Less BS, More Facts, Some Opinions
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USA Today Network has found that people still love to watch feel-good videos on Facebook — and they’re helping the publisher make some money on the platform.
In 2015, USA Today Network launched a video series on Facebook called “HumanKind,” featuring acts of human kindness and other uplifting stories. In 2016, “HumanKind” was joined by “AnimalKind,” which takes a similar approach to animal videos. Both shows were doing fine on Facebook, where feel-good content has done well, said Russ Torres, vp of digital video content and strategy for USA Today Network.
In late 2017, USA Today Network put both shows on Facebook Watch and viewership exploded to hundreds of millions of monthly views per show, Torres said. Today, the “HumanKind” Facebook Watch page has 3.9 million followers and the “Animal Kind” Watch page, 4.4 million. The growth USA Today Network saw with these shows led them to launch a third show, “MilitaryKind,” which has grown to 1.2 million followers since its premiere two months ago.
“We are hitting at the core of people’s passions,” Torres said. “In the sea of content that’s available to people on Facebook, stories of kindness, heroism and sacrifice still do really well — those are things that people still want to share on Facebook.”
Beyond the impressive vanity metrics for the “Kind” series, Torres said people are consistently watching longer than three seconds. Viewership can fluctuate by episode depending on the topic, but 20 percent of the viewers of “MilitaryKind” videos, which typically run for three to four minutes per video, watch all the way through, Torres said. Across all three “Kind” shows, USA Today generated 140 million views in May and June where viewers watched 95 percent of the video. (As of last summer, the last time Facebook released figures, the average view time on a news feed video was 16.7 seconds.)
The view time makes these shows eligible for Facebook’s mid-roll ad breaks, which require videos to be at least three minutes long before publishers can insert a commercial break within the video. As a result, the “Kind” franchise has been lucrative for USA Today Network. Michael Kuntz, president of national sales and brand partnerships for USA Today Network, declined to provide hard revenue figures for the “Kind” shows, but said 20 percent of the network’s video revenues come from social platforms, and of that 20 percent, the three “Kind” brands are responsible for a big majority of the revenues. (The “Kind” shows also generate revenue from other platforms including YouTube and Xumo, Kuntz said.)
“Social has become a growing piece of the [revenue] equation for us, and the ‘Kind’ brands are driving a majority of that growth,” Kuntz said.
The success of the shows is also beginning to bring in sponsorship revenue for USA Today Network, Kuntz said. Advertising sponsors so far are Geico and Chik-fil-A.
“People are looking for the antidote to bad, polarizing news stories,” Kuntz said. “You’re going to continue to see more brands pursue these opportunities — we’re seeing the evidence both through Facebook mid-roll ads and sponsorships.”
The post USA Today finds there’s still money to be made from feel-good videos on Facebook appeared first on Digiday.
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Toys “R” Us Canada wants you to know it’s very much alive.
The toy retailer has ceased all U.S. functions since the company declared bankruptcy and closed all stores two weeks ago, but the company’s Canadian unit is alive and kicking — creating a very unique brand problem for a company that most consumers associate with “dead.”
The company’s Canadian president Melanie Teed-Murch is on a two-month Canadian tour to recast the brand — reminding people it’s alive through a series of media appearances and a planned redesign of physical locations to allow new in-store experiences. It’s also using mobile payments and in-store pickups of online orders to appeal to tech-savvy customers who may be tempted to shop on Amazon as a way to get ahead.
“The media still coming in from the U.S. is enormous and, unfortunately, the pickup of bad news is tenfold that of good news,” Teed-Murch said in a recent interview. “It’s our No. 1 priority to get our message out that there is a business here.”
The refresh of the brand spans two core areas — updates to physical locations, for which the company will reportedly spend $7.6 million by the end of the year, and a re-casting of the company’s image as a Canadian institution, appealing to customers’ sense of community.
“We’re here to play and we’re here to stay in Canada,” Teed-Murch said in a video posted on YouTube this week. “We’re Canadian-owned and operated by Fairfax Financial Holdings, employing your neighbors, your cousins, and brothers, saving over 4,000 jobs, and when you choose to shop with Toys ‘R’ Us and Babies ‘R’ Us Canada, you’re reinvesting in your communities.”
Toys “R” Us Canada has 82 physical stores. In April, Toronto-based Fairfax Financial Holdings bought the store chain’s Canadian unit for $237 million, letting it continue to operate stores under the Toys “R” Us name, while Ireland-based Smyths Toys acquired the retailer’s 93 stores in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
The company’s rebrand as a Canadian company appeals to patriotic sentiments, and it’s taking a page from other Canadian companies like Lululemon and Indigo that achieved success through experiential marketing approaches, said Susan Cantor, CEO of New York-based branding and strategy Agency Red Peak.
“This isn’t an unprecedented move for Toys ‘R’ Us — they’re seeing the success of other brands and companies looking to drive more customer traffic with a more dynamic experience for their customers,” she said. “Canadian consumers like to touch and feel when they shop, and they place real importance on the in-person shopping experience.”
Toys “R” Us Canada did not respond to a request for an interview, but the company reportedly plans to renovate 40 stores by the end of the summer. Based on prototypes it rolled out in Barrie, Ontario, and Langley, British Columbia, it plans to make physical retail experience a more interactive one for customers. To enable this, it plans to introduce sight-line shelving, grouping items based on play patterns rather than brand names, and turning the physical spaces into venues for game playing, food-service partners and events like birthday parties and workshops.
From a crisis communications point of view, the company took swift action to reassure Canadian consumers that while the company dissolved its operations in the U.S., its Canadian operation is open for business and evolving with the times.
“The coverage of the bankruptcy [in the U.S.] and closing of the stores was immense and very sad,” said Dorothy Crenshaw, CEO of Crenshaw Communications. “They need to continue telling the business story, and be the heroes that have revived the brand in a new financial structure in Canada — there are a lot of great aspects of this story.”
According to social media analytics company Crimson Hexagon, over the last three months, discussions on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram about the Toys “R” Us brand spiked in June, the month of its U.S. stores’ closures, with 273,500 mentions in June in the U.S. compared to 7,900 mentions in Canada. Brand sentiment in both countries leaned negative throughout the period — roughly two-thirds negative in both countries. In the U.S., sentiment about Toys “R” Us was 71 percent negative and 29 percent positive, while in Canada, sentiment was 66 percent negative and 34 percent positive.
Crenshaw added that focusing on the experiential element is one way to build on physical presence and legacy history — an advantage newer upstarts don’t have. To continue to be successful, she said, it needs to mount a robust marketing operation with paid media placements.
Focusing on physical locations may appeal to Canadian consumers, Cantor said, pointing to statistics that suggest Canadians are more receptive to physical stores versus online e-commerce shopping. But Bruce Winder, a Toronto-based retail analyst and co-founder of the Retail Advisors Network, said Canadian consumers’ increased openness to physical retail compared to their American counterparts — roughly 5 to 7 percent of purchases — is temporary. Digital retail, particularly through Amazon, is quickly catching up, and the Toys “R” Us rebrand and refresh of physical locations is a defensive move against Amazon’s encroachment into the Canadian market. Amazon is quickly growing its Canadian presence, as shown by the company’s announcement Tuesday to open a fulfillment center in Ottawa, adding to its network of centers in Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta and a 6,000-strong Canadian employee base.
Toys “R” Us Canada is currently Canada’s second-largest toy retailer, with annual sales of $762 million. The company doesn’t rule out new physical stores and themed pop ups in locations that can’t support permanent stores. While it’s making moves in the right direction, the time and investment required to keep pace with competitors will be major challenges, said Winder.
The post ‘We’re here to play and we’re here to stay’: Toys ‘R’ Us Canada wants customers to know it’s still alive appeared first on Digiday.
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MediaMath is flush with cash and ready to ignite consolidation in ad tech. Thanks to a $225 million investment by private equity firm Searchlight on Tuesday, MediaMath will end up with a $180 million cash infusion to spend on acquisitions and building new products. MediaMath, whose flagship product is a DSP/DMP, used $45 million of… Continue reading »
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