Cross device targeting

2015 09 cross device targeting from Reka O'Connell

Facebook Turns Ten

It's a big month for Mark Zuckerberg. Not only does Facebook turn ten but it does so very profitably.

In its early years, before Facebook was monetised, there was a lot of scepticism around how will he make money. A few initiatives went pear shaped, such as revealing too much or unplanned information about members, but eventually they figured out an advertising model that worked on desktop. Than smartphones took off, and an alarming number of people migrated to use apps and mobile sites to access their accounts. Market scepticism returned, but Mark Zuckerberg persisted, and this week Facebook 'reported profits of $523m and a 63% increase in revenue for the fourth quarter, beating expectations' (BBC). And 'he did it while saving shareholders money and hugging the planet' (NY Times).

Put aside the controversy around the founding of Facebook, the privacy debates, the trial and error of the last few years, and you have to give it to the lad. He is as ambitious as ever, reflected in a recent speech at the Open Compute Project. He wants to change the way tech companies do business, and as the organisations' name suggest (where he spoke about this), do so via open sourcing. Employing hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands people to build and better systems is surely unbeatable.

He wants to connect the world and everything in it, creating something that has been previously described as the 'internet of things'. Ambitious? Yes. Can he do it? I'd say admirably he is on the right track. And yet, Facebook's mission 'to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected' arouse some cynicism in me about the ultimate motivation of a company whose business case and in fact their survival rests on exploiting its users' data.

The multi-screen consumer

This has recently come up in a client communication, and I thought I would share. Here is a short case study on Mobile’s effectiveness when added to an online campaign:

Microsoft has been at the forefront of understanding how to effectively engage the multi-screen consumer (a person that uses smart phone, TV, laptop, tablet, etc.) and how to produce better results for marketers. Here is one page from the Microsoft case study (full study) that was conducted for a UK based client. This shows that awareness (+114%), recognition (+43%), and consideration to purchase (+23%) went up among those people who were exposed to both the online and mobile advertising messages during the campaign.

Food for thought for advertisers: have you thought of how to reach your target audience across multiple screens and keep your message on brand and engaging?

Hackers Discover Google's Unreleased Cloud-Based Music Service | Fast Company

Smart. Both hacker and Google’s Music service.

‘A hacker from the XDA-Dev forum found something interesting when he forced the Motorola Xoom Android tablet's music app onto his Android smartphone: a "Sync Music" feature. So the hacker tested the out the feature. He uploaded the music from his memory card into Google's cloud, wiped the memory card clean, and found that he was able to pull the music back down from the cloud. […] Google is reportedly launching a music service later this year that will feature cloud-based storage and a subscription service. No word yet on a release date, but the existence of the "Sync Music" button leads us to believe that it isn't too far away.’

Hackers Discover Google's Unreleased Cloud-Based Music Service | Fast Company

The new Windows Phone 7

Usage statistics are fast elevating the Mobile to the status of ‘future platform of media’, hence it is a market that Microsoft can no longer ignore. Once owned it, now playing catch up, but ever so hopeful that the latest OS, Windows Phone 7 will carve back some of that long lost market share.
Well, there is nothing like a healthy competition, and it’s certainly a plus if the product is good. But is it? Thus far it has received mixed reviews, but at the same time it has already managed to convert Stephen Fry overnight (previously a strong iPod advocate and fan), and I personally only heard praises of it (mind you, I better disclose the fact that I do work for Microsoft…).
Never the less, mobile is a market to watch – for publishers, developers, as well as handset manufacturers.

Discover | Windows Phone 7

The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet | Magazine

A thought provoking article on Wired. Quotes don’t do justice to it, it’s got to be read in full…

Over the past few years, one of the most important shifts in the digital world has been the move from the wide-open Web to semiclosed platforms that use the Internet for transport but not the browser for display. It’s driven primarily by the rise of the iPhone model of mobile computing, and it’s a world Google can’t crawl, one where HTML doesn’t rule.

According to Compete, a Web analytics company, the top 10 Web sites accounted for 31 percent of US pageviews in 2001, 40 percent in 2006, and about 75 percent in 2010. “Big sucks the traffic out of small,”

And because Google so dominated the Web, that meant building an alternative to the Web. Enter Facebook. The site began as a free but closed system. Google was forbidden to search through its servers. (…) And then, at some critical-mass point, not just in terms of registration numbers but of sheer time spent, of habituation and loyalty, Facebook became a parallel world to the Web.

The Web almost perversely discouraged the kind of systematized, coordinated, focused attention upon which brands are built — the prime, or at least most lucrative, function of media.

The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet | Magazine

Nokia to Apple: mobile latecomer is infringing patents big time - Mobile Marketer - Legal/privacy

Collaboration is applauded within one organisation. It does happen between companies as well, but to be fair, royalties or licensing fee ought to be paid to those who invested time and effort into R&D and came up with the new technology first…

“On information and belief, Apple is aware of these patents and is infringing them willfully and deliberately,” it says.

Nokia to Apple: mobile latecomer is infringing patents big time - Mobile Marketer - Legal/privacy

Oprah is increasing focus on mobile

Whatever she touches turns to gold…

You probably still remember (who doesn’t?) Oprah’s much publicised retirement message in November ‘09? She may not continue with the talk show, but by the look of it, it’s not a real retirement, merely a shift in focus.
One of the new areas of focus will be mobile, and soon ‘fans will be able to connect with her whenever and wherever they want with the launch of Oprah Mobile’ (Mobile Marketer).

And no doubt. Oprah Mobile will turn to gold.

Murdoch’s paywall gaining popularity among European publishers

And I thought publishers will wait and see if Murdoch succeeds… Instead they are charging (literally) right ahead.

With the ever increasing array of platforms (e-readers, mobile web, smart phone applications, etc.), publishers are jumping on the band wagon to charge for content.

According to eMarketer, new phone launches stole the limelight at this year’s MWC (Mobile World Congress) in Barcelona, with their larger screens and higher resolution, which makes consuming content a much better experience.

’The German publisher Axel Springer has already launched iPhone apps for two of its papers, Bild and Die Welt. Available since December 2009, both now rank in the top 10 selling iPhone apps in Germany, according to ClickandBuy.’ (source: eMarketer) The Guardian’s iPhone App (£2.39) in the UK also enjoyed a successful launch with almost 70,000 downloads in a month.

Paywalls are also becoming commonplace on the web as the Berliner Morgenpost and Hamburger Abendblatt have one already implemented, while others such as the French Le Monde has limited access. .

Mobile advertising shake up

As the story unfolds, it looks like Apple stole some of the limelight on the day that was meant to be about Google’s new mobile. A mobile advertising power play is taking shape with Apple announcing to have bought a mobile advertising service: Quattro One, earlier this week. This is only a couple of months after Google acquiring AdMob, another advertising service company.

Let’s ask why?

1. rapid increase in 3G mobile devices
According to eMarketer, there will be 656 million 3G enabled smartphones in the US only by 2013, predicting an over 300% increase in only 2 years. (Interesting to note that the other internet-enabled devices are predicted to have some but nowhere near the same increase as 3G enabled smartphones.)



2. increased demand for mobile sites
As the number of 3G handsets will increase so will the demand for mobile sites and mobile content – and as we all know it, advertisers follow eyeballs.

3. ‘show me the money!’
Also according to eMarketer (as quoted in WARC), US mobile ad spend was $416 million (USD) in 2009, but according to forecast, this will reach $1.6 billion by 2013.

So the race is on in the world of mobile. In an obvious attempt, Apple and Google are out there to capture a large chunk of the market now, as among all the internet enabled devices, mobile’s growth is predicted to be the largest.
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Google’s new mobile

The latest Google powered mobile, HTC’s Nexus One, running on Android OS has arrived (official blog here). Google powered mobile devices have been around for a while, and from the reviews – as positive as they are - it still only seems like that this is just a newer addition to the twenty-odd mobiles that are currently already available.

But there is more to the story, at least there is a strong potential for the future: Google's model has an important twist. Instead of buying the phone from a carrier, consumers will buy the phone directly from Google's Web site. (Scott Anthony, HBR)

So we are talking about a latest model, touch phone mobile device with an unlocked sim card, that everyone can buy online. Disruptive? Certainly has the potential to turn Apple’s restricted, carrier locked in model upside down.
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