Free time in front of potential customers doesn't happen for advertisers often, but a video ad model on YouTube makes it a reality for Scripps Network and other advertisers -- as long as the viewer opts out before the 30-second spot concludes. The video ad format -- cost per view -- rolled out last fall on the YouTube network, but parent company Google also is considering making it available across the Google Display Network. Facebook, Pandora, YouTube and Twitter become the focus of the ad media buy for HGTV's "Design Star," with the new season airing July 11. The Scripps Networks wants to reach for "a younger and newer viewer base" that has traditionally attracted adults ages 45 and older. Gay men are avid fans of "Design Star," in addition to women. That demographic insight, in part, comes from monitoring metrics on YouTube. The metrics bleed into the overall ratings for the show. "After marketing a few shows, we're finding some pull in younger viewers," said Jonah Spegman, director of digital media and database marketing at Scripps. Going after younger demos, ads will run on YouTube tapping TrueView, which requires the brand to only pay when the viewer watches the entire ad. Promoted video ads will highlight the show's clips at the top of YouTube search results pages and in suggested videos. HGTV ran 30-second pre-roll spots on YouTube TrueView to separately promote the shows "Design Star," "Cash & Cari" and "Selling New York." "As the ad runs in the YouTube video, a big call to action lets viewers skip the ad, but we found 44% of people actively choose to watch the ad for "Selling New York" all the way through," Spegman said. "The other 56% still see the ad, but not in its entirety. The nice thing is they still watch between 25% and 50% before they choose to skip." A cookie gets dropped in the browser of site visitors who choose to view the ad. The cookie provides a metric that Spegman calls "view through." The metrics can't directly link it to viewership, but he knows a "huge" percentage of people come back to the site once they are exposed to the YouTube video ad. And when viewers don't watch the whole ad through TrueView, HGTV gets the partial view for free." Aside from YouTube, HGTV will buy a variety of Facebook ads that target the younger demos demonstrating through Likes an interest in competitive design shows. On Twitter, Spegman said the social network's sales team estimates HGTV can expect between 55 million and 75 million impressions on the day the ad runs. Internet radio also will play a role in the ad buy. Combining a computer-and-mobile media buy on the Internet radio station, Pandora will target women 25-54. When logging into Pandora, she will see a custom skin on the page that promotes "Design Star." The campaign will provide an option to run a video clip, but also offer an option to add a design-inspired Design Star branded radio station to their lineup. The media buy also includes ads run on SayMedia for video, Lotame for semantic targeting and Apple iAd, which Spegman describes as Apple iAds for Developers, a lighter-weight banner that lets users download to the HGTV iPad app. The iAd runs on a cost-per-click model, so impressions are free. Through the Apple iPad app, users can watch full episodes of the show. "Design Star" will sponsor People's iPad app. "We'll also have a considerable amount of ads running through ad exchanges and demand side platforms," Spegman said, clarifying that "considerable" means about 15% of the total media plan. "The efficiency of buying media through exchanges is tough to ignore." Through ad exchanges, the ability to target and remarket improves. It lets HGTV serve up more easily click-to-play or click-through in-banner video ads.
A viral video and a new Web site are the hints of what's to come in the Summer's Eve brand relaunch, scheduled for July. The feminine hygiene product manufacturer announced ownership of the recently launched "That's Vaginal!" video. The initially unbranded, tongue-in-cheek video (which attempts to replace the old idiom, "That's awesome!" with the new phrase, "That's vaginal!") was virally released as the first step in the company's effort to invigorate the brand with new vitality, says Angela Bryant, director of U.S. marketing, feminine care for Summer's Eve. The video, which is also on YouTube, has been viewed more than 255,000 times since launching a week ago. Summer's Eve will debut its new campaign July 18, including integrated television, print and digital creative, as well as a body-awareness campaign. Summer's Eve also infused its new Website with the same candid attitude, Bryant says. Both the Web site and the video are aimed at prompting dialogue about the female anatomy while inspiring women to be proud of their bodies, she says. "The industry, including Summer's Eve, and society have talked in code about the vagina and women's genitalia for too long, and it's time for a change," Bryant says in a release. "Women tell us they're ready to embrace talking about their bodies in an open, honest way. We've been dancing around the word 'vagina' for so long, we wanted to invent an unexpected, fun way to give it a new, positive place in today's vernacular." The video features Carlton, a scholarly talking cat, who is on a crusade to tell America how important the vagina is (or should be.) Likening the vagina to such natural wonders as Mount Kilimanjaro and the rings of Saturn, Carlton drives home, in an amusing way, the need for a shift in conversation, to move away from euphemisms and treating the vagina as a taboo topic. At www.thatsvaginal.com, visitors can also submit videos and praise all things "vaginal." The new Web site is revamped to reflect the brand's new packaging, including other conversation-spurring components such as a "V Power" page with expert articles about the stigmas associated with the vagina and women's anatomy, a glossary of feminine hygiene terms, and a "Vagina Owner's Manual," a document full of fun, educational facts about the vagina.
Pinnacle Foods Group's Aunt Jemima set out to do a totally social/digital campaign, but it's now back on TV for the first time since 2006, thanks to unusually strong response to the first video in its new "Every Batch Made from Scratch" campaign. Aunt Jemima launched its social and digital campaign in the first quarter, after "simplifying" the ingredients in its frozen pancakes and waffles. While the products have always been made with fresh flour, eggs, milk and other ingredients, the new recipes are also free of high-fructose corn syrup and artificial ingredients. The brand activated its social media campaign, including an Aunt Jemima Frozen Breakfast Facebook page and Twitter efforts, on Feb. 17. A core element is a three-part "Live from the Line" video series, created by Jun Group and directed by Kevin Arbouet, featuring real employees of Aunt Jemima's Jackson, Tenn. plant. That approach came about because the marketing team was so impressed by the "passion and pride" the employees feel about the products, and wanted to share that with consumers, explains Brandi Unchester, senior brand manager, frozen and refrigerated breakfasts, Pinnacle Foods. The brand drove awareness for the first video, which featured three longtime employees explaining the products' "just-like-homemade" process, by offering a free breakfast product to the first 10,000 to "like" the Facebook page, as well as through digital banner ads promoting a $1-off coupon on Aunt Jemima pancakes, waffles or French toast, according to Unchester. (There was no Facebook advertising.) The efforts yielded an impressive 27,000-plus fans on the first day of the launch, as well as an outpouring of positive feedback, such as thanks for showing how the products are made, and for showing Americans making American products, she reports. (The "Every Batch Made from Scratch" message has been incorporated in the brand's packaging, as well as marketing.) The outstanding response to the first video, combined with the timely, "high-quality, real ingredients" messaging focus of the second video, prompted the brand to air that second video on television, in addition to social media, Unchester says. The TV spot began airing June 27 in key markets including Hartford, Conn.; Harrisburg, Pa.; Tampa, Jacksonville and Orlando, Fla.; Cincinnati, Ohio; Charlotte, N.C.; Providence, R.I.; and Jackson, Tenn. The TV spot will air into the fall, while the third video in the series will debut on Facebook in late summer/early fall. The campaign also spans other initiatives, including a "Flapjack Friday" program launched in April, in which consumers who like the brand's Facebook page and submit a photo and short essay about their favorite ways to enjoy Aunt Jemima Frozen Breakfast get chances to win free pancakes for a year. Prizes are judged by a panel, and awarded once per month. In early May, the brand also announced a partnership with celebrity chef Aaron McCargo, Jr. (star of Food Network's "Big Daddy's House"). The chef has developed new recipes using Aunt Jemima Frozen Breakfast products, which are featured on the Facebook page. To publicize the partnership, McCargo hosted an editors' breakfast/ Twitter party in New York City, which drew more than 170 attendees and generated more than 2,000 Tweets during the event. Overall results: Four months into the social media campaign (not counting the brand-new TV spot, obviously), Facebook fans now number 100,000. There have been more than 100,000 video views on Facebook, and more than 4.5 million total impressions, according to the brand. Average monthly active users are at 114%, versus an industry average of 65% to 85%.
IHOP is killing its eight-year-old "Come Hungry. Leave happy" tagline with the launch of an integrated marketing campaign with a new tagline: "Make it an IHOP day." The campaign for the Glendale, Calif.-based restaurant chain includes TV, point-of-sale and online. It leverages IHOP's breakfast-inspired signature dishes and limited-time offers to demonstrate how a great meal at IHOP makes the entire day better. The campaign is an evolution of the "Come hungry. Leave happy" campaign, says IHOP Restaurants Marketing Vice President Joe Adney. "The 'Make it an IHOP day' campaign taps into something that our guests have told us: That starting or finishing their day with great food and a great experience at IHOP makes their whole day better," Adney tells Marketing Daily. "The new campaign is designed to build an emotional connection with guests through a 'pay it forward' feel." The first spot using the new tagline highlights the limited-time "Summertime Favorites" menu which includes funnel cakes. English and Spanish versions of the spot in 10-second, 15- second and 30-second versions will air nationally. The buy targets high-impact prime-time and syndicated programming, Adney says. The spot can also be seen here or on YouTube. IHOP.com has undergone a reskin to mirror the "Make it an IHOP day" look and feel and includes an interactive tool that allows users to scroll for 101 ways to have a great day. The campaign has also been tailored for use by local markets for radio, billboard and local market advertising initiatives. The campaign was created by McCann Erickson West, which IHOP named as its agency of record in June 2010 without a review. The Los Angeles office of McCann Erickson will manage the IHOP business, guiding brand strategy and broadcast creative. The shop worked with IHOP from 2002 to 2007 and developed the restaurant's "Come hungry. Leave happy" tagline.
Marketers are cheering a U.S. Supreme Court decision Monday striking down a California law banning the sale of violent video games to children. But some observers say that the pro-free speech ruling could have a counter-intuitive result: It could give broadband providers a boost in their fight against Net neutrality. The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that California's law restricting the sale or rental of violent video games to minors violates the First Amendment. "No doubt a State possesses legitimate power to protect children from harm," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority. "But that does not include a free-floating power to restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed." Scalia added that because California's law restricts content, it's invalid unless it "passes strict scrutiny -- that is, unless it is justified by a compelling government interest and is narrowly drawn to serve that interest." He went on to rule that the California law did not meet that standard for several reasons, including that it was "seriously underinclusive" because it only applied to video games and not other types of entertainment. The Association of National Advertisers had joined other groups, including the Association of American Publishers and Recording Industry Association of America, in a friend-of-the-court brief opposing California's law. Dan Jaffe, executive vice president of government relations for the ANA, says the organization saw the case as important because it dealt with "whether video game advertising was going to be treated differently than other types of advertising." "The broader issue for us, and the advertising community, was were they going to start putting in further restrictions to advertising to those under 18," Jaffe says. He adds that the ruling could affect the validity of proposed online privacy laws that only apply to minors, though that would depend very much on the final wording of those laws. At the same time, the ruling could give broadband providers significant ammunition in their fight against Net neutrality laws. That's according to Cardozo Law School professor Susan Crawford, a prominent neutrality proponent. "Today's opinion may further strengthen the carriers' arguments that any nondiscrimination requirement imposed on them should be struck down," she writes. The key issue, says Crawford, centers on whether the FCC's neutrality rules are interpreted as "content-based." If so, then broadband providers can argue that the rules are invalid unless they meet the "strict scrutiny" standard -- they are as narrow as possible and further a compelling interest. Crawford adds that content-based rules are "always" struck down by the Supreme Court. The FCC's rules, which were passed 3-2 last December, ban broadband providers from blocking or degrading Web sites or applications. But Crawford says the carriers will be able to argue those rules are impermissible because they require providers to transmit certain content. "Even though today's opinion is about regulations prohibiting speech rather than regulations requiring speech, it's likely that the carriers will be able to frame the debate their way: We'd like to speak, to use all of our pipes the way we want to, without restriction. By forcing us to fairly carry speech with which we don't want to be associated, you're restricting our free use of our private communications medium," she writes. Verizon and MetroPCS already filed suit over the rules, but the case was dismissed as premature because the final regulations have not yet been published in the Federal Register. The FCC is expected to take the next step toward finalizing the rules this week by submitting them to the Office of Management and Budget.
One of the most exciting, validating stages of emerging media hitting its stride is when a single media sphere becomes an identifiable, robust, sustaining industry unto itself, with options galore. How does this go down? Simply put, a media type -- search, social, mobile -- comes into its own by first becoming a planning and spending category for agencies. Then, it proves itself as a revenue-generating sector within the ad economy -- and is under constant study and manhandling by all of us. Onward it goes, to show up as a bucket and multiple lines on a Jack Myers report -- instead of just one. Before we know it, the little media-type-that-could is an industry within the industry, with its own conferences and thought leaders and public debate on its worthiness. And it persists as it sorts itself out, to be an incubator of sub-disciplines and pockets of opportunity that are vetted, adopted or shed over time. We've loved this expansion trend when it comes to the wide world of search; social paving the way to social commerce; mobile diversification, apps and connected devices; and the ever bountiful realms of display and video. Notably, on those last two - we can even say that display is experiencing a new boom right now. We see this as big brands, media companies and industry innovators take a fresh look at doing display bigger and better -- and as the automation wave (exchanges, DSPs, AMPs, and so on) promises to transport us to new scale on the wings of audience data. Display is back, big time. But let's also take a look at video. As we have seen over the past few years, video is no longer just "video advertising." True, video advertising numbers continue to jet, with spending up 40% last year according to eMarketer, and expected to be up 52% in the current year. Truer still, the options and formats continue to mature, thanks to the cooperation of media, creative and technology interests. Formats are generally more engaging, with in-stream, pre-roll, overlay, in-banner, in-text and webisode options all available to marketers who want to create engagement within their advertising. More good news: We see more compatibility across players and devices. So, cross-platform is more elegant. Metrics are evolving. Video ad networks are growing up as supportive media environments. And, in the background of all this, the IAB has provided us standards and best practices to take full advantage of this emerging, maturing marketplace, and do so skillfully. With all that true, and with deal-making between legacy network, cable and new media companies constantly in play, we are fueling the environment all day long for video. Geoff Ramsey and others continue to say that even with these climbing numbers on video advertising, the biggest opportunity for marketers is still original content creation. This requires the marketer to go all in to conceive, produce, distribute and measure such content. This requires having the team, staff and/or agencies able to do so. This requires deepening knowledge of your consumers and what makes them laugh, cry, watch, co-create, share and so on. This requires high imagination quotient. I'm personally hoping that with the options advancing so much in this space, video will be the next great area of considered, bold investment. Just look around at some of the great examples of branded entertainment being executed. I do believe that these next two years are when we will see video hitting its stride.
In business, scaling can be defined as growing - Productivity, without adding the commensurate amount of resources (labor), and - Revenue and profitability. You Need Money to Buy Time Before You Scale All businesses strive to be scalable, but many that appear scalable turn out to be anything but -- and vice versa. Nowadays, thanks to cheap hardware, open source software and social media marketing, technology companies can be launched with a fraction of the investment once required. Content companies, however, still require material investment to scale. In video, the only things that most content entrepreneurs have to show for, other than bruised egos, are shattered dreams and wasted millions. This article certainly isn't about kicking anyone when they're down, but recognizing that production, distribution and monetization scale differently -- which will help you win over time. Investors (Sometimes) Just Don't Understand Of course, it's not just content companies that fail to win over investors: Pandora's Tim Westergren went through more than 300 failed VCs pitches before a successful IPO; before the $1 billion valuation, AirBNB's CEO Brian Chesky didn't get calls back from 10 of the 20 angels he pitched. My rejection count sits somewhere between Chesky's and Westergren, and as much as I'm sure it's me/us, sometimes I can't help but ask: "Could it be them, the investors?" Distribution - like Technology - Is a Zero-Sum, Scalable Game To be fair, investors actually do get it by and large. Indeed, they do, when the venerable The Atlantic opines "Why Content Isn't King": "In a media culture committed to the proposition that 'Content is king' ... the dirty little secret is that content aggregators, not content creators, have long been the overwhelming source of value creation." The Light at the End of the Tunnel... (Might Not Be an Oncoming Train) These days, those who control the advertiser relationships understand that with a) distribution across various screens blurring the lines of advertising and b) a flight to quality content among advertisers, content is more important than ever. Among those controlling the ad budgets: 1) Broadcasters have all of the content in the world. The problem is, despite what they claim, the economics don't really justify embracing ubiquitous distribution. What you will see instead is some kind of controlled/limited availability across many platforms, provided it's "black" -- proverbially speaking. 2) Portals have been moving from curating/aggregating to creating for the longest time. 3) Publishers are by definition content creators, so there's nothing new there. Which leads us to 4) ad networks and ad rep firms. We have already outlined why ad networks and ad rep firms will want to own content, especially with the rise of video and emerging flight to quality. Hmm... Maybe Content is King After All What we will look at today is the increasing number of firms that are proverbially "forcing" their investors to embrace content as the only strategy that will provide a return on their investment: - Publicly-traded ValueClick bought Investopedia last year. ValueClick CEO Jim Zarley said that Investopedia gives ValueClick "great content, organic traffic and established advertiser relationships in the important financial services advertising vertical." - Google's YouTube acquired Next New Networks to help it better manage the burgeoning site's content producers. - After raising a warchest of $40M from 2005-2008, Wetpaint pivoted in 2010 from a UGC wiki-platform to a content creator itself, in an effort to drop the UGC offerings and produce something marketers actually wanted. - Most recently, ad network Video Egg merged with blogging platform Six Apart, renamed itself Say Media and is now focusing on "connecting brands with passionate audiences." Video Egg has raised $34 million while Six Apart raised $23 million, pegging Say Media's total capital raised at a cool $57 millon. The point I am making here isn't "See, told you, content is king." Content and distribution are the yin to one another's yang. By now that should be clear. Rather, it's that those who built the first layer of the Web were technologists who didn't understand or care about content. They cared about the pipes instead. Now that the pipes are built, it's all about the content that is running through them. That is the only thing marketers actually care about. More importantly for the sake of this article: those who built the companies that convinced investors since 2005 that they could scale are asking their investors to trust them as they all pivot in one way or another straight into content creation. That trend is blazingly clear today. As a content entrepreneur who's more passionate about creating the next Rolling Stone magazine instead of the next Intel, or the next MTV cable network instead of Microsoft, that's not quite as good as "I told you so" - but I guess it will have to do.
New media trends last about a day and a half in the digital marketing business. And now it is online video's time to bask in the limelight like a shiny new coin, vying for media buyers' attention and dollars. It has moved within a year from the hot media with great CPMs for publishers and high engagement for advertisers to a rapidly maturing channel that lives in the same neighborhood as mobile and search, or at least the adjacent zip code, with mobile and tablets subletting nearby. Something happens along the way from "hottest new media darling" to mature, reliable digital marketing channel. That "something" has much to thank for audience targeting and customer segmentation. Think about it. No need to think that hard as targeting has been acknowledged as being on the cusp of revolutionizing online video publishing and advertising and will make online video exponentially more effective for marketers. Let's get to a little history. Display ads. Back when display ads were called banners, they were bought in two ways. We had run of site, which placed banners pretty much everywhere on an entire Web site, or a section of that site. Yahoo used to sell run of site banners for every page view in the late '90s, as an example. It wasn't long before advertisers bailed on the banner and migrated to search, rich media and then back to display ads. The reason they came back to display, and the reason they are fueling Internet ad spending, is because audience targeting made banners more relevant. You get the point: digital marketing heads toward targeting and segmentation in a very short period of time. Along the way, the science of digital marketing gets more informed. Marketers are smarter, make fact-based decisions and allocate more dollars. And consumers are more satisfied with their experience because that experience is more relevant. Online video is at that same tipping point that display was at two years ago. And undoubtedly, mobile advertising will be, too, once the heated debates about inventory availability, i.e. scalability have been settled. The argument worth pursuing right now is about numbers. It's about audience and the understanding that in order to effectively reach the online video customer, there is no one customer. More likely, there are hundreds of different customers. To think that you can advertise to the online video viewer without understanding that they fall into segments just like display and mobile is to risk your brand's relevance, not to mention your marketing dollars. So, as we rush to pick up that shiny new coin, let's all make sure that we have our heads up -- for good fortune.
Attention, media buyers: If you areevaluating online video with TV metrics like GRP and TRP, please be aware of what you are actually buying. If you go bargain basement shopping for the lowest video CPMs hoping to maximize your reach and frequency at the lowest cost, you are going to come up short on realized ROI. As the adage goes, if it's too good to be true, it probably is. Be aware of imitations. The problem plaguing video advertising right now is a simple difference between perception and reality. The inventory for in-stream video has grown immensely, but not quickly enough to meet overwhelming demand. In an attempt to meet this demand, many ad networks, particularly those rooted in display, take a more literal approach and define video advertising as an advertisement with video regardless of where that video is played. This is generally used to describe units in the display space either as rich media or as a syndicated player. If you ask for an in-stream ad, make sure that's what your provider is delivering. Do your research and know your specs. Before purchasing, know your specs. First examine your brand objectives, understand the elements of each video channel and choose the outlet that will lead you to success. There are three main video ad distribution models. Familiarize yourself with each one and complete a cost benefit analysis to understand the best option for your particular campaign. In-Stream Video In-stream is the most effective and engaging video real estate for advertising. The content is user-initiated and is the primary focal point garnering the viewer's full focus and attention. Most often, in-stream is viewed on Web pages; however it can also expand to include video delivered to mobile, tablets or connected TV devices. As a premium location for video ads, in-stream offers the highest visibility for your creative and also allows for a greater variety of ad formats and user engagement. However, with all these bells and whistles, this valuable inventory is priced at a premium CPM. This price is proportional to the quality of the placement. You wouldn't buy a car and expect to pay the same price you'd pay for a bicycle, would you? In-Banner In-banner video ads are rich-media banner ads that play video within the boundaries of the display banner. They offer flexibility for delivering video ads and users can typically expand the ad for a better and larger viewing experience with additional engagement points. Keep in mind - this is not a video player, but rather a banner that can be placed anywhere rich media is accepted. In-banner provides multiple features and functionalities to engage users and also offers higher reach than in-stream. However, price will vary by functionality and site placement. Visibility and impact can also be compromised, as ads may appear below the fold. Syndicated Players Syndicated players extend reach of video content. They help distribute ads by placing video players within display banner spots. Video content and ads are placed on Web pages that don't already have video. User initiation is not always needed. Syndicated player video ads are generally the most inexpensive video buys. They are typically placed on contextually relevant pages. Similar to rich-media ads, visibility and impact can be hindered due to banner blindness. Unlike in-stream or in-banner, the ad format is extremely limited in functionality. Finally, understand if you are buying auto- or click-to-play ads. There is a huge difference in terms of actual results and reporting. Auto-play can inflate view counts and make it seem like you're reaching more people than you actually are. So the question remains: Do you know what you've been buying? Is it in-stream, in-banner, or in a syndicated player? Ask before you buy. Understand the realities of promised CPMs and reach. Understand what they mean for you and ultimately the brand ROI.