There’s a lot of news this week, in part because Google held their annual developer conference (Google I/O) which is where hey set the agenda for the year(s) ahead. But there was also a lot of industry news too, starting with industry news first:
- eMarketer reports that Snapchat has almost as many teens (12-17) as Facebook, despite being an eighth of its size. Details here.
- Sticking with infographics, there’s a great chart on Visual Capitalist that shows how Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple earn their revenues. No surprises on that Facebook and Google make the bulk of their money from ads, but the breakdown of the others is interesting. If you’re just interested in Facebook’s numbers, this chart on recode shows Facebook’s revenue breakdown for the past 5 years.
- Facebook reported another ad measurement bug, the 10th since September of last year. The bug affected Video Carousel Ads.
- Facebook made a deal to live stream 20 MLB games this season. The games will be available in the US only and will be the Friday night games.
- It’s not only outdoor sports for Facebook, they also struck an eSports deal with ESL to stream games, player interviews and more. Details on WSJ (subscription required).
- It looks like twitter is going to double down on using user data to target advertising. They updated their privacy policy to give them more flexibility in how they store, use and share data.
- The IAB released their final Dynamic Content (aka Addressable Creative) standard. Demos of the standard (powered by Jivox) are available on the IAB website. Worth using the latest IAB update to remind clients to get active in addressable creative.
- Instagram copied the last of the features they had not borrowed from Snapchat during the week. Launching “Face Filters”. To be fair, Instagram also launched some other features including new brush and hashtag tools, all detailed on their blog.
Google I/O
Lots of announcements at Google I/O, here’s my Top 6 things from Google I/O that matter to brands and advertisers:
- Perhaps the biggest news for brands is Google Lens. This brings camera image recognition and AR together, so that when you hold your camera at a photo it will overlay Google results. This includes address details, reviews, etc. It’s “coming soon” but will have a huge impact on how search is used (and search results surface) in the physical world.
- If you browse the web on your phone, you may have come across AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages). Google is extending AMP to ads work on the desktop ads. AMP Ads load blindingly fast. There’s a case study from Triple Lift on the AMP site or get some of the key stats here. In short 3x lighter, 6x faster, and drive 13% more revenue.
- Within Google Play, developers can now advertise their apps (Google Play Ads). Different to iTunes, the ads are in more of a carousel format. Learn more here. Keep this in mind for your next app download campaign (and also monitor competitor conquesting behavior).
- In 4th Quarter, Google partners will be bringing standalone VR headsets to the market. Think of it as a headset with a phone already inside that’s not really a phone. Google is putting a lot of effort into Daydream (their VR offering) including the ability to co-view VR offerings on your TV. Google reported watching video (incl. Hulu) was the number one use case for VR. If the price is under $300, this could kick-start VR (and in turn VR ad opportunities).
- AI was a big focus, specifically the Google Assistant. The Google Assistant is already available in some Android devices and the Google Home, but it’s now also available on iOS (US only). Google has also enabled Chromecast extensions for assistant, so if you ask questions it can show results visual results on your TV (which will unlock ad opportunities).
- YouTube will now support 360 videos. No, you don’t need to pick up and throw your TV around to make it work, you view them on your TV but control the 360 using your phone. This feels particularly relevant and important in the automotive category.
There were plenty more announcements at Google I/O about Android, App Development and deep technical sessions. If there’s something of specific interest, please ask and I will get you an answer. Or you can watch a replay of the presentations here.
Have an awesome week!
Joshua