ION Breaks Down July’s Top Beauty Vloggers

When it comes to beauty, incredible makeup transformations and tutorials reign on YouTube. ION’s top July beauty vloggers are no exception. You’ll soon understand why Zoella, Carli Bybel, Meredith Foster and more are racking up the views with their down-to-earth approach and expert prowess.

Sonic Tops The Social Charts

Shia LaBeouf Sonic the Hedgehog Trending Motivational

This week, Sega of America and Ayzenberg teamed up to reignite the widely popular Shia LaBeouf meme, making huge waves across social and giving Sonic fans a lot to talk about.

If you haven’t already seen it, Sonic the Hedgehog’s official social channels (check out Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Google+ and YouTube) brought together a final scene from Sonic Generations and Shia LaBeouf’s outrageous motivational video to create something truly special — which was trending on Facebook this Wednesday and getting spotlighted on IGN , Vice, Gamespot, Polygon, Eurogamer and Destructoid. In the video below, just as Dr. Eggman prepares to defeat a weary Sonic — while Knuckles, Tails, and the rest of the team plead him to keep going — in the end it’s Shia who, in the weirdest way possible, motivates our hero to fight on.

With the return of the hit series Sonic Boom hitting Cartoon Network earlier this week and the new Sonic Boom title for Nintendo 3DS, Fire & Ice just announced at E3 (see below), Sonic and his team are slated for big things.

Dave & Buster’s Bring Arcade Experience To Mobile

Dave & Buster’s has always been an ideal place to hang out with adult friends, whether it’s watching the big game in its restaurant/bar area or playing a number of its exclusive arcade games, such as Star Wars: Battle Pod and Jurassic Park Arcade. But the chain doesn’t want its customers to stop playing there.

VentureBeat has reported that the entertainment chain has launched a series of mobile games today based on some of its more popular ticket-producing arcade games. These games include the sensor-hitting Speed of Light, the spin-for-prizes Big Bass Wheel and the tricky balancing game Tippin’ Bloks. These free-to-play games provide plenty of entertainment, as well as a unique twist.

Players can enter their Power Card info from their Dave & Buster’s cards and earn tickets as they play, then turn them around and purchase real goods from any of the participating locations.

Kevin Bachus, who previous worked with Microsoft on the original Xbox years ago, helped put together the mobile games for the company, after joining them in 2012 to help expand its arcade experiences.

“We wanted to enhance our in-store experience by providing a virtual experience,” said Bachus, senior vice president of entertainment and games strategy. “Now guests can keep the Dave & Buster’s fun going even when they’re not at our restaurant. They can download these new mobile games and win tickets to redeem for prizes on their next visit.”

However, that doesn’t mean every arcade game will translate into a mobile experience. Licensed titles probably won’t make the transition, but simple ones that provide tickets make for a good experience. “We didn’t just put an arcade game on your phone; we made these games feel ‘native’ to mobile,” added Bachus. “These games are about more than winning tickets – these are really good, really fun games you will want to play.”

Canada-based Sarbakan and Robosoft Technologies helped put the games together, and Dave & Buster’s easily put together the program where players could redeem cyber-tickets for their favorite goodies. “Clients turn to us for complex marketing and gaming solutions when an app needs to be spot on with capturing the essence of a brand,” said Rohith Bhat, the CEO of Robosoft Technologies, in a statement. “This is just the type of project that Robosoft loves to work with – where strategy, design, and engineering have come together beautifully. Dave & Buster’s recognizes that mobile apps are already enriching people’s lives, so finding a creative solution to extend the Midway fun anywhere consumers want and provide them with rewards is a perfect extension of what makes them successful.”

The video below shows the game Big Bass Wheel in action, to give players a better idea of what to expect.

Users can download the games at the following links, including Big Bass Wheel, Speed of Light and Tippin’ Bloks.

 

Connor Franta Launches Music Label For Influencer-Curated Compilations

Connor Franta has managed to make a name for himself as a virtual superstar, with 4.7 million fans on YouTube and over 3.2 million followers. Now, he wants to bring that stardom to other talents through his own music label.

Variety reports that Franta has formed a new music label under the name Heard Well. It’s a music label that focuses on putting together compilation albums that feature a number of undiscovered artists, as curated by “influencers” on the web.

Partnering up with Franta on the label are his manager, Andrew Graham from AwesomenessTV’s Big Frame unit, along with Jeremy Wineberg, who works on his own Opus Label music distribution and licensing company.

So far, the label has already signed on a number of stars, including Amanda Steele, LoAnthony and Jc Caylen, performers that already have an established fanbase on YouTube with more than 20 million fans. “We’re looking at digital influencers as modern A&R execs,” said Graham.

Franta has had a passion for music, sharing a number of artists on his YouTube videos, and releasing two compilation albums. The first, Crown, became one of the top 20 best-selling pop albums on iTunes last year, while the other, Common Culture, has been popular as well.

“I find a lot of up-and-coming musicians I enjoy, present them to my viewers – and hopefully inflate the growth of these artists by putting them in front of an audience that wouldn’t have been aware of them,” said Franta, leaning his musical tastes towards “alternative pop,” as he calls it.

Wineberg told [a]listdaily, “Heard Well focuses on distributing music through social tastemakers. In essence, we look at our tastemakers as the new radio and magazine ad. Being able to discover a new artist and use the Heard Well platform to market is priceless.”

YouTube has been an ideal place for up-and-coming music stars, including Michelle Pham, among others. With Heard Well’s assistance, these stars can help find a bigger audience, even without the need of a manager.

The label “doesn’t really require any investment outside of our time,” said Graham. “The influencers are identifying (the artists.” The label will split the cut of revenue with the artists, so it’s an even partnership.

Congrats to Franta and his new music label. Here’s hoping it helps some artists find the audience they deserve.

Video Now Accounts for 22% of Facebook Ad Spend

Still think Facebook video isn’t taking off We’ve reported in the past on how it’s becoming quite the competition to YouTube, and how partners have jumped on board to take advantage of its format. Now Video ads are speaking volumes.

A new report from DigiDay shows that Facebook’s video ad initiative is taking off, with 22 percent of total ad spending for the past month of June going towards video ads. That’s the highest share ever for the format, according to ad-tech firm Nanigans. And it’s slowly on the rise, as the firm also reports that, between the first and second quarter of 2015, video ad spend has increased from 13 to 16 percent. A small increase, sure, but an increase nevertheless.

On top of that, mobile has played a big part in this success, with a 21 percent boost for the second quarter alone, up from 15 percent the quarter before. This is mainly through gaming advertisers who doubled its total ad spend over the quarters, pushing up to 36 percent, up from 19 percent in Q1.

This also adds more depth to the idea that Facebook can compete with YouTube, with four billion video streams a day.

As you can see from the chart, video share on ad spending for both global and mobile has seen quite a boost — and judging by popularity, it’s bound to continue.

Nanigans also reported that click-through rates have reached new heights for the second quarter, going up 0.9 percent. That may seem small, but that’s a 187 percent increase from Q2 2014. Meanwhile, costs per click have dropped $.46 for the second quarter.

“This may be in part due to non-U.S. Facebook advertising, which is often less expensive than U.S. inventory and constituted a larger share of advertising activity among Nanigans customers in second quarter 2015 as opposed to the previous quarter,” said the firm.

It appears that Facebook’s video business will continue rolling onward, and the advertisers will roll right along with it.

Now We Know How Recall On Mobile and Desktop Really Differ

 

Undertone has teamed up with Ipsos ASI for a study that takes a close look at how takeover “high-impact” desktop ads, along with mobile ads, have an effect on brand recall. Four different brand-agency teams were used in the study, each running a campaign across all devices, desktop and mobile, between a panel of 3,600 US adults between the ages of 18 and 64.

First up was a standard display ad, featuring mobile banners and rectangular promos that most companies usually turn to. From there, an ad featuring the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Rising Stars format – think a slideshow ad or a YouTube masthead set-up. Finally, a full-page takeover was shown, which appears when users load new Web pages or refresh them.

While Undertone didn’t disclose pricing for these ads, it did produce the results from which ones were remembered the best. 38 percent of those polled recalled seeing the ad on a desktop device when it came to full-page ads, while 43 percent across all devices remembered the ad.

As for the least effective ad format, that appears to be banners. Only 33 percent of people who saw these ads recall seeing them at a later time, and the same percentage remember seeing them on multiple devices. That indicates they’re effective across the board with the same audience, no matter what is paid extra for utilizing the ads on mobile.

Midsize ads were a little higher, with 35 percent of people on desktop remembering it, and the same percentage for all devices.

“There’s challenges with ad recall on desktop right now—which I think makes intuitive sense, because there are so many things to look at on a desktop versus a mobile device,” said Undertone co-founder Eric Franchi. “Because [mobile] is more of a focused screen and a more intimate experience with consumers, engagement levels are going to be higher.”

As for mobile-only ad viewers, over on tablet devices, 45 percent remembered full-page ads; 35 percent remembered banner ads; and 27 percent recalled midsize promos. However, smartphones saw even smaller numbers, with 23 percent remembering banners; 25 percent recalling midsize ads; and 44 percent favoring the larger takeover ads (probably due to their size).

“Sometimes people get concerned that because of screen size or the consumer engagement, brands aren’t able to deliver complex messaging as effectively on smartphone as PC,” Franchi said. “This states that it’s pretty consistent across the board.”

Meanwhile, eMarketer posted its own ad recall measurements, with the Media Rating Council hosting its own viewable-impression reconciliation testing. It focused more on desktop than mobile, but the numbers it produced, based on those polled, indicate that 54 percent of differences in how viewability is measured were attributable to differing treatments of mobile viewable impressions in vendors’ reporting.

Nintendo In Transition: Iwata’s Impact on Gaming

The industry reeled this week as news spread that Nintendo’s chairman, CEO and president Satoru Iwata passed away, losing his battle with cancer. Tributes poured in after the unexpected death of one of the game industry’s leaders, who was a programmer and a game designer as well as a CEO. Yet as the industry deals with this event, the questions are in the air: What does this mean for Nintendo’s strategy going forward Who will take over as leader of Nintendo Will this change the struggle for market share in the gaming industry How will Nintendo’s marketing change To find the answers, [a]listdaily looked at the issues and spoke with some industry analysts.

Nintendo’s only public statement so far was brief: “Nintendo Co., Ltd. deeply regrets to announce that President Satoru Iwata passed away on July 11, 2015 due to a bile duct growth.” The release goes on to note “As a result, the following two Representative Directors remain at the company: Genyo Takeda (Representative Director; Senior Managing Director), and Shigeru Miyamoto (Representative Director; Senior Managing Director). Genyo Takeda and Shigeru Miyamoto will lead management while a formal successor is decided,” Nintendo spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa said.

The impact of Satoru Iwata on Nintendo was immense. “Iwata-san was an inspiring and popular leader, who had a transformative impact on Nintendo,” noted analyst John Taylor. “He not only led the company while it hit the stratosphere due to the record success of the DS and Wii platforms, but he also helped Nintendo adjust to the rapid changes in western gaming habits, such as online features and digital content.”

Taylor continued, “While the company was slow to respond to the competitive challenges posed by smart phones, he helped champion the need and forged the partnership with DeNA to expand into mobile gaming. During his tenure, Nintendo dramatically increased the size of the gaming community, by bringing in people who would never have considered trying a controller. Many of these folks are now comfortable with other types of devices. It’s up to the next generation of Nintendo leadership to help win them back.”

Nintendo has been through some rough times in recent years, though this last year saw a return to profitability. The company reported a ¥41.8 billion net profit for the fiscal year ending March 31 — reversing a ¥23.2 billion loss a year ago — while revenue slipped 3.8 percent to ¥549.8 billion. Sales of the Wii U, while improving, are still well behind both the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One, and nowhere near the massive success of the Wii. The 3DS handheld line has performed better, but it’s still not up to the level of the Nintendo DS line, and most analysts chalk that up to the increasing strength of the mobile game market.

Satoru Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto

“I think that the company needs to rethink its strategy and believe that they can be far more successful going forward if they exploit their IP, and I am hopeful that his successor chooses the right path,” said Michael Pachter, managing director of Wedbush Securities. “With that said, I think we should respect Mr. Iwata for his efforts, and should remain respectful until a successor is named.”

Iwata had embarked on several major initiatives in order to restore Nintendo’s profits to the heady levels of the Wii’s heyday. The “Quality of Life” initiative, which has to do with Nintendo creating medical devices designed to improve people’s lives in some ways, was clearly a very special, important project for Iwata from his multiple public statements about it. More recently, Nintendo purchased 10% of mobile game company DeNA as part of an agreement where the two companies will collaborate on creating mobile games (for smartphones and tablets) using Nintendo characters, with the game designs and most of the execution being conducted by Nintendo. Nintendo is also licensing its iconic characters to Universal for theme park development. Finally, Iwata had also announced that Nintendo is working on a new console, codenamed NX, about which the company plans to release more information in 2016.

“I’m not sure I’ve got a good answer for who will likely be his replacement,” Taylor conceded. “The skill set necessary includes both an appreciation of Nintendo’s unique culture, along with awareness of the diversity in markets and evolution of the way consumers play in the West, Japan and in emerging markets. Nintendo is in many ways a tradition bound company, so it will be paramount that the new CEO can earn and hold the trust of long term creative teams led by Mr. Miyamoto.”

Nintendo is definitely a conservative company in some ways, despite developing wildly creative games and game hardware. Since its founding in 1889, Nintendo has had only four presidents, and Satoru Iwata was the first president not related to founder Fusajiro Yamauchi. The president before Iwata was Hiroshi Yamauchi, the grandson of the founder, and he served in that role from 1949 to 2002, an astounding 53 years that saw Nintendo transform from primarily a playing card company to a leader in electronic games. We should expect Nintendo to pick a new leader carefully, and probably from within its own ranks.

Genyo Takeda

The two most likely candidates at this point would seem to be the two senior members of the management team referenced in Nintendo’s brief statement: Shigeru Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda. Miyamoto is an iconic figure in the game industry, responsible for many of Nintendo’s greatest hits, including the creation of Mario. He’s also been leading game development at Nintendo for years. Takeda is the leader of Nintendo’s hardware division, responsible for the Wii and the DS series as well as more recent hardware. Both men have worked closely with Iwata for years and would likely follow through with Iwata’s grand strategy.

The board of directors, which will be making the leadership choice, is almost entirely composed of Nintendo employees. The current board was remade by Satoru Iwata over the past several years as many of the previous board members retired. Iwata’s strategy for Nintendo certainly has the agreement of this board, so it’s unlikely that we’ll see major changes in direction for Nintendo. Both Miyamoto and Takeda were close to Iwata and very familiar with his vision for the company, and both have significant management experience at Nintendo and many successes to their credit. Miyamoto has a higher public profile, but that has never seemed to matter much to Nintendo. The company is much more focused, traditionally, on making great games rather than generating great publicity.

Regardless of who is chosen as the new leader of Nintendo, a major change in direction is unlikely. Iwata had already taken a number of bold steps that will take years to realize fully. What is likely to occur is that over time, Nintendo’s strategy will begin to diverge from what Iwata had set forth, as the new president puts his own stamp on the company. Nintendo’s strategy will no doubt change as the marketplace changes — and as the market responds to Nintendo’s new initiatives.

There will certainly be an impact on marketing efforts by both Nintendo and Nintendo’s rivals as Nintendo’s strategy unfolds. The new mobile games will doubtless require significant marketing efforts from Nintendo, both in the mobile market and among Nintendo’s broad fan base. Nintendo may well choose to cross-market these mobile games in some way with its console games. We’re also likely to see much more effort in marketing by Nintendo this holiday as it tries to keep interest in the Wii U high. As the new NX system approaches, you can expect a significant marketing effort to support that both by Nintendo and by third-party developers, which rumor suggests Nintendo is already courting to support the new system. Significant new initiatives, of which Nintendo has several, usually demand significant marketing epxenditures, and thus an increase in Nintendo’s marketing spend for the rest of this year and beyond is to be expected.

Nintendo’s bold move into mobile games will begin to be seen this year, and we will learn more about its new NX console hardware — and possibly even see it introduced into the market — next year. Both of these could have a significant impact on the gaming industry as well as Nintendo. One thing is for sure: Satoru Iwata’s impact on the game industry will continue to reverberate for years to come.

Netflix Q2 Earnings Top Estimates

by Allen Weiner

Streaming giant Netflix reported higher than expected results across the board causing the stock to take a major jump in after-hours trading.

Most impressive among its Q2 earnings announcement was its growth in both domestic and international subscribers. The company reported it added an additional 900,000 subscribers in the U.S. and 2.37 million internationally. Both figures beat company estimates reports. Netflix now has a total of 65.5 million subscribers.

Keep reading…

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.

[a]list Video summit Brings Together Industry Powerhouses

[a]list Video summit is now only just over a month away and already over 85 brands will be in attendance to get the full download on the video marketing boom. From mobile streaming apps to AR and VR, there’s a lot shifting in the landscape of video and there’s an urgent need for marketers to leverage new strategies and develop to stay on top.

Multiple keynotes from exciting innovators in the space have been confirmed including Facebook’s head of industry for film and television, Jonathan Murtaugh, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville, and beauty arbiter Michelle Phan.

“We are really excited to have Michelle Phan and Marcelo Camberos tell the story about how they leveraged the community she originally built on YouTube to build a business empire centered around ipsy. It’s a story that has not been revealed before and I think all marketers interested in Influencer Marketing will walk away from it smarter,” says [a]list summit producer and [a]listdaily executive director Jay Baage.

“This year we have also seen the emergence of Facebook as the first real competitor to rival YouTube in scale in terms of online video distribution, not to mention in terms of ad dollars. Jonathan Murtaugh, who leads Facebook’s team that works with entertainment marketers, will do a keynote that will give the audience a glimpse of what is in the future from his perspective that will have direct effect on all marketers in the room.”

Beyond keynote speakers, there will be fireside chats, panels and presentations galore:

8:30 am

Registration and Breakfast

9:00 am

Summit Welcome – Get Ready for the Video Storm!


Chris Younger, Principal and Director of Strategy, Ayzenberg

9:15 am

Morning Keynote: Shaping the Future of Mobile Video


Jonathan Murtaugh, US Head of Industry for Film and Television, Facebook & Instagram

9:45 am

Presentation: Constant Content – Millennial Video Consumption Habits


Andy Tu, EVP Marketing, DEFY Media and Zach Smith, SVP, Branded Content, DEFY Media

10:10 am

Fireside Chat: Latest Trends in Branded Content Development


StyleHaul’s CEO Stephanie Horbaczewski and Chief Content Officer Mia Goldwyn. Interviewed by Shira Lazar, What’s Trending.

10:30 am

Networking Break and Refreshments

11:00 am

Keynote Interview: Changing the Way you See The World


Academy Award-winning Documentary Filmmaker Morgan Neville. Interviewed by Matt Bretz, VP and Creative Director, Ayzenberg.

11:30 am

Showcase – Innovators In Video Ad Tech


From programmatic to native and interactive ads: three of the most innovative video ad tech companies will showcase the latest solutions to improve performance and appeal of video assets across platforms. The presenters will then join together for a conversation about how new technologies will create opportunities for advertising and change the way you think about media.

Presentation 1 – Case Study: Building a new “Influencer Ad Unit”
Nathan Lindberg, VP of Global Sales at Curse

Presentation 2 – TBA
Rob Ciampa, CMO, Pixability

12:05 pm

Fireside Chat: How Brands Can Shine on Snapchat


Dan Altmann, Co-Founder & CEO, Naritiv. Interviewed by Jim Louderback, Brand Strategist and Venture Partner at Social Starts.

12:25 pm

Presentations: Marketing Opportunities In Streaming eSports Video


Live and on-demand eSports action, programming and news is now becoming a mainstream form of entertainment with millions and millions of fans around the world and several dedicated networks. Hear from three experts from some of the hottest companies involved in this industry about how brands can grab millennials’ and Gen Z’s attention through eSports.

Presentation 1 – An Entertainment Force to Be Reckoned With
Andy Swanson, VP, eSports, Twitch

Presentation 2 – The Value of Competitive Play in Guild Wars 2
Steve Fowler, Head of Global Marketing, ArenaNet

1:00 pm

Hosted Lunch

2:00 pm

Afternoon Keynote – What’s Next in Influencer Marketing


Michelle Phan, YouTube Superstar and Founder ipsy. Interviewed By Marcello Cambreros, CEO and Co-Founder, ipsy.

2:30 pm 

Panel: Going Native Winning Multi-Platform Video Strategies


The world’s biggest publishers are now getting onboard with Facebook Instant Video, Snapchat and other platforms offering them to publish natively. Sure, there are challenges in this new integrated video landscape, but with the right strategy and partners, there are even greater opportunities to reach new viewers who will engage with your brand on the platform of their choice.
Panelists: Juan Bruce, CEO and Co-Founder, Epoxy; Vincent Juarez, Principal and Director of Media, Ayzenberg
Moderator: Jocelyn Johnson, Founder, VideoInk

3:00 pm 

Networking Break and Snacks

3:15 pm 

Fireside Chat: What Next in Data Driven Content Creation


New Form Digital. Speaker TBA. Interviewed by Allison Stern, Co-Founder & VP Marketing and Business Development, Tubular.

3:15 pm 

Presentation: Is Audio the new Video


Noah Eichen, Creative Director, Ayzenberg

3:40 pm 

Presentation TBA

4:25 pm 

Influencer Roundtable: What Video Creators Want from Its Brand SoulMates


Moderator: Steven Lai, Talent Group Director, ION

5:00 pm 

Cocktail Reception with DJ and Open Bar

Social Media Influence More Influential Than Previously Estimated

More and more marketers are using social media to some extent in order to spread the word about products, whether it’s creating a devoted Facebook page for a film or talking with consumers on Twitter through a special account. But according to a new research report from McKinsey and Company, it could be more effective than anyone may realize.

The company recently examined purchase decisions of 20,000 European consumers across 30 product areas and 100 brands between 2013 and 2014 to get a better idea of how much social media influences their buying decisions. From their report, “the impact of social media on buying decisions is greater than previously estimated and growing fast,” although “its influence varies significantly across product categories. Moreover, only a small slice of social influencers are creating the buzz.”

Social recommendations have an average of 26 percent of purchases across all the product categories, which is higher than the ten to 15 percent others previously estimated. Two-thirds of the impact appears to be direct, with recommendations having a big part in the point of purchase. Furthermore, consumers made 10 percent additional purchases on the back of social media recommendations last year alone, compared to 2013.

Social media is also accessed in different ways, depending on the product. Only 15 percent of respondents reported using social media for utility services. However, in other categories, like travel and investment services, that number rose up to 40 to 50 percent when it came to social media recommendations.

Product categories can also have their own specific groups of influencers. In fact, very rare are folks that provide recommendations for any two consumer categories, by a maximum of 15 percent out of those polled. Timing also plays a big part, as consumers purchasing products for the first time are 50 percent more likely to turn to social media for recommendations or purchases, over a repeat buyer.

While social media plays a big part, the “analog world,” as McKinsey deems it, still plays a big part. About half of the recommendations from the 100 or so products were made offline, either in person or over the phone. Offline conversations actually consisted of a 40 percent increase over digital interactions to influence certain purchases, with people preferring the “direct contact” approach over digital means.

10 percent of active influencers made up for 24 percent of total recommendations overall on social media, between the likes of retweets, likes and other interactions. The chart below highlights just what kind of share the influencers have in terms of their effective recommendations. As you can see, it varies by impact ratio.

More information on this report can be found here. It’s quite a read, especially for those wanting to learn more about the true impact of social media.