Month: January 2021

Last Monday night, Bleacher Report simultaneously aired a branded live stream show on its mobile app YouTube channel and Twitter feed called the B/R Drop Zone: DraftKings Big Game Prop Reveal.

DraftKings programmed and hosted the hour-long show, and it remains to be seen how successful these media partnerships will be in converting audiences into bettors.

The stream announced 40 of the more than 150 “prop bets” (bets that are made on the occurrence of events during a game without being related to the game’s final outcome) that the sponsor DraftKings will be offering on its sports book for the Super Bowl this Sunday, according to the company. These bets range from which team will make the first touchdown to what color the Gatorade will be that gets dumped on the winning coach’s head.

Within 24-hours of streaming, the DraftKing Prop Reveal show received over 1 million views between the app and the social handles — five times the average number of views for B/R’s live videos, said Joe Yanarella, general manager of the publisher’s betting vertical B/R Betting.

Yanarella added that during the livestream, 16,000 people commented on the video, making it the second most engaged-with video on the publisher’s app in its history. Betting videos are also the most streamed pieces of live video content on the B/R app and users who bet are five times more engaged than users who do not bet, he said. Through a series of internal surveys and research, B/R found that 59% of its national audience bet on sports, though it is unclear if that all happens in states where this is legal, or if this includes off-shore betting.

But it’s difficult to track these DraftKings customers as part of the B/R audience. Josh Linforth, commercial director for Genius Sports Media, a part of the sports media buying agency Genius Sports Group, said that sports books do not ultimately care about attribution when they’re making a media buy.

“At the moment, they want distribution, eyeballs and market share” during the “initial land grab” for potential online sports bettors, Linforth said.  

Neither Bleacher Report nor DraftKings were willing to disclose the average conversion rate that sponsored content for the sports book received in turning readers into bettors, but these content partnerships procure at best 10% conversion rates, Linforth said.

While regulations around the legality of online betting change almost monthly, the arrangement is mutually beneficial: sports books need “maximum distribution” to grow and publishers need audiences, he added.

Especially when the partnership is seamlessly integrated, such as the live show, which featured a round table of experts and talent from Bleacher Report and DraftKings.

“That lifestyle content of people around a table who are really playing and betting can get the juices flowing in people’s brains” who could then become inspired to place a bet, said Matt Kalish, co-founder of DraftKings and president of North America, especially if they offer a new angle around why a prop bet makes sense.

What’s more, the models for these deals lead to high paydays for publishers as they can include either cost per acquisition rates of between $200 to $500, a flat fee for the content generated up top or in many cases a hybrid model of both, he said.

On average, “tier one” publishers, such as the ESPNs and Bleacher Reports of the world, can earn seven-figures of revenue form these deals, according to Linforth, whose company signed a two-year deal with a competitor sports book FanDuel this week to be one of its main media buying partners in the U.S. And even smaller sports blogs can easily sign six-figure deals, Linforth added.

Bleacher Report declined to disclose how much it was receiving from this particular partnership.

According to Stone, Tushy saw an average of 4.5% return on ad spend looking at the full scope of the customer journey. They plan to have Reddit as part of their regular ad strategy this year.

As e-commerce has boomed, Reddit has started to become a player in the consumer buying funnel. The site’s honest, in-depth reviews make it attractive to high-intent customers. “The path to purchase is changing and we’re seeing that Reddit is more front and center in the e-commerce experience,” said Jen Wong, COO of Reddit.

Late last year, Reddit rolled out three ad inventory tiers with a focus on targeting and brand safety, which has been an issue. Marketers didn’t want to risk brand safety on the opinionated site. Despite these updates, Reddit is still an experimental space for marketers and requires a more nuanced approach than repurposing an ad from Facebook. But there are some brands who have managed to strike the right tone and have seen successful conversions.

Breaking into these communities can be a challenge for marketing teams. It’s particularly important to have thoughtful targeting and creative, and to be ready to engage with users’ questions and comments. Reddit users are notoriously opinionated.

“It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach,” said Stone.

Reddit’s ad platform is still relatively new. “Advertisers can’t yet expect the bells and whistles they might expect elsewhere,” said Alex Young, director of paid social at Carat. “There are only a few ad formats, buying methods, and optimization functionalities.”

Redditors are not shy about downvoting brands who don’t engage in the spirit of the site. Electronics Arts ended up with a world-record, most-downvoted comment after a poor response to a Redditor’s question.

“A brand’s success is more to do with the demeanor of the brand than the brand itself,” said Federer. “They have to come correct and take time to get those community nuances.”

Federer says he would love to see Reddit’s ad offerings lean into their unique communities. “Right now it feels pretty in line with other social media platforms,” he said. “I wish there was a clearer way to ad value, like adding a filter or widget in the sidebar for r/adobe.”

There is a lot of potential upside for brands that get it right. Last October, the site said it averaged 52 million daily viewers. (Facebook said it had 1.82 billion daily users last September.) In December, Wong told the Wall Street Journal that Reddit’s ad revenue totaled more than $100 million in 2019 and was on track to rise by more than 70% in 2020. Reddit declined to breakdown or share revenue details.

Oh and Tushy’s limited edition bidet? “OP will make good on the actual product,” assures Stone.

While streaming viewership on TV screens has increased overall in the past year, smart TVs in particular have seen a surge. In the fourth quarter of 2020, the amount of time people spent streaming programming on smart TVs increased by 157% year over year, according to video measurement and analytics firm Conviva. That viewership increase pushed smart TVs’ share of overall video viewership time from 9% in the fourth quarter of 2019 to 17% in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Of course, connected TV platforms, like Amazon’s Fire TV and Roku, continue to dominate video viewership. CTV devices accounted for 49% of overall video viewership time in the fourth quarter of 2020, per Conviva. They will likely account for a sizable chunk of the Super Bowl’s streaming viewership as well.

Amazon will run a banner ad on the home screen for every Fire TV-powered TV in the U.S. informing people of how they can stream the game on the CTV platform, said Sandeep Gupta, vp and gm of Fire TV, in an email. “Streaming live sports is becoming the norm. It’s a huge area of focus for us at Fire TV,” he said, noting that Fire TV’s live tab is “now the second most visited destination on Fire TV.” He declined to share any statistics regarding live sports viewership on the platform.

To take advantage of the expected expansion in Super Bowl streaming viewership, advertisers running ads in the traditional TV broadcast are able to run an alternate piece of creative in the game’s streaming feed, which is an option that CBS has provided to Super Bowl advertisers in past years. Advertisers are limited to one piece of alternate creative, said a CBS spokesperson.

In addition to the broader availability to stream this year’s Super Bowl on TV screens, CBS has worked to improve latency, or speed of the stream compared to the linear TV broadcast, Gerttula said. He was not able to quantify the stream’s latency or amount of improvement since it can vary from platform to platform as well as location to location, based on factors like a person’s internet connection. 

The Super Bowl will also be available via CBS All Access, ViacomCBS’s subscription-based streaming service that will be renamed Paramount+ in March. The media conglomerate expects the Super Bowl will help to attract people to its streaming apps, including the CBS Sports app, and that those people stick around to become Paramount+ subscribers. “The Super Bowl is an unparalleled acquisition event that [if] you do it right, you’re able to funnel it into those businesses. That’s why we’re so fortunate to have it and it’s such a big moment for us,” Gerttula said.

Here is a primer on where matters stand regarding state and federal privacy regulation:

• States are pushing full steam ahead on privacy law.
• The more states pile on privacy laws, the more pressure there is from business to create a simpler, perhaps weaker federal law.
• Despite bipartisan support for a federal privacy law, there remain significant gaps in approaches on the right and left, namely whether a federal law would override state and local laws and whether individuals get the right to sue violators.

The states are where the action is
Privacy bills are moving through multiple state legislatures, and more state laws will only increase pressure on the federal government to get a U.S.-wide law passed. Companies including Facebook and industry organizations like the Interactive Advertising Bureau have advocated for federal privacy legislation. Businesses want a single law to comply with, rather than many — especially if it’s weaker than what states have on the books.

“The one thing that might create the political pressure [for federal privacy legislation] is more individual states coming up with crazy draconian laws,” said Alan Chapell, president of privacy law firm Chapell and Associates.

The big influencers on state privacy bills are Europe’s sweeping General Data Protection Regulation and California’s now-strengthened privacy law. Maine’s 2019 privacy law, among the nation’s strictest, also holds weight.

New York tough
A tough New York bill has been criticized by businesses because it would require that consumers opt in to data collection, use and sales. It also considers things like user-generated content and online identifiers to be protected personal data. New York matters, of course, because it’s home to so many ad tech and media firms.

Weaker in Washington State…
Then there’s Washington, home to Amazon and Microsoft. Both firms support The Washington Privacy Act, but consumer and privacy advocates including the ACLU of Washington oppose the bill for not offering individuals sufficiently strong privacy protections or legal recourse. “What we don’t want to see is a weak state-level bill being modeled to form a federal level bill,” Jennifer Lee, tech and liberty manager for the civil liberties group, told Digiday.

The Washington bill would give the state attorney general the exclusive authority to bring legal action against violating companies, rather than giving individuals that right, which pleases businesses including Microsoft.

“If the Washington Privacy Act passes, that will likely influence other states who will be interested in passing similar protections for their own residents,” said Stacey Gray, senior counsel at Future of Privacy Forum, during a December media briefing.

Federal privacy proposals
By mid-2020 there were at least 11 privacy bills floating around Congress, not to mention others addressing specific issues related to privacy such as facial recognition and biometric data.

But privacy law watchers including Chris Pedigo, svp of government affairs at publisher group Digital Content Next, say two bills sponsored by the leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee are expected to serve as a launchpad for whatever final legislation comes out of negotiations, if anything does. Privacy law observers expect future legislation to emerge once lawmakers pick up negotiations on these earlier bills:

• Consumer Online Privacy Rights Act (COPRA)

Introduced by Washington Democrat Sen. Maria Cantwell, COPRA calls for tighter restrictions on everyday digital ad practices compared to other federal bills. In particular, it would require “affirmative express consent” from consumers for processing and sharing of sensitive information which would include “information revealing online activities over time and across third-party website or on-line services.” In other words, the data building blocks of behavioral targeting.

“That by and large makes this an opt-in bill for the sharing of personal data,” wrote Justin Brookman, director of privacy and technology policy at Consumer Reports.

• Safe Data Act

This bill is an amalgam of earlier privacy legislation, sponsored by Mississippi Republican Sen. Roger Wicker. The Safe Data Act is closer to other federal privacy bills in that it gives consumers the right to opt out of data collection, rather than requiring an opt-in for data use.

And, while it does require that individuals give affirmative express consent before sensitive data can be processed or transferred to a third party, the definition is less broad than what’s in COPRA. Still, it does consider precise geo-location information and persistent identifiers in the sensitive data category.

Sticking points: whose laws apply, who can sue
There are two more significant gaps between the Republican and Democratic approaches to federal privacy law that could stall agreement.

• First is whether a federal law would override state and local privacy law. Cantwell’s Democratic bill would not preempt state or local laws. Wicker’s Republican bill would. In general, privacy and consumer advocates want local and state laws to remain in effect, in part, because they could be stricter and give individuals the right to sue companies. Businesses, on the other hand, often lament the dreaded “patchwork” of state and local laws that keep their privacy counsels and developers busy with data rule compliance.

• The other sticking point centers on who has the right to sue companies that violate the law. The COPRA bill favored by Democrats supports the right for individuals to sue companies that flout the rules, opening up a wide world of opportunities for class action lawsuits. The Safe Data Act favored by Republicans would allow only state attorneys general to sue.

For now, there’s really no telling whether legislators will come to together on preemption and the right to legal action, or whether they’ll remain points of contention blocking federal privacy law.

Other obstacles to federal law
Several other tech and data policy issues might clog up the legislative agenda, preventing movement on a privacy law. The congressional docket might include addressing big tech antitrust, quelling social media-fueled disinformation, possible changes to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (which protects digital media firms from certain content liability) and updating security rules for cross-border data transfers.

“The question is will the complexity of urgency on [Section] 230 and competition issues and others just swamp up the calendar, but we’re really at the finish line,” said Future of Privacy Forum CEO Jules Polentsky during that December media briefing.

Room for compromise?
Polentsky suggested passage of a privacy law could be an opportunity for a bipartisan win (for those congressional members who are actually into the whole “unity” thing).

“There’s a lot of room for nuance and compromise” on issues such as preemption, Polentsky said.

But Pedigo of Digital Content Next said a federal privacy law is “unlikely” because “Congress is fairly divided. They’re going through another impeachment proceeding now, so that tends to divide things even further.”

For example, in the past month, Worldwide Partners’ media agency Mediassociates teamed with creative agency Mojo Supermarket (not owned by Worldwide) to land a renewable energy company that’s about to launch. For Mediassociates, partnering with creative agencies is now a primary business development strategy. “In the past year of our new business revenue, 50% to 60% of that has come through agency partnerships,” said Todd Engels, who leads client development at Mediassociates.

Also in the past month, indie media agency R&R Partners and creative agency Odysseus Arms (both are also under the Worldwide Partners umbrella) jointly won the U.S. rollout of Self Financial, a consumer financial app popular in Europe. They’re hunting together for other wins as well.

Fletcher Whitwell, R&R’s chief media & publishing officer, laid out how having Odysseus Arms at its side helps: “The biggest thing that they do for us is, as creatives are getting briefed, is making sure … that the connectivity between media and creative — is going to work. Oftentimes previously, creative would be parallel pathing while media-wise there was no connectivity and you’d get to the end of the plan … that’s where we found that it’s highly critical to connect creative and media upfront and really understand the audience, because that helps creatives as well.”

Added Libby Brockhoff, OA’s co-founder and creative director, “We have to have a partner that has this cross-platform specialty that Fletcher’s people [have] that most media companies don’t.”

John Harris, president of Worldwide Partners, noted that it’s not the first time R&R and OA have won business together — they landed work jointly on Farmer’s Insurance’s millennial offshoot called Toggle, beating out 12 other agencies pitching, including a few holding company shops.

“The whole reason that this network exists is to give independent agencies a framework for collaboration,” said Harris. “And the reason it’s worked so well is that the acquisition and consolidation that you see in the holding companies doesn’t translate to collaboration. It doesn’t translate to integration. Their incentives aren’t in place to drive that collaboration.”

4 DEI takeaways from 4A’s decisions

Digiday editor-in-chief Jim Cooper led four of the biggest names in media agencies — Dentsu Americas CEO Jacki Kelley, Justin Thomas-Copeland, CEO of DDB North America, Mediabrands CEO Daryl Lee and Horizon Media founder and CEO Bill Koenigsberg — in a conversation about the business. Each of them explained how they are focusing on diversifying their business and trying to correct past behaviors. Here’s what each offered up: 

• Koenigsberg said Horizon consciously doubled its investment in minority-owned media through “Project Embrace,” with clients supporting the initiative.

• Thomas-Copeland said DDB is focusing on talent attraction and retention/growth by looking to hire people “in a variety of talents. We’ve already hired six new people we would never have hired before.”

• Kelley likewise is looking to attract more diverse talent, noting that Dentsu chose to target recruiting efforts at high-school-level kids by working with Big Brothers and Big Sisters organizations.

• And Lee said Mediabrands is making a deliberate effort to focus on Black employees by helping them to overcome barriers to career growth and promotions through career-growth programs, which he says have experienced a surge in signups.  

Color by numbers

Though Ken Jennings has been hosting ViacomCBS’ syndicated hit Jeopardy for a few weeks already, ratings for the first week of the contestant-turned host just came out last week. Jennings attracted a 6.2 live-plus-same-day rating for the week ended Jan. 17, according to Nielsen Media Research data (syndicated ratings always lag a few weeks). Though it’s a 6 percent drop from the prior week, which was the last week of the late Alex Trebek’s hosting—an event that attracted a higher-than-usual audience—it remained the top syndicated show for the week. Other guest hosts plan to fill in, including news personalities Katie Couric and Bill Whitaker, as well as Green Bay Packers’ quarterback Aaron Rodgers and actress Mayim Bialik. But this Jeopardy fan would very much like to see Jennings settle in as the permanent host. 

Takeoff and landing

—OMD landed Home Depot’s media business, winning it from Dentsu’s Carat unit. The account had gone into review last summer. Published estimates on the size of the business are in the neighborhood of $450 million.

—But it wasn’t all bad news for Dentsu last week, as its iProspect unit is reported to have won cable and broadband provider Cox Communications’ $150 million media and performance marketing business. That win came out of the pockets of Publicis.

—It was not the greatest week for Publicis across the board — in news I wish I had known about a week earlier, its Epsilon Data Management unit agreed to pay a $150 million fine for selling millions of consumers’ information to “perpetrators of elder fraud schemes,” according to a statement from the Department of Justice’s Consumer Protection Branch.

Direct quote

“If you look forward five years … [GroupM will] be buying much more media programmatically, not just digital display or search but [also] television, and that will lead to improvements in efficiency and targeting. There’s no doubt that the growth in streaming services (24% of U.S. video viewing is on a streaming services) makes it more challenging to insert ads, and I think we can help to build a better advertising experience … Advertising does fund a tremendous number of free services for people: search, Google Maps, Facebook, Whatsapp. I don’t know where we would be without it. As an industry we need to make a case for what we do and how it helps society. And then if we can take more responsibility for content and brand safety, and those areas, we can really have a system where advertising does add to the sum of human happiness.”

— WPP CEO Mark Read, in a conversation with 4A’s CEO Marla Kaplowitz during the industry organization’s annual Decisions conference.  

Speed reading

— Senior media editor Tim Peterson rounds up the top trends in media at the moment, which include continued media consolidation thanks to SPACs, less use of the RFP to land an agency, and a concerted push to replace the cookie, among other developments.

—Senior news editor Seb Joesph reports mobile advertising is about to be upended. Apple’s long-awaited privacy control that will require developers to ask permission from users before tracking them will arrive early this spring. And when it does arrive, app owners could see waves of people decide they don’t want to be tracked after they’ve been reminded they have a choice. Cue panic from the ad industry. 

— The Wall Street Journal chronicles the latest battle between Apple and Facebook, with Apple implementing privacy tools to combat what it says are Facebook’s attempts to monetize its app-tracking tools, and Facebook alleging Apple is intentionally messing with its operations.

— Meanwhile, Venture Beat looks at how Google, after staying out of the fray, took its own swipe at Apple’s privacy tools that are built into its iOS 14, saying it will steer clear of Apple tools that allow ad personalization of YouTube and Google Maps.

What is certain is that companies will have to adjust to overcome this hurdle. A business that wants to thrive during unprecedented times like these will want to deepen its connection with its customers. In creating experiences where customers leave the store or e-commerce platform feeling satisfied, the likelihood of returning becomes a lot higher.

Providing contactless experiences

Somewhere along the customer’s buying journey is an experience that promotes growth within the retailer-shopper relationship. The journey consists of a series of touchpoints that make buying for today’s consumers easier. Only companies that understand what makes a customer satisfied will be the ones able to implement an effective customer experience strategy that will make the visit worth repeating. And with that outcome as the goal, retailers are figuring out methods to eliminate customer pain points and provide lasting impressions with the help of technology.

One way they’re achieving this is through contactless payments for frictionless checkout processes, both in-store and curbside. Technology companies like Lightspeed offer intuitive POS (point-of-sale) systems for retail businesses looking to reinvent themselves with solutions that sell to more customers online and off. And they are making transactions smarter with mobile payments that enable contactless experiences with just an iPad and Bluetooth connectivity. With increased mobility, sales staff can accept payments from anywhere in the store and cut down long lines, so customers don’t have to wait.

Going contactless also means having an online presence so shoppers can browse and purchase items directly from the store without ever leaving the house. E-commerce solutions are opening up new revenue streams by targeting these potential customers looking for comfort and convenience.

Connecting the contactless experience

Being in more places at once is also critical to the contactless success story. Retailers are selling their products on multiple channels and can provide unified experiences across all of them. 

This omnichannel strategy helps create more satisfied customers by offering a seamless shopping experience that will keep them keep coming back. Designed to connect all of the dots, online and off, these cloud-based POS systems are helping businesses expand into new markets with sophisticated e-commerce software. The software allows retailers to sync and organize inventory from throughout brick-and-mortar stores and offer the personalized experiences that customers expect. 

For today’s retailer, providing a unified experience consistently throughout the buyer’s journey by connecting the pieces — starting from the browsing stage, through the buying stage and even at the end of the receiving stage — is crucial to survival.

COVID and the contactless world

Adjusting to all the changes brought on by the pandemic has been no easy feat for the retail industry, regardless of a company’s size. The demand for contactless payment options and digital avenues to purchase goods and services has forced retailers out of their comfort zones. The truth of the matter is, the contactless experience is no longer just a “nice-to-have” but a necessity that impacts the retailer’s bottom line.  

This new normal has taught us that a business’s survival is contingent upon two very important things: Its ability to eliminate customer pain points and its willingness to understand that lasting impressions mean everything. 

Offering customers contactless payment options in the physical store helps them avoid touching unsanitary cash or terminals (i.e., a pain point) while expediting the checkout process, so they aren’t forced to wait in long lines (an unwanted lasting impression). Businesses currently using POS systems to facilitate their customers’ journeys at every touchpoint recognize that the goal is to use the technology to create personalized experiences that educate, engage and inspire customers in a memorable way that will bring them back repeatedly.