So here I am, I’m YouTube, I’m the biggest, most well-known video platform out there and people watch me all day and all night.  So you can imagine how pissed off I’d be to hear that when it comes to digital video ad campaigns, 65% of marketers actually prefer social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat.  The study by Trusted Media Brands shows it wasn’t even close, the social networks win by about 10 percentage points.  The ad method that will likely see the biggest investment over the next year is, you’ll like this, branded content.  In-video banner ads and pre- and post-video ads are falling out of favor.  C’mooon Skip This button!  Business Insider reports a lot of people are very interested in live-streaming video advertising too, especially on Facebook.

 

Well, I just won a Content Marketing Award for best podcast.  That, of course, is a lie.  And Mark May and the people at Citi just finished a study that says you probably didn’t much appreciate being lied to.  They found 48% of US internet users felt deceived by clicking on a commercial they thought was news or commentary.  Now in my defense, I didn’t deceive you, I just blatantly lied to you.  If you play people for fools or trick them, odds are good they won’t think highly of your brand.  But writer Myles Udland wonders about the 32% who didn’t feel deceived.  Were they so happy with the ad they were tricked into that they bought something?  20% said they didn’t know if they felt deceived.  How can you be that out of touch with your feelings?  I don’t know what I think and I don’t know how I feel.

 

Getting your content shared might be the goal for some of your campaigns, so listen to what Fractl and BuzzSumo’s study of the most social-shared articles from December 2015 to June 2016 turned up.  First of all, it’s getting ridiculous how dominant Facebook is for sharing.  It has 90.2% of all social sharing.  In 2nd place is Twitter waaay back at 6.1%.  Facebook had a little over 81% last year so as ridiculously dominant as it is, it’s getting even more-so.  Twitter fell 29.1% and LinkedIn surpassed Google+ and Pinterest.  The other thing they did is use MeaningCloud to check the sentiment of the content getting shared.  Bottom line, it’s content that evokes positive emotions that get spread like a lovely, desirable infection.  Less than 8% of shared content was negative, and Twitter seems to have almost twice as much of that as Facebook.  #everythingsux

 

Sharing is important.  In fact, go share the fact that sharing is important.  So as mobile usage continues to grow and eat the world, you might want to know how to make your stuff as shareable as possible on mobile devices.  That’s exactly what Dan Steiner wrote about.  First, how does your content even look and work on mobile?  If it’s lousy your chances of getting shared are super close to nil.  Nil is bad.  Second, ShareThis learned people are 3x more likely to share on their iPhone than desktop, so make it amazingly obvious and easy to do so.  Next, pop down the pop-ups on mobile.  Don’t do it.  They slow page load, interrupt the content, and make people angry.  Fourth, make sure you invite people who use social logins to follow or like you to secure that connection.  And lastly, put shareable content on platforms made for mobile like Instagram and Snapchat.

 

Polar rolled out their global look at how branded content performed in Q2, and now here come the results right to your eagerly awaiting ears.  Click-through rates, meh.  It stayed about the same at .31%.  CTRs were highest on tablets for whatever reason.  Time spent with branded content was an average of 2:36, with the US spending the most time.  But there sure are more people making stuff and more people watching stuff.  Tobi Elkin writes the number of creatives went up 111% and views of branded content went up over 2.2x.  But pay attention to this; 40% and rising of branded content views now happen on mobile and tablet.  But those two also see lower time spent than desktop.  So Polar’s Greg Bella says that means you need to focus on making your content more “snack-sized.”

 

Remember when Michael Jackson’s hair caught on fire shooting a Pepsi commercial?  You might be too young to remember that but it was probably the least weird thing about Michael Jackson.  Well now Pepsi’s the launch partner for a new Twitter ad option, promoted stickers!  Twitter’s Ilya Brown said Twitter debuted stickers in July and now brands can jump aboard.  So Pepsi kicked it off with 50 stickers as part of its PepsiMoji campaign.  David Cohen writes brands should like it because their stickers get shared with users’ followers authentically.  And the stickers are a visual hashtag so if a follower taps the sticker, they’ll see more Pepsi stickered photos and the brand will see them.  And then my God the amount of Pepsi that will get drunk!  If one is to believe Twitter COO Adam Bain, #Stickers have already been a big hit with tweeterers.

 

Well the news doesn’t get any better for Google+.  After September 12, Google+ Hangouts on Air will no longer be available.  Emil Protalinski writes that Google made that announcement as quietly as they could, but here I am telling you about it, so it wasn’t that quiet.  It’s not like it should come as a shock.  Google has been uncoupling its services from any Google+ requirement since summer of last year, so now they’re doing the same to Hangouts on Air.  Two things to know; Hangouts on Air will still exist, it just won’t be attached to G+.  You can’t use it to schedule new Hangouts On Air.  The 2nd thing is that even though it will still exist, Google wants you to use YouTube Live from now on, which Google rolled out just one year after they made Hangouts On Air available to everyone.

 

Introducing, for the first time ever, so that you can stop holding your breath now, it’s video ads on Pinterest!  They’re called Promoted Video ads are video ads and what makes them Pinteresting is they have featured pins in them so hopefully viewers will do something after seeing the videos.  Millward Brown studied the new ad unit’s performance and found they delivered “significant brand lift metrics” across several verticals and were 4x more memorable than ads without videos.  Guinea pigs included the movie The Secret Life of Pets, and Old El Paso.  Old El Paso’s Meredith Schaffner said, “Our customers come to Pinterest with high intent, and the ability to show a recipe and our products through video is a unique opportunity.”  Pinterest’s Mike Bidgoli said now the 67% who say Pinterest videos make them want to take action can click and start doing just that with brands’ products and services.

 

That’s it.  Make me a hotshot on Twitter @mikestiles.