Mar 06

Can Pay-TV & Internet TV Devices Co-Exist in a Digital World?

By Heather Timmerman Digital Media Trends, Internet TV, mobile, Smart TV, Tablet Comments Off

The pay-TV versus connected, smart or Internet TV question feels like an age-old debate for those of us that have been reading and writing about it over the past three years (or more) in the digital marketing space. (For some nostalgia, check out our Internet TV is the Future post from 2010). Nevertheless, the question has been raised once again after a report by Informa Telecoms & Media was published a couple of weeks ago indicating that Western Europe has seen its first-ever decline in pay-TV subscribers. This of course created a flurry of articles written about the topic from The Hollywood Reporter to Variety to Television Business International. A member of the organization E-Waste, ca

Where articles or blog posts in the past may have speculated on future trends to come in regards to pay-TV, the Informa report shows hard numbers for the first time since the launch of the industry in the 1980s. ”In total there were 92.6mn pay-TV subscribers in Western Europe by the end of last year, according to Informa, with a total of 384,000 lost during the course of 2012″ (Source: IP&TV News). The majority of the loses were in Spain and Italy which one could speculate might have more to do with economic conditions versus industry trends. Regardless, pay-TV revenues were forecasted to remain flat between 2011-2016 by a report by Digital TV Research in 2011 (Source: Broadband TV News). Was that report premature or is this just a sign of the times? Will the number of pay-TV subscribers continue to fall in 2013 or go back up once economic conditions improve?

While various reports indicate that consumers are simultaneously online with laptop, tablet, and mobile devices while watching TV, whether those 384,000 former pay-TV subscribers get used to the various digital options available for their viewing pleasure remains to be seen (Source: Preview Networks Blog, eMarketer). Either way, the industry seems to be prepared for this trend. Around the same time the Informa report was released, Nielsen announced that they are redefining their ‘television’ measurement mechanisms to include non-traditional sources of TV viewing such as Internet-connected devices like game consoles and tablets. These changes will take affect during the 2013-14 television season beginning in September (Source: The Hollywood Reporter, MediaPost). Interesting timing indeed!

New to the debate? Here are some other posts we have done you may be interested in: The Connected TV Debate and To Plug or Unplug: The Internet TV Question.

About Preview Networks

Preview Networks is a content marketing platform for brands and content aggregation and syndication platform for publishers. We provide the tools for brands to centrally distribute and manage marketing and PR content across media destinations, devices, and commerce platforms; allowing media partners to automate content acquisition delivering audience and advertising revenue growth. Acquired by Rightster in February 2013, our combined offering strengthens video distribution, marketing, and monetisation services globally.

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Mar 08

The Smartphone Explosion – Good for Video, Great for Advertising

By Heather Timmerman Digital Media Trends Comments Off

The past couple of weeks have produced a news trend in the online video space all revolving around the same topic. The increased usage of smartphones and how that is affecting the video ecosystem.  This is always a good time to take a step back and look at the data to identify what kind of story it is telling. So this week’s blog post is a summary of those numbers and sources with one very important message for online marketers. The increase in smartphone and tablet usage, increases video views on devices which is a content marketing and video advertising opportunity.

Image courtesy of adostrategies.com

46% of U.S. Adults Own Smartphones
This headline comes to you courtesy of Media Post, but the data is from a recent Pew Study which indicates that as of February 2012, almost half of all American adults (46%) are smartphone owners. (Nielsen and comScore also reported similar trends at 48% and 42% respectively). In other words, nearly 3 out of 5 adults own a smartphone which makes them soon to be the majority with a good chance that the number will only increase. Every demographic is represented in this number but the groups which have the highest overall adoption rate (60%) are college graduates, 18-35 year olds, and those with an annual household income of $75,000 or more.

Key Online Video Mobile Demographic: 18-34
Similar to the Pew study mentioned above, Nielsen also recently released new data confirming a similar demographic (18-34) leading the smartphone adoption rate (Source: Media Post). However, they have taken this data one step further and looked into the behavior of this group they call “Generation C” which take personal connections to new levels with their use of devices, apps, and social networks. They are also avid multi-taskers, checking email or social networks while watching TV, which supports past research noted in previous blogs.

Video Half of All Mobile Internet Traffic with Mobile to Surpass PC Internet Users
A quarterly report from Bytemobile indicates that video now accounts for half of all mobile traffic, which according to a TechCrunch article is also testament to the rise of smartphone and device usage. This report notes that Android is generating more ad volume than iOS devices, with tablets leading the way overall compared to smartphones in terms of video traffic. An eye opening piece of research conducted by Forrester indicates that currently one fifth of the world’s mobile population  are using the internet to go online. Global penetration of mobile internet users will exceed that of PC internet users by 2016, with emerging markets driving adoption levels.

Europeans More Responsive to Ads on Devices
Nielsen research also indicates that mobile is becoming a powerful commerce tool, facilitating consumer transactions and access to real-time information and deals. Twenty-nine percent of U.S. smartphone owners use their phone for shopping-related activities and more than half of mobile users are repeat visitors to daily deal sites (Source: Media Post). However, tablet and smartphone owners in Germany, Italy and the U.K. are more likely than American device owners to make a purchase online via PC after viewing an ad on their tablet or smartphone according to the Nielsen report, also suggesting the need for a cross-platform strategy as supported above and in past posts.

Mobile Commerce on the Rise
A December 2011 study of 4,000 mobile users in the United States and United Kingdom by mBlox, confirms the rise and interest in commerce trends. Their report indicated that 9 in 10 young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 spend one to five hours on their mobile phones each day, and 1 in 10 spend between five and ten hours on their mobile phones. One third would like brands to send promotions via smartphone or tablet, noting it is “extremely important” for there to be an “opt-out” option. This is promising news for advertisers and also supports Nielsen research above. Whether or not these smartphone and tablet users would then use the same device to purchase a promotion afterwards remains to be discovered by future research.

About Preview Networks

Preview Networks is a platform for brands and content aggregation and syndication platform for publishers. We provide the tools for brands to centrally distribute and manage marketing and PR content across media destinations, devices, and commerce platforms; allowing media partners to automate content acquisition delivering audience and advertising revenue growth.

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Feb 23

Video by the Numbers

By Heather Timmerman Digital Media Trends Comments Off

Each February numbers from the last quarter of the previous year are released, analysed, and discussed and if you are comScore, January’s results from the current year are also released for a nice comparison. The type of numbers we are talking about aren’t financial (in the direct sense anyway) they are online viewership numbers, and in particular online video rankings and trends. As per usual, we take the opportunity to round up all these different facts and figures into one blog post to help compare and contrast and perhaps bring a little context to the trends.

Overall Numbers
2011 ended with 85.3 percent of the U.S. internet audience viewing video online in December. That translates to 182 million U.S. internet users viewing 43.5 billion videos. However, in January 2012 that number has decreased to 84.4 percent of the U.S. internet audience or 181 million U.S. internet users viewing 40 billion videos. Compared to the end of 2010 where the U.S. internet user number was 172 million and 30.1 billion video views, there is still a growth trend in year-over-year numbers (Source: comScore).

Device Trends
According to Ooyala’s Q4 2011 Video Index Report, non-desktop video viewership – or video on mobile, tablet, connected TV, and gaming console devices – doubled in Q4 compared to Q3. More specifically, tablets led the trend with 22% growth driven by users clicking “play” more often in addition to watching video longer (Source: VideoNuze). The data for this report was collected from 100 million viewers and 5,000 domains in over 130 countries.

Social Works
Another report published by Visible Measures focusing on social video campaigns in 2011 shows that online video on social networks works. Using their own data, the report shows that over 500 branded social video campaigns gained more than a million views each, and the average campaign received 765,000 views. This indicates the trend of brands using content-as-advertising by creating engaging and entertaining material (#2 on the Video Prediction Mashup for 2012). Using humour is key and launching on Thursday certainly helps as well (Source: ReelSEO).

2012 Forecast
comScore has released their 2012 U.S. Digital Future in Focus report and supplementary video which indicates trends in branded channels on platforms such as YouTube. This leads to a continued increase in user engagement, based on a 2010 to 2011 increase in user engagement of online videos by 43%. They also note that online video ads are actually 38% more memorable than TV ads, which supports the multi-screen/multi-platform trend we have reported in the past.  “comScore expects the number of videos viewed to continue to increase in 2012 with one of the primary driving reasons being an increase in quality, original, created for-the-web content syndicated across platforms.” To conclude, online video growth is still very positive, and only the channels and methods of viewing them will change throughout 2012.  To read the full comScore report, download it here.

About Preview Networks

Preview Networks is a platform for brands and content aggregation and syndication platform for publishers. We provide the tools for brands to centrally distribute and manage marketing and PR content across media destinations, devices, and commerce platforms; allowing media partners to automate content acquisition delivering audience and advertising revenue growth.

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Feb 09

Social Media is Here to Stay: 10 Things You Should Know

By Heather Timmerman Digital Media Trends 1 Comment »

According to a recent study done by comScore, social networking is ranked as the most popular content category for worldwide engagement, with market penetration of 85 percent in 41 out of 43 markets. That’s a pretty powerful statement to soak in, yet comScore continues to dissect the data even further in their 69 page whitepaper labeled It’s a Social World: Top 10 Need-to-Knows About Social Networking and Where It’s Headed.

Image courtesy of vabulous.com

Data was collected from 2 million people and sourced from 171 countries with data reported specifically for 43 countries. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn, MySpace, SlideShare and many more were included in the analysis.  We realise not everyone has the time to read the entire report, so the top 10 noteworthy trends and points to consider are highlighted for convenience below.

#1. Social networking is the most popular online online activity worldwide. That translates to 19 percent of all time online. To break that down even further, it means that 1 in every 5 minutes is spent on social networking sites globally.

#2. Social networking behaviour both transcends and reflects regional differences around the world. Although social networking engagement varies per country (93 percent in the U.S. compared to 53 percent in China) it is pretty safe to say that in general, over half of local online populations are actively using social media.

#3. The importance of Facebook cannot be overstated. Not surprisingly, Facebook (launched in 2004) reaches more than half of the world’s global audience (55 percent) and accounts for approximately 3 in every 4 minutes spent on social media and 1 in every 7 minutes spent online around the world.

#4. Microblogging has emerged as a disruptive new force in social networking. This is in large part due to the Twitter phenomenon that began to emerge significantly in 2009. Twitter now reaches 1 of 10 internet users worldwide and grew 59 percent in the past year.

#5. Local social networks are making inroads globally. Most of the Top 20 social networking sites may be based in the US, but in many cases the majority of the audience now reside outside of the U.S. For example, LinkedIn’s highest market penetration is from the Netherlands.

#6. It’s not just young people using social networking anymore – it’s everyone. In the last 18 to 24 months since comScore released this report the audience has been quickly changing from young to everyone. In fact, the fastest growing age segment is the over 55 crowd.

#7. ‘Digital natives’ suggest communications are going social. Social networking is the norm for digital natives between the ages of 15 and 24 that have grown up with the internet. In fact, most communication is now over social media versus email and mobile. The highest average engagement worldwide is with this age segment, which is an important indicator for the future.

#8. Social networking leads in online display advertising in the U.S., but lags in share of dollars. Social networking sites account for 1 in 4 U.S. display ad impressions. However, even though more than a quarter of ads are seen on social networking sites, they only attract 15 percent of U.S. display ad dollars.

#9. The next disrupters have yet to be decided. Social networking audiences gradually shifted from MySpace to Facebook who has remained on top for several years. Google+ is showing traction as it surged to over 25 million users in less than one month, which is the fastest any social networking site has grown, but whether it continues its popularity remains to be seen. However, the numbers are still impressive considering it took Facebook 36 months and Twitter 33 months to gain that kind of audience.

Social sites to keep an eye on are microblogging sites such as Sina Weibo, Tumblr, and Badoo. Social content-sharing site Pinterest’s engagement skyrocketed 512 percent over the course of six months in 2011, which is a sign of the overall increase in social media interest in general.

#10. Mobile devices are fueling the social addiction. Mobile devices represent the future of social networking from a technology point of view. In October 2011, one third of the U.S. population accessed social networking sites on their mobile phones at least once a month. Across the five leading European markets of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and United Kingdom, that number was nearly 25 percent.  Of special note is the increase in smartphone usage and popularity of tablets as an influential factor on  mobile social media engagement.

To Conclude

If social media is here to stay, then it’s imperative for brands to determine which social networking sites are relevant for its customer segments. ComScore’s report talks a lot about the numbers which indicates which social networking sites are the most popular, and therefore the minimum to be engaged.

However, there are social networking sites that are segment specific, indicating the ever growing fragmentation of social media. In fact, additional research suggests the number of  mentions or likes doesn’t necessarily determine the popularity of a brand, but dispersion amongst the various social networking sites does. In other words, the wider and broader the discussion of a brand or campaign within online social media, the more likely it will become popular (Source: avc.com). Something to consider for the ever evolving social networking strategy.

About Preview Networks

Preview Networks is a platform for brands and content aggregation and syndication platform for publishers. We provide the tools for brands to centrally distribute and manage marketing and PR content across media destinations, devices, and commerce platforms; allowing media partners to automate content acquisition delivering audience and advertising revenue growth.

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Dec 22

Next destination for video? The sky is the limit!

By Heather Timmerman mobile, Preview Networks PR and News Comments Off

has been exploding onto the marketplace adding interest to editorial sections and intrigue to sites on the internet for some time. However, the use of video on various platforms such as smartphones and tablets is an area that is emerging very quickly, and one that some forecasters are noting as a trend to watch in 2012.

Image courtesy of tablets-planet.com

According to a recent eMarketer study, US smartphone viewers represent 90% of the mobile video population and mobile video adoption is poised to continue on a steep incline for the next four years. In regards to multiple devices, one platform does not necessarily outweigh the other. “As tablets attract a larger share of video viewing, smartphones are benefiting because most tablet users also own smartphones and typically have the same apps on both devices,” according to eMarketer Analyst, Paul Verna. “With more video content flowing to these apps, users are choosing their preferred screen at any given time. Often this means toggling between tablets and smartphones, or between laptops and any number of entertainment devices.”

Among online video viewers on all platforms, watching premium content is becoming increasingly popular. eMarketer estimates that 49% of US adult viewers watched full-length TV shows at least once a month during 2011 with full-length feature films on the rise. Providers offering full-length films for some time are the airlines who are also increasingly adopting the tablet trend for in-flight entertainment. Just last week, American Airlines announced that they are offering the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 for first and business class passengers. According to Samsung, the tablet has been completely customised for AA which is also something we are seeing here at Preview.

One of our latest integrations is an in-flight integration with Adaptive Channel in France who will be offering the Apple tablet on private jets this week. The integration offers the latest news, fashion, culture, and upcoming films by integrating with content providers and syndicators like Le Monde, Elle, and Preview Networks.

About Preview Networks

Preview Networks is a platform for brands and content aggregation and syndication platform for publishers. We provide the tools for brands to centrally distribute and manage marketing and PR content across media destinations, devices, and commerce platforms; allowing media partners to automate content acquisition delivering audience and advertising revenue growth.

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Dec 13

Gain Competitive Advantage with Online Video

By Heather Timmerman Digital Media Trends, Internet TV, mobile Comments Off

Image courtesy of seoinhouse.com

Regardless of whether your focus is B2C or B2B, is the marketing strategy to be thinking about for 2012. Not only does increase conversion rates, it encourages sharing across web platforms, and creates a more engaging experience .

Recent data from Forrester, comScore, eMarketer and more, show that utilising video in your online marketing strategy creates action and moves the consumer deeper into the sales cycle 52% of the time (business2community.com).  “The combination of moving images, still pictures, graphics, sound, and text…appeals simultaneously to multiple senses making online marketing video the ultimate way to communicate, engage, and capture consumer attention” (Rick Dearborn).

Consider why 60% of business executives state they would rather watch video than read text (Forbes Insight Study, 2010). Because as humans we are visual beings and have an inherent preference for moving objects (Motion Effect Theory, Sundar & Kalyanaraman 2004).  “Due to ’s unique way of grasping the potential client’s attention and educating them on the people behind the products and services, companies that start using video will gain a quick competitive advantage and put themselves ahead of their competition” (Robert Weiss, President of MultiVision Productions).

Think of online video and TV advertising in the same context as far as affect, only far more affordable. Recent research from Google and Ipsos has shown that combining the two actually complement each other very well when it comes to increasing brand recall. However, not everyone can afford TV advertising. In that case, consider replicating your online video onto mobile and tablets and you have yourself a competitive multi-platform strategy. But first things first;  start with the video. “If you build it [they] will come.“

About Preview Networks

Preview Networks is Europe’s largest preview network. We serve websites, ,  apps and . Our content is available on MSN,, , The Times, MySpace, The Guardian, El Pais, El Mundo, Le Monde and more than 2,300 other online . We work with more than 300 brand and companies. Learn more on previewnetworks.com

 

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Dec 06

An Ode to the Power of Video

By Heather Timmerman Digital Media Trends, Internet TV, mobile Comments Off

Image courtesy of resonancesocialmedia.com

Recently I have been asked for several sources that document why is such a good marketing tool, so I thought I would dedicate a blog to documenting this trend. By gathering all the good tid-bits of information from the past year, here is an roundup. It includes links to previous posts in addition to external sources that sum up the power of .

Online Video Trending Up: 2010′s online video number review including links to 3 different reports. Here’s a blog-bite: “Consumers favor short form over full 30-60 minute programs, as 42% of video is consumed at the workplace in “snackable,” shortform clips” (YuMe Online Video Attitudes Whitepaper).

The Growth of Branded Content: The beginning of 2011 showed investor confidence in online video as $477 million was raised in Q1 alone, to support businesses focusing in this area (VideoNuze Blog post). Consumers are watching more video, and the industry is acknowledging the trend.

Leveraging the ROI of Video: increases , encourages sharing, and creates a more engaging experience for the consumer, and a blog post by video-commerce.org tells you how to leverage that ROI.

Product Videos Improve Consumer Decision Accuracy: In case you need a little academic theory to back up the trend, read this blog to find out how consumers, as cognitive misers, are drawn to video versus text heavy sites.

Brands that Embrace Video Improve Sales: This post links to case studies of brands like Zappos and Lands’ End who are capitalising on by incorporating video into their online marketing strategies.

Online Video is Content Marketing of the Future: A data-packed post with sources from comScore, Forrester, and Business2Community.com supporting the power of video. “The combination of moving images, still pictures, graphics, sound, and text – with interactivity and devices – appeals simultaneously to multiple senses making online marketing video the ultimate way to communicate, engage, and capture consumer attention” (Rick Dearborn, B2C).

The Secret Ingredient for Engaging Content: Check out a recent case study done by Getty that captures how to create powerful and engaging communication with video, and get introduced to the concept of The Content Graph which is the basis for many future blog posts, and where we see this trend going.

The Role of Brands as Media Companies: Brands like Burberry and Ralph Lauren are leading the trend and utilising their video assets to become more like media companies than designers.

I hope you enjoyed this review of past posts. Stay tuned for more future posts documenting this trend.

About Preview Networks

Preview Networks is Europe’s largest preview network. We serve websites, ,  apps and . Our content is available on MSN,, , The Times, MySpace, The Guardian, El Pais, El Mundo, Le Monde and more than 2,300 other online . We work with more than 300 brand and companies. Learn more on previewnetworks.com

 

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