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LoopMe’s Latest Ukraine Developments!
In November, LoopMe opened their new Ukraine office in Dnepropetrovsk and we wanted to show you just how fantastic it all looks 3 months later! With a combination of cutting edge tech and vintage equipment perfect for nostalgia trips, the office is a great space for our developers to be both functional, and unwind when they need to (or vent frustrations on the foosball table!).
Now manned by 38 staff members (including a number of new hires since November), Dnepropetrovsk is a thriving community ready to support LoopMe on a global level. We are continuing to hire new and talented individuals, including a new Ukraine based AdOps team! The constant arrival of new and great staff has made the office a wonderful office space.
Press: MMA – The Year of Virtual Reality and Data
Published on the MMA UK Blog, March 2 2016
Mobile World Congress is a difficult show to beat, with over 90,000 industry professionals descending on Barcelona to learn about, experience and embrace all things mobile.
This year my attention was drawn away from the handset launches that have dominated in previous years by two main elements virtual reality and, as ever, the immense potential of data.
Virtual Reality
Virtual reality has been touted as the next big thing in consumer technology for years, but it’s never managed to take a firm hold on our lives. This year, with Samsung’s Virtual Reality roller coaster taking centre stage, VR finally seems to be within touching distance.
Compatible with the high-end Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, the new Gear VR means that virtual reality has become readily available for consumers and brands for the first time. The introduction of the Gear 360o camera means that 360o video footage can be produced by the average user, ensuring it will definitely be on brands’ radar in the coming months.
While every day implementation of virtual reality is still a little way off, as it is only widely available through Samsung hardware, elements of VR can be incorporated into the everyday mobile experience. 360o video advertising formats have already been launched, where users can immerse themselves into different environments through their smartphones. By using the innate mobility of mobile devices, it’s possible for users to look round the back stage of a Coldplay concert, explore the summit of MT. Everest or simply drop in at a friend’s party on the other side of the world.
For brands the new 360o technology offers exciting prospects for their content and advertising strategies. A real estate company can serve an advert for a particular house and allow users to check out the street it’s on. Travel agencies can let their audience explore a hotel or cruise ship, film studios can offer behind-the-scenes tours where the user is in control. By offering users this added value, they become far more valuable as a brand.
Read the rest of the article here.
Shine Casts a Shadow at MWC
It’s difficult to work out when exactly adblocking started being described as a full blown conflict, but it was probably before the MWC. By the time the event started in Barcelona, The Telegraph were eager to open with the provocative title ‘The War over Mobile Ad Blocking Has Only Just Begun’ – a description that certainly has a militaristic feel (and seems to mimic Gandalf’s closing lines from The Two Towers). So too does AdWeek’s soundbite about adblocking ‘destroying the ecosystem’ – like a type of weapon normally banned by the Geneva Convention.
This rhetoric is getting even more extravagant – Roi McCarthy, CMO of Shine Technology, said that their adblocker is ‘the single biggest threat in the history of advertising…it’s a stellar opportunity to reset the relationship with consumers’. These are big proclamations – Shine, it seems, is some apocalyptic event for advertisers, ready to bring about an advertising Second Coming.
While the adblockers are keen to paint the picture of crisis, Three are significantly milder on their calls for improvement. They are looking to stop users having to pay for advertising using their own data and encouraging better targeted ads. Though Three may decide to implement a network-wide ban on ads, this does not affect ad presence over WiFi. Given that network-based data only makes up about 16% of a users’ monthly consumption rate (the average iOS user consumes around 1.8Gb of cellular data compared to 8.9Gb over wireless), Three’s move will have a relatively minimal impact on the number of users blocking ads.
The problem with such antagonistic language is that it doesn’t help find a solution to the adblocking issue. Both advertisers, publishers and blockers need to have a discussion about why exactly consumers are turning towards adblocking in the first place. Solutions to this problem can come in a number of different forms – higher quality creatives, more relevant ads, or ad formats that feel less intrusive and more engaging. Certainly, the IAB’s recent decision to un-invite Ad Blocker Plus from their annual conference is not a way to form a proper dialogue.
Three’s move has provided an exciting and bold opportunity for the advertising industry to address the question of adblocking on mobile. In a constantly evolving industry, organisations have to be ready to react to new trends and issues with satisfying solutions in transparent ways that put the consumer first. The same will invariably be true of adblocking, and, given the response of those at MWC, there are those ready to tackle the problems with vigour. But it might be easier without all the apocalyptic terminology.
Loopme x Dresshead Pants Suit White Jumpsuit with Belt – Sleeveless
When you want to look your best, you can enjoy wearing this loopme x dresshead pants suit white jumpsuit with belt – sleeveless. One sleeve is long sleeve, while the other features successive loops to create a fashionable accessory built into your outfit. The zippered back keeps the outfit in place and makes sure you look great. The pleats in the pants help to assure that even for larger frames, you will look great. The long pants are made to be loose fitting, but straight legged, to create the illusion of slimming. Available in two different colors, you can look fashionable or professional whenever you’re headed out of the house. Add some high heels and your look for the office will be complete! You can buy loopme x dresshead pants suit white jumpsuit with belt – sleeveless online now.
Video of the Week: Reach Across The Aisle
JetBlue claims they’ve got something ‘historic’ going on down the aisle of one of their planes. In a microcosmic reflection of a voting system, 150 passengers were given the chance to decide upon their ideal holiday destination and, if a mutual decision was made unanimously, then all would win tickets to the agreed-upon location on a JetBlue flight.
In what was essentially a plane-based version of 12 Angry Men (150 Holiday-Craving Jetsetters?), JetBlue wanted to show how groupthink can lead to a homogenization of opinion and oppression of dissenting voices in favor of the most influential. A very fragile form of democracy, it seems.
Watch the advert here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=208&v=EPurzKVTlU4
Press: The Drum – Entertainment and AI
Published on The Drum on 26th February 2016.
We’re in the thick of awards season, the BAFTAs just behind us and the Oscars looming. While nominated films always receive plenty of attention, the hundreds of films released each year need to find equally powerful ways to generate interest and engagement from their audiences.
From Hal 9000 in 2001 Space Odyssey to C-3PO in Star Wars, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has always proved popular in the film industry, but it’s not always considered within an advertising context. In fact, it’s a highly effective way for entertainment brands to reach their audiences.
AI improves campaign results and works on an impression level, analysing data to determine the likelihood of a particular advert generating a desired outcome for each ad call. It then predicts which advert is most likely to deliver the strongest result and serves the ad.
Cinema audiences are often diverse, after all there’s no accounting for taste. It’s extremely important to target the right audiences with the right trailer if a campaign is going to be successful, and this is not always achieved with conventional targeting.
For example, an ad call comes through and is identified as being from a woman aged 18-34. With traditional targeting and prevailing gender stereotypes in place, she may be targeted with an ad for a rom-com as she fits a certain demographic. But what if the woman in question cannot stand rom-coms and is actually a fan of blood-curdling horror? She won’t interact with the ad served and the impression is wasted.
Read the rest of the article here.
Press: IAB UK – The Importance of Real Time
Published on the IAB UK Blog on the 25th February.
Stephen Upstone, CEO & Founder of LoopMe, comments that instant feedback is one of the advantages of digital advertising & that artificial intelligence can help advertisers take insights to the next level with real time optimisation.
Digital advertising has many strengths, its ability to target specific audiences, to be interactive, to reach users at scale. But one key advantage which is often overlooked, and in the light of the IAB’s RTA Conference should be brought to the foreground, is its capacity to deliver advertisers real time insights into what works and, more importantly, what doesn’t.
With offline media, campaigns must be planned weeks and months in advance. The creative is sent out and fingers are crossed that it has some measurable effect on sales or brand metrics. Months later data showing campaign’s impact will arrive, but by that point the next execution will have been planned. Insights can only be put into practice for the following campaign, by which time the initial information is fast becoming out of date.
In comparison feedback from digital campaigns is fast, facilitating optimisation. With programmatic campaigns buyers can analyse the performance of a particular creative or provider and make the decision to push more budget towards those which show the best results. The time from campaign launch, to feedback, to optimisation has shrunk exponentially.
But even with programmatic, this optimisation still isn’t real-time. It’s down to the planner to check up on the campaign and make a decision on how to optimise it going forward. It’s also a blind decision – one creative may have performed better than another over the weekend, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it will continue to do so over the week. Planners have to take a shot in the dark.
Read the rest of the article at https://www.iabuk.net/blog/the-real-importance-of-real-time#JjPgsSLbGtohqWTS.99
Video of the Week: Making Love Letters With Scrabble
A,B,C baby, that’s how easy love can be. Or so Scrabble want you to think with their 2015 advert celebrating all the best in random coincidence and wordplay.
Though it’s hard to tell just how romantic a game of Scrabble can be, Mattel have found a nice little novelty that makes the ad consistently watchable with its wordplay. The nice little near-sepia filter also gives the ad enough of a glamorous and premium finish.
Given how romantic Scrabble makes their adverts, we here at LoopMe are thinking there could be an entire miniseries about board games and romantic entanglements – is it worth taking a Risk over a Trivial Pursuit? There’s no point asking us to Guess Who you’ll end up with. We don’t have a Clue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOgcEykrdXI