Month: January 2018

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By Eric Hoffert, svp, video technology, AppNexus

Video has emerged as the undeniable future of programmatic advertising. As opportunities to engage consumers through video grow richer and more complex, formats for monetization have advanced alongside them.

Ranker, an online publisher and Quantcast Top 30 site, focuses on crowdsourced, ranked content across display and video. On the forefront of the digital video landscape, Ranker has honed a strategic balance of direct and programmatic advertising, as well as instream and outstream video. They were also an early adopter of video header bidding, using Prebid Video as well as other partners.

This week I sat down with Ranker’s Chief Technology Officer, Premesh Purayil, to talk about Ranker’s move into video header bidding, why the company chose to customize their ad server rather than work with DFP, and the evolution of the digital video market.

What is Ranker’s business and what role does video play in it?

Ranker’s core business is that of an online publisher: monetizing from advertising, display and video. While the majority of Ranker content is in the form of text-and-image interactive lists and listicles, we also have an in-house video department that produces short-form video content for Ranker and Ranker brands. About 18 percent of Ranker’s programmatic revenue comes from video (pre-roll and outstream).

What’s the value proposition of Ranker to consumers?

Ranker’s goal is to crowdsource anything that makes sense as a ranked list. With hundreds of thousands of crowdsourced rankings on topics ranging from the best Netflix original films, to the funniest standup comedians, to bucket list ideas, Ranker has content available for users to vote on, use for recommendations, trivia, and generally get lost in a content wormhole.

You were an early adopter of video header bidding; what prompted the initial decision to move to the technology?

Ranker video demand is composed of a mix of direct and programmatic. As we grew our video inventory in 2017, Ranker saw the opportunity to increase yield by moving away from static video demand tags just like we saw for display. Rather than working with the many ad networks that attempted to auction off our inventory against the SSPs we already work with, video header bidding opened the door to a more efficient approach to capturing video demand.

Ranker has deployed both instream and outstream video. How is it working out for each of these formats and what role does video header bidding play?

Deploying both instream and outstream video has been successful for Ranker. We started to grow our instream inventory at the end of Q3 2017, so it was important that we drive an increase in demand for this content. For both instream and outstream, increasing demand through video header bidding enabled Ranker to start growing PMP video deals, an area in which we look forward to expanding in 2018.

Unlike some video publishers, you don’t use DFP as your video ad server. How have you customized your video ad server set up to work with Prebid video?

Using DFP for video for most publishers is a no brainer since they are (likely) already using DFP. Along those lines, Prebid Video is relatively easy to integrate into DFP, which makes sense because it’s targeting the same audiences as the publishers. From Ranker’s experience, however, DFP is NOT well suited for every scenario. Unless you have a lot of direct demand where video header bidding is just increasing yield, you will find that DFP video basically takes you back to the pre-header bidder days of waterfalls (DFP waterfalls its demand tags). If you have a mix of standard tags, direct and video header bidding, moving to a video ad server that can auction your demand (client or server side) will yield much better results. In order to achieve this, Ranker had to adjust our pre-bid video integration to send key values into LKQD (our video ad server) rather than DFP.

Where do you see the digital video market going in the coming years?

The future of the digital video market will be interesting. Last year, many publishers (and ad tech) pushed video, so one could easily assume 2018 would have a different focus. However, I think video header bidding will gain mainstream adoption over the coming year and will continue to drive a focus on video. While there still are a lot of issues around brand safety and viewability, I am hopeful Vast 4.0 will help solve those and reduce network overhead.

How do you see Ranker evolving in the video space?

Though Ranker is not known as a video site, we plan to diversify our content types in 2018, and video will be a large part of this strategy. As we increase our video content, Ranker will be mindful of keeping video on-brand and related to our core offering for our audience — which, of course, is rankings — so we can continue our impressive growth in audience reach. This translates to a value-add for brands — by combining our audience development prowess and unique data set, Ranker will offer brands a unique approach to target audiences in ways other publishers cannot.

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Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. When Less Is More Facebook’s recent algo change could lure TV dollars if it reduces the amount of publisher video content in the news feed. If pubs spend less on Facebook traffic, it “could lead to less inventory and push advertisers towards the more… Continue reading »

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“Game of Zones” is a popular animated series from Turner’s Bleacher Report, which reimagines NBA stars and personalities as characters in a “Game of Thrones”-like universe. It’s been a successful show for Bleacher Report, with its most recent season nabbing 40 million video views across platforms and a big ad sponsor in AT&T, the company said. Now, Bleacher Report wants to see if it can find other ways to make money off “Game of Zones” and other brands in its portfolio.

Bleacher Report is hiring dedicated teams for commerce and content licensing, having already brought on an executive to head up the commerce business, said Howard Mittman, CRO and CMO of Bleacher Report.

“One of the great benefits of being owned by Turner is that we have a lot of opportunities that some of our VC-backed competitors don’t,” Mittman said. “So we’re not downsizing. We’re growing, and some of the new hires are going toward separate and discrete teams we’ve created for e-commerce and licensing.”

Breaking into commerce
In addition to “Game of Zones,” Bleacher Report has “Gridiron Heights,” an animated series focused on the NFL, and “No Script,” a documentary series starring NFL player Marshawn Lynch that Bleacher Report developed for Facebook Watch. Bleacher Report also has a big hit with its House of Highlights Instagram account, which is followed by everybody from LeBron James to Drake. Out of these media brands — and others in the pipeline for 2018 — Bleacher Report sees an opportunity to create merchandise and other products that people would want to buy.

Last year, Bleacher Report ran a small test where it created a line of clothing based on the “Hoodie Melo” meme (featuring NBA player Carmelo Anthony practicing in a hoodie). The hoodies, at $60 each, sold out in just a few hours, Mittman said. Similarly, Bleacher Report hired an artist last year to reimagine NBA team logos in honor of Black History Month, with franchise names such as the Bed Stuy Rockers and the Chicago Defenders. It’s easy to imagine apparel and other products carrying those logos, Mittman said.

“It’s a great advantage we have with the Turner relationship — just look at what Adult Swim has been able to do with ‘Rick & Morty,’” said Bleacher Report president Rory Brown. “There’s a certain demographic that is so in love with that content that they’ll support it in whatever way they can. People are not going to buy some random piece of swag from a brand they stumble upon on Facebook. That’s what we’re focused on.”

Licensing shows
Two years ago, Bleacher Report formed its B/R Entertainment division to create video shows for Bleacher Report’s own platforms and other distributors such as Facebook Watch. Led by Neil Punsalan, it’s focused on projects such as “Game of Zones,” “Gridiron Heights” and “No Script,” which Bleacher Report reportedly licensed to Facebook for “millions” of dollars. Bleacher Report has five such entertainment projects that it plans to focus on this year, said Brown.

“We’re going to be smart about [the licensing business] versus trying to jump in the deep end of the pool,” said Brown. “You can find success here — and many entertainment companies have for a number of years — but you’re talking about relatively young media companies going up against established Hollywood brands. So we’re going to be careful.”

Revenue diversification and decreasing platform dependency have taken on greater importance for publishers since Facebook announced that it would devalue media content within the news feed. Bleacher Report’s decisions to go into e-commerce and content licensing preceded Facebook’s announcement, but they point to the need for digital media companies to have multifaceted revenue models.

Bleacher Report revenue grew 17 percent year over year in 2017, according to Brown, who wouldn’t give a hard number but said the company was profitable. Ad sales on its social media accounts, which include custom branded video and sponsorships, contributed about a third of total direct revenues, said a company spokesperson.

While there is concern that Facebook’s algorithm change will eat into the advertising revenue publishers can make on the platform, Bleacher Report executives said they were not as concerned as other publishers that are more reliant on Facebook might be. Facebook accounts for 12 percent of referral traffic for Bleacher Report, said Mittman. Still, if Facebook favors posts that users interact with and share, Bleacher Report stands to benefit because people already interact a lot with its content. The publisher had 120 million “interactions” on social platforms in December, compared to 55 million for ESPN and 35 million for BuzzFeed, according to CrowdTangle, a Facebook-owned social measurement firm.

“Most of what we consume today and most of what is at risk because of the algorithm change is ‘basic feed’: It’s content that’s found but not sought out; it’s low engagement, has low shareability and is just filling space,” said Mittman. “We’re focused on making sure the content we create resonates with people in a deep way — they see it as a need.”

App investment is coming
Entering year three of Turner’s $100 million investment in Bleacher Report, growing audiences and revenue through Bleacher Report’s app will remain a big focus for the company. The app, which now has 9.5 million active users per month, accounts for a third of company revenue, said Mittman.

A big change will come in the spring, when Turner launches a sports streaming service. The plan is to use Bleacher Report as a front door into the service, with access available on the publisher’s site and app. It’s also speculated inside Turner that the as-yet unnamed streaming service will have Bleacher Report branding in some fashion.

And with the runaway success of House of Highlights on Instagram, Bleacher Report is also focused on building its own distinct media business with separate revenue goals for the account. House of Highlights creator Omar Raja and Bleacher Report’s vp of social Doug Bernstein are leading the effort, with oversight from a board that includes Brown, Mittman, Bleacher Report CEO Dave Finocchio and COO Alex Vargas. Bleacher Report is also putting together a team of new hires and existing staffers to support House of Highlights.

“We need to diversify and make sure we are protected,” said Brown. “Sustaining the growth of the Bleacher Report brand is important; building a business within the business at House of Highlights and how we put money toward each brand to grow them as best as they can will be important. And the app, as a potential place where it can become a home base for sports fans, and getting people to be more active and interacting with each other on it, will be a priority as well.”

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Facebook may have told the world it is pushing brands out of its news feed, but it is giving them a workaround behind closed doors. Facebook is trying to appease advertisers that have voiced concerns by pointing them toward an existing “see first” feature in news-feed settings that Facebook claims could improve their organic reach.

In one of the emails that Digiday reviewed, a Facebook executive explained how the feature lets users choose which brand pages and friends they want to see content from. To get that reach and gain real followers, the Facebook executive advised the marketer to create content that adds “real value” to people’s lives. By doing so, the brand’s posts could be seen within the news feed if an individual has opted in to see that advertiser’s content, according to the Facebook executive.

The move basically means marketers would need people to double opt-in to receiving their postings, without any guarantee they will see them, unless of course marketers pay. For some marketers, they already did pay in order to acquire likes back when Facebook was urging marketers to do so. Now, it’s telling these same companies they need to get people take further action — and even then there’s no guarantee anybody will see what marketers post.

It isn’t a “particularly helpful gesture,” said Sam Griffith, operations director at December 19, an independent media agency that has worked with small to medium-sized brands such as watchmaker Henry London and Alive Multivitamins.

“I wouldn’t have thought the number of people specifically opting in to hear from brands [on Facebook] is large,” Griffith said. “There’s also the question of how you convince people to opt in, in the first place; you wouldn’t want to run an ad asking them to agree to receiving more ads in their news feed.”

Organic reach for some smaller business Facebook pages (fewer than 10,000 fans) has hovered around 10 percent for some time, according to a marketing executive, who spoke to Digiday on condition of anonymity. That means that for every 700 people who liked a business page, for example, roughly 70 people would see a post in their news feeds organically without the company having to pay for the post to appear. The latest change drags that reach down to virtually zero, bringing it more in line with what larger brands have contended with for years.

Every little bit matters when you’re a smaller business due to the “power of virality and the affinity part of the algorithm,” said Adam Libonatti-Roche, head of social at marketing agency Bluestripe Media, which works with small to medium-sized businesses. “As [a small or midsize business], this change in functionality will be both a blessing and a curse — a blessing as it means you have a reason to [ask for] a larger paid social budget, or [alternatively], try a new platform; a curse as it means on Facebook, paid social has a hold on your page.”

While Facebook has said users will see more of their friends’ content in the news feed, they will continue to see ads from brands that have paid for them to appear there. Arguably, the change has merely increased competition — and therefore prices — for getting into the news feed, by pushing out those who can’t afford to pay to be in it.

Facebook needed to respond to the issues around fake news, but it appears as though the purge will “only result in more being spent on paid ads,” Griffith said.

Facebook has made no secret of its attempt to convince smaller businesses, which account for a large portion of its 5 million-plus advertisers, to buy more paid ads. Last year, it launched a raft of tools to help smaller businesses “go mobile” and over the summer set up what it calls “SME Councils” in markets such as Ireland and Nigeria to court new spenders.

The prevailing narrative among larger brands following Facebook’s news-feed change is that it won’t impact their plans for the platform. Unlike publishers, brands have been strong-armed into paying to appear on the social network for several years. But Leila Fataar, the founder of creative network Platform13, believes the change could eventually lead to fundamental changes to marketing on Facebook now that “passive consumption [views] of branded content is deprioritized,” she explained.

“This has been the reach metric brands have strived for on social for the last few years, so it will be very interesting to see how this huge change in measure of success plays out in the next few months,” she added.

The post Facebook to worried marketers: Get users to mark you as ‘see first’ appeared first on Digiday.

In 2016, two VCU Brandcenter students, Xia Du and Yanci Wu, won a Cannes Future Lion award for their concept Amazon Emma, an artificial intelligence application for Amazon Echo to combat dementia in seniors.

Using natural language processing and machine learning algorithms, Amazon Emma could have personalized conversations with seniors to stimulate their minds and reduce feelings of social isolation. The project won at Cannes because it used new technology to address users’ needs — something agencies and brands constantly strive to do.

As agencies and brands continue looking toward AI to reach consumers in increasingly customized ways, there is a greater need for marketers who can create experiences like Amazon Emma. In response, schools across the U.S. are introducing new degree programs, boot camps and classes on how to prepare students to use AI, and some brands have started advising schools on their approach.

Ad schools that have long had interactive design curricula, like General Assembly and VCU’s Brandcenter business program are adding new courses or revamping old ones to include AI into the overall user experience. Meanwhile, new experience design schools like Center Centre have opened with mainstay AI classes.

AI courses typically fall under user experience design degree programs, where students are taught to design experiences across multiple channels, often using other technology like augmented reality and virtual reality, as well as how to improve the user experience across those channels.

Du and Wu graduated in 2017 from VCU Brandcenter as part of the school’s first class of user experience designers. VCU Brandcenter was ahead of the marketing industry when it began offering user-focused design classes as part of its creative technology track nearly 10 years ago. Three years ago, the school revamped its creative technology program, referring to it as user experience design and launching classes around data tracking and how to engage users. But the program remains in a state of flux as new technologies emerge in the marketing industry.

For the fall 2018 semester, for instance, VCU Brandcenter aims to add more classes on human-machine interaction and AI. “Those are burgeoning areas where we have to be thinking ahead,” said Andrew LeVasseur, professor of experience design at VCU Brandcenter.

General Assembly is also incorporating more AI into its courses, according to Tyler Hartrich, lead instructor for user experience design at General Assembly, who teaches a 10-week user experience class.

“The big thing we look at is how can UX designers better position themselves in their fields to be relevant,” said Hartrich. “Not all creative agencies or product teams are considering AI yet, but if they do in the next 12 to 15 months and we aren’t offering any instruction on it, our students could be behind.”

The jobs at agencies, tech giants and brands that user experience designers fill once they graduate vary. A new role that has emerged in the past year is AI designer, according to LeVasseur.

User experience designers can also work their way up the corporate ladder to become a chief customer experience officer, also known as head of customer experience, a C-level position that LinkedIn identifies as one of the top 20 emerging jobs in 2018.

“It’s not that the traditional titles are falling off,” explains LeVasseur. “It’s that everybody’s jobs are getting redefined based on the problems brands have to solve.”

There is a definite need in the industry for AI roles. A World Federation of Advertisers study in November found that 73 percent of marketers are experiencing a lack of AI skills like predictive modeling, outweighing other in-demand areas like AR and VR.

In general, user experience design roles are in high demand. The salaries that user experience designers earn at their first jobs substantiate this. In December, VCU Brandcenter surveyed its alumni who graduated between 1998 and 2017 and found that junior-level experience designers earn the most out of the entry-level marketing jobs, making an average of $68,125 a year, around $10,000 more than junior art directors, copywriters and brand managers.

“What’s happened in the last three years is the experience design role has become more prominent and increasingly valued,” said LeVasseur, “especially if you look at what juniors are paid.”

But keeping these students ahead of the trends in the industry is not easy. Advertising and design schools must pay attention to emerging technologies and successfully implement them into their curricula so students are prepared for jobs ahead.

To help, brands have provided guidance to schools when it comes to offering AI and user experience courses. SCAD developed its bachelor’s program in user experience design with Google’s help in November 2015, and IBM advises General Assembly on its curriculum.

“It will be very limiting to be a marketer five years from now if you don’t really understand AI, if you’re not very prolific with analytics and data and if you’re not a user experience expert,” said IBM CMO Michelle Peluso.

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