Are Most Marketers Thinking Mobile-First? Not Quite

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When it comes to mobile advertising, some companies are certainly grasping onto popular trends, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re all in with some form of strategy.

Mediapost recently reported that, according to the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council and its most recently study, only 17 percent of marketers polled in the study believe that their mobile strategies are fully integrated and aligned with overall marketing strategies. In the same poll, 31 percent stated that they don’t have a strategy in place, or believe that mobile is best viewed as a campaign, rather than a general strategy.

The study, conducted in partnership with SAS, also revealed that 61 percent of marketers surveyed did use some form of mobile engagement, while 54 percent of respondents believe that mobile channels are a critical part to customer interaction, as well as retention and brand differentiation. However, in general, marketers just don’t have that grasp yet on how to incorporate mobile into an overall strategy.

Some simply believe it’s not a crucial part of a campaign. 48 percent believe that mobile isn’t big enough to be part of marketing and engagement strategies, while 28 percent believe it’s more suited for campaign purposes, and not strategy. 24 percent feel that mobile overall is quite confusing, and hard to approach.

Some still believe mobile is a key part to an overall business solution, but only 10 percent of those feel it’s just a campaign, and 7 percent are confused with it overall. That said, 57 percent believe it’s a valued channel when it comes to consumer outreach.

Eventually, marketers may adapt to ideas that are better suited for the mobile market, but, for now, it appears that the idea of putting together a sound strategy over accepting general campaign terms just isn’t highly accepted yet. However, with the way certain trends are growing – particularly with revenue – that could change sooner rather than later.

Mobile Gamers Get Younger, Revenues Get Bigger

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According to a new report from Eedar, the mobile gaming audience is getting younger. Compared to just a year ago, the average mobile

gamer’s age has decreased by 7 years to 27.7 years old. The survey information was taken from 3,500 smartphone and tablet gamers in August of this year.

Eedar is careful to point out the role of core gamers in the gaming landscape, pointing out that they are playing mobile games “as an extension of a brand or experience they are using on another platform.”

While men are outnumbered by women in player numbers on mobile, men are more likely to be big spenders on the platform, spending at least $10 a month, with “whales” spending nearly $300 a year.

As mobile gaming continues to attract these core gamers and finds new ways to attract spending from casual gamers, mobile gaming is a hugely growing market, set to surpass traditional consoles by 2015, reaching $30.3 billion in revenue.

That number could reach $40.9 billion in 2017 according to a forecast from Newzoo. While smartphones account for the majority of this total, tablet gaming is an area of increasing monetization, with a compound annual growth rate of 33.3 percent between 2013 and 2017 compared to smartphones at 19.2 percent.

 

Fullscreen To Buy Rooster Teeth

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By Sahil Patel

Fullscreen is acquiring Rooster Teeth, the Austin-based production company, YouTube channel, and YouTube network led by Matt Hullum and Burnie Burns.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Fullscreen says it plans to “enhance” Rooster Teeth’s already-robust live events and merchandise businesses, as well as integrate the gaming and culture brand into its technology and ad infrastructure.

Also as part of the deal, Fullscreen will support the production of Rooster Teeth content, including existing hit series as well as the development of new premium formats. In the past decade, Rooster Teeth has been behind some of the most popular content on the web, including “Red vs. Blue,” “RWBY,” “The Gauntlet,” and “The Slow Mo Guys.” The company also produces live-action shorts, and is currently working on its first feature-length film, “Lazer Team.”

Read more…

 

This Week in People: November 7

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Here are some of the top personnel moves in marketing last week. Our congratulations to these people taking on new challenges!

  • Rocco Scandizzo will be the managing director of Psyop Games, accepting the role after more than two years as a video games agent for the Creative Artists Agency. Find out more here.
  • Jenny Richards-Stewart has been appointed CEO of Women In Games Jobs, the non-profit organization dedicated to promoting gender balance and equality in the games industry. Find out more here.
  • Former EA executive Nick Earl is now the boss of worldwide studios at the the free-to-play mobile developer, Kabam. Find out more here.
  • Jessica Schell has joined Warner Bros. Home Entertainment as its executive VP and general manager, film. A longtime executive at Universal Pictures, Schell offers extensive digital experience at a time that studios are overhauling their approach to home entertainment. Find out more here.
  • Omnia Media, a YouTube multi-channel network focused on music, gaming, and style content, has named Chris Yates its new vice president of monetization. Find out more here.
  • GoPro has hired veteran media executive Zander Lurie as GoPro’s first senior vice president of media. Find out more here.
  • Multichannel network StyleHaul, which is being acquired by RTL Group in a deal worth up to $200 million, has hired Noel Mika Bahamon to head up e-commerce strategy and consumer-product development. Find out more here. 
  • Netflix has hired Larry Tanz, CEO of Vuguru, the digital studio owned by former Walt Disney CEO Michael Eisner, as VP of content acquisition for Europe later this year, based in Los Angeles. Find out more here.

If you have a submission for this weekly feature, send info to pr@ayzenberg.com or fill out our Suggest a Story form.

Delta Challenges You To Play This Boring Game To Win A Free Flight

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In effort to position Delta as an “unboring” way to fly, similar to Virgin America’s latest campaign, Delta has gamified your boredom with a pretty great incentive: a free flight.

It’s called CloudGazer and it’s very basically just clicking around on a bunch of clouds to rack up as many points as possible for as long as you can. Don’t idle for more than 30 seconds, or your game will end and you’ll be farther away from winning Delta’s free flight to anywhere Delta goes.

Airline companies seem keen lately to brand flight as the least boring of all travel methods. Delta’s campaign is complete with it’s own branded hashtag, #unbored.

Now you know what you’re doing with your Friday night.

 

How Mobile Games Can Succeed

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Mobile games are huge right now, but that doesn’t mean every company that produces them will see a long-term success. This is mainly due to the abundance of games available right now, as well as having them be as full-featured as other top-of-the-line releases.

EEDAR recently compiled a report explaining how companies can succeed with their game products in an ever-growing North American market, which was posted by GamesBeat earlier this week.

The report shows that 194.8 million consumers have access to a smartphone or tablet, providing great access to some form of gaming experience. Out of those, 141.9 million people take part in games, expanding the market to a whopping $4.6 billion for the previous year.

“We are finding a lot of the people playing on mobile are already playing core games on consoles,” said Patrick Walker, the head of insights at EEDAR. “We see huge growth, but only a small number of game publishers are profiting from a small percentage of mobile gamers who pay. Mobile is more and more saturated. The big winners are winning big.”

Working off of a database of 80 million researched data points across 50,000 different game products, a portion of the report is available for viewing here, with the rest available for purchase. It breaks down some of the more basic steps in finding success with a game, such as segmenting properly into a market, as well as following five parts: discovery, engagement, virality, monetization and churn.

Such a program can be successful, as companies like King and Supergiant have proven with Candy Crush Saga and Clash of Clans, respectively. However, the report feels that a portfolio analysis wouldn’t hurt either, looking for ways to expand upon a userbase and appeal to a greater market as a result.

Surprisingly enough, a little can go a long way as well when it comes to games on the market. GamesIndustry International found that the study also breaks down how six percent of U.S. mobile gamers can generate more than half of the overall revenue for the industry, at 51 percent. The “whales,” as they’re dubbed, spend at least $10 a month on in-game purchases, while those spending even heavier can go through as much as nearly $300 in a year.

Those interested in finding success with games should definitely give the report a read.

CBS Pushing All-Access Subscription Service

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A while back, we reported that CBS would be launching its own on-demand subscription service for its programming. Now, it appears to be putting its money where its mouth is, preparing for a huge marketing push for the forthcoming service.

The channel will ask consumers to pay $5.99 a month to gain access to instant programming from CBS, including current hits like The Big Bang Theory and NCIS, as well as classic series like Star Trek and Cheers, according to Variety. The real marketing push for the service will come the week after Thanksgiving, when the channel will run TV promotions for the service.

“December is a key month for our push,” said Marc DeBevoise, executive vice president, entertainment, sports and news, at CBS Interactive, in an interview. “It’s the time when the network has ended the first half of the season and goes into repeats and Christmas specials for a few weeks, then comes back in early January. It’s a unique time period and we are going to present something that’s very timely around catching up on the first half of the season.”

This won’t mark the first time that an on-demand service has run promotions on television. Netflix has introduced a savvy campaign focusing on such original programming as House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black; Amazon has a few ads running for its political comedy Alpha House, and even YouTube is getting in on the action, calling attention to such original programs as SciShow and Video Game High School.

With its ads, CBS looks to aim more towards “influencers” that will bring a bigger audience to the service. “It’s a broad campaign with very specific targeting inside of it,” said an executive. “You pick the right way to convert users to what we think is a product for ‘super-fans,’ or a premium product for people who really want CBS.”

On-demand is definitely picking up in numbers, with a 30 percent overall growth in revenue for the year – and it’s likely to expand even further in 2015, as HBO Go will enter the battle with its own on-demand services, marking the first time that users can catch its original programs without a subscription to the cable channel.

Surprisingly enough, on-demand services have also managed to top rentals. A report from 24WAList indicates that streaming services for the year have managed to total over $1.03 billion, a 26 percent increase from the previous year, while rental services have dropped 18 percent to $793 million. That’s still a hefty market, but quite a shift in popularity.

It’ll be interesting to see how much more on-demand services grow by this time next year…and, for that matter, if CBS can play a successful part in it, despite being a network channel first.

SoundCloud Signs On With Warner Music

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The battle of the music services may just be heating up. Hot on the heels of the forthcoming launch of YouTube’s new music services, SoundCloud has announced that it has signed a licensing deal with Warner Music Group. This could give the start-up a much-needed boost onto the social music scene, according to VentureBeat.

Using an ad-supported platform for users to stream music across, the deal enables WMG to receive a small payment for each time one of its songs is used with the service. In addition, it will also play a part in SoundCloud’s upcoming subscription channels, per a report from the New York Times. The deal covers a number of artists, including Bruno Mars, Kylie Minogue and the legendary rock band Led Zeppelin, among thousands of others.

SoundCloud said on the deal, “The landmark partnership will create new commercial and promotional possibilities for WMG’s roster of established and emerging recording artists as well as songwriters signed to WMG’s music publishing arm, Warner/Chappell Music. Further, the deal includes innovative licensing terms that will provide WMG and its artists greater ability to manage the availability of content, while providing a path towards delivering additional revenue from user-generated mixes and mash-ups of WMG music.”

“SoundCloud is a platform built on music innovation and it has a rare ability to drive music discovery while enhancing the connection and collaboration between an artist and their following,” Robert Wiesenthal, the Warner Music Group’s chief operating officer, stated. “Our deal will foster that relationship, while providing a powerful range of income opportunities for WMG’s artists and songwriters.”

Such a deal could help push SoundCloud in the right direction. It’s certainly paid off for Warner, as it’s invested a three-to-five percent stake in the upstart company, although other financial dividends in the deal weren’t revealed just yet.

This marks yet another stake in the forthcoming streaming music war, between YouTube, the popular Spotify service, and Pandora, among others. However, with Warner’s official backing, things have gotten quite interesting, and 2015 could be even bigger with the signing of other companies to services.

Shazam Goes To The Movies

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When you think of Shazam, you usually associate the app with the nifty utility of being able to identify whatever song is playing at the bar. Lately, Shazam has been making the moves into video after its recent hire of former Hulu executive Patricia Parra. First it was TV, as Shazam went after making advertising pacts with A&E, AMC and more. Now, Shazam is looking to the movies.

Partering with National CineMedia, Shazam will be able to have users of their app access content which will go along with the pre-show reel, beginning with AEG Live.

“We’re thrilled to add cinema to our growing list of audio-recognition capabilities including music, television, advertising and radio, and we look forward to introducing even more innovations to Shazam at the movies,” Shazam chief product officer Daniel Danker said to Variety.

It will be interesting to see how brands might use this integration to make their movie ads more interactive as people sit idly in their chairs as they wait for their movie to begin.

The Wall Street Journal Goes Interactive Via New TouchCast Video Series

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By Sahil Patel

The Wall Street Journal is launching a new interactive video series powered by technology from TouchCast.

Called WSJ: Interactive, the series will give viewers a complete look at a particular news story every day. Thanks to TouchCast’s interactive video features, users will be able to click on and engage with multiple types of media content, including relevant videos, articles, photos, and polls, posted on the screen by WSJ.

For an idea of how it will work, here’s the initial episode of WSJ: Interactive, which is hosted by WSJ anchor and reporter Sara Murray.

Take A Look

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