1. Technology
MediaWise
Trends in Digital Media
January 2017
Customized Cruises? Carnival Unveils Wearable Tech at
CES to Advance Personalized Experiences
If 2016 was the “Year of Mobile”, 2017 is shaping up to be
the “Year of Experience”.
As a result of advancements in wearable technology and
beacon accuracy, it was recently announced at CES that
Carnival Cruise Line will be rolling out wearable chips for
guests to interact with thousands of sensors throughout
their ships to create a truly customized cruise environment.
These interactions will allow Carnival to personalize content
delivery, check-in process, room access, climate settings,
one-click room service delivery, and recommend activities
for each guest, for example.
Implications for Marketers:
While the Travel industry is a natural fit for wearables, the
technology will likely expand to other verticals as early
adopters find success. When extending efforts to the
wearables space, brands can create unique experiences for
their customers complete with integrated content and
recommendation engines as well as integration with
existing systems (personal smartphone, fitness bands, credit
cards, or loyalty cards, for example).
Imagine you show up to your favorite store and approach a
monitor with recommended items to purchase based on
your past purchases, preferences, size, available inventory
and location within the store that items can be found.
Soon, that could be the status quo.
To view full article: Adweek

2. Instagram’s New Stories Section Now Featuring Ads From
Top Brands
Instagram has partnered up with brands like Airbnb, Nike
and Capital One to advertise in its video stories section. The
stories section is a collection of daily moments that
disappear after 24 hours – similar to Snapchat's stories –
which offer users a personalized way to share photos and
videos with followers.
Although it was just launched in August, Facebook revealed
that around 150 million people have been using Instagram
stories daily.
Currently, the full screen ads are only being measured by
the number of people reached, though plans are in place to
expand these measurements in the coming months.
Implications for Marketers
Instagram stories can provide an interesting complement to
traditional Instagram advertising, as it’s real-time nature
and faster pace can make it feel like a more personal
interaction with users, and potentially act as an extension
of a broader brand campaign, to keep the brand top of mind
and relevant.
When the functionality rolls out, brands can gain insight on
their audience interactions, likes, time spent, and exits. For
instance, whether a user moved onto the next story, or left
the stories tray entirely.
To view full article: Adweek
Social

3. Voice Searches Have Surged: Are You Optimizing For
Them?
Voice search is everywhere now. Got a question? At home,
Alexa can answer it via Amazon’s Echo, LG’s Smart InstaView
Refrigerator, or GE’s C lamp. Looking for a restaurant? In the
Nissan Leaf, Cortana can find one and provide directions.
According to Google, 20% of searches on Android devices
and its mobile app are driven by voice search. That’s not
even accounting for searches conducted using Google
Home, Amazon’s Echo, Siri and Cortana. Technological
improvements have played a large role in the increased
usage, as voice search accuracy has improved up to 92%
according to the KPCB Internet Trends 2016 report.
Implications for Marketers
Now more than ever, marketers need to optimize for voice
search by…
• Making certain that brand websites are mobile-
optimized, otherwise the poor user experience will
lead to high bounce rates that impact the Search
Engine Results Page ranking.
• Adding natural language to pages on the site or create
a FAQ page for SEO purposes. Some helpful tools
include Answerthepublic.com or StoryBase.com.
• Ensuring a sitemap has been submitted to search
engines so bots can crawl the website easily.
• Making sure business listing information is up-to-date
on directories like Yelp.
To view full articles: Search Engine Land, KPCB Internet
Trends 2016, Adweek
SEO

4. Snapchat’s New Targeting Tools to Improve Ad Results
In order to keep up with growing competition, Snapchat has
recently rolled out advanced targeting opportunities to
improve advertiser results. Goal Based Bidding (GBB)
provides advertisers with more options when buying
through Snapchat’s ad platform.
Rather than paying for impressions (views), advertisers can
now bid on the respective campaign “goal” such as
engagement (a swipe) with their ads. Advertisers will give
Snapchat an estimate of how much they believe their
“swipe” is worth, and the app can auto-optimize bidding
and delivery to a target audience that they think would
engage with that ad.
Snapchat reported that when it comes to “cost per swipe”,
20 percent of advertisers who are already using GBB have
seen a 40 percent improvement in regards to their
efficiency.
Implications for Marketers
This seemingly small advancement in the app’s technology
may be foreshadowing of their future capabilities. They
have an enormous amount of data that is worth testing
into, and the platform recently announced that they are
growing their measurement partnerships – working with 11
external companies at the moment.
Giving advertisers more control over their campaign
objectives combined with providing more ways to bid on
ads makes Snapchat a promising future partner for
campaigns with strict KPIs.
To view full article: Adweek
Social

5. Podcasts
Why Branded Podcasting Could More than Double in 2017
Podcasts have been gaining attention in the advertising
community over the last year. Advertisers are drawn in by
the medium’s unique intimacy with listeners who are opting
in to listen to a brand’s curated message for upwards of 20
minutes. In response to this increased interest, publishers
like Midroll and Gannett have recently launched branded
studios that lend their credentials to help brands create the
right content that resonates with the right audience. When
considering that the price tag for a custom program can
cost in the mid-six figures, the opportunity is very appealing
for content producers.
When done properly, these branded opportunities are
gaining both a direct connection with listeners, as well as
large audiences. For example, GE recently worked with
Panoply, the Slate Group-owned podcast advertising
network, to create two custom podcasts which have been
downloaded over six million times.
Implications for Marketers
Every advertiser does not need its own branded podcast,
but if it is an appropriate channel based on the brands
positioning, available content and budgets, advertisers must
keep the user in mind throughout the process. Listeners are
not opting to just listen to a commercial for 20 minutes,
instead the content must be highly useful for the subject
matter and keep commercial ties to a minimum.
To view full article: Digiday

6. For Facebook, a Crucial Test of a New Video Ad Unit
Facebook is testing the placement of 15-second mid-roll ads
into non-live videos. Revenue generated from the ads will
be split with publishers, who will receive 55% of sales—a
similar setup to YouTube's deal with its content creators.
Videos will only qualify for monetization if they run for 90
seconds or longer and are viewed for at least 20 seconds—
meaning that if publishers want to grab a slice of
Facebook's new earnings stream, the pressure is on to
create attention-grabbing content that will engage viewers.
Facebook dramatically expanded its live video platform in
2016 and has recently hinted that it is making a push
toward original content creation.
In a conference call with investors following the company's
Q2 earnings release, CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained, "The
important thing to keep in mind on this is we don't need to
do pre-roll because our model is not one where you come
to Facebook to watch one piece of content, you come to
look at a feed."
Implications for Marketers
The opportunity for Facebook to expand it’s video
capabilities could be of great benefit to advertisers looking
to capture user attention, as 1 in every 3 US Facebook users
view video on the social network at least once per day.
What remains to be seen is whether user experience will be
negatively affected, though the controls Facebook has put
into place on length and engagement will likely protect
from negative backlash.
To view article, request the full eMarketer report
Social