Apple Collecting, Sharing iPhone Users’ Precise Locations
Apple Inc. is now collecting the “precise,” “real-time geographic location” of its users’ iPhones, iPads and computers. In an updated version of its privacy policy, the company added a paragraph noting that once users agree, Apple and unspecified “partners and licensees” may collect and store user location data. When users attempt to download apps or media from the iTunes store, they are prompted to agree to the new terms and conditions. Until they agree, they cannot download anything through the store. The company says the data is anonymous and does not personally identify users. Analysts have shown, however, that large, specific data sets can be used to identify people based on behavior patterns. An increasing number of iPhone apps ask users for their location, which is then used by the application or even uploaded to the app’s maker. Apps like the Twitter application Tweetie and Google Maps make frequent use of location data, either to help the user get oriented geographically or to associate the user’s action with a specific location (as when a tweet is geotagged). Apple says in its privacy policy that it uses personal information to “improve our services, content, and advertising.”
Read More: LATimes.com
Zuckerberg: Facebook Will Add Creativity to Ad Platform
CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes Facebook needs to do as good a job building out its advertising offerings as it has done with its developer platform. Speaking at the Cannes Lions festival, where he was awarded Media Person of the Year, Zuckerberg told the audience to expect more robust tools for reaching Facebook’s approximately 500 million monthly active users. “It’s a similar dynamic on marketer side as it is on developer side. We’ve built an A-class developer platform and we need to do the same for advertisers,” he said. He said any changes the company makes will support more creativity in the ad experience, though what exactly that means remains unclear. “We think the ecosystem…is gong to be a lot better if we add more creative [elements] to it,” he said. “The more you’re able to customize and personalize the products you offer and the marketing you have, the more effective it’s going to be.”
Read More: ClickZ
Integrating Search and Display for Data-Driven User Experiences
Six months into 2010 and things are looking downright sunny, unless you’re BP, or want to swim in the ocean anytime in the next five years. So far the economic outlook is good and recent reports suggest that the digital world is poised for growth. Agencies are hiring again, staffing up new roles, and expanding teams. Clients are cautiously coming back to the digital world. Life is good in the kingdom…or so it seems. A small storm is brewing. It’s not a client or budget problem; it’s an integration problem. Every agency is facing the problem of matching their user engagement strategy with their data-driven search efforts. How we approach this problem is key to organizing our agency resources to work with emerging trends and avoid the pending storm. Search has always fallen into the category of algorithm-driven strategy, but with the rise of ad exchanges, demand-side platforms, and trading desks – the water has gotten murkier. With this “new” way to buy, agencies aren’t only educating clients on this new format, but also aligning an organization to deliver against it.
Read More: ClickZ
Apple’s Next Disruption: Advertising
If anything is clear from the punches being thrown by Google at Apple over mobile advertising, it is that the search giant understands what is at stake. As mobile advertising comes into its own, Google should be well-positioned to grab a big piece of it. Prospects for other large media companies, online or traditional, are less sure. It is easy to underestimate the importance of mobile Internet and advertising. ComScore estimates 48 million people had smartphones in the U.S. in the three months to April, of whom only 5.4 million searched the Web on the devices on a near-daily basis. In contrast, the firm counted 214 million people searching the Web generally in April. Estimates from eMarketer put mobile advertising at $593 million this year, compared with about $25 billion for total online advertising. But eMarketer’s numbers were issued last September, before the release of the iPad. The Apple tablet’s strong sales so far confirm consumer demand for tablet computers and suggest consumers’ online behavior is likely to become a lot more mobile. That is likely already the case for owners of smartphones with robust Web browsers like iPhones or Android-powered devices. Android and iPhone devices commanded 37% of the smartphone market in the first quarter between them, according to Nielsen, against 35% for Research in Motion‘s BlackBerry. Nielsen’s data also show that close to 90% of iPhone and Android owners used the mobile Internet in the previous 30 days, compared with 73% for all smartphones. Browsing the Web on a BlackBerry can be a frustrating experience. So as RIM’s market share declines and iPhone, iPad and Android devices become more common, mobile Web use will take off. Data are scarce on how mobile browsing affects online behavior at a PC. But the ability to do Web searches anywhere likely reduces those done at a desk. Searching could become less important as people rely on apps for certain functions. All this should spark an ad shift to mobile, particularly to apps. Admittedly, advertisers can take years to respond to changes in consumer behavior. But Apple’s plunge into the ad market with iAds, which serves advertising inside apps, is likely to accelerate the change. That it drew $60 million in second-half 2010 commitments from such marketers as General Electric, Unilever and Nissan Motor indicates mobile-ad estimates are too low. Who will suffer from the advance of mobile advertising? TV networks, potentially, if the caliber of big-brand advertisers snagged by Apple continues. As the mobile audience is likely to fragment among applications, big Internet portals also may be at risk. Regardless, mobile likely will cause a bigger, faster disruption to the ad world than is generally appreciated.
Read More: WSJ
The Untapped Profit Opportunity For Ecommerce Sites
The first 15 years of online retail saw breakneck growth and little reason to focus on anything but transactional revenue. As the medium matures, the smartest retailers will recognize they are sitting on a gold mine of media impressions and consumer behaviors that can keep the bottom line growing even as transactional growth slows. Retail Web sites boast one of the best audiences a marketer could ask for: people who are actively researching and shopping products, practically raising their hands that they are currently in-market. In fact, brick-and-mortar stores have recognized this value for years, selling their suppliers premium placement such as end-cap displays, eye-level shelf space, and store circular ads. Yet most online retailers are barely scratching the surface of the potential. The untapped media sales opportunity in online retail becomes even clearer when you look at conversion rates. Typically less than 5% of a Web site’s shoppers actually transact — but 100% of that traffic is valuable to advertisers since many of those shoppers will go on to buy elsewhere. So why haven’t online retailers stepped up their game for in-store advertising?
Read More: MediaPost
YuMe Adds Brand Security
Online video has the undisputed numbers to attract advertisers, now it needs to inspire the confidence to seal the deal. To that end, video advertising technology company YuMe today announced that it has added brand security capabilities to its ACE technology platform. The new capabilities leverage YuMe’s proprietary domain detection technology, which can collect detailed information about the in-page environment of a syndicated or embeddable player when it makes an ad request, even when the player is not associated with a companion banner. This allows YuMe to prevent ads from running in video players that have been embedded on inappropriate websites, and to work with publishers to constantly monitor and improve the list of sites where their syndicated and user-embeddable players are appearing. “The majority of online video publishers—including some of the biggest media companies in the world—have chosen to syndicate their premium online video content and to offer user-embeddable video players, and we want to be able to reach these online video audiences while keeping our customers’ brands safe” said Jonathan Nelson, CEO of Omnicom Digital. “We are pleased that YuMe has chosen to make an ongoing investment in brand security, combining regular monitoring and research with proactive technology to prevent inappropriate impressions before they happen.”
Read More: DigidayDaily
IPG and AOL Unveil Plan to Improve Retail Marketing
Madison Avenue officially kicks off one of its annual summer rites today – in the South of France – where agencies will compete to prove who is most innovative and creative during the 57th annual Cannes Lions advertising festival. Some of the competition will take place during the judging sessions, of which one judging insider tells OMD U.S. agencies have made the most number of entries to the “short list,” followed by Sweden. Some of the competition will take place in presentations and panel discussions. And some of the competition will take place in the obligatory press announcements that agencies use to score bragging rights amid all the industry attention. Interpublic’s Mediabrands was first to score on the latter front, announcing an innovative online retail marketing initiative with AOL. The deal, which the companies boasted would “re-invent digital retail advertising,” combines the research and development assets of Interpublic units with the ability of AOL to mobilize and activate its massive online user base. The end goal is to develop new technologies that benefit both online consumers and marketers in the retail marketing process.
Read More: MediaPost
