Tag Archives: google

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 for the new year

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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.

LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP

 

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.”

LOOK FORWARD

 

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.”

GET THE DETAILS

 

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.”

THE KNOWN KNOWNS ETC HERE

 

 

Next to Now – Late April Edition

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NEW YORK TIMES JOINS SNAPCHAT DISCOVER

Where is the news going? Where is it coming from?

Is a picture worth 1000 words?  Depends on the words.

DISCOVERINATE!

 

GEN Z —

One wonders what the succeeding generation will be called.

“Luckily, advertisers can ensure their ads stay Gen Z-significant by leveraging 3 key elements in their digital advertising approach…”

WHAT 3 KEY ELEMENTS?

 

PINTEREST:  “DON’T LIKE US ANYMORE.”

Pinterest isn’t a social network, it says — rather it wants to be seen as a visual search engine.

“The hope is that you’ll get ideas for your real life, and you’ll close the app, get off your phone and try those ideas.”

Turn off that computer!  Go outside and play!

VERY PINTERESTING … 

 

PAMA CORNER

9 intriguing stats from last week via AdWeek

Bookstagrammers Event MAY 10th

 

SESAME STREET VERSUS DATA

Early studies showed that Sesame Street was harmful to the children it was meant to serve.  Mr. Rogers fared better.

Credible?

How to get to Sesame Street

 

Daffodils - Union Square Greenmarket

Next to Now – Early April Edition

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BEWARE OF ROBOTS

Not only are they stealing our jobs, they are “liking” us! There ought to be a tax.

“Facebook advertising has a little-discussed problem: When you run an ad, people operating fake profiles will click on the ad and like your page simply to make their own fake profile look more genuine, as if it is being operated by a real person.”

Read the Bloomberg article

 

IN FAVOR OF SELECTIVITY

Only 5,000 sites? Is this the Dark Ages?

“JP Morgan Chase slashes the number of sites where it advertises to 5,000 from some 400,000.”

Find out what happened

 

FILTER ME THIS

“YouTube races to provide more filters to restore confidence: new filters they can apply to campaigns that will help them avoid more types of objectionable content”

What are the new filters? 

 

THIS MAGIC MICRO-MOMENT

Google is touting the trackability of “micro-moments”

“90% of consumers say that they go from one device to another every single day, and 91% of them turn to their phone for ideas in the middle of a task. This is an overwhelming percentage to ignore. For marketing efforts to be successful, businesses must pay attention to these statistics.”

Read Forbes on this momentous turn

 

HALF MOON OR LONGBOAT

A nifty design article on the history of publishing colophons.

Undercover Branding The Stories Behind 20 Publishing House Logos 

 

AND “S-TOWN” RELEASES!

The new podcast from the “Serial” people.

Because Serial.

Next to Now – Late March Edition

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THE POWER OF ELLIPSES

A few words — or even a few dots — can make a big difference. Compliments of a PAMA Facebook post, BookBub’s 8 Book Description A/B Tests You Need to See …

 

GETTING BOOKS TO THE PEOPLE

Emma Watson and the Station of Secrets.

Watch:

 

CASTING THE PODS MORE FAIRLY

Find out how the podcast boom can favor and disfavor diversity in this Columbia Journalism Review article.

Why are #PodcastsSoWhite?

Also check out:

10 great podcasts to diversify your listening lineup

 

UNDER THE SURFACE ON WHICH WE DWELL

Programmatic is like a planet. We live on the thin surface layer but most of the hot stuff is under the surface.

“Facebook just executed what might best be described as a digital advertising coup against rival Google and its DoubleClick empire” by letting publishers use header bidding technology. This could raise ad costs but increase yield, says AdAge.

Drill a hole and peek into the Magma

Or simply find out:

WTF is Header Bidding?

Next to Now: January 27 Edition

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ABOUT FACE

No frame, all-image. (Potentially all-ad?)  In the near future your phone may be composed entirely of a single, interactive screen. Possibly on both sides.

The latest Apple patent spotted.

And bendy too!

 

 

PRINT IS THE NEW VINYL

Educated, affluent readers who love reading prefer their quality, long-form journalism in print form, even if it means paying more.  Or so hopes this web-only publication that is returning to print (partially).

Give it a spin.

 

 

3 WAYS TO DRIVE GROWTH

Google looks at the mindset of leading marketers.

Embrace experimentation!

Next to Now: Sept 16

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MIC REIMAGINES SPONSORED POSTS

The Wall Street Journal reports on how the millennial news platform .Mic is rethinking video sponsorship. Mic is allowing advertisers to sponsor their highly popular videos on Facebook:

“Instead of selling…ads based on content genre or audience demographics, Mic is putting its editorial videos into categories, such as clips that elicit emotions or videos that celebrate innovation—two popular genres that typically incite people to share, and letting advertisers run ads next to these types of videos.”

While this kind of sponsorship is not useful for any book that needs time to tell its story, it could be very interesting for a book with immediate appeal to millennials with a high education and relatively high HHI.

#mic #facebook #news

 

GOOGLE DISPLAY BENCHMARKS

Have you played around with Google’s Display Ad benchmark tool recently? It can be very useful for setting expectations. Click-through rates seem to be going down across the board. If you set it for U.S. Book ads, the display CTRs range from .04-.6% depending on the size. Mobile only sizes such as 320×50 fare a little better with a .18% CTR. While this is certainly the case for the industry as a whole, Verso’s own click-through rates continue to beat industry averages—ranging from about .10% for desktop to twice that for mobile.

#CTR #Google #data #benchmarks

 

OUT OF HOME GAINS AN EDGE WITH DIGITAL

Long a staple of advertising plans for all manner of products, out-of-home advertising has gained a new edge with digital billboards. Digital capabilities mean advertisers can move much more quickly on campaigns instead of having to plan six to eight months ahead for each iteration. As CMO magazine puts it:

“The integration of data and technology means advertisers can tap into OOH like never before. ‘And it’s really shifting into bringing back the things that digital has kind of lost–the sensory experiences, feelings, and interactions.'”

There’s a reason spending on out of home advertising continues to grow.

#billboards #OOH #digital

 

ESPN BRINGS LONGFORM SPORTS JOURNALISM TO PODCASTS

As part of IAB’s recent podcast upfronts, ESPN announced that it’s bringing it’s acclaimed 30 for 30 series to podcasts. With in-depth reporting about sports news, 30 for 30 videos appeal to sports fans of a more thoughtful bent . . . which is to say, sports fans who might be inclined to buy books on a subject in an effort to go deeper than in-game color commentary or talk show style chatter.  For book publishers who might not be able to afford a :30 ad on ESPN, running mid-roll on a podcast might be a highly targeted ad solution.

#sports #podcasts #espn

 

Next to Now: Friday links for Sept 9.

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PODCAST ADS CREATE HALO EFFECT

While podcasts still don’t deliver the ad metrics of other digital products, evidence continues to mount that podcast advertising is effective.  A new Edison Research study commissioned by the IAB suggests that 65% of podcast fans “are more willing to consider purchasing products and services they learn about during a podcast.”

#podcasts

 

INSTAGRAM IS BIG & GROWING WITH MILLENNIALS

Four charts from eMarketer show how Instagram’s U.S. audience is substantial and growing, that more than half of US millennial internet users are “active” on Instagram, how the app is favored by college students, and how their user base trends toward higher incomes among U.S. teens.

#instagram #millennials #social

 

INSTAGRAM IS KING FOR RETAILERS

As reported in Mediapost, a new study from research company L2 suggests that Instagram is the top social platform for retailer engagement:

“’Instagram remains the king of engagement,’ with interactions that are ’10 times higher than Facebook, 54 times higher than Pinterest, and 84 times higher than Twitter.’

It also says Instagram users are considerably more open to what brands have to say on that platform, with 50% of users following brands. ‘Not all brands are benefiting equally on the platform,’ it says, ‘with the top seven brands in terms of engagement capturing 77% of total Index brand interactions over the past year.’

Further, a third of Instagram users made purchases on their phone, which makes them 70% more likely to do so than non-Instagram users.”

#instagram #retailers

 

WHY FACEBOOK LIVE IS WRONG FOR ADVERTISERS

In an article for Ad Age, Carrie So argues that Facebook Live mid-roll ads are stuck in the past: 

“Essentially, the concept strives to resurrect the 20th-century TV broadcasting model within the context of a 21st-century social network. Having just recently started testing mid-roll ads, Facebook Live wagers that viewers who log onto the site to see photos and updates from family and friends will not only want to watch live broadcasts — but will also stay tuned for the ads that scroll in the midst of the live programming.”

The two main problems: (1) mid-roll ads are easy for users to skip since it’s so easy to put down your phone during a break in the programming, and (2) there’s a distinct lack of quality control; even major publishers such as the New York Times are forced by their deals with Facebook to stream too many video hours to sustain high standards.

#facebook #streaming #video

 

AD FRAUD REPORT POINTS TO CHROME AND INTERNET EXPLORER

A recent ad fraud report cited by the Wall Street Journal suggests the most ad fraud happens with Google’s Chrome and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browsers. While both companies fault the study, it’s clear that since the two companies have the most users they also make the most attractive targets for fraudsters. While Microsoft has failed to patch security holes on IE (especially discontinued but still popular iterations), Google continues to work hard to try to stay ahead of the fraud where possible.

#adfraud #microsoft #google

 

PEW RESULTS ON AMERICAN READERSHIP

The Pew report on reading in America is out, with results in line with what we’ve seen in recent years: overall adult reading is slightly down, ebooks remain plateaued, and the core demos of America’s strongest readers remain affluent, educated women:

“In the most recent survey, those most likely to be book readers included women; young adults (those ages 18-29); [and] those with higher levels of education and higher household income . . . These patterns largely hold for overall book reading and for the different reading platforms – printed books and e-books.

“The average woman read 14 books in the past 12 months, compared with the nine books read by the average man, a statistically significant difference. The median number of books read by women was five, compared with a median of three for men, which was not statistically significant.

“Those with higher levels of education were more likely to have read multiple books than those with high school diplomas or less. The typical college graduate or someone with an advanced degree read an average of 17 books in the previous year, compared with nine for high school grads and three for those who did not graduate from high school.”

#pew #readers #demos

 

FACEBOOK’S FIRST VERTICAL VIDEO ADS

The first vertical video ads have gone live on Facebook, and the results suggest a 3x improvement in performance and efficiency. This might be simply an example of a format getting increased attention mostly because it’s new, but given how video and social consumption have moved to mobile, we do think vertical video is here to stay.

#facebook #video

 

BILLBOARDS CONTINUE TO MAKE NEWS

The New York Times reports on the continued importance of out of home advertising, even as online ads steal budgets from print and broadcast. The continued growth of digital innovation with billboards—both with creative and with user targeting—means the venerable ad platform is just as vital today as it was 100 years ago.

#outofhome

 

MOBILE APPS CONTINUE TO GROW

An article in Marketing Land points to a new report from ComScore that shows that two-thirds of all time is spent on mobile, and over half of time spent on mobile happens within apps.  But while mobile has most total user hours, desktop still is king of the conversion. When the consumer is ready to pull the trigger, s/he still heads for the desktop. Here’s Business Insider’s take on the ComScore report.

#desktop #mobile #apps

 

Ceiling photo detail (c) 2016 Martha Otis

Next to Now for July 21

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PREMIUM WEBSITE ADS PERFORM BETTER

A new study from ComScore underlines that ads on premium websites—such as the New York Times, WSJ, and various imprints of Condé Nast and Hearst media—deliver better results than ads on non-premium websites. From the Wall Street Journal article on this report:

“The study, which comScore said analyzed the ad campaigns of 15 large brands across a number of advertiser categories, concluded that ads placed on DCN sites were 67% more effective than non-DCN sites. According to comScore, that difference confirmed that ‘premium sites deliver premium performance.’

“The study also found that premium publisher sites were more effective in driving so-called ‘mid-funnel brand metrics,’ which measure consumer attitudes including favorability, consideration and intent to recommend.

“’The primary driver of this increased effectiveness is the halo effect that comes from the value of the contextual environment in which these ads are seen,” the report concluded. Basically, ads perform better when they appear alongside high-quality content.”

This is a value-proposition inherent in the way ads on premium websites are priced—with CPMs often 2-3x as expensive as non-premium sites—and matches with results we see at Verso. But it’s good to have more data backing up our observations.

Here’s a link to more detail from report from AdWeek. And here’s Niemen Lab’s take on the same study. 

#targeting #data #performance #ripepeachestastebest

 

GOOGLE ADDS NATIVE TO PROGRAMMATIC TOOLS

Google announced that it now can deliver native ads programmatically. The best performing native ads are those that are crafted in the unique voice of a particular website, and that ability is still beyond the reach of Google’s system. But adjusting headline and copy to each website’s particular style is a decent, and more affordable second option.

#native #programmatic #google #everypeachisdifferent

 

PRIME DAY BEYOND AMAZON

Amazon’s Prime Day was discussed (and dissed) as an expression of the company’s power, which it was . . . But that doesn’t mean the news was all bad for smaller retailers who took advantage of the “deal hunting” in the communal air to up their own business. In a study of last year’s Prime Day, BloomReach found that traffic to other retailers was up 21% and conversion improved by an average of 57% as a result of Prime Day. It’s a form of the real estate adage, “location location location.” Put your business where the action is, and use the wind as it is (even if you don’t like the source of the hot air) to power your boat.

#primeday #amazon #local #localpeaches

 

SPONSORED LOCATIONS IN POKEMON GO

You knew this was coming, right? Pokemon Go is introducing “Sponsored Locations,” a new revenue stream for Niantic, the maker of the app, and a good idea for marketers, especially if they’re a bricks and mortar retail store . . . or a company that sells its products there.

#pokemongo #geotargeting #peacheeoto

 

THE END OF LANDSCAPE VIDEO?

After Snapchat has declared the rise of vertical video, a new report suggests square video is not only the format needed for Instagram, it’s also proving to be the best performing format for video on Facebook in several head-to-head tests:

“For the past several months, we have started shooting videos for square crop and posting videos in square crop,” said Jason Stein, founder and CEO of Laundry Service. “We are doing this because in executing the media buys for these videos, we found that view-through rate and engagement rate are much higher on square than landscape videos. This is likely due to the larger amount of real estate that a square video gets in feed.”

#video #creative #uprightpeaches

 

CROWDSOURCED AD DELIVERY

A new company called Wrapify is allowing any car owner to let their car become a trackable, digitally connected, moving billboard. Spotify and PetCo are advertisers who have tested the technology for their own products. Here’s a link to the AdWeek story.

#digital #outdoor #peachesforeveryone

 

Photo: Peaches from Union Sq Greenmarket (c) 2016 Martha Otis

Next to Now for July 7

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SNAPCHAT MATURES

The Wall Street Journal reports that Snapchat is getting older—with 14% of US smartphone owners over 35 years old using the app. While they don’t use it with the same frequency and velocity we see with teenage users, the aging of the user population is a sure sign that the platform is going to give bigger rivals such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter a run for their money.

#snapchat #social

 

SNAPCHAT GAINS MEMORIES

As part of that maturing process, Snapchat introduced “Memories”—a way to save your own Snapchats for future sharing.

#snapchat

 

ADS ARE DEAD (LONG LIVE ADVERTISING!)

On Digiday, Copyranter asks the question “Does advertising even work anymore?” Then answers it: No! Then qualifies: Kind of. Then flips back to “No!” Then shows you how to sell to advertising-averse Millennials. See what he did there?

#advertising #millennials

 

GOOGLE HONES ITS TARGETING DATA

With their new “My Activity” page, Google is bringing together what they know about users from Search, Mobile, Browsing and more. This has everything to do with the advertising data wars and their fight with Facebook for supremacy.

#google #data #targeting

 

THE NEWS OF TUMBLR’S DEATH IS GREATLY EXAGERRATED

The New Republic does a deep dive into Tumblr that shows how the platform remains vital for teens (and, thus, vital for YA marketing strategy).

#tumblr #teens #ya

 

LOCATION-BASED ADVERTISING GETS AN UPGRADE

The Village Voice looks at whether or not the new LINK NYC systems are good for the city. For sure, they’re good for advertisers in general and Google in particular. Data collected at the kiosks from browsing history will tell advertiser a lot about the demographic profile of the outdoor audience and make for the best targeting we’ve seen from outdoor advertising yet. As consumers though (and we *are* citizens as well as advertisers), it’s worth remembering the internet adage: “If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.” And it’s worth thinking through the “devil’s advocate” position on ad targeting if we’re to do our jobs as advertisers and citizens equally well.

#outdoor #google #targeting

 

photo (c) Martha Otis