connected TV

How can brands take greater advantage of second-screen usage?

A recent BBC World News survey of more than 3,600 digital device owners found that 43% of tablet users say they consume more TV than they did five years ago, with most respondents saying they use tablets alongside TV.

A recent Deloitte survey found that 24% are using a second screen while watching TV. This crossover with leisure time presents a unique opportunity to convert those in a ‘lean-back’ position. 

So how can marketers respond to this trend? 

Why Twitter may be set to take Facebook’s crown

With news in the tech, marketing and startup world dominated by Twitter’s impending IPO, many commentators and potential investors are asking themselves whether they should jump in feet first or wait to see if we have another Facebook IPO on our hands.

Up until recently, there were pretty much two common expressions to illustrate the idea of something that doesn’t exist: hen’s teeth and unicorns.  

In 2013 we can now also add ‘advertisers that acquire new customers from Facebook’ to this list.

How to optimise your images for SEO

Images are increasingly important to the customer experience and search yet many sites are not optimised to take advantage.

In the early days of the web images were typically small and of low quality. We all remember the little animated men at work icons that littered the web in its infancy.

However, as users have moved from dial-up to broadband connections, the number, size and quality of images on the web has increased significantly. 

Why does Candy Crush Saga need TV ads?

In the heady and fast-paced world of online marketing, we’re often told that achieving social media awareness is the ‘promised land’ – we dream of things ‘going viral’, watching enviously as the likes of Gangnam Style rocket up the YouTube charts and wondering why the stuff we create for our clients don’t achieve the same level of awareness.

Achieving that nirvana of mass social awareness can completely revolutionise your fortunes. Fine, you might have optimised your PPC to within an inch of its life, you’ve got top SEO positions and your affiliate campaign is an award winner.

You might even have a few glossy-looking awards for your expensive TV campaigns on the office mantle piece. But underneath it all, you know that the level of awareness of your product can make or break you.

Seven innovative new technologies set to revolutionise marketing

“There must be an easier way.” Lots of great ideas have been born from that simple phrase, and judging by the entries to The Digitals Innovative New Technology category, it’s not a trend that’s set to die down at any point soon.

From collecting multiple device data to search optimization, getting all your marketing ducks in a row is hard work. Here are seven new technologies set to make your life a little easier in future…

Curate, shape and grow: cultivating your connected TV garden

When it comes to the Connected TV landscape, it truly is a wilderness out there.

Change in how we’re consuming media provides tremendous opportunity for both publishers and content creators looking to reach audiencea.

However, platform fragmentation and a myriad of technical and business constraints ensure that it’s never been so easy to get lost in the cost and complexity. 

Making your content go primetime

We all get excited when we have something new to show off, making sure everyone notices and mentions the haircut you’ve just paid a small fortune for, or strategically leaving your shiny new phone on the corner of your desk so everyone who passes can coo accordingly.

When you’ve finally jumped through the necessary hoops to get the go-ahead for a piece of content, is it always the best idea to open the floodgates to let everyone see what you’ve made right away?

1

Making digital and traditional marketing work together

Even though it is impossible to have a conversation today with a CMO or other marketing leader that doesn’t address digital strategies and tactics, it is easy to forget that the term “digital marketing” did not even exist 10-15 years ago.

In the rush to drive likes and tweets, pins and favorites, ratings and reviews, marketers often overlook traditional tactics, which are still an effective way to motivate desired behaviors among consumers.

And as the land grab to gain digital mindshare continues to pick up steam, it is becoming ever more important to differentiate your brand by offering compelling solutions to consumers across all channels — both digital and traditional.

Monetise this: the connected experience

Connected second screen experiences have enjoyed, or arguably suffered, a prolonged period of experimentation. No single slam dunk business model has disrupted the landscape, but there are several approaches that have succeeded in generating additional revenues and enhancing the 30-second TV spot. 

Since they are not ubiquitous, you may not be aware of these successes. Here I examine the barriers and opportunities for the connected experience in detail.

This blog elaborates on the latter, with some examples of great connected experiences that have been successfully monetised.

Big brands capture reactions to ads with new video technology

A few years ago, I had coffee with Nick Langeveld, who left Nielsen to run business development for an interesting company called Affectiva. He was telling me how the company, an MIT labs spin-off, was going to make measurement in a new direction by measuring people’s facial expressions.

Like Intel, who is going to start shipping set top boxes that know who is watching television, Affectiva is using the ability to watch consumers through their webcams as they consume video, and measure the emotions in real-time.

Now, marketers could see the exact moment when they captured surprise, delight, or revulsion in a consumer—and scale that effort to anyone with a webcam, who opted into their panel. This sounded great, but I wondered if and when large marketers would adopt such technology.