Digital | John Partilla: Blog about the Digital Space

Category: Digital

July 29, 2017

Spending Power & Millennial-Focused Marketing

Young people have incredible spending power.

With approximately 77 million Millennials worldwide, we know that this subgroup is responsible for $1.3 trillion in annual buying power in the U.S., despite only representing 1.4 percent of the population, said Forbes.

For this reason, the ‘social network generation’ is thoughtful, powerful influencers. This demographic swims and breathes in digital spaces, and now how to market to this group could be a valid career move, According to Neilsen.

With that understood, there are some things you should know about this group, including the fact that opinionated informants and eager players are eager to purchase high-end brands.

No point in attempting to trick millennials. They recognize when they’re being targeted. Rather than composing a campaign that’s generic and swollen with cliches or old marketing tricks, review trends and meet them where they are. Understand that they’re interested in the way a brand associated with politics and activism.

They aren’t rich. Millennials may spend a lot of money, but they aren’t the least bit wealthy. They’ve graduated from college with massive amounts of debt, they can’t afford to purchase homes, and they’re frequently in search of the right getaway. Rather than store away thousands for a home, instead they choose to spend their funds on vacations and concerts.

There’s an apparent thirst for knowledge when it comes to Millennials. This group researches EVERYTHING. They don’t pick up a plate or a product without knowing details about others who bought it and how much they enjoyed it. Personal references are incredibly important to this group.

Frequently they steer clear of big brands and opt for the smaller guy. They search the opinions of micro-influencers, and they examine those recommendations for the next big thing.

Customer services, in the form of chat conversations, are all-important. They reach out over Twitter, SnapChat, and other apps, expecting prompt responses –and they take note when a brand isn’t available 24/7 to meet their concerns.

Because of their varied interests, Millennials love when their favorite influencers, brands, or artists collaborate on projects. They search the web on their numerous devices to find updates about the emergence of new entertainment and move on to the next thing if they find unsatisfying results.

With that said, millennials are continually known for their brand loyalty and their interest in social justice. Is there something we forgot about this demographic? What else should marketers know?

Nielsen, Forbes, and Bloomberg were the primary sources for this blog post.

John Partilla is the CEO of Screenvision, and he’s a veteran of the marketing industry with nearly three decades of experience in a variety of roles. Please read “John Partilla Named Screenvision CEO,” “John Partilla: Screenvision Names Exec CEO – Variety,” “Screenvision Taps John Partilla To Be CEO As It Seeks To Rebuild” and his Screenvision profile to learn more. Also, check out his Crunchbase, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

July 29, 2017

4 Shifts In The Dynamic World of Marketing

Entertainment and media are always changing, and with these changes, we notice that many are documenting and tracking the incredible shift in trends. Healthcare, retail, and entertainment are experiencing a digital transformation that’s altering the way we communicate, connect, and consume product-enabled technology. Forbes reports, we binge watch, but we also binge buy and quickly make health decisions thanks to available platforms, such as ZocDoc.

There are other interesting ways media has transformed ad marketing thanks to the actions and habits of users.

Multitasker and Multichannel-seekers

Users seek a complete viewing experience, allowing them to enroll themselves in the entertainment experience through the delivery of user-generated content. Live tweeting events, and live streaming proves that it’s a challenge to only sit through a television show or movie without conversing on social media. The use of hashtags helps marketers to keep their eyes on the user-created content and the GIF reactions that accompany them.

The Maturation of Artificial Intelligence

Between 2015 and 2025, the project for AI expenditure is supposed to increase from $350 million to an astonishing $30 billion. The use automation and computing abilities are being paired with the performance strengths of humans, according to Forbes. AI can help with image recognition, language processing, speech recognition, and deep learning, which impacting entertainment, and media.

You can read the rest of this blog post by clicking here.

March 25, 2016

Retail Brands: Selling on Social Media

Among over one hundred billion in eCommerce sales between January and March of this year, around one and a half percent of retail shoppers purchase products via social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

Data shows that within that one and a half percent, retail shoppers predominantly used Facebook as the way to shop, encompassing eighty-one percent of sales. On the other hand, Pinterest yielded close to eleven percent, while Twitter, Youtube and Instagram consisted of around five percent.

According to the study, shoppers were more inclined to complete transactions via search or email marketing which actually consisted of around seventy percent of purchases in the study.

Although, some brands are concerned with the lack of completed transactions that their brands are yielding on strong social media platforms, the VP of Abercrombie & Fitch, views this digital relationship between the brand and the consumer in a very different light.

Even though Michael Scheiner strongly believes statistically data is an important factor when conjuring up a strong social media marketing plan, he does emphasize the valuable experience that consumers have when they do engage with brands on these platforms.

Essentially, Scheiner’s main takeaway is focused on creating an innovative brand image in order to potential customers to have a unique relationship with the retailer based on authentic interest in the product. In other words, branding proves to be one of the most, if not the most salient motives for retailers to stay active on social media.

As different social media platforms attract different audiences at various times of the day, the need for organic content is in no way long gone or dead. Insight from Mark Aikman, the general manager of marketing at Mercedes-Benz approaches Instagram as a platform geared towards branding.

With Aikman and his team generating organic content on a daily basis for branding purposes, Mercedes’ marketing manager firmly believes that these separate marketing mentalities not only gear towards both short and long-term success, but also produce a digital environment where Facebook is perceived as more of a direct-response platform.

Interestingly enough, although number crunching, quantitative data and statistics generally drive any retailer’s social media marketing strategy, these global brands are holding true to the notion that consumer engagement is an extensive process.

“People who are pinning are building for the future, whether the future is a baby shower four weeks from now [or] a wedding they’re planning four months from now,” said Kate Spade & Co. evp and CMO Mary Beech. “It’s a marathon, not a sprint.”

January 27, 2016

Adblocking On The Rise

As programmatic advertising has been on the rise for both ad agencies and brands alike, this in no way eliminates different forms of rebuttal that this portion of the industry faces as a response to these ads based on cookie based data. Back in fall 2015, a mobile app for the iPhone was released in order to block ads from big social networks such as Facebook, and even the tech giant Apple itself. If you want to read more about adblocking as a trend that is here to stay, have a look at the Guardian.

It is evident that users are not keen on engaging with ads by the increased trend of more global companies creating ways to avoid them or block them altogether. With browsers such as Firefox blocking ad pop ups back in October, other companies have also taken a stance against what some would say “bothersome” ads that target users based on location, search history, etc.

The U.S. as a whole maintains around a 25% ad blocking rate on mobile devices, while the Asian market has around a 50% rate due to the implementation of this practice well before the Western countries have. This no doubt will negatively affect the digital advertising industry’s way to influence consumers to engage with brands of all types.

Other than the fact that these ads often times slow down the speed of the browser or take up unnecessary data, many users agree that it’s more of an annoyance than anything else.

With the increased mobile engagement of around 90% among millennial users between the ages of 18 through 29, ad blocking on these devices has increasingly become as common on mobile phones as desktop computers, due to an overall increase in user engagement on mobile. But it doesn’t stop here, GlobalWebIndex Research and insight director Jason Mander affirms that ad blocking as a trend actually is more prevalent than we think it is.

Mander highlights this fact by stating that “Arguably the most striking aspect of this data is the huge potential for ad blocking to continue growing. Across every single age and gender break, it’s at least 70% who say they’re either blocking ads already or are interested in doing so in the future.”

The digital advertising industry has no doubt been negatively affected on the Publisher’s side of spectrum, as seen by the stark decrease of user demand of these add becoming more apparent in the last six months or so. In terms of the notion of “value” in the eyes of both publishers and brands, one of the best practices for programmatic advertisers is to target higher-earning income households, as it is the most promising way for this range of consumers to purchase the product.

Although this can be seen a bit hopeless for the demand or Publisher’s side of the advertising relationship, useful data from GlobalWebIndex highlights the fact that high-earning income households in the top 25% of the U.S. demographic actually demonstrates a much lower rate of blocking ads rather than middle or lower income homes.

This in turn, gives some peace of mind for big time Publishers such as the New York Times, Facebook or the ever-growing online site Mashable, from not being able to digitally appeal to their most valued customers.

January 6, 2016

Boosting Social Engagement On Twitter

When promoting a new film or a line of products, running a contest on one of the most used, well-known social media platforms can no doubt be a daunting task. It’s important to follow some rules to not only successfully promote said product, but also maintain clarity as to what the objective actually entails.

1. Identify a goal: Whether it is increasing followers or having your product featured in shared photos, maintaining a focused goal will help keep you on track and not loose sight of the issue at hand.

2. Prize giving: It is essential to choose a prize that is pertinent to what you’re advertising and what the consumers of your company can actually use. A good tip is to use this step to also try to entice potential consumers while keeping your current consumer base.

3. Select a contest type: Pick a contest that will drive traffic to your landing page in order to increase the overall reach of the target audience.

4. Retweet and Follow: This helps form symbiotic social relationships on twitter than will no doubt attract new followers. Retweets of the contest can act as a source of free marketing that can exponentially grow your user base. Also, sending out tweets prior to the contest actually launching will generate overall hype and buzz to keep people on their toes.

5. Results: Keeping an eye on your statistics and different trends will shed light on how or where you can improve the contest. This way, you can more effectively tackle your next twitter contest.

Click here for more information in order to improve your next contest on Twitter.

August 10, 2015

NFL and Twitter Ink Deal

Twitter’s turmoil in the boardroom and slowing user growth have grabbed the headlines as of late, but the news is not all discouraging. The National Football League just announced that it is renewing the deal with Twitter it first signed two years ago. The two-year agreement ensures that Twitter will play host to official NFL content custom-produced for the platform. Users of this social media will now be exposed to more NFL-themed content.

The social media behemoth has been angling to become a major player in the live events. Analysts have revealed that Twitter has been developing a product that will work to curate and organize tweets about live events such as sports games, concerts, and more. Executive are hopeful that his product, which they are calling Project Lightning, will attract people to the platform without actually forcing them to have an account. Other companies in the space such as SnapChat have already begun to see a lot of success regarding live events.

The deal inked in 2013 allowed official NFL content and highlights to be displayed on Twitter. The two parties divide the generated revenue from the ads that are shown at the beginning of the video clips. NFL fans on twitter will also have access to exclusive content such as expert analysis, behind the scenes videos, game recaps, infographics, breaking news, and more. Peter Kafka from Re/code points out that the significance of this deal lies in the fact it is the first time Twitter has reached a multi-year deal with a large media company.

A recent report from Nielsen reports that the National Football League reached upwards of 200 million unique viewers during their 2014 regular season. That’s an impressive number as this accounts for more than two-thirds of all viewers in the United States. Furthermore, this data deals only with the regular season and does not include the sport’s most-watched event, the Superbowl.

July 2, 2015

A Quick Note on Social Media

Social media is shaping the environment in which everyone does business. The connectivity between consumer and producer continues to change in this digital landscape, and the trend shows no sign of stopping. But just how impactful has social media become, and what is it affecting as it grows?

The first and most obvious change is marketing techniques that applied in 2005 are no longer effective. With the consumer becoming actively more involved with their brands, businesses must adopt customer relationship and engagement strategies. It’s only through interacting with the consumer through forward facing, viewer friendly marketing materials that you can grab attention, and keep it.

Part of retaining the attention of an average social media user is making content “snackable.” Short, concise, and easy to digest has become the new trend in digital marketing. Gone are the days of long campaigns and commercials. The public wants it memorable, and they want it now, so deliver your message with precision.

With connectivity being the driving force behind the rise of social media, it’s no wonder that the first to mirror this trend in marketing stands to benefit the most. Advertisements are viewed unfavorably because they are interruptions that rarely coincide with the interests of the viewer, but by coupling interactions between groups of like-minded individuals and your product, you allow consumers who share a mutual interest to speak on your behalf.

Brand strategists the world over are exploring different directions to take their companies. With social media bringing consumer personalities to the fore, institutions like Dove and Nike have taken the empowerment approach. By pivoting focus from the individual ego to a larger and more socially conscious message, companies found that people willingly rallied behind their products due to a shared belief in the message.

For a business to stay on the cutting edge, it’s paramount to keep one hand on the pulse of social media. With consumers sharing a platform granting them an unprecedented voice, a business must adapt to work within these changing times, or face being consumed by the rising tide of technology.

May 28, 2015

Ubimo Receives Funding

As self-service marketing platforms race to deliver precise customer data in order to show those customers the most relevant ads possible, one such platform has been gaining a lot of attention and funding. Ubimo, which was founded by former Googler employees, recently closed a series B funding round for $7.5 million. The round was led by Pitango Venture Capital with YJ Capital, a venture capital arm of Yahoo Japan, joining in as well. This marks the first time that Yahoo Japan has invested in an Israel-based startup. Currently, Ubimo has raised a total of $9.7 million starting in August 2013.

Ubimo CEO, Ren Ben Yair

Ubimo’s co-founder Ran Ben-Yair believes that any location-based marketing platform is a potential competitor but there are some innovative ideas behind Ubimo that make it stand out. While there are indeed other platforms that provide similar features, Ubimo collects even more data points that may be useful for marketers looking for higher conversion rates. The additional data points that Ubimo incorporates includes weather information and local events that may be happening around a consumer’s area.

This allows marketers and ad agencies to better deliver ads that a consumer may find relevant. Factors that can influence the relevancy of ads, and therefore conversion rates, include purchasing trends, age, location, location of certain venues or nearby events, the weather, demographics of the consumer’s neighborhood and gender. Since marketers know that businesses tend to draw out different, but sometimes specific groups of people, it is important to know who and where those people are in order to better serve them relevant ads. In advertising, one of the biggest complaints from the regular consumer is that some ads are just irrelevant to their interests. But when an ad is relevant, consumers are more open to them and do not mind having data on them collected for that purpose.

Ubimo works in real-time and serves the growing mobile marketing sector which is quickly overtaking other traditional forms as more and more consumers become mobile. After receiving its first round of funding in 2013, Ubimo opened a sales office in New York City and attracted the attention of ad agencies and Fortune 500 brands.

April 22, 2015

Video Advertising to Drive Facebook’s Growth?

According to Seth Fiegerman at Mashable, analysts around the world are excited by the future of the tech giant, Facebook. One analyst noted how the company stands in a unique position given its unparalleled level of targeting and its ability to make this space profitable.

Wall Street is currently forecasting Facebook to post earnings as high as forty cents per share and a revenue of more than three billion for Q1 of 2015. These figures would mean that social media behemoth increased revenue upwards of forty percent from year to year. Wall Street’s bullish predictions stem from the company’s continued ability to grow their advertising revenue on mobile devices. This stands in stark contrast to just a few years ago when this aspect of business was considered one Facebook’s weakest. Shyam Patil from Wedbush attributes 70% or more of Facebook’s revenue to their mobile advertising efforts. Total advertising revenue increased by two-thirds in the last quarter.

Financial Analysts are also quite excited by the potential of Facebook’s new initiative centered around video advertising. Zuckerberg and company leadership has opted to make video advertisements auto-play, meaning that when the video begins immediately after the page loads. Industry experts expect that major advertisers could increase their efforts in this space and spend less on television. The global television marketing industry is as large as $200 billion. The introduction and continued emphasis on these video advertisements will give Facebook a platform to get a slice of this action. However, only time will tell how this plays out.

Those who are often on Facebook may have noticed in recent months that tech giant has started to prioritize content that is video over other types of media in the newsfeed. Furthermore, Facebook has been discreetly encouraging the site’s community and certain media publications and programs to post their video content on Facebook over other sites in the space such as Vimeo or youtube. Things are certainly looking up for Zuckerberg and his company.