Pre-Roll Video Advertising and Cognitive Dissonance.

By Ian Schafer March 5, 2012 VIDEO No Comments

As I watch more video online these days, I’m exposed to a lot more pre-roll advertising. But one thing I’ve noticed is that unlike other forms of online advertising that are racing towards more attributable models, pre-roll video seems to languish in a sea of sameness and passivity.

I get it. It’s because we’re trying to create a frictionless way for those TV dollars to migrate onto the web.

But let’s not succumb to the cognitive dissonance that replaces common sense with a belief that ads that we don’t pay attention to on TV will magically get us to pay attention online. Buying video ads on a GRP basis online without care for context and attribution is a slippery slope that gets us in the same sticky situation — chief executives questioning ROI.

We need to find, fund, and test solutions that break free from this trap, and land somewhere in between reach (which we [correctly or incorrectly] assume works) and engagement (such as interactivity, which people have historically rejected in their video advertising).

Ive seen some progress in this area with Hulu Ad Selector, and YouTube’s skippable videos. What I’m also seeing is that the right level of video ad targeting for a brand is a factor of the viewer multiplied by the amount of context, choice, relevance, and frankly, intrusion these video ads bring with them. There will be continual pressure — as more data is available, and more consumers become “connected” — to bridge the gap between view to an action. The demand for being able to do this online is inevitable. Innovations in mobile payments will eventually help us close the gap completely to offline spending.

In full disclosure, I sit on the board of directors of Solve Media. I’ve been impressed with the developments that they’ve made in their quest to address this cognitive dissonance in the video marketplace, and their effort to move things forward. It rocks the boat, but this pre-roll boat needs rocking. Now that I know video advertising that can also deliver engagement is possible, this is a call to all the brands and agencies that create and buy video advertising, and the other vendors, networks, and exchanges that run and sell them: figure out better ways to attribute the effectiveness of video ads based upon their ability to not only affect typical brand health metrics, but also drive engagement. Understand how different kinds of engagement contribute to the achievement of your business objectives. Do the research and the math. As digital video and television remain on a collision course, you have less time than you might think to figure this all out.

Thoughts on “Generation C”.

By Ian Schafer February 24, 2012 CULTURE, MISCELLANEOUS, RANT, RESEARCH, SOCIAL MEDIA No Comments

Today I had the pleasure of being interviewed by the great Kai Ryssdal on NPR’s & American Public Media’s Marketplace about Nielsen’s latest report, calling Americans 18-34 “Generation C”. That’s “C” for “connected”.

It’s the first segment, so just click play to listen (topic starts around 01:00). Coincidentally, they interviewed students at The George Washington University (my alma mater) in the prologue.

In other words, the feeling I had (and a point that I made during our Evening of Connectedness at Social Media Week in NYC) was that “connectedness” is actually an evolutionary state — not a demographic. It’s also as much of a technographic as it is a psychographic. What I left out in the radio interview was that because of all the data that we are creating, “Generation [anything]” is becoming less relevant than ever before. When you can speak to consumers in ways that are personally and contextually relevant, it makes being generationally relevant irrelevant. You could even argue that there are generations within generations as the speed of everything increases.

Here’s Nielsen’s infographic:

Click to enlarge.

What are your thoughts on “Generation C”?

** UPDATE: Here’s the full transcript.

Is @Oprah Real?

By Ian Schafer February 12, 2012 TWITTER 1 Comment

Seriously. What’s going on here?

(thanks for the heads-up, @garyvee)

Is this a hack?

UPDATE:

 

UPDATE #2: The full story, from the always-thorough Brian Stelter of the NY Times.

A Pinterest Hypothesis.

By Ian Schafer February 6, 2012 PINTEREST, SHOPPING, SOCIAL MEDIA 10 Comments

Pinterest’s growth rate recently has been staggering, according to a recent post from Hitwise. And it’s referring a ton of traffic to retailers — even more than Google Plus and Twitter.

Anecdotally, last night, around the kitchen table during the Super Bowl, I caught “the women” (2 generations of them) talking about it and its allure.

But what is it about Pinterest that has made it so, er, interesting to people?

Here’s one hypothesis: Pinterest is half-shopping.

It’s the next best thing to accumulating items, but without the cost associated with actually buying them. It’s a locker where you store the things you want, the things you find interesting, the things you want people to know you’ve found — each of which is a major psychological driver in the process of retail therapy, without the cash (or credit) expenditure.

It’s why some people tweet photos of their sneakers. Why some people snap pictures of their food. Acquiring what we want or desire is an achievement, and displaying that achievement is a trophy that sets us apart from others. We’ve become accustomed to this. Now you can do it without even buying it. It’s not the real thing, but it may be the next best thing. Especially in trying economic times. Our bank accounts may change, but our behaviors find a way to adapt.

Why do you think Pinterest has been growing so quickly?

TV vs. Social Media: Concerts vs. Street Performances?

By Ian Schafer January 18, 2012 SOCIAL MEDIA, TV 1 Comment

NYC's Naked Cowboy

Unfinished thought:

Television advertising is a concert. Every TV spot is a performance seen synchronously by thousands or millions at a time. Marketers love putting on that show. Each and every time. It’s sexy. People remember it. But they leave.

Marketing within social media is street performance. Street performers perform for the same number of people as concerts do. It’s just asynchronous: they reach thousands or millions, too, but not at the same time. It’s not as sexy for an advertiser, nor does it have as much immediate impact on those large numbers of people, in aggregate. But people interact with those performers over time. They gather in crowds. The performers gradually learn how to work within and make the most of their environments. The crowds take pictures. Stories are shared. The performers become fixtures. They get discovered. It’s serendipitous, and it can be wonderful. And when you’re really committed, they become legend. Naked Cowboy-style.

Both deserve a proper (significant) investment. But I’d rather have the stuff of legend (legends are stories that grow), than the one-off memory that fades. If you can make them work together, you have a media empire, and can tell the story of how it was the people, your audience, your customers that made it all possible — versus just your ad spend.

An Example of Good Proactive Customer Service.

By Ian Schafer December 22, 2011 CUSTOMER SERVICE, TWITTER No Comments

Bravo, Verizon FiOS. Bravo.

Got any other examples of things like this happening that you’d like to share? Post ‘em to the comments below!

Also, FiOS is looking to eliminate the set top box, as reported by TechCrunch.

One Big Reason Why You Shouldn’t Underestimate Apple’s iAd: Twitter.

By Ian Schafer December 13, 2011 AD NETWORKS, APPLE, MOBILE No Comments

In today’s WSJ, there’s a story about Apple’s compromises in the mobile ad space, as they face legitimate competition from other players/networks.

This is true. But for a conspiracy theorist like me, I see one advantage that can be played against any of their competitors, should they choose to unlock it.

In iOS5, Twitter integration becomes part of the core iOS experience. If you have a Twitter account, it can be associated with your device. Which means, in theory, it can be associated with your Apple ID. Your Apple ID is the unique identifier (along with your device ID) that Apple can use to track downloads and app behavior. What if you married app usage data with the content you post and/or consume in your Twitter stream? What if you also married that to what you do on sites that you log into with your Twitter ID?

Add mobile payment data and you may have the most targeted advertising ever.

Mobile advertising is still in its infancy. Everything we use to target now is a proxy for what we should be using. But if you want to know where it’s going, you can start by extrapolating like I just did.

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