Tags containing: "digital video"

Top 6 trends for publishers in 2017

December 15, 2016 Mark Glaser, Founder and Publisher – MediaShift

It’s been a topsy-turvy year for publishers in 2016, with big pushes into video, native advertising and even VR. But the end of the year saw the rise of Donald Trump, and questions about the power of social media and filter bubbles, along with the upside of a “Trump bump” in paid subscriptions and donations at the New York Times, ProPublica and other places.

With 2016 soon coming to a close, let’s look ahead to how the biggest trends of the past year will influence the digital media business in the year ahead.

1. Addressing fake news and the filter bubble
Fake news and the filter bubble, particularly after BuzzFeed’s explosive story on Macedonian teens reaping profits from pro-Trump news sites, have emerged as the topics du jour for media and technology companies following the 2016 election. With users now increasingly aware that red feeds and blue feeds exist as competing truths on their favorite platforms, all parties involved – from technology behemoths like Facebook, Google and Twitter, to media executives and publishers, to individuals themselves – must bear the burden of addressing this issue as 2017 unfolds.

Facebook and Twitter have both announced measures to help stop the spread of fake news, particularly by limiting advertising from fake news websites on its platforms. Facebook has reportedly filed a patent for a technology that would help users spot and report “objectionable content,” and is working with top news publishers to curate content directly into news feeds, both of which would presumably help curb an infestation of bogus content. And news consumers themselves will need to brush up on digital news literacy if they want to understand where content comes from and who’s behind it.

2. Love/hate relationship with platforms continues
Speaking of ups and downs, publishers have had a tough time coping with the growing power of social platforms, especially Facebook, as they command attention but don’t always play fair. Facebook continues to err in disclosing accurate ad and video measurements, while Twitter confuses analysts and consumers alike by banning, and then reinstating, the account of white nationalist leader Richard Spencer. Their standards will have a wider influence on the industry – particularly when it comes to free speech, hate speech, and the limits and freedoms of platforms to censor content.

What publishers can do in working with these platforms is multifold. First, they must consider whether they want to continue to trust and sustain social media ecosystems (that were built in large part on the appeal of their content), while competing with them for advertising and distribution. And if it is the case that Facebook is not investing in publishers the way they should and Twitter is declining in importance, then perhaps publishers need to invest more in other platforms like Snapchat and Google AMP rather than Facebook’s Instant Articles.

More likely, publishers will need to work together to push platforms like Facebook to work more closely on initiatives that are a win-win for both sides. Making sure analytics are right, ferreting out fake news and developing long-term revenues for Facebook Live would go a long way toward collaborative goals.

3. Premium content demands premium subscriptions and donations
Despite Donald Trump’s war with mainstream media, his election has helped the bottom line for news publishers and media outlets. From ProPublica to the New York Times, The Atlantic to Columbia Journalism Review and the Los Angeles Times – all have reported increased readership and interest from audiences, whether in the form of web traffic, donations or direct subscriptions.

Will this paid content boom last? The Financial Times had a similar “Brexit bump” and has largely kept most of its uptick in paid subscribers, so we will see. But it’s interesting that there’s less emphasis on eyeballs-for-eyeballs’-sake and more interest in paid premium content. Two new digital startups, The Outline (from Joshua Topolsky) and Axios (from Politico founder Jim VandeHei), have pushed quality over quantity, with manifestos against the chase for clicks. VandeHei, in particular, is pushing $10,000 subscriptions at Axios. We’ll see if people continue paying up.

4. Too much video, too many native ads
This year saw so many publishers push harder into video, and push harder toward native ads and branded content. On the video side, publishers like Mashable and BuzzFeed went all-in on video, while startups like NowThis and OZY are basically built for video. And traditional publishers like the New York Times, Time Inc. and the Wall Street Journal have invested deeply in their in-house studios to deliver branded content. Vice Media and BuzzFeed have also said that branded and sponsored content offered a substantial chunk of their 2016 revenues.

And that parallels the push by Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to make big bets on video, including live-streaming, where Facebook paid publishers to produce content. But how much is enough, and when do you get to overkill? We know that advertisers love branded content and video ads, and publishers know that their video is eminently sharable on social media, but is this what consumers really want? When you have a glut, only the best quality can survive. People will gravitate toward quality content, toward timely content, toward content with a personality. That means data and surveys will play an outsize role in which types of branded content or video – or heck, branded video – will make it in the long run.

5. Beyond the cutting edge: Bots, VR and edge tech needs to add to bottom line
Virtual reality was a media darling in 2016, but it’s still a far way off from mass consumption. More than anything, it’s going to take actual demand from the consumer, and widespread adoption, for it to become truly profitable. 2017 may not be the year we’ll see that, but the VR and AR markets are expected to grow in the long run as the hardware and techniques for investing in the tech become cheaper.

Bots, meanwhile, will become a hotter topic in the coming year, especially given Microsoft’s forthcoming Azure cloud service that will help developers build bots more easily. Yet again, consumer attention remains an important consideration. While bots may seem like a convenience, and have caught on in Asian countries, developers are going to have to work hard to convince people of their necessity in order for the tech to truly take off and become profitable.

6. The regulatory climate under Trump for M&A and privacy
An incoming Trump administration has Net neutrality advocates worried that a reversal of federal policy is likely despite Trump’s silence on the issue. His main public comment on Net neutrality, from 2014, is a tweet asserting the FCC’s move to reclassify the internet as a utility was “another top down power grab of the Obama administration.” His appointees to the FCC transition team have all been critical of current Net neutrality rules, so this could lead to yet another battle over the rules.

Although Trump promised that he would fight against the $85.4 billion AT&T/Time Warner deal, which he lambasted as “too much concentration of power in the hands of too few,” it seems he may be tiptoeing back on that line. AT&T executives, at least, seem confident the merger will pass regulatory scrutiny after meeting with Trump’s transition team. Whether this suggests more mega-mergers in media and tech likely depends on just how fickle Trump proves to be.

And when it comes to privacy, all indicators suggest 2017 and the following three years will be turbulent times. With more reports of hacking and press freedom under threat, the Signal app – which security researchers say offers the most privacy protection out of all messaging apps – has experienced a 400 percent jump in daily downloads since November 8.

Innovation | Video

Condé Nast looks ahead, with a focus on the future of digital

December 7, 2016 DCN

Changes are afoot at two well-known Condé Nast brands. In November, the iconic publishing brand announced that Teen Vogue would be going (almost) all-digital. Then, on December 1, Self followed suit. The changes seem to confirm what many of us already think: Digital is mainstream while print is becoming more and more niche.

Traffic to TeenVogue.com more than doubled from 2015 to 2016. And according to Condé Nast’s announcement, “Multiplatform unique visitors increased 147% YoY and mobile traffic more than doubled with an increase of 207% YoY, the biggest increases within the competitive set, and video viewers grew 222% YoY (comScore, September 2016).” These are exactly the kinds of stats you would expect to see from a publication whose audience skews young. So it is no surprise that the company, decided to invest “in Teen Vogue’s digital, video and social content and introduced a larger collectible quarterly print format.”

But the logic behind the transition toward “a new content and distribution strategy that will transform Self into a digital, video and socially-led brand” may not be as immediately self-evident. The regular print production of Self will end in February 2017 (though the Chinese version will go on in print), and continue with “special print editions around health and wellness-related moments throughout the year.”

For this brand, though, the emphasis on digital isn’t about the audience. Fred Santarpia, CDO, Condé Nast, says the Self content lends itself well to the digital format. He says the kind of service oriented content these readers crave—like, for instance, tips and tools to live a healthier lifestyle—plays really well in video format and on social channels. In other words, the content is very shareable.

While the announcement of the official change in strategy is still new, Self has been undergoing a transformation all year long. It got a shiny new website, and began betting big on video content. “Like Hearst Magazines, which led the way here, Conde [Nast] is rationalizing its costs, its brands and its audiences,” says Ken Doctor, author of Newsonomics: Twelve Trends That Will Shape the News You Get. “I expect it to be increasingly rigorous in this movement, under new CEO Bob Sauerberg. That means harder looks at how and where the audiences and advertisers are moving, and adjusting print/digital priority and staffing, accordingly.”

“The fact that Self is pointing to its digital success, especially in video and social, reflects a much stronger position CN has staked in these channels,” says Steve Smith, editorial director of events at MediaPost. “It’s Condé Nast Entertainment network of video across brands has achieved strong growth in recent years, and social presence is helping to drive that even further.”

One of the many notable changes to Condé Nast’s approach to these particular titles is that the company hasn’t entirely killed the print editions. “The move symbolizes the broadest change of our times. Digital has become mass, through social as well as direct, and print has become niche,” says Doctor. “Though print advertising’s free fall in 2016 has been astounding to behold, there are still tens of billions in print advertising. Niche—several to quarterly issues a year—allows publishers to re-introduce a bit of scarcity (always good for sales) and significantly reduce costs. That’s akin to another trend we’ll see within five years: Sunday-only print newspapers, based on the same niche/scarcity/better audience targeting principles.”

Santarpia echoes these sentiments, saying, “Our mission as a company, is to deliver great content wherever audiences are seeking it…and that includes the print platform.” And, as Smith points out, “…newsstand sales of bookazine style specialty issues can still do quite well for publishers – with higher cover prices, longer shelf lives, and still-lucrative print ad sales.”

But the new emphasis on digital for these brands means new opportunities for advertisers. “What you’ll see us really lean into is branded content in a very big way,” says Santarpia. Because branded content so often takes the form of video and is distributed socially, it will be a good fit for these brands.

So what does all of this mean for Condé Nast’s other brands? “I would emphasize that as a company we continue to invest a great deal of resource into our digital business,” says Santarpia. He notes that audiences shouldn’t expect “a legacy digital business.” Rather, he says Condé Nast is “…building the infrastructure and hiring the talent to create great content and deliver it in a premium way.” And that means a focus on new platforms and in new form factors.

Industry-Research | Video

What you need to know about digital video advertising in 7 charts

December 5, 2016 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Okay, let’s start off with an obvious—but critical—fact: Just about everybody’s watching digital video. According to comScore, almost every demographic watches some form of digital video each month.

That said, it is clear from the comScore chart that there are segments that are consuming more than others. And, According to Defy Media, consumers aged 13-24 watch 12.1 hours of video per week on YouTube, social media and other free online sources, and another 8.8 hours weekly on Netflix and other subscription-video services. (That’s more than two and a half times the 8.2 hours weekly they spend watching television.)

While few of these younger viewers adore advertising, they are much more amenable to a brief sponsorship announcement or product integration is than the traditional preroll.

In its 2016 Digital Ad Spend Study, the International Advertising Bureau (IAB) reported that Digital Video and Original Digital Video budget allocations resulting from the NewFronts event have steadily increased over the last 3 years. Their research finds that ad spending on original digital video programming has increased 114% since 2014 and, on average, marketers and advertisers are spending more than $10 million annually on Digital Video, representing an 85% increase from 2 years ago.

According to Statista, there’s still plenty of room for growth, though. Statista analysts expect the digital ad market to grow at an average rate of 10.9% over the next five years, with social media and video advertising outpacing the overall market’s growth. And while search marketing is forecast to remain the largest share of digital advertising, it is predicted to rise about 57% whereas video is expected to experience an 80% increase.

While marketers find video to be among the most effective content type used in content marketing initiatives, they also rank creating it as among the most difficult, according to a report from Ascend2 and its Research Partners. Customer testimonials, explainer/tutorial videos and demonstration videos are ranked as the most effective types of video content marketing, per Ascend2’s research.

Time of viewing affects ad effectiveness. Online video advertising seems be most effective between the hours of 3 a.m. and 12 p.m., according to a study from cross-platform video advertising firm YuMe. They saw this trend across all age groups including millennials, Generation X, and baby boomers.

Mobile will be the biggest driver of digital-video ad spend over the next few years according to BI Intelligence. They found that US digital-video advertising revenue from PC- and mobile-based video ads will top nearly $5 billion this year, and grow at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.9%.

Industry-Research | Video

Buying, renting videos by title is not making the leap to digital

August 26, 2016 DCN

“All-access” subscription services are displacing spending on individual movies. According to a study by GfK, the desire to seek out and purchase content purposefully is giving way to a subscription mindset in a digital world. With so much content now available at will via online and subscription video services, ownership and renting of individual titles is becoming increasingly rare.

However, the report, offered as part of GfK’s The Home Technology Monitor™, shows that many consumers continue to prize their DVDs and other physical media, with their “Director’s Cuts,” audio commentaries, and other special features. They find that members of this viewer segment are less likely to add to their video libraries with intangible digital copies, suggesting that marketers need to be more proactive in understanding and reaching out to videophiles.

According to the study, less than half (46%) of consumers say they have ever purchased or rented a digital-only copy of a TV program or movie, compared with 86% who have ever bought or rented a DVD or Blu-ray disc, and 78% for VHS tapes. Among “digital-never” consumers – those who have never bought or rented a digital program or movie – 70% have bought or rented a DVD or Blu-ray disc, and 68% have done the same with a VHS tape.

In the study, at least two thirds of “digital nevers” mentioned the availability of an SVOD service as an important reason for not buying digital copies of individual titles. Key consumer concerns about digital-only formats include difficulty of use, inability to access all content across all devices, and need for an Internet connection to view.

Among those who do rent digital movies, 33% do so monthly, compared with a 60% frequency for those who rented VHS or disc movies in the past. Not only are consumers reporting fewer overall digital transactions, but also less frequency among those who are buying digital video.

The study also shows that, even though 37% of respondents had purchased DVD or Blu-ray discs that included access to a digital-only version of the video, two-thirds of these buyers have never activated the digital content – mostly because they have “no need” for it or are just “not interested.”

GfK’s report, “Physical versus Digital Video: A Tale of Three Media,” is based on interviews with 1,006 consumers on GfK’s KnowledgePanel®, which combines the capabilities of web-based interviewing with robust probability-based samples.

Industry-Research | Video

Streaming dominates video content piracy

August 3, 2016 DCN

At least since the Sony Betamax case, content creators and the law have struggled to keep up with the technological advances in piracy. Just this year, HBO hired anti-piracy partner, IP-Echelon, which sent out thousands of copyright warnings for alleged piracy of its popular series “Game of Thrones” to internet service providers. The warnings contained the IP addresses of users suspected of sharing “Thrones” episodes. HBO’s and IP Echelon are still monitoring this situation and consider it critical to their business.

It turns out that online video streaming is now the primary means of pirating video content. In contrast, a decade ago peer-to-peer file sharing via torrent websites was the top method to download pirated video files. New data from the MUSO’s Global Film & TV Piracy Market Insight Report 2016 provides data showing pirate streaming sites had more than 57 billion visits last year. Out of the total 78 billion film and television piracy site visits, 74% of all visits to piracy sites were to those that stream content illegally.

MUSO’s analysis reports on over 14,000 visits to the main global piracy websites from 226 countries. Overall, MUSO tracked 141 billion visits to pirate sites last year. The U.S. tops the list of video pirate visits, representing 12% of total traffic, almost 10 billion visits. France, Germany and the UK are all included in the top 10 countries globally based on total piracy visits.

Torrent site traffic has shown gradual decline for illegal video content consumption. Approximately 17% of the piracy traffic went to torrent sites and direct download sites accounted for 8% of video piracy visits. Users predominately use desktops on both streaming pirate sites and torrent sites, 72% and 77%, respectively. Therefore, mobile piracy remains comparatively small. Interestingly, mobile download registered a slight increase (5%) in visits from the first 6 months to the visits from the last 6 months in 2015. However, the usage of downloads was still relatively low, compared to torrents and streaming traffic. Overall, the piracy environment is engaging in streaming consumption versus content downloading or sharing. However, piracy tactics have not transitioned to mobile at the same pace as other content consumption habits.

Innovation | Video

Publishers push the envelope at political conventions

July 21, 2016 Mark Glaser, Founder and Publisher – MediaShift

The conventions will be live-streamed. And live-streamed some more.

The 2016 Republican and Democratic national conventions are upon us, and with publishers and broadcasters trying out numerous avenues for coverage and commentary — it’s set to go down in history. Publishers are trying a mix of Facebook Live, Snapchat, bots and even pop-up podcasts to stand apart from the media scrum. And they have even more competition from delegates, attendees and protesters who can use their own smartphones to report from the scene live.

Live Streams Everywhere
Google is the official partner of the RNC, which means that YouTube is live-streaming the convention on a device near you. The live stream includes a 360-degree immersive experience — and it apparently also caused a fleet of angry, hateful commenting on YouTube before YouTube disabled chat on the convention’s live stream. That sort of hate present in Trump’s campaign had already prompted Apple and HP to pull away from offering financial and hardware support during the RNC. When Google and Facebook decided to stay, it showed a split among tech companies.

Twitter, meanwhile, has partnered with CBS News to live stream CBSN’s coverage of both the RNC and the DNC. If Twitter is the fastest way to discover and discuss politics, then it’s natural for the platform to also live stream the political conventions so that users can “experience democracy in action,” Anthony Noto, Twitter’s chief financial officer, explained in a statement.

As Mike Isaac of the New York Time pointed out, the microblogging platform, unlike YouTube, had the foresight to moderate the live stream of tweets at the RNC. But being a partner of CBS means that Twitter — which has come under scrutiny and criticism recently for its lack of product focus — has to acquiesce some control to the news broadcaster. For example, when CBSN interrupted coverage of the RNC to live stream a press conference about recent police shootings in Baton Rouge.

It’s not ideal for Twitter’s end of the partnership, but it does offer a certain amount of authority to CBSN, especially amidst ongoing tension between publishers and platforms regarding who has control over the news. And given the huge deals Facebook has sealed with publishers, some outlets, including C-SPAN, will stream their convention coverage on Facebook Live. Considering recent breaking news events unfolding on Facebook Live, there’s no doubt users are expecting to watch convention antics (and the protests outside) unfold on Facebook as well.

Snapchat Filters and Bots
But live streams aren’t the only alternative to traditional broadcasts this political season. For the first time, the RNC is also on Snapchat, and publishers such as The Daily Show With Trevor Noah and Gawker are also utilizing the mobile platform to give fresh, insider takes to a younger audience. Judging from their alerts on Facebook and Twitter, numerous reporters are doing the same. And Snapchat is ready for it all, offering filters like “Protest Cam” and “My Hot Take” during the conventions.

And if the estimated 1,500 media outlets credentialed for the DNC weren’t enough to cover the convention, BuzzFeed and the Washington Post are adding reporting bots to the mix. BuzzFeed’s BuzzBot is an automated chatbot for Facebook’s Messenger app. Users can interact with the bot and answer multiple-choice questions about this year’s conventions, thereby freeing BuzzFeed’s reporters on the ground to secure more strategic interviews, such as with politicians.

“Man-on-the-street reporting is a notoriously time-consuming and unreliable form of journalism that has been practiced traditionally for many years,” BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith told Poynter’s Benjamin Mullin. “And I think you can potentially use [bots] to get a little more scale and get the texture of the event — getting reactions in the way that reporters always do.”

The Post’s bot, on the other hand, is all about allowing owners of Alexa-enabled devices like Amazon Echo and Fire TV to get “real-time election updates” at the command of their voices, according to the Washington Post’s press announcement.

And what about audio? Jumping on the popularity of podcasts, Marketplace is presenting a pop-up, breaking news podcast devoted entirely to this year’s conventions.

The New York Times’ Declan Walsh, formerly based in Pakistan and now in Egypt, is also covering this year’s conventions in a new series called “Abroad in America,” offering a foreign correspondent’s eye to events. Indeed, with the volatility that’s erupted in American politics this year, many journalists who are covering the conventions have trained as if they are headed to combat.

One thing is certain — this year’s conventions will push publishers to try everything they can to differentiate themselves, and reach new audiences.

Innovation | Video

Forecasting the future of mobile video with The Weather Company

July 20, 2016 DCN

If mobile is “eating the world” (to borrow from milestone presentation given by mobile analyst and authority Benedict Evans), then mobile video is crushing it, already accounting for the lion’s share of views and shares across social media networks. By 2020, tech giant Cisco forecasts it would take the average consumer more than 5 million years to watch the amount of video that will cross the global Internet to all the networks and platforms people prefer (mobile, web and tablet and wearables, to name a few).

Sensing a seismic shift in how people will want to access and experience breaking news about weather and related topics The Weather Company, an IBM Business, is betting on mobile video content — even going so far as to ensure the cameras in the studio film in both horizontal and vertical formats (depending on the platform). The effort — and expense — has paid off, with the company wrapping up its best quarter ever with 1.1 billion across all platforms. Significantly, the second quarter saw the company’s digital video team alone garner 340M mobile video views (which represents 30% YOY growth) and generate 640M Facebook video views, over double the compound annual growth rate over the past 12 months.

Mobile analyst at MobileGroove Peggy Anne Salz caught up with Greg Gilderman, Senior Executive Producer at The Weather Company, to discuss how he made the fit between the medium and the message, and learn his top tips for companies eager to make their mark with compelling video content.

You launched your first mobile morning show, The Lift in October 2015, and launched a second mobile show, The Ari Effect, in June. Obviously, you’ve observed that your viewers have an appetite for this type of snackable video content. What else have you learned about your audience?

Throughout, we have been able ask and answer new questions around video consumption across devices. What makes a person complete watching a video? What makes them want to watch multiple videos? How do we tell a story when people are watching with sound off? And, finally, how do we use those insights to create terrific narratives, even if those narratives are only 35 seconds packed with really great information and amazing footage. Our insights allow us to be really aggressive in finding the footage our viewers appreciate.

We’ve learned how powerful and important compelling visual content is. But that’s just a part of it. We’re also seeing how people like to connect and engage with video content — and we see that consumers like to connect with a human being whom they find credible, likeable, and smart. Ari Sarsalari, who hosts The Ari Effect, is a young, severe weather expert who’s really able to really dive in and give in-depth explanations at a very high level. This combined with visually driven, short form video content, is the approach we see works.

And we’re pleasantly surprised to find that people are not just watching videos several times a day – beginning with the first thing in the morning. We also have a large audience watching in the evenings and on weekend mornings. The audience might be not quite the size it is on a Monday morning, but we are finding we need to think a lot about what we produce for Saturday mornings, which is really significant since most news organizations aren’t really having to look beyond prime time.

But it’s also the mobile medium, which means it’s a two-way conversation from the get-go. How do you “listen” to viewer feedback and funnel it back into the content?

We listen and learn from audience comments. But I also think editors and producers everywhere need to be a little bit careful about how much weight they give to consumer comments. It’s important to remember that, generally speaking, only a tiny portion of the audience is actually going to comment or take the time to write feedback.

However, their behavior can tell us a ton. For example, we present our stories in a vertical stack as a playlist, and how people react to stories in their positions helps us make decisions around that content. So, if we see a story performing off the charts, it’s a signal to us to focus attention there and perhaps get an interview with someone who’s on the ground, or just get additional footage.

Footage is at the core of what allows you to grab audience attention and advances of augmented and virtual reality coming to mobile and offer a way to excite and engage. What is your opinion of these technologies and where do they fit in your overall mobile and social strategy?

When we think about crafting a story – and keeping viewers engaged – we start with riveting footage and run the voice, or text or captions underneath it. We’re excited about the technologies you mentioned and we have already started posting 360 videos to Facebook. We’re in the early stages and we’re lucky to have a fairly large Facebook audience. Right now we’re testing the waters, and we’re also investing in it for some of our long-form production. For example, we’re doing an investigative story about a polluted body of water and we actually found a diver who can, with the right equipment, literally dive into it. For the viewer it’s really going to interesting to see what this looks like on the inside, and we’re going to be excited to see the response.

We’ve just seen Vine videos extend past the 6-second limit, and there is a lot of discussion about the appropriate length for short-form content. What is your advice to content companies trying to find the right answer for themselves and their audiences?

I can share what our approach is, but I’m not certain it’s right for everyone. The low-cost of entry means content creation is democratized – and that is a great story. But we’re also seeing that the mass audience gravitates to where there is a differentiated level of quality. It’s why we are moving in the direction of more original reporting, more exclusive footage and more reporters doing things like 360, which is not easy to produce or edit. All this takes thinking about how you tell a story, and not just through up a cool video for the sake of having a cool video. All of this takes resources.

The more we’ve invested and made an effort to increase the quality of our video journalism, even if it’s for lighter stories, the better results we’ve seen. But we’ve also made sure we think about all the pieces, all steps in the process, in order to reach and engage the audience. This includes making it possible for our article writers and our video producers work together so there isn’t a situation where a video is a distinct unit from the text reporters.

It’s also important to ‘think’ video primarily and not as an adjunct to writing. This was a really big step, one that some text-based organizations still need to think of. If an organization is thinking “Well, the main story is a text story and then we’ll figure out how to make a video for it” – then that organization is probably a little late to the game because the audience interest in the article will peak and by the time the video team has made it, the moment’s been missed.

As you point out, it’s about getting the writers and the video makers together in the same news meeting and letting them generate ideas together. But it’s also about technology, isn’t it?

We think in terms of mobile and social first. It’s also why the cameras in the mobile studio are set up to film video in both horizontal and vertical formats. Mobile and social first is the way the world is and what our audience demands. Take people in their early 20s. Have they ever really turned their phone sideways to watch video except when they are forced to? Probably not. Does it mean TVs in the living room will be vertical? Probably not – but maybe. In any case, we built the studio with vertical in mind. Our app is not vertical yet, but we’re thinking in terms of vertically orienting everything. And we built a studio recognizing that trying tell people to turn their phone on its side to view video is like fighting gravity.

Peggy Anne Salz is the Content Marketing Strategist and Chief Analyst of Mobile Groove, a top 50 influential technology site providing custom research to the global mobile industry and consulting to tech startups. She is a frequent contributor to Forbes on the topic of mobile marketing, engagement and apps. Her work also regularly appears in a range of publications from Venture Beat to Harvard Business Review. Peggy is a top 30 Mobile Marketing influencer and a nine-time author based in Europe. Follow her @peggyanne.

Advertising | Industry-Research | Perspectives | Video

Are 5 second ads the new Snapchat?

June 10, 2016 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

We live in a visual world. To make a story or campaign compelling, visuals or video are absolutely essential. In fact, it is commonly cited that the brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text. People are captivated by short, instant bursts of content—even content that disappears after a few seconds like Snapchat.

Platforms like Pandora and Vine offer bite-sized video content with homegrown, organic videos that go viral in a matter of days. Recently, Pepsi announced a collection of five-second ads designed to to gratify millennials. Pepsi plans to make 100 different ads for TV and digital this summer to promote their new emoji-themed bottles. And YouTube will soon show 6-second “Bumper” ads before videos, which cannot be skipped.

The market for online video has evolved immensely. When online video first launched, brands re-purposed existing 30 & 60-second TV commercials. The ads looked more clunky, required click-to-start, and didn’t assimilate with the surrounding content.

Instant gratification has become the norm—with advertisers and publishers adapting to meet the consumption behavior of today’s shortened attention span. Video ads are easier than ever to consume with the broad installation and access to broadband on desktop and mobile. Shorter videos ads have higher viewability and completion rates since the content is near instant. In effect, shorter ads may be more successful since consumers are more likely to watch the ads and remember the advertiser.

Today, online video ads are custom-created for each channel, the ads auto-play and compete for attention with a surplus of surrounding ads. Eighty-five percent of online video ads are un-skippable. MediaRadar found that almost all of the video ads (98%) that run less than 10 seconds are un-skippable.

According to MediaRadar data, there were over 1,100 new video advertisers in Q1 2016 alone who didn’t place ads in 2015. Online video is a key driver in digital ad spend with $9.6 billion predicted ad spend for 2016. In 2015, $1.5 billion dollars shifted from linear TV to digital. And yet there remains ample opportunity to grow. Only 10% of TV advertisers bought online video ads in Q1 2016.

Publishers are constantly innovating and introducing new products or ad offerings too. From premium page takeovers to YouTube’s new Breakout Videos that will highlight the fastest-growing videos as an indicator of viral potential.

Todd Krizelman is Co-Founder and CEO of MediaRadar (@MediaRadar). Growing up near the epicenter of technological innovation in Palo Alto, California encouraged him to become an entrepreneur and co-found of one of the world’s first social media sites, theGlobe.com. Krizelman also held leadership positions at Bertelsmann’s Gruner + Jahr and Random House. With his expertise in ad sales and innovation, Krizelman joined veteran web architect, Jesse Keller, to found MediaRadar in 2007.

Innovation | Video

Time Inc. creating INSTANT mobile experience to cover digital celebrities

May 24, 2016 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Last week at the NewFronts, Time Inc. announced the upcoming launch of INSTANT, a mobile-first, all-video platform featuring content about the lives and projects of digital celebrities as well as content created by digital celebrities exclusively for INSTANT. The new brand will deliver news, features and exclusives about and by “the new famous,” the digital artists of YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, YouNow, Vine and other influential emerging platforms.

Significantly, the content will be mobile-centric, to reflect the dominance of mobile in the content consumption habits of INSTANT’s target audience. Content will be delivered as a fluid video stream that facilitates audience engagement. Slated for launch early this summer, INSTANT is being designed to offer a native app-like experience directly in the mobile browser.

We caught up with Kirstin Benson, INSTANT’s editorial director, to learn a bit more about the origins of the project and her plans for INSTANT.

BensonKirstincrop. — Kirstin Benson, Editorial Director, INSTANT

Describe the origins of INSTANT:
The seeds for INSTANT were planted long before I joined the company. Word on the street is that the concept was born last summer during a strategy meeting after an executive pointed out that there was no outlet covering digital artists the way People and EW cover traditional Hollywood stars and entertainment.

Was this launch motivated by the behavior of your digital audience? Advertiser driven? Recognition of larger industry trends?
There were a number of factors that motivated us to launch INSTANT, including trends with users and advertisers. But, most importantly, we saw an opportunity to be the first media outlet dedicated to a group of people – digital artists – who play an increasingly important role in our audiences’ lives but are massively under-covered in the media. Until now, there has been a gap in the space.

Why do this as a multi-brand initiative rather than leverage one particular brand’s strength?
There is no media company better positioned to launch a platform like INSTANT than Time Inc. From TIME came People, from People came InStyle and Entertainment Weekly…and now, People and Entertainment Weekly are joining forces to launch INSTANT. Just like People and Entertainment Weekly curate the best in entertainment, human interest, and pop culture, INSTANT will tell its audience who and what to care about in the vast and frenzied digital world. Thus, we wanted to leverage both of the brands for INSTANT’s launch.

Given that you’ve opted for a 100% native and branded ad offering, could you describe what will the advertising experience be like?
All advertising on INSTANT will be presented through native and branded videos that play in-feed. In the absence of banner ads, pre-roll, and pop ups, the experience will seem fluid and seamless for our audience.

This native ad content will be created in house by the INSTANT team to ensure a consistent voice and aesthetic across content experiences, both branded and editorial so that it meets our audience’s expectation of great content experiences. All ad content on INSTANT will follow Time Inc.’s well defined guidelines for native and branded content and its labeling.

Why the focus on mobile and video for INSTANT?
Our goal with INSTANT is to create content that our audience craves (read: video) and deliver it to them in their native environments – mobile web and social media. And the statistics support this logic: Video is taking over the web and will account for 80% of web traffic by 2019. Meanwhile, 78% of teens check their phones hourly and a third of them say they “feel addicted” to their devices. It was a no brainer to make INSTANT an all video, mobile-first platform.

Why have you opted to make INSTANT browser-based rather than develop an app?
From an audience development and retention standpoint, it made more sense to make INSTANT browser-based rather than an app. We want INSTANT to be as accessible and as native to our audience as possible – and forcing them to download, register, and open an app does the exact opposite of that. That said, the INSTANT experience feels very app-like, despite being browser-based, so it delivers the best of both.

Innovation | Video

6 Big trends from the NewFronts (hint: may include video)

May 19, 2016 Mark Glaser, Founder and Publisher – MediaShift

The NewFronts started out as a sideshow (even a joke to some) compared to the TV Upfronts. But it’s no longer in the shadows, as everyone from the New York Times, Bloomberg, CNN and BuzzFeed stole the spotlight at this year’s NewFronts in New York. This series of events provides a forum for digital to court advertisers in an increasingly competitive market.

With two-thirds of U.S. agency and marketing professionals reporting increased investments toward desktop and mobile video, video — whether original series, virtual reality or live-streaming — naturally took center stage at this year’s event. Alongside new metrics for measuring advertising also came reflections about what exactly constitutes an advertisement now, as well as more of a natural acceptance, articulated some time ago, that the Internet indeed is becoming the new television.

Here’s a rundown of the most important trends from this year’s showcase, and some caveats:

1. Virtual Reality is Everywhere
Following the 360-degree viewing capabilities the name implies, virtual reality is seemingly all around us now as more media outlets jump into the fray. As Adage reported, publishers “are bringing virtual reality to almost every pitch.” Some indicators: National Geographic, AOL and Refinery29 are all launching VR studios. Conde Nast too is producing a VR series. The Economist revealed plans for a second year producing virtual reality documentaries. Time Inc. also announced a virtual reality app will be included around its Life brand, which will encompass publications such as Time, People, EW and Sports Illustrated. In addition, Hulu and Live Nation, the world’s largest concert promoter, announced a partnership to curate virtual reality concert experiences to be available on Hulu’s VR app. The New York Times, meanwhile, announced its continued push toward VR on both the advertising and the editorial front.

Caveat: While virtual reality might be in the air, it might not have a big enough installed base or active user base yet.

2. Original Video Series Are Hot
Alongside publishers bringing VR to almost every pitch was their announcements of original video series. Playboy, the New York Times, and The Economist announced new original video programming. Yahoo announced it was “doubling down” on its video focus and constraining it to four verticals — news, sports, finance and lifestyle. WebMD also announced it was bulking up on its lifestyle programming, and Vice unveiled plans to create up to 20 TV channels around the world. Furthermore, among other video-based initiatives, Vox revealed it’s creating a standalone studio to create content for Snapchat, as Poynter’s Benjamin Mullin reported.

Caveat: There are so many original video series that no one has time to watch them all.

3. Technology & Metrics Matter
Major endeavors in the world of video also means that new metrics must emerge to keep up with industry demands. Mashable, for example, announced two additions to its Velocity technology suite. “Joining the Velocity Dashboard, which uses natural language processing to mine for topics about to go viral, is Velocity CMS, which is used to create competitive stories on those topics, and Velocity Kg, which will optimize content for multi-platform sharing,” as Troy Dreier of StreamingMedia wrote. Hulu is building interactive ads specifically for connected TVs, and is “working with Nielsen to enable the measurement of ads through over-the-top video delivery devices such as Roku, PlayStation, Xbox and Apple TV,” AdAge’s Jeanine Poggi’s reported. Yahoo also announced expanded video metrics through a partnership with the advertising analytics platform Moat to measure viewability and and metrics beyond viewability. YouTube, meanwhile, announced “Breakout Videos” through its Google Preferred product, to help find the next viral hit. It’ll allow brands to automatically buy ads on these soon-to-be trending videos.

Caveat: Technology is cool, but often it’s the tech companies who can build better technology than publishers.

4. Live-streaming Becoming Routine
It goes without saying that live-streaming is becoming bigger than ever. Facebook, for example, revealed it will create a live-streamed morning show, and is partnering with Activision Blizzard, a videogame giant, to offer live e-Sports coverage on the platform. Among Time’s new video offerings is a streaming video network geared toward cord-cutters. YouTube and Hulu are also both launching live TV offerings.

Caveat: Same as VR: There might be more live-streaming show ideas than people who want to watch all those live streams.

5. Internet is the New TV
We’ve been hearing this for some time, but it seems that the Internet is truly becoming modern-day television. National Geographic, long a fixture on TV, is now putting its efforts toward Instagram and other digital platforms. While Vox is backing a new television show, tellingly, more hype surrounds its pivot toward content creation on Snapchat Discover. Ellen DeGeneres has long been known for her television talk show, and now she’s starting her own digital network. Telenovelas are now coming to the digital world — specifically targeting Millennials — thanks to a joint effort by Telemundo and BuzzFeed. The digital news company Newsy is also trying to attract Millennial eyes with online programming and advertising meant for a generation not interested in broadcast.

Caveat: While Millennials make up a large segment of cord-cutters and “cord-nevers,” pay TV continues to rebound, and Comcast even added subscribers in the last quarter.

6. Dizzying Numbers
None of the investment toward video and its related endeavors make sense unless companies have the data and metrics to back up their ambitions. BuzzFeed reported it now gets more than 7 billion content views a month (compared to 2.8 billion monthly views a year ago). And only a quarter of BuzzFeed content is consumed on its actual website, underscoring the importance of its social and other platform strategies. The entertainment and trend publisher PopSugar, meanwhile, reported that its video views on Facebook have jumped 452 percent since it first debuted its Facebook show, PopSugar Rush, a year ago. Hulu revealed that 70 percent of its viewing happens in a living room environment, reinforcing the trend of digital being the new TV. And Bloomberg Media also announced it has doubled its video streams since last year, as well as gained a 25 percent increase in mobile users. The company now attracts 20 million video views a month.

The Daily Mail, meanwhile, had its own impressive statistics: “The U.K.-based publisher is now posting 650 videos a day, which has resulted in a 516 percent jump in views in the past year. It’s getting 383 million monthly video views, 12 million video views per day, and claims an 80 percent completion and viewability rate,” Adweek’s Christopher Heine wrote.

Caveat: Some metrics are more valuable than others. Video views on Facebook have been maligned as too generous, counting after only 3 seconds. And huge numbers of eyeballs don’t always equate to huge income.

Advertising | Industry-Research | Video

Understanding youth’s video diet so you can satisfy their cravings

April 1, 2016 Research Team—DCN

Defy Media undertook a study to explore the complete “video diet” for today’s youth. They sought to understand the role of video in youths’ everyday lives, how each source—be it digital, terrestrial, paid, free, new or old—is used, and if advertising impacts use of any particular sources.

For this research , Defy Media partnered with Hunter Qualitative and Kelton Global. From greater Chicago, Raleigh-Durham, and Seattle, they selected 54 youth ages 13-24 years to complete 14-day journals chronicling the videos watched daily and supplying opinions and information on their habits. They then interviewed 27 of these youth in-person—eighteen ages 13-17 in “buddy pairs” and nine ages 19-24 individually. Finally, they followed with an online survey of 1,300 youth ages 13-24 representative of the U.S. population by age, gender, ethnicity/race, and parental education.

The resulting Defy Media Acumen Report “Youth Video Diet” found that video is not just about entertainment. Given its broad content offerings and on-the-go accessibility, video satisfies needs beyond amusement and passing the time. Video is educational, stress-relieving, and helps keeps youth connected.

Unsurprisingly, Defy Media’s research confirms that that youth don’t like watching ads any more than adults do. However, they did discover that “not all advertising leaves an unpleasant aftertaste.”

The report looks at several areas of digital video consumption patterns among young people including:

The most popular channels for video consumption: YouTube and Netflix top the list.
Social video consumption habits, with digital celebs dominating social video viewing.
What times dominate video consumption, as well as time spent on free and fee content.
Reasons youth watch videos—from offsetting boredom to how-too tips and mood lifting.
Youth’s perception of advertising and the need to pay for video: They don’t like it, but there are strategies that can help make it palatable.

Industry-Research | Perspectives | Revenue | Video

Explosive digital video growth in 2015 spawned unprecedented opportunities

December 17, 2015 DCN

Consumer demand for sight, sound, and motion ignited mobile and
programmatic video advertising growth; new challenges emerged

Digital ad spend in the U.S. is projected to top $58 billion this year and $93 billion by 2019, according to eMarketer. Much of that growth is coming from digital video, with the category poised to absorb significant television ad spend.

Digital video is on an explosive growth track, showing no signs of slowing – more dollars continue to pile into video and new opportunities are emerging. Yet, with unprecedented growth comes unprecedented challenges, and many are beginning to realize just how truly disruptive digital video will be.

What’s fueling digital video’s tremendous growth?

“Sight, sound, and motion” advertising dollars are moving across screens. Viewers are fragmenting across video distributors and programmers as advertising technology races to evolve, and marketers are realizing just how powerfully digital video can tell their stories. Under pressure from marketers wanting to find their consumers across devices, media buyers are pulling from TV budgets to fund digital video growth.

For our sixth annual State of the Video 2015 Report, we surveyed 300 brands, agencies, and publishers to examine these dynamics and learn how key players are adjusting to newly emerging challenges.

Here are our key findings from this year’s State of the Video Report.

Marketers are reprioritizing traditional ad budgets, adding dollars to digital video. TV budget growth is stagnating, with a sizable portion of dollars being moved to video advertising. Nine in 10 buyers are shifting dollars from linear TV to digital channels, reallocating on average 10% of television budgets. Of marketers moving TV dollars towards digital channels, 88% are shifting that television spend to video, including desktop, mobile, or over-the-top (OTT).

Mobile and video are converging, posing new opportunities and challenges. Bolstered by faster network speeds and more screens, the growth of mobile video content consumption has been meteoric. This year, more than 191.5 million Americans watched more than 50.5 billion videos via mobile, according to comScore.

Marketers and publishers are attempting to keep up. According to industry estimates, desktop video spend grew 27% from 2014 to 2015, while mobile video grew 75%, eMarketer data shows – trends that align with buyer optimism. Our survey showed overall mobile video advertising spend increased 18% since 2014.

But marketers say measurement and attribution remain key pain points with mobile video. Mobile performance is more difficult to track than desktop due to reliance on deterministic or probabilistic identifiers. Both have benefits and flaws, but neither method can replicate the accuracy of desktop analytics – yet.

Programmatic is ubiquitous – and the sell side is rising to meet buy side demand. Over 90% of brands and agencies report buying some portion of video programmatically. Eighty-eight percent of publishers report selling video inventory programmatically, up 37% from 2014.

Not surprisingly, buyers remain concerned with premium/quality inventory and scale, noting that there still isn’t enough premium video inventory accessible at scale. Addressing these concerns, two-thirds of sellers are establishing standards for video content and ad quality, and are adding in-house support for inventory quality control.

Brands are also building momentum around in-house video strategy and programmatic buying. Twice as many brands have already brought programmatic buying capabilities in-house, compared to last year – a move that can be easier said than done.

Programmatic TV is gaining popularity as audience fragmentation hits an inflection point. This coming year, 41% of television buyers – a three-fold increase since 2014 – plan to rely on programmatic to make TV investments – a threefold increase since 2014, signifying that change is coming to linear buying practices as well.

Marketers moving television spend to digital video cite the ability to target consumers more granularly and superior measuring capabilities as reasons. Similarly, programmatic TV brings the benefits of digital advertising to linear television.

But this is still a nascent space. Buyers express concern with premium, quality inventory and scale. Brands are concerned with issues like integration and qualified personnel.

Branded video is taking hold. Advertisers and agencies devote over 30% of overall video budgets to branded video content – defined as digital video content co-created between a brand marketer and a publisher. Still a maturing marketing tactic in the digital world, advertiser interest and spend are significant.

Both buyers and sellers cite cost as the biggest obstacle for investing in branded video. Due to the nature of the form, it’s still traditionally thought of as a kind of custom brand messaging that requires a heavy investment of talent, time, and dollars. As for distribution, the majority of publishers rely on their owned and operated sites and social media, indicating that branded video distribution remains limited.

2015 has been a year of significant shifts: as consumers demand sight, sound, and motion everywhere, marketers and publishers are increasingly investing in mobile video and programmatic.

For the first time, television has shown signs of stagnation, though TV dollars are fueling video growth in other formats.

Considering how much movement we’ve seen in such a short time, there is little doubt that 2016 will bring more of the same: consumers are constantly evolving, and brands, agencies, publishers, and technology providers must evolve or risk extinction.

JoAnna Foyle has a passion for both technology and creativity, with nearly 20 years of experience in executive leadership, go-to-market strategy, client business management, TV and digital media, and advertising technology. She has worked with some of the best agencies, publishers and technology companies in the world, driving innovative and holistic technology solutions. As senior vice president of enterprise platform services for AOL, she is responsible for ONE by AOL technology engagements, driving activation, adoption, and expansion for AOL’s biggest partners.

Consumer demand for sight, sound, and motion ignited mobile and programmatic video advertising growth; new challenges emerged

Consumer demand for sight, sound, and motion ignited mobile and
programmatic video advertising growth; new challenges emerged