more bandwidth, higher security and faster connectivity on the move (Appendix B).

While, 3G capable devices and connections will gain the highest share (50 percent of all devices and connections) by 2015 10 percent of all global devices and connections will be 4G capable by 2017 (Figure 10). The global mobile 4G connections will grow from 60 million in 2012 to 992 million in 2017 at a CAGR of 75 percent.

Figure 10. Global Mobile Devices and Connections by 2G, 3G and 4G


While 4G deployment is a global phenomenon, regions such as North America (31 percent) and Western Europe (18 percent) will have the highest ratio of 4G connections by 2017 (Appendix B). Among countries Korea will have over 72 percent of the country's total connections on 4G by 2017 with Japan having 36 percent of all its connections on 4G by 2017. US and China are going to lead the world in terms of their share of the total global 4G connections with 25 percent and 15 percent share respectively.

The growth in 4G with it benefits of higher bandwidth, lower latency and increased security will help the regions bridge the gap between their mobile and fixed network performance leading to even higher adoption of mobile technologies by the end users making access to any content on any device from anywhere more of a reality.

Although 4G connections represent only 0.9 percent of mobile connections today, they already account for 14 percent of mobile data traffic. In 2017, 4G will represent 10 percent of connections, but 45 percent of total traffic (Figure 11).

Figure 11. 4G will be 10 Percent of Connections and 45 Percent of Traffic in 2017

Currently, a 4G connection generates 19 times more traffic than a non-4G connection. There are two reasons for this. The first is that many of the 4G connections today are for residential broadband routers and laptops, which have a higher average usage. The second is that higher speeds encourage the adoption and usage of high bandwidth applications, so that a smartphone on a 4G network is likely to generate 50 percent more traffic than the same model smartphone on a 3G or 3.5G network.

As smartphones come to represent a larger share of 4G connections, the gap between the average traffic of 4G devices and non-4G devices will narrow, but in 2017 a 4G connection will still generate 8 times more traffic than a non-4G connection.

Trend 7: The Impact of Tiered Pricing-Shake-Up at the Top

An increasing number of service providers worldwide are moving from unlimited data plans to tiered mobile data packages. To make an initial estimate of the impact of tiered pricing on traffic growth, we repeated a case study based on the data of two Tier 1 Global service providers from mature mobile markets. The study tracks data usage from the timeframe of the introduction of tiered pricing three years ago. The findings in this study are based on Cisco's analysis of data provided by a third-party data analysis firm. This firm maintains a panel of volunteer participants who have given the company access to their mobile service bills, including KB of data usage. The data in this study reflects usage associated with over 22,000 devices and spans 12 months (October 2011 through September 2012) and also refers to the study from the previous update for longer term trends. The overall study spans three years. Cisco's analysis of the data consists of categorizing the pricing plans, operating systems, devices, and users; incorporating additional third-party information on device characteristics; and performing exploratory and statistical data analysis. While the results of the study represent actual data from Tier 1 mobile data operators, global forecasts that include emerging markets, and Tier 2 providers will lead to lower estimates.

Over the period of the nearly 3-year study, the percentage of tiered plans compared to all data plans increased from 4 percent to 55 percent, while unlimited plans dropped from 81 percent to 45 percent. This has not, however, constrained usage patterns. From 2011 to 2012, average usage per device on a tiered plan grew from 425 MB per month to 922 MB per month, a rate of 117 percent, while usage per device of unlimited plans grew at a slower rate of 71 percent from a higher base of 738 MB per month to 1.3 GB per month.

However, tiered plans are effective. There is a narrowing of the bandwidth consumption gap between tiered and unlimited data plan connections, showing the general increase in consumption of mobile data traffic due to the increased consumption of services such as Pandora, YouTube, Facebook, and Netflix. Unlimited plans have promoted the adoption of mobile applications and increased web usage through mobile broadband.

Tiered pricing plans are often designed to constrain the heaviest mobile data users, especially the top 1 percent of mobile data consumers. An examination of heavy mobile data users reveals that the top 1 percent of mobile users is actually the top 5 percent, because the top 1 percent of users varies each month. For example, for a mobile data subscriber base of 1000 users; the top 1 percent is 10 users. However, the same set of 10 users does not appear in the top 1 percent category in each month; rather, a larger set of 50 subscribers rotates though the top 1 percent. This top 5 percent are the users who have the potential of being in the top 1 percent bracket in any given month and substitute for each other in subsequent months. The trend is due to the nature of consumption of mobile data applications.

At the beginning of the 3-year study, 52 percent of the traffic was generated by the top 1 percent. At the end of the three year time frame, the top 1 percent generated 16 percent of the overall traffic per month compared to 18 percent in October 2011 (Figure 12). Similarly, the top 20 percent of the mobile data users generated 79 percent of the monthly traffic in October 2011, but are now down to 71 percent in September 2012.

Figure 12. Top 1 Percent Generates 52 Percent of Monthly Data Traffic in Jan 2010 Compared to 16 Percent in Sept 2012

Additional evidence that tiered pricing plans are effectively constraining the top 1 percent of mobile users, and that the growth is being made up by those outside the top 1 percent, is that the usage of the top 20 percent is growing much more rapidly than the top 1 percent (Figure 13). With the introduction of new larger screen smartphones and tablets, reversing the trend displayed in the higher average consumption in the Top 1%.

Figure 13. Top 20 Percent Growing at a Faster Rate of 70 Percent Year-to-Year

The proportion of mobile users generating more than 2 gigabytes per month has increased significantly over the past year, reaching 18 percent of users towards the end of 2012 (Figure 14).

Figure 14. 1 Percent of Users Consume 5 GB per Month and 13 Percent Consume over 2 GB per Month

More detail on the tiered pricing case study is available in Appendix C.

Android Leads iOS in Data Usage

At the beginning of the three year tiered pricing case study, Apple operating systems' data consumption was equal to if not higher than other smartphone platforms. However, Android-based devices have now caught up and their data consumption is 38 percent higher than that of Apple devices in terms of megabytes per month per connection usage (Figure 15).


Figure 15. Megabytes per Month by Operating System

More detail on consumption by operating system is available in Appendix C.

Trend 8: User Applications Driving Mobile Data Consumption

With the increasing number of smartphones and tablets connecting to mobile networks, attention naturally turns to data consumption trends impacting end-users and service providers. End-users are becoming increasingly knowledgeable about how their usage patterns can be tailored for highest efficiency-while still using the applications they want to use, where and when they want to use them. Service providers are looking to customer data usage trends in order to deploy real-time network performance optimization and to guide strategic investments that will increase network capabilities within a profitable services environment.

The Cisco VNI team has begun an analysis of a new source of mobile data consumption data available from the Cisco Data Meter application for Android smartphones and tablets. Cisco Data Meter is a free application that allows users to monitor their mobile data usage and find out which applications are using the most data. As of mid-January 2013, the Data Meter has over 12,000 users across the six global regions tracked by VNI. 80 percent of Data Meter users are on smartphones, 20 percent are on tablets. The data is analyzed in aggregate; individual user data is not accessible.

In an assessment of early Data Meter results, key data consumption trends are beginning to emerge. For example, in comparing data consumption over Wi-Fi and cellular networks, the global average for daily data consumption over Wi-Fi is four times that of cellular, averaging 55 MB per day for Wi-Fi, and 13 MB for cellular. For end-users, selecting Wi-Fi over cellular for the majority of their data consumption is an important consideration for staying within the limits of their cellular data plans. For service providers, recognizing that Wi-Fi off-load traffic will only continue to grow has strong implications for their future network planning.

Figure 16. Average Daily Wi-Fi and Mobile Data Consumption

Another key finding from the data is the type of application generating these data consumption trends. For smartphones and tablets globally, the top three application types (excluding system updates) are the same for both device types, although they differ in percentage rates. As shown in Table 5, video streaming and communications applications such as YouTube, Hulu, and Netflix ranks highest on both device platforms, although data consumption is slightly higher on tablets. Information applications rank second on tablets (Google Maps, PulseNews, Wall Street Journal). Social networking (Facebook, Twitter) ranks higher on smartphone, perhaps because the increased mobility of smartphones allows users to instantly connect socially.

Table 5. Top Applications for Data Consumption

Smartphone Tablet

(Percentage of Data Consumption) (Percentage of Data Consumption)

Video/Communications 45% 50%

Information 12% 17%

Web Browsing 6% 7%

Social Networking 7% 3%

Music/Audio Streaming 4% 3%

Source: Cisco Data Meter, September-December 2012

The Cisco VNI team will continue build upon this initial analysis in future VNI updates. For additional device, network type, and regional data, you can visit the Cisco Data Meter web site. And you can download to your Android smartphone or tablet from Google Play. An iPhone version of the Data Meter application will be coming soon.

Trend 9: The (Mobile) Internet of Things

Cellular communication between objects, machines, or sensors has led to the growth of M2M connections. These connections are in the form of home and office security and automation, smart metering and utilities, maintenance, building automation, automotive, healthcare and consumer electronics etc.M2M technologies are being used across a broad spectrum of industries. As real-time information monitoring is helping companies to deploy new video-based security systems and hospitals and helping healthcare professionals to remotely monitor the progress of their patients, bandwidth-intensive M2M connections become more prevalent. Among various verticals healthcare M2M segment is going to experience the highest CAGR at 74 percent from 2012 to 2017, followed by automotive industry at 42 percent CAGR.

M2M capabilities similar to mobile devices are migrating from second-generation (2G) to 3G and 4G technologies. In 2012, 64 percent of global mobile M2M connections were connected via 2G connectivity, 35 percent via 3G and only 1 percent via 4G. By 2017, only 32 percent of M2M modules will have 2G connectivity, 59 percent will have 3G connectivity and 9 percent will have 4G connectivity (Figure 17).

Figure 17. Machine to Machine: Migration from 2G to 3G and 4G

While the mobile global M2M modules are going to grow 4.6-fold, a CAGR of 36 percent, from 369 million in 2012 to 1.7 billion in 2017, globally, M2M traffic will grow 24-fold from 2012 to 2017, a compound annual growth rate of 89 percent, with M2M traffic reaching 563 petabytes per month in 2017. M2M will account for 5 percent of total mobile data traffic in 2017, compared to 3 percent at the end of 2012. The average M2M module will generate 330 megabytes of mobile data traffic per month in 2017, up from 64 megabytes per month in 2012 (Figure 18).

Figure 18. Machine-to-Machine Traffic to Increase 24-Fold Between 2012 and 2017


The Asia Pacific region will lead the M2M category in 2016 with 217 petabytes per month and a CAGR of 91 percent between 2012 and 2017. Western Europe will experience the highest CAGR of 97 percent from 2012 to 2017 with 112 petabytes per month of M2M traffic in 2017.

Trend 10: IPv6-Capable Mobile Devices

As the telecommunications industry increasingly recognizes the scalability benefits of IPv6 in addressing the global depletion of IPv4, attention is turning to the operational management and efficiency features of IPv6 to support the ever-increasing demand for ubiquitous connectivity to rich content services. This is particularly relevant in the mobile network environment, which is experiencing a proliferation of newer generation devices driving mobile network usage and data traffic growth.

In light of these ongoing developments, the Cisco VNI 2012-2017 forecast provides an update on IPv6-capable mobile devices and connections. Building upon our analysis initiated last year the forecast is intended as a projection of the number of IPv6-capable mobile devices, not mobile devices with an IPv6 connection configured by the ISP, or IPv6 mobile data traffic.

Focusing on the high growth mobile device segments of smartphones and tablets, we forecast that 73 percent of smartphones and tablets ( 2.2 billion) could be IPv6 capable by 2017 (up from 41 percent or 479 million smartphones and tablets in 2012). This is based on the projection that a significant percentage of these devices will be capable via OS (Android iOS, next-gen RIM, WindowsPhone) as well estimating the type of mobile network infrastructure the device is capable of connecting to (3.5G or higher).

Figure 19. Global IPv6-Capable Smartphones and Tablets Reach 2.2 Billion by 2017

Considering all mobile devices and connections landscape, by 2017 we project that 41 percent of global mobile devices will be IPv6-capable, up from 14 percent (1 billion) in 2012. Segments with strong IPv6-capability potential include laptops-which generally have IPv6 enabled by default when connected to a mobile network infrastructure-and machine-to-machine (M2M), due to the utilization of IPv6 to enable the burgeoning number of connections to be deployed in the "Internet of Everything."

Figure 20. Global IPv6-Capable Mobile Devices Reach 4.2 Billion by 2017

For a regional view, Asia Pacific will lead throughout the forecast period with highest number of IPv6-capable devices/connections reaching 1.9 billion in 2017. Asia-Pacific and Central and Eastern Europe will have the highest growth rates during the forecast period, at 37.2 percent CAGR and 36.4 percent CAGR respectively. In regards to end-user segmentation, 87 percent of IPv6-capable mobile devices/connections will be consumer (3.65 billion) and 13 percent will be business (567 million.) While this analysis is a measure of potential, it does not predict the point a user or ISP will actively enable IPv6 connectivity alongside or in place of IPv4 connectivity. However, service providers around the world are reporting success in deploying the IPv6 networks to support the requirements of an increasing number of devices and connections. The confluence of IPv6 capability, customer demand, and service enablement establishes a strong basis for continued IPv6 deployment and the advantages it has to offer to operators and end-users alike.

Conclusion

Mobile data services are well on their way to becoming necessities for many network users. Mobile voice service is already considered a necessity by most, and mobile data, video, and TV services are fast becoming an essential part of consumers' lives. Used extensively by consumer as well as enterprise segments, with impressive uptakes in both developed and emerging markets, mobility has proven to be transformational. Mobile subscribers are growing rapidly and bandwidth demand due to data and video is increasing. Mobile M2M connections continue to increase. The next 5 years are projected to provide unabated mobile video adoption despite uncertain macroeconomic conditions in many parts of the world. Backhaul capacity must increase so mobile broadband, data access, and video services can effectively support consumer usage trends and keep mobile infrastructure costs in check.

Deploying next-generation mobile networks requires greater service portability and interoperability. With the proliferation of mobile and portable devices, there is an imminent need for networks to allow all these devices to be connected transparently, with the network providing high-performance computing and delivering enhanced real-time video and multimedia. This openness will broaden the range of applications and services that can be shared, creating a highly enhanced mobile broadband experience. The expansion of wireless presence will increase the number of consumers who access and rely on mobile networks, creating a need for greater economies of scale and lower cost per bit.

As many business models emerge with new forms of advertising, media and content partnerships, mobile services including M2M, live gaming, and (in the future) augmented reality, a mutually beneficial situation needs to be developed for service providers and over-the-top providers. New partnerships, ecosystems, and strategic consolidations are expected as mobile operators, content providers, application developers, and others seek to monetize the video traffic that traverses mobile networks. Operators must solve the challenge of effectively monetizing video traffic while increasing infrastructure capital expenditures. They must become more agile and able to quickly change course and provide innovative services to engage the Web 3.0 consumer. While the net neutrality regulatory process and business models of operators evolve, there is an unmet demand from consumers for the highest quality and speeds. As wireless technologies aim to provide experiences formerly only available through wired networks, the next few years will be critical for operators and service providers to plan future network deployments that will create a adaptable platform upon which will deploy the multitude of mobile-enabled devices and applications of the future.

For More Information

Inquiries can be directed to [email protected].

Appendix A. The Cisco VNI Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast

Table 6 shows detailed data from the Cisco VNI Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast. The portable device category includes laptops with mobile data cards, USB modems, and other portable devices with embedded cellular connectivity.

Table 6. Global Mobile Data Traffic, 2012-2017

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 CAGR


2012-2017

By Application Category (TB per Month)

Data 313,550 526,838 871,942 1,369,022 2,011,512 2,778,386 55%

File Sharing 92,574 142,411 214,889 298,095 369,068 395,342 34%

Video 455,216 858,026 1,603,384 2,834,963 4,714,310 7,418,322 75%

M2M 23,566 49,973 106,827 198,405 343,620 563,481 89%

By Device Type (TB per Month)

Nonsmartphones 35,401 47,383 64,187 88,226 122,629 161,249 35%

Smartphones 391,024 854,642 1,672,271 2,947,545 4,852,994 7,531,736 81%

Laptops 402,877 523,330 708,908 981,904 1,269,683 1,563,861 31%

Tablets 29,707 97,035 237,273 474,432 833,633 1,309,324 113%

M2M 23,566 49,973 106,827 198,405 343,620 563,481 89%

Other portable devices 2,331 4,886 7,576 9,974 15,949 25,881 62%

By Region (TB per Month)

North America 222,378 378,611 630,820 989,712 1,468,040 2,085,309 56%

Western Europe 181,397 276,405 426,152 655,201 975,681 1,384,072 50%

Asia Pacific 310,394 613,699 1,167,631 2,053,003 3,377,458 5,256,979 76%

Latin America 54,907 96,617 179,361 304,239 480,840 722,986 67%

Central and Eastern Europe 66,084 116,012 210,841 365,498 577,265 844,887 66%

Middle East and Africa 49,747 95,905 182,237 332,833 559,225 861,298 77%

Total (TB per Month)

Total Mobile Data Traffic 884,906 1,577,248 2,797,042 4,700,486 7,438,510 11,155,531 66%


The Cisco VNI Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast relies in part upon data published by Informa Telecoms and Media, Strategy Analytics, Infonetics, Ovum, Gartner, IDC, Dell'Oro, Synergy, ACG Research, Nielsen, comScore, Arbitron Mobile, Maravedis and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

The Cisco VNI methodology begins with the number and growth of connections and devices, applies adoption rates for applications, and then multiplies the application's user base by Cisco's estimated minutes of use and KB per minute for that application. The methodology has evolved to link assumptions more closely with fundamental factors, to use data sources unique to Cisco, and to provide a high degree of application, segment, geographic, and device specificity.

• Inclusion of fundamental factors. As with the fixed IP traffic forecast, each Cisco VNI Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast update increases the linkages between the main assumptions and fundamental factors such as available connection speed, pricing of connections and devices, computational processing power, screen size and resolution, and even device battery life. This update focuses on the relationship of mobile connection speeds and the KB-per-minute assumptions in the forecast model. Proprietary data from the Cisco Global Internet Speed Test (GIST) application was used as a baseline for current-year smartphone connection speeds for each country.

• Device-centric approach. As the number and variety of devices on the mobile network continue to increase, it becomes essential to model traffic at the device level rather than the connection level. This Cisco VNI Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast update details traffic to smartphones; nonsmartphones; laptops, tablets, and netbooks; e-readers; digital still cameras; digital video cameras; digital photo frames; in-car entertainment systems; and handheld gaming consoles.

• Estimation of the impact of traffic offload. The Cisco VNI Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast model now quantifies the effect of dual-mode devices and femtocells on handset traffic. Proprietary data from Cisco's IBSG Connected Life Market Watch was used to model offload effects.

• Increased application-level specificity. The forecast now offers a deeper and wider range of application specificity.

Appendix B. Global 4G Networks and Connections

Figure 21. Global Heatmap by Year of LTE Deployment

Source: Cisco, 2013

Table 7. Regional 4G Connections Growth

2012 2017

Regions Number of 4G Connections Percentage of Total Connections Number of 4G ConnectionsPercentage of Total Connections

Asia Pacific 24,143,897 0.7% 425,094,836 8%


Central and Eastern Eurpoe 903,123 0.2% 50,913,035 6%

Latin America 326,212 0.0% 51,772,961 6%

Middle East and Africa 168,536 0.0% 28,437,977 2%

North America 31,329,522 6.8% 264,618,277 31%

Western Europe 3,544,454 0.6% 171,013,933 18%

Global 60,415,743 0.9% 991,851,020 10%


Appendix C. A Case Study on the Initial Impact of Tiered Pricing on Mobile Data Usage

Tiered Offerings and Mobile Data Traffic Growth

The impact of tiered pricing is gradual. Mobile data traffic per user grew 5.5 percent per month, on average (Table 8).

Table 8. On Average, Mobile Data Traffic per User Grew 6 Percent per Month

Oct-11 Nov-11 Dec-11 Jan-12 Feb-12 Mar-12 Apr-12 May-12 Jun-12 Jul-12 Aug-12 Sep-12 Average Monthly Growth

All Mobile Users 579 638 638 683 729 729 845 845 947 986 968 1,031 5.5%

Mobile Data Users 582 653 653 702 729 749 859 866 983 1,031 1,022 1,092 6.0%

Source: Cisco, 2013

Traffic in megabytes per month per user in month 12 (September 2012) of the study is significantly higher than month 1 (October 2011) (Table 9). The growth rates of megabytes per month per user for all mobile plans versus mobile data plans are fairly similar. While it is possible that there are early signs of slower growth rates for mobile data due to the effects of tiered pricing, the data available at this time indicates no significant change in the overall growth of mobile data traffic per user.

Table 9. Mobile Users Generated Significantly More Traffic after introduction of tiered pricing; Growth Rate Did Not Slow

MB per User per Month in Month 1 MB per User per Month in Month 12 Statistically Significant Increase in Volume? Year over Year

Growth Statistically Significant Decline in Growth Rate?

All Mobile Users 579 1,031 78% No

Mobile Data Users 582 1,092 Yes 88% No

Source: Cisco, 2013

The number of mobile data users generating more than 2 GB per month has tripled over the course of the study, and the percentage of users generating over 200 MB per month surpassed 50 percent (Table 10).

Table 10. One Percent of Mobile Data Users Consume 5 GB per Month

Percentage Oct-11 Nov-11 Dec-11 Jan-12 Feb-12 Mar-12 Apr-12 May-12 Jun-12 Jul-12 Aug-12 Sep-12

Greater than 5 GB 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 1%

Greater than 2 GB 4% 5% 5% 7% 7% 8% 8% 9% 12% 13% 11% 13%

Greater than 200 MB 38% 40% 41% 46% 46% 46% 48% 49% 48% 53% 53% 53%

Greater than 20 MB 58% 59% 60% 66% 66% 65% 65% 65% 63% 69% 69% 69%

Greater than 1 MB 66% 66% 67% 73% 72% 71% 71% 70% 68% 74% 73% 73%

Source: Cisco, 2013

The rapid increase in data usage presents a challenge to service providers who have implemented tiers defined solely in terms of usage limits. Mobile data caps that fall too far behind usage volumes may create opportunities for competitors in the market. Therefore, many service providers are creating more nuanced tiers and data add-ons, such as a separate charge for tethering and hotspot functionality. Such offerings tend to require less vigilance on the part of subscribers than data caps, yet still monetize scenarios that tend to have high data usage. Shared data family plans are being introduced and their effects on overall mobile data traffic are yet to be determined.

Mobile Data Traffic Volume by Operating System

While the effect of the tiered plan is clear, the average consumption per connection continues to increase for both tiered and unlimited plans Both Android- and Apple-based devices are prominent bandwidth promoters in tiered as well as unlimited plans. Android-based devices led in average megabyte-per-month usage both with tiered and unlimited plans over Apple-based and other devices with mobile operating systems (Tables 11 and 12).

Table 11. MB per Month Usage per Mobile Operating System in Unlimited Plans

Operating SystemOct-11 Nov-11 Dec-11 Jan-12 Feb-12 Mar-12 Apr-12 May-12 Jun-12 Jul-12 Aug-12 Sep-12

Android 968 1,036 1,002 1,036 1,132 1,068 1,305 1,303 1,365 1,469 1,498 1,610

Proprietary 269 262 258 247 225 220 323 381 642 1,184 1,220 1,300


iOS 782 844 824 838 862 843 979 948 1,018 1,015 1,085 1,108

Palm OS 605 651 594 610 703 586 663 805 812 799 771 911

Windows 440 435 347 308 364 388 487 555 694 385 533 481

Linux 90 112 256 264 240 191 301 252 158 148 243 371

Blackberry 184 210 173 173 168 158 182 208 224 257 236 248

Symbian409 133 143 6 3 0.1 1 1 3 0.4 1 1

Source: Cisco, 2013

Table 12. MB per Month Usage per Mobile Operating System in Tiered Pricing Plans

Operating SystemOct-11 Nov-11 Dec-11 Jan-12 Feb-12 Mar-12 Apr-12 May-12 Jun-12 Jul-12 Aug-12 Sep-12

Android 623 741 731 833 831 917 932 971 1,190 1,231 1,024 1,122

iOS 456 539 549 599 586 647 692 673 809 818 793 840

Proprietary 182 199 215 244 261 365 387 436 467 559 603 806

Windows 281 310 280 339 372 389 410 392 432 420 421 438

Palm OS 357 446 321 480 372 327 359 300 418 401 320 434

Blackberry 208 218 240 279 280 283 295 293 359 289 251 304

Linux 24 29 38 17 26 20 33 34 79 100 67 78

Symbian32 60 40 30 109 37 4 3 3 5 1 4

Source: Cisco, 2013

The Changing Role of the Top 1 Percent of Mobile Data Subscribers

As with fixed broadband, the top 1 percent of mobile data subscribers is responsible for a disproportionate amount of mobile data traffic. However, according to the data from this study, this disproportion is becoming less pronounced with time. The amount of traffic due to the top 1 percent of subscribers declined from 18 percent to 16 percent in the 12 months (Table 13).

Table 13. Percentage of Traffic by User Tier, Months 1-11

Data Users Oct-11 Nov-11 Dec-11 Jan-12 Feb-12 Mar-12 Apr-12 May-12 Jun-12 Jul-12 Aug-12

% Traffic Due to Top 1% 18% 17% 15% 14% 18% 14% 17% 16% 14% 16% 16%

% Traffic Due to Top 10% 59% 57% 55% 52% 55% 53% 53% 52% 50% 49% 50%

Source: Cisco, 2013

Although the traffic share of the top tiers may be declining, their volumes continue to increase (Table 14).

Table 14. Average Traffic by User Tier in MB per Month

Average MB per Month Oct-11 Nov-11 Dec-11 Jan-12 Feb-12 Mar-12 Apr-12 May-12 Jun-12 Jul-12 Aug-12 Sep-12

Top 1% 7,758 8,371 7,501 7,861 10,658 7,934 11,323 10,294 9,861 13,150 12,279 12,991

Top 5% 3,554 3,785 3,591 3,845 4,399 3,848 4,746 4,534 4,675 5,452 5,303 5,542

Top 10% 2,480 2,674 2,587 2,831 3,109 2,896 3,378 3,278 3,420 3,843 3,746 3,907

Top 20% 1,662 1,810 1,780 1,964 2,107 2,022 2,306 2,257 2,491 2,756 2,619 2,818

Source: Cisco, 2013

Tiered pricing plans have lower megabyte-per-month consumption compared to unlimited plans. However, the overall measures displayed healthy growth with few signs of this growth slowing, and the move to tiered pricing does not appear to have an immediate effect on overall mobile data traffic.

Appendix D: IPv6-Capable Devices, 2012-2017

Table 15 provides regional IPv6-capable forecast detail. Table 16 provides the segmentation of IPv6-capable devices by device type.

Table 15. IPv6-Capable Devices by Region, 2012-2017

IPv6 Capable Devices by Region (K) 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017CAGR

2012-2017

Global 1,000,112 1,469,383 2,127,324 2,801,190 3,478,615 4,218,685 33%

APAC 392,445 589,479 883,395 1,199,465 1,519,353 1,906,083 37%

LATAM 93,002 133,642 194,788 257,955 321,554 395,189 34%


NA 154,928 229,501 312,983 385,241 452,180 520,153 27%

WE 186,763 262,326 358,051 444,259 517,176 582,218 26%

CEE 64,028 92,731 138,724 192,597 258,842 301,999 36%

MEA 108,944 161,705 239,383 321,672 409,510 513,042 36%

Source: Cisco, 2013

Table 16. IPv6-Capable Devices by Device Type, 2012-2017

IPv6 Capable Devices by Device Type (K)2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017CAGR

2012-2017

Global 1,000,112 1,469,383 2,127,324 2,801,190 3,478,615 4,218,685 33%

Smartphones 458,269 701,653 1,023,750 1,349,327 1,700,506 2,059,758 35%

Tablets 20,542 44,356 77,501 116,628 155,009 184,797 55%

Laptops 143,390 166,691 197,974 227,740 240,551 249,415 12%

Other Portables 22,817 34,918 46,038 52,081 60,616 71,278 26%

Non-Smartphones 348,223 504,945 734,534 957,712 1,146,055 1,364,733 31%

M2M 6,871 16,820 47,527 97,702 174,745 288,705 111%

Source: Cisco, 2013

Social TV and the Network ApproachDilip Venkatachari | June 12, 2013

Not all that long ago, television went through a "dark age" full of cheesy reality shows and dull sitcoms. But as the market has continued to fragment over the last decade, competition has increased the quality of TV programming across the board. With film-quality offerings like "Game of Thrones" and "The Walking Dead" on cable and producers like Jerry Bruckheimer creating captivating shows for the top networks, consumers can now easily justify time in front of their 52" LEDs.

But as the market continues to fragment, traditional networks are going to have to fight hard to keep their audiences. While reality TV is still a force to be reckoned with, cable networks like AMC, FX, and HBO have created original series like "Mad Men," "The Walking Dead," and "Game of Thrones" that get overwhelming critical and audience response, and even Netflix has jumped in the game with an original series, "House of Cards," that has been hailed as one of the best shows (not) on TV.

TV execs awake eagerly each morning to see the results of their "overnights," but in a media environment where many viewers are engaging with second and third screens while they watch TV, those numbers don't provide the complete picture. These days, audiences are live tweeting or posting on Facebook, sharing real-time reactions and opinions of characters, plot twists, and even commercials. If TV execs want a true picture of how their programming is performing, and how they can improve, it is vital that they also consider the "social overnights."

Networks have sought insight into their audiences' likes and dislikes for decades, but TV boxes and focus groups don't cut it anymore. Those approaches offer such a narrow slice of data in today's world where viewers can just download and stream their favorite shows whenever they want, wherever they want, or simply DVR them to watch later. But social networks provide a wealth of data from an enormous population sample that can actually tell networks how their programming is being received. Social data can not only provide a picture of how many people watched last night's episode, but it can also answer whether or not they liked what they saw.

TV shows live and die by these metrics, because they translate into, you guessed it, advertising dollars. Imagine you're a network sales rep trying to sell airtime during a particular show to a major consumer brand. Imagine going into that conversation armed with not just viewing data, but actual audience data - their likes and dislikes, their consumption patterns, even how often they watch your show and encourage others to watch. It's not just important data; it's a competitive edge over all the other networks.

And the competition is fierce. There's no room for assumptions in this game - for instance, it's easy to assume that reality shows like "The Voice" and "The X Factor" share a similar audience, but social data shows us that these audiences are, in fact, wildly different. Dedicated viewers of "The Voice" prefer country music stars, country music videos on YouTube, and NASCAR. Compared to "The X Factor" audience, they also skew a bit older (35-plus) with a larger female fan base. "X Factor" fans prefer pop music and Billboard Hot 100 artists. They're a younger crowd, and while, like "The Voice's" audience, they watch reality TV, they also like dramas like "Pretty Little Liars," "Revenge," and "The Lying Game."

Now, if you're a car company advertising your new minivan, or a producer torn between casting Britney Spears or Carrie Underwood as a new judge, that is an important difference. Harnessing social data to inform TV ad buys and programming decisions can eliminate wasted ad dollars, extend the life of existing TV spots, and boost ratings and viewer loyalty. For example, that car company could gauge response to their ad via "The Voice's" Facebook fan page, begin conversations and drive engagement, and even deliver online ads to that prequalified audience.

Social intelligence is key for both TV networks and TV advertisers. For networks, it goes a long way toward predicting viewership and overall response, creating programming guided by your audience's expressed preferences and interests, and attracting advertising revenue through commercials and sponsorship opportunities. For advertisers, it helps ensure that expensive TV spots


are worth the money by prequalifying audiences and guiding not just placement, but content of ads. The days of the people meter are over; to truly see success in a continually fragmenting TV marketplace, you've got to boost your social IQ.

Kantar, TNS Want TRA's Case Against Rapid View Service Dismissedby Steve McClellan, Wednesday, Jun 12, 2013

Two years after being sued by TRA Global for patent infringement, misappropriation of trade secrets and other charges related to TRA’s proprietary research service that matches TV viewing with consumer purchase patterns, WPP research companies Kantar and TNS have asked a New York court to summarily dismiss the case before it goes to trial.

The WPP companies argued in their brief, filed last week with the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, that TRA has come up with no evidence after two years of what it termed “aggressive discovery” to justify continuing the case.

The legal dispute began in mid-2011 shortly after Kantar launched a competing service to TRA’s called RapidView. Kantar launched RapidView in spring 2011, just a few months after talks between the parties considering a potential purchase of the TRA offering by WPP broke off.

Early on in the dispute, the parties were ordered to the mediation table by the judge overseeing the case—U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin. But those talks proved fruitless, and the case continued to wind its way through the courts.

In September 2011, TRA lost a motion for a preliminary injunction that would have barred Kantar from offering the RapidView service until the court case was resolved. Various stages of discovery have been ongoing since then. Last summer, TRA was acquired by TiVo.

“TRA is in no better position” now than it was when its bid for preliminary injunction was denied, Kantar argued in its motion-for-dismissal papers. The WPP company argued that it “independently developed [RapidView] based on its analogous ‘single-source’ product in the U.K. that pre-dated TRA’s very existence and that TRA’s co-founder has admitted was the world’s ‘first’ such product.”

Kantar also argued that TRA has offered no evidence that it “used any asserted trade secret … By failing to offer any expert analysis of use, TRA has not only failed to meet its burden but has broken its promise to the Court to ‘provide an expert report explaining how plaintiffs ‘used' TRA’s trade secrets.”

TRA has not yet replied to the motion to dismiss. Judge Scheindlin hasn’t ruled on the merits of the Kantar motion but did rule that it contains some procedural violations that Kantar has to clean up by the end of the week. Otherwise, the motion will be tossed, Scheindlin ruled.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/202202/kantar-tns-want-tras-case-against-rapid-view-ser.html?edition=61064#ixzz2W1mVnfzS

Millennial Viewers Prefer Cross-Platform TVby Wayne Friedman, Wednesday, Jun 12, 2013

A growing number of millennial TV consumers are committed to a “broadband-only” existence -- all of which could spell some trouble for traditional TV content/channel owners.

The new study says 13% of 18- to-34-year-olds -- some 8.6 million -- are broadband-only customers. The research is from the soon-to-debut Pivot cable network, owned by Participant Media, which will target millennial viewers. The study was released at the Cable Show this week in Washington, DC.

More young consumer TV movements may be on the way. Many millennial “cross-platformers” are looking to stray from the pay-TV services altogether -- around 17.9 million 18-34 TV consumers and another 32 million 18-49 consumers, says the study.

Research shows that 58% of broadbanders would consider subscribing to TV for a bundle of networks from their broadband provider, streamed live and on-demand. On demand services is a major lure: 92% of respondents ages 18-34 want video-on-demand streamed everywhere and anywhere and 94% would feel more positive about networks that offer VOD streamed everywhere.

Some 86% of millennials want live streaming everywhere; 87% of at-risk cross-platformers would consider keeping their pay TV subscriptions if offered programming streamed live and on-demand anywhere/everywhere; 89% of cross-platformers would be more likely to keep their cable, satellite, or telco TV subscription if they were offered TV networks/channels that provided VOD streamed everywhere.

Still, there are loyalists. Fifty-five percent intend to keep pay TV primarily because they like the option of watching live TV, while 44% of pay-TV-craving broadbanders miss their favorite live shows. Only 19% say they miss live sports.

The study looked at those that are “broadbanders," “cord cutters” or “nevers” -- those who do not currently subscribe to pay TV services but have broadband/Internet access and watch TV programming -- and “cross-platformers," consumers who use both traditional TV and new digital TV platforms.

The study came from an online survey of 2,500 adults 18-49 and 310 adults 18-34.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/202194/millennial-viewers-prefer-cross-platform-tv.html?edition=61064#ixzz2W1kcKVot


http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/202194/millennial-viewers-prefer-cross-platform-tv.html?edition=61064#ixzz2W1kcKVot

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/202194/millennial-viewers-prefer-cross-platform-tv.html?edition=61064#ixzz2W1kcKVot

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/202202/kantar-tns-want-tras-case-against-rapid-view-ser.html?edition=61064#ixzz2W1mVnfzS

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/202202/kantar-tns-want-tras-case-against-rapid-view-ser.html?edition=61064#ixzz2W1mVnfzS

Ideas for Getting Started With Measurement PlanningAdam Singer | June 10, 2013

At the past few events where I've spoken to marketing practitioners, I continue to make the statement that it has never been a more exciting time to be a marketing or public relations professional. Why so exciting? We've never had so many tools and tactics to reach our target audiences at our fingertips. We also have an unprecedented amount of data to shift our execution from "gut feel" to data-driven. But before we can dive into new tools and start to use data to improve our programs, a critical yet frequently missed first step is to conduct measurement planning. Today I wanted to share thoughts on just some of the key actions your organization (or agency) should conduct during the planning process.

Outline What You Want to Measure, Both Objectives and KPIs

This is really the first step: what does success look like to your business? Get as specific as possible. If you are reading this, you're probably in marketing and your answer was likely revenue generated from marketing initiatives. If you said yes to this, awesome, you're spot on and your marketing professor is likely applauding you. Now, go further: what tactics do you plan to implement to generate revenue, and how do they accomplish this? What does success look like (X percent increase in Y tactic)? Create a matrix outlining it, along with the key performance indicators (KPIs) that map back to revenue. For example, more (relevant and engaged) website visitors leads to more micro and macro conversions, which leads to more revenue. Or, a larger (opt-in) email list of excited users equals more click-throughs to landing pages for un-missable content, giving your sales team more prospects to work with. Or, a larger community in social leads to more re-sharing and clicks of your content back to your social hub, which leads to improvements across organic marketing metrics. Outlining metrics is key, as it will guide your use of setting goals in analysis tools. As Avinash likes to say, "If you ain't got goals, you ain't got nothin'!"

Before Implementing Any Tools, Ask Tough Questions

Until you know precisely what it is you wish to accomplish, it is premature to start testing out tools or shopping vendors. Different tools have different strengths and flexibility (not to mention costs and user preference). There is a lot that goes into selection of the right measurement tool, but really it comes down to the questions that matter to you first: can the tool easily (and in an automated fashion) measure the metrics you care about? Can you get the support you need (or for free tools, are there qualified consultants available)? Does the tool integrate with your other initiatives/digital systems (web, app, POS, and beyond)? How easy is it to customize reports and segment data? Be sure to ask all the tough questions (both internally with your own analyst and externally with a vendor) first.

Have a Reporting/Analysis Plan With Specific Dates/Deliverables

Now that you have your objectives down, your marketing plan complete, the KPIs associated with your programs established, and you know what tools you're planning to use and how you're going to integrate them, you need a plan to actually start using the data. Ideally, you have an analyst resource on your team focused on delivering the right reports, insights, and actions to their appropriate stakeholders and evangelizing data to those in your organization. This last point is important: it's still not enough to assume people will act on data unless you make it clear what actions your team members should take and get everyone excited about actually implementing recommendations. Data-driven decision-making is undoubtedly the future, but it's still new territory for many. Having a plan and process here will help everyone get comfortable and value metrics appropriately, and the right leadership is key.

While the above is just a primer on measurement planning and the actual steps you take will vary based on your organization and resources, the point is planning is the key first step in measurement. As simple as it may be to actually implement a tool, it's ensuring you use it effectively as an ongoing part of your marketing that makes the difference.

Online video can challenge TVTHETFORD CENTER: Marketers are increasingly looking at online video as an alternative to television, as many feel it can achieve as good or better levels of engagement and awareness for the same cost.

Marketing Charts cited research from AOL which surveyed 772 respondents from leading brands, media and creative agencies in the UK, Europe and North America.

It found that 58% thought they could get a better share of engagement with online video than with TV for the same investment. A further 15% said online video would achieve the same amount of engagement.

In terms of awareness, respondents were a little more cautious, but 47% still felt online video could generate greater awareness than TV for the same investment, while 24% said it would match TV.

Marketers are backing their beliefs with hard cash, as 73% of the survey said they had increased their investment in online video in the past 12 months. TV and display budgets were the most affected as money was redirected from these into online video.

An earlier survey by Digiday and Adap.tv found a similar pattern of TV and display budgets being raided to fund online video, but it also noted that 80% of buyers regarded online video as a vital complement to TV and suggested that "the cannibalisation of display may proceed even more rapidly than that of television".

Targeting (87%), reach (85%), content (81%) and price (80%) were the most important factors cited by respondents when planning an online video campaign.

They also indicated that increased spend in the future would be driven by better audience targeting (73%) and measurement (67%).

As to specific formats, 73% of respondents planned to spend more on pre-roll, and 53% were looking to increase spend on social.

Data sourced from Marketing Charts; additional content by Warc staff, 12 June 2013


Read more at http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/EmailNews.news?ID=31520&Origin=WARCNewsEmail#J6fyQyzgVjMEvZ87.99

Stop Starving Online Video And Start Feasting On ROIby Mukund Ramachandran , Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Online video consumption continues to skyrocket. Americans watched 38.8 billion online videos last month. On average, viewers spend 40 minutes a day doing it. Is it any wonder that Netflix just bowed Season 4 of “Arrested Development” in its entirety on the Web?

Are you surprised that Yahoo is in talks to buy Hulu? Anything shocking about Amazon announcing 5 web-first original series? I spent time at this year’s New Fronts where 18 companies announced their video slate for the year. No one was surprised.

And yet online video advertising makes up a tiny fraction of marketer’s overall digital budgets. According to eMarketer, of the $37 billion spent online last year, only 6% (or $2.3B) was spent on digital video.

It’s even worse when you compare online video with TV advertising. U.S. marketers spent $65 billion on TV advertising last year. Online video’s $2.3 billion represents just 3.4% of the overall video pie. Does anyone except the TV industry think that still makes sense? Should 96.6% of your video budget be going to TV?

A thought experiment

But facts are facts – 96.6% of the money *did* go to TV last year and in that sense it’s inarguable. But what if you didn’t operate under the burden of past “best practices?” What if you could start planning with a clean sheet of paper? Would you spend 96.6% of your video money on TV today? Let’s look at some facts.

Facts that argue for TV

• Scale. Lots and lots of scale. The average American still watches about five hours of TV every day. Okay, here’s another way to think about it. If you live to be 80, you’ll spend more than 16 years in front of the TV.

• Bigger screens. Whether you’re a showrunner or an advertiser, you can do a lot with a big canvas -- and today’s TVs are bigger, and the home theater experience is better, than ever. That means TV advertising has a better chance of holding your attention in today’s attention-fractured landscape.

• Great content. A lot of people say we’re living in one of Television’s golden ages – from “Mad Men” to “Modern Family,” there is a lot of great TV out there to watch.

Facts that argue for online video

• Ad Skipping: DVR’s are now present in 44% of households -- up 80% from 2007. If you are a marketer and are reading this article, think about your own viewing habits. Odds are, you have a DVR in your house and you skip ads when you are catching up with six episodes of “Modern Family” over the weekend.

• Multi-Screening: According to Google, 77% of TV viewers use another device when they are watching TV. Even if that viewer isn’t skipping ads, multi-screening as a trend is here to stay. There are 2 types of multi-screening: sequential usage – where the user skips from one screen to another, and simultaneous usage – where the user engages with multiple screens at the same time. TV viewing, which is inherently passive, is particularly susceptive to the second trend of simultaneous usage.

• Eyes: If you follow the growth in online video consumption, there is no shortage of statistics to prove the trend. My vote is for this: Just the past month, more than 180 million Americans watched some online video in the last month

• Demographics: TV execs love to highlight “5 hours per day per viewer on average.” But like the old joke says, a TV exec is a person who, with his head in an oven and his feet in an ice bucket, will say that on the average he feels fine. What do I mean? Advertisers who want to reach the coveted A18-49 need to rethink their exclusive devotion to “New Girl” and “How I Met Your Mother. “

This chart from Nielsen shows the demo composition of consumers of various channels.

A 18-24 A 25-34 A 35-49 Total: A 18-49

Traditional TV 7% 12% 21% 40%

On the Internet (Computer) 10% 17% 27% 54%

On the Mobile Phone 24% 28% 24% 76%

• Great Ads: You’re thinking, “Come on. This is ridiculous.” I’m serious. Video ads are getting better in part because we’re building creative that is native to the medium. Case in point: Interactive pre-roll that allows viewers to stop, start, explore, expand, investigate, customize, colorize, and more the product being advertised. Try doing that with an analog: 15 or :30.

So where do I net out? Don’t get me wrong. I am not arguing against TV spend at all. But 96.6%? It is clear that consumers have really moved on, and online video presents better advertising options. When will advertisers catch on?

The Gamification Of Emailby Kara Trivunovic, Tuesday, June 11, 2013


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I've recently seen a few marketers introduce gaming into their email programs. You can use this technique to effectively drive engagement and motivate subscribers to seek out ways to tap the value of your messages. And, since you are awarding points for behaviors you already track, like opens, clicks, and conversions, the concept can be very straightforward to employ.

If you currently use gamification, or plan to begin, here are some things to consider:

Is your customer motivated by gamification?

If you are a gaming brand, this answer should be relatively easy, but if you are not, this is something you need to consider very closely. One way to think about email gamification is as an extension of an existing loyalty program. You could use it as an additional way for program members to earn points. But remember, not all consumers care to earn points; for some, the rules of engagement and caveats to earning and redeeming points can become a hindrance.

What does the customer stand to gain?

There are typically three major categories of motivation for a consumer: recognition, savings, and altruism.

1. Recognition can be achieved by awarding badges or otherwise acknowledging status based on achievement of specific activities. Showcasing your most active customers in your newsletter, or even providing early access to inventory or content in advance of a public release, are common ways of rewarding with recognition. Recognition is a reward that also often comes at little cost to the brand, which can help when it comes to getting buy-in from your organization.

2. Savings may be the motivator marketers use most often in their email marketing messages today, but allowing customers to earn savings based on email behavior can be complex. Make sure the reward is considered carefully in ROI calculations, so while it motivates the customer it is still profitable for your brand.

3. Altruism, giving back to others, is another way to motivate. The decision to use altruism is often driven by your company's brand promise or your customer base's demographic. Allowing customers to exchange points for donations to charitable causes can be both a motivator for the customer and the brand, making everyone feel good.

Use a two-step process to determine what will motivate your customers. First, actually ASK them what would motivate them most. Be specific in the choices you provide and ask them to put them in priority order, from most to least motivating. Then test the top three motivators with a sample set of email subscribers against a control group, over a period of time, to determine what will best drive the desired behavior.

How do you weight the point scale?

Break out your calculator on this one and dive into some hypotheticals to determine how you want your customers to earn points. If you have an existing loyalty program in place it may be a bit easier to determine, but you will need to consider the impact on points redemption either way.

First, decide what engagement behavior you are trying to motivate: open, click, conversion, time on site beyond the click? Next, define how you want to affect that metric; say, for example, your open rate is currently 30% and you want to increase it by 5%. Last, assign points to the behavior. Maybe it is .25 points for each open, or perhaps it is one point. This is something you should test, but weigh the behavior, looking at the importance of the action as it relates to the bottom line.

Gamification isn't for every brand, but it can be a fun and effective way to drive engagement with your email programs. Imagine a scenario where all your subscribers receive one point for every open, two points for a click and five points per conversion on an item featured in the email you sent them. Picture allowing them to use all those points for free shipping, or 15% off the next purchase... .Hmm, I smell a reengagement strategy coming on!

Ten surprising reasons you're tired National Features June 10, 2013 9:57AM

Open wide! These sleepy people were captured snoozing on public transport. Picture: SleepyCommuters/Twitter

THE reason you're always tired might actually be something you'd never suspect and could easily fix.

Here are ten things to check:

1. You’re under-stressed

We all know that stress can lead to poor sleep and fatigue, but research shows that being too laid back can actually make you feel tired and lethargic. It seems that in short bursts, stress will not only stimulate you, but also help to boost your immune system.

2. You’re buzzed

If you need to catch some zzz’s, turn off your phone. Findings at the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, showed that using a mobile phone an hour before heading to bed may interfere with your sleep patterns leading to less time in the deeper stages of sleep. “All electrical gadgets should be kept out of the bedroom,” advises associate professor Delwyn Bartlett, from the Woolcock Institute’s Sleep and Circadian Group.

3. You’re dehydrated

According to chiropractor Dr Simon Floreani, you need to drink one medicine-sized glass of water (30ml) daily for every kilogram you weigh to stay properly hydrated.

4. You’re out of balance

“When your body’s out of balance it puts stress on isolated areas,” says myotherapist and director of The Wellness Club, Allan Mourad. “This places pressure on organs, such as your liver and kidneys, which can be extremely draining.”


5. Your liver is lacklustre

According to Medical Scientist and Naturopath Annalies Corse, an under-functioning liver could be responsible for unexplained exhaustion. “The liver is the main detoxifying organ in our body. If it’s overwhelmed or working incorrectly, your body will feel sluggish, achy and lethargic,” she says.

6. You need some C

“Vitamin C is critical to your health when you’re experiencing fatigue as a result of prolonged stress, illness or surgery,” says Corse. “Generally, adrenal glands support us during times of stress, but these glands must receive vitamin C from our diet in order to keep fatigue and stress at bay.” Vitamin C is abundant in vegetables and fruits. The recommended daily intake for adults is 45mg for adults (60 mg during pregnancy, 85 mg while breastfeeding). Good sources include: Apples, asparagus, berries, broccoli, cabbage, honeydew, watermelon, cauliflower, citrus fruits (lemons, oranges), kiwi, fortified foods (breads, grains, cereal), dark leafy greens (kale, spinach), red capsicum, potatoes, and tomatoes. To get 45 mg you need to eat one banana 10.3mg, one apple 12mg and one tomato 25mg.

7. And an M

“Low magnesium levels are one of the most overlooked sub-clinical nutrient deficiencies in the western world, and often result in symptoms similar to chronic fatigue syndrome,” explains Corse. “Magnesium is critical to energy production, but becomes easily depleted by excess alcohol and the oral contraceptive pill.” Adults need 310 to 420 mg/ day for example, 6 brazil nuts (107mg), 100gram tuna (64mg), one cup plain yoghurt (42mg), half cup broccoli (16mg), one cob of corn (31mg), and one cup of green beans (99mg).

8. Your alarm clock is wrong

“Having the same waking time each day is more important than the time you go to bed, as it communicates the end of your sleep cycle to your brain and body,” says associate professor Bartlett. That’s why sleeping in for more than an hour on the weekend can make you feel jetlagged. The perfect waking time? According to research, 7.22am is ideal.

9. You've got an underactive thyroid

Your thyroid sets your metabolic rate (how quickly or slowly you burn food). If you’ve been feeling tired, sensitive to cold, forgetful and have gained weight, ask your doctor for a thyroid test.

10. You’re exercising too little - or too much

Certified personal trainer Pete Tansley, owner of Priority 1 Fitness, says that “exercise releases key endorphins - serotonin and adenosine - which help regulate your sleep rhythms.” Too little exercise and you miss out on these. But too much exercise, and particularly exercising at night, can lead to higher stress levels. “Exercise elevates the stress hormone cortisol, leaving you feeling wiped out,” explains Tansley. “Steer clear of alcohol after exercising, and keep to a relaxing routine - stretching; a warm bath with relaxing music - to help set your body up for sleep.”

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health-fitness/surprising-reasons-youre-tired/story-fneuz9ev-1226661162169#ixzz2Vu1uE17k

Omnichannel is the futureNEW YORK: Technological advances are forcing advertisers and brand owners to adopt omnichannel marketing approaches in order to engage with consumers across multiple screens, a new survey has argued.

Taking Cues From the Customer: 'Omnichannel' and the Drive For Audience Engagement, a white paper from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Winterberry Group based on a survey of more than 120 senior executives from marketers, agencies, publishers, technology developers and solution providers, examined the origins and likely evolution of omnichannel customer engagement strategies.

It found that the great majority (91.7%) of respondents agreed that such strategies held great value, and most (82.4%) intended to invest in them in the near future.

"There is no question that the advertising ecosystem sees omnichannel strategies as being of incredible value in reaching and retaining customers," said Patrick Dolan, Executive Vice President and COO, IAB, as he claimed the report highlighted omnichannel as "the wave of the future".

Respondents thought that the major benefits of an omnichannel approach would be in brand identity and recognition.

But they also expected that their attempts to move in this direction would be hampered by gaps in supporting technologies and internal business processes.

Omnichannel "holds terrific promise," said Jonathan C. Margulies, managing director, Winterberry Group, but he warned that practitioners would need to transform their traditional methods and competencies.

"If the industry can coalesce with an organisation such as the IAB to develop infrastructure priorities and set best practices for working with brands, omnichannel will play a significant – and financially beneficial – role for clients, agencies and publishers alike," he declared.

The report pointed to several areas that marketing and publishing stakeholders should address in order to fully tap into omnichannel's rewards, including the development of a senior role for omnichannel strategists, in order to ensure accountability and coordination of the customer decision making process, product development, pricing and other critical functions.

Data sourced from IAB; additional content by Warc staff, 11 June 2013


http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health-fitness/surprising-reasons-youre-tired/story-fneuz9ev-1226661162169#ixzz2Vu1uE17k

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Read more at http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/EmailNews.news?ID=31515&Origin=WARCNewsEmail#lbu2hwH3bE5uxhMG.99

CMO Council study: Content has significant impact on buying processJune 3, 2013 - 11:16 am EDT Monday, Jun 10, 2013

Palo Alto, Calif.—A new study by the Chief Marketing Officer Council found that 87% of b2b buyers said online content has either a major or moderate impact on vendor preference and selection.

The study, “Better Lead Yield in the Content Marketing Field,” was based on an online survey of more than 400 b2b buyers, conducted in April in partnership with NetLine Corp.

According to the study, the most valuable sources of online content cited by b2b buyers when researching products and services are professional associations and online communities (47%); industry organizations and groups (46%); online trade publications (41%); seminars and workshops (41%); and trade shows (35%).

The types of content b2b buyers value most include professional association research reports and white papers (67%); industry group research reports and white papers (50%); customer case studies (48%); analyst reports and white papers (44%); and product reviews (40%).

B2b buyers said the characteristics they most value in online content are breadth and depth of information (47%); ease of access, understanding and readability (44%); and originality of thinking and ideas (39%).

The characteristics buyers most dislike in b2b online content include too many requirements for downloading (50%); blatantly promotional and self-serving (43%); and nonsubstantive and uninformed content (34%)

- See more at: http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130603/ADVERTISING13/306039998/cmo-council-study-content-has-significant-impact-on-buying-process&lf1=221483221e920418017754e9118946#sthash.hwRJ7Xml.dpuf

Will NSA Revelations Bring Added Privacy Pressure To Ad Biz?By Wendy Davis Monday, June 10, 2013

The recent revelations that tech companies are sharing information about users with the National Security Agency raises a host of unanswered questions, but one of the most pressing for the ad industry is whether the news will intensify efforts to regulate how tech companies can collect and use data.

The answer isn't immediately obvious. On one hand, some consumer advocates and digital rights groups will say that consumers' privacy interest is the same regardless of who is collecting information. In other words, privacy advocates will say that people should be able to read an article about mortgage refinancing, or cancer research, or the history of revolutions, without having that information compiled into a massive database -- regardless of whether the database is maintained by the NSA or DoubleClick.

On the other hand, the ad industry probably will say that there's far less reason to be concerned about its collection of data than data-mining by the government. That is, industry groups will reiterate the argument they've been making for more than a decade -- that the worst possible thing that can result from data-driven ads is that people will get ads for products they don't want. That's in sharp contrast to the government, which can use the same data in order to decide which people to investigate as potential criminals.

And, while it's probably unlikely that the recent surveillance revelations will lead people to stop going online, the news could spur calls for more information from Silicon Valley. Even if companies aren't allowed to disclose all governmental requests for data, they certainly could have done a better job at responding to last week's news about surveillance.

So far, many Silicon Valley companies involved with the NSA issued statements that, at best, omit some important terms. Consider, on Saturday, Yahoo's general counsel said the company does not “voluntarily disclose user information.”

But security researcher and civil liberties advocate Christopher Soghoian quickly pointed out that the NSA's PRISM program doesn't call for voluntary disclosures. “By falsely describing PRISM as a voluntary scheme, Yahoo's general counsel is then able to deny involvement outright. Very sneaky,” Soghoian writes

Xaxis' Lesser: The Sun Never Sets On WPP's Trading Empireby Joe Mandese, 3 hours ago

Most agency trading desks boast about their real-time trading capabilities, but GroupM’s Xaxis now literally trades throughout the day, thanks to a global expansion that has given it coverage across the planet. “Everywhere WPP is developing, Xaxis will be in that market, as well,” Xaxis CEO Brian Lesser vowed during a presentation at WPP’s Digital Day last week. Xaxis already trades in 22 global markets, is represented in every major region with the exception of the Middle East and Africa, which are coming soon, he said.

That’s fitting, when you consider that Xaxis’ technology roots come out of WPP’s aptly named 24/7 division, which has invested $1 billion to date to build the technological infrastructure that Xaxis relies on. But technology is only one element that differentiates Xaxis from other agency trading desks. Lesser said it’s technology combined with proprietary software, data and people that makes


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it unique. In fact, he noted that while Xaxis currently has more traders (50) than any other trading desk, it actually has more analysts (60), and that makes it more of an insights company than a media procurement firm.

In terms of trading, Lesser said Xaxis also is differentiating itself from other agency trading desks by downplaying its use of auction models in favor of leveraging its -- and those of GroupM sister shops Mindshare, MEC, MediaCom and Maxus -- relationships with premium media suppliers to utilize programmatic technology to serve ads to the most precious inventory and audiences possible.

“Media is a very important part of our equation and one of the ways we differentiate ourselves from our competitors,” Lesser boasted, ticking off strategic relationships premium publishers loath to sell through exchanges, such as The New York Times, CNN and the FT.

“A lot of our business is actually one-to-one relationships with publishers,” he asserted, adding, “We distinguish ourselves by not only buying impressions at auction.”

In fact, Lesser even placed RTB at the bottom of the chart he used used to illustrate Xaxis’ structure to WPP’s audience, and instead played up things like exclusive access to media inventory, as well as data, including proprietary data pooled from clients in WPP’s “Data Alliance” or directly from the GroupM agencies.

Lastly, he talked about Xaxis diversification strategy, including its moves into out-of-home (Xaxis Places), audio streaming (Xaxis Radio), and of course, video. He even showed two case studies -- one for a CPG marketer and another for a new credit card -- that shifted a big chunk of TV ad budgets into online video to greater success. Interestingly, Lesser said nothing about moving directly into TV, even though parent GroupM has a strategic investmetn in addressable TV ad developer Invidi Technologies. Hey, gotta save something for WPP’s next Digital Day, right?

But if you really want to know what differentiates Xaxis, it is its focus on direct premium relationships with media suppliers, not real-time bidding.

“This is one of our fastest growing products and, in fact, makes up a larger portion of our business than our real-time buying,” Lesser disclosed.

Which makes me wonder what all the fuss over Xaxis role as an arbitrager actually is. But you know, Lesser didn’t bring that role up.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/202145/xaxis-lesser-the-sun-never-sets-on-wpps-trading.html?edition=61010#ixzz2VqwioPZ7

STUDY: The State of Social Marketing – Vision, purpose and value drive a new era of digital engagementJune 10, 2013

In an era when media is largely created and broadcast by the few to the many, social media emerged to facilitate the co-creation of media in addition to creating it. While difficult to trace its origins, the philosophy of social media dates back to the mid-1990s. It wasn’t until the mid 2000s however, that businesses would encounter the idea of a new medium where brand democracy prevailed over brand dictatorship.

Suddenly the voice of the customer took on an entirely new meaning and the promise of customer-centricity and engagement was thrust into the spotlight. But after all these years, businesses remain confounded. Even though most are experimenting with social media, how it improves relationships while impacting important business metrics is persistently elusive.

Here we are in 2013, firmly planted in the notion that social media is critical to business and customer relationships. Yet, experts to this day wrestle with the ability to tether intuition with data and creativity with business acumen.

In a connected economy where information becomes a powerful currency, social data will only help you benchmark where you are to help visualize where you could be. The relationship between aspiration and reality now become a more informed set of goals and objectives driven by benchmarking against the industry and more importantly, benchmarking against possibilities.

Each year, the Pivot team studies the evolving social landscape. For our 2012 -2013, "State of Social Marketing" report, we surveyed 181 social marketers and digital strategists who represent agencies and brands. What we learned is that the fundamental drivers for social media have radically transformed.

What's clear however is that social media and the allure of conversations matter. At the top of the list, brands and marketers agree that conversations lift both brand and relevance. It's the new stimulus and relevance is appropriate to the matter at hand.


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When asked of the benefits for social media, 2013 goals largely matched 2011 expectations with the exception of sales and lead generation.

As you can see, primary goals fluctuated over the years, shifting toward a more customer-centric approach. Customer engagement, awareness, influence, satisfaction, and service top 2013 social goals whereas sales was off the charts in 2011.


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Over the years, social marketers took a publish first ask second approach in social strategies. Assumptions outweighed intelligence. But in 2012, businesses started to realign customer expectations with social media strategies. In 2013 planning, social strategists now believer exclusive content is more important than customer service (2011).

The Top 10 Assumptions of Social Consumer Expectations

1. Exclusive content2. Insight to make decisions (Moments of Truth)3. Customer service4. Be part of a community5. Deals/Promotions6. Learn about new products7. Ability to provide feedback for improvement (Influence Loop)8. Inclusive experience in social absent of websites9. Loyalty/Rewards for engagement10. Social commerce



So if we know social is important, what’s holding social marketers back this year? Planning for 2013 based on 2012 and 2011 hurdles remain close to constant.

Top 7 Planning Hurdles for 2013

1. Budget2. A clear vision on outcomes3. Executive skepticism4. Lack of metrics5. Lack of understanding of benefits6. Lack of cross functional support7. Absence of vision and overall strategy for the brand

Part of the planning challenges reflects a fire, ready, aim as opposed to a ready, aim, fire philosophy around social media. Planning is often campaign or engagement centric without a deeper understanding of needs, expectations and of course customer behavior. Even in the absence of clear and present business objectives and outcomes, executive buy in has risen.




In 2013, businesses will evolve from a more skeptical or cautious view of social into something that explores rhyme, rhythm, and reason.

The lineup of usual suspects in social media hasn’t changed much in the last year with the exception of Pinterest rising into the fourth spot in the top 5 social networks brands are paying attention to. This move comes at the expense of Google+.

How will organizations measure social media success in 2013? The answer is engagement.

Social media however is only part of a larger digital movement that’s impacting business from the inside out and the bottom up. This is perhaps the most important part of this study and here it is buried. Regardless of your opinion regarding the word “digital,” the bigger trend is digital’s disruption on business and overall consumerism. When asked what keeps marketers up at night, the list was great.

At the top of the list was the mobile experience. At the core however, every trend was related to customer engagement across all channels. I dare not say omnichannel as that assumes a one-size-fits-all mentality. Channels and screens relate to the context of the individual within the dynamic customer journey. As such, those trends that scored “5s” signify the great impact of digital disruption.




Top 10 Disruptive Digital Trends

1. Mobile experience2. Content management3. Digital customer experience (The Experience)4. Brand journalism5. New metrics/ROI6. Integrated experiences7. Business intelligence8. Big data9. Social CRM10. Social media optimization



A prescient pillar of leadership takes more than intuition. It takes research balanced with ahuman algorithm. You can’t make decisions about technology and behavior if you are not part of the very culture that’s disrupting your business. Nor can you open engaging touch points if you’re unfamiliar with the new journey of decision-making. Yet even today, businesses are largely making assumptions based not on the expectations or behavior of customers but instead the best practices of their peers.

In 2011, 77% of brands believed they understood their social customers, yet only 35% did the work to better understand them.

In 2012, the number of businesses that had a clear picture of their social customers dropped to 62%

In 2011 and 2012 businesses largely ignored their customer’s digital needs and actions with 53% and 54% respectively not attempting to explore the differences between what they think they want and what they really want.

When in Doubt…Begin!

Charlene Li and I published an Altimeter Group report earlier this year that found businesses simply weren’t aligning business goals with social media objectives. To realize the promise the promise of social media however, strategists will have to make the effort to demonstrate business value, consumer trends, and the ability to use disruptive technology to disrupt competition rather than be disrupted by it.

This year, realize that your greatest assets are both humility and aspiration. Your ability to see things differently will in fact drive you to do things differently. By applying a new philosophy and methodology to your digital approach will naturally make your business and your overall strategy…meaningful and social. This is after all, about experiences now more than ever.

1. Benchmark against best in class, not just the competition2. Research customer behavior and expectations3. Consider existing and potentially new business objectives – align business and digital strategies accordingly




4. Apply needs and expectations within engagement and content strategies5. Design dedicated yet united experiences across digital channels considering the context of behavior within each screen6. Create a path of least resistance that maximizes the capabilities of each platform and screen7. Re-imagine your vision and value for how disruptive technology enables a more meaningful mission and purpose8. Embrace data science and digital anthropology to stay ahead of customer trends and the competition9. Plug in to your customer experience as it exists and uncover points of friction…then fix it to provide a seamless journey from the inside out10. Listen. Learn. Engage. Adapt.

A QR Code Walks Into A Zoo...

by Steve Smith, Monday, Jun 10, 2013

My first encounter with using gadgetry to enhance a moment or place was as a kid in the New York Metro area, pestering my parents to take me to the Bronx Zoo. The Zoo had audio boxes installed beside select animal cages, and a big plastic key (purchased at the gate, I think) would activate audio narration for that particular animal. Keep in mind that this was the mid-1960s. It didn’t take too much to seem magical back then. But this rudimentary idea of having electronic enhancements attached to something in the real world was a precursor to the power of mobile activations of objects.

The QR code is the ubiquitous and sometimes dubious example of a world that becomes clickable digitally with mobile media. Any place or object can get a layer of additional meaning.

The Bronx Zoo of my childhood came to mind when I came upon The Tokkers platform of what it calls “audio QR” codes. The self-serve platform uses a uniquely tagged QR code that has speech bubbles in its corners and the callout “I Can Talk.”

Technically, there is no special trick to all of this, really. Anyone can have their code link to a mobile site with an embedded media player. We already do as much with video, the most common use of activation codes.

The Tokker platform does strike me as a good evolution of the QR code because it builds into the code a specific consumer expectation on the deliverable. QR fatigue no doubt has set in among some users, who are now wary of scanning anything without good cause. The promise of an audio payoff seems especially compelling.

There is something uniquely intriguing about audio -- about an ad or a product that speaks to us via an app. In many of the examples Tokkers offers, this special quality is missing, since they link mainly to music samples or straight audio ads. It seems to me there is an opportunity to take a lesson from the animals at the Bronx Zoo and use audio to bring the user closer to the object, the moment, the place. Video is just video -- it is some variety of TV -- dramatic, funny, but also polished, performance-oriented, detached.

Audio personalizes because that voice that is detached from the video is much like the voice on the phone. It can talk directly to us without seeming fake.

Imagine if a QR code on a can of beans triggered on your phone the voice of the company CEO telling you that this can in your hand is made of this wholesome ingredient and that one. “And that is all that goes into our beans -- promise.” Or if a QR trigger gave the can its own voice and personality.

Mobile activations still seem to be anchored in Web mentalities -- serve a video, link to a site, share on Twitter and Facebook -- ho hum. But a mobile trigger on a physical object should be an occasion for reimagining what digital media does when these tools are tied to a very specific place, time and thing.

A dynamic between the device’s digital capabilities and the physical word becomes possible in ways that far outstrip the desktop. Bringing the Web and online advertising mechanics everywhere and anywhere seems a meager goal compared to being able to make bean cans…or animals…talk.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/202077/a-qr-code-walks-into-a-zoo.html?edition=60996#ixzz2VpPOtvWT


http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/202077/a-qr-code-walks-into-a-zoo.html?edition=60996#ixzz2VpPOtvWT

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/202077/a-qr-code-walks-into-a-zoo.html?edition=60996#ixzz2VpPOtvWT

Using Mobile to Help Consumers Buy In-Storeby Chuck Martin, Jun 7, 2013, 1:58 PM

What is the ultimate role of the mobile device in the hands of sales associates?

For the last several days I’ve been pondering the recent Harris poll earlier showing that the majority (59%) of smartphone-armed showroomers prefer looking up product information on their phone to asking salespeople for help.

While there may be anecdotal research indicating that shoppers typically ask a sales person to direct them to the location of a product, that majority mobile preference number still seems significant.

We know from various studies that consumers want to shop and buy in a physical store, making brick and mortar a potential huge asset for retailers facing mobile shoppers.

Research also shows that consumers will use their mobile devices in-store.

This begs the question of what is the role of the sales associate in relation to the mobile shopper, especially in light of the consumer desire not to deal with salespeople?

It may be that some consumers perceive that the salesperson is going to try to sell them something, since that is part of their job title.

Some mobile implementations at retail involve providing salespeople with smartphones or tablets, with an eye toward using devices to find and share additional product information or even expedite checkout.

But what if rather than using mobile devices in trying to sell, salespeople used them to help consumers buy?

The difference may seem subtle, but could be based on what the consumer wants or needs vs. what the seller is trying to sell.

Picture this scenario: I walk into Best Buy, select a new flat-screen computer monitor, find it and bring it to a sales associate in that department to pay.

The sales associate looks up my rewards number and notes that I am one of their best customers.

The salesperson “let’s make sure you’re getting the best deal here.”

The salesperson takes out his company-issued smartphone, opens an app like ShopSavvy or Amazon Price Check, and scans the product barcode.

“I see this monitor is $25 less at Staples and $30 cheaper at Amazon, Mr. Martin. How about we match that price and deduct $30?”

Companies like Best Buy already have price matching policies in place, even if not all consumers are familiar with them.

In the scenario, the consumer is assured they got the best deal and if not totally mobile savvy, are shown how to use mobile to instantly price-compare. (Part of the equation is obviously to consider the measurement metrics of profit margins compared to customer retention.)

Would you tend to frequent the retailer that always made sure you got the best deal?

I’m sure you can come up with numerous variations of this price matching scenario or others involving best uses of mobile at retail, so feel free to send them along.

The process of adapting to mobile shoppers at physical outlets is still in the early stages with a long way to go.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/202045/using-mobile-to-help-consumers-buy-in-store.html?edition=60996#ixzz2VpPA44e9

Data-Driven Tech Industry Is Shaken by Online Privacy FearsBy DAVID STREITFELD and QUENTIN HARDY June 9, 2013

SAN FRANCISCO — The dreamers, brains and cranks who built the Internet hoped it would be a tool of liberation and knowledge. Last week, an altogether bleaker vision emerged with new revelations of how the United States government is using it as a monitoring and tracking device.

In Silicon Valley, a place not used to second-guessing the bright future it is eternally building, there was a palpable sense of dismay.

“Most of the people who developed the network are bothered by the way it is being misused,” said Les Earnest, a retired Stanford computer scientist who built something that resembled Facebook nine years before the inventor of Facebook was born. “From the beginning we worried about governments getting control. Well, our government has finally found a way to tap in.”

The technology world has always strived to keep Washington at a certain arm’s length. Regulation would snuff out innovation, the entrepreneurs regularly cried. Bureaucrats should keep their hands off things they do not understand, which is just about everything we do out here.

So the first mystifying thing for some here is how the leading companies — including Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Apple and Facebook — apparently made it easier for the National Security Agency to gain access to their data. Only Twitter seems to have declined.


http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/202045/using-mobile-to-help-consumers-buy-in-store.html?edition=60996#ixzz2VpPA44e9

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/202045/using-mobile-to-help-consumers-buy-in-store.html?edition=60996#ixzz2VpPA44e9

The companies deny directly working with the government on the project, called Prism. But they have not been exactly eager to talk about how they are working indirectly and where they would draw the line.

Entrepreneurs around Silicon Valley are publicly urging more disclosure.

“The success of any Silicon Valley consumer company is based not only on the value their products bring to users but also on the level of trust they can establish,” said Adriano Farano, co-founder of Watchup, which makes an iPad app that builds personalized newscasts. “What is at stake here is the credibility of our entire ecosystem.”

It is an ecosystem that thrives on personal data. Prism, which collects e-mails, video, voice and stored data, among other forms of Internet information, was exposed at a moment when the very possibility of online privacy seemed to be in doubt.

New technologies like Google Glass are relentlessly pushing into territory that was out of reach until recently. From established behemoths to new start-ups, tech companies are bubbling with plans to collect the most intimate data and use it to sell things.

“We’re pushing our government to protect us, and we’re also busy putting more and more of our information out there for people to look at,” said Christopher Clifton, a Purdue computer scientist who has done extensive work on methods of data collection that preserve privacy. “The fact that some of that data is indeed going to be looked at might be disturbing but it shouldn’t be surprising.”

Edward Snowden, a former Central Intelligence Agency worker who disclosed on Sunday that he was the one who leaked government surveillance documents to The Guardian newspaper, ranks high among the disturbed. In an interview with the newspaper, he called the Internet “the most important invention in all of human history.” But he said that he believed its value was being destroyed by unceasing surveillance.

“I don’t see myself as a hero,” he told the paper, “because what I’m doing is self-interested: I don’t want to live in a world where there’s no privacy and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and creativity.”

President Obama, trying to play down the uproar, said Prism targets only foreign nationals and that it was worth giving up a little privacy for more security.

“I think that’s a dangerous statement,” said Bob Taylor, a computer scientist who played a major role in the 1960s in formulating what would become the Internet. “The government should have told us it was doing this. And that suggests the more fundamental problem: that we’re not in control of our government.”

For some tech luminaries with less than fond feelings for Washington, the disclosures about Prism had special force. This was personal.

Bob Metcalfe, the acclaimed inventor of the standard method of connecting computers in one location, wrote on Twitter that he was less worried about whatever the National Security Agency might be doing “than about how Obama Regime will use their data to suppress political opposition (e.g. me).”

But if Silicon Valley is alarmed about the ways that the personal data now coursing through every byway of the Internet can be misused, it has been a long time coming.

Even as the larger computer makers sold their systems to the government and start-ups of all sorts trafficked in personal information, the companies tried to keep clear of government rules that might cramp their vision — and their profits. They also proved adept at lobbying.

Threats by regulators like Christine Varney, the Internet specialist at the Federal Trade Commission, to impose greater oversight on how personal data was being used online resulted in the formation in 1998 of the Online Privacy Alliance. The industry coalition was credited with turning the debate in the industry’s direction.

Its chief spokeswoman: Ms. Varney, who went through the Washington revolving door and emerged as a champion of industry.

In 1999, Scott McNealy, the chief executive of Sun Microsystems, summed up the valley’s attitude toward personal data in what became a defining comment of the dot-com boom. “You have zero privacy,” he said. “Get over it.”

Mr. McNealy is not retracting that comment, not quite; but like Mr. Metcalfe he is more worried about potential government abuse than he used to be. “Should you be afraid if AT&T has your data? Google?” he asked. “They’re private entities. AT&T can’t hurt me. Jerry Brown and Barack Obama can.” An outspoken critic of the California state government, and Mr. Brown, the governor, Mr. McNealy said his taxes are audited every year.

But arguing that computer makers have some role in creating a surveillance state, he said, “is like blaming gun manufacturers for violence, or a car manufacturer for drunk driving.” The real problem, he said, is: “The scope creep of the government. I think it’s great they’re looking for the next terrorist. Then I wonder if they’re going to arrest me, or snoop on me.”

Microsoft has recently been casting itself as a champion of privacy — at least when Google is involved. Ray Ozzie, the former software chief at Microsoft, was one of those sounding the alarm late last week.

“I hope that people wake up, truly wake up, to what’s happening to society, from both a big brother perspective and little brother perspective,” Mr. Ozzie said at a conference on Nantucket, according to The Boston Globe. But he did not address whatever Microsoft’s role might have been with Prism.

Aaron Levie, the founder of Box.com, a popular file-sharing system, initially joked on Twitter that Prism was simply putting people’s Gmail, Google, Facebook and Skype data all in one place. “The N.S.A. just beat out like 30 start-ups to this idea,” he wrote.

That was funny, because it was true, but also because the interests of the government and Silicon Valley are not necessarily in conflict here.

“The most important issue here is transparency and our lack of visibility around how our data is being used,” Mr. Levie said. “The government and the tech industry clearly will need to come together to create a better model for this.”


In the meantime, some tech leaders have another idea: lie low. Gordon Eubanks, a valley entrepreneur for 30 years, can see both sides of the argument over privacy and security. Until it is resolved, he said, “I’ve just become really careful about what I put out there. I never put online anything about where I live, my family, my pets. I’m even careful about what I ‘like.’ ”

Meet PRISM / US-984XN - The US Government's Internet Espionage Super OperationBy Tyler Durden Created 06/06/2013 - 19:31

The disclosures involving this (and the prior) administration's Big Brother surveillance state, which would make Nixon blush with envy are now coming fast and furious (one wonders - why now: even that bastion of liberalism the NY Times, has turned against Obama [12]). Although while the Guardian's overnight news that Verizon (and most certainly AT&T as well among others) was cooperating with the NSA on spying on US citizens, so far at least the internet seemed, if only to the great unwashed masses, immune. That is no longer the case following news from the WaPo exposing PRISM, a highly classified program, which has not been disclosed publicly before. "Its establishment in 2007 and six years of exponential growth took place beneath the surface of a roiling debate over the boundaries of surveillance and privacy." What PRISM does is to allow the NSA and the FBI to tap directly "into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents and connection logs that enable analysts to track a person’s movements and contacts over time."

The secrecy is so deep we expect even the president himself may not know about it (but he does):

The highly classified program, code-named PRISM, has not been disclosed publicly before. Its establishment in 2007 and six years of exponential growth took place beneath the surface of a roiling debate over the boundaries of surveillance and privacy. Even late last year, when critics of the foreign intelligence statute argued for changes, the only members of Congress who know about PRISM were bound by oaths of office to hold their tongues.

Of course, PRISM is from the government, and it is here to help you. But the question is why are some of the biggest private companies explicitly collaborating with what is now the biggest exposed spying operation in history, companies which include such household names as Microsoft Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, and Apple. Yes, everyone's beloved Apple was added in October 2012: the NSA knows all about your music playlist, not to mention has a database of all your iMessages.

In other words, all those newly minted people known as corporations are in on it, but not: dear debt serf. It's a small club, and there is a multimillion liquid net-worth cutoff... and you are not in it. From WaPo [14]:

An internal presentation on the Silicon Valley operation, intended for senior analysts in the NSA’s Signals Intelligence Directorate, described the new tool as the most prolific contributor to the President’s Daily Brief, which cited PRISM data in 1,477 articles last year. According to the briefing slides, obtained by The Washington Post, “NSA reporting increasingly relies on PRISM” as its leading source of raw material, accounting for nearly 1 in 7 intelligence reports.

That is a remarkable figure in an agency that measures annual intake in the trillions of communications. It is all the more striking because the NSA, whose lawful mission is foreign intelligence, is reaching deep inside the machinery of American companies that host hundreds of millions of American-held accounts on American soil.


http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2013/06/PRISM%204.jpg

The technology companies, which participate knowingly in PRISM operations, include most of the dominant global players of Silicon Valley. They are listed on a roster that bears their logos in order of entry into the program: “Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple.” PalTalk, although much smaller, has hosted significant traffic during the Arab Spring and in the ongoing Syrian civil war.

the PRISM program appears more nearly to resemble the most controversial of the warrantless surveillance orders issued by President George W. Bush after the al-Qaeda attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Its history, in which President Obama presided over “exponential growth” in a program that candidate Obama criticized, shows how fundamentally surveillance law and practice have shifted away from individual suspicion in favor of systematic, mass collection techniques.

Spying on US citizens is "incidental"... kinda like killing thousands of women and children in drone raids is "collateral damage":

Even when the system works just as advertised, with no American singled out for targeting, the NSA routinely collects a great deal of American content. That is described as “incidental,” and it is inherent in contact chaining, one of the basic tools of the trade. To collect on a suspected spy or foreign terrorist means, at minimum, that everyone in the suspect’s inbox or outbox is swept in. Intelligence analysts are typically taught to chain through contacts two “hops” out from their target, which increases “incidental collection” exponentially. The same math explains the aphorism, from the John Guare play, that no one is more than “six degrees of separation” from any other person.

This is how the big corporations sleep at night:

Formally, in exchange for immunity from lawsuits, companies like Yahoo and AOL are obliged to accept a “directive” from the attorney general and the director of national intelligence to open their servers to the FBI’s Data Intercept Technology Unit, which handles liaison to U.S. companies from the NSA. In 2008, Congress gave the Justice Department authority to for a secret order from the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Court to compel a reluctant company “to comply.”

In practice, there is room for a company to maneuver, delay or resist. When a clandestine intelligence program meets a highly regulated industry, said a lawyer with experience in bridging the gaps, neither side wants to risk a public fight. The engineering problems are so immense, in systems of such complexity and frequent change, that the FBI and NSA would be hard pressed to build in back doors without active help from each company.

Some "do lots of evil" by their customers. They just don't disclose it:

“Google cares deeply about the security of our users’ data,” a company spokesman said. “We disclose user data to government in accordance with the law, and we review all such requests carefully. From time to time, people allege that we have created a government ‘back door’ into our systems, but Google does not have a ‘back door’ for the government to access private user data.”

Time to kill that Facebook profile... or be accidentally killed for being "of a terroristy persuasion" based on some NSA algo:

There has been “continued exponential growth in tasking to Facebook and Skype,” according to the 41 PRISM slides. With a few clicks and an affirmation that the subject is believed to be engaged in terrorism, espionage or nuclear proliferation, an analyst obtains full access to Facebook’s “extensive search and surveillance capabilities against the variety of online social networking services.”

And some more charts:

Introducing the program

A slide briefing analysts at the National Security Agency about the program touts its effectiveness and features the logos of the companies involved.

Monitoring a target's communication

This diagram shows how the bulk of the world’s electronic communications move through companies based in the United States.


Providers and data

The PRISM program collects a wide range of data from the nine companies, although the details vary by provider.

In retrospect, it is sad what a farce this country has become: artificial market, centrally-planned economy, pervasive spying on the people, a tax collector that target political enemies, an administration that openly lies under oath...

If we didn't know better we would say this was 1955 Stalingrad, although Stalingrad at the height of totalitarianism was for amateurs. This is next level shit: "Firsthand experience with these systems, and horror at their capabilities, is what drove a career intelligence officer to provide PowerPoint slides about PRISM and supporting materials to The Washington Post in order to expose what he believes to be a gross intrusion on privacy. “They quite literally can watch your ideas form as you type,” the officer said."

Ideas for Getting Started With Measurement PlanningAdam Singer | June 10, 2013

At the past few events where I've spoken to marketing practitioners, I continue to make the statement that it has never been a more exciting time to be a marketing or public relations professional. Why so exciting? We've never had so many tools and tactics to reach our target audiences at our fingertips. We also have an unprecedented amount of data to shift our execution from "gut feel" to data-driven. But before we can dive into new tools and start to use data to improve our programs, a critical yet frequently missed




first step is to conduct measurement planning. Today I wanted to share thoughts on just some of the key actions your organization (or agency) should conduct during the planning process.

Outline What You Want to Measure, Both Objectives and KPIs

This is really the first step: what does success look like to your business? Get as specific as possible. If you are reading this, you're probably in marketing and your answer was likely revenue generated from marketing initiatives. If you said yes to this, awesome, you're spot on and your marketing professor is likely applauding you right now. Now, go further: what tactics do you plan to implement to generate revenue, and how do they accomplish this? What does success look like (X percent increase in Y tactic)? Create a matrix outlining it, along with the key performance indicators (KPIs) that map back to revenue. For example, more (relevant and engaged) website visitors leads to more micro and macro conversions, which leads to more revenue. Or, a larger (opt-in) email list of excited users equals more click-throughs to landing pages for un-missable content, giving your sales team more prospects to work with. Or, a larger community in social leads to more re-sharing and clicks of your content back to your social hub, which leads to improvements across organic marketing metrics. Outlining metrics is key, as it will guide your use of setting goals in analysis tools. As Avinash likes to say, "If you ain't got goals, you ain't got nothin'!"

Before Implementing Any Tools, Ask Tough Questions

Until you know precisely what it is you wish to accomplish, it is premature to start testing out tools or shopping vendors. Different tools have different strengths and flexibility (not to mention costs and user preference). There is a lot that goes into selection of the right measurement tool, but really it comes down to the questions that matter to you first: can the tool easily (and in an automated fashion) measure the metrics you care about? Can you get the support you need (or for free tools, are there qualified consultants available)? Does the tool integrate with your other initiatives/digital systems (web, app, POS, and beyond)? How easy is it to customize reports and segment data? Be sure to ask all the tough questions (both internally with your own analyst and externally with a vendor) first.

Have a Reporting/Analysis Plan With Specific Dates/Deliverables

Now that you have your objectives down, your marketing plan complete, the KPIs associated with your programs established, and you know what tools you're planning to use and how you're going to integrate them, you need a plan to actually start using the data. Ideally, you have an analyst resource on your team focused on delivering the right reports, insights, and actions to their appropriate stakeholders and evangelizing data to those in your organization. This last point is important: it's still not enough to assume people will act on data unless you make it clear what actions your team members should take and get everyone excited about actually implementing recommendations. Data-driven decision-making is undoubtedly the future, but it's still new territory for many. Having a plan and process here will help everyone get comfortable and value metrics appropriately, and the right leadership is key.

While the above is just a primer on measurement planning and the actual steps you take will vary based on your organization and resources, the point is planning is the key first step in measurement. As simple as it may be to actually implement a tool, it's ensuring you use it effectively as an ongoing part of your marketing that makes the difference.

Com paywall ou sem? Eis a questão

Estudo da PricewatershouseCoopers prevê que a receita dos jornais norte-americanos permanecerá em queda até 2017Por Michael Sebastian, do Advertising Age

Apesar da promessa de aumento do número de leitores online por conta da adoção do paywall, a receita dos jornais norte-americanos continuará a cair até 2017, segundo o estudo Global Entertainment and Media Outlook, realizado anualmente pela PricewaterhouseCoopers.

A receita total dos jornais dos EUA deve ter um ritmo anual de crescimento de 2,9% entre 2013 e 2017, segundo projeções do estudo. Embora as tendências online tenham melhorado, a publicidade nesses veículos deve diminuir a uma taxa anual de 4,2%, diz a pesquisa. “Há alguns sinais bastante positivos sobre uma retomada da indústria, mas boa quantidade da receita perdida provavelmente não voltará”, afirma Greg Boyer, diretor da PricewaterhouseCoopers.


Parte dessa promessa vem na forma de mais leitores online. Sites de jornais atraíram mais de 100 milhões de visitantes únicos em 2012, segundo a Newspaper Association of America. A entidade também observou uma expansão de 7% no número de visitantes únicos com idade entre 21 e 34 anos. Com mais pessoas acessando sites de jornais, a expectativa é que a publicidade digital cresça até 2017, apresentando um crescimento de 9,7% entre 2013 e 2017. Mas os ganhos não serão suficientes para cobrir a baixa anual de 7,8% dos anúncios impressos.

A receita dos jornais em anúncios digitais em 2017 é estimada em até US$ 5,5 bilhões, comparada com os US$ 12,8 bilhões em anúncios impressos.

Espera-se que a receita da circulação diminua, anualmente, somente 0,2% entre 2013 e 2017, impulsionada por um aumento 29,8% da circulação digital graças à implementação do modelo de paywall pelos jornais. A queda da circulação de impressos continuará, mas em uma escala mais lenta, diminuindo 1,8% pelos próximos quatro anos. A maior parte da receita de circulação – US$ 9 bilhões – vem do impresso, com US$ 1 bilhão como resultado de assinaturas digitais.

O cenário instável da indústria do jornal está dando à receita de circulação uma fatia melhor do bolo. “Com o deslize da receita publicitária, essa mudança em direção a um melhor share proveniente da circulação tem sido imperativa”, afirma o estudo. “Assegurar a futura lealdade dos leitores e evitar descontos altos nas assinaturas é uma prioridade”.

Essa experiência teve início na New York Times Company, onde a receita de circulação combinada para o New York Times e a publicação-irmã Internacional Herald Tribune está ultrapassando a receita publicitária este ano. “Dito isso, um dos problemas estruturais implícitos da indústria de jornais dos EUA tem sido o investimento em receita publicitária em vez de circulação, essa foi uma mudança sísmica”, concluiu o relatório.

Leia Mais: http://www.meioemensagem.com.br/home/midia/noticias/2013/06/07/Com-paywall-ou-sem.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mmbymail-geral&utm_content=Com+paywall+ou+sem?+Eis+a+quest%E3o#ixzz2VoduVe3W

A difícil missão de transmitir o significado emocional das marcasPor Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson | Financial Times

O marketing pode soar lamentavelmente superficial. A linguagem do "envolvimento emocional", dos "pontos de paixão do consumidor" e dos "principais formadores de opinião" que o setor passou a apreciar tanto é difícil de vender a executivos-sênior eternamente pressionados para gerar retornos concretos de seus investimentos em publicidade.

Não é de estranhar que executivos das multinacionais Procter & Gamble e da Mondelez International tenham se sentido capazes, recentemente, de pôr as agências de publicidade em apuros ao adiar, por 75 dias e 120 dias, respectivamente, os pagamentos que deveriam efetuar.

Os gastos com publicidade vão alcançar US$ 518 bilhões este ano, segundo estimativa da agência ZenithOptimedia, mas, num momento em que a mídia enfrenta mudança acelerada nos campos digital, móvel e social, os proprietários de marcas nunca estiveram mais inseguros dos retornos que esse investimento gera do que atualmente.

Maioria das pessoas não se importaria se 73% das marcas sumissem, segundo estudo do grupo de comunicação Havas

É tentador, em vista disso, ignorar um relatório sobre "marcas significativas" como mais blá-blá-blá. A ideia de que um telefone, um automóvel, um xampu ou um tênis de corrida tenham grande significado soa como a promessa excentricamente grandiosa de um executivo de propaganda para "um produto que vai mudar a sua vida".

Mas o estudo "Meaningful Brands" ("Marcas Significativas") divulgado esta semana pelo braço de compra de espaço na mídia do grupo francês de marketing Havas merece ser tomado mais a sério.

Em primeiro lugar, sua metodologia lhe empresta consistência: a Havas pediu a opinião de 134 mil consumidores de 23 países sobre 700 marcas, e resolveu definir "significado" por 12 indicadores das contribuições das marcas à qualidade de vida dos indivíduos e da sociedade como um todo.

Alguns instrumentos de mensuração foram tomados emprestados dos índices aplicados pela Organização para a Cooperação e Desenvolvimento Econômico (OCDE) e pelo Banco Mundial (Bird) para chegar ao que é conhecido por alguns como felicidade interna bruta para a iniciativa que Umair Haque, diretor de mídia da Havas, chama de primeira tentativa de ligar o bem-estar humano a marcas.

Em segundo lugar, o estudo foca precisamente nos números concretos que os contadores ultraminuciosos das empresas apreciam. As 25 marcas consideradas pelos consumidores "as mais significativas" superaram o desempenho das ações mundiais em 120% nos últimos dez anos.

Essas marcas mais apreciadas não são todas óbvias, quando medidas pelos habituais parâmetros de receita, capitalização de mercado ou valor de marca. A Apple, por exemplo, é a marca mais valiosa do mundo - pelo menos hoje - e encabeça o rol BrandZ da agência WPP das marcas mais valiosas do mundo, mas está em 22º lugar na lista das Marcas Significativas. Outras marcas - Google, Samsung, Microsoft e Sony - dividem os cinco primeiros lugares da lista com a Nestlé, um reflexo, diz a Havas, de como a tecnologia emancipou os consumidores.

A Havas diplomaticamente se recusa a identificar as que ficaram nas últimas colocações, mas a McDonald's, a quarta da lista BrandZ, não figura em seu ranking das 25 mais significativas. A General Motors, uma das maiores anunciantes dos Estados Unidos, também não. Empresas financeiras e de energia têm má classificação e, apesar de seu crescimento mundial, as marcas chinesas não alcançaram o sucesso.

O terceiro ponto que reforça a credibilidade do relatório é seu recado profundamente desconfortável para as agências de publicidade. A maioria das pessoas de todo o mundo, detectou a Havas, não se importaria se 73% de todas as marcas desaparecessem.


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Há ainda mais descobertas preocupantes na Europa e nos Estados Unidos, onde os consumidores não se importariam se 92% das marcas desaparecessem.

O desapego não ocorreu da noite para o dia. Mas o que o causou, e como as marcas podem se tornar mais significativas?

Em mercados maduros, a saturação da marca pode ser parte do problema. Não se precisa passar muito tempo num supermercado americano para concluir que há simplesmente um excesso de marcas sem importância.

E, o que é mais importante, um número demasiadamente grande de marcas tem feito promessas que não conseguem cumprir. Pouco menos de um terço dos consumidores acha que a comunicação das marcas é sincera, o que resulta num crescente descrédito.

Após o esforço e o dinheiro gasto em programas de responsabilidade social corporativa, iniciativas de sustentabilidade e no que Michael Porter chama de "valor compartilhado", uma tentativa de casar o progresso econômico com o social, essa descoberta é desanimadora.

De forma mais construtiva, o estudo mostra que os consumidores recompensam marcas que os ouvem; que oferecem boa qualidade; marcas de produtos inovadores a preços justos; que tornam sua vida mais feliz, mais fácil e mais saudável; e que apoiam o meio ambiente, a economia e a comunidade.

"Está despontando um novo modelo da prosperidade humana, centrado em torno da ideia de potencial e bem-estar humanos", diz Haque. É uma afirmação ambiciosa.

Mas não há nada de superficial na correlação entre contribuir para o bem-estar dos consumidores e ser recompensado pelos consumidores e, por sua vez, pelos investidores. Haque quer usar os dados para conceber um novo instrumento de mensuração financeira, a "relação preço sobre bem-estar". Os executivos podem paparicar os lucros, observa ele, mas "não se pode paparicar o significado".

Essa pode até ser uma maneira de a comunidade de marketing convencer executivos de compras extremamente parcimoniosos de que ela ainda pode ser significativa.

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The difficult task of conveying the emotional significance of brandsBy Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson | Financial Times

The marketing may sound woefully superficial. The language of "emotional involvement", the "consumer passion points" and "key opinion leaders" that the industry started to appreciate both is difficult to sell to senior executives eternally pressed to generate tangible returns on their investments in advertising .

It is not surprising that executives of multinational Procter & Gamble and Mondelez International have felt able recently to put advertising agencies in trouble to postpone for 75 days and 120 days, respectively, which should make the payments.

Ad spending will reach U.S. $ 518 billion this year, according to estimates by the agency ZenithOptimedia, but at a time when the media is facing rapid change in fields digital, mobile and social, brand owners have never been more unsure of the returns that generates investment than currently.

Most people would not care if 73% of brands vanished, according to a study of the communications group Havas

It is tempting, in view of this, ignoring a report on "significant marks" as more blah-blah-blah. The idea that a phone, a car, a shampoo or a running shoe has great significance oddly sounds like the promise of a great advertising executive for "a product that will change your life."

But the study "Meaningful Brands" ("Meaningful Brands") released this week by the arm of buying media space of the French group Havas marketing deserves to be taken more seriously.

First, its methodology lends consistency: Havas asked the opinion of 134 000 consumers from 23 countries over 700 brands, and decided to define "meaning" for 12 indicators of the contributions of the brands the quality of life of individuals and society as a whole.

Some measurement instruments were borrowed from the indexes applied by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank (IBRD) to arrive at what is known by some as gross domestic happiness for the initiative that Umair Haque, director of media Havas, calls the first attempt to connect the human welfare to brands.

Second, the study focuses precisely on hard numbers that accountants ultraminuciosos companies appreciate. The 25 brands considered by consumers "most significant" outperformed the world stock by 120% in the last ten years.

These brands are all appreciated not obvious when measured by the usual parameters of revenue, market capitalization and brand value. Apple, for example, is the most valuable brand in the world - at least today - and tops the list of agency WPP BrandZ most valuable brands in the world, but is in 22 th place in the list of Meaningful Brands. Other brands - Google, Samsung, Microsoft and Sony - share the top five list with Nestlé, a reflection, says Havas, of how technology emancipated consumers.


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Havas diplomatically refuses to identify the settings that were in the past, but the McDonald's, the fourth of the BrandZ list, does not figure in its ranking of the 25 most significant. General Motors, one of the largest advertisers in the United States, either. Financial and energy companies have misclassification and despite its worldwide growth, Chinese brands have not achieved success.

The third point that reinforces the credibility of the report is a message deeply uncomfortable for advertising agencies. Most people around the world, found Havas, would not care if 73% of all brands disappeared.

There are even more troubling discoveries in Europe and the United States, where consumers do not care if 92% of brands disappeared.

The detachment did not occur overnight. But what caused it, and how brands can become more meaningful?

In mature markets, the saturation of the brand can be part of the problem. One need not spend much time in American supermarket to conclude that there are simply too many brands unimportant.

And, more importantly, too large a number of marks is made not fulfill promises. Just under a third of consumers think the brand communication is sincere, which results in increasing disrepute.

After the effort and money spent on programs of corporate social responsibility, sustainability initiatives and what Michael Porter calls "shared value", an attempt to marry economic progress with social, this finding is discouraging.

More constructively, the study shows that consumers reward brands that hear, that offer good quality; brands innovative products at fair prices, which make your life happier, easier and healthier, and supporting the environment, economy and community.

"It is a new emerging model of human prosperity, centered around the idea of potential and well-being," says Haque. It's an ambitious statement.

But there is nothing in the correlation between surface contribute to the well-being of consumers and be rewarded by consumers and, in turn, by investors. Haque wants to use the data to design a new financial instrument to measure the "value for money on welfare." Executives can indulge profits, he notes, but "you can not pamper the meaning."

This may even be a way to convince the community of marketing executives from purchasing extremely parsimonious that it can still be significant.

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Facebook Drops 'Sponsored Stories' As It Pares Down Ad FormatsThu, 06 Jun 2013 [email protected](Cotton Delo)

Facebook announced today that it’s reducing the number of available ad products from 27 to less than half that amount over the next six months.

While the “streamlining” was characterized as a work in progress, one thing that’s on the chopping block is “sponsored stories” as a standalone product. Introduced in 2011 and once the core of Facebook’s strategy to promote its ads product as uniquely social, sponsored stories contain a social layer and inform users if their friends have engaged with a brand on the platform (by liking or commenting on one of its posts, for example.)

There are currently 13 different types of sponsored stories (including one that delivers context about friends who have played with a game.) By the end of the third quarter or the beginning of the fourth, Facebook intends to direct advertisers to buy one ad format that will include the richest social context available. (And in the event that no social context is available -- meaning a user’s friends haven’t engaged with the brand -- a more stripped-down news-feed ad with just a picture and text would appear, for example.)

“Sponsored stories as an idea doesn’t go away. Sponsored stories as a product goes away,” said Brian Boland, Facebook’s product marketing director.

Facebook is also intending to redesign the ads interface to focus on “objectives” -- such as mobile app installs, online sales and foot traffic -- rather than a menu of ad product types that are potentially confusing for marketers.

“We’re going to solidify on a smaller number of formats that we think are better,” said Andrew Bosworth, Facebook’s engineering director. He also noted that he expects the changes to help marketers optimize their ad buys and subsequently make them drive better results at a lower price. “We’re going to help them make better decisions up front by reducing the number of decisions they have to make.”

While cutting the clutter of redundant ad units may help advertisers zero in on what’s truly useful for their business, retiring “sponsored stories” as a brand also marks Facebook taking another small step away from its past reliance on social ads to explain its value to marketers. In its new vision presented today, social context is one ingredient in the Facebook ads cocktail, but it’s no longer a standalone ad product.

Facebook’s plan is reminiscent of Google’s move in February to streamline AdWords; in Google’s case, the simplication was intended to urge advertisers to spread their bids to mobile .

Other ad units that will soon rest in peace -- as soon as July -- are “questions” and “online offers.” Instead of buying an ad unit with convoluted social context showing when a user’s friend had answered a question posed by a brand, marketers will instead be directed to pose the question directly in a news-feed post, for example. And while “offers” for online sales are being phased out, they’ll remain in play for in-store deals.

Tim Peterson contributing.


Mobile devices attract TV viewersTHETFORD CENTER: TV viewing habits in the US show distinct differences across traditional TV and mobile platforms as regards programme genres and viewing times, according to a new study.

A report from the Council for Research Excellence, an independent research group, surveyed 6,000 Americans aged 15-64 with broadband internet access at home and who watch at least five hours of TV per week.

It found that the greater part of tablet and smartphone TV viewing – 22% and 28% respectively – occured during the daytime between 9am and 3pm, whereas this time slot accounted for only 19% of traditional TV viewers and for 26% of those who rely on their computers.

Traditional TV usage rose to 25% during primetime Monday to Saturday schedules. At the same time, smartphone usage halved to 14% and tablet viewing fell marginally to 20%.

The survey also found that tablets accounted for 15% of late night viewing from 11.30pm to 1am, compared with 12% for smartphones and 9% for traditional TV.

When tracking programme genres, traditional TV dominated as the preferred source for news and business – at 31% compared with 15% for smartphones and 11% for tablets. Sport, too, accounted for a larger percentage of viewing occasions on traditional TV (19%) than on tablets (9%) or smartphones (14%).

However, dramas were the top genre for tablets and smartphones – at 31% and 27% of viewing occasions respectively – and both devices were also popular for watching comedies (at 20% and 24%).

When it comes to viewing location, 82% of tablet viewing occurred in the home a figure that dropped to 64% for smartphones. In addition, some 12% of smartphone viewing occasions happened in the office or while travelling.

The findings coincide with news that Verizon Wireless plans to pay $1bn for the rights to air National Football League games, enabling its customers to access NFL games via an app on Sunday, Monday and Thursday nights this season.

Brian Angiolet, Verizon's vice-president of marketing and communications, told the Wall Street Journal: "We look for these deals to drive switching, loyalty and subscription fees" while media consultant Lee Berke predicted that viewers for NFL games on mobile will continue to double for the foreseeable future.

Data sourced from Marketing Charts, Wall Street Journal; additional content by Warc staff, 7 June 2013

Read more at http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/EmailNews.news?ID=31500&Origin=WARCNewsEmail#PJ34Px286j8vzG1c.99

How to increase your Fcaebook Post Engagement Author: NewsCred Source: Business2Community 31 May 2013

The most successful Facebook accounts, and businesses in general, are those with a community of customers that is both highly interactive and supportive. And the only way to build this kind of community is by being a business with the same qualities.

Facebook is among the best available resources for a business to interact with and support its existing and potential customers. And while the importance of the size of your Facebook fan base is obvious, the level of engagement with your fan base is at least as important.

Think about it. Which is more valuable: 1,000 consistently communicative Facebook fans who eventually convert into sales, or 10,000 unengaged fans who never interact, and therefore never convert?


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A growing fan base is desirable, but while promotion may build size, content focused on engagement builds sales.

Every one of your Facebook posts should produce greater interaction with your fan base, and lead to sales conversions later down the road. However, getting your Facebook audience to engage can prove difficult. To achieve the highest level of engagement possible, it’s important to consider the tips below when creating and publishing your Facebook posts.

Seven Tips for Increasing Your Facebook Post Engagement:

1. Stand Out

In order to engage with your followers, you first have to get their attention. In a Facebook timeline full of status updates, posts and advertisements, that’s not always easy. When used properly, bright colors, creative images, and memorable text can be very successful methods for catching the eyes of your followers.

2. Timing is Everything

When it comes to your Facebook posts, timing is crucial. While there is no general best time to publish a Facebook post (optimal timing depends on your industry and audience), monitoring and comparing which days and times bring you the most response on your posts can help you decide when to post in the future.

Having a general idea of what your typical Facebook follower’s schedule is like can help in these decisions, as well. The seasons, recent holidays, changes in your industry, and events in your company are also factors to consider when choosing the content and timing of your Facebook posts.

3. Provide Incentive

Promoting sales events and offering discounts via your Facebook posts increases interest in your brand and provides incentive for your followers to engage with you. Giveaways, contests, coupons, special offers, and seasonal sales are all forms of promotion that can be well-integrated with a call to action in your Facebook posts.


4. Use a Clear Call to Action

It may sound simple, but your fans will be much more likely to engage, if you tell them to do so. Clearly telling your Facebook fans to like your page, comment on your post, or share your video increases the chances that they will, especially when you provide them with that awesome incentive!


It is important when using this tip to not use it too often. Telling your fans to do something in every post you publish can backfire and come off as pushy and annoying, and it may cause them to disconnect.

5. Know Your Audience

Creating engaging content for your Facebook posts is all about knowing who you’re creating it for. Let’s assume you’re a brand that offers low-grade, affordable cookware, and your customers (and Facebook fans) are primarily middle-class, single, young adults.

Would a Facebook post with a tasty recipe for a family of four interest them? Maybe, but probably not. However, a quick and easy recipe for an on-the-go meal that can be stored in your latest line of four-dollar plastic containers will definitely appeal to them!

By knowing the audience of your Facebook posts and familiarizing yourself with their lifestyles and interests, you can better achieve posts that they will relate to and engage with.

6. Be Up-To-Date

With the fast-pace flow of updates and posts on Facebook, many use it as a tool for new information, fresh ideas and the latest trends – including your followers.

By maintaining the relevance of your posts and keeping your content up-to-date, you can prove to your fan base that you are a valuable and trusted source to follow and constantly check in with. Your Facebook posts will become less likely to be overlooked, as your followers begin to trust the information and respect the insight that your account provides.

7. PROMOTE!

Even if you have developed the most powerful post your Facebook fans have ever seen, they won’t see it if you don’t promote it properly.

Running an ad campaign with Facebook turns your posts into online advertisements to be seen by your followers and, with Suggested Posts, your followers’ friends.

And the best part is that using a free Facebook ads optimization tool like AdEspresso makes it easy to see which of your posts are succeeding, which posts are failing and why.

Using this data you will achieve greater ROI and lower costs per lead in your marketing efforts.

Follow these seven tips and you’ll be sure to see your Facebook engagement increase – and along with it your sales should increase as well!


Climbing The Slippery Slope Of Advertisingby Gord Hotchkiss, Thursday, June 6, 2013

Google’s Matt Cutts is warning advertisersnot to try passing off “native ads” -- or advertorials -- as legit content. Apparently, the line between advertising and content continues to get blurrier. The reason is that advertisers are still trying to find an ad that works -- which they’ve been doing for over 300 years.

The first newspaper ads, which seemed to mark the dawn of advertising, appeared very early in the 18th century. Because they looked just like the articles surrounding them, they had to be labeled as an “Advertisement.” Sound familiar?

Now, wouldn’t you think that if you’ve been doing something for over 300 years, you would have figured it out? So why does most advertising still suck? Why are we still trying to find some magic formula that works?

We could attribute it to changing technologies, saying that advertising continues to evolve because the marketplace it operates in is in constant flux, along with the delivery channels it uses and the creative possibilities it offers. That would be what an “advertiser” would tell you.

I think the answer is a bit simpler than that. It comes down to a three-century disconnect between the market and the marketers: marketers want advertising, the market doesn’t. At least, we don’t want advertising in the form that it usually takes. Advertisers have been tinkering all that time, trying to find something the public doesn’t reject outright.

Perhaps, as we often do in the Thursday Search Insider, we can find some clues in the etymology of the word. “Advertisement” comes from the French verb “avertir,” which means to give notice -- or, more ominously, warning. Ironically, the very word we use to label our industry came from roots that carry a negative connotation. To move it to a more positive light, we could say that the purpose of advertising is to make us aware of something we weren’t previously aware of. That seems rather benign -- helpful, even.

It would be accurate to say that the earliest ads aspired to this purpose. But somewhere along the line, ads stepped over the line and became something we learned to hate. How did this happen?

Like many of the social issues that plague us today, the roots of advertising’s fall from grace can be traced back to the Industrial Revolution. Technology enabled scale. Mass production became reality. And, to keep pace, advertising showed us its less benign side.

Prior to mass production, the output of a product was limited to the resources of a producer. Increasing quantity usually had an inverse impact on quality, which relied on the skills of a single craftsperson. One person could only produce so much. The first brands were introduced by these craftspeople to identify their products, differentiating them from inferior competitors.

But with mechanization and the introduction of the assembly line, suddenly scale became virtually unlimited. Uniform products could be produced by the trainload. Profits became tied to scale, and greed became tied to profit. From that point forward, the three moved in lockstep.

It was at that point that advertising moved from being a helpful notice to an annoying plea to buy crap we don’t need. And that’s when advertisers had to learn to start pushing the public’s buttons, whether we wanted them pushed or not. Everything started to go off the rails early in the 20th century, and the wreckage really piled up with the introduction of mass communication. Suddenly, unlimited greed had an unlimited capacity to annoy us. Advertising couldn’t stop at informing. It had to start selling.

The twist in all this came right at the end of the “Century of Annoyance.” In 1998, Goto.com introduced paid search (no, it wasn’t Google). It was an ad with one purpose, to make someone aware of something they weren’t previously aware of. And it was delivered in the perfect context. The market, in the form of a searcher, was looking to become more aware about something by seeking out new information. It gets even better. The searcher could decide whether or not to take advertisers up on their offers by choosing to click or not

Of course, with time, we advertisers will figure out a way to screw that up, too. The good news, if you’re Matt Cutts, is that it means you’ll have a job for the foreseeable future.

Gord Hotchkiss is an independent consultant, speaker and author. He's been a keen observer of the strategic side of search, digital marketing and corresponding human behavior for almost two decades now. Contact him here.

Social TV Ratings – Why Advertisers Should Be Careful Of What They Wish For By Graeme Hutton www.MediaBizBloggers.com Published: June 6, 2013 at 5:12 AM PDT

Allow me to start with a personal declaration: As a media researcher who has tracked the word of mouth generated by many advertising campaigns, I am excited by the impending launch of social TV ratings. Slated to come on stream in Q4 this year, social TV ratings should catapult the concept of TV audience ratings from a simple viewer measurement to a consumer response metric. Social TV ratings should provide a standardized quantification of consumers’ social media involvement with a TV program. Nonetheless, in case we all become too rapidly enthralled by the specter of social TV ratings, let me also add “Not so fast!” Why do I say this?

Nielsen and Twitter announced this important initiative in December 2012. Billed as the Nielsen Twitter TV Rating (NTTR), the NTTR is a revolutionary new TV ratings statistic, primarily based on the Tweets each TV show receives.

The NTTR brings the promise of a qualitative, behavioral measure to overlay on standard TV ratings. Currently, in order to determine their total TV presence, some media buyers simply add up their TV ratings across the shows in which their advertising appeared. In effect, all they are doing is weighing their total audience delivery. Indeed, a campaign’s total TV rating achievement is often referred to as its TV weight.


I think the issue may be way more complex and nuanced than just comparing a campaign’s total TV ratings weight with its social TV ratings. Typically, there would seem to be a simple three-step process:

Step 1: The advertiser or agency decides to focus on social TV ratings, invest in the metric and maximize the campaign’s delivery of this measure.

Step 2: For each show on the campaign’s schedule, the media buyer then compares the delivery of social TV ratings to the audience ratings to derive each show’s conversion index. Any program with an index above 100 is considered to be in positive territory.

Step 3: The ultimate goal would appear to be simple: Evaluate all TV shows in the campaign and max the aggregate social ratings’ conversion index.

For any advertiser or agency hoping that adding up social TV ratings may be akin to summing up audience TV ratings, I offer the following two observations to consider:

First, take the Super Bowl – the granddaddy of all TV shows generating word of mouth. Counter intuitively, not all advertisers who appear in this game see an actual uplift in their brands’ word of mouth. Indeed, according to Keller Fay, the leading word of mouth researcher, about 10%-15% of advertisers in the Super Bowl can see a decline in their word of mouth in the week after the game. This unexpected outcome would not have been anticipated by the above process.

Secondly, in late 2010, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association honored me with their Gold Award for Research for constructing a multiple regression analysis which demonstrated the connection between Sony Electronics’ advertising and their subsequent word of mouth. This connection was not a straightforward relationship. One of my key findings was that ad-generated word of mouth depended not only on Sony’s media weight, but also on their share of voice. In other words, ad-generated word of mouth was seen to be competitive.

Estimating a campaign’s word of mouth is not like calculating ad awareness, which is largely a function of the total ad weight and its weekly reach. A more complex relationship may exist, which can make word of mouth modeling more like sales modeling.

On the upside, UM has undertaken a number of special analyses that frequently demonstrate a strong relationship between a sponsor’s TV show and the sponsor’s consequent word of mouth. In this case, the sponsor’s recipe for success is clear:

• Match the brand to the program

• Align the message to the audience

For example, a perceived older brand would almost always need to exude an evident sense of humor, or even young-at-heart irreverence, if it were being integrated into The Colbert Report.

The upcoming release of social TV ratings justifiably enthuses many of us in the ad business. Yet in order for social TV ratings truly to succeed, its advertising impact will need to be verified and validated. To their credit, both Twitter and Nielsen have an impressive array of ad effectiveness experts on their respective benches. Make no mistake, if Twitter and Nielsen can get beyond the issues I’ve outlined here and categorically prove the effectiveness of social TV ratings, it will upend the TV airtime market as we know it.

Online Video Trumps TV In Engagement, Ad Shiftsby Wayne Friedman, Yesterday, 10:41 AM

Some worldwide traditional TV ad spending -- as well as display advertising -- is shifting into new online media video campaigns.

According to a survey, 73% of respondents said online video spend had increased over the last 12 months.TV and display were cited as the two main sources for the new video money.

The data, drawn from 770 global marketers, comes from Be On, a new AOL-branded content division, between March and April.

Although TV is considered a key "awareness" producer, 78% of respondents in Europe and 58% globally said they could achieve greater engagement and scale with online video.

Over 80% point to audience and content targeting as main factors when planning a new branded video campaign. Better audience targeting (73%) and measurement (67%) were mentioned as key reasons for increasing online video spend in the future.

Overall, all video marketplaces were deemed satisfactory: 64% of those surveyed said they were satisfied with video services in today’s market. Another 84% believed the Internet is fundamentally becoming a strong brand medium.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/201835/online-video-trumps-tv-in-engagement-ad-shifts.html?edition=60876#ixzz2VR9Z4a9A

DoubleClick Integrates Support For Native Ads, Brand Integrationby Laurie Sullivan, Yesterday, 3:50 PM Wednesday, Jun 5, 2013

Native ad formats and social have emerged as important new ad models. Now Google will offer support for both in DoubleClick.

Google has quietly been testing native ads with a handful of publishers, such as Forbes. Meredith Levien, group publisher and CRO at Forbes, addressed attendees at the DoubleClick advisory board meeting for advertisers and publishers Tuesday to explain how Forbes BrandVoice works.


http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/201835/online-video-trumps-tv-in-engagement-ad-shifts.html?edition=60876#ixzz2VR9Z4a9A

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/201835/online-video-trumps-tv-in-engagement-ad-shifts.html?edition=60876#ixzz2VR9Z4a9A

The platform allows marketers at companies like SAP to connect with readers by creating content or native ads that run on the publisher's site. Levien said brands must adhere to strict guidelines, such as that the content must feel natural on the page, native rather than a pitch, and transparently labeled as ad content.

DoubleClick for Publishers will support native ad products like Forbes by allowing brands to integrate their content management systems into the platform and manage the native ad inventory alongside more traditional ad units.

Neal Mohan, Google vice president-display advertising, also introduced Google Web Designer, a free product that marketers can use to create content in HTML5 and CSS3, so it runs across all up-to-date browsers. Marketers create the content once to run across desktop, smartphones and tablets.

Google also finally integrated social capabilities into its DoubleClick advertising system through its 2012 acquisition of Wildfire. Alongside display advertising and search campaigns, the DoubleClick Campaign Manager will track the performance of non-paid social media campaigns, such as promotions.

The reporting will give brands insight into how social feeds into attribution models, according to Mohan. "This is just the first step," he said. "We aim to introduce a slew of connections between Wildfire and DoubleClick over the next few months and quarters."

Mohan said many in the industry have a misconception that digital technology creates a disconnect between one media and another, or a brand and its audience. A recent study with Boston Consulting Group in Europe found having a platform that connects media saves clients about 33% of time that is otherwise wasted in duplicate efforts. That time translated into days spent creating connections with business partners.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/201746/doubleclick-integrates-support-for-native-ads-bra.html?edition=60871#ixzz2VOOC7hra

Is Quartz the Very Model of a Modern Publisher?Josh Sternberg 05.30.2013

Eight months ago, Atlantic Media placed a bet that a digital-first, mobile-oriented publication geared to business executives on the go would be a hit. The results, so far, point to a publication on the rise.

Quartz began with a philosophy that goes against today’s publishing tropes: Instead of running banners, it would run advertising content; instead of a homepage, it would have a continuous stream of content. In the last eight months, the company has grown its staff, advertiser base,audience and revenue.

Jay Lauf, publisher of Quartz, has learned a lot since unwrapping the Quartz cover. He’s learned that embracing the social Web is a big boon for a new media brand. “It’s how you grow traffic — and quality traffic,” he said. He also learned that when it comes to ads, perhaps unsurprisingly, quality trumps quantity.

“It seems like an easy throwaway, but quality of content matters. Quality of design interface matters. Quality of ads matters,” Lauf said. “We feel vindicated; it’s a hallmark of what we do, and it’s proven to be useful. Users actually like ads if they’re good. Sounds very Jonah Peretti, but it is true.”

Quartz started with four sponsors — Boeing, Chevron, Credit Suisse, Cadillac — and has added 11 other blue-chip advertisers like Ralph Lauren, KPMG, Cathay Pacific, Rolex (outside the U.S.), Intel, Colloquy, Sony, Adobe, Box, Charles Schwab and Morgan Stanley.

While its sister publication, The Atlantic, was embroiled in a non-scandal scandal around sponsored content, Quartz has displayed an openness in how it creates advertising content for its advertisers. There’s a strict separation of advertising church and editorial state.

The ads, which sit in the editorial content stream, are created by both the brand and Quartz’s marketing team. Ads are clearly labeled as “sponsored content” and sold on a CPM basis, unlike others, like Buzzfeed, that charge a set price for a cluster of sponsored posts. And advertisers notice the quality of the ads that run in Quartz.

“As an advertiser, native gets beat up, but Quartz has a nice native format,” said Ben Kunz, vp of strategic planning at Mediassociates. “It comes off as a value to the reader. They’ve done a good job of defending editorial standards and native, which is smart. If I were to bet on them, I’d say they succeed.”

Ad revenue is up 112 percent from the first quarter to the second quarter. Lauf added that Quartz hit its target revenue through the first half of the year but wouldn’t disclose revenue figures. Yes, this a common pattern in the media world, especially when a publication is starting from scratch, but it’s a clear signal that Quartz is gaining traction among advertisers and audiences.

Many advertisers want to reach that elusive high-net-worth audience. Research such as the Mendelsohn Affluent Survey finds the high-net-worth crowd are voracious consumers of digital. They use multiple devices to access the Internet. They are also heavy readers of magazines. Quartz seems a smart play to put all this together to reach high-net-worth audiences in a magazine-like tablet format.

Quartz has also beefed up its staff across the board. It’s gone from three marketers and two sales people at the start to now eight marketers and seven sales people, plus rep firms in London and Singapore. It’s also grown its engineer and developer team, now up to five. Lauded for its design and user interface, Quartz is showing how a digital-only outlet can tap into the powers of design.

“We’ve learned the real importance of engineers and developers; the extent to which they can make a difference in your world, both on the ad side and in general on the product side,” Lauf said. “Those guys are so integral to everything we do.”

On the traffic front, Quartz is growing, reporting 2.3 million monthly uniques last month. Comscore puts it at a more down-to-Earth 882,000 desktop and 333,000 on mobile, which is a shade under The Financial Times (1.2 million) and The Economist (2.3 million). Not too bad for the new kid on the block.


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Quartz was billed as a mobile-first destination, and as such, it eschewed creating a homepage. Instead, it focuses on the article page, and the internal traffic numbers point to how Quartz content is being read and shared. Lauf said that 31 percent of Quartz’s traffic comes from direct, and more than 50 percent comes from social. Mobile, he said, fluctuates between 25 and 31 percent.

“The punchline is this shows how the rapid transition of consumers to smartphones and tablets, and creates a window of opportunity for new publisher entrants to grab share,” Kunz said. “If I were a digital publisher, I’d think it’s game on.”

Why gamification is serious business

February 2013

In 2011, Volkswagen Group invited consumers in China, its largest and most important market, to help the company develop new versions of the “people’s car.” Participants were given a tool to help them easily design their new vehicle, and they were able to post their designs for others to view and to pick their favorites. The results were tracked on leaderboards so contestants and the general public could see how the competing designs were faring.

Within 10 weeks, the online crowd-sourcing campaign had received more than 50,000 ideas. By the end of the campaign’s first year, at least 33 million people had visited the site, and the general public had chosen three winning concepts. One of them, a two-seater, zero-emissions vehicle that hovers over electromagnetic road networks, was turned into an online video that swiftly became a viral hit on YouTube. Small wonder that VW, acknowledging its long-term importance for the company’s future product development strategy, has announced that the project will continue indefinitely.

The People’s Car Project owes its success to VW’s recognition that participation in a popular business initiative needs to be not only enticing and rewarding but also engaging and fun—more than a bit, in fact, like playing a game. Indeed, the name of the elimination section of the design contest—P.K., which stands for “player kill”—was borrowed directly from the sort of multiplayer, online games that millions now play worldwide.

The application of such game-like elements to the sort of business challenge that VW faced is known as “gamification”—and it’s catching on fast. Gartner research projects that by 2014, more than 70 percent of Forbes Global 2000 organizations will have at least one games-based application, and that by 2015, half of all companies that manage innovation processes will have “gamified” them.

Alluring applications


However, these companies are not, either literally or figuratively, playing games. Gamification is serious business. The companies leveraging it are taking the essence of what makes games so alluring (a shared sense of purpose, challenge and reward), decoding the mechanics that make them work (personalization, rankings and leaderboards) and then applying these mechanics in a multitude of imaginative initiatives to help enhance customer loyalty, motivate shoppers to buy and provide more compelling mechanisms for retaining and encouraging talent.

The approach can be especially effective when applied to complex challenges. Foldit, for example, is an online puzzle game devised by scientists at the University of Washington in Seattle to help them understand the structure of proteins. In 2011, the game’s 240,000 registered players were invited to configure the structure of an enzyme associated with the AIDS virus. Tracking their competing scores through shared leaderboards, Foldit players solved a problem in three weeks that had stumped scientists for 15 years.

The results of gamification in a commercial context can be equally impressive. Witness, for example, the success of Nike+, the sports shoe company’s mobile and Facebook app, which lets users establish personal running goals and rewards them for reaching milestones with congratulatory messages from celebrity athletes. Nike+ membership soared 40 percent in 2011, helping boost revenues in the company’s Running category by 30 percent.

The potential power of such games-based applications and ventures has been magnified by the convergence of two major trends: the coming of age of Generation Y, and the overcrowding of the digital space, which makes it harder for companies to stand out.

Generation Y, the demographic born between 1980 and 2000, has not only grown up in a digital world. They are also enthusiastic online gamers, driving the growth of an industry that Gartner reckons will be worth $112 billion globally by 2015. These consumers are rapidly becoming employees as well—by 2015, they’ll form the majority of the US working population. And they like to be communicated with, both when shopping and at work, via the game-like mechanisms they plainly love (see Sidebar 1).

The appeal of game mechanics extends well beyond this key cohort, however. As the growing predominance of digital media indicates—in the United States, online advertising was forecast to overtake print in 2012 and is fast closing in on TV—many older adults are also becoming digital-device-savvy. And they are often just as keen as the young to compete with their peers and publicize their accomplishments—the essential principles of gamification. In fact, 37 percent of US gamers are older than 35. In both the United Kingdom and the United States, adult social gamers—people who play games that include strong social elements—now constitute the majority of players on mobile devices.

Companies, of course, have been applying game-like elements to achieve business objectives for decades. Consider the Solitaire application that Microsoft included in its release of Windows 3.0 in 1990 to help acquaint users with the newly introduced click-and-drag functions of the mouse. But the Digital Age has thrown up new challenges, and the application of game mechanics offers companies the chance to crack one of its particularly critical conundrums: how to penetrate the walls that consumers have erected to filter out the deluge of information and opportunities that increasingly clutter their digital spaces.

Today’s consumers are more likely to junk business marketing messages than act on them. But if a trusted source serves as the messenger, campaigns can become collaborative exercises, utilizing social networks to spread the message—and applying game mechanics to engage more and more participants.

Consider, for example, TripAdvisor, the US-based travel website, which boasts more than 75 million reviews and opinions—contributed voluntarily by individuals who clearly enjoy their status as trusted sources of valued information.

Collective values

In some regions, notably Southeast Asia, a peculiar combination of well-entrenched collective values and unusually developed digital enthusiasm is driving an exceptionally healthy appetite for gamification initiatives (see Sidebar 2). But reaching consumers by these means in any geography requires an acute understanding of what makes games so compelling.

In Accenture’s experience, seven elements are especially significant.

1. Status

Because gamers are motivated by the recognition of others within their social community, business solutions leveraging game mechanics need to ensure that players’ reputations can be enhanced.


Consider, for example, Stack Overflow, a site for programmers and digital geeks that synthesizes wikis, blogs and Internet forums. Users are invited to submit answers and solutions to questions and challenges posed by their peers, through which they earn badges that appear on their user pages.

2. Milestones

Levels are everything in gaming, and enabling participants to perceive progress through incremental accomplishments is vital to sustaining interest. Case in point: Starbucks Corp.’s rewards card, which awards a star for every coffee purchased. Users qualify for free drinks or food when they earn a certain number of stars.

3. Competition

Accenture’s own Steptacular application, which is designed to encourage employees to improve their fitness by walking more, enables participants to compete with one another by sharing and comparing their achievements—a major motivator in maintaining engagement. It also rewards them with “Celebrating Performance” points that can be used to redeem such products as iPads and cameras.

4. Rankings

Visual displays of progress and rankings help participants track their performance against both their own goals and the performance of others. The rankings tap into people’s natural competitiveness and encourage them to do better, boosting repeat visits motivated by the desire to improve their position.

In the United States, for instance, customers at more than 60 electric utilities receive home energy reports generated by Virginia-based software-as-a-service provider Opower. These reports include their ranking versus their neighbors and targeted tips designed to motivate them to reduce energy consumption to levels “normal” in their neighborhoods. The most energy-efficient homes are recognized with smiley-face emoticons. But more important, users are able to see how they are doing in relation to some aggregate of others in their neighborhood, and that can motivate them to try to improve.

5. Social connectedness

People typically join a game because their socially networked friends are playing it—and enough “likes” can unleash a tidal wave of interest. So successful gamification initiatives need to create a strong sense of community. In 2010, for example, when the Japanese soft drink seller Pocari Sweat decided to embark on an aggressive marketing campaign for its electrolyte drink in Indonesia, an online game called Ionopolis played a critical role in the launch. Nearly 94,000 people signed up to collaborate in defeating a host of comic-book monsters hell-bent on dehydrating a virtual city. Players buy drinks in return for in-game benefits, including codes to fill their hydration meters; they can also post status updates on Facebook or Twitter, and check into specific locations on Foursquare to perform certain tasks.

6. Immersion reality

With their detailed graphics and exciting animation, digital games make players feel completely immersed in their virtual reality. And companies seeking to apply games mechanics to their business take visual stimulation seriously. Witness the video script used to market Nike+: “Picture yourself out on a run. With Nike+ that run becomes an endless parade of information about you—how fast you’re going, how far you’ve gone, how long you’ve been at it. . . . Got any friends? Awesome. Put ’em to work. They can cheer you on while you are running by posting comments to your Facebook page. Better yet, challenge them. If they’re really your friends, they’ll still talk to you while they’re choking on your dust.”

7. Personalization

The ability to customize promotes a sense of ownership in the game through self-expression.SuperBetter, for example, is a social platform designed to help people recovering from an illness or an accident (or, indeed, people who just want to feel better about themselves) boost their personal resilience. Users describe their challenges or goals and receive personalized “power-ups”—strategies to beat anxiety, for instance, or customized diet plans—as well as “bad guys” to avoid, and personalized “quests.” They can keep track of their progress—and share it with others—via a customized to-do list.

Companies don’t need to utilize all of these options to harness the power of gamification. Much depends on whether the initiative is targeted at consumers or employees, and whether its mission is to promote products or processes.

Game mechanics are probably most effective in tackling challenges that have been difficult to solve. Consider, for instance, the Google Image Labeler game, which was online between 2006 and 2011 and


helped Google create better matches between keywords and images by inviting people to compete to extract the multitude of meanings behind millions of images.

And the gamification approaches need to be targeted where there is significant demand—in markets or employee groups where Generation Y predominates, for example, or by leveraging channels such as smartphones, tablets and social networks where games-based applications will be familiar and expected.

Nor should applying games-based solutions involve a revamp of the business model. Companies can start small—with reward points per purchase, for instance. And they could benefit by forging links with digital marketing agencies and specialist, turnkey providers to boost their knowledge and understanding.

There is no perfect place to start—but neither is there any time to waste. The benefits of gamification may take time to realize, but in an increasingly interactive world, they are likely to deliver enduring competitive advantage.

For further reading

“Gamification and sustainable behavior change in the workplace,” Accenture 2012

“Playing Your Digital Cards Right,” Accenture 2012

Sidebar 1 | Generation Y: Learning from the source

Among the expectations that distinguish Generation Y—the first to grow up with the Internet and smartphones—from its predecessors is the assumption by its members that they will be communicated with via mechanisms that imitate the competitive, connected and personalized world of the online games they play so enthusiastically.

That should make Generation Y an ideal test bed for attempts to apply the principles of gaming to marketing, product differentiation, brand advocacy and employee motivation. Yet despite its preferences and their concomitants—an apparent indifference to privacy issues, a tendency to text rather than talk and a desire for instant gratification—Gen Y will be a hard nut to crack.

The under-35s fully anticipate that they will be “pitched”—but they also have clear views of what they want from those doing the pitching. They demand authenticity, in both voice and content. And they will shun, and even mock, approaches they perceive to be dishonest and manipulative, preferring to place a premium on the recommendations of socially networked “friends.”

As employees, they can be equally picky. They typically like to multitask and tend to demand considerable job flexibility. Indeed, their desire for constant stimulation and personal recognition, if unfulfilled, can make them fickle workers who will jump ship all too readily. However, with more and more of this decisive demographic entering the workforce, the opportunity to learn from them directly is growing too. At a time when the design, development and testing of games-based initiatives is in its formative stages, tapping the talent of a generation that so instinctively understands the power of gaming could prove pivotal. (Back to story)

Sidebar 2 | Southeast Asia: A passion for gaming

Few regions of the world offer more promising territory for games-based marketing initiatives than Southeast Asia. In Singapore and Malaysia, for example, 95 percent of the population—10 percent more than the global average—owns a laptop or PC. And Singapore boasts the world’s third-largest smartphone penetration, after Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

This digital predilection also influences the way people interact. Sixty-five percent of Indonesian Internet users are also daily users of social media, compared with just 54 percent of Internet users globally. Nearly half of Internet users across the region play online games every week, 6 out of 10 of them via social networks. And the regional digital gaming market is expected to more than double between now and 2016, accounting for nearly 60 percent of global sales.

What’s more, Southeast Asians respond with alacrity to the commercial messaging embedded in social media. Nearly half of Malaysian gamers, for example, search online to learn more about a product or brand they first saw advertised in a game. And almost three-quarters of Indonesia’s social network users agree that such networks are good places to learn more about brands and products.

When Citibank launched a credit card aimed at 21-to-35-year-old Singaporeans, for example, it incorporated social media features designed to let them personalize their experiences. Users could gain points by checking in at specific locations, such as restaurants or stores, and “sharing” or “liking” deals on


Facebook. They could also vote for a particular experience or location and win a special Deal of the Month from winning establishments.

Digital familiarity isn’t the only reason why the region matters so much to organizations looking to apply game mechanics to their marketing and recruitment drives. It also contains a high proportion—10 percent higher than in China, and 14 percent higher than the United States, for example—of Generation Y, the demographic most likely to respond positively to such gamification initiatives (see Sidebar 1).

In Southeast Asia, moreover, this generation is well integrated within often extended families. Indeed, the strength of traditional collaborative values—known locally as kampong, or a village-based sense of community—can help mobilize broad swathes of the community as campaigns go viral, providing the collective legitimacy so important to launching products and establishing a presence in the region. (Back to story)

About the authors

Marco Ryan leads Accenture Interactive in the ASEAN region. He is based in Singapore.

Andy Sleigh is the director of research at Accenture’s Management Consulting Innovation Centre in Singapore.

Kai Wee Soh is an analyst with Accenture Interactive. He is based in Singapore.

Zed Li is a consultant with Accenture Interactive. He is based in Singapore.

Guess who controls the future of TV

February 2013

Picture a typical nine-year-old watching TV today. She probably has a tablet in her lap, ready to check out videos related to the Animal Planet special she’s watching. Or perhaps she’s borrowed her big sister’s phone so she can vote on this week’s episode of Dancing with the Stars.

By the time she’s old enough to head off to university, however, her TV viewing experience will be markedly richer. By then, she may be inviting her friends over to watch the “sitcom” filmed by her classmates and loaded into her home’s cloud-based content library. After her friends leave, she might pick up the easy-to-use TV remote to take a high-resolution tour around the Beijing neighborhood where her big sister lives. Or maybe she’ll search for a favorite scene in one of theTwilight movies.

Good-bye to the familiar old TV set? Au contraire. For years now, the demise of the popular appliance has been predicted as the Web has claimed more and more of our screen-viewing time. The fact is, the TV is here to stay. Its role in delivering compelling viewing experiences—collective and individual—will continue. However, the big screen in the living room is indeed undergoing a metamorphosis, because what goes on behind the screen is changing dramatically.


For most of us, the TV will develop as an even more valuable vehicle for entertainment and, increasingly, for education and information. But for business leaders up and down the media value chain—from filmmakers and broadcast channels to Internet service providers to “last mile” communications operators—the reinvented TV is a huge disruption.

There will be winners—businesses that quickly grasp the nuances of the resulting changes in the creation, financing, production and delivery of content. But others may find themselves facing fierce new competition. Take, for instance, the pressure the cable companies are facing from so-called over-the-top (OTT) providers, such as Netflix and Hulu, which send their content through the Internet. In short, we’re now seeing the collapse of the walls that previously excluded new entrants to the TV business.

So how can the TV still be relevant in a tablet and smartphone age?

To be sure, TV viewing time has become fragmented—the result of busy lives that see consumers recording, for example, the Boardwalk Empire episode that the school board meeting forced them to miss. And of course, “screen time” today is shared with laptops, phones and tablets.

Accenture’s latest research on consumer viewing habitsfinds that fully 62 percent of TV viewers are concurrently using a computer or a laptop and 41 percent are using a mobile phone—messaging friends about a sitcom joke or fact-checking politicians’ claims, perhaps (view infographic). Coupled with the widespread availability of high-speed wireless Internet, today’s viewing experience is more interactive, more consumable and far more sharable in real time.

Dominant medium

But the truth is that the living room screen remains a dominant communications medium, and will continue to be so. There is still no substitute for the collective viewing experience of watching the big game or the season finale of a popular drama. Plus, the new Accenture study reveals that young people are much more engaged with TV than might be supposed.

Even 25-to-34-year-olds view, on average, almost 140 hours a month of “traditional” TV programming—more than 20 times as many hours as they spend watching video on the Internet or on their phones (see chart).


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And nearly half of all users still sit down in front of the TV—not their smartphones or tablets—to watch some type of OTT video content. Another relevant measure: YouTube users average five or so hours of video viewing per month—a figure that is dwarfed by the time they spend in front of the TV.

Bottom line: Television still has great power to pull audiences. And big changes are coming that will continue to engage viewers.

Not too many years from now, we will be able to use the TV unit to access an entire ecosystem of content—richly immersive, far more of it fully interactive and all of it on-demand via the Internet. It will be easily sourced from content catalogs and accessed with a handheld device—a next-generation smartphone, perhaps, or a dedicated device that is as simple and intuitive to use as today’s remote.

Just as significantly, individual consumers, armed with high-performance hardware and software, will become content creators, able to provide more of what the news channels deliver. (Think of higher-quality versions of the public’s mobile-phone news bulletins of Hurricane Sandy’s devastation.) At the same time, the major movie studios are meeting the growing demand for premium video content. Look at the money pouring into blockbusters—$150 million to produceSkyfall, the latest James Bond film, for example, and the estimated $250 million spent on the newest Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises. These movies are being engineered during original production to maximize the downstream opportunity in extras, web videos, apps and so on. And, increasingly, content is as likely to be distributed by an Amazon or a Google as it is to show up courtesy of Bravo.

King of content

Network executives and cable operators don’t need to look far to see what is rocking their world. The easy answer, of course, is “technology”—from the TV hardware to the social media with which to share content to the cloud services that make it effective to store vast amounts of data. The fact is, however, that the consumer is the undisputed king of content.

Over the past decade, control of the viewing experience has shifted rapidly to the one who holds the remote. TiVo and many other digital recording systems have made it easy for people to choose when they watch their favorite programs. But consumers also want to be able to personalize the services they consume, with search, recommendations and social features becoming increasingly integrated across media. Accenture found that 64 percent of them prefer using genres—that is, content types such as “spaghetti Westerns,” “cartoons” and others—as search criteria for finding new video content. And 43 percent prefer finding new video content by using personalized recommendation engines that track what they’ve watched and suggest similar content.


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In a similar vein, 28 percent of users have already created video playlists on their current video services, such as Netflix and YouTube. These companies make it ever easier to do this, particularly by using historical behavior to recommend relevant viewing experiences. The story is much the same with music services such as Pandora and Spotify as well as Amazon.com with a whole range of merchandise.

At the same time, consumers are becoming distributors. Social media users have an average of 3.2 friends who post videos at least once a day; almost four out of 10 consumers post video online via social media (view infographic). More than half of the respondents polled by Accenture would be interested in recommending video to others as part of belonging to a video service.

This is not just about controlling content; it’s about content creation as well. The term “prosumer” is entering the language to describe talented amateurs who use sophisticated but affordable consumer technology to produce quality news reports or instructional videos, for instance. Today, aspiring adventurers can buy a GoPro camera for less than $300, attach it to their mountain bike or scuba mask, and capture astonishingly high-quality video that is easily edited on any laptop and just as easily shared via social media. Indeed, the growth in so-called user-generated content has exploded. YouTube now has more than 800 million unique users every month, and while the vast majority of them are watching, growing numbers of them are posting content that they or others they know have generated.

The capabilities are developing so quickly, and spreading so widely, that it’s safe to say that prosumer content will soon provide serious competition for some genres of professionally produced content—news footage, for instance, and some reality TV shows. Consumers are even changing the funding of content creation. (see Sidebar 2)

If those technology-enabled factors are pushing the media industry from one side, its key sources of revenue—notably advertisers—are pulling it on the other side. Increasingly, businesses expect to be able to measure what they get for their investments. Traditional media has always had a hard time delivering precise measurement, and while the explosion of Internet media is exacerbating the situation by further fragmenting viewing attention, it is also creating opportunities for better measurement.


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Following the money

So who wins in a new media world? The consumer does, of course. But the other winners are likely to come from outside the boundaries that have defined the industry over the past half-century. It is not a stretch to say that companies such as Amazon and Google will make big gains, as will others that grasp the significance of the disaggregation of traditional media value chains and the development of new forms of media value creation and consumption.

We’ve already seen the arrival and growth of businesses that offer new ways for consumers to access digital content. New entrants like YouTube and Netflix are also now creating their own content to differentiate their brand and sidestep the battle for content rights.

Amazon, Google and Apple already offer consumers access to significant amounts of content, even though it is not at the core of any of their businesses. For instance, Google’s core business is search, yet it streams more than 4 billion hours of video per month via YouTube.

Apple generates the vast majority of its income from sales of its devices, yet it made $2 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2012 alone from its iTunes Store, App Store, the iBookstore, sales of iPod services, and Apple-branded and third-party iPod accessories.

The newcomers are following the money. They understand that success in the media sector has revolved around premium content, and that it will continue to do so in the future. Which explains YouTube’s announcement, in October 2011, of a $100 million investment in premium channels and the announcement by Netflix in May 2012 of its plan for a $185 million, five-year investment in original content. Just two examples of Netflix’s investments: The new season of Arrested Development, releasing shortly, and House of Cards, the US version of the UK political series of the same name directed by David Fincher and starring Kevin Spacey.

The tectonic shifts underneath the media industry will permanently reshape the landscape, altering everything from the flow of advertising dollars to the makeup of the industry itself.

To that last point: Some of the writing may already be on the wall. In recent months, some pure OTT content providers have gone from strength to strength. Netflix now has more subscribers than many pay-TV operators in the United States. That is an astonishing statistic, given that Netflix was founded only in 1997.

At the same time, the most forward-thinking of the traditional operators are making significant moves to properly position themselves in the new media world. To take just two examples: British Sky Broadcasting is making its existing content offerings available on as many devices as possible, and YouView—a new open-platform system that makes IP and broadcast TV technologies easily accessible to viewers through one intuitive user interface—is backed by such industry giants as BT and the BBC. (see Sidebar 3)

Removing the guesswork

Traditional subscription models are not the only ones at risk from the new media model. Advertising will also have to accommodate the steady shift to digital content and the inexorable move to OTT content,


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together with the fact that more and more content is being viewed holistically, with digital entertainment experiences encompassing TV, film, web video, gaming and apps.

Thus far, the managed migration of rights to new platforms has preserved traditional TV advertising and pay-TV subscriptions as the greatest drivers of revenue. But the industry may be about to change too fast for that to remain true. Possible signs of things to come: Subscriptions could well shift away from bloated bundles to à la carte options that allow consumers to pick and pay for exactly the content they want and no more, from a range of different providers—new Internet-based players among them.

Already, chief marketing officers everywhere are scrambling to reallocate and optimize marketing budgets across platforms. They are getting some help from increasingly sophisticated customer data collection and analytics tools, which are beginning to enable new forms of cross-screen targeting and measurement. To a large extent, digital removes the guesswork from traditional advertising models—digital data is more accurate and more granular than its analog predecessor.

But there is still much to do before the typical marketing department is able to effectively use sophisticated analytics to deliver premium, personalized, interactive advertising, and create a richer, more detailed understanding of specific consumer groups—or fan bases—that will respond to new offers.

So what does the new face of TV mean for today’s established media businesses? The ascent of the consumer requires business models that are built around consumer needs rather than those of a particular channel, platform or advertiser. A single shared view of the customer—often across different channels—is a prerequisite for a successful, consumer-focused multiplatform strategy.

The businesses that adapt successfully will need to try different approaches concurrently. They’ll need to create and run with hybrid business models and constantly reevaluate their place in the media value “ecosystem”—perhaps taking on new roles—so they can spot and capture new revenue opportunities. In short, players all across the media value chain now have to plan for a new and fundamentally different media delivery architecture.

Ten years from now, the TV will still be one of the largest pieces of furniture in the living room, and it will still have a central place in family life. But the TV business overall may be unrecognizable—certainly when compared to the operating models and industry makeup that prevail today.

The decisions that new entrants are making today up and down the media value chain are already forcing some serious rethinking within the established media industry. The traditional broadcast networks—those most at risk of disruption—must act more promptly and assertively than they are accustomed to if they are to survive in the new world.

But the decisions being made by the Amazons and Googles have ramifications far beyond the media business itself. They will color the choices that advertisers—business-to-business as well as business-to-consumer—will have to make. They will have an impact on the world of education. They may well change the directions of development of a host of new content-delivery products. And they could even reshape the role of media as it reflects and affects public policy.


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To paraphrase the old political maxim: Where TV goes, so goes the nation.

Sidebar 1 | Reinventing TV: Nine key questions for established media players

There are dramatic changes in the television industry going on behind the screen. Traditional media players must respond by reinventing themselves, a process that begins with self-examination. Crucial questions for the C-suite management team include:

1. Should traditional media and entertainment companies reinvent themselves as consumer businesses? If so, how?

2. Can new digital economic models be made to work for all parts of the media value chain?

3. How might new OTT offerings threaten the subscription pay-TV giants?

4. What new types of partnerships and collaborations should media businesses consider in order to better match consumers’ new digital experience requirements?

5. Will new industry business models sustain investments in high-quality content—or will profits be channeled elsewhere?

6. How can the ad industry’s traditional players collaborate to move toward a new world of multiplatform advertising?

7. How can data and analytics be used to galvanize new business models?

8. Should traditional vertically integrated media companies resist or embrace open platforms?

9. How do content companies maximize revenue across linear and on-demand as the balance shifts toward the latter?

Sidebar 2 | Not waiting for deep pockets

By 2010, a movie director named Steve Taylor secured funding to create a film adaptation of Donald Miller’s book, Blue Like Jazz. The following year, the film lost the support of a major investor, forcing Taylor to stop production.

That’s when two fans of the book stepped in. To raise the $125,000 required to resume production, they created a Kickstarter webpage called “SAVE Blue Like Jazz! (the movie).” The campaign reached its funding target of $125,000 in 10 days—and blew past it, becoming the most successful Kickstarter fundraiser of 2010. In total, $345,992 was raised by 4,495 backers—an average of just $76.97 each.

In April 2012, Blue Like Jazz opened nationwide across 136 screens. In just eight weeks—before distribution internationally and through rental and cable channels—it had netted half of the movie’s total budget. It is just one of several examples of crowdfunding. The trend is borne out by Accenture’s recent consumer research: 36 percent of digital consumers would be willing to donate small sums to fund their favorite movie or TV program. (Back to story)

Sidebar 3 | UK viewers now get “all channels” digital TV

In the summer of 2012, the British public got another way to watch “telly.” The new Internet TV service, called YouView, has been hailed by some industry insiders as the natural successor to Britain’s current model of free-to-air TV. Some researchers expect that 3 million UK homes will have YouView by 2015.

YouView combines the United Kingdom’s free-to-air digital channels with on-demand content, all delivered without subscription. An easy-to-use set-top box brings together IP and broadcast TV technologies, making them accessible to viewers through a single consistent and intuitive user interface. The service is backed by a consortium of seven partners, including the country’s main terrestrial broadcasters (BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5), two ISPs (BT and TalkTalk) and a network services provider, Arqiva.

The service’s big innovation happens behind the screen. Its application platform gives consumers access to a vast array of content options. For example, if the box is connected to a broadband line from a partner ISP, then an application providing that ISP’s IPTV service will appear automatically. As the number of content sources in its ecosystem grows, YouView’s attractiveness to both consumers and to potential new content, devices and service providers will continue to increase. At launch, more than 140 content providers had signed up to add their content to the YouView platform; today, more than 300 providers are interested.

YouView is not simply another version of a web-enabled TV service. It features a single, consistent, intuitive user interface (integrating on-demand, catch-up and broadcast TV). It includes a unique content


discovery platform: a central catalog that allows global search, browsing by genre/popularity across content providers, and a “backward-looking” electronic program guide (EPG). “Unlike a lot of smart TVs, it doesn’t zone off on-demand content in a separate section that you access from another menu—the whole lot is integrated,” notes one reviewer. Its open application platform can be used by any participating content provider, offering consumers a tremendous range of content. It also upgrades easily, accepting new features over time such as behavioral targeting and predictive recommendations generated by analysis of social media data—such as iTunes Genius music recommendations.

YouView provides a strong springboard for innovation. Its unified and open ecosystem is expected to disrupt the existing TV business model, affecting content providers, broadcasters, ISPs, advertisers, set-top-box manufacturers and many other technology enablers. And it offers abundant opportunities to create new products and features, becoming increasingly attractive to consumers and providers of content, devices and TV services.

To date, consumer feedback on the user interface has been very positive. UK telecom company TalkTalk—just one of multiple sales channels for YouView—signed up 29,000 YouView customers in the first month after launch. A thousand new customers are signing up each day for the service, according to a TalkTalk spokesperson. (Back to story)

About the authors

Robin Murdoch leads the strategy group within Accenture Communications, Media & Technology. He is based in Seattle.

Youssef D. Tuma leads Accenture Digital Services for the United Kingdom. He is based in London.

Marco Vernocchi leads the Media & Entertainment group within Accenture Communications, Media & Technology. He is based in Milan.

Will Twitter Cards Revolutionize Lead Gen?Frans Van Hulle 06.05.2013 Frans Van Hulle is the CEO and co-founder of ReviMedia

Twitter is launching new lead generation cards in an effort to make Twitter a better tool for advertisers. This is great news for advertisers, who can now build their email marketing list right in Twitter, but a few questions and concerns remain.

What’s great about this strategy is that user information is automatically sent by clicking a button, rather than depending on users to to fill out forms themselves. Through expandable tweets, users can now express their interest in certain products and offers by sending their personal information associated with their Twitter handle. It is also better than just a “like” because it gives marketers some specific data, like an email address.

While Twitter cards sound promising, there are several concerns for advertisers. One is how this Twitter card allows advertisers to target their lead generation. Targeted lead generation is crucial, and this card doesn’t really seem to allow targeting other than monitoring whether or not people respond to TV commercials. Moreover, if you can only promote offers to your own followers, it’s not clear how can you branch out and produce volume.

Another big concern is control of the data. Lead generation companies like to be in control of their data, but a large share of that data is managed by Twitter. Twitter handles and associated email addresses are forwarded to advertisers. However, there are limited tools to follow up on and convert leads into sales, even though there may have been an initial conversion from tweets.

Quality control could be another problem. It seems like these types of Twitter cards could be easily abused for spam. Moreover, these tweets only seem to be available for paying users, which really makes them more like “sponsored tweets” than lead gen cards.

As reported by Digiday yesterday, Twitter is also launching an exchange-like service that allows brands to retarget Twitter users, based on their search history. This will enable advertisers to target users not only based on their demographics or social network, but also based on purchase intent. It will be interesting to see if this planned ad exchange will address any of the issues above. It may be a better tool to grow the number of Twitter followers than Twitter Cards.

This is certainly a very exciting opportunity and a great step towards making Twitter more lead gen-friendly. Together with the planned ad exchange, Twitter cards could be a game changer.


US digital adspend soarsNEW YORK: US internet advertising revenues increased by 15.6% to a new record level in the first quarter of 2013, a new report has shown.

A survey conducted by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the trade body, and PwC US, the consultancy, as part of the ongoing IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report, found that digital advertising revenues amounted to $9.6bn in the first three months of 2013, compared to $8.3bn in the same period a year earlier.

Apart from a period of relative slowdown during 2008-09, digital advertising revenues have increased steadily over the past decade, with annual end-year peaks around the Christmas shopping period, the report suggested.

"Consumers are turning to interactive media in droves to look for the latest information, to connect with their social networks, and simply to be entertained," said Randall Rothenberg, president and chief executive of the IAB.

"This first quarter milestone clearly illustrates that marketers recognize that digital has become the go-to medium for all sorts of activities on all sorts of screens, at home, at the office and on-the-run."

Earlier IAB data showed US consumers spending more time online at the expense of traditional media, with social networks and online video the fastest growing usage areas.

Consumers spent an extra seven minutes on social networks during 2012, while online video saw a similar increase thanks to the growing amount of television and film content available to viewers.

Rothenburg's comments were echoed by his colleague Sherrill Mane, senior vice president, Research, Analytics & Measurement at IAB, who noted that double-digit annual growth was continuing even as the online advertising business matured.

"This is an accomplishment that can be attributed to growing recognition by marketers that digital advertising is a critical part of all marketing in today's world," she said.

Data sourced from IAB; additional content by Warc staff, 5 June 2013

Read more at http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/EmailNews.news?ID=31491&Origin=WARCNewsEmail#1zyhr1cmKHBgfpSk.99

If Content Is King, Multiscreen Is The Queen, Says New Google StudyINGRID LUNDEN, Wednesday, August 29th, 2012

New research out from Google, working with market analysts Ipsos and Sterling Brands, puts some hard numbers behind the often-noticed trend of how people in the U.S. are using a combination of phones, tablets, computer and TVs to consume digital content.

While each of these has a significant place in our consumption today, their real power lies in how they are used together — in combination, 90% of all of our media consumption, or 4.4 hours per day, is happening across all four (which doesn’t leave much room for paper-based books and publications; or for radio). This not only has implications for how content is designed, but also for how companies like Google will continue to hedge their bets across all four screens.

The state of TV viewing perhaps illustrates consumer usage best of all: polling 1,611 people across 15,738 media interactions and nearly 8,000 hours of activity during Q2, the study found that users are watching TV on average for 43 minutes per day session — the most of any screen — but 77% of that time we are simultaneously using another device like a smartphone or tablet.

The study also found that although a lot of attention is being focused on smartphones and apps, this device is not only the smallest screen in our world, it’s also used for the shortest bursts, at 17 minutes per day session, compared to 30 minutes on tablets, 39 minutes on PCs and the 43 minutes watching TV.


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But, while smartphones may have the shortest sessions be used the least overall, they are the most-used when it comes to on-boarding to a digital experience — or sequential device usage, as Google calls it. The research found that a majority of online tasks get initiated on a smartphone while being continued on another device — perhaps with a larger screen for easier use.

That effectively means that while your total content experience perhaps doesn’t need to be designed for a smartphone experience, at least the initial part of it should be, and that part should be integrated with how that content might be used on other devices — so, for example, watching a film first on a phone and then finishing it on a TV, or starting a shopping experience on a phone and finishing it on a PC.

The survey also found that smartphones are the most common sidekick device used simultaneously with other screens. This is perhaps unsurprising, given that smartphones are small and in many ways complement the services we get on PCs, televisions and tablets, not just with apps but also with voice and text services.

So what are the implications for a company like Google?

Since the bulk of its revenue, despite all its other activities, still comes from ads alongside search, if Google eats its own dogfood, I think we’re likely to see more and more integration with how it lets users search on


one device and then continue that experience on another, as well as joined up search experiences across third-party and Google’s own internet properties — both courtesy of their Google accounts.

Given that Google will have advertising following users along the way, it also implies Google continuing to make sure that it has a role to play across all of the screens. Whether it does so as a software-only player, or also through an increasing role in the hardware itself, remains to be seen, although products like Google’s new tablet with Asus, and its new ownership of Motorola Mobility, seem to point in the latter direction.

The full research findings are available http://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/multiscreenworld_final.pdf

Kids Are Lying Little Weasels Who Lie: Studyby Erik Sass, Tuesday, Jun 4, 2013

Stop the presses and take a seat everyone: you’re going to want to be sitting down when you hear that your kids have probably lied to you -- yes you, the person reading this right now -- according to a new study from McAfee titled “Digital Deceptions,” based on a survey of 2,474 young people (ages 10-23) and parents conducted in April. Among other things, the deceitful little traitors are lying about engaging in potentially dangerous online activities which would alarm their parents. But it’s actually your fault, you see, because you’re all just so darn trusting.

Overall 88% of youth ages 10-23 say their parents trust them to do the right thing online, according to McAfee, but that trust may be a bit misplaced, as an almost equal proportion (86%) have done things their parents would disapprove of, including sharing an email address (50%), the name of their school (49%), phone number (32%), intimate or personal details like a social security number or who they’re dating (32%), or their home address (11%). Meanwhile 69% of parents expressed concern that this kind of sharing might be taking place, including just 17% who thought their children might be sharing an email address, 31% for the name of their school, 10% for their phone number, 12% for intimate or personal details, and 5% for their home address.

What’s more, 51% of the young people surveyed said they had posted “risky” comments online, and 24% had posted “risky” photos, while just 30% and 8% of parents, respectively, expressed awareness this might be happening. 27% of young people said they have witnessed cruel behavior online, but just 9% of parents were aware of this. And a large proportion (69%) of young people ages 10-23 said they take measures to hide their online behavior from their parents, but just 47% of parents were aware of this.

There’s also a basic perception gap in the simple matter of how much time kids spend online: on average teens estimate their daily usage at six hours per day, significantly more than the average parental estimate of four hours. Focusing in on social media, 87% of teens said they check their social media accounts daily, with 44% saying they check them “constantly” -- but just 79% and 32% of parents thought this was true of their children.

No surprise, parents expressed feelings of frustration and fatigue when asked about monitoring their kids’ online activities: 74% said they don’t have the time or energy to keep up with everything their kids are doing, and 72% said they are overwhelmed by modern technology and “just hope for the best” (a strategy notable for having failed every single time it has ever been employed).

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/201781/kids-are-lying-little-weasels-who-lie-study.html?edition=60812#ixzz2VHMYFoXH

As T/V Fragmentation Explodes, Need for Aggregation Increasesby John R. Osborn, Tuesday, Jun 4, 2013

What is aggregation? Miriam-Webster defines it as “a) the collecting of units or parts into a mass or whole and b) the condition of being so collected.”

Both the production and distribution of programming that collected audiences to sell to advertisers were simple and straightforward in the 1960s and 1970s. Just look at Harry Crane, the head of media at “Mad Men”’s agency, who is rarely seen stressing over where the ads will run. He had three networks and 28 hours of prime-time television to deal with, where a single top-ten show could reach 23% of all U.S. TV


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households. And with the remote control a new technology, ad avoidance was a far-away dream for viewers. Networks, programs, advertisers and agencies had a captive audience.

The Fragmentation/Aggregation Path

As audiences and programs began and continued to fragment, more energy has been focused on aggregating audiences by all parts of the traditional television ecosystem:

In the 1980s, cable distributors (system operators) aggregated viewers on non-overlapping geographic footprints, having been awarded local monopoly status in exchange for the investment in the cable TV infrastructure. Ad agency media departments served to aggregate media buys and plans for advertisers. By 1990 there were enough channels on most systems to inspire Bruce Springsteen's "57 Channels and Nothing On.” And around 60% of US Households had Cable TV.

Satellite appeared and grew through the 1990s so that by 2000, 80% of U.S. homes subscribed to cable or satellite. Operators could sell ads within their footprints, but there was no national distributor, so as distribution channels further fragmented through the early 2000s, advertisers and agencies turned to broadcast and cable networks to aggregate audiences now delivered through multiple platforms on hundreds of channels/networks competing for in-home “eyeballs.” And those networks were further aggregated as major media holding companies like Viacom, NBC, Walt Disney/ABC, CBS, Comcast, Cablevision and Hearst bought and in turn sold ad packages across multiple television networks – both cable and “broadcast on cable.”

At the same time, full-service ad agencies spun off their media departments into stand-alone media services companies like OMD (Omnicom), Group M (WPP), Carat (Aegis) and Starcom/Mediavest (Publicis), to capitalize on the need for advertisers to get a handle on the expanding number of ways to deliver ads to TV viewers.

TV (television) then became T/V (television/video), as the Internet arrived: the most fragmented and global distribution system ever imagined for any product in the history of media. This increased pressure on advertisers, agencies, media companies, cable and satellite system operators and emerging technologies to figure out how to buy and sell an infinite number of possible ad buys to advertisers with very finite budgets.

Digital advertising networks led by Google/YouTube’s AdSense emerged and began to include video by the late 00s.” From 2007 to the present, ad networks for video have risen, fallen and are being transformed into Big Data programmatic buying and RTB (real-time bidding) platforms. Here buyers and sellers can be matched, not just on low-cost remnant inventory, but in a more direct and transparent form of execution being referred to as “programmatic premium.” Like high-powered electronic stock trading, the marketplace can move quickly, as buyers and sellers set criteria and execute purchases quickly and in real time without the now sluggish process of direct selling: proposals, reviews, revisions and insertion orders. This new kind of buying is not widespread yet. Still, it seems significant that The New York Times has hired ad veteran Matt Prohaska (a former colleague of mine at BBDO Media) to head up its new programmatic buying efforts, which will compete with traditional television sales organizations in the video arena.

Conclusions

I believe technology will continue to be more of a player in the emerging T/V business model in this incredibly complex point in history. Here are some of the changes I can see:

• Consolidation of programmatic buying players (see Video Lumascape for a snapshot of the complex and confusing current ecosystem).

• More “programmatic premium” buying technologies and options.• More advertiser-friendly addressable advertising methods and technologies.• Mobile platforms solving the “no-cookie” problem of how to provide addressable ads to

advertisers.• With more addressable advertising, a shift from advertisers’ focus on buying a programming

environment (traditional surrogate for audience) to audience itself.• Platform-neutral T/V buying strategies by advertisers and agencies

My reference source for the history of transitions: "Television’s Next Generation: Technology/Interface Culture/Flow" by William Uricchio (MIT) from “Television after TV: Essays on a Medium in Transition” by Lynn Spigel and Jan Olsson, Duke University Press (2005).

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/201710/as-tv-fragmentation-explodes-need-for-aggregatio.html?edition=60805#ixzz2VH2M12xk


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DOOH Shines In Emergenciesby Erik Sass, May 24, 2013, 1:50 PM

While digital billboards still face plenty of opposition in some locales, their advocates have one argument that can’t be denied. Digital signage is an effective tool for communicating with the public during emergencies, like the Boston Marathon attack and the law enforcement manhunt that followed, as well as missing persons cases and major weather events.

Immediately after the Boston attacks, Clear Channel Outdoor reached out to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency to offer assistance, according to CCO senior vice president and CMO Vicki Lins. MEMA used seven CCO digital billboards along I-93 and other major roadways in the Great Boston area to broadcast critical public safety messages.

In the days following the Boston Marathon attacks, when the FBI was concerned the suspects may have fled Massachusetts, FBI spokeswoman Jacqueline Maguire said partnerships with digital signage operators allowed the bureau to blanket the East Coast with photos of the suspects as far south as Washington, D.C. Photos were displayed on digital bus shelters along with the FBI hotline, 1-800-Call-FBI.

Digital signage has proven effective in numerous missing person alerts, Maguire noted, and have even helped generate leads for “cold cases.” Digital billboards along the I-95 corridor also helped the FBI apprehend a serial rapist in the mid-Atlantic area by publicizing composite sketches of the suspect.

Overall, Lins said 46 fugitives have been captured as a result of leads originating from someone who saw the images on CCO’s digital signage. Federal agents have partnerships with a number of other billboard operators as well.

Peter J. Elliott, the U.S. Marshal for the Northern District of Ohio, confirmed that digital billboards have played a role in “capturing many sexual offenders and violent fugitives,” including some stories that sound like something out of a movie.

In one case, a convict who was incarcerated for raping an 8-year-old managed to escape from prison in northern Ohio and went on the run with a four-year-old girl and her mother. The U.S. Marshals, who had reason to believe the suspect fled to the West Coast, contacted digital billboard partners and “within seven or eight hours, we had photos up across Southern California and Nevada. Someone saw it in Nevada, remembered seeing them -- supposedly a father and daughter -- in San Diego, called the hotline, and he was arrested,” with the girl recovered safely. The whole process took less than 24 hours, according to Elliott, who emphasized the national reach and quick turnaround time afforded by digital billboards.

Digital billboards are also critical for disseminating information and instructions during major weather events.

Lins noted that authorities in Minneapolis turned to the company’s billboards to warn the public when tornadoes were approaching earlier this month, helping reach drivers who may not have heard tornado sirens. She added that digital billboards can be updated directly and in real time from an emergency agency’s RSS or Twitter feed, simplifying the process considerably.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/201129/dooh-shines-in-emergencies.html#ixzz2VGbNhuFv

Ad-ID for a Cross-Screen WorldLarry Allen | June 3, 2013

Operating an ad exchange, or (more importantly) participating in one, is much more complicated than anyone ever expected. The "build it and they will come" mentality certainly doesn't work with real-time bidding (RTB) given the number of bidding technologies and selling forums that are in operation today.

Sitting at the intersection of buying and selling, I am constantly evaluating trends and looking for clues as to why buyers find inventory valuable. There are obvious things that buyers look for when buying programmatically: consistent daily volume, quality inventory (uncluttered, viewable), high cookie match rates, and most importantly, the right price. Buyers have an advantage, as they are in a position to set the rules by which they buy: bid price, white list, and their data (cookie). And…they hold the budget.


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Something interesting is happening though. At my company, we operate a premium exchange that we are very proud of. It includes the highest quality inventory, priced right, and it performs very well for buyers. This changes the demand landscape and evens the playing field. Now publishers have a little more control. They have the capability to tier their inventory, to set pricing based on value, and to ensure the right buyers have preference and/or are blocked in bidding. These actions put the publisher in a position to drive yield, manage multiple sales channels, and increase overall value of the inventory.

Last week the ANA-4A's Joint Policy Committee released a mandate for universal adoption of Ad-ID, the industry standard for identifying advertising assets across all media platforms. This is an exciting new development that will ensure every piece of creative trafficked across devices carries a set of meta data that defines the advertiser name, brand name, product name, creative title, and length. This data has historically been shared in an analog format that was rekeyed many times, causing creative errors. The method was never applied to online creative, as it was heavily TV/radio-focused. The acceptance of a new standard was initiated to help SAG-AFTRA in tracking talent royalties. But there is a larger benefit to online media if this new standard is adopted beyond TV.

By consistently applying the Ad-ID to all online creative, publishers can now confidently manage block lists, ensure that ad quality rules are respected, and have a higher level of confidence in what brands/products are associated with their inventory. Ultimately, there is additional targeting and inventory selection that can be created with this data in mind. I can see a world where not only is publisher information transparent to buyers, but where the buyers are reliably transparent to publishers. This would enable a host of resellers and channel demand partners to plug in and increase demand for publishers.

To learn more about the Ad-ID program check out http://www.ad-id.org.

Get More Bang for Your Buck With Native Video AppsFrank Sinton | June 4, 2013

A few weeks ago, YouTube sent Microsoft a cease-and-desist letter after Microsoft released a YouTube app for its Windows Phone 8 platform. Microsoft authored the YouTube app itself, as a way of compensating for the fact that YouTube hadn't created a native app of its own for the Windows Phone 8 ecosystem. The problem was that in doing so, it was stripping out the ads that YouTube embedded, thus eliminating the ability for YouTube partners to monetize any video plays that take place on a Windows Phone 8 device.

Fortunately for YouTube's partners, they don't need to rely on YouTube to decide which mobile platforms it will support in order to still have their content available to mobile users. They can just create a mobile app of their own and make it available through the app store of every smartphone platform available today.

But like YouTube, many mobile app developers make choices about which mobile platform they will support with a native app. Creating native apps requires time and developer resources. Determining where to apply both usually comes down to a "most bang for your buck" question.

This is a horrible decision to have to make. The greatest potential of mobile video apps is that they allow brands to establish a relationship directly with their target audience without depending on a third-party distributor. They can choose the content, the look/feel of the app, and most importantly, how to monetize that relationship. Video apps can generate revenue via ads, via in-app purchases, and via merchandise sales.

What's more, the smartphone home screen is the most valuable branding property there is right now. It's the most personal connection a brand can make with a customer: literally one click away, on their most personal device, which they carry with them all the time. The app icon on that screen is more than just a user interface device designed to launch an app. It's your brand. It's the face of your content.

And finally, consider the audience that you're missing out on. Forget the market share figures between platforms, and focus instead on the demographic of their collective user base. The 18-34-year-old age group that video advertisers (and brands) most covet is the age group that's the most active on mobile video. Our data shows that between 35 and 50 percent of this demographic views video on mobile over other formats.

For branded YouTube channels, the measure of success is the subscriber count. A "successful" YouTube channel is measured by the number of viewers who have subscribed to that channel's content. On mobile, the metric of importance is the download count. I'd argue this is an even more important metric because it's


not measuring how many of a third party's user base is also aligning themselves with your brand or your content. Instead, the download count is a measure of how successful you've been at converting that third party's customers into your own.

So, for a brand or developer to aspire to this direct-to-fan relationship via mobile only to be forced to limit their potential reach over something as mundane as platform support decisions is unfortunate at best.

I can testify that it's entirely possible to create and monetize apps across all platforms so this no longer becomes a difficult decision. It's not at all unrealistic to create a mobile app once, use a platform to optimize that app for every available mobile platform, and then publish that app on them all, simultaneously, and in the process create new revenues using models customized for each platform.

That's what we call "bang for your buck." That's how brands can capitalize on the promise of mobility.

In Brazil, Be Careful What You Wish For12/06/2012 @ 11:22AM |5.906 views

A swimming pool set up in a Rio de Janeiro slum, or "favela". The poor are getting richer, interest rates are getting lower, but Brazil's economy remains dismal.

Brazil is suffering from a classic case of getting too much of what it’s always wanted.

For generations, other than the perennial complaint of the ruling elite, there were two things every Brazilian lamented over. Those two things ruining their lives in paradise were high inflation and the world’s highest interest rates, easily over 20 percent for decades.

If Brazil was a “serious country” (Brazilians tend to believe that their country is more or less a paradox; one part anointed by God, one part pirate ship of fools) governed by democratic minded leaders, it would have low inflation and low interest rates. With that, Brazilians could get credit. Like they do in the U.S. They could buy houses. They could buy cars. They could get store credit cars and do what Brazilians love as much as us Americans, shopping. Brazilians, in their on again off again inferiority complex, would be as serious and as savvy as the Americans they tend to envy. Just ask commentator Diogo Mainardi of Veja magazine. The man is not happy unless he is bashing Brazil or Brazilians and praising the wonders and the genius of American politics and society.

Politics aside, Brazil now has all of those economic things it always wanted: fairly predictable interest rates (with the one exception of last year), and cheaper credit. It’s not as cheap as it is in the U.S. or Europe, but by Brazilian standards, it has never been cheaper.

Yet, despite this missing ingredient all Brazilians believed they had to find, the economy is doing worse than the U.S.

Third quarter growth was under 1 percent.

Interest rates are at record lows, just 7.25 percent. Core inflation is around 5 percent currently. Real interest rates, therefore, are under three percent. Never have Brazilian banks and corporates been able to borrow at such a cheap rate.


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Cheaper credit, higher incomes have Brazilian consumers spending more than ever. Low interest rates have not been able to help this economy, now seen growing under 1 percent this year.

Of course, this is not what consumers pay in interest. They pay close to double that. However, for housing, interest rates are collapsing to single digits. That’s never ever been the case in Brazil. Home ownership is on the rise.

In 2008, for example, Brazil had 57.6 million permanently owned homes, 1.8 million more than in 2007, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, or IBGE. The home ownership rate grew from 74 percent in 2007 to 74.4 percent in 2008; and paid-off homes increased from 69.9 percent to 70.1 percent in the same time period.

The populist My Home, My Life– or in Portguês: Minha Casa, Minha Vida — a low cost housing program has brought in an addition one million new home owners to the mix.

Unemployment is at a historic low, at just under 5.5 percent.

Incomes are rising, especially among the poorest of the lot, most of them living in the northeast.

The Brazilian Institute of Applied Economic Research says the poorest 10 percent of Brazilians saw their per capita income go up 91 percent between 2001 and 2011. The richest 10 percent saw income rise by around 17 percent. Overall, 21.8 million Brazilians rose out of poverty during the period, leaving 10 percent of the country’s 192 million people living on less than $5 a day.

What’s happening in Brazil?

Companies are not investing. Gross fixed capital formation had a decrease of 2 percent in the third quarter. These very negative fixed investment results all pointed to a lower-for-longer interest rate strategy in Brazil going forward. “We believe that the GDP release (last week) significantly alters the situation in Brazil and we are now considering a new leg of monetary easing,” saidBarclays Capital economist Marcelo Solomon. He expects interest rates to fall to 6.25 percent in the first quarter of 2013, through two cuts of 50 basis points. Brazil started out 2011 with interest rates at 11.25 percent.

Solomon said that the path of economic activity will be weaker than the base case scenario being presented by the Central Bank of Brazil.

Finance Minister Guido Mantega last week during a press call with reporters said the fourth quarter would be stronger, as stimulus is taking longer than expected to kick in. However, China has been improving in the third, which is good for Brazil because it is Brazil’s biggest market. Interest rates have been falling all year. Stimulus has been in place since the second quarter. And yet, the third quarter growth was just 0.6 percent over the second. Mantega’s call and the Central Bank’s forecasts have been off all year.

Moreover, the inflation outlook remains very positive, as an accommodation of wholesale inflation is expected to lower consumer price pressures in the coming months in the BCB’s scenario. So, there are unlikely to be constraints to a resumption of rates cuts from the inflation side. Critical to the view that rates are going even lower is the fact that industrial production will not maintain the strong performance observed in October.


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The manufacturing industry grew 1.5 percent against the second quarter of 2012. The manufacturing industry is the one that suffers the most with the world crisis, which restricts markets. But Brazil, with the measures that have been taken, managed to post good results.

Solomon doesn’t think that will continue into the fourth. “Our preliminary forecasts are pointing to a negative print in November, which to us will be an important release to trigger further policy loosening,” he said.

Any further stimulus from monetary policy like interest rates could end up feeding inflation with little positive impact on growth. Companies will be back to where they were in 2011, struggling to calculate inflation, which means they don’t know what to price their goods and services at. If they misprice and inflation is higher than they forecast, that squeezes their profit margins. And, if interest rates move out of the Central Bank’s tolerance band — say over 7 percent — interest rates will move higher and choke Brazilian equities, already struggling (with the exception of consumer focused stocks).

The Brazilian economy has failed to gain traction from 525bp of rate cuts, a dream come true for Brazilian economic pundits.

Tony Volpon, a managing director at Nomura Securities in New York, and a Brazilian, said he thinks the main problem in Brazil is what he calls a “plugged up” transmission channel in supply and demand. It’s not a lack of aggregate demand stimulus, which is now coming from all policy instruments — monetary, fiscal, credit and forex. The Brazilian real, once strong, is now weak at around 2.1 to the dollar. It’s been that way for months, and yet…

“We see the low interest rate thesis as really a statement to the effect that enough has been done from a monetary policy perspective, and now — unfortunately from a political point of view — we just have to be patient and wait for the transmission channels to clear up so that nominal demand can materialize into a combination of greater output and, unfortunately, inflation,” Volpon said.

“Better transmission” should occur in 2013.

If the Central Bank does rush into more rate cuts early next year, where growth will likely still not be impressive, it will just add to the mess it will ultimately have to clean up later on in the year, said Volpon.

Given political realities in favor of Western style low rates that possibility of rate cuts again next year cannot be rules out.

When it comes to cheap money, Brazil wants to be American. They want to be European.

But these are two different worlds. They shouldn’t be allowed to collide.

“The market could be right in pricing in a positive probability of rate cuts at the end of the first quarter or second, though we are not ready to forecast this just yet,” Volpon wrote in a note to clients on Thursday. “Unless one believes that Brazil has joined the ranks of deflation-prone countries, we recommend investors think twice before positioning for this (low rate) situation to last.”

Wearables and Sensors Big Topics at All Things D5/31/2013

Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at All Things Digital (screen shot from D: All Things Digital video)

There were very few product announcement at the Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital Conference that wrapped up on Thursday, but there was plenty of talk — and a couple of products — focusing on the trends of wearable technology and ubiquitous sensors.

Profound area for technology

It started on the first night when Apple CEO Tim Cook, who was wearing a Nike+ Fuelband on stage, said that he thinks that wearables “could be a profound area for technology.” He added that “there’s a lot of things to solve in this space but it’s an area that’s ripe for exploration.” He said that he thinks there will be “tons of companies” playing in this field but, when asked by co-host Walt Mossberg, he refused to say whether Apple would be one of them. Still, he did say it’s “another very key branch of the tree,” in the post-PC era. The first two branches, from Apple’s perspective, are iPhone and iPad. So, while I suppose it’s possible that Apple will sit out wearables, it was as close to a product announcement as you’ll get from Apple ahead of a real announcement.


Cook observed teens and young adults don’t wear wrist watches – they use their phones to tell time — so to get them to adopt a new habit, “you first have to convince people it’s so incredible, you want to wear it.”

Cook also said that the “whole sensor field is about to explode,” though he didn’t even hint as to what Apple might be thinking about in that arena.

Electronic tattoos and pills

Regina Dugan wearing an electronic tattoo (photo: Asa Mathait D: All Things Digital)

Regina Duncan, Senior VP for Advanced Technology & Projects at Google GOOG -0.43%-owned Motorola was not only bearish on wearables, but ingestible too. She showed off a pill that you can swallow that will authenticate you so don’t have to enter a password. “It creates a signal and your entire body becomes your authentication. My arms are like wires, my hands are like alligator clips.” And the pill is far from science fiction. It’s based on technology developed by Proteus Digital Health that integrates sensors, which are powered by stomach acids — into ingestible pills. She also bared her arm to show off a digital tattoo that can also be used to authenticate a user. I got a close look at it during lunch and, don’t worry, it’s not permanent. It’s kind of glued on.

Google’s Sundar Pichai is certainly no stranger to wearable technology. Pichai runs Google’s Android division, but his company is famously experimenting with Google Glass — that hundreds of people are now wearing to be able to view the web or get directions without picking up their phone or send and receive tweets and Facebook FB -2.05% messages by looking through the small lens on a glasses-like device they wear. Pichai went beyond wearables, suggesting that the windows and other glass in our homes could someday be replaced with glass panes that do double-duty as display screens. “To me it’s obvious that you’re going to see a lot computing around you, not just on you,” he said.

Pichai is also bullish about sensors. He told attendees about an app on an Android smartphone that uses the phone’s camera to sense radioactivity in the air.

SmartThings Mobile app (screen shot from company video)Alex Hawkinson the founder of SmartThings, showed off an “under $200″ kit that would enable you to control sensor-equipped devices from a smartphone. Hawkinson demonstrated using a phone unlock a doos, turn on a cofee pot and to program a light to turn on automtically when a cabinet door was opened. The kit consists of a wireless router and inexpensive sensors that attach to various things in the home. The feature I need is the one that lets you glance at your phone to find out if you left your garage door open.

All Things D co-host Kara Swisher holding a Disney MagicBand (screen shot from D: All Things Digital video)

Fantasyland and football fields

Even Disney and the San Francisco 49ers are big on wearable technology. Tom Staggs who runs Disney’s theme parks, showed off Disney’s MagicBand, a wrist-strap that serves as your admissions ticket, electronic wallet and park ID. You can use it to arrange an experience within the park or — as an option — to let a Disney character automatically know your child’s name.

The 49ers don’t have a wist band but the team’s CEO, Jed York, who sharedthe stage with Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai, talked about how the team team might equip players with sensor to show their heart rates during certain plays. The 49ers are in the process of building a connected stadium in Silicon Valley(Santa Clara, Calif). My favorite line from York was when he said, ““We want to be a software-driven stadium, not a hardware-driven stadium.”

In addition to talk about sensors and wearables, there was plenty of discussion about tablets and smartphones but hardly a word was spoken about PCs. They are oh so yesterday.

Brazil's 'Poor' Middle Class, And The Poor That No Longer Serve Them

1/22/2013 @ 11:41AM |14,237 views

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Let me preface this by saying that this is not a jab at Brazil. This is actually a story that shows how Brazil’s rising tide is lifting all boats. The poor have more opportunities than ever before. They are earning more


money (for some, how’s 56 percent sound?). And for the middle class that used to depend on them to wash their dishes and make their lunch, those days of luxury are over.

Bemvindo a vida Americana, meu bem!

* * *

My "house." Edificio Bretagne. How I miss it. Right in the fold, top floor, all three windows were mine all mine. And a maid cleaned them for me.

Ask an expat what they love most about living overseas and they will inevitably tell you this: the taxes and the maid service. That’s right. Maids. And not for the rich, mind you, but for middle-of-the-road, beer-from-a-can drinking, 2.5 GPA achieving riff-raff professionals. Whether they’re living in Dubai, Mumbai or Brazil, they all love their maids. It’s a luxury they cannot afford back home.

I lived in Brazil for 10 years. I left in March 2010. Maids cooked my lunch, always a three courser. Rice. Beans, sometimes black, sometimes Carioca-style, which meant brown. Meat. Salad. Desert. Fresh squeezed orange juice or Swiss lemonade. Passion fruit. Guarana. Then, she did my dishes. Afterwards, she washed my clothes and pressed them.

As time went on, maintaining a daily maid became too costly. I cut back. I had a maid just twice a week. She cleaned. She did laundry. I cooked. I paid her R$80 a day, or R$140 a week, which was around $78 for two full days of work. Her name was Hélia. Me and my girls loved Hélia. I hope she is doing well. Anyway…

We lived in this beautiful building pictured here in São Paulo, in the Higienopolis neighborhood. A colleague of mine from one of the big U.S. newswires lived there, too. Our children hung out together a lot, especially in the swimming pool, which was surrounded by palm trees that housed these small green parrots that blended in with the palm leaves. He too had a maid, only his maid was there every day and sometimes on the weekends. A female columnist from Folha de São Paulo newspaper lived in the building, too. She also had a daughter. Only her daughter had a maid and a nanny, seven days a week. This was an early 40-something year old newspaper columnist, not a rock star.

Like me, my colleague was an American living a life we could never afford in the States. Ever. We were both scum sucking reporters waiting for the ax to fall on our necks. He, a little richer and hopeful; me, a little younger and angrier. One thing we all appreciated was being able to afford the extra help.

My swimming pool. We even had a barman. Though he was a grump. Me, my daughter and the daughter of an American reporter colleague called him Mr. Grumpy Pumpkin Man during our Halloween parties. Ahhh, the life...

Over the last 8 years, the income of Brazil’s domestic workers has risen by an estimated 56 percent, according to the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics, IBGE. It’s a hard number to quantify because every single maid in Brazil is paid under the table in cash. By comparison, the average income in general rose by 29 percent. Nationwide, the average salary paid to domestic servants runs around R$721 a month, or around $360. However, that figure is double or triple in big cities like São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The income of Brazilian maids has risen by an average of 6.7 percent in just one year in real terms. Adding to the price tag is a steady decline in the number of domestic workers in the market.

Quite frankly, Brazil’s economy is getting richer. The poor have better things to do than clean up after middle class teenagers who still haven’t learned to fold and put away their own T-shirts.

Short supply, high prices. Many Brazilians cannot afford the help. Welcome to your American Dream, Brazil!

Carol Campos is an administrator at Banco do Brasil in São Paulo. It’s a nice, full-time middle class gig. She lives in Higienopolis. I’ve been to her house many times. Our kids are friends. They went to school together. She used to have a maid every day when her first child was born, then down to a couple days a week and now — because of the rising cost of living — she tells me, “We are now down to just one day per week. It’s too expensive.” She pays her maid R$90 ($45) a day.

A host of new labor laws designed to protect informal workers drove up costs. The government wanted the working poor, most of them women, to have enough money to save for retirement and, of course, healthcare. That started driving up prices around the year 2000.

“About four years ago, when me and my sister were in college and working, my family all decided to just hire a ‘diarista’,” says , Leoberto José Preuss, a systems analyst at Brazilian IT firm TOTVS in Joinville, Santa Catarina, one of the more middle class states in the country. Back then he says, a diarista, a maid Babelfish Articles May 2013 - July 2013 15-7-13

that just comes once in a while and charges a flat day rate, charged just R$60 a day to cook and clean a house. “You’re lucky if you find anyone for less than 90,” he says. “We have someone come three days a week. It’s difficult to find anyone available these days.”

It will get harder. And as time goes on, it will definitely get more costly. So costly, in fact, that the majority of middle class Brazilians will no longer have a maid.

The government recently required full time domestic workers to receive the coveted “thirteenth salary”, a whole month’s work of pay in December, plus workman’s comp through the FGTS tax. Brazilian maid service is becoming professionalized, and that has pulled the rug out from the middle class that has come to depend on them to keep their house in order.

A poll from Folha de São Paulo this month asked respondents if they would be able to afford a maid given the new labor laws. Out of the 1,177 on line respondents, 44 percent said no, 26 percent said they’d have to cut back on hours. So a total 70 percent are starting to get used to the fact that the good ole “Banana Republic” days are gone.

* * *

Sarah Castro, 28, is also from Santa Catarina. She is one of the Brazilian middle class that grew up with a live-in maid, her very own Mary Poppins. For Americans, this is an imperial wet dream. All that’s missing is Tinkerbell. In the dream, you’re from the rich nation before the days of labor rights, and your family can afford to hire your neighbors wife to clean the house, while he cleans your chimney. Those days are gone in London. They are ending in Florianopolis, Santa Catarina, where Sarah was raised and now works as a reporter.

“Our maid was named Nice. She lived with us and was part of our family. I miss her. There was no one like her,” she says. “Nowadays, we only have a maid once a week. A good maid is hard to find.”

Let’s rephrase that. Barring a dystopian future, by the time Sarah is in her 40s, an affordable maid will be impossible to find.

I was in my early 20s when I first came to Brazil in 1995, I lived with a family in a city called Londrina, population around 500,000. It’s in the center of Parana state, an agribusiness boom town. The father was a professor at the local university. The mother owned a small business, operating a clothing company out of what was once their garage. They had one weaving machine that made fabric 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I can still hear that thing moving back and force, swish-swoosh; swish-swoosh, swish-swoosh. They were Brazil’s middle class. By my standards, they were rich because six days a week they had a maid who cooked and cleaned for them so both parents could work. The maid served them. She picked up after the four children. She cleaned up the dog’s mess in the yard.

Here’s the rub, I was raised by a maid. My mother didn’t graduate from high school. But she grew up in America. A maid that didn’t go to school in Brazil doesn’t live like one that grew up in the U.S. The Brazilians couldn’t believe that a maid’s son had a basketball pole in his yard, an above ground pool and that my family had three cars. Their car ran on ethanol, and that thing was a piece of junk; a jalopy is more like it. Damn, meu filho; I had a Camaro Berlinetta!

Inequality in Brazil allowed the middle class to enjoy a life of luxury their American peers envied.

I never saw a messy Brazilian house in the decade I lived there. Everything was in its place. Two-income households in São Paulo, as busy as a two-income household in New York, never had a dish in the sink, an unmade bed, or a laundry basket overflowing onto the bathroom floor.

Embrace the mess, Brazil. (And pick up those socks!)

“I have a maid come once every 15 days and that’s it,” says Keli Bergamo, a lawyer in Parana state. “The cooking, the clothes washing, I have to do myself. But I live alone. I know a lot of people who are cutting back. Brazilians will get crafty with the labor laws, though,” she says, adding that many wealthy Brazilians will avoid the full time labor rules by getting rid of full time maids and hiring part-timers in their place.

“These new laws make it more costly to maintain domestic help in Brazil,” she says. “A lot of people are going to give up this comfort and will have to divide the labor between the members of their household from now on.”

Follow @BRICBreaker


Sorry, Brands…Your Digital Agencies are Lying to YouBy Levi Shapiro Tuesday - June 4, 2013 www.MediaBizBloggers.com

Brands spend a fortune on marketing – more than 9% (b2c) and 7% (b2b) of total revenue. Within marketing budgets, the fastest growing portion (+40%) is social media. Unfortunately, a growing body of evidence suggests that garnering LIKES on a Facebook page does nothing to foster community or increase engagement. Your digital agency has been lying to you. The better approach for lowering customer service costs and increasing engagement is to transform your organization into a social business.

Step I: Focus on managing your own portal, not Facebook - The single most important aspect of a social business, according to “ The Social Economy” from McKinsey, is user generated content. A vibrant community can produce user generated content, with customers helping each other and innovative product ideas emerging from the community.

One notable example is Amazon, whose share price has risen more than 400% over the last 5 years. Product reviews on Amazon’s portal create a Word of Mouth experience. Product and marketing ideas, notably the Kindle, have emerged from Amazon’s online conversation with its 166 million customers, not its 56,000 employees. Amazon consistently ranks among the top brands in the University of Michigan’s annual Customer Satisfaction Index.

According to Andreas Nicklas, Head of Business Development EMEA for Lithium, who will keynote this week at Socialize13 in Tel Aviv, “Facebook should be less of a priority than your own website. It is crucial to cultivate your own community on your own portal and own the interaction. Our data shows that 90% of consumers trust their peers but only 14% trust advertisers. Too many digital agencies still advocate push marketing, defining success in LIKES, even though the world changed from push to pull.”

Unrealistic values are frequently ascribed to Facebook LIKES, even though less than 5% of those liking a Facebook Fan page ever return (ComBlu, “State of Online Branded Communities”).


Giffgaff in the UK is a social business that generates 75% of all sales by word of mouth. More than 85% of all community questions receive responses within 60 seconds. Finally, only 0.5% of all incoming customer service requests are handled by the customer call center. The rest are answered by the community. Becoming a social business has drastically reduced GiffGaff’s marketing and customer service expenses.

Step II: Integration Across the Organization and Business Processes - According to McKinsey, only 3% of companies obtain substantial benefit from social technologies across customers, employees and business partners. The main reason is that social does not fit into a silo approach. For example, the same customer interaction could provide input for multiple departments but typically is not shared across the organization. Andreas says, “Sometimes you talk with the CMO, sometimes the head of customer support. Organizations should have one person who owns social strategy across the entire organization.”


One example of social commerce is Sephora Beauty Talk, a content-centric forum for young women to learn from their peers and obtain feedback. Besides the ongoing discussion, Beauty Talk brings the conversation into the store. Community members in Sephora shops are invited to take photos and solicit feedback from the Beauty Talk community. In real-time, the community provides trusted feedback. Community members purchase 2.5x more than standard customers.

The technology and telecom sectors have been the first to embrace social business processes. More recently, retail and financial services companies are moving in this direction. So, when will your company become a social business?

Levi Shapiro is a Partner at TMT Strategic Advisors, a research and strategy firm focusing on the technology, media and telecom sectors. He can be reached at [email protected] or via twitter: @levshapiro

The opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggers.com management or associated bloggers. MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries.

The 11 Most Fascinating Charts From Mary Meeker's Epic Slideshow of Internet TrendsDEREK THOMPSONMAY 29 2013, 1:11 PM ET

Every year, Mary Meeker and the team from KPCB unleash upon the world the mother of all slideshows, which aims to sum up The State of the Internet. This year's behemoth was born this morning, weighing in at 117 pages. Here are the 12 most interesting pages. Check out the full report here.

(1) America's Media Attention in 1 Graph. Americans spend just six percent of their media diet with print, but those pages attract 23 percent of all ad spending. In mobile, the trend is the polar opposite. I don't know if this is worse news for the print industry (where you'd think ad spending has a long way to fall) or Facebook (since monetizing mobile attention is so devilishly difficult.)


(2) Glam Media Is Huge! Bigger than Wikipedia or Apple. The only Internet properties with more US users are Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Yahoo.

(3) This Is How Fast the Smartphone Leaderboard Changed. Apple iOS and Android were invisible in 2005, but as the smartphone market exploded, so did they.


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(4) Today, the Internet Is Photos, But That's a Really, Really Recent Phenomenon. And Snapchat's growth is absolutely insane.

(5) Facebook Is the Only Major Social Media With Declining Use in 2012. Uh oh?

(6) Wow, Saudi Arabia Really Loves to Share. And Americans are weirdly private.

(7) If China Is the Future, TV Is in Big Trouble. Also, hooray, they still read print!





(8) Facebook's Desktop Ad Business Is Already in Decline. And mobile isn't growing fast enough to raise overall average revenue per user in ads.

(9) Apple and Samsung Ate the World. Smartphones are arguably the central device in the digital economy, and Apple and Samsung have doubled their collective market share even as smartphone units quadrupled around the world.





(10) Smartphone users reach to their phone 150 times a day! About a third of those reaches are for messaging and calls. (Also, who needs to check their alarm 8 times a day? My lord.)

(11) The Era of Windows and Intel (WinTel) Was Astonishingly Dominant, and Now It's Over. It's the ApAnd era now when it comes to personal computing platforms.

Derek Thompson is a senior editor at The Atlantic, where he oversees business coverage for TheAtlantic.com.

Content: Create Or Curate?

We’ve all heard the phrase “content is king,” but in the world of inbound marketing has our definition of “Content” changed? Ninety-one percent of B2B marketers use content in their marketing mix and a majority use social media to distribute content. While content creation has always been a force in marketing, trends show companies shifting towards content curation. But can curation provide accurate, targeted information or are we sacrificing informational effectiveness for cost effectiveness?

What Is Content Curation?

While content creation is the development of original material, content curation is sharing others’ content, finding the most relevant content and bringing it forward. Content curation can be automated via “daily paper” sites such as Paper.li, Flipboard and Scoop.it, which automatically share articles on a business’ social pages. However, curation and aggregation are not the same. Curation involves sifting through available material and choosing content to appeal to a specific audience. While content curation is a way of




increasing the amount of material on a webpage, it prioritizes quality over quantity as does content creation.

Curation vs. Creation

Curated content is ideal for companies seeking to increase their web traffic. Curation allows companies to quickly produce large amounts of content, which is great for building an audience and retweets/shares. In addition, updating content consistently increases web crawling as it is a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) technique. By linking to, or reposting, articles, websites share information that is trending, drawing users to their page. Linking out generates 33% more clicks than linking to owned sites. On the other hand, content creation leads to higher conversion rates -links to owned pages have a 54% higher click-to-conversion rate than posts linking to third-party websites.

The Dangers of Content Curation

While content curation seems like a solution for the cost-conscious, curation is a labor-intensive process. Haphazard curation bore viewers driving them away from the webpage. Content curators may also be inclined to overload webpages with information and links. Once again, quality, not quantity, should be the focus. Keyword stuffing and excessive linking only hurts websites, especially considering Google Penguin’s focus on quality links and curators must cite sources, and provide links, to avoid plagiarizing. Links should be relevant, interesting, and readable. The homepage should offer context to readers and relate content to products if consumers are to develop a rapport with the company.

What to Do

Content curation and content creation work best when paired. Curated content can attract viewers, but created content retains those with an interest in the brand. Recently, marketing organizations have increased the amount of in-house content they create, as well as the amount of curated content. In fact, a study of B2B marketers showed that their top priority was producing enough content. In order to find a balance of created and curated, marketers tend to produce one-half to three-quarters curated content and one-quarter to one-half created content, with approximately 40% original being ideal. They have significantly higher conversion rates than curators and substantially more clicks per post than do self-promoters. This pairs well with the content marketing pyramid, in which low effort content is produced often while high effort resources (i.e., books and white papers) are rarely produced. Companies should view themselves as one of many interacting parts of a social network that produces and distributes information.

Applications to Healthcare

Content marketing must be adjusted to the landscape of an industry, such as pharmaceuticals, which is saturated with content, providing plenty of good material to curate to create value. For example, there is ample medical research online, but the difficult language and quantity of academic sources discourages individuals from finding it. However, an effective content curator will sorts through the technical sources and provide consumers with readable material. Because this data comes from respected research institutions, it benefits the company’s image and serves as an emblem of authority. In fact, when polled, marketers said their main reason for content curation was “establishing thought leadership.” Content curation shows that a company is willing to see different perspectives and establishes it as a mover in social media, a relevant concern for pharmaceutical companies that want to be seen on the cutting edge.

Content creation is just as important in the healthcare field where it shows that a company is invested in its consumer relations, Yes, content curation can be used to give viewers targeted information, but content creation builds brand loyalty by showing the company is invested in that information. Content creation also benefits companies by being shared by other organizations, which establishes thought leadership.

Ultimately, the mix of creation and curation is dependent on whether a company wants to be seen as proactive as a leader and a thoughtful communicator.

Research shows increase in marriage failures once children leave the home Natasha Bita, National Social Editor News Limited Network May 27, 2013 12:00AM EMPTY nesters are divorcing in droves, as the "20-year itch" fuels a mid-life marriage breakdown. The Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) has found the risk of divorcing after 20 years of marriage has doubled in a generation.Middle-aged men are more likely to remarry than divorced women, who stay single or live apart from their new lovers.


The first 10 years of marriage remains the danger period for most Australian couples - but the latest data points to a new "20-year itch".AIFS director Alan Hayes said couples were staying together until their kids left home."The number of divorces involving children under 18 has been declining," he said."I think there is an element of people sticking together for the kids."Professor Hayes said women instigated 60 per cent of divorces "and it comes as a shock to most men."But middle-aged blokes were more likely to move on - and remarry with younger women.Divorced women with high educational and professional qualifications were the least likely to remarry."They may form a relationship, but not reside in the same household," Professor Hayes said."In the past ... they were in the same household but unhappily married."Relationships Australia spokeswoman Mary-Jo Morgan said women often became dissatisfied with their partners once the kids moved out."There is a proverbial mid-life crisis when the man feels a need to have his ego stroked - but I think women are feeling that too," she said."All of a sudden, things you maybe chose to overlook because you're raising children are under the microscope."Ms Morgan advised couples to go on regular "date nights" - without the kids - to keep their relationship strong."Many couples choose the focus to be on the children, and don't focus on the relationship," she said."There is real grief attached to children moving on and I think people don't realise the importance of how you manage that process."The AIFS report shows the proportion of marriages ending after 20 years has more than doubled from 13 per cent in 1980 to 28 per cent in 2011.Kids were caught up in two-thirds of the divorces in 1971 - but fewer than half today's divorces involve children.Professor Hayes said the fact Australians were now living longer meant marriages were less likely to last until death."The meaning of `til death us do part' is very different now to when they went into the marriage," he said."Men tended to die at a younger age, and they were involved in occupations that were high-risk."Now people are fitter, healthier and in some cases more affluent, so they can exercise choice."The median age for women to divorce is now 42 - up from 34 in 1971.Men's median divorce age has risen from 38 to 45.BREAKING UP1971• 1% of couples lived together without marrying.• Median age of divorce: 38 for men and 34 for women• 68% of divorces involved children under 18• Teenagers made up 18% of new mothers• 2% of mothers had their first child in their late 30s.1980• 13% of divorcing couples had been married 20 years or more.• 49% of divorcing couples were married 10 years or less.2011• 16% of couples live together without marrying• 28% of divorcing couples had been married 20 years or more• 42% of divorcing couples were married 10 years or less.• Median age of divorce: 45 for men and 42 for women• 48% of divorces involved children under 18• Teenagers made up 9% of new mothers• 12% of mothers had their first child in their late 30s.• Source: Institute of Family StudiesSTICKING TOGETHERRelationships Australia spokeswoman Mary-Jo Morgan suggests:• DATE nights with your partner ask friends or family to babysit, and don't spend the whole night talking about the kids.• IDENTIFY what bugs you in your relationship.• TALK about this with your partner and seek counselling if you need it.• DISCUSS what you'll want from your relationship when the kids leave home.Read more: http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/relationships/research-shows-increase-in-marriage-failures-once-children-leave-the-home/story-fnet09y4-1226650820266#ixzz2UQTZHFHhBabelfish Articles May 2013 - July 2013 15-7-13

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/relationships/research-shows-increase-in-marriage-failures-once-children-leave-the-home/story-fnet09y4-1226650820266#ixzz2UQTZHFHh

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/relationships/research-shows-increase-in-marriage-failures-once-children-leave-the-home/story-fnet09y4-1226650820266#ixzz2UQTZHFHh

Mapping the Customer Journey with Social IntelligencePosted May 25, 2013

There’s never been a better time for marketers for to see, understand and respond to the customer journey. Today’s “open social age” has created a “looking glass” for companies to understand the complex nature of their customers as millions of them are broadcasting their opinions, attitudes, behaviors, experiences and even unmet needs on a real-time basis.

In fact, society is rapidly approaching a complete digital state. New technologies have transformed the way people work, learn, communicate and share. And consumers freely share their opinions and experiences on social networks, blogs, micro-blogs, message boards, forums, mainstream news sites and a variety of other online platforms.

According to Dimensional Research, over 90 percent of these consumers rely on independent reviews of products and services before they make a purchasing decision.

An "Always On" World

While many within the marketing realm point to the customer journey fragmenting between the offline and online worlds, the mobile revolution is actually pulling these worlds more closely together than ever before. No longer are customers tethered to their computers. Today they are ‘always on’ and connected to a myriad of shopping tools and social sources, empowering them and driving the ‘age of the consumer.’ In fact, according to a Morgan Stanley study, 91 percent of mobile users keep their device within three feet of them 24-hours per day. Mobile devices are now widely a standardization of life; people watch TV with them, make medical decisions with them and certainly shop with them.

This ‘always on’ state that mobile online accessibility facilitates is particularly transforming the way we all undertake traditional offline shopping activities, from conducting product comparisons and identifying best prices to locating coupons or offers and getting opinions and reviews. This, along with the all-time accessibility of mobile devices has made the wealth of information ubiquitous in the ‘offline’ world.

A Versatile Journey

The empowerment consumers have with this information access presents a challenge for marketers to keep pace with the journey, which is ever changing. The inundation of information creates a myriad of paths customers can take towards their purchase. This wealth of information also increases the velocity of purchase decisions, often compressing the time between demand moments and decision points, making it even more challenging for marketers to identify and influence the purchase.

The key to driving success is for marketers to deeply understand consumers, continually map the journey and leverage this insight to drive messaging, education, promotions and innovation to align with the customers’ needs (met and unmet) and wants.

Understanding the Journey

The basis of understanding the customer journey today is mapping it with advanced social intelligence. To adequately accomplish this it must be derived from the ‘big data’ mining of millions of daily consumer social conversations. Simple in concept, but challenging in technical execution. This is why so many leading brands are turning to advanced, streaming ‘big data’ solutions to deliver deep market and customer insights on rapid basis.


The ability to analyze millions of customers and prospects allows for deep insights and the

construction of key strategic journey components, which enables the organization to strategically drive decisions

and innovation. For example, this segmentation of Apple customers was initially built analyzing over 2.2 million rel

evant social discussions by Apple customers.

Within the dominant group, in this example, the “Brand Addicts,” 57 percent reveal a need to acquire new Apple product immediately. Many are not only “addicts,” but also evangelists for the brand, responsible for introducing new consumers to the Apple ecosystem. Specifics within these types of detailed segments provide great value to the brand’s ability to strategically message, promote and ultimately drive sales.

Along the same lines, using advanced social intelligence, the customer journey and particularly the critical path-to-purchase can be mapped to detail the specific demand moments and decision points driving the final purchase decision.

Many marketers think that this path-to-purchase mapping is only relevant to larger ticket items, like cars or electronics due to the array of features and options and higher prices. While the customer journey is very relevant towards helping to influence these types of purchases, they are very applicable to low-ticket items.


As an example, here is the path-to-purchase for potato chips assembed across the social commentary of 18,000 consumers of the snack food. This illustration reveals a variety of steps many consumers go through in their decision process even for a low priced snack food, ranging from nutrition and health considerations to lifestyle aspects and purchase pattern changes to product discovery.

An Intelligence Impact

Today, with advanced social intelligence accurately personifying customers and mapping their journey’s has never been easier, more accurate or powerful. Leading corporations are adopting this methodology to drive their product innovation, packaging, messaging, promotions, positioning, placement and ultimately their bottom line by delivering what the consumer wants based on their own requests, interests, activities and attitudes.

Kevin Glacken is Executive Vice President of ListenLogic which delivers advanced social intelligence to leading enterprises in food and beverage, consumer goods, technology, pharmaceuticals, financial services and media and entertainment. ListenLogic uses revolutionary streaming big data processing (at over one billion operations per second) and sophisticated multi-dimensional concept ...

5 Sparkling Ideas for Integrating User-Generated Content MarketingPosted May 25, 2013


Let Your Fans Do the Talking

User-generated content is so hot right now. Researchers have found that today’s consumer is less swayed by owned media, and more influenced by real people. In fact, 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family and 70% trust online reviews, while the vast majority view paid online advertising with deep suspicion. The solution for marketing your brand with all the believability of a real person is simple: Actively collect and utilize user-generated content.

What is User-Generated Content?

In the most technical sense of the term, user-generated content consists of original words, thoughts, and images that users voluntarily submit to an online entity. That poll you just answered on Starbuck’s Facebook page about your favorite iced drink for summer is user-generated content. So is the instagram image you snapped of your salad last night and tagged the restaurant in.

From a marketer’s perspective, customer-submitted content is something of a silver bullet. It’s free, and it carries much more clout than if you raved about your products and services. Great user-generated content carries social proof, and it can extend your exposure in content creators’ networks. You want lots of it, to share on your company website, blog, and social media channels. Here are some ways to actively solicit and implement your fans’ work:

1. Ask And Ye Shall Receive

Sometimes, all the motivation people need to send you a glowing quotation or photo of themselves with your product is an invitation. Large segments of the population love being in the spotlight, and reusing someone’s content can result in a certain degree of celebrity.

2. Offer Incentives

Whether you’re simply hoping for a few quick photos, or a much longer interview with your customers in order to write a case study, recognize that everyone’s time is valuable. The incentive you offer doesn’t need to be huge or costly, but it may pay to demonstrate that you appreciate their submission with a discount, or feature their brand on your company blog.

3. Run a Contest


There are several types of Facebook contests permitted by the network, and they essentially boil down into two categories: sweepstakes and content contests. In the case of the latter, Facebook can be an ideal place to hold the contest. Given that you’re required to run contests through a third-party app, you generate permission to utilize the content at the time of submission. People love the thrill of competition, and if you throw in a great prize, your likes and store of user-generated images or essays will soar.

4. Reuse and Recycle

Just because you decided to publish a fan’s Instagram photo on your Facebook, it doesn’t mean you can never use it again. In fact, with full permission from the content creator, it’s a brilliant idea to get the most mileage possible from user-generated content. One of the sharpest ideas we’ve ever heard of comes from HuHot Mongolian Grill, who sponsored a Facebook contest for new recipes. The leading submissions were reposted to Pinterest, where the restaurant’s social media staff had created a board specifically for promoting the contest.

5. Use it Throughout Your Sales Funnel

There’s really never a time where user-generated content is inappropriate. Traditional marketing thought dictates that in order for a consumer to make a purchase, they must pass through a series of stages known as the buyer readiness cycle. When you start thinking about buying a new car, you’re aware you have a need and start to Google local car dealerships. You perform more research, narrow down a few makes, models, and dealers, and eventually develop a conviction that you’ve picked the right vehicle.

Whether you’re creating social media posts to draw leads into the top of your sales funnel, or writing a case study to close new revenue, user-generated content can probably say it better than you can. Use images and quotes as social proof to make your brand trustworthy, and testimonials and case studies to convert leads into customers.

Consumer trust is a critical factor in marketing. If an individual doesn’t believe your brand can deliver on its promises, or provide something better than its competition, they probably won’t ever make a purchase. Leveraging the thoughts, words, and images of real human beings - with their permission, of course - can make your brand über-trustworthy.

Where Are Your Readers Really Coming From?Walter Knapp | May 24, 2013

Back in October 2012, The Atlantic Senior Editor Alexis Madrigal looked at his own website analytics from his personal blog and realized that very little of the referral traffic was from social sites like Facebook and Twitter. They were coming from, well, nowhere. Nowhere trackable, anyway.

He wrote:

One dirty secret of web analytics is that the information we get is limited…There are circumstances, however, when there is no referrer data. You show up at our doorstep and we have no idea how you got here. The main situations in which this happens are email programs, instant messages, some mobile applications*, and whenever someone is moving from a secure site.

With over 250,000 individual websites in my company's network, we are able to look at very large data sets that show traffic ingress to those sites through a referrer analysis. How much is from Twitter as a percentage? How much from Facebook? What about the traffic that seems to come from, what Alexis was saying, "nowhere"?

The single largest known referrer is, and has been for some time, Google. Search has gotten so good and people are so used to using it as a navigation tool that is remains a staple of traffic. It's interesting, however, that the largest referring search term for any given site is that site's own domain name, which brings me back to the point. Most traffic to a site is social, but not as defined by Twitter or Facebook. Rather, it's the "dark" or natural social behaviors like emailing links and bookmarking pages.

Over the past several months we've started to do more analysis on the traffic patterns across our network, and while that research is still underway, a concerning trend and an interesting opportunity are emerging.

First, the concern: as more and more people use their smartphones as the primary contact point, we're seeing the amount of traffic to smaller and more niche sites suffer. The problem is in the format of results. The hypothesis being that with a smaller screen size, a more impatient reader is more apt to click on the top one or two links (pushed down even more by the sponsored link) and therefore not discover links three


through 10 on the search engine results page (SERP). Smaller and more niche sites on the independent web are suffering disproportionately.

Second, the opportunity: because we're now realizing that upwards of 50 percent or more of traffic is from this "dark" social behavior of emailing links, direct navigation, and bookmarking, it starts to uncover an interesting lens on the intentions of the reader. For instance, if indeed a page was bookmarked or shared via email, doesn't it also likely have more engagement quality associated with it? Slightly older content falls more into this category than brand new content. If that's the case, then marketers would be well advised to start asking for targeting using those direct views, and content engagement rates as another more "performant" social and intent signal.

The punch line for publishers? First, revisit your SEO strategies and think like a mobile user. Short and often localized searches are increasingly becoming the norm. Think about how you evolve your SEO to optimize for smartphones. Next, dig into your archives. Look at the pages that get high degrees of "direct" traffic. You'll likely be surprised to see the obvious popularity of content from weeks, months, or even years ago. Look for things to update or sequel. Mining that loyal social behavior will make you and your site stronger.

gTLDs' Analytics and Big Data Impact on Brands' Marketing StrategiesJennifer Wolfe | May 24, 2013

Big data is abuzz today when it comes to ongoing market strategy with companies like Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Google, among others offering staple tools by selling ads, analytics, maps, discount strategies, and more to big brands. Using data to drive new products, content, and track consumers' behaviors as well as needs before they happen are ever-changing in response to new scientific, data-driven technologies and methodologies.

Analytics and the use of big data to inform marketing strategies will continue to remain a driving force with generic top-level domains (gTLDs), potentially dramatically shaping the marketplace. While many continue to discount the impact of the new gTLDs, there has never before been such a scaled expansion of the Internet. Led by Internet powerhouses like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and half of the world's top brands, gTLDs should not be ignored as critical drivers of analytics. Although traditional websites are in a state of decline in favor of social media and apps, the introduction of new gTLDs and the benefits to consumers will change the way marketers must think about their domain and website, particularly when architecting how to extract that important big data from the various digital sources available.

Unlike .com, gTLDs Offer Closed Ecosystem to Capture Data

Analytics help us understand consumers' activity and purchase path, e.g., what they read, what they buy, where they click through, which ultimately provide key indicators of how to evolve a brand's market strategy. Brands with their own gTLD will be able to architect and design their anchor landing pages and drive data in a very customized and closed ecosystem. What's important to distinguish the gTLD website from a traditional sub-domain is that the brand owns the entire ecosystem like .Target or .Walmart and not just the .com or .biz or even .shop version. And, within that closed domain, brands can create new ways of navigating that are a bit more intuitive at the browser level and drive behavior through an innovative approach. For example, Target could customize special promotions and landing pages around seasons and holidays, through retail partnerships, and even further customized to the individual shopper: memorialdaysale.target, outdoorfurniture.target, neimanmarcusholiday.target, and jenwolfe.target.

Google-Amazon Will Offer Enhanced Data Analytics With Their gTLD Portfolio

For those companies that did not apply for a gTLD, the segmentation of the Internet set to occur could provide important guidance in creating new or alternative landing pages. Google, Amazon, and other big players will likely offer enhanced data analytics-packaged offerings within many of their available new sub-domains. These sub-domain opportunities and additional big data insights will grow as a unique platform to consumers. For example, would you want to move your domain name, as the anchor to all of your digital strategy, to one of Google's numerous top-level domains? Or, will you partner with Amazon to become an affiliate in one of its gTLDs? And, if Google and Amazon, along with retailers, big banks, and insurance companies educate consumers that there is more security in their top-level domains, this effort will bring value in migrating landing pages so long as the migration is designed with analytics in mind.

Websites' Value in the New gTLD Landscape


Many analysts indicate that domain names and traditional websites are becoming irrelevant. Today, consumers rely less on search engines and more on social media drivers and apps - whether it's a social media ad, a Pinterest recommendation from a friend, or a shared review with someone you admire. The use of social media and apps to "get to you" is more critical than ever and an essential piece of marketing data analytics. But once a consumer finds you, what type of activities and behaviors does she exhibit and what devices does she prefer? Despite the expected acceleration of social media and apps as a means of getting to a brand, the website, if designed strategically, can be an important anchor to all other digital components of your market strategy - a holistic digital strategy. And, as an anchor, it can be used to capture data in conjunction with social and apps that provide real value.

Time to Centralize Digital

For CMOs, the expansion of the Internet and the rise of social media, apps, and new websites for data analytics means digital needs to become a centralized hub rather than fragmented across brands or specialized areas. A complete holistic strategy that incorporates the many facets that impact extracting data from social media, brand, and web apps to website landing pages to capture the elusive, on-the-go consumer must cohesively fall under one strategy. Analytics will continue to evolve and the scaled expansion of the Internet must be considered an important piece to the puzzle.

Heineken utiliza Vine para produzir replays da final da Champions23 de maio de 2013 • Atualizado às 11h30

UEFA Champions League representada por dedos (Reprodução)

A Heineken lança no próximo sábado (25/05), durante a grande final da UEFA Champions League, o ‘Heineken Replay’, sua primeira ação de segunda tela no Twitter a utilizar o Vine, o novo serviço móvel da rede de informação que permite que você capture e compartilhe, em tempo real, vídeos curtos de até seis segundos, feitos no celular. Durante a disputa, os internautas que acessarem o canal @HeinekenBr verão os replays da partida de uma maneira diferente: dedos personalizados como jogadores do Bayern de Munique e Borussia Dortmund representarão as cenas do jogo em tempo real, em uma réplica miniaturizada do estádio de Wembley. Os lances serão filmados instantaneamente pelo Vine e, posteriormente, postados no Twitter da marca.

Veja:

Segundo a agência W+K SP, a ação digital é a primeira no Brasil a integrar o Vine em tempo real com o Twitter, o que torna possível a interação entre a marca e os consumidores, mesmo enquanto eles assistem televisão. “O nosso objetivo é inovar nas ações digitais com ferramentas que ainda são pouco exploradas, mas que permitem o diálogo com os consumidores de um jeito que os surpreenda”, revela Daniela Cachich, Diretora de Marcas Premium da Heineken.


http://www.adnews.com.br/publicidade/heineken-utiliza-dedos-e-vine-para-produzir-replays-de-final-da-uefa-champions-league

Além dos melhores lances, ‘Heineken Replay’ também vai ilustrar, com dedos customizados, outros momentos de um jogo de futebol com cenas inusitadas, como a movimentação dos fotógrafos, mensagens enviadas pela torcida para o telão e os fogos de artifício que marcam a celebração. Os capítulos da ação intitulada “Replay” serão escritos na hora, de acordo com os melhores lances da partida, e produzidos sem truques de filmagem, utilizando apenas a lente do celular.

De acordo com Patrick Fló, Head of Brand Connections da HEINEKEN Brasil, a ação coroa o crescimento da importância da parceria entre Heineken e a UEFA Champions League no país. “Assim como a marca Heineken, a UEFA Champions League ganha cada vez mais fãs no Brasil. Nada melhor do que celebrar em grande estilo uma conexão que já é amplamente reconhecida pelos consumidores”, diz.

Ações com segunda tela já são fenômeno no Brasil

De acordo com pesquisas do instituto Ibope, 76% dos usuários da internet no Brasil acessam a rede enquanto assistem televisão, sendo que 54% dos internautas comentam sobre o que estão assistindo nas redes sociais. “Foi uma excelente oportunidade trabalharmos com a Heineken e a W+K, pois estamos ativamente buscando parceiros para fazer coisas inusitadas neste momento de chegada do Twitter no mercado. O Vine combinado com o Twitter permite criatividade e ineditismo”, complementa Guilherme Ribenboim, Diretor Geral do Twitter Brasil.

A estratégia de divulgação de “Heineken Replay” na rede de informação foi feita em parceria com o próprio Twitter, e a execução vai acontecer num “centro de comando” que contará com membros do Twitter, da Heineken, da W+K e da produtora, que vão atuar em sincronia para uma postagem instantânea dos replays. “Essa é uma das maiores ações de Digital do ano, uma vez que a final da UEFA Champions League é um dos grandes momentos do futebol mundial no ano, então nós decidimos usar o Twitter como a ferramenta principal, já que ele tem uma di nâmica perfeita para ações desse tipo”, afirma Chiara Martini, Gerente de Digital da Heineken.

"É um prazer trabalhar com a Heineken que nos incentiva sempre a apresentar ideias inovadoras e novas maneiras de criar conexões com o consumidor. A colaboração entre a Wieden, a Heineken e o Twitter está sendo incrível neste projeto, que é o primeiro de muitos", afirma Icaro Doria, Executive Creative Director da Wieden + Kennedy SP .

Para ativar a campanha serão lançados nos dias 22, 23 e 24 de maio, no Youtube, na fanpage e Twitter da Heineken, quatro filmetes teasers com 15” a 20” de duração.

Acesse aqui o primeiro teaser da campanha ‘Heineken Replay’.

Hashtag da campanha: #HeinekenReplay

Canal no Twitter: @HeinekenBr

Twitter Launches TV Ad Targeting, Twitter Amplify For Real-Time Videos In StreamINGRID LUNDEN

Twitter today made the latest push in its bid to cozy up to Madison Avenue and the world of big-budget advertising, by tapping more into the kind of mainstream mediums where advertisers like to spend their money. Today the big focus is TV and your living room. In New York, the company announced Twitter Amplify, a way of bringing real-time video into the site, with initial partners including the broadcasters BBC America, FOX, Fuse and The Weather Channel. And it also announced TV ad targeting, one of the first fruits of the company’s acquisition of BlueFin Labs.

Twitter ad targeting works like this: an advertiser or media buyer uses a special dashboard that Twitter has created for the service, which lets a brand monitor when an ad has aired on TV. Through this, the campaign manager can then send out Promoted Tweets that coordinate with them. They synchronise, Twitter says, using “video fingerprinting technology to automatically detect when and where a brand’s commercials are running on TV, without requiring that advertiser to do any manual tracking or upload media plan details,” Michael Fleischman, one of the co-founders of BlueFin Labs, and now a product manager for Twitter, notes in a blog post.

Through this, the advertiser is able to measure how socially responsive people are to the TV campaigns and vice versa. Using Twitter handles and hashtags on the TV ads will be how those advertisers shuttle people to the social network.


Twitter says it will be able to determine where and when an ad ran on TV, as well as track those who have subsequently tweeted about the ad and the TV program that it ran against. “We believe a user engaged enough with a TV show to tweet about it very likely saw the commercials as well,” the company notes on its blog.

The company is banking on a crucial stat as the leap of faith that this will all work: it says 64 percent of mobile-centric users on Twitter use it in front of the TV at home.

For now Twitter’s targeting service will be available only in the U.S.

BROADCASTING CLIPS

Meanwhile, the instream broadcasting clips that are part of Twitter Amplify, starting with BBC America, FOX, Fuse and The Weather Channel, will be very closely tied to ads and video directly on the platform. This is something that Twitter has already been doing with partnerships with, for example, the NBA, where a video also features a link to an ad:

What’s interesting is that it looks like Twitter will be limiting use of this new kind of Twitter card to paying users, with Glenn Brown, director of promoted content and sponsorships, noting that they will be “powered by Promoted Tweets.” The idea appears to be that rather than replacing the TV experience (not yet at least!) these in-stream videos will be used as “spectacular, timely content that rounds out their TV experience or reminds them to tune in.” In other words, ways of getting people to the TV with teaser clips rather than simply offering them a way of seeing what they want on Twitter and cutting out the tube altogether.

Speaking at the New York event, CEO Dick Costolo talked about how the company has made advertising a more “frictionless” experience because of its emphasis of real-time updates. It’s clear that adding more broadcasting-like experiences into Twitter will further that concept.


The company during its event also threw in some fun ad-land perks: a Q&A session with Glee actressJane Lynch and a Tweeting vending machine churning out swag.

Twitter has been making increasingly strong moves this year to get its platform to be more ad-friendly (and revenue-friendly). That kicked off in February with the launch of an advertising API so that larger advertisers can better manage their campaigns on Twitter; an improved advertising analytics dashboard; and Google AdWords-style keyword targeting (TC coverage here, hereand here). Just earlier this week the company also unveiled the official launch of Lead Generation Cards, something Twitter had been testing for a while already, which lets advertisers include actions like requests for more information that users can get automatically by clicking a button in an advertising tweet. (You can see how this last one also sets the stage for Twitter making the leap into commerce, with one-click purchasing.)

While Twitter has not provided any official public guidance on how much it expects to make in advertising this year or in the future, there has been a lot of speculation about the number because many expect Twitter to go public, with a likely date in late 2013 or 2014, according to observers. A report from eMarketer in March noted that it was raising forecasts for the company to $583 million in 2013 and $950 million in ad sales in 2014, 60% coming from mobile.

The stats that Twitter’s president of global revenue, Adam Bain, provided last year shows just how much the company has grown over the last year. Bain noted at the time that Twitter had 140M+ active users; now that figure is estimated to be closer to 300 million.

Bain also had noted that 55% of users access Twitter on mobile, with 40% growth quarter over quarter, and that among Twitter’s active users, only some 60% actually tweet, but all of them “listen.” And in a sign that Twitter was always going to figure out a better way of leveraging ads on the platform, even a year ago, some 79% of people on the site were already following brands.

More to come.

The Shift to Constant ConnectivityTHE RUNDOWN

We're living a part of marketing history. The shift to constant connectivity is one that’s transforming how we connect with people, providing access to so many more consumer moments than ever before, and powerful ways to be relevant and welcome at each one. The possibilities are incredible and the opportunity is huge – and the time is now.

Imagine being a marketer in the 1940s. It’s the advent of television advertising. Your entire model for connecting with consumers is evolving and you’re getting your head around the implications of having a captive audience tuned into screens in their living rooms. You’re likely enamored by the opportunity to deliver sight, sound and motion – with great reach. But you’d need new assets, and new ways to position your brand and spotlight its benefits. You’d need new thinking about how to structure your campaigns – and your teams. As you witnessed a massive change in the relationship between people and technology, you’d be called to embrace the accompanying implications for marketing. Perhaps without even realizing it, you’d be living a piece of marketing history.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

STAT

Multiple Device Owners 90% of multiple device owners switch between screens to complete tasks

All stats in Cross-MediaDownload

Source: The New Multi-Screen World Research, 2012

STAT

Mobile Searching at Home / Work77% of mobile searches are in a location where people likely have a PC available to them

All stats in Cross-MediaDownload

Source: Mobile Search Moments Study, 2013

There have been a handful of these epic shifts in marketing. Clearly the emergence of the Internet was one. And we’re in the midst of another one right now that rivals even that. I know it’s happening, because


I’m living it as a user, I’m living it as a Googler, and I’m living it as a marketer. This time the catalyst isn’t a TV screen or a computer screen – it’s not really any screen above any other. It’s constant connectivity, and the multi-screen reality it enables. And in my eyes, this transformation is even more monumental than any other to date because the impact on everyday people will be more massive, and the richness of business possibilities will be more magical than we as marketers could have ever imagined. Today’s great shift – our collective movement from online sessions to online lives – has implications that truly explode the possibilities for connecting with people in meaningful ways.

It’s an amazing time to be a marketer.

More screens, more moments that matter

As marketers, we’re people persons. Our job is to connect people with our products and brands and messages. What distinguishesgreat marketers is their unwavering focus on those people – on their needs, behaviors, intentions, wants – and an ability to avoid the shiny temptations of marketing solely to things – like devices, channels, technologies. This distinction has never been more critical. As technology advances and devices proliferate at unprecedented speed, the allure of marketing to things will quickly prove both insatiable and unmanageable. Instead, by staying focused on the people and motivations behind the screens and technologies, marketers can catch an incredible wave of opportunity.

Fundamentally, people still want to learn, discover new things, make confident decisions and purchases, connect and share with loved ones. But in a constantly connected world we have screens at our service – smartphones (soon to be a billion subscriptions worldwide! [1]), tablets, desktops, and even a new generation of devices blurring the boundaries between them. We rely on them instinctively, hungry for instant, relevant information. Ultimately we’re focused less on the ‘devices’ than on the ‘doing’ they support in our daily lives. We often seek convenience and speed. In fact 77% of mobile searches are in a location (home or work) where people are likely to have a PC available to them.

With constant connectivity come critical new behaviors. People now signal the moments that matter to them, grabbing the device most convenient or functional for that moment. They also move seamlessly between devices – sequentially, simultaneously, and interchangeably. According to our research,90% of multiple device owners switch between screens to complete tasks, using an average of three different combinations every day. And during the 2012 holiday season we saw that more screens meant more shopping; Ability to shop on multiple devices resulted in both more frequent shopping and shopping across a greater number of categories. Ultimately, in a world where screens are woven into our lives, there are more consumer-initiated touch points – more moments that matter – than ever before. As people persons, our job as marketers is to win those moments.

The power of context

With empowered consumers now connecting across an array of devices in a variety of situations, the way a marketer wins is by offering information people value in those moments. It’s not that being relevant is a new concept. But beingrelevant to the moment is where marketing power – and consumer expectations – now lie.

Relevance is really a cornerstone at Google. Think about search. Our goal has always been that every single query would deliver information that people would find useful. That means delivering highly relevant results for 100 billion searches each month, with 15% of queries being new ones to address each day [2]. With search advertising, we just extended that relevance vision so that marketing messages could be just as timely and useful. A person’s query signals her intent – what she needs or wants at that moment – and search ads enable marketers to respond with a highly targeted message to inform or entice her, immediately – moving her from thoughts into action.

By using the signal of intent, search marketing got us closer than ever before to delivering the right message at the right time. Now, in the constantly connected world, something gets us even closer: Context. By adding information about where someone is, what device they’re using, and the time of day, marketers can figure out the best message to show them – not just at that moment, butfor that moment. That’s relevance at its best.

Consider two people searching for ‘Italian food.’ The first searches from a desktop computer at 9am on a weekday. Maybe it’s someone at work exploring options for a restaurant reservation that evening. The second query is made by someone on a phone at 8pm on a Saturday night in a busy metro area, in walking distance to local restaurants. This person might just be browsing for information, but everything about his context suggests he’s hungry now; a listing of nearby restaurants with directions would help.


Without context, marketers have no way of distinguishing between these signals of intent. But add context to the mix and suddenly they can be relevant to the moment. That means the exact same query can trigger two different ads – perhaps one with a clickable phone number or directions to help a hungry, on-the-go user, another with reservation information and menu options for the desktop user planning a night out. And with greater relevance comes greater results. Our data has shown that click-through-rate improves 6-8% for mobile ads making use of click-to-call functionality, for example.

The ability to amplify the power of intent with context moves us closer to ‘the perfect ad,’ one that adapts itself to any context – mobile or desktop; day or night; in-store or at home – seamlessly delivering the most useful information at exactly the right time. That’s a complicated task, but luckily technology can do the hard work – in the background helping to understand context and finding the message to match – leaving marketers to focus on what they do best: being as relevant as possible to real people.

"By adding information about where someone is, what device they’re using, and the time of day, marketers can figure out the best message to show them – not just at that moment, but for that moment."

Capturing the opportunity: Marketing to win each moment

Constant connectivity has exploded the number of moments in which marketers can connect with people. And not only are there more moments to consider, but each moment gives you the chance to speak to people in real-life situations with better, more useful information. That combination is a marketing gold mine.

The key for brands is to understand their value proposition for different consumer moments and align their messaging behind that. For a retailer that might mean different ads during store hours (phone number, real-time offers, store locator) versus after-hours (product information, online customer service, open hours the next day). When promoting the store locator in their mobile ads, RadioShack estimated that 40-60% then visited a store, with 85% of those making a purchase. For a pizza chain it might mean tailoring smartphone ads for convenient click-to-call ordering or directions to nearby locations. In either case, it requires a moment mindset.

Regardless of industry or business-type, constant connectivity gives all marketers the chance to be great marketers. Marketers who are connecting with people in specific, real-life moments that matter. And things are just getting started. There will only be more screens in the future, more interoperability between them, and new consumer signals to respond to. That means there’s only going to be more and more opportunities for brands to be present and relevant. Shifting to context-driven marketing now will ensure we catch the wave.

If ever there was a moment that mattered for marketers, it’s now.

Sources

[1] Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, Internet Trends, December 2012

[2] Google Internal Data

Lisa Gevelber Vice President of Americas Marketing, Google

67% of Smartphone Owners Would Rather See Ads Than Pay for Premium Content

Consumers fine with promos-for-freebies exchange By Christopher Heine May 21, 2013, 6:00 AM EDT

Fully 67 percent of smartphone users are willing to view ads to gain in-app premium content rather than pay for it, according to a Yankee Group study that was commissioned by Tapjoy. The study further finds that the number jumps to 73 percent when it comes to tablet users.

The research company also reports that 70 percent of smartphone users and 53 percent of tablet owners said they were willing to exchange personal information for a premium app download.

"Mobile device owners have demonstrated that they're willing to interact with a brand by exchanging their time—ad views—and personal data for free digital content," said Jordan McKee, Yankee Group analyst. "Since users chose to take part in this exchange, the engagement can be far more meaningful and powerful than a pop-up, banner or television advertisement."


Yankee Group and mobile advertising firm Tapjoy surveyed 2,076 smartphone and tablet users online for the report. A few other key takeaways:

- 54 percent said they had paid for in-app content at least once;

- 77 percent were willing to engage with ads to get a free app download;

- Paperback books (75 percent), interestingly, are the most popular items in exchange for viewing digital ads, followed by tablet in-app premium content and music (both at 73 percent) and then smartphone in-app premium content (67 percent).

Nielsen Taps IBM's Watson for Measurement and Media PlanningComputer Could Help Planners Consider Data They Might Normally Ignore

By: Kate Kaye Published: May 23, 2013

Nielsen has partnered with IBM to put its Watson technology to work for advertisers. IBM will make the data-parsing system which famously outwitted "Jeopardy!" champions in 2011 available to companies for CRM, customer call centers and other purposes through its new Watson Engagement Advisor offering. Over the next several months Nielsen aims to apply the Watson technology to improve measurement of ad effectiveness and media planning.

IBM

IBM Watson Solutions VP Stephen Gold

"There's lots of information and data in the public domain that the average practitioner … typically isn't taking advantage of and Watson would use all of this information to come up with the best possible answer," said Randall Beard, global head, Advertiser Solutions at Nielsen.

A 26-year-old media planner....asks questions like, 'Who are my best prospects in the telecom category?' and 'How much should I budget for next year,'" said Mr. Beard. Using Watson, that media planner could tap into data she might normally ignore.

Watson evaluates social-media data and publicly available data in conjunction with proprietary data from clients and their partners such as response data from previous marketing efforts and continuously learns from that information using its natural-language processing and machine learning capabilities.

If a banking marketer is preparing a credit card offering for instance, the system could help determine who best to target. "What if I don't know what to ask? What if I just want to start to have a conversation about past activity?" said Stephen Gold, VP- marketing and sales operations for IBM's Watson Solutions

Conversation, not a query

"It's not going to bring back an answer," said Mr. Gold. Rather, the system will deliver a set of weighted responses. "It's not an IT query…it's a conversation," he said.

Nielsen is just embarking on its Watson application research, which will be spearheaded by Nielsen's Innovation Lab, a project launched about a year ago in conjunction with the Stanford Graduate School of Business. The effort will be tackled over the next few quarters, according to Mr. Beard.

"What we're hoping to do with Watson is use its capabilities to get answers to questions about ad effectiveness easier and faster," said Mr. Beard, adding, "We've already had some initial discussions with the big media holding companies and there's certainly a lot of interest there."

Watson is 75% smaller and around 2.5 times faster than it was when it burst on the scene for its trivia game show debut two years ago, said Mr. Gold. Back then, it took the computer system around three seconds to analyze 200 million pages of information. Its footprint has also decreased in size.

"We can actually put Watson down on a single server today…so that opens up a whole new world of opportunity on how Watson can be put to work," said Mr. Gold.

Showrooming Overhyped, Mobile Key To Shopping PurchasesWednesday, May 22, 2013


Given consumers' mobile in-store shopping trends, some consider the showrooming hoopla overblown. The research process still begins at home on search engines and comparison sites. While just 6% of smartphone users conduct their most recent mobile retail search in a store while shopping, 77% make their purchases in the store they visit.

The xAd and Telmetrics report released Wednesday identifies select categories of shoppers that rely on their phone more often. Consumers looking for electronics use their device 7.1% of the time, compared with groceries at 6.7%, home goods, 6.6%; and apparel, drug and beauty, 4.7%.

The definition of showrooming continues to change.

Last year, people went into stores and searched online to purchase the items at another retailer for less while in a specific store. Now consumers are pulling out their phone to confirm they're getting the best price from the store they're in, according to Monica Ho, vice president of marketing, xAd. She said many more retailers are willing to meet other retail store prices.

"The fear lies in the fact that retailers spend so much money getting consumers in the store from either advertising or marketing on the Web or traditional media, only to lose them when they walk through the store door, Ho said. "We're not seeing the high in-store activity you would think," she said.

About half of mobile users begin their retail shopping on a mobile device, while one in four mobile shoppers rely on their device throughout the purchase process. Some 55% of mobile retail shoppers ultimately make a purchase. Immediacy is important, with more than 30% of smartphone users and 25 percent of tablet users intending to make a purchase within an hour.

One-third of online shopping time has shifted to mobile devices, but the average shopping time is 4.4 minutes on smartphones and 4.5 minutes on tablets versus 9.2 minutes on PCs, according to a study.

Globally, numbers related to showrooming have risen. A study from TSN, part of Kanter, reveals that 33% of people globally showroom, and of those 71% are in Asia, 60% in North America, and 54% in Europe. Some 43% use their phones to read reviews while in stores, 31% to compare prices, 14% to check availability in other stores, and 14% to see if it's easier to order online.

Comments

1. Pete Austin from Triggered Messaging

commented on: May 23, 2013 at 7:33 a.m.

Glad to see the hype deflating. I have still *never* seen anyone use a cell phone for showrooming on the Internet, but I often see people a cellphone to discuss purchases with friends and family. Presumably when people "use their device 7.1% of the time", this is almost all talking and nothing that should concern online marketers.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/200850/showrooming-overhyped-mobile-key-to-shopping-purc.html#ixzz2U8QGsbp5

Google introduces cash by email functionAAP May 24, 2013 1:12AM

HUNDREDS of millions of Google users already send photos, documents, videos and event invitations via the company's Gmail service. Now the web search giant is enabling them to send cash as well.

Google announced the new payment feature at its I/O conference in San Francisco this month and said that it would work even with recipients who don't have a Gmail account.

The scheme works in conjunction with Google's online payment service, Google Wallet, and will be free to users who link directly to their bank account. For those who wish to deduct payments from their credit card, Google will charge a 2.9-per-cent service fee.

Users who wish to send money compose an email to the recipient and then hover over the attachment paper clip symbol and click the dollar ($) sign. They then enter the amount of money they wish to transmit and press send.

Though recipients don't need a Gmail account they do need a Google Wallet account to receive funds. Google said that the product was being introduced immediately in the United States and that international versions would be made available later.


http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/200850/showrooming-overhyped-mobile-key-to-shopping-purc.html#ixzz2U8QGsbp5

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/200850/showrooming-overhyped-mobile-key-to-shopping-purc.html#ixzz2U8QGsbp5

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/google-introduces-cash-by-email-function/story-e6frfkui-1226649594715#ixzz2U8IdqAzL

Brasil ultrapassa 100 milhões de acessos de banda larga. Rede 4G já computa mais de 50 mil Pesquisa traz dados sobre a utilização da internet no mercado brasileiro. Acesso em dispositivos móveis é destaque

De acordo com o estudo da Associação Brasileira de Telecomunicações (Telebrasil), divulgado nesta quarta-feira, 22, o Brasil ultrapassou a marca de 100 milhões de acessos de banda larga neste mês de maio. O estudo traz dados atualizados sobre o acesso dos brasileiros em desktop e em dispositivos móveis.

Segundo a Telebrasil, o crescimento de acessos no último ano foi de 37%. Do total de 100 milhões de acessos, 78,7 milhões são de banda larga móvel e 21,3 milhões de banda larga fixa. O estudo afirma que a maior evolução nos últimos 12 meses ocorreu na banda larga móvel, com 45% de crescimento em relação a maio de 2012. Em mobile, 64,1 milhões são de conexões celulares 3G, incluindo os smartphones.

Além disso, a banda larga móvel ganhou um reforço de peso. A pesquisa mostra que a rede 4G, inaugurada oficialmente no dia 30 de abril pelas operadoras de telefonia móvel no Brasil, já possui 50 mil acessos.

Em banda larga fixa, o crescimento nos últimos doze meses foi de 14%, com a ativação de 2,7 milhões de acessos no período.

Mobile já responde por 7% da audiência dos sites de notícias, diz IVCPublicada em 23/04/2013 13:06

Os smartphones e tablets já respondem por 7% da audiência dos sites de notícias auditados pelo Instituto Verificador de Circulação (IVC). Em janeiro de 2011, os dispositivos móveis respondiam por apenas 0,6% das impressões de páginas, contra 7% em janeiro de 2013. E esse índice continua aumentando. Em fevereiro deste ano, a participação foi de 8%. Contribuiu para isso o expressivo crescimento do acessos internacionais, via tablets (5,8%) e smartphones (20,1).

Já as redes sociais, que despontaram em 2011 como grandes redirecionadores de tráfego, acabaram não apresentando um crescimento expressivo, mantendo-se abaixo dos 10% entre as quatro categorias analisadas: acesso direto, busca, redes sociais e outros.


http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/google-introduces-cash-by-email-function/story-e6frfkui-1226649594715#ixzz2U8IdqAzL

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/google-introduces-cash-by-email-function/story-e6frfkui-1226649594715#ixzz2U8IdqAzL

http://idgnow.uol.com.br/blog/circuito/files/2013/04/Screen-Shot-2013-04-23-at-11.41.08-AM.png



http://idgnow.uol.com.br/blog/circuito/files/2013/04/Screen-Shot-2013-04-23-at-12.57.04-PM.png

O destaque é a inversão de importância do Twitter e do Facebook. Em janeiro de 2011, o Twitter era o maior gerador de tráfego. Em Janeiro de 20133, o maior gerador entre as redes sociais passou a ser o Facebook, embora o Twitter continue gerando mais visitas a partir dos smartphones e leve pequena vantagem nos acessos via tablets.

Participaram do estudo 60 dos 75 filiados do IVC, segundo João Torres, gerente de comunicação do instituto. Entre eles estão os principais jornais do Brasil, com exceção da Folha de São Paulo, e algumas das principais revistas, com exceção das publicações de Editora Globo e alguns títulos da Editora Abril. E as análises têm como fonte primária os dados brutos dos logs gerados por webanalytics, repassados pelos veículos de comunicação ao IVC. Os sites utilizados no estudo são, portanto, sites de notícias, exclusivamente, alguns deles integrantes de grandes portais.

João chama a atenção para o fato de o crescimento dos dispositivos móveis como o meio de acesso a Internet apontado no estudo não levar em conta, ainda, os aplicativos de cada veículo, o que provavelmente tornaria o crescimento mais vigoroso. O IVC considerou apenas os acessos via browser. “Ainda estamos no preparando para medir o uso das apps no acesso a informações digitais”, conta o




executivo, ressaltando que o instituto já iniciou um trabalho junto aos fornecedores de plataformas/desenvolvedores de apps de notícias _ como Adobe, Digital Pages, etc _ para credenciá-los e pré homologar formatos de geração de informações para auditoria.

“Nos Estados Unidos a Adobe já fez algumas experiências junto com o IVC nesse sentido, e a ideia foi bem recebida pelos fornecedores aqui. O próximo passo é envolver os próprios veículos, para que os apps já sejam criados prevendo a geração de dados para auditoria”, diz João, ciente de que esse será o maior obstáculo a ser superado, já que muitas empresas têm receio de abrir os números, considerados por elas ainda pouco expressivos.

Evolução de Unique Browsers

Como o foco do estudo é o mercado publicitário, a análise considerou duas métricas: Impressão de Páginas e Unique Browser, que representam volume e alcance dos veículos auditados. O volume de acessos aos 60 sites participantes cresceu, em média, 23% de janeiro de 2011 até janeiro de 2013. O incremento por regiões aponta altas mais fortes nos estados do Nordeste (69%), Norte (41%) e Centro-Oeste( 32%). Já o número de dispositivos/browsers utilizados para acesso aumentou 18%. Esses dados indicam uso mais frequente, com forte crescimento do volume, e alcance um pouco maior, crescendo a taxas menores na variação anual.

O estudo analisou ainda quais são os browsers e dispositivos mais usados. Entre os browsers, há um crescimento expressivo do Chrome (impulsionado também pelo crescimento do uso de dispositivos Android) e redução de uso do Internet Explorer (tabela abaixo). Isso teve reflexo direto no aumento do tráfego gerado a partir das ferramentas de busca sobre o tráfego direto, já que a barra de endereço dos browsers passaram a funcionar como a caixa de entrada das ferramentas de busca do Google e da Microsoft.

No caso dos smartphones e tablets, a utilização de browsers diferentes dos fornecidos junto com o aparelho ainda é pouco comum. Nos gráficos a seguir, podemos perceber aumento considerável do sistema operacional Android entre os smartphones e tablets, superando o iOS no início de 2012 em impressões de páginas e no fim de 2012 em Unique Browsers. “Mas a perda de share da Apple não quer dizer que os acesso via iPhone tenham diminuído. Cresceram. A questão é que houve aumento de consumo a partir de outras plataformas Android _ notadamente equipamentos Samsung, Motorola e LG _ que, juntas, ampliaram a participação do sistema operacional da Google.



Entre os dispositivos, os PCs concentram maior utilização no horário comercial (dias de semana, das 8h às 18h). Já os smartphones são usados de modo uniforme ao longo do dia e da noites, com picos de acesso nos horários de maior mobilidade (8h, 13h e 19h). Os tablets, por sua vez, são utilizados de maneira mais uniforme no horário comercial, com intensificação de acesso às 8h e durante a noite, a partir das 19h. Nos fins de semana os três dispositivos apresentam usos semelhantes: 0 pico de acesso começa às 10h e se mantém elevado até às 23h, com prime time às 20h.



Segundo João Torres, os usuários de tablets passam mais tempo nos sites acessados. “É uma leitura mais demorada”, afirma.

Globo muda relação com Facebook - Novas regras da rede social geram questionamentos da emissorapor Claudia Penteado Publicado Segunda-Feira, 22 de Abril de 2013 10:59

As novas regras implementadas pelo Facebook começam a gerar questionamentos entre as empresas que se utilizam da rede social para promover seus conteúdos. Recentemente, as Organizações Globo tomaram a decisão de não usar mais as fanpages da rede como plataformas de distribuição de conteúdo – mesma atitude que já tem em relação ao YouTube e ao Google Notícias. Daqui para frente, o grupo se utilizará da rede apenas como ferramenta promocional, sem colocar links para seus websites.

A atitude não é exatamente uma tendência, mas pode se tornar. O jornal The Guardian, por exemplo, tomou a mesma decisão. Basicamente, o que levou a Globo a assumir essa posição foi não concordar, por princípio, com o modelo agora imposto pelo Facebook: reduzir o volume de conteúdo que chega à base de fãs que recebem os posts (a menos que haja pagamento para promovê-los), ele próprio ser curador de quem recebe o que e passar a utilizar-se da base de fãs para vender para concorrentes. A mudança ocorreu, principalmente, por pressão de investidores da rede social – que fez seu IPO em 2012 e não foi bem – de que se torne mais rentável.

“O Facebook é entendido por nós como uma interessante forma de relacionamento e promoção de nossos conteúdos, programas, ações. Não é uma plataforma para dar notícias, para antecipar furos, disponibilizar conteúdos, mas instrumento para conversar sobre eles. Não entendemos que ferramentas sociais são canais de broadcast de conteúdo”, diz Sergio Valente, diretor da CGCOM. Segundo ele, a intenção da



empresa é estar cada vez mais presente nas redes sociais, conversando e se relacionando com o público. Tanto que a TV Globo lançou o aplicativo social “com_vc”. No entanto, avalia e revisa permanentemente as práticas em todos os canais.

A atitude da Globo pode até parecer retrógrada, mas há quem acredite que as novas regras do Facebook são um tiro no pé. A Globo estima que o conteúdo das fan pages chegue – sem pagamento – a cerca de 5% da base de fãs. Também teme que essa base seja comercializada a concorrentes. De acordo com as novas regras, nada impede que a base de fãs do SporTV seja, por exemplo, oferecida para ações comerciais do FoxSports. Vale lembrar que a Globo tem mais de um milhão de fãs no Facebook. Pagar para promover mais amplamente os posts no Facebook não parece interessante. Segundo fontes do propmark, a audiência digital originária do Facebook hoje não tem grande relevância, nem tinha antes das mudanças.

Edelman: empresas podem chegar aos usuários sem interferência

Ameaça

O americano Ben Edelman, professor-associado da Harvard Business School e especialista em web – um de seus temas de estudo é a concentração de mercado na área de buscas na internet e os riscos para anunciantes –, diz acreditar que a decisão do Facebook de passar a filtrar os conteúdos – a menos que receba pagamento em troca – ameaça os interesses do sistema. “Se um usuário espera conteúdo como notícias de uma determinada empresa, nenhum dos dois quer que o Facebook se posicione no meio dessa relação. A empresa pode encontrar outras maneiras de chegar aos usuários sem a interferência do Facebook. O que me parece é que a estratégia da rede social pode não funcionar a longo prazo. Mas, no curto prazo, muitas empresas se encontrarão presas ao modelo”. Ele denomina a estratégia do Facebook de “bait-and-switch” (atrai o anunciante e depois muda as regras).

Segundo ele, o Facebook tem um histórico de dizer algo e fazer outra coisa – o próprio mercado costuma dizer que suas regras mudam quase que semanalmente. Mas até aqui os problemas afetaram principalmente usuários no que diz respeito a práticas de privacidade, por exemplo. Agora, depois que as empresas fizeram imensos esforços para atrair fãs para suas páginas, a rede social decide mudar suas regras, beneficiando-se desses esforços.

“Não acredito que essas atitudes modifiquem os ganhos do Facebook. Sim, usuários passam muito tempo na rede. Mas até que ponto isso é sustentável? Ao mesmo tempo, usuários não se engajam em atividades comerciais. Estão, sim, conversando com seus amigos, olhando fotos, curtindo novidades. Mas não há um engajamento comercial como, por exemplo, há com o Google, que direciona decisões de consumo e me preocupa muito mais em termos de domínio”, observa.

O Facebook diz acreditar “no potencial da plataforma para gerar valor aos parceiros, assim como acontece com os grandes publishers do mundo”. No entanto, como somos uma plataforma aberta, respeitamos a decisão”, afirma a empresa em comunicado oficial.

Abril

Ricardo Anderáos, diretor de mídias sociais e transmídia do Grupo Abril, diz que o assunto vem sendo analisado por sua área. “Obviamente estamos o tempo todo avaliando. As redes sociais são importantes para o desenvolvimento de conversas com o público, mas também sabemos que o Facebook, por exemplo, vem capturando boa parte da audiência digital. Quando a Globo toma uma decisão dessas, é claro que não é uma bobagem. Certamente foi uma decisão pensada”, opina o executivo.

Ele chama a atenção para o fato de que há dois tipos de audiência no Facebook: o que vem do material postado pelas empresas e aquele que é orgânico, originário do público, que lê algo nos portais e replica na rede. “No fundo, a decisão da Globo não muda tanto o jogo porque as pessoas continuarão podendo postar os links para as matérias dos portais. Isso é natural. Acredito é que se está fazendo um statement contra um modelo de negócio do Facebook, que vive mudando suas regras e vem tentando monetizar os posts. Essas mudanças podem levar a divergências de interesses. E pode tornar o Facebook draconiano”, afirma Anderáos.

Segundo ele, o retorno em audiência proveniente do Facebook não é insignificante e varia de caso para caso entre as 52 marcas da Abril. Como este é um “jogo que se joga todos os dias” e os cenários se mantêm em constante transformação, Anderáos não afirma que não pagará por posts, porém não acredita em “anabolizar” a presença na rede. “Preferimos o crescimento orgânico, que vem das pessoas. Mesmo que um post apareça pouco, ele tem a chance de ter sua presença ampliada naturalmente”.


Preparing the Next Generation of Chief MarketersKellogg School of Management Launches Program To Help Current, Prospective CMOs Acquire New Skills

By: Eric Leininger, Gregory Carpenter Published: May 22, 2013

Among leading industry observers and the media, there's widespread consensus that dramatic changes in the business landscape have made the role of CMO ever more complex. Globalization and technological advances have left organizations struggling to adapt their strategies to meet the heightened expectations of consumers. These developments have created more dynamic and potentially more profitable opportunities for companies that can infuse marketing into every facet of the enterprise.

While the challenges are widely acknowledged, solutions have proved to be in much shorter supply. Prescriptions have ranged from replacing the CMO with a chief customer officer to doing away with the CMO altogether. It's little wonder, then, that many CMOs are struggling with the lack of concrete direction about what their role should be, let alone how to make a tangible impact on the organization.

To address these challenges, we created the CMO Program. A critical component is to instill a broader perspective among CMOs for the complexities of global opportunities. Accordingly, we have assembled a roster of instructors that include leading faculty and practitioners from Fortune 500 companies. The course, developed for future leaders of Fortune 500 companies across a range of industries, combines the latest research and insight from academia, mentoring from CMOs and CEOs, as well as hands-on problem solving to build capabilities through experiential learning.

This week Northwestern's Kellogg CMO Program is hosting 21 current and prospective chief marketing officers for an intensive two-day executive development course. The program, which will conclude with another installment in late July, aims to provide participants with the perspective and skills they need to excel in their new role.

Given marketing's enhanced profile, we believe the next wave of CMOs must accomplish three core objectives to be successful:

1. Drive top-line growth and brand strength in a new era of empowered consumers. CMOs must be able to demonstrate their importance to business growth and reorient company culture around customers. Doing so requires that the CMO engage functional areas across the organization to ensure that customer experience is consistent with brand promise. At the same time, the explosion of media means that effective communications must coordinate customer outreach, public relations, investor relations, communications, sales and customer service, among others. To assume this role, CMOs will need to embrace a cross-functional approach.

2. Anticipate and build the marketing competencies of the future. Companies across industries are struggling to extract value from rapidly evolving technologies such as data analytics and social media, and CMOs will increasingly drive these efforts. While tactics will come and go, the more significant challenge will be organizational. Companies will have to make a massive investment to find, attract, integrate, retain and develop key talent such as data scientists and social media specialists. To be effective, CMOs will also have to gain a better understanding of analytics, social media monitoring and the organizational challenges they pose.

3. Navigate a significant career transition into the C-suite. While the average CMO tenure has nearly doubled since 2006, to 45 months, that's hardly cause for celebration. Executives still have a relatively short time to implement their strategy and demonstrate progress. What's more, the transition period can be critical, with new CMOs seeking to gain an understanding of the challenges. Since many executives have long viewed marketing as more art than science, CMOs must embrace hard metrics to more effectively advance the customer perspective in the C-suite and realize opportunities arising from this approach.

These objectives will require CMOs to expand beyond their traditional responsibilities. Yet many marketing executives lack the range of skills and knowledge to excel in this changing environment. One of the primary obstacles for potential CMOs is that so much of the knowledge they must acquire to be successful lies beyond their formal marketing organization. With little time to learn on the job, the most successful candidates will focus on professional development in the years preceding their ascendancy. Leadership training programs have long been offered to aspiring executives, but CMO candidates must actively seek out mentoring opportunities in increasingly critical areas such as technology and data analytics.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS


Gregory Carpenter is the James Farley/Booz Allen Hamilton Professor of Marketing Strategy at the Kellogg School of Management and Faculty Director of the Kellogg Markets and Customers Initiative (KMCI). He serves as Academic Director of the Kellogg CMO program.

Eric Leininger is Clinical Associate Professor of Marketing at Kellogg School of Management and Executive Director of the Kellogg CMO Program.

Worlds Collide: The New Data-Focused CMOs and Their CIO CounterpartsRole of CMO is Morphing to Embrace Technology

By: Kate Kaye Sheryl Pattek, Forrester Research

Published: May 21, 2013

In 10 years, there will be 50 billion industrial machines connected to the internet, predicts Stephen Liguori, executive director-global innovation and new models at GE. The 123-year-old firm calls it the "industrial internet" and it's the next wave of the consumer-focused internet of things connecting everyday products to data-collecting platforms.

The phenomenon is a ways off but GE is working to generate technology that collects and parses data to create greater efficiencies for businesses such as aviation, health care and "for folks that work in the power grid," said Mr. Liguori, speaking yesterday afternoon at theAd Age Marketing and Technology Summit at Internet Week in New York.

Mr. Liguori joined a host of other marketers to discuss the new tech- and data-driven CMO and the increasing need for CMOs to work in tandem with CIOs to manage the vast swaths of data generated int his new era.

Nationwide CMO Matthew Jauchius, who works closely alongside CIO Michael Keller, offered a glimpse of what tomorrow's marketer looks like. The company spent $100 million to build an integrated database platform for storing and analyzing CRM, sales and other data that was previously stored in disparate places. Mr. Jauchius and Mr. Keller worked together on development of the platform, completed in 2012.

Data should be an "enterprise asset" not a "departmental asset," stressed Mr. Jauchius.

Marketers should have a plan for IT, said Sheryl Pattek, VP and principal analyst at Forrester Research, adding that CMOs must be involved in vetting technology vendors, historically a job for the CIO that marketers ignored. Marketing execs should "step up and own that infrastructure," she told the audience.

The CMO-CIO connection is manifesting in a variety of ways. For Eric Pearson, the CIO at InterContinental Hotels Group, that means rethinking the role to better reflect the importance of technology when it comes to the customer experience. Mr. Pearson was the hotel firm's CMO before being named CIO.

"I firmly believe that technology is such a commercial enabler of the business," he said, noting that the commercial experience he gained as CMO is helping him achieve that with his technology purview.

Perhaps the meaning of CIO should reflect the new reality, continued Mr. Pearson, suggesting it could stand for chief integration officer, chief insight officer or chief innovation officer.

"At IHG I've been putting a little bit of marketing into technology and helping educate them in the importance of marketing," said Mr. Pearson. "Having them attend marketing conferences, reading marketing collateral."

Eduardo Conrado, senior VP-marketing and IT at Motorola Solutions, had his own twist on the evolving relationship between marketing and IT. The former CMO of Motorola Solutions in January was elevated to a role into which marketing and IT report. About 18% to 20% of his company's marketers work in technology these days, said Mr. Conrado.

To truly wrap their heads around technology, marketers might consider learning to code -- at least enough to understand its possibilities, said Razorfish CEO Bob Lord and CTO Ray Valez. They pointed to online opportunities for such development, such as Coursera or Udemy.

"That's actually a great, great, great suggestion," affirmed GE's Mr. Liguori.


No future for digital agenciesPARIS: The current crop of marcoms students expect standalone social media and digital agencies will be a thing of the past within a decade as they are integrated with other agencies or become full service themselves, a new survey has found.

The Next Generation of Marcoms report from The Mediaschool Group, a European business school, polled 2,000 marketing students aged 20-25 in the UK, France, Spain and Belgium on five different themes, including digital and the next generation, the future of marcoms, career, ethics and inspiration.

Almost 90% of respondents did not think of social media as a separate discipline but rather one that all marketers should be using. And 85% thought that would lead to the end of standalone agencies over the next ten years.

A similarly high proportion, 90%, agreed or strongly agreed that in ten years' time the agency they work for would be full service where practitioners would be comfortable creating strategies in advertising, direct, social, digital and PR.

A majority saw a future focused on content marketing and "PR thinking". Fully 81% believed that content marketing would be essential part of their job in ten years, while 70% anticipated that PR thinking would dominate how agencies responded to briefs.

But this did not mean the end of television, as 68% disagreed or strongly disagreed that TV advertising would be 'irrelevant'.

Interestingly, this generation of students did not regard themselves as digital natives with 70% believing the next generation, ten years younger than them, will be the true masters of digital media.

This "should send shock-waves through the industry and eradicate any lingering sense of complacency among modern marketers," said Scott Wilson, UK CEO and EMEA managing director of Cohn and Wolfe, the communications agency.

Anne Pflimlin, director of The MediaSchool Group noted that this generation was agnostic about channel or medium and that trust, word of mouth and content seemed to matter so much more.

"It behoves an industry that is so often transfixed by questions of youth and channel relevance to listen carefully," she observed.

Future employers might also note that 86% said the agency they want to work for would have to be as much about the creation of social good as about creating profit for brands.

Coincidentally, this is also the subject of the 2013 Admap Prize, the winners of which have been announced today.

Data sourced from PR Newswire; additional content by Warc staff , 22 May 2013

Read more at http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/EmailNews.news?ID=31428&Origin=WARCNewsEmail#bdjeSE7B1VX3A9Q0.99

Social Media and Digital Agencies Will Vanish Within Ten Years Say Next Generation of MarketersPARIS, May 21, 2013 PRNewswire

• Pan-European survey of 2,000 marketing students reveals current generation don't believe they are 'digital natives'

• Over 80% think stand alone social media and digital marketing agencies will disappear within ten years as the channel becomes a discipline for all marketers

• 70% believe marketing landscape will be 'dominated' by Content Marketing and 'PR Thinking'

• Facebook overwhelming choice as 'most important' social media tool

• Generation is critical of marcoms industry for enjoying 'unfair subsidy' via unpaid internships and 'not doing enough' on sustainability

• 86% want to work for agencies that are as much about the creation of social good as about creating profit for brands


http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/EmailNews.news?ID=31428&Origin=WARCNewsEmail#bdjeSE7B1VX3A9Q0.99

http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/EmailNews.news?ID=31428&Origin=WARCNewsEmail#bdjeSE7B1VX3A9Q0.99

• Red Bull Stratos most admired campaign of the year

• Maurice Lévy, Chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe [EURONEXT Paris: FR0000130577] said the results were 'fascinating' and 'even our new talent should not be complacent' about digital media.

The current crop of graduates embarking on a career in advertising and marketing do not believe they are 'digital natives'. Instead, they believe it is the generation ten years younger than them who will be the true masters of digital media.

They also believe stand-alone social media agencies will no longer exist in 10 years time, having vanished from an advertising landscape, which will become dominated by Content Marketing and 'PR Thinking'.

These are some of the findings from a new report published today by the MediaSchool Group. Titled the 'Next Generation of Marcoms', the report contains a survey of more than 2,000 students aged between 20 and 25 years old studying Advertising, Marketing Communications, Design, PR and Events.

Students in the UK, France, Spain and Belgium were questioned on five different themes covering: 'Digital and the Next Generation', 'The Future of Marcoms', 'Career' 'Ethics' and 'Inspiration'.

Digital

The results reveal a generation convinced that social media is something applicable across all marketing functions. Close to 90% said social media was channel that all marketing practitioners should use and that it was not a 'stand-alone' discipline. However 70% either agreed or strongly agreed that 20-25 year olds today are not digital natives - and that the generation ten years younger than them represents the 'true digital natives'.

• 85% either agreed or strongly agreed that by 2023 social media and digital agencies would not be stand alone specialists and that by then they will be integrated with other marcoms agencies of be full service themselves

• 77% believe Facebook is the most important social media tool a brand can use to communicate to this generation

• Only 40% agreed with a recent statement by Sir Martin Sorrell that Twitter was not an advertising medium

'Future of Marcoms'

The study reveals a generation that understands the evolving nature of the marketing industry and predicts an emerging dominance of Content and word of mouth.

• 90% agreed or strongly agreed that in ten years the agency they work for would be full service where practitioners would be comfortable creating strategies in advertising, direct, social, digital and PR

• 81% either agreed or strongly agreed that Content Marketing where brands become publishers and creators of their own content would be essential part of their job in ten years

• 70% agreed or strongly disagreed that 'PR thinking' where the creation of word-of-mouth and trust for brands is most important - would dominate the way agencies respond to briefs in ten years times

• In a reaffirmation of one traditional channel some 68% disagreed or strongly disagreed that TV advertising would be 'irrelevant' in ten years time

• 70% said that in ten years advertising's job would be mostly to 'entertain' and not to 'sell'

'Career'

The study suggests a generation of optimists when it comes to their career prospects particularly on questions of gender and equal opportunities.

• 64% thought that in ten years time the agency they worked for would pay them the same salary as a member of the opposite sex

• 73% thought they would have the same opportunities as a member of the opposite sex to rise to a position of senior management within an agency in ten years time

• 64% thought that on average agencies were more meritocratic places to work than in-house

'Ethics'


Sustainability, social good over profit and unpaid internships were all subjects covered in the Ethics section of the study.

• 78% believed the marcoms industry enjoys an unfair subsidy provided by this generation - more than any generation before

• 26% of students had worked unpaid for more than three months

• 5% had worked unpaid for six months

• 45% worked unpaid for two months

• On sustainability: 70% thought that marcoms agencies were not doing enough to create a sustainable world

• 86% said they agency they want to work for would have to be as much about the creation of social good as about creating profit for brands

'Inspiration'

International marcoms group Publicis, Global PR agency Ogilvy and Red Bull were the three brands most cited when the students were asked to talk about inspiration.

• 54% said Publicis Groupe was the Most Admired International Marcoms Group (Omnicom 11%, WPP 10%, IPG 2%)

• The most admired advertising agency was also Publicis 28%, then TBWA (15%) and Havas (12%)

• The most admired PR agency was Ogilvy PR (31%) followed by Edelman (15%) and H+K (13%)

• 44% said Red Bull Stratos was the most admired creative or branding campaign of 2012 followed by Nike: My time is now 20% and the Olympics opening ceremony (19%)

• Apple was the clear favourite as the in-house team this generation would most like to work for receiving 44% of the votes.

Quotes:

Anne Pflimlin , director of the MediaSchool Group, which commissioned the research said: "Every year acres of newsprint not to mention blogposts, tweets and hot air at conferences is given over to marketing industry commentators who claim they know what young people think of social media, advertising and branding. What happens less often is that someone actually asks young people themselves what they think. Such was the thinking behind this pan-European piece of research and the basis of its value.

This next generation of marketing leaders clearly have a strong point of view on the future they will shape and create. It's clear to them that questions of silos and channels don't exist. They are agnostic about channel or medium.

Instead trust, word of mouth and content seem to matter so much more. It behoves an industry that is so often transfixed by questions of youth and channel relevance to listen carefully."

Maurice Lévy, chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe said:

"The survey throws up some fascinating insights from young graduates about to enter the industry and underlines just how digital is fast becoming an integral part of everything we do. That they believe it is the generation ten years below them who represent true 'digital natives' is also indicative of how even our new talent should not be complacent when it comes to new, emerging and existing ways to connect with the consumer.One of our main goals at Publicis is to retain and attract talent. We are proud to see Publicis is among the most admired place to work. There's a sweet spot at the intersect of digital intelligence and emotion, and that's where you'll find Publicis Groupe: the human digital agency."

Matt Neale , president of Golin Harris said: "These predictions are not surprising. In fact ten years may be too generous. Today we're seeing digital specialists folded into PR and advertising agencies at a rapid pace. The agency of the future will operate across all media channels, in real time.

"I'd advise independent social agencies to find a partner quickly as clients want agency depth."

Scott Wilson , UK CEO and EMEA managing director Cohn and Wolfe, said:


"These are fascinating insights from the next generation of marketing practitioners and underline the relentless pace of change within the digital economy.

For Europe's leading marketing students to concede that the generation behind them will be the true 'digital natives' should send shock-waves through the industry and eradicate any lingering sense of complacency among modern marketers.

At the same time, it is hugely encouraging to hear that emerging marketing talent across the Continent recognises the growing importance of earned media and public relations within the wider mix.

Public relations, like other disciplines, is moving inexorably to a more integrated model combining the best of paid, owned and earned, but our understanding of how to earn the right to engage with our stakeholders, is a massive asset that today's PR practitioners must not squander."

Blair Metcalfe , PRCA Young Communicator of the Year, Account Director Ogilvy Public Relations / London: "This report demonstrates the important views of the coming generation of marketing leaders. It is clear that the evolution of our industry continues to be driven by new technologies and integration across the marketing mix. The graduates of this year recognise that they will enter a changing world of marketing and communications, and it will be their understanding of integrated disciplines that will drive the agencies of the future.

The industry would be wise to take note of the issues this ground-breaking research demonstrates, and the progressive optimism of its respondents. Today's students recognise that the world of work they enter soon will not be the same in ten years' time, and are ready to embrace the changes to come.

I am exceptionally proud that my agency, Ogilvy Public Relations, is the most admired PR agency. As a fully integrated agency within the Ogilvy Group we are already achieving the cross-practice integration that today's students recognise as a necessity in the future. It is fantastic to see that our multi-award winning work and innovative organisation is attractive to future marketeers, and we look forward to welcoming some of them through our doors very soon."

Clare Hill , managing director of the Content Marketing Association (CMA) said: "Content marketing is one of the fastest growing media channels and the future looks bright for this discipline with 70% of respondents identifying that the landscape will be dominated by content marketing. Asking the youth market what they think is indicative of the way the relationship between consumer and brands is moving. It is now a far more conversational approach, interactive with a two way dialogue.

To support these findings another recent study has identified that the over 25 year olds 'search it first' and the under 25 year olds 'social it first' (Deloitte)so we can only expect that the proportion of respondents who agree that twitter is an advertising medium will only increase from the current 60%. Content marketing is changing the marketing eco system because content is channel neutral, is multi platform and it needs to be 'Always on'."

Francis Ingham , director general, Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) said: "The Next Generation of Marcomms' report deserves careful study from anyone interested in the future of our industry. Its scope is the broadest I have ever seen, and its conclusions are fundamental. As an industry, we should embrace the fact that PR thinking looks set to be so dominant in the years ahead. The time when digital stood alone is, indeed, drawing to a close -something we should very much welcome. We should also welcome the finding that so many people believe agencies are meritocratic bodies, where ability is the key determinant of success.

What should concern us though is the continuing exploitation of young people via unpaid internships. It is utterly intolerable that anyone should work unpaid for two, three, or -appallingly- six months. The PRCA position on this is very clear, and I hope our paid intern campaign is beginning to have an impact.

I would urge any thinking person in PR and marketing to make careful study of this report -it points very clearly to the future.

The study was conceptualized by students at the ECS London, part of the MediaSchool Group. The students were then were assisted by the research arm of Edinburgh based consultancy CBP-Core Business Psychology in the design and setting of the questionnaire to ensure statistical propriety."

The survey was carried out between March and April 2013

About Publicis Groupe

Publicis Groupe [Euronext Paris FR0000130577, CAC 40] is one of the world's leading communications groups. We offer the full range of services and skills: digital (DigitasLBi, Razorfish, Rosetta, VivaKi), Babelfish Articles May 2013 - July 2013 15-7-13

creative services (BBH, Leo Burnett , Publicis Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi), public affairs, corporate communications and events (MSLGROUP), media strategy, planning and buying (Starcom MediaVest Group and ZenithOptimedia) and healthcare communications, with Publicis Healthcare Communications Group (PHCG). Present in 108 countries, the Groupe employs 58,000 professionals.

http://www.publicisgroupe.com | Twitter:@PublicisGroupe | Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/publicisgroupe

Viva la Difference !

About Mediaschool Group

The MediaSchool Group (MSG) is one of Europe's foremost business schools specializing in the marketing communications.

For more than thirty years it has taught advertising, marketing, design, PR, journalism and more recently digital communications in faculties in France, Belgium, the UK and Spain. Graduates from the MSG work in management positions in marketing agencies and in-house positions around the world.

Video RTB: Is An Impression An Impression An Impression?by Tyler Loechner, 2 hours ago

On the "Is It Primetime for Video RTB?" panel at OMMA Video today, moderator David Goetzl, senior editor, MediaPost, posed the question: "Is an impression an impression an impression?" Another theme throughout the panel was anwering the question: "What is 'premium programmatic,' and what is the key to unlocking it?"

Matthew Kramer, director of TV products, Accuen, does not believe that an impression is an impression is an impression. Kramer argued that "even if everything could go to RTB," it wouldn't. He doesn't believe that programmatic can replace contextual buying. "And I don't think it should," he added.

The adoption of RTB was a topic on the panel as well. The term "slow" came up, but Brett Wilson, co-founder and CEO of TubeMogul, argued that with a market that's growing 35-40%, it shouldn't be called slow. "It's growing," he said. "A lot of publishers are racing to grow more content."

However, there are still some concerns surrounding online video inventory available on automated exchanges. Mike Finnegan, director, product development, Xaxis, said that a lot of top-branded properties are being "cherry-picked." Another factor, according to Finnegan, is that there will always be quality concerns with RTB. He says he's observed publishers "severing ties" with inventory to let it be traded on open marketplaces.

A later topic on the panel was private marketplaces, a term that has sprung up and squeezed it's way into the real-time conversation. Kramer thinks that the future of private marketplaces is bright. "Part of the problem with RTB is getting your hands on some of this premium inventory," he said, before adding, "[and] one of the ways of doing that is" through private marketplaces. He believes that private marketplaces are going to be part of the initiative of every trading desk this year and in future years.

Goeztl asked, "Whats the tipping point for premium inventory?"

Staying true to his cherry-picking theory, Finnegan answered, aruging that "higher quality, TV-like" inventory will be bought before it's trickles down to the RTB exchanges. However, he suggested that the mobile space could be the key to unlocking premium inventory.

If all impressions were created equal, real-time buying would never have the "race to the bottom" stigma, and televsion advertisers would not belittle online video inventory sold in real-time. Clearly, there's a divide, which tells me that it's not quite primetime for video RTB.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/200855/video-rtb-is-an-impression-an-impression-an-impre.html?edition=60232#ixzz2TyErG5Ks

Crafting Moments: Mobile As A Reflex, Not A Mediumby Steve Smith, Tuesday, May 21, 2013


http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/200855/video-rtb-is-an-impression-an-impression-an-impre.html?edition=60232#ixzz2TyErG5Ks

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/200855/video-rtb-is-an-impression-an-impression-an-impre.html?edition=60232#ixzz2TyErG5Ks

What do you do to promote the opening of a legendary musical -- but it's a market where live audiences are declining, the economy still struggles, and discretionary income just isn’t going to live theater? Oh, and by the way, do it on a $10,000 budget. That was the challenge for Leo Burnett in promoting the Chicago Shakespeare Theater opening of “Sunday in the Park with George.”

The ingenious solution leveraged one of Chicago's own great treasures -- its Art Institute -- and the Georges Seurat painting that plays a central character in the musical itself. It was a bit of a caper. “It took about six months to convince the Art Institute,” says Bill Reishtein, SVP/Group Creative Director, Leo Burnett.

Well, yeah. The idea was to create a fake version of the famous painting, but with some of the characters missing. They situated the painting about 50 feet away from the room with the original, so that visitors would come upon it thinking they were seeing the real thing -- but maybe not quite. They set up video cameras to capture people’s reactions as they laughed, scratch their heads and looked on in wonder.

“And after 30 minutes we had actors come in and do the song “Sunday” from the play. It was a beautiful moment of music going through the museum,” Reishtein says.

In fact, it proved to be a mobile moment… And the necessary one. The Burnett team had done a good job of alerting the press with embargoed releases and local station trucks ready to cover the event. But moments before a major announcement came down involving the infamous Chicago teachers' strike of last year, pulling most of the remote trucks away from the Art Institute.

“That was where mobile came in,” he says. “The interaction between mobile and social was our strategy.” Working with Iris Mobile, they distributed on-site signage and pass-outs inviting people to text to win their own Sunday in Paris. They got back a video for the play that was easily shared via Twitter and Facebook. Or they could buy a ticket.

The second phase involved putting the faux painting at the Chicago Art Expo with a cutout inviting people to pose as the missing characters and post the images to their own social media.

The two-phase campaign netted 8 million media impressions in 24 hours as local media around the country picked it up. A fully fleshed-out multimedia package was distributed to media in very short order. But more to the point, it drove real sales. The show broke the theater’s record for having the highest number of first-time guests in its history.

For Senior Digital Strategist Ian Beacraft, the campaign worked because social was not a simple add-on -- an invitation to “like” something. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime event and it is a way for people to take it with them, to take a postcard.”

In other words, the strategy here was not to find and insert oneself into a mobile moment, but to create a sharable mobile moment for people. “Bring people to it and let them broadcast it as a highlight reel of their lives,” says Beacraft.

The mobile phone has become a reflex for recording and sharing. When we see something amazing, our impulse is to share with someone we care about. That is mobile media as we the consumers have defined it in our lives, and it has nothing to do with the mobile browsers, ad units, app distribution ecosystem and marketing methods that we in the industry call “mobile media.” In everyday life, mobile media is more of an impulse to record and share.

Technically, the campaign here was designed to make the assets easy to share. “We recognized what platform they were signed into and gave them that option for sharing,” says Reishtein. And the shared content like video clips from the show were designed to be enjoyed by people who weren’t even present.

The effort paid off in longevity as well. Seventeen percent of the people who texted into the program opted in for further messages.

There is a cool idea in here about how mobile marketing can evolve into something that slipstreams into the mobile behaviors that people already demonstrate in everyday life. Either creating occasions for mobile self-expression and sharing or simply understanding the places and the times when those behaviors take place opens up a whole new range of creative possibilities.

Instead of intruding on a mobile moment, you are facilitating one, inspiring one, and helping to enhance one. If we really come to understand the mobile device as an extension of personal will or activity or sharing, then we have the opportunity to imagine it has so much more than just another screen to be occupied.


The idea becomes: how do you inspire the behavior -- become a part of it -- become aligned and identified with it? We start thinking of mobile as something closer to a reflex or a behavior than just as a medium.

When Is It Pointless To Advertise?By Matt Straz Monday, June 3, 2013

Advertising remains a growth business, with annual global ad spend nearing half a trillion dollars. Digital advertising is growing even faster, thanks its ability to target consumers. Still, there are many situations when advertising can be pointless — and sometimes even harmful — for a brand. Here are some examples:

Corporate disaster. It’s often best for a company dealing with a nightmare situation to turn off its ad campaign and use corporate communications and PR to manage the issue at hand rather than trying to sell more stuff.

Natural disaster. Last fall during Superstorm Sandy, retailer American Apparel sent out a hurricane-themed direct mail piece to people in the New York area. They would have been better off just keeping quiet.

When there are other ways to sell something. A brand manager at a major CPG company once told me that improving the placement of his products in a store had a far greater effect on sales than advertising. Perhaps because of this, the majority of products at the local supermarket have no significant ad budgets behind them.

Wearing out a welcome. Cable television continues to have issues with capping the number of times the same ad will appear during a broadcast. Local sporting broadcasts are especially guilty of showing the same :30 unit over and over during a game.

Similarly, in online advertising, a poorly retargeted banner ad can follow a consumer around the Internet like flypaper.

Too costly. There are some search engine keywords too expensive for the smaller companies in a category to buy efficiently. It may make more sense to build traction for a product through word of mouth and then step on the gas later with advertising.

Seasonality. For some brands there are periods when it makes absolutely no sense to advertise. Pushing lawn-care products in winter and outerwear in summer are just two examples.

Startups. Even more than a decade later, the memories of dot-com companies blowing through millions of dollars in advertising are still fresh in minds of investors. Unless the return on investment can be proven, early-stage startup founders are usually wise to find other ways to spread the word about their product.

Beta products. Advertising a product too early in its lifecycle can be counterproductive. Ads can drive too much trial too early, potentially overwhelming the company and disappointing customers.

Cult followings. Early adopters of new products like to feel special. Consider carefully the timing and placement of mass advertising for such products.

Advertising can be incredibly effective. During the last recession, automaker Hyundai greatly accelerated its business thanks to increased ad spend and some brilliant messaging. But it’s also important to know when ramping up paid advertising can potentially damage a company.

Matt Straz was a senior partner at MEC from 2002-2008. He is currently the CEO of Namely.

Online Spin for Monday, June 3, 2013: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/201607/when-is-it-pointless-to-advertise.html

The Future of Media, as Seen at Internet WeekNBC Universal, ABC, ESPN, Gannett and Others on Tomorrow's Media Landscape

Published: May 24, 2013

Big media and new media both came out in force at Internet Week this week Check out complete video from four sessions.


http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/201607/when-is-it-pointless-to-advertise.html

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/201607/when-is-it-pointless-to-advertise.html

Keynote: NBC Universal Exec VP Lauren Zalaznick in conversation with Media REDefined’s Jason Hirschhorn (also a former exec at MySpace and MTV).

Tomorrow's Media Landscape: Observer Media Group President Mike Albanese moderates a discussion with Joe Ruffolo, senior VP at ABC News Digital; Kevin Kearney, CEO and co-founder at Hard Candy Shell; Matt de Ganon, VP-mobile product and operations at Gannett; Callie Schweitzer Director of Marketing and Communications at Vox Media; and Stacy Martinet, chief marketing officer at Mashable.

Convincing People to Pay for Content: Rob Grimshaw, managing director at FT.com, in conversation with Nat Ives, senior editor at Advertising Age.

Is Twitter Live TV’s Newest Follower?: Sean Casey, senior VP-product at Nielsen and founder of SocialGuide, talks with Jonathan Greene, managing director-mobile and social platforms at R/GA; Lesley Robin, director of digital marketing at Hip Genius; David Coletti, VP-digital media research and analytics at ESPN; and Mike Hess, exec VP-data fusion and integration at Nielsen.

R/GA

Founded in 1977, R/GA is a full-service digital agency that transforms the way people interact with brands. A commitment to design, technology, and innovation has defined R/GA’s continuing legacy in...

Crain

For more Information on Crain and other companies like this, visit LookBook-- a directory for any marketing industry professional seeking new partners.

Comments

Bill CrandallNew York, NY

# 1 - May 27, 2013 11:16 PM

Always great to have industry conferences on the evolving state of digital, internet, mobile, and social media content and new delivery systems. But when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail!

How about some new trade conferences on the critical importance of branding, and the role "traditional" will always play in this regard ... along with other lost things like core brand messaging; brand promise; and "reasons why. Right now, it just seems like the blind leading the blind, to me.

Entertainment of any kind is always great, but in the end it has to sell something. Bill Crandall

SOCIAL DATA: A NEW LENS FOR BRAND MARKETING

Author: Vanessa Jeswani

Twitter: @vanessajnyc

0 Comments28 May 2013

This year’s theme for the Conversational Marketing Summit was “Parting the Clouds: Bridging Data and Humanity.” Given the explosion of the buzzword ‘Big Data’ in the last year or so, it was a particularly relevant discussion to see if any of the predictions had come to fruition. More importantly, it was a great way to understand practical applications of data for brand marketing, especially with the growth of social and mobile.

The CEO of Gnip, the world’s largest provider of social data, provided some good case studies on how brand’s can make use of social data beyond optimizing their Facebook page’s engagement rates. This data can provide a new lens when it comes to making bigger marketing decisions.

Social data can and should affect decisions made about PR, supply chain management, customer service, product development and brand management. He plots these on a 2×2 of reaction time vs. depth of content.


He provided a couple of examples to further illustrate the varied applications:

Product development – Urban Outfitters

An independent fashion photographer posted an image from an upcoming product photo shoot, which went viral on Tumblr – 10,000+ reblogs in a few hours.

This type of response indicates that social media data could be a good gauge for how users will receive a new product, a relatively free form of testing prior to manufacturing. Or if a product has already been manufactured, a strong response online could indicate the need to revisit their supply chain management strategy to up the production quantity.

Supply Chain – Local Retailer

One of the largest US retailers had set up virtual geo-fences around each store to study online social conversations happening around the stores. The retailer has known for years how to manage inventory i.e. what products are or are not on the shelves. However, for the first time they were able to understand which missing products people were most upset about. Interestingly, they also found that users who stole something were quite likely to tell their friends about their illegitimate activities and post pictures on social channels. In more ways than one, it provided a new lens into what was happening in the store.

This type of social conversation monitoring provides a much deeper level of thinking than merely optimizing the types of tweets or posts a brand releases. The impact of decisions that brands can make utilizing social data, from supply chain management all the way to product management, raises the relevancy of understanding what users are thinking at any particular location and time.


Excuses

Social Media Calendar: A How To ApproachBy Miriam Hara, Published May 30, 2013

It’s clear that like all things in marketing you need to determine your objectives. Only then can you evaluate and assess if your Social Media efforts are performing well. Once you have determined your objectives, the most critical aspect of developing a community is creating a calendar that will provide you with clear and concise directions and strategy on writing of posts.

What is an social media calendar?

A social media calendar allows you to plan out your topics and initiatives by week, and by month. This provides you with the foundation to develop Facebook Posts, Blogs and Tweets by evaluating and considering the social media landscape as it pertains to your business or brand. It allows you to integrate all your efforts into one visual document to make sure that you have a holistic approach to your social media.

Here’s how you start establishing a Social Media Calendar.

1) Understanding your target audience…intimately. For starters, Facebook allows you to really niche your audience. So reaching the 1% of the 15% is totally attainable. And Twitter allows you to evaluate and assess trending topics….So put these 2 great abilities together and you can now get a dimensional view of your target. Understanding your consumer’s psychographics has never been more important. What do they like? Who do they like? What other brands are they following?

2) Visually map up your brand’s interests. That’s right. What subjects are important to your brand or business? It goes to follow that those are the same interest for your audience. Let’s say your brand is a Health Supplement, then fitness, health issues and nutrition are all top interests. This is a good starting to point to direct you in creating posts and engaging your brands with other relevant Pages.


3) Fill in your brand’s social calendar. It’s important to know when events that are key to your brand’s make up happen…and partake and engage in them. Taking my previous example of a Health Supplement, there’s a Nutrition month or Heart Health Month, or Diabetes Month. If your brand or business is within the Food Industry or Beverage Industry, then Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentines, Weekends and BBQs are all events that are pertinent which can fill your social media calendar.

4) Build excitement. Launch a contest, provide samples, offer coupons…get in the know with your community. While the excitement is on…or the contest, take advantage of their interest to provide relevant and thought provoking posts for them to engage in.

5) Be in sync. It’s important for brands to have all their marketing integrated. If there’s a product launch, make sure you plan for it, tweet it and promote it.The timing of posts and tweets is key to the success of your marketing activities.

A social media calendar is a plan…but its the sum of all its parts that provides a solid foundation for a Brand’s Social Media Initiatives. Having a social media calendar doesn’t mean it’s rigid. Quite the contrary, like all things social, it must be allowed to be fluid, to respond and react to twitter trendings, a newsworthy topic, or he latest and greatest happening that pertains to your brand or business.

Author:Miriam Hara Miriam Hara on the Web Miriam Hara on Facebook Miriam Hara on Twitter Miriam Hara on LinkedIn Miriam Hara RSS Feed

Miriam is the creative core of 3H; bringing together strategic business savvy with an all encompassing creative vision to product and service marketing. Miriam's true stren

Read more at http://www.business2community.com/social-media/social-media-calendar-a-how-to-approach-0509468#ZYt44TGuCYjvciC1.99

Do New Business Metrics Need To Convince Consumers To Watch Entertainment On New Platforms?by Wayne Friedman,

How well did "Arrested Development" do for Netflix this past weekend -- in terms of specific viewers for the debut of the new episodes of the long-canceled Fox series? Your answer is the same as how new series "House of Cards" did for the subscription video-on-demand service back in February.

Start scratching your head.

You won't find out from the Netflix executives -- although I'm sure they might muse to the business press vague terms such as "good," "well," and/or "strong." This won't mean much for the aficionados looking for more concrete business data

Business data as a lure for consumers has never been an exact science. If an episode of "American Idol" got to 20 million viewers -- something it no longer does -- does that lead consumers to tune in? Some would say absolutely; herd instinct, after all.

Does it help moviegoers that "Fast & Furious 6" took in a record $120 million in U.S. box office revenue this past weekend? Yes -- especially when many news outlets, including local TV programs, have regularly reported on box office news for years.

It wasn't that long ago HBO and MTV shied away from releasing ratings, or viewership data of their original shows. Now that has changed. But other changes are in the works.

More than ever now, TV executives believe the current viewing/usage metrics don't accurately reflect the value of their content -- not just to potential business partners, but for their customers.

Specifically, TV executives have been complaining that the current ubiquitous live-plus-same-day time-shifted programing ratings from Nielsen hardly reflect an accurate picture of usage -- especially in a time-shifted, TV-anywhere and/or Everywhere world. Rather, a full seven days of data is better; some would go further in saying that 21, 30, 60, or 90 days is preferable -- and for other platforms that the show plays on.

In that regard you can see how Netflix has a point -- at least from a timing standpoint. If U.S. entertainment consumers continue to be flexible and personal -- and not day- and date-specific when it comes to their entertainment consumption -- we'll need other measures to figure out what works and what doesn't.


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http://www.business2community.com/social-media/social-media-calendar-a-how-to-approach-0509468#ZYt44TGuCYjvciC1.99

So what's the best guess for the new "Arrested Development"? Brad Adgate, senior vp and corporate research director for Horizon Media, told Bloomberg TV that he believes 5 million to 6 million of Netflix's 25 million subscribers took in some or all of the new 15 "Arrested Development" episodes.

He told TV Watch: "We may never know. But I think that's a realistic number."

All this leaves consumers having to go fully "old school" in determining whether to spend their valuable entertainment time/dollars on a piece of content -- like reading entertainment reviews. Not happy with that? How about reading into the fact that Tuesday's Netflix's stock closed down 6.4% to $214.19 -- after the "Arrested Development" opening weekend? Happy analyzing to all.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/201319/do-new-business-metrics-need-to-convince-consumers.html?edition=60670#ixzz2Urx2S9El

Dish Debuts Social App, Pushes Viewers To Hopper DVR Unitby Wayne Friedman, Thursday, May 30, 2013

Looking to push the focus to the "primary" screen, Dish Network has started a social media app connected to its Hopper DVR unit.

The Englewood, Colo.-based satellite programming service says the Social app is the first set-top-box app where viewers can watch TV shows and follow social media posts on the same screen.

“Through our Social app, we’ve made it easier for consumers to follow social conversations and post in real-time without leaving their TV screen," stated Jimshade Chaudhari, director of product marketing and management at Dish. The Social app can access up to four Twitter and four Facebook accounts.

Some of its features include "Now Watching," which shows the Twitter feed relevant to the show or channel a user is currently watching, and "My Twitter," which displays a user’s personal Twitter feed with full Twitter functionality, including the ability to “favorite” a tweet, reply to a tweet, retweet a post and create a new Tweet.

There is also the "My Facebook" feature, which displays the user’s personal Facebook feed and also allows users to post a status update.

The Social app contains a "data bar" at the bottom of a TV screen where users can see the top areas in the country where people are tweeting; a program’s "sentiment" rating; and the percentage of those who are tweeting by gender and frequency.

Recently, Dish announced a Dish Anywhere mobile app, giving consumers the power to follow and post on Twitter and Facebook about shows they are viewing. There is also a Dish Explorer -- a second-screen app, which offers the ability for customers to track Twitter posts of fans of programs they are watching.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/201337/dish-debuts-social-app-pushes-viewers-to-hopper-d.html?edition=60670#ixzz2UrxHouey

Top Charts in Google Trends—The most searched people, places and thingsPosted: Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Ever wonder what the world is searching for? With Google Trends, you can see what's hot right now, and also explore the history and geography of a topic as it evolves. Today you'll find new charts of the most-searched people, places and things in more than 40 categories, from movies to sports teams to tourist attractions. You'll also find a new colorful visualization of real-time Hot Searches.

Top Charts—a new monthly "spirit of the times"

Top Charts are lists of real-world people, places and things ranked by search interest. They show information similar to our Year-End Zeitgeist, but updated monthly and going back to 2004. To check them out, go to Google Trends and click "Top Charts" on the left-hand side. For example, you can see the 10 most-searched cities, movies and scientists in April:


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http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/201337/dish-debuts-social-app-pushes-viewers-to-hopper-d.html?edition=60670#ixzz2UrxHouey

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/201319/do-new-business-metrics-need-to-convince-consumers.html?edition=60670#ixzz2Urx2S9El

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/201319/do-new-business-metrics-need-to-convince-consumers.html?edition=60670#ixzz2Urx2S9El

Top Charts includes more than 40 top 10 lists and more than 140 time periods. Hover on a chart for links to embed the chart in your own page or share on social media.

Top Charts is built on the Knowledge Graph, so the data shows interest in real-world things, not just keywords. When you look at a chart of sports teams and you see the Golden State Warriors, those rankings are based on many different related searches, like [gs warriors], [golden state bball] and [warriors basketball]. That way you see which topics are most popular on Google Search, however people search for them. Top Charts provide our most accurate search volume rankings, but no algorithm is perfect, so on rare occasion you may find anomalies in the data. You can learn more about Top Charts in our Help Center.

Hot Searches, now in hot colors

In addition to Top Charts, now there's a vibrant new way to visualize trending searches as they happen. On the Trends homepage in the left-hand panel, you'll find a new link to "Visualize Hot Searches in full-screen." You’ll see the latest trending topics appear in a colorful display:

You can customize the layout by clicking the icon in the upper-left corner and expanding it to see as many as 25 searches at a time. You can also pick any region currently supported by Hot Searches. Use fullscreen mode in your browser for the biggest, purest eye candy.

...and a few design updates

We’re also continuing to spruce up our site. Among other things, now the homepage shows you more interesting stuff up front, and the search box is always available at the top:


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The new Trends homepage shows a list of today's Hot Searches. Enter search terms at the top to see search interest over time and by geography.

We hope you enjoy bringing new stories to life with Google Trends. We love feedback, so please feel free to let us know what you think by posting online or by clicking "Send Feedback" at the bottom of any page in Google Trends.

Posted by Roni Rabin, Software Engineer

Mary Meeker Predicts Wearable Computing Is The Next Phase - Here's Whyby Laurie Sullivan, Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Freescale has developed the KL02 chip that integrates memory, RAM, processor and more into a space about two millimeters square, according to reports. As a fabless manufacturer -- one that doesn't own its own fabrication plant -- if you believe the latest technology from this semiconductor manufacturer won't influence the way you market and advertise products and services online to consumers in the near future, think again. Chips like these make devices like Google Glass commonplace and much easier to produce.

We're at the dawn of personal computing. And I'm not referring to smartphones. Here's why I believe in the trend.

Micro sensors and self-searching chips will add Internet connectivity to dump devices, as well as smart electronics to create the Internet of things I've been hearing about for more than a decade. In another seven years, rather than eMarketer reporting that smartphone adoption rates exceed 50% in major worldwide markets, the data firm will analyze connected watch, automotive, and refrigerator trends.

In the world of micro-mini processors, multi-screen advertising and marketing takes on new challenges. What will it take to target and track consumers across screens as society enters the age of the Internet of things? Marketers will not have the ability to attribute all Internet-connected devices. While mobile Internet growth rose 30% in the past year to 1.5 billion global subscribers, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner Mary Meeker, speaking at the E11 conference, told attendees that most of the content will become images and voice clips as personal, wearable devices increase in numbers.

Presenting her slides Wednesday, Meeker said people now share 500 million photos daily -- and that number could double year-on-year. There are 100 hours per minute of video uploaded to YouTube. On SoundCloud, there are 11 hours of sound uploaded per minute. Global mobile traffic as a percentage of global Internet traffic continues to grow 1.5-times per year. Groupon in North America sees about 45% of transitions on mobile -- up 15% in the past two years.

As Meeker's slides suggest, "we just began to figure out smartphones" -- and then came tablets. The next trend will bring on wearable, driveable, flyables, and scannable devices. All this would not be possible Babelfish Articles May 2013 - July 2013 15-7-13

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without the advancements made by electronics hardware companies like Freescale, Intel, and others. Pay attention.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/201325/mary-meeker-predicts-wearable-computing-is-the-nex.html?edition=60583#ixzz2UiTcjrEQ

Two Out of Three Marketers Doubt Facebook Ad Effectivenessby Erik Sass

Marketers think Facebook is an important advertising platform, but they also doubt the effectiveness of their efforts on the world’s largest social network, according to a new survey of 3,000 marketing professionals conducted by Social Media Examiner.

There’s no question marketers recognize the potential of Facebook and social media in general. Overall 97% of marketing pros said they are participating in social media marketing, and 86% said it is important for their business; 79% said they have integrated social media with their traditional marketing activities, and 89% said social media has generated more exposure for their business.

When marketers were asked which social media platform was most important to their marketing efforts, Facebook was the clear winner, with 49% saying they would choose it over any other platform if they were only allowed to use one; the next most popular social media platform was LinkedIn, chosen by 16% of marketers.

However that doesn’t mean they are confident about their own social media marketing efforts, as just 37% of the marketers surveyed said they think their Facebook advertising campaigns are effective, while 22% disagreed and 41% were uncertain. Furthermore, 57% of marketers said they didn’t think social media in general has helped increase sales; the survey authors point out this may simply reflect a lack of firm measurement methodology.

Indeed, there is clearly a lot of confusion about how to measure effectiveness, as just 26% of marketers surveyed said they are able to measure their social media activities, while 87% said their top priority is figuring out how to measure ROI for social media. On the operational side, 84% said they don’t know which social media management tools to use.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/201338/two-out-of-three-marketers-doubt-facebook-ad-effec.html?edition=60558#ixzz2UiE6ImKz

Venda de tablets deve superar a de PCs em 2015Segundo análise do IDC, em 2013, PCs apresentarão queda de 7,8%, enquanto a comercialização de tablets subirá 60% neste ano

28/05/2013

Nesta terça-feira, o IDC divulgou dados importantes para o universo dos tablets. Segundo o estudo, a venda do dispositivo móvel irá superar as vendas de notebooks, ultrabooks e outros computadores portáteis até 2015. Neste ano, mais de 229 milhões de tablets devem ser vendidos - 58,7% a mais do que o comercializado em 2012.

De acordo com o relatório, a estimativa de queda nas vendas de PCs, em 2013, era de 1,3%. Entretanto, uma reavaliação fez essa porcentagem chegar aos 7,8%. Portanto, segundo a consultoria, 322 milhões de PCs devem ser vendidos neste ano.

“O que começou como um sinal de tempos difíceis da economia rapidamente se tornou em uma mudança de todo o paradigma da computação global com o mobile sendo o beneficiário principal”, disse Ryan Reith, diretor do programa de análise de mobilidade da IDC.

Para o Instituto, os PCs continuarão fortes apenas para o mundo corporativo. A consultoria estima ainda que a participação dos países emergente crescerá cada vez mais para os fabricantes de PCs.


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Social media influences video choiceNEW YORK: The majority of consumers have begun to rely on their social media networks – rather than traditional search engines – for recommendations on streamed videos, according to a new survey.

Telly, the online social video community that enables users to post their favourite videos as well as ones shared on Facebook and Twitter, commissioned Harris Interactive to assess mobile video usage and preferences in the US.

The Harris poll of over 2,000 users found that only 41% of mobile video watchers discover new content from traditional search engines whereas 64% rely on video apps and 67% discover new videos from social recommendations on platforms like Facebook.

Email among family and friends received 54% support for social recommendations while 41% of mobile users continued to rely on SMS.

By extrapolating from the sample, the survey discovered that 35% of mobile device users, or 78m consumers, watch video on their devices.

It also found that 52m consumers in the US rely on recommendations when choosing content, and of those, 35m use social media to inform their choices.

In terms of demographics, users aged 18 to 44 were three times more likely to watch mobile video and men were 10% more likely than women to access mobile content.

Furthermore, households with children were 48% more likely to watch mobile video than those without, suggesting the attraction of family-friendly content.

The findings tie in with a recent survey by Juniper Research, which found that mobile is increasingly being used as the primary screen for consuming TV and video content among younger demographics and that streaming services are increasingly integrating with social networks.

Data sourced from MediaPost; additional content by Warc staff, 29 May 2013

Read more at http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/EmailNews.news?ID=31462&Origin=WARCNewsEmail#gRISJZ0v74drf3FQ.99

TIM inicia testes com cartão de débito via NFCFernando Paiva 28/05/2013 às 16h17

A TIM começou novo teste-piloto com a tecnologia NFC (Near Field Communications) para pagamentos móveis, dessa vez usando cartões de débito do Bradesco com a bandeira Visa na rede da Cielo e com smartphones da Motorola (Razr HD e Razr I) e da LG (Optimus G). O teste está sendo feito com 40 funcionários da operadora e do banco no Rio de Janeiro e em São Paulo, que receberam os telefones e SIMcards com os dados de seus cartões de débito gravados.

Os participantes do teste poderão usar o celular como cartão de débito em estabelecimentos comerciais que contem com a máquina de POS da Cielo habilitada para NFC. Hoje, essa rede é composta por mais de 300 mil máquinas, mas nem todas foram ativadas para transações NFC. Para pagar, basta aproximar o telefone à máquina e digitar nesta última a sua senha (por ser um teste com cartão de débito, a regulamentação financeira exige a senha).

A expectativa da TIM é lançar um serviço comercial de pagamentos de cartão de crédito e de débito no celular com vários bancos simultaneamente, o que pode acontecer por volta do fim do ano, mas ainda depende da assinatura de acordos com as instituições bancárias.

O consumidor final não pagará nenhuma taxa extra por esse serviço. Bastará solicitar ao seu banco a emissão da versão "móvel" do seu cartão. O banco, por sua vez, entrará em contato com a TIM, para que os dados do cartão sejam gravados over the air (OTA), ou seja, remotamente, no SIMcard do cliente. Isso será feito através da plataforma de TSM (Trusted Service Manager) da TIM, que está em processo de implementação e é fornecida pela Gemalto. Na prática, a operadora estará provendo para o banco um serviço de distribuição de cartões e de hospedagem destes em seu SIMcard, explica Carlos Roseiro, diretor de serviços financeiros da TIM. Em vez de emitir um cartão de plástico e mandar pelo correio para seu correntista, o banco usará a rede celular, o que vai lhe gerar uma economia. Com parte dessa redução de custos, o banco vai remunerar a operadora. "É uma relação de ganha-ganha", explica Roseiro. O pagamento não será por transação, mas uma taxa fixa periódica, a ser definida.


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Teste anterior

Em janeiro, a TIM realizara outro teste-piloto de NFC, também entre funcionários, mas naquela vez com cartões de crédito do Itaú e da Mastercard, usando as máquinas de POS da Redecard e smartphones da Samsung. Dessa experiência, Roseiro destaca as seguintes conclusões: "É muito cômodo fazer o pagamento com o celular. A experiência de compra é melhor. Até os garçons ficavam surpresos. E é mais rápido." Nesse primeiro teste, por se tratar de cartão de crédito, não era preciso digitar senha para transações de até R$ 50.

Hearst Is the Latest Publisher to Jump On Native Ad TrendScale across brands By Lucia Moses May 27, 2013

Hearst Magazines is the latest publisher to join the native ad gold rush, with new products that will let advertisers run their messages into editorial real estate and, if desired, incorporate edit-produced content.

The five new units, now being rolled out to the market, are designed to let advertisers take advantage of the growth of mobile devices as well as social media and video.

Grant Whitmore, vp of digital, said the company had been watching the success of digital-only publishers [read: BuzzFeed, Gawker] that have been made native advertising the cornerstone of their business.

"A lot of those companies are doing really, really well right now," he said. "So we wanted to understand what we needed to do to keep pace with our newest set of competitors."

Addressing a common knock that native advertising is unscalable, the units can run across Hearst brands, among them Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping and Esquire, and the content can run outside Hearst, if the client wishes.

Robin Steinberg, evp of MediaVest, said the products are an example of how Hearst isn't acting like a traditional media company. "I give them a lot of credit for diversifying their offerings," she said. "Everyone has to iterate, re-imagine the type of products they create and how they use technology to distribute."

While a debate rages about how much editorial staff should be involved in the creation of native ads, with some publishers keeping editorial far away from the process, the Hearst units push the envelope in the way they involve the editorial side. Hearst execs said that the copy in its new units could come equally from editorial staff as Hearst marketing staff or the brand itself.

There don't seem to be hard and fast rules yet about when editorial will supply the copy or how such copy will be labeled when it appears in ads. Executives said Hearst was in the process of creating guidelines governing the use of editorial content in ads.


But mockups of the units that Hearst is taking around to marketers provide a sense of the possibilities. One is a full page of Sephora beauty products that are "presented by" the beauty marketer. The products are labeled "editor's picks." Another ad unit aggregates short-form videos like Vines that are created by Hearst for the client or by the client itself. “When it makes sense and we can do it in an authentic manner, then we’ll [have editorial-created content],” Whitmore said.

The practice will undoubtedly raise questions among editorial purists about the appropriateness of having edit staffers create copy for ads. There's also a practicality issue, with staffs already stretched thin.

"In terms of who does the work, a lot of that has yet to be fully sorted out," said Rosemary Ellis, editor in chief of Hearst's Good Housekeeping, who, like other top editors, got a preview of the new ad strategy this past week. "I’m open to doing it in a smart and credible way…as long as it doesn’t undermine the integrity of the site. I think it’s a question not just of resources, but what an advertiser is asking for."

Other big magazine publishers have been active in adopting native in search of more engaging, lucrative online ad formats. Time Inc. has been marketing Amplify, its unit that combines the advertiser message with relevant Time Inc. editorial content. Condé Nast said its corporate sales arm is working on a new mobile native ad product that it expects to announce soon.

But history has shown that coming up with new alternatives to the tired banner is hard. Two years ago, publishers, Hearst among them, were adopting big, glossy display ad formats in hopes of luring branding advertising that has eluded online publishers. That hasn't happened in a big way, though.

Kristine Welker, chief revenue officer for Hearst Digital Media, said Hearst did "very well" with those units and that she sees the company's new native ad units as complementing rather than displacing the giant ads, or standard banners, for that matter, because not all advertisers’ needs will call for native.

"We're hearing marketers say, 'I don’t want either-or,’" she said. "The user journey has never been about one thing."

When Will There Be One Metric for All Screens?Get used to low accuracy By Sam Thielman

May 26, 2013,

The dream of every client and media agency is simple: one metric that works across every single screen—television, tablet, smartphone, computer. But, either ironically or inevitably, depending on who you talk to, high-tech means low accuracy.

"There's a limited set of channels on television," Nielsen’s Andrew Feigenson, svp, digital client service, told Adweek. "When you move to the digital landscape and you’re dealing with a lot of long-tail content and very personalized viewing patterns, the panels become a lot more difficult." (The online panel is orders of magnitude larger. A partnership with Facebook gives Nielsen’s Web ratings “a hundreds-of-millions-of-persons sample size.”)

One publisher, who asked to be quoted anonymously because negotiations were still going on, said that he was having to deal with a client that wanted to buy guarantees against comScore data—which, he said, ignored up to 30 percent of his viewership. "What's worse is they’re going to make us sell to them based on adults 18-24, but they’re going to negotiate as though it was a broad household demo. They’re going to negotiate down to eight bucks and then say, 'OK, great, we want that overlay.’" In other words, buyers almost want demo guarantees for free.

On TV, the major adult age demos are measured in intervals of at least 20 years because the smaller the group, the harder to measure accurately. That's also true here, but expectations are different.

"The online world has created an impression that audiences are 100 percent against what you'd expect them to be," Feigenson said. "One hundred percent accuracy has been accidentally baked into business models."

Blip's Jason Krebs agrees, but he says it may just be the problem with online video for a while. "I’m not crying about it; it’s our reality," Krebs said. "There are definitely going to be sales opportunities where the only thing the buyer cares about is measuring TV and digital together, and they will say that only Nielsen and ComScore numbers matter. And if you can’t deal with it, you can’t be on our plan and good luck."


But Krebs and Mary Shirley, Horizon Media's vp of digital activation, say that buyers with their eye on only TV-like measures such as Nielsen’s Online Campaign Ratings and comScore’s VCE (verified campaign essentials) may be missing deeper opportunities with smaller publishers.

"You have to factor in other metrics," Shirley said. "Is there something we can do with the content to just make it that much more effective?"

Turn Report Shows A 15 Percent Increase In Display Ad Costs And A 45 Percent Drop In MobileAnthony Ha Monday, April 15th, 2013

A new report from online advertising company Turn suggests that costs for display advertising, video ads, and other rich media are rising, while those for mobile and social ads have fallen. The report also looks at a category of consumer that advertisers are spending heavily to reach — a group that Turn calls the “digital elite.”

The report is based on activity on Turn’s ad-buying and data-management platform between January and March. The company says its technology makes more than 50 billion advertising decisions every day.

Between January and March, the average eCPM (the cost per thousand impressions) for video ads grew 6.16 percent, from $9.41 to $9.99, Turn says. Display eCPMs grew from $0.92 to $1.06, up 15.2 percent. The company says this reflects advertisers’ desire “to reliably reach consumers through familiar, big-canvas formats.”

Mobile, meanwhile, dropped 45 percent from $1.31 to $0.72 — something that Turn attributes to concerns over the lack of standards for anonymous tracking. The company says that social eCPMs fell from $.30 to $.24, down 20 percent. At the same time, Turn says social ads (basically Facebook ads and Facebook retargeting) have become “immensely popular” and now account for billions of impressions per month on the Turn platform alone.


http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/15/turn-q1-advertising-report/turn-graph/

As for the “digital elite,” Turn says it’s the report’s “biggest discovery” — a particularly desirable audience that includes 2 percent of consumers. They see 24 times more ads than the average consumer, and advertisers pay eCPMs that are 85 percent higher than average to reach this audience. Here’s how Turn describes this elite:

The Digital Elite are typically aged 21–34, live in cities, and love foreign travel. Earning more than $76,000 a year, they’re fond of gadgets and upscale brands such as Banana Republic and Sephora. They have diverse media tastes, enjoying public radio, Family Guy, Elle, and GQ. You’ll find them at concerts and bars.

Why Marketers Need To Think 'Audience First'by Paul Alfieri, 11 hours ago

A recent report that describes a “Digital Elite” audience that commands a premium from global marketers debunks the industry myth that eCPMs have entered a death spiral of eternal decline.

In my mind, however, the real news is this: Marketers finally have the technology they need to reach their customers. Note the emphasis on their.

The “Digital Elite” identified in that report, based on aggregated data, describes a generalization. This audience may not be the optimal audience for every brand. The exciting thing about the technology that defines this group is that it ushers in an era in which we can understand this and other audiences in new ways. And we can use it to help marketers finally deliver truly customer-centric marketing to their own elite audience.

Publishers who have lamented declining CPMs, take note: When advertisers find an audience that is interesting and/or meaningful to them, they will pay more. Our results indicate that advertisers are willing to pay 85% more to engage with audiences that are meaningful. It’s up to you to attract that audience, or to provide advertisers with the tools they need to better understand the value of the audience you are attracting. What matters to CPG brands means nothing to a B2B marketer. Cisco probably doesn’t want to engage surfer-dude users. Billabong probably does, and will pay more for the privilege of reaching them.

Renewing the focus on audience puts to rest a question raised recently about the decline in PC demand: Does this mean we’ve transitioned to a world of mobile-first? The reality is that for marketing to deliver results, audience has to come first -- on mobile or anywhere else. Today, our customers move fluidly across platforms.

The key for marketers is -- and will continue to be -- putting the audience first: reaching the right customers with the right message on the right platform. Period. It might be mobile, it might be video, it might be social -- it might be mobile-social-video. But hewing to the siloed thinking of the past will inhibit the marketer’s ability to control either the impact or the effectiveness of her campaigns.

Furthermore, audience-first thinking has the potential to enhance efficiency across the entire media marketplace. There has been much discussion in the last year about the planned industry shift from pricing on ads served to pricing on viewable ads served, and among the rationales for this shift have been its potential to eliminate waste from our ecosystem. Once marketers begin to hone in on the audiences that are “elite” for them, we will see inventory valued for the audience it attracts, not for the position it carries on a Web site.

The bottom line is this: We don't have to operate in generalities anymore. Marketers always knew that half their advertising spend was wasted, but didn’t know which half -- right? Now, thanks to the higher-resolution audience picture we can generate, they can find their own elite audience, and reach them with marketing that works. We know that scale and deep data insights, expertise and context combined are the only way to find and engage the right audiences in a complex marketplace.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/200032/why-marketers-need-to-think-audience-first.html?edition=60517#ixzz2UdQV6jjT

Google Mobile App Tracking, Remarketing Tools On The Wayby Laurie Sullivan,

Developing and getting users to download an app remains the first part of the challenge; promoting and tracking consumer performance is the other. Google will release an AdWords feature that allows marketers


to track specific user engagement through the app campaign tool in AdWords after an app that has been downloaded. The app tracks conversions such as signups, video views, purchases and reaching a certain level in a game. It's available in beta for iOS and will become available for Android in July or August.

Cameron Grace, Google display product launch lead, in a webinar calls the tool a "proxy for conversions." Someone who downloads items to a shopping cart, even if they don't complete the purchase, typically shows a higher lifetime value, compared with those who only opened the app once. Chances are if I have put something in an online shopping cart and closed the browser window, I'll come back to make the purchase within a week. Advertisers can also include the value of the conversion.

Marketers need to track how users in each marketing channel engage with their app. They must integrate the Google tracking code in iOS apps. The goal is to measure post-download engagement to analyze acquisition costs, as well as optimize media spend to acquire users that drive brand engagement.

Google also will offer in early Q3 a revised app remarketing tag and tool that allows marketers to remarket and track app users who visit or use pages in a brand's mobile app. Advertisers integrate the new remarketing code and define custom sections. Users download the app. Marketers create custom logic for marketing campaigns based on levels that users reach or do not reach.

Mobile users have downloaded more than 85 billion apps from the iTunes App Store and Google Play, according to Google. Building an effect app creates challenges, but getting users to find and download your app among the 1.5 million is even more difficult. Google recently made changes in Enhanced Campaigns to make promoting in apps easier through a mobile app creation flow and app ad download format. It pulls in information about device use and integration with third-party tracking programs.

George Meredith, global mobile display performance manager at Google, outlines through the process in the Webinar (Registration required through the Learn With Google section). The tool aims to streamline the creation of an ad campaign. It allows the marketer to target countries, location, manually set mobile bids, and set it up to avoid exceeding a specific cost per click. He shows how to name the ad group and choose a category, such as news app, as a descriptor. The ability to target categories ranges from games to laws.

Adding conversion tracking requires marketers to add the destination URL to the ad that lead directly to the Google PlayStore. After running the ad for a few days, the Google system should have enough information to lower initial costs to install, according to Meredith.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/201247/google-mobile-app-tracking-remarketing-tools-on-t.html?edition=60517#ixzz2UdQKpGK9

Can YouTube Eclipse Facebook?by Ashkan Karbasfrooshan, Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Google Buzz is dead. Is Google Plus (or is it +?) next? Who knows. Google's social networking nemesis Facebook isn't going anywhere, but with the recent addition of Facebook's sponsored posts, users are starting to find the obtrusive pokes from advertisers a tad tedious. Sure, those sponsored ads in the news feed are native, but they're unwelcome.

While it's perfectly understandable for Facebook to seek ways to monetize its massive user base, the recent effort is the latest -- and possibly last -- opening for Google to encroach on Facebook's turf.

If history ought to be a lesson, then Google Plus should quickly join the ranks of Google Wave and Buzz to make way for a YouTube-based social presence for Google to attack Facebook. After all, as I've previously commented, the connections we have on Facebook -- whom we are related to, whom we went to school with etc. -- are ironically very superficial when you consider that the monetization vehicle for social networks is advertising. However, the interest graph that YouTube has developed on each of its users is rather valuable. The longer Google goes without basing its social aspirations on YouTube, the smaller the chances that Google earns any material revenues from social.

Google cracked $50 billion in annual revenues for the first time ever in 2013. Facebook's annual revenues have grown from $777 million (2009), to $1.974 billion (2010), to $3.711 billion (2011), to $5.089 billion (2012). That is a rapidly accelerating growth rate.

Google does not break out revenues for YouTube, but rumors pegged 2012 revenues as high as $3.6 billion -- though Bernstein analyst Carlos Kirjner estimate that 2012's revenues weighed in at $2.5 billion. Forecasts pegged 2011 revenues at "only" $1 billion, with 2013's sales forecast to come in at $4 billion.


http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/201247/google-mobile-app-tracking-remarketing-tools-on-t.html?edition=60517#ixzz2UdQKpGK9

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/201247/google-mobile-app-tracking-remarketing-tools-on-t.html?edition=60517#ixzz2UdQKpGK9

Any way you look at it, it's perfectly plausible that, sooner or later, unless Facebook cracks the code and unearths some AdSense-ian ad format or new revenue model/stream, YouTube's revenues could surpass Facebook's.

Now, now, I know what you're thinking: While there have been some grumblings that individual content partners are making less money in 2013, I think that has a lot to do with the continued increase of content and clutter on YouTube: today over 100 hours of content are uploaded each minute.

And, yes, I know that Facebook has over 1 billion profiles. But YouTube greets over 1 billion users each month, according to its latest stats. While profiles are more valuable than users given the incremental amount of data they have provided Facebook, the fact is that if the lion's share of those profiles are inactive or increasingly tuning out of Facebook, then I would argue that YouTube's users are more active and thus, more valuable. When it's said and done, marketers may not care about more data if they know everything you are interested in, and can trigger ads based on what you are watching at any given moment. Facebook may know a lot about me, but my moods change and YouTube is a better barometer of that.

I'm obviously not alone in being bullish over YouTube. Morgan Stanley expects that by 2020, YouTube is forecast to generate $20 billion in revenues.

That is rich, very rich. It's certainly plausible, but to nail that, it will need to get on the offensive against Facebook.

Ashkan Karbasfrooshan is CEO of WatchMojo.com, a producer of premium video content. Contact him here.

Measurement Challenges Abound As Marketing Ecosystem Evolvesby Anto Chittilappilly, Tuesday, May 28, 2013

In a figurative battle of tug of war, today’s most innovative and quickly evolving marketing platforms continue to enable marketers with new capabilities, while at the same time challenging marketers’ ability to accurately and effectively capture and quantify their performance.

Data Volume

As mobile advertising hits $6.7 billion, U.S. television households hit an all-time high of 115 million, and innovative techniques in mobile and social channels continue to evolve, both new and traditional technology platforms scramble to map their tracking and measurement capabilities to the needs of this marketplace. Of particular interest is TV viewership, which is still providing the largest media reach of any channel used in the U.S. and is quickly evolving as a trackable advertising medium as cable providers collect and monetize set-top box data for marketing purposes. This not only provides marketers and their analytics solution of choice with a goldmine of user-level media consumption data (a veritable proxy for cookie data), but also poses the significant challenge of deriving audience and media insights using Big Data and cloud technologies and translating those insights into marketing optimization strategies.

In addition, online video streaming is exploding and is gaining significant velocity each quarter as the adoption of higher bandwidth devices and services increases. ABC/Disney, Amazon, Apple, Google, Hulu, Netflix and Roku all offer online video streaming, with many more to follow. This once again challenges marketers and their analytics partners to collect, process, analyze and draw insights with the goal not only to optimize the performance of addressable TV and/or video streaming marketing, but to optimize it in concert with all the other channels, campaigns and tactics that are concurrently in market.

Tracking

Created by technology providers like Microsoft and Mozilla, and proposed by our elected officials on Capitol Hill, the “do not track” issue is the 800-pound gorilla in the marketing mix. Just as a higher percentage of many companies’ media spend was spent on more measureable online channels, and the nation’s (and world’s) economy was stimulated by more efficient marketing and purchasing on the part of consumers, outside influences imposed obstacles to the efficiency and effectiveness of optimization.

Adding a layer of complexity to the tracking challenge, many of the leading analytics platforms are pursuing a way to use data that’s currently made available from devices and service platforms in order to stitch together the engagement stack of touchpoints for a single user across the multiple home/office devices to which a particular consumer is exposed.


Other Opportunities and Challenges

Google is in the process of moving its cookie data to Google Cloud Storage (GCS). Measurement and analytics vendors, whose platforms use this user-level media consumption data, and rely on the existing “plumbing” to gain access to it, will now be challenged to tear out something that has traditionally worked well.

If tracking is marketing’s 800-pound gorilla, Facebook is definitely its 900-pound beast. With its acquisition of ad-server Atlas, Facebook shared data with marketers and marketing analytics solutions providers.

The Solution: Innovate, Execute & Scale

Today’s consumers are instrumented, interconnected and intelligent. Their behavior rewards marketers who are selective in targeting and who interact with them intelligently. More marketing touchpoints from more channels than ever before are driving the need for innovative measurement tactics, seamless execution and sheer scale.

In order to gain a competitive edge, 21st century marketers need:

Innovation: Adopt a marketing technology that accurately measures and enables optimization of a shared set of marketing metrics across ALL channels, campaigns, tactics, business units and products.

Execution: Leverage marketing execution platforms that use optimization models to determine marketing spend allocation across channels, tactics and audiences.

Scale: Use marketing technology with Big Data handling capabilities to efficiently process volumes and deliver actionable recommendations, as the number of digital touchpoints explodes into trillions of records and petabytes of data.

Moving from Big Data into an Era of Smart DataWritten on May 28, 2013 Khurrum Malik

ADOTAS — The advent of Big Data has created opportunities for marketers and agencies.

Is Big Data Big Noise? And can we find signal(s) within a never-ending fountain of data noise?

The amount of data and the rate at which it is growing in speed and type is unprecedented with Big Data increasing 50-fold from 2010 to 2020.

Does volume equate to value?

Many believe that the jury on Big Data is still out. Not only are the benefits unclear, but how to achieve those benefits with the right mix of strategy, people, and operational execution remains a mystery.

In the ad tech/digital advertising ecosystem, Big Data is built to fulfill the needs of consumers and CMOs. For consumers, Big Data holds the potential to provide a more relevant digital media experience. For marketers, Big Data attempts to fulfill the need to improve awareness, consideration, and eventually acquisition of customers through digital channels. When a potential customer is in the awareness and consideration phase, ad tech nudges the customer forward to acquisition. But our ecosystem must realize it is only one part of the customer journey. With billions of dollars being spent on improving digital funnel performance from customer awareness to consideration to acquisition, companies across the ad tech industry are wondering if there is more they can do to meet the needs of advertisers worldwide – and not just play outside the firewall.

As marketers, we want to acquire as many customers as possible (GET), retain them as long as possible (KEEP), and upsell/cross-sell (GROW) customers – all to maximize customer lifetime value. In order to meet these goals, marketers utilize the ad tech ecosystem to raise awareness and drive consideration for potential customers; however, once a marketer acquires customers, Business Intelligence plays a larger role in retaining and growing them.

That said, the lack of Big Data quality and its inability to adapt to changing business conditions continues to puzzle marketers across industries. Having Big Data often leads to Big Decisions – they just might not be the right decisions. Is there a smarter way to take advantage of the Big Data Tempest?


It’s time to push past Big Data and Big Noise and set the expectations for Smart Data and Smarter Marketing Decisions.

So how is Smart Data really different from Big Data? What makes Smart Data? Three key attributes do – for data to be smart, it must be accurate, actionable, and agile.

• accurate – data must be what it says it is with enough precision to drive value. Data quality matters.

• actionable – data must drive an immediate scalable action in a way that maximizes a business objective like media reach across platforms. Scalable action matters.

• agile – data must be available in real-time and ready to adapt to the changing business environment. Flexibility matters.

For Smart Data to be accurate it has to be validated through a 3rd party benchmark on a consistent basis while Smart Data customers consistently evaluate their ROI. That’s why marketers and agencies should insist that the data they integrate into their campaigns has been vetted and validated by a leading and respected industry source such as comScore or Nielsen.

The days of analyzing reports for days and then acting upon them are gone – taking action that maximizes reach and activity is critical to success. For a marketer, actionable data must drive revenue or market share growth – core value drivers for marketers across industries. That’s why marketers and agencies need data with global scale broken into thousands of precise target audiences to ensure that their campaigns achieve quality at scale to deliver a more relevant digital experience (ad, offer, service) which results in revenue and market share growth.

The days of waiting weeks to prompt business decisions are gone – agile, real-time data is here to stay and grow. Consumers are making decisions in real-time – and data must follow. That’s why marketers and agencies need data which is available in real-time ready to be fed into any major media platform worldwide – structured to deliver action immediately (no waiting). Smart Data should shift and adapt to changing technical requirements and business conditions by utilizing performance feedback loops and first party seed data.

How do you know if your Big Data may not be Smart Data? Look for these clues:

1. Data Quality: Do you have constant data quality issues? Are people always questioning the accuracy of your data?

2. Data Scale: Big Data isn’t set up to scale and grow your business. Are people struggling for clear business cases based on your data but failing to provide compelling evidence? Is the data driving Revenue or Market Share? Is there a cost reduction business case to be made?

3. Real-time: Does your Big Data run in batch and do you have to wait hours to act on results?

4. Lack of Validation: Do you have a 3rd party consistently evaluating your data accuracy?

5. Actionability: Can you point to the clear business action the data can drive daily?

6. Many Resources Needed to Execute: Does your Big Data require a massive army of consultants, platforms, and vendors to fulfill your Big Data strategy?

7. Inflexible Data: Is it painful for your data to adapt to new platforms (like mobile) and changing business conditions?

The time to leave behind Big Data is here. The era of Smart Data has arrived.

A Performance Marketing Checklist for Small AdvertisersWritten on May 28, 2013 Author Morgan

ADOTAS – Performance marketing is a cost-effective and results-driven channel that can help small advertisers significantly grow their sales. While running an affiliate program can be very successful, it requires an understanding of the basics. This checklist is not a definitive list, but outlines the core elements that small advertisers should consider:

1. Be competitive. What distinguishes you from your competitors? For small advertisers that may not have the brand strength to immediately attract affiliates, it is important to offer a strong reason to promote the campaign. Analyze competitor programs to make certain your commission rate and cookie duration is


competitive. Affiliates won’t want to switch links or add you to their marketing mix if there isn’t a competitive element.

2. Clear T&Cs. Make sure you have established your terms and conditions and clearly communicated them to affiliates so they know what they can and cannot do as a partner on your program. Monitor your partners regularly for anything out of the ordinary, and don’t be afraid to reach out to an affiliate to ask questions.

3. Creative & Tools. Your banners should have a clear call to action and be available in all standard sizes. It’s great if you have a variety of options for affiliates to choose from. Keep your datafeed up to date so that affiliates have accurate information on their site and as a result, the promotion will have a better chance of converting.

4. Affiliate Friendly Website. Leakage refers to any instance in which an affiliate may potentially lose commission due to an untracked action on an advertiser’s website. It’s one of the most frequently occurring issues with websites in the channel. Leakage points such as phone numbers, URLs in banners and links to other retailers should be avoided as much as possible. With the growth in m-commerce and consumers accessing the internet through mobile devices, it’s essential that affiliate tracking is added to the mobile optimized version of your site ensuring that your affiliate partners are fairly rewarded for the sales they generate. It’s essential for your website to have a clear and easy checkout so that when an affiliate sends you traffic, you will convert! This also includes providing clear shipping/return information and an ‘About Us’ section.

5. Regularly Validate Sales & Approve Affiliates. Regularly validating sales will ensure your partners are paid in a timely fashion and they will be able to reinvest this into the promotion of your program. It is important that when affiliates apply to join your program they are reviewed quickly. When affiliates sign up, they are in the mindset to get promoting the programs straight away, and if delayed, they may chose a competitor or lose interest altogether.

6. Affiliate Recruitment. There are a number of different affiliate promotional types that are available to you. It is important to understand how each of them can deliver value to your program. Your network should be able to advise you on appropriate partners and also outline their methods of promotion. Be proactive by personally reaching out to affiliates who you want to partner with. Sell yourself with the main highlights of why they should partner with you. This includes highlighting unique tools, technologies, datafeed details, commission structure, cookie length and contact information, along with the link to join the program. You can even provide them with ready-made text links that will work once they’re approved to your program. Make it as easy and enticing as possible.

7. Communication. Although a strong launch is important, a successful program is built over time. You should regularly keep in touch with your affiliates by sending emails and newsletters announcing new creative, offers/promotions, new products etc. Providing information to your affiliates about your program and your brand in general, will help affiliates in their marketing efforts, but remember not to go overboard and send something daily as this will just be seen as spam. Be relevant! As a small brand, your methods of communication need to be even more targeted and useful for affiliates who are receiving upwards of 100’s+ emails per day. Provide affiliates with ready-made links so they can easily copy and paste the code onto their site. Remember, time is precious, so by making it as easy as possible to promote your brand, you’re more likely to get affiliates to add you to their site.

As mentioned above, this is by no means an exhaustive list of everything that is needed for small advertisers to run a successful campaign, but it is a good starting point.

From Clicks to Bricks: Online Retailers Dabble in Physical StoresWarby-Parker, Bonobos, Others Find Hands-on Experience With Products Can Add to Sales

By: Lauren Sherman Published: May 28, 2013

When Warby Parker founder Neil Blumenthal wrote the business plan for what is now one of the hottest e-commerce companies, there was no mention of physical stores. But 48 hours into the affordable-eyewear site's February 2010 launch, he had to reconsider that omission.

“We had to suspend our home try-on program because of unexpected demand,” said Mr. Blumenthal, on the phone from Boston, where Warby Parker just opened a store on Newbury Street, its second permanent


outpost. “So I started inviting people over to my apartment -- our headquarters at the time -- to try on glasses. That was our first indication that brick-and-mortar would be a big part of our business.”

Photo provided by Warby Parker

One of online retailer Warby Parker's physical stores.

Showrooms, pop-ups and mobile trucks followed, all with success. In response, Warby Parker opened its first permanent store in New York's SoHo neighborhood last month. Boston opened May 17, with more stores planned over the next year. “As awesome as the internet is, somebody can experience a brand in a physical setting in a way that no digital experience can replicate,” said Mr. Blumenthal. “In five years when people use the term "retail,' it'll mean both physical and e-commerce. The phrase "e-commerce' won't even be used any more.”

Warby Parker isn't the only previously pure-play e-commerce retailer to establish permanent physical stores. In September 2012, Gap-owned Piperlime opened a shop in SoHo, where it offers an edited sample of the contemporary-priced clothing and shoes sold on the site. Bonobos' Guide Shops, on the other hand, hold no inventory. Instead, they serve as a showroom, where a man can go and try on the brand's shirts, pants and other products. If he purchases something, the store places the order, and it's shipped from warehouse to his home.

“It's a better experience for our customer,” said Bonobos Chief Financial Officer Bryan Wolff. “Guys want to be more efficient about their shopping -- they don't need to take home the bag that day.”

Even daily-deals player Living Social has a store in Washington. It serves as a space for the company's top local merchants to hold events, such as self-defense classes and cheese tastings.

Though they result in more overhead cost, stores can be worth it. Both Warby Parker and Bonobos say the customer who makes his first purchase in-store typically makes a second purchase, and usually online. Mr. Wolff put it this way: “Eighty-five percent of people still like to purchase offline.”

Bauble Bar, the online jewelry store co-founded by Daniella Yacobovsky and Amy Jain in January 2011, plans to continue with old-hat pop-up shops for now. “If we can get people touching and feeling our product, it's a huge win for us,” said Ms. Yacobovsky. “But we're a startup in the classic sense, and we're resource-restrained. We're still figuring out what the right formula is for us offline, so we're going to try to gather as much data and do as much testing as possible before committing.”

Comments

Xan Hood Matthews, NC

# 1 - May 28, 2013 10:50 AM

I couldn't agree more on this concept. We have been an online retailer for the last 3 years and wanted to get more connected to the physical concept of a store and people. Our hope is to invite people into the experience of what we are about as a clothing company for men and to let them see and touch and try on shoes, leather goods, bags, I think this trend will continue. www.buffalojackson.com

Sports Illustrated Starts Live, Daily Half-Hour Video Show'SI Now Powered by Ford' to Run at 1 P.M. Weekdays -- Prime-Time for the Site


By: Michael Sebastian Published: May 28, 2013

Sports Illustrated is adding to its roster of original video with a 30-minute live-streaming talk show every weekday starting Monday, the magazine and the show's sponsor, Ford Motor Company, said today.

"SI Now Powered by Ford" will be hosted by Maggie Gray, the lead anchor for Sports Illustrated video content, and include a rotating cast of the magazine's writers and newsmakers.

Sports Illustrated, part of Time Inc., created a video unit in 2010 and produces about 50 original videos each week, according to executives. It has streamed live events such as "SI Swimsuit Live 2013," a one-hour red carpet special that was simulcast across several partner sites, but "SI Now" is the first regular, live video series from any Time Inc. brand, they said.

"Three years ago the mandate was to simply bring Sports Illustrated to life in video form," said Ian Orefice, executive producer for news and sports at the Time Inc. "The reason for 'SI Now' is that we weren't doing enough for the immediate viewer. We didn't have that deeper connection."

The show will stream live at 1 p.m. ET, a peak traffic time for SI.com. "One of the reasons for the show is to take our primetime moment of the day and use it to grow an audience for live programming," said Matt Bean, managing editor of SI.com. An archive of the episodes will reside on the site, and certain segments will be spliced into separate videos and dropped into related SI.com stories, Mr. Bean said.

Sports Illustrated developed the concept for the show and brought it to Ford, which agreed to a sponsorship deal that will run through October. After that point, both sides will evaluate the program and determine whether to continue and in what form. Whether or not Ford renews its sponsorship, SI said it expects to continue producing a live streaming product.

Time Inc. is building a studio at its headquarters for Sports Illustrated that its sibling brands can use. Sports Illustrated also hired five new staffers to work on the show, though some of them may have additional roles at Time Inc. as the company expands its video production.

As the show’s only advertiser, Ford is looking to build brand awareness for the vehicles that most appeal to Sports Illustrated's core audience of 18-to-34-year-old men. "We want viewers of all our digital content to know and think about our brand first when they begin the shopping process," said Erica Bigley, Ford's digital media manager.

Sports Illustrated and Ford both declined to say how the automaker will be presented in the show.

"SI Now" comes as a number of key players in sports media are producing video content to build their online audiences and grab more advertising dollars. A study from GfK Media and Entertainment and the Interactive Advertising Bureau found that 45 million American adults watch videos that are professionally produced for the web at least once a month. That audience skews young and male, the primary audience for sports media.

Ad rates for web video are also far higher than for traditional ad units on the web.

"A lot of these videos might not have huge audiences, but it's an audience that is probably much more interested in the topic area," said David C. Tice, a senior vice president at GfK and co-author of the study. "They could be more engaged with the advertisement they see because it's something they're deliberately going out to watch."

Among the players in sports media, BleacherReport.com, which is owned by Turner Sports Network, creates original videos around various teams, leagues and topics. ESPN.com allows cable subscribers to


live stream its TV broadcast; it says the rest of its video offerings online are roughly 30% highlights, 35% original content and 35% content clipped from TV shows.

Sporting News, which went all digital last year after 126 years in print, is adding five original online shows over the next several months. "Advertisers are interested in original programming," said Jeff Price, president of Sporting News Media. "But we're thinking about the reader first and then bringing in the advertiser in an authentic way."

ESPN ranked second in April for unique U.S. visitors consuming video, according to ComScore, following Perform, which licenses sports clips to other sites, and just ahead of PilatesForLife.TV. Sporting News Media, now partly owned by Perform, ranked 12th and Sports Illustrated sites ranked 16th, ComScore said.

Latin American e-commerce growsSANTIAGO: Latin America had the fastest-growing online population of any global region during the past year, fuelling a rise in e-commerce and digital advertising, new research has said.

A report, 2013 Latin America Digital Future in Focus, from comScore, the digital measurement and analytics company, examined Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Chile and identified prevailing trends in web usage, online video, mobile and online advertising.

It found that the number of internet users had increased 12% to more than 147m unique visitors in March 2013.

Online shopping grew even faster, with the total number of online shoppers rising 16%. Wal-Mart, in particular, showed the greatest gains among the most-visited retail websites, as the number of visitors leapt 163% to 11.7m.

With internet use and e-commerce both expanding, online advertising is following suit and almost doubled over a 12-month period in Brazil.

There were 130bn display ad impressions delivered in March 2013, a 97% rise over the year, said the report. Netflix, the TV and movie streaming site, accounted for 2.7bn of these, making it the largest display advertiser in that country.

Online video content was especially popular in Argentina, where more than 95% of the country's internet population viewed such material during March 2013.

Overall, consumers in Latin America spent ten hours online per month on social networking sites, doubling the global average time spent. Five of the top ten most engaged markets with social content worldwide are located in Latin America, according to comScore.

Earlier this year, social media platforms were noted to be heightening their focus on Brazil, which was, for Facebook, the second largest market behind the US. Alexandre Hohagen, vice president of Facebook's Latin American arm, also said then that ecommerce habits in that country were developing rapidly.

As in other markets, mobile devices account for a growing amount of digital traffic. Across the four countries examined, Mexico led the region with 13.9% of all web-based page views consumed beyond the personal computer, mostly on smartphones and tablets.

Data sourced from comScore; additional content by Warc staff , 28 May 2013

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Life before Google.

Five ways technology has failed us By Claire Porter, Technology Editor news.com.au May 28, 2013 12:58PM

TECHNOLOGY was supposed to save us time and make our lives easier.

We can confidently say neither of these things have happened.

Below is a list of the ways in which technology has failed us.

1. It saves us time

In what way does having a work computer, a home computer a mobile phone and a tablet save us time?

Now we have to make time for Twitter and Facebook and work emails and Skype and Instagram and online banking.

If anything our devices now dominate the time we're meant to be spending with our loved ones.

Our work has spilled into our personal time, and our personal time has spilled over into our work.

Short of a battery failure or natural disaster there's little that can tear us away from our gadgets.

We're so filled with FOMO (fear of missing out) that we'd rather trawl Facebook and Twitter for the next big thing than talk to our friends and family about the big thing going on in their lives.

2. We record our lives rather than living them

If it isn't Instagram it's YouTube, if it isn't Facebook it's Twitter. We're all blogging and posting and uploading but how many of us are actually living?


St Peter's Square, 2013: 100,000 mobile phones film a moment being broadcast live on TV. Photo: AP/Michael Sohn

On the plus side our grandchildren will have an abundance of pictures to remember us by.

But how much nostalgia can you get from a photo of the meal you had last Tuesday?

In the words of comedian Louis CK, life is the best HD experience you will ever get.

3. You need a password for the thing that stores your passwords

We have so many passwords that we need a program to store all of them for us. And to keep that program secure guess what it needs? A password.

How many of those accounts do we really need? Banking. Sure. Email. Ok.

But then there's your social networks, and anything stored in the cloud. And iTunes, Google Play, Linked In, and online shopping accounts. Plus there's passwords for random apps hardly used, but because you shopped there once, it holds huge amounts of your personal information.

Here's a tip: Take a look at your phone. Count the amount of apps you have that require passwords.

Now count the amount of apps you actually need.

We rest our case.

4. Technology has made us ungrateful and competitive

When was the last time you looked at your phone / tablet / PC / [insert gadget of choice here] and thought or said out loud "this thing is amazing."

Never. You never did that.

If a page fails to load or a call fails to connect within an instant we all throw our hands up and declare the device to be a stupid piece of garbage.

We hate our providers. Our phones. Our game manufacturers. And we hate anyone who doesn't agree with us.

And if we do so happen to openly like a device then we're labelled as a fanboy / girl. As if appreciating a piece of technology somehow makes us inferior.

With every new iteration we expect more and more from our devices. So much so that we'd rather focus on what they don't do than what they do.

"The new Xbox One isn't backwards compatible".

Yeah? But you know what, it lets you play games with strangers on the other side of the world!Babelfish Articles May 2013 - July 2013 15-7-13

Suck it up!

5. Goodbye general knowledge

The internet may have made us smarter but it also has made us lazy.

Why absorb information when you can just Google it?

Once upon a time when Google wasn't around to solve disputes of fact, friends would have to accept that they had no way of verifying who was right and who would be paying for the next round of drinks. And there goes hours of fun debate over what other movies that random actor has appeared in.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/technology/techknow/five-ways-technology-has-failed-us/story-fnda1lbo-1226652142627#ixzz2UaZsXHH7

Tween Girls Susceptible To Mobile Advertisingby Gavin O'Malley, May 24, 2013, 3:23 PM

What’s less surprising? New research showing that female tweens are highly susceptible to mobile advertising, or the source of the finding -- female tween-targeted mobile ad agency MobiGirl Media?

Still, just how positively young girls seem to respond to marketing messages is remarkable.

In fact, 65% of girls surveyed said they are likely to buy products and services straight from mobile ads if there is a means to do so. Of those, a whopping 80% of girls say they would buy a product or service right away, while the remaining 20% said they would wait for a special occasion.

Perhaps most disturbing to parents, 27% of respondents they would make their purchase with a credit card, while 48% said they would ask their parents for the necessary funds.

A full 22% of respondents said they always tap on ads they see in mobile apps -- regardless of whether they’re interested in the featured product or service. (A more modest 56% of girls said they reserve their taps for ads featuring products or services that actually interest them.)

“The results show that most girls in this demographic do like advertising,” said Jennifer Noonan, MobiGirl Media cofounder, regarding the company’s target audience of 6-to-16-year-olds.

Also of note, the majority of female tweens (53%) said they share “cool” products or services with friends. Of those, 58% said they spread the word in person, while 42% share products and services via text and in-ad share buttons.

“For this demographic, if you offer them an ad for something they like, the click through. Share rates are impressive,” according to Noonan.

As for most desired categories, 48% of respondents favored fashion-related ads, followed by makeup products (21%); toys (12%), apps (11%); and books (8%).

MobiGirl also found that deals and promotional offers do impact response rates as 58% of female tweens said they love to get deals and free stuff.

For its research, MobiGirl said it got 775 girls -- ages 6-to-16 years old -- to take part in an in-app survey, earlier this month.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/201140/tween-girls-susceptible-to-mobile-advertising.html?edition=60465#ixzz2UaZOPKYS

The Rush to Go Live With MobileLeah Block | May 21, 2013

Everyone is rushing into mobile, but is anyone doing it well?

According to the 2013 Mobile Sophistication and Strategy Study conducted by Kontagent, only 25 percent of mainstream companies using mobile have a well-defined strategy. Even more shocking, when Kontagent asked companies to rate the customer experience of their mobile programs, more than half rated them as either average or below average.


http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/201140/tween-girls-susceptible-to-mobile-advertising.html?edition=60465#ixzz2UaZOPKYS

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/201140/tween-girls-susceptible-to-mobile-advertising.html?edition=60465#ixzz2UaZOPKYS

http://www.news.com.au/technology/techknow/five-ways-technology-has-failed-us/story-fnda1lbo-1226652142627#ixzz2UaZsXHH7

http://www.news.com.au/technology/techknow/five-ways-technology-has-failed-us/story-fnda1lbo-1226652142627#ixzz2UaZsXHH7

So why is everyone rushing into mobile if very few seem confident about what they are doing?

Because:

• By 2015, smartphone penetration is expected to increase from 36 percent to 72 percent in the top 19 digital markets around the world (ZenithOptimedia, 2013).

• Tablet shipments grew 142 percent between Q1 2012 and Q1 2013, totaling 49.2 million (IDC, 2013).

• It is projected that by 2017, 88 percent of U.S. consumers will enter a social networking property through their mobile device (eMarketer, 2013).

• It is projected that U.S. retail m-commerce sales will reach $108.56 billion by 2017 (eMarketer, 2013).

These numbers are staggering and they are not to be ignored. While mobile may still be viewed as the "Digital Wild West," it is an important place for marketers to be and to figure out, mostly because mobile is not going anywhere.

Though marketers and advertisers are still trying to figure out the mobile space, there are a few best practices that have already been uncovered.

Get IT Involved Early On

The technical specifications and functionality of a website or application are crucial to planning out what products or services are to be promoted and how. Just because something has not been developed yet in mobile, does not mean it cannot be developed, so get IT involved early on. Doing so will help to foster ideas and think all the way through the user experience.

Keep It Simple

Mobile is not like desktop and laptop advertising. The screens are smaller and consumers are even less patient. They want information quickly and easily without having to dig deep into a website or app. Surface the most important and relevant information and keep it very concise and easy to digest. If the content is gated with a form, make the form fill process quick and easy, remembering that very few people want to fill out 10 fields of a form on their smartphone.

Function Is More Important Than Visual Appeal

According to a study by EPiServer, 47 percent of consumers will abandon an app if they find it frustrating to use and 38 percent will abandon a mobile website. The most cited reasons for this include slow load times, the need to scroll too much, and links being too small. With so many websites and apps out there competing for consumers' attention, use design to provide function and value for consumers in order to give them what they need, in an intuitive way, so that they will continue to want the information from you.

Continue to Test and Optimize

While this is a given across any media channel, it is especially important in the mobile environment, since marketers are so new to the space, consumer behavior is still rapidly evolving, and so is the technology.

Do Not Forget Your Strategy

The strength of your mobile program hinders on the strength of your strategy and approach in its ability to integrate in with your other initiatives, add value to consumers, and reach them where they are most receptive to your brand. While this is not a new concept, it is quite often forgotten. Forrester, in conjunction with Velti and the Mobile Marketing Association, recently found that only 34 percent of marketers and advertisers are actually following their mobile strategies, which is surprisingly low.

So instead of rushing into mobile and being a part of the 50 percent-plus that are underwhelmed by their current programs, take some time to really think through the best way to enter the mobile space and what is possible for your brand. Spend the time to build out a full strategy that makes sense for your brand and KPIs, then work through the details of implementing that strategy to bring it all to life.

Nearly everything you think you know about strategy and innovation is wrong.May 2013


The most recent round of improvements in information technologies has changed the game once again, driving down costs and prices over time. The challenge now for innovators is to invent products so beloved by customers that they will pay more for them despite falling prices.

Given the time it takes to innovate, that can be a tall order. As a result, markets are being rocked by a new kind of offering—one that renders the traditional price-performance trade-off irrelevant. New products and services that exploit today’s power of IT now enter mainstream markets not only better but also cheaper. In today’s fully connected, always-on world, these new offerings are also better integrated with the way customers live and work (in strategy terms, they provide greater “customer intimacy”). And word of their superiority in all relevant dimensions now travels the globe in a flash, like the latest YouTube sensation.

The result: Entire product lines and whole markets are now being created or destroyed overnight. Say hello to “big-bang disrupters.” Once launched, these disrupters are hard to fight. They don’t just create dilemmas for innovators. They trigger disasters.

Innovation on its head

Consider the smartphone, which has displaced a growing list of former standalone products, including digital cameras, calculators, organizers, alarm clocks, email readers and, perhaps soon, handheld game devices, electronic book readers, video cameras and laptop computers.

When Google launched its free (perpetually) beta app Google Maps Navigation, the company was, as always, looking simply to drive more eyeballs to more advertisements by integrating more already-digital information. But from the outset, the app out-performed expensive, standalone GPS devices on every strategic dimension. It’s cheaper (that is, free); it’s constantly being updated and enhanced in real time; and it offers a more customer-intimate solution by connecting with other smartphone apps, including search results, maps, mail and contacts.

Little surprise, then, that the major players in the GPS device market lost as much as 85 percent of their market cap in the 18 months after the Google Maps Navigation introduction. Bang!

Industries at risk

The reality of big-bang disruption is increasingly obvious to anyone haunting the coffee shops and venture capital conference rooms in innovation hubs from Silicon Valley to Singapore. What is simply cool for these young entrepreneurs can be devastating for incumbents in industries that don’t, and perhaps can’t, see big-bang disruptions coming until it’s too late.

The bitter lesson learned: Today’s innovations come out of left field, combining technologies seemingly unrelated to a company’s offerings, to achieve a dramatically better value proposition.

Big-bang disrupters may not even see the incumbents as competition. Disrupters don’t share the incumbents’ approach to solving customer needs, and they’re not interested in offering a slightly better price or performance with hopes of gaining a short-term advantage. Usually, they’re just tossing something shiny at consumers, hoping to attract them to a completely different business.

While this new style of devastation is starting to be recognized in such information-intensive industries as consumer electronics, software and retailing, every industry is at risk. That’s because information is increasingly the last remaining source of competitive advantage in a wide range of industries, including automobiles, financial services, education, food and other commodity goods.

Disruption is now attacking even hard-asset businesses. Consider the impact of new smartphone-based applications such as Lyft, SideCar and Uber on mature taxi and limousine services. These new businesses allow customers to order and pay for rides with a mobile device, track dispatched rides using location services and rate the driver after each trip.

Nothing about the new services is proprietary or particularly hard to duplicate. But the common response of incumbents so far has been to focus their efforts on convincing regulators to ban the new entrants rather than figure out how to compete with them. That response is both predictable and stereotypical. It is also counterproductive. Customers have been quickly galvanized through social media to fight back—so far, successfully.

Regulated industries are especially vulnerable to information-driven big-bang disrupters. When the law implicitly or explicitly limits internal competition and bars new entrants, businesses have little, if any, incentive to innovate. Taxi service is just one example. Countless other industry sectors have also fallen far behind the digital revolution. And once the disrupter finds a way in, the collapse is that much more sudden.


In Accenture’s ongoing study of the phenomenon, we have already identified big-bang disruption in more than 30 industry segments that cross all economic sectors.

Lawbreakers

A generation of executives has been schooled in the iron law that says companies must pursue one “strategic discipline” at a time—they can aim to be the low-cost producer, the innovation leader or the most customer-intimate, but not all three at once. Big-bang disrupters, who are often entrepreneurs with little training and even less business experience to unlearn, present a stark contrast. They are, to coin a phrase, thoroughly undisciplined.

For decades, strategists were taught to focus with religious intensity on only one dimension of strategy, or they risked, as strategy guru Michael Porter famously said, getting “stuck in the middle.”

Today, innovators are no longer bound by this orthodoxy. Thanks to advances in IT and development platforms, the costs of innovation have declined dramatically. Innovators can now experiment, cheaply and rapidly, directly in the market using off-the-shelf component technologies. And because each of those components will soon be cheaper, they can keep their per-unit innovation costs lower than the predictable decline in production and delivery costs. Voilà: better and cheaper.

Couple in-the-market development with modular and platform-based interconnectivity, and you have an offering that is almost certain to be highly customer-intimate as well.

Likewise, followers of innovation pioneer Clayton Christensen have been trained to look for disruptive technologies in the form of lower-quality substitutes that enter mainstream markets first by picking off a company’s worst customers and then, as technology improves, by moving up to become competitive.

Under Christensen’s approach, executives who saw the early signs of disruption had time to respond. They could avoid what Christensen called “the innovator’s dilemma” by starting internal skunk-works projects to test the disrupter and get ready to shift when price and performance made the product acceptable to mainstream customers.

But now that technology platforms make mass distribution instantaneous and empower consumers to benefit from near-perfect market information from the most trusted source of all—one another—the pace of the solutions recommended by Christensen proves catastrophic.

Winners take all

Consider as well the impact on marketing. Following the long-venerated innovation dissemination model of sociologist and theorist Everett Rogers, Geoffrey Moore wrote in the 1990s that successful new-product introductions followed five discrete stages, moving from early adopters to mainstream users, but only after crossing a marketing “chasm” in which the sell message changes from the new and exciting to the familiar and incremental.

Big-bang disrupters, however, enter the market in only two stages—first to trial users (who are often de facto co-developers and co-funders) and then to everyone else. Because they need not weigh the strategic trade-offs of an incumbent’s new offering, big-bang disruptions can be marketed to every segment simultaneously, right from the start. When the iPad arrived, it wasn’t just for people who couldn’t afford a laptop. Every millionaire wanted one too.

Winner-take-all markets are often the result where even the second-place business in the sector fails to see high profit margins. Take the example of Sharp Corp., the once-dominant maker of LCD panels. The electronics company saw a severe decline in its share price in 2012, due in part to its underperforming television business, despite the fact that its products compare favorably with those of the manufacturer that consumers rate highest on most online evaluation sites.

But the path is not always smooth for successful big-bang disrupters, and they often leave the market as rapidly as they entered it. Instead of a gradual decline as markets mature, the crash comes quickly. Consumers have become accustomed to astonishing products, and are always poised for the next better-on-all-dimensions innovation. As industries fade into the sunset, a lone incumbent, serving a market for nostalgic customers, may yet find a profitable niche. Still, such a market is rarely little more than a shadow of the original.

More bucks for your bang

To survive—and even thrive—amid big-bang disruption, companies must learn the new rules of strategy and competition. The key is to understand the new lifecycle of innovation, which loosely follows the metaphor of the big-bang theory of the universe. The new cycle consists of four parts: the slow drawing Babelfish Articles May 2013 - July 2013 15-7-13

together of matter and energy (the Singularity), the explosion and expansion (the Big Bang), the collapse of what’s known (the Big Crunch) and the calm before the next storm (Entropy).

The Singularity: Find a truth teller

To combat the failure of traditional competitive intelligence, senior executives must find their “truth tellers.”

Big-bang disruption happens in large part because experimentation with a wide range of new, often off-the-shelf component technologies has become both low-cost and low-risk. Many, many failures are likely before the right combination is found and proven to be cost-effective. Often, the winning innovation is simply the one that combines the right technologies at the right time with a new way of doing business. Think, for example, of Amazon.com’s success with the Kindle, which came only after years of failed e-reader products that had both the wrong hardware and the wrong business model.

For incumbents, the failed early experiments send false signals, lulling executives into the misguided belief that the disrupters are not ready for prime time. Rather, direct market tests are often, perhaps unconsciously, like artillery barrages. They are “walking their fire” onto the real target, step by step, homing in on the right combination of technologies and business model that will, once launched, suddenly disrupt mature markets and dismantle long-stable supply chains. It is then that they level their full barrage.

Enter the truth tellers. These are industry experts with profound insights into new technologies and customer behaviors, who can predict earlier than anyone else when small tremors signal imminent earthquakes. Often, they are people who spend their careers working in the industry, and share a unique passion for its mission, its products and its customers.

One example is the North American executive of a Japanese carmaker who drove the company’s decision to launch a new brand of luxury vehicles, based on his insight into fundamental shifts in income and spending in the US market. His truth telling played an essential role in the carmaker’s ongoing operations at the time.

Truth tellers—named for the characters on soap operas who move the plot forward by revealing big secrets—are often eccentric and difficult to manage. They speak a strange language, one that isn’t focused on incremental change and the next quarter’s results. As a result, they may be found outside your organization—they may even be customers. Learning to find them is hard. Learning to listen to them is even harder.

The Big Bang: Exploit near-perfect market information

Big-bang disruption, once created, enters the mass market at ultra-high speed. Instead of a slow, predictable process involving several discrete, sequential market segments—like the five-stage technology adoption curve model made famous by Everett Rogers—big-bang disrupters need worry only about two main categories of users: what we call trial users, and everybody else. In this stage, the goal is selling to everyone else—and fast.

The sudden success of big-bang disrupters is driven by easy access to market opinion, facts and comparison data, which creates something ever closer to consensus market opinion. The same platform that developers use to create and deliver their disruptions is now also used by consumers to communicate with one another to determine their shared judgment.

With ubiquitous and mobile networks, retailing all manner of goods and services has entered a new world. Rather than sellers broadcasting select information to potential customers, consumers now pull information from other consumers on price, quality and customer service, whenever and wherever they are. Advertising is both customized and timely, and often comes in the form of trusted referrals.

That means when the right combination of component technologies and business innovations comes together, everyone knows about it instantly. Takeoff is immediate, and vertical. The model of the innovator’s dilemma no longer applies; now, for incumbents, it’s the line of sudden death (see chart).

The availability of near-perfect market information also means consumers make fewer mistakes. They don’t buy a mediocre product simply because manufacturers invest in more advertising. They wait until the right version—smartphones, 3D televisions, electric cars, solar power—emerges. Almost-there versions don’t sell poorly—they don’t sell at all.

Maintaining an intimate connection to trial users—the co-developers and, thanks to crowdsourcing services such as Kickstarter, co-funders—is therefore critical. The new development model creates early users with a vested interest in new products, building intense loyalty to the concept, if not to a particular implementation.


Take, for example, the “smarthome” initiative of consumer electronics company Belkin International. Known as WeMo, the smartphone and tablet application has been designed to enable users to create specific commands for on/off switches of basic home functions and electronics, like lights. The company solicits and publishes user ideas for commands on its website, and when commands become popular enough—such as “If the Weather Channel says the sun has set, then have WeMo switch on the lights”—Belkin integrates them into the app’s default list of commands for all WeMo users.

The Big Crunch: Collar your risk

Not everyone is swept away by the onslaught of a big-bang disrupter. Some companies do survive, in many cases emerging in the new version of the industry in a position of greater leverage and profitability. But how?

The first step requires tough-minded management, sufficiently steeped in big-bang strategy, that can quickly overcome the emotional response to traumatic change and take decisive action. Assets must be shed, products must be retired, business models allowed to sunset. Only then can incumbents unlock the hidden value of core, often intangible, assets.

Incumbents are trapped by their balance sheets. Traditional accounting still leads management to concentrate on the value of hard assets rather than expertise, brands, patents and human resources. But in a fight against big-bang disruption, intangibles are often the most valuable assets incumbents have—perhaps the only ones that don’t quickly become liabilities. Knowing what they are and understanding their true worth can make all the difference.

A big-bang disruption sets off a rapid decline in the value of physical assets. To compete with undisciplined competitors, incumbents must prepare for the immediate evacuation of current markets and be ready to liquidate once-strategic assets. It’s important not only to shed mature technologies that will rapidly become obsolete but to do so before they become worthless.

In the semiconductor industry, for example, fabricators are now hedging investments in new capacity by contracting to sell plants at a future time and price, often before those plants are even built.

Return on residual assets can be time-sensitive, to say the least. Even for the innovators—or perhaps especially for them—collaring risk early on is essential to surviving the shift to the next big-bang disruption.

A new kind of diversification can also provide a valuable hedge against disruption. As industry change becomes less cyclical and more volatile, having a diverse set of businesses is vital. Industry leaders may have a hard time committing themselves fully to transformation, creating an opening for perennial second-banana incumbents to shed their assets first and take their expertise, brand and intellectual property into other industries where change is happening at a slower pace. When the film-based photo industry collapsed, it was Kodak, not Fujifilm Corp., that went bankrupt.

Entropy: Ride off into the sunset

In entropy, the big-bang process comes full circle. The old industry is dead, and a new one has risen from the ashes. Some incumbents are gone, new ones are created and supply chains are transformed into ecosystems. The new industry now waits for pressure to build and technology to advance through a new generation of failed market experiments, signaling the start of the next shift.

Companies must look closely at the phenomenon of industry sunset. How do assets get liquidated? How do old technologies and the facilities needed to manufacture and distribute them get recycled or retired? What financial tools are available to smooth the transition, even for industries that are “too big to fail”?

For industries in sunset, the entire supply chain is affected. Often, it is distributors, agents, retailers, financiers and others indirectly involved in the actual production of obsolete products who feel the full impact of big-bang disruption first and most acutely.

While smartphone makers now sell billions of products, that volume is dwarfed by those who sell the peripheral products—cases, headphones, chargers—and service contracts, network connections and apps, not to mention the component parts. All of these providers need to consider the potential big-bang disrupters of their fountainhead, and the need to balance the past with the possible future.

In the new diversification, the successful launch of a big-bang disruption only buys you a license to try again. And in doing so, your biggest competition becomes your own success. Serial big-bang disrupters effectively put themselves out of business first, emerging as new enterprises that share the same name but often little else. Successful brand associations and truth-teller networks may be their most valuable assets.


Vital to the new incumbents’ ability to launch more big-bang disruptions: leveraging disruptive technology and abstracting the business model (along with its marketing, human resources and IT systems) so that the business overall is reimagined as a platform for a wide range of other businesses—which companies such as Amazon have done successfully.

In the end, the collapse of the old market is as dramatic as the uptake of the new market. One incumbent often remains, servicing the needs of older customers and sentimentalists who buy or keep the old products out of a sense of nostalgia. But only one.

As with any such change of this magnitude, we are only beginning to appreciate the myriad implications of the rise of big-bang disrupters. There are numerous details of strategy and risk management in each of the four phases that we have only begun to touch on here. Executives must ascertain the movement of disrupters in their own industries, and begin to put in place the capabilities necessary for success in a world that doesn’t play by the old rules of business.

Embracing the new rules that underpin a big-bang strategy is not for the faint of heart. It will take commitment, vision and a strong constitution. Because while big-bang disrupters are at times predictable, and their effects at times felt early, their ability to upend in an instant is profound. Business managers should heed the tacit warning given by a character in Ernest Hemingway’s novel, The Sun Also Rises, about the ways businesses fail. When asked how he went bankrupt, he replies, “Two ways. Gradually and then suddenly.”

Retail Success Still Depends on Core PrinciplesThe 2013 Achieving Excellence in Retail Operations study

The retail market is changing, but the 2013 AERO study shows that the priorities remain the same.

"Increasingly, where one shops will be irrelevant," USA Todaywrote last summer in one of those typical death-of-the-physical-store features full of anticipation about how augmented reality, phone- based payment systems, and 3-D printers will change the very fabric of life.1 And some-times it does seem that change is coming so fast that it is shaking the very foundations of tradi-tional institutions. Just as managers gain familiarity with basic point-of-sale (POS) data, dozens of new sources for data—and uses for it—proliferate. Just as online shopping channels finally become accepted, mobile channels materialize to take some of their traffic. Just as one form of new in-store technology (such as handheld scanners for inventory management) gains accep-tance, another dozen tools (from tablets to digital price displays) clamor for deployment. Given this pace of change, it’s tempting to believe that the future of retail really is somewhere else.

Certainly as we developed A.T. Kearney’s 2013 Achieving Excellence in Retail Operations (AERO) study, we were aware the huge changes that had occurred just since our previous study, in 2010(see sidebar: About the Study)

Three years ago, we did not ask retailers anything about social networking. We covered far fewer options for deploying technologies to customers—and for getting information back from them. And although we asked about multiple channels, the notion of integrated channel retailing was at best a distant mirage.

But look what happened with our results in 2013: Despite the changes, the AERO study demon¬strates the importance of many traditional core principles of retailing. It confirms that running a successful retail operation is all about people: employees, customers, and the interactions between them. One of the biggest secrets to success is the simple notion of engagement: listening to your staff and your customers. Another is cutting back on administrative burdens to get managers out in the field. And although the new wealth of technologies and available data is a great boon, often the most productive uses of it are in addressing familiar challenges such as managing shrink and out-of-stocks.

Sure, it is both fun and important to look at new technologies and the insights you can gain from them. Yes, there is some value in the gee-whiz imaginings of a Jetsons-like retail future. But when you dig deep into what actually generates profits for today’s most successful retail companies, it turns out that they’re simply good at what great retailers have always been good at: the nuts and bolts of operations. They identify the right metrics, analyze them appropriately, and act intelligently. They support field leadership with tools and processes to improve their decision making. They rely on, and seek insights from, front-line staff. And they view technology as neither a threat nor a toy, but as a tool that better enables them to achieve ancient ambitions such as customer insight, operations efficiency, and customer service.


In a sense, then, the more things change, the more they stay the same. In an information-soaked environment, amid the emergence of multiple retail channels, it’s important to understand how to take advantage of the changes. But it’s equally important to keep a hand on the pulse of core principles: people, customers, and physical store layouts. This report examines the insights from our 2013 AERO Study to show how retailers are turning great operations into profits.

Measure, Analyze, and Act

Everybody aspires to use information more effectively. With the increased availability of all sorts of data on all sorts of issues, people want to be smart about taking advantage of it. But some struggle to turn that desire into execution. Such is the case in retail. The AERO study shows that retail leaders are much better than followers at collecting data, measuring activities, acting on their insights, and measuring again to see the results. In short, they have mastered a principle we call Measure, Analyze, and Act.

Voice of the customer

Retail leaders effectively apply this principle in the crucial area of the voice of the customer. Although most retailers do a solid job of examining point-of-sale (POS) data, few use other data sources, such as traffic-flow analyses or customer intercepts, to access customer opinions (see figure 1).

In particular, we found that few retailers value social-network data. Fewer than half even bother to collect it from third-party domains, and just 8 percent say it is very important in generating insights. Likewise, retailers don’t take full advantage of direct customer contact data through call centers or store employees. More than half still do not regularly mine their loyalty program data—30 percent say they only look at the data once a year—especially ironic since most loyalty programs are designed to reward customers for the right to track their data. Respondents cited workforce capabilities and technology as the main barriers to tracking this loyalty data—a theme we’ll pick up in "Enable with Technology" below.

In a sense, the study provides two lessons here. First, at the granular level, there are many underutilized sources of customer data, and retailers may need to invest more in the technology and skills to take advantage of them more effectively. Second, in the bigger picture, the more successful retailers are not only using more data, but they focus on the principle of Measure, Analyze, and Act. Their leaders encourage measuring the right data, invest in the skills to gain insights from that data, and use those insights effectively to frame future actions.Babelfish Articles May 2013 - July 2013 15-7-13

http://www.atkearney.com/documents/10192/1049665/FG-Retail-Success-Still-Depends-on-Core-Principles-01.png/8db65587-6f76-456f-82cc-c59b6ed274b1?t=1369007752567

Store and channel management

Leading retailers excel at managing their stores and channels with strong operational and employee metrics. As customers use multiple channels and bricks-and-mortar store revenues decline, most retailers have correctly identified that they must move beyond multi-channel retailing and begin integrating those channels. But our study finds that few retailers have achieved real integration. Many services that a genuinely integrated multi-channel retailer would offer, such as the ability to buy a product online and pick it up in-store, or visibility into inventories from other channels, are offered by less than half of the retailers in our study.

A big problem is that although we live in a cross-channel world, few retailers have access to cross-channel metrics (see figure 2). With the voice of the customer, the big issue is analyzing and acting on a wealth of data; in store and channel management, the key is having the right data in the first place.

For example, consider employee incentives. Many managers have studied the same metrics, such as revenue or gross margin generated at POS, for 20 years. But an integrated channel environment requires new employee behaviors not reflected in these metrics, such as supporting a customer in ordering an out-of-stock item through a different channel. When employees are rarely measured on the success of non-store channels, they have little incentive to encourage their growth. Encouraging new employee behaviors requires new incentives, based on new metrics. In short, as strategies change, metrics must change with them. Again, the focus needs to be on Measure, Analyze, and Act—all three effectively.

Out-of-stock performance

Leading retailers use the Measure, Analyze, and Act principle to improve operational perfor¬mance, for example reducing the percentage of out-of-stocks. Respondents who set in-stock goals at the stock-keeping unit (SKU) level, rather than by store, category, or subcategory, perform 47 percent better on this key operational issue (see figure 3). Why? Because they know when an important SKU is out of stock. When you aggregate out-of-stocks to the store level, you may not know that that you’re missing a particularly high-volume or high-margin SKU, so your overall out-of-stock performance will seem better than it really is. By measuring in greater detail, leaders are better able to identify and address problems.


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The sources of data are proliferating in our fast-changing retail environment. But as always, what matters is not so much using lots of data, but rather using the right data. When you put energy into defining what you’re measuring, you get a truer picture of your performance, and results improve.

Shrink management

Another key operational issue, managing inventory shrinkage, can also be powered by analytics. Again, you get what you measure. The one-third of retailers that don’t have shrink as a key measurement cannot analyze it or act on it, which means they won’t be very effective at managing the issue.

Figure 4 below highlights leading practices for managing shrink. Establishing shrink targets by category is especially valuable because some categories are particularly large contributors to shrink. Again, knowing how and where to Measure, Analyze, and Act can greatly improve efficiency.


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Peak season management

Measure, Analyze, and Act also applies to managing stores during peak seasons. Analytic tools can effectively predict peaks, giving you the power to act aggressively to increase staffing and otherwise maximize peak volumes (see figure 5). Leading retailers not only make larger increases in labor hours during peaks, which lead to larger revenues during peaks, but they also ramp down more quickly. Managing peaks is not only about getting more revenue out of the peak, but also about not wasting those revenues on inefficient post-peak operations. Leaders have used measurements and analysis to know with confidence when the peak is over, and they act accordingly.

Unleashing Field Leadership


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To drive store performance, retailers have always depended heavily on field managers. Yet these crucial employees face ever-more-difficult challenges, and need more support to do their jobs effectively. The AERO study finds that across the board—at the district and regional level and above—managers are overseeing more stores. Implemented effectively, increasing spans of control can save the company money. But performance will suffer unless the additional responsibility is accompanied by a change in the type of work managers are asked to do.

The AERO study shows that field managers are spending too much time on administration, and not enough actually in the field (see figure 6). Indeed, field managers spend more time on administration than on interacting with customers, coaching staff, and looking at the condition of their stores—combined. Yet, it is these field-based activities that create value. Retailers must seek to reduce their managers’ administrative burden.

Although the average store manager’s administrative burden is likely not so obviously skewed, even these managers would benefit their companies by coaching staff or interacting with customers. They too would benefit from better tools and processes to help them perform their adminis¬trative duties more quickly and efficiently. For example, one-third of store managers do labor scheduling without guidelines from headquarters—and they use many different practices, from Excel spreadsheets to custom applications to pen and paper. The different practices can lead to errors and inefficiency that better guidelines and support from headquarters could easily reduce.

One valuable form of support is training. AERO results show that the leading firms give field managers training in financial and human resources (HR) skills almost 90 percent of the time—but for the followers, those numbers are just 43 percent for financial and 67 percent for HR. More training means better decision making. It also means that managers higher up the ladder are better able to delegate, because they can trust their sub-managers to accomplish these tasks successfully.

Don’t Leave the Front Line Behind

The front-line staff interacts with customers all day long—gaining valuable insights into customer needs along the way. For example, when customers want products that a store doesn’t carry, that data will not easily show up in many metrics, but the employees they spoke to will know. However, few retailers take full advantage of these insights.

Front-line staff has always been closest to the customer, and that hasn’t changed. Successful retailers have always been, and remain, those that best take advantage of these staffers’ insights. This issue perhaps best encapsulates the irony we discussed in the introduction: that with the myriad new developments and challenges today, fundamental principles can get lost. The problem today is a lack of formal requirements or processes to gather these employee insights. Simply hoping that employees will tell


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their supervisors (who will tell their supervisors, who will tell theirs, and so on) isn’t enough. Zara and Best Buy are rightly lauded for creating formal pipelines that capture and use employee insights.

Employee satisfaction surveys are also underutilized. Happy employees make for happy customers, but employee metrics are not well represented on standard performance measures (see figure 7). A "balanced scorecard" should truly balance all dimensions of performance, but many scorecards overemphasize financials at the expense of indirect measures such as employee satisfaction that can also impact future financial results.

Since employees’ customer skills are so important, shouldn’t this talent figure more prominently in the hiring process? Half of all retailers have no customer experience skills testing (see figure 8). Again, retailing is a people-oriented business, and successful retailers find great, people-oriented employees.


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Additionally, few retailers create dedicated change management programs to help their employees prepare for new initiatives (see figure 9). While the vast majority say they use training, metrics, dedicated teams, and follow-up measurements, only 19 percent say they include dedicated change management programs as part of pilots and initiative rollouts.

Enable with Technology

Many retailers are buying technology as an answer to their problems. The leaders stand out, however, because they also know the question. They obtain technology with a clear view of what they hope to accomplish.

Customer-facing technology is a hot topic, and many retailers plan to invest more in it (see figure 10). In part, these heavy levels of investment reflect the fact that deployment of customer-facing technology is


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limited. Still, few retailers are convinced of the effectiveness of these technologies. For nearly all of the technologies listed in figure 10 (other than self-serve order terminals), fewer than 20 percent of retailers rate any of them as highly effective. It’s a bit puzzling that companies would invest in technologies that they have not yet seen to be effective. We believe the issue is that these retailers don’t understand their effectiveness because they don’t know how to measure the success of these tools. Devoting more attention to the goals they hope to accomplish with the tools will lead to ways to measure their effectiveness in achieving those goals.

For example, a retailer hoping to gather more meaningful customer insights might identify a lack of technology as a barrier to that goal, and thus invest to achieve it. Which technologies will effectively analyze, for example, loyalty data? How will you know when these tools are working? Asking these questions helps target the best technology investments, whether the goal is customer insights, channel integration, or operations efficiency.

To date, operational efficiency technologies have demonstrated clearer benefits than customer-facing technologies. Tools such as handheld scanners for inventory management, labor scheduling applications, customer traffic flow technology, tablets or similar devices, and time-attendance solutions all have higher levels of adoption and higher effectiveness ratings. AERO respondents expect to increase their use of tablets, in particular, for purposes ranging from POS solutions to product displays.

The More Things Change…

Fifty years ago, some of today’s retail technologies would have been inconceivable. To think that most homes would have a computer through which you could search for, examine, and purchase items without ever having to go to the store… and yet similar alternatives actually did exist. Substitute the word "catalog" for "computer" could show that, to borrow USA Today’s words, "where one shops [has been] irrelevant" for decades. And yet over all of these years, shoppers have preferred the in-person store experience.

We can’t predict what technologies will be available in 50 years—or even five years. As options proliferate, bricks-and-mortar stores may indeed play a smaller role. But at heart, retail is a people business, with traditional principles that center on maximizing the value of human interactions. As always, retailers should seek to improve analytics to drive better performance, support field leaders to reduce their administrative burdens, highlight the value of their front-line staff, and achieve meaningful goals. Despite the latest


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inventions—or even because of them—the funda¬mental principles represent the soundest road to success.

"Why shopping will never be the same," Retailers underuse customer dataJon Swartz, USA Today, 8 August 2012

CHICAGO: Many retailers are failing to successfully exploit the volume of customer data that is available to them, whether that is collected by technology or comes in the form of interactions between customers and staff, a new report has claimed.

The Achieving Excellence in Retail Operations (AERO) Study, from consultancy A.T. Kearney, examined the strategy, tactics, and execution of retailers in multiple sectors in more than 20 countries.

It established that there are many underutilized sources of customer data; and, to take full advantage of these resources, retailers need to increase investment in technology and skills.

The report pointed out, for example, that less than half of retailers collected social network data from third-party domains, while just 8% felt this was "very important" in generating insights.

Leading retailers were found to be the best at collecting data, measuring activities, acting on their insights, and measuring again to see the results.

Joel Alden, A.T. Kearney partner and co-author of the study, commented, "Leading retailers encourage measurement of the right data, invest in the skills to gain insights from that data, and use those insights effectively to frame future actions."

As well as dealing with the proliferation of technology and vast quantities of store and customer data, retailers were advised to maintain their focus on the basics of retailing, namely the interactions between employees and customers.

The study found that retailers that most actively engaged their employees and customers were the most successful.

Few retailers, however, were seen to take full advantage of the insights of frontline staff who deal with customers daily and gain valuable insights into their needs.

"The problem today is a lack of formal requirements or processes to gather these employee insights," said Adam Pressman, A.T. Kearney principal and co-author of the study.

The study also looked at how retailers operated in a multichannel environment, where customers return products ordered online to a brick and mortar store, or ask a store employee to order an out of stock item through another channel.

When employees are not measured on the success of non-store channels, they have little incentive to encourage the growth of those channels, A.T Kearney said.

Data sourced from A.T. Kearney; additional content by Warc staff , 21 May 2013

Read more at http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/EmailNews.news?ID=31423&Origin=WARCNewsEmail#f4AhsKELjpVWAaWl.99

Three Lessons Digital Video Advertisers Should Learn from Direct Marketingby Doug Miller, Monday, May 20, 2013

As a consumer, I often see pre-roll ads on my phone, Roku, Wii, tablet and PC. And, as a digital professional, I also see ways those advertisers can put the basics of direct marketing to work with digital video to get outstanding results.


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Using pre-roll video advertising across devices provides an unprecedented opportunity for marketers. By combining the creative control and engagement of TV with the audience targeting and measurability of digital marketing, marketers can see huge gains in advertising effectiveness and efficiency.

1. Put your brand/product front, center and always visible. Make sure your brand or product is visible from your ad’s beginning to end. Maximize reach by starting the ad with the brand or product name. If you’re adapting your TV ad to pre-roll video, place your logo over one corner of the ad. If necessary, make it partially transparent. Just make sure it’s there. This will dramatically increase consumer awareness for your brand or product and will drive more measurable outcomes for your video campaign.

With skip rates of pre-roll ads rising in some segments and with consumers multitasking and jumping back and forth between email, videos, Facebook, etc. the visibility of brands and products in videos has never been more critical.

For example, I witnessed plenty of missed opportunities for a national telco brand in late 2012. This brand created an immersive winter wonderland ad spot with holiday music and snow-filled scenes. My son and I saw it as we waited to watch a “Gangnam Style” video spoof on my tablet. As we watched the ad, it was impossible to tell whom it was for until the very end. The video was clearly missing its opportunity to reach me. After 27 long seconds, I finally learned which brand was being advertised. I just watched that long because I was doing a professional observation. Most consumers, including my antsy son, would have skipped over the ad after five or 10 seconds.

2. Reach the right audience, then measure and test meaningful metrics. Go beyond traditional age, gender and income profiling with audience and programmatic buying. If your goal is to sell more iPhone skins, then serve ads to iOS users and show them iPhone content. You can then go beyond and profile current purchasers to find more consumers with similar profiles.

Design a test to measure the impact of your pre-roll campaign. Run the video in only 50% of the designated market areas (DMAs) in the U.S. and use your Web analytics package to measure lift in site traffic and purchases from these regions. If your product requires offline purchases, track purchases across these DMAs. Or, for brand objectives, use a survey to measure lift in message recall, purchase intent, or other brand metrics.

3. Integrate the video into your overall digital programs. Use video assets to create a larger impact with your advertising, but partner this with display and Facebook to maintain impact with lower-cost units. The best results I’ve seen across campaigns are when video creates consideration and demand for products, then display, Facebook, or other channels maintain this over time. For more direct response (DR)-focused campaigns, plan to use the video further up the funnel.

To drive consideration and awareness, integrate these other channels to drive traffic to your site. You can also drive traffic with an integrated re-marketing plan. A typical plan might have a consumer exposed to three to five video ads each week and three to five display impressions each day. This strategy ensures your brand/product is front and center, while not overwhelming the consumer with your message, which can drive returns on your advertising investment.

By giving your brand/product full visibility in the creative, reaching the right audience with the right measurement and integrating pre-roll video into your overall digital-marketing plans, you can maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of your online and offline marketing objectives with digital video advertising.

The Number One Reason Kids Don’t Need Facebook? They Literally Don’t Need Facebook.Published on May 12, 2013

In a second, I’ll give you the most logical conclusion kids are ditching Facebook—one that none of the articles I read on the Great Teenage Facebook Exodus mentioned. And the evidence that supports the theory is right there in the Piper Jaffray survey. But first let’s define Facebook.

What is Facebook to most people over the age of 25? It’s a never-ending class reunion mixed with an eternal late-night dorm room gossip session mixed with a nightly check-in on what coworkers are doing after leaving the office. In other words, it’s a place where you go to keep tabs on your friends and acquaintances.

You know what kids call that? School.


For those of us out of school, Facebook is a place to see the accomplishments of our friends and acquaintances we’ve made over years and decades. We watch their lives: babies, job promotions, vacations, relationships, break-ups, new hair colors, ad nauseum.

For kids who still go to school, Facebook is boring. If one of their friends does something amazing or amazingly dumb, they’ll find out within five minutes. If they’re not friends with that person, it will take 15 minutes.

Very nice observation of Cliff Watson on what Teens are actually doing and that we tend to forget that social is more than a digital experience via screens.

Why some brands become uncool Sarah Michael news.com.au May 18, 2013 12:00AM

A Billabong ad from the year 2000.

AS consumers we often can't pinpoint it ourselves. It's more of a feeling.

One day a product is cool and you have to have it, the next day it is boring and you can't even explain why.

One man who can explain is Michael McQueen, author of a new book about why and how major companies become obsolete.

In Winning the Battle for Revelance Mr McQueen outlines three key reasons that brands become uncool.

The first is that stuff changes. New technology comes in, or demographics shift, and what was once must-have is suddenly old news.

Mr McQueen points to the example of Blackberry, which had 42 per cent market share in January 2010. It now has 5.2 per cent market share.

"People called them ‘crackberries', they were always using them, they were the must-have item for the busy important person," he said.

Then the iPhone came along.


"Crackberry" fans went to rehab. Picture: File

Levi's also became uncool, not because of new technology, but because the people wearing them got old.

"In the 70s and 80s they were the counter-cultural, edgy brand and then suddenly they were mum or dad's Levi's," Mr McQueen.

The second reason brands become uncool is that they become intoxicated with their own success.

"So many brands are at the top of their game and then get arrogant and start taking their consumers for granted and people get jack of it and start abandoning them," he said.

Mr McQueen said Sony was a perfect example. The company enjoyed extraordinary success after creating the Walkman and the Discman.

"But because they dominated the marketplace when they introduced their MiniDisc player Sony kept trying to force customers to use their product," he said.

Minidisk was so unpopular the product range was discontinued.

Mr McQueen said Apple and Facebook were in danger of becoming too comfortable with their success.

"When Apple pushed that upgrade through and they made people put Apple Maps on their iPhone they got a kickback," he said.

"People didn't want to be forced to do it."

The third reason brands become uncool, according to Mr McQueen, is that they become addicted to progress and grow too quickly.

Billabong fell victim to this when it branched out of surf wear and started making mainstream clothing.

"As soon as they started neglecting their core market of surfers the idea was that they were selling out," he said.

"Angus Kingsmill, head of Mambo, said this happened to them and he learned that a brand has to choose if you're going to be cool or you're going to be mainstream.

"You can't be both."


Double iPhone screen with Popslate

Fancy two screens on your iPhone? Popslate promises extra screen and much more. Vision: Popslate / Mashable

Mr McQueen said most company leaders only pay attention to easily quantifiable things like sales figures and profits, but ignore their product's relevance.

"Kodak were still the darlings of Wall St well after they'd begun to lose the digital war," Mr McQueen said.

So what can a company do if they find that their relevance is slipping?

"Brands need to reconnect with consumers and not fall back on assumptions about what consumers want but actually go ask them," he said.

Then companies must reposition their brand.

"Look at how Polaroid compared to Kodak, Polaroid repositioned themselves as retro and hipster and now they're as relevant as ever."

In other words, pay attention to your customers, or leave your brand at the mercy of hipsters.


Few brands can depend on the loyalty of hispters and survive. Polaroid is a rare exception. Picture: AF

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/business/companies/why-some-brands-become-uncool/story-fnda1bsz-1226645500389#ixzz2TqgUPApu

Why events are the last bastion of integrated marketingby Cielo Lutino 15 May 2013

We can tell the last ten items a consumer bought on our site and we can tell the open rate of our email marketing campaigns, but few of us can say how long any one visitor at our event booth spent there and what they picked up.

The swag, a brochure, your business card, your hot intern’s telephone number, which was it?

This not-knowing is weird, says Liz Miller, overseer of daily operations at the CMO Council (CMOC), a global affinity network of top brand marketers. “Since when did a marketer get shy?” she asked recently.

With 45% of senior brand marketers identifying events as the top demand-generating tool for their organizations, according to Customer Attainment from Event Engagement, a report released last month by the CMOC, shouldn’t we be asking more from event marketing?

I spoke with Miller to find out more and to get a preview of what she’ll touch on at our Google+ Hangout today.

Is event marketing the black sheep of integrated marketing?

For some strange reason, events have been able to escape the eye not only of integrated marketing, but also the evolution that every channel has had to go through in the last ten years: heightened measurement and analytics.

That’s the whole point of integrated marketing: to be able to look at the entire ecosystem and connect all the dots. Somehow events get set on the sidelines.

The fault lies in equal parts with the event organizer and the marketer.

Seems like the perfect opportunity for a tech company to come in and develop measurement tools, which we’re seeing a bit of already in terms of QR scanning.

I’m talking about the type of engagement tech where the event producer can turn to the exhibitor and say, “Hey, your CEO just spoke at this keynote and ‘x’ number of people downloaded that whitepaper.” That doesn’t necessarily take new technology.


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What it takes is a new strategy, and that’s a challenge right now because we, as marketers, are not having that conversation with event producers. The conversation we’re having is why did this cost so much, and why is the price going up?

What if we went to our event producers and said, “I invested more money. We’re doing a panel. What are you doing to make that a value-add for me? What are you doing to get me more insight and information about your show attendees that can actually supplement what sales learns about them at the booth?"

Maybe event producers can provide this data, but they don’t because they don’t hear the demand

We’re not asking the right questions. We’re sitting back and saying, “Gosh, I wish we had analytics.” Since when did a marketer get shy? It’s the most bizarre thing, but the same call-to-action has to go to the event space.

It has to be a two-way conversation. We need to evolve how we view and measure events on both sides of the fence, because events really represent one of the last bastions of the marketing mix.

What amazes me is when you have conversations with show producers [who say], “It’s incremental. You get more booth space, you can bring more salespeople, you get more leads. It’s a bigger presence.”

My question would always be, “Well, okay, how are you going to offset the costs of the new eighteen-wheeler I’ve got because I just bought two more 10-foot sections?” I’ve got to ship all that, put power to it, pay ten more union guys. My costs don’t end just because I paid the show fee.

So, how do I look at the totality of that and find areas where I can extract unexpected value to evolve the event’s worth to my brand? It might involve leveraging a new technology to see what that person’s dwell time was at my booth. Do we look at it as a website and say how many questions did they ask? How much content did they take?

These are the same things we ask of our website engagement. Is it time to ask those questions of our event engagements?

Summary

This report describes how Walmart, the world's largest retailer, has optimised and integrated its online, in-store and mobile offerings in the US to offer customers a seamless shopping experience. The report is based on the contributions of Wendy Bergh, from Walmart's Global eCommerce group, to a "Moving on Mobile" panel discussion at the ad:tech San Francisco conference. Walmart implemented a three-phase plan: mobilising its digital experience, mobilising its stores by offering in-store mobile tools and accelerating its multi-channel offerings to provide a seamless experience across devices. Its in-store mobile developments included: offering customers a shopping list app for planning their shopping trip; a welcome app when they arrive in store providing special offers and QR and bar code scanners; and innovations at check out such as the trial of a Scan & Go program and the provision of e-receipts.

How Walmart's mobile-led strategy drives a seamless shopper experienceGeoffrey Precourt Warc

A key component of Walmart's strategy, according to Wendy Bergh, its senior director/mobile and digital strategy in the retailer's global ecommerce group, is delivering seamless access to customers across channels.

"Our customers don't tell their friends, 'Hey, I shopped at a Walmart store today' or 'I shopped at Walmart.com today. They talk about 'shopping with Walmart'. So when we serve them with different channels, we need to make sure they're getting a very holistic experience," she told an audience at the 2013 ad:tech San Francisco conference.

Appearing on a "Moving on Mobile" panel discussion, Bergh shared pieces of a three-part Walmart interactive merchandising program that focused on hand-held devices and "delivered as great customer experiences."

Its three phases focused on: mobilising .com (i.e. Walmart's digital experience), mobilising stores (offering in-store mobile tools) and accelerating multi-channel opportunities.

Mobilising .com


This initial stage was about delivering an "optimised version" of a Walmart digital experience available to consumers at home or in store – "anytime, anyplace," said Bergh.

The foundational piece "really is just giving customers the opportunity to shop with us through their smartphones and tablets." Describing it as "a necessary part of anyone's retail strategy," Bergh explained "it's table stakes. It's what customers expect nowadays. If you don't have it, you're not serving them well."

Mobilising stores

Stage two is a critical "point of differentiation" shared by Walmart's 4,000 U.S. retail stores: create "indispensable in-store shopping tools – shopping lists, aisle-to-aisle guidance in the large-box shopping environment, and alerts to special deals that align with past shopper interests, barcode scanning, check-out assistance, eReceipts, and interactive local digital advertising."

The "mobilising" effort, Bergh explained to the ad:tech audience, "is all about giving shoppers the ability to help themselves – tools that will help them save more time and more money in the stores and make it a more convenient experience."

Accelerating multi-channel opportunities

Stages 1 and 2, Bergh explained, "naturally leads" to the third phase: a customer-focused effort that is aimed at delivering a seamless experience across iPads, iPhones, Android apps, on the Internet and through SMS texting.

"The biggest focus for us really is in mobilising stores," Bergh continued. Walmart's aggressive pursuit of the mobile-focused customer has strong financial underpinnings, as Bergh cited a Deloitte "The Dawn of the Mobile Influence" story that revealed that mobile customers used their hand-held devices to influence $158 billion in 2012 retail expenditures (about 5% of total in-store retail) – an impressive figure that's anticipated to grow to $689 billion – or 20% of in-store retail – by the end of 2016.

"It's a huge opportunity for us, with more than 140 million people walking into our [U.S.] stores every week – 200 million globally. We want to make sure those customers have a great experience…. And mobile is a way to enhance that experience within the stores."

To that end, "We've really looked at how the customer shops with us," Bergh told the San Francisco ad:tech assembly, a process that has spanned their pre-planning of shopping, their arrival at the store and their check out experience.

Pre-Planning

Bergh revealed that 90% of shoppers create shopping lists before they get to a Walmart store, so the company's goal is to make that a "more seamless, easier, digital experience." For the retailer, shopping


lists are not just a random list of items. They're also a customer's budgeting tool that shapes the in-store shopping experience in the comfort of an at-home environment.

With a Walmart shopping-list app, not only can customers record a want list, but they can see the price at their local store, the quantity in stock and its aisle location. "It helps them manage their budget before they go to the store and tell them where to go once they get to the store.

Welcome

When a shopper arrives at a Walmart location and has a Welcome app open, they are asked if they want to enter 'Store Mode'. This provides them with a set of digital tools that includes interactive online advertising about what's on special offer that week, a QR code scanner and a bar-code scanner for price and product information, as well as access to the shopping lists they created at home.

Check Out

The last stage of the Walmart mobile expedition ends at the check out. The retailer has a Scan & Go program currently in a 200-store test in 14 regions that allows shoppers to scan items as they shop and simply transfer baskets at check-out. "More than 50% of the customers who have used it have come back and used it again," said Bergh.

The company is also testing consumer response to providing e-Receipts in a secure locker, an offering that would take the paper stream out of the last step in shopping.

While Walmart doesn't need interactive-industry accolades as evidence of its force as a retail innovator, Bergh revealed that it used a number of ways to improve and measure levels of customer engagement.

Since 2011, Walmart has worked to make its apps work faster and improve the shopper's in-store experiences, to give them "access to the brands they loved," as Bergh put it, even as it facilitated access to local stores.

"We re-platformed all of our [mobile] experiences," said Bergh, and by the end of 2012 in the U.S., Mobile Commerce Daily awarded it both the "Mobile App of the Year" and "Mobile Retailer of the Year" honors. Equally, in the U.K., it walked home with the Mumsnet "Best" award and was rated the top retail app in the Apple App Store.

To drive the mobile success, Bergh added, "We had to make sure that different teams across the organisation were aligned on goals. The mobile team played a huge part in that." But the organisation's "Anywhere, Anytime" philosophy demanded new expertise – skill sets that the company developed within its organisation.

That capability enabled full integration into Walmart's existing online groups, its various store organisations, and its human-resource groups. "For instance", said Bergh, "when we launched Scan & Go, there was a huge amount of training involved in that [effort]… [and] in marketing, we had to make sure that our customers understood these new tools that we were offering and have access to them."

An implicit advantage of Walmart's innovation in these areas is its global scalability. Said Bergh: "As we go to more banners around the world, we don't have to start from scratch."

And, indeed, even though the new Walmart mobile strategy is designed to work in the Americas, its development is being targeted for expansion to Western Europe and Japan.


Read more at http://www.warc.com/Content/ContentViewer.aspx?ID=6dc75219-1fe2-47e7-8173-cec878461e4a&ID=6dc75219-1fe2-47e7-8173-cec878461e4a&MasterContentRef=6dc75219-1fe2-47e7-8173-cec878461e4a&GUserID=aa148723-89af-4adc-96d5-9df296627143#EpoTPOHAbLrmLKKx.99

Magazine Luiza want to include NFC in SIMcard with your brandCamila De Carli

The chip Luiza SIMCard course of action in a co-branded with the retailer Magazine Luiza, can win the future, NFC (Near Field Communication) to enable mobile payments by users of the solution. The possibility, which is still under review, was communicated by Rogério Bruxellas, marketing director of Magazine Luiza and responsible for chip design, on Friday, 17, during the 12th edition of Viva Mobile Screen.

Bruxellas explained that the choice to embark on NFC chip would be an alternative to include C class consumers, who have no access to modern smartphones, the future reality of mobile payments. "If our client does not have a device that already come with NFC, it could make mobile payments with our chip. Our goal is to democratize access to technology for class C, "said Bruxellas.

The project to democratize mobile payments depends on the contract with the chip makers and the willingness of operators to buy chips with this technology. Currently, the production of the chip is Luiza Gemalto.

MVNO

According to the executive, Magazine Luiza disregards the possibility of turning into a MVNO. The decision was taken due to the retailer want to protect your brand. According Bruxellas, operators do not enjoy a good image among Brazilian consumers.

The Perils Of Google GlassBy Kaila Colbin Friday, May 17, 2013

Most of us have been there: you’re sitting with a friend, maybe enjoying a nice meal or a glass of wine, and you get the urge to check your phone. Has someone called, texted, emailed or tweeted? Is there a Facebook update you need to know about?

A battle ensues: between Compulsive You, who is addicted to being connected, and Civilized You, who knows it is more important to keep focus on the actual humans in front of you rather than on the virtual humans in your little device.

These days, of course, it’s usually Compulsive You who wins. Oh, you might manage to hold out until your dinner companion is looking around for the waiter -- a pretty good opportunity -- or, even better, until she heads to the bathroom. But sometimes the desire is so strong that you fake your own trip to the bathroom. And sometimes you don’t even bother to fake it: a quick press of the button to light up the screen, a quick glance at the notifications, that’s not so bad, is it?

It is. It is, in fact, awful, and you know it. You know it from being on the other side of the table: the side that feels the live moment is more important, the side that has to pause its story because -- goodness! -- your friend’s notifications show there’s an email that simply cannot wait, and she’s so sorry but she really must just reply quickly, you don’t mind, do you? When you are sitting opposite this behavior it is nearly unbearable, and so you do the only thing you can do: you take out your own phone and check your own emails and post your own status updates. And if your checking and messaging and Facebooking takes a few seconds longer than your mate’s, well then there’s nothing left for her to do but look at something else on her phone, and what unfolds is a race to see who can be more technologically indifferent to the other, a race that leaves no doubt about what is really important: the phone.

(Lest you think this rant is in any way holier than thou, be aware that there’s a reason I’m so darn familiar with this scenario.)

At least with the phone, there is a saving grace, and it is this: sometimes Civilized You wins. Sometimes the better angels of your nature convince you to not to look at it, or to turn it off altogether, or even to leave it at home. Sometimes we can choose to not be distracted by this thing that only feels essential, this thing that logic tells us very clearly is not.


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Ah, but with Google Glass…

Google Glass does not wait for you to pick it up. It sits in your line of sight, begging to interfere, begging you to shift your attention from the physical world you inhabit to the all-too-compelling one in the lens.

And for the person on the other side of that table, the likely effect is devastating.

Sure, the first few wearers will win on novelty alone. And the fact that it looks dorky right now doesn’t matter in the least: one thing futurists tell you is that you should never judge a technology based on the form factor of the initial prototypes.

The issue is not novelty, nor form factor, nor whether Glass has apps for Facebook, CNN and Evernote. The issue is that Glass profoundly interferes with the experience of life, that, as unobtrusive as they have tried to make it, it still calls to you to stop looking at the world around you and stare instead at the little screen hovering just at the upper periphery of it, a screen that whispers to you in a husky, hypnotizing voice that this email simply cannot wait, and, besides, the person you’re dining with won’t mind, will they?

Why John McCain Is Trying To Blow Up The Cable IndustryJay Yarow | May 16, 2013, 5:27 PM

John McCain is trying to pass legislation that would unbundle cable packages, allowing consumers to only pay for the cable channels they want.

One of his key reasons for wanting to go to an a-la-carte style is that the price of cable has risen through the years. He cited the data we've charted here from the FCC which shows cable bills rising through the years.

In McCain's view, allowing consumers to pick a small selection of channels they really want should help them save money.

However, Matthew Yglesias at Slate argues that McCain's bill might have the opposite effect. He argues that cable companies are going to get their money one way or another. If people order fewer channels, then cable companies will just charge more for those channels.

Yglesias thinks that if McCain really wants to crack down on the cable/pay TV industry, he should just crack down on it. McCain should just regulate the pay TV business setting a cap on rates, says Yglesias.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-why-john-mccain-is-trying-to-blow-up-the-cable-industry-2013-5#ixzz2TYDzB1CU


http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-why-john-mccain-is-trying-to-blow-up-the-cable-industry-2013-5#ixzz2TYDzB1CU

http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-why-john-mccain-is-trying-to-blow-up-the-cable-industry-2013-5#ixzz2TYDzB1CU

Yahoo Adds Tweets To News Feedby Mark Walsh,

Yahoo will incorporate selected tweets into the news feed on its redesigned home page through a new partnership between the Web portal and the microblogging service.

“As users explore our nearly endless stream of content, we will seamlessly include relevant and personalized Tweets alongside stories from Yahoo and our other sources. With this greater breadth of compelling content, we’re excited to give our users even more opportunities to learn and connect,” stated Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer in a blog post today.

The infinite-scrolling news feed aggregates articles from around the Web across categories such as local, entertainment and sports, along with newly launched in-stream ads.

Yahoo didn’t indicate how tweets will be chosen, but the rollout on the desktop and mobile will take place over the next few days.

Like other content in the news feed, tweets will be more customized to a user's interests the more he or she interacts with Yahoo.com. A Yahoo spokesperson also said Promoted Tweets won't appear in the feed.

Yahoo and Twitter previously partnered in 2010, adding tweets to search results and real-time Twitter updates across different Yahoo properties, including news, finance and entertainment. The deal also allowed users to update their Twitter status and tweet Yahoo content through their Yahoo accounts.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/200507/yahoo-adds-tweets-to-news-feed.html?edition=60040#ixzz2TY83CA11

Marketing-Mix Models Get Pushback As Media Landscape Changes Advertising Research Foundation To Look Into ROI StandardBy: Jack Neff Published: April 24, 2013

Marketing-mix models, since rising from relative obscurity a few decades ago, have become the de facto standard of evaluating return on investment, driving billions of dollars in marketing spending across industries.

David Poltrack, CBS chief research officer

There's just one problem: Some critics believe the models have been wrong all along, and work even worse after three decades of change in the media landscape. They say the models underestimate the impact of advertising, particularly of broad-reach network TV; overstate the value of price promotion, mislead marketers into buying thinly rated programming; wrongly downplay risks of going dark for weeks on end; and fail to account for how online search has made all advertising more effective.

These critics up to now have been lonely voices on a wonky topic in the wilderness of a fast-growing marketing-analytics industry. But they're about to get their day in court as the Council for Research Excellence preps a report on the pros and cons of marketing-mix models. That report will in turn form the basis of an Advertising Research Foundation inquiry into the quality of the models, led by CBS Chief Research Officer and ARF Chairman David Poltrack.

That could force leading companies in research to submit their models for independent review -- or explain to clients why they won't. Mr. Poltrack said during a talk at the ARF's Re:Think conference last month that he intends to present research about flaws in marketing-mix models at the ARF Audience Measurement 8.0 conference in June.

He's been an avid user of data from Nielsen and its Nielsen Catalina Solutions joint venture that attribute sales to purchase-based consumer groups and track how ads affect them. Such data wasn't available when models were first developed. Now that it is, the models haven't adapted, he said.

For years, Effective Marketing Management has been the most vocal critic against marketing-mix modeling. The firm uses panel-based studies to measure marketing programs rather than the econometric regression approach of marketing-mix models, and its partners, Mike Von Gonten and David Hoo, say models are flawed because they treat all sales lifts the same (see sidebar, below.)


http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/200507/yahoo-adds-tweets-to-news-feed.html?edition=60040#ixzz2TY83CA11

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/200507/yahoo-adds-tweets-to-news-feed.html?edition=60040#ixzz2TY83CA11

Mr. Hoo blames reliance on marketing-mix models for fueling the CPG industry's decades-long shift of funds from advertising into promotion and for poorly optimized media plans, which he in turn blames for slow growth by such marketing-mix enthusiasts as Procter & Gamble Co.

"We believe it's important to bring a combination of modeling, information and expertise to decisions," a P&G spokesman said in a statement. "We have clear evidence that marketing-mix modeling, combined with other information and expertise, has helped to improve return on investment of our marketing spending and media buying."

Sunil Garga, founder of Sapient's marketing-mix analytics firm mPhasize, said much of the criticism of models is off, particularly EMM's contentions based on outdated models or research techniques that are themselves flawed. He said the ARF could help by setting standards for data sources used in models, but doesn't believe a sweeping inquiry into model quality is warranted.

"To some extent, the [EMM] critique is reasonable," said one veteran CPG research executive, who wasn't authorized to speak by his company. He's used EMM, but said its approach is more expensive and thus less widely used than marketing-mix models. Experienced analysts understand and account for shortcomings of models, he said, but it's also easy for executives to use unadjusted marketing-mix analyses to suit their ends.

Realistically, he said, the growing power of retailers, the internal power of sales forces and the need to meet quarterly numbers factor more into the CPG industry's shift from advertising to promotion than flaws in the models.

Critics: Marketing-Mix Models Get Things Wrong

They treat all sales lifts the same -- whether it's from an ad that attracted new customers who pay full price or a promotion that caused existing consumers to buy at lower prices. The former brings more long-term sales and profits.

Models estimate initial impact of advertising using a theory based on how long it takes recall to fade -- weeks -- rather than based on actual sales impact, which happens within days for frequently purchased products. All this underestimates the impact of ads, smoothes out differences between plans with higher-rated TV programming vs. weaker plans based on lower-rated shows and misleads marketers into "going dark" for extended periods, according to researcher Effective Marketing Management.

CBS Chief Research Officer David Poltrack says models don't account for search, which boosts effectiveness by allowing people to respond immediately.

And when models were developed, it wasn't possible to attribute sales to specific segments or groups of consumers. Tools from Nielsen, Catalina, Dunnhumby and TRA now make that possible, yet models haven't adapted. Sunil Garga, founder of Sapient's marketing-analytics firm mPhasize, said the criticism is off the mark. The EMM work, in particular, is based on a system best for measuring new-product introductions but not other marketing efforts, and its executives are basing some of their criticism of modeling on outdated modeling practices and the false belief that price promotion doesn't bring in new consumers, he said.

Some analytics firms, such as his own, take cross-media effects and the digital landscape into account, he said. More-sophisticated clients figure copy-testing scores and creative quality into their models and account for other limitations of models, he added. -- JACK NEFF

Meredith Expands Program Guaranteeing Sales Lift for Big AdvertisersPublisher Adding Product Categories, Opening Up More Slots for Marketers

Meredith Corp., the publisher of magazines such as Ladies' Home Journal and Better Homes and Gardens, is expanding its program for large advertisers to encompass more product categories, such as pharmaceuticals, and the number of clients it will work with. "We're a multimedia company," said Tom Harty, president of Meredith's National Media Group, which sells digital media as well as magazine ad pages. "We just feel like print gets bashed a little too much."

In the first year of Meredith's program, participating marketers earned an average return of $7.81 for every $1 they spent on ads in company magazines, Meredith said. The program uses consumer purchase data from sources such as Nielsen's Homescan panel to compare sales to households that receive Meredith


magazines and a comparable group that does not. So far it has covered categories such as food, beauty and over-the-counter drugs.

Time Inc., meanwhile, plans to add evaluation of tablet and mobile ads to its program this year, a company spokeswoman said. Participating clients have seen returns ranging from $4 to $33, she added.

This kind of research seems likely to become more common. "There are more opportunities to merge media exposure with purchasing behavior," said Jeff Bickel, VP-delivery and analytics at Nielsen Catalina Solutions, which integrates Nielsen's media and household purchase information with Catalina's frequent shopper data. "That's really the heart of this type of analysis: to understand directly that here's a group of consumers, of households, that are exposed to this marketing and are compared to a like group of consumers who did not have that exposure."

Marketers increasingly demand some sort of evidence that their ad spending is paying off, and the media sellers that can provide it may get a leg up. "We encourage all of our media partners to bring us more evidence in the form of custom research in order to better understand what is working and what is not, or at least not as well," said Mark Kaline, global director-media, licensing and consumer services at Kimberly-Clark, which participated in the program. "The Meredith sales guarantee was a unique approach to that end and we will be holding that up and encouraging our other partners to have the courage to do the same."

That said, Mr. Kaline added, the overall methods that marketers use to determine return on investment need to be revisited, making a reevaluation of traditional marketing mix modeling now underway at the Advertising Research Foundation "one of the most important efforts in the industry today."

Content Curation: The Big PictureAnalytics are like a drug to me. I am addicted. Okay, I guess I can say that about LinkedIn too. But in all honesty, not a day goes by where I'm not logging into our statistics to see where our traffic comes from.

More often than not, I'm seeing traffic coming from specific content related sites. It is partly an effort of our own blog promotion and partly a reaction to content curators out there who are sharing our content. This makes a blogger very happy!

In this article, we'll get down to business about how you can curate content for branding yourself and your business as an expert in your field.

What Is Content Curation?

Content Curation, in its most simplest terms, is the act of gathering related, targeted pieces of content and sharing it. Like an art curator, a Content Curator is a taste maker—an influencer—and has authority in a given topic. You can curate content that you create and curate the content that is important or interesting to you and your brand.

Who Are The Content Curators?

Content Curators can be anyone who engages and shares content online. The best Content Curators are those who are focused on a specific content. These are the people who are scouring the web for interesting and related content on a given topic. The beauty of it is that you can be a curator on any topic. In being a Content Curator, you are staying informed about your field of interest and building expertise. Oftentimes, Content Curators are Influencers, because they share highly targeted information to a group of devoted followers.

Why Is Content Curation Important To Businesses?

Content Curation is important to businesses because it allows you to brand yourself as an expert in a certain topic and allows you to be a thought leader. By doing a good job, and curating content that is powerful and shareable, you can become a go-to authority on a topic. As you know, branding is very important in the social media world. In curating content, you're branding yourself as an expert. Enough said.

Where To Curate Content

Instagram

Instagram is a great place to curate photos and content about specific topics. Of course, keep in mind that the content here is visual, so a visual field will work best. I have seen a lot of fashion aggregative Instagram profiles, as well as an influx of fan pages. This is a good example of how you can curate content on a specific brand or person.


Scoop.it

Scoop.it is a content curation tool that allows you to create Scoops. I like it because I can use it to promote our blog post, especially since the following at Scoop.it is growing. It's always good to get into a site during its beginning stages, so this is a good opportunity for you.

Learni.st

Like Scoop.it, Learni.st is a content curation tool that encourages you to learn about a specific topic. This is a great site for those of us who are highly-targeted, educationally-focused Content Curators. Learn.ist is also in its beginning stages, so it would be good to build there before it becomes suddenly overpacked.

Pinterest

With Pinterest boards, Content Curation comes easy. Pin the content you like and there you have it. Pinterest is also great because it shows up highly on the search engines. Make sure your board names are relevant to the content you are pinning and you could be very successful here.

Tumblr

Tumblr is a good site to gather content on a specific topic. Since you can Tumblr search, track Tags and Reblog quite easily, this site is a good place to start. As I mentioned, content curation is about focusing on specific kinds of content. So Tumblr's features (tracking and saving Tags to your Dash, having your posts Featured by the Tumblr staff and Tumblr Post Editors, and latching on to Reblog chains) can be easily keyed to your interests, your brand and the subject of your content curation. The more active you are in the Tumblr community, the better.

Spundge

A few weeks ago I noticed an influx of traffic coming from a site called Spundge. Of course, I had to check it out. I instantly signed up, put my investigation cap on, and dug a little deeper on how I could use this tool to a.) drive traffic to our blog, and b.) use it as a branding tool to help further build our authority on the topics of content marketing and social media marketing.

Spundge is a content curation tool on crack. Not only does it allow you to create a notebook (similar to a Pinterest Pinboard) in order to gather content you like, it also allows you to collaborate with team members, Influencers and others on your topics. But best of all, it acts like an RSS feed in which you can filter highly-targeted content to learn about and share with the community via your social channels. With Spundge, there are a ton of other really cool features and I definitely recommend you check them out.

Blogs

Of course, your blog can be a place to create content and curate content as well. You can create a weekly article about the best links of the week, or something along those lines. Actually, your blog is the most important place to curate, as it represents your brand like nothing else can.

Financial Services: The Mobile Vertical to WatchMelinda Krueger | May 15, 2013

I have long been a proponent of watching the retail vertical for innovative marketing practices, regardless of what business you're in. Recent research led me to the financial services vertical, and now there are two must-follow categories. Here's why.

Similar to retailers, the competition is stiff and the stakes are high for financial services. Mobile functionality is a "make-or-break" offering for many of their customers, particularly younger ones. Gen Y, representing about one-third of the nation's adults, is the age group most likely to bank online, bank on a tablet, and deposit a check remotely. This is not life stage behavior; it is a convenience behavior that will not change. As a KeyBank senior VP stated in the indispensable eMarketer article, "Bigger Money on the Small(er) Screen," financial institutions must be channel-agnostic because consumers are adding rather than switching. "Throughout the evolution of our channels we've found that customers will use all of them - no matter what new channel comes along, no one abandons any one of them."

Our Channel Preference Survey showed that while email is the preferred channel for most marcom, financial alerts via SMS had one of the highest "acceptability" ratings. So let's look at what financial institutions (FIs) are doing well.


Many FIs have stellar preference centers. If you want to see an excellent example of managing a huge amount of information clearly, look at an FI (USAA's is particularly good). They clearly spend a lot of time on the user experience (UX). One thing they do particularly well is allow the customer to choose delivery methods for different types of information: what do you want to get via email, SMS, push? This is On-Demand Marketing at its best.

FIs have sophisticated app functionality. They did not create an app for the sake of having an app (or two, or 10). Although most customers use them to check a balance or transaction, there is also super cool functionality like depositing a check by taking a picture of it. About one-half of a financial institution's customers have downloaded their app, which speaks to its value and ease of use. It's a percentage retailers can only dream of. On that note, why is it that my bank can remember my username, reducing that arduous task of accurately typing on a touchscreen, but most other apps require entry every time?

The big players in the FI vertical are also sophisticated social media participants. According to The Financial Brand, the majority of large FIs have a formal, enterprise-wide social media plan, use it for customer service, and listen to their customers. A smaller, smarter percentage have integrated social into their CRM systems and call centers.

FIs do have room for improvement in a few key areas. They are plagued by the same marketing and business unit silos that cripple effective cross-channel marketing for us all. With virtually unlimited customer data, they aren't effectively targeting offers or cross-selling services. Email messages appear to be an afterthought, with weak brand presentation and no mobile optimization. Security is a concern for potential mobile banking users, but FIs do not do a great job of reassuring customers about security and liability.

Benefits abound for financial institutions that do mobile well. Forrester Research found that mobile banking users are more loyal, more likely to make referrals, and more likely to purchase additional products and services from their FI. FIs are well beyond the initial stages of mobile marketing sophistication. So be smart, mobile marketer: watch and learn from finance, no matter what business you're in.

Start Listening: Why Testing Alone Isn't the AnswerAndrea Fishman | May 15, 2013

The immediacy of the data. The stark nature of the results. The ability to select a "winner." For many, this allure of A/B and multivariate testing has elevated the practice of site optimization to a Holy Grail. Content, offers, creative imagery, pricing, device, and time-of-day are all fair game for optimization. For better or worse, with a few simple mock-ups and some readily accessible software, just about everything can be tested. And when all goes well, a clear option emerges.

But what happens when the data gets a bit murkier? When it's not completely clear why one version is surging to the top? When it's not just one variable that drives the decision? Why what seems like the obvious winner is, in fact, losing? In a world of data-driven marketing, where everything must have a root cause and scientific correlation, this lack of clarity can send marketers into a tailspin.

What About Listening to the Customer?

While optimization testing may provide a framework to validate or disprove a hypothesis, there is no substitute for real listening. Yes, actually asking customers directly for their opinion and point of view. And listening to what they have to say, good or bad. In this era of testing and automation the thought of reaching out and listening has become an anathema to modern marketers. And while not all marketers have the luxury of time or budget to create elaborate focus groups or live customer tests, basic listening and survey tools are available to support marketers of all sizes.

Options for Listening

A wide spectrum of engagement tools makes customer listening - active or passive - a necessity for a truly informed decision-making cycle.

• Call center listening. Call centers are a treasure trove of information for those willing to listen in. Getting from what to why can be done through monitoring top engagement calls. Top returns, top service request, longest support call - all great options for listening. Listening to the actual call will often give much more context than simply assessing the data reported by the call center. Consider spending one day a month in your call center to get a routine flavor of your customers' perspectives.


• Social listening. What is happening in the world of Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube? What are your customers saying about your products and services? More passive listening than live, in-person conversations, social listening can often capture customer sentiment in its most raw form. Are they railing against the latest price increase - or raving about a new offering? What can you be learning from a fan or fanatic? From jubilation to disgust, social media is becoming a primary channel to voice opinion. From chatter volume and broad sentiment to more complex trend and conversation analysis, ensure that social channels are being monitored, even if you are not actively responding to the conversation.

• Site surveys. Ask, and ask again. It's amazing how much a user is willing to share when given the opportunity. But make sure you are asking valuable questions. Beyond simple satisfaction measurements, use site surveys to narrow down specific challenges. Targeting your surveying to discrete audiences, geographies, and segments will allow you to obtain richer, more actionable insights than general site "satisfaction" surveys.

• Customer focus groups. No longer the highly controlled version popularized in "Mad Men," focus groups have evolved into a more open forum for candid discussion and debate. When properly moderated, focus groups become less about the two-way mirror and much more about eliciting core emotional responses. Consider using smaller groups and customer meet-ups as part of your ongoing dialogue, occurring routinely - with or without new products or messaging to test.

Whether you are looking to validate your testing strategy, validate internal points of view, or even clarify ambiguous data, all conversations need to start and end with the customer. Without knowing your audience, and their evolving needs, you cannot truly optimize your marketing impact.

The Tragic Beauty of Google+By Harry McCrackenMay 16, 201318 Comments

Harry McCracken / TIME.com

Google likes to use the word “beautiful” a lot when describing its own products. That would be grating if it weren’t for one fact: more and more, the company is building beautiful stuff. And I’m not sure if it’s ever built anything more beautiful than the new version of its Google+ social network which debuted on Wednesday during the Google I/O keynote.

The service, which was already pretty darn slick, is now among the most attractive and engaging web apps I’ve ever seen. Streams of activity are now laid out as one, two or three columns of tiles, depending on available screen real estate, with some oversized photos spanning the whole width. (Judging from my stream, some Google+ aficionados like the old format better — they can switch back to one column — but I find the new one less claustrophobic.) The left-hand toolbar which used to hog space now disappears until you need it; throughout, the level of visual polish is high, with pixel-perfect design and subtle little animations as you click on different controls.

Google+ can now auto-hashtag your items, a feature which is useful because you can click on any hashtag and then flip through related items shared by other people, without leaving the page you’re on. When it figures out a hashtag based on words in your post, it’s neat. But in some cases, it can also analyze a photo to determine a relevant hashtag, a feat which can be downright dazzling. I uploaded a shot from Disneyland and a drawing of Superman; it correctly identified both and linked appropriately.


The photo features, already practically a service unto themselves, get a thorough makeover. In a feature which reminds me a bit of Everpix, Google+ gives you a page of “highlights” which it chooses algorithmically: shots with family members, shots with smiling people, shots which it just deems to be aesthetically pleasing. There’s an auto-enhancement feature, which would be nice, but no big whoop except that you can tell Google+ to apply it to all your photos without your intervention. And “auto-awesome” features proactively create panoramas, animated-GIF-like loops and other special photos if they notice suitable images in your collection.

Then there’s Hangouts — a new standalone app for Android and iOS that spins off Google+’s Hangouts video-chat feature into its own world, a sort of social-network-within-the-social-network. The Hangouts app does video and text chat and photo sharing, and is designed for both impromptu one-time interactions and ongoing conversations that could go on over a period of days or longer. I can imagine it appealing both to Google+ diehards and people who aren’t otherwise active on the service.

Overall, Google+ doesn’t do anywhere near as many things as Facebook, but the things it does, it does well. Once a me-too service that seemed to exist solely because Facebook posed a potentially existential threat to Google’s dominance of the web, it now has its own style and signature features. Where Facebook is rather stolid – it has its own beautification initiative going on, but feels hamstrung by its need to retain some visual consistency with its past self — Google+ is exuberant. It’s fun to use.

And yet I’m pretty positive I won’t spend remotely as much time in it as I will in Facebook.

You might have already guessed why: My friends, family and acquaintances are all on Facebook, where they add up to a bustling community I enjoy being part of. More than any particular feature that Mark Zuckerberg and company have cooked up, it’s the people in my life that make Facebook, well, Facebook.

Over on Google+, I find some worthwhile material to peruse, but in far smaller quantities. The smattering of people I encounter hardly replicates my real-world social connections. The conversations are less warm, personal and interesting. As a social experience, it often feels perfunctory.

I don’t, by the way, claim that any of that is Google+’s fault. In fact, at least some of it is my fault: I’m kind of an absentee landlord of my Google+ page, dropping in only occasionally and sharing items even more sporadically. You can’t complain about the quality of a community unless you try to be part of it. Also, it’s always dangerous to assume that your experience on a social network is representative — I have friends who favor Google+ over Facebook specifically because they find it more lively and personal.

Still, I don’t feel guilty about favoring the social network that feels more like an extension of my world. That’s Facebook. And since Facebook exists, I don’t have much of an incentive to pour more energy into Google+. The two services aren’t identical in particulars and emphasis — today’s Facebook seems to be built on the philosophy that everyone should share everything at all times, sometimes in an automated fashion, and Google+ isn’t like that at all — but ultimately, they scratch the same itch.

Therein lies Google+’s great challenge. Even if it’s good — even if it’s great — it’s not going to displace Facebook as the world’s primary social network. And most people don’t need a second social network. (Or at least a Facebook-like social network: Twitter, Pinterest and others that don’t take Facebook on directly can and do thrive.)

Mind you, there are worse fates than being the world’s second biggest general-purpose social network. After less than two years since Google+’s debut, Google says, 190 million people are active members. A total of 390 million take advantage of its features across Google, such as video calls in Gmail. Google+ isn’t going anywhere. But it has little mindshare among normal everyday folks, and it’s not clear what Google can do to change that. Unless Facebook implodes — hey, it’s not utterly unthinkable — Google’s service might never be more than what it is now: a beautiful disappointment.

Read more: http://techland.time.com/2013/05/16/the-tragic-beauty-of-google/#ixzz2TTk7dbPx

Agencies get incentivisedNEW YORK: The proportion of advertisers entering into incentivised contracts with agencies has risen sharply, but not all agencies are happy with this development.

A new poll of members of the Association of National Advertisers, conducted by the consultancy R3:JLB, found that 61% were switching to a pay-for-performance approach, up from 46% in 2010 and 35% in 2000.


http://techland.time.com/2013/05/16/the-tragic-beauty-of-google/#ixzz2TTk7dbPx

Brian Goodall, a consultant at R3:JLB, said that a common incentive deal was structured so as to pay agencies a fee based on proposed staffing with three tiers of potential bonuses added. These were typically based around sales or market share, brand-recall metrics and an agency-performance evaluation.

But agencies remain concerned at the reasons behind these contracts. "Some clients are coming at this from the approach of an opportunity to reduce marketing spend, and if it starts there, it's flawed from the beginning," argued Scott Chapman, executive director of finance at Partners & Napier.

"But if it's a method to fuel performance and success, it can be beneficial," he conceded.

Others supported the initiatives. "I'm a strong believer in incentivisation," Harris Diamond, chairman and chief executive of McCann Worldwide, told Advertising Age.

But he cautioned the need for careful consideration. "It has to have a shared-reward aspect – it can't be just to get back to where you were on basic costs," Diamond said.

"These contracts require a lot of thought on both sides," he added, "and not all clients are willing to take that risk and maybe have to pay us more, so sometimes the talks go nowhere."

Willingness to embrace incentivised contracts varies across the industry, with media agencies seen to be significantly more enthusiastic than digital agencies.

Indeed, Bryan Wiener, chief executive of 360i, described the deals as "perverse", arguing that incentives were often based on paid-media impressions, but that digital and social-media campaigns cost more to create than to distribute.

Data sourced from Advertising Age; additional content by Warc staff , 14 May 2013

Read more at http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/EmailNews.news?ID=31393&Origin=WARCNewsEmail#uxaCAo6OtwvlYMho.99

Pesquisa sobre o uso de hashtags no InstagramO uso das #hashtags nas mídias sociais é um assunto um tanto quanto polêmico. Este sistema se popularizou principalmente por conta do Twitter, que usa esta funcionalidade especialmente para centralizar assuntos.

O resultado disso é que, hoje em dia, o uso desta funcionalidade é bem comum em diversos serviços, como por exemplo o Instagram, e inclusive o Facebook, que anunciou recentemente que também irá utilizar as controversas #hashtags.

Prestando atenção na crescente popularidade do Instagram como plataforma de marketing digital, Dan Zarella, da Hubspot, decidiu reunir algumas milhares de publicações deste serviço e trazer algunsinsights sobre o assunto. O objetivo principal era descobrir qual o poder das hastags.

Usando 1 milhão de fotos publicadas como base para a pesquisa, Dan descobriu que o uso de hashtags ajuda o usuário a receber mais seguidores. Apesar de não relacionar o número de hashtags usadas ao número de seguidores que foram ganhados por cada publicação, é provável que ao menos no Instagram, quanto mais hashtags se usa, melhores são as chances de ganhar novos seguidores.

Entre as hashtags mais populares estão #followforfollow, #likeforlike, #follow4follow e várias outras relacionadas a estas “brincadeiras” do serviço. Tirando estas, as mais populares são #sky, #sun,#nature, #summer, etc. Assim como há populares, há também aqueles que podem lhe atrapalhar na jornada de conseguir mais seguidores como #repost, #drunk, #loveher, entre outras.

Caso você pretenda usar mais hashtags em suas ações, confira algumas de nossas dicas sobre uso de #hashtags.


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Car Paint, Heal ThyselfBy Amy Corr, Monday, May 13, 2013

Nissan has developed self-healing paint, a technology that renders a car scratch-proof.

Does this spell the end of parking at the far end of the store so errant shopping carts don’t ding my car? Someday, just not today.

The technology isn’t cheap; it’s only available on very select models, targeting tech-savvy affluents. I’d also target those who have yet to master the art of parallel parking and backing out of spaces near large, colorful poles.

To promote this technology, TBWA\G1 Paris, DAN Paris and OMD Europe created an iPad ad that makes a universally hated sound: fingernails scratching a chalkboard. Having self-healing paint should be a reward, not likened to the punishing sound of nails on chalkboard. It's a grating way to promote the technology.

The iPad ad running in The Economist begins as a simple ad for the sporty Nissan 370z. Creative takes over the entire tablet, and when a user attempts to swipe the ad away with their fingers, the ad stays put. The innocent finger swipe sounds like metal scratching metal. Each finger swipe leaves an actual scratch mark on the 370z. The user is subjected to two swipes -- that make the hairs on your arms stand up -- until the scratches disappear. “Now with self-healing paint” closes the ad, seen here.

Maybe Nissan could create a self-healing health-care system next.


Scarcity is the problem By Sam Thielman May 12, 2013,

Google's Eric Schmidt may have told an audience full of media buyers that Web video had already replaced television last week, but the ad industry isn’t so sure the NewFronts are going to make that much difference when it comes to moving ad dollars.

"They're a distraction," said Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser (formerly lead forecaster for Magna Global). "They’re a useful sideshow for developing relationships, but they don’t serve any other practical purpose."

The mechanics of the video business, Wieser said, haven't changed at all. Clients don’t have to commit money in this upfront unless there’s a massive discount on already-cheap inventory "because there’s no scarcity."

Jason Krebs, president of sales/marketing at Blip, couldn't disagree more strongly. "There is a high amount of scarcity for high-quality video," he said. "Anybody who says there’s no scarcity is not paying attention and repeating the rhetoric." Krebs says that the problem is extreme scarcity—there just aren’t as many pure-digital offerings out there that demonstrate the production value consumers are used to on linear cable or broadcast. “House of Cards (on Netflix) is an anomaly, but not for long,” he said.

To some extent, comparison between the NewFronts and the upfronts—or even between more than two or three NewFront presentations—is an apples-and-hand grenades proposition. Google and Hulu have radically different business models; Netflix is a name on everyone's lips and it doesn’t even take advertising. But most industry execs agree that digital companies are going to have to create higher-quality, higher-profile shows if they’re going to take any share away from TV.

"When The Walking Dead premieres, you wouldn't miss it," said Francois Lee, svp and group client director, MediaVest Worldwide, one of several agencies that called on video companies to up their games in an open letter last week. "It’s on the subway, it’s outside, it’s on networks, and with a lot of the digital content, you don’t see that level of promotion."

On television, production begins months in advance. Then networks winnow down as many as 100 total programs in development into a fraction that will air. "It's true there are millions and millions of dollars spent on this stuff, and it doesn’t always work. But there’s an attempt made to make it a buzzworthy event," Lee said.

Wieser says the NewFronts hold out the promise of a bargaining chip that buyers desperately want. But for a bargaining chip to be credible, you have to be able to walk away from the negotiation, and digital may not


be there yet. "That will only happen if five or six big brands go out publicly and say, 'We're putting 20 percent of our budget into Web video,’ and they’ll have to follow through," Wieser said.

Krebs dissents. "The differences have already been felt," he said. "TV executives don't go five minutes in a traditional upfront without talking about their digital abilities."

The Most Important Thing In The Digital AgeBy Kaila Colbin Friday, May 10, 2013

“He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata! He tangata! He tangata! What is the most important thing in the world? It is people! It is people! It is people!” - Maori proverb

In other news you already knew, pretty much everything is now available online.

Want to learn about quantum physics, substitute your own text into a 20th Century Fox intro sequence, or study with MIT and Stanford professors? Done, for free. Next.

Want to enjoy TV shows, movies, music, games? Find work, friends, love? Exchange short messages with movie stars? Engage in nefarious activities? Whatever your heart’s desire, the Web is there to serve.

For the content consumer, this is a pretty good time to be alive. For the content producer, it is a nightmare.

You are now competing with everyone and everything, in the world ever created. And you don’t just have to compete with other sites and blogs and service offerings, not just on price and quality either. You have to compete with noise, with the umpteen junk pages and popups that permeate the online ether.

How can you do it? Some will trot out that now old adage that content is king. What you need is original content. More content. Better content.

They are wrong.

Winning in such a world is not about content. Content is everywhere and all-consuming. We are drowning in content, and the app that promises to surface the best of it for me is just one more reason for me to feel guilty and uninformed for not paying attention to it.

Don’t you dare give me more content. Even better content is a tough sell when every day we get hundreds of emails, tweets, Facebook updates, when there’s HuffPo and The Onion and all those other quality news sources.

The way to compete, the only way to compete, is through greater understanding. The ones who get exactly who their customers are, who know how to make their lives easier and better and how to make them feel smart and informed and not hassled, guilty or overworked, these are the ones who will succeed.

Steve Jobs didn’t succeed because of his products. He succeeded because he understood us, our desire for beauty and simplicity and our desire to be in the In Crowd. He understood how to talk to us and how to make us feel like smart, cool rebels. He understood us, our glories and our flaws, better than we understood ourselves.

'Loyalize' Customers by Remembering Their NeedsMay 10, 2013

Want increased customer loyalty? Try crafting different treatments for different customers, one customer at a time, based not so much on the customer's value to you, but on what the customer needs from you.

When I’m on a business trip I’m a sucker for a quiet evening in my hotel room with a room-service pizza. One time at a Ritz-Carlton hotel I called downstairs for a pizza, then resumed working on my laptop until the knock on the door came about 30 minutes later. Only then did I realize I’d forgotten to request red pepper flakes with my pizza. I love red pepper flakes on a pizza. How do people even eat pizzas without red pepper flakes?

In any case, I opened the door and the waiter wheeled in the room-service table with my pizza, a soda, some utensils, and….a small dish of red pepper flakes! Hooray, I thought. At least this hotel serves a good pizza!


I signed the bill and as the waiter was about to leave, I asked him whether they served red pepper flakes with all their pizzas. “No,” he said, glancing down quickly to check his pad, “butyou like them, don’t you?”

I had completely forgotten that this was not my first room-service pizza at a Ritz-Carlton, and they had already noted my preferences. From my perspective, it just seemed like they really knew how a pizza should be served!

Customized products and services are important tools for a customer-centric company, enabling it to deliver just the right product-service combination for each customer, even though different customers have different needs and preferences. And when you do meet an individual customer's personal needs, the customer will likely remain loyal simply because it will be more convenient.

Let me explain: There are many different dimensions to customer needs, including not just tastes but things like psychological mindsets, planning time-frames, or decision-making methods, and most such differences are unlikely to correlate with income, age, or ZIP code. If you’re a hotel chain, then some of your customers like red pepper flakes with their pizzas. If you’re an investment firm, you might find that some of your clients prefer a specific recommendation, while others prefer having a set of alternatives or options. And so forth.

To ascertain needs such as these (i.e., personal tastes or psychological pre-dispositions), it is essential to interact with the customer. Asking a “Golden Question” or two might help youcategorize customers into different groups. But assuming you can gather the feedback and then act on it, you are in fact in a position to generate immense customer loyalty. The Ritz-Carlton could not possibly know that I prefer red pepper flakes on my pizza unless I tell them that I do. And by remembering this, they can make me loyal.

This is because when a customer tells you how he or she wants to be treated, and then youdo treat them that way, you are providing them a kind of service they can’t get anywhere else at any price – at least not without first engaging in the same kind of interaction. If a customer teaches you how they want to be treated and you act on that by treating them in the way they prefer, then before they can get an equivalent level of service from one of your competitors, they first have to re-teach the competitor what they have already spent time and energy teaching you.

This is one of the primary reasons why people engage with the same e-commerce site over and over again, whether it’s NewEgg.com, or Amazon.com, or someone else – because once you’ve already given the site your credit card information and shipping address, it’s so much easier just to keep going with them. Provided, of course, that they don’t screw up, and that some other site’s prices aren’t significantly lower. I say “significantly” because most people aren’t going to give up all the convenience of shopping somewhere that already knows them unless the price difference is significant enough. It might vary with the customer, but convenience saves time and time is money, although different people will attach different values to it.

So if you want to loyalize a customer, try remembering some specific need or preference the customer has communicated to you in some way, and deliver on that need without having to be reminded.

When terabytes of data are being produced every single day, the most important thing is not content. As Jobs understood, it is people. It is people. It is people

YouTube pay channels get mixed reactionSAN BRUNO: YouTube, the online video site, is launching 50 pay channels in association with 30 content partners, with prices starting from 99 cents a month, in a move that has implications for advertisers, agencies and TV networks.

Viewers will be able to choose which channels they subscribe to, unlike the bundled model preferred by cable and satellite television, and the channels will decide themselves whether or not to show ads in their programming.

"YouTube shouldn't make the call whether a paid channel has ads or not," said Malik Ducard, YouTube's head of content partnerships. "The partners are smarter about their audience and their content than we are."

He added that YouTube was not attempting to compete with pay TV. "We think the two can coexist nicely," he stated.

The channels taking part in the pilot include Sesame Street, the children's program, Cars.TV, aimed at car enthusiasts, The Laugh Factory, a comedy channel, and UFC, a sports channel.

YouTube will keep around 45% of subscription revenue, with the rest going to the channel owners.


Reactions to the move were mixed. One channel creator said that many viewers were teenagers who would be unlikely to pay, while another observed that online video was about sharing which couldn't be done behind a paywall.

Agencies were more optimistic. "Advertisers should see this as a positive move, as they will be able to better target premium audiences against specific programs much in the same way as they do today with traditional TV," Nick Seckold head of digital at Mindshare Asia Pacific, told Campaign Asia-Pacific.

Lee Smith, CEO of platforms and president of Annalect for Omnicom Media Group Asia-Pacific, agreed. "Monetising vertical content via paid users is a viable next step," he said.

"At some point we'll have to get used to subscriptions for everything," Russ Crupnick, an analyst for NPD Group, told Billboard. "Otherwise, we really will live in a world where online entertainment means dancing cats."

Data sourced from Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Advertising Age, Campaign Asia-Pacific, Billboard; additional content by Warc staff , 13 May 2013

Read more at http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/EmailNews.news?ID=31386&Origin=WARCNewsEmail#UkBZPvtq6Hc17pMK.99

How to tell if a couple will get divorcednews.com.au May 12, 2013 7:53AM

Think back to the last fight you had with your partner. Did you display any of these four behaviours? Picture: Thinkstock

IS it possible to predict whether or not a couple will get divorced?

Psychologists say yes.

Twenty years ago psychologist John Gottman and a team of researchers set out to determine why couples split up.

They recorded 80 married couples talking about a recent disagreement they'd had, the Scientific American reports.

Next the researchers coded the 15 minute conversations to identify all the behaviours the couples displayed when talking, such as defensiveness, anger or humour.

Fast forward 14 years. The researchers kept tabs on which couples were still together and which had divorced. And they noticed that there were four behaviours in particular that could predict which couples would divorce down the line. With 93 per cent accuracy.

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1. Contempt

Couples who eventually divorced were twice as likely to express contempt during a disagreement than couples who stayed married. Contempt is described as much stronger than anger – it is anger mixed with disgust. For example talking to you partner like they are beneath you.

2. Criticism

Couples who criticised each other personally were also more likely to get divorced. The criticism went one step beyond complaining about a partner's behaviour to attack them about their personality.

3. Defensiveness

If one person played victim, did not take responsibility for their role in the conflict or tried to prove their partner was "more wrong" than them this was another sign the couple could be headed for divorce.

4. Stonewalling

If during an argument one or both partners switched off from the conversation it was a sign they were headed for divorce. But stonewalling goes beyond simply getting distracted, it often comes with physiological responses like sweating or a sped up heart rate and can be a sign a person is so stressed by a conflict that they just shut it out.


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If you are thinking back to the last fight you had with your partner and you're a little worried, all hope is not lost. There are things you can do to deal with the problem behaviours in a healthy way.

Rather than criticise your partner personally, explain why their behaviour is upsetting you.

Instead of getting defensive take responsibility for your role in the conflict.

Build a "culture of appreciation" so partners treat each other with respect not contempt.

And if one person is stonewalling the other, work out if this is because they find the conversation too overwhelming. If so, work on taking deep breathes and calming down to make it easier to have an uncomfortable conversation.

9 Predictions: Media Guy Sees The Future and It Ain't PrettyBy: Simon Dumenco Kelsey Dake Published: May 13, 2013

1. Google CEO Larry Page will rethink default privacy settings for Google Glass after embarrassing Google Glass video footage of him pleasuring himself -- by Googling himself (Larry Page net worth, Larry Page private jet ...) -- leaks to Valleywag.

2. In the wake of President Obama's joke at the recent White House Correspondents' Dinner about the rise of BuzzFeed as a media phenomenon -- "I remember when BuzzFeed was just something I did in college around 2 a.m." -- congressional Republicans will launch a formal investigation into exactly what post-toke munchies Obama consumed at Columbia and Harvard (chips? candy bars? day-old pizza?) in an attempt to get him in trouble with first lady Michelle Obama, who is famously an advocate for a healthful diet.

3. Furthermore, when word gets out that the president also frequents HuffPo, conspiracy theorists will launch countless websites and forums to get to the bottom of Obama's HuffPo use. (It will quickly become widely known that "po" is some sort of powdered opiate favored by Muslim Kenyans, and that the president is addicted to huffing it.)

4. In the wake of a Reader's Digest poll showing that just 41% of Americans trust Matt Lauer, NBC will decide to reboot the "Today" show franchise by coming clean about its real purpose: promoting the network's prime-time programming. "Today" will dispense with any pretense of being a news program and will instead become an all-morning infomercial for "The Voice," with Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, Shakira and Usher replacing Lauer and Savannah Guthrie as co-hosts. (To run out his contract, Lauer, in what NBC spins as a promotion, will replace Carson Daly on "The Voice.")

5. Speaking of NBC, the network will announce its biggest prime-time product-placement deal ever. Pizza Hut's new Crazy Cheesy Crust Pizza, which promises "an explosion of flavor at every bite" thanks to its 16 pockets of cheese around the crust, will replace Gary Busey on the next "Celebrity Apprentice" all-star season. When the bubbly, charming Crazy Cheesy Crust Pizza fails at its assigned task six episodes in, it will be ritually consumed by the remaining contestants immediately after it's fired. Thanks to a ratings explosion and overwhelming social-media response (#eatthefired trends on Twitter), in the next episode Stephen Baldwin is cannibalized by Donald Trump right after he fires him.

6. Big Oil billionaires David and Charles Koch top the other bidders -- nobody, no one and not a soul -- for the Tribune Co. newspapers in order to advance their hyper-conservative, anti-government agenda. By controlling the op-ed pages of the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, etc., they successfully seduce lawmakers in Illinois, California and beyond, resulting in the elimination of all government regulations pertaining to newspaper publishers. The Kochs then create a path to profitability for the Tribune papers by firing all unionized reporters and replacing them with sub-minimum-wage child labor. Nine-year-old Tribune White House Correspondent Chauncey Wheaton becomes the toast of D.C.

7. Brushing aside privacy concerns, Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley declared last week that automatic check-ins -- the Foursquare app recording a user's arrival at various locations without the user having to proactively do anything -- may just be "the natural progression of things." Crowley ultimately proves right, and Foursquare preemptively locks down the youth market by offering fetuses auto check-in to their mothers' wombs. Following the success of that program, Foursquare creates a check-in program for sperm ("Foursquare helps you and your friends find great eggs and make the most of your visit").

8. In the wake of the February ouster of its co-founder and CEO Andrew Mason, last week Groupon said that it was entering a "new chapter" in which it is rethinking the way it promotes its offerings, as consumer interest in the daily-deals market wanes. Taking a page from Foursquare and Facebook, Groupon will


announce that the next-generation Groupon will offer "totally natural" and "frictionless" shopping, wherein your credit card will automatically be charged for 80%-off bikini-line laser-hair-removal and half-off tapas whenever Groupon's new "intuitive algorithm" parses your social-media posts and concludes that you're hungry and a little too hairy down there.

9. Media critic Howard Kurtz will shock the media world (and redeem himself for screwing up his coverage of the Jason Collins story) by coming out as a proud gay black man.

Simon Dumenco is the "Media Guy" media columnist for Advertising Age. You can follow him on Twitter @simondumenco.

Why Persuasive Technology Just Might Redefine Advertisingby Mike Tittel,

Marketers are missing their chance with persuasive technology. Need convincing?

Let’s take a step back. Persuasion used to be considered an art in which advertisers were masterful. Words like “magic,” “miracle,” “bargain,” “hurry” and “free” were used with surgical precision to spur target audiences to act. Advertisers were indeed persuasive, but not all that subtle. But, hey, when all you have are a few mass channels, like a placement during “The Cosby Show” or a print ad in Life magazine, it is effective, or rather it was.

Journey forward to the game-changing decade of our post-Internet advertising world. Consumers’ mistrust and awareness of sales and advertising techniques are at an all-time high. And the hard sell is as out of style as a Members Only jacket.

Now in our digital experiences, especially the ones built around our mobile devices, there is a new form of persuasiveness in town. The problem is brands and marketers are undervaluing it. It is persuasive technology. In simplest terms, persuasive technology is any system, app or software that through its function and design can change a user’s attitude or behavior.

For example, persuasive technology would be a healthcare app that encourages exercise and fitness and rewards you as you go. Or financial apps that encourage saving and investing, enabling you to not only track and understand your finances, but also provide tips and education about how to be more fiscally responsible. Or consider Progressive Insurance’s “Snapshot” usage-based program, which monitors your driving data via your car’s data port. The safer you drive, the more you save.

Through the use of these systems, your attitude and behaviors are changed far beyond what a convincing bit of copy or picture can do. They become part of your daily life.

Persuasive technology is a game-changing way to connect with prospects and customers. It enables brands to become more humanly relevant than merely pushing messages to people. And the fun part about it is that it gives advertisers a way to be engaging in a whole new way.

We are entering a new “Mad Men” style of marketing bravado armed with new tools of persuasion that just may make advertising more relevant than ever before.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/199838/why-persuasive-technology-just-might-redefine-adve.html?edition=59804#ixzz2StzVe48G

Will Target's Cartwheel Start Social, Mobile Revolution? by Sarah Mahoney, 9 hours ago


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In a move designed to make the retail world sit up and take notice, Target is inviting shoppers to come to Cartwheel, a partnership with Facebook that it hopes will finally find a way to effectively combine retail, mobile and social media.

The site is now in beta, and the Minneapolis-based chain says it will roll out shortly, “starting with a select group of REDcard holders.” The concept allows users to browse bargains and deals exclusive to the site. After choosing their offers, users then share them with friends; the more they share, the more they save. Because cartwheel.target.com can be accessed from computer, tablet or mobile device, it fits into Target’s broader mobile initiatives. (The chain continues to be among the industry leaders in accepting and creating mobile coupons, for instance.)

Still, some experts are puzzled about just how well this new Target/Facebook partnership will play with customers. “This is an interesting effort to link mobile and digital couponing with the reach and social aspects of Facebook,” Neil Stern, senior partner at McMillanDoolittle, a Chicago-based retail consultancy, tells Marketing Daily. “It could also be less relevant here in many categories -- am I really going to share with friends that I added a dozen eggs to my cart?”

Carly Wujcik, director of sales and marketing for Oneupweb, a digital agency based in Traverse City, Mich., agrees.

“One of the bargains I found was a 5% discount on Axe deodorant. People would think I was crazy for sharing that,” she says. “And it’s kind of complicated. I give Target credit for trying to figure out a marriage between retail and social, but I find it confusing.”

Another issue, she says, is that while Target is a discounter, with customers who love deals, there’s a bit of a disconnect between the higher-end initiatives it has invested so much in.

“This is the company that’s been touting its recent partnerships with Neiman Marcus and Missoni,” she says -- an image that doesn’t exactly resonate with saving 10% on paper towels.

Users earn 10 spots just for logging onto Cartwheel, and then earn “achievement badges.” As they choose, redeem and share offers, they open up more “offer spots.” The offer barcodes are then redeemed inside stores, either via a mobile phone or computer printout.

Potentially, she says, “this can become the digital version of a membership card, where members get special prices and exclusive offers. If there is a retailer out there who has a chance to figure it out, it probably is Target. But it needs to be more about understanding how customers would find this to be useful.”

“As with all of these efforts,” adds Stern, “we're in early days still.”

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/200001/will-targets-cartwheel-start-social-mobile-revol.html?edition=59798#ixzz2StYmc01i

For Auto Buyers, Online Reviews' Influence Rivals Professional OpinionsSocial helps spread auto opinions


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Consumer use of user-generated online reviews has become critical to the automotive sector, according to a new eMarketer report, “Automotive Consumer Reviews: Social and Mobile Change the Car-Buying Game.” As trust in this content solidifies and technology enables more shoppers to contribute car-buying opinions, users reviews are becoming among the most influential type of review, rivaling once-dominant professional reviews.

And posting reviews or opinions about purchased cars is far from a fringe activity. An October 2012 survey by Performics and ROI Research found that among social network users who said they took some sort of post-purchase action online (e.g., posting a photo of the purchase, responding to a retailer’s prompt for feedback, filling out a warranty card online), 22% reported posting a review or other comment after an automobile purchase.

The influence of user reviews stretches throughout the car-buying process, from consideration of vehicles to conversion at the brand and dealership levels.

An August 2012 study by Google, Compete, R.L. Polk and TNS Global looked at the activities consumers conducted on auto manufacturer websites, comparing the behavior of buyers who were focused on a single brand with those who were considering four or more brands. It showed that multiple-brand consumers were twice as likely to read consumer reviews on those sites.


Wide adoption of social media has also had an impact on automakers, and on the car-buying purchase funnel. For automakers, this means a popular product or campaign can enjoy millions of endorsements on social media platforms with little investment on their end. Yet almost any problem can turn into a potential lost sale if a consumer complaint is widely circulated.

A global Capgemini survey of new-vehicle buyers who had used the internet to research vehicles found that fully 61% of those in so-called mature markets, including the US, said they had used some form of social channel, including blogs and discussion forums, social networking sites and user-generated information sites. The response rate in developing markets was even higher, 95%.

But not all consumers consult reviews the same way, and different sources of information tend to be used in different ways.

“If you want a hybrid, you’ll want to confirm the mileage. If you’re looking for a truck for work use, you’re likely to want to read an in-depth review,” said Michael Bernacchi, professor of business administration at


the University of Detroit Mercy. “You see the more particular a consumer is about what segment they are researching, the more evidence they will be seeking out to justify their decision.”

Appetite for reviews tends to be a good indicator of actual buying intent. Internal numbers provided to eMarketer by automotive review and pricing site Edmunds.com showed readers of the site’s professionally written “Road Tests” were 330% more likely to buy a vehicle than average site visitors. Readers of the site’s “Forums,” home to thousands of amateur reviews, were 590% more likely to buy.

The full report, “Automotive Consumer Reviews: Social and Mobile Change the Car-Buying Game” also answers these key questions:

How do user reviews influence auto purchases?

What role does the user review play in dealership selection?

What impact can national brands have on user reviews at the local level?

This report is available to eMarketer corporate subscription clients only. eMarketer clients, log in and view the report now.

Read more at http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Auto-Buyers-Online-Reviews-Influence-Rivals-Professional-Opinions/1009864#1W0wDHJHje4sTKAQ.99

The One Infographic About the Digital Revolution You Need to UnderstandMay 07, 2013

One of the challenges of the digital revolution that we’re living through today is its complexity, and the broad range of implications that companies need to wrestle with. Consumers are shopping in different channels, often hopping across them to complete a single purpose – what are the teams you need to have in place to deliver what’s needed across that journey? Consumers are creating showers of data in their wake – how should companies make sense of it, and what skills do they need?

I love this infographic we created not too long ago because it attempts to paint a complete picture of the implications of this revolution. (You can find more on our Pinterest page).


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As well as being choc full of useful data, it provides a big picture of what’s going on. This kind of broad perspective is more important than ever because the array of challenges and new technologies create huge temptations to focus on narrow issues without understanding how they fit into the broader business. What this infographic really highlights is that it’s so important to get many things right. Great data insights without a great product? Big waste. Great product that your customers don’t want? Big waste. Wonderful execution of a bad product? Big waste.

MEC Launches Digital After an 18-month development process, MEC has launched a digital attribution platform called CookieCutter designed to provide clients with more precise ROI analytics.

The proprietary platform analyzes reams of data generated by online cookies -- the packets of data linked to computers that track consumer browsing patterns. The idea is to get a better sense of the impact that marketing messages in different digital channels have on consumer behavior.

“Every day, more and more marketers are struggling to understand the true impact digital channels have on their sales,” said Theresa LaMontagne, head of analytics and insight, MEC, who oversaw the development of CookieCutter. The shop’s new platform, she said, will “distill cookies into meaningful, results-driven insights and information.”

Until now, most of the shop’s clients rely on third-party vendors for digital attribution data. Vendors that provide such services include Adometry, Convertro, IBM and Adobe.

LaMontagne said that MEC clients Michelin and Xerox have signed on to use the new CookieCutter service. The intent is to get as many clients as possible to use it. The pitch, per LaMontagne, is that third-party systems tend to use a “one size fits all approach.” She believes that MEC’s CookieCutter can provide clients with a customized approach that is harder to get from other attribution platforms, given the agency's familiarity with their marketing programs and plans.

Michelin appears to be pleased with its initial results from the new platform. Jennifer Smith, Michelin brand communication manager, said CookieCutter has helped to further “uncover the value and interplay of each touchpoint in the consumer purchase pathway, enabling us to better optimize our media delivery and tactical execution.”

MEC has brought on board a group of statisticians and strategists to help analyze the CookieCutter data. They work with client teams as well as data technology specialists to ensure that the input data is accurate.

The platform has just launched in the U.S., and the agency is now in the process of rolling it out globally, starting with Europe.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/199963/mec-launches-digital-attribution-platform-markete.html?edition=59787#ixzz2Ss0JLTOM

Spotlight On Brazil: RTB Gaining Ground In A Diverse Advertising MarketMay 2nd, 2013 - 10:50 amBy Kimberly Maul

With the World Cup and Olympics coming to Brazil in 2014 and 2016, all eyes are on the country's preparations for the events, which include readying its digital infrastructure. Brands are waiting for the chance to be at the center of the worldwide stage, and several advertising technology companies have opened offices in Brazil.

This BRIC country is seen as an emerging market when it comes to its economy, and online advertising is also growing. While programmatic and RTB haven't yet made a huge splash in the country, the introduction of Facebook Exchange, US-based demand-side platforms opening offices in Brazil, and the expansion of other ad exchanges and networks in the ecosystem may change that.

"It’s a huge economy and a pretty robust ad market right now," said Bruce Journey, Chief Customer Officer for DataXu, a DSP with an office in Sao Paulo. Journey notes that Brazil is the sixth largest economy in the world: "It’s a vibrant digital community, but it is about a couple of years behind in terms of advertising, compared to where things are in the United States."

In its latest forecast from December 2012, eMarketer expects digital ad spending in Brazil to reach $2.39 billion in 2013, rising to $3.06 billion in 2014. By 2016, the year of the Olympics, it is expected to be $4.01 Babelfish Articles May 2013 - July 2013 15-7-13

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billion, more than double the ad spend in 2012. Other analyst and research companies are a bit more conservative, with PwC forecasting only $1.44 billion of ad spend in Brazil during 2014 – less than eMarketer's forecast.

"Here you have a highly dominant TV network named TV Globo, which is a cultural phenomenon with soap operas, hard news and soccer," Journey said. Projeto Inter-Meios reported that free TV, including TV Globo, accounted for 65% of all 2012 ad spending in Brazil.

"There is also the problem of low internet penetration in Brazil — we have between 45% and 47% internet penetration — and the speed of broadband isn’t higher," Journey added. "The government will advance a lot for the next 3 or 4 years to accelerate the digital penetration, but these are the barriers here to increase digital advertising." eMarketer forecasts that 44% of the Brazil population will be internet users in 2013, rising to 46% in 2014.

Journey highlighted Criteo, a US-based ad network that came to Brazil and saw success. "In the past, portals were the owners of the ad networks," he said. "The introduction of specific ad networks is a new phenomenon for our market."

Procter & Gamble also sees the importance of TV but has expanded its online advertising presence in recent years, according to Gabriela Onofre, P&G Brazil Head of Communications: "Consumers are watching the soap opera and talking to their friends in Facebook and sharing videos on YouTube. We have to be there. We have to adapt the pieces of communication to each one of those mediums."

She added that P&G, which has 24 brands in Brazil including Gillette, Pantene and Pampers, is "scratching the surface" with RTB and programmatic, but that the company is interested because of the targeting capabilities.

"We are seeing excitement about the idea of ad networks and ad exchanges and RTB and other tools that accompany that," said Thiago Guimaraes, eMarketer's analyst focused on Brazil. "But we haven’t seen enough data to show us that it is actually going on. The Facebook Exchange is probably the biggest thing


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to happen in a while, and we imagine that this will push the market forward as it gets everyone used to the ecosystem."

Yet DSPs including Turn, Triggit, Sociomantic and DataXu have all opened up offices in Brazil in the past year or two.

Jocelyn de Almeida, a senior director at Turn, said it has taken about a year to fully set up, understand the dynamics of the market and educate clients about programmatic and RTB. Turn currently works with more than 20 clients in Latin America.

"There’s not an enormous demand yet, but the testing for us has really started to occur over the past 90 days, where a lot of our global clients are going into the market and testing," de Almeida said. "That’s really going to be telling for the second half of the year."

Sociomantic CEO Jason Kelly noted that comparing Brazil to a mature programmatic market like the US is interesting. Whereas in the US, something like 25% of all media moves through the programmatic channel, in Brazil "it is single digits, but growing quickly," Kelly said.

Sociomantic works with ecommerce platforms and retailers, which Kelly noted are often early adopters when it comes to something as performance-driven as RTB. Sociomantic has worked on 100 campaigns in Brazil. Companies including Walmart and Brazilian retail chain FastShop have taken advantage of RTB in the country, Kelly said.

"In each region we're working in, each market has its own level of liquidity in terms of available inventory, how much and what type," he added. "Are publishers leaning into leveraging this channel as a distribution channel, or are they being more restrictive? Brazil, we've found, is rapid, rapid growth."

DataXu's Journey highlighted that the market for video is huge, but because of the dominance of a few TV and media companies, online advertising can seem more restricted.

"There’s a very strong interest between the consumers and video," he said. "There’s a lot of consumer usage. But it is controlled by about five major media companies and they obviously control the sale of the inventory, so they’re going to command the best value they possibly can for that inventory, which is pretty high-quality."

Facebook and Google are naturally two publishers with the most display ad impressions in Brazil, according to comScore, leading a lot of growth in online advertising and RTB. Globo and UOL, a Brazilian internet company, are also high on the list.

Advertising agencies are making moves in Latin America, including the growth fromBrazilian-based Grupo ABC and WPP acquiring a 20% stake in Argentina-based Globant SA. In WPP's first quarter 2013 earnings call on April 26, CEO Martin Sorrell said the company's revenues in Brazil were about $800 million and within the BRICs, WPP is "growing 10% in those markets."


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Fast Company recently highlighted Sao Paulo-based social media advertising firm Boo Box as an innovative company to watch, and Samba Ads, a Brazilian-based video ad network, raised $500,000 in February. In January, Sao Paulo-based digital marketing company Predicta partnered with Google DoubleClick for Publisher.

With increased focus on the advertising market and the global events about to take place in Brazil, Triggit CEO Zachary Coelius said the time is right for programmatic players to move into a big Latin American country, after getting more settled in the US and Europe. Triggit focuses mostly on the Facebook Exchange platform; Coelius said the company also had a bit of a learning curve in Brazil but has since seen success there. Social media analytics company SocialBakers reported that Brazil hasmore than 71 million monthly active users on Facebook, behind only the US.

“We’ve seen tremendous adoption down there," Coelius added. "The performance is so good that very early on, a couple of innovative advertisers started to experiment with FBX when it first came out, and it worked well. Now I would say it’s probably the most active market for FBX in the world."

In March, Coelius wrote a blog post showing how, despite having more monthly active users, the US market for FBX is smaller than Brazil's because the number of retargeting opportunities in a day for a pixeled user on Facebook is often higher in Latin American countries.

Data shows that consumers are highly engaged – even as broadband penetration and infrastructure aren't quite up to speed (literally) – and are heavy users of Facebook, which will boost RTB in the country, thanks to FBX.

According to comScore's Brazil Digital Future in Focus 2013 report, Brazilians spend 27 hours a month online via their PCs, which is the most out of any Latin American country; in December 2012 they spent an average of nearly 10 hours on social networking sites. More than 60% of the Brazilian online audience is under the age of 35, and along with improving broadband penetration as the years pass, more Brazilians will be online and on social media, in addition to watching the ever-popular TV.

"The online advertising space in Brazil is vibrant," said Alex Banks, MD for comScore Brazil. "We’re seeing the ad spend, the percentage dedicated to digital, steadily increasing. But the traditional mindset of 'TV is king' is proving rather difficult to break away from."

He added that US and European ad tech companies are coming down on "fact-finding missions" and reaching out to the IAB to learn more about the opportunity. When it comes to RTB, Banks said, "we have a lot of clients here in Brazil who are still very curious as to how this works. A lot of people in Brazil came from traditional media and all of a sudden had to learn digital. I see RTB platforms and all of those players bringing an extra level of efficiency to the digital advertising ecosystem, but that’s yet another thing for people to have to learn and understand and begin to feel comfortable with."

When it comes to social media — and this is also relevant to the RTB discussion — Facebook is by far the most popular site. Of time spent on social networks in Brazil, 92.8% was spent on Facebook, so the introduction of Facebook Exchange in Brazil in 2012 was a major event.


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Clark Fredricksen, VP at eMarketer, noted the importance of big players like Facebook and Google: "Growth will rely on how much platforms such as Facebook and Google decide to invest in Brazil. The more they invest in Brazil, the more they will work with ad partners to improve infrastructure and improve the ability to make larger ad buys."

While marketers, ad tech companies and others working in the Brazilian online advertising space deal with educating advertisers and working to bring online advertising to the same level as television (or at least a bit closer), the overall future of advertising in post-Olympics Brazil is unclear.

Onofre said the challenge for a large marketer like P&G is keeping the marketing team and partners educated about the newest and best tools to use.

Turn's de Almeida suggested that a challenge in Latin America is "a lack of third-party data. Within programmatic buying, that makes it a bit more challenging, of course, but it’s picking up fast. I would imagine in the next 12 months we’ll be up to speed."

As an emerging market, and one with highly active consumers, Brazil will be the place to watch. RTB is still very new there, but with the advertising industry and brands already learning best practices and tactics for RTB in the US, the transition to a market such as Brazil may be easier.

In Content Era, What’s the Role of Agencies?Giselle Abramovich 05.07.2013

Brands have the content bug. They’re building out media assets, even going so far as to create “brand newsrooms” that loosely mimic what real news operations do.

When brands were all about making ads, the agency role was quite clear. But now that brands are making content, the agency role is up in the air. And let’s be honest, agencies aren’t the best choice for content creation. That’s not what they’re all about. Authenticity also comes into question. After all, having someone create content on your behalf isn’t exactly being authentic and real.

“Broadly speaking, there really isn’t enough of a benefit to partner with agencies for this,” said Alexander Jutkowitz, managing partner of Group SJR, a digital agency that helps run the content sites for GE, Credit Suisse and Target. “There aren’t enough agencies that know how to marry strategy to daily [content].”

Many brands are relying less on agencies and more on publishers for content. Take Citibank’s work with eHow for a nine-part video series helping young couples navigate life-changing experiences (new home, new baby, etc.). Virgin Mobile, for example, worked with Cracked.com on a few sponsored posts and also did work with BuzzFeed last year. And while Virgin’s agencies do play a role here in terms of setting the strategy, it is Cracked and BuzzFeed that actually produced the content for the brand.

If you are a Target, GE or AmEx, you’re running something very close to a newsroom and your own media site. Taking content marketing in-house means complete editorial control and alignment with the rest of your brand’s in-house communications and creative teams.

However, if you’re in-house, you’re dependent on a Swiss Army Knife employee who is responsible for text copy, design, multimedia content, understanding the analytics of the best date and time to post various types of content, and have the strategic acumen to ensure you’re on-brand. It’s hard to find talent that can do all of that, and it’s even harder to get the budget to hire one person to handle each of those things.

What’s even harder is that content marketing is still a fairly new concept within most organizations and a lot of marketers are unable to effectively sell the belief and value up the chain of command, according to Kasey Skala, digital communications manager at Great Clips. That’s forcing brands to address content with a trial-and-error approach, and it’s getting increasingly difficult to justify the spend on “tests.”

Regardless, a lot of brands are opting for widening their talent pool over hiring an agency. It’s proving to be less expensive to create a full-service team internally. Having a brand newsroom makes it easier to create better content more efficiently, so there’s no need for an outside partner.

“A lot of this also has to do with the belief that ‘we already know our customers, so we can handle it in-house,’” Skala said.

According to Jutkowitz, there are only a handful of agencies that are really good at brand content, and the brands know that. Until agencies catch up, we’ll continue to see brands like Red Bull, Patagonia and others handling content in-house.


Survey Points To RTB's Growth by Chris Sukornyk, Thursday, May 9, 2013

If anyone is still skeptical about the rise of real-time bidding (RTB), our recently released Retargeting Barometer should give them pause. For the second straight year, the survey of marketers and agencies found that the online advertising industry is embracing real-time bidding with open arms, using it not just to increase conversions from existing customers but also for brand awareness and acquiring customers.

The beauty of bidding in an ad exchange in real time is that it allows marketers to target individual users based on their online behavior, rather than buying a site’s entire audience. The technique rose in popularity with site retargeting, the practice of serving display impressions to users who visit an advertiser’s site but fail to convert. But the study found that site retargeting is no longer the be-all and end-all of retargeting.

Search Retargeting, the practice of bidding to serve impressions based on the searches users perform on Google, Yahoo, Bing and other sites, is emerging as viable subcategory of retargeting. The survey found that almost all respondents (99%) plan to either expand or maintain their search retargeting budgets in the next year.

This year’s survey provided insights on one of the most important happenings in the RTB world last year: the emergence of The Facebook Exchange (FBX). Facebook’s decision to launch its own ad exchange last September was perhaps the final proof that RTB is here to stay. So what do marketers and agencies think about FBX? Simply put, they think FBX is worth their money. Some 60% of respondents plan to increase their FBX spend in the next six months.

If RTB itself is no longer a controversial technique, that doesn’t mean all disputes about display advertising are settled. Campaign measurements continue to be a hotly debated topic, and, as often as not, a metric known as view-through attribution is at the center of these debates.

View-through measures the number of people who visit an advertiser’s site after being exposed to a display ad. Or, put another way, it takes into account all the people who are influenced by a display ad, regardless of whether they click on it.

While critics of view-through have complained that the metric leaves room for uncertainty, increasingly marketers and agencies have come to see that view-through is critical for understanding the full impact of a display campaign. Indeed, there's a strong case to be made that view-through is a more valuable metric than click-through rate, as converters have been proven to be influenced by the display ads they saw but did mot click.

The growing acceptance of view-through is reflected in the survey. The vast majority of respondents (78%) revealed that they rely on both view-through and click-through to measure the success of their retargeting campaigns.

Still, if the survey paints a rather positive outlook for the RTB sector, it doesn't mean all is perfect. When a powerful new technology takes hold, it can lead to a bit of marketing mania. The survey certainly points to bigger and bigger spends on retargeting, but, as my colleague Dax Hamman has pointed out, smarter spending is better than more spending. If, for example, marketers are hiring multiple retargeting vendors and bidding up the cost of their own impressions, that's going to lead to bigger spends, but it's not good for brands or for the industry at large.

Smart marketers and agencies understand that RTB is all about efficiency, about the unique effectiveness of ads that are targeted to users based on what they do online. No wonder, then, that the survey found that not a single respondent plans to spend less on retargeting as a whole in the next six months.

Tablets Grab Nearly Half of Mobile RTB Share WorldwideMAY 3, 2013

In-app gets more than nine in 10 mobile RTB ad views

Mobile real-time bidding (RTB) ad buys were not particularly common as recently as Q1 2012. Mobile ad–buying platform Adfonic reported that in Q1 2012 mobile RTB ads accounted for only 8% of ads served on its network worldwide. By Q4 2012, the white-hot RTB market accounted for 64% of total mobile ad


requests. And tablets, with their dynamic ad opportunities, are taking a significant share of those mobile RTB requests.

Media-buying firm Accordant Media found in Q1 2013 that tablets accounted for 46% of mobile RTB ads viewed worldwide, compared with 54% viewed on smartphones. That is particularly notable since tablets are in the hands of far fewer overall users. ABI Research estimated in January 2013 that there will be 268 million tablet users worldwide this year, compared with 1.4 billion smartphone users.

Despite tablets’ significant share of mobile RTB ads viewed, the iPad’s dominance of the tablet market is not making a major dent in the operating systems where users are seeing these ads. Android was the leader with over three-quarters of viewed mobile RTB ads. iOS took a 21% share.

In-app advertising accounted for the bulk of mobile RTB ads, at 93% of ads viewed. Browsers accounted for the remaining 7%.

The mobile RTB market’s robust growth reflects digital advertisers’ increasing reliance on programmatic buying and the surge in mobile advertising dollars, boosted especially by the growing excitement around tablet advertising.

Read more at http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Tablets-Grab-Nearly-Half-of-Mobile-RTB-Share-Worldwide/1009860#jYySHrLq8WbHcAU0.99

Será que agora até o Google paga bônus por volume (BV) no Brasil?Suprema vergonha – antes era só a turma da velha guarda das agencias em conluio com os comerciais dos veiculos. Agora até o Google estaria metido nisso. Estaria mesmo? Materia de Nelson de Sá e Marcelo Soares que saiu no fim de semana na Folha para assinantes® afirma que sim. Diz que a informaçao é confirmada por 2 agências de publicidade e pelo presidente do IAB Brasil (Internet Advertising Bureau), Rafael Davini – “Pelo BV, introduzido pela Globo nos anos 1960 e adotado hoje por quase todos os veículos, inclusive a Folha, toda agência recebe comissao por direcionar anunciantes, e esse pagamento cresce de acordo com o volume anunciado” – anotam Nelson e Marcelo.


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Por enquanto, só negativas – ou falta de resposta clara – Questionado, porta-voz respondeu que o Google “nao comenta detalhes comerciais do relacionamento com nenhum de seus clientes, em nenhum país”. Entrevistada para a materia, Regina Augusto, do Meio&Mensagem, admite que “o Google já é dado no setor como 2o grupo em publicidade, à frente de Record e Abril” – “Só perde mesmo para a Globo” – disse.

Ligeiro manual do BV

A bonificaçao por volume (o BV) surgiu no início dos anos 60 com o objetivo de ser uma política de incentivo ao aperfeiçoamento das agências de propaganda, seja no que se refere ao desenvolvimento de profissionais, seja pela aquisiçao de ferramentas que contribuíssem para melhorar a qualidade do trabalho. Criado pele Rede Globo – e logo adotado pela Editora Abril, com o passar dos anos o modelo se espalhou por outras empresas e setores da mídia.

O BV é o pagamento de um bônus às agências, proporcional ao investimento total feito pelos seus clientes em um determinado veículo. Em outras palavras, quanto mais publicidade destinada a 1 veículo, maior é o BV recebido.

Como exemplo, tomemos uma agência que possua 5 anunciantes que somam uma verba de mídia de R$ 50 milhoes em 1 ano, e que direcione pouco mais de 50% desse total (R$ 25 milhoes) ao veículo ‘X’.

Este, por sua vez, adota uma tabela para o pagamento de BV progressivo, segundo a qual investimentos de até R$ 20 milhoes dao direito a um bônus de 5%; de R$ 20 milhoes a R$ 25 milhoes, um bônus de 7,5%; para investimentos acima de R$ 25 milhoes, o incentivo é de 10% (…..) Assim, no início do ano seguinte, a agência receberá do veículo ‘X’ valor de R$ 2,5 milhoes como bonificaçao.

Manual redigido por Iris Freitas Duarte saiu no viomundo ao pé de uma materia do Marcelo Coutinho no Blue Bus que o site republicou em 2011 veja aqui

Augmented Reality & the Move to the World of Flat Surfacesby Chuck Martin, May 3, 2013, 4:57 PM

Augmented Reality (AR) may have found a place to happen.

When AR was first seen and used a few years ago, it was generally showcased by data overlays over objects or places seen through the phone’s camera.

The general ideas was that you could aim a phone camera at a building and see all the associated information about the building on the screen in front of the image, essentially augmenting the reality of the building you were looking at.

While fun to do the first time or two, the idea didn't catch on at any kind of scale.

Since then, AR has quietly migrated into the print world, primarily to supplement the reality on the pages of magazines.

When I met with the Layar leadership team in their Amsterdam headquarters late last year, they were just moving into the print world in a big way. “For us, media companies are more interesting to sit down with,” CEO Quintin Schevernels told me.

At the time, I viewed the move to the print world as simply a logical way to monetize the technology, since it wasn’t catching on with buildings and objects.

But more recently, I was having a discussion with the co-founder of Layar in the company’s New York office. While he showed me the latest examples of publications using AR within thier pages, he made a comment in passing that better illuminated the reality of AR today.

He said that AR is currently best limited to flat services. “It’s not ready for 3D,” said Maarten Lens-FitzGerald, Layar co-founder and currently General Manager for the U.S.

Now we finally have some AR numbers to digest, courtesy of a report produced by Layar’s Amsterdam office. While the numbers are only from Layar and not all AR providers, they can be somewhat of an indicator of market activity around the technology.

The Layar app has been downloaded 30 million times and has about 2.5 million active monthly users globally. Here are the leading countries by number of downloads:


23% -- United States

8% -- Germany

6% -- Spain

4% -- Netherlands

4% -- Italy

AR app usage somewhat mirrors the smartphone marketplace dynamics, with 60% being used on Android and 40% on Apple. Almost all are done on smartphones, with only about 5% on tablets.

Reminiscent of early QR code deployment, more than a third (37%) of AR interactive print content links to a Web page and 41% of all clicks come from an image.

AR ultimately can trigger an engagement. For now, it looks like the engagements will start on flat surfaces.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/199628/augmented-reality-the-move-to-the-world-of-flat.html?edition=59565#ixzz2SdrqPumO

The Data Made Me Do It The next frontier for big data is the individual.By Antonio Regalado on May 3, 2013 View full report

Data science and personal information are converging to shape the Internet’s most powerful and surprising consumer products.

Would you trade your personal data for a peek into the future? Andreas Weigend did.

The former chief scientist of Amazon.com, now directing Stanford University’s Social Data Lab, told me a story about awakening at dawn to catch a flight from Shanghai. That’s when an app he’d begun using, Google Now, told him his flight was delayed.

The software scours a person’s Gmail and calendar, as well as databases like maps and flight schedules. It had spotted the glitch in his travel plans and sent the warning that he shouldn’t rush. When Weigend finally boarded, everyone else on the plane had been waiting for hours for a spare part to arrive.

For Weigend, a fast-talking consultant and lecturer on consumer behavior, such episodes demonstrate “the power of a society based on 10 times as much data.” If the last century was marked by the ability to observe the interactions of physical matter—think of technologies like x-ray and radar—this century, he says, is going to be defined by the ability to observe people through the data they share.

So-called anticipatory systems such as Google Now represent one example of what could result. We’re already seeing the transformations that big data is causing in advertising and other situations where millions of people’s activity can be measured at a time. Now data science is looking at how it can help individuals. Timely updates on a United Airways flight may be among the tamer applications. Think instead of statistical models that tell you what job to take, or alert you even before you feel ill that you may have the flu.

Driving this trend is a swelling amount of personal data available to computers. The amount of digital data being created globally is doubling every two years, and the majority of it is generated by consumers, in the form of movie downloads, VOIP calls, e-mails, cell-phone location readings, and so on, according to the consultancy IDC. Yet only about 0.5 percent of that data is ever analyzed.

“There is so much more data out there that you can afford to tailor it to the individual,” says Patrick Wolfe, a statistician who studies social networks at University College, London. “Statistically, strength comes from pooling people together, but then the icing on the cake is when you individualize the findings.”

For the data refineries of Silicon Valley, like Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn, the merger of big data and personal data has been a goal for some time. It creates tools advertisers can use, and it makes products that are particularly “sticky,” too. After all, what’s more interesting than yourself? Facebook suggests who your friends might be. Google Now gets better the more data you give it.

Exposing more personal data seems inevitable. With the huge jump in sales of smartphones packed with accelerometers, cameras, and GPS, “people have become instrumented to collect and transmit personal data,” says Weigend. And that may just be the start. Already a fringe community of technophiles, known as the quantified-self movement, have been equipping their bodies with sensors, pedometers, even implanted


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glucose monitors. One we will feature in this month’s MIT Technology Review Business Report is Stephen Wolfram, the creator of the search engine Wolfram Alpha. Wolfram has for years engaged in a massive self-tracking project, cataloguing e-mails, keystrokes, even his physical movements. Wolfram is interested in predictive apps, but also in the insights that large data sets can have on personal behavior, something he calls “personal analytics.” Wolfram’s idea is that just as his search engine tries to organize all facts about the world, “what you have to do in personal analytics is try to accumulate the knowledge of a person’s life.”

The holdup, says Wolfram, is that some of the most useful data isn’t being captured, at least not in a way that’s easily accessible. Part of the problem is technical, a lack of integration. But much data is warehoused by private companies like Facebook, Apple, and Fitbit, maker of a popular pedometer. Now, as the value of personal data becomes more apparent, fights are brewing. California legislators this year introduced a “Right to Know” bill that would require companies to reveal to individuals the “personal information” they store—in other words, a digital copy of every location trace and sighting of their IP address.

The bill is a part of a social movement that is demanding privacy and accountability, but also a different economic arrangement between the people who supply the data and those who apply it. People want more of the direct benefits of big data, and this month’s MIT Technology Review Business Report tracks the technology, apps, and business ideas with which industry is responding.

Mobile Path To Purchase Starting At Searches Becomes Clearerby Laurie Sullivan, May 2, 2013,

Reports, financial investments and company earnings confirm a growing change in human behavior to pick up a mobile device first before turning to desktops to conduct searches online.

Some 45% of consumers now reach for their mobile devices like smartphones and tablets first, while 49% use their PC as their primary media resource. Some 46% exclusively use mobile as their default and primary research tool, according to the 2013 Mobile Path-to-Purchase study from Telmetrics and xAd. Results compiled by Nielsen from an online survey of more than 2,000 U.S. smartphone and tablet users focus on the Banking and Finance, Gas and Convenience, Insurance, and Retail categories.

The study also demonstrates that 50% of all mobile users rely on their device at the beginning of the research process, with 1 in 3 indicating that they use their device throughout their entire purchase process.

Local remains the top driver for the mobile-search-first behavior. It turns out that 1 in 3 who use a smartphone and 1 in 4 using a tablet turn toward their device for contact information, such as a phone number, address or map and driving directions.

One-third of consumer beginning the search on a mobile device completed the conversion on a mobile device, according to Bill Dinan, Telmetrics president. He points to measuring attribution across devices to gain the metrics to -- capture the action such as click-to-call duration times.

"The duration of the phone call becomes much higher when calling from a click-to-call mobile ad vs. finding the information on a PC and then making the call from a landline phone or even mobile device," he said. "There's also a higher propensity for a consumer to make a purchase when calling a business after conducting a search on a mobile device, with conversion rates on average of more than 50%."

Conversions differ depending on the category and the mobile device. Andries de Villiers, VP of revenue at adMarketplace, told attendees at the MediaPost Search Insider Summit earlier in the week that online-only retailers tend to have higher conversion rates on tablets vs. smartphones. Michelle Evans, media director at Ruby Tuesday, also said 99% of consumers responding to text messages do so within the first four minutes of being received.

During Facebook's earnings call, CFO David Ebersman said that mobile continues to drive growth with 751 million people accessing Facebook from mobile devices in March, up 54% from last year, vs. 665 million on the traditional Web. The numbers do not include Instagram.

Marketers can find other signals in the growth by consumers to turn toward mobile first in venture capital funding and revenue generated by telecom carriers. Leap2, Kansas City, Mo., secured $1.6 million to support mobile search that integrates social media. Worldwide revenue year-on-year (YoY) telecom carrier service gains rose 2.8% to $240.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to ABI Research. Market data shows subscriber growth remains a major contribution for China Mobile, followed by Verizon Wireless, Vodafone Group, AT&T, and NTT DoCoMo.


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Facebook looks to video ads as it seeks new revenue streamsMay 6, 2013 6:25 pm By Robert Budden, Emily Steel and April Dembosky

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Facebook is set to launch video advertising in its newsfeed in July as it looks to new revenue streams to bolster its share price in the wake of its lacklustre stock market listing last year.

The move by the world’s dominant social networking site is a bid to tap into the vast budgets that marketers spend on television that tower over online ad spending. It is also an attempt to capitalise on the rapid growth in online video advertising as global brands follow users from the TV to the internet.

Digital video advertising spending remains a small fraction of the $64.5bn market for TV ads in the US. But it is expanding fast with eMarketer expecting it to hit $4.1bn in the US in 2013, up 41.4 per cent from 2012.

The new video ads will appear in a user’s newsfeed with the first video starting automatically but without any sound. Users will then have the option of activating audio at which point the video will restart from the beginning.

Several of the global brands that sit on Facebook’s client council – an advisory board of major advertisers – are expected to take part in initial trials of the new video advertising platform. Companies on this council include Unilever, Nestlé, Ford, Diageo, American Express and Coca Cola.

There are concerns, however, over how the ads could affect user experience. Analysts fear that if the ads prove too disruptive, they could hit activity on the site.

Brian Wieser, an analyst with Pivotal Research, said video ads folded into the Newsfeed would be no more intrusive than any other ads Facebook delivered there, but if there is an auto-play feature that forced people to watch them, that could annoy some users.

“Autoplay would generally be disliked,” he said. “But Facebook will be doing some testing to assess what the cost is in terms of turning people away.”

The social networking site will be charging in the “low $20s” per thousand video views, even when users have not activated audio, according to people familiar with Facebook’s plans. Each ad will be limited to a maximum of 15 seconds of airplay and, to give more powerful exposure for brands, Facebook will initially ensure that individual users see video content from only one advertiser in any one day.

That ad rate is slightly less than the average $29 rate that marketers pay for a broadcast television commercial that reaches 1,000 people, according to MagnaGlobal.

Facebook has been taking its video ad sales pitch to ad agencies in recent weeks amid the annual “upfront” market in the US where television networks sell about three-quarters of their commercial inventory. The push shows how the social network is trying to spur growth by tapping into the largest bucket of advertising spending. Other digital media companies, including Yahoo and AOL, also have made online video pitches in attempts to get a piece of the action.

Based on the initial inventory available on Facebook, the new online video ads could generate up to $1.5m of new revenues a day, people familiar with the social network’s plans said. In the first three months of this year, the company generated revenues of $1.46bn.

In a recent report, Scott Devitt, an analyst with Morgan Stanley, estimated that video ads could reach $4m per day in sales by the end of the year, faster than sales for mobile ads grew in the first six months Facebook offered them.

Facebook declined to comment.

14 Telling Signs You Love Your JobMay 01, 2013

You may not give your computer screen an embarrassingly gushing smile and you might not write little love notes during your lunch break. But, there are ways to tell if you love your job.Babelfish Articles May 2013 - July 2013 15-7-13

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Of course, no job is perfect -- even the best of relationships have their down days. We all have to do things we don’t like. I love working at HubSpot, it's the best job I've ever had. But, even I have “off” days where I'm not spending all my time doing things I absolutely love.

So all of the following may not be the case all of the time… but when you love your job, many of the following should be the case much of the time:

1. You don’t talk about other people; you talk about the cool things other people are doing.

“I hear Mary is heading up a new project. What are they working on?” “I’d love to know how Mike managed to rescue that customer relationship.” “Sherry developed a new sales channel; is there some way we can leverage that?”

When you love your job you don’t gossip about the personal failings of others. You talk about their successes, because you’re happy for them – and because you’re happy with yourself.

2. You think, “I hope I get to…” instead of, “I hope I don’t have to…”

When you love your job it’s like peeling an onion. There are always more layers to discover and explore.

When you hate your job it’s also like peeling an onion – but all you discover are more tears.

3. You see your internal and external customers not as people to satisfy but simply as people.

They aren't numbers. You think of them as real people who have real needs.

And you gain a real sense of fulfillment and purpose from taking care of those needs.

4. You enjoy your time at work.

You don't have to put in time at work and then escape to life to be happy. You believe in enjoying life and enjoying work.

When you love your job, it’s a part of your life. You feel alive and joyful not just at home – but also at work.

5. You would recommend working at your company to your best friend…

In fact, you can't stop talking about how cool your company is and the awesome work you're doing even when you're away from work.

6. You enjoy attending meetings.

No, seriously, you enjoy meetings. Why? Because it’s fun to be at the center of thoughtful, challenging discussions that lead to decisions, initiatives, and changes – changes you get to be a part of.

7. You don’t think about surviving. You think about winning.

You don't worry much about losing your job. You're more worried about not achieving your potential. Not being as impactful as you can.

8. You see your manager as a person you work with, not for.

You feel valued. You feel respected.

You feel trusted.

9. You don’t want to let your coworkers down.

Not because you’ll get in trouble or get a bad performance review, but because you admire them – and you want them to admire you.

10. You hardly ever look at the clock.

You’re too busy making things happen. When you do look at the clock, you often find that the time has flown.

11. You view success in terms of fulfillment and gratification – not just promotions and money.

Everyone wants to be promoted. Everyone wants to earn more.

You definitely feel that way too… but somewhere along the way your job has come to mean a lot more to you than just a paycheck. And if you left this job, even if for a lot higher salary… you would still miss it.

A lot.

12. You leave work with items on your to-do list you’re excited about tackling tomorrow.


Many people cross the “fun” tasks off their to-do lists within the first hour or two.

You often have cool stuff – new initiatives, side projects, hunches you want to confirm with data, people you want to talk to – left over when it’s time to go home.

13. You help without thinking.

You like seeing your colleagues succeed, so it’s second nature to help them out. You pitch in automatically.

And they do the same for you.

14. You don’t think about retirement… because retirement sounds boring…

…and a lot less fulfilling.

How many of the above statements apply to you and your job?

If you said:

0-3: You may want to find a new job. Life is too short.

4-6: You don't hate your job... but you don't love it either. What can you do differently?

7-10: You really enjoy your job and the people you work with

11-14: You are deeply, madly in love with your job! (and your friends are jealous!)

Nissan plans "scientific" marketingLONDON: Nissan, the Japanese car manufacturer, is looking to develop a more systematic approach to its marketing, a senior executive has said.

"I'm trying to turn marketing from being a glorified art form into something more like a science," Andy Palmer, Nissan's executive vice president, told Marketing magazine.

He explained how the automaker had moved its focus. "Five years ago we were just one of three big Japanese manufacturers, and probably a bit bland," he said. "We've tried to make the brand a bit more 'punky' and left-field."

As evidence of the success of this approach he cited the annual Interbrand surveys. "Three years ago we weren't even in the top 100," he said. "Two years ago we were placed at 90 and last year we moved up to 73."

"I know for a fact we are one of the fastest-growing brands, so we're clearly pushing forward," he added.

Nissan has also introduced price cuts on seven of its models in the US, to optimse their pricing for potential buyers searching online, particular using mobile devices.

With some shopping sites inviting shoppers to narrow their search by specifying price ranges or a maximum amount, models were in danger of being left off the consideration list because of a few dollars difference in the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP).

"What we saw is that in some versions of some mobiles, we were not on the shopping list because we did not have the appropriate MSRP," Jose Munoz, senior vice president for sales and marketing for the Americas, told Autoweek.

"We did an analysis across the car line and decided to make these adjustments," he said.

Another example of Palmer's practical approach to marketing is the forthcoming introduction of a new London taxi based on the Nissan NV200 van.

He plans "plenty of branding" for passengers in the rear seats and is enthusiastic about the possibilities that would open up with an electric version for Nissan and its LEAF electric car.

"The best way to answer concerns about electric cars is to get people into them," he said, adding: "If you think of the millions who ride in black cabs each day, then you get a feel for what these vehicles could achieve in terms of changing perceptions."

Data sourced from Marketing, Autoweek; additional content by Warc staff , 3 May 2013

Read more at http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/EmailNews.news?ID=31350&Origin=WARCNewsEmail#brEYmO2btdiYeJJt.99


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Study - Understanding the Effect of Digital Signage in the CasinoThis paper summarizes the results of a joint project conducted by Intel, Research Strategy Group, Ontario Lottery and Gaming, Capital Networks and EdCom. The project was conducted between August – December 2012. The goal was to understand the effects of digital signage on non-gaming sales and offers in a casino environment.

The project was set up using an experimental design to compare venues with digital signage to venues with static signage to venues with no signage over three time periods.

The results allow us to estimate the effect of digital signage at the casino venues in three areas: free giveaways, restaurant menu item sales and sign-ups for a loyalty program.

The Anonymous Video Analytics (AVA) data provided by the Intel Audience Impression Metrics (AIM) Suite help to understand the impact of the digital signage in relation to static signage and no signage and to draw important insights about the optimal location and content design for digital screens.

Overall, the results confirmed that digital signage has a notable impact on food purchase decisions such as those pertinent to free giveaways and restaurant items but on the more complex decision-making required for signing up to a loyalty program, it was difficult from the results of this study to detect a measurable response.

How to Save the Life of Any MeetingMay 03, 2013

Last summer I was at a public pool and noticed the life guards switched stations every fifteen minutes. At one point I decided to approach one of them and ask why they move so often. He shared that studies show that 15 minutes is the maximum amount of time you can focus and be truly alert.

Back in the office the next week I decided to apply this insight to meetings. Every fifteen minutes we got up and switched seats. The difference was remarkable. We were all so much more engaged and alert. It saved the life of the meeting.

I have since taken it to an even more extreme model. Whenever possible I do "walkie-talkies" - walking meetings. It not only keeps me alert but gives me a little exercise and the neighborhood joins the conversation. Inevitably, something on the street inspires a thought or jogs a memory that adds to the conversation.

A colleague recently reminded me that Aaron Sorkin made the walk-and-talk famous by using it as a device on screen. There is apparently not only something much energizing about meeting on the move, but it makes for better TV.

Next time you are meeting with someone, suggest a "walkie-talkie". The exercise might add years to your life and the energy, focus and inspiration might help add some life to your organization and relationships at work. And who knows, you might get discovered and appear in Aaron Sorkin's next series.

Photo credit: Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom on HBO.

5 Free Excel Add-Ins to Help Digital Marketers Decipher Big DataJohn Gagnon | May 2, 2013

Wherever a marketer turns these days she is confronted by the idea of big data. Mining this storehouse of user activity for actionable intelligence can seem a daunting task to a business without an in-house data analyst. Data captured will do no good if teams can't interpret it quickly and efficiently - it needs to be easily accessible.

Luckily you likely have a powerful analysis tool at your fingertips - Excel.

Excel has become so indispensable that 76 percent of agency media planners rely on it for their media planning, according to Chris O'Hara from NextMark. To turn your raw data into an asset, many powerful add-ins have been built to plug in to Excel.


• GeoFlow for 3D geographic visualization

• PowerPivot and Power View for massive data crunching

• Bing Ads Intelligence for rich PPC data

• Excellent Analytics pulls in analytics data directly into Excel

• SeoTools for Excel for robust SEO-specific tasks

All of these can help you harness the power of your data quickly and save time. As marketers, we should have a conversation around getting more from a tool we already know well (but not well enough).

GeoFlow: Big Data + Great Mapping Visualization

The Excel team just released a new free Excel add-in called GeoFlow that displays geographic data using Bing Maps to tell your story in a 3D visualization. The visualizations attract attention, are easily understood, and can even be incorporated into dashboards.

The example above maps electric power usage from Dallas Utilities from publicly available data. In digital marketing, advertisers can easily map sales and website interaction over time by geography. This sort of visualization for your data can make your reports and presentations pop.

PowerPivot: Pivot Tables on Steroids

Another key tool in Excel is PowerPivot, included with Excel 2010 and 2013. PowerPivot is pivot tables on steroids. PowerPivot can load even the largest data sets from almost any source and process this massive amount of data in seconds. After the initial learning curve, it's surprisingly lightweight.

Many businesses are putting together dashboards created from PowerView, a complement to PowerPivot.

Now, PowerPivot and GeoFlow are fantastic tools all marketers can use to help sift and visualize big data. But there are a whole set of free tools that bring search marketing or analytics directly into Excel. You don't have to leave Excel, so you can use an interface you're already familiar with.

PPC: Bing Ads Intelligence


Need keyword ideas or bid estimates by position? Bing Ads intelligence, a free add-in from Bing Ads, can give you the number of searches per search term, cost-per-click data, keyword ideas, age/gender data, and even more.

It also offers time-saving keyword research templates, like the "Search Query Insights Dashboard," which is similar in some ways to Google Trends. Nick Kastner from Red Clay Interactive echoes this point: "This awesome extension offers you seven standard keyword research templates to help you get started."

Analytics: Excellent Analytics

Spending too much time on reports? Excellent Analytics lets you pull Google Analytics data directly into Excel. There is a free, open-source version that has been downloaded tens of thousands of times by marketers looking to automate reporting. One review in the analytics app gallery highlights the time-savings: "This is a real time saver for me. What used to take me an hour now takes about 2 minutes."

SEO: SeoTools for Excel (Now With Majestic SEO Data)

Last but not least is a free set of SEO tools, fittingly called SeoTools for Excel. This donation-supported toolset adds many SEO-specific tasks to the Excel ribbon. Mitch Monsen from WhiteFireSEO says, "It has one of the most robust feature sets I've seen in an extension, and Nielsen is updating it constantly. It has mind-boggling scraping capabilities (get a proxy if you plan on using them a lot) and a ton of on-page analysis tools."

This isn't a complete list by any means. I'd love to hear your favorites in the comments section.

That said, countless late, coffee-filled nights putting together proposals have led me to this conclusion: digital marketing runs on Excel and caffeine. As the volume of data grows by the hour, take comfort in knowing "big data" can be sifted through an interface that you're already familiar with - Excel. And there are plenty of add-ins to help save you time!

Marketing in 2013 - Ads Are Only the BeginningTessa Wegert | May 2, 2013

Online ad spending is gaining strength again. This week's release of ZenithOptimedia's Global Advertising Forecast found that global ad spending will rise in 2013 - and that its growth is largely fueled by digital media.

Spending on online advertising is expected to grow by more than 14 percent this year, compared with a meager 1.6 percent for traditional media. It's predicted that display advertising will continue to balloon at a rate of 20 percent per year, with spending on online video and social media growing by 30 percent each.

Marketers are clearly eager to invest in digital advertising…but is that enough? Can display ads and video, social media and mobile lure consumers away from competitors all on their own? The answer, increasingly, is no. Ads may be the foundation of your digital marketing campaign, and the media buys you make may be essential to sustaining your brand, increasing your exposure, and generating sales. But if you really want toengage - to connect with the kinds of consumers who'll be brand advocates and lifelong fans - you need to offer more than an ad message.


Ads? Those are just the beginning.

There are a number of ways to enhance your ad campaigns, and just as many brands in the process of testing them out. In this way they can gauge what works best for them: where their customers spend their time, where they're likely to feel most comfortable interacting with a brand or product, and what kind of "bonus content" resonates with them above all else.

Theatrical Content

You've made your online videos and placed them with the hope that they'll go viral. Don't stop there. Many brands are now supplementing their viral ads with related branded content that serves a solitary purpose: to entertain the masses. These videos and films and microsites are the circus of digital media: designed to amuse and delight, full of tricks and performance art. They don't distinguish between potential customers and crowds, instead offering themselves up to everyone. They're represented by projects like Evian's "Let's Baby Dance" (the "longest dance in the world"), Coca-Cola's "Polar Bears Film: 2013", and Intel and Toshiba's web series "The Beauty Inside." This kind of content has a long online life, and is always waiting in the wings to enrich your current ad campaign with buzz and shares that ultimately result in added attention for your brand.

Live Facebook and Twitter Chats

Brands often align themselves with experts who can speak to the value of their products, and this approach can up their cultural significance in the eyes of consumers. Featuring a product designer in your opt-in email is good. Offering customers the chance to chat with her live is better. A two-way dialogue that takes place live on Facebook or Twitter becomes an intimate platform for communication: a product expert, stylist, author, or celebrity spokesperson can use it to highlight the virtues of your brand and further connect consumers with your unique persona, image, and point of view. Pottery Barn has been known to take this approach, inviting customers through email and Facebook to participate in a live chat with interior designers and party planners. Consumers love the exclusive feel of such events, and recognize that while the brand's voice is being heard through its relevant guest, so too is their own.


Content-Based Contests

There are those contests tied to current display, social, and mobile ad campaigns - and then there are those that are promoted with added-value content. An example of the latter comes from Pepsi and its "Wheel of Levy" microsite. While it offers users the chance to win a coupon for a free Pepsi Next, the real value is in its short videos of brand spokesperson William Levy. There's a little something for everyone, from humor to implied romance. The contest helps to attract site visitors, but it's the videos, not the promise of a free product sample, that guide this kind of effort, and that augment the brand's standard digital media buys.

Consumers expect a lot from today's brands. They want product intelligence, relevance, and a timely delivery of well-placed ads - and they want these things served with a side of engagement, entertainment, and fun. Modern digital marketing efforts don't have to be all things to all people…but they do have to go well beyond the media buys of old. Spend on digital media, by all means - you won't regret it. Just don't forget to heighten your digital presence with something more.

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Financial Times 2013 special report on Digital & Social Media Marketing25 APR, 2013

It’s a long report, published in tandem with today’s FT Digital Media conference in London, but we’ve summarised it down to key bullet points for you. And if that’s too long, here’s the one word summary.

Television.


http://socialcommercetoday.com/speed-summary-ft-special-report-on/

From ‘second screen’ TV experiences on tablets that boost TV advertising effectiveness to ‘addressable advertising’ (personalised and hyper targeted TV ads delivered digitally) and the shrinking of TV ad slots to fit digital attention spans, the FT paints the future of Digital & Social Media Marketing with television, not instead of it.

So standing atop the $205bn TV advertising mountain is the smartest place to be in digital and social media marketing right now; this makes sense – the secret to success has always been, and always will be, to stand next to the money.

Advertisers look for ways to follow consumers Emily Steel

The big change in digital marketing is not that marketers have shifted nearly a fifth of their budgets to digital outlets, but that the divide between digital and traditional media is so blurred it may soon disappear.

Rather than threaten the $205bn television ad business, digital promises to grow it, by helping advertisers understand the messages that will best resonate with a target audience, target the right ad to the right person at the right time, and make it easy for people to share those messages with their social networks, catapulting the brand to the centre of digital chatter.

Whilst social media has now found its place in the world of digitally enhanced marketing as a strategic insight and targeting tool, mobile media has yet to find its niche; mobile is expected to capture more than 20 per cent of media consumption in the next five years, yet it receives only a minuscule portion of total advertising revenues, and a glut of mobile advertising inventory is causing mobile ad rates to plummet

Media: Watching television no longer rates as passive pastime Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson

The average American still spends about five hours a day glued to TV; the smart money in digital is being invested in making TV advertising better

TV is not dead, it is just evolving into a two screen experience, the TV display and a tablet or smartphone. “Lean-back” TV experiences, passively consumed from the comfort of the couch, are giving way to ”lean-in” TV experiences, where viewers multitask viewing and interacting on smartphones and tablets

A survey by Time Warner’s Medialab found that 65 per cent habitually multitask with a digital device while watching TV. Much of this activity is in social media discussions of TV shows (tripled in the last 12 months), stimulated by TV networks to sell TV advertising space by showing their content is more engaging

“I have no interest, frankly, in just growing the successes of Twitter and Facebook,” says Philip Bourchier O’Ferrall, senior vice-president of Viacom International Media Networks: “My number one role … is to drive TV ratings.” To this Nielsen’s SocialGuide found that an 8.4 per cent increase in Twitter volume correlated to a 1 per cent rise in ratings for new shows among viewers aged 18 to 34. But for 35- to 49-year-olds, however, it took a 14 per cent jump in tweets to produce the same 1 per cent ratings bump.

The rise of second screening is spawning a new generation of specialist second-screen agencies, creating content, data and tools to support the new twin-screen TV advertising industry. Viggle offers loyalty rewards to fans who “check into” shows, GetGlue, a social TV app developer has 3m users who have checked into, rated or reviewed 500m shows, and Bluefin Labs and SocialGuide, purchased by Twitter and TV metrics giant Nielsen respectively, analyse social TV chatter.

Online video: Web of creativity means greater opportunities to boost sales Matthew Garrahan

The big idea is “addressable advertising“, a fancy name for online ad targeting, and the big opportunity is to turn TV advertising into addressable advertising, using personal data to get the right ad in front of the right person. DirecTV and Dish Network, two satellite operators, and Hulu are already with online addressable TV advertising

As TV and video consumption moves online, there has been an explosion of professional content to wrap advertising around. Rapidly expanding audiences are only doing so much to ease the downward trend of advertising CPM (cost per thousand impressions) rates. Down 15% from 2011, eMarketer expects video CPMs to fall a further 30% from $45 in 2010 to $31.20 in the next four years.

With more much more content funded only by a little more advertising money (up from $4bn in 2013 to $8bn by 2016), the future will belong to content producers who can produce premium quality original content that consistently attract eyeballs


Networking apps: Agencies scramble to find the next big thing Tim Bradshaw

Advertisers should focus on trends that lie behind technology, not the technology itself – whether geeky and gimmicky Google Glass or popular networking apps (video, image, chat and data sharing).

It may be better for advertisers to use Instagram-style posters with comment-style tag-lines in traditional media than to run an Instagram campaign. Likewise it may be better to shorten TV ads, from the 30-second sport to a 6-second Vine-length video than to run a campaign on Vine itself. “Five seconds is the right length” for a TV ad today say TV ad man Trevor Beattie

The challenge is to make advertising fit new media expectations set by trends digital; this means becoming masters of short, snappy visual content.

The opportunity to create trans-media advertising adapted to digital trends. For example, advertising content from Starbucks, Nike, MTV and Forever 21 is created to be sharable on networking apps such as Instagram. Meanwhile,leave Google Glass to the geeks.

Privacy: Data industry scrutinised over profiling Emily Steel

Global data brokers such as Acxiom and Datalogix are coming under scrutiny from authorities as they amass consumer data and use it to improve marketing ROI

Axciom, that collects information about more than 700m people across the world and sells that information to more than 7,000 clients, uses credit card transaction data, primary research, geographic information and other demographic details to improve as targeting and can triple the return on investment of ad campaigns, and boost targeted consumer spending by 50%

Facebook has integrated Datalogix data into its ad offer, allowing brands to buy ads targeted at people based on their spending habits, for example, people who spend three times more than the national average on children’s cereal. Advertisers can then can tap the Datalogix data to figure out whether or not people who saw the ad end up visiting the store and buying the advertised product.

Although lawmakers may sympathise with consumer privacy advocates who fear a world where the tracking, collection and selling of personal information creates a so-called “database of ruin” of past financial, sexual, and medical follies/woes, they is a conflict of interests. Politicians deploy the same tracking, analytics, personalisation and targeting technologies as corporations in their election campaigns.

Future of search: Keyword-driven system requires refinement Richard Waters

Although Google search remains the undisputed king of online advertising, traditional keyword-driven search advertising is set to evolve, with Facebook and Amazon poised to move in

The future of search is hyper-targeted advertising based not only on search terms, but Amazon / credit card purchase data, Facebook personal data, and mobile location data.

Smartphones: Canny advertisers target your mobile phone Robert Cookson

After a slow start, mobile advertising is taking off; in the UK, mobile advertising spend more than doubled in 2012 to more than £500m, and in the US, mobile ad spending has become the fastest growing among all media categories as smartphone ownership surged past 50%.

Nevertheless mobile advertising only represents less than 3 per cent of total ad spend across all media, and currently there is more mobile ad space available than advertising to fill it, resulting in average ad rates (cost per thousand impressions) slumping to well below $1.

One of the reasons for the slow ramping of mobile advertising is that it has been stuck in a search and display ad rut, serving canned text, static images or dumb videos. The opportunity is to reinvent mobile advertising with immersive rich-media interactive features. Nuance, a US company that develops speech recognition technology, this month launched a product that allows advertisers to create ads that respond to a user’s voice. And Blismedia recently bought up ad space on smartphones near ad agency offices with an interactive ad that used the gesture control functionality of handsets

The future potential of mobile advertising lies not only in getting the right message to the right person at the right place at the right time, but in improving the advertising experience.

Real-time marketing: Instant response requires cultural change by brand owners Rob Budden

The future of marketing is agile marketing, responsive and reactive creative that responds in real time to events with interesting content. This meanscreating creative in minutes, not months. Coca-cola has committed to doing doing 30 per cent of its marketing in an agile way.Babelfish Articles May 2013 - July 2013 15-7-13

In agile marketing, time is everything; similar creative placed just hours apart can have vastly different results. Mondelez (makers of Oreos cookies) and Motel 6 were both quick to create content around this year’s Super Bowl power cut, and both with similar content. Mondelez took minutes, Motel 6 took hours. Mondelez’ content was shared more than 15,000 times, Motel 6 less than 30 times.

Agile marketing requires a mind-shift from brands, brands can no longer get away with telling consumers they are interesting when they want to tell them, they have to be interesting when consumers want to listen

People: Struggle to stay on top of a moveable feast April Dembosky

A talent war is raging between advertising agencies and tech companies, both are looking for technical talent and marketing strategists – ideally in the same person.

But what’s required in terms of technical talent and strategic planning is a fast-moving moveable feast, understanding the role of search in the marketing mix used to be key, then it was social media, then apps, and now user experience.

The talent war is making recruitment difficult, especially for ad agencies who find the allure of the ad exec lifestyle waning. Young talent want to be part of the change, not the old guard, and have a mission to change the world, whilst working in a flat non-hierarchical organisation (with share options).

Ad agencies are having to adapt and reposition themselves by abandoning the language and corporate paraphernalia of traditional advertising; Aegis media have gone so far as to jettison the terms ‘advertising’ and ‘consumers’

Social network: Facebook measures up for marketers Emily Steel

Facebook has spent the last year reinventing itself to become more attractive to advertisers and to transform itself from “just being a social media conversation… to being an indispensable media partner”. Ads are now far more prominent in users’ newsfeeds, especially on mobile devices, targeting is better, and advertising metrics have been improved.

And it looks like it is working; a year after announcing that it would stop announced it would stop buying Facebook ads because of questions over what returns the ads generated, General Motors is back testing Facebook’s new targeting and measurement offerings for a mobile ad campaign promoting its Chevrolet Sonic sedan.

Developments in Facebook ads have helped Unilever understand how Facebook ads lift sales, spurring big promotions such as a recent campaign in Brazil for Seda hair products. Unilever designed a campaign with mobile ads featuring a soap opera actress. The company credits the campaign with boosting market share.

Overall, advertisers are expected to spend more than $5.6bn on Facebook advertising this year, up more than 31 per cent from $4.3bn in 2012, according to eMarketer. On mobile alone, Facebook is expected to earn $1.5bn this year, more than three times the $471m it earned in 2012.


The Easy Way to Create a Video TestimonialPosted May 1, 2013

I am going to let you in on a secret. When I am thinking up newsletter topics, often I choose something that I also need to keep up with.

Getting testimonials is one of those things. The trick to getting testimonials and recommendations is to ask for them.

It seems simple but then why not do it? I am going to add this step to my website wrap up check list so I make it a part of my work flow. It might be even better if I could get them on video!

Here are a few steps on how to structure a testimonial. And I have included instructions on how to create a short video which you can use to do testimonials below on the Tip of the Week.

1. Introduce yourself and say what you do.

2. What situation were you dealing with that had you seek out the person or company you are going to recommend?

3. What were the results of your work with this company or individual? It helps to be specific and give concrete examples or even an anecdote.

4. Summarize your overall experience and recommend the person or company. You might want to use one key takeaway.

Make it a Video

Creating short videos is pretty easy. The big trick is to plan not to edit since editing is the hard part and stops people from actually doing or posting them. So if you plan to do your short videos in one take, like you are having a conversation, you will do more of them.

If you happen to make a small mistake then just say, “What I meant is…” and keep going as you would in any conversation.

These days it is fine to have a video that looks a bit off the cuff (although we know it is not going to be totally off the cuff since you will do a little prep work, like making sure you and your background look presentable).

These videos come across more authentic and in that way can beat out a more polished, professional video.

So here goes. These directions are for written for Mac users. The process is similar with a PC but will use Widows Movie Maker and the directions are below.

For Mac users:

1. Open up the application Quicktime Player.

2. Go to File>New Movie Recording or press Option-Command-N.

3. A window will pop up giving you a preview of what your webcam is capturing. Take a couple of minutes to improve the quality of the video preview. Here are a few tips:

• Be aware of lighting. Avoid having bright sources of light behind you or too much screen glow from the computer you’re recording to.

• Fix your hair, put on a little make-up, and wear something appropriate.

• Move office/room clutter from view and make sure what is included in the frame isn’t distracting and looks decent.

4. Once you have your video preview the way you would like it, hit the red record button and test your audio by starting to talk as you would for your actual video recording. Once you’ve recorded 10-15 seconds of video, stop the video by hitting the stop button. Once you hit the stop button, the video you just recorded will come up. Watch the video, take note of any problems (glare, speaking to loud/soft, speaking too fast/slow, etc.), and in your next attempt, fix these problems.

5. Do several takes of your short video. It is practice and you will probably improve after doing a couple.


6. Every time you stop recording a new video file is made and automatically placed in your User>Movies folder on your computer (usually names Movie Recording.mov). View the takes and pick the best one.

7. Upload the .mp4 or .mov file to YouTube or Vimeo so that you can easily embed the video onto a website.

On a PC use Windows Movie Maker:

1. Once you get things set up as per above, Click the “Red/Record” button to start your video. To save your video click the “Blue/Stop” button.

2. Rename your video and save it in the “My Videos” library.

3. You can preview your on your video timeline by clicking on “Play” button. You can also edit but as I indicated above try to record it in one take so you can use it as is.

4. Save your video Mp4 or .mov file format and upload to YouTube.

Cross-platform marketing growsby Judi Knight

NEW YORK: Expedia, the online travel company, is among the brands seeking to exploit the possibilities of cross-platform marketing by identifying the various devices used by an individual consumer.

While cookies allow the monitoring of online desktop activity, many mobile devices do not employ these tools, making it more difficult to ensure users are served relevant ads.

But by harvesting cross-screen identities, the ad industry would be able to serve ads to mobile phones based on the interests people show while surfing the web on their PCs.

"Every retailer is trying to figure out cross-platform activities," Jeff Warren, vice president of mobile and online partner marketing at Expedia, told the Wall Street Journal.

He noted that the majority of Expedia's mobile bookings were made in the days before a weekend and it was important for the company to be able to target its deals accordingly.

"Knowing when you are on your mobile phone is really key," said Warren.

Expedia has worked with Drawbridge, a mobile ad technology provider, to trial a 'triangulation' technique that tracks the ads being requested by different devices to establish if a mobile user is likely to be the same person as a desktop user.

Using this method it then sent travel offers to those people looking at travel guides in the evening in selected cities on mobile devices associated with the desktop users. If a person subsequently clicked on the ad, they would be prompted to download or use the Expedia app to book the offer.

"We have seen a direct positive relationship between spending on app downloads and someone consummating a transaction," said Warren.

"Technologies like Drawbridge give me a bit of a prayer but it is still early days."

Tapad, a company that delivers ads across devices, also looks at app downloads and purchases made within apps, as well as mobile websites visited, to help build a picture of the mobile behaviour of consumers. It then pools people showing the same purchasing intent to sell on to advertisers.

"What we are seeing now is you can really start doing advanced targeting on mobile devices," said Are Traasdahl, Tapad's CEO.

Celebrity Endorsements are Dead, Long Live the Celebrity Endorsement Wednesday - May 1, 2013 www.MediaBizBloggers.com By Walter Delph

Some will argue that social media has made celebrity sponsorships obsolete. In reality, it has only increased the divide between effective and ineffective influencer endorsements. In a world where celebrities are using Facebook and Twitter to share their thoughts on everything from politics to their favorite restaurants, inauthenticity is detected quickly and brands that do not properly align celebrity endorsers with their brand's persona will likely experience negative customer backlash. On the other hand,


http://www.MediaBizBloggers.com/

increased celebrity communications has led fans to experience a deeper connection with their favorite actors, musicians and athletes. As a result, when these celebrities are perceived as sincere brand advocates and trusted advisers, the impact on a customer's brand loyalty is greater than ever before.

One brand looking to capitalize on the triangular relationship between consumers, celebrities and brands is the Gap, which has decided to align their brand with iconic guitarist Jimi Hendrix. In creating limited-edition t-shirts to celebrate Hendrix's 70th birthday, the Gap hopes to demonstrate its relevancy to a younger demographic through the power of iconic music.

The Gap chose this strategy for two primary reasons. First, pairing with Jimi Hendrix is appropriate for a brand with a long history of connecting to consumers through music and, who got their start in 1969 selling jeans, records and tapes. Second, fans of Jimi Hendrix and the Gap have very similar characteristics. Both groups are young, highly educated urban dwellers with above average incomes. However, a surprising number of Hendrix fans are predominately young males, which makes Jimi Hendrix an ideal celebrity partner for a company looking to increase their relevance to Millennial music lovers.

What is the Gap doing right?

1) An authentic relationship with Jimi's family, Experience Hendrix, provided the right content and data to help Gap create targeted breadth and depth of content in social media.

2) Data helped in choosing the right ambassadors: why not go with the Doors, Led Zeppelin or the Rolling Stones which are other famous bands from the time? Simple, cultural authenticity and organic alignment with the Gap's goal of reaching Millennials and sharing dialogue with them about a heritage from 1969 and the shared values of optimism, individualism and democracy. Jimi Hendrix enables the Gap to both re-image its brand through a cultural lens and reach a new, very hard-to-target customer segment.

3) Original content drives engagement: Original content – new album called People, Hell and Angels a previously unreleased studio recording from 1969 (the year Gap was founded in California)

4) Maximizing the inherent value of multiple social/digital media channels and the marriage of physical and digital platforms

a. Twitter – Famous quotes and images of Jimi to share in social feeds

b. Instagram – Fender picture upload program in Gap's Soho 1969 store

c. Pinterest – Pin to Win Contest to win new album copy + Gap tee

d. eCommerce - Selling at gap.com

"We are looking to build more relationships that drive personal relevance, cultural relevance and create a 1:1 dialogue with consumers. A relationship like the Jimi Hendrix partnership illuminates our shared DNA and a high level of authenticity," said Tricia Nichols, Global Lead of Consumer Engagement, Media Innovation & Partnerships, Gap Inc.

"The Gap, and its Jimi Hendrix initiative, is a perfect example of what a great brand can do to be impactful in social media," said Walter Delph, CEO of Adly and Social Media friend to the Gap. "To truly engage with current customers and target new customers, brands must use data, relevant brand ambassadors and original content to drive sales."

Walter I. Delph serves as the Chief Executive Officer at Adly, which provides an industry leading technology platform that connects brands with consumers via the most influential people in social media. He leads a team that is focused on capturing the $50B online endorsement business which is underserved in the social advertising market. Walter can be reached at [email protected]. Read all Walter's MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Influence in the Social Media Age.

The opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggers.com management or associated bloggers. MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries.

Moms Dote On Social NetworksWednesday, May 1, 2013


BabyCenter, with comScore, revealing new insights about moms’ usage of social platforms across all devices, finds that moms are 20% more likely to use social media than the general population. 91% of moms now use social media regularly, a 20% increase since 2010. And, 22% of moms say that if friends or family don’t participate in social media, they are not as much a part of their lives.

Social Media Influence Among Mothers (Ever Bought Something; Base: % of Expectant Women & Mothers of Children ≤ 8)

Mom Bought Because % of Respondents

Mom recommended it on parenting site 59%

Brand posted coupon or offer on social network 59

Friend liked or posted about on social network 44

Brand posted info on social network 38

Pictured on Pinterest 32

Saw sponsored ad on social network 23

Saw someone following brand on social network 21

Source: BabyCenter/ComScore, April 2013

Mike Fogarty, SVP and Global Publisher at BabyCenter, says “... before mom clicks to buy, she’s posted, pinned, tweeted, and shared... so much a part of a her life... (she checks) social platforms... before first cup of coffee... now fundamental to... moms’... lives...”

61% of moms have used the image-centric social network in the last six months, nearly double its 30% usage among the general population. That means Mom is 87% more likely to visit the social network than the general population.

Fogarty goes on to say that “... all social media for mom is visual and image-driven... today’s moms expect social media to be an incredibly visual experience...”

Moms who participate in social media shop online more than moms who don’t. Moms were responsible for 32% of total online spending in the last quarter, says the report, despite making up only 18% of the total internet audience. Compared to the general population, moms who are also heavy social networkers are more likely to shop online for:

• Clothing (61%)

• Portable devices (91%)

• Baby supplies (63%)

• Home and garden products (65%)

89% of moms with smartphones access Facebook on their mobile phones, and Mom is four times more likely to prefer to check social media on her smartphone. Compared to the general population, 49% more moms have smartphones (81% vs. 54%). And, Mom’s smartphone ownership is up 25% and her tablet ownership is up 79% year over year.

New moms spend an additional 10 hours of their day on parenting responsibilities, so she’s time-pressed and seeks ways to get more accomplished in less time. Social media enables Mom to do her research, get her shopping done, and share family milestones instantly with friends and family. 45% of moms say they are emailing less often and communicating more through social media. 61% of moms are using social media to get information quickly, including health and wellness advice.

Moms Social Usage vs. General Population

Social Media

% of Moms (18-34)

General Population

% Add’l Reach


Facebook 84% 73% 14%

YouTube 77 61 26

Instagram 27 15 79

Twitter 25 19 31

Pinterest 24 15 58

Google+ 20 17 16

Source: BabyCenter/ComScore, April 2013

91% of moms have used Facebook in the past six months (compared to 80% of the general population) to socialize, share pictures or videos, and keep up on the news. 92% use the social network specifically to share family milestones, and 60% of moms feel closer to friends who post regularly.

78% of moms follow a brand for coupons and discounts, compared to only 55% of the general population. To learn about brands and products to buy, 73% of moms rely on recommendations from parenting social media. Posts from a friend are 16% more influential than posts from a brand, and posts from another mom are 55% more influential than posts from a brand.

The findings of this study were the result of an in-depth survey of over 1,480 moms and other online adults, social media diaries from 14 new and expectant moms, and a behavioral and secondary analysis with comScore covering e-commerce habits and social analytics.

DoubleVerify Uncovers Ad Fraud Tied to Copyright Infringement Sites, Costing Online Advertisers $6.8M Per Month NEW YORK, May 1, 2013 (ADOTAS) — DoubleVerify, the worldwide leader in online transparency, accountability and performance measurement, has uncovered elaborate advertising fraud activity on over 1,200 suspected websites that together are defrauding online advertisers of an estimated $6.8 million per month. This massive fraud originates from user traffic on websites classified as copyright infringement. The ad impressions from this traffic are “laundered” through a complex series of redirects that make the ads appear as though they originated on legitimate sites containing advertiser-friendly content. Further, the fraudulent ads use code hiding the ad creative from being displayed in the user’s browser, resulting in advertisers paying for impressions that are never seen.

DoubleVerify’s Fraud Detection Lab has released new technology to uncover and protect against this wave of impression laundering fraud. This new technology is now fully deployed into DoubleVerify’s MRC-accredited fraud identification and blocking platform to give customers the most powerful verification protection available in the market today.

DoubleVerify data scientists analyzed over 1,000 advertiser campaigns delivering more than 10 billion impressions on 3 million plus websites in a recent 30-day period to reveal the following results:

• Over 1,200 websites in copyright infringement categories were laundering ad impressions through a set of seemingly legitimate sites with advertiser-friendly content.

• 3.0% of all Network/RTB-purchased impressions were delivered via sites participating in this Fraudulent activity.

• 0.1% of Publisher-purchased impressions were delivered via sites participating in this Fraudulent activity. This likely occurs when publishers purchase third-party inventory for audience extension or other off-site fulfillment programs.

DoubleVerify estimates that impressions on the sites involved in this fraud cost advertisers and legitimate inventory sellers nearly $6.8 million per month and have the following additional impacts on the industry:

• Operational resources are wasted trying to identify Fraud and eliminate its impact on their campaign analysis, media planning and inventory management.

• CPMs are depressed due to the artificial increase in supply caused by Fraudulent impressions and the lower ROI observed in segments that pool together Fraudulent and legitimate inventory.Babelfish Articles May 2013 - July 2013 15-7-13

• Online advertising media dollars are unwittingly distributed to websites categorized as copyright infringement despite the best efforts of the industry’s good-faith participants.

“Copyright infringement is a significant issue that is siphoning dollars away from the creative community,” said Jon Taplin, Director of Annenberg Innovation Lab, who has been working to drive awareness of and bring transparency to advertising on copyright infringement sites. “DoubleVerify’s identification of this impression laundering Fraud is a significant milestone towards cutting off the funds that these sites need to continue their operations. DoubleVerify’s technology and verification solutions are a welcome addition to the tools that advertisers, agencies, networks and exchanges can employ to ensure that advertising dollars are not contributing to the problem of copyright infringement.”

DoubleVerify’s solutions have been updated to systematically protect advertisers from this Fraudulent activity. Brands deploying the DV BrandShield proactive blocking solution will immediately cease serving ads to these sites, offering maximum protection. Those brands using the DV BrandAssure monitoring solution will see these sites flagged on their reports and their dedicated Performance Management team member will actively coordinate removal of these sites from the buy. Inventory sellers using the BrandShield Connect integration platform are further protecting their advertising campaigns with the heightened safety this solution offers on every impression they sell.

Full details of this fraud analysis and new product enhancements are available in the DV Fraud Lab Reportaccessible online at www.doubleverify.com or by contacting your account representative.

About DoubleVerify

DoubleVerify (www.doubleverify.com) is the world leader in online media transparency, accountability and effectiveness insights. It is the top choice of brand marketers, agencies, advertising networks, demand side platforms, exchanges and digital publishers looking to ensure quality advertising environments, campaign transparency and performance. DoubleVerify validates over 60 billion advertising impressions per month for hundreds of Fortune 500 brands, advertising networks and media platforms. DoubleVerify was conferred the World Economic Forum 2012 Technology Pioneer Award for being one of the most innovative stakeholders in the technology space. Headquartered in New York City, DoubleVerify’s investors include JMI Equity, Institutional Venture Partners, Blumberg Capital, First Round Capital and Genacast Ventures.]

Video Convergence Is Here: Adapt Or Face Extinctionby Ronnie Lavi, Wednesday, May 1, 2013

The segregation of TV and digital is deeply engrained in advertising culture, resulting in separate and often competing silos. The common view has been that video is an either/or proposition: TV vs. online, with the two camps vying for advertiser budgets and attention. The unhealthy result is inefficiency, requiring higher budgets and more effort to engage fewer people.

Advertisers, however, are ready to move on. They want a holistic approach that brings an end to costly audience fragmentation and leverages the newest digital opportunities to break out and engage with audiences in fresh ways and at lower cost.

And now, this is possible -- thanks to the convergence of TV and online technologies and platforms. Early movers are already creating disruption across screens. And there’s been great progress in terms of tools and best practices to manage video across channels. But the silo mindset must go, too.

Planners, buyers, creative teams and technology vendors in the video space must align with the converged model advertisers and consumers want. Soon, video will be video – regardless of screen or context, and unless you adapt, you’ll be left behind.

Think Convergence

With a new mix of touchpoints at your disposal, it’s time to start asking some new questions when you plan video campaigns. For example, how many GRPs can you get online? How much will be incremental to TV GRPs? What is the ideal mix of screens to achieve the most reach at the lowest cost? What is the ideal frequency on each screen as well as the overall frequency?? What’s the best sequencing and daypart strategy for desktop vs. mobile vs. TV? Etc.


As for the answers, there are plenty of tools available to help aggregate and validate data across screens – OCR and XCR from Nielsen, ComScore’s vCE and vCE MP are a few examples.

There’s also data to support the benefits of convergence. IAB released a study of digital video and TV advertising in conjunction with Yahoo and MSFT. They found that by reallocating 15% of the budget from TV to Web in a combined buy, advertisers gained incremental reach of 4.2% on average – at lower cost.

The study also showed that performance (measured by brand metrics such as recall) is improved when a user is reached on both TV and online.

Envision engagement

With convergence, marketers have new opportunities to enthrall audiences - using interactive capabilities and even synchronizing screens to make concepts engage like never before.

The simple existence of organizations like the Second Screen Society underscores the explosion of activity in the synchronized screen space. In addition, new IAB video Rising Stars formats provide a great opportunity to move beyond the simple linear 30 seconds spot and as do innovations like Microsoft’s NUads interactive TV ads using XBOX and Kinect technology.

More to measure

The digital components of campaigns can also provide detailed user metrics -- from dwell time to brand recall -- to inform the broader strategy. Online video can also be used as a cost-effective, low-risk testing bed for video creative. With the real-time measurability of online, you can get immediate feedback on your creative, run A/B testing, and even experiment with dynamic elements to prove out your creative before it heads to broadcast. For example, a global beverage brand recently filmed, produced and tested three video spots online before selecting the best performer to air on TV based on views, sharing and consumer interaction metrics.

Video convergence is here to stay. It represents the biggest opportunity for innovation and leadership in the creative arena right now. Technology supports it. Advertisers want it. So it’s time to get out of our silos and run with it.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/199339/video-convergence-is-here-adapt-or-face-extinctio.html?edition=59497#ixzz2S9eWaf7Z

Streaming Media Devices Rising, Connected TVs Lag In Online Useby Mark Walsh,

Nearly half of home entertainment devices in the U.S. are connected and being used for their online capabilities, but the level of use varies widely by device.

Streaming media players and video game consoles are connected and used the most, while connected TVs and Blu-ray disc players are the least likely to be tied to the Web and used for their online features, according to a new NPD Group study.

Only 30% of connected TVs and 32% of Blu-ray players in U.S. homes are actually connected and used for online access.

By next year, NPD projects that streaming media players such as Apple TV and Roku will surpass the number of Blu-ray players installed and connected to the Internet, although it has not yet released figures in relation to that prediction. The overall number of Blu-ray players will still be higher than those of streaming devices in households.

Streaming media devices are gaining ground in the over-the-top content market because their products are geared more to online content delivery, noted John Buffone, director of NPD’s Connected Intelligence service. While many Blu-ray players now come equipped with apps like Netflix, “it’s a relatively stagnant array of apps that you can access…where if you have a Roku device, it’s constantly being updated with new content,” he said.

That said, Blu-ray manufacturers are trying to get more Web-savvy. Samsung this week announced it will soon start shipping players powered by Opera, best known for its Web browsing software. The Opera Devices SDK (Software Development Kit) will provide video support for YouTube, BBC iPlayer and other streaming services.


http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/199339/video-convergence-is-here-adapt-or-face-extinctio.html?edition=59497#ixzz2S9eWaf7Z

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/199339/video-convergence-is-here-adapt-or-face-extinctio.html?edition=59497#ixzz2S9eWaf7Z

At the same time, Roku, Apple TV and Boxee could soon be getting additional competition from Amazon, which is reportedly getting ready to launch a new TV set-top box later this year to stream video into users’ living rooms. The e-commerce giant already operates a video on-demand service, free to Amazon Prime members.

One company that stands to benefit from the rise in video streaming via TV is Netflix. NPD found that 40% of TVs connected to the Web, either through the TV itself or another device, are already watching Netflix. YouTube is a distant second, with 17% streaming the Google-owned video service, followed by Hulu Plus, at 11%.

“Content usage remains dominated by Netflix and YouTube,” said Buffone. He pointed out that Netflix from early on focused on offering access across any home entertainment device rather than selling its own dedicated player. The company earlier this week reported having nearly 28 million paid U.S. streaming subscribers at the end of March, putting it roughly on par with HBO.

The findings in NPD’s “Connected Home” report -- which does not include data on tablets or smartphones -- were based on a survey of more than 4,000 U.S. adults in the first quarter.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/199363/streaming-media-devices-rising-connected-tvs-lag.html?edition=59497#ixzz2S9eMTlK0

What Does Programmatic Ad Buying Mean In A Cross-Media World?By Dave Morgan Thursday, May 2, 2013

At the MediaPost OutFront last week, when media buyer panelists were asked what one thing they would change in the media market if given the power to fix it, they came back en masse with one answer: They wanted to buy all media programmatically (and transparently).

As the online ad world has evolved over the past decade or so from dynamic ad servers to ad networks to audience targeting to exchanges to real-time bidding platforms, more and more of the online ad world has become “programmatic.” Or, as Merriam-Webster would define it, “of the nature of or according to a program, schedule, or method.”

Of course, as we learned at the OutFront, it doesn’t appear that programmatic is going to be restricted to the realm of online ads alone. Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that Vistar has launched a programmatic, auction-based system for the buying of out-of-home ad placements across the U.S. And, at the Omnicom analyst meeting last week, one of the hottest topics was the growth, profitability and capital investment requirements of their programmatic media buying initiatives.

Most of us have a sense of what programmatic means in the fully digital, dynamic and real-time world of online, but what does it mean in broader cross-media, where communication channels like television are still in their infancy when it comes to digitization? This is something I spend a lot of time thinking about, so here is my take on what “programmatic” means in a cross-media world, and particularly for the world of TV:

Automated. It seems self-evident that the notion of programmatic assumes that significant parts of the buying and selling process be done in an automated fashion, where significant transactions are conducted through interfaces and machine-to-machine operations. Of course, this doesn’t have to mean it all happens in real time. The TV infrastructure and business rules are a long way off from a real-time world. However, it should mean that many or most of the routine activities -- such as the delivery of instructions to media owners, optimizing campaign inventory, or the collection and processing of post-logs -- will occur in an automated fashion, faster, and with lower costs and fewer mistakes.

Algorithmic. Many of the day-to-day tactical decisions in the business of buying and selling media are based on gut, best guesses, historical truisms -- and, of course, chance. Not so in a programmatic world, where algorithms drive many of those decisions, and where the machines make many choices that would be quite non-intuitive or counter-intuitive to humans. Of course, as we learned from Billy Beane in “Moneyball,” it is exactly those nonintuitive and counterintuitive decisions that frequently create your best trades, where you gain the biggest advantages over your competition.

Audience-based. Most non-digital media, particularly television, is packaged, sold and bought based on content and context. While it is possible to scale campaigns across different media with a programmatic contextual approach -- such as buying ads on tennis content online and in magazines and on TV -- one of the ways programmatic buying and selling can particularly add scale to the broader media world is to introduce the capacity to buy specific audiences, defined by data, across many different media, irrespective


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of content or context. This doesn’t mean that audience targeting will replace contextual buying in a programmatic world. But it does mean that audience buying is likely to complement the foundational approach of buying media according to content.

Accessible. In much of traditional media, the planning and buying tools -- and even the marketplace -- are limited, opaque and relatively closed. Not so in the programmatic world, which recognizes that openness, transparency and widely available access to information, tools and the marketplace itself makes for a bigger, better and more efficient market. The programmatic cross-media world will certainly be more open -- particularly when it comes to TV, a notoriously closed market.

Accountable. Not only does programmatic media buying and selling make the front-end of the media process more efficient -- and, hopefully, more effective -- it also makes the back-end tighter and more exact. By their nature, programmatic media systems should be able to provide more comprehensive, more robust and more granular data and insights about the results of each and every advertiser campaign, and be able to relate those results to their key business metrics, whether they be cross-media reach, audience duplication or correlation or contribution to sales.

I am sure that programmatic can -- and will -- bring more than just these five elements to the table as it becomes part of our emerging cross-media world (and they won’t all start with the letter “A”), but these five are probably the most critical and foundational elements. What do you think?

Advertisers face IMC challengesBRUSSELS: Over three-quarters of advertisers regard integrated marketing communications as a priority, but many are failing to generate big ideas and fully measure performance, new research has shown.

The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), a trade body, gathered responses from a third of its membership, representing eight categories and a combined annual marketing budget of around $32bn.

Overall, 80% of this panel agreed that integrated marketing communications (IMC) was a "top priority".

The four areas showing the greatest gap between companies' capabilities and priorities were all related to people and performance.

Under the latter heading, the study found it was vital for marketers to understand what success looked like and to set the right key performance indicators. Single-brand companies and those with an annual global adspend of less than $500m were more likely to face these challenges.

Another performance-related issue was demonstrating return on investment, and it was the largest companies, those spending more than $2bn annually, that had most to do here.

People-based challenges centred on securing buy-in for IMC from business leaders, and ensuring proper resources were in place. The largest firms needed to address both these areas, while the food and drinks industry was also found to be lagging on leadership.

Generally, the smaller companies, spending up to $500m a year on marketing, had most work to do in preparing themselves for IMC, while medium-sized companies, spending between $500m and $2bn a year, were most ready.

"Within many large companies there are often still IMC sceptics," said Geoff Seeley, global communications planning director at Unilever, and chair of the WFA's IMC forum.

He argued businesses that were members of the forum should act as advocates. "To be able to benchmark your own company against a pool of other large multinationals can be invaluable to help inform smarter conversations internally and help realise real progress," he stated.

Read more at http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/EmailNews.news?ID=31331&Origin=WARCNewsEmail#kRWCyOthjkxtfqcO.99

The Three Stages Of Funding A StartupBy Matt Straz Monday, April 29, 2013

Without an outside source of funding, most media and technology startups would perish. The cost of hiring engineers and salespeople is usually just too high to self-fund a business until it is profitable. There are usually three stages of fundraising that a startup must go through to create a sustainable business:Babelfish Articles May 2013 - July 2013 15-7-13

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Stage 1: Angel round. The first money a startup often raises is from individuals —also known as "angels." Each angel typically invests between $25K-$100K. While taking money from friends and family is common, it's often better if the startup can get it from people who have a profile in the industry in which the startup operates.

An angel round can range anywhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Like all investors, angels will want to know who else is participating.

Stage 2: Seed round. Assuming the startup has built a basic product that people seem to like, the next step is usually to raise a "seed" round of financing. Seed stage funding comes from seed firms like Lerer Ventures, Bullpen Capital and SV Angel. Their goal is to invest in startups that can make it to the next stage and be successful.

Seed firms invest more than angels but less than the larger venture firms — usually between $50K - $250K each. Seed firms will often expect that you raise more money from your existing angel investors, so it’s important to have at least a couple with deep pockets.

A seed round is usually a couple hundred to a half million dollars and can consist of multiple firms.

Stage 3: Series A. The Series A raise is the hardest to achieve because it requires a venture capital firm to put at least a couple million dollars into the startup. Not only that, but a good Series A firm will keep something in reserve in the event that the startup needs more money later on.

Sadly, most startups will never live to see a successful Series A raise. In the last decade, over 400 venture capital funds have either gone out of business or stopped making new investments. In 2012, only 86 funds were active. That leaves a relatively small group of VCs to lead a Series A round.

The best way to get an introduction to a potential Series A VC is though the seed firm that invested in the startup. A startup will usually need many introductions, as most potential Series A firms will decline to invest.

However, if everything goes right, after three stages of investment a startup will have raised upwards of $5 million. Ideally, this will provide the company with the runway it needs to become profitable or be acquired. Some startups will keep going and continue to raise additional rounds — Series B, C, or even D — until the company is either acquired, goes public or fades away.

When the fundraising process is done right, each stage builds upon itself and the result is a profitable outcome for everyone involved.

Matt Straz was a senior partner at MEC from 2002-2008. He is currently the CEO of Namely.

Mobile Soars, But Future Appears Multiscreenby Steve McClellan, Apr 25, 2013,

Collage-Smartphone-TV-Tablet-AIt’s a mobile, social and visual media world and marketers better adapt or risk losing customers and sales. Of all the takeaways at Media Kitchen’s Digital Media Venture Capital Conference in New York Thursday, that one seemed paramount.

Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget noted that for the first time in 30-plus years, the PC market is now shrinking. “That’s a profound change,” he told conference attendees. Mobile usage is soaring and “cannibalizing everybody,” referring to other media channels.

That said, Blodget said it would be an “exaggeration” to declare the death of TV, as so many pundits have in the past. No doubt it’s being “squeezed” he said. But for the foreseeable future, it will be a multiscreen world that includes TV, PCs, smartphones and tablets and probably a few others like the wearable computers Google Glass and Apple’s much anticipated iWatch.

“Second screen is a big opportunity,” Blodget said, noting that more 80% of young TV viewers (ages 18 to 24) simultaneously use a phone or tablet while watching the big screen.

In the e-commerce space, “mobile commerce is a super big deal,” asserted First Round Capital Partner Chris Fralic. In the fourth quarter of 2012, he said, 13% of all e-commerce was mobile commerce. Transactions on eBay conducted via mobile now total about $13 billion or around 17% of the company’s gross merchandise value, he said.


Marketers can’t afford to ignore Twitter’s commerce channel, said Fralic, noting a recent deal between the social site and Starcom MediaVest Group, that he estimated was worth about $400 million.

Nikhil Sethi, the CEO and co-founder of social marketing company Adaptly, said the social space has transformed the notion of consumer identity for marketers. For years in the online sector, marketers relied on cookies to identify and track potential customers, he said, describing the approach as a “hacked structure.”

Now, he said, consumers are telling marketers “exactly who they are” through social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Send a friend a note through Facebook that you’re staying home from work due to a cold and you’re likely to receive an ad for Kleenex, he said.

3 comments on "Mobile Soars, But Future Appears Multiscreen".

Katie Petrillo from Punchbowl

commented on: April 26, 2013 at 9:13 a.m.

So true! Multiscreening is without a doubt the future (the present!) for consumers - we recently posted an article for marketers with ways to keep consumers attention one device in a whole of SO many: http://www.punchbowl.com/trends/blog/post/how-to-keep-moms-attention-on-a-tablet

Matthew Greene from WiOffer

commented on: April 26, 2013 at 4:39 p.m.

Chris Fralic is spot-on. So is Henry Blodget. 2nd Screen will prove to be the flash-point between TV advertisers and m-com and t-com. It's happening now... Agencies and Advertisers alike should begin testing 2nd Screen for themselves. Be brave. Don't wait for the next marketer to bust a move. Disclaimer: WiO is in the business of monetizing 2nd Screen and connecting brands with consumers.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/198981/mobile-soars-but-future-appears-multiscreen.html#ixzz2RrMYBM5C

Advertising 2020Check out Loren Grossman's full Advertising 2020 article below.

What is in store for advertising now and in the near future? To quote one of the anthem bands of my college days, R.E.M., “It's the end of the world as we know it … and I feel fine.”

Never has advertising been under more pressure to evolve — both by advertisers and by the consuming public. It is not provocative to suggest that in 2012, print, radio, direct mail and OOH — long traditional advertising staples — face questions regarding their effectiveness if not their outright reasons for being. Most will be on the endangered species list by 2020. And while many are quick to point out that the surging popularity of digital has taken up and will continue to take up the slack, it is not difficult to recognize that what is happening online, on smartphones and on other digital devices, is not your father's advertising: the evolution taking place is not simply a change of venue but a completely different brand/consumer dynamic with new rules, roles and responsibilities for everyone involved. The GRP, long rumored to be sickly, will soon finally be laid to rest, and the success metric for the new marketing millennium will be nothing short of Shareholder Value (on both sides of the brand table — corporate and consumer). In fact, if you are an advertiser and have not already transitioned from “how can I compel purchase behavior through communications?” to “how can I leverage the entire media ecosystem to add enduring, differentiating value to and surrounding the product experience?” forget 2020. It may be too late today.

This is not to say that television advertising, the 800-pound gorilla of yesterday's and today's (and probably tomorrow's) advertising, is under siege. It is not. Sixty percent of all advertising dollars spent have been and will continue to be spent on 15- and 30-second ads. Retail, Automotive and Financial Services will continue to need to introduce us to new products, new models and lower APRs every five minutes or so during nationally televised sporting events. Hotel rooms in Cannes in June will continue to cost thousands of dollars a night, and flip-flop–wearing, unshaven creative types will still be paid outrageous amounts of money to come up with slogans like “Where's The Beef?” This will not change by 2020 and will likely never change. What will continue to change will be how these ads are deemed successful. And that will depend less and less on a tag line and more and more on what happens next — after the spot runs.


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As it turns out, TV campaign effectiveness will no longer be tied to impressions, anecdotal sales increases or subjective arbiters of good advertising. Instead it will be tied directly to its ability to act as a catalyst for deeper, richer, more meaningful (and more measurable) brand/consumer interactions that will themselves act as catalysts to profitable behaviors. Ads will no longer be asked to drive perception. They will be asked to drive search … or opt-in … or any number of behaviors that in turn will build deeper, more enduring brand/consumer relationships. TV will continue to add heft — but it will no longer be thought of as the heavy lifting, brand-building channel it once was thought to be. Instead, by 2020, TV advertising will increasingly be recognized for the trigger device it is very much becoming, deemed successful if it efficiently links viewership to lower-funnel, consumer-driven interactions, leaving the brand-building to those connections that create more enduring and more valuable experiences.

For example, more and more, Nike ads will not strive to simply create brand impressions or drive to buying a specific pair of Nike sneakers. Instead they will drive to search, Twitter and other social media platforms, which will in turn drive to Nike+, Nike Fuel Band and Nike Connect. And it will be these platforms that will create experiences that themselves will create more brand-affinity and brand-love than any TV ad could ever create by itself. This will drive to buying lots of Nike sneakers over the course of that athlete's life. And it will not only be true of bleeding-edge brands like Nike. By 2020, it will be true of most brands — or at least the successful ones.

In order to prepare for this new kind of brand/consumer dynamic, we as advertisers must understand two key constructs required for success. The first is the importance of and the ability to leverage data.

2020 will see data break out of its measurement and reporting shackles. In fact, already in 2012 au courant marketers recognize data as the single most important ingredient in developing solution-creating, value-adding platforms that will increasingly be charged with brand-building, as described above. Data is the lifeblood of these platforms. Through the understanding and activating of data and their supporting technological architectures, we as advertisers will create rich, intimate, highly personalized and culturally resonant experiences for the people and communities that care about our brands. These experiences will help transport people and communities from their current state to a desired state (within reason), and these folks will in turn thank us by becoming brand loyalists.

This is not easy, as digital technology has made almost every brand/consumer touch point a data portal. Big Data, as it has been recently dubbed, requires big and robust technology solutions and Big Data scientists that know how to read, synthesize and use data to drive experiences, often in real-time. Further, these data scientists will not succeed if they are only bolted on to the existing machine as a new component might be. Instead, they must be integrated completely and seamlessly into our advertising world so that the solutions they design are not simply technologies for the sake of technologies but part of the DNA of the organic, brand-building, transformational experience. This will not be easy on the Big Data scientists; they prefer to work for IBM and HP. It will not be easy on the advertisers, who prefer entropy to rigor. And yet it is essential to our success. So if you do not have Big Data Scientists on staff, I suggest you go out and get some. Now.

The second component is Service Design. Data, technology and the new media ecosystem are going to conspire to make advertising output complex. Complex is bad. Design is the art of making the complex seem simple. This is important. Service Design is the premise of making the user experience simpler — and better — with serving the customer as the desired end-state. As we transition from a “communication as output”-driven industry to a “shareholder value as output”-driven industry, understanding how to serve customers through experience will become a new but absolutely essential subject matter expertise required to create great advertising. To quote Nike's Stefan Olander, “The goal is to create connections with our customers and earn their loyalty by serving them. The better the service, the stronger the connection.”

Ultimately, evolving as an industry away from anecdote and toward enduring value is a good thing. When the going gets tough, it is always nice to be able to point to real, measurable contribution. Our survival as an industry will largely depend on our ability to fully understand what is being asked of us and subsequently make the most of the opportunity before us.

This Is Why Advertisers Need to Get Serious About Video Embrace new formats By Randall Rothenberg April 28, 2013, 11:46 PM EDTAdvertising & Branding


We are at the brink of a watershed moment in digital video. The Digital Content NewFronts has become an integral part of advertisers' annual budget planning. Fueled by the high demand for premium, original content, this second annual marketplace, taking place this week (April 29-May 3), is widely expected to attract $1 billion of investment.

This level of investment inevitably will propel the entire digital video ad industry. Advertisers now have the foresight and financial incentive to produce original digital video advertising and make digital video a central focus of creativity, breakthrough interactivity and brand storytelling.

Already, industry pioneers are taking this route. Some of the most cutting-edge video executions I've seen have the functionality of apps and content depth of full Web pages. I’ve seen digital video ads with links to multiple video games that consumers can play without leaving the ad unit. I’ve seen videos that, upon user interaction, expand beyond the box to take over the screen for an immersive and memorable experience. A lot of this functionality is present in the IAB Digital Video Rising Stars ad units.

Interactivity aside, there's room to think beyond the constraints of the traditional TV spot. In 2012, the most viral ad wasn’t 30 seconds long. It didn’t feature a cat, celebrities or a household name brand. It was a 30-minute video from Invisible Children, a nongovernmental organization, to rally opposition to Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony. Its current tally on YouTube of more than 97 million views makes its audience comparable to that of the Super Bowl.

Consumers are eager for more dedicated and eye-opening digital video advertising content. It's already become a vibrant element of the stories that inform us, as demonstrated by the interactive feature "Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek" from The New York Times. Also, original digital video content has become a regular extension of television programming, especially of programming targeted to a younger audience. The video extras for Heart of Dixie on the CW are a great example.

Digital video has all the attributes of television—sight, sound and motion, and high-quality, original content—with the great benefit of interactivity, targetability and global audience.

Marketers are beginning to recognize this. In 2012, advertisers spent $2.3 billion on digital video advertising, an increase of 29 percent over 2011, according to the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report. But all too often, the ads themselves are an afterthought—repurposed television commercials, 15- to 30-second spots with very limited interactive features.

While it's understandable that marketers want to dip in their toes before jumping, it’s time for the high dive. Too many advertisers are missing out on the valuable advantages of this medium, and too many consumers are ready for these new advertising experiences that aren’t presently available to them. Indeed, the marketplace is primed to produce interactive, engaging and powerful original digital video advertising.

Solutions are also being devised and established to help speed this evolution. For example, with widespread adoption of the IAB Video Suite, we're closer than ever to simplified and efficient production across devices and video players. While a few hurdles must be cleared for the viewable impression to apply to digital video, we are well on our way, through the industrywide Making Measurement Make Sense initiative, to a digital GRP that will allow seamless comparison to TV metrics without losing measurability of consumer interactions.

The "commercial" as we think of it is evolving beyond its wonderful beginnings. Who will create the digital video equivalent of TV ad icons like Alka-Seltzer's Speedy or Coca-Cola’s Hilltop? Which advertiser or advertisers will change consumer culture through digital video?

We're at the precipice of a new era of advertising where sight, sound, motion and interactivity are united into one robust, surprising, even multilayered brand communication, far beyond the capabilities of a traditional television commercial. But it’s up to marketers, agencies and publishers to take that leap and jump in.

Email Before Breakfast -- And Other Trendsby David Baker, Monday, April 29, 2013

I always say, I get more done before 9 a.m. than I do the rest of the day. But with email, it’s a continual stream: it’s the first thing many check before they brush their teeth, have coffee, or breakfast.

One of the most stressful things you can possibly now is leave home without your mobile phone. Can’t imagine not being connected, can’t imagine what you are missing while life just piles up! Let’s not argue


the merits of email as one, if not the most important digital Hub-n-Spoke to your personal and professional life. 10 years ago, we would talk about how consumers were switching email addresses like business cards. Filtering email was a nightmare and people would rather switch email addresses vs. try to filter the unwanted email. Today, consumers get more email, yet are smarter about how they manage email: work email, unwanted subscriptions, and personal email (likely the one you signed up with most of your social sites). And of course the ISPs have greatly improved the email user experience.

Many argue that email is going to die or diminish as the younger generations emerge. Will the new generation, which doesn’t even know what a mouse is, evolve a newer, more efficient means of communicating in their lives?

The best way to reflect on our industry is to think a bit more macro about trends. I love Trendwatching.com, as they mention loads of cool trends that create “ah hah” moments -- but more importantly, they provide another way of looking at how the consumer and branded world of marketing is changing.

Of their Top 10 Trends for 2013, here are a few that stuck out at me:

“#1 Presumers and Custowners: As consumers will embrace even more ways to participate in the funding, launch and growth of (new) products and brands that they love, expect pre-ordering, crowdfunding and consumer equity to compete with traditional consumption in 2013...”

“#3 Mobile Moments: consumers will look to their mobile devices to maximize absolutely every moment, multi-if-not-hypertasking their experiences, purchases and communications...”

“#7 Data Myning: In 2013 expect savvy shoppers to start reversing the flow, as consumers seek to own and make the most of their lifestyle data, and turn to brands that use this data to proactively offer customers help and advice on how to improve their behavior and/ or save money…”

“# 9 Full Frontal: So what’s next for the mega-trend of transparency in 2013? Brands must move from ‘having nothing to hide’, to pro-actively showing and proving they have nothing to hide…”

“#10 Demanding Brands: 2013 will see switched-on brands (i.e. brands that are embarking on the much-needed journey towards a more sustainable and socially-responsible future) demanding that their customers also contribute…”

What does this make you think of? Does it make you believe there will be more involved brand experience that are not the traditional “bait” driven world of offers, promotions and consumption? Will engagement be “every moment”, and digitally driven -- which may transcend the device to all screens (in-home and out-of-home)? How transparent will brands be with consumers about the customer data they know and use?

Advertisers are getting smarter, publishers are getting smarter, and the consumer is getting smarter. The one constant of all of this is, communication will be the catalyst. Email will be the delivery agent to inform, to notify, to fulfill, to promote, to share. Asynchronous communication will not change. As an industry, we will get better about content delivery (richer and more real-time), connecting communications with experiences, and better at using email for more than just -- email. (The email address has many other values)

So, when you are answering email before you have your coffee in the morning or using it to pass time when you have downtime, think about how your life starts and ends every day. Project that onto marketing, and you’ll have confidence that we are only scratching the surface of what we can d, based on where we are going!

SMG Strikes Exclusive 1-Year Deal For Online Video Optimization, Works Like A TV Optimizerby Joe Mandese,

In a first-mover play reminiscent of the one it pulled off with TV optimization in the mid-1990s, Starcom MediaVest Group has struck a deal giving it exclusive access to a new “earned media” optimization system for one year. The system, which was developed in conjunction with viral video tracker Visible Measures, using predictive modeling technique based on learning from more than 12,000 online video campaigns Visible Measures has managed for a variety of big advertisers and agencies since it began tracking them in 2008 with a campaign for SMG client Procter & Gamble’s Tide To Go brand.


“When I came over to the States my focus was on how to make television better,” recalls SMG global research chief Kate Sirkin, a native Brit who struck the first agency deal with Nielsen to license the respondent-level audience data necessary for modern day TV optimization systems. Sirkin likens the Visible Measures deal to the Nielsen TV optimization deal, because it gives SMG a one-year exclusivity vs. other agencies. She would not disclose how much SMG is paying Visible Measures, but unlike the Nielsen deal, she said it’s not in the seven-figure range.

Whatever SMG is paying, Sirkin says it’s worth it, because it gives SMG agencies and their clients similar scientific rigor to plan earned media the way they do with paid media.

“When we started to think about earned media in video, there was a huge gap for our planners to plan it strategically,” she says, noting, “It was thought of as the icing on the cake. If it was good, it was good. If it was bad, it wasn’t part of the main thing that we were doing. What we’re doing with Contagion is really planning earned strategically, and being able to optimize it the way we plan and optimize other media.”

Contagion is the name of the system Visible Measures developed for SMG, and which it will eventually make available to other agencies and advertisers. According to Visible Measures’ Chief Analytics Officer Seraj Bharwani, it is just as scientific as any models used to plan the outcome of television or other media, because it is based on data provent to generate specific outcomes among social media users who share video content.

That said, he says there is also some “art” to using it, and one of the values of Contagion is that it is based on an easy-to-use dashboard concept enabling planners and buyers to run various scenario mixes to project various outcomes.

“In media planning for predictable media you buy a bunch of impressions and you level-load it across TV, or portals or search buys, and its predictable in the sense that you bought it across time period and it delivers what it delivers,” he says, adding that has not been the case with video campaigns distributed via social media, because, “In this particular case, you have no control over that, because a significant amount of what is earned media is in the control of the consumer. They’re the ones that want to talk about it and share it. And the brands feel like it’s out of their control.”

The only way to regain control, he says, is to model data based on consumer behavior to predict what kinds of video are most likely to yield various earned media returns. In general, he says Contagion is based on three “blocks” of logic Visible Measures has gleaned over the past five years.

The first block, is “the creative itself,” he says, noting that specific forms of brand content has been proven to generate specific results. While there are outliers such as Red Bull’s “Stratos” campaign, he says they are generally on the upside, not the downside, and that the creative of most online video campaigns can be projected within a predictable range.

The second block, he says, is based on the publishing content the brand’s video content is associated with. If it’s a big, viral-oriented event such as the Super Bowl, or the Oscars, he says that association has a predictable impact on the earned media potential of the campaign.

“The final block is your paid media,” Bharwani says, explaining that the mix of media used to support socially-distributed video campaigns -- whether it is big budget network TV shows such as “American Idol” or “long-tail” properties such as YouTube -- has a significant bearing on their success.

By modeling those three blocks, Bharwani claims Contagion can plan the earned media contribution of an online video campaign with in a “15% to 20% deviation.”

“That’s for a reasonably good campaign,” he says, adding, “Once in awhile, you’ll have a shocker. Red Bull was one of those, because we had nothing to compare it to.”

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/199128/smg-strikes-exclusive-1-year-deal-for-online-video.html?edition=59326#ixzz2RrKtA5o6

Havas Media, DG Ad Partnership Crosses TV, Onlineby Laurie Sullivan,

Mobile-Devices-AHavas Media and DG will announce a global cross-media partnership Monday to support the optimization and delivery of ads across TV and online. The agreement also supports mobile devices, as well as search engine marketing through DG's Channel Content for Search platform.


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The partnership integrates Havas Media's Artemis, a global data management network, with DG's MediaMind Online products and VideoFusion TV platforms. The combination focuses on optimization and aims to remove obstacles and hurdles slowing the convergence of marketing across TV and online digital media. It will help advertisers to reach consumers across multiple screens.

Sylvain Le Borgne, executive vice president of data platforms at Havas Media, said DG remains the only company that offers the technology for Havas to optimize and deliver content globally from TV to online. He said through DG's delivery and pixel and tag management infrastructure, Havas' Artemis platform will let the company provide tracking, attribution and predictive analytics across every campaign. Havas operates in more than 100 countries.

Delivering ads across screens hasn't been easy. Andrew Bloom, senior vice president, strategic business development at DG, said the three biggest issues: mismatch of creative assets and workflow strategies between TV and online media; lack of ad verification checks and balances that someone viewed the advertisement; and poor targeting options.

"In traditional linear TV, targeting is managed at the household level rather than the user level," Bloom said. "In mobile, where cookies are all but irrelevant, targeting at the user level is emergent through device fingerprinting and probabilistic targeting based on user behavior."

Bloom said as consumers use more devices, the challenge of delivering the right content to the perfect audience at the correct moment becomes increasingly more difficult.

A recent change in business structure that places Havas Media's digital expertise and content marketing at the core of its operations supports the partnership. DG also integrated all its business platforms under one master brand, creating a large independent advertising technology platform that manages more than 10% of the world's media spend.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/199030/havas-media-dg-ad-partnership-crosses-tv-online.html?edition=59318#ixzz2RrC4yJE3


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