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Articles by: "Rande Price, Research VP – DCN"

Industry-Research

Mobile best practices for native ads

Native advertising, across any platform, is a form of paid media where the ad experience follows the natural form of a publisher’s environment. The ad must be native in creative and in context in which it is placed. When native advertising is done right, the ad fits organically with its surroundings and receives more focus and attention. The MMA Mobile Native Advertising Committee members, EA, Foursquare, Google/Waze, InMobi, Pinterest, PubNative, Sharethrough and Yahoo, provided best practices for native ads on mobile to fit in with a publisher’s environment.

Best Practices for Publishers include:

  1. Relevance: The advertising content should fit organically with content and its context.
  2. Disclosure: The content must be labeled as an advertisement. This is an opportunity to gain consumer trust and not misrepresent itself.
  3. Placement: The ad placement should be easily viewable but not the center or focus of the page.
  4. Persistence: Native ads must include proper user navigation like the ability to scroll up and down the page of content.

Best Practices for Advertisers include:

  1. Relevance: The advertiser must focus on the creative, shaping the messaging for contextual fit and audience targeting.
  2. Interest: It’s important to optimize headlines and images, especially thumbnails, to attract core users. The MMA recommends using at least 17% of “context” words in your headline by describing: Time (i.e. after, fast, long, prior), Insight (i.e. secrets, discover, relate, think), Motion (i.e. appear, replace, arrive, enter) and Space (i.e. upon, above, beyond, biggest).
  3. Agility: Viral trends can be a great way to leverage interest in your advertisement especially since social media news feeds are often popular items users like to share with friends and family.
  4. Measurement: Native advertising can be measured for effectiveness so it’s important for advertisers to track. Behavioral tracking is applicable and similar to measuring direct response results with metrics like CTR (click-through-rate), CVR (conversion-rate), View Attitudinal tracking, inferred metrics, such as such as brand awareness, brand attributes and purchase intent are also used to measure effectiveness of native advertising.

Publishers and advertisers can enhance the mobile native ad experience by creating a positive user encounter that connects the advertisement with its audience.

Industry-Research

Smartphones dominate digital device popularity

Americans have an abundance of devices to choose from to meet their technology needs. Mobile phones have the highest penetration with nine in ten (92%) adults owning either a smartphone or a cellphone. Smartphones have also gain traction with 86% penetration among adults ages 18 – 29 and 83% among adults 30  – 49 reports the Pew Research Center.

Tablet penetration is next highest among adults at 45% with college students having the strongest demographic penetration at 62%. As well, given the popularity of smartphones and their ability to download and play music, MPS players registered a decline in popularity with only 4 in 10 adults (40%) having one.

Ownership of gaming systems like of Xbox and PlayStation remains at a standstill since 2010 at 40%. Portable gaming consoles such as Sony’s PSP or Nintendo’s 3DS are also stalled at 14% adult ownership dating back to 2009. Once again, smartphones may be a big contributor to its of lack growth among adults for handheld gaming systems. Users can easily download a gaming app for a nominal fee or even free on their smartphone.

Almost two in ten adults (19%) report owning an e-reader (a handheld device primarily used for reading e-books). This is a significant decline from last year when 32% of adults reported owning an e-reader. This latest Pew Research Center report confirms the appeal of the multiple utilities of a smartphone.

device pentration

Industry-Research

Bot fraud breaches the trust of publisher and advertiser

Tracking digital ad fraud is more essential than ever in the marketplace. Distil Networks offers insight into publisher and advertiser concerns about non-human traffic (bots) and digital ad fraud in their report A Digital Publisher’s Guide to Measuring and Mitigating Non-Human Traffic. The report is based on an online survey among 138 buyers and sellers of digital advertising.

Surprisingly, many still know little to nothing in terms how online fraud activity is affecting their business transactions. Forty percent of buyers and 48% of suppliers reported that they did not know how much bot traffic negatively impacted their online campaigns and/or web properties. Interestingly, more than a third of advertisers (37%) are willing to pay at least an 11% premium for certified human traffic.

Buyers and sellers did however identify which types of bot traffic problems were important to their business:

  1. Click & impression fraud – bots loading and clicking on links (100% and 82%, respectively).
  2. Skewed analytics – difficulty of separating human traffic from bot traffic in order to optimize for human traffic (50% and 49%, respectively).
  3. Lead fraud and fake registrations – form spam and bot-driven form filling (32% each).
  4. Content theft – where web scrapers are simply taking down content from sites (23% and 14%, respectively).
  5. Login attacks – large numbers of failed username and password entries (9 and 8%, respectively).

In order to diminish bot fraud, Distil recommends focusing on the:

  • performance, incorporate and incentivize performance metrics to ensure quality impressions
  • total impressions, viewable impressions are easily impersonated by bots and non-human traffic.
  • quality, investing in premium sites
  • transparency, where ad suppliers provide proof of where each impression was served.

dist slide

Advertising | Industry-Research

Growing the receptivity of digital ads

Multiscreen users spend the same amount of time viewing video on TV as they do on digital platforms, yet they are less receptive to digital ads reports Millward Brown’s research, “AdReaction: Video Creative in a Digital World.” The study surveyed more than 13,500 multiscreen viewers (for example, people who own a TV and either a smartphone or tablet) in 42 countries on video usage and what they think about video advertising. Now that video ads are playing across multi-platforms, new creative approaches in advertising are essential to ensure consumer receptivity is strong across all screens.

The average consumer, across the globe, between the ages of 16 and 45 in today’s media environment watches 204 minutes of video a day, split equally between TV and online. Forty-five minutes of the average online viewing time is done on a smartphone, while desktop accounts for 37 minutes and tablet for 20 minutes. Digital’s share of total video minutes is higher (42%) among 16-24 year olds among 35-45 year olds than (29%).

It is important to note that consumers reported 50% negativity toward smartphone video ads with computers and tablets trailing at 46% and 45% negativity, respectively. In contrast, live TV had just 30% negativity toward ads. Interestingly, ad viewing using mobile app rewards, where users watch videos to advance to a new level or get tools, rated 54% in favorability, making it the most preferred digital advertising format and skippable pre-rolls (44% positive) and skippable mobile pop-ups (41%) were next allowing consumers to push past their negativity toward mobile ads.

Industry-Research | Perspectives

Intimate brands are strong financial performers

Brand loyalty is the Holy Grail in the quest for profitability. In fact, marketers, content creators, social media strategists, sales teams, designers and creatives depend on this essential consumer relationship for a strong business performance. In MBLM’s Brand Intimacy 2015 Report, which examines brand relationship, it found that top ranked intimate brands outperform major financial indices in profit growth and revenue growth over the past 10 years. This year’s report includes 54,000 brands and responses from 6,000 consumers in the U.S., Mexico and the United Arab Emirates.

Interestingly, among intimate brands there are six patterns present to some degree that identify the character and nature of ultimate brand relationships: Fulfillment (service quality exceeds expectation), Identify (aspirational or admired values), Enhancement (becoming better through use), Ritual (habitual behavior), Nostalgia (memory focused) and Indulgence (pampering). Consumers build relationships with brands Using and identifying with these patterns.

MBLM’s defines brand intimacy as an essential relationship between a person and a brand. It provides brands with the propensity to share experiences and when intimacy is achieved it results in lasting value. Measuring and understanding brand intimacy can also inform what time, what message, what media and how often a brand can connect effectively with its customers.

Overall, in the U.S. one-quarter of people surveyed (15%) have intimate brand relationships. Further, consumers under age 35 tend to have emotional relationships with technology, entertainment and retail brands, while those over 35 have stronger connections with consumer packaged goods. In terms of brand intimacy across categories, automotive industry ranked highest, retail ranked second and health and beauty ranked third; travel and leisure was the poorest performing category.

Brands are also ranked based on a Brand Intimacy Quotient. The quotient is based on prevalence and intensity (sharing, bonding, fusing). In other words, the quotient demonstrates how a brand performs relative to its ability to create brand relationships. The quotient score enables comparisons to other brands in the same category.

In the U.S. within all categories, the top three intimate brands were Apple #1, BMW #2 and Toyota #3. Within the entertainment category, Disney ranked #1, Nintendo #2 and Xbox #3 and in technology, Apple ranked first, Samsung ranked second and Google ranked third. Importantly, building emotional bonds and measuring brands can lead to new and untapped business opportunities.

Intimacy Ranking

 

Industry-Research

Sports fans are twice as likely to watch sports on TV than on the Internet

Television is still the primary and preferred platform for viewing sports reports Frank N. Magid Associates in their study conducted for ONE World Sports. In fact more than three-quarters of sports fans (77%) stated that they often (“often” or “every chance I get”) watch sports on television versus 37% of sports fans that stated they often watch sports streamed online.

With many sports fans cutting the cord to pay-tv, viewers are shifting to alternative platforms. In fact, half of broadband subscribers (51%) cut the cord to a pay-tv subscription more than 5 years ago and another 25% cut the cord within the past two years.

Interestingly, while TV still dominates sports viewing, more than half of sports fans (57%) reported that they watch sports streamed online. Top ranking platforms for viewing appear to stack up according to screen size and accessibility with computers at 37%, followed by over-the-top (OTT) to a TV at 26% and tablet and smartphone both at 25%.

The study and findings appear consistent with television and digital viewing patterns of sports related content. Live-event viewing is a must for sports fans and now there are options to watch it live on the best screen available.

Industry-Research

Two out of every three digital minutes are spent on mobile

Consumers’ digital usage continues to increase its concentration in mobile. According to comScore’s 2015 Mobile App Report, mobile phones now account for two out of every three digital minutes or 62% of time spent online, up from 51% in 2013. In contrast desktop usage only accounts for 38% of digital time, down from 49% two years ago. Further, mobile users spend more than 44% of their digital time using smartphone apps.

Mobile App usage is the key driving force in the overall growth of digital media. In fact, nine in 10 minutes spent on mobile are spent on a mobile app. Smartphones apps have a slightly higher share of total minute at 88% versus table apps at 83%.

It’s not surprising that Facebook and Google own eight of the 10 most-visited mobile apps among unique visitor, age 18+. Facebook leads with nearly 126 million unique visitors and close to half have installed the app.

Interestingly, millennials’ mobile usage time is dominated by social, video, music and communications. They spend on average almost 26 hours a month on Facebook, 7 hours on Instagram, 6 hours on Snapchat and Tumblr each and 3.5 hours are spent on Twitter.

The millennial audience is the most engaged digital audience spending an average of two hours a day on social and entertainment apps, more than any other demo. In fact, half of all time spent on smartphone apps is spent on the person’s most used app and approximately 60% usage for tablets’ most popular app.

time spent on apps

ComScore also reports mobile ads to be quite effective with 2-3x greater point lifts with regards to aided awareness, favorability, likelihood to recommend and purchase intent. Mobile ad effectiveness can be attributed to mobile ads placement in a less ad clutter environment and also the immediacy to a point of purchase.

Mobile offers publishers a unique opportunity to expand their brand across platforms. It’s also a key opportunity to attract millennials as long term and engaged users.

 

Industry-Research

Building consumer trust in digital brands  

It is essential for digital publishers to understand what key factors connect user satisfaction and brand trust and monitor to ensure growth of user engagement. In a Neustar sponsored study, conducted by The Ponemon Institute, a leader in cyber security research, three key components were identified to be influencers of online trust.

The first factor connected to digital brand trust is accuracy. According to more than 9 in ten respondents (91%) inaccurate content causes users to lose trust in a website. Further, inaccurate content goes beyond just getting the information wrong, it also includes misspellings, broken links to content or outdated offerings. In addition, advertising that interferes with content (55%) and ads that redirects users to sites they don’t want to see (52%) also has negative effects on a website’s brand.

A second component involved in a site’s brand trust is stability. Eighty-eight percent of the respondents identified a site’s downtime as a trust eroding practice. Also a site’s general usability and its capacity to work with different browsers, plug-ins and flash are important to the perception of a site’s stability.

Lastly, website security is an important feature connected to a site’s brand trust. Both the speed of overall site performance and page downloads are related to security concerns. More than three-quarters of respondents (78%) reported that security concerns them when a site performs slowly. Further, 67% of users lose trust in a website when its pages take a long time to download. In addition, close to two-thirds of respondents (63%) report distrusting brands whose data was breached.

As consumers spend more time online, monitoring accuracy, stability and security is key to delivering an exceptional brand experience.

 

Industry-Research

Smartphones can tell when you are bored

Given today’s information and sensory overload, capturing someone’s attention is a high commodity. Researchers at Telefonica Research in Barcelona, Spain recognized that peoples’ attention are available when they are bored. And most often, when people are bored, they turn to their cell phones. This is why the researchers developed a machine-based learning model that detects when mobile phone users are bored and pushes content to them.

The researchers identified usage patterns that were indicative of boredom and confirmed the specific behaviors patterns were related. This data was then used to predict patterns of boredom; the predictions were correct 83% of the time. Interestingly, they also noticed the more bored the participants, the more likely time had passed between the participants sending and receiving phone calls, SMS, or notifications. Importantly, users were significantly more likely to open and engage with content pushed to them on their mobile phones when the model predicted them to be bored.

These findings have major implications for future applications in being able to predict when a user is bored couple and knowing a user’s location could provide content in relation to specific context. New apps are already being developed along these lines. As well boredom detection could be a great way for publishers and marketers to know when to push content or messaging for it to be most receptive.

Industry-Research

Twitter: a major news hub

New research from the American Press Institute supports Twitter’s role as a real-time news network for social media users. Approximately nine in 10 users (86%) report using Twitter for the news with nearly three-quarters (74%) using it daily for this purpose.

Interestingly, nine in 10 Twitter news users get their news by either scrolling through their timeline or looking through tweets they follow. Close to three-quarters of Twitter news users (73%) follow individual journalists, writers and commentators and 30% report getting their news from trending topics.

News publishers incorporating Twitter into their game plan will find it valuable. API recommends that journalists are active on Twitter and focus on the present with live events and breaking news. Offer new angles to storylines and know that sports and politics work well on Twitter. Use hashtags only when related to breaking news since most hashtags draw small followings and ensure your tweets are mobile friendly. Eight in 10 Twitter users are accessing via their smartphone with almost three-quarters (72%) using its mobile app.

Overall Twitter users tend to be younger (median age 36) than the average social media user (median age 46). Almost half of Twitter users are single (49%) and 22% are likely to be married. More than half of Twitter users (57%) have a college degree or higher.

twitter news popular topics

Industry-Research

The Golden Age of Connected TVs

SMART TV penetration has reached a milestone in Q2 2015 with 46 million U.S. internet households now owning a connected device. According to NPD’s Retail Tracking Service these devices include TVs, video game consoles, streaming media players, and Blu-ray Disc players that consumers can connect to the Internet giving access to over-the-top (OTT) content services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu for over-the-top content.

As connected devices increase in penetration, pay-tv subscribers see declines. Approximately 470,000 video subscribers dropped their pay-tv service in 2Q 2015, up from 305,000 video subscribers lost in 2Q 2014.

More connected televisions also impacts advertising placement. The Association of National Advertiser (ANA) reports that close to half of current connected TV and OTT advertisers (48%) plan to increase their OTT media budgets next year, with advertising dollars coming from traditional TV activity (71%) and digital media (37%).

Read NPD’s Connected Home Entertainment Report

Industry-Research

Mobile Technology Bridges the Digital Divide

Millennials, the first digitally connected generation, display more similarities in technology use than differences among two of the largest ethnic groups in the United States. It appears growing up digitally connected with total access has preempted the technological divide. To understand this further, the American Press Institute and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research conducted the Media Insight Project for the second time among digital Americans ages 18-34.

According to this research, Millennial African Americans and Hispanics are connected online at similar rates to the general adult population. In fact, technology ownership is high with 7 in 10 of African Americans and Hispanics, respectively, owning a smartphone. Further, 85% of African Americans and 78% of Hispanics use their smartphone to access news information.

Overall, Americans use four different devices or platforms to get news in a given week including televisions, radio, print, computers, cell phones, tablets, e-readers or smart internet connected televisions. Device ownership by ethnic group is quite similar; African Americans own 4.3 devices, non-Hispanic whites own 3.9, and Hispanics own 3.5.

Interestingly, when asked their preferred method for discovering news, 6 in 10 Millennial African Americans (66%), whites (61%) and Hispanics (60%) reported their preference as getting news directly from news organization rather than a technology that curates it and delivers it to them such as social media or an aggregator.

One important distinction is that Hispanic (38% and 30% once a day, respectively) and African American Millennials (33% and 45%, respectively) are more likely to use YouTube and Instagram for news than white Millennials (20% and 19%, respectively) overall, although all groups are heavy users of Facebook.

In terms of news report believability, Millennial non-Hispanic whites (42% “very much”) are more likely to trust the information they get from newspapers versus African Americans (30%). And Hispanics are more likely to trust the information they get from national network news (60%” very much or completely”) than whites (45%).

Importantly, the report testifies to mobile technology closing the digital divide in technology use for news consumption, offering Millennial users more control over the sources they use and the information they consume.

Millennials Race and Ethnic Report pic

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