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Digital Spending is Still on the Rise. Are you in?

It has been reported that digital ad spending is up by 18% year over year and will continue to rise. Why? Because it works!

Some of the businesses that continue to soar in this space are retail, automotive and on the heels of these businesses are financial and travel.

It is forecasted that in 2020, financial services digital spending will surpass automotive.

Mobile marketing is driving digital ad spending within the financial sector as they continue to target millennials specifically on mobile devices. Video marketing is a close second on targeting strategies.

A couple of digital strategies we find to be a “go-to” are:

Mobile Conquesting
We cannot live without our mobile devices and if you are trying to target consumers during their busy lives and drive visits to a store or business this is the way to go.

Video
There are so MANY video options now with YouTube, OTT, Video pre-roll, Facebook and more. This is a great solution for brand awareness and creating the need for your client’s product or service.

In fact, 64% of consumers will make a purchase after watching a branded video.

What does this mean for you and your business? That the timing is perfect. Annual planning season is around the corner and it is time to jump aboard and lay out a digital marketing plan.

Remember to think like a marketer, not just someone trying to sell a product or service.  Ask yourself what would the consumer do?

Start by asking yourself questions like:

How do you research a product or service?

How often are you online to purchase a product?

How often are you online to research a product or service?

How often do you stream video?

How many hours a day are you on your phone? Be honest.

Knowing the trends in digital and keeping focused on the customer journey is the key to planning an outstanding marketing campaign.

We welcome you to contact Bay Area Digital Solutions in Sonoma County and we will work together to lay out the most effective digital marketing plan to meet your goals in 2020!

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What is OTT, CTV, vMVPD and all the rest of those new digital video terms?

With the rapid changes in digital video it’s hard to keep up with all the new terms for how video content and ads are delivered to consumers. As you are probably aware video ads are considered to be one of the premiere ways to reach consumers. Videos will represent 82% of the web traffic by 2021, and 64% of users are more likely to buy a product online after watching a video.

Watching video (and seeing video ads) is a staple of browsing on our phones, tablets and computers, but now there is a whole new world of video advertising including ads embedded in shows, being streamed (viewed) through an internet connected T.V.

“Advanced TV” is the general label being used for these new technologies but there are a lot of different products that fall under that term. Here is a glossary of the most common terms and most commonly accepted explanations of them!

OTT: “Over The Top” This is an umbrella term for video programming transmitted via the Internet that bypasses traditional cable or broadcast (linear) distribution. It can be consumed on any device including computers, mobile devices, TVs, and gaming systems. Click here to read the IAB’s take on OTT. 

CTV: “Connected TV” This is a type of OTT and refers to consuming video programming through TV sets that are connected to the Internet through built in technology (Smart TVs) or through devices connected to the TV such as Apple TV, Chromecast, Amazon Fire, and gaming consoles.

OTA: “Over The Air” This is broadcast TV also called “linear TV” or “traditional TV”. It’s content that is delivered without using satellite transmission or cable.

SVOD: “Subscription Video on Demand” Video content that requires access to a subscription video on demand service. Examples include Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime.

vMVPD: “Virtual Multichannel Video Programming Distributor” These are distributors that aggregate live and on-demand television but deliver the content over the internet. Examples include Sling, DIRECTV NOW, PlayStation™ Vue, YouTube Live, Hulu Live, fuboTV, Roku, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV.

Skinny Bundles: A skinny bundle is what is offered by a Virtual Provider (vMVPDs) and is a small selected amount of channels (usually well under 100 channels) available to consumers to purchase at a reduced price vs. what they pay for traditional cable TV. These bundles are aimed at being cheaper than a cable package and also an alternative to purchasing individual over-the-top (OTT) apps directly from each video content provider. Examples of companies offering Skinny Bundles are Sling TV, PlayStation Vue, and DIRECTV NOW.

ATV: “Addressable TV” The ability to serve different ad content to different audience segments watching the same TV program on IP connected TVs and set top boxes of cable companies or satellite providers, by dynamically inserting an ad based on specific audience targeting in either live, playback, or Video On Demand mode. Examples would include offerings by Comcast, DIRECTV, and Dish. (Addressable TV got the go-ahead from the FCC for local TV stations. See “Next Gen TV” and “ATSC 3.0” below.

Smart TV: A television set that is capable and enabled to access the internet.

Internet Connected Device: Devices connected to the TV that are used to stream content such as Apple TV, Roku, Google Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, gaming systems, smartphone, computer, laptops, etc.

Linear Platforms: Refers to video content that is real-time television service that broadcasts scheduled programs, over the air or through satellite or cable, not streamed to a specific user.

Next Gen TV: Sometimes referred to as Addressable TV for local stations. More formally known as the ATSC 3.0 standard, was approved by the Federal Communications Commission, enabling the broadcasting of high-quality content over the air using an internet protocol (IP) signal. This could enable local TV stations to provide targeting options to advertisers similar to digital targeting options.

ATSC 3.0: “Advanced Television Systems Committee”. This is the next version of the broadcast standard for how local TV channels are distributed without needing to have a cable or satellite subscription. ATSC 3.0 is supposed to make it so that you could get these channels not only on a regular TV screen but on your phone, laptop, tablet. Through ATSC 3.0, local TV will be able to air through devices that have this chip inside without having to go through your wireless signal. ATSC 3.0 would enable local TV stations to track what you’re watching and then target ads to you.

Outstream Video: Sometimes referred to as Native Video ads. Outstream video is sometimes also referred to as native video. It is a digital video advertising ad unit that’s integrated within a page and autoplays once the user scrolls near it. Then, the video auto-pauses if the user begins to scroll away from it before it’s complete. According to eMarketer, 77% of ad agencies across the world see Outstream video ads as important to their clients going forward.

Pre-Roll Ads: These are video ads that play before the content you want to consume plays. Typically these are ads that you have to watch (or at least part of them) in order to get to the content you’ve clicked on to watch.

Mid-Roll Ads: These are video ads that run during the content you have clicked on to watch. In exchange for viewing the free content you have to watch the ad.

At Bay Area Digital Solutions of Sonoma County we already offer some of these types of video advertising placements and are adding to our lineup with more OTT & CTV options. If you are interested in finding out more about video advertising please contact us.

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Digital media is on the rise for 2019, are you ready?

Digital spending was up 21.9% in 2018 and is forecasted to grow an additional 18% in 2019.
Digital continues to climb, as consumer habits have changed and more activity is happening online and on mobile devices. The ability to speak to people where they are, with targeting messaging continues to get more sophisticated. Traditional media as a whole continues to decline, with TV and Newspaper taking the biggest hit. Broadcast TV and Cable TV is forecasted to decline by 4% and Newspaper is forecasted to be down 7%. Advertising dollars as a whole are forecasted to be up 5% in 2019, with the majority forecasted to go to digital.

Don’t let the digital dollars go past you. Make the wise move and pair the right digital channels to meet your marketing goals. It is important as technology advances that businesses make sure they advertise to not only the right audience, but to the right behaviors and targets. This is much easier to narrow in with digital.

New digital technologies are emerging daily. Some digital trends we see in 2019 that will continue to rise are Native Ads,Video Marketing and Mobile Conquesting.  Research is king online and 88 percent of consumers pre-research their buys online before making a purchase online or in-store.

If you want to reach new consumers in 2019, advertisements should look more genuine to the content people are searching and researching online. This is where native ads can come into play. Advertisers may think “breaking thru the noise” may be the way to go with digital, but actually consumers are getting smarter. Native ads are a refreshing approach that is less disruptive and more conversational than the in-your-face ads consumers have been trained to tune out. Native ads they can be targeting target to certain online behaviors, relevant keywords or with an email list. Native ads have proven to be a viable approach for such major brands like Airbnb, Amazon and Visa.

As consumers are getting smarter they also are getting a little lazy. The ease of buying anything from groceries to makeup online has seen quite a surge. Consumers are protective of their time and many would much rather watch a video than read an article or a blog. If you have made it this far in the blog, you may want to consider introducing video to your online media strategy. There are many platforms that utilize video from Mobile Conquesting, Facebook and behavioral targeting and more.
Another strategy to consider is Moble Conquesting. Because of how much consumers are using their phones for EVERYTHING these days, there is so much data to be had as well as the benefit to market to them on their mobile device. A recent study showed showed that 82% of smartphone users consult their phones on purchases they are about to make in-store.

While consumer behavior is evolving Mobile Conquesting is a great way to get in front of consumers who show current behavioral interest for your product or service. Plus, there are more reporting metrics available for Mobile Conquesting than most digital products. We can report on how consumers are engaging with these ads as well as if they visit your business.

Don’t be behind the times. If you need help with digital marketing in Sonoma County, we are just the team to do it.  Contact us and let’s get talking.  Move with the times and maximize your reach and frequency with digital in 2019.

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