The paid and earned lines are increasingly blurring. While media owners disclose paid content whether it be native ads or branded content, Microsoft’s YouTube promotion is less transparent. The tech company is paying $3 CPM for YouTube content creators to mention the Xbox One and incorporate game footage with a maximum payout of $3,750 for 1.25 million views. An alternative campaign might be creating a UGC contest around gameplay footage which would achieve a similar outcome.
Category: Percolate
Teens Leaving Facebook? Not So Fast
The general consensus on social media seems to be that teens are running away from Facebook at frightening speeds. According to a new social media study of Q2 through Q4 of 2013 show that Facebook still triumphs over mobile and Instagram for teens. The key is diversity: more users are accessing more social networks across the board than ever before. The reason Facebook looked to be slipping was because of the relative increase in the other social networks, not necessarily because teens were running from their parents. Users, especially teens, are social multitaskers. The notion that teens are abandoning any one network wholesale doesn’t add up; their attention is simply divided and thus gives the impression that they might be leaving. It makes it more challenging for advertisers in particular to target them, but getting the facts straight is the first step to doing so.
Beats Music Launches
The day is here: we now have a big third competitor in the streaming music market. Beats Music launched today, and its take on streaming music is a $9.99/month service. But whether it can take on Spotify – which boasts more than 24 million monthly users – and Pandora might take more than just a “better service.” To push Beats music to the fore there will have to be some meaty marketing moves; users are mostly already entrenched in the Pandora/Spotify market, not to mention other options like Rdio, Google Play, iTunes Radio, and to pry them out of it will take some serious incentives. Beats won’t have a free tier after a 7-day trial, so it’s counting on users signing up. It’s a big ask; taking on this many established players at once is a bold move. But the wide reach of the headphones and brand name might just be enough to give Beats a leg up in the initial phases of development.
Facebook Debuts Trending Topics On The Web
When Facebook announced hashtags, you knew it was only a matter of time until the social network announced trending topics. And following testing on the web and mobile in August, Facebook today launched a redesigned version of the “Trending” section on the web sidebar in the US, UK, Canada, India, and Australia. It showcases personalized lists, based on what you’ve liked and what’s trending across the social network, of the most mentioned words and phrases of the moment, with explanations of why each os trending. The idea is to spur public sharing, drive return visits, and make Facebook a place to go for trending current events – in the way that Twitter is at present. Facebook’s “Trending” section is different from Twitter’s in that there is a reason offered to users for why the trend is happening – as opposed to just a hashtag – to provide a context for the user so that they don’t leave the site to do a web search. And by keeping users on the site longer via these current events topics, it hopes to drive revenue derived from users clicking and sharing ads – an important category of revenue in its post-IPO world.
Forget Google Glass: Google Contact Lenses Are Coming
Yesterday, Google announced a smart contact lens designed for diabetics, to alert them to spikes and drops in glucose levels by using a tiny, wireless chip placed between two soft layers of lens material. The idea is that the chip takes readings almost every second, and uses a small LED display to alert the user when trouble might be imminent. LED lights could appear when levels reach problematic levels. The thought, of course, is that this product won’t just be used for diabetics – if Google can develop a heads up display in contact lenses, the need for a display on the upper right hand corner of a pair of glasses would be immediately obsolete, replaced with an even stealthier, deeply integrated visual display in lenses. This is all in the early stages, but the technology is on the way.
Smartphone Sales May Slump Q1
According to TrendForce, Q1 of 2014 could spell the first time that smartphone sales trend downwards worldwide. It’s not necessarily cause to abandon ship – it simply means that the smartphone has matured as a market enough to follow traditional seasonal trends. Shipments are expected to drop by 5.1% in Q1 of this year for the first time after a steady climb over two years. Nonetheless, as smartphones continue to penetrate globally, consumers will buy less and less at the beginning of the year, with the high profile releases coming in the spring; at the same time, people naturally spend less over the holidays. As spring starts up, though, expect sales to climb, much like the rest of the market, and indeed eclipse the same time periods from 2013.
Jawbone Debuts Era; Attempts To Save Bluetooth Headsets
Are Bluetooth headsets relevant anymore? Just a few years ago, early adopters were sporting them much the same way they’re now chasing Google Glass and Coin unified credit cards. At $99, Jawbone is trying to distance itself from the stigma it has acquired of clunky earpieces. To do it, it’s integrating two-way communication between the device and the phone in ways it hasn’t in the past: proper voice control allows users to talk to the device from the headset – and be spoken to by Google Now and Siri – for everything the smartphone is capable of including directions, appointments, text messages, etc. The idea is to keep the phone in the users’ pockets, and to control the device with already-accepted voice commands; in other words, to turn the headset into a piece of efficient, wearable tech. And, at the size of a piece of gum, it’s not going to be as jarring to wear as, say, a pair of glasses that force you to look up and to the right. It’s also noise-cancelling, ensuring that if you want to listen to music, you can. As the public becomes increasingly comfortable with voice control as a mechanism for interfacing with technology, the ultra-simplistic, minimal interface of the Jawbone might just resurface.
Faecbook & NBC Reach Olympics Agreement
Facebook and NBC have agreed to share their content – on TV and online – during NBC’s live coverage of the Olympic Games next month. Facebook and Instagram posts will be included in live TV, while NBC will post original and exclusive TV content to the social network. As well, NBC commentators will answer user questions in real time online. It mirrors Facebook’s partnership with Fox Sports, who in the past agreed to partner with Facebook for the NFL and college football seasons. The two deals – one on the heels of the other – point to a new way of doing business for the TV and Internet-based content industries, one that relies on complete unification across the mediums available to them. As TV continues to try and remain relevant in the era of cordcutting, moving online in this way may represent a viable solution to an increasingly challenging problem.
Photoshop Now Supports 3D Printing
Photoshop, one of the most widely-adopted pieces of photo editing software, announced an update today that will support 3D printing. The tool is designed to make it easy for most anyone to edit and print a model. Right now, it’s better suited to putting the finishing touches on an object rather than building it from the ground up, but Photoshop has always been an editing tool at heart, so it’s what users are already accustomed to.
From a more technical standpoint, Photoshop will automatically generate temporary supports under the object to ensure that it won’t fall over while it’s being printed, and it’s partnering with MakerBot and Shapeways to generate real-time previews of how the object will look. It will also adjust the object for the printer that it’s being printed on to get the best possible output. For Shapeways, the made-to-order 3D printing service, there’s a drop-down menu to select Shapeways, and the object will be sent off to be printed in whatever material you select – even solid metal, if you want – and mailed to you thereafter. Photoshop will even estimate how much the service will cost. It’s an even larger indication that 3D printing is slowly working its way into mainstream consciousness – and markets.
Spotify & Pandora Prepare For Imminent Beats Music
The imminent launch of Beats Music is causing Spotify and Pandora to do some back peddling. Pandora’s personalized music streams, that will incorporate listener tendencies into recommendation engines, and Spotify’s International removal of free listening caps both come within a week of Beats’ launch. Beats Music claims to do both of these things – algorithmic artist discovery and custom streaming stations with unlimited play time, anywhere – which before this week Spotify and Pandora didn’t sponsor. Although Pandora is still the number one streaming service in the U.S. market, but Spotify is making rapid gains in an attempt to solidify its position in advance of the Beats Music launch. We’ll have to wait and and see how Beats Music does – or doesn’t – shake up the already competitive music streaming market.
