Media – Linx

New Television Audience Data Can Help Marketers Fine-Tune Targeted Ads

Linx — Tue, 22 May 2018 07:22:27 +0000

Recent research has identified market trends regarding target audiences and the television shows they watch. This information can be leveraged by marketers to help determine where they should place digital campaign ads, while providing the opportunity for marketers to now target and engage with audiences they had not previously targeted.

Marketers can now evaluate data and see if there is a discrepancy between audience search demographics and who is actually tuning into specific television shows. Brands can take this data and fine-tune their targeting with television ads ensuring that they target consumers by advertising to specific interests. Conversely, television show producers will be able to use this information to convert audience that is ready for engagement into viewers.

Here is a sampling of the insights that initial research revealed:

Home improvement shows tend to draw a 45 and over female audience with an income over $50k. The HGTV show Flip or Flop attracts a 45 and over female audience, with an income of $50-150k who have an interest in celebrity news, restaurants and home furnishings.
Dramas attracted females primarily in the age range of 18-34. Specifically the NBC show This Is US attracted females ages 18-34, with an income over $100k who have an interested in television, face and body care and travel. Meanwhile the Fox show Empire attracted females, ages 18-34 who made less than$50k and had an interest in shopping, television, and face and body care.
Late-night television attracts male viewers ages 18-44 with an average income of over $50k. Research confirms that Conan O’Brien’s show has an 18-44 male audience, with an income of $50k-150k, who have an interest in sports, colleges and television.
Comedies are indexed to 18-34 year old viewers with less than $50k income yearly. Research indicates that The Big Bang Theory of CBS has an 18-24 and 55+ male and female audience, with an income of less than $50k and an interest in television, humor and physics. The ABC show Black-ish draws an primarily female, 18-34 audience who have an income of less than $50k, and an interest in television, face and body care and colleges.
Crime shows attract more males than females, ages 18-44 with a higher income, typically over $100k. Research indicates that the CBS show NCIS has a male and female audience, ages 18-44, with an income over $100k, and an interest in travel, face and body care and colleges.
Research indicates that reality television shows tend to attract an 18-34 year old, female audience with an income of less than $50k. The popular ABC show The Bachelor has a female audience ages 25-34 and 45-64 with an income of $100-150k, with an interest in television, celebrity news and restaurants.

Marketers that has access to this sort of research can see where discrepancies lie in initial demographics when placing ads and can adjust their marketing plans to place ads where they will be more likely to reach their target audience. These insights will subsequently help marketers create better content, design the ads to best sell their product and convert potential buyers into customers.

Think Ahead™ 50 Years

Linx — Tue, 22 May 2018 07:18:14 +0000

Inspiration Appears in the Most Unusual Places

Have you ever been struck with a genius thought while in the shower? Maybe for you, it’s while you’re taking a leisurely walk, or playing with your kids or grandkids. Perhaps you came up with your newest product or service while doing something that had nothing to do with work at all?

Harvard psychologist Shelley H. Carson, author of “Your Creative Brain,” says that little distractions can actually be a good thing when it comes to creativity. She explains that interruptions and diversions can lead to a creative “incubation period.”

While visiting a client on a recent business trip to California, I experienced what Carson would describe as a creative “incubation period”. While walking through Golden Gate Park in San Francisco with my son, I began to notice artwork and other exhibits promoting the Summer of Love Experience in celebration of its 50th anniversary.

As I walked, I noticed street signs comparing 1967 to 2017. This caused me to pause and reflect back, thinking about the original Summer of Love and the changes the world has seen over the course of 50 years. As I continued to read the street signs I started to notice a trend – though the specific group, community or cause changed over the years, the root of each of these causes remained the same. Social justice, equality, health care, connectivity, personal identity – all of these causes are just as important today as they were 50 years ago – they’re just known by new name. Or from a marketing perspective – they’ve been rebranded.

Which upon reflection brought me back to where the company I founded, Linx, finds ourselves right now – in the middle of a rebranding of our own. We’re giving ourselves a facelift after 22 years in business, as the third generation of our family business begins to lead the company. Because of this and the timing of the Summer of Love experience, my creative incubation period shifted into hyper-drive. Re-branding your image forces you to really evaluate your brand and tests you to make sure you truly know what your company’s core values are and if they can stand the test of time.

During our rebranding our core values will remain the same as they have for the last 22 years. Some of our core values at Linx are:

We are trusted advisors to our clients
We adapt faster than the speed of change
We are accountable to each other’s success and personal growth
We simplify complexities to maximize communications
Our financial and personal success are inextricably linked to the results we achieve for our clients

Think Ahead

Companies with a strong foundation are the ones who last through generations because they recognize that while times change, the root of what your company stands for won’t. Before you even consider re-branding, the first thing you need to do is stop and evaluate your brand as it stands right now.

As I mentioned, the foundational elements of your brand should never change. Look at companies that have stood the test of time – Pepsi, Apple, Target and Burberry for example – and take note of the fact that their core messaging never changes.

For example, over the years Pepsi has acquired various additional brands, expanding their product line and changed their look – but their mission has remained the same. Pepsi purposed themselves to remain relevant with each upcoming generation with advertising campaigns that have evolved throughout the years – first with their Pepsi Generation campaign in 1963 followed by the sub-sequential “The Choice of the Next Generation” and “GenerationNext” campaigns.

A successful brand stands for something fundamental – this bedrock principle must show up at every turn and with every product and service offered. Without strong emotional connections your brand won’t have any traction. Successful brand positioning rejects following the masses and conformity and stands out from the crowd. It stays the same while simultaneously evolving with the changing cultural tide over time.

So how is this accomplished?

At Linx, we’ve been changing the way organizations see the world… and how the world sees them for the past 20 years. But today we’re simplifying our value by helping companies… “Think Ahead ”. We recognize that change is guaranteed, which means we need to help our clients stay ahead of it. Typically, a new technology or product is introduced and people are forced to waste valuable time playing catch up to learn how to optimize that change within their company. By default they follow a formula where change drives learning. We have discovered however, that learning must be done at a pace equal to or greater than the rate of change. In other words L≥C. This allows for faster adoption of change and accelerated growth opportunities.

50 Years from Now?

Back to Haight Ashbury. As we are processing through our own rebranding, encountering the Summer of Love Experience forced me to ask myself what the world was going to look like 50 years from now?

Surely social justice, equality, affordable health care, connectivity and personal identity would be just as relevant as it is today, but by what parameters? What challenges will we be facing regarding healthcare or social justice? Who or what will be the new hipster? Is it a word that we’ve even created yet? What about equality or civil rights? With the rise of AI technology, will we find ourselves petitioning for equal rights for them, or will it be for someone or something entirely different?

We may not know these answers yet, but I feel it is our responsibility to begin considering them. Many companies put their trust in us to recognize the upcoming shifts in the market and anticipate new trends before they happen. Which means as a strategic marketing agency – our team must be ready to usher in these changes.

What’s Your Take?

So we decided to ask the question. What will these signs say 50 years from now? We want to hear from the masses. So this summer in honor of the Summer of Love, we will be surveying people across the country asking them this very question.

Please participate in our survey… pass it around and share it and we’ll report back out on the top choices society envisions the world will look like in 2067.

The Future of Your Brand Starts Here

As you and your team begin to ponder how to ensure the relevance of your brand in the near and distant future, remember that the team that stays ahead of change is most able to help you see the future as it will most likely occur, giving you and your company new and significant grow strategies to meet the needs of your customers today… and tomorrow!

Take our survey here.

A Summer of Linx – Our Summer Interns are Hard at Work!

Linx — Tue, 22 May 2018 07:10:54 +0000

This summer we are pleased to welcome three new faces to our office. Duad, Miles and Zoe have joined our Linx team as a part of our summer internship program!

The interns will spend the summer months working with our marketing, production and design teams to help develop new campaigns and work on existing campaigns as well. Each intern has been placed within our existing teams, and already they are making impactful contributions to our projects. As they continue to work with our teams, they are gaining real-time, real-world experience, while being mentored by some of the industry’s best talent.

Our clients benefit from our internship program with the added value of having a fresh set of eyes looking at their projects from an outsider’s perspective. As with anything, a fresh outlook can often bring exciting, new insight to a project. Our interns bring with them their fresh viewpoints, skill-sets and at times, new technologies they are learning about in school. They keep us young and “hip” and help us take our clients even further than before. We are excited to see what they will bring to the table this summer!

The Future of Video Advertising

Linx — Tue, 22 May 2018 07:09:11 +0000

The future of video advertising is upon us, with the emergence of a shorter, more concise video format.

The Six Second Video is Upon Us.

Back in January at a six-second hackathon at Sundance hosted by Google, the new format of utilizing the six-second video in advertising has picked up. Both Fox and Facebook have announced their decision to get on board with this format and YouTube has seen brands begin to feature these mini clips calling them “bumper ads”.

Google recently tested over 300 bumper ads, with results indicating that 9 out of 10 drove a significant lift in ad recall and 61% raised brand awareness. These short ads are being used to drive upper-funnel goals like ad recall and awareness. This cost effective approach ensure you can reach your target audience and ensure your message is heard.

These ads can be shown on their own, or paired with a campaign to increase deliverable reach and frequency. Larger companies like Michelin are getting on board with the six-second ad, and testing this new format to measure its success.

Michelin is able to utilize this video format to continue their goal to reach younger demographics – chasing after the elusive Millennials and Generation Z age groups who are known for having shorter attention spans.

For marketers, the six-second ads forces brands to be more specific and focused, there’s no room for excess information and only the most important information. Stories are told in a successive format or through a series, driving customers to come back for more. Facebook also announced in June that they were going to work on their own six-second ad game during their second-quarter earnings call.

Overall, these ads are short on time, but not short on impact.

With technology constantly changing our team has to be ready to take on new challenges for our clients. We recognize that we have to be ahead of the curve, which is why we are always Thinking Ahead. At Linx, we know that learning must be done at a rate greater than or equal to change so when the market shifts and the six-second video emerges, we’re ready for it. We are driving our clients not only understand new marketing approaches like the six-second video, but work with them to utilize these approaches to make their brand thrive.

As we move into the fourth quarter of the year, it’s time to consider your marketing strategy for the coming year and what will be a part of it. Should your business incorporate the six-second video in your marketing plan? Is this format right for your business? These are questions we can help answer as you build your 2018 strategy. Give us a call today.

The Year in Creativity: 20 Trends That Drove Some of 2016's Best Marketing

Linx — Fri, 06 Jan 2017 17:05:50 +0000

This year has been all about innovative thinking that led to some of the most interesting trends, themes, concepts and strategies marketing has ever seen. Did you use any of these trends in your marketing?

We’ve chosen the 10 best ads of 2016, led by Droga5’s brilliant spot for Under Armour with Michael Phelps. Now, let’s look at some of the major creative trends of 2016—the themes, concepts and strategies that invigorated marketers and led to some of the year’s most interesting work.
Below are the trends, in no particular order:
Fine Art
Advertising might not be art, but it embraced art like never before in 2016. Some of the most intriguing creative advertising of the year referenced, incorporated and in some cases promoted fine art. Among the notable campaigns: Leo Burnett Chicago’s “Van Gogh Bnb,” a life-size version of Van Gogh’s bedroom, made for the Art Institute of Chicago and rented out on Airbnb; J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam’s “The Next Rembrandt,” which had a computer study the master’s works and make a completely new painting in his style; and Goodby Silverstein & Partners’ “Dreams of Dali,” a VR experience that took viewers inside one of the surrealist’s works.

Disability
The Paralympic Games are always a resonant moment to shine a light on disability, and the U.K.’s Channel 4 didn’t disappoint, following up its famous 2012 spot about disabled athletes with a sequel, “We’re the Superhumans,” that was just as powerful. Disability was a focus of much brand marketing, too—from Lego’s disabled minifigure to a wonderfully cast Maltesers campaign to Burger King’s spot with the King using sign language. Also unforgettable—Grey Australia designing a bike that has the symptoms of MS.

Live Ads
Brands continued to embrace livestreaming in 2016, through products like Facebook Live and Periscope. They also produced some fascinating, more highly designed live commercials. The most impressive was Target and Deutsch’s live four-minute music video with Gwen Stefani that aired during the Grammy Awards. Also noteworthy—British grocer Waitrose broadcasting live from its partner farms for an entire week, and making TV spots and print ads from the footage.

Transparency
The trend toward being more open, honest and self-aware about the act of marketing only grew in 2016. Look no further than one of the year’s biggest movies, Deadpool, whose ad campaign was wonderfully meta and hilariously mindful of its own tropes (just as the film was). Other comically transparent ad campaigns included Droga5’s Clearasil work (below), which openly admitted its ignorance of the target. Most impressively transparent, though, was The Swedish Number, a tourism campaign that invited anyone in the world to dial a number and have a completely unmediated talk about the country with a random Swede.

Deception
Yes, brands were transparent—except when they weren’t. Several remarkable campaigns used elements of deception this year to deliver shockingly memorable surprises. Most notable were the Louise Delage campaign on Instagram for Addict Aide, with the fake French ingenue hiding a disturbing secret; and Sandy Hook Promise’s “Evan” PSA, which pretended to be a lighthearted story about young love before taking a troubling left turn.
Politics
It was obviously a huge political year, and lots of the advertising was creatively interesting—whether from ad agencies, brands, rogue creatives, super PACs or the politicians themselves. The two most memorable spots from candidates were the ones below—from Gerald Daugherty and Jason Kander. (Daugherty won his race, while Kander did not.)

Square and Vertical Video
Sorry, 16×9. This was the year when square and vertical video broke through for good, thanks to mobile apps like Instagram and Snapchat. Facebook’s vertical video ad format went live this fall, but vertical was even the rage back on the Super Bowl—a vertical spot, Jeep’s “Portraits,” was the best ad on the game. Meanwhile, Instagram inspired a ton of square creative, and not just video. One of the coolest Instagram campaigns of the year, by Goodby Silverstein & Partners, involved Sonic making square shakes in real life—inspired by Instagram and available for purchase through the app.

Artificial Intelligence
The rise of the robots continues apace. IBM’s Watson had a huge year, making its first movie trailer and AI-powered digital ads, as well as teaming up with Condé Nast to find influencers for brands. J. Walter Thompson Amsterdam’s “The Next Rembrandt” for bank client ING was a remarkable display of AI in creativity (mostly in the field of data visualization). And Google’s AlphaGo project won the Innovation Grand Prix at Cannes. Some ads explored the darker side of AI, too, including a French agency’s memorable spot about the limitations of robot caregivers.

360 and Virtual Reality
These new immersive video formats still haven’t hit their stride creatively (the Cannes Film jury in June honored just one VR piece, and that was mostly a token gesture). But brands are experimenting in interesting ways—from Google’s lovely film “Pearl” to Facebook’s Grand Central video to Samsung’s bedtime VR stories and this clever 360 PSA. McDonald’s even further democratized VR with Happy Meal boxes that turned into headsets.
The biggest VR triumph of the year was McCann’s “Field Trip to Mars” for Lockheed Martin, which was a brilliant group VR experience (though not exactly easy to scale). Less welcome, perhaps, was South Park’s fart-smelling VR device.

Hacking Photoshop
Adobe’s Photoshop tool has notoriously been a force for good and evil over the years, and continued to be a flashpoint in 2016—in ways both serious and lighthearted. Madonna Badger of Badger & Winters vowed not to airbrush women in her agency’s ads “to the point of perfection”—in delivering her #WomenNotObjects manifesto back in January. But the most sly critique of airbrushing came in the form of comedy—Snickers and BBDO New York’s hilarious back cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, showing a model airbrushed by retouchers who were too hungry to do the job properly.

Diversity
Advertising’s embrace of more diverse imagery has been building for years, but reached a new peak in 2016. It began with Axe, of all brands, launching the remarkably inclusive “Find Your Magic” campaign just two weeks into the year. Other highlights included H&M’s stunning “She’s a Lady” spot by Forsman & Bodenfors and P&G’s “Stress Test” work for Secret by Wieden + Kennedy. Also, post-election, at a time when the country never seemed so divided, Amazon had a big hit with its interfaith spot featuring a priest and an imam.

Ultra-Long Ads
Got a few hours (or days) to soak up some ads? Plenty of brands were willing to oblige, whether it was U.S. Cellular’s seven-hour preroll, Laphroaig’s three-hour-plus insult fest with Andy Daly, or Somersby Cider’s 24-hour (!) livestream of a guy making GIF-like repetitive movements.

Divorce
Advertisers have long shied away from the topic of divorce—understandably, but also oddly, given how many people experience it firsthand and would likely see messaging around it to be relatable. This year saw brands getting a little braver around the theme—with Ford making a whole short film around it, and Ikea producing the lovely ad below.

Clever Packaging
Great packaging ideas that embody a brand promise or utility are always delightful, and we saw many this year—particularly in the realm of soda and beer cans, oddly enough. Diet Coke used HP Indigo digital printing technology to create literally millions of completely unique labels. Bud Light’s expanded line of NFL cans was greeted warmly by football fans everywhere. Orangina made an upside-down can that mixed up the pulp when you flipped it over to open it. The most ingenious innovation, though, wasn’t a can but a six-pack ring made by New York agency We Believers for Saltwater Brewery—made of grains left over from the brewing process and totally edible to sea life.

Animals
Every year is a big year for animals in advertising, and 2016 was no exception. The Super Bowl, as usual, was a zoo—from Mountain Dew’s Puppymonkeybaby to Heinz’s “Wiener Stampede” to Honda’s singing sheep. Airbnb’s brilliant year of advertising included adorable print ads showing animal homes. In Japan, Ocedel Lighting had a hit with the awesomely weird “Firefly Man” (below) And one of our favorite ads of the year was fish-themed—DDB Stockholm’s odd, mesmerizing spot (also below) for e-commerce payment brand Klarna.

Return of the Prank
Prank advertising was on the decline a year or two ago, but it made a comeback in 2016. Two brands in particular took pleasure in real-world stunts—Heineken and JetBlue. The former orchestrated a pair of hilarious soccer pranks, while the latter had a fun with politics and babies crying on board its aircraft.

Female Strength
The rise of women in advertising has been happening for years, but 2016 saw some seriously potent executions that reinvigorated the trend once again. Among the standout work: Bodyform’s badass anthem about menstruating women via AMV BBDO; P&G’s entire “Stress Test” campaign for Secret by Wieden + Kennedy; Selfridges’s mystical, magical and powerful lingerie ad; and Nike’s world-beating “Da Da Ding” spot from India, also via W+K.

Championship Ads
There’s nothing quite like the first World Series victory in 108 years to spur a congratulatory ad. When the Cubs did it in October, Nike, Budweiser and ESPN were quickest on the draw—rolling out poignant and entertaining salutations perfectly timed to the end of the Series. For Nike, it was an encore, in a way—having done the same in the immediate wake of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ long-awaited NBA championship four months earlier.

Post-its
The lowly Post-it note had its moment in the sun this year, too. In advertising land, it was the building block of the very entertaining and creative Post-it Wars between companies on Canal Street—who used the stickies to make competing designs on their office windows. Post-its returned after the presidential election, too, as the materials for the famous “Subway Therapy” art project in a New York City subway station.

Goodbyes
It was a year of leave-taking, and brands were first in line with the farewells. Kobe Bryant and David Ortiz kept marketers busy with end-of-career tributes, while Dos Equis said an elaborate goodbye to Jonathan Goldsmith, its original Most Interesting Man in the World. Brands also saluted late musicians David Bowie (Audi used “Starman” on the Super Bowl) and Prince—for whom Corvette and McCann improvised the irresistible ad below.

Source: AdWeek December 15, 2016

Marketers Can Now Track Every Time Their Brands Are Seen or Mentioned on TV

Linx — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 15:46:26 +0000

This new platform could be a huge data hub for big name brands. With their data capturing technology, similar to that of Linx’s client IBM Watson, they are able to listen to all TV channels and capture data every time a brand is mentioned or seen.

In this changing TV landscape, marketers are still unsure how people are seeing their messages, at least until Nielsen completes its total audience measurement rollout in March, but they now have a way to track all visual and verbal mentions of their brands on television.
Media measurement company iQ Media has released a platform that allows brands to search live or historical TV programming for every appearance or mention of their names or logos—or those of their competitors—in both paid (i.e., advertising) and earned media.
iQ Media’s platform includes spoken-word detection technology and, in what the company said is an industry first, logo recognition technology to identify when a brand is seen or heard on TV. It also provides demographic, geographic and time-of-day stats, and lets marketers correlate the raw data with their own internal metrics.
“Our systems are designed to be able to listen and hear for the content, and to be able to distinguish whether it’s in paid or earned,” said John Derham, iQ Media’s chief technology officer. “We get depth and breadth of content and resources in an unprecedented time frame.”
Domino’s Pizza, Energizer, the NHL, Red Bull and Sonic Drive-In will all be using the new platform, which makes data available to clients within a couple of hours of its appearance on TV. (Nielsen and comScore’s brand-mention services take 30 days.) Marketers can enter keywords, brand names or logos for the platform to track, much like a Google alert, and use the data to measure the ROI of theirs or their competitors’ major media investments, as in this automotive breakdown:

Derham said the technology records 30 frames per second and can capture a logo, such as on a shirt or hat, that appears in as little as a single frame (see below). Clients can also access six years of historical TV programming to help in media planning and trend data.

“Most folks that we deal with in our client base know where their own ads are, because they’re buying them, but they have very little insight into where their competitors are,” said Derham. “It gives you an incredible amount of insight into being able to make local buys that can be in markets that are resonating, and do it in a much more timely, efficient and certain matter.”
In all 210 designated market areas, or DMAs, the platform can report earned and paid media mentions. The logo and image recognition is currently only the top 100 DMAs, but the company expects it to roll out to all 210 next year.
Platform shows how Donald Trump’s local ad buys paid off
Some of the platform’s insights help explain Donald Trump’s surprise election victory over Hillary Clinton last week, said Derham. iQ Media found that Clinton spent a far larger percentage of her campaign advertising on national buys (26.2 percent) instead of targeting specific DMAs.
Trump, on the other hand, targeted very specific markets, many of which were in swing states that he ultimately won like Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina and Wisconsin. Trump spent almost as much of his ad budget in Florida (12.3 percent) as he did on total national advertising (14.1 percent).
“Over the last couple of weeks, Clinton spent a lot of her campaign money at the national level and the national cable stations,” said Derham. “Towards the end of the last two weeks, Trump spent all of his money on the local markets and really spent a lot of money in the swing states, especially Southern Florida, Miami-Dade County, Philadelphia.”
“[Earlier in the campaign] Trump dominated the earned media, made himself accessible, which resonated into the local markets, where [Clinton] was peppering the swing states with ads that stepped on Trump as a candidate and didn’t lift her up,” Derham said.
Once iQ Media’s new platform is up and running, Derham has plans for expanding the platform, including providing more context references to the logos that are found.
“Are you watching a sports event—soccer players or football players? Is it an interview? Is it a boy riding a bike in a park? That will add a depth and breadth to it that will expand on some things we already have, like tonality,” he said.
Derham also wants to improve the platform’s reach and speed.
“There’s no reason why we can’t do this on any television station anywhere in the world, and there’s no reason why we can’t do this and bring it down to 30 seconds,” he said. “We see all of those things within our parameters right now. It’s just a function of how quick we want to be.”
Source: AdWeek November 14, 2016

What the Proliferation of Fake News on Google and Facebook Means for Advertisers

Linx — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 15:37:34 +0000

Not only do fake news stories affect people who consume these stories, but also the other companies that are featured around them. Responsible brands want to advertise on responsible platforms, and if Facebook and Google can’t get a handle on these websites that are publishing fictional information, certain brands may start to pull back on their advertising.

Just days after facing harsh criticism for allowing fake news stories to be read unchecked across the internet, Google and Facebook are now rushing to put in place policies that cut off advertising dollars for websites publishing fictional information. The move—which aims to potentially stem the flow of false information that some say helped propel Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s march to the White House—could be a first step by the tech giants toward clearing themselves of content that’s seen as harmful to both users and the brands that place their names next to it.
But if they can’t clear the weeds fast enough, will advertising dollars head to purer grounds? Or, with Google and Facebook’s amazing scale, does it even matter to brands?
“I think it should [matter],” said Red Interactive Agency’s CEO Brian Lovell. “Responsible brands want to advertise on responsible platforms.”
According to Sastry Rachakonda, CEO of iQuanti, advertisers don’t have a lot of options if they want to go where their audiences are, especially if Facebook and Google continue to get 85 cents of every new dollar spent on digital advertising in the U.S.
“Both these platforms are by far the most effective digital-marketing options—because of the sheer size of audiences and targeting capabilities,” Rachakonda said. “Given that users are rapidly gravitating to consuming content online, we don’t see advertisers pulling back.”
Others think it might be time to reconsider.
“It may be right for certain brands to pause social advertising while sentiment (which their ads appear around) settles into a more positive, hopeful tone,” said Caitlin McDaniel, associate director of social media at GSD&M. “But the majority of brands’ reputations with consumers will not be tarnished by continuing business as usual with Facebook.”

While advertisers are not necessarily going to pull the plug overnight and walk away, the battle against fake news could be part of the process for better defining Facebook’s role in an information era, said Kyle Bunch, head of social strategy at R/GA. Bunch also raised another question: If brands are liable for the claims they make about products, why shouldn’t news be held to the same standard?
“I think Facebook has been very good at being a tech company when it serves them and being a media company when it serves them,” he said.
He later added: “In less than 20 years, we’ve gone from Bill Clinton getting impeached after the former president said [in relation to the Monica Lewinsky scandal], ‘it depends on what the definition of ‘is’ is’, to the largest media outlet in the world basically hiding behind the same dodge. One has to appreciate one of the world’s largest companies embracing existentialism so wholeheartedly.”
And in a year when truth is truly stranger than fiction, Oxford Dictionaries on Tuesday named “post-truth” as its 2016 Word of the Year, defining it as “an adjective defined as ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.”

What this means for brands
Bunch noted that Facebook and Google aren’t the only companies to blame. He said others—including Twitter, Taboola and Outbrain—also share some of the guilt for allowing fake news and click bait to spread either through user-generated content or sensational stories.
“You couldn’t be a billion-dollar business in America until now and put stuff out there that’s blatantly wrong and not have some accountability for it,” Bunch said.
Monik Sanghvi, chief strategy officer at Organic, said it matters to big brand advertisers that major tech companies like Facebook, Google and others do everything they can to ensure quality information is distributed across their platforms.
“Big brands have always cared greatly about ‘where’ their brand is placed and, even in the programmatic era,” Sanghvi said. “There are platforms of questionable quality where brands work to ensure they do not appear.”
Sanghvi added, “While it’s doubtful that there would be an immediate and sizeable backlash, the topic could easily gain steam if the ‘scale platforms’ do nothing to change this perception.”
This year has taught tech watchers that incremental shifts yield outsized results, said Topher Burns, group director of product innovation at Deep Focus.
“There are many reasons for Facebook and Google to address this problem,” he said. “First off, the signal itself is important: that platforms care about the type of content they popularize and are taking a stand. It’s also important from a long-term perspective. Facebook left this election cycle being seen as the place to find radicalization and propaganda, to fight with your friends and family. They’ve got to protect the value of their inventory by taking a firm stance on quality.”
According to Scott Linzer, vp of owned media at iCrossing, brands expect advertisers and tech companies to identity where content is fake. He said tech companies need to do something to help right the ship. Even if fake stories exist, he said consumers will continue looking for accurate information.
“While there is scrutiny and concern, ultimately, I think the platforms learn from this,” he said.
How tech giants are trying to change
On Monday, Facebook amended its Audience Network policy to state that it will not display ads in websites or mobile apps that hold fake news. That same day, Google revealed a similar mandate that prohibits ads from being published on fake news sites.
“We clearly didn’t get it right, but we are continually working to improve our algorithms,” a Google spokeswoman said in a statement to The Wall Street Journal.
Linzer of iCrossing, added, “And I think the more they showcase how they learn, and either tighten controls or use technology to understand the content correctly and whether it’s true or not, I think it [could] even more solidify their prominence as leading brands where advertisers still see a good opportunity to continue their investments.”
News organizations are also keeping a close eye on what the tech companies do next. Francesco Marconi, strategy manager for the Associated Press, said the approach to news distribution should be reconsidered in order to avoid incentives for fake news and sensationalist click bait. He said the election was an “inflection point,” or a “wake-up call,” for the importance of factual information.
“Since the advent of the internet, publishers have been trying to leverage distribution channels—such as search engine and social media networks—to drive traffic to their own websites,” he said. “The amount of money earned corresponds at least indirectly with the size of the audience visiting their pages, which creates an incentive to generate as much as content as possible.”
According to Marconi, further innovation is needed in storytelling so that focus is placed more on quality than commodity information. On the platform side, that means tech companies like Twitter, Google and Facebook creating a safe environment for news consumers in the same ways they monitor inappropriate content. That could come in the form of a reliability metric, which could be created in close collaboration with news media companies.
Creating a fake news database
To help people properly consume information they see online, one professor has taken it upon herself to crowdsource a massive list of fake news websites that she and others have seen across the internet.
Melissa Zimdars, an assistant professor of communications and media at Merrimack College in Massachusetts, has already identified hundreds—with at least 300 more waiting to be vetted and potentially added to the growing list. As a result, some people have created a plug-in for Google Chrome that lets readers see if what they’re reading is on Zimdars’ list of questionable websites.
“I do think that for a lot of people who just don’t know or who are maybe more moderate, maybe people who are open to different political and cultural discourses, that this might help them more,” she said. “Some people might never be reached by this technology, but others could be greatly served by it.”
Facebook, in particular, has had success in cleaning out its platform when it comes to misleading-information problems in the past. Six years ago, consumer scams—that often damaged brands like IKEA—were far more common on the site than they are now. Issues surrounding “news,” though, may be much more difficult to grapple with. Zimdars said that labeling certain websites as “fake” could open them up to taking sides on defining what is true and not true.
“It will likely be seen as another example of an ‘establishment’ or a corporate controlling of information,” she said, “so I would imagine that among a lot of groups, it could be read as trying to stifle the truth.”
So what is truth, and who defines it in the age of the internet? Facebook might still be wrestling through how it answers that age-old question. On Tuesday afternoon Vice correspondent Nellie Bowles tweeted out an exchanged she had with a Facebook spokesperson while trying to learn more about the company’s plans.

Source: AdWeek November 16, 2016

Why Hedge Funds, Militaries, and NGOs All Want This Company's Satellites

Linx — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 15:27:44 +0000

If you thought you could keep certain things hidden from the world, think again. Thanks to new, more cost-effective technology, soon there will be satellites that can track every cargo transfer or hedge fund trade, listen in on various government agencies and so much more. Say hello to a new Big Brother. We work closely with our clients, including Watson’s Partner of the Year, to stay up-to-date on the newest API technology that can help protect our clients and innovate as we move towards the future.

You might think one of the coolest perks of being in the space business would be watching blastoffs from the VIP viewing pavilion. Peter Platzer doesn’t think so. He’s the founder and CEO of Spire, a pioneer in the booming commercial universe known as new space, and he has never witnessed a Spire launch in person.
“It’s exciting from a physics perspective,” he allows. “But for me, from a company perspective, that’s where we have the least control.”
Rockets, you see, are not Platzer’s business. Satellites are. Very small satellites, about the size and shape of a whiskey-bottle box. Each costs less than $1 million to build and deploy, versus half a billion dollars for the latest government-grade spy satellites. They’re assembled largely with off-the-shelf components, the same as what’s in your smartphone, and, like your phone, Spire’s satellites don’t last forever–two years, maybe three, before they tumble out of orbit and vaporize during reentry. That’s not a liability; it’s an asset. Regular turnover ensures that the technology is always fresh. (Who wants a four-year-old phone?) They have onboard cameras, though not amazing ones; they can’t spot your backpack from outer space. But that’s OK. They’re not up there to watch. They’re there to listen: to radio signals from objects equipped with transmitters, and to light waves that can measure temperature and humidity in the atmosphere with astonishing accuracy.
Spire is all about that data. New data, plucked from outer space, the market for which includes passenger and cargo conveyors of all kinds (especially ships; 90 percent of global trade is seafaring), hedge funds, commodities traders, secretive anti-pirate security companies (seen the movie Captain Phillips?), various government agencies (civil and military), and NGOs. Anybody, that is, who regularly sends human or hard assets into the still vast, digitally dark regions of the planet, and anybody else who wants to know where those assets are. That part of Spire’s business is akin to Google’s business organizing the world’s bits and bytes. It’s what investment banker Jim Murray of PJT Partners calls “the audacious vision of new space: a global, searchable database of where stuff is. Every car, every truck, every container, every ship, every airplane.” It’s coming, says Murray. When it arrives, he adds, mysteries like “the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 will never happen again.”
Geolocation accounts for about three-quarters of Spire’s projected $20 million of revenue in 2016, but it’s not what excites Platzer most. He’s more interested in a technology called GPS radio occultation–or GPSRO–which uses satellites to take precise beads on temperature and humidity the world over, calculate wind speeds, and deliver troves of hitherto unavailable atmospheric data to meteorologists and climate scientists eager to plug them into their models.
“I can’t think of anything more valuable for seeing how Earth is affected by greenhouse gases,” says GPSRO pioneer Sandy MacDonald, former director of the Earth System Research Laboratory, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). “This should give us a much clearer understanding of how the planet’s climate is changing.”
Platzer is on board with that mission. It’s one of the reasons he lured MacDonald to Spire in April, and set him up with his own research team in Boulder, Colorado. “But I wouldn’t have started a company based only on that, because I don’t know how to sell it,” Platzer says. Rather, his eye is on the estimated one-third of the $18 trillion U.S. economy that he thinks might pay a premium for game-changing forecasts. “Weather forecasting as accurate as Swiss train schedules,” he says. “That is the goal.”
Platzer, who’s 47, is built like a small bull–barrel chest, round shoulders, bright eyes, shaved head. He’s a native Austrian who read Einstein as a teenager, studied physics at the Technical University of Vienna, and did research for his master’s thesis at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching, Germany. He’s long been fascinated by all things space, but when he began his career in the 1990s, space was still a lousy business. So he signed on with the business consultancy BCG, traveled throughout Europe and Asia, went on to earn his MBA at Harvard, and spent a decade on Wall Street building quantitative investment models for emerging markets. While living in New York, he shed all but the faintest trace of his Austrian accent and met his future wife, Theresa Condor, a former Citi banker who’s now Spire’s head of sales. Condor says she was attracted to Platzer’s geeky brilliance, but claims he has many “interesting artistic angles as well.” He’s a skilled ballroom dancer, an accomplished tenor who courted Condor by inviting her to hear him perform at Carnegie Hall, and a bit of a dandy who enjoys taking his wife shopping and choosing her dresses, jewelry, and shoes.

A crane at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida lifts a pressurized cargo module containing, among other items, Spire satellites. The module will be loaded onto a rocket that will also deliver hardware and supplies to the International Space Station.
CREDIT: Courtesy NASA/Bill White

The turning point in Platzer’s career came in 2009, at an eight-day executive program hosted by Singularity University, the Silicon Valley think tank founded by futurists Peter Diamandis and Ray Kurzweil (both friends of cover subject Tony Robbins). Singularity U. is all about leveraging rapidly developing “exponential technologies” to achieve great things. Platzer arrived there hoping to learn about broad trends driving global markets and become a smarter investor. By the time he left, all he could think about was space.
From the dawn of the Space Age in the 1950s until quite recently, space was the exclusive domain of wealthy nations and a handful of giant, well-capitalized companies, like Intelsat and SES. It was risky, time-consuming, and expensive, too rich for venture capitalists and out of reach for most entrepreneurs. But during his brief time at Singularity U., Platzer says, he began to perceive what he calls “the trifecta of forces” that were reshaping the industry: cash-strapped governments slashing space budgets; wealthy, legacy-minded entrepreneurs (Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Paul Allen) stepping up to build private-sector alternatives; and, most crucially, the commercialization of nanotechnology, beginning with the smartphone.
“Pretty much every satellite put up in the first 50 years was people building on NASA’s Apollo program,” says Dave Cowan of Bessemer Venture Partners, which is among the investors that have put $66.5 million into Spire. “They were basically taking old platforms and making them bigger so they would last longer, with more redundant systems and more radiation hardening.”
That technology brought us the first live Olympic broadcasts, international phone calls, satellite radio and TV, high-def TV–and ultimately a wave of bankruptcies. Those satellites, as big as school buses, took so long to develop and cost so much to build and launch that the trick to making them pay off was keeping them up there for years, even decades. Meanwhile, technological advances back on Earth were rendering them obsolete, sometimes before they even took off. “Most every satellite in orbit is a floating dinosaur,” Cowan wrote in a 2014 white paper outlining his investment strategy, “a bloated, one-off, expensive, often militarized, monolithic relic of the mainframe era.” He called for a new generation of space entrepreneurs “to launch modern computer networks into space” and disrupt “our aging infrastructure.”
The platform for that modern network has been around since 1999, when a team of college students from Cal Poly and Stanford created the CubeSat–a stackable case, about four inches square, that accepts standard electronic components and slots easily into the cargo compartment of most rockets. The rocket blasts off and sheds boosters stage by stage until nothing’s left but the cone, where the payload resides. Then a hatch opens, a cocked spring explodes, and the satellite flies free.
Suddenly anyone could build and design a satellite, just by going online and ordering the parts. And launching was easy to outsource–to government space programs around the world, or to startups like SpaceX. Rockets that were taking off anyway were happy to balance their primary payloads with a secondary load of CubeSats (rather than bags of sand), for short money.

A Spire satellite in orbit, approximately 250 miles above Earth.
CREDIT: Courtesy Spire

Once CubeSats became the industry standard, they quickly accomplished for satellites what the IBM motherboard did for personal computing, spawning a whole new industry of commodity parts suppliers. The linear, as the concept is understood at Singularity U., became exponential, harvesting in one fell swoop the neglected bounty of Moore’s law and applying the gains to space.
In 2010, Platzer’s employer, Deutsche Bank, shut down the trading desk where he worked and sent him away with a generous severance. His first thought was: Great–I’ll invest my windfall in a master’s degree from International Space University in Strasbourg, France. But by then, he and Condor were an item, though not yet married, and Condor wasn’t ready to make that kind of commitment. Platzer was patient. He stifled his reborn obsession, found another job on Wall Street, and stuck it out for one more year until Condor softened, on one condition: no grad-student housing. Platzer found a nice apartment and sold two museum-quality pieces from his collection of vintage HP calculators to cover the rent.
At ISU, Platzer met two twentysomething engineers who would become his co-founders–Jeroen Cappaert, from Belgium, and Joel Spark, from Canada. They bonded over Ping-Pong, late-night study sessions, and their shared status as newly minted members of ISU’s elite Space Mafia. Cappaert remembers Platzer then as “a dreamer” but “very data-driven. If someone else were to say, ‘OK, in the next 10 years there will be X amount of satellites in space,’ you’d say, ‘You’re crazy.’ But when Peter says something like that, he has evidence to support his prediction.”
Platzer wrote a research paper at ISU on the emerging business ecosystem of nanosatellites, for which he interviewed about 100 industry experts. His surprise takeaway: There is a direct correlation between the depth of cynicism about nanosatellites and the depth of experience in the space industry. “The more they knew about space, the less they realized about the looming opportunity,” Platzer says. “Knowledge of the field made them more disruptable, not less.”
By the time all three graduated, in May 2012, they had a pretty good idea, based on pure inductive reasoning, of what kind of satellite company they wanted to start: How do we create a sustainable advantage? What is the natural habitat we can occupy? Where is small size not a disadvantage? The answers all led them to the same place: away from imaging, a popular niche already dominated by companies like Planet and Skybox, and toward listening, or signal intelligence. Less sexy, more versatile–and not nearly as crowded.
The clincher for Platzer was the limitless potential he saw in GPSRO. “My thesis in nuclear fusion was based on exactly the same principle,” he says. “I immediately got the physics of it. And the thing about GPSRO is that it has nothing to do with the size of the satellites. It’s all about the number of satellites. To get the most value, you need lots of them. It’s perfect for satellites you can build cheaply and launch easily.”
That spring they started a $100,000 Kickstarter campaign to fund an academic research mission. “If it passes, we’ll know it’s the real deal” is how Spark describes their thinking at the time. “And if not, OK, maybe we’re just space nerds and it’s not really so valuable.” It passed–scoring $40,000 in under a week, and 116 percent of the goal in 40 days. The founders moved to San Francisco and set up shop in hardware incubator Lemnos Labs, which invested another $100,000. Spire had found its launch pad.
As a child growing up outside Vienna in nearby Suedstadt, Platzer once complained to his dad, “It’s annoying that my passport says ‘Austria.’ I want it to say ‘citizen of Earth.'”
It might as well say that now. He’s easiest to track down in Scotland, where he and Condor are raising their 2-year-old daughter in Glasgow. (Platzer preferred Vienna, but the British government offered better incentives.) Spire’s Glasgow office is on the fifth floor of a boxy, aluminum-clad building on the west side of town. A large video monitor by the door carries 24-hour live feeds from Spire’s nominal headquarters in San Francisco, where Platzer also has an apartment, and company outposts in Singapore and Boulder. Total employees in four offices: 105, representing more than a dozen nationalities.
Platzer won’t identify any of Spire’s customers. He’s secretive, and so are they. But it’s known they include the navies and coast guards of friendly countries the world over that keep tabs on activity in their territorial waters (the U.S., for instance, claims an “exclusive economic zone” nearly twice the size of its land mass); NOAA and its foreign equivalents; big companies that operate, like metals corporation Rio Tinto, by producing and shipping commodities all over the world; and hedge funds that can make money trading on oil prices if they know where all the tankers in the world are at any given moment. Platzer says his revenue is “more tilted in the short term to commercial,” but expects that will change: “There are deep pockets with interest in our capabilities that tend to be more on the government side.”
Spire is on track to reach an important goal by year’s end: 20 satellites, 20 ground stations, $20 million in revenue, and its first-ever profit. Spire launched the first four of its current generation of Lemur-2 satellites–Joel, Peter, Jeroen, and Chris, named for Spire’s first four employees–a year ago. Currently it has 13 in orbit, eight in a closet in Glasgow, eight in San Francisco, and four all packed up and ready for liftoff in Texas. A scheduled launch in July was postponed, for reasons beyond Spire’s control. That happens a lot. Not a constraint, Platzer claims, but rather “an immense barrier to entry.” Everyone’s working with the same pipeline and “we have booked every flight,” he says. “It may take me a while to get all my satellites up there, but no one else can do it sooner.”
That’s what it takes to build an organization that, Platzer says, will survive in a world of ever-accelerating change. “Thirty years from now, 40 percent of global GDP is going to be driven by the collection and analysis and use of data. We collect data where no one else can. And that data is relevant for global problems,” he concludes. “It’s not about saving the world. It’s just doing something that matters.”
Source: Inc.com October , 2016

Retailers Can Now Request That Uber Drop Off Customers Right in Front of Their Stores

Linx — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 14:57:44 +0000

Retailers are constantly looking for innovative ways to get customers through their doors, and piggybacking off apps that consumers already use is becoming increasingly popular. Earlier this year Pokemon Go! users were encouraged to visit retailers conveniently disguised as Poke Stops, and this holiday season, retailers are calling upon Uber drivers to deliver customers to their doorstop, literally. This approach offers an entirely new way to develop leads without as much of the work that’s typically been involved in cold lead sourcing in the past. Like our LeadLinx platforms, finding innovative and fresh ways to target consumers is the only way to be efficient in today’s marketing environment.

Holiday shopping is just about to kick into gear, and brands now have one more app to consider for marketing this year—Uber. Today the ride-hailing app is partnering with location-data company Yext to let brands create in-app campaigns.
Uber has already worked with brands like Dick’s Sporting Goods and Casper to deliver on-demand products but now appears to opening up the actual app as a marketing platform.
Here’s how it works: Brands can use Yext’s software to plug Uber’s API into their mobile apps, sites and emails. Clicking on the button opens the Uber app—or prompts people to download it—and shows consumers where the store is located. Brands can then specify an exact address or location on a map where they want the person dropped off. Macy’s, for example, can ask Uber drivers to drop a rider directly at the door of its Herald Square location in New York instead of dropping them off at the corner (where they’re less likely to walk straight into the store).
While consumers still pay for the Uber ride, brands can set up campaigns within Uber once someone is in the car. In one example, brands can link a pin on an Uber map to a website showing in-store inventory at a shop. Or, a restaurant could pull its menu information into the app. The brands have to be paying Yext clients.
Yext said Cole Haan tested the Uber button to promote its fall collection in New York recently. And home healthcare company Bayada is using the tool to target job seekers with information about the company that interviewees can read while in the car.
“We’re closing the loop so that businesses can provide a great experience all the way from search results to checkout, which includes actually getting to the location,” Marc Ferrentino, evp of strategy and product at Yext, said in a statement.
Whether the idea will catch on in cities smaller than New York and where Uber is not as big— and consumers don’t rely on ride-hailing apps to go shopping—isn’t clear. But it will be intriguing to see how brands use Uber for location-based advertising.

Source: AdWeek September 9, 2016

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Is Now a Complete Disaster: Can the Brand Recover?

Linx — Thu, 15 Sep 2016 14:12:02 +0000

This is the call every executive has nightmares about. Because Samsung is such a strong and until now flawless brand, I would say they will recover, just like Coke (new Coke) and Tylenol and Audi.

After news started circulating recently that dozens of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7s were catching fire and exploding from overheated batteries, the South Korean company was already looking at a damaged-goods situation for its brand. Then it was revealed that a 6-year-old boy in Brooklyn, N.Y., had to be rushed to the hospital over the weekend to be treated for burns he experienced when his Galaxy Note 7 exploded in his hands.
That piece of news really pushed Samsung’s problems into viral territory. “He doesn’t want to see or go near any phones,” his grandmother told the New York Post.
Now, Samsung has a branding problem on its hands like never before. Few products in gadget history have gotten off to such a bad start.
The fiasco “couldn’t come at a worse time,” said Ben Hordell, founding partner of DXagency.
Earlier this month, Samsung launched a voluntary recall of the 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 units it’s sold since launching the high-end device ($850 retail), which was billed as a “powerful instrument for achievement and self-expression and is made for those who want to get the most from their phones.” Last week, the Federal Aviation Administration in the U.S. put out a statement asking fliers not to turn on or charge the phones on flights. It additionally warned travelers not to store the devices in checked luggage.
On Friday, the manufacturer asked all smartphone owners to shut off and return their phones for a new device by Sept. 30.
“In response to our recent announcement regarding battery cell issues with the Galaxy Note7, we are advising that you power down your Note7 and exchange it now, as part of our U.S. Product Exchange Program for all Galaxy Note7 owners,” Samsung said in a statement. “We strongly advise all customers to use this exchange program because your safety is our top priority. Additional sales and shipments of the affected devices have been stopped, but if you already have a Galaxy Note7, we strongly advise that you replace it.”
In addition, customers who swap their phones receive a $25 gift card that can either be used in-store or as credit toward their bill.
It has been a blow for Samsung, especially as Apple looks to lock in preorders of its iPhone 7 in the coming weeks. By Monday, Samsung Electronics’ shares had fallen by roughly 7 percent, and $14.3 billion has been wiped off the brand’s market capitalization.
“With the recent buzz surrounding the iPhone 7 and the potential for Samsung users to be without their device for a period of time, the idea of switching will gain steam,” Hordell said. “Apple was dealing with some blowback regarding headphone jacks and the potential to lose AirPods. These concerns are far outweighed by a 6-year-old being burned by a phone.”
“I think they’ll have to overdeliver on future products to cover,” added Chris Tuff, evp and director of business development and partnerships at 22squared.
Besides safety concerns, the recall may hurt Samsung’s goal of attracting high-end media and brand partnerships, said Stephen Beck, founder and CEO of Engine Digital.
“While I don’t imagine this will stop brands and agencies from developing for Android, as it reaches far beyond Samsung hardware, I do see this creating some challenges for Samsung from a partnership perspective,” he said. “As we’re seeing across hardware, software and media brands, exclusive sponsored content and experiences are becoming more and more a part of the toolkit in attracting and retaining users. Losing those valuable partnerships could be an added blow beyond a hit to the stock price.”
Andrew Howlett, chief digital officer at Rain, disagreed, saying the recall won’t impact consumers’ opinions of Samsung.
“Consumers will see this as a hardware issue and won’t associate it with the software or experiential side of the product,” he said.
Meanwhile, Hordell had some logical but sound advice for marketers on how they should talk about smartphones in the coming weeks and months.
“I would caution brands to avoid saying their new phones are ‘hot’ or ‘on fire,'” he said. “It may sound silly, but the issue is serious. And when in crisis, brands must choose their words carefully.”
Source: AdWeek September 12, 2016