Here’s what you might have missed last week
- Last week was Google’s Marketing Next conference. It’s the marketing oriented follow up to Google I/O and there’s more than a few announcements. The three (3) big ones are:
- the beta of free attribution, as Google attempts to move everyone past using clicks and last clicks for attribution.
- somewhat aligned to attribution, Google is using deep-learning to provide insights into store visit lift. This includes the ability to measure store lift off the back of YouTube videos.
- attribution (in the US) will include transaction data from credit and debit card activity (i.e. sales lift). While this won’t get down to the contents of a basket, it is a step forward in closing the loop on media effectiveness.
- more than a few clients make use of emoji’s in campaigns, but is that specific emoji still cool?Emojipedia now has a trending tool, so you can see if interest in an emoji is peaking.
- Pinterest continues to expand their video offering with autoplaying video in the home feed and search. In addition, Pinterest looks to be doubling down on food, with the ability to use the Pinterest Lens to get food and recipe information.
- the rumors about Facebook launching their own video offering area gaining pace. With Business Insider reporting Facebook has struck deals with several content creators for short and long-form video. This is all about making the video tab in Facebook a go-to destination (for content and ads).
- Facebook audiences are now available to buy with video from ESPN, A+E, Hearst and Scripps.In beta, the service is called Audience Direct, it enables publishers to sell ads using Facebook audience data. This is a major step forward into buying specific audiences on quality environments without necessarily needing to go programmatic, as with Audience Direct, the content publisher owns the end-to-end adtech stack.
- Live-streaming of video games competition heats up with another player (no pun intended) in the market. This time, Microsoft, with the launch of “Mixer”. Microsoft is a little late to the game streaming party, even with their Xbox install base, analysts believe it will be hard for Microsoft to capture market share (the premium version of Mixer will be more expensive than twitch premium).
- On the topic of gaming, it’s worth drawing attention to the looming legal battle over game streaming rights. There’s an interesting write up on VentureBeat of the various perspectives and issues at play and definitely worth a read should you be looking to get into gaming for a client.
- Snap purchased the assets of a (failing) drone company. It’s not the first time Snap has been associated with drone rumors. This will probably end with Snap launching a dedicated selfie drone.
- twitter has introduced a new offering so you can direct message with brands from an ad unit. The interactions are managed in a bot environment (although there’s no reason it couldn’t be handed over to a real person at some point in the interaction). Patrón Tequila was the first brand to test the ad product/service.
Have a great, short, week!
Joshua