Author: David Griffith

10 Big Tech Trends in Food

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10) Digital Dining
Logbar in Tokyo issues customers with iPad Minis upon entry. The menu is on the tablet, which you can also use to communicate with other drinkers and view, “like” and order what they’re drinking. You can even invent your own cocktail and add it to the menu, earning a 50 yen (about 30p) commission when someone else buys one.

9) New Food Bars
Chapul protein bars have introduced the notion of insect-eating to America. They contain 15% more iron than spinach and as much B12 as salmon, and the insects are disguised by other ingredients including chocolate, coffee, coconut and ginger.

8) Laser Cutting
Designer Andrew Stellitano engraves ham, laser-cuts biscuits into Louis Vuitton logos and makes topographic art out of lasagne. It is all rather beautiful, in an unnaturally perfect sort of way.

7) Food Tattoos
A Spanish company has developed laser tattoos for fresh produce, which can safely apply logos, provenance details and even QR codes on to fruit and veg. So long, irritating and un-eco stickers.

6) “Health” Chocolate
With an increasing number of well-off older people wanting to stay fit, bigging up the functional properties of products is considered a good business bet. Expect to see more along the lines of French fruity chocolate Wellness Cacao, probiotic Ohso bars and IQ “superfood” chocolate.

5) Healthy Snacks
Chia, an ancient grain that is favoured by vegan raw foodists as a great source of protein, omega-3, fibre and slow-release carbohydrate, has been morphed into a snack food. Mixed with coconut milk and fruit, it comes in a dinky “pod” with a spoon. Expect to see more chia products for “on-the-go nutrition”.

4) Jerky 2.0
EPIC bars are animal-based protein snacks (turkey, bison, beef) that are billed as highly nutritious, sugar-free and “just like our ancestors’ ate”. “Paleo-diet friendly!”

3) Savoury Yogurt
Carrot, tomato, parsnip and beetroot yogurt are a thing. Milk from grass-fed cows and naturally sweet vegetables seem like a winning combination.

2) Protein Snacks
IPS (Intelligent Protein Snacks) contain protein, half the fat of regular chips and fewer carbs, too. No mention of salt levels, though.

1) 3D printing
The exquisite geometric confectionary sculptures created by The Sugar Lab are just the beginning of what is possible as 3D-printing takes off.

Food Network Launches “Discover Food Network” Channel on SnapChat

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbOMqA2AOIk

Popular messaging app Snapchat announced today that it has partnered with top media media brands, including Food Network, in order to launch a new in-app news feature that will allow users to access a collection of the day’s top stories and videos with just one swipe.

The app’s new ‘Discover’ feature includes 12 unique news channels, one for each media partner, plus a dedicated Snapchat channel which will include original content from the app’s creators.

With the move, Snapchat is positioning itself as a media platform — one that reaches an estimated 100-plus million monthly active users. Snapchat Discover will compete with other video platforms and services that encompass video, including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Every channel in Snapchat Discover is refreshed after 24 hours, “because what’s news today is history tomorrow,” the company explained.

Food Network is Snapchat’s exclusive launch partner within the food category. The Discover Food Network channel on Snapchat extends the Food Network brand to reach even more young consumers with new and exciting content tailored specifically for that audience. As well as being an engaging new channel for young food fans, Discover Food Network on Snapchat will provide a new opportunity for advertisers to reach engaged young people who love food.

“Food Network has led the dialogue around food for more than two decades, informing and entertaining passionate and engaged fans, and we are excited to bring it to the Snapchat platform,” says Brooke Johnson, President of Food Network & Cooking Channel. “Audiences are more food-conscious than ever before and the Discover Food Network channel on Snapchat will provide users with the great content they love, designed specifically for their mobile devices.”

Users can tap on a channel and swipe left to flip through each channel’s daily edition, containing five to ten stories selected for the service by the Food Network editorial team.

The expectation is that some consumers will discover Food Network content through Snapchat, then seek more through Food Network’s television channels, digital and mobile platforms.

Analyst expects Netflix to reach 100 million global subs by 2018

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Stifel Nicolaus analyst Scott Devitt expects Netflix Inc.‘s international subscribers to surpass its domestic subscribers within the next five to six years.

Devitt, who upgraded Netflix to “buy” from “hold” with a $380 price target, believes the company will have about 100 million global subscribers by 2018.

“While 4Q may continue to be bumpy, we believe 2015 will see resumed growth from launches in Western Europe in mid-September 2014, particularly from large countries such as France, Germany, and Switzerland, as well upcoming launches,” the analyst said in a Jan. 13 research note.

The analyst expects the company to expand further in Western Europe, with Spain, Portugal, and Italy being the next likely targets

TV Networks Report Drop in Ad Revenue.

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According to media post, TV networks continued to struggle in terms of U.S. domestic advertising revenue and viewership in Q4 2014.

Collectively, the four major TV networks witnessed a 1.5% drop in advertising revenue to $4.68 billion — with Fox taking the biggest hit, according to MoffettNathanson Research.
Fox was down 9% to $971 million, while ABC slipped 2% to $895 million. The best results came from NBC, up 2% to $1.64 billion (including NBC-owned stations). CBS inched up 0.5% to $1.2 billion.

Cable networks also took a hit, down 1.3% in total for the major network groups to $5.65 billion.

Viacom networks were down 6% to $1.05 billion; Discovery (sans BBC America) slipped 4% to $395 million; Disney was off 3% to $1.19 billion; and NBCU/Comcast networks dropped 25 to $889 million.

Better performers included 21st Century Fox, 5% to the good, totaling $470 million; and Scripps Networks, improving 3% to $452 million.

Overall ratings performance continued to hurt all TV networks with prime-time 18-49 viewership in C3 ratings — commercial ratings plus three days of time-shifting — down 7% each for cable and broadcast networks. This was the lowest level since the first quarter of 2013.

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Twitter to Expand Video Offering

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According to Mashable, Twitter is developing a new video ad unit to support its soon-to-launch native video tool.

While details are still being hammered out, Twitter is apparently leaning toward a “pay-for-play” cost structure. It would include a six-second preview video that automatically plays in user feeds and the option to click to view the entire video.

Most likely, ads will only appear if and when users choose to view the full video, sources say.

“They don’t have it totally figured out yet,” said one marketing executive who was briefed on Twitter’s plans. Specifically, the microblogging giant has yet to decide exactly when advertisers would be charged for a video “view,” or its cost.

Key to new native tool will be a content discovery (or “surfacing”) feature, Kevin Weil, vice president, product at Twitter, said in November.

“We’re experimenting with better ways to give you what you come to Twitter for: a snapshot of what’s happening,” Weil explained in a blog post. “We can use information like who you follow and what you engage with to surface highlights of what you missed, and show those to you as soon as you log back in or come back to the app.”

 

Google Names Programmatic Video Marketplace Partners: HGTV, Food Network and Travel Channel On Board

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Last summer Google introduced Google Partner Select, a service allowing marketers to buy ads in “premium” online video content.

Now some big-name partners are signing on. Google on Tuesday said 30 media companies and 20 brand advertisers had agreed to transact via the exchange, including CBS Interactive, Fox News, Discovery Communications and Scripps Networks.

Google’s pitch to marketers is that with Google Partner Select they can buy inventory from a host of top video sites, using data for targeting purposes. Implicit in that pitch is that these marketers will avoid the low-quality and fraudulent inventory on other exchanges.

Marketers are rapidly embracing buying Web video advertising using more automated, data-driven tactics, according to Neal Mohan, Google’s vice president of video and display advertising,

“What we are seeing is the power of premium with programmatic buying,” Mr. Mohan said. “That’s something that [brands have] been very excited about.”

Of course, Google is also going after the TV advertising marketplace by directly selling Web video ad packages on YouTube via a more traditional TV-like approach (that isn’t entirely automated)–a program called Google Preferred. Mr. Mohan doesn’t see any conflict between those two trends.

“I don’t think they are mutually exclusive,” he said. “We’ve seen incredibly strong demand for Google Preferred, with brands buying in an upfront mode, and incredibly strong demand on the programmatic side. Brands are going to be looking to do both.”

As for the ad space available on the exchange, Google doesn’t offer many specifics but claims the inventory comes from a variety of content types, including everything from Web video news clips to live sports to full episodes of shows. (YouTube is not part of Partner Select.)

“We’ve gone after brand name, household name media partners on an exclusive basis,” Mr. Mohan said. “You have to remember the reason why this is attractive for publishers. They are trying to create incremental, high quality demand. Our publisher partners have not viewed this as a way to sell stuff they couldn’t sell upfront. In some cases, you are seeing this as a way for publishers to create pseudo private exchanges. We are not giving away keys to the kingdom.”

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Three Trends Digital Marketers Need to Watch.

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emarketer
If you’re looking for digital marketing trends for the upcoming year, go to a company that follows the industry trends.
eMarketer just released their report on the key digital trends for 2015. Here are three important trends to keep your eye on:

1) Programmatic will move Beyond Display Advertising

Another tipping point in 2015: programmatic advertising.
We expect programmatic will cross the line to make up
more than 50% of all digital display advertising.
But the story of programmatic will go much further than
display next year.
The same momentum and technologies that have
reshaped how we buy display ads could eventually
transform how we buy all forms of advertising, not
just digital but traditional as well. Programmatic TV, for
example, accounts for less than 1% of all TV ad spending,
but some predict it could be a multibillion dollar industry
within 12 to 24 months as both buyers and sellers use it
to better understand their audiences.
Some forecasts have that number jumping to as much as
20% of all TV spending by 2018. That’s a huge increase,
and even if it’s half or a quarter of that, we’re still talking
about very big money here. Expect the tide to begin to
turn in 2015

2) Cord-Shaving

Yes, some consumers are cutting the cord, but they’re
in the low single digits percentage-wise. A more real
behavior is cord-shaving, where consumers reduce what
they spend, rather than eliminating it altogether.
Individuals in all age groups are still watching a ton of TV
the traditional way, even millennials.
Of course, now that HBO has announced plans to
offer HBO GO as a standalone service, all of that could
change, especially as other networks rush to follow suit.
So, as they say, don’t touch that dial: Unbundling could
accelerate consumers’ latent thirst for cord-cutting.
What that means is you need to pay close attention to
consumers’ shifting video consumption habits.

TV is holding steady. It’s still the media big dog … for now. But
mobile is the channel that’s growing. With all the time,
money and attention flowing to digital video, marketers
that lack deals with content owners and dynamic
advertising are going to miss the boat.

3) Social TV

Consumers regularly use mobile devices while watching TV, but only a small percentage
talk about what they are watching via social media.
TV-related conversations are also fragmented across
platforms, and industry executives are still unsure of the
effect of social media on people’s viewing behaviors or
on ratings.

Consumers aren’t really engaging in social TV marketing
efforts, and marketers are holding back as a result. That’s
not going to change in 2015.

Shark Week Breaks Social Media Record

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Last Summer, ‘Shark Week’ broke Discovery‘s social media record, generating more than 10 million Facebook interactions throughout the week.” This year’s numbers have been tallied, and Shark Week topped itself yet again. On Facebook, 12.7 million people had over 21 million interactions – more than double last year’s numbers.

‘Shark Week‘ also broke records on-air  with (surprisingly) Women 25-34. Air Jaws: Fin of Fury – which kicked off the week on Sunday, August 10, generated the most  ‘Shark Week’ buzz.

Second Screen Synching Increases Ad Awareness

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Second-screen usage distracts viewers from TV advertising, according to a study from TNS Infratest.

Among viewers who used a second-screen device while watching television, TV ad awareness dropped a shocking 58%, compared to TV-only viewers participating in the study.

That said, the research found that new technologies can bolster ad awareness and brand image among those using second screens while watching TV. When new cross-media technology synching the delivery of TV and online ads onto the second screen was used during the study, TV ad awareness increased by more than 40%, creating an uplift among the mobile and tablet users.

“This study again confirms to advertisers that attention is turning away from the TV towards second screen devices, especially during commercial breaks,” said Andreas Schroeter, co-founder and COO of wywy. “Nearly half of the TV viewers use their tablet or smartphone to write emails, read news or surf on social networks while watching TV. New cross-media technologies synching TV and online ads are now proving to be an effective solution in recapturing the viewers’ attention as it diverts to the second screen.”

The study also recorded strong uplifts in key advertising performance indicators such as brand attitude (38%) and word of mouth (18%) when online ad synching technologies were used in tandem with TV advertising.

The company pointed out that a valuable by-product of the synched solution is the immediate feedback channel it provides to the performance of television advertising and its ability to impact online behaviour – a phenomenon that has increased due to the proliferation of second-screen usage in parallel to TV viewing.

Food Network’s Thanksgiving Live expands to Google+

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The biggest names on Food Network take on the biggest food holiday of the year in the third annual Thanksgiving Live! special, co-hosted by Alton Brown, Giada DeLaurentiis, Bobby Flay and Ina Garten. On Saturday, November 23rd from 12-2pm ET, viewers will help run the action via social media and Skype, making this fully interactive event a one-stop destination for the best in expert food advice this holiday season.

Immediately after the show, culinary experts and co-hosts of the upcoming daytime talk show The Kitchen @ Food Network Sunny Anderson, Katie Lee, Jeff Mauro and Marcela Valladolid log-in to hang out with Alton, Bobby, Giada and Ina, continuing to dish out holiday food advice in an exclusive Thanksgiving leftover-themed Google+ Hangout starting at 2pm ET. Participants can join the event and interact with the cast at FoodNetwork.com/ThanksgivingHangout.

In advance of the Google+ Hangout, participants can submit questions via Facebook (facebook.com/foodnetwork), Twitter (@FoodNetwork, hashtag #ThanksgivingLive) and Google+.