Insights from Nebo

In too many organizations, UX and Paid Media are distant departments. Sure, they bump into each other in the kitchen, and maybe they work together on a landing page now and then. But for the most part, these two teams are seen as separate entities - and major opportunities are missed. 

When UX and Paid Media come together, magical things happen. In fact, the combination of razor-sharp targeting strategy and human-centered user experience just might be what keeps advertisers steady through the ever-evolving, rapidly changing landscape of marketing that’s unfolding today. 

If you know social media, you know video rules over all other media types. The storytelling power conveyed in a video is unmatched. It is efficient in reaching your audience and driving engagements for your brand. There’s nothing like motion to stop someone from scrolling through their feed and focus on the magic of a well-crafted video. Catching on? 

Video is a powerful tool that can help elevate your social performance. We have combined the brains of a social media specialist and a paid social specialist to give you insight into how to best use video through both organic and paid social. Check out our guide on video best practices for organic social and the available paid placements for each social media platform. 

As the voice landscape and consumer use has grown, so have the spaces where voice has integrated into other experiences. Most voice integrations are purely functional: for example, Waze for iOS recently adding Google Assistant integration. 

Then, there are the more innovative crossovers with voice. Twitter's audio tweets merge social and voice. And Snapchat's voice scan feature allows users to search filters with their voice. 

In the audio streaming landscape, Spotify launched voice-activated campaigns and Pandora moved interactive voice ads into beta testing. Amazon is pushing its vision for the grocery store of the future by adding Alexa devices to answer shopper questions in store. 

Innovation in voice promises to change the way we shop and make decisions. But there's still a larger opportunity to make voice experiences that are a force for good. 

We all know - and love - the project managers in our lives. (And I’m not just saying that because I am one. 😉) They’re the people who keep our projects organized, keep our workloads as steady as possible and help keep our work lives on track. 

When you think about those who excel at project management, a few key skills and characteristics may come to mind: organization, time management, strong written and verbal communication and so on. However, the top of the pack excels at one additional thing: 

Anticipation.

Businesses compete. It’s a basic assumption most of us make. And the idea of businesses cooperating usually stems from a direct self-interest of the cooperating organizations.

However, always being in a competitive, me-versus-them mindset is riddled with short-term thinking and inherent flaws. The reality is that even in the best of times taking a competition-and-cooperation mindset is usually better and healthier.

Early predictors of OTT streaming services in 2020 have seen a major shift thanks to shelter-in-place orders and a massive increase in streamers who are stuck at home. One would think the pivot in new users would set some of the new streaming apps up for success, but some providers are still struggling to tweak their offerings in a hope to increase new downloads and subscribers. 

The future of OTT streaming in 2020 and beyond will ultimately be decided by which new streaming apps sink or swim among the continuity-crowded app pool, and who will be nimble enough to survive.