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All posts by Christian Toth
INVERSO VERANO
How does Twitter reach influencers? Billboards.
“The micro-media app says it bought billboard space everywhere from Nice airport to the Palais.”
Brooklinen (among others) drops Facebook to focus on OOH, broadcast and print.
“We’re trying to move away from Facebook as fast as we can.”
Google Subtracts Ads (for Those Willing to Pay).
“Around 11 percent of internet users were running an ad blocker.”
From Madmen to FRENEMIES:
“If you ‘follow the money,’ Auletta writes, you’ll understand the importance of advertising and the significance of the threats against it, and maybe value it more, or at least disdain it less.” High praise indeed!
Is Social Justice Possible on Social Media? Online Redlining:
“Facebook allowed housing advertisers to block users from seeing their ads if those users had a black, Latino or Asian-American ‘affinity.’”
INVERSO INVIERNO 2018
YES, VERSO CAN HELP YOU WITH SNAPCHAT
Big and bigger:
“Snapchat said it added 9 million daily users in the fourth quarter, its largest growth spurt since going public last year.”
and …
What role would you like in the new e-commerce play?
“Snapchat is selling merch inside a digital store in its app, a new e-commerce play that could hint at more stores to come.”
ALL THE VIEWS THAT’S FIT TO PRINT
The man who has reached a deal to buy the L.A. Times wants to revive print through the use of interactive technology.
What will your ad do?
READ ABOUT IT IN THE BOSTON GLOBE
SUPER BOWL: AD-ing IT UP
Time to consult the elite for inspiration and caveats. Here are the best, worst and weirdest ads …
from the brains at NPR.org
from the show people at Variety
and from the business folks at Fast Company
AND BECAUSE STAR WARS
A very serious and relevant article to do with marketing.
INVERSO for the new year
CLEANLINESS IS NEXT TO UNEMPLOYMENT
Beware of the “Yellow Icon” that indicates a “de-monetized” video.
“In November, Mars Inc., Adidas and Deutsche Bank all said they would halt advertising on YouTube [due to their ads appearing against truly reprehensible content.]”
Addressing this has its costs. “For every YouTuber who hit it big and now makes money selling books, make-up or TV shows, there are dozens more creators who eke out a living advertisement by advertisement.”
Creators are at the mercy of algorithms (and, soon, 10,000 more humans) as advertisers insist on greater assurances of controversy-free content.
Depending on your campaign scale and content, you might want to consider what kinds of properties to include on your blacklist. The dangers are not limited to YouTube.
FIVE DIGITAL ADVERTISING TRENDS TO WATCH IN 2018
Retargeting, privacy, and more in Marketing Land’s predictions.
“The US has essentially opened the floodgates on user data.”
FOURTH-LARGEST BOOKSTORE IN U.S. CLOSES
An opportunity for community book stores, and a loss for many who have no access to one.
“These streets look as if an overpowering recession had hit, but the unemployment rate in Wisconsin fell this year to a 17-year low. Mequon is especially affluent: Its household income is double the national average. This is Amazon Prime territory.”
GODZILLA GIRDS FOR BATTLE WITH MOTHRA, KONG
As above with retail, so below with advertising. Amazon is challenging Google and Facebook by diversifying its offerings
Currently it has only about 2% of the market against their combined 70% but it also has your wish list. “Amazon showed some willingness to share more user data than Google and Facebook have traditionally — if the advertising budget was big enough.”
INVERSO October
5 REASONS FOR OPTIMISM
About the book business, from Marcus Dohle.
WALL STREET JOURNAL SEEKS WOMEN
New ad campaign targets ambitious GenZers and Millennials, especially women. “Those generations have a huge desire to make stuff happen.”
WHERE DO I CLICK?
Instagram changes its CTA palette to reflect dominant color of the content. A good idea?
BILLBOARDS THAT TELL A STORY
That is, they really have a lot of text. Not for drivers, obviously. Could be great for excerpts though, and reasonably priced.
INVERSO September
I’D LOVE TO SEE THAT PRESENTATION AGAIN
LinkedIn debuts “Native Video” to increase engagement.
“We are getting a wide range of people from tugboat operators to rock blasters and landscape architects,” Davies continues. “So, we have to think about how video will be most useful for those people.”
Lights, camera …
WOULD YOU LIKE EPIPHANY WITH THAT?
Have a little literature with your commute, thanks to the same concept that brings you Coca Cola and Fritos in waiting areas – vending machines. It’s happening in France and San Francisco.
How much for an O. Henry?
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/short-story-vending-machine
THE AGING FACE OF FACEBOOK
It seems teens have other places to be:
Which is why CNN is going on Snapchat:
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/22/cnn-launches-daily-news-show-on-snapchat.html
Which doesn’t mean Facebook doesn’t still rule the world:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/09/04/the-fake-news-fallacy
#HAPPYBIRTHDAY HASHTAG
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/23/business/hashtag-anniversary-twitter.html?mcubz=1
Next to Now – Late July Edition
IAB FAUs with VR, AR, and FAQ
The Standard Advertising Units are meeting new standards, as the IAB releases its new portfolio of Flexible Ad Units, including Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and other formats, spanning the latest in social media, mobile video (vertical! 360-degree!) and even emoji.
The biggest change is from fixed pixel sizes to aspect ratios. This may not be a big deal this week, but like the transition from Flash to HTML5 it will be changing our lives very soon.
PROGRAMMATIC NODS TO NATIVE
MediaRadar says more native is being purchased while programmatic spending is down.
This is partly due to brand safety concerns but performance plays in, our own experience suggests.
Print continues to descend – but readers gonna read. It’s not dead yet, especially among the kinds of readers who buy hardcovers.
A fuller look at ad spends this quarter HERE
SEARCH NODS TO DISCOVERY
Giving the people what they didn’t know they wanted.
“It requires a lot of tracking resources, which is not an easy thing to do, but success on the web is not easy either.”
THE 10 MOST WATCHED ADS ON YOUTUBE
Help them to be watched still more.
Takeaways: Know what your audience knows and use that to tell a story they’ll relate to. (Bonus: spend lots of money.)
Application: Utilize comps, fonts, art, and language to build familiarity, and if possible subvert the viewer’s expectations in a rewarding (amusing) way.
Next to Now – Late June Edition
PLUNDER THE INFLUENCE
Influencer marketing has become more widespread, with more than 200,000 such posts a month just on Facebook Inc.’s Instagram … “We don’t want to be in the business of tricking consumers.”
Bloomberg on labeling influencer posts that are, effectively, advertising.
POSTERS FOR POSTERS
This week we’ve seen a pleasant example of how a dominant physical presence – in this case a subway domination at the storied West 4th Street Subway Station – can lead to a huge social media presence – in this case a retweet by Stephen King to his millions of devoted followers.
Win for Winslow!
THE GAME OF DUOPOLY
“Two Goliaths and Not a Slingshot in Sight.” An insightful overview of digital advertising: Google, Facebook, and [that other stuff] from The Wall Street Journal.
Next to Now – Mid June Edition
Every Day is a GIF
Brooklyn Northside Festival on Facebook ads, branding, and the tao of GIF. It’s worth it for a FASCINATING SPOCK GIF alone, but also thought-provoking as we explore the possibilities of GIFs vs HTML5 in the post-Flash universe.
THE END OF ADVERTISING
And the advertising of the ending. It’s a book!
BLOCKED ADS, EXPENSIVE ADS
Logically, if Apple and Google will be incorporating more ad blocking features, the supply will be limited and the cost will rise. Verizon / Yahoo / AOL “bullish.”
NOW THIS
“Meeker predicts that in 2017, spending on internet advertising will surpass spending on TV advertising for the first time.”
Next to Now – Mid-May Edition
ROBO-COPY
The next job to be obsoleted by technology will be the copywriter, says Mark Duffy of Digiday. Your ninja can’t stop this!
HOW TO GO NATIVE
Pinning down just what “native” means can be tricky. But we at Verso have seen concrete results in native units using images that suggest non-advertising content.
WITHOUT ADS, MUCH SUBTRACTED
“Imagine if the advertising-supported ecosystem went away,” she said.
Linda Yaccarino, head of advertising sales for NBCUniversal, on what is needed to compete with Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, in an era of declining ad revenue.
Identify the “real audience” . . .
TREASURE ISLANDS IN THE STREAM
After a year of Facebook Live, the New York Times sees fewer views but more comments.