Tag Archives: adblocking

INVERSO VERANO

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How does Twitter reach influencers? Billboards.

“The micro-media app says it bought billboard space everywhere from Nice airport to the Palais.”

READ THE REPORT

 

 

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.”

LOOK UNDER THE COVERS

 

Google Subtracts Ads (for Those Willing to Pay).

“Around 11 percent of internet users were running an ad blocker.”

SEE NEW WAYS OF NOT SEEING

 

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!

TRY SIMPLY READING A BOOK

 

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.’”

VISIT JIM CROW DOT COM

 

INVERSO October

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5 REASONS FOR OPTIMISM

About the book business, from Marcus Dohle.

CHEER UP

 

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.”

MAKE STUFF HAPPEN

 

WHERE DO I CLICK?

Instagram changes its CTA palette to reflect dominant color of the content. A good idea?

YOU DECIDE

 

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.

SEE HOW THEY LOOK

Next to Now for December 2016

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For our final post of 2016, we wish you a happy holidays and terrific last-minute gift-finding success for all your loved ones (pro tip: look in a bookstore).

 

FACEBOOK EXPERIMENTS WITH GREATER AD CONTROL FOR CONSUMERS

This week Facebook announced that are allowing users greater control over which ads they see. First available for blocking: ads for liquor and parenting. This is ultimately a win for advertisers as well as consumers. It is a great way to prevent wasted impressions.

#facebook

 

MARKETING HACKS FOR INSTAGRAM

Instagram’s new save feature was good news for advertisers from the moment it was announced. But some marketers have taken it a step further, exploring creative ways to use the save tool to increase consumer engagement.

#instagram

 

HOW MEN SHOP

If you’re looking to reach men for holiday shopping, look to the last-minute. According to a National Retail Federation study on Christmas shopping,

“51.2% of men (compared to 48.3% of women) said they expect to buy the last holiday gift between Monday and Sunday.”

217286

#lastminute #men

 

WHAT’S NEW IN RUSSIAN AD FRAUD

The New York Times reports on a Russian criminal organization that specializes in using bots to fake ad impressions, pocketing millions a day from unsuspecting advertisers.  The best ways to avoid this ad fraud is to make sure you’re working with scrupulous partners. While all programmatic companies—whether it’s Google or Turn or another—are working hard to minimize the problem they haven’t yet been able to stamp it out. The surest way to avoid ad fraud is to buy directly from sites such as NYTimes.com, rather than going through dodgy 3rd party providers.

#adfraud

Next to Now for August 4

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The tomatoes are plentiful and perfectly ripe at the Union Square Greenmarket and the Olympics are set to start in Rio. It’s peak summertime and a terrific moment to think about great books, passionate readers, and finding new ways to connect them.

PEW DATA ON BOOK READERS

A recent Atlantic article on book readers looks at recent Pew data and finds both good news and bad: The bad news is that the number of American who opened a book last year (any book: paper, e-book, audio) declined . . . again. The good news is that the number of kids who read for pleasure has stopped declining and more American than ever are going to college. Book buyers correlation to education is very strong. It’s interesting to note that while education strongly correlates to numbers of books read, HHI above $50k a year is in the same ballpark for books read as HHI above $75k/year.

#readers #data #demos #HHI #education

 

“NOBODY OWNS THE FUTURE”

In this New York Times article on Verizon’s purchase of Yahoo, Tim Armstrong, head of Verizon’s AOL unit, points out that the long-term advertising landscape does not have to be entirely owned by Google and Facebook. The article is a good overview of why Verizon’s been on a buying spree recently, and how their purchases line up with their efforts to become a viable third option for advertisers.  It’s also good on the potential conflicts of interest and privacy concerns that could have the FCC putting breaks on any effort to combine mobile, Web, and broadband user tracking. Watch this space.

#verizon #advertising #data

 

OLYMPIC HASHTAG WRESTLING

The United States Olympic Committee has put non-sponsors on notice that only approved USOC sponsors can use the “official” hashtags #Rio2016 and #TeamUSA. This is patently ridiculous and shows how the old “lock-it-down” marketing mentality is persisting even in new open social channels. If you want to participate in crowd-sourcing your message and communicating on open social channels brands (including the USOC) have to relax their commitment to “owning” 100% of the conversation. There’s no other way to have a conversation unless you want to take the world back to the U.S.S.R.  If you want to own the message, that’s perfectly understandable, but then you have to restrict your participation to the kind of marketing channels that let you have a one-way conversation with your audience. The Olympics are theoretically an event that’s about global openness and free competition. To try to reshape your message of the event with old-fashioned legal bullying is anti-Olympic, anti-American, and bad marketing.

#soapbox #olympics #social  #Rio2016 #TeamUSA

 

HOW TO WIN BACK AD BLOCKERS

The IAB has released a study that shows how advertisers can win back the 26% of users who have turned on ad blocking. Not only are these users open to turning off ad blockers, the path to encouraging them to do so is simple to follow:

“Respondents who use ad blockers stated that the adoption of the LEAN principles (Light, Encrypted, AdChoice supported, and Non-invasive ads), which address a number of the tactics outlined above, would have the greatest influence in getting them to turn off ad blockers. For instance, results showed that men ages 18-34, who are the main ad blocking demographic on desktops, are also the group most inclined to turn off blocking if sites adhere to LEAN.”

Here’s Digiday’s detailed and helpful report on the study. The message is clear for advertisers: deliver ads that are contextually relevant, respectful of users, and fully transparent. These are principles Verso has believed in from the founding of our agency, and they remain best practices for advertising now.

#adblocking #iab

 

THE PLATFORM WARS

Instagram is feeling the heat from Snapchat. To combat the rising new social platform, Instagram has just introduced “Disappearing Stories” Now you can post an image to Instagram that will disappear after twenty-four hours, a direct crib from their competitor Snapchat. eMarketer has an article about the new program:

“’The temporary nature of Stories—on Snapchat and now Instagram—is just part of their appeal,’ said eMarketer senior analyst Cathy Boyle. ‘The way the short video clips and images are strung together chronologically over the course of a day allows users to step into the lives of their friends, a few seconds at a time. The visual and near-real-time nature of Stories makes it a compelling way for friends to connect, not to mention another way for advertisers to engage mobile users.’”

#snapchat #instagram

 

Tomatoes at the Union Square Greenmarket photo 2016 (c) Martha Otis


 

			

	
	


							


	

				

					

		
				

			Next to Now: The future is always unfinished
		

		
		

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THE RISE OF THE MICROINFLUENCERS


Bigger is not always better when it comes to influencer marketing:


“For unpaid posts, Instagram influencers with fewer than 1,000 followers have a like rate of about 8 percent, while those with 1,000 to 10,000 followers have a like rate of 4 percent.”


That’s good news for book publishers and any advertiser whose budget is more micro than mega. 


 #targeting #instagram


 


NEW MEDIA TARGETING


Hulu’s SVP of Sales makes a good point in Adweek (caveat emptor: he’s a sales guy, so he’s trying to sell you something). It’s good to know how a site indexes for the target audience, what the most popular content is, etc., but . . . 


“. . . those questions and answers come from yesterday’s play book. Hulu’s median age really doesn’t matter. What matters is that we can pinpoint any age group advertisers are trying to reach. It doesn’t matter how we index against millennials or any other audience segment. Why bother with indices? What matters is that we can deliver 100 percent of an advertiser’s target segment. And while popularity of programing is directionally interesting, what’s more interesting is the ability to buy against both heavily streamed shows and shows that are heavily viewed by your target audience.”


In the new media reality, the question becomes: where can we put our ad so it’s served to 100% of the audience and content adjacencies that are right for our book.  


 #video #targeting


 


EXPERIMENTS IN OUTDOOR


Hubspot highlights seven interactive outdoor campaigns that caught their eye. We’ve noticed a couple of these on Next to Now over the past year — including the Women’s Aid poster in London — but it’s good to look at them in one place and remember how outdoor is changing thanks to digital innovation.  


 #outdoor


 


YOUTUBE MOBILE


More stats from Google that will remind you why you don’t have to make broadcast TV spots any more, including the fact that YouTube reaches more 18-49 year olds on mobile alone  than any broadcast or cable TV network. 


 #mobile #video #youtube


 


ADBLOCKOPLYPSE NBD


According to Mashable, fear of mobile ad blocking (FOMAB) outstripped the reality. The mobile ad business continues to do well. But it does look like the scare has helped publishers of all stripes take user experience a little more seriously; if so, then maybe it was a good thing.   


 #adblocking


 


Today's image is Cy Twombley's "Untitled I-VI (Green Paintings)" Series on view in the "Unfinished" show currently up at the Met Breur

			

	
	


							


	

				

					

		
				

			Next to Now: Does the Marketing Funnel Still Work?
		

		
		

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MARKETING PINBALL


The CMO of Publishers Clearing House writes on Ad Age about the death of the marketing funnel and the birth of marketing pinball. The article’s focus on brands means it’s only moderately useful for book publishers, but it’s still a good read about the current state of the customer journey—instead of traveling along a well-defined linear path from awareness to inquiry to intent to purchase, the current path-to-purchase happens in a field of touchpoints as the consumer bounces from desktop research to stores to blogs to coupons to stores to reviews to comparison shopping.


 #data #marketing #pinball


 




OUR CROSS-PLATFORM WORLD


If you want to play marketing pinball, you have to start understanding our cross-platform world. One place to start is this recent comScore report.


 #crossplatform


 


A CLOUD OF DON DRAPER MOMENTS


CMO online interviews Wunderman CEO Seth Solomons on creativity and data:


“Today it’s about delivering more experiences at the points in time that matter most to the brand’s consumers. For me, it’s no longer about landing on a single Don Draper moment. Data and an understanding of engagement expectations are what make multiple Don Draper moments possible, on the devices and platforms that matter most.”


Another way to think about this, is to apply the baseball metaphor business writer and blue chip consultant Ram Charan uses in his advice for companies: it’s better to hit a whole series of singles than to keep swinging for a home run.


 #data #crossplatform


 


MESSAGING MARKETING IS HERE AND IT TALKS LIKE A BOT


The ability of AI to hold a conversation in messaging apps is beginning to show fruit in the messaging world, with implications for customer service—and, by extension, marketing.


To learn more start with this article in Adweek:


“[A] growing number of startups [employs] automated messaging to help consumers do everything from hailing cabs to paying bills. Some say these services, known as chatbots, could be the biggest digital to-do since mobile apps. The bots are forms of artificial intelligence that create personalized one-to-one interactions.”


Then you can read more on chat bots from Digiday.


 #messaging #chatbots


 


THE BENEFITS OF TARGETING TRANSPARENCY


A new study discussed in the Harvard Business Review suggests that not only do ads targeted to user behavior outperform non-targeted ads, but they do even better when the users *know* that they’re being targeted because of user behavior. Score another one for transparency.


 #targeting #transparency


 


NEW BILLBOARDS ONLY HAVE EYES FOR YOU


A new campaign for General Motors uses cameras that identify passing cars by their grills and deliver customized billboards explaining to drivers of Nissan Altimas, Toyota Camrys, Hyundai Sonatas exactly how the Chevy Malibu is a superior car to the one they’re driving. Creepy? Maybe. Or maybe it’s an extension of the online targeting that consumers are beginning to expect. Imagine a subway billboard telling a Cassandra Clare reader all the ways your new YA fiction title would make a great next read. 


 #billboard #digital


 




 


MOBILE ATE THE WORLD


Benedict Evans has updated his “Mobile Eats World” presentation—in case you still need convincing about the ubiquity of mobile devices.


 #mobile


 




 


ADBLOCKING HOLDS STEADY AT 10%


A recent comScore report suggests that ad blocking is holding steady at 10% of desktop users, and is not ramping up as had been feared. Younger males are far and away the most likely group to block ads.  


 #adblocking


 


 

			

	
	


							


	

				

					

		
				

			Next to Now: “Fall Back” Edition
		

		
		

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With the end of Daylight Savings Time on Sunday, we enter the homestretch of the year. Here’s some of what we’ve been reading this week—looking forward even as we “fall back.”






SHOULD FOLLOWER COUNT DETERMINE WORTH? 


It’s a question that depends on context. For regular everyday products like shoes, toasters, or books, the answer is a clear yes—more followers means your promotional dollar goes farther. But for “high art”—where value is supposedly determined by long-term aesthetic value more than short-term commercial ups and downs—the question becomes more complicated. A Dutch artist is playing with this line, and in the process reveals some uncomfortable truths about what’s behind some of those large follower counts. 


Related from AdWeek: “How Celebrities’ With the Best Instagram Engagement are Helping Brands.”


 #social #instagram #caveatemptor


 


SERIAL IS COMING TO PANDORA


The next edition of the revolutionary podcast “Serial” will be running on Pandora. That means there should be many more ways to advertise on it than through a single sold-out sponsorship. They aren’t saying when the second season will start yet, but Pandora has announced that season one will be available for listening as of Nov 24. 


 #mobile #pandora #serial #podcast


 


APPS OR BROWSERS?


In all the debate about whether the present and future of mobile is in apps or on browsers, it’s good to see an article that draws distinctions. That is, it depends. And in some cases, especially news, readers are split:


“For example, 36% of respondents said they mostly used apps to read entertainment news. But 37% said they mostly used a browser. For human interest stories, 36% turned to apps and 38% to mobile browsers. And for science or technology news, the breakdowns were identical, at 38% each.”


 #mobile #browsers #apps #news


 


WILL LOUSY CREATIVE SPOIL INSTAGRAM FOR THE REST OF US? 


As Instagram opens up its API, some marketers are afraid of the coming wave of ads. Will a billion terrible ads ruin our sandbox? The answer, as always, is to make creative that’s the best fit for book, reader, and audience platform. 


 #mobile #adtech #bepartofthesolution


 


PROGRAMMATIC OUTDOOR


Google recently announced a test of adding outdoor billboard inventory to their DoubleClick system. While there are various programmatic options available to us among current outdoor companies–including geo-fencing and app network buys tied into outdoor displays–the scale of Google’s reach make this a potential game changer. According to Business Insider,


 


“If the project proves successful, advertisers might soon be able to buy billboard ads using Google’s DoubleClick technology, which will pull in historical and real-time data signals — including audience, weather, travel information, sporting events, and scores — to decide which creative messages to display, which billboards to display them on, and the best time for them to run.”


File this under experiments to watch.


 #outdoor #programmatic #experimentstowatch #media


 


BOOMERS UNDER-INDEX FOR SMARTPHONE ADOPTION


Next to Now focuses on the near-future of marketing, but it’s worth remembering that our bread-and-butter work comes from selling books right now to readers who are buying them right now.  And that means the Boomer generation. So it’s worth noting that Boomers are not as easily reached with mobile marketing as the Millennials. Only 42% of Boomers own a smartphone, and those that do own a smartphone do not live through it to the extent that younger generations do. Worth considering when you’re putting together a media plan.


 #mobile #boomers #media


 


“BUSTLE HAS A BABY”


A nearly-slightly-but-not-all-the-way-snarky article on the New Yorker’s site announces that Bustle (a site and magazine we like a lot) is starting a new website for millennial moms, Romper. Bustle’s managing editor, Margaret Wheeler Johnson, provides the money quote: 


“The media talks about millennials as if they are the kids, and, actually, they’re having kids.” 


Good point. 


 #millennials #moms #media


 


THIS MUST BE SERIOUS


Even Facebook’s worried about ad blockers. From a new regulatory filing:


“Revenue generated from the display of ads on personal computers has been impacted by these technologies from time to time. As a result, these technologies have had an adverse effect on our financial results and, if such technologies continue to proliferate, in particular with respect to mobile platforms, our future financial results may be harmed.”


 #adblocking #facebook

			

	
	


							


	

				

					

		
				

			Next to Now: First Week of Fall (Official)
		

		
		

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According to the calendar, autumn began this week. We can feel the turn in the air even though the work pace has been fall-fast for weeks now. A lot has shifted in advertising this month—between Chrome dropping support for Flash and iOS9 enabling ad blockers—and as usual we’re keeping an eye on what’s about to change even as we’re working to sell great books in the here and now. These links represent some of the highlights we’ve read this week.


 


“THE WOMEN’S MAGAZINE FOR THE NEW GENERATION”


CJR on The Skimm, Broadly, and Refinery29:


“They’re paying more attention to news and politics, especially on women’s and social issues, but packaged with the right amount of edge (Broadly), twee (Refinery29), and Sex and the City references (The Skimm) to be taken seriously by the savvy millennial woman.”


 #content


 


INSTAGRAM POSTING TIPS


AdWeek gives an hour by hour breakdown of what people post by time of day. The study finds that early morning is the best time to post. Other findings:


“The most popular hashtags were #TBT (throwback Thursday) and #WCW (woman crush Wednesday) . . . And millennial women between 25 and 40 years old are the best “micro-influencers,” the company concluded in its research, which—in addition to the larger study—examined the Instagram activities of 2,000 adult females.”


 #social #instagram


 


VIDEO TIPS


Because we all need to start thinking like videographers, HubSpot offers three ideas for rethinking your video content: (1) Make it shorter, (2) Make it serial, (3) Make it real (they use the buzzword “disruptive”).


 #video


 


BOOMERS DISLIKE MOBILE ADS


A new study suggests that the Baby Boom Generation is not a fan of mobile ads:


“Baby boomers…had a highly negative response to mobile ads. They were less than half as likely as millennials to say they would accept ads in return for something of value.”


 #mobile


 


SNAPCHAT MARKETING DEVELOPMENTS


Evidence that the Snapchat experiments are working is in: brands as different as the NFL, Burberry and Goldman Sachs are expanding their presences on the app.


 #social #snapchat


 


 


THE VALUE OF “OLD MEDIA” IN A NEW MEDIA WORLD


We don’t normally link to Shelf Awareness because we assume that a vast majority of our audience regularly read it.  But it’s worth underscoring this Shelf Awareness report from Carolyn Reidy’s talk at BISG on meta data:


“[Although most readers spend an inordinate amount of time online,] it’s still very much old media such as TV, radio and certain print outlets that drive sales for new titles, even if a consumer is looking at the online version of that media.”


This is a point that’s worth reflecting on when considering your media buy: Where are your readers online and offline, and what are their most trusted sources for information?


 #oldmedia


 


 


SEX AND VIOLENCE A TURN OFF? 


A new study suggests sex and violence not only do not sell, but may actually decrease the effectiveness of the ad. It sounds like a convincing study. Yet, oddly, this Business Insider article about the study is filled with examples of sex ads?


 #creative 


 


 


NEWS OF THE ADBLOCKOLYPSE


THE AD BLOCKER WHO HAD A CHANGE OF HEART


This report has been everywhere in the news for good reason. The maker of the most popular ad blocking app on the App Store, had a change of heart and stopped selling his popular app. Here’s why: 


“Ad blockers come with an important asterisk: While they do benefit a ton of people in major ways, they also hurt some, including many who don’t deserve the hit.”


MILLENNIALS MORE LIKELY TO BLOCK ADS


There’s a reason native ads and working directly with social stars on Instagram and Vine are on the rise for reaching Millennials: 


“Research suggests that a solid majority of internet users ages 18 to 34 are now blocking ads when they view digital content”


“JP MORGAN: EVERYONE NEEDS TO CHILL OUT ABOUT AD BLOCKING”


. . . So reads the headline of a Business Insider story on a JP Morgan report on ad blocking, that doesn’t see much of an affect (yet):


“So far, ad blockers on iOS 9 are only able to block ads on the Safari browser. JPMorgan notes that ad blocking apps have “impressively” made their way to the top of the app charts, but Safari’s share is just ~4% on desktop and ~23% on tablet and mobile, according to StatCounter.”


 #adblocking


 


 

			

	
	


							


	

				

					

		
				

			Next to Now: “Everybody in the Pool” Edition
		

		
		

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PERISCOPE UP


Periscope now has 10 million users who watch 21 million minutes a day.


 #social #video






FACEBOOK ADS OUTPERFORM OTHER SOCIAL NETWORKS


More marketers say they’re satisfied with Facebook ad performance than say the same about LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube. Those platforms all serve very different functions so it’s a little disingenuous to put them all together in a group as if it’s a single horse-race, but it’s worth keeping in mind. As is this tidbit in the last sentence of the post: 


“The report also said paid advertising now accounts for 83% of marketers’ social spending, as it becomes harder to reach users on those social platforms without paying to do so.”


 #social


NEW FACEBOOK AD PRODUCTS


The recently launched Carousel unit is already one of the best performing Facebook ad units and the Dynamic Product Ads are sure to be the same (though they are more relevant to retailers than to brand advertisers).


 #social


MORE ON AD BLOCKING


Four charts that say ad blocking is something we need to face.


 #adblocking


TIMING IS EVERYTHING


One way around ad blocking is increased native options, including new campaigns that target ads to specific real-time moments based on hundreds of factors, from biometric data collected by your cell phone to real-time events such as when your favorite team wins or if you attain a new level in a video game.


 #mobile #native


“I AM VERTICAL / BUT I WOULD RATHER BE HORIZONTAL.”


That’s what Sylvia Plath wrote in her poem “I Am Vertical.” It’s a sentiment that applied to video shot for the Web–at least until recently, when platforms such as Snapchat, Periscope, and Meerkat definitely prefer vertically shot video. (Really? Turning your phone to the side to watch a video just takes too much time.)


Farhad Manjoo weighs in on vertical video orientation for the New York Times: “not a crime.”


 #video


WHAT’S THE RIGHT MEDIUM FOR YOUR MARKETING: INSTAGRAM OR PINTEREST?


This ClickZ article does a good job outlining the pros and cons of each platform. But what it really comes down to is knowing the ins and outs of whatever platform you’re using to promote your books. Interact using each platform’s native trends, tools and tendencies.


 #social


DON’T SLEEP ON VINE


Everyone has been focused on Snapchat, but meanwhile Vine continues to develop a healthy, responsive audience. 


 #social


ARE VIDEO ADS PERFORMING GREAT FOR ALL THE WRONG REASONS? 


We know video ads work . . . 


“When Q1 2015 polling by Aol queried US internet users ages 13 to 54 who watched video on a mobile device at least monthly about ad recall, more than eight in 10 remembered digital video placements on each option listed: 84% recalled those on tablets, 83% on smartphones and 82% on PCs.” 


. . . .but do people remember them in the way because they’re particularly annoying? Maybe. That said, the problems cited in this survey are fixable: keep repetition down (not a problem for book publishers given our budgets) and keep the videos short (who’s going to tell the editor we can’t use *all* the quotes?).  


 #video


EMAIL IS (STILL) NOT DEAD


Email marketing is not sexy but it has 3 things going for it: (1) ability to use big data to personalize communication, (2) ease of integrating with other marketing channels, (3) ability to measure and adapt every day


 #email


INSTAGRAM, HASHTAGS, AND GOLDILOCKS


How many hashtags should you use in your Instagram posts? Three is too many, one is too few, two is *just* right.


 #social


This week's cover art is taken from Ida Applebroog's recent show, "The Ethics of Desire," at Hauser and Wirth. It is from a series of scenes she painted on folding chairs.