Month: July 2018

Feeding off the World Cup fever, the global expansion for The Players’ Tribune is seeing signs of early success with international audiences, thanks to the distribution of its World Cup content and launching two European offices.

Since May, 54 percent of traffic to the site — which launched three years ago as a forum for athletes to tell personal stories directly to their fans — has come from outside the U.S., growing international users by 33 percent year on year. Nearly 60 percent of new users came from outside the U.S., although the publisher wouldn’t share traffic numbers. According to Similar Web, TPT has 3.4 million monthly uniques.

This April, the media company set up offices in London and Barcelona partnering with Spanish football star Gerard Piqué and his investment group Kosmos. But TPT started work with European athletes in the six months leading up to the World Cup.

This piece published in June by Romelu Lukaku on his background growing up in multicultural Brussels with little money had an average time on site of over 44 minutes, in part due to the article layout which includes multiple videos, according to the company. The BBC adapted the piece into a podcast. This piece by England player Raheem Sterling, which also covered his unfair treatment by mainstream media, was picked up by the Guardian, and had an average time on page of 34 minutes, according to TPT. Outside of World Cup coverage, average time on site is eight minutes, the company said.

“There was pent-up demand on the athlete side and on the fan side for us to expand to Europe,” said Jeff Levick, who joined the company as CEO from Spotify in September. “When we tell global stories from a Brazilian footballer, those fans outside of the U.S. find us. With the World Cup, the audience is already built in, athletes have their own fan base.”

Football is the focus for TPT’s European coverage, with some coverage from Formula 1 stars too; in the autumn, it will begin to cover other sports. According to Levick, it will start monetizing through branded and sponsored content before the end of the year. In the U.S., the publisher has worked with brands like Samsung and Procter and Gamble, in some cases fetching seven-figure deals, according to Reuters. Longer-term, Levick said, it will focus on episodic content that it can sell to platforms like Netflix and Hulu.

First the company will need to work hard to grow the awareness in Europe, as most of the published content before the World Cup centered on U.S athletes, said Gareth Capon, CEO of video platform Grabyo, as growth in the U.S. was heavily aided by founder Derek Jeter and his access to big-name athletes. “This gave TPT the ability to publish breaking news before media outlets.” Despite investment from Piqué, TPT won’t have the same unprecedented access to those stories right now in Europe. “The big differentiator here is that news, such as player transfers and retirements, are controlled by the clubs, not the athletes,” said Capon.

The early success of long-form content through big-name football stars shows there’s appetite for these stories. At the club level, global exposure for players on TPT will have a halo effect. Domestically, people tend to follow the club over the player, while a player moving to an international team will grow that team’s international fan base. “It’s a repeatable phenomenon,” said Daniel Ayers, consulting partner at sport digital consultancy Seven League. “Just as the England squad [with five Tottenham players] doing well in the World Cup will be good for growing Spurs fans, so having a player on TPT will attract more international fans for clubs.”

For brands in Europe, getting access to athletes is a huge draw compared to most other media companies. Players could go direct to TPT for branded deals — cutting out agencies and clubs as they present themselves as media companies — but it’s not certain whether they will, based on existing relationships and the mechanics of setting up the deals, said Ayers.

“The way that intellectual property rights are structured, in most cases, it won’t be more viable for players to own their media deals,” said Richard Barker, evp of M&C Saatchi Sport and Entertainment.

“The core challenge is [TPT] is not seen as competitive with other media,” said Barker, “The perception is, because it’s owned by players, it’s not a competing site; that’s fine when you’re not making money,” he said, adding that it’s unlikely to have the scale to compete with media plan budgets yet. Instead, it’s well-placed to build out franchises with a variety of platform partners to then control the distribution of brand integration.

Image: courtesy of The Players’ Tribune.

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Your mom might not know who Daquan is or what Goalslayin is about, but a lot of teenagers on Snapchat do — and Snap wants to work with the companies and creators behind these brands.

Take London-based Fanbytes. The 18-month-old digital media company has four organic accounts on Snapchat — MakeupTips, Goalslayin, Couples365 and IRelateQuotes. These channels average between 170,000 and 900,000 views per story and between 1.7 million and 8 million views per day, said Fanbytes CEO Timothy Armoo. Fanbytes also operates a network of 85 creators — all mostly 15 and 16 years old — who are independently running their own accounts and publishing brands on Snapchat.

“We create funny and relatable content, which speaks to a younger audience,” said the 23-year-old Armoo. “And it’s all driven by 15-, 16-year-olds who understand this audience way better than the 35-year-olds at the other corporations who don’t understand the DNA of how young people engage with content.”

Now, Fanbytes is working with Snapchat to launch official versions of these channels on Discover, among other potential partnerships.

Snap approached Fanbytes after seeing the viewership and engagement it was getting with its publishing channels and its success with sponsored lenses it created for advertisers such as Warner Bros., Sony Music and Deezer. Fanbytes has consistently been able to sell AR lenses, trending on Snapchat’s trending lenses section, Armoo said. Lenses for Warner Music and Deezer each netted more than 1 million views and a branded story Fanbytes created for Sony Music did 1.1 million views with a 92 percent completion rate, Armoo said, citing Snapchat data.

“The sense that we could tap into the mindset of 17-, 18-year-old kids and then actually have their own channels distribute it rather than coming across as a corporate entity is a reason why we ended up getting a million-plus views and such engagement,” said Bianca Spada, global head of social media for Deezer.

Snap has made a big effort this year to embrace the digital publishers and social media stars that appeal to younger users. Snap threw a “Creators Summit,” which included an appearance from Evan Spiegel, and has shown a greater willingness to open up ad revenue for creators. Snap is also testing commerce options beginning with celebrities like Kylie Jenner.

Fanbytes isn’t the only publisher of its type working with Snap. Daquan is a popular internet personality focused on hip-hop and related pop culture memes. Daquan, with more than 11.2 million followers on Instagram, is a fictional character run by a team that works for IMGN Media, which owns the Daquan brand and other social publishing accounts

In May, Snap and Imgn Media launched a Discover channel for Daquan, which previously had no presence on Snapchat. But Snap reached out, and with most of Daquan’s followers under the age of 24, Snapchat was a logical platform to expand to, said Barak Shragai, CEO of Imgn Media.

“Snapchat Discover was an opportunity for Imgn to premium and expand beyond static memes,” said Shragai. “We’ve spent a lot of time learning about the platform and understanding how this extension would look like.”

The move has worked out for Imgn with the Daquan channel reaching 16 million unique viewers in June, with 75 percent of those viewers under the age of 24, Shragai said. Recently, Imgn has launched two of its other social brands, Soccer Memes and Journal, on Snapchat Discover. In total, Imgn has eight people working on its Snapchat content.

“We have to wait and see how [Snapchat] continues to open up to [non-traditional publishers],” said Shragai. “But from our end, this has worked because we bring a brand that speaks to the audience as a friend.”

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The arrival of the General Data Protection Regulation has advertisers worried they’ll be on the hook for violations of their agencies, tech vendors and publishing parters.

Under GDPR, advertisers will often operate as the controller given they own the data that’s being processed by agencies or ad tech firms to target ads. It is, however, getting harder for advertisers to know what companies — whether directly or indirectly — are processing that data due to revisions to data processing agreements. Without that knowledge, it leaves brands open to fines if there’s a GDPR screw-up even if it isn’t their fault.

“Advertisers are concerned that the data-processing agreements they’re being asked to sign don’t give them enough protection as the data controller,” said Matt Green, global lead for media and digital at the World Federation of Advertisers.

In the weeks leading up to and then immediately after the arrival of GDPR, advertisers were flooded with DPAs, created to comply with the regulation — from agencies and ad tech vendors they struggled to understand. Nissan, for example, is currently working with its agencies to assess the privacy policies of ad tech firms it uses.

“We’re working with our agency partners to rank our data partners,” said Nissan’s top marketing executive in Europe, Jean-Pierre Diernaz. “Some will become clear winners against others. It’s a learning curve. You could argue that the industry is currently in a wait-and-see moment when it comes to the GDPR before the ecosystem is properly restructured. I would assume that once that’s done the programmatic environment is going to improve.”

But not every advertiser can call on the media, data and procurement expertise that Diernaz can. Data-protection officers and legal-counsel staff have been heavily overburdened with companywide GDPR projects. The WFA, like the British advertiser trade body ISBA before it, has launched a DPA addendum with the Dutch Advertising Association that Green claimed will show brands how to reapportion liability more evenly between themselves and their partners.

A key part of the addendum, which has been devised by digital media consulting firm Digital Decisions, is to give advertisers the leverage needed to manage the data processors and sub-controllers they share data with. It won’t just cover operational partners, like agencies or trading desks but ad tech firms, Facebook and Google, as well as the different cloud providers like Amazon Web Services.

“It’s inevitable that the DPAs written by publisher or an agency, for example, will represent their data-processor perspective,” said Green. “There are many documents out there that don’t always represent the data controller so what we’re trying to do seeks to re-address that balance.”

Agencies and ad tech providers say many clients were caught unprepared for the ramifications of GDPR and thought they could simply shift liability off on partners.

“Some brands used their DPAs as an excuse to send massive (30-page plus) addenda, and some agencies signed without really reading what was in there,” said one media exec. “Other agencies took control of the issue and sent our pro processor DPAs, which tired to apportion risk in a way that is favorable to agencies. Lots of those DPAs were sent out prior to the May deadline for the GDPR, but I’m still seeing lots of clients negotiating them because not all DPAs were signed prior to the deadline.”

Advertisers admit they will probably need to work with fewer advertising businesses post-GDPR, and yet knowing which ones to pick is as complicated as it is urgent. Large swathes of the third-party data market have clearly decided that legitimate interests is their best bet. It probably is, but that’s fundamentally different to it being a good bet.

“It’s easy to see how the more established platforms and partners will benefit in the short-term,” said Sam Fenton-Elstone, CEO of media agency Anything is Possible. “For many, the bigger platforms reduce risk. They are a safer bet. This remains to be seen, however. We’ve seen how even the biggest [online] media platforms have dealt with personal data, and it wasn’t pretty.”

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Publishing executives have had a rough year. From preparing for the General Data Protection Regulation to the usual pressures of trying to maintain revenues in a digital ad landscape still dominated by the Facebook-Google duopoly, publishers have their share of pressures to escape with a much-needed vacation.

For U.K. publishers, buoyed by the happy news that England has made it to the World Cup semi-finals, the holiday season is a welcome respite. For the latest in our Confessions series, in which we trade candor for anonymity, we asked multiple publishing executives what it is they’re currently grappling with, that they can’t wait to shed in exchange for a few weeks of peace and quiet under a palm tree.

Excerpts lightly edited.

On publisher-agency relationships
This year, we have had to carefully navigate the agency versus brand-direct relationship. It’s been painful for everyone involved. We’ve spent too much time trying to avoid upsetting everyone and not enough time creating outstanding [branded content] work. Agencies have kept the client at arm’s reach and it’s turned into a game of [telephone tag]. Too much is getting lost in translation. All too often, after the partnership is signed off by the agency ,we arrive at the kick-off meeting with the client, only to realize we are a ways away from what was originally agreed. In order to realize the opportunity that brand partnerships represent agencies need to be more daring, they need to take risks. It’s just not happening enough, and it’s getting boring. I’m sure a few weeks in Bali will help me overcome these frustrations. — Digital publishing executive 

On GDPR
“Communication throughout the supply chain has been shit [since the arrival of GDPR]. DSPs aren’t being very forthcoming about whether they can detect [GDPR consent] opt-in users. It’s very frustrating as all we want to know on the sell side is that our opt-in signal is being received and our buyers can buy across. Three different DSPs have given us three different stories, so I’ll be glad to jump on a plane to Italy and forget about this horse-shit communication.” — Digital publishing executive

On industry peacocking 
“I look forward to kicking back and, most importantly, gaining some perspective by speaking to people who wouldn’t know a CPM if it came up and bit them on the arse. I will also turn off all social media to ensure I am not subjected to the witless comments by the phalanx of ‘self-publicists’ who have appeared over the last year. It is one thing to appear on every industry panel going; it is another to think your every utterance is worthy of a blog, vlog or social media post. But most importantly, I am looking forward to getting away from a diversity debate that is mostly held by people who are about as diverse as Ryedale [rural district in Northern England] and display an astonishing lack of what diversity is by never mentioning BAME [Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups] over-50s, LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] or disabled people in the debate.” — National publishing executive 

On resource pressures
“I still have to fight tooth and nail for any resource. We have a small team with no simple way to sign contracts and no easy way to implement new tech. Our back-office resources are spread very thin, covering every angle from site to editorial support from print contracts to trade deals. This is costing us in missed opportunities and errors that lose revenue. Publishers have to realize that in a programmatic world a good back office can generate as much revenue as much as the front office staff and need to be staffed accordingly. So I am looking forward to not chasing, begging and cajoling for every tiny step. I am looking forward to not having to cut so many corners on a project that it ends up going full circle.” — National publishing executive 

More GDPR revulsion
“I would happily go on holiday just to escape my GDPR professional emails, and when doing so will go to my personal inbox, select all GDPR-related emails and delete them at once while sipping a glass of white wine, eating oysters and watching the sun set on a beach which is known for having the highest sand dune in Europe.” — National publishing executive

On traditional publishers’ lack of agility 
“One thing that frustrates me about the industry is the speed that [legacy] publishers move at digitally versus [digital media] startups. Publishers have the brands and audience but mostly fail to capitalize on these despite the success stories in the industry. Startups usually have a single brand and common company goal, nothing gets in the way of trying to hit this. It’s a lesson that lots of publishers could learn from. I’m positive there are loads of products that could have been massive successes if politics didn’t get in the way. At least while I’m on holiday I won’t have a phone signal to see our startup competitors shouting about how fast they can move or another new launch.” — Magazine group publishing executive

Yet more GDPR aversion
“Without question what I’m looking forward to is a break from GDPR, or the ‘God damn pain in the rear.’ I’m just hoping that by the end of the holiday season certain tech and agency giants will have got their acts together to allow the market to function in a frictionless way, while respecting consumers’ privacy. I’ll also be packing lots of novels and banning newspapers to avoid ignominious sight of our government tearing itself apart and consigning the U.K. to a disastrous Brexit in the process.” — Magazine group publishing executive

On private marketplaces
“It’s very frustrating to have worked hard the whole second quarter convincing a client to advertise on our sites, then once it finally does, the PMP transacts just £500 ($665) and nobody has a straight answer why — not ad ops, traders, Google — nobody has any idea why the revenue is so low for a budget that was £30,000 ($40,000). After that, spending two weeks on the beach and not chasing four different teams for answers seems very appealing.” — Digital publishing executive 

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Havas Media Group leads the 2018 Digiday Marketing and Advertising Awards Europe with six nominations.

The agency is nominated for Best Brand/Influencer Collaboration and Best Use of Native Advertising for its work with Dubai Tourism on Imagine Dragons’ Thunder music video, along with Best Experiential Marketing for its work with payments platform Braintree on Tour de Tech, among others. Havas is also in the running for Best Branded Content Series for its work with Gas Natural Fenosa on “En Tu Cabeza,” the first feature-length branded content film by a Spanish company. The film was produced to raise awareness of energy saving and efficiency.

The Hook Group, which won for Best Branded Content program at the 2018 Digiday Publishing Awards, is now up for three awards. The Hook Labs, its new production, influencer and distribution arm, spearheaded three original videos for Lionsgate’s 2017 horror film “Jigsaw,” earning nominations for Best In-House Content/Brand Studio, Best Agency/Client Collaboration and Best Video Advertising Agency or Partner.

Here’s the full list of this year’s finalists:

Agency of the Year
Mediacom
Initiative
360i
Infectious Media
The7Stars

Brand of the Year
Deutsche Telekom
Adidas
L’Oréal
Diageo
Asos

Best Brand/Influencer Collaboration
Havas Media Group & Dubai Tourism – Imagine Dragons
24sata & Coca-Cola – The Shared Dream Became Reality
Beiersdorf AG & NIVEA MEN – #PrepareWithNIVEAMEN
PMG & Beats by Dre – 1 of 1
eight&four for Sandals – Just Add Love

Best Experiential Marketing Campaign
Boiler Room & Sony Pictures – Blade Runner 2049
Nova TV – The Academy of Fulfillment
Havas Media Group & Braintree – Tour de Tech
Boiler Room & Ballantine’s – True Music Africa

Best Agency/Client Collaboration
CULT – Sally Hansen x Crayola
Social Chain & Superdry – Building a Social-First Brand
Diario ABC & Savings United GmbH – ABC Descuentos
The Hook & Lionsgate – Jigsaw
CLICKON Media & General Tires – “Anywhere is Possible”

Best Use of Native Advertising
Haymarket Automotive, True MPG & Nissan LEAF – What Car?
CLICKON Media & General Tires – “Anywhere is Possible”
BuzzFeed & Aviva Motors – Road Safety Awareness
Havas Media Group & Dubai Tourism – IMAGINE DRAGONS
24sata & Pliva – #noshame

Best Product Launch
Schibsted Sales & Inventory – Albert
24sata – miss7
Taylor Herring – Samsung QuickDrive

Best Branded Content Series
CBS Interactive – O2
Havas Media Group & Gas Natural Fenosa – “EN TU CABEZA – CINERGÍA”
CNN International Commercial, Great Big Story & Dubai Tourism – Take Me There
Rakuten Viber & Coca-Cola – TASTE THE FEELING OF COCA-COLA & VIBER

Best Social Good Campaign
Fashion Strong & CULT – Fashion Targets Breast Cancer
Nef & Karaçay Gençlik Spor – “Team of Hope”
Macmillan & Ayima – Baking a Difference With Facebook Video
Arena Media & The Arrels Foundation – Homeless Commons
LADbible Group in partnership with AMV BBDO – Trash Isles

Best Use of Social
RT – #1917Live: What if Twitter existed 100 years ago?
Lime Pictures Limited – Hollyoaks Advent Calendar / Hollyoaks Choices
Wilderness Agency – Wilderness & Warner Bros. Instagram Stories
Battenhall – Kellogg’s Special K #PoweringYou campaign
PMG – 1 of 1
Movement – Fanta: Taking Over Halloween

Best Interactive Content Pieces/Series
über dijital – #NefleGerçekOlur
Wirewax – American Horror Story – Cult
Refinery29 – Refinery29 UK Money Diary Facebook Group

Best Branding Consumer Campaign
Rakuten Viber – TASTE THE FEELING OF COCA-COLA & VIBER
ESI Media – A Franc Point of View
PMG – PMG & Beats by Dre – 1 of 1
RAPP UK – Whatever You

Best Branding B2B Campaign
Ilex Content Strategies – Stage Intelligence: From Local Start-Up to Global AI Innovator
Stein IAS – You Are How You Eat
RS Components – for the inspired – RS Components

Best Use of Real-Time Streaming Video
Cult LDN – St. Tropez – Studio Glow
Media Chain – Panasonic UK ‘Preparation is Everything’ LIVE Quiz
Groovy Gecko – The Barclaycard 31 Day Challenge
Brands2life – CBS Interactive – One Plus

Best Direct Response Campaign
Nano Interactive – Nano drive conversions in Botanical Beauty with Yves Rocher
Nano Interactive – Sandals holidays take off with Nano Interactive

Best Use of Video
CLICKON Media & General Tires – “Anywhere Is Possible”
Wilderness & Discovery Channel UK
Dow Jones & Star Alliance – Connecting Cultures
Zumtobel Image Film
Jungle Creations – Little Casanova

Best Use of Mobile
Rakuten Viber – TASTE THE FEELING OF COCA-COLA & VIBER
S4M – Drive-to-Store Airport targeting for Pernod Ricard

Most Innovative Use of Content
That Lot & Channel 4 – Ackley Bridge Snapchat Campaign
Bonnier News Brand Studio – The Next Generation Coffee Experience
Appetite Creative – Digital Advent Calendar
RT – #1917LIVE: What if Twitter existed 100 years ago?
Boiler Room & Google – Pixel Records

Most Effective/Measurable Campaign
Forward3D & Virgin – Reaching New Heights with Virgin Holidays
Wilderness Agency & Warner Bros UK – The WB Christmas Elves
Factual – Drive-to-Store Airport targeting for Pernod Ricard
BuzzFeed & Suzuki Ignis Launch – We Got This
VG Partnerstudio & Thon Hotels – ThonTester

Best Brand Platform
Thomas Cook Group – Hotel Everywhere from Thomas Cook
Beano Studios

Best Marketing Data Management Platform
1plusX – 1plusX predictive DMP
Appsumer – Unified Ad Analytics – The Future of Mobile App Marketing

Best Marketing Analytics/Attribution Platform
Flashtalking
Forward3D – Product Propensity to Purchase
Forward3D

Best Content Marketing Management Platform
Genero – Genero
Havas Media Group – Kia Lead Generation

Best Marketing Automation Platform
Dataxu
Tanı Pazarlama ve İletişim Hizmetleri/Koç Holding
The Trade Desk
Rubicon Project

Best Sales Automation Tools & Platform
Tubular Labs – DealMaker + Freeda Media
Savings United – ABC Descuentos
Havas Media, DBi, Ecselis  – Kia Lead Generation

Best Influencer Marketing Platform
indaHash
Join
Whalar
Influencer

Best Social Advertising Platform
Martekrs – Metadata.io and Nutanix
Smartly.io – Smartly.io Automates Custom Creative and Performance on Facebook

Best Retail Technology
Savings United – ABC Descuentos
Havas Media Group – Kia Lead Generation

Best In-House Content/Brand Studio
Jungle Creations
The Hook Group – The Hook Labs
CNN International Commercial – Create
Bonnier News Brand Studio
Refinery29

Best Video Advertising Agency or Partner
Jungle Creations
The Hook
LADbible Group – Joyride – LADbible Groups Branded Content Agency

Content Marketing Team of the Year
Alexander Mann Solutions
RS Components

 

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Curated try-before-you-buy services have become a trendy way for direct-to-consumer retailers to personalize their offerings as competition to reach consumers online only escalates. Stitch Fix made the concept popular when it launched in 2011, and since then clothing companies have followed suit. Now, the trend is creeping into a new retail segment — fine jewelry.

Starting Tuesday, direct-to-consumer jewelry company AUrate will offer curated styled boxes, filled with three to five pieces of jewelry for customers to try on at home and, if they don’t want something, return what they don’t want in seven days, free of charge.

While AUrate’s is a curated service that chooses jewelry based off of a questionnaire and human stylists like Stitch Fix, most services function like Amazon’s and let customers choose their own jewelry to try-on at home. Memo, which launched in December and DTC company MiaDonna, which introduced a try-on service in June, allows customers to try-on fine jewelry for three-day trials.

There’s especially a push when it comes to engagement rings. Vrai & Oro launched its home try-on program in February 2017, letting people sample three rings for seven days and Brooklyn-based startup Hayden Cudworth began sending out ring kits, made up of five rings and a ring sizer and customers have five days to return them in 2017.

Not only do these types of services make it more convenient to shop for jewelry online, it’s a big data play. Jewelers get a better sense of their consumers’ desires thanks to the questionnaires people need to fill out to first order a box, and then the feedback they receive after items are returned. To order a curated box on AUrate’s site, customers have to answer questions like ‘what type of jewelry do you like best?’ and ‘what’s your philosophy for spending on fine jewelry?” When someone returns a piece of jewelry, AUrate follows up with each customer with an email asking why they returned what they did.

“It’s information you’re getting that you wouldn’t typically get from having an e-commerce page,” said Sophie Kahn, who had previously worked as the director of strategy at Marc Jacobs before co-founding AUrate. “On your e-commerce platform, the data that you have is that someone landed on your page and they bounced but you don’t know why. Here, you know they returned all your pieces and you know why.”

Launching a curated try-on service with fine jewelry brings additional challenges than a clothing service might. It’s generally more expensive and the likely hood of a piece of jewelry getting destroyed in the mail is higher. That forces some companies to charge security fees to make sure their goods are returned. Vrai &Oro charges a $50 security fee that is refunded once the company receives a customers’ returned package. Some companies just keep their customers’ credit cards close. AUrate will charge a customer’s credit card on file the full price of a piece of jewelry if it’s not returned to them within seven days. Others aren’t taking any chances. Hayden Cudworth, which sells $10,000 items, and MiaDonna send out replicas of engagement rings made of silver alloy for people to try-on at home.

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Prime Day is no longer just about Amazon. It’s now a way other retailers can reach customers while they shop for deals there.

Prime Day, which began three years ago, has evolved to a 36-hour online deal blitz beginning on July 16. Amazon uses it to reinforce the value of Prime membership, the $119 per year program that’s attracted 100 million members globally. If last Prime Day is any indication, large retailers will aggressively push competing offers.

For example, throughout July, Walmart, which pushes “free two-day shipping with no membership fee” is offering customers $10 off orders of $50 or more for pickup orders. Last year, Prime Day coincided with cut-price deals from other retailers, including Best Buy, which offered 40 percent off major appliances, and Macy’s, which took 60 percent off selected items.

“This is a little gift that Amazon has given the retail industry,” said Forrester principal analyst Sucharita Kodali. “It’s a random day in July when there isn’t a huge burst of demand, so any increase you’re going to see, even if it’s 3 or 4 percent lift [in sales], is a good one for a lot of retailers.”

For retailers growing their e-commerce strategies, Prime Day is important boost ahead of the back-to-school season. RetailMeNot, an e-commerce platform that works with consumer brands to promote offers and on customer acquisition strategies, said it’s seen a consistent uptick in the number of retailers adding deals that overlap with Prime day. Between 2016 and 2017, the number of retailers issuing deals on RetailMeNot.com increased 340 percent.

“It’s become a pivotal day that’s benefited Amazon as well as other retailers and speaks to the changing consumer,” said GBH Insights chief strategy officer Daniel Ives. “It shows how much e-commerce has changed with Amazon leading the charge.”

Prime Day has become the largest traffic driver to RetailMeNot.com in the third quarter, surpassing the back-to-school season, said Michelle Skupin, senior director of corporate communications at RetailMeNot.

Prime Day sales are expected to hit $3.4 billion this year,  a 30 percent year over year lift, according to retail think tank Coresight Research. It said it expects Amazon to focus promotions on its private-label products. While Amazon’s Prime Day lets competitors capitalize on the opportunity through competing offers like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the similarity ends there, said Keith Anderson, svp of strategy and insight at Profitero. This is an Amazon-branded event, after all, and its core goal is to expand the Prime member base and build lifetime loyalty.

“For Amazon, the bigggest reason they do this is to drive new Prime memberships — that’s a formula of success that works for Amazon but for very few other retailers,” he said.

Despite Prime Day’s piggyback effect on competing retailers, and opportunities it offers them to acquire more customers, the uniqueness of Amazon’s Prime offering still gives it a leg up. While other retailers may compete on price, the Prime program’s unique bundle of benefits — including discounts at Whole Foods and online streaming video — is unparalleled in the industry, Anderson said. Although it may result in some follow-on sales, to truly compete with the likes of Amazon, retailers should be pairing the offers with ways to entice the new customers to make return purchases, he said. One way to mimic Amazon’s strategy is to add incentives for customers to sign up for newsletters, email lists or join loyalty programs, he added.

“There are a million ways other retailers can use the excitement of a day like Prime Day without competing symmetrically [with Amazon],” he said. “Amazon is taking proven promotional vehicles and tactics that they’re enhancing and adapting for the e-commerce age — most competitive retailers are not ready.”

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Microsoft is cutting prices on its Surface devices, introducing a $399 tablet to compete with Apple’s least-expensive iPads.

Uber Technologies has tapped Scott Schools, a former top official at the U.S. Justice Department, to be its first chief compliance officer, ahead of a highly anticipated initial public offering next year.

CBS is often the first broadcaster to lock in its fall premiere dates, but the network took a month longer than usual to finalize its plans for the new season. Now the network, which was No. 1 in total viewers for the 10th straight year, has announced its plans for the fall, with much of…