Data-Labor-Technology

Heineken is moving ad verification in-house, a shift in policy from previously relying on its agencies to police ads.

The beer brewer is running a global search for one ad verification technology it can run directly from all its markets, according to two separate executives with knowledge of the plan. Once the search ends, Heineken will have effectively brought its ad verification in-house, said one of the executives.

While Heineken isn’t the first advertiser to own the contract with ad-verification technologies, there are reasons why some have not done so. Advertisers are under more pressure than ever to show continual growth in return on investment, yet owning the contract potentially increases the cost of verification technology if the agency has preferred rates that have been secured because of the volume of business they run through a single vendor.

For advertisers like Heineken, however, the control over ad measurement is worth higher costs.

Working directly with verification companies means that Heineken can set its own benchmarks for brand safety, fraud and viewability. Previously, that would mean relying on its agencies to license the technologies that judge their own performance — in effect, marking their own homework.

Increasingly, marketers are aware that some agencies have “strategic” deals with certain ad-verification vendors that are designed to benefit the agency and the vendor, and not necessarily the brand themselves, said Anant Joshi, chief revenue officer at anti-fake-news startup Factmata. That gives agencies opportunities to mark up the verification fees, control the performance of campaigns and establish their own benchmarks.

But Heineken’s move to manage its own ad measurement isn’t just a case of keeping tabs on its agency. There’s a desire at the company, according to one source, to understand for themselves whether the online ecosystem is delivering against its needs and the best use of budget.

Heineken didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Heineken has two media-buying agencies: Dentsu Aegis and Starcom MediaVest. But having both agencies hold the same contract with the ad-verification business would’ve been tricky. “You can imagine the reluctance with agency B knowing that agency A has access to all of their buying activity and performance in those markets,” said a source. “It is, therefore, much better to centralize the license at the brand level to ensure ultimate flexibility across all markets.”

Matt Girling, the head of technology for media management firm Ebiquity’s European business, said if an advertiser does contract directly with an ad-verification company, the operational day-to-day management “can still sit with its agency or trading desk.” For some advertisers, said Girling, this has proved the optimal solution, delivering control back to the client while “recognizing the agency’s capability in its deployment in media buying.”

The post Trust but verify: Heineken plans to in-house ad verification appeared first on Digiday.

Portugal’s publisher alliance, delayed nearly a year, finally got off the ground in March, with six of the country’s top media companies.

Dubbed project Nonio, media companies Impresa, Global Media, Cofina, Media Capital, Publico and Renascença started requesting users to register their details to access their sites in March. Since then, Nonio has registered 500,000 people, amounting to 150,000 daily users. The goal is to reach 1 million daily users by August, at which point registration will be mandatory. Based on the conversion rate of 2 percent, publishers in the alliance say it’s on track to meet this target. Eventually, Nonio expects to have 4.5 million registered users, a sizable chunk of Portugal’s internet population of 6.5 million, according to Nonio publishers.

Getting people to pay for content in Portugal is tough, with just 4 percent of the population having an ongoing online news subscription, according to Reuters Institute Digital News Report. That compares to 15 percent in Norway.

With advertising as the main business model, publishers need to focus on their first-party data — and finding ways to grow it. By pooling audience data, Nonio plans to draw more ad dollars away from Facebook and Google, which account for two-thirds of the digital ad spending in Portugal.

Nonio had a slow start. The rollout was significantly delayed, which João Paulo Luz, digital director at Impresa, blamed on the tech hurdles of getting a single sign-on for six companies, 75 apps and over 70 sites. “It’s very tricky from a tech perspective,” he said.

Getting six different technical teams to follow the same set of processes takes time: Some of the publishers use customer management platform Gigya as their single sign-on platform, while others that don’t want to hand over responsibility to a third party have developed their own tech layer, requiring additional time and resources.

Luz is realistic that getting people to enter their details is a barrier. People felt sharing their data for use in advertising wasn’t a fair trade-off; instead, simple messages asking to register now because it will become mandatory later had higher conversion rates, said Luz. With the General Data Protection Regulation taking effect May 25, timing is in Nonio’s favor. “Everyone is discussing how different players are collecting data,” he said. The prospect of a new e-Privacy Regulation has also spurred publishers in Germany and France to explore getting audiences to log in to universal platforms.

Making sure the user experience is as smooth as possible is a key concern. Those who choose to sign in through their own social profiles only have to work through three steps, and Nonio collects age and gender data. If users register with the publisher, it takes around five steps. Some of the publishers are seeing less than 20 percent of users register through social logins, while others are seeing more than 40 percent, according to Luz.

Publishers with different and competing business models are often a sticking point in an alliance’s progress. For Nonio, four of the media companies have subscription products. Users who already pay for access won’t have to register.

Nonio hasn’t yet run an ad campaign using this data. To start, Nonio will segment audience data by age and gender only to keep the ad-fill rate high, and not to deter advertisers with higher unit prices for more granular targeting. Another upside for the industry is Nonio has created a set of standard formats, but publishers will use their own commercial teams to sell and decide their own prices.

“Everyone is scared of the future,” Luz said. “The only way to exist is to be stronger, and if we are together, we are stronger.”

The post Portugal’s top publishers band together to get users to register and pool data appeared first on Digiday.

Facebook is launching a new team dedicated to blockchain led by David Marcus, the former PayPal president who oversaw Facebook Messenger for four years and recently joined the board of Coinbase.

But Facebook’s blockchain story isn’t about payments, it’s about the social networking giant restoring consumer trust in light of its recent data scandal.

It’s entirely possible payments will be part of its blockchain strategy, which the company has said little about publicly other than that it’s meant to explore how blockchain technology could be beneficial to its business. But that doesn’t necessarily require blockchain. The likelier angle is that Facebook is looking to restore trust from consumers.

Read the full story on tearsheet.co

The post Facebook’s blockchain foray is about trust, not crypto appeared first on Digiday.

Jeremy Elias, creative director at Atlantic Re:think, The Atlantic’s branded content studio, was named Content Marketer of the Year at the 2018 Digiday Content Marketing Awards 

Elias is the creative lead for all of Re:think’s content programs. He has brought the content studio to new heights with new formats and technologies. He brought Atlantic Re:think’s first branded podcast, for Fidelity Investments, to fruition; the first use of Google Title Brush, for Porsche; the first use of responsive content, for Nest; Re:think’s first documentary, for HPE; and Re:think’s first fully-360 video campaign, for Siemens. The Atlantic launched Atlantic Re:think in 2013.

“It’s a great honor, but it’s almost a little bit embarrassing, because of the level of work that went in from a very large group of people,” said Elias about his win. “This is obviously just as much of a win for them as it is for me. It’s nice to know that the great work is being recognized, and we’re happy to be a part of this great evening.”

Others winners include Cards Against Humanity for Content Marketing Team of the Year for its campaign “Cards Against Humanity Saves America” and MM.La Fleur for Best Brand Publication for The M Dash, its digital publication.

“We’re a start-up,” said MM.La Fleur director of brand Tori Hoen. “We work so hard that we don’t really have time to pick our heads up and celebrate what we’re doing. This is a nice occasion to recognize others in our industry and celebrate with our team members.”

View the full list of winners below.

Content Marketer of the Year
Jeremy Elias, creative director, Atlantic Re:think

Content Marketing Team of the Year
Cards Against Humanity – Cards Against Humanity Saves America
In November, party game manufacturer Cards Against Humanity bought a plot of land on the U.S.-Mexico border and retained a law firm to exercise its right to eminent domain, aiming to fight President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall.

Best Content Marketing Agency
Portal A
West Coast-based digital studio Portal A creates branded and original entertainment content for Fortune 500 brands, including YouTube, Clorox, HBO and Disney.

Most Innovative Use of Content
Expedia Media Solutions and VisitBritain – “The Only Place You Need Go”
Tourism company VisitBritain wanted to draw attention beyond London with its #OMGB campaign targeted at U.S. audiences. With Expedia Media Solutions, travel-booking website Expedia’s advertising arm, VisitBritain aired a series of U.S. TV commercials featuring characters from five different destinations across Great Britain, who then acted as guides on interactive journeys to those locations.

Best In-House Content/Brand Studio
Refinery29
Refinery29’s branded content division expanded its client base and capabilities in 2017, bringing popular playhouse experience 29Rooms to Los Angeles for the first time and working on international projects for clients such as Venus and Google.

Best Agency/Client Collaboration
Verizon and Rogers & Cowan – “Dear Basketball”
Rogers & Cowan created buzz around the release of Kobe Bryant’s award-winning short film, “Dear Basketball,” by coordinating a social media campaign to coincide with his double jersey retirement. The campaign drove viewers to Verizon’s digital media properties, including Go90 and Yahoo Sports.

Best Brand/Influencer Collaboration
Periscope and Trolli – “Most Valuable Beard” series
James Harden, Trolli brand ambassador and Houston Rockets player, was a candidate for NBA MVP in the 2016-17 season. Trolli steered the social conversation using Most Valuable Beard cards, which were digital trading cards featuring artwork and facts about Harden.

Best Experiential Marketing Campaign
Refinery29 – 29Rooms 2017
After holding fun-house experience 29Rooms exclusively in New York City for the past three years, millennial women’s publisher Refinery29 launched it in Los Angeles in 2017, and a location in San Francisco is set to open on June 21.

Best New Product or Launch Campaign
Periscope and Trolli – Weirdly Woven
Trolli created a clothing line with accessories and apparel maker Mokuyobi Threads, leading to over half of the resulting Weirdly Woven collection selling out in the first quarter.

Best Use of Native Advertising/Sponsored Content
Courageous Studio and Volvo – “Racing the Sun”
CNN’s branded content studio, Courageous Studio, created an experiential campaign for client Volvo that centered around the August 2017 solar eclipse.

Best Brand Publication – Print and/or Digital
MM.LaFleur – The M Dash
As part of its push to connect with customers in a way that speaks to their experiences as professional women, women’s clothing brand MM.LaFleur created The M Dash, a weekly digital magazine that focuses on how women present themselves at work.

Best Branded Content Site – B2B
Dell Inc. – Perspectives
Launched in September 2017, Perspectives is Dell Inc.’s brand publishing hub that hosts lightly branded thought leadership content and “Trailblazers,” Dell Inc.’s podcast.

Best Branded Content Site – B2C
Amazon and Acura – “This Is What We Make”
“This Is What We Make” is a 45-minute documentary film that follows Amazon Launchpad entrepreneurs as they learn from thought leaders, including Acura’s vp and gm Jon Ikeda, and try to launch their products to Amazon customers.

Best Branded Content Series
WSJ. Custom Studios, National Geographic and Star Alliance – #StarAlliance20
To celebrate the anniversary of airline alliance Star Alliance, WSJ. Custom Studios and National Geographic created a series of short films about the places served by Star Alliance’s airlines, from Thailand to the Arctic.

Most Original Email Campaign
Outsell and DSplus – 2018 Toyota C-HR launch campaign
To raise awareness of the 2018 Toyota C-HR in a competitive SUV market, Toyota employed a three-tier email campaign that raised awareness of the vehicle, then reminded people who opened the email to schedule test drives at their local Toyota dealership.

Most Original Use of Facebook
Oxygen and Grow – “The Pursuit”
Oxygen rebranded as a true crime network in summer 2017 and wanted to capture fans’ attention on social media. Grow used Facebook 360 video to create an immersive experience where Facebook users investigated the crime, analyzed the evidence and caught the killer.

Most Original Use of Twitter
RT – #1917LIVE
To educate its audience on the interconnecting causes of the Russian Revolution, Russian broadcaster RT created a live-tweeting event, #1917Live, by imagining the Twitter presences of key players in the revolution such as Nicholas II, Lenin, Alexander Kerensky and others.

Best Use of Instagram
Disney Consumer Products & Interactive Media and HP – “Club Mickey Mouse”
“Club Mickey Mouse” is the digital reboot of the classic “Mickey Mouse Club” series, which Disney and HP’s Sprocket Photo Printer introduced to a new generation by creating music videos across Facebook and Instagram that charted the performers’ journeys.

Best Use of Snapchat
Marriott International – “Six Days, Seven Nights”
To reach young travelers on a platform where they already spend a lot of time, Marriott Rewards created an episodic Snapchat series, “Six Days, Seven Nights,” which followed four influencers as they explored different cities, including Berlin and Seoul.

Best Use of Video
Havas Media Group and Dubai Tourism – “Imagine Dubai”
By setting the video for Imagine Dragons’ single “Thunder” in Dubai, Dubai Tourism highlighted what a vacation in the city could look like for a new generation of travelers as part of its push to position itself as a travel destination and attract 20 million visitors by 2020.

Best Use of Real-Time Streaming Video
Muh-tay-zik Hof-fer and Audi – “Think Faster: The World’s Fastest AMA”
To launch the Audi Sport vehicle as a sub-brand, agency Muh-tay-zik Hof-fer created the first moving AMA series, “Think Faster,” which streamed on Reddit and YouTube, and featured celebrities such as Issa Rae and Elizabeth Banks.

Best User-Generated Content
Wattpad, Tongal and Lionsgate – #WonderTheMovie campaign
To promote and drive awareness of the theatrical release of the film “Wonder,” Lionsgate launched a writing contest asking Wattpad users to submit 500-word stories inspired by the movie’s #ChooseKind theme. Then, film creation community Tongal turned the winning entries into digital short films.

Most Influential Brand Community
National Geographic – Chasing Genius
Designed to crowdsource solutions to critical issues, the Chasing Genius platform encouraged people to submit one-minute videos describing their ideas for a chance to win $25,000 to take their visions further. National Geographic created a minidocumentary for each of the four winning ideas and 20-plus pieces of digital content such as quizzes, articles, galleries, interviews and social media content.

Most Effective/Measurable Campaign
Edelman and Adobe – Make The Cut
To demonstrate the capabilities of its video editing software, Premiere Pro, Adobe worked with Imagine Dragons, challenging video makers to create a music video for the band’s song “Believer.”

Best Interactive Content Piece or Series
Giant Spoon, Spotify and Netflix – “Stranger Things” Spotify playlists
To capture the cultural phenomenon of Netflix special “Stranger Things,” Spotify created playlists for each major character and then used data from Spotify listeners’ profiles to match them with a character based on their music tastes.

Best Content Marketing Tech Platform
Pressboard
Pressboard is a platform where marketers can purchase sponsored content spots on websites. After operating as a managed service for three years, Pressboard opened its platform in 2018 to marketers as self-service.

The post Atlantic Re:think’s Jeremy Elias wins Content Marketer of the Year at the Digiday Content Marketing Awards appeared first on Digiday.

McCann New York all but dominated The One Club for Creativity’s 45th annual One Show awards tonight. The IPG network picked up eight Gold Pencils, five of which went to the agency’s most-recognizable work, Fearless Girl. McCann New York took home 11 One Show Pencils in total, tying for first with BBDO New York, which…

California is poised to become the first U.S. state to require solar panels on nearly all new homes.

Payments are moving into the digital sphere and innovators are spinning transportation forward with self-driving technology, jetpacks and more. Innovators at WSJ’s Future of Everything Festival talk about the consequences, good and bad.

MDC Partners experiential agency TEAM has bolstered its multicultural offerings with the acquisition of Houston-based full-service multicultural experiential agency 20.10, which will now operate as a division of TEAM. TEAM currently has a client roster that includes MillerCoors, Bacardi, Spotify, Facebook, Mini and Lavazza. The acquisition of 20.10 is designed to help both agencies keep…

This morning, Congressional Democrats are, as CNET describes, throwing a “legislative Hail Mary” in order to save net neutrality. STARTING SOON: We’re forcing a vote to save #netneutrality. The countdown clock starts now. Watch: https://t.co/VDfpM5YReR pic.twitter.com/4lRcllpXka — Senate Democrats (@SenateDems) May 9, 2018 In an attempt to overturn the Federal Communication Commission (FCC’s) net neutrality…

From buses and trains to cafes and lecture halls, peeking at what others are doing on their mobile devices is a temptation few can resist; ‘They aren’t embarrassed’