While in Boston, we didn’t just indulge in delicious lobster with garlic butter (which was as amazing as it sounds); we also dived deep into the pressing issues facing our industry.  The timing was perfect, as news dropped about X suing GARM, Unilever, CVS, and others — fueling plenty of conversations during Tuesday breaks.

Our publisher forums are always valuable, but this one hit differently. The focus was clear: everyone was determined to crack the code to retain more revenue. This time around, attendees were in rare agreement, openly discussing their biggest challenges as publishers. The great main-stage presentations and breakout sessions all revolved around one core question:

What is the future of revenue? Three key themes emerged: data, transparency, and diversifying ad revenue across diverse publishers. Let’s explore each of these critical areas in more detail.

Unlocking the Treasure Trove: How Data is the Golden Key to Future Revenue for Publishers

I’d be rich if I got paid for how often data came up in conversations. But it’s no surprise—it’s at the forefront of every publisher’s mind. The conference started with a bang when Claire Atkin, CEO of Check My Ads, took the stage. She kept it real, to say the least, ruffling some vendor feathers, but hey, we’re here to expose the truth. 

Atkin emphasized that the ad tech industry must embrace a new era of accountability and transparency. To empower advertisers and ensure purveyors of disinformation don’t hijack their brand messaging, she advocates for hourly log-level data and “know your customer” requirements.

Jeff Goldstein, Head of Programmatic at Future, shared how they rely heavily on their first-party data platform, Aperture, to collect and unify data signals from their 200+ owned and operated properties. This data is key for audience segmentation and building media products. Goldstein and his team collect data signals that give advertisers better insights and help create more precise targeting products. These signals include brand, model, and category information from the content, which helps Future understand how audiences behave, consume, and shop.

During the Deal Curation session, Scott Messer explained how these curations create a less leaky data-sharing environment. This is crucial, considering how data often leaks somewhere in that black box called the ecosystem.

Rick Welch, who works on advertising partnerships at Western Union, shared how they use their audience data to sell media and create cohesive, multi-touch packages for advertisers. And yes, when we say Western Union, we mean Western Union, the publisher, as they have thousands of owned and operated screens strategically lighting up retail spaces and locations worldwide. Their digital out-of-home network is making waves, proving they’re not just money movers but also a force in the digital advertising game.

Transparency and Collaboration: The Dynamic Duo Powering the Future of Publisher Revenue

Data and transparency were neck and neck in Boston, given how often attendees discussed both. This brings us back to that black box in ad tech — everyone is doing something, but no one knows what anyone else is actually up to. Publishers may know the pipes that generate their revenue, but what happens inside the ad tech ecosystem often remains a black box—how bids are made, who’s bidding, and where the money goes. Brands don’t have full visibility into agency strategies and tactics, while agencies may lack insight into the brand’s internal goals and data.

This has to change, and fast. The only way forward is through collaboration and establishing more transparency. In other words, talk to each other. It’s really that simple even a caveman can do it, jk.

I recall at least four sessions that directly addressed transparency. Jana Meron discussed it in her keynote, and John Shelby, Director of National Programmatic Sales at Zoom Media, Gym-TV, also brought it up in his Ops to Sales workshop. Attendees further explored this topic in the media quality session featuring Addy Atienza, VP of Programmatic Revenue and Streaming Operations at Trusted Media Brands, and Roxanne Allen, Head of Ad Ops at Dotdashmeredith. Finally, Atkin and Goldstein shared valuable insights on transparency during their keynotes. Goldstein also talked about how important it is to partner with advertisers to share sales data, which is vital for validating the effectiveness of high-intent segments. This collaboration explicitly boosts campaign ROI and refines audience targeting.

Meron shared some compelling stats on brand safety and made a strong case for the ongoing relevance of quality news. She stressed that brand safety and news SHOULD NOT be mutually exclusive, and advertisers should feel confident placing ads next to election content. Consumers with high political interests are highly engaged and could be lucrative.

She also emphasized that everyone needs to communicate to enhance brand safety across the board; publishers can no longer be left out of the conversation. Atienza and Allen echoed this sentiment, highlighting the lack of transparency, the challenges in getting verification vendors to address misclassifications, and discrepancies in reporting. They also pointed out how publishers are excluded from brand safety conversations, with agencies often defaulting to broad, non-contextual blocking measures.

The main theme of Shelby’s Ops to Sales workshop was clear: “Communicate, communicate, communicate, educate, educate, educate.” The key takeaway was the need for greater transparency, both internally between ad ops and sales teams and also with clients.

As I mentioned earlier, Atkin also reinforced the need for advertisers to be more transparent and controlled and suggested new strategies.

Spreading the Love: Why Championing Diverse Publishers is the Secret to Industry Growth

Messer’s Deal Curation session stood out for its focus on multicultural publishers. He invited Armando Aguilar, VP of Programmatic Operations at Mirror Digital, and Alex Haluska, Senior Director of Revenue Operations at MyCode, to discuss these publishers’ challenges. Despite representing 40% of the population, multicultural publishers receive only 6% of media budgets—a glaring disparity. 

Promises of increased ad spending on minority-owned and small niche publishers have not materialized. Instead, agencies bottlenecking the budgets, with most diverted to large platforms like Facebook and Google, bypassing diverse publishers altogether. 

Both speakers urged agencies to innovate and be accountable for their spending practices. They also encouraged publishers to engage directly with brands to circumvent agency bottlenecks. Once again, speakers emphasized the need for transparency and accountability in distributing ad dollars. 

The Premium Publisher Shift session began with a powerful visual:  a slide highlighting the disparity between the US Black population (15%) and the ad spend on Black-owned media (2%) to emphasize the issue. Terry Guyton-Bradley, Senior Director of Ad Tech at Fortune, led the discussion alongside Michael Bendell, an ad tech consultant from Ebony, and DeVon Johnson, founder of BlueLife Media and co-founder of BOMESI.

Each panelist offered a unique perspective on how to address this issue. One proposed solution to simplify ad buying was for platforms to aggregate minority-owned media buys. They also discussed the need to dismantle systemic barriers in the advertising industry that prevent minority-owned publishers from thriving independently. 

Advertisers should differentiate their spending on Black audiences from their spending on minority-owned publications, recognizing that these groups have distinct experiences and needs. As an industry, we must find ways to support unique publishers— whether they’re diverse, niche, small — if we want to see real growth. 

Embracing Data, Transparency, and Diversity: The Path Forward for Publisher Revenue

At PubForum Boston, it became clear that the future of publisher revenue hinges on three critical pillars: data, transparency, and support for diverse publishers. The discussions were not just about recognizing these elements—they were about taking actionable steps to make them central to our core strategies.

Data isn’t just a tool; it’s the foundation of future publisher revenue. Transparency and collaboration are no longer optional — they’re essential for defining success. And when it comes to diverse publishers, we need to actively uplift and invest in them, as they are vital to the ecosystem’s growth.

Looking ahead, these themes will clearly shape our strategies, push us to think differently and drive us to work more closely together. The future of revenue is bright, but only if we embrace these lessons, act with urgency, and follow through on our commitments made at forums like this one.

If you missed Lynne and myself chatting about these themes, check it out on AdMonsters LinkedIn

The post PubForum Boston: Three Emerging Themes Redefining Revenue’s Future appeared first on AdMonsters.

Who said cookieless targeting doesn’t scale?

Dotdash Meredith’s cookieless targeting tool, D/Cipher, has propelled the publisher to a 12% increase in digital ad revenue year-over-year, marking the second consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.  

D/Cipher is proving its worth in driving campaigns like the one the media company conducted with Pandora. The campaign resulted in 76% higher foot traffic when compared to other targeting methods. 

But this isn’t just about impressive numbers. It’s about Dotdash Meredith setting a new standard in the industry. With third-party cookies becoming obsolete, their ability to pivot and innovate with tools like D/Cipher is a masterclass in adaptation. 

“The performance is amazing because the industry is always trying to find ways to tie media buys to real results. This proves that Dotdash Meredith can drive national brick-and-mortar sales for a brand without any cookie or identifier,” Lindsay Van Kirk, Senior Vice President and General Manager of D/Cipher told ADWEEK. 

The publisher’s success is part of a broader narrative vividly discussed at the recent AdMonsters Publisher Forum in Boston. Let’s connect the dots between Dotdash Meredith’s achievements and the strategies shared by top publishers.

Connecting the Dots from Publisher Forum

Several sessions highlighted how publishers leverage data to secure ad spend and ensure brand safety, aligning perfectly with Dotdash Meredith’s success story. Conversations weren’t merely about surviving the post-cookie apocalypse — they were about thriving.

Data-Driven Strategies:

Patrick McCarthy, SVP, Programmatic Monetization, Dotdash Meredith, emphasized the importance of big data in ad operations. “We are a very data-driven company. When you go into meetings with our C-suite team, hunches really aren’t acceptable. Our whole programmatic and advertising part of our business is really driven by our CFO and Chief Innovation Officer, who is a former data scientist. Data is absolutely paramount to making your case for new investment, for new products to be rolled out,”  he said.

This reflects D/Cipher’s ability to utilize first-party data and contextual signals to outperform traditional cookie-based methods. He also highlighted the role of predictive analytics and real-time data applications. The publisher is proving that first-party data and advanced analytics are the future.

Echoing the power of data, Jesse Waldele, SVP, Digital Operations and Client Success at Dow Jones, shared how they’ve ditched third-party data in favor of first-party insights, fueling more effective ad solutions. Their “Thematic AI” tool, which predicts the best content placement using AI, has driven noticeable performance lifts for advertisers. Dow Jones’ focus on real-time measurement ensures that advertisers keep rebooking.

While the benefits of big data are clear, reliance on it also comes with obstacles. The high cost of data management and the risk of data privacy issues can be a significant barrier for smaller publishers.

Brand Suitability and First-Party Data:

In her keynote, Jana Meron, Vice President of Revenue Operations & Data, The Washington Post, discussed the power of first-party data in achieving brand suitability and effective ad placements. She noted, “The intersection of deterministic and probabilistic first-party data is where we get our power.”

The Washington Post observed a 3x performance lift when using first-party data compared to third-party data with standard display, and a 5x lift when integrating custom ad units designed for their audience.

While first-party data offers significant benefits in targeting and personalization, the session also highlighted potential downsides, such as difficulties in scaling deterministic data due to the reliance on user logins, which can limit reach. Additionally, there are concerns about balancing privacy with data collection, as overly aggressive data strategies might lead to consumer pushback or regulatory scrutiny.

Still, The Washington Post’s direction is a fundamental shift in how publishers view and leverage their audience data. By focusing on the nuances of their data, publishers can create a more personalized and effective advertising ecosystem, which is essential as consumers become increasingly wary of invasive data practices.

Harnessing Audience Power: Future’s Strategy

Jeff Goldstein, Head of Programmatic at Future, offered a compelling keynote on the importance of understanding and harnessing audience passions. He explained how Future’s approach to audience segmentation — dividing users into “practical intenders” and “passionate intenders” — has allowed the publisher to optimize its content and ad strategies.

Goldstein shared that through their first-party data platform, Aperture, Future has identified high-intent users, leading to a 30% higher purchase likelihood among these users. He emphasized the value of deep audience insights and the role of AI-driven data in refining targeting strategies.

Future’s approach underscores the value of deep audience insights, enabling them to create more personalized and effective media products. By leveraging AI and contextual data, Future exceeds advertiser expectations, driving better outcomes across its 200+ owned and operated properties.

ID Bridging: Navigating the Benefits and Risks

In another session, the topic of ID bridging was explored in depth, highlighting how this technology enables publishers to maintain addressable audiences in a cookieless environment. Ianna Feliciano, Senior Director, Programmatic Advertising, Raptive, and Jasper Liu, Senior Programmatic Yield Analyst, Daily Mail, explained how ID bridging allows for deterministic and probabilistic matching across devices and browsers. While deterministic matching offers precision, it often lacks scale. On the other hand, probabilistic matching provides greater reach but with potential trade-offs in accuracy.

The speakers also explained the risks associated with ID bridging, such as increased complexity in managing multiple ID partners and the potential for data leakage, which can have severe privacy implications. Additionally, the costs associated with ID bridging can be significant, especially when considering the need for continuous vendor management and compliance with evolving privacy regulations.

But when connected with the right partners, ID bridging is becoming essential for maintaining campaign effectiveness in the face of increasing privacy regulations and the decline of third-party cookies. The session emphasized the importance of choosing the right ID-bridging partners and continually testing and adapting strategies to balance accuracy, scale, and compliance with privacy laws.

Innovative Revenue Strategies:

The “One Big Problem” session, a town hall publisher-only conversation, underscored the challenges and strategies in ramping up revenue. One standout solution was monetizing social media audiences. Publishers are turning their social followers into a goldmine, leveraging these platforms to drive engagement and revenue. This strategy, highlighted by some ad ops leaders shows the innovative ways publishers are navigating the post-cookie landscape.

This strategy doesn’t come without its downsides though. Relying heavily on social platforms means publishers are subject to the algorithms and policies of those platforms, which can change suddenly and impact reach and monetization.

Another exciting approach discussed during the Forum was Deal Curation as a Service (DCaaS). This strategy empowers publishers to showcase and monetize high-quality inventory effectively, leveraging first-party data for improved targeting and higher CPMs. Yet, implementing DCaaS can be resource-intensive, requiring significant investments in technology and data management. It can also lead to increased operational complexity, as publishers must manage and coordinate with multiple partners and ensure the integrity of their curated deals. 

In the long haul, DCaaS enables publishers to regain control over their inventory, creating a more curated and valuable marketplace that benefits publishers and advertisers alike. As Scott Messer of Messer Media explained, DCaaS alleviates costs, aggregates sales efforts, and delivers a good product.

The Existential Crisis and Future-Proofing Revenue

Despite Google’s flip-flop on third-party cookies, savvy publishers are already adapting. Our recent Publisher Pulse report, Ramping Up Your Revenue: Digital Publishers Reveal Key Growth Strategies, shows that 71% of publishers are investing in new tools and technologies to drive revenue growth, with the most invested tools including audience segmentation (65%), identity resolution (50%), and AI-driven/advanced analytics platforms (40%).

But this isn’t just about technology for technology’s sake, it’s about addressing the existential crisis of trust and relevance. Publishers like Dotdash Meredith, The Washington Post, and Future are leading the way, demonstrating that investing in first-party data and contextual targeting is key to thriving in a cookieless world.

As Dotdash Meredith’s McCarthy explained, predictive analytics and real-time data are revolutionizing how we approach ad operations, ensuring we stay ahead of the curve. This aligns seamlessly with the broader industry trends discussed at the Forum, showing a unified move towards data-driven, privacy-safe ad tech solutions.

The landscape is shifting, and those who don’t adapt will be left behind. Since many of these approaches may require significant investment in technology and talent, it’s a survival of the fittest scenario, where only the most innovative and forward-thinking publishers will thrive. Regardless of the size of your operation, your best bet is to start small and keep testing iteratively.

Innovation must be balanced with caution — embrace your data, invest in the right tools, and keep innovating.

Editor’s Update 08/14/2024 An earlier version of this article omitted insights from Jesse Waldele, SVP of Digital Operations and Client Services at Dow Jones, and Jeff Goldstein, Head of Programmatic at Future’s keynote.

The post Dotdash Meredith’s Cookieless Conquest and the Publisher Pulse: Notes from AdMonsters Publisher Forum Boston appeared first on AdMonsters.

At this point, it’s not news that years of ongoing changes in data privacy regulation have created massive amounts of change in the way that data is being used (or not used) across the advertising industry.

As IAB Tech Lab CEO, Anthony Katsur, often says, “Just like energy, finance, or healthcare, advertising is now a regulated industry.” As part of this trend, publishers face challenges in creating sustainable revenue growth.

Navigating Data Privacy in Advertising

Whether it’s the continuing decline in ad revenue that digital publishers are grappling with or the never-ending struggle that the streaming television industry is having to reach profitability it’s clear that owners and publishers of media are feeling the effects of these changes.

One of the areas where these changes are most visible is within the publisher’s data technology stacks. Increasingly, publishers are centralizing the many data sources they need for monetization within their data warehouse. While this evolution brings the promise of insights and connectivity, publishers also need a purpose-built application layer to help them activate and get the most value from their data.

DMPs: From Central Role to Obsolescence

For years publishers relied on DMPs to be at the center of their monetization efforts. As cookie-based monetization becomes less and less dependable and publishers’ distribution channels continue to fragment outside of the web these systems have failed to develop new solutions for key functions like app and historical data collection, 2nd-party audience enrichment, and programmatic activation.

This leaves most legacy DMPs relegated to web-based data collection, audience segmentation, and simple ad-serving activation. Additionally, traditional DMPs were not built with important capabilities such as data clean rooms, identity resolution, and PETs which are extremely important in our privacy-centric world.

Data Warehouses: A New Hub for Monetization

Many DMPs have responded by integrating large data sets through mergers and acquisitions to help fill gaps around identity, some are playing catch up by trying to build more privacy-centric features like identity and clean rooms, and others have decided to completely go out of the business. A response to this lack of innovation by DMPs in recent years has been more organizations investing in their data warehouse to centralize their various audience data sources. The question is, is the data warehouse alone enough?

The Missing Piece: Purpose-Built Applications

As we talk to customers in the market it’s clear that they need applications that can work with their data warehouse to create efficiencies and grow their revenue. One of the biggest challenges is actually activating data.

Data warehouses often rely on applications and integration providers to make data more actionable which leaves publishers building expensive custom solutions and navigating complicated operations.

Similarly to how the Composable CDP movement has stepped up to help marketers evolve how they activate data in their warehouse, media owners and publishers (and new companies like retail media) need solutions that are purpose-built for both the era of privacy as well as ad monetization use cases.

Embracing the Future of Audience Monetization

Audience monetization platforms of the future need to be able to combine the streamlined audience building and activation (in both programmatic and direct)  that legacy DMPs relied on, while also allowing for more complex tasks like normalizing various data sources, running complex identity resolution models and collaborating within data clean rooms.

As free and scaled 3rd-party cookie data goes away the monetization is shifting to the publishers and media owners who are investing appropriately in their 1st-party-data, and there’s a major opportunity to create profitable growth. Investing in technology to help power this growth is crucial and will separate the winners from the losers during this period of change.

The post The Data Warehouse Has Replaced Many DMP Functions, but Is It Enough for Publisher Data Monetization? appeared first on AdMonsters.

The past few years have been tumultuous for publishers. The on-again/off-again deprecation of cookies, concerns over MFA sites making programmatic advertising risky, and the rise of generative AI search decimating referral traffic have all posed significant challenges. Despite these hurdles, publishers continue to innovate. As a result, the majority anticipate revenue growth in the coming year.

In July 2024, we surveyed and interviewed publishers to gain insights into their revenue outlook and identify their top opportunities for growth. This report summarizes our findings.

Of course, much has changed since our survey, including Google’s decision to forgo cookie deprecation for the foreseeable future. Still, what’s clear to us is that the talk of cookie deprecation has prompted them to rethink the way they do business and how they can generate revenue.

Key Findings: Direct Deals & Audience Data

• On the whole, revenue will grow. Most respondents (60%) anticipate revenue growth, with 19% expecting significant growth and 41% anticipating moderate growth.
•  2025 will be the year of the direct deal, with 68% of publishers saying it represents their best opportunity for revenue growth.
• Monetizing audience data (50%) and creating new products (46%) are also seen as significant opportunities for growth.
• Looking ahead, 33% plan to leverage audience data, and 23% each consider subscriptions and licensing/syndication as new revenue streams.
• To support these growth plans, 71% of respondents plan to invest in new tools or technologies to ramp up revenue.
• The most invested tools include audience segmentation (65%), identity resolution (50%), and AI-driven/advanced analytics platforms (40%).

Enter your info to download your copy below!

The post Ramping Up Your Revenue: Digital Publishers Reveal Key Growth Strategies appeared first on AdMonsters.

Media and ad tech conferences have been dominated by discussions about AI and cookie deprecation over the past couple of years. These are important topics, but one equally important topic gets less attention: data strategy.

Everyone wants the mystical data lake that will solve all their data needs and finally make them “data-driven,” the thing everyone claims to be but few actually are.

A data lake can be a great thing but, not unlike a normal lake, it can also be filled with toxic waste and be more like a dump than a beautiful lake anyone wants to touch. Just putting your data in a data lake doesn’t actually fix anything. A data lake is just a fancy marketing term for a database. 

The key to enabling your organization to make data-driven decisions is to make the data accessible to the whole organization and different stakeholders, including those who don’t have a computer science or data science background. 

For example, your ops team may want to know the latency of ad loading or be able to see how many impressions an ad unit generated for a certain audience. They shouldn’t need to know SQL to achieve that.

A SQL prompt (even though it is powerful and one of my favorite tools) won’t help, and a static dashboard won’t help either because you can only think of and design so many things ahead of time. You need something else.

3 Steps to Unlock Data for the Entire Publisher Organization

So, how do you make your data truly accessible — and understandable — to every relevant person within your organization?

1. Ensure you have a solid ETL pipe. You want all the data in one place, but more importantly, you want it normalized across your sources so you are actually comparing apples to apples when reporting. A business user shouldn’t need to know how Magnite or Index Exchange defines their ad types. Their tools should account for these differences.
2. Make the data accessible. Enable the data to be queried with easy-to-use tools that take care of the logic in the background. People are strapped for time, and if it is a hassle to get to the data — maybe they have to submit a ticket to the data science team and wait two weeks to hear back — they are probably not going to do it.
3. Monitor the data for accuracy. One thing that will definitely kill a data strategy is inaccurate or out-of-date data. If users can’t trust the data, they will not use it, instead retreating to manual Excel spreadsheets or other less effective methods.

A data lake won’t make publishers data-driven. But getting all their data in one place is indeed the first step to more efficient, data-driven decisions.

Normalizing the data, making it easy to query, and shoring up its accuracy will help publishers get the rest of the way so that “data-driven” is a real way of doing business and not just a nice-sounding slogan.

The post Data Lakes Won’t Make Publishers Data Driven. Here’s What Will appeared first on AdMonsters.

Developed with insights from industry leaders like Paul Brenner at Vibenomics, the IAB and its partners designed the 2024 Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) & In-Store Retail Media Playbook to enhance the execution of DOOH and in-store retail media strategies. The playbook serves as a guide for retailers and brands to navigate and implement these media channels effectively. It focuses on practical applications, advanced targeting methods, and leveraging retailer data to optimize shopper engagement and campaign success.

Brenner tapped into Vibenomics’ tailored approach to retail media to shape his insights for the Playbook. As a leader in providing in-store digital advertising technology and services, Vibenomics focuses on aligning with retail media owners’ business models, providing technology and infrastructure that respect ownership and operation dynamics. 

We chatted with Brenner about the roles of retail media, shopper marketing, and category teams in modern merchandising. Our conversation also explored advanced data targeting methods to understand shopper behavior and outline strategies for measuring the success of DOOH and in-store campaigns. Brenner provides insights into leveraging retailer data and in-store technologies to create a cohesive, dynamic shopping environment that bridges traditional merchandising with innovative retail media strategies.

Andrew Byrd: What is the primary focus of the 2024 Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) & In-Store Retail Media Playbook?

Paul Brenner: At a high level, it’s crucial to understand the distinction between digital out-of-home (DOOH) and in-store media. The IAB faced difficulties because many mistakenly believed that DOOH included in-store media. 

After a thorough discussion, we concluded that DOOH ends at the venue’s entrance. The retailer and brand can achieve the most attributable results inside the venue. This is because in-store media is owned and operated, allowing for more direct control and measurement of impact. 

In contrast, DOOH is a third-party solution that operates independently of the venue’s internal media strategies. This fundamental difference in operation and attribution is why these two types of media are categorized separately and viewed through different lenses.

AB: What role did Vibenommics take in working on the Playbook and what perspective do you bring to the retail media space? 

PB: Vibenomics is designed explicitly for retail media, ensuring that our partnerships with various retail media merchants respect their ownership and operation of the media. We provide the technology and physical infrastructure, aligning our strategy with their business model for venue operations. 

This approach differs from digital out-of-home advertising, where the focus is on investing in signage and seeking foot traffic. Instead, we follow the lead of retail media owners, ensuring our financial models, operational methods, approval processes, and creative control align with their rules of engagement.

As part of Vibenomics, I focus on ad tech and advertising within Mood Media. I leverage my experience working with numerous retail media networks to understand the diverse approaches to building retail media spaces. I bring insights from our current brand partnerships to refine our playbook and advance the industry.

AB: How does the playbook envision using disruptive in-store technology to enhance the shopping experience?

PB: Over the past five years, I’ve observed the evolution of retail media from within the stores, especially on the periphery of the retail media landscape. This shift has seen omnichannel strategies integrate on-site and off-site elements as retail media companies have the freedom to design webpages and leverage data and shopper insights as they see fit. Shopper behavior has predominantly been a digital experience, whether through apps or online interactions. Now, there’s a need to merge this digital experience with the physical world, considering new approaches to privacy and delivering what consumers truly need for better preparation.

The challenge lies in transforming traditional, static signage—like cardboard stands and paper shelf tags—into more cohesive and engaging elements that offer consumers a seamless digital-to-physical experience. Instead of simply navigating around static signs, consumers should encounter dynamic, noticeable, helpful promotions that drive their behavior and enhance their in-store discovery and exploration process.

AB: What roles do retail media, shopper marketing, and category teams play in the context of merchandising within the retail sector?

PB: Retail merchandising professionals must now incorporate insights from Retail Media Networks. This shift means traditional trade deals and merchandising strategies, like shelf placement and promotional value, can no longer be considered in isolation. 

Instead, retail media, shopper marketing, and category planning merge into a single, integrated conversation. Brands increasingly need to allocate more of their budgets to retail media, drawing funds from traditional merchandising investments. This necessitates closer collaboration between teams, a focus we specialize in. 

To create a cohesive strategy, we aim to bridge the gap between traditional merchandising and retail media by controlling the environment, creative aspects, context, and store mobility.

AB: What types of data are emphasized for advanced targeting in the playbook, and how can they be used to understand shopper behavior?

PB: The current playbook focuses on execution, providing insights for brands, retailers, and service providers leveraging retailer data and in-store technologies for maximum shopper benefit. The initial version mainly covered retail media standards with a brief in-store section, reflecting the evolving nature of in-store experiences. 

This playbook now addresses utilizing retailer data and technologies to enhance the shopper experience. It differentiates between online (one-to-one audience) and in-store (one-to-many audience) advertising, highlighting the challenges of demographic variability in stores. 

By analyzing shopper transaction data, retailers can adjust in-store strategies to improve spending and category share, integrating first-party data into the broader shopping experience. For instance, mature retailers can evaluate how creative impacts spending per trip, household, and category share across both digital and in-store environments, aiming to translate online insights into in-store successes.

AB: What methods does the playbook suggest for measuring the success of digital out-of-home and in-store retail media campaigns?

PB: There are two approaches to consider. One is a straightforward control test, which is easier to execute. For instance, we could test a campaign with a major home improvement customer by isolating a test group from a larger control group. We would then analyze pre- and post-campaign effects on shopping behavior using statistically relevant data.

The second approach, announced with Microsoft last year, involves taking a brand’s media plan and extending the control test to in-store activities. This includes examining product listing ads, search strategies, and in-store tactics. We then determine which tactic or combination of tactics drives greater lift or increase.

In essence, we perform both isolated and combined tactic tests. By comparing in-store tactics alone with combined on-site and in-store tactics, we can assess their impact on category share and lift. This dual approach has provided valuable insights into optimizing the integration of online and in-store shopper data.

The post In-Store Retail Media Strategies Reimagined with Paul Brenner From Vibenomics appeared first on AdMonsters.

How do publishers plan to rev up their revenue in the coming years?

Share your insight in our 5-minute survey.

We want to understand where you see the biggest opportunities and challenges in the digital publishing landscape. Your feedback will help us identify key trends, innovative strategies, and potential obstacles in pursuing sustainable growth and profitability.

Let’s uncover where the opportunities are together, as an industry. Your contributions to this survey will help other publishers better understand the industry’s challenges, and learn the strategies to help them sustain, and even thrive. Results will be announced at Publisher Forum Boston, August 4-6.

The post AdMonsters Publisher Pulse Survey: Unlock the Keys to Ramp Up Your Revenue Strategies appeared first on AdMonsters.

Okay, that’s a lot to unpack, so let’s break it down. GDPR, CCPA, et al are a direct result of consumer blowback against constant online tracking. Private citizens felt that their every move was captured, recorded, packaged, and sold to anyone willing to pay. They weren’t wrong. Can we blame them for hating that level of snooping?

Inside the industry, we saw things differently. While consumers objected, we celebrated the age of data. Almost 100 years after John Wanamaker complained that 50% of his advertising was wasted, the digital advertising industry had devised a way to ensure every dollar an advertiser spent was targeted at a qualified user. We called it one-to-one advertising. 

Outside observers had a different name for our activities: surveillance capitalism. 

Surveillance capitalism, data-driven marketing, whatever you want to call it, we can all agree that it is essential to the constant bombardment of messages that influence consumer behavior. Some have deployed it to the point where consumers are prodded to buy things they don’t need (and will return to the retailer at some point at considerable loss), incur unmanageable levels of consumer debt, and rent self-storage units to put the stuff they buy but have no room for in their homes. 

And that’s just the start. Authoritarian figures and conspiracy theorists also use one-to-one messaging to proliferate their extreme beliefs that pose a serious threat to democracies all over the world.

So it’s no surprise that privacy regulations sprung up. But how effective are those regulations if we replace tracking cookies with other private signals (e.g. hashed emails, User ID resolution graphs) that allow for the same type of one-to-one targeting?

Let’s Face It: Cookies Were Not Effective

I find the private signals craze that has seized the industry to be rather puzzling. Big-time marketers, such as Kraft’s Julie Fleischer, made no bones about the sub-par quality of cookie data, telling attendees of a data conference that 90% of the data for sale is “crap.” Mind you, she said this back in 2014, when the so-called data revolution was in its heyday. Other studies during that time showed that up to 50% of audience segments for sale failed to reach the target audience. The cookie was never able to live up to its promise, as I wrote in 2022.

But we ignored the cognitive dissonance and dug into the tactic, relentlessly targeting consumers who felt like reading an article about a new car model with ads for new autos, based on the assumption that they must be in market for a new auto. Into countless auto-intender segments they went.

Consumers weren’t happy about it at all, and a few — Max Schrems in Europe and Alastair Mactaggart in California — began successful campaigns to regulate the collection and sale of user data. 

They were hardly outliers. Consumers began installing ad blockers, adopting VPNs, and downloading encryption software in a desperate attempt to protect their privacy. All they wanted was to be left alone to browse the internet in peace.

Given the consumer’s utter distaste for the incessant tracking, one must ask: Why did we go down this road?

The False Promise: One-to-One Marketing

To put it simply, we were led astray by a myth that one-to-one marketing was both possible and embraced by the consumer. We believed that everything the consumer did online — every click, visit, page view, video watched — revealed clues to the user’s predilection, brand preference, potential to buy, political outlook. 

By collecting, storing and analyzing every piece of data generated, we sought to influence what consumers buy and how they vote at scale. 

Worse, we believed that consumers saw the benefit of all this intrusion. We told ourselves that consumers expect highly personalized experiences and it was our job to provide them. After all, modern advertising demands relevance.

There are alternatives, of course, which we’ll explore in later articles.

The Great Accelerator: AI

The whole data revolution and one-to-one marketing scheme had a valuable technology in its corner: machine-learning based AI. AI has been an integral part of programmatic advertising and user profiling from the very beginning. The industry deploys it to analyze who clicked on what ad, who visited which page, and to select which impression out of billions to fill with an ad. 

A more recent form of machine learning — generative AI — is now a topic du jour. It is viewed as a way to take one-to-one marketing to the next level, creating ad copy and images in real-time based on the user behind it. What could possibly go wrong?

This Keeps Me Up at Night

As someone who is deeply committed to digital advertising, our failure to learn from past mistakes keeps me up at night.

Our industry has never really questioned the notion that one-to-one marketing is a worthy goal. Rather than learn the lessons of the consumer rebellion that led to GDPR, CCPA, and countless other regulations, we are embarking on a new style of consumer spying based on a new set of private signals. Today we are leveraging those signals to bully people into buying stuff they don’t need as well as instill in them irrational fears in order to prompt them to support anti-democracy candidates.

Why are we repeating the same mistakes? And make no mistake about it, the “alternatives” to third-party cookies function in the same way; they log a consumer’s private behavior and use it to follow them around the internet. Today we stand on the dawn of cookie-free advertising, tasked with reimagining the world. Instead, we are dangerously close to a colossal failure of imagination. Our focus is on identity resolution graphs and hashed emails — the exact kind of tracking we had with third-party cookies. Call it surveillance capitalism 2.0.

We can — and must — do better. Doing better means resisting the siren call of one-to-one marketing. Until we jettison that fantasy, all of our industry’s brain power and financial investments will do nothing more than recreate surveillance capitalism, ultimately leading us back to the place we currently find ourselves: facing any citizens and governments demanding that we stop abusing privacy.

The post Privacy Signals, AI in Advertising & the Democratic Dilemma appeared first on AdMonsters.

In a detailed discussion with AdMonsters’ Yakira Young, James Rosewell, co-founder of Movement for an Open Web, discussed the nuances of the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) recent report and concerns regarding Google’s Privacy Sandbox. 

Exploring the pivotal changes and challenges in digital privacy and competition, this analysis highlights the tension between innovation and regulation, examining how new policies may reshape the digital advertising landscape. 

Here are Rosewell’s insights into the evolving dynamics of digital privacy and its potential ramifications for the industry. This recap highlights the significant aspects of his analysis, touching on the tensions between privacy, competition, and interoperability, as well as the future steps for addressing these emerging challenges.

Tensions at the Triangular Table

• Digital Industry’s Inflection Point: Rosewell describes the CMA’s April report as a pivotal moment that could dictate future directions for digital advertising and privacy. It’s a tipping point for the digital industry, marking significant changes in the regulatory landscape.
• Interplay of Competition and Privacy: The report underscores the ongoing tension between competition and privacy, pointing to the need for balance between these elements.
• Interagency Dynamics: Rosewell clarifies the distinct roles of the ICO and CMA in the UK’s regulatory framework, emphasizing their collaborative yet focused mandates on privacy and competition, respectively.
• Google’s Compliance Challenges: The ongoing scrutiny over whether Google’s Privacy Sandbox meets the dual mandates of the ICO and CMA.
• Future Projections for Google: Insights into potential changes Google might need to implement to align with regulatory expectations.

Unpacking Compliance and Concerns

• Non-Compliance with ICO Guidelines: Rosewell points out significant gaps in Google’s adherence to privacy standards, particularly in how the Privacy Sandbox handles data. While Google’s Privacy Sandbox has not fully complied with the ICO’s privacy guidelines, this could signal significant shifts in how data privacy is managed. Rosewell suggests that the ongoing non-compliance could lead to more stringent oversight and possibly a rethinking of current data privacy frameworks.
• Technical Shortcomings in APIs: There are concerns about the technical limitations and the potential misuse of de-identified data. The report details criticism of how privacy APIs might still be processing personal data, indicating a lack of true anonymization.
• Call for Clarity and Compliance: Upcoming, more detailed ICO reports, are expected to address these compliance issues. 
• Stakeholder Feedback: Reflections on the broader industry concerns regarding the overreach of the Privacy Sandbox beyond basic legal frameworks.

Governance and Technical Hurdles

• Need for Robust Governance: The discussion emphasizes the essential role of governance in managing digital practices fairly and transparently.
• Governance in Digital Operations: There is a necessity for proper governance frameworks that ensure fairness and compliance in digital operations, as opposed to automated, unchecked processes.
• Challenges of Ensuring Reliability: There are limitations in current technological solutions like the Attribution Reporting API’s Coordinator Service.
• Industry’s Call for Protection: There is a potential need for warranty language to safeguard the interests of advertisers and ad tech partners.
• Technical Challenges of Latency: The discussion of latency issues within digital platforms, emphasizes the limitations of browser-based solutions and the potential need for server-side solutions.

The Smaller Players’ Predicament

• Disproportionate Impact on Smaller Entities: Changes driven by the Privacy Sandbox could particularly challenge smaller publishers and advertisers.
• Potential for Increased Market Consolidation: Stringent privacy regulations may inadvertently push smaller players towards more restrictive platforms and into less competitive environments.

Looking Ahead: Remedies and Regulations

• Advocacy for Meaningful Dialogue: Rosewell calls for a balanced discussion that does not sacrifice interoperability, privacy, or competition.
• Engagement with Regulation: The importance of engaging with regulatory processes to influence and adapt to new market conditions.
• Envisioning Future Remedies: Data labeling and enhanced privacy guidelines could serve as potential solutions for the industry.

In this crucial moment for digital advertising, Rosewell’s insights underscore the importance of a collaborative regulatory approach that balances innovation with privacy and competition. As the industry anticipates the next phases of the CMA’s evaluations and Google’s responses, the continued dialogue at AdMonsters Ops — during Rosewell’s closing keynote June 4, 2024 — promises to provide a vital forum for shaping the future of digital advertising. 

The challenges and opportunities discussed highlight the critical need for an industry-wide dialogue and cooperation to ensure that future developments benefit all stakeholders.

The post LinkedIn Live Rewind: Unpacking the Implications of CMA’s Surveillance on Google’s Privacy Sandbox appeared first on AdMonsters.

Core to these successful campaigns is comprehensive, culturally nuanced data that takes these audiences’ habits, views, perspectives, and patterns into account. Unfortunately, there is an ongoing lack of both across minority populations.

As brands and agencies look to delve into specific demographics, the depth of the insights available to them tends to diminish significantly.

Any campaign must resonate with the lived experience and shared values of the communities it is attempting to reach. Proceeding without this essential knowledge runs the risk of being seen as inauthentic, or worse, offending and invalidating the cultural experience of thousands of people. Critical marketing blunders like these have been seen time and time again, across nearly every industry.

Marketers must (and can) do better — it is time to unite the creativity our industry is known for with an engineering mindset to create authentic and nuanced campaigns. The first step is not only understanding which insights you are searching for, but how specifically to go about uncovering them.

Numbers Tell the Story

Often, brands and agencies know which multicultural group they would like to approach with their messaging, but do not know where to begin otherwise. Collecting quantifiable data on these audiences is often one of the most impactful ways to begin to authentically build a narrative that your consumers can connect with.

In a recent graduate class, one of the professors said something that resonates deeply with the feedback I receive from clients during data discussions. The professor referenced the timeless wisdom of Edwards Deming, stating, “Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.”

Yet, in today’s world, where marketers are inundated with data, the statement takes on a new form: “Without an opinion, you’re just another person with data.” This shift underscores the importance not just of data collection, but of its interpretation. It’s the nuanced understanding and application of these insights that are pivotal to the success of any marketing campaign.

Doing this impactfully requires a sophisticated overlay of data from multiple sources. Consider which customers you are actually trying to target. This goes beyond a specific racial or ethnic group — consider factors such as where these consumers are located and their purchase history within your product or service sector. These factors can help determine their existing brand perception, and inform your strategic approach, to suit the goals of your campaign.

Alongside these logistical factors, a deep understanding of cultural context is necessary. Your research must encompass your audiences’ specific shared values within their local communities which a range of lived experiences, shared history and other socioeconomic factors can influence.

Seek out and listen to various unique perspectives and utilize your awareness of the present moment to deliver an informed and conscientious message that resonates with the individuals you aim to reach.

Embracing Emergent Technology

No discussion of modern marketing strategy would be complete without mentioning artificial intelligence. This emergent technology has its place across both campaign planning and execution. For example, utilizing a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis, AI technology can both refine and accelerate the research process, delving into large datasets and uncovering patterns for marketers to extrapolate into actionable insights. However, beyond data processing, this emergent solution has a range of practical applications that marketers should explore.

In considering multicultural campaigns, AI technology can take on another essential task: assisting in accurate translations. For example, this innovative technology is capable of streamlining the initial translation process via inputting more sophisticated prompts. This goes beyond ensuring accuracy and extends to adding in other essential elements such as audience cultural nuances, location, and other valuable external contexts.

Innovative methodologies like these, complemented by a deep understanding of technology’s potential and limitations can creatively utilize analytics and ultimately lead to better campaigns. However, these approaches should never be undertaken without defined and robust oversight. Tasks such as ensuring correct linguistics and deriving insight from patterns are distinctly human in nature and ensure that the correct nuances and subtleties are accurate and culturally attuned.

With a robust view of consumer data, informed human oversight and the assistance of emergent technology, authentic and relevant cultural campaigns are not only possible but should become the norm. As the diversity of the national population grows, marketers must embrace an ongoing educational mindset, alongside a holistic evolution of the entire campaign planning and execution model, to better serve diverse consumers and communities.

The post Marketing Engineering – Uniting the Power of Cultural Insights and Data Analytics appeared first on AdMonsters.