Offensive Facebook Posts Force Brands to Drop Ads

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.

Written by Peter Barnes, Account Executive

Are you following the money?

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

Try not to scare old people

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!

Written by Alex Prout, Digital Account Manager

Round up of the Google I/O Conference

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



Paper pounds, digital pennies and The Sun’s great gamble

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.

Written by Adam Wika, Media Assistant

More ads anyone?

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…

Written by Slavina Racheva, Digital planner/buyer

Can you hear what the stats are singing?

The commercial (non-BBC) radio market has experienced increases in audience figures, according to the RAJAR quarterly report. Although the number of people listening to the radio is up by 608,000, the number of listening hours has fallen by 3%. There are however interesting trends within the market, with digital and commercial listening on the rise.

Figures show that half of radio listening adults now use digital radio but only a third of listening hours is done via this medium. In the latter half of this year we might, however, expect this to rise as Bauer Media launch two new digital stations- KissFresh and Kisstory- which will be available on mobile, desktop, tablet and Freeview.

London’s Capital and Magic 105.4 will be pleased with their results. Capital broadcast to 1.95 million people, overtaking Magic in terms of their reach to weekly listeners; yet Magic retained the highest proportion of listening hours with nearly 6%. Capital can be happy further, with Berry and Snowdon’s breakfast show attracting more than 1 million listeners.

 

Photo courtsey of Capitalfm.com

Heart’s breakfast show audience rose by a massive 120,000 listeners, putting them in second place for morning listening. Magic’s Neil Fox took a close third place, and a year on year rise of 20% for Absolute Radio slides them nicely into fifth place.
Nick Grimshaw’s Radio 1 morning show saw a dramatic decline of nearly 900,000 listeners from Q4 in 2012. This translates to a fall of 14%, and a year on year drop of almost a fifth. To add insult to injury, Vodafone’s Big Top 40 attracted a million more listeners than Radio 1.
       
From an advertiser’s perspective, what does this mean for the market and pricing? Total advertising expenditure on radio (as recorded by AdDynamix) for Q1 2013 is down 3% compared to this time last year. This together with stagnation on total listening has therefore ensured that radio pricing remains competitive. MC&C are not expecting any increases in overall pricing during 2013.

Written by Sean Stanfield, Media Intern