JCDecaux Upfronts 2020

We revel in the idea of a digital world. Saving paper saves the trees and in turn, saves media suppliers on production costs! And what’s better than buying one digital screen? Securing two digital screens!

In their recent upfronts 2020 conference, JCDecaux, the pioneer for outdoor media have announced their plans to bridge the gap between OOH and the digital world. The Brand Gap 2 report aims to take the reins on both branding and activation. Brands can expect a unified synergy between what consumers see on public and private screens, making for a stronger, longer impression.

JCD has teamed with Lumen, a cutting-edge eye-tracking technology company set to make waves in the digital world, tapping into some previously ambiguous insights. In a two-screen world, the cross-channel strategy allows for a consistent image to be displayed on more than one screen such as an outdoor digital 6 screen and a mobile phone.  In effect, the brand campaign resonates with the consumer from the minute they wake up to the minute they go to back to bed. Screen time exists profoundly in our lives, fed through our phones, our commutes and our work. Building a two-screen campaign creates a persistent message without being too pushy. Picture this – you scroll through Facebook on your way to work, your phone dies as you get to the train station, causing you to look for some passenger information point. During your commute, you find a digital passenger information point. And what’s the creative message beside it? The same advert you saw on Facebook earlier in the day.

The highly targeted, cross-channel strategy not only encourages awareness but consideration and sales. Implementing a trusted narrative, then sharing it across both OOH and Facebook formats has seen a 13% increase in the likelihood to purchase as well as the 6% uplift in actual sales. Studies show the propensity to purchase products increases across Gen Z and Millennial audiences when both OOH and digital formats are active. The brand image is viewed the first time, recognised the second and by the third/fourth view recognised, remembered and recalled. The memory becomes a motif displayed across various screens, prompting the target audience towards the lower end of the sales funnel.

In their October conference, CEO of JCDecaux UK announced ‘out-of-home can act as a primer to make the private screen more engaging and work harder’ – driving consideration and descending into the lower end of the sales funnel. Now that 57% of viewable media is on the same aspect ratio (vertical six-sheet), brands mould their adverts to fit around the audience’s routine. Geofencing pinpoints the perfect audience, where there’s no escaping the programmatic messaging. Take Virgin Active, they have over 30 clubs in Greater London and wanted to target people that are regularly seen in close proximity to their sites. Geotargeting helped to gain leverage of a highly connected audience, maximise the relevance of their messaging and achieve performance uplift from proactive brand activity. Out-of-home media not only primes but permeates the digital world with familiarity and trust.

Watch this (vertical) space as the gap between our private and public worlds collapses. Experience a flawless brand activation proven to stimulate the consideration stage of a highly targeted audience and, in turn, increase sales conversions.

Google Chrome Will Display Warnings For Slow Sites

In a further push to make websites take loading speeds seriously, Google have announced a new range of plans to help pre-warn users on how quickly or slowly a site may load.

“We think the web can do better and want to help users understand when a site may load slowly, while rewarding sites delivering fast experiences.” – Addy Osmani, Ben Greenstein and Bryan McQuade from the Chrome team

The plans include the rollout of warning messages within load screens on slower websites,  alongside a new green progress bar for sites with faster load times, both seen in the examples below:

Rather than implement strict criteria for what is and isn’t a fast site immediately, Google plan to gradually increase this over time. Google’s long-term goal is to clearly badge sites that load quickly or slowly for users, with further plans to expand the badging of sites to cover a range of signals beyond just site speed.

Google recommend using the following resources to help identify areas where improvements to site speed can be made:

Google also suggest checking web.dev/fast in order to learn the best practices for site performance.

To add to the above list, we would also recommend also utilising the following resources:

These additional resources will be able to provide valuable insights on page speed performance, and can be used alongside Google’s own resources.

Check out our latest SEO and Social Media market updates for the latest news, and if you’re interested in finding out more about what we can do for your brand, get in touch with us today.

Social Media Updates: November 2019

Follow topics on Twitter instead of people

Twitter is adding a new feature to the app called ‘Topics’. Twitter has said this feature will help and encourage users to find a larger selection of content across a range of subjects, alongside their usual timeline.

The Topics tab will allow users to follow tweets about subjects such as sport or politics, rather than associated accounts. There will be 300 topics which users can follow from entertainment and gaming to fashion and beauty.

Twitter recently explained the new update:  “On your Home timeline and in search results, you’ll see prompts to follow topics. Tap the Follow button in the prompt and we’ll personalise your Twitter experience based on your interest in this topic.

“We may also match you with other topics that we think you are interested in based on your profile and activity, such as the Tweets you view or like.”

Twitter said their new update will help users find more content they are interested in as “the main reason that people join Twitter is to keep up on the things that they’re interested in.”

Topics will launch on the Twitter app on November 13.

Facebook expands publisher tools for brands

Facebook has announced that their publisher tools will be expanding including a feature where brands can easily find content creators to partner with. Initially, the tool was for a limited number of pages, but Facebook is expanding access to the feature.

Facebook explained: “To help advertisers find creators for branded content partnerships, we introduced Brand Collabs Manager. Creators in over 40 countries can now apply for access to Brand Collabs Manager, bringing it in line with Ad Breaks.”

However, to qualify as a content creator for the Brand Collabs Manager feature, you will need at least 1,000 followers as well as one or more of the following over the last two months: 15,000 engagements on your posts, 180,000 minutes viewed, or 30,000 1-minute views on videos that are 3-minutes or longer.

As well as this, Facebook is adding to Creator Studio with Traffic Source Insights. This is where content creators can see how their content is distributed across the app and with insights on how to optimise content. Traffic Source Insights will look at video watch time and retention metrics for pages across four key sources: Followers, Shares, Recommended and Paid.

You can check if your page qualifies for Brand Collabs Manager here.

Pinterest outlines top pin trends for November

Pinterest has released an update of trending pins forecast for November, including upcoming trends for food, beauty, home and style and how to achieve successful pins.

Interior

Pinterest revealed that ‘entryways’ will receive a lot of attention in interior trends this month. The following searches are said to be up for interior-inspired pinner’s: ‘mudroom entryway’ (+179% YoY) ‘shoe closet entryway’ (+300% YoY) and ‘small foyer decorating’ (+722% YoY).

Beauty

According to Pinterest, November is the month of bedazzling. Searches for ‘rhinestone eye makeup’ are up 550% year over year along with ‘magnetic eyeliner’ (+143% YoY) just in time for Christmas. By replicating these pins into your content strategy, Pinterest predicts an increase in engagement.

Food

As autumn turns to winter, searches for comfort food are up significantly. Recipe videos are up, such as tomato soup videos (+5809% YoY) which topped the list. Alongside ‘sausage parmesan cream cheese’ (+1314% YoY) and ‘hamburger cauliflower soup’ (+4000% YoY) making trends for the top food pins.

Fashion

For men and women’s fashion, corduroy tops the trends. Searches are increasing for ‘corduroy skirt outfit’ (+69% YoY), ‘corduroy bag’ (+59% YoY), ‘corduroy shirt’ (+51% YoY) and ‘corduroy dress’ (47% YoY).

If you’re interested in finding out more about social media and what it can do for your brand, get in touch with us today.

GOMO or Go Home?

Testing the Malleability of OOH Media in a Transitional Digital World.

For years outdoor media has remained solid yet stagnant. Time may change but the reliability of a forty-foot poster has rarely been questioned. Without realising it, we are subject to ads in our outdoor life hundreds of times a week. They have become part of our daily commute, local environment and city architecture. But, as we journey further into the digital age, we are no longer accustomed to taking in our surroundings. Instead, we are increasingly more concerned with the world at our fingertips. Since the growth of digital media, outdoor media must work harder to gain the attention of the average consumer. Today billboards must compete with their immediate surroundings, alongside online traffic.
 
In today’s society, outdoor media is striving to be brighter, bolder and smarter than ever. Traditional billboard sites are being replaced by digital screens on a weekly basis. These screens offer the opportunity for more impressions, many creatives and a mix of ads every minute. So what is the latest step in the plight of OOH (out-of-home) media? Meet the iWalker by GOMO…
 
The iWalker is a wearable digital communication tool that moves with your audience. The device acts as a harness supporting a large screen above the head of the wearer. It also has speakers pumping music of the companies’ choice to the surrounding crowds. The device is eye-catching and attention-seeking. Used in the right location it represents a hybrid of events based promotion and outdoor media.
 
The selling point of the iWalker is, at present, the spectacle of it. The device catches the attention and not the eye of crowds, and in return, the device absorbs the data of the crowds. When presented with a scene, the iWalker analyses the situation and obtains data from the surroundings. It has the capacity to do several things, for example, viewer counting. The iWalker can detect all faces in the scene so the number of impressions is reliable and not estimated. It also tracks faces – monitoring how long a face remains in the scene – thus deducing dwell time and attention time. The device can then classify the gender and age of an individual. This means that the post-campaign analytics are tested and reliable thus improving the ROI.
 
Will the iWalker will prove to be another fad of the media world? Or will it will be as influential as the billboard was? Regardless of opinion, it is pushing the boundaries of outdoor media and offering movement to a static world.

SEO MARKET UPDATES: OCTOBER 2019

Join Fusion’s SEO team as they round up last month’s major industry updates.

GOOGLE’S NEW ALGORITHM: BERT

The biggest news of the month came with the announcement of a new search algorithm from Google, BERT. A natural language processor (NLP), BERT provides Google with a heightened ability to understand the context of search queries.

For example, the algorithm can assist Google to determine when prepositions such as “on” or “to” matter to the entire meaning of a phrase. This ultimately helps Google to display a result which best matches search intent, as in the example below comparing a pre and post-BERT result for the same query:

Google have stated that BERT is working alongside the existing RankBrain algorithm, and will affect around 10% of all search terms and structured snippets.

BERT is currently live for search terms using U.S English, and will be rolled out for other languages in the near future.

For more information on BERT, take a look at our dedicated blog post…

GOOGLE CRACKS DOWN ON MIXED CONTENT

With the next few iterations of Chrome planned to release over the next few months, Google have announced that these forthcoming updates will be taking incrementally harsher stances against mixed content.

Mixed content refers to instances where both HTTP and HTTPS resources, such as images or iFrames, are contained on a site.

Chrome is currently on version 78, and by release 81 Google expect to have implemented the below updates:

  • In Chrome 79, set to be released to a stable channel in December 2019, Google will introduce a new setting to unblock mixed content on specific sites. This setting will apply to mixed scripts, iFrames, and other types of content which Chrome currently blocks by default. Users will be able to toggle this setting by clicking the lock icon on any https:// page and selecting the Site Settings option. This is set to replace the shield icon displayed at the right side of the address bar in current versions of desktop Chrome, which is currently used to unblock mixed content.
  • In Chrome 80, set to be published to early release channels in January 2020, mixed audio and video resources will be auto-upgraded to https://. If these resources then fail to load over htttps:// they will be blocked by Chrome. Users will be able to unblock any mixed audio or video resources via the method released in Chrome 79.
  • Also in Chrome 80, mixed images will still be allowed to load, but will cause Chrome to show a “Not Secure” chip in the address bar. We anticipate that this is a clearer security UI for users and that it will motivate websites to migrate their images to HTTPS. Developers can use the upgrade-insecure-requests or block-all-mixed-content Content Security Policy directives to avoid this warning.
  • In Chrome 81, mixed images will be auto-upgraded to https://, and Chrome will block them by default if they fail to load over https://. Chrome 81 will be released to early release channels in February 2020.

For more information on these updates within Chrome, please see our dedicated blog post…

GOOGLE DEPRECIATE CORPORATE CONTACT MARKUP

Corporate contact markup , often implemented with the contactPoint schema, allowed companies to add their contact information to Google’s knowledge panel.

In October, Google announced that this method of adding corporate contact information to knowledge panels is now depreciated. As an alternative, if a company is verified as an official rep of a Google knowledge panel, they will be able to suggest changes to corporate contacts via the knowledge panel support page.

AUTOMATIC LAZY-LOADING HAS COME TO CHROME LITE USERS

Automatic lazy-loading is a feature enabled for all Chrome 76 users, allowing images and iFrames with the `loading` attribute to be lazy-loaded with the following options:

  • auto: Default lazy-loading behaviour of the browser, which is the same as not including the attribute.
  • lazy: Defer loading of the resource until it reaches a calculated distance from the viewport.
  • eager: Load the resource immediately, regardless of where it’s located on the page.

Now, this feature has been made available for lite mode users in Chrome 77. Chrome 77 will allow any <iframe> or <img> with the loading attribute value of `auto` to be eligible for Lite Mode’s automatic lazy-loading. This includes <picture> elements and CSS background images.

In Google’s experiments, native lazy-loading of images and iframes yields a ~10% reduction in bytes downloaded per page at the 75th percentile and an 8% reduction in overall downloaded bytes for the median user. Automatic lazy-loading also led to a 1-2% improvement in First Contentful Paint at the median, a 2% improvement in First Input Delay at the 95th percentile and a 0.7% improvement in median memory reduction per page.

Native lazy-loading is currently supported by the following browsers:

  • Chrome 76+
  • Chrome for Android 78+
  • Android Browser 76+
  • Opera 64+

GOOGLE ADD NEW VIDEO REPORTS TO SEARCH CONSOLE

Two new video reports are now available to users of Google Search Console, providing information on video content displayed within search results, the video search tab, and Google Discover.

The first of these reports is the Video Enhancement Report, which allows webmasters to see any errors and warnings for any video schema implemented on a website.

The second of these reports is the Video Performance Report. This will allow users to view the performance of videos within the video tab and main search page, by segmenting by “type = web”. Users will also be able to view Google Discover video performance by using the “search appearance” tab.

For users utilising the VideoObject schema these reports will allow a quick view on how videos are performing, along with providing an overview of whether schema is implemented correctly.

 

For information on last month’s major industry updates for social media, please see our monthly social blog…