DIGITAL MEDIA DIGEST: DEC‘18
A monthly look at the world of digital from NORTH’s point of view
The Data That Has The New York Times Shook
By Devon Brown, Performance Marketing Manager
On December 10th, the New York Times released a podcast episode called “The Business of Selling Your Location.” Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, an investigative reporter who covers technology for The Times explained that she was working on a story meant to cover the startling detail in which apps track your location and the big business of selling that data.
As a marketer that keeps a close eye on evolving targeting capabilities, these types of articles and news stories always give me a chuckle. I’m surprised at how little people outside the ad industry know about the data that’s collected about them and how it’s used to target them. To this day, something as rudimentary as retargeting will make its way into mainstream news and people will be aghast that Google can follow you around the internet. I’ll explain a basic targeting tactic to a friend — something like using emails to build lookalike audiences — and they’ll look at me, eyes wide and say “they can do that?!” It’s like muggles discovering magic.
So I listened to the first part of this episode with curious but cynical ears. I thought it would cover something like location-based mobile targeting and the journalists would exclaim outrage at the invasiveness of it all.
Jennifer explained that they were set to publish the original article, and indeed, it was a simple overview that explains location-based targeting exists and that it’s probably more detailed than you think. Then her and her colleagues received a dataset that floored them. And frankly, floored me too.
The dataset was imported onto a map and each dot represented an instance in which a user’s location had been sold. You could see the dots move through the map — their exact routes in the morning, detours around construction, on ferry lines, what time they left, what time they arrived. You could see them leaving in the middle of the day to visit a Planned Parenthood. You could see where and how often they visited a gym. You could see if they spent a few hours at a pub then visited a Taco Bell at 2am on a Saturday. The dots were detailed enough so that you could see whether they went through the drive-through or parked the car and walked in. Many of these dots followed a pattern or were grouped in a large cluster with other dots, but then they would eventually veer off and space out, so it was clear you were looking at a single individual. You could track the movements back to a residential address at night where they stayed until the next morning, presumably their home. Anyone with access to the raw data could easily Google that residential address and attach the dot to a name and phone number.
On any given smartphone, multiple apps ping your phone frequently. One app mentioned in the podcast, Weather Bug, pings your location about once a minute. In this particular data set referenced, they said one user’s phone pinged their location 14 thousand times in a single day.
After nearly a decade of covering technology, data breaches, and privacy, Jennifer said she’d never seen anything quite like this. The intended use of the data is to sell to companies for advertising and marketing purposes. A torrent of privacy regulations already exist that are meant to protect consumers from unique identification, but obviously, they failed in this instance. It’s certainly in a marketer’s interest to self regulate and protect consumers’ identity so the government doesn’t do it for them, but not everyone getting a hold of this data is a marketing company. The New York Times, not a marketing company, got a hold of it and they easily identified single individuals with this particular data set. And data breaches are not uncommon.
Imagine if this data was breached and was released on WikiLeaks to the general public. Imagine if Russia, China, or our own government got a hold of it. Imagine if someone wanted to blackmail you. Blackmail someone in a public office — to steal their identity. What if employers demanded to see your location data on any phone that they pay for, or partially pay for?
While most advertising-related targeting intricacies remain a mystery to the average non-marketer, consumers do have somewhat of a grasp on location-based data. Anyone that uses Google Maps or Waze or a weather app understands that they’re served information based on their approximate location. But there’s a huge disparity between what consumers feel they’ve consented to and the reality of the data. And, it seems, there’s also a huge gap in who this data is intended for and who’s actually getting a hold of it. Foreign governments or individuals intending to do us harm probably won’t adhere to the strict ethical standards of the marketing industry.
How Picture Perfect Is Visual Search?
By Caroline Desmond, Director of Media Strategy
It’s still early days for visual search, but the trend is towards growth. This growth is fueled by the sophistication of machine learning and the immense volume of user-generated images uploaded on a daily basis that in turn feed visual search engines and help identify photographed subject matter more accurately.
It is more likely that visual search will be supplemental to, rather than in replacement of, text searches. This is because visual searches are uniquely positioned to address questions that are harder to articulate via a text search, such as “what breed of dog is that?”
Below is a quick overview of recent updates relevant to visual search capabilities.
Google Lens
Google’s visual search engine, Google Lens, was released in 2017 and is capable of analyzing images to return additional information to the user about a variety of topics such as: details about a location (e.g., restaurant reviews), confirmation on what plant species or animal breed is photographed, and where to buy that great top you saw someone wearing on the way to work.
Last week, Google announced it would begin rolling out Google Lens visual search to the Google app for iOS. This is the second iteration of Google’s visual search rollout to iOS devices that began last March with an update to the Google Photos app. The March update enabled iOS device owners to discover additional info about subjects featured within existing photos on a user’s camera roll.
The latest update in the Google app places a Google Lens icon in the search bar of the home screen that, when tapped, opens up a live viewfinder and allows the user to quickly snap a picture of something they want to know more about in the moment.
An iOS device owner with the Google app will just need to grant the app access to the phone camera in order to enable the new Google Lens feature. Upon doing so, users will be able to:
- “Scan Text” — Google Lens scans text from an image which could be useful if, for example, someone wants to save an email address or phone number from a business card or start a phone call using the scanned number.
- “Shop Smarter” — Google Lens scans images and pulls up results for similar looking products.
Other features include:
- Identify Plants and Animals — flowers and dog breeds, etc.
- Discover Books & Media — discover books, movies, music albums, and video games
- Scan Codes — applies to barcodes and QR codes
Amazon & Snapchat
Amazon and Snapchat recently announced a partnership that will allow Snapchat users to search for product info on Amazon using Snap’s camera to scan a physical object or barcode. A user need only point their camera at an object and press and hold their finger to the camera screen. If the item is recognized by the app, then an Amazon information card will appear allowing the user to tap to open results in the Amazon app (if installed) or Amazon.com.
Pinterest Shop The Look & Lens
Pinterest began rolling out its visual search tools in 2015 and has seen continued growth in user adoption of visual search features, particularly in the last year. This fall, eMarketer reported that searches on Lens increased 140% between February 2017–2018.
For those newly initiated to Pinterest or unfamiliar with these tools, Shop the Look pins allow users to select dots overlayed onto a pin to find similar products.
Lens, on the other hand, is a discovery tool that allows users to take photos using the Pinterest app camera to reveal real-time results of similar products.
How Should Brands Harness Visual Search?
Although it is not yet possible to advertise within visual search engines, brands should consider how visual search could enhance traditional media like print or outdoor advertising (OOH), as well as ways that visual search might be integrated into a brand’s app to improve the user shopping experience.
Additionally, marketers should consider building up their image libraries to increase the likelihood of appearing in a visual search.
Visual-only creative in multilingual contexts may also enable brands to address language barriers by spurring searches for a featured product without having to worry about translating copy in an ad to a given market.
In summary, even if visual search is not yet picture perfect, the future appears bright and the opportunity is rich for brands to benefit from this relatively new technology.
The End of Millennial Shaming?
By Izzy Kramer, Media Planner
As the Millennial generation has grown up, they have received a tremendous amount of attention, and for the most part, this attention has been riddled with shame.
They have been generalized and scrutinized, deemed as the selfish Me Me Me generation. They have been put down and made fun of ever since the term “Millennial” was created. They have been blamed for killing a laundry list of beloved products and experiences. Above all they have been misunderstood, especially from advertisers that usually consider them too difficult to reach because they don’t tend to consume traditional means of advertising as their older counterparts do.
But Millennials for once might catch a break thanks to a recent study from the Federal Reserve.
Overall, the study focuses on the fact that Millennials may not be the ones who have ruined the economy (as they have been blamed for countless times) but rather the economy has been the one to set Millennials up for failure.
For a better part of the 2010s, we have read headlines reprimanding Millennials for not having bought big ticket, economy-boosting items like houses or cars. Unlike generations before them that were already well on their way to owning by the same age. But this recent study highlights the fact that Millennials do not have different buying habits, but rather face different economic struggles while still being expected to keep pace.
From the study: “Millennials do not appear to have preferences for consumption that differ significantly from those of earlier generations. Millennials are less well off than members of earlier generations when they were young, with lower earnings, fewer assets, and less wealth.”
There are piles of studies supporting the fact that Millennials prefer experiences over physical items, that they are holding off marriage and children, and that they are downsizing. Generally results like these are what have labeled Millennials as selfish and directionless. But rather, it might be Millennials have chosen these behaviors out of financial necessity.
Millennials have also had to deal with growing up with a new means of broadcasting content — social media. Social media has an influence on all, but for Millennials growing up in a time when social media became king has affected how they spend.
The new millennium brought with it a smaller world that offered more possibilities in terms of experiences (travel, concerts, festivals, etc.) and ways to show them off. This broadcasting has produced what is called spending FOMO, the money spent in order to keep up with your peers. Spending FOMO is not really a new concept, despite its trendy name. All generations have felt capitalist peer pressure. But for Millennials the success and experiences of their peers is so saturated that they continuously stretch beyond their means, placing them in an even more difficult situation.
I am a Millennial. And even in writing that, it comes out as a declaration, as if I am divulging a huge secret. As I grew up, I found it confusing to read headlines about the generation that was ruining the world and that I apparently owned to. I had a hard time believing it as there was little proof of ruin and evidence to the contrary observed among my peers.
So now, I’m not sure if it is a relief to begin seeing headlines redacting prior harsh criticism of the Millennial Generation, or if it is too little too late. At this point, we are numb to the shaming. I’m proud to be called a special snowflake with a participation medal.
Above all, I find it important that we are finally taking the chance to better understand the Millennial generation. Millennials will be looked at in the future as the pivot point for all generations after, so it is best that we know who they are and what they want.
Overall, I write this to keep in mind that generalization of generations does not always tell the full story. It is best to understand this when marketing to them. Circumstances must be taken into consideration when understanding the behaviors of a generation. Have you heard of Monopoly for Millennials? Yeah, don’t be like Hasbro.
