Author: rssmasher

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Champagne brand Moet & Chandon wanted its “Love Unconventional” campaign, running Valentine’s Day through Mother’s Day, to drive engagement with elements of gameplay. While the campaign will be heavy on digital video and influencer content across Facebook and Instagram, its more immersive elements are more endemic to Snapchat’s platform, said Christine Ngo, marketing director and… Continue reading »

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“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media. Today’s column is written by Taylor West, general manager, North America, at Zeotap. As the Eagles and Patriots compete for the Vince Lombardi Trophy this weekend, a slew of advertisers will be fighting for customers’… Continue reading »

The post Old Data Is Holding Back Mobile Marketing appeared first on AdExchanger.

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“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. While it has been part of a successful core strategy for a few major publishers for some time, the publisher paywall became a hot topic for… Continue reading »

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A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem… AdExchanger: Origins AdExchanger: Crisis In Ad City (Part I) AdExchanger: Crisis In Ad City (Part II) AdExchanger: Enter Malware (Part I) AdExchanger: Enter Malware (Part II) AdExchanger: Enter Malware (Part III) AdExchanger: Enter Malware (The Conclusion) AdExchanger: Angels And Startups AdExchanger: Rumble In Arbitrage Plaza… Continue reading »

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Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. More Media Mega-Mergers? Nearly a decade after their split, CBS and Viacom might be getting back together. According to Reuters, the CBS board has discussed the possibility of reuniting with Viacom, a union that would bring CBS’ broadcast properties together with Nickelodeon, MTV and… Continue reading »

The post CBS-Viacom Merger Back On The Table; GDPR Versus Marketing Tech appeared first on AdExchanger.

The Dodo wants to entertain people who love animal videos outside of the U.S.

In November, The Dodo, the animal-focused distributed publisher housed underneath Group Nine Media, launched El Dodo, a Spanish-language Facebook page making the same type of animal and pet videos that have helped The Dodo grow, as of December, to 17.5 million followers and 1.1 billion video views on Facebook alone, according to Tubular Labs. El Dodo is The Dodo’s first extension in another language, and it plans to introduce more international content to expand its global reach. Thirty-five percent of The Dodo’s audience lives outside of the U.S., the publisher said.

“[International] will soon be a quarter of the stories that we cover,” said YuJung Kim, president of The Dodo. “If you look at our top 10 markets, India, for example, is a top-three market for us — it’s obviously a huge, untapped opportunity. And beyond language, telling local stories will be more important — about 150 of the 800 nonprofits, animal shelters, sanctuaries and organizations we work with are international.”

Since launching El Dodo, the page has racked up more than 620,000 Facebook followers. About 50 percent of El Dodo’s audience is in Mexico, with another 33 percent coming from South American countries, including Argentina, Peru, Colombia and Chile, the publisher said.

Today, El Dodo is run by two staffers and publishes four videos per day. El Dodo plans to grow by expanding to other platforms and screens, like YouTube, which already has 80 percent of its audience living outside of the U.S.; and Snapchat, where The Dodo has a Discover channel and will start to produce Spanish-language content for the platform, Kim said.

And just as The Dodo produces a TV show called “Dodo Heroes” for Animal Planet, which Group Nine investor Discovery Communications owns, The Dodo could produce a Spanish-language show for a local TV station such as Discovery Latin America, Kim said.

As Facebook works to expand Facebook Watch beyond the U.S., The Dodo is angling to produce shows for those markets. Group Nine Media has a deal with Facebook to produce multiple Watch series for its publishing brands, which also include NowThis, Thrillist and Seeker.)

Launching a new Facebook page might seem like an odd decision as Facebook is deprioritizing non-user content in its news feed to favor content that’s commented on and shared. Kim pointed to The Dodo’s ability to get people to share and interact with its videos as a reason why the publisher isn’t worried. The Dodo gets 1.5 times more engagements (likes, comments and shares) per view than the Facebook average, according to Tubular Labs.

“We don’t believe every type of animal content is shareable, but we have gathered so much data about which types of animals and videos get the most shares,” Kim said.

The post The Dodo launches in Spanish in its first international foray appeared first on Digiday.

Feb. 4 will mark M&M’s return to the Super Bowl after a three-year hiatus, with a commercial that features actor Danny DeVito lounging in a pool of M&M’s. On Feb. 3, M&M’s will bring a Twitter-activated video vending machine to the Super Bowl Experience at the Minneapolis Convention Center, where fans can see the new commercial, and, of course, eat M&M’s. All this falls to Allison Miazga-Bedrick, the candy maker’s senior brand director, and her team. Here’s what a day in her week before the big game looks like.

5:30 a.m.: I typically wake up when it’s still dark outside. I grab my phone and quickly check on the news of the day, and see what emails have come in. My direct reports and functional partners — media, social and PR teams — are clamoring for time with me so that we can continue to evolve the program. I have a critical discussion later today with our president to walk her through our integrated plans. I can get ahead of some emails before my full day of meetings begin.

6:30 a.m.: Now, I turn my attention to the realities of a working mom. I get the kids up, hop in the shower, make the school lunches and get ready for the day. After some coordination with my husband, I am out the door to drop off my high schooler while hoping my fifth-grader is getting ready for school.

8:30 a.m.: I arrive at the office and head right to my desk to see what rolled in on email while I was in transit. With about 30 minutes of thinking time before the team arrives, I get my thoughts ready for my meeting.

9 a.m.: Team arrives, and we are buzzing about the Super Bowl, other projects and priorities. I have a few quick drive-by discussions with my team before we all start our days.

9:15 a.m.: I head over to the conference room for a live meeting. Successful call — mission accomplished.

10:30 a.m.: The marathon of meetings ensues. First up, creative review, and rough cuts are now final, so I approve all creative assets, and all are ready to ship on plan and on time.

11 a.m.: Next up is media review. We learn about a new opportunity that is a win for one of our assets: Our Danny DeVito video vending machine. I have the freedom to jump on these moments that provide a clear benefit. I approved the opportunity on the spot.

11:30 a.m.: Social review. Social strategy, check; social content, check; paid support, check. Influencer support review is with the same team and aligned to the final choices and content strategy, check.

Noon: I head toward our cafe to grab lunch. A few calls and texts to coordinate the night, make personal appointments for the kids and do some more juggling.

12:30 p.m.: A review with the PR team. I’ve seen the plan, and I’m expecting to see enhancements.

1 p.m.: Media team tracks me down for a new, super cool digital idea. I stop to evaluate and provide on-the-spot feedback. I’m aligned.

2 p.m.: Time to transition to some innovation topics and check in with my team. Executing 2018, launching 2019 and planning ahead for 2020 — always a three-year focus.

3 p.m.: A final review of our on-the-ground [campaign] is scheduled. I provide input and final approvals on materials, run of show and program elements.

4 p.m.: Super Bowl is the priority at this time of year, but my brands have other projects and campaigns running. My team seeks me out for guidance and counsel on all of our other priorities.

5:30 p.m.: It’s time to pick up one of my kids up from dance class while my husband has my other daughter at judo.

7 p.m.: Finally home. A check-in with everyone on their days and a discussion on the schedule for tomorrow. Mom time kicks in as I spend time with the family, and prepare for the following day. I finally sit down, check some quick emails and try to relax before starting it all over again tomorrow.

The post A day in the life of M&M’s brand director before the Super Bowl appeared first on Digiday.

Now, it’s time for Flipboard’s charm offensive with publishers. This week, the mobile reading app rolled out full-page print ads in newspapers, including the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal, and sites, including Axios, Vanity Fair and The Hollywood Reporter, just as publishers are increasingly seeking ways to replace their Facebook referral traffic.

Mike McCue, Flipboard’s founder and CEO, said discussions of a campaign began late last spring and that the timing of the launch is unrelated to Facebook’s announced plans to cut the amount of news people see in its news feed. Still, the campaign comes after a year when Flipboard worked with publishers on reporter-curated newsletters, grew its editorial and curation team and laid the groundwork to help publishers monetize their video inside Flipboard. It added more than 100 non-U.S. publishers to its roster of 4,000.

It’s also backing away from a fast-loading mobile article format, similar to Facebook Instant Articles, which it debuted before mobile-optimized sites were common. In response to publisher feedback, it’s no longer stressing the format, instead allowing publishers to use Flipboard as a source of referral traffic, provided their sites are mobile-optimized.

The effect has been dramatic in some cases. The Next Web was publishing all its content on Flipboard using its proprietary format and started using it for referral traffic in November. After the switch, Flipboard immediately leapfrogged Facebook, where The Next Web has over 1 million fans, and Twitter (1.85 million followers) to become its top source of referral traffic, despite the fact that The Next Web has just over 181,000 followers on Flipboard.

Mobile referral traffic from Flipboard is up over 350 percent since May, according to Parsely, albeit from a small base compared to Google and Facebook. Google and Facebook still dominate mobile referral traffic by a big margin, and Flipboard is a distant fourth after Twitter, according to Parsely.

“It’s become a sleeper hit,” said Jess Barron, vp and gm of Livestrong.com, which joined Flipboard six months ago. “Every publisher is looking for the next big thing to provide us that regular infusion of traffic.”

Flipboard is not in the same weight class as Facebook or Google. It claims a monthly active user base of 100 million, less than 5 percent of Facebook’s 2.1 billion. And its audience doesn’t skew heavily toward a particular age group — its audience is equal parts millennial, Gen X and older.

But unlike Facebook, which is trying to become a native video platform and a commerce marketplace and a global ad platform (as well as a place for friends and family), Flipboard’s raison d’être is simple and publisher-friendly: Deliver brand-safe publisher content to its users.

Publishers just need a functioning RSS feed of their content to be distributed on Flipboard. But this past year, Flipboard began collaborating more closely with publishers on content packages that appeared both on Flipboard and in newsletters. NBC News, for example, created a package around the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency; The Wall Street Journal created a package on the state of women in the workplace.

Those efforts continue in 2018. For the Golden Globes, for example, E! curated coverage of the event that Flipboard put on its homepage.

Publishers, which have often complained that other platforms from Facebook to Pinterest haven’t been helpful solving their problems, will take any platform love they get these days.

“They’re incredibly responsive,” said Janaki Challa, who heads audience development at The Daily Beast, which gets more traffic from Flipboard than Facebook. (She wouldn’t give numbers.) “It can be hit or miss with other partners, but with them, it’s been a relatively easy relationship.”

The post Flipboard cozies up to Facebook-weary publishers appeared first on Digiday.

At the Digiday Hot Topic UK: Data-Driven Publishing event last November in London, we sat down with over 20 media-buying executives from major agencies across the country to discuss developing trends such as the General Data Protection Regulation and addressable TV’s potential. Check out our earlier research on advertisers’ lack of concern about brand safety here. Learn more about our upcoming events here.

Top findings:

• Addressable TV has a long way to go to match digital advertising. Only 16 percent believe TV networks or OTT platforms collect the best data for consumer targeting.
• Seventy-five percent of respondents don’t believe addressable TV can replace digital advertising if the GDPR damages audience-targeting capabilities.
• $600 million was spent on addressable TV in 2017, up from $450 million in 2016.

The enforcement of the GDPR on May 25 has most in digital media on edge. The GDPR will upend how data is collected from consumers and then used to target them. Some advertisers have noted the GDPR’s potential to improve the quality of data collected, but many are apprehensive about what the GDPR means for their ability to accurately target consumers. Location-based ad tech vendors that supply the data necessary for audience targeting are particularly susceptible to the GDPR’s effects because of how they collect their data.

This has some advertisers turning to different media channels to reach consumers, including addressable TV. However, Digiday’s survey found that only 25 percent of respondents think addressable TV has the potential to replace digital advertising, should the GDPR harm advertisers’ ability to target consumers.

Addressable TV offers marketers similar opportunities to digital advertising like location-based targeting. Dish Network, owner of OTT platform Sling TV, is betting heavily on addressable TV until more advertisers warm to programmatic TV ad buying. But compared to digital advertising, addressable TV is a drop in the bucket in terms of media spend. In 2017, marketers spent just $600 million on addressable TV, while they dumped $33 billion into programmatic display ads alone.

Although addressable TV ad spending is growing significantly, up 33 percent between 2016 and 2017, there are limitations. Both TV networks and OTT platforms fall far behind publishers in terms of the quality of data they collect. Two-thirds of respondents to Digiday’s survey believe publishers have the best data for targeting consumers, whereas just 16 percent said the same about TV networks. No respondents chose OTT platforms, which could be because over 80 percent of the 200 OTT streaming services offer ad-free subscription products. A lack of reliable TV audience measurement metrics has dissuaded advertisers from buying addressable TV, which must be improved before advertisers will spend their money on it.

The post Digiday Research: Media buyers question quality of addressable TV targeting appeared first on Digiday.