Category: Digital

All Things Digital

TV Networks Report Drop in Ad Revenue.

Posted on by Leave a comment

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.

2015/01/img_1734-0.jpg

Twitter to Expand Video Offering

Posted on by Leave a comment


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

Posted on by Leave a comment


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.”

More

Three Trends Digital Marketers Need to Watch.

Posted on by Leave a comment

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

Posted on by Leave a comment


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

Posted on by 1 Comment

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+

Posted on by Leave a comment

20131119-083252.jpg

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+.

Social TV is finally ready for Prime Time

Posted on by Leave a comment

20131115-083625.jpg

Last month, Nielsen released the “Nielsen Twitter TV Rating” which promises to provide a standard measure for TV show performance in social media. The rating system uses real-time data from Twitter, in tandem with the robust classification system from SocialGuide to measure the actual reach of the TV-related conversations happening during the airing of shows.

According to comScore, as of September 2013, there were only about 38.3 million U.S. internet users on Twitter. This sounds like a large number until you consider that there are 139 million Internet users on Facebook (over three times the reach of Twitter). According to Facebook 88-100 million people in the U.S. use Facebook during primetime TV hours. That number alone is over twice the size of Twitter’s U.S. Audience.

So why would a mass medium like TV find a social media partner in Twitter instead if Facebook, which is not only the top social networking site in the U.S., but also the top social networking site in the world?

The answer is twofold. The first the difference between the Twitter feed and the Facebook news feed. Twitter feeds are populated by Tweets from other users they follow who are Tweeting at the time they are logged into Twitter. This means that the content of the Twitter feed is “linear” – the content is real-time with what the users and their followers are doing in real-life. In this way Twitter can easily function as a chat room during a TV show. The Facebook news feed, is populated according to an algorithm which selects content based on popularity and past user behaviors. This makes it more difficult for users to engage in live conversations related to TV shows since there’s no guarantee that two users posting at the same time about the same TV show will actually see each other’s posts.

The second reason is related to search and content discovery. Twitter hashtags make it easy to find posts related to a specific topic and for TV networks and their technology partners to identify users who are watching their shows while they’re on air.

Facebook has been implementing changes to address these challenges. In June, the company introduced hashtags to enable users to easily identify others in their networks engaged in conversations. So far, hashtags have not been as successful on Facebook as they are on Twitter but this could turnaround quickly if major TV networks start promoting Facebook hashtags during live programming.

Facebook also recently introduced Keyword Insights, which provides visibility into users engaged in conversations about specific keywords. TV networks can now tally the number of users discussing specific shows on Facebook during specific times by age, gender and geography.

The important point in all these developments is that advertisers and TV networks are finally seeking ways to measure the potential marketing communications opportunities generated by social TV behaviors. Social TV is finally ready for primetime.

Netflix becoming more like TV

Posted on by Leave a comment

Netflix has announced what it’s calling the biggest update ever for its more than 40 million streaming customers, rolling out a more visually rich design that will be the same regardless of what kind of device is used to bring videos from the Internet to the TV.

Netflix says that the majority of the 1 billion hours of video its users stream each month is viewed on televisions, via TV apps or devices like the Roku, Blu-ray players or gaming consoles.

Under the new format, which began rolling out Wednesday, clicking on a show or movie will call up a full-page description, with multiple images and an explanation of why Netflix recommended it for you. Descriptions of the videos will be sharper, Netflix says, and users who choose to let Netflix access their social-media profiles will get recommendations based on their activity and friends’ activity, as well as on videos they’ve watched in the past.

Until now, most versions of Netflix streaming looked like a relatively flat grid, consisting of row after row of suggestions based, generally, on what kind of videos had been streamed by the user in the past.

“The new interface, which has been two years in the making, is a visually striking departure from the familiar grid of movie tiles and boxes, and it is designed to mirror the experience of TV watching.

Other new features include expanded support for Netflix Profiles, a way to let people in the same household customize their experience, and support for voice controls on Xbox 360. Post-Play, the feature that automatically starts the next episode of a TV show you’re watching or suggests others when you’re done, also is being redesigned.

Netflix says the update will take about two weeks to reach all devices, which include PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Roku 3, and new and future smart TVs and Blu-ray players.

Some older smart TVs and Blu-ray players may receive the new look if manufacturers update them, and the overhaul will be added for the Roku 2 box early next year.

One set-top box that won’t be getting the update is Apple TV. That system has “specific templates that are set by Apple,” according to Netflix.

Netflix says it has more than 31 million U.S. subscribers to its streaming service, plus almost 10 million international subscribers.

Mobile Advertising expected to surpass desktop by 2017

Posted on by Leave a comment

Mobile advertising is growing so rapidly that it will pass desktop advertising by 2017, according to a new report from eMarketer.

Leading the way will be search ads; mobile accounts for 22% of all search ads this year and is expected to grow to 60% by 2017. It was at 2% only three years ago. About half of all spending on display ads will be in mobile’s column by 2017 as well. Other key findings:

Mobile search ads should be worth $4.34 billion this year, up from $3.95 billion in 2012.

Mobile display ads should bring in $3.81 billion in 2013, up from $3.38 billion last year.

Mobile ad dollars overall will more than double from last year to $8.5 billion.

Video-ad revenue on mobile and desktops is expected to hit $4.1 billion this year and rise to $9.2 billon in 2017.