Media Storm's December Digital Trends: - Snapcash - Facebook@Work - Google Contributor - Ingur x Promoted Posts - Nielsen X Moat - Instagram > Twitter - Mail Online doubles

1. © 2014 Media Storm LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Digital Trends
December, 2014

2. © 2014 Media Storm LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Snapcash
What is it?
Snapchat announced that you can now send cash to
anyone on your contact list through the app. A partnership
with Square was formed and all the sensitive information
will be passed through Square’s secure servers to protect
privacy
How does it work?
The user enters their debit card information in the
Snapcash settings with some security safeguards.
When a user wants to send cash, they just need to start a
chat with their friend and type in a dollar sign with the
amount they want to pay.
Opportunities?
The real names, addresses, and account information
associated with those debit cards can be collected by
Snapchat, according to its new privacy policy. That info
could potentially be cross-referenced with external
databases of personal information to give Snapchat a
much better idea of who users are and what ads they
might want to see.
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3. © 2014 Media Storm LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Facebook@Work
What is it?
Facebook is rumored to be coming out with a new product
called Facebook@Work which would be aimed at the
enterprise and offer capabilities such as newsfeeds, groups,
chat, and document collaboration for internal use in
businesses. Facebook at Work profiles would be entirely
separate from personal Facebook accounts.
How does it work?
Facebook@Work essentially allows employees to collaborate
via groups, messaging and the news feed. This collaboration
tool is a bid to compete with similar tools from Google,
LinkedIn and Microsoft
Opportunities?
At many companies, Facebook is banned or restricted,
meaning those are hours of the day when Facebook doesn't
have as easy access to its users. If Facebook can start to
understand what these users do from 9 to 5 when they're shut
out, there is a ton of market intelligence that any media
company would want to find a way to get at.
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4. © 2014 Media Storm LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Google Contributor
What is it?
Google launched Google Contributor on Thursday, 11/20. The tool
lets readers pay their favorite publishers in lieu of seeing ads. The
first10 publishers participating in the program include Imgur,
Mashable, The Onion, Urban Dictionary and WikiHow, and could
be used with any publisher that uses Google Display Network to
serve its ads.
How does it work?
The user first chooses a monthly contribution ($1-$3). When the user
then visits a participating website, part of their contribution goes to
the creators of that site. Now, when Contributor members visit
those sites, they will see a thank you message where there
normally was an ad.
Opportunities?
Display ads have long been considered a necessary annoyance
that publishers must adopt in order to generate revenue. Readers
have to see ads in order to access their media free of charge.
However, Google is testing to see if users are actually willing to pay
to get rid of ads surrounding their consumption.
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5. © 2014 Media Storm LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Imgur x Promoted Posts
What is it?
Imgur, which raised $40 million through a venture capital firm earlier this year, has quickly grown
to be the destination for viral pictures since its launch in 2009. According to the company, they
have more than 150 million users and get upward of 60 billion views a month. They have recently
hired Steve Patrizi to grow its native ad business in 2015, who was the former head of partner
marketing at Pinterest who also helped build marketing solutions at LinkedIn. In December 2014,
Steve Patrizi announced Imgur will likely launch Promoted Posts in July 2015.
How does it work?
Imgur has offered Sponsored Posts to advertisers in the past, however Patrizi explained these
were mostly experimental. Imgur previously told AdWeek that its native ads had an
engagement rate of between 1 percent and 4 percent. Unlike Sponsored Posts, which were
usually promoted on Imgur’s homepage, Promoted Posts will pop up after users click on regular
content. Also, algorithms will ensure readers won’t see the same ad during the same visit.
Opportunities?
Imgur is looking for 10 to 12 partners to test out Promoted Posts, possibly within the media and
entertainment, gaming and technology, and consumer packaged-goods umbrellas, as they
think they will resonate the most with its audience.
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6. © 2014 Media Storm LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Nielsen x MOAT
What is it?
Moat has formed an agreement with Nielsen to integrate
its campaign audience data into its platform
How does it work?
Moat will integrate data from Nielsen Online Campaign
Ratings into its attention analytics tools, to provide clients
with aggregated, anonymous audience demographic
data from digital data providers
Opportunities?
This is an industry first offering that will give advertisers and
publishers the ability to merge OCR audience data with
attention signals such as viewability, exposure time
metrics, and interactivity. Potential to connect how much
these data attention points affect tune in lift.
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7. © 2014 Media Storm LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Instagram > Twitter
What is it?
Instagram Is Now Bigger Than Twitter With 300 Million Monthly Users
How does it work?
Instagram now has 300 million monthly users, picking up 100 million since
March. The photo- and video-sharing app has surpassed Twitter's official
user count of 284 million. Instagram is set to introduce a number of new
features in the coming days, including verified badges for celebrities,
athletes and brands. In addition, the app will also start deleting the
spam accounts that it’s been deactivating throughout this year, which
could affect some users’ follower counts
Opportunities?
For years, the social media battle has always seemed to be between
Facebook and Twitter. With this huge milestone reached and new
advertising opportunities popping up on Instagram, we will start to see a
major shift in advertising dollars towards this visual platform
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8. © 2014 Media Storm LLC. All Rights Reserved.
With Celebrity and Scandal, Mail Online’s U.S. Revenue Doubles
What is it?
Mail Online has generated over $19million in revenue from
its U.S. website during the year ending in October which is
more than double than what it brought in during the
equivalent period a year prior. This revenue comes
specifically from digital ad sales alone.
How does it work?
This year, Mail Online hired Jon Steinberg, Buzzfeeds former
president and architect of its native advertising strategy.
He plays a big part in growing sales by introducing a fresh
slate of native ad formats. Furthermore, they are
continuing to beef up the sales team based on the fact
that the site is still not yet completely known to the
advertising world
Opportunities?
A broad, engaged audience with strong native advertising
opportunities. They’ve quickly become a major player in
the entertainment/news space.
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