Continuing its acquisition tear, Sprinklr has agreed to buy social marketing veteran TBG Digital. The social media management firm said the addition of TBG Digital will give clients a much clearer picture of cross-channel media spends, and paid media in particular. “The big question is, where does the money go?” said Jeremy Epstein, vice president of marketing at Sprinklr. “TBG helps brands figure that out.” The deal -- financial terms were not disclosed -- will add about 100 employees to Sprinklr’s existing workforce of about 400, Epstein said. Post-acquisition, Sprinklr will boast more than 650 enterprise brands, including GM, Virgin America, Samsung, and Microsoft, and process more than $100 million in annual media spend. Aggressively taking market share, Sprinklr picked up Dachis Group and its social analytics and optimization technology earlier this year. Dachis’s social consulting practice was also added to Sprinklr’s services enablement practice. At the time of the deal, Sprinklr CEO Ragy Thomas estimated that it would have taken 12 to 15 months to build offerings comparable to Dachis’. Analysts say such deals shouldn’t come as a surprise. In fact, over the next year or two, social-media management firms -- including technology vendors and agencies -- will shrink from roughly 200 to less than 24, according to Mukul Krishna, digital media industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan. “Consolidation is definitely needed -- and definitely happening,” Krishna told Social Media & Marketing Daily, earlier this year. “The market is extremely fragmented and filled with vendors and agencies promising to manage everything, which is BS.” Other notable tie-ups in the space include Lithium Technologies’ agreement to buy Klout for a reported $200 million, and, more recently, Mass Relevance merging with Spredfast. More broadly, Forrester Research has predicted that social media will have the highest cumulative aggregate growth rate across all channels through 2014. Last November, Sprinklr completed a $17.5 million Series C funding round led by Battery Ventures and Intel Capital. With the raise, the company then set out to add another 100 employees by mid-to-late 2014, and continue its international expansion.
In May, Mars Chocolate North America launched a campaign supporting its new Twix Bites, which offered funny excuses for why it took so long for the brand to think of offering bite-sized versions of the popular candy. Now, Twix and agency BBDO New York are extending the campaign with videos that tie into the "Throwback Thursday" trend, wherein each Thursday, users post photos of past events on Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter or Facebook, using hashtags including #TBT. Twix reports that videos will be released each Thursday "as part of the naturally occurring #TBT dialogue," and promoted with a cross-platform digital campaign on the brand’s social channels. Two new 30-second videos, using '90s phenomena to offer tongue-in-cheek excuses for why Twix Bites weren't introduced during that decade, have already been released. In one, an executive using a dial-up connection waits for hours for a download of Twix Bites plans to finish, only to have the download aborted by a co-worker's using the phone line to call to his wife. Another video plays off the Y2K scare, showing a crazed male co-worker destroying a desktop on which another executive has stored her plan for Twix Bites, as he screams: "We've got to destroy the computers before they destroy us." The campaign also includes print creative that offers an 800 number (1-844-WHY-SO-LONG) that fans can call to hear more, year-by-year excuses for why it took so long to come up with Twix Bites. The 800 number was set up when the campaign launched in May. Two 30-second TV ads that were also introduced in May, which spoof the ‘80s ("Hairspray" and "Walkman"), are also continuing to air. "Walkman" will run during the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards.
Ask.com, owned by IAC/InteractiveCorp, said Thursday it acquired Ask.fm, a question and answer (Q&A) social network, signaling another move to integrate search and social. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. About 40% of Ask.fm's global community is under the age of 18. The social network, which prides itself on core values like trust and mutual respect, supports more than 180 million unique members in about 150 countries, with the largest base in the United States. The site also respects anonymity to foster uninhibited, truthful conversations, per the company's. It aims to encourage original opinions and build self-confidence -- but living up to those promises becomes challenging. Signing on to the site as a new user immediately brings up several questions: Do you talk to yourself? What is the best invention ever? What do you see from your window? The site allows users to type in their answer, post a picture or record a video answer. CEO Doug Leeds believes Ask.com can add tools and moderators to curb undesirable chatter and nasty comments. The site generates an estimated 20,000 questions per minute with approximately 45% of its mobile monthly active members logging in daily. To date, the mobile app has been downloaded more than 40 million times. While the site has grown in popularity, attracting today's youth, safeguards surrounding the social site's use by minors has not kept pace. With Ask.fm's founders stepping aside, relinquishing control of the company's future operations and equity stake, Ask.com will move forward to tighten terms of service. Ask.com has appointed digital safety veteran Catherine Teitelbaum, former director of global safety and product policy for Yahoo, to the newly created role of Chief Trust and Safety Officer at Ask.fm. Digital safety expert and youth advocate Annie Mullins will lead Ask.fm's safety efforts in the United Kingdom and Europe, working closely with Teitelbaum. The appointments highlight an agreement between Ask.com's parent company IAC/InterActive Corp. and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler to implement a set of best practices focused on increasing the safety of the Ask.fm service.
Advertising isn’t one medium or another anymore -- and a new campaign from Hewlett-Packard and ad agency 180 LA blends emerging media with traditional to create an entirely new hybrid. "The agency had to push ourselves to innovate and think about how we best showcase a new medium within an established one," says William Gelner, chief creative officer of 180LA. The "Bend The Rules" campaign was initially designed to live through social media. 180LA worked with the management company Niche that represents popular “videographers” to select and book five influential personalities who post on the Vine platform. Each Viner then created a six-second clip to highlight Hewlett-Packard's convertible PC, the x360 Pavilion, a tablet computer that can bend and fold upon itself. The premise was to showcase the flexibility of the computer and its applications with fellow “rule benders.” The campaign was tagged with #BendTheRules and ran across social media channels. However, one Vine video from Robby Ayala became a viral hit, with more than 10 million views. This video shows him watching a girl use her HP tablet and then allowing him to think his regular computer can fold as well. He ends up breaking it. Then, 180LA quickly pivoted to capitalize on this viral success by developing a traditional TV spot. There was no original intention to make a TV ad out of Vines, but seeing the success of the online campaign sparked the idea of expanding the campaign’s reach through TV, say 180LA executives. Transforming the videos to a traditional TV spot was conducted in a compressed time frame. After the video was originally posted July 16, 180LA developed a concept, produced a 30-second spot, and posted online August 8th that began airing August 11th. The Connected ad is the first TV ad made entirely in the setting of Vine. The ad links each Vine personality as the x360 tablet computer bends and travels through each individual's video in a choreographed continuum, all set within the Vine user experience. "For a campaign called ‘Bend The Rules’ we thought ‘let’s really do it,’” says Gelner. “We took a digital execution and brought it to TV. You usually see it the other way around." 180LA has worked with HP since 2013. The commercial can be viewed here. More of the #BendTheRules greater campaign is available here.
Continuing its acquisition tear, Sprinklr has agreed to buy social marketing veteran TBG Digital. The social media management firm said the addition of TBG Digital will give clients a much clearer picture of cross-channel media spends, and paid media in particular. “The big question is, where does the money go?” said Jeremy Epstein, vice president of marketing at Sprinklr. “TBG helps brands figure that out.” The deal -- financial terms were not disclosed -- will add about 100 employees to Sprinklr’s existing workforce of about 400, Epstein said. Post-acquisition, Sprinklr will boast more than 650 enterprise brands, including GM, Virgin America, Samsung, and Microsoft, and process more than $100 million in annual media spend. Aggressively taking market share, Sprinklr picked up Dachis Group and its social analytics and optimization technology earlier this year. Dachis’s social consulting practice was also added to Sprinklr’s services enablement practice. At the time of the deal, Sprinklr CEO Ragy Thomas estimated that it would have taken 12 to 15 months to build offerings comparable to Dachis’. Analysts say such deals shouldn’t come as a surprise. In fact, over the next year or two, social-media management firms -- including technology vendors and agencies -- will shrink from roughly 200 to less than 24, according to Mukul Krishna, digital media industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan. “Consolidation is definitely needed -- and definitely happening,” Krishna told Social Media & Marketing Daily, earlier this year. “The market is extremely fragmented and filled with vendors and agencies promising to manage everything, which is BS.” Other notable tie-ups in the space include Lithium Technologies’ agreement to buy Klout for a reported $200 million, and, more recently, Mass Relevance merging with Spredfast. More broadly, Forrester Research has predicted that social media will have the highest cumulative aggregate growth rate across all channels through 2014. Last November, Sprinklr completed a $17.5 million Series C funding round led by Battery Ventures and Intel Capital. With the raise, the company then set out to add another 100 employees by mid-to-late 2014, and continue its international expansion.
There has been recent speculation that brands would begin to quit Facebook. Until recently, however, that appeared to be all it was -- talk. Now that brands are achieving social success beyond Facebook, a lot of people are commenting on the scenario as if it's something Facebook should be worried about. They are wrong -- very wrong. We'll get to why in a moment; first some background. The argument against Facebook was that although nobody liked reaching a single-digit percentage of their "fans," there wasn't a whole lot of choice. But as Marketing has been reporting, brands are actually now discovering there is a choice. The example of Burberry getting more engagement on Instagram than on Facebook, despite having a following seven times higher on Facebook, is very telling. Then there's Red Bull -- which, in June, had twenty times more engagement than Coca-Cola on Facebook, although it had a far smaller following. In fact, June's figures show a very odd set of results for Coca-Cola. Despite getting more than half the new likes in the non-alcoholic drinks category for the month -- in which it was a Fifa World Cup sponsor -- it got a negligible proportion of engagement. Instead, Nescafe and Pepsi each got just over and just under a third of all engagement in the sector, although they only have a 9 and 15 percent share of total "likes" in the category. The point? Although a brand can clearly punch above its "like" weighting, a huge following does not equate to huge engagement when Facebook's algorithm withholds posts from the vast majority of fans. It was a point made by Eat 24 in a humorous blog breakup letter with Facebook. In a lighthearted tone, the food company basically gave up trying to figure out Facebook's algorithm and deciding to stick with Twitter and Instagram instead. Forbes and The Wall Street Journal have constantly questioned brands' love for Facebook, and now it would appear that some are most definitely trying out alternatives. Yet Facebook continues to grow -- and according to Matthew Burns, co-founder of eBench, this is generally a result of brands that have not built a following elsewhere and from emerging markets where Facebook is often the only game in town. So when given the choice of alternatives, and if a large following can be built on those alternatives, brands are actively exploring organic reach there. While this is almost certainly true, it isn't representative of the whole, wider picture. I'm not a fan of Facebook's algorithm tweaks, but when you look at it clinically, it's a master stroke for the money men at the social media giant. The experiments just mentioned -- of people getting great engagement on other platforms -- are almost certainly all about organic. Do we really think Facebook is in the slightest bit worried that other sites are giving away a larger free lunch? Surely not when Facebook is still getting away with giving away a free starter and then charging for a decent main, and a pudding too with those who have the budget. Here's the thing. Forget the social aspect of the site -- that's the entree. Facebook has switched tactics to set itself up as an advertising destination. It really is that simple. I can lament about what's happened to a brand's following -- but the money men at the site, I rather suspect, are more than happy to cut back on the freebie element as long as the advertising dollars are still there. Judging by the continued healthy figures from Facebook, they are. Engagement figures on other sites will almost certainly not register concern at Facebook because it is almost certainly happy to see rivals give away as much reach as possible -- as long as brands keep paying to promote to a wider audience on its own social network. Facebook isn't counting free lunches, it's counting income.
In May, Mars Chocolate North America launched a campaign supporting its new Twix Bites, which offered funny excuses for why it took so long for the brand to think of offering bite-sized versions of the popular candy. Now, Twix and agency BBDO New York are extending the campaign with videos that tie into the "Throwback Thursday" trend, wherein each Thursday, users post photos of past events on Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter or Facebook, using hashtags including #TBT. Twix reports that videos will be released each Thursday "as part of the naturally occurring #TBT dialogue," and promoted with a cross-platform digital campaign on the brand’s social channels. Two new 30-second videos, using '90s phenomena to offer tongue-in-cheek excuses for why Twix Bites weren't introduced during that decade, have already been released. In one, an executive using a dial-up connection waits for hours for a download of Twix Bites plans to finish, only to have the download aborted by a co-worker's using the phone line to call to his wife. Another video plays off the Y2K scare, showing a crazed male co-worker destroying a desktop on which another executive has stored her plan for Twix Bites, as he screams: "We've got to destroy the computers before they destroy us." The campaign also includes print creative that offers an 800 number (1-844-WHY-SO-LONG) that fans can call to hear more, year-by-year excuses for why it took so long to come up with Twix Bites. The 800 number was set up when the campaign launched in May. Two 30-second TV ads that were also introduced in May, which spoof the ‘80s ("Hairspray" and "Walkman"), are also continuing to air. "Walkman" will run during the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards.
Welcome to the new age of influence, where 20-something content creators on Vine can make as much as $20,000 for a 6-second video and Millennial fashionistas can earn six figures for their stylish outfits on Instagram. According to metric provider OpenSlate, 24-year old YouTube sensation PewDiePie, who narrates and records his gaming sessions, earns an estimated $5.4M per year from brands who advertise on his YouTube channel, which has 26.7 million subscribers. PewDiePie is part of multichannel network Maker Studios, which was acquired by Disney earlier this year for $500 million to help promote their films and digital properties to younger audiences. For the first time in history, consumers know more about a marketing channel than brands do. Brands are spending millions of dollars trying to build audiences on visual social platforms like Instagram, Vine and YouTube. Ironically, for 18-33 year olds born into the digital revolution, creating and sharing content on social media is second nature. And for the very tech-savvy, selfie-absorbed generation of Millennials, it also means big bucks. The power these social content creators have on the purchase behaviors of their peers has spawned an entire industry of multichannel networks designed to broker that influence to brands. And it’s no surprise that many of the entrepreneurs who are launching these networks are Millennials themselves. 28-year-old Eric Dahan co-founded InstaBrand, a startup that connects brands to influencers on Instagram and Vine. Retailers like Levi’s, American Apparel and Fossil have tapped his network to expand their reach to young shoppers. Honda, Coach and Samsung have engaged NY-based Mobile Media Lab to grow their Instagram reach among mobile consumers. “Millennials are more DIY than any other generation before and they’ve been able to brand themselves more, too. “ says 27-year-old co-founder Anthony Danielle. The average Mobile Media Lab influencer earns about $3,500 and some high-profile Instagramers earn as much as $19,000 in a year from their images and videos. When it comes to retail therapy, watching other people buy makeup, jumpers, and jewelry is just as popular as actual shopping. Haulers, an exploding genre of YouTube influencers, are trend-obsessed fashion vloggers who create videos of their shopping “hauls” and showcase their loot to their Gen Y and Gen Z subscribers. There are estimated to be over 1 million Hauler channels on YouTube. Want to reach fashion-hungry female shoppers watching haul videos? StyleHaul represents over 4700 YouTube fashion channels and works with beauty brands like Sephora, Maybelline and Tresemme. CA-based Big Frame not only helps consumer brands like Pepsi and Cover Girl drive awareness on YouTube, they help influencers grow their careers with tools that help them develop their audiences. What Do Social Influencers Have That Brands Don’t? Millennial influencers have some distinct advantages that brands do not, including larger communities of followers, trust from consumers, authentic personal experience, and expertise on a variety of social networks. 28-year-old Big Frame account executive Jessica Worthen said it best, “Millennials are all about staying true to themselves and celebrating what makes them unique. These attributes come across in the authenticity of their content.” These influencers are very effective at starting, sharing and spreading online conversations, which is incredibly valuable to brands.
Ask.com, owned by IAC/InteractiveCorp, said Thursday it acquired Ask.fm, a question and answer (Q&A) social network, signaling another move to integrate search and social. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. About 40% of Ask.fm's global community is under the age of 18. The social network, which prides itself on core values like trust and mutual respect, supports more than 180 million unique members in about 150 countries, with the largest base in the United States. The site also respects anonymity to foster uninhibited, truthful conversations, per the company's. It aims to encourage original opinions and build self-confidence -- but living up to those promises becomes challenging. Signing on to the site as a new user immediately brings up several questions: Do you talk to yourself? What is the best invention ever? What do you see from your window? The site allows users to type in their answer, post a picture or record a video answer. CEO Doug Leeds believes Ask.com can add tools and moderators to curb undesirable chatter and nasty comments. The site generates an estimated 20,000 questions per minute with approximately 45% of its mobile monthly active members logging in daily. To date, the mobile app has been downloaded more than 40 million times. While the site has grown in popularity, attracting today's youth, safeguards surrounding the social site's use by minors has not kept pace. With Ask.fm's founders stepping aside, relinquishing control of the company's future operations and equity stake, Ask.com will move forward to tighten terms of service. Ask.com has appointed digital safety veteran Catherine Teitelbaum, former director of global safety and product policy for Yahoo, to the newly created role of Chief Trust and Safety Officer at Ask.fm. Digital safety expert and youth advocate Annie Mullins will lead Ask.fm's safety efforts in the United Kingdom and Europe, working closely with Teitelbaum. The appointments highlight an agreement between Ask.com's parent company IAC/InterActive Corp. and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler to implement a set of best practices focused on increasing the safety of the Ask.fm service.
Professor Harold Hill was a sham, but he at least could show his "contributors" some real musical instruments. Fundraising for a cause is pitching an invisible trombone. There will be no River City Boys Band here. And if the charity funds research and patient care for a condition like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a.k.a. Lou Gehrig's disease, the sell is a tad harder. There is no cure, and when such is the case it is much easier for would-be donors to recoil, almost reflexively, from the solicitation -- either from atavistic fear or from the go-to rationalization: "What's the point. My money can do no good here. I'll spend it on the marching band." Every one of the 5,600 new ALS diagnoses per year is a bucket of ice water down the back of the patient getting the news, but the American Cancer Society expects 1,665,540 new cancer diagnoses for 2014. And there is an array of heart diseases, other neurological syndromes like MS, there's COPD, incontinence and on and on -- and every single one of them has a foundation asking you for money right now. Check your inbox. On the other hand, individual donations to ALS will go further than the same donation to the American Cancer Society. A Boston ALS patient, former Boston College baseball player Pete Frates, has gone very far, and done a huge service to the ALS Association, with his social media campaign called the "Ice Bucket Challenge" (#IceBucketChallenge) that you, reader, already know about. And the fact that you know about it, and may have joined it already, and certainly know that Mr./Ms. (name a celebrity, athlete, politician, movie star, comedian, talk show host, fashion icon, religious leader, noted author) has dunked him/herself in full view of Twitterdom, also shows the power of social media to propagate an idea extremely fast. ALS Association spokesperson Carrie Munk (who has probably been interviewed more times this past couple of weeks than the Dalai Lama) told me that the organization can only marvel at what Frates was able to achieve with a simple social media gesture. “Only marvel” because it can't be repeated by the organization itself. Jacob Davidson, however, makes an interesting point in a column in Time. He rightly points out that there’s some self-serving afoot with this campaign. Indeed, some of these videos border on pure narcissism, and even self aggrandizement, or maybe both, as you can see here. It’s really, for many of these people, not about the disease at all -- it’s about me, which is kind of what social media is about, right? He also notes that most people who accept the challenge to post videos of themselves getting an ice water shower never really mention ALS. The other thing is that it really is kind of an "out." You are challenged to take the dunk. If you don't, you donate to the association. Therefore, everyone pictured getting iced is presumably not donating. Yes, but the numbers don't lie. Frates has beaten the association's own donation numbers: over 70,000 new donors; $2.3 million compared with $25,000 in donations July 29 to Aug. 12 versus the period last year. Four million dollars versus $1.1 million if you include local chapters. Munk says the association does the tried-and-true approaches, such as matching donations, and most donations are individual. She adds that the Ice Bucket Challenge offers substantially the same kind of hook the association employs with individual donors throughout the year, "which is about connection to the cause. Although the Ice Bucket Challenge is a little different because it has a friend-to-friend challenge." And, she concedes, it's a tactic that the association can't easily adopt. "I can tell you that one reason it is so successful is because it started so organically by a person with ALS. Could it be created by our charity or another? It's one of those amazing things that happened that shows the power of social media, and I find it hard to believe that we could do it."
Advertising isn’t one medium or another anymore -- and a new campaign from Hewlett-Packard and ad agency 180 LA blends emerging media with traditional to create an entirely new hybrid. "The agency had to push ourselves to innovate and think about how we best showcase a new medium within an established one," says William Gelner, chief creative officer of 180LA. The "Bend The Rules" campaign was initially designed to live through social media. 180LA worked with the management company Niche that represents popular “videographers” to select and book five influential personalities who post on the Vine platform. Each Viner then created a six-second clip to highlight Hewlett-Packard's convertible PC, the x360 Pavilion, a tablet computer that can bend and fold upon itself. The premise was to showcase the flexibility of the computer and its applications with fellow “rule benders.” The campaign was tagged with #BendTheRules and ran across social media channels. However, one Vine video from Robby Ayala became a viral hit, with more than 10 million views. This video shows him watching a girl use her HP tablet and then allowing him to think his regular computer can fold as well. He ends up breaking it. Then, 180LA quickly pivoted to capitalize on this viral success by developing a traditional TV spot. There was no original intention to make a TV ad out of Vines, but seeing the success of the online campaign sparked the idea of expanding the campaign’s reach through TV, say 180LA executives. Transforming the videos to a traditional TV spot was conducted in a compressed time frame. After the video was originally posted July 16, 180LA developed a concept, produced a 30-second spot, and posted online August 8th that began airing August 11th. The Connected ad is the first TV ad made entirely in the setting of Vine. The ad links each Vine personality as the x360 tablet computer bends and travels through each individual's video in a choreographed continuum, all set within the Vine user experience. "For a campaign called ‘Bend The Rules’ we thought ‘let’s really do it,’” says Gelner. “We took a digital execution and brought it to TV. You usually see it the other way around." 180LA has worked with HP since 2013. The commercial can be viewed here. More of the #BendTheRules greater campaign is available here.