Morning Update: Google’s metrics experiment; +rehabstudio Game of Thrones sleep-in; climb Everest with Snapchat; agencies grow IT assets
https://youtu.be/AC36c6pho4M
Ad Week: How a :15, a :30 and a 2:17 video compare in boosting certain metrics
It’s a fundamental choice for online video marketers: Should you hit viewers with a quick, memorable pitch that’s (hopefully) less skippable? Or should you engage them with longer-form content that’s more captivating but runs the risk of being tuned out?
Clearly, it depends in part on what you’re selling, to whom, and what your immediate business goals are for the content. But are there general lessons to learn from shorter- vs. longer-form online video?
Google thinks so, and recently partnered with Mondelez International to try some tests.
+rehabstudio — a creative technology agency that works for clients including Google, Starbucks, and Disney — is giving its UK staff an extra half-day holiday following the first episode of each new season of Game of Thrones so they can have a sleep-in.
The Season 6 premiere of Game of Thrones airs on April 24 at 2 a.m. in the UK to coincide with the broadcast of the show in the US.
As well as detailing the additional half-day morning vacation for all the company’s 68 UK staff, the handbook warns: “US staff are reminded not to share spoilers on the intranet until after the show has aired in the UK 24 hours later.”
The expedition is raising awareness for a Nepal nonprofit. Instagram: National Geographic
Ad Week: A Climber and Photographer Are Chronicling Their Daring Everest Expedition on Snapchat
Have you ever wanted to see a Mount Everest expedition unfold live? Now you can thanks to Snapchat. Sponsored by Eddie Bauer, meal replacement beverage Soylent and Strava, a social network for runners and cyclers, #EverestNoFilter is a journey to the top of Everest chronicled in real-time by alpinist and ski mountaineer Adrian Ballinger and alpinist and National Geographic photographer Cory Richards.
This week, Ballinger and Richards will begin to climb the world’s tallest mountain to raise awareness for the dZI foundation, a Nepal-based nonprofit helping remote villages rebuild after the April 2015 earthquake in Nepal. Throughout the expedition, they will produce a “Snap-umentary” documenting the journey on Snapchat with short videos and photos posted to the account EverestNoFilter.
Razorshop uses both Razorfish and Adobe technology
Ad Age: Agencies Grow Intellectual Property Assets With Tech
“We’re planning on 20% of our leads coming from IP-related co-investments in 2016,” said Razorfish’s Shannon Denton. On top of making ads for marketers, agencies have long created products of their own (such as Eos lip balm by Anomaly). Now agencies are pouring resources into developing a different kind of intellectual property: marketing technology.
As brands spend more money to reach the right consumers with the right messages in digital media, agencies are looking to go after those dollars by creating the tech to help, such as tools to gauge consumer sentiment or optimise campaigns while they’re still running.
https://youtu.be/ytdTfBXKbFs
Ad Week: In New IBM Ads, Watson Chides Ridley Scott for His Portrayal of Artificial Intelligence
IBM’s Watson is perhaps most famous for beating its human competition in Jeopardy, but this week, IBM continued its ad campaign highlighting how the supercomputer uses data to solve business problems. In 15 spots from Ogilvy & Mather that launched during the Masters golf tournament this weekend, IBM used celebrities, thought leaders and brands to show the power of Watson and the IBM Cloud.
Director Ridley Scott and author Stephen King follow in the footsteps of Bob Dylan, who appeared in Watson spots in October discussing the data behind music. Scott, who also appeared in Watson ads in February, discusses artificial intelligence in the new ads. Watson tells the director that the way he portrays AI in his movies, which include Alien and Blade Runner, is “not flattering,” and that in the real world, Watson helps humans “reduce waste, detect fraud and fight pollution.”
Mumbrella Asia: Only 13% of Singaporeans think brands are open and honest finds authenticity study
China and Indonesia are two of the most trusting countries towards brands in the world, according to a global study by PR agency Cohn & Wolfe, but only 36 per cent and 35 per cent of people respectively in these two countries say they feel brands are open and honest.
In Singapore, just 13 per cent of people say they feel this way about brands. But people in APAC look more favourably upon brands than they do in Western Europe, where just seven per cent of respondents in the UK, France, Germany and Spain, and just five per cent of people in Sweden, saying they think brands are open and honest.
The Verge: Why J.J. Abrams is betting on ‘immersive cinema’ with Star Trek Beyond
Over the past few years movie theatres have been eagerly rolling out new technologies to get people back into theatres, ranging from 3D and laser projectors, to shaking seats that shoot water at your face. This week J.J. Abrams’ production company Bad Robot announced that it’s testing one of the newest innovations, diving into “immersive cinema” with the forthcoming release of Star Trey Beyond. The film will be released in the multi-screen Barco Escape format, a modern take on the kind of ultra-widescreen spectacle made famous by things like Cinerama decades ago.
