2021 Promises A FAST Start, Data Transformation, AI, More Work On Standardized Measurement https://ift.tt/2WHAa7O Reflecting strong reader interest in last week’s column, here are some more insights and predictions about where the CTV and OTT sectors are headed next year and beyond. Bill Wise, CEO, Mediaocean: ”Streaming providers are winning the battle for media attention during the pandemic, and with the introduction and growth of new streaming offerings, this will only continue. For broadcasters, the focus will be on creating data-rich closed ecosystems of the streaming and linear offerings that allow marketers to purchase multiple inventory types with consistent audience definitions that go beyond basic demographics. This will help them compete with digital walled gardens and prepare for the converged world, which goes beyond OTT and CTV.” Cathy Oh, global head of marketing and analytics, Samsung Ads: Ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) gained popularity and reached parity with subscription services during 2020. During Q3 2020, streamers spent 1 hour and 24 minutes per day with AVOD solutions — a year-over-year increase of 47%. Subscription video on demand (SVOD) grew only 36% year-over-year, to reach 1 hour and 22 minutes in Q3. advertisement advertisement Free ad-supported TV (FAST), a growing component of AVOD, is having its moment, and we should expect to see these platforms launch more original programming and advertising innovations. In 2021, these “channels” will become household names, just as AVOD has. FAST isn’t just growing viewership on TVs: Consumers are tuning in on mobile devices. Two-thirds of U.S. internet users watch video content via mobile, according to Statista… Automakers have started using advanced attribution techniques to measure cars sold to households exposed to CTV. They are also taking an integrated approach to TV — understanding how to reach certain audiences on linear versus CTV. For example, one luxury automaker reached half a million net new households via CTV. They also experienced a 143% lift in website visits. Eldad Persky, VP of product development, Samsung Ads: “The demise of third-party cookies will forever change the way advertisers think about data, even for media that don’t rely on cookies — namely, CTV and smart TV. Quality of data will become more important than quantity. Expect to see a renewed focus on the overall household and defining the customer journey within that context. Will Offeman, chief product officer, WideOrbit: “A major trend the industry will face in 2021 is a transition away from distribution channels through local, over-the-air TV, back into aggregated direct-to-consumer portals like Hulu, Peacock and Disney+. This will force many media companies to transform themselves and operate similarly to local news organizations rather than entertainment destinations.” Tristan Veale, market analyst, Futuresource Consulting: “Consumers inform content creators of their preferences by voting with their money. Globally, pay-TV subscription revenue dominates the market, accounting for $172 billion in consumer spending worldwide in 2020 and 70% of total global home video spend across pay TV, SVOD, TVOD, EST [electronic sell-through], DVD and Blu-ray. [But] by the end of 2020, worldwide SVOD spend is set to reach $55 billion, with Netflix capturing almost half of all global value. The sector is exhibiting phenomenal growth and driving overall growth of home video spending… Combine this with the convenience of being able to pick up where you left off, no matter what device you decide to continue watching on, and it’s inevitable that SVOD will continue to power the growth curve. By 2024, we expect over a third of home entertainment spend will be on SVOD… Our research shows that the market continues to tip in favor of VOD… the oldest demographics spend [most] of their time watching linear TV, whereas the youngest have significantly more fragmented viewing preferences, with SVOD and AVOD services like YouTube absorbing the majority of viewing time. The burning question is whether these younger age groups will adopt the habits of their parents and grandparents as they grow older, or will their current video behaviors remain with them as they age?... While the SVOD services have developed a business model which suits modern living, there remains value in the linear model, with the vast majority of content spend directed that way. Is there a way to combine the two? SVOD services certainly believe so, as they are experimenting with scheduling and acquiring sports rights — two key pillars of the pay-TV industry. The aim is to improve visibility on distribution platforms, including fitting in with current EPGs on legacy infrastructure, whilst still retaining the consumer’s ability to start from the beginning of the program if they wish. Thinking about the customer journey, the first challenge is to entice them to the app or service, with the second challenge being to make it easy to find the right content. Whichever service can make that journey easier will have a competitive advantage.” (Quotes are from Futuresource’s summary of Veale’s recent presentation to the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers.) Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile https://ift.tt/2oB2PsH December 23, 2020 at 11:38AM
0 Comments
Digital Ad Fraud Service White Ops Acquired By Goldman Sachs, Others https://ift.tt/2M4dpZG Digital ad fraud mitigation service White Ops has been acquired by Goldman Sachs’ Merchant Banking Division, in partnership with ClearSky Security and NightDragon. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the companies said they were acquiring the company from its previous investors, including Paladin Capital Group, Grotech Ventures and other unnamed shareholders. The deal follows an initial investment by Goldman Sachs and ClearSky earlier this year. Prior to the sale, eight-yer-old White Ops reportedly raised more than $30 million to date. White Ops’ sophisticated invalid traffic detection and filtration (SVIT) services for desktop, mobile web and in-app ad fraud are among the suppliers accredited by the Media Rating Council. According to an ad fraud benchmarking report conducted with the Association of National Advertisers last year, White Ops found it was trending downward thanks to greater vigilance and mitigation by services like White Ops. advertisement advertisement Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile https://ift.tt/2oB2PsH December 23, 2020 at 11:35AM
https://ift.tt/2JdXQxo
Best Of B2B Search Marketing: Optimize Your 2021 With Our Top 10 SEO Posts https://ift.tt/2M22Ypw Search marketing has matured in many ways throughout this pandemic year of 2020. At each shift and change along the journey, we've done our best to not only cover each twist and turn thoroughly, but to also offer insight and research-based strategy to help savvy B2B marketers meet the challenges this year has placed in front of us. We're lucky to have a wealth of talented B2B marketing professionals contributing to the TopRank Marketing blog — which will celebrate its 18th year in 2021 — including our CEO Lee Odden, Joshua Nite, Elizabeth Williams, Anne Leuman, Nick Nelson, Debbie Friez, Birdie Zepeda, the author of this post, and Alexis Hall, among others. To help our blog community grow its search marketing knowledge, we’re thrilled to offer this list of our most popular search marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) posts of 2020. Our Most Popular Search Marketing Posts in 2020:1. 5 Unheralded SEO Tools for Content Marketers — Lane R. EllisIn our most popular search marketing post of 2020, I shared popular and little-known SEO tools to help B2B marketers refine and augment their search engine optimization efforts. From Google Lighthouse to WebPagetest and more, there SEO tools offer insight that will be just as relevant to marketers in 2021. Sorting through lists of the seemingly endless number of available SEO tools can be frustrating as well as a hit and miss proposition, however this collection lets skip the search and get right into SEO tools you can use today to help you create amazing content marketing stories. You can check out all of my posts here, and follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn. [bctt tweet="“How can you be the best answer for your audience if you don’t understand what questions they’re asking or what problems they’re trying to solve?” — Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis" username="toprank"]2. SEO is Not Enough: Why B2B Marketers Need to Optimize for Trust with Influence — Lee OddenWhat good is being found if your content isn't credible? In the second most popular search marketing post of the year, our CEO Lee Odden shows why SEO is not enough, and why optimizing for trust and credibility serve as a force multiplier for B2B marketers. "At a minimum, content marketers should leverage the keyword and topic research done for SEO as inspiration for the queries used to find relevant influencers on those topics," Lee observed, suggesting several ways marketers can think about influencers from an SEO perspective:
3. 12 Top B2B SEO Trends & Predictions for 2021 — Lane R. EllisIn the number three spot on our top search marketing posts of 2020 list, I asked 12 subject matter experts how SEO will change next, and what search marketing will look like in 2021. Learn from industry leaders as they share their top predictions for 2021, including Barry Schwartz, Lily Ray, Dixon Jones, Melissa Fach, Tim Mayer, Aleyda Solis, Jordan Koene, Roger Montii, Melanie Mitchell, Neil Marshall, and our own Birdie Zepeda and Seth Epstein. "We need to incorporate intent into the keyword mapping exercise by matching keywords with the right intent to the right document," Tim Mayer noted in this, our third most popular SEO post of 2020. [bctt tweet="“2021 will see B2B marketers taking SEO and search marketing into not only a new year but perhaps a new boundary-pushing era, especially among B2B brands.” — Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis" username="toprank"]4. Marketing During a Pandemic: Stop Pushing and Start Pulling with SEO — Lee OddenHow do you do marketing during a pandemic? One way is to stop pushing and start pulling, and in the fourth most popular search marketing post on our blog in 2020, Lee shows how SEO helps customers find information on their terms, without the alienation of tone deaf marketing. In infographic format, this post explores 10 top SEO tips from industry pros Barry Schwartz, Jono Alderson, Aleyda Solís, Jesse McDonald, Britney Muller, Ayat Shukairy, Dixon Jones, Hamlet Batista, Tiffani Allen and others. [bctt tweet="“Instead of being tone deaf or completely opportunistic about marketing, companies can double down on their SEO efforts to become the best answer for customers at the very moment they need a solution.” — Lee Odden @LeeOdden" username="toprank"]5. Best SEO Tips for Marketing During the Pandemic Plus 9 Top SEO Platforms — Lane R. EllisSEO platforms can be a vital part of successful marketing efforts, and in the fifth most popular search marketing post of 2020 I asked nine top platforms for their best tips to help weather the pandemic. It's been a prime year for exploring the power of search optimization, and in this post we also share top SEO tips, from top industry firms including:
6. SEO Strategy: 5 Reasons Why It’s More Important Than Ever For B2B Marketers — Lane R. EllisWhy has SEO been more important than ever for B2B marketers during the global health crisis? In our sixth most popular search marketing post of 2020 I examined how SEO has showed its strength, stability and resiliency, including five of the top reasons to double down on B2B SEO:
7. How Influence and SEO Can Drive Customer Experience — Lee OddenHow can influence and SEO drive customer experience for B2B marketers? In our seventh most-read search marketing article of the year, Lee shares how genuine, authentic, and impactful influencer content collaborations combine to build CX success and best-answer search experiences. "For optimal SEO performance, best answer content experiences should be delivered with relevant, fast loading pages that are mobile friendly and deemed credible by other websites that link to them," Lee noted. "Even better is when that content is optimized for trust with relevant third-party experts," Lee added. [bctt tweet="“For brands, delivering a great user experience in search means understanding searcher intent and providing content that meets those expectations at the very moment of need.” — Lee Odden @LeeOdden" username="toprank"]8. 8 Virtual SEO Conferences for B2B Marketers — Tiffani AllenAttending virtual conferences is a great way to not only stay connected to the B2B marketing and SEO communities, but also to learn how SEO helps customers find your brand on their own terms. In our eighth most popular search marketing post of 2020, Tiffani Allen shared a collection of eight virtual SEO conferences to put on your agenda. Attending conferences – even in a virtual setting – is a great way to stay connected to the marketing and SEO community, and many of these digital events will also be held in virtual formats during the coming year. Check out all of Tiffani’s posts here, and follow her on Twitter and LinkedIn. [bctt tweet="“While many of our favorite search conferences are being postponed to later dates, there are still plenty of excellent virtual conferences to attend in the meantime.” @Tiffani_Allen" username="toprank"]9. Why SEO & Influence are Critical to Pandemic Era Content Marketing — Lee OddenHow can your brand be the best answer? This year SEO and influencer marketing have played increasingly important roles as B2B brands look to become and stay the best answer for their customers, and in our ninth most popular search marketing article of 2020 Lee shares why and offers an array of helpful insight. "Understanding that B2B buyers already prefer to pull themselves through most of the sales experience with their own research and content, B2B marketers are increasingly emphasizing SEO for the current time when field marketing, events and experiential marketing are no longer an option," Lee noted in this insightful post. [bctt tweet="“Marketing is about optimizing for improved performance and the role that organic search plays in pulling customers to your brands solutions at the very moment of need is clear.” — Lee Odden @LeeOdden" username="toprank"]10. 10 SEO Books for B2B Marketers in 2020 — Birdie ZepedaB2B marketers understand SEO's importance, but do they understand its inner workings? Rounding out our top ten list of search marketing posts for the year is our SEO strategist Birdie Zepeda's insightful look at 10 SEO books that help demystify some of the practice's inner workings, and also provide plenty of practical advice. The SEO books on this list help B2B marketers to better understand the technical optimization intricacies of your company’s website and to further develop an SEO strategy that will best serve your audience and their needs. Check out all of Birdie's posts here, and follow her on Twitter and LinkedIn. [bctt tweet="“Some SEO questions are worth buying, borrowing, or downloading a book for a deep-dive into the subject.” — Birdie Zepeda @birdie_zepeda" username="toprank"]Thanks TopRank Marketing Writers & ReadersThanks to all of our top search marketing authors for contributing these top 10 SEO posts of 2020 — congratulations on making the list! Additionally, we publish several marketing influencer lists every year, and we wanted to share them here as a helpful way to find and follow some of the leading digital marketing influencers:
The post Best Of B2B Search Marketing: Optimize Your 2021 With Our Top 10 SEO Posts appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®. Mobile Marketing,SEO via Hubspot https://ift.tt/2wiHYzh December 23, 2020 at 05:33AM Contract Suit Between Email On Acid And 250ok Drags On https://ift.tt/2M2g3iz The bitter lawsuit between Email on Acid and 250ok over alleged theft of intellectual property seems stuck in the discovery phase and apparently will not go to trial until well into next year. At the request of both sides, U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael E. Hegarty has scheduled a discovery conference for January 6 at the U.S. District Courthouse in Denver. But the trial will not be held until sometime after a pre-trial conference scheduled for May 21, 2021. In a motion filed last week, Email on Acid contends that 250ok has made ”every effort to obstruct discovery and avoid producing highly relevant documents that Email on Acid needs to prepare its case.” However, the discovery does not yet seem to be seriously derailing the set deadlines. In an amended complaint filed in October, Email On Acid alleges that after “licensing its technology and agreeing not to create a competing product, “250ok abused this access to create its own rip-off version of the product, marketed itself as a competitor to Email on Acid, and has attempted to poach Email on Acid’s customers.” advertisement advertisement Email On Acid’s software-as-a-service allows users to view how emails will render in Gmail, Yahoo and other email platforms, and via mobile desktop and the web. 250ok denies the allegations, stating that the license agreement agreed to by the firm “speaks for itself.” The company acknowledges that it “offered a suite of products that incorporated an email-rendering feature, of which Plaintiff was aware, both before and during the term of the License Agreement. It also states that it “independently developed a back-end email-rendering engine to power that feature.” Email On Acid also charges that 250ok CEO Greg Kraios threatened Email On Acid CEO John Thies that 240ok “would either acquire Email on Acid or rip-off the Email Previews Service (despite the prohibition against doing so in the License Agreement).” 250ok acknowledges that “Mr. Kraios expressed to Mr. Thies that 250ok believed that it needed to acquire back-end email-rendering functionality similar to that provided by Plaintiff’s Email Previews Service, either by acquiring Plaintiff or by independently developing that technology.” 250ok was acquired by Validity last March, bringing in another possible complication. Despite the lawsuit, Validity “moved forward with the acquisition, taking possession and control of Email on Acid’s valuable trade secrets, the design, development, and technical specifications of, and technical information from, Email on Acid’s Email Previews Services product and API.” MediaPost was unable to obtain comment by deadline.
Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile https://ift.tt/2oB2PsH December 22, 2020 at 03:42PM
https://ift.tt/34CSbZh
T-Mobile Told By Ad Review Panel To Narrow Its 'Superiority' Claims https://ift.tt/37F5WIW An advertising claims review board has recommended T-Mobile discontinue or change its claims of “superior reliability” -- but also left the wireless company with a separate, narrower win against challenges to language in a video. The National Advertising Review Board (NARB) on Monday ruled on an appeal T-Mobile made on an earlier ruling. The initial complaint came from one of T-Mobile’s main rivals, Verizon Communications. At issue was “science guy” TV personality Bill Nye explaining 5G for T-Mobile in a four-minute video available online. In it, he explained the differences between the basic signals 5G can run on. The explanation tends to slime high-band transmission -- the kind Verizon has touted -- which is fast, but has extremely limited short signal strength. In the Nye video, he shows a bus-stop bench and suggests a 5G high-band signal might barely cover it all. NARB says the video also implies T-Mobile’s 5G signal is more reliable than competitors’ 4G signal and that no 5G service is more reliable than T-Mobile’s. The panel said T-Mobile should stop those kinds of statements. It also said T-Mobile should quit implying “that its 5G service is generally available in locations that have traditionally been challenging for cellular service, or disclose, clearly and conspicuously, the typical performance of T-Mobile’s 5G network in those locations.” More pointedly it said, T-Mobile should discontinue claims and a demonstration “that imply that other carriers’ 5G coverage is so limited in any area as to cover only the space taken up by a single bench.” In a separate ruling, NARB said T-Mobile’s claims of “superior coverage” did not imply overall network superiority, overturning an earlier decision by the National Ad Division (NAD) a kind of lower court that ruled against T-Mobile in August. In a statement, T-Mobile said it “appreciates that the panel agreed that T-Mobile can continue to advertise its superior 5G coverage without qualification.” Both NARB and NAD are units of BBB National Programs, which provides third-party accountability, disputing resolution programs for a variety of industries to help them regulate themselves. The programs allow companies to resolve problems without tempting federal agencies to take action instead. Dealing with T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T keeps NAD and NARB busy. In 2020, a spokeswoman said, the boards had dealt with 18 separate complaints by and about those three companies. Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile https://ift.tt/2oB2PsH December 22, 2020 at 03:12PM Google, Mithril Capital Invest $145 Million In InMobi Subsidiary https://ift.tt/34BVeRs InMobi Group on Tuesday announced that Google and Mithril Capital have invested in its subsidiary, Glance, a lock-screen platform and Roposo, the company’s video-sharing social media platform. Glance, a subsidiary of InMobi Group and owner of Roposo, delivers AI-driven personalized content in multiple languages including English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Bahasa on the lock screen of Android smartphones. Caesar Sengupta, vice president of Google, believes “too many Indians have trouble finding content to read or services they can use confidently, in their own language,” which significantly limits the value of the internet for them, particularly at a time like this when the internet is the lifeline of so many people. The significant investment is important for several reasons. For starters, the growth of online service, including streaming video on and off Android devices, will require investments to build out the infrastructure in the country. Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, whose roots are in India, recently pledged to invest $10 billion in the country during the next five to seven years through a mix of equity investments, partnerships, and operational, infrastructure and ecosystem investments. Glance plans to use the $145 million investment from Google and Mithril Capital to expand its technology team, launch new services on the platform, and drive expansion across Asia and the US. Today, Glance supports 115 million daily active users that on average spend 25 minutes per day in India and is on 75% of new mobile devices shipped in the country. Roposo, a short-form video platform in India with more than 33 million monthly active users spend, on average, 20 minutes daily consuming content across multiple genres in more than 10 languages. The Roposo app has been downloaded more than 100 million times on the Google Play Store. The trending content available on the platform runs the gambit across entertainment, sports, fashion, news, and other content categories in visual format. It’s consumed with a tap on the lock screen. It leverages its strategic partnership with Android smartphone brands to deliver a native user experience to consumers. Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile https://ift.tt/2oB2PsH December 22, 2020 at 01:44PM Out Of Home Advertising Is The Medium Of The Future https://ift.tt/34xMHif Amidst a global pandemic, extreme social unrest and battered economies, 2020 has proven to be anything but normal. The economic fallout has been cruel, with some sectors and businesses being hit harder than others. Particularly travel & tourism, hospitality and high street retail. COVID-19 for better or for worse, has been a catalyst for change. The lockdown has forced many things on society, and in response, we have altered our behavior to adapt. One of these behaviors being the digital acceleration that has taken place in all of our lives. One positive to arise from this unprecedented upheaval is that shared experiences have brought us closer together, even while we have been physically apart. Working from home will undoubtedly become popular, and appreciation of home life has meant more working-age consumers have spent time in their local communities. This has strengthened our community spirit and given a new importance to the idea of local messaging—what we see and experience in our hometown hub has greater resonance. advertisement advertisement In today’s high-tech, mobile-driven world, the oldest form of out of home information exchange, the poster, has a window of opportunity to become the medium of the future. Think of OOH as a community bulletin board that will become a more powerful tool as the streets begin again to brim with life. Local activation has the power to create real human value and be a vital information communicator. We, as communicators, now have this absolutely beautiful opportunity on the streets to have a conversation and to create value. This presents an amazing opportunity for emotionally intelligent brands to change and evolve in this new experience era. You can’t ignore brilliant out of home. You can’t block it or shut it off. You can share it. You can provide an experience. There’s a beauty and power in posters and other OOH platforms that other channels cannot offer. OOH doesn’t speak to people, it speaks with them. The finest out of home communication has real experiential value at the time that it’s consumed rather than just dispensing a message. OOH doesn’t make people empty, short-term promises. It encourages authentic, emotional, long-term relationships between brands and the people who use them. Ultimately, it adds something to people’s lives. The best work transcends advertising and creates something far more valuable for people. Visionary brands understand that. Great brands have an unmistakable brand identity. They capture the human spirit. They are delightfully simple in their approach. They grab people by the eyeballs, stop them in their tracks and reward them for their time and intelligence. The finest out of home activations work because they display originality, a clear idea, lateral thinking and skill in execution. A fine example is the Burger King Moldy Whopper campaign. Fast food brands are all doing a similar job when it comes to showing real and fresh products. Beautiful burgers from over-produced photographs. People find it hard to believe that these products are actually real and free from artificial ingredients. To break the mold –– and against all industry aesthetic practices –– Burger King decided to depict the chain’s signature Whopper sandwich rotting throughout a 34 day-period. The brand created a simple and clear message that demonstrated their food had removed all artificial preservatives. A simple product demonstration that drove a 14% sales increase and worldwide attention for the brand. Today, OOH advertising is more powerful than ever. It is one of the purest forms of communication that can transform business and impact society. A poster, whether on a billboard or a kiosk or on public transit, is a creative canvas that calls for distillation and pure reduction. It demands potent graphic language and pure simplicity. It has the power to create visual drama that results in maximum meaning using minimum means. Out of home advertising presents infinite possibilities to create “Theatre of the Streets.” Think of the streets as your stage and your goal is to earn a standing ovation. A wonderful example of this is the new PlayStation 5 launch in the UK. Sony partnered with Transport for London to take over the Oxford Circus Tube station to celebrate the launch of the new PS5 console. This idea played right into the hearts and minds of gamers who love their brand. The Tube station was emblazoned with the iconic PlayStation symbols in a 48-hour creative unmissable event. For two days, the classic British Underground Roundel was reimagined to feature the four iconic PlayStation shapes: triangle, circle, X and square. As well as transforming the roundels, the partnership saw PlayStation appearing in the station’s tunnels, platforms, street entrances and exits. This is the kind of playfulness gamers love. In this age of instant transmission and advanced technology, it is perhaps surprising that the oldest and purest form of communication continues to flourish as a primary and valuable form of communication. But this dynamic, exciting exterior medium remains as powerful as ever. The new OOH communications landscape offers an “infinite borderless creative canvas” for marketers and agencies to think and act in a different way. Instinct, alchemy, entrepreneurial thinking and human connection will win the creative future. Our ability to create fresh, original, disruptive, transformative ideas will become indispensable – and will be the gateway to future OBIE Awards, which celebrate the best in OOH advertising. Creativity and innovation are key if businesses are to adapt and prosper in 2021. It’s time to embrace out of home for all of its creativity, power and potential –– the medium of the future.
Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile https://ift.tt/2oB2PsH December 22, 2020 at 09:42AM Another HBO Max Boost: WarnerMedia Acquires You.i TV Platform https://ift.tt/3aB48ST It’s been an increasingly satisfying couple of months for WarnerMedia executives tired of being pelted with predictions of the early demise of the company’s now seven-month-old HBO Max streamer. Since AT&T’s third-quarter report at the end of October, WarnerMedia has clinched deals with both Amazon and Roku, opening access to HBO Max for many millions of Fire TV and Roku device owners (with self-reported global MAUs of 50 million and 46 million, respectively) just prior to the key holiday streaming season. So that’s an end to the constant mentions of Max’s lack of distribution through those devices by analysts and the media (including yours truly). The Amazon Fire integration, in place as of the end of November, helped drive a 4-million jump in the number of HBO subscribers who have authenticated HBO Max, to 12.6 million, in the two months between the Q3 report and the second week of December. The Amazon and Roku distribution factors will undoubtedly continue to drive up the Max authentications — and new, non-HBO subscribers — particularly in combination with WarnerMedia’s “hybrid” movie release strategy. advertisement advertisement Controversial as it’s been in the industry, the company’s decision to simultaneously release “Wonder Woman 1984” and all 17 of its major movies during 2021 on HBO Max and in theaters is bound to make Max’s relatively high, much-maligned $14.99-per-month fee pretty palatable, since all subscribers will get access to those big movies at no additional charge for the first month after their releases. That strategic move almost certainly also helped add pressure on Roku to finally come to mutually acceptable terms for Max distribution on its devices. WarnerMedia also just announced that HBO Max is now accessible through Comcast’s Xfinity X1 and Flex platforms—again, in time for holiday family binge-fests. To add fuel to the fire, HBO Max is also currently offering a 20% discount on six-month subscriptions, for those willing to prepay. Next year, of course, we'll also see a rollout of another tier of HBO Max — which is increasingly looking like it will be supported by a lower-cost consumer fee structure, in addition to advertising. And now, in the latest boost for HBO Max — albeit a more technical one — WarnerMedia has completed its acquisition of You.i TV, an Ottawa-based provider of cross-platform development tools for TV and media companies. The company’s You.i Engine One enterprise development platform delivers video apps across mobile, tablet, game consoles, streaming devices, set-top boxes and Smart TVs using a single codebase. That allows developers to build app features, make user experience changes once, and then deploy them across a variety of devices and operating systems, saving time and speeding delivery, according to the announcement. Here’s the key part: You.i Engine One technology “will help rapidly deploy WarnerMedia’s HBO Max direct-to-consumer offering to a variety of platforms in markets worldwide,” reports WarnerMedia. “In 2021, HBO Max is slated to expand into Latin America, and HBO-branded streaming services in Europe will begin to be upgraded to HBO Max.” “The You.i platform will enhance the HBO Max technology stack, increase developer efficiency, and accelerate delivery as we bring HBO Max to consumer devices all around the world,” summed up Jason Press, the company’s executive vice president of direct-to-consumer technology and program management. WarnerMedia and other affiliates of AT&T currently use You.i TV technology to enable apps for AT&T TV Now, TNT, TBS, truTV, B/R Live, Rooster Teeth, DirecTV GO in Latin America, WarnerMedia International, and the WarnerMedia RIDE in-car entertainment experience in partnership with AT&T and General Motors. You.i TV has been developing the You.i Engine One technology for nearly a decade. WarnerMedia has been an investor in You.i TV since 2016, and Press its board of directors in 2019. In short, while it’s still early innings, I’m going to stick with the opinion expressed in this column just before HBO Max launched last May, as the volume of skepticism was just gaining momentum: Given the large, existing base of HBO and HBO Go subscribers, plus “the marketing and partner resources of AT&T and WarnerMedia, and most important, HBO’s worldwide brand familiarity and reputation for quality content, I don’t really think we need worry too much about whether HBO Max can reach its goals of 50 million U.S. subscribers and 80 million global subscribers by 2025. We’re not talking Quibi here. HBO Max is riding on the shoulders of a giant entertainment brand.” Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile https://ift.tt/2oB2PsH December 22, 2020 at 08:19AM Wavemaker Ripples Across Pond, Lands ViacomCBS International https://ift.tt/2JcWR0z GroupM’s Wavemaker has landed a high-profile media account, ViacomCBS Networks International’s global media AOR. The assignment, effective Feb. 1, includes media-buying and planning for the company’s entire portfolio of linear channels and related networks in nearly all markets outside the U.S., including the U.K. Importantly, the assignment also covers data strategy and analytics, audience science and precision marketing related ot its media services, areas Wavemaker is known to excel at. In the UK, the account includes British public service broadcaster Channel 5, in addition to pay TV brands Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and BET. The companies said the explicit goal of this assignment is to “drive linear viewing and increasing mobile app subscriptions, in addition to amplifying VCN UK’s live event campaigns and driving sales of consumer products.” Wavemaker already was the media agency of record for sister unit Paramount Pictures. advertisement advertisement Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile https://ift.tt/2oB2PsH December 22, 2020 at 08:19AM
https://ift.tt/3mCcbRP
Feeling The Love, Snow Days: AT&T Ends Year With Touchy-Feely Messages https://ift.tt/3mHXqNB AT&T wireless ends the year with two new touchy-feely ads that don’t seem to have much of a marketing purpose beyond presenting the communications giant in a gentle way. One gives a little showcase for NBA superstar LeBron James and actress Milana Vayntrub, who played effervescent AT&T shop clerk Lily in commercials from 2013-16 and again this year. The ad, titled “Little Love” shows a bunch of city dwellers going about their business, when, aided by a smartphone, they begin singing a version of 1968 Jacke DeShannon hit, “Put A Little Love in Your Heart.” Lily’s walking down a chilly wintry street and LeBron’s on a living room couch feeling the lyrics. Another guy with a booming bass voice, is ironing. One young pizza delivery man sings into an apartment building intercom and motivates the guy who made the order on the other side to start singing too. The ad was created with creative agency partner BBDO NY and directed by The Corner Shop’s Peter Thwaites. So far, it will only be seen on YouTube and ATT.com, starting Dec. 24. In March, James and AT&T entered into what they called a strategic partnership “to use technology, entertainment and innovation towards social advancement and to promote new AT&T products and services.” As part of the deal, AT&T is developing a learning institute at his foundation’s I Promise Village. The basketball superstar’s SpringHill Entertainment production company is also working with AT&T’s WarnerMedia to develop the upcoming “Space Jam” film and programs, “The Shop” and “Student Athlete” for HBO. As for Lily, she might be worried about her real-life AT&T store contemporaries. As the pandemic has gotten far worse again, Apple over the weekend closed all its stores in California and others in London and around the world. The Verge estimates a total of 100 Apple stores worldwide are shuttered. AT&T, Verizon and others haven’t followed yet, but all of those phone stores and Apple closed for a while at the beginning of the pandemic. The other ad, "Take The Day Offline," is more or less ripped from today’s pandemic feature story list. It shows a harried mom trying to get her young son away from a mountain of newly fallen snow in the front yard so he can begin another day of his school’s home learning instructions online. But, in a surprise move, his teacher declares, “It’s a snow day! Get outside!” His WFH mom quickly takes a snow day too. Everybody’s happy. During last week’s big snowfalls, parents and teachers also confronted the same question. In a stressful year, many thought, give the kids a break. Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile https://ift.tt/2oB2PsH December 22, 2020 at 07:20AM |
CategoriesArchives
April 2023
|