Fix Friday / October 2
newTV
Whilst there is a lot of data showing people are shifting their attention to newTV, the ad industry tends to be lagging behind. Why? Well new TV can be confusing — the data is coming from everywhere and the process of buying is still new(ish). But as with any media, we believe smart early experimentation gives you an advantage over laggards.
At numerous times in my career the focus has been adding elusive light viewers to a campaign. Once, adding C4 was controversial. Then so was adding Yahoo banners or YouTube video. All have become orthodox — eventually.
Now adding addressable TV ads seems innovative — but it’s just common sense. Money follows eyeballs. And isn’t it likely that those eyeballs that have been early to invest in streaming services and smartTVs are likely to be interested in new products?
GroupMs Finecast have new research showing addressable ads are highly effective;
The results were clear — people liked addressable ads almost four times more than non-addressable ads, and they also remembered them more accurately.
GAFA know newTV is going to be huge. Amongst the suite of new products announced this week we were most taken with the new Chromecast — now with a remote and the elevation of GoogleTV. They want to be a gatekeeper and the more they blend Chromecast with YouTube, the stronger their case to compete with Amazon and Roku.
The user experience of streaming still has some challenges and discovery is a major one. Sites like letterboxd may be part of the solution — we just need a Picture House version rather than the BFI feel it has right now. The digital footprints of hardcore fans are useful in predicting demand for future shows.
Better Ads
The Finecast research is a good reminder that new tech and new approaches can make ads better. And that changes the economics of everything.
If media works harder (because of better creative), then more will be spent — benefiting the platform, the content creator and the brand — who enjoy more sales and more profit.
Most creative is still developed in an artisan like way — but that is changing.
This video from Google looks at the effects of Covid and surmises that brands are rethinking how to make ads. It talks of tuning ads to signals and using simple visual personalisation. And ends with this mantra;
Three ads are more powerful than the same ad three times over.
We see great tech emerging to help industrialise ad development and production without losing the creative spark. Marpipe claim to be the first multivariate testing platform for creative. Our friends at Pencil are getting close to launch with their Machine-Generated Content (MGC) platform. This video shows how you can turn any film into modular scenes — there are a couple of dozen firms that can do this well. And the FB marketing partners pioneering Personalised Creative are called out in the Facebook talk at Dmexco — Jump to 11 minutes.
This is good research on the benefits of modern video ads — these learnings can be applied to any platform. And as this piece from Merkle reminds us personalisation is just as relevant for B2B as it is for consumer campaigns.
We believe it’s a waste of money to treat your audience like strangers.
And we can prove great ads do better than poor ones. One quick example of great creative from our friends at Adludio — why don’t your ads look like that?
I advise brands, agencies and tech firms on the new Creative models emerging. If you are not making the most out of Creative tech, let’s talk.
TikTok
This is an interesting interview with the TikTok head of marketing. Good insight into how they think about their platform. Their new research from Kantar looks at the Power of TikTok for brands;
Bloomberg have TikTok research showing how well they are doing in Europe. In the UK they have 17m users and the average Brit uses the app for 66 minutes a day and opens TikTok 13 times in 24 hours.
I shared a link last week looking at Tiktok and Seeing like an algorithm. The author talks about that on this A16Z podcast
And we continue to celebrate great creative on TikTok with our newsletter — this week we looked at Pringles.
Platform Shift
TikTok is in the vanguard of what we see as a platform shift. GenZ isn’t that helpful as a audience or grouping as it’s around a third of the global population, But they are the people who have grown up with mobile and whilst they use GAFA like we all do, there are really interesting new behaviours emerging with FYSTT (Fortnite / YouTube / Snap / Twitch / TikTok)
I talked about this in our TikTok webinar and we are digging deeper. The popularity of Among Us on Twitch has led to a surge in downloads of voice chat app Discord — as the game has a hidden voice element. MSCHF turned medical bills into art and sold the art to pay the bills. This list of 20 companies dominating this space shows the range.
The most obvious way for brands to be involved here is Influencers and they need to show they have influence that drives results. Charli D’amelio may have a number of partnerships but her Dunkin Donuts signature drink, the Charli, is selling really well and a spike in app downloads has also been attributed to this deal.
Using the income stream to build a company is a new move by David Dobrik — one of the biggest Influencers — and his disposable camera app Dispo is transitioning to a social network. Given his follower numbers this has a decent chance of success.
GAFA
The auction model Google developed (at the behest of EU regulators) to let Android buyers choose which search engine they use, isn’t working as planned. DuckDuckgo complain they don’t win the auction to get listed as an option — so get little benefit. Bing from Microsoft can bid high enough to be listed, but Google still dominates.
I think Apple watch this to see if they could switch from the current Google default in Safari to a ‘fairer’ system, but without jeopardizing the $1.5bn they earn from Google in the UK alone.
Axios summarise Media’s failed attempt to take on the Facebook-Google “duopoly”, pointing out the various initiatives are being wound down or sold off. I think this may be premature. There is a lot of energy at the big legacy media firms to keep fighting and there are plenty of agencies and brands that want to spend outside the walled gardens. For example Warren Buffett bets on old media with backing of $2.7bn broadcast deal. And IAC owned DotDash has bought Simply Recipes and Serious Eats
Their success depends largely on whether the tools that drive digital ads can survive the ‘evolution’ of the tracking that defines the majority of digital spend. Google have a new build on their previous sandbox initiative with Dovekey — which is getting quite good reaction. And the ICO are getting involved — they have funded Kings College to look at 3rd party cookies and adtech. Does anyone know more about this? Who are the team. What’s the remit? Who are they talking with — especially when looking at China and the US?
One other interesting change — Facebook are removing 28 day attribution and mandating 7 day, reflecting the browser privacy changes. I think this is a good thing — long attribution windows can overstate the impact of some formats — especially mobile banners — the cockroach of digital media
Lots of good discussion on these topics in our Guild group — come and join and make the group even smarter.
Plus+
Interesting take on the success — and vulnerability of AutoTrader — especially as new rival Cazoo raises another $311M, now valued at over $2.5B
Why we’re still years away from having self-driving cars — will they ever happen at significant scale?
Is it game over for the console?
Amazon eating AirBnBs lunch — launching a virtual tours and experience platform, Amazon Explore
Is podcast company Wondery worth $200m or more? Maybe? If their IP can be made into movies or TV shows — which is what Spotify are working on with Chernin.
Fix friends SuperAwesome are acquired by Epic Games
Ikea product shots have been fake for years. Now it’s taking CGI even further
Ofcom Communications Market Report 2020 Interactive report
Snapchat is pitching high-frequency, high-reach ‘Platform Burst’ ad campaigns
Finally… — the Guild team have written our Adtech Perfect Storm group up as a case study. It’s been really interesting starting this community and there is a lot more to do. But Jacob Nielsen set the bar for community with his theory of 1 9 90. This came from early social media but I think it applies widely. In any group 1% create content, 9% comment and/or share and 90% just read. So all Fix readers are welcome to join our group even if you are unlikely to get involved in the debate too often, if at all. If you find the group useful or interesting, job done.
