Source Interlink Media (SIM) has announced the launch of the MotorTrend YouTube Channel, with original automotive content available to online audiences. The Motor Trend Channel is part of YouTube’s rollout of around 100 new original content channels throughout the year.
“We are really treating this like a TV channel,” said Source Interlink Media Chief Content Officer and Motor Trend Channel Executive Producer Angus MacKenzie. “What separates it from linear or traditional TV – is how interactive Internet television is. These new channels are very social-media driven. We can immediately communicate with our viewers for instantaneous feedback on what they do and don’t like, and what they’d like to see more of.”
The Motor Trend Channel’s programs garner content from SIM’s portfolio of automotive media brands, including Motor Trend, Hot Rod, Motorcyclist and FourWheeler, among others. The programs cover first rides and drives and tests of the latest two- and four-wheeled machinery, as well as automotive lifestyle and documentary shows.
SIM identifies its in-market auto group audience as:
- 52% male
- Mean age 43
- Mean household income $71,000
- 72% college educated
- 73% employed full or part time
A full schedule of programming with eight separate shows is expected to be available by February 17. New videos from each show will be posted on a varying schedule, but there will be new content available every business day.
Motor Trend’s new programming will be produced by Michael Suggett and Julia Sanchez with MacKenzie serving as Executive Producer. Jim Gleason will assume the role of Creative Manager.
“This was the next logical step for SIM as it continues its transformation from a legacy magazine publishing business to a media-neutral content creation company,” said McKenzie. “The channels and content provided by Motor Trend and others under YouTube’s initiative represent a paradigm shift for how enthusiasts watch and consume video online.”
Among the eight original programs:
- “Ignition,” a weekly five-minute block feature first drives and first tests
- “Head 2 Head,” a comparison test series focusing on performance vehicles and motorcycles
- “Roadkill,” a feature-length program following HotRod’s David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan as they enjoy hot rods, street machines and “other highly strung performance vehicles”
- “Epic Drives,” a travelogue of road trips from around the world.
Research: Social Video Sharing Boosts Purchases Up To 49%
"This research demonstrates that social video significantly increases brand attention," claims London-based Unruly Media. Unruly offers a global platform for social video advertising, has three US offices, and delivered such video campaigns as Old Spice’s “Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign and Coke’s “Happiness” series. Unruly commissioned research firm Decipher to study results across such consumer brands as Heineken, Coca-Cola and Energizer Batteries. The survey among 18-34 year olds investigated the impact of recommendation on brand metrics to determine social ad effectiveness.
Among the findings:
- Viewers are more likely to enjoy a video when it has been recommended than when encountered through browsing (14% higher enjoyment)
- Viewers are more likely to recall a brand name when the social video has been recommended than when encountered through browsing (7% higher recall)
- Viewers are more likely to engage with an ad’s messages when the social has been recommended than when encountered through browsing (10% higher brand association)
Who does the recommending? Certainly, peers in social media environments, but also authoritative bloggers and and news sources who covering advertiser content editorially: consider that all of that Super Bowl ad coverage by the news media (e.g., by CNN, which reported on Honda’s leaking its Ferris Beueller-themed ad).
Of course, what viewers do next after a recommendation is of key importance to advertisers. Decipher found that within three days of viewing social video—
- 49% purchased the advertised product
- 38% spoke to someone in person about the video
- 9% searched for the brand
- 4% searched for products of that type
If this sounds easy, recall that these results are based on videos that the viewers enjoyed, and which were recommended to the viewer. The source of brand awareness and purchasing influence is not on YouTube, rather, it rests where it always has: in an ad agency's creative department.
Upfront Digital: Super Bowl Internet Dip | Google’s Groupon Answer | eReader Malaise
- Internet usage in the U.S. dipped about 20% during the Sunday night Super Bowl broadcast, reports Multichannel News. That compared with an average Sunday, and despite the "Social Super Bowl" hype. NBC’s online video feed of the game took 6.2% of all downstream broadband traffic at 9 p.m.
- Google Offers, the Internet giant’s answer to Groupon, has just launched in its 40th major city. With this week’s launch in Oklahoma City, Okla., and Omaha, Neb., plus ten cities in the two weeks prior (including Boston and Washington, DC), Google Offers has aggressively expanded in just six months. As WebProNews describes, Groupon turned down an acquisition offer from Google.
- Barclays Capital is guessing that an Apple HDTV, priced at $1,500, could quickly take 5% of the HDTV market—bringing with it the accompanying Apple ad platform. As MobileMarketingWatch describes, the Apple TV would be less of a television, than a delivery vehicle for gaming, video, content delivery and apps, all of which presumably will be funded in part by iAds.
- The Washington Post yesterday launched free iPhone and apps for its Facebook-powered Social Reader app, reports the Poynter Institute. With the apps, users have “mobile-optimized access” to articles that participating Facebook friends have read, not just from the Post but from more than 30 participating publications. The Post claims 11 million people are using the app on Facebook.com.
- Digital magazine publishers may see a plateau on eReaders, eMarketer forecasts, and based on stats from Verso Advertising and Burst Media. While almost 16% of U.S. Internet users surveyed in December, 2011, owned an eReader, those who plan to buy one is declining. The good news—for marketers anyway—is that eReaders are losing ground to tablet computers, with their larger screens and higher processing capacity. Tablets are expected to see double-digit growth, reaching 89.5 million users in 2014. However the eReader/tablet horserace ends, the mobile ad opportunity is still a powerful one.
Facebook Ads: NYT Questions “Active Visitor” Figures
The New York Times read between the lines of Facebook’s IPO prospectus. As chief mergers and acquisitions reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin figures like 845 million monthly active users “should have an asterisk next to them.” Facebook counts among those 845 million monthly active users, and daily active users of 483 million, anyone who visits it’s Web or mobile site; but also, anyone who uses a Facebook “Like” or “Recommend” button in third-party sites, to share activity with Facebook friends.
How significant is that? Practically all significant online properties, including CNN.com, MSNBC.com, TheSmokingGun.com (pictured below) and ESPN.GO.com, include a “Like” or “Recommend” button alongside stories. So an “active user” may never leave the ESPN or CNN sites; theoretically, an active user may never visit Facebook, or see its featured ads.
Also counted among those active users: those click on the Facebook logo within a “Follow Us” bar, which typically includes an RSS feed logo, Twitter, Digg and email logos, among others.
The numbers climb. If the third-party site uses a Facebook ID for log-in (HuffingtonPost.com is one such site, and the feature is called “Facebook Connect”), and the user leaves a comment on a story in that site, he or she is counted as actively using Facebook. So, opined the CEO for equity research of Fusion IQ, those visitors “cannot be marketed to, they do not see advertising,” they simply used the extensive Facebook infrastructure.
However optimistic the unique-visitor figures, they are considerable anyway; and Facebook ads offer considerable cost-per-click savings of up to 45%, by some estimates. And a publicly-traded Facebook, with plans to become a news outlet as well, will necessarily become meticulously transparent in its traffic figures.
Upfront Digital: NBC’s Straight-to-App Launch | Apple Targets App Bots | Subway Moves Digital Ad Buy
- NBC News launch its new documentary series “Hidden Planet” not on TV, but on the “Rock Center with Brian Williams” iPad app, reports Broadcasting & Cable in an exclusive. This will be the first time NBC has premiered a series that way. Episodes of the monthly series will be exclusive to the iPad app for one week, before it becomes available on RockCenterNBC.com. The series takes the veteran foreign correspondent to such exotic destinations as Timbuktu and the Sahara Desert—places generally off the news radar.
- Mobile app rankings (including those for digital magazines and newspapers) will not be manipulated, pledges Apple. As paidContent describes, the company has acknowledged that third parties are offering download-bot services to inflate app rankings; and to place favorable reviews on apps. Apple declined comment to paidContent, but quickly issued a statement on its developer site that “Even if you are not personally engaged in manipulating App Store chart rankings or user reviews, employing services that do so on your behalf may result in the loss of your Apple Developer Program membership.”
- Subway has moved its domestic digital ad business (including search, mobile and display ads) to MediaCom, and away from Publicis, reports ClickZ. The sandwich chain is reportedly consolidating its U.S. business, and MediaCom has managed Subway’s offline ad business since 2000. Kantar Media clocks Subway’s 2011 digital spend at about $12.7 million, excluding mobile, but the chain announced it will up that spending considerably in 2012.
- Elsewhere in digital/agency news, Ad Age discovered that AOL is searching for an agency to refresh its image and spread the word “why people should care about AOL again.” Supposedly, the company finds consumers vague on its value proposition. AOL struggles against competitors Google and Yahoo, has also struggled to support its Patch.com community news outlet, but has recently acquired online properties Techcrunch and the Huffington Post. AOL posted Q4 2011 display ad revenues at $363.8 million, up 10% year-over-year.
Research: Three Formats Dominate Online Ad Spend
While the U.S. online ad spend will approach $40 billion in 2012, just three formats will dominate that spend, forecasts eMarketer: search, banners, and video adverts. Those three formats will capture 80% of the online ad spending through 2016.
Search will dominate, hovering just below 50% for the next five years, though it will lose some ground to online video; that format will see the highest persistent growth in spending, and will nearly double in percent of total spend from 7.9% in 2012 to 15% in 2016. Banners will retain their #2 status, with 23.4% share of total spend in 2012, and 20.5% in 2016, also losing ground to video ads.
Video ads are expected to grow by 55% in spending this year, after a healthy growth of 42.1% in 2011. That growth (the highest in a single year through 2012) is fueled in part by the 2012 election and summer Olympic Games. (Consider the PAC and campaign ads you’ve seen already.)
Each of these three formats fits nicely into the mobile format, and mobile display ads (chiefly banner and video) are expected to grow by 93.5% to $861.7 in 2016.
eMarketer has projected that U.S. online ad spending will grow 23.3% in 2012 to nearly $40 billion, and nearly $53 billion in 2013. This will make 2012 the first year in which online ad spends will surpass the total spent on print ads, with $39.5 billion online versus $33.8 billion in magazines and newspapers.
Upfront Digital: Highly Social Super Bowl | DooGooders on YouTube | “The Daily” Fails to Reinvent
- Metrics are in for the “Social Super Bowl”: Bluefin Labs, which analyzes social media commentary during broadcasts, clocked 11.5 million comments during last night’s game, up more than six times over last year’s broadcast, reports AllThingsD. Bluefin rival Trendrr clocked 15.8 million comments, up from 3.01 million in 2011.
- Social Times reports that YouTube has joined with See3 Communications for the third year to present their DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards, which honors members of the YouTube Nonprofit Program. Contestants are invited to submit non-profit videos by February 29, to compete for small grants and of course, magnificent PR.
- “The Daily,” the Rupert Murdoch/Steve Jobs digital-only newspaper, is struggling, reports the New York Times. A year ago Murdoch introduced the $30 million tablet-only publication, which Murdoch predicted would save the news publishing industry. But with 100,000 subscribers paying 99 cents a week, The Daily is on par to break even in five years—which is typical of a print newspaper.
- Also from the New York Times, Spin Media (of Spin Magazine) is expected to enter the Pandora/Spotify rivalry today, by announcing an overhaul for Spin.com, to offer a streaming music player; nine new blogs; and Internet-only content, including news and music reviews. The music player will sit in a banner on the homepage, and a new toolbar will allow users to share content and video on, for example, Facebook and Twitter.
Analysts: 2012 Ad Spends to be “Decent” In TV, Digital, Down in Magazines
Ad Age is predicting a pretty good, if not stellar 2012 in which digital and TV spends will be up, but magazines down.
Vincent Letang, who is executive VP and head of global forecasting at Magna Global, attributed what growth there will be—about 10.9% across all media—largely to 2012 being both an Olympics and an election year. Without them, “Some would have predicted probably a worse outlook” for 2012. But with those two powerful drivers, TV ad revenue should increase by 6.8% this year. Time will tell, with upfront spending just getting going. Thusfar only General Motors (GM) has canceled upon a significant percent of its commitments, at just shy of 50%.
TV ad revenue should increase 6.8% this year, once again, attributable once election season and the Olympics have their effect, according to Magna Global's forecast on Jan. 23. The past several weeks have been strong, but the second-quarter scatter market will ultimately provide the best indication for upfront spending, said Mel Berning, exec VP-ad sales at A&E Networks.
Ad pages fell about 8.4% in January and February issues, year-over-year (YOY), and magazines overall can expect a 5.2% decline in 2012 ad revenue, Magna Global predicts. But there are signs of health in the digital quarter, with at least one media provider (Complex Media) projecting firth-quarter revenues doubling over Q4 2012. So while print journals will see a decline, their digital properties—and they all have them—are likely to help them tread water.
Conde Nast Awards “Architectural Digest” for “Best Business Turnaround,” Ad Gains
Condé Nast held its annual publishers meeting last week, and in its in-house awards ceremony, recognized Architectural Digest for “Best Business Turnaround.” As WWD reports, the Digest wrapped up 2011 with a 9.1% boost in ad pages—the highest jump among the Condé Nast canon, which includes Vogue, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Wired.
Architectural Digest got off to a slow start, but between Q2 2011 and Q1 2012, has seen ad-page increases of 6, 5, 18 and 22% in those quarters. Publisher Giulio Capua claims that the April issue will have a 38% increase year-over-year. AD is among a vanguard of lifestyle and luxury titles that saw gains in 2011. Among other winners, Departures at a 43.3% jump and Power & Motoryacht at 24.9%.
AD appointed a new editor-in-chief in August of 2010, in an effort to revamp the book after a miserable 2009; when it saw what WWD calls a “jaw-dropping 49% fall in ad pages.” New editor Margaret Russell had overseen Elle Décor for 20 years has not remade the book: rather she has focused upon the quality of photography and writing, and has led the book in creating a stronger digital presence.
At present, AD lists its total circulation at 823,280, with a median household income of $97,123 and a 55/45 male/female readership. The website metrics are 5,319,132 average page views per month with 333,906 unique visitors spending an impressive average of 8.04 minutes on the site.
Mobile Ads: Mobile Becoming the Norm, Apple/Android Wrestle on Click-Throughs and Quality
Research by mobile ad network solutions provider Jumptap suggests that mobile devices will become the norm for Internet access, and that advertisers must take a cross-market approach to the Apple and Android operating systems: they must cater to both.
Tablet network traffic jumped 229% over an average projected for the day after Christmas, based on historical network traffic, Jumptap reported in its just-released January MobileSTAT report.
January 2, 2012 also saw a bump, with a 263% traffic increase (most likely from recipients uploading holiday photos and getting familiar with their devices).
Jumptap found that the Kindle Fire experienced the greatest tablet growth throughout December. The new device held 10% of tablet market share on December 1 and finished the year with 30% market share. This year-end surge suggests a 2012 trend for lower-priced tablets.
Mobile to overtake desktops, laptops?
"Mobile is quickly becoming the primary access point of the internet. Advertisers have seen this movie before with PC based digital advertising and are allocating mobile budgets that are larger and larger," said Paran Johar, Chief Marketing Officer, Jumptap. "The surge in tablet adoption rates and rise in mobile subscribers support the expectations that mobile will eventually outpace online."
In 2011, the mobile ad industry broke the billion dollar barrier for the first time. This month analysts at eMarketer changed their predictions about mobile ad spending growth, estimating the market would be roughly $6.5B by 2014, much higher than their September 2010 estimate of $2.5B by 2014. Jumptap believes even that revised estimate is conservative.
Android versus iOS: Neither can be ignored
In 2011 Android and iOS continued to battle for mobile OS share. When the dust cleared, Android had beaten iOS. The January MobileSTAT found that Android's share grew 21% (38% in December 2010 to 59% in December 2011), while iOS dropped 7% points (29% in December 2010 to 22% in December 2011). Still, iOS tripled in overall traffic on the Jumptap network of more than 95 million unique visitors, while Android more than quadrupled. The lesson to marketers, says Jumptap, is that both operating systems are growing at break-neck speeds and a cross-platform approach is essential to reach their audiences.
But, Android mobile ads and apps can be improved, the research suggests. While Android’s share is increasing, its click-through rate is dropping, compared to iOS. The latest Android 3.x has a .59% CTR, while iOS 5 has about .9%.
Apple earns that higher rate, says Jumptap’s Johar. "With every new iPhone release, he says, Apple's designers "seem to be optimizing the user experience. It's no secret that they are obsessed with design and usability. Their obsession with functionality and the user interface is paying off."
The challenge to Android is that it retains little control over the use of its ecosystem. It licenses out its operating system and device manufacturers customize it. Its open technology enables developers to create both elegant and irritating, poorly-working apps.
