Month: August 2020

Announced in May on the Chromium and Google Developers blogs, the new heavy ad intervention feature “unloads” ads that use up more than 4MB of network data; or 15 seconds of CPU usage in any 30-second period; or 60-seconds of total CPU usage — suggesting the filter will primarily affect video ads. In place of the filtered ad will be a grey square, with the label “ad removed.” Publishers can test how the Heavy Ads Intervention will affect their pages in versions of Chrome 84 and upward by following the instructions on this page. Writing on Github last year, a Chrome engineer said the intervention is designed to discourage practices like ads that mine cryptocurrency and ads that “perform expensive operations in javascript, such as decoding video files, or CPU timing attacks,” among other bad user experiences.

A programmatic manager at a global publishing company said they hadn’t heard anything from Google about the heavy ads intervention update — despite being in touch with a Google account manager just a few days ago.

“Sometimes I’m secretly quite grateful for moderately tough deadlines for things like this to get things moving, but this is a bit too tight to say the least,” the programmatic manager said.

A person who oversees ad operations at a separate large publisher said they too would have appreciated more lead time: “We are all for improving the user experience on our site: This one just came up so abruptly we couldn’t get ahead of the solution and warn our advertisers.”

The ad operations executive said it’s difficult to determine just by looking at an advertising asset how “heavy” it might be and whether it could be blocked under the new filter — a situation made more difficult when certain campaigns have different renditions to suit multiple devices. They added that while Google has a reporting API that notifies publishers when interventions have taken place, it would be useful to have more granular details as standard about which line items are causing interventions without having to deploy their own internal developers. And, they said, it’s unclear whether an ad subject to an “intervention” — but rendered as a grey box on the page — would still count as an impression on Google Ad Manager.

Spokespeople for Chrome and Google declined to comment on the record.

In the May blog post, Chrome said only around 0.3% ads exceeded the “heavy ads” threshold in May — though that’s still a nontrivial amount given Chrome’s 69% share of the global browser market, according to NetMarketshare.

A spokesman for video advertising platform Teads said while the update was officially released on Tuesday (Aug. 25) “nothing had been impacted yet.” It usually takes around 10 days or more for users to update their browsers to the latest version. Still, Teads had anticipated the update would be a “nonevent” for its business because the company had for years focused on file-size compression in order for ads to load quickly, said Jeremy Arditi, the company’s chief commercial officer. And since the May Chrome announcement, Teads has also been rolling out tools for its publisher partners that automatically detects noncompliant ads and fixes them via compression and other means.

“Clearly there were quite a few distractions going on between May and August” for media and advertising companies as the coronavirus crisis continued into the summer, said Arditi. “Did this miss [some companies’] radar a bit? Potentially.”

Experts said most premium industry players had already been working for some time to reduce the number of ads that use a disproportionate share of device resources and that provide a shoddy experience for users. It’s been four years since a group of companies and trade bodies including Google, GroupM, Procter & Gamble, the Interactive Advertising Bureau and the World Federation of Advertisers formed the Coalition for Better Ads in a bid to rid the web of intrusive ad formats. Chrome introduced a filter in 2018 to automatically filter out pages with ads that don’t meet the Coalition’s standards.

Still, the Chrome heavy ads update is likely to “hurt all the less sophisticated more invasive players who have large ad payloads and haven’t done a lot of optimization — mostly the in-ad gaming providers,” said Harry Kargman, CEO of ad tech firm Kargo. 

The heavy ads intervention update comes as advertisers, publishers and ad tech companies are preparing for Chrome ending support for third-party cookies, set for 2022. 

Tom Kershaw, CTO at ad tech company Magnire and chairman of the open source Prebid industry organization, said the heavy ads intervention update could serve as a concerning harbinger for how Chrome is thinking about third-party cookie replacements as part of its “Privacy Sandbox” solutions.

Previously, Chrome’s filtering had focused more on “URL-based blocks” versus dynamically calculating the impact of individual ads, according to Kershaw. The issue, he added, is that there isn’t a clear methodology or adjudication system for publishers or platforms to dispute Chrome’s decision making over what constitutes a “heavy” ad. 

“I don’t disagree that ads that destroy people’s machines shouldn’t be shown,” said Kershaw. “My concern is that Chrome is starting to build out increasing ad awareness into its tech stack as part of a self-proclaimed mission to be the sole judge and jury and policing entity of the ad industry.”

Amazon’s and Roku’s distribution disputes with NBCUniversal and WarnerMedia have been the most explicit examples yet of streaming’s bellicose state of play. The CTV platform owners reportedly want a slice of Peacock’s ad inventory that NBCUniversal is reticent to surrender, and WarnerMedia is reportedly trying to avoid sacrificing a direct relationship with its subscribers by making HBO Max accessible within Amazon’s and Roku’s own streaming apps. 

A more recent sign of the growing antagonism is the unease that Apple, a relative Switzerland among CTV platforms, could become more assertive in its dealings with media companies distributing apps on Apple TV. That fear has yet to be substantiated. But one media executive said they see the potential for Apple to abandon impartiality in light of its fight with Fortnite maker Epic Games and its recent deal with ViacomCBS to sell bundled subscriptions to CBS All Access Access and Showtime but require that those subscribers only access their subscriptions through Apple’s own Apple TV app.

The turf war is not limited to the subscription side of the industry. As ad dollars shift from traditional TV to streaming, CTV platforms, streaming aggregators and individual media companies are similarly vying to situate themselves to be the one managing that money. 

This right-of-sale dynamic appears to be particularly acute in the free, ad-supported streaming TV market. Newer platforms carrying 24/7 streaming channels from third-party media companies, such as Amazon’s IMDb TV and Peacock, have taken full control of ad sales, sharing typically 50% of the resulting revenue with the media companies rather than splitting the channels’ ad inventory so the media companies can sell some of their own impressions, according to media executives. 

Additionally, media executives said these so-called FAST platforms (free, ad supported streaming TV), in general, are licensing more programming to create their own channels over which they are also able to control ad sales, and media companies don’t receive data regarding their channels’ performance and viewership that is consistent across the platforms. “There’s no common denominator to compare performance, so it’s hard to know what content to be putting where,” said a second media executive.

Meanwhile, bigger players in the ad-supported streaming space, such as the CTV platforms and media conglomerates, are becoming less interoperable, fragmenting the marketplace and frustrating advertisers. Case in point: After Roku acquired ad tech firm Dataxu last year, Amazon cut off Dataxu’s ability to buy ads on Amazon’s Fire TV platform. “CTV is moving to a few big walled garden providers that don’t share inventory with each other,” said one agency executive.

Confessional

“Fox was probably 85% sold in the Super Bowl at this time last year. [This year] it’s a tough sell because there’s so much ambiguity around it…. I think it’s going to be a year where the Super Bowl is not filled until January.”

— Agency executive on Super Bowl advertiser demand

Stay tuned: TikTok paying publishers

TikTok is doing what its primary rival, Instagram, has been largely reticent to do: writing checks to publishers.

TikTok made a big splash in July when it announced it would pay out $200 million over the next year to creators in the U.S. posting videos to its platform through a newly formed TikTok Creator Fund. However, while the fund’s name implies it’s limited to individual video creators, it is actually open to media companies as well, according to media executives familiar with the matter. A TikTok spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment as of press time.

It’s unclear how much TikTok is willing to pay publishers as part of its Creator Fund or how many publishers it is willing to accept into the program. What is clear is that the money would go a long way toward getting publishers to produce original content for the platform that is under siege by Instagram, which recently introduced a rival product Reels, as well as the U.S. government, which is trying to ban the app from operating in the country.

“When they start saying, ‘We’ll give you money,’ I’ll have my team start focusing on doing more on TikTok,” said a media executive who has been told by TikTok that publishers are eligible for the TikTok Creator Fund.

Numbers don’t lie

$5.5 million: How much money ViacomCBS is looking to charge for 30-second commercials in next year’s Super Bowl.

50 million: Number of people in the U.S. who use TikTok daily.

9%: Year-over-year decline in the money advertisers spent on TV in the U.S. between January 1 and August 15.

Trend watch: TV’s scatter ad prices drop

Advertisers’ excitement for the return of major sports to TV has abated as of mid-August.

When the MLB and NBA started up in late July, advertisers that buy TV inventory in the so-called “scatter” market — where networks sell ad space left unsold by the upfront sales process — found that inventory harder to come by, likely because of advertisers trying to gobble up the increased reach among sports-starved audiences. But by mid-August, scatter ad prices dropped by 30% to 40%, according to brand and agency executives.

“Right now I think advertisers are still skittish and don’t want to make long-term investments,” said Ron Blevins, vp of media at Marketing Architects, whose clients buy ads in the scatter market.

That could definitely be a factor. But another factor could be that it’s August and that people just aren’t watching as much TV right now. As Sportico reported earlier this month, overall TV viewership has fallen despite the return of major live sports.

When the MLB, NBA and NHL returned in late July and early August, “that created excitement. But now it’s tapered off. We’re kind of in the dog days of summer,” said one agency executive.

Furthermore, outside of sports, there isn’t much new programming for people to watch at the moment, which could be leading TV networks to discount their rates. Starting around mid-May, DTC brand Shapermint heard from TV networks offering 30% to 50% discounts for ads running on shows like “Good Morning America” and “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” (the latter may have other reasons for dropping it ad rates), according to Shapermint co-founder and CMO Massimiliano Tirocchi.

The discounts probably may not last for much longer, though. Advertisers typically spend more money on TV starting in September as kids go back to school, new shows debut and existing shows premiere new seasons. “Fall is traditionally the time when spend ramps up,” Blevins said. Then again, there is absolutely nothing traditional about 2020.

What we’ve covered

Microsoft’s hands-off handling of LinkedIn offers model for potential TikTok acquisition:

• Microsoft taking a heavy hand to TikTok could mar its consumer-facing product.
• But Microsoft could help TikTok to appeal to direct-response advertisers.

Read more about Microsoft here.

How Group Nine is selling advertisers on bigger and longer editorial deals:

• Group Nine’s NowThis and The Dodo has each launched new verticals with exclusive brand partners.
• Group Nine calls this a “layer cake” strategy, wherein add-ons increase the deals’ value.

Read more about Group Nine here.

What we’re reading

TV upfront heats up:
Upfront negotiations between TV networks and advertisers are always somewhat contentious. The networks want advertisers to pay more money, and the advertisers want to pay less money, especially as TV viewership declines. But the talks are a bit more aggressive this year, with advertisers expecting to commit to spend less money overall with the TV networks, according to Variety. Agency executives had anticipated this year’s upfront being a buyer’s market after years of networks coaxing more money and higher rates out of advertisers, and the report makes it seem like that’s exactly how the negotiations are playing out.

Netflix’s talk show struggle:
Years after Netflix tried to get into the talk show genre with Chelsea Handler, it seemed to have succeeded with “Patriot Act,” its version of “The Daily Show” hosted by Hasan Minhaj that Netflix promoted at events like Complex’s ComplexCon. Nope. Netflix has canceled the series, and the decision suggests that the company has yet to figure out how to adapt the TV format to streaming, according to The Verge. The weird thing is that a talk show’s success these days hinges on the popularity of clips on social platforms like Twitter, YouTube and Instagram, and Netflix seems to have stepped up its social game, as evidenced by its YouTube channel “Netflix Is a Joke” where it posts clips from its stand-up specials and even uploaded the entirety of Dave Chappelle’s instant classic “8:46,” which has notched 27 million views as of this writing. But as The Verge points out, the issue may be that people simply aren’t looking to Netflix for topical, daily programming.

Streamers siphon TV networks’ programming pipelines:
British TV networks are finding streaming services like Netflix swooping in to scoop up series that the networks had hoped to fill their linear schedules with, according to The Guardian. While the article concentrated on the U.K., a similar situation may be facing TV networks in the U.S., particularly those without subscription-based streaming services. A producer recently told me they are more willing to pitch projects to the likes of Netflix, Hulu and HBO Max at the moment because they are willing to pay more than broadcast and cable TV networks or ad-supported streamers.

The Washington Post’s branded content arm, WP BrandLabs, is striving to making sure that the projects that the team is working on are effective and empathetic during this unsure time.

Denise Burrell-Stinson, creative director and head of storytelling at the WP BrandLab, said that they are using research to find out exactly what audiences want from brands right now and found that 60% of those they surveyed are still willing to hear from brands but the message has to be purpose driven.

“We’re seeing more opportunities and we can say this type of story-driven approach to content works at every aspect of the funnel,” said Burrell-Stinson. 

In the latest edition of the Digiday+ Talks, Burrell-Stinson discusses how her team has adapted its operations, how measurement for success has shifted and where she sees future opportunities.

Messaging is where opportunity lies

For the brands that are still spending on branded content, Burrell-Stinson said that the growth opportunity there is through understanding the new topics of conversation to have with audiences.

It’s also important to approach these topics with a fresh perspective that keeps the brands underscored as thought leaders in the space, she said. These topics include:

• Future of work: Within this category, she said brands have been looking at the longevity of remote working, how contact tracing can be done effectively, the future retail experience, privacy, etc.
• Small Business: As a key cog in the economy, bringing back small businesses and that sector of the job market is key subject for brands.
• Innovation: She said this is especially energetic from the healthcare and pharmacy brands that they work with.
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: How brands are helping not only their employees, but society at large in creating a more inclusive environment.  

“Corporate social responsibility has brands feeling like if they are going to allocate the marketing dollars, it might not necessarily be on the hard sell. There is a time and place for content on the hard sell, but right now we’re in a moment where brands are saying ‘we’re here and we’re trying to do something that helps,’” said Burrell-Stinson.

Faster production

What’s changed from a content production perspective is that brands have had a growing interest in products that are turn-key or “quick-turn solutions,” Burrell-Stinson said.

To achieve this, she said there is still “an appetite for article-driven content where we’re able to dig deep into a topic and show thought leadership and analysis.”

Video content and storytelling is also a popular medium, but there are production limitations, including still being primarily remote, Burrell-Stinson said. There are some reduced-size teams who are on the ground shooting footage, but the bulk of content creation, direction and collaboration is happening virtually, she said.

To get around this, reimagined campaigns have been a popular strategy for turning out these projects. Some of the client partners that WP BrandLab were working with had existing concepts that were starting to form but then were transformed to include the new messaging more in-line with what audiences are looking for.

Additionally, mixed media takes away the need of producing a full documentary out in the world, and instead edits together the interviews and content they can get with pre-shot video with photos, and then overlays narration.

“We are looking at everything in our creative realm of possibility,” she said.

Are marketers coming back to branded content?

In 2021, Burrell-Stinson said she expects that a lot of the work that WP BrandStudio will be doing will be with the clients that stuck with the company through 2020.

“A lot of the talk is going to be about breathing new life into relationships that exist and [tell them] that we were able to be a consultant and a true collaborator that you could rely on in one era and certainly” in the next, she said.