Year: 2016

Sometimes, brands or agencies can spend millions of dollars on specialised, digital content – premium creatives or exciting, sponsored or celebrity endorsed content. These videos might go ‘viral’ – a couple of million hits, maybe a few news articles here and there.

But then, by giving a YouTube star a free upgrade to a transatlantic flight, they can amass a grand sum of almost 20,000,000 hits in the space of a couple of weeks, with reports in major tabloids, broadsheets and blog sites, viral social media coverage and television debates. All for around 20,000 dollars.

The power of social video cannot be underestimated, and Casey Neistat is the king of social video content. His daily vlog now has 5 million subscribers, reaching a daily hit rate of an easy million within 24 hours. Only a couple of weeks ago he surpassed 1,000,000,000 channel views. Emirates didn’t even realise they had an advertising goldmine on their hands.

What is interesting is that, overall, the content on that video in particular is far less creative than a lot of Neistat’s work – filled with drone shots, skateboard rides and timelapses. Here the shots are confined to a small (albeit luxurious!) environment. You can watch the full video below – be sure to check out the rest of the channel to see even more fantastic content in action.

All publishers face the delicate balance of content and advertising, how to maintain a positive and engaging user experience while earning enough revenue to continue delivering the quality their audience demands.

The move from offline to online led to many ad formats, leaderboards, headers etc, being replicated onto desktop sites, and while many of these proved effective monetisation tools, they did not translate well onto mobile devices. The smaller screen size meant banners formats became too small to be practical for an advertiser, while also feeling clunky and intruding on the user experience.

Mobile requires a complete rethink of the way advertising is delivered for it to deliver the revenues needed by publishers to operate. One of the easiest ad format which has offered a simple, user-friendly solution is native video advertising.

Rather than operating like a pre-roll, which requires the publisher to create and host video content, native video is positioned among the publisher’s content, fitting in with the style of the app or mobile web site. It is high impact for advertisers, but still user friendly. A recent study by the Mobile Marketing Association found  that native advertising was responsible for a 23% increase in perceived ad quality. 

As well as improving the perception of advertising on a publisher site, native delivers better interaction rates. The MMA found users paid native ads 3x more time and attention than other units, while Business Insider reported an average of 1.84% CTR, far higher than standard display formats, allowing publishers to earn higher revenues and maintain the integrity of their sites.

Another important benefit to integrating native video, is that it allows publishers to add to their existing video inventory, upgrading from static display advertising, adding incremental video revenues.

With news that 60% of brand professionals  are planning to integrate native mobile video into their budgets in 2017, and the IAB predicting the the format will have a five year annual growth rate of 17% through to 2021, publishers should ensure they are building this new format into their mobile sites and apps. It is now possible to integrate with mobile native video providers, such as LoopMe, through Google’s DFP, easily allowing publishers to integrate video without having to make any technical adjustments to their properties.

As more users look to adblockers, native video provides a seamless solution to increase publisher revenues without becoming intrusive or damaging the user experience. Coupled with artificial intelligence, which delivers ads to users at the moment they are the most likely to engage, it is possible to earn significant revenue from native video on mobile.

Without doubt we are living and working in a world which is mobile first. Our smartphones are our number one device and the advertising industry has attempted to follow consumers’ eyeballs to the mobile screen. A quick search for the term ‘mobile’ on this site throws up hundreds of results, but as an industry, are we better at talking mobile than we are at delivering it?

From a campaign’s inception to its close, the advertising journey can broadly be split into three processes; creative, delivery and measurement. Each of these should be planned to be ‘mobile first’ but in the vast majority of campaigns this is not the case.

In terms of the creative, it is widely acknowledged by those working within mobile advertising that, in terms of video ads, duration really does matter. Repurposing a 30-second TV spot does not provide an optimum experience, a fact which has been discussed time and time again –  yet these creatives are still regularly put forward for mobile advertising. Orientation is another issue, users typically view short form video content vertically, but most video advertising is initially shot for TV and repurposed for mobile, ending up in landscape with two large black bars surrounding the creative. If the industry is mobile first than the creative should be planned with mobile in mind and a video should be produced which is optimised to the smaller screen.

Read the rest of the article here.

Knowledge is power and, as marketers, we are fortunate to work in a time where we have unparalleled insights into audience behaviour.

The rise of smartphones and the digital era have resulted in trillions of data points being created every day, revealing everything from our location history to how much battery our smartphone has left. This data is already being used effectively across the industry and it is common practice to create bespoke audience profiles to identify which users are relevant for your brand and allow advertising to be precisely targeted to the user.

But all too often, once data has been used to identify an audience, the industry recedes to the Dark Ages and fails to capitalise on the improved customer experience and instant feedback loop that are possible.

Read the rest of the article here.

James Corden is America’s new sweetheart, and Apple is keen to tap into this with their newest ad promoting Apple Music. Corden, as a recognisable, hoot-ish individual, seems like the perfect figure for Apple – slightly quirky, slightly creative, and often very silly. Clearly Apple want to tap into a lighter-spirited demographic – a world away from the more intense iPhone 7 launch ads from a few weeks ago.

Check out the ad below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQY3KUR3VzM

There’s a form of haunting terror that drives through BBDO’s latest commercial alongside AT&T’s latest ad in the ‘It Can Wait’ series. This doesn’t just come through the fantastic score and tension-filled edit – interspersing long, melancholic shots with quick cuts and glimpses of possible tragedy. The later apparition of a ‘ghost’ figure is equally scary – especially their childish inquisitiveness and exuberant energy. It all comes across as a mournful saga that remains all too common on modern roads.

AT&T has released a recent app to stop distracted driving, one certainly investing in if you ever feel there’s a danger of losing focus when your phone is nearby. It can be acquired here for Android users.

You can watch the whole video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVEBJxS2J_Y

Artificial intelligence is staying relevant in large-scale marketing channels, but recently it has made headway in mobile video advertising. A recent survey of 1,000 mobile users asked if after watching a mobile video ad whether viewers were inclined to buy a product.

Nearly half of those surveyed said they never bought a product after watching a commercial video. Additionally, when asked why this was the case, 51 per cent stated they were not in the market for the product at that time of viewing and 29 per cent said the adverts were not relevant. These statistics for mobile video viewers indicated that advertising is not being delivered at the correct point in the purchase funnel or to users who were likely to change their minds, ultimately wasting marketer’s budgets.

“The challenge many brands face is getting ROI from their digital campaigns and achieving the marketing goals” comments Stephen Upstone, CEO LoopMe. “Clicks were used to judge the impact of campaigns simply because there was a lack of other reliable metrics to use for optimization or reporting.”

The new way of delivering campaigns is to combine AI with third party brand research from Nielsen and On Device, to expressly target users who have shown the greatest likelihood of moving along the purchase funnel. Throughout each campaign a sample of users will be surveyed to determine its ongoing performance against brand metrics like brand awareness, favorability or purchase intent. That’s at least according to video platform LoopMe, which has announced new optimization and reporting technology, PurchaseLoop that helped deliver the results.

Read the rest of the article on The Drum website here.

Renowned filmmaker Spike Jonze had a lucrative start to his career – specialising in incredibly well executed pieces that made no attempt to conform to expectations – often undermining or subverting trends and leaving a lasting impression on consumers. If advertisers sometimes think outside the box, then Spike Jonze likes to think outside the idea of thinking – everything is to be interrogated, questioned and prodded. You can see some of his best work here.

His latest ad with Kenzo does exactly that – undermine the conventional depiction of perfume adverts with something bold, incredibly well choreographed and fun. Watch it below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABz2m0olmPg

 ‘Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half’. John Wanamaker

We are pleased to share the results of our latest piece of consumer research, examining users’ purchase behaviour after viewing mobile video ads, in order to determine if the advertising users see is truly delivering brands value.

In partnership with independent consumer research company, Morar, LoopMe surveyed over 1000 mobile users in the US and UK, covering a range of demographics, regions, ages and genders, to explore whether mobile video ads were driving users along the path to purchase.

Q1 Have you ever watched a mobile video advert for a product and bought that product in store or online?

In total 55% of users had gone on to purchase a product after viewing a mobile video ad, (50% in the UK, 60 in the US), showing mobile video ads were often incredibly successful at delivering brand and advertiser messaging to consumers, and driving those users along the path to purchase.

However, this left 45% of users across both markets who did not feel compelled to buy products after being served mobile video ads.

 Q2. If not why not? Answer all which apply:

1)      I was not looking to buy the products advertised

2)      Adverts are not relevant to me

3)      The ads were intrusive and put me off buying

4)      Other

This was the subject for the survey’s second question, which asked why users did not feel motivated to buy products either in store or online after seeing specific ads. The results here were significant, with 51% found to be not in market (averaged across both markets, with 47% of UK users and 54% of US users agreeing to this point) and 29%  stating that the ad in question was not relevant to them personally.  Furthermore, 21% of users across both markets stated that ads could sometimes feel intrusive or put them off buying entirely.

In the US younger audiences between 18-29 were much more likely to perceive ads as intrusive or annoyingly, whereas in the UK the age distinction was less clear cut, though older demographics were less likely to see ads as a nuisance.

Across both markets, men were 5% more likely to buy products after seeing mobile video ads, whereas female users were 7% less likely to see ads as intrusive or annoying.

What is clear from the results is that the format of video ads or the quality of the creative is not always the greatest influencing factor in ad effectiveness. If users do not feel that ads are relevant or if they have no desire to buy the product, then the ad will be wasted on them. It is therefore more important than ever that advertisers recognise that in order to achieve ROI from their advertising, campaigns are targeted to users who are in target audience and in market for their product.

To ensure your campaigns are reaching the right audiences, with the right ad at the right moment to deliver brand uplift, LoopMe have developed an intelligent brand optimizer, PurchaseLoop, which uses artificial intelligence to improve uplift across brand metrics in real-time.

Click here to find out more.

Download the full research here.

Grey New York, who oversee the Volvo creative account, have been ambitious with their newest angle for the car manufacturer. Here the emphasis is not on the car’s qualities, but its significance – we are being sold the idea of travelling, rather than the car product itself. It’s an intriguing novel approach that taps into a Kerouac, Whitman-esque approach to life – an appreciation of fleeting experiences while also learning to treasure the journey. Whitman’s ‘Song of the Open Road’, read with a husky, whiskey-edged breath by Josh Brolin, is the ideal thematic umbrella, unifying what could be a series of disparate (albeit beautiful) images from director Niclas Larsson and Director of Photography Jeff Cronenweth.

The oscillation between intense closeup and expansive, immersive imagery adds a sense of sentimental scale to proceedings – this isn’t the story of one man facing writer’s block, but the story of anyone, travelling across open, empty landscapes, looking for direction.

There’s certainly a lot to chew on here, and kudos to Volvo for trying something that actively defies convention and making people think about the images that they’re seeing. It’ll be interesting to find out how audiences react to the ad itself, but anything as interesting as this going forward can only be welcomed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBt_niVG4sM