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Industry-Research | Revenue

Understand consumer expectations in the ecommerce journey

As digital publishers diversify revenue strategies and develop ecommerce businesses, it is important to understand the consumer purchase process. For many publishers, ecommerce is more than just affiliate links, branded content, and online stores. Publishers are exploring investments in online shops, unique product offerings, wellness programs, virtual learning, and events. With new ecommerce businesses and multiple digital touchpoints consumers, expect an efficient and personalized shopping experience.

BlueVenn, a provider of tools and analytics for marketers, explores consumer purchase behaviors and engagement in a new report, Digital Divide. They partnered with OnePoll to survey 4,000 consumers and 500 marketers in U.S. and U.K.

Key findings include:

  • Over half (55%) of all respondents in the U.S. report that having a personalized shopping experience with a brand is important to them. Interestingly, only 27% report that brands provide a similar and cohesive shopping experience across all channels.
  • While marketers report that their businesses collect a lot of consumer data, only four in 10 report using the information. Clearly, it’s important to analyze the data and incorporate the findings to improve the consumer experience.
  • Fifty-seven percent of U.S. consumer report that they prefer to share their data directly with a brand they trust. This offers a unique opportunity for publishers to grow their ecommerce businesses since they already have a direct and trusted relationship with consumers.
  • Mobile ecommerce is the new norm in the U.S. Six in 10 U.S. respondents (61%) agree (32% “strongly agree” and 29% “somewhat agree”) that they’ve increased the amount of time they shop on mobile compared to last year.
  • The top two digital channels that U.S. consumers use to interact with brands include email (61%) and desktop/laptop web browser (51%). Interestingly, Facebook placed fifth (39%).
  • Close to two-thirds (63% “very important/somewhat important”) of U.S. respondents report that they think it is important for a brand to create a personalized shopping experience.In fact, 58% of U.S. consumers report that they are likely (23% “very likely” and 35% “somewhat likely”) to stop buying a product/service online due to the lack of a personalized experience.
  • Less than half (43%) of U.S. respondents report that brands understand their shopping need.

Browsing and browsers

When shopping for specific goods and services, U.S. consumers prefer overwhelmingly their desktop/laptop browser. Ranking and ratings:

  • Clothing, homeware, and exercise equipment – desktop/laptop browser (#1, 48%)
  • Financial services – desktop/laptop browser (#1, 41%)
  • Insurance – desktop/laptop browser (#1, 47%)
  • Cars – desktop/laptop browser (#2, 26%)
  • Charitable donations – desktop/laptop browser (#1, 26%)
  • Holiday or leisure – desktop/laptop browser (#1, 54%)
  • TV, movies, or entertainment – desktop/laptop browser (#1, 38%)

Diversifying product offerings and revenue streams is helping publishers deepen their audience relationship. As publishers continue to build their direct-to-consumer ecommerce portfolios, it’s important to monitor the consumer’s digital shopping experience. Understanding the process of multiple touchpoints and shifts in online shopping behavior provides insight into consumer needs and expectations. There is a growing opportunity for publishers to play an important role in offering consumers a cohesive digital shopping experience.

Innovation | Marketing | Perspectives

What publishers can learn from D2C brands (who learned it from them)

Successful D2C brands have a strategy for each and every customer touchpoint. This new crop of startups have made this specific way of marketing and selling into a model all its own. They have a renewed focus on understanding what customers want, expect, and need every step of the way. This includes everything from research to purchase and returns along with everything before, after, and in-between.

This approach borrows much from what is perhaps the oldest “direct to consumer” industry in existence: publishing. Publishing has always been the purest form of providing what the consumer wants, whether news or entertainment, in text or audio or visual form. Publishers have to be direct with consumers. Their value proposition is clear: This is what we offer, and here it is for your consumption. And today’s most successful D2Cs mirror this process in their sourcing (and marketing).

Traditional publishers recognize the power of subscription models and advertising on editorial content, but many of the new class of publishers have gone above and beyond. To name just a few: Food52 transitioned successfully from recipe blog to culinary business, leveraging their recipe site, and engaged its community to create a thriving home kitchen, cooking and specialty food business. Buzzfeed’s Tasty pivoted (or pivoted their pivot) into Pet by Tasty. They harnessed the undeniable combination of the internet and animal content. And they use it to power a natural pet food business. And of course, in 2014, Emily Weiss metamorphosed digital beauty destination Into the Gloss into the multi-billion dollar juggernaut Glossier. This new class of publishers understands —  and monetizes —  the power of brand equity, loyalty, and community. 

Lean into your D2c roots

Even the more “traditional” publishers are well positioned to do the same. They’ve already accomplished the hard parts, like building a community, establishing trust, providing consistent value, and earning brand equity and cachet. Now more than ever, publishers are sitting on an unmined vein of pure gold. And with today’s level of technology, the next step for publishers is much more achievable than, say, sourcing a sustainable make-up factory or producing industrial quantities of pet chow.

Publishers now have the tools and expertise readily available to marry editorial with branded content  thoughtfully and intentionally. They can respectfully leverage the enthusiasm and engagement of their communities and the eminence of their brands to create novel revenue streams. We can say farewell to the numbers game, where more clicks and eyeballs meant everything. It is being (rightfully) subsumed as a jaded consumer population demands quality, relevance, and a bit of respect in how they are advertised to. Publishers have already done the hard part as the original D2Cs.

Here’s a few more lessons that they can re-borrow from today’s most successful D2C companies. 

Let your content lead your commerce

D2Cs quickly developed a new mastery of advertising everywhere their consumers already were, in podcasts or specific niches of social media. Even then, these brands did their best to match the theme, tone, and even appearance of their surroundings. In no way can an ad or branded content take a reader/viewer out of the experience. Your brand has worked so hard to give the consumer a consistent “universe” of experience. Don’t let bad advertising take them out of it and ruin all the established good will. 

Feelings, lifestyles, brands > products, services, logos

Luggage D2C Away doesn’t sell suitcases. They give consumers the ability to live the jet setting lifestyle they’ve always wanted. Casper doesn’t sell mattresses. They imagine a world where everyone is well-rested and sleep is a pillar of personal fitness. Today, the bigger picture is the bigger seller, especially when everyone knows they can get an objectively similar product from a dozen places instantly. With everything so commoditized, consumers want to be a part of something bigger. Chances are that consumers already associate your brand with a lifestyle, feeling, or movement. Identify it and become a proactive champion. 

Taking back the lead

Publishers are the “OGs” of D2C. Publishers boast the power of brand equity, loyalty, and community. So, they are uniquely positioned to capitalize on the opportunities that D2C brands have to work so hard to achieve. All publishers have to do is to continue to focus on their consumers and take back the lead in crafting, monetizing and commercializing the products their consumers want, expect, and need – a trusted brand with content. 

Marketing

Retailers drive revenue with email. So can publishers

A fundamental shift has occurred in the past year: Publishers experienced a fortuitous combination of increased audience size and engagement. Many publishers are considering how to balance subscription marketing with ad monetization in order to take advantage of new readers and higher engagement.

In a recent survey, 53% of publishers experienced an increase in engagement with their email newsletters during the Covid pandemic. Email is taking on a new role in nurturing these relationships and maximizing their value. Much like retailers, publishers can leverage email as a path to conversion.

Rethink the “customer” experience

Executives are rethinking many parts of their business in light of the pandemic’s silver lining of higher engagement. And with third party cookies under imminent threat, publishers have both a challenge and opportunity with how to collect insights about visitors to deliver value for advertisers and drive business operations effectively.

One way that publishers can take better advantage of their new engagement opportunity is to collect more data. They have an opportunity to more effectively test and integrate new revenue opportunities by approaching their digital business the way a retailer approaches ecommerce. Many publishers have discussed adding commerce opportunities to their models, such as The New York Times’ addition of Wirecutter to their portfolio. However, for many publishers, the concept needs some direction.

Often, the best work across publisher initiatives is done by connecting experiences between the website, search, and social media. Unfortunately, email remains a relatively static, separated channel. Retailers would be shocked to know that publisher email is frequently bifurcated between content-based newsletters and transaction-based messages about subscriptions with little coordination between them. Email is a hidden opportunity that will help with many 2021 publisher goals.

There are many strategic and tactical improvements that publishers can make to better orchestrate channels to achieve their goals. And these improvements have already proven successful in ecommerce. The multichannel retail experience includes data collection and segmentation, intricate channel orchestration, a dedication to measurement and analytics, and sophisticated testing and personalization with email and SMS. These channels must work together seamlessly to serve to engage, connect, and communicate.

Mapping the “customer” journey

A loyal reader has a particular series of actions that they will, pretty predictably, take. They might visit the site every morning. Or perhaps they open their mobile app every evening as they hang out on the couch. A search-driven reader might have another set of behaviors. They might averaging 30 seconds on the page, with a possible second article before abandoning the site.

These various user profiles are essentially different “customer segments.” Each of these offer their own set of value opportunities and paths to conversion. Many publishers have already created segmented strategies and content personalization. However, multichannel revenue-driven marketing, including email, usually takes a back seat. This reduces the ability to re-engage, offer deeper personalization, and drive conversion.

Retail tactics to learn from

Publishers have more in common with the ecommerce experience than they may realize. In fact, several established ecommerce best practices can be repurposed for publishers:

Browse abandon

Retailers will often trigger a personalized email when someone abandons a product search. Publishers can do the same, tracking everything from scroll depth to which search terms drove them to the site. By testing segmented triggers to bring different readers back to the story, or to similar or different stories, publishers come across as more relevant and more interesting.

Cart abandon

Similarly, retailers will trigger a personalized message via email or SMS to remind people of what’s in their cart. Publishers can do the same with event and subscription signups, or with articles saved for later reading.

Interest-based triggers

Every time a consumer reviews a product, or clicks on a link, that information is gathered to improve personalization and triggered messaging in the future. This information, be it driven by content behavior or more transactional behavior, should be collected by publishers to build richer user profiles and to inform segmentation and marketing actions. This data is also hugely valuable for editors seeking to better understand reader interests.

Live content

Retailers used live content during Black Friday/Cyber Monday to drive interest in sales, manage inventory. Streaming content showing employees explaining products, and influencers discussing health tips, drove engagement and sales. Publishers can imagine incorporating everything from breaking news and live entertainment to real time interviews and podcasts.

Channel optimization

Email is only one element of a multichannel communication strategy. It’s best to test within and across channels to understand how to get people to stay engaged based on their preferences and habits. For example, testing the success of driving engaged readers on mobile web to download the app, or transitioning engaged mobile app readers to in-app messages and push instead of email, can help publishers meet readers where they are without any friction. SMS can take things one step further for brands that don’t have standalone apps but cover breaking news, the same way many D2C retailers alert shoppers about sales.

Bonus points

These five common triggers in a retail strategy also serve another purpose: to test messages and collect more data. Adding triggers along the customer journey doesn’t just provide opportunities to re-engage, they make businesses smarter. Combining insights and measurement across different parts of the business can help speed up learning. Personalizing different elements of the customer journey can help speed up conversion.

Content is the product that many publishers focus on, but it’s the readers (aka customers) that will deliver insight and revenue. By turning focus toward the transactional touchpoints along the reader journey, publishers will find more chances to increase their insights and improve their performance. Retailers may have more measurable ROI. However, what retailers have spent years learning through testing can now serve as a reliable blueprint for publishers.

About the author

Allison Mezzafonte has worked in the media and publishing industry for 20 years and is currently a growth consultant, as well as a Media Advisor to Sailthru. A former publishing executive for Bauer Media, Dotdash, and Hearst Digital, Allison serves as a strategic partner to media clients.

Featured Post | Revenue

As ecommerce surges, publishers turn to certification to cement trust

Ecommerce has been a strategic priority for publishers for a number of years. Then, in just the space of a few months,  Covid-19 accelerated the shift to digital shopping by five years. It’s no surprise that  the competition in online shopping is heating up as a result. 

Trust is a crucial component in ecommerce success. With many online shopping sites providing overwhelming choice and increasing issues with fake or incentivized reviews, consumers are turning to recommendation and comparison sites in order to help narrow down and evaluate purchase decisions. 

Publishers have benefited greatly from this. Their established audiences and high levels of trust have allowed them to build their own authority in product recommendations and gift guides, with many generating significant revenue from affiliate schemes and referrals.

However, as competition in the space increases, some publishers are looking to certification and branded seals as a way of cementing that trusted relationship between them, their audience, and the products they recommend. 

SELF launches seals after commerce surge

Conde Nast’s SELF magazine is the latest publisher to expand its commerce efforts by launching two new award seals. The title has seen ecommerce content traffic in October up 949.3% year-over-year, and the time spent with ecommerce content up 1,130.5% for new shopping.

In response to increased demand for its product recommendations, the health and beauty magazine has launched two seals. The SELF Certified seal is awarded after a thorough product analysis and review. And a product must score at least 7 out of 10 in order to be eligible for it. 

The second seal, SELF Fave, is for wellness products that the editors themselves personally use and recommend. These are  “the ones we keep coming back to, again and again, and enthusiastically rave about to anyone who will listen,” they explained.    

SELF has been creating ecommerce content for several years now. Their decision to launch the seals was as an extension of a strategy that they describe as “thriving”. “SELF editors know the wellness market better than anyone, and our audience trusts our recommendations,” SELF magazine’s Editor in Chief Carolyn Kylstra said. “Now, they know that products and services that get a SELF seal are the best of the best.”

Building additional trust

Having audience trust is particularly important in the health and wellness space, where new products are often launched with big promises, scientific-sounding tems, and celebrity endorsements. While some do what they say, others can be really misleading. Others can be more harmful than helpful. 

“People want to know that they’re buying the very best wellness products out there, and that the products are going to be genuinely helpful, rather than a lot of empty promises,” Kylstra explained. “The SELF Certified and SELF Face seals can give them more peace of mind in that regard.”

SELF’s editors play an important role in building trust alongside the new seals. As journalists, they are skilled in interviewing experts, seeking out relevant research and cutting through marketing speak in order to properly assess products. But there have also been improvements to the assessment process to support the editors.

A transparent process

In order to launch a certification scheme, publishers must first have a set of standards for products, either in reviews they publish themselves or in recommendations given by experts. At SELF, they revamped their review process to introduce added rigour.

“First, before considering a product for a SELF Certified seal, we turn to research and experts to set expectations and figure out exactly how to test the product, and what criteria we should be judging it against,” outlined Kylstra. “We publish that criteria publicly as a buying guide. So, there’s transparency with the process.”

This research and pre-testing phase means that the editor or writer carrying out the actual process will be on the lookout for specific things, rather than testing against generic catch-all standards. The SELF team have taken care in communicating these standards and what they mean to their readers, with the rating system available at the top of each review.

Product categories on SELF have their own buying guides published publicly as well. These feature expert-suggested criteria that not only helps the editorial team evaluate products, but also helps readers make their own decisions.

“Transparency is key to trust,” Kylstra emphasised. “We want to make it as clear as possible why a product gets the seal, how we tested it, and why it scored what it did. This transparency will help readers feel more confident that the product is truly as good as we say it is.”

Cementing expertise

Conde Nast is not the only publisher looking to boost their ecommerce credibility through certification and seals. Hearst UK unveiled a state-of-the-art product testing and accreditation facility in London over the summer in order to expand its famous Good Housekeeping Institute seal of approval across a wider range of titles.

“We know more than ever that what our readers are after is impartial, trusted information,” CFO Claire Blunt said at the launch. “All our readers are smart, savvy shoppers, and they want to know how best to spend their money. So our testing functionality is also about providing them with impartial, trusted insight.”

There is also an additional commercial benefit to publishers with certification. When a seal has been awarded to a product, brands can then pay to license the use of the logo in their own marketing campaigns.

As publishers compete to stand out in ecommerce, it is likely we’ll see more brands launch seals and certification as a way of gaining additional trust. But it is important to do this alongside a rigorous testing process, and to communicate clearly with readers about how products are evaluated in order to build trust in the long term.

Revenue

8 ways media companies can diversify revenue

Traditionally, many media companies earned the bulk of their revenue from display advertising. But as the pandemic continues, media companies face an increased need to explore more innovative models of monetizing their content. Here are several ways media businesses can generate new revenue streams:

1. Data

Data is the future of driving revenue. Consider what Conde Nast is doing with first-party data, with its Now|New|Next Segments. These explore what consumers are buying now, how the behaviors might change, and who will spend next. Increased audience engagement is driving the ability to discover new customer segments, opening the door for advertisers whose doors are closed during the pandemic.

Advertising spend decreased during the early months of Covid-19, but now media companies are starting to look at data offerings to entice advertisers. GDPR and additional privacy laws have dictate that this monetization strategy must emphasize a cookie-less future.

2. Monetizing Talent

Reputation and brand are important in the media industry. Quality journalism keeps people coming back — and talent is a big part of that. Media has begun to recognize the value of monetizing the individual. For example, Spotify gained exclusive rights to Joe Rogan and Michelle Obama podcasts, and The Athletic gathered a cult of the best sportswriters. Quake, a subscription-based podcast founded by media veterans, just launched in October 2020 with $2.5M in seed money. Its exclusive shows are headed by top talent in politics and media, like Laura Ingraham, Soledad O’Brien, Mike Huckabee, Andrew Gillum, Marc Lamont Hill, and Buck Sexton.

If media companies don’t start monetizing talent, the best journalists will begin creating their own micro-brands instead. This will further crowd the competitive space and the talent is likely to take their dedicated followers with them.

3. Ecommerce/Affiliate Marketing

Ecommerce in news media is poised for explosive growth. According to Digiday, 85% of CPG marketers are planning to buy more ads from retail media networks. Many media companies are forming partnerships with retail brands, as retailers are piggybacking on the reputation of established media brands, and vice versa. This could be especially lucrative during the holiday season. 

Some ways to explore the Ecommerce opportunity include:

  • Creating newsletters with embedded content to promote either brand advertising or direct-response advertising.
  • Allowing partners to pay for news real estate by writing their own opinion pieces.
  • Opening an online shop, like BuzzFeed.
  • Offering affiliate links for products mentioned.
  • Opening a pop-up boutique and e-commerce shop for the holidays.
  • Promoting events with merchandise (for its livestream with Billie Eilish, Spotify is promoting with an exclusive t-shirt).

4. Paywalls

More media companies are putting digital subscription strategies ahead of other initiatives, and the numbers show that’s paying off. The New York Times has reported an increase in subscribers of 2 million year over year, and their digital subscription model is now finally more profitable than their print model.

And the latest report from the Digital Publishers Revenue Index, shows an overall increase in revenue from subscriptions over the past decade. 10 years ago, subscriptions made up only 7% of digital revenue, and now the data show that has increased to 22% of total revenue. Many publishers have begun to explore paywalls — from soft, hard, metered, and dynamic models. If you’ve not yet done so, now’s the time. 

5. Communities and Membership Models

With the cancellation of in-person events and social gatherings, there has been a huge decrease in networking opportunities. Companies like Fortune are successfully solving two problems with one (big) concept. Problem 1: What’s a way to monetize virtual events to decrease revenue loss? Problem 2: What is a new way to bring in revenue and create a loyal customer base?

Traditionally, Fortune’s live events were designed for a finite number of people; there could only be 50 people at the Top 50 CEO’s retreat, for example. But Fortune realized an opportunity to grow its community to include previously untapped leaders and create a broader community by launching Fortune Connect in the fall of 2020. This online learning platform and community provides ongoing networking events and educational content to aspirational mid-tier leaders. Fortune is using a membership model to build, and grow, a sticky community.

6. Over The Top (OTT)

A growing list of brands are expanding into broadcast and streaming TV to grow their brand, engage their audience where they go, and bring in a new revenue stream. TIME & Univision won an Emmy. Vox has a top-ranked Netflix show. Axios is on HBO. Vice, New York Times and BuzzFeed have turned to streaming content. Beyond their well-known “Explained,” Vox has branched out further into unbranded production shows.

OTT is no longer an opportunity limited to legacy video or television brands. Media companies of all sorts are finding creative ways to monetize their video investments because it engages a new audience and establishes a new habit for the consumer to connect to the brand. 

7. Education

Media companies are providing a growing number of learning/education courses for readers. For example, TIME has expanded its iconic TIME100 people with TIME Talks. The Wall Street Journal launched a mobile app to help provide resources on managing finances during the pandemic. Morning Brew has been putting together 101 courses on topics like Marketing, Finance, and Branding. And Axios is starting 101 video courses on topics like 5G, which are sponsored by companies related to the topic. 

Publishers are seeing an opportunity to develop deep subject matter expertise and be the go-to source on certain topics in addition to news stories. It improves the value they can provide to subscribers and pulls in more targeted advertisers since they can reach a highly engaged niche audience on long-shelf life content that can continuously draw an audience.

8. Evergreen

Most hard-news outlets saw a drastic hit to their advertising revenue this year. Even an increase in subscription revenue failed to offset the advertising losses. But evergreen sites like Dotdash — which owns sites like SimplyRecipes and TreeHugger — have seen an 18% increase in revenue. While Dotdash does rely on an ad revenue model, they use ads about ⅔ less than a traditional news outlet and bet on fast page load and better UX for their growth. 

What makes it particularly effective is their diversification of brands and content. Their travel brand ads, for example, have decreased while their health verticals have exploded. Having evergreen content allows them more flexibility in what content to create and how valuable each piece is to them since it doesn’t have a shelf life. 

As news media becomes increasingly competitive, companies must find innovative new methods of generating revenue that also help attract and retain new customers. By exploring a wide range of approaches, with a focus on your core competencies and customer needs, news publishers are able to stay competitive and build healthier diversification of revenue sources.

Industry-Research | Revenue

How publishers can develop a content-to-commerce strategy

For quality publishers with strong consumer relationships, a content-to-commerce strategy offers a valuable revenue diversification approach. The International News Media Association’s (INMA) new report, Content-to-Commerce Brings Revenue in Post-Advertising World, outlines key considerations, strategies and their implementations to help publishers build this line of revenue.

While ecommerce may sound straightforward, successful implementation is not easy. First, a publisher’s brand must have a purpose, a reason to exist for the consumer. It needs to be authentic, possess an emotional quality, and present a personality. If a publisher meets this high bar, then it can begin the work of developing a commerce strategy because its content connection to a purchasable product will be valuable to consumers.

The major models

The INMA report identifies three basic content-to-commerce models:

  1. Affiliate models, which send customers to an outside product link, earning the publishers a percentage of the purchase revenue.
  2. Attribution marketing, which tracks touchpoints from consumer to purchase, assigning a value to the touchpoints in the journey. If the publisher, is an effect touchpoint, they receive a percentage of revenue.
  3. Direct ecommerce, which offers company-owned products to consumers allowing for both higher revenue and higher conversions.

An integrated platform

Sweden’s Aftonbladet, a Schibsted-owned company and the largest news platform in the Nordic countries, partners with ecommerce platform Tipser. To sell products, Aftonbladet pairs its content with integrated ecommerce platform. They most often place embedded ecommerce in their features departments such as food and health. Aftonbladet made an important decision at the start not to integrate ecommerce in hard news content.

Aftonbladet recommends that publishers be completely transparent. For example, they need to communicate if they include embedded ecommerce elements in their content. An embedded ecommerce model should help build reader loyalty, not weaken it.

The content connection

Aftonbladet also creates content around ecommerce related products. If consumers search for a product of interest, it can lead to Aftonbladet’s library of content. It’s a great way to bring consumers to Aftonbladet content, connect them to products and increase overall traffic to the site.

The New York Times uses an ecommerce model with Wirecutter, which it acquired in 2016. Wirecutter is designed to help readers’ by offering them recommendations for retail purchases across multiple categories. The brand does a lot of the work for the consumer by providing product details, comparisons, and recommendations. Wirecutter Guides talk to category experts. They do the research, test the products, and find the best option in any category, then offer an unbiased recommendation.

Wirecutter maintains a reader-first mission, with a secondary focus on ecommerce. It also offers exclusive deals through their merchants and retailers. Wirecutter made an important editorial decision early on that product reviews cannot be influenced by a retail partnership. The core focus is to recommend the right product for the right consumer.

Question your approach

The INMA report identifies four key questions for publishers to address when identifying the right ecommerce model.

  1. What do your readers need that you can provide that benefits them?
  2. What’s the shortest journey to get it to them?
  3. How can you make money from doing that?
  4. How does your content lead the way?

As ever, a publisher’s primary goal must be to provide content that serves an audience. Then, they can build out an effective strategy to monetize their content and audience relationship throughout the customer’s ecommerce journey.

Industry-Research | Revenue

How to combat ad fraud spikes during the holiday season

The holiday shopping season was once a time of packed stores and crowded gallerias. These days, people are much more likely to stay home and do their shopping from the comfort of their couches. In particular, IAS found that this year, nearly all holiday shopping will be online, specifically on ecommerce and retail sites. So, while audiences watch nostalgic holiday movies, they’ll also be on their phones researching gifts to purchase for their loved ones. 

Unfortunately, consumers aren’t the only ones online — fraudsters also have their sights set on holiday traffic. Invalid traffic (IVT), which includes malicious fraud as well as general non-human activity, has the potential to steal valuable impressions. Since it looks like Cyber Monday will become Cyber Season, publishers should optimize their inventory to both support marketers and thwart fraudsters. 

Unwrapping holiday ad fraud

Shopping online offers a convenience that brick and mortar stores lack: information. In their search for the perfect gift, IAS found that consumers turn to search engines, review sites, and online advertisements. Consumers look to advertisements for guidance, and are most interested in ads they see on well-known and respected sites. IAS research shows that retail sites are especially prone to fraud, witnessing spikes around popular shopping dates like Cyber Monday.

At the same time, holiday season campaigns tend to be short and sweet, only meant to appear in consumers’ feeds for a few months. Longer campaigns give advertisers more time to review and optimize campaign performance. However, during this time, advertisers rely on premium inventory to achieve the ambitious KPIs associated with holiday campaigns. This puts additional pressure on digital publishers to optimize their inventory to minimize risk and maximize performance.

Putting fraudsters on the naughty list

A recent survey of U.S. consumers found that 51% of respondents plan to start their holiday shopping earlier this year. To mitigate fraudulent activity, publishers should also prepare early by optimizing their inventory. Bots can be given instructions to visit premium sites, pick up desirable cookies, and then visit fraudulent sites to monetize. In order to protect the value of their inventory, here are some key reminders for publishers looking to prepare for the holiday season. 

Make a list and check it twice 

✓ Figure out where site traffic originates 

  • The first step in identifying fraud is recognizing where traffic originates. For example, traffic that is sourced from a supplier has a higher possibility of attracting fraudulent bot traffic. Suitable ad environments are powerful, and transparency helps to build a strong relationship between publisher and advertiser. 

✓ Confirm how visitors are attracted

  • If traffic is sourced, there is a higher possibility of fraudulent bot activity. If most traffic comes from data centers, rather than residential or corporate networks, publishers should confirm that there are no software tools being run in those data centers that hit their website. Running tools that drive traffic may result in invalid traffic per industry group standards.

✓ Not all invalid traffic is malicious

  • Some cybersecurity, testing, and analytics solutions employ methods that can trigger fraud detection models from ad verification vendors. For example, some bots are designed to crawl the internet and gather information or generate simulations. Publishers should work with their ad verification vendors to further analyze their inventory and consider adding known data center IPs to an exclusion list. 

Happy holidays

In order to protect the value of their inventory, the publisher needs to analyze traffic patterns and optimize their content appropriately. 

In conclusion, the web is rife with invalid traffic. Some traffic — consumers, crawlers, etc — is such a helpful gift to marketers that it should with a bow. However, there’s a great deal of malicious invalid traffic, the lumps of coal in the industry’s stockings. Such activity on publisher pages can threaten the trusted relationship you’ve built with your advertising partners and cost you real dollars. 

The holiday shopping season is right around the corner, and safe inventory is the best gift to give to your partners. If you’ve detected invalid traffic on your site, then it’s likely that your advertiser partners have too. No need to ring the alarm just yet though. Being proactive and well-informed can go a long way toward ensuring that you and your advertisers present a unified front against fraud.

Innovation

How content companies can ring in the revenues this holiday season

There’s no precedent for holiday shopping this year. It could be muted, or it could be massive. If data from the 2008 financial crisis is a guide, then holiday shopping is likely to stay the course. Back then, consumers reported they would spend 29% less for the holidays. As it turned out, retail in the U.S. dipped just 4.7% as compared to the year before.

Still, with so many variables and unknowns, we can only be sure of one outcome: This will be a holiday season unlike any other. The impact of the pandemic is profound. But mandatory lockdowns and self-isolation have accelerated a number of digital trends, including ecommerce. It has also opened opportunities for ecommerce marketplaces and mobile apps.  

Mobile must-haves

In particular, mobile shopping is set to skyrocket. App store intelligence provider App Annie estimates U.S. consumers will spend more than 1 billion hours on shopping apps on Android devices alone. That’s a 50% increase from the same time last year. App Annie is convinced this year will be the biggest year for shopping apps yet. The ecommerce explosion is good news for brands and businesses. However, content will be a critical component for companies that want to clinch the sale. In particular, they will need content that drives upper-funnel awareness and deeper-funnel engagement.

While most content companies today have a mobile app, they need to raise the bar by better integrating content into commerce. Serving the pandemic era shopper means being nimble and adaptable, 

 Today’s consumers want experiential content that brightens dreary days and drives meaningful connection. Here are two strategies content companies should consider as they prepare to be ecommerce-ready for the holidays. 

#1 Refocus your approach to mobile development

Mobile is a stage in the customer journey where content companies can make a huge impression, provided they position their media properties and assets to be a growth driver for retail businesses. Today, more than ever, that means being able to iterate your mobile app at the speed of change. 

Mobile and apps have combined to become the “the central nervous system of our connected lives,” according to App Annie’s State of Mobile 2020 report. Ease of use, convenience and personalization are driving a surge in shopping-app use and downloads. They are also factors fueling a massive increase in new shopping app releases.

The race to be app-optimized in time for the holidays is one even industry laggards can win thanks to the evolution of low-code solutions. At its core, low-code allows companies to fast-track mobile app development allowing companies to cut development time by “an average of 50%,” according to Samir Addamine, Founder and President of low-code platform provider FollowAnalytics. 

But it’s not enough to deliver content that supports shoppers every step of the journey. It’s critical to embrace what Addamine calls an “always-on innovation” mindset. This means relying on low-code to “surface the same experience as the website and leverage mobile capabilities such as push notification, augmented reality and geolocation.” 

Even better if the outcome is an app experience that anticipates, not just answers, shopper requirements. Because of their intimate audience understanding, and first-party data, content companies are uniquely able to deliver on this. 

Aspiring to this level of integration is a must for companies seeking to add or enhance their commerce experience. From advice and assistance based on location, to chat dialogs that infuse messaging with a personal touch, apps are evolving because they must.

The pandemic has accelerated this dynamic, creating a “forcing function” that pushes audiences to apps for all their needs. It also turns up the pressure on content companies to evolve a full-funnel strategy, powered by feature-rich apps, to meet ever-evolving customer requirements.

#2 Prepare now to enable “content-enhanced commerce”

Content companies can win big if they position themselves to deliver what I call “content-enhanced commerce” to consumers online and in-app. In this scenario, content companies do more than offer advertising space or craft native advertising. They forge partnerships and harness platforms (including their own) to deliver commerce-complementary content, relevant messaging, and riveting storytelling.

The concept of content-enhanced commerce is in its infancy. However, it draws inspiration from a mature and massively successful model: home shopping. Thanks to mobile devices, chat apps and live streaming, this reboot makes ecommerce a two-way conversation. Hosts, brands, companies and consumers connect in real-time. And that authentic engagement makes this model unstoppable.

While technology is a must, the right content clinches the sale. This means priming audiences with expert reviews, entertaining hosts, and exciting approaches to drive content and product discovery. If it sounds like heavy lifting, then consider the enormous market potential. In China alone – a mobile-focused country where shoppable live streaming got its start – sales revenues reached $63 billion in 2019.

Elsewhere in APAC, content companies are teaming up with brands and broadcasters to deliver a local and lucrative spin. Mediacorp, Singapore’s largest content creator and national media network operates a suite of TV channels, radio stations and multiple digital platforms. The company has partnered with ecommerce platform Lazada. The alliance turns shopping into a retail experience. To go one better Mediacorp plans to leverage more “immersive content marketing. That will allow people to discover products, compare prices and shop items, all while watching content.”

Is APAC an indicator of what will come next to the west? Let’s just say Asia has a first-mover advantage in what is shaping up to be the next trend in e-commerce. 

Happy holidays

Content companies need to use this unusual holiday season as an opportunity to experiment. They should test ways to infuse the shopping experience with credible content and reviews. It is important to partner with brands that understand that content is an asset. 

Content companies are in the enviable position of employing experts in any number of areas. This allows for a seamless integration between that expertise and commerce, which is far superior to the social media influencer model. 

Finally, if your content has a local focus, explore partnerships with local brands and businesses. Research shows that new audiences gravitate to companies that support local interests and enterprises. Clearly, working with local-focused companies is the best way to show your support. 

Maybe you plan to drive full-funnel engagement through your app to empower ecommerce. Or perhaps you want to enhance a shoppable live streaming experience. The precise path you take will depend on your content assets and strategy. But these pathways are sure to pay dividends and prepare you to ring in the revenues at a time when the pandemic is wreaking havoc with physical retail and driving consumers into digital at a breakneck pace. 

Featured Post | Revenue

How Kumu’s Roland Ros partners with media companies for commerce and community

Global interactive platforms such as TikTok may strike a chord with younger audiences. Still, they miss the opportunity to drive hyper-local content and shape tight-knit transnational communities. It’s a significant and growing gap that Kumu, a Filipino-centric social app and livestreaming platform, seeks to fill with customized content channels. The combination of communication, commerce, and community allows fans to interact and purchase products while watching their favorite livestreamers.

It’s a smart move when platforms everywhere on the planet are forging relationships to become Super Apps. But content will be the factor that sets some of these Super Apps apart. By cultivating relationships with media companies and content creators, they can reach audiences with entertaining content that inspires lasting passion, not just one-off purchases.

It’s a blueprint that makes business sense for companies lining up to engage Internet-addicted populations in emerging markets. Boston Consulting Group’s Center for Customer Insight forecasts that Internet users in emerging markets, which include India, Indonesia, Kenya, Morocco Nigeria and the Philippines, will contribute 3x the number of new Internet users compared to developed markets. It’s a young community that will engage in “digitally influenced” content. They’ll also make purchases worth a whopping $4 trillion by 2022.

Continuing our series of DCN video interviews, I talk to Roland Ros. Ros founded Kumu, a livestreaming app that counts a community of more than 5 million GenZ and Millennial Filipinos spread across more than 50 countries. Kumu recently raised $5 million in a Series A funding round led by an impressive mix of investors including OpenSpace Ventures, Summit Media, and Philippines-based media conglomerate ABS-CBN. We discuss the importance of trusted conversations and the efforts of media companies, including Cosmopolitan and Esquire, to unlock the creative and commercial potential of its growing and global audience.

Here are three key takeaways from our talk:

Power community-driven commerce with authenticity and positivity

Younger audiences are eager to participate (and purchase) on platforms that make them feel involved and accepted. “GenZ and Millenials are tired of the social anxiety that comes with pretending life is perfect,” Ros explains. Authenticity has replaced attention as members no longer value millions of likes or hundreds of thousands of followers. The payoff is positivity, he says.  Kumu’s “Kumunity” appreciates “microtransactions and virtual gifts that simply say ‘thank you’ for the content you create.”

Segment according to journeys, not customers

Ros encourages companies to rewrite the marketing playbook to emphasize the “aha” moments that keep audiences everywhere hooked. To pinpoint these events, he relies on CleverTap to track behaviors, patterns and architect a customer journey to make each member feel like an individual. “The logic has to be clean: if this, then that.” Building these capabilities has allowed Kumu to reach “month four retention rates in the 40% range,” he says.

Micro-influencers have a massive impact

Ros reveals the fastest-growing business on the Kumu platform is driven by influencers and creators on the platform talking about their passions and interests. This realization has prompted him to partner with media companies to launch “the concept of an interactive social television network,” amplifying the content and content creators the community loves.

Ros also talks about blending content and commerce to pave the way for “Super Social Apps” fueled by connection and microtransactions. He also lifts a lid on the best practices that allow Kumu and its partners to reach “up to 10%” conversion rates for livestreaming commerce on the platform. 

Watch the full interview:

Industry-Research | Marketing

Consumer behavior will never be the same again

Covid-19 has affected everyone and everything. Health, work, relationships, education, dining, shipping, and shopping … every aspect of our lives has been impacted. And, according to Accenture research, this impact will leave an indelible mark on consumer behavior, particularly when it comes to how and with whom people spend their money.

In its report, “How COVID-19 will permanently change consumer behavior,” Accenture points out that the pandemic is reshaping industries in real time, “rapidly accelerating long-term underlying trends in the space of mere weeks.” And consumers are struggling to figure out how to shift many activities to digital alternatives.

Though some businesses are beginning to resume offline operations, many are holding off. And even when health officials and governments give the green light, many consumers will be hesitant to resume business as usual. But even more significantly, this experience will have accelerated and transformed many consumer behaviors.

Post-Covid consumers

Accenture has defined five new types of consumers, based upon the way in which they are responding to the crisis.

  1. The Worrier (21%)
  2. The Individualist (33%)
  3. The Rationalist (39%)
  4. The Activist (8%)
  5. The Indifferent (11%)

Because consumer response to the pandemic varies widely, Accenture says that “the days of one-size-fits-all marketing are over.” Thus, companies will need to understand how different segments of their consumer base are reacting and develop customized and personalized marketing strategies for each type of consumer.

Accelerating trends

According to Accenture, the virus has accelerated three long-term trends:

1. The ever-increasing focus on health

Brands should heed this change and make it a priority to support healthy lifestyles for consumers, shoppers and employees. Having a “health strategy” will be a strategic differentiator in the foreseeable future.

2. A rise in conscious consumption

Consumers are more mindful of what they’re buying. They are striving to limit food waste, shop more cost-consciously, and buy sustainable options. Brands will need to make this a key part of their offerings (for example, by exploring new business models and caring for their own employees).

3. Growing love for local

The desire to shop local is reflected in both the products consumer buy (for example, locally sourced, artisanal) and the way they shop (for example, supporting community stores). Companies will need to explore ways to connect locally. This might be through highlighting local provenance, customizing for local needs or engaging in locally relevant ways.

Ecommerce

Undoubtedly, ecommerce adoption has been one of the clearest trends accelerated by the pandemic. Accenture found that one in five consumers who ordered their last groceries online did so for the first time—but for consumers aged 56 years and above, this was one in three. The trend toward digital commerce is expected to continue even once businesses reopen. Consumers report that the proportion of instances they shop online will increase from 32% to 37% after the outbreak, illustrating the clear need for a substantial increased investment in this channel.

Time well spent

Many people will continue to work from home and travel less for the foreseeable future. Thus, offerings that keep them connected and improve their home-based experiences will be highly valuable. As parents and educators look toward the possibility of remote education becoming part of the standard curriculum, technological and informational tools that facilitate remote learning will be highly appealing.

Source: App Annie (March 4, 2020)

Leisure pastimes have also significantly shifted. Accenture believes that the changes will cause long-lasting, or even permanent effects. According to the report, more than half (61%) plan to continue watching more news after the outbreak, while 55% will prioritize more time with the family. Entertainment, learning, and DIY have also seen a rise.  

Covid-19 is a health and economic crisis that has a sustainable impact on consumer attitudes, behaviors, and purchasing habits. Companies need to pay close attention to their consumers’ evolving expectations and changing behavior in order to effectively serve them, and market to them.

Industry-Research | Revenue

The publishers’ guide to ecommerce

While advertising and subscription revenues are core to publishers’ bottom line, developing alternative revenue streams is critical in today’s competitive environment. One diversification approach, ecommerce, has evolved well beyond affiliate links and branded content. A new report from Whatsnewinpublishing.com, The Publisher’s Guide to eCommerce, written by Damien Radcliffe, explores emerging ecommerce opportunities and lessons learned from publishers. The report details 10 ecommerce examples from publishers. Some used third parties to implement their ecommerce initiative, while others are developing inhouse teams.

The right recipe

As the report points out, eCommerce is not easy work for a publisher. They need to be thoughtful in identifying the benefits of brand extensions and messaging this to the consumer. Importantly, product relevance and quality must exist to build customer loyalty for any brand extension.

Tasty, BuzzFeed’s food brand, provides a great example of a healthy brand extension that organically fits its brand with snack-size recipes and videos. It successfully broadens the brand’s reach beyond its core site and social media channels. Tasty products include cookbooks and kitchenware, and even a partnership with McCormick Spices.

The report suggests that publishers stick close to their wheelhouse. For example, there might be a lucrative business living within their articles and photographs archives. The Denver Post and the The Seattle Times lead strong ecommerce channels selling special events and news coverage clippings for memorabilia, wall art, and keepsakes. Third parties are often used for the fulfillment, creation and distribution of these products, which reduces some of the publishers’ risks.

Social shopping

Social commerce is another interesting avenue for publishers to keep in mind. GlobalWebIndex research finds that nearly 3 in 10 online consumers say that researching and finding products online is one of the main reasons they use social. These platforms offer an opportunity for publishers to reach new and wider audiences.

As such, media analysts thought that social platforms would provide an optimal environment for a publisher ecommerce marketplace. Unfortunately, it hasn’t panned out just yet. However, Snap appears to offer a strong potential for experimenting in ecommerce. The research emphasizes that it is critical that publishers working to offer purchase opportunities on social strive for a frictionless experience.

Regardless of the approach, the report reminds publishers not to underestimate the cost and complexity of running an ecommerce division. It’s like building a startup business: Technology investments will be required (acquisition and fulfillment software) as well as those for merchandise and warehousing.

Challenges and rewards

First-party insights are important for a successful ecommerce initiative. This is particularly critical in establishing a correlation between the content the user engages into the product searches and products the user buys. Creating this type of first- party relationship between content and product will allow publishers to offer predictive analytics.  

There are a multitude of ecommerce ideas for publishers to experiment, from affiliate relationships to developing and selling proprietary products. Importantly, each ecommerce opportunity must be evaluated carefully to meet the necessary criteria to compliment the publisher’s brand. And publishers must recognize the level of investment required to undertake a successful ecommerce initiative.  

Perspectives

The cookie conundrum: Complexity for publishers in the age of ecommerce and cybercrime rings

Media publishers in 2018 are at a historical juncture as they face new pressures from many directions. These pressures included competing content providers who provide a wider array of products to draw site users; readers with changing habits, expectations, and preferences; and a growing number of data privacy regulations that are forcing businesses, in general, to change how they operate.

Publishers in the increasingly diversified digital media landscape have had to revise their business models along with the introduction of paywalls, multi-tiered subscription packages, and merchandise. Not only are they content providers but full-blown ecommerce businesses, a change that comes with its own set of challenges.

Cookies and commerce

That fact is that, if a website accepts any form of payment, it is running an ecommerce platform. Actually, media companies are unique in that they can have three disparate revenue channels all tied to their digital environment: advertising/sponsorships, subscriptions and merchandise. More likely than not, these three channels are managed by various internal groups with different objectives. The absence of a single throat to choke for the digital environment at a time when the latter is under mounting cyberattacks and a growing number of data privacy regulations raise these companies’ exposure to a host of digital risks.

The most significant challenge is managing all the third parties and digital partners who help make the ecommerce websites’ user experience a success. That experience involves providing content to users based on their subscription level and enabling payment for subscriptions and—for a growing number of publishers—merchandise.

The problem is, most of these third parties, and the cookies they use to identify visitors/users, are unknown to publishers. On average, the cookies they drop into an ecommerce site can account for anywhere between 50-95% of all cookies on that site. Left unmonitored and unchecked by publishers’ digital policies, those largely unknown cookies can degrade the user experience by driving up latency, collecting information from unsuspecting users, or both.

Regulation ups the stakes

While latency might not break any laws, collecting information without users’ informed, specific consent violates a rising number of data privacy regulations. We have seen the impact of changes to the legislative landscape on publishers. Privacy laws such as the EU’s GDPR and the state of California’s Consumer Privacy Act have created an increasingly dangerous environment for data processors who fail to adhere to them.

In May of this year, after GDPR came into effect, large US based publishers such as The Chicago Tribune became unavailable to EU readers, due to the mismatch in privacy laws in the European Union, and the code operating on these sites. At the time of writing, the Tribune remains offline in the EU, highlighting how seriously even the largest publishers are taking the legislative changes we have witnessed this year. The proposal of a U.S. federal Consumer Data Privacy Act, which would jail CEOs for misleading regulators makes compliance even more urgent, especially for large companies.

The mood of publishers’ audiences is also changing. As the Cambridge Analytica scandal has proven, users of all types of platforms are increasingly aware and suspicious of how their own data is collected and used. The last year’s mega breaches such as Equifax have only escalated consumer wariness of the security and use of the data they willingly provide to publishers.

Bad actors

To further muddy the waters, we have seen the exponential growth of malicious campaigns targeting publishers. Increasingly sophisticated cybercrime groups such as Magecart, widely believed to be responsible for the British Airways breach, and, more recently, 3ve, are exploiting vulnerabilities around payment pages, capitalizing on digital advertising’s obscure processes, and targeting users of digital wallets.

As if all of this wasn’t enough, publishers also have to contend with upstream partners who process or use the data harvested on their platform whose consent management process, or lack thereof, could put publishers at risk of infringing data privacy laws.

Digital cookies are routinely dropped on with 65% of cookies collecting personal data, and 28% of cookies lasting longer than a year. While they allow publishers to provide a better experience for readership, it can also mean that they are in direct conflict with the latest data privacy laws.

Getting cookies right

Publishers can take proactive measures to stay compliant by ensuring that executives in charge of the various ecommerce revenue streams align their goals, objectives and policies in order to safeguard and enhance the user experience. Understanding the landscape of your digital ecosystem is essential. Make sure that you are monitoring your website for the code being run, and proactively question why it is running. Furthermore, the third parties running code, and the companies in their own supply chain who process data need to understand the players and activities in their own digital landscapes.

However, taking these steps are just the start. Publishers must also prove such measures are being taken. Therefore, publishers, their third-party partners and any other relevant parties should undertake rigorous audit trails to retain proof of regulatory compliance. This allows you to make the case for your overall legislative posture, if it is called into question.

In addition to this, there are industry organizations which aim to create a set of standardized compliance-related practices in order to create a more transparent culture around cookies. The International Advertising Bureau have attempted to deliver and enforce a framework via their CMP Validator. The AOP (Association for Online Publishing) UK has engaged in similar activities with their Cookie Consortium. Involvement of as many publishers and technology vendors as possible in these industry initiatives is crucial to the continued success of publishers and other players along the digital supply chain.

Why it matters

It’s important to establish that the running of cookies on web pages is a fundamental part of how the internet functions in 2018. It makes life significantly easier for both publishers hoping to keep users happy, even working to turn this hope into an actionable reality. It also benefits users hoping to access content, and marketers hoping to build a strategy.

However, they can only provide these useful functions if the organizations that use them do so with the appropriate regard for any regulations that govern them, as well as for the users whose data is stored in them. In fact, publishers stand to gain the most from the changing regulatory environment, which provides an opportunity to collaborate more closely with third parties and digital partners, and ultimately build customer trust by improving their user experience.

About the Author

Chris Olson co-founded The Media Trust with a goal to transform the internet experience by creating better digital ecosystems to govern assets, connect partners and enable Digital Risk Management. Chris has more than 15 years of experience leading high tech and ad technology start-ups and managing international software development, product and sales teams. Prior to The Media Trust, Chris created an Internet-based transaction system to research, buy and sell media for TV, radio, cable, and online channels. He started his career managing equity and fixed income electronic trading desks for Salomon Brothers, Citibank and Commerzbank AG.

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