The man responsible for Amazon’s mobile shopping strategy talks about app design, shopping habits, and how to make it easier to act on your impulses.
Sam Hall doesn’t just eat his own dog food, as the Silicon Valley saying goes. He also orders it on his mobile phone.
As vice president of mobile shopping at the world’s largest online retailer, Hall is in charge of making sure it’s easy, and very fast, to shop on Amazon using its apps and mobile websites. His mantra is that people should go from “wanting to buying in 30 seconds,” and Hall is a compulsive tester of the process, using his phone to buy basketball hoops, dental floss, shampoo, and even a gorilla costume for Halloween.
Sam Hall, Head of Amazon Mobile Shopping Strategy (Click Image To Enlarge)
Mobile shopping is still a sliver of overall retail, and of Amazon’s revenue. While the company doesn’t divulge details, analysts think that maybe 8 percent of the company’s $61 billion in annual sales come from phones and tablets. But Hall’s domain is growing as more people use smartphones and tablets. Amazon runs a slew of mobile apps, including the basic Amazon Mobile shopping app. There’s also Flow, which pulls up price information (and a chance to buy on Amazon instead) for any product you aim your smartphone’s camera at.
Amazon is tight-lipped about its operations and plans, and Hall is no exception. MIT Technology Review spoke with him about his work.
What’s the big thing on your mind these days?
I spend most of my time worrying about how we continue to invent, on behalf of our customers, newer, faster, better, easier ways that they can shop on their mobile phones and tablets.
You’ve said Amazon wants to shorten the time between wanting and buying an item to less than 30 seconds. How short can it get?
We believe that customers want the time from wanting to buying to be as close to instant as possible.
How do you do this, technologically?
We are very, very focused on making sure our experiences are fast. That every page loads quickly—from the time you press the icon on your phone to the time you see a search box, it’s very, very quick. For instance, we focus on input. We know one of the hardest things about shopping on a mobile device is just inputting what you want.
What is an example of how you design for that?
When you’re typing in something in the search box, we put up search suggestions very, very quickly. Earlier this week, I ran out of razor blades. I use Gillette Fusion razor blades. I was able to type “gil” and one of the first few suggestions that came up was Gillette Fusion razor blades. I only had to type the first three letters of what is probably a 26- or 27-letter title to quickly get to that item.
Some researchers are working on software that tries to actually anticipate what a person wants. Is Amazon involved in this type of research?
What I can say is, we have a search team that focuses specifically on the very fastest way we can get customers from typing in what they want to the detail page of what they actually want.
What are the most surprising things you’ve learned about people’s shopping behavior on mobile devices?
I think people tend to assume there are certain categories that do better on mobile than others, but the reality is, customers are buying everything on their mobile phones. We’ve sold, believe it or not, engagement rings, bicycles, razor blades, jeans, dresses. People buy the whole variety of what Amazon has.
Another recent observation that’s been interesting is that one of our busiest days happens to be on Christmas Day, for mobile phones and tablets in particular. My theory, at least, is you open up all your presents, you didn’t get what you want, and you’re able to quickly buy what you really wanted for Christmas.
COMMENTARY: On August 30 2013, Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos claimed that Amazon held a 22% share of the tablet market. According to several mobile experts, Amazon sold between 5.5 and 6.0 million Kindle Fire tablets in Q4 2011, and according to BGR sold another 12 million units in the year 2012 (not confirmed by Amazon). Amazon's entry into the tablet industry, has given Apple, the market leader, a run for its money. In 2011, Steve Jobs called the Samsung Galaxy Tab, a 7" tablet, "dead on arrival." That prediction proved to be wrong, and on October 23, 2012, Apple responded to the threat by Amazon and other 7-inch tablet producers, by introducing the iPad Mini, it's own 7-inch tablet.
Amazon has always recognized the importance of making its website mobile-ready and providing online shoppers with the ability to shop via moble devices that make the Amazon shopping experience a pleasureable and user-friendly experience. The introduction of the Kindle Fire has not doubt left an inprint on Amazon's mobile ecommerce business, ranking it No 2 right behind Apple.
Online shopping has become increasingly popular over the past decade. In 2011 Amazon.com will hit $2 billion in sales through smartphones and tablets worldwide; that's up 100% from $1 billion in 2010, according to Internet Retailer's new industry guide, The Mobile Commerce Top 300. That puts Amazon at No. 1.
Citi Analyst Neil Doshi estimates that Amazon is generating $3 billion to $5 billion in annual sales from mobile devices. The company’s net sales totaled $61 billion in 2012, which means that mobile sales will equate to 5 percent to 8 percent of total dollars spent on Amazon.
On March 25, 2013, comScore officially unveiled a new measurement tool called Media Metrix Multi-Platform that combines and compares U.S. desktop, Android and iOS usage for the big properties in the country.
Click Image To Enlarge
Among the top 10 companies on this list, both Apple and Amazon had the largest percentage of mobile-only (smartphone or tablet) users in comparison with their entire digital reach. Nearly 35 percent of U.S. visitors to Apple properties and 22 percent of Amazon traffic came strictly through mobile.
Compare that to Microsoft, who had just over 5 percent of its users accessing its content via mobile-only. Important to note that comScore’s mobile numbers reflect iOS and Android users only.
The average company in the Top 100 grew its reach by an average of 38 percent when adding mobile-only users statistics. The biggest movers were Groupon (up 223%), Zynga (111%) and Pandora (183%).
comScore will update the new rankings every month. Check out the full list here.
Courtesy of an article dated March 25, 2013 appearing in MIT Technology Review and an article dated March 25, 2013 appearing in GeekWire, an article date January 3, 2013 appearing in All Things Digital and an article appearing in Statista
TIDEMARK ROLLS OUT INFOGRAPHICS THAT MAP A COMPANY’S PROFITS IN MICROSCOPIC DETAIL, IN REAL TIME.
It’s only been a few months since Tidemark, a bold Andreessen Horowitz-backed business analytics platform, emerged from its beta cocoon. But today, the fledgling company is introducing a new set of tools, aimed at helping businesses visualize their data in real time. “Business reporting is broken, stagnated decades ago, built upon stacks of dense, complex, and dated reports and dashboards that few people ever read,“ explains Founder and CEO Christian Gheorghe. "Data is nothing without context." The new feature--called Storylines--supplies visual context with a dynamic mobile interface.
Tidemark’s "Storylines" are templates that parse data into dynamic visualizations (Click Image To Enlarge)
Gheorghe’s business is based on a simple insight--that the so-called “consumerization of technology” is having a profound impact on enterprise, thanks to the ubiquity of mobile devices. “You used to go home and expect to check your email in Outlook,” he says. “Now you come to work and expect to see applications that are as simple as Facebook or LinkedIn.” As a result, there’s a real demand for business analytics tools that have the same ease of use. And perhaps more importantly, more and more employees are actually interested in engaging with the data. Gheorghe says that typically, only 4% of employees use their company’s analytics tools--his mission is to increase that number to 100%.
Storylines make it possible to change certain insights, experiment with possible outcomes, and forecast different schedules right in the visualization (Click Image To Enlarge)
The challenge, of course, is engineering a platform that’s intuitive and fine-grained enough to meaningfully engage the entire employee base of Tidemark’s target customers--enterprises with at least $500 million profits annually. Gheorghe and his team have spent the last three years building their product. Tidemark configures a company’s data by tapping into it at the source and packaging it in an incredibly intuitive iPad-based app (see Co.Design’s previous coverage here). It’s all real time, and it’s possible to drill deep into specific metrics to iterate on possible outcomes--a process that Gheorghe describes as “a continuous loop between planning a product, forecasting results, and understanding value.” The immediacy and transparency is so comparatively drastic, you could almost compare it to the invention of the X-Ray.
In the Profits storyline, you can drill into a profit map at the international, national, or state level, or parse the profits at a different date, or quarter, simply by changing the inputs on the screen (Click Image To Enlarge)
Today’s new launch is quick by some standards--after all, Tidemark was still in beta in February. But it makes sense that Gheorghe’s eye would turn to visualization after conquering the cloud-based data management itself. Called "Storylines," the new tool is a set of pre-designed visualizations that pull data directly from a company’s backend, creating a dynamic graphic that illustrates real-time metrics. The first five templates are named things like “Overall Company Health”, “What Happens If,” “Forecast Variances,” “Profitability,” and “People.” The templates were designed by Visual.ly, the online visualization marketplace that lets companies connect with a deep pool of design talent.
Or, you could parse the profits by customer (Click Image To Enlarge)
Storylines attempt to do for visualization what Tidemark is doing for analytics: pry them from the hands of peripheral experts and place them squarely in the control of employees. Say you’re in upper-level management at Chuck E. Cheese, one of Tidemark’s flagship clients. At the end of the quarter, you’d like to create a set of snappy visuals to present to the rest of your team. Typically, that would mean culling the data and presenting the final numbers to an independent designer or in-house design team, who would create a 1:1 representation of your conclusions. Storylines make it possible to change certain insights, experiment with possible outcomes, and forecast different schedules right in the visualization. For example, in a Profits storyline, you can drill into a profit map at the international, national, or state level, or parse the profits at a different date, or quarter, simply by changing the inputs on the screen. It gives employees the power to manipulate the data directly, at the touch of the screen--and it’s the future of data viz.
The idea is to let any employee test how certain inputs could affect future outcomes (Click Image To Enlarge)
Gheorghe calls this “actionable” data, and he believes it will eventually become the norm as user experience insights from consumer technology trickle into enterprise. Eventually, Tidemark will also roll out a tool that lets customers create Storylines from scratch. “In this new world, you have to have user experiences that talk, that live, that are emotive in many ways,” says Gheorghe. “Enterpise is learning from consumers, from the perspective of designing beautiful experiences, emotion, and things that are easy to use.” The proof of concept? “There’s no manual.”
Other Storylines, like "Forecast Variances" and "What Happens If," speak to the actionability of the data (Click Image To Enlarge)
COMMENTARY: Tidemark delivers analytic applications designed to accelerate deployment. Tidemark's applications leverage a powerful application platform with performance management capabilities built in, ensuring companies can quickly and easily configure their apps to their specific business requirements.
Allows companies to create business plans and financial forecasts to help drive the business towards their goals. Financial Planning includes processes for revenue planning, workforce planning, operating expense planning, capital expenditure planning, and balance sheet & cash flow planning, ensuring companies get a complete picture of their financial plans. With in-context collaboration and analysis, a business can quickly iterate with new forecasts as their business changes.
Enables You To:
Collect plan and forecast data
Simulate what-if plans and compare scenarios
Complete full financial plans including: revenue & margin planning, operating expense planning, workforce planning, capital expense planning, and balance sheet & cash flow planning
Allocate with flexible methods configured to your business
Use driver based planning
Supports Mobile Devices:
Tidemark financial planning apps for the enterprise are available for the iPad and iPhone and other mobile devices (Click Image To Enlarge)
Act in context – get deeper analysis or collaborate right in the context of what you’re doing
Quickly deploy - using pre-built metric definitions, business methods, and panels
Everyone involved in the process with easy, intuitive access from anywhere
Business Value:
Increased visibility into where the business is headed with continuous forecasting instead of annual budgeting
Visually interact with data to model new scenarios to drive business decisions
Full understanding of the impact of updates across the entire business – in real-time
Tidemark drives a business by capturing input from the people closest to the products & customers. Operational Planning allows them to collect operational drivers to generate financial forecasts and plans, allowing them to see the entire business plan. Connecting operational and financial planning ensures everyone in the organization is working with the same information towards the same goals.
Enables You To:
Collect operational data and drivers
Simulate what-if plans and compare scenarios
Configure flexible operational metrics to your business
Complete true driver based planning using operational metrics to drive revenue and costs
Supports Mobile Devices:
Tidemark operational planning apps for the enterprise are available for the iPad and iPhone and other mobile devices (Click Image To Enlarge)
Act in context – get deeper analysis or collaborate right in the context of what you’re doing
Quickly deploy - using pre-built metric definitions, business methods, and panels
Everyone involved in the process with easy, intuitive access from anywhere
Business value:
Adjustments to operational drivers automatically update financial results – see the impact in real-time
Visually interact with data to model new scenarios to drive business decisions
Push planning to the people actively engaged with products & customers to drive forecast accuracy
Quickly assess the performance of a firm's entire organization and take action when needed. Tidemark Metrics Management application enables companies to automate variance analysis to isolate issues, collect metric targets & actuals not available in source systems, collaborate in the context of their analytic process, and view the impact to financial results.
Enables You To:
Review performance of key metrics across all lines of business
Manually enter metrics not currently available in source systems
See flash reporting of sales, margin, and other key metrics
Combine financial and operational metrics in one place
Review full financial statements
Supports Mobile Devices:
Tidemark metrics management apps for the enterprise are available for the iPad and iPhone and other mobile devices (Click Image To Enlarge)
Act in context – get deeper analysis or collaborate right in the context of what you’re doing
Quickly deploy - using pre-built metric definitions, business methods, and panels
Everyone involved in the process with easy, intuitive access from anywhere
Business Value:
Automate variance analysis of your key metrics
Easily see which metrics are most at risk of missing targets, where the risk is occurring, and take corrective action
Get a comprehensive view of the business –across lines of business and source systems
Extend performance management beyond finance to all areas of the business
WITH ITS REVOLUTIONARY MANUFACTURING PROCESS, THE KIBBUTZ-OWNED COMPANY NOT ONLY SECURES VEHICLES FOR THE U.S. MILITARY AND NOW PRIVATE CLIENTS, IT PROTECTS ITS COLLECTIVIST WAY OF LIFE, TOO.
When Specialist Thomas Wilson confronted Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about the lack of armor to protect U.S. troops against roadside bombs in Iraq in 2004, neither man could have foreseen that the solution would come from Sasa, a kibbutz in Israel’s upper Galilee that remains loyal to its collectivist foundations.
For a brief period in the summer of 2000, Israel and the Palestinians appeared on the verge of peace. And although the Camp David talks ultimately failed, the prospect of a reduced Israel Defense Forces budget swayed Plasan Sasa, the IDF’s primary armor supplier, to become export-oriented.
Sasa, kibbutz, with Plasan in the foreground (Click Image To Enlarge)
Fast-forward to 2011 and Plasan sat atop Dun & Bradstreet’s annual list of largest kibbutz enterprises with around $850 million (3.173 billion ILS) in sales, thanks to its supply of vehicle protection kits to Navistar and Oshkosh, manufacturers of the U.S. military’s MRAP and M-ATV Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles.
A vehicle outfitted with Plasan's armor (Click Image To Enlarge)
There is nothing inherently innovative about the manufacturing of armor, but what differentiated Plasan from its competitors was its ability to do so at a rate of about one thousand vehicles per month. It did this by providing the products as kits--what Plasan Chief Designer Nir Kahn calls “the Ikea wardrobe of flatpack vehicles”--and allowing its partners to assemble them on their own production lines.
Plasan Chief Designer Nir Kahn works on sketches (Click Image To Enlarge)
Israeli-born Kahn, whose accent still betrays his northern England upbringing despite his return as a fresh university graduate 15 years ago, explains that Plasan’s customers care about three things: cost, weight, and the threat the armor is supposed to stop. He says the company’s advantage lies in its “proactive approach” of designing both the vehicle for the armor and the armor for the vehicle, and in the close cooperation between the designers, engineers, and testers, who all sit “quite literally under one roof.”
Lockheed Martin AVA with Plasan-made armor (Click Image To Enlarge)
Kahn says.
“We do hundreds, if not thousands, of rounds of projectile testing every single day. There’s the neighbor in Toy Story who’s always taking toys and blowing them up. So in our vehicle design engineering department we make the toys and pass them over to the guys who blow them up.”
The firm’s other advantage is the effort it puts into vehicle comfort and appearance, according to Kahn. He says.
“Plasan has led the industry in designing vehicles with a more progressive look. They are still military vehicles--they can’t be flower-power Volkswagens--but they project an image of humanity and progressiveness, which helps the soldier to be sure that when he rolls into that village he’s going to find friends rather than enemies.”
Future Future Tactical Truck System Utility vehicle Demonstrator from International, outfitted with Plasan armor (Click Image To Enlarge)
Plasan sold more than 20,000 vehicle kits in the decade following 9/11, primarily to the U.S., but also to a small number of other countries including the United Kingdom. Now, given the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Iraq in 2011 and its imminent departure from Afghanistan, alongside the recent sequestration of the Pentagon budget, it makes sense that Plasan has shifted its focus to the civilian market.
Kahn says.
“Perhaps because we’re a kibbutz company, we wanted our business to be based on things other than war.”
Kahn clarifies that Plasan’s job has always been to protect people rather than to profit from conflict.
Given that it had the necessary composite materials, manufacturing facilities, and the ability to conduct detailed finite element analysis, it wasn’t such a leap for Plasan to make regular vehicles lighter, too. Today, the company is among the leading tier-one suppliers of carbon fiber parts to the automotive industry, supplying parts for the hoods and roofs of the new Corvette Stingray, SRT Viper, and other vehicles through its Detroit subsidiary Plasan Carbon Composites. Using its proprietary technology, Plasan produces parts for each sports car in 17 minutes instead of the industry standard 90-120 minutes. Its next goal is to bring this technology into the mainstream.
A Plasan-armored, mine-resistant ambush protected all-terrain vehicle (Click Image To Enlarge)
Kahn says.
“Cars have been made out of pressed steel for the best part of 100 years, and up until now most efforts to change that have been about material substitution. We’re trying to change the conversation, to design the vehicle from composite materials for a high volume manufacturer. A high volume manufacturer in the military industry is one thousand a month, a high volume manufacturer in the motor industry is one thousand a day. But the principles are the same.A Plasan-armored, mine-resistant ambush protected all-terrain vehicle (Click Image To Enlarge)
Like most of his colleagues, Kahn does not live in Sasa. However, he acknowledges that the kibbutz’s ownership of Plasan helps instill a general feeling that the company belongs to its employees.
Dani Ziv, Plasan CEO and a Sasa resident since his days in the IDF’s Nahal Infantry brigade, says the company’s strength lies in its combining of commonplace industry values like competition with kibbutz values like democracy that don’t exist in the industry.
Ziv says.
“Democracy creates a more open dialogue within the organizational hierarchy. Every manger’s door is open, and there is no distance between the VP and the people on the bottom floor. What differentiates Plasan from other companies in our market is that our people receive more responsibility, and if someone wants to take initiative he has more freedom to do so.”
Plasan Sand Cat armored vehicle based on a shortened Ford F350 platform (Click Image To Enlarge)
The kibbutz ideology has made its mark on Plasan, but the company’s success has not altered Sasa’s commitment to the traditional collective model maintained by less than one-quarter of Israel’s 281 kibbutzim. If anything, says Sasa Treasurer and former Plasan employee Raul Cohen, the almost-overnight impact of the first MRAP contract in 2007 gave it the freedom to decide, rather than have the banks force it into privatization like other kibbutzim.
For a community with 220 members and a population of around 400 (residents are typically offered membership in their late 20s or early 30s) that previously subsisted off agricultural proceeds, it wasn’t easy dealing with sudden riches.It took 18 months for a formula to be devised, under which Plasan takes a certain percentage for investments, while the kibbutz spends its dividends on housing infrastructure, pensions, individual bonuses worth up to a few hundred thousand shekels (about $100,000) per member, and on the local elementary and high school.
As the primary purveyor of education to an area encompassing Druze, Circassian, and Arab villages and a number of other kibbutzim, Sasa takes its responsibilities seriously. Cohen, who arrived at the kibbutz from a poor city neighborhood as a 13-year-old in 1960, says that Sasa foots the multi-million-shekel education bill and sees the role of operating its schools as no less important than that of operating Plasan.
The Office of Naval Research Combat Tactical Vehicle (Technology Demonstrator) outfitted with armor designed and manufactured by Plasan (Click Image To Enlarge)
Cohen calls the decision to provide pensions--previously almost non-existent--a “personal and collective” promise. He says:
“Any member who grows up here today lives safe in the knowledge that there will be enough money to take care of them if we remain a collective kibbutz, and even if we don’t remain collective the pension is substantial enough to ensure the member ages respectably.”
COMMENTARY: I love the benefits that Plasan Sasa kibbutz provides its 200 members. Even if Plasan goes out of business, a guaranteed trust fund has been set aside that will be pay pension benefits to the members. GM, Chrysler, Boeing and the rest of the U.S. automotive and airline industries should learn from this.
I think that Plasan has definitely delivered on its corporate vision and mission:
Global leadership in armor, focused on the wheeled and tracked vehicles market
A growing and profitable international company
Excellence in concept, armor and survivability solutions based on cutting edge technologies
Plasan has also established the following core corporate values:
EXCELLENCE - we aim for excellence at all levels of management and performance
LEADERSHIP- we promote a “culture of leadership” at all managerial levels
INNOVATION- we encourage initiative, precedent setting and creativity to attain market dominance
TRANSPARENCY & TEAMWORK- we strive to create added value for the organization by adopting an advanced managerial culture.
Checkout Plasan Sasa's YouTube videos about its armor composite products.
Courtesy of an article dated March 26, 2013 appearing in Fast Company
The weight loss industry is just huge, with the annual revenue of the US weight loss industrysome $61 billion. That means lots of businesses are cashing in on obesity, as 108 million people are on diets in the US alone at any point in time.
How lucrative is this business? Just look at how much celebrities are paid to endorse major weight loss programs. The fee is as high as $3 million, ABC News reports.
One of the companies doing exceptionally well in the industry is Weight Watchers, a weight management system that has become a veritable way of life for millions of people across the globe—from the US and China to Europe and New Zealand. It's a case study of how savvy marketing can propel a company to the forefront of its industry.
Weight Watchers is clearly the dominant company among weight-loss centers and programs, banking north of $1.2 billion each year. It is at least three times larger than its primary competitors, Nutrisystem and Jenny Craig. Weight Watchers has some 8 million website visitors per month and 1.72 million paid online subscribers.
Below are Weight Watchers' Income Statements for the years December 31, 2009 through December 31, 2012:
Click Image To Enlarge
So what are the company's marketing secrets? Let's take a look at six savvy principles Weight Watchers has implemented to solidify its position at the top of the weight-loss stack.
1. Give them what they want, not what they need
We are driven by our desires. We buy expensive fast cars because we crave the "success" image associated with them, not because they are a sensible mode of transportation. We want iPhones because they are a status symbol, not because of the crystal clear voice reception. Same with Jimmy Choos, and Louis Vuitton bags. Sales of such products are all driven by wants.
Weight-loss products are no different. We may know that the key to losing weight is to cut out junk food and eat more vegetables. But that's not what we want. We want to be able to eat our donuts and drink our Frappuccinos. And, smartly, Weight Watchers lets us do that.
According to the Weight Watchers PointsPlus system, members have a daily PointsPlus total based on their gender, weight, and activity level, as well as a weekly PointsPlus allowance that allows for fluctuations in daily eating. For example, if you go out to a restaurant for dinner and surpass your daily PointsPlus allowance, you can dip into your weekly reserve without worry, so long as you don't surpass your weekly allowance as well.
That's a brilliant move on Weight Watchers' part. Essentially, the company is telling members,
"Go ahead and eat that donut or drink that Frappuccino. As long as you're within your PointsPlus limits, you'll lose weight."
2. Market the feelings, not the product
When people buy a product, they are paying not for what the product can do for them but what feelings it can give them. Entrepreneur Jeff Barnett explains.
"Consumers are ultimately paying for feelings."
Weight Watchers has figured out the ultimate feeling that dieters long for and has enabled it. What do dieters want? They want to feel good. They want to avoid pain. They want to enjoy the food they like. In short, dieters don't want to feel deprived. And that's what Weight Watchers communicates to its target audience through the voice of celebrity singer and spokesperson Jennifer Hudson, who dropped over 80 pounds:
Jennifer Hudson: "At this point I feel I can do anything, I feel good."
Jennifer Hudson: "I feel so comfortable in my jeans…it makes me love myself that much more…loving and free to eat what I love…loving and free to live my life"
3. Let them join for free
A "Join for Free" campaign is always friendly to prospective customers. Weight Watchers lets people attend a free meeting near them. If after the meeting they decide to sign up, they are allowed to receive educational materials. As market analyst Tony Rossel explains, this "opt in" strategy can result in up to a 30% conversion rate.
Consumers react well to this type of strategy because they feel no pressure; and once they see the educational materials and products at a meeting, they want them.
That contrasts with "force free" trials, in which people who didn't request something are given a free trial and then asked to pay after a certain period of time, or "negative option force free" trials, in which customers are asked for credit card information before they get the trial, and then must proactively cancel.
Both of those methods can leave a bad taste in the mouths of consumers since they are more pressure-filled.
4. Make the solution look complicated
Weight Watchers makes eating look complicated. Rather than relying on regular-old calorie-counting for foods, Weight Watchers now uses the PointsPlus system.
It used to rely on calories for its points totals. The problem was that fruits and junk food would be given the same amount of points if they had the same amount of calories (and you know which one is better for you to eat). The current PointsPlus program is much more complicated, and based on a sophisticated mathematical formula.
The company relied on its "nutrition specialists" to develop a system that takes into account how foods are broken down in the body. It all sounds too complicated for any layperson to figure out, so people feel they have to go to Weight Watchers, since the company has the inside scoop on weight loss.
In reality, the PointsPlus system is based on basic food and nutrition science. It's nothing new. Yet, serving a solution that sounds complicated, and more like a "discovery" rather than an old principle, makes customers feel they have to buy. It is a brilliant marketing strategy.
5. Create exclusive products
In addition to just promoting the PointsPlus system—the solution to being overweight—Weight Watchers offers exclusive products to facilitate the implementation of its solution. Those products make it easier for people to follow the program. For example, it sells PointsPlus calculators. It also makes available snack bars, yogurts, ice creams, and other foods that have the PointsPlus value right on the box.
Weight Watchers Smart Ones Classic Meals (Click Image To Enlarge)
Weight Watchers Smart Ones Smart Beginnings (Click Image To Enlarge)
Weight Watchers Smart Ones Smart Anytime (Click Image To Enlarge)
Weight Watchers Smart Ones Smart Creations (Click Image To Enlarge)
Weight Watchers Smart Ones Satisfying Selections (Click Image To Enlarge)
Weight Watchers Smart Ones Smart Delights (Click Image To Enlarge)
Moreover, it sells food scales that tell consumers the PointsPlus value of their food rather than the weight. People snap up these products because they make the Weight Watchers (complicated) system simple to follow, since they won't have to do any calculations or look up values on their own.
6. Actively court a new audience
Some 90% of dieters are women, as are 90% of Weight Watchers clients. However, the company has noticed growing interest among men to lose weight and so is capitalizing on that interest.
But Weight Watchers isn't pushing its bread and butter—center-based meetings—to men. Instead, it's promoting its online tools and mobile-based apps. Because men generally try to diet on their own, such as joining a health club, or controlling their food intake, Weight Watchers is anticipating that they will be more drawn to these tools than the meetings.
Weight Watchers Mobile app (Click Image To Enlarge)
To better target the men's market, Weight Watchers airs commercials during the NBA playoffs. Obviously, the male audience is worth the $1 million per minute advertisement cost.
NBA Player Charles Barkley is a spokesman for Weight Watchers, Before and After pictures (Click Image To Enlarge)
Overall, Weight Watchers has risen to the top of the weight-loss industry because it has been so smart in the marketing of its products. Other companies in this market—and even in other industries—can learn a valuable lesson from the granddaddy of weight loss programs by following these six marketing principles:
Give your customers what they want, not what they need.
Market the feelings, not the product.
Let them join for free.
Make the solution look complicated.
Create exclusive products.
Actively court a new audience.
COMMENTARY:
Weight Watchers Company Overview and Performance
Weight Watchers' smart use of televison commercials with famous celebrities with weight problems (Charles Barkley, Jessica Simpson, Jenny McCarthy, Jennifer Hudson and others) who benefited from Weight Watcher's weight-loss program, give the company instant creditability with its customers.
The high awareness and credibility of the Weight Watchers brand among all types of weight-conscious consumers—women and men, consumers online and offline, the support-inclined and the self-help-inclined—provide the company with a significant competitive advantage and growth opportunity. As the number of overweight and obese people worldwide grows, the company believes its global presence and brand awareness uniquely positions it to capture an increasing share of the global weight management market through its core meetings business and its WeightWatchers.com business.
In the 50 years since its founding, Weight Watchers has built its meetings business by helping millions of people around the world lose weight through sensible and sustainable food plans, exercise, behavior modification and group support. Each week, 1.5 million active members attend over 40,000 Weight Watchers meetings around the world, which are run by more than 10,000 leaders—each of whom has lost weight using its program.
The company is constantly improving its scientifically-based weight management approaches, and they are one of only a few commercial weight management programs whose efficacy has been clinically proven. Its strong brand, together with the effectiveness of its plans, loyal customer base and unparalleled network and infrastructure, enable them to attract new and returning members efficiently. Its customer acquisition costs are relatively low due to both word of mouth referrals and its efficient mass marketing programs.
Weight Watchers' has also demonstrated that it has strong management. It's packaged weight-loss meals have generated $1.8 billion in gross revenues and a gross profit margin of 59.27% for the year ending December 31, 2012. Incidentally, gross profit margins have increased consistently since the year ending 2009 when they were 52.0%. Total meeting fees for year ending 2012 were $934.9 million (51.2% of total gross revenues), a decrease of $55.4 million, or 5.6%, from $990.3 million in the prior year. Marketing expenses for year ending 2012 were $343.5 million, an increase of $51.2 million, or 17.5%, from the year ending 2011. After deducting total operating expenses, the company generated a pre-tax profit of $416.96 million in the past year -- an impressive 22.82% IBT.
Weight Watchers' operates both company-owned and franchised meeting centers. It's producs are distributed through a number of channels from independent sellers to major consumer retailers and supermarket chains.
In the year ending 2012, consumers spent $5 billion on Weight Watchers branded products and services, including meetings conducted by the company and its franchisees, Internet subscription products sold by WeightWatchers.com, products sold at meetings, licensed products sold in retail channels and magazine subscriptions and other publications.
How Weight Watchers Uses Social Media
Did you know that the first social media platform Weight Watchers used was MySpace in 2008? It then launched Facebook and Twitter in 2009. Today the company has both an internal team and an agency that provides social media support. SocialTimes recently caught up with Lee Hurley, vice president of social media at Weight Watchers to discuss the company’s social media goals, strategies, the platforms it uses, and the analytics program it’s thinking about building. Here are excerpts of the conversation:
How important is social media in terms of the mission of Weight Watchers?
It is actually a crucial part of it. We were pretty much a born social brand, a community from the start. So, the ultimate goal of the company is to really help people to adopt and sustain a healthy way of living for life…. So, [before] that largely happened offline when you saw somebody when you were offline and you were like, hey, you look amazing, what did you do? That’s where the Weight Watchers discussion started, and now with people posting photos and sharing their success, a large portion of that actually happens online. Moving to digital is a really important part of the mix.
What are Weight Watchers’ social media goals and strategies?
One big one is extending our service strategy to social. So, that’s timely brand-to-consumer engagement, which is providing ongoing support and motivation. Through Twitter, Facebook, even on our website, we get questions every day. The other one is really continuing to innovate on increasing social sharing by allowing people to share what they’re learning, doing and loving on the program. We create pretty much exclusive content in social, whether it’s tips, quotes, success stories, recipes.
On our Facebook page, even though we put out a ton of content – we post usually three times a day. There are thousands of people posting all the time, connecting with each other, answering each other’s questions.
Have there been any specific social media campaigns or types of content that are more popular that you’ve seen more engagement from?
For the “I’m Only Human and I Did it Project,” which we only launched in December, we’re getting a lot of positive responses for that. This is real people sharing their stories of struggles before Weight Watchers and what their life was like, and then the success they have found at Weight Watchers, on YouTube. We have had over 2 million views of those videos.
Weight Watchers has over 1.2 million fans on Facebook and nearly 200,000 on Twitter (Click Image To Visit Facebook)
We had a social media campaign calledLose-A-Palooza, which had gotten tons of engagement and very large reach.
We have a program called Lose for Good, and we have done that for the past five years in the fall. As members and subscribers lose weight, Weight Watchers donates up to $1 million to Action Against Hunger and Share Our Strength. Lose-A-Palooza was a one-day social media event to help bring awareness and engagement with that program. For that day, every single engagement we were donating $1. That was widely successful, and I think largely because it was tapping into things that people ordinarily do. We have done live chats with [fitness and health expert] Jennifer Cohen. We were streaming exercises on our Facebook page, and then we did a live chat with her after, which got a lot of engagement.
What tools do you use to measure social media campaigns?
For monitoring and publishing, we have NetBase and Spredfast. We track a lot of our links through Atlas. We look at a lot of tracking that way because that goes all the way to conversion. We are constantly looking at tools to help with efficiency and effectiveness in terms of publishing and hooking into develop a true social CRM model.
I think ultimately we are looking to build an analytics program that would actually tell us, our people who engage with us on social, are they losing more weight, are they more successful? Everything that we’re doing on Twitter and Pinterest and Facebook – even with all the tools that we currently have today – aren’t going to give us that pass-along and word-of-mouth amplification. So, we are looking at different ways of helping us get to the true answers of ROI broadly.
You mentioned Pinterest – Weight Watchers is also on Pinterest, right?
Yes. We have a presence on Pinterest. Recipes I think are the No. 1 thing. Food is very important. We also have inspiration boards and such, but recipes are the most popular.
Is Weight Watchers looking at any other social media platforms?
We have a presence on Tumblr. Last year, we had a contest – 365 Reasons to Believe – and they are all archived on Tumblr. For us, it’s not just about what are the new platforms, but, how do we have a meaningful presence? With Instagram, it’s how might we do a campaign leveraging ambassadors and influencers there versus just having a Weight Watchers Instagram page, because that may not make the most sense.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has an estimated tax bill of approximately $1.1 billion for 2012 based on its current wealth on paper valued at around $13 billion according to report from CNN Money.
Stacey Cowley of CNN Money reported that Zuckerberg’s decision in May to increase its interest in the social network giant resulted to the billion-dollar tax bill. During the initial public offering of the Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), Zuckerberg exercised his stock option acquired 60 million shares at a “strike price” of $0.06 per share.
Although Zuckerberg did sell the shares he acquired, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) considers it as an ordinary income during the time when he exercised his stock option. The underlying principle behind the stock option is the fact that it is a form of compensation similar to a regular salary.
CNN Money estimated that Zuckerberg earned almost $2.3 billion last year from his stock options alone. Based on the 2012 federal tax rate at 35% and California tax rate at 13.3%, Zuckerberg’s total tax rate is 48.3 %, before deductions and other income he received in 2012.
For Zuckerberg, that means reporting income last year of nearly $2.3 billion from his stock options alone. Add together the top 2012 federal tax rate of 35% and the top California rate of 13.3% — the highest in the nation — and you get a total tax rate of 48.3%.
Only the IRS and the California Tax Board knew the actual income reported by Zuckerberg in his tax return, but according to the certified public accountants consulted by CNN Money who computed the figures believed that Zuckerberg’s tax bill for 2012 is probably more than $1 billion.
Toby Johnston, a partner at tax firm Moss Adams LLP in Silicon Valley said,
“With numbers that large, it’s usually capital gains, not ordinary income.”
Last year, investors who made profits from their investments paid a lower tax rate in the previous tax year compared in 2012. The highest federal capital gains rate in the previous tax year was 15% and it is expected to increase to $23.8 percent this year.
Every year, the IRS releases a list of 400 U.S. tax filers with the largest reported incomes. In 2009, the average income of top earners was $202 million and their federal income tax bill was $41 million.
During the Facebook IPO, Zuckerberg sold 30.2 million shares for a total price of $1.135 billion. In a regulatory filing, he stated that he would use a substantial amount of the proceeds to pay for taxes on his stock option purchase.
COMMENTARY: Zuck will probably cash in some of his other shares and pay that tax bill or borrow the money at a low interest rate. It is my understanding that Zuck and his wife Priscilla are two of the most benevolent philanthropists, and have donate millions to needy causes, so I am sure he has some deductions that will reduce that tax bill. Zuck's tax problems stem from the over-priced Facebook shares at te time of the IPO, $38.00 or thereabouts. Inflated as they were, Zuck got full price for those Facebook shares. Today those same shares are trading for $25-$26 per share, and from the look of things, continue to decline as I write this post.
Courtesy of an article dated March 28, 2013 appearing in ValueWalk
On January 24, 2013, Twitter introduced Vine, an app that allows you to share six second looping videos on the service and in embedded tweets. The app is simple, allowing you to tap the screen to record video and lift your finger to stop.
Chaining those clips together allows you to create short sound-optional movies that can be shared on Twitter. They play back directly inside tweets on Twitter an in the newly expanded embeds that the service offers, as seen below.
Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann says.
“Posts on Vine are about abbreviation — the shortened form of something larger. They’re little windows into the people, settings, ideas and objects that make up your life. They’re quirky, and we think that’s part of what makes them so special."
A Vine blog postconfirmed that it was acquired by Twitter. Twitter purchased Vine, then a three-person startup, in October 2012. At the time, AllThingsD suggested buying price could have topped $30 million, but some estimated the price was $20 million. Vine’s founding triptych became Twitter employees. It was used by Hofmann to tweet out a 6 second clip yesterday morning. That clip was then shared by Twitter CEO Dick Costolo.
Click Image To View The 6-Second Video Clip
If clicking the above image does not play the video clip, please click HERE.
Vine is currently available for only iOS platform devices, but will be coming to Android later this year. Currently, you are not required to have a Twitter account to use Vine, and can sign up via email. Notably, the app also still allows you to share these short videos via Facebook.
While it isn’t a direct expansion of the service to include video, Vine nonetheless represents Twitter’s interest in capturing and presenting media that can be displayed via its Cards feature. By heading off services like Instagram at the pass, Twitter is making a play for its media-heavy future. Bringing the sharing of these things back into the Twitter app fold ensures that they continue to be the place that people will visit to see the things that their friends are sharing.
Will Vine for Twitter Make Brands Rethink Video Creation?
If Twitter's launch of the 6-second video app Vine is any indication, mobile video content seems to be moving in the direction of short and social. The app reached No. 1 among free apps in the Apple social app store the day after its release.
Still, Vine is new to the market, and awareness remains low overall, according to an AYTM Market Research survey of US internet users conducted a few days after the app’s launch. Just under 2% of US internet users surveyed by AYTM Market Research said they had signed up for a Vine account.
Another 3.5%, although not Vine users, said they had viewed Vine videos online, and 8% said they’d heard of the app. The overwhelming majority, 86.5%, said they were unaware of Vine.
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Although Vine has not launched an advertiser solution, industry pundits speculate the service may release a promoted video product, along the lines of Twitter’s Promoted Trends.
Given the tight link with Twitter, Vine could help the social network become a top video-sharing site and have interesting mobile-social implications for video advertisers. Since nearly all mobile video viewers are mobile video sharers, Vine may be a good opportunity for brands looking to link up their paid, owned and earned strategies.
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According to theIAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence, 92% of mobile video viewers had shared mobile phone videos with their friends and social networks, with tweeting accounting for 12% of shares. That figure could rise if Vine turns video into a more prominent part of the Twitter service.
Still marketers may not be ready to jump fully on board just yet. Vine has encountered some problems with adult content, which may make some brands leery to associate with the platform. While Vine works out those kinks—including adding a higher age rating to the app—it’s a good chance for marketers to evaluate their mobile video strategies, and to look at the newer video options on the market.
It will also be interesting to see how advertisers approach Vine’s length limitation (6 seconds)—whether they use it to tease longer-form content, or they embrace the quick, snackable length.
The IAB also found that videos between 3 to 5 minutes long were the sweet spot for consumers. Half of mobile video viewers viewed content of that length, and 20% viewed video content on their phones that was less than 2 minutes in length.
Click Image To Enlarge
Still marketers may not be ready to jump fully on board just yet. Vine has encountered some problems with adult content, which may make some brands leery to associate with the platform. While Vine works out those kinks—including adding a higher age rating to the app—it’s a good chance for marketers to evaluate their mobile video strategies, and to look at the newer video options on the market.
COMMENTARY: After only two months out of the gate, Twitter’s short-form video-sharing app Vine is picking up users like they’re going out of style.
According to figures from Onavo Insights, which tracks usage of apps across iOS devices in the U.S., since going live in January, Vine has grown its monthly active users by 50% in the last month, and it was used on 2.66% of all iOS devices in the U.S. by the end of February.
It doesn’t look like Vine’s rising tide is lifting all boats. Three other video-sharing apps on iOS — Cinemagram, SocialCam and Viddy — have at the same time declined, with their monthly active users in general down since December. February saw U.S. device usage of 1.07% for Cinemagram, 0.50% for SocialCam and 0.31% for Viddy.
These numbers are somewhat comparable with those of another analytics company, RJ Metrics, which measured Vine use compared to Viddy and Socialcam on Twitter itself. It found that in its first month, Vine was used by 2.8% of Twitter’s highly active users with Viddy used by 0.5% and Socialcam by 0.2%.
I have no idea how many iOS device owners are using the Vine app, but if I were Twitter, I would integrate with their native Twitter app. This would allow all Twitter users to access the app automatically when they upgrade their Twitter app.
Courtesy of an article dated January 24, 2013 appearing in The Next Web and an article dated February 8, 2013 appearing in eMarketer and an article dated March 13, 2013 appearing in TechCrunch
For Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, it's always been about driving user growth, offering users the best possible online experience and building a Global Town Square where they can communicate and interact in real-time, and conduct a direct, unfiltered and multi-directional conversation with the world in a manner to make a difference. It's never been about going public or reacting to what the competition (namely Facebook) is doing or evening emphasizing revenues, but things are changing at the microblogging giant.
Click To View YouTube Video
Twitter is finally showing signs of getting serious about increasing advertising revenues. On February 20, 2013, Twitter announced its new Ads API and is integrating the advertising management tools of five partners. This was quickly followed by announcement on March 5, 2013, that Twitter was offering a Nielsen Brand Effect survey tool which will be available to all of its ad partners in the United States, United Kingdom and Japan. Finally, on March 18, 2013, Twitter announced new self-service advertising tools for its self-service small business advertisers.
Twitter Announces Ads API
On February 20, 2013, Twitter announced its new Ads API and in the process made advertising on Twitter easier for advertisers and took a giant leap in sell more ads.
With the Ads API announcement, the microblogging site announced the first of five partners who will be integrating it into their social media management tools. Essentially, agencies and enterprises who already use management tools like HootSuite and advertising tools like Adobe’s Media Optimizer can now buy and run ads right within those environments.
The first five partners are Adobe, HootSuite, Salesforce, SHIFT, and TBG Digital. SHIFT produces GraphEffect, a social advertising solution, and TBG Digital is social media advertising agency.
“What this means is that as marketers, you’ll soon have the ability to work with our initial set of Ads API partners to manage Twitter Ad campaigns — and integrate them into your existing cross-channel advertising strategies.”
In a smart move for Twitter, while the partners will provide their clients the ability to advertise on Twitter from within their tools, when those clients become Twitter advertisers, they will be Twitter’s clients, not HootSuite’s, or Adobe’s, or SHIFT’s. In other words, the ad-buying arrangement is consummated via the Twitter API, and the contractual agreement is with Twitter itself.
HootSuite’s Ryan Holmes told VentureBeats John Koetsier by phone.
“We’re setting the accounts up with Twitter. The validation is done on Twitter’s side.”
While Adobe, SHIFT, and TBG are ad agencies and marketplaces, and HootSuite is a social media management tool, one of the really interesting partners is Salesforce, which is again adding to its toolbox in a quest to offer everything any company needs for any purpose, within its cloud. The company is announcing a new Social Ads Platform for Twitter today, which will be part of the Salesforce Marketing Cloud, and likens Twitter’s move to the launch of Facebook’s app platform in 2007.
That might be a bridge too far, but it is a really pivotal move in Twitter’s evolution.
Which is ongoing, as Twitter’s Underwood wrote:
"The Twitter Certified Products Program is also evolving to include ads products. In the coming months, we’ll begin to certify ads products that integrate with the Twitter Ads API and consistently improve marketing efficiency and ROI. This is just the start of our efforts that will give advertisers more choice — and for our partners who are ad tool providers, the Ads API represents a new way for their expertise to meet the needs of their clients."
On March 5, 2013, Twitter announced that its Nielsen Brand Effect survey tool is available to all of its ad partners in the United States, United Kingdom and Japan. The tool, which presents surveys to Twitter users in a format native to their platform, is designed to demonstrate the effectiveness and utility of its Promoted Tweets program.
In order to juice up the desire to use the NBE tool, Twitter has rolled out several results from its survey data over the past few months during its beta test. Twitter syas that Promoted Tweets increase the rate at which users associate a brand’s ‘message’ with its presence on Twitter. So if you want 22% more of whatever that is, then a Promoted Tweet campaign will help you do that.
The second factor that Twitter is emphasizing is that you should ship a Promoted Tweet campaign that is continuous, rather than a one-off. Multiple tweets in a campaign will boost ‘brand lift’. So yeah, that’s pretty logical, but now Twitter has some data from its surveys to back it up.
The third is that people who engage with a Promoted Tweet have an increase in favorability and purchase intent. That’s all well and good for the statistics, but there’s sort of a catch-22 here in that the people engaging (retweeting, clicking, etc) with Promoted Tweets likely already have an affinity for a brand. Someone from Pepsi says that the campaign helped them as well, but you can read the quote in the post.
Twitter's new Nielsen Brand Effect Survey Tool (Click Image To Enlarge)
The surveys look better than when Twitter teased them last year, so that’s good. The iPhone version looks like a nice iOS pulldown and the web one follows the site’s aesthetic. Twitter is careful to note that it does not share individual user info with Nielsen or its advertisers, so presumably this data is anonymized.
Late last year, Twitter announced another Nielsen partnership with the Nielsen Twitter TV Rating, a social measurement of TV program popularity based on Twitter data. While that partnership has Twitter data being used to quantify user interest outside the network, the NBE is all about processing data gathered on Twitter to help sell and promote its ad offerings. If you’re sensing a common theme here, yes, data is very important to Twitter. Among other reasons, it’s very much behind the way that Twitter has begun to exert more control over its platform. If Twitter is to survive and flourish, it needs to be profitable, and it knows that (either directly or indirectly) the store of user data that it has compiled and continues to collect is its most valuable asset.
Twitter Announces Improved Ad Targeting for Small Businesses
On March 18, 2013, Twitter announced new self-service ad tools today with much finer-grained targeting controls that will allow small advertisers to craft ad campaigns to exactly the audience they want … and give them access to Twitter’s full advanced control panel for reporting, analytics, and optimization.
With the new additions, Twitter’s ad targeting mechanisms now include:
Interest: 350 fine-grained interest categories such as car racing or bird-watching.
Platform: Apps and web access on specific families of devices, such as iOS or Android.
Fans of specific Twitter handles: People who are similar to those who follow @ESPN, for example.
Gender: Choose male or female, which Twitter guesses but does not guarantee.
Twitter is very carefully not saying that advertisers can specifically target @JustinBieber’s followers per se. Rather, the 140-character social news network is saying that you can target users who are similar to those who follow certain accounts.
That’s a smart distinction, because otherwise owners of popular Twitter handles could start to feel used, or even demand a piece of the action. But realistically, it’s going to help markets craft a very specific demographic to target on Twitter, and probably get a significant fraction of any particular Twitter users’s followers as well.
The new platform targeting mechanisms are huge, too.
Now app developers, for instance, can target iPhone andiPad users for their iOS apps or Android smartphone owners for their Android apps. In addition, advertisers can specify if they want only desktop and laptop computers, or BlackBerry users, or anyone on other mobile devices (Windows Phone, anyone?).
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Gender targeting is a little tougher. Users don’t specify their sex on Twitter, so Twitter extrapolates gender by contextual signals like usernames, real names, and even the accounts Twitter users follow. According to Twitter, those signals are 90 percent accurate in determining gender reliably.
Twitter’s self-service platform has been in the hands of a small number of beta testers since last year, and these features were among the most requested, Twitter product manager Ravi Narasimhan said. The new features are going live to a larger but still limited audience now: U.S.-based businesses on a by-invitation basis only.
To access the new features, switch to Advanced in your Twitter ad dashboard if you’re already a customer, or request access at the Twitter Ads self-service site.
COMMENTARY: Evidence that Twitter had greatly improved mobile advertising revenues in Q4 2012, and the addition of the above advertising options and tools, prompted eMarketer to revise Twitter's advertising revenues for 2013 from $500 million to $582.5 million. The Twitter revenue re-foreast was announced today and mentioned in my blog post dated March 28, 2013.
Courtesy of an article dated March 5, 2013 appearing in The Next Web and an article dated March 18, 2013 appearing inVentureBeat and an article dated February 20, 2013 appearing in VentureBeat
eMarketer has raised its forecast for advertising spending on Twitter for 2013 and 2014, estimating the company will earn $582.8 million in global ad revenue in 2013 before nearing $1 billion next year.
According to the new forecast, more than half of Twitter's ad revenues—about 53%—will come from mobile advertising this year, up from virtually no ad revenue from mobile in 2011.
Advertising on mobile devices will be where Twitter sees the most incremental growth over the next two years. By 2015, Twitter is expected to pull in $1.33 billion in worldwide ad revenue, more than 60% of which will come from mobile advertising.
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The upward revision comes as advertisers have shown more interest in spending money on mobile advertisements on Twitter, and as recent audience figures from multiple research sources analyzed by eMarketer have suggested Twitter's reach is improving.
eMarketer believes Twitter has ultimately benefited from the increased focus on mobile by competitors like Google and Facebook, which have both expanded their own mobile ad offerings and worked to convince advertisers to shift dollars to mobile devices. The launch of the Ads API will also contribute to incremental growth for Twitter this year, though eMarketer had already built that product into its December forecast for mobile ad revenues.
Twitter also continues to benefit from what has been termed the “native” nature of its ad products, whose integration with the core user experience of the platform allows the company to deliver similar ads seamlessly across multiple devices at high volume. It also means the company has been able to build its mobile advertising business quickly.
eMarketer estimates Twitter will earn $308.9 million in mobile ad revenue in 2013—which is more than the company earned in total, from any ad type, in 2012, when it made $138.4 million from mobile ads.
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The bulk of Twitter's ad revenue is expected to continue to come from the US—about 83% this year, down from 90% in 2012. By 2015, Twitter’s continued expansion of foreign sales operations is expected to help non-US ad revenue reach $319 million, up from just under $100 million this year.
Click Image To Enlarge
eMarketer forms its forecast through an analysis of estimates from many research sources that track media buying trends, advertising and other revenue indicators; Twitter usage statistics from research firms and user surveys; and eMarketer interviews with executives at ad agencies, brands, online ad publishers and other industry leaders.
While eMarketer's estimates for Twitter's revenue in 2012 remain unchanged compared to the previous forecast, the figures for future years have increased significantly to reflect the company's recent trajectory. eMarketer forecast in September that Twitter would earn just over $800 million in 2014, and did not issue an estimate on 2015 revenue.
COMMENTARY: That's quite an increase from the original $500 million that had been forecasted for 2013. Looks like eMarketer believes that all those tools and options that Twitter is offering advertisers will greatly improve ad revenues. I think so, too.
Courtesy of an article dated March 28, 2013 appearing in eMarketer and an article dated March 27, 2013 appearing in MediaPost Publications Online Media Daily
The total payout received by game developers increased by 30 percent from the year 2011, according to report from TechCrunch.
During the conference, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s Sean Ryan told developers that company is investing heavily in the games business. According to the company, there are 200 games available on its website with more than 1 million active users.
The number of registered users playing Facebook games increased from 205 million in August 2011 to 235 million in August 2012. The company said its Facebook gamers now exceed the 250 million mark.
Facebook reported that more than 100 developers generated more than $1 million from the social network giant last year. The company also revealed that the total number of users paying on the company’s website increased by 24 percent.
More than 250 million Facebook users are playing games every day on the company’s website. The social network giant emphasized that it is working on making Facebook a place for committed gamers.
Click Image To Enlarge
In addition, The company announced that 55 percent of the top 400 iOS apps are integrated to Facebook, and its mobile New feed drove 263 million clicks to the Apple App Store and GooglePlay. Furthermore, the company said that Facebook games installed by users increased by 75 percent since March last year.
Moreover, the social networking giant introduced the “games collection” for member profile pages. This new feature displays the games played and liked by users and it is located in the “About” section of their Facebook profile.
Meanwhile, the company is also launching a small alpha test to introduce Facebook Ad Exchange (FBX) advertisement in news feeds today.
“We wanted to give advertisers and agencies the opportunity to deliver highly relevant ads in News Feed, the most engaging place on the web. Previously, advertisers could run standard ads on the right hand side of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) on the desktop. Starting today, advertisers can run Page post link ads on the right-hand side of Facebook and in News Feed on desktop. As they do today, these ads will point back to specific landing pages to help direct-response advertisers drive conversions.”
COMMENTARY: Within the glorious tech industry, a new type of profession is becoming more and more prominent – the app developer. The huge growth of mobile platforms and app-supported websites is creating exciting career opportunities for developers. Be it games, productivity or small business tools, the public is thirsty for apps and the market is thriving. But what are the actual numbers behind the app economy? How much money can app developers expect to make? And which platforms are the most profitable?
The following infographic will answer these questions and provide valuable data on the app economy. It includes statistical information about all major app platforms, including Apple’s App Store, Facebook’s App Center, Google Play and Google Chrome.
It also reveals interesting details about the Wix App Market – the new player in town. If you’re an avid app developer, you should definitely check out the Wix Dev Center and start creating your own app for the Wix App Market. Read the infographic below and you’ll see why.
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Thinking about developing Facebook apps, then you need to read Facebook Platform Policies in order to understand Facebook's app development rules and payment policies.
Courtesy of an article dated March 26, 2013 appearing in ValueWalk and an article dated February 1, 2013 appearing in Inside Social Games
At the very top of the American Tract Society Building sits the penthouse apartment with the half-Moon windows and 90-foot stainless steel slide (Click Image To Enlarge)
AN INVENTIVE TAKE ON AN OLD SPACE GOES WELL BEYOND THE TYPICAL LANDMARK RESTORATION.
The American Tract Society Building is one of the oldest surviving skyscrapers in NYC. Tucked away inside is a four-story, 6,500-foot expanse with full panoramic views of the city. It had never been inhabited, until now.
This is an 80-foot slide hiding in a historic, NYC skyscraper (Click Image To Enlarge)
It’s part of a residential makeover of an amazingly luxurious, four-story penthouse (Click Image To Enlarge)
The slide brings you right into the living room (Click Image To Enlarge)
It's whimsical and austere. The original arched windows and many of the original steel beams stayed intact, but the verticality has been transformed with bold, playful features. Hotson has said that he wanted to “constantly exploit the fact that we’re sitting on top of a skyscraper in Manhattan.”
It’s a celebration of the apartment’s vast, vertical space of the old steel-frame building (Click Image To Enlarge)
Here’s where the ride ends (Click Image To Enlarge)
Don’t worry, everyone watching TV is used to the giggles by now (Click Image To Enlarge)
And while a glance at the dizzying array of beams hanging overhead demonstrates that idea, it’s a concept taken to new heights with an 80-foot slide that snakes straight into the living room, a clear bridge that appears to float in midair, and handholds that allow you to climb a central support beam like a rock wall. If you make it part way up, you can lounge in the “nest,” an intimate nook squeezed within the structure’s girders. From there you can keep climbing to an almost attic-style space.
But the slide is just one way to have fun. Handholds accent one of the main beams, coaxing you to climb up. If you’re bold enough, you’ll reach the "nest," a space tucked in between girders (Click Image To Enlarge)
You can descend from each level of the penthouse using the slide, but you have to climb the center support beam to go back up. Don’t worry, they have safety equipment (Click Image To Enlarge)
Aside from these whimsical touches, the space is a celebration of geometry. Here’s the skylight in the foyer (Click Image To Enlarge)
Of course, what you miss in these still photos are the incredible facets and “voids”--the geometric frames within frames that connect rooms like fractals. There’s some stunning camera work in the embedded video that illustrates these moments better than words can, and they reveal a level of design thinking that transcends what one might otherwise pigeonhole as an 80-foot-long gimmick.
View of the third level looking down to the living room area below (Click Image To Enlarge)
The very top level houses a sort of perch for transcendental meditation and thought (Click Image To Enlarge)
The ground floor houses the an expansive all-white living room with panoramic view of the New York City skyline (Click Image To Enlarge)
But I mean, what a gimmick!
The apartment has 360-degree views of the city (Click Image To Enlarge)
COMMENTARY: I just love this penthouse apartment. It is so different, so radical in its design, conjures feelings of heaven, living in the clouds. That 80-foot slide looks like a lot of fun. I don't know if I could master the art of rock climbing in order to go up from one level to the next. That's probably the biggest negative, but it also says, that for every pleasure, there must be some pain. I love New York City. There is no city anywhere like it in the world. And to be able to cherish the grandeur, majestry, culture and skyline of the city from an old turn-of-the-century skyscraper is simply magical. I can visualize myself sitting in the "nest" surfing the net for my next blog post, while sipping a glass of cab with toast and jam.
The architect that redesigned this magnificent New York City penthouse apartment is David Hotson. David Hotson was born in Pennsylvania and raised in rural Colorado and southern Ontario Canada. After completing a Bachelor of Environmental Design degree from the University of Waterloo, where he was awarded an Ontario Association of Architects Prize, David applied to the Yale University School of Architecture –where he was admitted the following fall.
David Hotson, the New York City-based architect who designed the NYC penthouse apartment (Click Image To Enlarge)
Early Work and Collaborations: In the first years of independent practice David Hotson began a long period of collaborations with Yale classmate Maya Lin, acting as the executive architect on a series of projects that she attracted as her Vietnam Veterans Memorial –designed while she was an undergraduate at Yale- was completed to wide acclaim. Early projects included the Museum for African Art in SoHo, a suite of offices and galleries for the Asia/Pacific-American Institute at New York University, and an apartment for software entrepreneur and art-world philanthropist Peter Norton.
From these early collaborative experiences the office has developed an extensive track record of working in association with artists, designers, and other architects to execute projects with demanding detailing and progressive design values. The body of collaborative work undertaken by the office has included projects with noted architects such as David Adjaye of London, Santiago Calatrava of Valencia and Zurich, Hayaki Kita of Osaka, and Ricardo Legorretta of Mexico City, and other architects, artists, and designers based in the US, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, Hungary, Armenia, and Japan.
Born in the Netherlands and raised in South Africa, Ghislaine brings a special blend of international sensibility, intuitive style, humor, irony and refreshing enthusiasm to her work. She is driven daily by her passion for interior design and especially by color. Ghislaine and her team thrive on collaboration and although the backbone of their work is a strong clean refreshing look, they dare to go "off roading" by experimenting with and exploring many areas of design.
Ghislaine Vinas is the Dutch interior designer that designed the interior of the NYC penthouse apartment (Click Image To Enlarge)
Ghislaine Viñas established her interior design studio in 1999, when commissioned to do the complete build-out of a 9,000-sq-ft office/art gallery in the Starrett Lehigh Building in New York's Chelsea art district. Since then she has successfully completed many projects, both commercial and residential, ranging from New York City, including apartments, townhouses, lofts and an art gallery in Chelsea, to offices and homes in Los Angeles, New Jersey, Holland, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Ghislaine has chosen to keep her office small so her clients can expect a very “hands -on” personal approach as she works through the project. Ghislaine Viñas Interior Design embarked on their first hospitality project in 2012 and they are currently developing a product line on top of many other exciting design projects.
Ghislaine Viñas Interior Design was awarded the Interior Design Merit Award for "Best of Year" in the residential category in 2007, 2008 and 2011 and won Interior Design Best of Year award in 2010. In 2007 she won the Pantone "Color Outside the Lines" competition for color use in residential interiors , as well receiving third place in the Electrolux, "The lived-in Kitchen", design competition and honorable mention in the same competition in 2012. The firm was awarded the prestigious Benjamin Moore Hue award in 2010 for their use of color in residential interiors. Ghislaine has been featured on various TV programs including HGTV, Open House New York and IDTV “Designing New York”.
Ghislaine's work has graced the covers of countless magazines and she has been published in magazines and newspapers worldwide including Interior Design, New York Times, New York Magazine, Departures, Frame, O At Home, Dwell, Elle Decor Japan, England and Mexico as well as Architectural Digest in Russia just to name a few.
Ghislaine studied interior design at Philadelphia University and moved to New York right after receiving her degree. Ghislaine now lives in New York City with her husband and their two young girls.
Courtesy of an article dated March 26, 2013 appearing in Fast Company Design
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