News You Can Use

Millennials Are Most Trusting When It Comes To Advertising

• Posted: October 26, 2015

Nielsen’s recent global report on “Global Trust in Advertising: Winning Strategies for an Evolving Media Landscape” found that trust levels in advertising for the past two years have remained fairly consistent across paid, owned, and earned media.   This press release about the report points out that Millennials (age 21-34) exceed the average consumer in terms of levels of trust in almost all advertising formats/channels.  Not only did Millennials have the highest levels of trust in online and mobile formats, but they showed the highest levels of trust in most forms of traditional media.

Millennials are also the generational group who are the most willing to take action on 16 of the 19 advertising formats.  According to Randall Beard, President, Nielsen Expanded Verticals, “Millennials consume media differently than their older counterparts, exercising greater control over when and where they watch, listen and read content—and on which device.” He also stated, “But even if they rely less heavily on traditional channels, their trust and willingness to act on these formats remains high. While an integrated, multi-channel approach is best across all generations, it carries even more importance when reaching Millennials.”

Survey respondents, in general, reported that their action levels as a result of advertising actually exceeded trust levels for 14 out of 19 advertising formats reviewed.  According to Nielsen, this suggests that trust is not always a prerequisite for purchase.

This survey is based on the behavior of respondents with online access.  The full report is available by completing a form on Nielsen’s website.

See all 5 Cups articles.

 

We Say We Want Privacy Online, But Our Actions Say Otherwise

• Posted: October 26, 2015

In this Harvard Business Review article, Leslie John analyzes the conflict between consumer concerns with online privacy and the actual behavior of consumers, which includes sharing private photographs and broadcasting personal activities on social media. John labels this contrast between concern and behavior as the “privacy paradox.”  She uses insights from behavioral psychology and the social sciences to explain the prevalence of this paradox.

John summarizes the reasons for the inconsistency between consumer privacy concerns and behaviors.  These reasons include:

-Privacy is a faceless issue. Covert tracking of online behavior does not concern consumers.  However, targeted or highly personalized advertisements concern consumers because they feel violated by such ads.

-Sharing feels good. Recent neuroscientific research reveals that self-disclosure is intrinsically rewarding.

-Websites use defaults. Consumers don’t usually opt-out of preset options.

-People disclose more to computers than to each other. They are less concerned with bots and algorithms reading their mail than with human scanning.

-People don’t realize the implications of what they are revealing. Consumers may not understand that personal data, shopping habits, etc. when combined may be very revealing.

-People underestimate the threat of privacy violations. The author refers to a survey revealing that 56% of respondents were overly optimistic about their probability of avoiding identity theft.

John believes that the lack of consistent concern by consumers about privacy, and the interests of online companies in making information easily available may require government regulation to protect consumer privacy.

 

See all 5 Cups articles.

For more on this topic, check out the Marketing Tab in Morning Coffee.

Nearly 8 in 10 Advertisers Now Use Advanced TV and Most Plan to Increase Spend in the Next 12 Months, According to IAB Research

• Posted: October 26, 2015

Some form of advanced TV has been used in marketing efforts by 78% of advertisers, according to the survey, “Advanced TV: Ad Buyer Perceptions.”  In addition, 72% of marketers and agency executives surveyed believe that advanced TV will become an important advertising platform within five years. According to a press release by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), this survey was recently published by the IAB and its Digital Video Center of Excellence.

The current media budget allocation for advanced TV is $1.4 million; however, 70% of advertisers expect to increase their budget for this medium within the next 12 months.  Funding is expected to come from both TV budgets (68% of respondents) and expanded or experimental ad budgets (54% of respondents).  Addressable advertising, second screen ads, and interactive tags are among the advanced TV ad formats expected to increase in the next year.

The strongest benefits of advanced TV include:

-Better targeting capabilities.

-Ability to reach consumers anytime on any device.

-Improved ROI.

-Ability to personalize or localize messages.

 

Potential obstacles to the growth of advanced TV include:

-Marketplace confusion about this medium.

-Uncertainty about the differences between advanced TV and connected TV.

-A lack of understanding about advanced TV’s technical process.

-Concern about high costs.

 

The IAB is establishing a committee on the subject of advanced TV in response to member interest.  The press release includes a link to the complete findings of this report.

 

See all 5 Cups articles.

 

Retailers Lag Consumers by Two Years

• Posted: October 26, 2015

A recent Warc news release discusses MarketLive’s 7th Annual Holiday Research Study.  Ken Burke, founder and CEO of MarketLive, commented that, “Consumers are adopting new technologies that seemed futuristic just a year ago.”  He also stated, “There’s no question now that consumers are asking for much more than retailers can give, like coupons with local discounts through mobile devices.”

Among the other findings from this survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers who have shopped online at least four times within the past year, own a smartphone, and typically spend $250 or more online annually:

-78% are likely to visit a store as a result of text promotions or alerts sent via mobile prior to store visits.

-69% want in-store text messages with coupons or want be alerted of promotions while they are in the store.

-62% will make a purchase as a result of a notification or offer sent to their mobile device while in the store.

Burke also observed that retailers are struggling to promote their deals in search ads or via search marketing.  As a result, retailers are turning to social media.

At the present time, few consumers are buying via social media, but the majority use social media to search for gift ideas and to share information.  Social media is especially important for millennials, a key target for retailers.

These trends will impact retailers for the 2015 holiday season and in future shopping seasons.

See all 5 Cups articles.

Do Price Promotions Help or Hurt Premium-Product Brands? The Impact of Different Price-Promotion Types on Sales and Brand Perception

• Posted: October 26, 2015

The September 2015 issue of the Journal of Advertising Research presents a study which examined various types of price promotions. The authors, Felix Zoellner, BMW Group, and Tobias Schaefers, TU Dortmund University, combined the sales data of German premium automobile brands with a consumer-behavior analysis. The goal was to analyze the impact of different types of promotions on sales and on the perception of a premium-product brand.  The research distinguished between direct versus indirect-price reductions and marketers’ use of a “precondition,” for example, promotions offering free gifts, trade-in incentives, or loyalty-program benefits.

The authors demonstrated that:

-Different price-promotion types have different influences on sales and brand perception in the premium automotive market.

-Direct-price reduction has the strongest positive impact on sales numbers.

-Price-promotion types with which the customer is not familiar may be harmful for the brand.

-Promotion types that are well-known among customers should be preferred to minimize a premium brand’s image and prestige deterioration.

-Combining the sales and brand-perception impact, “direct-price reduction without a precondition” appeared to be the ideal price-promotion type for premium products, as it had the strongest positive influence on sales and no negative impact on brand image and prestige.

-Management should focus on price-promotions with direct-price reductions that are also familiar to the customer.

 

See all 5 Cups articles.

 

 

TV Ads Are About to Get Personal With New Targeting Tools

• Posted: October 19, 2015

 Gerry Smith, writing for Bloomberg Businessweek, examines the recent capability of television ads to target audiences with greater precision, rather than with broad demographics.  By utilizing data and new targeting tools, TV networks are better able to compete with the highly targeted marketing messages on the Internet.

Media companies, such as Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal, Time Warner Inc.’s Turner and Viacom Inc. are using data from cable set-top boxes that track TV viewing, credit card information, and additional sources to compete with the ability of companies to track online users which enables marketers to advertise to narrowly defined audiences.

According to Brad Adgate, Senior Vice President, Director of Research, for media-buying firm Horizon Media, “TV has to move in this direction.  There’s a lot of concern about dollars migrating to digital from television.  This is a way for TV to keep pace.”

The technical capabilities for TV to target audiences have only recently become available.  NBCUniversal introduced a new product this year which enables it to use cable set-top box data from Comcast, its parent company, in addition to credit card data, automobile data, plus other sources, to advise advertisers on the specific program on a network that is more likely to include their target audience.  According to NBCUniversal Chief Executive Officer Steve Burke, NBC is giving advertisers “very targeted and unique capabilities that are much more like what advertisers get when they go to Facebook.”

Time Warner’s Turner networks have expanded the number of advertisers to which these networks have been offering targeted ads.  Michael Strober, Turner’s Senior Vice President for Client Insights and Innovation, explains in this article that the ad sales team can now sell commercial time that guarantees brands will reach a specific audience rather than audiences defined only by age and gender.

See all 5 Cups articles.

 

Content Budgets Rise as Measurement Advances-Nearly Half of Marketers Are Spending 20% More on the Discipline

• Posted: October 19, 2015

Kate Maddox summarizes the results of a new report on content marketing by Forrester Research in this Advertising Age article.  According to the report’s author, Ryan Skinner, senior analyst at Forrester Research, marketers have increased their content marketing budgets and have been able to achieve bottom-line measurement of their content marketing programs.

Twenty-five percent of marketers increased their content marketing budgets by 30% or more in 2015 compared to 2014, and 47% of marketers boosted their content marketing budgets by 20% or more.

Skinner attributes the budget increases to:

-The shift from traditional to online media, especially by millennials.

-The use of self-directed research by customers during the purchasing journey.

-The need for valuable, relevant content due to ad blocking.

In addition to increasing these budgets, there is an increased ability to measure the impact of content marketing.

Seventy-five percent of marketers reported positive bottom-line results from their content marketing, including increased customer loyalty, and reduced marketing and media expenses.  In addition, 57% of marketers reported increased revenue and sales.

This article also presents the details of content marketing strategies by SAP and Lenovo. Metrics used by these companies to measure content marketing results include overall impressions and views, time spent engaging with the content, the number of leads generated and sales.

See all 5 Cups articles.

 

Despite Obstacles, Programmatic Video Advertising Maturation Advances

• Posted: October 19, 2015

The adoption of programmatic video advertising is expected to grow rapidly over the next 24 months, according to this article, which summarizes some of the conclusions from the eMarketer report, “Programmatic Video Advertising: Poised for Rapid Growth Despite ‘Premium’ Holdouts.”

 

  

 

Programmatic ad dollars will account for only 39% of total US video ad spending this year.  However, growth is expected as a result of better ad quality and an increase in premium inventory.  Current concerns with audience identification, targeting and measurement also need to be resolved.

This article presents eMarketer’s forecast of a triple-digit jump in US programmatic video ad spending in 2015 and a further 84.5% increase in 2016.  By 2017 the portion of programmatic digital video ad dollars will move closer to the broader average for programmatic activity (72%), accounting for 65%, or $7.43 billion.

See all 5 Cups articles.

 

 

 

Can Multiple New-Product Messages Attract Different Consumer Segments?  Gaming Advertisements’ Interaction with Targets Affects Brand Attitudes and Purchase Intentions

• Posted: October 19, 2015

This article, from the September 2015 issue of the Journal of Advertising Research, analyzes the challenge of launching marketing messages when advertisers want to address two different customer segments for one product offering, where one of the segments is a primary target, and the other is a secondary target.  Frank Alpert, University of Queensland, and M. Kim Saxton, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, provide insights on whether video-game marketers should leverage different messages for different target segments for the same product.  Their research addressed these questions in the context of print advertisements.

Among their conclusions:

-Two consumer segments can be targeted with the same product as long as advertisements are created to target each segment.

-Advertisements should be released for the primary target first. Then, a complementary advertisement can be launched to attract the secondary segment while reinforcing why the primary target should be interested.

-There is negative backlash when one segment sees its dedicated advertisement, followed by an advertisement for the other segment.

-Yet, perceptions of the product are enhanced if the segment sees the two advertisements as interacting to provide more information.

-Further, this enhancement happened not only from internal processes but also because the advertisements interacted.

The authors provide additional information on their research hypotheses, methodology, results and conclusions, as well as the implications for marketers.

 

See all 5 Cups articles.

 

 

 

Magazine Industry Guarantees Ad Effectiveness

• Posted: October 19, 2015

The magazine industry has announced an industry-wide initiative to guarantee a return on investment for advertisers investing in magazine ad pages, according to an article on Media Post written by Erik Sass.  If the guaranteed results are not achieved, qualifying advertisers will receive additional free advertising placements.  This program, the “Print Magazine Sales Guarantee” was recently announced by the MPA-The Association of Magazine Media.

Stephen Lacy, CEO of publisher Meredith Corp. and chairman of the MPA, stated, “The Print Magazine Sales Guarantee is a clear and powerful statement that magazine media provides unique value to advertisers. We are confident in our product, its future, and the unique role that print magazines play in our multi-platform ecosystem to drive ROI and lift advertisers’ brand sales.”

This industry-wide initiative extends and formalizes previous programs linking ad placements to sales results by individual publishers, including Meredith, Time Inc., Hearst Magazines, and Conde Nast.

This article also mentions studies cited by the MPA in support of the guarantee, included a meta-analysis by Millward Brown and a neuroscience analysis by Nomos Research.

See all 5 Cups articles.