Mobile phones have come a long way since the original, bulky, featureless models of the eighties. Now, we can do almost anything on our phones and consumers rarely put them down. Cellular networks have noticed over the years and responded by beefing up their data networks to support all the Facebooking, Tweeting, sharing, and emailing today's smartphone is capable of. Marketers have taken notice as well. The smart ones are understanding the need to address not only the mobile experience, but the necessity to find ways to reach the mobile consumer.
Mobile advertising has quickly evolved from simplified SMS campaigns, to video, interactive, and experiential campaigns that involve cutting-edge platforms like Foursquare. In today's marketing environment, campaign managers must consider all formats when crafting a mobile campaign. They must consider the impact of mobile search; another rising opportunity for marketers. Though it is still being figured out, mobile search is poised for tremendous growth in 2013 as advertisers shift additional budgets and consumers use it more often. The always-on behavior of the typical smartphone user means fewer searches for local bars, restaurants, and directions will take place on a laptop or desktop.
The greatest opportunity for growth in the mobile space involves the intersection of traditional mediums and mobile. Specifically, Shazam. This year's Super Bowl was a turning point for advertisers and their use of mobile formats. What we saw was a limited use of the technologies such as Shazam and QR codes. The limited number of advertisers that took the leap and leveraged these tactics benefited tremendously. Bud Light successfully used Shazam to promote free music downloads. Go Daddy used QR codes in its Super Bowl ad to drive a surge of traffic to its website. Used in conjunction with a special promotion, the company had a boost in short-term sales.
The Super Bowl marks a shift in the mobile space and brings to light an incredible opportunity to drive users from a traditional medium to a digital/mobile one. The increase in engagement leads directly to dollars and cents. Shazam won the war because it aligns perfectly with the platform it's juxtaposed to. QR codes weren't the best option because A) it is new, misunderstood and B) there is no single QR reader app. Shazam has only one app. Mobile users have been using it to "tag" music for years. It is only natural to leverage this behavior in the advertising world and a larger number of brands have adopted the practice.
Mobile search is an additional growth area that needs to be watched closely. Companies paying attention to the underlying data should notice that mobile visitors coming to their sites are growing at an increasing pace. As consumers use their mobile devices for more activities such as searching for a local restaurant, bar or dry cleaner, advertisers need to prepare.
Companies must ensure that their sites are mobile friendly, and also built specifically for the mobile experience. Advertising on mobile search platforms and leveraging local-centric companies such as Yelp.com or Local.com will become the normal action as we move forward in 2013.
Currently, most companies are not embracing mobile search ads the way they do normal search ads. It is a unique experience that requires customization of the ad copy and a well-thought out keyword strategy. Mobile search traffic may be on the rise, but the competition has not followed suit and that leaves a huge opportunity.
One of the greatest opportunities that mobile search provides advertisers is a feature called click-to-call. The ad includes the phone number so all the searcher has to do is click and be connected. It is an incredible opportunity for advertisers as this simplifies the process, driving contact and leads to them faster. Forbes gave an example of how Starwood Hotels increased its mobile bookings 20% in one month after instituting click-to-call ads. Mobile search may be locally focused, but used correctly it has big brand potential.
In 2013, you can expect to see an even wider adoption of Shazam to complement the clever mobile campaigns already developed. You can expect that every brand will seriously consider the impact of mobile as it develops its brand presence and reaches out to customers. You can expect to see increased use of mobile apps to support the "brand experience" and mobile search to capture that local traffic.
As consumer behavior continues to shift from the web, mobile will no longer be an afterthought but the initial one. Brands will have to enhance the mobile experience whether it is about content, m-commerce, or interactivity. This will be a huge year for mobile as smartphone sales continue to skyrocket and advertisers continue to find more ways to connect with their audience. The growth potential is tremendous.
Friday, December 14, 2012
Amex Using Twitter for Concert Ticket Purchase
http://mashable.com/2012/12/10/soundgarden-tickets-american-express-twitter/
American Express, along with Twitter, offered fans of Soundgarden to buy tickets by syncing their American Express cards and tweeting using the hashtag #AmexSoundgardenTix. From there, the American Express handle @AmexSync will respond to each tweet giving them an access code to purchase two pre-sale tickets for the January 16 show at Terminal 5 here in the city. This is part of their Twitter-based discount program that American Express has been doing since March of this year.
I thought this was a really cool idea, regardless if I'm even a fan of Soundgarden. For one, it helps strengthen Twitter as a useful way for a brand to reach customers. In addition, it strengthens their loyalty to American Express. These consumers who were already going to purchase the ticket could have used their other credit cards to do so. Now, thanks to this offer, they are going to use their American Express Card instead most likely.
Very cool idea.
American Express, along with Twitter, offered fans of Soundgarden to buy tickets by syncing their American Express cards and tweeting using the hashtag #AmexSoundgardenTix. From there, the American Express handle @AmexSync will respond to each tweet giving them an access code to purchase two pre-sale tickets for the January 16 show at Terminal 5 here in the city. This is part of their Twitter-based discount program that American Express has been doing since March of this year.
I thought this was a really cool idea, regardless if I'm even a fan of Soundgarden. For one, it helps strengthen Twitter as a useful way for a brand to reach customers. In addition, it strengthens their loyalty to American Express. These consumers who were already going to purchase the ticket could have used their other credit cards to do so. Now, thanks to this offer, they are going to use their American Express Card instead most likely.
Very cool idea.
The next big medium of content delivery – Smart Optics
If anyone has seen the 2nd of the most recent batmen, they’ll
remember the end portion where Batman puts on a special pair of glasses which
shows him video of his surroundings. He
can then use these as virtual reality glasses and see through walls and such instead
of having to use his actual eyes.
Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Terminator movies had a similar layout in
his viewscreen. Now you can too.
One of the next generations of content delivery appears to involves the
future of optics… transparent glass and close proximity to our eyes. This is most visibly today in cars
windshields, which can reflect speed and other information about your driving,
and with a new pair of ski goggles which shows you where you and your friends
are. The military has been using such technology for its air force pilots for a
long time, whereby it gains information
by where on the screen the pilots eyes are looking. It would not be hard to imagine these coming to
everyday eye glasses or other.
These items are inherently mobile, inherently personal and offer some
new challenges and opportunities for marketers.
One advantage is that in real time
the marketer might have access to a viewers line of sight dependent upon what
exactly they are looking at. This could
be geography based, if a viewer is looking towards a certain storefront or a
car is passing by a certain store with a special deal. The adds could also be subject matter based
(if the viewer is looking at a dog, for example). The potential to present information directly
relevant to what the viewer sees in real time will be a reality. A challenge is that there will be reduced
screen size, as there is less area for marketers to use without blatantly
distracting a user.
Ultimately smart optics will allow for an entirely new medium of
content delivery to a user and will have significant implications for marketers
in how they are able to gain access to their target segments.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Marketing to women and female stereotypes in digital marketing
If a marketer has determined that their specific target segment is
composed of women, there are specific strategies and alterations they can make
to make their campaigns more effective. One
specific area is in language. Women and
men communicate differently and use different language to express the same
thing. One specific book on this topic
is ‘You just don’t understand’
Just as a marketing attempting to target a younger, hip, faddish demographic
might attempt to use current colloquialisms and phrases, so too should general
marketers understand basic differences in advertising to men and women. Another relevant book is
An online marketer would be wise to understand the differences in
marketing to different sexes and to employ these in their marketing
strategies.
One related area to this is stereotyping of women in online advertising. One website makes reference to various tests
that marketers can subject their campaigns to in order to determine whether
their adds are stereotypical or not. For
example, In order to pass “the Buchanan test”,
a commercial must present women who are outside of the home, in a role
other than mother, and who are not doing yoga.
It seems that these three images are so prevalent in our society today
that they are closely ingrained in our marketing of products.
A more important question to digital marketers is whether stereotyping
has any effect on the effectiveness of a campaign, and whether a targeted
female demographic reacts differently to stereotyped marketing or
non-stereotyped marketing.
Online marketing and the future of the modeling industry
The study of persuasion has identified major areas of interest for
marketers that are relevant for their efforts to persuade people to buy. One of the obvious and well utilized areas in
traditional marketing is using attractive people. It is universally recognized that we underestimate
the extent to which physical attractiveness affects our decisions. There is an entire industry based on this,
full of people who are paid large sums just to look attractive in ads to
further marketing needs. How is this
different in the online marketing realm?
A major difference with using attractive people in digital marketing is
you can test-market the specific model/attractive person to determine which
attractive model is most effective in generated the desired behavior on the
part of the user. Whereas before an
observer would have difficulty in quantifying the relative beauty of two
models, now they are able to do so through responses to marketing with separate
models. The implications of this are that
then choosing which attractive people to utilize in an online marketing
campaign, test segment various attractive people to find out which generates
the greatest return from your target audience.
The long tail of online commerce
and digital marketing could also mean that there is a new long tail in demand
for models that meet the requirements of specific segments. This could have a significant impact on the
modeling industry, as there could be more demand for non traditional models to
meet the needs of online marketers who strive to find then best suited for
their targeted segment.
Shifting attention spans and the future of digital marketing
The art of storytelling is an old one.
As commercial transactions have changed over the centuries from being
relationship and proximity based to impersonal and transaction based, the length of
the sales pitch has diminished. This inexorable
march continues today as content delivered to the end user needs to be more and
more compact. The coming shift to mobile devices further exacerbates this, as
marketing content needs to be shortened even further to fit on smaller devices. The competition for attention has become
intense and pitches are ever shorter.
The broader implications of this trend on society as a whole mean that
we are become much less likely to spend significant amount of time researching
and making decisions, and will become more accustomed to smaller and more
compact presentations of persuasive data.
This is evident today in reading rates and consumption of literary
content. Shorter blogs, condensed news
stories and other summaries are becoming increasingly popular. Where as 50 years ago one had to turn to long
books and newspapers to get information, today the byline and tweet sized
segments are the customary delivery vehicle of data. There are both costs and benefits to
this. The major costs are that we have a
superficial understanding of the things we read, because we spend less time
overall analyzing issues in depth. The positive side of this is that we have a
broader range of data and inputs which we consider, which allows us to compare
and transfer analysis from one area to another.
The implications for online marketing are that the overall trend to
shorter and smaller displays/presentations of content will likely continue. How
fast/short/intense an advertisement will have to be in 50 years is beyond the
predictive capabilities of this author, but one strong bet is that it will be
*really* short. The implications for
future digital marketing are that whoever is able to condense the most into the
least amount of space/shortest amount of time wins.
The Long Tail of social networking – online dating sites and the internet dating bubble
Online dating sites are rife on the internet these days. It seems that just about every demographic
has its own specialized dating site. Everyone
and their mother has their own specialized site. User segmenting characteristics include:
·
Age
·
Wealth
·
school attended
·
relationship/marital status (sites for those
already in relationships)
·
sexual orientation
·
casual vs. long term intention
·
religion
·
health/medical afflictions
·
location
·
attractiveness
·
personality assessment based
·
profession
·
music interests
·
athletic interest
·
tattoo interest
The concept is even being experimented with by breeders in zoos (http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/science/2006-08-15-orangutan-online-dating_x.htm?POE=TECISVA)
as one attempt to test orangutan comparability shows.
With so many sites, are there actually enough people to make them all
worthwhile? And how do they all make
money?
The monetization schemes from these sites include everything from
completely free (okcupid), to fully paid (match.com), to freemium models.
Match.com is the major player in the industry in terms of revenues and add
spending, forcing other sites to go further into the ‘long tail’ to get
specialized users. But has the market
become over saturated?
A google search for topics related to online dating and monetization strategies
brings up a plethora of conferences,
how-to-make-money-by-opening-your-own-online-dating-site matches, and other
related pages that give the indication that this is being promoted as a huge
and growing industry. The AARP just
announced this month that it is teaming up with HowAboutWe.com to start its own
dating website platform for older singles.
For anyone who has read the book ‘panics, manias and crashes’, there is
a reference to indicators of a bubble being when “spinsters, widows, clergymen,
magistrates, …” were found to participate.
While these were referring to investors and not consumers of a specific
product, the variety of demographic segments referenced is definitely encompassed
by the ever expanding universe of online dating sites. There has already been some consolidation on
the industry (match.com bought okcupid) and a transition to mobile (okcupid,
match.com, grindr) based interactions. It remains to see when the dust clears
if the long tail of online dating will remain as long or whether this tail can
be consolidated into fewer sites with options to service niche user segments.
Social proof in behavioral economics and online networks
Social proof is a strong element in online social networks. Wikipedia defines Social Proof as a “psychological phenomenon where people
assume the actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behavior for a
given situation.” Social
proof is obvious to all in the forms of “liking” something and then seeing how
many of ones fiends like something.
Social contagion and virility are one of the cornerstones of the
internet and one of the driving forces behind the dialogues that occur between
companies, users, and marketers.
At the heart of social proof is conformity, where uncertainty or an
over-abundance of choice leads people to look towards others for information on
the best thing to do. This is evident in
sheep, pack animals, monkeys, and all other social animals. From an evolutiontionary perspective, a
social animal derives a significant amount of information about its
surroundings and environment simply by watching other animals. When one gazelle sees another suddenly break
into a sprint, it too will begin to run.
When stock traders see a sudden unanimous behavior being undertaken by
others in their surroundings, there is strong pressure there for them to act
likewise. Social proof is an underlying
physchological mechanism that has its roots in our evolutionary history and it
is strongly embedded in how we behave.
The implication for marketers is that, wherever and wherever possible,
it is effective to frame their desired result in terms of how many other people
are doing it. Whether it be making a
specific purchase (“your friend just bought this product from this store) or
raising brand awareness (your friend likes this product/company), the more a
marketer can frame its message in terms of something that the target’s
community already supports, the more effective the message will be.
Online Marketing to older demographics
Like any demographic, the senior citizen market in developed countries
is a huge market with enormous amounts of money to spend. Online marketers face difficulty in
targeting this demographic because of their limited use of the internet. There are some ways they can do so.
a)
define
what their elderly demographic means. Is
this everyone 50+, 60+, 70+, etc. This
is important as there are significant differences between these age segments in
terms of statistically significant differentiators and also formative
experiences (the great depression, the 2nd world war, etc). Also, women have longer life expectancies
than men and as the targeted age increases the sex ratio also changes.
b)
identify different
needs of the elderly. While younger
generations are more fadisn and are receptive to new things, older generations
are drawn to concepts of value.
websites which the elderly frequent.
These would include sites like the AARP or others related to retirement,
age related health issues, etc.
c) market to the baby boomer children of the elderly, who would then
pass along the messages to their parents.
d) make text more easily readable and reduce the number of add-ons and
bells and whistles on a site. The
elderly are less digitally savvy than their younger counterparts and designing
a site for them means simplifying the interface and presentation of the
content. Simplify the navigation of a
site.
e) ensure that graphics and media relate to the elderly demographic… Use stock pictures of older people is better
than using younger ones.
f) It is important to understand that seniors have different browsing
habits and email reading habits than their younger counterparts. Younger people will bounce around between
webpages and content faster, where as older demographics will stay longer and
view fewer pages. As anyone who has
watched their parents read email can attest, they’re also more likely to spend
longer time reviewing emails before deleting or disregarding them. So email can be a more effective medium of
engagement.
g) Many seniors also lived through different times than current younger
demographics. Some might be more
receptive to things like convenience, risk aversion, and value (as opposed to
newness, or extra features, etc), and thus such ideals and themes should be
emphasized in content. They are also
more likely to be risk adverse, and scare tactics (in political advertising,
for example) are effective.
New Laws and old issues in relation to marketing to children
Marketing to children is no new phenomenon. Cigarette makers have long
been criticized for its blatant practices of making characters that are highly
appealing to young demographics and promoting images that resonate particularly
well with younger children. Digital
marketers are also attempting to use similar awareness strategies to do this. Parents and regulatory agencies are attempting
to limit this, however. The FTC is
expecting to expand the ‘Children’s Online Privacy Act, which was passed in
1998. Mobile marketing is more prominent
now than it was before and online marketers are able to collect data from young
people from their mobile phones. The new
act would require marketers to get a parents permission before collecting
information from children under 13. While
understandable, these attempts at preventing the targeting of minors have been
marginally effective in traditional marketing and will likely be even less so
with minors. Since so many children are
using the internet unsuperviser, it would difficult for a marketer to stop
their algorithms and programs from
identifying a childs age, demographic and behavior. There is an added cost in actively trying to
prevent oneself from promoting a message to a specific demographic, even if
marketers wanted to do so. From an online marketers perspective,
advertising to children is an investment that has a very long ROI. From what we’ve seen with tobacco companies
and other marketing initiatives, this is an investment that they are willing to
make.
How do we interpret media reactions?
"American Express' strategy for getting a grip on your and the stores' green” vs. “It wouldn’t be hard to argue that Small Business Saturday is the most successful marketing campaign of the decade.”
How can something get such violently different reactions? I am currently working on Small Business Saturday in my real life away from Columbia and I am trying to figure out how a marketing program such as this can get such conflicting headlines. How should we as a business be interpreting the different media responses?
How should we think of press, both good and bad when reporting on the impact of the program? We were not called to comment on the times union article, but should we address media like this?
Are mobile display ads overpriced?
This article stated that, based on a study from the Marchex Institute, “marketers should insist on paying for performance campaigns on mobile display differently” – “based on consumer actions, not impressions.” Does this open up a new market in the display ad market? Does this mean that you can only leverage display ads if you have your target 100% nailed down? Hyper targeted campaigns can be very hard for some marketers, especially if they need to test and learn into their targeting. Display ads may not be made for betas or startups as “advertisers can overpay by more than 10X to generate just ONE quality call.”
Have you heard that Facebook and Microsoft may be working on a deal that could dramatically shift how we market today? It is to build an ad network that rival’s Google. “Facebook will use this process to tell marketers exactly how much their sales increased thanks to ads on Facebook.com.” I can’t imagine that this would garner the same volume as Google given that people use facebook to communicate. Responding to ads is not as high of an user behavior and would require immense scale to truly make an impact.
Content all its cracked up to be?
So, I got this email that sounded like a great resource. It said I could download an ebook called 5 Fundamental Metrics for Effective SEO Analysis. This sounded like a great resource for me to learn more about SEO. When I downloaded the “ebook,” I was sorely disappointed when what is being called an “ebook” is actually a 5 page high level overview with no useful information. As a marketer, I feel that content can truly help transform your relationship with users and can be a game-changer strategy. It is however, highly disappointing when reputable sites are over selling their content. All it does is make me block the site and all their ongoing marketing. The opt-out has to be one of the most powerful messages about your preferences as a consumer.
Federal Charges for Improper History Use
Epic Marketplace, a New York-based marketing company, has just settled charges with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for illegally taking advantage of a browser exploit which allows an attacker to gain access to a user's browsing history. Epic was using this information, perhaps obviously, to aid in serving targeted advertisements to users. Among the categories of interests they were assigning to their users were "incontinence" and "pregnancy-fertility getting pregnant". Their penalty amounts to little more than a slap on the wrist, however - they have agreed to destroy the data that they have collected from this practice, promised not to engage in the practice anymore, and are barred from making misrepresentations about the data it collects from users. In essence, this means that they will simply have to follow the law in the future.
This incident serves as an example of the ease with which online marketers can access sensitive information about consumers and use it for profit. One could argue that this practice was no more a breach of privacy than Google taking advantage of their knowledge of users' search history to serve targeted advertisements. The difference there is that Google makes it clear that a user's search history is being used for this purpose (and even gives users a way to prevent it), while Epic resorted to covert tactics to spy on internet users without their knowledge or consent. This was not the first time that a marketer has been accused of using unsavory techniques to gather data about users - and it certainly will not be the last. It does underscore, however, the importance of a legal framework to protect the privacy internet users from prying eyes.
Ars Technica
This incident serves as an example of the ease with which online marketers can access sensitive information about consumers and use it for profit. One could argue that this practice was no more a breach of privacy than Google taking advantage of their knowledge of users' search history to serve targeted advertisements. The difference there is that Google makes it clear that a user's search history is being used for this purpose (and even gives users a way to prevent it), while Epic resorted to covert tactics to spy on internet users without their knowledge or consent. This was not the first time that a marketer has been accused of using unsavory techniques to gather data about users - and it certainly will not be the last. It does underscore, however, the importance of a legal framework to protect the privacy internet users from prying eyes.
Ars Technica
Big Retailers Turning to Bloggers and Pinners
J. Crew has launched a unique marketing push for their "101 Gift Ideas." They are having a blogging event with top Tumbler and Pinterest users to engage their users in using these forums to make gift giving an easier process. I feel that this is one of the many new ways for large retailers to make a push in the viral world of digital media. They will generate press through the event and highlight their holiday items with very well followed individuals from the blog community.
Happy Holidays!
Happy Holidays!
J. CREW’S SECRET SANTAS: J. Crew will
cohost an event with Tumblr at The Standard in the Meatpacking District
tonight, featuring 27 top Tumblr bloggers from the fashion and
photography worlds. Each member of the group — which includes Jamala Johns of Miss Modular (also known as Le Coil on Pinterest), Jeff Carvalho of Selectism & highsnobiety, Ben Bowers from Gear Patrol, Ani Tzenkova from Trendland and Alice Gao
from After the Cups — received a Secret Santa assignment, a $101 J.
Crew gift card and the retailer’s “101 Gift Ideas” guide for
inspiration. Bloggers were encouraged to get creative with the process —
even using Pinterest to make wish list boards to make the gift giving
process for their Santa’s a bit easier.
J. Crew is making an effort to get more active in the digital space and, in addition to relaunching its Twitter account @Jcrew, the retailer has begun to use both Instagram and Pinterest this past year.
J. Crew is making an effort to get more active in the digital space and, in addition to relaunching its Twitter account @Jcrew, the retailer has begun to use both Instagram and Pinterest this past year.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Microsoft and its Mobile
Among the companies that develop smart phone OS,
Microsoft is the only company that does not manufacture its own smart phones.
Apple, owner of iOS, makes iPhone, and RIM makes the Blackberry. Although Apple
does not have their own phone manufacturing capability, they are producing
reference phones by partnering with HTC, Samsung, and LG. Microsoft has been
introducing Windows based phones through Nokia Lumia series, but its market
share is minimal. On the other hand, Google Android is taking up the market by
providing wide range of product lines manufactured by Samsung, HTC, and LG,
reaching various segments of users. I think it is a legitimate plan for
Microsoft to consider making investment to start manufacturing its own phone.
Microsoft already made a huge investment in Nokia, so perhaps going further and
acquiring Nokia for their manufacturing capabilities could be a possibility. Additionally,
Microsoft already have experience in producing hardware from xBox and recently from
Surface, and its wide distribution network will allow them to more efficiently
push sales for their devices compared to slowly dying Nokia.
If manufacturing Microsoft’s own smart phone sounds too extreme, then Microsoft should at least consider producing reference phones as Google has been doing. Because Microsoft is the one that understands its Windows platform the most, it would make sense for them to design a phone that is optimized to their platform. By doing so, users will become more accustomed to Windows mobile environment, and phone manufactures can focus more on improving their hardware. It would be at Microsoft’s advantage to provide reference phones as they can consistently provide guidelines on the future development of its Windows phones to its manufacturers and users. It is for the same reason why Google is producing its Android reference phones. As many manufacturer produce Android based phones, there are differences emerging between devices around screen size, buttons, and user interfaces.
The most critical reason for Microsoft to develop its own smart phone is to hedge against its possible repercussion against its high license fee on its Windows OS. The biggest factor that hinders manufacturers to produce Windows phone is its high license fee compared to Android, which is provided for free. Not only there are intense price war in the mobile device market as these devices are becoming commoditized, but also Microsoft does not have any market power to demand premium for its Windows OS. It is natural that manufactures will not take on that extra cost to produce Windows phone especially without enough demand from users. It is similar as the Surface case. The sole reason why Windows ventured into manufacturing its Surface is because they recognized that the price has to be competitive against iPad and Kindle Fire to be successful. However with its high license fee, manufacturers had no choice but to increase the price of the device, decreasing its attractiveness to customers. By manufacturing their own smart phone, Microsoft can hedge the risk of manufacturers’ refusal of producing Windows phone as well as determining appropriate level of license fee from actually having experience in manufacturing phones and understanding the cost structure.
If manufacturing Microsoft’s own smart phone sounds too extreme, then Microsoft should at least consider producing reference phones as Google has been doing. Because Microsoft is the one that understands its Windows platform the most, it would make sense for them to design a phone that is optimized to their platform. By doing so, users will become more accustomed to Windows mobile environment, and phone manufactures can focus more on improving their hardware. It would be at Microsoft’s advantage to provide reference phones as they can consistently provide guidelines on the future development of its Windows phones to its manufacturers and users. It is for the same reason why Google is producing its Android reference phones. As many manufacturer produce Android based phones, there are differences emerging between devices around screen size, buttons, and user interfaces.
The most critical reason for Microsoft to develop its own smart phone is to hedge against its possible repercussion against its high license fee on its Windows OS. The biggest factor that hinders manufacturers to produce Windows phone is its high license fee compared to Android, which is provided for free. Not only there are intense price war in the mobile device market as these devices are becoming commoditized, but also Microsoft does not have any market power to demand premium for its Windows OS. It is natural that manufactures will not take on that extra cost to produce Windows phone especially without enough demand from users. It is similar as the Surface case. The sole reason why Windows ventured into manufacturing its Surface is because they recognized that the price has to be competitive against iPad and Kindle Fire to be successful. However with its high license fee, manufacturers had no choice but to increase the price of the device, decreasing its attractiveness to customers. By manufacturing their own smart phone, Microsoft can hedge the risk of manufacturers’ refusal of producing Windows phone as well as determining appropriate level of license fee from actually having experience in manufacturing phones and understanding the cost structure.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Protecting the daughter's online privacy
I have a teenage daughter which means I have many concerns these days. :) Among them is protecting her online privacy. Since she is far more tech savvy than I, she was able to provide me with a bit of confidence by explaining how she protects herself from potentially over aggressive marketing / data analytic practices.
On Facebook, she changed the defaults in Privacy Settings to Friends, thus limiting who can view her Facebook page. Similarly, she went to the Timeline and Tagging section to allow for review before anyone can tag a photo of her or post on her timeline. Straightforward.
On Twitter, apparently you can go to Settings and ensure that "Add a location to my tweets" is unchecked. If it is checked, your exact location in longitude and latitude is published along with your tweet message. Ug.
On Foursquare, go to the settings and turn off the option to share your check-ins on Facebook and/or Twitter. Normally, only your friends can see your check-ins.
Simple things for peace of mind, although perhaps the marketers/analytics folks get less data.
On Facebook, she changed the defaults in Privacy Settings to Friends, thus limiting who can view her Facebook page. Similarly, she went to the Timeline and Tagging section to allow for review before anyone can tag a photo of her or post on her timeline. Straightforward.
On Twitter, apparently you can go to Settings and ensure that "Add a location to my tweets" is unchecked. If it is checked, your exact location in longitude and latitude is published along with your tweet message. Ug.
On Foursquare, go to the settings and turn off the option to share your check-ins on Facebook and/or Twitter. Normally, only your friends can see your check-ins.
Simple things for peace of mind, although perhaps the marketers/analytics folks get less data.
Facebook fires the first shot
http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/10/tech/social-media/twitter-instagram-photos/index.html
An amusing development here, akin to Apple not including Google Maps on the iPhone5: Instagram photos no longer display natively on Twitter.
Yes, it's very tragic: as the article points out, you now have to click through not one but two links to get to an Instagram photo that was posted on Twitter. ;)
Instagram has confirmed that this is not a mistake, but an intentional move on their part -- or, rather, Facebook's part. After all, Instagram, as everyone probably knows, is owned by Facebook (who could forget the billion-dollar acquisition last summer?).
You could call this a strategic incompatibility: Facebook was evidently worried that if users could view each other's Instagram photos on Twitter, they'd have no reason to ever visit Instagram's own site. And that in turn would mean they'd never see Instagram's ads.
This kind of planned incompatibility is interesting to me, not least because I work for a software company that has one primary competitor, and this kind of issue comes up from time to time. Users don't care about their vendors' bottom lines; they just want their data to flow from one system to another, even if those two systems happen to be locked in a fight to the death.
It was no doubt a sign that Apple and Microsoft didn't see each other as threats any more in the realm of desktop computing when the Office applications were fully ported to MacOS. But when it comes to Facebook and Twitter, the contest is still far from decided, and so the walls are going up.
An amusing development here, akin to Apple not including Google Maps on the iPhone5: Instagram photos no longer display natively on Twitter.
Yes, it's very tragic: as the article points out, you now have to click through not one but two links to get to an Instagram photo that was posted on Twitter. ;)
Instagram has confirmed that this is not a mistake, but an intentional move on their part -- or, rather, Facebook's part. After all, Instagram, as everyone probably knows, is owned by Facebook (who could forget the billion-dollar acquisition last summer?).
You could call this a strategic incompatibility: Facebook was evidently worried that if users could view each other's Instagram photos on Twitter, they'd have no reason to ever visit Instagram's own site. And that in turn would mean they'd never see Instagram's ads.
This kind of planned incompatibility is interesting to me, not least because I work for a software company that has one primary competitor, and this kind of issue comes up from time to time. Users don't care about their vendors' bottom lines; they just want their data to flow from one system to another, even if those two systems happen to be locked in a fight to the death.
It was no doubt a sign that Apple and Microsoft didn't see each other as threats any more in the realm of desktop computing when the Office applications were fully ported to MacOS. But when it comes to Facebook and Twitter, the contest is still far from decided, and so the walls are going up.
Music Content Business
Excluding video games, digital content has come a
long way since the booming of the internet era. Napster and other P2P services
have not only contributed on getting people used to enjoying digital contents,
but also contributed on people taking advantage on the easiness of replicating
and sharing digital contents, leading to great controversy on copyrights and
ultimately slowing down the growth of the digital content industry until iTunes
became popular.
As briefly mentioned above, the music industry suffered greatly from free sharing of music online. The video segment also suffered to certain extent, but not as greatly as the music business. Video business has its main source of revenue, whether it is a movie theater or a television whereas for music, it lacked that main outlet that can rack in revenue during a certain period of time since its release as well as the fact that it being low data size, it was even easier to share with others. Withstanding all of these hardships, the music industry has evolved into embracing new ways of distribution, thanks to iTunes, Spotify, and Pandora to name a few. iTunes have long dominated the market, but recently Spotify and Pandora as well as Microsoft’s Xbox Music have been challenging that dominance with innovation. iTunes is based on the purchasing model. Spotify and Pandora innovated the market with subscription model as well as brining innovative services, such as pre-loaded playlists and incorporating social elements to it, allowing a user to share playlist with his/her friends. In addition to these services, these new players are gaining market share due to growing usage of mobile, pushing greater demand for streaming services.
As these new players are flourishing, there are concerns that YouTube could be a threat to their growing presence. For those on demand music services, YouTube provides free unlimited streaming music on popular titles due to users uploading, but Spotify and Pandora charges certain amount of dollars of these streaming services. Also, adding to that threat is the fact that YouTube comes embedded with iOS, allowing users for easier access.
As briefly mentioned above, the music industry suffered greatly from free sharing of music online. The video segment also suffered to certain extent, but not as greatly as the music business. Video business has its main source of revenue, whether it is a movie theater or a television whereas for music, it lacked that main outlet that can rack in revenue during a certain period of time since its release as well as the fact that it being low data size, it was even easier to share with others. Withstanding all of these hardships, the music industry has evolved into embracing new ways of distribution, thanks to iTunes, Spotify, and Pandora to name a few. iTunes have long dominated the market, but recently Spotify and Pandora as well as Microsoft’s Xbox Music have been challenging that dominance with innovation. iTunes is based on the purchasing model. Spotify and Pandora innovated the market with subscription model as well as brining innovative services, such as pre-loaded playlists and incorporating social elements to it, allowing a user to share playlist with his/her friends. In addition to these services, these new players are gaining market share due to growing usage of mobile, pushing greater demand for streaming services.
As these new players are flourishing, there are concerns that YouTube could be a threat to their growing presence. For those on demand music services, YouTube provides free unlimited streaming music on popular titles due to users uploading, but Spotify and Pandora charges certain amount of dollars of these streaming services. Also, adding to that threat is the fact that YouTube comes embedded with iOS, allowing users for easier access.
NBC Sports and Yahoo Are in League
Source: http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/nbc-sports-and-yahoo-are-league-145831
NBC Sports and Yahoo just announced a deal that gives NBC's digital properties access to Yahoo sports reporting and gives Yahoo access to NBC content (including live streaming on Sunday Night Football). NBC and Yahoo will maintain separate sites but will collaborate on news coverage.
The press release was heavy on fantasy sports language and both companies said they would sell "scalable advertising solutions to reach engaged audiences through distinctive opportunities and sponsorships."
This is a very interesting deal and could be a sign of things to come. Yahoo sports is widely regarded as one of the best sports websites, and has had enormous success with fantasy sports. However they don't have access to any actual sporting events, so this a win-win partnership as Yahoo gets to broadcast sporting events and NBC gets to boost their digital presence and gets access to Yahoo's well known fantasy reporters. All of the other major TV networks have large internal sports partners (ABC has ESPN, Fox has FoxSports and CBS has CBS Sports), so this is an interesting solution for NBC. I would be bullish on this partnership, but I can't help forgetting how NBC's (MSBNC) partnership with Microsoft ended up falling apart earlier this year.
NBC Sports and Yahoo just announced a deal that gives NBC's digital properties access to Yahoo sports reporting and gives Yahoo access to NBC content (including live streaming on Sunday Night Football). NBC and Yahoo will maintain separate sites but will collaborate on news coverage.
The press release was heavy on fantasy sports language and both companies said they would sell "scalable advertising solutions to reach engaged audiences through distinctive opportunities and sponsorships."
This is a very interesting deal and could be a sign of things to come. Yahoo sports is widely regarded as one of the best sports websites, and has had enormous success with fantasy sports. However they don't have access to any actual sporting events, so this a win-win partnership as Yahoo gets to broadcast sporting events and NBC gets to boost their digital presence and gets access to Yahoo's well known fantasy reporters. All of the other major TV networks have large internal sports partners (ABC has ESPN, Fox has FoxSports and CBS has CBS Sports), so this is an interesting solution for NBC. I would be bullish on this partnership, but I can't help forgetting how NBC's (MSBNC) partnership with Microsoft ended up falling apart earlier this year.
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Why Search Retargeting?
It is a known fact that marketing messages should be sent atleast three times for the consumers to remember a brand name. Out of hundreds of visitors who search a site doesn't turn into customers, this is where retargeting may improve chances to getting the marketing message across. Multiple messages after a user has completed some search on your webiste with a call to action may lead to better retention of the brand and convert them to act. This is traditional retargeting.
Search Retargeting vs. Traditional Retargeting
In traditional retargeting, users’ computers receive cookies from sites visited. These cookies prompt the retargeted ads to display on other sites until the visitors complete a call to action. Search retargeting, however, allows brands to retarget users who have not been to their websites. Instead, the information passed to the ad network is from the search engine. Brands then can reach a much broader audience.
Search retargeting delivers a more calculated prospect than a typical display buy.Search retargeting lets brands market products or services to users who have performed relevant search queries Search Retargeting allows a marketer to reach users who are looking for what you have to offer, but haven’t yet made it to your website. It turns out these users who are “search retargeted” are up to 70% more likely to complete a conversion than those users who are not. They are also likely to spend up to 50% more.
Another interesting thing that this article talks about is the seven types of retargeting. It also assigns a level of intent to each type, which allows brands to become familiar with the purpose and opportunities of retargeting.
Source :http://www.business.com/b2bmarketing/recapture-leads-retargeting/
Search Retargeting vs. Traditional Retargeting
In traditional retargeting, users’ computers receive cookies from sites visited. These cookies prompt the retargeted ads to display on other sites until the visitors complete a call to action. Search retargeting, however, allows brands to retarget users who have not been to their websites. Instead, the information passed to the ad network is from the search engine. Brands then can reach a much broader audience.
Search retargeting delivers a more calculated prospect than a typical display buy.Search retargeting lets brands market products or services to users who have performed relevant search queries Search Retargeting allows a marketer to reach users who are looking for what you have to offer, but haven’t yet made it to your website. It turns out these users who are “search retargeted” are up to 70% more likely to complete a conversion than those users who are not. They are also likely to spend up to 50% more.
Another interesting thing that this article talks about is the seven types of retargeting. It also assigns a level of intent to each type, which allows brands to become familiar with the purpose and opportunities of retargeting.
Source :http://www.business.com/b2bmarketing/recapture-leads-retargeting/
What Were Consumers Doing for 121 Billion Minutes This Past July?
This is an article from marketing pilgrim.
According to stats-meister Nielsen, in July 2012, US consumers spent 121 billion minutes navigating the shark-infested waters of social media. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and the rest — up 37% from July 2011 and that’s quite a feat."
The majority of the time was spent using a traditional computer, but look at mobile. The larger square represents Apps, the smaller, cell phone looking icon represents browser use through a mobile device. Together, they show a 63% increase over last year.
Breaking the numbers down, Nielsen found that women were responsible for most of the social media usage both on the PCA and through mobile. Ages 18-24 ate up the most minutes on the PC but Ages 25-34 snuck ahead on the mobile site, but not by much. Ethnically, speaking Hispanics were way out in front on mobile usage with PC usage being fairly evenly divided.
Social Media Site-ings
Facebook was, by far, the most time consuming social media network on the list but they actually lost ground over last year. That’s due largely to the growth in social media options.
In terms of growth, Pinterest is insane. Up 1,047%! Even Google+ doesn’t look so bad with 80% growth. Wonder where they’ll be on this chart next year.
Looking at mobile, Facebook is still on top but Twitter comes in second with better growth (134% on the app over 88% for the Facebook app.) The wild card in mobile is Foursquare – they come in third on the mobile app chart.
Selling on Social Media
There’s good and bad on the advertising side, according to Nielsen. 33% of people said ads on social network sites were more annoying than any other online ads. On the other hand, 26% said they’re be more likely to pay attention to an ad that was posted by an online friend.
Asian consumers were voted most likely to engage. 31% said they purchased a product after seeing a social ad (14% is the average). 26% shared ads (15% is the average.) 28% picked up an online coupon (18% average.)
Most social media denizens spend their time listening to the experiences of others. 53% actually use it to compliment a brand but an almost equal number, 50% use it to complain about a brand.
Lastly, a bit of whimsy from the folks at Nielsen.
How The Mobile Revolution Is Changing Retail
I've just found nice info graphic in terms of mobile
revolution so want to share all of class members!
The mobile revolution is changing the way retailers display
and sell goods as well as where and how they interact with customers. As
consumers embrace mobile shopping, their behavior is also fundamentally
evolving along with the new technology. In Visual Trends info
graphic we take a look at what this mobile revolution means for both customers
and retailers and how retailers can prepare.
Reddit's Potential in Digital Marketing
Because Reddit has cultivated a culture of intelligent
discourse and anonymity, the site lends itself to users posting unvarnished
thoughts and opinions. Community members often use brand-specific subreddit
groups to share their thoughts and opinions about brands and products. This can
be an excellent source of customer insights. This lends itself to be used as a
free focus group, allowing marketers and brand managers to tap into popular
opinion about their products and react to it in real time—something that would
have been slow and costly until very recently. Another tool to add to our digital marketing
arsenal…
Accenture: 64 percent of consumers download apps
With the quest for mobility comes the quest for apps. Increasing adoption of smartphones and tablets is causing rapid uptake in mobile media consumption, and 64 percent of consumers now download apps, according to Accenture's 2012 Consumer Electronics Trends Study. Among this group, 49 percent have downloaded apps at least once a week in the past 12 months. Younger consumers are downloading more apps than older consumers and do so more frequently. Fifty-five percent of younger consumers have downloaded apps at least once a week in the past 12 months, compared with 44 percent of older consumers.
Information apps (such as news, sports or weather) are the most mature app category among consumers who have downloaded apps, followed by networking (social/ professional networks) and entertainment (such as music, single or group games, or videos) (Figure 8). Younger consumers are more likely to use networking and entertainment apps, while older consumers lean toward financial apps and apps for traveling. Regardless of age, the majority of consumers (73 percent) who download apps typically download those that are free.
Manufacturers’ and device software providers’ app stores are the preferred download locations (Figure 9), with far fewer consumers currently downloading apps from their wireless provider or telecom company.
Information apps (such as news, sports or weather) are the most mature app category among consumers who have downloaded apps, followed by networking (social/ professional networks) and entertainment (such as music, single or group games, or videos) (Figure 8). Younger consumers are more likely to use networking and entertainment apps, while older consumers lean toward financial apps and apps for traveling. Regardless of age, the majority of consumers (73 percent) who download apps typically download those that are free.
Manufacturers’ and device software providers’ app stores are the preferred download locations (Figure 9), with far fewer consumers currently downloading apps from their wireless provider or telecom company.
Mobile Predictions for 2013!
Interesting article from Mobile Marketer on the outlook for 2013: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/strategy/14356.html
-The context dream will come true: the powerful use of data will be finally be realized in mobile. As was mentioned in class, many companies are moving into this space to help operationalize the process for mobile.
-Augmented reality finally arrives: this could get inetersting as this has always been in gimmick land (like QR codes, for the most part). The biggesr point is companies rising to the challenge of creating more engaging content for mobile, levearging unqique use cases and phone capabilities.
-Loyalty plays: Mobile CRM. My division at American Express is developing mobile products specifically stacked against driving deeper ongoing engagement with existing customers. We view this as a way to not onlly create stickyness and raise sweitching costs, but also a way to clearly signal differentiation.
-Other: mobile commerce, leverage of cloud and more
-The context dream will come true: the powerful use of data will be finally be realized in mobile. As was mentioned in class, many companies are moving into this space to help operationalize the process for mobile.
-Augmented reality finally arrives: this could get inetersting as this has always been in gimmick land (like QR codes, for the most part). The biggesr point is companies rising to the challenge of creating more engaging content for mobile, levearging unqique use cases and phone capabilities.
-Loyalty plays: Mobile CRM. My division at American Express is developing mobile products specifically stacked against driving deeper ongoing engagement with existing customers. We view this as a way to not onlly create stickyness and raise sweitching costs, but also a way to clearly signal differentiation.
-Other: mobile commerce, leverage of cloud and more
Social Media and Corporate Disclosure
In July of this year, the CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings, made a facebook post announcing that its users had streamed more than 1 billion hours of video, a new record for Netflix. In response, Netflix's share price rallied by 6.2%.
This week the SEC issued Wells notices to Reed Hastings and Netflix, alleging that his facebook post may have violated fair disclosure rules that define material announcements made by public companies. The rules are designed to ensure that individual investors have equal access to information as large institutional investors, by prohibiting selective disclosure of material information.
Reed Hastings made the following announcement: "First, we think posting to over 200,000 people is very public, especially because many of my subscribers are reporters and bloggers. Second, while we think my public Facebook post is public, we don’t currently use Facebook and other social media to get material information to investors; we usually get that information out in our extensive investor letters, press releases and SEC filings. We think the fact of 1 billion hours of viewing in June was not “material” to investors, and we had blogged a few weeks before that we were serving nearly 1 billion hours per month."
The announcement, and the SEC's action, raises an interesting discussion regarding what constitutes a "public" notice as well as highlighting the need for Company employees and executives to be educated re: the rules and best practices of social media use in corporate settings.
Alex Elawadi
Can a bad Yelp review be slander?
Another interesting case in the annals of free speech: what should be done when a person posts a bad review of your business -- and it includes false accusations of your employees committing crimes?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/2012/12/04/1cdfa582-3978-11e2-a263-f0ebffed2f15_story.html
A woman in Northern Virginia posted a one-star review on Yelp of a local contracting firm, accusing its workers not only of shoddy workmanship, but of theft of her jewelry. However, a subsequent police investigation cleared the contractor, who is now suing her for $750,000 in defamation damages, claiming that her review's accusations are severely hurting his business.
What he didn't reckon with was the outcry that has resulted: his number of one-star reviews has now gone up, as people weigh in with such comments as this:
"I have never used this company nor would I given that they are suing a customer over a review."
I understand that the reaction seems severe. But how would this commenter like being wrongly accused of theft on the Internet?
I suspect the right approach here would have been not to sue the irate customer, but for the contractor to approach Yelp directly, once the police had cleared his name, and privately request that they remove the offending comment -- and perhaps also post a kind of disclaimer to explain what happened. (Whether it would ultimately hurt or help him in the long run to have a permanent record of the accusation out there -- even if it exonerates him -- is an open question.)
You could argue that Yelp isn't the only review site out there, and that a suit against the defamer herself is necessary to restrain her from continuing to broadcast her message. But the best policy may nonetheless be to quietly get those posts removed. People aren't going to think carefully when they hear the headline of "Business sues woman who gave them one-star review" -- the business is going to come off as the villain, and so the suit only increases the damage, rather than repairing it.
Reference Links:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/2012/12/04/1cdfa582-3978-11e2-a263-f0ebffed2f15_story.html
http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/07/yelp-reviewer-gets-slapped-with-750k-lawsuit-and-takedown-order/
http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/7/3740932/jane-perez-yelp-defamation-lawsuit
http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/02/berkeley-study-half-star-change-in-yelp-rating-can-make-or-break-a-restaurant/
Google Fiber and the notion of National Broadband
Source: Google starting the dialogue on National Broadband and creating a POC
As discussed in class no one really knew how serious Google was when it put out the request for bids from cities for installation of high speed broadband.
It received inqiuries from 1100 cities and finally chose Kansas City. The end result this summer for about $70 -- ability to download a hi-def movie in about 7 seconds and offering a free Nexus 7 mini tablet as a remote and 1 Tera byte of data storage!! ( more than enough for any content you could ever accumulate). Speeds averaging 700+ Mbps ... the current cable broadband provides about 8-10Mbps (if you're lucky). Columbia Wi-fi is about 80-90 Mbps. LTE is about 100-120 Mbps.
Goldman Sachs estimated that in order to extend this infrastructure nationally the cost would be about $140 billion. Although that's a mammoth investment and not something Google can undertake by itself (it has $46 billion in cash).
All this at a very minimum should raise the discussion about the current investment into infrastructure by the big ISPs and the current bottlenecks on bandwidth. As residents of Kansas city have no doubt realized that its a life alteritng experience. This can be a boon for not only regular users but entrepreneurs and businesses in terms of connectivity and online presence.
Link: Google fibre is live in KC
As discussed in class no one really knew how serious Google was when it put out the request for bids from cities for installation of high speed broadband.
It received inqiuries from 1100 cities and finally chose Kansas City. The end result this summer for about $70 -- ability to download a hi-def movie in about 7 seconds and offering a free Nexus 7 mini tablet as a remote and 1 Tera byte of data storage!! ( more than enough for any content you could ever accumulate). Speeds averaging 700+ Mbps ... the current cable broadband provides about 8-10Mbps (if you're lucky). Columbia Wi-fi is about 80-90 Mbps. LTE is about 100-120 Mbps.
Goldman Sachs estimated that in order to extend this infrastructure nationally the cost would be about $140 billion. Although that's a mammoth investment and not something Google can undertake by itself (it has $46 billion in cash).
All this at a very minimum should raise the discussion about the current investment into infrastructure by the big ISPs and the current bottlenecks on bandwidth. As residents of Kansas city have no doubt realized that its a life alteritng experience. This can be a boon for not only regular users but entrepreneurs and businesses in terms of connectivity and online presence.
Link: Google fibre is live in KC
machine to machine
The
opportunity for Telco providers are in machine to machine services because
eroding revenue in tradition landlines and lowering prices on the mobility side. Machine to machine is when a cell phone can communication
with a machine to take an action. A good
example of this is a cell phone can higher your heat in your home while you are
away. Furthermore, when the temperate
goes below a certain level your cell phone will alert you. As you can imagine this would be of interested
to home insurance companies so the user raises the heat and avoids home
damages from a burst pipe. Also, this of interest to
advertiser because they know exact action the user is taking. Such as if I cant higher my heat, I can get ad add
at that time that offers me a service for a electrition to come to my home to fix
the problem. There is no guessing for
the advertisers and the conversion rates would be very high. So there a lot of revenue opportunities for
telco providers. Can you think of some great M2M solutions that
would helpful to you?
Netflix's Game Changing Deal
Ted Sarandos calls it a "Game Changer". The recent deal between Netflix and Disney will allow the subscription on demand player access to Disney's 2016 feature slate on their streaming service in what has been traditionally known as the Pay TV window. Netflix has apparently outbid Starz, who was Disney's previous Pay TV partner, for this valuable window. This marks the first US slate deal between Netflix and a major for the Pay TV window. It is worth noting however that Epix, owned jointly by Paramount, Lionsgate, and MGM has sub-licensed titles within its slate deals to Netflix with a three month delay in the Pay window. The Disney deal is the first with Netflix to completely remove the traditional Pay partner all together.
Many now speculate if this is the beginning of the end for the traditional Pay partners. It appears that Starz and others are now and will increasingly become more reliant on their originals to draw in subscribers. There are also potential ramifications to Disney's channel business as this some believe this will trickle down throughout the entire cable ecosystem and result in increased total cord cutting, not just cord trimming.
Many now speculate if this is the beginning of the end for the traditional Pay partners. It appears that Starz and others are now and will increasingly become more reliant on their originals to draw in subscribers. There are also potential ramifications to Disney's channel business as this some believe this will trickle down throughout the entire cable ecosystem and result in increased total cord cutting, not just cord trimming.
In Spotify Refresh, a New Canvas for Advertisers
Spotify Now Has 5 Million Paying Customers Globally
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek didn't utter the word "advertising" once at his company's New York media event on Thursday, which saw Metallica's Lars Ulrich hug it out on stage with Napster co-founder and former Metallica archenemy Sean Parker. Mr. Ek was there to announce that Metallica's music was now on Spotify and to introduce a new set of features to the music-streaming service to help listeners discover new music by following the tastes of big-time music artists and other music aficionados.
Spotify player
"It's another new canvas for us to look at the right way for brands to participate in the music experience," Mr. Levick said in the interview.
Mr. Levick was low on details, but said Spotify will start experimenting with incorporating marketers into the Discover section in the new year. He also believes the timing of the Spotify refresh -- specifically the introduction of the "Discover" section -- fits in nicely with the move in the digital-media industry to create new types of ad formats that rise above the banner ad.
"Ads can be and should be about content and we plan to use this content-rich experience to let brands test out new things," he said, successfully avoiding saying the already cliched term "native advertising."
Up to now, Spotify has made money from marketers in two ways: through audio and display ads on the free version of the service. (Spotify also offers two paid tiers which are ad-free.) It also helps brands like McDonald's and Reebok build their own Spotify apps, which they often promote through ads on the service.
Mr. Ek announced at the event that Spotify now has 5 million paying subscribers globally -- paying either $4.99 or $9.99 a month -- and 1 million who pay in the U.S. Another 15 million or so use the service, but don't pay for access, meaning they are being hit with advertising.
They Know What You're Shopping For
'You're looking at the premium package, right?' Companies today are increasingly tying people's real-life identities to their online browsing habits.
Georgia resident Andy Morar is in the market for a BMW BMW.XE +0.55% . So recently he sent a note to a showroom near Atlanta, using a form on the dealer's website to provide his name and contact information.His note went to the dealership—but it also went, without his knowledge, to a company that tracks car shoppers online. In a flash, an analysis of the auto websites Mr. Morar had anonymously visited could be paired with his real name and studied by his local car dealer.
When told that a salesman on the showroom floor could, in effect, peer into his computer activities at home, Mr. Morar said: "The less they know, the better."
The widening ability to associate people's real-life identities with their browsing habits marks a privacy milestone, further blurring the already unclear border between our public and private lives. In pursuit of ever more precise and valuable information about potential customers, tracking companies are redefining what it means to be anonymous.
Josh Anderson for The Wall Stree
Dataium co-founder, Eric Brown at the company's office in Nashville, Tenn.
In separate research, the Journal examined what happens when people logged in to roughly 70 popular websites that request a login and found that more than a quarter of the time, the sites passed along a user's real name, email address or other personal details, such as username, to third-party companies. One major dating site passed along a person's self-reported sexual orientation and drug-use habits to advertising companies.
As recently as late 2010, when the Journal wrote about Rapleaf Inc., a trailblazing company that had devised a way to track people online by email address, the practice was almost unheard-of. Today, companies like Dataium are taking the techniques to a new level.
Tracking a car-shopper online gives dealers an edge because not only can they tell if the person is serious—is he really shopping for red convertibles or just fantasizing?—but they can also gain a detailed understanding of the specific vehicles and options the person likes. "So when he comes in to the dealership, I know now how to approach" him, said Dataium co-founder Jason Ezell to a car-dealer conference last year, which was videotaped and posted online.
Three Years of WSJ Privacy Insights
![[image]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tpTQkgWWM-gwNrqBIgyDKAdXRpqgl29edqdGbzTxK8rqI9-yjK8gGbrxy1RgP-8D5zkC7Q_VIVqYO1fhAvKFUdfQkuH60O7pMd5AuqiIm8txdYpaJRIHTkpNMCm-PTknAbW3uafubXu9tfiG7ffrkgSA=s0-d)
Selected findings:
- Two students are outed as gay—provoking a crisis within their families—by a Facebook privacy loophole . (10/12/12)
- Suspicious spouses are taking investigations into their own hands as snooping technologies become cheaper and easier to use. (10/6/12)
- Americans' license plates are now being tracked not only by the government, but also by repo men who hope to profit from the information. (10/2/12)
- Google bypassed the privacy settings on millions of Web browsers on Apple iPhones and computers— tracking the online activities of people who intended that kind of monitoring to be blocked. (2/17/12)
- The government follows the movements of thousands of Americans a year by secretly monitoring their cellphone records . (9/9/11)
- iPhone and Android apps secretly shared data about their users, a Journal investigation found. (12/10/10)
- Top apps on Facebook transmit personal identifying details to tracking companies, a Journal investigation found. (10/18/10)
- One of the fastest growing online businesses is that of spying on Americans as they browse the Web. (6/30/10)
- Plus, the global surveillance bazaar , a secretive phone-tracking "stingray" and RapLeaf's clever way of figuring out Web surfers' real names .
- See full privacy coverage
Dataium said dealers can see only an analysis of the person's behavior, not the raw details of every car site a person visits. The information is tied to people's email addresses only when people provide them to a dealer voluntarily, Dataium said.
The company that owns the dealership Mr. Morar visited, Asbury Automotive Group Inc., ABG -2.39% said it gives privacy notices to customers "regarding the use of nonpublic personal information." It declined to comment on whether it had used information about Mr. Morar provided by Dataium.
illustrations by Jason Lee
After an epic regulatory battle in the early 2000s over Web privacy, the online ad industry generally concluded that "anonymous" meant that a firm had no access to "PII," the industry term for "personally identifiable information." Now, however, some companies describe tracking or advertising as anonymous even if they have or use people's real names or email addresses.
Their argument: It's still anonymous because the identity information is removed, protected or separated from browsing history. Facebook Inc., for example, offers a service that shows ads to groups of people based on email address, but only if advertisers already have that address. Facebook says that it doesn't give people's email addresses to the advertiser.
"We will serve ads to you based on your identity," said Erin Egan, chief privacy officer at Facebook, "but that doesn't mean you're identifiable." Facebook, Rapleaf and other companies also say that they anonymize their data.
How does anonymization work? A website uses a formula to turn its users' email addresses into jumbled strings of numbers and letters. An advertiser does the same with its customer email lists. Both then send their jumbled lists to a third company that looks for matches. When two match, the website can show an ad targeted to a specific person, but no real email addresses changed hands.
Still, the sheer ease with which personal details can be shared online makes it difficult for people to know whether their information is safe. A Wall Street Journal survey of 50 popular websites, plus the Journal's own site, found that 12 sent potentially identifying information such as email addresses or full real names to third parties.
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Sometimes the information was encoded and sent in a special transmission to another company. Other times, though, people's names were simply included in the title or address of the Web page. This information gets sent automatically to every ad company with a presence on a Web page unless the website owner takes steps to prevent it.
The Journal's own website shared considerable amounts of users' personal information. It sent the email addresses and real names of users to three companies. The site also transmitted other details, including gender and birth year, which WSJ.com allows people to submit when they fill out their website profile.
Another site sharing considerable information, the free dating service OKCupid, sent usernames to one company; gender, age and ZIP Code to seven companies; sexual orientation to two companies; and drug-use information—do you use drugs "never," "sometimes" or "often"?—to six companies. It also sent an anonymized version of email addresses to a firm that says it uses them to help businesses get information about customers in their email lists.
"None of this information is personally identifiable," said OKCupid's chief executive officer, Sam Yagan. He said OKCupid, owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp, IACI -0.13% is upfront with users about the amount of data it collects. "Advertising is and always will be part of the business model. It allows the product to be free," he said.
The regulatory clash over Web privacy in the early 2000s established ground rules that today are being tested. At that time, the Federal Trade Commission investigated the merger of the online-ad company DoubleClick Inc. with a traditional mailing-list giant, Abacus Direct, over concerns that Abacus would merge its lists of people's real names and addresses with DoubleClick's Web-browsing profiles.
DoubleClick (now owned by Google GOOG -1.00% Inc.) eventually agreed not to do that. The dispute spawned an industry self-regulatory group that pledged not to link personally identifiable information to Web browsing unless the person opted in.
But the allure of real identities remains. After all, that's how most companies keep track of their customers. Brick-and-mortar shops can "capture things like name, city and email address" when a person buys something or signs up for a loyalty card, said a Yahoo Inc. YHOO 0.00% official.
Yahoo offers a service, Audience Match, that lets retailers find and target their customers online. Yahoo says that it uses anonymization and doesn't give names or Web-browsing information to advertisers.
In the past, tracking companies and retailers had a tougher time identifying online users. Today, a single Web page can contain computer code from dozens of different ad companies or tracking firms. These separate chunks of code often share information with each other. For example: If, like Mr. Morar the car-shopper, you give your name to a website, it can sometimes be seen by other companies with ads or special coding on the site.
It's so easy to share such information that many of the sites the Journal contacted said they were doing so accidentally. The problem is easy to solve, but it has persisted for years.
Craig Wills, a computer-science professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, published research in 2011 showing that 56% of more than 100 websites leaked pieces of private information in ways similar to those found in the Journal's study. "Information goes in, but we don't know if it's being dropped and ignored or saved for later use," he said.
The rise of social networks is also making it easier to tie people's real identities to their online behavior. The "Like" button, for instance, can send information back to Facebook whenever Facebook users visit pages that have the button, even if they don't click it.
These buttons and related code give social networks, which often know people's real names, an unprecedented overview of online behavior. The Journal found that Facebook code appears on 67% of the more than 900 sites of the top 1,000 that were scanned by BuiltWith.com, a service that examines websites and the technologies they use. That is up from about 63% a year or so ago. Code from Twitter Inc. was on nearly 54% of sites, up from 43%. Code from the Google+ social network was on almost 30% of sites examined, up from just 12% in December 2011.
Google said it keeps its social-networking data separate from its ad-tracking network and doesn't use the data from unclicked Google+ buttons. Twitter says it analyzes the data from its unclicked buttons to recommend other people a user might want to follow, but not for other purposes. Facebook says it uses data from unclicked "Like" buttons only for security purposes and to fix bugs in its software.
Facebook has been expanding its ad services that use identification data. This year, the company began telling advertisers how much sales in stores increased as a result of ads on Facebook—even if the products were purchased offline. To achieve this, Facebook says it works with a company, Datalogix, that controls a vast database culled from people's use of loyalty-card programs.
Dataium, the company that watches car shoppers, is also able to tie online shopping data to people's names, according to its public statements. Based in Nashville, Tenn., Dataium was founded in 2009 by Mr. Ezell, who had previously founded a company that created websites for auto dealers, and by Eric Brown, who had experience in marketing.
The two realized that the auto industry "is trying to sell the consumer a car they want the consumer to buy, not a car the consumer wants to buy," Mr. Brown, the company's chief executive, said in an email.
Mr. Brown said that the vast majority of Dataium's business involves providing general data about online car-shopping trends. But the company also enables dealers to see information about people in their customer database—in other words, people who have given the dealer their names and email addresses.
On its website, Dataium says it observes more than 20 million shoppers across 10,000 car websites, although it doesn't claim to have identification information on everyone. Mr. Brown said personally identifiable information is "less than 1%" of total data sent to Dataium.
Dataium knows "all the websites [a] person has visited in the shopping process" and "all the vehicles this person has looked at," Mr. Ezell said at last year's car-dealer conference. So if someone looked only at Nissans, the salesman will know he needn't discuss other cars, "because I know he's a loyal Nissan shopper." For users who are identifiable, Dataium is able to add analysis based on these observations to their name.
Asbury Automotive Group, which owns 77 dealerships including Nalley BMW, the site Mr. Morar visited, announced last year that it was using Dataium's code "to obtain a greater understanding of how auto shoppers are engaging" with its stores.
Mr. Morar, the Savannah car-shopper, is still in the market for a BMW sport-utility vehicle. He has twin 8-year-olds, and they need some elbow room, he says.
But scoring the best price will be important to him, which is why he has been doing lots of research online. "I'm just trying to get as much information as I can so when I do go to the dealer I'm prepared," he said. "There's that mentality that all car dealers are out to get you."
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