SajitonTech: February 2018

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

How Brands Are Behaving On Snapchat

How Brands Are Behaving On Snapchat

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What’s your competition up to on Snapchat?

Sure, swiping around the app can offer some clues, but MediaRadar took a more methodical approach by analyzing the activity of 397 brands from last November through this past January.

And?

Across 52 Snapchat Discover Channels, the average brand is buying between four and five channels at a time, the ad intelligence firm found.

Meanwhile, ad spend across Discover Channels is not equally distributed. The average Discover Channel carried 24 advertisers since the beginning of November. In that time period, iHeart Radio’s channel was the most popular, with 61 brands placing with them.

CNN had the fewest advertisers, which is almost certainly related to the network’s recent decision to suspend its channel.

Not too surprisingly, ad spend is highly concentrated in entertainment (48%), with tech (13%) and retail (12%) coming in a distant second and third.

Yet Snapchat’s current ad mix suggests there is substantial room for growth, even within its endemic market.

Beyond Snapchat’s core demographic of young folks, brands are responding to increases in the share of older users.

The company recently reported that half of all new users are 25 years or older.

Among other brand responses, Olay is now advertising its Completely Ageless Collection on Cosmo’s and People’s Discover Channels.

What about video length?

Well, between November and January 2018, MediaRadar found video ads ranging from three to 10 seconds in length, while 60% of the spots were between eight to 10 seconds long.

Also of note, the intelligence firm found almost no examples of brands buying across all of a single publisher’s Snapchat channels.

For example, no advertiser bought both Wired and Vogue (both Condé Nast properties), or Cosmo and Esquire (both Hearst properties), from November through January.

For MediaRadar, this buying behavior reinforced the idea that buys are gender-targeted.

Based on its findings, MediaRadar also found what it believes to be instances of exclusive brand deals -- or, at least, brands with a penchant for single channel buys.

Among other examples of this, Exxon only bought with the NFL from November through January, while Dunkin’ Donuts appeared to restrict itself to ESPN’s Discover channel during the period.

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February 28, 2018 at 07:53PM

Paul Allen Wants to Teach Machines Common Sense Technology

By CADE METZ from NYT Technology http://ift.tt/2F2M7yw
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Chico's, Beating Expectations, Asks: #HowBoldAreYou?

Chico's, Beating Expectations, Asks: #HowBoldAreYou?

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Chico’s, the specialty retailer that’s been struggling to get its groove back, says its fourth-quarter profits topped industry expectations, indicating its turnaround efforts are on target. And the company is in the midst of rolling out a new campaign, using women’s ages to shake up its “women of a certain age” stigma.

“Our core shopper isn’t one age or one style,” says Shelagh Stoneham, senior vice president, marketing for Chico's. “What sets her apart is personal style–she’s fun, colorful and loves joy, and we look to play a supporting role in her life.” Using the #HowBoldAreYou hashtag, the video features women flaunting Chico’s latest looks, as well as their age. And the social media campaign supporting it asks women to post pictures of themselves on social media, wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with their ages.

The Fort Myers, Fla.-based company says net income for the fourth quarter rose to $28 million, up from $13.5 million in the same period a year ago, including a $10 million gain from tax reform and $4 million from the benefit of a 53^rd week of sales. But sales trends were negative: Net sales dropped 2.2% to $587.8 million, and same-store sales fell 5.2%, as customers spent less per transaction. (At Chico’s, same-store sales slipped 3.2%, while at its White Horse Black Market chain, they sank 9.3%.)

"In 2017, we strengthened our brands' positioning, enhanced the customer experience, maintained financial discipline and built a solid foundation for our next stage of profitable growth,” says president and CEO Shelley Broader, in its announcement. “We are excited about our sales-driving initiatives for 2018.”

Stoneham tells Marketing Daily the new campaign is an attempt to reinforce the brand perception with loyal customers, “and bring new customers into the Chico’s family.”

The campaign is the first from The&Partnership, which won the account last fall amid plenty of Hurricane Irma drama. “And this campaign actually came out of the agency’s initial pitch,” she says, “which hardly ever happens. But it was that good, and that well researched.” Besides the digital and social elements, print is running in O, The Oprah Magazine and InStyle.

She says that the splashy prints are part of the charm. “We’ve got over 1,000 prints a year,” she says, and that vibrancy is a part of the brand’s character: “We dress in our outside voices.”

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February 28, 2018 at 06:51PM

Twitter Adds Bookmarking Feature

Twitter Adds Bookmarking Feature

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As part of a broader effort to help users safely drink from the information firehose that is Twitter, it is adding a dedicated bookmarking tool. Previously, users had to like a tweet in order to bookmark it. With this latest offering, that’s no longer necessary.

Per the change, a new “share” icon accompanying tweets will give users the choice of bookmarking it, or sharing it via direct message or some other means.

“Because we put all sharing actions together in one place, it’s easier to save and share privately or publicly -- in the moment, or later,” Jesar Shah, a product manager at Twitter, notes in a new blog post.

To bookmark a tweet, users can now simply tap the share icon, and select, “Add Tweet to Bookmarks.” To find it later, they can tap “Bookmarks” from their profile icon menu. Bookmarks are now rolling out globally on Twitter for iOS and Android, Twitter Lite, and mobile.twitter.com.

Over the years, Twitter has made countless changes in an effort to make its service more accessible to a mass audience. Despite such efforts, data suggests that Twitter’s growing problem isn’t going away.

Last year, the social network only accounted for only 0.8% of digital consumption, Pivotal analyst Brian Wieser recently reported. Worse, that share was actually down 1.1% in 2016, according to Wieser, who based an analysis on digital content consumption data from Nielsen.

From 2016 to 2017, Twitter also recorded a 14% decline in digital consumption, per Wieser.

For its part, Twitter recently reported average monthly active users (MAUs) of 330 million during the fourth-quarter 2017, which was flat compared to the third quarter and up just 4% year-over-year.

In large part, Twitter blamed its modest MAU figures on continued efforts to curb spam, fake accounts and other bad actors.

Year-over-year, average daily active users (DAUs) grew 12% during the fourthquarter 2017, which marked the fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit DAU growth.

Regarding Twitter’s most recent quarterly performance, Wieser said: “Overall, the results represented ongoing progress, which was consistent with our longer-term expectations for Twitter as a durable, if niche-y but highly differentiated platform for digital advertising, which should eventually be able to approach industry-level growth rates.”

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February 28, 2018 at 06:47PM

Email The Top Channel In Event Marketing Survey

Email The Top Channel In Event Marketing Survey

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Email is used by 93% of all event marketers in the build-up to events , outranking other channels by 40%. It is also viewed as the most effective medium, by far. But it is less likely to be used during the occasions themselves, according to The 2018 State of B2B Event Marketing, a study by Certain and Heinz Marketing.

The results, which appear to be in line with other study findings, show that email has little competition at the pre-event stage. Organic social and web site banners come in at a very distant second, following by content marketing, partner marketing and sales enablement. Paid social is last.

Almost 90% also see email as the most effective at this stage: Nothing else even comes close. Sales enabling is cited by less than 30%, and organic social ranks even lower. Cold calling is the least effective tactic.

Day-of-event marketing tactics are topped by social hashtags, at over 50%. Personalized emails are second. Daily email digests are at the bottom, used by less than 10%.

However, email reigns supreme in post-event marketing, being cited by over 80%. Sales and marketing are next, exceeding 50% and content marketing third. Direct mail is at the bottom.

However, email does not rule in effectiveness at this stage. The study notes that That “1 in 2 B2B professionals find their webinars and other types of partner marketing as very effective, and 2 in 5 rank their content marketing the same way.”

It adds: “Ironically, only 3 in 10 B2B professionals view their email marketing and sales handoffs as effective.”

The study also revealed these findings:

Three out of four respondents view events to be very important drivers of business.

Tracking ROI remains elusive for events, although one out of four companies spend from 25% to 50% of their marketing budget on them.

Three out of four say their current mix of tools and technology is ineffective.

Roughly half say their sales strategies need work.

Certain and Heinz Marketing surveyed 271 B2B professionals.

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February 28, 2018 at 04:26PM

Marketers Trailing IT Professionals In Use Of Analytics, Data For Mobile

Marketers Trailing IT Professionals In Use Of Analytics, Data For Mobile

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Marketers are prioritizing mobile experiences in 2018, with many focusing on privacy and data security, personalization, progressive mobile web site experiences, and design and layout. The survey results, released Wednesday, suggest that data and analytics will drive the changes -- but marketers still remain behind the curve in use.

Adobe surveyed nearly 500 marketers and IT professionals between September and October 2017, to explore mobile trends and priorities and to get a glimpse of where they’re going with their mobile efforts and learn what the most advanced organizations are doing to create the next wave of transformative mobile experiences.

The survey asked marketers to name the paid media that works best for acquisition. Social and search rose to the top for mobile apps, with 35% and 34%, respectively saying they are extremely effective. Display followed with 21% and video followed with 17%.

The travel and hospitality industry ranked search significantly higher than other industries for acquiring mobile app users. Video was the top paid-media pick for B2B tech companies.

The same question was asked of mobile web site visitors. In this case, search and social came in at 29%, while display followed with 22% and video came in at 14%.

The survey asked respondents whether they use analytics technology. Not surprisingly, 58% of marketers said yes, compared with 71% of IT professionals. About 58% of marketers said they calculate lifetime values for customers based on in-app behaviors vs. 68% of IT professionals.

Overall IT professional excelled with the numbers. Some 68% of marketers said they measure customer levels of engagement and use over time, versus 81% of IT professionals. And when it came down to optimizing conversion funnels in mobile apps via A/B testing, the numbers were 62% and 73%, respectively.

Some 69% of marketers and 84% of IT professionals said mobile apps are important to the marketing strategy. About 81% and 88%, respectively, said mobile web sites are extremely or very important.

This year Adobe saw a year-over-year (YOY) decline in the importance of mobile apps and mobile websites for marketers, with more ranking them as “very” important versus “extremely.” This might suggest that marketers are beginning to see mobile as a central component of an integrated strategy and no longer the hot new thing.

Some 75% of marketers and 85% of IT report that mobile is finding its role in a fully integrated customer experience. About 20% of both groups say mobile drives strategy and programs -- but the number of marketers who expressed this view was significantly lower than in 2017.

Interestingly, most respondents say at least some of their teams have mobile-specific objectives or key performance indicators, but far fewer believe those KPIs directly support the company's overall business objectives. For marketers, 28% said all teams do have mobile-specific objectives or KPIS to measure effectiveness, 61% think some teams have this, and 11% think that no teams do. When it comes to IT professionals, those numbers are 39%, 56% and 3%, respectively.

About 23% of marketers say KPIs support their organization's overall objectives, 64% said they somewhat support them, and 11% say they have limited ad-hoc contributions. For the IT professionals those numbers come in at 43%, 49%, and 7%, respectively. About 1% say no.

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February 28, 2018 at 03:28PM

NBC To Reduce Prime-Time Ad Load By 10%

NBC To Reduce Prime-Time Ad Load By 10%

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NBC is planning to significantly cut back its commercial advertising loads later this year, reducing the number of ads in commercial pods by 20%, and decreasing prime-time advertising time by 10% across its portfolio of networks.

In total, more than 50 prime-time shows across the NBC broadcast network and cable channels like USA and Bravo will see their ad loads decrease.

The changes will take place in the fourth quarter of this year, tied to the broadcast network’s fall season debuts. The company will formally introduce its ad plans at this year’s upfront.

NBCUniversal will also launch a number of new ad products, some of which will use artificial intelligence to contextually target consumers.

The new products include a 60-second advertising format called “Prime Pod,” which will be available in the first or last commercial breaks of programming, and will be dedicated to up to two advertisers. Essentially, the pod will condense the typical 2:30 commercial pod into a one-minute break, putting extra emphasis on the advertisers that participate.

In addition, the company will launch an interactive picture-in-picture product, and social ad products to supplement its linear ads.

"The industry knows that television is already the most effective advertising medium there is, but we need to make the experience better for viewers,” said Linda Yaccarino, chairman of advertising and client partnerships for NBCUniversal, in a statement. "We promised some big swings last fall to move our industry forward and this is the first one."

The moves by NBC are the latest efforts from broadcasters to try and drive ad sales in an increasingly fragmented media environment. Consumers are watching more content on-demand on more platforms, many of which are commercial-free.

Fox last year launched a pilot program that featured six-second ads during NFL games and some other programming, borrowing a format that was popular on social media platforms like Vine and Instagram.

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February 28, 2018 at 03:28PM

Media Project Details Why Readers Subscribe To Local News

Media Project Details Why Readers Subscribe To Local News

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A new study identified nine “paths to subscription” that get readers to sign up and pay for local news, as more publishers turn to subscription revenue to offset losses in print advertising.

Readers subscribe when they: “hit paywalls online, closely follow a single topic, develop a strong relationship through social media, closely watch civic affairs, passionately defend a free press, were influenced to subscribe by a friend, like to read the news in print, enjoy clipping coupons and recently moved to the area,” according to the study, conducted by the Media Insight Project, a collaboration between the American Press Institute and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

The study included 4,113 recent subscribers from 90 local newspapers across 12 different newspaper companies in the U.S.

“The move toward subscriptions requires newspapers to identify potential subscribers with analytics that measure motives and engagement, not just page views,” stated Tom Rosenstiel, executive director of the American Press Institute. “Newspapers need to understand the paths to subscription and guide each reader along his or her journey by delivering the types of value and engagement desired and tailoring their acquisition and retention strategies to each group.”

A reader’s background also affects their willingness to pay for local news. Some 61% of those surveyed want access to local news, 40% notice a lot of useful articles and 31% want to support local journalism.

But the biggest trigger to push a reader to subscribe is a discount or promotion offer — nearly half (45%) cited this reason for subscribing to a local news outlet, more than double any other factor.

Once readers have subscribed, reliability and accuracy of the publication's coverage are very important to most new subscribers (78%), according to the study.

The size of the newspaper also affects the reasons behind people's motivation to subscribe.

New subscribers to small newspapers are more likely than those at larger metros to prefer print over digital (85% vs. 56%) and to subscribe after moving to town (23% vs. 13%).

Digital subscribers in the Media Insight Project study tend to be younger, male and more educated than print readers. Half of digital subscribers in the study are triggered to pay for content when they hit a paywall, too.

Retaining subscribers is a matter of quality, according to the study. Seventy-eight percent value getting reliable, accurate facts, and 68% value a newspaper dealing fairly with all sides.

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February 28, 2018 at 01:59PM

Doing The Wrong Thing With The Right Data

Doing The Wrong Thing With The Right Data

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Data, data, data. The ad industry is constantly talking about data. Big data, small data, personal data, any data. Data-driven strategies are not to be questioned. After all, how can you question data? Data is undeniable.

Well, it might be undeniable, but you can surely question our ability to accurately interpret the data and our approach to transforming data into effective campaigns.

Data in itself is information about the audience. But having information about an audience is not the same as knowing how and what to communicate to the audience, in order to influence their behavior. Sometimes, you can do the wrong thing with the right data.

Social psychologist Emile Bruneau details how accurate data can inspire an ineffective campaign, and also trigger the exact opposite behavior than intended.

His theory is that humans essentially have two minds, one that is rational and another that is irrational. The irrational mind is automatic, a set of survival reflexes that we inherit. It’s driven by ancient patterns of survival and regulates most of our behaviors. One of these reflexes is our tendency to follow social norms, what the majority considers accepted behavior. From an evolutionary standpoint, we’re conditioned to follow the group behavior to increase our chances of survival.

He shared an example of a stone forest, where tourists would visit and take a stone as souvenir. As the forest was gradually deteriorating, the forest administration attempted to solve the issue by putting up a data-driven sign that, in theory, made all the sense in the world. It went something along the lines of “Every year, thousands of tourists are picking up stones as souvenirs, thus destroying the habitat. Please refrain in order to preserve the forest for future generations.” Nothing truer. And yet nothing more counterproductive.

Instead of discouraging theft, the sign actually increased the number of people stealing stones. Why? Because the message, although data-driven, involuntarily portrayed stealing as the norm – and after all, we’re inclined to follow norms. In the end, a simple message that read “Please don’t take stones” proved to be far more efficient.

This makes one question all of the award-winning social campaigns that reinforce a negative norm in the name of a good cause. “Every year millions of people are throwing plastic bags into the ocean.” Rationally, anyone would agree that this is wrong. But at an irrational level, we register that everyone is doing it. Is this as counterproductive as the forest sign?

Social psychology provides several examples of how we’re conditioned by norms and other biases to behave in irrational ways. The classic towel test performed in hotel rooms seems to confirm the theory. Using signs with positive norms like “The majority of guests reuse their towels” proved far more efficient than traditional messages focused solely on environmental protection, because it reinforced a positive norm. The behavior seems to hold true across the spectrum.

More than collecting data, it’s important to understand how the mind works and what drives our behavior; we need to use this knowledge to create human connection. In its simplest form, advertising boils down to people communicating with other people in the name of brands. Data is important, a scientific approach is informative but, ultimately, emotional connection truly ties the knot.

Peter Seligmann, a leading environmental expert, said that conservation is first and foremost a communication problem. Scientists are right in their theories and warnings, but they communicate in a very academic way (“mitigating climate change”) that doesn’t connect to our day-to-day lives and doesn’t resonate with a broader audience. In the end, even scientists need some emotion to be effective.

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February 28, 2018 at 01:14PM

Should You Get a Cheaper Phone? Be Sure to Look Into the Camera Technology

By BRIAN X. CHEN from NYT Technology http://ift.tt/2F0bInK
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How About A TV Moratorium On Trump's Tweets?

How About A TV Moratorium On Trump's Tweets?

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If Twitter enforced its cyber-bullying, hate speech and fake news rules, it would probably close Donald Trump’s account. Too often, the daily firestorm includes all of the above, which demeans the presidency.

(Yesterday, the First Lady, in a classic example of irony, said it was up to adults to “take the lead” in helping children develop positive social-media habits, even “limiting their time online.”)

Plus, last week, The New York Times found that Twitter remains a hotbed for Russians eager to destabilize the U.S.

Given Trump’s divisive rhetoric, he’s doing a good job all by himself. Shouldn’t we hold the President to the same standards applied to the Russians?

Despite the partisan climate, the president has a singular role to play. He represents us as a nation. Democrat or Republican, the Commander in Chief should reflect the best of the American spirit and stand up to our enemies. Exacerbating tensions is not in his job description.

Why not unite us around common values?

Failing that, what if network TV issued a moratorium on Trump’s daily barrage of tweets, which often double as agitprop? Factcheck.org and PolitiFact.com would not have to correct the daily trough of misinformation — and viewers could watch news reporting and analysis from seasoned journalists and experts discussing the actual news — not an explosion of tweets crammed into a Mar-a-Lago weekend in between rounds of golf.

As many historians have noted, and The Washington Post detailed in an analysis of Trump’s campaign speeches and inaugural address, his rhetorical style is vastly unlike previous presidents.

Trump favors the language of violence and destruction to those who oppose him; he rarely invokes democratic values or striving for the public good in the service of moral progress.

That same tendency is found in his tweets. WaPo reported January 10 that the president had made 2,001 false or misleading claims over 355 days, an average of 5.6 whoppers a day. That’s the true definition of fake news.

Be it the school shooting in Florida, or the Robert Mueller indictments, Trump’s tweets often bolster his ego and reflect his pugnacity. They did not comfort the mourners in Parkland. They do not champion the fundamental institutions that sustain us.

If Trump wants to relay his thoughts, The White House can issue statements, hold more press briefings or televised presidential addresses. All can be scrutinized.

But let’s not repeat the sins of 2016.

Billions in earned media fueled the Trump juggernaut — Hillary Clinton didn’t receive nearly as much TV coverage. Moreover, she was scrutinized; he was given a pass. Aside from a few slogans, did we ever know his positions on key issues?

If the TV industry wants to atone, let’s have a lockdown on tweet coverage. The media can focus on its traditional role — a watchdog to power. Journalists need to challenge government decision-making, suspected illegality or abuse — in every administration — to protect the public welfare.

A free press can help produce an informed electorate; it should not become a partisan tool for warring political factions.

As Thomas Jefferson neatly put it: “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

I wonder if he’d be as adamant about Twitter. Or TV news.

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February 28, 2018 at 09:11AM

'The Atlantic' Honors MLK Jr.'s Legacy With Memorial Issue

'The Atlantic' Honors MLK Jr.'s Legacy With Memorial Issue

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In 1963, The Atlantic published an excerpt of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter From a Birmingham Jail” under the title “The Negro is Your Brother” — his response to criticism from eight white Southern religious leaders. The piece is a classic document from the civil rights era, and the magazine, which had already established itself as a forum to challenge racial injustice, immortalized King’s words in print.

Five years later, King would be assassinated. This year marks the 50^th anniversary of his murder.

To commemorate the half century since King’s death, The Atlantic has published a special issue called KING, filled with original and archived material that speaks to his legacy today.

Editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg recounts being approached by staff writer Vann R. Newkirk and managing editor Adrienne Green about publishing a special issue leading up to that historic date. Goldberg was interested, but writes in his editor’s note, entitled “The Chasm Between Racial Optimism and Reality,” he was “also concerned that such an issue be an exploration of our fraught moment, and not merely a devotional artifact.”

Goldberg adds: “The hope of well-meaning people is that the color line will not be the chief problem of the 21st century. But the analysis of realists, particularly in the wake of the 2016 presidential contest, indicates that matters of inequality and racism may be with us for decades to come.”

The staff chose a route that would provide a wide-ranging look at King’s legacy through the lenses of what he called the “three major evils": racism, poverty and militarism. The issue is as much a history of the civil right’s movement and how the world stands now, as it is a commemoration.

Bernice King, King’s youngest daughter, Jesmyn Ward and Matthew Desmond share original essays alongside photography and art by LaToya Ruby Frazier and Kara Walker. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who marched with King in Selma, is interviewed. Pieces featuring Stokely Carmichael and Archibald MacLeish are reprinted from the archives.

The issue is available on newsstands now, and stories will be shared on The Atlantic’s website leading up to April 4, the date of King’s assassination.

Throughout its 161-year existence, The Atlantic has given voice to social and political inequalities, underscoring the importance of a free press that advocates for the public good.

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February 28, 2018 at 08:40AM

Study: Community Tweets Illustrate Negative View Of Press

Study: Community Tweets Illustrate Negative View Of Press

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By analyzing the subcultures that thrive on social media, some new research is painting a clearer picture of why some really weird stuff has gone down in this country since 2015.

Sowing the seeds for a press-bashing president, mass misinformation campaigns, and a general climate of confusion, we now know that the mainstream media lost touch with the American public by that time.

The new findings come courtesy of the Knight Foundation, which analyzed more than 46 million tweets with community-related hashtags from 2015 through 2016.

During that period, a favorability analysis of 23 major news outlets showed that people were twice as likely to express negative views of news outlets as positive views.

Despite Donald Trump turning the words “fake news” into a personal mantra around the middle of 2015, media criticism at the time was generally directed at what was perceived to be a harmful framing of news by the media.

As the Knight Foundation found, people did not so much dispute the basic facts being reported as ask why certain facts were being emphasized at the expense of others.

Increasingly, people were using Twitter as a curated news source to avoid “problematic portrayals” by mainstream media outlets, according to LaSharah Bunting, the Knight Foundation's director for journalism. “A strong future for journalism is dependent on accurate reporting that reflects the stories and concerns of all of our communities,” Bunting explains in the report.

To improve public perceptions, the news media must continue to raise its social IQ and correctly interpret the activities of social subcultures. For instance, the number of times a story is shared on social media is still widely seen as an endorsement by news organizations.

Yet, while shares are important metrics for news impact, Knight’s analysis revealed that popularity in terms of share counts does not necessarily mean approval or trust.

For example, BuzzFeed, The Washington Post, The New York Times, HuffPost and CNN were among the top 10 most shared outlets across top social communities, from 2015 to 2016.

Of these outlets, however, only BuzzFeed had a favorability score above zero.

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February 28, 2018 at 07:21AM

Social Media And Human Contact Thrive Together

Social Media And Human Contact Thrive Together

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According to Associate Professor of Communication Studies, Jeffrey Hal, his new study, published in the journal Information, Communication & Society, shows no evidence for the proposition that social media crowds out face-to-face communication with those who ought to matter most, our close friends and family members.

Echoing concerns that grew with the Internet itself, the rise of social media has stoked fears of “social displacement… the alienation of people from friends and family in favor of Facebook and Twitter...” A new study co-authored by a University of Kansas researcher goes a fair distance toward debunking that notion.

In their paper “Two tests of social displacement through social media use,” Hall and then-KU doctoral students Michael Kearney and Chong Xing performed two unique studies.

In the first study, they compared data sets from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth from 2009 and 2011 to see whether there was any decrease in interpersonal contact that could be correlated with increased use of social media, no such relationship was found.

The report shows that the young adults, chosen to be representative of Americans of their age as a whole, “…are squarely in the middle of Generation X. What was really convenient was the questions about social media use were asked right when Facebook was hitting its inflection point of adoption, and the main adopters in that period were Gen Xers.”
However, Hall said, “It was not the case at all that social media adoption or use had a consistent effect on their direct social interactions with people.”
Direct interactions were defined as getting out of one’s house, visiting friends, talking on the phone and attending meetings of groups and organizations (apart from religious groups).
Hall said “What was interesting was that, during a time of really rapid adoption of social media, and really powerful changes in use, you didn’t see sudden declines in people’s direct social contact.”

The second study was one the authors designed and executed themselves in 2015. They recruited 116 people, half of them adults and half college students, and texted them five times a day for five consecutive days, querying them each time about their use of social media and direct social contacts in the previous 10 minutes.

“…What we found,” says the report, “was that people’s use of social media had no relationship to who they were talking to later that day and what medium they were using to talk to people later that day… social media users were not experiencing social displacement. If they used social media earlier in the day, they were not more likely to be alone later. It’s also not the case that because they were using social media now, they were not interacting face to face later… It doesn’t seem that, either within the same time period or projecting the future, that social media use indicates people not having close relationship partners in face-to-face or telephone conversation…”

Hall notes that several studies have questioned the displacement effect, and yet the theory seems stubbornly resistant to debunking. Hall suspects that time spent pursuing social media has displaced older forms of media, e.g., reading the newspaper, browsing the Internet or watching television. For now, Hall is pleased to be able to challenge conventional wisdom using an old theory applied to new media, concludes the report.

For additional information about the studies, please visit KU news here.

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February 28, 2018 at 06:27AM

Flying Taxis May Be Years Away, but the Groundwork Is Accelerating Technology

By DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI from NYT Technology http://ift.tt/2F7jbVj
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Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Pixability Launches Video-Focused Self-Serve Ad Platform

Pixability Launches Video-Focused Self-Serve Ad Platform

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Pixability, a video advertising software company, has launched a self-service video ad buying platform focused on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

The new platform allows marketers or agencies to plan, buy and target specific audiences through a unified dashboard. The company is partnering with third-party data solutions like Moat on measurement.

The product will include a brand safety “on/off” switch so ads don’t appear next to inappropriate content. Marketers can provide more specific information to ensure the content appears on channels that are appropriate for their ads, Pixability CTO Andreas Goeldi told Digital News Daily.

“If you feel more specifically about certain environments, like you don’t want to be on certain types of music videos, or on certain types of kid-oriented content, we let you define that in the planning tool in a very granular way,” he said.

Beiagi noted the platform can ensure brand safety before the ads are placed. “Because we do planning, buying and ad measurement in one platform, not only can you measure brand safety, but because we are doing the buying, we can prevent the buying of that [inappropriate] inventory as well,” he said.

With banner ads increasingly being replaced by video advertising, and with Google (which owns YouTube) and Facebook (which owns Instagram) dominating the digital ad market, "We see a big gap in the market for a platform really focused on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Such a platform doesn’t exist [now]," Pixability chief product officer Alan Beiagi said. “This platform we feel is unique in the market, and is going to where the vast majority of digital ad spend is going.”

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February 27, 2018 at 06:58PM

FTC Charges Venmo With Violating Users' Privacy

FTC Charges Venmo With Violating Users' Privacy

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The peer-to-peer payment system Venmo misled users about whether their transactions were private, the Federal Trade Commission alleged Tuesday.

Venmo, which allows people to transfer money to each other, displays all peer-to-peer transactions on its social news feed by default. The company allows users to change their default settings, but did so in a confusing way, the FTC alleged in its complaint.

Specifically, Venmo required users who wanted to keep their transactions private to change two separate account settings -- both of which had similar labels, according to the FTC. The agency alleged that the company's labeling "would lead a reasonable consumer to believe that she could limit the visibility of all of her future transactions" by changing only one of the two settings.

Venmo, acquired by PayPal in 2016, also allegedly described its privacy settings inaccurately in its frequently asked questions. "Until at least December 2015 ... Venmo's Privacy FAQ included a graphic that incorrectly described the settings necessary to make a user's transactions private," the FTC alleged.

Venmo also allegedly misled users about a host of other matters, including the availability of funds. According to the FTC, Venmo told consumers that money was ready to be transferred to their bank accounts before it had reviewed the transactions for fraud, or sufficiency of funds.

"For many consumers, once Venmo undertook that review, it resulted in delaying the transfer or even reversing the transaction altogether," the FTC wrote Tuesday in a blog post. "Many people reported that the company’s practices resulted in significant financial hardship -- for example, not being able to pay their rent even though it appeared they had enough in their Venmo account to cover it."

The company also misrepresented its security practices, according to the FTC.

"This case sends a strong message that financial institutions like Venmo need to focus on privacy and security from day one," Acting FTC Chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen stated.

PayPal settled the allegations by agreeing to a host of terms, including the requirement to make "clear and conspicuous" disclosures about how it shares information with other users. The company also agreed to clearly and conspicuously disclose that availability of funds is subject to review.

A Venmo spokesperson says the company has "taken steps to significantly strengthen our privacy and data security practices" since its acquisition by PayPal. "The company will continue to invest heavily in programs designed to create better user understanding and to enhance privacy," the spokesperson said.

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February 27, 2018 at 05:52PM

Adland CMO Promotes Ireland's Flourishing Fashion Sense

Adland CMO Promotes Ireland's Flourishing Fashion Sense

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At Siegel+Gale, chief marketing officer Margaret Molloy spends a lot of her time talking about brand building and influencer marketing. Now, with St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner, she is putting her advice into action through a passion project tied to her pride in her Irish heritage and fashion.

The #WearingIrish initiative is designed to raise awareness about Ireland’s talent and capabilities in the fashion sector. After originally launching as a social media influencer project in 2016 to encourage people to post pictures of themselves wearing Irish designers in March (to coincide with St. Patrick's Day), this campaign is expanding to tell "the untold story of contemporary Irish fashion design."

"As a marketing professional, the challenges and the opportunity is to apply a career’s worth of marketing best practices to the program," says Molloy.

As part of the branding effort, a competition is awarding eight Irish fashion and accessories designers the opportunity to fly to New York City to participate the WearingIrish NYC 2018 program in May at Bank of Ireland's innovation starlabs center. Applications close on March 5th and winners, selected by a panel of judges, will be announced on March 16th in New York.

The selected designers will participate in a showcase program where they will spend 48 hours meeting potential customers, networking with guests and forging connections to accelerate growth. As part of the event program, Molloy will curate panels on Ireland and creativity, brand building and the business of fashion in the U.S.

The panel of judges and advisors includes current and former merchants, executives, creative directors, influencers and editors from Bloomingdale’s, Accessories Council, Victoria’s Secret, Stella & Dot, Theia, Tadashi, Kate Spade, Navy Exchange, Harvard University, and Gilt Groupe.

Organizations supporting the event include the aforementioned Bank of Ireland starlabs, as well as the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, through Ireland’s Consulate in New York, Tourism Ireland, CIE Tours and Enterprise Ireland.

To make it easier for people to discover Irish fashion, the campaign publishes an online directory of fashion and accessories.

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February 27, 2018 at 04:50PM

The Sublime and Scary Future of Cameras With A.I. Brains Technology

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Facebook Launches Local Program To Help Newspapers Up Digital Subs

Facebook Launches Local Program To Help Newspapers Up Digital Subs

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Facebook is investing $3 million into a pilot program, called the Local News Subscriptions Accelerator, to help local newspapers increase digital subscriptions.

The three-month program is part of Facebook’s announcement last month that the platform is moving to prioritize local news in users’ News Feeds.

The Local News Subscriptions Accelerator comes out of the Facebook Journalism Project, which launched this time last year with the goal of collaborating directly with the news industry and local news organizations to offer resources to journalists.

“We often talk to publishers about what the future of journalism looks like and local news publishers tell us that digital subscribers are critical to the long-term sustainability of their business. We know Facebook is one part of the strategy to engage readers and ultimately drive paid subscriptions,” Campbell Brown, Facebook's head of news partnerships, wrote on Facebook’s company blog.

The Accelerator will team with 10-15 local news organizations to help them learn how to build digital subscribers both on and off Facebook.

They include The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The Dallas Morning News, The Denver Post, The Miami Herald, The Minneapolis Star Tribune, The Omaha World-Herald, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Seattle Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Tennessean and Newsday.

Advertising dollars aren’t easy to come by for publishers, as they compete with Google and Facebook.

“Providing a venue for metro news organizations to collaboratively develop audience and subscriber acquisition strategies is a smart way to tackle what’s been a vexing problem for most publishers,” stated Christian Hendricks, president of the Local Media Consortium.

The Local Media Consortium is one of the groups Facebook will work with, via The Lenfest Institute, to distribute learnings and case studies from this pilot group.

Publishers will meet once a month with “subscription experts” to get advice, as well as participate in weekly trainings on “digital subscriptions marketing activities,” all provided by Facebook.

Tim Griggs, a former New York Times executive and digital media consultant, will lead the program's curriculum on “understanding digital audiences and building marketing plans for digital subscriber acquisition,” per Brown.

Publishers will be required to share findings from the project with Facebook.

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February 27, 2018 at 03:08PM

Google Fills 43% Of 2.4 Million 'Right To Be Forgotten' Requests In Three Years

Google Fills 43% Of 2.4 Million 'Right To Be Forgotten' Requests In Three Years

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Google on Monday revealed that it has received requests to delist about 2.4 million URLs from query results under the European Union’s Right to be Forgotten laws. It has only acted on 43%.

These numbers -- part of Google’s latest annual Transparency Report -- reflect a growing need for content removal by individuals. In the latest report, Google said it received 654,808 requests to remove 2,436,788 URLs between May 2014 and February 2018, but it only delisted 43%.

Google began complying in May 2014 with the EU's Right to be Forgotten ruling, which allows individuals to ask Google and other similar services to delist search results related to their name and other personal information about themselves.

The report also details information on those making the requests and the types of sites the URLs appear on. Some 88.7% are from private individuals. As of January 2018, 1% of all requesters accounted for 20%, or 1.4 million of the total URLs requested for removal. In this instance, the data represents the number of requests received beginning in January 2016.

Looking back to analyze the three years of listings, Google says 49.2% of the requests were removals from malicious sites, followed by 19.1% from directories, 17.6% from news sites, 11.6% social media, and 2.4% from other sources.

In another chart that dates back to January 2016, Google says that insufficient information accounts for 24.7% of removal requests, 18.1% account for professional information, 15.9% account for miscellaneous information, 23.2% are related to names not found, and 7.7% account for self-authored information.

A new research paper titled Three Years of the Right to be Forgotten, submitted by Google to the Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium for review, provides much greater detail. For example, it states that individuals from France and Germany frequently requested to delist information from social media and directory pages, while requesters from Italy and the United Kingdom were three times more likely to target news sites.

The report also notes that more than 77% of requests to delist URLs were rooted in a country code top-level domain and came from those who were making the request in the same country.

Individuals in European Union countries -- as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland -- are eligible to submit a removal request through Google's online delisting form. As part of this form, those making the request must verify their identity by submitting a document, but a government-issued ID is not required. They also must provide a list of URLs they would like to delist, along with the search queries leading to these URLs and a short comment about how the URLs relate to the requester.

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February 27, 2018 at 03:08PM

MullenLowe Wins AOR Duties For Edward Snell Brands

MullenLowe Wins AOR Duties For Edward Snell Brands

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MullenLowe South Africa has been appointed AOR for a number of spirits brands in the Edward Snell portfolio, including Russian Bear, Stretton’s and Rémy Martin among others. The appointment followed a formal review.

The Interpublic agency will provide an array of services including traditional and digital advertising, promotion and social media, web management and PR.

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February 27, 2018 at 02:48PM

MediaPost Names Best In Automotive Marketing For 2017

MediaPost Names Best In Automotive Marketing For 2017

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MediaPost has named the winners in the third annual Marketing: Automotive awards.

The competition was fierce in all categories, and the panel of industry observers, experts and marketers have done the arduous work of finding the best of the bunch. They will be honored at a luncheon during the Marketing: Automotive conference during the New York International Auto Show on March 28 at the Javits Center in New York.

The jury that selected the award winner are Ian Beavis, chief strategy officer, AMCI Global; Elgie Bright, automotive marketing and management department chair, Northwood University; Larissa Faw, reporter, MediaPost Agency Daily; Tanya Gazdik, senior editor, automotive, MediaPost; Michelle Krebs, senior analyst, Autotrader; Noah Mallin, head of experience, content and sponsorship, North America, Wavemaker; Luis Miguel Messianu, creative chairman, chief executive officer, Alma; Scotty Reiss, founder, A Girl's Guide To Cars and Gary Topolewski, communication developer, Estota.

Here are the winners:

Automotive Marketer Of The Year: Olivier Francois, CMO, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles

Automotive Agency Of The Year (Traditional): David & Golath (Kia)

Automotive Agency Of The Year (Digital): SapientRazorfish (Mercedes-Benz and Audi and Acura)

Best Integrated Campaign (Three channels or more, including online): Alfa Romeo for Giulia (Doner, Richards Group and Art Machine)

Best Social Campaign: Spark44 — “Dull and Boring” for Jaguar

Best Multicultural or Interest Group Campaign: Toyota Camry — “Sensations” (Burrell, Conill and InterTrend)

Best Viral Marketing Execution or Campaign: Dodge —“Brotherhood of Muscle” with Vin Diesel (GSD&M)

Best Interactive Execution or Campaign: Volvo — “Racing the Sun” (Grey, Mindshare and Courageous)

Best Campaign for a Dealer Group: AutoNation — “Drive Pink” (Zimmerman Advertising)

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February 27, 2018 at 02:11PM

Conde Nast Kicks Off Influencer Platform, Ups Ad Targeting And Engagement

Conde Nast Kicks Off Influencer Platform, Ups Ad Targeting And Engagement

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After launching its Next Gen Network Platform last week, Conde Nast announced today it has launched an influencer platform to accompany it.

The Next Gen Influencer Platform offers a curated group of both in-house and external talent that allows advertisers direct access to the audiences of approximately 3,500 influencers, all with significant social-media followings sortable by category.

The company estimates the influencers combined reach more than 300 million followers.

Through the Influencer Network, Conde Nast will be able to identify influential voices in fashion, style and beauty for advertisers, “offering clients an unparalleled level of measurable engagement and ROI, across all platforms.”

Pamela Drucker Mann, Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer for Condé Nast, stated: “It’s not just about the raw scale of a campaign, it’s also critical to reach the right audience, and our editorial and data capabilities give us a significant advantage over our rivals.”

In addition to providing access to new audiences, the platform is built to offer development and production resources and creative strategy.

Advertisers will be able to use CitizenNet, a social data and marketing platform acquired by Conde Nast in 2017, to filter out influencers appropriate to their campaigns, reaching larger audiences through those people who have already built a large, devoted following.

CitizenNet’s analytic tools allow advertisers to measure the success of each campaign.

Conde Nast’s Next Gen Network includes digital titles like Teen Vogue, Healthyish and GQ Style, in addition to brands like Lenny Letter and Iris, a video platform featuring original programming. The network targets a millennial-heavy audience.

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February 27, 2018 at 01:41PM

Social Innovation: The Key To Delivering Value, Growth

Social Innovation: The Key To Delivering Value, Growth

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Rather than continually striving for technological advances, brands should shift their focus towards how their products and services can enhance the social relationships of consumers.

Despite a long history of using social engineering to drive efficiency, productivity and skills, much of the business potential of social innovation has gone unrealized. As a consumer benefit, social innovation puts relationships between people front and center. Essentially, it involves brands offering services that enhance the social relationships of their customers. Three social innovation opportunities are immediately available to brands — currency, matching and context.

1. Social currency

According to social psychology, the strongest predictor of happiness is relationships with other people. Therefore, social currency that can be spent to deepen and amplify relationships can tip the balance towards one brand over another in highly competitive marketplaces. The following “Four Ps” represent a social currency people can spend on others, and which brands should make available to consumers to enhance their standing and strengthen relationships:

Push – Sharing something with others, such as a promotion that’s redeemable only by sharing on social media, or a joke or picture to post or pass along. The best push elements catch a moment and get shared.

Partnering – Interacting through a conversation, adding content to an existing thread, or an activity that invites reactions from others. For example, when brands work as intermediaries around a compelling human need, such as Mumsnet, which connects parents around common issues. Provided that brands are honest and authentic, they can earn permission to do more in this kind of space.

Participation – Connecting and building a relationship with a social group, such as contributing ideas, joining a discussion or signing a petition. Participation is often about shared passions – think Spotify. Brands that can engage best here are often known for a strong point of view, such as Patagonia.

Place – Connecting or gathering with others in a physical or virtual location where people can go to get something done without the hovering presence of a brand. IKEA’s acquisition of Task Rabbit, for example, helps connect its brand idea about home to a place where there are people with the skills to help other people bring that into being in their own lives.

2. Social matching

Brands should match people to communities that can help them use and consume products in better ways, like recipes, household tips, shopping advice and self-help remedies. They should also link people who share similar passions about their category, and who share interest in a common brand to expose them to new ideas and opportunities in other areas of their lives.

Brands should match consumers in unusual ways that provide serendipity and surprise, exposing individuals to new things through new relationships with new people.

3. Social context

Brands tend to focus on the individual consumer rather than a collection of people that makes up its target market. Yet in the digital world, conversations are increasingly responsible for marketplace outcomes and individuals are channeled by conversations. This means that increasingly it is the network that decides not the individuals.

What makes gaming so engaging, for example, is not the game itself but the community of gamers that provides the social context so vital to the appeal of the experience. Brands should, therefore, get smarter about the social context of consumption, and then innovate around ways to make that social experience better.

Delivering social innovation as a benefit

Social innovation is the open opportunity for out-of-the-box breakthroughs in the marketplace. The imperative is to deliver social innovation as a benefit. This can come from currency, matching or context as outlined above.

When striving to deliver social innovation as a benefit, brands should explore three key questions:

1. What are the social dynamics that enfold my brand?

2. How do social dynamics channel consumers through the decision journey?

3. What will improve the connections and relationships people have with other people?

Brands have only scratched the surface of social innovation. This is the next frontier of value and growth, one tied to the critical elements of experiences, relationships and algorithms in the future of consumption.

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February 27, 2018 at 01:11PM

How Sports Brands Use Athletes To Connect With Customers

How Sports Brands Use Athletes To Connect With Customers

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A.S. Roma is one of the largest and most celebrated Italian soccer teams. In 2015 it signed Mohamed Salah, a highly coveted Egyptian winger, to a contract. The ink was barely dry when Roma’s Facebook followers from Egypt began to increase sharply. Before long, Rome itself was Roma’s second biggest city in terms of followers, behind Cairo.

Technology is driving new types of connections between athletes and fans, and sports brands are learning how to leverage these to create experiences aimed at increasing their revenue. Here are three ways sports brands are using sports and athletes to connect with customers.

1. Promoting athletes as celebrities and entertainers

Professional athletes have become celebrity entertainers. The life surrounding athletes — as opposed to the sports themselves — is the new fodder for reality television, advertising and social media.

Moving into the realm of lifestyle and entertainment gives teams and athletes additional touch points with their fans. Non-team athletic brands like Nike portray sports stars working out, intercut with fans matching their dedication. This humanizes the stars and reinforces our cultural desire to partake in celebrity culture.

Presenting athletes through a celebrity lens is a brand understanding and fulfilling customer demand. Brands and teams are reaching customers they have not been able to before, in ways we could only glimpse 20 years ago.

2. Building brand experiences around athletes

Teams want to be known for winning. The Los Angeles Kings of the NHL were consistently terrible until they brought in Wayne Gretzky, the greatest player of all time. Within five seasons, the Kings were in the Stanley Cup finals, cementing Los Angeles as a hockey town.

As the visibility of individual athletes has increased, fans often find the team through the star, rather than vice versa. Smart teams are building their brand and their customer experience around the star athletes, sublimating the team to the player.

As organizations implement efforts across various outlets, they hope to give fans a more complete experience with the team. Utilizing star players is one way to provide a consistent brand message across platforms, and gives fans a more engaging and holistic experience.

3. Athletes engaging fans through social media

Connecting with individual fans through social channels gives sports teams an opportunity for unique, personal contact with their fans. A team’s social media channel iswidely accepted as an official voice, and so it behooves teams to provide an engaging and authentic experience.

A team’s most popular social media content often comes from sharing something from their star athlete’s personal account. When Real Madrid posts an image on Instagram celebrating a recent victory, itgarners 1.2 million likes. Their star forward Christiano Ronaldo posts an image of himself strolling off the field and itcollects 4.4 million likes.

There is nothing wrong with 1.2 million Instagram likes. Real Madrid is one of the largest clubs in the world, but in this arena, the athlete overwhelms the team by a significant margin. By leveraging the popularity of the athlete to connect fans to the team, the brand reaches a much larger audience.

Bringing it all together

Sports and famous athletes have been a ubiquitous part of marketing in this country since the 1870s, and remain one of the most potent tools for reaching customers. As teams and brands develop new ways to harness and integrate fan passion into their customer experience efforts, they will set themselves up for greater success.

By promoting the athletes as the public wants to see them, utilizing those athletes in experiential marketing and engaging fans through social media, teams can realize genuine customer experience results.

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February 27, 2018 at 01:06PM

Pinterest Names Brougher COO, Focuses On Next Growth Phase

Pinterest Names Brougher COO, Focuses On Next Growth Phase

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Pinterest has found its first Chief Operating Officer in Francoise Brougher, the company is expected to announce today. A seasoned Silicon Valley veteran, Brougher most recently served as Square’s Business Lead, where she was responsible for the company’s growth operations.

At Pinterest, Brougher will oversee the sales, partner marketing, measurement, corporate and business development and communications teams. Pinterest executives say Brougher will help lead the company through its next growth phase.

Whether that includes a public offering is still not clear, but investors have their fingers crossed. Fueling investor interest in a possible IPO, Pinterest brought on Todd Morgenfeld -- formerly vice president, finance at Twitter -- as its first CFO, in late 2016.

Previously, Brougher was the vice president of SMB Global Sales and Operations at Google, where she led the teams responsible for acquiring, growing and retaining small- and medium-sized business advertisers.

By some estimates, Pinterest is expected to rake in roughly $3 billion in revenue this year.

Thanks to a focus on sharing content tied to other sites, Pinterest saw its “share of visits” rise by 1.5% percentage points last year. That’s according to a new report from Shareaholic, which considers “share of visits” to be a percentage of overall traffic from direct traffic, social referrals, organic search and paid search.

Pinterest sees around 2 billion searches every month -- roughly 85% of which are from mobile devices, per Shareaholic. More than half of all active users and 75% of new signups come from outside the United States, according to Pinterest.

Through a Pinterest representative, Brougher declined to discuss her growth plans for the company at this time.

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February 27, 2018 at 12:00PM

Fuel Brand 76 Embraces The 'Van Life'

Fuel Brand 76 Embraces The 'Van Life'

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The “Jean and Gene's Awesome Roadtrip” is designed to target younger consumers with a series of videos that build off the trend of #VanLife, the cultural/social dream to detach from all “things” and live out of a van.

The integrated campaign, the first from new AOR Carmichael Lynch includes an array of online and offline channels, sponsorships and other components. CL won the business last year.

The documentary-style :15 and :30 second videos use improv actors to document their adventure in living this lifestyle, including initially purchasing the van during a late-night impulsive buy via the Internet and changing a tire.

The spots end with a shot of a 76 gas station along with the message, "We're on the driver's side."

Examples of the work can be seen here, here and here.

Professional actors, rather than real-life Van lifers, were selected for the campaign due to their abilities to bring a "slightly awkward relationship chemistry" while "sticking to a script," says Josh Leutz, group creative director, Carmichael Lynch.

“The film instead looks like it might have come from an Instagram feed.”

The media approach is customized to reach 76’s more active/sophisticated/tech-savvy target through platforms like connected TV & OTT digital video, full-episode players, video-on-demand, and streaming audio. The highest recognition media partners include YouTube, Pandora and Google/Waze. The brand is also incorporating geo-location and consumer behavior data, especially through mobile efforts, to target consumers near stations and looking to fill up.

The work will be running in paid media in LA and Seattle, with a small amount of additional activity in Portland, OR. In addition, the campaign is dedicating a significant portion of its LA presence to Hispanic targeting, including Broadcast, OOH and Digital activity.

Beyond the paid media, a big part of the campaign's approach is local partnerships, says CL, including a partnership with the LA Dodgers for TV, Radio, OOH, and in-season promotions/giveaways, as well as Pac 12 Football, including the Pac 12 Championship, and, around Portland, University of Oregon & Oregon State Football, the Portland Timbers (Major League Soccer) and the Portland Thorns (National Women’s Soccer League). In LA, 76 will sponsor the Street Food Cinema event series in LA.

And 76 is partnering with editorial brands Lonely Planet and Roadtrippers to develop branded content.
Also, 76 will distribute branded merchandise, such as t-shirts, patches and sticker sets in target markets.

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February 27, 2018 at 10:47AM

Olympians Score Social Media Gold: A Post-Analysis

Olympians Score Social Media Gold: A Post-Analysis

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Chloe Kim, Shaun White and Adam Rippon scored social media gold, boosting their social media fan base by Olympian levels.

Kim ranked No. 1 among the U.S. Olympic athletes tracked by ListenFirst for the U.S. Olympic Committee, picking up more than 900,000 new fans across the major social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube), with the largest boost coming from a 60% expansion of her Instagram fans.

Scranton native, Adam Rippon was actually the No. 1 most talked about athlete in the Winter Games, with more than 450,000 mentions of Rippon across social platforms since the start of the games.

Gus Kenworthy also topped the conversation leaderboard with more than 266,000 mentions.

Snowboard legend Shaun White kept his lead on both snow and on social, coming in with the top two posts (see here and here) among all content posted by competing athletes at Pyeongchang.

Overall, the combination of Team USA and all Winter Olympic athletes brought in a combined 32 million potential impressions, up 23% since before the Winter Games started.

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February 27, 2018 at 09:09AM

Specialty Streaming Services Cater To Super-Specific Niches

Specialty Streaming Services Cater To Super-Specific Niches

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Woof. Did you know that lonely, anxious or depressed dogs could subscribe to their very own streaming video service?

DogTV offers thousands of five-minute programs “scientifically designed” to help relax or stimulate canines, or gradually expose them to such nerve-inducing elements as vacuum cleaners. The service costs $9.99 a month, but there’s also a free trial in case Fido is barking up the wrong tree.

Dog TV is just one of the more than 200 subscription-video-on-demand (SVOD) services competing for consumer dollars, a number cited in a Parks Associates study.

It’s also among many services that go beyond the more mainstream models of Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu.

Akin to the special-interest magazines that once filled newsstands and mailboxes, these services serve niche enthusiasts willing to buy paid subscriptions.

Here’s a sampling of what you can find — and, yes, sample, through the art of free trials:

For persons with disabilities, there’s TellMeTV, which enables the blind to enjoy movies and TV shows where on-screen action is narrated in between lines of dialogue. On The Silent Network, content is subtitled and presented in American Sign Language for the deaf and hard-of-hearing.

New Focus Network serves female cancer survivors with a mix of original lifestyle programs and documentaries.

U.S. military veterans can try VetStreamTV or the more irreverent Vet TV, which features such raunchy comedy series, such as “Kill, Die, Laugh.”

Performing-arts fans are served by Cennarium and Marquee, theater devotees by Broadway HD, jazz enthusiasts by Qwest TV and the classical crowd by Medici.tv.

Classic rock fans may want to check out NightFlightPlus, the SVOD incarnation of the cult USA Network series of the 1980s.

Several SVOD services are personality-driven, including social-media superstar Dan Bilzerian’s BlitzTV and scientist Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s Star Talk All Access.

Speaking of personalities, Walter Presents stands out from a sizable crowd of SVOD services offering international TV content by showcasing foreign language dramas personally selected by Italian film producer Walter Iuzzolino.

There are also numerous specialized SVOD movie services, such as Flix Premiere and The Film Detective. If you’re into the history of film, not to mention “films on history,” there’s British Pathé TV, the latest venture from the venerable newsreel service.

There seems to be an SVOD service for every hobby and leisure pursuit. Into home improvement? Try This Old House Insider. Yoga? Visit OmStars. For Titanic cultists, there’s even TitanicChannel.tv.

The sheer number of SVOD services may lead you to conclude that some kind of shakeout is imminent. But perhaps, just as special-interest magazine titles like Motor Trend, Downbeat and Popular Science continue to flourish well after general interest publications like Life and Look met their demise, we shouldn’t discount the smaller SVOD services in the long run.

We’d place our bets on Motor Trend OnDemand any day.

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February 27, 2018 at 09:09AM

Finally, There's Jane Walker, A Scotch Whisky Just For The Ladies

Finally, There's Jane Walker, A Scotch Whisky Just For The Ladies

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In an effort that it tweets “celebrates progress in Women’s Rights,” Johnnie Walker yesterday broke the seal of silence on a new limited edition Scotch in the U.S. that it’s calling Jane Walker.

“Scotch as a category is seen as particularly intimidating by women. It’s a really exciting opportunity to invite women into the brand,” Johnnie Walker vp Stephanie Jacoby tells Bloomberg’s Jennifer Kaplan.

“Interested in getting into scotch, but feeling a little scared of the manly dirt-tasting brown drink? The makers of Johnnie Walker are here to help!,” observes Kelly Faircloth for Jezebel. “Yes, nothing feels as inviting to me, personally, as a logo featuring a lady in jodhpurs and being informed that Scotch is ‘intimidating’ to women.”

Then there’s this: “PSA to brands: Unless it’s a product intended to be used ONLY by women (i.e. menstrual products), STOP making products ‘for her’: #JaneWalker #BicForHer #LadyDoritos,” tweets @mareejones.

And @DeeSliabhLiag, who identifies as both a World Cocktail Championship gold medalist and a marketing manager at The Sliabh Liag Distillery, writes: “I can’t be the only one who finds Diageo’s attempt to recruit women to drink whisky a bit patronising and frankly lazy, I didn’t think we needed special lady whisky for our delicate little palettes.”

“The launch in March marks the first major change to the brand’s ‘striding man’ logo in over a century and comes as Diageo and peers try to attract more women drinkers,” reports Reuters’ Martinne Geller.

“The Jane Walker launch is the latest part of the brand’s ‘Keep Walking America’ push, which began in 2016. The campaign is an attempt to speak to a broader audience, with ads spotlighting Latinos and veterans,” Bloomberg’s Kaplan writes. And she points out that London-based Diageo, which owns the brand, will have a board that is 50% female by April and “also is calling on advertising agencies to put forward at least one female director as part of any work pitch.”

The release announcing the news peers backwards in explaining an already strong presence of women in the company.

“Women have played a significant role in the brand's history dating back to 1893, when John Walker & Sons purchased the Cardhu distillery from Elizabeth Cumming. Cardhu is one of the single malts that comprises Johnnie Walker Black Label and is considered the heartbeat of the blend. Elizabeth Walker, the wife of founder John Walker, was also fundamental to the creation of their own blended whisky, working alongside John and their son Alexander in the original Walker grocery shop. Today, nearly 50% of the brand’s 12 expert blenders are women, with female leadership across marketing and C-Level executives.”

The Wall Street Journal’s Saabira Chaudhuri reminds us that “the marketing stunt comes on the heels of a Diageo campaign called #LoveScotch, which has splashed pictures of attractive young women drinking Scotch together across billboards, social media and magazines in dozens of countries.”

The campaign — along with some sweetening of other varieties of the brown stuff — has been somewhat successful. “The share of U.S. whiskey drinkers who are women ticked up to 29.6% in 2016 from 28.2% in 2010, according to Nielsen,” Chaudhuri reports.

“As whiskeys have expanded and experimented with new flavors, such as honey, maple, cinnamon and apple, it has helped attract more women to the drink,” Danny Brager, who heads Nielsen’s U.S. beverage alcohol practice, tells her.

But this goes several strides further. “Thanks to Jane Walker, ladies can finally drink scotch,” reads the hed over Maura Judkis’ piece in the Washington Post.

“Perhaps if they put a woman on the scotch bottle, then Ladies like myself would know scotch is an appropriate choice. I believe the term is ‘pandering,’ but I am just an intimidated Lady, so correct me if I am wrong! In fact, a lot of companies could do this. I have never had Frosted Flakes because of Tony the Tiger. The Geico Gecko gives off too much masculine energy. Do not get me started on Mr. Peanut,” she pleas.

In a note at the end of the story, Judkis points out: “This article is satirical. And, according to the news release, ‘Johnnie Walker will be donating $1 for every bottle of the Jane Walker Edition made to organizations championing women’s causes’ — which is nice, but creating gendered packaging for women and saying they are intimidated by scotch does not really further that goal, does it?”

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February 27, 2018 at 08:00AM