Every week, the Swrve team read about dozens of fascinating tech developments, marketing insights and app use cases. And every week, we have to select just a few to explore fully in our blog. Below are some of the best of the rest, with a particular focus on the (rapidly) emerging digital media and OTT space.
Including some insightful statistics, a new way to engage with TV and some important words of caution, we believe these five articles and studies are worth taking a few minutes out of your day to read.
HBO launches Soderbergh’s choose-the-order storytelling app and show Mosaic - 3 minute read. By John Constine. Via Tech Crunch.
Remember those ‘choose your own adventure’ books you had as a child? Well, this isn’t like those. But whilst HBO’s Mosaic app doesn’t let you change the course of its mystery TV series with your decisions, you do get to pick whose perspective to watch it through, and to swap between them as much as you like. As users continue to demand more from their viewing experience and interactive TVs become the norm, using apps to engage with shows seems like an obvious progression.
OTT Providers: Beware When Expanding Service Internationally - 2 minute read. By Evelina Grines from MPP Global. Via AdExchanger.
After the article above, this piece is a fitting reminder that although the expanding OTT market presents a whole new set of opportunities for app companies, it also presents a whole new set of problems too. This article looks at some of the issues that can come with localisation for OTT, from translation to payment and regional content. For anyone looking at expanding their OTT offering, or even just interested in what this emerging tech could mean for both apps and users, this is a valuable reminder.
How mobile marketing “micro-moments” can increase sales and ROI - 3 minute read. Via BigEye Creative.
BigEye explain the practicalities of ‘micro-moments’, the moments when users reflexively turn to their phones to get a job done. Those jobs vary from booking a fitness class to finding out how to get to that fitness class, or buying a pair of trainers for it. This article looks at the importance of harnessing those moments of in-app contact, whilst avoiding disrupting users when they have an objective in mind.
The Nielsen Total Audience Report Q1 2017 - 8 minute read. Via Nielsen.
Gathering data on mobile users is the first step to making an app successful. This Neilsen study offers research that’s invaluable to establishing what you can expect from users and where mobile apps fit into their digital habits. The study reveals some important distinctions between the ways that different age groups engage with technology, as well as highlighting which digital formats are growing rapidly. Noticeably, multimedia devices including Roku and Apple TV are amongst them: the number of TV-owning households that also have one of these devices rose from 24% in Q1 2016 to 31% Q1 2017.
And in other news…
Oprah Becomes Alexa’s First Celebrity Voice - 1 minute read. By Tim Maytom. Via Mobile Marketing Magazine.
The festive news you didn’t realise you were waiting for is here. Celebrity powerhouse Oprah Winfrey has been revealed as the first famous voice to feature on Alexa, Amazon’s digital assistant. Whilst this is only a temporary addition for the holiday period, it does showcase yet another opportunity offered by the growing Internet Of Things. The question is, who will be next?
