YOU’RE NOT SELLING MEDIA, YOU’RE SELLING DATA:  If you’ve ever referred to being in the “data business” instead of media this first article is for you.  AdAge is featuring a research piece on the growing importance of audience data within media buys.  Gone are open ended run of site campaigns.  Even simple demo-based audience data only accounted for a quarter of the digital data ingested into buys during 2016.  Now it’s psychographic, lifestyle, affinity, and of course retargeting data that’s become a must have on most digital campaigns these days.  The top vertical for data utilization is Financial Services – not surprising when you think of all the purchase and income data floating around these days.  Auto and CPG are also data hogs, and Retail is catching up fast.  Good overview article to get the brain going on a Monday morning.

mCOMMERCE GOING MAINSTREAM:  Over the last several years we’ve started to see smart phones creep into the in-store purchase process.  Whether it be app-based payments where you preload credit to a particulate retailer through their app and then swipe your phone at checkout, or Near Field Communication (NFC) technology driven by Apple or Google, mCommerce options are now plentiful.  But is being able to pay by phone swipe necessarily that much easier than pulling a $20 out of your pocket or swiping your credit card?  The author of this MediaPost article argues we may have hit the pay-by-mobile inflection point for two reasons.  First is that interminable 3-4 second wait for a chip to process the transaction once you insert your card – doesn’t that just feel like forever?  The second reason is the chance for retailers to add-on benefits to the mobile purchase process like order ahead and line skipping.  I’m guessing the latter will eventually drive mainstream adoption of smart phones into the purchase process and change the way we check out forever.

VERY LITTLE SNAP IN THOSE ADS:  Recently Snapchat has come under scrutiny over its efficacy (or lack thereof) as an advertising vehicle.  To get a snapshot (see what I did there?) of ad interaction on the platform eMarketer has surveyed Snapchat users.  The results in the graph below don’t paint a very pretty picture.  Half of users never interact with a branded filter or lense, and 70% never swipe/watch an ad.  Part of the reason these numbers look so bad is the demo being surveyed – 18+.  Snapchat’s heaviest and most engaged users are teenagers who think it’s fun to frame a picture of their buddy in crazy sunglasses.  Typical time-poor adults who are more worried about taken care of their families and/or keeping up with job demands, goofing around with these ad units just isn’t that important.  I’m guessing this lack of ad engagement amongst adults will eventually become a business challenge for Snapchat.

Have a great Monday everyone!