Digital

I was chatting with a friend of mine the other day and he suggested that pre-roll ads on YouTube were getting longer. Then he suggested that this was part of a deliberate program to inure people to watching ads on digital devices. I have to admit I found both claims surprising but maybe he is right?  by Nigel Hollis

Capgemini announced the findings of “Turning AI into concrete value: the successful implementers’ toolkit,” a study of nearly 1,000 organizations with revenues of more than $500m that are implementing artificial intelligence (AI), either as a pilot or at scale1.

In a media landscape that continues to be transformed by the confluence of technological innovations and consumer behavior shifts, one thing is clear, the general notion of a video consumer is in the midst of a rewrite.

Many are pressing play, but who’s willing to pay? In the past year, digital video viewing is on the rise for both free and paid content. And more teens are willing to pay for digital content, with 63% saying they purchased digital video in the past year, up from just 45% in 2016.

How do kids today use digital media, and what does it mean for the future of digital media and marketing? eMarketer’s Mark Dolliver and Jennifer Pearson offer data and insight about the intersection of children and media.

When you hear loud voices proclaiming that a new technology is going to radically transform industries for the better, and a group of equally loud people decrying that same technology as either snake oil or even irredeemably sinister, you know that you’re onto something big. Perhaps even transformational. As thoughtful industry participants, this is a familiar situation. We’ve observed this with the advent of the internet as a consumer accessible experience and, later, social media and Web 2.0.

A survey of online shoppers found widespread use of brand manufacturers’ websites—with millennials more likely than average to frequent brand sites.

There’s little doubt that podcasts, which have long been un-tethered from the iPod, are a media force to take note of. In fact, more than half of U.S. households are home to podcast fans—that’s more than 60 million homes.

Highly respected music industry expert, and head of the Steinhardt Music Business Program at New York University, Larry Miller, released a special report today, titled PARADIGM SHIFT: WHY RADIO MUST ADAPT TO THE RISE OF DIGITAL, which details the current state of terrestrial radio in the United States.

The report provides detailed data and in-depth insights on mobile apps, which now drive the majority of digital media usage in the U.S.

A new study conducted by Radius Global Market Research and MorphoTrust USA, part of OT-Morpho, shows the majority of the U.S. public is ready for the traditional plastic driver’s license to go mobile.

comScore published its Top Ten Burning Issues in Digital report.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released the “IAB Podcast Playbook,” the organization’s first-ever buyer’s guide for podcast advertising, which provides insights into audience demographics, listener behaviors, creative treatments, ad formats, delivery and targeting, and ad effectiveness measurement.

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.