Blinkx Loses Value; Facebook Tests Missed Call Feature

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.

Blinkx Slides

The FT reports that online video advertising company Blinkx lost a third of its value in the public markets as it announced revenues would fall short of expectations. The company said in a release, “During the last three months, which are seasonally the smallest quarter of the year, we saw lower than forecast demand – specifically within Desktop – with a corresponding shortfall in revenues and EBITDA. The shortfall was exaggerated toward the end of the quarter. We attribute this performance to industry-wide issues of efficiency and effectiveness, which, in our case was compounded by the lingering effects of the disparaging blog [by Ben Edelman] about the Company.” AdExchanger chronicled the war between Edelman and Blinkx in April. Read it.

Missed Call Marketing

Facebook is honing in on a new way to serve ads to high-growth countries, where the majority of mobile users access the Web via feature phones or the equivalent. To save mobile users data and minutes, Facebook is testing a “missed call” feature, basically a prod for the marketer to respond. When a person sees an ad on Facebook, they can click on it to receive content they’re interested in such as music or sports scores (served alongside brand messages from marketers). Facebook is testing the feature in India, and early tests with Garnier Men show positive results. Read the Facebook product report.

Video Ad Interaction

Video tech company Fuisz Media unveiled new capabilities for interactive elements within video ads on Wednesday. The company also announced an additional $2 million in funding and the securing of some heavyweight enterprise clients like Nike, Target and Walmart. The new offering lets viewers hover over certain object within video ads, and click through on certain products to share on social media, online purchase or product research. For its interactive video ads, Fuisz Media is showing click-through rates 20% or higher, which is unheard of. Read more via TechCrunch.

Planning Instagram Ads

Ikea is taking a new approach to native advertising through an interlinked website on Instagram. Russian ad agency Instinct developed the Instagram account for Ikea, ikea_ps_2014, to showcase the retail giant’s April collection. “We wanted to create something really cool. And then we noticed similarities between Instagram tags and website links,” explains Instinct creative director Nikolay Fabrik. The account works like a virtual catalog of sorts that leverages Instagram’s tagging feature to help users navigate the collection. Digiday has the story.

Mobile Killed The Radio Star

Mobile advertising will account for 9.8% of the total US ad marketplace, according to data from eMarketer. Mobile ads beat out newspapers (9.3%), magazines (8.4%) and radio (8.6%), and brands are spending 83% more on mobile ads and tablets in 2014 than in 2013. The report projects that investments in mobile ads will increase the general ad market by 5.3% YoY in 2014 to $180. Adweek suggests that Fabebook, Google and Twitter are ahead of the curve for their focus on mobile over the past few years. Read the report.

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