Digital CPG Blog

Digital coupon company Coupons.com recently closed on a $200 million funding round, reports GigaOm.

“Right now we have about 300 employees based in Silicon Valley,” CEO Steven Boal said. With this new funding, the company plans to add 100 new staff members in the next six months and add new sales offices in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Coupons.com will also focus on adding new mobile and social networking technologies, he said.

But while Boal was happy to discuss Coupons.com’s consumer traction, he was notably mum in the GigaOm interview on disclosing details about the company’s financial performance. He declined to answer questions about Coupon.com’s sales figures, its prior funding history, whether or not it’s profitable, or who exactly participated in this latest financing round.

Regardless, the news is great for all those involved in digital couponing as this space only gets larger and more profitable.

We all care about privacy, but many of us don’t do much about it. That’s because there’s not much to do. But privacy uproar has given some advertisers cause to self-regulate… but so far, consumers aren’t responding. From AdAge:

Since last year, ad organizations in the U.S. have been running a campaign meant to stiff-arm regulatory efforts of the sort that went into effect last week in Europe, where companies will now have to get permission from consumers before dropping cookies onto their computers. The centerpiece of the campaign to convince Congress and the FTC that self-regulation is good enough is the “Ad Option Icon” placed in some ads, pointing to information about behavioral targeting and offering a way to opt out of it.

Thus far it’s received relatively low response, a rare case where low click-through on an ad is positioned as a positive thing. The click-through rate is just 0.002% and of those people who do follow the link, only 10% opt out of the ads, according to DoubleVerify, which recently won a contract from the industry trade group to license the icon for ad clients. Two other companies, Evidon and TRUSTe, also provide the service. Evidon, which has the longest set of data, is seeing click-through of 0.005% with only 2% opting out from 30 billion impressions.

But the low rates alone don’t mean consumers aren’t interested in the issue of how companies are monitoring and using their online behavior. After all, click rates on display ads are generally low, often well under 1% depending on the product category, the audience and the kind of website.

Let me guess. Your target demographic is a young mom?

Thought so.

Here’s a refresher on who she is:

She Is Not Paying Attention to Your On TV

“In broadcast primetime, ad recall levels are 8 percent lower among moms 25-54 than non-moms of the same age and the general population. Nielsen has found that the ads that resonate most with moms are often family- and convenience-oriented with relatable characters/situations, sentimental tonality and good natured humor. A heavy focus on products/services tends to reduce ad effectiveness among moms.  For moms, the 30-second sitcom (or drama) might just snag her much-divided attention.”

She Is Paying Attention To You Online

Moms are more likely to become a fan or follow a brand (31% more likely) than the general population and and comment on others postings (27% more likely). “Moms account for one-fourth of all video streams occurring on social networks, and are also more likely to post their own content: photos (37% more likely), links/articles/videos (25%), status updates (33%).”

“Moms make up more than one-fifth of online video viewers and spent an average of 258 minutes viewing online video in March 2011.  Compared to the overall usage in the US, Moms spent 25% more time, about 52 minutes longer on average, viewing online video from Home PCs.”

Forrester tried to claim last week that Facebook will not drive e-commerce.

Uh… have they been awake lately?

Lucky for Facebook, they were able to show exactly how the site is driving commerce earlier this month. After all, where there is community, there is commerce.  Simple as that.

Facebook has long promoted the value of such social ads, saying that word of mouth from friends is more valuable for users and marketers alike than generic marketing messages. The company now says that, similarly, e-commerce sites are increasingly benefiting from tying their services into the Facebook platform. In other words, Facebook says a purchase shared on Facebook generates more purchases from friends.

“We now have a direct link between sharing on Facebook and revenue generation at e-commerce sites,” said Dan Rose, vice president of partnerships and platform marketing at Facebook. Mr. Rose said that 18 of the top 25 e-commerce sites are using Facebook features like Facebook Connect or the “Like” button. Giantnerd.com, a shopping site for outdoor gear, saw a doubling in revenue generate from Facebook within two weeks of adding the Like button, Facebook said. American Eagle saw users referred by Facebook spend 57 percent more than average on the site, Facebook said.

Nothing like some hard numbers showing your relevance and dominance to prove the naysayers wrong.

I’ve been talking to several bloggers and changemakers about video lately and most seem hesitant about it. Most even come back with, “I don’t watch any video online.”

Really? I seriously doubt that. Instead, I think watching video online is so natural to a lot of us that we don’t even notice we’re doing it. When I asked one marketer to pay attention to how often he clicks play, he admitted that he watches many more videos than he originally thought.

The rest of us are doing the same.

New figures released by Unruly Media show that online video sharing has doubled in volume in the past nine months, reports Chris Lake.

And they must be good videos too, because the firm, which runs the Viral Video Chart, measured sharing activity across Facebook, Twitter and blogs and found that sharing has increased by more than 86% since May 2010. Most of that sharing is done on (surprise!) Facebook. The Facebook platform lets you play video links directly on Facebook, which is no doubt a reason why the trend has picked up so much in this area.

Video content used to be expensive to produce, but now consumers and viewers don’t need anything fancy (and it just might hurt you if it is). So, if your brand has included a video content strategy into your marketing plans, what’s stopping you?

Where will advertising be in 4 years? Take a look at Google’s fascinating predictions:

1) 50% of online ads will have video in them and be bought on a cost-per-view basis. Today, 24 hours of video content are uploaded to YouTube each minute. Google Tuesday officially launched two YouTube video formats, TrueView, based on a cost-per-view advertising model after dabbling in it for nearly a year. This means advertisers only pay when consumers chose to watch the advertisement. TrueView will roll out later this year.

2) 50% of all display advertising targeted to a specific audience will rely on real-time bidding.

3) Mobile will become the No. 1 screen for advertising. The mobile screen will become the first screen that consumers go to on a variety of mobile devices.

4) Five new metrics will emerge to measure the success of ad campaigns. They will become more successful and important. Some exist already: engagement and interaction rates in rich media, video view, and impact on Web search results. Others might include sentiment analysis to measure the viral influence and the tone of consumer chatter about the brand across the Internet. Or, measure foot traffic into the store through geo-based technology.

5) 75% of ads will become socially enabled. In the long term, all ads will become social as the industry moves to an always-on communication.

6) 50% of brand campaigns will run rich media in the ads, up from 6% during the last year.

7) Display advertising will become a $50 billion industry. Google advertisers have increased the amount they spend annually with the technology company about 75% during the last year.

(via Collaborative Blog).

Now when you or your friends like a brand on Facebook, it will show up twice – once in the news feed and once again in a new special sponsored section.

“For example, if Starbucks buys a ‘sponsored story’ ad,” Ad Age reports, “the status of a user’s friends who check into or ‘like’ Starbucks will run twice: once in the user’s news feed, and again as a paid ad for Starbucks. Though clearly marked with the words ‘sponsored story,’ the ad — which will includes a user’s name, just like the news feed — is not optional for Facebook users.”

“The product itself is broken into four possible buys for advertisers — page likes and check-ins, and actions Facebook is calling ‘application play’ and ‘page posts.’”

“A ‘page post’ is when an advertiser posts something and it wants to get more distribution, so it can buy a sponsored story to further distribute that post — in the news feed and on the right-hand side of the home page.”

Would you be willing to try this kind of advertising? There is some user risk involved, but all in all seems like a win to me.

AdAge reports that “ad spending is on the right, but growth may be slow.” More fascinating in my opinion is that internet has passed all magazines and will also surpass print media by 2014. Internet advertising is still behind broadcast; when do you predict the internet will surpass television? Will it ever or will both mediums still be relevant?

As video moves more and more online, will this be the kicker that shifts it all?

You may not need to pay your trendy ad agency any longer. It turns out witty ads, although they are often popular, do not often translate to commercial success.

The old adage that popularity doesn’t equal success, AdAge reports, might just be true. “Effectiveness is a much different measure than “likability,” which Target’s holiday campaign featuring comedian Maria Bamford was reported to have achieved in spades this holiday season. Interestingly, despite the fun and likability of the Target ads, the creative was far less effective than many other holiday ads and failed to even make it into Ace Metrix’ top 10 most effective holiday ads list.”

“Philanthropic ads for major brands continue to show strong advertising value,” the articles continue. “Consumers respond better to a message about what companies are doing for them, instead of a straight sales pitch.”

“Nine times out of 10, funny ads win the popularity contests, but ‘likability’ is only one dimension of an ad’s overall effectiveness. Just because an ad is funny or popular doesn’t mean it is effective at driving consumer behavior.”

New research shows that “the number of digital coupon events increased by 59.9 percent for the year ending Sept. 30,” and “267 manufacturers distributed digital coupon offers, an increase of 23 percent compared to the 217 manufacturers that were active in 2009 across key websites.”

As consumers habits change, so too is the couponing industry. “Digital coupons are becoming a core component within the overall promotion mix for consumer packaged-goods manufacturers,” said Mark Nesbitt, president of Kantar Media.

“Digital coupon events on retailer websites are becoming an attractive opportunity for manufacturers to align with their strategic retail partners in order to drive shopping trips and increase sales,” said Bob Cristofono, Marx VP of sales.

Coupons becoming digital is only the start of how manufacturers can use this great marketing opportunity. Can you think of other creative ways to extend digital coupon offers?