Category Archives: digital media

June 14, 2012 · 8:55 am

Changing Media Dynamics

A couple of pieces of research this morning that confirm and clarify what many folks have been observing independently but which also made me a bit more confused.  In this case, it has to do with how our media habits are changing with respect to television.

Google TV

Google TV (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Frankly, I’m not even sure what TV is any more despite many years working in the industry.  A “TV” is a screen, and we’re surrounded by screens of that sort and many others, the use of which is reflected in the research.  In any event, the data are interesting and even more so when one considers the changes that are happening to the businesses behind the screens.

Let’s start with information from a TV industry group – CIMM.  The released a study which you can access here about How Multi-Screen Consumers Are Changing Media Dynamics:

Studying 10 broadcast network and cable brands over a five-week period, the research found that an average of 90% of consumers who engaged with brand did so on TV, and 25% did so online, and 12% via online video. In addition, comScore and CIMM found that 60% of a media brand’s consumers accessed both TV and the web during simultaneous 30-minute increments, and 29% accessed Facebook while watching TV. To the researchers, this suggests that digital platforms may be used to support the TV-viewing experience and drive multi platform engagement.

So multi platform is here.  What I think is lost a bit is that it may not necessarily mean multi-screen:

21% of consumers now have their TVs hooked up to the internet, a 5% increase from last year’s levels.The Magid Media Futures report says gaming consoles (Nintendo’s Wii, Sony’s PlayStation3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360) are currently the “primary means” of connecting a TV to the internet, followed by “smart-TVs,” Blu-ray players, and then OTT devices like Roku, AppleTV or GoogleTV. The firm says early adopters skew toward men, as 56% of male respondents between the ages of 18-44 say they have their TVs connected to the web vs. 44% of females.

There’s also research from The NPD Group which finds that 66% of all big screen (50+inches) HDTVs are made with the ability to connect to the internet without a separate device, while only 1% of TVs smaller than 32 inches have the same technology.  Yes, we’re watching a mash-up of difference sources, brands, and technologies but no, it might not be through a TV, an iPad, and a phone.

So what’s it called?  TV?  Enhanced video?  A mess?  Let’s hear your thoughts.

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June 7, 2012 · 8:18 am

What IE10 Means To You

Microsoft did something that’s causing a ruckus in the digital ad industry.  To me, it’s a logical, consumer-friendly move that is in line with best-practices.  To others, it’s…

English: Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer w...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

a step backwards in consumer choice, and we fear it will harm many of the businesses, particularly publishers, that fuel so much of the rich content on the internet.

That quote is from the head of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, and the move in question is to turn on “Do Not Track” in the new version of Internet Explorer.  Another group – the Digital Advertising alliance (the IAB is a founding member) began a campaign earlier this year to inform consumers about interest-based advertising and how to take greater control of their online privacy.  According to the boilerplate in their press releases

These associations and their thousands of members are committed to developing effective self-regulatory solutions to consumer choice in online behavioral advertising.

One last quote:

A default setting that automatically blocks content violates a consumer’s right to choose, and doesn’t factor in the need for digital businesses to innovate and thrive economically.

That’s from the IAB’s official response just in case you think I’m making this up.  However, we’ve finally got to the truth:  this is about commerce and not about consumer choice.

As a digital marketing person I’m certainly aware of the benefits some tracking technologies bring to consumers, who might not even understand that they’re seeing more interesting ads and offers because of it.  However, I also know that most users do not change the default settings on their browsers (ever wonder why those deals to make certain pages the default home or search page are worth so much?).  Apparently, the DAA only supports consumer choice when the default is set to “on”.

This isn’t about blocking ads or blocking content.  It doesn’t block cookies.  It’s a browser setting that sends a message to every website you visit saying you prefer not to be tracked. While that flag is optional for sites and ad nets to obey, it’s gaining momentum with Twitter embracing it.  To me it’s about protecting consumers, even those who don’t know they need it and I don’t buy that defaulting the consumer’s choice to be the way you want it as a business is necessarily the best, or even the right, way.

Unfortunately, the new version of the the latest proposed draft of the Do Not Track specification published Wednesday requires that users must choose to turn on the anti-behavioral tracking feature in their browsers and software.  That means that IE10 will be out of compliance with the standard and, therefore, ad nets and others are free to ignore the browser setting.

I’m always sad when smart people do dumb things such as choosing their businesses over their users.  Let’s see where this leads but I don’t think the conversation is over.  Do you?  Where do you come out on this?

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May 31, 2012 · 8:48 am

Likejacking

Fascinating piece in Business Week on some of the spam practices within social media.  While the focus is on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, it reminds all of us who create content sites that we need to be vigilant about protecting our sites and our users from these dirt bags.  The piece cites an executive from an anti-spam software company who stated that spammers create as many as 40 percent of the accounts on social media sites. About 8 percent of messages sent via social pages are spam, approximately twice the volume of six months ago.  Because the email providers have become pretty good about filtering out obvious spam, the spammer have moved on to social.

What they’re doing now is embedding code that forces a “like” into a link to a page with something such as a video as bait.  Likejacking.  On Twitter, it’s provocative text linking to spam; on Pinterest it’s a photo that links to a virus or other spam.  I don’t think many of us are engaged in doing this – it seems to be a few rotten apples, some of whom have been sued.  Or are we?

There is still a tendency for marketers to use social media as we used to use traditional media – we talk, they listen.  We broadcast messages and wait for the register to ring.  Today, doing that on a Facebook brand page or within a Twitter feed is a sure way to get blocked, unfriended, hidden, or ignored.  To a certain extent, any sort of one-sided discussion is seen as spam in many folks’ minds.

We spend too much time wondering if social is marketing or PR or customer service.  We might argue about which department ought to control it.  Those are good discussions to have but what we can’t be doing in the interim is flooding our fans’ news feeds with off-target messages about us when we ought to be listening and engaging where appropriate with them.    Otherwise, how are we different from the likejackers?

Thoughts?

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