Month: April 2021

Roku will tease Roku Recommends through the display ad that appears on the right side of the platform’s home screen. After a person clicks on the banner, a video will play in which a host will highlight certain programming available from apps across Roku’s platform. The video is expected to run for five to seven minutes and will be presented by a sponsor — for example, “Roku Recommends, brought you to by Brand X” — with the brand’s logo also appearing on the display ad that links to the video, the agency executives said. Roku Recommends can accommodate one sponsor, though its unclear how often Roku will rotate in new sponsors.

Roku has not detailed to agency executives what specific TV shows and movies will be promoted from which services or how that programming will be selected for inclusion, but the executives said they expect major streaming services like Netflix, Disney+ and HBO Max to be included as well as Roku’s own The Roku Channel. The CTV platform owner’s free, ad-supported streaming TV service premiered its first exclusive show in March, and this year the company has acquired the programming libraries of Quibi and This Old House.

Roku Recommends is seen by agency executives as a unique product in the CTV market and they expect that its availability could help the platform attract advertisers’ interest during this year’s upfront negotiations because of the sponsorship’s limited availability. 

“That’s the innovation I think you’ll continue to see in the CTV marketplace,” said one agency executive. This executive cited Hulu’s pause ads as another example of how streaming companies have gone beyond co-opting traditional ad formats, like the interstitial video ads that have run on linear TV for decades and become commonplace in the streaming market. “This is a new way of saying, ‘How do you do home screen takeovers in CTV?’” the executive said.

Two executives at media companies that distribute programming on Roku’s platform, including licensing programming for The Roku Channel, said they had not been aware of Roku Recommends but were excited by its prospects. Making CTV audiences aware of shows and movies is challenging because of all the programming that streamers are pushing out these days. As a result, streaming executives are always looking for new ways to draw people’s attentions. 

However, in a sign of the tension that always exists between media companies and distribution platforms, the two media executives said they could see Roku eventually opting to ask media companies to somehow compensate the platform in order to have their programming included. That could take the form of a fully sponsored product, in which the media companies would pay for the programming to be featured. Or Roku could weave the promotion into its distribution deals. The platform already lobbies media companies to run ads on its platform promoting their programming and streaming properties, so adding Roku Recommends to that mix would not be much of a departure from the existing strategy, said one of the streaming executives.

When the streaming executive’s company was negotiating its distribution deal with Roku, “they did tell us about that vertical banner there [on the platform’s home screen] and were like, ‘We can get you into this if there’s available inventory as a way to build your channel. But typically these are paid placements and cost about this much, so if you’re interested we can talk about campaigns.’ They definitely want you to pay,” the executive said.

“When you look at it compared to the rest of the C-Suite, the CMO is the least-tenured c-suite officer,” said Jay Pattisall, principal analyst at Forrester. “Fernando absolutely broke the trend with quite a long run. He is an exception.”

Few CMOs are given the freedom to work with agencies to come up with creative campaigns that resonate quite like Machado’s Moldy Whopper or Whopper Neutrality work. Doing so likely only comes with tenure and trust earned in a long-standing working relationship not only with other c-suite execs but agency partners, according to industry observers and agency execs. (Of course, not all of Machado’s Burger King campaigns were hits; most recently, a tweet highlighting International Women’s Day work was deleted after facing backlash.) With many CMOs only in the role for an average of 41 months, it’s uncommon to attribute breakout work that helps grow a brand to the position.

For some CMOs, having an impact on a brand is dependent on whether they’re prepared to make an agency change at the get-go. “Sometimes, they have a team they have already worked with and simply choose to move the business to a resource they know,” explained Nancy Hill, founder of Media Sherpas and former 4A’s president. “That can help them have an impact right away.” 

Hill continued: “Other times, they go through an agency review process, which can take six months to a year, then they have to get the new agency up to speed and able to execute. You could be talking about as much as two years to really have an impact or see a change. By that time, they may only have another year left before they either choose to leave or the company gets tired of waiting for things to happen. It creates a terrible cycle for a brand as it then has to start all over again.” 

That cycle and CMOs’ short tenure can lead to risk-aversion, explained Scott Harkey, co-founder and managing partner of full-service agency OH Partners, adding that risk-aversion can make it harder for marketers to make their brands more relevant via campaigns, particularly with limited budgets.

Industry observers and agency execs believe marketers need to find a way to take more control now rather than fearing being cut from the role and letting that impact the ability to change a brand.

“The reality is the CMO position is very fraught today,” said Pattisall. “The CMO needs to recapture marketing and reclaim marketing in the broadest sense beyond just communications and campaigns. [CMOs need to be involved in] product development, retail and distribution and pricing.”

3 Questions with Kroll CMO Marty Dauer

We’re coming up on a year of the pandemic. How has it changed your approach to marketing and digital advertising?

I’ve told my team this many times, but in 2020 we had our best year during the worst year. Worst obviously because of the pandemic and the profound negative impact that has had on so many. But for our marketing team, the best because, despite the disruption, our team maintained focus, adapted seamlessly and innovated to ensure we kept our company in front of our clients. One of the biggest changes is that we’ve learned to be more flexible, nimble and digital. We’re better equipped to quickly respond to marketplace conditions and the needs of our customers. When it comes to digital, it has been and remains a cornerstone of our plans, but 2020 helped us see how to better leverage digital channels without sacrificing experiences and interactions.

As vaccine rollout continues and things start to open back up, what does your company’s future of work look like when it comes to returning to the office and the post-pandemic environment?

At Kroll, we have always had a flexible approach to the workplace and now we are redefining our workspaces to better accommodate this structure. When we return to the office it will look different — with a focus on collaboration in the office and much greater acceptance of remote working. As for reopening offices, we are taking a localized approach across our 70+ global offices, with a focus on allowing employees maximum freedom to best meet their organizational and personal requirements/goals.

Diversifying media strategy is a hot topic. How has your team approached diversifying media and what will that look like for your team a year from now?

When it comes to media diversification, I see two elements. First, as it relates to risk — mitigating and managing risk. Risk is a big part of our business — seeing the opportunity in how to leverage it and how to be smart about risk-taking — both have certainly influenced our media strategy. When it comes to our approach, we look holistically across owned, earned and paid media to ensure we have a balance and mix in the channels we utilize and tactics we deploy.

The second element of diversification is about variety. In B2B we face an increasingly complex ecosystem of buyers and a lengthy buying journey. For perspective, a typical buying group is comprised of 6 to 16 members across a purchase process that can easily take 6 to 18+ months. So when you think about building a communications program targeting that many buyers, sustained over that length of time, diversity is a necessity. So in addition to ensuring that we have a mix of channels and tactics, we also need variety in regards to the conversations and content.

With the vaccine rollout, we are looking ahead to a post-pandemic environment, one where many of the changes from the past year will persist. We plan to carry the lessons of 2020/21 forward — more open to change, less afraid to test and learn, strong appetite for the right risk. — Kimeko McCoy

By the numbers

It’s the end of mobile advertising as we know it. Conversations around Apple’s new privacy control have been bubbling up with the company’s plans to require developers to ask users’ permission before tracking them on the horizon. Advertisers are scrambling, figuring out what to do next. Meanwhile, less than 1/3 of smartphone users are even aware of the policy changes, according to a new survey from the Mobile Marketing Association and analytics company AppsFlyer. Find key statistics from the report below:

• Older groups are far more likely to be concerned about data privacy, with 38% of those 65+ extremely concerned and 41% of those 18-24 moderately concerned.
• While 1/3 will not allow tracking under any circumstances, the majority will allow some form of tracking rather than pay a subscription fee.
• Although consumers are reluctant to pay in exchange for not being tracked, the Netflix effect is seen in that just under half (48%) will pay for streaming video and 37% will pay for music. 
• There is a disconnect in how people think companies use their data, with 39% agreeing that the sale of their data was to make money and just 14% agreeing it was to improve their experience or deliver more relevant content.  — Kimeko McCoy

Quote of the week

“Personal data that somebody is opting to give us is [better quality information] than making assumptions based on who visits the website, goes to a makeup foundation page and then we retarget them.”

— Marnie Levan, Maybelline vp of integrated consumer communications, told Glossy beauty reporter Emma Sandler on the importance of loyalty programs and the need for first-party data.

What we’ve covered

• Electronic Arts is aiming to be seen as a media company, reports news editor Seb Joseph.
• Georgia-based brands faced pressure to speak out against new Republican-backed legislation, dubbed Jim Crow 2.0, that would put new regulations and restrictions into place for voters, reports marketing reporter Kimeko McCoy.
• Parenting publishers are shifting their tone, taking a break from Covid coverage, reports media reporter Sara Guaglione.

In many ways, news consumption became a life-and-death imperative last year. People were bound to their mobile devices for the latest health and safety recommendations, as well as following the impact of social and political unrest. Although not so dire, the worlds of entertainment and social engagement were also significantly impacted. 

With most stadiums and movie theaters shuttered, global mobile gaming app installs soared 45%, and dating apps showed an average 20% surge in usage — and July, August and September 2020 showed a 25% year-over-year increase in app usage overall. Meanwhile, linear TV viewership is also dropping. 

These numbers are music to the ears of publishers and brands that have already recognized the value of mobile advertising. With consumers shifting focus and recent statistics indicating there are 5.2 billion unique mobile users worldwide — nearly 67% of the population — the data spotlights the untapped potential of delivering ads that appeal to people where they are already spending much of their time.

Consumers are engaging with richer mobile experiences

Unlike a TV or shared computer environment, mobile offers the opportunity to reach consumers and reach them on their most personal device. The growing availability of 5G will only drive consumer anticipation of a richer mobile experience. The content people consume may vary within predictable patterns. How people choose to consume that content, however, has probably changed for good.

People have come to demand a better experience with any media, and mobile content has largely risen to meet that demand. Look no further than the steady increase in time spent on mobile. 

The common denominator for successful on-screen engagements is how consumers choose to interact with their environment. On CTV, users have the choice to skip ads or to eliminate them completely via subscriptions. Mobile video ad experiences can offer many of the same approaches. Native, interstitial and interscroller formats all may have a place in the advertiser’s arsenal. Still, marketing teams must ensure that they’re indeed providing consumers with choices about how to interact with ads — and they need to match impact with context.

For example, in mobile gaming apps, ads can be placed at logical stopping points between levels, taking up the entire mobile screen without disrupting play. This offers 100% share of voice and screen, a most impactful approach, even if it is not appropriate for all mobile experiences. In other cases, the right decision is to serve mobile ad options that don’t interrupt or slow content consumption. 

These factors pressure publishers to evolve as well, and their first step becomes moving the focus away from pushing a message, emphasizing instead the consumer experience as the central element. 

Embracing advertising’s evolution means embracing mobile’s nuances

Technology is not the only change publishers need to embrace. Brands and publishers need to shift their thinking around the power of mobile. Instead of trying to tie mobile video ads directly to a sale — something that is not expected of TV ads, by the way — ads should be integrated into a larger branding and awareness strategy. 

As marketing teams move beyond thinking about mobile video as a lower-funnel opportunity, they can focus their branding investment on reaching relevant consumers exactly where they are, instead of casting a broader net in the hopes that a person happens to be watching the right content at the right time. This more personalized connection leads to significantly better results, even if marketing efforts will undoubtedly (and primarily) continue to be measured by upper-funnel KPIs. 

Advertisers tend to rely on the video completion rate as a metric of success. However, this doesn’t account for viewability, particularly in a mobile environment. For so long, measuring the viewability of mobile campaigns felt impossible. Now, OMID (Open Measurement Definition Interface) compliant inventory is available across mobile apps and soon on the web. That means any video placement on mobile can be measured for viewability, and so the metric should always be considered. 

Another thing to consider is a multiplier of metrics — looking at viewability and the video completion rate to get the full sense of a video’s impact. This is called the viewable video completion rate. Data shows that viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video. If the ad plays off-screen, it is neither actually seen by the consumer nor does it meet any of a brand’s goals. That can have engagement and revenue repercussions for publishers.

The new frontier delivers exceptional experiences

Last year brought changes in other notable ways. As more consumers moved online, more efforts to protect their data and privacy popped up. Notably, for advertisers, Apple and Google’s new privacy policies marked important shifts in the way consumers are targeted. 

These changes have created a world of haves and have-nots in ad tech. Those with strategies for reaching relevant audiences without personal data are in a much better position to provide a strong branding experience for consumers. Ad spending through 2025 is expected to show an annual growth rate of 5.1%. By 2024, experts predict, mobile will account for about 73% of video ad spending. That provides abundant opportunities to broaden reach responsibly without the use of cookies or IDs.

On the one hand, the pandemic has advanced a wide range of digital technologies. On the other, it has amplified consumer exhaustion with intrusive digital experiences. Digital fatigue is real, which means it is critical for publishers to re-center on a meaningful audience experience. The best way to do that is to focus on delivering the best and most diverse content possible that attracts the widest range of users.