Multi-Platform Mastermind - Industry News

Instagram Will Top 100 Million US Users by 2018 - Now bigger than Twitter, Instagram is still fastest growing US social network

3/4/2015

The number of US Instagram users increased nearly 60% in 2014, bringing the social network’s US monthly user base to 64.2 million people, according to new figures from eMarketer.

By 2018, Instagram’s US user base will top 100 million—reaching 106.2 million that year—when growth finally begins to taper off and dips into single digits for the first time.

Due to faster-than-expected growth in 2014, Instagram surpassed Twitter to become the second-largest social network in the US last year. Twitter’s US user base grew 12.1% in 2014 to reach 48.4 million users, eMarketer estimates. The gap in the number of users between Twitter and Instagram will continue to widen over our forecast period, with Twitter’s user growth slowing to single digits starting in 2015.

Teens and millennials dominate Instagram’s user base, and through 2019, a majority of the network’s users will be between the ages of 12 and 34. In 2015, 20.3 million US Instagram users, or 26.2% of the total, will fall within the 25-to-34 age group, and that group will maintain the largest portion of the Instagram audience throughout our forecast. The highest penetration, however, will remain in the 12-to-17 age group—61.9% of all US teens will use Instagram regularly this year, and by 2019, more than three-quarters will be Instagrammers.

Going forward, Instagram will also compete with other emerging social networks for attention among these younger demographics, and by extension, for brands’ ad dollars in reaching those demographics. However, over time, we believe Instagram’s straightforward and simple content feed has wider appeal across all demographics—no matter what age or level of digital savvy.

“Instagram has a lot of momentum in the US, growing faster than Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr and Facebook,” said Debra Aho Williamson, principal analyst at eMarketer. “The simplicity of the app is what is most appealing; Instagram has stayed true to its core mission—delivering beautiful imagery and videos—while other services, such as Snapchat, have loaded on lots of new features.”

TubeMogul Reports $36.1M Revenue In Q4, Will Focus On Programmatic TV In 2015

2/27/2015

Programmatic video ad platform TubeMogul on Thursday announced its fourth-quarter 2014 earnings, beating estimates by around $4 million with $36.1 million in revenue on the quarter. The company’s 2014 revenue was $114.2 million, double that of 2013.

Despite the beat, shares of TubeMogul (“TUBE”) dropped over 25% in after-hours trading.

Advertisers spent $254.3 million through TubeMogul in 2014, up from $111.9 million in 2013. In the fourth quarter, TubeMogul saw advertisers spend $82.6 million on its platform.

TubeMogul saw spend coming directly from brands increase 500% year-over-year, jumping from 7% of all spend in 2013 to 15% in 2014.

That’s a trend that may continue into 2015. Mondelez, for example, used TubeMogul’s new programmatic TV software to buy a local Super Bowl ad during this year’s big game.

In a conference call following the earnings, TubeMogul CEO Brett Wilson highlighted the company’s programmatic TV plan.

“TV is still by far the largest of all advertising marketers,” said Wilson.

Programmatic TV and cross-screen video advertising will be TubeMogul’s areas of focus in 2015, Wilson said. And while he doesn’t believe it will be a “material revenue generator this year,” he asserted that the company is “building the pipes now to unlock a truly enormous opportunity in 2016 [and beyond].”

For the first quarter of 2015, TubeMogul is expecting revenue in the range of $28 million and $30 million. For 2015 as a whole, TubeMogul is projecting revenue between $142 and $152 million.

It's Time For Time To Replace Meaningless Click-Throughs

1/29/2015

It's not going to happen overnight, but trust me, little by little digital advertising is going to embrace a time-based metric as a replacement for -- or perhaps initially a supplement to -- click-throughs and impressions.

I've blogged about this being my firm conviction before, and was glad to see BMW sign a deal with a design Web site last year that was based around time rather than an ad simply being served to so many people momentarily. Now we have news that a guiding influence in The Guardian's redesigned Web site has been the ability to offer advertisers campaigns based around time, not simply impressions. Quite how this will pan out is not yet entirely clear but what is certain is that The Guardian has changed its units away from static boxes that sit in isolation at the top and the bottom of a page hoping to hit the one-second rule by which an impression can legally be seen as served.

Instead, messages will be measured by how long a viewer had the opportunity to see them -- and one can imagine that The Guardianmay well choose to do this across different static and rich media units in campaigns that will be able to report back that people were exposed to branding for the agreed amount of time. Of course, this could be extended to run across a typical month or six-week campaign to show that a certain percentage of the brand's target audience were exposed to its message for x amount of time on x number of occasions.

Does that sound a bit like television? Good, because I think that's the point here.

Advertisers are clearly fed up with digital display's lack of guaranteed transparency on viewability and click-fraud. One of the obvious benefits of the move to time is that you can, hopefully, weed out the robots and fake clicks and concentrate on those people who appear to be spending enough time to show they are human and are enjoying the content -- framed, of course, by the brand's message.

With click-throughs at less than one in a thousand and brands not even really trusting that those clicks are coming from human beings, the click-through rate (CTR) is in dire need of being replaced. It's effectively meaningless because it measures actions that are so rare they are likely to have come from a robot and it detracts from the branding and "share of voice" the majority of large advertisers now use digital display for.

So, mark these words, it may be a slow march, but time is coming and, in some form or another, it will replace impressions and CTRs with reports of how long an advertiser's key audience has been shown its messaging and on how many occasions.

When advertisers start asking for time-based metrics and publishers like The Guardian begin to respond, you know it's really only a matter of time.

Facebook's Mobile Ad Revenue Will Completely Dwarf Its Desktop Revenue Next Year

1/26/2015

Facebook’s mobile ad revenue is growing at an astonishing rate and it’s showing no sign of let-up.

For a company that admitted in its 2012 IPO filing it did not “generate any meaningful revenue” from its mobile products, Facebook has truly pivoted.

We already know that in 2013 45% of Facebook’s $6.99 billion in full-year ad revenue was derived from mobile ads. But by 2016 Facebook’s worldwide mobile revenue will reach 75% of its total (or $7.39 billion), according to new estimates from research firm eMarketer.

That’s huge and, if eMarketer’s predictions are accurate, means Facebook is on track to post $18 billion in revenue in 2016, suggesting that Facebook will also be selling mobile ads at a premium compared to its current mobile ad rates. Mobile ads across the industry tend to be sold at a lower price compared to desktop for a variety of reasons, but it's mostly down to the received wisdom that people are less likely to buy products on their mobiles and that there’s simply less space to advertise in on mobile.

The reason why Facebook’s mobile offering is working so well? EMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson said in a press release accompanying the new forecast: “Because the Facebook experience is basically the same across devices, advertisers don’t have to reinvent the wheel to place mobile advertising. As Facebook’s user base shifts even more heavily toward mobile, it is well positioned to see increasing ad revenues from this channel.”

EMarketer predicts Facebook will be closing in on 1 billion mobile users by the year-end, but that by 2016 it will have clearly crossed that landmark. By 2018 EMarketer says Facebook will have 1.34 billion mobile users, meaning 75% of its userbase will use its mobile site and apps.

The overwhelming majority of those mobile users currently come from the US, which this year had 123.1 million users logging on to Facebook via their mobiles. But that is set to change in the coming years. By 2017 India will have overtaken the US to have the most Facebook mobile users — notching up from 80.6 million mobile users in 2014 to 167.7 million by 2017 (to the US’ 143.8 million mobile users that year.)

The chart to the right also shows how prominent markets like Indonesia, Brazil and Mexico are set to become as part of Facebook's mobile audience.

In 2014 Facebook made a series of acquisitions and strategic plays to grow its audience and commercial revenue in emerging markets. It launched its Internet.org initiative to connect “the next 5 billion” to the internet; it also acquired Bangalore-based startup Little Eye Labs, which builds mobile app analysis tools; and it owns Whatsapp, which had 70 million monthly active users in India as of November last year, according to Statista data.

Earlier this week Twitter announced it had acquired India-based mobile marketing startup Zipdial as it looks to bolster its position in emerging markets.

Why 'Programmatic' Is The Word Of The Year

12/11/2014

According to an ANA (Association of National Advertisers survey), “programmatic” was voted the word of the year. The result is not all that surprising, and perhaps more interesting are the reasons voters gave for voting for “programmatic.”

In the ANA’s release announcing the results, a handful of quotes were provided “from some members who voted for programmatic as the ANA 2014 marketing word of the year.” Some were hot takes, some had merit and several rehashed tired complaints.

Let’s break down some of those quotes:

“This is the year that we woke up to the potential of programmatic, and it became the biggest buzzword in the industry.”

2013 was probably the year the industry “woke up” to the potential of programmatic, with potential being the key word. However, it seems fair to say that 2014 is when it became the biggest buzzword in the industry -- it did just win “marketing word of the year” after all.

“It is everywhere and will eventually be the only way media gets bought until the next big advance.”

It is everywhere, but it’s hyperbolic to say it’ll be the only way media gets bought. It’s more apt to say that technology will become a bigger part of every media deal -- from direct deals to the fully automated.

Also, if you find out what that "next big advance" is before it’s big, let me know.

“It has been the focus of every meeting and every conference I have attended, even the ones it wasn’t the focus of.”

This quote does a great job of summing up why “programmatic” is the word of the year. The quote is funny because it’s true and also representative of the fact that ad technology has seeped into all corners of the ad market.

“It is the least understood but most used word in marketing. Nobody can define it but everyone wants it.”

Gather round for Hot Takes 101!

"Programmatic was one of the most used words in marketing this year, as marketers sought out more efficient and effective ways to purchase digital media.”

Whoever said that definitely works in ad tech.

“Everyone is talking about it, trying to see how to measure it, implement and/or define it. But few people get it or do it.”

Actually, the vast majority of advertisers and brands are using programmatic.

“This is an unstoppable sea change for all media, including TV. I predict that, in short order, 80 percent of all media -- not just digital media -- will be traded programmatically.”

“In short order” is an ambiguous timeframe, but programmatic is projected to account for nearly two-thirds of display ad spend by 2016. It’s not unreasonable to predict that programmatic will account for the majority of all media trades in the “near future.”

“Programmatic has as many positive connotations as it does negative ones. It is clearly the future of strategic and media planning, but there’s still a lot of uncertainty in what the present and future holds.”

This is one of the best quotes of the bunch. “Programmatic” is simultaneously associated with efficiency, accuracy and speed as well as fraud, sub-par inventory and complication.

by Tyler Loechner

Top Trends Predicted For Digital Advertising In 2015

12/2/2014

Programmatic buying has increasingly taken center stage — and for good reason. Magna Global forecast that spend on programmatic advertising this year will increase 52% to $21 billion globally. This upward trend is affecting to brands of all industries and sizes, some of which are decreasing spend on traditional TV advertising in favor of a larger digital strategy. In fact, Forrester estimated that U.S. advertisers' spend on digital advertising will overtake TV in 2016.

With all this transition away from traditional advertising models, what does this mean for the digital advertising industry in 2015 and beyond?

1.     2015 Will Mark the Rise of the “Meta DSP.”

In September, Havas announced its new ‘Meta DSP’ model — the world’s first. This trend of working with multiple programmatic partners will become increasingly popular in 2015. Brands and agencies will realize they can’t single-source a programmatic partner. One provider will likely not have the ability to satisfy every campaign need.

Each DSP has strengths for specific industries, verticals or audiences. One might specialize in QSR or travel, while another might be specialize in luxury brands. In 2015, advertisers will be more open to executing their strategy through multiple partners in order to capitalize on the skills of each.

2. 2015 Will Not Be The “Year Of Mobile.”

What might come at odds with the predictions of others, 2015 willnot be the “year of mobile.” Brands and agencies are seeking effective strategies across all consumer devices—ones that can span across platforms including display, tablet, mobile, connected TV and more. Brands want holistic omni-device targeting, and mobile-only won’t move the needle.

A mobile-only approach lacks an effective means for tracking impression and conversion flow in the same way that desktop providers offer. While impressions may be easily gauged on mobile, conversion is much harder to track; many consumers still prefer to complete transactions on desktop or in-store. This disconnect is part of the reason that successful omni-device targeting is so important to gauging the success and ROI of integrated campaigns.

3.     Programmatic Native Will Become Practical.

Two things will be needed for programmatic native to take off: Publishers who develop native layouts, and advertiser platforms that adapt their creative assets to match those layouts.

There are plenty of systems with the fundamental functionality for adapting creative assets to a layout. Dynamic ad servers have been doing this for years. For example, mobile ad servers adapt to screen size, and retargeting ad servers adapt by inserting components from a catalog.

For native to become practical, publishers will need to make their native layouts generally available. Some publishers have done this by working directly with the few advertiser platforms that are ready to use them. The results are tremendous from all points of view; publishers supporting programmatic native are reaping high CPMs. Additionally, advertisers are driving huge lift in engagement and response, and the early adopting platforms are collecting healthy margins. Programmatic native cannot help but attract more players on both sides, so we predict that the game will be on in 2015.

4.     2015 Will Lead To The Demise Of Old School Ad Networks.

In 2015 publishers will finally understand that there is a greater opportunity for ROI working with a smart programmatic partner, rather than a traditional ad network.

Ad networks often sell at a lower eCPM to close high volume sales. Ad exchanges, in contrast, now contain premium inventory, and many brands are bidding to purchase impressions through these exchanges. As programmatic advances, inventory quality on open exchanges increasingly matches direct buy deals, and programmatic providers’ optimization techniques allow them to purchase the right placement, at the right time, at the lowest cost possible, thereby reaching the best consumers in the proper context.

If some of these trends sound familiar, that’s because several have been a focus in recent years. However, the math behind getting the data on individual users has evolved immensely and is influencing how brands and agencies view programmatic partners. Advertising technology companies will spend the next year honing the science and math behind their technology, in order to reach the place where ad tech derives the most impact—the ability to engage with consumers on a 1:1 scale.

by Eric Bosco

What You Can Learn From The Young YouTube Networks

10/31/2014

Back in the late summer, BusinessWeek’s Felix Galette took a closer look at the hit-factory that YouTube has been creating and why old-guard media are lining up to take ownership. His take was focused on how these snack-sized content networks that have been growing for more than a few years are gaining legitimacy in the media community. In fact, the media industry frenzy around this new generation of digital entertainment and content has led to a flurry of attention to the market.

They’re giving a fresh face to content, a closer look at the changing consumption habits of the American media diet. So, what can other marketers learn from this steady rise of consumer engagement?

Respond to the changing Americans media diet

I’m sure by now you’ve adjusted your brand strategy to embrace the new media consumption patterns that align with the reality TV addictions, snack-size content and new influencers. But its more about adding a hashtag and creating an experience that will hopefully emerge as the next Facebook viral video. It’s about carefully architecting your network effect to help evolve your brand experience to the changing landscape.

Design your content plan and brand initiatives for today’s iterative culture

These new and evolving networks are digitally baked and responsive to immediate feedback. They can shift programming, create new offerings based on the feedback in a matter of weeks. It truly is a moneyball effect in content. Take a page. Have you adjusted your teams and resources to think about the data and the potential response? The critical thinking, as always, will be in the details. Have you considered having a response team to be able to take these learnings and bring it to market to help extend your brand? Do you have a process in place to quickly assess ROI so that too can be adjusted?

There is a network effect

It is about engagement. It is the start of a personal relationship expected to grow deeper and endure over time. It requires listening, nurturing and care and feeding. It comes with expectations of intimacy and trust. The engagement that marketers seek is not so different. Cross-stream insights and promotions are not a new phenomenon, but taking this to a network effect to show value and take fans on a journey is a growing effort. To keep viewers engaged, it is necessary to listen to your viewers and react to their needs. What are their comments reading and have you made changes or responses to each individual?

Content was king but content monetization is its evolution

Content has frequently been king and that pendulum always swings wildly as tastes and markets change, but I think we might have a new apex forming. It is not only that content is once again king, but monetizing that content is the next level that brands are ascending toward. If you look closely at where these young networks are ascending they are iterating their content to extend that experience into products. It’s not that they’re endorsing colas or recommending night creams, but there is a movement of these new generation of stars taking their expertise and packaging it beyond the initial brand. E-books and videos are the first wave we’re seeing from these YouTube stars and that is starting to bubble up into other forms of entertainment properties. Take YouTube star, Michelle Phan. Michelle took a series of makeup tutorial videos and with her success, has now launched her own L’Oreal makeup line, an e-commerce beauty startup called Ipsy and a new book. The products build upon the initial viewer experience and take it beyond the YouTube screen.

As with any evolving media, there are always lessons to be learned. I think these YouTube networks will look very different under their new corporate brands but the consumers desire for these evolving content will keep this evolution happening. Now it is our charge to keep iterating.

by Corey Davis

How Do You Combine TV and Digital Video?

6/24/2014

When blending the two, use TV for reach and digital video for frequency

Digital video advertising will make up nearly 12% of all digital ad spending in the US this year and is projected to grow significantly faster than search or overall display advertising for the next several years, according to a new eMarketer report, “50 Best Practices for Digital Video: Do’s and Don’ts for More Effective Advertising.”

Even though digital video advertising is in some ways well established, it is still new to many marketers and is still evolving for the experienced ones.

For this report, designed primarily for ad buyers, whether agencies or brands, eMarketer gathered insights from dozens of experts in the space—executives at brands and ad agencies, publishers, ad networks, and technology support companies. Here are the tips and suggestions from these thought leaders on integrating video ads with TV, one section of digital video advertising we focused on:

Use video to reinforce the larger TV campaign. “We know that when we’re out with a digital video buy, there’s greater recall when our [TV] spot actually airs.” (Amy Peet, Chrysler Group)

Use TV for reach and digital video for frequency. “As a cross-media planner, if you’re able to sequence these two things together, you can have them both working in unison—one for reach, one for frequency. TV advertising typically raises the profile and creates a lot of impact. Then it’s supplemented by high frequency, much cheaper inventory bought through video networks, for example, or any programmatic video buy.” (Matthew Waghorn, Huge)

Don’t expect a panacea—it doesn’t exist. There’s no simple or single formula for budgeting sight-sound-motion ads across TV and digital. “It’s going to depend by brand, by objective of what you’re trying to accomplish, by results over time and refining and tweaking those.” (Doug Knopper, FreeWheel)

Come together. Best practices are established by corporate silos—or the absence of them. “The next step will be around organizational structure. We hear a lot from agencies that the digital and linear sides are slowly coming together, and the same thing is happening with publishers. And the more these discussions happen and these groups come together, the easier it will be for the industry to start transacting on more of a converged space. So another best practice is to really think about how you merge those two sides of the house.” (Brian Dutt, FreeWheel)

BuzzFeed: 'Video is the Biggest Shift in Our Business'

4/29/2014

BuzzFeed Racks Up More Than a Billion YouTube Views Since 2012
By Michael Sebastian

The VIP line to BuzzFeed's first NewFront presentation Monday, 30 minutes before start time. More people queued up on the other side of the theater. Credit: Michael Sebastian BuzzFeed has often seemed ahead of the web, with strategies such as content explicitly designed to travel far in social media and "native" ads that mimic editorial. But on Monday the website was firmly part of the pack, using its first NewFronts presentation to pitch the same thing every other publisher wants to sell: video.

Founder Jonah Peretti described the site's origins, showed the evolution of its homepage and explained why its content is so shareable on the web. But his main purpose was to demonstrate that BuzzFeed is doing video in a big way.

"Video is the biggest shift in our business," Mr. Peretti told the audience, a large crowd that occupied two theaters, one of which carrying a simulcast of events in the first. BuzzFeed has produced 1,600 videos since September 2012, the company said, racking up more than 1.1 billion views on YouTube.

The presentation was the second of this year's Digital NewFronts, which mimic TV's annual upfront presentations to advertisers in an effort to lure TV ad budgets online. The New York Times pitched its digital wares Monday morning.

BuzzFeed showed off clips ranging from cat videos to a look at the average person's lifespan represented as jellybeans.

It also, central to the point, played videos it had produced for Nestle Purina, Clean and Clear and G.E. BuzzFeed never made an explicit pitch to the buyers and marketers in the audience, but let the three brands sing its praises in a question-and-answer session.

"We're working with them like we have our ad agencies over the past decades," Rick Spiekermann, director of content, community and partnerships at Nestle Purina Pet Care, told Ad Age after the event.

Twitter Takes to TV Tie-Ins

3/31/2014

User growth slows, but Twitter’s ad revenues are growing rapidly

Twitter showed in 2013 that its ad business is growing fast. Even as user growth slowed dramatically, ad revenues and ad engagement metrics ticked up.

Advertisers cite three reasons why they’re increasing spending on Twitter: The social network’s tie-ins with TV, its real-time nature and its willingness to partner closely on creative executions. Other developments that will drive growth this year include improved analytics, more ad offerings for international markets and additional ad products in the direct-response and ecommerce areas, according to a new eMarketer report, “Advertising on Twitter: Unique Opportunities Outweigh Slowing User Growth.”

Twitter spent much of 2013 solidifying its connections with TV. It launched a new ratings business with Nielsen to measure TV-related conversations on Twitter; created new video ad opportunities with Amplify; and bolstered its association with high-profile TV events such as the Super Bowl, Grammys and Oscars.

Twitter’s linkups with television are beneficial to both the TV industry and the social network. TV executives know that many people multitask on mobile devices while watching TV. On-air mentions of Twitter drive conversation about what’s on TV and help keep viewers focused on the television.

In December 2013 polling by RBC and Advertising Age, 22% of US advertising professionals said they’d bought Twitter ads in conjunction with a TV ad campaign. Considering that programs such as Amplify are less than a year old, this constitutes positive momentum.

Advertisers that buy sponsorship packages for sports or other large-scale televised events are starting to see Twitter ads as an integral part of their overall media plan. However, there’s a caveat to looking at Twitter as a parallel to TV. Advertisers can reach an engaged audience on Twitter, but that audience by no means rivals the size or demographic makeup of the audience watching a TV program. Advertisers, then, must put engagement before reach when they sync up their TV advertising with ads on Twitter.

Twitter is focused on improving its connections with TV, and it has been bolstering its case with TV advertisers with a series of studies. Among the findings:

Twitter users were less likely to change the channel during ad breaks: In a November 2013 study from Symphony Advanced Media, 8% of Twitter users did so, compared with 17% of those who were not multitasking and 13% of those who multitasked with a mobile device while watching TV.
Viewers watching TV while using Twitter had higher ad recall: In a December 2013 study by Millward Brown Digital, those watching without a second-screen device had average ad recall of 40%, while those using Twitter had average recall of 53%.