Mobile Fix: Facebook, advertising and embracing social

In his latest Mobile Fix, Simon Andrews, founder of Addictive! talks about the importance of advertising across multiple platforms, how brands and publishers are embracing social, and the challenges that face agencies when it comes to newsroom models.

Facebook results

Facebook released its latest financial results this week and its stellar growth continues. It now has 751 million mobile users – up 54% year on year – and mobile revenues were 30% of the total, higher than expected. One interesting question came up on Twitter – what does this definition cover? The results deck says:

“The number of MAUs, DAUs, and mobile MAUs do not include Instagram users unless such users would otherwise qualify as MAUs, DAUs, and mobile MAUs based on activity that is shared back to Facebook.”

So what if I log into Spotify using my Facebook identity? Does that make me a mobile user or do I actually have to visit the site or use the app? Can anyone clarify this?

A report from Spruce looks into why advertisers are so pleased with Facebook – lower rates, higher clicks and more inventory.

One analyst was a little picky, pointing out that mobile ads in the newsfeed means that the shift to mobile is money they were getting already. Though most media owners would love to be that successful in monetising mobile users, very few come close to matching their share of revenue to share of eyeballs. The FT does better than most, yet has 34% of its traffic on mobile and just 12% of ad revenue.

This is a strange failing on the part of media buyers. What logic says we want to reach readers of the Daily Mail, Metro and Guardian, but only the ones that read it on newsprint?

Leaf through any newspaper and you see ads on every page – go to the mobile or tablet edition and there is a distinct lack of advertisers. And those ads that have made the transition to the tablet tend to be the press ads, without any interaction or call to action.

Media brands with a strong identity have the opportunity to sell their audience across screens and the ones that do this well will prosper. Otherwise GAFA will soak up all that ad revenue as they embrace an omnichannel approach.

Creativity in social

Facebook has awarded brands for good work across its platform. There are some great examples here of how brands are going beyond the like and using social to deliver big ideas in a lightweight manner that makes the most of social.

The man in charge of creative solutions at Facebook is Mark D’Arcy, who joined from Time Warner where he was in charge of helping advertisers make the most of that (largely) old media business. In a good interview he explains what Facebook means by lightweight and talks of four main requirements for succeeding in social:

1) Respect people’s time
2) Respect people’s information
3) Design lightweight experiences
4) Be creative at the speed of culture

This speedy and quick touch approach makes sense whatever marketing channels you are using – as adman Trevor Beattie says: embrace impatience.

Some agencies are evolving the way they work and moving towards a newsroom model, but this throws up some issues with the relationship with clients. Do you need to get everything approved and risk slowing down the cycle or do you have a broad remit agreed around the brand character in social and the brand voice, so you can execute within that without constant approvals?

One of the clients doing social and mobile well is Mondelez (formerly known as Kraft). Its lead on global media and consumer engagement is B Bonin Bough, and his interview at the Financial Times Conference last week was a masterclass in modern marketing. A must watch as he talks about the work Mondelez does for Oreo – a winner in the Facebook awards – and others.

Now all this can seem a little trendy for some clients; doing cat videos may work for Purina but is it relevant for most brands? Well, McKinsey thinks so. It has just published some very smart thinking around on demand marketing.

Digital marketing is about to enter more challenging territory. Building on the vast increase in consumer power brought on by the digital age, marketing is headed toward being on demand—not just always ‘on’, but also always relevant, responsive to the consumer’s desire for marketing that cuts through the noise with pinpoint delivery.

Do you have agency partners that can help you with that, or is putting the latest TVC on YouTube the extent of their digital thinking? Or even worse, are you being sold Vine strategies – maybe with a cat involved?

McKinsey talks about how one CPG brand is raising their game and how.

Structural and talent changes led the company to realize that it needed to reshuffle its agency relationships, replacing a single brand-and-ad agency with two agencies—one for brand programs, the other for digital and CRM direct marketing. The company also brought more media and digital analytics in-house.