Month: February 2019

For the second time this month, Amazon has elected a woman of color to its board of directors. This time it’s former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi. She joins Starbucks COO and group president Rosalind Brewer, who was elected at the beginning of February. According to a regulatory filing, Nooyi was also appointed to the board’s…

Kraft-Heinz’s $15 billion write-down on Kraft and Oscar Meyer last week shows that underinvesting in marketing and brand hurts long-term growth. “It indicates investment in innovation and branding is essential,” said Martin Sorrell, CEO of S4 Capital. “In addition to being frugal, you have to invest in product or service innovation and marketing. You’re throwing… Continue reading »

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“The Sell Sider” is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community. Today’s column is written by Rachel Parkin, senior vice president of strategy and sales at CafeMedia. Two years ago, I looked in my crystal ball and envisioned a future where all media would run programmatically. Today, we have all… Continue reading »

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Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Case Dismissed The government lost its appeal to stop the AT&T and Time Warner merger on Tuesday. While AT&T will continue to operate Time Warner as a separate group, The New York Times reports, the two companies can integrate more deeply and move forward… Continue reading »

The post Feds Lose Appeal To Block AT&T-Time Warner; Facebook Culls Watch Programming appeared first on AdExchanger.

by Sherry Smith, CEO, Triad

Retailers are boldly evolving their businesses to meet customer expectations in a digitally driven world.

Last year, Amazon debuted its second brick-and-mortar concept store. Sam’s Club solved the omnichannel challenge by applying member data to its proprietary audience platform to gain a more holistic view of the customer. Nike made a bold “brick-and-mobile” play, enabling shoppers to trigger in-store purchase experiences via their mobile devices. And over the next five years, direct-to-consumer brands like Fabletics, Everlane and more are expected to open 850 stores.

With this two-way convergence of online and brick-and-mortar retail gaining traction, as well as the integration of in-store technologies ranging from mobile interactivity to augmented reality, it’s no secret that a retailer’s key to survival is to adapt at record speeds.

Based on our experience working in partnership with some of the world’s leading retailers, here are three ways brands can stay ahead of retail trends today:

1. Shift investments to ecommerce search

Two-thirds of global shoppers research products online before heading in-store to purchase, and more than 50 percent of people use their smartphones to search product information and compare pricing while shopping in-store, according to Global Omnichannel Commerce Trends 2018.

Search has become a leading growth tactic with a significant portion of product discovery originating on ecommerce websites including Amazon and Walmart. This driver accounts for half of all searches, leading many retailers to add product enhancement tools to sponsored search ads, including videos and expert reviews to drive increased engagement and revenue. In 2019, search advertising spend is projected to be 44 percent of total U.S. digital ad spend, reaching more than $58 billion.

At Triad, we’re working with Citrus, a sponsored search platform providing a personalized ad-serving engine to enhance the customer experience on retailer websites. Citrus technology offers retailers with native ad server capabilities, allowing for agile decision-making with ROAS reporting and keyword attribution, all through a self-serve platform.

2. Create new retailer sales channels and engagement models

Retailers must also take a unified approach to commerce by opening new sales channels to help brands scale in an Amazon-led world. As retailers transform from product-centric to customer-centric, it will require new ways of working to inspire people throughout their shopping journey.

The ability of retailers to quickly apply data and insights to drive both engagement and transaction will provide additional revenue streams and stronger business outcomes. By
enabling brands to access customers across a consortium of retailers, collaborative partners (like Triad) are the ampersand that links data, technology and people.

3. Implement an effective omnichannel strategy

Implementing an effective omnichannel strategy is one of three top priorities among retailers. Yet half of them consider their omnichannel approach a “work in progress,” while 19 percent say it’s still a “struggle,” according to a recent eMarketer study.
 
What is holding retailers back from driving successful strategies forward?

Retailers must take a new approach by identifying individual components of an omnichannel strategy that they can execute with operational excellence and a unified message across all touchpoints. For example, intelligence-enabled platforms are now capable of delivering customer-centric insights, helping retailers solve for inventory constraints and providing data to support optimal pricing strategies.

The development of first-to-market DSPs for personalization and optimization is becoming a greater focus of many retailers’ current omnichannel offerings. To gain a true holistic view of its club members, we consulted with Sam’s Club to develop Member Connect™ — a proprietary, audience-targeting platform that leverages first-party member data to bridge online and offline sales.

This opens endless possibilities for technology innovation in platforms that will ultimately help pave the way for unified commerce to be most effective.

The post Three ways you can stay ahead of the latest retail trends appeared first on Digiday.

After premiering the first scripted original show on Snapchat in October, Snap is looking to add to its “Snap Originals” slate. In particular, the company is interested in acquiring more teen dramas and hard comedies, according to a document the company has shared with entertainment execs. The document outlines the types of scripted original shows Snap is on the hunt for in the first quarter of 2019. A Snap spokesperson declined to comment.

The key hits:

• Snap is willing to pay companies upfront to produce original shows.
• Series budgets can reach $50,000 per episode and go higher for scripted shows that are more expensive to produce.
• Lately Snap is looking to expand its teen drama slate and add more traditional comedies, instead of dramedies.
• The types of comedies Snap is seeking include animated shows and musicals.
• Snap is also looking for shows that represent Latino and African-American audiences.
• Series timed to events such as spring break, prom and Halloween are also of interest.

Earlier this month, we reported that Snap is offering to pay companies $40,000 to $50,000 an episode to produce original shows for Snapchat. The company is willing to open it’s wallet a bit wider for scripted shows, which typically run for around 10 episodes with each episode averaging five minutes in length.

The post Video Briefing: Snap wants more scripted original shows for Snapchat Discover appeared first on Digiday.

Media companies Jukin Media and Studio71 continue to experiment with how to program their respective Snapchat Discover channels since debuting channels on the platform last fall and seeing their audiences swell into the millions.

Jukin Media and Studio71 operate somewhat different channels but have arrived at similar publishing strategies for channels that debuted within a month of each other and are profitable, according to execs from each company. In September, Studio71 introduced a daily Publisher Story for WorldStarHipHop that now has millions of subscribers, according to Studio71 CEO Reza Izad. In October, Jukin Media debuted two weekly Shows for two of its properties, People Are Awesome and FailArmy, which have accumulated 2 million and 1.8 million subscribers respectively, according to a company spokesperson.

Since the channels’ launch, both Jukin Media and Studio71 have found that people are willing to tap through longer-than-expected episodes and editions, though there is a limit. At first, Jukin Media tested including as few as 10 snaps and as many as 40 snaps in each property’s episode, according to Jukin Media CEO Jon Skogmo. Meanwhile, Studio71 initially tried 16 to 18 snaps per weekday edition of WorldStarHipHop’s Publisher Story and 10 snaps per weekend edition, according to Anjuli Hinds, svp of original content at Studio71. But over time, Jukin Media saw that people were checking out toward the end of its longer episodes, and Studio71 saw that people were sticking around for its relatively shorter ones.

Now Jukin Media has settled on a sweet spot of 17 to 18 snaps per episode, said Skogmo. And Studio71 lengthened its editions to include 20 to 23 snaps on weekdays and around 15 snaps on weekends, said Hinds.

The length of media companies’ content matters because of how that length can relate to revenue. Since Snapchat slots ads between the snaps in a Show and Publisher Story, the more snaps that a story includes would likely enable more ads to be inserted as well. However neither Jukin Media’s nor Studio71’s executives were willing to discuss their respective channels’ revenue, so it’s unclear to what extent the adjusted story lengths have benefitted their businesses, though it would also help that they are getting millions of people to tune in to their content.

Jukin Media’s FailArmy Show received 16.8 million total unique viewers in January and averaged 6 million unique viewers per episode, and its People Are Awesome Show received 15.5 million total unique viewers that month and averaged 3.3 million unique viewers per episode, according to a company spokesperson. Studio71’s WorldStarHipHop Publisher Story received tens of millions of unique viewers in January, according to Izad; a Studio71 spokesperson declined to provide a number for average unique viewers per edition.

In addition to narrowing the length of their channels’ content, both companies have tightened the scopes of their content as well, which can help to keep people’s attention to view the entire episode or edition.

Jukin Media has focused on having the first and last snaps that bookend its episodes share a theme and fill the middle with “content that will let you breathe and laugh, a variety of content that’s not just the same beat over and over,” Skogmo said. And Studio71 has gravitated toward featuring longer stories toward the beginning of WorldStarHipHop’s Publisher Stories and stretching those stories out across multiple snaps. “If we do a top story that’s shorter, then someone’s read that story and they’re onto the next thing, either our next story or another story somewhere else,” said Hinds.

Even though it’s unclear how adjusting their programming strategies has impacted the revenue that Jukin Media and Studio71 generate directly from their channels, the publishers’ focus on fine-tuning their Snapchat content could indirectly benefit their businesses.

An agency executive said that some Snapchat publishers have become more vocal about their Snapchat content strategies in meetings to position themselves as experts to marketers looking to produce their own content for Discover or create ads to run on Snapchat. In these conversations, the publishers have detailed how they pick the headline tiles that tease a story in people’s Discover feeds, how they sequence the snaps included in an edition and how they calibrate the lengths of the editions. Sharing that information helps to make advertisers more confident about advertising on Snapchat and more interested in working with that specific publisher. The publisher “becomes like a center of excellence or learning resource. It almost becomes like a pseudo-consulting relationship in that regard,” said the agency exec.

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The Economist has tightened its paywall so readers have access to five articles a month — rather than three a week — in order to nudge more registered users over into subscribing.

At the end of January, the subscription publisher changed its metered access after six months of testing. Reader research found that on average people either read five articles before subscribing or they sign up right away. And a high content threshold would allow potential subscribers to slip through the net and never hit the paywall.

“This approach has enabled us to do both: be a little more efficient on the subscription conversion while ensuring key placements like leaderboards still receive equal exposure,” said Marina Haydn, managing director of global circulation.

The Economist has been pretty generous with content, erring on the side of publishing more in front of the paywall and sharing through social platforms to drive people back to subscribe, believing its journalism is its best asset. It has 1.6 million digital and print subscribers, of these 790,000 have a digital subscription, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Over the last five years, circulation profits have doubled, and the goal is to keep this growing, said Haydn. Acquiring more subscribers is one part of the puzzle, and it’s also putting more effort on retention — as keeping subscribers is cheaper than finding new ones — and raising the subscription price.

“We’re very much on a growth trajectory, the focus is more on value over volume,” said Haydn, adding that it’s not setting itself public lofty goals, publishers like The New York Times or The Telegraph have. “We have had a strong acquisitions focus. Retention is the biggest strategic priority for us. To be ambitious you need to improve, we want to improve retention on our first-year customers. Retention of those who are with us for one year is very strong.”

The move comes as the overall tenor of the industry shifts against advertising and toward direct audience revenue. Publishers of all sizes and stripes are rolling out subscriptions and membership programs to augment weakened ad businesses. The Economist, however, has always charged for digital content. The move to tighten its paywall is a sign that it is centering its strategy even more so on direct audience revenue.

The Economist is directing more energy toward the 12-week period directly after people subscribe to get them into the habit of using its products daily. Subscribers get a welcome email signed by the editor-in-chief, product details and step by step guides to setting up the app and its newsletter portfolio. Each week onward, they’re emailed with various reminders on getting to grips with its products.

In March, the publisher will increase its subscription prices by 20 percent — the first time in three years — after research found readers perceive The Economist at a higher quality than the price they’re paying for it. The Economist has a long-running introductory offer of 12 issues for £12 ($15.90) before the price goes up to £179 ($237.21) a year.

This year the publisher will balance resources like budget and manpower so 30 percent is on acquiring subscribers and 70 percent on retaining them. According to Haydn, globally 45 people work on driving acquisition. In 2018, the publisher spent over £28 million ($37.11 million) in six months on marketing its full price subscriptions, according to its most recent financial report from September. Some of this will shift to spending on retention, improving customer experience and operations, but it will keep a healthy acquisition budget. Around 105 people work on retention, customer experience and digital products.

While it’s the headline stories that drive subscriptions, it’s when people dig deeper into other topics The Economist covers, like culture, that leads to more regular engagement and keeps churn stable, said Haydn. Products like apps, podcasts and newsletters can highlight these topic areas. The Economist launched an app for subscribers and a daily podcast, The Intelligence, which it has integrated into the app. Podcast engagement has been good, but it’s too soon to share details, she added.

“The Economist’s challenge is it is a mature digital product,” said Douglas McCabe, CEO at Enders Analysis. “They have impressively avoided diluting their product or changing their approach in order to try and reach further people, which is an easy trap to fall into. Its quality is its advantage, and its large existing subscriber base is the highly visible evidence of its value.”

The publisher wouldn’t divulge its churn rate. According to Piano, which helps publishers with paywalls, churn rate among publishers is around 10 percent but can vary wildly depending on subscription offers or heavy marketing pushes.

Like many subscription publishers, ongoing political sagas like Trump and Brexit have led to an extended period of growth that lasted into early 2018, but that’s been slowing.

“There has been a change in consumer behavior and a numbing of those groups of people who needed to be particularly well-informed. It feels as if some have chosen to go a little bit numb right now,” said Haydn. “That does mean that market is a bit more challenging than it was. It’s not a downward trajectory but less of a boom than there has been.”

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Venmo is evolving beyond a tool to pay friends for beer or rent.

Retail brands are adding Venmo as a checkout method to attract younger customers. A Venmo payment button on merchants’ online stores has available wherever PayPal is accepted for more than a year, and Venmo debit cards can be accepted at checkout counters of participating retailers.

For PayPal, it’s a strategy to monetize Venmo, whose peer-to-peer payments capabilities aren’t a money maker. Over the past year, PayPal has increased its emphasis on driving profitability for Venmo, in part through retailer transactions. According to PayPal, more than two million merchants support payments from Venmo, and recent additions include Uber, Hulu, Grubhub, Shopify and Williams Sonoma. Twenty-nine percent of Venmo users made a “monetizable transaction” in the fourth quarter of 2018, PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said on a fourth-quarter earnings call in January. “Monetizable transactions” are counted by PayPal as revenue from instant transfers, as well as retail partnerships.

Retail brands, meanwhile, want to make online checkouts as easy as possible, and Venmo’s popularity among younger customers make it a shoo-in. Direct-to-consumer home goods and grocery retailer Boxed has had Venmo payments available for nearly a year. It’s partnered with Venmo on paid and organic social media marketing campaigns on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Venmo is about being where target customers, particularly younger ones, are, said Seiya Vogt, vp of growth at Boxed, though it’s too early to tell if it has staying power.

“We’re trying to find the best and most seamless way for customers to have a good experience on our site — it depends on what technology they’re using on a day-to-day basis, but more people are using Venmo [on Boxed],” said Vogt. “It seemed like a really good fit; as we see more people using it for daily transactions, there will be more emphasis on Venmo.” Boxed also lets customers pay with Apple Pay and Google Pay.

For bedding brand Brooklinen, Venmo was added because customers asked for it.

“We want to make things as easy as possible for the customers and Venmo was an obvious choice for us,” Brooklinen CEO Rich Fulop said.

For retailers, being able to tie Venmo payments to the platform’s social feed has the potential to grow brand recognition among customers, their friends and family through organic content and paid ads. Neither Brooklinen nor Boxed does this, but they say they’re open to possibilities, depending on how quickly Venmo as a shopping payment method catches on.

“We love any way customers choose to share their experience with Brooklinen, be it word of mouth at dinner or on a social feed,” said Fulop. “[Venmo’s social feed] is not a marketing channel for us at this time, but we are excited to continue to watch how it impacts or improves the customer’s experience.”

David Sica, principal at venture capital firm Nyca Partners, said Venmo is one way retailers can grow their brand positions and loyalty programs, but time will tell if customers use it as readily to buy goods as they do for peer-to-peer payments between friends.

“Merchants need to do something to create loyalty and remain competitive, and their efforts so far have had mixed results,” he said. “There’s this [potential] with Venmo — it has a highly desirable demographic that are users, and you have a social feed to build campaigns around.”

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Adore Me, the online subscription lingerie brand, has acquired maternity brand Belabumbum as part of its growth strategy to add more product categories each year.

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