Despite their growing importance in the real-time media trading marketplace, agency trading desks are one of the least understood parts of the advertising technology ecosystem, especially among the stakeholders that may count most: marketers. In what is believed to be the first study of its kind, Advertiser Perceptions Inc. has begun releasing findings of its first “Ad Tech Study,” which finds that a third of marketers either have no or very little awareness of agency trading desks. The study, which is based on a survey of 345 advertising execs, ad technology suppliers and investors in December, found that even ad agencies lag the rest of the ad technology industry in terms of their familiarity with agency trading desks. Only 77% of ad agency executives said they were very or somewhat familiar with trading desks, vs. 79% of media sellers. The only advertising technology category generating lower overall awareness than agency trading desks, was so-called Supply-Side Platforms, or SSPs -- companies such as Rubicon Project, Pubmatic and AdMeld that help publishers manage and optimize the supply of their biddable media impressions in programmatic media-buying marketplace. Overall, 64% of respondents said they were very or somewhat familiar with SSPs. Among agency executives, awareness of SPPs fell to 58%, ironically trailing the awareness of marketers (63%) by five points. “There’s so much noise in the ad tech marketplace that it's creating a lot of confusion,” says Randy Cohen, a partner at API, which conducted the new ad technology survey as a means of “benchmarking” the awareness of various entities in the technology supply chain. He said API was motivated to begin tracking ad technology suppliers because of the rapid invention and reinvention of technology suppliers and the overall confusion some observers feel when looking at things like Lumascapes infamous chart illustrating the complexity of it. One of the problems, Cohen said, was that new and emerging ad technology suppliers often create new jargon in an attempt to differentiate themselves from other suppliers. “If you think about it, I think the tech companies are marketing to themselves and to investors rather than to agencies and marketers,” Cohen said, adding that API will conduct periodic studies to measure changes in awareness and sentiment of various components of the ad technology sector. API is best known for its tracking studies of advertiser and agency awareness and sentiment of ad-supported media suppliers, including TV networks, magazines and digital publishers. Not surprisingly, the Ad Tech Study shows the greatest overall awareness was generated by the oldest segments of the ad technology industry: ad nets. Overall, 95% of respondents were very/somewhat familiar with ad networks. Among agency executives (99%) and marketers (100%), there was almost no lack of awareness. Very/Somewhat Familiar With Agency Trading Desks Total 76% Marketers 67% Agency Executives 77% Buy-Side 74% Sell-Side 79% Investors 78% Source: Advertiser Perceptions Inc.’s 2012 Ad Tech Study.
After announcing a partnership with OpenX Software last week, AdTruth vice president and general manager James Lamberti said the deal marks a new chapter for mobile RTB. “We are past the starter days,” he said. “We are moving into the next phase of growth.” Lamberti believes that the second chapter of mobile RTB will be highlighted by the realization that marketers can’t just spam consumers with ads. He said, “We’ve got to become very intelligent as an industry…and recommit to the value between us and the consumers.” OpenX CRO Jason Fairchild offered his own insight as to where the mobile RTB space could go next. “The next chapter is going to be about two things,” he said. “One is about scalable selling of mobile ad inventory within the context of a scalable marketplace. The second thing, and this is also true in display, is that advertisers need to be able to reach targeted audiences.” The biggest question surrounding mobile RTB has been targeting. “No one has fully cracked the nut yet,” said Fairchild, “but this is an important step.” The device recognition that will now be available on OpenX’s RTB platform will certainly help with targeting audiences, but it doesn’t answer all of the questions. Fairchild says, “I think the jury is out” on whether or not the targeting question can be answered. Lamberti pointed out that consumers are starting to speak back to advertisers by not responding to what they deem is spam. That’s an issue mobile marketers still have to solve, but improved audience targeted should keep them on the right path. Another issue in mobile (and advertising in general) is the touchy subject of privacy. But as Data and Targeting Insider reported on January 30, Lamberti says last week’s deal addresses a “privacy-by-design approach,” which gives the consumers a layer of anonymity. Whether or not the first chapter is truly complete, it’s nice to feel like the next phase has begun. As for the rest of mobile RTB’s story, Lamberti believes that programmatic buying “will dominate mobile in a way that didn’t even dominate desktop.” Fairchild was more reserved in his opinion on the future, saying, “It’s a hugely growing category. In order for it to be a success in advertising, a few things need to happen, and it’s starting to happen.”
Microsoft's search engine Bing might resemble a fast-moving train this year, as the search engine lines up a variety of product launches -- as many as one a week, depending on the country, Bing GM David Pann told MediaPost. Bing will make a foray in click-to-call ads geared toward specific market segments in a few months, with help from the Windows mobile team. The product road map in the future leads to click-to-call video ads that will allow consumers to contact merchants through Skype technology, depending on the client installed on the phone. Pann said Bing and Skype teams are working together to build call metering and phone-number generation features. Advertisers will have the ability to provision 800 numbers within Bing ads. Microsoft, once known as a 1,000-pound gorilla impossible to move, has become an agile beast. An accelerated product release cycle underscores Pann's enthusiasm for a long list of new features and services. "We are probably releasing somewhere in the world one new capability weekly," he said, noting that the engineering team is "designing features and capabilities advertisers want." The company continues to fine-tune the offering with a handful of large advertisers. Bing's product ads offering will launch this year and look similar to Google product listing ads. The plans to test Bing PLAs on mobile devices in specific vertical markets mean slightly different formats depending on the device, Pann said. The change in thinking drove higher market share for Bing in 2012. The company experienced declines in 2011, but managed to grab paid-search ad share last year. In fact, marketers spent 54% more on Bing in 2012, on 39% higher click-volume growth and 11% higher cost per clicks, according to Rimm-Kaufman Group. In December, Microsoft Sites rose 0.1 percentage points to 16.3% organic search market share, according to comScore. Bing Ads wants to enable in 15 minutes what takes 45 minutes in Google AdWords, making it easier to participate in the marketplace, Pann said. Today the platform allows marketers to upload campaigns from Google AdWords in a read-only format -- but in time, a Bing Ads feature will synchronize changes such as description, word or price. If the campaign changes in Bing Ads, marketers will have the option to alter the campaign in Google AdWords. Pann also touched on the Yahoo and Bing search alliance, explaining that Microsoft's revenue per search guarantee payment to Yahoo ends in March. On a recent earnings call with analysts, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said the company remains excited and happy to work with Microsoft, but expects "modest headwind from the combined impact of anticipated loss of the Microsoft RPS guarantee and the closure of operations in Korea."
They didn't win the Brand Bowl. Nor did they steal the No. 1 spot for USA Today's Ad Meter. But Oreo certainly stood out when it came to social TV integration. For those who missed the game, Oreo had two big social plays. First, they were the only advertiser to incorporate Instagram into their spot -- and really, to encourage true user-generated content: they invited viewers to submit Instagram photos, which they then turned into sculptures made of either creme or cookies. The result? 36,000 Instagram followers, and some impressive cultural artifacts, to boot. Their second -- and probably most buzz-generating -- win was a tweeted image that, within minutes of the already-infamous blackout, read: “You can still dunk in the dark.” Current retweet count: 14,439 -- and climbing. In the midst of the most tweeted-about moment, they broke through the noise and grabbed both reach and engagement (and praise). What can we learn from Oreo's impressive success? 1. Think assets, not just attention. As Bonin Bough alluded to in an article before the ad's debut, Oreo was looking to rethink the “…30 second TV spot not only as a creative end-point, but also as a creative starting point.” Oreo didn't just air a spot with a fleeting hashtag -- it gained followers for its just-launched Instagram channel; it created artifacts that can continue to be tweeted and shared; it built a platform that can grow and evolve over time. The ad, and their real-time responses, were investments -- not merely one-time, attention-grabbing plays. 2. The second screen isn’t second fiddle (and neither is the third or fourth, either, for that matter). Hashtags are the lifeblood of real-time, post-first-screen social engagement. Yet they're often attached as an afterthought. Oreo took a different approach. They leveraged their #cremethis and #cookiethis hashtags as drivers of social content co-creation, not friendly passengers along for the digital ride. Was the implementation perfect? Perhaps not. The call-to-action toward the end of the commercial could have used a little more clarity and explicit direction. But that's beside the point: Oreo made their TV creative the conduit for a multiscreen engagement experience. (So did Old Spice's “Smell Like a Man, Man” campaign, for that matter.) And the brand invested heavily in real-time, in-game content creation on both Twitter and Instagram. This is a trend that's here to stay, and more marketers would do well to capitalize on it. 3. Be ready to react in real-time. Really. “Real-time” is a term we throw around a lot these days. And it's an important one. But there's real-time as concept, and then there's real-time as practice. On game day, Oreo demonstrated the latter. According to this BuzzFeed article, Oreo and its agency 360i had all the right people in the room to approve content quickly. Agency creatives, brand executives, and presumably, social media managers (and perhaps legal and other stakeholders) were all ready to act at a moment's notice. And they did -- 14,439 retweets later, I'm sure they don't regret the decision. Because Oreo didn’t see the second screen as secondary, they invested time and money into real-time content creation -- and, along with other savvy, quick-thinking brands like Audi and VW, reaped the benefits as a result. Thinking about the bigger picture One way to look at Oreo's win is that they capitalized on a broader spectrum of content, from planned (the 30-second spot) to planned and reactive (the Instagram responses) to fully reactive (the blackout tweet). When brands capitalize on the full spectrum of content, they can truly reap the benefits that an opportunity like social TV -- especially on a night like the Super Bowl -- presents. So when you're thinking about your brand marketing strategy for 2013, don't separate campaign components into unnecessarily disconnected compartments. Instead, think about your different pieces of content -- and the different screens upon which they will appear -- as part of one integrated ecosystem. Each tactic has its own important purpose. Each can, when seen in an interconnected context, contribute to broader business- and brand-building goals. Then, when your full strategy comes together -- when you're executing great first-screen creative, and multi-screen social engagement, and real-time, culturally relevant content -- you might feel like you've just won the Super Bowl.
Do-not-track isn't just for desktops, the Federal Trade Commission said on Friday. Mobile platform companies -- including Apple, Google and Blackberry -- also should develop a do-not-track mechanism that would "prevent an entity from developing profiles about mobile users," the FTC recommended in a new report about mobile privacy. "A DNT setting placed at the platform level could give consumers ... a way to control the transmission of information to third parties," the report states. "Offering this setting or control through the platform will allow consumers to make a one-time selection rather than having to make decisions on an app-by-app basis." The report adds that apps relying on behavioral advertising "would remain free to engage potential customers in a dialogue to explain the value of behavioral tracking and obtain consent to engage in such tracking." Ad networks also should "work with platforms to ensure implementation of an effective DNT system for mobile," the report says. "This collaboration is important to ensure that consumer choice is honored.” Do-not-track is just one recommendation in the 36-page FTC staff report, titled "Mobile Privacy Disclosures: Building Trust Through Transparency." The FTC also says that app developers should disclose data collection practices before gathering information, and obtain opt-in consent before collecting sensitive data -- including financial or health information. "For instance," the report says, "if an app collects blood glucose information or shares it with third parties, the app developer should provide the consumer with a just-in-time disclosure of that fact and obtain affirmative express consent prior to the initial collection or sharing." The report comes the same day that Chairman Jon Leibowitz announced his resignation. Leibowitz has made online privacy a priority for the FTC, and has repeatedly urged the ad industry to implement a do-not-track mechanism that would allow consumers to avoid all online behavioral advertising. Efforts to create such a mechanism for desktops moved forward in 2011, when Mozilla and other browser developers began offering do-not-track headers. Those headers signal to publishers and ad networks that users don't want to be tracked, but don't actually prevent tracking. The initiative hit a roadblock last year after the Internet standards group World Wide Web Consortium was unable to agree on standards for how to interpret the headers. One of the main sticking points centers on whether ad networks and analytics companies should be able to continue collecting data from consumers who have turned on a do-not-track command. Many online ad companies say that they should be able to do so, as long as they don't use the information for behavioral advertising purposes. Leibowitz told reporters today that he still hopes that the industry implements a do-not-track system in the near future.