Proving just how volatile the ad-tech business is, Audience Science is shuttering less than a month after it lost longtime client Procter & Gamble. The news, which Business Insider broke Thursday night, reported that the ad-tech firm had nine offices in multiple countries, including the U.S., the U.K., China, and Brazil. The company’s CEO Bill Gossman confirmed that Audience Science has curtailed worldwide operations, AdExchanger reported. The company has about 200 employees. P&G ended its relationship with Audience Science for programmatic ad buying in March. The consumer package goods giant hired Neustar, which has a data management platform and a handful of demand-side platforms, to replace Audience Science. P&G, which appears to have been the firm’s largest client, shifted its overall media business to Omnicom’s Hearts & Science less than a year ago.
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner Mary Meeker delivered her annual download on the biggest Internet trends at Recode’s Code Conference. Here are a few of Meeker’s key findings: Mobile advertising growth is increasing: Mobile advertising growth increased 22% from 20% in 2015. Internet ad spend in the U.S. reached $73 billion, with nearly $43 million coming from mobile. Spending on desktop ads decreased a bit -- this has fluctuated between $30 million and $38 million for the last five to six years. Smartphone sales are slowing: While mobile ad growth may be rising, smartphone sales are sluggish. Meeker noted that from 2015 to 2016, overall shipments of smartphones grew by just 3%, down from 10% from 2014 to 2015. In addition, smartphone user-base growth slowed, growing just 12% in 2016 compared with 25% the year prior. As of 2016, around 2.8 billion people owned smartphones. Digital media usage continues to grow: The amount of time adults spent with digital media in 2016 grew year-over-year, with the average time increasing to 5.6 hours a day—up from 5.4 hours in 2015. Of that, mobile accounted for 3.1 hours (increasing from 2.8 in 2015) while desktop usage remained flat at 2.2 hours. Internet ad spend eclipsed TV ad spend: Meeker found that global ad spend in 2016 for both the Internet and TV hit about $180 billion, with internet spending expected to grow faster than TV in 2017. Google and Facebook accounting for 85% of all growth in internet ad spend in the U.S. Voice-activated devices are popular: The total number of consumers using voice-enabled assistants such as the Amazon Echo suite is growing. In Q4 2016, Echo had more than 8 million users, a figure that increased to 11 million in Q1 2017. Incentive-based ads vs. preroll: Incentive-based and skippable ads were favored by consumers over other formats, with mobile-app pop-ups and pre-roll ads being the least desirable.
Define “annoying” digital advertising. That’s what Google needs to figure out. One person’s “annoying” is another’s “entertaining” is another’s indifference. Much of this discussion comes with the growing consumer ad-blocker issue -- which has given publishers headaches. Google has told publishers it will be adding an ad blocker to its Chrome browser next year to filter out the most annoying ads. Google is doing this -- with a long lead time issue -- for publishers hoping they will use less intrusive advertising formats. Users who have ad blockers will be encouraged by publishers to disable them or pay for access through a new program called Google Contributor. What types of digital media have annoying messages? For one, Google says they are those you seemingly can’t get rid of on your screen -- say videos ads that immediately start after visiting a site where users need to wait, say 10-seconds, before being able to X out the offending ad content. Google says is offering publishers -- affected by ad blockers that customers use -- another way to monetize their content. Google, along with other digital media leaders like Facebook, realize they have make a stand about content -- perhaps all content -- fake news, advertising, and yes, even some straight ahead content. Now, to be fair, there is a lot of annoying traditional TV commercials that viewers can’t nix, either. Watching live, linear TV means no way to X-out that content (though muting is an option); time-shifted viewing is, of course, a different matter. But ask yourself this: Does TV do a better job at vetting TV advertising content? At the networks, there has always been a standards and practices units -- especially when it comes to consumer-product messaging. Seems Google and Facebook are looking to step up in this area. Eliminating annoying digital advertising -- and digital advertising formats -- will hopefully signal to viewers that big digital media players mean business. Consumers should put down their arms — their ad-blocker arms. What publishers don’t want, ultimately, is to deny potential consumers access to their platforms. That does not curry any favors with anyone -- including advertisers.
At this moment, there is a popular online platform facing an advertising crisis. Fueled by both user-generated and premium content, this platform generates incredible engagement numbers with a massive audience, but is struggling amid fears that brand messages are lining up alongside unsafe and unsavory content. Obviously, I’m referring to YouTube, but if you’ve been around the digital ad space long enough, you’ve heard this argument before. It was top of mind with many brands and agencies less than six years ago, when many were hesitant to buy inventory next to user-generated videos. Safety has always been an issue, and it will continue to be a problem if brands and agencies aren’t proactive. We saw some choose not to manage the problem until it necessitated dire action. This is the result of a few industry trends. Programmatic technology and automation swept through the industry in the past half-decade, shifting the buying focus to audience while diminishing the importance of content adjacency. Brands are so eager to find the “right” or “best” consumers that they give less thought than ever to the kind of content the ad appears alongside. The current panic over YouTube is what happens when that pendulum swings all the way to one side. The tricky thing will be avoiding swinging back too far in the other direction, which we’re already seeing. P&G CMO Mark Pritchard, speaking at the 4As Transformation conference in early April, said that he has a “zero-tolerance standard when it comes to brand safety." That’s certainly a good intention, but it’s a tad extreme. While many brands may strive for 100% safety in a digital buy, it’s unrealistic and doesn’t acknowledge the complexity and performance of the tools used for targeting and the scale marketers demand. An extreme stance on brand safety often leads marketers to ignore the granular control they can take and instead cast a wide net, cutting out large swaths of inventory. In the end, the lower the tolerance for safety, the more challenging it is for brands to achieve their reach and frequency goals. The truth is, while brands may not necessarily want to be associated with certain kinds of content, it’s consumers who actually seek that content out. If they see an ad before the content, they may not care, and if the brand doesn’t care, that may actually be a winning scenario. The best solution falls somewhere in between the two extremes. Brands can’t adopt austere stances toward brand safety, lest they give up any notion of scale, automation and efficiency. Nor can they continue to ignore it all together. They need to pull back from a totally audience-centric buying approach that only uses rudimentary site blacklists, and instead lean more on page-level contextual signals for baking brand safety back into the buying process. A deeper analysis of the unique context and the sentiment of the content is crucial, and unfortunately unavailable from older keyword-based solutions. Brands need to develop customized definitions of “safety,” too. There is no blanket definition of “safe” content that all brands will agree to, so brands need to actually create their own unique strategies. This is not all that different from the ways brands buy programmatic media now, where they define the value of each impression based on their campaign goals. The future of media and creative strategy is a combination of increased relevance derived through machine learning and other audience cues. A continued reliance on pursuing an audience at all costs – no matter where they are on the Web – will lead to additional examples of brand messages aligning with undesirable content. As brands outline their safety strategies, they need to think of the contextual tools they have at their disposal and consider how to set unique, customized parameters appropriate for their brand and industry. Only by applying and constantly monitoring those strategies can advertisers truly take control of online brand safety.
I am not a psychologist, although I claim to my kids that a lifetime of experience gives me insights that ought to be at least considered (if not accepted without question!) But you need not have any smarts at all to see that Melania hates her husband as much as most of the country does -- and probably for all of the same reasons (and many closed-door ones that we can only speculate about). Only a woman with an ironclad prenup that would cost her dearly stays with a man who brags about how easily and frequently he grabs other women by the crotch, or walks in on undressed beauty pageant contestants who feel powerless to protest. And who tends to treat her in particular like an afterthought, even though the whole world is watching. I have no real empathy for Melania, since she used her model good looks to appeal to a man who is clearly a narcissistic psychopath, but who has what appears to be a nice balance sheet. I'm sure she didn't get what she bargained for. Certainly she never expected to be the First Lady. Most in her place have spent years participating in the political process with their candidate husbands (or themselves), and have a clue what is expected and acceptable. She had none of that experience. She did what little was asked of her in the campaign, probably thinking like the rest of us, "This will drive itself off a cliff." I expect at NO time did she imagine that she would be the wife of the most powerful man in the world -- and all the 24/7 scrutiny that comes with it. You could tell by the shocked, beyond-the-void expression on her face when she appeared on TV during the campaign, post-election and especially during the inauguration festivities that she was thinking (in Slovene), "What in the HELL have I gotten myself into?" It's one thing to be a fashion model or get married in a $200,000 dress or even be the umpteenth wife of The Donald, but being measured in the press nearly every day for every little flip of the hand is a whole new ballgame. I suspect that Melania has lived in a fairly controlled environment serving at the behest of Himself, with little opportunity to develop or express her own opinions about matters that now threaten to drown her family. One gets the impression her marching orders consist pretty much of "Shut up and stay away out of the public spotlight." And that pisses her off. Not only does she have to occasionally see The Donald nude, but she has to agree with him and stroke his massive ego. That has to be simply wretched (as wretched as life can be in the penthouse of Trump Tower) if you are trying to self-actualize as an adult American woman. Vanity Fair wrote in an April story: "Traditionally, presidents have at least made a show of having healthy, happy marriages. Even the Clintons, despite marital troubles, appeared to have moments of genuine affection, humor, and bonding. But from almost the first moments of Inauguration Day, during the ceremonial arrival at the White House, it seemed something was amiss with the Trumps.... Despite assurances from her spokesperson, Stephanie Grisham, that Melania is embracing the role of First Lady, most signs point to a distinct lack of interest." Someone close to Trump this week told CNN: "Trump is not loyal, except to his family. He can be solicitous and ingratiating. But if there's a moment you are not useful, forget it, you're done. No matter what you have done for him." Consider: Rudy Giuliani, Paul Manafort, Chris Christie. Trump's first marriage lasted 15 years; the second, six. Melania is on borrowed time. How long before she hits that list?
Programmatic advertising emerged as an automated way to buy and sell ad inventory through exchanges that connect advertisers to publishers. The exchanges started with search, but today they cover all channels ranging from display, social, and mobile to television, radio and out-of-home. As the ability to target audiences via programmatic became more apparent, marketers enthusiastically adopted it. In 2016, U.S. programmatic digital display ad spend alone was estimated to reach $22.10 billion, according to eMarketer. That’s a jump of nearly 40% during the previous year, and represents 67% of all U.S. digital display ad spend. One factor driving the success of programmatic is the ability to select the audience you think will be most interested in your ad, and then use dynamic creative to deliver an impression designed specifically for them. Art And Science Need To Come Together The analytics and data management teams are often the instigators of data-driven advertising. They’re the experts at looking at data and creating core audience segments. However, in order to drive business results from digital efforts, they need to disseminate that data to other teams. Planning is a continual process –- with feedback loops between data and creative. Marketers, designers, and copywriters must remain true to their creative vision, but be flexible enough to react to data and adapt in real-time. Gathering insights from various data sources and uniting agencies and partners throughout the campaign process may lead to growing pains as you make changes to your process and organizational structure, but the end result is smarter, more effective advertising. Programmatic Boosts Creative Efforts Programmatic was initially known primarily as an easier, cheaper way to buy media. But now you need to support programmatic creative as well. The ability to compare creative performance in a real-time A/B test environment -- and action those insights immediately -- improves engagement and conversion performance. Cost savings are a key advantage in programmatic, but marketers are more interested in a tool that empowers them to combine ad execution with the needs of the modern media environment. Key benefits of programmatic advertising include audience targeting, managing and optimizing multichannel campaigns in real-time, and reaching consumers across their purchasing journeys. Use Both Sides Of Your Brain In today’s age of smart data, with predictive analytics and real-time personalization, marketing has moved from a right-brain profession to one that encompasses both sides. The key is to take the plethora of data at your disposal and find the meaning needed to build a complete picture of each customer. Creatives have always wanted to know more about their customers –- but without data, creative insights often come only from intuition. Today, great campaigns are fueled by ideas, data, emotion and information. Some argue that programmatic advertising leaves little room for creativity, but the human element remains essential. The best advertising has always been simple: great imagery that elicits an emotional connection, a few pointed words or a tagline to tell the story, and a strong call to action. Retarget Customers Who Already Know You Once you can mass-produce ads, you still need to quickly test and optimize the creative components to improve campaign performance. Usually a customer stops by your site and one of three things happens: they don’t buy anything, they place something in a shopping cart but abandon it, or they buy only an entry-level product. Retargeting is highly effective and a no-brainer source of quick revenue. On other Web and social sites, you serve ads with products that customers viewed, or even put in their carts on other sites previously. Or sometimes you will up-sell and show them premium products you think they’d like. In addition to retargeting, you want to acquire customers who have never visited your site -- but you may know little or nothing about them. You can use your audience or data management platform to find people who look like the customers you already have and create segments based on their attributes. For example, one segment could be high-income luxury vacationers or value-focused families with children. Data Will Help You Become A Better Creative Person Programmatic advertising brings order to the chaos of holding relevant, one-to-one conversations with millions of customers and prospects. But for creatives, producing ads to feed the machine can feel like slicing and dicing the big idea. Although some creatives see the modular, data-driven approach as an affront to their art, programmatic is just getting started. The goal should be to maintain a high level of creativity, but to use technology to automate the execution and provide valuable learnings in real-time. By merging insightful data with imaginative design and copy, you can pull new audiences into your brand story. With programmatic advertising capabilities, you can manage technology, grow channels, analyze customer data, develop creative, and effectively reach audiences.
Data technology, like rising water, has flooded online advertising — but many can’t swim. It’s time to get serious, folks — because now, data is not just bits or attributes, it’s the bread and butter, and the story. It’s competitive advantage, it’s audience definition, it’s consumer understanding and media efficiency. It wins elections, and it builds brands, but the concepts and vocabulary are foreign to many decision-makers. The situation reminds me of the American ex-pats I knew in Brussels. If you moved to a French neighborhood, the shopkeepers would speak English to you for about six months. Then the honeymoon was over. Your failure to learn French meant you had learned Dutch, or no new language at all. The shopkeepers would stop speaking English to you. You had declared your dismissiveness by failure to engage with their culture, and they reciprocated. Turnabout is fair play in any language. Your window to learn to speak “data” is limited. After a while, the decks will be rife with unsubstantiated claims, and you might not know what questions to ask. And the deeper the BS becomes, the more it behooves brands to dig in. Data is more than attributes and opinions now; it’s the underlying support for most conclusions. Look what the flood of content has done to the concept of “facts. . Related: One of Voltaire’s biographers said that when Voltaire became schooled in rhetoric he could prove anything, but consequently believed nothing. Data, in aggregate, is numerological rhetoric. Anyone can prove anything, but what can you believe? We don’t even have our nouns right. “Data” is confused for “analytics,” but analytics is not a product, or a job, or an outcome, or a benefit, or a differentiator. It’s an ill-defined activity having something to do with math, but not much. Invoking “data,” in any situation, opens a can of worms because it carries, inexplicably, a mantle of truth. Somehow, “data” takes moral high ground because it suggests quantitative truth, but the buck stops when you take action. How can you develop enough confidence to take action if anyone can prove anything? If marketing were “The Gong Show,” any use of the word “data” would result in the performer being thrown off the stage. (For those of you who may never have seen it, “The Gong Show" was a tacky TV talent show in which losers were thrown off the stage when a celebrity judge slammed a beater into a giant Chinese gong. I’m not kidding.) We have data! It will make your ROI go up! Gong! Data are indeed the pillars of steel in the construction of truth, but you can build an abomination, or confuse steel for aluminum. Either way, it can be a disaster. A Trip to the Market The reliability and validity of data, and the conclusions derived from it, are on the verge of controlling differentiation in a $500 billion marketplace — media, globally. Now take a deep breath. You can buy segments (i.e., data) of the U.S. population by income or age, propensity to buy a Buick, ownership of a luxury car, viewership of almost any TV show, Chinese language skills, intent to buy video games, and on and on. LiveRamp’s catalog, for example, specifies whether each dataset was observed, inferred, derived, or whatever. That’s the way it should be, but faced with those choices, how do you chose? Are brands equipped to choose, or will you now, confounded, leave those choices to your agency, or the IT department, or a data vendor? Just remember: Bad data choices make media costs go up -- and yield, however you define it, go down. The art sits in the connection between known consumer attributes and the moment of receptivity. The brand manager may be the only person who can construct the right audience (for top or bottom of funnel) from the cornucopia of raw material now available. Someone once said that engineers make something from something, but artists make something from nothing. Brands: You are the artists, you are starting from nothing, and data is your new palette.