Mediaboss Marketing

Short-form video is the trend of the moment, and with attention spans reducing, and new engagement behaviors taking hold, particularly among younger demographics, it seems like short-form interaction is here to stay, which is why every platform is now following TikToks lead into the next phase of video connection.

But effective monetization of short-form video is hard.

Vine found this out the hard way while Vine was hugely popular at one stage, and kick-started the careers of many now well-known stars, Vines parent company Twitter could never work out how to generate significant revenue from Vine clips, because you cant insert pre or mid-roll ads into such short content. That, eventually, saw its biggest stars moving on to greener pastures, which eventually also forced Vine to shut down.

TikTok is well-aware of this, and its well-aware of the increased direct monetization potential on offer in other apps, which is a big part of why today TikTok has confirmed that all users will soon be able to upload 10 minute long videos in the app, a significant expansion on its current time limits.

As you can see in this alert, posted by social media expert Matt Navarra, many TikTok users are now being notified of an expansion in their upload capacity.

TikTok has since confirmed the full roll-out of the option (to TechCrunch):

Were always thinking about new ways to bring value to our community and enrich the TikTok experience. Last year, we introduced longer videos, giving our community more time to create and be entertained on TikTok. Today, were excited to start rolling out the ability to upload videos that are up to 10 minutes, which we hope would unleash even more creative possibilities for our creators around the world.

That previous expansion in video length came last August, with users given the option to upload 5 minute long clips.

Originally, TikToks time limit per clip was 15 seconds, before being extended to 60 seconds, then 3 minutes. Now, users will be able to upload much longer clips, which could actually have a big impact on how people consume content in the app, and in many ways, its a risky bet for TikTok, which has built its audience, thus far, on the back of short, pithy memes and responses.

Will users really welcome 10 minute long videos in their For You feed?

TikTok does, of course, also have longer live-streams which are displayed in the main feed, and those havent caused any engagement issues thus far, while some creators have also been able to post longer uploads for some time. So it does have some insight as to the potential impact of longer uploads on audience behaviors, while the Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin, has enabled 15 minute uploads for all users since 2019.

So its not going in blind here, TikTok does have some understanding of how users are likely to respond, and how to best present longer clips in-stream. But itll be interesting to see whether there is an impact on user behavior and interest, and whether TikTok can successfully extend user engagement in the app, which could lead to a much broader set of content and advertising options.

Which is the real push here. Again, given the challenges in monetizing short-form video content, its seemed inevitable that TikTok would eventually need to lean into longer form uploads in order to provide more direct monetization potential for creators. YouTube, for example, is looking to use its TikTok-like Shorts option as a supplementary content vehicle for its creators, so that they can then drive more interest in their main content feed, where they can make much more money from in-stream ads.

The potential for making real money from your uploads is far greater on YouTube, which brought in $28.8 billion in ad revenue last year, with around half of that going back to creators. TikTok has its $500 million creator fund, as well as tipping and donations, but those options dont come close to facilitating similar earnings capacity in this respect.

And TikToks already feeling the pressure. Last month, well-known video creator Hank Green posted a video in which he outlined how TikToks creator funding models are fundamentally flawed, and how, eventually, thatll likely lead to a creator revolt, as they seek a bigger slice of the revenue pie.

TikTok hasnt provided any public response to this, despite Greens video reaching almost a million views and sparking new questions about its longevity.

Maybe this, then, is TikToks answer, giving creators the capacity to actually generate direct revenue via longer clips, a direct monetization offering more in line with what theyll see on YouTube.

Will that work?

Time will tell, but again, Id have to see it to believe that TikTok users will actively and regularly engage with longer form clips.

Maybe they will, maybe this is the start of the next phase for TikTok, and that will be the thing that propels it to the next stage of growth, and the next billion users. But maybe not. Vine also tried expanding its video length, with no luck, and with TikTok also coming under scrutiny over the spread of misinformation in the app, particularly around the current Ukraine crisis, the expansion could also open up a range of new problems for the platform to deal with, on a scale that its not had to address in the past.

Which is likely why its taking a staged approach to the roll out but longer videos are coming, and youll soon see new trends starting to form around longer clips within the app. Whether you like it or not.

View post:
TikTok Confirms that 10 Minute Video Uploads are Coming to All Users - Social Media Today

On TV & Video is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video.

Todays column is by Jeremy Fain, CEO and co-founder of Cognitiv.

For the past two years, the pandemic has significantly impacted almost every part of our daily lives.

In the advertising industry, weve seen events, including Cannes and CES, move to virtual or hybrid content. Weve experienced the great agency resignation. Weve watched the evolution of remote work unfold.

Yet, despite upheaval, ad tech continues to thrive. That is, in part, because connected digital content has been essential for getting consumers through lockdowns.

Escaping into mobile games, OTT video content or platforms that host online communities hasnt just been a trivial distraction. Rather, those environments have provided meaningful refuge in a profoundly challenging time. In that context, programmatic has continued to surge and reshape the digital landscape that trend will only continue.

Programmatic is a multifaceted entity with broad application and potential. Heres what we can expect as it matures.

Accelerated growth will push CTV out of the Wild West

There has been no shortage of coverage on the growth of CTV as linear TV dollars shift into the channel. However, its still a channel that is hard to measure centrally.

Marketers have thrown their money into CTV knowing its the correct channel to reach their target audiences, but theyre doing this with the hope of reaching people and no real accountability of where their money is going. Thats the antithesis of what modern ad tech should be.

Currently, the biggest problem for CTV is that marketers are still buying loads of impressions, not knowing where their ads turn up or how those ads track back to new business. This is the year marketers are going to demand more measurement and attribution.

Direct-to-consumer marketing dollars will flee social

Social media has had a massive impact on advertising over the past few years, but its influence may be waning. Facebooks blackout last year, along with Apples iOS update, demonstrated a major weakness in the companys platforms. Not only did businesses lose millions of dollars, but customer acquisition costs have also jumped.

Meanwhile, the wave of VC funding that supported DTCs social focus has slowed rapidly. This has led to a renewed focus on the need for a profitable customer acquisition model. It has also pushed DTC brands to diversify to find lower CAC partners.

Still, DTC isnt going away. Rather, its adapting to increasingly holistic and mature marketing strategies. That holistic approach also applies to data, where there is increasing recognition that your own data in isolation does not paint a complete picture. Embracing a wider range of both advertising platforms and data sources will go hand in hand.

In short, the era of having your marketing dollars in one basket is coming to an end.

Marketers will invest more in AI and custom algorithms

For some marketers, AI still seems like a far-removed and bewildering concept. But just as you dont have to know how to build a car to be able to drive one, AI technologies bring advertisers and marketers remarkable gains without demanding the knowledge of an experienced AI engineer.

Thats evident in AIs current presence in our everyday lives. AI and deep learning are everywhere from self-driving cars to voice activation on our smartphones. Most of us cant get by in our daily lives without some form of AI, even if were blissfully unaware of the technologys inner workings.

One-to-one marketing has long been a talking point, and once upon a time it felt futuristic. But were getting to the point where deep learning is an accessible and effective tool in a marketers toolkit.

Whats next: accountability drives acceleration

Over the next few months, the evolution of programmatic will bring increased maturity, accountability and a coming together of technology and standards that offer realistic, everyday gains.

Already, theres a great deal of untapped potential to better connect brands with audiences.

Follow Cognitiv (@TeamCognitiv) and AdExchanger (@adexchanger) on Twitter.

Read more:
Programmatic Is Maturing, And Here's What That Means For CTV, Social And AI - AdExchanger

The University of New England Center for Excellence in Public Health (CEPH) had a strong presence at the national annual meeting of the Association of SNAP Nutrition EducationAdministrators (ASNNA), held virtually from Feb. 8 to 10.

The conference theme was Transforming Tomorrow Together: Building on 30 Years of SNAP-Ed. The history of SNAP-Ed funding was highlighted along with emerging innovative approaches to alleviate hunger through equitable programming.

CEPH staff presented on work related to program evaluation, social marketing and media, and COVID-19s impact on program delivery. Panel presentations highlighted work completed this past year through research and practice collaborations with academic peers from more than a dozen partnering universities.

CEPHs Senior Research Associates Pamela Bruno, M.P.H., and Kira Rodriguez, M.H.S., contributed to presentations, as did Hannah Ruhl, M.P.H., the programs obesity prevention coordinator. CEPHs Tasha Gerken-Nelson, M.S., RD, senior nutrition program coordinator, co-chaired the conference planning committee.

The following presentations were shared at the 2022 ASNNA Virtual Annual Conference:

Maine SNAP-Ed, implemented by UNE through a contract with Maines Office for Family Independence, addresses food security and wellness in low-resource settings across the state. The funding comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (U.S.D.A.) and is granted to over 160 agencies throughout the nation. Implementing agencies include universities, nonprofits, state health and agriculture departments, and tribal-serving organizations. ASNNA brings member implementing agencies together annually to advance best practices.

View original post here:
Maine SNAP-Ed well represented at national meeting of implementing agencies - University of New England

Hongkongers have been using social media for many years and the adoption of social platforms has no signs to stop. In a recent study conducted by We are Social and Hootsuite, it was found that today, many social media users in Hong Kong use their accounts to conduct brand research. Many of them also follow influencers, experts, brands, celebrities and TV shows and channels.

According to The Digital 2022 report, Hong Kong had 6.68 million of social media users last year, equivalent to 88.1% of the city's population. The number of social media users increased by 3.7% year-on-year. Moreover, 99.7% of the entire population aged over 13 used social media too. The majority of Internet users (94.8%) used social media as well.

Social media platforms were crucial to brand research among Hongkongers with 69.4% of respondents in Hong Kong aged from 16 to 64 stating that they used social media to conduct brand research. Around 39.8% and 23.5% of them went for social networks and forums or message boards for information about brands respectively.

However, only a handful of them relied on messaging and live chat services (11.6%), micro-blogs (9.5%), and vlogs (9.1%).

In a previous interview with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Eric Thain, general manager - brand and customer at HK Express predicted that social commerce is going to take centre stage in the upcoming years. "Although China has seen this adoption earlier on, more global social media platforms have introduced social commerce functions to capture this opportunity. This will fuel the growth of this trend," he said.

Social media users in Hong Kong had various purposes when going online. For example, 47.5% of them followed friends, family and people they know, followed by TV shows or channels and bands, singers and musicians (both 29.9%). Around 26.7% of them followed influecners and experts, while 24.6% said they followed brands that they bought from.

Thain added that the proliferation of live streaming and user-generated content, due to short consumer attention spans, would increase the number of more bite-size content.

The report also examined web traffic referrals from various social media platforms. Facebook boasted the highest percentage (58.36%), increasing by 15.9% year on year. Facebook was followed by Twitter (16.12%), down 34.4% year-on-year, and Pinterest (11.26%), down 26.5% year on year.

Wilson Wong, marketing director of Price.com.hk previously said that to make good and effective use of social media to drive eCommerce is always a challenging topic for marketers. To stay competitive in the eCommerce battlefield next year, brands that have better social commerce performance will be more likely to gain more market share and attention. Conducting new trials with continuous performance evaluation and optimisation is the key to success.

On the global front, there were 4.62 billion social media users around the world as of January 2022, representing year-on-year growth of more than 10% compared to January 2021. There were 424 million new social media users worldwide in the past year. The number of social media users is equivalent to more than 58% of the worlds total population. Meanwhile, social media took the largest share of connected media time in 2021 and people said they had spent a total of 2 hours and 27 minutes on social channels each day, increasing by 1.4% when compared to January 2021.

Facebook remained the worlds most used social platform. However, YouTube was closing the gap, with its audience growing twice as fast as Facebooks. YouTube had 2.56 billion active users, equivalent to 88% of that of Facebook. The third most used platform was WhatsApp, followed by Instagram. The report has also studied some social media behaviours. For example, Internet users worldwide were not averse to paying for digital content. More than 7 in 10 working-age internet users (71.5%) said that they had paid for some form of digital content each month. Internet users worldwide spent almost US$300 billion on digital content in 2021, with more than half of this being spent on video games.

Related articlesStats: Social media isn't slowing down. Here are some new areas you need to explore

View original post here:
Study: Which type of social platforms are Hongkongers using for brand research? - Marketing Interactive

As America celebrated Presidents Day on Monday to honour the legacy of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, Donald Trump, arguably Americas most controversial president, launched his social media app Truth Social.

Truth Socialfaced several glitches as soon as it was launched on Apples iOs. Users were either unable to register their accounts or they encountered error messages. However,TechCrunchreported, Truth Social became the highest-ranking free app on Apples App Store despite all the pitfalls.

Many Trump critics took the apps rocky start as an opportunity to diss him with #TruthSocial raking in thousands of tweets within hours of the launch.

Amongst mean tweets and jokes, many Republicans and Trump supporters also pledged their support to the app.

TRAILAR, a UK based solar-powered transportation company, highlighted that Truth Socials logo is almost identical to their companys logo design. The companys head of marketing toldThe Daily Beastthat they might pursue legal action against Trumps social media network.

The app, developed by Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), is being seen as an alternative social media for people who feel that their views are censored on mainstream platforms, especially after the former US presidents account was removed by Twitter and Facebook post the capitol attack of 2021.

Even before its official launch, Truth Social faced many issues from trolls. According toThe Guardianin October 2021, a link to the unreleased beta version of Truth Social was shared on social media. This enabled people to register on Truth Social and make parody accounts of Trump and his supporters. One such parody account of Truth Social has been active on Twitter since October last year.

See the original post:
Trumps Truth Social faces truth bombs, memes on Twitter after its troubled launch - The Indian Express