Original Flemish fiction on Instagram

"Instaverliefd' is the working title of a local production that is about to be visibile on Instagram within two months. The production house Eyeworks is currently shooting it somewhere in Anwerp. It is not clear yet if the programme will be then broadcast on linear TV or elsewhere and in that sense it is a first, at least for Instagram. 

"De Dag" has become (virtual) reality

As of January 2019 Telenet has launched a virtual reality experience "The Park" based on the Flemish series "De Dag". This VR-game involves 3 to 6 people, equipped with the necessary glasses, on the stage of "De Dag". They are supposed to play like the actors of a SWAT specialized in neutralizing hostage takers, but the experience also consists of resolving puzzles, all in connection with the universe of the programme.

On TV, “De Dag” may be watched on Play, Play More and on Vier. The programme has been sold to 32 countries to date.

DAB+ in all cars in Europe as of 2021

The real inception of DAB+ radio might be 2021. The new European Electronic Communications Code states that the radio set within any new car either sold or rented in the EU will be DAB+ enabled. This should be applicable within 2 years. At this stage, DAB is still marginal: according to the CIM Establishment Survey 2017-2018 only 6% of Belgians aged 18 and older claimed to listen to a DAB car radio. 

Belgian content sites have a global viewability score of 55%

A consortium of Belgian content publishers, WeMedia Digital, has just published its second Viewability Report based on its portfolio. The base research has been conducted in the last quarter of 2017 by Moat and Active View. Viewability is defined according to the IAB standard: 50% of pixels in view during one second. More than 2.5 billion impressions were analysed with ± an equal breakdown of mobile and desktop. Respectively 87% and 96% of impressions have been considered measurable. Finally 45% of measurable mobile impressions and 64% of desktop measurable impressions were viewable by IAB standard. This is a global 55% if we aggregate both. WeMedia Digital finds an improvement compared to the previous measure (Q4 2016) that was made only on desktop: measurability ratio then was 94% (small improvement), and viewability was 5 percentage points lower (59%). They also point out that the most recent measurement exceeds the Moat benchmarks: in Q4 2017 the global viewability ratio on the Belgian market was 56%, significantly lower than the score measured for the We Media Digital sites for desktop. Unfortunately no benchmark is provided for mobile, but the score there is certainly not the very best. Publishers argue that the viewability measurement on mobile is at an early stage (hence no benchmarks available ?), and that "mobile" covers different technologies: websites for mobile, mobile apps and Web responsive sites.

New tools for responsive search ads

Google introduced 4 more tools for responsive search ads that allow better reporting and feedback. We think it is a good sign that Google is providing more tools to a feature we did not have much control of. With better reporting A/B testing of these new kinds of ads will be easier.

The new tools to responsive search ads are:

• Auto-generated suggestions: Google ads will automatically suggest headlines and descriptions.
• Real-time feedback: While creating ads, a dynamically changing ad strength indicator will be displayed.
• Ad strength in ‘status’ column: This will show if ads are losing impressions or are disapproved.
• Import details from other ads: Headlines and descriptions from existing ads can be imported to responsive search ads in the same ad group.

Google mentions that on average, advertisers benefit of 10% more clicks after using responsive search ads. We also see some improvements in certain categories, but we do not see it as a guaranteed increase of the CTR.