Tag: Fast Forward

Ad Blocking in iOS 9 Safari: What You Need to Do

Posted on by Lab Team

Ansible and Magna Global contributed to this report.

Fast Forward is your guide to tech-driven changes in the media landscape by IPG Media Lab. A fast read for you and a forward for your clients and team.

  • iOS 9 will allow ad-blocking extensions for Safari, distributed through the App Store
  • Ad delivery and data tracking abilities will be impacted for a significant number of users who opt in
  • Brands and publishers can adapt with native advertising or partnering with data owners that don’t rely on ad network tracking


What Happened
Important details have recently emerged about a new feature in Apple’s default web browser in iOS 9, Safari. Apple promises developers a “fast and efficient way to block cookies, images, resources, pop-ups, and other content.” That means that ads and ad-network tracking scripts will never get delivered to some portion of iOS 9 users. Recent tests removing ad-tracker javascript with a pre-release version of iOS 9 reduced page loading times by as much as 80%, from 11 seconds to 2 seconds.

How Media Owners Should Respond

  • Deliver the best possible experience in a native app. Ads delivered in your app are unaffected as this only affects web ads and trackers.
  • Tests of your ability to serve highly-targeted and engaging advertisements on the web have been accelerated as Apple has pushed forward the timetable.
  • Integrate with Apple News and Facebook Instant Articles and others that own the user data necessary for precise targeting without hopping all over the internet to get it.


How Advertisers Should Respond

  • Focus on in-app advertising, either through a network like iAd or through direct sponsorships.
  • Look for more ways to integrate native advertising into your plans.
  • Consider significant new investment in media properties that own enough user data that they can sufficiently target without going through an ad exchange. Seek out Facebook Instant Articles or Apple News. Google, Verizon, Yahoo and publications with niche audiences and direct ad sales are the other beneficiaries here.


Market Impact
As digital ad revenue has transitioned from desktop to mobile, most has found its way to in-app ads instead of on the web. This nearly matches attention. Whereas 81% of time spent on a smartphone is in-app, only 76% of ad spend is in-app.

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We expect these new ways to block mobile web ads to more than close that gap, especially because of the importance of Safari. As the default web browser on iOS devices, Safari accounts for roughly 40% of mobile web traffic worldwide and more than half in the US.

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Ad-blocking extensions are appealing to users because they can better protect their privacy, improve webpage load times, save battery life, as well as blocking the pop-ups and banner ads that disrupt basic browsing experience. Ad-blocking on the desktop is used by about 25% of users worldwide and the most popular extension for the desktop version of Safari is AdBlock.

Therefore, there is little doubt that such extensions would catch on with a significant number of users, especially when aided by the ease of App Store distribution. Ads blocked in this way on both the desktop and in the future on mobile aren’t billed to the advertiser, and will have a bigger impact on publisher revenue than on advertisers. Wide adoption could lead to a devastating impact on web publishers and ad tech providers, as an extension can shut out most ad views and cuts off the resulting ad revenues and tracking data.

We expect two main groups to be heavy adopters of these new content blockers, for different reasons. First, the higher-income, early adopter crowd is a prime candidate to incorporate these extensions, as they are more likely to know about them. Second, because content blockers have a large impact on page data size and battery life, consumers with low data caps or electricity concerns, particularly across Africa and India, are also likely to install a content-blocking extension sooner than later.

We expect the biggest tech companies and especially social networks to benefit, as they can deliver ads with sufficient targeting without relying on ad network trackers. Though Facebook’s Instant Articles has had a slow roll out, these ad-blocking extensions will accelerate publishers’ incentive to partner with Facebook. Similarly, the new Apple News is the carrot to balance the ad-blocking stick. Few other media owners can target as well as Google, Facebook and Apple, but that list includes Verizon/AOL, Yahoo, Pinterest and Twitter.

In the short term, Google’s revenue from web ads makes them unlikely to offer similar functionality in Android, but this could change if content blockers become a key selling point of iOS. Now, ad blockers are allowed on Android but are stand-alone browsers and do not integrate with Chrome, the default web browser.

For More Information
Please contact Engagement Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) at the IPG Media Lab if you would like more detail or to schedule a visit to the Lab to discuss how the feedback loop on this could play out over the next couple years.

For previous editions of Fast Forward, please visit www-stage.ipglab.com. Please reply with any constructive criticism or feedback. We want these to be as useful as possible for you and your clients, and your feedback will help us immensely.

 

For Additional Reading:

Paul Hudson:
This should also show you how Apple has managed to introduce content blockers without compromising on privacy: apps tell Safari the kind of content that should be blocked, but they do it indirectly and the communication only ever flows one way: apps have no knowledge of any user behavior whatsoever.

Ben Thompson:
[A]rguably the biggest takeaway should be that the chief objection to Facebook’s [Instant Articles] offer — that publishers are giving up their independence — is a red herring. Publishers are already slaves to the ad networks, and their primary decision at this point is which master — ad networks or Facebook — is preferable?

Jean-Louis Gassée:
As users, we understand that we’re not really entitled to free browsing; we pay our bills with our selves: When The Product Is Free, We Are the Product. The problem is that we feel betrayed when we find out we’ve been overpaying.

Joshua Benton:
A report from 2014 found that adblock usage was up 70 percent year-over-year, with over 140 million people blocking ads worldwide, including 41 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds.

Apple Adds Ad-Blocking Extension To iOS 9 – IPG Media Lab

Apple’s Support of Ad Blocking May Upend How the Web Works – Wired

Safari Content Blocker, Before and After – Daring Fireball

Ad Tech Is Killing The Online Experience – The Guardian

 

 

Fast Forward: How You Can Use Apple’s ResearchKit For Better Clinical Data

Posted on by Lab Team

Your guide to tech-driven changes in the media landscape by IPG Media Lab. A fast read for you and a forward for your clients and team.

  • Apple gives the go ahead to for-profit use of ResearchKit
  • Increase study population sizes by multiple orders of magnitude
  • Create an iOS app that taps into iPhone and Apple Watch sensors like step counts, calorie use, and heart rates to get started

What Happened
Apple’s ResearchKit is a new open-source software framework that helps the medical community gather research data from iPhone users. Although it was initially intended for, and has been widely used in universities and other non-profit medical institutions, now two pharmaceutical companies – GlaxoSmithKline and Purdue Pharma – are starting to integrate ResearchKit in a for-profit endeavor, according to Buzzfeed.

What This Means For Pharma Brands
In order to use ResearchKit, the first step is to develop an iOS app that taps into the biometric data that will help you understand people’s lives and drug efficacy. Surveying users with questions at least daily is encouraged. The data available continuously include daily step counts, calorie use, and heart rates. Future hardware generations are likely to add to these. The requirements to tap into the data are:

  • oversight by an independent ethics review board,
  • explicit disclosure of the data being gathered, and
  • getting a participant signature of informed consent.


Market Impact
Since Apple unveiled ResearchKit back in March, medical researchers have been using the tools to create apps to aid studies on treating various common diseases such as diabetes and asthma. A Stanford University cardiovascular study, one of the first uses of the program, had more than 11,000 participants sign up in less than 24 hours, a population size that the director of the study said would normally take a year and coordination across 50 facilities around the country.

As far as opening the platform to for-profit ventures, Jeff Williams, Apple’s senior vice president of operations, told Buzzfeed, “We’re open to working with anybody that is going to make an impact on people’s health. So we’ve made ResearchKit open-source so Apple won’t even control who uses it. We will control what we put on our App Store, but we won’t control who uses it.” This opportunity doesn’t replace anything comparable. It opens a new world of possibility for the types of information and health data that can be learned with the sensors that hundreds of millions of people around the world carry with them in the waking lives. Its scale and usefulness will only expand as more and more sensors are added to Apple’s ecosystem.

For More Information
Please contact Engagement Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) at the IPG Media Lab if you would like more detail or to schedule a visit to the Lab.

For previous editions of Fast Forward, please visit www-stage.ipglab.com. Please reply with any constructive criticism or feedback. We want these to be as useful as possible for you and your clients, and your feedback will help us immensely.

Header image courtesy of Apple’s ResearchKit Page

 

Fast Forward: How You Can Leverage Live-Streaming To Reach A Wider Audience

Posted on by Lab Team

Your guide to tech-driven changes in the media landscape by IPG Media Lab. A fast read for you and a forward for your clients and team.

  • New features from Meerkat make live-streaming collaborative and more interactive
  • Brands can sponsor others’ streams or have celebs “Cameo” in their own stream to increase reach
  • Storage option makes evergreen content possible

What Meerkat Announced
Meerkat has announced a new update that brings several interesting new features to its apps. Besides Facebook log-in and a cloud-based streaming storage, the highlight of the update comes as a new “Cameo” feature that allows live-stream hosts to invite another Meerkat user to take over their stream for up to one minute.

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What Brands That Produce Video Content Need To Do
Brands that produce monetizable content and brands that produce video for content marketing can capitalize on this change. The new features change the type of content suitable for Meerkat in a big way. Meerkat is now making it easy for brands to get involved in streams with a wide reach as a Cameo, e.g., by buying time on an influencer’s stream. Also, brands can leverage a Cameo from a celebrity to reach a bigger audience, spice up their live streams and generate buzz, as that celeb brings their audience with them, either live or for evergreen content.

Several marketers have already begun using the new feature, including The Weather Channel, TMZ, Fox, CW, Mastercard, and YouTube star Michelle Phan. Even scripted and serialized content are possible on Meerkat now and the long term storage options will create opportunities to build an audience over time.

Market Impact
Locked in a tight race with Periscope, Meerkat has been actively branching out to new territories to differentiate itself from its Twitter-owned rival. In recent weeks, it has expanded to Android, as well as forging partnerships with cable networks like Discovery and CMT to diversify its content. This update shows Meerkat’s continued efforts in differentiation, and it looks like it is ahead of Periscope, for now at least.

For More Information
Please contact Engagement Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) at the IPG Media Lab if you would like more detail or to schedule a visit to the Lab.

For previous editions of Fast Forward, please visit www-stage.ipglab.com. Please reply with any constructive criticism or feedback. We want these to be as useful as possible for you and your clients, and your feedback will help us immensely.

 

Images courtesy of Meerkat

Fast Forward: The Biggest Announcements From Apple’s WWDC 2015 Event

Posted on by Lab Team

Your guide to tech-driven changes in the media landscape by IPG Media Lab. A fast read for you and a forward for your clients and team.

What Apple Announced

“Proactive” Search Extensibility
Apple kicked off the presentation with previews of the next-gen operating systems—OS X El Capitan for laptops and iMacs, and iOS 9 for mobile devices. One feature that stood out was “Proactive Assistant,” a new AI-enabled search for iOS 9, complete with deep-linking capability for apps and even indexed websites. Working with an enhanced Siri, the new search feature is context-sensitive, suggesting apps and content based on time, location, and even user habits.

Enhanced Personalization On Apple Watch
Apple unveiled the new OS for the recently launched Apple Watch, promising to bring more personalization to the device, such as “complications” which display customizable information from third-party apps right on the watch face. The new watchOS also added support for HomeKit, allowing the watch to interact and remotely control the various new sensors and connected devices.

Apple Pay Upgraded To Wallet
Apple Pay got a major upgrade, adding support for loyalty and store cards and more. The prior lack of integration with retailer loyalty programs and CRM systems had been cited as the biggest obstacle to retailer adoption of Apple Pay. These additions will help give more credibility to Tim Cook’s January claim that “2015 will be the year of Apple Pay.”

In an effort to support small businesses, Apple Pay will be compatible with a new reader from Square, launching in the fall. Moreover, Pinterest is integrating Apple Pay with their new buyable pins. Due to all these development, Passbook has been rebranded as Wallet. And, of course, all of these new features will be supported on the Apple Watch.

New Apps for Music and News
By introducing the new Music and News apps, Apple is officially getting into content curation to further enhance its mobile experience. Besides a paid-only streaming subscription service that rivals Spotify, the new Apple Music also puts curated music discovery front and center with a “for you” recommendation channel and a new 24/7 global radio. Similarly, the News app promises content recommendation based on reader interest and editorial curation.

Market Impact

“Proactive” Attack On Google
The new proactive features in iOS 9 are Apple’s take on the same user problems as Google’s new “Now On Tap” feature, as both aim to make use of the massive data that mobile users generate and leverage the behavioral insights into a more anticipatory user experience. As users move away from the mobile web into apps, Apple is deep-linking app content from search results to solidify its app ecosystem and help users find what they are looking for more quickly.

Apple is offering APIs for controlling how content appears in iOS Search. This applies to both websites and apps and amounts to a major new search platform for brands to optimize for. Today, brands have more control of their destiny on iOS than on Android, where Google is holding all the cards.

Making Apple Watch More Brand-Friendly
Allowing third-party complications on the watch face provides brands with a great opportunity to get on the prime real estate on the wrist. For example, Volkswagen’s Remote Control app was featured in the demo, and included a complication which puts the carmaker’s logo prominently on the watch face with the car’s battery charge level. HomeKit integration and native apps, with access to all of the Watch’s sensors, will significantly expand the Watch’s functionality and reach making the platform more valuable for brands to get on board.

Moving Beyond Just Payment
Apple Pay has been making remarkable progress since its launch, set to top 1 million available locations in the U.S. next month*, and now it will soon be making its first overseas expansion into the UK next month in over 250,000 locations, including London’s transportation system. The integration with Pinterest’s buyable pins also points to Apple’s ambition of integrating Apple Pay into ecommerce platforms. More importantly, the new inclusion of rewards and loyalty cards will offer brands a great platform to maintain their relationships with the loyal customers via built-in loyalty programs as well as personalized offers.

Apple Getting Into Content Curation
While it is still early to tell how much impact the Music and News apps will have on the digital publishing and music industry, respectively, Apple is clearly making an effort to take more control over content, taking on competitors such as Spotify and Facebook’s Instant Articles. For content creators, including brands, these could be interesting new channels to connect directly with fans, and, especially in the case of Music, lead to additional commerce opportunities such as ticket sales. It will also affect advertising, as publishers can sell ads directly and retain 100% of revenue, or use iAd and retain 70%.

Our full coverage of WWDC 2015 is here. Please contact Engagement Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) at the IPG Media Lab if you would like more detail or to schedule a visit to the Lab.

This is the second of our Fast Forward analysis. Please reply with any constructive criticism or feedback. We want these to be as useful as possible for you and your clients, and your feedback will help us immensely. You can read our first Fast Forward analysis on Google I/O Event here.

 

*Editor’s Note: updated on June 9, 2o15 12:40pm to include stats on Apple Pay in the states.

Fast Forward: Google Now is the New Search — How To Stay Visible

Posted on by Lab Team

Editor’s Note: FAST FORWARD is a new Lab product that aims to be your go-to guide to tech-driven changes in the media landscape. It is a FAST read for you and a simple FORWARD for your clients and team. This is the first of our Fast Forward analyses, and we welcome any constructive criticism or feedback.

 

What Happened?
Yesterday at its annual I/O developer conference, Google debuted some game-changing new products and services that could redefine the entire app ecosystem. The company wowed the crowd with a new “Now on Tap” feature, part of the new Android M OS, which aims to provide contextual information and app deep links based on the content currently on the screen. Moreover, Google also updated its AdMob platforms to add new features such as improved ad targeting and tools for native ad creation.

What Does This Mean for Brands?
For both Android and iOS app owners, make sure your app is submitted to Google for indexing. While Now on Tap will always be Android only, iOS apps should be indexed also as apps for both platforms will need to do so to appear in Google search results on the web.

Google also announced that Play Store app listing content can be A/B tested, and that they will help developers analyze and understand the results. The A/B testing will be a huge help in converting Play Store views into downloads.

The IPG Media Lab, Ansible, and Reprise Media can help you strategize for these changes and produce content that will maximize the benefits from the new distribution and tools. This will get your app in front of more users, both in search results and in the Play Store, and ensure that those users are reminded of your app at the most useful moments through Now on Tap.

How It Works
If a movie title is mentioned in an email, activating Now on Tap with a long press of the home button brings up a Now card with glanceable information pulled from IMDB, a link to the trailer on YouTube, and deep links to relevant apps on the user’s phone. In this case, the user could go directly to the Tomorrowland page in the IMDB or Flixster app.

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For a restaurant mentioned in a text message, Now on Tap surfaces Google reviews and direct links to its location and phone number, as well as the Yelp and OpenTable apps.

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For fashion brands, indexing will be key to allowing users to go directly from a brand or product mention in an email or text to an app like Spring where the user can browse your related products or complete a purchase.

For verticals such as travel, where a mobile-optimized website may have sufficed, that strategy will no longer deliver enough value on Android. A native app, submitted for indexing, will allow Now on Tap to surface your brand app at the best possible times and allow users to book the trip they were talking about.

Google has incentive to display some glanceable information to answer basic questions but not to go too far on that front because that would discourage Android app development if users got everything they needed from Now on Tap instead of the third party apps. Therefore, we expect that Now on Tap will drive more app use and surface the right apps at the right moments for Android users.

Market Impact
The new Now on Tap feature means a system-wide deep-linking integration with all third-party apps via Google Now, which produces great opportunity for brands to benefit from contextual suggestions. Interestingly, the official announcement of Now on Tap was posted on Google’s official search blog, rather than the official Android blog. This signals the importance of the new feature for Google in a world where more and more time is spent inside apps and not in the web browser, where Google has been dominant. More than half of total internet time is spent in a mobile app and almost 90 percent of mobile internet time is spent in apps. Google has figured out a way to be useful for both users and app owners in this new reality and at the same time move ahead of Apple’s Siri and Facebook’s Graph Search.

Moreover, with the new updates to the AdMob’s platform, the over 650,000 apps it currently supports can now pull ads from 40 ad networks, including Facebook, Twitter, and Tencent GDT, and can present those ads in a more native format using CSS defined by the app. Similarly, Google also launched Universal App Campaigns for AdWords to help advertisers reach a wider audience across Google’s Search and AdMob platforms, as well as on mobile sites, on YouTube and on Google Play. With Facebook increasingly challenging Google’s dominance on mobile app install ads, Google clearly feels compelled to make it a more appealing ad platform for brands and developers alike with all these useful new tools.

For More Information
Please contact Engagement Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) at the IPG Media Lab if you would like more detail or to schedule a visit to the Lab.

 

All featured images courtesy of Google’s Official Search Blog