YouTube Adds Cards, Making Videos More Interactive

Last week, YouTube launched a new Cards feature this week that is seen as the evolution of annotations. Items to note on these new cards are below:

• Allow creators to add interactive, Google-now like pop ups on videos.
• Can inform and link viewers to: merchandise, fundraising, other videos and playlists, websites and fan funding.
• Available on mobile (a big win)

As marketers develop Cards it is essential ensure these cards are truly adding value in the user journey of discovering video content. These cards should not disrupt the viewing experience unless it can provide unique and interesting interactivity—a feature that annotations for the most part have not supplied.

You can learn more here.

Facebook Launches Payment System For Messenger App Users

Facebook is making a very big push in the mobile payment space.

In the upcoming months, Facebook Messenger users will now be able to send money to friends within the app. "Easy, Secure, Free,” says the Facebook announcement.

• Facebook Messenger has over 500 Million monthly active users
• Of these users there are nearly 80 million payment cards already on file, thanks to Facebook being a trusted payments processor for gaming, advertising, and donations since 2007

Facebook Messenger is poised to disrupt the industry, taking market share from P2P payment leaders like Venmo, PayPal, and Google Wallet.

Beyond just payments, Facebook Messenger expects more updates next week during the F8 conference particularly around how it plans to compete with other messaging services. You can find more information here and here.

Early Version of Vessel Launched

If you haven't heard of Vessel yet, you will. Soon.

The newest online video platform started by former Hulu CEO Jason Kilar, competes directly with YouTube, claims exclusive content and has just signed up some new advertisers:

• Users can get exclusive access to videos from some of the biggest content creators in the space.
• Vessel is offering these creators 70% of ad revenue while YouTube takes a majority of that revenue at 55%.
• Videos posted to Vessel can’t be seen anywhere else for 72 hours, hoping to be a big differentiating factor for the company.
• After that 72 hour window, the content then moves to Vessel’s free, ad-supported service along with other platforms like YouTube.
• Advertisers include: Chevy, Corona Extra, Land Rover, Jaguar, Axe, Dove, Suave and St. Ives
• Producers, including Alec Baldwin, signed on to produce custom content for the platform

Vessel launched their early version of the service to video creators last Wednesday. Once Vessel attracts more creator, we can expect "general pop" log in opportunities. In the meantime, you can request an invite here. Plus, see more about the platform here.

Bringing "How To" Videos to Vine and Instagram

After an extremely successful Black Friday Vine program, Lowes continues to evolve the campaign using consumer behavior and insights to drive creative, and effective, work. 

In the new campaign, Lowes:

• Evolves the “Fix in Six” campaign from small hacks to larger projects
• Showcases seemingly hard-to-do tasks in easy, digestable, 6-15 second videos
• Leverages existing user experience and platform functionality with a “Tap thru” engagement
• Breaks projects into steps that viewers can pause turning the quick video into a tutorial
• Educates audiences on how to use the feature and videos

Now, with the influx of the use of the mobile app and utility of the Vines, there is an opportunity to take this in-store and purchase the items needed for this DIY project. 

To learn more about the new campaign, see Lowes on Instagram, Vine and within this article.

Twitter Evolves Advertising Opportunities

During Twitter’s first Analysts Day in mid-November,  Twitter announced and alluded to new updates to the ad platforms that further compete with Facebook and even search giants like Google, particularly with mobile and video solutions.

Some of those updates include:

• Twitter Offers:
• After slowly allowing brands to sell on the platform, Twitter is further showing its devotion to eCommerce via an Offer Card
• Users can add the offer to their credit/debit card in a few taps and redeem in real time via their card
• Attribution will be easy to track directly on Twitter campaigns to further measure ROI for offers
  
• App install tracking
• Answers is now available as a free mobile measurement tool to track promoted and organic app installs driven by Twitter
• Native Video coming to Twitter by Summer 2015
• Beyond native uploading, the platform will allow for record, edit and sharing video directly on the platform
• SEO for Local and Logged Out Users
• Will provide a stronger experience for logged out users when searching content
• Google search keyword data may play a larger role in Twitter content

For more information see below:

Twitter Offers

Answers App Install Tracking

What’s Next: All Inclusive

Nielsen to Track Amazon and Netflix

Streaming content has shifted the way we as consumers, and marketers, consume television and syndicated content. To show the staying power of streaming content, Nielsen announced that they will begin to measure premium streaming video TV programming from Netflix and Amazon starting next month.  The Nielsen tracking of SVOD (subscription video-on-demand) programming will be done through audio. Plus, it will not be accessible on mobile.  

With this integration, advertisers and content creators will be able to look at their programs and see how streaming content is impacting viewership. This means, that until next month, networks and content creators did not have true understanding to how their videos performed across these platforms.

Some details on this update are below:

·         Nielsen will analyze this content without the cooperation of streaming services.

·         The programming that is measured will come from, and be available to, existing Nielsen clients.

·         To date, subscription video-on-demand services have declined to publicly disclose their viewership.

For more information, click here and here.

Kate Spade, Anna Kendrick and Cinematique Give "Window Shopping" a New Meaning

Holiday shopping is upon us as retailers push new promotions and advertising at consumers across platforms.

But, following up on a successful Google Display Network campaign during Holiday 2013, Kate Spade pushes digital video even further with a new shoppable video via Cinematique, giving "Window Shopping" a new meaning in the digital video sphere.

And, if you haven't seen the new video starring Anna Kendrick, then you should watch it now:

The Cinematique technology on this video is outlined below:

• Users can watch the video and click products they like
• The video aggregates your clicks/products via a secondary page within the player (found when clicking the Cinematique logo "Q" on the player)
• Users can then be taken to the product page to purchase the images selected
• Via the screen after clicking "Q" users can also log-in to the Cinematique experience via email or Facebook for future updates and information on your products
• Cinematique not only allows shoppable information, but also can provide more details about an actor, location or any item within a video
• Touchable video is enabled on mobile via the App Store

Beyond Kate Spade, retail has led the way in interactive video campaigns. For more, see these campaigns below:

Juicy Couture Shoppable Annotations
Gap Back-To-School with Cinematique