You know why some of the biggest US publishers like Gannett, Dow Jones, and the New York Times hate Brave Software and sent it a cease and desist letter?  I’ll tell you why, because Brave has a browser that’s all about stopping ad targeting and people-tracking.  It just got $4.5 more million to keep working on it.  Jack Marshall reports that founder Brendan Eich isn’t waging a war on advertising or trying to hurt publishers’ revenue.  In fact, he says he’s helping them because “all this data is being shared and that doesn’t benefit anybody but the arbitragers.”  Brave intends to get ads in front of people, but in more privacy-conscious ways.  Meanwhile his browser speeds desktop browsing up to 60% and mobile browsing up to 300% because it’s not bogged down by the third parties.

 

Programmatic advertising is the data-driven, automated marketing dream, right?   Well not for everybody, because it’s geared toward platforms that have mass audiences.  But if you’re a super niche-programming play, such as oh I don’t know, podcasting, not so much.  In fact, Lindsey Bennett reports that at the International Advertising Association event by Nova, several people thought programmatic becoming the way of the world might kill podcasting in its adolescence.  Head of Creative Services Andy Milne said, “If you just buy the best CPM available and stick it in there, you lose contextualization.  No one will accept an ad if it’s contextually irrelevant.”  Mamamia Women’s Network’s Monique Bowley thinks podcasts should focus on sponsored content, not ads, and went on to predict in 5 years, podcasts will have gone to a Netflix-style subscription model.

 

Sure Facebook live video streams are great, but wouldn’t they be a lot better if they were interrupted with 15 second video ads?  I bet you’re like me and think that’d be an awesome user experience.  And that’s what Facebook is testing with some publishing partners.  Garett Sloane writes in AdAge the Zucker-man always said he thinks pre-roll ads ruin the viewing experience.  Guess he feels different about interrupting a live event.  They’ll use ads from existing video campaigns but marketers can opt out.  One agency said, “We wanted to opt out immediately, because there was no reporting and you don’t have control over where the commercial shows up.”  But 22squared’s Chris Tuff says it could work, depending on the ad creative.

 

Trends are always fun to hear about, although guesses about future trends are like scary exes, everybody’s got one.  These come from Jessica Ann so see if you see what she sees, see?  1. Getting rid of, once and for all, the thought that gaining followers or Page likes should be a goal.  More does not equal effective.  2. Emotional content is more crucial than ever, people aren’t swept off their feet by specs and features so much anymore.  The caveat to that is, emotional storytelling is not easy and not anyone can do it.  3. Source info in a concise way and please those very short average attention spans.  And make sure the info you gather up speaks to your audience’s pain points in a fun, creative way.  What trends is Jessica missing?  Tweet me @brandcontentst.

 

What do we want?  Seamless, continuous experiences across multiple devices.  When do we want it?  A couple of years ago.  But the Mobile Advertising Around the Globe 2016 report from Marin Software says you better know the strengths and weaknesses of each channel, and how people are using them.  Peggy Anne Salz reports apps make up about 90% of all time spent on mobile, so how’s your app ad game?  The report shows a shift in click share away from desktops to phones, with tablet clicking “relatively flat.”  For display ads, at the end of 2015, 71% of all display ad clicks were on a phone.  Tablets were again, flat.  What’s the deal with tablets and phablets not catching fire in terms of ad clicking?  The report says by the end of 2016, 45% of all ad dollars will be spent on smartphones, moving it ahead of desktops.

 

I like Bill Carmody, you know why?  Cause he validates me.  Forever, I’ve griped to whoever will listen, which is nobody, that Facebook’s a giant bait and switch on marketers.  Spend money to get people to join Facebook, build their user base, then be forced to pay to get content your fans literally asked to see in front of your own audience.  Seriously?  Well Bill says consider the possibility Facebook’s a colossal waste of money and we’re all getting played.  In addition to paying to talk to your own audience, Bill doesn’t like that we’re not allowed to reward people with something of value in exchange for a desired action, like a like or share.  API won’t work with Twitter, app restrictions, access to customer data; he’s got a lot of issues, mostly about rising tolls to reach your audience and perpetually changing rules so you can’t ever really stick to your Facebook strategy.  Preach it.

 

Eventually, a format gets so hot that even LinkedIn gets in on the action.  The now Microsoft owned professional social network launched a standalone app that lets their influencers – influential people, not you or me – record, post and share 30-second video clips of their highly sought after thoughts.  Venturebeat says it might expand to us lowlifes later on.  On the viewer side, you watch these videos from people you follow right in your feed, and afterward you’re shown other videos on that same topic you might like.  LinkedIn Sr. Product Manager Jasper Sherman-Presser says videos you can embed is on the roadmap, and yes, livestreaming is in the back of their minds and might someday move to the front of their minds.

 

A Videology study of video campaigns that ran on its platform in Q2 shows that most of you guys, 43%, have viewability as your main objective.  Then comes click thru rate and view thru rate.  Of the campaigns looking for viewability, the vast majority defined that as the MRC standard of half of pixels on the screen for 2 or more consecutive seconds.  Over half of campaigns targeted by behavior, while there was a 115% annual jump in those measuring demographic targeting with Nielsen or comScore, kinda like TV.  Cross-screen advertising saw a 20% annual rise, with most being the big combo meal of PC, mobile, and connected TV.

 

That’s it.  Thanks for the follows @mikestiles.