Mobile Video Advertising – Why there is a positive future ahead…

The market for mobile advertising is growing at high speed. More and more companies invest their first advertising budgets (although still not huge…) in apps, onsite or instream commercials. In 2012 the market for mobile advertising is said to increase to 1,5 Billion USD. In 2010 mobileSquared estimated the size for the mobile advertising market at 800 Million USD by 2015, and this sum is expected just for Germany.

One of the main drivers of this development could become mobile video advertising. Looking at the numbers of researchers and analysts, there is a bright future ahead. The market research company Strategy Analytics saw a growth by 958% of mobile video commercial views. They published figures from April 2012 which illustrate how the mobile video advertising market might be growing. While they counted 108 Billion mobile video views 2011, they expect that the market more than doubles to 280 Billion for 2012.

The challenge for mobile video advertising was partly based on the size of smartphones which did not allow massive advertising opportunities. Partly it was lacking the believe of the management in mobile video advertising up to now. And when we look at the minimum volume of ad campaigns in Apple’s iAd program which was downsized from 1 Million to 100.000 USD, it shows that expectations were bigger than the first mobile budgets. Often traditional campaigns are simply extended to mobile without bigger creative invest.

However, this might change with mobile video advertising.

The actual “viewing time” of video commercials in audio-video content is still just 1,5%, found Comscore. A recent study by Juniper Research stands against this and forecasts a “viewing time” for mobile TV of 186 minutes per month in 2014. That offers a lot of opportunities for commercials.

The content offering will also change with the future of the social web. In 2010, some Cisco research stated that 57% of the Internet traffic in 2014 will be audio-video content. This outlook gets support from the massive use and sharing of video content in social networks. And if we think about the fact that Facebook already has 488 Million mobile users, then it comes as no surprise that many social media advertising suppliers like ebuzzing, Hallimash oder unruly try to conquer the social video advertising market.

The creation of banners will still be responsible for the length of the viewing and staying time. According to some new insights of Medialets the mobile “engagement stimulus” of users increases by 35% when video content is displayed. Those users that opened or expanded a banner stayed 20 seconds with the ad format. The integration of video or product catalogue information propelled the staying time with mobile banner formats from 20 seconds to more than one minute, said Medialets. Apart from that, comScore Video Metrix published some stats showing that video ads surpassed the 10 Billion mark and showed an increase by 117% year-over-year.

The development is positive which we can also see in these interesting insights. No surprise that Nielsen forecasts a growth of 70% for the mobile advertising market. And mobile video advertising will get a good chunk of it.

Will the tablet be the catalyst in this development? Sure… By 2013, 47% of the U.S. Internet population will own tablets (117.4 million users). One in ten tablet users watches online video daily according to comScore. Just think about the parallel usage of mobile devices like tablets and smartphones with TV (especially in Prime Time), there could be fantastic opportunities for marketers and their agencies to create intelligent convergent multi-platform campaigns.

Isn’t this some great outlook for mobile video advertising…? if you have some more figures you can add, let us know…

PS: These numbers were put together from me for my moderation of the dmexco Night Talks 2012 (see picture).

Curiosity – Brand anarchy is to create invisible advertising

Curiosity is it what makes the world get mad. Whether it is IKEA’s smallest shop of the world put in a banner, some invisible commercial.

Lynx, in cooperation with Soap Creative, know how to produce some curious innovative digital art work. They have created this campaign which just went live in Australia. This is the world’s first invisible ad installation. It is using some special LCD screens that can only been seen with polarised glasses.

People passing by in some street in Sydney got some polarised glasses which unlocked the curiosity of the invisible screens, scenes the normal eyes could not see by the naked eye. And finally, then the content was unleashed. Couples were to be seen while having their pleasures and random dogs swimming in a room of water. Actually in my hotel they are swimming on the television but that is another story.

Study: Coupon user shop more, and more frequently than others

People like shopping. People like deals. People like coupons. This hasn’t changed in a hundred years. And as coupons follow some certain sales tactics, companies always ask whether digital coupons make more sales, or not. Here is an answer…

Some results from a Coupons.com research conducted by GfK Knowledge Networks offers some insights. The results show that digital coupon users shop more frequently and spent more money than the average shopper. The digital coupon users spent 23% more per grocery shopping trip than the average shopper ($55.05 vs. $44.87) which is almost $1.500 more annually. These findings were based on a representative study that monitored over 150 coupon campaigns representing a cross-section of CPG categories.

The findings state that Coupons.com shoppers made 21% more trips than average shoppers with 69 trips per year (vs. 57) and 1.3 trips per week (vs 1.1). Another on-site survey by Coupons.com with almost 4,000 users in January 2012 shows that 43% replied they would visit the grocery store either the same day as offline coupons or storing for the next day (25%) or in 2 days (19%), and keeping them to a loyalty card (18%).

Interestingly enough, the study made clear that Coupons.com shoppers made 48% more stock up trips (trips above $75) in a 52 weeks period than the shopper average (18.6 to 12.6). The heavy Coupons.com shoppers even more than doubled the amount of trips (27.2 to 12.6). On their stock up trips, Coupons.com shoppers handed in an average of 3.6 coupons per trip (vs. 1.4 for other shoppers).

Spot On!
However, these findings are essential from an upscale position, they need to be obeyed from a brand management perspective in order not to affect the brand positioning and pricing structure of a company. Another study on clothes by CouponCabin conducted by Harris Interactive shows that US adults say that they only buy clothing on sale (41%), look for a deal or coupon first that will decide on the purchase decision (10%), and find the item they want to purchase and then look for a deal or coupon before making a purchase (7%). So, coupons have a massive effect on our purchase decisions. And just imagine the opportunities companies have when using those coupons detecting tablet users…

Study: Web-traffic boosts in-store sales

In a recent study the research companies comScore, Accenture and dunnhumbyUSA found some significant relevance between in-store sales and a company’s web presence. The study was based on a panel of CPG customers and one million U.S. Internet users who have given comScore explicit permission to have their online activities continuously measured and matched to their in-store brand buying behavior provided by dunnhumbyUSA.

The report comes to the conclusion that consumers who visit a website prior to their shopping experience in a company store spend 34% more with that company and 57% more on products or services based on their specific industry sector. It also states that visitors of brand websites are frequent buyers of the brand in retail stores. It shows that 42% more of these clients finish their transactions than non-visitors. Furthermore, website visitors are also heavier buyers in a brand’s product category. They are spending 53% more in their category dollars than non-visitors.

“Since website visitors have higher affinity to the brand and the overall product category, there is an opportunity for brand marketers to drive loyalty through personalizing the website experience, catering to the preferences of their best customers.”John LaRocca, Vice President, Strategic Partnerships, dunnhumbyUSA

And again another study highlights the importance of content marketing as the new emerging trend in marketing. Shoppers were more aggressive in their approach to understand and evaluate their purchases prior to their visit in shops as a result of the massive information access through the web. According to the research, content marketing plays a significant role here. So, campaigns on the web not only add value to web shopping but also -and for some companies and brands more importantly- will help to drive and boost in-store habits and sales – apart from positioning a brand’s capability.

“Marketers who create compelling (brand) website experiences for consumers are extremely effective in driving incremental and profitable in-store sales. Analysis shows that consumers visiting the best of the 10 CPG brand websites evaluated in the research study, spent over 200% more on the brand than non-visitors.” Jerry Lohse, Senior Director, Accenture Interactive

Based on the fact that Brafton reported some weeks ago that the average consumer visits more than 10 web pages before a purchase decision, this study marks an important point in the relevance between online and offline shopping. This might be catalyzed by the new opportunities that smartphones, tablets or Augmented Reality (see real-life community shopping) offer, and shows the straight relationship between the two shopping experiences which more and more merge to one close shopping cycle.

Spot On!
More companies are realizing that offering web shoppers the same information and service as in-stores will lead to more purchase at both ends of the shopping cycle: online and at offline locations. The challenge for companies is to differentiate the shopping experience by using SoLoMo (social – local – mobile). Here the question for the future will remain whether in-store shopping needs to become more of a lifestyle experience or adventure to attract more consumers to join in-store activity (see IKEA Sleepover), or wether people will want to have real people around them and thus make it a social reality world, rather than a social web world…

ComScore study: 31% of banner ads get lost for viewers

Companies and brands love to book page impressions with publishers, shopping and trading sites. Users find themselves being bombarded with banner ads all over the web – and not often do these ads add any value on customer journeys and the digital shopping experience. Often they bore us (dresses and dishes), annoy us (gay ads for married people) or make us hate companies brands (you love a and get b beer brands). Real Time bidding (RTB), (Behavioral) Retargeting technology and demand side platforms (DSP) will become game changers in the ad space in the future.

Sounds good but do advertisers get what publishers promise today, just on the basis of ad impression buying? Well, not really…

Yesterday, ComScore announced their “Validated Campaign Essentials (vCE)” which is said to be a Holistic Measurement tool for verifying the effectiveness of advertising campaigns and their subsequent targeting tactics. Thus, ComScore can double-check of where the ads are being delivered, where they are positioned within a page and who’s eyeballs they meet with the optimization add-on to know where they can be better positioned and at what time. The new technology or tool (vCE) will allow ComScore check campaigns effectiveness on a demographics basis.

ComScore definitely recognizes clients need for a world of better performance with campaigns for a reasonable future of advertisements. However the good news, when you worried about the effectiveness of your last campaign, there is much worse stuff to think about…

ComScore has found, in a recent comprehensive study, that over 31% of online display ads get lost for eyeballs of potential viewers, and for some websites it is even a scary number of 91%. Reasons are obvious: Some of these ads are below the fold. User might not scroll down far enough to view them, and vice versa. Some people just scroll too quick and thus get passed them before they have been loading.

The findings also state that as many as 15% of campaign ads were delivered to viewers outside of the targeted media plan places. An average of 4% of ad impressions found viewers in locations that weren’t on the plan, or where products weren’t available. Do you still wonder why the above mentioned banner campaigns reach us? But ComScore works on the issue…

“One big issue with internet advertising is that not all ads that are served end up being seen. This is a core issue raised by the Making Measurement Make Sense (3MS) initiative. In order for marketers to have the same confidence in the digital channel as they do in TV, we need measurement around the visibility of ads.” Mike Donahue, EVP, Strategic Partnerships, ComScore

Spot On!
Google will penalize companies and platforms that have too many ads above the fold in the future: 3 ads per page is sufficient and strategically clever, Google advices in this video. Just imagine your banners are being delivered to platforms that are damaging for your brand. It happens. Impressions appear beside content that were defined as “not brand safe” by the advertiser. Of all tested campaigns, 72% showed up on pages that had objectionable content, as defined by the brand. Now, that ComScore and advertisers like Chrysler, Discover, E*TRADE Financial, Ford, Kellogg’s, Kimberly Clark and Kraft among others push the development of the third-party tracking, there might be hope that consumers and clients get banners delivered that are targeted the right way. Nevertheless, companies need to start thinking about the right call-to-action in order to get the right conversation figures…

How a campaign brings multiscreen couples together

Many families, and especially couples, experience new formats of evening togetherness. Couples are not leaning back any longer and simply watching TV, or having relaxed chats next to it. With most couples, both partners are using their smartphones, tablets or notebooks to chat with friends, to update their status for their fans and keep in touch with their digital fellows while the TV sceen is fighting for viewing figures.

Did you realize that TV gets the former status of the radio in our digital world? People listen to TV but are actively engaged in something else, in another screen conversation, in a multiscreen reality. Mobile becomes the new prime time. Radio always was the number two from a user attention perspective. So is singlescreen attention today, it is out, digital leads. Multichannel is the big future, and the looser is… the personal relationship. We all know how relaxing it is to lean back, and how TV reduces our “most emotional relationship activities” to a minimum, multiscreen usage could become a limitation catalyst.

But there is hope…

CP+B has thought about this development, maybe not… Still, they tell us in a new campaign how couples most commonly book trips. They have created a 2 for 1 campaign for Scandinavian Airlines. The campaign called “Couple Up to Buckle Up” was launched in banners, emails, facebook app, or print ads, and used two unique QR codes to bring people closer together again, i.e. to book a flight to Paris together.

In the campaign approach, couples need to scan the QR code assigned to them. Then, they would sync their half of a video based offer and reveal the discount code split across both screens. Bit of a challenge to scan/play at the same time but still a nice idea on a critical relationship topic.

And maybe this will help to… Well, you decide!

Couple Up to Buckle Up from Tobias Carlson on Vimeo.

Social Business: 84% of businesses have not fully integrated Social Media in their operations

This report comes as no surprise to me as it justifies our Community Centric Strategy model. The study from InSites Consulting states that only 16% of businesses using Social Media have fully integrated Social Media platforms into their businesses operations. Nevertheless, business leaders believe better social integration will help improve and streamline their business operations. Their hope is that Social Media marketing and internal social apps will boost productivity of their business.

The study concludes that 27% of business executives are on the move to integrate Social Business in 2012. Moreover, another 20% are wishing that the integration of Social Media projects will increase business efficiency. As there are no reliable or established measurement and metrics standards most companies are still waiting to invest big budgets. Still, as competition is high companies start integrating social into their business to be competitive in their market.

The results of the inSites study show that most companies (69%) will invest in Social Media marketing and launch campaigns in 2012 hoping to improve online conversations and their web efforts. For now 64% of businesses have at least one person responsible for Social Media activities and platforms. With a reason: One-third are sure that Social Media is changing their operations.

Spot On!
The challenge for companies will be to set up the right Social Business strategy as it involves the right understanding of community centers as an external strategy issue. And it needs an appropriate internal company culture with social policies, social training and social commitment and the people. Apart from that, 45% of the respondents said that they cannot find the people for their Social Media efforts. The best option is to start investing in the people you have to integrate social in your business. The Community Centric Strategy could be one starting point…

The near future of Augmented Reality (AR) and QR codes

Augmented reality (AR) has a glorious future according to a new market research published by MarketsandMarkets. It will be interesting to see which role QR codes play in that future as more and more technologies arise.

The new market research report “Global Augmented Reality (AR) Market Forecast by Product (HMD, HUD, Tablet PC, Smartphone) for Gaming, Automotive, Medical, Advertisement, Defense, E-Learning & GPS Applications (2011-2016)” states that the total Augmented Reality applications market will be growing by over 95% from 2011 to 2016. The research sees it reaching a market volume of $5151,74 million.

According to Comscore research almost 10% of all smartphone users have scanned QR codes in June this year. The interesting fact is that most users scan their QR codes from home (57,4%). In public only 20% use those QR scan options from outdoor advertising or in public transport.

Although screen technology (smartphone, tablet and eye-wear) is still in its infancy concerning AR, and also facing some challenges, the Universities of Washington and the MIT see a better future on the experience horizont. Especially, the head up and head mounted displays have become mature, finds the study. Leading and growing in use are online apps, gaming apps and GPS apps. So far, campaigns like the following by MIRAT Paris work on the basis of QR coding…

But what kind of Augmented Reality technologies are rocking the transformation from the physical to the virtual world, or shall we say to the mobile world?

Some months ago, we only had browser technology like Layar and Wikitude. Today, companies like Tesco are experimenting with other capabilities in their retail shops. For a long time, we had to use QR codes or trigger points to initiate some activity with AR technology.

Layar’s latest innovation called “Vision” is another reason why QR codes are becoming uncool. Vision is a tool that lets advertisers and content owners integrate Augmented Reality ads in publications. As an example you may watch the Dutch magazine Linda how the technology works…

Some other technology innovations are also evolving that might catalyze the technology shift in the AR sphere. Here are three of them…

Aurasma
The Aurasma technology -unlike the GPS based technologies Layar (until the Vision version) and Wikitude that merely recognizes what someone has tagged as locations or places- is a new generation augmented reality browser. Aurasma recognises images through cameras in a way search engines recognise words. The browser then creates so-called 2D or 3D „Auras“ which show animated audio-video content. Just watch some examples of Aurasma campaigns.

blippAR
With blippAR the whole advertisment becomes the response tool. It is enough to simply point in the direction of the ad with the app. Still, the awareness challenge needs to be solved. And, the need for a specific browser to use the technology. See some examples of blippAR usage. At the moment you can even participate in the interactive blippAR campaign “escape the map” by Mercedes Benz.

Printechnologics
Printechnologics is based on Touchcode carrier technology. It contains a blind or transparent code which is embedded via invisible data storage development inside print products like carton, foil or simply paper. Printechnologics turns the AR identification around as you lay the paper on top of the tablet or smartphone, and not the other way round. And you don’t even need to modify your device, download a browser, use NFC (near field communication), or a camera for it to identify and initiate the online activity form the offline trigger. The last issue from the ICONIST carried a Printechnologics card and here you can see how it connect the two worlds….

Spot On!
In some months, the QR codes might be gone as an AR trigger, and thus leave the advertising world. However, all AR technologies have one weakness: You need to know that these technologies are embedded in any forms of campaigns. You need some trigger point, button, picture, image or QR code that people see. Thus, the main challenge for QR codes and Augmented Reality is to build awareness and understanding what it can do. Nobody is using a browser or a camera if there is no “visual” reason for virtual interactivity. I see TV using any of the forms as an extension for their TV shows in order to promote their digital content and advertising opportunities, just like the print industry did in the past. One thing is for sure: Augmented Reality will definitely become a new playground that connects the TV and online markets in the future…

What’s your view on Augmented Reality and QR codes? Let us know…

Pay a Blogger Day – How to reward a blogger’s work?

Have you ever paid a blogger? Paid for your content love? I mean not for writing some good PR for your business. Just for them being bloggers, sharing valueble content, thoughts, ideas, and providing new food for thought. In some days you can do that. The “Pay a Blogger Day” is here to come. Some thoughts that came to my mind with it…

Some months ago, Flattr started their outreach program to bloggers. And some months ago, they were on their way to revolutionize the monetization of blogs. Those days, the Flattr button went live on my blog, and in every post. I rewarded blog posts, and got some rewards. Just the way Flattr works. They had the idea for the “Pay a Blogger Day”.

On Flattr Cents pass from bloggers to bloggers to… Well. Companies never paid anything. They have the biggest budget pockets though. And I asked myself if bloggers want companies to engage in the monetization process, or if reputation is of higher value for them. And why should companies pay a blogger for something they produce for free. Still trying to figure that out…

Some blog posts generated some Cents immediately through Flattr, never enough for some nice ice-cream in a week though. Somehow the activity to “donate” for a well-written piece of thought or idea felt like an act of charity. Some Cents felt like a pat on the shoulder. Sometimes, I discussed with bloggers if that is encouraging, or frustrating? Every blogger argued differently about this gesture. Many were not convinced. I have seen not many buttons on blogs since.

And often when I wanted to spend some Cents, those bloggers did not use Flattr. So, my reward for them often ended in a Retweet. Maybe Retweets are the killer of positive blog comments…

The main problem many bloggers saw in Flattr was that it will be challenging to get attention for this payment theory outside the bloggosphere. Sounded like: “Bloggers will pay themselves and thus reward their work within an inner circle of the blogging community.” One of the reasons why I finally decided to remove the button from my blog.

Now, Flattr starts -in cooperation with Bambuser, Twingly and Posterous- the “Pay a Blogger Day!” on November, 29th. They intend to start a movement with the mission “Give something back to bloggers!” A good idea…

How to reward a blogger’s work?
If I may inspire you -companies, marketers and managers- with reward opportunities for bloggers, then maybe you want to read this…

a) Companies that have used shared knowledge to improve their business could write a reference quote for the blogger why and how they benefit from reading a blog. It could be a comment, tweet or a blog post on their blog. Just be creative…!

b) Managers that have used shared knowledge for their career purposes could send a present when they think the blogger has deserved it (does not need to be on the “Pay a blogger day!”). A flower (digital or real), a freebie of your products or an invite to a paid for workshop about corporate blogging. And hey, chances are high, bloggers might write about it. Just be clever…!

c) Marketers that have used shared knowledge for their campaign ideas could start thinking about whether they shovel money into a print grave, rely on TV reach or hope for radio commercial payback. Maybe they want to start sponsor a blogger who is worth it as they act like brandvangelist, testimonial or brand advocate for a brand or company. And why are not many marketers trying to make use of bloggers in the offline world? Just be curious…!

d) Followers, fans, “plusers” and bloggers that have used shared knowledge could start discussing the monetization of their work in an authentic collaborative manner. Do you want banners ads, text links, affiliate programs, brand advocate prgrams, or…? What is authentic blog monetization? Or is it reputation only? In short: money, products or reputation currency like Floout.me?

Here is how Flattr wants to inspire you to reward a blogger…

Think about the thoughts and then start acting! I am sure, bloggers know how to say “Thank you” and all bloggers would love to see some of these rewarding opportunities. Right…?

Study: Mobile and TV – Users beloved combination…

Some weeks ago, I have written about ConnectedTV as the new hype. And we have acknowledged that mobile apps and TV have got TV prime time as the main usage time. Still, we don’t really know how much people use mobile and TV at the same time. A new study sheds some light here…

According to a new survey issued by Yahoo and Razorfish, 80% of web-enabled mobile device owners say they multitask while watching television. They rely on smartphones and tablets to communicate with friends and family. They look up content which is related to the program they’re watching. They might also access information which has no relationship with the TV program.

And the combined usage of mobile and TV is not low. The study shows that 70% of mobile multitaskers use both platforms at least once per week. 49% even report multitasking daily. Over 60% use their mobiles at least once or twice during a TV program. And 15% don’t leave the mobile web for the time of the show they are „watching“.

The main categories for multitaskers are: reality, news, comedy sports, and food. The statement “Using the Internet on my mobile or tablet device while watching TV enhances my viewing experience” was agreed by 38% of the respondents. Nevertheless, another 38% „find using mobile devices while watching TV to be distracting”. Text content leads all channels, beating talking, email, social networking and IM.

“This seems to be an opportunity for content producers and advertisers alike. Some people find multitasking to be a boon, and we have only begun to scratch the surface in terms of providing an engaging dual-screen experience. It’s like the early days of smartphones where it was remarkable that people were making purchases from sites that were not mobile-optimized. If folks were willing to go through that much effort, it stands to reason that making the experience easier and more streamlined will lead to even more passionate participants.” Jeremy Lockhorn, Vice President Emerging Media, Razorfish

Some more findings from the study…
• 94% of multitaskers engage in some kind of mobile communication
• 58% of men “fact-check” information on their mobile browser while attending a live sporting event, with 47% checking out scores of other games and player updates.
• 52% use their mobile device to escape awkward social situations
• 44% seek information unrelated to the current program – 38% searching for data related to it
• Apple’s iPhone 4S leads all mobile phone searches according to Yahoo Shopping data, followed by the Samsung Galaxy S2, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the Motorola Razr and the Nokia N9

Spot On!
Men seem to be more comfortable with mobile shopping processes. A former Performics study suggests that men are social shoppers and women the “Likers”. This study also finds that 70% of men under the age of 35 have made online purchases on their smartphones, compared to 64% of women in the same age demographic. And obviously the extention of TV to mobile starts to work: 36% say they go looking for more information related to a commercial they just viewed. Marketers need to start thinking multiscreen when planning their campaigns and ideally sync their mobile and TV campaigns immediately…

« Vorherige Seite — Nächste Seite »