Vizu plans to announce integration with Firefly Video, powered by Tribal Fusion's E9 Audience Engagement Platform, in an effort to pull together disparate video-serving technologies. The move, which is coming Wednesday, will allow marketers to measure and optimize brand lift generated by video advertising in real-time. No matter how video ads are served, whether IAB VAST/VPAID-compliant, measurement is conducted consistently. As part of Vizu's "Value in Video" initiative, the company's partnership with Firefly is intended to make optimizing video messages easier by identifying how consumers respond to the messages through Vizu Ad Catalyst, which measures Brand Lift generated by online video advertising campaigns in real-time, replacing click-through rates. Combining the platform with Firefly, supported by Tribal's E9 technology, provides the ability to serve a questionnaire on brand-related topics -- typically around awareness and purchase intent. It will determine and measure whether the video ad successfully delivers its intended message and measures effectiveness. Since Brand Lift data becomes available in real-time, marketers can continually optimize video campaigns through a dashboard, monitoring and evaluating creative, messages, targeting, and frequency to overall performance. Vizu can now measure all video advertising. The Firefly implementation on the Tribal Fusion network demonstrates that it can outperform Vizu's normal percentages for awareness and purchase intent categories, given the consistent form of measurement, according to Vizu CEO Dan Beltramo. "For campaigns where the objective focused on branding, Tribal Fusion has seen 32% better performance than Vizu's brand lift for awareness, and 286% better performance brand lift for purchase intent," he said. Beltramo said Vizu’s integration with Tribal Fusion’s E9 platform is an example of how the company enables measurement of an important video delivery system that is not VAST/VPAID-compliant. In one implementation, a campaign run by a large unnamed children's entertainment network drove "tune-in intent" for a new feature-length television movie. The finding suggests a 251.1% lift in consumer intent to watch the movie among those exposed to a video creative through Firefly implementations on Tribal Fusion's network. Consumers watching the video ad were nearly 3.5-times more likely to watch the children’s movie than those who were not exposed to the campaign. The brand experienced a lift after two exposures. The findings also suggest a 50% decrease in "negative intent" -- those unlikely or definitely unlikely to watch, among those exposed to the campaign. Google began to heighten its attention on video ad metrics on YouTube by giving advertising the ability to measure the effectiveness of brand messages through a dashboard in AdWords. In September, the company introduced Google AdWords for video. Google AdWords for video offers reporting capabilities to monitor the length of time for views and the actions the viewer takes after leaving the advertisement. The new offering will compete with BlurbIQ, which provides brand sentiment in response to questions on what consumers have learned from ads. Consumers are invited to interact with display ads that overlay branded video ads with related questions.
Skimlinks plans to launch SkimWords 2.0 Wednesday. The platform provides affiliate links within in-text ads in real-time. The automated platform supports in-text products and price comparisons across multiple markets such as consumer electronics, fashion, beauty, automotive and lifestyle. The latest version of SkimWords, which converts words into affiliate links, integrates technology from the company's recent acquisition of AtmaLinks that supports computational linguistics and semantic algorithms. It matches content with 20 million products in real-time to create in-text ad links. The technology analyzes page content and delivers in-text price comparison in real-time. It automatically detects product references in content and turns them into affiliate links. The in-text ad appears when consumers mouse over a hotlink to see the reference, similar to an offering from Kontera. Alicia Navarro, Skimlinks, CEO and co-founder, said searches based on interest and intent convert to more active purchases, adding that technology can easily learn how to understand different languages. Andy Boyd, product manager at publisher iNet Interactive, said while the real-time content monetization is "cool," he's really "excited about the technology and experience for users, such as the updated visual options to gain more information." iNet uses Skimlinks on pages with older content across Overclockers.com, an iNet online community. "Sometimes people will post a link about a review they wrote about a computer hardware product," Boyd said. "Those recommendations, or links, will have a SkimWords ad. People can click on the ad to check out the products." The platform allows publishers like iNet to earn incremental revenue by embedding one line of JavaScript code in Web site pages. The back-end technology identifies the page content and within milliseconds, turns the word into a link. Site visitors gain information to make purchase decisions. Advertisers receive qualified traffic to Web sites. When the technology doesn't create an in-text ad, it links to a page on Amazon.com or another site highlighting the product. Aside from Amazon, channel partners include eBay, Zappos, Toys R Us and Wal-Mart.
Nearly three-quarters of online publishers now sell 20% or more of their video ad space through ad networks, according to new research from BrightRoll. Per the video ad network, that represents an increase of two-thirds year-over-year. Also of significance, publishers are not limiting themselves to one ad network. Rather, among the roughly 100 digital publishing partners surveyed by BrightRoll, more than 75% said they have partnered with three or more video ad networks in the past year. Why the multiple partners? A full 55% of respondents said this stemmed from a simple desire to increase revenue; 21% wanted to increase fill rates, and 16% said they wanted to sell off remnant inventory. Although publishers are becoming more accustomed to networks, exchanges remain under-utilized, BrightRoll found. Half of survey respondents said 5% or less of their inventory is available on video exchanges, while one-quarter of respondents said 5 to 25% of their inventory is placed on exchanges -- indicating that exchange networks are growing but have not yet caught up to networks. What factors impacted respondents' decision to work with one ad network over another? Topping off the list, 44% of publishers cited ad fill percentage, followed by 32% who cited CPM rates. That indicates that publishers are most concerned with having their ad space filled at an efficient cost. Other less frequent concerns included the potential for sales channel conflict -- cited by 15% of respondents -- and 4% who listed integration as a key decision-making factor. Bigger picture: as digital video advertising continues to grow, there are still a number of challenges affecting the development of the industry, BrightRoll cautions. When publishers were asked what factors they believe to be the greatest barriers to the category’s growth, 42% cited standardization and 39% named interruption to user experience. Notably, the perceived negative impact of lack of advertisers has dropped in the past year -- with 30% of last year's respondents identifying this concern compared to 20% in the current survey. According to BrightRoll, this reflects the positive growth trend in online advertising, as an increasing number of advertisers are seeking online video ad space. Although a lack of standards was listed as a concern, an overwhelming majority of publishers -- 80% -- reported that they are able to serve VPAID-compliant ads. This is particularly encouraging, considering that just 61% of publishers in BrightRoll’s 2010 survey reported that their third-party ad serving was VPAID-compliant.
Magazine publishers are reporting spikes in digital subscriptions and single-copy sales of digital editions since the launch of the Newsstand feature in Apple’s iOS 5. The new section, which allows users to find digital magazines and newspapers in one dedicated area in the App Store, then organize subscriptions on a virtual bookshelf, debuted two weeks ago along with the iPhone 4S. Since then, Conde Nast said new subscription sales per week across all nine of its iPad editions increased 268%, compared to the previous eight weeks. Single-copy sales were up 142%. The surge spans various titles, including Allure, Brides, Glamour, Self, GQ, Golf Digest, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Wired. Said Monica Ray, Condé Nast’s executive vice president, consumer marketing: “While we recognize the spike in sales is in part fueled by the attention the launch received, we are very optimistic that we will see a consistently higher level of growth going forward than we did prior to the app’s introduction.” Likewise, Bonnier has said it has also seen an immediate impact from the debut of Newsstand. Since the feature launched with iOS 5 on Oct. 12, the publisher’s iPad versions of Popular Science and Popular Photography have sold about 500 and 600 subscriptions or single copies a day, respectively. Previously, they had averaged about 500 to 100 per day. “At this point, we think Newsstand is a game changer,” said Gregg Hano, vice president, group publisher of Bonnier’s technology group. Conde Nast did not provide any figures for actual subscription totals in the wake of Newsstand’s arrival. Back in August, the company announced having 242,000 digital edition customers six weeks after introducing subscriptions in the App Store. In addition to subscriptions, that figure included digital single copies and the 136,000 print subscribers who added digital editions. Publishers had been counting on Newsstand to provide a lift to their digital subscriptions since Apple announced the new feature in June. It provides a more high-profile venue for companies to market their wares than they have had in the past. As new issues become available, Newsstand automatically updates them in the background, showing the latest covers.
If driving “Likes” is an immediate goal of many Facebook campaigns, who among the social network’s 800 million users is mostly likely to click the Like button to signal affinity for a brand or other content? Social media marketing firm Vitrue provides some insight. The research focuses in particular on the consumer-packaged-goods category, based on an analysis of 40 CPG brand pages on Facebook. Women account for 65% of CPG Likes, while they make up 55% of the U.S. Facebook population overall and account for 57% of all Likes. This lends support to the notion that women are more apt to Like a CPG brand than men. “It is very interesting to note that older women make up a large percent of Likes for CPG brands than for average pages analyzed. My assumption is that older women tend to be the decision makers for CPG products in their family,” wrote Fred Stuk, Vitrue’s analytics manager, in the company’s blog. Looking at the Facebook audience more broadly, it’s clear that younger users tend to be overrepresented when it comes to Likes. For example, 13-17s account for 29% of Likes generally, although they only make up 6% of the U.S. Facebook population. Similarly, the 18-24 age group is 24% of the Facebook audience, but drives about 38% of Likes. By contrast, the 35-44 bracket makes up 28% of the audience, but only drives 8% of Likes. Stuck surmises that teens may simply be more “click happy,” than older users, or that they could be more inclined to engage with brand promotions that favorite brands run to drive fan growth. “Second, these teens might be a less expensive targeting option for ads, and thus, brands are getting more value, i.e., fans/clicks at a lower cost, than older age groups,” he noted. It also suggests that Likes generated by broadly targeted campaigns on Facebook could be diluted by an overabundance of responses from teen users. In addition, it’s also just more difficult to get users 35 and over to hit that Like button. So a campaign aimed at that demographic that entices more than 8% of users to do that would have to be considered successful, at least when it comes to Likes.
On Monday, Huffington Post launched its newest feature, a column about parenting called Parentlode and authored by Lisa Belkin, a longtime writer for The New York Times. That same day, NYT fired off a cease-and-desist letter to Huffington Post, arguing that the name "Parentlode" is too similar to the name the NYT used for the blog Belkin authored -- Motherlode. The NYT gave the Huffington Post until Thursday to respond or face potential legal action, says spokesperson Eileen Murphy. “We believe that the Huffington Post is intentionally trying to confuse the issue and associate themselves with the blog that originated at The New York Times,” Murphy says. She adds that the NYT plans to continue publishing the 3-year-old "Motherlode" blog, despite Belkin's departure. The newspaper has applied to trademark the term Motherlode. A spokesperson for AOL's Huffington Post said the company has no plans to change the name of Parentlode. Belkin says in her inaugural Huffington Post column that the name Parentlode better reflects the column's subject matter. “For three years, I have fielded reader emails about how 'Motherlode' doesn't really fit in an era when fathers are every bit the parent,” she wrote. “For three years, I have answered those emails by saying that a brand is a brand, and the NYT wasn't inclined to change this one, but if I were choosing today, I would choose something more inclusive. Seems I AM choosing today. So welcome to 'Parentlode.' ” But courts might not see that distinction as meaningful. Trademark lawyer Martin Schwimmer says that the NYT's trademark claim appears plausible, given the names' similarities. “It's not inconceivable that someone will confuse the two,” he says.
Open your eyes: we are entering a “post-targeting” period of marketing. It’s a new era. Over the past century, advertising has evolved quickly from roadside billboards to audience-targeted TV commercials to search engines like Google capturing buyer intent. Then came Web 2.0, and the only thing marketers and advertisers could think about was accessing users’ personal information -- seemingly the end of the line for targeted advertising. You want to reach people in San Francisco specifically? You’ve got it. Only men under the age of 30? Easy. Recently engaged women between the ages of 24 and 30? You must be a wedding planner. In the Facebook era, so much data and personalization has finally made advertising as targeted as it could possibly be. You have a product and you know your ideal customer, so you show your ideal customer the product. The end. But it's not the end. There is something beyond targeting, and it’s already becoming incredibly significant on social sites like Facebook and Twitter. It’s the collapsing of advertising directly into the social experience. The best example of this emerged most recently from Facebook, which is currently in the process of rolling out to its platform a brand new ad unit that perfectly embodies the convergence of social media and targeted advertising. In a nutshell, the expanded Premium Ad combines a brand's advertising message with the indispensable strength of a true social recommendation. In a visual example provided by Facebook, the user's friend Jim Squires has "liked" a movie just recently released to theaters. That's the social recommendation. Underneath the recommendation appears the originally sponsored content, a post on the Ides of March Fan Page calling attention to a rave review in Rolling Stone. While in Facebook's case, this feels like a natural extension of the company's advertising program, Twitter has tread more carefully when interweaving ads with the site's native social experience. It took until the end of August for the site to announce that it would be placing ads in users' time lines, whether or not the user follows the advertiser's Twitter account. The idea is that Twitter can match Promoted Tweets from an advertiser, like Virgin America, with users who share things in common with people who follow Virgin. These examples prove that Facebook and Twitter already understand that the key to building a robust and innovative ad platform requires combining social with advertising. Knowing so much about your users' interests is valuable only if you apply that data to advertising. More and more, as Facebook and Twitter flesh out each of their ad platforms, it will be up to brand marketers to recognize the convergence of social and advertising. It's already happening. A recent study published in eMarketer found that 74% and 47% of social media marketers think it is very important to have a presence on Facebook and Twitter, respectively. But they don't just seek to have a social media presence in isolation. They're splitting their budget pretty moderately between attracting new members and posting engaging content (the social aspect) and purchasing paid media (the advertising aspect). Long gone are the days where brands and businesses could think of their ad and social campaigns as two separate and distinct entities, and social media marketers are realizing this in droves. In 10 or 20 years, advertising will continue to transform as rapidly (if not more rapidly) than it has over the past two decades. As social media presence further entrenches its role in the art of marketing, we may even see the extinction of all ads that don’t incorporate social bits. After all, at the end of the day, there is nothing the most creative ad agency in the world could come up with to match the influencing power of a good friend’s recommendation.
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