Sunday Service

The August national newspaper ABCs are now out, so we are now able to see where the ‘lost readers’ of the News of the World turned to for their news fix on a Sunday.

Firstly, the bad news. Whilst widely expected to be one of the main winners from the demise of the NOTW, and after having experienced a short term gain in July after the closure of the tabloid, the Mail on Sunday actually managed to lose circulation month on month. It lost 150,000 in August. The mid market paper does remain the biggest-selling Sunday title after the closure of Murdoch's tabloid, but average circulation for the title fell 7%month-on-month in August to 2,098,244.

Other Sunday tabloids fared better in August. The Daily Star Sunday, which saw a 130% increase in sales in July, increased sales further by 6% month-on-month to 744,981.

The People, which almost doubled sales in the wake of the News of the World closure, performed the strongest among the Sunday tabloids in August with an 11% rise to 892,033.

The Sunday Mirror remained the top-selling Sunday red-top, with a 6% increase in August to 1,900,460.

The Future of TV?

Recently, there has been a lot of discussion regarding what the future of TV would look like. One possible answer seems to be taking the form of content from Facebook, paid for by Facebook credits.

The BBC has this week announced a video-on-demand app for Facebook that will allow users of the website to rent a limited number of Top Gear episodes. There will three episodes available at a cost of 15 Facebook Credits each (around£1). Once rented, episodes will be available to view for 48 hours.

The Top Gear episodes will only be made available for users in Europe, the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. This builds on activity last month where BBC Worldwide announced a similar deal with Facebook to allow fans to watch classic episodes of Doctor Who.

The BBC is not alone in using Facebook to distribute content. This week Miramax unveiled a movie streaming service through Facebook at a cost of 30 Facebook Credits (around £2) each. FA Cup sponsor Budweiser have also done a deal with non-league teams Ascot United and Wembley FC to stream the opening game of the FA Cup live.

1 + 1 = 3

At AdConnection, we have recently been running a number of campaigns for our clients where we have looked to use the ‘media multiplier’ effect to help our clients advertising spend work harder for them. Put simply, the media multiplier effect is the added benefit that is derived from including more than one media to an advertising plan.

This isn’t a new phenomenon. There have been numerous studies over the years, mainly carried out by trade bodies representing differing media channels, which prove that advertising recall is significantly increased by the use of multiple media.

It’s a bit like ordering a burger – on its own it’s good, but the addition of fries makes the meal!

What AdConnection have done recently is to use this knowledge around advertising recall and add in some insight regarding how consumers are now watching and crucially responding to advertising messages.

The latest Ofcom report into the communications market has shown that UK adults are now spending almost half of their waking hours consuming media. However, the tendency to consume some media simultaneously means that the actual time spent with media is less. For further proof of this just open up your laptop or smartphone and watch Twitter or Facebook when X Factor, Big Brother or a sporting event is on. This is multi-tasking in real time.

So consumers are online whilst watching TV. They listen to the radio whilst reading their favourite magazines. They are on their internet enabled smartphones whilst doing almost every and anything. How can we capitalise on this behaviour?

For a number of clients recently we have run TV advertising and online advertising (both Display and PPC) combined. This has had some dramatic effects, with CTRs being boosted by an average of 50%. In addition recently we have started including mobile activity, through our sister agency Fetch Media on out of home plans. This has had the effect of turning outdoor into a direct response media, and has dramatically increased calls and click-throughs to client websites from our outdoor advertising creative.

If you would like to know more about how we can make your advertising work harder through the addition of complementary media, or would simply like a burger and chips with us please get in contact.

Facebook Unveils New More Interactive Advertising Formats

Following on from our post below about Twitter’s moves to introduce advertising, Facebook have also been looking at their advertising model. We believe that Facebook’s route is closer to the correct answer in this area, being involving and encouraging a dialogue with consumers rather than just viewing them as passive receivers of information.

Facebook’s new sponsored story ad unit is called ‘Comment’, closely reflecting the interface users are familiar with from the main Facebook page. It will consist of a display ad that poses a question beneath and invites users to give their opinion or participate in a conversation. If users leave a comment, it can become visible to their friends as both a Sponsored Story and as a news feed story.

The Comment Ad is the result of Facebook’s “Ad Expo” last year, which invited advertising agencies to submit ideas for advertising designs to engage consumers in new, interactive ways.

Twitter Risks User Backlash With Advertising

Reports have started circulating that Twitter are considering adding 'promoted tweets' (thats advertising, to you and me) into user's tweet streams.

While this would answer one criticism leveled at the Twitter management (how do you monetise it?) it could adversely affect the user relationship and experience. Currently, a user only sees messages in their stream from users or companies they specifically choose to follow.

It seems a strangely old fashioned and intrusive way for a company to go about building an advertising platform in the new world of engagement and involvement. Many new media companies have used old fashioned advertising models when the opportunity was there to build something new. The VOD (Video on Demand) space is another example of this, where advertisers look to 'get in the way' of content a consumer really wants by shouting about themselves for 30 seconds.

We welcome the fact that Twitter are looking at ways for advertisers to reach their users, but simply believe there are better, less intrusive ways of doing it.

Microsoft Launch Interactive TV Ad platform

Microsoft have launched a new advertising platform for the Kinect called ‘NUads’, which it claims will transform TV advertising into an interactive experience by using the voice-and gesture-control of Kinect for the Xbox 360.

Ads placed on the Xbox will respond to various voice commands, such as “Xbox Tweet”, allowing the consumer the ability to share the brand information with friends and “Xbox More” to request additional information or money off coupons about a brand via email. "Xbox Near Me" will locate a retailer near you, and send a text message with the location.

Gesture control is also employed as a way of voting for preferences. By waving a hand, consumers can take part in real time voting for products or services.

Microsoft’s Mark Kroese, who heads up advertising for entertainment and devices at Microsoft said in a blog post prior to the launch today that Nuads will “change television as we know it – forever”.

That remains to be seen, but we do view this as a continuation of the trend for more involvement and interaction between advertisers and consumers.

The Museum of Me

Intel have launched a great personalised use of social media that is creating a lot of buzz and talkability for the company. A short video about the 'Museum of Me' project is below;

It works by taking your facebook information, including friends, pictures and locations and turning it into a personalised art exhibition. Apart from a few grumbles online regarding the random nature of the images being juxtaposed, this is fast gathering positive reaction and being shared at an amazing rate.

If you want to create your own museum, the link is here