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Category results for "Innovation"

Innovation | Policy

FAA Takes Shortsighted View of Drones

According to reports, the FAA is set to publish rules governing the use of small UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) or drones which would smother innovation and jeopardize the current uses that provide immense benefits to the general public.

The FAA rules reportedly will require full pilot training in a manned aircraft which can cost between $6,000 and 9,000, according to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. Placing high-cost barriers to entry will only hurt innovation – both in the uses of UAVs and the development of safety features in the industry.

The FAA rules may also require that the UAV remain within “line of sight” of the operator. This requirement is particularly shortsighted as it would completely shut down one of the most promising benefits of UAVs – their ability to reach areas where humans cannot. There would be very little incentive to innovate around UAVs if the FAA place an arbitrary, regulatory tether on them. News organizations use drones to help with the reporting of news – to fly over war-torn areas, survey environmental hazards. UAVs can get to places where humans cannot or where it would take an extraordinary amount of time and effort not to mention the potential risk of harm.  In fact, CNN and the Georgia Institute of Technology are studying the safe and effective use of UAVs for news-gathering.

If the news reports are correct, the FAA needs to reevaluate these potential regulations in order to allow for a world where we have safety and innovation. High-cost barriers and arbitrary tethers would stifle technological advances. At the same time, other countries with forward-looking approaches will take the lead in the UAV industry – with investments, jobs and innovation flowing out of America.

Innovation

Comcast NBCU and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America Tackle the Digital Divide with My.Future Initiative

By 2018, there could be 3 million unfilled science, engineering, technology and math (STEM) related jobs. While jobs overall are expected to grow just under 10% by 2018, STEM jobs are predicted to grow by 17%. More than half of this growth will be made up of computer careers, and more than a quarter will be engineers and technicians. Yet the reality is that STEM skills are highly sought-after in all fields of employment. The Boys and Girls Club of America, in partnership with Comcast NBCUniversal, recently embarked on a new technology initiative designed to teach Club members about the digital world to inspire and focus their passion for technology which in turn may help fill some of those unfilled jobs and fuel the future of these young people and the economy as well.

Our education system is often blamed for the “skills gap” seen in STEM areas, however education shouldn’t be limited to what goes on in the classroom. The Boys and Girls Club of America has long filled a need for afterschool and summer programs designed to help young people reach their full potential. Dr. Damon A. Williams, Senior Vice President, Program, Training and Youth Development Services for Boys & Girls Clubs of America points out that his organization must not only recognize and support employment opportunities for young people, but must also align its approach and educational tools with the learning style of today’s youth. As Williams points out, “they are going to be creative, build out in their ideas and so much of that happens in the digital world. We need to provide support but also be a transformer of opportunities.”

Its latest initiative to support young people’s interest and prospects is My.Future, which recently launched to introduce more young people to STEM-related activities in order to help address the skills gap, expand digital literacy and help bridge the digital divide. Williams says that the initiative is starting off strong in large part because of of its partnership with Comcast NBCUniversal, the Presenting Sponsor of My.Future.

The objectives of My.Future are certainly in sync those of Comcast MyFutureProjectsNBCU, a company that supports building a generation of workers who will not only be enthusiastic about using technology, but also well-versed in how to put it to work. However according to Charisse R. Lillie, Vice President of Community Investment, Comcast Corporation and President of the Comcast Foundation, My.Future aligns with the company’s philosophical goals as well. “Yes, Comcast is a big employer of people with these skills and we want kids to understand what kind of careers are possible for them in the future. However My.Future matches beautifully with our goals to support digital literacy, leadership development and bridging the digital divide.” The company also addresses this latter objective through other programs such as Internet Essentials, which makes broadband internet access and inexpensive computers available to low income homes.

“My.Future gives us the opportunity to teach digital literacy and tackle the digital divide,” says Lille, “but also to teach to the next level.” My.Future allows the nearly 4 million youth served by more than 4,100 Boys & Girls Clubs to select from more than 40 activities that reinforce digital literacy, including exploring the web, communicating with others digitally and creating digital media. Additional experiences allow members to explore advanced topics, such as robotics, coding and game design.

As the cornerstone of this initiative, Comcast NBCUniversal renovated four Boys & Girls Clubs, located in Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington, DC, with state-of-the-art technology that reflects today’s mobile environment, including computers, tablets, SMART Boards, digital cameras, music studio tools and video-editing technology. However the program is designed to impact Club members everywhere. Williams describes My.Future as a “boundaryless environment” that provides members the on- and offline tools and mentorship that will help them develop strong digital literacy competency through project-based learning experiences, which range from research skills to data visualization, coding and robotics.

Recognizing both the social nature of young people and the Badgesincreasingly distributed and collaborative digital work environment, My.Future includes online communities of interest and opportunities to develop communication skills through digital journalism and digital arts. The system includes digital badging that Williams believes will be achievements that Club members can leverage on college and scholarship applications. He also hopes that the will expand both their view of what is possible in their futures, but also their world view, given the BGCA’s national and global presence.

Along the way, both BGCA and Comcast NBCU hope to support good digital citizenship, internet safety and 21st century leadership skills. While Williams is quick to applaud Comcast NBCU for its investment (valued at tens of millions of dollars in cash and in-kind support), he is hopeful that other organizations will step up to help it achieve its larger objectives, which he estimates will require a 100 million dollar investment. Lillie says that she too hopes that “other corporate citizens will be as excited about what the future holds and take up the gauntlet.”

For her part, Lillie is enthusiastic about the future of the young people participating in My.Future. At the rollout of the program in San Francisco, she sat with a group of “remarkable young girls,” one of whom was developing an impressive art portfolio. “She didn’t plan to be an artist, though. She wants to be a vet. But these skills will help her get there. These kids have aspirations and we are proud to help support them.”

Innovation | Perspectives

Q&A: Gabriel Lewis, EVP Development & Strategy Maker Studios, on Media for Millennials

Q: Do millennial readers have brand loyalty as a rule? How do you develop brand affinity/loyalty with them?

A: Brand loyalty for millennials ​is less a rule, and more of an ongoing dialogue. They’re the most media-savvy generation, having been raised in an ever-expanding ecosystem of platforms and content that gets more and more niche and targeted. As these choices become greater, brand affinity becomes more valuable for consistency of voice and identity (and identification, i.e. “this represents who I am, my values, etc.”), but the flip side is that it’s easier to move on when and if a brand betrays their trust. It’s also the first generation to be raised in an environment where direct feedback to brands is very, very public. Millennials ​aren’t just consumers, they’re participants… and they expect to be treated with an appropriate level of respect in that conversation.

Q: Do you approach the development of user experience or content differently for the millennial audience?

A:  At Maker, our core business is short-form content, and there continues to be a trend for shorter and more snackable digital video. The length of the average online video dropped 27% in the past year from 5.1 to 3.7 minutes. Once you start factoring in mobile video consumption—something 98% of millennials​ do every day—it’s inevitable this trend will continue for a large segment of digital content.

This leads to a broader conversation around producing the appropriate content for the platform it will live on. User behavior varies from platform to platform, and more than ever it’s important for content creators to have a distribution strategy in mind before going too far down a path developing the actual content. Just taking it across four typical distribution paths–TV, OTT, Web, Mobile–will yield a different approach to how the content is developed and produced. Within each of those distribution paths there’s also an additional layer of UX that will inevitably dictate how audiences interact with that content; the key is to be as far upstream and as aware of your goals as possible.

One of the most important questions any content creator can ask before starting any project is: “what does success look like?” It seems pretty basic, but I’ve oftentimes found myself in conversations with marketers or producers who start with the love of an idea or strategic approach and then try to force it into the proper lane to find success, as opposed to starting with a goal, e.g., audience, brand affinity, engagement, conversion, etc., and then developing their content and distribution strategy accordingly.

Q: When working to attract and retain millennial media consumers, what would you say are the most important things to consider?

A: While the word has become a bit commoditized, I would say authenticity is paramount. More specifically, having a clear perspective, being transparent, and fostering meaningful dialogue are assets for attracting and retaining millennial consumers. The explosive growth of social media among millennials is indicative of this dialogue-driven culture shift. Audiences can now connect directly with brands and creators that resonate with them. The elimination of gatekeepers and the continuing evolution of audience expectations are quickly relegating legacy approaches to content creation (and marketing) obsolete.

Digital platforms have opened up a world of opportunity to create content that leverages data and direct feedback. While programming has always been both art and science, at this point the science is getting more and more robust, and the artistry needs to start adapting accordingly.

Gabriel_LewisGabriel Lewis serves as Executive Vice President of Development and Strategy at Maker Studios, leading the company’s development of original content across platforms and strategic programming partnerships. Maker is the world’s largest network of short-form online video bringing together a diverse community of YouTube creators and global franchises as part of The Walt Disney Company. The company is home to the biggest digital stars and leading programming such as the hugely popular online series “Epic Rap Battles of History.” Prior to Maker, Gabriel served as Head of AOL On Originals, overseeing creative development, production, marketing and strategy for AOL’s original series and branded entertainment initiatives. Gabriel also served as Vice President of AOL Studios, where he co-created and launched the award-winning live streaming network “HuffPost Live.” Prior to AOL, he worked as a writer and producer for a variety of television and film projects. Gabriel is a graduate of Ithaca College and holds a B.S. in Communications.

Innovation | Perspectives

Forbes and Prospero Analytics Team up to Offer the Forbes Executive InsightCenter

There’s a whole lot of talk about the power of data these days. The thing about data—big or other-sized—is that its real value lies in the insights generated from its thoughtful analysis. This week, Forbes announced a new partnership with Prosper Analytics to release the Forbes Executive InsightCenter, which is designed to offer clear, usable insights derived from thousands of data sets and consumer insights.

Forbes’ founded its Insights business two years ago and has seen impressive growth thus far—doubling business last year and on track for another 50% growth this year, according to Bruce Rogers, the company’s chief insights officer. Rogers says that the launch of the Executive InsightCenter came about when they identified “a bit of a missing piece in the insights we were offering the marketplace; we really didn’t have a consumer component to our insights.” The new subscription-based platform is designed to benefit business executives who work at consumer-focused business in the U.S. or China, or that have customers in China.

Rogers emphasizes that this is not another market research product. “I don’t want to compete with market research companies,” he says. “I can throw a rock out of my window on 5th avenue and hit someone who does market research. We want to provide something they can’t get anywhere else—usable insights.”

They may overlap with traditional market research in some ways, but Rogers says that a unique way that Forbes’ foresees their data being used is to fuel informed content marketing initiatives, an area in which Forbes has a good deal of experience. “Companies are spending as much as 25% of their budgets creating content to fill communication channels. But there remains as shortage of genuine thought-leadership and expertise.” Forbes InsightCenter is designed to quickly provide insights that can be leveraged to create research-based content which Forbes has found generates high levels of engagement. “Research is candy on the web.”

One thing that distinguishes the tool from its crowded field of market research peers, is an easy-to-use dashboard, says Rogers, which was a product of its collaboration with Prosper. A high-level view is generated by customized data sets tailored to an executive’s specific needs and industry. The data includes a U.S. consumer panel of about six thousand respondents that can be queried to provide leading indicator information. In addition, Prosper has developed a consumer panel in China which Rogers describes as “no small feat.” As he points out, “the world is pivoting to Asia and while China provides an amazing, huge opportunity—it is fraught with challenges.”

Forbes brings perspective and “journalistic insight on what is actionable and usable from the data, along with distribution.” This is not a brand licensing deal. The Forbes Executive InsightCenter is the result of a partnership with Prosper Analytics which he sees as a strategic brand extension for Forbes Insights. “This tool offers a powerful way for organizations and executives to demonstrate expertise on a topic and we look forward to helping them succeed.”

Innovation | Revenue | Video

Video Day Provides a Look at the Opportunity and Experimentation in the Online Video Market

eMarketer estimates that 142.5 million people in the US—56.3% of internet users and 44.7% of the population—will watch digital TV shows at least once a month this year, and this will tip to the majority of consumers in 2016. And 22% already watch original video online each month, according to the IAB. Both firms report that flexibility of viewing is one of the greatest drivers in online video viewing, which isn’t surprising given the evolution of video consumption from on the couch, to on-demand, to on-the-go.

The opportunity this creates has not been lost on media companies of all types. Certainly, traditional broadcasters increasingly offer web-based or app viewing (TV Everywhere) options. But even organizations that have a print-legacy or began as text-based online are adding video to their content mix. A wide range of these offerings were explored on November 6th at Digital Content Next’s Video Day..

Opportunity Knocks
Todd Beilis, managing director for the media & entertainment industry at Accenture, was certainly bullish on the opportunity for online video saying “Cord cutting is real, which creates a genuine opportunity for the people in this room.” He specifically focused on the incremental opportunity which sits between amateur video and online delivery of broadcast television fare. He said that Accenture has identified between 20-25 million household where there will be a prime opportunity by 2018 and as many as 8.6 million households where there is already an opportunity for an incremental offering that competes with Pay TV.Accenture

Beilis pointed out that key ecosystem players are already starting to reposition to address this growing market. Though he said that the 35-49 demographic is the fastest growing audience for online video, Accenture believes that this new market will be dominated by Millennials who want a “seamless, any-screen, digital-first experience with analytics-driven personalization—all priced significantly lower than pay TV.”

Growing Online Video Innovation
Meredith Corporation is already making strides to address this market. According to Laura Rowley, VP of Video Production and Product, Meredith reaches more Millennials than MTV, boasting 60% of that coveted population. While she points out that the company has “a long history in sight, sound and motion” including local TV and a nationally syndicated daily lifestyle show, the company has been on the move to build up its video inventory for all of its editorial titles, with about 10 thousand videos in their library so far and a recent Connected TV launch. Despite this, the company is still best known for its magazine brands, which include Better Homes and Gardens, Fitness and Family Circle. Thus, when she began Meredith’s video push, Rowley said she “hired a video team with TV and analytics experience to collaborate with our magazine editors instead of just telling the magazine staff to ‘do video.’”

When Justin Maiman joined Business Insider (BI) in the newly-created role of executive producer of video about a year ago, BI was producing three to five videos a week. Today, the site boasts about 25 new videos per week and 10 million views a month. How-to videos represent a about 20% of the videos BI produces and Maiman offered a few tips on how to make them, which included finding universal, evergreen topics that will appeal to your audience and making videos people want to share. For his audience he focuses on jobs, career, strategy and technology, but has also has had good success in videos about life in general as well, such as “The Truth About ‘The Most Interesting Man in The World’” and “Scientists Discovered What Makes Someone a Good Dancer.”

Maiman says that the entire BI team is involved in creating video now and that field shoots or animation work well. His over-arching strategy: Keep the video length short, to 90-seconds or so; put the video together in a day or two, post it on a Monday but know that in six months or so, it can be shared again.

timeAt Time Inc., which is producing 700-800 videos a month, J.R. McCabe, the company’s senior vice president of video, says there’s no one length that works for their brands, which appeal to both lean-in and lean-back audiences. While they’ve done well with shorter videos that complement text-based content, they have also seen success with short-form documentaries. McCabe said that Time is “putting a model in place to monetize video on our own sites and create the ability for demand-side marketing to capitalize on the shift from TV to online video.” Given the company’s recent hiring of Mark Ellis in the newly created role of senior vice president of corporate sales, monetization is clearly high among its online video priorities and they are exploring a wide range of solutions to that end.

Demand for video far outpaces supply at Slate, according to Anthony DeMaio, the company’s associate publisher and vice president of national sales. However, rather than invest further in video creation, the company has taken a different route to increase its video-related revenue by partnering with Teads to incorporate “outstreaming” advertising into its text-based content, which runs between paragraphs on article pages. The video ad only plays when 50% or more of the ad is in view and sound is user-initiated. For Slate, this addresses viewability concerns and gives the site “life beyond pre-roll”.

NewsBeat Social, on the other hand, went all-in on video from the start, producing more than 50 “snackable news” videos a day that are not more than a minute long. And, according to the company’s Director of Operations, Tyler Peterson, “something amazing happens when you put relevant engaging video down someone’s newsfeed… you get engagement by real people, not bots.”

Hurdles Remain
Given that the majority of digital marketers plan to increase their digital advertising spend by 22% and, in particular, plan to migrate a portion of lucrative TV ad budgets to digital, and the fact that 90% of consumers are already watching video content online, it is no surprise these companies—and many others—are exploring ways in which to meet the demand from both marketers and consumers alike. Beilis from Accenture also said that video advertising supports higher eCPMs that are two to ten times greater than general display ads.

However Beilis also pointed out that inventory is not the only issue with growing online video revenue. Audience measurement remains a challenge, he says. He also advises organizations targeting this growth market to create robust first-party data and analytics infrastructure and employ market-leading ad delivery capabilities.

More coverage of DCN Video Day:

Facebook Likes Publishers, But Will They Like It Back? (November 10, 2014, AllFacebook.com)

Innovation | Video

Reuters Offers a Look at its Vision for the Future of News: Reuters TV

It’s not the nightly news. It’s not search-and-click web news. It’s not a fleeting stream of headlines in a social feed. It’s something new: Reuters TV.

On November 10, Reuters previewed its forthcoming video news service, which has ambitions to create an entirely new category for digital news, according to Managing Director Isaac Showman. While many types of media organizations are making a foray into digital video, Showman points out that most avoid the TV moniker. However he embraces it.  Television has traditionally been a lean back medium and Showman noted that the  Reuters TV team aligned that behavior with the experience they plan to deliver in the New Year.

This product should not be confused with traditional television experiences, however.  “We wanted to create a television-quality experience but the difference is that you can consume your news at the right moment for you.” The world of media as a whole is changing radically, as are consumers’ consumption habits.  “An on-demand experience doesn’t really work for news,” Showman points out. “A recording of the nightly news isn’t particularly useful hours later.”

Thus, Reuters leveraged the resources of Thomson-Reuters and a talented group of technologists to reinvent its process for the creation and delivery of news. The goal is to provide consumers with a complete picture, optimized for their interests and time constraints, whenever and wherever they want it.

There are two primary components to Reuters’ new service:

Right Now: Rather than create finished linear programming, Reuters’ vast network of global editors will produce segments that are continuously updated to cover top national and international stories. These segments will then be algorithmically assembled using a proprietary technology that allows users to create an on-demand news show that maintains the flow, pace and elegance of a traditional broadcast. Right Now allows Reuters to customize each broadcast to the length, location and interests of each subscriber. At any moment, they can watch a news show that will be to be up-to-date, relevant to their interests and of the length that they choose.

Live Feeds: Gives subscribers access to the world’s news events as they take place. From presidential addresses in Tennessee to public protests in Tahrir Square, viewers can choose the events they want to watch, in high-definition from wherever they are.

Reuters TV is slated to launch January 15th, be priced at $1.99 a month and include very limited advertising, such as one brief commercial per break. Despite the wide array of news available online, the company firmly believes that there’s an audience for its new service.

As Showman points out, those under 50 are least likely to watch television news. And while many media companies are chasing the millennial segment of that audience, Reuters TV is aimed at what they are calling the “realists.” This is a psychographic group comprised of what Showman describes as those who need to be in-the-know: “They are affluent, intelligent and globally minded. They remember life before the internet but today live their lives through connected devices. They demand visual storytelling on their terms and that fits into the busy lives they lead.”

These are not people you’ll find scheduling their lives around the nightly news broadcast. At the same time, Showman believes they can be better served than by the existing web news experience, which requires searching and clicking in the hopes of cobbling together a full picture of world events. Even if you only have five minutes, the Reuters TV offering is designed to provide high-quality streamlined versions of all of the key stories of the day. Those with more time will receive a deeper perspective on these stories. Given the audience target, time was a key component. This can also be seen in the offline viewing feature, which allows the user to set daily times for automatic downloads—say at morning and evening commute times, during which internet access might be spotty, but one has a predictable block of time to stay informed.

Because social media increasingly plays a role in how we learn about, share and participate in breaking news the Reuters R&D team included social integration features, including a tool that reads Tweets in real time, gleans their meaning and then organizes and displays them within Reuters TV. This allows viewers  to see all of the social conversation about an event they are watching.

Reuters, says Showman, has always been an organization with a business model to produce content once and make it available to a variety of users, as widely as possible. This effort, he says, is simply an “extension of what we do; one we hope will have scale.”

The challenge he sees is that creating an entirely new category of news requires “educating the market,” a process Reuters kicked off at its reveal party last night. Reuters TV will be launched on iOS, but it has been designed for adaptability with an eye, no doubt, to keeping pace with the changing way that consumers consume the news.

Innovation

Digital Content Next and FirstMark Team up for Startup Day

“Digital Content Next is the only trade association in the industry that solves problems for the content companies of today and the future.”
—opening remarks Jason Kint, CEO of Digital Content Next

In keeping with this vision, on November 4th, 2014 Digital Content Next and FirstMark Capital co-hosted their first-ever “Meet the Startups” event. Seven start-ups were given ten minutes each to talk about the problems publishers face today and how their companies are innovating to solve these problems now and in the future. The goal, according to Lawrence Lenihan, FirstMark Founder and Managing Director, was to provide an opportunity for DCN members to get to know how the technologies presented may affect and impact the media industry.

Lenihan called out several trends currently causing disruption and that he thinks publishers should be monitoring: mobile; brands are going direct to consumers; the internet of things, big data and the cloud. While most of these themes were touched upon throughout the day, the need to keep up with rapidly evolving consumer expectations around content discovery, consumption and delivery dominated the presentations. The FirstMark funded companies on the agenda were TapAd, Testfire, Pinterest, Artisan, Tubular, Disconnect, and NewsCred.

It certainly doesn’t’ come as a surprise that mobile and device proliferation continues to change user behavior, communication, consumption habits, content discovery and shopping. As such, many of the day’s featured startups address the evolving expectations of today’s consumers and the innovation required by publishers seeking to grow audiences in a crossplatform world.

Are Traasdahl, Founder and CEO, TapAd pointed out that today’s consumer moves seamlessly across devices up to 27x per hour. As content companies strive to be mobile-first (or mobile-only) and master mobile’s very different platform, they are investing a huge amount of resources. It is necessary, though, because Traasdahl says that the publishers with which TapAd has worked are seeing as much as 75% of traffic coming from mobile. He finds that a key focus for his company is helping publishers keep pace with consumer demand for content on any platform at any time and maintaining user experience and trust across these platforms.

And keeping pace is no small undertaking. According to Testfire founder and CEO Robert Chea, publishers are investing vast amounts on mobile app development. Companies like TestFire and Artisan aim to increase resource efficiency in these areas by offering their improved QA tools and “instant publishing” technology, which enables real-time modifications. These innovations are designed to improve consumer engagement and product satisfaction, and to free up developer resources and increase productivity.

TapAd’s Traasdalh noted that advertisers are also demanding better targeting, consistent messaging and cross-platform measurement–overall, improved results–from publishers. Their device-bridging solution that “connects a billion devices to individual consumers” provides advanced measurement and increases consumer satisfaction by enabling brands to create consistent experiences across devices.

While device proliferation provides a multitude of challenges for content companies, it also provides opportunities to stand out and improve user experience, which several of the startups also addressed. Smartphones and tablets provide consumers with additional hours of media consumption but in return, they are flooded with many more options. David Ives, CRO of NewsCred said that 200MM pieces of content are shared a day, 1.8 billion photos are uploaded, 500 million tweets are posted, and 400 million Snapchats are sent. Companies like NewCred are stepping in to aid in the process of content discovery and creation for both brands and publishers.

Citing a statistic that 70% of consumers prefer getting to know a company through content vs. advertisements, Ives pointed out that as brands strive to become publishers and connect with consumers through great storytelling, third-parties such as NewsCred are bridging the gap. The company offers a software platform in addition to content strategy, licensing and creation for brands and publishers.

Perhaps the best-known start-up of the day was Pinterest, which has had a big impact on the way users consume content via its visually-focused content discovery and sharing platform. Pinterest is growing as an important traffic driver for publishers, driving highly-qualified, passionate consumers to their sites. Rob Macdonald, head of Media Partners for Pinterest, emphasized the ways in which the platform can help publishers leverage evergreen content, plan editorial calendars and uncover additional audience insights.

Tubular is also focused on providing insights, in their case all focused on video content. Data, according to co-founder and VP Enterprise Allison Sterns, drives successful content offerings, distribution and promotion. The company works with brands and publishers to leverage YouTube data to create content that resonates; partner with aligned influencers; and effectively engage fans and advertise to the right audiences.

Perhaps one of the most disruptive startups on the agenda was Disconnect, which offers users an alternative paid browsing experience in which they control their personal data and keep their online activity private. While consumers increasingly offer information about their preferences through participation in social content, the increasing number of ways in which data is collected about them across the digital ecosystem has turned the subject of privacy into one of the most important technology discussions of the next decade, according to founding member and COO Gus Warren. For publishers, the Disconnect solution decreases the “leverage” held by Google, Facebook, etc. and drives higher CPMs by offering “private and secure advertising.”

These FirstMark startups are building their businesses by helping content companies such as A&E, RueLala, DIY, Vice, Jamie Oliver and Time Inc. keep up with a rapidly-changing consumer environment and market demand, increasing labor and workflow efficiency. The over-arching goal for these startups, it seems, is to help publishers better serve their customers demands and desires by improving content discovery, maintaining trust, and offering advanced analytics and consumer insights.

Innovation

Q&A: Philippe von Borries, Co-founder and CEO Refinery 29, on Media for Millennials

Q: In your opinion and experience, do millennial readers have brand loyalty as a rule? How do you develop brand loyalty with them?

Millennials do have loyalty, but the challenge is in building it. Brands–whether they’re a publisher, beauty brand or tech company–need to be aware of a millennials’ aspirations to live mindful lives. They need to understand the values of millennials and inform his or her needs. In our case, our audience wants content that appeals to her passions, her goal-driven sensibility, and that ultimately empowers her expression. Brands need to make their message experiential and craft it around her personal life – it is all about being relatable and driving purpose.

Above all else, millennial women are passionate. While their mothers might have loyally read Vogue or always used Dove soap, when millennial women find a brand they love, they don’t just buy it, they talk about it, post it, save it, share it. They become a spokesperson for that brand, not just a consumer.

Research shows 70% of millennial consumers want to hear about brands from a trusted source. 82% agree that they only share brands that they are truly passionate, so building that affinity is critical.

Q: Do you approach the development of user experience or content differently for the millennial audience?

Absolutely. At its core, Refinery29 aims to inspire our audience to live more stylish, well-informed, and creative lives. But, there’s nothing one-dimensional or unilateral about our approach. Millennial women are (obviously) multi-faceted and their interests reflect that. Refinery29 reflects that as well. At any given moment, you could find a hair braiding tutorial next to an interview with Chelsea Clinton, alongside a comprehensive guide to fall shopping and a thought piece on hashtag activism or an essay by Sandra Fluke. We know our audience thinks about and cares about style and creativity just as much as they care about entertainment, feminism, and technology. And you can best understand this on our mobile feed, where you see all of our content, across all of these categories and more, living in harmony in one continuous feed.

Q: When working to attract and retain millennial media consumers, what would you say are the most important things to consider?

For us, it is all about user engagement. We want our audience to interact with our content in a meaningful way—and we want to get in there (in the comments on the site, on every possible social platform, and in person as well) to create real dialogue with them. It’s not about relentlessly scaling your audience, but about finding the right audience that really cares about what you are producing.

Millennial-minded women take a deliberate and thoughtful approach to their daily lives, and we approach our content in this way as well—not least of all because a large chunk of our editors and writers are millennial women. It’s this approach to engaging and inspiring our audience that has led us to become the largest independent style and lifestyle site in the US.

Philippe von Borries_Refinery29 9.30.13Philippe von Borries is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Refinery29. He founded the company with his friend Justin Stefano from a kitchen in Brooklyn in 2005 with a mission to inspire people to lead smart, stylish and creative lives. Philippe oversees Refinery29’s content, product and marketing teams and drives the strategic direction of its content strategy which has been the driving force for the company’s growth. Philippe got his start in digital media working at The Globalist, a DC-based international affairs startup. He graduated with a degree in history from Columbia University.

Innovation | Revenue

DCN Panel of Early Movers Sheds Light on the Evolution of Time-based Measurement

From the threat to cookies to inventory-glut, banner advertising was already in enough trouble when the dire statistics about viewability started to come in. In 2012, AdSafe Media found that, on average, 20% or less of all ads were in view for 15 seconds or more prompting the Media Rating Council (MRC) to issue a viewable impression advisory in November of 2012 aong with a call for the industry to develop intelligence around non-viewable ads.  Though momentum was building. In June 2013, comScore still found that 54% of display ads were not seen at all, creating even more pressure on the marketplace to deliver solutions that factored in viewability.

And the industry responded. This March, the MRC lifted its advisory of viewability  and industry interest in buying and selling on this metric began to heat up.advertisers became able to buy and sell display ads based began in earnest. The standard for a viewable online impression was set as 50% of its pixels remaining in-view for one continuous second or two for an online video ad. While there are differing opinions on where this bar should be set, a viewability standard is a solid start in developing digital advertising metrics that demonstrate effectiveness. Seeing an ad is certainly a step in the right direction given that the goal of advertising is to capture the attention of an audience long enough to make an impact.

So while viewability sets a baseline, many believe that that the true measure of ad-effectiveness is time-spent. Our research shows that 60% of premium publishers are already considering transacting based on time and 8% will begin testing it this year. And 4% of those participating in the research are already testing time-based measurement.

Among the early leaders are Gannett and FT.com, both of which participated in a panel on time-based measurement at a Digital Content Next  members-only event on October 22nd. The program featured a panel of experts that included Josh Schwartz, Chief Data Scientist at Chartbeat; Jonah Goodhart, Founder/CEO of MOAT; Daniel Rothman, US Director of Marketing & Insight at the Financial Times; and Steve Ahlberg, Vice President, Advertising Solutions and Product Management at Gannett Co. Inc. Ad Age reporter Michael Sebastian moderated the panel.

Digital Content Next CEO Jason Kint noted in his opening remarks, “I’ve never seen a topic pick up this kind of momentum in the market. Viewability is part of our world going forward but time based measurement will absolutely be part of that future.”

Gannett was early on board for viewability, implementing validated impression measurement and guaranteed viewability in 2012. However, as Ahlberg pointed out, “We still have a long way to go before there’s value to everyone in the ecosystem. This problem has been going on so long that it has caused a lack of trust.” In fact, he predicts that it will be another 18 months before the advertising world is widely transacting on time. “Engagement isn’t something we see in DFP [DoubleClick for Publishers] right now,” he said, making the point that all of the components of forecasting, billing, etc. must be designed to incorporate engagement metrics, of which time-spent is a telling factor.

This summer, the Financial Times began to test a method of buying and selling inventory using time-spent. The company believes that viewability is a positive development, but that it doesn’t go far enough. During the panel, Rothman outlined FT research which found that the tipping point for ad engagement is not one or two seconds. “We can prove that five plus seconds matters,” he said.  Ad recall, familiarity, association and consideration all get between 51% and 58% uplift at the five second mark according to Rothman. Thus, he is piloting a program in the New Year that will guarantee 100% viewability for five seconds.  “We recognize that not all impressions are created equal. The research has proven that this is not opinion. This is fact. We need move the conversation on from quantity metrics.”

The FT works with Chartbeat, which got its start by providing real-time insights on content for editors and reporters. The editorial side of the house, according to Schwartz, “got it immediately. They want people to spend time with their articles; that’s why they write them. And, with the advent of viewability, it starts to matter to the business side of the house.” To his mind, monetizing on time better aligns both sides of the content business.

While Schwartz said he would be “highly surprised if the exact model that companies Gannett and FT are using right now is what we end up with,” he applauds the experimentation so that the industry can move towards metrics that provide value to the entire ecosystem. MOAT’s Goodhart cautions against counting on any publisher’s solution (or any single metric) dominating the industry. “It is a mistake to make it about one nuance of the idea of attention. We believe in attention, but we think it might be a combination of time and other things. We need to move people away from impressions and clicks, but give them options.”

Certainly, this transition away from CPMs will not happen overnight. At the FT, Rothman says that all of the agencies and partners they are working with “find this interesting and exciting” however they also hear that time-based measurement doesn’t fit in with how they are already buying media. “There’s a need for them to look outside their spreadsheets.”

Goodhart reports that, in just a matter of months, he has seen a huge shift in the understanding of viewability and finds CMOs are asking for it and that for 2015, he believes that a large number of agencies will “put a stake in the ground here.” And when that happens, Schwartz predicts that programmatic will take a big hit and that “publishers that redesign their sites around viewability are going to benefit.”

And, referring to the new Digital Content Next Research “How Time-Based Measurement is Grabbing Digital Publishers’ Attention,” Ahlberg said “For the five percent that said viewability that doesn’t matter, go back and tell your business leaders it is here. Educate your sales teams about the metrics that work and be confident in your story.”

 Other coverage of this event and the related research:

Survey: 80% of Premium Publishers Want to Sell Ads Based on Time (Ad Age)
Online Publishers Are Serious About Selling Ads Based on Time (WSJ)
Survey: Publishers embracing shift to time-based metrics (Capital NY)
DCN: 80% Of Pubs Using Time-Based Metrics (NetNewsCheck)
80% of Publishers Interested in Transacting on Time: Digital Content Next Report (Chartbeat)

Innovation | Revenue

Meredith Begins Performance-based Ad Solution Rollout with Relaunch of Fitnessmagazine.com

With the relaunch of Fitnessmagazine.com and the introduction of native advertising, Meredith Corporation is signaling a new phase of innovation for its sites that are aimed at improving experiences for end users and advertisers alike. According to Andy Wilson, Meredith Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer, the company has had an adaptive design strategy for some time however, given that sites like Fitnessmagazine.com derive as much as half of their traffic from mobile, it was time to make a more significant shift.

The new site is tailored to their users’ media consumption habits and advertiser objectives.  It features a responsive design that’s fully optimized for users across devices and screen sizes. Fitness was an optimal place to start within the Meredith suite of brands, says Wilson, because “we are finding that certain brands, like Fitness, are more attractive to the millennial target. The way they are accessing our sites has changed. They use the content at different times and are doing much more on mobile devices.”

Increasing mobile consumption was not the sole motivation for the site redesign, of course. Creating better opportunities for content discovery, and better aligning content consumption with advertising were also significant factors. The site includes enhanced social sharing and new features like infinite-scrolling category pages that allow users to easily discover the brand’s deep content in areas like workouts, healthy eating and diet and weight loss.

The new design not only helps increase content discovery, but has the added benefit of improving ad viewability. “This relaunch not only gives consumers a mobile-first experience, but it also allows us to develop richer integrated opportunities for our advertisers to drive better performance and viewability to meet their goals,” says Wilson.

MeredithNativeMockupWith the relaunch of the site, Meredith Digital also introduced its Native “Buzz” Platform. Buzz units will integrate marketers’ messaging into trending and highly contextual content areas. According to Wilson, Meredith is rolling out native advertising with its newer sites and leveraging a cross-platform approach for ad sales and ad distribution. “It simplifies things versus selling each individual platform. But more importantly, it lets us focus on performance, regardless of platform.”

Buzz is the first in a suite of performance-based ad products that will soon rollout across 10 Meredith owned and operated websites. “We are very excited about delivering a line of performance ad products that will let us tap into search and content marketing budgets.” The new products will allow Meredith to capture new ad revenue streams and go head to head with the big players in search and social. “Our offering will be compared against the Google and Facebook ad spend but we provide a contextual environment and engaged audiences and we are 100 percent audited. We are going look good in these comparisons.”

Innovation

Q&A: Jonathan Hunt, VP, Global Marketing and Partnerships, Vox Media on Media for Millennials

Q: In your opinion and experience, do millennial readers have brand loyalty as a rule? How do you develop brand affinity/loyalty with them?

A: Yes and no. Above all else, young people (and frankly everyone) value quality and honesty. If another media brand can come along and offer a superior product then they have an opportunity to usurp loyalty. The fact is we live in a time when we’re getting our information from hundreds of different sources — publishers, social feeds, mobile apps, our friends and family and coworkers — all day every day. This is referred to as an Attention Economy. So more so now than ever qualities like utility, entertainment, honesty, and personality can easily trump loyalty.

But what happens when you consistently provide premium, honest stories to your readers? You can create loyalty. It’s easier said than done, but that’s our approach to every aspect of our business and why we’ve been on an explosive growth trajectory.

Q: Do you approach the development of user experience or content differently for the millennial audience?

A: We have to, but again I wouldn’t say this is relative to Millennials only–it’s a fundamental shift in how we all discover and share content, it just so happens that young people are quicker to experiment and adopt new ways of getting what they want when they want. At Vox Media, we’re platform and content agnostic. We’re not precious when it comes to how we get in front of as many people as possible; this is how we’ve been able to scale so quickly. So you may experience a Vox Media brand through one of our responsive sites, or on Tumblr, or as a video or a cinemagraph, through Xbox or Yahoo, or on a partner’s mobile app. As long as I can reach you and give you a reason to care about what we have to say, I know I have a better chance of getting you to experience our brand through other more premium experiences that impact our P&L.

Q: When working to attract and retain millennial media consumers, what would you say are the most important things to consider?

A: This is a question with no single answer. You want to cater to consumption habits (you going to them vs. them always coming to you); content formats (speaking to them through the types of content they create and share themselves); and providing them stories or news that have utility, are unique and entertaining, aren’t pandering, and don’t attempt to frame your brand as something that it’s not. This is the smartest generation ever, and they know it, so the best litmus test when building something for this audience is to ask yourself, “Who cares?” If you can’t answer that question unequivocally then there’s a good chance the answer is, “No one.”

jonathan-hunt-vox-headshotJonathan Hunt is the Global VP of Marketing at Vox Media where he leads audience development and distribution, co-sales partnerships, paid media strategy, and comms. Prior to Vox, he was the Global Marketing Director at VICE Media.

Advertising | Innovation | Revenue

Cox Launches Gamut, a New Company Addressing Evolving Needs

These days, media leaders are betting on a cross platform future. Reading signs from advertisers and publishers alike, CoxReps recently launched a new company, Gamut, to offer a full spectrum of support and media solutions. Gamut combines the assets and strengths of what were formerly Cox Digital Solutions and Cox Cross Media to offer a suite of capabilities and a streamlined service for publishers, advertisers, agencies and small-to-mid sized businesses.

Gene Pizzolato, president and general manager of Gamut, says that Cox Media Group started as a group of publishers and that the new company will stay true to that foundation. He adds that the company recognizes increasing convergence in the marketplace and, with the launch of Gamut, will better provide “expertise, efficiency, data, audience and innovation by combining these two aspect of our business.” Pizzolato says the company has seen growth in cross-platform demand, “Brand advertisers are increasingly asking for multiplatform solutions, they want TV but they also want solutions that includes display, digital video and mobile.”

Gamut is comprised of four channels of solutions: Programmatic+, which enables publishers to maximize yield for their inventory with a real-time pricing engine; Reps+, featuring an experienced team that guides campaigns through the full lifecycle; Reach+, a turnkey wholesale product for publishers to generate cross-channel ad revenue; and CrossMedia+, offering custom solutions for integrated, multimarket television-driven campaigns, complemented by digital solutions at a local, regional or national scale.

Programmatic has been a touchy subject for digital media companies. However Cox — and others — are taking an approach that allows them to offer programmatic as part of a range of solutions that leverage its efficiencies while providing other services to enhance marketing outcomes and publisher revenue. “From a revenue standpoint, if you look at our Programmatic+, Reach+ and Reps+, those are pure digital solutions that offer value to both the publisher and advertisers,” says Pizzolato. “We see a big opportunity in our programmatic solution to offer private exchanges and premium direct programmatic solutions to agencies and marketers in 2015. We have a quality base of supply on publishers’ side that is very attractive to advertisers.”

Gamut’s programmatic offering will “cut across three screens,” according to Pizzolato who emphasizes that it will be enhanced by direct sellers through Reps+ and by the organizations’ complementary TV solutions. “We sit in a good place with our publishing partners. The technology we offer is designed to drive yield for publishers, not secure lowest yield, which in turn pays off by them providing us more premium inventory to offer advertisers. Other channels give us the opportunity to drive demand for our publishing partners.”

As the media industry continues to migrate towards the digital landscape, Pizzolato believes that there will be a greater role for both technology and human service in the media buying and selling process. Gamut represents Cox Media’s vision for the future, which is “to continue to offer a spectrum of services that provide best-of-class innovation that adapts with the needs of our clients. This may manifest itself in several forms, but will remain rooted in our core belief that powerful technology, deep expertise, cross-channel capabilities and a streamlined process will provide both our publisher and agency partners maximum benefit.”

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