It’s the Engagement, Stupid

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When then-candidate Bill Clinton needed to urge his campaign team to focus on a winning issue, he famously quipped, “It’s the economy, stupid!” With perhaps altogether different stakes on the table in the world of magazine advertisement, there seems to be a growing chorus of agreement that engagement is the key to success for digital ads, particularly on the tablet.

engagedForbes’ Paul Dunay delves into this new flavor of marketing in a recent article Engagement Advertising: The Future of Brand Advertising?

Behavioral studies show that when an individual seeks information about something and is able to act upon it, the conversion of that intent will be 70 percent more efficient than a classical push ad. It becomes even more so if you add the ability to engage the user in a conversation about a product he is interested in or loves.

In its recent deep-dive study that specifically explored various types of tablet-based interactivity and reader engagement, VivaKi, a digital advertising solutions company, asked participants their thoughts about a new metric for measuring ad effectiveness.

When we were doing in-flight reporting, we really quickly decided to deprioritize click-through rate as a secondary or tertiary metric. The primary KPI for us was engagement. That was specific to our creative and content. – Jeff Chaban, VP Connections Research and Analytics, Mediavest

Our objective was to find a superior metric to click-through rate. People have been saying that click-through rate’s dead for so long. Moving to a focus on engagement rate wouldn’t be shocking to the industry. We’re okay that the click-through rate was .03 because the interaction rate was 5. – Amy Durbin, VP Media Director, Spark Communications

And, in the summary of the Folio:’s and min’s mid-April MediaMashup Summit, we read about How Media Companies Can Master the Digital Advertising Era and Maximize Ad Revenue:

Online advertising has traditionally been created to scale for the messaging itself, rather than engagement. Engagement is the true measure of success.

I’ll be looking for more evidence that engagement rate is more than just another term for what we’ve all been measuring all along. Perhaps it is the true measure of success.

 

 

Native advertising: “could be a full-page denim ad in a fashion magazine”

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I’ve been making the case for full page ads in tablet editions of print magazines as the epitome of native advertising. They fit into the context of their medium; they are expected and wanted by the reader; they bring value; and they advance the consumer journey.

It’s nice to see, then, others begin to recognize this as they add their bit of wisdom and observation to the discussion. Tom Foran, general manager of North America, for Outbrain, a content-recommendation service, says this in yesterday’s Digiday.

Native advertising has been the online marketing world’s shiny new object for the better part of a year. Sponsored posts, branded video and search ads could all be fairly characterized as native advertising, as could a full-page denim ad in a fashion magazine… if we stretch the definition a bit.

And if that wasn’t enough, there is a recent full-length exposition on the topic by Felix Salmon on the Reuters blog that goes so far as to name names:

In that sense, TV ads are truly native; the way you consume a TV ad is the same as the way you consume a TV show. Similarly, long copy print ads are native, for the same reason. And the ultimate native ads are the glossy fashion ads in Vogue: in most cases, they’re better than the editorial, and as a result, readers spend as much time with the ads — if not more — as they do with the edit.

Mr. Salmon goes on to point out that the whole native advertising meme has legs because the Web ad model — not the print or TV ad models — is fundamentally broken.

On the web, by contrast, the vast majority of ads are not native. Instead, they’re intrusive, annoying, unpleasant, and — in most cases — completely ignored.

Nonetheless, it should not be lost on advertisers or publishers that there is something powerful and evocative about a full page print ad, and that such an ad appearing on a touch-sensitive and connected device like the tablet brings to it deep tracking metrics of web ads.

BBH: ‘Native advertising’ does not mean producing wallpaper

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If you read any opinion about native advertising, you will be sure to come across the canon of native advertising examples: promoted tweets on Twitter, news feed items in Facebook, Buzzfeed, Tumblr, and the much-maligned Scientology native advert in The Atlantic. All of the examples make some point about “looking and feeling” like the platform in which the content appears. And then, sometimes, the author makes the more salient point that the key to effective native advertising is not just the “fitting into” the context of the platform, but also bringing real value to the reader.

Today’s example comes from Mel Exon, managing partner and co-founder, BBH Labs, who shares her perspective in Marketing magazine. There are two things I especially liked about her observations.  First, she shared an altogether new (and compelling) example of good native advertising: a piece BBH worked on for domestic-abuse charity Refuge, which succeeded because it was thought-provoking, creative and disruptive. It did not simply “blend in” with its surroundings. As Ms. Exon says, native advertising “does not mean producing wallpaper.”

Second, says Ms. Exon, native advertising is not an end in itself, but rather a means to an end.

Native advertising is a (paid-for) means to an end, not an end in itself. Its role might be to recruit new users or kick-start an offer or initiative. As such, it’s more a signpost on a connected path or story. Simple things such as a call to action or a useful link back to the brand are critical to progressing an interested user’s journey.

This, of course, resonates quite clearly with us here at ShopAdvisor, as our service performs exactly that service for advertisements that appear in the tablet editions of magazines. Those in-context ads, which are such an essential part of the reading experience, and which entice the reader to engage more deeply, gain a call-to-action with ShopAdvior’s interactive shopping experience.

publishers 04_DigitalPhotoPro

Readers don’t have to buy a product immediately when they discover it in a gorgeous ad in a magazine. Rather, many of them will want to just know a little more — how much it costs, where it is sold, and maybe if there is a way to remember the item for later.

 

TechDirt: native advertising is advertising that people want

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I’m always on the lookout for useful arguments about native advertising. A few weeks back, I shared a clip from Digiday in which a handful of publishers take a stab at defining the term. The one I liked the best was from Will Pearson of Mental Floss, who  said “Native advertising is about taking what the advertiser is wanting to communicate and integrating it with what our users are expecting.”

Last Friday, Mike Masnick of TechDirt made a similar observation.

I think the key point is often lost in the debates about native advertising. The site Digiday recently asked a bunch of publishers how they define “native advertising,” and, frankly, I think they all miss the most central component to it: truly native advertising is advertising that people want to experience. It’s not just about integrating the experience into the area where people normally look for content. It’s about making the advertising itself as compelling (if not more compelling) than any other content on a site.

Okay, so Mike takes it a step further: it is truly native advertising when the reader not only expects it, but wants it. [I'm fine with that, as I also liked it when Mary Berner, CEO of the Magazine Publishers Association, coined the term wantedness to describe the glossy ads in magazines.]

And Mike makes a strong case for the nativeness of the content on TechDirt. There is a set of sponsored content from a paying advertiser that includes content that is highly likely to be of real interest (wantedness) to the mainstream of TechDirt’s readers. The content appears on the right hand side of the site, along with other TechDirt content.

It’s not lost on me, on the other hand, that placement is still important. For example, the very first commenter on the TechDirt article says, “I’ve got myself pretty well trained to not look at sidebars. Don’t mess with that.”

native04 native3

This is why I still think the paragon of native ads is the magazine print ad that appears on the tablet.

Like most of the respondents say in the Digiday clip, the ads assume the format and placement of their magazine surrounding.

Like Will Pearson says, readers expect them.

And, like Mike Masnick says, readers want them.

 

 

Real Data: Print Ad Interactivity Boosts Unaided Awareness by 50%

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What if you took a full page print advert and added a layer of interactivity to it when it appears on a tablet edition of the magazine? What sort of improvement in uplift in awareness might you expect? A 10% boost?  25%? As much as 40%?

Uplift1 - Unaided awareness1

Source: VivaKi

 

 

 

Try 50%.

 

 

 

 

 

That is the finding from a 14-month deep research study conducted by VivaKi, a digital advertising solutions company. The full report, which has been published as a tablet app, looks at three specific types of ads that are uniquely designed for the tablet’s rich media capabilities.

The ad type that is most interesting to us here at ShopAdvisor is the rich media interstitial – the sort of ad that is very close to print ad replicas in tablet editions. ShopAdvisor already acts as a rich media layer to many of these ads in a variety of tablet magazines.

The study looked at common brand metrics, including unaided awareness, aided awareness, brand favorability, and purchase consideration. For each metric, the study shows how a brand performs among a control group (consumers who have not seen any ad), a benchmark group (consumers who have seen the interstitial ad without any rich media), and a rich media group (consumers who have seen the full rich, interactive ad). Naturally, the benchmark group saw considerable uplift across all the metrics – behavior advertisers have been seeing and measuring for decades. The pleasant surprise comes from the impact of rich media interactivity.

The most impressive finding: readers who had seen and interacted with the rich media interstitial showed a 50% increase in unaided awareness over those who had viewed the same ad without interactivity. Unaided awareness after viewing the non-interactive interstitial had an uplift of 6% over a control group, and it spiked to 9% among the group that encountered the rich media interstitial.

Uplift2 - Aided awareness1

The rich media interstitial also showed impressive results for aided awareness (38% greater uplift), brand favorability (15% greater uplift) and purchase consideration (9% greater uplift).

 

 

 

 

Uplift4 - Brand favorability1It stands to reason that interactivity deepens engagement on the part of the reader. And, it is likewise intuitive that such deepened engagement leads to better awareness of a brand at the top of the funnel; and improved favorability about a brand or product  in the middle of the sales funnel; and even a push towards purchase consideration near the bottom of the funnel.

 

 

Uplift5 - purchase consideration1It’s always great to have reliable numbers to back up that

The Vast Space Between Discovering and Buying

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At the core of ShopAdvisor’s products and services is the understanding that the distance is great between falling in love with a something and actually buying it. A lot needs to happen before that journey is completed, and repeated.

A couple weeks ago I was listening to the duo of Carmen D’Ascendis, Jack Daniel’s Director of Global Marketing, and Wade Devers, Executive Creative Director of Arnold Worldwide. The pair spoke knowingly about the consumer journey, and how to create chapters of a story that the consumer experiences serially over time. They repeated the patient wisdom that you can’t always go for the sale with every pitch. For the uninitiated (say, those who say whiskey is too harsh a drink for them), the advertising calls for some education, some mind-changing imagery and verbiage that suggests that perhaps it’s time to try again. For the patron who has pulled up to the hotel bar who may be in the mood for a Tennessee whiskey, a different sort of “bottom-of-the-sales-funnel” message is appropriate. During their talk, Carmen offered up the trademark slogan, “At Jack Daniel’s, we don’t make whiskey. We wait for it.” That sort of patience in craftsmanship seems also to be at work in Jack Daniel’s advertising and marketing partnership with Arnold Worldwide.

Yet, it astounds me how so much of the marketing world is set on pursuing instant gratification as a means of cashing in on generating awareness. Except in extreme cicrcumstances, most products need to go through some phase of awareness –> interest –> desire –> acquisition. This week’s Folio: newsletter has an interview with Eric Ashman, a strategic advisor at Thrillist, an online content site that curates “the best of what’s new, to deeply under-the-radar goodness.” Thrillist is a very cool site, and it is accompanied by an eCommerce site, Jack’s Threads, that carries many of the buyable items mentioned in the pages of Thrillist. There’s a natural synergy between the editorial content and the online store.

But, natural synergy does not trump human nature. A quick look at Thrillist and I see some drool-worthy product eye candy: designer smart glasses ($399), minimalist steel grandfather clocks ($385), an expandable roll top backpack ($279), and a “shockingly affordable” 3D scanner/printer ($449). I wouldn’t mind having any of these items myself, and might even think of shelling out a couple hundred bucks for one or more of them. But, most days, I can resist my gadget lust and the urge to buy on impulse. Show me those sunglasses a few more times between now and Memorial Day, and my interest and desire move closer and closer to the cash register.

So, it puzzles me to hear Mr. Ashman say,

we’ll often write about a product that we’re merchandizing through our Jack Threads store and have our editors write about products to allow a reader to very easily click-through and make a purchase.

Hey, maybe that cash register is ringing non-stop. My educated guess, though, is that Thrillist has done a great job at instilling newborn interest, and maybe even some lean-in desire, but precious little straight-to-the-checkout activity. To their credit, the editors have created a way for readers to keep track of desirable items by adding them to list (called My Thrillist). What’s more, many of the items are not yet available for sale, and the site instructs readers how to receive notification when the product comes to market. That’s more likely to succeed.

So, they know how the natural buying process works, but some days, it’s just too tempting to daydream that the distance between generating awareness and making a purchase is bridged with a Buy Now link.

 

Wantedness

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Wantedness.

Is that a word? Even if it is not, it is a term that jumped out at me as I listened to Mary Berner, president and CEO of the Magazine Publishers Association, in her opening remarks of the group’s Swipe 2.0 industry confab. Ms. Berner was doing a good job of boosterism for the magazine industry, pointing out the high marks and dispelling the misperception of low marks.

Among her six touchpoints was one that I have been touching upon as well: that advertisements are part of the desired content of print magazines. Ms. Berner calls it wantedness.

Despite the fact that–unlike other media–consumers not only like, trust, and engage in advertising in Magazine Media—they actually want it, along with the content, to be part of the experience. This dual immersion phenomenon is unique to the Magazine Media industry. Unlike TV and other media, where the advertising keeps you AWAY from the content you are looking for, in magazines, it is actually wanted. This is duplicated in only one other place in the media landscape—does anyone know? The Super Bowl.

Makes me want to hear more about what she has to say.

Brand ads perform 250% better on tablet vs smartphone

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We are all used to reading headlines about scientific evidence that supports the obvious: “Good Partners Make Good Parents, Study Finds,” or “Decision-Making Improves with Experience, Researchers Find.” In the world of advertising, another “of course that’s true!” conclusion has been certified by data. According to eMarketer, a new study by ad platform vendor Adfonic finds that brand ads on tablets outperform the same ads on smartphones by a whopping 250%.

Branding campaigns, in particular, garnered 250% higher clickthrough rates on tablets vs. smartphones. This makes sense given the larger screen size of tablets and their natural marriage with rich content that drives brand awareness.

I particularly like hearing the reference to “natural marriage with rich content,” an acknowledgment that rich brand ads are an integral part of the content they surround.

The big winner in terms of high performance were ads in style and fashion. Again, not a big surprise, as the brand images for shoes and clothing tend to feature arresting images of people who were seemingly born to be photographed. On the other hand, eMarketer did raise an eyebrow at one finding: “somewhat more surprising, the absolute worst performers on tablets vs. smartphones were the fast-moving consumer goods and retail industry.”

Tablet editions of magazines garner a high degree of interactivity. In those magazines in which ShopAdvisor’s shoppability experience has been layered into the pages, more than 40% of readers engage with ads by touching a button to find out more info, including the name of the product and the current price and availability. It’s good to see this common sense conclusion corroborated by others.

“Consumers like the experience of looking at ads”

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I’ve been beating the same drum now in several recent blog posts: print magazines that appear on tablets already have a ton of “native adverstisements” that fully leverage the platform.

With no shortage of articles every day on content marketing and native ads, it’s rewarding to see every now and then someone making the same it’s-so-obvious-I-didn’t-even-see-it observation. AdAge today includes an article, Magazines Feeling More Optimistic This Spring, With Help from Beauty and Auto, which quotes Brenda White, senior VP-publishing activation director at Starcom USA:

“It’s been a hard few years for print, but our research shows consumers love their content. We know consumers still like the experience of going through the pages of a magazine and not only looking at the content, but also looking at the ads.“

This insight comes amid the welcome news that ad pages are making something of a rebound in the first quarter of 2013, with gains made by venerable titles such as Vogue, Cosmopolitan and Elle, along with substantial double-digit growth in ad pages in Allure, Details, Esquire, Family Fun, GQ, Guideposts, Latina, Men’s Fitness, Men’s Health, National Geographic Traveler, Playboy, Real Simple, Shape, Town & Country and Women’s Health.

Here’s to looking at the ads!

Native Advertising: “What Users Are Expecting”

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Digiday interviewed a half dozen publishing execs to hear if there is a growing consensus around the definition of native advertising. To my ear, it sounds like everyone is singing from the same song sheet. There is an understanding advertising can have greater appeal when it behaves more like the content it surrounds.  My favorite sound bite from the interviews comes from Will Pearson, president of Mental Floss, who shows up at 0:21 into the video below:

Native advertising is about taking what the advertiser is wanting to communicate and integrating it with what our users are expecting.

I like that one because it focuses on the users’ expectations, and not just on mapping to the format of the medium.  At ShopAdvisor, we spend a lot of our time helping publishers bring existing print advertisements to life by adding a shopabiity layer to them when they are rendered on a digital tablet medium. And for those publishers, and — more important — for those readers, the ads themselves are an essential part of the magazine experience.

Imagine the reader experience of a fashion magazine or a photography magazine without any ads. Somehow, the editorial content loses some of its appeal when not surrounded by advertisements. The publication becomes thinner without ads, and somehow loses some of its currency. In general, if you asked readers if they would prefer to visit a website with ads or without ads, the overwhelming majority would prefer sites without ads. Yet, the converse would be true for print magazines, where the ads contribute to the overall experience.

Web content, where ads are by and large considered an intrusion, needs native advertising to better serve readers and advertisers. Traditional print content rendered on a tablet has already solved the hard part: relevance.