Some consumers believe content marketing to be misleading

One of the hardest things about planning advertising is how to make sure your message is in front of the right people at the right time and at the right amount of frequency. Otherwise, you may miss your target audience completely or worse, annoy them. Focusing on social media, how are advertisers supposed to reach an audience without being deceptive which can lead to negative brand views?

A recent study conducted by MediaBrix found that US internet users think some online content marketing misleading and in turn, off-putting. eMarketer reports that about 86% of those polled believed online videos to be content but were actually sponsored ads. It was reported that 85% of those misled by the sponsored ads either thought of the brand negatively or it had no change of opinion.

Looking at Facebook (57%) and Twitter (45%), users felt that sponsored stories and promoted Tweets were misrepresented to be content.

In general, people do not like to feel as though they have been duped. Therefore, it’s critical for advertisers to really evaluate the best way to present messaging in an honest way that will bolster brand loyalty. Social media is definitely a large part to marketing now; advertisers must be mindful of how it’s utilized.

Mobile ads may have fallen victim to "fat fingers"

If you have been in the media industry in the last five years, you will know that mobile advertising has grown leaps and bounds. While it’s been available for quite some time, it has recently trickled down to local advertiser budgets. There are many advantages to this kind of vehicle; however, research is beginning to prove that advertisers must be realistic with the results of a campaign. Click through rates (CTR) may be padded by “fat fingers.”

The theory is that people accidentally click on a mobile ad without intending to navigate to that page, which has coined the term “fat fingers.” According to eMarketer, the company GoldSpot Media recently did some research to learn whether or not the theory is true.

Initial results showed that 38% of clicks on static ads and 13% of clicks on rich media mobile ads were unintentional. The process for this was to evaluate actions after a click was made. If a user stayed on the website for more than two seconds, then it counted as an intended click. Conversely, if a user bounced out of the site less than two seconds after the click, it was deemed “fat fingers” and removed from the CTR results.

From this, the company devalued the rich media CTRs from 4% to about 2%. Likewise, static media CTRs went from 3.1% to 1.1%.

While this may affect how advertisers value the CTRs of mobile ads, it should still be known that even devalued mobile results are significantly higher than computer desktop CTRs.

Consumers explain how much trust lays with advertisements

In all honesty, do you trust every advertisement you see? You are in the industry, so your perspective may be a bit skewed. What do consumers think?

According to MediaPost, Nielsen conducted a study to see how respondents trusted media. Overall, the advertising landscape, which consumers define as “Don’t Trust Much/At All” measures up as follows:

§       71%: Text ads on mobile phones

§       64%: Online banner ads

§       64%: Ads on search engine results

§       60%: Product placements on television

§       58%: Ads on the radio

§       53%: Ads in magazines

§       53%: Ads on television

Interesting to point out that the traditional media maintained a better ratio of trustworthiness vs. untrustworthiness compared to digital media.

While this seems bleak for advertisers, research had this to show for consumers trusting an ad:

§       92%: People I know information

§       70%: Consumers opinion

Nielsen made the point that advertising campaigns that had a social component did perform better in the trust scale. It does make sense in that if a product is positively received by a friend of the consumer, he/she may be more likely to try it out. It was recommended to combine a few media vehicles in order to bolster trust from consumers. 

Do people multi-task when listening to internet radio?

If someone logs into an internet radio station, will he/she multi-task while listening? Or will his/her attention solely be on radio? Parks Associates on behalf of TargetSpot recently conducted a study to see how internet radio listeners spend his/her time when he/she is tuned in.

According to MediaPost, the vast majority of listeners are multi-tasking. Of those listening, he/she tends to do the following at the same time:

§       57% make a purchase online

§       56% research products/services for future purchases

§       60% are on social media networks

An interesting aspect of the results shows listeners views on advertising:

§       59% like to get coupons and offers from advertisers

§       55% don’t mind listening to ads in order to keep the station free

What can advertisers take from this? If moving forward with an online radio station, make sure the product/service website is prevalent. That way, it can help encourage listeners to research and possibly make a purchase. Also, it may be helpful to include a promotional offer vs. a straight branding initiative. 

Can anyone advertise on an arena jumbo screen?

For years, sports stadiums have had sponsors and advertisements all over the venue. While LED boards and jumbo HD screens used to be exclusively for team sponsors that has recently changed.

InStadium is a sports venue network company that helps advertisers get messaging into stadiums without being an official sponsor. According to MediaPost, this change can be attributed to teams needing to create new revenue streams.

The media company has partnered with about 480 NBA, MLB, NFL and NCAA teams. Advertisers can expect a ten-second PA announcement to encourage fans to look at the jumbo screens, a 30-second video, and digital crowd rings. All three components are set up to complement each other.

How does this help advertisers? This will enable those who are not team sponsors reach a large and engaged crowd.