This Week in Digital Marketing: How Red Bull & Amazon Won 2016
1. Report: Amazon Led Big Retailers in Digital Ad Spend Increases during Early Holiday Season
“Digital and linear TV each saw gains among half of the retailers measured.”
“The e-commerce giant increased digital ad spend during the holiday push by 224 percent year over year. Linear TV ad spend also rose – by 76 percent – while its print investment dropped 10 percent.”
2. Lenovo Debuts Amazon Alexa-Powered Smart Speaker at CES
“The device will retail for less than the Amazon Echo.”
“Like Microsoft is doing with Cortana, Amazon is making Alexa available to third-party developers and hardware makers to voice their connected products. Amazon is also making Alexa’s several thousand ‘skills’ (voice apps) equally available to developers.”
3. Amazon Launches Digital Day, a New Sales Holiday for Digital Products
“The timing for this new sales day appears to be flawless as it not only leads into a long holiday weekend but it also coincides with a time of year when people may have more gift cards to use (and new products to use it with – like the Echo.)
4. Individualization: Mobile Marketing’s Next Step
“Most notably, we’ve seen companies begin to embrace segmented push messages while increasingly avoided the dreaded broadcast messages (aka spam).”
“By the numbers, Localytics’ research has shown a 10% increase in the number of segmented push notifications.”
“Segmented, targeted messages see improved click-through rates, conversion rates and overall engagement. Your average segmented message sees a 7.4% click-through, while broadcast messages yield only a 4% click-through rate.”
5. Periscope Launches Live 360 Video Broadcasting
“The live videos work similar to other standard 360 integrations where users can physically rotate (or swipe/drag) to see the full scope of a moment.
“The 360 videos can currently be viewed by all users, but only a select group of partners are eligible to broadcast.”
6. Top Smartphone Apps of 2016: Google and Facebook Control 8 out of the Top 10 Slots
10. Amazon App
9. Apple Music
8. Instagram
7. Gmail
6. Google Play
5. Google Search
4. Google Maps
Click the link for the top 3!
7. YouTube Labs Pairs Brands and Agencies with Creators to Produce Platform-Relevant Content
“The initiative aims to help brands and their agencies produce episodic content designed to build an audience, while executing a ‘test-and-learn’ approach.”
8. Google Launching Free Mobile Site Creation Tool in India, Will it Come to North America?
“Roughly six years ago Google introduced its own DIY, free mobile website builder and then launched a portal with several partners offering small businesses mobile web development services.”
“Helping Indiana small businesses get online provides that content for Indian search users and simultaneously enables business owners to reach this massive but still not fully mature digital markets.”
"Red Bull had more than double the number of shares earned by the No. 2 most popular brand Samsung, which earned 124 million shares. In third place, McDonald's videos had 8.6 million shares."
10. Amazon Alexa Now Has More than 7,000 Voice Apps, Google Assistant Coming to TV
"Competition among virtual assistants heating up as they move to a broader range of connected devices and appliances."
This Week in Digital Marketing: The Top Retail Brand of 2016 Revealed!
1. Facebook’s Latest Measurement Error Undercounted Instant Articles Traffic
- “This is the fourth time Facebook has disclosed measurement errors in as many months.”
- “Measurement firm ComScore identified the error, which affected publishers’ traffic measurements from September 20 through November 30. Facebook said it has fixed the issue…”
- “Walmart has scored more than double the number video views than the second leading brand on YouTube for holiday-related content.”
3. 51% of US Adults Have Bought Something Online via Their Cellphones [Pew Data]
- “Latest Pew e-commerce research also shows that 80% shop online, but buying isn’t a frequent occurrence for most.”
4. Study: 55 Percent of Mobile Dollars Wasted
- “More than 70 percent of mobile ads fail to create a positive user experience.”
- “The report recommends minimizing disruptive ad formats, a greater focus on video ads and investing more in developing mobile ad creative. It also suggests more ‘real-time and contextual’ targeting in addition to demographic/audience targeting.”
5. Facebook Live Audio Turns the Social Network into a Radio Broadcaster
- “Facebook will start testing audio-only live streams with BBC World Service, Harper Collins and Others”
- “On Tuesday, Facebook announced Live Audio, an audio-only version of Facebook Live that can be used to broadcast radio shows, podcasts, book readings and more.”
6. Instagram Launches Stickers for Stories, But Advertisers are Left Out for Now
- “The first feature, stickers, is a way to add context to stories. After the photo or video is taken, a stickers button will be added next to text and drawing tools to further enhance them.Various stickers have been added, such as weather, current time and location, and can be resized or moved across the canvas. The location will give the viewers the ability to learn more.”
- “Instagram has also added a ‘hands-free’ option to record video with one tap – which certainly makes things easier, as the user does not have to press and hold any more. They’ve also gone ahead and allowed users to add unlimited text to their uploaded media (with center, left or right justification) and wrapping.”
7. How Twitter is Making its Top Search Results More Relevant than Recent
- “In September, Twitter started sorting the top results on its search pages based on relevance, a departure from its traditional reverse-chronological order.”
- “Twitter’s also looking at how it can squeeze a wider variety of tweets into search results, so that flashier tweets don’t obscure the rest.”
8. TV Marketing: The Future is Digital
- “In order to create a holistic marketing strategy that can survive the changing digital landscape, brands need to consider where the future of TV is going.
- 1:1 personalization, for example, is an emerging form of TV advertising that can enable brands to tailor the engagement to specific customers and offer them unique content.”
9. Twitter Overcharged Video Advertisers Due to Error in Its Android App
- “Twitter has refunded advertisers whose Android campaigns were incorrectly measured due to a technical glitch.”
- “In some cases, the refunded amount was as little as $1, though that may say as much about Twitter’s video ad prices as about the scope of the error. The glitch inflated Twitter’s video ad measurements by as much as 35 percent, according to Business Insider.”
10. Newsletters Still Top Tactic for US Email Marketers
- “Approximately 4/5’s (83%) of the US email marketers Clutch polled sent newsletters as marketing emails, making it respondents’ most widely used email marketing tactic.
- “In general, email continues to be the most cost-effective choice when measured up against other digital marketing tactics. Email had a median ROI of 122%, according to US marketers polled June 2016 by the Data & Marketing Association and Demand Metric."
11. BrandZ Top 25 Most Valuable Global Retail Brands 2016/17
- 5. Ikea: 18.08 million (Brand value change: +6%)
- 4. Walmart: $27.275 million (Brand value change: -23%)
- 3. Home Depot: $36.440 million (Brand value change: +32%)
- 2. Alibaba Group: $49.298 million (Brand value change: -26%)
- 1. Amazon: $98.988 million (Brand value change: +59%)
- “Amazon has experimented with physical retail stores, opening its first bookshop in Seattle, the city where the business is headquartered, and has been launching a range of subscription and delivery packages which promise next-day, same-day and even two-hour delivery slots in selected areas….In 2015, worldwide paid Prime memberships increased 51 percent – 47 percent in the US and even faster in other markets.”
- “On Prime Day 2016, a one-day global shopping event giving Prime members exclusive deals and discounts, more than 85,000 items were sold in the US through Alexa voice-activation alone. Subscriptions taken out on Prime Day in 2016 were up more than 30 percent over 2015.”
- “Amazon in mid-2016 announced a $3 billion investment in India on top of $2 billion it allocated in 2014.”
- “Since launching in 2014, Prime Now has grown to cover more than 25 metropolitan areas across the U.S., the UK, Italy and Japan."
- “Amazon is also expanding into the lucrative world of private label for food and household supplies.”
- “Amazon reported lower-than-expected profits in Q3 2016 after three previous quarters of record gains, but it is seeing growing margins from its web services, which are a growing proportion of profits.”
This Week in Digital Marketing: Coca Cola's Big Hire & More
1. Coca Cola Has Just Hired Its First Chief Digital Marketing Officer and Here’s Why
- “It’s been a role fraught with discussion about its necessity, but Coca-Cola is the latest high profile brand to appoint its first chief digital marketing officer to help steer the business towards becoming a ‘digital company, but not just to put ads in social media.’”
2. Twitter is Eliminating its Ads That Requested People’s Personal Information
- “Twitter is phasing out its lead generation ad format that brands could use to request people’s names, Twitter handles and email addresses…A Twitter spokesperson did not respond to questions asking why Twitter had decided to eliminate the ad format and what, if any, alternatives Twitter offers for brands that had used it.”
3. Facebook Live Will Spin up 360-Degree Streaming to Match YouTube
- “Facebook plans to open up 360-degree live streaming to Pages using its Live API tool – that allows them to broadcast on Facebook through non-phone cameras like a 360-degree rig – sometime in the coming months."
4. What Were the Biggest Social Media Trends of 2016?
- Live video taking off
- The rise of chatbots
- Disappearing content
- Politics and fake news
5. Amazon Delivered Its First Order Via Drone
- “Initial test last week in Cambridgeshire, England, needed only 13 minutes from order to delivery.”
6. Facebook Plans to Buy Original Shows to Fill Its New Video-Only Feed
- “The company is ramping up the roll-out of a video-only feed and paying publishers like CNN, The New York Times and BuzzFeed to produce live broadcasts.”
- “Facebook has begun talks with media companies to acquire original shows as well as licensed programs that would be distributed on a social network.”
7. Amazon Leads Holiday Retailers Across Key Metrics of Email Marketing Activity and Performance
- “Amazon and Walmart own the top numbers. Except for Toys R Us and Walmart, all brands increased their number of email campaigns versus last year, within a range of 111% (Target) and 32% (Macy’s).”
- Amazon produced the top read rates in the group. Year-over-year read rate increases occurred for all brands except Amazon, Dick’s and Best Buy. Target drove the largest increase (40%); Dick’s saw the largest decrease (18%).
- With the exception of Dick’s, all brands maintained inbox placement exceeding 90%. However, all brands’ inbox placement eroded versus last year – except for Macy’s – and most seriously at Dick’s. Contact frequency may be an issue here.”
8. 10 Social Media Trends Giving Brands New Ways to Engage in 2017
- Facebook is very, very quickly becoming a video-centric platform
- Instagram continues to be the most effective platform for brands
- GIFs and emojis bring more personality to how customers express themselves
9. Instagram: 600 Million Users and Counting
- “Today we’re proud to announce our community has grown to more than 600 million Instagrammers. And the last 100 million of you joined in just the past six months.”
- “A Forrester Research study commissioned by SteelHouse revealed that consumers who use multiple devices grew 13% to exceed 160 million people in the U.S. this year, while PC only fell by 34% and mobile-only users experienced 32% growth.
- Within mobile, they found smartphone users grew 17%, while tablet users grew 164%.”
This Week in Digital Marketing: Live Above the Rim with Snapchat
In the age of burgeoning transparency and improving the customer, or in this case fan, experience, Snapchat Specs have provided us with a perspective rarely seen.
Eye level with a regulation basketball rim.
That’s where Richard Jefferson, small forward for the Cleveland Cavaliers, took us this weekend during a team practice. The 6’7” former All-Star donned the shades as he made a couple of three-pointers with relative ease, before throwing down a couple dunks and alley oops, also with relative ease for a 36-year-old.
With Snapchat Specs making something as minor as a reserve basketball player doing some routine practice drills exciting, it sets a precedent for what other menial activities could be seen differently from the right perspective.
Just imagine being able to watch regulation games from them. It's not uncommon for some players to wear goggles (for sweat, preexisting eye injuries, or superstition), so this is entirely plausible.
This new perspective could very well be the main trend this coming year. Fortunately, we don’t have to guess because a number of reports were released this week about digital marketing’s outlook in 2017.
We found a few of them for you to peruse here:
1. Social Media Ad Spending to Outweigh Print Revenue by 2020
- "Advertising agency Zenith Optimedia predicts global advertising expenditure on social media will account for 20% of all internet advertising in 2019, hitting $50 billion and coming in just one percent smaller than newspaper ads. It expects social media to overtake newspapers comfortably by 2020."
- “Zenith’s report forecasts that global advertising expenditure will grow 4.4 percent in 2017, the same rate as in 2016, which it said would be a strong performance given that big events like the Olympic Games, Britain’s EU referendum and the U.S. presidential election boosted advertising this year.
- Online video advertising is also rapidly growing and set to total $35.4 billion across the world by 2019, fractionally ahead of the amount spent on radio advertising but still far less than television.”
2. Social Media Moves to Advertising Forefront
- “Total digital ad spending grew 17% year-over-year in 2016, while traditional, offline mediums such as print, radio and television advertising saw nearly flat growth compared with the previous years.
- Mobile will generate an estimated 52% of digital sales in 2017, thanks in part to platforms such as Facebook and Alphabet’s Google that have become major advertising channels, particularly through video.
- Facebook and Google are likely to dominate digital advertising sales for the next two to three years, Bonori explained.”
- “Western Europe will see a modest decline in 2017 television ad spending due to political and economic uncertainties tied to Brexit and general elections in Germany and France.”
3. The NFL Has Slightly Loosened Restrictions on their Unpopular Social Media Policy
- “After weeks of backlash against the new social media policy from fans and teams themselves, the league has taken it upon themselves to make a new, new policy and reverse or walk back some of the rules that were implemented.
- Teams can now post 16 videos on their social accounts on gameday, up from 8, and can now post videos during game action. They can also now post their own GIFS. However, these videos still can not be actual highlights, but things like fans or fake Madden highlights of real football.
- Teams can post 5 Snapchats of live game action.
- Teams can post 3 non-gameday press conferences to Facebook live, including on gameday as long as it ends 15 minutes before kickoff.
- However, in one thing that hasn’t changed, teams can still be fined up to $100,000 for breaking the rules on sharing highlights before the official NFL accounts."
- “A majority of Americans now say they get news via social media, and half of the public has turned to these sites to learn about the 2016 presidential election.”
- “Nearly eight-in-ten online Americans (79%) now use Facebook, more than double the share that uses Twitter (24%), Pinterest (31%), Instagram (32%) or LinkedIn (29%). On a total population basis (accounting for Americans who do not use the internet at all), that means 68% of all U.S. adults are Facebook users, while 28% use Instagram, 26% use Pinterest, 25% use LinkedIn and 21% use Twitter.”
- “The share of online adults who report using Facebook has increased by 7 percentage points compared with a Pew Research Center survey conducted at a similar point in 2015. In addition, the share of Facebook users who check in daily has increased slightly in the past year: 76% of Americans who use Facebook now report that they visit the site on a daily basis, up from 70% in 2015.”
- “Some 62% of online adults age 65 and older now use Facebook, a 14-point increase from the 48% who reported doing so in 2015. In addition, women continue to use Facebook at somewhat higher rates than men: 83% of female internet users and 75% of male internet users are Facebook adopters.”
- “Women continue to use Facebook at somewhat higher rates than men: 83% of female internet users and 75% of male internet users are Facebook adopters.”
- “Roughly six-in-ten online adults ages 18-29 (59%) use instagram, nearly double the share among 30-to-49 year olds (33%) and more than seven times the share among those 65 and older (8%)…Female internet users are more likely to use Instagram than men (38% vs. 26%).
- “Some 36% of online adults ages 18-29 are on the social network, more than triple the share among online adults ages 65 and older (just 10% of whom are Twitter users).”
- “Half (50%) of online adults with college degrees are on LinkedIn, compared with 27% of those who have attended but not graduated from college and just 12% of those with high school degrees or less.
- Similarly, 45% of online adults with an annual household income of $75,000 or more use LinkedIn, compared with just 21% of those living in households with an annual income of less than $30,000. And 35% of online adults who are employed use LinkedIn, compared with 17% of those who are not employed for pay.”
- Women use Pinterest at much higher rates than men. Nearly half of online women use the virtual pinboard (45%), more than double the share of online men who do so.”
5. A New Product Head Likely to Drive Revenues for Twitter
- “As Twitter struggles to grow users – and is likely to be an acquisition target – stability on the product team will be essential for growth. Since 2014, Twitter’s core product has been run by four different people, creating instability.”
- “Innovation is essential to keeping users engaged, and Twitter appears to be lagging behind on this front. While the company is looking to monetize its live streaming feature and is signing deals to boost popular content on its platform, it needs to do more to take most of its live video offerings.”
6. How Milennials in the Workplace are Revolutionizing Marketing
- “Milennials in the workplace spend 58% of their marketing budgets on digital media, Magisto found, whereas baby boomers spend only 14 percent.”
- “Nearly half of Milennials allocate the bulk of their budgets to mobile; boomers allocate just 10 percent. On social media, Milennials are also more active. 68% of Milennials rely on social media ads, compared to just 27% of boomers.”
- “Among the 500 small and mid-sized businesses surveyed, nearly 90% said they currently use or want to use video ads. Only 40% of boomers currently use or want to use video for digital marketing.”
7. How Facebook's Measurement Errors Have Eroded Marketer's Trust
- “The aftershocks of Facebook’s measurement errors continue to ripple across the advertising industry. While Facebook has emphasized that the flawed figures – such as average watch time, organic reach and video completion rates – did not affect how much money it charged advertisers for their campaigns, that doesn’t mean advertisers and their agencies haven’t been affected.”
8. Super Bowl LI Advertisers Avocados from Mexico, Snickers & Skittles Gear Up for Game Day
9. Top 10 Most Shared Global Ads of 2016: UK's John Lewis Holiday Ad Ranks #1 with Nearly 2M Shares
- “The most shared ad of 2016 was released less than a month ago – earning 1.9 million shares since its November 9th launch date.”
10. Richard Jefferson Used the New Snapchat Glasses to Show Us What It’s Like to Dunk
- “Richard Jefferson took the glasses to the practice court and gave us a first person view of shooting some threes, dunking, and finishing off alley oops.”
This Week in Digital Marketing: Trends From Black Friday & Cyber Monday
Welcome to the first installment of One Twelfth's 'This Week in Digital Marketing'!
With this being the week of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, sales numbers are rolling in from the biggest shopping weekend of the year. Even more important, however, are the trends being indicated by the numbers.
Let’s just say that if you’re not investing in improving your digital store, you better start now. Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2017 won’t be as kind to retailers who don’t offer the same deals online as they do in stores.
Throw in some major acquisitions, including CNN’s attempt to connect with milennials, and you have a full week of digital marketing insights to digest.
1. 5 Marketing Trends to Watch for in 2017
Key Takeaways
Live Platforms: "New live streaming platforms, better content, faster connection speeds, and bigger data plans, will lower the barriers for adoption."
Augmented Reality Apps: "We expect to see brands continuing to experiment with AR in different ways...Get ready for more direct use of AR within apps, both immersive experiences and tangentially related ones."
Chatbots: "Facebook has invested in the burgeoning bot industry, rolling out tools for businesses and developers to build bots on its messaging platform. So far, the social media giant has unleashed a 30,000-strong bot army..."
Immersive Video: "Shoppable films, 360 videos, GoPro, and Snapchat have all broke ground in the immersive viewing experience with huge success. However, "distribution of these video types is limited to a few platforms."
Improved Viewability: "It's time for brands to move away from media-based outcomes, such as views or clicks, and shift towards tangible business objectives such as sign-ups, downloads, and purchases."
2. Here's How much Engagement Holiday Retailers Are Getting in Social Media So Far
Key Takeaways
Standout holiday retailers so far include Nordstrom, Lowe's and Old Navy, with each excelling in terms of engagement, conversation and amplification. Fry's Electronics leads in terms of most activity, with 64 posts from November 1st through Cyber Monday.
Origamic Logic, the entity behind the study, tracks Facebook, Instagram and YouTube posts.
Nordstrom utilized a simple strategy going into Black Friday by posting glossy product photos and concise copy. Lowe's used Facebook Live to unveil its Black Friday deals to build some hype, earning 1.4 million views since its November 2nd debut.
Old Navy employed Amy Schumer to market its Back-to-School and Black Friday sales. However, if Bud Light's much maligned campaign featuring Schumer and Seth Rogen proved anything, the attention could be for all the wrong reasons.
3. Why Did CNN Acquire a Social Media Video Startup?
Key Takeaways
"CNN aims to attract the milennial audience of Berne and plans to integrate Berne's technology in the new company and develop mobile video capabilities for CNN's portfolio of digital properties. Additionally, the media network plans to hire dozens of producers, builders, designers and content creators for the new venture.
The primary purpose of this deal seems to be to bring authenticity to the news and media environment and draw in a younger audience that has largely been untapped by the cable news network."
4. Oracle Simplifies B2B Digital Marketing with Revamped Lead Generation Tools
Key Takeaways
"New capabilities give marketers the power to align sales and marketing by making approved marketing content more easy to find, track and share, the company claims...Oracle is empowering marketers to quickly create and share compelling content across their organization and reduce the number of steps required to identify and pursue new leads."
5. Cyber Monday Sales Hit a New All-Time Record in 2016
Key Takeaways
"It's official: Cyber Monday 2016 was the biggest day in the history of U.S. e-commerce. Consumers spent $3.45 billion online on Monday, according to Adobe Digital Insights, easily blowing past initial estimates..."
"Adobe's principal analyst, Tamara Gaffney, noted that Black Friday's online sales were only $110 million below those of Cyber Monday, and said Black Friday next year could become the top online shopping day."
6. 6 Charts Showing How Social Media Influencers Work with Brands
Key Takeaways
In terms of importance, the most important platforms...
- Personal blog
How do you measure your influence/success...
- Traffic
- Shares of your posts to social channels
- Re-engagement from brand for additional assignments
Biggest mistakes brands make working with you...
- Not enough compensation
- Overly restrictive content guidelines
- Not providing adequate time
How do brands typically want to reach your audience?
- Sponsored content
- Product reviews
- Ambassadorships
7. Clarkson and Co. Launch New Motoring Social Media Network
Key Takeaways
"With the modest aim 'to shape the next generation of digital media' DriveTribe is described by Hammond as the equivalent of Twitch for gamers or TripAdvisor for travelers, and by Clarkson as like 'YouPorn, only with cars'. In short, it's designed to be a hub for every kind of motoring-related content."
8. Cendyn Buys Guestfolio to Expand its Hotel Digital Marketing Solutions
Key Takeaways
"The acquisition of Whistler, British Columbia-headquartered Guestfolio will enable Cendyn to offer a more comprehensive feature set on the hotel-marketing side of the business as Guestfolio is stronger in the boutique hotel segment, says Tim Sullivan, Cendyn's chief sales and marketing officer."
9. Twitter Releases New Christmas Shopping Data for UK Users [INFOGRAPHIC]
Key Takeaways
"82% of 18 to 24 year old Twitter users in the UK start shopping for Christmas before December."
"2 in 5 UK Twitter users say the platform helps them learn about new products and brands."
10. Accenture Acquires Karmarama to Expand Digital Marketing Services
Key Takeaways
"The acquisition is part of Accenture's strategy to expand the company's digital marketing presence globally."
Accenture's acquisition is just another example of brands making the pivot to focusing primarily on the digital aspect of marketing and advertising. They've already "been growing in the digital marketing sector through acquisitions" with acquisitions of agencies in Brazil, Sweden, Japan, Hong Kong and the United States.