The subscription economy is firing on all cylinders and across all verticals. However, an avalanche of subscription offers turns up the competition for audience attention. Content companies must find innovative ways to drive customer connection and conversion to rise above the noise.
The stakes are high and so are the profits. The 2021 Subscription Economy Index published by subscription technology platform Zuora, reveals an impressive 21% uptick in subscription revenue growth in Q4 2020 alone compared to the previous quarter. That’s yet another data point in a growth trajectory that has seen subscription revenues increase 6x over the last nine years.
But cashing in on the boom requires publishers to embrace flexibility and customer convenience, even for cancellations. It’s not enough to build the capabilities to sell as a one-time transaction to readers. Publishers must reach potential subscribers in the right context, and at the right stage of the customer journey, to reinforce the decision to commit to recurring costs.
Personalize pricing and paywalls
Each customer is an individual, not a generalized demographic. Their willingness to subscribe also differs widely. Most efforts focus on moving consumers from free trials to the full-meal deal. However, an increasing number of content companies are experimenting with flexible pricing and new subscription billing models.
Some publishers offer readers the option to commit to smaller, more frequent payments instead of annual subscriptions. Others remove friction by providing options that allow consumers to manage or upgrade their accounts quickly and easily. While these efforts to convert consumers deeper in the funnel can yield impressive results, they bypass the business benefits publishers can gain from customizing pricing earlier in the consumer journey.
Publishers are “leaving money on the table by not changing subscription offers and upsells based on acquisition source,” according to Andy Carvell, CEO and partner at Phiture, a mobile growth consultancy that specializes in app engagement and retention.
Keynoting at CleverTap Quarterly, Carvell advised publishers to use data to optimize pricing and advertising based on acquisition source. At a basic level, this means showing consumers a different offer or pricing depending on whether they come into the app via paid advertising versus if they discover your app organically.
Customize for customer wins
Different platforms attract different audience segments. But publishers should resist giving away discounts based on generalizations. “The theme here is: Go in high and then drop prices after they [consumers] have resisted a few of your paywalls,” Carvell says. However, rather than assume a GenZer exposed to your content via a TikTok ad can’t afford a subscription, check the data. Metrics such as low time-to-install or time-to-conversion suggest high intent and signal a strong willingness to pay.
Consistency across the funnel is critical. Align the pricing on the paywall with the ad campaigns and copy currently running on your acquisition channels and ad networks. That way, Carvell says, “the user feels like the subscription is right for them because you’re speaking the same language as you did in the app.”
Cancellations and connections
Customizing top-of-the-funnel communications can attract and convert subscribers. But what do you do when your audience makes the conscious decision to cancel?
This is the cue for most publishers to show apologetic pop-ups or send emotional emails asking for a second chance. Granted, a sincere message to remind consumers their subscription matters or helps support quality journalism can be convincing. But if publishers are delivering this nudge after consumers click the button and prepare to make their exit, it may be a moment too late.
A better approach is to preempt the decision altogether by playing to FOMO fears and showing consumers upcoming content they don’t want to miss. It’s the strategy Sasha Kurdiuk, head of customer experience at Shahid MBC, has followed. Shahid is the leading Arabic language video-on-demand service globally known for the largest library of Arabic movies, shows and dramas – including two Emmy–nominated series.
In a podcast interview, Kurdiuk told me how he uses personalized perks and content shorts to stop churn before it starts. “Rather than pop-up and ask you not to go, which is a message that could enrage you if you are determined to cancel, we asked ourselves what might happen if we showed you a bit of the top content you haven’t watched.”
Drawing from behavioral and analytics around what subscribers view and enjoy, Kurdiuk’s team personalizes messaging to influence them at this critical moment. “Contextually relevant communications convince many subscribers to think twice and then press resubscribe,” Kurdiuk says. It’s also the well-timed and highly customized nudge that has allowed Shahid to “reduce voluntary cancellations by more than 20%.”
Given the pressure on content companies to compete for advertising, it is only good news that the subscription economy is booming. However, as an increasing number of products, entertainment, and information services compete for subscription revenue, companies must work hard to stay competitive. They will need to stretch their models and personalize offers and experiences to drive connection and conversion across the subscriber lifecycle.
As one of the world’s oldest and most respected publishers, the Associated Press (AP) knows the importance of preparing for changing times. Amidst the deprecation of third-party cookies, publishers are challenged with gaining control of their content to optimize yield and ultimately drive revenue. After seeing positive results leveraging an alternative to third-party cookies, the AP wanted to extend these capabilities to authenticate its audience across multiple channels.
Recently, I chatted with Brian Barth, Global Director of Digital Marketing Strategy at the AP, on why it was so important for the publisher to extend their solutions to mobile, and what advice he had for other publishers:
With the industry prioritizing first-party data, what are some of the strategies and tactics Associated Press is using to grow its first-party relationships?
We’re exploring all options. But right now our first-party strategy focuses almost exclusively on our newsletter offerings. We’re looking to grow subscribers and readers for our flagship daily Morning Wire, as well as for the new categories and editions of our newsletters we’re introducing — like the AP College Football Poll newsletter, The Huddle. Expanding into other newsletter titles allows us to build-on and develop new relationships, offer the reader unique experiences, and deliver the individualized content we know subscribers want through this meaningful value exchange.
What sell-side challenges does AP face, specific to mobile?
We are very much at the infancy of what we want our app to be. The audience and engagement are so very different then our desktop /mobile web reader. We understand that the experience has to align with their specific needs.The end of third-party cookies has given us an opportunity to re-evaluate our strategy and look for a solution that enables us to reach our audience and engage them more effectively, while also developing that first-party relationship that all publishers desire.
We’ve seen early success using LiveRamp’s Authenticated Traffic Solution (ATS) on our desktop and mobile web property. With the results we’ve seen thus far on desktop and mobile web, it was a no-brainer to open up the conversation and piggyback on that success to our mobile app.
We see an opportunity to drive a larger portion of our overall ad revenue through our own-and-operated AP app. We’ve considered that it would be the next phase of implementation. But we wanted to nail down the basics first — activating on our desktop and mobile web experiences first — before we extended activating ATS to our mobile app.
How have authenticated solutions proven to be effective for the AP and its mobile advertisers? Can you give an example(s) or share any initial results at this point?
Partnering with an authenticated solution provided us the ability to be an early adopter in the identity solution space. It’s given us the opportunity to get a glimpse into what our future state needs to be and what results we can expect, without the inherent risks of doing it in real time when Google does deprecate the cookie.
The ability to have our first-party data work for us to improve value to our advertisers is a huge win for us. We’re still early in this process, but so far, seeing a tremendous percentage increase in CPMs after deploying on ATS—we’re seeing about 15,000 envelopes per day that are being deployed through PubMatic. These envelopes indicate users logging into the site experience or clicking through via a newsletter, showcasing the user’s willingness and understanding of the proposition of the value exchange. These authenticated users allow our advertisers to more smartly target these audiences more smartly for greater ROAS. We also have more authenticated volume, enabling us to create a deeper user experience, as well as revenue gains.
Anything else that you’d like to highlight from AP that could help other publishers in their goals to optimize yield, increase revenue, and/or create a 1:1 relationship with readers/users/viewers?
Don’t wait! Take the opportunity of “time” that Google provided to start building your first party data strategy if you haven’t already. The sooner you begin those conversations the sooner you’ll be able to start seeing the near term benefits of your first party data and begin future-proofing your advertising revenue.
From political races to red carpet award shows and global sports competitions, there are very few “franchises” that aren’t being stretched longer and longer to capitalize on the public’s interest. We find ourselves once again at the time of year when industry prognosticators offer their curated lists, social media hot takes, and opinion pieces in an attempt to memorialize the most important events of 2021 and to make predictions for 2022.
In tech and internet policy circles, this cycle seems ironic, given that forecasts are delivered daily – often several times a day, depending on the latest news cycles. But as we head into the final stretch of 2021, I have a few thoughts about how we need to avoid the distractions and stay focused on the one big change likely to occur in the new year.
Reality check
To start, I’ll set the table on what I am skeptical about focusing on as we move forward: anything “metaverse” or “creator economy.” And I’ve got some good reasons to hope that, as we head into a new year, we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past.
Amidst the current hype around virtual worlds, augmented reality has certainly emerged as a powerful tool. And it is entirely possible that virtual reality will have practical applications beyond gaming (and not akin to never-quite-there 3D TV).
However, I feel compelled to remind everyone how the pivot to video became an industry obsession. That massive shift was not because of consumer demand; it was driven by Mark Zuckerberg’s 2016 prediction that nearly everything on his kingmaker platform would be video within five years.
So much has happened in the ensuing five years, not the least of which has been a steady and escalating series of revelations of how utterly deceiving this particular CEO and his company have been. And, unsurprisingly (at least in retrospect), we learned that this prediction was at least partially built on a Facebook deception. And, while we can ask ourselves why we had so many years when Facebook said “jump” and publishers and marketers blindly responded, “how high?” – perhaps the most enduring and meaningful lessons are learned from mistakes.
Facebook is not alone in the self-serving prophecy business though. Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages also became an industry obsession, not because it was in the consumers’ best interests as Google claimed. Rather, it was simply a function of another industry-take-all-platform shaping the market to its liking. As we recently learned in unsealed antitrust allegations, it was a means for Google to bolster its advertising interests by slowing down competition.
Creative control
The hype cycle is also obsessed with the “creator economy.” There is an absolute flurry of innovation in providing platforms for individual creators. Though this isn’t entirely new. Google’s YouTube, for example, has both inspired and capitalized on it for ages. The same can be said more recently about TikTok.
Yes, it is very exciting to watch. However, these creator models are essentially comprised of typical vendor services: subscriptions, newsletters, distribution and, more recently, audio services. It’s not a coincidence that much of the investment and press hype—bordering on industry obsession—can be tied back to Facebook or its board of directors. Don’t forget that the company has its own Substack-like “creator platform,” Bulletin. Neither the hype nor the investment is surprising, though, given Facebook’s longstanding interest in disrupting media institutions.
What you should really be watching in 2022
The most important industry story of 2022 will continue to be the at-times dull, but critically important, accountability around antitrust and data policy. We can thank Facebook and Google for adding a sprinkle of excitement to these conversations through whistleblowers, code names (Project NERA, Bernanke, Jedi Blue, and Poirot to name a few) and improperly filed redactions. As an increasing number of privacy laws come into effect, regulators may want to consider more Star Wars-inspired naming conventions to spice things up a bit.
Names notwithstanding, we are going to see regulation continue to intensify next year. In the near term, Europe appears set to finalize two landmark regulations: the Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act. If these prevail, Europe will be first to have a purpose-built “gatekeeper” law for the 21st century.
The Digital Markets Act addresses the imbalance in negotiating power in a networked economy that results in both individuals and businesses lacking autonomy and choice, which harms the public at large. It recognizes that no individual publisher or consumer can truly opt-out of Google’s search engine that scrapes the entirety of our lives via the internet. Almost as impossible to avoid are Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, which connect people to communities. And then there’s the binary mobile and app store marketplace, delivered by Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android.
With this level of market power, publishers and consumers have little to no choice in negotiating rights to their data and consent with these powerful gatekeepers. The European approach mirrors the work of Australia’s competition and consumer protection regulator — and it looks like U.S. authorities are headed in the same direction. In a market dominated by superpowers, regulation follows to govern how that market power is used or abused.
The Digital Services Act will then modernize the rules for content liability and possibly how advertising can be targeted when based on surveillance capitalism by companies that, in many cases, consumers don’t even intend to interact with. The DSA and DMA have two main goals: First, to create a safer digital space in which the fundamental rights of all users of digital services are protected. And second, to establish a level playing field to foster innovation, growth, and competitiveness, both in the European Single Market and globally. Not many can argue against these goals, it’s only a matter of whether the legislation will achieve them.
Bringing it home
In the U.S., California’s CCPA is currently the strongest data protection law for digital advertising stateside, followed closely by Colorado’s new law. However, as state and federal laws are negotiated to carry the baton, all eyes and minds are on Europe. There is an acute concern about making sure to address market power and create a sustainable path for publishers going forward, one that isn’t determined for us by industry gatekeepers like Facebook, Google and Apple. This likely requires laws that directly integrate competition and data policy rather than developing rules in the same room as the industry titans, which has failed to result in anything fair if even legal.
So, as we look forward, let’s not repeat the mistakes of the past. When the dominant digital power players press their self-serving agendas, we do not have to buy in. We don’t have to follow their lead. We don’t have to amplify their messages. And for goodness’ sake, we do not need to pivot.
Instead, we should stand our ground, steady on the bedrock of consumer trust and responsible business practices. If 2021 showed us anything, it is that consumers value great content. It’s what we do. And we will continue to do it well. Nothing meta about that.
Tracking and profiling remain standard practices and big business for ad-tech firms in digital advertising, though publishers don’t see much of the money. A new report, Sustainable without surveillance, from the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), reviews the practices of tracking-based advertising and its impact on the digital ecosystem.
The report, written by Dr. Johnny Ryan, highlights how tracking-based advertising diverts data and revenue from publishers to ad tech intermediaries, notably Facebook and Google. In addition, Dr. Ryan shares results from European publishers when they turn off tracking-based advertising.
The report outlines how real-time bidding (RTB) and auction-based environments allow thousands of companies to receive profile data about a person from a single ad. Tracking-based advertising diverts data and revenue from publishers to ad tech and, as a result, turns publishers’ audiences into commodities. Advertisers can now buy a premium publisher’s audience cheaply on low-value sites.
The research also recounts how tracking-based ads make ad fraud easier and how they trick advertisers and ad networks into paying them. Early estimates of ad fraud by HUMAN (formally White Ops) found Russian cybercriminals used Methbot to extract $3 to $5 million in video ad revenue from premium publishers. Methbots created fake pages on which they run real ads from actual advertisers. The bots simulated human activity (i.e., cursor movements and clicks) to mimic human action to make it appear as if a human impression occurred. HUMAN identified over 250,000 URLs that Methbots generated across more than 6,000 publishers.
Dr. Ryan also cites the 2016 Guardian study that used tracking-based ads to buy sales inventory in their newspaper. A detailed analysis of this media transaction found that for every ad dollar spent programmatically on the Guardian, they received only 30 cents. Intermediary technology firms executing tracking-based advertising received the remaining 70 cents. Each ad tech firm taking part in the transaction collects a fee, often hidden.
Publishers profitable without tracking-based advertising
The report presents evidence from European publishers that have profitable advertising businesses that do not rely on tracking-based advertising.
When Dutch publishers NPO Group replaced tracking-based ads with contextual-based ads, their advertising revenue increased 149%. Revenue continued to grow even with Covid-19’s significant impact on advertising spending.
The Norwegian news publishing group earned an average of 391% more over 12 months for contextual ads than tracking-based ads for websites it operates.
Further, TV2, a primary Norwegian news website, earned a 210% higher average price for contextual targeting than competing tracking-based ad targeting.
Time for change
It’s time for publishers to rethink their involvement in tracking-based advertising. With little potential for substantive yield, publishers must calculate the risk of data leakage and fraud. Supporting Dr. Ryan’s analysis is the U.S. based report, Online Tracking and Publishers’ Revenues: An Empirical, from lead researcher Alessandro Acquisti. It found that tracking-based advertising earns publishers only 4% more revenue than context-based advertising. It is clear that data tracking underpins the digital media economy and there are far more profitable, and less problematic, solutions.
The world is estimated to produce about 175ZB of data by 2025. That’s a big number. It is also a big opportunity for brands and publishers looking to better understand and engage their consumers. But the sheer volume of this information in and of itself can be a barrier for organizations. Data is often collected in silos across organizations, leading to disparate tools to manage it and, as a result, inaccurate information.
Having the right data, technology and personnel can help businesses turn data into insights that drive business performance. The way to get there is with a data governance strategy. Simply put, data governance means being in control of the data you have. It ensures the data you collect is good, allows you to democratize it so it’s accessible by everyone who needs it and keeps you compliant as privacy legislation evolves.
For digital media executives in particular, the opportunity to unify and extract insights from rich data spanning subscriptions, ad revenue, content engagement and customer profiles can strengthen direct user relationships, which boosts loyalty and retention down the line. In addition, organizations that effectively implement data governance have the potential to save millions of dollars and enable equally valuable digital and analytics use cases. Here’s how you can ensure your data governance strategy leads to insights that drive this type of business performance.
Business first, data second
Data governance entails managing data so your organization has the business intelligence needed to meet its revenue targets and business goals. It might sound counterintuitive, but focusing data governance on the data itself rather than business needs can actually disintermediate you from this objective. It can also cut you off from the stakeholders you need to buy into the data governance program in the first place.
Instead, link data governance policies and procedures to business priorities and their corresponding KPIs. This way, you’ll engage in more meaningful discourse with the rest of the business and be seen as a contributor to overall company success by enabling insights to be harnessed. Align data governance metrics with overall business metrics — such as increasing digital subscription revenue — and tie them to stakeholders who can own their ongoing optimization and become champions of the program. These stakeholders can then use data governance to pinpoint analytics and data use cases that should be prioritized as measured by the value they can bring to the business.
Don’t go too big too soon
When you start on a path to data governance, it’s easy to want to explore all the data in your organization. But this type of ambitious approach often ends in scope creep. It also means you are not prioritizing which data sets and projects would most move the needle on overall business needs.
Instead, start with two or three areas of data (for example, transactional data and product data) that you can build a roadmap against to fully operationalize and measure performance. Then, within each, identify the most important data elements used for analytics, reporting or operations that should be monitored across the organization.
Share the data wealth
Data democratization makes data accessible to any and everyone who needs it within a business. To support this effort, you will need to inform all departments about all the data managed within the company: Where it’s located, how to access it, and its meaning, context, use case, quality and reliability. As a digital publisher, collaborating with the audience insights, editorial and development technology teams will be critical to evolving the full picture of your users.
But it doesn’t end there. How this data is being used across different teams and for new use cases is worth communicating across the organization to enable knowledge-sharing and innovation. Let the entire business become aware of how data is used to tell stories about solving key business challenges and exposing new opportunities. For publishers, this can help balance an overarching subscription strategy with editorial and advertising strategies to ensure all teams can work together to meet their goals.
Good data is the foundation of good decision-making. Organizations that fail to use a proper data governance strategy to drive insights will face an uphill battle to meet their business objectives. Those that instead pursue data governance in a way that maps to business goals, holds stakeholders accountable and enables true collaboration and knowledge-sharing will be on their way to building a truly data-driven organization.
From the narrative-changing storytelling initiative, “Driving Change From the Inside“, a look at the DE+I movement in organizations across the country.
CHECK OUT THE FULL SERIES HERE: Summaries, Key takeaways, and Video Highlights
During the same summer that two billionaires made private space travel a reality, NASA announced an $18M investment in STEM diversity. But what’s it look like behind the headlines?
NASA’s investment in STEM diversity signals that the importance of recruiting, training, and maintaining a diverse workforce has risen in priority. This is a positive sign following a year that saw our nation wake up to the realities of injustice and inequality and their effect on government public service (law enforcement in particular). With government agencies under a microscope in the wake of an embattled and racially charged Presidential transition, we were grateful to have the opportunity to sit down with Edward Gonzales, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion lead for Heliophysics at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, as part of our series Driving Change from the Inside.
Eddie describes his childhood in West Covina, California as something like “Leave it to Beaver,” the idyllic 1950 tv series. However, he says his neighborhood started to change when he was about eight due to a growing gang – and police – presence. He describes it as going “from crayons to handcuffs in a very short time.” When he was 13, his father passed. Then, just months later at age 14, he was heading home from baseball practice when he heard sirens. Suddenly, police cars were everywhere and he knew something bad was going down. What he didn’t expect was to end up brutalized and handcuffed in the back of a police car.
Turns out the suspect they’d been chasing was a 6’4″ blonde haired 30-something. Given his treatment at the hands of the police, his family filed an accusation of police brutality. He describes that as game changing; it ruined his life at the time.
“When I walked to school, I was harassed by the police. When I was old enough to drive, I was pulled over probably about five to six times a week. Most times, they’d make me late for school. Try to explain that to a homeroom teacher. They never believed my reasons for being late because a lot of teachers, families, and students saw what happened that day and assumed that I deserved it and must have done something wrong. No one would listen to me. It really had a domino effect. That one day of being harassed and complaining about it. I paid the price for it throughout my high school years.”
Right out of high school, he got his girlfriend pregnant and worked multiple jobs to support his young family. But a neighbor who believed in him suggested he take a job at an LA law firm in the mail room. He did. And like an American dream, he worked his way up from the mail room to coordinator, then supervisor, then manager. He credits much of this to his father instilling a work ethic in him at an early age.
And – though he passed decades before Eddie took his first role at NASA – his father was instrumental in that move as well. When Eddie was five, his father brought him into the house and said,
“I want you to see this. It was Apollo 13. Not the movie. The actual Apollo 13 when it was happening for real. And for those of you that are unaware of Apollo 13, I encourage you to Google it. These astronauts were on their way to the moon. They ran into an anomaly, and not only were they not gonna make it to the moon, there was a good possibility that they weren’t gonna make it back to earth. But the flight director, Gene Kranz, and the amazing people that worked at NASA as a team brought those astronauts home safely.”
Beyond the clear fact of introducing a young Eddie to the otherworldly idea of supporting missions to outer space, he says it shaped his thinking in a way that persists today. “Failure is not an option. Let’s come up with solutions … watching that whole thing take place, I thought, I want to work for NASA. Not as an astronaut. But as some sort of problem solver. And if I could help people, that would be my dream.”
He joined NASA in 2001. His 20 years there has seen him in many roles. However, from his first day on the job he found himself naturally drawn to the role of mentor and connector. Yet it was not until 2018 when his title first recognized his passion as Principle of STEM Engagement for Underserved and Underrepresented. And just this year he was named Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Lead. In a wide ranging interview, Eddie describes his early childhood, the persistent cultural forces, and the work journey that led him to the role he has today. He also outlines the evolution of NASA’s equity journey – both highs and lows.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Here are a few highlights from our conversation (full transcript), which should be helpful to any individual or organization seeking to create a safe space for employees of all backgrounds, orientations, races, and abilities to feel confident that they will not be exposed to discrimination, criticism, harassment, or any other emotional or physical harm.
1. Inclusion takes active leadership
Listen and learn
“One of the things that I’m really excited about is our leadership. Not just in Heliophysics, my division, but as a center. They want to make a difference. They want to make a change. I mentioned to them that conversations are going to be uncomfortable, and if they weren’t uncomfortable, then we’re not talking about diversity. So they’re in it. I’ve seen a lot of changes already. I’m excited about it.”
“It’s gotta come from our leadership. They have to be champions of this work, and they are. It also takes community. I love celebrating the role our affinity groups play. Using the AISES group as an example, which is a Hispanic, Latinx affinity group at Goddard, they are amazing at not only taking care of “their own,” but supporting others who are moving to the area and in need of advice. The types of advice that make people feel important, make people feel safe, make people feel equal. The affinity groups are playing a huge role. Whether they’re an ally or whether they actually belong to that affinity group. I think that plays a huge role in being successful. Having a place where people feel equal, important and safe.”
Act
We hear it all the time: change starts at the top. But the reality is that leadership comes from every point in an organization. Not only do we need to see diversity reflected in all levels, we need to actively infuse our management and hiring processes with the tools to empower leaders to do more than set goals, but to achieve them.
2. Say it loud, and outloud
Listen and learn
“In 2008, a memo went out to everyone at NASA Jet Propulsion laboratory. In that memo, it said, if you have any piercings, if you have any tattoos, if you’ve got pink, green, purple, whatever color your hair is, we want you to bring your personality to work. We are eliminating the dress code. Now, as long as it’s not of a sexual nature, or it’s going to offend somebody, feel free to be who you are.”
Act
Maybe your organization doesn’t yet reflect the diverse picture you imagine. Maybe there are issues of diversity you’ve not yet considered. From “professional hair” to “business attire” we create limitations on who can (or “should”) belong in our organizations. Making a clear statement that everyone is encouraged to openly express who they are, to truly be who they are, opens a door to diversity.
3. Active listening is essential
Listen and learn
“When I went to NASA Goddard in 2018…if you will recall, after Rodney King there was George Floyd, may he rest in peace. Because of that, our Center started having listening sessions. People would talk about different things that have happened to them in their childhood.”
“The people that work at Goddard, specifically, the white people, if you will, don’t take the approach of making all these necessary changes. They’re here to listen. “What is it that we can do to be a better ally for you?” They’re not trying to overstep, saying, “Okay, I have a Mexican friend, so therefore I’ve got this all figured out. No. They’re really in it to win it. And they’re doing all of the necessary things. I believe. It starts with educating yourself. Figuring out ways to do that. You could then go to some of the affinity group meetings and listen. You could go to different listening groups and hear the challenges that under-represented groups may go through, that they may not have ever gone through.”
Act
From coffee carts to moderated chats and regular listening and discussion sessions there are many ways that organizations can create discourse among different employees. And differences range from race and class to job titles, departments and divisions. Organizations that encourage open communication foster a level of understanding that will fuel compassion and creativity.
4. Mentorship is a valuable investment
Listen and learn
“Our network is our net worth. It really is. There are non-traditional ways of bringing in people of color from underserved, underrepresented communities. They just need the opportunity. We want to make sure that we create and tell them about those opportunities.”
“NASA continues to collaborate and partner with organizations to let them know that we’re here and we’re going to let them know about internship opportunities, early career hire opportunities, mid-career opportunities, and so on. If we are looking for a specific engineer, say, in Computer Science, that knows how to use a specific coding software program. We can go to minority serving institutions, HBCUs, and so forth and ask them to pull resumes that match. We can provide resumes that NASA may not have been able to see or have access to…. We’re letting the lab chiefs and people in decision making positions know that these organizations exist.”
“When I mentor students, they ask me, “Eddie, what can I do to pay you back?” And I always say “pay forward.” Mentor the next generation of leaders that are coming. If somebody asks you a question, respond. Respond to your emails. If you do a presentation at a school or an elementary school that you used to go to, notice if there’s a child in that room that really needs help. Help that person.”
Act
Identify organizations, universities, and community groups with which you can partner to open new pathways to success. Recognize that excellent employees come not just from “top universities” but may well have had to attend night school or community college while supporting a family and being an excellent employee at several part time jobs. And, as an individual, invest your time and energy in conversations with new hires or information seekers. The investment will pay dividends.
Watch or listen to highlights of Michael and Eddie’s conversation:
About the author
Michael Tennant is a founder, writer, and movement-builder dedicated to spreading tools of empathy and helping people find their purpose. Before founding Curiosity Lab, Tennant spent 15-years becoming a media, advertising, and nonprofit executive, and delivering award-winning marketing strategies for companies like MTV, VICE, P&G, Coca-Cola, sweetgreen, and Oatly.
Tennant founded Curiosity Lab in 2017 and created the conversation card game Actually Curious. Actually Curious became a viral sensation in 2020 during Covid-19 and the rise of the racial justice movement for helping people build meaningful connections and to tackle the important topics facing our world.
He has channeled his business success and momentum into a sustained movement supporting BIPOC and other underrepresented communities through speaking, writing, leadership, mentorship, consulting, partnerships, and talent-pipeline programs.
The cannabis industry is currently the fifth largest and fastest-growing consumer industry in the U.S. More than 200 million Americans – about 70% of the population – now live in states with legalized medical or recreational cannabis use. However, despite medical and recreational use likely being the two things that most readily come to mind when mentioning cannabis, the industry encompasses so much more. Expanding legal access has resulted in record levels of investment capital pouring into the industry. And all this investment leads to product growth. The first half of 2021 alone saw $7.9 billion invested in cannabis deals according to New Frontier Data.
Consumer perceptions around cannabis are shifting. These days, it is found in everything from beauty products to machinery lubricants. In addition, larger brands are beginning to experiment by incorporating CBD and hemp into their products. Recently, PepsiCo in Germany made their first foray into the category with the launch of their Rockstar Energy+Hemp beverage (which does not contain any THC). Some additional examples include Unilever subsidiary brand Schmidt’s Naturals, which sells a line of hemp-oil deodorants and Colgate-Palmolive’s recent acquisition of Hello Products, which offers a CBD oral care collection.
As more mainstream brands test the waters, it’s likely that shifts in advertising spend will follow. In fact, advertising spend is already growing in the category. In 2019, Kantar reported cannabis advertisers spent $370 million on digital display ads. That’s an increase from $238 million the previous year. Brands and marketers are eager to expand their advertising presence beyond just the endemic sites. However, they are struggling to find platforms and partners willing to help them spend their budgets.
Lost in the weeds
Because cannabis advertising is still new and quite complex, it’s understandable to feel a bit confused by it all. The rapidly evolving regulatory landscape can pose potential risk, especially as each state has established their own set of laws and regulations. Ensuring an ad is run only in the state it was created for is often the first and largest concern when it comes to accepting cannabis ads. Add in the challenges of age gating and privacy compliance and things get tricky fast.
Running cannabis advertising on your sites may also present some reputational risk. It’s important to realistically consider the potential impact the decision may have on your brand. There’s always a chance that running these types of ads may deter other brands from working with you. Certainly, there’s still a lot of consumer education needed around cannabis, CBD, and hemp before the messaging becomes truly mainstream. This will take time. But soon enough, any digital publisher not accepting cannabis advertising will be in the minority.
Preparing as a publisher
If you’re not quite ready to accept cannabis advertising, begin by researching and building relationships with advertisers in the meantime. In this fast-growing market, it will be beneficial to stay informed on the latest category innovation and regulation. This way you will be able to more quickly and effectively craft a strategy that supports your revenue goals when the time is right for you to enter the category.
For those who wish to begin accepting cannabis advertising, identifying the right tech partner is an important first step. A provider who understands the nuances of the space and is willing to work with you is critical to navigating the sea of state laws which vary widely. The right programmatic partner can help you easily and confidently ensure that you meet compliance standards. They will also provide access to a unique stream of demand in order to get your share of revenue in this rapidly-growing market.
With the amount of marketing dollars at stake in cannabis, there’s no time to lose to make sure you’re prepared to embrace the revenue opportunity when it’s right for you.
In the pop culture zeitgeist “Game of Thrones,” the Hand of the King bears the burden of their leaders’ whims. So too might our generation’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) leaders when the health of an organization hinges on its leadership’s ability to foster a feeling of safety internally. That means creating an environment where employees of all levels, backgrounds, and abilities feel confident that they will not be exposed to discrimination, criticism, harassment, or any other emotional or physical harm.
Life on the front lines or cutting edge of anything can be a lonely place. But particularly heavy lies the crown of those who are the cornerstones of transforming the future of workplace culture.
With this in mind, we’d like to introduce some of the leaders on the front lines of the diversity, equity, and inclusion movement. These leaders’ each have a personal story that informs the work they do and how they got there. They also posses practical knowledge and experience that can help others make lasting change in their organizations. Over the next few months we’ll share conversations with DE&I leaders from a range of organizations to understand, and learn from, their effortsto support enduring change.
History repeats itself
Last year, organizations across the country pledged to make advancements in diversity equity and inclusion in response to the racial justice movement that arose following the murder of George Floyd. Outraged by the actions of public officers, our country began to look inward at the inequity and injustice surrounding us. Once again, it exposed the lack of representation, psychological and even physical safety existing in our communities and places of work. So, a generation of newly minted and veteran DE&I leaders were empowered – and pressed – to devise and advance equitable agendas.
Meanwhile, optimistic albeit cynical onlookers like myself (an entrepreneur and self identified corporate refugee) could not help but recall similar awakenings in the past. This isn’t the first time outrage has rippled through corporate America. Unfortunately, time and again, we’ve witnessed committed companies and leaders fade into the chorus beneath the lead notes of profits and quarterly goals.
An empathetic approach
After a year working with these leaders as an empathy training consultant, I learned that many of them have overcome a kaleidoscope of challenges themselves. I chose to lay my judgments to the side and to see them as the allies and change-leaders that they are, particularly given a lack of precedent (and often leadership) to guide them.
In an effort to support other optimistic and like-minded leaders, I decided to do my part to help unlock and share their wisdom, elevating their voices so that peers and supporters can hear them. This new project, Driving Change From the Inside, distills insights from intimate conversation with leaders at a range of organizations including NASA, NPR, Robin Hood Foundation, and Havas Group. It is about those who are leading the charge of change to correct issues of discrimination, harassment, emotional harm, and inequity.
Tactics and takeaways
The series dives into the practical tactics and best practices leaders want to learn about and enact. It also offers an intimate look at the people serving in these roles. What we find is that their success requires the passion and support of all the people around them – from the CEO and the board to the entire executive team and leadership team, and rank and file employees who share the mission and belief.
We hope that viewers and readers will open their compassion as they experience the backstory of these individuals as well as the complicated layers of their present. As one interviewee said, “we’re running the same race but with different roadblocks.”
Driving change
All of our interview subjects have attained great achievement. Their stories are remarkable, but far from over. These conversations provide insight into the work required to establish and maintain a culture that fosters the DE&I agenda, including the steps our guests have taken, the processes and procedures they’ve implemented, and the support systems they’ve needed to achieve short- and long-term goals.
In the absence of an inclusive and empathetic past to guide us, these pioneers are writing a guide book that we all can put to work in our own organizations. Through these conversations, we can begin to understand the “why” behind what leaders do that equips them to show up day after day in the arena, bloodied while projecting grace, and Driving Change From the Inside. Their experiences and insights give us hope and support as we shape the future of work with diversity and empathy at the core.
Key takeaways, highlight videos and full interviews:
Michael Tennant is a founder, writer, and movement-builder dedicated to spreading tools of empathy and helping people find their purpose. Before founding Curiosity Lab, Tennant spent 15-years becoming a media, advertising, and nonprofit executive, and delivering award-winning marketing strategies for companies like MTV, VICE, P&G, Coca-Cola, sweetgreen, and Oatly.
Tennant founded Curiosity Lab in 2017 and created the conversation card game Actually Curious. Actually Curious became a viral sensation in 2020 during Covid-19 and the rise of the racial justice movement for helping people build meaningful connections and to tackle the important topics facing our world.
He has channeled his business success and momentum into a sustained movement supporting BIPOC and other underrepresented communities through speaking, writing, leadership, mentorship, consulting, partnerships, and talent-pipeline programs.
The discussion and debate about measurement in online advertising is rife at the moment. However, one thing is clear: For too long viewability has been used to paint an incomplete picture of ad impact.
We’ve known for a while that viewability is an imperfect metric. And, while standards have improved, the next step in online measurement for brands has been overdue. Media agencies have been working on this problem for a while. They rightly seek to build more sophisticated models in order to spend their clients’ ad dollars within environments that are truly delivering value.
Though some studies have been done, dentsu international has just released one of the most comprehensive to date. Their Attention Economy research is the product of a three year study involving multiple media partners. The goal is to truly understand the drivers of attention and create a real metric for advertisers to use going forward.
What delivers attention
Critically, the study demonstrated that attention is three times better at predicting outcomes than viewability. They uncovered four key factors that deliver attention:
1. User choice
Forced ads gain more raw attention vs. ads that are easily ignored. However, when a consumer voluntarily views an ad, it results in a significant impact on brand lift metrics, whether they viewed for 2s or 20s. Formats that earned attention yield better, and much quicker, outcomes than outcomes than forced formats.
2. Creative
The importance of creativity on ad effectiveness has been well documented. However, it was important to measure its impact within their Attention Economy framework. The study showed that ads optimized for the Teads platform gained a 49% boost in attention vs the original. This is a result of optimizing TV ads for a mobile experience. These grab attention from the start through use of techniques such as contrast, addition of text, animation, or bold colors.
3. Relevance
The dentsu study showed that placing ads within relevant context for the reader gives an uplift of Attentive Seconds Per 1,000 of 13%. Recently, IAS conducted a study with Neuroinsights in the U.S. that demonstrated 23% more detailed memory and 27% more global memory for ads that were aligned with the contextual content, compared with those that were not. We have also observed superior branding impact for ads that are contextually aligned.
4. Time in view
Finally, viewability on its own isn’t enough. However, time in view has been confirmed as an important factor for attention by the study. Both video and display ads quantifiably benefit from quality, viewable time.
Good news
All of the above is fantastic news for publishers. The study clearly shows that premium publishers drive high engagement of users with quality content. and that induces a slow scroll speed. When this is tied in with in-article, outstream video ad formats, it delivers an average of 12.2s of time in view (even higher than instream) and twice the amount of attention compared to social media.
Ever since viewability became a priority, publishers have suffered. They’ve also been forced to include ad formats that provide sub-standard user experiences, purely because media buyers are focused on it as a metric. But the quantification of attention can shift this balance. Ad buyers will increasingly be able to focus on media plans that are based on attention and deliver clear business outcomes.
This will bring back to the center stage not the importance of the quality of the content. It also aligns ads within the context that they’ve been placed.
There are many factors of digital media that are changing for the better. Advertisers, agencies and media owners are all embracing an online ecosystem that’s free from third party cookies. They are aware of its impact on both society and the environment and focused on the quality of ad experiences, rather than the quantity. Attention can be a cornerstone of this new landscape, where a range of brand metrics can be more clearly attributed to certain campaigns.
This is where premium publishers can excel, showcasing greater value to brands than ever before and securing a greater portion of online ad revenue that is currently held in silicon valley. This can be done whilst simultaneously creating even greater trust with their engaged readership and therefore helping develop a truly sustainable media ecosystem.
Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter use algorithmic processing for image analysis and sharing. The platforms try to understand the content of these images, and they algorithmically detect the persons and objects within these images at the pixel level. Benjamin N. Jacobsen’s research, Regimes of recognition on algorithmic media, examines how algorithmic media shapes and controls how people see the social world. He defines the concept of regimes of recognition as the algorithmic tools, techniques, and practices that social media platform use to decide recognizability within their platforms.
The platforms use algorithms to crop images to generate engaging content. Applicable to Jacobsen’s research, the algorithm systems learn to detect and weight certain features in images rather than others. In other words, the algorithms actively generate what is recognized. He agrees with researcher Louise Amoore, who believes social platforms decide what images are interesting and recognizable. Amoore states, “they actively generate recognizability as such so that they decide what or who is recognizable as a target of interest in an occluded landscape.”
Twitter’s detection algorithm
In September 2020, consumers complained that Twitter’s image-cropping algorithm favored white faces over black faces. One example showed that the algorithms consistently cropped out images of former president Barack Obama. Experiments with stock photo models, cartoon characters, and even white and black dogs resulted in similar detection biases. Eventually, Twitter’s chief design officer, Dantley Davis, agreed there was a racial bias in the algorithm. He added, “the algorithm is not explicitly racist since it does not make its decision based on particular faces but rather on the contrasts that are calculated from the pixel values of the image.”
According to Twitter engineers Lucas Theis and Zehan Wang, the company first used facial recognition to auto-crop images. However, it often awkwardly cropped faces not centered within the picture. Twitter then moved to use deep saliency prediction networks to find the “most interesting part” of the image. Saliency maps use predefined areas of images to evaluate the pixel contrasts between different image regions. These data-trained neural networks and other algorithms find and then crop around the most engaging area of the image. Unfortunately, as the algorithms decide what is uploaded, they also determine what is nonrecognizable and set conditions for who is visible on the platform.
Deciding recognizability
The algorithm disregards socio-cultural contents and context in its processing of images. Regimes of recognition can easily make certain people non recognizable — focusing on specific features of an image and ignoring others. Algorithmic media platforms produce rules for what is visible and what is not visible.
Jacobsen questions the shaping, organizing, and automating parameters of cropping images. He sees decisions of inclusion and exclusion as a fundamental political question. Saliency detection algorithms rest on the assumption that some things deserve attention and others do not. Further, Twitter’s role in cropping people’s images (algorithmically) decides what elements in images are redundant. This begs a larger question as to why social media platforms need to edit people’s uploaded images at all?
Social media platforms algorithmically shape and organize people’s factors of attention. Twitter offers a prime example of the algorithmic processes in how it cropped out out black faces because it did not recognize the image. This sends a signal that that what is non-recognizable is unimportant. Further research is needed to examine the role (and potential biases) of algorithmic cropping, techniques, and results of these tools on other social platforms.
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