Digital

Many aspects of the digital world are dominated by a single giant: Google dominates search, Facebook dominates social, and of course, Amazon dominates e-commerce. For the vast majority of brands, walking away from the giants simply isn’t an option … so digital success means dancing with these giants more effectively.

In recent years, most consumer goods companies have exponentially grown their digital agendas, typically resulting in higher costs of time, energy and money. Yet for many, top-line growth remains elusive and profits are under pressure.

Consumer demand for streaming services has opened the door for new players. Snapchat has signed development deals in the past year with Walt Disney’s ESPN, Discovery, the NFL, A+E Networks, Time Warner’s Turner Broadcasting, and Vice Media. Twitter recently signed on to stream several sports leagues, which is on par with its strategy to carve out their share of the live streaming category. Facebook will stream 20 MLB games for free this season. And YouTube TV is now streaming live TV for cord-cutters around the globe. But it’s not just social networks looking to capitalize on the popularity of streaming. Comcast now allows its X1 customers to stream Netflix seamlessly from their service.

So a couple of weeks ago I sounded off about Facebook’s plans to enable sound automatically in its New Feed. I suspect my reaction is not that unusual and that advertisers still need to think about how their video is going to communicate without sound.  by Nigel Hollis

There’s a quote that gets thrown around and misattributed all the time that says, “Hope is not a strategy.”  In the digital media and advertising business the word “identity” gets thrown around even more, so to paraphrase this oft-used cliché, I’ll say: Identity is not a strategy.

Advertising campaigns that resonate in the minds of consumers are hard to find: A Nielsen study shows that 22% of digital ads failed to drive uplift for key brand metrics in Australia. Encouragingly, understanding frequency – the number of times consumers see a campaign – has a demonstrated impact on resonance, and can ensure brands maximise their digital spend.  By Gabrijela Okadar, Manager – Marketing Effectiveness, Nielsen

Rapid adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Intelligent Automation (IA) brings a host of broad questions leaders must thoroughly consider as their organizations move into the automation age. A new KPMG LLP report explores these potentially massive issues and provides important insights to help drive decision making as robots and cognitive technology begins to outpace human intelligence.

Few sectors have experienced as much disruption as banking over the last decade or so. The trusted partner personified by a high street presence and friendly bank manager has given way to an uneasy hybrid of digital and telephone services. Recession, digitisation, and high-street closure have changed our relationship with banks from trusted partner to service provider. Banks have suffered from their lack of customer centricity, focusing on sales rather than forging the long-term relationships of old.

Ad Blocking remains a hot industry issue based on its continued rise on desktop and mobile and it’s costing the online advertising industry billions of dollars annually. Kantar Millward Brown’s Duncan Southgate, in partnership with GroupM, explored who blocks ads and why, and recommends what advertisers, agencies and publishers can do to reduce ad blocking.

H Code Media announced the signing of an exclusive partnership with Futbol Sites (FSN) in Latin America.

Inching toward digital maturity isn’t an easy path for most marketers. According to data from MIT Sloan Management Review, in collaboration with Deloitte, many executives and managers worldwide know there are steps their organizations need to take to increase their company’s digital maturity.

NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises and Mazda North American Operations (Mazda) announced a premier multimedia advertising campaign that will introduce the all-new Mazda CX-5 to U.S. Hispanic audiences through “¡Al Bate!” (Batter Up!) – an eight episode, documentary style mini-series featuring former MLB player Ramiro Peña, who currently serves as an infielder for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp of Nippon Professional Baseball.

Programmatic is certainly not going away, but I do think marketers are starting to smell it for what it really is.  It’s a cost-saving strategy, which attempts to create the same ROI for a fraction of the cost when compared to more “traditional” forms of advertising.  

In the latest episode of “Behind the Numbers,” analyst Cathy Boyle and researcher Chris Keating discuss the market for mobile apps, and what it means for businesses.

Artificial intelligence (AI) may bring to mind sci-fi images of earth-dominating robots, but it’s a term that’s set to shape the future of B-to-B marketing.  Surprising? Consider this: AI may already be selecting your next film on Netflix, your next song on Spotify, or helping to choose your next meal out, based on recommendations by Apple’s Siri.  By Marc Keating, chief innovation officer at Stein IAS

Out-stream video advertising has emerged as an important revenue source for social media companies and publishers with limited or no video content. But while out-stream seems poised for continued growth, certain obstacles could halt its progress—including concerns over potential ad fraud.

A strong brand voice is a living, breathing manifestation of your brand promise. This voice comes from a much deeper place than stringing together clever words and phrases to sell products. An authentic brand voice solves problems, delivers a great customer experience, and stands for something.

Reaching consumers is a constant challenge for marketers and advertisers competing in an increasingly noisy marketplace. However, consumer reaction to digital marketing suggests that some efforts may be doing more harm than good.

A couple of weeks ago Mark Rabkin, VP, Core Ads at Facebook, posted ‘New Medium, New Rules: video in the mobile age’. It is a good summary of the challenges facing advertisers when it comes to engaging people in the mobile age and supports what Kantar Millward Brown has been saying for years: mobile is not a tiny TV.  by Nigel Hollis

Advertisers are wrong about fraud: It’s a problem that can’t be completely solved. We are not going to eradicate it, the same way we are not going to wipe out robbery or eliminate illness. A more realistic — and effective — approach is to manage fraud, both by taking measures to prevent it, and by working to detect it once it occurs so that we can mitigate its most detrimental effects.