Month: January 2023

For this plan to work at scale, Schibsted needed ad tech vendors — businesses that have access to programmatic ad dollars more readily than publishers ever will. It did just that last month when it plugged those IDs into Adform and subsequently made them available to any advertiser looking to bid on its inventory via the ad tech vendor.

Granted, this essentially limits the usage of such data to Schibsted’s own sites, including Norwegian newspapers Aftenposten and Verdens Gang. But for publishers like Schibsted that have a data management platform that can create valuable audience segments and broadcast those segments in bid requests in such a way that doesn’t require ID syncing or complex translation, this is a viable alternative to the current audience targeting paradigm. 

As Per Håkon Fasting, head of advertising and sales at Schibsted, explained: “There’s a lot of blind buying of our programmatic inventory in Safari and Firefox where third-party identifiers are banned but advertisers continue to buy regardless.” 

Or to put it another way, programmatic advertisers continued to try and reach Schibsted readers in those browsers despite not being able to frequency cap or precisely target their ads. 

Even for a publisher like Schibsted that isn’t reliant on this sort of advertising (70% of its ad revenue comes from direct deals), this is an issue. There are few faster ways to turn readers into haters than poorly targeted ads. Schibsted can’t afford for that to happen. Not when scaled publishers with premium brands and, ideally, large authenticated audiences are poised to benefit from the degradation of third-party addressability. Of course, Schibsted is going to build a first-party ID ecosystem across all its inventory.

To be clear, this ecosystem already exists for most of the publisher’s inventory — the part sold via direct deals with advertisers. This latest move just extends it to the programmatic part too. 

Doing so is a two-step process: first, the publisher is making its first-party IDs available to those programmatic advertisers that need it to frequency cap the number of ads they buy as well as optimizing bids. In other words, not targeting. That bit comes later in the year — sometime before the summer — when Schibsted will make its audience segments available via those first-party IDs. From then, this will be the only way to buy those segments programmatically across most of its ad formats (save for some video and native.)

“The market is driven by convenience in so far as if solutions like this aren’t in the faces of marketers then they will continue to do what they’ve been doing,” said Fasting. ‘What we’re doing is making it easier for advertisers to access our audiences without third-party cookies.”

Moves like this are creating (albeit slowly) a situation where there’s still user-level targeting in the open web (i.e. outside the large walled gardens) but on a much smaller scale. The more this happens the more premium publishers effectively become small walled gardens of authenticated, or logged-in, users. However, as a result of this increased scarcity, the cost of such inventory will likely be higher, compared to everything else on the open web. And that’s what Fasting is counting on. He’s sure that advertisers will pony up. Publishers are one of the few places that have first-party audiences of a decent size, making them safe effective bets, he continued. That’s been clear in the early tests for Schibsted’s first-party IDs. 

“This is going to give us new revenue [from programmatic] that we never had before,” said Fasting. “We know from our tests that our first-party data works better than third-party data and our contextual signals perform better than any inventory. If we can push that combination via our deal with Adform then we should be in a position where I can challenge my direct sales business.”

This could happen sooner, not later if the promise these IDs have already shown is anything to go on. It certainly was for Renault last spring. Back then it ran a campaign using first-party IDs bought via Adform, and  saw viewability rise to 80% compared to the 75% it got on the back of a third-party cookie traffic. Moreover, only ad traffic with these first-party IDs was able to meet daily spend targets across the campaign period, per Adform.

“Most publishers are sitting on a vast amount of rich first-party data, and as privacy regulations continue to tighten, operating with first-party data will be a significant and powerful advantage in the future. With this, you can build more accurate audiences and discover new sources of revenue, all through privacy-compliant methods,” said Freddie Turner, EMEA md at programmatic agency MiQ.

There have not been any campaigns sold yet on VMG’s Twitch content at the time of publication.

VMG and Twitch would not disclose the exact revenue terms of the partnership. Twitch’s standard revenue share for creators on the platform is a 50-50 split. In some publisher partnerships, Twitch will pay an upfront fee for producing content exclusively for the platform, according to a Twitch spokesperson; however they would not confirm or deny if VMG received that as part of this deal.

VMG started posting on Twitch at the end of the summer 2022, first with an interview news show on Vice’s Twitch channel from its Vice World News brand. At the time, Katie Drummond, svp of global news and global editor-in-chief of Vice News, said VMG wanted to wait on adding a layer of revenue to Twitch until after there was an established audience and community around the channel in order to gain trust from viewers versus appearing to only be trying to milk the platform for ad dollars.

Though not a direct result of waiting out the audience before starting to monetize the platform, VMG did miss its revenue goal set at the beginning of the year for 2022 by about $100 million, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal and confirmed to Digiday by someone familiar with the company. The total revenue for last year was about $600 million, on par with VMG’s 2021 total revenue.

Reaching the Vice audience

Last week, Haik and her team hosted a dinner with Twitch alongside CES to announce the new partnership and hopefully sell ad campaigns on the “Good Game” show, which is an extension of Refinery29’s larger Good Game franchise that covers female and non-binary gamers and gaming culture.

When media buyers were asked if Vice or Refinery29 is a brand that they would consider for a client’s Twitch-based campaign, it ultimately came down to whether the brand was interested in reaching Vice’s audience, versus prioritizing the fact that it’s a live stream on Twitch.

“We would be looking at [a campaign] more for that [Vice personality] first before Twitch. There is enough education around Twitch now to understand that it’s a destination for live stream gaming, but it’s also a platform where other content is shown. I don’t think just being on Twitch is a reason to consider Vice content,” said Molly Schultz, svp and group partner of digital investment and innovation at UM Worldwide.  

Twitch certainly doesn’t seem to be the right fit for all publishers, and media buyers considering advertising on the platform are even more picky about what content is being displayed there.  

“When we’re considering Twitch, it’s important that there’s at least a tie to gaming. It is really difficult for publishers who are not necessarily endemic to gaming, even though Vice obviously is producing gaming content … it’s been really tough for publishers to break into that [space]. They’re not particularly known as a gaming publisher or something that the audience on Twitch is usually going to Twitch for,” said Schultz. 

Refinery29’s Twitch channel has 743 followers at the time of publication. In the past 60 days (the period of time that live streams are archived on Refinery29’s Twitch channel), the number of views per video really runs the gamut. The most viewed stream has just over 20,000 views while the video with the fewest views only has four, according to the channel’s public stats. However, a spokesperson for the company said certain episodes of “Good Game” that aired more than 60 days ago have accrued upwards of 200,000 or 300,000 views.  

To help ensure that sold live streams get enough views, Haik said that Twitch will promote “Good Game” on its homepage when the show is live, something the platform has organically done in the past. “Twitch will help us promote the show, [so] we can turn on scale very easily. Some of that will happen organically because of the [celebrity guests] that we have on but we have various ways of elevating and promoting the stream if we need to,” she said.

Vice News is still actively publishing on Twitch and currently has 3,800 followers. Two of its December streams garnering over 300,000 views each, but the channel is not yet earning revenue. Haik said while the plan is to monetize that news content in the near future, no solid timeline has been set. 

“As far as platform [revenue] sharing, it really is a story of the cream rising to the top,” said Geoff Schiller, VMG’s global EVP of commercial and sales strategy. “[Strong] social revenue streams on the passive side I think will be few and far in between [and] for only those publishers that are delivering the most differentiated [and] the most compelling [content]. And so from that lens, branded content and distribution of that branded content is where social has the most value. It’s more of a direct play.” 

Video news publisher The Recount debuted its Twitch partnership in April, when Twitch paid The Recount an undisclosed amount upfront to produce the show, “Recount Live” exclusively for Twitch. This deal would also give The Recount 50% of the revenue earned from pre-roll and mid-roll ads during the show as well as any direct consumer revenue from Twitch’s subscription tiers, as part of the platform’s affiliate program. Six months later, The Recount informed employees it planned to suspend operations, Axios reported in December, and “Recount Live” seems to have disappeared from the platform altogether.

Meanwhile, Rolling Stone is garnering an audience on its livestreams. The publisher currently has about 55,000 followers and its most recent broadcast on Twitch from Jan. 5, captured more than 233,000 views at the time of writing.

“You really have to focus and dedicate [yourself] on Twitch and that’s where we see most publishers burn out,” said Nick Cicero, vp of strategy at Conviva. “You have to want to build up the Twitch platform, and so whether you’re monetizing or not, that audience development is key. You can’t do it by simulcasting your live [streams] everywhere.” 

The Washington Post, for example, gained over 42,000 followers on Twitch but seems to have paused its experimentation on the platform, with its most recent live news broadcast taking place two months ago. Despite garnering several thousand views on its posts — and being owned by the billionaire, Jeff Bezos, who founded and serves as executive chairman of Twitch parent Amazon — the Post hasn’t been able to find the secret sauce for making news content work on the platform. 

“[Twitch] is not right for every publisher. If you have the DNA to understand how to build and grow an audience on Twitch, and you lean into personalities, I think it can be really successful. But you have to know your audience and where they live,” said Cicero.  

Despite the financial confines of the upfront’s year-long commitments, TV ad buyers and sellers continue to seek economic comfort in the upfront model’s revenue guarantees and pricing assurance, as broken down in the video below.

We already know that there’s a lack of confidence among publishers when it comes to revenues heading into the new year. To follow that, in a December survey of more than 70 publisher professionals, Digiday found that fewer publishers added staff last year than the year before, and that publishers expect the economy to be a drag on business into 2023.

The percentage of publishers who said their full-time staff increased fell from 58% in 2021 to 41% in 2022, Digiday’s survey found. Meanwhile, the percentage of publishers who said their staff decreased jumped to 29% last year, up from 19% the year prior. Just under a third of publishers (30%) said their full-time staff was unchanged in 2022, up from 23% in 2021.

Another notable difference between Digiday’s survey results in 2022 and 2021 is the number of publishers who said their staff increased significantly. Nearly a quarter of respondents (22%) said their full-time staff increased significantly in 2021, compared with only 12% who said the same in 2022. And while the percentage of those who said their staff decreased significantly held steady at a very small 4% between 2021 and 2022, the percentage of publisher pros who said their staff decreased somewhat shot up from 15% in 2021 to 25% in 2022.

These trends in publishers’ staffing make sense when we compare them to Digiday’s data on how they feel about the economy.

Digiday’s survey found that the majority of publishers agree that the economy hurt their companies’ performances in 2022 and that it will continue to do so in 2023 — which provides one explanation for the drop in publishers’ staff increases. Specifically, 62% of publisher pros agreed that the economy hurt their companies last year, with 59% agreeing that it will hurt in 2023 as well.

The most significant difference between 2022 and 2023 is actually among the respondents who disagree that the economy is hurting their companies: 19% of publishers disagreed that the economy hurt their performance in 2022, but that percentage dropped to only 6% when they thought ahead to this year.

Breaking down the data even further, it turns out that not one respondent to Digiday’s survey said they disagreed strongly that the economy will hurt their company’s performance in 2023. Six percent disagreed strongly that the economy hurt their performance in 2022.

Although all the major holding companies sent delegations of people to CES, offering curated tours of all the tech, the sessions at the C Space focused more on how to optimize and improve on what’s here and now. Less prominent were the blue-sky efforts that promise to solve all of marketing’s problems with something that’s just around the corner (much like artificial intelligence has been treated the last few years). 

Discussions around improving the use of clean rooms and smarter applications of attention metrics indicate that media agencies want to focus on the here and now. For instance, Stagwell announced at CES its move to build out tech that’s here today — from augmented reality advances to better use of QR codes — by integrating them into its Marketing Cloud for clients to use when in-housing. And Omnicom Media Group beefed up its retail media network business with an announced partnership with supermarket giant Albertsons that seeks to develop more advanced targeting and measurement of connected TV.  

“Traditionally the CES perspective is about five to 10 years out, but returning to CES for the first time since 2020, we’re seeing an event that offers a much better balance between the theoretical and the practical,” said George Manas, CEO of OMD Worldwide. “Less flying cars and robots on the moon, more AI and e-commerce applications that our clients can activate now. This shift has made the event more relevant and useful to marketers, and more aligned with our goal in coming to Las Vegas: to discover immediate innovation that will drive better outcomes for our clients.”   

On the ad-tech side of the media world, The Trade Desk used CES to showcase its updated efforts to move beyond cookies with a strategic lynchpin to its Unified ID 2.0 offering, something called Galileo that helps advertisers better use the open internet without cookies. Again, the focus is on what can be done now to prepare for a different future — in this case, the no-longer-surprising retiring of cookies by Google. 

(Speaking of Google, though it wasn’t announced per se at CES, Microsoft’s news it would fold its AI-based ChatGPT tech into its Bing search engine certainly had a lot of people in Las Vegas talking about how the news could spark a new level of competition in the search space, which Google has dominated for decades.)

Even the creator economy, as low-tech an option as you’ll find in media, has been a part of the discussions in Las Vegas. Havas announced an expanded partnership with Spotter, a startup that provides upfront funding for creators. Havas Media Group and Spotter said they plan to increase investments in YouTubers with the aim of helping brands expand their presence on YouTube by collaborating with diverse creators. The partnership follows a 2022 commitment with Spotter, which says it has deployed 30% of capital to creators of multicultural backgrounds. (So far it has paid out $740 million to YouTubers and plans to reach $1 billion this year.)

Spotter and Havas didn’t disclose any monetary commitments at CES, but Spotter CMO Galvea Kelly told Digiday last year that creators are driving “a societal shift” in the overall economy. That’s led a number of brands, agencies and tech companies to partner with diverse creators through a number of investment commitments and other programs.

“The one thing that YouTubers and others have is this really intense connection with their fans versus a television show,” said Spotter founder and CEO Aaron DeBevoise. “The opportunities to create more value for themselves is so big, but the issue is it has to be very simple.”

No doubt some media agencies will return back to the office with visions of newfangled tech to test out and find application. But given economic concerns about how 2023 will shake out, thinking more about today’s tech holds the potential to generate revenue now. — Marty Swant and Antoinette Siu contributed to this reporting

Color by numbers

Out of home advertising may be making a post-Covid comeback, at least according to an analysis by the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA) and financial advisory firm Solomon Partners. Their 2023 benchmark measured ad effectiveness based on recall comparison across television, audio, online, OOH and print from 2017 to 2022. Results show that OOH ads generate higher ad recall with consumers compared to streaming, podcasts and radio, as well as online and print formats, and OAAA expects OOH ad spend for 2023 to outpace total media growth overall. — Antoinette Siu

More stats:

• Recent findings from OAAA-Harris Poll research showed that 49% of adult consumers are noticing OOH ads more than one year ago as Americans transition in post-Covid.
• OOH printed ads were 38% to 86% effective in ad recall, while digital ones were 46% to 84% effective.
• By comparison linear TV generated a 20% to 60% effectiveness in ad recall, while streaming was slightly higher between 28% to 72%. In audio, podcast ads seemed more effective with 59% to 77% ad recall compared to radio with 11% to 46%.
• Online ads actually saw some of the lowest numbers. Mobile ads were 12% to 57% effective in ad recall, while desktop ads were 9% to 48% effective.

Takeoff & landing

• BMW of North America put its creative and media agency work up for review. Defending media-side agencies include IPG’s UM as media agency incumbent, as well as independent Anchor, which handles social. 
• Jay Friedman was promoted from president to CEO of independent media and marketing services firm Goodway Group. Charged with expanding the company’s growth into retail media and measurement, Friedman replaces David Wolk, who becomes executive chairman. 
• TV ad sales firm Ampersand launched an automated addressable technology for its main customers, cable operators that represent 70 percent of all addressable TV homes in the U.S.   
• Independent OH Partners has re-formed into an independent holding company called The Harkey Group, which will house five offerings: a production company, a creative agency, a consulting firm, a market research company, and OH itself.  

Direct quote

“Instead of starting with the technology and trying to figure out where to deploy it, try to come up with the problems we’re trying to solve and what is the best technology [that] solves it.”

— Raja Rajamannar, chief marketing & communications officer, and president of healthcare for Mastercard, on the value CES can and should offer

Speed reading

• Digiday senior media editor Tim Peterson took a long-tail look at how the TV upfront marketplace might mutate over time. 
• Digiday platforms reporter Krystal Scanlon examined the consequences and implications of the European Union’s privacy watchdog’s massive fine levied against Meta.
• Digiday’s senior reporter for marketing & technology Marty Swant reviewed the most interesting uses of Web3 and the metaverse by marketers last year — part of Digiday’s The 2023 Notebook series, which can be viewed in its entirety here.

With major companies including L’Oréal Group and Amorepacific regularly unveiling new technologies, the beauty tech presence remains constant at the Consumer Technology Association’s annual event. Taking place from January 5-8, this year’s show spotlights beauty launches that use AI technology to tap into themes including personalized product mixing and computerized makeup application. 

K-beauty conglomerate Amorepacific received the CES Innovation Award for the fourth year in a row this year for two of its launches focused on customized products. Its Authentic Color Master by Tonework allows users to scan their face. Using AI facial recognition technology, it can that create personalized foundation and lip shades with its robotic arms. Meanwhile, the brand’s at-home Cosmechip device creates customized skin care by allowing users to enter dry “chips” with skin-care ingredients and water into the apparatus to create skin-care products on the spot.

“Global customers are now creating ‘hyper-personalization’ and ‘me-centric’ trends, and the bespoke beauty market has great growth potential backed by remarkable development of beauty technologies,” said Park Youngho, head of Amorepacific’s R&I Center. 

The CES launches of L’Oréal Group, meanwhile, focus on automatic makeup application with two prototypes announced on January 3. The company’s handheld HAPTA device offers computerized lipstick application for people with limited hand and arm mobility.

“For L’Oréal, the future of beauty is inclusive. And this future will be made more accessible by technology,” said Nicolas Hieronimus, CEO of the L’Oréal Group, in a statement about the device.

The technology used in the device was created by Alphabet Inc.’s health tech company Verily. It was first created by Verily for the company’s Liftware dining utensils, which were designed to automatically stabilize when being used by people with hand tremors and limited mobility. The lipstick applicator uses the same smart motion controls and provides customizable attachments to improve the range of motion.

The company also released a prototype for eyebrow makeup application called Brow Magic. Users scan their face with L’Oréal-owned AI beauty app Modiface, and select the shape, thickness and effect of their ideal brow. They can then hold the device up to their face, where 2,400 nozzles “print” 1,200 drops per inch of eyebrow makeup to create the look. Using technology from non-permanent tattoo startup Prinker, the gadget’s eyebrow art can be washed off with regular makeup remover.

Some beauty prototypes unveiled at CES will make their way to the market. L’Oréal Group will make its HAPTA device available through Lancôme this year, and the Brow Magic tool is “expected to launch in 2023,” according to the company’s press release.

Amorepacific, meanwhile, has deployed multiple CES-unveiled technologies in stores over the years. Customers can already try out the Tonework technology at store locations in Seoul, including its Laneige showroom in the Myeongdong shopping neighborhood, its Etude store in Sinchon, its futuristic Amore Seongsu flagship store and the Amorepacific headquarters. Park said the company is focused on “broadening the customer touch points for the customizing services, in collaboration with our brands.”

CES prototypes that make their way to the market have been met with mixed results. Procter & Gamble’s $600 Opte skin-care apparatus, for example, is shuttering its operations after hitting the market in 2020. First unveiled as a prototype at CES two years earlier, Opte initially received buzz as the winner of the CES 2020 Innovation Award, multiple Allure Best of Beauty awards and a Time Best Inventions award. 

Opte’s website states that the company has “decided to pause” its business, and its $99 serum refill kits will be available until January 15, 2023. The brand’s Instagram account is receiving comments from angry consumers who paid a hefty price for the gadget. One commenter noted they just bought the device last year, and another stated that “it isn’t right” to end the refills because “it’s an expensive tool.”

L’Oréal Group, which has been launching prototypes at CES since the founding of its Global Technology Incubator in 2012, has also brought previous years’ products to market. Its $299 YSL Beauty custom lipstick maker is listed on the brand’s site, but is currently not available for sale. Neutrogena’s MaskID system for customized sheet masks, meanwhile, was unveiled at CES in 2019 and set to la

The brand worked with creative agency Arts and Letters on the effort, which will appear on Instagram and YouTube. The spot portrays Martha Stewart using alcohol in everyday household items such as a disinfectant spray, meat tenderizer and pasta sauce. The ads will run on the social platforms until the end of January. The financial agreement between the parties was not disclosed.

The recognition of Dry January by the vodka brand comes as more marketers look to tap into and appeal to the sober lifestyle that has become more popular in recent years with the rise of wellness culture. Tito’s is in good company: Non-alcoholic brand Bare Zero Proof as well as alcohol brand Smirnoff have talked more about drinking in moderation in ad campaigns recently, according to previous reporting by Digiday and sister publication Modern Retail.

For Tito’s new campaign, the brand decided not to use its marketing dollars to advertise on TikTok due to the platform’s ban on alcohol promotion. Thus, the brand chose Instagram and YouTube for its Dry January marketing. “In an effort to kind of focus on both where the dollars are going to go and the impact of the campaign, we chose to focus on where we felt like we could make the biggest impact as a spirits brand,” said Berry.

It is unclear how much of Tito’s advertising budget is allocated to this campaign, as Berry declined to share overall budget specifics. According to Pathmatics data, the brand spent a little over $2.2 million so far on advertising efforts in 2022, higher than the $1.1 million it spent in 2021. The data also showed that the brand spent $329,000 on Instagram, $21,000 on Twitter and $204,000 on digital desktop displays throughout 2022. Berry said that the ad spend for the Dry January campaign was split evenly between Instagram and YouTube.

As for Martha Stewart’s ambassador role, Tito’s said Stewart aligns with the company’s core values and that her unique personality complements the brand’s image. “Martha Stewart is the queen of all household adventures, and it just felt like she would be the perfect choice to take on the role of bringing this to life,” said Berry.

In addition to the digital ads with Stewart, Tito’s is launching a limited-edition do-it-yourself January bottle-top attachment collection including the deodorizer, the flavorizer and the cleanerizer, all of which are household item bottle tops. All net proceeds from the sales of the bottle tops go to nonprofits that the brand has teamed up with, including Frontline Foods, Feed It Forward and Greater Good.

Martha Stewart has been a popular choice among brands for co-marketing initiatives in recent months due to her social media following and celebrity status. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters updated their social media strategy with Martha Stewart’s help, and water brand Liquid Death partnered with Martha Stewart as part of a Halloween campaign.

“Successful advertising must be unexpected, relevant, and social media shareability and Tito’s nails all three of these requirements,” said Allen Adamson, cofounder of Metaforce, a marketing collective and brand consultancy. “While Martha Stewart is spot-on for the upscale Vodka target market, the last celebrity you would expect to pitch a vodka, but a clever play off her core brand, a fun script combined with the relevant Dry January context makes this effort pay off for Tito’s.”