Advertising : A niche market for Instagram ?

         Instagram is an online mobile photo and video sharing service that enables its users to take pictures and videos, and share them on a variety of social networking platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter...

         The original Instagram firm was acquired 18 months after their start by Facebook and yet, the application succeded in shaping its own image and network of users. Their number has reached nowadays 400 millions.

         Instagram policy is being retargeted in order to encourage companies from various sectors into advertising through their application. As an example of this, Instagram has recently opened sponsored posts to generate revenues and will also introduce targeted ads in a not-so-far future.

        According to Kenshoo’s studies, Instagram’s financial potential through sponsored post is still far from being reached since the sponsor feature was only available to promote US brands untill now and is now (since september 30th) programmed to promote brands from another 30 countries.

       Instagram policy on advertisement has created a disbalance beetween regular users that can only upload 15 seconds videos and advertisers that can upload up to 30 seconds videos.

According to Fortune, this misbalance is even more important since regular users have less features than advertisers. As an example of this, Fortune refers to the possibility for advertisers to post links to outside various contents such as installing new apps or shopping through the net.

       Thanks to facebook’s targeted ads technology, advertisers are more likely to stick with Instagram. Moreover, Instagram’s high click-through rate is also a convincing point (Instagram has a higher click-rate than any other competitor)

As an example of Instagram’s successful policy, the e-commerce site Gilt Groupe has managed to increase their number of installed apps by 85%. Also, the furniture retailer Made.com has increased by 10% their order values after their Instagram ad campaign.

Sources:

http://www.marketingtechnews.net/news/2015/sep/09/instagram-platform-opens-advertisers-across-world-best-practise-revealed/

http://www.morningledger.com/this-is-why-you-should-start-advertising-on-instagram/1310073/

Maria Sayarh

Edouard Pinon

Yohann Gouttes

Remarketing – The New Buzzword in Digital Marketing

What is Remarketing?

Remarketing lets a company display targeted ads to people who have previously visited their website – as they browse elsewhere around the internet. Basically, when you visit the company’s site, a cookie is placed in your browser which permits them to display ads in the form of Facebook ads, banner ads etc. multiple times.

Here is a simple infographic explaining the process

Source: http://www.webchiquemarketing.com/why-remarketing-annoys-you/ 

Another video explaining the process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45uymOc2fTA 

Why are marketers using Remarketing?

Simply because Remarketing leads to better ROI, better Conversion rates and very precise targeting. According to Forrester Research, 96% of people who visit a website leave without completing the action the marketer would have liked them to take

Imagine browsing Amazon for a pair of headphones, then deciding to wait for a while till there is a better deal, only to be bombarded with the ads for the particular headphones on Facebook, Google searches etc. It’s very likely you’ll just give in to temptation and end up buying it!

What are the various tools for Remarketing?

Some of the most common tools for remarketing are – 

• Google Adwords – Remarketing can be easily done through one’s Google Adwords account, utilizing Google’s huge display network. All one needs to do is add the remarketing tag to one’s website, build the ads and set up a campaign. Google AdWords  allows you to create a list of people visiting a certain section or page of one’s website. 

Check https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2454000?hl=en for detailed information

• Adroll - AdRoll works with advertising partners like Facebook Exchange, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. AdRoll retargeting customers earn $10 for every $1 spent on average. (Source:  website.)

Using their platform, one can target or exclude site visitors based on their actions, create groups of users based on purchase intent, and set up advanced conversion tracking rules. 

Source: https://blog.kissmetrics.com/remarketing-and-retargeting-services/ 

Are there any problems with Remarketing?

Ad Fatigue is a real phenomenon across various mediums. The question remains, whether remarketing lead to more or less ad fatigue?

We welcome your questions, thoughts and suggestions!

Sources

• https://blog.bufferapp.com/new-marketing-strategies

Co-authored by Ankita Verma & Shikhar Nigam

Facebook: afraid to be disliked?

Written by Elena Arkhangelskaya and Pontus Tjernberg

When scrolling the news feed on Facebook, you might not feel like always pressing the like button under posts. You’d show that you dislike some certain things rather than actually like them. Clearly, the like button is confusing from time to time, since you cannot like any sad or horrifying events in reality. Is there any alternative to the like button out there?

For that reason, more and more Facebook users have asked to create a dislike button for many years already. One week ago Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, announced that they were actually working on an alternative simple social interaction and would go into a testing phase soon.

So is it really happening?

After this news some blogs wrote about possible implications of the dislike button for marketers. In Mobile Marketer several benefits of the dislike button were discussed. First, it may enable to collect more useful data about consumers and find out whether the content is relevant or interesting. Consequently, it may be easier for marketers to decide, which changes should be made. Moreover, advertising may become more personalised according to users’ preferences. For instance, should a consumer dislike any brand, its competitor may benefit from it and be more precise when targeting potential consumers. 

All in all, with such a new tool to express opinions, customers will definitely become more responsive to what a company does. In return, they may become more demanding and expect that companies’ reaction online will be fast and adequate, what creates more pressure. All of them, who don’t want to fall behind, have to be ready to improve their social media marketing fast and effectively.

Image source: http://www.zachandjody.com/blog/tuesday-tips-tricks-the-10-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-facebook/13362/ 

However, is it the dislike button, which is going to shape social media marketing on Facebook? 

Nobody can say for sure so far.

According to Mark Zuckerberg, he doesn’t seem to be excited about the idea of voting for or against any posts, thus creating a ground for negative emotions and disputes on Facebook.

In his announcement he didn’t mention a name of a button, which the Facebook team is currently working on. Nevertheless, it becomes clear that they would like to introduce a tool with which people can express their empathy towards any subject.

Some marketers believe that this button won’t imply any useful information for brands, because it is designed to express sorrow. “Do you know many cases where people feel motivated to express empathy for a brand?” – says Nate Elliott from Forrester Research. However, if a company deals with some real issues, it may be quite important also from a marketing point of view to see if companies’ loyal customers and other online audience support the company or not and how this issue may influence the consumer behaviour.

The new button will be definitely a new step in the social media marketing. Any feedback given by a customer towards brand’s content may be useful and provide marketers with more insights. Especially if the information is negative and reasonable, marketers should grasp the opportunity and make improvements, if it’s possible.

Last but not least, Nate Elliott believes that if Facebook creates other simple emotions buttons (for example, “love”, ”respect”, etc.) after the successful launch of the empathy button, then these tools will create a wider variety of relationships between brands and consumers. It would allow to market products or services in a customized way depending on the kind of relationship with the brand.

What do you think, which button could make a revolution in the social media marketing?

Source: "Will Facebook’s “Empathy” Button Be Good News For Marketers?" by Martin Beck

Difference between digital marketing and social media 

                               

An article we find very relevant due to Digital Marketing, is an article called “Differences between digital marketing and Social Media”. This is an article published by the Digital Marketing Consultant and author Alex Chris on the web page: reliablesoft.net. This web page was launched in 2002 when search engines were at their early stages, and they now offers solutions in the world of Digital Marketing.

The reason why we find this article interesting is that we think many “Digital Marketing Beginners” including ourselves, believe that by engaging on social media, we are doing digital marketing. This assumption is not true, and that is exactly what this article will teach us more about.

According to the article the differences between digital marketing and social media is simply that social media is a part of digital marketing. Many more components make up a digital marketing campaign than just engaging on social media.  Alex Chris`s definition of Digital marketing is: Building awareness and promoting a brand or product using all available digital channels.

We think that his definition helps us Digital marketing beginners to understand easily that Digital Marketing is more than just using Social Media. Digital marketing includes all kinds of available digital channels, and we have to learn to think of it in a more widespread way of digital marketing.

The article also present the major components of digital marketing such as Internet Marketing and Non- Internet digital channels. By segmenting the different kind of digital channels to use, the article helps us to understand the relationship of the different components that make up digital marketing.

According to the article, Digital marketing goes beyond the internet and tries to reach people in the off-line world using digital means while social media is limited to the boundaries of the Internet. As a Digital marketing campaign may include one or more components (Internet Advertising, Mobile ads, TV, SMS etc.), a social media strategy may include one or more social media platforms (Facebook, twitter etc.)

When it comes to what kind of marketing that is preferably the article summaries it as it depends on the type of brand, products or services we would like to promote. In some cases other forms of digital marketing will be the most appropriate to use to build awareness than social media. However, in our days, as we can see in our social media accounts, the most of the big and familiar brands use social media, and this is necessary of products, brands and services that has a wide audience that they would like to reach out to.

By Benedicte Hurlen and Camilla Villesen Sønnichsen

Link: https://www.reliablesoft.net/difference-between-digital-marketing-and-social-media/#commentsAuthor: Alex Chris"DatePublished" content: "2013-05-20 14:00:15"
Picture: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Gestures_g185-Businessman_Holding_Thumb_Up_Sign_p77777.html

The CMO priority list for 2020: Data analytics, content and omnichannel

In the recent report Media 2020, Chiefs Marketers Officers have provided their future strategies for the next 5 years. First aimed discipline concerns the data analysis and insights, then comes the content developments and finally the omni-channel planning.

54% firms also plan to get more and more functionalities in house, in order to get independent from agencies which face increasing finance challenges, although remaining the best places for creative ideas.

According to Graham Brown, director of global media advisory firm, organizations should increase their independency and their control over their eco-system, by being technology-enabled, being data-driven and by having a clear view of key drivers.

In our opinion, content as a new strategy replaces older ones such as advertising, emailing or the search to implement keywords. Indeed, advertising is perceived as too much “selling” to create a relationship, whereas content enables communication, which brings to reliability and loyalty. Emailing becomes with time slowly obsolete, as a huge part of each sending is considered as “SPAM” by the FAIs. Concerning the keywords, search results are nowadays able to let the good content appear, that is to say worthy useful information, above sites with more keywords related but with poor content.

It appears to us, that data analysis, for their part, enable an increase in performance, instead of doing instinct marketing based on hazard. Firms need now to test and analyze to get statistics and adjust their performances. Indeed, it enables a greater personalization of the site and to better target the users. This allows for example a more accurate advertising, making it more profitable. Such a marketing does not necessary increase the market share of the pie, but leads to the increase of the pie.

While former online marketing aimed at creating new needs to customers, we observe that the current digital world now provides more and more options for users to compare. That is why companies need to be omni-channel, so they can reach the maximal audience. By increasing their presence on the diverse channels, they also escape from the too over-risky Google’s oligopoly’s adwords’ biding.

Finally, by putting more and more functionalities in-house, we conclude that companies need to have a hand on technologies, advertising and their own communication in order to get faster, more performant and consequently more profitable.

To conclude with, firms face with the expansion of the digital world a rising competition and need to adapt, by becoming increasingly efficient, being more accurate to their activities and focus more and more on their users.  

By Margaux Peuvergne and Alban Couturier.

Source: http://www.marketingtechnews.net/news/2015/sep/11/marketers-priorities-next-five-years-revealed-new-report/

Source image : http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Other_business_conce_g200-Dart_In_Hand_And_Dartboard_p82199.html

Coca-Cola launches its own emoji on Twitter with the hashtag #ShareaCoke

Coca-Cola has became the first company launching a brand new concept in online advertising: sponsored emojis.

Even though emojis have been used before for special events, such as the new Star Wars trailer or the VMAs, this is the first time Twitter lets companies do it.

Using the hashtag #ShareACoke is enough in order to get the new emoji in your tweet.

The emoji is made of two crystal bottles of Coca-Cola cheering. The idea was created by Wieden and Kennedy, an advertising agency according to the emoji's new trendy that has been imposed everywhere. 

For that reason, companies have moved quickly due to make the most of it.

However, Coca-Cola, who is usually one step ahead of the competition, has been the first one to do it, as always.

Once again, Coca-Cola has been able to surprise online users through digital marketing.

It is known that their commercials do not leave anyone indifferent, but this time, they have gone beyond themselves.

Reinvent yourself or die seems to be the philosophy of the company nowadays.

Paula Jiménez de Andrade Salmador

Mónica Robledo Fajardo

Lorena Sanz García

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/17/twitters-custom-emojis-make-their-brands-debut-with-shareacoke/

Native Advertising is in our blood (or at least in our brain!)

While waiting for the good content that our students will produce over the next 3 months, I am kicking off the blog by discussing an interesting attempt at explaining, scientifically, why so-called native advertising works.

Native advertising is defined by the Interactive Advertising Bureau as
" paid ads that are so cohesive with the page content, assimilated into the design, and consistent with the platform behavior that the viewer simply feels that they belong".
http://www.iab.net/media/file/IAB-Native-Advertising-Playbook2.pdf

In "The Science Behind Why Native Ads Work", Jami Oetting, writing for the Hubspot blog, posts comments about an infographic created by Sharethrough and Column Five. These authors argue that native advertising,  unlike more traditional and more invasive promotional tools, engages both brain hemispheres as it delivers content that is relevant for the reader within the context that the reader expects.

I hope you will enjoy using 100% of your brainpower to process the infographic.

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net