In this week’s Week in Review: Facebook introduces ad serving to Atlas, Turner building GIF and video site and AppNexus slashes video load speeds. To receive a weekly summary of industry news and other VAN interviews and videos, sign up to the weekly Video Round-Up.
Facebook Introduces Video Ad Serving To Atlas, Also Adds Video to Lead Ads
Amid a wider global PR-drive for its publisher offering, Facebook will launch several tools in its Atlas rollout, including a video ad serving product, plus tools enabling brands to better understand their customers’ paths to conversion across screens. It is also announcing the launch of ‘Offline Actions’, a measurement tool which it claims helps advertisers using Atlas to tie together offline sales to online ad spend. Any advertisers who measure their ads through Atlas can now upload their point-of-sale data in order to understand how their ads online are affecting their online purchases. Facebook will also be allowing users to control Facebook Live notifications and have added video to their lead-generation advertising offerings to attract financial brands, automakers, insurance companies and real estate players.
Sky Invests in fuboTV
Sky has invested $6m in fuboTV, a U.S streaming sports OTT service. This funding is part of fuboTV’s Series B round of funding and is the latest in a series of strategic Sky investments in innovative start-up companies. Sky has also announced they have formed a strategic partnership with iflix, a Southeast Asian streaming TV service.
AppNexus Closes Gap on Latency with New Video Technology
AppNexus has announced the launch of new technology which it claims improves video load times by a factor of 100 or more. Video ads sold on its platform will, in theory, now load at a speed of 50 milliseconds, down from load times of five seconds or more seen on publisher sites. AppNexus is dubbing the new launch as an “anti-latency solution”, with the latest launch forming part of its video initiative that kicked off in June last year.
Turner’s Super Deluxe “Building A Gif and Video Site”
Super Deluxe, Turner Broadcasting’s digital venture, has hinted to a new site, Surf, on their homepage. It has been reported that Surf is, in its current form, a way to allow users to manually collect videos from YouTube, Facebook and elsewhere and organise them in collections, or boards. The same can be done with Gifs, tweets or other forms of online media.
Verizon and Hearst Recruit New Video Customers
Verizon and Hearst have agreed to form a joint venture to develop digital video programming targeting the mobile millennial audience. Following Verizon’s investment, the venture will be known as Verizon Hearst Media Partners, and will merge Verizon’s technology and Hearst’s digital video content and production capabilities to develop two initial channels of video programming to be distributed across go90™, AOL and other distribution platforms.
YouTube Offers Support For Female Filmmakers
YouTube is teaming with the UN to offer support for female filmmakers in the form of two new initiatives. YouTube will support women behind the camera as well as those in front of the lens as part of the YouTube ‘Spaces’ program. Six prominent YouTube creators have already filmed over 50 videos covering everything from original scripted content to women’s issues and tributes to female leaders for this project.
TubeMogul Details Growth of Australian Programmatic Market
Video services provider, TubeMogul, has published a white paper detailing the growth and impact of the programmatic market in Australia. Noting that a number of local broadcasters were expected to launch programmatic offerings this year, TubeMogul said programmatic TV would play an important role in cross-screen audience targeting and facilitate more integrated planning options for advertisers.
Premium TV Drives Almost 5 Times More Social Engagement
4C Insights and Turner announced the results of a study they conducted looking at the relationship between TV and social media. The three key findings were:
Television advertising has a significant impact on social media brand engagement. The research shows that 1 out of every 5 social engagements for brands is directly driven by television advertising.
When the two largest drivers of social brand engagement are compared, TV drives 1 in 3 engagements. When TV and social ads are compared, television ads drive 35% of social brand engagement and social ads drive 65%.
Television advertising during premium programming drives 4.5x higher social brand engagement than during non-premium programming. Premium TV content has nearly twice the impact of non-premium content on driving social brand engagement with Sports and Live driving the highest engagement per impression performance.
Meerkat Ditches Livestream Against Periscope and Facebook Live Pressure
Streaming app Meerkat will be leaving livestreaming for mobile behind and moving to a video social network model, as Facebook Live and Twitter/Periscope dominate the market. In an e-mail leaked to the public, Meerkat’s CEO Ben Rubin wrote that: “mobile broadcast video hasn’t quite exploded as quickly as we’d hoped.”
AT&T To Launch Three Ways to Access and Stream Content
Towards the end of 2016, AT&T plans to launch the ability for customers to access and stream DirecTV video services over a wired or wireless Internet connection from any provider and from virtually any device, such as smartphones, tablets, Smart TVs, streaming media hardware or PCs. These services will not require annual contracts, satellite dishes or set-top boxes. AT&T have also announced they have paired with Videology to allow advertisers to programmatically purchase linear inventory from AT&T U-verse and DirecTV.
Mediacorp and SpotX Partner To Power Programmatic
Media company Mediacorp has partnered with SpotX to power the sale of video advertising across its suite of media platforms, SpotX has announced. The signing signals a change in the Asian ad market, which has been slower to adopt programmatic buying for video.
SpotX also announced its supply-side operations for UK and Southern Europe with the appointment of Robert Greaves as Supply Operations Manager and Julian Strutt as Business Development Manager, both of whom will be joining from Yahoo’s BrightRoll.
Facebook and Instagram Mobile App Ads Cause 196 Per Cent Uplift
Advertisers who used mobile app ads on Facebook and Instagram to promote their own apps boosted downloads by 196 per cent in the final quarter of 2015, a study from Kenshoo has found. The report also showed that advertisers’ share of both clicks and app installs obtained through Instagram since the introduction of its advertising API in Q3 2015 exceeded the share of total ad spend, and all three metrics showed considerable improvement over the last two quarters.
Vimeo Updates iOS App
Video streaming site Vimeo has announced it is launching a new version of its iOS app, and the updates will be geared toward content discovery a more intuitive user interface. With Millennials increasingly using Snapchat, Facebook, and YouTube to view videos on their mobile devices, Vimeo is using its updates to explore this.
Apple Launches Twitter Account
After years of avoiding social media, Apple has launched a Twitter account aimed at supporting Apple customers online. @AppleSupport launched on March 3rd 2016 and is intended to provide: “tips, tricks and helpful information when you need it most.”
Yahoo Launches Esports
In a bid to strengthen itself as a company, Yahoo have announced they are launching Esports, an online destination for delivering professional sports coverage across major games and events. Esports will have an emphasis on unique video content experiences covering live tournaments, whilst going inside the action to focus on the players and competition.
Linear and Pay-TV Set to Increase
Time spent with both linear TV and pay-TV will increase over the next 3 years, a survey conducted by Forrester Research and commissioned by Videology has found. 49 per cent of respondents see a significant or moderate increase over the next 3 years in watching TV at the time it is broadcast, up from just 27 per cent when surveyed in 2013.
Fraud Concerns Rise With Programmatic Buying Growth
Marketers’ worries about fraud and transparency in the inventory they’re buying are rising as programmatic buying becomes more popular, according to a survey from the National Advertisers and Forrester. 79 per cent of respondents have been doing programmatic buying in the last year, and past year usage of programmatic buying was highest for online display, online video, mobile display, and mobile video.
AKQA Acquires Majority Stake in Potato
WPP-owned company AKQA, has announced it has bought the majority stake in digital agency Potato. Potato specialises in designing and building complex, secure and scalable web applications.
FCC Fines Verizon $1.35 Million Over “Super Cookie” Non-Disclosure
Verizon has been fined over a ruling that The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has made, whereby Verizon failed to disclose to consumers that it was tracking their web traffic using Unique Identifier Headers (UIDH), otherwise known as the ‘super cookie’. Verizon has been handed a $1.35m fine and also agreed to a three-year consent decree, meaning it will require customers to agree to the tracking before it commences.
Sharethrough and The Trade Desk Pair On Programmatic
Native advertising Supply Side Platform (SSP), Sharethrough, has announced it is teaming up with The Trade Desk to launch a new native advertising RTB integration for alpha buyers. As well as access to Sharethrough’s audience, buyers will be able to purchase in-feed ads through The Trade Desk’s Omnichannel RTB platform, giving them the resources they need to run large-scale targeted campaigns that use native’s content-first approach.
Snapchat To Generate “$300 Million” In Revenue
Messaging service Snapchat has reportedly said they are looking to generate $300m in revenue by the end of 2016, it has been reported. The number is six or seven times the figure projected from 2015.
Crimson Hexagon Raises $20 Million in Funding
Social media data specialists, Crimson Hexagon, have raised $20m in funding, led by Sageview Capital, to help the firm grow its social data analysis capabilities. The funding drive comes amidst an increase in demand for its work over the past year, with the company’s customer base expanding by more than 75 per cent and the platform with more than 10,000 active users.
beIN Group Acquires Miramax
Media group beIN have announced they have acquired 100 per cent of entertainment distributer, Miramax. Miramax will continue to release upcoming feature films in 2016, and will continue with its current film library.
Spain Adds 75,000 Pay-TV Subscribers
The Spanish pay-TV market has grown to add 75,000 subscribers in Q3 2015 with Movistar taking over 45 per cent of the market, reports Spain’s Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC). In the quarter, total pay TV subscribers grew to 5.43 million, a much lower increase than the 400,000 seen in the same quarter of 2014.
Freenet Acquires Media Broadcast Group
German company Freenet are looking to expand to Internet viewing with the acquisition of Media Broadcast Group, they have announced. Under the deal, Freenet’s unit mobilcom-debitel GmbH will buy shares and provide a shareholder loan for the repayment of bank loans.
U.S Tops Cord Cutting
The U.S has the highest cord-cutting figures, apart from Spain, Parks Associates have found. Spanish households are more likely than households in other Western European markets to have never had pay-TV or to have canceled pay-TV in favour of online video.
Broadband Access Market Reaches Record Levels
During 2015, broadband levels reached a record level and exceeded $12 billion, according to market information source, the Dell’Oro Group. The worldwide Broadband Access market, which includes Cable, DSL, and PON technologies, reached record levels driven by PON.
Movile Chooses Irdeto to Protect Video For PlayKids
Digital security platform, Irdeto, has announced that Movile has selected Irdeto Rights to manage the multi-DRM support and content protection of its PlayKids platform, extending its device reach. The implementation with Irdeto will support hundreds of live streaming and download & go options for PlayKids on iOS and Android mobile devices, as well as Apple TV.
PTCL and ZTE Announce Alliance For Joint Innovation Centre in Pakistan
The Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has announced it has formed a strategic alliance with ZTE Corporation for setting up a Joint Innovation Centre on Big Video in Pakistan. The Joint Innovation Centre will be for Smart TV development, empowering PTCL to provide high quality video services to customers on TV and mobile devices.
PCCW Expands Video to Malaysia and India
PCCW Media has launched Viu, an over-the-top (OTT) mobile video entertainment service in India and Malaysia. Offered as a freemium service, Viu provides viewers in both markets with free access to thousands of hours of premium content for local users.
Britons Spend Over Ten Hours a Day Connected to Web
Britons now spend more time online then they do asleep, according to new research commissioned by Hyperoptic. The results uncovered that men are spending the most time online, at an average of 11 hours a day, compared to women who are connected to the web for an average of 10 hours day.
Erstream Introduces NexGuard Protection
Erstream has announced it has launched the integration of NexGuard forensic watermarking into its online video delivery platform. Erstream offers a comprehensive OTT video delivery solution for live and On Demand.
TV to Experience 10-12 Per Cent Growth
The TV market is set to experience a compound annual growth rate of 10-12 per cent between 2014 and 2018, according to the Ericsson 2015 Annual Report. The growth will be driven by Internet technology, the report says.
Decreasing TV Advertising Budgets Hurts Brands
When 15 Consumer Packaged Goods brands cut their TV advertising budgets, the majority lost a much greater amount in sales year-over-year, a study from TiVo Research and 84.51° has found. The report went on to show that for every dollar decline in ad spend, the 11 brands watched lost 3 times that amount in return. The correlation was disproportionate in favour of higher TV spend.
Intelsat Shows Recovery Signs With Gogo Partnership
After experiencing steep falls in their share price over the past few weeks, Intelsat has seen a dramatic rise, with the share price closing on March 4th 2016 at $1.99 a share, but having hit $2.15 at one point during the day. The lift appears to have come as Gogo, aviation wireless entertainment provider, announced they were partnering with Intelsat.
Over Half of U.S Homes Have Connected TV
52 per cent of U.S homes have at least one TV connected to the Internet, according to The NPD Group Connected Intelligence Connected Home Entertainment Report. This leap represents an increase of six million homes over the past year.
Amazon’s First Live Show Announced
The Style Code has been announced as Amazon’s first live daily show, Amazon has said. The show is dedicated to fashion and beauty, featuring useful tips from style experts and viewers, looks the audience can easily shop, and an interactive viewing experience that includes live chat.
Most Consumers Happy To Pay For TV Extras
90 per cent of consumers are interested in upgrading from a basic TV subscription to one that includes valuable privileges, including discounts, exclusives and access to events or activities that involve other subscribers, according to Vindicia’s ‘Consumer Demand for Value-added Subscription Services’ study.
Chromecast Takes 35 Per Cent of Digital Media Streaming Market
Amazon, Apple, Google and Roku accounted for more than 8 out every 10 Digital Media Streamer shipments worldwide in 2015, according to Strategy Analytics. Smart TVs accounted for 54 per cent of all Connected TV Device shipments in 2015, reaching 120 million units, and Chromecast accounted for 35 per cent 42 million unit Global Digital Media Streamer Market in 2015.
Digital Ad Spending To Surpass TV
TV ad spending will account for 35.8 per cent of total media ad spending in the US in 2017, eMarketer’s latest study has found. The report shows that spending on adverts for digital will surpass spending on TV ads for the first time next year.
TV Takes 84.5 Per Cent of Australian Video Viewing
Despite the proliferation of connected devices, the vast majority of all video viewing in Australia takes place on in-home TV sets, according to the latest Australian Multi-Screen Report from Regional TAM, OzTAM and Nielsen. The report, which covers the fourth quarter of 2015, also shows that computers, tables and smartphones comprise 15.5 per cent of the time Australians spend watching video of any kind, which is an average 15 hours 42 minutes each month.
$1.1 Billion Already Invested in VR
Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality investment have reached $1.1 billion in the first two months of this year already, according to statistics from digi-capital.com. The report shows that nearly $800 million came from the huge Magic Leap start up round but another $300 million went into AR/VR solutions/services, VR hardware, advertising/marketing, distribution, video, peripherals, apps and games.
TV Still Dominates UK Consumption
The average TV viewer in the UK watched a total of 3 hours, 51 minutes of TV a day in 2015, a new report from Thinkbox has found. The report also said that the average viewer in the UK spends 4 minutes a day watching TV on devices such as tablets and smartphones and that 16-24s watch over twice as much TV on other devices as the average viewer.
Robert Marshall Joins Maxus as Head of Programmatic
Head of UK platform at Rocket Fuel, Robert Marshall, has joined GroupM’s Maxus as Head of Programmatic. Marshall has five years’ experience within programmatic and he has delivered media buying campaigns and implemented data-driven marketing strategies for some of the UK’s largest advertisers.
Opera Launches Integrated Native Ad-Blocker
Web browser Opera has unveiled a native ad-blocking feature, which it claims can help improve page load times by up to 90 per cent, and also help advertisers to better understand the problems posed by heavy advertising.
TUI Group Tests Cookie-Less Tracking
A tracking test run by Flashtalking for the tour operator TUI has identified a significant increase in the measurability of conversions in mobile environments. The beta tests have shown significant increase in attributed conversions as a result of better visibility into impressions that lay outside the reach of cookie tracking thus closing the gap between different mobile spaces.
UBS and Teads Partner On Global Brand Campaign
Financial services firm, UBS, has enlisted Teads as a partner to support its global brand campaign. Teads has announced. Through Teads’ inRead format, the campaign will achieve a comprehensive cross-channel reach across all devices, including smartphones, tablets and desktop, with the world’s publishers.
Amazon Recruiting For VR Software Manager
Amazon is looking to bolster its video offering with a yet-to-be-unveiled virtual reality (VR) service, with the news that Amazon Video is recruiting for the role of Senior Software Development Manager for Virtual Reality.
Google Hires 4chan Founder For Social Media Drive
Christopher Poole, the founder of 4chan, has been recruited to Google to help with its ongoing efforts to be a successful player in the social media arena. Poole announced the news on his Tumblr blog, and while his official role has not been confirmed, his reference to “online communities” on his blog has led commentators to believe he will be involved with this side of Google’s business.
Leo Burnett Appoints Mother’s Chaka Sobhani
Advertising agency Leo Burnett has appointed Chaka Sobhani from Mother to the role of chief creative officer, they have announced. Chaka brings with her 20 years of experience from both the advertising and broadcast industries, notably setting up ITV Creative and becoming its first creative director.
VideoAmp Appoints Former Vizio Exec Nick Chakalos
Videoamp, a buy-side video platform, has appointed Nick Chakalos as the company’s first vice president of global TV and data partnerships, a position created to accelerate the company’s strategy around advanced TV. Chakalos has over 25 years experience and has held senior positions in business development, sales, product management, general management, and operations.
Ad of the Week: Ariel, Share the Load, BBDO India
This week was International Women’s Day and so it’s fitting that this week’s ad of the week is one that Sheryl Sandberg called “one of the most powerful videos I have ever seen.” A father writes a letter to his daughter apologising on behalf of dads who have set the wrong example by not doing the housework. The ad asks the question: “Why is laundry only a mother’s job?”
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