Month: December 2020

Marketing chiefs this year faced the dual challenges of driving business during one of the worst global economic crises ever and reimagining the workplace to accommodate factors like social distancing and stay-at-home guidelines. On top of that: managing displaced, sometimes overburdened team members juggling home and work from the kitchen table.

Amid Covid-19, social unrest and a growing strain on mental health, employees are looking to leaders far more than ever. “This has required us to play the role of both manager and counselor — listening before acting and, at times, offering support that’s both professional and personal,” said Alicia Tillman, global CMO of software maker SAP. Among Tillman’s pandemic priorities is a weekly communique to her team — not only to provide business updates but to foster a sense of closeness. Over time, the communications have become more personal, ranging from her reflections on her summer vacation to pointers on well-being from SAP’s chief medical officer.

Communicating to employees that their jobs were secure was job one for Mastercard CMO Raja Rajamannar at the outset of the pandemic.

Though many executives, under intense revenue pressure, have let go of people, Rajamannar was not among them. It was news that, in a year full of bad news, he was relieved to share with his team. “One of the first tasks of a leader [in times like these] is to reach out and communicate, communicate, communicate,” he said. “Tell your employees what management is thinking about and where things stand — the good, the bad and the ugly.”

To that end, Rajamannar instituted several policies aimed at enhancing work life. For example, meetings are not scheduled when staff is most likely focused on family or personal matters after 5 p.m. The CMO also started a book club, featuring self-help titles, such as those on persuasion tactics.

Brad Nelson, CMO of Sotheby’s International Realty — whose team supports more than 23,000 agents in 72 countries — has also been focused on lending employees support and inspiration that mirrored the custom experiences the company provides clients.

For example, this July 4th, his events team sent every employee a care package from the ice cream vendor Van Leeuwen. This holiday season, it partnered with a professional chef on a virtual cooking class for employees.

Remote working has been a major factor in employees feeling less than grounded this year. As with so many other employers, the virtual office has become the norm in Nelson’s organization — something he expects will continue in some capacity post-pandemic. He sees the physical workplace of the future as primarily a “collaboration space.” While there are benefits, remote working has its downsides, as Nelson sees it. “What we lose on Zoom is the feedback and relationship building,” he added.

Martine Williamson, the newly appointed CMO of Revlon, agrees that the remote office leaves much to be desired. “There is some magic lost when teams cannot work together in person,” she said. Yet there is no question the pandemic has forever changed the way we think about the physical workspace. “The key, as we work through our workplace-of-the-future plans, will be agility and flexibility,” she said.

Celebrity Cruises CMO Peter Giorgi also misses the social and collaborative aspects that come with being in the same room. To keep the troops connected and morale aloft, he has encouraged staff to bring their children, household pets, or anyone or anything else they’re passionate about to monthly departmental meetings.

Time management was always a concern, but these times have amplified the matter. Who among us has not complained about the relentless stream of Zoom appointments? They take away any opportunity for spontaneous check-ins and catch-ups, said Giorgi. 

While technologies like Slack and Messenger have become important for staying connected to co-workers and bosses, Giorgi has put some limits on certain office communications — banning video calls on Friday afternoon, for example. By that point in the week, we’ve all had enough of Zoom, he said, and “a good, old-fashioned conference call feels like a vacation.”

It’s a new era for Vox.

Known for its approachable tone in explaining the news, the site is a year into its merger with New York Magazine, and in recent weeks has seen some of its leading journalists and founders leave for such legacy companies as The New York Times as well as upstart destination Substack.

“I think it’s a sign of success,” Vox Media publisher Melissa Bell said on the Digiday Podcast. “I see it as a benefit that folks can come to Vox and work with Vox Media or Vox and add a really big gold star to their resume.”

Beyond the talent chase, Bell said Vox has ambitious multi-platform plans.

“We are going to actually produce simultaneously podcasts and TV shows when we really know the idea is super strong,” Bell said. “It allows us to reach audiences in the way that they want to be reached. Some people are audio listeners, or learners and some people are visual learners.” Vox’s podcast audience has grown by 45% this year, Bell added.

And then there are CTV and streaming plays. “We’re going to be starting to look into the OTT streaming platforms for Vox,” she added. “We just announced that we’re doing a new deal with HBO [and] we’re still heavily partnered with Netflix. So you’ll see a lot of growth there.”

Here are highlights from the conversation, which have been lightly edited for clarity.

Making evergreen content for OTT

“One of the things that we’ve seen with OTT platforms — Eater in particular — is that the time people spend watching Eater on Roku is very, very long. People want to stay with it more than an hour on average. So we want to create a library that allows people to be able to dig in and dive deep for that period of time they want to spend with the storytelling. And so that also means that we’re really going to be thinking about how to create stories and videos that have longer shelf lives. And I think that’ll set us apart from the ABCs and the NBCs that focus more on the latest.”

Hunger for storytelling

“In other areas, we can test out an idea in podcast form or video and that will lead to us developing an app for television. So we actually have both planned for next year. And we had a great series of really in-depth, wonderful technology explainers [called] Land of the Giants [a podcast]. We were doing seasons of some of our best experts from Recode examining the impact of Amazon, or the story of Netflix, and that reached such a huge audience. And there was such a hunger for that kind of storytelling we realized that this was something that we should be developing for television. So those are the kind of examples of us thinking about using all parts of our business as innovation and inspiration for the other formats and mediums that we’re in.”

On Vox’s merger with New York Magazine

“We were able to take a lot of their expertise and a lot of the work that they’ve done building out the New York Magazine subscription business and work with them on something that I think was a much more ‘Vox approach’ to thinking about reader revenue than a subscription business. A lot of people learned about us when we first started and understood that we were trying to do something different in journalism, and wanted to actively participate in supporting that effort to change journalism. When we were asking questions of our audience, one thing that came across in a very strong way was that our audience wants there to be some journalism outlets that are still free and accessible to others who can’t pay for journalism. They felt like contributing, in part, to allow other people access to Vox. There was a desire from people to support us, but also desire to make sure that we were still accessible to others.”

Two separate surveys found that 55% of publisher respondents said they expect double-digit revenue growth next year, and about one in six say that their company’s revenues will increase by more than 25%.

A healthy percentage of agency respondents – 45% – said that their companies would have double-digit revenue growth in 2021. But much bigger shares of the company were bearish about how the coming year would go. For example, a greater percentage of agency professionals (19%) said that their company’s revenues would be flat or down in 2021 than said that their revenues would be up more than 25% (12%).

Digiday surveyed 59 publisher professionals and 39 agency professionals over a two week period in December.

The difference in outlook could grow out of the largely positive impression most respondents had of their employers’ response to the year’s events.

Respondents from both industries agreed that the worlds of media and marketing had bad years in 2020. But respondents also overwhelmingly agreed that the company they worked for had a successful 2020: 64% of agencies agreed that their company had a successful 2020, as did 59% of publishers.

Looking ahead to 2021, while publishers and advertisers feel confident about their company prospects in the new year, they are less bullish about their industries as a whole.

For example, 80% of them agreed that they were optimistic about their own company’s prospects, with 40% of them agreeing strongly. By contrast, just 56% of publisher respondents said they were optimistic about the media industry’s prospects in 2021, and only 15% strongly agreed.

Among agencies, there was similar confidence in the fortunes of their respective companies – 82% agreed that their company would have a strong 2021 – and even less enthusiasm for the idea that the advertising industry as a whole would bounce back. Just 7% of respondents strongly agreed that they were optimistic about the agency world’s prospects in 2021.

For many big brands, mastering e-commerce wasn’t top of mind in 2020 until the shutdowns this past March. While, yes, getting the attention of customers online was important, it wasn’t as necessary as it would become over the course of this year. For many of those brands, staying top of mind and winning brand affinity was key as people would find their products on shelves at local retailers or ask for them at restaurants. But with people staying at home, that changed how those big brands needed to connect with customers.

Perfecting a digital ecosystem that connects digital advertising with e-commerce platforms has become crucial for marketers over the course of 2020. Last week, for example, Grey Goose vp of global marketing Martin de Dreuille told Digiday that the company has worked to “dramatically improve our customer journey online” this year as the brand couldn’t depend on restaurants and bars to connect with customers. Grey Goose isn’t alone in having to improve e-commerce to meet customers where they are spending more time now, according to marketers and agency execs who say that perfecting e-commerce will continue to be important next year.

“The brands that had invested in digital transformation and customer centricity reaped the benefits,” said Mack McKelvey, CEO, strategic marketing firm, SalientMG. “Others attempted the shift to digital, while the laggards seemed to simply hope the world would snap back to physical interactions on the other side of Covid-19. The truth is that our world likely changed more in one year than it has in the past 10 combined.”

Commercial production isn’t so formal

Early on in the pandemic, agencies were focused on figuring out how to do commercial production over Zoom — and many created ads with a similar yet cloying “we’re here for you” message that felt stale quickly. While remote shoots are still happening, commercial production has resumed with Covid protocols in place. That’s not to say advertising has all but returned to normal, though. Over the last few months, marketers and agency execs have started to rely on influencers as well as user-generated content as a way to generate new material without having to staff up a full production. Using a less formal approach to content will likely continue, according to agency execs, who say that the efficiency of doing so is appealing.

“Brands [have been] embracing light production, easy to turn around creative and content — especially in digital,” said Noah Mallin, chief brand strategist, IMGN Media. “At first this was out of necessity driven by the difficulty of mounting multiple person productions in March and April. Interestingly, even on platforms like Instagram that brands sometimes think of as a place for highly produced images and video, rawer, single camera creative performed really well. To such an extent that we’ve kept it even as we’ve been able to have more complex productions return.”

Influencer marketing accelerates

Generating new content without having to staff up a full production isn’t the only reason marketers are turning to influencers more and more. Marketers and agency execs say that influencer marketing has accelerated this year because people are spending more time on social platforms. With that being the case, marketers have moved more dollars to influencer marketing this year — particularly during this holiday season — and agency execs expect that to continue next year.

“With influencers you get the ideation, production, and distribution in one package,” said Brendan Gahan, partner and chief social officer at Mekanism. “I imagine that this rate of growth will only increase. While many brands had their hands forced (more or less) to work with influencers out of necessity, I think it’s likely they’ll recognize how efficient and effective the tactic is.”

Employees will still WFH

Agencies and brands have had to manage employees and productions remotely this year. While most people are sick of being on Zoom, the ability to continue to do work without being in person has been proven. It’s unlikely then that employees will accept having to go back into the office five days a week or that people will fly across the country for a two-hour meeting, according to marketers and agency execs. That’s not to say people won’t ever be in offices. For many, getting back to working in person is desired but doing so every day of the week isn’t. Rob Schwartz, president of TBWA/Chiat/Day in New York expects a “semi-work from home work week” to become a norm. “No one is going to go into the office five days a week after Covid,” said Schwartz. “WFH is productive — and who wants to commute every day?”

The value proposition of machine learning for advertisers

To appreciate the synergy of contextual targeting and machine learning, it’s helpful to put a lens on recent history. Advertisers moved away from contextual once audience tracking entered the scene, but the present-day resurgence can be attributed in part to consumers and a growing concern for how personal data is being used.  

“Consumers are more conscious of how their data is being stored, however, 74 percent still want to see ads that match page content,” says Bichoï Bastha, Chief Business Officer at Dailymotion. “Contextual targeting is the answer to this. By nature, the solution is the most consumer-friendly targeting method as it uses context as the proxy for the audience in which to display an ad.” 

Contextual targeting — or better yet, contextual intelligence — is not the same as 10 years ago. Contextual intelligence solutions are rooted in providing the best possible user experience, leading to the best possible advertising experience. 

Critical criteria for contextually relevant campaigns

As new privacy regulations come into effect and browsers limit tracking capabilities, contextual advertising powered by machine learning is table stakes for standardizing targeting efforts and ensuring campaign success. But not all vendors have the advanced capabilities to deploy an effective contextually relevant campaign for partners, one that delivers — or increases — message receptiveness, ensures brand suitability and is privacy compliant.

Vendors must offer a robust list of criteria to help partners achieve campaign goals from start to finish, including relevant categories to increase media performance, best-in-class ad formats to ensure a positive user experience, granular and niche topic targeting, a depth of relevant inventory, proprietary machine learning models for precise content categorization, at scale and optimized performance metrics to ensure brands hit baseline KPIs such as viewability, VTR and completion rate.

Machine learning powers brand-suitable environments 

Ensuring brand-suitable environments can be a highly nuanced endeavor when being considerate of relevant content that aligns with a brand. Machine learning optimizes this process — for example, analyzing a catalog of over 150 million videos from premium publishers, covering more than 200 IAB categories and 500,000 topics — to serve contextually relevant ads resulting in a valuable experience for consumers in less than 100 milliseconds. 

The process starts when a publisher uploads owned video content with metadata — titles, descriptions and keywords. Machine learning models scan the metadata and select which topic from Wikidata to assign to a video through semantic annotation. The annotated topics are surfaced on the page and contribute to SEO. Once a video is annotated with a topic, it is associated with IAB’s categories to be monetized. 

Contextual is even more effective when it is combined with other elements. Partners that offer multiple levers in addition to context-based association will maximize media performance, including people-based, highly engaged global audiences and performance-based audiences as well. These outcomes further ensure advertisers meet their KPIs. 

With so much data across the Internet, especially for advertisers and brands, machine learning is crucial to tailoring a contextual approach to deliver not only positive contextual associations and brand suitability but also to create connections that convert.

Why, with significantly more data and advancements in marketing and advertising technology over the past decade, are many marketers missing out on control over the consumer journey — and in particular, the path to first purchase?

In fact, the process and technology for managing post-purchase communications — after the consumer is in a marketer’s CRM database — has undergone significant improvement over the past few years. And for some, new approaches are underway. For others, however, key steps along the consumer’s path-to-purchase journey are still mysterious.

The pre-purchase customer journey remains a mystery  

Marketing automation technology has become increasingly sophisticated at helping marketers connect with audiences via purchase data and behavior profiles that build loyalty and lifetime value among existing customers. 

Moreover, working with modern marketing automation systems like Pardot, Marketo, Hubspot and others has become intuitive, rich with just-in-time training systems that enable marketing analysts to conduct successful campaigns requiring considerable scale and complexity.

By contrast, the journey associated with making the first purchase — especially considered, big-ticket purchases — remains relatively convoluted and opaque. For starters, marketers seldom, if ever, have the full benefit of verifiable user contact and granular, deterministic behavior data about prospective customers. 

Besides data issues, the omnichannel nature of consumer behavior across devices adds significant uncertainty and unpredictability with respect to reach, frequency and outcomes from advertising investments. While consumer intent through search behavior has significantly improved reach at the very tail end of the journey — highlighting in-market buyers — a vast majority of the prospect pool remains upstream in the journey on the open web.

An omnichannel view of the customer journey 

This is where programmatic advertising was intended to introduce automation — to digitize the process of transacting media on the open web with the promise of unduplicated reach and efficiency at market-clearing prices in real time. 

Ad tech vendors, and in particular, the demand side platforms (DSPs) did, in fact, extract substantial efficiencies and speed from automating the media buying process, but they did so by decoupling the buying function from the journey-planning process and introducing their own black box of media trading interfaces and tactical, line-item optimizations with little ability to offer journey-level control or insights to the marketer. 

To close the gap between basic automation and full control will take an advertising automation solution that offers not just the benefits of programmatically traded transactions but also seamless integration into the upstream omnichannel journey-planning process and the downstream activation, reporting and optimization processes. 

When turning to that kind of advertising automation solution, marketers should demand several key capabilities from their platforms and partners.

1. Journey planning and activation: Marketing teams need the ability to create omnichannel consumer journeys with sequential messaging that is contingent on user actions along the various stages through the journey. The tools used for journey planning should be hotwired for activation and reporting without the need for translation by the teams responsible for activation and reporting on the outcomes from the campaigns.

2. Journey tracking with user consent: Although cookies have historically been the most prevalent form of user tracking on the open web, consumer privacy regulations will force the requirement for a consent-based tracking system for platforms offering journey management capabilities. A variety of consumer identity solutions based on first-party data are emerging to replace the cookies as the primary means of tracking on the web.

3. Journey control with return by journey stage: While support for third-party measurement with multi-touch attribution is critical for credibility in tracking journeys and outcomes, the incremental gains will come from real-time measurability at every stage of the consumer journey, powered by granular visibility into the marginal return from investments by channel at every stage. Marketers want not only the shortest path to conversion but also the most efficient choice of channels per stage migration. The latter is important for making tradeoffs on the choice of channels, messaging and the source of audience data to achieve optimal outcomes.

4. Intuitive UX: Many advertisers have been hesitant to in-house programmatic advertising capabilities because they don’t have the talent or are afraid to hire high-priced talent to manage and trade media through the platforms currently available in the market. An intuitive user experience applied consistently across journey planning, buying, activation, optimization and reporting with built-in training makes advertising automation accessible to the wider population of marketing professionals. An effective advertising automation system must be easily accessible to a broad range of analysts and managers staffing the typical marketing departments. 

The still-murky stages of the path-to-purchase can be unlocked with the right tools, and with the above capabilities confirmed, marketers can rest assured that the tools to which they are turning are geared to create successful campaigns — one step at a time.