DIGITAL MEDIA DIGEST: MAR ‘17
A monthly look at the world of digital from NORTH’s point of view
YouTube Announces Live TV
By Nathan Johnson, Media Planner
The live TV streaming space just became more competitive with YouTube’s recent announcement to offer their own service called YouTube TV. With this move, Google will be competing against the likes of Hulu, DirectTV Now, and Sling TV to name a few.
Announcements like this excite me for two reasons. First, I might actually get to watch live basketball games without having to spend a ton of money on other programming I don’t care to see. Second, this is but another step toward one-to-one targeted ads within the television space. As one Google spokeswoman put it, “Over time, YouTube TV will provide network partners with new dynamic advertising opportunities.”
I want to put an emphasis on the beginning of the quote, that is “over time.” In other words, we aren’t quite at that point yet. In fact, YouTube as of now will not sell commercial space. Instead, it will let networks sell that space. Others, such as Hulu, plan on selling a portion of it for themselves, however opportunities for advertisers will still be limited.
What this all means is we are still not quite at a point where the two worlds of digital and television have fully merged. There is no denying the potential that internet connected TV viewing could provide advertisers a better way to target users. Thinking about the immense amount of consumer data that Google would be able to use to target specific audiences is exciting, and I do expect that we will see it in the near future.
However, all this talk about the potential of Google is irrelevant if no one subscribes to the service.According to BI Intelligence, subscription-video-on-demand services in the US has slowed considerably due to heavy competition. It’s my opinion that it will be crucial for YouTube to not rely on their live TV streaming alone, but continue to create strong original content. If the content is strong enough, users will be more likely to subscribe as we have seen with players like Hulu and Netflix.
Either way, one thing this cord-cutter is looking forward to is access to Portland Trail Blazer games!
3 Things You Can Do Now to Start Tapping Into Voice Activated Search Results
By Devon Brown, Performance Marketing Manager
Voice activated search results, humbly dubbed (by me) the new frontier of search, are coming with a vengeance. Voice search has previously been a clunky, erroneous technology that has caused frustration among internet and mobile users for years. However, small improvements in semantic understanding and results delivery has skyrocketed usage to over 20% of all searches across Google’s products today. This 20% is spread across a myriad of devices including smartphones, watches, connected home devices, etc. It’s safe to say that if you don’t want to miss out on valuable website traffic and conversions moving forward, a voice discovery strategy is imperative. I’ve outlined three key tactics you can start employing today that will help lay a strong foundation for your content as voice search popularity continues to grow.
1. Write your content as if you’re answering a question
Most voice searches come in the form a question. So, unsurprisingly users are looking for content that answers their question. For example, if you own a knitting store and customers come in and frequently ask questions like “what’s the best yarn to use to make a scarf?” or “will this yarn feel itchy after wearing it for a while?”, use your website as an opportunity to answer those questions. In product descriptions you can write things like “9 out 10 customers say this is the best yarn for scarves,” or “staff pick for zero itchiness.” Now is a good time to start brainstorming commonly asked questions that may lead users to your site.
2. Use natural language and long tail keywords
Voice activated technology is changing the DNA of search queries. Instead of distilling searches into a few keywords, for example “best organic bread cheap,” users will use natural language questions such as, “what’s the best organic bread for the price?”. I suspect long-tail keywords and natural language writing will become an important factor in determining what content to serve to customers. Technologies will favor websites that empower them to answer user questions in a conversational tone, rather than sounding like a robot.
3. Mark-up, mark-up, mark-up
Now more than ever, mark-up is vital. Without context, voice command technology can’t “see” images, or recognize the difference between a listing of a movie showtime or a review of it, or the difference between an official book description or a blogger’s review of it, or an address number between a product number. Semantic mark-up is the answer to all of these woes, giving you control over how search engines read and display content, and now voice your content. The easier it is for voice technology to understand your content, the more likely they will be to serve it above competitors. And to point #2, delivery results may take their grammatical cues from mark-up allowing them to answer questions in a conversational tone. So when in doubt, mark it up (out?).
The days of being served 10 search results with consumers scanning for the best one are quickly fading. Now with devices such as Google Home and Alexa, there is only one search result, and it’s the one that the technology understands the most, and answers the user question the most concisely and accurately. The intricacies of voice search algorithms and ranking factors are still a mystery, but we do know that Google has known about the product and algorithmic technology for years, and they’ve been feeding the SEO community very specific best practices for years. It’s possible that the reason for all of that has been to lead content to a seamless voice-activated future.
The Pressure’s On At Snap
By Caroline Desmond, Director of Media Strategy
Snapchat (Snap, Inc.) has been busy growing its content offerings, targeting capabilities and ad revenue in an effort to keep up with competitors in the socials ads category. The pressure is on to compete with other digital ad behemoths like Facebook and Google who control 65% of digital ad budgets. This is particularly true following the launch of the Snap Inc. IPO earlier this month. Bloomberg reports that at its IPO valuation Snapchat was valued equally to Facebook (roughly worth $200 per user). Unlike Facebook however, Snapchat only generated about $2.56 of revenue per user last year, compared with $4.40 at Facebook. So in other words, Snapchat needs to quickly find a way to get more revenue from each user (and fast) in order to justify its lofty valuation.
How will it do this? Like other social media platforms, Snapchat stays afloat via ad dollars. In fact, MarketWatch reports 98% of Snap’s revenue in 2016 came from advertising. To stay attractive to investors and compete, Snapchat will need to find ways to continue to grow its daily active user base and bring on more brand advertisers.
One issue noted among the current criticism of the IPO, is that Snapchat’s daily active user growth is stagnating. This is problematic for a company whose business is reliant on its ability to sell a large engaged user base to advertisers. One report shows daily active users grew by only 7% between Q2 and Q3 of 2016 with flat growth in Q4 of last year. It would be reasonable to infer that copycat moves by bigger players like Facebook who introduced Instagram Stories late last year will continue to push Snapchat to innovate its ad offerings to advertisers. On the plus side, this could result in better, more cost efficient ways to target users on the platform.
The Rollout of Snapchat API & Self-Serve
Just as Facebook can “borrow” from Snapchat features, so Snapchat can borrow from Facebook’s revenue model. One way Snapchat seeks to increase ad revenue is to make it easier for brands to access the platform. Last year Snapchat opened up its API (application programming interface) to ad tech partners like TubeMogul, a leader in the programmatic video category, and Adaptly, a top seller of programmatic paid social advertising. Both of these companies (and now several more) can sell ad space on Snapchat through the API. A little over a month ago, Snapchat also announced it would allow agencies and brands to license its API to do their own buying via its first self-serve ad tool. Similar to Facebook and Google, advertisers will be able to bid on ad inventory through an auction based system. Overall, this should help break down previous barriers that involved steep minimum spend commitments and limited access to ad products.
Improvements to Discover
Additionally Snapchat has been investing in the quality of programming within its Discover feature. According to Recode, Snapchat has been building their global publishing team drawing talent from Apple most recently. It would seem that Snap wants to ensure the proper team is in place as they embark on the release of new original programming within Discover where publishers will create short TV-like episodes specifically for the app. This in turn could be another revenue generating opportunity for Snap. It is said that many of the deals with publishers could allow Snap to own the programming allowing them to take 100% of the revenue from ads running within those programs. Digiday reports that Snap currently has deals in place with NBC, ABC, Turner and A+E Networks to create shows for Snapchat Discover.
Between Snap’s API, self-serve rollout, and its investment in original content, it seems likely the fledgling IPO is taking the necessary measures to ensure its continued growth. More premium original content serves to attract more users to the platform and maintain current user loyalty. More time spent on the app among users means more ad opportunities for brands. Greater availability to access Snapchat ads makes it easier for brands to spend the money, at least for now.
2017: The Year of the Podcast, Maybe.
By Flynn Robertson, Assistant Media Planner
Allow me to boldly — and semi-sarcastically — proclaim: 2017 is the year of the Podcast. Or was that 2016? Maybe it was 2015? To be fair, it could be any of the three depending on where you look. The notion that “insert year here” is the year that podcasting joins the ranks of the media titans is not a new concept, and it certainly could be true that podcasting enjoys a tremendous industry-wide growth that propels it to new heights. But doesn’t this claim lose its gravitas when it is made year-over-year? And why do we insist that podcasting needs a year anyway, what’s wrong with long-term sustained growth? If there is a year of the podcast, is this it?
For context sake, a very short snapshot of the current podcast industry might be a bit helpful. Check out some more detailed info here and here. And now for a few of the stats that I found the most telling. First, 24% of Americans age 12 and up are monthly podcast listeners, representing a 14% increase from the previous year. Second, the average podcast listener consumes 5 podcast episodes per week. Third (and last), 60% of Americans are aware of the term “podcasting”, up from 55% in 2016. These numbers definitely seem to be indicative of an industry on the rise, but I’m not ready to assign the podcasting industry’s rise to the happenings of a single year.
In case you were wondering, I love podcasts. And if you permit me to toot my own hipster-horn (it’s probably a Fluba, a flugelhorn-tuba) , I might even consider myself an early adopter of the platform. I get my bi-weekly dose of stream-of-consciousness rant-based comedy from “Bill Burr’s Monday Morning Podcast”, my deep-dives into the history of the world from “Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History”, and when I feel like I am out of touch with current events (almost always) I will listen to some BBC or NPR.
Ok, back to the questions I posed at the end of paragraph one. Does the annual exclamation of this year being the “Year of the Podcast” diminish the legitimacy of the statement? To me, yes. As a fan of podcasts, I was pretty stoked when I read my first “Year of the Podcast” article because I was excited to be a part of the growth. When I read my second, I figured they must have been wrong about the previous year, and that they must be right this time around. Now I read them with a large dose of skepticism and a sense of deja vu.
As for why we try to assign a specific year as the “Year of the Podcast”, I suppose it could be due in part to legitimate enthusiasm for the future of the industry. From an advertising perspective, I think podcasting provides great opportunity and would love to have a chance to incorporate it into one of our future media plans if it fits the strategy. But, it could also be that “2017 is the Year that Podcasts will Reign”* is simply a more engaging title than “Podcast Industry Continues Slow but Steady Annual Growth”. In general, we just seem to love having oddly specific “Year of the” qualifications. If you don’t believe me, rural Australia is currently witnessing “The Year of the Goat”, Europe might be avoiding “The Year of the Populist”, and San Diego is experiencing “The Year of the Woman Distiller.”
If there is an actual “Year of the Podcast”, is 2017 it? It very well could be. I think it’s reasonable to say that 2014 was the year, until 2015 showed up, and 2015 reigned until 2016 took the throne. If the trend continues, then 2017 is likely to be crowned, with 2018 on deck. Regardless, even if there isn’t an actual “Year of the Podcast” or if there are many, the numbers point to an industry on the rise and I am excited for the future of podcasting.
*: Not an actual article title, but wouldn’t be surprised to see it in the future.
