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Category results for "Perspectives"

Featured Post | Perspectives | Policy

Seeing through Facebook’s transparency report

“Transparency is an important part of everything we do at Facebook.” Well, at least that’s according the first line of the company’s just-released Widely Viewed Content Report. The report is intended to provide insight into what content flowed across Facebook in the second quarter of 2021. In particular, it examines what content was viewed most in consumers’ News Feeds.

Facebook claims that most of the content on its platform comes from its users’ friends and family. The report states that news (or content that appears to be news) only represents a small fraction of what users see and share. It appears the company wants us to believe its platform is filled with family pictures and GIFs of kittens. Move along, industry watchers. According to Facebook there’s nothing to see here!

Cleaning house

The New York Times uncovered that this wasn’t the company’s first such report. According to the Times, Facebook prepared a Widely Viewed Content Report for Q1 but not release it. Apparently, the picture it painted wasn’t pretty.

According to the Times, “the most-viewed link was a news article with a headline suggesting that the coronavirus vaccine was at fault for the death of a Florida doctor.” Although the article came from a major publisher, it was the headline – and the way it was shared in a particular context by anti-vaxxers – that put it on top. Meanwhile, the 19th most popular page during Q1 was from the Epoch Times, an outlet widely known for pushing conspiracy theories.

Weird. These aren’t exactly posts about grandma’s mouth-watering apple pie or dare devil kittens hanging from ledges.

Remember, Facebook only reluctantly published the Q2 report after it spent a year discrediting external research from its own CrowdTangle data, which measures engagement (liking and sharing). When Facebook dismissed these reports, academics and researchers responded by pointing out that they were simply using the data Facebook had, itself, put out into the market. Meanwhile, CrowdTangle’s personnel were dispersed to other parts of Facebook, and the tools were pared back by Facebook, in what looked like an effort to regain control of the data and narrative.

It kind of feels like Facebook is hustling us in a giant game of Three-card Monte.

Revisionist history on repeat

Maybe there are those still inclined to give the company the benefit of the doubt. As Facebook spokesman Andy Stone soft-played their actions when he tweeted “we might have been guilty of cleaning up our house a bit before inviting company.” Unfortunately, the dumpsters full of incendiary trash impacted untold numbers of “guests” way before Facebook purportedly tidied things up and invited the “company” of critical analysis.

Facebook has a long track record of covering up and thwarting transparency at critical moments including the countless times where they enabled companies to collect data about consumers and then repurpose that data for number of reasons. Notably, these included selling Facebook’s data to third parties like Cambridge Analytica, which turned out to be one of the largest data breaches in history.

Deception is part of the business model

Recently, Facebook blocked researchers ability to gather information about what political ads are being shown across their services. It was especially galling that Facebook justified its decision as a protection of “user privacy.”

Given the company’s track record, it shouldn’t be surprising that Facebook once again opted to block full transparency. And yes, once again, the real reason is because it could hurt the business model. Even the FTC weighed in and warned Facebook not to use privacy “as a pretext to advance other aims.”

Truth told

For the Facebook model, it doesn’t matter whether the content is truthful. In fact, if there is a bias at all, it must be in favor of the least trustworthy, most salacious content (e.g. vaccine misinformation, Epoch Times) because that content tends to catch fire more quickly. And profits are way up. The business model is clearly working.

On top of that, at key junctures in Facebook’s history, executives have unequivocally chosen to hide the truth to maintain these profits. Vague commitments to transparency come only when they find themselves once again caught with a hand in the proverbial cookie jar. And now, even those promises to “do better” come with a giant caveat: We’ll only tell you something if it makes the company look good.

At this point, there are legitimate questions about whether Facebook is a good-faith actor that can ever play a constructive role. Facebook’s business model is at odds with transparency and their executives seem committed to running the business like a Three-card Monte hustle. With deep political divisions in our country hindering our ability to tackle a shared crisis (or even have a thoughtful discussion), we need leaders to step forward and demonstrate an unequivocal commitment to transparency and trust.

Perspectives | Supporter Spotlight

CTV’s peril: Could shared data strengthen platforms and programmers?

In Greek mythology, Odysseus faced many harrowing close calls, traveling to Hades and back just to find his way home. For many involved in the evolution of ConnectedTV, it has felt very much like a 10-year journey to get to the juncture where the promise of the platform finally meets the commercial needs of the market.

Much like Homer’s Odyssey, there always seems to be one last challenge to face before reaching friendly shores. As video investment continues to surge into CTV, the competing challenges between programmers and CTV platforms are coming into sharp relief. The solution may lie in mutually shared data so that platform and programmer can harness the rising tide of OTT viewership on CTV devices and the revenues that come with it.

Big picture problems

For digital publishers, CTV will mean presenting their content on the big screen for the first time. This represents a big leap into the living room on platforms they don’t really control. Even an owned-and-operated OTT app must adhere to the specific requirements of the CTV platform where it resides. And that often means building multiple variations of the app just to conform to the needs of the platform. Even with native video players for environments like AndroidTV, the specific advertising parameters a publisher must comply with to succeed on a CTV platform vary wildly.

Traditional broadcast and cable networks approach ConnectedTV with a set of assumptions from the legacy world of television. Unfortunately, these do not always translate well into CTV. First, they have windowing restrictions around licensed content that can produce an uneven experience between their linear broadcast, cable VOD, and CTV offerings. Second, without an accepted currency equivalent to Nielsen ratings for CTV viewership, they are missing out on the opportunity to bind all TV viewing of their content into a single, sellable, audience. (Nielsen One – a potential solution – is slated to debut in Q4 2022.)

Add into this the fact that ConnectedTV device platforms are becoming owners of advertising inventory across all of the programmers on their platform, and the situation becomes even more complex for everyone. In the past, a TV network would surrender two minutes per programming hour to their MVPD distribution partner, or roughly 12.5% of total inventory. This was mitigated by the terms of a carriage agreement that permitted the distributor to only sell local ads for insertion into their physical distribution footprint. Today, a CTV platform has rights to 40% of a programmers’ inventory and no restrictions around to whom it can sell.

Transition and targeting

Web publishers had to master new techniques and methods to benefit from the consumer transition to mobile screens. Now these same web publishers that have built strong advertising supported video businesses will need to recalibrate their workflows to ensure that CTV publishing is worthwhile. Ultimately, their ability to represent the full scale and dimension of their audience, across owned and third-party platforms, will have a profound impact on their success.

The value of a programmer’s CTV advertising inventory, despite residing within the same content network and delivery platform, is influenced dramatically by the audience targeting data that each party, owner, and distributor, is able to provide. When a network sells this CTV inventory directly or even programmatically, they can apply a limited amount of first party data to the placement given the lack of unique identifiers provided by the CTV platform. The network falls back on presenting its CTV audience as an extension of its broadcast audience. That is, unfortunately, an imprecise and potentially loss-making approach.

Connected competition

The CTV platform is not so constrained. While publishers may not have the option to sell these networks by name, their aggregation of so many CTV impressions allows them to compete directly with the programmers for the same advertising budgets. And because of the additional first party data they have about the consumer: viewing habits, zip code, and even TV size, they can very often out compete the networks for the same campaign commitments.  

So here we have the Scylla and Charybdis of CTV advertising. On the one hand a national brand advertiser can approach multiple networks for their CTV campaigns and craft a schedule that will guarantee distribution and spot delivery. They can be very specific around selected programming and category exclusivity if they so desire.

On the other hand, going to one or several CTV platforms for the same campaign will allow a buyer to define a desired target audience profile to reach. However, they will have limited control around the content adjacency and context of their placements. And the reporting and reconciliation of campaigns is also different in degree and detail, forcing the advertiser to now undertake an analytical effort to assess ROAS from each source.

The route to revenue

Scylla, the six-headed monster in Homer’s The Odyssey ate sailors that passed close enough to be claimed. She sat on one side of the Straits of Messina. Charybdis, a violent whirlpool that would devour entire ships, was at the far shore. Sailing too close to one or the other ensured an unenviable end. Buying impressions from only programmers or only from CTV platforms will leave advertising brands at a disadvantage precisely at the time when CTV can command the enormous share shift of video investment coming from a declining traditional TV audience.

The stakes aren’t quite life and death for CTV advertising. However, it’s worth recognizing that this state of affairs will continue to constrict the growth of the business unless additional progress can be made to harmonize network-sold and platform-sold CTV impressions.

It is incumbent on the industry to coalesce around a shared data set that both platforms and programmers can provide to advertisers programmatically such that they can evaluate and purchase these avails with the same confidence that they used to purchase television. The rising tide of OTT viewership on CTV platforms, on both linear FAST channels and AVOD, suggests that rallying around a common baseline for CTV inventory stands to benefit both the content rights owners and distribution platforms equally, when each will finally have a stake in one another’s success.

Advertising | Perspectives | Supporter Spotlight

Newsweek and Discovery are ready for the cookieless web. Are you?

We all know that the days of the cookie as the primary means to ad targeting and personalization are coming to an end. From increased legislation to ongoing browser updates, the time has come to put the cookie behind us and move forward. The good news is that there are tried and true methods that ensure the free flow of information and effective advertising. 

While brands, publishers, and platforms are likely to leverage cookies for as long as they can, the industry has viable solutions and advertisers should take advantage of them. Those who have gotten a head start already see the benefits of an addressable, cookieless solution that enables authenticated user experiences. Brands and publishers that have already made the transition should use this time to establish stronger relationships based on trust through first-party data strategies. Those who haven’t yet started the journey away from third-party cookies should get started right away by leveraging a trusted, first-party authenticated solution. 

Authenticated audiences

Previously, brands looking to reach their audiences have been overcompensating for the lack of a transparent, authenticated solution. Data-driven publishers, with established, first-party relationships can leverage their authenticated data so marketers can target audiences and measure campaign outcomes with people-based identity. 

In the past, marketers looking for a measurable solution had to turn to social platforms’ walled gardens, which have enjoyed the benefits of disproportionate media investments. Historically, advertisers spent 60% of their digital advertising budget on reaching audiences in walled gardens, allotting only 40% of the budget to the open web. Yet, consumers spent more than half of their time on the open web (66%), compared to just 34% on closed platforms. 

As independent publishers embrace the tactics of walled gardens, they leverage first-party authentications to deliver better, more targeted advertising. Initial campaign results from two publishers, Newsweek and Discovery, illustrate that an authenticated, cookieless solution has proven effective.

People-based solutions

Publishers and brands can now connect identities without the use of cookies or compromising data. For example, Newsweek was able to better plan and execute on advertisers’ marketing campaigns by leveraging a people-based, privacy-safe, cookieless solution that enabled publishers and brands to match identities. 

Leveraging solutions independent of third-party cookies, the Newsweek team saw a total lift in eCPM as high as 224%, with an average lift of 52% across all web browsers. The lift in specific browsers — a CPM lift of 55% on Google Chrome, and a 93% and 60% CPM lift on Firefox and Safari, respectively — indicates the significant impact the new, cookieless solution can drive as an alternative to third-party cookies and in cookieless environments. 

Although third-party cookies are still a capability in Chrome, Newsweek benefited from an audience lift on the browser by activating on the new cookieless solution. Because both Firefox and Safari no longer enable audience reach with third-party cookies, the lift on both browsers demonstrates how the cookieless solution enables a new, more premium channel based on authentications where marketers and advertisers can reach an audience they were not previously able to.

Newsweek’s COO Alvaro Palacios said, “Newsweek has proven through testing that digital media does not need third-party cookies to increase yields and the value of our inventory. This ID solution provides the infrastructure to match our readers with a brand’s customers, for marketing that could be more effective than with third-party cookies.”

On mobile devices, publishers are also seeing a higher CPM than on cookieless mobile web inventory. Through their new ID solution, Newsweek also achieved a CPM lift of 53% on iOS, compared to those that did not activate on this ID. Discovery Inc., a publisher with sites including HGTV.com, TravelChannel.com, FoodNetwork.com and DIYNetwork.com, also saw an average eCPM increase of 44% when enabling activation on the same ID solution on their cookieless inventory. 

A new ecosystem where publishers and brands win

The CPM improvements that benefit Newsweek  and Discovery are just an example of the incremental revenue opportunities achieved by leveraging an authenticated solution. As publishers continue to grow their addressable inventory, their revenue will also flourish. Brand marketers can now buy inventory activated by authenticated, first-party data. This enables them to reach more consumers on more channels than ever before. And that’s something third-party cookies were never able to achieve. 

While third-party cookies may still exist in the near-term, advertisers should take advantage of the proven, more viable solution already available. Consider the cellular network transition from 4G to 5G. With speeds 100 times faster than 4G and better connectivity for seamless user experiences, 5G is the clear winner for a preferred connection. Yet, 4G still exists. In this same way, having already proven themselves to be more effective, authenticated cookieless solutions have also become the preferred solution while third-party cookies remain. 

The digital advertising industry is constantly balancing the interests of publishers, brands, and browsers. The sometimes-competing interests may feel like a three-way tug-of-war at times. However, there are proven viable alternatives to third-party cookies that benefit brands and publishers equally.

To get ahead of impending browser changes, publishers must own their trusted first-party consumer relationships through authenticated solutions. Once publishers succeed in establishing trust with their consumers, they will then be able to develop a relationship that’s independent of cookies. And that will improve the user experience and increase yield for publishers and the brands that work for them.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion | Featured Post | Innovation | Perspectives

From the top down, and inside out: tackling media’s diversity problem

The business case for diversity has been made time and again. In fact, according to McKinsey, the relationship between ethnic, gender, and cultural diversity and financial outperformance has only grown in the years since the company first outlined its importance. And when it comes to newsrooms, the philosophical, moral, and business rational for improving diversity are also evident.

It is certainly heartening to see the impressive — even historic — rise of female and diverse newsroom leadership in the past year or two. For the first time ever, Black executives lead every major broadcast news network in the U.S. Women and people of color have also assumed leadership roles at dozens of major media brands. However, as HuffPost Editor-in-Chief Danielle Belton, who is Black, suggested to CNN, truly diverse representation in media won’t be achieved simply by hiring women and people of color to fill top roles.

In order to better serve the diverse population it reaches, the media industry must reflect that population from the boardroom to product development and from the newsroom to the sales team. It must also reflect these audiences in its sourcing and reporting. Hiring is one of the most visible ways media organizations are changing right now. However, there are also a number of taking tactical approaches that are meaningfully moving the needle.

50/50 and beyond

In 2017, the BBC launched the 50:50 Project, challenging its teams to achieve 50% female representation in BBC content. Today, the company says that 70% of its content features 50% women contributors. And this initiative is not limited to the BBC. The project partners with more than 100 organizations in 26 countries. The network includes public and private media, academia, conference businesses, law, public relations, and corporations. The 50:50 Project recently announced it will also strive for better inclusion of ethnic minorities and disabled people and those. The aim to achieve a 50:20:12 balance.

The BBC approach is fairly straightforward. Participants monitor the numbers of contributors in their content to set benchmarks for their chosen diversity measures. They then track their progress against those benchmarks as content is produced. Teams continually share and discuss the data which informs editorial decisions.

The BBC has found that the longer teams monitor and share data regularly, the more likely they are to create cultural change. 50:50 has enabled teams to identify topic areas where women or other diversities are under-represented, such as science or sports. It has also encouraged content makers to think differently about the stories they choose to tell. Reporters continually seek new voices and different perspectives to enrich their output.

Working on workflow

NPR recently announced a new initiative to track the demographics of its sources in real time. The tool, called “Dex”, is integrated with the company’s content management system. Dex allows NPR reporters to easily monitor the diversity of sources’ race and ethnicity, gender identity, geographic location, and age range. Over time it will also become a robust database to identify more diverse sources as well.

Deputy director of news operations Rolando Arrieta told Poynter that incorporating the tool into the company’s CMS makes diversity an integral part of the newsgathering and reporting process. Dex also allows for continuous monitoring, unlike the annual diversity reports many organizations produce. And, as Arrieta points out, simply counting sources is not enough. Creating a continuously updated resource for diverse sourcing and integrating diversity into content creators’ processes facilitates continuous awareness and improvement.

More work

Tactics and tools beyond hiring and sourcing are increasingly emerging. They are intended to assist in diversity objectives, but sometimes create a business opportunity in themselves.

Nielson introduced a tool earlier this year designed to better allow content creators, distributors, and advertisers to quantify their progress in diversifying representation on the small screen. Gracenote Inclusion Analytics measures how the screen time of various identity groups (such as people from a specific gender identity, sexual orientation, race, or ethnicity) stack up against certain benchmarks.

Bloomberg’s Gender-Equality Index (GEI) tracks the performance of public companies committed to disclosing their efforts to support gender equality through policy development, representation, and transparency. The organization’s New Voices initiative works to increase the representation of women and minority executives as sources in both online and on-air content. Recently, the company expanded its objectives to be more inclusive of a range of gender identities as well. 

Certainly, it is heartening to witness the recent spate of DEI executive appointments. It is encouraging to see the newsroom leadership begin to lose its pallor. However, it is also significant to see media companies not only recognize the value of diverse leadership, but also the critical role of incorporating diversity into the culture and workflow of their organizations. If diversity is the goal, there is no one simple answer. But with a combination of leadership, trust, transparency, and tools the media business can begin to build solutions.

Perspectives

DCN’s must reads: week of August 19, 2021

Here are some of the best media stories our team has read so far this week:

DCN’s must reads: week of August 12, 2021

Advertising | Perspectives | Revenue | Supporter Spotlight

How dynamic creative optimization delivers advertising results

Today’s online consumers expect ads to show them what they want, when they want it. An overwhelming 80% of shoppers say they’re more likely to make a purchase when a brand offers a personalized experience, while 70% say they’re more loyal to companies that demonstrate a clear understanding of their personal needs. So it’s not surprising that personalization has become a must for digital marketers.

To deliver these kinds of highly targeted and hyper-relevant marketing campaigns at scale, savvy advertisers use innovative display ad technologies like dynamic creative optimization (DCO). Powered by a combination of dynamic, data-driven content and automated machine learning, DCO is quickly becoming one of the most effective strategies for delivering the types of personalized campaigns that today’s online audiences demand.

How DCO works

DCO is a type of programmatic advertising technology that gives marketers the ability to optimize dynamic creatives in real time. It creates a highly personalized experience tailored to the user’s needs, at that exact moment, by using data that’s collected when the ad is being served. The system updates dynamic elements instantly to provide content that’s most relevant based on a broad range of data signals. These include location, weather, gender, device, buying behavior, and where the user is in the buyer’s journey.

One of the reasons DCO is so effective is because the process is completely automated and continuously improving itself. AI takes care of multivariate testing and automatically optimizes ads based on data. This not only improves performance but also allows marketers to produce a high volume of ad variations quickly and at scale. DCO is also easy to implement when integrated with a data management platform (DMP) for access to data feeds and a creative management platform (CMP) for access to creative assets like copy, images, and display.

Getting it right: 5 best practices for dynamic creative optimization

While DCO is a hands-off marketing tool in many respects, it does require some forethought and strategy for success. To make the most of your next campaign, keep the following best practices in mind.

1. Meet customers where they are

Successful DCO campaigns adapt to the audiences they serve at every touchpoint. This includes determining where users are in the sales funnel and displaying creatives that best match that mindset. For example, creatives served to customers close to action might feature harder-selling pitches than those designed for higher-funnel consumers. You can also use conversion tags to track your creatives’ performance in the buyer’s journey and replace poor performers with new variations that might catch customers on their way out.

2. Include contextual elements

Use data triggers like location, time, and weather to keep campaigns grounded in a user’s environment. For example, images for a fast-food restaurant can be set to reflect time of day, displaying breakfast sandwiches and coffee in the morning and fries and burgers in the afternoon. Or a retailer can recommend umbrellas and Wellies during a rainstorm and sunscreen and visors on a sunny day.

3. Diversify your assets

DCO gives you the opportunity to test a wide range of creative assets and it’s important to take advantage of this technology and use it to the fullest. The more diverse your variation of CTAs, headlines, images, and other creative assets, the more your campaign will benefit from DCO.

4. Trust the machine

As the “O” in DCO implies, one of the biggest advantages of the technology is that it’s specifically built to optimize your creatives. But the platform only has as much control as you allow it. Resist the urge to make ads too busy and overload them with as many products as a template will allow. Trust the DCO platform’s AI to do its job and select the most effective elements for the moment based on data.

5. Review performance

While DCO handles the minutiae of multivariate testing, it’s up to you to examine your campaign as a whole and determine if it needs adjustment. Make time to review your creative’s performance data regularly so you can identify the elements that are most effective in driving engagement and optimize your strategy accordingly.

Deliver on expectations

DCO is a must-have tool for creating highly targeted and personalized dynamic ads. Using a powerful combination of advertising display and analytics, the technology helps brands deliver the right message to the right customer at the right time. It drives engagement and increases brand loyalty by creating the contextual relevance that today’s consumers not only prefer, but have come to expect.

Perspectives | Revenue | Supporter Spotlight

3 Innovative ideas to fuel subscription success

For over 100 years, newspaper and magazine publishers made money in three basic ways: advertising, newsstand sales, and periodic payments from subscribers who awaited the latest news delivered  to their doorsteps. Most innovation in the publishing space revolved around the editorial content delivered to consumers rather than how people consumed that content. 

Then digital hit, and it changed everything. 

News and entertainment are widely available for free online. And the emergence of programmatic ad networks and news aggregators have put immense pressure on ad revenue. This means publishers need to shift toward a subscription-based revenue model if they want to survive—and thrive. 

Bringing in new subscribers and building durable relationships with them starts with revenue diversification. You need to segment the audience to focus on those subscribers that will drive higher LTV (lifetime value). And you must have a customer-first mindset. 

Your north star: delivering value in unique ways across the entire subscriber journey. The path to success: innovation. Here are three ways to deliver compelling digital experiences that’ll not only drive subscriber growth, but also encourage your subscribers to stick around for the long haul.

1. Diversify your revenue streams   

Publishers that offer more flexible subscription plans, innovative acquisition strategies, and hybrid offerings will win over those that only offer rigid pricing models or limited product offerings.

Offer newsletters and companion subscriptions

One way to remake subscriptions for the digital era is to provide new offerings that didn’t exist decades ago. Consider, for instance, Morning Brew, theSkimm, and the many successful Substack offerings. Well-written, targeted newsletters are an increasingly popular way to consume information. They are also a great way to drive additional revenue, be it through subscriptions or sponsorships. 

You might also consider developing a companion subscription product to your content offerings. GQ, for example, recently introduced its quarterly “Best Stuff Box.” It features electronics, grooming products, and accessories geared toward the same audience that reads GQ.

Drive interest through events

Events are another great way to drive interest in your subscription products (and to drive revenue on their own). You could hold a live event be it free or paid, virtual or in-person. This might be an in-depth interview with a celebrity or luminary. It could also be access to your on-staff experts, or gatherings of like minded audiences. Then you can use the resulting email list to nurture and help add new subscribers to your core offerings. 

2. Segment and personalize your offerings to drive LTV higher

While driving subscriber growth matters, you want to focus your efforts on those subscribers who will stay with you for the long term. Segmenting your audience into logical cohorts and targeting the most promising ones will help you both reduce your acquisition costs and ensure more sustainable growth.

Create and analyze subscriber cohorts

Start by looking at your existing subscriber base. Take a deep dive into the data to understand the characteristics of those subscribers with the highest LTV: Are they subscribed to a particular plan? Are they in a particular age range, income level, or geographic location? Perhaps they tend to take advantage of other offerings, like events or newsletters. Look at what’s working and optimize your subscription offerings appropriately for the cohorts you’ve identified.

Understand churn to boost retention

Looking at the “winners” won’t tell you the whole story. A big part of optimizing your efforts for the highest LTV is understanding who’s churning and why. Identify your “subscriber cliff, which is the point at which subscribers tend to churn. Then, work backwards to understand why they’re churning. Whether it’s due to a price increase, the expiration of a promotional introductory offer, or something else, you now have a starting point for your retention efforts.

Make increasing LTV everyone’s priority

Part of driving higher LTV is ensuring every member of your team is responsible for success across the entire customer lifecycle.  Reorient people’s roles around the whole customer journey. For instance, compensate your sales reps based on your subscribers’ product adoption and retention rates, instead of just the price of the deal close.

3. Embrace a customer-first culture, even if you have to rethink your product

To effectively digitally transform your business, you need to be willing to blow up your “sacred cows.” Ignore everything you thought you knew about your product offerings. It’s time to rethink every aspect of your offerings and reorient yourself around what your subscribers demand.

Rethink your product

First, your digital subscription need not be a one-to-one remake of your physical subscription. Say you’re a newspaper: instead of forcing subscribers to pay for access to the entire paper, maybe charge a smaller fee to allow them to access only certain sections, a set number of articles per month, or particular features (just the crossword, for example). Others may not care as much about access to your current journalism but crave access to your archives.

Offer bundles

Another way to orient your product offering around your subscribers is by partnering with a complementary brand (whether publishing or not) and offering a bundled subscription. The New York Times, for instance, partnered with Spotify a few years ago to offer a joint subscription to music lovers that was cheaper than the combined cost of both companies’ subscription plans.

Enact a cultural shift

To adopt a customer-first mindset, recognize it requires incorporating a new product culture and retraining your employees. For many publishers used to “doing things the way they were always done,” this will likely feel scary. But staying static in the way you monetize your offerings makes no sense, not when consumer expectations change so quickly or your competitors are able to move on a dime.

The pay off

The shift to digital has brought with it a tidal wave of change in consumer habits and expectations. The playbooks that served publishers so well for decades just aren’t that relevant anymore. By offering innovative bundles, unique subscription offerings, and creative merchandising models, publishers can build durable subscriber relationships and deliver value across the subscriber journey. 

The road to publishing subscription success is paved with a variety of revenue streams. It requires a focus on subscribers that’ll drive high LTV. And it requires a rethink — and possible overhaul — of your product and company culture. No one said it was easy. But it is sure to be worth it. 

Perspectives

DCN’s must reads: week of August 12, 2021

Here are some of the best media stories our team has read so far this week:

DCN’s must reads: week of August 5, 2021

Advertising | Perspectives | Revenue | Supporter Spotlight

When browser extensions attack: Meet LNKR, an ad ecosystem nightmare

My toddler and I share a love for the misadventures of Shaun the Sheep. In particular, we love the episode where sheepdog Bitzer is cleaning the farmhouse window. But the Farmer keeps pointing out specks that Bitzer, try as he might, cannot see.

After countless elaborate attempts to clean the windows, Bitzer notices a chunk of dirt on the Farmer’s coke-bottle glasses. The windows were spotless. The Farmer’s smudgy glasses caused him to see phantom blemishes and incite a great deal of (highly entertaining) chaos on the farm.

Recently, this episode came to mind when talking to a DSP about why a slew of their ads were being blocked on various publishers sites (by a different ad quality provider). The DSP shared the report with us. As we examined the wide variety of blocked ads, we confirmed they were clean. There was no cloaking or malicious code, no compromised landing pages. They were basically spotless. After some analysis, it clicked: We were witnessing fallout from LNKR.

LNKR is the smudgy glasses problem transported to digital media. However, it is far more devious and likely to wreak havoc throughout the digital advertising ecosystem.

The trouble with browser extensions

At heart, LNKR is the browser extension heir to the malicious toolbar, a classic form of adware. Browser toolbars tended to create extra ad slots on publisher pages to serve ads. (These sometimes came with even more noxious malware.) However, LNKR simply injects malicious code right into one or more existing ad placements—on top of publisher-served ads. Most often, the malignant code prompts an auto-redirect with a fake software upgrade or antivirus tool download. (Surprise—it’s really more malware!).

Consumers knowingly (perhaps looking for some unique feature like “change text into pirate speak,” ya landlubber), or unknowingly, install a browser extension with LNKR code. Once that’s done, the LNKR operators can deliver redirect code into any ad slot at any time when the infected browser visits any website. If the malicious code is injected and the redirect is served, the consumer comes under attack.

Reputation and revenue

To compound the problem, they they’ll think that the publisher they just visited served them malvertising. The publisher’s brand is damaged even though it had nothing to do with the attack. (That character defamation also gets passed upstream to the SSPs and DSPs serving ads to the user.)

A publisher’s bad-ad blocker may shut down legitimate ads because users with the LNKR-infected extension have unwanted code injected on top of them. That could rob publishers of revenue. That’s because every single ad campaign served to the infected user will be mistaken for malware and slapped away.

If not corrected at the user level, or discounted from malvertising reporting, most eligible creative sent to an infected user will eventually be blocked. Thus, the scenario in the be bad ads ad infinitum. SSPs will scream at DSPs for pushing malware through the pipes when the accused advertising creative and supply chain is legit. This can further come back to bite the publisher if SSPs pause or cut off relationships with lucrative DSPs.

The publisher and its demand partners end up becoming patsies for LNKR’s bad deeds, because with these malicious extensions… The malware is coming from inside the browser!

A greater danger

Of course, this confusion damages relationships between AdTech platforms. (And let’s face it, they already have serious trust issues). But beyond that, it muddies the waters for malware hunters. More and more innocuous ads are falsely labeled malvertising. This distracts ad quality providers from the job of tracking down the real bad apples—which are always employing clever new evasive measures to avoid detection.

LNKR also represents more of a danger to consumers beyond a malware delivery channel. The browsing of infected users can be tracked and LNKR can also grab search parameters when a user employs any kind of search engine. LNKR has already exhibited the ability for advanced microtargeting. It can infect actual web pages where a user has write access, enabling it to spread to additional users.

Worse, information from infected browsers—as well as access to them—is sold on the dark web to malevolent actors with more malignant schemes. Indeed, LNKR is a key player in the ransomware ecosystem. It’s an ideal tool for extracting personal data that can be exploited for great harm.

Consumer awareness is critical

Distinct LNKR incidents, with each one accounting for thousands of individual hits, have been on the rise since the beginning of 2021.

LNKR is an effective malvertising tactic. The number of incidents (which can account for thousands of individual hits) detected by The Media Trust has been swelling since the beginning of 2021. Nipping this ever-growing threat in the bud relies on something that’s long been difficult for the digital advertising industry: consumer education.

Browser extensions are sticky. And consumers often forget what they’ve actually installed. Unused extensions can easily pile up and extension apathy is exactly what the bad actors behind LNKR prey on. That’s where the smudgy glasses issue hits full stride: infected consumers keep getting hit with redirects. They also have no idea that a browser extension causes the issue, let alone which specific extension.

Alongside software updates, operators of the main browsers often prompt users to check their extensions to make sure they’re only housing ones they want. In addition, users need to keep their approved extensions updates—not always a simple task. But older versions of extensions can have unseen vulnerabilities and be compromised.

The rest of the industry needs to spread the truth wherever possible. We must explain that LNKR is a bigger threat than just some annoying redirects. Extension hygiene may not be sexy, but it’s key for an overall good experience on the web and helping you stay clear from malware and unwanted data tracking.

Cleaning up the LNKR smudge

Publishers, though, need to demand more from their bad-ad-blocking services. Ad quality providers must be able to identify LNKR and confirm blocks are not false positives, discount LNKR from bad-ad counts. In addition, the creative blocker needs to ensure it’s stopping the delivery of adware that will further spread the LNKR menace. That’s right: They must block pop-ups, scams, and ads distributing unwanted programs.

Finally, being able to recognize LNKR and alert publishers’ upstream partners ensures less legit creative gets caught in the crossfire. Discounting LNKR in malware reports will limit ire between AdTech partners that could eventually impact publisher revenue.

In real life, a little microfiber cloth makes quick work of a blemish on your glasses. Unfortunately, wiping browsers of the LNKR smudge is going to be a complex, industry-wide struggle. The first step, however, is widespread acknowledgement of the danger at hand.

Perspectives | Supporter Spotlight

Create premium digital experiences consumers will pay for

Publishers have experimented with paid-for digital content since the 1990s. In the time since, they have gained valuable experience, which has given them a much clearer view of what does and does not drive engagement. These days, organizations of all types are laser focused on digital. For media companies, that increasingly takes the form of direct-to-consumer offerings such as subscriptions.

However, paywalls are no longer one size fits all. In fact, the models, gating, messaging and more have all become increasingly sophisticated. That said, everyone is trying to figure out the optimal model. Which new products and services should publishers explore? What are the barriers and challenges they face to effectively monetize their unique digital content offering?

Here are some key considerations that will help media companies figure out what will work best for their content and consumers.

Understand consumer consumption

Content should be optimized for each intended channel. Unfortunately, even now, print content is too often repurposed for digital—an entirely separate platform with different demographics. The same goes for video, social, and more.

Simple redistribution doesn’t constitute a digital strategy. Instead, a digital approach and mindset is needed to create content optimized for individual digital channels. One of the most important questions to ask, then, is: How do people consume content in a given digital channel?

The content or service is, of course, central to the success of a digital offering, but so too is the experience. Publishers need to make it their business to know when, where, and how customers consume online content and services. And they need to understand, and optimize, that specific experience. Without platform investment and the right levels of quality assurance and testing, consumers may find your digital product lacking. Needless to say, they won’t be likely to pay for it, and certainly to keep paying for it when their subscription is up for renewal.

Three hurdles hindering transformation

To figure out — and stay on top of — emerging challenges and opportunities, it is critical that media organizations transform their approach to focus on customer experience. Vindicia’s data shows the top three areas where many subscription approaches fail:

1. Insufficient digitization and payments support

For some publishers, adopting new digital models and diversifying into a range of additional paid-for digital products and services presents multiple challenges. High on the list is a lack of relevant skills and capabilities. In fact, App Annie discovered that app store spend via mobile and tablet has reached 20% year over year growth. This points to the necessity for in-app purchases and payments to be available and ready, enabling consumption. Your payment systems must be easy to use, flexible, and up to date.

2. Under-representation of customer-driven insights

Product managers and marketers are often in the dark about what audiences want. That will severely limit their ability to produce and promote successful new products and services. A lack of customer insights is the direct cause. This results in an under-representation of customer-driven offerings and features that a subscription showcases. Equip yourself to monitor and respond to customer usage and behavior quickly and effectively.

3. Lack of data expertise and scalability

Mather Economics recently found that 50% of digital newspaper subscriptions churn after four months. The primary reason? A lack of data analytics expertise and scalability. This same reason is the cause of why converting free readers into subscribers proves challenging in the absence of data analytics expertise, which urges publishers to undertake extensive A/B testing that hinders scalability. There are tried and true methods proven to generate more conversions in the publishing space. Whether the churn type is active or passive, publishing subscriptions need to pay close attention to churn indicators. For active, an indicator is low usage or usage that has tapered down. For passive, an indicator is chronic or semi-regular late or bounced payments. The ability to view and merge customer and churn insights allows publishing subscriptions to nurture each subscriber’s experience and retain them longer.

The critical role of a digital-first strategy

McKinsey recently reported that many companies are creating a new role: Chief Digital Officer.  This role is charged with ensuring that the organization has a digital-first strategy and integrates it into every facet of their business. Their analysis of how companies with a high [McKinsey] Digital Quotient (DQ) operate shows that “90% of top performers have fully integrated digital initiatives into their strategic-planning process.”

In fact, one publishing house in McKinsey’s study set a target of generating 50% of its revenue and profit from digital media within 10 years. With a full focus on digital, it accomplished that target in half the time. With the coordination between CDOs, content creators, and CEOs, there are specific ways to extract growth opportunities from transitioning to and effectively monetizing digital content.

The path is clear: Determine a digitization and content distribution strategy that fits the demographics your subscription is targeting. Leverage customer and churn insights to create offerings and features. And look to data to manage churn at the individual subscriber level. Digital is a fast-moving business with a whole lot of upside. With an organizational and leadership strategy that keeps digital innovation at the forefront, you will be positioned to keep pace and reap the rewards.

Featured Post | Innovation | Perspectives

Why media executives can’t afford to ignore blockchain innovation

Allow me to pose a few questions: Why doesn’t the U.S. have a modern high-speed rail system or solve the issue of droughts? Why doesn’t the U.S. have a national electronic grid to leverage solar and wind power? At least part of the answer is a reluctance to accept and adapt to new technologies.

Blockchain can and will play a significant role in each of these applications and services. However, blockchain is plagued by the negative stain of cryptocurrencies and a lack of understanding of the technology and its capabilities. That does not mean that we can afford to ignore it.

So, my question for you is, “Are you preparing your company to take advantage and leverage blockchain technology to grow your business and remain competitive?”

Without a doubt, blockchain is poised to impact the media business. That future will demonstrate the full force of Tim Berner Lee’s paper about the semantic web and blockchain will play a critical role. The blockchain train is about to leave the station, and you’d better make sure you have a ticket and get on board.

Blockchain technology will create new business opportunities in all sectors. Media companies have been slow to adapt to some critical technology evolutions in the past, which cost them dearly. We can’t afford to let blockchain to be another missed opportunity.

Are you blockchain-ready?

As an executive, understanding new technologies is essential. That’s because it could mean the difference between growing your business or going out of business.

So, how ready are you and your company for blockchain? Take this simple quiz to find out:

  1. My company and I have a complete understanding of blockchain technology.
  2. Blockchain will become an intricate part of business processes and applications.
  3. We have or are currently working on an application of blockchain technology.
  4. We have a working blockchain application that we are commercializing.
  5. My company sees blockchain as the strategic next technology for the next 10 years.

For every question that you answered, yes, give yourself 20 points. I have applied a score across each section of Roger’s Diffusion Curve in my rather unscientific study.

If you scored under 60 points, I would like you to consider the “what ifs” of not first understanding blockchain technology and how it could play a significant role in your business.

Missed opportunities

History has taught us that even brilliant minds can miss out on significant shifts. To put this in perspective, here are three examples of how a leading company ignored emerging technological and business model changes and eventually lost their business as a result.

Telerate vs. Bloomberg

Before Bloomberg, there was Telerate. Founded in 1969,  the Telerate system was the dominant terminal for Fixed Income Securities in the world. Dow Jones & Company, Inc. initially purchased a 32% stake in 1985. Eventually, Dow Jones purchased the remaining shares, bringing their total investment to $2 billion.

Founded in 1981, Bloomberg’s terminals first started to appear in Merrill Lynch offices in 1985.

By 1998 Bloomberg had displaced Telerate. Dow Jones had to sell Telerate to Bridge Information Systems for $510 million, a loss of $1.4 billion!

What happened? How did Telerate lose their luster, their dominance, and market share to Bloomberg? Data analytics, back-office systems, and customer service were the differentiators.

Blockbuster vs. Netflix

Founded in 1985, Blockbuster, became the dominant player in the consumer movie rental business, only to be upended by Netflix just over a decade later. Netflix created a new business model by mailing discs versus Blockbuster brick-and-mortar stores. The Netflix business model provided selection, convenience, low price, and satisfaction.

But Netflix did not stop there. Instead of just shipping DVDs, Netflix created a streaming service that competed with linear television and every premium film channel. Netflix beat HBO in a business that HBO created. Now media brands are trying to claw their way back with branded streaming offerings, but this isn’t going to be easy to do.

Sears vs. Amazon

Last but not least is Sears, which published the Christmas wish book catalog, and iconic brands like Craftsman and Kenmore, only to be squashed by the e-commerce king, Amazon. While Amazon was building a seamless ecommerce platform, Sears remained anchored to brick and mortar. Consumers loved the convenience of shopping from home. So, Sears — along with any number of retail businesses that failed to evolve — fell by the wayside. 

Time and again, newcomers leverage new technology and business models to overtake the industry leaders. Blockchain is no different. If you aren’t already figuring out how it will transform your business, you are ripe for disruption by someone who is.

These days, blockchain is being used for Asset Management, Insurance Claims processing, Cross Border Payments, Smart Property, and the Internet of Things. This article from Sam Daley highlights 30 Blockchain applications across many industries. The developments he outlines are just the beginning.

Blockchain and the future of media

Clearly, media companies have fully embraced digital. However, they are overlooking the possibilities blockchain has to offer to improve many aspects of their businesses. Blockchain technology can be integrated into multiple areas but here are a few examples that should appeal directly to media executives:

Content delivery

Launched in 2019, Eluvio Content Fabric uses blockchain technology to enable content producers to manage and distribute premium video to consumers and business partners without content delivery networks. It provides low latency, high quality (4K) content distribution, content monetization, and just-in-time streaming. It’s already being used by MGM Studios and FOX Networks, so it’s time to consider new ways to deliver streaming content.

Smart contracts

Blockchain-based smart contracts are contracts can be partially or fully executed or enforced without human interaction. Smart contracts are digital and embedded with an if-this-then-that (IFTTT) code, which gives them self-execution. In real life, an intermediary ensures that all parties follow through on terms.

Mediachain uses smart contracts to get musicians the money they deserve. By entering into a decentralized, transparent contract, artists can agree to higher royalties and get paid fully and on time. Streaming giant Spotify acquired Mediachain in April 2017. Given the increasing complexity of multiplatform content distribution, media executives will want to take a closer look at this business opportunity.

Digital advertising

MadHive is a blockchain-based advertising and data solution for digital marketers. The platform tracks, stores, and generates reports on customer activity, saving all the data to a private blockchain. MadHive’s targeted audience reports and real-time data monitoring give advertisers’ insights into their customers without compromising data privacy.

Clearly, digital advertising remains one of the largest revenue streams for many media businesses. However, increased consumer concern (and regulations) around privacy point to a need for new strategies. Blockchain provides detailed and precise information and data points that media executives would be wise to explore.

Content creation

Steem is a social media platform backed by blockchain. Its “Proof-of-Brain” community uses tokens as incentives, encouraging people to create original content. The amount of tokens distributed is based on the number of upvotes each article receives. Steem has paid over $40 million in tokens to creators. Blockchain is providing new business models and content creation models like this and media executives cannot afford to ignore the possibilities.

Blockchain for better business

My recent book, “Transforming Scholarly Research with Blockchain Technologies and A.I.”, provides a slew of examples of how Blockchain is transforming a wide range of industries. Don’t be lulled into under-rating its potential to impact the media business because of the shadow of cryptocurrencies. Blockchain will open new networks, improve efficiencies that will reduce cost, increase accessibility, transparency, and effectiveness.

Media companies that adopt this technology will position their company and team members for extraordinary success.

About the author

Darrell, an experienced digital publishing executive, has been at the forefront of significant information industry initiatives, i.e., Factiva, ScienceDirect, Scopus, BiomedExperts.com, ReviewerFinder, Underline, and Ripeta. Gunter Media Group, Inc. has advised many CEOs from startups to the most prominent publishers.

He is the author of the edited volume, “Transforming Scholarly Research with Blockchain Technologies and A.I.” His other publications can be accessed via his ORCID profile.

He is a graduate of Seton Hall University’s W. Paul Stillman School of Business (B.S. Business Administration- Marketing) and Lake Forest Graduate School of Management (MBA).

Perspectives

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