Technology is evolving faster than we can blink and it’s becoming clear that it’s time creativity and control were reclaimed. As monopolies and walled gardens dominate and limit access, the balance between innovation and content creation is more crucial than ever. In a rapidly changing ecosystem,  publishers are exploring strategies to navigate an open internet increasingly challenged by distribution obstacles and signal loss.

Once a beacon of free and open access, the open web faces an identity crisis. Media companies that once thrived on direct consumer connection are struggling with the rise of walled gardens. Marketers, for their part, acknowledge their role in building these silos as they increasingly funnel media budgets into tech giants. Reclaiming control of data, creative strategies, and audience engagement is critical to preserving the future for both sides.

Publishers should not look at these shifts as threats but as opportunities to develop new strategies that align with consumer behavior and market demands. 

From the rise of social-driven search and FAST channels to Google’s ongoing antitrust trial, ProgIO spoke to many of the challenges facing publishers today. As the industry continues to push for transparency, fairness, and a more open ecosystem, the path forward depends on innovating while maintaining trust with consumers and each other. 

Here are our top takeaways from Day 1.

Breaking Free: How Marketers Can Reclaim Creativity in a Tech-Driven World

Eoin Townsend, Chief Product Officer at Cadent, talking about convergence at programmatic IO. Photo by Donna Alberico.

Eoin Townsend, Chief Product Officer at Cadent, walked us through industry shifts driven by audience, inventory, optimality, and privacy. He says, “The technology we have today is not the technology we’ll have tomorrow.”

Let him tell it: marketers need more control to move away from monopolies and hone in on new technologies to transform their roles in the industry. Eoin emphasized that marketers spend too much time on tech rather than creative marketing. We are evolving from scale, automation, and walled gardens to a new phase focused on integration, alignment, and collaboration. 

More highlights from his talk:

• Let AI automate the hard stuff.
• Take advantage of multi-faceted solutions that integrate third-party data and work across walled gardens.
• Adopt new technology and legal frameworks to ensure compliance and consumer trust.

Eoin’s main argument is: “Let marketers be marketers” free them from technological constraints!

The Future of the Open Internet Is?

Allison Schiff, Managing Editor at AdExchanger, Ben Hovaness, CMO at OMD, Cavel Khan, Chief Growth Officer at Group Black, and Ari Paparo, CEO & Contributor of Marketecture Media discuss the future of the open internet. Photo by Donna Alberico.

What is the open web? The term has gotten lost in the mix, and AdExchanger’s Allison Schiff ensured the panelists revealed the definition from their perspectives early in the session. According to Ari Paparo, CEO & Contributor at Marketecture Media, if you can access a website for free and buy ads freely, it is part of the open web. 

Media companies are losing distribution channels and struggle to connect directly with consumers. What are the biggest challenges of the open web? Walled gardens and signal challenges. Can marketers blame consumers for this mess? Not exactly. Marketers helped create the walled gardens by continuing to invest in and work with them.

“The open internet lost the resources to create the content and do a lot of things that it did to keep the communities it had built,” revealed Cavel Khan, Chief Growth Officer at Group Black. “That’s why we are all seeing the decline over the last three years. Big publishers are going out of business or restructuring.”

More key points from this session:

• The cloudiness around Chrome’s plan for cookies makes it difficult for publishers to determine the best strategy to combat signal loss. 
• Publishers have great tools like WordPress, Beehiiv, and Ghost, along with podcasting, as new solutions for reaching people and monetizing those connections. 
• When asked what the future of the open internet was, the panelists responded bright, sleek, diverse, and changing. 

TikTok, The Latest to Step In the Search Game

AdExchanger’s Executive Editor Sarah Sluis sits down with Blake Chandlee, President of Global Business Solutions at TikTok, to talk about the platform entering the search business. Photo by Donna Alberico.

TikTok is the app beating Google as the number one search engine. With data showing significant search activity on the app, we’re learning that rich, social media-driven search results are key for connecting with consumers and influencing their discovery and purchase intent. It’s no surprise the company is investing in bringing advertising to search. 

“There are two key data points that triggered this for us. One is that independent research proves that 55% of people get their search results from social media and video,” said Blake Chandlee, President of Global Business Solutions at TikTok. “It was just a very good box of rich examples. An example might be if you’re planning to travel to Singapore when you visit a traditional search engine, you’d find links to guide you through that process. On the other hand, you go on to TikTok or some other platforms where you’ll get really rich videos of people like you going through the same decision-making with their experience. It’s a very different experience in the back end of this.”

Ads have been part of TikTok’s monetization model for a while now, but the TikTok shop shook up the game when it came to fruition last year. Live-streaming allows creators to earn money by getting “tipped” from their audience, while the TikTok shop facilitates seamless transitions within the app. TikTok’s investment in logistics and the closed-loop shopping experience allows it to fully capitalize on the commerce generated by creators.

More interesting insights:

• The social media company’s motto: “Don’t make ads, make TikTok’s” works.
• TikTok caters to its users’ diverse interests, allowing brands to connect with highly engaged audiences.
• Ensuring that ads are native is key; don’t oversaturate because ad fatigue can be real.
• TikTok stands out because it is independent and doesn’t rely on partnerships or external links for e-commerce.

Why The Trade Desk is Winning According to Wall Street

Shweta Khajuria, Managing Director of Wolfe Research shared her predictions for the industry from an investor’s perspective. Photo by Donna Alberico.

With the ongoing regulatory scrutiny of Google and the pending cookie deprecation, scale and first-party data are both emerging as leaders in the industry.

Shweta Khajuria, Managing Director at Wolfe Research, dove deeply into The Trade Desk’s success. Partnering with agencies leads to higher retention rates. Product innovations like CTV and UID2 have kept The Trade Desk at the top of the industry. Also, their independence and omnichannel approach allow them to maintain objectivity and avoid conflicts of interest. 

“Trade Desk saw the potential of bidded programmatic and connected TV before most others in the industry,” said Shweta. “As a result, with the head start that they saw, they saw a step change in their growth rates and trajectory.”

Shweta also predicts that Google will spin off one of its ad tech businesses, which could level the playing field. 

Shweta’s other predictions:

• The Trade Desk’s Open Path and Magnite’s clear line anticipate the convergence of the demand and supply sides.
• Efficiency gains will be necessary, and pricing pressures might arise as DSPs and SSPs merge.
• Larger publishers may develop their yield management systems, leading to supply-side consolidation.
• The demand side might gain an upper hand due to its proximity to ad budgets.

Google on Trial: The Battle for Fairness, Transparency, and the Future

Allison Schiff talked to Claire Atkin, Co-founder & CEO of Check My Ads and Jason Kint CEO of Digital Content Next about the ongoing DOJ vs. Google antitrust trial. Photo by Donna Alberico.

Google’s monopolistic practices have heavily hindered the publishing industry, and we are all standing on our toes, waiting to see the outcome of this decision. Jason Kint, CEO of Digital Content Next, explained how Google is extracting value that should go to newsrooms and entertainment companies. 

Jason talked about “dynamic revenue sharing,’ where Google manipulates bid prices to maintain its margins, often behind publishers’ backs. With a press box seat at the trial in Virginia, he says Google’s defense strategy is to confuse the market and redefine it to include more competition, like TikTok or TV. Isn’t this what we’ve all been thinking? Isn’t this a weak defense?

It was great seeing Claire Atkin again doing her best: exposing the real. According to Claire, Google plays a huge role in monetizing misinformation and lacking transparency. Smaller businesses suffer since they don’t receive funds or adequate support from Google when campaign issues arise. Claire argues for log-level data transparency and know-your-customer laws to ensure fair practices. 

Other important highlights:

• Judge Leonie Brinkema is skeptical of Google due to evidence purging, which impacts the credibility of Google’s witnesses. 
• The trial is part of a broader antitrust movement against major tech companies, and breaking them up could lead to more opportunities and fairness in the industry. 
• Both speakers hope to see a future where advertisers can better track and verify their ad placements, leading to more accountability and fewer fraudulent practices.

FAST is Moving Fast

Katie Barrett, Head of Strategic Sales at LG Ad Solutions talks the future of FAST at AdExchanger’s Programmatic IO Day 1. Photo by Donna Alberico.

Several factors are contributing to the rise of FAST, such as subscription fatigue and evolving audience behavior. On a daily basis, consumers are shifting their mindset from avoiding ads to accepting them if they come with free content. 

“We see that 53% of our consumers are spending at least 2 hours a day in FAST, and the average time of the session is 73 minutes,” said Katie Barrett, Head of Strategic Sales at LG Ad Solutions. “Eighty-seven percent of FAST users have free streaming channels they watch regularly. This shows high levels of habitual viewing. Eighty-one percent believe that FAST streaming channels offer high-quality content. This is important because this perception of fast being low quality is being challenged here.”

Contrary to popular belief that FAST viewers are less engaged or loyal, Katie argues they are developing strong followings due to curated content. The stereotype that FAST viewers are solely budget-conscious is false, as the data shows a diverse and affluent audience.

Other Factors of FAST:

• The median income of FAST users is $85,000, with an average of $110,000, and 43% earning over $100,000 annually. 
• FAST is popular among family units, with a high percentage of users owning homes, being married, and having children, underlining its family-friendly nature.
• FAST is a valuable platform for brands aiming to reach key demographics.

On the Horizon: A New Era for Publishers and Marketers

Publishers and marketers are standing on the brink of significant change. With walled gardens tightening their grip and signal loss challenging traditional methods, publishers are redefining their approach to audience engagement, while marketers are pushing for more autonomy in how they reach and connect with consumers. 

From publishers exploring innovative content distribution methods to marketers reclaiming creative control, the next chapter is about pushing beyond the familiar and embracing new opportunities. 

The journey doesn’t stop here. Day 2 included more revelations and strategies, so stay tuned for our Programmatic IO Day 2 wrap-up on Monday. We’ll dig deeper into the discussions, highlighting key takeaways and what lies ahead for publishers and marketers in this fast-moving space. 

The post PROGIO Day 1: The Next Chapter for the Open Internet, Google vs. DOJ Face-Off, and More appeared first on AdMonsters.

Susie Stulz: How has the concept of attention evolved over the past decade, and how will it continue to evolve?

Greg Wester: Attention has always been the most important metric for publishers, but now it’s increasingly important for advertisers as well. Dollars have always followed the eyeball, which in turn are measured by the time spent in a particular bucket–whether that’s a website, app, or TV station. So that hasn’t changed. What has changed, however, is that where attention once focused on time spent consuming media, it now focuses on time spent actually visually engaging with ads.

SS: What brought about that evolution?

GW: The shift is largely due to the change in how attention is created for many publishers. Most media measurement systems will tell you that social media is where consumer attention is now. Those further down the chain — publishers and app developers — have had to evolve their models around the walled gardens and adapt to the fact that their attention is more bite-sized and funneled in from social media.

For publishers, the challenge has been to generate the same level of revenue, from typically shorter sessions, which, in turn, has led to a variety of creative advertising experiences.

SS: Like reading news on a mobile device and seeing a ton of ads?

GW: It’s not uncommon to see sites that have more ads than content. This experience is a direct result of publishers dealing with the reality of walled gardens and smaller bites of attention, all on top of the financial pressures that most publishers have to shoulder these days. 

This is the essential challenge in today’s landscape: how do publishers generate the revenue they need yet still provide a good experience for both users and advertisers?

SS: I get that. Sometimes, I’ll click away from a site because the abundance of ads is too distracting. How can publishers avoid people like me clicking away?

GW: Well, I don’t have a crystal ball to know what would work for everyone or what the future holds, but we can picture an idealistic future state and then figure out the steps for the industry to get there, i.e., how we get from point A to point B.

Point A is the experience you just described, and the advertisers aren’t seeing much efficacy in that scenario. They won’t see click-through rates or conversions. Consequently, the price publishers can get for that inventory normalizes down. Publishers then respond by creating and selling even more ad units to make up the revenue, and some ad providers tweak the advertising in that artificially inflates engagement to drive up revenue.  It’s a downward spiral. So, how do we get to point B?

We’ve seen the emergence of new attention and modeling solutions, which demonstrate that it’s possible to provide cooperation between the publisher, advertiser, and the user to deliver better ad experiences and greater brand impact, even if consumers don’t click on the ads. Point B is where the market recognizes that reality and responds by creating new floors and greater demand for those more cooperative experiences. 

We can change the dynamic of the industry by reducing the noise of the ads, while simultaneously driving a greater signal in the advertising. The result will be more value for the advertiser, more revenue for the publisher and a better experience for the consumer.

SS: That sounds like the Holy Grail. How do we get there?

GW: The first step for publishers and the industry that supports them is to lean into attention and get a much better understanding of what attention means for their sites, down to the level of the ad unit.

The first step for publishers and the industry that supports them is to lean into attention and get a much better understanding of what attention means for their sites, down to the level of the ad unit.

To a certain degree, this isn’t new; publishers are constantly changing their ad experience, trading off demand sources, ad experiences, ad units, rate floors, and everything else — it’s a daily activity. Experimentation is endemic to monetization.

But I do think there are certain classes of publishers that have distinct advantages in the nature of their content and placement of their ad spots. When they go through the audit process, they’ll discover their highly attentive spaces. From there, they can begin to explain their attention benefits to advertisers and command higher prices.

SS: So you’re suggesting that publishers conduct audits to discover where their most attentive spaces are rather than cram as many ads into the experience as possible?

GW: Yes, that will allow publishers to charge more for their inventory and show fewer ads. Keep in mind, not every type of advertising goal requires the same amount of attention. Brand-building through a 30-second spot requires publishers that can hold the user’s attention for those 30 seconds. But if you’re a brand and you just want to blast immediate top-of-mind awareness of a company name, you don’t need a 30-second spot.

SS: What are the scenarios in which consumers are most attentive to advertising?

GW: Well let me start the other way: when are consumers least attentive? It’s a question we at Digital Turbine have spent a fair amount of time studying (with attention research partners Lumen and Amplified Intelligence), and we found that it is when users are attempting to do something, or are mid-task, that an ad interrupts the experience.

Now, compare that to the ad experiences on traditional broadcast television. Television stations crafted Soap operas for ad experiences. Similarly, you could just listen to a Seinfeld episode and know when an ad is coming by the rise in applause or drama, the soundtrack, or the outro jingle. 

Broadcast TV produced the ad experiences at the same level of quality as the Seinfeld episode itself, so it’s an edge-to-edge entertainment experience crafted to maximize attention. There are few equivalent experiences on the web or mobile devices. Ads are placed programmatically, and the publisher doesn’t really have a chance to curate them.

SS: So you’re saying that with TV, there was almost a contract, if you will, with the consumer, or an understanding, that I know when an ad is coming, I know when to expect an ad, and that an ad will be worth my attention because it is well done?

GW: That’s right, it’s a cooperative moment, and it’s cooperative for everybody. But cooperative moments are too rare in the digital universe. 

We’ve all had the experience of streaming content when it’s interrupted randomly to show an ad. Are we going to give that ad 30 full seconds of attention? Of course not. That’s why those ads are skippable and why consumers generally opt to skip them. 

The same ad on broadcast TV, programmatically inserted at the wrong time in connected TV, or inserted into a website feed will have wildly different levels of attention and, therefore, results for the advertiser.

It’s the same experience with social media. Consumers are quickly scrolling through content, so a 15-second spot is less likely to grab their attention and will deliver lower returns for the advertiser.

For the publisher, the question is: How do I create an ad experience that is the least interruptive to the user, and allows for an edge-to-edge ad, in order to drive attention?

SS: What advice would you give to ad ops teams to create more cooperative moments?

GW: I don’t think there is a prescriptive solution I can give. I’d advise you not to be the last person to learn that your site’s inventory is viewed by advertisers and sold by the markets as low-attention. Take the time to do an attention audit. I don’t work for an attention auditing company, so I won’t recommend one here. In general, the audits are for advertisers who want to understand which publishers deliver the highest quality attention. It’s worth knowing where your site stands and why.

Second, understand the implications when cost-per-attentive second becomes the more important metric to focus on. This goes back to what we were talking about earlier. If your advertiser wants to build their brand via storytelling, they’ll pay a higher cost-per-attentive second, but if they just want to blast out their name, they won’t pay as much. So, publishers need to understand what they have in terms of attentive seconds and lean into it. They may need to do a bit of work in order to understand how to calculate the cost-per-attentive second, but it’s well worth the effort.

Lastly, seek out those more cooperative moments where users receive clues that an ad is coming so they won’t feel interrupted. This way, it’s a better user experience, the advertisers get more attention, and the publisher earns higher revenues. 

You know, there’s a whole class of publishers that my company works with that have high attention to their advertising because they are naturally cooperative. Those are the gaming apps. It’s like the TV of old in that the players’ actions trigger the ad, such as when they reach a specific level. This creates the same mindset of the person watching the Seinfeld episode on TV, giving you attention levels as high as television.

SS: And once publishers figure out where the unique cooperative moments are on their sites, and master the art of attention-per-second, advertisers will compete to purchase their inventory, rather than seek the lowest cost ad units possible?

GW: That’s right. That’s the future publishers need to work towards.

The post Capturing Attention, Not Space: Why Quality Ad Experiences Will Drive Publisher Revenue appeared first on AdMonsters.

A bill passed by the Senate and signed into law this week by Biden has many asking if this is the end of TikTok as we know it. The Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act allows TikTok to continue in the US if ByteDance sells it within nine months, which Biden is willing to extend to a year.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew immediately responded and reassured users, creators, and advertisers that TikTok isn’t going anywhere, highlighting that the app isn’t going out without a fight. In fact, ByteDance promises to sue as they deem the ban to be unconstitutional.

We’d be lying if we said we didn’t see this coming, as surreal as it may feel. In a short amount of time, TikTok has grown to be the most resourceful and entertaining social media app of today. TikTok saw its numbers surge over the pandemic when people had much more idle time, and its growth has only continued to soar from there.

Tracer, a data intelligence platform, examined over 1 billion ad impressions from the week before last month’s House vote on March 13, 2024, so March 7-13, and before the vote, TikTok ad spend increased 40% from January to February 2024. Both click-through rates (CTR) and cost-per-click (CPC) saw no change in numbers in March post-vote compared to the period before. The fact of the matter is that users are unfazed by this legislation. 

A week after the decision to move forward with the ban, TikTok saw a 20% surge in advertising expenditures. This shows that advertisers aren’t shying away from the app either; in fact, they are intensifying their commitment to TikTok despite its fate having not yet been determined. 

As the saying goes, ‘With great popularity comes great scrutiny.’ The House’s sudden decision to ban TikTok in March, which caught TikTok executives off guard, is a testament to this. The strained relationship between our government and the ByteDance-owned company, exemplified by CEO Shou Zi Chew’s contentious court appearance with Senator Tom Cotton, further adds to the drama. 

Of course, we had to ask a few thought leaders in the industry about this ban and what it means for advertising. Here is what they had to say.

Impact of the TikTok Ban on Millennial and GenZ Audiences

TikTok is currently Gen Z’s primary source of entertainment and social engagement, making up a large portion of the app’s content creators. Nearly 70% of Gen Z actively use TikTok, and Millennials are not too far behind, as 49% use it. In terms of content interaction, 40% of Millennial TikTok users use the app to discover new things. If we lose the short-form video content app, will marketers successfully reach younger audiences?

“TikTok has been an instrumental tool for transparency and freedom of speech for Gen Z and Millennials. The media consumption habits that we see on TikTok have been unmatched in the industry. If anything, we’ve seen GenZ and Millennials come out in support of TikTok and express their views on the ban. While there are many other social apps, the way TikTok values diversity and authentic conversations is unparalleled. I think we will continue to see GenZ and Millennials fight for their right to freedom of expression and speech to keep a forum like TikTok alive.” – Sujoyee Chatterjee, Senior Director Product Marketing at Channel Factory

Fun Fact: Sujoyeeis actually joined Channel Factory from TikTok in 2023, she was formerly the Global Product Marketing & Strategy, Measurement lead.

“TikTok has proven to be an effective method of building audiences, especially for the younger generation of users. TikTok ban will likely revamp digital consumption habits across all audience types. As marketers, we will need to find a new way to access and intrigue these users. To mitigate the impact and risk of this platform ban, advertisers should diversify their efforts across platforms and explore partnerships to maintain the influence of these users. Focusing on additional social channels that offer shorter video styles will be something to consider pivoting to maintain that consumer engagement and revenue.” – Kiana Lupinacci, Senior Strategic Campaign Manager at Adtaxi

“This is such a compelling situation, albeit one with many unknowns. If Bytedance goes ahead and sells TikTok without the algorithm, the new owner would likely lose out on the engagement and addictive nature of the platform. Social media advertisers and marketers need to be readily able to adapt to any change that comes.

This starts with understanding what moves Millennials and Gen Z on TikTok or elsewhere – whether short-form video or interactive content. So why not apply this approach to all digital content and advertising to bridge the gap between the TikTok ban and engaging these key demographics.” – Daniel Meehan, Founder and CEO of PadSquad

A potential ban on TikTok could significantly impact advertising strategies and small businesses, particularly those targeting Gen Z consumers who increasingly rely on platforms like TikTok and Instagram for search and discovery. The latest Consumer Behavior Index (CBI) from SOCi highlights a pivotal shift in consumer behavior, with Instagram and TikTok surpassing Google as the top business search platforms among young people. For Gen Z, traditional search engines like Google are no longer the default choice, with 67% favoring Instagram and 62% opting for TikTok over Google Search, which ranks third at 61%. This shift underscores the growing influence of social media in shaping consumer preferences and purchase decisions.

For small businesses, a TikTok ban would disrupt a critical channel for engaging with younger audiences and building brand visibility. TikTok’s unique format has allowed businesses to showcase products and services creatively, leveraging trends and user-generated content to connect with potential customers. The seismic shift toward social search underscores the importance for businesses to adapt and invest in a diversified digital marketing strategy that aligns with evolving consumer behaviors, ensuring continued relevance and engagement. – Damian Rollison, SOCi’s director of market insights

What Will This Mean For the Creator Economy?

A potential TikTok ban could significantly impact the creator and broader US economies. It has become such a vital platform for content creators that many of them cannot even remember what life was like without it. Many creators have built their careers on TikTok, as the app influences consumer behavior and facilitates direct sales through influencer marketing. The disappearance of the app can certainly diminish the extensive reach and engaged user base that creators currently have access to. 

 “The impact on  creators’ ability to continue to tell stories that connect with and enrich their communities is paramount. The pending TikTok ban underscores the need for creators to have a higher level of control over their connection to the audiences they build on third-party platforms and the urgent need to cultivate their own channels.” – Sheila Marmon, Founder and CEO of Mirror Digital

“The potential sale of TikTok underscores a pivotal moment for the creator economy and the digital advertising landscape and accentuates the value that comes when creators own their platforms and audiences. If TikTok changes its algorithm or content policies due to new ownership, we could see a significant migration of audiences, which could benefit platforms committed to creator freedom and authenticity, especially on the open web. This shift would not only redistribute where audiences engage but also compel brands to reassess their ad budgets to capture the most value from their investments. It highlights the enduring importance of websites in providing a reliable and controlled space for creators to connect with their audiences, free from the unpredictability of algorithm-driven platforms.” – Marla Newman, EVP Sales, Raptive

Legislative concerns surrounding TikTok’s ownership underscore the imperative for brands and marketers to diversify their social media advertising efforts. TikTok’s response mobilizing users to engage with legislators highlights the immediacy of ramifications, as well as the urgency for stakeholders to mobilize. For influencers and brands, diversifying their presence across alternate short-form video platforms – like Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts – mitigates risks of revenue loss and reduces a reliance on TikTok. Mirroring adaptive strategies of successful influencers, diversification ensures message continuity in a dynamic digital landscape. – Chris Moreno, SVP of Paid Media, NP Digital

A Cybersecurity Perspective

On the cybersecurity front, the ban is necessary as TikTok is thought to raise several complex data privacy and national security issues. The primary cybersecurity concern that motivates calls for a TikTok ban is the potential for the Chinese government to access the personal data of US users, given that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is based in China. There have been instances where China-based employees reportedly accessed non-public US user data, heightening these fears. However, it’s worth noting that there is no direct evidence that TikTok or ByteDance has shared this data with the Chinese government.

TikTok, owned by ByteDance, presents significant cybersecurity concerns for the United States, primarily due to the potential exploitation of its vast user base and the Chinese company’s access to user data. Beyond the immediate privacy implications, there are fears that TikTok could be leveraged as a tool for misinformation campaigns and data collection by foreign actors, particularly the Chinese government. The scale of TikTok’s user engagement, combined with China’s track record of aggressive cyber activities, raises the specter of sophisticated cyber threats targeting American users, including surveillance, data breaches, and manipulation of online discourse.

 Moreover, TikTok’s popularity among both adults and children amplifies the potential impact of these cyber threats, as sensitive personal information could be compromised, and disinformation campaigns could spread rapidly. The platform’s interactive nature and extensive reach make it an attractive target for malicious actors seeking to undermine national security or advance foreign interests. As such, policymakers face the critical task of balancing the benefits of information sharing and social connectivity with the imperative to protect citizens from cyber vulnerabilities inherent in platforms like TikTok. Continued investment in cybersecurity infrastructure and regulations is essential to mitigate these risks and uphold the integrity of digital ecosystems in an increasingly interconnected world. – Lisa Plaggemier, Executive Director of the National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA)

TikTok Isn’t Going Anywhere

TikTok and its supporters are actively lobbying against the ban, arguing that it would infringe on free speech rights and negatively impact small businesses, as Rollinson mentioned above, and creators who rely on the platform. The TikTok ban is still very much in play, with significant opposition and legal challenges expected regardless of legislative outcomes. However, some think that regardless of the pending legislation, TikTok is still here to stay. 

“I don’t foresee TikTok going away completely; if forced to sell, there will be plenty of takers. If TikTok has shown us anything, short-form video is here to stay. It’s also a challenge for marketers to come up with new, shorter-form ways to reach them. The traditional 30-second video ad for a video that’s only 30-second will not work.” – Zack Rosenberg, CEO and Founder of Qortex

“Marketers need to be where the eyeballs are and the imminent ban is only raising the profile of the platform among the consumer audience, who aren’t showing any signs of sharing the concerns of our government.  The ban also doesn’t make it illegal to use the platform and won’t eliminate it from the phones of existing users. So, I suspect marketers will closely monitor engagement to determine if the ROI of maintaining a presence there is impacted. If it isn’t impacted it will be business as usual, for most.” – Ken Gibbs, Digital Consultant at DiasDi LLC

The post TikTok’s Ticking Clock: Ad Tech Experts Sound Off on the Looming Ban appeared first on AdMonsters.

At the Senate Judiciary Committee’s most recent child safety hearing, senators focused on whether tech leaders backed specific legislation. But what exactly are the complaints? 

Children’s advocates and lawmakers assert that social media companies are inadequately protecting young people from sexual predators, addictive features, suicide and eating disorders, unrealistic beauty standards, and bullying. 

The hearing commenced with recorded testimonies from youth and parents who reported exploitation on social media. Throughout the lengthy event, parents who lost children to suicide silently displayed pictures of their deceased offspring. Senators then questioned social media execs: X CEO Linda Yaccarino, Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel, Discord CEO Jason Citron, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew.

“They’re responsible for many of the dangers our children face online,” said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin. “Their design choices, their failures to adequately invest in trust and safety, their constant pursuit of engagement and profit over basic safety have all put our kids and grandkids at risk.”

Ad Ops and Rev Ops professionals are always looking for ways to make the internet safe for minors, but they also want to keep monetization in mind. How do you strike the balance? 

KOSA and the Critics Who Oppose

For years, the U.S. government has been trying to pass federal child safety laws, such as the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). This law would mandate online services such as social media platforms, video game sites, and messaging apps to implement “reasonable measures” against various harms, including online bullying, harassment, sexual exploitation, anorexia, self-harm, and predatory marketing targeting of minors.

Additionally, these services must activate the highest privacy and safety settings by default for users under 18. It allows young people to control or opt out of features like personalized news feeds, smartphone notifications, and auto-playing videos that could lead to compulsive app usage. 

On the other hand, there are major criticisms of this bill. For some, KOSA’s flaws lie in its broad empowerment of government entities to sue online platforms for failing to mitigate content deemed harmful to minors. This approach and intrusive age verification requirements pose potential threats to privacy and freedom of speech. 

Although legislators have tried to revise similar bills, concerns persist over government overreach and constitutional violations. Despite opposition, the fight against such legislation continues, recognizing the necessity to defend online rights against censorship and surveillance.

From Apologies to KOSA Support, Big Tech Weighs In 

Social media execs were in the hot seat at the senate hearing as they faced their alleged culpability in ensuring children’s safety online. After apologies and intense inquiries, these are the major takeaways from the hearing: 

Mark Zuckerberg’s Apology: Under pressure from Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, Zuckerberg rose from his chair, turned to face families of victims in the audience who had endured abuse on Meta’s apps, and apologized. He expressed regret for their suffering and vowed that his company was striving to prevent such experiences for others but did not directly acknowledge Meta’s involvement.

Snap and X CEOs Endorse KOSA: Evan Spiegel of Snap and Linda Yaccarino of X have endorsed KOSA. However, Mark Zuckerberg, Shou Zi  Chew, and Discord’s CEO, Jason Citron, have not committed their support, citing concerns about overly broad restrictions that could potentially clash with free speech principles.

The Balance of Safety, Compliance and Monetization

Federal legislators and outspoken critics struggle to balance child safety, privacy compliance, and monetization. While I’m sure both sides of the aisle want to protect minors, they are working on the minute details. 

As publishers work to reach younger audiences, they must be mindful of the potential risks associated with it. Unfortunately, as Dennis Colón, former SuperAwesome VP of Global Operations, warned us, many brands block revenue from younger audiences because they believe monetizing them without compliance issues is impossible. 

“One of the biggest misconceptions is that it’s impossible to reach younger audiences compliantly,” said Colón. “In previous roles, I’ve worked to block monetization efforts from crossing into kids’ content. But this approach is bad for both content owners and brands. It’s fundamentally why the kid tech sector was started: to enable safe engagement with the under-16 audience in a way that works for the entire ecosystem.” 

The post Social Media CEOs Testify at Contentious Child Safety Hearing appeared first on AdMonsters.

Since the early 2000s, we’ve seen businesses built on friendship and then destroyed by bitter disputes. Fortunes were made in the blink of an eye, then lost just as quickly. Many of us have had front-row seats to the twists and turns that shaped our industry, sometimes taking sides and always hoping for the best. 

These books are on our reading list because they’re far from dry chronicles of an industry. The authors pull back the curtains so that we can see the ambition and egos that have changed the nature of publishing and the world. Most of all, they promise to be great reads!

Lynne’s Learnings

Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral 

Ben Smith

Some of us remember Ben Smith as an editor at BuzzFeed. Traffic chronicles the rise and squabbles of new media that emerged in the aftermath of the early 2000’s dotcom crash. He opens with the inside tale of two online media rivals, Jonah Peretti of HuffPost and BuzzFeed and Nick Denton of Gawker Media, and their relentless quest for traffic. The book is a trip down memory lane for anyone in the business for a while.

For the Culture: The Power Behind What We Buy, What We Do, and Who We Want to Be

Marcus Collins

Drawing on his extensive experience as a strategist for Apple, Nike, and Beyoncé, Marcus Collins argues true cultural engagement is the most powerful vehicle for influencing behavior. If you want to get people to move, you must first understand the underlying cultural forces that make them tick.

Collins, who holds a Ph.D. in marketing, is a marketing professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and head of strategy at Wieden+Kennedy, fuses his experience with theories from social psychology, anthropology, and even French philosophy across seven chapters to guide readers to a deeper understanding of what drives culture and why reading the nuances within culture is pivotal to effectively reaching your market. Reading this, we’re reminded of what social media was supposed to do for brands — facilitate communities for people to gather around shared interests. The book is both an entertaining read and insightful.

Andrew’s A-List

Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet

Taylor Lorenz

Taylor Lorenz has been the authority on internet culture for over a decade, documenting its far-reaching effects on all corners of our lives. In this debut book, Taylor traces how online influence came to upend the world, removing traditional barriers and creating whole new sectors of the economy. Lorenz shows this phenomenon to be one of the most disruptive changes in modern capitalism.

This book is full of memories for those of us who have loved social media. It also highlights what we have said all along: We can create platforms, but the user is always in charge.

Breaking Twitter: Elon Musk and the Most Controversial Corporate Takeover in History

Ben Mezrich

Breaking takes readers into the darkly comic battle between one of our time’s most intriguing, polarizing, influential men — Elon Musk — and the company representing our culture’s dearest hope for a shared global conversation. From employee accounts within Twitter headquarters to the mission-driven team Musk surrounded himself with, this is the full story from all sides. 

For those of us in the business, the stories recounted are very close to home, and many of us have spent 2023 following and writing about Musk’s antics and wondering if Twitter, now X, will survive.

Yakira’s Yesses

Growing Up in Public: Coming of Age in a Digital World

Devorah Heitner

With social media and constant connection, the boundaries of privacy are stretched thin. Growing Up in Public shows parents how to help tweens and teens navigate boundaries, identity, privacy, and reputation in their digital world. Drawing on her extensive work with parents and schools, as well as hundreds of interviews with kids, parents, educators, clinicians, and scholars, Heitner offers strategies for parenting our kids in an always-connected world.

This book is for parents like me who have young kids who will go online and wonder how we — and our children — will handle it.

Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed

Daskha Slater

When a high school student started a private Instagram account that used racist and sexist memes to make his friends laugh, he thought of it as “edgy” humor. Over time, the edge got sharper. Then, a few other kids found out about the account. Pretty soon, everyone knew. Ultimately, no one in the small town of Albany, California, was safe from the repercussions of the account’s discovery. 

Susie’s Selects

The End of Reality: How Four Billionaires Are Selling a Fantasy Future of the Metaverse, Mars, and Crypto

Jonathan Taplin

A brilliant takedown and exposé of the great con job of the twenty-first century—the metaverse, crypto, space travel, transhumanism—being sold by four billionaires (Peter Thiel, Mark Zuckerberg, Marc Andreesen, Elon Musk), leading to the degeneration and bankruptcy of our society.

While many in our industry — and society — revere these billionaires of heroes, Taplin wants us to understand that they’re pursuing their dreams at our expense. 

The Future

Naomi Alterman

If you loved Alderman’s first book, The Power, then this novel is a must-read. It’s a dazzling tour de force where a handful of friends plot a daring heist to save the world from the tech giants whose greed threatens life as we know it.

What I loved about The Future is its perfect pitch when writing about our industry. Many people try to include tech in their fiction writing, and it’s mostly cringe. Alderman gets it and uses it deftly. The book includes one of the best plot twists, so don’t tell anyone you’re reading the book, lest they can’t help themselves and spoil it for you.

The post AdMonsters Writers Holiday Reading List: Best Digital Advertising Ecosystem Books of 2023 appeared first on AdMonsters.

As the holiday season draws near, delving into this market becomes all the more crucial. Josh Qualy, VP of Digital Turbine’s East Coast brand business in the U.S., presents compelling research underscoring the significant disparity in holiday ad frequency between in-mobile gaming (13.6%) and more conventional channels like T.V. (29.6%) and social media (17.1%).

According to their research, mobile gaming captures consumer attention and surpasses the time spent on platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram. Despite these compelling statistics, U.S. advertisers significantly trail the rest of the world in investments in mobile game ads, ranking eighth out of the top 10 global markets. 

We spoke with Josh Qualy to understand these data points and explored how advertisers and publishers can win the attention game. 

Andrew Byrd: Why is attention so critical in digital media?

Josh Qualy: Attention matters because, simply put, viewability doesn’t mean viewed. Without a better metric, advertisers will continue to invest in costly channels and campaigns with little or no ROI. 

Attention has proven to be 6x better than viewability in predicting brand recall. With screens jammed with content, users are used to scrolling past or skipping things with just a passing glance. Advertisers must measure attention over viewability to get a better indication of campaign success.  

AB: Why do you believe U.S. brand marketers are not fully capitalizing on the abundant attention available in online gaming channels?

J.Q.: First, I see U.S. brand marketers catching up in 2024. Right now, brand advertisers are still navigating new privacy regulations and changes in consumer behavior. These influences have forced advertisers to rethink and re-evaluate their campaign strategies. 

Chief among those has been the understanding of the shift from viewability to attention. With them now armed to take advantage of these insights, 2024 is where they put these learnings into practice – seeking to find formats that maximize attention, which will include in-game advertising. 

AB: Could you elaborate on the ad frequency data for in-mobile gaming compared to T.V. and social media and what implications this might have for publishers and advertisers as the holiday season approaches?

J.Q.: The holiday season is make or break for advertisers. Optimizing ROAS is complex, but one factor is undoubtedly advertising share of voice. Compared to media channels such as TV and social media, the data show that U.S. consumers do not see brand ads nearly as often in mobile games. There’s less competition and more opportunity to achieve a greater share of voices and drive higher ROAS. 

In contrast, in other countries like India, Brazil, Mexico, and China, the data show that advertisers are already taking advantage of the growing in-game opportunity and are likely driving a greater share of voice and ROAS. 

This gives U.S. advertisers an advantage this holiday season since they can place their relevant ads in mobile game environments that will be less cluttered. And let’s face it: Advertisers always blitz consumers with holiday campaigns. Finding an environment where your ad can easily reach eyeballs can make all the difference.

Attention is still a new concept. And it's still something advertisers are learning to measure, understand, and harness in their campaigns

AB: The statistics indicate that mobile gaming surpasses Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram regarding the time consumers spend playing. Why do you think U.S. advertisers are not investing as much in mobile game ads despite this significant attention?

J.Q.: Attention is still a new concept. And it’s still something advertisers are learning to measure, understand, and harness in their campaigns. Taking a step back, the advertisers currently investing in mobile games are performance advertisers. They are taking advantage of the opportunity because they are more in tune with the metrics of success that games offer. Brand advertisers are just later to the party. The same trend happened with social platforms like Facebook. As the market matures, you’ll see a tipping point for brand advertisers. 

AB: Your data highlights the attention-grabbing potential of interactive video advertising in mobile games. Can you share insights into how this format outperforms non-skippable YouTube ads in terms of consumer attention and brand impact?

J.Q.: In-game advertising uses a model similar to network TV, where they weave ad breaks into natural breaks in the content. While TV used the model of crafting ads into scene changes, games put ad breaks after a natural pause in play – after players complete a move or a level. This properly sets the consumer expectation that an ad is coming. 

Compare this to YouTube or other social platforms, where they place ads at awkward times in the consumer experience. Mobile games find that sweet spot of cooperation between the publisher and advertiser. Advertisers get a format that maximizes attention to their video spots, while publishers can offer ad spots that don’t disturb or interrupt the user. 

The key to driving brand impact is harnessing attention into action where a consumer can seamlessly learn more, engage with the brand, configure a product, sign up for an offer, find the closest retailer, or even buy an advertised product. Many Advertisers today attempt to do this by placing QR codes in their TV or YouTube advertising. But engagements with these are low because TV and YouTube are passive activities – your fingers are at rest. In mobile games, consumers use their fingers to tap and engage with stimuli. 

Digital Turbine seamlessly integrates brand engagement interaction for our clients into these highly attentive moments, and the results are phenomenal. Adding post-video interactivity not only doubles the attentive seconds of an ad but also has a massive multiplier effect on brand impact.

AB: The figures indicate that many U.S. gamers remember brand advertising through mobile advertising. What strategies or elements in mobile game ads contribute to this high recall rate, and how can publishers and advertisers leverage this information?

J.Q.: Mobile games are immersive and engaging experiences, while social platforms are more passive. When viewing social feeds or reels, people are actively searching for content. While this may put their eyeballs and fingers to work, the mind is activating them to skip or scroll past things to find interesting content. 

Meanwhile, in games, the mind activates the eyes and fingers to find ways to win a game. With the mindset trained on engagement rather than skipping, putting a video ad with post-ad interactivity is the perfect way for brands to build awareness, engagement and convert users all in one spot.

AB: As we approach the holiday season, what advice would you give to brand marketers looking to make the most of the mobile gaming market?

J.Q.: Don’t neglect this opportunity. With concerns over inflation, consumers will be judicious about their brand choices. Mobile games offer a unique opportunity to build brand awareness, engagement, and conversions in one fell swoop. Using rewarded video ads in games can elevate your brand to the next level. In the U.S., 54% of people agree that an in-game rewarded ad experience creates a “halo” of more favorable brand opinion.

The post In-App Mobile Game Advertising Is the Perfect Gift for Getting Consumers’ Attention This Holiday Season appeared first on AdMonsters.

I first started noticing them in mid-September, the start of foliage season here in Vermont. Suddenly they were everywhere, young women wearing short shiny skirts, orange sweaters, and thigh-high brown suede boots. Many were lugging expensive camera equipment.

Why the “uniforms?” friends and neighbors began asking one another. And why the utterly impractical boots for a small Vermont village? To answer these questions I turned to Instagram. It took less than 30 seconds to discover the answer: last year someone with the handle MyDarlingPassport posted a photo of a house a block away from me. Guess what the influencer was wearing? 

The Rise of the Influencas

Now we’re inundated with “influencas” — people who have been infected by the viral post and want similar photos of themselves to post on social media. It’s a challenge that destinations all over the globe face. Travel is supposed to instill empathy in other cultures, according to Elizabeth Becker, author of Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism. When we visit new places we learn about the local people and their customs and grow to appreciate them. It’s why most governments promote tourism, actively inviting people to come visit their countries.

Today, however, destinations are battling a new scourge: overtourism. Many experts and destination officials cite social media influencers as a significant factor, especially when they post amazing pics of spots that prompt influencas to come take the same photo. Two years ago, New Zealand launched a “Do Something New” campaign to discourage tourists from mimicking the photos they’ve seen on social media.

There are several reasons why this is a problem and why this behavior reflects badly on the brands that sponsor the glam pics influencers take in “undiscovered” places.

The first is the way it changes the goals of the traveler. Influencers provide lists of Instagram-worthy shots upon request, which become the new bucket lists for travelers and transform them into influencas in the process. As Kiersten Brown points out in Black Girl Nerds, “People are no longer relying on guidebooks and Google searches to plan out their trips. Instead, you can follow travel influencers and get all the details on an exotic location.” Guidebooks and pre-trip research help future tourists learn about the location and the local culture, but huge numbers of feedback to influencer pics are eliminating that step.

In fact, the concept of “social return scale” — i.e. the anticipated likes and comments a trip will generate — is a topic of academic research. The Conversation, a publication funded by universities and think tanks, believes that social media interactions are a key decision factor when making travel plans, asserting: “many social media users will now ask themselves a set of new questions. Is it the trendy and fashionable place that you want to be “seen” traveling? Is this a place you won’t be embarrassed to share this with your peers and followers online?”

Karen Reimann, an American tour guide in Dresden, Germany is frustrated by this trend. “We had a guest, a young woman from Brazil. It was her first time in Europe and she was extremely excited about her trip. But, what was interesting was she got most of her tourist information from influencers. She hadn’t really read up on much of anything. She was starting to notice that influencers aren’t the best travel guides, and she was suffering for it.”

Another challenge is the impact on those “undiscovered” locations that influencers popularize on the people who live there and the surrounding environment. Take Sleepy Hollow Farm, a private residence located on a one-way dirt road in rural Vermont. In September, Sleepy Hollow Farm neighbors told the Today Show that social media influencers set up dressing rooms so that they can change outfits.  

 

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What’s the big deal, you may wonder. Doesn’t this lead to tourist dollars for the local economies? The truth is, influencers have made life during foliage season a trying time for its residents, as thousands of influencas descend on the farm to take their pics. 

Neighbors and town officials report that up to 100 cars at any given time clog the road, preventing residents and emergency vehicles from using the road. Because it’s a private residence located on a one-way dirt road in a very rural area, there are no facilities, which means influencas urinate on private property, park their cars on top of border gardens, and wander all over the neighborhood. 

As for the farm itself, its owners have been tortured by the throngs of people who now come to photograph themselves. Several years back the owners put up a security gate with a large sign that says No Trespassing, but a simple search of the property on Instagram reveals the extent to which it is ignored. Influencas think nothing of slipping past the gate to take their photos. The photo in the Instagram post above was taken after the gate was installed, but you can see the photograph shows the influencer walking down the driveway.

Photo source: The Vermont Digger

Michael Doton, whose property is across from Sleepy Hollow Farm, told the Vermont Standard that a tour bus removed the “no parking” cones from his parents’ driveway, pulled in, and disgorged 50 passengers onto their lawn. Another neighbor told the same reporter that he was nearly hit in the head with a drone while dining in his backyard.

As CNN noted, social media is turning people into bad tourists.

The third challenge is that photos on private property invite the influencer’s followers to treat the backdrops of the photos as a theme park. A few years back, an influencer with more than a million followers posted a photo of herself sitting on the porch of my friend, Charlotte. Ever since influencas have descended on her house to take the same pic. So far this year, two women entered her house expecting to use the bathroom and got upset with Charlotte when she told them no and to leave her house. Last weekend a man entered her house. Her daughter immediately told him it was a private residence but he was undeterred, walking from room to room saying “this is great.” He left when she threatened to call the police. 

A Widespread Problem

Sleepy Hollow Farm isn’t the only private residence in the area buckling under the pressure of influencas intruding on their property, nor is Vermont the only area of the world battling this problem. 

Across Europe cities and towns are struggling to find ways to make life tolerable for the people who live in the places that social media influencers made famous. Officials in Portofino, Italy, have banned selfie-taking, and in Hallstatt, Austria, local officials erected a wall to block selfie-takers. The message that all of these places strive to communicate is the same: Real people live here, our home is not a theme park.

Restaurants and cafes are reporting the same challenge. Mashable recently reported that cafes, restaurants, and some towns are banning influencers for the disruption they cause. The owners of an ice cream shop and wine bar in France were forced to put up a “No TikTok” sign on its entrance and banned customers from sitting outside of their place in order to cut down on the number of people photographing their wine glasses and ice cream social media.

How Brands Can Help Resolve This Challenge

It’s time for brands to step up and accept responsibility for their role in the ills that stem from the viral pics they sponsor and do their part to relieve it.

First, brands need to establish some rules around the photographs they monetize. If an influencer is posing in front of an impossibly adorable house, ask yourself: will this post inflict on the owner? Such photos tell millions of followers it’s okay to be there, when it may not be.

At least one Instagram influencer told me that her Sleepy Hollow Farm photo isn’t illegal as generally, there is no law against taking photos of homes from a street. She was wrong on many fronts given that she was behind the security gate and technically trespassing, and she likely parked illegally along the road. Still, I get her point, an everyday citizen can take a photo of private property from a public street if they want. 

But things get fuzzy when private homes are photographed for commercial purposes, which is what happens when influencers create sponsored pics on private property. In some instances, a property release statement may be required. Social media has been a bit loosey-goosey on that front but given that social media influencers can earn up to $20,000 for a few photos, it’s time that all brands ensure their posts are legal.

Second, brands should establish a way for property owners to object to the use of their property in sponsored posts, and once an objection is raised, inform the influencer to take the post down. This year our towns closed down the roads leading to Sleepy Hollow Farm, and the residents hired local sheriffs to enforce the closure at considerable expense.

Third, brands that rely on influencer marketing should become ambassadors for responsible tourism. Travel and tourism is big business, and millions of jobs across the world rely on it. Tourism works best when the traveler and the local people benefit equally. At present, social media influencers are being blamed for overtourism and while all fault shouldn’t be laid at their feet, they have acted irresponsibly. Brands who work with influencers should require posts to be devoid of the location where the photo was snapped, and the influencer should agree not to share it with followers unless it is a public place or has secured a property release statement.

Finally, brands and influencers need to recognize that these steps may do more than relieve the frustration their actions have on private citizens — they may also secure the future of influencer-based marketing. If influencers start to reign in their behavior, then fewer towns and restaurants will feel compelled to ban them and brands can continue to enjoy the authenticity that influencers bring them. 

The post Dear Brands: It’s Time to Impose Ethics on the Influencers You Pay appeared first on AdMonsters.

Nearly a decade later, the sports superfan owns a media company, ClutchPoints, that covers various sports verticals and pulls in about 30 million page views monthly. 

He built his business with the consumers’ interest at the top of his priority list. With the mantra, “for fans, by fans,” Patel fosters community through a common denominator — a love for sports. 

As ClutchPoints celebrates a decade, they launched a new initiative centered around HBCU sports coverage. HBCU student journalists and athletes will run the new vertical, allowing them to publish stories and curate content for video, social media, and podcasts. The students participating in the HBCU initiative will receive financial compensation, scholarship opportunities, and the potential to work for the company. 

We spoke with Nish Patel, Founder of ClutchPoints, about why he created the HBCU initiative, why he wants to invest in underrepresented writers and athletes, and his consumer-focused approach. 

It’s Game Time: The Origins of ClutchPoints

Andrew Byrd: Can you tell me about the process of creating ClutchPoints? 

Nish Patel: I started a fan page centered around Derrick Rose on Facebook in 2012. I would create content around him, and it eventually blew up to a viewership of 100,000 fans. Unfortunately, Rose got a torn ACL injury that derailed his career, and that caused me to create a bigger picture outside of one athlete.

From there, I created Facebook pages dedicated to teams such as Bulls Nation or Warriors Nation. That method urged fans to interact with us and create content based on their interests. From the beginning, it was always about being “by fans, for fans.” We built out the community pages because genuine fans were connecting about their favorite teams. The communities grew to 20 million organic fans. 

Eventually, we built pages on other social media platforms, such as Twitter and Instagram, but we encountered a problem. We had so many pages, but no one knew our brand.

From there, we launched the ClutchPoints in 2015. We hired writers, editors, and reporters who started compiling editorial content and intertwining it with our social and video content. We’ve now grown to a place where we get 30 million page views monthly, and we do close to a billion impressions on social media.

For Fans, by Fans: The HBCU Initiative

AB: Can you tell me about the process of creating the HBCU initiative at ClutchPoints? Why was this a significant move for your business? 

NP: As I said, I’ve always followed the mantra “for fans, by fans.” The initiative started because we wanted to hit every single vertical. For example, when I started this, I built a Lakers fan page because I felt the mainstream media was not talking enough about them during their losing seasons. 

So it came from the standpoint of, “what are news outlets not talking about?” The mainstream media coverage for HBCUs is generally lacking, and the same is true for the representation of HBCU sports in the media. HBCUs provide a unique perspective that I wanted to tell. I also wanted to tell the stories through their voices so the viewpoints would be authentic to the space. We plan to hire student writers with that goal in mind, but we also want to provide opportunities for new writers. 

It was also crucial that we didn’t treat them as outliers. We wanted them to feel included like any other beat.  

AB: ClutchPoints HBCU vertical includes video, social media, and podcast content. More media businesses are working to diversify the content they display. Was having a diversified range a part of your initial business goals? Do you plan to implement any new mediums to ClutchPoints? 

NP: Yeah, in-arena reporting is critical to us. There’s something about getting fresh reactions for a big game or notable moments. Social media has also expanded drastically over the past couple of years. Now we have a team for each platform, including Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. 

But it is also essential to diversify content for each platform as well. You should create original content based on what works for each forum. It would help if you also evolved with the times. For example, long-form video used to be the go-to, but with the popularity of TikTok, short-form video is taking over. It’s really about figuring out what works for your brand.  

Supporting Underrepresented Talent

AB: ClutchPoints is a minority-owned business. As a minority business owner with a media focus, do you see more opportunities and support coming to marginalized media spaces? 

NP: That was one of the key reasons we applied for the minority certification. As the majority owner of this company, you see few people like me owning sports media businesses. I wanted to attend those meetings to see what other people were doing. My goal is to find other people in sports or even other media industries, so I can help them grow their vision and they can help mine as well. 

And the HBCU initiative fits right in that vision. The primary owners in sports media are not heavily diverse, but this initiative gives opportunities to students who can change that. It fits the mold of how the company started, how it runs daily, and how I see it evolving in the future. 

AB: Since the HBCU initiative is new, how do you envision it evolving?

NP: I see us hiring a few national writers that cover HBCU sports. We want to hone in on our social strategy and see what’s working so we can connect with the home base. That’s the key to everything, right? How do we get the initial base of people that trust and vibe with the brand and make them feel part of the community? That’s how you build an audience and foster community growth. Then the fans in that community help it grow further. 

As far as content, we want to create a national library for prominent stories. Then we can create more niche content to see what is happening on each campus. 

The post For Fans, by Fans: Nish Patel, Founder of ClutchPoints, Launches HBCU Initiative appeared first on AdMonsters.

Consumers made the choice to remove ads from their online content consumption and publishers paid the price in billions of dollars of lost ad revenue annually. 

Admiral realized that to solve the issue, we had to convince consumers to make another conscious decision: support the content and creators they enjoyed, valued, and respected by selectively turning off their adblockers. 

The Start of Visitor Relationship Management

When Admiral launched in 2015, the company focused on providing online publishers with a gold standard solution to recover revenue losses due to the rapidly increasing use of adblockers. 

With the vast majority of publishers unable to monetize double-digit percentages of their audiences due to adblockers, we felt this was a problem that wasn’t going to go away, was only going to increase in magnitude, and was certainly one worth solving. 

Unlike early solutions that forced ads to serve by disabling or circumventing the adblocker, Admiral decided to take a different approach. 

Identify, Target & Engage

The methodology we employed was simple: detect the adblock user on-site, engage them with a customized message that explained why ads were important in supporting the continued operation of the site they were visiting, and offer them the chance to allow-list the site. 

Focusing on enabling publishers to successfully convince users to allow ads unlocks their full ad-stack, and with increasing importance, their zero/1st party data collection efforts. 

The simple act of making the appeal and asking for permission, humanized the value exchange and demonstrated the publisher’s respect for the visitor, and highlighted the symbiotic relationship between the publisher, visitor, and advertiser. 

Helping Publishers Build Relationships

Fast forward to 2022, we became really good at helping publishers get their visitors to agree to things. Now used by thousands of premium publishers and networks worldwide, the very same methodology employed by Admiral’s adblock recovery product expanded to solve additional challenges faced by publishers including:

• Privacy & Consent Management 
• Paid subscriptions, memberships, paywalls, donations, micro-payment programs
• Email acquisition 
• Growing social media channels
• Site registration to build 1st-party relationships

Visitor Relationship Management (VRM) at its core leverages key principles from the eCommerce (CRM) and marketing automation industries to effectively build relationships with site visitors to maximize ARPV (Average Revenue Per Visitor). 

Visitor Relationship Management (VRM) at its core leverages key principles from the eCommerce (CRM) and marketing automation industries to effectively build relationships with site visitors to maximize ARPV (Average Revenue Per Visitor). 

Through machine learning driven targeting and segmentation, VRM is designed to identify and profile various cohorts of visitors by putting the right offer in front of the right user at the right time with the intention of optimizing conversion rates across a litany of KPIs. 

Getting adblock users to allow ads on your site, obtaining their consent, having them sign up for an email newsletter, follow your brand across various social networks, and even paying for your content all positively affect a publisher’s ability to monetize that user. 

We Make It Easy: One tag, One Dashboard, One Data Set, One Vendor, One UX.

It wasn’t enough for Admiral to create a single platform that accomplished so many things, we had to make it extraordinarily easy to use. 

We fully understand that publishing teams are stretched thin, and sometimes the most valuable resource is time and manpower. With virtually zero dev-lift, Admiral can be implemented by simply installing a single line of JS to the <head> of your site, or if you prefer, you could drop our tag in your tag manager or use our WordPress plugin or Cloudflare app. Once the tag is on-site, publishers can access their revenue analytics, and turn on, set up, and manage any of our modules from a single dashboard. 

How each of the modules (and data sets) are able to interact with each other through this universal dash is the key to VRM. To maximize conversions within a single user journey, the various events used as optimization signals need to be able to communicate with each other. For example, someone who decides to allow-list your site has indicated a level of brand affinity that may qualify them as a stronger candidate to sign up for a paid subscription (vs. a user that has yet to allow-list). If you’re using different vendors for adblock recovery and subscriptions, you’d better hope they both have APIs that play well with others.

Marketing Automation for Publishers.

We help publishers build relationships, and relationships are the starting point to getting to know your customer. The more you know about your customer, the more you foster positive communication and interaction with your customer, the greater the likelihood that customer will purchase your product. Sound familiar? These are the defining principles of CRM, which drives the eCommerce and retail markets. 

Admiral’s VRM Platform is the first of its kind to help publishers collect and leverage behavioral data to help determine a positive outcome for a multitude of KPIs that affect revenue.

For example, one of our publishers started using our adblock recovery module to engage their users to ask them to allow-list the site. Upon seeing the ask to allow-list, a number of their visitors sent our support team messages asking if they could pay the publisher instead of disabling their blockers. Now imagine having the ability to identify this segment at scale, and then being able to target that cohort of visitors with a subscription offer. Admiral VRM does exactly that.

A better understanding of your site visitors isn’t enough unless you have the ability to act on that data, which is what Admiral does using machine learning and automation.

Using our Engage module, publishers can build a Visitor Journey of various Engagements and communicate multiple CTAs to activate users based on where they are in the journey. It’s implementing the same strategy sales teams, retailers, and product managers leverage to usher target consumers through their respective pipelines. 

Your Visitor, Your Data

With 3rd party cookies going away, and new privacy regulations on the horizon, collecting zero/1st party data is becoming absolutely essential towards creating revenue in the new norm. 

For decades publishers relied on (and paid) 3rd parties to establish the relationships that fuel everything from advertising (Google) to even communicating with their customers (Facebook). Whether it’s collecting emails for UID purposes, conducting surveys to amplify targeting capabilities for ads, or having users register for an account so you can access users in a logged-in state, there’s an opportunity right now to bring some of that functionality back in-house. 

We can also tell you that an adblock user who’s agreed to allow-list your site consumes 4x more pages than the average user, and drives higher CPMs in a RTB setting. 

We all know that the more data you have on a user, the more valuable that user is. Add consent to that equation and they become even more so.

Every pubtech player with a CMP (including Admiral) will tell you that a consented user is xx% more valuable in a live auction setting than a non-consented user. We can also tell you that an adblock user who’s agreed to allow-list your site consumes 4x more pages than the average user, and drives higher CPMs in a RTB setting. 

Admiral believes that the future of online monetization lies in consent-based, 1st-party visitor relationships between publishers and their visitors. Relationships matter. Relationships drive revenue growth and are the foundations to solving a myriad of challenges publishers face today.

The stronger the relationship with your visitors, the more value flows from each visit.

Come check out our session — Digital Media SMACKDOWN! Rob Beeler & Admiral CEO Dan Rua Talk Data, Blockers & Relationships — at PubForum St. Petersburg on Tuesday, March, 08.

The post What is VRM and Why Does Every Publisher Need It? appeared first on AdMonsters.

As noted in their announcement, Facebook made that last change to conversion tracking windows as a step toward the biggest expected change to data visibility: the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) prompt Apple has included in the most recent iOS 14 update.

How do we (marketers and publishers who leverage Facebook ads for content distribution) cope with the erosion of this data that’s been so central to performance management for the better part of the last decade?

In the midst of this change, it will be necessary to focus on three core truths:

1. Channel data was never fully comprehensive
2. Savvy digital marketing decision-making does not change
3. Engaging creative and user experience still rule

Embracing these principles will help navigate the broader impact of iOS 14, and increased regulation similar to CCPA/CPRA and GDPR. Let’s dive into each of these thoughts to help alleviate anxiety about changes to attribution and provide you with concrete principles to succeed despite them.

Channel Marketing Data, Especially Conversion Actions, Has Never Been Comprehensive

Marketers should value all view-through, cross-device, multi-touch, and offline conversion activity from each digital channel to value investment appropriately, optimize the marketing mix, and maximize results. Still, most performance marketers don’t value these consistently, thoughtfully, or even at all, putting them at a disadvantage to brands that have built an understanding of these “hidden” values over time.

Let’s touch on just one example of this: cohort maturation. Facebook’s previous 28-day attribution window may have provided more data than the new 7-day window, but it had never accounted for any conversion actions beyond 28 days. We know that in some cases with our clients, more than 50% of their conversions came in beyond the 28-day window of first site visit, let alone the first ad served. If you’re not accounting for how your customers buy in relation to the limitations of each platform, then you could already be making decisions on data with massive blind spots.

Of course, accounting for these blind spots, whether they be cross-device, multi-touch, or conversion lag, can be tricky. There’s a lot of overlap between categories, and you can easily take it too far. Stick to adjusting for where the data is most clear, make incremental changes, and revisit and update the metrics over time as the business and audience changes. It will never be perfect, but remember — neither was the data you’ve been using up until now!

Key next steps:

• Create multiplier benchmarks to account for data blind spots
• Create a clear record of assumptions and clarify the thinking with stakeholders
• Adjust channel performance goals accordingly
• Revisit and iterate on a recurring basis or when major business changes occur

Savvy Digital Marketing Decision-making Does Not Change

Our approach to performance has always included using channel data for comparative purposes to find the audiences, creative, and user experiences that drive optimal performance. Whether the goal be simply leads and sales or deeper goals involving LTV, qualified leads, or new-to-file customers, our approach doesn’t change.

The main question isn’t, “How many conversions did my advertising drive this month,” but rather, “How is my advertising contributing to the growth of my business?”

The main question isn’t, “How many conversions did my advertising drive this month,” but rather, “How is my advertising contributing to the growth of my business?” With this in mind, the focus is on incrementality – how many new customers you’d miss out on if you hadn’t invested. Answering this question is the key to optimal budget setting across marketing tactics, and is even more critical in a changing world of data clarity.

In one example, we partnered with a rapidly growing marketplace client, leveraging incrementality in order to unlock the optimal media mix for three market stages: Launch, Growth, Mature. Each market stage had specific benchmarks to hit in order to move forward and focus on relevant goals. Initially, standard channel data indicated greatest efficiency in bottom-funnel efforts in launch markets. It also continued to point to middle-funnel value in mature markets.

What the channel data was missing was multiple touchpoints in a customer journey, and how many bottom-funnel individuals would have converted without the additional touchpoint – the critical data of how many more conversions are generated from each tactic. Incrementality testing illustrated when each marketing tactic had its greatest impact. By investing when it had the greatest incremental impact, we were able to cut the cost of market development by 30%. These savings allowed us to aggressively grow active markets and launch new ones ahead of plan.

Key next steps:

• Determine a methodology for measuring incrementality that makes sense for your business
• Build a roadmap of suppression tests to determine lift driven by channel and tactic
• Revisit and iterate on a recurring basis or when major business changes occur

Invest in Engaging Ad Creative and User Experience Through Personalization

Consumers are not thinking about how their conversion will be attributed, or how many days it has been since they saw or clicked an ad. What will move people is relevant and timely messaging and a seamless user experience that delights them and minimizes the work involved.

What will move people is relevant and timely messaging and a seamless user experience that delights them and minimizes the work involved.

So, our work involves finding the right combination of audience and messaging. This may require revisiting processes to identify audiences and their place in the customer journey in the absence of Facebook’s automated tracking. The approach to messaging shouldn’t change much, if at all. Successful marketers will double down on testing structures that define specific hypotheses and success metrics. This testing, with the new data constraints, is how we’ll adapt and iterate for successive tests, refining audience-message fit overtime to win customers.

Key next steps:

• Build your ideal audience segments along with specific attributes
• Audit 1P audience data to identify gaps for both prospects and customers that you’ll need to execute your strategy
• Determine messaging and offers to test for each audience and stage, along with creative requirements
• Place focus, time, and effort on the creative execution, which requires an agile and talented team equipped with the skills to deliver strong digital experiences
• Utilize channel data for comparative signals as to what is working to drive business growth

Despite the inevitable challenges that will arise with data loss, you won’t need to completely rewrite your approach. Intelligently incorporating the unknown into goals, embracing incrementality to help make budgetary decisions, and investing in both audience data and creative to improve the customer journey will prepare you to take on those challenges with minimal impact to,  and likely even improvements in, your marketing success.

Everyone knows the question about a tree falling in the woods. Perhaps the marketing version in 2021 would be “If my advertising drives a purchase online, but my channel data didn’t report it, did it happen?” The answer to this one is simple: yes. By letting core marketing principles guide you, you’ll be well-positioned to continue growing, perhaps faster than you ever have before.

The post Facebook Ads & iOS 14: What Can You Do to Overcome Data Loss? appeared first on AdMonsters.