Data-Labor-Technology

The lack of a standard measurement protocol has been an issue for the podcast industry for years. When podcasts are streamed, only the owner of a podcast player app knows how long a person listened to an episode, where they skipped and stopped in that episode or whether they heard an ad. That makes it… Continue reading »

The post The Three Issues Keeping Brands From Going All-In On Podcast Advertising appeared first on AdExchanger.

“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media. Today’s column is written by Dana Hayes, president at ShareThis. Today’s CMO is tasked with the challenge of understanding a far greater number of channels, platforms and technologies than ever before. Couple that with the… Continue reading »

The post AI In Marketing: Where And When It Can Make A Difference appeared first on AdExchanger.

“The Sell Sider” is a column written for the sell side of the digital media community. Today’s column is by Josh Cohen, general manager at SpringServe. This year, open-source technology celebrates its 20th birthday. Two decades ago, developers at Netscape formed the Open Source Initiative and created a Linux-based web browser platform that other developers could access and build upon.… Continue reading »

The post A Better Way for Publishers to Think About Open Source appeared first on AdExchanger.

Both brands and media buyers believe Snapchat is the hardest platform to advertise on, according to new Digiday research.

In a survey of 63 media-buying executives at the Digiday Media Buying Summit earlier this month in New Orleans, Snapchat was chosen as the most difficult platform to advertise on, with 42 percent of respondents selecting it as the most challenging platform, while 27 percent chose Amazon and 9 percent picked Facebook. This mirrors earlier Digiday research from the Digiday Marketing Summit in December, where 28 percent of brand marketers indicated Snapchat was the most challenging platform to advertise on, ahead of Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter.

The post Digiday Research: Snapchat is the hardest platform to advertise on appeared first on Digiday.

A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem… AdExchanger: Origins AdExchanger: Crisis In Ad City (Part I) AdExchanger: Crisis In Ad City (Part II) AdExchanger: Enter Malware (Part I) AdExchanger: Enter Malware (Part II) AdExchanger: Enter Malware (Part III) AdExchanger: Enter Malware (The Conclusion) AdExchanger: Angels And Startups AdExchanger: Rumble In Arbitrage Plaza… Continue reading »

The post Comic: Will It Ever End? appeared first on AdExchanger.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Trust Or Antitrust Opening statements began on Thursday in the closely watched antitrust trial between the US Justice Department and AT&T challenging the telco’s $86 billion deal for Time Warner. Both sides’ arguments were laid out earlier this month in pre-trial briefings [more on… Continue reading »

The post AT&T-Time Warner Goes To Court; Snap Doubles Down On Location appeared first on AdExchanger.

As another Advertising Week Europe ends, marketers, publishers and agencies are rethinking their relationships with the duopoly, with Google’s grip on the ad market loosening and the fallout from the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal. Conference attendees stressed that the best relationships in marketing will be transparent and honest.

Here’s what was on executives’ minds at the conference:

Facebook faces a reputational meltdown
“I think this will be the year brands wonder what to do with the sheer volume of money they put into Facebook.”

“Barack Obama was the one that made data targeting in political advertising cool. When he did it, people said he was smart. Now, we’re pissed off at Cambridge Analytica for doing the same thing because Donald Trump got elected.”

“Governments have been trying to find agencies that can do what Cambridge Analytica did for Donald Trump for years. There have been briefs in the past from both Labour and Conservative [political parties] saying, ‘Can you help us win an election?’ I’ve seen them, so the governments have known what’s possible.”

“We have politicians standing up and saying something must be done [post-Cambridge Analytica revelations]. Something is being done, and the European Union is responsible for it. On May 25, GDPR comes in, and in 2019, ePrivacy arrives, and at which point the industry will probably be the cleanest and best regulated.”

“We’re seeing a realization from people that even though the technology platforms are absolutely amazing, they have to start delivering value apart from just stealing stuff from us.”

Transparency between agencies and clients is a pipe dream
“There’s a difference between transparency and honesty — the best client-agency relationships will not only be transparent, but they will be honest.”

“This will be the year of the independent [agency]. It’s hard for the big network groups at the moment, but I don’t feel sorry for them. If you reward wrong behaviors, then you will keep getting them. A KPI of transparency should be rewarded, and all media agencies should have that information integrated into their business. Until that happens, you will always have bad actors.”

“On our [agency] side, things weren’t working well with our client because the contract was incentivizing us to do one thing, but they were telling us they wanted something else. We had a grown-up conversation, revised the contract, and now things are working well.”

“Clients need to understand how they translate business metrics into success metrics in the advertising ecosystem. But I don’t think we as media owners can sit back and wait for that to happen.”

“Transparency between clients and agencies will only ever be a pipe dream until blockchain replaces the counterfeit currency of relationships today.”

Why brand marketers avoid Advertising Week
“So many of today’s marketers have their heads down that they’ve forgotten to look up. Advertising Week is far from perfect, but it’s an antidote to the every day.”

“The worst thing about Advertising Week is its name. If my experience this week is anything to go by, the content is far more interesting than just advertising.”

Jessica Davies and Lucinda Southern contributed reporting.

The post Overheard at Advertising Week Europe: Platforms must deliver value instead of ‘just stealing stuff from us’ appeared first on Digiday.

When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg indicated that Facebook Groups were a new priority, publishers dutifully created a bunch of them. To monetize them, they have gotten creative, selling sponsorships to brands, using their members for focus groups and eyeing members as potential subscribers.

Groups are small in size, often reaching just a few thousand people, compared to the reach publishers can get through their Facebook news feed pages. Outside Magazine’s primary Facebook page, for example, has over 761,000 likes, while its largest Facebook group, Outside Beyond Books Club, has 4,800 members. Outside’s Facebook groups collectively have just over 10,000 members.

Groups require persistent tending and attention, not just from junior audience development staffers but from high-level editors and other people who represent the face of a publisher’s brand. Groups also risk being ephemeral, like a lot of things Facebook does.

But groups do give brands a chance to connect directly with people, which has made them an intriguing monetization prospect for publishers.

In April, Outside Magazine will launch a Facebook group it created with an advertiser as part of a multimedia buy, a first for the publisher; Outside declined to share the advertiser’s name ahead of the campaign launch. The group will include a pinned post directing readers to a piece of branded content explaining the brand’s involvement, and the brand will share moderating duties with Outside editorial staffers. The brand also will help draft the group’s welcome messaging, and where appropriate, be allowed to run giveaways in the group.

Sponsorship of Outside’s groups is typically sold as part of larger buys. In addition to sponsorship of the group, an advertiser will get editorial mentions as well as some display advertising across its sites.

“On Facebook, reach is difficult, and some of the problems with it are becoming clear,” said Scott Rosenfield, editorial director of Outside. “For groups, our pitch has been, ‘This is a great way for you to try something that’s really focused on engagement.’”

Other publishers monetize their groups by tapping group members for market research. Clique Media doesn’t run any groups that are explicitly tied to its core brands, and it doesn’t put links or advertising into the groups, in order “to preserve the ‘safe space’ nature of the environment,” said Michelle Plantan, Clique’s executive director of creative strategy. But the beauty- and wellness-focused publisher surveys its readers about products at the behest of its largest advertisers. Plantan said the moderators tell readers when those discussions will be shared with brands.

Because group members tend to be highly engaged readers, publishers also see groups as a subscription driver as well. The Times of London sees Facebook groups as a place to cultivate subscribers, something it plans to start testing later this year.

The post How publishers are monetizing their Facebook groups appeared first on Digiday.

As Facebook and Google continue to suck up digital ad dollars, publishers are paying more attention to diversifying their revenue portfolios, particularly with an eye toward direct consumer revenue.

New York Media and The Daily Beast are exploring consumer revenue programs, top executives at those companies said, speaking at the Digiday Publishing Summit in Vail, Colorado. New York Media, which owns New York magazine as well as sites such as Vulture and Grub Street, is evaluating a paywall for some of its digital properties, said Avi Zimak, New York Media CRO. The Daily Beast, meanwhile, is planning to launch an added-value membership program sometime this year, said CEO Heather Dietrick.

Advertising accounts for roughly 70 percent of New York Media’s print and digital revenue, Zimak said. While the company isn’t looking at a blanket paywall, it’s examining where subscriptions make sense within its digital portfolio.

“A diverse portfolio of revenue is important,” said Zimak. “A paywall is not right for everyone, but for news-focused media, it makes a lot of sense. We have that through New York magazine and Daily Intelligencer.”

For The Daily Beast, the approach will be to offer a new product aimed at its most avid users rather than gating existing content, which could take the form of exclusive events or gatherings hosted by Daily Beast journalists, Dietrick said. Over half of The Daily Beast’s revenues are from advertising, she said.

The membership model is one that USA Today Network, which comprises USA Today and 109 other local news outlets, has been investing in. USA Today Network offers a free membership program in all its markets, with benefits ranging from curated food festivals to private dinners and movie clubs. The idea, according to Andy Yost, USA Today Network CMO, is less about growing additional revenue than offering unique content and experiences that would help retain subscribers.

Yost said retention with registered members is three to four times higher than subscribers that haven’t enlisted in the program. Subscription revenue accounts for about a third of Gannett’s overall revenue, he added.

“A percentage-point improvement in retention is huge — for us, that’s big money,” Yost said.

Beyond paywalls and memberships, some publishers are launching new products to drive consumer revenue. TheSkimm, for instance, has a calendar app that costs $3 per month. The idea of the app is to go deeper into topics that are not covered by the main newsletter. A big area of focus for the company is to get people, especially its most engaged users, to download and subscribe to the app.

“We have 10 million-plus people engaged with our platforms,” said Brandon Berger, chief business officer for theSkimm. “If we can convert 1 million, 2 million, 3 million people, that’s a pretty strong business, and that’s what we are focusing on.”

Commerce was another big topic of discussion for publishers trying to create new revenue streams. TheSkimm, for instance, wants to figure out more ways to grow commerce, including by building products that cater to its core 30,000 “Skim’bassadors,” Berger said.

Pete Spande, CRO of Insider Inc., said the publisher is focused on building out a revenue model that would ideally be one-third ads, one-third subscriptions and one-third commerce and content licensing. Today, advertising accounts for between 60 and 70 percent of Insider Inc.’s revenues.

Commerce is already a multimillion-dollar annual business for New York Media, said Zimak. The publisher’s e-commerce site the Strategist offers links to all sorts of products, from vacuum cleaners to overalls worn by stars from popular TV shows, and includes articles highlighting different products. Zimak said the Strategist continues to grow, with users growing 200 percent and revenue quadrupling from when it launched last year.

Ultimately, as important as it is to have a diversified revenue portfolio, with commerce, publishers should approach the business from a user-first perspective rather than a business-first perspective, said Dietrick.

“Commerce should not be a revenue play, first and foremost,” she said. “It should be a service for the readership.”

The post ‘A diverse portfolio of revenue is important’: Publishers shore up their consumer revenue strategies appeared first on Digiday.

The old saying that “no one ever got fired for buying IBM” could also apply to ads on Hulu. But for years, Hulu has limited the amount of inventory available to advertisers. That’s started to change, with Hulu opening up more ad inventory in the past year as its subscriber base and the amount of time ad-supported viewers spend on its service have increased, buyers said.

“They actually have a great story that is not indicative of the sign of the times with TV content,” said Jon Stimmel, UM evp and chief investment officer, who recently met with Hulu. “They informed us that they have 40 percent more subscribers. They’ve seen tremendous growth from the partnerships they’ve done through Sprint and Spotify. And they’ve seen 50 percent growth in terms of time spent.”

A Hulu spokesperson confirmed the figures and said the year-over-year increase in watch time specifically relates to viewers of its ad-supported service. Those viewership increases translate into the increases in available ad inventory that ad buyers have observed.

“Earlier over the past year, we were having more challenges with inventory availability, but Hulu’s made some very smart strategic moves in how to continue and increase their distribution, increase their consumer base and make more inventory available,” said Christine Peterson, U.S. digital investment lead at Mindshare North America.

The streaming video service has strong appeal for advertisers that are looking to move their TV budgets online and are seeking brand-safe, TV and TV-like shows. Advertisers could put those budgets toward TV networks’ various over-the-top apps and less TV-like video services such as YouTube and Facebook. But “with the fragmented nature of OTT viewing, Hulu is so successful because it is a trusted one-stop shop to get premium content in a premium TV-like environment,” said Kristin Scheve, svp and media director at DigitasLBi. “You know what you’re getting with it. You can’t really say the same thing about a lot of other platforms.”

With Hulu claiming 54 million total unique viewers, including 17 million paying subscribers, it’s well behind YouTube and Facebook in audience size, which has capped how much advertisers could spend on Hulu. “They usually sell out every quarter and sell out early in Q4,” said Scheve.

Despite that strong demand for its ad inventory, Hulu continues to lose money as it spends to acquire original shows and operate a live TV service. Last year, the company lost $920 million despite a $1 billion infusion from its owners 21st Century Fox, Comcast, Disney and Time Warner.

Hulu’s original shows have “put them on the map and made them a credible provider,” said Stimmel. So have the awards that its hit show “The Handmaid’s Tale” has received. The awards have made brands that are already buying ads on Hulu “feel like it was the right move to make,” and reluctant advertisers, who consider their target markets to be too niche for Hulu, more open to spending money on the service, said Peterson.

Despite the growing levels of interest and investment from advertisers — over the years, UM’s spend on Hulu has steadily increased by double-digit percentages, while its spend on TV has flattened or fallen, Stimmel said — Hulu still has work to do to shore up its losses. It has the opportunity to do so heading into the TV upfronts and Hulu’s NewFronts presentation on May 2. But that’s contingent on the company continuing to overcome its ad-supply challenge. It could chip away at the issue by selling ads within its live TV service, which the spokesperson said it has yet to do, but it may also need to put more money toward acquiring shows and viewers.

“Everybody is clamoring to hear more about the incremental scale and inventory they can deliver,” Peterson said.

The post Hulu has started to address advertisers’ inventory frustrations appeared first on Digiday.