Message encryption company Echoworx has added biometric authentication to its Email Encryption platform. 

This will allow users to access encrypted communications without the need for registration, questions or passwords, the company says. 

The goal is to “leverage biometric authentication, like fingerprint and facial recognition already built into devices, to access encrypted messages,” states Michael Ginsberg, CEO of Echoworx.

Echoworx points to Gartner research showing that over 60% of large enterprises hope to implement passwordless methods of authentication in over 50% of their business by 2022. 

 “Eliminating the need to manage and use passwords is the future, and we feel biometrics are the obvious frontrunner for achieving this goal,” Ginsberg says.

Ginsberg adds that “people trust their devices and mobile is the fastest growing channel for reaching customers.” 

This week, I wanted to rant about celebrities who are so overused I can’t fathom why any marketer would pay for their endorsement anymore. My rant would then evolve to celebrities who appear in commercials where they are interacting with “regular” people. I don’t mean over-the-top situations where it is clear the celebrity is being used as part of the joke, like Charles Barkley being selected on a kids’ basketball team for Capital One, but stupid stuff like Samuel L. Jackson FaceTiming me about what might be in my wallet.

And then I would close out with the biggest irritant of all, which is commercials where there is an animated character interacting with a real human. The worst ones are those where the actor is having an actual conversation with the Cheerio’s bee, the Keebler elves or Tony The Tiger.

But I'm not going to continue on this topic -- not because I don’t feel strongly about it, but because there are more important things to talk about. For instance, not only are we losing digital cookies, but with the new iOS from Apple, consumers now have the power to stop the tracking of their personal information across apps altogether. Power to the people!

Or, more likely, power to the walled gardens!

Call me an eternal sceptic, but I don’t think this will make a huge difference in addressing the continual perils of digital advertising. Integral Ad Science (IAS), a well-known digital ad safety service, reports on ad fraud, and compares the second half of 2020 vs the second half of 2019: “For desktop display environments, reductions in optimized-against-ad-fraud in France (-1.1 percentage points) and the U.S. (-0.4 percentage points) improved the global average. Likewise, global mobile web display ad fraud rates dropped 0.3 percentage points year-over-year, also led by reductions in France (-0.6 percentage points) and the U.S. (-0.6 percentage points).” Those are tiny improvements. Important, but tiny.

The programmatic supply chain remains murky, even with the recent trend of larger advertisers that have in-housed the practice. The whole issue is pervasive enough that the Association of National Advertisers has now called for a dedicated study into the programmatic “food chain,” with the following objectives: “Drive business and brand growth through the elimination of wasteful and unproductive spending; make the whole digital media supply chain understandable, highly transparent, and analytically rich; institute corrective solutions and industry standards that have long-term sustainability; and determine whether industry oversight bodies are needed to ensure the integrity of the programmatic ecosystem.” Getting the desired transparency won’t be easy, but the findings will no doubt be enlightening.

Back to the IAS study, which also reports on brand safety: “At 8.6%, global brand risk was highest for mobile web video. Advertisers in the U.S., France, Germany, and Canada faced the highest risk levels in the format.” And: “Desktop video campaigns experienced the greatest brand risk spike, with a 1.4 percentage point increase year-over-year that pushed the benchmark to a 7.7% worldwide average.”

Remember how big Fortune 500 companies very publicly abandoned many big digital advertising platforms last year? That has not made one bit of difference, has it? Recent revelations from internal Facebook executive emails reveal they were more concerned with Facebook’s reputation than issue remediation. Solving these problems requires a coming together of every industry representative platform known to mankind, globally. It will never happen.

So yeah, I will remain skeptical. And I am better off ranting about celebrities in ads.

In a continuing trend seen among major longtime cable TV operators, Charter Communications broadband business keeps seeing strong growth -- now becoming its dominant revenue producer in the first quarter with another strong gain of 15.4% to $5.1 billion.

A former major revenue producer, Charter’s cable TV video revenues slipped 1.8% to $4.3 billion. A year ago, cable TV revenues had a slight edge over broadband/internet $4.42 billion to $4.41 billion.

The company says there was a higher mix of lower-priced video packages for subscribers during the period.

More than other operators Charter has maintain or, in some periods, even grew video customers. Now Charter follows more of the industry with declines -- down 156,000 video customers to total 15.5 million.

But total customer relationships were higher -- thanks to broadband -- adding 302,000 in the period, now totaling 31.4 million. Broadband customers were up 355,000 to 29.2 million. Customers buy Charter services in multiple packages which can include broadband, video, land-land voice, and mobile.

In the period, the company’s nascent mobile business nearly double revenues in the period -- up 91% to $492 million.

Charter says its local cable advertising business sank 6% to $344 million, due to lower political advertising, helped some by advanced advertising revenue. Taking out political ad revenue results from both periods, advertising grew 5.3%.

Overall, Charter revenue grew 6.7% to $12.5 billion in the period, with consolidated net income more than doubling to $921 million -- in large part coming from a financial instruments benefit.

Subaru of America is partnering with Sleepypod, a pet product company known for its durability and crash-safe worthiness, for a line of pet accessories.

Comprised of eleven unique items equipped for Subaru vehicles, the pet accessories ensure that owners can take their furry companions (even cats!) on road trips and remain protected, per the automaker. 

Sleepypod products meet high standards for safety to reduce pet exposure to possible hazards. The company’s dog harnesses and pet carriers are put through stringent safety tests to include static material tensile testing and dynamic crash testing at the standard set for child safety restraints.

The new line of co-branded pet accessories were designed using state-of-the-art technology to maximize pet comfort. They are available for purchase at Subaru Parts Online and at Subaru retailers nationwide.

Protecting pets is a key component of the “Subaru Loves Pets” commitment. The automaker features pets prominently in its creative (“The Barkleys” have a reoccurring role) and also works with pet rescue organizations. More than 20,000 shelter pets found homes during the 2020 Subaru Loves Pets Month.

That commitment to pets extends to protecting pets on the road, said Joe Daugherty, director – accessories, Subaru of America, Inc., in a release. 

“At Subaru, we know that pets are part of the family, and as our owners head out for warmer weather adventures with furry friends in tow, we want to keep them safe and comfortable for the ride,” Daugherty says in a release.

Items include a padded cargo liner, console lid protector, collapsible pet kennel, pet-friendly padded seat protector, pet ramp, Sleepypod pet harness, Sleepypod pet carrier and mobile pet bed, Sleepypod pet travel bowl, a rear seat cover, rear bumper protector mat and pet lover license plate frames. 

As if marketers didn’t have enough reminders that their emails should be designed for mobile, here’s one more: A new study from SimpleTexting shows that most consumers are using their phones to browse and purchase. 

What’s more, most shoppers are signing up for texts that offer promotions and offers.

Of the consumers polled, 97% have made at least one purchase from their mobile device in the past year, and 54% have made from one to 10. And 36% make from 20% to 40% of their purchases on mobile devices.  

Texting is also becoming widely acceptable — 86% of consumers have signed up for for text messages from at least one brand, the study says.  

In addition, 61% are likely to sign up for a text message loyalty program.  

The respondents are most likely to sign up for these types of messages (a roster that is also likely to cover email opt-ins): 

Coupons or special offers — 64.9%

Product updates — 35.4%

Sales alerts — 35.3%

Loyalty programs — 34.4%

New product launch — 29.9% 

Customer service — 26%

Restock alerts — 25.2%

Event updates — 11.9%

Other — 2.8% 

In addition, 61% are likely to sign up for a text message loyalty program. And 41% will sign up with three to four brands. 

Please keep in mind that the study was conducted by a texting company, one with integrations with Mailchimp and HubSpot. 

Of the consumers surveyed, 39.3% spend from 15 to 30 minutes per day browsing/shopping on their mobile device. Another 25.1% expend 30 minutes to an hour, and 11.2% more than one hour. And 24.4% spend less than 15 minutes. 

But 18% also say they spend 30 minutes to an hour more mobile shopping than they did before the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Mobile shopping lends itself to impulse buying, with 65% of respondents saying they are more likely to make those kinds of purchases on mobile than on desktop, along with 83% of Gen Zers. 

But here’s a caveat for anyone trying to operate in a single channel: 78% are more likely to make a mobile purchase when it is supported by user-generated content on social media. 

And here’s one other research finding that bears watching: the percentage of emails opened on mobile devices dropped from 63% to 54% in 2020 as people spent less timing commuting and waiting on lines at Starbucks for coffee, according to according to The Ultimate Email Benchmarks For 2021, a report by Campaign Monitor.

SimpleTexting surveyed almost 1,000 U.S. consumers. 

Earlier this week, I wrote

  about the increasing prospects for inflation, especially for advertising goods and services. Today, I’d like to make the case for some deflation -- specifically in mobile advertising costs. The reason? Twofold.

One is that mobile already has experienced a hyper-acceleration in demand -- and advertising costs -- in recent years, following the parallel trend in consumer and publisher adoption. Secondly, the impact of Apple’s IDFA changes is likely to take some pressure off mobile ad pricing for a very simple reason: it will be harder for marketers and agencies to attribute both in-app and mobile web ad exposures to individual identities in their performance-based campaigns, which have been a major driver in pushing mobile ad CPMs in recent years, especially in biddable markets.

I don’t have explicit inflation data to prove this, but some recent overall ad price data released by Aisle Rocket for Facebook’s CPM trends indicates they’ve been surging in the period leading up to Apple’s change.

The analysis, which examines the period leading up to mid-March of this year, found that Facebook’s ad prices have jumped 30% over the comparable period in 2020. That’s overall ad cost. On a CPM basis, the analysis indicates a 60% rise in cost-per-thousand impressions since the ad market bottomed out in March 2020 at the height of the pandemic-related ad recession.

While these are overall Facebook ad costs and CPMs, I’m going to bet a big part of them can be attributed to mobile ad impressions, because much of the data is coming from performance marketers, especially those pushing app downloads. (It was interesting that in Twitter’s recent ad products briefing with the trade press, it said it was making a push into performance advertising this year, and that app install marketing was the first category it was focusing on.)

And while macro factors are likely to drive overall advertising price inflation this year -- a response to a resurgent economy and pent-up demand -- there is a big micro factor influencing the supply-and-demand dynamics of mobile advertising. It's the same one Facebook has been grousing -- and lobbying -- about most of this year: Apple’s new consumer opt-in interface for IDFA, and its specific impact on Facebook and other identity-tracking based mobile inventory of its ilk.

“CPMs may fall [for mobile],” predicts Paul Silver, Global Chief Strategy Officer of MiQ, noting, “Depending on the proportion of users opting in to IDFA tracking, a fall in trackable users in-app could lead to reduced bid competitiveness and reduced CPMs, which may lead to an opportunity in the short-medium term to run campaigns across iOS environments for increased value.

“While legacy iOS measurement will be diminished, emerging modeled approaches to reach and frequency and conversion modeling can still provide an insight into outcomes and performance in these environments."

Vizio, the smart TV set manufacturer, and Verizon Media, have struck a major data access and TV inventory deal -- all to foster better cross-platform and connected TV (CTV) advertising deals.

In January 2022, Verizon Media will be the exclusive demand-side platform (DSP) for Vizio’s Inscape, the TV automated content recognition (ACR) data company.

The companies say the deal puts together the largest footprint of opted-in ACR smart TV set data from Vizio -- 18 million homes -- with the biggest footprint of omnichannel data from Verizon Media -- 200 billion daily cross-screen signals from mobile and other digital devices.

Verizon Media’s DSP is a client of Inscape on a nonexclusive basis.

Also, Verizon Media’s supply-side platform (SSP) will have a “first-look” of unsold Vizio Ads smart TV inventory, which it can sell. Vizio Ads has a direct sales team, as well. After Verizon Media's decision on that inventory, other SSPs can then access Vizio inventory for sale.

Vizio says the deal will bolster its cross-platform ad retargeting product, Household Connect.

Mike O’Donnell, Chief Revenue Officer, Platform+ at Vizio, stated its deal with Verizon Media will allow it “to expand our reach, bridge the gap between TV and mobile.”

Both companies will have joint “transparency into demand from advertisers.”

Mini is launching an updated consumer website which includes a new “Build-Your-Own” vehicle configuration experience. 

The changes were informed by “extensive” dialogue with both consumers and dealers, according to the automaker, which is an independent brand of the BMW Group. 

The website’s enhancements include a redesign of key product pages. The site’s online shopping tools were also combined in the new “Shop @ Home” page for an easier research and purchase process at home.

The most significant upgrade to the site is the new BYO customization tool. The platform is designed to bring Mini customers together with dealers more quickly and efficiently, and to create a “seamless and highly detail-oriented experience according to customers’ unique Mini preferences,” per the automaker.

It retains and refines several key features from the previous configuration platform, while adding entirely new features that streamline the experience for prospective customers and make the overall customization process more engaging, simplified and enjoyable, says Rah Mahtani, brand communications manager, Mini USA.

“One of the most enjoyable parts of the new car buying process is the ability to virtually create and visualize what your new Mini will look like,” Mahtani says in a release. “In updating our consumer site, we set out to create a whole new Build-Your-Own experience to perfectly match Mini as one of the most famously customizable automotive brands out there.”

Key updates to the BYO platform include 360-degree, high-resolution views of Mini exteriors and interiors, value-driven stories about features and options for added context to customers and the option to save and share personalized customizations.

Mini USA also plans to make additional enhancements later this year. These enhancements include a micro-configurator that allows customers to compare trim features and exterior color as well as dealer inventory matching, which will allow users to see vehicles in nearby dealer inventory that closely match the selections of their build in real-time as they customize through the BYO steps.

The updated Mini USA website is live and the Mini BYO platform is compatible with most web browsers, as well as on mobile devices. It can be accessed at Miniusa.com/build-your-own.html.