Deep Focus 2014 Outlook

CONTENTS
FOREWORD: Be Prepared for Change ............................................................................ 3
FOREWORD: The Big Idea Is Dead. Long Live the Big Idea. ........................................... 5
OUTLOOK

1. 2014 Will be the Year of Mobile. Again................................................................ 7

2. Mobile & Social Marketing Drive Business Results ............................................ 9

3. Context Marketing Will Unlock Mobile Effectiveness ....................................... 11

4. 2014 Will See The Great Content Marketing Shakeout .................................... 12

5. Context Marketing Will Overshadow Mobile Display......................................... 13

6. Geo-Fencing Will Spur Shopper Marketing Creativity ....................................... 15

7. 2014 Will See The Return Of User Experience ................................................. 17

8. Predictive Analytics Will (Try To) Transcend Buzzwords .................................... 19

9. The Less-Snappy Messaging App Landscape ................................................... 21

10. Pinterest Will Find Some Shopper Marketing Love......................................... 23

11. Wearable Computing Will Go Beyond Looking Nerdy...................................... 25

12. Brands Will Continue To Pursue The Second Screen, Sometimes in Vain....... 27

CONTRIBUTORS............................................................................................................ 29
ABOUT DEEP FOCUS..................................................................................................... 30

Copyright ©2014 by Deep Focus, Inc. All rights reserved.
The third-party content, trademarks and service marks contained herein are the property and responsibility
of their respective owners.

PAGE 2

2014

THE DEEP FOCUS DIGITAL MARKETING OUTLOOK

FOREWORD

BE
PREPARED
FOR
CHANGE
PAGE 3

2014


FOREWORD

BE PREPARED
FOR CHANGE

IAN SCHAFER
CEO & Founder

Every time the calendar turns over,
it becomes easier for a marketer
to get overwhelmed by change.
It seems to be the only thing we
can count on these days. As new
platforms emerge, “the next big
thing” sputters out. We finally get
good at building websites, and
then smartphones become the
web’s primary access point. We
preach social media engagement,
and then the platforms tell us it’s
all about reach.

As you read this forecast it’s worth
remembering that the one thing
that doesn’t change is what you’re ultimately responsible for – doing
more things that help your company to sell more stuff.
So before we get into detail, I wanted to get a few things out of the way.

PAGE 4

Buzzwords aren’t bad unless they are used to mask a lack of understanding. Otherwise, they are shorthand. The problem is that it's
tough to tell the difference between the two.
The next new thing may look like the same old thing, but it’s the new
things that people do with them that make all the difference.
No matter what anyone says, it’s always about reach, and it always
has been. But now, reach is as much a result of what consumers do
as how much you spend.
Be prepared for a collapse, or at least correction, of the “traditional”
display advertising business that will likely start to unfold in 2014,
as mobile browsing starts to become the norm. Both publishers and
advertisers will need to begin their adaptation to a post-display-addominated world.
This document isn’t about forecasting individual trends as much as it
is about preparing you for the ones no one saw coming. Our aim is
to help you be best prepared for this and everything else 2014 and
beyond have in store.

2014


FOREWORD

THE BIG
IDEA IS DEAD.
LONG LIVE
THE BIG IDEA.
PAGE 5

2014


FOREWORD

THE BIG IDEA IS DEAD.
LONG LIVE THE BIG IDEA.
Last year in our 2013 Outlook, we said something bold: "In 2013, smart
content marketing won’t be an option or a nice-to-have. It will be critical.
Marketers that don’t find ways for their brand's voice to be heard authentically in social and mobile will find them drowned out in traditional
media channels, including digital display advertising."
We were right. It was a big year for lightweight content, the year brands
took their role as publisher seriously.
But something even more important happened as a result. "The Big Idea"
became relevant again. As brands continue to adjust from messaging
their way to results in one or two big TV spots to communicating in
hundreds of lighter, more sharable messages and executions – from
tweets to microcontent – the need for a single, unifying idea to which all
roads can lead consumers has increased in importance.
Even in the face of a much-needed renaissance, the big idea has had to
evolve. Significantly. The big idea can no longer be a single word that a
clever writer can say in a board room and then drop the mike as they
get showered in praise and Lions. Instead, it needs to be a rich concept
that has enough depth, meaning, and yes, human, consumer intelligence
behind it to drive these hundreds of communications. It needs to be
able to answer simple but terrifying questions about how a brand should
behave, and what it should say (and shouldn't). This kind of thinking is
exceptionally important today.
Brands and their partners who get it are seeing the promise of digital
finally, finally, come to fruition. And it is an exciting time.

PAGE 6

Many marketers will say that the
big idea has always been alive
and well, and that perhaps digital
marketers just haven't understood
it. And some never learned the
value of a big idea to begin with.
But years of tactical, over-tested,
fragmented advertising – in all
channels – suggest the big idea
has been dead or at least very ill
for years. And as a result, most
marketers' big idea muscles are
rusty.

KEN KRAEMER

Executive Creative Director

But the nature of marketing
channels today – demanding brands
be always-on and resposive to consumers within minutes and hours
instead of weeks and months – elevates the big idea from a quaint advertising term to a concept critical to the character of a brand and the
marketing operations that build it. Best of all, once you nail your big idea,
it becomes more valuable and efficient with every spot, ad, app, tweet
and post you make.
Our outlook for 2014 is optimistic. As marketers, it has never been a
more exciting time. The following things to watch for range from very
strategic to very tactical, but all are related in one big way. For marketers,
none of them will matter, and none of them will work at all if not driven
by a healthy, big idea.

2014


59.5%
}
PAGE 7

PROJECTED MOBILE
AD SPENDING GROWTH IN 2014*

2014

*www.eMarketer.com

1

THE OUTLOOK

2014 WILL BE THE YEAR OF MOBILE. AGAIN.
(AND MOBILE ADVERTISING STILL WON’T WORK)

THE BRIEFING
It seems like every year, pundits claim that this
will finally be the year of mobile. 2014 won’t
be any different. According to data collected by
Morgan Stanley, it is inevitable that the number
of mobile users will surpass the number of
desktop users this year.
What is also inevitable is that marketers will
pump billions of dollars into ineffective mobile
advertising. According to eMarketer, mobile
display advertising grew by more than 132% in
2013. It’s expected to grow an additional 59.5%
in 2014.
However, much of this money is being wasted.
A recent analysis conducted by Trademob – of
more than 6 million ad clicks on 10 mobile ad
networks – found that 40% of mobile clicks are
accidental or fraudulent. A Harris Interactive
survey of more than 4,000 mobile app users
found that nearly half were more likely to tap a
mobile ad on accident than on purpose.

PAGE 8

PITFALL
Mobile browsing behavior is fundamentally
different from desktop browsing, so why would
we expect an ad model patterned on desktop
display ad units to work? Mobile users tend to be
engaged in very task-based activities like trying
to find a nearby retail location, looking for deals
or mobile showrooming. Display ads that would
be considered a nuisance on desktop become
aggravatingly disruptive on mobile as they take
the user away from the task at hand.

77

Instead of using display to buy their way
onto mobile devices, brands should focus on
marketing that enhances users’ mobile experiences as opposed to disrupting them. Rather
than clutter the experience with display ads, they
should find ways to provide users with tools, information, content and resources to help them
complete their tasks.

.9%

OF AMERICANS USE MOBILE PHONES
TO ACCESS THE INTERNET AT LEAST
ONCE A MONTH
*www.eMarketer.com
2014


14

.97
BILLION
SMACKERS
}

PAGE 9

ESTIMATED U.S.
MOBILE AD SPEND IN 2014*

2014

* www.eMarketer.com

2

THE OUTLOOK

MOBILE & SOCIAL MARKETING WILL GET
CREDIT AS DRIVERS OF BUSINESS RESULTS

THE BRIEFING
For years, brands have dabbled in mobile &
social marketing. Like many emerging marketing
methods, it was deemed a cute, novel approach
deserving of experimental budgets for test-andlearns, and recieved accordingly cute budgets.
This is particularly limiting since social marketing
is actually one of the most effective and efficient
ways to get onto consumers' mobile devices.
But a lot has changed, and not all that recently.
Social media marketing, done right, gets
business results. Sales, brand equity, awareness.
Numerous studies – conducted by both major
social platforms and third party analytics players
– have shown that smart, well-crafted social
campaigns have driven these key business
results successfully, both independently and as
part of a larger integrated campaign.
Among Deep Focus clients alone, we've seen
social content publishing campaigns that have
significantly increased incrmental sales, showing
up to 5x ROAS. We've also seen one of our
clients' brand's overall reputation – measured
in monthly panels – increase both steadily over
time and suddenly with a spike due to pure social
campaigns.
PAGE 10

The more mature platfoms understand this and
are, of course, motivated to prove it. Many social
ad offerings are simultaneously complex and
"cute" seeming. So platforms have been partnering with research firms for quite a while now to
identify the larger value of their offering.
Savvy brands have taken advantage of this, and
have reaped the benefits of demonstrating that
their relatively efficient social strategies have
created real brand and business value.
That said, brands that use social as a direct
response channel or channels to distribute traditional advertising will be disappointed. The
campaigns that have driven impressive business
results – in-store, online and for brands in general
– tend to be based on an always-on, contentrich strategy and use paid products to distribute
content rather than to secure display inventory
or drive clicks. Looking for register sales by using
right-hand rail ads on Facebook, for instance,
might be disappointing.
In 2014, mature marketers will integrate their
social campaigns into their larger brand health
and sales studies as part of their efforts to un-

derstand their overall impact on the business and
to create a unified, integrated picture of how
the world views their brand. Funny, that's how
consumers encounter their brands in the first
place: everywhere.

PITFALL
Don't measure social marketing like direct
response tactics; measure it like you would any
other marketing channel, using the analytics that
are best-suited to understanding the KPI you're
interested in. For instance, if phone panels work
best for you for measuring equity, design your
studies with your social campaigns in mind,
isolating those campaigns to see the true value.
If sales are what you're looking to measure,
work with a partner that can isolate and report
on register sales and correlate them to social
campaigns. Many marketers measure a social
campaign's success in clickthroughs to websites
or ecommerce sites, which misses the bigger
strengths of social (and actually highlights its
weaknesses).

2014


3

88

%

OF DIGITAL AGENCIES AGREE
THAT CUSTOMER WILL INSIST
ON HAVING DIFFERENTIATED
EXPERIENCES BASED ON
MOBILE CONTEXT*
* www.eMarketer.com

THE OUTLOOK

CONTEXT MARKETING WILL UNLOCK MOBILE EFFECTIVENESS
THE BRIEFING
“Content is King.” It's a phrase that most
marketers are quite familiar with in the digital and
social media world. In fact, you’d be hard pressed
to find anyone in the industry that hasn’t uttered
those words at one time or another. But with
consumers becoming more and more dependent
on their mobile devices, content doesn’t stand a
chance without context.
The ability to take in the "who, what, where, when
and why" to produce relevant content is the difference between a finger stopping or scrolling.
Mobile phones and mobile strategy should inherently be based on the ability to be, well, mobile
– and when an individual is mobile there’s a lot to
take into consideration. It is these considerations
PAGE 11

that will be the basis for a well-crafted, successful mobile strategy. However while mobile
devices, smartphone or otherwise, are spurring
the conversation around context, the importance
of this type of marketing goes beyond simply
targeting those who are out and about.
Getting valuable or interesting content at the
exact moment it applies is the “holy grail” of
breaking through the noise. Case in point, the
second screen experience. A piece of content
that’s published at the right time, during a television show and targeted to the right people, can
take off within moments. All because it has the
context to back it up.

The moral of this story: Content may be King, but
only if it knows what the consumer is doing.

PITFALL
Context Marketing is a developing area of digital
marketing. This can be an opportunity for some
brands. However, don't assume that your brand
or message will be welcomed by or important to
a consumer at even the most seemingly relevant
moment. Just like some locations are inappropriate for brands, some contexts are as well. As we
experiment in 2014, we need to be mindful of
this.

2014


4

76

%

OF MARKETERS
THINK REAL-TIME
MARKETING WILL
INCREASE MARKETING
EFFECTIVENESS.*
*www.eMarketer.com

THE OUTLOOK

2014 WILL SEE THE
GREAT CONTENT
MARKETING SHAKEOUT
THE BRIEFING
Real-time marketing was the social content
buzzword of 2013, with brands jumping on the
fad and consumers experiencing a deluge of
real-time content in their feeds. #RTM trended
during key cultural moments, and bloggers celebrated the best and lambasted the worst.
And real-time marketing was just one of many
emerging social content trends. In 2013 we
saw brands celebrate Internet holidays, engage
in brand-to-brand public exchanges, live tweet
cultural events and get personal with direct-toconsumer social conversations.
PAGE 12

In a space where new channels emerge and
existing ones are ever evolving, content trends
die as quickly as they appear. But brands that
can incorporate these trends into an always-on
content strategy to enrich the brand story can
shine through.
Social content as a marketing discipline continues
to mature and brands are developing seasonal
patterns and best practices. Smart brands have
established who they are in social (and beyond)
and provide their audience a distinct value proposition. Experimenting with content trends can be
a meaningful way to engage and gain followers
if it is rooted in an always-on conversation and
says something about the brand – and derives its
emotional connection from a big idea.

disciplined brands will feel consumers' wrath as
they get maligned and even made fun of as they
jump on another irrelevant event.

PITFALL
One big real-time tweet or a social stunt might
get reach, but it won't maintain the sustained
engagement necessary to build your brand
over time. Establishing a long-term, always-on
content strategy and knowing who your brand is
in social is the path to timeliness and relevance.
Brands who do social marketing well – through
clever engagements and branded content
programs – will continue to win.

Savvy marketers will recognize this, transcend
one-off stunts and take their always-on strategies seriously, devloping a real and valuable
voice and point of view for their brand. Less
2014


%

}

8
ONLY

OF MOBILE AD CAMPAIGNS IN
Q3 2013 DROVE TO A RETAIL
PROMOTION*

2014

*www.eMarketer.com

5

THE OUTLOOK

CONTEXT MARKETING WILL OVERSHADOW
MOBILE DISPLAY

THE BRIEFING
Mobile advertising has created the certain allure
of being able to hit people with a perfectly
relevant message or deal at the moment they
reach (or pass) point-of-sale. The thought of it
has created illusions of a futuristic world where
highly tailored – and even rich and engaging –
messages appear to the consumer like magic as
she walks down the street (or shopping aisle).
But that promise hasn't been fulfilled. In fact,
mobile paid advertising has continued to disappoint for the last year, despite increases in
mobile media spending. Why is that?
First, media planning and buying models don't
plan for context. These models are based on
buying tons of existing inventory to deliver
guanteeed impressions. The conditional logic
of space, location and what the consumer is
actually doing the moment the ad is served
doesn't enter into it. This has led to opportunities that are mainly driven by technology, app
and platform developers. That's not all bad, but
it doesn't scale or provide mass penetration.
Second, and related, there doesn't exist a

PAGE 14

unified, accesible and normalized inventory of
places. Put another way, there isn't a single
way of knowing where everything is and what
else is there. Location-based apps constantly
confronted this in their early days. It stands to
reason that players like Google would have this
in their sights, though.
Third, context requires a large permutation
of creative executions to be effective. Most
marketers and their agencies aren't operationalized around creating banks of smaller, customizable messages in formats that appeal
to consumers and instead produce a few,
highly-considered and tested ads to convey
their messages. This has begun to change
as marketers have adjusted to always-on
marketing, using partners such as Deep Focus's
Moment Studio to do so. But more work is
needed.
Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, people
don't want it. Mobile continues to be a task-driven platform, even if that task is "just browsing"
or "killing time." People have not been offered
a compelling-enough value proposition to trade

their location or attention for. They might, if
marketers can come up with something interesting enough.
There is a lot to work out in contextual
marketing. Some marketers and retailers will
experiment with it, which is a good approach.
These experiments will be critical to driving
learnings since mobile will be important to the
future of shopper marketing.

PITFALL
Don't concentrate your mobile marketing efforts
on typical mobile display or video ads; their low
click-throughs reflect the disdain users have for
them. 2014 is a good time for experimenting
with a few, simple, contextual tactics, perhaps
on a campaign basis, to build learnings for larger
strategies.

2014


60%
}

PAGE 15

OF B2C MOBILE CHANNEL
DECISION-MAKERS
HAVE NO PLANS TO USE
GEO-FENCING TECHNOLOGIES*

2014

*www.eMarketer.com

6

THE OUTLOOK

GEO-FENCING WILL SPUR SHOPPER
MARKETING CREATIVITY

PITFALL

THE BRIEFING
Despite mobile's inexorable pull, advertisers
have been trepidatious of investing in it largely
because sales attribution remains a significant challenge. The same was true with digital
banner advertising a decade-and-a-half ago, but
whereas tracking on e-commerce sites helped
to accelerate adoption, today’s multi-platform
consumer is still not inclined to complete most
types of sales transactions on a mobile device.*
Geo-fencing
technology,
which
enables
marketers to push mobile communications to
prospects based on their physical locations,
gained substantial traction in 2013 since it
bridges part of this gap by linking one form of
mobile marketing to in-store sales.

PAGE 16

The technical executions of geo-fencing
campaigns can vary, but marketers typically offer
coupons and promotions to consumers who are
in the vicinity of their store, or even their competitors’ locations. Naturally, each geo-fencing
vendor cites that these campaigns generate
significant ROI. In 2014, the industry will begin
to evaluate geo-fencing as a whole and attempt
to derive a general consensus on its profitability. Reported ROI will probably continue to vary
since vendors are still challenged with defining
their price models and the equilibrium between
technological costs and each brand’s respective
margins.

The pitfall in the early years of geo-fencing’s
prime will be marketers focusing too narrowly
on serving discount-oriented communications.
Consumers will have low tolerance for promotional messages on their personal devices. Instead,
marketers should also consider strategic opportunities for driving brand engagement, especially
on social platforms. For example, if a lifestyle
brand were to create a geo-fence around a neighborhood or event and ask its visitors to tweet or
post a photo from there, it could reinforce the
brand’s identity and potentially drive viral reach.

2014


39%
}
PAGE 17

MOBILE USERS WHO WOULD LEAVE A
RETAILER'S SITE AND NEVER RETURN OR
GO TO A COMPETITOR'S SITE IF THE USER
EXPERIENCE WAS POOR*

2014

*www.eMarketer.com

7

THE OUTLOOK

2014 WILL SEE THE RETURN
OF USER EXPERIENCE

THE BRIEFING
Remember Information Architects? User Experience Experts? Interaction Designers? These
are the people who could understand a client's
business, the creative concept, the content,
the business processes – and mash it all up
with expertise in human factors and usability
to create a design- and build-ready blueprint for
an intuitive, efficient user experience that could
lead to longer dwells, bigger shopping carts, or
more conversion.

– on both the client and agency sides – have
been around the design-and-build block a
few times and started to trust intuition over
expertise. Second and even more influential
was the emergence of alternative platforms
for brand presences – such as Facebook tabs.
These experiences tend to be lighter, or at least
receive the attention of a lighter experience.
And thus attention to user journey and experience gets steamrolled.

Well, they haven't gone anywhere. They've
been making online digital experiences usable
(and possible) for two decades now. But for
the last few years, user experience design
as a process and a practice has been marginalized and pigeonholed. A process that in the
past might have been allocated months now is
compressed into days, and clients rarely, if ever,
agree to wireframe and site map approvals.

But experience has finally shown marketers
and their agencies that Facebook tabs aren't
as effective as promised; not only did they
not increase the likelihood of a user visit, but
they do not provide a unified mobile experience
without additional design and development. So
everyone is experiencing deja vu while asking,
"So where should we send our users?" and, "Do
we need a landing page?" And of course, these
are the easy questions to answer.

Two big factors drove this. First, most marketers

PAGE 18

The truth is, great user experience design
continues to be the bedrock foundation of
success in digital. It always has been. And as
experience planning continues to incorporate
an ever-diversifying and complex array of traffic
drivers and channels (Pinterest and the like),
and the needs of adaptive design driven by
the proliferation of diverse device formats, the
importance of solid and comprehensive experience design has only compounded. Next time
you see your IA or Interaction Designer, buy
them a drink. They deserve it.

PITFALL
Don't expect user experience decisions to
follow a formula: there is no one answer or
approach that fits all user journey challenges.
The right solution is always dictated by a mix of
human factors, production realities and technology contraints. Unfortunately, one size does not
fit all.

2014


42.5%
OF NORTH AMERICAN
RETAIL EXECUTIVES THINK
PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS IS A
TOP 10 TECHNOLOGY*

PAGE 19

2014

}

*www.eMarketer.com

8

THE OUTLOOK

PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS WILL (TRY TO)
TRANSCEND BUZZWORDS

THE BRIEFING
The 2012 U.S. Presidential Election provided
a new platform for the advancement of social
media analytics, as statisticians attempting to
predict its results widely recognized the potential
for social media data to indicate future outcomes.
In 2013, “predictive analytics” emerged as a
popular buzz phrase and new vendors started
entering the competitive landscape at increasing rates. However, confusion about methodologies and applicable use cases for their products
remains a substantial challenge for increasing
penetration.
This year, predictive analytics vendors will need
to persuade the industry that their respective
methodologies are reliable and better than the
others. Any form of social media analysis is
plagued by limitations of access to data, noise
from unrelated conversations, and capturing
human sentiment. In predictive analytics, there’s
also the unique challenge of gaining sufficient
sample size for statistical significance, while
deriving the projection soon enough to influence
decisions. Vendors must address the same challenges and be able to explain their methodology

PAGE 20

PITFALL
concisely enough for non-statisticians to understand and subscribe to.
Vendors must also determine the best positioning strategy for their product: where could predictive analytics fill the greatest need? In general,
there are two angles from which vendors have
been approaching marketers. The first is for paid
media boosting and creative optimizations. By
claiming to predict volume and engagement with
content in the early hours – if not minutes – of
posting, marketers may be able to make smarter
optimizations and allocations. The second is for
crisis management. When a brand experiences
unforeseen negative press, predictive analytics
would help to determine whether its volume will
be large enough to warrant a formal response
or action. But, there is a third area of opportunity that vendors have yet to address: identifying trending stories in the cultural zeitgeist that
brands can comment on to reinforce their social
voice.
For vendors to make these tools compelling and,
indeed, essential, these concerns will need to be
met, and quickly.

Currently, predictive analytics solutions require
marketers to enter keywords and apply Boolean
logic to capture conversations of interest.
But how can marketers catch trending topics
that don’t necessarily relate to their product
category or competitors? For example, what are
the keywords that could have possibly put the
Harlem Shake on the radar before it peaked?
Unless vendors can show brands how to look
for something they don’t know to look for, then
a huge opportunity is left on the table.

34%
OF MARKETING EXECUTIVES LIST
PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS AS ONE
OF THE MOST IMPORTANT TOOLS
FOR DELIVERING THE BEST
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE.*
*www.eMarker.com
2014


17 .5%
2
.2%

OF U.S. INTERNET USERS HAVE
USED SNAPCHAT BUT ONLY

OF BUSINESSES HAVE ANY PLANS
TO USE IT FOR MARKETING IN 2014.*

PAGE 21

2014

*www.eMarketer.com

9

THE OUTLOOK

THE LESS-SNAPPY
MESSAGING APP LANDSCAPE

THE BRIEFING
In terms of generating column inches, Snapchat
was clearly the digital medium of 2013. From
being aped by Facebook (remember the standalone Poke app?) to facing charges of fueling
sexting among teens, to rejecting $3bn in
cash,1 there was no end of stories to debate.
In reality, it was a shame that, at least in the
U.S., so much attention was focused on a single
company, rather than the underlying technology. Outside of North America other messaging
services have not only achieved greater scale,
but have built products that have the potential
for far greater impact in 2014.
On the numbers side of things, take WhatsApp’s 2013 growth. While Snapchat may
have 30MM1 monthly active users (MAUs),
WhatsApp reached 400MM2 by December (a
user base that shares 40% more photos than
are shared on Facebook every day3). Wechat,

PAGE 22

PITFALL
Line, and KakaoTalk, with 600MM, 300MM and
110MM registered users respectively,4 also
grew to dominate their home markets.
Combined, these apps have a user base that
could be of a similar scale to Facebook.5 But
while they certainly have size, will they really
have any significance for marketers in 2014?
Here again, it’s best to look beyond Snapchat
(which has so far proved of limited use for
brands). Line, a likely IPO candidate in 2014, had
Q3 revenues of $194MM6 (roughly 30MM more
than Twitter). While most of the cash came from
in-app purchases, their innovative model of
charging for official brand pages and generating
revenue from partner products, such as branded
in-app stickers, points to even greater possibilities in 2014.

Marketers should recognize messaging apps
for what they are – ways for individuals to
privately communicate with one another. This
doesn't mean marketers can't have a play here,
but it does mean that any strategies need to
transcend one-way messages to more clever
interactions that feel personal and – more than
anything – valuable.

Business Insider, Dec 2013
AllThingsD, Dec 2013
3
Techcrunch, Nov 2013

Quartz, Dec 2013
Quartz, Oct 2013
6
Yahoo, Nov 2013

1

4

2

5

2014


48%
OF WOMEN SAY THEY
ARE SPENDING MORE TIME
ON PINTEREST THEN THEY
WERE 6 MONTHS AGO.*

PAGE 23

}
2014

*www.eMarketer.com

10

THE OUTLOOK

PINTEREST WILL FIND SOME
SHOPPER MARKETING LOVE

THE BRIEFING
2014 is the year when Pinterest needs to really
start paying its bills. This will likely start with the
rollout of advertising products modeled after
familiar offerings from Facebook and Twitter,
such as Promoted Pins. However, its biggest
opportunities may lay in areas where other
networks, such as Facebook, have so far seen
little success.
One of these areas – the impact of Pinterest on
eCommerce – is already well documented. But
innovations such as Target’s Pinterest-powered
online storefront1 are really just an iteration on
recommendation products that have existed
for a while. It’s in the physical stores where the
opportunity is a lot more interesting.
Brands such as Topshop and Nordstrom
have already introduced shop floor Pinterest
programs.2 So far these have focused on the rack
(shelf wobblers highlighting most-pinned items),
or on the sales reps (iPads featuring Pinterest

PITFALL
collections, focusing inventory on most-pinned,
etc.). In 2014 the focus will inevitably shift to
consumers (and their phones) as the best vehicle
to drive engagement and sales in the aisle. Using
a combination of technologies (think iBeacon and
ambient messaging), Pinterest may be the one
platform best positioned to capitalize on the possibilities of offering inspiration and deals when
you’re at the point of purchase.

29%
OF NORTH AMERICANS USE
PINTEREST AS THE PRIMARY
SOCIAL NETWORK FOR SHARING
CONTENT.*

Many brands have been conducting Pinterest
"experiments," where they create lots of
content solely for Pinterest. This tactic is fine
if you are buliding brand equity or focusing on
content, but not ecommerce or traffic. Don't
overlook the fact that for Pinterest to be an
effective traffic or ecommerce driver, the
content featured on Pinterest must live on the
destination site and be pinned to Pinterest. And
it must be excellent quality. This may seem
obvious, but many marketers have approached
Pinterest as a channel rather than a distribution
community and have been appropriately disappointed by its results.

1
2

Techcrunch, Dec 2013
Business Insider, Nov 2013

*www.eMarker.com
PAGE 24

2014


71

%

}
PAGE 25

AGE 18-36

PERCIEVED THE BENEFITS OF
WEARABLE TECH DEVICES IN 2013*

2014

*www.eMarketer.com

11

THE OUTLOOK

WEARABLE COMPUTING WILL
GO BEYOND LOOKING NERDY

THE BRIEFING
Ask the average person, and they will likely say
that no one is asking for wearable technology
other than the companies making it. Google
wowed people by getting Google Glass onto a
few thousand peoples’ faces. Samsung broke
the mass market silence by advertising the
heck out of their smartwatch, the Galaxy Gear.
Pebble’s successful Kickstarter effort has also
begun getting more technology onto wrists. The
launch of Apple’s entry into the space is anticipated, as well.
Many have adopted Nike’s FuelBand and
Jawbone’s Up without stigma. But once we
add screens to our body (including our face),
we start hitting a kind of “uncanny valley” that
prevents people from taking the leap necessary
to adopt the technology en masse. While smartwatches may start to break through in 2014, especially if Apple enters the category (they made
the MP3 player commonplace after the iPod,

PAGE 26

but it was far from the first in that category), the
true wearable computing leap in 2014 will be in
the technology that enables our devices to communicate more directly with our bodies.

the technology that allows itself to be wearable
will be when it improves the shopping experience.

So what we will start seeing in 2014 are
retailers taking a page out of the fitness & health
playbook by laying the foundation for connecting to consumers through iBeacon / low-energy
Bluetooth technology to deliver and collect both
digital and physical information that enhances
their shopping experience. Wearable computing
like smartwatches will get consumers comfortable with being always connected via Bluetooth
technology, but the promise of more personal
selections and discounts at retail will lead brands
and retailers to work more closely together to
deliver positive experiences, and a competitive
advantage.

PITFALL
Wearable technology will eventually provide opportunities for brands and marketers, but the
field is far from mature. In the short term, don't
view these platforms as advertising channels
and avoid trying to penetrate them as message
delivery devices. Think of it this way: the closer
a device is to a person's sensory activities, the
more sensitive marketers have to be. Instead,
look at these platforms as utility marketing opportunities; think about how to provide valuable
information or functionality that only your brand
can via wearables. And then focus on light,
focused test-and-learn efforts.

The first step towards conusmers’ embrace of

2014


73%
}
PAGE 27

OF U.S. INTERNET USERS
MULTITASKED WITH
MOBILE DEVICES WHILE
WATCHING TV.*

2014

*www.eMarketer.com

12

THE OUTLOOK

BRANDS WILL CONTINUE TO PURSUE THE SECOND
SCREEN, SOMETIMES IN VAIN

THE BRIEFING
With the much-anticipated advent of mobile
comes a hue and cry from the marketing
community about technologies long associated with mobile devices like second-screen
experiences. Like a classic rom-com, it's as if
we’ve all fallen for a new love interest who's
already riding off into the sunset. A closer look
at second-screen behaviors shows consumption patterns that vary wildly from the winsome
tweet-along we so callously overlooked in the
past.
Second screen has grown up, and it seems
our love affair is far more complicated than we
imagined.
First off, consumption of “first-screen” television experiences has fundamentally changed.
Marketers can depend on real-time mass
audiences for Super Bowls, Presidential
Debates, and Miley Cyrus / Robin Thicke duets,
but synchronous viewing beyond that is diminishing. Viewers who report watching live

PAGE 28

comedy, drama, and thriller TV have shrunk to
40%* of these shows’ total audience – with the
rest being made up by DVR, on-demand, and
streaming views.
In fact, first screen is changing so much that
some are claiming it should be demoted. For
example, Hulu recently reported that 50% of
its 5MM subscribers access its service using
mobile devices exclusively. And this is just one
streaming service. Increasingly marketers may
not be able to depend on simultaneous mass
audiences to gain second-screen scale.
At the same time that TV consumption is
changing, second-screen behaviors are evolving
rapidly. Even as heavy-hitters like Twitter and
Facebook are using their size to step heavily
into social TV discussions – once the terrain of
GetGlue and the like – the marketing community
is realizing how divorced the second and first
screens can actually be.

Far from using phones and tablets just to
enhance their TV experience, viewers are
texting,
Shopping, and playing games. The most popular
ways to use their devices are “looking up information in general,” “surfing the web,” and
social networking. TV program-related social
networking is reported by only 18% of people
who use mobile devices while watching TV.*

PITFALL
Don’t expect to simply plug a hashtag into your
TV spot and cash in on high levels of secondscreen engagement – you need a more sophisticated strategy. The fluidity of multiplescreen content experiences means that in 2014
marketers will need to understand the fragmented contexts in which they’ll be reaching
consumers, and plan non-linear and asynchronous targeting in order to remain relevant.
*eMarketer Social TV Marketing in Real Time Report

2014


CONTRIBUTORS

IAN SCHAFER

KEN KRAEMER

FOUNDER & CEO

EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Ian Schafer is CEO and Founder of Deep
Focus and is one of advertising’s most influential voices in interactive marketing and
social media. An avid technologist, Ian blogs at
www.ianschafer.com and can be followed on
Twitter at www.twitter.com/ischafer.

Ken Kraemer is the Executive Creative Director
at Deep Focus, leading creative, technology, the
Moment Studio and social communications. A
leader in creating smart, effective marketing,
Ken has worked with some of the world’s
top marketers in pioneering what it means
to be a digital brand. Ken can be followed at
www.twitter.com/kk4i.

DAVID IRONS
LEAD USER EXPERIENCE STRATEGIST

David Irons has more than a decade of experience applying the principles of usability, information architecture, experience strategy and
interaction design to solving marketing and communication challenges.

TERRENCE LAI

CHRISTINA COOKSEY

PAGE 29

DIRECTOR OF
SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS
Michelle is the Social Media Communications
Director at Deep Focus, where she is responsible for leading the team focused on social engagement, content planning, content creation
and management, platform strategy, community
interaction and influencer outreach. Michelle is
also an Adjunct Professor at New York University,
where she teaches Social Media for Brand Value.
Additionally she has led social media workshops
at organizations such as the United Nations and
companies such as Johnson & Johnson.

STUDIO MANAGER FOR THE MOMENT STUDIO

Christina Cooksey is Studio Manager for The
Moment Studio. She is responsible for the production of operations of Deep Focus' creative
newsroom for hire, managing a diverse team
and implementing integrated creative/production
techniques to deliver content optimized for social
engagement.

DIRECTOR OF ANALYTICS &
CUSTOMER INSIGHTS
Terrence is Director of Analytics at Deep Focus,
where he leads the team responsible for data-driven business insights and quantitative
analyses. He has extensive experience in both
digital and traditional marketing channels, specializing in the application of statistics and programming to inform strategic marketing optimizations and planning.

MICHELLE BARNA

ED MCLARNON
STRATEGIST

TOPHER BURNS
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF
SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS
Topher Burns is an Associate Director of Social
Media Communications at Deep Focus. He appreciates social as an opportunity to temper the
warm intricacies of human communication with
cruel hard numbers. Prior to Deep Focus, Topher
worked in PR, launching major organizations
like Zurich Financial Services and NASA’s SETI
Institute on social media.

Ed leads digital strategy for a number of the
agency's clients. Prior to joining Deep Focus he
was based in London where he held account
handling and planning roles within Engine, Deep
Focus's parent company.

2014


ABOUT DEEP FOCUS
Deep Focus is the digital agency for the social
age: an always-on world where connections are
the new impressions and big ideas live and die
by understanding insights people share with
each other, not with focus groups. By mining
these insights, Deep Focus crafts the ideas that
people want to be a part of and want to share,
made to experience in the medium they like best
– from mobile, to tablets, to social to TV.
We build brands in real time and over the long
term, making clients legendary. With integration
at the heart of what we do, we deploy marketing
experts in smart ways to get clients results
quickly and effectively. In fact, we invented a
business – the Moment Studio – to supercharge
our clients’ always-on marketing, delivering
real-time and made-for-social creative.
PAGE 30

RESEARCH PARTNER
We’re proud to handle some of the world’s
favorite brands. And that pride shows in our
work: we perfect every point, every post, every
plan. We can’t help it because everything we
create is made with love. Sound over the top?
Maybe. But it’s the best word we could find to
describe our dedication to marketing done great.
www.deepfocus.net

eMarketer is the authority on digital
marketing, media and commerce,
offering insights essential to navigating the changing, competitive
and complex digital environment. By
weighing and analyzing information
from different sources, eMarketer
provides businesspeople, marketers
and advertisers with the most
complete view of digital marketing
available.

Twitter

@DeepFocus
Facebook

www.facebook.com/WeAreDeepFocus
Email

info@deepfocus.net

www.eMarketer.com

2014


www.deepfocus.net | twitter @DeepFocus

2014


Deep Focus 2014 Outlook

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