Thursday, January 21, 2016

Marketers Miss Personalization Edge of Social Data

Marketers are missing out on key opportunities to use social media data for multichannel personalization, reports Adweek magazine's SocialTimes blog, citing the "2016 Yesmail Channel Report." This is despite the fact that personalization has proven its value in response and conversion across channels. For example, marketers often fail to gather e-mail addresses, one of the most basic contact points, through social media. According to the report, 45% of marketers don't collect e-mail addresses on social media, and 70% don't collect e-mail from their own mobile apps. (Of course, an amazing 17% don't even collect e-mail via their own websites!) Even companies who build e-mail databases fail to then use freely collected social data points, such as demographic and location information, to effectively personalize e-mail communications. In fact, only 42% say they customize e-mail campaigns with the recipient's name, so it's no surprise that only 36% modify copy and just 34% alter images to personalize e-mail content. The problem stretches across channels: Only 50% say they modify any marketing materials based on easily collected demographic data from social channels, and just 36% use social media data, such as brand page likes, for personalized targeting. See the full article at http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/report-retailers-missing-cross-channel-personalization-opportunity/632710

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Get Ready for 2016 Ad Rate Rises Across Channels

U.S. advertising rates are set to rise for almost all channels in 2016, according to a MarketingProfs report of forecasting by the American Association of Advertising Agencies and Havas Media. The ad cost bump is partly driven by higher ad demand from presidential elections and the Summer Olympics, per the forecast. So it's not surprising that the biggest jumps are forecast for television ad rates: a 3.8% increase for national broadcast TV, a 5.5% rise for cable TV and a whopping 13% leap for spot TV. The good news is that digital channels, where supply is expected to offset demand, are mostly set for very modest increases in average CPMs: mobile, online video and Internet/display advertising all up just 1%, although paid search rates is expected to show a 3.3% jump. For traditional print, average CPM increases are moderate, with a 2.5% climb for newspaper ad rates and a 3% bump in magazine rates. Network radio is the only channel forecast to drop in cost, down 1%. For a comparison of ad rate trends by channel from 2010 through 2016, see the MarketingProfs article: http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2016/29142/2016-advertising-rate-increases-forecast-for-nearly-all-channels