IgnitionOne released support for Facebook Exchange in its Digital Marketing Suite (DMS) on Thursday. The function adds cross-channel capabilities, from search to display to social. Access to real-time bidding through the Facebook Exchange enhances the ability to present relevant Facebook ads based on first-party intent data, a well-known strategy by search marketers. Chris Knoch, vice president of strategic solutions at IgnitionOne, said DMS provides real-time bidding that allows marketers to bid only on impressions that meet key campaign criteria. It also allows for smart bidding logic to adjust bids based on various inputs, target users based on custom interest segments generated during a user's visit to a marketer's site, and add features like frequency caps, geotargeting and user recency targeting. IgnitionOne and other search marketing firms like Kenshoo and Marin Software continue to build out services to target ads on Facebook. The Facebook Exchange platform offers similarities in how display media works. Marketers can leverage remarketing tools and real-time bidding features, as well as audience and first- and third-party cookie data from eXelate and BlueKai. Facebook media buys in the marketplace are more similar to AdWords, complete with biddable media. Industry speculation continues to mount around Facebook's ability to build out a hybrid display ad platform that could also combine features familar in search. It would serve-up and target ads across the Web, similar to the Google Display Network. It may work if Facebook could avoid "crossing the creepy privacy line to serve Sponsored Stories-style socially contextual ads all over the Web," one executive said.
Premium content publishers are the best media for brand-focused advertising campaigns -- even better than social sites like Facebook. Some 63% of marketers believe premium content publishers do a better job of reaching brand goals, compared with 27% on social media, according to a new study by the Online Publishers Association (OPA). The "Branding on Display" study reveals how marketers view premium content publishers by reviewing the role that branding plays in online advertising. It analyzes agency and marketing priorities and goals, determining how brand advertisers perceive the effectiveness of different media types against these goals on publisher sites and social networks. The findings: 79% of marketers believe publishers do a better job of increasing consideration for branding goals versus 55% for social sites. Increasing brand preference received 84% versus 54%; improving brand favorability, 81% versus 54%; and increasing purchase intent, 78% versus 50%, respectively. Agencies and marketers report higher levels of satisfaction with campaigns running on premium content publisher sites at 78%, compared with Facebook at 51%. The OPA study provides insight into the role that branding plays in online advertising, as well as preferences of agency and marketer professionals when it comes to achieving objectives. The ability to measure ROI and brand recognition also ranked higher on premium content publisher sites, compared with campaigns running on Facebook. Some 55% of marketers said it is easier to measure the ROI of brand campaigns on premium content publisher sites, compared with 27% on Facebook. Brand lift measured 55% and 30%, respectively. The study shows that marketers believe premium content publishers are the best media for brand-focused advertising. Some 73% cite that it delivers the best target audience; 63% say it achieves the best branding objectives; and 61% say it provides the best media brand quality/image.
At Ad:tech NY on Wednesday, Shiv Singh, global head of digital at PepsiCo, said the company faces a real challenge with doing real-time social at scale. "We are a massive business, with our products in 97% of American households, so for something to truly resonate it has to be very big," he said. The company has focused on Twitter to support its evolution and launch of new Pepsi global positioning around "living life for the now," establishing Twitter's largest brand partnership to date. "The brand relaunch is about how to live in the current of culture, how to maximize the moment," he said. "We saw Twitter as a key anchor point." He said the days of big campaigns aren't enough. "We also found that when you put conversation at the center of ads, you get big results. You can't have strong push messages on social. The brand has to be in the current of culture and conversation." As part of the effort, Pepsi got access to Twitter data on how music is being consumed. "We have a strong heritage with music, and the more we associate with music, the more products we sell." The company created a 60-second minivideo recap of what had happened for the prior week on Twitter around music and created weekly tweet-sized, 50-second video mashups. "We've been doing that for a year. The second piece was to take a rising song and give out downloads." Third, the company organized and ran four major Twitter live-stream concerts, which were also streamed on Pepsi.com. Not only could viewers stream the concert on the social network, they could also influence it. "So for the first time on a massive scale we were able to program without TV. Also, with advertising on Twitter, we were able to see interesting engagement rates with." He said that among music enthusiasts on Twitter, 30% of them talked about Pepsi in 2012, versus around 13% in 2011.
IgnitionOne released support for Facebook Exchange in its Digital Marketing Suite (DMS) on Thursday. The function adds cross-channel capabilities, from search to display to social. Access to real-time bidding through the Facebook Exchange enhances the ability to present relevant Facebook ads based on first-party intent data, a well-known strategy by search marketers. Chris Knoch, vice president of strategic solutions at IgnitionOne, said DMS provides real-time bidding that allows marketers to bid only on impressions that meet key campaign criteria. It also allows for smart bidding logic to adjust bids based on various inputs, target users based on custom interest segments generated during a user's visit to a marketer's site, and add features like frequency caps, geotargeting and user recency targeting. IgnitionOne and other search marketing firms like Kenshoo and Marin Software continue to build out services to target ads on Facebook. The Facebook Exchange platform offers similarities in how display media works. Marketers can leverage remarketing tools and real-time bidding features, as well as audience and first- and third-party cookie data from eXelate and BlueKai. Facebook media buys in the marketplace are more similar to AdWords, complete with biddable media. Industry speculation continues to mount around Facebook's ability to build out a hybrid display ad platform that could also combine features familar in search. It would serve-up and target ads across the Web, similar to the Google Display Network. It may work if Facebook could avoid "crossing the creepy privacy line to serve Sponsored Stories-style socially contextual ads all over the Web," one executive said.
Premium content publishers are the best media for brand-focused advertising campaigns -- even better than social sites like Facebook. Some 63% of marketers believe premium content publishers do a better job of reaching brand goals, compared with 27% on social media, according to a new study by the Online Publishers Association (OPA). The "Branding on Display" study reveals how marketers view premium content publishers by reviewing the role that branding plays in online advertising. It analyzes agency and marketing priorities and goals, determining how brand advertisers perceive the effectiveness of different media types against these goals on publisher sites and social networks. The findings: 79% of marketers believe publishers do a better job of increasing consideration for branding goals versus 55% for social sites. Increasing brand preference received 84% versus 54%; improving brand favorability, 81% versus 54%; and increasing purchase intent, 78% versus 50%, respectively. Agencies and marketers report higher levels of satisfaction with campaigns running on premium content publisher sites at 78%, compared with Facebook at 51%. The OPA study provides insight into the role that branding plays in online advertising, as well as preferences of agency and marketer professionals when it comes to achieving objectives. The ability to measure ROI and brand recognition also ranked higher on premium content publisher sites, compared with campaigns running on Facebook. Some 55% of marketers said it is easier to measure the ROI of brand campaigns on premium content publisher sites, compared with 27% on Facebook. Brand lift measured 55% and 30%, respectively. The study shows that marketers believe premium content publishers are the best media for brand-focused advertising. Some 73% cite that it delivers the best target audience; 63% say it achieves the best branding objectives; and 61% say it provides the best media brand quality/image.
At Ad:tech NY on Wednesday, Shiv Singh, global head of digital at PepsiCo, said the company faces a real challenge with doing real-time social at scale. "We are a massive business, with our products in 97% of American households, so for something to truly resonate it has to be very big," he said. The company has focused on Twitter to support its evolution and launch of new Pepsi global positioning around "living life for the now," establishing Twitter's largest brand partnership to date. "The brand relaunch is about how to live in the current of culture, how to maximize the moment," he said. "We saw Twitter as a key anchor point." He said the days of big campaigns aren't enough. "We also found that when you put conversation at the center of ads, you get big results. You can't have strong push messages on social. The brand has to be in the current of culture and conversation." As part of the effort, Pepsi got access to Twitter data on how music is being consumed. "We have a strong heritage with music, and the more we associate with music, the more products we sell." The company created a 60-second minivideo recap of what had happened for the prior week on Twitter around music and created weekly tweet-sized, 50-second video mashups. "We've been doing that for a year. The second piece was to take a rising song and give out downloads." Third, the company organized and ran four major Twitter live-stream concerts, which were also streamed on Pepsi.com. Not only could viewers stream the concert on the social network, they could also influence it. "So for the first time on a massive scale we were able to program without TV. Also, with advertising on Twitter, we were able to see interesting engagement rates with." He said that among music enthusiasts on Twitter, 30% of them talked about Pepsi in 2012, versus around 13% in 2011.
You may or may not have noticed Instagram's announcement that it launched profile pages for a select number of users and brands this week. (Non-power-users, fear not: yours should be accessible in the next week or two.) But either way, it's a big deal. At first glance, it seems like a relatively "lite" launch: similar to Facebook's timeline release, you get a big image above your head (comprised of a composite of your photos), seven randomly selected recent images (sorry, no choice in the matter on this one), and a chronological display of your photos (like a Facebook timeline, you might even say). But first glances are usually short, blurry, and hard to describe. So let's take a second one. Why Instagram is way more than just stand-alone photos Instagram recently surpassed the 100-million-user mark. It's owned by Facebook. It might have facilitated the most photographed event in history over the past few weeks, as Sandy’s devastating impacts gave rise to more than 800,000 “#sandy”-tagged photos on the platform (Mashable bumps that figure up to 1.3 million when other superstorm-related hashtags are taken into account). Co-founder and CEO Kevin Systrom has pointed to "Big Data"-type visions, like "if you're in New York, knowing which stations have gas," and tracking where the highest concentration of Instagramming is happening in any given moment. The corollary, then, of brand-driven engagement also exploding should not be hard to envision. Think geographically targeted special offers, image-inspired contests, and viral friends-and-family photo-tagging campaigns. Scrupulous readers will note that Instagram is already facilitating major brand engagement. But here is the difference, and the reason why Instagram profiles are quite significant: most of a brand's Instagram-driven engagement today occurs on other platforms, like Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook (the last of which has promised Instagram users to keep their beloved service separate… ish). Let's say you're Nike, for example. You want to engage your audience around an Instagram-enriched photo stream of your sponsored athletes, right as they are heading into game time. And you would like to give away prizes to the users who create the most inspiring captions. With pre-profile Instagram, you can't. Why? Because, in pre-profile Instagram, you can only share individual photos with your existing subscribers. In other words, every image has its own, dedicated page. It is, in effect, siloed. The only way to truly create "brand engagement" using pre-profile Instagram is to share photos across your owned platforms, those that engender, well, the most engagement: Facebook (create a “game-time” app that allows people to caption the photos), Twitter (assign the photo stream a hashtag), and Pinterest (create a board featuring the best-captioned photos). The post-profile Instagram: Welcome to native brand engagement In the future, of course, you'll still want to engage multiple platforms. Now, however, with the launch of profiles, and with the assumption that Systrom’s ultimate vision far transcends the mere time-based and randomly selected photos that profiles currently display, the likelihood of native, brand-driven Instagram engagement becomes very real. Instagram, in other words, becomes its own full-blown engagement platform -- one worthy of a robust strategy, with its own complexities and necessary sensitivities to terms of service and nuanced rules of netiquette. Everyone has “Pinterest strategies,” and “Twitter strategies,” and “Facebook strategies” these days. Up until now, an “Instagram strategy” has usually consisted of choosing cool pictures to post to our owned channels. Friends, readers, colleagues: not any longer. The day Instagram made its investors happy Instagram is evolving. Facebook’s investment in the service now represents roughly $715 million, and it’s reasonable to assume that Mr. Zuckerberg will want to start making some of that money back in the not-too-distant future. Considering that nearly all of Facebook's revenue comes from advertising, and taking into account quotes from Systrom like “We're obviously very excited by the adoption of Instagram by the world’s major brands and we'll continue to build products that suit both them and users alike,” one need not be too radical of a visionary to portend that native, brand-sponsored Instagramming is not so far away. Call it the Image Economy, the Instagram Economy, the imagesphere -- whatever you want. Regardless of how you describe it, however, it’s time to start getting ready to put one more strategic playbook in your social marketing mix. Readers: what do you think? How close (or far away) are we to a brand- and advertising-driven Instagram? And how can Systrom keep his users happy while taking steps toward turning his fully free service into a money-making, investment-returning business?
Now that the election is over, our TV, computer and mobile screens will be bombarded with holiday shopping pitches. From a digital perspective, marketers will be competing to grab a share of the $54 billion that eMarketer predicts will be spent by consumers online this holiday season. Today, Hispanics make up 12% of the U.S. online market, which means they will spend approximately $6.5 billion. What should marketers know about Hispanic online shopping this holiday season? Hispanics are savvy and dedicated online shoppers and few marketers are targeting them, which represents a great opportunity. Let's take a look at the data. Hispanics Are More Likely to Shop Online A recent report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) found that 46% of online Hispanics 18+ regularly shop online compared to 43% of general market online users. Hispanics also over-index when it comes to researching products online prior to purchasing offline, with 48% of online Hispanics doing so regularly vs. 40% of general market online users. Retailers should pay particular attention to this and provide a seamless experience for online researchers to buy online. This could include buy-online – pick-up-in-store functionality, printable / downloadable product information and store locaters. So what are online Hispanics likely to buy this holiday season? The following data shows the percent of online Hispanics who researched a given category online compared to the general market.
I don’t know about you, but I still find myself in a post-Sandy hangover. I realize that makes this a prolonged condition, but today’s reason is the little Nor ‘easter, which, while David to Sandy’s Goliath, still dumped enough snow around here last night to delay the start of school until 10:30 a.m. As if having no school all of last week wasn’t enough! Side query: Does playing endless games of Monopoly count as math drills? The second reason this seems so prolonged is because more than a handful of my neighbors are still without power. For those keeping score, this is day 10. At that point, it gets a little harder for one’s pioneer spirit to dominate; it’s replaced by an insatiable urge to call our utility company, Con Edison, at all hours of the day and night. But, that tactic, it seems, is of little avail. The reason so many here remain in the dark, is, because, well, it looks like Con Ed went dark on them. The utility trucks were back in town this morning, after pressure from a variety of governmental officials; but a few days ago, when several hundred customers were still without power, they just disappeared without explanation. Rumors flew: The trucks had been called off to the city; Con Ed had run out of transformers and/or utility poles; the Con Ed workers had scared off non-union employees from other utilities. No one really knows. And, therein lies the genesis of today’s column: Con Edison is a big utility distributing electricity that, at the end of the day, is truly hyper-local, particularly when it comes to power outages. My neighbors three blocks down lost power at the same time we did; but our power has been back for a week while theirs is still missing in action. Those of us on the ground know exactly where the power is out, where the transformer is lying in the pile of leaves and how many utility poles have snapped like twigs. We know the exact location of every downed wire – not to mention every utility truck. And at times like this, Con Ed is also in the middle of inbound and outbound communication on a grand, but not necessarily effective, scale. Its outbound communications aren’t necessarily targeted, while the communication from customers dribbles into the customer service lines, one-by-one. In a crisis, accurate communication can be hard to come by, admittedly. And so, the, official communication from Con Ed has been at worst, lies, and at best, honest, but just plain wrong “information,” or information so vague as to be worthless. When someone tweeted yesterday about Pelham to the one-size-fits-all @conedison account, here was the reply: “Thanks. We're aware of the outages in Pelham, crews were there today and will cont to work this week to restore.” But here’s the thing. This is a small town with a community, that, as I’ve referenced before, has a very active social presence, particularly on Facebook. We know stuff, and we share it. Trust us, there were no trucks here in Pelham yesterday. This morning a power-less friend posted on Facebook that our state senator had been told by Con Ed that 75 homes had been restored as of yesterday, which is a pretty neat trick when there are no trucks around to do the work. “Fact or fiction?” she asked. Since people from every affected street weighed in, and no one said they’d gotten their power back, I think we can all assume the report was fiction. But to call Con Ed out on providing bad information is almost beside the point. What both sides need is better information, and they could actually help each other in that regard. Citizens should be able to crowdsource power outage information to Con Ed, in a strategy that would mirror something like CNN’s iReport. Meanwhile, Con Ed should conduct a more hyper-targeted social strategy that might help it avoid the constant customer service calls that seem to be an inefficient use of resources and the spread of rumors like the ones I detailed above. Part of the rub here is that Con Ed would need to be prepared to use the information it gathers from the community, something that a big lumbering utility may not be set up to do. But it might be worth the investment. Yesterday, a friend went around the community, taking pictures of damage to the electricity infrastructure that, of course, included no utility trucks, since they weren’t there. Her objective? To send the pictures along to our state representatives, so they could get on Con Ed’s case. The pressure apparently worked, because as I was typing this paragraph, I found out that my friend now has power!!! But should she really have had to appeal to state government? Wouldn’t it have been better all around if she could have sent those same photos to Con Ed, informing them of the situation, and ConEd had gotten on the case by themselves? Or at least offered up an honest explanation? A more sophisticated, socially centered, approach to disseminating and collecting information might have helped Con Ed avoid all that, and helped out its customers more quickly in the process.