Realistic Advertising With IKEA

IKEA’s commercials have gotten a lot of industry buzz for their portrayal of the “honest” side of life. Rather than portraying perfect families in their shiny homes, the “Where Life Happens” campaign features relatable situations, such as adoption or divorce.

In the latest IKEA Sweden spot, a mother comes home to an apartment full of messy teenagers. She is overwhelmed and takes refuge on the apartment’s balcony. It is only after a heartwarming turn of events that IKEA products, with prices, are presented.

You can watch the spot here.

So why do these ads garner so much attention from industry insiders and consumers alike?

Everything, from the 4:3 aspect ratio to the simple yet moving music, works to build a consistent voice that carries from one ad to the next. As Matt Tanter, CSO of Grey London, says, “they have found a voice that uses a magical realism to create beautiful, funny, moving stories.”

The touch of reality and consistent voice help IKEA’s ads stand out amongst the clutter. This strategy can be utilized by other brands to increase likeability and brand recall.

Natural Inspiration for Billboard Creative

This week’s eclipse gave brands an opportunity to capitalize on nature with themed advertisements. But it doesn’t need to be a once-every-few-years natural occurrence in order to serve as inspiration for marketers.

Something as simple as the day’s weather conditions can be utilized in campaigns such as Paramount Pictures’ promotion of the “Baywatch” movie. As reported by Media Life Magazine, Paramount Pictures ran a digital billboard campaign with Lamar Advertising that used current weather conditions to automatically update their ads.

If it was snowing, the ad would read, “Snow sucks. Summer is coming.” And if it was icy or temperatures were below zero, the ad would update to, “Frost bites. Summer is coming.” These small adjustments helped the ads remain “relevant and interesting”.

This campaign was also unique in the choice of markets in which to run. Rather than the top 10 DMAs, the 16 coldest U.S. markets were chosen. “This allows for the creative relevant messaging to really speak to the audience in a unique way when they’re longing for warm weather,” says Ian Dallimore, Lamar Advertising’s director of digital strategy and innovation.

With only a month left of summer, it’s time for marketers to consider how interactive and relevant messaging can boost the effectiveness of their campaigns.

The Argument for Awareness

Back in the day, the primary goal of advertisers was to raise awareness for their brands. In recent years, the focus of advertising has shifted to engagement, but it may be beneficial for brands to go old-school and once again drive awareness.

Now that consumers are engaging with various media all day every day, it can be hard for advertisers to break through the clutter and be noticed. In Adweek, Brian Sheehan makes the argument that advertising is no longer about persuading consumers but rather about being remembered.

Oftentimes it is the most innovative brands that receive the most attention. Advertising becomes similar to publicity for disruptive brands such as Tesla Motors, “the most valuable car company in the world despite being one of the smallest in sales volume.” T-Mobile also cultivates awareness with near constant innovation, making it “one of the hardest brands to compete with in the telecom world.”

Driving awareness from the bottom up has also been a successful strategy for companies such as Blue Apron and Glossier. These brands have demonstrated that they understand what consumers share and recommend to each other.

Considering the current cluttered advertising landscape, it would be wise for advertisers to make awareness their primary objective again rather than engagement.

Advertising Market Predictions Through 2021

Every year, Price Waterhouse releases their Entertainment & Media Outlook report with advertising market predictions through 2021.

Since last year’s report, online advertising has overtaken television by about $15 billion. By 2021, the online advertising market is estimated to be 50% larger than TV and has a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.9%.

Mobile has the largest share of online ad spend and accounts for 71% of all internet consumption, as reported by Digiday. Fueled by social video, “mobile advertising is projected to grow by an annual average of 18.7% from 2016 through 2021”.  

Television advertising spend is growing slowly and is expected to reach 38.8% share of the market in 2021. Its low CAGR of 1.3% is due in part to declining viewership, a trend driven by younger demographics. Marketing Charts reports that this decline is not only due to cord-cutting but also the fact that 18-24 year olds are watching less traditional television.

With both the magazine and radio markets remaining flat, the only market expected to see a decline in revenues by 2021 is newspaper advertising. Despite loyal readership, the newspaper market revenues are expected to drop by $4.6 billion between 2017 and 2021. 

Most Improved Brands Among Millennials

In the results of a recent survey released by the public-perception research firm, YouGov BrandIndex, millennials reveal which brands were the most successful in gaining their patronage. Although some of the brands are not so surprising, others, including brands considered to be traditional, stand out from the list.

The rise of the sharing economy puts Uber at the top of the list, despite public relations woes plaguing the company. Chase also occupies the list at No. 13, prompting Ted Marzilli, CEO of YouGov BrandIndex, to say, “ethics are good, but price and convenience carry the day”.

Traditional brands can also be found in the top 20. The presence of Puma, Delta Airlines, Visa, Adidas, and Ace Hardware show the value millennials place in adaptability. However, it’s important to realize why these brands make the list. These “graybeards” so to speak, aren’t popular for their nostalgia but rather for their ability to stay relevant and adapt to current times.

Another head scratcher on the list is number five, TLC, which dates back to the 1970’s. However, the network has gone through several facelifts to evolve from an education-oriented channel to a source of entertainment filled with Honey Boo Boo and shows like, “My Fat Saved My Life”. 

Reaching Communities Through Mobile Advertising

The Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity had the who’s who in advertising and communications flocking to France last week. The festival presented an opportunity for marketers to share insights and new innovations as participants waited to hear who would be awarded a prestigious Lion award.

Facebook’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg, and Airbnb’s CMO, Jonathan Mildenhall, presented on the growth of global communities and how marketers can reach them through mobile advertising.

The trend in marketing has been to move away from selling a product or service and instead connect the consumer with a community. Airbnb especially relies on the idea of community as it utilizes technology to connect people in real life. “Without our community there is no Airbnb, there is no brand,” says Mildenhall.

To effectively reach these communities, Sandberg says brands need to create attention-grabbing native mobile ads with “thumb-stopping creative”. With Facebook and Instagram, advertisers are able to test an ad’s performance while maintaining the ability to change out creative if the desired results are not achieved.

Noteworthy campaigns often combine multiple mobile elements. The “New Year, New Roads” campaign for Chevy used video and chatbot among other platforms to connect with consumers.  

Airbnb has seen significant benefits to investing in its own community with user-generated content receiving six times more engagement than advertising video on social media.

“At the end of the day,” says Sandberg, “this (ad) community’s job is to drive our businesses. Explain our purpose, but also drive sales.”  

Header Bidding: The Trendy Programmatic Technique

Most digital advertisers have been familiar with programmatic selling for a while but may just now be hearing of header bidding. As the newest trend in programmatic, header bidding has the potential to help both advertisers and publishers.

According to Digiday, header bidding is a technique which allows for multiple bids on the same inventory. This increases the yield for publishers and provides more data points for advertisers.

According to Technorati CEO, Shanie Higgins, “the entire idea of this system is to eliminate the need for pushing inventory back and forth, which is inefficient and wasteful”. While header bidding does help to streamline the programmatic process, it comes with a significant drawback.

By adding yet another SSP tag to their page, a publisher risks raising their page load times. Page latency has helped fuel the popularity of ad blockers in recent years.

While the header bidding technique is not perfect, publishers greatly benefit from the increased transparency and revenue. With programmatic ad spend estimated to reach $37.9 billion by 2018, the chance of more revenue is worth the risk and inconvenience for many publishers.

In response to the recent popularity of header bidding, Google has released exchange bidding in Dynamic Allocation for publisher testing. According to The Programmatic Publisher, Facebook’s Audience Network has also integrated with tech partners for header bidding. 

Key Takeaways from the Internet Trends Report

From YouTube’s decreasing share of mobile traffic to the personalization of voice-activated devices, the newly released Internet Trends report offers unique insight into the digital advertising industry. Thanks to Adweek, marketers do not need to read through the 355-page report for the key takeaways.

1)    Dip in Smartphone Sales

In 2016, smartphones saw not only a decrease in sales but also in user-base growth. Globally 2.8 billion people own smartphones. While they remain extremely popular, the user-base only grew by 12 percent in 2016 compared to 25 percent in 2015.

2)    Increased Time Spent on Mobile

Adults spend an average of 5.6 hours per day consuming digital media. The majority of that time (3.1 hours) is spent on mobile devices while desktops account for 2.2 hours. The remaining 0.4 hours come from other devices.

3)    Internet vs. TV Ad Spend

The total Internet ad spend is growing faster than television ad spend, and 85 percent of Internet ad spend is through Google and Facebook. Compared to its 2015 ad revenue, Facebook experienced a 62 percent growth in 2016.

4)    Voice is the Next Frontier

Between the fourth quarter of 2016 and the first of 2017, Amazon’s voice-enabled assistant, Echo, gained 3 million users. With its increasing personalization, voice and visual recognition are considered to be the “next frontiers in search and discovery” by Photon’s VP of marketing, Michael Levine.

5)    Ad Blocking on the Rise

With about 640 million devices utilizing ad blockers in 2016, marketers have the right to remain wary of the software.

Gen Z and the Future of Television Advertising

In an effort to understand the future of television advertising, Tremor Video and Hulu partnered on a study to research the viewing habits of Generation Z compared to Millennials and Gen X. Gen Z is not only watching less television than their forebears but how they choose to access shows and movies is unique.

Even the language differentiates generations. The vast majority of Gen X say “watching TV” means access through cable or satellite whereas the majority of Millennials and Gen Z consider watching by an online source to qualify.

The reliance on streaming videos allows Gen Z to watch more at one time than through traditional cable or satellite. As reported in “How Gen Z Connects to TV: Exploring the Generational Divide in the Future of TV”, 60% of Gen Z watch multiple episodes in one sitting compared to just 44% of Gen X.

In an interesting twist, Gen Z is actually more receptive to advertisements and are the most likely to share video ads through social media. However, advertisers should be aware that Gen Z expects ads to be relevant to what they are viewing.

With 48% of Gen Z saying they watch less television than their parents, it would be wise to target ads thoughtfully. By advertising across platforms (48% of Gen Z say they browse social media while watching TV) and reducing ad loads, advertisers can reach Gen Z when it most counts.

Image Recognition and the Future of Targeting

With the rise of Instagram and Pinterest, the Internet has become increasingly visual. While text-based targeting is still relevant, the recent shift in how consumers use the Web has brought image recognition technology to the forefront.

Companies, such as Cluep in Toronto, have developed engines to scan public images, recognize a brand or product, and then determine the consumers’ interests or lifestyles. This presents an amazing opportunity for advertisers.

The CEO and co-founder of Cluep, Karan Walia, reports that even beta tests of the platform are receiving significant increases in conversions and click-through rates.

Coca-Cola utilized an image recognition engine for a recent Gold Peak campaign. By serving ads to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter users who had posted photos containing iced tea, Gold Peak creative click-through rates increased four times their usual rate.

Image recognition allows brands to not only target potential consumers but also research their lifestyles and preferences. DigitasLBi, the digital agency for Miller Lite, scanned Instagram for photos containing beer to provide a new perspective on beer drinkers. 

Even Pinterest has tapped into image recognition technology. For the past year, Pinterest’s related pins have been selected based on visual similarities to previous pins.

Digiday reports that while many social platforms do not allow advertisers to utilize their image recognition capabilities, brands can still drive sales through image-based targeting by partnering with companies that have their own engines and servers.

The Power of Data and Transparency in Media Buying and Planning

Adweek released its list of the 15 Most Innovative Agency Executives in Media Buying and Planning this week. The detailed list not only highlights the extraordinary qualities of the honored individuals but also the challenges of media buying and planning strategy in a rapidly evolving industry.

The rise and fall of various advertising formats has created a challenge for media buyers and planners. This becomes especially problematic when tools traditionally used for planning, such as Nielsen, lack transparency.

Scott Hagedorn, CEO of Hearts & Science, says of Nielsen, “they might be missing 40 percent of total video, because they’re missing a lot of the OTT data”. As millennials increasingly view content on mobile apps, the lack of streaming data presents a problem even while mobile devices allow for more individualized targeting.

The inclusion of data in creative strategies has helped agencies remain productive during times of change. The vice president of media operations for Horizon Media, Jennifer Dass, describes the most vital data as being, “accurate, actionable, and easily interpreted”.

In recent years, media planners and buyers have evolved into the realm of marketing strategists and the power of change is emphasized throughout Adweek’s article.  Andrea Millett, president of Havas Media New York, says, “I believe strongly in continuing to try new ways of doing things, new models and new iterations in every aspect”.

Transparency between agencies and clients is described as being essential in order to effectively reach target audiences. While this requires a simplification of media strategy at times, the resulting cooperation allows for “both an upper- and lower-funnel approach”.

Whether the campaign is digital, social, traditional, etc., top-notch media buyers and planners utilize individual skills as well as data and creativity to aid clients and consumers on the media journey.

Risks of Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing has been a hot topic in the past few months with media companies increasingly hiring influencer managers to help build brands. Influencers can bolster trust between a brand and its consumers but there is risk associated with this strategy.

Anyone who has been online within the past week has probably heard of the Fyre Festival fiasco. What was supposed to be an exotic music festival experience, complete with celebrity endorsements, quickly soured. From the cheese sandwiches and lack of alcohol to the questionable lodgings (literal disaster relief tents) in the Bahamas, the “once-in-a-lifetime musical experience” had guests scrambling to book flights back to the U.S.

Not only does this reflect poorly on the event organizers, including rapper Ja Rule, it also harms the credibility of the celebrity influencers who have been promoting the festival for months. AdWeek reports that it is expected for consumers to be more wary of influencers’ endorsements. So how can brands avoid potential fallout when using influencer marketing?

Devon Wijesinghe, CEO of InsightPool, recommends for brands to develop relationships with influencers rather than simply paying for a product post. Shared values between a brand and an influencer result in more authentic, trustworthy endorsements. Jennifer Aniston’s long-term partnership with Aveeno is an example of a successful celebrity endorsement.

It is important for brands to remember that while an influencer can be paid to promote something, it won’t always have the intended outcome. 

The Next Level of Advertising

If you’ve never watched the show, “The List”, I would highly recommend it. It’s an entertaining show filled with “trending topics”. As I watched a recent episode, I was intrigued by story covered by Jimmy Rhoades about taking advertising to the next level. Rhoades introduces three new and different ways for advertisers to get their message across.

The first is a simple solution from Slidejoy. This smartphone app allows the lock screen of smartphones to be turned into advertisements. Swipe left for more info, up for a new ad, and right to unlock your phone. This might not sound all that exciting until I add in that users get paid for their eyes on advertisements. Now your eyebrows have risen in interest. Unfortunately, this app is only available for Android phones. Fortunately, for advertisers, this allows them to have a very specific audience for their product and advertisement.

Prepare for your eyebrows to rise even higher… next up, advertisers are renting space on people’s bodies to place advertisements in the form of temporary tattoos! Lease Your Body allows willing participants to fill out an application and have the opportunity to be a walking advertisement for up to $5,000! Lease Your Body hopes to make this advertising medium a staple in the community, my thoughts, no way! The only way I could see this making sense is if it was utilized in the crazy atmosphere in Miami Beach.

Want a way to travel with checked luggage, for free? Orion Travel Tech will give you that opportunity. They’ll not only pay for your luggage fees, they’ll also provide you with new luggage. The only catch, no longer are your bags a solid color, they’re now an advertisement. This could work for companies that are on a global scale, but not so much for your local grocer.

So, what’s next for you? Any plans to rent someone’s forehead? Maybe have your left bicep rented by an advertiser for some big bucks? Or maybe you’ll fly to sunny Mexico with “Southwest Airlines” printed on a suitcase. The advertising world is becoming incredibly creative and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon.