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Archives for April 2013

CPG Mobile Advertising Spending Triples in One Year

shopping cartBetween 2011 and 2012, consumer packaged goods (CPG) advertisers tripled mobile advertising spending. That data comes from the Millennial Media Mobile Intel Series released this week which tracked its own ad partners and combined that data with research from comScore. According to the report, mobile ad spending among CPG advertisers increased by 235% from 2011 to 2012.

During the research period, 82% of CPG mobile ad impressions were tracked on smartphones while 18% were tracked on tablets. Mobile advertisers most frequently targeted consumers in five demographic buckets: foodies, pet owners, parents, avid shoppers, and household shoppers. Furthermore 40% of mobile advertisers tracked in this study used location targeting to maximize campaign ROI.

The biggest CPG mobile ad spenders identified in the Millennial Media research were beverages (43% of campaigns), cosmetics and hygiene, food, household products, and pet products. For the majority of these campaigns (46%), the primary goal was to raise brand or product awareness. Interestingly, Jack Neff of AdAge points out that this is a significantly higher percentage than is seen in overall mobile advertising where just 14% of campaigns have a primary goal of raising awareness.

The most interesting data for CPG mobile advertisers revealed in this study offers insights into how consumers use their mobile devices to gather information about consumer packaged goods as they’re in a store and actively shopping. According to the report, men are more likely to use their mobile devices while in a store than women to check product availability (47% of men versus 39% of women), compare prices (51% of men versus 38% of women), and find coupons or deals (47% of men versus 40% of women). On the other hand, women are more likely to use their mobile devices while in a brick-and-mortar store to take a picture of a product (29% of women versus 21% of men) and text or call family or friends about a product (51% of women versus 37% of men).

Based on these study results, CPG mobile advertisers are missing opportunities to get the right information in front of consumers when they’re in a store making a purchase decision. By focusing primarily on raising awareness, the 235% increase in CPG mobile ad spending between 2011 and 2012 was over-invested in awareness campaigns. A more balanced approach of awareness campaigns and campaigns that drive in-store purchases by providing the right information at the right time directly to consumers’ mobile devices will deliver better results.

Many CPG advertisers have figured this out and are making the necessary strategic shifts in their mobile advertising plans. Is your company one of them?

Image: Murat Cokal

5 Proven Ways Content Can Connect With An Online Audience

all-about-you
What’s the best way to make an audience remember your product?

Make it about them.

This may seem fairly obvious – after all, it’s common knowledge that marketing a product in ways that relate to a target audience is certainly effective marketing practice.

But why?

The explanation lies in the Self-Reference Effect. The Self–Reference Effect is the tendency for people to remember information about themselves more than information that does not pertain to their needs, interests, or goals. In other words, memories that pertain directly to a person are held the longest and recalled the easiest.[1] This has substantial implications for corporate website content.

The Layers of the Mind – The Mechanisms Of The Self-Reference Effect

The Self-Reference Effect actually has its roots in the work of researchers Craik and Tulving, who found that people remember (or don’t remember) things based upon how deeply their mind processes information. They explain that memory has layers, and people remember things longer, and recall them easier, when these things are processed at the deepest layer. In contrast, things that are remembered at a shallow level are quickly washed away and forgotten.[2]

Therefore, in order for your product to be memorable, it must be processed at a deeper level. But how can this can be accomplished through website content?

The “It’s All About Me” Effect

Building upon the work of Craik and Tulving, subsequent researchers have isolated the most effective way to present products in ways that foster deep level processing. More specifically, it seems that personally relevant information is processed at the deepest of levels. The more personally relevant a piece of information, the deeper it will be processed. And the deeper it is processed, the longer it will reside in memory.[1]

The Self-Reference Effect plays a key role in consumer attitudes toward the products and the marketing techniques that promote them. For example, research shows that an audience relates more to models that are similar in ethnicity.[3] One study showed that Asian consumers were more likely to purchase non-Asian products when it was endorsed by an Asian model.[4]

These two examples show the power of audience connection. In order to make a product memorable, then corporations must, above all things, make it relatable. And they can do so through the content of their website.

How To Use Website Content To Boost The Self-Reference Effect

Below are several guidelines that can be applied to website content to enhance the Self-Reference Effect:[5]

  1. Prompting – Prompt readers to think about themselves with statements such as: “Think back to the last time you…” Then follow it with relevant product information. This will generate a connection between product and consumer.
  2. Slice-Of-Life Statements – Discuss a problem that is common to your audience. This will pique their interest and solidify a personal connection to your product.
  3. Gender Role Portrayals – Determine which gender your product relates to and create content about your product that is tailored to their interests and reading styles.
  4. It’s All About ‘You’ – Using the word ‘you’ in online content is surprisingly powerful. Refrain from using the pronoun “I” which detracts the reader’s attention from themselves. Also, writing in second person has been found to be more effective than third-person testimonials.
  5. The Power of a Question – Ask the audience a question that links a product benefit to their needs. For example, a milk company may ask: “Are you getting enough calcium in your diet?”

Try implementing these simple techniques into your online content. This can be in the form of blogs, website content, Tweets, posts, etc. Doing so will make your product both memorable and marketable.

 

References

[1] Rogers, TP, Kuiper, NA, & Kirker, WS (1977) Self-reference and the encoding of personal information.

[2] Craik, FIM, Tulving, E (1975) Depth of processing and the retention of words

[3] Martin, Lee, & Fernandez (2002) Using self referencing to explain the effectiveness of ethnic minority models in advertising

[4] Martin, Kwai-Choi Lee, & Yang (2006) The influence of ad model ethnicity and self referencing upon attitudes: Evidence from New Zealand

[5] Debevec, K, Spotts, HE, Kernan, JB (1987) The self-reference effect in persuasion implications for marketing strategy

More Devices Lead to More Media Consumption

multi-platform content consumption dataMulti-platform media consumption and the battle of multiple screens has been a growing concern among brand marketers who fear that one device will cannibalize the audience and engagement on another device. However, the fear is unfounded and completely wrong according to research from comScore and NBC. In fact, the study reveals that more devices actually leads to more media consumption.

The study analyzed media consumption habits for the 2012 London Olympics among an audience who used multiple devices to consume NBC Olympics content on television, computers, laptops, smartphones, mobile phones, and tablet devices. The results showed that using multiple platforms actually led people to view more NBC Olympics content, and engagement levels went up as the number of devices a person used increased.

Eli Goodman of comScore pointed out that not only did participants in the study view more Olympics content, but for individuals who used mobile devices, the amount of time they spent consuming video content on television (the primary channel) and computers (the secondary channel) went up as well. Goodman explained:

“Looking at TV (in this case the primary consumption channel), the average time spent per day consuming Olympics content for TV-only users was 4 hours 19 minutes. But that figure for TV begins to increase among segments accessing content via multiple devices, all the way up to 6+ hours for those who viewed the Olympics across 4 screens. While those who consumed Olympics content across multiple devices may inherently be more engaged viewers, it would also seem that the supplementary channels served to reinforce engagement with the primary channels.”

The image above shows the average time study participants spent per day engaging with Olympics content (click the image to view it at full-size). Goodman points out that brand marketing strategies must be “integrated multi-platform strategies” in order to expand their reach and increase branded content consumption overall.

As with most strategic marketing planning, an integrated strategy is the best strategy. Silo marketing is dead, and today, one element of the marketing plan should feed off of the next. This includes both strategies and tactics related to multi-platform content delivery and consumption.

Do you agree? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

You can download the complete research report on the comScore website.

Image: comScore

The Competitive Facebook Marketing Landscape for Brands – It’s Worse Than You Think

facebook pagesAccording to research by Socialbakers, a Facebook user liked 4.5 pages on average in 2009. Four years later, that number has jumped to 40 pages per user in 2013, and in some countries it’s even higher. For example, an average Facebook user in the U.S. likes 70 pages, and Facebook users from the U.K. or France like 48 pages. In Mexico and Turkey, Facebook users like an average of 41 and 40 pages, respectively.

In other words, across the globe, Facebook users like a lot of pages, and those pages create a lot of clutter for their audiences. Socialbakers reports that in 2009, brands published an average of five posts per month, but in 2013, that number is more than seven times higher. Today, brands publish 36 posts per month on average.

How do all of those posts on brand Facebook pages affect Facebook users? Based on the data from Socialbakers, the flood of posts is bigger than you might think with the average Facebook user, who saw 22.5 updates per month in 2009, now inundated with 1,440 updates per month.

Of course, all of these brand Facebook page updates are just a small part of the daily posts Facebook users are actually exposed to. When you add posts from friends, family, and so on, the number is even higher. As a result, brands have a lot of competition to capture consumer attention and to turn that attention into engagement.

When you take a look at those numbers, it’s clear that simply publishing more posts on your brand Facebook page won’t deliver stellar results. Adding more clutter to your audience’s Facebook experience won’t make them like you more. In fact, it will probably make them dislike you more. Instead of multiplying the clutter, break through the clutter with better messages that are specifically targeted to your audience. Use images and videos that stand out in the revamped Facebook news feed, and offer something of value in your updates.

Facebook is no longer the place for brands to publish useless updates. Staying on consumers’ radar screens requires more than meaningless updates that don’t deliver value to your audience. Rethink your Facebook publishing strategy and make sure you’re not adding to the clutter. If an update could be perceived as clutter, don’t click the Publish button.

You don’t want to gain a reputation as the “annoying brand.” Instead, you want to gain a reputation as the brand that piques your audience’s interest each time they see your name in their Facebook news feed.

Image: Miki Yoshihito

Brand Video Buffering Equates to $2.16 Billion in Lost Revenue

video camera hdBrand video is an important part of a content marketing plan, but the opportunity that brand video presents is significantly reduced if the quality of those videos is low or the viewer experience is damaged from buffering and slow load times. Specifically, video buffering or low resolution video lead to $2.16 billion in lost revenue for online video publishers in 2012.

That figure comes from the Conviva Viewer Experience Report, but the $2.16 billion loss is just a drop in the bucket compared to how much revenue will be lost due to video buffering and low quality in the next five years. By 2017, the revenue loss is expected to reach $20 billion.

Conviva studied 22.6 billion video streams in 2012 from 150 broadcasters which were seen in 190 countries around the world to create its Viewer Experience Report. From its research, Conviva found that 124.8 billion minutes were spent in video buffering. Nearly four out of ten views experienced buffering and nearly two out of three views were impacted by low-resolution in 2012.

All of that buffering and low quality is having a direct effect on consumers. In 2012, the 1% increase in buffering led to an eight minute loss of viewing time per view of long form video content. For short form video content, approximately one out of two viewers abandoned videos between two and three seconds. On the opposite end of the spectrum, viewers who didn’t experience buffering or low quality in the videos they watched were found to watch 250% more video content.

The infographic from Conviva shown below provides many of the highlights from the study.

Video Experience Report Infographic

Botton-line, brand video is a great marketing tool, but if the quality isn’t excellent, you won’t get the results you want and need.

Image: Julien Boulanger

EBay Unleashes a Goldmine of Data to Brand Advertisers

ebay trade showCan EBay join the ranks of digital advertising success that Google, Facebook, and Amazon have dominated in recent years? It certainly looks like the company expects to answer that question with a resounding, “Yes,” in the near future based on Stephen Howard-Sarin’s (head of eBay digital display in North America) announcement to the audience at AdExchanger’s Programmatic I/O conference yesterday.

Tim Peterson of AdWeek reports that eBay will enable advertisers to use the data about how visitors browse the site, what they buy, and more, which the company kept as proprietary until now, to target ads and increase return on investment. It is expected that big brands will be more than willing to pay for access to this new data, and it’s not hard to understand why.

Even though personally identifiable information won’t be provided to advertisers, eBay visitors’ search and purchase data alone could be a goldmine to consumer product brands. Suddenly, brands have an exponentially greater ability to get the right ads in front of the right audiences.

In other words, eBay (like Amazon before it) is monetizing its customer data by allowing advertisers to retarget the eBay audience. Ads must be purchased through eBay in order for brands to access this customer data, and eBay will handle its own ad buying as well as the ad buying for all of the third-party marketers accessing its data.

For customers, this isn’t a new concept. Most are already part of ad retargeting even though they might not know it. When someone looks for a product on Amazon or in a Google search and later sees ads for that product or competitor products on other websites, they’re probably seeing a retargeted ad. Since the content of these ads is usually relevant to the consumer, these ads are typically welcomed (or at the very least, they’re tolerated).

For eBay and advertisers, the announcement is absolutely welcomed. In fact, the only surprising thing is that eBay waited so long to do it.

What do you think? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: Karlis Dambrans