Google has just introduced their latest Multi-Funnel Attribution tool for Google Analytics users.

This tool has the potential to provide meaningful insights using actual Google Analytics data. The Customer Journey to Online Purchase is an interactive tool which shows how marketing channels impact the consumer journey.

The tool maps media channels on a continuum from Assist channels that build awareness and intent early on, to Last Interaction channels that are the final contacts before a purchase is made. The tool further measures how many days and how many interactions it takes for a consumer to travel the path to purchase. The true value of the tool is realized if advertisers have an active DART Search or Display campaign (preferably both) which can be tied into the Google Analytics interface for a more accurate look at paid traffic vs. organic/other sources.

Google uses the data from individual sites (that have authorized tracking) to offer a free public version of the tool that shows the consumer path across industries and countries. Below is the summary information for the US Travel industry. (Click image to enlarge)

The tool minipage (found here) is hosted on Google’s new subsite, Think Insights, where Google distributes independent and collaborative research and reports. TargetCast believes this is a helpful tool, but is best suited to DR campaigns as a conversion is often the ultimate goal of an online advertising effort.

The above percentages represent “explicit” searches, or searches that “explicitly” reflect search user intent in reported results, as opposed to contextually driven searches. Source: comScore, Inc.

Google Sites led the U.S. explicit core search market in March with 67.1 percent market share, followed by Microsoft Sites with 16.9 percent (up 0.2 percentage points) and Yahoo! Sites with 11.8 percent (up 0.2 percentage points). Ask Network accounted for 2.7 percent of explicit core searches (up 0.1 percentage point), followed by AOL, Inc. with 1.6 percent.

20.4 billion explicit core searches were conducted in March (up 11 percent), with Google Sites ranking first with 13.7 billion (up 11 percent). Microsoft Sites ranked second with 3.4 billion searches (up 13 percent), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2.4 billion (up 14 percent), Ask Network with 540 million (up 14 percent) and AOL, Inc. with 321 million (up 5 percent).

The News

Nielsen recently announced a change in the requirements that must be met in order for a household to qualify to be part of their sample. Recognizing the importance of keeping pace with the changing video landscape Nielsen will now include households that only have a computer with broadband access (no TV).  This announcement is a first step to capture all video viewership regardless of the source or device.

One important note is that the broadband video viewing measured by Nielsen will only reflect content that is identical to the TV broadcast which includes the commercials as they aired during the TV program (commercial load).  It does not measure viewership on sites or players that provide content or ads that differ from the TV broadcast version.

Background

In the past, Nielsen required a household to have one working television set and reception from at least one channel to be part of the sample.  If a household did not meet this requirement, that household was not included in the sample, nor in the projected universe of television households used by the industry. While this served the industry well for decades it falls short in capturing all opportunities for video viewing today.

The Impact

The preliminary estimate due to the change in selecting homes for the Nielsen sample is that the household universe will increase by 0.6% households (TV + PC with broadband access).  With this first change in the sample, TargetCast does not forecast a major shift in audience estimates(ratings) due to the minimal increase in sample, the requirement for identical commercials, as well as viewership within 3 days of the original airing of the program.  However, if the trend continues toward more streaming video opportunities and increased network and advertiser interest the current measurement requirements may be revised.  This will likely lead to the development of new metrics to incorporate all streaming video viewing.

Next Steps & Timing

Nielsen has announced that there will be meetings in the coming months to provide more information to the industry on their plans for continued improvement in measuring streaming video.  We anticipate that this will include progress on the measurement of all devices, the previously announced “twitter ratings”, as well as any plans for using the Arbitron personal meter for television audience ratings. TargetCast will be monitoring these updates and will share the details as they become available.

TargetCast POV

TargetCast views this initiative as a positive step for our industry.  Having the capability to report video viewing estimates across video sources/platforms on a common metric will enhance our ability to plan and understand the impact of our video advertising campaigns. Given the reliance on Nielsen for ratings data, TargetCast expects Nielsen to continue to improve their sample and methodology in a manner that keeps pace with consumer adoption of new viewing opportunities.

Since the beginning of mass-scale advertising, the idealistic goal of measuring a campaign’s effect on an individual-by-individual level has been continuously attempted with newer and more granular-targeted technologies.  Inevitably, measuring millions of consumers in the consistently dynamic mediums has proven too complex to measure at that precise of a level, despite these efforts. The advent of digital advertising presented new hope for this ideal, however as it has grown to its current mass, issues such as below-the-fold banners, un-viewable impressions, and auto-play or muted pre-roll videos have led to an environment where “fifty percent of all ad impressions are never seen,” according to Jeff Bander, president of Sticky.

This, along with most ads carrying an industry accepted 50% bounce rate – who click on ads yet leave the landing page immediately –  seems pretty scary, and is at least in some part why many advertisers shy away from allocating more budget online. The current gold standard in this realm is “viewability”, meaning an ad is served within viewable screen of a user, however this technology does not account if the person’s is actually engaging with a specific brand’s ad.

Bander and Sticky (formerly EyeTrackShop) have taken this to the next step by developing an eye tracking tool that verifies which ads users look at, leading to a potential “Real CPM” where every impression is guaranteed to be seen. While eye-tracking technology is nothing new, Sticky’s new product is unique in its ability to track in real-time and in the real world, giving it mass-scale implementation potential.

The next step for Sticky’s team is to place themselves within the media negotiations happening on Madison Ave, and from there ultimately prove that ubiquitous eye-tracking and the idea of a “Real” CPM should become the new standard in how online ads are bought. There’s no question that as advertising technology gets inevitably more granular, new tracking issues will be unearthed or introduced by technologies/mediums we are currently unaware of, but for the moment Sticky looks to be positioned optimally as the next big thing in the digital space.

This blog post will provide our first forecast of reported spending for 2013.

Methodology

This forecast is based on:

• Reviewing the trends in reported spending over the past 5 years

• Consideration of the potential impact of the current tax increases on both company investment in advertising as well as consumer discretionary spending

• The introduction and advancements in new media opportunities

Forecast

For 2013, we anticipate total spending across all media to reach $165 billion. This represents an increase of 3%, or $5 billion, versus 2012.

In 2012, due to the impact of the Olympics as well as the political campaigns, total spending reached $160 billion, an increase of $6.5 billion, or slightly more than 4% when compared to 2011.

Throughout 2013, TargetCast will continue to monitor and report on significant changes in advertising activity and update our projections. Our next report will be issued once the first half of 2013 spending data becomes available.

Forecast of spending trends for the major media:

Total television (national and local)  

Spending will continue to increase and remain the dominant medium for advertisers. In total, advertising on linear television will increase to 46% of all reported expenditures. For national television, TargetCast anticipates advertising to reach $57 billion (+5%) and represent 34% of all spending. The increase investment forecast is based on increases in TV viewership and market mix modeling studies that continue to show strong ROI for TV. For local television, TargetCast forecasts local television spend to increase 5% to $19 billion, and represent 12% of total spending. The increased spend in local television is based upon increased knowledge of local sales data and advertisers desire to apply the findings.

Digital  (all forms)

Digital is forecast to represent the largest YOY increase with growth of almost 18%.  2013 will witness continued increased investment in digital channels, behind increased  and improved advertising opportunities and continued advertiser interest, especially in the areas of  online video and mobile. TargetCast forecasts 2013 combined digital advertising to reach close to $40 billion (+15% vs. year ago), garnering almost 25% of all reported advertising spending.

Print  – (consumer magazines and newspapers

In 2013 print media will continue to lose advertising dollars – an important part of the hardcopy revenue stream. This decline will result from publishers discontinuing magazines that are not meeting revenue expectations and consolidation of titles, as well as the influence of digital opportunities for immediate information. Following recent declines, we predict consumer magazines and newspaper advertising dollars to decrease by 10% respectively. The medium will represent 20% of all advertising dollars ($34 billion).

Spanish Language Media (National Television and Print)

In 2013 Spanish media will continue to garner increased dollars as advertisers recognize the growth of the Hispanic population and its importance for their products. TargetCast forecasts that Spanish language television will increase by 10% to $5 billion. However, Spanish language media will garner only 3% of total spending as the media opportunities to reach the Hispanic population are fewer in comparison to the general market.

Radio – (national and local)  

We anticipated no change in radio spend as a percent of total media for 2013; total reported radio spending is anticipated at $3 billion (2%).

After many months of uncertainly, changes in direction, meetings about meetings on tweaks to tweaks, the Advil #reliefinaction campaign finally kicked off at the Barclays Center last night in Brooklyn. Advil honors and provides relief to volunteers who don´t let pain get in the way of helping others. And they announced that to the public at an NBA game. Nets vs Bulls, branded in Blue and Yellow. Aziz Ansari (although I’m admittedly not much of a Parks & Rec fan) private stand-up show for 100 volunteers who have helped their communities. Happy agencies and happy clients. Relief in Action has been a labor of love for so many people for so many months and last night kicked it off in style and grace.
There is no one outside of the proverbial target consumer for Advil so I urge all of you to join the cause on Instagram and Twitter. Upload your own picture of how you demonstrate active volunteerism, how you rise above your own pain to help relieve the pain of others. Or anything else that so inspires you in the spirit of the campaign. It’s @reliefinaction, #reliefinaction. Go there. Join the conversation. Upload. Be inspired. Get involved.

The above percentages represent “explicit” searches, or searches that “explicitly” reflect search user intent in reported results, as opposed to contextually driven searches. Source: comScore, Inc.

Google Sites led the U.S. explicit core search market in February with 67.5 percent market share (up 0.5 percentage points), followed by Microsoft Sites with 16.7 percent (up 0.2 percentage points) and Yahoo! Sites with 11.6 percent. Ask Network accounted for 2.6 percent of explicit core searches, followed by AOL, Inc. with 1.7 percent.

18.3 billion explicit core searches were conducted in February, with Google Sites ranking first with 12.3 billion. Microsoft Sites ranked second with 3 billion searches, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2.1 billion, Ask Network with 475 million and AOL, Inc. with 305 million.

If you have read my previous posts on how we are gradually switching our attention to multiple screens, the latest research study coming out of Microsoft confirms that we are indeed on our way there. According to Microsoft Advertising and Flamingo Research, multi-screen pathways reveal new opportunities for marketers to reach and engage consumers. The 41 page research study goes into great detail on how consumers attentions are switching to the “always-on” screen by combining devices in new ways to multi-task. By doing this we can amplify experience, share, connect, browse, engage, and be more efficient. “Understanding the motivations behind these behaviors can help marketers gain digital advantage through authentic interaction with customers under a new set of ‘always-on’ rules.”

Below are some of the key takeaways from the study. There are four pathways of multi-screening behavior, which include Content Grazing, Investigative Spider-Webbing, Social Spider Webbing, and Quantum that are explained below:

1. Content Grazing is the most common of the pathways and is described as when consumers use two or more screens simultaneously to access separate or unrelated content.

2. Investigative Spider-Webbing is the simultaneous journey where consumers view related content on two or more devices at the same time. For example; watching “The Walking Dead” and engaging with the “Story Sync” feature of the show on your tablet.

3. Social Spider-Webbing is the same as Investigative Spider-Webbing, but focused on sharing and connecting. For example; taking a picture with your phone, but sharing it on your tablet because all your photo editing apps are on your tablet.

4. Quantum consumers start an activity on one screen and continue it on another. Efficiency is the main factor for these consumers, such as working, shopping, or completing tasks.

One other key takeaway from the study explains how multi-screening consumers are more open to the idea of the right kind of advertising. 74% of the people they questioned agreed that “Advertising can be helpful in telling me about new products or brands that might interest me,” while 87% of consumers agree that “It’s great that I can check out products or brands that interest me whenever or wherever I see them.”

I really suggest if you have some spare time to read through the entire study, which can be downloaded HERE. This study definitely sheds more light that the future of advertising is constantly evolving and taking new shapes by studying peoples content behavior, habits, and overall reception of products.

If you can believe it, seven years ago today you had never even heard of a “tweet”. It was on March 21, 2006 at 8:50pm that founder Jack Dorsey first posted “just setting up my twttr” from his personal handle. Fast forward to 2013, and this social media platform is an integral part of most of our daily lives, with 400 million monthly visitors to twitter.com and more than 200 million monthly active users around the world.

When it comes to important, immediate communication, Twitter is generally the one to break the news. At one point during the 2011 Egyptian protests, U.S. State Department even called the site, asking it to postpone its “routine maintenance” because of the crucial role tweeting played in communicating the movement. However, the world wasn’t always on board with tweeting. Back in 2007, when the company was first starting out, the idea of Twitter seemed incredibly trivial. Jason Pontin, editor-in-chief of MIT’s Technology Review, remembers thinking that “Twitter was in the business of allowing people to advertise trivialities.” By now they’ve converted us, and in 2013 Twitter is making big moves to advertise more than just worthless banter.

On February 20th, Twitter announced that it was opening up its advertising API (application-programming interface) and enabling five launch partners to build their own tools for creathing and managing ad campaigns on the platform. The companies will be able to develop software on top of the Twitter ads platform, which will allow brands and agencies to more deeply test campaign-performance factors. By tapping into third-party tools, advertisers will be able to upload and edit ads in bulk, run campains much more effortlessly, and gain cross-channel insights from campaign delivery across Facebook and LinkedIn. Additionally, as Twitter expands their Ads API partner ecosystem, vendors will be able to give marketers the ability to run highly targeted and highly contextual ad campaigns.

Last week Pepsi MAX posted their newest commercial with Jeff Gordon. Instantly going viral with over 25 million views on YouTube, Jeff Gordon pulls off the ultimate prank. Disguising himself as an average Joe who is not very familiar with cars, Jeff lures in an unsuspecting salesman for the ride of his life. For those who don’t know, Jeff Gordon is a professional NASCAR driver. This short 4 minute video really takes you for a ride, and gives you a real appreciation for Pepsi MAX to have pulled this off. These types of branded story telling really gives the viewer an emotional reaction, which I think is the best way to create brand equity.

This isn’t the first time Pepsi MAX has pulled off a branded prank. Last year they got NBA star Kyrie Irving to play the role of an old man past his prime, but throughout the game gradually getting better and better. Watch below!