How Strong is the Consumer Trust in Your Brand? Jebbit’s Taylor Donnell Reveals All

Trust in brands has seen a great shift among consumers according to Jebbit’s Taylor Donnell, Vice President, Content and Partnerships Marketing, whose company just released the results of a new online study of 2500 25-64 year olds. Some business sectors were hit hard as consumer trust declined precipitously. Others benefited, debunking previously held beliefs of what is needed to cement consumer trust.

Charlene Weisler: What are the study's major takeaways?

Taylor Donnell: Highlights include the following - This CDTI edition’s rankings reflect the largest shifts in brand trust rankings to date - Google fell from #4 most trusted brand to #89, Apple fell from #17 to #43, and Netflix went from #8 to #43, indicating there’s room for brands to improve the education (and communication tactics) that they provide to their users regarding data privacy changes.

Brands must be thoughtful and strategic with the data points they seek to capture as 30% of consumers said ‘asking for too much information,’ again ranked as the #1 factor that results in brand mistrust.

Pandemic trends are no longer trends because they're here to stay, with 63% of consumers surveyed saying their online shopping usage has increased since the start of the pandemic, and 40% say they’re seeing more irrelevant online ads than ever before - 46% agreed that irrelevant online ads from a business based on past purchase data decreased trust in that brand.

D2C brand Bonobos jumped to #9 from #90, indicating that legacy brand awareness doesn’t guarantee a high trust index ranking - 43% trust brands in both D2C and traditional brand categories the same.

Weisler: How does this compare to your previous study?

Donnell: For one thing, we saw quite a big fall in rankings among some of the tech giants, (Google fell from #16 in our last report to #89 in this one). This annually recurring study was first published in 2018 and indicates that consumers’ distrust in major brands continues to increase as many businesses that once held top spots on the consumer trust index have made major shifts down the ranks.

Weisler: Regarding the privacy landscape - both nationally and globally - how do you think this will impact businesses going forward?

Donnell: The CDTI report found that while 63% of consumers are spending more time shopping online than they were prior to the start of the pandemic, 75% of businesses had a harder time building and maintaining trust with their customers. To gain and/or maintain consumer trust, business must be more transparent than ever about their privacy and data collection practices as well as ensure digital communications with consumers are relevant, welcome and engaging. 46% of consumers agreed that irrelevant online ads from a business based on past purchase data ultimately decreased the amount of trust they had in the brand whose ad they saw, showing that brands cannot afford to send irrelevant, repetitive or intrusive communications to shoppers.

Weisler: How fully informed is the average consumer on Google and Apple privacy policies, in your opinion?

Donnell: 30% of the 2,500 consumers in the survey stated that they were unaware that Apple and Google made any changes to privacy policies at all. We think there is plenty of room to provide more education and educational resources that will give consumers a better grasp as to how businesses, mobile-apps, browsers, etc. track their online behavior and generate revenue using their personal data.    We also believe that while these changes are good and built to protect consumers, big tech continues to take advantage of burying communications about any changes/updates that impact users by burying them in their complex and lengthy privacy policies and / or terms & conditions pages.

Weisler: Do you think Google's fall in the rankings might be due to other factors?

Donnell: On the one hand, many of the biggest players in tech continue to tread against bad PR, which may provide some evidence for Google's at least part of the reason that Google dropped 73 spots! However, this is a bit of a head scratcher given that Google has taken momentous steps to put consumers and their privacy first, including both company's announced privacy changes to their Android operating system as well as its plans to deprecate the third-party cookie.

Weisler: What should businesses do to maximize trust with consumers?

Donnell: Businesses should proactively communicate how they collect and use consumer data in order to build trust. When consumers willingly volunteer more information about themselves (i.e. first- or zero-party data) businesses should respond by clearly demonstrating the genuine value they can in turn provide for consumers, through helpful and welcome communications. Over time, this will help the customer trust the business to use their data respectfully and ultimately increase the lifetime value of the customer. One key takeaway was that while legacy brands may have the advantage of brand recognition (35% of consumers polled stated that they still trust traditional brands more than online, direct-to-consumer brands), they should also take a page from many D2C brands, which seem to fare better in consumer trust, perhaps because they appear to better understand the needs of digital consumers, which enables them to focus on delivering an engaging and relevant user experience. Although only 22% of consumers polled trust D2C brands more, 43% trust brands in both categories the same!

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com

Artwork by Charlene Weisler

 

 

Once Disruptive, Video Games Are Being Disrupted

Disruptions in the media industry occur constantly. But now it seems that the speed of disruptions, even among disruptors themselves is accelerating. The ARF noted that according a recent study by Axios, video games, which has disrupted media consumption, are undergoing a major usage/business change as well and the change is occurring not just on the software/content but also on the hardware of consoles and controllers.

Packages Instead of Single Games
Economics are shifting in favor of the consumer. In the past, gamers had to purchase a game outright. Now they are able to subscribe to a more economical package of games. “In the past, you plunked down $60 at GameStop for a copy of Grand Theft Auto or Madden NFL and played it out — after which you could trade it in or let it gather dust,” the AP News reports. “Now, you’ll increasingly have the choice of subscribing to games, playing for free or possibly just streaming them over the internet to your phone or TV.” Gamers won’t have to buy individual games anymore. And presumably the cost of entry for gaming companies would be lower

Veering Away From Specialized Hardware
Subscriptions will not only move storage and software into the cloud, it will make access easier across any device and be cheaper since there will not be a requirement to buy any extra equipment, which is often expensive and may only work specifically for certain games.

Examples of games moving into the cloud include Google’s Stadia platform that, “will store a game-playing session in the cloud and let players jump across phones, laptops and browsers with Google’s software,” per the AP. Apple Arcade “subscribers will get to play more than 100 games … on the Apple-made iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV.” Snap Games will allow users to play real-time, multiplayer games with their friends, with new ad experience in games so all that “our (developer) partners can see monetization from day one.” And with Fortnight, a free-to-play game, “a key aspect of the game is being able to play it on anything from your phone to a decked-out gaming PC.”

It remains to be seen how quickly this transformation will occur. There is still the need for technology companies to broker deals with game developers to distribute their games. But, as with other media, the consumer is increasingly setting the pace and voting with their wallets.  “We’re in an environment where people want content and media when they want it, how they want it,” CFRA analyst Scott Kessler said. “You can play a great video game with a console or on a computer or with a mobile device and you might not have to pay anything. That’s a dramatic departure from even a few years ago.”

This article first appeared in Cynopsis.

The Latest Trends from Nielsen’s Total Audience Report

Nielsen just released their findings from their latest quarterly Nielsen Total Audience Report (3Q18) which shows continued audience shifting and digital transformation in content preferences and streaming services. The report, according to Nielsen, contains, insights on how people are choosing the content that they’re streaming, as well as a section that examines which attributes of streaming services are the most important to consumers as well updates on traditional and digital media platform usage.

The highlights include:

Streaming Devices and Services Continue to Grow September 2017 to 2018

• Enabled smart TV penetration grew to 41% in 2018 from 32% in 2017 as users continue to replace their older television sets. Enabled smart TV ownership had the largest year-over-year growth for all races and ethnicities
• Internet enabled TV-connected devices — enabled smart TVs, internet connected devices (i.e. Apple TV, Roku, Google Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV), and enabled game consoles—are in 68% of U.S. households, up from 63%.
• Streaming Video on Demand (SVOD) content is in 67% of television households, compared to 61% one year ago. Year over year growth is occurring among households of all races and ethnicities. Eight out of ten Asian American, seven out of ten Hispanic, and six out of ten Black households subscribe to an SVOD service.
• But there is only so much time in a day. U.S. Adults spend 10 hours and 30 minutes per day connected to media, the same amount as one year ago.

While Adoption of Newer Devices Has Increased, So Has Their Usage—Regardless of Age.

• Time spent on TV-connected devices and app/web on smartphones increased across all demographic groups. Time per day on smartphones increased by 23 minutes for adults 18-34, more than any other group or platform. And even older demographic group’s share of daily time spent with TV-connected devices and app/web on a smartphone increased from Q3 2017 to Q3 2018.
• Adults 18-34 spend over one-third of their daily media usage on smartphones while Adults 50-64 spend more time per day on media in general than any other age group.

Inundated with Choice, Streaming Video and Audio Users Are Making Their Preferences Known.

• According to the MediaTech Trender Survey, two-thirds of audio (67%) and video streaming (66%) users are influenced by recommendations from family and friends when making streaming selections. Meanwhile, 67% of video streaming users and 56% of audio streaming users refer back to existing programming they used to watch or listen to on broadcast media as that content is now more accessible.
• Users want access to a broad variety of content (57%) while using technology and an interface that is easy to navigate (56%). Niche content is also desirable, as 43% want access to local programming, 38% are looking for specific networks, and 35% want the ability to stream live sports.

This article first appeared in www.Cynopsis.com

Looking Back and Moving Forward. Interview with Howard Shimmel of Janus Strategy and Insights

Another research veteran is striking out on his own after an illustrious media career. Howard Shimmel, previously of MTV, Nielsen, AOL and most recently Turner, has formed his own consultancy, Janus Strategy and Insights.  Why that name? “Janus is a Roman God who looks to the future,” Shimmel explained, “but he does so that in a way that he can also keep a close eye on the past.” 

Merging the lessons of the past with strategies for the future is a good way to leverage Shimmel’s expertise to, as he stated, “to help the market move in a better direction and help emerging data research companies become bigger and more scalable.”

Charlene Weisler: What are the biggest challenges that media companies face today?

Howard Shimmel: Media companies are challenged with having to grow ratings, growing subscribers, fend off new competition such as Netflix, Amazon and Apple and grappling with consumer choice where the cable box is not necessarily the first choice for viewers. Now they can turn on their Roku device, they can go to their smart TV app menu on their TV. So the first challenge is how do media companies migrate to a new reality which could not be more different from the reality we spent most of our careers living in. On the emerging research company data side, it is figuring a way that they can come to market and position their product in a way that fits within the existing work streams of a media company, how is what they can provide additive to what the company is doing now as well as the net benefits. 

Charlene Weisler: Data management is pivotal. What have you learned regarding the best practices in managing all of the available data?

Howard Shimmel: A mistake that I think we make in the industry is that we tend to take the tools that we have always been using – Nielsen, MRI, Scarborough, Simmons, comScore – and put them in a very different bucket than the first, second and third party, digital, OTT and virtual MVPD datasets that we are now receiving. Companies need to think about a holistic data strategy where they are using each of those assets for its right use case and also finding ways to leverage across those assets. When you think about it, a network has great first party consumption data from their network apps. But all they are seeing is a very limited view of consumption. What they need the ability to do is find a way through data modeling or data appends to model linear consumption on top of the first party data, that which makes all of the applications they are looking to do with their over the top apps more powerful. So there is the issue of the siloing of datasets that need to be integrated and then there is the real day-to-day issue of how to leverage all of this data to better execute strategies.

Charlene Weisler: How far away do you think we are from a cross-platform measurement solution?

Howard Shimmel: If we think about our career arcs, there have been times when we’ve had great partnership relationships with measurement companies such as Nielsen and comScore, we’ve challenged them when they’ve needed to be challenged. One thing I think the media industry hasn’t done is really define what it means to have a cross platform solution. If you think about the heart of Nielsen’s Total Audience it really is the measurement of a program and get a complete view of a program across all of the platforms where it is available from linear TV, video on demand, digital, digital if it is through a provider like Hulu, digital on a network app. And the product scope is right to do that. But where Total Audience falls short is that we need a data ecosystem tool that allows us to see traditional linear spots together with digital addressable spots, to be able to plan those together, to be able to optimize those together, to be able to steward them together and then on the backend be able to measure their impact. There needs to be a forcing mechanism to get the industry to get together and decide what the system needs to do and then inform the measurement companies. 

Charlene Weisler: What should that forcing mechanism be?

Howard Shimmel: I think it should be the advertisers. They are the ones who are leaving ROI untapped because of the measurement challenges.  Bob Liodice at the ANA has been clear about this. If they lead, media and measurement companies have to fall in line and take their lead. 

Charlene Weisler: Looking forward, where do you see the media industry three to five years from now?

Howard Shimmel: I think we will get our measurement act together. Five years out I think we will do a much better job of stitching together linear, digital, over the top, virtual MVPD data together in a way where a media company has a way to take an advertiser, understand what their desired outcomes are and develop a plan that is not only geared to reach and frequency but is also geared to some sort of sales impact. You’ll see a lot more success among major media companies in terms of finding material direct to consumer businesses and ways to compliment the linear television ad model. Finally I think you will start to see all of the different content delivery systems – linear and digital and social- work together. We need to collaborate. As two industry leaders- Jack Myers and Dave Poltrack have stressed- we should be focused on finding ways to target below the line marketing dollars, not just fighting for share of existing media spend.

Top 7 Ad Selling Points for Premium TV

What do we really mean by premium TV? For some, it’s a tiered linear TV service that requires a subscription, such as HBO and Showtime. For others, the definition has expanded to include packages of channels offered by multi-channel video programming distributors (MVPDs) and over-the-top (OTT) companies like Apple.

So, it seems that for those in the business of selling television, “premium” is in the eye of the beholder.

What Sellers Need to Know

Adam Gerber, senior vice president of investment for North America at media-buying agency Essence, reflected on the current status of premium TV in a recent Adweek article. According to Gerber, “premium” is an overused term, and he concluded that “premium content is what works best for the marketer.”

Read the full article on the Videa blog.