Unicast

As you know, we recently welcomed MediaMind Technologies, Inc., a leading global provider of integrated digital advertising solutions and the EyeWonder video and rich media advertising unit to the DG family. We share DG’s excitement in broadening our team and scope. Unicast has been a pioneer of innovation in the interactive space, working with the world’s largest publishers on a global scale. Together with MediaMind and EyeWonder, we will further expand our interactive capabilities and the strong service-orientation DG has already established over the years.

The combination of MediaMind, Unicast, and EyeWonder brings together a highly qualified roster of professionals, a complementary footprint of offices worldwide, along with innovative technologies to connect advertisers and agencies with the most desirable audiences on a global basis.

While we integrate with MediaMind and EyeWonder under the MediaMind brand, we encourage you to continue follow our news updates at http://creativezone.mediamind.com/Blog/ or click here to subscribe.

We recently read the Huffington Post article "Why Aren’t We Creating Ads Designed Specifically for Mobile?,” proposing that most ads that we see on our smartphones today are nothing more than standard television or online ads that have been repurposed for a mobile device. The author goes on to say that the approach many marketers take today really don’t provide much of a creative incentive for consumers to interact or engage.

We couldn’t agree more!

Unicast’s comprehensive mobile ad offerings include a full range of standard and rich media ad formats and a suite of interactive features that are designed to run across today’s leading mobile operating systems and devices. These highly engaging rich media units tap into the native capabilities of mobile devices and can be created, delivered and measured on a global scale by the Unicast Ad Platform.

As a member of the IAB’s Mobile Marketing Center for Excellence (MMCoE), we are committed to helping the industry develop and adopt standards that enable mobile advertising to scale more effectively. We are actively working with the IAB and other industry participants on initiatives like MRAID (Mobile Richmedia Ad Interface Definitions), which is designed to define standards for in-app mobile advertising.

“Unicast has long been a major driving force for next generation interactive advertising. The company’s creation of the IAB Sidekick unit and support of all of the IAB’s Rising Stars ad formats underscore their commitment to moving the ball forward – and now they are looking to do the same in the mobile marketplace. Needless to say, it is exciting to see Unicast become a thriving participant within the mobile landscape.” – Anna Bager, Vice-President and General Manager, Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence, IAB.

To learn more about Unicast’s mobile solutions or to see examples of our work, please visit our mobile-supported website by visiting http://www.unicast.com on your mobile device.

New research shows that viewing of full-length TV episodes on smartphones and tablets have increased 200 percent during the second quarter of 2011. This new data from Rhythm NewMedia’s Mobile Video Ad Report is extremely helpful for interactive agencies, such as our team at Unicast, as well as advertisers to see that now is the time to begin creating advertising campaigns specifically for mobile videos.

The report also shows that In-Stream Mobile Video advertising is more effective than online video advertising. We weren’t surprised by this finding; Unicast’s Q1 2011 Benchmark Report showed that in-stream ad formats produced the highest interaction rates and the highest average video view time. Advertisements streamed from mobile phones and tablets have an 87 percent average completion rate vs. a 59 to 81 percent average online, depending on if the ad is in a short form or long form. In-Stream Mobile Video advertising is effective across all categories as completion rate is consistently high for consumer packaged goods, entertainment, telecom, auto, retail and travel.

We found it surprising that, according to Rhythm NewMedia’s report, iPads make up only 20 percent of the user base, but iPad owners consume 40 percent of videos. This proves that the tablet market should be targeted more frequently with mobile advertisements since tablets are significant sources for video viewing.

Additional data from Millennial Media shows that watching a video is now the top post-click action that advertisers try to entice consumers with. Ad campaigns that allow users to watch a video after clicking on an ad now make up 31 percent of all campaigns on phones and tablets.

Ericsson ConsumerLab’s recently-released annual study ‘TV & Video Consumer Trend Report 2011’ revealed some interesting trends regarding TV consumption. While broadcast viewing remains the most prevalent way consumers watch TV (80 percent of respondents watch broadcast TV more than once a week), there is also a considerable increase in the time people spend watching streaming on-demand TV online. In fact, the study shows that 44 percent of the respondents reported watching internet-based on-demand TV more than once per week.

Additionally, the study shows that social media plays an important role in consumers’ TV experience, with over 40 percent of respondents reporting the use of social media across various devices while watching TV.

Given this continued blending of TV and online interactivity, advertisers have unique opportunities to take advantage of innovative ad technologies that offer a wealth of intuitive features and interactions. Here at Unicast, we’ve been lucky enough to partner with key providers such as NBC, CBS, ABC and MTV, among others, to deliver in-stream, online ads utilizing video, games, geo-targeting and social media customized for any video player.

It’s no surprise that for six straight quarters, a video-related ad format has held the number one spot in our benchmark report, which analyzes the performance of Unicasts’s most popular ad formats across multiple industries. And as more and more consumers turn to the internet to consume their favorite entertainment, it would seem video-related ad formats will continue to perform well.

Today, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced at the IAB MIXX Conference and Expo the early results from its groundbreaking Rising Stars Display ad units which were launched this past February. Findings from these initial reports prove that these new ad units are already breaking new barriers of consumer engagement.

Unicast is proud to support all of the IAB Rising Star ad formats that boost marketers’ confidence to successfully build brands online. These ad formats have already proved to be successful for leading brands such as BMW, Procter & Gamble, Levi’s, Ford and HBO.

The Rising Star Display ads deliver an engaging online experience that strengthens the brand message and online story telling. According to the IAB’s announcement, Unicast’s Sidekick has already seen ad engagement time climb to seven times the industry average!

Unicast looks forward to experimenting more with the Rising Star ad formats to offer the interactive advertising industry a distinctive canvas that engages consumers with the brand message. We believe these ad formats are only beginning to evolve in our industry and that we have a lot to look forward to.

U.S. online ad spending continues to grow steadily and isn’t showing any sign of slowing. By 2015, total online spending is estimated to approach $50 billion. One of eMarketer’s latest reports has the numbers to prove it.

Some of the main drivers for online ad spending’s steady annual growth can be credited to the continued rise of video advertising, banner advertising’s steady expansion, and mobile contributions to banner, search ad spending and video. Marketers who see their target audiences abandon other traditional media are also driving online ad spending. Industry giants like Facebook are beginning to attract more ad spending, while others such as Microsoft, Yahoo! and AOL are reporting high display ad revenue growth.

It is safe to say that online advertising has found its place in the major media mix. According to eMarketer estimates, marketers will spend $4 billion more on newspaper and magazine ads than online ads in 2011. But the following year that situation will reverse, with marketers spending $2.9 billion more online vs. the other two traditional media combined. Factors that will attribute to higher contributions to online ad spending are improved targeting and segmentation tools. The Internet provides marketers with a greater range of ad channels and those tools give brands several ways to build effective, customized ad campaigns that will resonate with their target audience.

While the Internet’s share of major ad spending in 2011 will be nearly 20%, TV’s share will remain higher, at 38.4%. However, it’s predicted that by 2015, video will be a dual-channel advertising medium with the same campaigns appearing either on TV or digital screens. What does this mean for us in the interactive, online space? Display advertising is more important than ever and gives marketers the opportunity to widen their scope for delivering interactive messaging. At Unicast, we continue to innovate and deliver the highest-quality video, rich media and mobile options for our clients such as NBC, MTV, MSN and many others.

There was a lot of discussion regarding Social Media strategy and particularly the ROI (return on investment) of social media at the OMMA Social conference held in New York this past June 2011. Let’s get right to some suppositions about social that I think any pragmatic individual in the advertising industry can agree. Social media is not really media. Not in the sense that you pay for media to target a specific audience. Yes, you can buy ads on Facebook but the strategy that drives social media is really around establishing and/or strengthening relationships with your customers. Many but not all companies are really bad at this. They’re experts at acquiring customers. Simply because the process of acquiring customers is more high profile, more interesting, can be limited to a defined period of time with a specific budget and can be easily measured. Developing relationships with customers that are “deep” (whatever that means) is hard. It’s never ending. It requires truly listening and responding in a customized manner. It’s far more difficult to measure and it not nearly as glamorous as a full page spread in a large magazine or a cool TV ad running on a super popular TV program.

Social media is CRM; customer relationship management and it’s hard but one of the most profitable and, if done correctly, smartest investments a company can make. But most companies are not good at it. On top of that most agencies are not set-up to manage CRM programs. Agencies are paid by project or by a percentage of media spend on discrete campaigns. CRM is about managing the lifetime value of a customer. The two are not aligned in terms of revenue/profit and overall goals.

Answer this question. You go to Target.com and buy a grill. A few days later an email arrives:

Hello (insert your name here). Thanks for buying a Brinkman grill. We hope that you’re enjoying it. My name is Sally and I want to make sure that you’re happy with your purchase. Did you have any trouble putting it together? Let me know because I can put you in touch with a company that helps assemble grills.

If everything is fine and dandy then we’re super happy for you. Keep in mind that the nearest Target is 2 miles away in (Insert your town/link to map here). We’re running a sale on grilling utensils in case you need any. We also have a pretty extensive food selection for grilling. We’re also running a promotion for people who just bought grills: 50% off a (Name any Grilling Book). Just print out your Target.com receipt and present it at the register.

Again, my name is Sally and feel free to shoot me an email if you have any questions.

You didn’t get this email? Did you ever get an email like this? No? That’s because most companies are not good at CRM…this is just one example, of one channel and one opportunity to develop better relations with customers. There are 100’s out there….and I don’t think a Facebook page is going to be the first step to improving CRM. That will require a brave stand on how companies decide how they allocate their marketing dollars. With the average tenure of a CMO at about 1 year, who is championing developing deeper and hence more profitable relationships with customers? My guess, not many.

The IAB is issuing a clarion call at “the Future of Display” event, which starts tomorrow. As summarized by Randall Rothenberg, IAB president:

“It is time to admit to ourselves that almost everything we have done over the past decade optimizes interactive media for direct response and promotional advertising. We must redouble our efforts as an industry to both prove and illustrate that we build brands; for if we do not, we will simply become a substitute for the U.S. Postal Service.”

Unicast is pleased to announce our ability to support all the Rising Star ad formats – Filmstrip, Sidekick, Billboard, Slider, Pushdown and Portrait – in alignment with the IAB's stated mission. Here at Unicast we believe that we are in a unique position to help champion the adoption of these new ad formats, since we have been a longtime developer of the kind of premium ad formats that help advertisers to successfully drive brand advertising online.

"Unicast has an intrinsic and deep understanding of the IAB Rising Stars ad units, as the creators of the Sidekick unit and as a premier rich media vendor supporting the formats,” said Peter Minnium, consulting director at the IAB. “They are truly one of the companies shaping the future of interactive advertising.”

We also have a history of partnering with large publishers to deliver groundbreaking and technically challenging units like these on a global scale. Some examples of similar formats we have pioneered include the branded canvas, a standard in interactive preroll that has been running at scale on major broadcast network sites for well over five years; the 3D cube, which we developed and ran worldwide using Unicast technology (before Flash could support the 3D functionality); and, more recently, a variety of Flash-based 3D formats that have run globally in support of major theatrical releases and other global advertising events.

“Unicast has an ongoing tradition of partnering with global publishers to innovate within the interactive space and develop new formats and stronger standardization to the industry,” said James Dillon, general manager of Unicast. “We’re glad to be working closely with the IAB to drive meaningful results online for brands around the world.”

We are proud to announce the results of our Q1 2011 US Analytics Benchmark Report, which provides a performance analysis of the most popular ad formats across multiple industries. This is the fifth straight quarter that a video-related format has been at the top of Unicast’s performance list for interaction rate.

“Unicast’s benchmark analysis program allows us to evaluate and better provide insights on multiple ad formats and creative executions to key publishers, agencies and advertisers” said James Dillon, General Manager for Unicast. “It’s no surprise to us that video-related formats continue to perform so well. The In-Stream format, specifically, is a staple of our business and a format we leverage on behalf of clients globally.”

Key Findings Include:

•  Unicast Expandable Units, ranked second highest in interaction rate while Over-the-Page Units ranked second highest in average engagement time

•  In-Stream Branded Canvas ad formats, which are custom interactive units positioned within full-episode video players, continue their leading performance producing the highest interaction rates and the highest average video view time

•  CPG/Food (59 seconds), Consumer Electronics (48 seconds), and Internet/Services (37 seconds) returned the highest average engagement times of all verticals

Unicast Q1 2011 Analytics Benchmark Report

Unicast is proud to announce the launch of the Rising Star Filmstrip format. Earlier this year our partner, MSN Advertising, received the IAB Rising Star Award for pioneering the Filmstrip and we are proud to help them scale this format across different publishers going forward.

This innovative new product provides a rich, engaging experience with enhanced branding and content capabilities all delivered in-page and completely controlled by the user. Brands have a 300x3000 canvas viewable through a 300x600 window; and simple actions like scroll, click, and hover encourage both higher engagement times and interaction rates. Based on your previous interaction with the ad, the Filmstrip serves up the next content segment in sequence.

Read about Unicast's partnership with Microsoft to help execute the new IAB award-winning Filmstrip ad format by clicking here!