Happy or intoxicated? That’s the question after a video surfaced of a Port Elizabeth petrol attendant showing off her dance moves at work.
Sandile Saider Nobhala Puti, who posted the video on Facebook, stated that while at first he thought the apparently jovial petrol attendant was part of a marketing stunt he then realised she was in fact ‘drunk’.
The video has already been watched over 331,862 times.
Huawei has released its Envision 4K Video Solution in Africa aimed assisting telecoms carriers in developing and optimising video as a fundamental service with the best user experience.
The Envision video solution is designed to enable consumers to enjoy personalised multi-screen hybrid video services anytime anywhere, its key feature is enabling the delivery of 4K and 8K ultra high definition videos, including 360-degree immersive video experiences.
“Huawei has been committed to creating a convergent and innovative video service ecosystem, which is what we have achieved with Envision,” said Eric Li, Vice President of Marketing and Sales, Huawei Video Product Line.
“For the telecoms industry in Africa we aim to build a convergent cloud-based, fixed-mobile, 4K video solution which supports cross-domain service that will bring a unified experience.
During Huawei’s video forum at AfricaCom, the global ICT solutions provider urged industry counterparts to focus on the business potential of video services in Africa.
David Chen, Director of Marketing Solution Sales for Huawei Southern Africa Region said, “As distribution of online video has increased and become central to the commercial strategies of a host of companies, the Telco industry needs to upgrade technology and infrastructure to support digital transformation. Huawei is bringing Telco ecosystem partners together to offer customers a compelling entertainment and data proposition in Africa.”
Several key African Telco and video industry stakeholders, including Telkom SA, attended the Huawei Video Forum sharing experiences and ideas on how to create a profitable business model that will enable them to deliver video content via the best video platform for optimal end user experience.
Huawei’s Envision platform has already been deployed to 110 carriers across the world with about 130 million subscribers and is the number one ranked solution for delivery of Internet Protocol Television (IPTV).
–
Source: Huawei
By Mthulisi Sibanda in Cape Town
Cape Town — THE telecommunications industry needs to upgrade technology and infrastructure to support digital transformation, Huawei, which has released its Envision 4K Video Solution in Africa, stated. 4K refers to the latest high definition resolutions The solution launched at the AfricaCom in Cape Town is aimed at assisting telecoms carriers in developing and optimising video as a fundamental service with the best user experience. Its launch comes as the distribution of online video increases and becomes central to the commercial strategies of a host of companies. « Huawei is bringing telco ecosystem partners together to offer customers a compelling entertainment and data proposition in Africa, » said David Chen, Director of Marketing and Solution Sales for Huawei (Southern Africa). The Envision video solution is designed to enable consumers to enjoy personalised multi-screen hybrid video services. Its key feature is enabling the delivery of 4K and 8K ultra high definition videos, including 360-degree immersive video experiences. During Huawei’s video forum at, the global ICT solutions provider urged industry counterparts to focus on the business potential of video services in Africa. Eric Li, Vice President of Marketing and Sales: Huawei Video Product Line, said Huawei had been committed to creating a convergent and innovative video service ecosystem. « For the telecoms industry in Africa we aim to build a convergent cloud-based, fixed-mobile, 4K video solution which supports cross-domain service that will bring a unified experience, » Li said. Huawei’s Envision platform has already been deployed to 110 carriers across the world with about 130 million subscribers and is the number one ranked solution for delivery of Internet Protocol Television (IPTV). -CAJ News
Litaletu Zidepa, News24
A video showing a seemingly drunk BP garage petrol attendant dancing while on duty, has been doing the rounds on social media.
The video, posted by Sandile Saider Nobhala Puti on Facebook, shows the petrol attendant at a BP garage in Port Elizabeth dancing up and down while being cheered by bystanders.
Puti says at first he thought it was a marketing gimmick, until he realised she was drunk.
« At first I thought she was just fooling around. There have been other videos of dancing BP petrol attendants circulating on social media before.
« It’s only when I started shooting that I realised she was drunk. The lady was visibly intoxicated. »
The video has been watched over 200 000 times, and shared over 4000 times. Watch.
ProFromGo Internet Marketing founder, Chris Vendilli, standing with Army General Tommy Franks. Circa 2003.
“I survived the seemingly endless 13-month deployment with the help of video games.”
PITTSBURGH (PRWEB)
November 07, 2017
ProFromGo Internet Marketing founder, Chris Vendilli, announced today the public release of ProFromGo’s new web design platform and template library, a product offering the company has named « Studio PFG. »
After the ProFromGo team began to specialize in more technically complex and visually demanding projects, it became a major challenge to cost-effectively complete simple brochure-style website projects for small business owners. The inspiration for Studio PFG came after Vendilli noticed his company was frequently referring away these smaller projects to sometimes unreliable freelancers or online website design platforms that assume small business owners understand digital technology at a higher level than they often do.
“The web design industry is slowly being commoditized, and some small businesses with simple needs can’t afford our custom solutions. We can now offer our expertise through Studio PFG as an efficient technology platform, to meet their needs and their budget,” Vendilli said.
As part of the announcement of the new Studio PFG offering, and in honor of the upcoming Veteran’s Day holiday, Vendilli, who is a military veteran himself, also announced he’ll be donating 10% of the gross sales of Studio PFG during the entire month of November to Stack-Up, a non-profit client of ProFromGo who supports military veterans through the power of video games.
Stack-Up founder and CEO, retired army captain, Stephen Machuga, is a former Army Infantry/Military Intelligence officer and Airborne Ranger, having spent the majority of his service at Fort Bragg with the 82nd Airborne Division.
In 2003, Machuga was deployed to Iraq with the 2nd Infantry Division. “I survived the seemingly endless 13-month deployment with the help of video games,” Machuga said.
Founded in 2015, Stack-Up serves United States, NATO (UK, Canada, etc.) Australian and New Zealand veterans through three primary programs: The Stacks, Supply Crates, and Air Assaults.
Machuga chose to work with ProFromGo as his digital marketing agency because of their track record, expertise and a shared veteran connection with Vendilli. After learning that most of the team at ProFromGo are also video game enthusiasts, there was little doubt that the client-agency relationship would be a great fit.
« We reached out to a variety of web developers for the rebuilding of our site, but ProFromGo worked with us on pricing,” Machuga said. “And it made the most sense to work with them because other developers were charging tens of thousands of dollars.” It also was important to us, as a military charity, to work with veteran-owned and operated, Pittsburgh-based organization. I knew we had the right people for the job and it has been a great experience! »
Allowing businesses to have more control of their web presence is an important component of what ProFromGo Internet Marketing, a cVe certified Veteran-owned Pittsburgh business, does for their valued clients. ProFromGo is hosting a Lunch Learn at Highmark Stadium on November 16, 2017. The event will feature content from Google about how to get found on Google Maps, a guest speaker from Boston based marketing software company HubSpot, and best ever pricing on the company’s newly released Studio PFG website platform.
Learn more about Studio PFG and the upcoming lunch learn event at ProFromGo.com
More information about Stack-Up can be found at Stack-Up.org.
Last week, 17 journalists made their way from across Europe to congregate at Google’s European HQ in Dublin. It was a noteworthy step taken by the tech giant, but perhaps not a surprising one.
After all, the company has had its fair share of negative press this year. The biggest issue has been the YouTube brand safety scandal, which broke in March after The Times published an exposé showing that brand advertising was being placed next to pornographic and extremist content on the video platform.
In response to the revelations, more than 250 brands, including HSBC, Marks Spencer and L’Oréal, pulled spend from YouTube, with many refusing to come back to the platform until the tech giant improved things. The issue was also a hot topic of discussion during industry events that followed, including AdWeek Europe and the Cannes Lions Festival.
Having had a difficult year, Google is keen to clear the air and show it has been listening to the industry’s concerns. One way is by engaging with the marketing press, hence the charm offensive in Dublin. Ahead of the so-called ‘Better Ads Trip’, those attending were sent a recommended reading list including the letter written by Google’s founders in which they explain the company’s ‘Don’t be evil’ ethos – and further information on how it has expanded safeguards for advertisers and fought “bad ads” in 2016.
The trip itself saw the media immersed among 6,000 employees on-site. Through the morning, five Google employees presented on a variety of topics, from the changes it has been making to its policies to its investment into creating a “cleaner” ads ecosystem. The afternoon, meanwhile, featured an appearance from the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and Matt Brittin, Google’s president of EMEA business and operations.
Almost every talk reverted back to the importance of Google having clear yet ever-changing policies in place, as well as the ramping up of enforcement as more people come online. Since the YouTube scandal broke in March, Google claims to have been “raising the bar” in terms of what it allows to be monetised.
In April, stricter YouTube partner programme criteria came into place, meaning that videos have to earn at least 10,000 views before ads are shown alongside them. In 2016, it took down 1.7 billion misleading or harmful ads – more than double the amount of ads taken down in 2015, and Google is on course to beat that again this year.
We need to have a common baseline for brand safety, and this has been more challenging to solve [than anticipated].
Dyana Najdi, Google
May, June and July were marked by updates in its efforts to fight extremism on its platform – for example, anyone viewing extremist content will be served videos to counter that information– and it introduced better controls for advertisers, as well as new guidelines on how to use them.
Speaking on brand safety, Google admitted getting these controls in place took a relatively long time, predominantly due to the fact there is no universal agreement on what is “safe” to advertise against.
“The minute you get into suitability, it becomes personal to every advertiser,” said Dyana Najdi, director of EMEA YouTube and video solutions.
“It has been taking a long time to define a common definition of what brand safety is. We need to have a common baseline for brand safety, and this has been more challenging to solve [than anticipated].”
The brand safety scandal has not been the only issue to hit Google this year. The company has been impacted by a wider pushback against digital advertising. It was started by Procter Gamble’s chief brand officer Marc Pritchard, who has called out both Facebook and Google specifically for “marking their own homework” when reporting campaign results and digital advertising more generally for its lack of transparency.
READ MORE: Marc Pritchard: 2017 is the year the bloom came off the rose for digital media
In response, Google has joined a variety of initiatives aimed at solving the issues. And it was particularly eager to talk about joining the IAB’s new ‘Gold Standard’ programme.
The programme aims to reduce ad fraud by implementing the ‘ads.txt’ initiative on all sites carrying ads. This means publishers and distributors are forced to declare who is authorised to sell their inventory, thereby improving transparency for buyers. It will also look to make advertising less invasive for consumers – which ties into separate but complimentary work done by the Coalition for Better Ads, of which Google is again a member.
Yet despite these attempts to show it is taking industry concerns seriously, Google is yet to fully subscribe to the UK’s Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards (JICWEBS) (a body created by the UK and Ireland media industry to ensure independent standards of measurement online).
In principle, we would love to have all different manners and standards of verifications. But we’re some way off being able to offer that as there’s so many different initiatives in so many different countries.
Matt Brittin, Google
While Google’s programmatic ad exchange is certified by the body’s Digital Trading Standards Group, YouTube is not yet accredited. When asked what is holding it back, Brittin said it is “challenging” to define global standards in a “fragmented” world. It is currently also working with third parties to offer transparency when it comes to video measurement – something it hopes to have a solution for next year.
“You have voluntary self regulation and different bodies with different codes. We’re trying to work with the IAB and WFA to try to put in place the right standards and codes,” he said.
“Quite often an independent party who has a set of tools and verification will say ‘We’re ready to do this’. And when the YouTube issues hit earlier this year, I was asked at AdWeek Europe by somebody in the audience – ‘We’ve got this, we’re ready to go’.
“[But] actually nobody has tech that’s ready in the way that needs to happen. In principle, we would love to have all different manners and standards of verifications. We think advertisers should be able choose standards and tools. But we’re some way off being able to offer that as there’s so many different initiatives in so many different countries. So we have to take this step by step.”
The issues have had an impact on Google – both commercially and in terms of brand reputation. Reports suggested Google could lose £597m in revenue this year based on a 7.5% hit to its $10bn YouTube business. And the tech giant needs to ensure brands trust it – and keep spending their ad dollars.
“It is their network, their integrity matters. And eventually their revenues on the back end of that,” says Patrick Bousquet-Chavanne, executive director of customer marketing and MS.com.
I don’t want to downplay the fact that any impression was not acceptable, but the scale of the issue was much smaller than the headlines suggested.
Matt Brittin, Google
Yet Brittin is quick to play down the impact. He told Marketing Week the reporting of the issues gave it more prominence than the scale of the problem deserved.
“Now let me be clear – any advertiser that is serving somewhere where they didn’t want to serve is a problem. And we take it seriously. But the actual scale of the issues we’re having, and I can’t talk for measurement issues on other platforms, was relatively contained. The vast majority of advertisers on YouTube continued as they were happy with what the platform was delivering,” he said.
When pressed further on the issue, he said not that many advertisers were affected by brand safety issues, and that for those that were the spend it impacted was minimal.
“We went to meet some of our customers affected … and they would ask ‘How much of my ad spend [has gone] against this?’ And it would be 43p. In many cases it was a very limited number of impressions. I don’t want to downplay the fact that any impression was not acceptable, but the scale of the issue was much smaller than the headlines that were seen at the time,” he said.
Indeed, most advertisers are now back on YouTube. MS, one of the last to do so, says it is now “satisfied” the issues have been mostly dealt with.
“We have had multiple guarantees. Google has invested behind brand safety and brand security. It will never be 100% airtight and fool proof but I am satisfied enough at this point in time to go back on the network. They are demonstrating that they are hearing us,” MS’s Bousquet-Chavanne adds.
The WFA’s CEO Stephan Loerke, however, told a slightly different story. He claims many of its members already knew about the problem before The Times scandal broke, but that there wasn’t “much interest from the wider ecosystem” to solve the issues. And despite Google’s best efforts, some brands are still not convinced it has done enough, he said.
“I am hearing from our members that the company has been engaging very swiftly with brands when the issue exploded in the open with a tone and humility which I think was welcomed by brands. But there’s not one point of view in our membership, the companies are just too diverse,” he explained.
“I still know a number of companies that haven’t gone back to YouTube, and others have but have actually demanded from their agencies that they make full use of functionalities that allow the company to set the level of risk they can accept. What I’m reading in the business press, YouTube is doing fine in number of brands that are operating with them, but what I see in my membership, there are different points of views.”
One positive to come out of the brand safety scandal is that it has shaken up the industry and forced marketers to better understand the digital industry and where their ads are appearing. Loerke said he feels “optimistic”, and that the fact brands have “taken back control” can only be a good thing.
Yet even Google concedes its work is not yet done. This week, it has launched a B2B campaign that aims to talk to brands and media agencies directly and convince them of the close relationships it has with its audiences.
Despite the setbacks, one thing is clear: Google remains committed to convincing the rest of the ad industry that everything is perfectly okay inside its walled gardens. It is up to marketers to decide whether that is enough for them.
I’ve never used a Steam Controller, and I’d be willing to bet that most of you haven’t either. It was announced in 2013 with a promise of “supporting all games in the Steam catalog,” and after a less-than-impressive hands-on debut and some extensive reworking, we declared it to be “almost as good as a mouse” under the ideal conditions.
Valve has continued to work on it, and now it looks as though it’s gearing up to give it a more concerted marketing push, too. “We’re looking into making a highlight video of the Steam Controller in action/shooter games to be included in the Store page. If you would like your video to be considered please post a link here. Preference will go to videos that utilize trackpad + gyro configs,” Valve wrote in the Steam Controller forum.
“We’re hoping at least a few videos submitted would include a camera shot of the controller in the players hand. That’s definitely not required, though please be sure any videos are of actual Steam Controller gameplay.”
Naturally, the follow-up conversation includes arguments over what constitutes an “action” game, whether or not Overwatch is acceptable, and links to videos that belong to other people. What it doesn’t have in abundance are videos of the sort that Valve is actually asking for—user-generated, with trackpad and gyro configs, and shots of the device in hand—so if you own one and want to make it (and your hands) famous, get out your camera and share a link to your masterwork in the thread linked above.
GameCentral talks to Microsoft’s Albert Penello about the new Xbox console, 4K technology, and the future of video game generations.
The Xbox One X, as Microsoft are very keen to point out, is the most powerful video game console ever made. It’s out today and is not only compatible with all existing Xbox One games but is able to enhance them with 4K resolution and other extra features.
In that respect it’s similar to Sony’s PS4 Pro, but that power does not come cheap and the Xbox One X’s £450 price tag is enough to make anyone think twice.
We’ve already given our verdict on whether the Xbox One X lives up to its promises in our hardware review, but the question of whether it’s really worth it or not is not an easy one to answer.
Xbox marketing exec Albert Penello has some experience in trying to do exactly that though. And while usually there’s not much point talking to a marketing guy we had a very interesting chat with him about the Xbox One X’s abilities, priorities, and future…
GC: Okay, I’m sure you’re well practiced with all your marketing style answers, but let’s give this a go.
AP: [laughs] I will give you my best marketing answers for all these questions.
GC: [laughs] Well, this first one I never got a straight answer on for the PS4 Pro. But put simply, what exactly is the Xbox One X for?
AP: I would say the Xbox One X is for people that want to play the best versions of the games that are available. That’s really, in my opinion, the simplest way to describe it. We saw 4K internally and it really energised us and excited us. The quality of the image, the wide colour gamut, the high dynamic range, it really energised us. We were excited about the tech.
We saw the industry reports and talked to TV manufacturers, and knew that that was the direction that displays were headed. We saw PC developers really embracing 4K rapidly, and creating the assets required. But, you know, 4K capable PCs are pretty expensive, and so we decided that we wanted Xbox players to be able to play the best versions of games; we want to be the device that shows off a 4K TV, which is why we have 4K Blu-ray and 4K streaming; and we want to put enough horsepower in the box to take all those amazing PC assets and bring it to your living room.
At the end of the day what that means is – and I’m knocking on wood that the reviews will bear this out – but we believe that the best versions of all the games that you can play are going be the Xbox One X versions. That’s probably the simplest answer I can give.
GC: Xbox One X is much more important to Microsoft than the PS4 Pro ever was to Sony. Not least, as you implied, because for the first time since the early 2000s you’ve got the most powerful console on the market. But historically that’s never made much difference. The PlayStation 4 is the first time the most powerful console has ever been the most successful. Is that just a statistical anomaly or has something changed recently?
AP: You have a lot of interesting questions and points of view embedded in that!
GC: Well, it is my job.
AP: [laughs] In fairness, I’ll start with the debate as to whether or not the 360 was more powerful than the PS3.
GC: Well, that was always the thrust of Sony’s marketing, as it is now with the Xbox One X.
AP: I’m only saying that because actually, I think if you look at how the game comparative reviews work we were considered to be the best platform…
GC: Oh sure. The Xbox 360 was usually the best multiplatform version. But that only seems to underline that having the most powerful machine doesn’t necessarily mean much.
AP: For both Xbox and Xbox 360 we had the best versions, so really it was only on the Xbox One that that wasn’t necessarily the case. But really, the thing that I wanna focus on is that Xbox One X is about driving differentiation. It wasn’t just… the fact that we were the most powerful console… we didn’t know about the PS4 Pro when we were building Project Scorpio [the codename for Xbox One X – GC]. We had no idea. So we had our own internal goal, about what we wanted to do.
And so for us, if we were going to do something, and Phil [Spencer] said this many times, it needed to be meaningfully different from the other consoles that we already had in the market. There had to be a meaningful differentiation for customers. And so we needed a milestone like 4K to really drive it, to be a goal… that real reason to have these performance levels. And so that’s really what it’s all about.
At the end of the day we want customers to buy Xboxes, we think Xbox One S is still gonna be the primary volume driver for us. And I think there’s lots of industries where the customers can upgrade if that performance matters to them. I think the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X is the perfect example of two significantly different things shipping at the same time.
Customers can figure this stuff out, I think. It’s only console gaming that hasn’t really done this before. So I like that we have great value with the Xbox One S at a great price, and for the gamer that really cares about performance, and is gonna got out and buy a 4K TV, we have the best product you can possibly buy. The best place to buy games. And to me that’s a great position to be in.
GC: What kind of impact do you hope the Xbox One X is going to have on Xbox sales in general? Sony talks about a figure of one in five for sales of the PS4 Pro versus the standard model. Are you thinking something similar?
AP: Well, what do you think? I’m curious as to your opinion.
GC: Well, as I said, the Xbox One X is much more important to Microsoft than the PS4 Pro is to Sony. I have certainly advised that if you can afford it, the Xbox One X is the model you should get. Especially if you have a 4K TV. So I would assume you’re hoping for a better ratio than Sony.
AP: Trying to predict it is always interesting, I think the feedback we’re hearing from fans, the feedback we’re hearing from folks in the industry, the level of developer support that we’ve got for games… I feel good about how the mix is shaping up.
I don’t wanna call the ball on this one, just because part of doing this is learning. And figuring out what the customer behaviour is like, I do think it’s gonna be a hot item this holiday. We’ve got a really aggressive replenishment plan to try and get more out. I will be very curious to see the overall mix, I would like to see us do better than one in five. But I dunno, I’m gonna be looking at these numbers super carefully.
GC: Will you actually provide numbers? It’s frustrating that you don’t for ordinary Xbox sales.
AP: Ah… that’s not a question for me. But that’s a good question. That’s not my call. [laughs]
GC: This isn’t necessarily an Xbox One X specific issue, but in terms of 4K I have found that it’s not necessarily something I can show a non-gamer and be sure they’ll understand. They’ll squint a bit and say something like, ‘I think I can see the difference’ but often that’s all. Surely that’s a problem when you’re trying to sell a £450 piece of electronics?
AP: It’s an interesting observation, and I’ll be perfectly honest with you. You’re one of the first people that have ever said to me, that they didn’t think that the upgrade between 1080p and 4K was significant. My experience in showing even a casual gamer – and everyone uses their own anecdotes, their own family – but my wife and my parents… I showed them Planet Earth II on my 4K set and they were blown away. And they’re far from videophiles.
I’ve had quite the opposite experience, particularly with HDR and wide colour gamut content.
GC: Sure, but that’s not 4K. HDR, I agree, can be very impressive and I’ve found it’s that people react to rather than 4K itself. But HDR support does not require an Xbox One X.
AP: I think it’s the overall experience, and that’s why things like Dolby Atmos and 4K Blu-ray are important so that you get the whole package. We shall follow up after launch, because we’re actually going to be introducing something called Insects, which is an interactive in-engine technology demo that our Advanced Technology Group did for developers and is now going to be released to the public.
And it basically is a real-time demo that you can manipulate to show 4K, 1080p, HDR, and everything. So I would really love to follow-up with you afterwards and get your perspective once you’ve run that and shown it to people. Because the response I’ve gotten to the demo from real casual people has been super positive.
GC: That will be interesting. I have to admit though that the thing I really care about is 60fps. I realise you can’t really make it mandatory, but I really wish it got the same marketing push as 4K. Because 4K doesn’t really change the gameplay, but 60fps absolutely does.
AP: This is an interesting discussion that has a lot to do with the artistry of games, what the platform holder can mandate, and the fact that I think that the reality… there are certainly 60 frames per second purists, people that think that that it should be absolutely mandatory.
Look, we could put even more powerful stuff in the box and there would be game developers who will still crank everything to 12 and run it at 30 frames per second. [laughs]
So there’s an interesting debate about, ‘Well how come you’re not 60 frames per second on every game?’ Well, because the game developers don’t want to do that. That’s just not how they want their titles to show off. If they did, they could. And people go, ‘Oh, well you don’t do enough with the hardware…’ But we did! It’s very capable of doing it, and even if we put more powerful stuff in developers would still find a way to break it and push beyond the capabilities.
That’s always the way that video games have always kind of worked. So it’s certainly nothing we could mandate, because it’s not our job, I think, to tell game developers what the best thing for their game is. So this is really a conversation between gamers and the game developers.
GC: We’re starting to get the first rumblings that maybe Sony, at least, is thinking of releasing a new console in Christmas 2019. I doubt you’re going to give me a life expectancy for the Xbox One X but can you say anything about whether the traditional generational model is still relevant today?
AP: It’s a good question. I find it interesting, just as a guy who’s been in the business for a long time. But the day you launch a new console it’s sort of like when you get a girlfriend and your parents ask when you’re gonna get married, and then you get married and they ask when you’re gonna have kids. They’re always stuck on the next thing. And it’s the same with consoles.
GC: [laughs] But it does seem a more important question here because if you’re spending £450 on a new console you want to know whether it’s going to be superseded by something else in just two or three years.
AP: What we can say is we’re obviously putting a huge focus on game compatibility. If you think about Xbox Play Anywhere, if you think about the 360 back compat., the fact that we went all the way back to original Xbox. The fact that we have 100% game compatibility between Xbox One S and Xbox One X, that’s our focus.
And I actually think in this day and age, when we’ve just got a new iPhone, consumers have shifted a little bit from, ‘How long does my device last?’ to ‘How long does my content last?’ ‘How long do my apps last?’ And that is the model I think we are definitely focused on. What’s going to happen with console cycles and console generation is gonna be up to consumers and the pace of technology, and there’s lots of factors in that.
But I do think we can say, that when you think about game compatibility and investing in Xbox and that content staying with you… that’s a critical part of our long-term strategy.
GC: But with an iPhone you have a good idea when the next one is coming out. You can look back at the historical pattern and gauge your purchase from that. It’s not your fault that this is the first time it’s been done with consoles, but you are asking people to take a risk.
AP: We’re going to support the Xbox One S and the Xbox One X for a long time. And the thing I can say definitively is we care a lot about the game compatibility and making sure that that investment you’re making with us lasts.
That’s a big part of our strategy, it’s a big part of our future. And I think it takes a lot of the risk out of the actual device you’re buying. It’s more about investing in Xbox content and that content’s gonna stay with you.
GC: Okay, that’s great. Those were good answers for a marketing guy. [laughs]
AP: [laughs] Thanks, it was great talking to you.
Email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk, leave a comment below, and follow us on Twitter
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
In The Feed
Facebook’s ability to put a short product video in front of hundreds or thousands of potential buyers has made it indispensable to CPG and ecommerce startups. For those advertisers, Facebook and Instagram “are the stuff of fantasy – grand bazaars on a scale never seen before,” writes Burt Helms at The New York Times. Contacts, toothbrushes, razors, water filters, shoes, mattresses, fitted clothes and more have “spawned a wild proliferation of specialty digital sellers that depend on the social network’s algorithm to find their early customers.” More. But managing complicated Facebook campaigns can be a bit overwhelming. One startup manufacturer decided to reduce Facebook advertising “for the sake of their business and their own sanity,” instead testing a 15-second TV spot. Returns were harder to prove without the data feedback, says one executive, but at least “[y]ou can push the button and get on with your life.”
Lean On Me
In its latest pitch for TV ad dollars, Twitter inked a deal with Time Inc. to stream content from its online video network, PeopleTV. Advertisers will be able to buy across Twitter and the network’s OTT channel, with Twitter taking a cut of the revenue. The partnership will include a “significant amount” of live celebrity news, The Wall Street Journal reports. “PeopleTV on Twitter will give us greater audience scale,” says Ian Orefice, head of programmatic at Time Inc. Twitter already has similar streaming content deals in place with Bloomberg, BuzzFeed, Vox Media, Live Nation and the WNBA. More.
Mar’ked Up
Marketing tech vendor budgets will grow by double digits next year as marketing departments take on more responsibility for driving business growth, according to a Forrester CMO report. Scott Hagedorn, CEO of the Omnicom media agency Hearts Science, “suggested that traditional, consumer-facing companies have yet to create a successful, large-scale innovation effort for mobile-first consumers,” notes Adweek. Forrester forecasts that reaching and understanding these “large, lucrative segments of shoppers” will drive a wave of brand budgets to mar tech companies in the next year. More at Adweek.
Power In Numbers
By 2019, Asia-Pacific advertising is expected to surpass North America in total dollars spent, according to analysts at eMarketer and Zenith. China will remain the second-largest national ad market behind the United States, but hundreds of millions of new smartphone owners across Thailand, Indonesia, India and Singapore are powering ridiculous growth for ecommerce and social media advertising. “Because the ad market in Asia-Pacific is growing, there is more incentive for large technology companies that rely on data-based advertising revenue to invest in products and services that will increase their margins in those regions,” writes Sara Fischer at Axios. More.
But Wait, There’s More!
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