CBS Streaming Sells Engaged, Younger Viewers That Watch More Video

Everyone has a streaming product at this point, and for the same reasons: Consumption habits are changing rapidly and viewers want a choice. That choice is not just about consumers, however. More segmented, niche programming also means a more advantageous selling point to potential advertisers. So is the case for CBS, which is courting brands to its new ad-supported service with the idea of a younger and more engaged audience ("superfans") that watches TV for longer periods of time. A large audience is one thing about linear TV, but is that audience always captive? Yes, at times. Though streaming ads may be finding their own advantage now as everyone jumps into the ad-supported content pool.Included here is your weekly digital and mobile advertising news round-up. See anything we might have missed. Drop us a line.Targeting ‘Superfans’: How CBS is Aggressively Targeting Streaming [Digiday]Here’s CBS’s pitch to advertisers in a nutshell: It has OTT streaming products that have achieved a certain level of audience scale nationally; there are few other OTT services outside of Hulu that can offer that kind of reach; the audience is younger than traditional TV, including CBS’s own networks; and engagement is high. On mobile, for instance, viewers spend nearly 30 minutes per session on average on CBSN — and the number is even higher on connected TVs, the company said.AT&T and Bayer Bet on Blockchain to Tame Digital Advertising [AdExchanger]AppNexus experimented with blockchain-based tech as a way to resolve these campaign issues, O’Kelley said, because brands are more likely now to refuse payment over reporting errors or confusion around, say, whether a bid should have been on a first- or second-price auction, prompting cascading lawsuits in the supply chain.Digital Execs Shift Time/Attention To New Programmatic Ad Formats [MediaPost]Programmatic media-buying for emerging formats -- and the related issues involving cross-channel measurement and attribution -- are the two topics digital ad execs expect to occupy their time and attention this year, according to findings of a survey of digital ad execs. It's about time that the programmatic marketplace embraces new formats, and especially in terms of understanding how to attribute the impact and value they generate between consumers and brands.Digital Video Industry Continues to Grow in Size and Complexity [eMarketer]Some of the best practices industry experts shared in early 2017 continue to be top of mind, including focusing on short ads, front-loading branding elements, using detailed targeting criteria and making ads contextually relevant to the space around them. Other best practices have taken hold over the past year, in areas such as out-stream video, brand safety and fraud reduction. Some of these were in response to specific events and trends that unfolded in 2017.Amazon will soon distribute ad-supported streaming channels [Digiday]In the U.S., the Amazon Channels program offers subscriptions to top networks, including HBO, Showtime and CBS. Advertising could substantially benefit streaming networks such as CBS All Access that already offer ad-supported tiers on their own. Right now, anyone subscribing to CBS All Access through Amazon can only access the app’s $10 monthly ad-free tier. When Amazon opens up access to the app’s $6 ad-supported tier, CBS has a chance to create a second revenue stream from its Amazon partnership. Study Reveals Strength of Mobile Video Ads [Advanced Television]Professor Nelson-Field explained that because mobile screens tend to be held closer to the viewer’s eyes their peripheral vision adjusts to the screen proximity, which means that passive viewing on mobile is worth more to sales than passive viewing on other devices. (N.B. Professor Nelson-Field did not investigate other factors in advertising success such as the impact of reach and reach velocity.)  Google AdSense Launches New Type of Ad Format That Optimizes Placements [MarketingLand]Google AdSense rolled out Auto ads this morning — a new ad format that could potentially increase publishers’ revenue by finding placements that might otherwise go undiscovered. The new ad format uses machine learning to automatically place ads where they are likely to perform well. Additionally, Auto ads allow publishers to place ad code on their pages only once, toggling features on and off, without requiring code changes.Reinventing adland for a programmatic age [Campaign]In the programmatic age, big award-winning campaigns are the exception rather than the rule. Those presented in Cannes, or elsewhere, represent a tiny fraction of our industry’s output. Great creativity is not easy to achieve or simple to sell, for a variety of reasons. On the other hand, the intelligence that adtech brings to the table can benefit all campaigns and almost everything we undertake. For the sake of both clients and end-users, it works.Google releases Mobile Scorecard & Impact Calculator tools to illustrate importance of mobile page speed [Search Engine Land]On Monday at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the search giant announced the release of two new mobile benchmarking resources to help in this effort: a new Mobile Scorecard and a conversion Impact Calculator.The Mobile Scorecard taps Chrome User Experience Report data to compare the speed of multiple sites on mobile. That’s the same database of latency data from Chrome users that Google started using in its PageSpeed Insights Tool in January.Brick and mortar retail digital transformation is powered by mobile device data [TechRepublic]Omnichannel is really driven by this shopper and user where they want an experience. They want an experience in store, online, and now even mobile. As IT decision makers, we're supporting those that are enabling this new experience. We need to make sure that we're creating an experience where shoppers want to shop.It’s Advertising We Should be Selling, Not More Palatable Ads [The Drum]The fact that it’s so easy to debunk the two central arguments against the efforts of the CBA and Google tells you the real issue is of distrust and probably a deep dislike of not just the platforms but of advertising itself. The problem the CBA, and probably all of us in the industry, need to solve is not just one of formats and intrusiveness but of reminding people why it might be a good thing advertising exists in the first place. SKIM THISSnapchat is enlisting more publishers to make video shows [Digiday]Pandora Finally Launches Programmatic Audio [AdExchanger]Media buyers: Snapchat is focused on enabling commerce in ads [Digiday]Oath begins international rollout of new mobile ad experiences [Mobile Marketing]Study: Digital, TV Drove 10.8% Growth in US Advertising Last Month [Marketing Dive]Snapchat’s Ecommerce Strategy Hit a New High When it Sold Out the New Air Jordans in Minutes [Adweek]Excessive Frequency, Retargeting Account for Ad-Blocker Usage [MediaPost]Mobile Advertising Will Drive 75% Of All Digital Ad Spend In 2018: Here's What's Changing [Forbes]