Twitter's international focus grew Thursday with the appointment of two former Google execs. Shailesh Rao will serve as Twitter's vice president of international revenue, while Stephen McIntyre will support international expansion of Twitter's self-serve ad platform, which it plans to roll out in the U.S. next month. The plan is to grow ad revenue with the self-serve platform through promoted tweets and promoted accounts. eMarketer estimates that Twitter's global ad revenue should reach $540 million by 2014. Advertising revenue at Twitter grew 213% to $139.5 million in 2011 -- up from $45 million in 2010, according to the data firm, which estimates the social site will bring in another $259.9 million this year. Rao, former Google VP of media and platforms across Asia-Pacific, will set up Twitter's direct sales teams. Throughout his career, he supported YouTube, Google Display Network, DoubleClick Ad Exchange, and the mobile display business, including AdMob. McIntyre will support Twitter's self-service ad platform from Dublin -- a role similar to his position at Google for the past seven years in Ireland. The goal to get small businesses worldwide on its self-serve marketing platform and achieve the same influences as Google's AdWords and AdSense. Twitter will compete with Facebook globally. Facebook's worldwide ad revenue should exceed $5 billion this year to reach nearly $8 billion by 2014 -- more than double its 2011 revenue, eMarketer estimates. Growth will continue, although at a slower pace, dipping significantly in 2013 and 2014 to 32.8% and 13.7%. In the U.S., Facebook will garner $2.58 billion this year, contributing 51% of its total worldwide revenue. That’s down from 55% in 2011. It will drop further to 49% in 2013 and 2014 as international markets begin to contribute a larger share of ad revenue. This year, Facebook will account for 6.5% of all online ad revenues in the U.S., up from 5.4% in 2011. Its share will rise to 7.1% in 2013 and 2014, according to eMarketer.
Asserting that content has “passed the crown” from traditional media to online, Wall Street equity researcher Pivotal Research Group initiated coverage of three ad-supported jewels -- Google, Facebook and Yahoo -- with strong ratings. “The adage ‘content is a king’ was always somewhat subjective,’” writes Pivotal’s Brian Wieser, a long-time Madison Avenue forecaster who authored the report, adding: “But on the Web, the argument content is king is difficult if not impossible to make in the long-run, in our opinion: what is important are infrastructure, platforms and tools controlled by Google, Facebook and others.” Wieser assigned “buy” ratings to Google (his top Internet stock pick), and Yahoo, and hasn’t put an explicit rating on a still-pre-IPO Facebook yet, but estimated its “target value” as $81 billion. What those Big 3 Internet players have in common, Wieser said, is that they are not simply content–dependent, but are superior platforms for users to consume content, and have the best technologies for monetizing that with data about the users. “Advertisers are increasingly indifferent to the context in which messages appear, at least when compared with other media,” he explained, adding: “Vast and growing arrays of data ensure that audiences (or at least the data-driven attributes which imply the characteristics of any given advertising impression) become the most important basis for delivering commercial messages in the long run. Efficient re-aggregation of fragmented audiences also becomes increasingly critical.” Wieser said Google was Pivotal’s top pick among Internet stocks, because while “paid search remains a juggernaut,” he believes it is actually Google’s “strategic dominance in ad-tech” that makes it most valuable to investors. “Future growth of Internet-related advertising will ride on infrastructure, and Google owns much of it,” he asserted.
The country’s largest newspaper publisher plans to create online paywalls for scores of local community newspapers nationwide, according to Gannett Co. community publishing president Bob Dickey. As with other newspapers' online paywalls, Dickey said that visitors to Gannett’s 82 community newspaper Web sites will be able to see a certain amount of content for free -- probably in the range of five to 15 articles. After that, they will be asked to buy a monthly or yearly subscription for the digital product. Nine Gannett properties are already charging for online content. Six erected their paywalls in January, including The Poughkeepsie Journal in New York, the St. Cloud Times in MN, the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, SD, the News Journal in Wilmington, DE, Florida Today in Melbourne, FL, and the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, IN. Previously, the Tallahassee Democrat, the Greenville News in SC, and the Spectrum in St. George, UT all began charging for online access in 2010. Dickey didn’t say how much Gannett’s other local community papers might charge. However, he did say he expects it to increase subscription revenues by 25%, which could result in $100 million in additional earnings annually. Currently, Gannett has no plans to charge for online access to its national flagship newspaper, USA Today. Gannett is clearly working to put its community newspaper division on a firmer financial footing. Earlier this month, it offered early retirement to 665 community publishing employees, in what could be the largest reduction in the company’s workforce in several years. While Dickey emphasized that the offer is entirely voluntary, he hinted that the company may be forced to implement more drastic cost-cutting strategies, implicitly including layoffs. Gannett Co.’s total revenues have declined from $8.03 billion in 2006 to $5.24 billion in 2011 -- a 35% loss in five years. This is due mostly to a steep decline in publishing advertising revenue, from $5.37 billion to $2.51 billion over the same period -- a 53.3% decline. Total newspaper circulation revenues declined 17.2% from $1.28 billion in 2006 to $1.06 billion in 2011.
In another strong indication that the advertising recovery is sustainable, U.S. advertisers and agencies continue to be near their most confident levels of future ad-spending plans, according to the latest installment of the Advertiser Optimism Index from ad industry B-to-B researcher Advertiser Perceptions. The findings, which reflect the sentiment of advertisers and agencies surveyed during October and November 2011, show their second-highest levels of confidence to increase their ad budgets over the next year since the global economic recession began in 2008. While the index dropped two points from AP’s last semi-annual survey in the spring of 2011, it remains near its highest point overall, and individually for most of the major media. In fact, every major medium with the exception of broadcast TV -- which was flat -- and mobile -- which dropped one index point -- increased its level of optimism from the spring 2011 survey. While mobile dropped a point, it remains the highest overall index -- a 60 -- representing the difference in percentage points of respondents who said they were likely to increase, versus those who planned to decrease their ad budgets over the next 12 months. The overall “digital” category gained four points to an index of 52, and cable TV picked up two for an index of 21. Broadcast TV was flat at an index of 5. Magazines gained nine points to an index of 0. And while newspapers continue to be in negative territory, the medium improved six points to an index of -18. News of the improvement in U.S. advertising sentiment comes a day after U.K.-based WARC released an update of its worldwide ad-spending index indicating that the U.S. was helping to sustain a global advertising expansion across the globe, and news that another key ad market -- Japan -- was recovering dramatically from the ad market infrastructure issues caused by last year’s earthquake and tsunami.
News Corp. unveiled The Daily with much fanfare a year ago, with Rupert Murdoch himself on hand at the New York launch event for the ambitious iPad-only newspaper. The News Corp. chairman set the bar high from the start, saying The Daily would have to pull in 500,000 paying subscribers to be viable, given its weekly operating costs of $500,000. On its one-year anniversary earlier this month, the company announced the publication had amassed 100,000 paid subscribers to date, making it the third top-grossing iPad app in the iTunes Store last year. It’s now the top-grossing app. Still, the paid subscribers level to date is well below the half-million goal set by Murdoch last year. Speaking at MediaPost’s Tablet Revolution conference Thursday, Daily publisher Greg Clayman didn’t discuss whether the publication’s business model is sustainable, given the sizeable investment behind it. He stressed that the 100,000 subs The Daily has drawn so far shows that people are willing to pay for content. He pointed to the hundreds of thousands of digital subscribers The New York Times has attracted since putting up a paywall last year as further evidence of that point. Clayman also shared other user benchmarks. Of the 100,000 paid subs, he said 55% pay the annual rate of $39.99, and the rest pay the weekly subscription fee of 99 cents. The publication, which offers 120 pages of original content each day, has 250,000 monthly readers that each spend about 20 to 30 minutes a day with it. While The Daily launched with an emphasis on video and slick graphics, Clayman said video has proven an even bigger draw than expected. About 30% to 40% watch video regularly. “The typical reader is not the 24-year-old hipster living in Williamsburg, it’s their parents living in Royal Oak, Michigan, he said. Readers are likely to be in the 35-50 age range, highly educated, and with household incomes of $100,000 to $200,000 annually. They use the Internet more than the general population. When it comes to working with advertisers, he noted The Daily is increasingly trying to help brands standardize campaigns across different iPad magazines and newspapers. Clayman did not provide any ad revenue stats. The Daily is also pushing into custom publishing. It has already created a gadget guide, a publication tied to college football’s National Championship Game, and has in the works a guide for Rovio’s upcoming launch of “Angry Birds Space.”
Google, Apple, Research in Motion and other companies with app marketplaces have promised California Attorney General Kamala Harris that they will require developers to post privacy policies if their apps collect personal data from users. The mobile platforms also promised in a signed agreement with Harris to offer users an easy way to report developers that violate their privacy policies. Harris and the companies said in a joint statement the deal marks an attempt to "increase consumer privacy protections in the mobile marketplace." App platforms Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Amazon also signed. Harris said in the agreement that she believes mobile app developers must follow California's Online Privacy Protection Act, a 9-year-old law that requires online companies to post privacy policies if they collect "personally identifiable information" about state residents. Personally identifiable information includes people's names, phone numbers, email address, or any data that can be used to contact or locate people. The agreement between the platforms and Harris comes as mobile app developers are under fire for gathering and storing information from users without first notifying them. Last week, the Federal Trade Commission said in a report that apps aimed at children weren't providing enough information about their privacy practices. It also emerged in recent weeks that popular app developers were collecting or storing potentially sensitive information from users. Path and Hipster were caught downloading users' address books without first notifying them. Twitter, meanwhile, reportedly uploaded and stored iPhone users' address books after only obtaining permission to "scan" their contacts; the company intends to revise its language to ask users whether they want to "upload" or "import" their contacts, according to the Los Angeles Times. A recent survey by the think tank Future of Privacy Forum found that 66% of top free apps had privacy policies, while just 33% of top paid apps had such policies. The Mobile Marketing Association recently released an apps privacy framework that calls on developers to follow practices that will protect users' privacy. The privacy company TRUSTe said Thursday that it offers mobile app developers a free service that allows them to generate privacy policies.
Cambridge, MA-based start-up Swoop is launching a new service that lets Web publishers and advertisers show relevant local offers to consumers at the right time. Formerly Shopximity, Swoop is kicking off the service with a focus on local food offers. For example, if someone is browsing a recipe that calls for butter, Swoop would show an alert about a sale on butter at local stores or a manufacturer coupon for a discount. A user could then click on a link to open a window that shows all the local deals or other related information. People can even use the system to create shopping lists and specify stores they’re interested in by Zip code. At present, all the information on deals comes from weekly circulars published by local supermarkets or other food stores. Integrating Swoop only requires publishers inserting a piece of Javascript code at the bottom of their sites. The idea is that they get free content, which keeps users on the site longer and generates a new, search-like revenue stream. Marketers get access to potential customers at the exact moment someone has shown an interest in their product or service. How does Swoop know what offers to present, and when? Essentially, its software uses natural language processing and semantic technology to understand what the user is reading at a micro level and then combines that with search terms or the general context of an article, plus any information a user has provided, like a Zip code. “Fundamentally it is a technology that brings the power of online search and discovery to Web content,” said Swoop founder and CEO Ron Elwell. The company plans to expand the service beyond food to other industry verticals over time. Kristine Welker, chief revenue officer at Hearst, stated an interest in "how Swoop can integrate with our existing content." For now, the company isn’t charging publishers or advertisers to use the Swoop technology. But Elwell says Swoop plans to charge advertisers on a per-engagement basis. For a brand like Smart Balance, it might show the recipe browser a message asking if they’re interested in a “heart-healthy alternative” to butter as an ingredient. If the user clicks on the link, it will open a larger landing page with information on the brand’s spread and why it’s better for you. "In the end it is very much like search -- the user chooses to engage with the sponsored content, and that’s when we get paid," said Elwell. Until the revenue begins flowing, Swoop has $4.8 million in venture funding that it raised last year from investors, including US Venture Partners and General Catalyst, to help finance operations.
In its annual “Mobile Future In Focus” report, comScore highlights the mainstreaming of smartphones, the emergence of tablets as a viable fourth screen and the growing integration of mobile into consumer lifestyles. The Web research firm reported that mobile media use -- defined as browsing the mobile Web, accessing applications, or downloading content -- has surpassed the 50% level in many markets. The growth of app use outpaced mobile browsers last year, but both ended up with the same level of adoption: about 47.5% of mobile owners used both formats. Health ranked as the fastest-growing mobile media category in the U.S., followed by retail and other commerce-related categories, such as electronic payments and auction sites. The most popular apps for the iPhone included YouTube, Google Maps, Facebook, Yahoo Weather and Pandora. Google apps were featured more heavily among Android users’ favorites, including Google Search, Gmail, Google Maps, Facebook and Google News and Weather. When it comes to mobile shopping, comScore found that more than half of U.S. smartphone owners used their phone to research products while inside a store last year. (Mobile retail data released by Nielsen Wednesday estimated that 38% are doing in-store research.) By year’s end, nearly 1 in 5 smartphone users scanned product barcodes and almost 1 in 8 compared prices. Social networking has also spread to smartphones. More than 64 million smartphone users accessed social networking sites or blogs on their phones at least once in December; more than half are doing so every day. People most often read posts from friends. But comScore said more than half of those who are social networking via mobile are reading posts from brands, organizations and events. The findings also underscore how quickly tablets are gaining traction. In less than two years, mobile users have snapped up 40 million tablets -- a threshold that it took smartphones seven years to reach. That translates to almost 15% of U.S. mobile users owning a tablet at the end of 2011. A Pew survey released last month had a somewhat higher estimate, finding that tablet ownership among U.S. adults nearly doubled to 19% over the holidays.
It’s no secret that 18- to-34-year-olds continue to redefine media consumption; new Nielsen research explains why. Along with NM Incite, Nielsen found this demo -- christened “Generation C” -- is taking their personal connections to new levels, devices, and experiences. The latest U.S. Census reports that consumers 18-34 make up 23% of the U.S. population, yet they represent a particularly large portion of consumers watching online video -- 27% -- visiting social networking/blog sites -- 27% -- owning tablets -- 33% -- and using a smartphone -- 39%. With an array of online video content to choose from, consumers increased their monthly online video time in the third quarter of 2011 by 7% from the same period last year. During October 2011, YouTube was the top destination for online video content, accounting for nearly half -- 45% -- of Americans’ total streaming time, while social networks/blogs garnered the most Internet time overall. The majority of mobile phone time was consumed by app usage, with social networking apps -- accounting for the nearly 6% of mobile time. Consumers are increasingly multitasking across various screens. Fifty-seven percent of smartphone and tablet owners checked email while watching a TV program -- their top activity -- while 44% visited a social networking site. Advertisers that are worried consumers might miss their message should note that 19% of smartphone and tablet owners searched for product information, and 16% looked up coupons or deals while the television was on. While nearly all social media users -- 97% -- access social networking sites from their computers, NM Incite, a Nielsen McKinsey company, found that females are more likely than men to read social media content from their eReaders, while men are more likely than women to access their social content from an Internet-enabled TV or gaming console. Also of note, by the end of 2011, NM Incite tracked over 181 million blogs around the world -- up from 36 million in 2006. Three of the top 10 social networks in the U.S. during October of 2011 were true blogs -- Blogger, WordPress.com and Tumblr -- with a combined 80 million unique visitors. Among the top social networks, Tumblr has shown the strongest growth in visitors, more than doubling its audience from last year. Mobile, meanwhile, is transforming into a powerful commerce tool, facilitating consumer transactions and access to real-time information and deals. Twenty-nine percent of smartphone owners use their phone for shopping-related activities and more than half of mobile users are repeat visitors to daily deal sites. The Groupon app is the 10th most popular app on the iOS platform and ranks 22nd on Android devices. Finally, Nielsen warns that home entertainment landscape is becoming increasingly complex as consumers are presented with a greater variety of ways to consume content, especially with the addition of digital streaming and movie downloads via the Web.
Devotees of this space will recall that I wrote about the use of facial recognition technology in advertising about two years ago, when NEC thought it had perfected the idea. Now comes word of a new advertising campaign in London where an "intelligent" bus stop billboard only displays its content to women. Apparently, the billboard has a camera that scans bypassers -- and if one stops to look, it determines their gender and shows them a 40-second video if they are female. Males only get a link to the advertiser’s website. The advertiser, a nonprofit organization trying to raise money for the education of girls in third-world countries, says it purposely doesn’t show the ad to men to give them “a glimpse of what it’s like to have basic choices taken away.” I’m not sure anyone would feel that NOT seeing an ad is somehow a violation of their "basic choices." On the contrary, they would probably be thrilled to be on the don't-get-to-see list. Now if the advertiser were really smart, at the end of the video it would, with a wink, tell the audience to spread the word that the video featured a slow striptease by, say, Brooklyn Decker. That would ignite angry charges of gender bias in advertising and cause a riot of demand that men be "treated equally." And long lines of men would wait at bus stops to peer over the shoulder of a woman granted access to the video. Since the era of global terrorism has put a surveillance camera on just about every rooftop and light pole in the world, it would be kinda pointless to argue that being screened for your gender by a camera on a bus stop has privacy implications, but you can bet somebody will bring it up. Probably the one who was staggering down the street after a five-martini lunch at a nearby cafe with the Brazilian bodybuilder "client," who the husband has been led to believe is a harmless old queen from Vauxhall. On the one hand, it is pretty cool when MI-5 (best import from the BBC until Downton) is tracking a bad guy. They can magically access camera feeds from nearly anywhere, so that they know where to send Lucas and Beth. But if, in the middle of a serene nose pick, bra adjustment or crotch scratch, you pause to realize that either/or is now on a hard drive somewhere waiting to be discovered -- and, who knows, in the U.K., sold to the neared Murdoch-owned newspaper -- suddenly the idea of 24/7 camera coverage seems, well, less cool. Now on top of that, you find out that it wasn't a police security camera that gave you up, but a camera there solely for the task of deciding to serve you a video advertisement or not -- and suddenly the issue of privacy looms very large. You can somehow rationalize away the security-related violations -- as you do now, knowing that TSA body scanners are stripping you bare each pass-through -- but having your face scanned for the greater glory of consumption seems somewhat over the line. But is it any worse than store cameras that study your every move down the aisle to see what induces you to reach here instead of there? You think the cameras are just there to catch shoplifters. It is one thing when you are enlisted to have your eyeballs scanned as they read a page or watch a screen. It is something altogether discomforting to know that you are being secretly watched in order to sell you more laundry detergent. It is often said about the advance of technology, "Just because you can do it, doesn't mean you should do it." I think marketers need to take this sentiment seriously -- because if they don't, legislators will.
None of us would agree to play a card game with cards missing from the deck. We would know that the odds of winning would be significantly diminished. Yet surprisingly, many marketers are willing to implement marketing programs sans analytics. In the past few weeks I have attended several marketing conferences. At each event, marketers are talking enthusiastically about how to make Web sites, SEO, social, email campaigns, and mobile better. There is very little conversation about how to be smarter. Analytics is an essential card -- actually an ace -- in every marketer's deck for enabling fact-based decisions and improving performance, and for being smarter. While the ace alone has value, when played with other cards its power is truly revealed. And when it comes to analytics, the other card is data. Yes -- we have all heard the common complaint about the elusiveness of quality data. Unfortunately, data quality has been an issue in organizations for so long that it has now become the ready excuse for why marketers cannot perform analytics. To harness the power of your analytics card, identify your data issues and create a plan to address them. Another reason that you may overlook this missing card in your deck is that guessing or gut instinct has been working well enough. Unfortunately, this approach may not suffice in the long term and your “luck” may run out as organizations push to make “smart” decisions. As marketers, analytics is our opportunity to actively contribute to fact-based decisions. Through analytics, marketers achieve new insights about customers, markets, products, channels, and marketing strategy, programs and mix. It also enables marketing to help improve performance, competitiveness, and market and revenue growth. As the importance of analytics gains momentum, marketers with analytical acumen will be in great demand. According to some resources, the complexities of data analysis and management are becoming so enormous that there is a shortage of people who are able to conduct analysis and present the results as actionable information. Taking the initiative and honing your analytical capabilities will enable you to make sure you have this ace in the deck -- and preferably, in your hand. Most of us are already working with a time and resource deficit. Try to find a way each quarter to bolster you analytical skills. Attend a conference, read a book, take a class, and bring in experts you can learn from. Here are some key analytical concepts and skills to add: