Author Archives: Matt Kapko

LAS VEGAS — The head of Google’s commercial operations in the Western Hemisphere this week spoke with the soon-to-be largest ad spender in the United States and one of Hollywood’s biggest movie studios, to showcase how large traditional media companies are transitioning to digital marketing. On stage at CES 2017, a trio of executives from the companies also discussed the challenge of managing disparate marketing metrics and fears related to machine learning. 

AT&T and Universal Pictures currently spend 30 percent of their marketing budgets on digital media, according to Fiona Carter, chief brand officer of AT&T, and Josh Goldstine, president of worldwide marketing at Universal Pictures. Margo Georgiadis, president of Americas at Google, is enthusiastic about the increase in digital spending (especially when the dollars land in Google’s coffers) but she said it’s more difficult today for marketers to understand the value of their spend as the number of consumer touchpoints — mobile, web, app, social and video — grows. 

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Facebook and Google closed out 2016 with a near duopoly in popular mobile applications. Both companies’ mobile apps expanded their dominance of the 10 most popular mobile apps in the United States by significant margins, according to research from Nielsen. The media measurement firm calculated the average unique audiences for apps between January 2016 and October 2016 and provided year-over-year percentage changes for the 12-month period that ended in October. 

A Facebook and Google world …

Facebook makes the two most popular mobile apps in the United States, Facebook and Facebook Messenger, as well as Instagram, the second-fastest growing app and the No. 8 most popular app, according to Nielsen. Facebook’s average unique audience on mobile during the period grew 14 percent year-over-year to 146 million users. Facebook Messenger’s audience grew 28 percent from the previous year to 129.7 million users. And Instagram jumped 36 percent from 2015 to 74.7 million users, Nielsen says.

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When Apple in July announced it would require all iOS apps to use a technology called “App Transport Security” by the start of 2017, the move was widely regarded as a positive one for user privacy. Now, just barely a week before the deadline, Apple pulled back and extended the deadline indefinitely. The requirement, if implemented, would fill a significant security hole on iOS devices, according to experts. 

Apple takes a strong and public position in favor of protecting its users’ privacy. The highest profile example of this is perhaps the company’s standoff in January with the FBI over its insistence that data be encrypted on iOS devices at rest, regardless of the owner or reasons for a government’s requests to override those protections. (In that case, the intelligence agency wanted access to an alleged terrorist’s personal device to scrape it for evidence and other information).

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A lot changed in the enterprise messaging and collaboration market during the final months of 2016. Facebook formally entered the space with Workplace and the accompanying Work Chat app, for example. Microsoft released Teams. Google rebranded its portfolio of apps for business as G Suite.

Google does not, however, appear to have a clear strategy or blockbuster app for messaging or group chat in the enterprise. Google is likely capable of overcoming this challenge on its own, but experts suggest Slack is a viable acquisition target that would instantly boost G Suite’s performance and influence in enterprise communications. 

‘G’ in G Suite stands for ‘gap’ in team messaging

Google needs enterprise collaboration tools “beyond just nice-to-have capabilities,” and that missing link is all the more pronounced following the release of Microsoft Teams and Facebook Workplace, according to Craig Le Clair, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research. Microsoft has an awkward abundance of chat-powered apps in Office 365, but its suite is complete, Le Clair says, while G Suite still has a big “gap” in its offering for team messaging.  

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Social media had a big 2016. The medium and all of the leading social companies reached new heights of influence … but not without consequence. These are the stories that shaped the conversations and intrigue around social media during the past year.

Social media and the 2016 presidential election

The American public is still grappling with all the ways social media shaped the 2016 presidential campaign. However, CIO.com uncovered how social media brings out the darker side of digital introverts and often amplifies slanted views or political biases. During the final weeks of the 2016 presidential election it became quite clear that social could not be more powerful or dangerous.

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Box CEO Aaron Levie has a message of hope for CIOs as they approach 2017: “I think it’s the best time in history to be a CIO, because you have so many great companies working on your behalf to enable you to have way better technology in your organization,” he says.

Levie’s positive outlook runs counter to many IT trends and common perceptions. CIOs’ grip on technology and budgetary oversight has been challenged for years as marketing executives and others throughout their organizations gain influence and power of the purse. For example, a November Gartner report concluded that marketing technology budgets will exceed the amount of money CIOs spend on tech in 2017. 

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Box CEO Aaron Levie has a message of hope for CIOs as they approach 2017: “I think it’s the best time in history to be a CIO, because you have so many great companies working on your behalf to enable you to have way better technology in your organization,” he says.

Levie’s positive outlook runs counter to many IT trends and common perceptions. CIOs’ grip on technology and budgetary oversight has been challenged for years as marketing executives and others throughout their organizations gain influence and power of the purse. For example, a November Gartner report concluded that marketing technology budgets will exceed the amount of money CIOs spend on tech in 2017. 

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Microsoft’s $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn has officially closed, and the CEOs at both companies are sharing some of the early plans for integration across product lines.

The largest deal in Microsoft’s 41-year history will combine the “world’s leading professional cloud and the world’s leading professional network,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote in a blog post. Both companies share a common mission to “help professionals transform how they work, realize new career opportunities and connect in new ways,” he added.

During the coming months, LinkedIn and Microsoft say they will be integrating products, especially in areas where Microsoft’s scale can be an asset. Nadella and LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner spotlighted eight areas the companies are going to pursue immediately:

●    LinkedIn identity and network in Microsoft Outlook and the Office suite
●    LinkedIn notifications within the Windows action center
●    Enabling members drafting resumes in Word to update their profiles, and discover and apply to jobs on LinkedIn
●    Extending the reach of Sponsored Content across Microsoft properties
●    Enterprise LinkedIn Lookup powered by Active Directory and Office 365
●    LinkedIn Learning available across the Office 365 and Windows ecosystem
●    Developing a business news desk across our content ecosystem and MSN.com
●    Redefining social selling through the combination of Sales Navigator and Dynamics 365

The initial integrations seem sensible, relatively straightforward, and represent a “logical list of early to-dos to be focusing on as the two companies become integrated,” says Jan Dawson, chief analyst and founder of tech research firm Jackdaw. “Some of this is particularly simple and can probably happen very quickly, while other elements will be longer-term projects.”

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