Jason Silva, host of National Geographic’s Brain Games, started off Content All Stars by pushing the audience out of their comfort zone so that they were ready to gain a fresh perspective on the power of awe to prompt innovation.
Category results for "Perspectives"
Jason Silva Kicks off Content All Stars with a Shot of Awe
Content All Stars Takeaway: 3 Ways to Create Branded Content That Readers Love
The saying goes, all good things in life are difficult to achieve – running a marathon, making a cheesy, puffy soufflé and, in the world of digital media, content marketing. The art of brands advertising through content is not new. But in the past year, the adoption of this strategy has hit critical mass with more than 90% of B2C brands and 95% of B2B companies using it to educate consumers about their brands. It’s playing a central role in many marketing strategies, yet nearly all marketers are struggling with every aspect of it – from curation, discovery and measurement. Brands know they should be doing it, but need help.
Last week, Digital Content Next hosted its’ inaugural Content All Stars event, which brought together some of the worlds most effective content marketers across nearly every business channel – Goldman Sachs, IBM, and the poster child of successful branded content: Red Bull. Here are some of the top lessons that we’ve learned on how to take your branded content from meh to must-read.
1. Always provide value. Never sell.
Consumers don’t want to be sold to – that’s why banner ads have not been terribly effective. Any piece of good content needs to educate, inform or entertain. Great content does all three. The easiest way to do this is to always produce from the perspective of the reader. Are they going to walk away glad they just spent time with your content? Have an honest dialogue with yourself, and with your team: Would you want to sit down on a Sunday morning, pumpkin spice latte in hand, and read what you’ve just created? If the answer is anything but yes, go back to the drawing board.
2. Don’t assume ‘if you build it, they will come.’
Chances are, your target audience is not waiting with baited breath for your next blog post or whitepaper. What are they waiting for is a relevant, enjoyable online experience that provides value. If your content is good enough (see #1), they won’t mind if the article, infographic, listacle or Vine was created by a brand. In order for consumers to experience all of the compelling content you’re creating, you need to make it find them. It’s not enough to only post to your owned media properties anymore – you must make targeted distribution a key component to your overall content marketing strategy. A three pronged approach across owned media, paid media and earned media channels will help ensure the content you spend a lot of time and money creating gets the traffic and engagement it deserves.
3. Be very specific about what you want to achieve – and then measure against it.
This sounds obvious, but the most successful marketing programs have extremely clear objectives and success metrics. One could argue that the higher you go up the funnel, which is often where content marketing tactics sit, the harder it is to measure performance. Not anymore. Today’s technology and automation tools are making it much easier to track, measure and optimize against branding campaigns in the same way that we have been able to track direct response campaigns.
The often ambiguous ‘page view’ has been replaced with more accountable metrics like time spent, scroll depth, scroll velocity and hover rates to better gauge consumer engagement. Be scrupulous about applying the same analytics and optimization strategies you practice with standard paid media campaigns like display and search with your content marketing. You’ll gain invaluable insight into what your audience is really responding to and be able to adjust your strategy accordingly.
The key to effective content marketing is delivering an authentic, memorable experience your audience will appreciate. This may be easier said than done, but the extra effort is worth it – and with the right strategy and execution tools – entirely possible.
Lindsay Boesen is the Director of Marketing at PulsePoint, a global advertising technology platform focused on fusing the efficiency of programmatic technology with the engagement of content marketing. At PulsePoint she oversees the companies marketing, communications, and creative team. Lindsay has over 10 years experience as a B2B digital marketer and was previously Senior Global Marketing Manager for Vibrant, the pioneer in to contextually relevant native advertising. She has also held marketing & creative roles at media companies like Select NY and Condé Nast. Trained in brand strategy, copywriting and art direction at NYC’s Adhouse, Lindsay holds a B.A in Communications & Advertising from Loyola College in Maryland.
Recommended Reading: Coverage of DCN’s Content All Stars
Soledad O’Brien Brilliantly Explains How Brands Should Work With Elite Storytellers
Modern media companies want brands to underwrite the stories they can’t necessarily afford to tell, and brands want to be a part of great stories. But very often, that partnership doesn’t work because brands are reluctant to do the things that go into truly great storytelling: namely, taking a leap of faith and relinquishing control.
One person who’s been able to bridge that gap is Soledad O’Brien, famed broadcast journalist and founder of Starfish Media Group, who has worked with brands such as CoverGirl to great incredibly compelling viral content…Read More on Contently
5 Takeaways from Content All Stars
On Thursday, September 18 theOnline Publishers Association held its first event that was open to the public — and then CEO Jason Kint announced that the organization was changing its name to Digital Content Next to reflect the changing industry. He did this at the end of a long, informative day at Content All Stars, where everyone from Werner Brell, managing director of Red Bull Media House to Soledad O’Brien shared their content secrets with the audience at the Conrad Hotel in New York City.
Here are a few takeaways and themes from the day’s programming that all content creators can learn from… Read More on EContent
Real-World Insight On The Power Of Storytelling
Last week in New York City, the Online Publishers Association (just rebranded as Digital Content Next) held its Content All Stars event, bringing together marketing and digital media leaders to share their insight on creating compelling content experiences in today’s world of hyper-connected audiences. Following are some words of wisdom across a few common themes for any creator of content to consider… Read more at Dialogue
Q&A: Michael Friedenberg, CEO IDG Communications Worldwide, on Ad Viewability
Q: Is “Viewability” ready to be used as a measurement of ad performance?
A: IDG believes that viewability is a measure of ROI more than a measure of performance. Similar to the statements that IAB has made, performance is what happens after the impression is viewed and is measured by metrics like CTR and post click conversion. If publishers like IDG can report higher viewability, marketers should be more comfortable with that investment.
However, the issue of fraud continues to be quite relevant when discussing viewability. It is usually assumed that, if an ad is viewed, it is being viewed by a human. Non-human traffic—which includes bots, click farms and other networks—can account for 30% of a digital ad campaign. So, if we expect more dollars to continue to flow into the digital space, we will need to address this in a much more measured and standardized manner.
Q: How do you work to ensure that ads are viewable and to provide marketers with appropriate and accurate measures for the performance of their digital advertising?
A: With the launch of IDG’s CMS, Apollo, and the new designs of our websites (CIO.com, NetworkWorld.com), we address the viewability issue by lazy loading the ads, and as long as the user is scrolling the content, we continue to load additional ads at specific intervals. This not only achieves a higher viewability and engagement rate but also results in reduced page load time for a better user experience.
We have also partnered with an MRC-certified company (MOAT) to measure and report on the viewability of the ads. This tool also allows us to monitor user habits and dial in the loading and placement of ads to obtain the highest viewability possible. The industry doesn’t have the tools yet to ensure that every ad served for a particular customer are viewed, but we can do our best to make sure our ad units don’t trigger impressions when not viewed.
Q: Is achieving a standardized measure and method for viewability important?
A: Standard units of measure are still an issue in our space. Reporting platforms often use their own algorithms when they count, and discrepancies between systems are common and, in many cases, just accepted. This new metric (viewability) will experience the same challenges, but organizations like the IAB and MRC are trying to alleviate and solve this the best they can.
If we are held financially accountable for viewable impressions served, we need to ensure that buyers and sellers are all counting the same way. There is a lot of work to be done here when it comes to standardized expectations that the publishers, clients, agencies and governing bodies all agree upon. Ultimately, this is still a moving target, but IDG, via our new CMS and site redesigns, is proactively addressing the issue.
Michael Friedenberg is CEO of IDG Communications Worldwide, the subsidiary for IDG’s B2B and consumer media brands and events in 86 countries. He was promoted from CEO, IDG Communications U.S. to worldwide CEO in 2013.
Prior to Friedenberg’s latest promotion, he was CEO and President of IDG Enterprise, an IDG company that develops strategic media properties and peer advisory services for IT executives. Friedenberg joined IDG in 2005 as president and CEO of CXO Media following a series of management positions at UBM (formerly CMP Media) including Vice President and Publisher of InformationWeek and, later, Vice President and Group Publisher of the InformationWeek Media Network and Co-Founder of Optimize. As VP/Group Publisher, Friedenberg set the vision, strategy, and positioning of multiple brands across print, online, events, and research services.
Related posts:
Publishers Can Make a Real Difference in the Fight against Ad Fraud and Nonhuman Traffic
While digital advertising revenues are growing, developments in the marketplace pose some new challenges and opportunities. Near the top of the list of concerns of digital publishers today is minimizing fraudulent and nonhuman traffic. Although the two are far from synonymous, both result in unseen ads, brand safety concerns and false audience numbers that undermine the trust and confidence of advertisers.
Publishers can and must do something about this, as it is a scourge affecting all aspects of digital media, from desktop to mobile. But before I offer a few insights and advice for publishers, let’s consider the bigger picture.
The advertising industry is rallying around two recent initiatives: The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) is supporting “The Marketers’ Coalition,” a pilot program aimed at understanding the extent of ad impression fraud across campaigns from more than 30 major advertisers; and the Media Rating Council (MRC) is initiating a project (to which AAM is contributing digital expertise) to modernize and strengthen industry standards around nonhuman traffic (NHT) and invalid traffic (IVT) controls. Both of these are hugely important because:
- Advertisers are taking serious steps to clean up a marketplace sullied by some bad actors, and
- Industry standard-setting bodies are looking to improve and strengthen self-regulatory guidelines that have already helped the digital media space be as viable as it is.
In this context, publishers can improve their digital ad operations by bringing more focus to efforts around brand safety, ad viewability and all the aspects of fighting against ad fraud and nonhuman traffic. One of the problems our industry faces is that even “innocent cooperators” make money from the fraud. As such, unknowing publishers are profiting from fraud and nonhuman traffic, and many may be unwilling to ask questions or perform introspection because of the fear of impacting the bottom line.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), MRC, ANA, 4As, OPA, BPA, AAM and other bodies are doing fine, admirable work to help improve supply chain quality, minimize fraud and improve ad viewability standards and practices. But some have referred to the fight as akin to playing whack-a-mole – eliminate fraud in one area and it quickly pops up in another.
No one expects that the industry will ever eliminate fraud outright. But that is not to say that nothing can be done. There are several ways, I believe, the industry can address the problem. This includes instituting a number of standard controls (business/operational/financial) that will deter or detect fraudsters:
Publishers
- Publishers must vet all traffic sources to ensure high quality, particularly those sources that are compensated.
- Publishers must employ internal controls to prevent (or monitor) employees from rewards for traffic increases.
- Include the right to audit in agreements with traffic providers.
- Become certified against the IAB’s Quality Assurance Guidelines, which offer a framework for industry adherence to practices that promote brand safety and trust.
- Implement advertising technology solutions that have been certified to IAB or MRC measurement standards.
Advertisers
- Advertisers/agencies/networks/SSPs must vet all business partners (publishers) before agreeing to do business with them. Insist that the ad platforms your agencies, publishers and networks use have been certified to IAB or MRC measurement standards.
- Advertisers/agencies/networks/SSPs can monitor business partners for unreasonable increases, poor performing campaigns, or erratic traffic fluctuations. Discrepancies can then be investigated.
- Get rid of the bad actors (bad traffic sources and publishers who cheat).
- Special consideration/monitoring should be in place for ad networks, RTB and other players that do not have a direct relationship with the publisher/advertiser.
- Include the right to audit in agreements with inventory providers.
Technology Companies
- Technology companies should be certified to industry best practices to ensure that adequate systems and internal controls are in place. This includes, but is not limited to, the IAB Measurement Guidelines and the IAB Quality Assurance Guidelines (QAG).
- Technology companies can employ technical and statistical tools that can assist in uncovering fraudulent users and traffic sources.
- Follow the money – identify baseline metrics and compare how much companies are being paid over time in comparison to other metrics.
There are numerous vendors that offer some form of fraud detection or prevention services today. That’s a good thing. But this market segment is still in its infancy and we have a long way to go to before bad behavior is truly contained and minimized.
Our company, the Alliance for Audited Media (AAM), has worked with well-known organizations in each of the above market segments as they’ve taken a leadership stance to ensure accountability, transparency and trust. More companies need to follow this lead by being independently certified against industry quality standards. Independent certification can go a long way to deliver on your inherent promise to advertisers – that you are doing everything you can to protect their best interests and are helping to keep the digital ad space safer than ever.
Tom Drouillard is CEO, president and managing director of the Alliance for Audited Media, a nonprofit industry body that provides essential cross-media verification and information services for North America’s leading media companies, advertisers and ad agencies. In 2014 AAM merged with ImServices Group, one of the world’s most experienced providers of technology certification audits to industry standards established by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, Media Rating Council and Mobile Marketing Association.
Q&A: Jeff Burkett, Sr. Director Ad Innovation & Product Strategy The Washington Post, on Ad Viewability
Q: Is Viewability ready to be used as a measurement of ad performance?
A: Viewability of ad impressions is going to become a major strategic advantage for premium digital publishers. Over the last 10 years, the long-tail of the internet has flooded the marketplace with billions of impressions that are never seen, dragging down the value of impressions on properties that have meaningful levels of reader engagement on both content and ads. However, this transition is going to be painful as the technologies for viewability use inconsistent methodologies, don’t work well in all ad serving environments and are subject to human error.
In preparation for transacting on viewable impressions, the first major hurdle pubs must get over is ensuring ‘measurability’. Many pubs have been focused on designing pages for viewabililty, which needs to be done, but if the technology used for transacting cannot measure an impression then it can never be viewable regardless of how optimal your design is. This involves getting your ad ops team looking closely at all of the major measurement vendors, running tests over and over again to ensure that your ad tags are set up properly to ensure maximum measurability. This way, you can limit the amount of wasted impressions and lost revenue as this becomes more of the norm.
There is still one major hole in the ecosystem around viewability and that is with view-through attribution. An impression may not be viewable, but it can still drop a ‘viewed’ cookie in the users’ browser. A marketer may not pay for an impression if it’s not viewed, but they are still giving credit for any conversions that result from those non-viewable impressions. Until this is fixed, low quality/high volume players will hold an advantage over premium publishers.
Q: How do you work to ensure that ads are viewable and to provide marketers with appropriate and accurate measures for the performance of their digital advertising?
A: Getting the maximum ‘in-view time’ for ads requires a deep understanding of exactly how readers use your site, which requires huge amounts of testing and data analysis. One good example of this we found is that above-the-fold does not mean highly viewable. Some readers are in the habit of scrolling down the page quickly, even before the page is fully loaded. Understanding where your readers engage with content and putting ads in close proximity to that is critical….and it’s not always common sense.
I don’t believe that viewability is a performance metric at all, but is rather just a huge step up from the old ‘served’ impression metric that we have used for years. However, a focus on increasing viewability will result in greater performance on the major engagement metrics like Universal Interaction Rate and Click Through that marketers value highly. It is this increased performance that will eventually lead to higher CPMs.
Q: Is achieving a standardized measure and method for viewability important?
A: A standardized measure and method for viewability has already been determined, the MRC has lifted its advisory and most importantly, the clients are demanding it from their agencies. There are still some technical hurdles to get over, but the framework is there and a quorum of vendor technologies has been accredited.
I would encourage publishers to start transacting on viewable now. Use this as an opportunity to work out any bugs in your ad stack and to locate where measurability is low. These learning can inform strategies and policies before the large flood of viewable transaction demands come in later this year.
Jeff Burkett is the Senior Director of Ad Innovation and Product Strategy at The Washington Post. He has worked in digital advertising since 2002 and is currently responsible for the Post’s overall digital monetization strategy, as well as the operations teams that support this large, complex business.
He works closely with editorial, marketing, sales and technology staff to leverage the full potential of WP’s audience, focusing on strategic initiatives that are well ahead of the curve. Under Jeff’s leadership, WP has executed successful ad strategies for native, social, video, mobile web, tablets, podcasting and other alternative platforms.
Jeff is currently focused on Viewability, Programmatic and methods for leveraging 1st party data to increase CPM’s.
Related posts:
Q&A: Justin Choi, CEO, Nativo on Ad Viewability
IBM Plays Up Reusable Content
Although TV still prevails among media platforms, audience screen time is shifting as digital video becomes more prevalent. Ann Rubin, vice president of branded content and global creative at IBM, spoke with eMarketer’s Danielle Drolet about how best to reach the fragmented viewers on any screen.
“Today in the industry, content is becoming more and more
important. And it’s targeted, individualized and personalized…It’s becoming less about creating some TV spot or advertising content. Instead, create content that could be reused and repurposed.”
From content creation to optimal delivery, Rubin Ann Rubin offers some terrific insights on making the most of your content investment. Join us at Content All Stars September 18th to hear how Rubin and IBM approach their content marketing initiatives.
Evolving the Viewability Standard with Analytics
Back in October 1994, while we were at the movies watching Pulp Fiction and celebrating the illustrious career of Hall of Fame NY Giants’ Linebacker Lawrence Taylor, the very first “banner ad” was being served. The underlying client-server nature of that first transaction – browser request leading to ad server response – led to the inevitable: the widespread issue of discrepant impression counts.
Over the next decade, countless inefficient hours were spent dissecting log files and calculation methodologies in an effort to settle on a mutually acceptable final impress count for the purposes of measurement and billing.
Ten years later, the IAB published the Ad Impression Measurement Guidelines report, which clearly defined the “how and when” to determine valid impression counts. The definition reflected the first industry-wide move to establish a standard that emphasized proximity to an actual ad view as the trigger and basis for a valid impression count.
It should come as no surprise that it has taken another decade of maturity for the collective focus to shift to the next logical step: viewability .
The current viewability standard builds on the 2004 effort. The distinction between the two standards was brilliantly summarized by Yaakov Kimelfeld, chief research officer at Millward Brown Digital, as follows: “Until now the ad impression was, essentially, a mechanical event — the creative file being loaded on the Web page. The viewability standard transforms an impression into an opportunity to see event: something of inherent value to a brand, just as in traditional media.”
Most in the industry agree that viewability is a positive development. Even Rob Hof, Forbes contributor and tech writer, who described the standard as an “appallingly low standard,” in a Forbes piece on the topic, grudgingly admitted that it was a good first step although one that is “unlikely to be enough.”
The current viewability standard, while clearly nascent, serves an important purpose. It introduces a baseline criterion for and measure of accountability. At the end of the day, it is a means to a larger end: increased brand spend that better aligns with time spent online.
Viewability is not an all-encompassing, be-all-and-end-all metric, especially in the realm of digital video. The brand experience begins where viewability (as currently defined) ends. The good news is that with a strong analytics platform in place, brand marketers can capture and analyze, in great detail, the underlying dynamics of the consumer viewing experience throughout the entire duration of the video ad. This deeper view — beyond the viewability event — provides the insights that help uncover the true value, impact and cost of video placements.
It may well take another decade to reconcile the numerous challenges — both business and technical. As with the case of discrepant impression counts in the first decade of our industry, issues will inevitably surface as application and adoption of the new standard gains traction. For now, let’s ensure we don’t make perfect the enemy of good. After all, is there an adage that better reflects what is ultimately at stake in our quest for brand dollars than “out of sight, out of mind?”
As Managing Director of Tremor Video’s buy-side enterprise platform, Neeraj Kochar oversees sales, steers the marketing objectives, and anchors product development for the company’s VideoHub® DSP and analytics suite.
Prior to Tremor Video, Neeraj was the Managing Director of Programmatic at MAGNA GLOBAL, the strategic investment unit of IPG Mediabrands. In that role, he drove the development and application of programmatic buying to power smarter media buying and drive better client ROI. Previously, he served as Managing Director of Reprise, IPG¹s search specialist agency. Neeraj is a veteran of digital marketing and began his career in 1998 at online advertising pioneer DoubleClick. He has also held senior management positions at major agency holding companies, including WPP GroupM, Starcom MediaVest Group, and MDC Partners.
Q&A: Catherine Salazar, Managing Partner, Practice Lead MEC, on Targeting Millennials
Q: How are you shaping advertising messages to get and hold attention of Millennials?
A: We’re taking a two-fold approach of using insights and media execution to shape the messages that will ideally get a hold of Millennials.
By partnering with our clients and creative partners we’ve been able to craft the right media mix from insights gathered in the pre-planning phases.
Secondly, in our media execution we’ve started “storytelling,” essentially using video sequencing. We have an arsenal of assets and short-form content that the creative agency has provided in the voice of Millennials, and the goal is to go back to our former days of storyboarding where we take Millennials on a journey. The journey begins with content that is subtle and leads with a mix of spots and short form content to strike the right balance of how we want consumers to experience the brand and campaign.
Q: How are you leveraging social media to communicate with Millennials and to provide CRM?
A: CRM is no longer about sending a customer emails to keep them engaged with the brand. Millennial CRM is about delivering engagement and giving them what they want, when they want it. The most relevant way for brands to do this is through platforms like Tumblr, Instagram and Twitter in visually compelling ways to carry a conversation in short or long form where preference is up to the user and not the brand. Moreover, we are using social media to be transparent. For a campaign like AT&T’s “It Can Wait,” we recognized the need to move away from scare tactics for this audience, and instead focused on engaging in authentic and honest dialogue on Tumblr. This enabled the brand to connect with Milliennials on an emotional level and makethem feel good about their decision not to text and drive.
For Millenials, a key aspect is trust. We are building trust by delivering programs like AT&T’s @SummerBreak which was a first of its kind entertainment experience; a mobile optimized, real-time, interactive reality show, connecting viewers to the teenage cast members across various social platforms. We supported this program via paid platforms and it spoke to the insight that non-linear content was becoming a key component of the media behavior of the target and that mobile was the primary platform for digital media usage.
Q: What is the number one takeaway to keep in mind when targeting Millennials?
A: Millennials are consuming media in all shapes and forms, but mobile and tablets have drastically changed the way they consume media. In the 80s and 90s the Gen X’ers had posters of their favorite brands on their walls, in 2014 the question becomes, how does a brand become that digital poster to a Millennial?
Catherine Salazar is Managing Partner and Digital Practice Lead at MEC on the AT&T business. With over 14 years of marketing, advertising, management and leadership experience, Catherine is currently focused on all digital media investment across display, video, mobile, search and social for AT&T’s General Market, Youth, International, Multicultural, LGBT and Sponsorship efforts.
Prior to MEC, Catherine worked and helped launch Microsoft’s Search platform in the U.S. and Canada. Catherine also worked in the display advertising space with Focint.com, Agency.com and JPMorgan Chase Credit Cards from 1999 through 2004 providing media strategy for Bookspan, British Airways, Brown & Co. and Chase Credit Cards. Catherine is a graduate of New York University.
Time is Money: Right-Sizing Content Strategy
One of the things that never ceases to amaze me is the continual evolution and innovation that happens in the digital content business. An area of particular interest is engagement and how we must continuously adapt to how consumers use their precious time to interact with our content.
Given that time spent is one of the best engagement metrics, I have found it of particular interest that media companies are starting to annotate approximations of how many minutes a story will take to read, notably on Slate and Medium. This service allows me to quickly skim a headline and decide whether or not I have 4 minutes to devote to the recollections of those who’ve crashed in a plane, 2 minutes to assess the demands of Ferguson protesters, or if I want to dedicate a full 12 minutes to review a gentleman’s guide to rape culture.
This emerging trend suggests an understanding that time is a coveted metric that we should all be focused on. While it might be difficult to put a price tag on time spent consuming media as it relates to one’s overall self- or net-worth, the reality is that there are ever more demands on our attention. Because of this fact, content creators need to ensure that they are providing value to their audiences or risk being perceived a waste of time.
Some sites “optimize for mobile” by shortening headlines and even body copy. I understand the inclination, but have always wondered about the extra work on the content creation end as well as the myriad assumptions about consumer behavior required to implement this approach. Today’s consumer has the opportunity to consume a single piece of content across multiple devices or to consume multiple pieces of content simultaneously on more than one device. This makes optimizing for device, in itself, a nearly mind-boggling conundrum.
On the other hand, the time-transparency tactic, which estimates the proposed attention investment, has a wonderful side effect of indicating that the content provider understands that my time is valuable. I am not suggesting one is better than the other in terms of mobile content consumption (that would be a gross oversimplification). I am simply admiring the amount of effort and innovation that goes into digital content delivery.
Value is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. Nor is an attention equation one easily formulated. Without a doubt, understanding your audience is the place to start. And certainly an investment in creating quality content that entertains, informs or provokes discussion is an essential piece of the puzzle. Other factors include optimal delivery medium, context and time; appropriate interactive and rich media enhancements; and social sharing and commenting features.
The constant evolution of media, marketing and technology is what makes it exciting to those of us in the trenches doing the work. Here at the OPA, we work with 60 of the most successful digital content companies in the world and I am lucky enough to have conversations with some of them a few times a week. Our members are at the forefront of digital content’s evolution, which is full of both uncertainty and excitement, And, with efforts like this blog—OPA InContext—and our new Content All Stars event (September 18th in New York City), we have opportunities to share their experiences with all those in the business of content – media companies and those in the advertising, marketing and agency communities who are a vital part of the content ecosystem.
Here’s what I know for sure: The digital landscape continuously reshapes itself under our feet as we chart our path forward. Perhaps that’s why the time-to-read idea is so appealing to me. It puts the content consumer in the driver’s seat so that they can make informed decisions about what they want to spend their time on (and where). I look forward to exploring where we go next.
Want to participate in OPA InContext? Email Michelle.
Interested in attending Content All Stars to engage in a high level discussion with the leaders of the digital media and marketing ecosystem? Request an invitation.
Q&A: Andrew Hanelly, SVP of Strategy at McMURRY/TMG, on Marketing to Millennials
Q: How are you shaping advertising messages to get and hold the 
attention of Millennials?
A: The first rule of advertising to Millennials is don’t try to advertise to Millennials. This is a generation that has always been in control of their media experience. They/we grew up with cable, we nearly always had the Internet, and boredom and curiosity are easily killed with the super computers we carry around with us that we call smartphones.
The way to earn the attention of Millennials is to understand and respect their needs. You have to add to their cultural experiences rather than try to interrupt them. And the best way to do that is through inbound marketing with valuable content that delights them. It’s got to be useful or be interesting or it will be ignored.
Q: How are you leveraging social media to communicate with Millennials and to provide CRM?
A: Most agencies and consultants will tell you that the key to social is listening and responding. That’s a nice start, and listening is necessary, but you have to participate to gain traction and build trust.
Successful brands immerse themselves in the community they are trying to be a part of and they humbly serve that community. There are no gimmicks required. Brands should act like a blogger and think like a startup: Embrace the tone of the community you are trying to serve, be transparent about who you are, and always add value by solving problems.
We do this for a number of brands, including ASAE, the center for association leadership. One of their main challenges—as is the case with most organizations—is building a relationship with younger audiences. We built a strategy around serving that audience through a hub-and-spoke social media model. The hub is a media-style website (associationsnow.com) and the spokes are the individual social channels we discovered this audience to be using.
Here’s how it plays out with a very practical example. We saw that our social audience—which is heavily millennial—talking about Google’s recent diversity disclosure. Our social journalism team quickly created context around the issue and shared it with that audience, adding value to the conversation. We didn’t interrupt, we didn’t sell. We saw what was culturally relevant, did the hard work of adding context to it, and we shared it. And then it got shared.
Content is currency in the social ecosystem and brands that can develop quality content will earn trust by being part of the conversation in a very real, practical way. This pattern of listening, learning, contextualizing, publishing and sharing has earned us cultural relevance to millennial audiences in a variety of industries.
It makes a statement: We’re here, we’re listening, we care, we want to add value, and we’re not trying to sell you anything. That’s a recipe for building trust.
Q: What is the number one takeaway to keep in mind when targeting Millennials?
A: Earn trust or die. Millennials are the driving force behind the shift from an attention-based economy (i.e. companies who can get attention will get share of mind and share of wallet) to a trust-based economy (i.e. companies who can earn trust will earn share of mind and share of wallet.)
What is the practical implication? Companies need to stop acting like faceless corporate entities and start acting like people. It’s about humanizing your brand by being transparent, being thoughtful, being respectful, and being a good digital citizen.
As SVP of Strategy at McMURRY/TMG, the country’s largest independent content marketing agency, Andrew develops and executes award-winning digital content marketing strategies for brands and organizations of all sizes, ranging from the Fortune 500 company to the nonprofit down the street. He’s passionate about earning audiences, creating community, and achieving business objectives for organizations by harnessing the power of content and technology. Andrew established McMURRY/TMG’s Content Velocity discipline, which builds relevance for brands through real-time content creation, powered by social journalism. Also, he’s a giant media nerd and was a sociology major for a semester or two.
How Programmatic Can Help Publishers Unlock New Revenue
Effective advertising is based on reaching the right audience. This was true in the 1950s. This was true in 1990s. Today, it is true more than ever.
At the advent of digital publishing, publisher content helped advertisers reach a particular audience. For example, a cooking website would be an appropriate site for a kitchenware maker to buy advertising; inventory on a financial website would suit a luxury watch brand. From an advertiser’s perspective, buying inventory this way was a slow, painstaking process. Orders had to be placed one-by-one, and performance metrics and audience insights were limited.
In the last few years, technology has evolved, changing how ads are purchased and how audiences are targeted. Programmatic media buying, which broadly describes ad buying with a computer interface, when combined with data lets advertisers reach their intended audience anywhere online, on any device.
With data science, ad technology companies can transform information on individual web behavior into a massive pool of audience profiles. Predictive technology and audience modeling allow for extremely accurate inferences about what users want to buy, where they consume media, and even what they are most likely to watch on TV.
For publishers, does the shift away from reaching audiences via relevant content threaten ad revenue? Does it lessen the value of sites that appeal to specific audiences? The answer to both questions is an emphatic “no.”
Publishers now have more options for ad revenue. By combining programmatic technology with their unique audience data, publishers can now sell audience relevant advertising beyond the constraints of the websites they own and operate. Publishers can monetize their audience profiles anywhere on the Internet, even on TV. This new capability is commonly referred to as audience extension.
Audience extension not only provides a new revenue stream, it can help solve business problems such as insufficient or excess ad inventory. By allowing for increased ad reach, audience extension also helps publishers better cater to their advertisers.
For example, a website dedicated to fitness is perfect for a new age healthy beverage ad. However, advertisers find that full coverage of a target market can’t happen through one web buy. A publisher that uses audience extension can help advertisers reach that audience wherever they consume media. The advertiser’s mission is more effectively and easily completed and the publisher has a new revenue stream, at little cost or risk.
One of the most significant challenges for top publishers is inventory scarcity. To meet demand, publishers are pushing editorial teams—writers, videographers and designers—to rapidly create great content. Typical solutions include: more ads on a page and increased refreshes, which often compromise user experience. Publishers that offer audience extension can sell inventory beyond the limitations of their own sites, increasing ad revenue, without reducing the quality of content and design.
Demand for audiences can even help publishers divest excess inventory. Brands want to reach their target, wherever they are. Thus ad-tech firms will chase that premium inventory, and include it in their ad network.
Regional publishers, whose advantage is coverage over a geographic market, also benefit. Nowadays, regional news publishers often have less local coverage digitally than they did in the days of print dominance. Audience extension not only solves that problem, it offers a better alternative. For example, through an ad buy with a local publisher, an automobile brand can blanket a geographic zone while targeting users currently shopping for cars. The business goals of both publishers and advertisers are improved.
Economic growth is based on innovations that increase efficiency and open new markets. Programmatic audience extension is this type of advance. It streamlines ad buying, minimizes costs and generates new revenue. It can help publishers prosper, but most importantly, it allows them to better serve their advertising clients.
As SVP of Channel Sales, Joe Gallagher spearheads Collective’s indirect business with an emphasis on developing new channel partners for the company’s full suite of digital solutions. His audience includes digital publishers and media companies that desire to expand their digital offerings with Collective’s audience reach and multi-screen solutions. Gallagher brings 15 years of digital sales and management experience, with senior executive positions at Firefly Video, Exponential, BBE, The Wall Street Journal and Real Media, under his belt. He is also a founding member of 212, New York’s Interactive Advertising Association.