How Brands Are Benefitting From Instagram’s Growth

Instagram is easily becoming a favorite for those users that love to share photos with others, as eMarketer estimates that it will reach more than 100 million users in the United States by 2018. It’s not too far from that number now, as the site will reach 77.6 million users this year alone. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that many brands are taking advantage of what the site has to offer, and what kind of audience it draws.

A report from Yesmail (reported by eMarketer) indicates that brand adoption will pick up for the site. Currently, 23 percent of brands in the United States have some form of an account on the site, and although that’s lower than most social networks (like Twitter with 82 percent and Facebook with 80 percent), they’re seeing effectiveness from using it.

31.1 percent of those polled by Yesmail indicated that they had an Instagram account that was being put to good use, with pictures of food being the biggest draw. Behind them, in second place, were hotels, which posts pics of dream destinations, locations and more. Retailers and consumer packaged goods were further down the list.

Even with larger numbers on other networks, Instagram has an audience that’s more excited with the photos that are posted. Yesmail reports that the number of followers on the site grew by 278 percent on average over the past year.

That said, companies should proceed with caution, as oversaturation is likely to turn off potential users. A secondary report from last month, posted by L2 Think Tank, believes that “quality over quantity” is a general rule to follow. Companies that posted more than an average of 121 posts over the fourth quarter saw an engagement rate of 1.03 percent — the lowest point for the year. The number rose a little bit in 2015 to 1.15 percent, but posts still counted high, with 110 for the quarter.

Instagram still has a ways to go to catch up with the other networks, but if the brands play their cards right with the way they post photos, there’s no reason their engagement can’t continue to blossom.

Most Consumers Don’t Feel Understood By Brands And Other Must-Know Stats

With the right marketing campaign, a company or marketing team can easily connect with a consumer, provided it has the right “hook” to bring them in or make them want to invest in their product. However, what happens when a certain brand isn’t in touch with its audience It occurs more often than you might think.

As reported by DigiDay, a series of charts broken down by IBM and Econsultancy explain just how out of touch companies may be when it comes to giving consumers what they want — and we mean consumers in general, not just a specific audience like millennials or Generation Z.

“The biggest takeaway was the disconnect between how marketers perceive the job they’re doing and how consumers perceive that job,” said Jay Henderson, director for product strategy at IBM Commerce.

A number of brands “strongly agree” that they’re going above and beyond with experience, through offline, online and mobile ads. However, the study shows that there’s a disconnection with consumers when it comes to a certain understanding, even with investment in infrastructure and solutions, according to Henderson.

The first chart indicates just how much confidence companies have in their experience both offline and online. However, in mobile, you can see difference in the disagree department, showing that they may have a ways to go.

“We’ve seen this explosion of channels and devices that collect and store that data,” said Henderson. “But there is still a gap in terms of what companies are doing with that data. There’s a gap in terms of interpreting and analyzing that data.”

The second chart shows even more stark difference, as 63 percent of consumers feel that retailers don’t understand them — even their favorites.

Then there are the communication capabilities, with companies feeling that delivering relevant communications is the top priority, followed by relating to consumers and realizing the best time to contact them. However, companies that aren’t considered favorites received even less favoritism, with only 21 percent indicating that messages are “usually relevant,” rather than important.

The next chart shows companies being confident in how they resolve consumer matters, with a whopping amount saying they feel somewhat satisfied with results, and only a minor few showing unsatisfactory results. However, the next chart below indicates a different story from the consumer’s point of view.

This final chart indicates that while some companies “somewhat effectively” know how to resolve a consumer’s issue, there are still large groups that feel that they have performed either “somewhat ineffectively” or “very ineffectively,” showing the stark difference between how some companies’ consumer service is acting, and where it should be.

While some companies obviously won’t change their habits anytime soon, these charts should be real eye-openers for a specific few, especially when it comes to the overall effectiveness of a campaign. After all, if you can’t draw consumers to the product in the first place, how is that effective

Playable Ads Improve Activation, Retention

mNectar

Branch Metrics

Mobile game makers constantly strive to improve the results from their ads, and even small improvements to the percentages can mean big benefits to the bottom line. mNectar and Branch Metrics have partnered to provide deep-linked, playable mobile ads that can take you right back to where you were when you clicked on the ad, after you’ve tried out the game.

“Developers across our network see nearly 100 percent lift on both the conversion to register and the one month retention for users who originate from a contextual deep link,” explained Branch Metrics’ Cofounder Mada Seghete. “It’s the best way to welcome and delight users: by showing them what they expect to see.” Currently, mNectar’s advertisers are seeing user retention rates that are four times as effective as other forms of mobile advertising, such as interstitials, and twice as high as video ads.

The [a]listdaily spoke with mNectar CRO Daniel Cheng (pictured, left) and CEO Wally Nguyen (pictured, right) to find out more about this improvement to Playable ads.

What led you to create this new feature for Playable ads — was it feedback from advertisers, customers, or your own idea?

The idea came from a combination of advertiser feedback, emerging use cases for deep linking, and a well-timed introduction between mNectar CEO Wally Nguyen and Branch Metrics CEO Alex Austin. A partnership between Branch Metrics and mNectar was a no-brainer because deep linking adoption for mobile games has been relatively low compared to the rest of the mobile app ecosystem. Advertisers love the idea of improving the Playable ad experience by letting new users pick up where they left off after installing.

Are you seeing any differences in Playable ads between different types of games? In other words, do they work better for some types of games than others?

The great thing about Playable ads is that it’s an actual sample of what the user will experience after they download the game. Playable ads lead to higher retention and LTV rates, and are adaptable depending on the genre of game. Some games are easier to grasp than others, such as a casual versus a hardcore game. mNectar supports both by providing varying Playable session times. For example, a casual Playable can be understood with 30 seconds of play and a hardcore game may need 5-10 minutes. mNectar supports any length of time needed. In addition, we can drop users into a specific point of the game, so it’s easy to highlight different features and levels.

When will this improvement be available to advertisers Is it hard to implement for the advertisers?

Using deep links within our Playable ads is available now! It requires sharing an app build with mNectar for the Playable and integrating a Branch Metrics SDK for the Deep Link.

Do you expect these enhanced Playable ads to perform significantly better for advertisers, and if so, by how much?

Using deep links within Playable ads will not only lead to better performance, but an all around better user experience. Retention rates and LTV will increase since a user doesn’t have to re-do the advertised portion of the game they’ve already experienced. Since a user can now continue from where they left off during their Playable experience, they are far more likely to play deeper, be retained longer, and spend more. All of that benefits the advertiser.

Are you seeing any significant differences in the response to Playable ads between tablets and smartphones, or between different regions?

Mobile ads, including our Playable ads do perform slightly better on tablets, we believe given the time spent on each device. Users on their tablets are in their living room gaming, whereas smartphone users are more likely to be passing the time commuting or running errands.

Trailers Of The Week: April 3

Super Smash Bros. Wii U – Mewtwo and Lucas Reveal Trailers

Ah, the beauty of the DLC-era. What happens when the extensive roster of popular characters in a game like Super Smash Bros. just isn’t extensive enough You wait till they release more characters as downloadable content, of course While some may grumble at these reveals as just another cash grab, Nintendo is showing us here that Lucas and Mewtwo are not messing around on the Wii U. That teleport dodge by the legendary pokemon looks all extra kinds of fun to use/horrible to play against.

Mewtwo

 

Mario Kart 8 – 200cc Reveal Trailer

 

Going boldly where no Mario Kart has gone before, this trailer punches the engine into overdrive with the introduction of 200cc, the fastest and most difficult race class to ever grace the Kart series. This is where DLC is really beneficial in my eyes, and not just because it’s free (but free always helps)! Taking a racing game that’s already established great success and making it go faster Methinks it’s time to fire up the WiiU once again.

Sunset Overdrive – Dawn of the Rise of the Fallen Machines Trailer

 

Detecting a theme yet With DLC firmly in the center of this week’s crosshairs, we take a look at the newest, loudest, and most tongue in cheek addition to Sunset Overdrive yet… and that’s really saying something. Old action film clichés are ripe for the picking in this story add on, but with the success of Mystery of the Mooil Rig (the first piece of DLC in the Sunset season pass) I can only hope this this add on builds on this game’s success. Plus, you basically have a Super Monkey Ball-caliber force field that bowling balls robots. How does that NOT sound fun?