Millennials were too busy on their smartphones to watch the Olympics

August 24, 2016

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US prime-time broadcast viewership of the Olympics has been down about 17 percent compared to the London games four years ago, reports Bloomberg.

And in the 18-to-49-year-old age group coveted by advertisers, it’s been even worse.

That audience has been 25 percent smaller, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

The Summer Olympics ratings slip, the first since 2000, raises fresh doubts about what used to be a sure thing: live sports should be a huge and growing draw no matter what.

That’s why NBC parent Comcast Corp. paid $12 billion for exclusive U.S. broadcast rights to the Olympics through 2032.

That sound? NBC shitting themselves.

“Sports is less ingrained in the younger demographic,” said Brandon Ross, an analyst at BTIG Research. “It has been replaced by other things like video games and e-sports and Snapchat feeds.”

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Are Facebook scared of Adblockers? They should be

August 24, 2016

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Are Facebook freaking out about Adblockers?

Right now it is the biggest threat to their substantial profits.

In 2016, one in four Americans will use an ad blocker, and in just one year the number of users will surge from 70 to 87 million.

Online publishers will see a large drop in revenue. An estimated $21 billion was lost due to blocked advertising during 2015.

That’s why premier publishers such as The New York Times and Forbes have begun experimenting with tactics to wean users off ad blocking, including asking consumers to “whitelist” their sites so that ads may still appear.

Not a company known for half measures, Facebook has decided to sidestep the entire issue of ad blocking.

The advertising juggernaut, which took in over $17 billion in ad revenue in 2015, has deployed technology that neuters all ad blockers for desktop content – allowing Facebook to serve ads on its desktop site even to people who have ad blocking software installed and running.

Facebook’s solution to ad blocking is two-pronged and also flawed.

It offers an “expanded” set of tools to give consumers more control over their advertising experience while “updating” their approach to ad blocking on Facebook.

The idea is that by telling Facebook more about your preferences, you will get more targeted advertising, and who doesn’t like more targeted ads?

Not P&G, who last week famously pulled back from targeted ads. 

The reasoning also breaks down almost immediately when you consider that consumers who have already installed ad blockers will probably not respond well if those ad blockers are disabled without their permission.

Facebook’s new offering fails to address advertising fatigue or the poor quality of digital advertising units, which were the main drivers behind adoption of ad blockers in the first place.

Clearly, ad blocking was becoming a big enough problem for Facebook that they had to figure out a way to get around it.

Perhaps the move is not quite the “dark path against user choice” that some have called it. But showing ads to people who have downloaded ad blockers is spammy and short-sighted.

It’s likely consumers will continue to tune out the targeted ads as they do most digital advertising.

 

 

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Adblockalypse! Facebook strikes back!

August 22, 2016

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Facebook is at war with the makers of Adblock Plus and other programs that prevent ads from appearing on websites, says The Economist.

As ad-blockers become more popular—they prevent tracking and make pages load faster—ad-supported websites are under threat.

The social-media giant’s profits ($2 billion in the latest quarter) depend on users consuming advertisers’ messages alongside posts from friends.

So Facebook’s engineers recently tweaked its website to make it harder for ad-blocking software to identify ads.

A cat-and-mouse game ensued, ending in temporary victory for Facebook—until the ad-blockers develop yet another workaround.

Regulators are introducing rules to ensure ads are clearly labelled; any label that can be read by humans can also be read by ad-blockers.

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Location searches comprise a third of mobile searches, yet many retail stores are all but invisible in Google Maps

August 19, 2016

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Location searches comprise a third of mobile searches, yet many retail stores are all but invisible in Google Maps.

Here are a few ways brands can make their stores more visible:

  1. Post pictures: Adding photos to a store’s Google Maps page can boost organic visibility.
  2. Leverage User Generated Content: In addition to uploading their own photos, brands can take advantage of those taken by store visitors. Only 52% of stores have user-generated photos of specific products inside their stores, according to one study.The exception is IKEA who have user-gem photos in all their stores.
  3. Link inventory to Maps profile: In May, Google Maps launched a “Search Items at this Store” feature. Stores that opt in can connect their inventory with their Maps page using a shoppable interface, letting customers see if products are in stock at local stores or purchase them directly on the brand site.
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