23 - The Internet Summary Native Ads Seen Outperforming Banner Ads Across Several Measures May 6, 2013 by MarketingCharts staff A study pitting native ads against banner ads has found the former attracting more attention and generating more lift. The study, conducted by IPG Media Lab and Sharethrough, leveraged both eye tracking technology and surveys to come to its conclusions, using leading brands across travel, CPG and entertainment verticals as test cases. Among the findings, consumers were 25% more likely to see native ads than banner ads (25% vs. 20%), looking at the native ads 52% more frequently (4.1 times per session, compared to 2.7). Notably, consumers looked at native ads at a slightly higher rate than the original editorial content, spending almost the same amount of time doing so. That may be due to an inability to discern between the two. According to survey results released in November 2012 by MediaBrix, two-thirds of respondents felt misled by advertorials (sponsored editorial appearing in both online and in print). That study didn‘t elaborate on to what extent the misleading nature of those ads had a negative impact on the survey respondents. But, according to the IPG and Sharethrough study, native ads resonated with the study participants. In fact, lift in brand favorability was 9% points higher for native ads than for banner ads (32% vs. 23%), while the boost was even more significant for purchase intent (52% lift vs. 34%). Given that they found native ads to be more engaging, it‘s not surprising that respondents were almost 70% more likely to say they‘d share a native ad with a friend or family ad than share a banner ad (32% vs. 19%). About the Data: The study was conducted with 4,770 participants. Eye-tracking technology was used on 200 consumers. Topics:Branding, Online, Online Ad Networks 1 Related articles PEW: TEENS MORE CONNECTED 4-16-13 According to a new study released by the Pew Research Center smartphone adoption by teens has increased substantially and they use their mobile phone access to access the internet much more than adults. One in four teens are ―cell-mostly‖ internet users, who say they mostly go online using their phone and not using some other device such as a desktop or laptop computer. These are among the new findings from a nationally representative Pew Research Center survey that explored technology use among 802 youth ages 12-17 and their parents. Key findings include: •78% of teens now have a cell phone, and almost half (47%) of them own smartphones. That translates into 37% of all teens who have smartphones, up from just 23% in 2011. •23% of teens have a tablet computer, a level comparable to the general adult population. •95% of teens use the internet. •93% of teens have a computer or have access to one at home. Seven in ten (71%) teens with home computer access say the laptop or desktop they use most often is one they share with other family members Advertisers Grab Third-Party Data For Tablet Ad Targeting by Laurie Sullivan, Yesterday, 6:31 PM Advertisers prefer to use third-party online data along with first-party CRM data to target ads since they receive a higher response rate when targeting specific audiences. In fact, more than 60% of advertisers use third-party online data as the preferred data source for audience targeting, and more than 80% find audience targeting an effective marketing strategy, according to a study released Wednesday. The eXelate study also found an increase among advertisers using audience targeting on smartphones and tablets. While the PC remains the preferred platform, 51% of advertisers say they use the smartphone, compared with 62% of agencies and 60% of networks, exchanges and demand-side platforms (DSP). Some may believe the eXelate findings show a bias. The third-party data provider supports audience targeting -- but experts admit that the results 2 rely on methods to confirm and maintain authenticity in data segments, no matter what the vendor. The results are drawn from 650 digital industry advertisers, agencies and networks between March and April 2012. The online survey examines audience targeting strategies and how eXelate can improve audience targeting. This year, 69% of advertisers said they plan to increase their ad targeting budgets by 43%, compared with 68% of agencies who plan to increase budgets by 30% and 89% of networks, exchanges and DSPs, by 40%. The study also shows that only 29% of advertisers and 40% of agencies have implemented a campaign rating solution. About 30% of advertisers said they would implement one this year, versus 46% of agencies. Brands may find third-party outsourced data more appealing in targeting ads, but not all vendors secure consumer data correctly. An Experian Data Breach Resolution commissioned survey conducted by the research center Poneman Institute polled 748 people in organizations who transfer or share consumer data with vendors. The most common mistakes outlined in the Securing Outsourced Customer Data include organizations that fail to hold vendors to the same security standards as they do for their own in-house security practices; do not know how frequently the vendor is losing their consumer data; do not take action following a breach, such as requiring the vendor to fix any known problem causing the data breach, and do not require the vendor to conduct an audit and detailed assessment to understand the source and cause of the incident. The study, released earlier this year, estimates that in the past 24 months, 65% of participants admit their organization had a breach involving the loss or theft of their organization‘s information when it was outsourced to a third party. Some 64% report it happening more than once. 3 Even as Madison Avenue pushes to raise the bar for ad exposure from an ―opportunity to see‖ to a ―likelihood to see,‖ a promising new research technology has emerged that could raise it even further to, well, actually seen. The new research, which is based on state-of-the-art eye-tracking technology, uses consumers' own eye movements to verify what ads they have looked at. While eye-tracking technology has been around for years, what makes the new system -- dubbed Sticky -- so powerful is that it doesn‘t apply it in a laboratory or a resting facility, but in the real world, in real-time, while people are exposed to ads online. ―Fifty percent of all ad impressions are never seen,‖ says Jeff Bander, president of Sticky, who recently won the Advertising Research Foundation‘s ―Great Mind Award‖ for helping to develop the innovative media tracking technology. That percentage, he notes, is the same as the oft-quoted John Wanamaker line: "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The trouble is, I don't know which half." ―Now,‖ says Bander, ―we know which half.‖ Utilizing the webcams built into their own computers and handheld devices, Bander says Sticky has already tracked ads actually seen, or not, among 350,000 consumers. That‘s 700,000 eyeballs, more or less, creating a new form of media currency that some of the biggest advertisers in the world have already begun to use. Among Sticky‘s biggest customers is Procter & Gamble. How Sticky might play into media negotiations isn‘t exactly clear, but it comes at a time when Madison Avenue is pushing the online industry to adopt a new standard of ―viewability‖ for advertising exposure, meaning an ad has to be viewable on a consumer‘s screen -- not ―below-the-fold‖ -- for at least one second to be credited as an ad exposure. Fifty percent of impressions are never seen. 4 ―Viewability is nice, but viewability just means that an ad is within the viewable area of a screen,‖ notes Bander, adding: ―It doesn‘t mean a consumer is actually looking at your ad.‖ Citing estimates from the Interactive Advertising Bureau that as much as 30% of online ads run outside the viewable area of a consumer‘s screen, Bander says viewability is a good first step, but that the only way to know if someone has actually seen an ad is to track their eye movements. Sticky was recently re-branded from its original corporate name, Eyetrackshop, to evoke the connotation that only the ads your eyes stick to are the ones advertisers should pay for. Bander says that logic evolved from some early beta work Sticky did with P&G, which wanted to know which of its ads were seen or not seen, in order to develop a ―real CPM,‖ or cost-per-thousand for the money it spends to reach consumers. ―Their question basically caused us to reinvent our model,‖ recalls Bander, who says Sticky has refined the notion of a CPM by developing a CPV, or cost-per-visual, which is the actual dollar cost of reaching 1,000 consumers -- or 2,000 consumer eyeballs Google Universal Analytics: Benefits of Integrating Call Tracking April 24th, 2013 by Angelo Tsakonas Many of you are eager for more insight into Google‘s newly released Universal Analytics, and we are eager to provide it. Our first blog on the subject gave you the basics and introduced our Universal Analytics integration. Now we‘re back to dig a little deeper into some of the truly powerful things you can do with the assistance of this new tool to extract more information about your marketing campaigns. A Broader Scope The ability to see which ads, search keywords or social media platforms are driving web site visits and phone calls to your business is just the beginning. Google Universal Analytics allows users to view call data inline with all other web metrics right in the standard Universal Analytics reporting interface. No more having to look at virtual pageview goals that 5 limit your ability to view other metrics/dimensions in contrast with your call data–Ifbyphone sends call data in as a Custom Metric to Google Universal Analytics which will allow you to add a reporting column for phone calls to any report/dashboard you already use daily. You can also gain valuable insight into where (geographically) visitors are calling from. By adding a column for phone calls to your Visits by Geography report, you are able to see not only where the most visitors to your site come from but also which states, regions, or cities convert the most phone calls for your business. This is an invaluable tool for any multi-location retailer, franchise or business to determine the origin of their call flow. Your Call Data–Organized Another compelling aspect of Ifbyphone‘s Universal Analytics integration is that we attribute your business‘s calls to the unique Google Client ID that is assigned to each visitor on your site. Not only is this a much cleaner way to integrate call data into Universal Analytics, but you can now see how your users are interacting with your site and how that interaction leads to or generates phone calls. For example, you can view the actual page a user was on when they picked up the phone and called you, or see if they made an online purchase before calling. You can also see how a person who originally found your site from a paid search ad and contacted you via web form, returns to your site via organic search and then calls. Needless to say, the amount of information that can now be mined about your customers‘ activities—not to mention the connections being made within your marketing strategy—is much broader, and much more valuable. These metrics enable you to optimize not only your marketing campaigns, but your overall website experience as well. 6 Take More Action We built our GUA integration using events as opposed to virtual pageview Goals. This not only changes the way we get our call data into Universal Analytics but also allows you to take more action with this data. For example, if you are A/B testing pages on your site and rely on phone calls as a conversion metric, you can now use calls to your business as a Content Experiment Objective. Do you see the possibilities? Universal Analytics provides a much broader landscape in your marketing campaigns than ever before, and with Ifbyphone‘s integration, you‘re able to explore that landscape without missing a thing. Have you seen a demo of our Universal Analytics integration yet? If not, do it now to start taking an active approach to your marketing campaigns. Also be sure to stay tuned for our next post in this series, we will be giving you a step-by-step how to on setting up your Ifbyphone Universal Analytics integration. The Future Of Advertising Is Facial Recognition April Joyner, Inc. | Apr. 27, 2013, 12:00 PM | 2,211 | 8 Affectiva If Rana el Kaliouby has her way, you will never have to channel surf again. Affectiva, the company that el Kaliouby founded with MIT colleague Rosalind Picard, develops technology that reads minute facial expressions to measure emotion. A television equipped with a webcam and Affectiva's technology could determine which shows you like to watch, given your past emotional reactions to them, and program your television accordingly. Affectiva's facial-reading software, Affdex, is already being used by major advertisers, including Unilever and Coca-Cola, that previously depended on focus groups and surveys to test ads. The problem with the old approach? It requires people to self-report their reactions. Affdex is more 7 scientific. It records viewers as they watch ads on their computers and uses an algorithm to analyze subtle facial cues, drawing from a database of more than 283 million facial frames. Then it adds viewers' moment-to- moment reactions to a timeline for the ad, so companies can see precisely which segments might need tweaking. Affdex also determines if each viewer's overall reaction was positive or negative. Since its launch in 2011, Affdex has helped measure audience sentiments for several high-profile events, including the 2012 U.S. presidential debates and this year's Super Bowl. The technology has spread globally, too: Affectiva's algorithm now includes data from viewers in 35 countries. Its ability to detect cultural differences in audience reactions has proved especially valuable to advertisers, says el Kaliouby, Affectiva's chief technology officer. For instance, when one company tested an ad in Brazil, it found an enthusiastic reception in one region of the country and a lackluster response in another. "If they find these things out earlier, advertisers can save millions of dollars," el Kaliouby says. Originally, Affectiva's technology was developed for a far different purpose. El Kaliouby and Picard, an MIT professor and Affectiva's chief scientist, were developing a device that could respond to users' emotions, with the aim of helping autistic children communicate better. They realized that companies and researchers could benefit from the technology. In 2009, MIT's Media Lab spun off the project into a separate company. That year, David Berman, formerly the president of WebEx, joined as CEO. Since then, Affectiva has grown in large part by signing partnerships with market research companies, including Millward Brown and InsightExpress, both of which offer Affdex to customers. It has raised $21 million from investors, including Kleiner Perkins and WPP. Eventually, Berman says, the technology could be used to test websites for ease of use or become a more scientific version of Facebook's Like button. In the next two years, Berman envisions Affdex becoming a complement to "smart" televisions that can understand people's preferences. "If my wife and I both like to watch the same show, it will fine-tune the algorithm," he says. "It puts the emotion back into viewing." 8 2013 Trend: The Focus Is On ―Programmatic‖ Mad Men are becoming Math Men with programmatic, transparent, scientific processes according to Michael Baker of DataXu, a programmatic marketing platform. Programmatic Marketing is the key phrase and practice for marketers in 2013. Programmatic marketing is a brand‘s use of their consumer data to measure and tailor messages to incite action – most notably in their digital display advertisements. ―Brands, companies and marketers now have tons of data, but few processes to really understand and leverage it. So we see the rise of programmatic marketing,‖ says Michael Baker. ―A programmatic approach is allowing the human entities that work within an organization to focus on leveraging technology for creativity instead of non essential tasks.‖ Programmatic marketing enables brands to optimize their media spends and eliminate spend waste by automating ad targeting through leveraging that data and predictive analytics. The practice of programmatic marketing is directly related to the contextual relevance of the ad content to the target audience‘s behaviors, needs, geographic locations and possibly other AIO variables. The promise of programmatic marketing is to bind dispersed data together and make it actionable in a real-time, digital world, notes Search Engine Land columnist Dax Hamman. Hence, publishers potentially view the rise of programmatic ad buying as a threat to premium ad pricing and are tailoring their revenue strategies to accommodate a middle tier of ad pricing that can make up for the pressure on premium rates, as most recently noted by Digiday with Hearst Publishing. Though in its infancy, there are already companies such as Immserive Labs and Face.com (bought by Facebook) testing digital billboards with 9 facial recognition or companies such as Control Group that target digital ads that change based on customer location captured from mobile devices. These groups stand to push the boundaries and legal limitations of programmatic marketing capabilities. Brand Content Must Align To Social Culture Content marketing continues its rise. Currently estimated at $40.2 billion dollars, brands are continually looking to leverage their content to create consumer interest on social networks and platforms. But they are having to do so in a way that matches their target audiences‘ affinities for things like Justin Bieber and animated kitty gifs. They do all that by analyzing and leveraging the content‘s context. Context is about delivering the right message to the right people, at the right time via the right platforms and messaging media that then drives them to take the action you desire. The end result of content created in the right context is action i.e. your audience successfully completed the actions you were hoping for, whether that was a simple sharing of information or conversion (successful performance of a task or set of tasks that results in a desired outcome) to business lead or product purchase. Furthermore, content marketing requires brands to put their brand owned assets where consumers are, while also driving them back to key entry points on their brand owned properties. For example, ―80% of pins on Pinterest are repins and people spend 70% more time on Pinterest than Facebook,‖ said Ali Turner of Leapfrog Interactive. ―And retailers‘ goals for Pinterest are to translate in-store experience online and to inspire, and encourage customers to engage and act online.‖ If retailers want to effectively leverage Pinterest for content 10