Category: Blog

Black Friday is a notorious event for the retail industry – with big bucks and savings on offer. It’s hard to forget the videos of panic and overcrowding that are now so infamous that they’ve been parodied extensively on programmes like South Park. But for all the bustle and chaos, the biggest gains in Black Friday sales have gone from store to digital locations – especially mobile.

MediaPost was the first to report on this mcommerce ‘soar’ last week. Physical traffic declined, with shoppers less inclined to spend as much as 2014 – or, as MediaPost put it, ‘more of us love to shop in our pajamas’. Online sales also mean that shoppers don’t have to brave the queues of the superstores and malls across the US.  Overall ecommerce swelled by 18% – a trend surpassed only by purchases made on devices, which surpassed all expectations.

Mcommerce sales contributed $1.2bn sales according to Adobe’s Marketing Cloud, shattering estimates from the likes of Comscore and Nielsen who, though anticipating a break of the $1bn barrier, did not expect it to happen with such speed. This was around 36% of digital sales for the period, a large figure that has been growing year on year.

The key takeaway may not been simply how much money was made on the day however. MarketingLand was quick to report that, while consumers did make purchases predominantly over desktop, it was mobile devices that drove the greater portion of site traffic – 55% compared to the 45% on PC. The signs are clear – mobile provides a versatile, readily available opportunity for shoppers to research products and prices, beating the crowds and shopping on the go.

As Jordan Rost, Nielsen’s VP-Consumer Insights put it: “Mobile is making every moment a potential holiday shopping moment…You can sit on the couch with your family and still shop. You really can be two places at once.” Indeed, with bracing weather and the prospect of long queues, purchasing via mobile seems like a far more attractive option.

Adobe’s Marketing Cloud found further exciting news for mcommerce enthusiasts, as well as a signal for retailers, and, as a result, advertisers. Conversion rates on both mobile and tablet devices have doubled when compared with last year – going from 1.3 to 2.4%. Retailers have come to realise how pivotal it is to have mobile-optimised sites capable of handling transactions and research swiftly and conveniently – rather than simply seeing mobile sites as complementing a Desktop experience. With this omni-device approach proving increasingly effective in a time when High Street footfall isn’t guaranteed, no doubt this mcommerce trend will only continue.

Printed in AdExchanger, December 2016

Traditional video metrics aren’t really cutting it for advertisers, especially on mobile.Moat is making the attempt with its Video Score metric released in late November. Predicated on the notion that not every viewable impression is created equal, the metric aims to help properly measure digital video exposures across platforms by looking at how much of a video was seen and heard amplified by the percentage of real estate the ad occupied on a user’s screen.It’s only intuitive that a vertical video on Snapchat, with its average view time of less than three seconds, should be valued differently from an outstream video on desktop, a video in the Facebook news feed or a repurposed TV ad shrunk down for size.But that intuition doesn’t address whether an advertiser met its core KPIs.

“Advertisers are spending to drive engagement and traffic so that users stick around for the long haul and take certain key actions regardless of the medium,” said Doug Roberge, product marketing manager at in-app video company Vungle.

And there’s often a disconnect between video metrics and advertiser KPIs.

“The marketers we talk to are focused on ROI,” said Scott Shulman, VP of North America sales at mobile video platform LoopMe. “They don’t really care about proxy metrics like video completion rate or clicks or even on-target impressions. That doesn’t grow anyone’s business.”

Read the full article here.

The Cartier Premium Brand image shines every Christmas, and 2016 is no exception. After multiple appearances over the last few years, their iconic Snow Leopard returns once more for another bout of festive cheer.

Creatively it’s a wonderful ad that relies almost exclusively on visual style – the colours exploding onto the screen and illuminating darkened cityscapes across New York and Paris. For those planning a digital strategy on mobile, the ad’s 40-second run time is appropriately brief and punchy, telling the story quickly and with creative flare. Further to this, the ad’s visuals and reliance on light over sound makes it perfect for mobile formats, where audio playback isn’t always guaranteed. A native placement or even a rich media ad where the user engages with the unit to ‘brighten up’ a darkened area may well work nicely in the run up to the festive season.

You can see the full ad here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-puwyLmdsKQ

It doesn’t seem 12 months since we were first introduced to the old man on the moon, who won the hearts of millions in another ad coup from John Lewis. Once again, the winter season has dished out its annual dose of festive cheer, hoping to win audiences across platforms with recurring content and humorous, affectionate characters. We run down some of this year’s favourites.

1) Sainsbury’s – Christmas Is A Time for Sharing

Sainsbury’s have always gone big with their Christmas ads – going so far as to recreate the Christmas Day football match a couple of years ago. This time around, the big budgets have seen a wonderfully cheesy, animated feature with the waxy vocals of State-side sweetheart James Corden. It’s a nice, simple ad that has a family friendly appeal – catchy tunes and wonderfully animated visuals. The animated element is particularly interesting – giving the character a versatile, recognisable face that can be consistently seen across devices, it’ll be exciting to watch Sainsbury’s roll out their digital, especially mobile, content over the coming weeks.

2) Aldi – Kevin the Carrot 

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

Maintaining the animated vibe is Aldi’s festive offering, a slightly dark yet humorous saga about Kevin the lowly carrot, as he traverses the treacherous table of food in search of salvation. Kevin is an empathetic, recognisable everyman (everycarrot?) and we all ‘root’ for him – even in his less than ideal state by the end of the ad spot. Again, a central protagonist is a perfect way to unify brand coherency across platforms. Aldi could also create a quick, interactive mobile game to help Kevin make his way across the perilous platter – an easy way to bring the content to multiple devices?

3) Burberry – The Tale of Thomas Burberry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D5IZtDCS5c

And now for something completely different. A premium creative starring Domnhall Gleason, Lily James, Sienna Millerand Dominic West, this ad clocks in at over 200 seconds of garment making fun, crossing decades and continents, in a bid to discover just how impressive the Burberry inception was. It’s a magnificent story, one that almost cries out to be turned into a feature. In terms of cross-platform advertising, an ideal world would see the visuals, the stars, all reappearing on multiple formats – intriguing audiences and guiding them to a place where they can watch the full ad. Not as festive as the rest, but a stellar creative nonetheless.

4) Waitrose – #HomeForChristmas 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtKYdG9r0Pk

Similar, in some ways, to John Lewis’s Snowman ad from a few years ago, Waitrose brings a heartwarming tale of love conquering distance and danger. It’s generally emotive and exciting, not needing audio to let audiences realise what’s going on and how high the stakes can be.

The creative itself is an amazing testament to visual arts (it’s hard to tell just how much of the bird is actually CGI) and a rousing overall compliment to John Lewis’s offering.

5) Boots Christmas – The Gift of Beauty

Boots have also succeeded in creating an ad that works without audio. It starts with a basic premise, half a million women in the UK have to work on Christmas day. From there, the ad becomes a rousing, heartwarming piece, relying on visual storytelling to drive home an often-forgotten message. Well worth a watch.

6) John Lewis – Buster the Boxer 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr6lr_VRsEo

And so we get to the usual champion of the Christmas season – the one to beat, the benchmark. And while John Lewis didn’t jump over the moon this year around, the delightful little story of Buster has already amassed a grand 17m views on YouTube, with tie in digital campaigns (and Buster toys) rounding out the experience.

John Lewis went one step further, pushing into the VR space with a 360 trampoline experience – a nice step forward for the brand in a period when any niche can separate you from the rest of the market.

 

IAB Video Conference London is right around the corner, and we at LoopMe thought we’d pick out 3 things we’re especially excited to watch. Got your own favourites? Let us know and we can have a chat!

 Turning journalism into VR

 11:25 – 11:45: Francesca Panetta, Special Projects, The Guardian

Video is not what it used to be – particularly with the development of 3D tech, VR, or even AR. This is a period of inexorable growth and discovery, and companies like The Guardian, keen to maintain their reputation as champions of the cutting edge, wish to be at the forefront. As such, the success of the news platform’s 6×9 project has spurred on the creation of a full VR suite, partnering with Google to create content. With Google’s new Daydream headset imminent, the talk could not be timelier. Francesca Panetta, who heads up the project, will explore what seem to be the most exciting elements VR has to offer, and what may need further work over the coming years.

Thinking Differently: Barclays UK Video Journey

13:00 – 13:20: Helen Rothwell, Marketing & Comms Manager, Barclays

 Barclays is a brand that has done video right – consistently engaging with consumers on TV, print and digital with a recognisable brand image and setting. Focussing here on the digital aspect of Barclays advertising, Helen Rothwell explores how important it is that digital video campaigns don’t seek simply to imitate TV with their ideas and creatives. Instead, as Barclays have done, the key is for brands to forge their own creative niches based on the incredibly different context that digital offers – be that either on desktop or, even more excitingly given the recent news regarding ad spend and device use, on mobile.

What is Premium Video Anyway?

15:30 – 15:50: Tim Lawrence, Digital Planning Director, MediaCom

Many advertisers have started harnessing the power of video, in both captivating audiences and delivering exciting messages to consumers. But where does one draw the line when it comes to ‘premium’? How do advertisers deliver a premium experience in a digital landscape that is changing so rapidly?

 

Read the full agenda for the Video Conference here.

Video is the most impactful advertising format. Combined with the power of mobile it can be the most effective tool in a marketers arsenal.

Yet 40% of US customers haven’t gone on to make a purchase following a mobile video ad.

Join LoopMe & our expert speakers to discover how to enhance your mobile video campaigns, from using data to drive users into store, to creating exceptional video creative.

Covering:

Understanding Success
Putting Results into Mobile Video
Taking Users from View to Store
The Secret to Creative Perfection

It’s time to supercharge your advertising.

Spots can be booked here.

First Round of Speakers Announced: 

Benjamin Bring 
Vice President, Mobile Media Director, Ansible

Ben has been in media for 10+ years and works within the full-service mobile marketing agency, Ansible (a division of IPG), specializing in delivering a full range of mobile solutions.

James O’Neill
VP Interactive Marketing, Assembly

James is VP Interactive Marketing at Assembly, providing brands with innovative media solutions. Assembly have worked with a variety of notable names including the likes of Perdue, PING,  Expedia, E*Trade & Truth Initiative.

Cathy Muldowney
Director of Agency & Strategic Partnerships, Factual

Cathy has over eight years of experience in digital advertising, mostly in the mobile and location spaces. Before joining Factual, Cathy was Director of Brand Partnerships at Foursquare.

Emery Wells
CEO / Co-Founder
Frame.io
Emery has over 14 years of digital creative experience, going on to found Frame.io in 2014. Providing a space for creative and client collaboration, the company recently won a 2016 Apple Design Award.

Scott Shulman
VP North America Sales, LoopMe

Scott joined LoopMe from RocketFuel, where he helped to take the company from start-up through to IPO, managing a team of 30 sellers and contributing $160 million of the company’s global revenue.

Michael Tuminello 
Senior Director Product Solutions, Innovid

Michael Tuminello is Director of Product at Innovid, managing the advanced TV & video creative product line. He was previously responsible for rich media and creative at Mediamind (now Sizmek). 

Time & Date: 
8.15 am – 11am
Tuesday, November 29th 

Location:
The Redbury Hotel
(formerly the Martha Washington)
29 E 29th St
NY, 10016
View venue here

Retail has seen a huge shift over the last decade, with digital sales and sites now standing shoulder to shoulder with brick and mortar stores. Macy’s new Thanksgiving ad, ‘Old Friends’ is the perfect reflection of this trend – no matter if you’re in the center of New York or at home, you can always get some Macy’s love. Retail, particularly e- and m-commerce, has transcended geography, to the extent that users can purchase at the touch of a button, no matter where they are. All that retailers like Macy’s have to do is identify these users and make sure the appropriate message is delivered, on the right device.

And Macy’s message could not be more appropriate. The recurring image of the giant Santa Clause – inflatable, interactive and inviting is a solid centrepiece for the 60 second piece.  As a longer video, it’s perfect for a skippable native, interstitial or interscroller format on mobile devices, with the eye-catching central figure of Santa grabbing user attention.

Macy’s have done well to jump the gun and get this Santa image out before traditional Christmas marketing starts – it’ll be relevant for the next two months in terms of advertising content.

Finally of course, the ad is heartwarming – showing the brand’s longevity to be a part of users’ lives for decades. It’s an easy message and a powerful one – one that resonates no matter where its placed.

Watch the ad here:

 

Written and Printed in CityAM, October 31st.

Stephen Upstone, chief executive and founder of LoopMe, is pondering his company’s reach.

“I think that out of the top 10 global brands, as rated by Interbrand, we work with eight of them,” he says.

His business has touched 1.5bn people, handles 500bn bits of data a day, and has opened offices from Los Angeles to Bangalore. Not bad for a four year old company.

Like so many tech companies, LoopMe operates in the background, exerting a subtle influence over our digital lives.

“Think of it as a software platform that puts video ads into apps and mobile websites,” says Upstone. “But what we do that’s particularly different is use artificial intelligence (AI) and a huge amount of data to improves customer experience, and advertisers’ results.”

Mobile revolution

As we move away from desktop to spend more time gazing into our phones, LoopMe has moved in to capitalise on the mobile revolution. “Before video ads couldn’t really be played on mobile because the bandwidth wasn’t strong enough,” says Upstone, but “now 68 per cent of the time we spend digitally is with mobile, and video is king.”

Video advertising is (and always has been) so successful, says Upstone, because it “instills empathy in people. It creates a really strong emotional connection and makes them feel better about brands.” The uptake of video on mobile has been nothing short of a game changer for advertisers – there’s no denying it works, but the wastage, that is, showing people irrelevant adverts, was mammoth.

Read the rest of the article on CityAM here.

Written in VideoNet & Digital Marketing Magazine, 28/10/16

Creating compelling advertising content which resonates with users and generates an impact has never been easy. Some brands like John Lewis, Evian and Coca Cola make it look effortless, with timeless advertising that appeals to a wide range of audiences. For others it hasn’t quite been so simple, and as users become more ad-savvy and critical of traditional advertising, brands are seeking out new ways to create content which is genuinely engaging and offers users value for their time and attention.

360^o video and Virtual Reality have truly come into their own this year, with a huge presence at all large marketing events – the latest being at dmexco, where Samsung’s CMO Marc Mathieu took to the stage to discuss Samsung’s VR Studio which opened in January. These channels, which are beginning to mature, could offer brands the platform they need to deliver users a valuable experience.

To build brand loyalty today, advertisers must offer something more to the consumer, and immersive, tangible 360^ocontent is a solution which is becoming more widely available to creatives. By leveraging brand partnerships to essentially bring users to the centre of a concert crowd, the tunnel before a Manchester City game, or even the site of a remote village in Ethopia, brands can solidify their voice and establish much more fully what they stand for. Outstanding implementation of 360^o and VR will not only make users sit back and think ‘wow’ but will truly convey a sense of the brand’s identity. The challenge will be recruiting creatives who have the vision and the expertise to develop advertising which truly delivers an unforgettable experience.

Read the rest of the article here.