SmarketSights: Periscope, Snapchat, Ubimo and More
About SmarketSights SmarketSights is a blog and podcast series created to discuss the latest industry happenings in marketing, advertising, and sales. We’ll uncover the deeper meaning behind the headlines and analyze what it means for real companies and their marketing, advertising, and sales efforts. SmarketSights will cover everything from Tech to Design to Sports and everything in between. Join us weekly for a new edition! If you have a topic or question you’d like us to cover in SmarketSights, please feel free to email zclark@cowleyweb.com or comment below! THE RISE OF PERISCOPEPeriscope is a live video steaming app for both the iPhone and Android devices that was just recently launched back in late March. The basic premise is that a user can put up a live video feed from their phone’s camera and anyone else in the world can watch it in real-time. The recording only stays up for 24 hours before it’s gone, too. It was bought by Twitter before its March debut for roughly $100 million and has amassed hundreds of thousands of users in just a few months. Another live video streaming app, Meerkat, was already on the market before Periscope launched, but, according to LostRemote, Periscope has 39% more repeat users. How can brands use Periscope? Well, the idea of utilizing a live video stream is an attractive proposition for many people because it gives the opportunity to be more “real-time” with an audience base. We see companies try to interact with followers and customers in immediate ways (ie things like Twitter Chats and for B2B companies, Webinars), but really that’s as close as we’ve gotten to being virtually in the same room as someone. Periscope is really built for the Millennial generation because of their high need for immediacy and having things right this very second. It’s hard to say that many B2B organizations will use something like Periscope because the app is so Twitter focused. Although Twitter is on the rise in popularity for some B2B niches, it’s not as effective of a medium as something like LinkedIn is in getting a message out there. Also, it’s important to think about time constraints. Some companies lose focus on doing what’s effective over what’s trendy. But, for consumer brands, live video streaming can be a real powerful tool. Content marketing has been the name of the game over the past few years and we’re seeing a “journalistic” style to how things are being communicated. Periscope is a journalist’s dream because instead of stale press releases or live tweeting an event, you can allow your audience to be there “with you” the entire time. It gives out the power to be interactive, real-time, and share more of what a company does in a neat, interesting way. SNAPCHAT IPO IS IMMINENTSnapchat’s CEO, Evan Spiegel, was recently quoted, “We need to IPO. We have a plan to do that.” The disappearing photo/video company is only four years old and is already worth upwards of $19 billion. Remember in 2013 when Snapchat declined a $3 billion offer from Facebook? Most sane people thought Snapchat was crazy, but it’s certainly looking like a great decision now.
A good majority of consumer brands are already using Snapchat and we’re seeing it become more and more popular as time goes on with the Millennials. Sports teams are also taking a liking to the app. I recently had a conversation with a Digital Marketing Manager for an NFL team and he told me that the NFL didn’t know what to do with Snapchat yet, but that it was going to be huge so all the teams should get on it. Look out for major sports teams and leagues to start using Snapchat more often. The MLB is already a heavy user and it’s only estimated that will increase. However, a question to be weary of is: will Snapchat users stay for the long haul? It’s built on an audience base who will “follow the shiny penny.” Also, an IPO might be a detriment to the company long-term. Just ask Zynga how they’re doing (spoiler: after their IPO in December 2011 at about $11/share, they’re currently sitting at just about $3/share at the time of writing.) UBIMO IS RAISING THE TARGETING BARUbimo is, in their own words, “an industry-leading mobile advertising technology company. Our technology enables brands to reach their target audience using real-time contextual targeting.” In English that means this company knows what someone is doing and what they’re interested in, and in real-time it can change an advertisement’s messaging to fit the situation. The software takes into account things such as the weather, neighborhood demographics, events, venues, etc. TechCruch had a great example: “if someone goes to a lot of baseball games, Ubimo might send them ads about sales at nearby sports equipment stores.” Ubimo is all about reaching the audience in the right “state of mind.” For those of you who buy Facebook ads, you’ll probably start to think that this is similar because Facebook takes into account interests, demographics, and different geographic areas. However, Facebook ads aren’t quite as dynamic and change to the situation. This platform is like a HubSpot or Sharpspring type drip email campaign built for mobile devices and users. This platform is the epitome of using Big Data and becoming smarter about adverting. Programmic media buying is already huge for television and internet, but now throw in the dynamics of changing an ad based on the weather outside in a certain geographic area: game changer. There has been rumblings about marketing swinging back to being more creative rather than strategic, but in my eyes it’s about how creative can we get with the data that’s available so we can make smarter decisions, not necessarily how creatively designed the ads look (which, don’t get me wrong, is extremely important!). 10 MOST VALUABLE BRANDS IN THE WORLDBrandZ, a nationally recognized brand equity database, recently published the “Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands 2015 Report.” This year’s Top 10 includes: 1. Apple 2. Google 3. Microsoft 4. IBM 5. Visa 6. AT&T 7. Verizon 8. Coca-Cola 9. McDonald’s 10. Marlboro One of the most surprising companies on that Top 10, probably for everyone, is Marlboro. But, did you know that they own 43.8% of the US cigarette market and outside the US, its share is bigger than the next two largest brands combined? Considering the rise of e-cigarettes and the fact that smoking in the US is down from 42% of the population in 1965 to 18% of population in 2012 (according to the American Cancer Society), Marlboro is still worth about $80 billion. Smoking might not be so “cool” anymore, but that’s not stopping anyone from picking up some Marlboro reds. There was a flip flop at the top of the list, too. Apple overtook Google as the world’s most valuable brand, but it was in the fashion they did it in which is shocking. Apple saw a 67% skyrocket in their brand’s value bringing it to $247 billion. Google saw a modest 9% increase bringing their brand value to $174 billion. That’s a stark $73 billion difference! Apple has a ton of haters out there because of their knack for ripping off ideas and making the ideas better for their own products, but I think Tim Cook and staff are coping with it. CLOSING THOUGHTSThis does it for the first edition of SmarketSights! I’m extremely excited to post and share my thoughts on a weekly basis on things that are currently happening in the industry. In the near future, we'll be producing a podcast that will accompany these posts to uncover more insights into the topics. Please feel free to share with me your thoughts and/or questions you want me to cover in a future edition. Thanks for reading/listening and until next week!
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So, what will a Snapchat IPO mean then? For starters, Evan Spiegel will become one wealthy individual. But we’ll also see the company turn most of its focus to advertising and developing the app into a platform where brands can pay for the eyes of Snapchat users. The app already has some advertising going on and clearly knows that in order to continue to make money and survive an IPO, it needs an advertising focus. This will give companies an opportunity to reallocate (or add more altogether) digital marketing funds to Snapchat and away from platforms like Facebook.
