Tag: ad avoidance

Publishers Can Now Publish Branded Content On Facebook

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
If you get your news from Facebook, you are about to see a lot more brand-sponsored content. On Friday, Facebook announced it is loosening its rules on branded content, allowing publishers to post branded content in all formats, including video, as long as media companies and marketers go through a simple verification process. Previously, publishers were technically prohibited from posting advertorial content as organic posts on Facebook unless they are part of a paid ad placement, despite some publishers’ attempts to sneak them through.

The announcement comes at a time when publishers are increasingly turning to branded content to supplement ad revenues. For example, earlier this week, The Economist started pitching brand advertisers sponsored mini-documentaries as a new ad unit for brands to attach themselves to the social and environmental causes they care about.

What Brands Need To Do
Facebook recently reported that 83% of the ads running on its Audience Network are now native ads. We expect more to pop up now that Facebook has opened the gates for branded content. With consumers continuing to shun away from traditional ads, it is important for brands and media owners to try engaging with their audience in new ways, such as branded content and native ads.

For more information on how brands should leverage interesting branded content to earn consumer eyeballs, check out the Ad Avoidance section of our Outlook 2016.

For more updates on Facebook, Remember to check back next week to read our in-depth take on Facebook’s annual F8 developer conference.

 

Source: WSj

Viceland Replaces Ads With Samsung-Sponsored Content

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
At launch, Viceland, the new cable channel from Vice Media in partnership with A+E Networks, promised to substitute about half of its ads with sponsored content designed to look like Vice’s editorial. Now, it is taking the first step in realizing that promise by airing clips from a five-part documentary series on virtual reality that Vice co-produced with Samsung in place of ad breaks in some of its primetime programming. With this sponsored content, Samsung aims to drive conversation around the innovative developments of VR technology and familiarize the audience with this emerging medium and related Samsung VR products.

What Brands Need To Do
At a time when ad blockers and subscription-based streaming services are helping millions of viewers actively avoid ads, it is important for brands and media owners to address consumers’ growing aversion to ads. This new sponsored content created by Vice and Samsung provides a good example in how brands may experiment with new types of ads, such as sponsored content and native ads, to engage with their audience instead. For example, sponsored content now reportedly drive more than 60% of ad revenue for The Atlantic.

For more information on how brands should leverage interesting branded content to earn consumer eyeballs, check out the Ad Avoidance section of our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: AdAge

Header image courtesy of Viceland

Native Ads Are Coming To Apple News

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Apple is dipping a toe into native advertising with a new format for sponsored posts in the next update for its Apple News app. With the new format, sponsored posts will “display directly in the content feed, in line with News articles” from a publisher’s feed and can link to an article in the News app. The new ad format will clearly label branded content in the app with a small “sponsored” tag, and Apple will keep 30% of the revenue. The Apple News app will be updated as part of the upcoming version of iOS, expected to be released next week as Apple announces new devices.

What Brands Need To Do
In January, Apple reported that 40 million people had used the Apple News app. Now, Apple is opening a way for brands to get in front of an audience that is increasingly shunning mobile ads and turning to the likes of Facebook’s Instant Articles or Apple News for a faster, leaner reading experience. Native ads remain a good way for brands to cope with this behavioral shift and reach their target audience.

To learn more about tailoring your ad content and format to the platform of choice, check out the Ad Avoidance section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: Engadget

Live TV Channels Swapping Ads For Sponsored Content To Fight Ad Avoidance

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
As an increasing number of viewers become accustomed to the ad-free experience offered by OTT streaming services such as Netflix, some traditional media owners have started to deal with the growing intolerance of ads by trying out new forms of advertising. NBC is set to swap out some ad spots airing during its primetime shows this week with AmEx-sponsored content, which includes extra scenes and interviews with the shows’ stars, all with American Express mentioned before and after each segment.

Similarly, Viceland, the new TV channel from Vice Media in partnership with A+E Networks, officially launched on Monday. The channel plans to carry only half of the normal 18 minutes of ads per hour, while also pledging to make around half of the remainder native ads designed to look like Vice’s editorial content. A number of brands, including Unilever, Mailchimp, Toyota, and Bank of America, have signed on as advertisers on Viceland.

What Brands Need To Do
Both NBC and Vice are commendable for their attempts to deal with consumers’ growing aversion to ads and experiments with new types of ads. At a time when ad blockers and subscription-based streaming services are helping millions of viewers actively avoid ads, it is important for brands and media owners to take measures in response and come up with new ways, such as sponsored content and native ads, to engage with their audience.

For more information on how brands should leverage interesting branded content to earn consumer eyeballs, check out the Ad Avoidance section of our Outlook 2016.

 

Sources: Bloomberg Business & Wall Street Journal

Forbes Wants To Help Brands Connect With Industry Experts For Content

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Similar to so-called “influencer marketing,” where brands turn to social media stars to promote their products and services, Forbes is now offering brands a chance to connect with industry experts in certain areas to help brands get the word out for their content. Working with social media analytics firm Traackr, Forbes will connect brand advertisers participating in its BrandVoice Premium program to “a network of journalists, academics and bloggers who wield influence in key subject areas” to promote their content to a more targeted audience via their own social network. The expert influencers won’t be paid to promote the branded content, but Forbes can ask these influencers to create content on the brand’s behalf that would be posted on Forbes.com.

What Brands Need To Do
While Forbes’ BrandVoice initiative comes with a rather hefty threshold of at least $100k ad spending per month for a minimum of six months, it nevertheless illustrates the growing importance of leveraging social influencers to get branded content in front of the right audience. At a time when 14% of internet users are now using ad-blockers to avoid online ads, it is especially important for brands to use branded content to spread the word.

For more information on why brands should leverage partnerships with social influencers and content creators to reach new audiences, check out the Ad Avoidance section of our Outlook 2016.

 

Sources: Wall Street Journal

Snapchat Launches On-Demand DIY Geofilters For Everyone

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Snapchat has opened up its location-based Geofilters for everyone, as it continues to explore revenue streams. Now any Snapchat user can design their own Geofilter, set the availability of time and location, and submit it for review. The turnaround time for review is about a day, and pricing starts at $5 and goes up based on the allocated time (as few as half an hour) and space covered (starting at  5,000 square feet).

What Brands Need To Do
In the age of ad avoidance (more on this in our Outlook 2016), branded Geofilters offer a great tool to get your brand seen via user-generated social content. Last July, McDonald’s became the first brand to create a branded Snapchat Geofilter for its stores. Now with DIY Geofilters widely available, brands can easily set up their own branded Geofilters to promote stores and special events, and experiment with different designs to find the best way to engage young consumers on Snapchat.

 

Source: TechCrunch

European Mobile Carrier Signs With Shine To Block Ads At Network Level

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
The ad-blocking wars are exacerbated as ad-blocking startup Shine announced a new partnership with Three Group, a British wireless carrier that also operates a network in Italy, to block in-app and mobile browser ads at the network level. This marks the first entry of the Israeli-based ad-blocking company in European market, after it signed with Caribbean telecom service provider Digicel last year. Currently, Shine does not offer a way for ad platforms or publishers to pay to gain access to a whitelist.

What Brands Need To Do
It goes without saying that, if popularized, ad-blocking at a network level would be quite devastating to the mobile advertising industry, as well as the brands that rely on reaching customers via mobile platforms. For now, it remains to be seen if more carriers would partner with Shine and adopt ad-blocking at the network level to appeal to consumers’ increasing frustration with mobile ads. Nevertheless, brands need to be pre-emptive in the fight against ad avoidance by developing new communications strategies and try to reach customers via sponsorships and branded content instead.

For more information on how brands can fight the increasing usage of ad-blockers, check out the Ad Avoidance section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Sources: Ad Exchange

FameBit Partners With Shopify To Help Influencers Set Up Shop

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Social influencer marketplace FameBit has partnered up with ecommerce platform Shopify to make it easier for the 31,000 social media stars in Famebit’s network to set up their own digital storefronts. This will allow social influencers to sell their own merchandise directly to fans or form partnerships with existing brands to co-create branded products. Besides access to Shopify VIP, an exclusive service that provides infrastructure and customer management support for online stores, Shopify will also offer some ecommerce tools, such as embeddable buy buttons, to help them cross-promote their online stores across various digital channels.

What Brands Need To Do
This deal highlights the growing importance of influencer marketing in ecommerce as it turns more influencers into online retailers with a built-in audience. As more and more brands seek partnerships with social influencers in order to reach younger generations that are shunning traditional media channels, this FameBit-Shopify deal spells new opportunities for brands to collaborate with the next generation of celebrities.

For more information on why brands should leverage partnerships with social influencers and content creators to reach new audiences, check out the Ad Avoidance section of our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: Marketing Dive

Facebook’s Instant Articles To Be Available For All Publishers

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Nearly nine months since its debut, Facebook is ready to make its mobile content initiative Instant Articles available to all publishers. Starting on April 12, anyone with a website and a Facebook page will be able to take advantage of the program and publish content directly on Facebook instead of posting links that direct users to their own sites. Facebook initially placed some restrictions on ad placement in Instant Articles, but loosened its grip after pushback from major publishers. Now some publishers are reportedly able to generate the same amount of ad revenue from Instant Articles as from their own mobile properties on a per-view basis.

What Retailers Need To Do
Making Instant Articles widely available will no doubt increase its reach and encourage more publishers to try it out. For brand advertisers, this presents more opportunities to reach mobile Facebook users by offering them quick access to content. At a time when more and more consumers are turning to ad-blockers for a less cluttered online experience, Instant Articles can provide brands with a valuable platform where the ads will not be blocked.

For more information on how brands and publishers should deal with the rise of ad-blockers and earn consumer eyeballs, check out the Ad Avoidance section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: Wall Street Journal

Next-Level Ad Avoidance: Now There’s A Blocker For Anti-Adblockers

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
As the usage of ad-blockers continues to grow, some online publishers, such as Forbes, GQ,  and most recently Wired, are fighting back by denying access to their content and asking readers to turn off ad-blockers. So it’s only a matter of time before someone makes a browser extension that can block the anti-adblock technologies those sites employ. Available now on GitHub, this “Anti-Adblock Killer” is compatible with all major browsers and promises users the ability to click through websites that would normally deny their access while keeping their ad-blockers on.

What Brands Need To Do
While it remains to be seen whether this Anti-Adblock Killer will catch on, its arrival nevertheless signals an acceleration in the market trend of ad avoidance where consumers are actively trying to avoid ads by enabling ad-blockers or turning to ad-free subscription services, making it harder for brands to reach mobile consumers. Therefore, brands need to provide added value to their marketing in order to earn consumer attention.

For more information on how brands can fight the increasing usage of ad-blockers, check out the Ad Avoidance section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: The Next Web

Header image courtesy of reek.github.io/anti-adblock-killer/