Month: August 2020

This means over a third of publishers will experience critical blind spots relative to user behavior and engagement, unless they prioritize an alternative identity solution or authentication strategy. And if they don’t? They’ll lose ground on engaging with audiences and gaining insights into consumer behavior — essential to effective brand advertising. 

“[Diminishing] cookies lit the fire and gave us a sense of urgency around finding a solution and future proofing the business,” says Eugene Faynberg, vice president, ad operations, at Slickdeals. “That’s been part of our core ethos since we started, as we provide value to users — we’re helping them find deals with trusted retailers.” 

Faynberg acknowledges that some post-cookie strategies are going to be “really challenging” to accomplish, but, he says, “step one is to authenticate traffic.”  

Adding to that observation is Bedir Aydemir, head of audience and data, commercial, at News UK, who said; “When it comes to third-party cookies, we believe in two things: One, the strategies that buyers will need to deploy in the short term, including contextual targeting or leveraging first- party data, will benefit quality publishers most; two, the concept of targeting a user absolutely anywhere based on past behaviors will become harder to do, and so money will shift out of the murky long tail of the web and towards higher quality, trusted environments.” 

Methods of authentication 

While some publishers are taking a slower approach to locking post-cookies solutions into place, a significant number are in the planning phase, nonetheless. The new research shows that 71 percent have already started strategizing for a future without cookies and 100 percent say that transacting on first-party data will play an important role in building post-cookies strategies.

As authenticating audiences becomes more pertinent, the mechanic that is used will need to adapt too — avoiding consumer fatigue around being asked for data using the same method over and over. The majority of publishers are currently employing newsletters to authenticate their audiences but are planning to widen their approach to widgets and special offers.

Chris Moore, head of strategic partnerships at Publishers Clearing House, says there are good opportunities out there for publishers already playing in this space, giving the examples of The New York Times opening up its COVID content for free to people who are willing to sign up for an account. “That works for readers of the New York Times, and in today’s divided media landscape, that only covers a specific cross-section of consumers.” 

Moore says other publishers will need to adapt their offerings too. When it comes to authenticated audiences, he says: “For everyone aside from The New York Times, I think it’s tougher, but ultimately it comes down to log-ins and direct relationships.” 

The value of going direct 

There is value in direct relationships, and not just between the buy- and sell-side. 

According to Moore, benefits also emerge in the direct relationship between “the publisher to the user, because there has to be some sort of value exchange that the end user is seeing from the publisher in order to give up some sort of information. And for the user to be educated enough to understand, ‘Okay, I’m giving them my email, but I’m going to have a better experience as a result.’” 

The short-term pains of cookie deprecation will give way to long-term gains for publishers and brands. This new research shows some slower movement in the publishing ecosystem, but also developments in positive directions — from investment in technology that helps manage the reader journey to having the resources to implement post-cookies monetization strategies.

To get the full analysis of how publishers will monetize inventory post-cookies download the report here.

Working from home is no vacation: Productivity is up

Prior to the pandemic, there was a stigma around working from home. There was a notion that it was merely an excuse to have a free day out of the confines of the office. But recent research tells a different story: Now that we’re in the home office, we’re actually working longer, harder and being even more productive.

According to a DailyPay survey — polling employees whose companies give them the option to work remotely — the majority said they work longer hours and claim to be more effective. 

Of the respondents, 60 percent said they work more hours from home, with 33 percent of those saying they work eight or hours more per week remotely — that is, more than 400 hours a year. Meanwhile, 48 percent said they are more effective when working remotely compared to 14 percent who claim they are less effective.

So, does the future of work translate into the eradication of offices permanently? 

Not exactly: only 25 percent of the respondents expect to be working from home for the foreseeable future. And for the essential workers, who kept the economy running — and saved people’s lives — and almost certainly for teachers soon venturing back into the classroom, working from home might not ever be a full-time reality.

Employee benefits are transforming in interesting ways  

From 401k to educational stipends, employers have changed a number of offerings to retain and attract staff in trying times. 

Among the most talked-about introductions have been zero-cost benefits around pay. The antiquated system of waiting two weeks to be paid, sometimes with a paper check, now seems as outdated as office buffet lunches. Top Fortune 500 companies are already offering their employees an on-demand benefit that enables their staff access to their pay as they earn it. This provides them with more control over their finances and the safe, contactless digitization that they have come to expect in the new world. In fact, recent research shows that 74 percent of employees noted they are less stressed about their finances with a daily pay benefit.

Employers will almost certainly continue to offer new and interesting benefits. Any way to reduce employee stress can be a game-changer when it comes to the unpredictable nature of events, especially when there is absolutely no cost to the employer, and no needed change management either.

Contactless technology is a life-saver for essential workers

For essential workers in hospitals, supermarkets and fast-food restaurants, the workplace is becoming an increasingly contactless environment that highlights safety and efficiency.

Instead of high-touch punch cards or touch screens for which employees have often had to wait in line, employees can now simply wave an ID card or their cell phone to sign into work.

In supermarkets, scan-and-go technology has accelerated the mobile checkout experience — enabling staff to be re-deployed in other areas of the store — and also creates a safer experience for both the employee and the customer. The new technology comes at an opportune time, too. According to DailyPay’s “Rehire America Index,” the supermarket industry has seen a 63 percent increase in employee levels since January 1.

The hospitality industry is also prioritizing safety through new technologies. For hotels, guests can now use contactless technology to check-in and skip the dreaded long line that is often waiting for us after a long day of traveling. This measure creates a safer and more time-efficient experience for the customer and front-desk employee, who can now tend to more pressing needs of guests.

Diversity in leadership is now a must-have element

In a year that featured important cultural discussions regarding racial inequality,  we also experienced a shift in the need for our companies to reflect society. The business that prioritizes diversity and champions inclusion is more aligned with their customers and better positioned for success.

Research clearly demonstrates that the future of work features more diversity in the C-suite and in the general workforce. Among the respondents, 65 percent said diversity in the overall staff makes a company better-positioned to relate to customers, and 63 percent said having female leaders in a company is good for business. And two-thirds of those surveyed said diversity in company leadership is important when deciding on where to apply for a job.

2020 has been unlike any year in memory. The workplace we know has been remade, but the change also represents a unique moment to reflect and change the way companies operate, from the inside out. Long-entrenched views on such things as remote working and digitization have changed. Diversity in the C-suite is now considered a prerequisite for a company’s viability and long-term success. If the future of work arrived faster than business leaders could have anticipated, they can still take a deep breath — and embrace it.

“As cases have climbed back up, they want normal shows but for us to pitch with Covid plans,” said a second producer of recent development talks with TV networks and streaming services.

That is to say, networks and streamers want shows that are in the vein of what they usually distribute but whose productions would be minimally disrupted in the event of another production shutdown. “If you can prove you can make a show right now, they want you to,” said the first producer. That desire includes scripted series but is especially suited to unscripted shows because the latter is more adaptable to the production uncertainty, according to producers. 

For a scripted series, the majority of the time and money is spent during the pre-production and production, or shooting, phases. The longer a show is in production, the higher the risk that its production may need to be shut down if local authorities reinstitute lockdown restrictions to stem the rise in coronavirus cases. By contrast, for unscripted series at least half of the time and money spent on post-production, such as editing the footage shot during the production. As a result, an unscripted series would be more likely to be able to finish shooting before another production shutdown and then go into post-production remotely to complete the project.

Another reason that networks and streamers are scouring the market for unscripted shows is that these programs cost less to produce than a scripted series, with budgets usually in the low- to mid-six figures per unscripted episode compared to millions of dollars for scripted episodes. TV networks and ad-supported streamers, in particular, are having to manage their programming costs amid a weakened advertising market, so they are looking for less expensive programming. “That is going to create higher demand for unscripted projects, and we’re seeing that,” said a third producer.

However, TV networks and streamers are also looking to ensure that, if physical production is forced to stop and a project is not fully shot, the shoot can continue remotely. That way the networks and streamers can avoid the shutdown costs they had to cover when productions came to a halt in March. It also helps to protect their programming pipelines from drying up in light of the hiatus. “For any new project, you need to be able to say, ‘Here’s the covid-proof production plan,” said the second producer. 

Producers’ covid-proof production plans largely borrow from the adjustments they have already made to produce programs remotely, such as hiring local crews that are tested regularly and follow mask wearing and social distancing safety guidelines in order to set up shoots inside the homes of on-camera talent. But the plans also include setting up a show to be shot outside, taking a page from restaurants’ and gyms’ reopening playbooks.

“If we start [production on a show], we’ve got to be able to finish with the assumption that Covid is back fully. If cases explode again and we go back into full lockdown, we need to be able to still do it,” said the second producer.

“Back in February, I was doing site visits at Kenwood House [the London site for the festival] checking out where to fit the tents and how we could build a bridge between two fields,” said managing director of FT Live, Orson Francescone. But, now virtual, the festival is playing a crucial strategic role in growing the FT’s U.S. audience, where it has its sights set for future growth.

“Digital events are now much more of an opportunity rather than a lifeline,” Francescone said. “The cost base and the revenue model is different, but the route to profit is still there. It also gives us access to the global audience that we need for our north star [the FT’s] strategy of driving subscription revenue. The pluses outweigh the minuses.” 

The programming reflects that goal: U.S. speakers include the director of U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, poet Claudia Rankine and Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel. Roughly 25% of the ticket buyers are from the U.S., according to the publisher.

Three weeks ahead of the 2020 event, ticket bookings are 37% ahead of where they were this time last year for the in-person event, which had nearly 4,000 attendees. Roughly 40% are non-subscribers, similar to last year. Francescone wouldn’t say exactly how close to 4,000, but pointed out that decision making for digital event purchases is later than in-person. For example, for the Global Boardroom, the FT’s two-day free-to-access virtual conference this past May, the number of bookings doubled on the day of the event. More than 50,000 registered from 150 countries. The FT is planning another Global Boardroom event in November but with free and ticketed tiers starting at $65. The event additionally converted hundreds of people to FT subscribers, said Francescone.

Naturally, the virtual ticket price is cheaper, billed at £45 ($58.84) and £35 ($45.76) for subscribers. That’s roughly 45% cheaper than the physical ticket price, which is typical for a pricing strategy, said Franscescone.

The debate around virtual ticket pricing is growing louder as brands and publishers figure out if they can start charging for content they were previously giving away for free. Ostensibly, festivals (and awards shows) are one of the harder physical events to translate online — live music, beautiful locations and networking among champagne stands don’t have suitable virtual alternatives. Instead, the FT is hosting wine tastings (sending attendees the wine list a week before the event), interactive cooking classes and music sessions as well as talks from the worlds of art, literature, luxury and politics via video conferencing and virtual event paltforms. 

Francescone said the mix of revenue from ticket sales and sponsorship for the physical event was relatively balanced and seems to be the case for the virtual event too. Rather than sponsoring a stage, brands like investment consultants Macro Advisory Partners and investment management firm Netwealth are sponsoring content strands. 

The Financial Times is working with three or four different event platform providers to build a proprietary tech stack that will suit sponsors’ needs. Several sponsors are inviting specific attendees to close-room content sessions, for instance.  

“Buying off-the-shelf event tech is limited, it can never be exactly what brands want to create,” said Ryan Coan, founder of experiential agency Creative Riff. “The best way is to approach it from scratch. So many events feel similar because they’re using similar tech and not necessarily matching with the brand’s DNA.”

Digital events are increasingly playing a more integrated role for the FT as evidence of their part in driving subscribers mounts. The FT’s internal research shows that audiences that attend events have a much higher chance of converting to subscribers. If they are a subscriber, their interaction with the FT jumps up in the months following the event.

Recently, the board signed off a seven-figure tech investment so that subscribers to the FT.com will not need to sign in to the FT Live as well to access other events. And as with most new tech integrations, joining up how the customer journey integrates with existing subscribers, data collection and sending out marketing materials is a more complex undertaking on a legacy system.

“Events make a profit in their own right,” said Francescone. “They provide new data acquisitions, they convert audiences into subscribers, and it’s a retention tool for existing subscribers. There are lots of halo effects.”

Since as early as June, Tastemade, Trusted Media Brands’ Taste of Home, America’s Test Kitchen, BuzzFeed’s Tasty and Meredith’s EatingWell have allowed portions of their test kitchen staffers back into the studios they had to abandon in March. 

• America’s Test Kitchen began reentering its 55,000-square-foot, Boston-based studio on July 6 and of its 200 total employees, chief creative officer Jack Bishop said that no more than 20 people have been in the office at any one time. 
• EatingWell’s Shelburne, Vermont test kitchen reopened on July 27 at 10% to 20% capacity, according to editor-in-chief Jessie Price.
• Tastemade’s Santa Monica, California studio started the reopening process on June 12 and has had a maximum of 14 people on set at any given time. The company also has had remote productions going since March in São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Tokyo and London, but now these locations are back in-studio as well, according to head of content Amanda Dameron.  
• Taste of Home’s Milwaukee, Wis., test kitchen reopened to half capacity in June and expanded to have the full nearly 20-person team on set July 7, according to chief content officer Jeanne Sidner.
• Tasty’s Los Angeles, London, Toronto and Sydney test kitchens are back up and running with a current studio max capacity of 12 people, according to a company spokesperson.

But they are not simply opening the floodgates. The test kitchen directors that Digiday spoke with from these publications said they’ve been testing out different methods for how and when their staffs are allowed to be in the shared workspaces, including teams, zones and alternating schedules to keep as few people coming in contact with each other as possible. 

Back in action, from a distance

Taste of Home initially used a “team model” that broke up the studio and test kitchen staff into A and B teams, Sidner said. Those two teams alternated going into the office every other week.

“That allowed us to test out all the safety precautions and procedures that we wanted to put in place to make sure that everyone felt safe and make sure that no one got sick,” said Sidner. 

On July 7, she said the team advanced to its current plan, the zone system, that allowed the nearly 20-person team into the studio all at the same time, but kept them in two separate kitchen studios. 

Zone one and zone two both have four to six members consisting of video, test kitchen and studio staffers, and then the crossover team consists of eight to nine managers and prep kitchen people who provide additional support from a safe distance. 

Tasty has a similar model in place with no more than three people, including a producer, a culinary assistant and a camera assistant, dedicated to a shoot. Then there will be shared roles that float to up to three sets at once, including a culinary lead, a kitchen manager, a kitchen porter and a production manager. However, the the bulk of the brand’s projects are still being created, shot, edited and published remotely.

America’s Test Kitchen is doing a 4-10 system, which has half of its 20-person staff come in one week for four days (Monday through Thursday while observing summer Fridays) and then that team stays home the next 10 consecutive days, or one work week, while the other half of its staff goes in for its week. 

Photography operations was one of the biggest reasons that ATK’s staff wanted to get back into its test kitchen studios because while the photographers were working from home, they were not able to get help from the prep cooks or kitchen assistants. They had to do everything from make the food to cleaning up afterwards which slowed their day down to the point where they were only shooting one or two recipes a day. Now that they’re back in studio, they can do their normal pace of six to eight recipes daily. 

EatingWell’s mission for returning to its test kitchen was to figure out a way to streamline its recipe testing operations, according to Price. Since March, her team had been cooking all of the recipes themselves in their homes and then discussing the food over a video chat, which was eating up a lot of time. 

Now each chef is given their own closed test kitchen to create all of their five to ten recipes for the day. After cooking, all of the taste testers on staff collect their samples and try them in isolated offices where they can safely remove their masks. Productivity since lifted and the team is pacing where they are supposed to be, Price said.

Daily screenings and precautions

Extra cleanings, extra hand sanitizer stations and mandatory morning health screenings are all common requirements for test kitchens and their returning employees. 

Both Taste of Home and America’s Test Kitchen now have one entrance and exit point in their buildings to keep a consistent one-way flow, and Bishop added that that they have given staffers check-in times in five minute increments for their arrival every morning. 

And before employees can come into the office, Taste of Home, America’s Test Kitchen, Tasty, EatingWell and Tastemade all require their employees to do a digital health survey that gets submitted every morning. Questions include whether or not staffers have been exposed to a COVID-positive patient, if they have any symptoms of the virus or if they have traveled out of state in the past 14 days, and it requires them to take their temperature.

Tastemade even requires an FDA-approved negative COVID-19 test 10-days prior to the their first shoot, and then monthly thereafter,
according to Dameron. Larger shoots will require more frequent testing.

Masks are required throughout the publishers’ offices, aside from closed offices and conference rooms that have been transitioned into temporary dedicated workspaces for single employees. However, a spokesperson for Tasty said that on-camera hosts are not expected to wear masks, though everyone else in the studio during filming is required to. 

Production schedules, budgets increase

Most of the publishers said that they are seeing an added budgetary increase associated with these new ways of working. Tastemade’s Dameron said there is a potential increase of 15% to 20% in the budgets for in-studio productions now with the added safety measures, while field productions tend to cost even more because of the added “social bubbling” procedures. 

But beyond the physical products that have to be purchased, the increase in time that it takes to complete a shoot has added to the production budgets. Dameron said that shoots can take up to 50% longer now.

“Every schedule we create needs breathing room for enhanced cleaning and careful consideration for coordinating a big production with fewer people. It is certainly a new way of working,” said Dameron.

Some projects work better at home 

Half opened studios and pared-down production teams means that there is also a very different atmosphere in the test kitchens.

Because of this, ATK’s flagship public access show “America’s Test Kitchen” is still filming its upcoming 21st season from home using a single camera person who will operate three cameras and control the sound and the lighting from the hosts’ homes. 

“Rather than do a watered-down, sad version of our television show with one person in a 2,000-square-foot set with nobody in the background, let’s just shift it at home,” said Bishop. 

However, shooting at home means that the 26-episode season, which normally takes three weeks to film in studio, will now take 10 weeks, according to Bishop. On top of that, production was also delayed from its original start date of April 6 to July as the team waited out the health crises. 

Conde Nast’s cooking title Bon Appétit is resuming its uber-popular video production in September from hosts’ homes, following a three-month hiatus from production, according to a spokesperson for the brand. The spokesperson added that there are no current plans to return to the company’s One World Trade Center offices, at least in the same capacity as pre-pandemic. 

While the publication had created some remotely produced video series at the start of lockdown, the production hiatus came after public accusations were made about BA’s leadership’s treatment and compensation of BIPOC staffers in June. 

Hearst’s Delish also does not have plans to return to its test kitchen, according to Delish editorial director Joanna Saltz. She said that while the test kitchen had an endless supply of tools and cooking equipment that might not be available to staffers from their homes, their test kitchen was only able to comfortably film two people at a time. Since moving remote, however, six to eight people are shooting from their home kitchens on any given day. 

And whatsmore, not having access to the test kitchen equipment has allowed the team to turn into home chefs and prepare the recipes in the way that their audience would prepare them from their homes.  

“At the end of the day, none of us want to end up with a sink full of dishes,” said Saltz.

Still, the allure and convenience of a fully operational and resourced studio kitchen and staff is is probably undeniable.

“Over the last three weeks, Triller has played more of its cards right than it has done over the last three years,” said Rahul Titus, head of influence at Ogilvy. “The people behind it have decided that this is the time the app either grows — or it doesn’t.”

With more eyes on Triller now, it’s just a matter of time before advertisers take notice. Here’s a primer on what to know about the app, how it’s differentiated and why it’s well placed to become TikTok’s main rival.

WTF is Triller?

Like TikTok, Triller’s experience is rooted in music, particularly Hip-Hop. People can film multiple takes of themselves rapping to songs and then use the app’s artificial intelligence to automatically pull the best of those clips to make professionally-looking music videos. Unlike TikTok, however, Triller is all about the music, having raised investment from Snoop Dogg, 21 Savage and Migos. It’s this specific fandom, more so than the actual product itself, that makes Triller such an intriguing prospect for marketers now. Yes, there’s a crossover between the audiences of both apps, but Triller is focused on serving a more engaged subset i.e music fans.

Ok. So music is the thing that binds and yet separates both apps?

Both apps have similar strategies but are pursuing them in different ways. Triller is focused on bridging the gap between viral video and music streams, allowing users to pull full songs — not just 15 seconds as on TikTok — from their Apple Music or Spotify playlists. TikTok, on the other hand, seems to want to disrupt the music industry as evidenced by reports that owner ByteDance wants to launch a music streaming service. 

And yet the differences between the two apps are starting to break down. Triller may be insisting it’s still committed to being music video platform, but recent updates that let people share quirky videos of themselves dancing and singing replicate TikTok’s own attempts to become an entertainment business. This could become a problem later on should Triller become indistinguishable to its rivals.

“Triller right now looks like too many other apps in the marketplace,” said Titus. “It does, however, have the foundations in place to be a success, from the creators to the Hollywood execs that bankroll it.”

Where did Triller come from? 

The app may have successfully turned TikTok’s recent problems into an opportunity, but it has been around since 2015, two years before its rival’s arrival. Since then it has secured a raft of investment from the entertainment industry, most notably from Proxima Media last year, the movie studio founded by Kavanagh. Given those ties, it’s easier to see why both Triller and TikTok’s push into entertainment crossover.  

Are influencers interested in Triller?

It’s still early days in Triller’s relationship with the influencer community, but the fact that it has successfully poached former TikTok stars like Josh Richards, who had over 20 million followers on the app, shows its appeal is growing. The worry for influencers is whether their audiences would follow them over to Triller if they switched. After all, its active user base of 65 million is still dwarfed by the 800 million users on TikTok, said Mary Keane-Dawson, group CEO at influencer marketing agency and TikTok creative partner Takumi.

“We expect that creators will continue to use TikTok as long as it’s available to them — while also experimenting with Triller in case a deal between ByteDance and Microsoft can’t be reached,” said Keane-Dawson.

Are there opportunities for advertisers? 

Unlike TikTok, that’s pushing its own ads business to drive revenue, Triller’s commercial model revolves around letting influencers raise money from fans, advertisers and partnerships with music labels. As Timothy Armoo, CEO of influencer marketing agency FanBytes explained: “It’s very easy to grow an audience on Triller and you can actually leverage that following to grow elsewhere. We’ve seen great results with people growing a presence on there and then moving over Instagram or Twitter.”

Should Triller’s executive team be able to mold those points into a clear pitch to advertisers it could have some success given some seem more focused on working with media partners that can either showcase or enhance their authenticity as evidenced by the recent Facebook boycott and the rise of curated marketplaces of underrepresented and diverse audiences. 

“Giving creators — both young and old — the opportunity to establish a stream of revenue through content creation, with a focus on what they stand for and believe in is a winning combination amid a year in which we’ve seen a number of social movements come to the fore,” said Alex Hamilton, innovation director at digital agency Isobar.

And while there are opportunities for Triller to woo advertisers as TikTok battles with the Trump administration in the U.S., it will be shortsighted to rely on TikTok being hamstrung in certain markets as a competitive strategy for gaining toeholds with marketers who keep that 800 million active user number in mind.