DIGITAL MEDIA DIGEST: APR ‘19
A monthly look at the world of digital from NORTH’s point of view
Lifehackers Everywhere, Meet Jumprope.
By Caroline Desmond, Director of Media Strategy
Last week Jumprope debuted its iOS app. What is Jumprope you ask? It is a new app allowing users to create mobile-friendly how-to content that is shareable on most social platforms including Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Pinterest. What makes Jumprope unique is the slideshow template it uses for user-generated video tutorials. Lifehackers everywhere can rejoice that they no longer have to constantly rewind back to that tricky bit in a YouTube recipe how-to. Instead, Jumprope’s video tutorial format allows app-users to easily tap from one step to the next and back again in a carousel style format. Here’s a preview of one such tutorial example.
It’s no secret that online tutorial videos are incredibly popular. Whether it’s DIY, makeup, cooking, or crafts, users are looking for easy hacks to simplify the day-to-day. This is particularly true of 18–34 year-olds. Last year, Mintel noted in its 2018 Digital Trends report that 49% of surveyed men, age 18–34 and 61% of surveyed women, age 18–34 reported engaging with online how-to videos in the last three months.
The cosmetics industry has particularly benefited from the rise of online tutorial videos. In 2017, Financial Post reported that during that year, “global views of beauty videos on YouTube surged 60 percent, to 219 billion” and that this was largely driven by video consumption among Millennials who “are buying and using almost 25 percent more cosmetics” coinciding with the rise of beauty tutorial videos.
Similarly, Google has found that food tutorials viewed on YouTube are driving purchases of CPG brands, particularly among Millennial moms — 68% of which report purchasing food products featured in the videos they watch.
Jumprope is not currently monetizing its platform with ads, but this is likely on the horizon in light of the ability to align brands with ingredients or products featured in Jumprope tutorials. Moreover, the variety of tutorial content Jumprope encourages will create opportunities across a multitude of industries. At launch, Jumprope has grouped its content into 8 categories including: food, beauty, fitness, crafts, drinks, wellness, home & garden, and travel.
Until paid advertising opportunities are available, brands might want to consider synching up influencer marketing plans with a Jumprope content test. Influencers can use the Jumprope app to create how-to video slideshows featuring product and export to their Instagram feed, IGTV, Snapchat Stories, YouTube or embed on their blog.
Pinterest Goes IPO
By Devon Brown, Performance Marketing Manager
Last Thursday, April 18th, Pinterest went public. The New York Times reported that shares started above their initial $19 valuation at $23.75 and jumped 28% in the first day to $24.40 at closing.
Pinterest has been around for nearly a decade, and its ad platform has been around for about half of that. From day one, Pinterest set itself apart from other social platforms. Whereas most other platforms have been about connecting you with friends, Pinterest is simply about visual inspiration. This has been a huge differentiator for digital marketers because while most other platforms and their ad offerings reach users while they’re passively browsing, Pinterest ads reach users while they’re actively looking for products and ideas. For a product like granola bars, you have a much better chance of making an impact while a user is on Pinterest searching for “healthy snacks” as opposed to when that user is on Instagram looking at magazine worthy vegan food and feeling guilty about the burrito they ate for lunch.
In addition to its contextual targeting and relevance features, Pinterest has huge reach and purchase influence. According to HooteSuite, Pinterest has 250 million active monthly users and it reaches 83% of women age 25–54. What’s more, 85% of women use Pinterest to plan “life moments”, and 90% of weekly users use Pinterest to make purchase decisions. With cheap and efficient CPMs averaging roughly $9 (based on our observation), there is a huge incentive for digital marketers to use Pinterest at all levels of their consumer journey advertising. Generating awareness on the platform is cheap and surgical targeting allows for qualified lead generation, while the leaned-in-experience creates a silver platter for consideration and purchase level messaging.
With the public investment, Pinterest can continue to scale to become a bigger powerhouse than it already is. Culturally, it’s a great time for Pinterest to set its sights on scaling as well, as Marie Kondo influences and slower, quieter lifestyles become trendier. So long as Pinterest stays true to its mission — creating a great visual utility for its users — the ad features and benefits will continue to be very attractive to marketers who are looking for diversified ways to spend their ad dollars, which will directly correlate with investor value.
Disney and Hulu Making Moves
By Izzy Kramer, Media Planner
The news is constantly buzzing about the latest in streaming video. This week the headline that stuck out to me most was the release date and starting price of Disney+. If I haven’t already given it away, Disney+ is Disney’s long-awaited streaming platform. Earlier this week, Disney announced the service will (finally) be launching in November at $6.99/month. Disney also confirmed this means no ads. So, while advertisers will have to miss out on serving their message between rewatches of Nemo and Disney’s upcoming original content, it brings up a bigger question of how will this influence Hulu.
As a recap, Hulu was originally a joint venture between Disney, Fox, and Comcast, each owning about 30%, and AT&T owning the remaining 10%. But last year, Disney bought Fox pushing Disney’s ownership above majority. And then on Monday AT&T sold its share back to Hulu, bumping up Disney’s share even further, now roughly 67%. Hulu has been a proud ad-based service since its inception and a prime resource for advertisers to reach cord-cutters and cord-nevers. Now with Disney+ on the horizon and The Mouse owning a majority of Hulu, what can we expect for the friendly green streaming platform?
I’ve been reading doomsday scenarios for Hulu since the earth started shaking from media giants waking up and realizing they needed to adapt. This 2017 Record article touting “the end of hulu as we know it” doesn’t seem that much different than this 2019 Verge article professing “the end of Hulu as you know it today.”
However, Hulu has stood standing, growing in subscribers annually, despite the seismic shifts in the industry. For years media goliaths have relied on streaming services like Hulu to distribute their content and reach audiences that slipped through their fingers due to extreme monthly bills and lack of choice (600+ channels when you really only need three).
And though these companies are finally learning to adapt and create their own streaming platforms, they are fumbling. Intrigued consumers are trying our their services and finding they are falling short due to thoughtless user-experience design and faulty app mechanics. This has never been an issue with Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon — streaming services born and raised in digital.
Unlike what headlines are proclaiming, I don’t believe this is the end of the OG streaming services whatsoever. Rather, I anticipate we will see more bundles. Thanks to Hulu’s large subscriber numbers (25MM total subscribers and counting) Disney+ plans to offer a bundle with Hulu. Disney has a huge following but they will still need to work on their subscription numbers. Bundling with an already booming streaming service will certainly help the cause. Welcome to the golden age of bundling.
