by Jacqueline Koch | Sep 20, 2016 |
By Jacqueline Koch
There are hopeful signs that the web publishing industry is finally waking up to the perils of clickbait and bad online advertisements in general. A look at ad blocking figures alone reveals a sector that has been hitting the snooze alarm for too long.
A 2015 Adobe and PageFair report found 200 million monthly active users have adopted ad-blocking technology globally, costing publishers US$22bn in blocked advertising revenue in 2015. In 2016, the figure is estimated to nearly double to $41.4bn. Hello online content providers! It’s time to embrace the new day.
“Consumers’ tolerance for annoying, disruptive, irrelevant or offensive advertising is waning rapidly,” writes John Murphy, VP of Marketplace Quality at OpenX writes in the Huffington Post.
He urges publishers to take stock of the negative impacts of bad advertising and suggests a new tack: look at the next frontier of digital advertising by embracing ad quality. Digital advertising, he writes, “is at an inflection point where its future hinges on all players in the ecosystem implementing and upholding higher standards for ad quality.”
At this inflection point is a dizzying scramble to shore up revenue streams across global publishing and Murphy’s advice is all but impossible to ignore. Moreover, the shift from desktop to mobile continues its inexorable march forward, shrinking real estate and placing an added premium on space.
Is there a quick fix? No, but there is a common thread: relevance. And it is pushing publishers and ad tech companies alike to abandon the false promise of high click through rates and investigate meaningful forms of engagement, content monetisation strategies and improving ads.
Mea culpa and crawling toward relevance
For many, the mark of a new era was ushered in at the 2015 Guardian’s Changing Media Summit, when Upworthy’s cofounder Peter Koechley issued an apology for the media site’s sensationalised clickbait headlines.
“We sort of unleashed a monster,” Koechley said. “Sorry for that. Sorry we kind of broke the internet last year. I’m excited going forward to say goodbye to clickbait.”
Upworthy, known as an online media juggernaut, suffered a significant drop in traffic in the wake of Facebook’s clickbait crackdown. Moving to a native advertising model, frequently embraced as a friendlier form of advertising, and channeling more resources to video, Upworthy topped 200 million views on Facebook in January.
Koechley’s new tack appeared to have worked: “We will do it by sharing powerful stories that put you in someone else’s shoes to help you see the world in other people’s eyes.” In so many words: We stop tricking you with bombastic headlines.
Including ad tech in the ecosystem
Fast forward to 2016 and media and news organisations continue to discover new ways of monetising content while engaging their consumers. However, the next frontier of digital ads is a two-way street and moving forward cannot rest on online publishers alone. Ad tech companies also have to innovate.
“There’s a fair number of options to monetise content sites,” said Kerstin Gibson, VP and General Manager of Search for Infospace, pointing to Outbrain, Taboola and Google AdSense as examples. “We tested everything out there and there just wasn’t an option that brought together both monetisation and relevancy.”
Gibson pulled back the curtain on Infospace’s recent launch of LinkFuel, a contextual advertising platform that uses content from the entire page to display highly contextually relevant linked search ads from the Bing Network.
“We started out with a product that looked like Outbrain,” Gibson explained, “But our model morphed. We then coupled our search technology with the Bing Network to serve ads that are directly relevant to the content on the page, which ultimately delivers more revenue for publishers.” LinkFuel, Gibson added, is strengthened through intelligence gained from powering 2.2 billion Infospace searches every month to identify the best performing keywords.
According to Gibson, LinkFuel performs best for publishing sites that have deep verticals in health and money, as well as tech, home and auto. “We figured out what works. We see that the terms are more relevant and that is why we can deliver a better user experience.”
It may hurt, but it’s good for you
There will always be a challenge to managing the tension that exists between monetising a limited amount of space, while preserving the user experience. However, in a recent Forbes article, Eric Eichmann, CEO of ad tech firm Criteo, sees the rise of ad blocking as an unexpected win in the publishing industry, specifically for ad tech.
“While this may mean even more consolidation in the future, those companies that are willing to disrupt the status quo of digital advertising by delivering consumer-centric experiences will survive and thrive in a world where consumers hold all the power,” he writes. “And, as online advertising continues to improve and deliver value to consumers, there will no longer be a need to block them.”
by Jacqueline Koch | Aug 29, 2016 |
Niantic’s release of PokémonGo, the new free-to-play app, which uses familiar cartoon characters from the 1990s, has been taking the world by storm. While the negative articles pile up bemoaning the cellphone generation’s continued obsession with their mobile devices, positive conversation around the new phone game is slow to trickle in. But one unexpected proponent of the game has cropped up: small businesses, desperately in need of advertising.
The basics of its success
PokémonGo’s concept is fairly simple and extraordinarily similar to geocaching, the satellite-mapped treasure hunting activity that started in the early 2000s. Basically, you download PokémonGo as an app to your smartphone, and the app randomly generates Pokémon (animated creatures famous from the television show) onto a satellite map of your surrounding area. These Pokémon can then be caught by swiping your finger across the screen to “catch” them. While producers at Niantic are reticent to give any gameplay directions on how to interact with the game, it seems that the primary objective is to “catch them all”; and the higher level your Pokémon, the better.
Niantic, started as an internal Google project, has succeeded in large part because of its connections with parent company Google. Proprietary access to GoogleMaps technology allows the game to seamlessly show up-to-date local mapping which helps its augmented reality experience feel clean and ![]()
immersive. The game has done phenomenally well, quickly breaking records both with iOS and Droid devices for most downloads. The game currently has 100 million users across the globe since its release at the beginning of July.
The in-app purchase with a surprising effect
PokemonGo currently brings in US$10m in daily revenue, mostly from in-game purchases. One of the most lucrative purchases is what is called a “lure.” After buying a lure, the owner can place it on a Pokéstop (a geographic location marked as a hub in the game), increasing the spawn rates of Pokémon in the area. While there have been issues reported with lures being placed as bait for armed robberies, lures are meant as a benefit for players, and now, local economies.
Pokéstops are placed at random by the game at notable geographic locations; monuments, parks, public buildings and in some cases memorials. This encourages people playing the game to get out of their homes and go for a walk, some people venturing so far that they have to call for an Uber to get home. But in urban areas, Pokéstops mean more foot traffic and more foot traffic means more business.
A new kind of advertising
With so many people who might otherwise not be out and about, local urban businesses have seen a huge boost in incidental sales, and companies that invest the $10 to put a lure on their nearest Pokéstop for 24-hours can sometimes see that increase in business multiplied hundredfold. As an example, the Denver Zoo recently invested $380 in lures over a weekend period and saw a $58,000 jump in sales from PokemonGo users alone.
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by Jacqueline Koch | Aug 15, 2016 |
By Jacqueline Koch
Take a peek at recent headlines describing the state of the media today. Most likely you’ll find scant good news amid the reports buzzing of radical change, job cuts and that 60 per cent of US newspaper jobs have vanished in 26 years. It’s feels a little like staring into a dark abyss. On the heels of these grim updates, the appeal of native advertising intensifies, a shiny object glittering in a mucky pool of disorienting uncertainty…
So the recent newsflash from The Associated Press should have been of no surprise: The global news network is taking the plunge, jumping into the deep sea filled with agencies and marketers, and will begin offering a full range of digital advertising services. In offering digital advertising services, the AP becomes a full-service agency called AP Content Services. This new business will provide subscribers with an inventory of sponsored written, video, photo and interactive content to integrate alongside its news service.
This latest development from the hallowed halls of global newsgathering adds to an ongoing conversation—and questions—around the promise and peril of native advertising, which has vociferous supporters and detractors. One key question is how best to wield this double edge sword that has the potential to carve out new revenue streams for publishers, yet threatens to whittle away at their journalistic credibility and risk their readers’ trust? And what other opportunities are emerging in this new epoch of publishing.
A confused customer amid rapid growth
According to a study released late last year by Adyoulike, worldwide spending on native advertising will soar to over $59 billion in 2018. This terrific growth rises in tandem with a threefold increase of IP traffic predicted over the next five years. This signals an anticipated surge in content demand, sponsored content included. Yet many industry analysts maintain that native advertising remains in its infancy and the technological tools to truly monetize it have yet to be fully developed.
These growing pains are afflicting publishers and their audience alike. A 2015 Contently study found that 62 per cent of readers believe a news site loses credibility if it runs articles sponsored by a brand. On the flip side, while publishers may wrestle with the consequences of merging church and state—the unholy union between editorial with advertising— the same Contently study found that even when an article is labeled as sponsored content, readers remain confused. “Consumers often have a difficult time identifying the brand associated with a piece of native advertising, but it varies greatly, from as low as 63 per cent [on The Onion] to as high as 88 per cent [on Forbes],” the study noted.
As readers remain clearly perplexed and suspicious of the blurring of the line between news and advertising, brands and publishers should take note. As native advertising evolves and blazes a path forward, it prompts other questions: Does this weigh in favour of those with big budgets only or can this scale for the smaller businesses?
According to Purch president Antoine Boulin in a recent Digiday article, for native to deliver performance, “the publisher must put forward an enormous amount of front-end efforts to produce high quality content that meets marketer requests and drives traffic to it, and still, the direct link to ROI can remain murky.”
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by Jacqueline Koch | Aug 3, 2016 |
By Janinne Brunyee
“The lying started at 7:27 a.m. and did not stop until after dark. Even for Donald Trump, Monday, Aug. 1, was a banner day for bullshit.” So starts a recent article by Olivia Nuzzi, who covers politics for The Daily Beast.
In today’s highly competitive news environment, how is it that The Daily Beast is growing 25 percent each year to reach more than 20 million readers per month? According to editor-in-chief, John Avlon, while there are a number of factors driving this growth, one of the most important is the publication’s unique voice—as is evidenced by the opening line of the Trump story.
A unique voice at the Daily Beast
“We focus on dictators, dissidents and terrorists,” he said. “Our job is to make important stories interesting and entertaining as well as educational. To do this, we have to be willing to call BS.” According to Avlon, the site’s voice is characterized by short sentences, short paragraphs and vigorous English. “We rely heavily on Hemingway as a style guide,” he said.
Launched in 2006, The Daily Beast takes its name from a fictional newspaper in Evelyn Waugh’s novel Scoop. Avlon, best known as a television journalist with a long list of credits including The Daily Show, CNN, MSNBC and Real Time with Bill Maher, took over as editor-in-chief from Tina Brown in 2013. Brown was a former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker.
With a focus on original reporting and breaking news, The Daily Beast has been able to avoid the commodity news carried by many competitors and create differentiated stories. “Competitors have content farms that create partisan news,” he said. “We carry columns across the opinion spectrum and avoid commodity news from wire services.” With his trademark bluntness, Avlon stated that commodity news kills a news publication because voice is critical.
Hiring writers who are already known on cable news is another important part of The Daily Beast’s strategy. Avlon is himself a regular contributor to CNN. “We get television coverage because our writers are known entities on cable,” he said. At the same time, the publication looks to cable news commentators as a talent pool. Each of The Daily Beast’s writers also pays careful attention to developing their own brands.
According to Avlon, while many partisan news sites are seeing declines, The Daily Beast continues to prosper. “Our competitors have had a rough period but we are growing with a lean team of 100 people,” he said.
“We have built a great team and we are hard to poach from. Our journalists have a sense of mission and that’s why we have a high-morale, high-metabolism newsroom,” he said.
According to Avlon, his team is not solely measured on traffic markers. Instead, the focus is on identifying and creating the stories that readers love.
“We have to be nimble. We are a pirate ship fighting a guerilla war,” he said. “But we understand that quality content creates a quality audience.”
The Daily Beast is not only a breaking news site. There is an increasing focus on the lifestyle sector. According to Avlon, the publication understands that people have a variety of interests. “You can appeal to different sides of their personality to create a site that is less siloed,” he said.
The business of news at The Daily Beast
The Daily Beast’s main revenue stream is content marketing which allows it to bring quality content to its quality audience and help advertisers avoid adblockers. “We have found that quality branded content will do well. It involves a shift in thinking about what advertising is.” According to Avlon, his team takes the business side very seriously. “We all need to think entrepreneurially. If we don’t there are major threats,” he said.
“Our business is a mix between science and jazz. We are reactive to the news cycle but we use data to anticipate what readers are interested in,” he said. The Daily Beast team aims to be transparent about data so that everyone in the newsroom understands what is working and what isn’t. Avlon is quick to point out, however, that his team cannot rely solely on algorithms. “If you use algorithms only, you will lose your differentiation. You will end up with celebrity gossip, sex scandals and will miss out on the real meat,” he said.
Embracing social platforms
The Daily Beast is amongst the many publications including The Washington Post, Slate, and Gawker who are embracing Facebook Instant Articles. “Facebook is a major player in content distribution and can be an enormously powerful way to get some of our branded or sponsored content out,” he said.
The team has also been aggressive with Facebook Live to create intimacy with reporters. Earlier this year, The Daily Beast launched two new original live series on Facebook. “Cheat Sheet” features Avlon and other editors breaking down the top stories of the day and answering questions from the Facebook audience. “Drink Cart” features author and cocktail expert Noah Rothbaum talking with a Daily Beast editor about the latest culture news over drinks.
Keep them hooked right to the end
“With his mouth full of fast-food poultry and his hands gripping a knife and fork, for a blissful few moments, Donald Trump told no lies at all.” So ends Olivia Nuzzi’s article 15 Hours of Donald Trump’s Lies. A great reminder for all storytellers to find their voice, create unique content and stay committed to the last period.
The Daily Beast is one of the companies that participants of the 2016 VDZ Akademie Digital Publisher’s Tour visited in New York City this June. The Tour was co-organized by Boost! Collective.
This is the second in a series of pieces we are writing about the storytellers we met on the tour. Read the first piece Powering passionate storytelling at The Atavist Magazine
Boost! Collective is a strategic messaging and story-driven communications firm. We help clients discover, write and tell powerful stories which drive engagement.
by Jacqueline Koch | Jun 22, 2016 |
By Christopher Ross
Publishers have always known that quality, original content is the undisputed king for engaging and maintaining a relationship with readers. It’s a fact that’s been a cornerstone of the publishing industry for decades.
But what if a reader wants to dive deeper, to explore beyond the featured content and know more about the props in the story or the pictures, or even more about the surrounding scenery? What if the reader wanted to purchase elements found in the narrative? Welcome to the world of shoppable content, where a reader can enjoy content, while seamlessly creating a personal shopping list.
Shoppable ads
Shoppable ads are one manifestation of how the online retail experience is being advanced by technology. A key element to the technology its ability to eliminate barriers so a reader can move about a site without unnecessary new tabs or excessive extra actions. Even for the digitally savvy consumer, the movement between multiple platforms presents real barriers to shopping for items in the content. It is right to assume consumers care little about platforms but to stay engaged, must be able to move seamlessly across them. In a recent Guardian article, titled Rise of shoppable content will change the face of advertising, Simon Hathaway stated “technology is resetting [our] expectations of retail and transforming shopping behaviour. We are getting used to being able to click on a product image and go into the buying process. Soon, we’ll expect to be able to buy any image we click on – and be frustrated if we can’t.”
Shoppable content
The challenge to create a seamless shoppable content solution between platforms is especially problematic on mobile devices where consumers are increasingly leaning but the technology is less accommodating. One such solution comes from Zumobi, a Seattle based tech firm that aggregates a client’s multiple sites into a single mobile destination. Zumobi transforms a brand’s content from multiple sources, such as social media channels, video platforms, product information and content management systems, into a dynamic “flipboard like” mobile destination, dubbed a microzone. It enables shoppable content where readers can purchase items found in the microzone.
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by Jacqueline Koch | May 12, 2016 |
By Jacqueline Koch
Recently, The New York Times measured the mix of advertising and editorial content on the mobile home pages of the top 50 news websites, their own included. What did they discover?
That more than half of all data came from ads (as well other content filtered by ad blockers). Examining the seconds needed for sites to load, they found that large photos and video ads were typically the main culprits of data consumption. Yet it was Boston.com’s mobile site that topped the list, with mobile website ads averaging 30 seconds to load on a typical 4G connection. As the adage goes, time is money. The estimated equivalent of 32 cents—in ads alone—per home page visit over the course of a month could ring up charges of approximately $9.50 in data usage just for advertising.
Ads are driving mobile traffic
According to some, ads are just part of an increasingly complex and burdensome jumble of content within mobile traffic. Currently, consumer and business appetites for mobile data are growing quickly and rapaciously, causing providers to struggle to deliver enough bandwidth. The resulting slow downloads and other manifestations of poor user experience are generating a lot of excitement—and anxious anticipation—for the next generation of mobile networks. 5G is promising to be more than 1,000 times faster the current 4G LTE standard.
This is not news, especially to those who work in the trenches of IT. But The New York Times article delivers a potent reminder to the rest of us. The bottleneck is here now and it’s threatening to overtake the incoming infrastructure before it’s even in place.
The pervasiveness of smartphones—cannot be overstated. A recent report from the Pew Research Center finds that 72 per cent of adults in the US own a smartphone. In the UK, the figure is 68 per cent. Today, even in the developing world eight in 10 people now own a mobile phone. According to a the GSMA mobile operator trade association, there were more than 3.6 billion unique mobile subscribers and more than seven billion mobile connections globally at the end of 2015 (They define mobile Internet devices to include smartphones, tablets, computers, and other devices that provide mobile connectivity to the Internet through mobile network providers).
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