Month: May 2018

Johnny Weir’s tweet-powered brooch is making its return to Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby after a year off, and this time, it has its own Twitter account. Digital innovation agency Viget designed a tweet-powered brooch that Weir wore during NBC Sports’ coverage of the 2016 Kentucky Derby, and when Twitter users added the hashtag…

Verizon-owned Oath is betting even more on the smartphone screen with a new content partnership with Samsung. Oath–the one-year-old umbrella brand for AOL and Yahoo’s content and data properties–announced it’s landed a partnership to feature content on Samsung phones. The deal, announced today, will feature media and advertising content through Bixby Home on Samsung Galaxy…

Cond? Nast is expanding its OTT offerings with channels for Wired, Bon App?tit and GQ, company executives announced today at its NewFront presentation. Wired is expected to launch later this year, with the channels for Bon App?tit and GQ expected to launch next year on AppleTV, Roku and Amazon Fire. “While consumers have more screens…

This week’s cover story looked at the Karate Kid revival series Cobra Kai, which YouTube Red hopes will be a breakout hit like House of Cards was for Netflix. All 10 episodes of the first season roll out on YouTube today–the first two are available for free; the rest will require a subscription to YouTube…

Millennials have often led older Americans in their adoption and use of technology. But there has also been significant growth in tech adoption in recent years among older generations.

At the Digiday Media Buying Summit in March in New Orleans, we sat down with 63 media-buying executives to learn about advertisers’ media transparency fears. Check out our earlier research on media buyers’ challenges when advertising on Amazon here. Learn more about our upcoming events here.

Quick takeaways:

• Seventy percent of media buyers in Digiday’s survey from the event believe transparency in digital advertising is the most prevalent concern among clients.
• At least 30 percent have had a client ask to renegotiate a contract due to transparency concerns.

Client sensitivity about transparency in media buying has been a growing trend. As companies continue to increase spending on digital ads, client-side marketers are coming under greater pressure by C-level executives to prove that digital advertising delivers results. While advertising has no shortage of challenges, seven in 10 media buyers surveyed by Digiday at the event said their clients consider campaign transparency a major concern. (Totals in the chart exceed 100 percent because respondents could select multiple answers.)

The post Digiday Research: Marketers’ transparency fears are leading to renegotiated contracts appeared first on Digiday.

“The Sell Sider” is a column written for the sell side of the digital media community.  Today’s column is written by Alessandro De Zanche, an independent audience strategy consultant.  In a world of “popcorn data,” quantity and reach are more important than quality and depth, and users are seen as “data cows” rather than customers.… Continue reading »

The post A Publisher’s Success Begins And Ends With A Data And Audience Strategy appeared first on AdExchanger.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Listen And Learn Data scientists from Uber, Pandora and Netflix published joint research measuring the impact of audio ads on listeners over a 21-month period. Pandora listeners were broken into nine groups, each with different ad exposure levels over that time. With such a… Continue reading »

The post New Research On Audio Ads; Twitter Lets Publishers Rep Pre-Roll Video Ads appeared first on AdExchanger.

By Bryn Caruso, vp of sales and customer success at Julius

Influencer marketing was undeniably one of the most popular topics of discussion at NYC’s Social Media Week. From early adopters to well-versed marketers, it was clear that the marketers having the most successful with influencers also had the best working relationship with their creators and distributors. For example, they appreciated influencers as content creators and not just another media distribution channel. They looked beyond superficial commonalities and instead, sought value alignment between brand and influencer. They were open to collaboration and saw influencers as partners vs. vendors.

As both a passion project and need to scratch a curiosity itch, Julius, the influencer marketing company, and Lippe Taylor, PR, partnered together to survey over 450 professional influencers to learn how they define themselves and what they do. The surveyed influencers were a diverse group of individuals, representing categories such as lifestyle, fashion, art & music, parenting, beauty, fitness/sports, gaming, travel and more. All were based in the United States, with 80% of respondents identifying as female and 19% as male. (One respondent who runs an account for their pet chose “other” for gender; the dog was male, but his owner was female.)

 

Here’s a snapshot of some of our most notable survey insights.

Do influencers like the term “influencer”?

Just over 50 percent of those surveyed preferred the term “creator.” “Influencer” came in at a distant second, with about 32 percent favoring the title. Perhaps more interesting were the write-in titles, which included “advocate,” “creative professional,” and “blogger”—clear indications that the respondents, above all else, wished to be viewed as creating unique and professional content for their fanbases.

Other relevant findings from the survey make the term “creator” even more relevant. When asked about the most important element to their success, the influencers overwhelming selected “quality of content,” with “high engagement” and “emotional connection to followers” coming in second and third, respectively. Across the board, these individuals are passionate about the content they create.

When striking up a partnership with an influencer, it’s vital for brands to remember that influencers want to be seen as creators. Some of the most successful campaigns invite influencers to generate original content specifically intended for their audiences, instead of just posting prewritten copy. “With sponsored content, we have to go above and beyond with the content we create to show our audience that we’re really behind it,” said YouTube star Joslyn Davis at this month’s Social Media Week.

When did influencers first consider themselves influencers?

What moment defines when an influential friend actually becomes a noted influencer? Overall, the survey participants were split between two watershed moments: when an influencer receives their first brand sponsorship, and when the influencer crosses a certain threshold of followers.

To break it down further: 39 percent of parenting influencers considered themselves “official” influencers after crossing a threshold of followers, while 59 percent of fitness/sports influencers said that they took on influencer status after receiving their first brand sponsorship.

Some of the best write-in responses to the question included:

• “When I realized my readers were buying the products I recommended.”
• “When I got my first request to post sponsored content for a fee.”
• “When brands started reaching out to me vs. me reaching out to them.”
• “When someone called me an influencer.”

Sixty-five percent of all survey participants consider influencer marketing a side gig. However, the answers to this question were evenly split for parenting influencers, with 47 percent of respondents claiming influencer marketing as a full-time job. Other verticals, including beauty and art & music, had more side gig responses.

Want to learn more from the survey? Request an infographic of the results here.

The post Influencers offline: A candid analysis from social media’s creators and distributors appeared first on Digiday.