JCDecaux’s recent stunt was a pretty clever way of getting advertisers attention. They went on Google Street view to find which advertisers OOH placements had been documented on the service, sending them an invoice for the digital impressions. This was a stunt to get advertisers to listen to their sales pitch, but it raises an interesting point about the future of earned media. As we increasingly document the world around us, every OOH placement has legs far beyond those physical impressions. Google Street view is just one example but advertisers need to factor in all the earned media. As geotagging and image identification get more precise, expect this to be part of the standardized reporting.
Category: Percolate
Proximity Push: iBeacons & Actionable Notifications
The Lab is bullish on iBeacons, Apple’s latest technology which enables proximity messaging (1-150 feet in range) via compatible apps. Think about recipes tailored to the grocery aisle you’re in or facilitating wait times at a restaurant without the need for those lovely restaurant pagers. Well, Apple’s recent announcement of actionable notifications brings the promise of iBeacons to another level. Now apps can push proximity-based notifications that let users take action like downloading that recipe or preordering appetizers right from within the home screen notification.
It’s a DR marketers dream, but don’t abuse the power! These notifications need to reduce friction for the user, not increase it. Users will be as quick to drop the app as they were to install it if they are bombarded by Like requests.
Tinder Becomes More Like Snapchat
As Tinder tries to become more than just a “hookup app,” it’s looking to competitor Snapchat for ideas. Now, Tinder allows you to share “moments,” which are photos that expire after 24 hours, with everybody you’ve ever matched with. The idea is to draw users into the social features of sharing things wth new friends, rather than using it for merely swiping through people to meet up with. It’s a bit of a different outlook for Tinder, who are now competing with messaging apps as well as dating apps.
Automating Web Design: A Matter Of Art And Science
How much of web design is art and how much is science? According to German firm EyeQuant, it’s mostly the latter. Fast Company states that they are “using machine learning to train their AI to recognize bad aesthetics and poor website design.” Leveraging eye tracking studies that measure attention, they believe that they can algorithmically predict which websites people prefer.
Let’s move behind website design to think about how we can optimize any online creative. Keyword optimization has already moved from SEO and into social media creation and image optimization isn’t far off with improvements in measurement and computer vision. But don’t worry humans, Creative Directors won’t be outsourced to machines…at least for the time being.
Edyn Will Make Your Garden Smart
Last week’s Internet of Things week tackled the Connected Home and the Connected Car, but what about the Connected Garden? Edyn is trying to make that a reality with a garden device that tracks everything from light and temperature to moisture to help you know when to plant, how often to water and more. Given the focus on sustainability, Edyn could offer brands some value on the platform with eco rewards, recommendations or even providing content that would bring a more human element to the automated notifications.
At the end of the day, all these devices bring the same promise of removing intuition to help you make data-driven decisions and change behavior. Is the world ready for the connected garden or is this high tech gadget incongruous with the natural gardener?
Second Screen Scare: Facebook Accesses Your Microphone
Facebook’s app can now access your microphone to listen to what’s around you. The current use case is enabling easy sharing of music and video, much like the social functionality on Shazam. Yet, the opt-in feature is having many opt-out with over half a million already signing a petition to nix it altogether.
Sharing isn’t necessarily a pain point on Facebook. People rarely complain that they can’t share something given the ubiquitous “Share” buttons (like the one below this article). In actuality, this is about enriching audience data for advertisers by marrying Facebook data with music and TV consumption. If users opt-in, they could be retargeted based on media viewing and even served up synchronous ads on FB based on what they’re watching on TV.
Sony Fitness Tracker Now Available
After a relative eternity of wait, Sony has officially released its SmartBand SWR10, an activity tracker that’s available exclusively in the US thus far. Though we got a first look at the device at CES, the March release was pushed back for unknown reasons. That said, with Apple’s redoubled efforts to put fitness tracking and health-focused, third-party app integration into the new iOS, expect further bands, apps, and devices to continue to bubble up.
Newcastle Ale Attempts Pay-For-Follow Twitter Strategy
Brands will do just about anything, it seems, for social media engagement and loyalty. Now, Newcastle Brown Ale is shooting for something similar – albeit a bit more extreme – by paying every new follower $1 via check in the mail. Paying for likes on Facebook or for sponsored placements is one thing, but paying for Twitter followers is an entirely different level. Our research shows that 61% of people are unfollowing brands as we move away from follower numbers and towards engagement metrics, so the profitability of this strategy in the long run seems murky at best.
Gen Z Week: Vogue Tests Instagram Commerce
We have continued to see the purchase funnel being squeezed at both ends as companies strive to satisfy consumers’ need for instant gratification. Content and commerce used to be different, but now we are starting to see the two come together as is the case with Vogue’s recent entry into Instagram commerce.
Utilizing rewardStyle’s adtech tools, Vogue users can effectively “add to cart” by liking product photos on the Vogue’s account. It’s a great affiliate marketing program as Vogue can leverage their influence to drive purchases on behalf of their retail partners, receiving as much as 20% commission rate on sales. According to rewardStyle, the new offering has generated 1.5 million emails per day across it’s 100,000 account which include Vogue.
Why It Matters For Gen Z
Only 23% of teens now see Facebook as the most important social network, down from 33% six months ago, and 42% from last year. And though status updates are on the wane, teens are gravitating to a more visual web, sharing photos and images to Instagram and Pinterest. To Gen Z, photos represent an authentic visual cue to illustrate a more real version of life. More importantly, they don’t like to be sold to directly so leveraging an affiliate like Vogue lends credibility to retailers. While Instagram has yet to prove its value for brands, testing the waters is critical to engage a generation that is not married to any one platform or service.
Apple Introduces Health App Suite
The wait is over: Apple announced a new app suite called Healthkit, which is part dev kit and part Health app that syncs multiple fitness trackers, heath data, and medical information into an easily accessible hub. At the same time, it leverages the accelerometer on the iPhone to trace different datapoints about individual wellbeing. It also could very readily pave the way for Apple’s own piece of wearable tech, which is rumored to contain even more sensors to monitor personal health.
