DIGITAL MEDIA DIGEST: OCT ‘19
A monthly look at the world of digital from NORTH’s point of view
Instagram Tests New Features for Product Drops
By Madelyn Engel, Performance Marketing Manager
As retail competition continues to rise, it has become increasingly difficult to break through the clutter. Brands have turned to social media to engage with their customers, keep them up to date with the newest products, and nudge them down the funnel toward repeat purchases and brand loyalty. However, for much of its existence, Instagram has facilitated purchases offsite.
This year, Instagram has stepped up to provide brands and users an all-in-one platform to take them from inspiration and relationship building, straight to purchase. It has released several features this year, including shopping tags for clothing posts and the more recent in-app checkout, which allows users to purchase items from Instagram posts without leaving the app. This month, Instagram has increased their shopping offering with a new feature that allows users to set reminders of upcoming product releases from their favorite brands.
Product drops have become an increasingly popular tactic to create hype and buzz around a brand’s new products. Brands tease new items for days, weeks or even months prior to their release, often stressing the date and time of the drop. These products are usually special releases or limited quantity, and the customer benefits by getting something exclusive or getting it earlier than the wide release. These drops are notorious for selling out in minutes or even seconds.
But why are these drops so effective? Fashionista points to a study in consumer behavior and marketing, saying, “It all comes down to the scarcity principle.” The idea that a product is scarce and only available to a select amount of people immediately increases its desirability and increases consumers impulsivity to purchase.
Another factor that helps build hype for any product launch is the “cool factor.” Many consumers, most notably those immersed in the streetwear and sneaker culture, want to have the hottest, latest products. This cool factor has increased with the rise of influencers and micro-influencers and has spread across fashion and beauty brands.
Instagram is helping brands capitalize on this increasing trend with their newest Product Drop feature. This feature allows brands to add a ‘reminder’ button from the stickers tray to any new launch announcements they post on Instagram Stories. They can also add product details and launch date tags to photos on their feeds. When clicked, the tag will let followers enable reminders for the product release. If users opt in, they’ll receive push notification reminders both 1 day and 15 minutes before the drop. Customers who shop the drop are directed to purchase through Instagram’s in-app Checkout.
While this formalized drop approach reduces the element of surprise and exclusivity to some degree, the outcome could result in massive profits as it exposes brands to a wider community. Instagram reports that more than a billion people use the network every month, with over 500 million using it every day. Furthermore, as of 2018, it reported that 200 million users visited one of the 25 million business profiles on Instagram at least once per day. And this vast community is highly engaged. Prior to the launch of Checkout, Facebook published a report indicating that 87% of users take action after seeing product information on Instagram and that 83% discover new products or services through it. Furthermore, it suggested a whopping 46% of those people subsequently make a purchase online or offline.
For now this feature is only available in the US and it is in beta testing with 30 select brands, but Instagram plans to onboard more brands daily in the upcoming months.
Hulu Improves User Accessibility
By Izzy Kramer, Media Planner
When choosing a streaming service, consumers rank the ease of use and navigation just right below price, video quality, and content in terms of priority. It’s part of the reason why Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix constantly beat out TV network apps. Take for example this Verge article in which Laura Hudson proclaims CBS All Access as a “terrible streaming service” and that she “wishes it ill.” Her proclamation is supported by constant issues with “persistent…frustrating glitches.” Her opinion is not uncommon.
Hulu is all about their user experience and constantly stays up-to-date on how best they can improve. Recently Hulu placed a universal ad frequency cap, now 4x daily or 2x per hour, to keep in mind the popularity of binge watching. Of course, advertisers have always been able to control the frequency of their ads, but many forget this important step resulting in an onslaught of brand video commercials multiple times per hour. As we all know, that can get real old, real quick. So Hulu stepped in.
Hulu has also introduced a new ad unit specifically designed for when users pause their show. Hulu understands their users will pause from time to time, whether to use the restroom or to grab a snack. Note that this unit is specifically not a video unit, despite that being Hulu’s forte. Instead, it is a clever, subtle, non-intrusive static interstitial.
Overall, all these examples have one thing in common: they put the user first. Hulu is proudly an ad-supported platform and they gracefully walk the line between user and brand partner happiness, trying to keep both as a priority. In turn, this creates a strong user and brand relationship. So with that in mind, by far the most outstanding improvements Hulu has included on their platforms have been adding accessibility features to heighten the experience for those with visual impairments.
Over the past year, Hulu and advocates from the American Council of the Blind and Bay State Council of the Blind agreed on improving accessibility of Hulu’s streaming service to individuals who are blind or have low or impaired vision. Hulu has gradually been making improvements and rolling out new features.
In assembling a plan of improvement, Hulu worked with a selection of students to collect research, brainstorm, and come up with solutions. Based on a case study put together by a participating student, Florence Lafite, it is apparent how crucial it is for Hulu to make these updates.
Of the total global population, 14% of people have a visual impairment (1.3 billion people). A majority of these people are not completely blind; they just have severe low vision. During their interviews, Florence and her team found that participants ”usually felt that they had to adapt to technology versus technology adapting to them.” Which is absurd, seeing as technology is only in existence by the design of people. Sympathy and empathy should always be driving forces in the development of new technology. To further wrap your head around this concept, the images below give an idea of what having a visual impairment is like and why the addition of more accessibility is crucial.
After much research and creative problem solving, we have begun to see the results of these efforts, with the latest updates as of this month, including:
- Hulu has added a feature that improves text visibility. According to this article from Fierce Video, “Hulu said it now has easier-to-read text because it enhanced the text opacity. This update will be applied automatically for all Hulu users.”
- Screen readers, or audio guides, have also been added to the platform. From the same article, “the screen reader helps viewers with visual impairments by vocally guiding them through the Hulu platform. It can be turned on via a device’s setting.”
- Hulu now offers color correction settings for users with color blindness. Per the example below, users can adjust the contrast on a given spectrum to fit the condition of their deuteranopia.
Because some of the features are settings across the platform (color correction, audio guides) they do automatically effect the ads that run on Hulu. However, not all of these features effectively apply, for example subtitles. So, like anything else, it is on the shoulders of brands to be aware, stay educated about new technology available, and provide options that include everyone. Below are a few rules of thumb to help make advertising more visibly accessible:
- On Hulu closed captioning must be added by the advertisers. Include highly visible closed captions on any video content that includes audio. (Most brands follow this already as a general rule of thumb for digital video since over 83% of users watching video with sound off).
- Along the same lines as closed captioning, it is important to include transcription in subtitles, or describing what is happening in the video, especially if understanding actions is necessary to understand the video overall. (i.e. music playing or woman humming)
- Keep the contrast high, without compromising creative direction. Enough contrast between the foreground and background ensures better visibility.
- Look for and work with media partners that prioritize and provide accessibility features that help their users navigate the content they like, thereby increasing their likelihood to use the platform.
- Stay up-to-date on what the mandated standards issues by IAB and other organizations. As this article from Amnet puts it: “The Americans with Disabilities Act mandates that people with disabilities have equal access to public amenities such as media and technology. Addressing this issue now will ease [the] transition when more [digital] accessibility standards and guidelines are implemented.”
Hulu has taken the step to work toward improvement and inclusivity without rushing the end result. Accessibility features are available on Hulu via Roku, and will roll out to Android, iOS, and connected TV devices in the next few weeks.
HBO Max May Introduce Some Friendly Competition in Streaming TV Advertising
By Caroline Desmond, Director of Media Strategy
We have been following what has been dubbed “the streaming wars” for some time now. For those unfamiliar, this refers to the current land grab over streaming video subscribers taking place between technology provides like Apple and Amazon, content providers like CBS and Disney, cable companies including Comcast and AT&T, and early streaming TV provides including Hulu and Netflix.
If your head is spinning from the sheer length of that list, we don’t blame you. In fact, we would tend to agree that it is intimidating and it is the consumer that stands to lose out when they can no longer rely on Netflix or Hulu as a “go-to” hub for all their favorite content. See our write up on this from last May discussing the annoyance of multiple streaming services competing for consumer share of wallet and the resulting increase in what consumers will likely have to pay to see their favorite shows. Apparently, we are not alone in our assessment of increasing costs to consumers within streaming landscape. NBC News reports consumers could pay as much as $125 per month to access all the content they want (when factoring in the cost of broadband).
The upshot of all these new streaming options is the potential to create healthy competition in the streaming TV advertising marketplace. Streaming TV ads have many benefits — fewer ad breaks with fewer advertisers per ad break, non-skippable ads, and better audience targeting capabilities than traditional TV buys. The challenge is, there are really only two options for streaming TV advertising right now — Hulu’s ad supported platform and pre-roll/mid-roll within connected TV apps (Food Network, Discovery Channel, National Geographic TV to name a few).
Currently, most of the new streaming services appear to be subscription only (no ads). However, AT&T-owned Warner Media has said that its HBO Max streaming service may include an ad-supported option in 2021 in order to provide a lower cost option to consumers. The ad-free subscription-only service is expected to rollout in Spring 2020 for an estimated cost of $16 per month. This cost is close to Netflix’s premium package pricing but 2–3x higher than most other streaming options. This might explain why AT&T is already thinking about an ad-free option as way to appeal to a more price-sensitive cord-cutting audience.
HBO Max is expected to offer a wide range of premium programming including a mix of old favorites and originals which could be a huge draw for viewers and brands alike. Some of the programming that will be available on HBO Max includes TV classics like “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air”, “The Big Bang Theory”, and “Friends”, along with “10,000 hours of content from HBO, Warner Brothers, DC Entertainment, CNN, TNT, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, and other WarnerMedia properties”, and a highly-anticipated original series called “Circe” about “the daughter of the Greek god Helios [who] tames wild beasts and menaces the gods.”
For brands, this means another option to reach viewers next to premium content in a less-cluttered environment. With more options, brands may also have greater leverage to negotiate when Hulu and connected TV app aggregators are not the only game in town.
