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.

TransUnion recently announced a partnership with Datavant, the industry’s most trusted health data connectivity solution. Datavant’s irreversible, encrypted “tokens” will help TransUnion match de-identified patient demographic data with healthcare clients’ first-party and licensed third-party data. 

We spoke with Michael Schoen, EVP of Marketing Solutions, TransUnion, about what the health ecosystem can expect and how this collaboration will affect healthcare publishers. 

Yakira Young: Can you go into more detail about TransUnion’s new partnership with Datavant?

Michael Schoen: In partnering with Datavant, TransUnion can now enable healthcare, pharma, and other brands to evaluate and optimize the effectiveness of their marketing efforts. The partnership will also allow Datavant’s ecosystem of partners to connect to demographic data available in TruAudience®, TransUnion’s comprehensive suite of solutions. For example, we see companies leveraging this partnership to measure the impact of marketing on prescription volumes in a HIPAA-compliant way and adjust their campaigns’ targeting and media channel mix to improve results.

YY: How does Datavant help organizations securely connect health data?

MS: Datavant works to reduce the friction of data sharing across the healthcare industry with technology that protects patients’ privacy while supporting the linkage of patient health records across datasets. 

As mentioned, the company’s industry-leading software generates irreversible, encrypted tokens to enable TransUnion to match de-identified patient demographic data with healthcare clients’ first-party and licensed third-party data. This enables organizations to understand better, reach, and measure the effectiveness of campaigns to specific audiences.

The top 30 pharma brands use Datavant’s privacy-first data connectivity solutions, more than 2,000 hospitals and 15,000 clinics.

YY: What are de-identified patient insights and measurement solutions, and how are they useful for healthcare brands?

MS: TransUnion connects its demographic and lifestyle data to healthcare data, while Datavant software enables de-identification tools, which do not leverage personally identifiable information, to help customers protect patient privacy. 

This integration will allow healthcare and pharmaceutical companies to improve outcomes across the full lifecycle of patient engagement, especially measurement of outreach effectiveness. 

YY: How will TransUnion’s TruAudience marketing solutions benefit healthcare brands in this partnership?

MS: The U.S. healthcare and pharma industries are expected to spend nearly $18 billion dollars on digital advertising in 2023 alone. We’re enabling them to spend these dollars in the most effective way possible. 

We can connect the dots between those consumers and physicians who may be exposed to campaign activity and those who are then writing prescriptions. It unlocks a much more granular view of marketing effectiveness in a privacy-safe way.

Beyond offering a measure of the ROI of outreach, the tool also allows for optimization. 

 Marketers can use it to fine-tune the channels used and personalize creative across audiences. TransUnion can leverage more granular-level data sets to fine-tune the optimization of marketing campaigns.

YY: Will patient privacy be protected while accessing health data?

MS: By working with Datavant and leveraging their tokenization technology, we can connect TransUnion’s consumer data in a de-identified and HIPAA-compliant way.

YY: How will this partnership impact health publishers such as Everyday Health and WebMD?

MS: TransUnion can now bring real-world data and its end-to-end marketing solutions to publishers. With TransUnion’s measurement solutions, healthcare and pharma companies will also gain more insight into which health publishers impact their campaigns most.

YY: Will health publishers have access to the de-identified patient insights and measurement solutions?

MS: Yes, Datavant’s healthcare data tokenization software can be utilized to implement TransUnion’s TruAudience marketing solutions across companies in the healthcare ecosystem.

YY: How can health publishers use this partnership to improve their content and services?

MS: Health publishers can now leverage this partnership to combine real-world data with TransUnion’s consumer insights, allowing publishers to tailor content and services around the most up-to-date demands and interests of consumers.

YY: What are the potential benefits for patients in this partnership?

MS: This partnership enables patient data to be used responsibly, as the tokens used are encrypted and irreversible, thus minimizing the risk of re-identification. In addition, this data will be used to improve aggregate patient outcomes.

The post Here’s How TransUnion Is Decoding Health Data With Datavant appeared first on AdMonsters.

The answer to this question is debatable; many don’t even know the true history behind the holiday, but there is an opportunity for publishers and brands to strategize.

“Publishers should use cultural holidays as a starting point to build a long-term commitment to their audience,” Sandy Ramous Zohios, Product Marketing Lead for H Code, explained. “This will inadvertently help brand partnerships maximize their exposure, reach, and impact while providing the consistency needed to develop a deeper relationship with the Hispanic consumer.”

With a population of 62 million, Hispanics represent nearly 19% of the U.S. population, making up for more than half of the population growth over the past decade and skyrocketing in buying power. 

Hispanic buying power is currently at $2.8 trillion, representing a 150% increase in the last decade. Remember, identity doesn’t fit into a single box, as many Hispanics identify as Afro-Latino and Asian-Latino. 

There are more than 3.8 million Afro-Latinos in the U.S., representing 6.3% of all Latinos, and the Asian population increased by 28% since 2010, rising to 1.1 million and representing 1.8% of all Latinos.

According to the 2022 Hispanic Market Guide, diversity within Hispanic communities impacts America’s growing multicultural mainstream. Understanding Cinco De Mayo is a good starting point for unlocking long-term growth between brands and Hispanic media publishers.

What is Cinco de Mayo? 

Cinco de Mayo (Spanish: “Fifth of May”), also known as the Anniversary of the Battle of Puebla, is a holiday celebrated in the state of Puebla and the U.S. in honor of a military win in 1862 against the French army led by Napoleon III. According to critics, the enthusiasm behind the holiday didn’t kick in until it was linked to the promotion of Mexican cocktails. Many U.S. festivities perpetuate negative stereotypes of Mexicans and promote excessive drinking. 

Despite the negative connotation that is sometimes associated with Cinco de Mayo, there are still ways for publishers and brands to collaborate and create culturally respectful campaigns. 

“Considering that Cinco de Mayo is a U.S.-created “holiday” that has evolved, the best way to capitalize on the momentum is by avoiding stereotypes and celebrating Mexican culture and the contributions of Mexican Americans in the U.S.,” explained Isabella Sanchez, VP of Media Integration at Zubi. “Cinco de Mayo has become a platform mostly for snacks, food, beer, and liquor brands to kick off the summer. Many do it well with respectful, celebratory tones and emphasizing the importance of gathering with family and friends. Those brands executing campaigns tied to Cinco de Mayo are typically targeting the entire U.S. market, not just Hispanics, as it provides the opportunity to increase awareness and sales.”

The Key to a Fruitful Future 

Rather than using Cinco de Mayo as a shallow marketing opportunity without realizing its significance, brands must approach the holiday with cultural caution. Gen Z and Millenials prefer the real deal over anything fake, and brands seeking to target younger demographics should take a closer look at the Hispanic community. 

“With a purchasing power of 1.9 trillion and doubling in the years to come, the Hispanic consumer economic power continues to grow much faster than the country as a whole,” said Zohios. “This demographic is not a monolith group. Brands need to take time to recognize the diversity within this population. Brands should tailor their messaging based on different traditions, cultures, and dialects to build a stronger relationship with the Hispanic Consumer.” 

Brands must also put cultural literacy at the forefront, which means solid internal DEI teams are crucial. According to a recent study, over 50% of people ages 13-49 have quit a culturally illiterate brand, saying it “offended them or disrespected their values.” Seventy-two percent of Black female parents ages 25-49 have quit a brand for the same reason. 

By utilizing Hispanic marketing experts, brands can strategize and establish best practices around respecting and celebrating Mexican culture, art, music, and food. They must honor the duality of Hispanic culture by crafting marketing messages that celebrate the diversity of this audience segment.

The post Investing in Hispanic Audiences Beyond Cinco de Mayo and HHM appeared first on AdMonsters.

She schooled the audience, providing them with concrete tips for enhancing their innovation strategies, as well as attracting and engaging new audiences, building stronger relationships with current audiences, driving engagement across multiple channels, and taking advantage of the commerce media boom. And for the revenue professionals in the room, Harris also made a key point about the importance of connecting audience, data, and content to revenue.

Above all else, she stressed, publishers must utilize their individuality as a competitive advantage.

Here are nine points from Harris’ keynote that publishers should add to the top of their strategy list for Q4 planning and beyond:

9 Illuminating Ideas to Keep Pubs Innovating

1. Plan for Every Scenario

Harris shared how Ascential’s CEO Duncan Painter utilizes scenario planning to map out decisions three years ahead for what may potentially happen. You might not know what the future holds, but if you prepare for all possibilities there’s a good chance that one of those might become reality. Having prepared for every scenario imaginable, and being able to leverage the knowledge you’ve gathered in your research and planning phases will provide you with stronger decision-making abilities should the event occur. You must consider all possibilities.

In the case of PubForum attendees, Harris explained, “When you start moving the levers of monetization, things change. You are part of an enormous ecosystem, and as a publisher, you have more control than you think. It all lies in prioritizing, framing, and thinking about your decisions.”

2. Know Your Consumer

As a publisher, you know the consumer and their behaviors. Their data is a treasure trove of information, and the consumer ultimately trusts you. Consumers make a huge commitment when they decide to visit your platform. Don’t betray their trust. Provide them with relevant content (including advertising) to keep them engaged, excited, and coming back for more.

3. Content Is King

While context matters, the content delivered matters even more. Consumers will continue to visit certain publishers for their content because they have decided to trust them. You have the ability to provide them with a content experience that feels personal and that they can see themselves in. Don’t confuse creating engaging content with what technological advancements will predict for you. Technology is not a replacement for human beings. The robots will not take over. The human connection is so powerful that you cannot eliminate people. Even data is produced by human beings doing certain activities. Trust the data to tell you what people really want.

4. Develop a Strong Digital Commerce Strategy

Digital Commerce is the number one driver of all retail growth in the US and is expected to reach $1 trillion by the end of 2022. Retail Media is on target to surpass $50 billion by 2023. Publishers should not be scared that retail media is coming for their piece of the pie, because retail media advertising is content. Brands are looking to partner with publishers who know exactly who their consumers are and what interests them.

It’s why The New York Times bought Wirecutter. It’s why many of Ziff Davis’ brands provide deals and the company also owns a channel of shopping brands. It’s also why G/O Media has Kinja Deals. So whether you choose to provide product reviews or deals or consumer-generated content related to commerce, the opportunities are endless.

5. Establish Mutually Beneficial Partnerships

When thinking about where your consumers are, align with people and platform solutions that can help you be better and drive your mission forward. Collaboration helps to keep the ecosystem going and the entire infrastructure alive. Publishers need to think of where their opportunities lie and establish partnerships.

6. User Experience Trumps Almost Everything Else

You’ll make mistakes as everyone does, but continue to push forward and remember that your audience will tell you everything you need to know. When people are unhappy, they leave reviews and comments and often write letters. Use it to your advantage, and take in that feedback. Feedback is a gift. Use that data to leverage your user experience and enhance your content.

7. Be Swift

Technology is moving incredibly fast, and so are consumers. The longer it takes to pivot, the further you will be behind. Think about the future, make investments, and prioritize your strategies. Companies that are reluctant to move forward with the next best ad tech advancement tend to miss out and end up unprepared. You’d be shocked how many retail establishments don’t have an online presence. They are definitely behind the ball.

8. Opportunity is All a Matter of Perspective

While Harris acknowledged that times are challenging, publishers must make the appropriate investments to leapfrog ahead of the competition. People are constantly creating content, and there are lots of distractions. Younger generations are generally more prone to their distractions. Instead of watching the 6:00 p.m. news as our grandparents did, they get their information from Twitter and Tik Tok. If you’re not careful, all of these distractions will take hold. Whether it’s truth, justice, equality, or a fair economy, publishers have the power to inform, persuade, and influence.

9. Tell Real Stories

It’s imperative that publishers tell relatable stories to excite and delight their audiences. Storytelling is the most powerful tool for marketers and publishers. Think of the story that Ron Duque,  Head of Advertising and Ad Tech Operations at WeatherBug, told about how the Cajun Navy Ground Force, an incredible group of volunteer first responders who rescue people during natural disasters, uses WeatherBug’s lighting feature when he showed this commercial during his keynote.

WeatherBug | The Cajun Navy from RuleOf3 on Vimeo.

As a Louisiana native, Harris shared how she knows the impact of the Cajun Navy during floods and hurricanes. It made me feel incredibly proud to see them on screen and captured so authentically. The connection and stories that publishers can illuminate for brand marketers are limitless. Content is king and sharing these stories is what can set publishers apart. Human-to-human connections matter most.

Whether it’s Reuters, Weatherbug, or Buzzfeed, the content lives there. Don’t just lean into the things you feel most comfortable with. Tell real human stories. Remember that this is the one thing that sets you apart, do not go where you’re comfortable; step outside of your comfort zone and get people excited about the preposition. Take a chance, lean into telling people real stories, and expand on your uniqueness.

Do Not Be Afraid

via GIPHY

While change can be spooky, it’s time for pubs to hone in on the opportunity to elevate and grow during testing times. Platforms “of the moment” may be like shiny objects, but the digital world is moving at the speed of light, do not miss out on what comes next.

The post Publisher Forum Keynote: 9 Illuminating Ideas to Keep Pubs Innovating From Ascential’s Sharon Harris appeared first on AdMonsters.

The value of that data by itself is somewhat limited. Unfortunately, a lot of publishers haven’t connected all of the dots on all of that data to really get to know their audiences as intimately as they could and should. To dig deeper and gain a better understanding of their interests and motivations, and more important—their intent to buy.

For years publishers have sold advertising targeted around specific content, using available first-party data as the basis for establishing value around the opportunity. More recently though, publishers started offering branded content sponsorships that highlight reaching specific audiences with articles created in cooperation with an advertising partner. In both cases a publisher’s value proposition is around the scale of the audience that engages with this content; ultimately that value proposition boils down to selling pageviews, impressions and clicks.

That someone is interested in a piece of content doesn’t really communicate the entire story. First-party data is only the start of being able to tell advertisers a meaningful story about your audience’s consumer journey. Often it’s necessary to beef up consumer engagement across more channels and devices with third-party data that has the ability to uncover the why behind consumer actions.

Your audience is a lot more than just pageviews and demographics. The better you know your audience, the more engaged they will be with your content, and then the more valuable that audience will be to your advertisers.

Consider cleaning up and better structuring your data and then create custom dimensions to provide you with deeper insights into your audience—and a stronger monetization opportunity. The following three steps will start you on your way to shaping a better story about your audience for advertisers.

1. Start with Pre-Sales Insights

Research and sales planning begins with audience insights. This is where you collect and analyze all of the user data you have from all of the sources available to you, including web, mobile, email, surveys and also CRM and/or connected TV.

Once you’ve collected all of the inputs, become data informed by looking at your audience based on a set of characteristics. It’s not enough to know who they are, you’re going to want to look more closely at where they’re going (both online and offline) and what they’re doing. Can you answer why they’re doing what they’re doing?

Are you looking at cross-channel data in social and mobile and digging deep into their programming and content preferences to help you better stitch together a story about why they’re engaging with a certain type of content or advertising? Can you answer exactly what it is that they want?

2. Build High-value Audiences for Advertisers

Once you better understand the desired target audience, how do you package those audiences up for advertisers? You’ll have to take your first-party data beyond demographics and geography to include psychographics and gain real insights into their behaviors and intent.

Knowing how many women aged 25-34 visit your site is one thing, but knowing how many of them prefer reading about health and beauty content instead of parenting content is a powerful story. Would that story become even more compelling if you knew how many of those readers had an affinity for a specific beauty brand or subscribed to a certain streaming service? That’s strong potential to help drive sales opportunities.

Custom audience segmentation is the process of building out audiences based on attributes. What are their affinities? Once you gain a deeper understanding of your audience, you can start to see trends emerging that will enable you to deliver highly targeted engaged audiences. Say for instance dads 25-34 who like to drink wine, specifically boxed wine.

But you might find that your custom target audience is too small and you’ll need to create audience extensions by finding the right partner who can help you to model richer and deeper target segments beyond your own data. You might want to find a partner who can answer the why that leads to stronger customer engagement and a better outcome for advertisers.

3. Analyze and Readjust

Developing insights into your audience data and creating custom segmentations is only part of the journey. Being able to validate the opportunity is a critical differentiator. As a publisher, it’s table stakes to demonstrate that you have the right target audiences and that they’re performing well for your advertisers. Validating audiences and branded content campaigns requires publishers to incorporate modern advertising agency disciplines into their workflow and offerings.

You’ll want to constantly track and analyze your results so that you can provide actionable insight reporting. The audience you thought was highly engaged in a particular category might not perform as well as you predicted. That requires time, systems or tools, assuming you have the people to help do that consistently.

The pre-sales audience strategy that made the sale possible is only part of the equation; a publisher’s best practice is to incorporate A/B testing by tracking the creative and content efficacy across multiple campaigns and audience targets. This step provides a greater opportunity to learn even more about your audiences and adjust targets if necessary.

Successful publishers understand that an audience strategy is bilateral; having the tools to help define, shape and validate that the publisher’s audience is right for an advertising partner also involves delivering value back to that advertiser from the very beginning and throughout the partnership.

This article is the second in a three-part article series:

1. Part I: How Do I Know Data Is Quality?
2. Part II: How Can Publishers Tell a Better Audience Story?
3. Part III: Be Your Advertisers’ Chief Data Consultant

The post How Can Publishers Tell a Better Audience Story? appeared first on AdMonsters.

Though Zynga made deals to try to prevent this from happening, eventually Facebook shuffled its weight and the game-maker suffered through several rounds of layoffs starting in 2013.

I felt like I was having a Zynga flashback when publishers like BuzzFeed joyously hailed how much revenue they were driving thanks to Facebook traffic. I knew it was a matter of time before Facebook put on the squeeze—and it’s been a long, slow one that’s only recently began to show its toll in publisher layoffs.

In the wake of damning reports of platform abuse by unsavory parties following the 2016 election, Facebook seems to have gone for the full choke: a major algorithm change that seriously downplays editorial-type content in the newsfeed. At least one pub has cited this algorithm switch as the reason for its closure, and publishers of all stripes are biting their nails when they think about their referral traffic.

There is a silver lining, though—Zynga seems to have rallied. In 2018, the company boasts more than 1,600 employees and net revenue of $741 million. Premium publishers can wean themselves off their Facebook traffic habit, but it’s going to be painful. Ops speaking alum and Dailymotion VP of Product and Partner Development Claudia Page has an insightful take on how publishers and other media companies can dwindle their dependence on the Duopoly in general, and how best to work with such platforms in the future.

Let’s start with something straightforward, and yet extremely confounding. At Recode’s Code Media, Campbell Brown of Facebook’s news partnerships team said if publishers don’t think Facebook is right for them, they shouldn’t be on it. But is that really an option? Can pubs quit Facebook?

CLAUDIA PAGE: If you look at the history of media, there have been a lot of evolutions, but the progress has also been incredibly cyclical. Back in the early days of the internet, portals like AOL and Yahoo were the dominant traffic machines to publisher websites—about as dominant as Facebook and Google are today. And yet, the publishers that endured and thrived understood the importance of owning their audiences, as AOL and Yahoo eventually lost their dominance.

BuzzFeed, The Huffington Post, and The New York Times are looked to as the prime case studies in how publishers can build audiences beyond the homepage via side-door strategies—marked by an aggressive use of social and SEO—and these strategies were made famous in our world via the Times’ 2014 Innovation Report.

There’s a big difference between having traffic and having an audience that trusts you and engages with your content outside of a feed.

While Pinterest is a platform, they also grew by cultivating communities around niche subject areas and using media aggregation to their advantage. Instead of simply targeting large lifestyle categories, Pinterest understood the power of owning smaller subsets within these categories, like “tattoos,” and becoming the de facto source for trusted content on niche topics.

The common thread with these examples is that these companies focused on audience development, rather than hitting traffic targets alone. There’s a big difference between having traffic and having an audience that trusts you and engages with your content outside of a feed.

With Facebook developing a point of view on the definition of quality news, the teams responsible for carrying out these marching orders are now focused on surfacing “broadly trusted” publishers. This will help Facebook change the conversation with publishers away from quantity and move the conversation towards quality. It may seem confounding that Campbell Brown, as head of news partnerships at Facebook, would suggest pubs shouldn’t be on their platform. But I think this is a clear message that Facebook wants publishers to focus on engagement, not traffic.

A blind reliance on a single platform to drive traffic is not, and never has been, an effective means for building audiences.

Because I’m a fogey who has been covering this industry for a long time, Facebook’s battle with clickbait and fake news reminds me a lot of Google vs. the content farms back in 2010-11—in both, actors were playing platform algorithms and controls to drive traffic to sites (that were potentially monetized by those same platforms). Do you see the parallels, and how do you think the two examples primarily differ?

Going back to my earlier point, the evolution of media is cyclical. What we’ve seen, then and now, is a platform re-calibrating and correcting as media consumption increases, along with instances of people (or bots) gaming the system to their own benefit and to the detriment to the industry at-large. With Google and now Facebook, we’ve seen a loss of control, an admission of that loss of control, and now, steps to rectify it.

What’s different is that today the conversation about the ethics of these platforms has reached a higher order. When we were criticizing Google in 2011, we were largely discussing how click-farms were bad for our industry—bad for marketers, bad for publishers, etc. Today, these concerns go much deeper. They’re really about the kind of world we want to live in, and how we need to protect people—not just marketers and publishers—from malicious forces that threaten to abuse the platforms we’ve come to rely on to stay connected and informed within our communities.

About a year and a half ago, Dailymotion began to rethink its own place in the online ecosystem. The strategy shifted away from functioning as a massive pool of user-generated content mixed with professional content, to a highly curated, algorithmically-driven video platform in which we would help people discover the videos that matter. For us, this means focusing on premium content partners, nurturing discovery of new and trusted content creators and ceasing the monetization of UGC to protect our brand partners.

This is the first article in a brief series. You can find the second portion of Claudia and Gavin’s conversation here.

The post The Next Stage of Social Strategy: A Q&A With Claudia Page of Dailymotion (Part 1) appeared first on AdMonsters.

A Mutually Understood Self-Destruction

Audiences have come to expect access to content wherever they go, and they have their go-to platforms and publishers for consuming their content. Audiences want to be able to read their favorite news publication on their smartphones, catch up on the latest celebrity gossip on their tablets, and have the capability to stream shows like Homeland on their connected TVs. Platform companies seem to have realized that a level of openness is necessary for their platform and/or devices’ adoption and survival – it’s something of a mutually understood self-destruction. If Google were to limit Apple device users from accessing Google apps, the company runs the risk of alienating Apple users and losing out on potential market share. The same is true for Apple. If Apple didn’t allow for a Gmail app on its devices, it’s likely a number of users would probably opt for a device that does. These relationships will become even more interesting when Netflix launches a device of their own and Amazon gets into email services.

Losing buyers is only one potential problem companies risk when they don’t work together. When platform companies don’t offer competitors’ apps, they increase their chances of upsetting customers, and the public backlash from this can be damaging. A great example of this is the Google Maps and iPhone Maps debacle, which earned the nickname “mapocalypse” on social media. Apple decided to ditch Google Maps for its own mapping system on the iPhone 5, but iPhone Maps just wasn’t up to par with Google Maps. Apple CEO Tim Cook ended up issuing a public apology and recommending iPhone owners consider using Google maps through a mobile Web browser or seek other alternatives until his company could fix the problems. The issue was serious enough for Apple to dismiss several executives who worked on the mapping system. From the outside, it appeared that Apple took its audience for granted, assuming that its users would adopt iPhone Maps, regardless of the UI. The public outcry and resulting Apple back peddling proves that the audience is very important to a product’s success. For now, Apple has decided that coexisting with Google and Google Maps is the best option, but it doesn’t mean they can’t still be competitive. Sharing the space with rivals can offer the motivation needed to focus on developing top-notch experiences to win users. 

Amazon’s Kindle is a perfect example of app democratization gone right (for now). Amazon makes its Kindle app available across the board (for free), and the number of people using Kindle devices has been growing steadily, with an increase over the recent holiday (in North America, Apple’s iPad market share dropped 7.14%, while Amazon’s Kindle Fire gained a total of 3.03% market share during that same time period). Although Amazon doesn’t typically provide hard numbers regarding the Kindle’s success, it’s assumed that the company’s internal goals are being met because it has been adding to the “Kindle Family” every year since the Kindle made its debut. Amazon’s success is unique in that its devices have been able to penetrate the market at the same time it offers a free Kindle app for competitors’ devices.

Time will only tell if Google and Apple will allow Amazon’s book and magazine library to compete with their own. Amazon might even be inviting such a backlash. It’s important to note that while Amazon is providing a free Kindle app for competing devices, it hasn’t exactly returned the favor. Even though Amazon’s apps are powered by Android, Amazon uses its own app store instead of Google Play and many of Google’s popular apps, such as Google Maps, Google Chrome, and Gmail, are unavailable for the Kindle Fire. So far, this strategy has not appeared to hurt the platform’s adoption significantly, but I personally returned my Kindle devices for the Nexus 7 when it came out and then only bought another Kindle because of the new FreeTime feature, only available on Kindle. 

All About the Audience

Ultimately, monolithic platform companies work together because their popularity with users depends on it. Media companies – publishers and producers alike – need to find a similar balance to combat fragmentation and reach audiences everywhere. It’s true that the producers end up with a bigger logistical burden of trying to be everywhere and everything – an app on a platform, content purchasable through a platform store, accessible via the browser directly by the consumer, syndicated through multiple publishers, and so on. And publishers must not only consider publishing their own content but must also add as much to their own library as possible. Either way, it’s all about what video content audiences want to watch, where and how they want to watch it.

The Wall Street Journal is a perfect example of a company that has taken on the challenge, innovated, and has thus far enjoyed great success with the launch of its interactive news video apps and web syndication WSJ Live. Audiences can conveniently consume their daily dose of WSJ videos from the company’s site and from any device they happen to be using. Similarly, NBC has episodes from some of its popular shows, such as 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation, available on Netflix, even though NBC has its own app available for audiences on Android and iOS. NBC understands that Netflix is an important means of connecting to audiences through OTT services. By making older episodes of its popular shows available on streaming publishers, while offering current episodes through its linear broadcast channels, sites, and apps, NBC is able to benefit from a wider reach, tap into new audiences, and, most importantly, offer audiences more choices for consuming their content. More producers need to follow suit, offering content at every possible audience touch point if they want to maintain a thriving base. And publishers should consider syndicating more content from these producers for their digital properties.

Yes, managing all the paths to the user can be a daunting task, but it’s feasible if companies are willing to put in the legwork. For instance, if you’re a magazine company frequented by men, offer them all the content they would ever need at your site and build a presence on every device. If you’re a producer that creates cooking videos and you think you’ll be able to monetize all by yourself, think again – you need to syndicate. Just like how Panasonic sells products directly at a higher price than its distributor Best Buy, content and publishing companies can work out relationships that don’t hinder each of their business models. At the end of the day, media companies that don’t embrace this philosophy will risk losing some of their audience. 

The post Coexisting on a Competitive Landscape: Lessons from the Monolithic Platforms appeared first on AdMonsters.

We’ve all heard that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results. The online ad industry is vocal about the need for more brand advertising to move online as consumers tune out offline advertising on TV and in magazines. However, even with the emergence of accountable, brand-friendly ad formats – such as Cost Per View (CPV) video, and Cost Per Engagement (CPE) – little of the estimated 20% uptick in online advertising this year went to brand campaigns.

Most marketers continue to do what they have always done while expecting improved brand advertising results. And agencies and publishers are doing the same and expecting to take more brand dollars from TV. If the industry really wants to change the flow of brand ad dollars we must show that online brand advertising can change consumer behavior. To do this, we must change our own behavior regarding online brand advertising measurement.

Stop Worrying about the ‘View’

Brand advertising is not about views or clicks, and the sooner we eliminate these failed, legacy approaches as the underlying industry metric for online advertising, the better.

As part of the online brand building effort, advertisers and marketers need to feel confident that their online investments are working towards measurable brand building goals, and they have the right metrics that can accurately demonstrate success across their campaigns. Instead, what they find with CTR is a metric with limited ability to measure if a campaign or message actually resonated with consumers. Branding is emotive and the science behind measuring it can’t be limited to a simple click counter. Clicking an image has almost no bearing on a consumer’s recall, favorability or purchase intent.

Make Measurement Simple

So what’s the alternative measurement for brand campaigns? If the past is prologue, we can assume the answer is a more complex, acronym-laden scale or dashboard that in the end doesn’t provide better measurement of brand campaign effectiveness than CTR. And that would be a shame.

Instead, let’s go the other way and make things simple (again, changing our behavior). Let’s focus on engagement defined in this way: Did someone interact with the ad in a meaningful way (no errant mouse roll-overs, for example)? Did they comprehend the brand message? Did that message create a memory associated with the brand? Did that association positively impact a potential purchasing decision?

That seems easy, right? With these types of metrics in place, it becomes both possible and rational to pay for behaviors instead of paying for views, click-throughs or impressions. More importantly for publishers, it implies a big shift away from selling discounted audiences to selling premium behaviors, where a publisher can charge on a performance-basis when a user shares a link, watches a complete online video, prints a coupon, types a brand message into a box, or initiates a transaction of any sort. Behold, performance-based branding!

So What Does This Mean for Publishers?

Publishers who understand the behavioral patterns of their audience, and can translate that audience behavior into participation, will have a competitive advantage. With performance metrics in place, publishers will be able to sell behaviors and build advertising campaigns that can measurably deliver on both branding and business goals. This is a virtuous cycle: marketers will pay handsomely to buy distinct behaviors, which will afford publishers the opportunity to consistent improve their content.

This year, you can expect to see more online brand campaigns designed to produce specific user behaviors. And marketers will only pay when users take those actions. Marketers have already come to expect this from some forms of online advertising. Supported by better math and science, online brand advertising will finally have a more coherent story for marketers and media buyers, and attract the bigger budgets that have so far eluded the medium. Agencies and publishers who continue to transact on a lowest common denominator basis will see a race to the bottom for their services and inventory, alike.

The post Measuring Brand Advertising on a Performance Basis appeared first on AdMonsters.

The post Audience Verification – What’s the Deal? appeared first on AdMonsters.