In the digital tech space, we’re already seeing radical changes in television as it begins to converge more and more with the online world. Think about the massive transformation that TV has already gone through – starting with the humble video recorder to the range of connected satellite / cables boxes and gaming consoles – fundamental changes that TV is now more or less just a monitor. Not so very long ago, TV used to be considered the “lean back” medium and digital as “lean forward.” But, this no longer seems to apply as we increasingly use multiple connected devices to watch TV content and that large screen in the home is often hijacked by our game-playing teenagers. So, what’s going on? Is TV having an identity crisis or are we finally at a point of convergence or collision?


MediaMind recently held its annual Digital Experience Day (DED) 2011, a global summit series held in North America, Europe and Asia, that brought together leading industry leaders and experts to explore the consumer changes that are happening now. We explored the interactive and social experience that TV now provides. TV no longer offers a passive, social experience where one has to huddle around the same set and fight for the remote control. In fact, traditional ways of viewing television are now competing with the plethora of tablet devices on the market that keeps viewers entertained and occupied from just about anywhere they choose. But it’s not just about replacing the larger screen with smaller ones, we are increasingly bonded around quality content – from TV shows to interactive games – and utilizing Social Networks to fulfill those real-time experiences and discussions between multiple viewers scattered across numerous living spaces.



Recent research from Nielsen shows that the average US home with a cable subscription receives 130 channels and yet tunes in to only 18 channels. That means 86% of these channels are never watched, suggesting that channel surfing is dead; challenging costly cable subscription models. And yet, of the $500 billion in global advertising, TV advertising still takes the lion’s share. By 2015, it’s expected that 50% of Internet users will watch TV content through online connections.


But that’s not to say TV as we know it is dead; quite the opposite. TV has a quality and scale that digital has yet to achieve. We will always need linear video content, but we just won’t need to consume it in the same way that we used to. We are now in the beginning stages of the marriage between online and offline. And for this to work out successfully, TV planners need to understand how digital works and vice versa. We are already seeing agencies using an iGRP to buy reach across media channels to maximize cost-efficiencies. These agencies are hoping to have completely integrated media buying teams within 18 months. It’s both a convergence and a collision. On one side, we have a chance to reset our thinking and talk about enhancing the branding mechanism by overlaying interactive experiences via a mobile device and measure TV content through real-time social discussions such as comments on Facebook and/or Twitter.  Yet the danger is as we seek to measure TV in the way we do online, it runs the risk of squeezing TV advertising budgets to the likes of online DR forced to justify spend via call to action. There are interesting times ahead for the whole media community and it certainly was the hot topic of debate at DED as we debated through the challenges of moving towards app-driven Smart TVs.


You can watch some of the highlights here.



Dean Donaldson, Global Director of Media Innovation at MediaMind

MediaMind recently spoke with Entertainment Executive Jonathan Tavss about two high-profile promotions for Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment – the launch of the Extended Collector’s Edition of AVATAR and the Blu-ray release of PREDATORS. For both launches, the client needed break-out creative to match the intensity and innovation of each film. We spoke with Tavss on his experience with MediaMind and the creative minds at Think Jam.


MM: What were your key goals for these two campaigns?
JT: “For both of these, we were really looking for increased engagement and surrounding buzz. In the case of both executions, my goal was to convey the narrative of the film while expressing some of its best features to connect to those consumers and, hopefully convert them to purchasing or, even better, advocating to their friends.”

MM: How did you plan to measure success?
JT: “Measurables for the effectiveness of the creative were time spent and games played for PREDATORS and Videos Viewed and Time spent for AVATAR.”

MM: What was your concept for Predators?
JT: “In the case of PREDATORS, the interesting thing to me was the pervading question of “who is the predator and who is the prey?” Based on that, I felt the perfect match for our young, gamer target audience was to provide the feeling that they were dropped directly into the action against a kick-ass foe – The Berserker Predator. My previous experience in building these above-and-beyond rich media units with Think Jam and MediaMind led me easily to this type of execution. In addition to the awesome full-screen game play and interaction the units offered, we also enabled users to seamlessly enter a global MPG – transferring any points they scored within the unit into the game.”

MM: How about the AVATAR release?
JT: “In the case of AVATAR, our marketing strategy was to show off as much video content from the special features as possible. The no-brainer for the presentation of that content was in trying to recreate the interface from the Basecamp control desks. The direction to everyone was ‘You know those scenes where people moved video elements around the screen at those desks in Basecamp? That’s what we have to do here.’ The final execution on the desktop was elegant and the iPad version was simply sublime.”

MM: Both campaigns performed well above benchmark; how did MediaMind contribute?JT: “MediaMind allows marketers and creative to really shoot for the stars in their rich media campaigns. My experience with MediaMind on these campaigns – and what led to Fox using MediaMind in the States and our other markets – really turned me into an advocate.”

Check out the campaign details and performance data for AVATAR here and for PREDATORS here.

As people are spending less time with print magazines, online Display can offer an alternative powerful branding experience


Prada, Burberry, Diesel and H&M have spent ample time and money building their brands and becoming top of mind for their consumers. Other than catwalks, events and store placements, magazines have been a major avenue for delivering the desired image. Until recently, it was typically a mix of glossy paper, striking images of super-skinny models and high quality style that have maintained the image of the brands.





However, the fashion advertising market is facing a tectonic shift. According to eMarketer, in the past two years, users spent 25% less time reading newspapers and magazines, shifting towards Internet and mobile with increased time spent of 10% and 50% respectively. As users are spending less time with magazines, fashion advertisers need to find new ways of delivering a powerful branding experience. This can be done by taking advantage of display advertising.


Display Advertising is the topic of a presentation MediaMind will be presenting on November 22nd at the 2nd Sportswear International E-Fashion Summit 2011, which will take place in Frankfurt, Germany.


For fashion advertisers, Dwell is one of the most powerful metrics for measuring the effectiveness of their branding campaigns. Research shows that Dwell is linked to higher brand effectiveness, and is more relevant than just counting clicks.


What are the best practices for getting the highest result? It turns out that the creative is the single most important contributor for higher campaign results. According to comScore, great creative is four times more important than the media plan.


Furthermore, analysis shows that to increase Dwell, advertisers should include video in their creative. In addition, research has shown that dynamic creative optimization boosts Dwell by an average of 50%. Another step for boosting Dwell is choosing an effective ad format; Homepage Takeover, Expandable Banners and Instant Messenger Ads are on average above the benchmarks for Dwell.


The primary thesis of the presentation in Frankfurt is that Rich Media display advertising can create an equally, if not superior, memorable branding experience. Using the right creative with video and dynamic content can be as visually appealing and at times more powerful than a double spread magazine ad.






Ariel Geifman
Principal Analyst, MediaMind

Superhero-style partying into all hours of the night marked MediaMind’s Tenth Annual Rich Media Awards in New York City.  But the nominees and winners were from around the world.  Here are the winning campaigns:


The 2011 People’s Choice Winner

Personal PC Store – Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Microsoft Windows, Universal McCann

 


The 2011 Smartest Ad Winner – Americas

White Collar – Glow Interactive, USA Network, Ignited

 


The 2011 Smartest Ad Winner – EMEA

Specsavers 2011 – Infinite Corridor@Annex, Specsavers, MEC

 


The 2011 Smartest Ad Winner – Asia Pacific

Yellovator – Clemenger, Millipede, Yellow Pages, OMD Melbourne

�


The 2011 Smartest Homepage Customization Winner

Allstate Mayhem – CBSi, Leo Burnett, Starcom

Congratulations to all the winners!

MediaMind spoke with François Girardot from Biborg Interactive, the creators of the brilliant Assassin campaign, a very-deserving nominee for the MediaMind Rich Media Award in EMEA.

What was the client brief for the Assassin campaign?
Ubisoft’s brief was very simple: “Make a huge and never seen before campaign which will pull out the most of the exclusive partnership between Microsoft (with msn.com) and Google (with youtube.com)”


How did you come up with the creative idea?
First of all we wanted to provide an entertaining experience that would project the user into the story of this new Assassin’s Creed opus.

As we advertised to a mainstream audience, it was important to introduce the spirit of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood: Assassins fighting against corruption, personified by the Borgia family.

Playing the role of the hero Ezio, the user was invited to experience the story through alternating interactive sequences and videos, in an adventure which would take him from Youtube to MSN.

The YouTube Masthead unit introduced the main characters and engaged the user to defend his villa. The story goes on an MSN page on which the user fights against the Templars to take revenge. Then the user goes on a journey through Youtube to explore Rome. The final chapter on MSN showcases the confrontation between Ezio and his enemy Cesare.

The full story is 3 minutes long, a good way to discover the game.


What feedback/results have you received?
The campaign took place in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy on November 16th 2010.
687K users played with the creative on Youtube and 85% of them clicked to continue the adventure on MSN.

It was a massive achievement allowing us to gain great experience of rich media setups on the European scale. But before everything we are very proud to offer 3 minutes of entertainment to users!