Category results for "Innovation"

The unified field theory of IoT

December 1, 2015 DCN

Albert Einstein, noted physicist and author of the only advanced physics equation most people have committed to memory, spent the latter part of his life trying to find a general theory of relativity with electromagnetism. Trying to find a harmony with his earlier success in relativity and the nature of…nearly everything else, he was ultimately unsuccessful despite being ahead of his time.

Of course, everything is increasingly connecting through a combination of technology and demand. We have yet to finish Einstein’s work, but we are making leaps in connectivity; connecting the outdoor temperature, humidity, chance of precipitation and the needs of our lawns with smart sprinkler systems. We are combining optimal activity conditions and our running goals to create optimal programs for healthy activity on our smart fitness trackers. We are integrating live video feeds with local alerts in home monitoring systems to make our homes safer and more convenient. This combination of data sets with a focus on form and practical function has become what is known as the Internet of Things (IoT).

Going Beyond Big Data
To anyone living in the connected world, data overload is a daily reality. Like a Dr. Seuss narrative, data keeps “biggering and biggering,” with questionable results. Why? Because consumers don’t necessarily want more data: Rather, they need solutions that help them make their lives easier. IoT makes the connection where “Big Data” can’t, bridging from big data sets to a form factor that fits into people’s lives.

So how can your company’s content successfully play a role in the expanding world of IoT? The answers will ultimately be provided by the consumer, but there are a few basic principles to follow:

The whole can be more than the sum of its parts. In other words, if you have the best data available for traffic, that’s the basis for a valuable app – but not a revolutionary app. If you can combine traffic with flight delay information, or movie times, or live event start times, you have created an invaluable tool for people who need a simple answer to a paramount question at a specific moment in their lives.
Make it easy. Studies have shown that while smart device users download many apps, just a few get used every day. If you want to be an essential part of a user’s life, you have to make answers not just relevant, but reliable, quick, and easy to access.
Form is as important as function. Smart devices in general, starting with smart phones and then moving onto tablets, wearables, and a whole universe of IoT devices, have already caused disruptive change in users’ lives. Look for places where you can change your approach to meet the existing habits of your user. Watches for example have significant restrictions in screen size, but the form factor appeals to users because they fit rather neatly into an existing space in users’ lives (or rather on their wrists) and so have taken off as the most commonly adopted form of wearable.
Imagination is key. Even if your content seems strictly B2B, don’t discount the potential consumer value when put into a form that is easy to use and shows the consumer how the information can be applied. An app that measures the pressure of contained fuel may not seem to have consumer appeal, but combined with other data sets it could help users predict the mileage for their commute or when they need to buy heating oil or gas for their homes.

I’ve been fortunate to work with content that is wanted and needed by nearly every kind of consumer and business all over the world. That has made my role leading emerging platforms particularly exciting, but since there are so many potential uses for data on something like weather, we’ve kept a particularly open mind about how the data could be of benefit to people.

For example, AccuWeather recently cross-referenced our data with Withings, leaders in the connected health revolution and makers of great activity tracking devices, to come up with some interesting findings on how weather impacts peoples’ desire to be active and provide insight into the optimal temperatures and conditions for activity according to location and demographic.

Of course, other practical examples already on the market include Garmin wearables, smart TVs, smart appliances, smart homes, smart cars, and every kind of implementation that shows promise where weather is a good fit for the users of the device.

In IoT, the consumer is showing technologists the way even as advances in technology make new things possible for consumers. As the global leader in weather data, we are ready to meet our audience on the “next big thing” no matter what that might be.

As the market continues to innovate and available data moves more rapidly than ever before, reliable, easy to use solutions only grow in relevancy. We at AccuWeather are excited to meet all the future challenges brought by whatever revolutionary platforms or form functions the market chooses with our forecasts with Superior Accuracy™, and so should your company.

This is truly an exciting time to be at the forefront of maximizing the value of human interactions with the confluence of smart technology and big data.

In David’s role as Vice President of Digital Media, Emerging Platforms, he is responsible for AccuWeather’s suite of universally-accessible mobile and connected products within the emerging platforms marketplace. He spearheads the integration of current and new weather data sets within emerging platforms – including smartphones, tablets, connected TVs and appliances, wearable devices, smart cars, and smart homes.

Innovation

Harvard Business Publishing reimagines its archive as the LeadingEdge learning platform

November 17, 2015 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

The Harvard Business Publishing archive has long offered a wealth of information to organizations that wanted to develop internal training programs or offer content to support the ongoing education of staff. However, this deep well of content was ripe for the functional overhaul that took place over the past year: an “archive reboot” that recently launched as a platform, LeadingEdge.

Rob McKinney, director of product management at Harvard Business School Publishing says they set out to “reimagine the archive as a mobile-first experience and make it really easy to access and use the best of Harvard content.” They started off by talking to their learning group customers to see what features and functionality they would find most useful. These customers fall into three groups: curriculum designers, group managers, and individuals within organizations that license the platform.

It is interesting to note that when McKinney’s team showed wire frames of the first version of LeadingEdge to users, they provided positive and constructive feedback but overwhelmingly said they didn’t think they’d use it on mobile. However, by the final iteration, these testers had swung to the other extreme, saying that they frequently found themselves wanting to use the product when they were away from the office.

This is reflective not only of today’s employees’ constantly-connected work life, but also of the expectation for informal, flexible learning opportunities. While organizations centrally deploy LeadingEdge, and many develop their own programs using the content, the platform also allows individual learners to access, organize and share content from any device and any location with the same seamless experience.

McKinney says that their mobile-first product development process allowed them to decide what to add in tablet and desktop viewsand to “create an experience that isn’t jarring for the user when they move from one to the other. If you’ve used one format, the interface is consistent and you don’t have to re-learn how to use it in other formats.”

LeadingEdge content includes Harvard Business Review (HBR) articles, case studies and commentaries, newsletters, videos, book chapters, as well as Harvard Business School (HBS) case studies. HBR editors will also preview content that is slated to appear in the magazine prior to publication. What this means, according to McKinney, is that LeadingEdge can be leveraged for formal learning or informal continuous learning. “When we reimagined our archive, we wanted to make a single place where you could search across all of this information and have a lot of options that suit your intentions or your available time—from a two-minute video, a lesson with a Harvard ManageMentor, or longer articles or case studies.”

Given the depth and breadth of content, made functional with an array of tools such as robust search and filtering, a “my library tool,” the ability to easily share individual assets or a collection, and callouts for newly-added content, McKinney believes that LeadingEdge provides curriculum managers with an easier way to access the appropriate HBR and HBS content to support their learning objectives. It also allows them to more easily make this content available to teams and individual leaders so that they can use the information “in their moment of need, or to make sure their knowledge is current when they find some time between meetings.” He points to the large body of research on intrinsic motivation, which he says is largely driven by the ability to make one’s own choices. “We are trying to get at that,” says McKinney, “this tool gives people a lot of power to choose the content they want to engage with to support their need to effectively coach their teams and achieve stated goals, but also to spark new ideas.”

Advertising | Innovation | Perspectives

Will streaming help interactive tv ads stick?

November 12, 2015 Mark Glaser, Founder and Publisher – MediaShift

TV ads have always been decried as a format of the past, rarely targeted or personalized. But interactive TV ads offer the potential for demonstrable viewer engagement and feedback. And that’s the promise of Hulu’s new deal with TrueX, a unit of 21st Century Fox. Using technology from TrueX, Hulu will give viewers of Fox shows the option of watching a 30-second “engagement” advertisement instead of the approximately two and a half minutes worth of ads that are sprinkled within an episode.

It’s the most high-profile instance yet of interactive ads within streaming TV. The question now is whether the circumstances surrounding the Hulu-TrueX deal will get other networks and brands to jump on board—and make this kind of engaged advertising more the norm.

Breaking Through on Streaming
Interactive TV has been one of those Holy Grail quests that’s been tried and failed for years. The problem, however, is that marketers have been looking at the wrong screen when it came time to developing interactive ads. It was understood that some people were cutting the cord and streaming online content onto a “proper” television screen through an Xbox or Roku. But taking advantage of the use of laptops, mobile and tablet devices was not a key strategy. That’s why some of the earliest attempts at interactive ads bombed.

The point now, however, is to utilize the benefits of digital video, as Joe Marchese, president of advanced advertising products at Fox Networks Group and founder of TrueX, told the L.A. Times. “Digital video is an on-demand, non-linear medium, and having an ad format that fits this experience is a win for advertisers, publishers and viewers alike,” he said.

TrueX had already tested interactive ads on streaming sites before Hulu. This past May at the upfronts, TrueX reported on one such trial with the TV show, ”The Mindy Project.” They found that the typical viewer clicked 4 times in the ads, spending 52 seconds in the unit, with a 2.9% clickthrough rate. Plus the ads had a 96% completion rate.

Another example of interactive ads fitting well was during the Game Awards — an online-only awards show for videogames. During the show last year, which attracted about 2 million online viewers, users were able to click on ads during the show to download the different games that were nominated. For one of the games advertised during the show, sales “increased by 15 times during the weekend the awards show aired, producing seven figures in revenue for the game over that period,” the New York Times’ Nick Wingfield reported.

In-Stream Purchase Unit
In the same vein, Hulu announced last year moves beyond traditional video ads with an “in-stream purchase unit” with Pizza Hut. Consumers can place an order within the ad itself before returning to whatever content they were viewing. There’s also a “360” video ad that will let users pan around through a 360-degree viewpoint within the ad. And the point of these advertisements was to get the tactile response of consumers watching on different mobile devices.

While Fox is the only media company allowing these new ads on Hulu right now, TrueX is also open to servicing the entire industry with these ads, opening the door for ABC, CBS, Viacom and other organizations to perhaps learn from Fox’s example.

“This type of attention transfer lifts all boats,” Jamie Auslander, TrueX’s VP of research, told AdWeek in May. “It’s as impactful as six video ads.”

Other media outlets will likely take a cue from Fox only after learning how these 30-second advertisements play out among viewers. But if TrueX has its way — and if its previous studies on this kind of advertising hold true — the ads will be a hit.

Innovation

What does its new engineering blog say about The Washington Post?

November 4, 2015 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

The Washington Post isn’t just investing in innovation, it’s investing in the media innovation ecosystem with the launch of a new engineering blog that provides an inside look at the media company’s development challenges, strategy and tactics. Washington Post Chief Architect, Greg Franczyk, says that his team is tackling problems faced by others in digital media and the new blog offers a place to openly share “what we are doing to solve these problems, so that others can use our ideas, but also give us feedback to improve what we’re doing.”

The fact that this is an engineering blog is in itself significant. Over the course of his four-year tenure, Franczyk has seen a dramatic change in the company’s approach to technology. “When I started in 2011, we didn’t have an engineering department; we were really an IT department. In an IT culture, you work with vendors; you call the support line. In an Engineering culture, you build things and solve problems.”

Franczyk says The Washington Post had a good focus on technology under former CEO Donald Graham, however “Post-Bezos, technology became front and center,” and the transformation has been great. Their “scrappy” engineering team has adopted a move fast, fail fast ethos in which they are constantly trying to solve newsroom challenges and problems faced by product teams. “Because we are doing so many things, trying so many things, and moving so quickly, we can offer insights that will be applicable to others out there.”

While the blog will focus on tactics, it will also touch upon the strategic thinking behind the tactics. Franczyk believes that “your culture is your strategy,” an ethos that comes through on the blog driven by The Washington Post’s experimental, innovative culture. “It would be nice to say one thing happened that made us successful. But ultimately, it is a tapestry.” He credits the organization’s drive to reach new digital audiences and increase its production and distribution of original content as essential elements to its overall plan for success—pointing to its record-setting traffic month in September. Though “all these things have a multiplying effect, you couldn’t reach these kinds of audiences without strong digital capabilities.”

Overall, Franczyk believes the tech story needs to be better integrated into of the bigger story of the landscape of industry solutions. “The whole industry is on the verge of a revolution,” he says. And while “working in a silo is okay for some things, others require industry-wide change.” With the new blog, he and his team are optimistic that they can help drive industry solutions, but also fuel the culture of innovation and experimentation that is driving The Washington Post.

Innovation

Edmunds TV makes its OTT debut on Apple TV

November 2, 2015 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

When the latest Apple TV went on sale last week, it was well received by reviewers and almost as quickly decried for its potential to disrupt the television ecosystem. While OTT has certainly had an impact on the cable TV business, Apple’s latest foray has the potential to make apps the new must-see TV channel.

Apps have opened the door for an increasing number of independent content plays, from the un-bundling of cable to pure play and native digital entrants into the market. Edmunds.com – which has long made content central to its car-shopping experience – is among those making its set top box debut on Apple TV

Yes, Edmunds TV will deliver their web experience to your television. But even more importantly, according to Stephen Gandee, VP of Product and Design at Edmunds.com, it offers the ability to deliver content that parallels the consumer’s cross-device path to purchase. Given how effective apps are as a component of the ecommerce journey, the app-ification of television could provide the optimal intersection of content and commerce.

It’s no coincidence that Edumunds.com chose iOS for its OTT move. The company carefully monitors how its audience behaves across different platforms and when analyzing these behaviors, they noticed an interesting difference between Android and iOS car shoppers: While users of both mobile operating systems favor the Toyota brand, iOS users skew to premium brands overall—favoring BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Lexus. Needless to say, this affluent (or aspirational) iOS mobile user is likely to be a fan off Apple TV as well.

At launch, Edmunds TV will leverage the video assets in which the company has already made a significant investment. The company currently boasts a six-person video team, producing reviews as well as information on specific issues to car buyers—such as whether to buy or lease—as well as helpful information like how to jump start a car.

Gandee believes that television provides a way to better serve particular points of the automotive research cycle. “When people are crunching the numbers or reading safety articles, they’ll be in lean-in mode, probably on desktop or mobile. But when it’s after eight, the kids are in bed and you’re relaxing with a glass of wine, we can provide a lean back experience on Apple TV.” Cars, as Gandee points out, have an emotional component that is well suited to video and more leisurely content experiences: Are you a four-wheel drive person with a snowboard, or all about the latest car technology? And he can see ample opportunities to offer video experiences that will appeal because a “car speaks about who you are and what you are about.”

While Edmunds TV does not include manufacturer videos at launch, Gandee says that the company is in talks with automakers and others about the possibility of presenting OEM content—clearly marked as such—on their channel. They made this decision after reviewing consumer research showing that car shoppers visit Edmunds.com as well as manufacturer and dealer sites to seek a wide range of information. Overall, the focus will be “to stay true to car shopping, which is really our purpose. We’re not trying to be an entertainment brand. We do think that shopping for a car can be entertaining, but that’s not the main point.”

Gandee notes it’s important to innovate and be where the customer wants to be—both of which can be seen in the company’s Apple TV initiative. However, he believes that this means developing a deeper understanding of how they behave across delivery channels. In fact, he says that Edumunds.com sees this latest move onto Apple TV as one more step toward an over-arching goal, which “leverages people’s multichannel behavior so that we can be there from web, to app, to TV and really personalize and optimize the experience.”

Innovation | Video

Great Big Story: CNN-backed, newsworthy content that’s not news

October 20, 2015 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Big media companies are investing in content that attracts younger audiences, as evidenced by Time Inc.’s purchase of Hello Giggles this week and NBCUniversal’s recent investment in Vox and Buzzfeed. Now Turner-owned CNN has announce its own bid for this massive and attractive segment with the launch of Great Big Story, an independent video network, focused on “unparalleled and optimistic storytelling.” According to co-founder Chris Berend, CNN’s Vice president for video development, “our internal mantra is ‘humans are capable of incredible things.’”

And that, according to Berend, includes the Great Big Story (GBS) team, who he has tasked with “showing me something I’ve never seen before in terms of the stories themselves and the way the stories are told.” At launch, this will take the form of three to five videos of varying lengths each day (with a short film due out in November). Subjects include: The Untold Story of the Kool-Aid Man, Perfect is Hard, Featuring Misty Copeland, and What it’s Like to Fly Into a Hurricane (On Purpose), and a profile of Lisa Frank, the reclusive creative mind behind iconic rainbow and unicorn-centric designs featured on a slew of familiar products.

GBS launches with a staff of about 30, including recruits from BuzzFeed, Vox, VICE, MTV, ABC, NowThis, Amazon, and Yahoo!. The unit will operate as an independent company inside CNN. Yet, while GBS’s funding comes from CNN, Berend says that they are very clear with themselves and others that they’re not a news brand, though he points out that the type of stories they plan to tell function as news for this audience in many ways.

Berend believes that there is a vast audience that has been given short shrift in terms of appealing and appropriate content: “We have been seeing a huge underserved audience that traditional media is not resonating with and that wants more than the silliness and cynicism that is out there.” Their target audience is 25-35-year-olds who are well-educated, live in cities and, by nature of the way they operate in the world, are globally-savvy. They live on mobile and social and have an affinity for civically-minded, lifestyle, socially-conscious and, yes, entertaining content.

Given this demographic’s content consumption habits, GBS focuses its distribution strategy on mobile and social channels. While the brand debuts with a website—and iOS and Android apps—the primary distribution focus is social so they can find audiences where they are already consuming content. This includes Facebook and plans for YouTube, Apple News, Snapchat and more in starting in November. Connected TVs are also on the near-term roadmap.

GBS launches with a multi-year investment from CNN and a focus on branded content as the primary revenue stream. Eschewing traditional pre-roll advertising, the plan is “to collaborate with brands to figure out what kinds of stories they have to tell.” According to Berend, initial sales calls have been very positive because “we are hitting a very desirable audience,” but also because brands increasingly understand that content helps them forge more meaningful connections with consumers.

For CNN, which green-lit the project in February after quietly testing the concept through its social channels, Berend says this offers a way to engage an audience that “is growing fast and moving quickly.” In turn, CNN offers the GBS team “a lot of advantages that any startup would kill for” including deep video acumen, amplification and traffic driven from its owned and operated properties as well as its strong social presence. The relationship with established parent, CNN, also opens doors, according to Berend. We are able to get people to talk to us because they know we’re affiliated with CNN, which is legitimate and reliable.”

“We have a giant brand that does news, but also an audience that is starving for content in their social feed and on their phones.” And GBS will be there to feed that need with content that is “enjoyable, entertaining, and helps them learn something.” Because that’s what they read and, perhaps even more importantly, “that’s what they share.”

Industry-Research | Innovation | Perspectives

Exploring the Internet of Things in 5 charts

October 13, 2015 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

According to Forbes, a new rule for the future is going to be, “anything that can be connected, will be connected.” Given the widespread availability of broadband internet, ever more devices are being created with built in Wi-Fi and sensors. Today, just about anything with a power switch can be connected to the internet—with all of the context, content and data that comes along with it.

Here’s a look at this “Internet of Things” (IoT) in 5 charts:

According to analysis from Business Insider Intelligence, more than 18 billion devices will be connected to the Web by 2018.

The IoT has a total potential economic impact of $3.9 trillion to $11.1 trillion a year by 2025 according to McKinsey&Company.

The IoT opens a range of new business opportunities for a variety of players according to strategy&, the consulting team at PwC. These opportunities tend to fall into three broad strategic categories, each reflecting a different type of enterprise: Enablers, Engages, and Enhancers.

According to Gartner, security and identity issues represent major IoT roadblocks. Managing identities and access is critical to the success of the IoT. However, traditional techniques cannot provide the scale or manage the complexity that the IoT requires from the enterprise.

The IoT is among the top marketer priority areas, according to Millward Brown Research conducted on behalf of Kentico Software.

Innovation

With the aid of a Knight Foundation grant, the AP invests in the future of data journalism

October 7, 2015 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a good data visualization must be pretty valuable indeed. The Associated Press (AP) certainly thinks that data journalism is worth supporting. And now, having secured a $400,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, they plan to invest in building data sets, analysis and presentation tools, and the development of best practices, which will be included in the AP Style Guide, to support the growth of data journalism.

“We’re dealing with more data, data sets we didn’t have before—a deluge of data,” says AP Editor for Interactive Newsroom Technology Troy Thibodeaux. “There’s a hunger across all news organizations for data but no news organization has enough hands.” This is particularly true when it comes to the heavy lifting required to combine and reconcile disparate data sets and to best present data to consumers.

With the funding, AP will add additional data journalists to its team and increase its distribution of data sets that include localized information to thousands of news organizations. This expansion is intended to lead to more collaborative projects with newsrooms across the country. Thibodeaux noted the increasing need and desire for data and related tools and that the AP is uniquely positioned to help.

“Data journalism is a means to an end. The end is still journalism, storytelling, watchdog journalism, the same sorts of things we’ve always done. But data is the how,” says Thibodeaux. And, given that consumers are flooded with content, data can make a big difference. “In a media climate where people are overwhelmed, they are looking for news stories with a harder edge and data can give stories that edge.” Consumers today are also trying to evaluate which sources are trustworthy and Thibodeaux points out that with greater transparency “by showing our work” we can help build that trust.

In addition to offering a substantive way to support the validity of a story and demonstrate the thought and research process that went into it, data can also be part of the visual component that brings a story to life for readers. Data visualization, as Thibodeaux points out, “has a whiz bang factor, and is immersive and exploratory, all of which help draw an audience in.” However, neither data analysis nor interactive and compelling data visualizations are an easy task.

With the funding from Knight, Thibodeaux’s team will focus on building an “ecosystem for doing this sort of work,” which will include a platform for data sharing and analysis. Over the past year and a half, AP has undertaken a 50-state data initiative, which combines data sets from across the nation in a way that allows them to be readily mined to create local data-driven news stories. Given that the AP has already undertaken the laborious process of getting the data right: checking for missing data and errors, documenting the fields in the data, interviewing the data source to understand the limitations and idiosyncrasies of the data set and working with agencies to fix problems in the data.

The AP also hosts a conference call during which reporters and editors can ask questions about the data, about the national and state level stories AP is writing and about the methodology for working with the data. And they frequently include an interactive data visualization as part of the package. “In essence we’re able to help members skip the least interesting—but absolutely vital—stages of the data project, which means that news organizations who are stretched thin and may not have a reporter on staff with the tools to wrangle large data sets can make better use of their reporters’ skills and time,” he said.

To date, the AP has distributed data packages about a wide range of topics, which include community flood insurance rates, commuting times in U.S. metro areas and oil and gas drilling on tribal land.

Thibodeaux calls this effort a solid proof of concept that they will build upon by creating a platform that supports both data analysis and what he calls the news application side—tools that help bring the data to life for readers. Among the objectives are to provide additional support for mobile and social data applications as well. “We are thinking about how to make it easier for our members to know that there’s data available and make it easy to get and apply that data to storytelling.”

While Thibodeaux admits that the AP may well be conservative about its ethics and journalism, he also points out its long history of innovation. “We’re having our 170^th birthday next year, but if you look at the history of the AP around photo delivery, video and different ways of covering stories, we have a proven track record.” And its increased emphasis on the support of data journalism—and using technology to do some of the heavy lifting as well as enhance the data delivery experience—is simply an extension of this compelling story.

Advertising | Innovation | Perspectives

ONE by AOL: Simplifying digital ad complexity to improve creativity—and results

September 21, 2015 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Like the Jetson’s robot maid, Rosie, technology was supposed to make our lives easier. But we could use a little more Rosie and a little less complexity in the digital media and marketing industry as brands scramble to create content and advertising experiences that are optimized across an ever-expending proliferation of devices, screen-sizes, and formats. There are those, however, who believe that automation is an answer to some of this complexity: AOL, for one, continues to build more automation into its ONE by AOL platform in an effort to “allow the machines to do what the machines do best and allow the humans to do what they do best,” according to David Miller, the Company’s VP of Ad Product Management.

Marketers’ biggest concern, says Miller, is keeping their creative relevant and figuring out what is working (and what’s not). “We are trying to let the machines do that so marketers can focus on being more creative and strategic.”

To that end, AOL has expanded the company’s ONE by AOL open automation platform to allow marketers to simplify the creation of multi-variate premium cross-screen advertising. This means that marketers can create content once and—using AOL’s flexible HTML-based templating—easily deploy that content across mobile, video and desktop. While creative assets are core, the system can also incorporate many other elements such as product information, social feeds, SKU information, local retail locations, and any number of other things that brands want to get in front of consumers. “Historically, advertisers have to build five, 10, even 15 different combinations of assets for each different format—desktop, mobile, pre-roll—we want to drastically simplify that,” says Miller.

The ONE by AOL platform also connects with AOL’s audience platform, which incorporates first-party, third-party, and advertiser data. This allows marketers to target specific audiences with customized experiences. Perhaps even more importantly, ONE by AOL provides marketers with a way to clearly evaluate the performance of any given combination of assets against specific demographic segments. “We want to leverage all of the data to allow marketers to look at each individual combination of assets shown to a specific group and be able to compare the ROI of this combination aimed at this group to this other combination aimed at another demographic, then be able to easily change things up to improve results.”

This is achieved through a combination of technological integration and transparency. ONE by AOL provides insights that go beyond impressions and clicks to include insights on the impact of specific pieces of creative on ROI. The goal, says Miller, is to allow marketers to create increasingly relevant, useful advertising. “We need to see the convergence of the right brand experience with the appropriate consumer experience, which revolves around relevance and utility,” he says.

Miller points out that premium brands have long since moved away from “the big ‘click here’ button…the kind of bad ads that cause more ad blockers to be installed.” The rise of ad blocking, according to Miller, can be directly correlated to bad ads and poor consumer experiences.

Miller notes that, as an industry, we need to increase our focus on creating great experiences. “At AOL, we’re trying to figure out how to help move the industry forward overall and simplify life for our marketing partners so that they can focus on the next big cool thing.”

Innovation

Interactivity, social and utility mix well at The Daily Meal

September 18, 2015 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

When Jim Spanfeller was asked what niche he was targeting with The Daily Meal when he launched it in 2011, he replied: “The biggest one out there: the middle.” While many sites cater to the recipe hunter, and others offer elite restaurant-world insider snarking, Spanfeller—CEO of Spanfeller Media Group—saw a big opportunity to create a site for the mainstream food enthusiasts who “lead hectic lives and look forward to a nice moment to bring family and friends together around a great meal,” says Spanfeller. This meal might be home-cooked, or at a local pizzeria or French fine dining.

Food, for this crowd, is neither utilitarian nor aspirational but rather central to a lifestyle that The Daily Meal strives to support, offering everything from recipes, cooking tips, and wine and drink pairings to the best local eateries and destination dining experiences. They also recently added comprehensive restaurant and bar profile pages that include a wealth of information including directions, hours of operation, contact information, and menus in addition to editorial rankings like “101 Best Restaurants in the U.S.,” “101 Best Burgers in America,” “Best BBQ Chains,” and “Best Food Trucks.”

In addition to these rankings and reviews written by The Daily Meal team, the new restaurant venue pages also link to reviews from other trusted sources such as The New York Times and Chicago Tribune, consumer reviews, and helpful tips from Foursquare users, as well as providing the ability to make a reservation via Open Table.

Restaurant pages also feature an interactive browsable map that includes commonly visited “next stop” locations—such as spot to grab a drink or dessert—and other nearby restaurants and bars so that users can not only find where to eat, but can plan an evening of fun. Users can also opt to toggle on layers such as Facebook reviews so they can see what their friends suggest in a given area.

The Daily Meal developed the back-end technology that unifies all of this information, commentary, and utility so that its users “don’t have to hunt around the web.” It also serves to keep them on the site and engaged with the content.

As Spanfeller describes it, “Yes, we provide the information our readers are looking for. But we take into account all the wonders of the internet. Like a good Sherpa, we go out and pull it all together for users.”

Innovation | Press | Video

Here’s What the Top Innovators Say About the Future of Video

September 4, 2015 DCN

In celebration of its annual Watch Awards honoring the best in Web video content, Adweek partnered with DCN to host a dinner conversation on the present and future creative and business opportunities associated with video.

The dinner, which was held at Gramercy Tavern in New York on August 18, was attended by several Watch Awards jury members as well as other senior executives who are paving the videosphere’s way forward. The conversation, which was led by DCN CEO Jason Kint, took a decidely future-leaning tack regarding disruption of traditional approaches, the forces that are shaping content generation and monetization, how branded video efforts evolve and who is leading the way? Real-time streaming and, of course, Facebook were on people’s minds in a big way too.

Joining the conversation were: Shelley Venus, director of media, Mic; Tennille Teague, head of production, Pereira & O’Dell New York; Taras Wayner, co-svp/executive creative director, R/GA (Wayner and Chris Northam, executive creative director at R/GA, were also on hand to accept the Watch Awards’ overall Originator honor for their work with The Ad Council on the Love Has No Labels campaign); Michael Klein, evp, programming/content strategy, Condé Nast Entertainment; Paul Marcum, head of global digital video, Bloomberg LP; Troy Young, president of Hearst Magazines Digital Media; Mark Fortner, head of innovation and branded content, MediaCom; Yale Wang, head of marketing at DramaFever; Lee Sosin, svp at Hearst Digital Media; and Liza Ryan Howard, evp, chief of consumer strategy, WebMD.

Adweek captured the night’s conversational highlights on video—take a look.

Innovation

Updated Love My Shape App Should Inspire Some Creative Marketing Exercises

August 28, 2015 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Just this week, new research from The CMO Council and IBM found that advertising budgets are rising—but so are marketers’ expectations. According to the research, marketers recognize the ability of digital to align with every stage of the buyer’s journey and plan to invest accordingly. They are also increasingly experimental, exploring a wide range of channels and tactics to connect with buyers. This doesn’t surprise John Balen, Shape’s Associate Publisher, Marketing who has watched this trend develop over the past several years: Marketers want new and exciting ways to engage potential buyers.

So while Shape, like its fellow Meredith publications, has a subscription-based digital replica app that updates with each issue, the brand also has a very different app: Love My Shape. Originally launched about a year ago as a way to leverage mobile to seamlessly bridge print and digital experiences, Balen notes that they’ve learned a lot about what marketers and consumers want over that year and have incorporated the knowledge into an upgraded version, launching with the September issue of the magazine.

It is significant to note that the development of the Love My Shape app was driven by marketer demand for innovative cross-media experiences. Initially, Balen says that marketers were conducting a lot of one-off experiments with scan-the-page-for-more offerings. Demand for interactive, cross-platform programs continued to climb, however, and the editorial side of the house grew increasingly excited about creating cross-platform experiences that better serve its readers (and drive traffic to the website). With the new edition of the app, Balen says that internal processes have been streamlined and that interactive elements are no longer conceived of as one-offs, rather they are built into the ad sales and editorial mindset and workflow.

The Shape editorial team has been enthusiastic about being able to drive readers off the pages and Balen points to Shape editor Elizabeth Goodman Artis’ letter in the September issue as proof. In it, Artis is practically giddy as she describes the ease of moving from discovering a great item in an issue to getting one delivered to your doorstep. She also raves about the opportunity to take fitness coverage off the page and bring it to life it with video content in the app.

All of this excitement doesn’t overwhelm Meredith’s continued stance on the separation of church and state. Shape does not currently offer any of its own ecommerce initiatives nor does it participate in a revenue share in its click-to-buy editorial offers. Rather, the editorial team views these as a way to ease the path for readers who are as enthusiastic about fitness gear as they are the stories about how to use it. The integrations, according to Balen, “always have to be on-brand, something that has the DNA of the brand, makes sense for our readers and that the editors support.”

The app provides the ability to activate many mobile-enhanced content and promotional features from issues of the magazine and signage at Shape events. This includes sweepstakes, exclusive videos, behind-the-scenes content, and instructional fitness, beauty and fashion demos. The updated app also incorporates geo-location; image recognition; augmented reality; and contextual content—all of which can be leveraged for editorial or marketer-driven content.

“Today’s marketers want wow,” says Balen. “They are looking for high impact units whether it is fun fold out covers or interacting with digital. Marketers want people to experience their ads and say ‘This is so much fun, I love it!’” Ultimately, he says, his team must work closely with marketers to build integrated ad experiences that not only capture consumers’ attention, but provide experiences and information they find useful and entertaining. And with the updated Love My Shape app, Balen says that everyone on the Shape team is going to have fun creating print-to-digital experiences that jump off the page and engage.