In any marketing plan, testing alternatives to your current strategy is essential to competing in your industry. The same holds true for anyone looking to continuously grow their mobile apps in the App Store.

Prior to the introduction of iOS 15, the only way developers could evaluate variants to their existing app listing was through third-party solutions. That all changed with the launch of Apple’s Product Page Optimization and Custom Product Pages. Focused on letting you publish different adaptations of your app listing page, these two solutions have proven beneficial in seeing what App Store Optimization changes can yield better results.

While similar, each one serves its own purpose in supporting the rest of your mobile app marketing efforts. Below you can find what each tool consists of, the different goals they look to achieve, and how you can optimize your campaigns for each one.

What is Product Page Optimization?
When it comes to comparing different product page variants to each other, you can count on Apple’s Product Page Optimization. The company’s native testing tool gives you the option to run A/B or multivariate tests for up to 90 days to determine which app listing performs better. You can run tests on your app icon, screenshots, or app preview video and study the performance of the variants versus your default product listing.

You can configure your Product Page Optimization test in a number of ways to narrow down the exact variables you deem relevant. When setting up your test you will determine the number of treatments, your traffic proportion, and localizations. 

• Treatments – These are the different creative elements Apple allows you to test. You are allowed to test up to three different treatments per split test. Treatments can consist of any combination of app icon, screenshots, and app preview video.

ASO Tip: Consider testing one creative element at a time for more actionable insight as to what elements are affecting your app performance. Testing different variables in your treatments can cause confusion when determining which app listing elements are contributing to increased downloads.

• Traffic Proportion – This refers to the percentage of your audience that you would like to see your Product Page Optimization test. You can split user traffic evenly or have a smaller portion of your audience visit your test variant versus your control.

ASO Tip: Consider determining your traffic proportion based on what you want your test to accomplish. In some instances, exposing a treatment to a small number of users can provide enough insight as to how your target audience would behave. In other cases, you may need to collect data rapidly from a wider user base, justifying a higher traffic proportion to your variant.

• Localizations – You can choose to display your test in a number of different languages. By default, your treatments will be shown in all languages your app is available in if none are excluded.

ASO Tip: It’s recommended you perform tests with one localization at a time. Selecting multiple languages at once can complicate pinpointing how your target audience reacts to your tests, as user behavior in one territory isn’t always replicated in another.

What are Custom Product Pages?
Apple offers Custom Product Pages to provide a different app listing experience catered to the traffic source. Up to 35 distinct variants can be run at once each with its own URL. Other digital experiences, such as email marketing, paid campaigns, etc. can be linked to the Custom Product Page giving you unique targeting possibilities when it comes to how you customize your Product Pages to support where they appear.

You can experiment with your product page’s screenshots, app preview video, and promotional text through Custom Product Pages and insert each page’s unique URL wherever you are targeting its intended user base.

Some examples of when Custom Product Pages can be an effective tool are:

• Running a campaign for users who uninstalled your app
• Driving traffic for a specific regional location and using screenshots highlighting the territory
• Targeting a specific demographic
• Supporting another digital marketing campaign with a unique app page

How you design your Custom Product Page will depend on what you’re trying to accomplish with each one of your variants. Whether complementing a paid marketing effort off the App Store or trying to penetrate a new market, Custom Product Pages are a great way of curating App Store experiences for the different audiences you are targeting.

Product Page Optimization or Custom Product Pages: which should you choose?
While they share similarities, and may even be confused with one another, Product Page Optimization tests and Custom Product Pages each aim to accomplish different objectives. To help you decide which is best for you, ask yourself the following:

“Am I looking to test different app listing variants for users navigating the App Store?”

Or

“Am I looking to create a unique product page experience for users off of the App Store or in Apple Search Ads?”

If you relate more to the first option, then Product Page Optimization is for you. Centered around split testing different creative elements, Product Page Optimization tests should be your choice when evaluating different variants targeted at users already on the App Store. Tests are effective in helping you understand what treatments are more likely to convert users that are part of your existing organic reach.

If you relate more to the second question, then consider Custom Product Pages. Intended to support other aspects of your app marketing efforts, Custom Product Pages let you link an App Store experience elsewhere. This provides you with another channel to help improve your conversion rate and performance.

Use both in Your ASO strategy
Just because each tool is used to fulfill different app store marketing goals, doesn’t mean they can’t be used simultaneously to improve your app performance. In fact, using the data compiled from one campaign can prove beneficial in preparing for another through a different channel.

See the following example for a step-by-step process of how you can go about implementing both. 

1. Your company is running a promotion for 20 per cent off a specific product.
2. You can test how a new set of screenshots would perform through a Product Page Optimization campaign.
3. After gathering enough data to justify pushing those screenshots to your current app listing, you can run a Custom Product Page highlighting that same product.
4. The Custom Product Page can then be linked to a new social media campaign focused on the product.
5. Your social media campaign acts as another channel to lead back to your App Store listing and drive downloads
   

How to optimize for each
Optimizing for both Product Page Optimization tests and Custom Product Pages consists of following ASO best practices throughout each element that makes them up. In this case, it’s about structuring your metadata and creative sets so that they are optimized for downloads once a user reaches your app product page.Custom Product Pages you will also be editing your screenshots and preview video, as well as your app promotional text.

Product Page Optimization and Custom Product Page best practices
For an effective Product Page Optimization test, you want to make sure that your creatives are designed to maximize the chances of achieving a download. The creatives that make up your test are your app icon, screenshots, and app preview video.

App Icon – In line with ASO best practices, your app icon should stand out at first glance and include imagery that relates your app features to the user’s search query.

App Screenshots – Consider studying the design strategies some of your top competitors are applying when planning your screenshots. Visible copy, handset use, and iconography are among some app screenshot best practices you can implement.

App Preview Video – An app preview video is your attention-grabbing tool that can provide important app information while engaging potential users. A recommended strategy would be to place your hook at the very beginning of your video and call out any important features, characters, or promotions throughout the footage.

Promotional Text – Your promotional text sits just before your full description and gives you an opportunity to introduce your app. Including a call to action and highlighting your most important app features is recommended. Unlike the standard Promotional Text which is 170 max characters, Custom Product Page Promotional Text is 110 max characters. Keep this in mind before creating ideas to test.

Along with the previous fields, it’s important to remember that your entire app listing page should be optimized. Focusing solely on the elements directly pertaining to your test or Custom Product Page hinders the rest of your app marketing efforts if your app title, subtitle, and description aren’t optimized as well. Take the time to optimize your app page before you run a Product Page Optimization test or create a Custom Product Page to enhance your chances of success.

Summary
Whether split testing different creative variables or setting up an app page for an external audience, Apple’s Product Page Optimization and Custom Product Pages tool offers you a useful way to experiment with different app experiences. Using the two separately in different marketing campaigns or synergistically with complementary data can take your App Store Optimization to new heights and help increase conversions.

About the Author
Dave Bell is Co-founder and CEO of Gummicube. Gummicube is a global leader in App Store Optimization with more than 12 years of experience optimizing and marketing apps. We offer the leading enterprise ASO technology and agency services, providing support to clients around the world. Our company is trusted by thousands of enterprise brands and leading startups including Microsoft, LinkedIn, Bethesda, SWEAT, GrubHub, McAfee and many others.

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Partnerships are in vogue at the moment. The last few weeks alone have seen EE team up with The Beano to help parents keep their kids safe online; Sky Sports and Audi Launch a technology partnership. And EasyJet launch a collaboration with Spotify that aims to enable travellers to discover their holiday mood based on their listening playlists and get matched to tailored travel experiences across Europe.

These are pretty substantial partnerships, each involving two big, well-known brands, who feel that by working together the whole will be greater than the sum of the two parts. But alongside these “headline” partnerships, thousands of companies are finding that partnering pays. The Partnership Management Platform (PMP), impact.com alone, is currently managing thousands of partnerships.

So why do companies partner, how do they choose the right partner, and what makes for a good partnership?

Alex Gordon, Channel Partnerships Development Manager at impact.com, says the essential intent of partnerships is to forge long-lasting relationships with businesses that have access to a brand’s customers, and measure these partnerships to ensure both parties are achieving their goals. 

“In a time where 85 per cent of millennials don’t trust traditional advertising and 90 per cent of digital ad spend is attributed to Google and Facebook, partnerships create an opportunity for brands to find their customers, wherever they may be on the internet, as well as to promote a positive brand image,” he says.

And, he adds, anyone can benefit from the revenue uptick that partnerships offer.

“Due to the rise in content sites, influencers and technology plug-ins, it’s not just enterprises that can benefit from partnerships. SMEs and early stage companies are able to engage partners to help grow their business in a meaningful, authentic way,” he says. “A report by Forrester revealed that companies with the most mature partnership programmes are driving 2x faster revenue growth than companies that have less mature partnership programmes.

Accountability
For Helen Southgate, Chief Global Officer at Acceleration Partners, the real appeal of partnership marketing is its accountability. She says: “Partnership marketing is a highly effective and measurable marketing channel. It is outcomes-based, meaning you only pay for the outcome you require e.g. a sale or a lead. Because you only pay for the most desirable outcomes, you can be sure that your budget is being used as wisely as possible. Partnership marketing is also scalable. You can connect with thousands of partners that can engage with your target consumers in a unique and successful way.

So what makes for a good partnership? It’s one that works for both sides, says Southgate. “A strong partnership is mutually beneficial,” she says. “Both parties need to have a shared objective, such as acquiring new customers or audience members, and both must have a clear and equitable incentive for doing so.  

“A good relationship is also based on open and responsive communication. Make sure that your partners know how to contact you when they need to – and that your partnership manager is equally available and empowered to make timely decisions, when necessary.”

impact.com’s Gordon agrees. “Good partnerships are those which consistently and reliably deliver value for both partner and advertiser,” he says. “Many partners’ business models rely on their engagement with advertisers, and partnerships are becoming increasingly important as a revenue stream for advertisers. As such it is difficult to overstate how vital partnerships are within the digital mix. 

“We’ve seen lots of our clients partner with other companies in really interesting and unique ways, from app integrations to strategic B2B partnerships. ‘Good’ in this context can be described as partnerships that break the mould, and feel natural and organic to the customer, in contrast to other advertisements that can feel incongruous or intrusive.”

A creative approach
When it comes to choosing a partner to work with Gordon believes that a creative approach can pay dividends. This can involve finding partners that have quick access to the customer base. So if your company sells fitness products, looking for partners who are specifically talking about fitness and health. Or finding partners that don’t talk specifically about the types of product a company sells, but are still engaging with the ideal customer for your product.

For Acceleration Partners’ Southgate, the process of choosing the right partner starts not with the companies you are considering partnering with, but with the type of customer you are trying to reach.

“You should start by carefully defining the customer personas you are trying to attract,” she says. “The more detail you can include in these profiles, the better. Then, you can work with potential partners to understand if those personas are part of their core audience.”

Any potential partner should also be aligned with your own company’s brand values, she adds.

“Perform due diligence on their core target audience and values, and don’t be afraid to ask questions if there are any red flags. Reputational management is crucial when working with partners, and you will need to make certain your brand is protected.”

Measuring success
So you’ve done all the hard work to find the right partners, possibly with the help of a PMP, but how do you know if it’s working? The process of measuring the success of a partnership starts before the partnership begin, says Southgate.

“Brands need to clearly define their measures of success before the partnership begins. Common metrics include site traffic, actual sales, new lead signups, or increases in average order value (AOV). These measures are easily monitored with marketing analytics tools and give a concrete sense of whether a partnership is effective.”

The timeframe is also a consideration, she adds. “Brands should set milestones for when they expect certain metrics to be achieved. These milestones should be ambitious, but realistic, based on the size of the partner’s audience, their engagement rates, and the frequency with which you launch events or release new products.”

As impact.com’s Gordon points out, the KPIs will differ depending on the type of company you are partnering with.

“From the perspective of the advertiser, metrics such as year-on-year or month-on-month growth, revenue, or number of leads generated (depending on the commercial model), are key measurements of success,” he says. “Increasingly, partnerships such as influencers are being measured on metrics such as engagement, clicks, likes shares etc. 

“From the perspective of the partner, they are measuring their success with advertisers on the amount of revenue generated, or how frequently they work together on placements, tenancies etc. A good PMP will help track all of these metrics, and measure partner success by considering the number of programmes partners are active on.”

Shared ambition
The Easyjet and Spotify collaboration mentioned at the top of the piece was arguably one of the more off-the-wall ones. But Jess Ridley, Account Director at VCCP, which helped to broker the deal, says it’s a great example of what can be achieved when two companies have a shared ambition.

“In this instance, this was to develop something that was really innovative but that was rooted in insight and could provide a genuine benefit to customers,” she says. “Through this particular collaboration, we are able to connect two key consumer passions – music and travel – by providing people with personalised travel experiences based on their listening habits.

“It came about through an insight that your music habits can reveal a lot about someone. Therefore why not see if it could inform the travel experience someone should book next? Pairing together Europes leading airline with the worlds largest music streaming platform was a natural fit for making this happen.”

Rapid growth
So where is the partnerships market heading? Acceleration Partners’ Southgate says she is seeing rapid growth in the space. “Brands are eager to invest more of their marketing budget because it’s a transparent and measurable way to achieve strong ROI,” she says. “We’re seeing more brands experiment with unique and innovative partnership models, including working with social media influencers and investing in media buying. These trends are likely to continue as consumer habits shift toward omnichannel consumption.”

For impact.com’s Gordon, three trends stand out. Firstly, a huge increase in brands moving to SaaS solutions, as well as more activation across emerging partner types such as podcasts and TikTok. Secondly, more and more clients reacting to changes in tracking and privacy (such as iOS 14.5). And thirdly, an increasing trend towards tracking mobile performance in partnerships. 

Talk of podcasts and TikTok is highly relevant in the partnerships discussion. As everyone knows, the digital marketing world moves at breakneck speed. Few people had heard of TikTok a few years ago and BeReal is looking like this year’s new, new thing. If, as a company, you think you need to be active in a certain space or channel, such as TikTok, but have no experience of it, and don’t know where to start, then partnering with a firm that understands the space, for your mutual benefit, makes a lot of sense.

“The partnerships channel presents one of the best opportunities to align a businesses revenue stream to shifting consumer habits,” concludes impact.com’s Gordon. “This means there is inherent longevity in the partnerships channel, and its a safer bet for businesses that grow their revenue through partnering with other businesses. Added to this, advances in technology mean that these partnerships are becoming more scalable, more transparent, and even more automated, meaning that it is becoming less resource-dependent.” 

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It’s been lauded as the next version of the internet, a place where all brands need to have a presence – and many already do – and a place where people will be able to meet, work, train, play and socialize with friends and work colleagues from all around the world, without leaving their bedroom. It is, of course, the metaverse. But what exactly is the metaverse, and is the current excitement around it justified?

Before we address those questions, it’s perhaps worth noting that the metaverse is not the new, new thing many people make it out to be. Yes, most of the current hype can be traced back to last October, when Facebook changed its name to Meta. But it’s worth mentioning that some of the major metaverse players have been around for some time. The first iteration of Decentraland launched in 2015, Roblox appeared on the scene in 2006, and Second Life made its bow almost 20 years ago in 2003. And in the immediate hype surrounding Second Life’s launch, just as now, the received wisdom was that every brand needed to take it seriously and have a presence on it – I know this, I was there – something which relatively few did, with arguably no harm to their business. So why should things be any different now?

The metaverse defined
Well, it might help to answer this question if we have a better understanding of what the metaverse is, so let’s start with an attempt to define it. Adipat Virdi, a Partner at Harbour Immersive, describes the metaverse as: “an evolving network of immersive environments, which can be experienced IRL (in real life) digitally, or virtually. Imagine a 3D website that your ‘digital twin’ will get to walk around and experience. But if you take away the tech element of it, the metaverse is, essentially, an ecosystem to bring content, consumer and brand closer together.”

Csaba Szabo, MD EMEA, at Integral Ad Science (IAS), believes there will be many iterations of the metaverse as it develops over time, but that what will unite them is a blend of cutting edge visual and audio technologies to build immersive worlds for its users to create and interact with other users and brands.

“While at the moment its most utilised environments are games such as Roblox and Fortnite, with the more widespread adoption of VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) these spaces will become a far more integrated part of our everyday life,” he says. “Speculating what exact shape it will take is tough, but it is already clear that this is going to be an incredibly important ecosystem as we move from Web2 to Web3.

For Andreas Soupliotis, CEO of Hivestack, the metaverse is a simulated universe that runs parallel to our real, physical universe. “In the physical universe, our five senses experience the world through our bodies. Instead, in the metaverse, consumers experience a virtual, parallel universe via their avatar entity that is your counterpart representation in the metaverse,” he says. “Just as we shop in physical and online spaces, attend live music concerts in physical venues or watch them streaming live online, and buy or rent finite-supply real estate, our avatars will shop in carbon copy versions of retail stores, attend concerts in the metaverse alongside other avatars and even buy or rent finite supply land in meta verses that are being built.”

Other commentators, however, believe it is still very much a work in progress. “Todays metaverse is an idea thats still being tinkered with, with the vision of a network of interoperable 3D worlds where netizens will go from surfing the web to being immersed and traversing the web with newly minted metazens,” says Nirish Parsad, Head of Emerging Tech at Tinuiti. “Fully realized, the metaverse is a combination of several technological innovations that all operate seamlessly together. Some of these technologies include blockchain, cryptocurrency, NFTs, virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality (VR, AR and MR).

And Brian Bowman, CEO of Consumer Acquisition, has serious doubts about the metaverse being truly open for business anytime soon. He says: “The metaverse is 10-20 years away due to challenges with access (e.g. poor 5G wireless across the country), and mediocre computing power in mobile devices (eg, devices that arent capable of real-time volumetric 3D rendering). For Snow Crash or Ready Player One worlds to be a reality, were years and years away from achieving the tech innovation necessary, along with massive investments needed for both tech companies and consumers to access and adopt.

“Additionally, 3D poses key challenges to navigation and usability – think back to the hype around VRML and why that failed to gain traction. The metaverse sounds great as the future of consumer experiences, but like virtual reality, it is going nowhere fast.”

A bit of a messyverse
And Ben Richards, Chief Experience Officer at VMLY&R, says: “The vision for the metaverse is pretty amazing – it’s an expanse of persistent virtual and semi-virtual worlds interoperable with each other and accessible to everyone. However, currently, it’s a bit of a messyverse. At the moment it’s multiple corporations and start-ups fighting for ownership across different platforms. For us to move in the direction of reaching the vision promised we need these players to align their languages and experiences so they are seamless for the consumer. If the metaverse truly is for everyone, brands need to make it so.”

In this respect, Richards may be encouraged by last week’s announcement of the formation of the Open Metaverse Alliance for Web3 – OMA3 – to jointly address the industry’s interoperability challenges.

OMA3 is a consortium of leading blockchain-based platforms for the metaverse and Web3, including Alien Worlds, Animoca Brands, Dapper Labs, Decentraland, Decentral Games, SPACE, Superworld, The Sandbox, Upland, Voxels, and Wivity.

At launch, OMA3 said its mission is to empower a metaverse without restraining walls, where individual platforms are interconnected and interoperable. Its core principles are based on transparency, inclusiveness, decentralization, and democratization. It also said that it would be established as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) to ensure a governance system that is transparent and user-centric.

The organisation will focus its efforts on opportunities and challenges that arise specifically from metaverse blockchain-related topics such as standards for Non-Fungible-Tokens (NFTs); protocols; transferable identity; portals between virtual worlds; mapping; and indexing. It said it intends to join the recently announced Metaverse Standards Forum to participate and contribute to the general standardization work of this broader group, as well as other standards groups that are working on relevant topics for the metaverse.

Hype or hope?
With any new tech that comes seemingly from nowhere, there is usually a disproportionate amount of excitement and hype. What Gartner, in its ‘Hype Cycle’ terms the ‘Peak of Inflated Expectations’ followed almost inevitably by the ‘Trough of Disillusionment’. So is the hype around the metaverse justified?

For David Ripert, CEO at Poplar Studio, the answer is clear. “Definitely,” he says. “Metaverse-related technology including VR, AR, MR and Blockchain/Crypto, among others, are already disrupting several major industries, including on the enterprise side, with wide adoption beyond what seems to be limited to gaming on the consumer side: Aerospace and Defense, Automotive and Transportation, Healthcare, Energy and Utilities, Oil and Gas, Agriculture, Residential and Commercial, Retail and Consumer Goods, Telecommunication, etc.

“Use cases include training, simulation, planning, industrial design, automation, etc. which already make corporates using the technology more efficient and ROI positive, (while) on the consumer side, metaverse gaming platforms like Roblox are seeing 190m average monthly players, particularly on the younger user side, and a large number of top international brands are experimenting with presence on these platforms. The financial impact for these brands is not comparable to their real world counterparts, but there is clear recognition that it is critical to start building their metaverse capabilities now.”

Ripert adds that IMARC Group expects the ‘digital twin’ market to be worth $54.6bn (£45.6bn) by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 31.7 per cent between now and then.

Rolf Illenberger, Founder and CEO of VRdirect, accepts that the media buzz around the metaverse is in part hype, but adds that it is clearly not hype in terms of actual technology development, adoption and investments flowing in to metaverse-related technologies such as VR, AR, XR, Voice, Cloud, Edge and Blockchain. “In fact, there has probably never been a time, where such an amount of investment by the biggest (tech) companies of this globe were poured in the advancement of one technology vision,” he says. “To downplay the metaverse as hype would be the same as asking if the ‘Smartphone hype’ is justified just after Steve Jobs has presented the first iPhone. The metaverse will be the future of technology and ultimately disrupt the way we are commonly using technology today.”

For Ken Weiner, CTO at GumGum, whatever the level of hype, brands should approach the metaverse just as they would any other channel. “Brands should always be looking for ways to reach consumers, so they should be experimenting as the metaverse evolves to stay ahead of the curve,” he says. “I wouldnt worry about being perceived as jumping on the bandwagon. I would focus on whether there are consumers to reach, how much it will cost to reach them, and whether or not ROI can be measured.”

And Ben Putley, CEO and Co-Founder at Alkimi Exchange, notes that there is already a cohort of digital natives making these spaces their own and exploring the possibilities that they offer. “Many are even beginning to carve out careers from the skills they have attained in these virtual worlds,” he says. “As more and more people flock to metaverse worlds, build communities of their own and spend money on exclusive characters, items or areas, brands and advertisers will have to follow.”

Hivestack’s Soupliotis believes the hype is justified, given the ferocious battle brewing to own the metaverse space. “Today, the main outlet for experiencing the metaverse is through Oculus Quest glasses from Meta,” he says. “These will get smaller, lighter, and I personally believe other great hardware companies like Apple may release beautiful, lightweight VR glasses in the future. The battle will be for the App Stores. Today the Oculus App Store is how most metaverse apps are delivered. But if Apple launches glasses, they will launch with an Apple VR App Store. The fight will be on as to which ecosystem will be garnering the highly coveted App Store tax that has made fortunes on phones.

“I believe that whoever will build the most beautiful glasses with the best hardware: resolution and frame rates and audio will win – and that company will dominate the metaverse app store ecosystem. I see a world where Android, Meta, Microsoft, and Apple all have glasses with their own Metaverse App stores, ferociously competing for app developers to build apps on their APIs and stores.

“So is it worth the hype? Absolutely! If I am right that giants like Meta, Google, Apple and Microsoft will get into this business, you can expect the innovation to advance at a ferocious pace. 2023 could become the ‘war of the metaverses’. Each of these players will try to achieve ‘metaverse vendor lock-in’. May the best hardware and app store ecosystem win!”

Getting it right
So if you accept the hype is justified, how, as a brand, do you approach the metaverse, and your part in it? Danielle Gale, VP of Partnerships at AudienceX, believes that brands need to examine the different options available and understand how their current audiences are playing within these new ecosystems.

“There isn’t a single metaverse yet and all these separate ‘small-M’ metaverses aren’t cross-collaborative, meaning that efforts brands and agencies will develop for metaverse-style engagement will need to be replicated across the different ecosystems,” she says. “The metaverse is rapidly becoming a new buzz-term, and brands need to think long about their strategy and budget, before they look to immersive experiences and potential NFT plays to increase membership loyalty and engagement. What is true is that these digital worlds will be native to younger audiences as these younger audiences are less likely to purchase products and assets IRL. Everything will be digitally owned and enabled.”

Sarah Leccacorvi, Head of Content and Creative at Havas Entertainment, says the first question she asks any client who has an appetite to explore this new frontier is ‘Why? “Whilst I talk positively about its bottomless opportunity, we also have to ask those more difficult questions to make sure it’s the right decision to make,” she says. “Does it marry with your brand values? Is the CFO on board? Is it a vanity job? Did the idea come from the CEO’s teenage son or daughter? Yikes…

“For us, approaching a metaverse brief is very different from tackling a campaign brief. You need to either put a stake in the ground, think long-term and build a business proposition around that, or you simply put a toe in the water and treat it as a test bed, from which to learn from and hide in your training budget. Gaming is the most developed area, so it’s a good place to start. Either way, you must think about the financials beyond FTEs and hard costs, and consider accessibility, operability, and sustainability.”

Not forgetting brand safety. For IAS’s Szabo, this is as important in the metaverse as anywhere else online. He says: “As with all emerging spaces, brands need to consider the safety aspects of metaverse spaces before diving straight in. These hyper-visual, highly interactive spaces can pose many problems in terms of brand safety, and no company wants to start its metaverse journey off on the wrong foot.

“One way to negate this is considering the exact spaces ads are being placed in, deciding whether they are both relevant and suitable. AI-powered brand safety and suitability solutions can be a tool in achieving contextual ad placements, rapidly ingesting the nuanced signals that these hyper-visual environments present. Not only will this ensure safer placements, but they will also let advertisers better reach their target audiences and make the impact of their creative even greater.”

Emma Lacey, SVP EMEA at Zefr, agrees. “The main challenge for marketers will be establishing brand safety and suitability regulation in this widely unknown space,” she says. “The risk is that brands could enter the metaverse without considering what controls exist to protect their reputation. Marketers will need to apply the same measurement and verification rules and taxonomies to their advertising as they do in the real world, which will in turn foster a new wave of technological innovation to help them achieve this.”

Tom DuBois, Chief Product Officer at Remio, meanwhile, believes that any brand targeting young adults needs to be involved in the metaverse now.

“Young adults are connecting and socializing in immersive computing environments now, whether thats Roblox or Fortnight or on the Oculus,” he points out. “But, you need to do it in an authentic way or it can seem like youre just jumping on a trend. Take the time to understand this new media environment to make sure your brand is represented in an authentic way.”

Endless possibilities
Jenny Stanley, MD at Appetite Creative, believes the possibilities for how the metaverse can be harnessed by brands are “endless”.

She says: “Decentralised finance (DeFi) is an emerging financial technology based on secure distributed ledgers similar to those used by cryptocurrencies. The system removes the control banks and institutions have on money, financial products, and financial services putting it directly into the hands of the customer and brand. It creates an economic ecosystem anchored in blockchain usage, with tokens as payments and NFTs playing the main role..

“Brands can incorporate NFTs to make their loyalty programs more interactive, engaging, and, because the ledger is built on blockchain technology, 100 per cent trackable and less open to fraud. NFTs can be just about anything. Any digital form of media including images, music, videos, a game accessory, or concert ticket. They can also be used to benefit NFT holders by giving them access into any given project or community. For example, the NFT could be a simple ‘VIP pass’ into a community.”

And in the metaverse, she says, experimentation is to be encouraged.

“There are so many options – it’s worth picking a few and trying them out,” she says. “For example, we’re seeing requests to create shopping experiences in the metaverse. Brands are looking to enter a virtual reality shop to browse items and try on clothes etc. It creates an interactive shopping experience rather than just an ecommerce site. 

“Another popular option is to create a company trade zone or a branded custom marketplace. Perhaps you want to build an exclusive club, start a loyalty club or have a company or brand reward system for so many years or service, purchasing a particular item or comparing a particular achievement.”

Tinuiti’s Parsad offers this advice for brands looking to create great metaverse experiences: “Were in the pumpkin-spice era hype cycle of the metaverse. Many efforts feel forced and tacked on. But there are good ideas brewing. If you think of the metaverse as a place where people hang out, start by examining what you can offer in the existing metaverses vs creating your own world. Talk to creators and influencers who hang out in the metaverse who have a following and know their audiences – this is where authenticity is key, and the metaverse was built for creators.”

For Ed Delfs, CMO at Adriel, brands’ approach to the metaverse should be informed by their real-world brand values. He says: “Given its newness, all metaverse strategies by definition will be experimental and risky, so more conservative brands may want to let more experimental brands take the lead and make their mistakes and then learn from those mistakes.

“Red Bull should go nuts as its customers expect innovative, forward-looking branding and any backlash over poorly-produced experiences will be limited, while Citi should hold back and take a watch and learn approach as their brand risk is much higher. Another risk is that there will be countless charlatans popping up claiming to be experts in developing metaverse experiences so brands should select their agency or development partners very carefully. Lastly, the development costs will be massive so these should be mapped, like every other form of media, against total targeted audience size. It’s hard to see the math working out in the early going.”

Thomas Bedenk, VP Extended Reality at Endava, believes it would be a mistake for brands to completely transform their entire business to accommodate the metaverse. “Rather, they should consider how implementing the metaverse can support, and augment, their current digital approach,” he says. “Given the rapid rate at which the metaverse is developing, such sweeping, ‘one-and-done’ metaverse initiatives are likely to end in a disappointing fashion, rather than success.”

And Poplar Studio’s Ripert believes bricks and mortar retailers should be thinking about how to connect the in-store and metaverse experiences. He says: “In the future, a physical retail store might have volumetric cameras that can capture the customer and create a very realistic avatar of them. Customers could then use these avatars, which will have their exact measurements, to try on clothes and other items without leaving their homes.

“I expect to see the forward-thinking physical retailers making a push to amalgamate physical and digital experiences, like adding magic mirrors or virtual rooms in-store. Otherwise, they’ll be at risk of becoming a relic of the past.”

The here and now
So much for the advice, which brands are doing good stuff in the metaverse right now? Niklas Bakos, Founder and CSO at Adverty, says he has enjoyed some great metaverse experiences. “One of the best is the Vans Skatepark in Roblox,” he says. “Vans have had an audience in skateboarding and extreme sports for decades, and they’ve built their world so well, it sees four times as many players as the Nike world does. Another fantastic example was the Charli Cohen x Pokémon collaboration from Selfridges, a digital shopping experience in a virtual world that was tied to a physical clothing collection. Those were two cool and immersive experiences where you could explore and unlock elements, where players are rewarded for interacting with the brands.” 

David Berkowitz, SVP Corporate Marketing and Comms at Mediaocean, believes entertainment brands are a natural fit for the metaverse, aiming to deliver the most immersive experience possible, while gaming brands have set a precedent for virtual experiences.

“More recently, we’ve seen the likes of Snapchat introduce even more powerful AR capabilities and Spotify enter the metaverse with its launch of Spotify Island,” he says. “But beyond this, retail brands like Nike have come to the fore, seeing great success with their metaverse excursions and collaborations. The space will see rapid innovation, as other high-profile brands and industries follow suit with their own innovative ventures but, more crucially, it will increase marketer’s awareness of the deepening gap between our old conception of marketing and how it must function in this new world.”

Poplar studio’s Ripert quotes several good examples, including Levis and Ralph Lauren, both of whom have released a line of virtual clothing for Bitmojis that people can also buy in real life; Nike’s launch of virtual stores; Harrods creation of an immersive online space to celebrate the release of Burberry’s Olympia bag; Hermes’ release of a digital NFT of a handbag to be used in the metaverse; and Balenciaga’s GTA-esque game, produced to launch its Fall 2021 collection, plus many more.
Havas Entertainment’s Leccacorvi references Elvis On Chain, a multi-metaverse NFT project commissioned by Elvis Presley Enterprises. It enables like-minded Elvis fans from across the globe to meet and hang out, and experience rare concerts and generative collections. Next in line will be access to play-to-earn games, Elvis avatars, wearables and iconic collections.

And Appetite Creative’s Stanley points to the island resort of Sentosa in Singapore, which reacted to the pandemic and lockdown by creating a virtual version of the island in the game, Animal Crossing, giving consumers a feel for what the island has to offer in order to encourage visitors post-lockdown.

But Adriel’s Delfs is not convinced everyone – the fashion brands in particular – are getting it right. He says: “I see most current branded metaverse experiences as reflections of the visions of creators in the gaming and animation spaces rather than true reflections of a brand’s ethos. In my personal opinion, luxury brands like Gucci and Louis Vuitton aren’t doing themselves any favours by creating cute little animated worlds into which they are awkwardly embedding their highly esteemed brands. On the other hand, Vans or Lego launching a virtual skatepark on Roblox makes much more sense than Gucci doing the same.

“It all comes back to audience size and engagement, and with attention spans shortening there will also be a disconnect between these deep, immersive experiences and consumers interest and ability to sustain interest in them. That said, if a deeply immersive experience connects with some segment of a brand’s target market and they are able to capture data to retarget those potential customers, move them through a brand journey and convert them to customers then I say go for it!”

Despite Delf’s concerns, there does seem to be a great deal of enthusiasm among businesses for the metaverse. For a recent study on Disruptive Technologies commissioned by Wunderman Thompson Commerce & Technology, Censuswide surveyed 600 senior decision-makers and leaders in digital commerce, marketing and IT, equally split across the UK, US and China. 85 per cent of respondents said that cutting-edge technology like the metaverse would be essential to their businesses in the next two years, helping to unlock new revenue streams and future-proof their companies.

And back to that question of hype, in conclusion, Adverty’s Bakos believes it’s not about whether the metaverse is worth the hype now, but whether it will ultimately be. “The more hype that gets drummed up, the faster the metaverse will evolve,” he says. “The excitement we’re seeing and the money that is being invested from companies such as Meta, Google and Apple facilitates more development to reach the full potential of what the metaverse can be. The emerging metaverses we’re seeing today all have dreams of being the grand concept we want in future, and we’re getting a taste of what that might look like. That’s the real excitement.”

The post Metaverse 101 appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

In a difficult year, we seem to have hit the 15-year milestone of M&C Saatchi Performance – an agency I founded at the beginning of the mobile revolution that has grown, changed, and evolved alongside the digital industry. When I started in digital back in 1996, half the people who work at our agency weren’t even born. A lifetime for some, it certainly feels that way for me when I look back at how much the digital landscape has changed in the last 25 years.

In the 90’s, the idea that we’d one day buy clothes, groceries, and watch entertainment on our phones seemed impossible to many, but my belief in the internet never wavered. The first major turning point for digital advertising hit in 2000 when the dotcom bubble burst. Before this point, to buy online advertising you’d be paying ridiculously high costs, with CPM rates reaching £30 for 1,000 impressions and CPC rates hitting £2 a click, making the marketspace a novelty few could afford.

By 2000, the venture capital for this never-to-be-profitable digital businesses dried up and there weren’t many left who thought the industry could recover. The joke was that people working in B2B businesses would go Back2Banking and B2C would go back Back2College. Those of us who remained didn’t see this as the end, but rather the beginning. It was a control-alt-delete of the digital space and we were ready to rebuild. Costs dropped drastically to as little as 5 pence a click, or at least that’s what we convinced the media owners it was worth. The internet was finally ready to take its place as the core connector to consumers.

Mobile marketing
In around 2005, I started to notice all the same growth hallmarks of the internet repeating themselves – this time with mobile phones. Once again, we were seeing a tech opportunity that had the potential to change the planet but was being largely overlooked, with many thinking the most these devices would be good for was downloading wallpapers, ringtones, and playing the emotionally taxing ‘Snake’. At the time I was working at WW (formally Weight Watchers), whose model was built on healthy living and getting their customers outside and moving, but when I suggested reaching them on the move on their mobile phones, no one would take me seriously, which truly amazed me.

I knew mobile was coming of age and if no one else believed in this I would have to lead from the front and start pushing the mobile revolution.  My first target was Adidas. It was the lead up to the 2006 World Cup when I went to Adidas to talk to them about their need for mobile-led proposition to reach their highly active audience who would be out watching the football. They were willing to take on the challenge and hired our ‘agency’ to do the mobile media, mobile web site, mobile marketing, and even interview players like David Beckham on mobile devices to create content which worked on the mobile screen.

Big ideas
Now, when I say agency, it was really just myself and friend/business partner Dusan Hamlin with some big ideas. We created a mobile site which worked on the 1,300 different handset models and we piggybacked on all marketing collateral to promote this via a shortcode. We wanted to buy global mobile advertising inventory but were shocked at the lack of choice when it came to low-CPC available inventory. On around page 40 of Google, we found an unheard-of partner, AdMob, who was mainly selling mobile inventory to providers of ringtones and wallpapers who were shocked/excited to hear we had a mainstream brand who wanted inventory. Of course, that little-known partner went on to be bought by Google and become the foundation of its mobile solution. Our Adidas campaign kickstarted our business, launching us to be globally recognised for our ground-breaking work and willingness to take on the challenge of an unknown opportunity. We succeeded because we had the appetite to do brilliant mobile-first work for brilliant brands who, like us, believed in mobile as a communication channel.

We succeeded in not just proving that mobile was going to be a success, but laying the foundations of mobile marketing capabilities that has allowed the landscape to be as developed as it is today. Inside Mobile, as we were then known, grew over the next 15 years with the core belief that brands needs to be where the consumers are. We’ve been willing to take on challenges, never saying ‘well that’s never been done before’ but rather ‘we’ll find a way to make that work’.

Over time, everything became mobile, so we adapted our buying and planning capabilities to continue reaching our clients’ audience in the most effective way possible. Now, as M&C Saatchi Performance, we have evolved alongside the consumer and have become a digital media agency focused on optimising to every action a user takes online. We’re constantly looking at the next challenge to digital, whether that’s changes to tracking, privacy, or targeting – to me they’re opportunities. There has never been a year in digital that hasn’t presented obstacles – we launched just prior to a global recession, and today the state of our economy is facing similar uncertainty.

Today, relying on dashboards isn’t enough. As the digital landscape becomes more complex to navigate, the human layer of marketing insight is more important than ever to allow brands to connect with consumers in a way that resonates rather than irritates. You have a choice in business, whether you’re going to lie down and settle or get up and fight. I’m proud to say our agency is full of fighters who don’t hold their punches. The success we’ve achieved is all down to them – brilliant work from brilliant people. They’re the drivers of change and I can’t wait to see where they take this agency and industry in the next 15 years.

The post Celebrating 15 years at a founding mobile marketing agency appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Gabby Fernie: Your Only You brand campaign featured several in-app experiences, including an Audio Birth Chart and Artist Pairs. How did these work? 

Rak Patel: Only You was positioned around celebrating how each user listens, providing a Wrapped-esque shareable experience that others could engage with. Regarding the content, the Audio Birth chart was brought to life through the artists each person listens to. So the Sun was the top artist streamed over the last six months, the Moon was an artist that best showed their emotion, and Rising was an artist that each consumer really connected with. Then the Artist Pairs looked at the unique audio pairings that have been listened to recently, showcasing each person’s range of interests.

The experience also included learning about the artists you’d invite to your dream dinner party, your song of the year and how some have travelled through different time periods in terms of their music tastes, time of day that different consumers tend to listen to content, and finally genres and topics of music and podcasts that make each person different to the next. The activity was all about personalisation and sharing, which is always something that is popular with our audience.

We’ve also just launched Blend, our newest personalised experience which helps the public to bond with a friend or loved one over their favourite shared music, creating a relationship like no other and putting compatibility to the test. Blend is a new way for users to merge their musical tastes into one shared playlist, making it easier for users to connect, discover and bond over music they love. The experience includes cover art to easily identify Blend playlists, taste match scores to see listening preferences compared to others, and shareable data stories that are unique to every listening pair, and can be shared across social channels. The feature is updated daily based on streaming, and combines the best of Spotify’s personalization capabilities and collaborative playlist functionality into a single shared playlist, making it easier for users to get into a social listening session that is made just for them.

GF: What impact did the pandemic have on download numbers and time spent in the app? 

RP: Over the course of the pandemic, we’ve seen listening change in a variety of ways. During lockdowns with fewer people streaming from their cars during their daily commute and with an increase in working from home, more people were streaming across devices like computer desktops, TVs, smart speakers and gaming consoles.. Initially in the early stages we began to see changes to DAU trends and consumption globally, but we quickly saw listening rebound and recover. We’ve reported record MAUs in our recent earnings report, with 22 per cent YoY growth.

GF: How is the app evolving?

RP: The app is constantly evolving, and our team is always looking for new ways to make the platform relevant to both users and advertisers alike. One of the main ways we have evolved Spotify was through the launch of the new audio advertising marketplace, the Spotify Audience Network. This allows advertisers to reach listeners across Spotify’s own Originals and Exclusives podcasts, as well as podcasts via Megaphone and creation tool Anchor, plus our own ad-supported music, all in one place.

This year we’ve also expanded the Music and Talk offering, which brings together music and spoken-word content into one show. Through Anchor, Music and Talk is an accessible format that anyone can use to create unique shows, and whilst it was initially only available in the US, canada, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, we’ve now expanded to an additional 15 markets across Europe, Latin America and Asia.

We’ve also rolled out the ability to download your favourite playlists, albums and podcasts to your Apple Watch. All users are already able to play tracks, albums, playlists, and podcasts, and now Premium users will also be able to download everything they’re listening to for a true offline and phone-free experience. Moreover, with our latest update for smartwatches running Wear OS, including the new Galaxy Watch4 and Galaxy Watch4 Classic, audiophiles will be able to play through smartwatches whilst on the go. Users will be able to play their favorite playlists, albums, and podcasts with their smartwatches that run Wear OS. By having Spotify on your wrist, you’re more free to run, dance, shop, cook, and socialize—and control your music and podcasts at the same time.

GF: What is next for Spotify? People think of it as a music platform, but obviously, there are podcasts too. What about video, any ambitions in this respect?

RP: Spotify is a platform that is all about audio discovery, whether that be in the format of music or podcasts. As mentioned above we’ve expanded the Music and Talk feature this year, which is now available in a number of extra markets across the globe. We’ve also looked at how we can add even more personalisation to the platform through the launch of both Only You, and the recent launch of Blend.

With Podcasts, we have really put time into innovation and developing how we can make our offering as relevant to advertisers as possible. Over the past year we introduced Streaming Ad Insertion, an industry-changing podcast ad technology that unlocks digital planning, reporting, and measurement for advertisers. Then this year we also launched the Spotify Audience Network in the UK, allowing advertisers to reach more of the public who might identify with what they’re offering.

In terms of video, it is something that we are progressing, particularly around podcasts. With the launch of new video podcasts, fans can get to know their favorite podcast hosts even better, and creators can more deeply connect with their audiences. Video Podcasts can be accessed on your desktop or mobile app, and the creator-made videos will start automatically and sync immediately with your audio feed. The new feature also allows select creators to bring both audio and video content to Spotify, enabling them to connect more meaningfully with their listeners, expand viewership, and deepen audience engagement. It’s a way to enrich the audio experience—for fans and creators alike. It has also proven successful for advertisers, as listeners are able to engage with sound-on video ads, offering a valuable opportunity for advertisers to ensure that their messages have been both seen and heard.

Within video advertising there are two main formats that advertisers tend to use, including video takeovers and sponsored sessions. Video takeover ads are delivered during a listening session when the user is actively browsing through the catalogue to discover music and podcasts. The ads include a companion banner with a customizable call-to-action to help drive engagement. Whereas sponsored sessions boost brand affinity with an impactful video experience. Sponsored Session initiates a 30-minute ad-free listening session and is delivered only when the screen is in-view in a sound-on, 100 per cent share-of-voice environment.

GF: You recently released the third volume of Culture Next, giving advertisers a look into what inspires Gen Z. What are the options for brands looking to engage with consumers on the platform?

RP: There are so many options for advertisers to engage with users through Spotify, particularly across Podcasts, and more information on this can be found on our Spotify Audience Network. This was launched in 2020, as advertisers have historically bought podcast ads on a title-by-title basis. Now, Spotify Audience Network allows advertisers to connect with listeners across a vast range of content including from all four of our studios (Spotify Studios, The Ringer, Gimlet and Parcast) as well as from leading third-party podcast publishers, and then select from a broad range of easy-to-use targeting tools like demographic, geographic, and even audience segment targeting.

Then for music, the audio ads are served between songs while there are no distractions, and the listener is completely focused on what you have to say (as we actually found that 75 per cent of Spotify listeners say they remember ads more when the ads recognize their moment or setting). Advertisers can complement audio ads with a clickable link so listeners can tap to visit your website, app, or online destination. Then we also use Streaming Ad Insertion for podcasts which slots into a listener’s existing podcast experience, meaning we can offer the intimacy and quality of traditional podcast advertising with the precision and transparency of modern-day digital marketing.

Not only this but following a successful US launch of the Spotify Audience Network in April, we also decided to expand the audio-first advertising marketplace, and make it available to advertisers and Megaphone publishers in Australia, Canada and the UK. Within three months of launching the Spotify Audience Network, we found that nearly 60 per cent of our US podcast advertiser base is already working with us, most recently including Volkswagen and Saks – so not only are there plenty of opportunities for advertisers to engage with audiences, there’s also lots of different ways this can be done depending on what works best for them, and allowing them to reach audiences in a number of markets across the globe.

GF: You were recently part of an integrated multimedia partnership with M.A.C and TikTok. Will you be teaming up with more social media platforms to reach a wider audience?

RP: The M.A.C campaign is a great example of how advertisers can engage their target audience across multiple platforms that they consume in one cohesive project to drive a strong consumer experience. Both Spotify and TikTok are hugely popular platforms for Gen Z and Millenials. Looking at millennials and Gen Zs, audio enables and fosters more diverse viewpoints. 62 per cent of millennials and 52 per cent of Gen Zs think that audio amplifies more diverse perspectives than traditional media. 58 per cent of millennials and 48 per cent of Gen Zs have sought content from more diverse creators in the last year. And 71 per cent of millennials and 61 per cent of Gen Zs have used music as a way to learn about cultures and experiences that are different from their own.

In fact, a recent Kantar study of over 900 marketing professionals and 14,500 consumers across 23 markets worldwide, representing over 80 per cent of global media spend, found that Spotify is seen as the “most trusted platform for ads,’ followed by Google and Amazon.

With the TikTok partnership, we were both able to bring the campaign to life in different ways, taking advantage of the unique opportunities and properties of both platforms. Digital audio consumption is significantly on the rise, spurred by investments in content and technology.

In fact, it’s the fastest-growing of all current forms of advertising. That brings with it significant creative potential. We know that advertisers plan campaigns across multiple channels to secure the best reach and engagement and it absolutely makes sense to think integrated when it comes to platforms that consumers often use together, so we expect to see other advertisers ask for integrated multimedia partnerships in the future.

The post Talking Mobile with Spotify appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Five years ago, augmented reality (AR) looked like it was set to conquer the world, with AR specialists like Blippar and Zappar rolling out brand campaigns across multiple sectors. Then, from a brand perspective, things seemed to cool off somewhat, but the past 18 months have seen unprecedented growth in AR. With the COVID-19 pandemic causing a shift in how we shop, socialise, seek medical care and travel, the need for augmented reality solutions accelerated.

According to Tech Jury, the current value of the AR market stands at $3.5bn (£2.55bn). This is estimated to rise to $18bn by 2023.
As it’s much easier to augment reality than it is to create a virtual one, this in-between technology has powerful potential in everyday life.

What is augmented reality?
Augmented reality (AR) is an enhanced version of the real physical world that is achieved through the use of digital visual elements. Through our smartphone screens, we can see the real-life environment in front of us – for example, our bedroom floor, chest of drawers and pile of dirty laundry – with a digital augmentation laid over it. Our favourite popstar may be performing in real-time on our bedroom carpet or a pterodactyl may swoop down onto our laundry pile.

You may have inadvertently been using AR for years, experimenting with a pair of bunny ears on your Instagram selfie or adding a large pair of sunglasses on the Snapchat Lens to hide a hangover.

Meanwhile, the use of AR is exploding in the world around is, with brands and industries using it to completely revolutionise how they operate.

AR commerce
Augmented reality represents an opportunity to enrich and completely transform the shopping experience. By unlocking a new dimension, brands and retailers can bring their products to life in consumers own homes, in-store, or just about anywhere. By viewing a product in real life at accurate size and scale, the journey to purchase is not only speeded up but is significantly more fun.

AR ‘Try Before You Buy’ experiences are used by everyday brands such as IKEA as well as luxury brands like Louis Vuitton and Gucci.

David Ripert is CEO and Co-founder of Poplar Studio, an AR and 3D creative platform that helps brands create virtual experiences across all channels.

He explains: “With ‘try-before-you-buy’ most retailers will look at conversion to sales. We see metrics that are anywhere between 90 per cent and 200 per cent extra conversion when people ‘try-on’ using AR, such as glasses or placing furniture in their home. One cool thing is that there’s less returns, which are very costly for retailers. You can imagine that there have been many instances where a customer has ordered something like a washing machine from John Lewis and it hasn’t fitted through the front door. By using AR you can try it in real size, customise it, and you know if it’s going to fit in your home.”

Camera IQ helps brands create and publish AR experiences at scale to Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. This includes virtual try-on experiences for big-name beauty brands, such as MAC.

“Now, more than ever, there’s been an acceleration for brands to understand that they need digital experiences. It’s not enough to just visualise the product, it’s about bringing the product experience to life” says Sonia Tsao, Co-Founder and COO at Camera IQ. “From a marketer’s point of view, what other medium allows you to insert an awareness play and the opportunity to convert on the spot? It’s a very exciting time for AR.”

Last month, Camera IQ launched its Virtual Try-On Composer – a no-code design platform for AR advertising.

“At the core, there’s a couple of value props. Certainly the ‘create once, publish everywhere’ is core to the platform and will continue to drive our roadmap” says Tsao. “However, one of the biggest challenges in this space is that every one of these platforms has its own tech stack, meaning their own proprietary 3D AR studio environments that are very specialised and require technical skill. So, what Camera IQ has done is create a user interface in a creative platform that looks and functions more like an Adobe product. It’s really easy to use for any individual. Anyone from a marketer to a 2D motion graphics designer can use our workflow to create a world of compelling AR experiences and publish them across platforms.”

While currently focussed on brands, Tsao imagines a future where Camera IQ could be put in the hands of content creators and consumers, helping develop the ‘creator economy’.

She explains: “We’re now starting to work with traditional make-up artists who are creating AR looks for award season. For us, brands should absolutely be looking at AR creators and looking to tap them. Camera IQ would love to be the platform that empowers that relationship in many ways. Our dream is to democratise AR by putting our tool in front of as many businesses and individuals as possible.”

AR events
It was not only the retail sector that experienced an AR transformation during the pandemic. With consumers locked down at home, live events companies had to think outside of the box and take advantage of new revenue streams to facilitate fan engagement without the necessity of traditional live touring.

Singer Liam Payne delivered a ground-breaking AR performance at the EE BAFTAs via The Round app, thrilling fans as he was projected into their living rooms. The digital performance was powered using EE’s 5G technology, something that The Round app Founders Pip Brignall and Thomas Winsor described as “really exciting” in the potential it has for reducing latency and increasing bandwidth, allowing for meaningful interactions between performers and audiences at home.

Fans being unable to travel also meant that the sporting world turned to AR to connect audiences with big events.

NTT was tasked with creating the world’s largest connected stadium – a ‘digital twin’ of the Tour de France. Millions of data points were collected and brought to life through stunning, insightful visualisations and digital experiences for fans, no matter where they were in the world.

“Today, organisations across the board want to provide deeper, richer experiences for both customers and employees. We therefore don’t imagine that the use of AR and digital enhancements to engage global fans will be going away any time soon” explains Tim Wade, Vice President, Advanced Technology Group, Sport at NTT.

“We are continually developing and discovering new ways of visualising data, which allow events to deliver data-driven insights and predictions to fans across any device. It’s through hosting connected fan experiences and digital platforms that event organisers are able to engage multiple audiences in multiple ways. Even as fans return to events, these apps will continue to share real-time data, information, insight and exclusive apps and content, meaning fans can turn to AR technology to enhance their experience while watching live sport – rather than using it exclusively at home.”

Social media
The Snapchat Lens is one of the main platforms for companies looking to launch an AR brand campaign. Snapchat currently has over 200,000 Lens Creators around the world, who have made nearly 2m Lenses. These have been viewed by Snapchatters more than 2 trillion times. The platform’s recent AR brand campaigns include one for Samsung Electronics UK, where users could try on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 and Ben & Jerry’s ‘Cookie Dough Peace Pop’, where Snapchat users were invited to scan the packaging to open up an AR lens transporting them to a summer festival experience.

Around 170m Snapchatters use the platform’s Scan functionality every month, as Toccara Baker, Product Marketing at Snapchat, explains:

“AR has evolved to have more utilitarian use cases that really help with a couple of things. The first is providing and giving information. So, through our scan capabilities, someone can scan a plant, or a math problem and it’s solved for them. Another is really engaging with products in a fun way. What we saw last year was a meeting point of everyone being at home and unable to go into stores and the strong use cases for AR to allow for things such as try-on or exploring a product. AR really helps from an advertising perspective to bring a product experience to our community. We’ve also seen AR technology evolving so that these experiences are more real. We had great campaigns with Gucci and Dior, two of our initial advertisers to use this technology, allowing the capability to try on new shoes, see what they look like on your foot, and then to be able to actually purchase that item directly from the camera.”

Baker continues: “We are all about allowing our community to engage with the camera how theyd like. They can go through a carousel of different Lenses, which includes the shopping formats, and really new and exciting Lenses, like the Lens that turns your face into an anime character. The ones that make you look older, or even the ones where you turn into a hot dog are still really engaging. It’s all about providing that choice, and then allowing our community to explore.

“We’re also exploring ways you can use AR with friends and a larger community. Earlier this year we announced a partnership with Lego, which has the capability for our community to build Lego together. Another thing we have built this year is our organic offerings for advertisers, which we call our public profiles for business. This is essentially a profile that advertisers have on our platform that allows them to do a couple of things. One, it expands the life of their AR creative – we saw that a lot of advertisers were investing in AR but there was no place for these AR experiences to live so that the community could return back to them. This allows advertisers to expand that life. At the same time, we have a lot we are doing from a commerce perspective on profiles. Currently, we offer a store on the profile, with AR shopping and lenses. We’re very focussed on deepening that commerce experience for advertisers and for the community with the profile at the core of it. We’re really excited about the future of that and how it ties into AR for us.”

Education
Augmented reality also has the potential to breathe new life into education, offering extraordinary and interactive learning opportunities both in and out of the classroom.

UNIT9 is an innovation production studio that has taken on mammoth AR projects, including ‘The Met Unframed’ where famous artworks came alive and JFK ‘Moonshot’, which involved creating a fully synchronised AR recreation of Apollo 11.

It’s Clients Partnerships Manager, Adam Mingay, explains how AR has the ability to transform education entirely for a younger generation.

“Augmenting the past into someones current space at the touch of a button is incredibly evocative,” says Mingay. “JFK Moonshot is the perfect example of taking a huge moment in recent human history, the moon landing – something that would normally be taught in a more traditional and arguably less scintillating way – and contextualising it with augmented reality to heighten not only awareness but also the sense of actually being there. Bringing these moments to life using technology, whether at a museum, in a classroom or in the user’s front room, will only increase the likelihood of genuine excitement around a subject, versus minimal engagement when simply reading from a textbook. AR is cool, and adding a layer of educational content doesn’t dampen that fact.”

UNIT9 also recently created an AR ‘Discover Dubai Creek Harbour’ experience, spanning over 300 buildings in 11 different districts. While travel restrictions remain for so many, AR could very well be the future for not only education but property development.

“Traditional methods of showcasing new properties using scale models or 3D renders just aren’t as immersive as AR-led activations, and they’re starting to look outdated” says Mingay. “This AR revolution isn’t just limited to interactive models. Creative minds within property development are quickly finding out that this digital innovation isn’t simply a gimmick, but something which allows people to gain a truer insight into what they’re buying. From AR floorplans captured using light-detecting LIDAR sensors and published online, to augmented portals that allow users to step into their new apartments from the other side of the world, there’s scope to totally change the way in which people buy and sell property in the years to come.”

Keep it simple
Poplar Studio’s Ripert has advice for marketers looking to incorporate AR experiences into their campaigns.

“The user journey should be as simple as possible. Sometimes clients want to do something quite complex with augmented reality. However, it’s often the simplest ones that get shared the most and work the best,” he says. “You have to think about which the right platform is to upload your AR experience on. You can also promote through media now – so on Snapchat and TikTok you can buy ads to promote that AR effect. Web AR is another format that is really taking off as it doesn’t depend on someone downloading a dedicated application. So that’s anything that’s visible directly on Chrome or Safari on mobile browsers. You can promote Web AR anywhere you want because the AR experience will live on a URL. That’s why we use QR codes if it’s printed on paper – you can scan that QR code and it will take you directly to the AR experience.”

Ripert warns of the complex and technical limitations of AR, stressing that 2D products such as videos and photos will need to be transformed into 3D models that can be used and deployed for eCommerce.

“Let’s say you want to place a virtual character in your AR environment, for example a piece of furniture. A brand may have 3D models already, but if they don’t then they will have to be created,” says Ripert. “Oftentimes a brand may have developed a piece of IP for video or another type of campaign and that file will be very heavy. With mobile you want the experience to be seamless for the user, which means making the file size as low as possible. For Snapchat and Instagram the file size is now eight megabytes – it used to be just four megabytes. It’s important to remember that people are still on 3G and 4G or they’re using WIFI on holiday that may cut out a bit. When 5G is in all the big cities it will be a real gamechanger for AR, but for now we still have to make sure that the experiences are optimised for users.”

The future of AR
The future is bright for AR. Apple is rumoured to have a secret team of hundreds of employees working on virtual and augmented reality projects. This includes a hotly anticipated mixedreality headset and glasses. According to Mac Rumors, the headset is said to feature two high-resolution 8K displays and eye-detecting cameras that will let users “read small type” and “see other people standing in front and behind of virtual objects”.

This year, Microsoft also won a tender to supply the American Army with 120K HoloLens-based gadgets. The headsets will be worth close to $22bn (source: The Verge).

As UNIT9’s Mingay summarises “AR isn’t just here to stay, it’s here to take over. According to a recent Neilsen survey, over half of us want to use more AR and VR in our daily lives – and as we continue our inevitable progress towards the Metaverse, it certainly looks like this will be the case very soon. AR will become not just a tool to engage with fashion, music, education or property, but an integral part of everyday routine. As natural as scrolling through Instagram or checking emails.”

The post Augmented Reality 101 appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Thanks to the rise in quality video-on-demand services such as Amazon Prime and Netflix it would be fair to assume that the illegal downloading of films was on the decline.

However, with cinema’s shut during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, online piracy saw a sharp spike.

Visits to illegal streaming sites rose by U.S. and U.K. residents jumped about 31 per cent from February to March, according to London-based Muso TNT Ltd., which tracks piracy trends. Pirate website operators capitalised on this, offering ‘COVID-19 subscription’ packages and ‘self-isolation’ discounts.

Online pirates historically suffered from ‘zero- day’ problem. The name ultimately derives from the world of digital content piracy: if pirates were able to distribute an illegal copy of a movie or album on the same day it went on sale in stores (or maybe even before), it was dubbed a “zero day.” When a film debuted in cinemas there was also the issue of having no perfect copies to circulate – instead, dodgy versions filmed from people’s cameras were downloaded.

However, with new releases now being premiered on sites such as HBO Max and Disney+, pirates have a perfect copy to circulate.

“Online search trends suggest that fans have been looking for free streams of Cruella and the Friends Reunion online, pushing traffic towards illegal sites like Putlocker and The Pirate Bay” said Peter Szyszko, CEO of anti-piracy firm, White Bullet. “Indeed, search engine platforms were being flooded with keywords such as ‘Cruella movie download’ and ‘Cruella 2021’, within an hour of the film’s premiere on the Disney+ platform. Publishers like Disney and HBO Max will need to work much harder to ensure these high-profile releases aren’t so easy to find on pirate sites as it costs their studios millions in lost streaming revenue.”

It appears that big companies such as Facebook, Google, and Amazon are cashing in on the piracy boon as well.

A new report – Breaking (B)ads: How Advertiser-Supported Piracy Helps Fuel a Booming Multi-Billion Dollar Illegal Market – from web safety coalition the Digital Citizens Alliance and White Bullet details that online criminals who offer stolen movies, TV shows, games, and live events through websites and apps are reaping $1.34bn (£968m) in annual ad revenues.

During the year-long investigation, White Bullet identified over 84,000 websites and apps that offered access to infringing copyrighted content. Major tech companies such as Amazon, Facebook, and Google make up nearly three-quarters of all Fortune 500 company ads on pirate apps. As such, they are seen as major funders of the piracy ecosystem.

“That means these three companies are supporting these piracy operators with potentially tens of millions of dollars in advertising on piracy apps alone,” the report highlights.

Several voluntary initiatives, such as the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) have been set up to help convince major players to swerve piracy sites.

However, Amazon, Facebook, and Google are all part of and certified by TAG, which strives to prevent exactly what they’re doing.

The report credits Amazon for taking swift action to reduce its number of ads on pirate sites earlier this year. Google, however, is singled out as being a “significant contributor” to the piracy ecosystem.

“Google paid pirate operators millions of dollars to place its own ads on their illicit piracy apps. Given the company’s boasts about its analytical prowess and data expertise, it seems far-fetched that Google doesn’t know how it’s spending millions of dollars” says the report.

It’s not just films and TV shows that are falling victim to online piracy. High-profile sporting events are also being illegally streamed, costing sports service providers and rights holders billions of pounds in lost revenue.

According to Infront Lab, the global OTT (Over the Top – streaming or VOD content) content market will grow from $93bn in 2018 to more than $135bn in 2022. About 39 per cent of this amount is ‘pirated,’ with the lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic again boosting the phenomenon.

Football comes out top in terms of pirated content. Some 27.4 per cent of illegal downloads and views in sports are of football games; 25.5 per cent basketball; 13 per cent of mixed sporting events (such as athletics championships); 10.5 per cent tennis; and 8.5 per cent motor sports.

So what is being done to stop it?

INTERPOL is reportedly starting a new five-year project to tackle digital piracy following a significant increase in the number of offenses. The new INTERPOL Stop Online Piracy (I-SOP) initiative will combat online piracy and crimes involving intellectual property rights infringement. Criminal networks that are successfully targeted will have their assets confiscated. Under the initiative, law enforcement agencies will also work to identify and dismantle illegal online marketplaces where pirated content is streamed and sold.

White Bullet is also partnering with Peer39 and World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in a bid to prevent and defund online piracy.

White Bullet’s Szyszko says that the collaboration with Peer39 “will enable clients to elevate media performance whilst defunding pirated content on a larger scale”, with WIPO playing an “important role by providing a policy forum to shape international IP rules for a changing world.” 

He concludes “Advertisers who dont take an active approach to ensuring their advertising pounds arent going toward ads on illegal or pirate websites are essentially throwing money away. White Bullets partnerships with leading programmatic platforms will enable advertisers to simply press a button to protect themselves. We are making it easier for companies to ensure that their budget isnt going toward ads on websites that promote or enable pirated content.

“Companies cannot afford to be wasting money on pirated content and by joining forces with the industrys top programmatic platforms, like Peer39 and 4D by SilverBullet, together we are making in-the-moment, brand-safe marketing possible.”

The post The rise in online piracy appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Pubs and chains developed their own apps for customers, usually asking for a name, email address, phone number, and payment details. Chains such as Wetherspoons included a handy GPS tracker to make sure customers were ordering from the right pub.

Young’s On Tap, the app for the 200 Young’s pubs across London and the southwest of England, even added an option for customers to split the bill with members of their party, a popular solution at a time when many found themselves out of work or with less disposable income.

Now that restrictions are lifting, restaurants and bars across the UK can return to pre-pandemic style service at the bar or from waiting staff.

However, ordering online has proved popular with customers and businesses alike, with bar queues being avoided and the ordering process significantly speeded up.

This week, the Information Commissioners Office warned the BBC that customers should be careful when handing over personal data when ordering food and drinks via their mobile phones and reminded them that they had a choice over whether to share information.

“I think its too easy to upload an app and straight away put your name, email address, payment details in, without actually understanding fully where that information may be shared and why its being used,” Suzanne Gordon, Director of Data Protection at the ICO told the BBC. “Ultimately this is your data, its your personal information and you need to be confident when youre handing it over and the reasons why.”

Pubs and bars have since contested that they are following the guidelines to inform customers of their rights and how their data will be dealt with.

However, it is fair to assume that a very small proportion of customers actually take the time to read through these terms and conditions, especially when thirsty for a pint.

Is what the ICO is saying reasonable? In the wake of Apple’s IDFA changes, people are becoming more aware of how their data is used and are customed to being given the option of opting-out of their activity being tracked across other companies apps and websites. Are pub apps not obliged to do the same?

Florian Lichtwald, Managing Director and Chief Business Officer of Zeotap, believes the issue is more complex.

“In its commentary, the ICO is largely just reminding businesses of one of the core principles of GDPR, which is data minimisation (Art. 5, c). This shouldn’t come as a surprise to any business collecting and processing their customers’ personal data,” says Lichtwald. “However, this doesn’t definitively answer the question of ‘how much’ data businesses should be collecting on their customers – and the picture here is more nuanced. It can be too easy to position businesses as being wantonly ‘greedy’ for data, but in reality the relationship between the business and its customer is complex, and the value of data to a business can often be in the service of improving this relationship through creating better services and experiences.

“This is nowhere more true than for the hospitality and travel industry: given the struggle here over the last 18 months, the need for data is greater than ever. This is because survival in this industry depends on being able to create winning customer experiences – to do that, you really need to understand your customer, which means you need to collect the appropriate data from them.”

He continues: “This case – like in any situation involving customer data – is about striking a balance between customer needs and business needs in a fair value exchange. That’s why we’re willing to provide a lot of personal data when we book a flight, but we would baulk at handing over the same amount of information when we order a beer. Attempting to collect amounts of data disproportionate to the service provided is simply a bad customer experience, and businesses who put customers first will know to only collect the data they really need.

“However, none of this excuses any violation of laws around data privacy. Regulations like GDPR need to be complied with, and navigating this world is challenging for businesses and customers alike. Adding new sources of data collection like apps only adds to this complexity, and businesses using them will need to make sure that the consent to use the data collected here properly reflects the intended purposes and channels of communication like email, SMS and digital advertising.”

The Data and Marketing Association (DMA) has its own DMA Code, setting the standard of conduct for the industry and to which all DMA members and their business partners must adhere.

Its CEO, Chris Combemale agrees that to enhance customers’ experience through data exchange, businesses need to be clear about its benefits and transparent about where it will be used.

“When data is used to enhance the customer experience, information sharing is essential to businesses wanting to offer a more personalised, streamlined service. Such valuable insights into consumer preferences often lead to better services and deals for repeat customers, which in turn, increases engagement,” says Combemale. “When consumers are considering whether or not to share their data with an organisation, they seek transparency and trust most. Therefore, when it comes to data sharing, organisations must only seek data that is absolutely necessary, highlight the benefits of sharing it, and make it clear that only their business will have access to it.”

The post UK watchdog issues warning over pub apps appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

It’s challenging to find positives that came out of the COVID-19 pandemic. 2020 was a tumultuous year for everyone, especially the health care community. Medical frontline workers stepped up to the plate to fight the spread of the virus and provide treatment to patients.

But perhaps one positive thing to come out of the pandemic is the widespread use of telehealth apps and websites to meet virtually with their doctors. In addition, the emergence of telemedicine has offered patients alternatives to visiting a health care facility to receive proper care.

With the spreading capability of COVID-19, it’s no surprise that telemedicine became more prevalent. When doctors’ offices closed, doctors and their practices needed to find alternative care options. As a result, many offices had to receive their telehealth accreditation to offer appointments to their patients.

The CDC reports that there was a sharp increase in telehealth encounters in March 2020. So, as COVID-19 changed many aspects of our lives, telemedicine as a practice will likely be here for the long run.

Here are six telehealth apps that patients can benefit from as they manage their health moving forward.

1. MDLive
The MDLive platform builds on the company’s existing behavioral health, urgent care and dermatology services the company is already known for. The company served more than 36 million active members as of January 2020. Its primary goal is to help existing platforms and unburden existing health care infrastructure by offering a predictive and proactive approach to care rather than a reactive one.

Signing up for MDLive services takes only 15 minutes. From there, patients can search through a network of board-certified doctors to choose the proper care for their health needs. During a visit, doctors can provide diagnoses and prescribe medication to retrieve from your local pharmacy. Access via mobile app is also available for MDLive patients.

2. Amwell
Amwell offers 24/7 doctor visits, and all of them can be done from virtually anywhere on a phone, laptop, or tablet. Prescriptions can be sent electronically to a patient’s pharmacy of choice, and there’s no need to wait for an appointment. Aside from physical health problems, it’s also possible to visit licensed therapists and psychiatrists.

One of the biggest challenges in health care is the influx of patients to emergency rooms and practices who don’t need to be there. Resolving minor conditions that are nonlife-threatening, nonurgent or easy to treat at home, without driving to a doctor’s office, is one of the key applications of telehealth Amwell hopes to capitalize on.

3. Teladoc
The multinational Teladoc Health uses telemedicine, data analytics and artificial intelligence to connect patients with physicians and render expert medical opinions. To meet the growing demand for its services, Teladoc acquired several companies between 2002 and 2018, including BetterHelp and Advance Medical.

Medical experts are only a few taps away from patients seeking medical care. It’s simple to sign up for a Teladoc account — it only takes a few minutes to chat with a virtual assistant beforehand. During signup, it’s also possible for patients to enter their medical history to give doctors further insight into their current conditions. This allows for safer care as we emerge from the pandemic.

4. Doctor on Demand
Doctor on Demand provides anywhere, anytime connectivity with the medical community through mobile and desktop computers. It’s also a covered benefit for 98 million Americans. With urgent and chronic care available, as well as behavioral and preventive health assistance, it’s a fully realized telehealth platform.

As the name suggest, it’s easy to find a doctor to consult with over your medical needs. Doctor on Demand has a mission of achieving its trademarked Total Virtual Care, where patients can access doctors in a pinch. Doctors on Demand have licensed medical professionals that have an average of over 15 years of experience.

5. BetterHelp
The massive changes people faced during the pandemic caused some people to seek therapy and alternative mental health treatments. As a result, therapists transitioned from the office to online video conferencing. BetterHelp offers mental health treatment services for individuals, couples, and teens. They enlist licensed counselors for their operation and match their patients accordingly. It’s 100 per cent online, and memberships range from £40 to £70 per week, billed 4-weekly.

BetterHelp has a lot to offer. With tens of thousands of vetted counselors available to talk and more than 150m messages sent through its platform since launch, it’s a mature offering that’s already helped thousands of people achieve their best lives and work through whatever’s holding them back.

6. Talkspace
Another telehealth app that centralizes around mental health counseling is Talkspace, with over 1m users worldwide. They accept most major insurance and offer services for many age groups. Talkspace also offers a mental health checkup for patients curious about their state of mind and whether therapy is a suitable option for them.

Onboarding at Talkspace is a welcoming and accessible experience. A brief assessment offers a chance for patients to give insight into their preferences and frame of mind, and the resulting list of recommended therapists provides both choice and privacy.

Regardless of the reason for a doctor’s visit, patients must have access to proper medical care. But, as the pandemic shifted many priorities in health care, it also shone a light on the communities that struggled to find affordable, expert-level doctor appointments.

The future of telehealth 
Telehealthcare options will likely be here to stay in the upcoming years. The benefits certainly outweigh the drawbacks – more access to medical professionals, convenient scheduling capabilities, and prescriptions are only some of the positives. As more patients rely on digital services to receive medical care, doctors need to digitize their practice and transition to offering online appointments.

The post Telemedicine comes of age during the pandemic appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Rather than the polished, filtered posts on Instagram, TikTok users celebrate anything that is silly, funny and overall, authentic.

It’s come as somewhat of a surprise, however, that over recent weeks the platform has been flooded by content from Gen Z Olympians. Previously banned from using social media during the games, this year the athletes have been allowed to connect with fans online. 

From clips of the Olympic village, Q+A’s and “A Day in the Life Of’ vlogs, the athletes are not only providing us with behind-the-scenes footage for the very first time but are reminding us that they are normal teenagers too, with emotions and hormones flying around as they compete to be the best in the world at their individual sport. 

Cardboard beds are jumped on, signs are taped over balconies to flirt with rival teams, ping pong tournaments are held and practical jokes are played. While these young adults seem almost superhuman through the lens of big TV networks, the platform has given them a chance to show their personality to the world, and as one user remarked, “seem like normal people”.

Olympians have been seen on Instagram for a long time, usually doing sponsored posts. Diver Tom Daley is currently Team GB’s biggest influencer, with 2m Instagram followers and earning up to £6,845 per sponsored post (source: Casino Scores). Tennis player Andy Murray is a close second, also with 2m followers and earning up to £5,887.50 per sponsored post.

But in true TikTok style, the most popular Olympians on the platform aren’t even famous household names.

Sam Fricker, a 19-year-old Australian diver has over a million followers. Posting on the platform up to 10 times a day he has documented his time in Tokyo with videos of him slow-motion diving into the ocean at sunset, putting a mattress topper on his cardboard bed to make it softer, taking viewers into the Olympic canteen where there is “anything you could possibly want” to eat, and admitting that his favourite way to celebrate after a competition is “with a bag of lollies”.

Last week, swimmer Adam Peaty made TikTok users go wild as he appeared miming along to a rap song before whipping out an Olympic gold medal. The video has amassed over 570,000 likes, with comments from users including “Were living in a time where Olympic athletes casually make TikToks after winning a gold medal.”

Ilona Maher, a 24-year-old US Rugby Sevens player has taken the platform by storm in her search to find a “tall foreign demigod lookin” athlete. Maher’s videos are a wry, witty, and engaging peek at the action in Tokyo, amassing millions of views. Clips of her modeling Ralph Laurens Olympic uniforms have gone viral, in particular, a colourful USA bucket hat.

When asked by a user why Olympians dont go up and talk to each other in person (increasingly using the platform to reach out to those that they like the look of) Maher replied “It’s not that easy to go up to a pack of six, seven Romanian volleyball players and shoot my shot. I’m working on it, but I don’t know if that’s in the cards for me.”

Maher admitted that when shes not on the rugby field she is spending six hours a day on the app, creating content for fans.

Filipino skateboarder Margie Didal’s dance celebration video with 13-year-old Brazilian skateboarder Rayssa Leal after winning the silver gained millions of views. Her tom-boy image, combined with jokey dance videos has gained her a giant 1.5m followers on the platform. She regularly communicates with fans, recently commenting that if a clip of her skateboarding at the Olympics hit one million views before midnight she would “do a live and celebrate with you guys.” 

The Olympics official TikTok account has posted a range of content. Some are clips of the athletes competing at the games, whilst others are show off their incredible strength and skill in more unusual ways. Climbers hoover their floors whilst suspended from the ceiling, surfers eat cereal whilst standing on a makeshift balance board and a group of divers perform handstands on a treadmill. In contrast to his stylysed posts on Instagram, Tom Daley is spotted knitting in the stands whilst watching his fellow teammates. 

Caught in the exact moment of living out their dreams, this new group of content creators are not only mesmerising but arguably one of the best things to have hit the platform this year. 

The post The top Olympians on TikTok appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.