Tags containing: "advertising"

Q&A: Michael Friedenberg, CEO IDG Communications Worldwide, on Ad Viewability

September 23, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Q: Is “Viewability” ready to be used as a measurement of ad performance?

A: IDG believes that viewability is a measure of ROI more than a measure of performance. Similar to the statements that IAB has made, performance is what happens after the impression is viewed and is measured by metrics like CTR and post click conversion. If publishers like IDG can report higher viewability, marketers should be more comfortable with that investment.

However, the issue of fraud continues to be quite relevant when discussing viewability. It is usually assumed that, if an ad is viewed, it is being viewed by a human. Non-human traffic—which includes bots, click farms and other networks—can account for 30% of a digital ad campaign. So, if we expect more dollars to continue to flow into the digital space, we will need to address this in a much more measured and standardized manner.

Q: How do you work to ensure that ads are viewable and to provide marketers with appropriate and accurate measures for the performance of their digital advertising?

A: With the launch of IDG’s CMS, Apollo, and the new designs of our websites (CIO.com, NetworkWorld.com), we address the viewability issue by lazy loading the ads, and as long as the user is scrolling the content, we continue to load additional ads at specific intervals. This not only achieves a higher viewability and engagement rate but also results in reduced page load time for a better user experience.

We have also partnered with an MRC-certified company (MOAT) to measure and report on the viewability of the ads. This tool also allows us to monitor user habits and dial in the loading and placement of ads to obtain the highest viewability possible. The industry doesn’t have the tools yet to ensure that every ad served for a particular customer are viewed, but we can do our best to make sure our ad units don’t trigger impressions when not viewed.

Q: Is achieving a standardized measure and method for viewability important?

A: Standard units of measure are still an issue in our space. Reporting platforms often use their own algorithms when they count, and discrepancies between systems are common and, in many cases, just accepted. This new metric (viewability) will experience the same challenges, but organizations like the IAB and MRC are trying to alleviate and solve this the best they can.

If we are held financially accountable for viewable impressions served, we need to ensure that buyers and sellers are all counting the same way. There is a lot of work to be done here when it comes to standardized expectations that the publishers, clients, agencies and governing bodies all agree upon. Ultimately, this is still a moving target, but IDG, via our new CMS and site redesigns, is proactively addressing the issue.

Michael Friedenberg is CEO of IDG Communications Worldwide, the subsidiary for IDG’s B2B and consumer media brands and events in 86 countries. He was promoted from CEO, IDG Communications U.S. to worldwide CEO in 2013.

Prior to Friedenberg’s latest promotion, he was CEO and President of IDG Enterprise, an IDG company that develops strategic media properties and peer advisory services for IT executives. Friedenberg joined IDG in 2005 as president and CEO of CXO Media following a series of management positions at UBM (formerly CMP Media) including Vice President and Publisher of InformationWeek and, later, Vice President and Group Publisher of the InformationWeek Media Network and Co-Founder of Optimize. As VP/Group Publisher, Friedenberg set the vision, strategy, and positioning of multiple brands across print, online, events, and research services.

Q&A: Jeff Burkett, Sr. Director Ad Innovation & Product Strategy The Washington Post, on Ad Viewability

Q&A: Justin Choi, CEO, Nativo on Ad Viewability

Perspectives | Revenue

Q&A: Jeff Burkett, Sr. Director Ad Innovation & Product Strategy The Washington Post, on Ad Viewability

September 9, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Q: Is Viewability ready to be used as a measurement of ad performance?

A: Viewability of ad impressions is going to become a major strategic advantage for premium digital publishers. Over the last 10 years, the long-tail of the internet has flooded the marketplace with billions of impressions that are never seen, dragging down the value of impressions on properties that have meaningful levels of reader engagement on both content and ads. However, this transition is going to be painful as the technologies for viewability use inconsistent methodologies, don’t work well in all ad serving environments and are subject to human error.

In preparation for transacting on viewable impressions, the first major hurdle pubs must get over is ensuring ‘measurability’. Many pubs have been focused on designing pages for viewabililty, which needs to be done, but if the technology used for transacting cannot measure an impression then it can never be viewable regardless of how optimal your design is. This involves getting your ad ops team looking closely at all of the major measurement vendors, running tests over and over again to ensure that your ad tags are set up properly to ensure maximum measurability. This way, you can limit the amount of wasted impressions and lost revenue as this becomes more of the norm.

There is still one major hole in the ecosystem around viewability and that is with view-through attribution. An impression may not be viewable, but it can still drop a ‘viewed’ cookie in the users’ browser. A marketer may not pay for an impression if it’s not viewed, but they are still giving credit for any conversions that result from those non-viewable impressions. Until this is fixed, low quality/high volume players will hold an advantage over premium publishers.

Q: How do you work to ensure that ads are viewable and to provide marketers with appropriate and accurate measures for the performance of their digital advertising?

A: Getting the maximum ‘in-view time’ for ads requires a deep understanding of exactly how readers use your site, which requires huge amounts of testing and data analysis. One good example of this we found is that above-the-fold does not mean highly viewable. Some readers are in the habit of scrolling down the page quickly, even before the page is fully loaded. Understanding where your readers engage with content and putting ads in close proximity to that is critical….and it’s not always common sense.

I don’t believe that viewability is a performance metric at all, but is rather just a huge step up from the old ‘served’ impression metric that we have used for years. However, a focus on increasing viewability will result in greater performance on the major engagement metrics like Universal Interaction Rate and Click Through that marketers value highly. It is this increased performance that will eventually lead to higher CPMs.

Q: Is achieving a standardized measure and method for viewability important?

A: A standardized measure and method for viewability has already been determined, the MRC has lifted its advisory and most importantly, the clients are demanding it from their agencies. There are still some technical hurdles to get over, but the framework is there and a quorum of vendor technologies has been accredited.

I would encourage publishers to start transacting on viewable now. Use this as an opportunity to work out any bugs in your ad stack and to locate where measurability is low. These learning can inform strategies and policies before the large flood of viewable transaction demands come in later this year.

Jeff Burkett is the Senior Director of Ad Innovation and Product Strategy at The Washington Post. He has worked in digital advertising since 2002 and is currently responsible for the Post’s overall digital monetization strategy, as well as the operations teams that support this large, complex business.

He works closely with editorial, marketing, sales and technology staff to leverage the full potential of WP’s audience, focusing on strategic initiatives that are well ahead of the curve. Under Jeff’s leadership, WP has executed successful ad strategies for native, social, video, mobile web, tablets, podcasting and other alternative platforms.

Jeff is currently focused on Viewability, Programmatic and methods for leveraging 1st party data to increase CPM’s.

Q&A: Justin Choi, CEO, Nativo on Ad Viewability

Q&A: Michael Friedenberg, CEO IDG Communications Worldwide, on Ad Viewability

Innovation | Revenue

About.com’s Data-driven Overhaul

September 4, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

About.com debuted a major redesign this week, which CRO Brian Colbert says was, “long overdue.” While the site holds the enviable number 15 spot on Comscore’s list of most trafficked websites, About.com had fallen behind on design, usability, social and the ability to effectively monetize its traffic. “And if you aren’t innovating,” says Colbert, “you are falling behind.”

One significant challenge in undertaking an overhaul is what has always been one of About.com’s strengths: its deep well of content. About.com boasts 3.5 million pieces of content covering about 1,000 topics. “We amassed so many assets over time and we couldn’t just flip the switch all at once, so we opted for a phased rollout.”

Starting with a redesigned homepage in July, then working through the most popular verticals, Colbert says they were able to evaluate what the users responded to and what was most effective from an advertising standpoint “We made tweaks and modifications based on our analysis as we went. So we feel pretty confident of our major release Tuesday, and we rolled out the final two channels Wednesday.”

User Experience and Relevant Content
What’s readily apparent is that the new site has a much more modern, visual sensibility. “The content was always good,” says Colbert, “but it wasn’t presented in the most elegant way. In fact, the user experience had become really dated.”

In terms of content, Colbart says About.com will continue to use “a lot of the strategy that has worked well for us in the past with our narrowly focused experts that run a wide gamut of topics.” However the new site reflects an increased emphasis on social sharing and on building topic-centric user destinations. Each vertical has its own dedicated general manager and a customized social strategy. In the near future, About.com’s GMs will be making a concerted effort to seek out “personalities in their verticals who will bring more credibility and panache.”

Though the vertical landing pages and article templates are very similar at launch, according to Colbert over time they will begin to look more distinct. “The Money section will include rate tables and stock tickers; each will feel like their endemic brethren,” he said. The objective is to become less reliant on search to drive the site’s traffic and to become a place that enthusiasts and information-seekers routinely rely on.

Data-driven Relevance
Another objective of this relaunch is increasing users’ time spent on About.com by serving its 85 million daily visitors relevant content once they’ve found their way to the site. “We are aggressively surfacing related content. Recirculation is a real focus for us.” This goal is underpinned by About.com’s increased emphasis on data analysis, which includes a three-person (and growing) data science team. Colbert says their efforts have yielded a new understanding of how users interact with About.com’s content. “We’ve developed a proprietary tool that helps us understand which articles are related to each other, even if they may not seem relevant at first.” For example, if you are “reading up on million dollar investments, you might also want to read an article on Cayman travel.”

This data focus will also help About.com better monetize its audience by offering advertisers a better context for their messages so that they can be included on areas of the site where one might not immediately think to look – essentially in-house behavioral targeting.

In addition, About.com is betting heavily on content marketing. “That term gets tossed around a lot these days, but to us it means enabling advertisers to surround their content with ours in a way that makes it all relevant. We are very well positioned to take advantage of native and do it right because the nature of our content lends itself to native.” Colbert cites a current native campaign on How to Train for a Long Hike by the Merrell shoe company that is running in the Hiking section. “They already have authenticity in the space so users feel the advertiser plays a positive role through content. Done right, native should feel additive to the user experience.”

And in 2015, look for a major video push from About.com. Colbert says they have a new studio and are actively producing a significant volume of “video that will enhance the user experience.” With the relaunch and future plans, Colbert says that user experience will not be measured by clicks alone. “We are judging the effectiveness and success of the redesign through engagement. We want people to visit more often, stick around longer and do more on the site.”

Perspectives

Evolving the Viewability Standard with Analytics

September 2, 2014 DCN

Back in October 1994, while we were at the movies watching Pulp Fiction and celebrating the illustrious career of Hall of Fame NY Giants’ Linebacker Lawrence Taylor, the very first “banner ad” was being served. The underlying client-server nature of that first transaction – browser request leading to ad server response – led to the inevitable: the widespread issue of discrepant impression counts.

Over the next decade, countless inefficient hours were spent dissecting log files and calculation methodologies in an effort to settle on a mutually acceptable final impress count for the purposes of measurement and billing.

Ten years later, the IAB published the Ad Impression Measurement Guidelines report, which clearly defined the “how and when” to determine valid impression counts. The definition reflected the first industry-wide move to establish a standard that emphasized proximity to an actual ad view as the trigger and basis for a valid impression count.

It should come as no surprise that it has taken another decade of maturity for the collective focus to shift to the next logical step: viewability .

The current viewability standard builds on the 2004 effort. The distinction between the two standards was brilliantly summarized by Yaakov Kimelfeld, chief research officer at Millward Brown Digital, as follows: “Until now the ad impression was, essentially, a mechanical event — the creative file being loaded on the Web page. The viewability standard transforms an impression into an opportunity to see event: something of inherent value to a brand, just as in traditional media.”

Most in the industry agree that viewability is a positive development. Even Rob Hof, Forbes contributor and tech writer, who described the standard as an “appallingly low standard,” in a Forbes piece on the topic, grudgingly admitted that it was a good first step although one that is “unlikely to be enough.”

The current viewability standard, while clearly nascent, serves an important purpose. It introduces a baseline criterion for and measure of accountability. At the end of the day, it is a means to a larger end: increased brand spend that better aligns with time spent online.

Viewability is not an all-encompassing, be-all-and-end-all metric, especially in the realm of digital video. The brand experience begins where viewability (as currently defined) ends. The good news is that with a strong analytics platform in place, brand marketers can capture and analyze, in great detail, the underlying dynamics of the consumer viewing experience throughout the entire duration of the video ad. This deeper view — beyond the viewability event — provides the insights that help uncover the true value, impact and cost of video placements.

It may well take another decade to reconcile the numerous challenges — both business and technical. As with the case of discrepant impression counts in the first decade of our industry, issues will inevitably surface as application and adoption of the new standard gains traction. For now, let’s ensure we don’t make perfect the enemy of good. After all, is there an adage that better reflects what is ultimately at stake in our quest for brand dollars than “out of sight, out of mind?”

As Managing Director of Tremor Video’s buy-side enterprise platform, Neeraj Kochar oversees sales, steers the marketing objectives, and anchors product development for the company’s VideoHub® DSP and analytics suite.

Prior to Tremor Video, Neeraj was the Managing Director of Programmatic at MAGNA GLOBAL, the strategic investment unit of IPG Mediabrands. In that role, he drove the development and application of programmatic buying to power smarter media buying and drive better client ROI. Previously, he served as Managing Director of Reprise, IPG¹s search specialist agency. Neeraj is a veteran of digital marketing and began his career in 1998 at online advertising pioneer DoubleClick. He has also held senior management positions at major agency holding companies, including WPP GroupM, Starcom MediaVest Group, and MDC Partners.

Perspectives

Q&A: Catherine Salazar, Managing Partner, Practice Lead MEC, on Targeting Millennials

August 27, 2014 Danielle Block, Director, Agency & Advertiser Relations - DCN

Q: How are you shaping advertising messages to get and hold attention of Millennials?

A: We’re taking a two-fold approach of using insights and media execution to shape the messages that will ideally get a hold of Millennials.

By partnering with our clients and creative partners we’ve been able to craft the right media mix from insights gathered in the pre-planning phases.

Secondly, in our media execution we’ve started “storytelling,” essentially using video sequencing. We have an arsenal of assets and short-form content that the creative agency has provided in the voice of Millennials, and the goal is to go back to our former days of storyboarding where we take Millennials on a journey. The journey begins with content that is subtle and leads with a mix of spots and short form content to strike the right balance of how we want consumers to experience the brand and campaign.

Q: How are you leveraging social media to communicate with Millennials and to provide CRM?

A: CRM is no longer about sending a customer emails to keep them engaged with the brand. Millennial CRM is about delivering engagement and giving them what they want, when they want it. The most relevant way for brands to do this is through platforms like Tumblr, Instagram and Twitter in visually compelling ways to carry a conversation in short or long form where preference is up to the user and not the brand. Moreover, we are using social media to be transparent. For a campaign like AT&T’s “It Can Wait,” we recognized the need to move away from scare tactics for this audience, and instead focused on engaging in authentic and honest dialogue on Tumblr. This enabled the brand to connect with Milliennials on an emotional level and makethem feel good about their decision not to text and drive.

For Millenials, a key aspect is trust. We are building trust by delivering programs like AT&T’s @SummerBreak which was a first of its kind entertainment experience; a mobile optimized, real-time, interactive reality show, connecting viewers to the teenage cast members across various social platforms. We supported this program via paid platforms and it spoke to the insight that non-linear content was becoming a key component of the media behavior of the target and that mobile was the primary platform for digital media usage.

Q: What is the number one takeaway to keep in mind when targeting Millennials?

A: Millennials are consuming media in all shapes and forms, but mobile and tablets have drastically changed the way they consume media. In the 80s and 90s the Gen X’ers had posters of their favorite brands on their walls, in 2014 the question becomes, how does a brand become that digital poster to a Millennial?

Catherine Salazar is Managing Partner and Digital Practice Lead at MEC on the AT&T business. With over 14 years of marketing, advertising, management and leadership experience, Catherine is currently focused on all digital media investment across display, video, mobile, search and social for AT&T’s General Market, Youth, International, Multicultural, LGBT and Sponsorship efforts.

Prior to MEC, Catherine worked and helped launch Microsoft’s Search platform in the U.S. and Canada. Catherine also worked in the display advertising space with Focint.com, Agency.com and JPMorgan Chase Credit Cards from 1999 through 2004 providing media strategy for Bookspan, British Airways, Brown & Co. and Chase Credit Cards. Catherine is a graduate of New York University.

Innovation | Revenue

Q&A: Samantha Minish, Director of Mobile Video Gannett Co., on Video Ad Innovation

August 14, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Q: To drive success in video advertising, what is the most important thing to consider:

A: Put the users first. If you build a product – and an ad experience – that puts the needs and habits of consumers first, then you will be able to maximize the overall impact. A majority of app consumption happens at home, often while also watching TV. Users are coming to our apps to escape the same old TV commercials, so we need to provide them an innovative ad experience that compliments the mobile mindset. Before you run an ad, the first question you should ask yourself is, “would I sit through this ad?”

Q: Describe one of your video advertising campaigns that you think is particularly innovative:

A: USAToday partnered with Dodge on a unique campaign that paired-up with movie trailers. We presented an interactive pre-roll that featured stars from upcoming movies, which allowed users to answer trivia questions about the Dodge Durango. Often publishers will talk of gamification of content to drive engagement. We have taken that concept, combined it with the idea of native advertising and created an experience that will encourage interaction with both the content and the advertisement in a seamless and social manner.

Q: What is working in video advertising and what do we need more of in order to drive success in this area?

A: I think the biggest step forward in video advertising, particularly in the mobile space, has been the adoption of Vine and Instagram by brands. Finally we’re starting to think outside of the traditional 30-second pre-roll box, and focusing on the wide array of platforms users now consume media through. An overwhelming majority of people use their tablets and phones while watching TV, and most are doing so during commercials. We cannot expect them to engage in our video content if they are forced to sit through the exact same ad that they are trying to escape.

Samantha is currently the director of mobile video for Gannett and its properties, including USAToday and over 100 local broadcast stations and local newspapers. She oversees both product and content strategy for the company’s mobile apps and mobile website. Samantha has worked on both the editorial and product side of the video and content business, with time at both AOL and The Weather Channel.

Also in this series:

Q&A: Aaron Broder, CEO & Co-Founder Evolve Media, on Video Ad Innovation

Q&A: Beth Lawrence, EVP Digital Sales, Scripps Networks Interactive, on Video Ad Innovation

Innovation | Revenue

Q&A: Aaron Broder, CEO & Co-Founder Evolve Media, on Video Ad Innovation

August 7, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Q: To drive success in video advertising, what is the most important thing to consider?

A: Distribution. Content will always remain king, but without a clear distribution strategy, you can spend weeks producing the perfect piece of video content that no one can find. You have to take the video straight to the most relevant audience by syndicating the content through editorials anchored on premium sites, written by key influencers and social platforms, and supported by custom in-banner executions. By taking this approach, your soon-to-be award-winning video will now stand a chance to reach viral success.

It is also essential to deliver the right ad in the right context. It is all about respecting the audience that is watching the video ad. By taking the video ad straight to the most relevant audience, the client will see a much higher general brand lift vs. a shotgun approach across thousands of random sites.

Q: Describe one of your recent video advertising campaigns that you think is particularly innovative:

A: Momtastic.com, a TotallyHer Media property, partnered with major automotive brand to launch ‘Talk Tech’. The custom section, promoting the brands new tech in-vehicle system, centered around a branded video series shot and produced by TotallyHer Media. The series featured a former TV Producer and Momtastic’s “tech mom,” Rita Mauceri, as she offered quick tips on how to improve daily routines by using the cars product. In addition to the custom section housing this content, these videos were distributed across the Momtastic network targeting mom blogs and content sites.

While most advertisers try to evoke an emotional response to drive virality, the TotallyHer Media team took a different approach with the auto brand. They produced content that is relevant, practical and informative, successfully positioning the brand in commonplace situations that moms face. In addition, the team focused on distribution, syndicating the content not only on Momtastic.com but also across relevant mom blogs. The result? Our audience was eager to not only watch the content, but to also share it within their social circles. That is ultimately the goal of every successful campaign.

Q: What do you think is working well in video advertising?

A: One of the most fascinating trends over the past year is the rise of online video. Agencies are starting to focus on developing video strategies, separate from their offline TV Spots, allowing brands to connect with a wider audience online. From Dove Real Beauty Sketches to Volvo Trucks “Live Test”, clients and agencies alike have really embraced this creative process resulting in advertising being organically consumed as content.

As a result of this shift, publishers play a larger role in producing the content for agencies/clients and launching social seeding. The key with any campaign is connecting with the right audience and this is what publishers bring to the table. While the web is moving towards an impersonal programmatic buying model, video-based advertising, especially long-form digital video, requires partnerships with publishers to ignite the conversation by placing the right content in front of their users, something no automated system can ever reproduce.

Aaron Broder is currently CEO of Evolve Media, LLC., which he co-founded with Brian Fitzgerald (originally as Gorilla Nation Media, LLC) in 2000. In 2004, Aaron and Brian developed a Web publishing business that specializes in vertical publishing for men and women with its two flagship publishers, CraveOnline Media and TotallyHer Media.

Note: This interview is part of our “Three on Three” series in which we ask three executives the same three questions to uncover actionable insights.

Also in this series:

Q&A: Beth Lawrence, EVP Digital Sales, Scripps Networks Interactive, on Video Ad Innovation

Perspectives | Revenue

How Programmatic Can Help Publishers Unlock New Revenue

July 30, 2014 DCN

Effective advertising is based on reaching the right audience. This was true in the 1950s. This was true in 1990s. Today, it is true more than ever.

At the advent of digital publishing, publisher content helped advertisers reach a particular audience. For example, a cooking website would be an appropriate site for a kitchenware maker to buy advertising; inventory on a financial website would suit a luxury watch brand. From an advertiser’s perspective, buying inventory this way was a slow, painstaking process. Orders had to be placed one-by-one, and performance metrics and audience insights were limited.

In the last few years, technology has evolved, changing how ads are purchased and how audiences are targeted. Programmatic media buying, which broadly describes ad buying with a computer interface, when combined with data lets advertisers reach their intended audience anywhere online, on any device.

With data science, ad technology companies can transform information on individual web behavior into a massive pool of audience profiles. Predictive technology and audience modeling allow for extremely accurate inferences about what users want to buy, where they consume media, and even what they are most likely to watch on TV.

For publishers, does the shift away from reaching audiences via relevant content threaten ad revenue? Does it lessen the value of sites that appeal to specific audiences? The answer to both questions is an emphatic “no.”

Publishers now have more options for ad revenue. By combining programmatic technology with their unique audience data, publishers can now sell audience relevant advertising beyond the constraints of the websites they own and operate. Publishers can monetize their audience profiles anywhere on the Internet, even on TV. This new capability is commonly referred to as audience extension.

Audience extension not only provides a new revenue stream, it can help solve business problems such as insufficient or excess ad inventory. By allowing for increased ad reach, audience extension also helps publishers better cater to their advertisers.

For example, a website dedicated to fitness is perfect for a new age healthy beverage ad. However, advertisers find that full coverage of a target market can’t happen through one web buy. A publisher that uses audience extension can help advertisers reach that audience wherever they consume media. The advertiser’s mission is more effectively and easily completed and the publisher has a new revenue stream, at little cost or risk.

One of the most significant challenges for top publishers is inventory scarcity. To meet demand, publishers are pushing editorial teams—writers, videographers and designers—to rapidly create great content. Typical solutions include: more ads on a page and increased refreshes, which often compromise user experience. Publishers that offer audience extension can sell inventory beyond the limitations of their own sites, increasing ad revenue, without reducing the quality of content and design.

Demand for audiences can even help publishers divest excess inventory. Brands want to reach their target, wherever they are. Thus ad-tech firms will chase that premium inventory, and include it in their ad network.

Regional publishers, whose advantage is coverage over a geographic market, also benefit. Nowadays, regional news publishers often have less local coverage digitally than they did in the days of print dominance. Audience extension not only solves that problem, it offers a better alternative. For example, through an ad buy with a local publisher, an automobile brand can blanket a geographic zone while targeting users currently shopping for cars. The business goals of both publishers and advertisers are improved.

Economic growth is based on innovations that increase efficiency and open new markets. Programmatic audience extension is this type of advance. It streamlines ad buying, minimizes costs and generates new revenue. It can help publishers prosper, but most importantly, it allows them to better serve their advertising clients.

As SVP of Channel Sales, Joe Gallagher spearheads Collective’s indirect business with an emphasis on developing new channel partners for the company’s full suite of digital solutions. His audience includes digital publishers and media companies that desire to expand their digital offerings with Collective’s audience reach and multi-screen solutions. Gallagher brings 15 years of digital sales and management experience, with senior executive positions at Firefly Video, Exponential, BBE, The Wall Street Journal and Real Media, under his belt. He is also a founding member of 212, New York’s Interactive Advertising Association.

Revenue | Video

Q&A: Beth Lawrence, EVP Digital Sales, Scripps Networks Interactive, on Video Ad Innovation

July 23, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Q: To drive success in video advertising, what are the most important things to consider?

A: A successful video business can be driven from two metrics: The first is that quality content matters. High quality production delivered in a well-lit environment is what marketers are looking for.

The second is scale. When clients look to extend TV reach, it’s important that enough users can engage with the message. It’s one of the reasons Scripps Networks Interactive launched a premium lifestyle video portal and distributed network last year called uLive. Comprised of both full-episode play and short-form programming from the Scripps Networks library along with original video, it’s a way to distribute our content—coupled with the ad message—so the viewer can “discover” vs. being sent to a particular destination only.

Q: Describe a video advertising campaign that you think is particularly innovative or effective:

A: I really like what we did with the video content we created for Buitoni for Food Network Star. This content included the on-air in-show integration of Buitoni and the custom on-air short form that ran as Buitoni’s TV commercial, as well as its digital pre-roll and VOD offering. Additionally, it contains an excerpt from the Star Salvation webisode series with Robert Irvine that ran on FoodNetwork.com, Food Network VOD and on Food Network’s YouTube channel. Star Salvation offers contestants the chance to “come back to life” after earlier elimination from Food Network Star on TV. I like this example because it is fun, it’s engaging and it provides a web-only solution for these previously eliminated contestants to jump back into the Food Network Star mix, integrated seamlessly with the sponsor’s brand.

Q: What is working in video advertising and what do we need more of in order to drive success in this area?

A: Consumers are demanding great quality video on any device at any time of day. So for Scripps Networks, that’s a beautiful thing and we love the audience wherever we find them. Come on, you can never get enough of HGTV’s Property Brothers! As an industry, we need to be able to answer reach and other needs that arise so that video buying can be seamless like it is in the television business.

Also, I think we’re ripe for ad product innovation in video. We shouldn’t just assume that standard TV ads must travel to digital video and that’s the end of the conversation. With social media tie-ins like Twitter Amplify and second screen solutions that drive the viewer deeper into the content online from TV, the sight, sound and motion experience only gets better.

Beth Lawrence serves as executive vice president of digital sales for Scripps Networks Interactive. In this role, she is responsible for growing revenue streams for Scripps’ portfolio of lifestyle media brands – HGTV, DIY Network, Food Network, Cooking Channel, Travel Channel and Great American Country – and their respective websites, as well as uLive, Scripps’ premium lifestyle video portal and distribution network. Lawrence also guides the company’s ad sales efforts relating to its mobile, broadband and video-on-demand offerings. In a stellar career with notable media companies including The Weather Channel, Yahoo! and DoubleClick, Beth has proven to be an outstanding leader with strong industry relationships.

Note: This interview is part of our “Three on Three” series in which we ask three executives the same three questions to uncover actionable insights.

Also in this series:

Q&A: Aaron Broder, CEO & Co-Founder Evolve Media, on Video Ad Innovation

Innovation | Perspectives

Content All Stars: Making the Most of the Media/Marketer Partnership

July 17, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

The most successful brands and media companies have one big thing in common: They know their customers and treasure the on-going relationship they have with them. They also both understand the power of content to connect with customers and offer them genuine value by engaging their passions, interests and concerns. Without doubt, the best content experiences arise when media and marketing teams work together to share knowledge about their audiences, insights about what’s worked and what hasn’t and are clear about goals and what’s achievable.

Recognizing the power of media and marketing teams is what we’re doing at our first ever Content All Stars event, which will be held in NYC’s Conrad Hotel September 18th. We are bringing together the best and the brightest from brands such as Red Bull, IBM and Goldman Sachs who will join media brands that include ESPN, Comedy Central, Vox Meda and The New York Times to explore this dynamic relationship by highlighting campaigns and partnerships that have pushed creativity and technologies, showcase novel perspectives from people outside our industry and tackle some current issues around trust and transparency that our industry is grappling with. Some of what we’ll cover:

Content and Customer Conversations

One-way messaging is so last-century. Today, content is a conversation with consumers and has the power to create meaningful and lasting connections. At Content All Stars, you’ll hear from Ann Rubin, VP of Branded Content and Global Creative, about how IBM transformed its ad campaigns into a collaboration with customers and truly transformed its marketing.

Data Drives Insights and Action

Data: Everybody’s doing it. But there are few who can elegantly illustrate how first-party data can actually move product off the shelves. Content All Stars features two of the smartest people in data—Vikram Somaya, GM of Weather FX and Bib Ivins, Chief Data officer of Mindshare—who will discuss their collaboration on turning customer insights into tangible marketing success.

Engaging Audiences: Essential, but not Easy

Attracting audiences is a challenge that media companies have faced since the Gutenberg press. Now that the digital media world is moving past a pure numbers game and wants not only audiences at scale, but truly-engaged audiences, it has never been more important. At Content All Stars, Bloomberg, ESPN and Refinery29 will reveal how they are not only attracting audiences, but interacting with them to create valuable audience-engagement.

Social Strategies that Deliver

Social Media has just got to be more than a mad scramble for friends and followers. At Content All Stars we’ll hear from Allison Kingsley, the VP of Digital Development at Comedy Central about how she takes a strategically social approach. And Channel Flip Media’s Managing Director Clare Tavernier will discuss how she factors social into her engagement strategy to drive quantifiable results.

… And we aren’t done lining up speakers yet. If you have a suggestion, email Michelle Manafy. Learn more about our keynotes or request an invitation. Check back for program updates.

We look forward to seeing you at Content All Stars!

Research

Mobile Moves Digital Spending, eMarketer Reports

July 3, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

US industries will collectively spend upwards of $50 billion on digital advertising in 2014 according to eMarketer’s 2014 Digital Ad Spending Benchmarks by Industry report. While direct-response still captures the largest amount in the overall spending—$29.61 billion versus the $20.5 billion predicated to be spent on branding this year—both segments are growing at approximately the same rate. eMarketer also finds that, “As marketers get better at measurement and attribution, the lines between direct-response spending and branding are blurring more than ever.”

It is important to note that the larger trend numbers don’t tell the whole story. While eMarketer finds double-digit gains across virtually all industries since 2009, they say that more important data is among the “subtrends within individual industries.” In particular, evolving mobile behavior is impacting spending trends. To reflect this significant industry condition, this year eMarketer includes its first estimates of mobile v. desktop spending on an industry-by-industry basis.

eMarketer predicts that the US retail industry’s advertising spending on paid digital media will reach $11.05 billion in 2014 and rise to $17.39 billion by 2018 and it continues to be the single largest-spending industry by a wide margin. However that spending is largely concentrated in direct-response advertising. Among the factors driving retail’s use of digital media is consumers’ use of mobile devices throughout the shopping process.

The travel industry also skews heavily to direct response, devoting a larger share of its overall budget to performance advertising than any other industry covered in eMarketer’s report (74% of its $4.15 billion spend). However eMarketer foresees a possible shift increase in mobile spending from this segment as consumers shift to mobile travel booking and marketers experiment with advertising that taps into this trend as well as last minute purchases.

More than one-third (35%) of US automotive-related digital ad spending will be on mobile this year, eMarketer predicts, accounting for $2.15 billion of the $6.15 billion total. This will put the auto industry in line with the US industry average when it comes to mobile’s share of digital ad spending. In the automotive sector, mobile-based branding and upper-funnel advertising efforts are increasing in response to evolving consumer research behavior—which has shifted to mobile. eMarketer suggests that brands “must remain well-considered and top of mind among consumers who are not yet in-market in order to win a place on their shopping lists once they are.”

Mirroring increased consumer usage of a wide range of financial activities via mobile devices—including banking, buying securities and managing funds—the financial industry is increasingly viewing mobile as an attractive advertising platform. In addition to mobile, this sector is likely to increase its usage of digital video, social media and sponsored content. At present, 62% of the financial industry’s digital spend is being used for direct response and 38% is used for branding.

Somewhat stronger in the branding area is the US healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, which will spend $1.41 billion on paid digital media in 2014, including $373 million on mobile ad formats. This segment will invest 44% of its digital spend in branding-focused campaigns. An interesting growth segment among pharma and healthcare is the use of digital media to target small, specific audiences for expensive specialty drugs that treat less-common ailments.

The segment focusing the largest percentage of its digital spend on branding is CPG and Consumer products with the lion’s share of its ad budgets going towards TV. The CPG and consumer products industry, in which a mere 8.4% of total spending is done via digital channels, focuses a hefty 65% of their $4.2 billion digital budget on branding efforts. The good news is that the digital ad spend is growing and eMarketer predicts that some of the largest budget increases, by percentage, will be in digital video, as brands transfer linear TV efforts to online and mobile, where they are starting to find effective ways to measure campaign success.

The full 2014 Digital Ad Spending Benchmarks by Industry report is available only to eMarketer’s corporate subscribers, though an executive summary can be downloaded here. The full report covers Automotive, Computing Products & Consumer Electronics, Consumer Products, Financial Services, Media & Entertainment, Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare, Retail, Telecom and Travel.

Research | Revenue

Ad spending is up. It is also all over the place: The Cross-Platform Advertising Opportunity

May 16, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Recent research from ZenithOptimedia predicts that the global advertising spend will increase its growth from 3.9% in 2013 to 5.5% in 2014—reaching $537 billion by the end of the year—and then rise 5.8% in 2015 and 6.1% in 2015. And while these are promising signs of growth, the opportunity is spread across ever-more devices, with mobile growing six times faster than the internet and online video advertising growing 23% a year according to the Zenith report.

In fact, comScore’s latest research found that, as of December 2013, U.S. digital media consumers constitute the “multi-platform majority. And, as digital platforms continue to emerge, media fragmentation will only accelerate, creating the defining marketing challenge of this era.”

So the top line is that advertising has returned to pre-recession spend levels. Delivering value to the bottom line, however, relies on a cross-platform ecosystem that requires a strategic approach in order to extract the maximum value of today’s marketing spend.

Interestingly, Rachelle Considine, President Future US finds that changing the mindset of advertisers remains a hurdle in creating truly cross-platform advertising initiatives. “Our users have migrated cross-platform and expect to have a seamless experience. However the advertiser does not always see the same value of an impression across platforms.”

Other challenges brought on by cross-platform consumption are organizational. At Fox News, Chief Digital Officer Jeff Misenti says that, “as audiences become more mobile, marketers are beginning to acknowledge the need for cross-platform buys.” Misenti finds that coordinating all of the parties involved in cross-platform initiatives is difficult, and he emphasizes that everyone—from sales team to production, programming, client agencies and more—must all “fuse together seamlessly in order to reach a shared goal.”

Certainly, a shared goal across media and marketing organizations is a desire for accurate cross-platform measurement. It is one that ESPN’s Project Blue Print, NBCU’s Total Audience Measurement Index (TAMI) and Nielsen’s Cross Platform Campaign Rating are all trying to tackle. But to date, a single standard has not yet emerged.

Among those investing in solving for this essential issue is Everyday Health, Inc., which leverages its subscriber log-in as a way to target content and ad experiences across a wide range of devices. According to the company’s Chief Data Officer, Greg Jackson, the company has invested “well over $100 million to aggregate and engage our registered audience with personalized content and marketing because relevancy matters.” The targeting algorithm “learns” through user feedback and behavior in order to deliver more relevant information and marketing campaigns.

“It’s our responsibility to know our audience, provide engaging solutions across devices, and then optimize delivery based on the real behavior impact each is having,” says Jackson. And to achieve this, he emphasizes the need for a solution-oriented sales team that is not “constrained by channel silos.” Considine echoes this, saying that one of the first things they did when she joined Future in 2009 was combine sales teams so that everyone became responsible for selling across all platforms. “We sell audience,” she says. “With the cross-platform, cross-brand approach, we can give advertisers a larger total reach or allow them to go after a specific audience.”

And, as Jackson sums it up, “We believe that every digital campaign is a cross-platform campaign regardless of whether it’s intended or not. Users will access content whenever, wherever and on whatever device they want. It is our job as digital publishers and marketers to migrate our messaging across these platforms.”

Three tips for cross-platform ad success:

Understand your audience and how your different segments consume content on your various platforms. While there is industry research that provides a general picture of content consumption trends, demonstrating a customer’s-eye view of behavior elevates the discussions your sales team can have with marketers and illustrates the unique opportunities you can build for them to reach their targets through your content.
Integrate your sales teams, in spirit, if not literally. A culture of collaboration goes a long way here and truly integrated teams that understand the full value chain will offer the best chance of success.
Invest in improving measurement. Be it through an industry organization, partnership with an established measurement firm or by creating your own solution, cross-platform measurement is critical for sales success.