Tag: Publishers

HTC VIVE Partners With Condé Nast China To Let You Read A Travel Pamphlet In VR

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Physical pamphlets are about to get a lot more exciting thanks to the “Vivepaper” product from HTC. The Taiwan-based tech manufacturer has teamed up with Condé Nast China and created a digitally enhanced pamphlet for the December issue of Condé Nast Traveler (China Edition). Using the front-facing camera on Vive headsets, viewers can read the Vivepaper-enabled pamphlet in what the company calls “Augmented Virtual Reality,” where they can activate interactive content such as 360-degree photos and videos, 3D models, 2D content, and additional audio simply by touching and turning the pages.

More Chinese publishers are working with HTC to release Vivepaper-enabled interactive printouts of their content, including China Daily 21st Century English Newspaper, Caixin VR, and the Publishing House of Electronics Industry. Vive is also in discussions with major western publishers to bring Vivepaper to a global audience soon.

What Brands Should Do
This cool invention promises to bring new dimensions to print materials, giving print media companies and brands a way to incorporate digital content into existing print products. Combining the immersion of VR with the haptic interactivity of print material, it creates a powerful tool for grabbing consumer attention. Therefore, brands seeking to make their print marketing material more engaging should keep an eye on this product’s availability and consider working with content creators to develop interactive experiences suitable for this new VR opportunity.

 

Source: PR Newswire

The Washington Post Creates Interactive Apple TV Ad For Jaguar

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
The Washington Post has created its first interactive TV ad for Jaguar that appears in its Apple TV app. Working with video ad firm Velocity Made Good, the Post created a 30-second video ad that comes with an interactive gallery panel that viewers can flip through with their remote control to check out the interior and exterior of Jaguar’s F-Pace model. This spot is built to stop running at 15 seconds if there’s no sign of viewer interaction. The publisher says the ad, which has been live for two weeks, has seen higher engagement rates than pre-roll ads that run on its website.

What Brands Need To Do
With the fourth-generation Apple TV introduced last year, Apple made it easier for publishers and brands to surface their content on Apple TV and reach consumers in the living room. This interactive ad spot for Jaguar provides an example of how brands can work with content creators to take advantage of the interactivity of connected TV devices, explore new TV ad formats, and engage with the audience on a deeper level.

To read more on how brands can reach viewers on OTT platforms with branded content, please check out the Appified TV section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: Digiday

 

Google Promises Publishers Control Over Ads In AMP

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Google has shared some new information about its Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project, revealing some details on ads in AMP. Set to launch in Google search starting in early February, Google’s AMP looks to help speed up webpage loading and make consuming content on the mobile web more enjoyable. Compared to Facebook’s tight control over advertising in its similar page-accelerating initiative Instant Articles, Google seems to be taking a more relaxed approach, as it reassures that standard ad formats and measurement tools will function properly in AMP pages. Moreover, the search giant has also teamed up with twenty ad tech providers, including AOL, AdSense, and DoubelClick, promising publishers the freedom to use the ad servers of their choice and retain full control over ad placements.

What Brands Need To Do
Starting with support for only five ad networks, Google has been working to add more ad platforms to its AMP initiative since its announcement in October last year. These new details should come as welcome news for publishers as well as brands looking to advertise on these publishers’ mobile properties. Although it remains to be seen whether Google AMP will win over publishers and brands from Facebook’s Instant Articles with its ad-friendly approach, brand marketers need to be conscious of the choices they have when it comes to accelerated mobile pages.

 

Source: Marketing Land

Videos And Articles, Facebook Want Them All

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: The Verge & WSJ

In a continuous effort to expand its platform and build its own version of the Internet, Facebook has been actively pursuing media owners to host content directly on its network. Earlier this week, HBO becomes the latest content provider that opts to put their videos on the social network, as the premium cable channel announces two of their newest comedy series Baller and The Brink will be streaming their pilot episodes exclusively on Facebook for a limited time.

After a few weeks of dormant inactivity, publishers that signed on for the Instant Articles initiative are now gearing up to start scaling up content distribution on Facebook. The New York Times is reportedly preparing to publish about 30 articles per day and NBC News plans to post between 30 and 40 articles daily in the coming days.

3 Challenges That Publishers Face On WhatsApp

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: DIgiday

Digital publishers such as The Huffington Post and Daily Mirror have started experimenting with popular messaging app WhatsApp to push breaking news alerts to readers. But challenges abound for brands trying to connect with WhatsApp users, namely:

  1. A lengthy sign-up process
  2. A broadcast system limited to 256 members only per list
  3. The lack of dependable measurements, especially its “dark social” referrals.

These issues are partly due to the fact that WhatsApp was designed for small-scale commutation, not large-scale broadcasting. Nevertheless, for the publishers that put in the work to overcome those challenges, the platform is worth the effort. Huffington Post, for instance, reported click-through rates via its WhatsApp alerts to be as high as 60%.

Event Recap: AdWeek — What Is Newsworthy?

Posted on by Lab Team

On Monday, Michael Roth, the Chairman & CEO of IPG, moderated an Advertising Week panel with Rebecca Blumenstein, Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Wall Street Journal; David Pemsel, Deputy Chief Executive, The Guardian; Pete Cashmore, CEO & Founder, Mashable; and Greg Coleman, President, Buzzfeed; in which they discussed the future of the news and advertising’s role.

Trust and Mission

Throughout the event, panelists kept returning to the importance of trust—the need to consistently deliver timely but reliable information. Building and maintaining that trust with the audience is a challenge for both traditional publishers and digital upstarts; as Cashmore explained, “new media companies got the business model and distribution right and are now trying to get trust right; others got trust right and are trying to move into digital.”

If “trust” unites publishers, “mission” distinguishes them from each other: Mashable believes its community is an essential part of the platform, whereas The Guardian emphasized its 200-year history and commitment to independence.

Native Advertising

Of course, advertising remains a crucial (though sometimes controversial) revenue source for news publishers. Ideally, native advertising is simply a story about a brand. At Buzzfeed, in fact, “the creative team talks to the client… Sounds kind of like an agency,” according to Coleman. Brand sponsorship can translate into longer lead times and higher production budgets, resulting in high-quality content; Cashmore noted that some of the ads on Mashable are shared twice as much as original content. That said, panelists agreed that it’s important to maintain trust by making clear what’s sponsored content.

Organizational Culture

Attracting the best talent has always been difficult, but the popularity of startups has made it even more of a struggle.   Ultimately, though, it comes back to trust and mission: if people believe in what your organization stands for, they will be inspired to produce the high-quality content publishers seek to deliver.

Facebook Posts Now Embed Into WordPress

Posted on by Lab Team

In a development that will certainly please bloggers but that will also apply to brands, Facebook posts are now embeddable directly into WordPress blogs. It works by grabbing the Facebook post’s unique URL, which can be acquired by clicking the date stamp under the post. Just copy and paste the URL into the editing pane of the WordPress blog, and any embeddable media in the Facebook post will also be added. This new feature will be quite powerful, particularly for the possibility of embedding promoted, or advertising-focused posts across media on the Internet.