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Over the past few years, we’ve observed innovations in technology that have drastically changed the digital experience for people all over the world. More people are using mobile to access the internet than ever before, newsfeeds are packed with content, and bots are redefining what it looks like to complete the most common of online tasks.

And as technology changes, the inbound marketing methodology must evolve with it.

And while we still have great benchmark data on how marketers and salespeople do their job today, we also have included new datapoints on how technology is changing consumer habits and where marketing and sales is headed in the future.

How many companies are investing in video content, social selling, and preparing for new disruptors that enter the market? Check out our biggest and most data-packed edition of the State of Inbound to find out.

In addition to our new report, we’re excited to host five online events every day this week that break down the key themes in this year’s report. Tune in to hear predictions and insights from industry leaders like:

• Joanna Lord of ClassPass
• Larry Kim of WordStream
• Rob Go of NextView Ventures

They’ll join HubSpot’s Brian Halligan (CEO), Kipp Bodnar (CMO), Meghan Keaney Anderson (VP Marketing), and Kieran Flanagan (VP Marketing) throughout the week to talk about the current and future state of marketing, sales, and business. Join us to learn:

• Expert predictions on the next year’s biggest disruptors
• How to improve collaboration between Marketing and Sales to increase ROI
• What types of content consumers want to see more of in the future
• How new technologies will affect how businesses get found
• How to advertise in a way that aligns with inbound marketing
• What skills marketers and salespeople should prioritize for the future of inbound

• Monday, September 12 | State of Marketing | Facebook Live at 1 p.m. EDT
• Tuesday, September 13 | Future of Marketing | YouTube Live at 11 a.m. EDT
• Wednesday, September 14 | State of Sales | Tune in live for #InboundSalesDay
• Thursday, September 15 | Future of Sales | YouTube at 11 a.m. EDT
• Friday, September 16 | Future of Business | Facebook Live at 1 p.m. EDT

Video has been on the rise for a while, offering marketers a proven way to grab strangers’ attention and keep their target audience engaged.

Live video streaming in particular has become increasingly popular as a tool for companies and groups to connect directly with their users, to gain greater product awareness, and to brand themselves creatively. In fact, just recently, the Content Marketing Institute predicted video — specifically real-time platforms — will be critical to brand growth in 2016.

To learn more about how to take advantage of the live streaming boom, here are 11 creative ways to use products like Snapchat, Google Hangouts, Facebook Live, and Periscope to successfully market your business or group.

11 Creative Ways to Use Live Streaming on Snapchat, Facebook Live & More

Snapchat

1) Raise awareness for a cause.

The World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) paired with Snapchat to create the #LastSelfie campaign with the goal of raising awareness about endangered species. Using the slogan “Don’t let this be my #LastSelfie,” the non-profit suggested that just as images on Snapchat disappear within a short 10 seconds, these animals are vanishing from our Earth all too quickly.

Users were then asked to share the snap, “adopt” an animal, and donate to the WWF through SMS. Within one week, the #LastSelfie campaign received 40,000 tweets, and was seen by roughly 50% of all active Twitter users.

2) Recruit interns and new hires.

GrubHub saw potential in Snapchat early on as a way to get more interactive with a younger demographic. Rather than post an intern application on a standard career search site, or on less targeted channels like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, GrubHub asked its Snapchat followers to apply using the app itself.

The doodle request was an easy way for the company to assess creativity and confidence, while also tapping into their ideal intern pool.

3) Coordinate with a popular event.

Taco Bell managed to become one of the most followed brands on Snapchat by uploading a six-minute Snap Story “movie” in increments of 10 seconds. The short film focused on the launch of their product, the Doritos Locos Taco, but the company also took things a step further. Taco Bell coordinated their campaign to align with the MTV Movie Awards, making it relevant to the event and, therefore, gaining greater reach and brand awareness.

Google Hangouts On Air

Note: As of today (September 12th) Hangouts On Air will move from Google+ to YouTube Live. You can learn more about how to set up Hangout On Air with YouTube Live here.

4) Show off the job.

NASA is big on Google Hangouts, hosting live videos as a way for space-interested audience members to learn more about the organization and its recent discoveries — they’ve even held Hangouts from outer space. Recently, they teamed up with Verge Magazine to show off some perks and pitfalls of the astronaut job.

Hangout participants used the hashtag #askAstro on their Twitter or Google+ to ask the NASA crew about life — both personal and professional — while aboard the craft, which were then answered in real time. The Hangout provided fascinating content, but also provided valuable information to those interested in that career path.

5) Get a bigger audience.

In an effort to reach a larger audience, Manchester United used Google Hangouts to get a few more people on the “front row” during a match against Liverpool. Fans were asked to use the hashtag #MUFrontRow on their Google+ Page with a photo that showed off their team spirit.

Of the entries, the best 22 were selected, and those fans were then projected onto the stadium’s digital advertising board alongside the field. The campaign created more interest in the event, and seriously delighted some die-hard fans.

6) Interview industry experts.

Every month, IMPACT Branding & Design hosts a “Website Throwdown” featuring top marketing and design professionals. Participants are invited to submit their own website URLs to be broadcast during the Hangout and constructively critiqued by that month’s guest speaker.

People can also tune in to watch, or help out by asking questions and posting comments on Twitter using the hashtag #WebsiteThrowdown during the live stream. The Website Throwdown is an awesome way to create brand awareness and authority by offering participants a chance to learn and improve.

Facebook Live

7) Show off some skills.

Tastemade does pretty much everything food, from recipe ideas to vlog tutorials — they even hosts its own food show series. Part of what sets Tastemade apart from other food-focused publications, though, is the brand’s really great content targeted to the everyday foodie. And, recently, Tastemade started exploring Facebook Live as a raw way to gain social traffic while also engaging with fans.

During a live latte art video, Tastemade asked viewers to submit requests as part of their #FoodArtFridays series. The interactive video received over 90,000 comments and nearly 5,000 shares.

8) Get fans and followers to laugh.

Who doesn’t love a good laugh? BuzzFeed decided to try out Facebook Live with a video purely for fans’ entertainment. Two BuzzFeeders explored how many rubber bands it takes to explode a watermelon, which lasted about 45 minutes. According to Facebook, at the time, more people tuned in to watch the stream than any other live video on Facebook — reaching over 800,000 viewers at its peak. Now, the video has over 10 million views, creating a ton of social and site traffic, just for doing something fun.

9) Announce new products.

CES is an annual event hosted by the Consumer Technology Association to showcase innovation technologies and products from across the world. During the 2016 event, Chevrolet debuted its newest car model, the 2017 Bolt EV.

But rather than limit its audience to only those able to attend CES 2016, Chevrolet live streamed the announcement from its Facebook Page, giving all of the company’s fans a chance to tune in and learn more about the product. Chevrolet also responded to Facebook comments in real time to keep its audience engaged with the video and answer any relevant questions.

Periscope

10) Bring the audience along.

Last summer, Nestle partnered with online influencers to host live Periscope sessions of ways they were celebrating the first day of summer — while eating Drumstick ice cream cones, of course. The company then promoted each activity on Drumstick’s Twitter using the hashtag #FirstDayOfSummer for followers to tune in.

Activities ranged from jumping on a ferris wheel, to biking on the beach, to eating ice cream by a fire pit. Nestle’s campaign provided an opportunity for user engagement, helped associated Drumsticks with enjoying summer, and branded the company as lively and fun.

11) Go behind the scenes.

General Electric used Periscope to launch a five-day live streaming campaign called #DRONEWEEK. GE enabled Periscope on a group of drones to give their audience a real-time, bird’s eye view of their facilities, featuring not only some of their industrial machinery, but also interviews with GE scientists and tech experts. Fast Company called it the “Shark Week for science and social video nerds.”

GE managed to showcase five different facilities across the country, and even created a Twitter @GEDronePilot to provide extra commentary and interact with viewers.

Ready to Try It?

These are not the only live streaming platforms out there. Tons of applications and websites exist, and are used by millions of people every day. There’s so much potential for brands and groups to use these outlets creatively to gain recognition, authority, and interest.

How do you plan to use live streaming in your marketing? Share your ideas in the comments below.

Remember when “surfing the net” meant traversing a minefield of unwelcome pop-up ads? When “digital advertising” referred almost exclusively to obnoxious flashing banners and random sidebar ads?

Online ads have matured a lot since those days, but it’s still important to look back at the flashy, gaudy, sometimes messy origins of internet advertising to better understand where we’re headed — and where there’s still room for improvement.  

Check out a condensed history of online advertising below.

The History of Online Advertising

1994: The first banner ads appear

Image credit: Wired

On October 27, 1994, the world of advertising was forever transformed by a small graphic bearing the presumptive words, “Have you ever clicked your mouse right here? You will,” in a kitschy rainbow font. The age of banner ads had officially begun.

You can thank (or blame?) Wired magazine’s former online off-shoot HotWired for introducing the world to the enduringly ubiquitous banner ad. HotWired was a digital publication, and it needed a way to generate revenue to pay its writers.

The publication devised a plan to set aside portions of its website to sell space to advertisers, similar to how ad space is sold in a print magazine. They called the ad spaces “banner ads,” and charged advertisers an upfront cost to occupy the real estate for a set time period — very different from today’s pay-per-click model. 

AT&T paid HotWired $30,000 to place the banner ad above on their site for three months. The ad enjoyed a click-through-rate of 44% — a number that would make most marketers balk in disbelief today. To put that in perspective, the average clickthrough rate on display ads today — 22 years later — is closer to 0.06%. 

Users enticed to click the mysterious banner were transported to a very early landing page for AT&T. Visitors could click links to view information about landmarks and museums around the world to highlight the internet’s ability to transport you to different locations virtually.

Craig Kanarick, one of the digital consultants hired to work on the campaign, remembers the team’s goal was to make an ad that didn’t feel like an ad, and actually offered valuable content to users. “Let’s not sell somebody something,” he recalled thinking, “Let’s reward them for clicking on this thing brought to you by AT&T.” 

The banner ad concept blew up as a way for websites to keep their content ungated and free for users, and it wasn’t long before other companies — such as Time Inc. and CMP’s Tech web — were seeking out advertisers to lease banner space as a sustainable way to scale their sites. 

1995: Display ads become increasingly targeted 

As banner ads continued to gain popularity, advertisers became increasingly interested in targeting specific consumer demographics, rather than just placing their ads wherever space was offered and hoping the right people would see it. This led to the beginning of targeted ad placement.

WebConnect, an ad agency that specialized in online ads, began helping their clients identify websites their ideal consumers visited. Now, companies could place ads where their target demographics were more likely to see them.

This was nothing short of revolutionary in the digital advertising space. Not only were companies reaching more relevant audiences, but websites hosting the ads were also able to display banners that were more applicable to their visitors.

WebConnect also introduced the CustomView tool, which capped the number of times a particular user was shown a single banner ad. If a user had already seen an ad a certain number of times, they would be shown another ad instead.

Users tend to stop noticing a banner ad after they’ve seen it before, so capping the number of times a user sees an ad helped early online advertisers prevent “banner fatigue.” Ad frequency capping is still a common display ad tactic advertisers use today. 

1996: ROI tracking tools begin to improve 

In 1996, banner ads plastered the internet, but advertisers still didn’t have a good process to determine if these ads were actually driving tangible results for their businesses. Marketers needed a way to more efficiently manage their display ad campaigns across multiple websites and report on how users were interacting with their ads.

Doubleclick emerged on the scene as one of the first ROI tools for banner ad campaigns. They offered advertisers a new service called D.A.R.T. (Dynamic Advertising Reporting & Targeting), which enabled companies to track how many times an ad was viewed and clicked across multiple websites.

The most impressive feature of D.A.R.T. was the fact that advertisers now had the ability to track how their ads were performing and make changes to a live campaign. Previously, advertisers needed to wait until a campaign was completed before they could analyze the results and optimize their next banner for better performance. If an ad was performing poorly, they were forced to wait it out.

With Doubleclick, advertisers could see if an ad’s performance was suffering midway through a campaign, and they had the option to make changes. For example, if a marketer noticed their ad was underperforming on one website, they could remove the ad and devote those resources to another website where the ad was performing better.

Doubleclick’s success also gave rise to a new pricing model for online advertising: Cost per impression (CPM). Previously, websites were paid a flat fee to host banner ads for a predetermined time period. With improved ad tracking, banner pricing transitioned towards an ROI-based model.

1997: Pop-up ads quickly rise and fall 

It would be an understatement to say that pop-up ads suffer from a poor image problem. They’ve been called internet’s original sin and the most hated advertising technique, and one of the original developers has even apologized for creating the underlying code that unleashed them upon unsuspecting web surfers. Even so, these much-maligned ads hold an undeniable place in the history of online advertising.

So who created the very first pop-up? Before you get your pitchforks and torches out, you should know their intentions were good. Ethan Zuckerman, then a developer for Tripod.com, is widely credited with creating the code that enables pop-up ads to open up a new browser window.

“It was a way to associate an ad with a user’s page without putting it directly on the page, which advertisers worried would imply an association between their brand and the page’s content,” Zuckerman wrote in the Atlantic.

Amidst dwindling banner ad clickthrough rates in the late 1990s, pop-up ads first seemed like a way to save online advertising and capture the attention of increasingly ad-blind users. And while pop-ups did force users to pay attention, they didn’t actually translate to real ROI. By the early 2000s, it was standard for web browsers to come with pop-up blocking features.

1999 – 2002: Advertisers turn to paid search and pay-per-click

By this time, the web was expanding rapidly and users needed a better way to navigate the terrain. With search engines steadily gaining popularity, advertisers looking to create ads that were more targeted and less loathsome turned to sponsored search as the next digital advertising frontier.

In 1999, GoTo.com — an emerging search engine company that would later be acquired by Yahoo — introduced the first pay-for-placement search engine service. Advertisers were given the opportunity to bid for top search engine results on particular keywords. Despite some initial outcries that paid search would lead to corrupt results, GoTo.com was able to monetize their search engine through the model.

Pay-for-placement eventually evolved into pay-per-click. Companies bid on search result placement on a per-click basis: e.g., I’ll pay GoTo.com $1 per click if you put my company as the top search result. This led to search results that were largely determined by how much a company was willing to pay. The highest bidders were usually listed first, even above more relevant content, and it was unclear to users which results were paid and which were organic content.

The user experience of paid search was suffering, and one up-and-coming search engine thought they could fix it. Google introduced AdWords in 2000, originally under a pay-for-placement ad model. Google wanted to create a sponsored search experience that generated revenue without compromising the quality and relevancy of search results.

While previous paid search models like GoTo.com relied on bids from advertisers to determine search rankings, AdWords introduced a Quality Score model, which took into account an ad’s clickthrough rate when determining its placement on the search results page. Even if an ad had a lower bid, it would still appear above other, less relevant paid ads in search results thanks to its high clickthrough rate. The Quality Score model is still used today.

2006: Digital ads become hyper-targeted

As social media platforms picked up steam in the mid 2000s, advertisers sought a way to integrate ad content in a way that was both effective and non-intrusive. Marketers wanted a plan of action to reach younger internet users who were increasingly unswayed by banner ads and spending most of their internet time on social networks.

After previously resisting ads on its site, Facebook started working with advertisers in 2006 as a way to increase the young company’s profitability. They started with small display ads and sponsored links, and eventually moved onto ads targeted to a user’s demographics and interests. Despite some controversies along the way, Facebook has proven itself to be a targeted ad pioneer, changing the way that companies reach their desired audiences online.

“Our strategy is much less [about] increasing the volume of ads and much more about increasing the quality of the content and the quality of the targeting to get the right content to the right people,” Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said in 2014.

Targeting consumers with relevant ads — rather than bombarding them with a large volume of ad content — has become a standard practice for online advertisers, particularly on social media. Beyond Facebook’s targeting efforts, other social networks such as Twitter, YouTube, and Google+ focus on providing an advertising experience for users that doesn’t feel aggressive or impersonal.

2010 – present: Marketers find value in native ads

Around this time, a new group of media companies began to emerge. Websites like BuzzFeed and Mashable presented advertisers with new opportunities to connect with their audiences through sponsored content and native advertising. 

Advertisers pay to produce articles, videos, and other types of content for news and media sites. The nature of the content itself is promotional, but the format looks less like an ad and more like a regular piece of content on the host’s website.  

Instead of relying on ads that disrupt their target audience’s online experience, native advertising allows marketers to create promotional content that supplements a user’s online experience. “Marketers interested in targeting ads to specific consumers in an unobtrusive fashion should seriously consider spending some time on native,” Mimi An concluded in a HubSpot Research study on native advertising.

Websites that traditionally generated revenue from display ads began to realize that they could create a better user experience by relying primarily on native ads — rather than traditional display ads — without compromising on ad revenue. 

The Future of Advertising

That’s a look back at the history of online advertising — but what about the future?

According to recent data from HubSpot Research, 91% of respondents say ads are more intrusive today compared to just two to three years ago. It’s clear that the future of digital advertising pivots on developing a targeted ad experience that offers consumers relevant content without feeling nosy or invasive.

To get the full scoop on the current state of digital advertising and how your company can keep its ad strategy relevant, download HubSpot’s just-released State of Inbound 2016 report here or by clicking below:

Do you know how your content marketing efforts stack up compared to other companies in Asia, Australia and New Zealand?

To make content marketing work for your company, it’s useful to have some idea of how other businesses are succeeding.

It helps you find and fix gaps in your own approach to content strategy, content creation and content promotion, and helps you to develop a realistic view of how you should budget and plan.

To help out fellow marketers in Asia Pacific, our Australian and Singaporean teams dove into some data on the state of content marketing in APAC. Alongside SurveyMonkey, we surveyed over 700 marketers across Asia, Australia and New Zealand to see where they’ve been focusing their efforts, where they’re struggling, and what their plans are for the remainder of 2016 and beyond.

To learn about these findings in more detail and get access to insights and tips from local content marketing experts, download the full Asia Pacific Content Marketing Report 2016 here.

21 Revealing Statistics About Content Marketing in Asia Pacific in 2016

1) Key Statistics Revealing the State of Content Marketing in Asia Pacific in 2016

Marketers in Asia Pacific believe in the power of content marketing to generate ROI.

• Marketers in APAC believe content marketing to have the most commercial impact on their business.  Tweet this stat 

• 49% of businesses in APAC intend to increase their content marketing resources during the rest of 2016. Tweet this stat 

Businesses in Asia Pacific are doing content marketing, but haven’t quite cracked it yet.

• 70% of APAC businesses feel their content marketing efforts are limited, basic, or inconsistent. Tweet this stat 

• 62% of APAC businesses are creating more content in 2016 than they did in 2015. Tweet this stat 

• 50% of businesses in APAC are doing content marketing, but have no strategy. Tweet this stat 

The key issues with managing content marketing in this region are the creation of quality content and developing a strategy.

• 57% of APAC marketers say producing quality content is an obstacle to their success. Tweet this stat 

• 56% of marketers in Asia Pacific struggle with content strategy. Tweet this stat 

• 53% of marketers in APAC struggle to produce enough content. Tweet this stat 

APAC marketers are finding success with blogging and paid promotion on Facebook.

• 47% of marketers in APAC have the most success with blog posts and articles. Tweet this stat 

• 35% of APAC marketers rate e-newsletters or online magazines as effective forms of content marketing. Tweet this stat 

• 37% of marketers in APAC find Facebook advertising to be the most effective form of paid promotion. Tweet this stat 

Asia Pacific marketers are focused mainly on top-of-funnel when it comes to measuring the success of their content marketing.

• 69% of APAC businesses use website traffic to measure of content marketing success. Tweet this stat 

• 62% of APAC marketers measure their content success using social shares. Tweet this stat 

2) Key Statistics on the State of Content Marketing in Australia & New Zealand 2016

• 52% of businesses in ANZ are convinced of the value of content marketing & can measure its ROI. Tweet this stat 

• 71% of businesses in ANZ said they are producing more content in 2016 than in 2015. Tweet this stat 

• Almost a quarter of marketers in ANZ are planning to increase resources to assist with content marketing. Tweet this stat 

• 68% of marketers in ANZ plan to increase investment in promoting their content via earned media (PR & social sharing).Tweet this stat 

3) Key Statistics on the State of Content Marketing in Asia 2016

• Only 40% of businesses in Asia are convinced of the value of content marketing & can measure its ROI. Tweet this stat 

• 62% of businesses in Asia struggle to create sufficient volumes of quality content. Tweet this stat 

• 51% of marketers in Asia plan to increase investment in promoting their content via earned media (PR & social sharing). Tweet this stat 

• 58% of marketers in Asia struggle to define the best content & influencers to build reach and support conversion. Tweet this stat 

Want to see more data on the state of content marketing in Asia Pacific alongside commentary from some of the region’s best content marketers? Check out the full report here: The Asia Pacific Content Marketing Report 2016.