A short TV interview (Opening Bell) with Matt Britton, founder and CEO of mry, about the shift of advertising dollars toward mobile. Britton explains that consumer phone usage (nearly three hours/day) and the phone form factor force brands to create content that earns placement in newsfeeds (rather than traditional ad placements); he highlights short-form video and influencer strategies as effective tactics.
Advertising soared past the $40 billion mark in 2013, surpassing broadcast television for the first time ever. It's not so much digital advertising that is changing the way companies spend their ad dollars. It's mobility. Matt Britton is the founder and CEO of mri. And Matt, it's good to have you on the program.
Great to be here, Maria.
So our company's figuring out that there are measurement tools in other areas away from, you know, print and tv. And is that why they're making different, different ad plans?
Well, I mean, the reality is consumers are spending nearly three hours a day on their phones. So they're at phones everywhere with their phones at retail, they're on their phones at work. And it's been a big challenge for brands to figure out how to really crack the phone, the phone screen. And that's the number one challenge for advertisers today.
And why is that such a challenge? Breaking the. Breaking the phone screen?
Well, when the web first came about and it hit mainstream, it was fairly easy for brands to advertise on the web. They just had to juxtapose banner ads next to content on sites like Yahoo. So it's really just throwing up advertising, which is really what they've been doing for years. The biggest change now is based on the form factor of the phone. There's no top or right hand rail. There's nowhere to throw an ad. So instead, brands need to figure out how to earn a right into the stream or the newsfeed and actually create content versus advertising to get seen on the phones. And that creates a, a lot of challenges for brands that have legacy systems that are built around just creating traditional advertising.
Who gets impacted?
I mean, every brand that wants to reach consumers is impacted right now. I mean, they need to figure out how to make their brands interesting and shareable and talk worthy. They don't really have the right anymore to create an advertisement. And just because they can write a big check, ensure that they're going to be able to garner the eyeballs, they really need to figure out what is the unmet need of their consumer and where does their brand fit in. And for a brand like Red Bull or GoPro or Xbox, which has very sexy, cool brand, it's easier. But for a brand that makes feminine care products, it becomes a lot more challenging on how they actually create content that is entertaining to the consumer, but b actually fits in with the equity of their brand.
So what are they doing? When you see a more challenging brand trying to get in, in the phone stream of business and you can't.
Right. So the best brands are really listening to their consumers, are using a lot of tools out there on the social web to actually see who their, who their best consumers are, who their advocates are, what are they talking about, what are their interests. And that creates a territory for a brand to be able to play in, to be able to content that their consumers are going to like. A lot of brands are also tapping into influencers and advocates that have a lot of reach on the web. So instead of a brand relying on its own channels, their own Facebook page, or their own Twitter handle, they're leveraging influencers who have big audiences on their own to be able to talk about a brand which accomplishes the same thing which is getting in the newsfeed on mobile devices.
Which is why video advertising is becoming increasingly so important.
Absolutely. Well, video is a great form factor to be able to distribute content. Short form video is even more compelling. We recently did a campaign for Visa called Go in six where we created video advertising that was six seconds or less using vine, which is a, which is an offshoot of Twitter. Because when consumers use their phone, they're continually kind of flicking. So we quote, unquote, designed for the flick and created kind of hyper short form content which was designed for the newsfeed versus longer form content, which consumers don't really have the time to look at anymore.
Fascinating to see how things are changing. Matt, thanks very much.
Absolutely.
Thanks for having me giving us the scoop, Matt Brit, founder and CEO of mry. Up next on Open.
