The mobile marketing industry is ever-changing, and that applies to the people as much as the technology. Movers Shakers is a regular feature following the hottest hires in the industry, so you can keep track of who’s joined which company, and what they’re doing there.

Weisman goes from Digitas to Dunkin’
Tony Weisman has been appointed US chief marketing officer of coffee and food brand Dunkin’ Donuts.

Weisman was previously the North American CEO of digital agency DigitasLBi, and before that worked at Draft Worldwide and Leo Burnett. At Dunkin’ Donuts, he will report directly to US president David Hoffmann, and serve on the Dunkin’ brands leadership team.

“Tony is a highly experienced, much-admired business leader with a proven track record of building global brands,” said Hoffman. “Very importantly, he also has a deep understanding of working with franchised organizations, including Dunkin’ Donuts, having led the work on our account at Digitas for the past six years.”

As CMO, Weisman will lead marketing, product innovation, field marketing, consumer insights and advertising for Dunkin’, as well as the brand’s digital and CPG initiatives.

Sizmek names CEO as Rocket Fuel acquisition closes
Sizmek has named Mark Grether as its new CEO, as the creative optimisation and data activation platform completes its acquisition of predictive marketing firm Rocket Fuel.

Grether first joined Sizmek as executive chairman back in January, when former CEO Neil Nguyen stepped down. As CEO, his role will remain largely the same, leading the company’s execution of strategy and growth.

“Sizmek’s unique ability to centralize data components in one place, across the entirety of the media plan, combined with Rocket Fuel’s AI-enabled decisioning provides our clients with robust data on the campaign, the consumer, the context, the creative, and the cost,” Grether said.

He will be joined by former Rocket Fuel CEO Randy Wootton as special advisor, as the Rocket Fuel brand is phased out over the coming months. Wootton will work with both teams to help make the transition period seamless.

SpotX makes moves into Italy with first MD
Video ad serving platform SpotX has appointed its first country managing director for Italy, with the hiring of Fabio Zoboli.

Zoboli joins from an equivalent position at media tech firm Strossle, and before that worked at Teads and Ebuzzing.

Based in Milan, and reporting to MD for UK and Southern Europe Leon Siotis, Zoboli will work with local media owners and demand-side partners responsible for building SpotX’s business in Italy.

“No one knows the video landscape in Italy as well as Fabio Zoboli, on both the supply and demand side,” says Siotis. “He brings unparalleled experience of building a business in this market, combined with an understanding of working for an international company.”
 
Strivr expands with Apple’s Jewell

Strivr, a company specialising in VR training, has expanded its executive team with the appointment of Nathaniel Jewell as chief financial officer.

Jewell joins Strivr from Apple, where he spent three years leading strategy and finance for the company’s worldwide channel sales organisation. Before that, he served in a variety of MA-focused roles at Deloitte Consulting.

This is the second executive position the company has added this year, after hiring Brian Meek as CTO back in January. Strivr is growing its headcount to 60 by the end of the year, across its three offices in the US. Its platform provides an immersive performance training environment, used by clients including Walmart, United Rentals, and the NFL.

Franco makes waves at MEC
Andy Francos has joined MEC’s Wavemaker division as head of organic performance, from his previous position as search director at Publicis-owned Starcom.

At Wavemaker, Francos will be tasked with boosting the agency’s organic offering and performance measurement, reporting to UK MD Ben McKay.

“Wavemaker’s continuing growth and ambitions require investment in class-leading talent to support our clients,” said McKay. “I’m delighted that Andy, with his exceptional understanding of the search landscape, will be joining Wavemaker’s leadership team.”

SACRAMENTO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Attorneys Online™ Inc. and MediaSmack, Inc. are pleased to announce the
completion of a Strategic Business Agreement, bringing together the
expertise of the two organizations’ online marketing businesses for
lawyers. The result of this partnership will result in wide-ranging
reporting and data tracking, additional SEO services, enhanced
Pay-Per-Click information and strategies, as well as an extended staff
to service web design, maintenance and social media. Video production
services will continue to be exclusively offered through Attorneys
Online™ Inc.

The co-founders of MediaSmack, Inc., Zach Thompson and Brian Meikle,
commented about the partnership: « We are pleased to be working with
Attorneys Online™ Inc. and excited for the future. The brilliant part
about our co-branded products is that it marries two successful law firm
marketing companies into one productive and effective force, and our
customers are the ones that reap the benefits.” CEO of Attorneys Online™
Inc., Cheney Winslow, added: “After almost 20 years of successfully
serving law firms, this alliance will elevate all of our comprehensive
marketing strategies. Our goal is and has always been to provide
uncompromising personal service and results to our clients.”

MediaSmack, Inc. and Attorneys Online™ Inc. are digital marketing firms
that cater to attorneys and law firms of all sizes. The internet
marketing specialists design and maintain cutting-edge websites, produce
compelling video media, manage Pay-Per-Click and social media
advertising campaigns, and have a strong history of achieving first
positions in Google search engine results.

Attorneys Online™ Inc., headquartered in Austin, Texas, was named Best
Full Service Legal Marketing Consultants in 2016 by TMT Media. Founded
in 1998 by Cheney Winslow, former movie and television producer, her
extensive video and acting background is apparent when viewing client
videos and television commercials, including a current spot starring
Evander Holyfield. Ms. Winslow is also the owner of AskTheLawyers.com™,
an online video and social media-driven legal directory, set for
relaunch in October 2017.

MediaSmack Inc. is headquartered in Sacramento, California, with an
objective to deliver new business and superb ROI for law firms.
MediaSmack Inc. persistently monitors each law firm campaign to make
efficient and required improvements to ensure continued success.
MediaSmack Inc. was named one of the top five fastest growing companies
by the Sacramento Business Journal in August 2017.

When people think about computer vision (sometimes called “machine vision”), they often think of smartphones and autonomous cars.

Snapchat can give you a puppy dog face thanks to facial recognition (a subset of machine vision). Autonomous cars can identify a human walking across a street. But did you know that machine vision plays a role in future marketing applications as well?

In this article, we’ll explore three current applications for computer vision in marketing. It’s important to note that these applications are most likely to be found in retail or broad B2C markets — I covered the reasons for this in my “5-year trends in artificially intelligent marketing” article here on MarTechToday (which may be a useful read for people with a strong interest in AI’s wider marketing applications).

1. Contextual ads/in-image ads

When Google AdSense or Google Display Network is embedded on a site, users will see a text or image ad that’s either (a) relevant to the text on that page, or (b) based on retargeting data of that particular user.

But what about images? As it turns out, there are companies (GumGum is one of them) that can display advertisements over images, by contextually identifying what is in the image and displaying relevant ads on the image itself.

For example, an image featuring playing kittens might be a good place to advertise a cat food brand — or an image of a tropical beach might be a good place to advertise vacation rentals in the Bahamas. One of GumGum’s YouTube videos shows this technology in action in a short highlight reel:

This is a challenging task that hasn’t been possible until relatively recently — thanks to major developments in machine vision in the last two to three years.

“Until very recently, it hasn’t been possible for a computer to get a semantic — that is to say, a human-level understanding of pictures,” machine vision guru Nathan Hurst, a distinguished engineer at Shutterstock, told me. In a recent interview, he explained how past approaches almost always boiled down to tagging images to identify their contents — until engineers built machine learning models that could be trained on massive image data sets.

With algorithms that can distinguish not just a “car,” but a “2004 Honda Civic,” and not just a “dog,” but a “cocker spaniel,” advertisers now have the ability to target specific image contexts to target their ads. An e-commerce business targeting Honda owners can not only target branded search terms (in Google AdWords, for example), but might also target only the images of Honda cars on related websites.

2. Programmatically generating advertising creatives

The online world is moving to video — with Cisco research predicting that 80 percent of web traffic by 2019 will be from engagement with video. Because of this trend, not only are major journalistic sites (such as Mic and Verge) pivoting to video, but brands are also aiming to win in the video game — but it’s not easy.

If a sunglasses brand has 100 images of its newest design, how does the company know which of those images should be used to garner clicks or purchases from users on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest?

Montreal-based Envision.ai is working on applications to parse through myriad image and video options to match the right media to the right user at the right time. Because a certain user or demographic group may change click-through behavior depending on the time of day, an AI system could be trained to adjust advertising media on these real-time factors.

For instance, Unilever’s Axe body spray has run social media campaigns with 100,000 different versions of its “Romeo Reboot” video, according to a post by the project’s visual effects director. As this kind of deep “calibration” to users and segments becomes the norm, large consumer brands may be forced to follow suit to match the innovators in online media engagement.

3. Facial recognition for advertising feedback

One of the benefits of online advertising is the fact that it’s trackable. Advertisers know how many sessions, users, clicks and so on happen in a given day or minute. They can calibrate specific ads to certain types of users or geolocations or days of the week and so on. This digital “footprint” allows for a tremendous amount of data to be collected to help optimize an advertiser’s efforts.

But outdoor advertising hasn’t been able to keep up. Tracking “users” and tracking “number of people who walk within 10 feet of this signage” are very, very different — the latter being much more challenging. Tracking “number of clicks to video content” and tracking “number of passersby who look at this outdoor advertisement for more than 3 seconds” are very different — again with the latter being much more challenging.

The limitations of the physical world are being overcome, however, by innovative companies that are taking the principles of online testing and variation and bringing them offline. London’s MC Saatchi has experimented with outdoor advertisements that track physical equivalents of “engagement” and varies its outdoor signage in real time based on the responses of the people who walk past.

In the future, advertisements on desktop and (especially) mobile may gather details about attention and emotion through facial recognition — and take this feedback into account to help determine what ads should be shown next or what details the advertisers themselves should change.

Some opinions expressed in this article may be those of a guest author and not necessarily MarTech Today. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

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The value of video production in today’s fast-paced environment should not be understated. In fact, many would argue that anyone hoping to make it as a photographer in today’s world better know how to shoot video in addition.

Simply Google “video marketing statistics” and you will be inundated by the number of results pointing to this fact. In a recent article by HubSpot, shared on Forbes.com, the following stats blew my mind:

• Video is projected to claim more than 80 percent of all web traffic by 2019.
• Adding a video to marketing emails can boost click-through rates by 200-300 percent.
• Embedding videos on landing pages can increase conversion rates by 80 percent.
• 90 percent of customers report that product videos help them make purchasing decisions.
• According to YouTube, mobile video consumption grows by 100 percent every year.

And this was only a handful. Simply put, video production is going to a be a huge part of any successful marketing strategy going forward. As someone that started as a photographer and has gradually migrated to a focus on video, I wanted to share some of my experiences as to why you should be adding video as part of your portfolio and how easy it can be.

Less Can Be More

When my business partner and I started Simple Cinema, our strategy was to focus on small to medium-sized local businesses in our area who could benefit greatly from video content on their site but didn’t have the insane budgets that larger companies do. Having worked as a PA for larger productions companies in town, I began to notice that many of the productions seemed vastly overdone for the desired outcome. Insane equipment requirements such as RED cameras, anamorphic lenses, elaborate lighting setups, not to mention bloated staffing where it sometimes seemed like 10 percent was carrying the remaining 90 percent. Furthermore, all of this work was being booked through a third-party agency, aka the middleman, which is simply another mouth to feed in the process driving up costs. Arguably, this is part of the industry, and depending on the job, most of these requirements would be obligatory.

However, we saw an entire niche left unserved because of these constraints. DSLR and mirrorless-sized cameras can produce amazing cinematic results at a fraction of the cost. When managed properly, the results can be as good as a $20,000 RED camera with far more flexibility and less overhead. It should also be worth noting that most clients will only be using the video content on their websites or social media. Therefore 4K, much less 8K, is simply not as valuable as it may seem although most mirrorless cameras now shoot at that resolution with ease.

The above video was arguably very simple: a single take using only a Panasonic GH5. However, an interesting scene, a solid edit with foley added, and a well-executed deployment by our client resulted in one of their biggest weekends and the most viewed post on social media.

The point being, you don’t need a ton of fancy new gear to start shooting video. Chances are, the camera you already own will do an amazing job. Read your manual and figure out what frame rates it shoots at for every given resolution. Watch YouTube tutorials on camera movements and practice making your shots looks more like what you see on large ads. Finally, assist on larger jobs and see how they shoot. Take note of lighting techniques, key personnel, and execution. I learned a ton by assisting on other jobs including what was necessary or not for any given situation.

Video for Social Media Marketing

As we started pitching our business, we came to realize that most businesses were interested in short promos, “about us” videos, or content to be used on social media. Marketing on social media is a huge endeavor in today’s world especially for smaller, local businesses who are appealing to a younger crowd. To become relevant and stay relevant on social media requires an enormous amount of content posted regularly with a consistent style or look to it. Talk to any business owner and most will understand the importance of this fact but will almost immediately tell you they don’t have the time for it or don’t understand how it works.

Volia. Most marketing on social media consists of short, action-inspired clips that are direct and to the point. Our pitch was simple. We can offer a steady flow of social media content for your business, and if needed we can manage the posting of said content on your behalf. All for a monthly fee. In the world of entrepreneurship, monthly fees, or retainers, are like gold. As opposed to one-time jobs where you are paid $X up front to complete Y job after which your income earned is complete, we began seeking out monthly partnerships where we could earn a set amount of dollars on a recurring basis. This is great for both parties involved because it fosters an environment of consistency and trust for their brand and one of financial stability for your business. Furthermore, most of the content is simple and short with taglines added to single clips and a logo to cap it off.

Obviously, this model would not be for everyone but from our perspective it was ideal. Look for underserved niches in your market and how video can help serve those niches. By offering a service or product that is needed as opposed to being a luxury, it will be far easier to sell yourself.

Businesses, especially social media, love drone shots. Anything drone draws immediate attention as being novel and captivating. This was a quick snapshot of the same scene featured in my lead video for this article taken in between filming. The client loved it.

“Do You Offer Photography As Well?”

I get this question a lot. More than I did when I was simply a photographer. As it turns out, offering video first will oftentimes lead to a need for photography as well.

When creating a video for a company, the setups and conditions will likely be ideal to take a few snapshots as well. If time permits during a shoot, take some photos as well. Show the client those shots in addition to the finished video and chances are they will immediately see value in them. You can offer them for an additional price or perhaps as a freebie for future business. At the very least, they may be useful as part of a commercial photography portfolio to solicit other clients. The irony for me was that I struggled to find commercial photography gigs before shooting video and now they seem to go hand in hand.

This was one of several sample shots taken in between filming for a small technology company. The client only requested video but later paid me for the photos as well to be used on their website.

Stock Footage

Everyone has heard of stock photography and therein lies the problem. Stock photography took off at the beginning of the digital age as anyone with a few bucks could own a camera and shoot decent photos. Before long, it became incredibly saturated and only those who had been in the game long enough survived.

Usher in the revolution of stock footage. While difficult to estimate with certainty due to a lack of hard financial data, it is believed that the stock footage market is poised to grow at 20 percent per annum with a total economic value between $600-800 million per year (Robb Crocker, Stock Footage Millionaire 2014). These figures should be striking to anyone that has even a modest knowledge of finance.

Stock footage has an insane amount of relevance in today’s world for many of the reasons I noted above. Many companies do not have large budgets and therefore turn to stock footage where they can compile clips into a comprehensive video at a relatively affordable price. As rapid technological advancement continues and the need for interactive media grows, stock footage will inevitably become a larger part of the equation. And the best part is that this industry is still in its infancy with barely 10-plus years of archives.

So how would you go about getting into stock footage? Start by researching. I bought a book titled “Stock Footage Millionaire” written by a successful stock footage producer. The book outlines the industry and gives several examples of best practices and gear requirements which are far less cumbersome than you might expect. Next would probably be to produce a few shoots and get a library going. Develop a concept and hire talent. Execute a well-planned shoot and archive the best clips. Next, find an agency like Blend Images or Pond5 that will host and sell your clips.

This process takes a great deal of time and often an up-front investment that will not provide returns for generally a year or more. However, if you are smart about it and focused on what sells you may find this to be a great avenue for recurring income which will benefit you into your later years.

This is a screengrab from a hospital stock footage shoot I was incredibly lucky to be a part of last month. The image, although not high resolution, is still something I could use on my photography portfolio especially considering it is medical in nature.

Conclusion

In my opinion, the possibilities for video are endless when left to the imagination. While I still refer to myself a photographer, most of my focus these days is on video and for good reason, it seems. As an aspiring professional, be thinking about how you can add video to your portfolio and if so, what are the best approaches for your business and market. I would love to hear other’s stories on this topic.

Hitfilm / www.hitfilm.com

VidCon is debuting in Australia for the first time on September 9th and 10th 2017.

Startups have to market their brand. Startups have to communicate their message. Startups have to build a loyal following of customers. But as obvious as these steps may seem, the ways to successfully implementing them can be confusing. In a competitive landscape dictated by continuous evolution, there seems a saturation of options for startups to market themselves effectively. Different marketing mediums, different content modalities, different launch strategies. The challenge for founders, therefore, becomes identifying the opportunities showing the most effective yield at any given time.

Under current market dynamics, one medium in particular appears to be gaining accelerating momentum in terms of its efficacy.

Video content seems poised as the latest marketing arbitrage for Australian startups.

This trend is consolidated by VidCon, a global online video conference, debuting in Australia on September 9th and 10th. This is the first year that the two-day event, which was recently hosted in Amsterdam on April 7-9, has gone international. It hosts influencers, creators and experts that are prominent in the online video space as a means to illuminate the expansive activity in the industry.

In my chat with Jim Louderback, VidCon CEO, he described the conference as an eclectic combination of online video influences.

« VidCon is a mix of three different events. At it’s core, the community side is like Comicon for Online video.  The creator track helps those who want to create content on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and other services get better at what they do. And the industry track explores how to build profitable businesses across these new online video platforms ».

But in addition to its multi-genre reach, VidCon’s presence in Australia is indicative of the growth of video as a ubiquitous marketing medium in the local market.

According to Louderback, Australia is an eco-system that demonstrates strong engagement and a pool of innovative content creators.

“Australia has an amazing group of online video creators, and some of the most passionate fans in the world.  It’s natural to bring the biggest online video conference to a place where there’s such an amazing confluence of talent and such an amazing group of supportive fans.  We wanted to make sure we were part of that community, and hopefully we can help celebrate the creative economy in VidCon as we connect the local community to VidCon’s global audience”.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Orange was the color of the day as Content Marketing World brought brightly clad attendees to downtown Cleveland to learn how to package their messages so consumers will hear them.

Orange is the unofficial color of the event, which bills itself as the the largest content marketing gathering in the world, said organizer Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute.

« The only way to differentiate your brand is how you communicate. That’s why content marketing is so important, » said Pulizzi, sporting orange faux-alligator shoes for the occasion.

About 3,500 participants from 50 countries are expected at the event, which runs today through Friday at the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland. Content Marketing World’s 120 sessions and workshops offer lessons on how to create content, focus on audience needs, measure engagement and plan marketing strategies.

« This is where corporate brands become media companies, » Pulizzi said. « This is what the future of marketing looks like. »

Pulizzi confirmed that while his company, Content Marketing Institute, was acquired last year by a London-based firm, the Content Marketing World event, currently in its seventh year, will stay in Cleveland in 2018. He said they are looking to lock in future dates with the convention center.

« We’d like to stay here, » Pulizzi said.

This year’s keynote speakers include popular YouTube vlogger Casey Neistat, Pulitzer Prize winning author Colson Whitehead and actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Local speakers include Brandon Jirousek, director of digital content and operations for the Cleveland Cavaliers; Paul Roetzer, founder of PR 20/20; Bethany Chambers, director of audience engagement at North Coast Media; and Laura Cameron, vice president of digital marketing at KeyBank.

Friday is the inaugural CMWorld/Cleveland Clinic Health marketing summit. Check here for the full schedule.

On Tuesday, marketing professionals bought lunches at local food trucks, and ate at outdoor tables to soak up the Cleveland atmosphere. Afterward, they got to work in three-hour-long workshops that drilled down into the specifics of marketing.

Ronni K. Gothardl Christiansen of Odense, Denmark, arrived with three other employees from his web development firm.

« This is our first convention outside of Europe, » Gothardl Christiansen said. « We hope to get a better impression of the American-based market. »

Gothardl Christiansen has a background in coding, and he hoped that Content Marketing World would help him understand non-technical businesses. « I’m trying to see the world with different glasses, » he said.

Bob Meindl, director of content marketing at Cisco Systems Inc. in Boxborough, Massachusettes, has come to every Content Marketing World because he knows that placing customers, instead of products, at the center of marketing efforts gets results.

« You have to have content that speaks to customers. You can’t constantly talk about the product all the time, » Meindl said.

Meindl thinks that this event is successful because it creates community. « Everyone is rooting for everyone else to succeed, » he said.

Jay Prasad, Chief Strategy Officer of VideoAmp offers up his insights to marketers on how best to navigate the world of advanced TV, creating the customer journey across TV, OTT, digital devices and then back to TV before a consumer’s purchase

Some would argue that the opportunity to market to a sizable group of like-minded consumers no longer exists. People have changed, they aren’t routinely gathering in the proverbial town square or living room to be informed, entertained or persuaded.  The fragmented media landscape coupled with myriad devices has made ensuring a large and relevant audience has had an opportunity to view an advertiser’s message, let alone make any impact on that audience, an increasingly challenging task.  Nowhere is this more apparent than an advertiser’s go to source for effective reach – the TV and video marketplaces.

While consumers are steadily increasing the percentage of their time watching both live content and on demand options, gathering enough reach and frequency to make a difference is akin to pulling together a jigsaw puzzle of devices, vendors, channels, content and data.  

With the marketing and tech worlds consistently innovating better, faster and additional solutions to throw on the “tech pile” and cobbling together, a dizzying array of specific SaaS point solutions combined with the traditional, and very manual procedures of the upfront and secondary markets creates large blind spots in the key task of a marketing department – to own, manage and optimize the customer journey.

Should TV be bought just like digital?

Enter Advanced TV, the full digitization of the TV/Video transmission and processing infrastructure. Which has already given consumers the power over how, when and what content they watch, while simultaneously giving content owners the ability to distribute a single piece of content in multiple directions across devices with little overhead.  

Advanced TV is not a new concept, however, the adoption of the principles of a single marketplace to buy and sell viewing audiences despite device, content owner, time, place, etc.; that also happen to include more than repackaged remnant digital inventory, is a new and exciting thing.

Big Budgets, Big Measurement and Big Data

Per eMarketer, “digital” media (mobile, display, social, email, search…) today represents a bigger chunk of the overall marketing pie, approximately 38.4% to TV at 35.8%. That gap is anticipated to grow wider over the next three years with digital growing to a 10-point margin. The key difference between the technology decision factors a marketer uses today versus tomorrow lies at the intersection of three interconnected ripple effects of Advanced TV.

1. Data-Driven Media Doubles: When the total percentage of the budget that is bought through a data driven marketplace doubles to become near 75% of the total market spent, the amount of scrutiny into the gaps of the “tech pile” will skyrocket.
2. The Quantity of Relevant Data Triples: After scrutiny increases and that much activity is being monitored, increasingly huge amounts of relevant behavior data will be infused into the process from all parts of the customer journey.
3. ROI Accuracy Increases:  Today most TV and video is labeled effective or not effective based on simple delivery metrics. As in, did the intended audience have a high probability of seeing the ad? If the answer is yes, then job well done. After the previous two effects are on the rise, the existing measures of delivery monitoring will not be considered enough to justify the decisions made on the budget and a truer ROI based on audience impact will be examined more routinely.

The current state and infrastructure of most demand-side and buy-side platforms aren’t set up to easily or effectively parse this many sources or amount of data at the speed needed, to help advertisers make quick or automated decisions on their overall video budgets.

Secure, Agnostic and “Explore-able”

Though data silos their hopeful destruction have been talked about for years, nonetheless they seem to be as indestructible as cockroaches . As Advanced TV buying becomes more mainstream more and more data types will become increasingly relevant for targeting, segmentation and other insight recognition tasks. To be as accurate as possible in determining the outcomes for such a large percentage of the overall budget, marketers should ensure that their planning and buying solution for Advanced TV is ready for these challenges. Short of an embedded artificial intelligent analyzer to guide in execution, common abilities should include safely sharing sensitive customer information, quickly adding new data sets and having the flexibility to “mix and mash”. Thus, giving any marketer the ability to casually view possible predicted outcomes of various data sources and types overall effect on their planning decisions. Systems that seem to take forever to onboard new data or need 24 hours to run simple queries are good signs that the tool you are using, isn’t advanced enough to handle Advanced TV.