According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Yahoo is looking to acquire the type of video content that is propelling Netflix to the forefront of peak domestic Internet traffic. Those on the inside say that Yahoo wants to purchase four web series, and is looking to push them via a new streaming medium. Although Yahoo declined to comment for now, it seems as though Yahoo wants to very seriously push the content out as a major source of new revenue – as the TV market continues to fragment, Yahoo would love to pick up some of those pieces from traditional TV markets. Yahoo wants to have the content ready for up-fronts starting on April 28th. And, knowing Yahoo’s stance on advertising, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them make a very big push into the marketing and native space in conjunction with TV shows.
Category: Percolate
Amazon’s Magic Wand Keeps Your Kitchen Stocked
Amazon, fresh off the release of its new Over-The-Top box, has announced new technology to loop consumers into its Amazon Fresh food marketplace. For those in the Fresh market, Amazon is offering the Amazon Dash, a WiFi and voice-enabled barcode scanner that allows users to automatically add items to their amazon shopping list. For instance: if an Amazon Dash owner is running out of apples, they would only have to say “Apples” into the device and they would be automatically added onto their Amazon shopping list. The Dash recognizes other household items – not just foodstuffs – and could very readily become the go-to device for shoppers looped into this program. The notion of technology breaking down boundaries in the consumer retail space is one that’s immensely exciting for advertisers – it’s not hard to imagine a situation where Amazon can surface “native” related products on its website that a user might want or need.
Tesco Purchases Sociomatic Labs
Tesco, the world’s second-largest retailer after Walmart, has jumped into the ad tech game with the purchase of Sociomantic Labs, an ad tech firm that specializes in programatic and retargeting advertising. Though the company specializes in e-commerce solutions, it does provide some real-time, in-store marketing analytics as well. Tesco has made big-data pushes in the past, and this one signals the intent to target customers even more heavily through things like loyalty cards, retargeting from brick and mortar into the digital space, and other moves as well. Sociomatic specializes in this type of retargeting, so the move makes sense. The move is rumored to be worth upwards of $200 million. It’s a big move by a big company that is looking for new ways to integrate deeply with its customers.
Vine Introduces Video Messaging System
In case the messaging space wasn’t saturated already, Vine has now thrown it’s proverbial hat into the ring with its latest update that provides for communication beyond video comments. Vine says this update is the most significant improvement it’s made since its launch, and the new messaging system is called Vine Messages. They can be sent to anyone – not just existing Vine members – and consist of Vines sent via the platform, SMS, or email. They’re one-on-one messages, but they can be sent to anybody as traditional text messages or special Vines. Vine is also rolling out a feature to import video from the camera’s roll, largely expanding the type of content users can upload and send out. For the continually expanding messaging app space, it’s another big name crowding out some of the more niche platforms.
IFTTT Now Works With iOS Notifications
IFTTT, the popular productivity platform that allow users to set up custom notifications across platforms and devices, is now available for iOS and works with notifications. It means that IFTTT users are getting something they’ve wanted for some time: the ability to truly geo-fence and customize personalized notification systems. For instance, you can set push notifications within recipes, or tell the air conditioner to turn on when you walk in the door to a custom set temperature. You set a custom input, and the device outputs what you want, where you want, and when you want – and now you can do it on the iPhone. It means that location-based – and indeed action based – targeting would get a big boost.
Advertisers Can Purchase Nielsen Ratings On YouTube
Google – and by extension YouTube – have been trying to get accurate Nielsen ratings for months, and are finally confident enough in the system to begin selling ratings next month. The Online Campaign Ratings product features pre-roll ads on the video platform, and will include guarantees to advertisers starting n month from today. By the end of the year, Google wants to have OCR directly integrated into the Doubleclick platform, so advertisers will be dealing directly with Nielsen ratings in their plans. If the deal is as set in stone as Google is portraying, it would mean deliverable metrics for advertisers looking to expand their online presence and digital campaigns in a fashion that is designed to guarantee results. As OCR and this type of technology develops, the more granular marketers can get about their strategies.
Twitter Making Push For Social TV
Twitter is looking to expand its social TV efforts outside of the continental US with moves to acquire Mesagraph and SecondSync, from France and the UK respectively. Both of the startups track social TV analytics, and specialize in doing so in their respective countries. The startups both made clear that their teams will be helping with advertisers and broadcasters’ attempts to market to conversations around TV content on the social network. While Twitter has been big on the acquisitions front, the company itself announced plans to expand its own internal TV measurement tools to help brands domestically capture these metrics and conversation. To do this, Twitter has been working with Kantar, a marketing research form. For brands and advertisers, expect Twitter to make a bigger push into real-time marketing and analytics metrics to help community managers drive content in the right ways.
Upworthy Announces Plans For ‘Sponsored Curation’
Branded content and native ads are nothing new, but Upworthy’s announcement of sponsored curation presents an interesting opportunity for cause marketing and social responsibility initiatives. The viral content network is planning Upworthy Collaborations which let brands deliver promoted posts, sponsored content curation around key themes and content consultation. Their first collaboration has been Unilever’s Project Sunlight which has curated a section of articles around sustainability efforts. There will certainly be plenty of eager brands looking for these custom opportunities but how will Upworthy revenue compare with a traditional display model?
Amazon Announces Set-Top Box
The long-awaited Amazon set-top box was announced today. Called the Fire TV, it is immediately available to purchase for $99, and comes packed with many different features. From a basic stand point, it’s a streaming set top box. With apps like Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, Vimeo, MLB.tv and NBA, the device will have many of the ways to stream content that users have wanted for some time. As expected, Amazon’s products have taken center stage, as Amazon Instant Video was pushed hard over all the other apps. To take advantage of the online streaming, though, Amazon has also included something called X-Ray, which is part second-screen device and part control system, much like Xbox’s Smartglass. Where it differs, though, is in the fact that X-Ray pulls in content from the Internet – for instance, if you’re watching a movie it will show data from IMDB. As well, Amazon’s ASAP feature predicts which episodes you’ll want to watch based on your history, and automatically adds them to a queue. There’s also a voice search integrated into the remote, looking to compete directly with things like Apple’s Siri.
But it’s more than just a TV streaming device. There are also games: Amazon announced a suite of games that it has developed in house, with an additional controller available for $39.99. The games, however, are designed to be cheap, priced at $1.85 per game. Competition for the living room is fierce, and is only heating up. Whether Amazon gets people to purchase its device at a lower price – for the gaming, the streaming, or both – will be a key indication that it lower prices in the field could undercut the wider living room device industry at large. Either way you slice it, though, Amazon’s foray into the living room means that companies like Roku and Plex need to look over their shoulders.
Xbox Smartglass Now Universal Remote
Xbox Smartglass was – and indeed still remains – one of the most compelling second screen experiences available for living room entertainment systems. Though the second screen has faded as a trend to a certain extent, its potent potential nonetheless remains for brands and consumers as a way to maintain interest and engagement in the platform. Now, to ensure that users stay tuned into second screen experiences, Xbox announced that the Smartglass app will be able to act as a remote for the Xbox One. One of the key functions of the Xbox One is its OneGuide, which allows users to pick shows and moves, and transfer back and forth between games and apps within the console itself. The Smartglass app now seamlessly interfaces with the OneGuide, meaning that smartphones and other devices are now almost a part of the Xbox system itself, meaning less user distraction and increased engagement on the platform.
