6 Observations From a New Survey on the State of Big Data Analytics

• Posted: September 21, 2015

A new survey of 316 executives from large global companies provides a current view of the state of big data analytics implementations.  The survey was conducted by Forbes Insights and sponsored by Teradata in partnership with McKinsey.  

Gil Press, writing for Forbes, presents highlights from this survey:

-”The hype gone, big data is alive and doing well.”

About two-thirds of respondents report that big data and analytics initiatives have had a significant and measurable impact on the revenues of their organizations.

-”The right organizational culture is key to big data success.”

51% of executives surveyed reported that adapting and refining a data-driven strategy is the single biggest cultural barrier.

-”Big data is top of mind when the CEO loves data.”

Organizations led by CEOs who personally focus on big data initiatives view big data as the single most important way to gain competitive advantage.

-”Going from the right attitude to the right action is a long big data journey.”

48% of executives surveyed consider making fact-based business decisions based on data as a key strategic challenge.

-”There’s gold in them thar brontobyte data mountains.”

Big data is driving opportunities for innovation in three key key areas: creating new business models (54%), discovering new product offers (52%), and monetizing data to external companies (40%).

-”Big data miners still very much wanted.”

Hiring talent with the right set of skills and experiences is challenging.

 

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YouTube Will Allow Third-Party Verification of Ad Viewability

• Posted: September 21, 2015

YouTube will begin allowing third-party measurement tools for viewability verification by the end of 2015.  This represents a change from its long-standing policy of using only its Active View Measurement tool for ad viewability.  David Kirkpatrick, writing for Marketing Dive, reports that The Financial Times cited Unilever and Kellogg’s as the brands that pressured YouTube to make this policy change for independent verification options.

According to a study done by Google:

-Active View reported 91% of YouTube ads.

-54% viewability across all of its video ad networks.

Kirkpatrick also provides a quote given to The Financial Times by Google about the change in their policy, “We’re committed to meeting all of our clients’ measurement needs” and “are taking our clients’ feedback into account as we continue to roll out new solutions.”

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Traditional Out-of-Home Media Continues Growth

• Posted: September 21, 2015

Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising revenue rose 3.8% in the second quarter of 2015 compared to the previous year, accounting for $2.25 billion, based on figures released by the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA).

In contrast to the OOH advertising revenue growth, statistics from Kantar Media reveal that total ad spending in the United States was down almost 7% for the quarter, and OOH and local radio are the only traditional media with significant growth.

In this Research Brief From the Center for Media Research, Jack Loechner provides a ranking of top OOH advertisers, based on their spending, as released by the OAAA.  This ranking includes:

-McDonald’s

-Apple

-Metro PCS

-Warner Bros Pictures

-Geico

The article includes this quote by Stephen Freitas, OAAA Chief Marketing Officer, “…the most significant trend in advertising today is the shift to digital… this hasn’t impacted OOH the way it has other traditional media, because OOH complements… digital marketing… especially mobile… the fastest growing of all digital platforms… ”

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Data is the Next Big Thing in Content Marketing

• Posted: September 21, 2015

Alexandra Samuel, writing for the Harvard Business Review analyzes data journalism, which the author views as an important trend.  Data journalism draws on the growing availability of data sets and data analysis tools to uncover and tell stories.  Big data offers marketers the opportunity to develop data-driven stories involving new insights, to tell stories in a compelling manner, and to have the stories disseminated via social media.

However, Samuel points out that data visualizations driven by original data are rare.  While infographics are frequently used by corporations and marketers, these infographics do not focus on original data-driven content.

Benefits of offering data as a content marketing resource include:

-Increased traffic: data visualizations and reports are likely to be shared on social media.

-Value: by offering unique information and actionable insights, the company’s content will provide value.

-Authority: by offering a report or infographic with new information or key trends, the company’s expertise is highlighted.

-Learning: by releasing some of the corporation’s data in a form that readers can use to create their own charts or analyses, new insights may be revealed.

-Transparency: by offering information on the patterns revealed by consumer data, brands can help consumers feel more comfortable with the use of their personal data.

Samuel feels that some companies have successfully used their own data to drive original stories, such as OKCupid, General Electric, Kickstarter, and Jawbone.  However, the potential of data-driven marketing is not being fully utilized by most companies.

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Visual is Critical to Effective Storytelling

• Posted: September 14, 2015

Jack Loechner, writing for the Research Brief From the Center For Media Research, discusses a new study from the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council.  This study entitled “From Content to Creativity: The Role of Visual Media in Impactful Brand Storytelling,” analyzes the belief by marketers that visual assets, including photography, illustrations, infographics, and videos, are core to customer engagement.  The marketers believe that the importance and use of visual assets will increase in the coming year.

However, this study, which was conducted in partnership with Libris, a PhotoShelter business unit, reveals that visual assets are not being fully leveraged across the organization. Causes for this disconnect include:

• Only 27% of senior marketing executives have a process in place to aggregate, organize, and manage the visual assets being used across marketing and non-marketing teams.
• 42% of these marketers feel that competing priorities prevent a focus on centralizing these assets.
• The existence of internal silos.
• A need for a larger budget allocated to visual assets.

Having a centralized visual asset management system provides many benefits, including:

• Maximized ROI from customer experiences.
• Alignment of teams around common brand visuals and assets.
• Streamlining of creative processes.
• Faster time to market for content.
• Reduced waste created by duplication.
• Mitigation of the risks associated with unapproved assets outside the brand value or message standards.

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The Number of TV Households Remains the Same According to Nielsen

• Posted: September 14, 2015

 

According to an article in Media Life Magazine, Nielsen reports that the number of TV households will remain the same this season as it was last season. In order to be included in the measurement, households must have “at least one operable TV/monitor with the ability to deliver video via traditional means of antennae, cable set-top-box or satellite receiver and/or with a broadband connection.”  This number stands at 116.4 million households.  

There was a 0.3% increase in the total number of people in those households rising to 296.8 million. Hispanic, Black and Asian households increased.  Nielsen attributes this shift to population growth.

Nielsen also reported that the percentage of homes that receive traditional TV signals from broadcast, cable, satellite or telco companies, or have a broadband internet connection decreased from 96.1% to 95.2%.

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Consumer Interest In Wearables “Fading Fast”

• Posted: September 14, 2015

According to a new report from Argus Insights, the demand for wearable technology in general, and fitness technology specifically, has dropped significantly since reaching its peak in January 2015.  In this Media Post article, Aaron Baar points out that the wearable technology market includes smartwatches, glasses, fitness bands, and other sensor-enabled devices.  

John Feland, CEO and founder of Argus Insights, believes that consumers use their fitness devices for a few months, then lose interest in these products. Consumer delight (based on the volume and content of consumer reviews analyzed by Argus Insights) has dropped.  Feland states that “sales are still growing year-to-year, but interest is sliding.”

In contrast, delight for Apple Watch and other smart watches is increasing.  However, the consumer base for smart watches is still largely limited to early adopters. The expense is still a consideration for many consumers.  A killer app that makes the device essential may extend the market to mass consumers, according to Feland.

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Tech Giants Align to Develop Higher Quality Digital Video

• Posted: September 14, 2015

The new Alliance for Open Media plans to create new video compression technology by 2016 or 2017.  This technology will boost the quality of online videos, allow videos to download faster, and to look better. According to Stephen Shankland, writing for CNET, compression improvements will also make better use of the networks that deliver video to smartphones, computers, streaming-media devices, video game consoles, and TVs.

The members of the Alliance for Open Media include Cisco, Microsoft, Google, Intel, Mozilla, Amazon and Netflix. The alliance’s goal, according to Matt Frost, head of partnerships for Google’s Chrome Media team, is to “make sure the pace of innovation in video compression keeps pace with all video experiences that are being built.”

One of the motives behind this alliance is to avoid patent-licensing conflicts. The new alliance adopted an open-source, royalty-free approach to the technology.

The Alliance for Open Media is going up against the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG).  The members of MPEG include telecommunications, consumer electronics, and cable TV firms.  MPEG’s latest standard, HEVC/H.265, which greatly improves video quality, is a single standard that can handle almost all video.  However, patent licensing fees represent a barrier to its widespread adoption.

Shankland concludes that “even with some powerful tech players conspicuously missing, the alliance at least on paper looks more significant than any other challenger yet to H.264 and HEVC/H.265.”

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Connected TV Spend to Rise, While Priority Remains Low

• Posted: September 14, 2015

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA), in partnership with BrightLine, an ad platform, reports that more than 70% of 215 client-side senior marketers believe that connected TV represents an opportunity for the advertising industry.  Despite this belief, none of these marketers spend more than 10% of their budget on connected TV.

YuYu Chen, summarizing this report for ClickZ, reports that 48% of respondents whose companies are currently engaged in connected TV or OTT devices plan to allocate more of their TV ad budget to it next year.  In addition, another 13% of respondents not currently engaged in connected TV or OTT, plan to allocate some of their budget to it next year.

Top benefits of connected TV/OTT include:

• Audience targeting
• High engagement
• Amplification of video content

According to this report, barriers to greater spending on connected TV or OTT by marketers include:

• Lack of reliable measurement metrics
• Small-scale audiences
• Cost/pricing
• Creative concerns
• Budgets
• Not familiar enough (especially reported by respondents not currently engaged with connected TV/OTT)

Rob Aksman, founder and CEO of BrightLine, is optimistic about the future of connected TV.  “There’s nothing stopping connected TV from going mainstream today: there’s scale, there’s targeting and there’s data.  With connected TV, advertisers can not only reach TV viewers, but also offer a better brand experience with clickable and measurable videos.”

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Ad Blocking Challenges the Online Advertising Industry

• Posted: September 7, 2015

Laurie Sullivan’s article for Media Post addresses the billions of dollars that search engines and Web publishing are losing as a result of ad blocking.  The author refers to an estimated loss of $6.6 billion by Google last year due to ad blocking.

By installing browser tools that identify and remove advertisements, site visitors avoid the ads and prevent advertising networks from tracking them across the web.  Consumers are unhappy with unwanted personalization, tracking, abuse of their privacy, and slow page loads according to Doc Searls, President of The Searls Group.

Ed Papazian, President of Media Dynamics, is concerned that the growth in ad dollars, especially from branding TV advertisers, will slow dramatically.  He points out that 30% of the most desirable consumers use ad blockers, and thus cannot be reached by a branding advertiser. Papazian  suggests that the industry needs to instill strict rules about how much ad clutter to allow per page, how ads are displayed, what constitutes visibility, realistically, and stop enabling ad avoidance.

Johnny Ryan, head of ecosystem at PageFair, a firm that measures blocked ads, explains that ad blockers can seamlessly block YouTube ads and ads on network members’ Web sites across Google’s display and video ads by using AdSense or DoubleClick. Google’s ads in search are also blocked by AdBlock Plus users who have not opted to view “white listed ads,” which Google pays to circumvent software from companies like Adblock

Ryan suggest that drivers of ad blocking include factors such as seeing inappropriate advertising, suffering from installations of ransom ware, and an unease about where one’s data ends up. A possible additional factor is malvertising.

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