From political races to red carpet award shows and global sports competitions, there are very few “franchises” that aren’t being stretched longer and longer to capitalize on the public’s interest. We find ourselves once again at the time of year when industry prognosticators offer their curated lists, social media hot takes, and opinion pieces in an attempt to memorialize the most important events of 2021 and to make predictions for 2022.
In tech and internet policy circles, this cycle seems ironic, given that forecasts are delivered daily – often several times a day, depending on the latest news cycles. But as we head into the final stretch of 2021, I have a few thoughts about how we need to avoid the distractions and stay focused on the one big change likely to occur in the new year.
Reality check
To start, I’ll set the table on what I am skeptical about focusing on as we move forward: anything “metaverse” or “creator economy.” And I’ve got some good reasons to hope that, as we head into a new year, we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past.
Amidst the current hype around virtual worlds, augmented reality has certainly emerged as a powerful tool. And it is entirely possible that virtual reality will have practical applications beyond gaming (and not akin to never-quite-there 3D TV).
However, I feel compelled to remind everyone how the pivot to video became an industry obsession. That massive shift was not because of consumer demand; it was driven by Mark Zuckerberg’s 2016 prediction that nearly everything on his kingmaker platform would be video within five years.
So much has happened in the ensuing five years, not the least of which has been a steady and escalating series of revelations of how utterly deceiving this particular CEO and his company have been. And, unsurprisingly (at least in retrospect), we learned that this prediction was at least partially built on a Facebook deception. And, while we can ask ourselves why we had so many years when Facebook said “jump” and publishers and marketers blindly responded, “how high?” – perhaps the most enduring and meaningful lessons are learned from mistakes.
Facebook is not alone in the self-serving prophecy business though. Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages also became an industry obsession, not because it was in the consumers’ best interests as Google claimed. Rather, it was simply a function of another industry-take-all-platform shaping the market to its liking. As we recently learned in unsealed antitrust allegations, it was a means for Google to bolster its advertising interests by slowing down competition.
Creative control
The hype cycle is also obsessed with the “creator economy.” There is an absolute flurry of innovation in providing platforms for individual creators. Though this isn’t entirely new. Google’s YouTube, for example, has both inspired and capitalized on it for ages. The same can be said more recently about TikTok.
Yes, it is very exciting to watch. However, these creator models are essentially comprised of typical vendor services: subscriptions, newsletters, distribution and, more recently, audio services. It’s not a coincidence that much of the investment and press hype—bordering on industry obsession—can be tied back to Facebook or its board of directors. Don’t forget that the company has its own Substack-like “creator platform,” Bulletin. Neither the hype nor the investment is surprising, though, given Facebook’s longstanding interest in disrupting media institutions.
What you should really be watching in 2022
The most important industry story of 2022 will continue to be the at-times dull, but critically important, accountability around antitrust and data policy. We can thank Facebook and Google for adding a sprinkle of excitement to these conversations through whistleblowers, code names (Project NERA, Bernanke, Jedi Blue, and Poirot to name a few) and improperly filed redactions. As an increasing number of privacy laws come into effect, regulators may want to consider more Star Wars-inspired naming conventions to spice things up a bit.
Names notwithstanding, we are going to see regulation continue to intensify next year. In the near term, Europe appears set to finalize two landmark regulations: the Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act. If these prevail, Europe will be first to have a purpose-built “gatekeeper” law for the 21st century.
The Digital Markets Act addresses the imbalance in negotiating power in a networked economy that results in both individuals and businesses lacking autonomy and choice, which harms the public at large. It recognizes that no individual publisher or consumer can truly opt-out of Google’s search engine that scrapes the entirety of our lives via the internet. Almost as impossible to avoid are Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, which connect people to communities. And then there’s the binary mobile and app store marketplace, delivered by Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android.
With this level of market power, publishers and consumers have little to no choice in negotiating rights to their data and consent with these powerful gatekeepers. The European approach mirrors the work of Australia’s competition and consumer protection regulator — and it looks like U.S. authorities are headed in the same direction. In a market dominated by superpowers, regulation follows to govern how that market power is used or abused.
The Digital Services Act will then modernize the rules for content liability and possibly how advertising can be targeted when based on surveillance capitalism by companies that, in many cases, consumers don’t even intend to interact with. The DSA and DMA have two main goals: First, to create a safer digital space in which the fundamental rights of all users of digital services are protected. And second, to establish a level playing field to foster innovation, growth, and competitiveness, both in the European Single Market and globally. Not many can argue against these goals, it’s only a matter of whether the legislation will achieve them.
Bringing it home
In the U.S., California’s CCPA is currently the strongest data protection law for digital advertising stateside, followed closely by Colorado’s new law. However, as state and federal laws are negotiated to carry the baton, all eyes and minds are on Europe. There is an acute concern about making sure to address market power and create a sustainable path for publishers going forward, one that isn’t determined for us by industry gatekeepers like Facebook, Google and Apple. This likely requires laws that directly integrate competition and data policy rather than developing rules in the same room as the industry titans, which has failed to result in anything fair if even legal.
So, as we look forward, let’s not repeat the mistakes of the past. When the dominant digital power players press their self-serving agendas, we do not have to buy in. We don’t have to follow their lead. We don’t have to amplify their messages. And for goodness’ sake, we do not need to pivot.
Instead, we should stand our ground, steady on the bedrock of consumer trust and responsible business practices. If 2021 showed us anything, it is that consumers value great content. It’s what we do. And we will continue to do it well. Nothing meta about that.
The world is estimated to produce about 175ZB of data by 2025. That’s a big number. It is also a big opportunity for brands and publishers looking to better understand and engage their consumers. But the sheer volume of this information in and of itself can be a barrier for organizations. Data is often collected in silos across organizations, leading to disparate tools to manage it and, as a result, inaccurate information.
Having the right data, technology and personnel can help businesses turn data into insights that drive business performance. The way to get there is with a data governance strategy. Simply put, data governance means being in control of the data you have. It ensures the data you collect is good, allows you to democratize it so it’s accessible by everyone who needs it and keeps you compliant as privacy legislation evolves.
For digital media executives in particular, the opportunity to unify and extract insights from rich data spanning subscriptions, ad revenue, content engagement and customer profiles can strengthen direct user relationships, which boosts loyalty and retention down the line. In addition, organizations that effectively implement data governance have the potential to save millions of dollars and enable equally valuable digital and analytics use cases. Here’s how you can ensure your data governance strategy leads to insights that drive this type of business performance.
Business first, data second
Data governance entails managing data so your organization has the business intelligence needed to meet its revenue targets and business goals. It might sound counterintuitive, but focusing data governance on the data itself rather than business needs can actually disintermediate you from this objective. It can also cut you off from the stakeholders you need to buy into the data governance program in the first place.
Instead, link data governance policies and procedures to business priorities and their corresponding KPIs. This way, you’ll engage in more meaningful discourse with the rest of the business and be seen as a contributor to overall company success by enabling insights to be harnessed. Align data governance metrics with overall business metrics — such as increasing digital subscription revenue — and tie them to stakeholders who can own their ongoing optimization and become champions of the program. These stakeholders can then use data governance to pinpoint analytics and data use cases that should be prioritized as measured by the value they can bring to the business.
Don’t go too big too soon
When you start on a path to data governance, it’s easy to want to explore all the data in your organization. But this type of ambitious approach often ends in scope creep. It also means you are not prioritizing which data sets and projects would most move the needle on overall business needs.
Instead, start with two or three areas of data (for example, transactional data and product data) that you can build a roadmap against to fully operationalize and measure performance. Then, within each, identify the most important data elements used for analytics, reporting or operations that should be monitored across the organization.
Share the data wealth
Data democratization makes data accessible to any and everyone who needs it within a business. To support this effort, you will need to inform all departments about all the data managed within the company: Where it’s located, how to access it, and its meaning, context, use case, quality and reliability. As a digital publisher, collaborating with the audience insights, editorial and development technology teams will be critical to evolving the full picture of your users.
But it doesn’t end there. How this data is being used across different teams and for new use cases is worth communicating across the organization to enable knowledge-sharing and innovation. Let the entire business become aware of how data is used to tell stories about solving key business challenges and exposing new opportunities. For publishers, this can help balance an overarching subscription strategy with editorial and advertising strategies to ensure all teams can work together to meet their goals.
Good data is the foundation of good decision-making. Organizations that fail to use a proper data governance strategy to drive insights will face an uphill battle to meet their business objectives. Those that instead pursue data governance in a way that maps to business goals, holds stakeholders accountable and enables true collaboration and knowledge-sharing will be on their way to building a truly data-driven organization.
The cannabis industry is currently the fifth largest and fastest-growing consumer industry in the U.S. More than 200 million Americans – about 70% of the population – now live in states with legalized medical or recreational cannabis use. However, despite medical and recreational use likely being the two things that most readily come to mind when mentioning cannabis, the industry encompasses so much more. Expanding legal access has resulted in record levels of investment capital pouring into the industry. And all this investment leads to product growth. The first half of 2021 alone saw $7.9 billion invested in cannabis deals according to New Frontier Data.
Consumer perceptions around cannabis are shifting. These days, it is found in everything from beauty products to machinery lubricants. In addition, larger brands are beginning to experiment by incorporating CBD and hemp into their products. Recently, PepsiCo in Germany made their first foray into the category with the launch of their Rockstar Energy+Hemp beverage (which does not contain any THC). Some additional examples include Unilever subsidiary brand Schmidt’s Naturals, which sells a line of hemp-oil deodorants and Colgate-Palmolive’s recent acquisition of Hello Products, which offers a CBD oral care collection.
As more mainstream brands test the waters, it’s likely that shifts in advertising spend will follow. In fact, advertising spend is already growing in the category. In 2019, Kantar reported cannabis advertisers spent $370 million on digital display ads. That’s an increase from $238 million the previous year. Brands and marketers are eager to expand their advertising presence beyond just the endemic sites. However, they are struggling to find platforms and partners willing to help them spend their budgets.
Lost in the weeds
Because cannabis advertising is still new and quite complex, it’s understandable to feel a bit confused by it all. The rapidly evolving regulatory landscape can pose potential risk, especially as each state has established their own set of laws and regulations. Ensuring an ad is run only in the state it was created for is often the first and largest concern when it comes to accepting cannabis ads. Add in the challenges of age gating and privacy compliance and things get tricky fast.
Running cannabis advertising on your sites may also present some reputational risk. It’s important to realistically consider the potential impact the decision may have on your brand. There’s always a chance that running these types of ads may deter other brands from working with you. Certainly, there’s still a lot of consumer education needed around cannabis, CBD, and hemp before the messaging becomes truly mainstream. This will take time. But soon enough, any digital publisher not accepting cannabis advertising will be in the minority.
Preparing as a publisher
If you’re not quite ready to accept cannabis advertising, begin by researching and building relationships with advertisers in the meantime. In this fast-growing market, it will be beneficial to stay informed on the latest category innovation and regulation. This way you will be able to more quickly and effectively craft a strategy that supports your revenue goals when the time is right for you to enter the category.
For those who wish to begin accepting cannabis advertising, identifying the right tech partner is an important first step. A provider who understands the nuances of the space and is willing to work with you is critical to navigating the sea of state laws which vary widely. The right programmatic partner can help you easily and confidently ensure that you meet compliance standards. They will also provide access to a unique stream of demand in order to get your share of revenue in this rapidly-growing market.
With the amount of marketing dollars at stake in cannabis, there’s no time to lose to make sure you’re prepared to embrace the revenue opportunity when it’s right for you.
The discussion and debate about measurement in online advertising is rife at the moment. However, one thing is clear: For too long viewability has been used to paint an incomplete picture of ad impact.
We’ve known for a while that viewability is an imperfect metric. And, while standards have improved, the next step in online measurement for brands has been overdue. Media agencies have been working on this problem for a while. They rightly seek to build more sophisticated models in order to spend their clients’ ad dollars within environments that are truly delivering value.
Though some studies have been done, dentsu international has just released one of the most comprehensive to date. Their Attention Economy research is the product of a three year study involving multiple media partners. The goal is to truly understand the drivers of attention and create a real metric for advertisers to use going forward.
What delivers attention
Critically, the study demonstrated that attention is three times better at predicting outcomes than viewability. They uncovered four key factors that deliver attention:
1. User choice
Forced ads gain more raw attention vs. ads that are easily ignored. However, when a consumer voluntarily views an ad, it results in a significant impact on brand lift metrics, whether they viewed for 2s or 20s. Formats that earned attention yield better, and much quicker, outcomes than outcomes than forced formats.
2. Creative
The importance of creativity on ad effectiveness has been well documented. However, it was important to measure its impact within their Attention Economy framework. The study showed that ads optimized for the Teads platform gained a 49% boost in attention vs the original. This is a result of optimizing TV ads for a mobile experience. These grab attention from the start through use of techniques such as contrast, addition of text, animation, or bold colors.
3. Relevance
The dentsu study showed that placing ads within relevant context for the reader gives an uplift of Attentive Seconds Per 1,000 of 13%. Recently, IAS conducted a study with Neuroinsights in the U.S. that demonstrated 23% more detailed memory and 27% more global memory for ads that were aligned with the contextual content, compared with those that were not. We have also observed superior branding impact for ads that are contextually aligned.
4. Time in view
Finally, viewability on its own isn’t enough. However, time in view has been confirmed as an important factor for attention by the study. Both video and display ads quantifiably benefit from quality, viewable time.
Good news
All of the above is fantastic news for publishers. The study clearly shows that premium publishers drive high engagement of users with quality content. and that induces a slow scroll speed. When this is tied in with in-article, outstream video ad formats, it delivers an average of 12.2s of time in view (even higher than instream) and twice the amount of attention compared to social media.
Ever since viewability became a priority, publishers have suffered. They’ve also been forced to include ad formats that provide sub-standard user experiences, purely because media buyers are focused on it as a metric. But the quantification of attention can shift this balance. Ad buyers will increasingly be able to focus on media plans that are based on attention and deliver clear business outcomes.
This will bring back to the center stage not the importance of the quality of the content. It also aligns ads within the context that they’ve been placed.
There are many factors of digital media that are changing for the better. Advertisers, agencies and media owners are all embracing an online ecosystem that’s free from third party cookies. They are aware of its impact on both society and the environment and focused on the quality of ad experiences, rather than the quantity. Attention can be a cornerstone of this new landscape, where a range of brand metrics can be more clearly attributed to certain campaigns.
This is where premium publishers can excel, showcasing greater value to brands than ever before and securing a greater portion of online ad revenue that is currently held in silicon valley. This can be done whilst simultaneously creating even greater trust with their engaged readership and therefore helping develop a truly sustainable media ecosystem.
Privacy is rewriting the rules of adtech, causing seismic shifts to the way media is bought and sold.
Over the past 10 years, digital advertising has run on personal data and identifiers that connect consumers across domains. Today, tightening privacy regulation and heightened consumer awareness about how their data is being used has triggered global changes. We already see the effect. The third-party data that fuels digital advertising is continuing to disappear. And Snap’s shares dropped by 25% because of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature in iOS 14.5, requiring consent from users to track them across apps and websites. It’s also reported that Snap, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are set to lose nearly $10bn due to ATT.
As privacy disrupts the way digital advertising has operated for years, we’re seeing two seismic shifts in the ecosystem. Firstly, there is a transfer of power in digital advertising towards first-party data owners. Secondly, there’s a move to processing data on-device. Digital advertising increasingly requires privacy at its core. Therefore, first-party data owners will need the infrastructure to control, connect and scale their data while planning and buying campaigns.
The shift to first-party data and on-device
Data that was once accessible by ad-tech is now deprecating because of privacy. Control of this data has returned to its rightful first-party owners. This includes publishers, advertisers, and other businesses that have first-party data.
First-party data owners are able to build businesses from their data because they have a direct relationship with their users. Publishers such as Penske, Insider, Future plc, and others are launching successful first-party data platforms and packaging up their consented audiences for advertisers. For example, Future’s first party-data platform, Aperture, has increased the addressable inventory sold to advertisers by 150%. And Insider sees 19 out of its top 20 advertisers using its first-party data platform SAGA, at a 95% renewal rate.
Advertisers are also bringing their first-party data to publishers to match and model audiences and businesses like Instacart, Doordash, Uber, and Amazon see tremendous advertising opportunities because they have first-party data.
First-party data is made useful by on-device technology, but not at the expense of people’s privacy. This is because on-device makes it possible for data processing to happen in real-time. And user data stays on the user’s device instead of being sent to the cloud. It’s the direction of travel for the industry, moving adtech from an era that leaks data to a privacy-first era that protects it. In fact, other tech companies such as Apple, Facebook, and Google have and are re-architecting their technology for on-device processing.
Rebuilding for privacy
We believe that privacy is a force for good in advertising, and on-device is the future of digital advertising. However, we need to rebuild and provide first-party data owners with the necessary tools to scale.
For advertisers, the supply paths can be inefficient today because they need to build it publisher-by-publisher. Publishers also have no consistent way of making their data available to advertisers in a privacy-compliant and sustainable way. To seize the opportunities ahead of them, first-party data owners require a privacy-first infrastructure for digital advertising to be immune to any dramatic regulatory or browser-level changes,
This infrastructure will help publishers and advertisers to connect safely. It’s a way for personalized advertising to continue for first-party data owners, a place where digital advertising can continue to thrive — without the data leakage we see happening today.
Building on a privacy-first infrastructure is a long-term, sustainable strategy for publishers, advertisers and other first-party data owners. It will bring much-needed transparency, scale and privacy to digital advertising. It’s no longer the time for band-aid solutions to the impact of privacy on digital advertising. Any solution that isn’t grounded in privacy won’t stand up to oncoming regulatory, browser changes, and consumer scrutiny.
About the author
Joe Root is co-founder and CEO of Permutive. Following a BEng Computing at Imperial College and MSc Computer Sciences at Oxford, Joe started Permutive with his co-founder, Tim Spratt, joining Y Combinator in 2014.
The classics are so well-known they’ve become punchlines: acai berry treatments, one simple trick to get rid of belly fat, get rich working from home. Newer scam ad verticals like bitcoin and crypto schemes, home solar energy savings, and nutritional supplements for diabetes sufferers are slamming consumers on every corner of the Internet.
And yet scam and deceptive advertising is simply accepted as an ugly part of digital media and advertising. And it’s only getting uglier. Since the beginning of 2021, The Media Trust has detected a 50% increase in scam campaigns hitting publisher properties. Still, too many AdTech companies and publishers look the other way as the scams roll through the programmatic pipes, hoping their audiences have the good sense not to be bamboozled.
The Media Trust detected unique scam campaigns ramping upwards throughout 2021 with a major spike in July.
Unfortunately, there have been virtually no consequences for sites running scam ads. There’s the occasional massive fine, like when the Federal Trade Commission came down hard on Clickbooth for its acai berry barrage. However, for the most part, scammers advertise with impunity and AdTech and publishers become their accomplices.
However, consequences may be coming—and the fallout may be dire—judging by the developing online regulatory situation in the UK and increasing attention elsewhere.
The scope of online safety measures
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised to present the Online Safety Billbefore Christmas. The bill would require publishers, social networks, and many communication/messaging apps to deter, remove, and mitigate the spread of Illegal and harmful content—particularly when aimed at children. The bill threatens fines as high as £18 million or 10% of global revenue, and possible criminal sanctions.
Beyond content that sexually exploits children (which must be reported to law enforcement), the harmful content in question includes malicious trolling and racist abuse—with the added goal of “protect[ing] democracy,” presumably through stemming online disinformation. The UK Office of Communications (Ofcom) will enforce the proposed law, which will also give the regulatory agency the ability to completely block access to a site or platform.
However, advocates like famed British personal finance advisor Martin Lewis think the bill doesn’t go far enough. That’s because it’s laser-focused on user-generated content and doesn’t regulate online advertising—most notably scams. Lewis, whose likeness is often exploited in scam ads pushing bitcoin schemes, has been on a crusade against online scam ads for years, including forcing Facebook to settle for £3 million over a 2018 lawsuit regarding more than 1,000 scam ads featuring his appearance.
Drowning in scam ads
The data backs up Lewis’ claim that the “The UK is facing an epidemic of scam adverts.” In 2020, 410,000 cases of fraud reported to the UK police represented a 31% jump from the year prior, according to consumer group Which?, with £2.3 billion fleeced. Including anxiety and psychological damage, Which? puts the actual total suffered by UK consumers at £9 billion.
And the greatest frustration among consumers and public advocacy groups is the lack of recourse and sense that scammers act with impunity—aided by AdTech and digital media. In another Which? report, 34% of consumers said a scam they reported to Google was not taken down, while 26% said the same of Facebook.
In 2020, The National Cyber Security Centre removed more than 730,000 websites hosting scam advertising landing pages featuring the likenesses of Lewis, Richard Branson, and other celebrities. Despite that effort, The Media Trust has seen a 22% increase in these types of scam (aka “Fizzcore”) content throughout 2021 that use similar landing pages.
Fizzcore attacks, which typically feature celebrities and hawk bitcoin scams, have grown 22% over 2021 despite crackdowns.
Fizzcore is more nefarious than other scams because it employs cloaking to hide malicious creative and/or landing pages from creative audits and other detection techniques. The vast majority of these have been pushing bitcoin investment scams, often with the same Lewis and Branson content.
Personal finance advisor Martin Lewis and billionaire philanthropist Richard Branson are common faces in scam ads directed at UK citizens.
Even if online scam advertising fails to make the final Online Safety Bill, a reckoning for scam ads could come in other forms. The UK’s Department for Digital, Media, Culture and Sport (DMCS) is developing the Online Advertising Programme (OAP), a framework that enables regulators to address potential consumer harms from digital advertising, including scam ads.
And just to pile on, UK. Home Secretary Priti Patel announced a relaunched Joint Fraud Taskforce on Oct. 21. Addressing the significant rise in scams during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, the taskforce will focus on addressing scams and fraud through private-public partnerships and refurbishing of government reporting tools.
Fallout beyond the British Isles
The ramifications of all this regulatory (buildup) ought to make the industry anxious. The Online Safety Bill would put heavy new burdens on publishers and social media in moderating user content in the UK, but the inclusion of scam ads might directly affect revenue. In the absolute worst-case scenario, publishers would need to vet all specific advertisers running on their sites as well as be familiar with all creative to avoid liability. That could mean many risk-averse publishers shut off programmatic advertising.
Scam advertisers are notoriously hard to pinpoint. They use any and every buying platform available, and then tools like cloaking in code to hide their malicious motives. When it comes to rooting out scam campaigns, the proof isn’t completely in the ad code. While creative and domain patterns can be identified and blocklisted, finding scammers also requires investigation into the elusive end-advertisers, their motives, and their histories. It’s not impossible, but it requires dedicated teams always on the pursuit.
Beyond stopping scammers cold at the source, the next best way to stem proliferation of scam ads is to bring culpability to publishers and their AdTech partners. However, publishers are the low-hanging fruit. The website was where the consumer was attacked, so they’ll always be the prime regulatory target.
Despite the intense pressure in the U,K., regulators in other countries are also most definitely paying attention and looking for a potential roadmap. In the U.S., reform of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act—which shields online media companies from legal liability regarding user-generated content—appeals to both major political parties. Really, what politician would say no to the easy win of protecting consumers from online scams? According to the Federal Trade Commission, consumers lost $3.3 billion to fraud in 2020, up from $1.8 billion in 2019—and that’s only the 2.2 million reports filed.
Self-regulation to the rescue?
The IAB UK is conversing with the DMCS on the OAP, but ultimately the trade group believes industry self-regulation is the answer. While self-regulation on the data privacy front became a mockery of itself, self-regulation of scam ads doesn’t need to meet the same fate. First off, trade groups like the IAB need to establish stronger ad quality guidelines that offer standards for handling malvertising, scam, and other harmful ads.
In addition—or short of that—publishers need to take control of their own destinies regarding scam ads. Every ad quality provider should be identifying scam ads and enabling publishers to block them. Slapping down redirects simply isn’t enough for a bad-ad-blocker—a publisher serving scam ads is violating the trust of its audience and leaving consumers vulnerable.
Not only is blocking the scam ads the right thing for publishers to do, it is a way to get ahead of—or perhaps helping avoid—a regulatory onslaught that will have catastrophic revenue consequences. Failing to mitigate will come back to haunt the industry.
Search is a topic media companies often overlook. Most of us associate the word search with search engines like Google/Bing/DuckDuckGo. These organic channels are often how visitors (and at times internal team members), will search a content catalog. But it’s time to give some serious thought to your internal, on-page search.
There are many reasons to optimize internal search such as:
The way in which it reveals clear ROI as it complements social media and external search.
The way that it helps clarify user intent, which informs you about navigational issues and content needs.
How it allows you to reveal the depth of your catalog by exposing visitors to more content
The fact that optimized search empowers visitors to find solutions to their problems, meaning they are happier overall.
It empowers journalists to discover content on your owned channels as opposed to external ones.
The good news is that creating optimized site search may be easier than you think.
7 tips to achieve a best-in-class search and discovery experience
Tip 1 : Know your user’s intent
Your goal may be for users to consume content. However, before building the ideal path to that content, you must clarify their intent:
Are they looking to find a specific piece of content e.g. “yesterday’s premier league score”?
Are they researching a specific topic or theme e.g “eco-friendly lifestyle”?
Or are they looking for inspiration? Catching up on news?
Each user’s intent(s) are solved with different discovery patterns: search, guided discovery, or recommendations. It’s critical that you identify what your specific user’s intent and motivations are. Make sure that you spend time mapping this out, to then serve each user individually.
Tip 2 : Audit your content catalog
How many long-lasting pieces of content do you have vs. short lived items?
Among your live pieces of content, what percentage of content is actually being consumed today?
Are there opportunities to expose more content, perhaps resurfacing historical archives or adding in new partner content?
These types of questions will help you to define priorities for your discovery strategy.
On top of that, the quality of your metadata (date of publication, theme, topic, etc.) is crucial to ensure a good user experience. Be clear on the attributes that will determine how your content ranks when queried. Think about what uniquely differentiates your content catalog such as freshness, particular niches, short or snappy content, exclusivity, etc.
Tip 3: Identify your priorities, KPIs, and North Star metric
In order to build a great search and discovery experience, you need to be clear on your priorities and key metrics. Perhaps that’s to increase time spent, increasing engagement to support an ads-based model. Or it might be to increase premium subscriptions.
It’s not uncommon for media companies to run on several business models: ad-based, subscription-based, and even ecommerce. Also, priorities, goals, and primary metrics may shift and change over time. Common video industry on-demand models include AVOD (advertising-based video on-demand), SVOD (subscription video-on-demand), and TVOD (transactional video on-demand). Identifying your primary model(s) and goal(s) is critical to building great user experiences to achieve those goals.
To achieve your goals, consider:
engagement and discovery patterns like related content recommendations, or topic refinement with suggested tags.
building content discovery widgets that provide a glimpse of your content catalog from third-parties and partner websites.
personalized recommendations and other ways to engage loyal subscribers. Help them discover new content and gain more value from your platform.
Tip 4 : Build your discovery map
After identifying your goals and core metrics, you should then build a discovery map that reflects your objectives and specific needs. Here is a template and example to use.
On the X axis: describe your different content types: Fresh news and short reads, Reports and long-form, archives, niche content, etc.
On the Y axis : your various user’s or persona’s intents
In each content type box of this matrix, you then describe a “Discovery scenario”. For example, what is the preferable touchpoint (e.g “Search box” or “Discovery tab” or “Home Page”), or what is the most important ranking criteria for your content (e.g. “date of publication” and “topic”), and/or what is the CTA that compliments your North Star metric (e.g “read another article” or “sign in”)
Tip 5 : Evaluate your existing search and discovery
Next, audit your existing setup. Starting by evaluating your various discovery scenarios and note their pros and cons.
Below are examples of other items to evaluate throughout your audit. How do you manage:
typos? Ex: “I want to watch lalalnd”
broad queries? Ex: “I want to watch romantic comedies”?
natural language queries? Ex: “I want to watch Rom Coms”?
There are many more. Remember: The better you analyze your existing search & discovery shortcomings and opportunities, the better you can move faster on optimizing them.
Tip 6 : Find the right balance between AI-led and human-led curation
Curation strategies vary a lot across the media industry. While publishers often rely heavily on editorial teams, video platforms are often algorithmically curated. There is no right or wrong way to do this; finding your balance is key.
AI, for example, can be a way to surface what you have outlined in your content discovery map. Among the discovery scenarios that you have considered, think about how AI can help augment your team’s work. It can bridge gaps or free up editorial time. Finding this balance allows for increased efficiency and a focus on quality.
There are many different ways to leverage AI, here are a few. It can:
entirely power content blocks or rows leveraging various recommendation models
be used on top of manually curated blocks to dynamically reorder content, depending on their popularity
shorten the path to content by leveraging intent detection, and displaying personalized suggestions of content or categories
Tip 7 : Select the right solution for you
After following the tips outlined throughout this, you will be in a better position to select the right solution for your business and team. Your implementation may consist of building your own search and recommendation engine. It might consist of building from external platforms that are made for developers. Or perhaps you’ll buy off-the-shelf solutions.
In making these decisions, here are a few more considerations that are important at that stage.
Think through your unique requirements in terms of short- and long-term scalability. Not all solutions are equal in terms of a geographical footprint, expansion, and the ability to manage audience peaks, for example.
Similarly, understand your team’s unique situation when looking at how architectures and services selected will be built and maintained. If building things out in-house looks to be your best decision, consider what it takes to maintain, scale, and handle regular change requests and develop features and iterations.
Think about the future of discovery: What you have defined today in regards to your discovery map will likely evolve and change as quickly as consumer’s behaviors do. Consider a solution that will be future-proof, enabling you to consistently offer the most enjoyable and rewarding experience for your customers (and teams).
Our hope is that these tips will help you create the most optimized experiences for both your customers and your teams. Best of luck in planning, auditing, and creating your unique search and discovery experience. It’s worth it because effective search and discovery will help engage your site visitors and convert them into fans for the long-term.
Media disruption has become a fact of life in the digital age. Media disruption is a fact of life in the digital age.ons become more diverse, new channels are emerging more rapidly than most media companies can respond.
This pace places an extreme burden on media companies. They don’t want to throw money at every novel channel in our here-today, gone-tomorrow culture because they can ill afford to waste time and resources. Nor can they afford to overlook the next big trend and risk irrelevancy.
When an ad-supported model drove revenue, companies could risk complacency. With the depreciation of the cookie, there is a growing need to move fast to attract attention and leverage first-party data to drive engagement.
New channels, new strategies
Media companies and publishers have re-adjusted their revenue strategies to focus on subscriptions as per-page revenue from advertising has dropped. In a recent interview, New Yorker editor David Remnick noted that advertising sales in their print magazine largely subsidized the content in the magazine for most of its life. Now, digital and print subscriptions pay for the newest Borowitz Report.
Can a successful subscription service be enough for a media company to thrive in the years ahead? For the New Yorker and loyal reader base, the answer is likely yes. For many others, survival means embracing a truly omnichannel strategy that distributes content everywhere that content can be consumed.
The New York Times went through a tumultuous transition a decade ago as it dealt with substantial drops in print readership and revenue. Yes, they have done well with digital subscriptions. However, the Times has also developed a plethora of content products, built for the changing habits of their audience.
The Daily, a long form audio content for the passive Times’ listener, is an excellent example. It demonstrates how companies like The New York Times provide a range of content formats that meet the broad expectations of today’s audiences. Products like these also access emerging digital engagement channels, which offer new revenue streams and drive subscriptions.
New revenue: ecommerce and events
The definition of media is continually evolving. ESPN and Barstool Sports are content companies that also support new endemic opportunities such as sports-betting. Synergies like these not only create new revenue streams but drive ongoing multi-channel engagement. You don’t just read about or watch the game, you participate in the game along with your favorite content brand.
Ecommerce is also becoming a way to leverage brand recognition and build stronger relationships with consumers by supplementing information with a physical product. It may not be a surprise that HGTV sells doormats. But did you know that Barstool Sports now sells One Bite frozen pizza?
Media company events are nothing new. However, they are becoming an ever more common way to drive revenue, engagement and brand loyalty. ComplexCon, the event put on by Complex Networks, is an excellent example of meeting their Millennial and Gen Z audience how and where they want to engage. The New Yorker Festival just saw its second biggest revenue earnings ever in its new hybrid format.
True omnichannel lies ahead
What are some of the promising omnichannel opportunities going forward? As The New York Times has demonstrated, audio is proving to be quite popular. (As well as a bit of what’s old is new again). Given that audio is a fairly passive content channel, it can exist in the background without demanding focused attention from the consumer. In our multitasking culture, having the freedom to absorb ambient media while also exercising or mowing the lawn is highly valuable.
The once-taboo is now an opportunity for media companies looking to engage. As states begin to legalize online gambling and sports betting, there are opportunities to drive new branding and co-branding revenue streams, creating one of the most direct opportunities for the right media brands to surround and interact with the content. It is critical that companies keep their eye on changing trends and emerging opportunities that align with their brand and target audience.
The long game
Indeed, whatever activity a media company chooses to tap into, they must do it authentically and on-brand. The excellent podcast series on systemic racism Who We Are, created by Vox Media and Ben and Jerry’s, is an example of high-quality brand extension.
What direct revenue will these and other emerging markets create? That’s the billion dollar question. But it also misses the point. Creating a content ecosystem that authentically connects great content to your audience supports behavior that drives subscriptions and ultimately sustainable revenue. The key is being open to experimentation. And experimenting does not mean developing a TikTok strategy in 2022 to gain younger viewers.
Some (well, many) attempts will fail. However, those that succeed could become significant new revenue streams. The advent of 5G all but guarantees a turbocharged environment of innovative new channels for media companies to explore in the coming decade.
The future for media companies demands an omnichannel approach. While content is still king, customers now dictate how and where they will consume it. To win a battle fought on many fronts, media companies need to jump into the arena and embrace change. This means combining insight-driven experimentation with new emerging channels and technologies. That’s the kind of customer-centricity that will ensure content drives new revenue opportunities.
