Publishings Digital Consumer

What is Adobe Audience Manager? It’s a data management platform that helps you build unique audience profiles so you can identify your most valuable segments and use them across any digital channel. Understand your audiences: Get a complete view of your audience by combining all of your data sources in one place. Create new segments: Continually discover and organize new, valuable segments for smarter targeting and personalization. Advertise effectively: Make your ad campaigns more productive by targeting specific segments on any platform. What can Audience Manager do? 360-degree profiles: Combine information from online, offline and second- and third-party sources to create complete audience profiles. Audience activation: Conveniently target specific profiles on any content delivery platform, like content management systems and ad servers. Cross-device measurement: Identify, measure and target people as they move across screens and devices. Look a-like modeling: Identify prospects who are similar in behavior to your most valuable customers, so you can extend your reach. Read more about Adobe Audience Manager at http://adobe.ly/1Cl5hc1 (link is external)

In case you missed it, we recently released a study showing the first holistic analysis of cross-platform digital media consumption in the U.S., entitled Digital Omnivores: How Tablets, Smartphones and Connected Devices are Changing U.S. Digital Media Consumption Habits (link is external). The study brings together insights from across the comScore mobile suite of products and provides a first look at survey-based behavioral data on tablet use. In the report, we explore the increasingly fragmented digital media landscape shaped by the widespread adoption of smartphones and entry of tablets and other web-enabled connected devices. As people become increasingly connected through the use of these devices, we are witnessing the transformation of consumers into digital omnivores able to engage seamlessly with a steady stream of digital content across different platforms. Below we will share with you a few key highlights of the broader trends we’re seeing, and tomorrow I’ll be conducting a webinar that will dive deeper into this topic. Below we will share with you a few key highlights of the broader trends we’re seeing, which I also presented at a recent comScore webinar on the topic. You can find the Digital Omnivores webinar presentation here (link is external). Digital Omnivores Are a Global Phenomenon An analysis of ten selected global markets in August 2011 showed a notable percentage of Internet traffic (measured as browser-based page views) coming from non-computer devices. Singapore led among those markets with more than 7 percent of all Internet traffic in the country coming from smartphones, tablets and other connected devices. While mobile phones continue to be the main driver of non-computer traffic around the world, it is interesting to see tablets contributing a sizeable amount of traffic for a few mature technological markets. In Canada, tablets drove nearly 40 percent of all non-computer traffic. Read more at http://bit.ly/1C7wYEG (link is external)

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.--(BUSINESS WIRE (link is external))--Acxiom® (NASDAQ: ACXM), an enterprise data, analytics and software-as-a-service company, today announced that its Digital Impact division, now Acxiom Impact™, has won 11 “Best of Industry” 2015 Internet Advertising Competition (link is external) Awards (IAC), and was the sole agency to win two “Best in Show” awards from the Web Marketing Association (link is external) at ad:tech San Francisco 2015. Acxiom Impact’s work was also recognized by the Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts (link is external) with 18 Communicator Awards -- three gold and 15 silver -- from a field of 6,000 entries that were submitted this season. Acxiom has recently relaunched Digital Impact (link is external), its email and cross-channel marketing business as Acxiom Impact, an advanced marketing offering specifically designed to meet the unique needs of sophisticated enterprise marketers. The new, upgraded Acxiom Impact platform offers a wide breadth of features including data-rich targeting and personalization, flexible analytics and reporting, cross-enterprise collaboration tools and cross-channel orchestration capabilities. As a recognized leader in client satisfaction and marketing services, Acxiom Impact provides a broad range of leading marketing services, including campaign operations, analytics, marketing strategy, technical solutions and award-winning creative. “The Acxiom Impact creative team has again displayed the power of their creative talents with impressive award wins across several different categories,” said David Bonalle, general manager at Acxiom Impact. “These awards highlight Acxiom’s dedication to redefining 1:1 marketing at scale for our clients and Acxiom Impact’s strength as a leading provider of email and customer marketing services.” Read more at http://bit.ly/1BXV70k (link is external)

Despite struggles, marketers remain focused on improving big data (link is external), and those putting money toward such efforts are reaping the benefits. In April 2015 research by the Direct Marketing Association (link is external) and Winterberry Group (link is external), 43% of US marketing professionals said they expected their data-driven marketing (DDM) spending to be higher in Q2 2015 than Q1, and 60.2% of respondents expected DDM revenues to increase during the same period. However, June 2015 research by Econsultancy in association with Signal found that senior-level marketers in North America weren’t jumping for joy over returns from data-related marketing investments. Just over one-third said these had a strong positive impact. Promisingly, though, was that 47% said that they had some positive impact. Econsultancy suggested that first-party data could help the group reporting so-so results—along with the laggards, of course. When marketers were asked to compare different levels of data and their effect on desired outcomes, first-party data ranked highest across the board. It was most popular for gaining insight into customers, cited by 74% of respondents. More than six in 10 respondents also said it was the easiest to justify using, drove the highest increase in customer value and the highest campaign lift among data sources—all by a long shot. Read more at http://bit.ly/1IHPcJZ (link is external)

Mondelez International has struck a new deal with Facebook that the Oreo maker says will help it crack the code for selling more cookies online. The pact renews a one-year global strategic partnership announced in March of 2014 that covered 52 countries and gave the snacks and candy marketer access to Facebook's beta testing programs. The new arrangement also covers 52 countries and will "focus on creating and delivering creative video content and driving impulse snack purchasing online," according to a statement issued on Tuesday. Mondelez declined to release terms of the new deal but a spokeswoman said it is "significantly larger" than last year's deal. The arrangement was brokered by Dentsu Aegis Media. Mondelez will get access to a full-time Facebook creative strategist that will work with the company and its agencies to develop "scalable video content natively for the platform to optimize social engagement," according to the announcement. Facebook will also give Mondelez access to beta-testing programs on Facebook and Instagram. Additionally, the two parties will work together to create ecommerce solutions to "drive impulse purchases" in markets including the U.S., Australia, India and U.K. Full article available at http://bit.ly/1QPZEJd (link is external)

Facebook has given us a bit more of an insight into some of the more experimental new products and apps its product team has been working on. Speaking at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Facebook's chief product officer Chris Cox, showed off what could one day work as a more expressive version of the Like button. Instead of simply pressing Like, Cox said users could use their smartphones to take a selfie. But rather than just send that, the function could read the user's Facebook expression and transform it into an appropriate smiley/sad/frowning/indifferent face. Cox made it clear: "This is not on our roadmap, we don't know how to build this. It actually seems really hard, but it's the kind of thing unlocked by the power of all the different sensors on the phone." Read more at http://read.bi/1Ni1xJ5 (link is external)

Delving deeper into ecommerce, Twitter is testing some new ways to help users discover products within its network. First up are dedicated pages, which will feature images and videos about products, alongside information such as a description, price and an option to buy, book, or visit a brand’s Web site for more information. Within users’ timelines, they can now expect to see pages and collections of pages that are shared by influencers and brands. In addition, Twitter is also beginning to test new ways for people and brands to create and share Twitter collections of products and places. Users can now browse collections from various influencers, and get more information about featured products and places. Already, there’s Nike’s LeBron Elite collection; Reese Witherspoon’s Draper James Summer Picks; The Ellen Show’s Best of The Ellen Shop and HBO's #GoT Fan Favorites. “This is just the beginning,” Amaryllis Fox, a product manager at Twitter, promises on a new blog post. “In the coming months we’ll be testing more new experiences we hope give you the most personalized and relevant information about the places and things you want to explore.” While Twitter struggles (link is external) with its direction, ecommerce appears to part of its broader ambitions. Among other efforts, the company has been inviting advertisers to create credit-card-connected promotions, and share them with users directly in their timelines. With their credit cards, users can redeem the new “Twitter Offers” in stores without the need for a coupon or numerical code. Full article available at http://bit.ly/1GuVHOT (link is external)

Five, four, three, two, one. What keeps people watching after the first five seconds? What can science tell us about the art of video advertising? We took a peek behind the data curtain to see which creative choices capture audiences' attention. Online video ad formats like YouTube TrueView (link is external) ads have created a paradox for marketers. They remove traditional 30-second time constraints, giving brands more time to tell their stories. But introducing a "skip" button after five short seconds also means that advertisers have to create more engaging stories that not only grab their audience's attention, but hold it, too. Is it time to start creating ads with the "skip" button in mind? Today, all ads are skippable—whether it's a function of the format or not. People have been honing their skipping skills for a while. Think about it: Viewers experimented with fast-forwarding on their VCRs, improved their skills with DVRs, and now are mastering ad choice on the web. Even if there's no option to fast-forward or skip, consumers can always pick up a smartphone, switch tabs, or find other ways to hit a metaphoric skip button. Is it time to start creating ads with the 'skip' button in mind? Thousands of ads run on YouTube every day. So, when we look at that data in aggregate, what patterns emerge? What can we learn from existing video ads about creative that works in the first five seconds? To find the answer, we looked into thousands of TrueView ads across 16 countries and 11 verticals, categorizing them according to 170 creative attributes, including brand name mentions and featured celebrities. We used aggregated analytics from AdWords to see how long people watched without hitting the skip button. To measure brand awareness and ad recall (link is external), we took advantage of Google's Brand Lift (link is external). There are no "rules" for making ads people choose, but we did find that certain creative choices are associated with how long viewers watch or how well they remember ads on YouTube. Turns out, there is a certain science to the art of engaging video advertising. Here's what we've learned. Full article available at http://bit.ly/1FpaPg5 (link is external)

Category: Media Idea Client: America’s Navy Agency: Lowe Campbell Ewald Title: Project Architeuthis: Engaging America's Cyber Warriors (link is external) The Project Architeuthis campaign from America’s Navy and Campbell Ewald proves that big results don’t always require big budgets. The initiative focused on recruiting hard-to-find Navy cryptologists, but had no paid media budget despite worsening market conditions. It fused target insights, creativity and social media knowledge into one idea so powerful it generated its own success. Challenge: Navy sets recruiting goals for its all-volunteer military force, including targets for especially hard-to-fill roles (e.g., doctors, chaplains, nuclear engineers, cryptologists). In FY2014, it faced an especially tough market: The U.S. unemployment rate had dropped 18% (to 5.9%), important because the lower the rate, the harder it is to find people who qualify for and want jobs in the Navy. Press coverage in America reached new highs regarding the importance of a college education for long-term life success, a cultural hurdle for those considering an alternative path. There was a high level of consumer confusion regarding America’s war status in the Middle East (the higher the perceived danger, the lower the consideration people give to joining the Navy). Congressional “budget sequestration” severely impacted government spending, forcing across-the-board cuts including a 22% decrease in Navy’s total communications budget. Despite these challenges, the goal for recruiting cryptologists — sailors who make and break codes and are responsible for Navy’s digital/cyber security — was not reduced vs. the prior year. Solution: Exploration of the small and elusive cryptologist target audience revealed an intriguing insight: “The brightest cryptology minds can’t resist the aroma of a nearly impossible puzzle.” From this, Project Architeuthis was born, an augmented reality game (ARG) where characters, cryptologic clues, tips and updates were revealed via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr. Navy.com provided cryptology job information and a lead generation form. The ARG storyline revolved around Maria, the fictional Navy protagonist who discovered an enemy plot and snuck aboard the adversary’s submarine. She then sent out coded clues via different social media platforms over the course of 18 days, which players had to decipher in order to lead Navy rescuers to Maria and foil the enemy plot. Although some players worked alone to solve the puzzles, many created sub-communities and teamed up to help each other progress through the game. Some groups even chose to communicate in code to keep their messages private and out of the “line-of-sight” of the game’s enemy force. The game took on a life of its own, mirroring the kind of camaraderie that takes place in the real Navy Cryptology community. Results: Project Architeuthis succeeded in generating visibility for Navy Cryptology, creating a digital information path for prospects, and inspiring them to spread the word. As a result, Navy not only met its recruiting goal, it did so ahead of schedule. The campaign’s success was highlighted in an innovative analysis of unstructured social media data that revealed a significant, highly correlated relationship between ARG participation, lead generation and cryptology enlistment, which grew stronger as engagement in Project Architeuthis deepened. Effie Awards (link is external) are known by advertisers and agencies globally as the pre-eminent award in the marketing industry and recognize any and all forms of communication that contribute to a brand's success. Gold, silver and bronze Effie winners will be announced at the 47th annual North American Effie Awards gala on June 4 in New York.

Today, the groups participating in the Obama Administration’s so-called multi-stakeholder negotiations to develop a self-regulatory “code of conduct” on facial recognition and privacy sent a letter (attached) to the Commerce Department explaining why they would no longer participate in the process. As CDD has said from the start, the approach the Administration embraced to protect consumers’ rights to their personal information was flawed. It relied on the data collection and digital marketing industry to support significant new policies that would empower individuals to make decisions about how their information can be collected and used. Right now, of course, it’s individual companies and industry-wide data gathering practices that have left Americans with barely any privacy. For the industry—including Google, Facebook, and Microsoft—what’s foremost in their political agenda is preserving their right to use all our personal information without constraint. It never made sense to expect industry to turn away from business practices that reap billions of dollars. What was needed at the outset was an independent agency such as the Federal Trade Commission proposing tough new rules—and an administration willing to fight for the interests of the public. The multi-stakeholder approach to Internet governance cannot work when it involves challenging the economic (or political) interests of the digital industry and its partners. Our facial data is sensitive, personal information. Before companies can gather it—let alone use it—a person must have at a minimum full knowledge on how it will be used and give meaningful prior consent. None of the companies or industry trade associations participating in the Commerce Department-led initiative is willing to support opt-in for facial recognition. That’s because they are increasingly using facial recognition technologies to track and target people in commercial settings, adding our face and other biometric data to the vast amounts of information they now routinely gather. The withdrawal by the consumer and privacy groups should wake up the Obama Administration—it must embrace a new ethics-based approach to how it develops consumer privacy safeguards. Relying on the digital foxes (the data industry) to develop rules on data gathering and use will actually lead to the further erosion of our privacy and consumer protections. This failure by the White House on privacy underscores why the EU must oppose U.S. attempts to weaken its own civil rights-based approach to data protection, especially through the TTIP trade deal. .