Tags containing: "mobile"

The truth about scroll and swipe: The real value of mobile’s most famous features

March 9, 2020 Jon Fletcher, Content Editor – Marfeel

The world of mobile is built on scroll and swipe actions. Addictive and habit forming, infinite scroll became the defining characteristic of social media networks for a time. Clicking is making a decision. Scroll is an everlasting stream of possibilities.

Readers do love to scroll. However, it is also a better way to read and digest long content. Usability studies by the Software Usability Research Laboratory show that users can read long, scrolling pages faster than paginated ones. And they absorb the same level of information from the content.

‘Participants using the paging condition took significantly longer to read the passages than either the full or scrolling conditions. They stated that they found the Paging condition to be “too broken up,” and that they had to “go back and forth” quite a bit to search for information.’

Publishers, hoping to establish the kind of enthralled readership seen on social media, built infinite scroll and swipe navigation into their UIs, expecting readers to drip through page after page of their content. Scroll and swipe seemed to be purpose-built for news and entertainment sites.

Unfortunately, the results of scroll and swipe for publishers didn’t hit the mark.

A bottomless pit

Infinite scroll gave readers a bottomless pit of publishers’ content. But dig into the data and you can see that most readers are still only skimming the surface of the content. According to the readership data studied here at Marfeel, we find that 75% of readers never get beyond 10% scroll depth in an article.

Here you can see how ‘content chunks’ are added to the scroll to give readers escape points to new content. These cues are easy to digest, understandable, and have a simple navigation.

Content may have infinite depth. But even engaged readers are unlikely to ever stray from the shallow-end.

When it comes to publisher content, if a reader is not engaged, they are unlikely to continue scrolling. So, if your recirculation strategy relies on readers scrolling past the bottom of an article, you’re losing out on 80% of your audience.

With swipe, the results aren’t as damning but still deeply flawed. Swipe has been shown to potentially increase page views per session by over 400% for some publishers. However, only about 20% of readers ever discover it.

Infinite scroll needs structure, variation, and novelty

Infinite scroll works so well on social media because the content and the formats change on every swipe. You’re rolling the dice for another chance at entertainment. On a publishers’ site, a swipe may just lead to another few paragraphs of content.

Traversing this dead-zone is cognitive work. There’s a lower dopamine response from making a judged evaluation on a longer article or piece of content. Faced with a paragraph of dense analysis on Euribor inflation before the next crumb of content is offered up, a reader’s first instinct will be to leave the page, not continue.

A Chartbeat report found only “slight evidence” infinite scroll contributes to deeper scroll depth, but no definitive evidence that infinite scroll improves depth of visit.

For infinite scroll to work for publishers, varied and exciting content is key. It needs to be digestible as single-scan content chunks. Users must be able to look at once and make a decision about whether they want to read or not.

Grouped titles, images, and instantly understandable content give readers more bursts of information they can use to make quick decisions. These atoms make up a proposition that a user can decide to delve into or keep scrolling. Publishers need to spot scroll-stopping points and introduce alternative exits at these points to keep readers engaged. Writing in Psychology Today, Susan Weinschenk explains, ‘If there is a small, specific cue that signifies that something is going to happen, that sets off our dopamine system’. UI/UX cues that more content is available become a dinner bell that connects to a Pavlovian response inside us.’

Without these cues, infinite scroll becomes an endless litany that unengaged readers will choose to leave rather than find the end. With these tools, publishers can reconsider scroll depth as their most crucial metric and start focusing on recirculating readers, which techniques such as ‘inline articles’ as seen above can increase recirculation by an average of 60%.

Take a lesson from Tinder on swiping

Swipe removed pagination from the mobile experience. However, not every reader discovers it in mobile publishers’ content. Imagine a world where only 20% of visitors to Tinder realized they had swipe for more content.

Apps such as Tinder and TikTok are built around swipe because they make it explicit. Publishers’ audiences are not expecting to swipe, rather follow the sections and pagination of traditional news sites. Publishers that have managed to make swipe work for them use clear and simple UI cues that make swipe a logical and intuitive cue.

Another major difference in what swipe offers us – compared with clicking new content, changing pages, or switching apps – is that we’re unsure of risk/reward ratio. And this can deliver higher rewards than evaluating decisions.

Provided we have some information about a user’s tastes, such as broad interests, swiping to a new article in a relevant or category or similar topic can even be more rewarding than choosing a new link based on rational decision-making. To do this, swipe needs to be integrated with cues to show that swipe is the intended action. As it is not yet a natural motion on content sites, this behavior needs to be taught and established.

By re-working these born-mobile techniques, publishers can re-define swipe to make it a more natural and established action. This will help publishers turn swipe and scroll from well-intentioned but ineffective tools into powerful and essential components of any content-based UI.

Industry-Research

Consumers are excited about 5G connectivity. Less so about escalating privacy concerns

December 17, 2019 Rande Price, Research VP – DCN

Perhaps the word of the year for 2019 should be “connectivity.” According to Deloitte’s new report, 2019 Connectivity and Mobile Trends (CMT), the average household now has 11 connected devices, with seven different smart screens to view content. Smart home devices are also popular with more than a quarter of U.S. households (28%). Consumers are using connected thermostats, security, lights, and other connected products.

Consumers are also enthusiastic about 5th generation wireless networks (5G) and the promise of higher performance, greater reliability, and more cost-effective usage. Awareness is quite high with close to two-thirds of consumers reporting that they are familiar with 5G wireless networks. In fact, 28% of consumers say they are “very likely” to buy a compatible smartphone when the service is available in their area.

According to Deloitte’s findings, both Gen Z and Millennials plan to use 5G for its promise of speed and bandwidth for gaming and entertainment services like augmented reality and virtual reality (AR and VR). These services require high-speed, low-latency connections. Further, mobile gaming will also see a surge in usage. Nearly half of both Gen Z and Millennials familiar with 5G (49%), report that they will play more mobile video games using 5G connectivity.

Data collection

With consumers more connected than ever before, they are also more aware of the realities of the data economy including the collection of their personal data. Nearly three-quarters of consumers (72%) agree that they are more aware of how their data is collected and used than a year ago. Connected devices are a way of life. So too is the exchange of personal data for free digital services.

It appears that over half of consumers (52%), agree that the value they derive from digital services overrides their privacy and security. It’s important to note, this study did not differentiate between the data collection of publishers compared to social platforms or between first-party or third-party in its line of questioning.

Vulnerability is key here. More than half of consumers (58%) are “very” or “extremely” concerned about the privacy of their smartphone data, and 59% feel similar about its security. Consumers are also concerned about the privacy and security of smart phone speakers (73%) and about the privacy of home automation devices (72%). Importantly, 90% of consumers report that they should be able to see and delete data that companies collect about them. Further, 84% state that they want to be paid by companies that profit from their data.

Data protection

Consumers see platform and online services that collect their data as “most responsible” for protecting it (35%). This is followed by consumers themselves (26%), and the government (15%). Nearly two-thirds of consumers (61%) report that platforms and online services are making it harder for them to understand how their data is being used. A full 56% also state that they have less trust in these companies than they did a year ago. Interestingly, most consumers (84%) agree that the government should do more to regulate the way companies can collect and use data.

Consumers clearly welcome better connectivity and improved service performances. However, this comes with heightened awareness and concerns over their data privacy. While they value the online services they use, consumers want more control and transparency on the data collection, usage and a share in its monetization.

Industry-Research

What this past quarter of engagement data tells us heading into 2020

December 9, 2019 Nick Lioudis, Content Manager—Chartbeat

When we look back at audience engagement insights this year, we confirmed what we’ve known for some time — mobile readership is growing rapidly across the world.

Overall, about 40% of direct visits take place on mobile devices, according to Chartbeat’s global publishing data. As if that weren’t enough to get your distribution strategy in order, we’ve found that poor mobile user experiences could be impacting your ability to drive reader revenue.

This quarter’s snapshot of the global audience engagement landscape points to many of the lessons media and publishing communities can use for strategic planning moving forward. Also, it’s worth taking a look back at our previous international reader engagement data published here earlier this year to see how those trends have evolved in just the past few months.

Africa, Southern Europe see mobile jumps

Mobile pageviews continue to climb in Africa, increasing from 77% to 79% in the past quarter. Mobile readership jumped across the rest of the world as well, notably in Southern Europe, which grew from 61% to 65%.

We previously noted that one of the newest, yet largely unknown, drivers of traffic is coming from mobile-first aggregators. A significant portion of this growth is driven by Google Chrome Suggestions and Google News, which each grew more than 50% this year. Outside of the US, we’ve seen platforms such as TikTok and TopBuzz drive an increasing amount of mobile traffic. Our data tells us to expect more of the same heading into the new year.

Search traffic in Central Asia, China rises

Pageviews coming from search engines continue to climb across Asia compared to last quarter. Search engine traffic in Central Asia is up 2% (now 30%), while China is up 3% (now 29%), and Southeast Asia increased by 1% (now 23%).

Southeast Asia still leads in social pageviews

There’s been something special about social interactions in Southeast Asia throughout 2019. For the third consecutive quarter, this region has made up the greatest share in percent of all pageviews coming from social platforms, holding steady at 31%.

Latin America: Home of the engaged reader

Three quarters in a row, readers across Latin America showed the highest Average Engaged Time at over 34 seconds. Close behind, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. We’re continuing to look into the drivers of growth, but we have seen major innovations among publishers in the region.

Northern Europe loyalty drops, but still tops

Northern European readers have lead loyalty metrics for three straight quarters, with the highest percentage of loyal* pageviews (46%) compared to total pageviews among readers.

This matters — there have been clear lines drawn between reader loyalty and the willingness to subscribe.

Audience engagement insights: This quarter and a look ahead

The themes we’ve seen across global publishers this past quarter align with the broader trends across digital media — we’re in a mobile-first environment that rewards user experiences as much as the quality of content. With the data we’ve outlined in mind, here are a few takeaways that can be taken into 2020:

Strategize for regions and devices. Segmentation is key to reaching new audiences and expanding current readership. The surge in mobile and search traffic across the world can show publishers:

How regions interact with content irrespective of one another.
Where readers are and how they engage with content, which will ultimately benefit their audience development efforts.

Leverage Engaged Time. High Average Engaged Times across the world, particularly in Latin America, present new opportunities to build loyal readers. Our research shows loyal readers consume more content, so optimizing articles to ensure readers are Recirculating will help media companies get the most out of their increased engagement.

There’s still an opportunity to expand your regional audiences by optimizing for the platforms and devices where they interact with content most — this trend will continue into the new year.

And, as mobile engagement continues to grow in influence, this places an even greater emphasis on making small adjustments to your site and digital content. Why? These trends we’re seeing may evolve as reader habits continue to change, but improving audience loyalty is an opportunity that digital content creators can’t afford to lose.

 * A loyal reader is someone who returns to your site in at least 50% of days in a two-week period.

Innovation

The Atlantic ventures into new digital waters

November 21, 2019 Erik Martin—Independent Journalist

When you’ve been in the publishing business since 1857, you can rightfully say that you’ve learned a thing or two about longevity and how to make a product continually appealing to ever-changing consumers. The key to maintaining that allure today, apparently, is to make things look simple without losing your sophistication. For The Atlantic, that means taking an A-to-Z approach, beginning – literally – with a capital “A” and ending with a close eye on Gen Z, your future readers.

Investing in growth

To better compete for eyeballs in an increasingly digital world, the publication recently undertook a significant redesign of its magazine, website, and iOS app and rolled out a new digital subscription service. To support these initiatives, the brand made several prominent new hires, including creative director Peter Mendelsund, senior art director Oliver Munday, and director of photography Luise Stauss. And over the past year, the product, engineering, and growth teams were doubled.

The results so far have been promising. September and October both drew record numbers of subscribers—more than double the number of subscriptions and revenue originally forecast. The website now tallies 30 million unique visits monthly and the magazine boasts a paid circulation of 500,000. And in the five days following the redesign rollout, The Atlantic had twice the number of subscribers daily, on average, as there were in the same period before the redesign.

New look, same savvy

Readers who visit the website or use the app today will likely take instant note of the streamlined design and sparse template at work. A bold red “A” logo has replaced the title’s previous iconic emblem. The words stand out consistently in a clean new custom typeface. Clustered or crowded content is a thing of the past thanks to a generous infusion of white space. And the top navigation bar is a simplified element better served by a hamburger menu icon in the upper left corner.

But what hasn’t changed, insists Adrienne LaFrance, executive editor of The Atlantic, is the quality writing, diversity of content, and journalistic integrity. “The way we will continue to stay competitive is by showing people how we are different than other publications—reminding them of our extraordinary writing, unmatched narrative journalism, beautiful design, and photography,” she says.

“Were lucky because we have a really differentiated and highly valuable product that people already love and have loved for a long time. But it was time for a redesign, with a focus on giving people the best possible user experience and helping them get to the best of our work even more easily.”

Mobile matters

First introduced in 2011, the improved iOS app (plans are afoot to launch an Android version) is designed to function as a compact version of the print magazine while retaining the cleanly legible look and unconstrained feel of the website. A dedicated editorial team exclusively manages the app, which has more carefully curated and diverse offerings for subscribers, thanks in large part to its Today feed.

“The Today feed walks the reader through what’s happening but gives them deeper context behind the news – stitching together the larger patterns so people can derive meaning from the day’s events. There’s a narrative arc there, not just a list of bullet points or headlines. There’s definite value for people who want to come away with a complete and rich sense of what’s going on in the world and why it matters,” LaFrance explains. “You can choose how deeply you want to delve into the feed, whether you want to read every single story or browse through it. The app and entire feed are free. Where you encounter the need to subscribe is when you click through to a particular article.”

LaFrance notes that the app and website are two distinctly different products. The mobile experience is focused on making it simple to brush up on the news of the day and discover articles of interest to on-the-go users.

“We want to respect people’s time and intelligence, and we understand that there are so many different options for getting information and reading. We know people come to The Atlantic for extraordinary journalism. And we want to make it easy and delightful for them to experience our stories,” she adds.

While she couldn’t yet disclose numbers post-revamp, LaFrance says that, historically, The Atlantic’s mobile app audience was a fraction of its overall digital audience. Previously, “in any given week, about three-quarters of subscribers who used our existing app came three-plus times per week,” she notes.

New routes to revenue

Simplifying the subscription model was another priority. Now, readers can opt from three tiers:

Digital ($50 annually, which includes unlimited access to TheAtlantic.com, the iOS app, digital issues, and a subscriber-only newsletter);
Print and digital ($60 a year, which comes with the aforementioned plus delivery of 10 print issues); and
Premium ($100 annually, for all of the above goodies plus exclusive access to podcasts, ad-free web browsing, a complimentary digital gift subscription, Atlantic product discounts, and priority access to exclusive events).

Subscriptions and print advertising serve as complementary pieces of the monetization pie (comprising approximately 20% of revenue). However, the lion’s share comes from digital advertising (45%). The remainder is derived from various sources, including live events (like The Atlantic Festival, Future of Work seminar, and Aspen Ideas Festival 2020).

“It’s actually a wonderful time to be a publisher because the incentives for the highest-quality journalism and what journalists want to make are aligned with what readers are willing to pay for. So, we can be incredibly ambitious knowing that the highest quality product is what people will want to subscribe to,” LaFrance says. “I think one of the reasons The Atlantic has remained so urgent and relevant for 162 years is that we’ve been really aggressive about diversifying revenue and one of the first media companies to demonstrate extraordinary skill in the live event space.”

That’s not to say the waters won’t be choppy ahead.

“This is an intensely competitive environment. That’s not just among publications and magazines but in the way people spend their time nowadays – from Netflix to TikTok to Instagram to news organizations. There is no other publication out there like The Atlantic, and that’s why we’re having so much success with our subscriptions,” she continues. “But the key for us going forward is making people understand what makes us special.”

Eye on the horizon

LaFrance, who joined the company in 2014 and served as its website editor for years, lives by an important credo: Nothing is guaranteed, especially in the world of digital publishing.

“No publication has a right to survive. You have to really serve your readers. That means doing the best quality work and finding the places where your readers are so that they can connect with your journalism, fall in love with it, and keep coming back.”

While mum on the details, LaFrance hinted that other exciting changes are coming soon to The Atlantic’s digital offerings. Right now, her team is focused on further perfecting the digital user’s experience and gauging reaction to the redesigns.

“We’ve done a lot of audience research and looked closer at how people are finding our stories, what they like, and what they are excited about on our site. All of that has been factored into our editorial thinking process. So far, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, almost to the point where we’re waiting to learn what we can do better.”

Industry-Research | Perspectives

Mobile aggregators: The opportunity for referral traffic we’re not talking about

October 21, 2019 Nick Lioudis, Content Manager—Chartbeat

Referral traffic to content has risen in recent years due in part to a largely unknown channel — mobile-first aggregators. Here’s what we know about mobile aggregators, why they matter, and importantly, their growing influence over reader traffic.

What is the mobile aggregators story?

Mobile-first aggregators present a growth story — the referral traffic they send to publishers has doubled in the past two years. A significant portion of this growth is driven by Google Chrome Suggestions and Google News, which each grew more than 50% this year (and drives significantly larger shares of referral traffic than Twitter).

The field of global mobile aggregators is also growing. Tokyo-based SmartNews and China-based news aggregator TopBuzz have shown rapid expansion, driving an increasing amount of traffic to sites. More importantly, their growth has changed the traffic landscape. Smartnews and TopBuzz are both now sending as much traffic as Yahoo.

Why content creators should pay attention to mobile aggregators

Digital-first organizations are still in the early stages of understanding the primary drivers of subscriptions. However, effective strategies rely on identifying the behaviors content creators can (and want to) encourage that will ultimately lead to more reader revenue.

From our research thus far, publishers have had far less success in converting readers from mobile-first aggregators compared to more traditional channels such as email. Connecting the dots is crucial.

Therefore, a deeper understanding of mobile-first aggregators can open up a whole new level of engagement, and by extension, a new reader revenue channel.

Next steps: Demystifying mobile aggregators

Based on what we currently know about mobile aggregators, here’s what content creators should keep in mind:

Strategize around these new mobile referral sources

Overall, we see the mobile-first aggregators as more of a missed opportunity than an unsolvable problem. We believe content creators can take advantage of this mostly untapped source of traffic by understanding their unique impact and optimizing content accordingly.

Audience development tactics are needed

For too long, mobile-first aggregators have been categorized as a subset of the larger platforms (i.e., Google search) we know well. However, we believe they should be seen as their own channel, which would get publishers closer to segmenting (and therefore optimizing) key drivers of traffic.

It’s all about attribution

Segmentation of traffic leads to better attribution. The ability to uncover mobile aggregator-specific patterns and better track their impact. Moreover, it can clear the path towards leveraging the channel for higher engagement, loyalty, and conversions.

Our data shows that the growth of mobile-first aggregators has significantly upended the traffic source landscape. Publishers would be remiss to take this shift lightly, as they may be missing out on a major source of referral traffic in the long-term.

This also coincides with a trend we’ve long seen — the fact that mobile-first readers are demanding better experiences. Therefore, it’s unsurprising that aggregators have become this increasingly influential source of traffic.

Innovation | Perspectives

Why you should consider bypassing app stores to reach new audiences

October 8, 2019 Peggy Anne Salz, Founder and Lead Analyst – Mobile Groove

Frustrated by fierce competition in a marketplace that counts over 6K new Android apps added daily to the Google Play app store alone and infuriated by reports that suggest Apple routinely favors its own apps in App Store searches, app companies and developers are adopting bold approaches to get their apps in front of potential audiences. The outcome is a flurry of activity and experimentation that could make 2019—destined to be the biggest year in mobile and apps yet—the best year for mobile app distribution models that pay real dividends.

A company writing the playbook is Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite. The shooter game on PC, consoles, and now mobile and apps has become a cultural phenomenon; as of March 2019, it had amassed an audience of almost 250 million worldwide. Addictive gameplay is certainly a big factor that has contributed to the blockbuster success of Fortnite since its launch in 2017.

However, if we dig deeper, a critical driver is a brilliant direct distribution strategy shaped by the company’s determination to bypass the app store. “Avoiding the 30% ‘store tax’ is a part of Epic’s motivation,” the company’s CEO Tim Sweeny told Forbes. “It’s a high cost in a world where game developers’ 70% must cover all the cost of developing, operating, and supporting their games.”

It’s also high time to ask some basic questions about the app store distribution model that hasn’t changed since the app stores opened for business in 2008. Leave it to the edgy El Reg to call out the elephant in the room. “More pertinently, after a decade, is the question why Apple and Google still take a 30% cut. In a competitive marketplace, wouldn’t that rate have been whittled down over the years?”

In a world where prices are falling everywhere, the article concludes, “that 30% over a decade is starting to look plain embarrassing.”

Clever moves to cut out app stores

The Apple-Google app store duopoly is increasingly the focus of broad government antitrust investigations. That’s because these two companies serve as gatekeeper for a massive marketplace where consumers are expected to spend an incredible $120 billion this year, according to app market intelligence provider App Annie. Think of it: That’s 5 times the growth rate of the global economy. So, its little wonder companies are lining up for their share of the action (and revenues).

A pioneer in the alternative app-marketplace was Facebook’s Instant Games. The platform where consumers can launch games from within Facebook’s chat apps has gained significant traction this year. The content library—6,000 Instant Games compared to over a million Android games and over 800,000 games on iOS—may seem tiny, but the goal here isn’t size. Facebook leverages its social connections to power an app-like ecosystem that doesn’t require an app store.

In China, the mobile messaging app WeChat has done one better. It has evolved into a one-stop-shop platform for a wide array of content and services. Consumers rely on it every step if their daily journey. With the help of “mini-programs” they download directly into WeChat, users can access content, order meals, make payments, and call a cab—and that’s just the start.

The alternative app marketplace

The ranks of companies building the capabilities to take aim at Apple and Google’s dominance of the app economy are growing. Realistically, though, it’s a strategy only a handful of companies can afford to pursue. So, what are the options for the masses of companies and developers that want to reach new audiences with their apps but lack the resources to construct and command their own alternative app marketplace?

One approach gaining traction is the Direct 2 Device (D2D) model. I learned about this one through my own informal survey at Mobile Growth Summit. D2D is the choice for an increasing number of app companies—particularly media and entertainment apps eager to engage more users across more regions. In this scenario, app companies work with Digital Turbine, a mobile delivery platform that leverages more than 40 partnerships with handset makers and mobile operators worldwide to pre-load apps on devices. Apps are delivered directly to the device because Digital Turbine’s technology sits at the operating system level of new Android phones, enabling companies to reach consumers as they set up new devices.

Delivering a frictionless user experience

In practice, the approach gets apps directly in the hands of consumers. It also puts consumers in control of their apps, giving them the option to keep what they like and delete the apps they don’t. The result is a frictionless experience that streamlines app discovery, which saves users the hassle of sifting through digital shelves packed with millions of apps.

This is a big deal in a global app economy where app store search, though not broken, is clearly not optimal. Many apps show up high in search results because the companies that made them have mastered app store optimization or bid on the right keywords, not because the apps are the best fit with what consumers are looking for in the first place.

Digital Turbine’s EVP of global revenues and growth Matt Tubergen tells me his company has preloaded over 2 billion apps via its software platform, which is installed on more than 270 million devices. Shopping and gaming—hypercompetitive verticals where too many apps are chasing too few users—were the first to embrace Digital Turbine to capture and convert new audiences. More recently, media and entertainment apps have joined the party.

From CNN to the BBC, and from Smart News to News Republic, companies are making D2D the cornerstone of their customer activation strategy. News portals and social platforms, including Yahoo!, Opera News, and Reddit, are also harnessing the platform to fuel growth.

Significantly, Digital Turbine’s Tubergen says many media companies don’t just see D2D as a play to bypass the app stores. “It’s about augmenting their channels—increasing reach in a way that allows them to take back control of the download experience and determine their distribution in addition to the app stores.”

You have options

Whether companies have the wherewithal to build their own app store marketplaces (without a store), or join the ranks of companies making their apps available to consumers directly on the smartphone at the time of device activation, it pays to explore other ways to distribute your app and grow your audience.

Media consumption on mobile is headed for the stratosphere this year. In fact, roughly 10 minutes out of every hour spent consuming media will be on a mobile. So, it’s no surprise that the dominant distribution channels are noisy and crowded. Harnessing alternative distribution channels allows media companies to drive customer connection—without the friction. It also lets them focus on an even bigger challenge: ensuring that consumers engage frequently and deeply with their apps.

Perspectives

Tear down the funnel and build a pyramid: The shift from purchase funnels to mobile customer journeys

August 6, 2019 Peggy Anne Salz, Founder and Lead Analyst – Mobile Groove

In a market where the cost to acquire an app user is rising through the roof, and the increase in app abandonment (the number of users who quit an app after one use) is alarming, it’s clear that the traditional focus on top-funnel metrics is fatally flawed. Our focus on a linear journey is completely out of line with user lifecycles. Mobile had forever altered the consumer path to purchase and funnel models no longer fit.

Architecting campaigns and strategies that prize acquisition over retention doesn’t just force marketers to burn considerable cash. It blinds them to the key engagement activities and metrics that are the sure-fire indicators of highly valuable and deeply loyal consumers who are primed to engage with content—and more.

It doesn’t matter whether the goal is to drive registrations, encourage consumers to volunteer information such as personal preferences that will allow you to deepen the customer relationship, or sell subscriptions: Ensuring a predictable and sustainable cash flow quality trumps quantity every time. In the App Economy, success isn’t a numbers game. It requires strategies that get the right users into your app—and keep them coming back.

A strategy that harnesses AI and machine learning to connect with customers in a relevant way based on an analysis of the millions of data points and signals that communicate their context via mobile and in-app can be a bonus. But even the best mix of analytics and analysis will miss the mark if marketers segment their audience by static demographics, not dynamic actions.

Embracing the engagement pyramid

First and foremost, marketers need a firm grasp of the hard data around the “who” of their customer base. However, they must also command the soft skills around the “why.” They need to understand what motivates their audience to take action in the first place. Effective app marketing engages with users throughout the lifecycle based on these two inputs.

But an ongoing data investigation by Phiture, a leading mobile growth consultancy based in Berlin, and CleverTap, a full-stack customer retention platform, ads a third dimension. They’ve built a framework to measure and analyze the user engagement we observe.

Published for the first time last month, Phiture’s framework offers marketers a more nuanced view of user engagement and a roadmap to increase retention. The authors of this must-read resource (Andy Carvell, Kevin Bravo ,and Tessa Miskell) present the Engagement Pyramid, a model that breaks engagement down into three layers:

Acknowledgment, where users show an appreciation for the app, but not high intent. (For example, opening the app or reading a push notification.)
Interest, where users deliberately interact with the app and demonstrate a willingness to do more. (For example, tapping on items in a feed, consuming content and initiating search queries.)
Conversion, where users follow through and complete a core action that is aligned with the purpose and value proposition offered by the app. (For example, booking a trip with a travel app or managing money with a finance app.)

Maslow and measurement

The framework gets high marks on several counts. It bravely questions the practice of monitoring DAU (Daily Active Users) or MAU (Monthly Active Users), or employing performance metrics that simplify engagement into binary terms (counting users as engaged or not). It also gives the concept of a purchase funnel a rehaul, literally turning it on its head in a hat tip to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Maslow’s theory in psychology divides our human needs into five levels, placing the most basic needs at the bottom of the pyramid and elevating our most complex needs to the top of the pyramid, the Engagement Pyramid inspires marketers to aim high—and be highly focused on outcomes.

Above all, the authors open our eyes to the model and the mindset marketers must embrace to increase meaningful engagement and stop churn before it starts. “It’s important to understand that engagement is a continuum, ranging from low-value to high-value actions,” they write on their latest blog. “A user may traverse this spectrum rapidly within the space of a few sessions, or remain stubbornly stuck in a low-engaged state for days, months, or years, without necessarily abandoning the app.”

Tracking events and asking questions

Applying the framework doesn’t just equip marketers to analyze key user actions and assign them to the proper layer in the Engagement Pyramid. It enables marketers to assess the value of user engagement and the potential impact on the business. “Observing how layers grow or shrink over time gives an indication of how well the app is performing,” the authors write.

Are more users performing actions that demonstrate Acknowledgement at the bottom of the pyramid than are striving to complete events associated with Conversion at the top? Review your app onboarding strategy and double-check that your user acquisition campaigns are designed to attract the right users from the get-go.

Is there a high correlation between the number of users who belong to the Acknowledgement layer and the number of users who progress to Conversion? Read that as a signal that you can scale campaigns, increase spend and aim high—because you can.

Piecing together the retention puzzle

While the authors don’t specifically address it in their framework, insights into how users engage and how much it’s worth also empower marketers to enhance the user experience and—ultimately—increase customer lifetime value.

This was the focus during Cutting-Edge Retention Strategies, a recent webinar and fireside chat where I was a guest along with Jessica Osorio, Lead, Mobile Growth at Mozilla. While she doesn’t formally apply the AIC framework (our discussion preceded its release by roughly two months), her analysis of engagement metrics and their impact is just as rigorous.

“All apps face a really steep drop in retention on Day 1, just 24 hours after the app install,” she told me. To plug this “leaky bucket” and deepen user engagement with the app, Mozilla has improved the onboarding experience, adding what it calls the “welcome journey.” It’s during this stage that Mozilla delivers a series of automated push notifications and in-app messages to “walk users through all the things to do with the app that we know will drive the most value for them.”

Osorio is also realistic about the “natural usage frequency” and the importance of setting reachable targets for how (and how far) her company can drive app engagement. “We want users to come back and enjoy the app, but it’s not a target we miss if the users don’t come back on a daily basis,” she said. “For us, it’s not DAU or WAU. It’s about building products that meet users’ needs and journeys that surface that value from the start.”

Audiences evolve, and marketers must keep the pace with app messaging, ad creative and the value proposition tailored to match with the needs of users as they move through the app journey. Whether companies embrace new frameworks to assess engagement or architect customer journeys to boost loyalty, the increased interest in retention marketing has profound implications. It also demands marketers master the capabilities to reach and segment users based on what users do (and don’t do) in-app with messaging that motivates them throughout the customer lifecycle and the life span of the app.

Innovation | Revenue | Video

How Hotstar, India’s hottest OTT service, turns viewers into subscribers

June 11, 2019 Peggy Anne Salz, Founder and Lead Analyst – Mobile Groove

The advance of high-speed networks and affordable data plans hasn’t only whet audience appetites for unlimited anytime, anywhere access to the content they desire. It has created ideal conditions for data-hungry streaming apps to proliferate, displacing traditional broadcast TV, and driving the meteoric growth of on-demand video. The phenomenon is global in scale, but nowhere is the impact as profound as in India, the fastest-growing video streaming market in the world. In India, on-demand entertainment services are forecast to account for more than 74% of mobile data traffic by 2020, up from 47% in 2014.

Streaming viewership is soaring, but it’s Hotstar—part of the Walt Disney entertainment empire and India’s largest premium streaming platform —that is seeing numbers climb into the stratosphere. In June Hotstar set a new global benchmark for live events. It reported a record 18.6 million users simultaneously tuned into the company’s mobile website and app to watch the deciding game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket games. This sort of high-octane content has allowed Hotstar to grow the number of monthly users across app and web to 300 million, up from 150 million the previous year.

Hotstar balances a mix of blockbuster entertainment (including rights to popular movies and shows from ABC, HBO, and Showtime) with a bouquet of content aligned with India’s obsession with Bollywood and demand for local language translations. (Note that India hosts hundreds of dialects and over 20 official languages). As a result of this winning combination, Hotstar dominates India’s on-demand video streaming services market. The latest research from Jana pegs Hotstar’s total market share at 69.7%, compared to Amazon (5%) and Netflix (1.4%).

Using data to differentiate the customer experience

At first glance, it’s remarkable that large global players with deep pockets continue to struggle in the Indian market—despite significant investments to ramp up local content. But look under the hood, and you may be surprised. Hotstar’s success may start with broadcast rights for live premium sports paired with high-quality vernacular content that attracts record numbers of viewers. However, it’s driven by a strategy that harnesses personalization, recommendations, and psychographic segmentation to keep them coming back.

Finding the right balance between acquisition and retention is crucial for a company like Hotstar, which thrives on live events. It pays to spend millions of dollars to acquire audiences at scale—but only if users don’t leave in droves when the event is over. Hotstar turned a potential problem into a massive opportunity by mapping individual user journeys to move audiences across the funnel from freemium viewers to paid subscribers.

How Hotstar moves viewers from fremium to subscription

In an exclusive interview, Mihir Shah, VP of Product & Marketing Growth at Hotstar, distills the company’s data-driven approach into the four fundamentals companies must get right to turn casual users into committed fans.

1. Personalize the entire user experience

It’s important to look beyond demographics to gain a deeper understanding of who your user is, what job your product solves in their lives, and how they use your product, Shah explains. In this scenario, actions are just as important as inactions to develop relevant engagement and re-engagement strategies. How many times has the user opened the app or viewed the content? How long has it been since the last interaction? How quickly or slowly is the user moving through the funnel, and what “nudges” might convince and—ultimately—convert them? Shah says these are critical questions marketers can only answer if they get a firm grasp of behavioral segmentation models aimed at understanding and predicting user attitudes and outcomes. “Once you establish a degree of predictability around how your users behave, the way is clear to progress users through the funnel with the help of content that is packaged and promoted based on a deep understanding of user personas and psychographics,” he says

2. Recommend your content along the customer lifecycle

User acquisition burns money if audiences don’t stick around to explore and consume the breadth of content available on the platform. This can be a major marketing challenge, and why a big part of Shah’s job revolves around “converting the sports fans who come to our platform—about 70 to 80 million daily for live events like IPL—to start watching more of the entertainment we offer. And, ultimately, get them to commit to a subscription.”

Achieving this objective requires the ability to identify and segment users based on digital details, including their browsing and viewing history, content consumption patterns and other preferences. “Based on a collaborative filtering method, we recommend entertainment titles that other sports viewers watch,” Shah says. “If the user is a free user on our platform, we move them through the funnel by recommending content from our Premium library that they are most likely to appreciate—content suggestions based on freemium viewership patterns. The relevant recommendations are then delivered to users off-platform as part of an omnichannel campaign strategy that spans push notifications, social and programmatic.

3. Messaging must be personal and perfectly timed

Keep up the momentum with campaigns that seek to influence user behaviors, not just move metrics. Shah illustrates using the example of users who have streamed live cricket matches. “We know that sending them push notifications based on the actual game event will encourage them to relaunch the app and view the game in progress.” In practice, he says, this means “delivering over 100 million push notifications tailored to the moment and timed perfectly within a very small window of just a few minutes.”

It’s a critical timeline that Shah says Hotstar reaches with the help of CleverTap, a customer lifecycle management and engagement platform that is capable of delivering more than 25 million push notifications a minute/ Shah says it was essential to reach Hotstar’s app install base of over 250 million. Significantly, “event-centric” campaigns appear to resonate most with audiences, boosting engagement and the average watch time per session by 12% and more.

“As we cross-sell entertainment content, let’s say a movie, to our sports viewers, our marketing creatives bring out a connection between the sport and the entertainment content, thus making the content more appealing to a sports fan.” But making the connection is just part of the strategy. Shah stresses it’s also a good idea to pinpoint the days and times of the week that different user segments are the most active and receptive to push notifications. Hotstar used these insights to optimize send times, increasing click-through rates by 3x in the process.

4. Engaging with users in real-time is a game-changer

RFM (Recency, Frequency Monetary) analysis is a behavioral segmentation model that examines user activity to identify how recently and frequently they performed a key action. To make sure the effort marketers invest in this model also drives returns, RFM also looks at the monetary value of the action (such as purchasing an item or, in the case of Hotstar, subscribing to programming). Shah is a huge proponent of RFM, a framework his company has harnessed to bring context to user engagement campaigns and, more importantly, predict churn. In both cases, Hotstar segments users in real-time based on certain actions or inactions they undertake within the app.

Imagine a scenario where users who were watching a particular episode of a series simply leave the app for some reason. “We see that as a trigger and send them a customized push notification encouraging them to come back to finish viewing that particular episode at precisely that moment.” Similarly, users who have seen previous episodes of a series but not the latest one, are sent a contextual push notification as soon as the latest episode is released. The outcome, he adds, is “more conversions and increased content consumption.”

The future is interactive

As Hotstar continues on its impressive growth trajectory, Shah says, the company is ready to take on one more bet: that “the future of all sports streaming will be social.” As he sees it, there’s no reason to limit the flow of content to push or pull. “Why should content consumption be one way?,” he asks. “Why can’t it be immersive and interactive?”

To enable two-way exchange, Hotstar is laying a new layer on top of its platform. Last year it introduced Watch`N`Play, a game that challenges users to guess cricket gameplay and outcomes, as well as social features and streaming using virtual reality (VR) to make the match more immersive. This year Hotstar is going one better, adding “another layer of chat” to the platform, allowing fans to invite their friends from their Facebook account or phone book contacts to the platform.

Effective user acquisition ends in advocacy, and that means meeting and anticipating needs that consumers themselves might not be able to identify. “It’s becoming increasingly clear that customers are hungry for more, even though they don’t know what they are looking for,” Shah explains. It’s up to companies like Hotstar to pave the road for this future, building a platform and adding what he calls “unique, inevitable and incremental experiences” that go beyond just entertaining content.

Innovation | Perspectives

Channels, conversions, and churn: Why better mobile UX is key for publishers

April 29, 2019 Su Hang, Data Scientist–Chartbeat

Publishers attempting to unlock new sources of reader revenue are understandably honing in on device usage, particularly when there are an estimated 5.1 billion unique mobile users around the world that could be paid subscribers.

Chartbeat data between May 2018 and April 15 of this year shows that mobile continues to dominate device-based engagement across the world, with between 55% and 60% of readers engaged through this channel, followed by desktop and tablet. This trend is also reflected across North America, where approximately 57% of readers prefer mobile devices to consume content.

However, simply possessing the analytics to know whether readers prefer your mobile, tablet, or desktop experience is only step one. The next and crucial step is understanding the sources of retention and churn.

Therefore, we wanted to take a closer look at the relationship between devices and subscriber behavior, specifically where subscribers most often convert or churn. From there, publishers can uncover the solutions that will improve subscriber retention rates.

Analyzing subscriber conversions by device

We began by analyzing subscriber status changes (i.e., conversions or churns) that took place across publishers in January. In order to be included in the dataset, a user* would have had to visit a site on their device at least once in the last quarter of 2018 and at least once in January.

Quick note: Why do we refer to the data population as “users”? Since we don’t track individuals across devices, it’s possible for a single person to appear multiple times in the data if they’re accessing a publisher’s site on multiple devices.

Subscriber patterns

Our findings show that while tablets have the most subscribers (as a proportion of total audience size on each device), they are also the most likely to convert, as indicated in the chart below. This is followed by desktop and mobile, suggesting on first impression that publishers should be focusing their web conversion UX efforts on tablet and desktop.

You can also see that the churn/conversion ratio is highest on mobile (which also has the greatest number of users), followed by desktop and tablet. This suggests that the mobile web subscription and/or login experiences on websites is simply not up to par with their desktop counterparts. This could potentially take the form of slow loading speeds or difficulty navigating through form fills, for instance.

What can publishers do to improve subscriber experiences?

Chartbeat’s analysis demonstrates that publishers will want to shore up their mobile UX and subscription flows, thereby improving the likelihood of subscriber conversions and retention while reducing churn. This is particularly important on mobile devices, given that those sites are now the predominant way new users experience a publisher’s website, but through which so few are being converted.

We also think it’s worth noting here that this slice of data does not include app users, which tends to be where mobile loyalists congregate. That said, we see a good opportunity for experimentation—publishers can analyze the impact of tailoring experiences towards acquisition, engagement, and conversion on the mobile web versus re-engagement and retention on the mobile app.

All publishers need to take a deep dive into new and churned subscribers over various time periods, their reading patterns by device, and whether their user journey flow would encourage, or turn off, a potential subscriber from converting. Our approach is to help publishers integrate subscriber analytics in an effort to provide a clear idea of the connections between audience engagement, loyalty, and more paying subscribers. Clearly, publishers need to develop a deeper understanding of their subscribers’ device-based usage.

Advertising | Innovation | Perspectives

Mobile apps are making a comeback and publishers better be ready

April 22, 2019 Eric Shih, Chief Supply Officer - Teads

The mobile app ecosystem will turn 11 years old this summer, and it has evolved into one of the largest industries globally with forecasted revenues of almost $190 billion. There are now millions of apps in both the Apple App Store and Google Play. And they account for over half of digital media usage and time spent in the US. We are obviously in a mobile-first world – at Teads, mobile traffic represents over 70% of our publishers’ traffic worldwide.

However, we find that many publishers continue to focus investment on web while either treating their existing apps as side projects or not developing an app presence at all. Given the rapid shift in consumer media consumption and shift in the publisher landscape, combined with digital dominance by the “duopoly” (and soon triopoly), the time is now for publishers to prioritize their mobile app presence.

Increasing consumption and engagement

Consumers not only spend the majority of their time on mobile in apps, but the average number of apps used continues to increase (by 15% in 2018) to ~35 apps per US smartphone user. Mobile app users are also more attractive audiences given their high engagement rates in app as opposed to mobile web.

The Daily Beast recently confirmed this trend, noting that their app users average 3x more pages per session than their mobile web users. Bleacher Report is a prime example of a publisher whose audience is primarily in-app vs. mobile web – with its users averaging 5 minutes per day in the app. More and more editorial publishers are now appearing among top apps, as names such as The New York Times, CNN, Bleacher Report, The Washington Post, BBC News, and USA Today, among others, continually rank in the top 500 apps in the US (per comScore, July 2018).

Mobile apps > mobile web

The mobile app user experience (and native apps in particular) is superior to mobile web for both content and advertising, which is probably a core driver of consumer engagement in-app. Native apps are typically faster, lighter, more interactive, and can often allow offline content browsing. They’re also easier to access for consumers, especially if apps are loaded on to the home screen of a smartphone.

These benefits extend to ad experiences in-app as well, where advertising growth continues to explode and expected to reach $77 billion in the US this year. Mobile app ads have evolved beyond just traditional display and rewarded videos, which are typically fueled by app-install spending.

The market has evolved to include video, outstream, and native formats, many of which provide more innovative and interactive experiences then web since these ads can tap into the native features of smartphones (i.e., Bluetooth, GPS, gyroscope, camera, compass, etc.).

Measurement is also greatly improved with the IAB’s Open Measurement SDK, which facilitates 3^rd-party viewability and verification measurement in-app, and this is poised to further accelerate mobile app ad spending. In addition, mobile apps are relatively immune to ad blocking which is pervasive in web environments.

Better personalized ads

Mobile app inventory for publishers could become an even more critical component of a wholistic digital ad strategy as industry concerns around data privacy escalate and tech giants clamp down on tracking and personalization in browser environments. Apple’s ITP (Intelligent Tracking Prevention) in Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox browsers have placed significant limitations on cookie usage and hence programmatic ads on mobile web. And Google is rumored to be evaluating similar restrictions in Chrome, which would then effect the majority share of mobile web browsers.

Mobile apps represent both a hedge against these limitations and a superior environment for personalized advertising. In-app ad targeting can leverage Device IDs, which are tied to specific users rather than browsers, as well as more accurate location (GPS) and detailed demographic/behavioral data (particularly if the app requires registration).

Revenue diversification

Ultimately, mobile apps provide a new path for publishers to diversify their revenue streams. Not only do apps provide more opportunities for advertising, but also a channel for subscriptions, in-app purchases, e-commerce, etc. In-app subscriptions actually fueled growth in consumer spending in non-gaming apps by 120% since 2016. App stores also provide an easy way for engaged audiences (which are generally more prevalent in-app than web) to subscribe and make payments for transactions.

It’s time for publishers to start investing in mobile apps, which should no longer be an after-thought. While mobile app development and maintenance is not an easy task for many publishers, it should be considered an integral part of long-term digital strategy and a major growth driver. A successful transition of web users to app users can result in significant increases in loyalty and engagement, leading to new revenue opportunities while defending publishers against threats in a rapidly changing digital landscape. Mobile apps are no longer just a game (pun intended).

Innovation

How ABC’s Localish harnesses hyperlocal and positivity to engage audiences and drive revenue

April 15, 2019 Peggy Anne Salz, Founder and Lead Analyst – Mobile Groove

Nielsen numbers released last month show media consumption continues to climb with more attention being diverted towards smartphones than ever before. The total percentage of time spent on mobile among 18 to 34-year-olds has reached a new high — 34% up from 29% the previous year — at the expense of more traditional TV viewing. It’s a dramatic development that turns up the pressure on companies to produce content that is digital, mobile and video first. However, it’s not enough to get the array of platforms right. The approach to storytelling has to reflect a broader range of emotions and appeal to the desire of digital natives for news that is as personal as it is pertinent. ABC Owned Television Station is doing both. They are focused on creating a consumer connection with hyperlocal stories, which drives revenue.

Peggy Anne Salz —mobile analyst and Content Marketing Strategist at MobileGroove — catches up with Jennifer Mitchell, SVP Content Development for the ABC Owned Television Stations. Mitchell is responsible for leading the content strategies and original, digital content production for non-linear platforms across the group. She works directly with the station content teams to fuel expansion of the digital footprint. She leads production teams in New York and Los Angeles to develop new content and revenue opportunities. The most recent is Localish, a digital-native media brand that brings out the good in America’s cities, which launched on ABC platforms in fall 2018. Mitchell discusses how Localish has combined local storytelling and a diversified distribution strategy to engage Millennials and enhance the value of branded content.

Salz: At ABC, which owns its local affiliate in six of the eight largest media markets, you are building a new type of local-nation brand through Localish. What is the motivation and distribution strategy behind it?

Mitchell: Our eight local television stations have strong connections to our communities. With our Localish brand, we tap into those existing strong connections to broaden the types of content we produce. We provide more diverse storytelling than what you might normally see in a traditional newscast or local news website. Drawing on the demand for authentic and relevant local storytelling, Localish launched with four series – “More In Common,” “Secretly Awesome,” “My Go-To,” and “Worth the Wait.” Each individual series helps viewers live like a local by sharing insider tips on hot trends, cool digs, and best-kept secrets around food, travel, and culture. We’ve since added six additional series under the brand.

Our view is that this is a brand and a type of content, locally sourced yet nationally relevant, that can be everywhere and discovered anywhere. To support this, we have a very diversified distribution strategy. To start, you can find the Localish content on our eight local stations, both digital and linear. Because our stories generate interest across the country, and not just locally, as well as around the world, they transcend geographic boundaries. To reach and engage these audiences, we have built out a footprint across the major social platforms, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. We also have a presence in Oath and there are other distribution opportunities that we are currently pursuing. The goal is to seed the content where viewers prefer to consume it; what we call the next generation of news and information.

Salz: You have a presence on the abc.com platform, which is where localish.com lives, and you have chosen not to have a standalone mobile app at this point. Was this decision deliberate?

Mitchell: Our brand is a digital-native media brand, and we want to be discovered and enjoyed by our audience, where our audience is. Our research on our top target audience tells us that 50% actively consume content on their smartphone across the day. They are also increasingly interested in local content. This trend is mirrored in Mary Meeker’s 2018 Internet trends report, which showed a 900% increase in Google searches for things that are “happening near me” or just nearby.

Our goal is to bring in the audience from wherever they are and familiarize them with the brand so that they continue to come back no matter where we are. Mobile websites do this. Social is also a big component of driving traffic and audience for us. From the perspective of discoverability and growth, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have been strong platforms for us.

Salz: Granted, social is critical for discoverability and virality. However, there can also be tension.

Mitchell: It’s a delicate balance. And we weigh each decision about every additional distribution point very carefully. Data and research tell us that consumers congregate in certain places, and Facebook is one of them. Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube are also important platforms. We will continue to play in that space and we are also pursuing other opportunities to diversify the portfolio.

Salz: Nationally, TV is experiencing a difficult shift in business models. But local news appears to be experiencing a comeback. At Localish you recently marked a milestone of 140 million video views. What do you think is driving this renewed interest in local?

Mitchell: There is a local renaissance. And this isn’t just about there being increased interest in local stories, although our research shows there is. It’s about trust. With the public concern about “fake news” it’s local that is emerging as the most trusted source. In some cases, local news is more trusted than national news brands. We have that trust, and we are leveraging it in our markets. So, trust—consumers wanting to believe in the news—is driving a lot of this.

Audiences also want to connect with the people and places that are important to them, both locally and nationally. Localish becomes the connection point, connecting dots for people and introducing them to things that they might not otherwise have known about. And when we talk about local news and information, we have to recognize that the definition of news has changed and evolved. It is not just about the day’s top stories. It’s about things that are happening near people, where they live, and they want to know about it. It’s our goal to surface that type of information locally. But we also want to introduce it to a wider audience, using the platforms and technology that can bring these stories to national and international audiences who have an interest or are just curious about these places.

“Secretly Awesome,” a show uncovering the hidden gems in communities, is an example of this. We see from the engagement, particularly on Facebook Twitter, and Instagram, that people are sharing this content with others who don’t live in those cities saying, “Hey, the next time you’re here, we must go to this place” or “we must visit this business” or “we must buy this product.” So, what we’re seeing is content locally sourced, resonating with national audiences. It’s conversion and the activation of audiences through a new approach to storytelling that focuses on communities and connection.

Salz: Local news has evolved. What’s different about storytelling at the local level?

Mitchell: In a word: everything. It starts with the categories and topics we’re covering and extends to how we’re shooting pieces and telling the stories. The content is the focus, and many of the shows don’t have presenters. We’re finding it’s resonating with audiences because we’re getting right into the story. Our rule of thumb is to make sure the first three to six seconds of every piece of video we produce is compelling so that we draw the viewer in right from the start. We are also focused on positive storytelling. In many ways, it goes back to our brand attributes. Authenticity, curiosity, optimism, connected, unconventional: These are the words that we associate with the Localish brand. And this is the lens we use when we think about story selections.

We also extend the concept to tell stories about commonalities people share that transcend local storytelling to be more universal. “More in Common,” which is different from many of the other lifestyle travels shows we launched, is an example of this. It’s a show we did for Facebook telling stories about people who are seemingly very different, from different parts of the spectrum. But despite differences in their backgrounds, politically, economically or socioeconomically, they come together and find common ground and a common purpose. It shows the bridges being built between people of various races, religions, genders, and backgrounds in cities and towns across America. These are stories that resonate with our audience. They defy the odds and remind us that, in a time when many Americans feel divided, we can be the best when we can be together.

Salz: By design, these are stories that move our hearts and minds. How do you measure impact and gauge success?

Mitchell: Virality is certainly one. However, that’s something no media company can control, so it’s not something we count on—or measure—from a business perspective. Engagement is a key metric. Real-time data that we can see on our social platforms shows our audience is extremely engaged. We’re a video brand and so we naturally focus on video views and completion rates. In just 30 weeks since launch, we’ve seen over 140 million video views.

Performance is measured in audience and revenue. It’s important to build a business and grow revenue opportunities. To this end, we’re pursuing a number of traditional and non-traditional revenue opportunities as it relates to this new brand. In addition to licensing fees, we’ve also had some very successful ad sales deals around sponsorship and branded content. As we evolve the brand, we will look for ways to align our goals with the goals of our advertisers. There are local advertisers who want to acquire local audiences at the granular hyperlocal level. This is at the heart of what we do. We make connections with local audiences through content that they genuinely appreciate.

Salz: It’s interesting that you can achieve this level of engagement without a strong emphasis on technology to enhance the experience such as AR/VR, for example.

Mitchell: Content is the central focus for us. Our distribution strategy is diverse and we’re always looking for new opportunities in technology to deliver the story to our audiences. But, through all of these mediums, the content comes first. To broaden our reach, we’ve packaged the digital content into linear television specials airing across stations, hosted by up and coming talent. To expand even further, the brand is additionally shown on TaxiTV in New York City and in major airports around the country. What excites me most about the future of Localish is the continued evolution of engagement, how people are consuming content the way they want. Where our content lives, and how it can be accessed will always be aligned with the consumer first.

We approach all branded opportunities in the same way. The aim is to seamlessly integrate the brand into the story in a way that our audience views it as quality content, not advertising.

We were recently chosen as one of seven premium brands for the Local Media Consortium and Local Media Association’s Branded Content Pilot Project, which will further help us accomplish that goal. With this support, we’ll have additional resources to develop branded content with strong storytelling that makes sense for our audiences. We’ll also have tools to better understand which types of content work for our advertisers.

Editorial and storytelling are the priority, and we make that very clear with our clients and advertisers. We have the creative control, and these stories will be released in the weeks and months ahead. In many conversations with advertisers, clients and agencies, they tell us local content and our approach to storytelling is “new and shiny.” This is interesting because the technology isn’t the attraction. It’s the brand and the positivity—and the feeling of community we reinforce with content.

About the Author

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. Full disclosure: 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.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion | Uncategorized

A conversation about media engineering with Bloomberg’s Pooja Malpani

February 11, 2019 DCN

Pooja Malpani joined Bloomberg in October 2018 as the head of engineering for Bloomberg Media. We spoke with her about her new role, in which she leads the team responsible for Consumer Web, Media & Marketing engineering. This includes supporting Bloomberg.com, consumer mobile applications, and the systems that deliver marketing-moving news, data, audio and video to consumers and syndication partners – among other Bloomberg websites. The conversation – which covers her background in technology, technical challenges faced by the media industry, and diversity in the tech sector – was edited for length and clarity.

What’s your professional background?

I earned my bachelor of technology in computer science from Model Engineering College in India and my master’s in computer science from Indiana University. After completing my degrees, I worked at a few small companies before joining Microsoft as a software design engineer. I worked there for 9 years and spent most of my time on Microsoft Lync and Skype. Most recently, I was a senior engineering manager at HBO, where I oversaw subscription management for HBO video streaming. This included integration with several affiliates on HBO GO and paywall support in HBO NOW to ensure that HBO streaming could acquire new users and authorize existing users to browse and watch content. When millions of users logged in concurrently to watch a show like Game of Thrones, my team ensured that the back-end user services could handle that load gracefully.

What interested you in technology and engineering?

As a young girl in India, I loved mathematics, logic, and problem solving and wanted to be a logician. In my teenage years, I learned about computers and programmers and discovered that software engineering and coding was a natural fit for me. I was fortunate to find a booming tech industry and a career that was so well aligned with my interests.

How has the technology changed since you started in the field?

Today’s problems are more complex and we use different tools and languages to develop solutions.

Since starting my career, there’s been an evolution in messaging – from the ICQ client (released in 1996) to Yahoo! Messenger (released in 1998) and Skype (released in 2003). Facebook and Gmail were also launched, creating a platform for users and data to grow over the years, which resulted in an evolution of storage and retrieval technology. The world has become more connected than ever, with more than 2 billion smartphone users. Tech companies that noticed this trend became early adopters and employed mobile-first strategies. Today, there are emerging technologies – including virtual reality, augmented reality, autonomous vehicles, home assistants, location-based services and voice recognition – which are creating unique user experiences.

Many businesses are dealing with data on a scale they haven’t experienced before. For example, WeChat, a popular instant messaging client in China that’s also used for banking, shopping and playing games, now has about 1 billion users, and Facebook has about 2.5 billion users using at least one of their apps, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger. Advancements in technology and cloud services have evolved to support horizontal and vertical scaling to address large data.

How has the development of technology solutions for the media industry changed since you started in the field?

We’ve gone from analog to digital video and from DVDs and CDs to internet streaming – more than 50% of young American adults use streaming to watch TV as opposed to subscribing to traditional cable packages. Media companies are launching their own over-the-top (OTT) applications that stream content directly to consumers rather than only relying on linear subscription models.

For Bloomberg Media, users have direct access to content through Bloomberg.com or our mobile app, and our machine learning algorithms curate content to create a personalized experience for users. Breaking news on Bloomberg’s live blog can cause a spike in web traffic, and the right technology and investment are necessary to ensure that our systems can manage varying traffic patterns in a resource-efficient manner without adversely impacting user experience.

Our OTT offering has been part of our strategy for many years and it is available across multiple platforms, including Roku, Apple TV, Google TV and Samsung Smart TVs. The Bloomberg channel on the Roku platform offers the best of OTT, Video on-Demand and Live TV viewing experiences. Bloomberg Media was also one of the first media companies to offer OTT through Amazon Fire TV and was first to partner with Amazon for an Alexa Skill.

What are some of the key technical challenges that Bloomberg Media is faced with?

We have to be very mindful as we cater to different audiences, and each audience wants to consume their news in different mediums, such as digital, TV, radio, print or live events, as well as different formats, like a summary versus long-form article. In supporting these different formats and mediums across audio and video, there were a number of technical challenges that we overcame by building tools and processes to support the editorial teams. When editors are creating their stories, we provide them with a rich toolset to take advantage of different mediums without complicating their workflow, as well as provide them with flexible systems that render stories in different formats. In addition, we have built sophisticated edit dashboards and data visualization systems that the newsroom relies on for creating, curating and tagging stories. Bloomberg prides itself on speed, and as we accommodate our segmented audience, we must make sure latency is kept in check.

What do you see as the future of the media industry and what role does technology play?

Currently, we are witnessing a wave of media companies launching an OTT offering to complement their linear offering so they can meet their users where they are. Over the long-term, I don’t think users will want to manage and pay for more than six to 10 subscriptions. We can expect to start seeing some bundled subscriptions, either a la carte or skinny bundles to offset that overhead.

I think we’ll continue to see a decline in print news consumption, which means that digital news consumption via podcasts, video, web or apps across all devices will continue to increase over time. As users move from print to digital, advertising will follow. Engagement is going to be a key metric, so, to combat the shift to digital and user churn, many media companies are investing in user retention strategies rather than solely focusing on user acquisition strategies.

What’s something interesting that you find people often don’t know about Bloomberg and its engineering department?

I originally thought of Bloomberg as a financial services company. But, while there are journalists, analysts, and customer support agents, engineering is actually the company’s largest discipline. Bloomberg is really a technology company that builds software used by finance companies and others. Bloomberg has solid engineering rigor and some of the industry’s best software developers. Bloomberg is a very technical org and that runs deep across departments. I am constantly amazed by Bloomberg’s use and creation of cutting-edge frameworks and software. Bloomberg also uses and contributes to open source software actively.

Throughout your career, you’ve been a champion for gender diversity in technology. Are you seeing changes? What else needs to change and how can other engineers at Bloomberg and across the industry help?

Fewer women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) is, unfortunately, a global phenomenon. When I pursued computer engineering at university, I was one of 17 women in a class of 60. The number of women shrinks as you move into postgraduate studies, teaching, or work your way up in the industry. While there have been advocates for gender parity all along, over the last two decades, we have witnessed the numbers grow and, as a result, gather enough momentum that this a topic that is front and center in diversity initiatives across the industry. We can find solutions to problems we understand, and the first step is to acknowledge the problem. So, personally, I am very happy to see an open dialog on the low women:men ratio. We often blame the pipeline for not having a large pool of women candidates despite women making up 50% of the world’s population. We have to get more creative to effect a change in getting more women to reach the “pipeline.”

Bloomberg supports Teach First in the UK, which recruits, trains and places great new teachers in STEM in the schools they’re needed in, as well as partners with the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), whose “Aspirations in Computing” (AiC) initiative and community increase female participation in tech careers through mentoring and sponsorship. Bloomberg also has programs such as Returner Circles to support and engage talented women looking to return to full-time roles after a career break.

Helping women and other underrepresented minorities as they start their careers is important. Technologists can train and prep them for job interviews. Managers and senior engineers can mentor interns and minorities who work within and outside their company. Technologists can provide advice to students exploring whether to pursue computer science or STEM degrees. We need more male champions and allies to join the cause as the next generation of potential tech leaders pursue their career goals. There’s great promise when some of the smartest people in the world are working to address the gender disparity problem.

You once told the Herstory of Tech podcast that you had to get special permission from your dean and parents in order to access the engineering lab at your college in India, but your male colleagues didn’t. How have things changed since then in terms of women getting access to educational opportunities in STEM?

I was competing with two other students, in a .NET contest held by Microsoft across Asia in 2000. This was a new technology platform at the time, and the computer labs were locked at 6 PM. Male students could request late access easily, but being female, I was told by the dean that I needed written consent from my father. At the time I thought it was more unfair than outrageous. Apparently, I was the first female student to make such a request. Things are improving, and, on a positive note, investments go a long way in encouraging diversity and supporting the next generation. Efforts like the GHC Scholarships administered by AnitaB.org or the Emma Bowen Foundation Fellows Program, which provides internships for students of color, can change the education system. Just as important, women don’t need special permission to use computer labs today. We are on a good trajectory, and we need to continue moving forward.

What’s your favorite thing about working at Bloomberg?

Projects move very quickly through the ideation, planning and execution workflow to deliver new features to the customers. This is true even for the most complex initiatives that have multiple stakeholders. I love that about Bloomberg.

What’s your favorite aspect of Bloomberg’s culture?

Bloomberg prides itself on transparency. You see this in the physical office space, which has glass walls; the television and radio studios and conference rooms are also glass and all employees share an open office plan. Transparency flows through to how people work – two teams are never solving the same problem, employee calendars are shared across their teams and we don’t have redundancies because of this transparency.

This post originally appeared on the Tech at Bloomberg Blog.