Mobile Claims Majority of Online Time in Canada Digital accounts for 35% of average weekly media time

December 31, 2014

According to research released in December 2014 by PHD Canada and commissioned by the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada (IAB Canada), adults in Canada spend more than half of their total time online with mobile devices—and just one-third of it on desktop or laptop computers.

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Overall, PHD Canada found, adults in Canada spent 27 hours and 49 minutes per week on the internet, 53% of which was spent on mobile devices including smartphones and tablets. Nearly 9 hours per week of total mobile time was spent with nonvideo activities, vs. just under 4 hours per week of nonvideo internet activities on PCs.

These digital activities as a whole accounted for 35% of the average adult’s weekly media time in Canada, the research also found. That was second to TV, which took 37% of weekly media minutes.

Among millennials in Canada, however, digital held the top spot, with 55% of all weekly media time spent by 18- to 34-year-olds. Millennials spent only around an hour more in total with media than adults of all ages each week, but they spent more than 16 hours a week longer with digital media than the average.

Millennials in Canada spent less time—both in absolute numbers and share—on every other media channel, from TV to radio to print.

- See more at: http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Mobile-Claims-Majority-of-Online-Time-Canada/1011789/3#sthash.48sGzBv2.dpuf

The Anatomy of Facebook: A Quick Guide to the Facebook Ecosystem For Brands

Facebook has become more than just a central component of online life; its a fixture of modern culture.

Facebook is the world’s second most frequented website, with nearly 1.19 billion monthly active users, nearly 80% of which come from outside the US and Canada. In the US, 71% of online adults use Facebook, 63% of whom visit the site at least once each day; comparatively, only 22% of online adults in the US are on LinkedIn, 21% are on Pinterest, and 18% are on Twitter. The company has grown from humble beginnings in Mark Zuckerberg’s dorm room in 2004 to become a publicly traded social networking giant with a $140b market cap.

As Facebook adoption has grown exponentially, so has the number of brands who want to participate in social conversations. Our recent study of the Interbrand 100 found that 98% of top brands are active on the social network.

This quick guide is meant to be a brief on how businesses, brands, and organizations can participate meaningfully in the Facebook marketing ecosystem. In this guide, we’ll cover the basic user features, products offered to brands, the data made available from Facebook, and what’s next for the social network.

From the user perspective, Facebook focuses on a few primary features:

• News Feed: A  frequently updated list of stories from friends and pages you follow. A news feed story can include a status update, photo, video, link, app activity or like from any of your connections.
• GraphSearch:  A search tool to find people, places, photos, things and other information available to you on Facebook. (i.e. “Photos of my friends in Seattle, WA” or “Friends who work at Simply Measured”).
• Timeline:  The current version of a Facebook profile, organized as a timeline of your life with posts, photos, friends, interests, and other demographic information.
• Mobile App:  Share experiences in real time from the real world. In August 2010 the site launched Facebook Places, which enabled its users to check-in at physical locations, competing with existing location-based social networks such as Foursquare & Gowalla. At last count, Facebook has 874M monthly active mobile users, checking in, checking up on friends, and sharing thoughts and photos from their phones.

Facebook offers a variety of free and paid products for businesses and brands:

• Fan Pages:  A public profile for businesses, brands, and organizations to connect with Facebook users with essentially a landing page. After a user likes a fan page, they will see some updates and activities from the page including likes and comments on a page post. When a fan engages (likes, comments, or shares) with a page, that activity can show up in their friends’ news feeds and increase the page’s exposure (i.e. reach).
• Sponsored stories:  A paid promotion of stories related to your business or brand. For example, when someone likes a fan page a sponsored story could be purchased so their friends could see in that in their newsfeed. Although officially “sponsored stories” is going away, the ability to purchase actions that show up in non-fans’ newsfeed will continue in other forms.
• Other Facebook Advertising: Marketers have a variety of ad product options for the news feed, right hand display and mobile app. Targeting information is deep, including demographic information such as location, age, gender, education, employment and interests. Advertising in total accounted for 89% of Facebook’s $2B in revenue in Q3 2013 

To make sense of all those conversations, let’s review the data available from Facebook and its ecosystem.

As a brand, one of the two compelling reasons to have a Facebook presence is the number of your customers already on the platform. The second big reason is the rich data you’ll have access to about your page, content, and fans’ activity.

Given our focus at Simply Measured on Facebook analytics and reporting I could easily dedicate an entire post to the topic, but let me briefly touch on the three ways you can access Facebook data, and what kind of information you can get from each:

• Insights Dashboard: As an admin or when granted access to a Facebook Fan Page, you can see details regarding likes, reach, visits, posts, and people. Facebook recently redesigned the user interface and removed PTAT from it’s reporting. It’s a slick design and provides some great high-level metrics.
• The Graph API: The primary way to retrieve publicly available information about any Facebook page. With the API, apps and tools can directly interact with Facebook to gather data about an app or page and send information back.
• The Ads Platform (and API): For marketers who advertise on Facebook, both the Ads Managerand Power Editor offer the ability to manage ad accounts, publish ads, and optimize those campaigns. Facebook provides information about your ad account, campaign and ad performance, and spend. Similar ability to gather data about campaigns and publish is offered through the Facebook Ads API.

It’s easy to get started on your own using some of these free tools to measure some basic information about your Facebook page. And there are also third party analytics tools, such as Simply Measured, that can combine multiple data sources and provide even deeper insight. An example of a question you can answer using Facebook’s free tools would be, “how has my Facebook fan base grown over the past 7, 14, or 28 days?” An example of a question you’d need Simply Measured for would be, “how has my Fan base grown relative to my 5 closest competitors over the past 3 months?”

As mentioned, the Facebook platform enables a large amount of third party vendors to create apps and tools that enable actions on Facebook (create an app or buy an ad) or use Facebook data in some way (analytics or personal authentication). Some of these tools are companies that have been accepting into the Preferred Marketing Developers (or PMD) program (learn more at PMD Home).

Facebook has grown its product offering significantly, here are a few items about what they’ve been up to and what’s next:

• Video ads: Coming to a newsfeed near you!
• Ecommerce: Don’t just post on my wall to wish me happy birthday, buy me a coffee! Facilitating e-commerce transactions and taking a cut can diversify the company’s revenue streams beyond advertising.
• Monetizing mobile experience: With an increasingly large portion of traffic coming from mobile devices, it’s critically important for Facebook to profitably modify its experience to fit smaller screens. The bad news: with less real estate, display advertising is more difficult to fit into the app. The good news: mobile users are more likely to download and play games than PC users. The net is good for Facebook: about half of the company’s revenue comes the mobile app, which comprises only 21% of its use.
• Thwarting competition: With so many new social networking platforms springing up, it’s tough to stay the most interesting place on the internet. Some examples for how Facebook handled some high profile competitors:

1. Instagram: If you can’t beat ‘em, buy ‘em. Paying over $1b for an 18-month old platform, Facebook sought to corner the market for social photo sharing services.
2. SnapChat: Attempted acquisition of the popular peer-to-peer disappearing picture message service. But this fight isn’t over; look for continued focus from Facebook on messaging and other forms of more private communication.
3. Flipboard: Facebook is rumored to be releasing its own Flipboard-style news reader

Facebook is among the most dynamic companies to follow and places to visit on the internet, and we look forward to continuing to cover how brands can create value for their users on the site as it continues to evolve.

Interactive Billboard Takes Norwegians on a Live Taxi Ride Through NYC

http://creativity-online.com/work/norwegian-airlines-norwegian-red-cab/38271

This Year's 10 Biggest Shifts, Shake-ups and Surprises in Mobile Marketing

 For social giants and brands alike, everything changed in 2014 By Lauren Johnson

• December 30, 2014, 9:47 AM EST
• Technology

Apple Pay brought mobile payment into the mainstream. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Fueled by new ad formats and acquisitions from Facebook, Twitter and brands, mobile marketing finally began to step up to its potential this year.

From messaging and video to ultra-targeted ads and simplified shopping, smartphones and tablets became a major focus for most digital brands players in 2014.

Numbers from researchers back up this year's advancements. EMarketer forecasts that mobile brought in $32.71 billion globally this year, outpacing the combined newspaper, magazine and radio spend in the U.S. Meanwhile, Forrester Research expects mobile to grab 40 percent of online display ad budgets by 2019.

Here are 10 of the biggest moves that made waves in mobile this year:

Mobile Video Becomes an Ad Format of Choice
After much speculation, Instagram unveiled sponsored videos this year, with Disney, Lancome and Banana Republic as the first names to test the ads.

Similar to its approach with picture promos, Instagram vets each video ad to make sure that it's a fit for the platform.

Facebook-owned Instagram also hit 300 million users this year, cementing its appeal for social-savvy brands. According to data from Simply Measured, 86 percent of Interbrand top 100 brands had an account by the third quarter of this year.

Meanwhile, Twitter and Tumblr built new video tools geared at mobile users. And in July, Yahoo acquired mobile firm Flurry to beef up its video offerings.

"We're starting to see industries such as consumer-packaged-goods and entertainment studios that have traditionally been slow to shift budgets to mobile, now investing in mobile video content, as it allows for richer, more engaging advertising experiences," said Guillaume Lelait, general manager at mobile agency Fetch.

Twitter Embraces Social Commerce
Eighty-five percent—or $272 million—of Twitter's revenue came from mobile during the third quarter this year.

In September, Twitter rolled out a buy button that marketers can plug into their tweets to drive sales. Twenty-five brands, including Home Depot and Burberry, were the first to test the feature, pivoting it slightly away from a news site to a direct-response platform.

Twitter's buy button is one of several big advancements in social and mobile commerce this year—Buzzfeed and Tumblr rolled out similar features this year.

Beacons Catch On, But Risk Backlash
Apple first launched its iBeacon technology in 2013, but it gained a lot more attention this year thanks to campaigns from big-name brands like Walgreens, Urban Outfitters andMarriott.

The location-based tech, which sends ads to shoppers' smartphones, has also re-upped brands' investments in mobile apps this year.

And according to Doug Rozen, chief innovation officer at Meredith Xcelerated Marketing, the push notifications that beacons send out are perceived more like advertising than brands realize. "Being triggered by inactivity, by location or by calendar, they are becoming viewed by consumers as ads more than marketers are treating them as such," he said.

Facebook Atlas Opens a New Trove of Data
Facebook's new Atlas ad server gives advertisers access to data about its 1.3 billion users.

Mobile advertising has long been held back by its lack of cookies, used to target ads on desktops. With the launch of Facebook Atlas, the social site hopes to push past that challenge by running digital ads outside of Facebook that tap into data about its users.

Mobile Payment Goes Mainstream With Apple Pay
Apple gave mobile payments a big boost this year with the launch of the iPhone 6 and digital wallet service Apple Pay, boasting the participation of brands like McDonald's, Nike and Target.

In November, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company revamped its iAd business by signing deals with tech companies. Apple's new ads will incorporate Apple Pay, giving marketers a better chance at figuring out if a mobile ad actually persuaded someone to buy a product.

App Installs Become Ad Gold
2014 was the year tech companies tried to catch up with Facebook on app install ads.Twitter, Google and AOL have all rolled out ad formats this year that drive app installs for advertisers.

With the bulk of its competitors offering different variations on app install ads, Facebook started fine-tuning ad targeting earlier this month.

App installs are a staple—and often lucrative—offering for traditional mobile ad networks, and with more marketers allocating mobile spend on social networks, it's no surprise that the social players want a cut of the spend.

Virtual Reality Goes Mobile
Virtual reality has been on marketers' radar for a few years, but it wasn't until Facebook acquired Oculus in March that the technology started to build significant marketing buzz.

Mountain Dew and Fox are some of the earliest brands testing Oculus Rift.

In its newest form, Oculus is powered by a Samsung phone, which could help the technology gain traction with smartphone-toting consumers.

"Virtual reality has come to mobile with the Samsung Gear," said Jordan Gray, manager of creative labs at Organic. "Game of Thrones and Wrigley's were two notable brands that launched virtual reality experiences in 2014."

Snapchat Launches Self-Destructing Ads
At the same time that social mainstays like Facebook and Twitter grabbed for more mobile dollars, millennial-minded marketers were pleased when Snapchat started serving up its first ads in October. 

As more teens turn to the social messaging app to talk to each other, marketers like Taco Bell and Karmaloop have been aggressive in building a presence on the platform. But Snapchat has been reluctant to push paid promos to its users because of privacy concerns and its lack of data that can be used for targeting.

The ads are opt-in and appear in the same section of the app where users watch Stories—strings of photos and videos that are viewable for one day after they are sent. "An advertisement will appear in your Recent Updates from time to time, and you can choose if you want to watch it. No biggie. It goes away after you view it or within 24 hours, just like Stories," Snapchat said in a blog post announcing the ads.

Yahoo Makes Mobile Gains, Fueled by Tumblr
After reporting $200 million in mobile sales during the third quarter, Yahoo could pass Twitter as the No. 3 mobile player next year, eMarketer predicts.

The research firm forecasts that Yahoo will make up 3.74 percent of mobile ad spend in 2015 (due in large part to Yahoo's $1 billion acquisition of Tumblr in 2013), while Facebook and Google will continue to dominate the space. 

Per ComScore, Tumblr's mobile viewers were up 45 percent year-over-year in October, and the New York company reports that 65 percent of its users use its mobile app.

Tumblr has carved out a niche for itself in mobile with native sponsored posts and ads, but ad executives are skeptical if the formats can move the sales needle.

Facebook's $16 Billion Bet
In February, the Menlo Park, Calif.-based company bought mobile messaging app Whatsapp for $16 billion to help build out Facebook Messenger.

The acquisition kicked off a slew of interest in mobile messaging as brands experimented with Kik, Snapchat, Whisper and Line.

Since its acquisition, Facebook has doubled down on messaging, including a TV and out-of-home advertising push this year.

5 Agency Leaders on Which Industry Changes Keep Them Up at Night

 Doing more with less, and doing it faster By Noreen O'Leary

• December 23, 2014, 11:40 AM EST
• Advertising & Branding

Photo: Getty Images

As 2014 winds down, Adweek asked advertising and media leaders about what's been top of mind for them this year. Across marketing disciplines, there are nuances among their concerns but what they all share is the urgency to adapt to changes in technology, consumers and the larger world. Here are their thoughts:

• Rei Inamoto, worldwide chief creative officer, AKQA
Talent shortage is last year's problem. This has been talked about as the single biggest problem facing our industry. I don't think that's the issue. We try not to think about upcoming trends. That makes us near-sighted and chasing short-term gains that may not pay off long-term. Rather, it's more important to look five years into the future and think about how to create an organization that endures for many decades to come.

With that, one thing that keeps me up at night is this: Do More With Less. This is the biggest challenge facing our industry today and for pretty much eternity. We are in the business of selling creativity as quantified by the amount of time and the number of people. The success of our business is measured by numerical growth: revenue, margin, size, number of people and wins. But actually, the world is going in the other way. It's now about achieving the most with the least. It's about figuring out how to "Do More With Less." Less time, less money and less people. Companies that will be successful—not in 2015 but in 2020 and beyond—are those who will be smaller than their predecessors but can have bigger impact and influence.

• Susan Gianinno, North American chairman, Publicis
Companies of all shapes and sizes have to reinvent themselves to keep up with and take full advantage of the seismic and unabating changes in every aspect of marketing, media and communications. Everyone needs to be faster, smarter, more agile, more acutely attuned to culture and context and more adept and facile with new capabilities, including social, search, connected content and devices. Our job is to be an indispensable partner in helping our clients in their own marketing transformation.

Another huge shift is the millennial momentum. They are coming into their own with a vengeance while baby boomers redefine aging as merely a transitional phase marked by good health and continued restlessness. There's also the radically altered ethnic landscape where minorities will soon become the majority. Then there's the increasing gap between the haves and the have-nots, which is eliminating the big middle market that kept some of our biggest brands thriving. We need to help our clients reposition to address this bifurcation. The middle is gone.

• Daryl Simm, global CEO, Omnicom Media Group
Data and analytics: It has been at the top of our agenda since we launched (analytics unit) Annalect in 2009 and it accelerates change across our entire organization. This area is expanding quickly and we're all fishing in a talent pool that's only beginning to ramp up.

Another thing is building mass brands in a personalized media world. With endless hyper-targeting opportunities, the challenge lies in finding the right balance between transaction drivers, personalized messaging and building mass upper-funnel equity. Every brand situation is different, but we can't lose sight of the end goal, which is building business while not squandering equity. There's also the commoditization of media. In a world of infinite touch-points, we still see examples that trade off brand objectives, engagement, context or ROI. These cases say we've failed to build the client's confidence in the power of their brand's relationships with consumers. It pushes us to develop better analytics to put the focus on results. Getting a great price on what you need is always important. Shopping for cheap gas when you need to take the train, not so much.

• Carter Murray, global CEO, FCB
The perpetual war on talent continues: Where to find it; how to retain and nurture it. Facebook and Twitter attract millennial talent through strong creative cultures and competitive compensation and by offering them the opportunity to make a difference. We need to remain relevant to the best talent in the world, particularly as it relates to digital acumen. There's a tremendous amount of competition for people who can build 21st century brands.

There's also the extreme world events that impact the world economy. In an interconnected world, there are fewer and fewer truly "local" crises. All of which makes the job of managing a global agency network an incredibly complex one—at the financial, human and brand levels. People expect modern brands to share their values; to have a role in solving or alleviating crises; or at the very least, to have a voice in the important issues of the day. We need to get better at helping brands understand that responsibility. There are also the business pressures in Russia and Brazil. For years the economic growth of the BRIC markets has driven global performance for agency networks but as Russia and Brazil slow down, there are huge implications. We need to reengineer our operations in these markets, uncover new sources of growth globally and revisit operations in mature markets. We no longer have the luxury of being able to hide behind strong financial and creative performance in Russia and Brazil.

• Lou Aversano, New York CEO, Ogilvy & Mather
David Ogilvy once said that Ogilvy & Mather is a teaching hospital. The biggest thing that keeps me up at night is how Ogilvy continues to live up to the talent standards he set. Quite simply, this means hiring the most diverse workforce in the world and continuing to invest in our people in a way to keep them inspired, engaged and proud to be at our agency.

Ideas are our livelihood and our lifeblood. They need to inspire and they need to shine a light on things that are otherwise hard to see. We need to continue to invest in having the best ideas for our clients and their brands no matter the forum. We need to be brave enough to challenge our legacy models of how things have been done to ensure we continue to set the standard for creativity. Culture is also so important to us. It's often talked about, but often overlooked, underinvested and difficult to measure. Yet, it is what sets us apart. We need to invest to keep the Ogilvy culture alive and kicking so its value is just as strong today as it was yesterday.