The first week of July has been a busy one for us at MC&C. We won a new bingo client, Bingoport.co.uk and we launched an integrated campaign for them at the start of the week across TV and digital. With MC&C's experience in this sector, and the fact that players can win a free car, it is no suprise that Bingoport.co.uk is seeing over 15 times as much activity compared to June. You can watch the new ad here
Emmie Faust, Business Director, at
MC&C said “Its really exciting for us to be working with one of the leading
bingo affiliates.Given the competition
in this sector, its not often that affiliates advertise on TV, but we’re
confident that we can achieve some fantastic results for Bingoport and their
partners, given our expertise in this area and their offering.” We even got a mention in EGR magazine which you can read here.
On the subject of bingo we've been doing great things for another client Smoochbingo.co.uk and they have been busy shouting about it (which is always nice!), in just a month they are already seeing a 140% increase in registrations to their site, you can read more about it here on the press release Smoochbingo.co.uk signs deal with MC&C. We've also started working with World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) at the beginning of this month, with a TV and digital campaign, but soon to launch across multiple other channels. As I am sure many of you will know MC&C are very strong in the charitable sector and its great to work charities that the team has a real belief in. We had fantastic feedback from the WSPA after the pitch, and we're very much looking forward to a long relationship with them.
Samanta Eaves, WSPA UK Acquisition Manager, said, "I’m very much looking forward to working with MC&C. Their pitch demonstrated a thorough understanding of where WSPA is as an organisation and how we need to maximise engagement with both financial supporters and campaigners through the right channels. MC&C's years of expertise was evident and with a strong account team, I’m confident that we’ll deliver successful recruitment campaigns."
And it looks like the sun is here to stay for a while so all in all a great start to July!
Recently Facebook faced what some described as a “watershed” moment for the company. The Financial Times reported that advertisers such as Nissan and Nationwide, as well as a number of smaller brands, chose to pull their advertising from the social networking site after their ads were placed next to offensive posts and images. The exodus came as a result of the #FBRape campaign led by Laura Bates, founder of “The Everyday Sexism Project", asking Facebook to change its advertising policies. Complaints on twitter followed as embarrassing screenshots of ads appearing on the social networking site next to misogynistic content, including images of abused women, were circulated.
This highlights some serious issues for Facebook’s targeted advertising, which put simply, targets users believed to be most likely to buy a product based on their likes and other profile information. Ads are placed on pages wherever the user goes and for Facebook on which there are nearly 100bn pages, the majority of which are user generated, this represents a huge policing issue. Until there is a sound technological solution the likelihood is that incidents like this will continue to happen.
The Brand Response
The contrasting response to the brands involved highlights how important swift corrective action can be. Nationwide, Nissan and many of the smaller brands were lauded for immediately cancelling their Facebook advertising until the issue is resolved. On the other hand, Santander, who were slow to react, faced criticism and even pledges from consumers to switch their banking over to Nationwide! More extremely Dove the skincare brand, have faced a heated backlash from consumers (examples below) for not pulling their Facebook ads completely.
From a media agency perspective it’s hard not to feel a little sorry for Dove who have limited control over the actual content their ads are placed next to. Most of the blame should sit with Facebook, firstly for allowing the offensive content on the site and secondly for the poor control over where ads are placed.
Having said that, I can’t help but feel surprised that Dove, which prides itself on empowering women and “inspiring inner beauty” refused to pull its ads completely. In my opinion Dove should have been the first to cancel their advertising. They missed an opportunity to lead the condemnation of the content in order to turn a bad situation into something more positive.
As for Facebook, if they want to continue growing their advertising revenue, to improve on the $1.46 billion revenue figures announced in Q1, then they need to start taking a lot more responsibility for their content and advertising controls.
Some 60 clients joined MC&C this morning for a 90 minute seminar on the topic of "attribution in a digital world" It may sound slightly dry, but actually it's fascinating, honestly
Essentially attribution is merely the discipline of finding out which bits of your media investment generated what sales. You can then use that insight to drop the bits that don’t work and do more of the bits that do. Common sense really
Image from Google showing digital attribution What I found shocking was how few clients do this when it's so effective. Only 54% of clients do any form of attribution, and only 35% track the online sales caused by offline media, despite the fact that 54% of them say this has very large impacts on their profits (this from research Econsultancy did in November 2012)
The biggest opportunity for clients to improve profitability in this area is probably in linking online sales to offline media investments We offered three pieces of advice 1. The vast majority of online sales journeys start offline: typically between 80% and 95% 2. Typically our clients see some 30% of their total sales from media investments now coming online 3. If they use offline to online attribution they can improve the profitability of these sales by between 20% and 30%
Its not easy to do, but tools now exist that can help Clients have a choice of Econometric modelling, or media event matching software. Our recommendation is to start with matching. It gives clients the everyday micro insight as to which bits of their media schedules worked. C4 or Sky. The Sun or The Sunday Times. And investments can be optimised on that basis
Larger campaigns (typically £3million+) will benefit from Econometrics, which can answer questions like: exactly how much impact did my TV campaign have on my search, my door drops, my press, and my retail sales. And how much can I spend before I see diminishing returns.
We use both tools as appropriate. Our view: if you can measure it, how can you manage it? Written by Mike Colling, MD
It’s well documented internally that a healthy proportion of MC&C’s client base have
older-than-average customer profiles, Warner Leisure Hotels and Salvation Army
being two of the most apparent. Combine this fact with the continuing trend for
a greater ratio of advertising response coming from online mechanisms, and you
could potentially be looking at losing a greater number of responders from any campaigns
undertaken – especially those which involve a web call-to-action.
Please note, I’m not in the business of slurring the
advanced generations’ online abilities – I’m sure there are plenty who can use
a computer a lot more effectively than I – but it is generally considered that
it takes older people slightly longer to adapt to technological change. This is
obviously understandable if you’re used to dealing with issues such as bill
payment, communication with family and friends, or booking holidays in a set
way, only to be presented with an entirely foreign method many years down the
line.
In fact, the Guardian
has recently revealed a fairly startling fact: “There are 7.4 million people in the UK who have never used the
internet, of which 85%, (6.3 million), are aged over 55” partly demonstrating
elderly peoples’ caution with regard to the channel. The internet can be a
daunting place, fraught with potential pitfalls, and so to eliminate peoples’
fears, it is in online advertisers’ best interests to adapt their website to
accommodate the less internet savvy.
To counter this, eConsultancy
have put together a handy list of safety checks that web-designers should
follow, which should enable most effective navigation amongst those who need a
bit of assistance:
1.Font size should be at least 12-point (not just
for senior friendliness, but general usability)
2.Hyperlinks should be larger than general text
and well-spaced from non-hyperlink text so that they are more obvious
3.Use different colours for visited links to aid
navigation and remind people where they have previously clicked
4.Simplify form filling (especially prevalent when
assisting people through the donation or purchase process)
5.Make error messages within incomplete forms obvious,
and clearly demonstrate corrective measures
6.Avoid major navigation changes when redesigning
sites
If these simple instructions are followed, then the ease
with which ‘technophobes’ can pass through the donation or purchase process is greatly
increased. This will lead to increased conversion rates on the site, and it
would be assumed a greater return on advertising investment. Which IS my
business!
Last week Google revealed their master plan to change the world during the Google I/O conference and here is a round up of some of the key announcements:
• Android is becoming more prevalent in today’s society. Last year there were 400 million Android users. Now there are a massive 900 million.
• Google are improving their Play Store. It will work like the Game Center from Apple, allowing game saves across device and battles against your mates for the best score. Another cool feature is that you can start playing a game from your mobile phone, stop, and keep playing from another device such a tablet.
• Google officially announced their platform to compete against Spotify: Google Play Music All Access. It will be available for $9.99 a month in US (no UK pricing as of yet).
• Google Maps will experience big changes in terms of design but also in terms of PPC. Now search ads with location extension can appear directly on the map and just below the search box. Search ads without location extension can appear just below the search box.
• Google+ has a new design based on 3 key arenas: Stream, Hangouts and Photos. It looks more like Pinterest with 3 columns showing more information about the users. Also, they added these new Twitter-like functions:
o “Related hashtags”: a feature that allows users to browse through related photos by clicking on the current photo.
o “Intelligent hashtags”: Google analyses the photo and places a hashtag on the post. For instance, if you have a photo with the Big Ben in the background, your post will automatically contain the hashtag “bigben”.
• Google+ will be on an individual app for Android and iPhone. This application keeps all photos and texts that have been shared on a stream and allows having video conversations with a group of friends. Plus (pun intended), it will be the first time that Google brings Google Talk to iPhone devices.
• Google+ will automatically discard blurry and duplicated pictures. Photo enhancements such as removing red eyes or noise in photos will also be implemented.
• A Samsung Galaxy S4 model will be released with a “cleaner” version of the operating system, so without all the extra Samsung’s functions.
• Google Now (Siri’s competitor) is going to be improved. - set reminders, check public transport status and receive updates on TV shows. It will also have a desktop version for Chrome and will be hands-free too.
Finally, at the end of the conference, Larry Page showed up. He gave an amazing speech about the future of the technology, but also making clear that Google is more than just a search engine. He wants to change the world! You can watch Larry Page's speech here
You can watch the full Google I/O Conference here
Written by Marc Calvo Soler, Search Account Executive
It’s pretty much taken for granted now that what used to be known as “newspapers” are expected to be cross-channel “newsbrands”, with their online presence at least matching the traditional, tangible one. The problem is that unless you’re one of the biggest players on the Web, you’re more than likely to see your ad revenue drop rapidly when your readership moves online. So, what’s a newsbrand to do? The Sun recently decided to go all in.
According to The Guardian, from 1 August The Sun will be rolling out a £2-per-week paywall. The controversial move follows a £30 million deal for exclusive internet and mobile Premier League highlights clips the publisher struck in January. Now, with internet’s prevailing “anything, anytime, for free” attitude towards content, raising a paywall means sailing notoriously treacherous waters even for quality titles, whose readerships are typically both more loyal and more affluent. For a tabloid to do so seems borderline reckless. Is it really, though? The global rise of Guardian and Daily Mail, two poster children for “post-print” success (and identity crisis at the same time, but that’s a whole different story), cannot possibly be matched by every single UK newsbrand. For those late to the table, ISBA’s Bob Wootton’s words about ad revenue “paper pounds” being replaced by “digital pennies” ring painfully true. The only other way to harness online, he argues, is to secure exclusive, valuable, easily accessible content and charge for it. And as we’re regularly reminded, most recently by BT Sport's marketing offensive, the one kind of exclusive content to rule them all (and lure them all) is football. It will be interesting to see how the move pays off for The Sun. Especially so for their tabloid competitors, who I’m sure won’t go anywhere near a paywall in the foreseeable future, who will be more than happy to pick up any readers who don’t make it through The Sun’s wall. It is also naïve to expect The Sun to only rely on footie highlights. Prepare for snazzy overhauls and heavy marketing pushes over the summer. Daily Mail’s premium content experiment will probably be watched very closely too, as any knowledge of what else online/mobile audiences are willing to pay for will be gold. Interesting times ahead.
Remember the days when Facebook used to be this user-centric social network whose sole purpose was to connect you with your friends rather than selling your personal information to the big soulless companies who could then flood you with ads persuading you to buy their products, the purchase of which will have no less of an effect on your social and personal life than a princess’s kiss on an enchanted frog? No? Nor do I.
One of the reasons why might be the recent explosion in advertising developments within the social network, which appear to be kicking in at a steady rate of many-per-month. Recent developments include, but are not limited to, mobile ads, sponsored stories, behavioural targeting, lookalike profiling, newsfeed re-targeting, and now – video. The most recent of the above – video ads – is going to be rolled out this summer and according to some sources will allow advertisers to broadcast 15s ads to their target audiences, by also limiting individual users’ ad exposure to content from one advertiser a day only to maximise brand exposure and impact. The ads will start automatically, allowing people to choose whether they want to activate audio and restart the ad.
Estimates show that the new video format could help boost Facebook’s ad-generated income by around $1.4m a day, which would be a more than welcome new revenue stream for the company that is still trying to make up for its nearly disastrous stock market listing last year. Facebook’s move to video ads is somehow natural and expected, given that the company has access to one of the richest and most thorough databases of personal information, which it would be crazy not to feed into an opportunity to tap into the ever-growing online video advertising market.
Furthermore, despite many online marketeers’ concerns of the new video ads being too disruptive, the social network has been quite good at subtly introducing new ad formats. (Remember how your friends’ news feeds and photos suddenly got bigger and tidier with the introduction of the latest interface update? Did you pay as much attention to the slightly more prominent sponsored stories that appeared along as well? Didn’t think so.) This suggests that whether the new video format drives people away or not is totally dependent on execution and how Facebook rolls it out to the wider public, which we can assume (and hope) is only going to happen after a good amount of field testing.
Finally, it would be more than interesting to see how the most socially engaged online space handles one of the most engaging ad formats and what results this would produce. So while from a user’s point of view I am slightly frustrated with yet another addition to Facebook’s advertising portfolio, the digital planner in me is interested to see whether this new development might help us find a new digital golden goose laying the golden eggs of social engagement. I’ll keep my doubts for the time being, but only time will tell I guess…
MC&C is a data led marketing agency.
We are media people who understand and can harness the power of data across all media channels, from the classic to the emerging.
We solve business problems using data and media.
We use consumer data to create insights.
And we use media channels as tools to realise value from those insights
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