PBT Consulting

MARKETING TO MILLENIALS: SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIES AND TACTICS

Why should you market to Millennials?

If you are asking yoursef why should I care about the Millennial generation and why should I consider spending my marketing dollars, time and effort targeting Millennials.

I have the answers for you….

The millennial generation represents the largest generation consisting of approximately 80 million people with over $170 billion in purchasing power.

The millennial generation with its large influence is shaping the way that brands send messages, forcing businesses to change or suffer the consequences.

Millennials marketing and an understanding of how to reach the millennial generation is critical and will enhance your organization’s brand and integrated marketing communications strategies. Implementing these millennial elements will help your organization reach its business and marketing objectives.

Millennial Characteristics

Let’s start out by giving the definition. The Millennial Generation is typically defined as individuals born between 1980 and 2000.  According to the U.S. Censur Burean, as of April 2015, Millennials now number 92 million or 20% of the total U.S. population, and are now the largest generation, even bigger than Baby Boomers. 

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A comprehensive understanding of millennial characteristics is critical in creating an integrated marketing communications (IMC) plan.

There are concepts, values, and characteristics unique to all millennials that include:

Concepts

• The use of a variety of media
• They view brands as a partnership and form of self-expression

Values

• Honesty
• Authenticity
• Value

Characteristics

• More technologically advanced than previous generations
• More educated than previous generations
• The most racially and ethnically diverse
• Encumbered with student loan debt, which continues to grow each year
• Have different priorities like putting off marriage, buying a house or automobile

Millennials also take action on behalf of brands based on loyalty and give significant brand loyalty to brands and products of preference. In addition, the millennial generation likes music and events and requires authenticity, two-way communication, social responsibility, and connection with a personal touch.

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Other important concepts of millennials marketing involve the millennial generation’s value systems that include altruism and a predisposition to support social and environmental causes they care about. As a result, millennials purchase and support companies with environmentally and socially responsible products (brands).

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Millennials Marketing Strategy and Tactics

A two-pronged generic millennial strategy and a subculture marketing strategy are critical to an organization seeking to achieve its objectives. Using a homogeneous millennial culture and subculture marketing strategy based on addressing the different ethnic subcultures provide a method to reach the target audience effectively.

The combination of the two marketing strategies will be used in the areas including logo design usage (affect), events, social and digital media, television, radio, and sponsorship (cognition).

The other elements included in marketing to millennials should also consider product or service content options and pricing (environment).

A combination of promotional strategies is required when marketing to millennials. Think in terms of the sum of the parts when influencing the millennial.

The marketing mix (product, place, promotion, and price) also heavily influences the millennial consumer stimulating trial and creating brand loyalty based on leveraging the brand assets.

Marketers are challenged with addressing two diametrically opposite considerations to reach millennials effectively. On one hand, millennials communicate asynchronously (i.e., via text). Conversely, the millennial market segment wants face-to-face interactions and a personal touch.

The key takeaway is for marketers to address the millennial generation using an IMC approach.

Market Research Drives Strategy and Tactics

Market research was the most important step in the approach used by Mercedes-Benz and Amazon. The essential driving force behind the development and launch of the CLA from Mercedes-Benz and the Fire TV from Amazon is market research.

Market research was the basis that determined product development and the corresponding marketing strategy and tactics resulting in both organizations reaching and exceeding organizational objectives.

The list included is not an exhaustive list of marketing elements used in strategy and tactical development, but a representation of the most important and how they fit together to address a diverse generation. The elements listed provide an organization with a framework from an IMC perspective to take into consideration when forming strategies and tactics to reach the millennial consumer.

Event Marketing

IMC messaging strategies with a millennial target audience must use a dual approach. The IMC strategy must incorporate event or experiential marketing offering a personal one-to-one relationship required by the millennial generation based on the statistic that 78% of millennials prefer a brand experience that is relevant and gives them information.

An example of a relevant and simple marketing tactic to reach this audience is Federal Express providing South by Southwest festival attendees charging stations to charge mobile devices. The charging station example demonstrates a marketing tactic that builds an emotional connection with a brand, especially with the millennial generation that does not like to be without the use of its mobile devices.

Digital and Social Media 

Another critical element in an IMC strategy focused on millennials requires a company to use Internet marketing and social media which is in stark contrast to the face-to-face interaction desired by this generation. Event marketing provides the ability to begin a conversation with the millennial consumer supported by the internet and social media.

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The internet and social media allow a company to continue to engage this generation to gain brand awareness, stimulate trial usage, repeat usage, and ultimately  loyalty. The social media channel must consider the product or service offered by the company and target where this generation spends most of its social media time (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat).

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For example, using Facebook and Twitter to engage craft beer consumers would be a good social media choice and LinkedIn would be a poor media choice. Training consulting services or customer relationship software provides examples of a product and service that offer a better fit with LinkedIn’s target audience and purpose.

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Millennials are early adopters of different social media channels, and marketers must keep track of the social media consumption patterns and trends adapting marketing tactics to reach this generation.

Millennials Seek Lower Prices, Loyalty and Reward Programs and Discounting and less on product quality

Millennials are forcing brands to become more participative by subtly engaging by offering discounted prices and loyalty and reward programs while relying less on product quality.  77% of the millennial generation reported participating in loyalty and reward Programs

Millennials thrive online, researching product choices online, then placing orders online.

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In addition, 78% of millennials reported to being more likely to buy from a brand with a rewards program than one without.

Millennials have the highest percentage of word-of-mouth marketing, electing to share feedback about a product or service both on-line and off-line.  The implications of these millennial statistics support the social media tactic of engaging using online channels to support the event marketing high-touch required by this generation.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

A critical statistic for marketers is the fact 75% of millennials donate to charity and 60% volunteer for a worthy cause.

The millennial generation coming of age is one of the most important components influencing marketing and the messages brands send. The millennial generation with its demonstration of purchasing power and brand support for companies that are environmentally conscious has caused a seismic shift in business.

Here is a quote from Simon Sinek that provides a paradigm shift for marketers and how they communicate:

“PEOPLE DON’T BUY WHAT YOU DO, THEY BUY WHY YOU DO IT.”  – SIMON SINEK

Companies must infuse environmentally responsible practices into the core of their business strategy using an IMC approach. As a result, marketing strategy provides a core element in business strategy to promote a company as an ethical entity with genuine concern for social issues and the environment. Marketers must create authentic messages that can be supported with actions regarding the environment and social issues or risk suffering the consequences of the millennial consumer.

CSR Examples from the Automotive Industry

Companies such as General Motors and Ford have had to change significantly over the last six years. It is not enough to provide vehicles that are environmentally conscious, but the millennial generation demands a more significant effort from a brand. GM and Ford have implemented programs across their entire supply chain supporting environmental and social initiatives. GM and Ford now use a sustainability report a common marketing tool in business to provide information regarding the environmental and social practices of the company.

The sustainability report used by many companies across all industries provides evidence of the changing nature of business and marketing influenced by the millennial generation. However, if companies do not provide the millennial generation with authentic evidence of support for the environment, they could face significant brand and company damage.

The key takeaway is to include corporate social responsibility into your business and marketing strategy in an authentic manner.

Benchmarks for Millennial Marketing

There are a few companies out there that I think are really getting it right and setting the bar for marketing. The companies that are in the best position to take advantage of the largest generation include:

• TOMS donate a pair of shoes to someone for every pair of shoes sold. Giving and aligning the millennial generation with a cause allowing them to participate in the story. Blake Mycoskie, the founder, has found a way for philanthropy and profit to coexist in perfect harmony.
• Netflix continuously keeps pulse with the millennial generation exceptionally well and uses social media with shareable content to attract and engage.
• Uber with its unique app focused on convenience and the needs and wants of the millennial generation. Uber provided a disruptive business model that simply works with marketing campaigns focused on the millennials and shareable social media content.
• Dollar Shave Club has disrupted the personal grooming market with a business model that is uniquely suited to millennials. The two critical things marketers can takeaway from Dollar Shave Club is their unique, disruptive pricing model and creative marketing. Dollar Shave uses multiple media specifically targeting millennials with relevant, shareable, and entertaining content.

COMMENTARY:

The focus of this post is dedicated to targeting millennials using an integrated marketing communications (IMC) framework. In other posts, I discuss brand building that must take place before developing the IMC plan.

The millennial generation is an important generation for marketers to target for almost every industry. Forming strategies and tactics to reach the millennial consumer based on solid market research provides the best opportunity to target them effectively and achieve success.

Omnichannel Experiences: Creating Online And In-Store Moments That Matter To Millennials

Mobile marketers, take note: Millennials already live in an omnichannel shopping mindset. In fact, they were living in this mindset years before most businesses realized they needed to adjust operating models accordingly. These young shoppers carry with them the central expectation that a spectrum of seamless and consistent online and offline engagements will be the norm across their shopping journey. 

The goal of omnichannel marketing is not to create multiple experiences across multiple channels — that’s multichannel marketing — it is to build a unified brand-to-consumer interaction across all channels. Omnichannel experiences are not simply coordinated, and not simply integrated, they become continuous. A consumer can begin an experience in one channel and complete that interaction somewhere else. And, with the Millennial demographic set to spend some $200 billion in coming years, theimperative for brick-and-mortar to focus on omnichannel to reach them is more critical than ever. 

Success begins — and begins only, as there are many ways to inspire Millennials in the omnichannel space — with close attention to social-media interactions, live support, and real-time surprise and delight.

• The Social Experience: Based on our recent research, more than 1 in 4 young consumers, aged 14 - 29 (including both Millennials and Gen Z), said they use a mobile phone while browsing in a physical store, seeking guidance, input, and validation from friends and family on their screens. Engaging organically with Millennials as they share these experiences requires nuance and a sense for strategic delicacy, adapting to the distinctive “dialect” of each platform in positive and relevant ways. Taco Bell has earned notice by using Snapchat, for example, challenging young consumers to “Doodle Wars” that can be shared and saved for later, piping more attention to the brand-related drawings via Twitter, and all the while steering diners toward fresh brand-focused engagements. 

• Mobile-to-Live Support: Some 60% of Millennials recently told Radial that they want online chat and communications as part of their in-store shopping segment. A key opportunity for brick-and-mortar, then, is to seamlessly match a conversation that starts on mobile to a moment when an expert in-store representative can pick it up, further prompting the anticipatory inspiration that Millennials say they crave. The hospitality industry has become a superb example of this kind of handoff, with staff having all the immediately preceding information available on desktop and/or mobile device at the moment of the switch.

• In-the-Moment Inspiration: Brands that commit to omnichannel experiences can plug into Millennials’ openness to new ideas in the moment — specifically the kind that arise during otherwise-occupied segments of their shopping journey. Advertisers can prompt or seal the deal around restaurant visits, for example, giving users a chance to skip a seating line by donating to a social cause on their smartphone. This aligns with Millennials’ affinity for purchases that leverage philanthropic outcomes — 70% of them will spend more on brands supporting what they perceive to be worthy causes. It’s an omnichannel solution with in-the-moment meaning, driving sales and loyalty.

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In an omnichannel world, opportunities are free to emerge in seamless and consistent ways at any time, in any space … if these moments match the expectations and values of the Millennial consumer. Each of the above approaches fosters increasingly meaningful moments and, when it comes to Millennials, each instance represents a prime way to tap into the generation’s spending power as it reaches its peak.

Courtesy of an article dated December 3, 2014 appearing in Stephen Zoeller blog, a blog post by Goldman Sachs, and an article dated May 9, 2017 appearing in MediaPost Engage:Millennials

 

SNAPCHAT PREPARES FOR A $25 BILLION IPO, BUT THIS COULD BE TOO EARLY AND THE BUSINESS MODEL MAY NOT BE SUSTAINABLE

 

Snap, Inc. is reportedly preparing an IPO that will value the company formerly known as Snapchat at around $25 billion.

The social darling is shooting for a March offering, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing sources. A company representative declined to comment on the report, on Thursday. 

Standing in stark contrast to struggling social networks like Twitter, Snapchat is presently making more money than it can count.

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Indeed, despite direct competition from Facebook and other tech giants, the company is positioned for “explosive” growth in ad revenue over the next few years, according to a recent forecast from eMarketer.

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The research predicts that the playful messaging app will generate $366.69 million in ad revenues this year.

That figure is expected to jump to $935.46 million, next year.

Cathy Boyle, principal analyst at eMarketer, recently said Snapchat’s bright outlook has everything to do with its young user base.  Boyl notes in a report.

“Advertisers are attracted to Snapchat for its broad reach among young Millennials and those in Generation Z, which are valuable demographic groups for many businesses.” 

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To its credit, Snapchat has also tailored its ad strategy specifically for this easy-to-alienate demographic.

According to Boyle.  

“To engage those often hard-to-reach consumers, Snapchat has expanded its advertising portfolio over the past year to include a wider array of video ads and more sponsored geo-filters and sponsored lenses.”

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Stateside, Snapchat’s Discover feature generates 43% of ad revenue, which is its largest single share, according to eMarketer.

Next year, however, the research firm expects Stories to overtakes Discover as the dominant ad revenue source -- by generating 37.8% of the company’s domestic ad revenue.

Having launched its ad platform in mid-2015, Snapchat still only captures 2.3% of social-networking dollars, eMarketer estimates. That’s despite the fact that it now commands 36% of the market in terms of domestic users. 

Approaching its would-be IPO, Snapchat continues to experiment with new categories.

Bounding into hardware and physical fashion, the company recently unveiled Spectacles -- stylish video-recording sunglasses that are expected to retail for $130.

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Set to hit shelves later this fall, the shades can record 10-second video snippets, which are designed to approximate one’s natural field of vision. That's thanks to a 115-degree lens, which records circular video. If Spectacles are well received, Snapchat would become the first company to convince consumers to wear connected gadgets on their face.

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Google notoriously spent millions of dollars in development and marketing dollars, before giving up on its Glass initiative. Yet Snapchat -- which just rebranded itself as Snap, Inc. -- seems to have learned a few things from Google's failure.

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Spectacles’ $130 price tag is far more reasonable than the $1,500 that Google tried to charge people for Glass. Snapchat’s glasses are also being sold as a single-purpose device, which is historically much easier to market.

like Google, Snapchat currently enjoys a strong bond with young consumers -- the ideal demographic for starting trends and popularizing products.

Although bold, Snapchat’s move into hardware should not come as a complete surprise to industry watchers. The social darling recently joined the industry group that runs the Bluetooth wireless standard, which followed several hires and smallish acquisitions in the arena of consumer electronics.

COMMENTARY:  I have to confess that I have not followed or even taken the time to use and evaluate Snapchat because I am most definitely not in their demographics.  The idea of posting photos that dematerialize is something that just does not interest me.  I ask the question:  Why do I need this? I could not bring myself to come to a practical answer.  On the other hand, I wasn't in Facebook's demographics either, but now everybody seems to be using the social giant site to connect and engage with users throughout the world.  

Now comes the news that Snapchat is coming out with Spectacles, their first foray into cnsumer electronics.  Didn't Snapchat's founders realize how intrusive taking someone else's picture without their permission can be?  Google found this out when they introduced Google Glass, their augmented reality glasses.  The cost for a pair of Google Glass was also prohibitively expensive.  Maybe Snapchat will have better luck.  Millennials are pretty impulsive, and love trying the latest in consumer electronics devices. They make the lions share of early adopters.  The price is just right for Millennials, who are strapped for cash and carry a lot of debt, mostly from student loans.  The glasses look "retro cool," but they don't rock my world from a designer standpoint.  On the other hand, Spectacles differentiate the company from Instagram and Twitter's Vine and Periscope which also allow users to exchange video content via mobile devices.  However, it still comes down to a sustainable business model, and Snapchat only began running ads in mid-2015.  In my opinion, this is not a very long time to prove the sustainability of their business model.  

The big news of the day is that Snapchat is planning a $25 billion IPO.  I smell another Twitter IPO in the making.  A startup that just began making money from ads in md-2015 is not reliable proof of a sustainable business model.  Snapchat relies exclusively on Millennials, and that market although large, and soon to be the largest demographic segment in the US, is not broad or mainstream like Twitter or Facebook.  Another question:  How profitable is Snapchat?  If they are anything like Twitter at this stage of their development, they are probably not profitable.  Both Twitter and LinkedIn (recently acquired by Microsoft) were never profitable, so I would be very cautious about investing in a startup with such a narrow demographic focus.

I am dying to review Snapchat's S-1 filing.  It should help answer a lot of investor concerns, and validate my own suspicions and doubts.      

Courtesy of an article dated October 6, 2016 appearing in Social Media Marketing Daily, and an article dated June 6, 2016 appearing in AdvertisingAge, and an article dated September 6, 2016 appearing in AdWeek, and an article dated September 24, 2016 appearing in The Verge, and an article dated October 10, 2016 appearing in Profit Confidential

INSTAGRAM CONTINUES DOUBLE DIGIT GROWTH, AND HOW TO FRAME YOUR BRAND ON INSTAGRAM

More than a third of mobile phone users will be on Instagram in 2016 

More than 90% of Instagram users are said to be under 35. Its user base, which is now more than 400 million worldwide, is larger than Twitter’s. EMarketer projects it will top 100 million people in the U.S. alone by 2018.

Austin-based nFusion recently published a marketer’s guide about how to get going on Instagram — but only if you’ve got a good reason to be there. We asked the agency’s managing director, Matt Huser, to elaborate on a few of its points and to name some names.

What makes Instagram different from good branding practices on other social media?

Matt Huser: The beauty and obvious aspect of Instagram is that it is visual -- which is the reason it's so compelling. By being visual, it weeds out a lot of the frivolous updates you get on Facebook and Twitter.

Also for that reason, Instagram lends itself to more lifestyle content, and people tend to follow the brands that reflect their lifestyles. So it’s the perfect platform for brands to increase their relevance and engagement with their audiences by aligning to their followers’ lifestyles, many times turning them into advocates.

The brands that utilize Instagram well post images that communicate their brand DNA and reveal some deeper truth or connection about the brand.

Instagram feeds that show behind-the-scenes images that their followers wouldn't normally be able to see through traditional media are most effective. Many fashion brands like Burberry and Rag and Bone do a good job of showing lifestyle images, not product images. Product may be included in the posted images, but it isn’t the focus.

Burberry focuses on images of London because London is such a foundational part of that brand, and a brand itself, which Burberry does well to align to. Rag and Bone shows people in action, mostly.

Because Instagram is visual, the marketers who participate are often more thoughtful. It forces marketers to have a strategy and to create content specifically for the channel. So it weeds out the brands that shouldn’t be on Instagram; there’s less noise than a Facebook or Twitter [post].

Is it as critical to be on Instagram as it is to be on Facebook and Twitter?

Huser: I don’t think it’s critical for every brand to have a presence on social media. In fact, as the social channels get more diluted with paid messaging, some brands may find it more advantageous to not be on a platform.

And companies should have discrete strategies for each platform.

For example, Twitter is a great customer-service platform. Facebook is a good platform to keep consumers informed, while Instagram is a good platform to play to people’s passions … to connect with a lifestyle. Brands should stay true to their DNA and not force themselves into a channel that isn’t aligned to a strategy. That said, Instagram is the fastest-growing platform, so you can’t ignore it.

Can you name a few marketers who are doing a particularly good job?

Huser: The ones that I like align to my lifestyle.

Publishers like Rolling Stone show amazing photography, accompanied by a caption of the behind-the-scenes stories from the actual shoot. As a music buff, I love those stories.

Patagonia does a great job of presenting beautiful photography of people doing crazy things in spectacular places.

But the brands that I’d like to work with, that are currently doing a pretty good job, include Intel, which presents visuals of the amazing innovations that their products fuel.

Altra, the running shoe company, does a great job of making me wish I was outdoors running with their photography.

There is a hotel in Austin called the Hotel St. Cecilia that does a great job of presenting aspirational lifestyle images of scenes at their hotel (it is humbling to realize that I am not very cool). I tend to follow the smaller, upstart brands who are still very true to the DNA of who they are.

Heineken did an interesting stunt in 2014 around the U.S. Open, but I’m not sure they consistently show up well.

Netflix is currently running a promotion for someone to travel the world and post on their behalf, which could be interesting.

What  Instagram blunders have you come across?

Huser: Not having a strategy. I don’t want to see images of your product. Work to align your brand with my lifestyle. A marketer’s content should have a purpose. Repurposed content on Instagram does not work. 

If you do [have a strategy] and have compelling content, it could be your strongest media channel. Every follower will be an advocate. 

COMMENTARY:  Instagram continues to prove its mastery of the mobile domain, according to eMarketer’s latest internet usage forecast. This year, 89.4 million Americans will log on to Instagram at least once a month, representing 34.1% of mobile phone users. And by 2017, 51.8% of social network users will use Instagram—surpassing the 50% mark for the first time.

Instagram’s user base is growing far faster than social network usage in general. Instagram will grow 15.1% this year, compared to just 3.1% growth for the social network sector as a whole. Over the next four years, it will add 26.9 million users, almost double the incremental users expected for Twitter and far more than any other social platform eMarketer tracks.

Instagram usage is particularly strong among millennials. This year, there will be 48.2 million millennial Instagram users in the US. By 2019, nearly two-thirds of all millennial smartphone users will use Instagram.

eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson says.

“Instagram and its parent company, Facebook, know that mobile has changed the way people—especially millennials and Gen X-ers—communicate, share and get information.  That's why they are leading the way in helping marketers reach this audience.”

The robust growth in users is helping to drive an increasing share of Facebook’s mobile ad revenues. This year, 9.5% of Facebook”s worldwide mobile ad revenues (20.1% in the US) will come from Instagram. By next year, Instagram’s share will grow to 14.0% globally (28.0% in the US). 

Williamson says.  

“Instagram has a lot of momentum with advertisers, and its revenue is increasing rapidly. For marketers that want to target mobile millennials, Instagram is an attractive option.”

Courtesy of an article dated March 3, 2016 appearing in MediaPost Social Media Insider and an article dated February 22, 2016 appearing in eMarketer

 

HOW BRANDS CAN SUCCEED ON SNAPCHAT: KNOW THE SNAPCHAT AUDIENCE AND USE SIX SIMPLE MARKETING APPROACHES

If your brand is thinking of marketing itself on Snapchat, marketers must understand who is using Snapchat and use the right marketing approaches with that audience. 

First, Brands Should Know The Snapchat Audience

Here are a few of the most significant stats really helpful in understanding where Snapchat is as a platform.

• Snapchat currently has over 200 million monthly active users (or MAUs). Compare that to Twitter with 316 million MAUs and Instagram with 300 million MAUs and we see Snapchat is clearly becoming a massive platform for social marketers to consider.
• 70% of Snapchat users are women.  That makes Snapchat only 2nd to Pinterest (79% female) when it comes to female user gender trends on major social networks.
• 71% are under the age of 25.
• 18% of US social media users are on Snapchat.
• According to a recent ComScore study, millennials make up 71% of active users.  30% of millennial internet users access regularly.  This is impressive when you consider that it currently tops Facebook (38%), Twitter (41%) and Tumblr (53%) as this age group’s preferred social media platform.
• According to Photo World, Snapchat users now share 8,796 photos per second, more than any other messaging services and photo sharing platforms including Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram, Flickr.
• According to the Financial Times, Snapchat is quickly gaining ground in the battle for dominance in video on social networks: it now claims a whopping six billion daily views, or triple the traffic it got in May.

What Is Snapchat and Who Uses It?

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Trying to attract Millennials? Snapchat should be your go to marketing tool.  Share photos and videos on the go. That is what users are there for. Understanding Snapchat as the middle part of life

Second, Apply Six Simple Snapchat Marketing Approaches

If brands are to succeed in resonating with Snapchat's largely Generation Z audience, they must pay attention to these three simple marketing approaches. 

1. Create unpolished content

According to an interview conducted by UK-based business insights agency Firebrand with US frozen yogurt perveyor 16 Handles, who has been active on Snapchat since 2013, Snapchat users have always been an early adopters of new social networks.  Lara Nicotra, Marketing Manager, 16 handles said.

"Your fans want you to be fun and authentic [on Snapchat]. It’s okay if the message isn’t polished – that’s the whole point!"

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This “unpolished” mindset on Snapchat is something important for brands to consider. Waiting for the right moment or sending all your creative through a design team are not ideal habits for Snapchat content.

People share stuff on Snapchat that might never make it to the cutting room floor or Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. They take random photos, draw silly pictures, and – in general – capture the details of their life that tell you more than a Facebook highlight reel.

Brands can do this too. And those unpolished moments have the potential to create big loyalty and engagement.

2. Provide exclusive, rarely seen content

Building on the idea of offering the “unpolished” style of content and thinking more about the subject of your content, includes providing Snapchat fans original, behind-the-scenes, brand-generated content that cannot be found anywhere else.

Fashion lifestyle blog Refinery29. was also interviewed by Firebrand and this is what Neha Gandhi, Vice-President, Editorial Strategy at Refinery29 had to say. 

“Snapchat allows you to experience something that feels exclusive and inaccessible in a really accessible way… it disappears after 24 hours, so you sort of get a clean slate and can do anything you think is working and resonating with your audience.”

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There are two ways to think about this.

1. Behind-The Scenes - The nature of Snapchat as a channel is behind the scenes and exclusive content. The photos, videos, and art users share on Snapchat is not organic on other social channels.   If brands want to fit in on Snapchat they would be well served to try and capture their own behind the scenes content.
2. Keep Content Fresh and Original - Snapchat users have a lot of content to engage.  If you are sharing the same old content that they see on Facebook and Instagram already, there is less of a reason for them to keep coming back and choosing to view your brand’s content.

The nature of Snapchat’s user interface is not a stream, but a list of options to click on. They do have to CHOOSE to see your content.

And, beyond that, they have to choose to keep watching your content. Like a video. So it needs to be unique. As Neha say, try to help your fans “experience something that feels exclusive and inaccessible.”

3.  Tell A Compelling and Cohesive Story

Too many brands post snaps that are disconnected from each other and hours apart. Most of your followers are going to be watching your story all at once so regardless of what time you post each snap, you need to tell one cohesive story when played beginning to end.  

• Continuing Story Snapchats - If you’re snapchatting from an event or throughout your day, watch your story as you add to it and put yourself in the position of a follower who has no context of who you are, where you are or what you’re doing.
• Single Story Snapchats - If you’re posting all at once, make sure that you close out the story with an ending that includes a Call To Action that directs followers to one of your other social media profiles or let’s them know when they can expect more content from you on Snapchat. This invites them to engage with your brand elsewhere online and serves as an opportunity to tease upcoming content or events.

4.  Use Video

We’re living in a video centric world in case you’ve been asleep for the past 3 years or don’t have access to YouTube, Vine or Facebook. Video lets you show instead of tell.  It will show off your brand’s character more than any character limit or staged photo.  It allows you to do things like include music or conduct a 10 second interview. It allows your followers to connect with you because you’re appealing to another one of their senses. Use video on your Snapchat story often and you will learn to use it well.

 

My roommate Lawrence is a health nut.  Here he is making healthy smoothies

5. Partner With Influencers

Firebrand also reached out to Delmondo who specialize in connecting brands with influencers on platforms like Snapchat.  Delmondo said.

“Headphone maker JBL is an example of a brand that has gotten creative with its use of Snapchat. The brand commissioned Snapchat marketing firm Delmondo to identify Snapchat tastemakers to share messages with their followers during the NBA All-Star Game weekend. An influencer campaign in the same vein costs as little as $50,000, and has the potential to generate hundreds of thousands of views.”

Catch emgarber on Snapchat as he snaps his #NBAAllStarNYC weekend with us! What could be next? #JBLAllStar pic.twitter.com/TfXgrjrB3X

— JBL (@JBLaudio) February 15, 2015 

Influencers on Snapchat afford a brand two very important benefits:

1. Audience. If you want to gain followers and fans, paying to work with influencers or partnering with them on some level is a shortcut to building that audience.
2. Platform Education. Secondarily, working with an influencer or group of influencers can do wonders for learning what works on a platform, what doesn’t work, and the intricacies of how that social network lives and breathes.

Frankie Greek, social strategist and the host of WWW offers this bit of advice on how to identify the righ influencers:

"The fastest way to grow your brand’s Snapchat following is to partner with influencers. This means working with someone who has a large following on social media, preferably on Snapchat, and having them create and promote stories for your brand. Identify influencers in your field that your audience will like and be able to relate to. Do your due diligence to find the right influencer, not just the cheapest or the first one that shows interest in your brand. Does their personal brand align with your brand’s values? Do they believe in your mission?

Now forget that you work in marketing and talk to that person like a human and figure out a mutually beneficial arrangement that ends in them telling powerful stories for your brand and your brand being exposed to their fans."

6.  Leverage Your Audience

As you get traction on Snapchat, direct those followers to your other social media profiles. Announce a giveaway on Snapchat that followers can enter by commenting on an Instagram post. Create a poll that they can participate in by screenshotting their vote and tweeting it to your account with a branded hashtag. Tease YouTube videos by showing shorter clips with a caption that tells them where to go to find it and asks them to subscribe.

COMMENTARY:  Launched in 2011, Snapchat has become so much more than a place for sending ten-second-selfies (although there’s still a lot of that going on!) It has become a very credible platform for brands to market themselves to a large audience – Snapchat boasts over 200 million monthly active users; 71% of which are under 25.

With social media being a great way to reach out to customers and potential customers, and inject personality into a brand, Snapchat is certainly a channel that companies should be looking at.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Burberry – who are pioneers in combining technology and digital aspects with fashion – have been using Snapchat to create a buzz around their brand. Take for instance, the preview of their SS16 collection 24 hours prior to their runway show at London Fashion Week. It was a great move, appealing to Snapchat’s largely Generation Z audience, who have come to expect the consumption of fresh content immediately. Plus, it generated a huge buzz for the actual show… which was certainly no bad thing!

Click Image To View Burberry's Prosum SS16 Collection runway show during New York Fashion Week

Not only that, but Burberry launched their own Live Story: available for 24 hours from the morning of their fashion show, it showcased Burberry show-related images and videos straight from Snapchat. Allowing fans to take part in their marketing campaign – pretty smart, don’t you think?

Snapchat became increasingly aware of the potential opportunities for brands through the social media site; and launched Snapchat Discover at the beginning of 2015. An exclusive channel available to a mere 15 companies (this has grown from 12 since its launch), it enables the selected few to release content to the 100 million active Snapchat users. Cosmo, CNN and Mashable all use Discover; with Cosmo enjoying 3 million readers on Snapchat a day!

Click Image To Enlarge

Those on Discover need to ensure they get it right though – Snapchat booted Yahoo off after they failed to resonate with their younger audience – the broadcast-type videos just didn’t cut it. In a world where breaking news is readily available; the announcement itself needs to be innovative, otherwise users will look to other companies for their updates instead.

OK, so maybe you shouldn’t hold your breath on getting an invite to Snapchat Discover any time soon – but you can rest assured that the channel itself is still a valuable marketing tool for your business. You could consider running your own Live Story – a user-generated video collage of a special event. Cosmo hosted one for their 50th anniversary, featuring the Kardashians on the front cover of their magazine, as well as in the video; which was sponsored by Covergirl. With 6 billion video views in Snapchat since May 2015, brands can be sure that their content is being viewed.

Taco Bell has also been a hugely successful user of Snapchat. Back in 2013 in a bid to build their number of followers, they encouraged users to add them in exchange for a “secret announcement”, with snippets of the new menu revealed.

Essentially, Snapchat – the fastest growing social media platform – should certainly not be overlooked as part of your social media strategy. At 400 million snaps a day from the 100 million daily active members, if you can reach out to the younger market successfully, then you’ll achieve great exposure for your brand, which is most definitely a good thing!

Top 10 Brands on Snapchat

As of January 2015, these are the Top 10 brands on Snapchat.  

 Click Image To Enlarge

Snapchat Adds Slow-Mo, Fast-Forward, And Rewind Video Filters

Teenagers have short attention spans, but Snapchat’s latest feature could keep them tuned in.  On October 28, 2015, Snapchat introduced a new set of filters called “Speed Modifiers” for videos you shoot on iOS or Android. They let you add slow motion, fast-forward, or rewind effects to your video. Just swipe sideways after shooting a video and you’ll eventually see them applied to your snap.

Click Image To View Animation

What you see above is actually two videos stitched together. First, a clip in fast-forward, and then in rewind. Normally the Snapchat videos only go forward or backward, not both like Instagram Boomerang.

Snapchat is also adding 3D Touch capability for the iPhone 6S and 6S+ today. You can strong tap on your Snapchat homescreen icon to quickly reach options for sending a snap or adding a new friend. The features come in an update for iOS and Android that should be out soon if you don’t see it yet.

Courtesy of an article dated August 4, 2015 appearing in SocialFresh, an article dated October 23, 2015 appearing in Delmondo Blog, an article appearing in LinkedIn Pulse, an article dated November 13, 2015 appearing in MediaPost Social Media & Marketing Daily, and an article dated August 17, 2015 appearing in Likeable Social Media

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INSTAGRAM RELEASES BOOMERANG, A NEW VIDEO APP

INSTAGRAM'S NEW VIDEO APP BOOMERANG DIRECTLY COMPETES WITH VINE.

Instagram is releasing its newest app, a video maker called Boomerang. The app, announced today, allows users to create short, shareable animations that play from beginning to end and then from end to beginning—hence the name, Boomerang. This is the latest in a wave of add-on apps released by the Facebook-owned company.

In a blog post about the new Android and iOS app, Instagram wrote:

"Boomerang takes a burst of photos and stitches them together into a high-quality mini video that plays forward and backward. Shoot in portrait or landscape. Share it on Instagram. Boomerang automatically saves it to your camera roll. We’re inspired by the visual stories you tell on Instagram."

Whether Facebook admits it or not, Boomerang is fuel for the ongoing war between Instagram and Twitter’s video-centric Vine platform. Boomerang also competes with that other great GIF purveyor, Tumblr.

Other apps released recently by Instagram include Layout (which lets users create video collages) and Hyperlapse (which lets users create time-lapse videos). According to analytics firm App Annie, downloads for Hyperlapse in iOS have steadily declined since its release in 2014; it now hovers around being the 225th most downloaded photo or video app in App Annie's metrics.

COMMENTARY:   To learn more about Boomerang from Instagram check out the Instagram Help Center.

Courtesy of an article dated October 22, 2015 appearing in Fast Company

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ITS A MISTAKE FOR BRANDS TO TREAT GEN Z LIKE MILLENNIALS, GIVE THEM CONTENT THAT IS WEIRD, OFFBEAT, QUIRKY AND RAW

Marketers need to look closer at the differences between this generation and millennials to find insights with significant meaning.

As the millennial marketing craze reaches saturation, a new obsession is making the rounds among brand marketers: Gen Z. Roughly defined as anyone currently 12 to 20 years old, this group is now falling victim to many of the same vague platitudes and insights that characterized "Who Are Millennials?" articles for years.

The same conclusions about Gen Z are drawn again and again. They’re digitally savvy, because they were raised with technology. They’re either entrepreneurial souls looking to redefine the workplace or old-souled pragmatists resigned to climbing the corporate ladder. They inspire words like collaborative, optimistic, and transparent.

But most of these observations are not just banal—they’re also completely wrong. That’s because much of the generational data we see suffers from either poor survey design or misleading conclusions. Whenever we talk with teens face-to-face, it’s telling that many of the "truisms" that surveys conclude don’t hold water. And the insights that are true ("Gen Z loves tech") are too broad to construe any significant meaning.

What really separates Gen Z isn’t that they use technology, or what their values and dreams are—it’s how they choose to live their lives in digital. And after studying this group in closer detail, we’ve identified a few key ways they stand out from millennials.

To gain a perspective of the differences between Gen Z and Millennials in the workplace, this infographic based on a survey conducted by Adecco provides some very interesting insights.

Click Image To Enlarge

WE'VE GONE FROM CLEVER TO OFFBEAT

All generational differences are driven by environment. So when we talk about environmental changes for Gen Z, the first and most obvious shift is the native nature of technology in their lives. Yes, they do have more screen-time than any other demographic, but it isn’t their frequency of tech usage that’s interesting. Rather, it’s how that usage changes what resonates with them.

On the whole, millennials are attracted to the clever and witty: the sharp, biting commentary of Jon Stewart and Seth MacFarlane, content from Someecards and The Oatmeal, ads like the Old Spice guy, Messin With Sasquatch and Dos Equis’ Most Interesting Man in the World.

 

All generational differences are driven by environment. So when we talk about environmental changes for Gen Z, the first and most obvious shift is the native nature of technology in their lives. Yes, they do have more screen-time than any other demographic, but it isn’t their frequency of tech usage that’s interesting. Rather, it’s how that usage changes what resonates with them.

On the whole, millennials are attracted to the clever and witty: the sharp, biting commentary of Jon Stewart and Seth MacFarlane, content from Someecards and The Oatmeal, ads like the Old Spice guy and Dos Equis’ Most Interesting Man in the World.

But Gen Z connects to something completely different: the offbeat and raw. When we talk to teens today, a lot of what they love has a weird, unhinged sensibility to it. The media figures they look up to—people like Pewdiepie and Jerome Jarre—are embraced more for their absurdist humor than for clever witticisms. The content they share tends to mirror this as well: self-deprecating Snapchats and memes, or Vines centered around making people think you’re offbeat or quirky. This is not millennial behavior; it’s rare for a 20-something to post anything on social that makes them look strange. But for a generation that’s spent their entire lives online—mostly in the unfiltered lens of Skype, webcams, live streams and vlogs—an intimate exhibitionism has emerged in a way that older generations simply don’t have.

 

THERE ARE NO MORE SUBCULTURES, EVERYTHING IS A SUBCULTURE

When we speak to clients about their consumers, it’s generally positioned through layers. Depending on the industry, at the core are hardcore or niche users; above that, casual dabblers; and outside of that, the disinterested mainstream. But increasingly, when we talk about younger audiences, that last mainstream layer is going away.

This is another outcome of being connected to the Internet throughout one’s entire childhood. For Gen Z, niche communities and interests were facilitated at a much younger age than they were for older generations. Twenty years ago,kids were absorbed into specific subcultures over time—jocks, theater nerds, band geeks,or prepsters, to name a few. These groups were defined by shared tastes, in clothes, music, slang, and other patterns that could be easily sorted into a singular group. But for today’s teens, there’s no uniformity among hobbies, and because of that, group distinctions are falling away.

For example, we recently talked to a group of gamers who told us they don’t like being called gamers, despite the fact that it’s their favorite hobby. Privately, some of them said that even though they love gaming, they’re involved in so many other communities—rap message boards, sneaker blogs, and skating—that the label ‘gamer’ feels limiting. We don’t see this as much with millennials, who tend to use their passions and identity interchangeably.

ONLINE "LEISURE" ISN'T JUST FUN, ITS CRUCIAL TO A HEALTHY AND HAPPY LIFE

One of the biggest assumptions about the increase in time spent on digital is that it’s merely entertainment and largely a waste of time. But for teens, that entertainment is proving to be a vital component in the creation and maintenance of friendships.

A Pew study last month found that,

"More than half of teens have made new friends online, and a third of them (36%) say they met their new friend or friends while playing video games…Playing games can [also] have the effect of reinforcing a sense of friendship and connectedness."

Other types of online communities have also gone from hobbyist chats to real outlets for connection and support. Nearly a fifth of all teens go on message boards regularly, as problems that were once isolating or suppressed now have a connected community behind them. It’s important to note that without the inherent vulnerability we talked about earlier, we wouldn’t see stats like this. But because of Gen Z’s willingness to open up online, the Internet has a much greater impact on their lives.

Generation Z have been dubbed "digital natives" because of their love for sharing their activities with their friends online (Click Image To Enlarge)

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR MARKETERS?

Ultimately, vague platitudes and clichés serve no one. It's important to understand the digital culture that Gen Z lives in today if we wish to connect with them beyond a surface level. With that in mind, here are three points to think about when targeting them.

First, give them the tools to mess with anything you make, because they’ll do it anyway. Tightly controlled messages aren’t possible anymore. Gen Z is going to draw stuff on your creative, tweak it, and do whatever else they want, regardless of your intentions. Don’t fight it.

Second, build stuff for the communities they’re a part of instead of injecting messages into them. For specific product launches messages can still work fine, but when it comes to general brand building, it’s much better to think about the communities your target lives in and build things that make that community more fun or easier to navigate.

And third, take out a position that not everyone agrees with.This one is somewhat counterintuitive, as the logical thing to do would be appealing to as many people as possible. But for Gen Z, the honesty and exposure that a brand takes when doing something potentially polarizing often strengthens the connection they have with that brand.

Click Image To Enlarge

COMMENTARY:  They want to drive to their jobs, head into their private offices and meet face-to-face with colleagues before calling it a day – hopefully, not too late, since work-life balance is their primary career concern. Sound like a baby boomer, or even Gen X? On the contrary, these are the work preferences expressed by more than 770 members of Generation Z (those born between 1990 and 1999) surveyed recently by Robert Half and Enactus. 

Paul McDonald, senior executive director of Robert Half said. 

"Gen Z employees bring unique values, expectations and perspectives to their jobs.  They've grown up in economically turbulent times, and many of their characteristics and motivations reflect that."

Following are five surprising insights based on the research:

1. Open floor plans? Hot start-ups? Nah, this group's tastes skew more Mad Men than Silicon Valley.

• Forty-one percent described midsize organizations as the ideal work environment, followed by large organizations (38 percent). Only 14 percent cited start-ups.
• Forty-five percent of respondents prefer to work in a private office, and face-to-face communication is the method of choice for 74 percent.

2. They're not exactly bubbling over with youthful optimism. Meet the 'reality-check' generation.

• Seventy-seven percent believe they will need to work harder compared to those in past generations to have a satisfying and fulfilling professional life.
• Balancing work and personal obligations was the top future career concern for 28 percent of respondents, followed by making enough money (26 percent) and finding a stable job (23 percent).

3. A gold watch marking decades of service may not be in the cards, but they do plan to stay a while at their jobs -- and move quickly up the ladder.

• Gen Zers expect to work for an average of four companies throughout their lifetimes.
• Thirty-two percent believe they will be managing employees in a corporate environment within the next five years.
• One in three would like to retire by the age of 60, but only 17 percent think it will be possible.

4. Forget fancy job titles -- they mainly want more responsibIlity and an honest boss.

• Opportunity for career growth was the most commonly cited career priority, with 64 percent of respondents ranking it among their top three. An impressive job title was only cited as a priority by three percent.
• Honesty/integrity was the top quality sought in a boss, cited by 38 percent of respondents; this was followed by mentoring ability (21 percent).

5. Collaboration shouldn't be a problem, say Gen Zers, except with those baby boomers.

• Forty-five percent cited potential challenges working with baby boomers, compared to 17 percent who anticipate difficulties with Gen X and five percent with Gen Yers.

Bev Graham, Ph.D., vice president of Enactus USA programs, said, "Gen Z professionals are full of potential, but these young adults will need support in honing their skills and harnessing their enthusiasm to address real-world employment situations, such as the need to communicate more formally in certain situations."

Added McDonald, "This group of professionals has grown up with technology available to them around the clock and is accustomed to constant learning. Companies with a solid understanding of this generation's values and preferences will be well prepared to create work environments that attract a new generation of employees and maximize their potential." 

Visit roberthalf.com/generation-z to view infographics, learn more about the research and download the white paper.

Courtesy of an article dated October 1, 2015 appearing in Fast Company Create and an article dated July 15, 2015 appearing in Robert Half, and an analysis of a survey about the differences between Gen Z and Millennials conducted by employment staffing firm Adecco 

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GOOGLE'S NEW CHROMECAST IS THE ANTI-APPLE TV AND IS IS ALSO AVAILABLE FOR STREAMING MUSIC THROUGH YOUR AUDIO SPEAKERS

CHROMECAST HAS BEEN REDESIGNED TO FIT YOUR TV, AND YOUR VIEWING HABITS, IN A WAY APPLE TV NEVER WILL.

Today, Google has revealed two new Chromecasts. One is for your TV. One is for your speakers. Both cost $35. And a new app can suck in all of your streaming subscriptions, search them, and get you watching them in seconds.

Google Chromecast for your television (Click Image To Enlarge)

Google Chromecast for your audio speakers (Click Image To Enlarge)

It’s the anti-Apple TV approach. Google’s hardware is cheap, and purposefully forgettable. But more importantly, it uses the apps that are already on your phone to juggle all of the things you want to watch.

New Apple TV and remote (Click Image To Enlarge)

This is Google's big play in TV. Rather than have you download more apps, deal with more logins, and wave a remote at the big screen, Google is countering Apple with what Google does best: connecting your world via invisible Google gunk, to make watching a smarter TV as mindless as ever.

Which approach will prove right?

SO FAR, APPLE'S BUT IT HAD A HUGE HEAD START

If there’s ever been a metric of Google’s sometimes quiet scale, it’s this: In two years, even though your mom has probably never heard of it, Google has sold 20 million of its original Chromecast—a tiny HDMI dongle that connects to your phone and slides into your TV, to stream movies and TV shows.

AppleTV, which launched way back in 2007 with the full Steve Jobs treatment, sold about half that many by 2013, though sales have accelerated as of late, pushing them to 25 million units sold in roughly eight years.

So Apple TV, once a flop of an experiment, is rapidly gaining momentum. But even though Google’s design traditionally hasn’t been placed on a pedestal alongside Apple’s, it can actually have as great of an impact on the market—and even signal winds of design change. Since launching the Chromecast stick, Amazon and Roku both launched similar minimal media devices. Living rooms, once dominated by set-top boxes, have seen an invasion from discreet, USB-style sticks powered by cellphone guts.

Google Chromecast for TV works with all your apps to you can view their content on your TV (Click Image To Enlarge)

JUGGLING YOUR CONTENT, FROM YOUR PHONE

Chromecast’s biggest update is really its app. Formerly just a portal for your Chromecast settings, it’s now a full-blown media hub on your Android or iOS device.

The app sets itself up by scanning your phone for other apps. If it detects that you have Netflix and HBO Go installed, then the content of those apps will simply be added to Chromecast. You’ll see a queue from each service with their own suggestions of what you should watch.

Most notably, you don’t need to log in to these apps again, nor do you need to tell your Chromecast, via your TV, to download them. Google is juggling the backend of all these services, using your phone as your digital thumbprint, to reduce user friction and keep the experience couch-friendly. So all you have to do is tap the thing you want to watch—and while technically your phone will deep link you over to the Netflix app to play the content, and technically the Chromecast itself is running its own version of the Netflix app that’s already buffered this content to make it play smoothly—to you, it just plays.

All of this seamlessness will be Google's sell for making the phone the hub of its TV experience. Meanwhile, Apple TV with apps will function more or less like another phone, with all-new, separate app downloads and logins. And while developers salivate over the idea of Apple TV showing a path to true interactive content, there's no reason Chromecast couldn't do the same through a phone.

Google product manager Micah Collins explains. 

"The real estate from this point forward is the Chromecast app in a device in your hand.  That’s the strategic opportunity that I think is giving us reason to go down this path."

Google Chromecast for TV is a wire not a dongle stick (Click Image To Enlarge)

A WIRE, NOT A DONGLE OR A TROPHY

In terms of its industrial design, the new Chromecast is, notably, no longer a stick. It’s a Beats headphone-like puck that hangs, like one long wire, off the back of your TV or near your speaker. Why a puck? Michael Sundermeyer, hardware design lead on the project, calls it "uniquely Google," a visual play off the Chrome logo that can be more of an icon than a glorified USB stick could have been.

Functionally, the round shape allows the Chromecast to fit several antennas with different orientations to capture floating radio waves with dependability. "Having multiple antennas with different orientations and purposes is a way you make Wi-Fi reception reliable," Sundermeyer explains. For the Chromecast Audio, the puck features a 3.5mm jack, RCA, and optical jack for plugging into any speaker you like to stream services like Spotify, Pandora, and Google Play Music.

For the video version of Chromecast, which streams HD (not 4K) content, Google designed what it believes is the thinnest magnetically shielded HDMI cable in the world to connect from the puck into the TV, even within the tiniest gaps of a wall-mounted set.

Sundermeyer explains. 

"It was a lot harder than any of us believed. HDMI cables tend to be really thick, rough things. They barely bend at all.  We wanted something that just the weight of the puck would make it drape a certain way . . . [and it] had to fit with the design, strong enough to withstand shoulders of twists and bends."

To get the mix of shielding and flexibility, Google enlisted its own mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, and designers, who spent months sandwiching materials like kevlar and molded plastics until they got the cord just right. And, if you really think about it, maybe it’s not so crazy that Google spent so much time on the wire. Because when you actually install the Chromecast, it dangles from the back of your TV, hidden in the shadows of wiring, rather than featured like a sleek trophy of capitalism on your media shelf.

The Chromecast is, in essence, a wire, a symbolic product that’s almost mocking Apple’s prominence on your shelf, while reinforcing the idea that Google’s value—and what really matters—is really the information piping through the line.

STRATEGIC OPPORTUNITY

When you consider that the Chromecast is really just your cellphone identity playing out on your television, it’s easy to see what Collins meant by the "strategic opportunity" at play: The cellphone could scale Chromecast to handle other services in your home. Apple TV isn’t just an entertainment device, after all. It’s Apple’s trojan horse for Homekit and the greater Internet of Things hub in your home. (Notably, Microsoft had the exact same play planned for your Xbox One, though it will probably never come to fruition at this point since the Xbox has been repositioned as a gaming machine to tackle the PS4.)

It seems that the Nest thermostat will be Google’s Internet of Things hub. But when you think about just how challenging it will be to control a whole home of lightbulbs with a remote aimed at a 50-inch screen, the solution seems simple: This would work so much better on a multitouch screen that’s always in your pocket, but could be easily extended to any shared screen in your home.

Of course, Apple won't go that route. It makes too much money off hard products to leverage the true power of its own preeminent smartphone—leaving Google just the "real estate" it needs to take over your TV, your home, and maybe even your future, starting at just $35.

COMMENTARY:   Engadget prepared the following comparison between the new Google Chromecast TV vs ROKU Streaming Stick vs Amazon Fire TV Stick:

Click Image To Enlarge

I use the original Chromecast for TV and just love it, but I use it mostly to watch YouTube videos. Love the fact that the new Chromecast for TV automatically recognizes any apps you may have installed on your mobile device (phone and tablets) and seamlessly allows you to interact with each app without having to "boot" them separately like you need to do the older Chromecast for TV.  This is a nice feature which Apple TV also incorporates, but Apple requires you to hook it up to your regular TV and use the remote control.  With Chromecast TV you are completely mobile and can take Chromecast TV on the road and hook it up to any TV that has an HDMI port. Your mobile device is your remote control. I have two HDMI ports on my Vizio, and my old Chromecast TV works great, albeit a bit slow at times. The newer Chromecast for TV's WIFI performance is supposed to be significantly better and faster, eliminating the latency caused by the buffering of the older version and the result is much better video and audio performance. Can hardly wait to upgrade, and at $35.00 it makes this so much easier.

Here's the video of Google's unveiling of the new Chromecast for TV on September 29.  

  

BREAKING:  AMAZON BANS SELLING CHROMECAST AND APPLE TV 

Effective September 30, 2015, Amazon announced that it will stop selling media-streaming devices from Google Inc. and Apple Inc. that aren’t easily compatible with its video service, the latest example of the company using its clout to promote products that fit with its own retailing strategy.

The Seattle-based Web retailer sent an e-mail to its marketplace sellers that it will stop selling the Apple TV and Google’s Chromecast since those devices don’t "interact well" with Prime Video. No new listings for the products will be allowed and posting of existing inventory will be removed Oct. 29, Amazon said. Prime Video doesn’t run easily on its rival’s hardware.

Roku Inc.’s set-top device, Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox and Sony Corp.’s PlayStation, which work with Amazon’s video service, aren’t affected, it said. Amazon’s Fire TV stick, which plugs into an HDMI port to connect televisions with streaming services such as Netflix and Prime Video, is the company’s best-selling electronic device.

  

Courtesy of an article dated September 29, 2015 appearing in Fast Company Design and an article dated September 29, 2015 appearing in Engadget and an article dated October 1, 2015 appearing in Bloomberg

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FACEBOOK ROLLING OUT 360-DEGREE VIDEO IN USER NEWSFEED, BUT HIGH COST AND COMPLEXITY COULD BE AN ISSUE

Mark Zuckerberg discusses spherical 360-degree videos at F8 developers conference in March 2015

Trying to whet consumer appetites for virtual environments -- and increase engagement in the process -- Facebook is officially rolling out 360-degree “spherical” videos in News Feed.

The social giant has also enlisted some big publishers and media brands to start pumping out 360-degree videos. They include Discovery, GoPro, NBC’s Saturday Night Live, VICE, LeBron James & Uninterrupted, and, with the help of Disney and Lucasfilm, Star Wars.

The professionals' videos will “help show the range of possibilities with this new medium,” Maher Saba, engineering director for video at Facebook, explains in a new blog post.

 

To create the videos, a special set of two-dozen or so cameras are arranged in spherical form. As a result, when the resulting video is streamed, users can choose what angle they want to see it from. Saba said.  

“On the Web you can do this by dragging around the video with your cursor, and on mobile devices you do it by dragging with your finger -- or even just by turning your device.”

Users should soon be able to hold up their phones, and the 360 video will follow their movement as they turn. At some point in the not-too-distant future, 360 videos will let users virtually immerse themselves in various environments and events from a friend’s trip to the Grand Canyon to a live news broadcast from Iraq.

 

Earlier this year, Facebook began testing spherical videos. CEO Mark Zuckerberg was especially upbeat about the technology's potential during Facebook’s annual F8 developer conference in March. Facebook is also reportedly working on a stand-alone video app that will support 360-degree “spherical” videos. As sources told The Wall Street Journal, the fate and launch date of the service remains unclear.

The greatest potential for the new videos will come when Facebook launches its Oculus Rift virtual reality headset sometime next year.

By 2020, virtual reality will represent a $30 billion market, while augmented reality will be a $120 billion market, according to a recent forecast from Digi-Capital.

COMMENTARY:    Technology is in a constant state of motion in the online video industry, but that doesn’t mean marketers need to adopt every new trend. One thing you do want to pay attention to, though, is 360 video.   However, there are five things you need to know about 360 video right now:

1. It’s a different form of storytelling. One of the most important things to consider with 360-degree video, or spherical video as YouTube refers to it, is that creators approach this format as an immersive experience rather than a typical video. Unlike traditional videos and cinema, the viewers have control over what they see. YouTube compares this to a choose-your-own adventure in its blog announcement.

In a nutshell, the viewer controls the recorded camera angle by tilting and panning on their computer or mobile device via the video player. This can be an excellent tool for publishers that want to deliver a rich media experience: You could give your audience a fully interactive look at a tradeshow, a real estate listing, a new building, or even a sports or news event, for example.

2. Like most new systems, there are some pitfalls. 360 video produces some amazing footage, but because it’s a new technology there are some production downsides. For marketers, the number one pitfall right now is the cost.

The GoPro and Google Jump

Creators need special cameras to capture 360-degree video. Google and GoPro are creating a 16-camera array called the Jump that can capture high-quality video, but the rig is estimated to be in the $7,000 to $10,000 range based on the cost of 16 GoPro cameras. It’s set to be released later this year. Google is giving select creators early access to the Jump cameras by applying via its website.

360 Heros created its own GoPro rig that uses six GoPro cameras (sold separately) and will set you back $595. There are several consumer 360-degree video cameras out there that are priced around $300, but quality has been a concern with many of them. So, pricing options and quality vary, but it’ll be an investment.

Also, keep in mind that any production team will need time to get up to speed on these cameras. Composition and framing will need to be mapped out and planned ahead of time to accommodate the stich lines, for example. Consider the cost and time of training if you are looking to produce 360-degree spherical video.

3. It will change your production team’s workflow. It’s helpful for marketers to understand the production process. Your team’s post-production workflow will require some modification. To start, the multi-camera content will need to be “stitched” together in editing to create a seamless video.

While some manufacturers do this for you inside of the camera, others require that you use post-processing software. Programs like Kolor (acquired by GoPro), Video-Stitch, and AVP have been popular with early adopters. Video-Stitch says 1 minute of video takes about 1.5 minutes to stitch.

All of this media will also need to be stored somewhere for ingestion and post-processing, so you may need to bump up your team’s storage systems to accommodate the workflow. At minimum, it is suggested that you have 32GB RAM available on your system when working in this format.

Editing this spherical content will differ from other video projects, as well. Once the footage is stitched together, your editor can use popular programs like Adobe Premiere with plugins to finish the video. The main difference is the creative process for your editing teams. They will not be assembling a sequence of shots to show an audience, but rather a 360-degree image that the viewer will have control over when watching. Keep this in mind from beginning to end—from brainstorming and storyboarding to shooting.

4. There’s a lot of opportunity for viewership. The popularity of spherical video is steadily growing in part thanks to video giants like YouTube supporting 360-degree video uploads. Viewers can watch 360-video on YouTube via a computer or its iOS and Android apps.

YouTube is even working with spherical camera manufacturers to allow for seamless compatibly in future releases. Right now, additional metadata and a script must be included with your video upload in order for it to work correctly, but chances are YouTube will simplify this process in the future.

Wherever YouTube is, Facebook can’t be far behind. The social network is definitely making a push for spherical video distribution. Mark Zuckerberg revealed in March that Facebook was testing a 24-camera setup that would allow viewers to move around within a video. He even hinted at plans to get spherical video working in the Facebook newsfeed. This, coupled with Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus Rift in 2014, is proof that we’ll see spherical video on Facebook sooner rather than later.

VLC Media Player and Windows Media also support 360 video playback, in case you were wondering.

5. Once again, timing is everything. Just like live streaming, virtual reality technology has been around for some time now. However, timing means everything when it comes to technology. The emergence of apps like Periscope and Meerkat are great examples of that.

This year, streaming took off on these apps because of the ease of accessibility. Not only can we easily watch live streams, but also we can also quickly create them. Spherical video is following that same path. With YouTube and Facebook investing in it, both publishers and viewers will have the opportunity to distribute and watch 360-degree video content.

Another reason I think 360 video will take off is that it doesn’t require viewers to wear a virtual reality headset like in the past. While the headset option is there and promises a more immersive experience, your audience doesn’t need to wear one in order to enjoy spherical video. This simplifies the viewing experience because your viewer doesn’t need to invest extra money to watch.

Last, but not least, you can expect to see more spherical video creation with the release of consumer-priced 360-degree video cameras. This could be a huge factor given the popularity of photo and video sharing sites. That, in addition to the growth of high-quality smartphone cameras, drones, and GoPro-style sports cameras, could make for a huge push in this new way of producing video.

As with anything else, marketers and publishers should keep in mind how something will benefit their brands. If providing your audience with this type of an experience makes sense, then keep an eye on 360-degree video. Think about the five factors above and decide whether or not you want to experiment with this format.

Courtesy of an article dated September 23, 2015 appearing in MediaPost Social Media & Marketing Daily and an article dated July 5, 2015 appearing in OnlineVideo and an article dated September 23, 2015 appearing in The Verge

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APPLE CAVES TO TAYLOR SWIFT, WILL PAY ARTISTS ROYALTIES DURING 3-MONTH APPLE MUSIC TRIAL PERIOD, BUT DON'T FEEL SORRY FOR APPLE

APPLE IS SKILLED at attracting praise. Often, the tech giant deserves that praise. This is not one of those times.

On Sunday, high-ranking Apple exec Eddy Cue tweeted that the company would, in fact, pay royalties to musicians during the three-month free trial period of its new music platform Apple Music.

This decision was a reversal of an earlier policy that became the center of controversy this weekend when megastar Taylor Swift wrote a blog post slamming Apple for its plan not to pay artists while Apple Music was in its trial phase.  Sift said.  

“It is unfair to ask anyone to work for nothing,”  

She added that she would be withholding her most recent album, 1989—that of “Shake It Off” fame—from Apple Music.

 

Last week, BuzzFeed reported that Swift had pulled her wildly popular "1989" album from Apple Music because of the streaming service's decision not to pay royalties during its three-month trial period. That followed her decision last year to remove "1989" from Spotify because she didn't think the company gave enough money to artists.

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Apple has always positioned itself as a company that stands by musicians.   So Apple changed its policy.  Cue wrote on Twitter. 

“We hear you @taylorswift13 and indie artists. Love, Apple.”

Apple's Eddy Cue Tweets in response to Taylor Swift's music pullout (Click Image To Enlarge)

Swift responded saying she was “elated and relieved,” and Apple came out looking like the good guy in a crowded industry in which artists and the tech companies that profit from them are often butting heads.

Click Image To Enlarge

Cue told Billboard in an interview today.

“We never looked at it as not paying them.   We had originally negotiated these deals based on paying them a higher royalty rate on an ongoing basis to compensate for this brief time. But when I woke up this morning (Sunday, June 21) and saw what Taylor had written, it really solidified that we needed to make a change.”

And yet, the only change Apple is making is paying artists what they should have been paid all along. If Apple were really so pro-artist, would it have instituted a policy that withheld royalties from artists in the first place?  It doesn’t seem surprising that artists would balk at the prospect of not getting paid. But Apple’s roots in the music industry run deep—all the way back to the birth of the iPod. It seems reasonable to believe that Apple thought it could get away with not paying because it didn’t think anyone would be bold enough to speak out against a company that is already such a force in music. And if anyone did protest—props to you, T Swift—the decision would be easy enough to reverse—and might even score Apple Music some good press.

Jeff Rabhan, an artist manager and chair of the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University, says.  

“They only did the right thing because they got caught,” 

A Band-Aid on an Open Wound

Apple has always positioned itself as a company that stands by musicians. With iTunes, it saved the industry from the Napster era of pirated music and has helped artists actually sell music even as streaming services threatened to shrink artists’ income. So while Rabhan applauds Apple’s decision to pay artists their fair share, he calls the original plan “a slap in the face” to musicians who have bought into Apple’s promise. Rabhan says.  

“I think Apple felt that they could get away with it because they’re Apple. They felt the artists would just go along with it.”

Had Apple planned to do the right thing all along—that is, paid artists for their music—there wouldn’t have been a story. But its apparent change of heart has garnered big headlines—and more publicity for Apple Music. The company even got a full-throated endorsement from Taylor Swift out of it. That’s worth every penny of the millions of dollars Apple will now pay artists as a result of this change—millions, let’s not forget, that Apple can well afford.

'It’s the model that doesn't work.' - JEFF RABHAN

Meanwhile, smaller rivals like Spotify have been vilified by artists, including Swift, who pulled her music from Spotify in November 2014, arguing that artists deserved to make more from the platform.

 

Rather than bowing to Ms. Swift, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek wrote a blog post defending its royalty agreements, claiming that the company has paid $2 billion to labels, publishers, and music owners. That stance turned Spotify into the poster child for the ongoing battle between artists and streaming services, a reputation Rabhan says is not altogether warranted.

Rabhan says. 

“They’ve (Spotify) become the beacon of the negativity surrounding streaming, but they haven’t specifically done anything wrong. It’s the model that doesn’t work.”  

Spotify is still a young company, he argues, struggling to make a profit, and it pays about 70 percent of revenue to music rights holders. That’s not much different than the 71.5 percent Apple is paying. The only difference is Spotify’s future might actually depend on those margins. Apple’s does not.

For Apple to prove it truly stands with artists, Rabhan says, it would have to fundamentally change the way these contracts are negotiated, striking deals directly with the artists instead of music labels. Until that happens, he argues, Apple has done little more than “put a Band-Aid on an open wound” that cuts across the industry.

If anyone deserves the credit, Rabhan says, it’s Swift, who he says has emerged as the most unlikely advocate for artists’ rights. She’s not a crusty old-timer or an unknown artist with a lot to lose. She’s the most relevant star of our day, the person who needs the money least, but is using that power to stand up for emerging artists. Rabhan says.  

“I would have never expected it to be her, but Taylor Swift is the voice of artists right now in a sea of silence.”

COMMENTARY:   Taylor Swift also doesn't think music streaming services appropriately value her art.

In an interview for Time magazine's cover story in mid-November 2014, Swift commented on her decision to pull all of her songs from the streaming service Spotify.

She reiterated opinions she voiced in a Wall Street Journal op-ed in July, saying that artists should value their art and make sure that people are paying enough money for it. 

Swift also notes that Spotify could hurt music sales. Music is available for streaming on Spotify even to those who don't pay for a premium subscription (those users are shown ads).

Swift told Time.

"[People] can still listen to my music if they get it on iTunes.  I’m always up for trying something. And I tried it and I didn’t like the way it felt. I think there should be an inherent value placed on art.  I didn't see that happening, perception-wise, when I put my music on Spotify. Everybody's complaining about how music sales are shrinking, but nobody's changing the way they're doing things. They keep running towards streaming, which is, for the most part, what has been shrinking the numbers of paid album sales. With Beats Music and Rhapsody you have to pay for a premium package in order to access my albums. And that places a perception of value on what I've created. On Spotify, they don't have any settings, or any kind of qualifications for who gets what music. I think that people should feel that there is a value to what musicians have created, and that's that. I wrote about this in July, I wrote an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal. This shouldn’t be news right now. It should have been news in July when I went out and stood up and said I'm against it. And so this is really kind of an old story."

Artists generally don't make nearly as much money putting their music on Spotify as they do selling digital albums and songs on services like iTunes.

Spotify says it pays 70% of its revenue to labels — which will amount to about $1 billion this year — but some artists feel they don't get a big enough cut. The streaming service revealed last year that it paid record labels an average of less than a penny per play, and that's just the money going to labels, not the artists.

Scott Borchetta, the CEO of Swift's record label Big Machine, told Time on Wednesday that the label earned only $500,000 from domestic streaming on Spotify in the past year. Spotify told Time that the amount the service paid for streams of Swift's music in the past year was actually $2 million if you account for global streams as well as domestic.

But it's unclear how much of that money was seen by Swift. Spotify paid the $2 million to Universal, which holds the rights to Swift's music, and then her label Big Machine got a cut.

CONCLUSION:  KUDOS to Taylor Swift for becoming an unlikely lightning rod for music artists everywhere.  She has become the "Joan of Arc" for all music artists by standng up to Apple.  Score: Swift 1, Apple 0.  Spotify needs to get its act together and change its royalty policy as well.  

Whether the music labels will allow individual artists to negotiate royalty deals directly with Apple, Spotify and other online music platforms could be difficult to do since they incur a lot of costs to get an album produced, promotied and distributed.  I am sure they will not give up their legal rights to the artist.  Will this force artists to develop their own music production and distribution companies? That remains to be seen.

Courtesy of an article dated June 22, 2015 appearing in Wired and an article dated November 13, 2014 appearing in Business Insider

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TWITTER'S TOP SECRET "PROJECT LIGHTNING" USES EVENT TWEETS TO BRING CURATED AND VISUALLY IMMERSIVE CONTENT TO USERS

Twitter is developing a new major feature called "Project Lightning" that will use the concept of “events” to bring a curated and immersive experience to users, BuzzFeed's Mat Honan reports.

Dick Costolo is bouncing in his chair. He’s just vibrating. It’s a Tuesday afternoon, less than 48 hours before he will make public his resignation as Twitter’s CEO. And right now, he’s ebullient.

Costolo asks, excitedly, spinning side to side in his chair a bit.

“So, What did you think?”

Costolo is asking about Project Lightning, a major new feature for Twitter — and a new direction for the company that will launch later this year. Project Lightning will bring event-based curated content to the Twitter platform, complete with immersive and instant-load photos and videos and the ability to embed those experiences across the Web — and even in other apps.

Kevin Weil, who runs product for the company, says. 

“It’s a brand-new way to look at tweets.  This is a bold change, not evolutionary.”

It is also still a few months out, and things could change. But here’s how it will work.

On Twitter’s mobile app, there will be a new button in the center of the home row. Press it and you’ll be taken to a screen that will show various events taking place that people are tweeting about. These could be based on prescheduled events like Coachella, the Grammys, or the NBA Finals. But they might also focus on breaking news and ongoing events, like the Nepalese earthquake or Ferguson, Missouri. Essentially, if it’s an event that a lot of people are tweeting about, Twitter could create an experience around it.

Weil explains. 

“It’s around anything that’s interesting.  It could be current events. It could be breaking news. It could be awards shows or sports. But also cultural events and moments — things around your location and where you are. There’s amazing content, for example, posted to Throwback Thursday every single Thursday. But it’s hard to discover it; you have to work as a user to go and find the best stuff, but [we] can do it easily and can package it richly.”

Launch one of these events and you’ll see a visually driven, curated collection of tweets. A team of editors, working under Katie Jacobs Stanton, who runs Twitter’s global media operations, will select what it thinks are the best and most relevant tweets and package them into a collection.

These collections are designed to take advantage of images and videos associated with a particular event, and to bring them to life. None of that media is presented in the standard Twitter timeline — each tweet, picture, or video will take up the entire screen of your phone. You’ll view them one at a time by swiping. Importantly, collections will include — and thus promote — not only pictures and videos posted to Twitter, but Vines and Periscope videos as well.

All of these videos play automatically — and they load almost instantly. They just fire as you swipe over to them — that’s the idea, anyway.

You can click in and simply scroll through a curated event, and as you do a scrub bar along the bottom of the Twitter client tracks your progress until you either reach its end or catch up with tweets being posted in real time. So, for example, as you scrolled through tweets about the Super Bowl during the third quarter, the bar might start an hour or two before kickoff, and as you progressed through all of the curated videos and photos you’d eventually hit the most current, identified by a lightning bolt icon.

This BuzzFeed-created artist rendering showing how a final version of Project Lightning might look. Images and videos appear full screen as you swipe through them.  A timeline across the bottom shows you where you are in an event as it progresses over time. MIchelle Rial/BuzzFeed (Click Image To Enlarge)

What’s more, you can also opt to follow an event and have curated tweets blended into your timeline. And that doesn’t mean you follow accounts where those tweets originate. So, for example, while you might see Ellen DeGeneres’ tweets from the Grammys in a curated Grammys event, you would not actually begin following her if you were not already. When the Grammys end, so do the tweets. In other words, you automatically unfollow an event at its conclusion. And you can still experience curated events without following anything just by going to that center tab.

Finally, you can access these Lightning events on or off Twitter — whether you’re logged in, active, or not. You’ll be able to view them on:

• Desktop computers via Twitter.com.
• Mobile devices via its mobile apps.
• Even as embeds on other webpages.

If they are embedded off-site, the events will continue to update as more curated tweets are added.

Weil says.  

“There’s a beautiful connection to our strategy of reaching users on every platform.  It’s not just logged-in Twitter, it’s logged-out, and it’s syndicated on other websites and mobile apps. This reaches all of them. The collections are a core part of our logged-in experience — that’s the point of being in the center tab. But you can easily imagine them as logged-out experiences telling about something happening now out in the world. And you can imagine them — and this is new — as collections and syndicating them across any website or mobile app.”

That last bit is important because it’s a play to get Twitter in front of a lot more eyeballs. For the past year, as Wall Street has demanded user growth, Twitter has promoted the notion that what matters is not how many people use its service, but how many see tweets. Project Lightning is not just a way to reach more eyeballs; it’s also a gateway drug that Twitter hopes will convert those eyeballs into active users. More to the point, it’s a way to help people who might find Twitter confusing connect with events that are important to them and are also driving discussion on Twitter.

Stanton explains.

“We’ve seen in the past that we have so much conversation around events.  The Oscars, or the NBA Finals. Breaking news events like Ferguson. Memes like Alex From Target. … But the challenge we’ve had over the years is, although we have the world’s greatest content, it’s like having a television without a channel guide or even a remote control. There’s no way to really find it or contextualize that content. So [Project Lightning] is this beautiful vessel for us to surface great content and make it more delightful.”

To put them together, Stanton is building out a new media team of people in its major markets throughout the world, all of whom, she says, have newsroom backgrounds. They’ll use data tools to comb through events and understand emerging trends, and pluck the best content from the ocean of updates flowing across Twitter’s servers. But human beings will decide which tweets to include. That could put Twitter in an editorial position — deciding what to include and from whom — in a way it hasn’t really been before.

Stanton says.  

“We’re developing an editorial policy around those judgement calls.  We’re making sure that there’s fairness and integrity, and that we have a set of guidelines we can review before saying yes to that particular tweet or video and including it in Project Lightning.”

Twitter anticipates posting seven to ten of these events a day. But Costolo tells BuzzFeed News that the company intends to eventually open up the tool that it uses to build curated events to other organizations. So someday a publication focused on a niche interest like, say, sailing could create a collection around an event that might not be big enough to broadcast to Twitter’s entire audience, but would still be appealing to a niche demographic.

The idea for Project Lightning has been around for some time now. It began as a hack day project in January, and has been presented at multiple board meetings. BuzzFeed News learned about parts of the project and approached Twitter for more details, which were provided last week.

All of that seemed to be thrown into flux just a few days after the demo, when Costolo announced he was stepping down. But both Costolo and incoming interim CEO Jack Dorsey, the burly-bearded iCEO, insist Twitter remains committed to Project Lightning.

Dorsey said in response to a question about his commitment to the Project Lightning initiative.  

“Yes.  Yes, period. We’ve seen this at a few board meetings now, and I’m super excited about it, because it’s extremely engaging.”

The concept of Project Lightning is one for which critics have long clamored: an experience that lets people who aren’t hardcore Twitter users — or Twitter users at all — suck up the flow of real-time information without needing a deep understanding of Twitter’s product. It’s a way to show highlights of the news in real time as flows and crests. While that might be a feature that was many months in the making, it’s also, conceptually at least, something that should have happened years ago.

After all, Twitter has experimented with surfacing event-related content before, starting with its elections.twitter.com subsite in 2008 and continuing through this past week when it prompted users to check out the NBA Finals. But the company never managed to really nail a way for people who weren’t already invested in Twitter to get much out of its real time nature, and that certainly contributed to the drumbeat of critics calling for Costolo’s head. Could that be why Twitter is only now getting around to it?

Costolo, however, says Project Lightning is not a response to critics. He explains.  

“It’s been in the works for a long, long time.  I have no doubt that when it launches people will create a narrative that it was the result of something critical. People think I read something and then two months later we launched something — but that’s not the way this works. This has been in the works for months and months.”

And there are still months more left, too. While its videos may load and play in an instant, Project Lightning itself will have been a long time coming.

COMMENTARY:   Twitter management has known about Project Lightning since the end of 2014, and it is now almost July.  The Board of Directors loves the idea, so why isn't it alreay part of Twitter?  This is a great new enhancement to increase the user experience, and that could increase enagement and new users because of the ability to embed events outside of Twitter.  Embeded videos throughout the Web has greatly increased traffic and engagement on YouTube, and I think Project Lightning could have a similar effect.  However, Twitter should not wait until "later this year." to add this new feature.  It should be part of Twitter much sooner than this.    `

Courtesy of an article dated June 18, 2015 appearing in BuzzFeed

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