#DigitalDip
Taking a Quick Dip Into Digital with Sarah Frohman
Dr. Digital
SkinVision is a new mobile app that can detect skin cancer. It tracks changes in skin moles over time, and then sends an alert if anything becomes a cause for concern. This technology is the start of a blossoming digital health care environment, which is exciting stuff because that means we’ll spend less time reading outdated magazines in doctor’s waiting rooms!
To read more, visit: http://tinyurl.com/pm7wjkk
The 45th President of the United States...Digital!
Donald Trump may be the wealthiest Presidential candidate, but is he spending $1 billion on his Race to the White House? Nope! But, guess what? Digital is! There is a projected $1 billion worth of digital ads that will be inundating our screens in 2016. Digital trumps the Donald!
To read more, visit: http://tinyurl.com/o7jkmky
MoPub, mo’ Twitter
Facebook is usually up to something, but this week, Twitter will take the spotlight.
Twitter is expanding its reach from 300 million users to 700 million users, almost overnight. How?! The Audience Platform! The Platform is made possible by Twitter’s purchase of mobile ad exchange, MoPub.
Now, promoted and/or sponsored tweets on the Twitter feed can appear as ads on apps throughout the MoPub network (this is what Twitter is calling “The Audience Platform). It will be raining ads under the MoPub umbrella!
To read more, visit: http://tinyurl.com/o3l2mub and http://tinyurl.com/nw4zan3
You should go Google “Alphabet”
Google is bringing some of its projects under a new name, Alphabet! Essentially, Alphabet will reorganize the company by separating the behemoth projects like the Google Search Engine from the little guys, like Google Glass Technology. It’s basically saying that Alphabet is going to divide the company’s attention among its parts, instead of letting the moneymakers overpower the innovative tech ideas. Organization is monetization!
And don't overlook that Alphabet comes before Apple, alphabetically. #Competition.
To read more, visit: http://tinyurl.com/nlh32tz and http://tinyurl.com/njksdjn
Ad-blocking apocalypse
Ad-blocking may be bad now, but it will only get worse with the release of iOS9 (see: https://www.smore.com/ju27x-digitaldip).
More ad-block means less ad inventory. Less ad inventory means more ads being crammed into fewer spaces. The result? A legitimate sea of advertisements. Yuck.
So, consumers and advertisers sit down and talk. Consumers need to realize that ads are what make the Internet "free," and advertisers need to continue to work towards making ads less intrusive.
Someone call in a therapist, because this fight may not be an easy one to fix!
To read more, visit: http://tinyurl.com/pff75rj
Preparing programmatic professionals
AOL and Microsoft are set to kick off a digital advertising deal in January 2016, and their first move should leave the rest of the industry feeling a bit intimidated…
AOL is training a team of Microsoft technicians to become pros at programmatic…hmmm. Pressure’s on to become programmatic powerhouses!
To read more, visit: http://tinyurl.com/nz7auyo
Solve-ing the video metrics debate
Ad agency, Solve, published a completely blank and silent 4-minute YouTube clip in order to test the viability of “views” as a metric.
Arguably, this video should have garnered no views because it has, well, absolutely no content. However, the video had roughly 100,000 views, proving that even the most boring content can “go viral.”
Bottom line, “views” is not always accurate in measuring whether or not content is "good."
To read more, visit: http://tinyurl.com/osda6yv
No downtime in digital
Chinese tech-sperts are experimenting with the Internet of Things as a way to boost the country’s economy.
For example, Beijing bus-riders can check heart rate, BMI, and balance by tugging on the bus's hand straps. And to continue the health theme, kids’ sinks can be programmed to send notifications to Mom and Dad, so parents can know exactly how long their little angels spend washing their hands. No wonder why that bottle of soap has lasted for 2 years!
Yes, these tech features are useful and creative, but they tell a larger tale: digital is booming…but we already knew that :)
To read more, visit: http://tinyurl.com/ppd3s7c
A rotten apple
Apple plans to get involved in the live-streaming TV game. “Plans” being the key word. The service cannot come to fruition until at least 2016, because there are some major roadblocks in areas like cutting costs and finding a strong and consistent Internet provider.
The Apple Streaming Service is definitely falling far from the very successful Apple tree.
To read more, visit: http://tinyurl.com/qh9jj7g
Internet dating like you’ve never seen before
Efforts to quantify human emotion, digitally, are underway with the development of the "Emotional Internet."
Emotion tech firm, Affectiva, has amassed data about the digital translation of emotion through the creation of emotion-sensing wearable technology (think, your FitBit or Nike Fuelband, but for emotions).
Now, imagine the possibilities if this technology continues to develop successfully. If these wearables accurately detect that you are happiest after a really good work out, or most upset after a few too many drinks, isn’t that a perfect opportunity for some emotion-specific advertisements? If only my computer could see how excited I am right now…
To read more, visit: http://tinyurl.com/ne6pt6a
An NBCUpdate
Weather.com (which NBCU has a stake in) is considering selling only its digital business because it is worth more than the Weather cable network. No final word yet, but Morgan Stanley and PJT Partners have been hired to help explore options. What could this mean for NBCU?
To read more, visit: http://tinyurl.com/ps6ws8z
Track attack
There’s a ton of buzz on “cross-device tracking,” but nobody has taken the time to solidly explain what this really means. Well, the #DigitalDip is here for you, don’t worry!
What is cross-device tracking? (I am going to call it CDT). So, CDT: it figures out which mobile and desktop users are the same person, making it easier to target ads.
There are two opposing techniques in CDT: deterministic and probabilistic. Deterministic relies on “logged-in user data” to identify people. For example, signing into Facebook, Google, etc. on both desktop and phone make it pretty clear that you are one person.
Probabilistic. Way more complex, way techier, way more algorithms. Predictive tests are run on billions of data points (like IP addresses and browsing patterns) to see whose devices are whose. This method is 97.3% accurate. AKA, go clear your browsers because you’re being watched.
To read more, visit: http://tinyurl.com/qbrbq75
Interested in reading previous #DigitalDips?
June 17: https://www.smore.com/a4g7q-digitaldip
June 24: https://www.smore.com/4zysh-digitaldip
July 1: https://www.smore.com/3h18y-digitaldip
July 8: https://www.smore.com/0u6vd-digitaldip
July 15: https://www.smore.com/sxx3n-digitaldip
July 22: https://www.smore.com/k13xp-digitaldip
July 29: https://www.smore.com/3r7nb-digitaldipAugust 5: https://www.smore.com/zg5ra-digitaldip
August 12: https://www.smore.com/ju27x-digitaldip
August 19: https://www.smore.com/gg82q-digitaldip