PROGRAMMATIC AUDIO – EASIER SAID THAN DONE:  It’s pretty much a given that 2018 will go down as “the Year of Programmatic Audio”, when automated transacting of audio units becomes more standardized.  While some publishers and broadcasters have already dipped their toes in the prog pool, there are still challenges to be worked out in the area of standardized measurement.  The attached MediaPost article does a nice job of laying out two of the primary issues.  Right now digital audio streamers are generally using VAST (Video Ad Serving Template), instead of the sister DAAST (Digital Audio Ad Serving Template) – will the switch over to DAAST eventually happen making for an audio-specific ad serving solution?  And how will the myriad of different connected devices which play audio run a standardized protocol in order to provide brands with true cross-device tracking in a cookie-less environment?  The industry will need to solve these issues in order to truly fulfill the potential of programmatic audio.

THROWING THE PENALTY FLAG ON STREAM CONVERTER SITES:  The Music Industry already has a beef with YouTube, who uses a safe-harbor loophole to avoid paying music royalties on a per-spin basis.  Now a secondary scourge is cropping up, in the form of 3^rd party websites which allow listeners to convert streamed YouTube songs into downloadable and shareable files.  This is akin to music ripping on Napster, which almost killed the entire music industry fifteen years ago.  The industry, and their licensing clearinghouse orgs like the RIAA and BPI, are organizing against this threat.  In a first action they filed a lawsuit against a British stream converter site which was seeing up to 60M unique users per month – the attached Musically link has the details.  Examples like this prove the point that where there’s technology there will also be bad actors who try to game the music industry.

COULD “GDPR” HAPPEN IN THE US?  So right now you’re asking “What is a GDPR?”  It stands for General Data Protection Regulation, which is a new package of regulatory guidelines in the European Union which will go into effect during May’18.  The key provision in GDPR is that brands and publishers won’t be able to use a person’s personal data to serve ads unless they have explicit permission to do so.  Translation . . . if you don’t have first party registered users who have given you their data when they signed up, you won’t be able to target specific users with digital ads.  So what will this mean for the digital media industry in the EU?  Digiday has a solid analysis in the attached link.  One opinion is that GDPR will be a tremendous benefit to site-served premium publishers who have their own data sets, because brands will have to buy media from them instead of 3^rd party networks.  On the other hand, those same publishers would not be able to target their own users by matching to 2^nd or 3^rd party data sources, which could pretty much kill programmatic advertising in the EU.  It’s a startling idea to think about, but one we’ll see play out live next May.  And to my question in the title about the chances of GDPR regulations happening in the US?  I highly doubt it could ever happen.  Europe is fierce about privacy rights of individuals because of their history dating back to WWII.  Other cultures, like the US and especially Asia, are much more liberal about accessing and using one’s personal data for business purposes.

Have a great Monday guys!

STREAMERS HAVE THEIR EYES ON THE REAL PRIZE:  There’s usually a ton of chatter in the pubs about competition amongst the pureplay audio streamers.  What’s Spotify doing to compete with Pandora?  What new streaming tier is Amazon or Apple launching?  Etc., etc..  But as most of the sector knows, streaming isn’t a zero sum game in which one new listener to streamer A necessarily comes from streamer B.  Instead audio streaming is flourishing because of a steady migration away from Radio.  The attached Hackernoon article describes what’s happening.  As time spent listening to AM/FM drops streaming’s time spent and revenue goes up.  The chart below shows the direct (and stunning) correlation.  And the craziest part is that this trend is just beginning. Industry experts estimate all the streaming listening in the US is about 15-20% of what’s consumed on AM/FM, yet streaming is only taking in about 5-6% of the available audio dollars.  Feels like there’s a lot more gold left in those hills for the streamers to mine!

FACEBOOK’S BIGGEST MEASUREMENT MISCALCULATION TO DATE:  You might recall the half dozen measurement miscalculations FB has admitted to over the past year.  Most of these have to do with minuscule formula errors which were probably unintended.  But this latest miscalculation seems like a little more of a whopper.  In the attached AdWeek link an analyst at Pivotal Research points out that FB is self-reporting more users within a demo than are actually in the US according to the latest census.  To be specific, FB is saying it has 1.7M more active users in the 16-39 demo than the census says are in the US.  Granted, not all young people are picked up in the census count so there’s probably some wiggle room with the number.  But still – every single census-counted young adult is using FB plus another 1.7M mystery users?!?  This doesn’t seem possible.  C’mon Zuck . . . get your data guys to clean up their act!

IS RADIO STILL NEEDED TO BREAK NEW MUSIC?:  At this week’s NAB Radio Show attendees are seeing the usual set of self-promoting sessions which try to reinforce Radio’s strengths to a room full of radio execs (which btw, seems like a total waste of time to me).  During one of these breakfast sessions a mid-level country artist named Jack Ingram praised Radio for being essential to get exposure and break his music, which was all gleefully reported as a Radio triumph in the attached Radio Ink article.   But there’s another less publicized narrative brewing which isn’t as positive for Radio.  Recently a song (which I can’t name to protect my source) on the Country Music charts went to #1 without any AM/FM promotion.  Typically labels will spend $250-500K on promotional efforts through radio stations to get their priority songs charted.  But in this example the label worked only with the streamers, yet the song still rose up the charts.  Then Radio was compelled to start playing the song, because it was already popular, which pushed it to #1.  The lesson learned can best be summed up by an exec at the label behind this example who said in an internal memo “we are done with Radio”.  My guess is that Radio’s day as the one and only hit maker for the music industry are just about over.

Have a great Friday (and weekend) guys!

DIGITAL IS EATING RADIO’S LUNCH:  During this week’s NAB “Radio Show” (think national convention for the Radio industry), sector analysts at Wells Fargo presented an update on the overall state of ad spending in the US.  While the focus of the presentation was on Radio’s slice of the pie, which is 7% and on a slightly declining trajectory, it’s fascinating to see the big picture in the graphic below.  You really get a sense of how much Digital’s growth is impacting the traditional media types. And the shift doesn’t seem to be slowing down at all.  Thanks to continued growth in mobile advertising, Digital is expected to reap approximately 50% of all ad dollars by 2021 – that’s just 4 years from now, people!  By that time Radio’s share will have eroded to a measly 5%.  Is the Titanic’s band warming up yet?

WTF IS BLOCKCHAIN?:  If you’ve been reading the digital media trades lately you’ve probably seen the term blockchain being used more and more.  So what is blockchain, and how could it impact our industry?  As described in the attached AdExchanger link, blockchain was originally created as a ledger system to track cryptocurrency transactions.  It’s an unbreachable and completely transparent way to know who bought and sold non-physical units like bitcoins.  (So right now you’re saying that’s great, but what does this have to do with digital media?)  Well imagine if the non-physical unit being tracked via blockchain technology was an ad impression.  You could eliminate using half a dozen 3^rd party tracking pixels on a deal with one blockchain ledger.  Or think about data as that non-physical unit.  With blockchain tracking of who’s using publishers’ data, you might not ever need to sign another data rights agreement again.  Blockchain for media is in its infancy right now, so don’t throw away your DAR tracking tags just yet.  But maybe someday blockchain will simplify all of our lives with a more transparent system for transacting.

COULD FACEBOOK START PAYING MUSIC ROYALTIES?:  Finally today, there’s an interesting negotiation happening between Facebook and the music industry (the artists, record labels and publishing orgs), around the idea of royalty arrangements for music used in FB users’ video posts.  As user generated video content ramps up on FB there’s a growing demand to include known songs in these videos.  But right now there’s no way to track usage of songs or much less pay out royalties.  So as a workaround FB is considering signing umbrella “one fee” deals with music rights holders, which could total hundreds of millions annually.  It’s a creative solve for FB who wants to legally provide music overlays to enhance its video platform.  And for the music industry it’s an accretive way to monetize their existing product through a new digital outlet.  With both sides showing motivation, it’s a good bet these deals will start getting signed.

Have a great Thursday everyone!

“WHERE ARE THEY NOW” . . . DIGITAL MEDIA TRANSPARENCY EDITION:  Remember P&G CMO Marc Pritchard’s now-famous challenge to the digital media community during his IAB speech in January?  It was a watershed moment in which Mr. Pritchard claimed that 20-30% of digital media is wasted or even fraudulent, and then challenged the industry to clean up its act by the beginning of Q4’17.  Well now we’re one month out from that deadline . . . so where do things stand?  The attached AdWeek article provides a good summary of how the industry has reacted.  In a nutshell, progress is being made.  According to industry experts the major site-served publishers are 50-60% of the way towards compliancy, and the larger agency partners are 80% of the way there.  These strides have been achieved through the willingness of publishers allow standardized 3^rd party measurement (so long, walled gardens), and by agencies agreeing to transparent invoicing to eliminate mysterious “business service” upcharges.  I guess the final word on how this is going will come from Marc Pritchard himself, who is widely expected to readdress the issue during his speech at next week’s Dmexco conference in Cologne, Germany.  Put that one on your must watch list.

RADIO’S IN-CAR CONUNDRUM:  The NAB’s annual Radio Show kicked off in Austin yesterday.  I thought it was notable that the opening session focused on the In-Car listening experience, which has long been monopolized by broadcasters.  As noted in the attached Inside Radio link, the traditional car radio is about to undergo a significant transformation.  The early indicators are already out there – with rental companies like Avis noting the demand for Sirius and smart phone integrations.  The long term challenge for broadcasters is even more daunting, as automakers begin the orient their “center stack” consoles around platforms like Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, instead of the traditional AM/FM dial.  The session ended with a call to arms for broadcasters to unite their efforts to stay relevant with the OEMs.  But it feels like more of a wakeup call to the fact that Radio’s In-Car domination is coming to an end.

UNDERSTANDING AMAZON’S DIGITAL MEDIA SALES PITCH:  So this is interesting.  As part of Digiday’s semi-regular Pitch Deck series, they’re featuring Amazon Media Group’s core narrative in the attached link.  There’s nothing in here that’s too proprietary (of course!), but it does provide a peek behind the curtain at how AMG brings to market Amazon’s on-platform ad products.  If you go to the bottom of the article you can see the entire deck.  For me the most interesting slide is #5, because it illustrates AMG’s targeting progression.  While most publishers start with their own 1^st party data and then match to 2^nd/3^rd party data, user behavior, device proximity, etc., AMG does the opposite.  Instead Amazon takes behavioral data from their customers, which they mountains of, and then reverse engineers audience segs via modeling from the core group of purchasers.  While probabilistic (modeled) targeting is never as strong as deterministic (1-1) targeting, this process allows Amazon to solve the classic PBT targeting dilemma of how to serve ads to future buyers instead of to someone who just made a purchase.  Pretty advanced stuff from a digital ad platform that’s just five years old.

Have a great Wednesday guys!

(Editor’s Note:  No, it’s not your imagination.  Today’s DG is being completely devoted to articles related to Pandora and Spotify.  There’s quite a bit going on in Audio Streaming space right now, so I thought it would be a good time for a check in.)

PANDORA’S DATA ON DEMAND:  First up today is the announcement of a partnership between Pandora and Neustar that allows advertisers to tap into audience segmentation data on demand.  The new arrangement sets up a self-service API which provides access to Pandora’s 2,000+ existing audience segments, and allows brands to create new custom segments by matching their own CRM data.  Because of the real time nature of the API, brands can model out segments they’re interested in to check scale, match rate, etc., right as they’re ready to transact.  This takes the guess work out of the usual 3^rd party data arrangements (which usually provide reporting on a look back basis), and not require cumbersome DRAs (data rights agreements) between Pandora and a given brand.  All in it’s a win-win for advertisers and Pandora who are looking to leverage data to streamline and optimize their media buying.

SPOTIFY’S ROYALTIES U-TURN:  Who’s ready to rumble over the issue of streaming royalties?  Apparently Spotify is.  According to the attached Digital Music News article Spotify is now challenging the very definition of mechanical reproduction and distribution of music, because they claim streaming isn’t a mechanical process.  Last week this argument was made by Spotify in a court filed response to a $365M lawsuit from Bluewater Music Services for the unauthorized streaming of Bluewater’s artists’ songs.  The term mechanical is key here since the original copyright regulations were set up to cover the reproduction of songs onto a physical medium (like a vinyl record).  Spotify’s argument is that streaming is a completely different format based on access, and it isn’t ‘reproducing’ anything.  What’s weird about this line of thinking is that Spotify does concede that downloading (a la Napster) is mechanical in nature, and thus subject to royalty payments.  And what’s hypocritical about this argument is that in May Spotify settled a $75M lawsuit with the National Music Publishers Association for this very same type of mechanical reproduction and distribution of songs they didn’t have royalty rights to.  So why the U-turn in legal strategy?  My guess is that Spotify knows they can’t afford to keep paying out on one-off royalties lawsuits, so they’re trying to draw a line in the sand with this new mechanical minutia.  Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem like a very strong argument at all.

PANDORA VS. SPOTIFY – A TALE OF THE TAPE:  And finally today, the attached Barrron’s article (Pandora vs. Spotify) provides an objective and unfettered comparison of Pandora’s and Spotify’s audience strengths through the ad sales lens.  The main takeaways – Spotify is still in high growth mode but significantly trails Pandora in ad supported scale (Barron estimates Pandora has ~75% more addressable scale in the US than Spotify).  This gives Pandora an operational advantage to leverage national and local ad spending.  On the other hand, Spotify’s commands a lead in terms of ad product technology – especially with its Programmatic offerings.  On balance both streamers have the ability to succeed in the ever-growing streaming marketplace.  For Spotify it will take a commitment to the free ad-supported side in order to grow it’s addressable scale.  For Pandora it means advancing how it transacts inventory from the significant audience advantage it already has.  It’s a fascinating analysis, to say the least.

Have a great Tuesday guys!

(Editor’s Note:  The DG staff will be taking the day off tomorrow, so no Friday post.  We’ll see you back here Tuesday, September 5^th!)

RADIO . . . THE LAST DINOSAUR:  Everyone but those currently working in the Radio industry knows AM/FM is on a slow and steady downward spiral.  The artists and songs broadcasters play are as popular as ever, but streaming is simply a better method of music delivery.  Yet the broadcasters stubbornly hang on to their core narrative about 93% reach, #1 in car, millennials’ love of DJs, blah, blah, blah.  So where’s the truth in this discussion?  A good place to start might be in the attached Variety article, which summarizes a research study published by NYU’s Steinhart Music Business School.  The focus of this study is how Gen Z (those born after 1995) consume music, which is far different from every other generation before them.  The headline stat is that Gen Z listening to AM/FM radio has declined by 50% from 2005 to 2016 – which coincides exactly with the Age of Streaming.  So today’s under 22 crowd listens to far less radio . . . period.  And while broadcasters might shrug this off as a “teen problem” right now, this group will be in their mid-30s in just a dozen years.  According to Variety “this report makes a global-warming-level case for the terrestrial radio industry to upgrade or face obsolescence.”  This is a brutally honest but accurate assessment.  Whether the broadcaster will admit it or not I predict that Radio, like the last dinosaur to ever roam the earth, will be extinct within the next 30-40 years.

TRITON’S JUNE RATINGS:  Yesterday Triton released its Webcast Metrics Ratings for June.  Compared to May streaming was down slightly MoM, which is the normal season adjustment since the summer months tend to have lower listening levels than spring/fall.  YoY total AAS (Average Active Sessions) was +14%, which is still impressive growth.  It’s appears that Spotify’s growth is starting to cool, as its listening begins to normalize with the industry’s seasonal trends.  Also note Triton doesn’t differentiate between free ad-supported listening and subscription listening with no ads.  So Spotify’s “addressable” audience level is actually only 50-60% of what you’re seeing on the graph below.  RAIN has all the details in attached link.  Enjoy!

MAKING 5:00A YOUR BEST HOUR:  I’ll admit it . . . I’m a notoriously early riser.  Between being blessed with the early bird gene and genuinely loving my job, I can get up without an alarm clock on most days.  Over the years people have asked me why I do this.  The practical answer is that getting up an hour earlier than everyone else gives you a competitive advantage in the business word.  Assuming the average American works 235 days a year, one extra hour per day gives you over 29 extra days’ worth of work time annually to out hustle the competition.  On a more physiological level, having some quiet time alone to get yourself organized for the day just makes people less stressed and more balanced.  Either way, getting up is a trained habit which can benefit your entire life.  And that’s not just my opinion.  I recently came across the attached Inc.com article, which not only supports my belief about the benefits of getting up early, but also provides tips on how to become an early riser.  So if you’ve ever dreamed of unlocking your inner early bird this article is for you.  Maybe give it a read first thing tomorrow morning?!?

Have a great Thursday (and long holiday weekend) guys.  Be back next Tuesday!

GOOGLE PLAYS PEEK-A-BOO WITH AD FRAUD:  On Friday Google announced a new policy of offering refunds to brands for fraudulent ad delivery from network inventory purchased via AdX.  This sounds noble enough, but there are a few strings attached.  First, brands must only run impressions on networks who have agreed to refunding through DBM (Google’s DoubleClick Bid Manager).  And second, Google alone will determine if a delivered impression was fraudulent or not, thus triggering the refund.  So Google is controlling all ends of this process by gate keeping which networks make it into the “refundable” platform and then play judge and jury on what clears as a legitimate impression.  Does this sound fair and transparent to you?  And oh, there’s one other aspect to the timing of this announcement.  You may think I’m crazy to suggest this, but I believe Google buried this announcement on Friday because the real story is that there’s still a ton of fraudulent impressions running through AdX.  By just focusing on solving the problem Google is deftly avoiding having to directly address the real issue in the first place.  Pretty tricky, I’d say!

SOCIAL COMMERCE?  NOT SO MUCH:  There’s no denying the user scale and time spent on the major Social platforms.  Between Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat Social has evolved into the new way to stay connected and share experiences.  But how is Social working as a platform to actually sell products the way other digital publishers do?  According to eMarketer the big Social publishers still haven’t cracked the code.  45% of Social users have never made a purchase on any one of the platforms, with Snapchat having the worst performing buy through rate at just 1%.  Keep in mind, that’s not just 1% of users making a purchase through a particular ad or of a given brand, that’s 1% who have ever purchased anything on Snap.  Or to put it another way, 99% of Snapchat’s users have never purchased anything through the site.  These stats reinforce the conventional wisdom that the Socials are good as branding vehicles but don’t drive actual sales uplift.

STREAMING CONTINUES TO SAVE THE DAY:  In the ultimate case of irony the Music industry, which was once being devoured by free distribution of content on the internet, is now being saved by that very same technology.  The latest evidence of this turnaround comes from a new Goldman Sachs forecast in the attached Music Business Worldwide link, which predicts streaming revenue for the Global Music Industry to soar to $28B by 2030, which represents +500% growth over the next 13 years.  By that time streaming will make up 80% of total Music revenues.  The primary benefactor of streaming’s revenue spike will be the music rights holders (aka the major Labels), who are estimated to be paid 55-60% of all the royalty revenue.  So does that leave 40-45% for the artists, songwriters, band managers, promoters, etc.?  Hmmm . . . at least someone is getting paid in this new music ecosystem.

Have a great Wednesday guys!

MORE IN-APP USAGE STATS:  Last week I featured a post about the Top 10 Apps (by device penetration) in the US according to comScore.  Now Inside Radio is showing a slightly different data cut of in-app time spent by content type in the attached link and in the chart below.  Despite FB’s continued domination within Social, it’s good to see in-app time spent with Music going up.  The reason for this is simple – Music is one of the very few things people do for long periods of time in an app environment. Music is that one constant companion you’ll take with you as you do other things in your life.  This creates average session lengths of 45 minutes to an hour – when’s the last time you spent 45 minutes in a row on Instagram?  (As an aside, did you notice how hard Inside Radio tried not mention Pandora in this article?  Despite the fact that Pandora is a Top 10 publisher for app penetration there’s no mention.  Instead they focused on iHeart being “among the top 50 apps for adults 35 to 49 years old”.  Nice job of selective reporting IR!)

SOFTER BTS/BTC AD SPENDING:  According to Kantar US ad spending during the critical Back-To-School/Back-To-Campus window if off to a sluggish start for 2017.  For a level set 2016 was a banner year with BTS/BTC spending surging +15% to $284M – so the industry is up against a pretty tough comp.  According to Inside Radio in the attached link and the graph below, 2017’s estimates are expected to settle in the +3% range.  It’s important to note yesterday’s report only counts July, August and forward business already placed for September – so an in-month Sept spending spike could skew the numbers up.  The biggest YoY decliner categories are Telcos like Sprint and AT&T, and B&M retailers like Target and Staples.  This early forecast seems to comport with an overall cooling of Retail spending in 2017.  For all of our sake let’s hope things heat up again for holiday prime time!

WINTER IS COMING FOR THE AGENCIES;  2017 is shaping up as a “flat is the new up” year for ad agencies and their parent holding companies.  On the surface the drop in agency top line revenue appears to be tied to softness in major categories like Auto, CPG, and Retail.  But there’s a bigger structural problem going on within the agency megaplex, which is explained through the example of WPP in the attached WSJ article.  Here’s what’s going on.  Over the past 4-5 years agencies have been on a buying spree of smaller creative shops and AdTech specialists to give themselves a “full array” portfolio which is essential to compete in today’s digital media world.  Visualize these specialists as rows on a grid.  Then keep in mind the holding companies must constantly sub-divide their agencies to create new ones in order to have competitive separation – can’t have the same agency handling Subaru and Honda, right?  Consider these different agencies the columns on our imaginary grid.  The result of these two factors is a confusing-at-best matrix of entities within each of the four major HCs.  Each group tends to operate autonomously and run its own P&L.  This drives more add-on billing upcharges (which clients loath), and a lack of resource/data sharing which creates inefficiency.  This setup is what HCs and their agencies are struggling to monetize.  My guess is this problem will only get worse before it’s solved.

Have a great Tuesday guys!

SPOTIFY INKS WARNER DEAL:  There have been some recent developments from Spotify as they crawl towards an attempted IPO later this year.  First the news from Friday.  RAIN is reporting that Spotify has finalized the last of its major label royalties deals with Warner Music Group.  The new deal sets royalty payments from Spotify to all WMG artists.  This was a necessary step for an IPO since it gives Spotify secure access to music rights at a predictable royalty rate.  Deal terms aren’t public, but historically label-direct licensing is usually paid at 2-3x the CRB’s per song royalty rate.

DIRECT LISTING TALKS GET SERIOUS, AND SERIOUSLY WEIRD:  In related news, Spotify has been holding private meetings with the SEC on their plan to take the company public through a “direct listing”, instead of a traditional brokered IPO.  At Spotify’s current $13B valuation this would be the largest direct listing ever on the NYSE and would be the first-ever for a tech IPO.  So what would a direct list IPO mean?  It’s complicated so I’ll give you a passage straight from the attached Musically link . . . “A direct listing would not issue any new shares or raise any new capital – but it would allow existing shareholders to trade their shares in the open market. This means anyone can buy shares and this can have a knock-on effect in that the company going for a direct listing cannot control the price of the IPO (the laws of supply and demand take precedence); it could also mean the price fluctuates wildly.”  My read on this is most investment banks aren’t confident Spotify can get enough buy-in from institutional lenders at a $13B valuation, so they’re trying this back door method to go public.  Buckle your seat belts for this one.

THE NETWORKS STRIKE BACK:  Last Tuesday I featured a story about NBCUniversal’s dominance during this year’s TV Upfront buying season.  But since NBC is carrying a heavyweight sports schedule in 2018 including the Winter Olympics, Super Bowl and World Cup, you had to wonder if their success was the exception compared to the other networks.  But as it turns out the entire Upfront market was healthier this year.  This success can be traced to two factors.  The first issue of brand safety is well documented.  During the Spring brands became aware of, and then squeamish about, what content their ads were being placed next to online, and are now flocking back to Network TV’s safe harbor.  The second reason for TV’s upfront surge has to do with data.  Not only are the networks getting better at using data to target individual households (aka addressable TV), now they’re making it easier to buy the data through a joint venture called OpenAP – a collective DMP between the major networks which allows brands to buy from one data pool instead of having to set up separate arrangements with each network.  Although industry-wide billing numbers aren’t finalized yet, AdWeek has details on how the networks fared in the attached link.  All in, it was a pretty impressive digital-esque performance by the biggest traditional media channel of all.

Have a great Monday guys!

WHEN SHORTER ISN’T NECESSARILY BETTER:  So is shorter better when it comes to creative length for digital audio/video ad products?  The current media zeitgeist says yes, as digital publishers and even broadcasters are pushing for ever shortening ad units – remember Fox’s debut of :06 TV ads two weeks ago?  But is there actual proof that shorter is somehow better?  According to Pandora the answer to that question isn’t so black and white.  In the attached AdWeek article Pandora’s SVP of Ad Product Strategy Lizzie Widhelm revealed results from unit length testing the streamer has been conducting.  The results were decidedly mixed.  In some cases :30 audio ads performed better than :10s on brand recall, but then the :10s drove more time spent on brands’ landing pages than the :30s.  So what does this mean?  My interpretation is that one size doesn’t fit all when comes to ad length.  Different campaigns, with unique KPIs and target demos, must use a customized blend of unit lengths to achieve optimal results.  This might be helpful intel for brands who feel compelled to use shorter creative just to stay up with an industry trend.

THE TOP 10 MOST INSTALLED APPS:  With 57% of all digital time in the US now being spent in-app the top Apps are more ubiquitous now than ever before.  So it’s timely that comScore is out with a ranking of the Top 10 Apps based on their install penetration, as noted in the attached ReCode link and in the graphic below.  Here are some top line observations . . . 3 of the 10 are Social (Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat), 2 are Communication (FB Messenger and Gmail), 2 are Content (YouTube/video and Pandora/music), 2 are Information (Google Search and Google Maps), and 1 is to download more apps (Google Play).  It’s also interesting to note that 8 of the 10 are owned by the duopoly of Facebook and Google, with Pandora and Snapchat as the only independents.  And all 10 are publicly owned California companies.  Not sure what that says about us, except that we love our apps from the West Coast.  Enjoy!

INFORMATION = POWER:  The New Yorker is out with a fascinating article about how today’s tech heavyweights are using the power of the internet to shape our entire society.  (Weekend read warning – this one’s a really long mind bender.)  The central theme of the article is the idea that those who control the flow of information have the ability to control what happens in our country, even down to electing our Presidents.  The New Yorker defines control in two way.  First, what’s being consumed – they theorize that even the tragic story of the killing of Cecil the lion in 2015 eventually became a way for digital publishers to drive web traffic.  And second, that the data behind online traffic is actually more important to tech companies than their primary products/services – think of Google as actually being in the data extraction business instead of Search or AdTech.  Caught in the middle of this vice grip are the artists and creators whose original content is being commoditized and distributed by companies they have no relationship with or financial stake in.  Before you read this piece ask yourself the article’s title, “Who owns the internet?”  And then ask yourself the same question after you’ve read it.

Have a great Friday (and weekend) guys!