ADVERTISING
Microsoft’s LinkedIn has begun rolling out its Matched Audiences program, a feature that will let advertisers target LinkedIn users based on their email addresses, web-browsing habits, and employers. The new targeting options will be available to all advertisers – including those using Linkedin’s self-serve buying platform – by the end of this week.
PROGRAMMING + CONTENT ACQUISITIONS
Apple Music‘s ‘Carpool Karaoke’ spinoff is getting pushed back. The series, based on recurring segments from The Late Late Show with James Corden, was originally slated to debut this month. The show’s premiere has now been delayed to an unspecified date later this year. The company didn’t explain the delay. Along with the yet-to-debut unscripted series Planet of the Apps, the Carpool Karaoke spinoff represents Apple’s first major push to place original video content on Apple Music.
PLATFORMS, APPS + DEVICES
Fox Networks Group is taking a new digital product to the Asian market. Called Fox+, the app lets users watch shows at the same time as they’re airing on Fox Network Group’s linear channels. The app also features current and past seasons of TV shows. Fox+ debuted in the Philippines earlier this month. Singapore is expected to come next.
YouTube Kids has hit the big(ger) screen. The app, which features a filtered, kid-friendly version of YouTube, will now be available via a number of smart TV brands, including those from Sony, LG, and Samsung. YouTube Kids was previously a mobile-only app, though it did enable TV viewing through a “casting” feature.
Social video news agency Storyful announced a new partnership with the media and public relations firm Weber Shandwick. Under the deal, the companies will launch Cognitive Context, a content intelligence service. The service will grant Weber Shandwick clients access to the “pre-viral” user-generated social content that’s surfaced and acquired by Storyful.
Facebook wants to puncture the filter bubble. The company has made some changes to the Facebook News Feed – a personalized platform that has always made it easy for users to block out specific outlets and ideologies. But now Facebook has begun adding “related” articles from different publications under news posts about trending topics in users’ feeds. For instance, an article from the New York Times might also come equipped with recommended articles on the same topic from, say, Fox News or the Wall Street Journal. Facebook says its goal with the new initiative is to “support an informed community.”
RESEARCH
To determine the TV ads generating the most digital response, attention analytics company iSpot.tv measures digital actions across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and all major search engines. Here, a look at the brands that advertised during the Pretty Little Liars final-season premiere on Freeform.
“Pretty Little Liars will say goodbye at the end of this season, but until then, advertisers can connect with the show’s devoted audience each week. Warner Bros. kicked things off with its emotional ad for teen drama “Everything, Everything,” based on the book of the same name. The spot led all online activity prompted by commercials that aired during PLL, with 8.5% of the digital share of voice. However, Diamond Producers Association and Verizon were very close behind at 7% apiece. Taco Bell and Schick rounded out the top five.” – iSpot.tv
The ListenFirst Television Interest (TVI) Rating (TM) is a standardized measurement of the most buzzed-about TV programs on linear TV and streaming services. A complement to ListenFirst’s other syndicated data products (such as the ListenFirstDigital Audience Rating – TV), the metrics included in the rating capture organic actions that are largely unaffected by paid media. Programs that surface on the TVI leaderboards are the most hashtagged on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Tumblr, as well as most searched for on Wikipedia (used as a proxy for organic search volume).
Streaming Series (4/17/17 – 4/23/17)
Source: ListenFirst. The TVI Rating aggregates metrics that measure organically generated activity by fans of the TV show. The metric includes total volume of official hashtag mentions on Facebook, Twitter,Google+, and Tumblr, along with Wikipedia page views (as a proxy for organic search volume) for a show as a percentage of the total volume of the same activities for all shows.
Video analytics company Tubular Labs recently released its list of the top-performing video brands and publishers for the month of March. Some of their findings:
– Overall: The top 100 video brands and creators together generated 70.1 Billion cross-platform views in March, an 18% growth compared to February 2017. These videos had an average V30 (views per video in 30 days) of 5.3 Million and an average ER30 (engagement rating in 30 days) of 1x, with 1x representing average engagement.
– In Facebook leaderboards, Viral Thread and NTD Television took #1 and #2 with 3.1 billion and 3 billion views, respectively. The LADbible Group took #3 with 3.09 billion views, and UNILAD took #4 with 3.07 Billion views.
– In YouTube leaderboards, T-series was at #1 with 1.1 billion views, followed by Ed Sheeran at #2 with 1.0 Billion views. Ryan ToysReview took #3 with 761 Million views, while Workpoint Entertainment, a Thai media company, was #4 with 745 Million views.
#3, #4 and #5 spots respectively on YouTube rankings.
EXECUTIVE MOVES
As first reported by Variety, GoPro has named Susan Lyne to its Board. Lyne is the Founder and President of BBG Ventures, an investment fund backed by AOL. The appointment expands GoPro’s board to a total of nine directors. The move comes as the action camera maker attempts to recover from a catastrophic 2016, which saw a net loss of $419 million, mass layoffs, and a total shut-down of GoPro’s efforts to create original entertainment content.
TRIVIA
Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale debuts today. Who’s the creator and showrunner of the series? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, and state.)
Our Last Trivia Question: After serving as CEO of Hulu, Jason Kilar co-founded a new video service. Verizon acquired that service last year, integrating its product and personnel while shuttering the service itself. What was it called? Answer: Vessel. Kudos to Andy Pittman-TAMU/TX, Louis Lewow-Lewow Media Gorup/GA, Julia Zangwill-FreeWheel/NY, Matt Zagha-A+E Networks/CA, Akinwole Garrett-SheKnows Media/NY, Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg0M and S Entertainment/CA, David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Federal Credit Union/CA, Rich Goldfarb-Advisory Boards/NY, Jaime Brand-Fullscreen/NY, and Dakota Bloom-Pilgrim Studios/CA
