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Zeebox rebrands as Beamly, launches new second screen app: review

Zeebox launched two years ago as a fairly simple program guide with many second screen integrated features.

Ben Davis covered the app in his article Zeebox: insanely powerful advertising but will it catch on? At the time of writing in October 2013, it was found that 53% of adults interact with another form of media while watching television and of that number, 25% were chatting online about the shows they were watching.

With 6m downloads of the app, Zeebox were well on the way to capitalise on this second-screen trend.

As of this week, Zeebox has been rebranded as Beamly and a new app has been launched. The theory behind the rebrand is to expand upon the initial conceit of an app that added enjoyment to the programme you were watching at that particular moment, by expanding the experience throughout the day, away from the television. 

What is disruption?

‘Disruptive’ is bandied around in the digital world as much as ‘game-changer’ and therefore it’s a principle that is often watered down and made cliché.

Four innovations that will shape the future of email marketing

Email marketing has a reputation of being a boring direct response channel, always on the verge of “death” at the hands of the latest digital touch point, which gets heralded as the “future of messaging”.

Yet email trudges on, consistently ranking at the highest level for ROI. Despite the death threats, companies are attributing 23% of their total sales to email, up from 18% in 2013.

In the face of newer digital channels, email has thrived in its role as the unassuming, reliable touch point for marketers to engage with customers.

So how will the elder statesman of digital marketing change in a continuously evolving digital ecosystem?

Here are a number of ways marketers think email will be used in the near future and beyond. 

Rise of the mobile-first social network: US stats

The majority of social media sites are seeing far more traffic and time spent coming from mobile devices than from desktops.

According to comScore’s latest research, of the largest social networks, only LinkedIn and Tumblr maintain a majority share on desktop. Newer social networks like Instagram, Vine and Snapchat are almost exclusively used on mobile.

That probably seems a little bit obvious when you consider the fact that those networks are almost entirely camera dependent. In fact Vine only launched a desktop site at the beginning of the year and neither the Vine nor the Instagram desktop sites are particularly user friendly.

Has Facebook killed organic post reach for brands? What should you be doing about it?

The last month has seen a host of speculation that Facebook organic post reach is set to decline.

The prevailing view is that brands should expect to see organic reach of between 1-2%, with the end of organic reach looming on the horizon.

The increasing volume of Facebook brand pages adds more posts that compete for visibility in the algorithm. Many also see this as a move to further monetise brand pages.

How to market your branded Facebook page

It’s getting tougher and tougher for brands to make an impact through organic means on Facebook.

In a recent tweak to the news feed algorithm, companies that run Facebook pages have seen a substantial drop-off in reach as Facebook prioritises content from users who your followers engage with the most.

That’s not to say that it’s now impossible to get your unpaid posts seen by your fans, it’s just that they’re more likely to only be seen by users who regularly engage with your page.

I discussed the pros and cons of this at greater length in the above linked article. Indeed the news feed change has scuppered many small publishers and businesses with little-to-no budget, but then again there’s an argument to say that if your content is engaging enough and tailored for your specific Facebook audience, then you shouldn’t see too much of a drop-off.

Everybody needs a little push now and then though. I run a Facebook page for my own music review website. I don’t make any profit from it, I just do it for the love of being mean about Skrillex. 

Previous to the algorithm change each of my posts would easily be seen by at least 100-150 users. In the last few months however this has dropped off substantially to around 20. The Facebook page was a great way to engage with readers as it provoked a lot of interesting and funny conversations. This isn’t the case anymore.

Whether you feel this is down to the quality of content, or whether you feel that Facebook has been unfair with this change or not, it’s difficult to argue with Facebook’s commitment to providing its users with a more personalised, tailored experience.

However, and this is a big however, Facebook has made it incredibly easy to market your branded page and its posts.

Email marketers not making the most of automation: report

Though 83% of companies see the benefits of increased automation in email marketing, many are yet to use the technology to its full extent. 

For example, though the use of triggers for emails such as abandoned baskets can produce results, the vast majority are just using one or two automated triggers. 

In this post, I’ll look at some of the findings from our Email Marketing Industry Census 2014, based on a survey of more than 1,100 email marketers and produced in partnership with Adestra. 

How are companies trying to increase customer lifetime value?

Customer lifetime value matters, so how are companies attempting to improve retention rates? 

Our recent Customer Lifetime Value: Building Loyalty and Driving Revenue in the Digital Age report (produced with the help of Sitecore) has one answer: improving customer experience.

The report finds that 64% rate customer experience as the best tactic for improving CLV, followed by better use of data and personalisation. 

Q&A: Mags Sikora on the current SEO landscape

With so much change and ambiguity currently prevalent in the world of SEO it’s difficult to know what even constitutes best practice anymore.

Lately I’ve been trying to navigate the murky world of black hat and white SEO and I although I think I grasped the basics, I thought now would be the perfect time to discuss current issues with an industry expert.

Mags Sikora is an SEO Consultant based in London. Over the last seven years she has led a number of SEO projects for brands such as Expedia.co.uk, TripAdvisor, Avis, Mpora.com and currently New Look. 

The majority of those projects have consisted of large-scale audits, development, strategy creation and implementation, including all aspects of technical SEO and link building. She also helps smaller websites and startups to set up their own in-house SEO teams.

Mobile is now the main driver of global adspend growth: stats

Mobile advertising, including display, search and in-app ads, is now growing six times faster than desktop internet.

Forecasts suggest that mobile advertising will continue to grow by an average of 50% a year between 2013 and 2016, thanks to the widening penetration of smartphones and tablets.

These figures come from ZenithOptimedia’s latest advertising expenditure forecast. It reveals that overall global advertising spend will rise from 3.9% in 2013 to 5.5% in 2014, with further growth expected to increase to 6.1% in 2016.

In other optimistic news it seems that advertisers are now committing to spending more in the Eurozone. Since the financial crisis began there has been a 15% drop in adspend, however this year will see Eurozone adspend rise 0.7%, the first growth since 2010.

The internet is the fastest growing medium for adspend by quite some distance though. Let’s take a look at the forecast and what the future holds in store for internet adspend.

What the Coca Cola World Cup campaign reveals about video advertising

Looking at the new World’s Cup campaign from Coca Cola and its new video, I was struck by how closely it follows a pattern we’ve seen emerging in video advertising for the past five years.

I was also struck by how Coke’s effort differs from Pepsi’s #FutbolNow World Cup campaign and the calls to action, overt or otherwise, in its video.

In this post you can watch both videos and see if you agree with my points. For more detail on best practice in video advertising, see our Online Video Best Practice guide.

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