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Advertising | Perspectives

How marketers and publishers can collaborate for success

In the current environment, the brand safety and suitability tactics used by advertisers are prompting debate within the industry. Many marketers, themselves impacted, are adjusting their strategies, halting or reducing investment, and tightening their risk tolerance. The result has caused a ripple effect across the publishing industry that underscores the vital role that advertisers play in supporting a free and independent press. Our society is dependent on high quality, factually sourced journalism. And the outlets producing this information are essential to keeping our public both safe and informed. 

Advertisers, concerned about appearing adjacent to COVID-19 content, may resort to highly restrictive brand safety practices. Publishers, in turn, are concerned about the balance between editorial integrity and the bottom line.  Here’s how both sides can align:

Communication 

Publishers should seek a direct dialogue with their agency and advertiser partners. It is imperative that lines of communication are open. It is also important that buyers clearly establish and convey their brand’s suitability strategies and concerns. Mutual understanding of a brand’s perspective will open up opportunities for buyers to leverage the unique combination of content and audience engagement that only a premium publisher can provide.  

Education 

Education and communication are first and foremost right now. We’re in a climate of misunderstanding when it comes to the strategies that brands and agencies are employing.  Fundamental knowledge of the varying technologies, how they’re applied, and most importantly, how that aligns with the content where advertisers want their ads to appear is paramount. 

For example, keyword blocking has been a part of the brand safety narrative for years. And It has been thrust into the spotlight amid the current crisis. Industry professionals now wonder about the impact of overblocking on impression volumes. And there’s understandable concern about how this type of approach can affect publishers. 

Keyword blocking has value if used in careful moderation. However, it’s important to remind advertisers that the practice is just one piece of the puzzle. Advertisers should frequently revisit and scrub keyword lists to ensure that scale is not restricted by an ever-increasing list of outdated terms. Another valuable reminder for advertisers: use whitelists. In the same way that keyword lists should be frequently assessed, whitelists should be actively employed and reviewed to make sure that trusted sites are included. 

Content categories are a great way to ensure that advertisers aren’t approaching brand suitability binarily. Instead, they must evaluate topics for appropriateness with different levels of tolerance. Finally, the increasing use of cognitive semantic technologies will also benefit publishers. By enabling marketers to only advertise in contexts that align positively with their brand values and allowing for greater flexibility, this technology opens up valuable opportunities to connect with consumers that might otherwise have been lost due to standard blocking practices 

Technology

Verification technology is a powerful tool and has come a long way in the last decade. With solutions now leveraging machine learning and contextual, semantic technology, marketers can now elevate brand suitability strategies to reach consumers in thoughtful, appropriate ways without alienating publisher partners. 

The shift toward cognitive semantic technologies, specifically, paired with increasingly sophisticated machine learning models provides marketers with greater flexibility. This allows for more nuanced, nimble approaches to address brand suitability. Contextual targeting works by taking a deeper look at the content on a given page and assessing its suitability based on the topics covered, whether the tone is negative or positive, and which emotions are conveyed. Evolving verification technologies help marketers protect their brands from unsuitable content. They also grant them the flexibility to reach consumers in the right places without limiting scale and negatively impacting publishers.  

Collaboration 

In times of uncertainty, it’s common to see marketers react reflexively and conservatively, with rapid adjustments in strategy. Although this approach is understandable, it bears potential side effects for publishers who see unexpected decreases in advertising. Technological advancements only help when publishers and advertisers bridge the gap and collaborate. 

Recent initiatives, such as the 4A’s APB Brand Suitability Working Group for Trusted News Environments, have marked an effort by industry members to take further steps toward collaboration in hopes of aligning all players toward common goals. Anyone can understand that marketers want to avoid content that’s unsuitable for their brand values. But working together is necessary to underscore the importance of premium news and a free press.   

Advertising | Perspectives | Revenue

Catch me if you can: Malvertising thrives in high-volume, low-CPM environment

It’s scary out there. Next quarter’s 34% projected contraction for the U.S. economy doesn’t bode well for our industry. The effects of scrutinized marketing budgets and throttled—if not eliminated—advertising spend are already rippling throughout the digital advertising ecosystem. While engagement is on the rise (great), publishers are hindered from capitalizing on this boon due not only to brand safety concerns but also a surge in malvertising and scam ads. Clearly, getting a handle on these bad ads and isolating the serving partner is critical to future growth.

Bad ads threaten publisher recovery

The unfortunate byproduct of today’s troubled economy is the downside pressure exerted on ad spend, which depresses CPMs, effectively lowering the barrier to entry for bad actors. The reality of the situation is apparent; the average number of incidents in a 24-hour period actively managed by The Media Trust’s 24×7 Digital Security & Operations team is up an average 22% month-over-month (April vs. March)—even more alarming when viewed year-over-year, with volumes 35% greater than usual (April ’20 vs ’19).

The composition of the malware threats is also changing. The rapid increase in personal data scams erodes the long-standing dominance of fake installs and uploads.Covid-19 or coronavirus-related scams drive the category. In parallel, while still a relatively small percentage, brand fraud/hijack ads are something to track especially when put into the context of a significantly larger malvertising environment.

Malvertisers are taking advantage of the current environment to steal user data and propagate misinformation around products and services by making it difficult to discern legitimate advertisements from scams. Increased sensitivity to keyword blocking further challenges publishers and their approach to legitimate advertising campaigns. It’s important to remember that an advertiser’s opportunistic campaign, or poor creative, doesn’t mean it’s a scam.

Which are the scams? *

Which poses the question: What is a scam ad?

Slippery slope between a scam and malware

Scam ads contain creative and/or domains that purposefully attempt to mislead and/or extort consumers for financial gain. Criteria for evaluating a scam could be subjective. However, experience provides guidance for activity that could potentially harm publisher reputations and revenue. (For these reasons, our malware taxonomy includes a scam/fraud type).

That said, there is a high correlation between coronavirus-related ad campaigns and scams. In fact, analysis of thousands of these campaigns confirms that approximately 60% of these sketchy campaigns do contain scam content. (Don’t worry, these overt scans are reported to federal authorities to supplement their investigations.) However, it’s a nuanced challenge that requires a thoughtful approach by Ad/Rev Ops teams.

Scam or no scam: Is that the question?

Various initiatives aim to shut down fraudsters—especially in the US and UK. But with thousands of ads and associated domains cropping up on a weekly basis, the scope is large. And, we continue to see abnormally high amounts of web-based attacks. Coronavirus-related ads run the gamut from normal medical equipment supplies to outright predatory shams.

The challenge is simultaneously removing the subjectivity from the process so publishers can serve brand-appropriate content and keep their revenue channels open, at scale. And, flexibility must exist as one’s poorly-designed creative is another’s prohibited bad ad.

To assess your approach to scam ads you need to:

  1. Determine the acceptable, foundational experience (UX) for your audience
  2. Review the percentage of Coronavirus ads trafficking through your environment
  3. Calculate revenue impacts for both campaign termination versus limited/restricted runs
  4. Develop policy and communicate to upstream partners. Policy should cover threshold for Coronavirus ads, examples in increasing restriction:
    1. Allowed, no special treatment
    2. Allowed-bounded, block scams
    3. Limited, only allow ads from designated partners
    4. Restricted, no coronavirus or COVID-19 referenced ads
  5. Monitor and enforce policy compliance via ad quality and security tools
  6. Identify poorly performing vendors and remove from your ecosystem

Knowing your partners makes it easier to catch, isolate and stop bad actors from taking advantage of your users. With an eye to maintaining a positive user experience, premium publishers will block campaigns classified as scam/fraud. Disabling the ability to defraud consumers is a critical step to building a healthier—and more rewarding—digital ecosystem.

In the immortal words of Frank Abagnale, Jr. “Stop chasing me!”. But, like Detective Carl Hanratty, we can’t stop: “It’s my job.”

*(Answer: 1 & 4)
Advertising | Perspectives

Now is the time for publishers to take back control

The forces that were already turning the publishing world upside down have been accelerated by the ongoing global pandemic. And publishers have been busy battening down the hatches as best they can. However, as the conversation shifts from sheltering in place to returning to some form of “normal,” publishers have a unique opportunity to shape the “normal” to which they’ll return on the other side of this crisis. 

Right now, as business-as-usual operations take a temporary pause due to the lockdown, repercussions reverberate across many industries. This offers publishers an unprecedented chance to roll up their sleeves and reset their course within the media landscape. Publishers know the direction they need to head. They’ve just lacked the break in the daily grind (and quarterly revenue expectations) to implement the course correction that they know is necessary for long-term sustainability. A pause in “business as usual” was sorely needed. 

Now is the time. This opportunity may not come again. Let’s look at how publishers can use this “pause” to take back control of their own destinies. They can use their collective power to transform the ad tech and media landscape for the future. 

Game changing

There’s no winning a direct battle against the triopoly. But publishers can still flourish in an ad world dominated by Google, Facebook, and Amazon. They simply cannot do it on their own. And they can’t do it by continuing down the same path they’ve been on. Banners and programmatic media represent the (same) game being played by the major platforms, only publishers are not as good at it. It’s time to play a different game, and at a scale that truly matters. It’s time for publishers to unite around the engagement and influence that define their value to consumers.   

When it comes to industry-wide collaboration, consider it a form of “herd immunity.” Coming out on the other side of the pandemic, publishers need to start working together to influence the media and ad tech landscape. It’s time to act as one and take some of the control back that has been willingly relinquished over the years. To do this, they need to focus on four key areas that they must influence in order to change the landscape: technology, data, inventory, and KPIs.

Cooperation and collective action

A healthy media business is characterized by healthy competition. But let’s face it: Covid-19 has the industry reeling. So, now we must re-evaluate what is best for our companies, and for the industry as a whole. We have an opportunity to reimagine the consortium mindset for a new era. We can look at DCN’s own TRUSTX as an example. By collectively providing premium inventory at scale, we create a technology backbone we can build upon.

Publishers don’t need to split their attention to become tech companies in their own right. They shouldn’t try to recreate Facebook or beat the existing walled gardens at hyper-targeting users with direct response ads. Publisher power lies in engagement and influence — changing minds and informing with trust and credibility. To capitalize on that power, they must work with partners that are incentivized to act in the publishers’ best interests and don’t work against these traits. 

They need partners that can help them unite to achieve a level of differentiation that has impact at a scale that matters. A big part of that is seeking out technology that can improve the speed, experiences, and ad quality on their sites. Lest publishers forget, ads are part of their content, and the quality of their ad experiences reflects on their brands.

Take control of your data

With a collaborative foundation to support them, it’s time for publishers to get their data back in order. Much as the Covid-19 pandemic offers the pause publishers need to hit the reset button, we’re also at a unique once-in-a-decade crossroads that will allow publishers to push back on the external data sources that have undercut their opportunities for the past decade. 

The world has been awash in third-party audience data for years now. And the providers of that data have been capturing a large part of the media value chain, diminishing the importance of the supply itself and publisher context. However, with the shift to cookieless environments and rise in privacy regulations, many of the tactics of these third-party data vendors have been rendered unsustainable. And this, in turn, opens up new opportunities for open web publishers to reclaim that value for themselves.

The problem is that many publishers are going down the same path of either fragmented homegrown solutions that will not matter in the long run or outsourcing everything to a new vendor. No matter how much more publisher-friendly those new data vendors are than the last ones, this individual outsourcing puts publishers at risk of losing their influence again down the road. Working together changes this. Publishers can aggregate their influence to serve the needs of the industry versus only those of the most demanding publishers.

Take control of your inventory

If publishers can come together to bring collective scale to their advertising opportunities, they’ll also be able to accomplish another much-desired initiative to increase sustainability: They can pull their inventory out of exchanges. It’s no secret that the backdoor access these exchanges have to publishers’ premium inventory is undercutting the value of their inventory. Programmatic success by third parties works against publishers’ interests. But of course, simply pulling your inventory from these third parties is not enough. Buyers do want ease and accessibility, which is why cooperation is key. Publishers must give them a way to buy that’s easy and exclusive.  

Take control of your KPIs

Should publishers really be judged on how well they get users to click off their sites?  If you’re looking to drive conversions, hit an audience or drive low-cost clicks, throw in the towel now.  Publishers will never beat a Facebook on user data, an Amazon on capturing commerce intent or Google on capturing search intent — never. Pardon the bluntness, but trying to beat the giants at their own game is like choosing to be the team that plays against the Harlem Globe Trotters. Don’t play a game you can’t win. 

Publishers are great at driving engagement, influence, and deeper thought across a smaller, more selective audience. The ad experience and the KPIs around them should reflect that. As powerful as the large platforms are, they are still largely built on direct response. Digital branding and mid-funnel influence is still nascent and a game that publishers are better equipped to play and win. 

Covid-19’s derailment of the daily business treadmill offers a unique opportunity for publishers to hit the soft reset button on their current paths and unite for a more sustainable future. If they seize this chance, they have the opportunity to wield far greater control over the post-pandemic world into which they emerge. They simply need the courage to not go back to “normal.”

The time is right. Let’s move.

Advertising | Perspectives | Revenue

Revenue or readers: Which one should you choose?

There’s a saying that what’s good for the scorpion is bad for the frog. For a long time in digital publishing, the same was true about advertising. What was good for advertising was bad for the reader.

By flashing auto-play ads, full interstitials, and full-screen scroll over ads, publishers could earn big revenue from ads that demand all of the reader’s attention. But we know that readers hate them. These ad types were also named and shamed in the Better Ads Standards “least preferred ad experiences.”

These ads don’t come without a price. Users may see the ads and they may even get duped into clicking them. However, the power of consumer choice kicks in later down the line. Unhappy users will simply leave these sites and find content elsewhere. By prioritizing pennies in the short term, a lot of publishers cost themselves dollars in reader loyalty and longer-term ad revenue.

The final straw

Either knowingly or not, publishers found the tipping point where the success of a short-term strategy has a worse effect on their long-term prospects. The cost is readers for revenue.

We have measured the effect of this “tipping point” for years. In order to get the balance right between the user experience and monetization, our platform measured 275M sessions over 23 publishers to land on a UI/UX specialized and optimized for digital content. We found that, by analyzing user behavior, you can find the exact point where mobile publishers’ monetization and engagement strategies start to damage your bottom line, even if your superficial metrics, such as CPMs, are going up.

There’s a simple philosophy that works. It’s better that a user reads two stories and sees two ads, rather than reads one story with two ads. This approach increases long-term user engagement as well as loyalty. We’ve distilled some of the tactics from our Publisher’s guide to ad-supported UX design to help media leaders balance readership and revenue in order to fine tune their individual strategies.

If users hate all ads, they really hate mobile ads

First and foremost, we need to understand that no reader likes mobile ads. A Blockthrough report shows us that readers block twice as many ads on mobile as on desktop. Hubspot research says that users find mobile ads annoying or intrusive, and that they slow the page down and disrupt the reader experience.

We know from years of print media, TV, and online content that users will accept ads. When done right, they even love them (wassssup?). This is all because these mediums found the method and message that consumers will accept when it comes to balancing an experience with adverts. For mobile publishers to monetize for long term growth, they need to find the optimum point where users consider their experience a worthy trade-off for the advertising they serve.

More content is the best way to serve more ads

If you take away one thing from this article, it should be that the reader, not the advertiser, comes first. Happy, engaged readers read more content. And they’re more receptive to the ads that accompany that content. Over-exposed bombarded readers are not forced to stay: they can leave the page, find alternative content, or simply block the ads. 

By optimizing your ad density, lazy loading ad impressions, and sticking to approved ad formats, advertising won’t overshadow the content. Adding recirculation and re-engagement features such as swipe navigation and push notifications will guide your users onto more content. By looking at metrics such as recurrency, scroll depth, and page views per user, rather than ad request volume, you can isolate techniques that keep your readers engaged.

Don’t ruin a good story with a terrible ad

There’s a good reason premium magazines get away with so many ad pages, even before the content begins. The ads form part of the experience. These top publishers incorporate the highest quality creatives and hyper-target them to their audience.

The same needs to be true of mobile publishers. It may seem intuitive to use as many ad networks as possible and prioritize high-volume networks that deliver inventory. However, publishers that want to keep their readership should stick to premium networks.

Don’t let bad creatives pull your reader out of the story and drag your brand reputation down by featuring low-quality products or services. By appearing in your publications, ads get a tacit endorsement from you. By limiting this to premium networks, you keep your reader immersed in a high-quality environment. You won’t turn them away for the sake of a higher volume of impressions. Measuring the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), rather than just page CPMs will show the effect a more premium  ad experience has on your long term revenue.

Every action you take as a publisher has an effect on your readers and your revenue. Adapting best practices and using new metrics to see the effects of individual changes helps publishers walk the most profitable line between readers and revenue. 

Advertising | Industry-Research | Perspectives

Why marketers should be afraid of the dark

It’s not news that we’re in uncharted territory. Covid-19 has shut down entire countries and the impact on our daily lives is unprecedented. For marketers, there’s uncertainty and fear. Many are wondering, “Should we be advertising at all during this time? And if so, “What type of messages and content are consumers are going to be receptive to?” For those in the former group, indications are clear: You should be afraid of going dark.

In a pre-Covid-19 world, marketers faced plenty of challenges in creating breakthrough marketing that reaches consumers, impacts their behaviors, and ultimately results in increases for their businesses. In Kantar’s Getting Media Right study (Oct 2019), 47% of advertisers polled indicated that they weren’t confident their organization is able to integrate multiple data sources to produce actionable insights. This indicates that even in “normal” times, it’s difficult to be successful.

Business, just not as usual

While it may seem like the safe bet is to pause, or go dark, brands that do so stand to risk much, especially in the long-term. Overall, US advertisers are spending less, however, no single industry has gone completely “dark.”

US media spend (Source: Kantar AdScope)

And in fact, some industries are on the rise and spending more than this time last year, such as household supplies. This category includes products like batteries, paper goods and cleaning products, which have become some of the most crucial items in our “shelter in place” environment.

US media spend, household supplies (Source: Kantar Adscope)

Brands are still advertising, but with adjusted or revamped messaging. In certain verticals, advertisers are beginning to reinvest dollars in media, most notably: household supplies, pharma, automotive, and consumables. Seeing this ad spend growth holds the promise of working toward a recovery.

Consumers are listening

And consumers want to hear from brands right now too. Research out of Kantar’s Covid-19 Barometer from March indicates that only 6% of Americans surveyed say brands should stop advertising. Additionally, around 80% of those surveyed want advertisers to continue communicating in an educational and encouraging way, without exploiting the crisis.

Kantar’s Link™ database has shown that when an ad connects with people through emotions and makes them “feel good.” This, in turn, helps drive preference and choice at the time of purchase. Ads that appeal emotionally and authentically are more likely to result in increased short-term sales and long-term brand equity.

In support against going dark during this time is the simple fact that audiences are spending more time with media and content than ever before – especially those which can be consumed at home. In the past month, consumers indicated 30%+ increases in TV and TV On-demand/streaming and 26% increase in online video consumption.

Increased media usage in past month (Source: Kantar Covid-19 Barometer, 2020)

Connecting with consumers

Advertisers have an opportunity to expand into platforms where consumers are spending more time. So, they need to retool planning and funnel media dollars into these channels. Those who are ahead of their peers, having increased budget and optimized content to emotionally support their audiences, are beginning to expand into premium channels and platforms – like OTT – where they can effectively target more niche audiences. On average, premium online video is nearly 50% more impactful for brands than standard online media. Streaming and over-the-top content can also help drive measures like brand awareness and key message associations at nearly twice the average.

Average brand impact across channels (Source: Kantar MarketNorms® 2020)

More time, more attention – more opportunities to connect with consumers, even if the sale isn’t immediate. Now is the time to grow relationships and lay the groundwork for future prosperity. Over 80% of marketers recognize the need to consider ROI as a mix of both short-term (sales) and long-term (brand). However, only 54% actually measure a mix, with a large portion – 38% – focused primarily on short-term as an indication of success (Source: Kantar’s Getting Media Right, Oct 2019). At a time like this, that may not be realistic for all industries, so consider how best to measure the effectiveness of your efforts.

It’s true, it’s a scary time. It’s easy to let fear and uncertainty take hold and influence decision-making. But, if you can overcome that fear, peel back the curtain and let in the light, you don’t need to be afraid of the dark.

Advertising | Industry-Research | Revenue

Q2 ad rates are at a historic low: This is how publishers should address it

The coronavirus pandemic has caused ad rates to fall to a historic low. On April 3rd, an index score of 37 was recorded, as compared with an index score of 56 at the same time the previous year. The index looks at ad rates publishers are being paid for their ad inventory across the web, normalizes them, and then models the data on a scale from 1 to 100. 

The industry is experiencing the lowest ad rates seen since Thursday, May 12, 2016. That was the last time the index was this low. 

What we’ve seen throughout the last few years is ad rates having a linear improvement pretty much across the board. Ad rates go up and then drop down at the first of the month. Additionally, this oscillating pattern of ad rates occurs month-to-month, quarterly, and annually. This is due to the way marketers run their advertising budgets.

That’s why the rises and drops in ad rates are fairly predictable. They drop at the beginning of every quarter. Then they spike heavily on Black Friday, which is usually when the records are set. Q4 is consistently one of the highest-earning time for publishers across most verticals. 

Looking at 2019 vs 2020 for ad rates, 2020 is a bit lower to begin with. In the second week of March, when the crisis started expanding into North America, advertisers adjusted their budgets and ad rates have continued to decline. 

The impact on programmatic bidding

The industry as a whole is experiencing many advertisers having to hunker down, with whole industries asking for government bailouts. And this is resulting in the lower overall competition.

Example: Around March 13, a major hotel brand decreased its advertising spend on their ad campaign.

Yes, advertisers spending less. But this downtrend in ad rates is also impacting the competitiveness of the programmatic auctions on publishers’ sites. 

These auctions are based on historical bidding data. This means the decrease in ad rates the industry is experiencing might get worse as more advertisers drop out of the mix and competition gets lower and lower.

This decline is compounded by platforms like Google Ad Manager because they will continue to help advertisers understand where they can bid lower and buy ad inventory more cheaply.

Supply and demand are critical factors

For many publishers, supply is at an all-time high. This is particularly true for news publishers that are writing about the coronavirus. In fact, they’re providing more and more ad impressions than they ever provided before. Additionally, other publishers are experiencing more traffic or trying to create more content than they have in the past due to the demands of consumers with more free time or to try to offset decreases in revenue.

This increase in supply is diluting demand even further. There is more available ad space with fewer advertisers bidding. The more ad space available, the lower advertisers will bid. This effect is compounding the negative effect falling ad rates have on publisher revenues.

Ideally what a publisher wants is a limited number of ad space with many advertisers competing for that space. What we are witnessing in the case of the coronavirus pandemic is the exact opposite.

One thing publishers need to be very cautious about right now is increasing their ad impressions (or the ads on the page) to better monetize their sites. By not testing different sizes and locations right now to provide the best competition, publishers are missing out on a strategy that can really turn the tables for them financially during these uncertain times. 

Websites that are leaving the same number of ads, or increasing the number of ads, without testing sizes and locations will likely be the ones most negatively affected as we move through Q2 into Q3.

What will happen next?

As the pandemic gets worse, advertisers will try to stockpile as much cash as possible. Once people go back to work, Q2 is likely to start to improve. Traditionally, the end of Q2 has performed pretty well. So if advertisers are confident that things are going to start to improve, the ad spend will increase, and demand will start to go up.

Until then, publishers really need to be focusing on optimizing the number of ads on the page, their sizes, and locations. Ultimately, this is the only leverage they have to restrict the supply as the demand continues to diminish. This is especially true of sites that are in travel or other niches whose advertisers are most drastically impacted. 

We look forward to economic and advertising recovery in the future. However, it is critical that publishers optimize their revenue in the meantime. And to do so, they need to think very carefully about creating the right ad placements and optimal number of impressions. 

Industry-Research

Post-coronavirus content: A Chartbeat analysis of global engagement data

Reader interest in coronavirus content has begun to wane. In fact, since March 30, we’ve seen traffic to Covid-19 articles is down nearly 25%.

As Covid-19 fatigue sets in, we wondered how audiences would interact with non-coronavirus content. Therefore, we looked to past data on highly-engaging content to find insights that may help inform content strategy in our near future. 

Do readers spend more time with great content? Yes

We began by analyzing content with the Top 100 articles with the highest engagement from last year (otherwise known as our Most Engaging Stories) against articles published in 2019 with at least 10,000 pageviews*. That data was then compared to our findings on coronavirus and non-coronavirus engagement (as of April 3 of this year) to get a glimpse of what to expect from readers moving forward. Here’s what we found.

For starters, the Top 100 articles of 2019 had a much higher Average Engaged Time compared to the others we analyzed, as we see below.

We’ll narrow this finding to two hypotheses. The first is that the majority of these articles are simply longer, and therefore command more of the reader’s time. The second is that they’re actually more engaging, with audiences actively reading longer.

When we add our Engaged Time data to the mix, it suggests the latter. Readers placed a higher value on this content, or understandably, spent more time with the captivating pieces when you account for scroll and click behavior. Audiences spent an average of more than two-and-a-half minutes (141 seconds) with the Top Stories compared to an average of about 39 seconds with articles that had more than 10,000 pageviews.

Compare this to our latest data on coronavirus-related and non-coronavirus articles, which found readers spent an average of 40 seconds and 36 seconds, respectively, with articles that had far more pageviews (>800,000 since January).

Therefore, while coronavirus content has understandably drawn the world’s attention, it still doesn’t come close to the Engaged Time we saw for high quality journalism last year.

Why this matters to publishing and media organizations

Content creators will likely feel validated by these findings. In fact, some publications have made it a focus to produce fewer, yet more substantial, pieces in lieu of cranking out lightning fast content. When it comes to being a more engaging piece of content, those efforts appear to be rewarded. 

Is social media a factor in non-coronavirus engagement? We think so

We also saw that the Top 100 articles from last year have much higher proportions of referrals from search and social channels. This suggests that their offsite success contributed to their higher Engaged Minutes tally.

The data also shows that, in general, the Top 100 articles had higher search traffic as a percentage of total pageviews, as shown below.

In comparison, our long-term findings have shown that once critical information is widely known, traffic begins to decline, particularly in search. This finding was supported by our newest data on referrals to coronavirus content, as shown here:

Why this matters to publishing and media organizations

While “going viral” isn’t necessarily the goal for writers and their publishers, the popularity of the Top 100 stories with audiences from external platforms had a sustained impact on engagement. We see that organic channels (i.e. getting the eyes of multiple outlets or social media readers) was significant to the Total Engaged Minutes of these pieces. As coronavirus coverage slows down, these attributes can signal a return to the engagement norm.

Can engaging pieces attract more loyal or new readers? Our findings say yes

In our analysis of new versus loyal visitors, we found that the Top 100 have higher proportions of new visitors. The data suggests that these more engaging articles manage to transcend a site’s typical audience and draw new readers’ interest.

Why this matters to publishing and media organizations

This should also come as good news to media and publishing as they look to transition to non-coronavirus content, all while maintaining the strong traffic momentum from the past few months.

Today’s digital publishers are also as focused on retention as they are on acquisition, especially when it comes to generating reader-driven revenue. In this instance, we see an engaging story as a chance to introduce new readers to content. It also presents a better opportunity to create returning (i.e., loyal) audiences that will read more than a single article.

What to make of a post-coronavirus content world: Our takeaways

Overall, our data suggests that highly engaging stories will display certain qualities as readership (and production of) coronavirus-related content declines. Those included:

  • A higher Average Engaged Time among readers
  • Greater search and social media referral traffic
  • New visitors (a possible benefit from the aforementioned social media boost)

What does this mean for content creators trying to recreate the positive impact of an engaging piece of content moving forward?

Longform still has a place, but isn’t the only distinguishing factor for the most engaging reads. Audiences made more time for long, captivating narratives.

The Top 100 stories we analyzed were given a boost by search and social media, whether on the backs of their organizations or influential readers that elevated them. Good practices across SEO, promotion and re-promotion are key to maintaining momentum for prolonged periods.

Engaging pieces are not just for loyal readers. Content creators can use these marquee pieces to attract new visitors as well. One way to attract new audiences is by leveraging a wider set of platforms (such as mobile aggregators) where your content’s quality will  also command a high level of attention.

*A note from our Data Science team on engagement methodology:
The plot above shows the distribution of Average Engaged Times for the two groups of stories, normalized so that the total area under the distribution curve equals 1.0.  We see that about 40% of the Average Engaged Times for stories in the Top 100 group take values greater than 150 seconds, while almost none of the stories in the other group have an Average Engaged Time greater than 150 seconds.  

We can interpret this to mean that the probability a Top Story has an Average Engaged Time greater than 150 seconds is about 0.40, while the probability a story with 10K+ page views has more than 150 seconds Average Engaged Time is practically zero. If we take the average of each small bin of Average Engaged Times weighted by the probability that the Average Engaged Time falls within the range of the bin, we can get  the mean Averaged Engaged Time for each group. 
Advertising | Perspectives | Uncategorized

Fact check series, part two: contextual targeting, audience targeting, and match rates

Despite confusing messages from Data Management Platform start-ups, publishers need to understand the differences between contextual and audience targeting solutions. This knowledge will help them effectively match consumers to marketers at scale.

Let’s put match rates into context (pun Intended)

Some of the new DMP start-ups are presenting publishers with a playbook to perform a match test that will show how their platform delivers higher user match rates.

These DMP’s ask: “How many of your users are invisible for targeting in your DMP?” Then, they answer with:

  • Create an “Everyone” segment in your current DMP (all users with 1+ pageviews)
  • Run an adserver (i.e., Google Ad Manager/DFP) ad impression query against this “Everyone” segment
  • Run a second ad impressions query without the “Everyone” segment (e.g., untargeted)
  • Divide the “Everyone” segment by the untargeted segment

And, according to them, that’s your match rate of targetable users.

I’ve seen match rate used in many ways throughout my 20+ year marketing career. But this is the first time I’ve seen a company purposely confuse and conflate ad impressions with users, adservers with DMPs, and devise a testing methodology that mixes up contextual targeting with audience targeting. Oh, and it actually distracts from the unique benefits that DMPs can provide to publishers.

Some of these new DMP’s present contextual targeting solutions as if they are audience targeting solutions. The fact is that publishers need to better understand the differences in order to make informed decisions.

First there was contextual targeting…

It’s said that modern advertising began to take shape with newspapers and magazines in the 16th and 17th centuries. Most advertising relied on the associated content to aggregate an audience with certain attributes (demographics, interests, etc,). This is contextual targeting. The early days of digital advertising were remarkably similar. Whether advertising on dial-up services or the emergence of the web, advertising “banners” were contextually aligned with digital content.

Today, contextual targeting is still incredibly effective and compelling for marketers to access relevant groups of consumers in digital environments. Technologies have evolved and improved to provide everything from semantic content analysis to transmitting content categories and keywords into programmatic bidding exchanges.

One of its key benefits is that it does not have direct dependencies on cookies or other identifiers in order to target and deliver advertising. With increasing challenges persisting cookies/web identifiers and expanding privacy regulations, contextual targeting continues to be important for publishers. 

DMPs can play important roles supporting publishers and marketers in their contextual targeting initiatives. DMPs with strong inter-platform connectivity are excellent tools for providing analytics and insights on consumers that visit certain web pages or consume certain content.

For example, if a publisher would like a 360-degree view of the interests and attributes of consumers that read certain content, then a connected DMP can provide valuable insights by overlaying 1st, 2nd, and/or 3rd party data segments onto content reader segments. This can help publishers and their marketer partners better understand whether certain contextual media buys will provide a material volume of consumers that fit the marketer’s criteria.

However, there are also important shortcomings to contextual targeting as a standalone approach. Modern marketers are increasingly using their own 1st party data and select 3rd party data sources to help drive media planning, activation, and analytics. While pure contextual targeting is important to access consumers in certain channels, and in premium contexts at scale, there’s a significant need to more precisely access data-driven consumer audience segments for better efficiency and efficacy. Enter audience targeting.

Audience targeting and consumer addressability

About 10 years ago, the first generation of DMPs came on the scene to provide publishers with the ability to create 1st party audience segments, and then activate those audience segments through the publishers’ adserver. This afforded publishers and marketers with a set of audience targeting tools to augment their existing contextual targeting tools.

One way to think about the differences between contextual targeting and audience targeting is that contextual targeting reaches all consumers in the context of particular content, with no ability to distinguish one consumer from the next. However, audience targeting can more granularly reach individual consumers irrespective of context. Simply put, audience targeting can be thought of as “addressable” consumer targeting.

It’s important to note that in early audience targeting, the DMP-to-adserver integration technique of choice was to pass audience segment IDs as in-page key-values. Subsequently, that technique shifted to server-to-server integrations. A simple ID-sync (a.k.a. “pixel sync”) allowed each party to access their own Profile IDs (PIDs) for those users and easily translate that PID across platforms. So for example, the DMP accesses its PID  from a cookie and sees it as DMP_123. An adserver such as DFP accesses its PID from a cookie and sees it as DFP_456. By syncing the PIDs between platform partners, both parties would know that DMP_123 = DFP_456.

If 3rd party cookies are blocked — and only 1st party cookies or local storage are available to store Profile IDs (PIDs) — then it’s very challenging to sync PIDs for server-to-server audience segment transfers from DMPs to adservers. Therefore, as a result of Apple Safari ITP and Mozilla Firefox ETP blocking 3rd party cookies, publishers have reverted to the classic in-page key-value passing of segment IDs from DMPs to adservers. DMP start-ups feature the in-page key-value integration method with adservers.

There’s something these so-called “next gen” DMPs don’t tell publishers about their match test methodology. If you are currently using a pixel-sync server-to-server method with your current DMP, then it will only return addressable consumers (and media avails) that are associated with persistent PIDs stored in 3rd party cookies or Mobile Ad IDs.

Their supposed test is designed to convince publishers that they have a deficiency in their DMP’s capabilities. Instead it highlights that publishers should examine their DMP-to-adserver integration techniques and augment/replace server-to-server integrations with in-page key-value integrations. Established DMPs all feature in-page key-value integration options for publishers.

Knowledge is power

It’s troubling that DMP start-ups are purposely providing a match test methodology to publishers that purports to point out how a publisher’s current DMP is technically deficient. Really, they are taking advantage of a lack of knowledge around differences in adserver integration techniques.

They know that regardless of which DMP you use, the in-page key-value method for an “Everyone” segment will always return more users (and media avails) than the pixel-sync server-to-server method due to the absence of PIDs stored in 1st party cookies and local storage in the latter technique. When using the same in-page key-value integration technique, a full-featured DMP platform will return the same number of “Everyone” users and media impressions as the new breed of contextual targeters.

This match rate methodology focuses on the specific use case of transforming contextual targeting avails into audience targeting avails. Is this a more important metric than ROI? Not by a long shot. A modern day connected DMP will provide publishers with ad products and solutions to assist with audience development, content development and personalization, consumer marketing and subscriptions, and open up new revenue streams such as data licensing.

Research

Publishers are focused on revenue and time on site

Due to recent trends in news related to the Covid-19 outbreak, publisher traffic is booming. Not only are people visiting publisher sites more, they’re also sticking around longer and reading more content.

Last month, we surveyed publishers, agencies, and brands to ask them about their top priorities for the year. We uncovered insights related to revenue and engagement in 2020, which are more relevant now than ever.

Ninety online publishers responded to our survey—a mix of representatives from both small and large businesses from a variety of different verticals. We’ll share the results we uncovered, indicating a focus on revenue and engagement, and strategies for tackling those goals.

Whose goals are they?

When we took a look at survey respondents by job function, we saw a mix of representation from sales, business development, revenue and ad operations, product, editorial and executive management. The majority of respondents came from revenue, ad operations, and business development. This is probably why revenue made it to the top of the priority pile.

This mix of survey respondents came from publisher businesses of a variety of sizes. They included everyone from large publishing houses in the global news sphere to smaller niche-based publishers looking to reach their audiences more effectively.

These publishers cover a variety of topics. The most heavily represented were business, entertainment, news, and technology. Some of these publishers span more than one news vertical and we allowed each respondent to select all of the verticals that were most relevant to their operations.

All of this to say that a wide range of people from publishers of all types revealed their top KPIs for their businesses across the board.

Top KPIs: revenue and time on site

Respondents were given a list of potential KPIs to choose from. Most respondents selected revenue and time on site as their top KPI for the year.

Not far behind these KPIs was direct advertising revenue, returning visitors, sponsored content click-through-rate (CTR) and reader revenue and/or subscriptions.

The focus on time on site and returning visitors indicates high interest in user engagement. Publishers don’t want visitors to come around once and then leave. They’re looking for people to stay, consume more content and come back again.

Other top KPIs are a clear support of revenue-driving efforts.

Tips for increasing revenue and time on site

The best way to increase both revenue and engagement metrics like time on site is easier said than done. It is important to reach the right person, with the right content, at the right time. In reality, doing so requires a holistic strategy behind the content itself, your site’s design, and exactly what monetization efforts you’re deploying for each user.

Valuable content

You know your site visitors better than anyone out there, including their definition of valuable and entertaining content. On top of this know-how, recent events have proven that publishers can do a lot to act on current events to stay relevant for their users.

We’ve seen publishers do the following:

  • Take down their paywalls for Covid-19 related content.
  • Replace in-person events with virtual events to encourage people staying inside and possibly recoup revenue lost from cancelled live events.
  • Curate lists of entertainment ideas, products, and services related to their niche to inspire people while they stay inside.

These strategies can expand beyond issues related to the current global pandemic. For example, providing sporadic free content related to holidays, current events, and cultural milestones is a good strategy for publishers looking to engage new readers.

Pleasing to read, watch or browse

Having the valuable content is half the battle. You also need to make sure your content is easy to consume on all types of platforms, is pleasing to the eye, and easy to access.

Here are some tips inspired by advanced publishers:

  • Consider segmenting your user experience by loyalty. Users that return to your site to consume content more often might see more organic content or more opportunities to subscribe. (Side note: Defining exactly what loyalty means for you can be tough. We’ve spoken to publishers who define it using everything from pageviews in a set number of days to breadth of interest on site.)
  • Change your paywall depending on who’s looking at it. There’s more than one way to put up a paywall, and provide options like free trials, complimentary access with a purchase or exclusive access to certain pieces of coverage might be a good option depending on the user.
  • All content should be responsive, keeping various types of mobile audiences in mind.

The right mix of content initiatives and monetization efforts is the best medicine for hitting your KPI goals this year, no matter the landscape. Staying authentic, valuable and top of mind for your site visitors is the best way to keep them engaged and drive revenue.

Perspectives

5 Ways to repurpose the same journalism to diversify revenue

As multi-channel has given way to omnichannel distribution, publishers no longer seek print readers or digital readers. Instead, they recognize that they must reach the same reader across mediums to have a real impact. Print, digital, audio, video, social media, smart speakers, connected cars – the sheer number of news mediums can be daunting. As multi-channel has given way to omnichannel distribution, publishers no longer seek print readers or digital readers. Instead, they recognize that they must reach the same reader across mediums to have a real impact.It’s official: multi-channel has given way to “omnichannel”. Publishers no longer seek “print readers” or “digital readers,” instead they recognize that they must reach the same reader across several mediums to have a real impact. Print, digital, audio, video, social media, smart speakers, connected cars – the sheer number of news mediums can be daunting. As multi-channel has given way to omnichannel distribution, publishers no longer seek print readers or digital readers. Instead, they recognize that they must reach the same reader across mediums to have a real impact.It’s official: multi-channel has given way to “omnichannel”. Publishers no longer seek “print readers” or “digital readers,” instead they recognize that they must reach the same reader across several mediums to have a real impact. Print, digital, audio, video, social media, smart speakers, connected cars – the sheer number of news mediums can be daunting. As multi-channel has given way to omnichannel distribution, publishers no longer seek print readers or digital readers. Instead, they recognize that they must reach the same reader across mediums to have a real impact.It’s official: multi-channel has given way to “omnichannel”. Publishers no longer seek “print readers” or “digital readers,” instead they recognize that they must reach the same reader across several mediums to have a real impact. Print, digital, audio, video, social media, smart speakers, connected cars – the sheer number of news mediums can be daunting.

True omnichannel publishers have recognized that repackaging the same journalism in multiple ways is the secret to keeping up and presents revenue opportunities previously unimagined. Every new platform or trendy format will ultimately rely on the same storytelling and the same six questions: who, what, when, where, why and how?

Poynter Institute fellow Mike Wendland talked about the concept of “convergence” all the way back in 2002, sharing the example of the Tampa Tribune – an early experiment in “repurposing” journalism:

“In Tampa, the TV station, the newspaper and the Website are all owned by the same corporation, Media General. On a daily basis, TV reporters do their stand-ups and then write bylined newspaper stories. Newspaper reporters write their stories and then appear before TV cameras to do “talk-back” debriefings or their own stand-ups. And everybody — reporters, editors, photographers — ‘repurpose’ their work for the website.”

Now, such a practice is commonplace for large media organizations and increasingly accessible for local media. While there are plenty of vehicles, old and new, for journalism, there are five that should be used in tandem to share the same work from your newsroom:

1. Interactive Online Articles

Enhancing print edition articles with interactive elements online is a great way to engage readers with the same journalism. The Washington Post published this Coronavirus simulator in multiple languages to help bring their other reporting to life. It’s the same data that support their other stories, but the visual, interactive elements draw the reader in, keep them engaged and encourage them to subscribe.

David Leonhardt from The New York Times commented on the unique power of interactive journalism to not only repurpose the same facts, but spur on additional content, saying: “One of the less obvious benefits of interactive journalism is the way in which it generates its own follow-up articles.”

2. Podcasts

Considering our busy lives and tendency towards multitasking, is it any wonder that more than half of US adults listen to podcasts daily? Podcasts represent a great opportunity to repurpose a story and dig a little deeper, perhaps taking readers behind the scenes or sharing more historical context.

James Rooney, VP of Revenue Technologies at The New York Times, shared with the audience at Lineup Systems’ 2019 User Conference how his team leverages The Daily in this manner:

“We publish several hundred articles a day, and one of those articles each weekday becomes the basis for The Daily podcast. During that podcast, one of our esteemed journalists, Michael Barbaro, gives the story behind the story. He interviews the journalist who wrote it and other people who were involved in that piece of content. So, from that one piece of content, that original journalism, we actually have two more degrees of revenue opportunities. And within those, we can diversify the revenue streams even more. “

3. Video

Video journalism can range from highly produced packages to simply capturing a podcast recording session on camera. You already know the benefits of video journalism – after all, it’s not new. What is new is short-form, quick packages shared across a variety of platforms (more on this in a moment), and the barrier to entry is lower than ever before.

Jon Savitt from Huff Post explored the impact of video on journalism, and neatly explained that the reduction in time from an event occurring and a smartphone user reading the story means “we all need to get better at being multimedia producers.”

4. Social Media

“Social media” is a huge category with many separate platforms and formats, making it a great tool for repurposing other content. Add images over podcast audio for a quick, easy to produce video. Share individual packages or user generated content. As many ways as your team can slice and dice other content, social media platforms are a great way to experiment.

Looking for inspiration? Here’s how other news media organizations dominate on:

5. Voice Search

By the end of 2020, voice searches are expected to make up half of all online searches. Currently, 65% of smart speaker owners between the ages of 25 and 49 speak to their devices at least once a day. Knowing that voice technology will become the primary way the next generation of consumers will search for and buy products means publishers must prepare their web content to rank for organic voice search.

Voice queries are longer than traditional text-based searches, and most are questions. According to Search Engine Watch, the top questions people ask their smart speakers are who, what, when, where, why and how – the foundations of journalism!

To take advantage of this channel, make sure your online articles clearly and concisely answer these questions in layman’s terms, and you’ll be killing two birds with one stone.

Advertising | Innovation | Perspectives

How blockchain can – and can’t – help advertisers navigate TV and video

The global blockchain market has seen rapid expansion, with investment expected to exceed $60 billion by 2024. This technology is not always the best option for all use cases – particularly those where high-speed data transmission is key. However, blockchain does have a number of characteristics that make it highly suited to TV and video advertising. Fortunately, the use of blockchain-based systems is not an all or nothing proposition.

What most people don’t realize is that blockchain is not one technology, but a comprehensive system of several interconnected technical capabilities. An immutable ledger, distributed databases, cryptography, consensus rules, and peer-to-peer networking all contribute to blockchain’s functionality. By assembling these base technologies into blockchain-based systems, engineers and entrepreneurs worldwide have just begun to scratch the surface of potential applications.

Within the advertising ecosystem, blockchain can be applied across a number of interesting use cases. Peer-to-peer networking and cryptography can be incorporated into the workflow as a way of reducing costs, removing friction between data owners and those who wish to benefit from such data, and creating more scalable, automated supply chains. Use cases extend throughout the media buying process, from planning and execution, to measurement and attribution. 

One use case where blockchain is particularly applicable is enabling data-driven TV and video advertising in a secure and privacy efficient manner. This is achieved through peer-to-peer data matching using encryption techniques and without reliance on third party providers.

Enabling addressability at scale

Linear TV advertising reaches large audiences with engaging content in a trusted, brand safe environment. And digital video advertising offers sophisticated data-driven targeting. As the two parts of the ecosystem converge, advertisers want the best of both, and are expecting 40% of total TV advertising to be data-enabled by this year. The ability to apply data to accurately target relevant prospects and customers at the desired frequency, and then effectively measure business outcomes, will prove the value of TV advertising and ensure it has a healthy, competitive future. 

Today’s viewers can access premium video content via a seemingly infinite variety of channels and devices, including linear, video-on-demand streaming, direct to consumer, connected TV and mobile. These various touchpoints produce billions of gigabytes of data, but it is difficult to use this information at scale to build a comprehensive view of the advertiser’s target audience, generate insight and inform media buys.

Advertisers are keen to activate their customer data by matching it across different distributors, inventory owners, or TV networks, enabling better ad targeting, measurement and reporting. But the process of audience resolution currently relies on third parties outside of the supply chain, which adds friction in terms of expense and turnaround time, as well as limiting data control. Almost two-fifths of marketers cite data matching or identity resolution among the top three barriers to using data for building TV advertising segments.  

Blockchain-inspired peer-to-peer technology is making addressability at scale a reality by establishing a safe identity layer for advertising. By recognizing and connecting cross-channel data points to target audiences, it allows advertisers to match their customers with inventory partners across the TV and video ecosystem, without revealing any of their proprietary data. Advertisers can identify their audiences and reach them via multiple channels and devices, without being reliant on third-party services. The technology also enriches the viewer’s experience by making it more relevant and engaging. It also adds business value for publishers who can augment their video inventory with valuable audience insights.

Optimizing security and privacy

Of course, the use of data for audience resolution and ad targeting is complicated somewhat by data regulation, with all participants in the ecosystem having to ensure they use and share data in a privacy compliant manner. With protecting data privacy currently a top priority for advertisers, any use of personal information for targeting must be respectful of user preferences.

Again, blockchain-based protocols like peer-to-peer networking and cryptography answer many of these needs by enabling data connectivity without exposing underlying data. Raw data never leaves the owner’s environment. And participants of the network can securely link audiences without having to centralize data or expose it to third parties.

These tools enable advertisers to respect their customers’ right to privacy by keeping any identifiable information safe from third-party access and providing full control over which queries from other network participants they answer. Therefore, advertisers can make the most of their customer data, using it to generate insights and make media buying more efficient.

After a couple of years of hype and experimentation, blockchain technology is now becoming understood for what it is – a complex interplay of technologies, which can be unpacked for use cases to which its individual properties are best suited. By enabling data connectivity across the converging TV ecosystem, while at the same time maintaining data control and protecting customer privacy, blockchain-inspired protocols are helping to realize the promise of audience-based, data-driven TV and premium video buying at scale across all channels and devices. 

Perspectives

Data-driven digital content is key to brand success

Every company today, regardless of industry, is a digital company. This has to be the case for a company to survive in the connected age.

What this means is that every company has an abundance of data. However, some just aren’t using it to the fullest advantage. That’s one of the reasons many companies choose third-party partners to help them wade through it and strategize a path toward stronger customer engagement.

So what have you got?

The first step to successfully reaching new customers and retaining current ones is by analyzing the data you have. What are current customers interested in? Does one age group, gender or economic background dominate the current customer base? What values and features appeal to them, and which ones don’t? How do they want to receive their information, and why? 

One thing that insights provided by data analysis can do is help a company better tell its story. For example, when Proctor & Gamble’s Febreeze originally launched, it was a failure. So P&G hired a researcher from Harvard Business School to help them sort through their data and create new data by interviewing potential customers.

They discovered that the people who needed the product most had no idea they needed it, because they had gotten so used to their odors. With this knowledge, they adjusted their messaging, promoting Febreeze as a kind of “finishing touch” product you use after cleaning a room. Their new advertisements were incredibly successful.

So what do you need?

In other instances, new data forces companies to completely overhaul their digital infrastructure and find new ways to engage their audiences. This was our experience working with PBS in 2009. The data showed the company that users were moving away from broadcast television and towards web-based programming and content.

This posed a particular problem for PBS: The organization was spread out across 187 different member stations, and many of those stations had started to build out their own online viewing experiences. PBS needed a backbone – one strong enough to keep together different kinds of content, different mediums and different platforms.

So that’s what we did. We created a fully digital ecosystem that incorporated content from PBS and PBS Kids and built APIs that transmitted that content to iPads, set-top boxes, and smartphones across the country. As a result, PBS saw a huge spike in engagement. The PBS and PBS Kids app boast over 58 million downloads and their platforms stream hundreds of millions of videos each month.

Significantly, this new digital-first approach enabled the organization to generate even more insights that drove content and strengthened programming. But these huge changes all emerged from that core, data-driven insight. Without it, PBS would have floundered.

Real insights drive results

It’s important to note that not all data is relevant – it’s about knowing what the right data is in a data-saturated era. Data only matters if it gives insights into the people a company is trying to connect with. Then, this data has to be leveraged to communicate with customers in a memorable way. Too many people find their attention divided among multiple phones, laptops, channels, and platforms.

As we enter this new decade, take advantage of these key digital tools, but remember that even the most cutting-edge innovations aren’t what make a sale. It’s knowing who people are and helping them envision who they can be.

About the author

Jessica Hall is vice president of product strategy and design at 3Pillar Global and the co-author of The Product Mindset: Succeed in the Digital Economy by Changing the Way Your Organization Thinks.

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