September 2014 | Page 13 of 20

iPhone Users Are ‘More Extreme’

September 11, 2014, 12:00AM

When those watching Apple’s big September 9th announcement streams saw Apple’s new ‘Perspective’ ad, touting that the iPhone is the phone for those who “see things differently,” Apple was fairly on the spot in this observation. According to a mobile browsing report, iPhone users are more extreme than other smartphone owners.

How extreme, you ask They are apparently 14 times more likely to view off-road racing videos. Studying the mobile search data, Exponential Interactive did a mobile brand comparison to see how different products attracted different people. Mobile data was collected from categories like celebrities, cars, sports, holidays and more to learn more about targeting appropriate content to the right users.

Depending on the phone, users might be more interested in skateboarding as opposed to snowboarding or basketball. The study found that HTC users were family-oriented, Nokia phones appealed to those who are not very tech-savvy, and Blackberry, unsurprisingly, appeals mostly to business people.

Source: The Drum

Nerf Didn’t Sponsor This Epic Nerf Battle

BY Robert Workman

September 11, 2014, 12:00AM

Sometimes, corporate companies need to pay attention to young upstarts making innovative videos on YouTube. Doing so would open the door to a possible partnership featuring exclusive content, not to mention an all-new avenue of advertising that could catch on with a bigger audience.

Case in point: YouTube video maker RackaRacka released an epic new video featuring Nerf weapons in action, with fake bullet effects, machine gun fire and more to make the battle seem more heated than it actually was. The video, which can be seen below, is a lot of fun to watch, and sets the tone for just how exciting Nerf battles can be.

That said, Nerf didn’t sponsor the video, which forced RackaRacka to indicate in its videos that it is, in fact, “Not sponsored by Nerf.” But was the company just not willing to sponsor, or was there another reason

Said RackaRacka in the YouTube comments, “NERF didn’t refuse us, we tried to contact them but didn’t head back haha. I want to be very open to my subscribers about product placement and sponsorship. I hate it when my subscribers write things like ‘oh they only made this video because they’re getting paid’ or ‘its only good because they had a budget.’ I just wanted to let everyone know that this wasn’t sponsored by them the same way I would let everyone know if it had been.”

It seems like a missed opportunity for the Nerf company, if only because the company has worked on “epic” online videos before. Previously, it had paired up with AwesomenessTV on an online video featuring an epic basketball face-off with a Nerf ball and hoop, which we’ve included below. The video is actually posted on Nerf’s Official YouTube Channel.

Could it be that Nerf just missed out on the opportunity, or perhaps didn’t think that the addition of gunfire effects wasn’t good for its harmless guns and toys Regardless, it should definitely give RackaRacka’s video a look, because it’s definitely not anything of the harmful variety.

To the next great Nerf war!

Source: New Media Rockstars

YouTube Isn’t The Only Video Marketing

BY Robert Workman

September 11, 2014, 12:00AM

A recently analysis provided by Jefferies indicates that YouTube is reaching a value right at $40 billion â€“ a far bigger number than most given social networks, including Twitter. Marketers have flocked to the channel as a result, with more and more ads joining the network. However, it’s not the only game in town.

A July 2014 poll by Demand Metric (alongside Metric2) indicates that responses from marketing professionals in the U.S. indicate that hosting video through websites and external sites provides great strategy. And this doesn’t just include YouTube, as Vimeo was also mentioned as a premiere business partner.

YouTube-hosted videos continue to show a bigger percentage over self-hosted video sites, at 43 percent compared to 11 percent. However, the two host types that utilize video indicate that 46 percent of marketers actually use a combination of their sites and external platforms for video content, in an effort to “optimize benefits.”

A combined future for digital video marketing, where both sources are used, isn’t out of the question. Out of respondents polled, nearly two thirds believe that a combination between external and internal posting is quite effective, compared to a smaller 23 percent for external platforms and 14 percent for internal.

The combination really adds up, as nearly 60 percent of marketing professionals feel that it’s vital to have a brand-controlled video-sharing channel, one that keeps visitors’ information secure. These owned platforms can actually increase data gathering from audiences as well, making them important. 65 percent of those polled believe this is the case, stating that the value of video viewing data provides a number of startling sales funnel leads, and opens the door to more possibilities for partnerships and increased video output. And in this case, the more quality videos, the better.

What do you think Would you prefer YouTube for your advertising needs, or something more internal

Source: eMarketer

Final Fantasy Vet Goes Free-To-Play

BY Robert Workman

September 11, 2014, 12:00AM

After spending years lending his talents to Square Enix’s Final Fantasy series, Hironobu Sakaguchi is trying out new ground.

The long-time producer is hard at work on a new free-to-play mobile game, hoping to find his place in the same market where the likes of Puzzle & Dragons are really cleaning up on the cash.

The game, Terra Battle, is a production of Sakaguchi’s game studio, Mistwalker, and combines elements from classic puzzle games and strategy/role-playing games. In it, your character builds an army, then directs them onto a grid-like battlefield, attacking enemies from the side or rear where they’re most vulnerable. For the game, Sakaguchi took inspiration from the classic Japanese board game hasami-shogi, where surrounding your players is a vital part.

It’s a jarring move for Sakaguchi, who worked on such big-budget games as Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey for Microsoft on the Xbox 360, but one that could certainly play off, given the strategy of the title.

Interested players can take part in the game’s battles, and attempt to unlock more powerful characters through a randomized pay-to-play lottery system, which Sakaguchi dubs “gacha.” “In some games, it’s really hard to get the rare characters; the percentage [of rare characters in the gacha lottery] is really low,” he says about the system.

The more downloads that the game gets, the more Sakaguchi intends to add content to the game, including more characters, music and other items. “The console game business is more about make it, ship it, and forget it,” he says. “Mobile games are more like a festival: You keep adding and adding and adding. Just yesterday, I went on Facebook and asked someone, ‘Can you make me a character ‘ through Messenger.”

The overall goal for Sakaguchi “I want an MMORPG,” he said, hoping to gain at least two million downloads. “I want to keep the essence of what’s going on in (the mobile version of) Terra Battle.”

There’s no word on a release date, but we certainly wish Sakaguchi the best of luck in breaking in to the market. His talent won’t go unnoticed.

Source: Wired

Unruly Pilots New Native Video-Ad Format with Adidas

BY VideoInk

September 11, 2014, 12:00AM

By Sahil Patel

Social video company Unruly Media has unveiled a new native video ad format to help advertisers reach audiences in an organic manner across the web — and has already secured Adidas as the format’s launch partner.

Using the company’s “Liquid Layout Technology,” the new Unruly In-Feed format dynamically inserts sponsored video into any website’s content stream/feed in a style that matches that page’s layout and design. The promise — as with all native advertising — is that by making ads look more like editorial content, publishers and brands can boost consumer engagement.

With Unruly’s format, advertisers will only be charged if at least 50% of the ad is in view for three continuous seconds, exceeding the IAB’s current guidelines on video-ad viewability, Unruly said. All sponsored content will also be labeled as such, per accepted guidelines.

Additionally, Unruly said that the In-Feed format is optimized for mobile devices, and is being launched “in response to a growing demand from brands” to use video to reach consumers on smartphones and tablets. On such devices, the videos play silently when they come in-view on the screen. Only if users tap or click on the video will the format will expand to full-screen mode.

As launch partner, Adidas will pilot the format for its #predatorinstinct campaign.

Publishers already running the format include IDG, which oversees consumer media brands like Macworld. “We were impressed with it to the degree that we have now deployed it across all of IDG UK’s consumer sites,” said IDG UK publishing director Simon Jary. “We originally only used it to deliver incremental revenue for our mobile inventory, but it has been such a success, we’ve now pushed it across our desktop inventory too.”

This article was originally posted on VideoInk and is reposted on [a]listdaily via a partnership with the news publication, which is the online video industry’s go-to source for breaking news, features, and industry analysis. Follow VideoInk on Twitter @VideoInkNews, or subscribe via thevideoink.com for the latest news and stories, delivered right to your inbox.

Digital Video Consumption Is Changing

BY Robert Workman

September 11, 2014, 12:00AM

With the introduction of current and upcoming mobile devices, the way we look at online videos has changed tremendously, as we can now view them anytime we like. Some new information from Digiday, broken down into five general pieces of data, explains just how much it’s changed.

First up is the explanation of the growth of online video, even though TV continues to have a strong hold on the general audience. A report from Nielsen shows that Americans aged 18 to 64 have doubled their digital video viewing, growing from 13 minutes a day in Q2 2012 to 27 minutes this year. That’s a larger number than general television consumption, even though most viewers still spend 4.5 hours a day watching it. A great deal of this consumption comes from mobile devices, with page views rising 81 percent compared to the previous year, according to a supplementary report from KPCB analyst Mary Meeker’s 2014 Internet Trends report.

Next up are age demographics. People age 50 to 64 have gotten more video consumption, on the rise from 11 minutes a day last year to 19 minutes a day this year. That’s slightly less than youth-viewing numbers, but still an increase.

“The fact that we are seeing these year-over-year increases of digital video viewing among older viewers means they, too, are adapting and adopting to new technology much like their younger counterparts,” said Dounia Turrill, svp of Insights at Nielsen.

The shorter length of mobile videos play a huge part, as 60 percent of overall ad views are for videos that run under 20 minutes, according to a report from FreeWheel. Such trends could actually have an affect on larger streaming channels, such as Netflix. As a result, the company plans to offer shorter-length content in an effort to attract more viewers, on top of its TV and movie line-up.

Larger mobile screens are playing a big part in video consumption, as social media, video, retail and music show greater viewing numbers than average-sized devices, according to a recent poll from Strategy Analytics.

Finally, digital spending is on the rise, with revenue expected to climb to nearly $6 billion this year, and over double that by 2016. That said, TV spending continues is still much larger, with $2.19 billion this year alone, and $3.18 billion expected in 2016.

Source: Digiday

Bigger Phones Are Making An Impact

BY Robert Workman

September 10, 2014, 12:00AM

With the announcement of two new iPhone 6 models this week — including a larger-than-usual Plus model that is Apple’s biggest phone to date — the question of whether or not “bigger” phone devices can make that much of an impact is definitely being passed around. According to data from apps analytics company Flurry, however, it appears the demand could be greater than anticipated.

The bigger phones, also going under the name “phablets” (part phone, part tablet), indicate that the devices are already picking up in popularity. Nearly six percent of the 60,000 active devices examined by the company are at least 5 to 7 inches when it comes to display size. That’s double the rate of the 3 percent reported in the previous year, indicating significant growth. Of course, there’s a ways to go, but progress is progress.

Bigger devices also provide more usage than smaller ones, according to the company. Sessions show that 11 percent of devices are used more often when it comes to application sessions, compared to the less than 3 percent from the year before. This is particularly true when it comes to reading things, such as documents or eBooks.

Android “phablets” have shown impressive growth over the past year, rising up from 7 percent in the previous year to 18 percent for this year, with the numbers continuing to grow. That took a significant chunk out of “medium”-sized phones, which dropped from 70 percent the year before to this year’s 61 percent.

Availability — and accessibility — of larger devices are making them more popular as well, according to the report. The Samsung Galaxy S5 and Note were amongst the most noteworthy, although it’s likely that the iPhone 6 Plus will join that line-up when it releases next week.

This is a large turn-around from when larger devices were introduced back in 2011, when the original Samsung Galaxy Note wasn’t taken so seriously. It’ll be interesting to see where the era of larger phones, or “phablets,” takes us once the iPhone 6 Plus arrives.

Source: GigaOm

YouTube To Run Ads For ‘Video Game High School’ Starting Next Month

BY VideoInk

September 10, 2014, 12:00AM

By Sahil Patel

Next up on YouTube’s ongoing efforts to advertise its top channels and creators: Freddie Wong and the third and final season of his successful web series “Video Game High School.”

As first reported by The Wall Street Journal, YouTube will run a multi-platform advertising campaign for the web series. Similar to previous efforts for creators and channels like Rosanna Pansino, Bethany Mota, Vice News, and “Epic Rap Battles of History,” YouTube will place ads everywhere from billboards, bus stops, subways, and subway platforms in major cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, to relevant websites and video platforms online. (For instance, ads for Vice News, which was part of YouTube’s second wave of advertising, showed up on the New York Times home page.)

While YouTube’s decision to include Wong in its campaigning shouldn’t come as a surprise — the filmmaker has close to 7 million subscribers on YouTube through his RocketJump (formerly FreddieW) channel — “Video Game High School” has the added wrinkle that it will be the first scripted, narrative series to be promoted by YouTube in the way traditional networks (and Netflix) promote TV shows.

And, make no mistake, “Video Game High School” is a TV show. The second season consisted of six, 30-minute episodes.

Created by Freddie Wong and Matt Arnold, the show takes place in an alternate universe where video-gaming is the world’s biggest spectator sport, and gamers are treated like star athletes. Produced by Rocket Jump Studios in partnership with Collective Digital Studio, the series has totaled more than 84 million views across both seasons.

It will certainly be interesting to see if and/or how much YouTube’s campaign helps the show in terms of season three viewership.

Like the first two seasons, season three was also financed, in part, by a large crowdfunding campaign. Wong and the team raised nearly $900,000 on Indiegogo, almost $100,000 more than the amount they raised on Kickstarter for season two.

Per the WSJ report, ads for “Video Game High School” will kick-off next month. The third season is set to debut on October 13.