Integrating Products into Video is an Art not a Science or maybe a little bit of Both

 

Our digital marketing agency, Dorado Brand Studio recently completed a major video project with Naked Mobile a division of Cellular One.  We built a weeklong project that encompassed some of the natural beauty of Utah, the great outdoors, camping and of course integrating some great mobile phones into our efforts. The goal of the project was to create compelling content of everything listed above and build the videos to support TV advertising, social media posts and web marketing. The inspiration for this blog post came from several industry people asking me about integrating product without consumers being turned off with the placement. Check out the link at the end to see what the final product of our team’s hard work.

 

To be fair integrating usage of a smartphone into video sounds easy but try and do it in remote regions of Utah, climbing on the side of cliff or flying down a sand dune in an ATV. Ever heard of a cook stove that includes a charger for a smartphone? Well we found one.

 

The planning stage of this shoot was almost as important as the actual shoot. We spent weeks determining the locations for each individual shoot and once we had those locked down we then moved into developing the storyline and built out storyboards, scripts, prop list, and identified required permits for each location we intended to visit. We identified the activities and apps we wanted to highlight set and how to best incorporate smart phones into the video. We were very fortunate to have two people with great chemistry and personalities that made sense for the Naked Mobile “Wanderlove” campaign.

 

Next up came logistics of the travel, props, camping equipment, hours per location and an endless amount of other details.  I’m sure anyone reading this that runs an agency in pursuit of video knows these are basic items that everyone knows but because I speak with many media executives that are new to video it’s important I include some basics.

 

Integrating smart phones into the shoot was something we spent a large portion of our time dedicated to researching how to best utilize the smartphone in these desolate locations. We didn’t want our actors blatantly talking about how great the phone works or look at these beautiful photos. It had to be used spontaneously and in a natural way. For instance we found apps that made sense for the location and the type of activity we were engaged with. One of the apps that we used was able to identify which constellations were in the sky by simply panning your phone over the night sky. . At that same location, we were able to utilize a unique camp stove that generates electricity with heat in which we were able to highlight the phone charging capability while our talent cooks his dinner over the campfire. .  Everything we did with the smartphone felt natural in these outdoor settings and was not forced. We felt it was necessary to not to go overboard with how many times we tried to integrate product into our various 2 minute, 30 second and 10 second videos. We made the videos about the story we were telling and smart phones were a part of the experience.  

 

The completed products we created were well received by Naked Mobile and today are being utilized on TV, social media and anywhere else they can find to run video. Who said a mock gun fight at an old west town had to have guns. Why can’t we have a battle over who can text faster?  Finally it really helps if everyone is having fun and enjoying the time spent capturing wonderful content although they will tell you it was exhausting.

 

Enjoy the video.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nupt2obDfS0

2018
09/13
CATEGORY
Video Strategies
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Are You Part of a Media Company with an Agency or and Agency with a Media Business?

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It seems an article publishes weekly referencing media companies purchasing or building digital agencies in an effort to diversify revenue and expand knowledge base around new technology. Another popular topic these days is about agencies altering their model in order to fit the new model of advertising. A model that includes content marketing and usage of digital tools. 
So, we have media companies trying to act more like an agency and agencies trying to act more like media companies. The reality of this situation is related to primarily designing, creating and selling ads that have impact. Both media companies and advertising agencies want to be experts. Display ads still exist and in some cases still work great, but they are only part of a solution. In today’s ever changing advertising industry it’s critical that an advertiser feel they are getting an all encompassing solution that recognizes the need for a great ad that can reach an audience through search engine tactics, social media, content marketing, blog posts, programmatic, email blasts and a combination of other digital strategies. 

I mentioned a need for a great ad but what is a great ad? Creatively speaking it has to be compelling, eye catching and quickly convey the desired message. Now the hard part. Is it through video, photography, illustrations, blog posts, content written for a specific audience, social media, etc.?  The answer is all of these outlets plus more. More. More. More. But how can a media company or an agency pivot to survive and thrive in this marketing world?

It has to begin with a mindset change. Agencies typically focus on starting with creative design and messaging, then partnering to outsource many of the activities related to distribution of the creative. Some agencies focus on media buying to ensure all bases are covered with distribution sources or aggregation of inventory for distribution. Media companies typically try to remedy the issues with all the new ways to advertise by focusing on, developing or outsourcing a laundry list of products so no matter what an advertiser requests, they have a product to offer.

In order to succeed in today’s market at an agency or media company, the mindset must be to blend. Agencies and media companies have to first start by presenting an advertiser using the worn out term, consultative selling. Agencies can’t just sell the creative and focus on the ads doing all the work and media companies can’t load up the menu with digital products and have sales or marketing representatives choose the right ones for an advertiser. Today requires anyone wanting to help a business navigate the ever changing digital marketing world or marketing in general, the ability to listen to an advertiser and conceptualize what needs to happen on social media versus search engines versus content marketing versus websites versus mobile devices and more. It’s really all about the campaign and desired impact. A thought process around the audience and how they consume information and ultimately the assets needed are the key elements long before a discussion of the tactics or products used to facilitate the desired impact.

I know this may sound simplistic, consultative selling versus product selling but there’s a reason media companies are forming or building agencies and agencies are building out content and digital teams. Media companies want to be part of consultative selling which includes the creative elements including video, photography and design. While agencies are looking to be part of the entire campaign including developing content beyond just an ad and recommending distribution using their own resources  It all starts with a marketing representative listening and building a campaign with multiple elements instead of just selling products the agency or media company has to offer.

It’s critical for success of a media company or agency you let the client win with a successful campaign.  Sales incentives for product sales or legacy knowledge should never drive the decision process in getting to a win for the client.

2018
05/15
CATEGORY
Revenue Creation
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Digital Marketing and the Role of Video

When digital marketing agencies first opened their doors for business it was all about banner ads, clickable creative, social media, SEO, blogs and newsletters. In the past year or so the digital marketing requests started coming in for content marketing or sponsored content. Fast forward to today, and it seems like everyone still wants the digital marketing efforts already mentioned but almost all conversations now begin with a discussion on video. Many marketers have a difficult time integrating video due to lack of knowledge in creation of video, a lack of understanding in the cost of video by agency and client, developing in-house talent and cost of equipment. Here are some tips for determining if you or your agency is ready to tackle video as part of your agency’s offerings.

Determine business case for pursuing video.

Why do you want to get into video? Are your clients requesting video and if so what percentage? Do you have the resources to pursue i.e. equipment, capital? Do you have any employees who have expertise with video production – videographers, editors? Finally do you have creative staff that can envision creative using video? There are certainly many other questions you need to answer but these are the main ones.

Identify team to lead the charge.

With anything new, it requires focus. It is a mistake to assume your creative, production and sales team can just add video as another service to sell. Many of the strategies are similar but having knowledge about the nuances of video is critical. There’s also the tendency for salespeople to hang on to what they have always sold until the bitter end.

Video production requires storyboards and ideas around the creative vision. Decisions have to be made on the use of animations within the video. What about music? Actors? Length? Music rights. How will it be used?

On the operations side of things it is critical to understand where the video is to be placed. If it’s social media, then the video should be 10-15 seconds or less. If the video is for blog posts or newsletters, I would still recommend no more than 2 minutes in length. If using primarily on a homepage of a website it can be longer but still less than 3 minutes and likely no audio. You also need to understand if different file versions will be needed based on platform you plan to run the video on or the players used to host the video.

Sales should also understand that typical pricing for other digital marketing efforts doesn’t work for video. The cost to produce a video is much more than other products in the digital marketing suite. I would also suggest that sales focus on getting someone with expertise involved in discussing video with the client or prospect. Having a creative team member who understands the complexity of shooting video should also be involved.

What does success look like.

The end product has to be a video that can be utilized in all aspects of digital marketing while also achieving a client’s goal. It should not be a one trick pony. The video needs to morph into each digital effort. It needs to work within a banner ad, on the advertiser’s website, on social media, in a blog, in an email campaign and blends in with photography, text and other aspects of any campaign. Success for the video starts with placement in the campaign, but the ultimate success is more user engagement, more product sales and a client that is proud of the video.

End Result.

Since video has become almost a “must offer” for digital marketing efforts it is critical your company spend the time and effort to develop an expertise. The backup if you don’t have the resources would be to hire freelance help until such time you build up your client base to afford in-house expertise.

While the tips above are general in scope they represent the basics to a successful effort with video. This video for Naked Mobile is an example of the video work we are proud of. Naked Mobile.

2017
10/16
CATEGORY
Publishing Strategies
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An Unlikely Trail From Digital to Print

As today’s media landscape continues to evolve, media groups must remain ambitious. As CEO of Ballantine Communications, Inc., nestled in the outdoor mecca of Durango, Colorado, my team and I found a media void in a place where you would expect it to be thriving, so we decided to act.

The annual booming $646 billion outdoor industry continues to grow and its audience is eager to learn, and even more eager to travel for their recreation. Market studies detail that for every dollar spent on outdoor equipment, four more are spent on travel and related needs. It is a broad group, male and female, ages 20-50 and beyond with a variety of interests. And we know how to reach them.

Today, BCI is aiming to be a basecamp for major online and regional outdoor media projects. Our Adventure Pro brand, an online website and now a print magazine, begins with the greater Southwest itself, a landscape of mountains and deserts, canyons and plateaus filled with renowned athletes and everyday explorers alike. With Adventure Pro, we embrace the huge world of outdoor recreation in a voice that aims to inspire our audience.

Our flagship website also aims to set itself apart with a vast amount of video-driven content. AdventurePro.us is composed of feature stories, tips and educational segments on equipment, how-tos, as well as travel pieces including après activity. We introduce something, whether sport or place, and dive right into where to get started.

Our newest entry in support of digital content is Adventure Pro Magazine, which will not only be an extension of the website experience, but will also stand alone as an engaging outdoor periodical. It will serve to redirect readers to the website so they can continue their experience. For every feature in the magazine, there is an elaboration of that content online.

Widely distributed, 20,000 copies will hit Northern New Mexico, Southeastern Utah and all along Colorado’s Western Slope. The quarterly magazine will celebrate each season and its unique recreational opportunities. Our carriers will stock strategic and highly visible places – restaurants, shops, cafes and hotels – in destinations synonymous with adventure: Moab, Utah; Taos, New Mexico; Pagosa Springs, Durango, Telluride and Grand Junction, Colorado.

At BCI, a content and video production team, a sales and marketing team and development team all work together to produce and promote Adventure Pro. For the esoteric realm of outdoor adventure, we’ve recognized a crucial need for a high level of expertise and an alternative skillset, so we built a staff accordingly to reflect the assorted audience we attract.

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Editor Brandon Mathis comes with 25 years of extensive outdoor experience and training, and a history in news media and storytelling. Mathis has a keen understanding of the culture and is himself a prime example of our audience.

Today’s outdoor enthusiast isn’t just a hiker or just a skier. They are hikers aspiring to ski and trail runners aspiring to mountain bike. They love to research online and educate themselves, from the latest performance wear to the best place for a breakfast on their weekend getaway. They want a little of everything. To them it’s all a lifestyle, not a weekend hobby.

The audience we are pursuing understands the sports we cover but wants to feel they are learning more than the basics. Our goal is to give novices enough information to make decisions about pursuit, and intermediate to experts those tips and information to help them better enjoy their adventure. This content is driven to deliver to people who want the most out of their passion.

We are also partnering with core outdoor businesses that share and reflect our brand’s values. Our supporters are niche retailers, gear supply shops, trending dining and social establishments, craft breweries and professional guide services. In addition to traditional advertising, we offer product placement, native content and digital and print packages, expanding our supporters’ marketing strategies.

The advertisers have also helped in driving our decision to add a print component to our offerings. In discussions with the different advertisers, they pushed the case that print still had a place in the mix due to the various locations many of the audience would consume content. Coffee shops, brewpubs and remote locations all still had strong print consumers not to mention a limitation with internet access in many locations. Thus they believed print and digital working in concert continues to make sense.

Our online presence is evergreen, immediately available and device-responsive as AdventurePro.us updates several times every week with new content. Our social media outlets, like Facebook and Instagram, have a growing audience, and we are developing new ways to engage them, even repurposing viewer-submitted social media content onto the print platform, making our own audience part of the content itself.

There is incredible potential to expand, with opportunities to push into an even broader geographic area. We have put tremendous efforts into our digital product, and now will grow our audience online by building a highly-visible print product as much for aspiring audiences as for seasoned experts.

This is an exciting time in media, and we see a turning point. Platform agnosticism used to be a battle cry. But the reality is that it’s not a platform, it’s the content.

Our audience is involved in these adventures, and in many cases they are in remote locations pursuing their passions. Given that, it makes perfect sense to give our consumers a great experience in digital and print.

2016
10/20
CATEGORY
Publishing Strategies
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Pursuing Online Video Strategy (TV model vs Category model)

We have been experimenting with video content for the past 2 years and it seems like we are finding new ways to achieve audience growth.  Content is typically “king” but success also comes down to how easy it is to find content on the web. In that regard, the importance of tagging was far greater than we ever anticipated.

Recently one of our video websites, 4flagtv.com, changed it’s approach to video. Originally 4flagtv.com shared content with it’s sister site, 4cornerstv.com, based in Durango, Co. Our hope from a production and business perspective was that sharing video content between the sites would increase our inventory and give our audience more content than one production team could produce.

However, analytics showed us that videos produced in the Durango area scored poorly when compared to the page views and time spent on videos produced in Flagstaff, about Flagstaff. To support this notion we wanted to pull all the non-Flagstaff content off the site and focus on local coverage. As we prototyped what the site would look like we had very few ‘shows’ left on the site. Up to that point our programming was similar to a broadcast model.

The Broadcast model

Originally, there were shows on our Flagstaff site with particular topics and a specific host, and they were published on a regular schedule. But we were hearing from the production team that the broadcast model was actually confining what they would cover because they were always trying to find a story that would fit into the shows’ format. One such example was Escape the Grind, a show about fitness. Our shows were simply too constrictive to allow us to adequately cover topics outside their scope.

In another show, #Flag, we had far fewer parameters on what we were doing. It’s open-ended content allowed us much more free range in coverage, letting us bring together disparate topics in its two-minute-plus running time that was far more of a YouTube model than what we had been doing.

#Flag taught us that it was the content, not the brand (especially at the show level), that was important to the younger readers we wanted to court. These millennials were far more accustomed to the YouTube model of programming, not the broadcast model. And if you’re true to your audience, you need to follow what they’re familiar and comfortable with, not what you want to impose on them. Our audience didn’t care about “shows,” so we needed to move away from slavishly producing them. We also needed to acknowledge that our audience cares about specific content, and they search it out by categories.

 

The Youtube model

We decided to break the broadcast model of branded shows and move to a system that utilizes topics and tags to associate content for the user. It also allows the production team to cover a much broader range of content.

What’s different for our users? Now when they come to the site, instead of seeing videos categorized by show name and episodes, they are greeted with the latest content published in reverse chronological order. Each video has collection of tags connected to it. A user may start with a video on bicycle products, but be exposed to links to other topics such as “industrial design, bicycles, business profile, sports, downtown, Flag and Dapper Dre (a local celebrity).

The idea is to get the user to follow a click trail to videos about their favorite things. To make it easier for them, we went back through over 2,000 videos and retagged them with additional information. Navigationally, our site is now structured to make it easy to find content based on categories of content, trending content and newest releases.

We spent much time and energy promoting our show names and branded websites when in reality our viewers only really cared about content categories and the pure entertainment value we could offer. Our road map now follows a major and important detour that emphasizes tags over titles.

Below are 3 examples of our current format.

 

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2016
07/05
CATEGORY
Publishing Strategies
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Campaign Is A Success According to Agency “Not so Much”

Case Study using Adsperity software to monitor ad campaign

Background

A campaign was created for a software company to drive awareness and sign up for demonstrations of the company’s software product. The Adsperity product was used to track results of the campaign and then compare to the agency responsible for placing the campaign. The campaign was flighted across desktop and mobile for the purpose of promoting the software product and ultimately signing users to license the software. This campaign was a way to gain awareness and provide potential clients the ability to engage with the software product team through the website.

Flow

A word on success: Ad campaigns can and often reveal several success points. In the case of this software product, one of the key goals was set to get people to fill out a form to sign up for demonstration of software. This particular element relates to customer acquisition while other parts of the campaign relate to awareness. To understand the success of this campaign it is important to distinguish between the two. The definition of conversion and success in this instance is that users will use the form on the website and “request a demo”. While that is not explicitly acquisition it is the step towards acquisition. Moreover, an argument can be made that a potential user may spend some time on the website to gain information and over time will convert to a paying user.

Also, it is noteworthy to discuss pacing. By definition, pacing is the speed at which purchased ads are delivered based on month/day/hour. Although you can find numerous articles written on the skill sets of ad ops and their pacing practices, suffice it to say that more modern ad servers use algorithms to help with this. And even if the particular ad server cannot accomplish this, it’s a fairly simple task. Understanding your product and market render pacing what I call a “so what” checkbox.

For example, most everyone can figure out that the software company ads should not be shown to extreme North America computers at 3am. While you can argue that living in the tundra one may need our product, it is unlikely. Therefore the focus should have been on large metropolitan areas during business hours. And a targeting focus to sites that will engage highly potential users.

DoubleClick for example runs a very extensive algorithm to help ads ops make those decisions on the fly and can change them automatically.

Campaign Solution

It is important to start with understanding of the pricing and impression model of the campaign. First, the campaign had a budget spend of $25,199 to deliver a total of 5,472,426 impressions over the course of 3 months.

Impressions_vs_Actual

Pacing total is 85% (in this statistic pacing is percentage of planned vs. actual not the speed at which the ads are delivered unless you divide by the number of days during the campaign and derive the number of ads delivered per day.)

Top 10

Retargeting

MNI Performance

Targeting Channels and impressions: There were 5 channels that were targeted during this campaign. Of them, the DataPoint Display Audience received the most impressions.

MNI

The targeting and impressions are somewhat aligned with the goals at first blush. The list of targeted sites can be seen in the same vein as a target audience. The initial launch of the campaign sees that ads being run to a list of websites on desktop are correctly identified. The pacing and impressions within the campaign can be seen as being as aligned with software company goals. However, Adsperity’s SmartVision tells a different story.

Results

SmartVision- The results from Adsperity’s Smartvision conclude that the overall engagement of the campaign was very low. While users did go to the website. The amount of time spent on the website was low. The graph below shows that the most time spent was on the index page and the about page.

 

Blog pic case study

TTR and TSR: The time to read the ad ranged from 1 to 1.5 seconds and the time users actually spent reading the ad range, on average, from 0.2 seconds to 1 second. Within the algorithm this statistic indicates the accidental clicks were the majority of clicks. Those that were not in the majority indicate that most of the clicks occurred after the ad had been on the page for more than a minute. Combining these statistics gives us the performance rating, which was very low.

If we combine that with the time on the website we can see that engagement was mostly accidental. Furthermore, those who did get to the website never filled out a form. Just over 6300 pages views during the campaign at 2 filled out the form. Less than 2% clicked through to the website and virtually 0% filled out the form. This data excludes bounce rate, which can be also derived from the SmartVision’s low performance rating.

3 million ad units served, 6300 page views and 2 forms filled out.

During Ad:Tech New York several people indicated that they had seen the software product ad and visited software company booth to check out product which speaks to awareness.

There were two spikes in website and ad activity once at the beginning of the campaign and the second during Ad:Tech New York. Other than those two improvements in activity the ad campaign and website activity stayed at a steady low. As for the ads spiking it is unclear if agency changed the targeting or pacing during this time. With both increasing it is reasonably safe to conclude that there was an increase in engagement to the extent that more visitors were being pushed to the site.

Conclusion

Data points as they relate to success of campaign (ads delivered vs price paid, ads planned vs. actual, CTR) given the data points received from agency, Google Analytics and Smartvision, it is clear that there were some differences in the data. First it was clear through SmartVision that engagement remained low while accidental clicks were the majority. This was different from the “pacing model” that was given by the agency data points. While 2% of the campaign was driven to the website, and it should be noted this is roughly average, the agency data shows a more positive outlook than the SmartVision data. If the only goal was to raise awareness, this still remains the cheapest option to do so. If success also includes CTR and a request for a demo than this may have little impact by comparison to person-to-person contact. While on the subject of CTR, SmartVision concluded that the CTR was mostly false through accidental clicks. But overall the comparison to the agency data, SmartVision was clearly more informative.

Useful data vs. popular data: Most of the data points in the campaign that were provided by the agency were based on Pacing and CTR. While that data is useful to an extent, the reality is that the data is incomplete forcing the data analyst to make “assumptions”. For example the assumption that the ads drove 2% of the views to the website, therefore there was engagement (albeit very little engagement). While CTR has a place, it was very clear given the fact that most of the time click-through happened within 0.2 seconds of the ad appearing. That was not nearly enough time for the animated ads to compete their animated sequences. These assumptions seem to be everywhere in the data. Even the targeting has an amount of assumptions. Over half of the impressions came from retargeting. Answers.com was the most targeted site during the campaign.

Audience targeting in this campaign may have had some attribution to the poor performance. While one can argue that retargeting allows for more specific audience acquisition, in this case it did not. The list of websites indicates that a few of the sites where the ad ran were outside of purview of Adsperity. In fact, the ads ran on non-English websites. Given that Adsperity is not localized to several languages, this may have had an impact on success. The list of target websites were not what Adsperity would consider viable targets for the campaign. The targeting was somewhat misleading. You can clearly see the areas and target websites (listed above), what is not as clearly evident are the exact pages the ads were shown. SmartVision gave us insight to those pages. For example there are several websites listed but the ads were redirected once they hit the targeted site to “other sites” like wuxiaworld.com, a Chinese martial arts fiction website. Or zehabesha.com, an Ethiopian news site. The overall list may have been on the “approved” list, what is not clear is why the other websites made the list. The retargeting data did not specify where the ads were run for retargeting as opposed to targeted websites. Also, there was no indication of the ad servers and networks that our ads ran through. The data from the agency did not include this information. The ad ops for the Adsperity campaign made no indication of how the targeting was done in the reporting.

Lastly, the data from SmartVision and Google Analytics (website) indicate that while there was an increase in visitors to the website during the campaign the time spent both on ads and website were negligible and lacking engagement. Awareness may have had a boost through Ad:Tech New York. Conversely, the agency data, while focused on CTR and “Conversions” shows that the campaign was minimally successful based on those criteria. If 2% is success.

Overall I was very pleased that the Adsperity product produced analytics that really told a different and more accurate story on the success or lack of success with the software company’s campaign. In today’s digital advertising space it is very difficult to gauge success without utilizing new measurement models and techniques. Agencies need to become more sophisticated in what they report. This particular case study really shows the disconnect between what an agency deems success and what the true reality of the campaign is when measured properly. We have many more exciting aspects being added to the Adsperity product and I look forward to continuing to build new case studies.

 

 

2016
01/19
CATEGORY
mobile advertising
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Mobile Ads Are The Future But We Need a Reboot

It’s obvious that mobile advertising can perform much better for media companies than it is now. Publisher Doug Bennett has been working on the problem of maximizing mobile ROI, and he shares some of the evolving functions he has been able to build out in-house that point to incremental improvements.

If Elon Musk built cars the way they’re “supposed” to be built, we wouldn’t have an electric car that goes 0 to 60 in 3.5 seconds. When Steve Jobs decided that portable phones were really computers needing Apple’s attention, it changed our world. The lesson? If you’re willing to rethink everything you know and start from scratch with no sacred cows, you can do great things. That’s exactly where we are in mobile advertising today. We need a do-over with a laser focus on maximizing ROI.

The long-held belief of digital marketing is that display advertising is a powerful and cost-effective tool, while mobile advertising is unpredictable and unreliable. The question is whether or not mobile advertising can do better. It can.

Mobile devices are an incredible enabler for consumers and businesses, but they have been hamstrung by an ad model based on desktop ad thinking (which itself is based on traditional print ad thinking). When you combine this with the constant influx of new devices, features and software and then add ever-evolving user behavior and mindsets, you have massive missed potential and an ROI nightmare.

So what do we do? Do we throw out everything that’s known about mobile advertising and start from scratch? We could, but we’d be throwing out massive amounts of priceless data. Instead, let’s reinvent the entire process of mobile advertising. Let’s stop making ads with the hope that they work and maybe give us some useful data. Instead, let’s use pre-analytics (the data we have) to drive creative decisions, and drastically improve our odds for real success. And while we’re at it, let’s make creating ads a lot easier, too. There are many companies pursuing an answer to this problem. Celtra, PaperG, Flite and our own product called Adsperity are among them. All of these products are pursuing strategies that try to make mobile ads work, and we will all likely find success in increments.

Easy Way to Create Mobile Ads

Easy Way to Create Mobile Ads

We wanted to make mobile ads easy to create, publish and track, but we changed our focus to the analytics that tell us what is happening with a mobile ad. As the ad is being designed, the tool we developed automatically codes it in HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript. It also does quality assurance on the ad, confirming that it meets all mobile ad standards like file weight, size specs and more so it’s guaranteed to work on any device, browser and operating system in an easy to understand environment. You no longer need to be a code wonk to use it.

We’ve also tried to take on mobile advertising’s Achilles heel—cookies. First and third party desktop cookies break down for a number of reasons in the mobile space, from incompatibility across devices and operating systems to automatic and frequent browser cache clearing. To solve this problem, we created custom tagging technology. The instant an ad that we’ve created runs, we know the device type, the OS, browser, connectivity, location, time, interaction rate, time spent and more. A custom dashboard helps users dig into this data, parse it any way one wants and get actionable insights one can use to optimize the ad or create new ones from scratch.

SmartVision-gauges[4]

Adsperity Measures ROI Effectiveness of Mobile Ad


The world of mobile is always evolving: new devices, new capabilities, new operating systems, new browsers and whatever else is next. That means we must evolve, too, so we can accomplish the one thing that will never change – our singular goal of maximizing mobile ROI.

2015
10/22
CATEGORY
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Seeking a Younger Audience Using Video – Make Sure You Understand Audience

4 Corners TV has built a growing audience of 25-45-year-olds, but constant experimentation in its year-long existence has shown that younger viewers don’t want straight news from their online videos, even if it’s irreverent. What its Southwestern audience does like is content on pot, extreme sports and local comedy, and the site is taking another crack at news, this time with a sock puppet.  See full article at NetNewsCheck.com.

By Doug Bennett

4CornersTV-home

It’s hard to imagine that last year at this time we were preparing for the first episode of 4CornersTV.com, an online network sprung from the understanding that our newspapers did not attract a younger demographic. Our goal was to attract and retain a younger audience through new formats and content choices.

Initial audience reactions led us away from daily coverage of socially-focused news to more entertainment-themed content on a weekly schedule. The coverage of adventure sports, craft breweries and other topics related to the four corners area of the Southwest and specifically the Durango, Colo. area resulted in a steady growth trajectory of site visits.

Here’s just a snapshot of the data we’ve collected in our first year: over half of weekly viewers are 25-45-years-old. We’ve seen an average 3,000 videos viewed each week (or over 12,000 views a month) and growing.

Other things we’ve noticed: 75% of all visits convert into video views, 54% of our visitors each week are new and 40% of traffic comes from mobile devices.

Because this demographic is more and more likely to consume its entertainment through mobile devices, we weren’t surprised at the numbers of tablets and smart phones in the analytics. What was surprising is that desktop usage is still very popular. This seems to correlate with the highest viewing times ranging from Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., when 57% of usage comes from desktop, leading us to believe this group has a habit of watching at work.

Eager to continue the steady increase in views, we reached outside our area to Farmington, New Mexico to tap into a larger audience.

Although the city of Farmington is only 45 miles away, it is demographically different and has over twice the population. To directly appeal to this audience, we featured Farmington specific episodes hosted by local talent, including a Navajo comedy team. The numbers jumped significantly, with average monthly site visits climbing from 12,000 to over 25,000 with over half in the desired age group.

Happy with the success we experienced when adding in additional geographic areas, we experimented with a strategic approach to our content to raise the number of our younger demographic visitors.

The 4CornersTV.com mission of delivering stories with an irreverent tone led us to push the boundaries with topics like cannabis, covering everything from dispensaries to edibles and more. Again, we saw a jump in interest. We also went more extreme with our adventure sports coverage showing mountain climbing, night biking and ice climbing, to name a few atypical sports popular in our area. This resulted in an all-time episode high and increased visitors in the target age group by 12 points.

During this period of testing we confirmed that straight news, even with an irreverent tone, was the least-watched programming. But we’re not ready to give up on news altogether, so we’re looking to models like “The Simpsons” to take a cynical, more off-kilter and character-driven approach to news to appeal to this important age group.

With this in mind, we’re introducing Phil N. Handy, a very talented sock puppet, to anchor our news desk. He’ll focus on slightly off-color stories using a humorous delivery, while keeping a straight face, as it were.

We’re beginning Phil’s welcome campaign through a mock press release and using social media to target groups that enjoy funny, experimental news content. This move towards more unconventional programming will be measured through audience growth numbers over the next quarter to determine if Phil’s “contract” will be renewed.

The lessons learned in our first year have brought a measure of success and given us the flexibility to try new ideas. Along the way, we realized that additional staffing was necessary to pull off the kind of programming that has worked, so we’ve added another editor and show producer along the way. Fortunately, our focus on entertainment over news has created a higher acceptance rate among advertisers, helping us to absorb the cost.

Our change is ongoing, and 4 Corners TV will constantly be experimenting and pushing the boundaries to capture this profitable younger demographic. We’re also in early stages of planning expansion into new cities with similar demographics as areas we serve today, but that’s a story for another time.greenlight[1]

2015
02/12
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Inform and Entertain is Key to Success with Online Vid @4CornersTV.com

I just finished writing an article giving a progress report on the online video channel 4CornersTV.com for NetNewsCheck.com. We are off to a great start and I hope you find this information useful. For the full article go to NetNewsCheck.com.

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4CornersTV.com, launched in February by Ballantine Communications Inc, represents a new initiative for media companies to do what will be essential to their continued success; connect with new and younger audiences.

Knowing that a demographic of 30-45 year olds would not be engaged as strongly with traditional news formats, 4CornersTV.com was created to provide them content that both informs and entertains while being accessible to them in the formats they like at any time and on any device.

After more than three months of daily production with over 275 videos produced, there have been a number of significant things we have learned. The first, and likely the most important, is the relationship between content and audience engagement. Striking a balance between information and entertainment, with the latter being the most crucial, has been the most substantially effective way to boost traffic.

Since we made adjustments to programming, caused by a slowing growth rate in our targeted audience (according Google Analytics) we have seen a 63% growth in traffic, averaging 4% growth each week. 53% of audience is between the ages of 25-45. And 30% of our traffic is from mobile devices. Our audience values the enjoyment of 4CornersTV.com programming more than it does the information gathering.

This was very evident to us on an April Fools edition of our daily “news” program “The Local Roundup.” While the Roundup has a strong daily audience, consumers weren’t as prone to share or engage with it. So we decided to use April 1 as a test case in favoring entertainment over information, and produced a program filled entirely with fake news.

From federal controls on beer production (a taboo topic in our home state of Colorado) to piranhas in a local river, the fake-news allowed humor to shine through our traditional format. This resulted in the most watched episode of “The Local Roundup” to date, and led us to a more focused initiative to drive entertainment as a first priority of production.

This focus on entertainment has also been reflected in the topics we choose to cover. Generally, the episodes that more directly reflect aspects of the area’s lifestyle are most successful. Shows about mountain biking, rafting and other adventure sports are better received than more socially-focused news.

Home Page Overview[3]

One surprising development in the first three months of production was the more peripheral role of our newsrooms in 4CornersTV.com. Ballantine Communications owns several newspapers, including The Durango Herald and The Cortez Journal. Initially, we assumed that we would draw heavily on the expertise of those newsrooms for content creation on 4CornersTV.com.

In reality, this expertise was more frequently utilized in an advisory role. The newsroom has passed along ideas that better fit the audience and experience we are focused on at 4CornersTV.com. Our newsroom now plays more of a role as a source for material, as 4CornersTV.com staff writes their own material and depending on story also originates the content.

We have also spent extensive time examining how to maximize workflow for the resources we have available. We must strike a balance between the time it takes to find great stories with the time required to produce daily programming. This has made it essential to set aside time for production teams to sit down and look ahead.

The questions we found ourselves asking: What events are happening in the next month? Which is the right show and host for this story or that? Is there a way to make this more entertaining for our audience? Being intentional about the content and branding choices we make has enabled us to couple production and promotion effectively. We needed to follow the same approach as a company dedicated to video production. Our efforts with video were thus the primary intent as opposed to an add on video to a news story.

The most impactful way 4CornersTV can build its brand and cultivate new audiences is through the addition of new programming and hosts. The first imperative is relatively straightforward. We determine the show we’d like to make, agree on a creative direction and outline the first collection of episodes.

Matching the talent with the program has proven to be a more involved process. Once a creative direction has been established for the show, the next consideration is finding the host that fits with that strategy. At 4CornersTV it starts with a casting call.

We look for hosts who seem natural on camera, even if slightly unpolished, but are able to convey an enthusiasm about the subjects they are covering. For example, once we understood that our show “In the Neighborhood” needed to be fun and fast paced with original content, we hired a host who was willing to have fun herself on camera when engaging the subject, such as letting the audience fly along with her on her first sky dive.

Flying HIGH in the Sky Hero Image[5]

Check out the rest of the article on NetNewsCheck.com. Enjoy.

 

2014
07/10
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Building a Video Channel: First Steps

I recently wrote an article for NetNewsCheck.com on the topic of building an online video channel within the confines of a traditional media business.  I included a portion of the article on my blog.  You can read entire article on NetNewsCheck.com.

As the CEO of a traditional media company, I think a lot about building audiences these days.

My company, Ballantine Communications, Inc.  (BCI), owns and operates several daily newspapers in Southwest Colorado, including The Durango Herald and The Cortez Journal. For nearly 50 years, it has been a leading source of news in these areas. But like most media organizations, BCI needs new, younger audiences to continue its strong role in the community.

To reach this demographic (ages 30-45), traditional news formats are not going to be an effective method of distribution, no matter the relevancy of the content. This audience is far more likely to consume news on a mobile device. In fact, they actively seek out video content to inform them on everything from news, celebrity gossip, buying decisions and life choices.

So my team concluded that the right type of programming for us to launch was a local-online TV channel, which we call 4cornersTV.com (4CTV). But we internally debated: Should the content be focused solely on the interests of locals? Or should it have more universal appeal to match the information tourists are looking for when researching the area? For an organization rooted in a history of traditional journalism distributed in traditional formats, an online TV channel is an exciting prospect, but logistical questions abound.

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Here was our challenge: How could we incorporate the skill sets that have been cultivated through 50-years of news gathering and content creation into a video channel focused on a new demographic, in a new format with new goals while continuing our role as a prominent information outlet for the community?

Is it possible to strategically allocate internal resources, like writers and photojournalists from the newspapers, to help create the initial mass of content 4CTV would need to entice viewers? Would these resources understand how to create content that appeals to a previously under-served demographic?

What amount of capital investment would be needed to launch 4CTV before definitive content and operational procedures were in place? Essentially, how could BCI launch 4CTV with compelling content and the ability improve its programming on the fly but without a financial over-commitment?

To successfully launch 4CTV on Jan. 27, we decided that the initial investment would have to be in talent and expertise. We budgeted to spend $25,000 per quarter. These personnel needed to produce content sought by the target audience and to manage a continuous production schedule. We found there was no substitute for the unique overlapping skill sets needed not only to produce content, but also create and manage the procedures that will be the govern the channel as a whole.

The challenges in building a new channel from scratch could only be overcome by focusing on relevant content creation and by providing local advertisers with strong opportunities to market to these prospective customers through video.

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As we built the 4CTV team, the need for demographic relevance had to be incorporated into everything from marketing to development to composition of our production team.

As we moved ahead – and continue to do so – we take every step guided by this core question: Is this content relevant to the needs of our target audience and the way they interact with digital devices? For an audience of 30-45-year-olds living in Southwestern Colorado, much of that content had to be informed by the unique lifestyle they live. In this case, this audience is active, locally-focused and drawn to the area for reasons other than a career.  Check out rest of article on NetNewsCheck.

2014
02/07
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