Monday, November 24, 2014

• Facebook is giving select brands exclusive access to qualitative user insights based on information gleaned from its 1.3 billion users, letting high-rolling advertisers find out what consumers really think based on comments and other telling social activities, according to industry insiders familiar with the special program. The brands and their marketing teams get to dive deeper into Facebook and its unprecedented ability to gauge public sentiment thanks to the marketing program called Grapevine, according to sources. Which brands get invited to the program depends on their bankroll, one industry source said. "The advertisers spending in the millions on campaigns or a half-million dollars for one ad, that's who has access," this person said. Industry insiders said data analysis from Grapevine was "qualitative not just quantitative." For instance, a shampoo brand could get insights into what Facebook users are saying about frizzy hair and then tailor ads based on that sentiment.  The tool is similar to what Twitter does with its "firehose" of tweets, sifting through the torrent of information to track public sentiment. Twitter bought Gnip earlier this year to get a better handle on that data for marketers, and it licenses access to the full stream of information to a select few firms.

• In-store location targeting is going mainstream this US Holiday Season: Beginning this week, shoppers at Tysons Corner Center with the right app may see a welcome message pop up on their smartphones as they walk into the mall. An hour into their shopping spree, they are likely to receive another text message, this time asking if they’d like their purchases delivered to their home. And if they have questions along the way — does Nordstrom offer gift wrapping or when does California Pizza Kitchen open — they can get instant answers via text messaging. The property is one of a handful of shopping centers around the country experimenting with mobile apps and Bluetooth technology to communicate with customers as they move through the mall. Ugg this month opened its first high-tech store at the Tysons Galleria, where it uses the same wireless sensors that are in E-Z Passes to help shoppers customize boots and find related products on large in-store touch screens. At Burberry’s new outpost at CityCenterDC, which opened in August, company iPads are available for online shopping. And at Inspirato, a luxury vacation company with a new “experience center” at the Tysons Galleria, passersby can use a number of on-site computers and touch screens to browse lodges in Jackson Hole, Wyo., or chateaus in Bordeaux, France.

• Watch out Facebook - Apple is finally showing serious intent about mobile advertising: Its iAd business has gone through several iterations and struggled, and the company is now tapping the ad tech community to open the service widely so marketers can get access to its iPhones, iPads and computers. AdRoll CMO Adam Berke said the new iAd system is going to reshape the mobile advertising landscape, opening access to consumer data Apple had walled off for a long time. Here's how: Berke expects the new iAd to reach massive numbers of users quickly. Apple is using standard format ads to make it easy—mobile banners and video already in use across the industry. App-install ads will immediately be in demand and give mobile developers a new edge in the App Store, which can be a tough environment because of the sheer volume of apps. Apple iTunes and App Store consumer data will finally be open for use to target ads. This is tremendous information about which apps every user has downloaded and which media each one consumes. This knowledge has been locked away within Apple, untouched by marketers until now. "They have App Store behavioral data, and we'll be able to target based on the types of apps that people like," Berke said. The ads will show up in apps that use iAds, and the App Store has hundreds of millions of them, opening up never-before used ad space. "Any app developer using iAd will suddenly have a lot more demand and a lot more advertisers buying their inventory," Berke said. Apple Pay, the new payment service, will feed into the advertising. This is the final piece of information marketers need to know for certain if their ads worked—did the user buy their product? This purchasing behavior is something only Apple will have access to through its control of its mobile ecosystem. "It [could eventually] allow us to track from the mobile ad impression to the App Store behavior of the user to the app install to eventually someone buying with Apple Pay," Berke said.
• After Disney and Activision, now Nintendo launches physical toys that can interact with digital games via NFC: Toy companies had been trying for years to bridge the gap between physical and digital toys, applying different strategies but finding limited success. Like recent physical-virtual crossover hits from Disney and Activision, Nintendo figurines use the technology known as near-field communication to send signals to a device connected to the game console. For Disney and Activision, the toys are required to play the related games. Starter kits are about $75, and figures start at about $13. The Nintendo toys are not required to play the related games, but instead offer bonus features. Each character is $13. Activision’s approach has been to add new features and types of toys to each installment. This fall, the company released Skylanders Trap Team, in which players can insert a physical crystal-shaped item in a base to trap virtual villains.