This recent political season has been full of twists and turns, and that doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon. We’re all looking for ways to contextualize this presidential election cycle to keep our heads wrapped around what’s happening. 

A recent analysis by GumGum sheds light on how the media portrays Vice President Kamala Harris and Former President Donald Trump in political discourse. Utilizing their advanced contextual advertising tool, GumGum examined over 5 million pages of political content from late July to uncover trends in media coverage and sentiment. 

The findings reveal a significant disparity between mentions and sentiment: the media mentioned Donald Trump more than 1.7 million times, while Kamala Harris was mentioned around 1.36 million times. Notably, Kamala Harris’s media presence surged by 388% on the day of her candidacy announcement.

We chatted with Hailey Denenberg, VP of Strategic Initiatives, Data at GumGum, to explore these findings and how contextual advertising can help political advertising campaigns.

Leveraging Contextual Analysis for Political Campaigns

Andrew Byrd: Why did GumGum decide to conduct this study? What were your goals, especially in relation to your contextual tool?

Hailey Denenberg: Our contextual technology, developed over the past 15-16 years, uses computer vision and natural language processing to understand content as a human would. With the upcoming political campaign, we wanted to leverage this technology to track trends over time.

Given our extensive programmatic integrations with large platforms like DSPs and SSPs, we have a vast amount of classified content at our disposal. Following Kamala’s presidential announcement, we found it particularly interesting to analyze how the open web and editorial content discussed Kamala versus Trump over the last two weeks in July. We focused on mentions and sentiment, aiming to understand how each candidate is perceived and discussed in content.

Understanding how different editorial voices and platforms perceive and talk about each candidate, especially in terms of sentiment, provides valuable insights into the broader public discourse. Our goal was to use this analysis to uncover trends and patterns in how content about these candidates is produced and consumed, ultimately offering a deeper understanding of the political environment through the lens of digital content.

AB: The upcoming election is full of unexpected developments, especially after Kamala’s recent announcement and the campaign’s strategic execution. Given this dynamic, can you explain how contextual analysis helps understand political coverage?

HD:  Contextual analysis has many applications, especially in presidential campaigns. Advertisers should stay updated on how content is trending, positively or negatively. Think of it as playing offense and defense. For instance, if mentions of Kamala’s opponent, Trump, spike negatively, her campaign can play offense by surrounding that content with positive messaging about Kamala.

On the other hand, they might want to avoid any negative mentions of Kamala to keep the messaging streamlined, which is more of a defensive strategy. Understanding these content trends as different announcements unfold allows campaigns to use advanced contextual targeting. They can target all positive or negative content that mentions specific candidates, leveraging this analysis to shape their messaging effectively.

AB: How can publishers benefit from these technologies?

HD:  Yes, publishers can significantly benefit from contextual technologies. For example, news publishers can strategically package their inventory by grouping positive political news and offering it to brands comfortable with political content but wanting to avoid association with sensitive issues like abortion or immigration. This allows them to monetize content that aligns with the advertiser’s brand safety requirements.

Advanced contextual technologies not only understand the sentiment of the content but can also identify and filter out specific sensitive topics that an advertiser may want to avoid. This capability is crucial for maintaining brand safety while still allowing advertisers to participate in positive, relevant conversations.

Addressing Brand Safety Concerns

AB: At our last conference, there was a significant discussion about brand safety. Advertisers naturally want to avoid being associated with certain content, but publishers face revenue challenges due to these restrictions. How does GumGum approach brand safety, especially in contextual advertising?

HD:  Brand safety has become even more critical recently, especially with the news around the dissolution of VM and GARM. While we align with the GARM framework, we’ve also developed our custom threat categories beyond the usual “Dirty Dozen” like violence.

This is important because while positive contextual targeting aligns with preferred categories, there’s a strong demand for blocking or negatively targeting specific categories. Where GumGum stands out is in video analysis. For instance, in political advertising, which is huge for TV and CTV, most providers struggle to analyze what’s happening within the video content. 

However, our advanced video contextual technology allows us to explore the complete audio transcription and perform scene-by-scene or frame-by-frame analysis. This helps us determine what parts of the video are brand-safe or suitable according to our established threat levels, ensuring more precise targeting and reducing over-blocking.

Reaching the Right Audience and Environment

AB: How does contextual advertising help political ads reach the right audience in the right environment?

HD: At GumGum, we focus on placing ads where they are most relevant, using a deep understanding of content. For example, if someone is reading an article about the election and sees an ad with positive messaging about a candidate like Trump, it aligns with what they’re already thinking about. 

This increases the ad’s effectiveness, especially when combined with geo-targeting in swing states. It’s all about reaching consumers at the moment they’re considering a topic, which can influence their actions.

AB: Does your approach to contextual advertising change depending on whether it’s on mobile, desktop, or other platforms? Or is there generally much overlap?

HD: Generally, there’s significant overlap, as reaching the consumer in the right mindset is often based on the content itself, which tends to be consistent across devices like mobile and desktop. However, attention models can vary depending on the environment. We have different panels for mobile and desktop, and we’re beginning to explore video. While I don’t have definitive data yet, it will be interesting to see if there are differences in optimal attention times across these environments.

AB: What final advice would you give to advertisers and publishers considering political advertising and contextual targeting?

HD: I advise them to gather as much data and insights as possible from various sources. This will help you uncover unconventional ways to position your brand or supply. Instead of sticking to obvious choices, explore new audience segments. For instance, while Nike might seem like a fit for sports content, insights might reveal it’s also popular in Home and Garden content due to a current trend. By broadening your perspective, you can enhance your targeting strategy and reach new audiences more effectively.

The post How Contextual Analysis Shapes Political Campaigns: Insights from GumGum’s Hailey Denenberg appeared first on AdMonsters.

No pun intended, but the ad tech industry is still hashing out its privacy concerns. With Google essentially pulling the plug on third-party cookie deprecation and instead heading in the direction of an opt-out mechanism, ad tech’s privacy terrain is still in a state of limbo. 

But as publishers and advertisers search for the privacy-compliant tech that works best for them, the FTC reissued a warning about hashed IDs. 

In a recent blog post, the FTC reiterated a critical privacy principle: hashed IDs are not anonymous. Despite some companies’ claims, hashing—a process that transforms data like email addresses or phone numbers into seemingly random strings—does not render data anonymous. 

Data is only anonymous when you cannot trace it back to an individual, according to the FTC. This misinterpretation can lead to significant privacy violations, as bad actors can still use hashed data to identify and track users, potentially causing harm.

Hashing provides a layer of obfuscation but does not eliminate the potential for re-identification. The FTC has highlighted several cases where companies misused hashing, believing it ensured anonymity. Notable instances include the 2015 case against Nomi, which tracked consumers in stores using hashed MAC addresses, and the 2022 case against BetterHelp, where hashed email addresses were shared with Facebook, compromising user privacy. 

A Quick Refresh on Hashed IDs

Companies often use hashing to obscure personal data. Hashing transforms information such as email addresses or phone numbers into a consistent numerical value, known as a hash. 

This process ensures that the same input data will always generate the same hash, making the original data difficult to guess.

The advantage of hashing is that it allows companies to store data without directly revealing identifiable information. A hash appears meaningless and preserves user privacy, as companies cannot easily trace it back to the original data. This is why companies often use hashing when they are reluctant to record or share direct identifiers but still need the data for future matching.

However, according to the FTC, the belief that hashing fully anonymizes data is flawed. Companies and bad actors can still use hashed IDs to identify users, and their misuse can lead to harm. They warn that companies should not claim that hashing personal information makes it completely anonymous. The FTC will continue monitoring and addressing deceptive privacy claims to ensure that companies comply with the law.

Hashing Out Industry Sentiments

The ad tech industry is all in on alternative IDs as a go-to solution for privacy complaints. But, the FTC just threw a wrench in the works by declaring that hashed IDs aren’t truly anonymous. A shift might be on the horizon. This revelation puts universal ID formats like TTD’s UI2 and LiveRamp’s Ramp ID—those that hash and encrypt personal data—under the microscope, suggesting they might not be the ultimate fix we once believed.

Where will the industry pivot after this? 

Third-party cookies and hashed IDs will not stand the test of time, according to Adam Schenkel, EVP of GumGum. Schenkel instead upholds that contextual targeting will be the next wave for privacy-compliant solutions. 

“This news and the FTC’s commitment to safeguarding data privacy for Americans indicates that privacy-invasive targeting tactics like third-party cookies and hashed IDs will not stand the test of time,” said Schenkel. “Instead, advanced contextual advertising emerges as a superior solution once again because not only is contextual respectful of a user’s privacy, but it’s also able to match ad content with a user’s real-time interests and mindset.” 

Publishers Hash Out the Sit-and-Wait Approach

Sam Cheng, Director of Advertising Operations, TeamSnap, noted the uncertainty and potential difficulties ahead when asked about his initial reactions to the ruling. “It’s too soon to know until major publishers start taking an approach,” he said, emphasizing a cautious outlook.

Cheng highlighted the complexities in finding the next ID solution to comply with the FTC’s rules, noting that HashID will likely stick around until a new one surfaces. For now, he’s taking a wait-and-see approach.

He also emphasized the tough challenges publishers face in meeting the FTC’s data anonymity and user tracking guidelines. He acknowledged that implementing a new solution would be a pain, especially for companies lacking the technical bandwidth to adapt quickly. 

“Assuming most companies don’t have the technical bandwidth, it will be challenging to implement a new solution when it does come out,” he explained.

The post The Perils of Hashed IDs: FTC Reasserts They Are Not Anonymous appeared first on AdMonsters.

In a plot twist straight out of a digital marketing thriller, last week, Google announced it will not deprecate third-party cookies unilaterally after all and instead opt for enhanced user choice. This revelation is leaving buyers and sellers scrambling to reassess their strategies.

We attended a U of Digital Live Learning Event, where industry experts shared insights about what the news means for the advertising ecosystem.

Following are key points from the U of Digital event and what this means for digital media and ad tech, with insights from industry-heavy hitters. U of Digital’s Myles Younger and Shiv Gupta were joined by Alex Cone Product Manager, Privacy Sandbox at Google; Joe Root Co-Founder & CEO at Permutive; Shailley Singh, EVP Product & COO at IAB Tech Lab; and Therran Oliphant former SVP Data & Technology at Essence Mediacom discussed what steps advertisers and publishers should take to navigate this new reality.

The Big Reveal: Google’s Change of Heart

Last Monday, Google unveiled its new approach to privacy, giving users elevated and informed choices for managing third-party cookies in the Chrome browser. Instead of outright deprecation, users will receive a universal prompt allowing them to decide whether to accept cookies, with the option to adjust this choice at any time. This move aims to balance user privacy with the industry’s need for effective advertising tools.

Panel Insights: What the Experts Are Saying

During the U of Digital event, the panel of industry experts dissected the implications of Google’s announcement, and here’s what they had to say:

User Choice and Its Ripple Effects: Google’s decision to elevate user choice, potentially mirroring Apple’s ATT framework, means cookies aren’t entirely gone but are expected to decline as more users opt-out. The design and deployment of the consent prompt will be pivotal. Will it be opt-in or opt-out? How will it be presented to users? These factors will determine the extent of cookie usage going forward.

Privacy Sandbox Continues to Evolve: Despite the shift, Google will continue developing privacy-preserving alternatives like the Topics API, Protected Audiences API, and Measurement API, ensuring the industry has robust tools for the future.

Broadening Privacy Horizons: With plans to introduce IP protection in incognito mode and other privacy measures, Google is pushing the envelope on broader privacy initiatives beyond cookies.

Voices from the Field: Real-Time Reactions

The panel experts shared their perspectives on the announcement’s broader implications:

Publishers and Ad Tech Innovators: Joe Root emphasized the significant shift for publishers who must now consider a future where cookies play a smaller role, focusing on alternative IDs, contextual advertising, and first-party data.

Advertisers and Agencies: Therran Oliphant pointed out the increased complexity for marketers, stressing the importance of investing in first-party data and streamlining tech stacks to future-proof their strategies. This is a wake-up call for marketers to clean their houses. Those clunky, inefficient tech stacks? They’re yesterday’s news.

Portfolio Solutions Approach: Cookies may still have a seat at the table, but they’re no longer the head. Shailley Singh from IAB Tech Lab highlighted the need for a portfolio approach, blending cookies with other addressability solutions to maintain effective advertising strategies in a rapidly evolving landscape.

Alex Cone’s Crucial Insights: Timelines and Testing

While the timeline has shifted, the privacy-first future is still coming. It’s less of a demolition and more of a renovation. Alex Cone from Google provided valuable insights regarding the timelines for cookie deprecation and the privacy sandbox APIs:

Decoupling Timelines: Cone clarified that the timeline for third-party cookie deprecation has always been separate from the availability of the privacy sandbox APIs. The APIs have been generally available since last September, allowing publishers to start testing and integrating these tools well before cookies are phased out.

Testing and Adoption: While a 1% deprecation rate for cookies was meant to facilitate initial testing, the APIs are available for broader industry adoption. Publishers can and should start integrating these technologies to prepare for the eventual decline of third-party cookies.

Informed User Choice: Cone emphasized the importance of ensuring users can make informed choices about their privacy settings. This involves a more detailed and transparent consent mechanism, likely resembling Apple’s ATT prompts but applied universally across browsing experiences.

What Publishers Need to Know: Practical Steps Forward

It’s time for advertisers to find new ways to reach audiences without relying on third-party data. The race to find the perfect balance between personalization and privacy has just begun.

For publishers, the cookie jar might not be empty, it’s certainly not as full as it used to be. Root of Permutive pointed out that many users are already browsing without third-party cookies. The time to develop robust first-party data strategies and explore contextual targeting solutions was yesterday.

While Google’s announcement offers some breathing room for the industry, it raises crucial questions about implementation and future strategies. Here are the key considerations for publishers:

1. Prepare for User Choice: Publishers should anticipate a decline in third-party cookies as more users opt-out. Investing in first-party data collection and management will be critical.
2. Embrace Privacy Sandbox APIs: Start testing and integrating Google’s privacy-preserving alternatives like the Topics API and Protected Audiences API. These tools will be essential in maintaining addressability and ad effectiveness.
3. Develop and adopt privacy-preserving technologies: As cookies continue to decline, the industry must keep developing and adopting privacy-preserving technologies. This includes enhancing first-party data strategies, utilizing privacy sandbox APIs, and exploring new addressability solutions.
4. Engage with Consent Mechanisms: Stay informed about the development of Google’s consent prompts. Understand how these will be implemented and what messaging options will be available to maintain user trust and transparency.
5. Monitor Regulatory Developments: Google’s approach is designed to appease regulators, but ongoing dialogue with bodies like the UK’s CMA will shape the final implementation. Publishers should stay engaged with these discussions to anticipate and adapt to regulatory requirements.

Adapting to a New Era of Digital Advertising

Google’s third-party cookies reversal marks a significant shift for the industry. While it offers a reprieve, the long-term trajectory remains clear: a move towards greater user privacy and the need for innovative solutions. Publishers must stay agile, continuously adapt their strategies, and prepare for a future where privacy and addressability coexist in a delicate balance.

Take a deeper dive into this topic, check out the presentation, view the deck, and download the recap at U of Digital. 

The post Google’s Cookie Curveball: What’s Next for Buyers and Sellers? appeared first on AdMonsters.

The race to a federal U.S. data privacy law has been a slow trudge to victory, and the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA) is no different. While the supporters and detractors of the act  understand the need for a federal privacy law, some of the minute details cause contention. 

If passed, APRA could significantly impact advertising by defining sensitive data as “online activities over time and across third-party websites,” requiring express consent for its collection or sharing. 

While the bill allows opt-out for targeted advertising (excluding measurement, first-party, and contextual advertising), the inclusion of online browsing data as sensitive means targeted advertising data can’t be used without consent. Publishers focusing on first-party data will benefit if ARPA passes, but the shift from opt-out to opt-in will be disruptive.

If a data privacy law like APRA passes, small businesses may face significant challenges in digital advertising. As you all know, personalized ads play a crucial role in helping SMBs compete with larger brands, reach targeted audiences, and measure campaign success. Still, concerns about data privacy and its impact on small businesses’ data collection and attractiveness to advertisers remain. The federal government and publishers want to craft a law promoting strategic advertising that balances personalization and consumer privacy protection.

Advertiser Perceptions, in collaboration with the Connected Commerce Council and Google, recently released a survey highlighting the impact of personalized digital ads on small to medium-sized businesses in the US. At a virtual press conference some SMBs shared their experiences with data-driven advertising and discussed concerns about APRA. Here’s what they had to say. 

APRA Could Potentially Kill Personalized Advertising, and Ultimately, Publisher Revenue

Advertiser Perceptions, a research firm specializing in advertising, regularly engages with top agencies and brands to gauge market insights. They conducted the survey to understand how the use of personalized digital ads impacts the success of advertisers and publishers.

The study surveyed a wide range of advertisers, including SMBs with fewer than 500 employees and large national advertisers, to understand their current use of personalized digital advertising and the potential effects of not utilizing these ads. The results reveal that 82% of respondents attributed 2023 revenue growth to customized ads. Without these ads, one in five businesses would face closure or layoffs, and nearly half would need to raise prices. 

The results for publishers are even more dire. Data shows that 37% of publishers will face layoffs or closures, 45% might implement paywalls, and two-thirds will increase ad volume. If you read the news, it’s evident that many publishers are already dealing with these issues. These ads are crucial for small businesses to compete with larger brands and measure ad effectiveness.

Personalized digital advertising enables small businesses to reach target audiences and measure the success of their campaigns. According to Advertiser Perceptions, seven in ten businesses use these ads to find new customers, and three in five use them to reach local customers, significantly extending their reach beyond traditional methods. 

Simply Lakita: Will Smaller Publishers Suffer if APRA Passes? 

Lakita Anderson, an online food blogger based in Panama City Beach, Florida, runs a recipe website called Simply Lakita, where she shares modern comfort food recipes with a twist. Since starting her blog in 2013 and turning it into a full-time business in 2016, she has built a significant following with over 700,000 readers and 15,000 Instagram followers. Initially partnering with brands through influencer campaigns, she found the process exhausting and shifted her focus to monetizing her blog through digital ads.

Transitioning to digital ads allowed Anderson to streamline her operations and focus on content creation, significantly reducing the burnout she experienced with brand partnerships. Her blog’s success is closely tied to the ability to show relevant ads to her readers, which is made possible by collecting anonymous data about their preferences and behavior. 

This data is essential for attracting advertisers who want assurance that their marketing efforts reach the right audience. As a result, Anderson’s revenue model relies heavily on effectively using this data to maintain and grow her income.

Recently, Anderson participated in a hill briefing with staff from Representative Neal Dunn and Representative Craig’s offices to discuss the potential impacts of APRA on her business. She argues that APRA could severely hinder her ability to collect the necessary data to attract advertisers, which is crucial for her revenue. 

“While consumer privacy is important, APRA fails to strike a balance that also considers the needs of small businesses,” said Anderson. “Access to this data is necessary to prove the value of ad placements on her website to advertisers, potentially jeopardizing my primary source of income. This legislative change could force me to reconsider my entire business model, threatening the viability of my blog and the livelihood I have built around it.” 

Implementing Privacy-Conscious Advertising Practices

Experts recommend strategies to help small businesses deal with potential data privacy law changes while leveraging personalized digital advertising. 

It starts with educating lawmakers on the crucial role of personalized ads for small businesses and the risks of overly strict privacy laws. Publishers should push for legislation that protects consumer privacy without stifling their ability to target customers effectively. However, if this does happen, businesses should diversify their advertising approaches and explore alternative revenue models, such as subscriptions or paywalls, in case personalized ads face restrictions. 

Still, privacy compliance is of the utmost importance. Data experts like Advertiser Perceptions and publishers like Anderson believe there needs to be guidance around using personalized advertising in a privacy-sensitive manner, like employing aggregated data and anonymized profiles. Additionally, it promotes technological solutions that enable personalized ads without extensive user data, such as contextual advertising or machine learning. 

This is especially important for smaller publishers who do not have the same resources, and possibly even education, about the ins and outs of privacy and personalized advertising. It’s up to everyone in the industry to advocate for small businesses in the data privacy policy discussions to ensure their interests are met and that new regulations balance privacy concerns with business needs.

The post Does APRA Do More Harm Than Good For Personalized Advertising? appeared first on AdMonsters.

The digital advertising world stands at the cusp of a major revolution, poised to redefine itself as it phases out third-party cookies. A recent study by Deloitte Digital forecasts a striking $300 million annual loss for major sectors like CPG, Retail, and Financial Services, while the broader impact on long-tail SME advertisers suggests potential losses far exceeding $2 billion in Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). Further adding to the urgency, McKinsey & Company, in partnership with the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), predicts a daunting $10 billion revenue shortfall for publishers.

In the ever-evolving digital advertising landscape, privacy concerns and cookieless tracking have led advertisers and publishers to seek innovative solutions that respect user preferences and comply with stringent regulations. Enter contextual advertising — a strategy poised to redefine the engagement between advertisers and consumers in a privacy-first world.

The Reemergence of Contextual Advertising: A Timely Solution

Dotdash Meredith’s recent unveiling of D/Cipher, an intent-based targeting tool that operates without reliance on cookies, signifies a significant stride towards adopting contextual advertising. This method, further refined through their strategic collaboration with OpenAI, showcases the robust potential of privacy-safe advertising solutions that can effectively connect advertisers with their audience.

As digital advertising’s landscape evolves, OAO celebrates 20 years as a publisher-focused ad operations provider. Initially specializing in traditional trafficking and campaign management services, OAO has expanded its expertise to include programmatic monetization and data analytics, along with being a value-added reseller (VAR) for best-in-class sell-side technologies. Enhancing its suite, OAO introduces its partnership with Ops Mage, a revolutionary AI-driven contextual targeting solution with a strong focus on privacy-first policies. 

For Advertisers: Precision Meets Performance

Surpassing the limitations of traditional keyword block lists, Ops Mage provides a seamless AI-powered platform enabling advertisers to access over 750 IAB categories through advanced contextual and semantic signals. This robust tool delivers unparalleled insights with semantic sentiment analysis, brand identification, and safety, significantly refining targeting strategies.

Ops Mage significantly boosts media plan efficiency and scalability through direct integrations with publisher ad servers and DSPs, facilitating a seamless data connection between advertisers and publishers. With comprehensive omni-channel capabilities spanning video, audio, and display, Ops Mage equips advertisers with precise tools to optimize campaign outcomes through detailed contextual, sentiment, and competitive brand targeting.

For Publishers: Monetization in the Age of Privacy

Publishers now have the ultimate tool to boost ad revenue while adhering to privacy standards like GDPR and other regulations. Ops Mage offers no-code and low-code solutions that integrate smoothly with any ad server or analytics platform. By focusing on deep contextual and semantic signals at the article level, publishers can enhance the value of their inventory and achieve premium revenue through direct-sold ads, contextual PMPs, or bidstream enhancement.

The Ops Mage platform also respects the privacy-by-design ethos, making it an ideal choice for publishers aiming to minimize legal overhead and capitalize on their data in a controlled, transparent manner.

Ops Mage: Accessible Today

A key advantage of Ops Mage is its immediate availability to publishers, providing a ready-to-deploy solution that integrates effortlessly with existing ad ops stacks. This accessibility empowers publishers to proactively address the challenges of cookie deprecation and seize a competitive advantage in the rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Moreover, Ops Mage signals empower publishers to leverage their primary ad server to create and define their audience segments, putting control back in their hands while remaining independent from restrictive walled gardens. 

A Call to Action for Publishers

The brief reprieve of the Chrome cookie deprecation has extended the window of opportunity for publishers to begin exploring and embracing alternative, privacy-safe advertising technologies. As the digital advertising world braces for the post-cookie era, Ops Mage, in partnership with OAO, stands out as an innovative and accessible solution.

Contact sales@adops.com to learn more about Ops Mage.

The post Navigating the Post-Cookie Era: A Call to Arms for Publishers appeared first on AdMonsters.

The video publishing industry is a strange enigma. In what other industry do you create a product, only to make revenue from a byproduct of those products?

And it’s not a small amount of revenue either. Total ad spend is predicted to reach up to $390 billion in 2024, of which publishers get to keep a large majority. With such a large percentage of revenue in the video content space, outside of SVOD, coming from the sale of the ad space, the value of the content itself has been severely underplayed.

Typically, when direct-selling, a publisher can offer advertisers data surrounding user behavior, cookie-based demographics, and traffic metrics, which only assigns value to the audience and not the content. This is how many Made-for-Advertising sites have flown under the radar for so long, with many DSPs providing traffic metrics over quality metrics.

However, with the death of cookies, the decline of MFA sites, and 96% of publishers depending on contextual targeting for their business, a paradigm switch is set to occur, placing more value, and power, to the publishers who create high-quality content. Content creators who can provide precise data on their content and whom it resonates specifically will have an impressive advantage against the competition.

The Golden Age of Video

The growing ability to understand content through advanced metadata analysis truly makes this era the golden age of video. Content creators, SSPs, and DSPs that can provide deeper analytics on what video content is available will reign supreme.

Contextual targeting in the video space has thus far been relatively limited to relating ads to the general content scheme of the text on the page or the overarching IAB category of the video in its entirety.

This happens all the time when advertisers and brands purchase contextual placements through DSPs that don’t have advanced video analysis tools. Imagine a publisher packaging up 50 travel videos and presenting them to Delta Airlines. Usually, ads are placed on an overarching content scheme – i.e. “travel,” then an advertiser like Delta Airline ads may be placed within videos about the “Best Way to Travel Without Flying” or “Backpack Itinerary for the West Coast.”

Let’s say the content is narrowed down to “Air travel .” Still, the general nature leaves advertisers with crucial questions about the emotion and deeper context – is it a joyous family trip to Disney World, or perhaps, it depicts a tragic incident involving an airplane?

Understanding this distinction is important, as it heavily impacts the advertisers’ interest. This is one of the reasons why advertisers are typically wary of news and Made-for-Advertising sites. There is so much bad news out there, that the probability of an advertiser showing up on a news article or video that is inappropriate or just plain insensitive is high.

However, by offering Delta Airlines the same package of 50 videos that are guaranteed to feature families happily flying to Disney World on their planes, the content’s worth becomes immeasurable. Some studies have shown that strategies like this boost brand recognition, awareness, and consideration by up to 30%, showcasing that the ability to understand and contextualize content intimately is a game-changer.

The Transition From Cookies & MFA

The current model of publisher and digital advertising puts content as the vehicle for ads, instead of being the main show, capable of engaging specific audiences that advertisers are interested in. However, this wasn’t always the case. In an essay by Bill Gates in 1996, he said “Content is king.” Somewhere along the journey, we got away from that as the mode for buying and placing ads.

If content is king, then context is queen. With the shift from cookie-based advertising to more context-based advertising, publishers can confidently approach brands, presenting content that resonates specifically with their desired audience.

In addition, the decline of Made-For-Advertising sites marks a critical pivot in the preference for advertisers and users alike to have a user-friendly, more content-focused experience. Statista reported that from September 2022 to January 2023, 15% of programmatic spend was spent on MFA sites. Companies like Magnite, Sharethrough, and Pubmatic have announced that they are blocking MFA sites moving forward.

In this landscape, where personalized, targeted and user-first approaches reign supreme, content creators with precise data can confidently approach brands, leveraging intelligent insights that navigate the traditional uncertainties.

How Publishers Can Take Control of Content

Due to the 93% of advertisers who said that they will use contextual advertising for some or most of their purchases and their increasing reliance on attention metrics vs. traffic metrics, a deeper level of contextual understanding needs to occur. This shift is poised to be the biggest game-changer in the industry this year, unlocking new possibilities for publishers and advertisers alike.

Publishers and content creators should look to equip tools that analyze video content in real-time, capturing trends and behaviors that unlock a world of enhanced media investment decisions that prioritize premium, trustworthy content. Utilizing AI and computer vision technologies, content creators can contextualize a video frame-by-frame, enhancing how content is packaged and presented. This level of insight allows for strategic positioning of content to advertisers, offering not just exposure but alignment with precisely curated content that speaks directly to target demographics, because where the great content is, the people are.

Publishers equipped with the ability to detect keywords, tags, and topics at scale within their content are not just responding to the post-cookie challenges and the transparency-first future; they are setting new standards for engaging and captivating audiences. For those who master the art of leveraging detailed video analytics, the future is bright.

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As new platforms emerge and the lines between CTV, linear and digital continue to blur, advertisers have no shortage of ways to reach consumers – but are they doing so effectively? With a crowded space and elusive viewers bouncing between screens, marketers need to cut through the noise and focus on what really matters in 2024.

Prioritize Premium Video

It’s all about quality content and brand safety in today’s landscape.

The definition of TV and what qualifies as ‘premium’ video is often in the eye of the beholder. For many consumers, premium video is all about the quality of the viewing experience. In a recent survey, 54% of consumers define TV as channels like NBC, ESPN, and HGTV, while 52% define it as streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Max. Further, 51% define TV as news and sports programming, while 49% define TV as the episodic series they watch on a TV screen. Essentially, there is no one way consumers define “TV” these days other than premium content they can access whenever they want.  

While the modern-day definition of ‘premium’ video has taken on many different meanings, it’s clear that well-produced, long-form episodic “TV” content still carries weight. Before investing in premium video, advertisers should be able to distinguish what inventory is most relevant to their specific audience and ensure that what they’re buying is fully transparent and brand-safe. 

Additional oversight is essential given the increasing incidents of ad fraud and widening fragmentation in the current landscape. Partnering with trusted publishers, avoiding objectionable content, and investing in audience-first targeting models can help advertisers ensure better brand safety. Brands can also layer in data to make each impression more valuable in reaching their core audiences.   

Strike the Right Balance Between Contextual and Audience–Targeted Solutions

As the deprecation of third-party cookies begins, marketers need a strategy that empowers them in a first-party data world. In 2024, it’s all about finding the right balance between contextual and audience-targeted solutions.    

Marketers can maximize audience-targeted solutions by leaning into precision targeting to connect with specific audiences and understand their behaviors. While the transition away from third-party cookies may seem like a major challenge, it presents an opportunity for brands and advertisers to get creative in driving ROI while simultaneously prioritizing compliance and consumer privacy. This year, advertisers must learn how to leverage different identifiers and lean on players with first-party deterministic identities based on real, known audiences to succeed.  

Brands can also leverage contextual opportunities like content metadata to gain deeper insights at a granular level, especially on CTV and streaming. This gives intel into how programming is tagged by the network, genre, series title, or rating, which can help brands position themselves within specific content environments and adhere to brand safety guidelines more effectively. For example, while 67% of US consumers report watching live TV every day, advertisers can use contextual signals to dig deeper and ensure that their brand is aligned with the right content for their message. Investing in rich datasets and leveraging content metadata helps marketers improve targeting, packaging, and transparency reporting over time.  

When it comes to contextual and audience-targeted solutions, there should be no either/or. This year, marketers should focus on finding the right balance between contextual and audience-targeted solutions to maximize their efforts and prepare for life after third-party cookies.  

Leverage Programmatic Technology To Bridge the Gap Between CTV and Linear

As CTV and linear continue to blend, converged TV opportunities are critical in reaching audiences. Advertisers should think about both linear and streaming to ensure they reach viewers wherever they are.  

According to Nielsen data, 81% of adults in the US between the ages of 18 and 65 watch both linear TV and ad-supported streaming TV, while 9% ONLY watch ad-supported streaming. Therefore, brands need to find ways to reach their total audience across many different viewing platforms and find a way to use technology to make this easier across a myriad of different partners. This is where programmatic comes into play. Advertisers can leverage programmatic to target audiences and access video inventory from many publishers all in one place, promoting a more converged approach for today’s buyers.   

As the landscape continues to converge, programmatic holds the key to enabling holistic buying and making linear TV and digital look and feel the same across the board.   

 Lean Into Ad Innovation and Addressability

With audiences splintered across platforms, traditional strategies won’t cut it when breaking through the noise and combatting unprecedented fragmentation. By leveraging opportunities like ad innovation and addressability, advertisers can better engage with audiences and maximize their reach across CTV and linear.   

 In a crowded field, non-disruptive, interactive, and user-initiated ad formats can help drive authentic awareness and engagement for brands. We also know relevancy is important to today’s consumers, with 89% of consumers receptive to ads when they are telling them something relevant that they didn’t already know and 74% appreciative when an ad reminds them about something they need to purchase. Home screen UI opportunities, shoppable formats, and pause ads can be personalized to appeal to viewer ad preferences across digital and linear, creating an immersive, engaging experience for the audience. 

Advertisers can also actively counter viewership fragmentation through addressable advertising, which enables audience reach across traditional and CTV platforms while managing reach and frequency. Using deterministic data, addressability enables 1:1 level targeting (whether at the household, person, or device level, depending on the screen), which can be used as a unifying tool to reach audiences holistically.  

Preparing for the Road Ahead  

Advertisers have a lot to grapple with in today’s complex media ecosystem, and this year’s major tentpole moments guarantee another wild ride in 2024. Marketers can make the most of their efforts by prioritizing brand-safe, premium video inventory, striking the right balance between contextual and audience-targeted solutions, leveraging programmatic to unify linear and CTV, and leaning into ad innovation and addressability. By tuning out the distractions and focusing on worthwhile strategies that translate into ROI, marketers can secure a competitive edge and set themselves up for success in 2024.  

The post Cracking the Code: Strategies to Thrive in a Shifting Media Landscape appeared first on AdMonsters.

In particular, brands should look closely at how AI can enable highly relevant, customized creative at scale. This is the next logical step in using AI in advertising.

Brands need to look closely at digital audio, a channel that has seen explosive audience growth, deep levels of engagement – and an influx of ad spend. Experts predict the digital audio ad marketplace will surpass $10 billion in the US this year and hit $12.81 billion by 2027. Increased audience size presents more opportunities for creative personalization at scale – AI will make this even easier. We can take Spotify’s enthusiastic embrace of generative AI for content and advertising personalization as a sign that these tools are ready to take on the task.

Creative Variation Without Manual Repetition

When it comes to the traditionally manual task of developing multiple versions of an audio ad for a wide array of audience segments, tools like synthetic voice hold some promise. This software-generated replication of the human voice enables brands to produce thousands of audio ad variations efficiently and at scale. In other words, brands can generate vast ad variations without demanding extra time from a voiceover artist or celebrity spokesperson. But synthetic voice isn’t a perfect solution, as we’ll explore briefly.

There’s potential here across all digital audio channels, but synthetic voice can provide particular relief for podcast hosts, guests, and spokespeople. In podcasting specifically, advertisers are keen on leveraging the intimacy of the format. But authenticity is a central part of the host and audience relationship. Podcast audiences are accustomed to hearing endorsements from hosts and trusted personalities, so maintaining a seamless, natural listening experience is imperative for brands.

Hold Onto the Human Touch

However, creators are on high alert to protect their work and livelihoods from technology exploiting and devaluing them. Celebrities and professional voiceover artists won’t share the rights to their voices for free – they will demand to be paid fairly for licensing and usage rights. Rather than looking at AI to replace human voiceovers, advertisers should consider how AI can act as a partner or collaborator to their team, where synthetic voice can deliver its greatest value. There is a balance between adopting technology that can give brands a competitive advantage and appreciating the talent of human creators. By marrying the two, advertisers can produce innovative ads that keep the all-important human touch.

The technology is also not necessarily a simple plug-and-play solution for brands. Realizing the true benefit of synthetic voice requires the involvement of a platform that can automate the delivery of thousands of dynamic audio variants. That platform will be crucial for leveraging the data necessary to produce and serve myriad creative variations via a single Video Ad Serving Template (VAST) tag. After all, producing countless ads is a fruitless endeavor unless the technology is available to serve the correct version of the ad to each listener. Efficient production can only deliver value with efficient, highly targeted deployment, which requires more tech support and sophistication.

Driving Customization Through Contextual Insights

As in any digital channel, context is at the heart of relevance and engagement. AI will be a powerful digital audio tool for gaining contextual insights – including details about the listener’s environment and insights that can drive content recognition and keyword targeting. Brands can apply those insights to customize ads creatively for greater relevance and resonance in that environment. For example, they can use these insights to drive listeners to a local store to find a specific brand, or promote the most recent release on a particular streaming service, or use date and time triggers or device type to encourage listeners to upgrade their phone to the latest model. Data triggers – including purchase history, listening preferences, loyalty status, geolocation, or device type – can also be used to determine specific lines from the script. It makes production more efficient while also making the creative more personalized. 

Optimizing creative in advance, which can be the most challenging step in successful personalization, ensures the listener only hears one ad that feels specifically made for them. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has highlighted these very opportunities for contextualization and personalization. The platform has already used AI to provide custom audio commentary and promote podcasts. Now, Ek is praising the technology’s promise of reducing the cost of audio ads in new formats with thousands of variations.

Marketers will need tech partners to match the correct creative version for each listener’s context to process the relevant data points that enable personalization. AI-driven technology that aligns creative with context will empower brands to personalize and scale audio campaigns without accruing high production costs. The larger the brand, the more value they gain by effectively developing hundreds or thousands of creative variations.

Take the CTA to the Next Level

When we add addressable audio to personalization, a brand can target a listener with a specific call to action. They can do this by inserting a data-driven (contextual and audience data) call to action into the creative. For example, brands can use device data to direct iOS or Android users to the right app store, or by presenting a product as a good solution for an issue in the listener’s environment. This allows brands to take audio – traditionally considered an upper-funnel channel for driving brand awareness – and use it to drive lower-funnel actions, such as visits to a physical store, app store, or landing page. This evolution is possible thanks to dynamic creative.

For brands and agencies, AI provides efficient assistance in digital audio, the human team steers the brand in the right direction to meet its campaign goals, and the right tech partnership automates and streamlines delivery for all relevant creative variations, formats, and settings. This is the equation brands need to confidently dive into the thriving digital audio marketplace and truly connect with listeners.

The post AI Comes to Digital Audio Advertising – and It’s Improving Personalization appeared first on AdMonsters.

Google Chrome’s loss of third-party cookies may mean a definite ending to decades of cookie-based targeting. However, other browsers waved goodbye to this tracking method long ago, and many Chrome users already opted out of being followed around the web for a while now.

As a result, advertisers urgently need to put solutions in place to continue reaching consumers with ads that are relevant to them. But what tools are out there to help advertisers deliver?

Established Tools

As with developments in any field, some methods are more mature than others. Within digital advertising, contextual tools and external identifiers (EIDs) are well-established answers to the cookieless problem.

Contextual targeting has existed for decades and was once the leading way that online advertising was delivered. Advances in the area have meant the mechanisms are again garnering a lot of attention from advertisers.

Contextual is at its core privacy-friendly, basing the ads served on the content featured on a web page, rather than the user’s data. This approach has been leveled up by the emergence of artificial intelligence, in particular natural language processing.

More similar to third-party cookies, EIDs enable cross-site tracking by transforming the personally identifiable information of users into a deterministic identifier, or a set of device-oriented signals – such as IP address – to a probabilistic identifier.

However, due to their similarity to third-party cookies, EIDs have come under plenty of scrutiny. Regulators aren’t keen on the idea of replacing one privacy-intrusive tool with another, while industry experts have questions over the scalability of that method. Additionally, browsers have introduced technical limitations to allowing these IDs to work by cutting down the information required to build probabilistic identifiers through mechanisms like User-Agent Reduction or Private Relay.

Breakthrough Tools

Alongside these more established mechanisms are a group of emerging tools looking to prove they are the best options for advertisers in cookieless environments, including the Protected Audience API, the Topics API, and publisher-partitioned identifiers (PPIs) and Seller-Defined Audiences (SDAs).

The Protected Audience API (PAAPI), part of Google’s Privacy Sandbox, replaces cross-site tracking by placing users into interest groups that are passed in the bidstream. Any data needed for improved personalization and bid evaluation is stored in the user’s browser or on an isolated, trusted bidding server.

What makes PAAPI stand out is how it can work with, and be strengthened by, other cookieless tools, making it a promising tool for both retargeting and branding campaigns. It can be combined with other methods – such as PPIs, SDAs, Topics API, and contextual targeting – to enable more precise creation of interest groups, and the more accurate activation of these interest groups.

The Topics API is a less sophisticated targeting API from the Privacy Sandbox. The tool enables the Chrome browser to form a short list of recognizable categories based on the user’s recent browsing history, which is then passed to DSPs to inform the ads that are served. The API is predominantly for upper-funnel campaigns, as its taxonomy of around 470 topics leaves it unable to hyper-personalize.

PPIs and SDAs are favored by publishers because they’re provided with control over how their inventory and audiences are labeled. However, these methods have been slow to gain traction, as publishers are wary of sending them in parallel to cross-site identifiers for fear that the valuable information will be monetized externally.

Data Modeling Imperative for Success

Whichever solutions advertisers begin to explore, they have to understand that not all cookieless environments are the same, so different tools will be needed for varied circumstances – whether that’s between different browsers or when considering same-site or cross-site scenarios.

Different browsers will allow certain practices, while others won’t and not all users will be identifiable. In such cases, it is critical to properly understand those who are and properly extrapolate their characteristics on those who aren’t.

In cross-site circumstances, it’s a little bit more complicated. Marketers may see partitioned environments where each publisher or advertiser’s website sits in a separate silo.

This can be tackled by building lookalike audiences through advanced data modeling, enabling the proper execution of targeting and ad frequency management. Advanced data modeling combined with a selection of cookieless tools will ensure that advertisers can reach audiences across all types of inventory.

A Suite of Solutions

Ultimately, succeeding in the cookie-free world will require solutions consisting of more than one method. There is no silver bullet, but there are such combined solutions in the market that are privacy-friendly. Advertisers need to identify the needs of their business and establish which mix of tools works best for them.

The post Cookieless Environments Robustly Support Advanced Behavioral Targeting appeared first on AdMonsters.

Consumers encounter a digital ecosystem oversaturated with content and choices. This places advertisers and publishers on a perpetual quest to create an ideal and strategic viewer experience. And with the surge of online video consumption, the environment has become especially dynamic. 

As consumers spend more time online, their exposure to video ads grows, raising critical questions: Are consumers still paying attention to video ads? Do they consider video ads an unnecessary interruption, or are they willing to trade their time and data for affordable access to the content they desire? 

Connatix conducted a comprehensive survey — Consumers are Watching; Here’s How They Want Their Video Ads — of over 1,000 U.S. consumers aged 18 and above to delve into these queries. The study aims to understand the types of videos consumers prefer, their viewing preferences, and how contextual alignment can impact engagement.

Consumers Will Watch Video Ads But Have Some Requests

Amidst the plethora of digital choices, specific platforms have emerged as top destinations for video consumption. Social channels like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok captured the attention of 81% of those surveyed. Notably, publishers’ websites (45%) and mobile apps (41%) also draw a robust audience. 

However, audience preferences vary by demographic. For instance, younger and more social media-savvy individuals tend to favor social channels, while more affluent viewers and older demographics exhibit a stronger inclination toward publishers’ websites. This diverse pattern underscores publishers’ and advertisers’ need for tailored content strategies to reach their target audiences effectively.

Where and What They Watch: Important Takeaways

Viewer Preferences and Publisher Engagement. Younger generations and lower-income individuals are inclined to watch video content on social media platforms. This preference aligns with their social media savviness and accessibility to such platforms. In contrast, more affluent and older viewers are more likely to visit publishers’ websites for video content. This insight is crucial for publishers aiming to tailor their content experiences to specific demographics and advertisers seeking to broaden their reach effectively.

Content Type Preferences. Viewers under 55 predominantly prefer entertainment videos from publishers, whereas older demographics favor news content. Understanding these content type preferences is vital for publishers to curate and deliver content that resonates with their audience and advertisers to align their messages effectively.

The Importance of Trustworthy News. Trustworthy news is essential for a well-functioning democracy and society. Advertisers utilizing broad keyword blocklists often miss out on highly engaged audiences due to concerns about brand safety. Using platforms like Connatix, which leverage NewsGuard’s ratings, can help advertisers approach news as a category safely and invest in quality journalism, ultimately benefiting both advertisers and publishers.

Viewers Will Trade Their Time and Data for Access to Desired Content. Today’s consumers are well aware of the role advertising plays in granting them access to the desired content. The survey shows their willingness to engage with advertisements, showcasing that viewers are ready to trade their time and data for access to the content they seek. Eighty-four percent of respondents, spanning various demographics, express a readiness to watch a video ad on their favorite website to unlock desired video content. 

Publishers’ Impact: Enhancing the Viewing Experience

Publishers play a vital role in delivering video content to viewers. Publishers should focus on enhancing the viewing experience to cater to evolving viewer expectations. Here are key considerations:

Audio Enhancement: As more consumers watch videos with sound, publishers should consider using audio to enhance stories by incorporating catchy music or valuable voice-overs. This can significantly improve the overall viewing experience and captivate the audience.

Contextual Alignment: Viewers seek alignment between content and ads and between content and recommended articles. Publishers with contextual data can use these insights to recommend additional articles and videos to keep readers engaged and on the site longer. Sharing this data with advertisers can also enable smarter targeting decisions.

Engaging On-Site Experiences: Consumers prefer to stay within a handful of publisher properties rather than jump between multiple destinations to consume content. Publishers can increase viewer engagement by developing captivating on-site experiences that attract desired audiences and encourage longer time spent on their pages.

Understanding consumer preferences and behavior for consuming video content, including advertising, is crucial for both advertisers and publishers. For publishers seeking to capture the surge in video ad spend, adapting strategies to align with these preferences can lead to a more effective and engaging viewer experience, benefitting all stakeholders in the digital advertising ecosystem.

To download the full report, visit Connatix here.

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