HC CAT FIGHT:  There’s no doubt about the lack of love between WPP and Omnicom, two of the world’s largest agency holding companies.  In the last six month alone Omnicom has poached AT&T and VW from WPP by positioning their data platform Annalect as a superior tool for using data to purchase media and track attribution.  To counter these losses WPP has created a data infrastructure termed mPlatform, which according to WPP “will bundle data analytics and digital services, including search, social and automated buying teams.”  Omnicom responded by saying WPP was just playing catch up to their Annalect platform, and suggesting that mPlatform might not provide the level of fee/service transparency required by advertisers.  You can imagine that inference didn’t sit well with WPP.  WSJ has the blow by blow in the following link.  (link)

AUDIO’S EMERGENCE:  Digitas LBI’s The Dose series is featuring a guest contributor article from Susan Panico, Pandora’s VP of Sales Marketing.  Susan does a nice job of articulating the emergence of audio in the new world of connected devices.  Given that voice activation is growing within the IoT landscape and the proliferation of digital content on non-screen devices, audio’s importance as a marketing tool is on the rise.  It’s also worth noting the research around the idea that the more digital audio choices consumers have, the more total audio they’ll consume.  Great stuff Susan!  (link)

PROOF OF LIFE IN AUTO?:  If you work on an auto account you’ve heard the term “plateauing” over and over for the past six months.  It describes the anticipated flattening of the US Auto Industry’s total unit sales in 2017, after six straight years of growth.  But now that we’re into 2017 it looks like some of the auto bears are coming out of hibernation and revising their forecasts upwards – from 1-2% YoY decline to a 1-2% YoY growth.  There are several factors for the growing optimism which are noted in the attached Forbes article.  And while 1-2% growth doesn’t exactly make for a red hot auto market, it does paint the picture of stability in an industry which is already at an all-time high for unit sales and gross revenues.  So maybe a little less doom and gloom for the industry and a little more just getting back to business?  (link)

Have a great Tuesday guys!

TRITON’S NOVEMBER RATINGS:  Yesterday Triton released its November Webcast Metrics Ratings.  Total Average Active Sessions (AAS) was +12% over Nov’15, and so far 2016 is up 8% YTD over 2015.  As always, these numbers are for total stream listening in the US, and don’t delineate ad supported from subscription listening.  So you can’t infer any addressable scale data within these numbers.  Besides the usual historical chart, check out this new data cut from RAIN below.  It shows Pandora’s consistent leadership, Spotify’s growth, and iHeart’s whipsawing all over the place.  Keep in mind the lines on this graph are normalized for comparison purposes.  iHeart’s raw scale is still about one-tenth of Pandora’s, which is noted on the two Y-axis scales on either side of the graph.  Regardless of scale, it’s a fascinating way to look at the audience behaviors of three prominent streamers.  (link)

TOP DIGITAL TRENDS:  AdWeek is out with another round of top digital trends for the week. There are some interesting points on the Socials, evidence that Gen Zers actually still shop in B&Ms, a stop tweeting signal to Trump, and a breakdown of how the primary QSRs are using digital media.  Easy 30 second read!  (link)

MILLENNIAL RESOLUTIONS:  I thought I’d end the week with a funny LinkedIn article which might resonate amongst a few of you.  As a disclaimer I’m not a millennial – way too old to qualify.  But I do work in digital media, and thus am surrounded by millennial coworkers.  I don’t subscribe to the blanket assumption that all millennials are self-entitled slackers, just like I don’t think all Gen Xers are old school curmudgeons.  So don’t take the following article as the opinion of the editor.  With that said, the attached piece is pretty funny.  How many of you are over dependent on the word “like”?  Are you using the word “literally” the way it should literally be used?  And are you guilty of using the dreaded like/literally combo in a single sentence?  And BTW – point #3 is absolutely true.  Nobody below the age of 35 knows how to make a phone call anymore.  Earlier this week I received a 516 word text from a millennial coworker – that’s 516 full words, not characters!  After reading the first half of the text I just called them. J  (link)

Have a great Friday and long holiday weekend guys – be back Tuesday!

DEMO VERIFICATION PICKS UP STEAM:  Over the last six months there’s been a growing chorus of requests (aka demands) from the digital buying community for demo verification.  The following AdExchanger article outlines why this is becoming a bigger issue.  Lack of transparency from networks on how they’re deriving demo data and inaccurate probabilistic modeling have led to in-demo accuracy rates which in some cases are under 30% – yikes!  Several in the industry see audience verification using tagging as the “Viewability of 2017”.  Good topic to get up to speed on.  (link)

SANTA SORT OF CAME TO TOWN DURING HOLIDAY’16:  AdAge has a mixed final report on how Retail faired during Holiday’16, along with a forecast for 2017.  The consensus is +4% YoY growth across all Retail sectors.  Growth came from online sales (of course!) at +11%, cold weather apparel was up due to a frigid December for the Eastern half of the US (not kidding, they track this stuff), and stronger than expected gift card redemptions at the B&Ms during the week between Christmas and New Years.  But there wasn’t enough holiday cheer for all to enjoy.  Dept Stores like Macy’s and Kohl’s were down.  As a result store closings are looming for Sears, Macy’s, Limited, etc..  So truly a mixed bag from Santa this year!  (link)

PANDORA’S SECRET SAUCE:  As post-CES coverage continues to flow in, I want to flag the following interview article with Pandora SVP Steven Kritzman.  He does a nice job of summarizing Pandora’s competitive strengths around time spent on platform, engagement-based ad products, and the power of audio in the connected homes and connected cars of tomorrow.  If you work at Pandora you already know these strengths by heart, but it’s still compelling to see all of this laid out in one piece.  A must read for all you Pandas out there!  (link)

Have a great Thursday guys!

AUDIO STREAMING SKYROCKETS:  First up today, another indication of the growing prominence of streaming in the music ecosystem.  Nielsen is reporting that overall music consumption in the US rose 3% in 2016, and that the primary engine of this growth was audio streaming which rose 76% YoY.  One caveat to this stat though – Nielsen is only factoring on-demand services into their YoY calculations.  So Pandora and the streams from radio broadcasters are missing here.  My guess is that if you added the rest of streaming to the calculation, you’d probably end up with growth in the +20-30% range.  Still impressive, regardless.  (link)

TLR SHADINESS:  Speaking of Nielsen, they’ve made an unusual change to their measurement definition of radio stations’ Total Line Reporting, which might end up creating more streaming inventory for the broadcasters.  First some background.  Nielsen allows stations to do something called Total Line Reporting (TLR) when their streams are an exact simulcast of what you hear from their broadcast antennas.  This allows broadcasters to combine both AQH Rating #s and claim more total audience, which they can sell for higher rates.  The TLR protocol has been in place for a while, so nothing new here.  What is new is Nielsen’s disclosure that broadcasters now only need to simulcast in a station’s Metro Survey Area in order to qualify for TLR.  That means any listener who uses an IP address outside the Metro is no longer required to hear the simulcast.  This will allow broadcasters to insert different programming (and ads) for non-Metro listeners, thus creating new streaming inventory to sell.  This change sort of feels like a measurement slight of hand to benefit the broadcasters.  And it’s so bizarre that the broadcasters themselves don’t even have a handle on this yet.  But I’m guessing they’ll embrace the change since it benefits them.  (link)

PROGRAMMATIC LEARNINGS:  And finally today, AdAge has a summary article on programmatic using a “what have we learned so far” perspective.  I believe the author is spot on, especially with the first, second and last points.  Programmatic isn’t just an efficiency play meant to save money by eliminating sales/buying costs.  In fact the whole process is more accurately described as “programmanual”, with a constant need for experts to help set up and optimize the DIDs.  When you build anything new there’s usually a process of launch/learn/adjust, and the programmatic side of digital media is going through this very thing right now.  (link)

Have a great Wednesday!

SMART WINDSHIELDS?!?:  At last week’s CES and this week’s North American Auto Show we’re starting to hear buzz around the next phase of the connected car evolution . . . Smart Windshields.  The OEMs have been monkeying with heads up display in the corner of windshields for years, but those were just illuminated projections coming from the top of the dash.  Tomorrow’s smart windshields will truly be computers unto themselves.  This will open up a whole new frontier in sight-based in-car marketing for display and even video.  Admittedly, safety concerns may limit this platform’s development for first-person drivers.  But imagine the day when driverless cars will be projecting all sorts of content right to your windshield as you ride along.  (link)

SOUNDCLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN:  You may recall about six months ago that SoundCloud revamped its business model from a file sharing service (think Napster 2.0) to a subscription-based platform.  According to Investopedia early results from this switchover have not be positive, with only ~250,000 listeners purchasing a sub.  By comparison 11M purchased Apple Music subs in its first six months out of the gate.  The reason for the lackluster start probably has to do with the product itself.  Since SoundCloud relies on users to upload content they end up with a real hodge podge of music on the site.  By comparison Spotify and Apple mostly feature the normal label releases, which is the version everyone knows the songs by.   You can imagine the prospects for SoundCloud may become even more bleak once Pandora launches its own on-demand platform later in Q1.  (link)

IS CONTENT BY ITSELF ENOUGH ANYMORE?:  Finally today, I wanted to share a provocative Bloomberg article which has been making its way around the trades over the past few weeks.  It’s centers around Time Warner’s decision to sell itself to AT&T.  It’s a prime example of a successful content provider (TW) merging with a distribution platform (AT&T).  What’s scary for the TV and Movie industries is that Time Warner (which owns HBO, CNN, Warner Bros Studios and countless other successful media properties), decided they could no longer go it alone.  So what does this say for the rest of the of the weaker networks out there?  And is it time for other old school networks to find a dance partner on the distribution side to keep afloat during this age of media consolidation and content proliferation?  (link)

Have a great Tuesday guys!

WHAT TO BE THINKING ABOUT IN 2017:  The starter’s pistol has gone off for 2017.  CES came and went with its usual bang, and the digital media community is getting back to their desks to start executing on this year’s marketing strategies.  So what should we thinking about in 2017?   A good place to start is the following AdAge article, which highlights five key areas to keep an eye on.  There’s a little bit of something on this list for everyone, including mCommerce’s impact on FinTech, Amazon’s effect on Retail, the proliferation of PMPs in programmatic, advancements in audience verification, and video’s continued migration to digital.  Great article to help frame out 2017!  (link)

DISLOCATION DILEMMA:  Throughout CES in Vegas last week there was tons of buzz around IoT, VR, AI, and countless other tech trends which don’t even have cool initial nicknames yet.  But of all the panels and interviews, I thought the following prediction from former Fox President Barry Diller provided the best macro-view of what’s happening in our industry.  Mr. Diller’s theory of content “dislocation” helps explain what’s happening to the traditional broadcast TV and movie industries.  Content on these channels used to be distributed with a one-to-many delivery model.  Now it’s many-to-many, with content being created by so many more mid to small players and consumers using new tech options to find preferred content on their own.  The results of this dislocation will have a profound effect on the entire media industry.  Very interesting theory to noodle on.  (link)

VIVA AUDIO:  And finally today some perspective on digital media’s transformative effect on audio.  Did you ever think you’d see the day when Inside Radio would actually print that the “when and where listeners tune in is steadily shifting from terrestrial to digital”?  Pureplay streamers know this to be true, and this year’s CES has helped confirm the theory.  With new in-home tech advancements like Amazon Echo and Google Home, voice activated integrations are becoming the heart of the connected home.  Streaming audio has a front row seat for the revolution, and 2017 truly feels like the beginning of important era for our industry.  (link)

Have a great Monday guys!

The staff at the Daily Gabe will be taking a much-needed break for the holidays next week, and then be on assignment at CES the week of January 2^nd.  So this will be the last post until January 9^th, 2017.  Since it’s the final post of the year, I wanted to deviate from my normal format and end 2016 with one stark warning and then one piece of inspiration.

RECOMMITTING TO TRUTH:  First the warning.  Our industry is entering a dangerous era where “post-truths” are becoming the norm.  I believe this is being caused by marco issues in our society which has made it acceptable for individuals to say anything (truthful or not) on social media, and have very few repercussions.  For the best example of this look no further than the use of Twitter during the Prez election.  Unfortunately for all of us, digital media is conforming to this new post-truth standard.  Gone is the expectation that you need to do it the right way up front or suffer the consequences.  Now it’s a question of what you can get away with, and if you get caught just ask for forgiveness.  I think the author of the following AdWeek article poignantly makes the case for a commitment to rebuilding trust as the most important thing we can all work towards in 2017.  Something to think about over the holidays . . . (link)

GETTING BETTER AT LIFE:  Now for something positive.  In addition to this blog I regularly post articles and images on LinkedIn.  Of all the posts I did in 2016 the following image got the biggest reaction, with over 15,000 views and counting.  I can take zero credit for the content itself – it comes from James Altucher, who’s an author, podcaster, and all-around futurist.  If you haven’t read him he’s worth getting to know at (http://www.jamesaltucher.com/).  Anyways, I’ve been staring at this list of 18 points for a while now, and have come up with the following realization.  Achieving all 18 things on this list isn’t the thing.  Instead just trying to do a few of these tips daily has a funny way of making you better at life.  By “better at life” I mean happier, more well-rounded, and more fulfilled.  And people who possess these attributes are generally more successful in their chosen fields, and are therefore more likely to become millionaires.  Hopefully tips on this list can help all of us get better at life in 2017.

Happy holidays everyone, and cheers to a fantastic 2017!

FB DELVES INTO LIVE AUDIO:  Facebook has quietly announced Live Audio functionality as a companion to its Live Video launch.  This development has definitely caught the attention of broadcasters, as noted in the following RAIN and Radio Ink articles.  The platform is literally what the name implies –  live audio (up to four continuous hours), and nothing pre-produced or archived for future listening.  So this won’t really rise to the level of a full streaming audio service.  But what Live Audio can do is provide a platform for live performances.  Think of listening to a live concert via FB instead of attending the show or streaming it.  Granted the technical challenges around sound quality and the “sitting by yourself listening to a concert” factor may never truly replace the live music experience.  But it’s still an interesting development to keep an eye on.  (link1)  (link2)

A VERY SMALL STEP FORWARD:  Yesterday Nielsen announced it would increase PPM sample size across its 48 electronically-measured markets by 10% in 2017.  Sample size (or lack thereof) has been a top complaint of broadcasters and agencies alike, so the announcement is seen as a positive step forward.  However, we’re talking a baby step here.  Even with the increased meters Nielsen’s only estimating to track 65,000 listeners per day.  The 12+ population of the top 48 DMAs is roughly 132M.  So sampling 65,000 of this group is only a .05% in-tab rate (that’s .0005 for you non-math majors!)  Then Nielsen will take this one-half-of-one-tenth-of-one-percent sample and project out listening over the entire population.  If that methodology was used by a digital publisher they’d get booed out of the industry.  But in radio-land it’s being cheered.  Is the broadcasters’ expectation of Nielsen really that low?!? (link)

2017 DIGITAL PREDICTIONS:  And finally, each year Edelman Digital releases its Marketing Predictions for the upcoming year.  This year’s list is fairly diverse, with an emphasis on chatbots, influencers, and attribution.  It’s also interesting to see their take of the role of new technologies like VR and industry disruptors like Blockchain.  For some context I’ve also included Edelman’s 2016 predictions below, which were pretty spot on.  Given their track record the 2017 predictions in the following link are worth paying attention to! (link)

Have a great Thursday guys!

eCOMMERCE INSIGHTS:  Throughout this holiday season I’ve been highlighting emerging eCommerce trends.  In an attempt to one up me 🙂 Forbes has summarized these into a single expanded article.  (Fair warning on the click baiting though, since you’ll need to scroll through 4 pages to see all 12 points.)  My takeaways from these stats are as follows; chat-botting and technology will start to displace in-store employees, mCommerce has hit critical mass, Amazon has trained us not to pay for shipping or even put up with slow shipping, and Retailers have a ways to go to make their In-App loyalty programs more rewarding.  Good stuff to be thinking about in the Retail category for 2017.  (link)

MO MEASUREMENT, MO PROBLEMS:  I know it seems like I’m beating a dead horse here, but we’re continuing to see miscalculations on Facebook’s ad performance metrics.  While this latest issue, regarding time spent on third parties’ Instant Articles, is relatively small compared to some of the other errors, it’s the first example of a miscalculation being flagged externally – this one was caught by Comscore.  While none of these miscalculations will materially impact FB’s bottom line, you have to wonder if the compounding effect will start to undermine marketers’ confidence in them.  This isn’t good for FB, and quite frankly doesn’t help our entire industry.  (link)

DEFYING THE SANDMAN:  Finally today, have you ever wondered what separates the early birds who seem to jump out of bed like their alarm is a starter’s pistol, from the night owls who have trouble getting going before the crack of noon?  It often comes down to a physiological phenomenon known as sleep inertia.  It’s what happens when you’re technically awake, but your brain isn’t fully functioning because it’s still trying to remain in sleep mode.  Sleep inertia can last for 15 minutes all the way up to four hours after you wake up, which isn’t exactly helpful for business professionals who need to be on their games first thing in the morning.  While sleep inertia can’t ever be completely eliminated, here are few articles with tips to help minimize the effects.  The best suggestion is getting a good night sleep (of course!), so that your brain is well rested when it’s time to wake up.  Another idea is to stick to a regular routine first thing in the morning, which helps train your brain to recognize when it’s time be awake for the day.  Is it just a coincidence that Ashton Kutcher and Selena Gomez both recommend stretching and drinking water when you wake up?  Maybe they’re on to something?!?  (link1)   (link2)

Have a great Wednesday guys!

THE DOJ COMES CALLING:  Oh boy . . . as if the controversy around agency fee transparency wasn’t challenging enough, now comes news that all four of the major holding companies have received subpoenas from the DOJ over potential bid rigging.  These allegations center around the practice of inflating production or post production work costs to create more revenue for the Holding Company.  In simplest terms think of the HC’s lead AOR winning a piece of business by offering a lower fee structure than the competition.  Then to make up the money on the back end the AOR sublets work to a production company which is owned by the same HC.  That production company then jacks the price up, usually through increased billable hours.  Since these costs are harder to quantify they’re easier to inflate.  Keep in mind these are just allegations, and nobody has been found guilty of bid rigging yet.  Regardless, it’s not exactly the dirty laundry these HCs want to have out on the line.  (link)

APPLE’S PODCAST PROWESS:  Yesterday Apple released some stats around their 2016 podcast footprint.  The 10B # they’re quoting is a combination of downloads and streams, as those are the two primary ways podcasts are distributed.  According to Podtrac, Apple’s 10B podcasts represented 65% of the total podcast listening worldwide in 2016.  For context I’m including two articles from RAIN.  The first is the story itself, and the second is a deeper analysis of the attempts to standardize podcast measurement across downloads and streams, and reconcile uniques by episode vs. total podcast series.  Given the momentum podcasting has picked up in 2016, we’re sure to see continued growth (and attention) on this topic in the years to come.  (link 1)  (link2)

RIP 2016:  Towards the end of every year you start to see the post mortem on people or things we’ve lost over the previous 12 months.  This year Digiday is jumping on the trend with a summary of the brands we lost this year.  Hard to believe Meerkat is already gone.  Seems like yesterday (at SxSW 2015) when they debuted.  I can vividly remember an over-served client suggesting Meerkat would be the “Facebook of live video”.  Just 20 months later FB actually has live video, and Meerkat is DOA.  The demise of others on the list, like Vine and even Sports Authority, have been well-documented throughout the year.  But it’s still remarkable to see these companies on a list together.  And I seriously have no idea how the “OG” made it on this list.  Did the Russians just hack Digiday?!?  (link)

AND ONE MORE THING . . .   Speaking of ditching things which were once hot, here’s an extra nugget for you today.  Remember about 4-5 years ago when the entire world was moving from URLs to QR Codes?  Well check out the image below – from a real (but anonymous) digital agency white board.  Pretty funny!

Have a great Tuesday guys!