Month: June 2019

While it’s questionable if Snapchat’s in-app checkout is any better than one that redirects to a web browser, Brandon Doyle, founder of agency Wallaroo Media, said he does expect the shops to increase sales in Snapchat. “Any time you can cut down on a click you increase conversion rates and add that to the fact that these shops will fit the aesthetic of Snap,” Doyle said.

Snap declined to share any information about sales from in-app checkout, citing the program is in beta.

Snapchat’s Shopify integration also brings up the question of who owns the data. Snapchat only sends a user’s contact information (phone number and email address) to a merchant if they complete a purchase. Shopify store owners are unable to retarget Snapchat users who abandon their carts in the in-app feature.

Snapchat-competitor Instagram also has bet more on shopping. In March, Instagram launched a beta program where users can shop, check out and manage orders all within the app — nearly identical to the tool Snap started testing in April 2018 with publishers and later expanded to brands and creators. Instagram’s launch partners included Kylie Cosmetics as well. Unlike on Snapchat, Instagram takes a selling fee.

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When it tested the approach in the third quarter last year, the car advertiser sold over 2,400 cars in the period, which was a year-on-year rise of more than 80%. While the car manufacturer could not share further proof of the impact behavioral targeting had on sales, it did help it determine where it bought programmatic ads that would reach younger drivers. Based on the lookalike audiences there was some crossover between gym enthusiasts and those people who had shown an interest in MG’s cars, for example, which meant the advertiser started to buy ads on health and lifestyle sites it had previously discounted.

The validity of behavioral targeting is still being in questioned. Seven in 10 (68%) of publishers said they don’t benefit from behavioral advertising, according to Digiday Research. A separate study found that cookie-targeted ads typically generate only 4% in additional revenue for publishers.

“We’re trying to do what other brands have done so well over the years and attract a younger audience so that when they’re older we can start to upsell and create some brand loyalty,” said Chris Richards, digital and social media manager at MG.

Audience segmentation may not be the most sophisticated use of a DMP, but MG sees it as a stepping stone to more second-party data deals with publishers either via Lotame or through its agency. Unlike other car manufacturers like Nissan, MG’s agency TMWI, rather than its own marketers, owns the contract to the DMP. It means that any new data created within the DMP is owned by the advertiser’s agency, TMWI, said Ronak Patel, group planning director at the agency. But it also means the car manufacturer can lean on the agency’s relationships with publishers to connect its own first-party data with second-party data sets.

However, setting up these deals isn’t straightforward, which is why MG is taking its time.

For publishers like Autotrader, behavioral targeting seems worth the hassle given they are able to aggregate intent-driven behavior on their sites, which advertisers are willing to pay more for to target ads to highly-specific audiences.

“We’re having discussions with agencies about our own first-party data,” said Rebecca Clarke, manufacturer and agency director at AutoTrader. “We’re working with businesses like MG to understand how we commercialize our data but we’re mindful of how we protect it too. There’s more of an appetite for our data since the arrival of the General Data Protection Regulation last May.”

If a publisher uses the same DMP as the advertiser then the ad tech vendor acts as the bridge for the different data sets to match. If the DMPs are different, however, then it’s a harder, more manual process to match those data sets. While there are several ways of doing it, it’s not as it’s not always possible to add unique identifiers at the publisher and advertiser side to match datasets together.

Image courtesy of MG. 

The post How car brand MG compensates for limited first-party data appeared first on Digiday.

“If you think about it in the context of the portfolio of brands that we have, it’s a meaningful contributor, particularly in [the second quarter] and the summer, which can be kind of slow,” Mittman added. “What we saw last year around the men’s World Cup is going to pale in comparison to the enthusiasm and national pride this year’s World Cup is going to bring.”

And advertisers want to get involved. Bleacher Report’s advertising clients for the World Cup includes Adidas, Hulu, Nike, PlayStation and Volkswagen, Mittman said. A lot of the work Bleacher Report does with advertisers and the World Cup will be tied to video and social content the publisher produces both on-site in France as well as here in the U.S. This includes an after-match interview series hosted by former U.S. soccer goalkeeper and gold medalist Hope Solo, as well as a social series in which B/R Football will recreate goal celebrations. Bleacher Report’s World Cup programming will be distributed on B/R Football, across other owned social channels such as House of Highlights, and Bleacher Report’s own mobile app and the B/R Live streaming service. Bleacher Report also plans to host a watch party at the Eventi Hotel in Manhattan, complete with a 50-foot TV screen, for the U.S.’s match against Thailand.

“We are trying to own this moment,” Mittman said. “The Women’s National Team has created a World Cup dynasty; this as powerful as the Dream Team.”

Bleacher Report is not alone in drawing more interest from advertisers heading into the Women’s World Cup. A spokesperson for Fox Sports, which owns U.S. broadcast rights to both the men’s and women’s World Cups, said advertiser interest in the tournament has grown considerably since the last tournament in 2015. The spokesperson declined to say how much ad revenue Fox Sports expects to collect from the 2019 tournament; in 2015, Fox Sports reportedly generated $40 million in ad revenue, which was more than double the initial estimates of $17 million and was driven by the U.S. women’s team winning the tournament.

This summer, Fox Sports’ advertising efforts will be boosted by a title-defending U.S. team that is expected to go far — a year after the men’s U.S. soccer team failed to even qualify for their World Cup. Top sponsors for Fox Sports’s coverage this year include Coca-Cola, Volkswagen and Verizon.

“Four years ago, we made this a marquee event for advertisers,” said the spokesperson. “We have trained the marketplace to treat this as pretty powerful stuff and see this as a premier event for the summer.”

While the FIFA Women’s World Cup remains a top event on the sports calendar, women’s sports and female athletes broadly are getting more coverage from all types of sports media outlets.

In January, Overtime launched OvertimeWBB for women’s basketball content after the sports media startup acquired a platform called SheHoops last fall. On Instagram, OvertimeWBB has more than 223,000 followers and is generating 6.4 million video views per month, according to Overtime. While that channel remains Overtime’s home for women’s basketball videos, the content is also often shared across Overtime’s main Instagram channel, which has 1.7 million followers. Overtime is also producing video features on female basketball players, including one feature on Jada Williams releasing next week, according to Overtime co-founder Zack Weiner.

Overtime’s investment in women’s basketball is also helping the business. For instance, on May 18, Overtime hosted an all-day event in Brooklyn that was sponsored by Converse. As part of the day’s programming, Overtime hosted both an all-girls’ basketball tournament and an all-boys’ basketball tournament, both of which packed the venue at a capacity of 500 people. A thousand OvertimeWBB-branded t-shirt and hoodie were sold out within 30 minutes of being released in May, said Overtime co-founder Dan Porter.

“It’s a testament to how big the brand of these [female] players have been growing and how much swagger they play with,” Weiner said.

Looking ahead, Overtime is in conversations with advertisers to do more branded work tied to women’s basketball; the company also aims to expand to women’s soccer by the end of the year, Weiner said.

Bleacher Report, too, is planning to increase the amount of content it produces that center on women’s sports and female athletes, Mittman said.

“Women’s sports isn’t women’s sports — it’s just sports,” said Mittman. “The commitment we have to continue developing connections with and opportunities for women in sports is both intentional and increasing. It’s a significant focus area for us, not just because it makes sense financially but also because it’s the kind of brand we want to be.”

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