2023 Predictions: Why contextual targeting and insights will save advertising.
This month’s debunked blog explores our 2023 adtech predictions.
There’s no denying it, marketers have one destination to head towards in 2023 – a privacy-first future. From the rise of governmental regulations such as the GDPR, combined with Google’s third-party cookie demise (which will likely happen in the year 3000 at this rate), the industry is being pressured to change and adopt new approaches to advertising and marketing.
Yet, despite the destination being clear, the journey to get to a privacy-first future, is a little less so. Brands are being flooded with endless headlines around new approaches to consumer engagement, but there is one solution that is creeping through the wood works; a solution that has long been cemented in our worlds, but perhaps forgotten about in favour of the humble cookie. Here we have, rising from the ashes, contextual targeting.
However, some of you don’t have the best opinion of contextual targeting:
- “Contextual is just a bunch of keywords”
- “Third-party cookies aren’t going away, so I’ll stick to that”
- “There’s too much hype around contextual, I don’t get what the fuss is all about”
We ran a poll on LinkedIn recently which revealed many opinions towards this long-used method for advertising, and we could sense some hesitation towards contextual. So, I am here today to tell you that you are all wrong! (In the nicest, possible way).
Here are my SEVEN reasons why you should be paying attention to contextual targeting in 2023.
01: Trust & Privacy:
Audiences are becoming more and more fractured, and our attention is increasingly becoming precious. Consumers are getting tired of their data being used to serve ads that follow them around the internet, and more often than not, are irrelevant or annoying. Rather than taking an identity-based approach, contextual is all about relevancy, based on contexts and environments, not on an individual user. It is fully about trust and protecting consumers, whilst giving advertisers the scale they need.
Stepping into 2023, it’s clear that brands should be exploring contextual solutions to reach that privacy-first destination.
02: Personalisation & Creativity:
Many associate contextual targeting with what was available a decade ago: a top-level targeting solution that placed people’s interests into buckets based on a bunch of keywords. I am proud to tell you, those days are over. Contextual targeting is now being driven by AI that has been trained by using machine learning techniques, computer vision and natural language processing to ensure the context of a page isn’t purely based on a bunch of words; instead, it understands the nuance, sentiment and true meaning of the content. Meaning advertisers can deliver amazing personalised ad creatives to capture engagement in the right time and place.
I predict that contextual solutions such as 4D will see a surge in popularity in 2023 as brands look to deliver more personalised ads in safe environments.
03: Relevancy & Accuracy:
Premium contextual solutions such as 4D, are capable of identifying patterns in content completely independently, whilst driving insights that enable an advertiser to continuously optimise to drive relevance and accuracy. The technology is not only capable of thoroughly analysing articles, but entire networks of content across different countries, languages and across standard categories. It also allows advertisers to use advanced machine learning models to do custom targeting specific to that brief, which is more accurate than traditional targeting.
Amidst this economic crisis we find ourselves in, it is more important than ever for brands to be relevant to their audiences. Trends for 2023 are already showing that contextual solutions will thrive as consumers seek more relevant experiences.
04: Ad Memorization:
Contextual ad placements can not only support brands in their ads being visible whilst driving engagement, but they can also increase ad memorisation. In fact, an IAS Study ran last year, revealed that ad context increased memorability by up to 40%.
Brilliantly named the ‘Context Effect’, the report had some amazing findings: Endemically matched ads, or those aligned with the surrounding content based on a specific vertical, drove a 23% lift in activation within the part of the brain responsible for memory of practical details, which includes key messages, calls to action, and branding elements. These ads also boosted global memory by 27%, or the memorability of broad themes, overarching narratives, or audio and visual elements.
This report shows us that during the coming 12 months, contextual will play a vital role for brands connecting with consumers.
05: Consistency, Performance & Measurement:
It’s common practice that marketers run campaigns, and only consider afterwards how they are tracking and performing. Establishing a consistent measurement system for campaigns is critical to actually gauging success, and this is centred around the ability to optimise in real-time and make tweaks where needed.
It is important to plan out the metrics and look at relevant content and context to place ads for specific purposes and goals. When well-executed, contextual ads can help brands add value across the funnel.
It is also becoming increasingly important for brands to position their advertising in a manner that is consistent with the content of the page(s). By using all the incredible AI and technology innovations explained above, brands can deliver consistent and meaningful user experiences to audiences with confidence.
I predict that measurement will be a key trend heading into 2023, as brands seek to drive efficiencies across their organisation during a time where budgets are being cut.
06: The Publisher Story:
Contextual targeting is a great way for publishers to obtain or retain advertisers, who are constantly looking for ways to reach their target audience at the right times. In fact, brands and publishers can work together to understand their audience and provide ads in the right context, therefore driving relevancy, engagement and an improved value exchange. Thus, creating value on both sides, as publishers inventory becomes more premium, sought after and relevant.
One of the key trends in 2023 will be the relationship between publishers and brands becoming tighter, as they work together to create a more trusted and value exchange future for their audiences.
07: Ad Verification:
When it comes to online advertising campaigns, more and more advertisers are striving to find quality solutions that deliver powerful and accurate data in real-time. However the focus is not solely on performance and results. In a rapidly changing landscape, ad verification monitoring tools are becoming increasingly important, as they drive greater efficiencies. Something all businesses need to explore during this current economic climate.
Ad verification becomes an essential tool to ensure that digital ad spend is not wasted. It ensures reliable and safe content, helps to monitor where ads are shown, whilst detecting suspicious and invalid traffic; thus helping to optimise costs and avoid wasted money on irrelevant placements.
To this end, certified contextual targeting that complies with ad verification tools and global standards will be crucial. Don’t forget, contextual targeting meets this need for quality and reliable advertising, creating a safe and trusted environment for brands, and so when combined with ad verification tools, it’s a win win for all.
So, have I convinced you now? Send me a message on LinkedIn to find out more about how contextual can help you in 2023 and beyond.
2023 Predictions: Nothing worth having comes easy.
How are we nearing the end of another year? I feel like I say it every year – that time passes by the older you get – but this year seems to have gone by in a flash!
2022, as with many years gone by, has had its fair share of ups and downs. For many, it was the first year where life found some level of normality, and the challenges of the global pandemic and numerous lockdowns began to feel like a distant (yet traumatic) memory. But, as with many things in life, new challenges and obstacles were just around the corner, and as we approach the final chapter of the year, we find ourselves in strange times once again.
But I don’t want my final words of 2022 to be dwelling on what we all know. When tough times challenge us, more often than not we build strength and resilience in how we approach the future. And so I want to explore some of the most exciting developments and predictions in the industry that I see for the next 12 months and beyond.
So join me in my positive affirmations for 2023, as we get ourselves excited for what incredible innovations lie ahead for the wonderfully complex world of (m)adtech.
“Challenges are what make work interesting, and overcoming them is what makes it meaningful”
The Service Layer | Despite the current economic crisis where we are witnessing more and more budget cuts, marketers will need more support than ever before to navigate through a complex, fragmented and ever-changing advertising and marketing technology ecosystem. And the “service layer” will do just that. Service providers who will find success in 2023 are those that will be able to diversify their offering, focusing less on business as usual (BAU) campaign operations, and more so on the ‘hands-on’ consulting approach that can provide real tangible ROI and long-term value.
I expect the big focus areas to be maximizing the use of current customer data assets for more cost-effective marketing comms, data value measurement and tech stack optimization. What has been incredible to witness this year, is the change in marketer’s mindset. There seems to be a real want to change, and overcome the challenges they face to build a better future – not only for them, their business and their revenues, but for their audiences and the value they provide them.
“The world accommodates you for fitting in, but only rewards you for standing out.” (Matshona Dhliwayo)
Data Infrastructure | CDPs (Customer Data Platforms) and Data Clean Rooms will continue their fame as the hottest platforms in madtech throughout 2023. CDPs will advance to add features that stand out in a very crowded market, with some vendors adding proprietary campaign orchestration or consent management layers to their offering. Others may go in the opposite direction, doubling down on their core enterprise data infrastructure credentials to strengthen its abilities. Furthermore, we will see a bigger push from the CDP players, positioning themselves for non-marketing buyers – Customer Service and Sales Teams at large companies will be prime targets for indie Sales Teams next year.
The Data Clean Room space is starting to get quite crowded, with lots of new entrants claiming some interesting USPs. In fact, many CDPs and large marketing clouds are building their own flavor of clean room. I think the winners in this space will be those who will fully embrace and double down on their status as next-gen marketplace builders, rather than standing firmly on being pure-play infrastructure providers. Nevertheless, Data Clean Rooms will continue to be the foundational layer of a new era of data-driven marketing and advertising collaboration. And, we will soon see consolidation here too (but not quite yet!)
“I’m not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.” (Niccolo Machiavelli)
Open Web vs Walled Gardens | Despite the real possibility of Google delaying the third-party cookie deprecation deadline once again, in 2023, we are likely to see a shift in media dollars from the walled gardens to the open web. This would be the result of an increased interest in contextual targeting solutions, which are constantly evolving and becoming more sophisticated, whilst representing a more cost-effective way to reach audiences in paid media than walled gardens and where bid density tends to be generally higher, (especially for high-quality audiences). The next 12 months could see a real change in mindset, where marketers want to challenge the status quo, and overthrow it for more future-proofed strategies.
When it comes to the activation of customer data in media, walled gardens will still dominate over the next 12 months, as open web ID solutions are still struggling to reach significant scale outside the US. A more interesting trend to observe, however, will be the fragmentation of walled garden spend. The advertising pie is unlikely to grow significantly in 2023 due to widespread BAU budget cuts, and the available walled garden spend will be redistributed across a larger selection of players. Google and Facebook likely to shed ad revenue in favor of other tech walled gardens, such as Amazon and Apple, as well as an increasingly larger group of “private gardens” including key CTV and Retail Media players.
“Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction.” (C.S. Lewis)
Retail Media Networks | Retail media offerings will continue to grow and attract more ad dollars converging into this new channel from the open web, walled gardens, and shopper marketing. As with every innovation, this space is extremely crowded and fragmented, and therefore we may potentially see more consolidation throughout 2023. The recent announcement of the merger between Albertsons & Kroger in the US is a clear indication of what we could expect to see in the future. Advertisers are looking for scale, and retail media outlets that cannot provide it on their own will either merge, partner, or fail after remaining in the experimentation bucket of agencies and brands for a while.
Scale issues aside, retail media presents a fantastic opportunity for marketers that have struggled for decades to acquire valuable intent and purchase data, as well as advanced measurement practices such as closed-loop attribution. Recent partnerships between CTV and Retail Media players are another interesting development to watch closely in 2023. In fact, a very recent example is the partnership between ITV, Tesco, and Boots, that will enable advertisers to target consumers on ITV premium video inventory leveraging the retailers’ data. So, as the age-old saying goes, are two heads better than one, and will collaboration be the key to success for the coming year?
There are so many areas to be excited about next year. However, as Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Nothing worth having comes easy.”
I’d love to hear your positive vibes, trends, and predictions for 2023, so make sure you drop me a message via LinkedIn!
2023 Predictions: Contextual Advertising, meets Mixed Reality. 
This month’s debunked blog kicks-off our 2023 prediction series.
The mixed reality (MR) revolution is already underway, and it’s becoming (scarily) easier to envision a future in which the lines between the real world and the virtual world become even more blurred than they are today. Businesses are currently experimenting with VR and AR in ways that promise to change the landscape of advertising and marketing over time. And it makes sense. In a world where content is immersive, engaging, other-worldy – the opportunity for advertising to take place within these environments is huge. And, contextual advertising will play a leading role. Why? Well it will very much be centered around personalized, relevant advertising in environments consumers trust and love – oh, and all in the perfect moment and mindset.
I predict 2023 will be the year that contextual advertising/marketing will start to come into its own within the MR landscape. Some key reasons why I feel this is so exciting:
- Personalization in its truest form. People are all about living and learning through immersive experiences. Both VR and AR technologies open the door to personalized experiences that are unique to every individual. Contextual advertising, messaging and marketing – at the individual level – is one of marketing’s “holy grails,” and this future will soon be part of our daily lives. It goes without saying that given how intimately personal these experiences will be, as an industry we need to be held accountable more than ever with regards to ensuring privacy, safety, and relevance. As much as consumers may be wowed by these types of experiences, likewise the risk of alienating them on account of being irrelevant, intrusive – or worse- is very real.
- Virtual Engagements Replacing Physical Events It sounds scary in some ways, however, the ability for virtual experiences to take place instead of, or in tandem with physical events is quite exciting. As we have seen throughout the past year, virtual events didn’t have the legs we thought they might have, and after two years locked down, we are very much enjoying the ‘back to reality’ vibes. However, have you ever opted for a night in and experienced FOMO? Imagine being able to pop on your VR set and be there? And for advertisers, this opportunity is incredible.
- The Hybridized Experience VR and AR is a little more easier to digest for consumers through the hybridized virtual and in-person experiences. From work environments, including group events such as team building, etc., as well as social events including concerts, shows and other experiences, having a mixture of people on the ground and virtual presence will continue to grow. These continued adoptions of virtual experiences allow virtual and augmented reality to be incorporated by brands and advertisers to bring something new and engaging to their consumers.
- The Gaming Opportunity The bigger the audiences, the better the marketing and the wider the opportunity. Although VR/AR has the potential to have big audiences in the future, the gaming community is growing tenfold. In the U.S., experts estimate that nearly 60 million people will use VR, and more than 90 million people will use AR, a minimum of once a month in 2021. Aside from using the tech to experience brands in new ways, this represents a big opportunity for advertising as a whole.
- More Empowered Decision-Making The MR movement allows for a data-driven, scientific approach to strategy as well as to the derived result. Contextual advancements and AI empowers the decision-making process by accurately placing consumer sentiment.
Stay tuned weekly for our 2023 prediction series.
Seasonal Snapshots with 4D : FIFA World Cup
The long awaited FIFA World Cup 2022 has generated numerous headlines over the past few years – and not always through a positive lens.
With much controversy surrounding this year’s football season, it’s fair to say that many brands have been apprehensive about building their marketing strategy tied to the event. The political differences that overshadow the sporting arena – in conjunction with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis – has pushed many brands to shy away from the noise and focus their efforts on their annual holiday festivities instead. Yet, in contrast, some bold brands are taking the ‘bull by the horns’, so to speak, including the Brewdog family who recently received widespread backlash in light of its latest campaign. It’s fair to say, this year’s World Cup bonanza isn’t quite going to be the same event we have celebrated in years past.
However, it isn’t all doom and gloom. Amongst the political chatter, there are an abundance of sporting fans ready and raring for the event kick-off. In fact, it is anticipated that over one million spectators will attend the tournament’s 64 matches, and the competition will reach a global in-home television audience of over three billion people, with more than one billion fans tuning in to watch the final match (according to Publication FIFA in numbers).
So, how can brands remain protected and avoid the negativity, whilst take advantage of the amazing, positive sporting opportunity? You’ve guessed it – contextual targeting.
Target FIFA lovers by taking full advantage of advanced contextual.
Many advertisers will be in the midst of planning for the FIFA World Cup period (November 20 – December 18) – and contextual targeting will be vital for many. And for good reason. Contextual targeting not only allows an advertiser to capture the attention of consumers in the perfect mindset, but also plays a huge role in brand safety and suitability.
In fact, 4D, the advanced contextual targeting and insights platform, enables brands to broaden their scope of advertising to connect with scalable sports fanatics, while gaining the confidence that their brand is protected.
Our Key Top Tips for the FIFA Season.
It’s almost time. With the start date just around the corner, we have pulled together four vital tips to keep front and centre this season, with the aim to boost performance, deliver a true value exchange, while keeping your brand protected at all times.
- Get to know your audiences. NOW! Ensuring your ads reach the right audience – and in this case – the right sporting fans, is the number one goal behind any campaign. During any sporting event, it is so important that we understand the environments consumers are spending their time in, so that you can reach them in the best environments. Are they watching the game live? Are they reading up on the latest fixtures and results? Or, are they browsing sports wear after getting inspired to head outside and have a game themselves? By tapping into 4D Insights, you can appropriately build out targeting strategies to find consumers who are in the perfect mindset using real time data to inform real time campaign optimizations.
- Be smart and thematic with your keywords. When it comes to creating a list of keywords, there are some simple yet smart ways to boost your targeting. First, you need to ensure that your list is broad enough to achieve scale for the campaign, but refined enough that you will be delivering qualified reach. This becomes a game of quantity plus quality, to ensure you don’t miss out on any opportunities. Secondly, think thematically. Be creative with your keyword list construction, rather than simply using synonyms. Especially with a sporting event – ideas include Sports – Soccer, Sports – General, Television – Sports, and Style and Fashion – Athletic to name a few. Topic categories can help cast an appropriate net to capture individuals who are either consuming soccer content or adjacent and related topics. Using a combination of Topics and Keywords to fine tune your approach will allow the contextual technology to identify exactly what you want to target – and at scale.
- Don’t underestimate the power of context meets creative. The basic element of a campaign is to inform the audience of a specific product and/service that is relevant to the context of content an individual is consuming. There is no better place to execute the identified primary goal of a campaign than in the creative and creative messaging. Utilize irresistible call-to-action and positive customer feedback to help make your ads more believable and more compelling.
- Tap into the feel-good stories, and ignore the negativity. Many brands lose out on opportunities because they are simply too scared to target news sites. We understand why – we live in such a polarised world where negativity, politics and economic turmoil seem to cloud the headlines. This was extremely prevalent during COVID as brands missed opportunities to target positive news content. Unfortunately, this years’ World Cup seems to be following a similar trend. But, the negative headlines are just one small slice of a much bigger cake – a giant cake full of the feel-good stories, the ‘star players’, and the positive headlines that celebrate the good in the game. Rolling brand safety elements into positive targeting strategies is as simple as implementing keyword blocking to ensure that you are only targeting ads in the environments you want to be seen.
So what are you waiting for?
Explore how you can unlock contextual targeting and insights with 4D to boost performance during the FIFA 2022 World Cup, and access our FIFA World Cup Pager to the right of this article!
Contextual: Why the hesitation?
This month’s debunked blog recaps 4D’s webinar with MediaPost & IRIS.TV, exploring the resurgence of contextual targeting.
Last month, I joined advertising media professionals, MediaPost, and video data platform, IRIS.TV, to discuss the feeling of caution that surrounds the resurgence of contextual targeting. Since Google’s original announcement of the humble cookie downfall in 2020, the (m)adtech industry has been up in arms with how best to plan for the future that relies on little to no third-party cookies. But, we’re no stranger to change, right? Lest we forget, in 2018 we sustained the introduction of GDPR, which delivered a very clear message for our industry: the need to re-imagine advertising for better, with privacy as the number one priority.
Arguably the most talked about solution to help pave the way for this future, is contextual targeting. However, there still seems to be some hesitation surrounding the new and improved world of Contextual, and many are prudent to believe the hype. It also didn’t help that Google further delayed the cookie-demise earlier this year (again), in the bid to provide the industry with ‘more time to prepare’, giving advertisers, agencies and publishers alike, a fair logic to hit pause and see what will happen.
The thing is – and yes, I say this from a very biased perspective – but, there really is no reason to wait. The advanced technology is already here, loud and proud, delivering powerful results and driving a better advertising future for the consumer, the advertiser, the publisher – and everyone in between.
So why the hesitation?
It all lies within education and knowledge sharing. To discover the benefits and opportunities surrounding contextual targeting and insights, you can watch our full Video Podcast discussion here. What’s more, we also had some live questions asked on the day, and so I thought what better arena to answer these questions and comments, than here.
- I agree that Contextual is a great way to reach relevant prospects. However, third-party data is alive and well, and can complement contextual targeting with data insights such as ages, incomes, and other relevant info on the consumers. How do you envision this changing when the cookie does eventually demise (or even, if, they will ever fade away)? You make a great point, and you are spot on – today, contextual targeting can compliment cookie-based advertising and enrich any targeting strategy. And, although third-party cookies and data are the foundations of marketing, the industry knows (and hates to admit) that there are fundamental flaws around third-party cookies & third-party data. Just a few things that spring to mind here, are:
- Third-party data was used because there was no other option to personalize marketing experiences if a user hadn’t already visited a brand’s website;
- Third-party data is tied to device IDs or cookie IDs often without explicit consent, and therefore goes against compliance laws such as GDPR and CCPA;
- Third-party data is not necessarily attributed to the right person. According to the definition, it does not have a direct relationship to the user;
- Third-party data is often collected & aggregated from a variety of websites, making it extremely difficult to accurately tie back all touch points and IDs to a single user;
- There are hundreds of third-party data providers available leaving marketers confused about who they can trust;
- Moreover, there are no industry standards for third-party data quality and verification, each provider has its own version of a standard, forcing everyone to operate in silo and leaving marketers at a loss;
- The quality of third-party data is low and since this data typically has a 90-day recency period, there is no way to accurately capture what happens during this time span;
- Millions upon millions of advertising dollars are spent on ads that are not relevant. So, whilst third-party cookies and data sets are very much alive and well today, it doesn’t mean to say they are fit for the future. The exciting future for contextual targeting and insights, is the ability to blend and enrich with first-party data. And this will be a game changer. More to come from us on this matter very soon!
- Do you think Google will deprecate the cookie in 2024, or will they continue to push it back? Your guess is as good as mine! However, at some point it is going to happen, whether it’s 2024 or not. The old “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me” comes to mind here. Google can continue to delay the cookie demise to suit whatever agenda is important to them, but the point still remains; targeting that relies on third-party cookies and third-party data should no longer be the center piece.
- What are examples of targeting non-endemic categories with Contextual? Targeting a pet food campaign within a pet related context makes sense, but insights may prove that targeting other contexts, such as “Home & Garden”, or “Environment” may resonate best for a particular campaign and message. We’ve observed this very example for a recent contextual campaign and the results were impressive. Engagement rates were twice as high within the non-endemic contexts than they were within the initially targeted endemic topic.
In the same notion, targeting a travel campaign against travel related context also makes complete sense, but insights may prove that targeting “Fashion & Luxury” actually resonate best for a particular tactic- it of course is correlated with the brand, messaging, and other creative attributes of the campaign itself.
These types of endemic vs non-endemic examples will fluctuate due to both macro and micro environment factors, and therefore vary campaign by campaign, which is why the ability to contextually and deterministically analyze each campaign with a platform like 4D’s Insights is so valuable.
- If I’m buying Audience can Contextual benefit me or is it one or the other? Absolutely! Contextual can benefit when targeting in the DSP against third-party audience data, especially with the 4D tag in place, as this will allow for 4D to create a content consumption pattern of the type of topics that users within an audience typically engage with- all the while disambiguating from the cookies & devices themselves.
- Umberto, I loved your video examples! You used YouTube as your examples, – can the data analysis be applied to YT inventory and activated through DV360? Thank you! And, yes absolutely, 4D’s video technology works particularly well on YouTube. We can create bespoke inclusion lists that can be activated directly within a buyer’s seat on Google Ads or DV360 . What’s more, we can apply 4D across programmatic (OLV and DTV).
Want to find out more? Watch the full webinar recording here. Or, contact us via the website, or drop me a line via LinkedIn!
State of Advanced Contextual Report 2022
The digital advertising industry is arguably witnessing one of the biggest shifts since the dawn of programmatic, as businesses throughout the landscape seek to work towards a better future; one centred around privacy, and grounded in tangible insights.
Advertisers and their agencies are in a constant flux of change, and with change follows concern:
- Privacy remains high on the agenda for advertisers, publishers and consumers alike
- Renewed focus on brand safety and suitability is on the rise
- Reaching new audiences at scale without the use of third-party data seems daunting
- Third-party cookies are going away, no matter when, and old ways of working are no longer fit for purpose
The good news, is that the industry has an array of proven, alternative solutions – such as advanced contextual targeting solutions – which offer smarter, more transparent and privacy compliant ways of reaching new and existing audiences at scale, whilst improving efficiency, and delivering better business insights and results. What’s more, this can be blended into an existing media approach to enhance what is already in place.
The Advanced Contextual Opportunity.
- Contextual targeting provides a privacy-first approach to marketing
- Advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning protects brands within the contexts their ads are placed, ensuring brand safety and suitability expectations are met
- Audiences can be reached at scale without the use of personal identifiers or third-party data,
- by simply gaining their attention in the environments that they trust
- As we pivot away from cookies, businesses are seeking new and improved solutions that provide precise and efficient targeting
The digital advertising mission stands strong: find a way to effectively and ethically reach consumers at the right time and place, with a privacy-first approach to deliver marketing stories that matter.
Download our latest State of Advanced Contextual Report to discover the opportunity (document to the right) or read more on AdWeek here.
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Data and Digital Transformation: What does it all mean?
It’s long been recited among industry veterans, marketers and the wider trade press; data is the holy grail of digital marketing. And for good reason. Gaining access to, and activating on, rich customer data, is key in enabling you to reach your audiences in the right place and time. Yet many businesses are plagued with data fragmentation, and what once was a challenge a decade ago, still remains one of the biggest concerns faced by businesses today.
The rise of digital has only generated more and more data, arming businesses with the insights they need in order to deliver a strong digital marketing strategy. However, the vast majority of businesses have data sitting in various places throughout their organisation creating data silos. What’s more, many businesses have numerous teams each wanting to gain access to different dimensions of data for their own remits, making it somewhat tricky business. This fragmentation not only causes internal tensions and disparate ways of working, but severely hinders the inner workings of a well-oiled data-driven marketing machine.
And, to add salt to the wound, these businesses have tried everything in their power to streamline their internal workings. Huge investments have been made into their tech stacks, with the promise of their data being managed in one central location to drive revenue, but the reality is starkly different. In fact, in a survey we ran a few years back, almost half of UK CMOs (45%) estimate poor data handling risks costing their business between £250,000 and £5m every year.
Why does data fragmentation have such a big impact?
When we think of data, it’s often an easy analogy to think of it as the fuel that fires any good digital marketing strategy. And so when we think of the tech stack, specifically the required technology to manage this data, I sometimes think of it as the plumbing for any given business. In order for the data to flow seamlessly throughout a business, and support the various business functions as it should, it needs to flow through a well orchestrated pipe-system in order for it to truly be utilised.
The challenges we find so often with our clients is that the data is not always accessible to the teams that need it. These teams require this rich fuel in order for them to build and activate audiences on a daily basis. In turn, the insights derived from this data are often not available in a format that can inform a targeting strategy to bring the data to life. This disjointed flow and limited access to insight not only creates more time wasted by teams trying to grapple with the silos, but eats into the investments made into the tech stack – the stack that promised so much, yet seems to deliver nothing.
Why is the technology not working?
It is. The issue is, it needs a driver to run it. No technology, AI or machine learning is useful without the human touch. Technology platforms designed to manage data are incredibly sophisticated bits of tech, but they need expertise in order to truly deliver results.
As part of any effective data strategy, it is just as important to focus on ‘people and process’ along with building an effective technical infrastructure for the business. And this is how we approach every single client here at Silverbullet; the perfect blend of mind and machine to ensure the full potential of data is unlocked to drive powerful business outcomes.
To aid the coming together of skills and processes, businesses need to consider new ways of working to enable:
- More teams to have access to data to inform targeting, and deliver marketing
- More teams to be empowered and collaborate with each other rather than working in silos
- Expert partners to design and build the perfect infrastructure for any given business
Your Centre of Excellence.
A centre of excellence is a team – a shared facility or an entity – that provides leadership, best practices, insights, support and/or training for a focus area. Designing a bespoke centre of excellence for your business will help streamline processes, remove time wastage and enable teams to work closer together for the holistic business goal: reaching the right consumer in the right moment and time, to drive business ROI.
Building your very own centre of excellence will enable clear ownership and governance of the Marketing Technologies and wider tech stack, empowering day-to-day management along with encouraging contributions and collaboration across multiple teams to feed into the capability roadmap.
A Centre of Excellence will:
- Encourage a culture of sharing socialising insights
- Upskill teams and knowledge sharing
- Support the driving best practices and expertise
- Enable Governance and Auditing of data assets, data use and management of the platforms
A frictionless future, powered by data, delivered by expertise.
Data is the holy grail of your digital marketing strategy. In a world where the third-party cookie is on its way out, first-party data once again takes the crown. Whilst the industry finds new ways to fill the scale gap left in the cookie wake, what is non negotiable for businesses wanting to thrive in the new marketing age, is the design, deployment and activation of a well-oiled first-party data led strategy.
If you want to find out more about how Silverbullet can help, please do get in touch by dropping us an email with your name and availability, and our marketing team will schedule. Or, simply ping me a message via my LinkedIn.
DMEXCO 2022: From cookies to consumers and everything in between.
This month’s debunked blog explores the topics and trends discussed at this years’ DMEXCO.
Last month I was one of the many AdTech citizens who flew out to Cologne to spend some quality time with clients, prospects, partners and industry friends at the Digital Marketing and Expo Conference, DMEXCO. My mission? To get a better understanding on how the AdTech world is feeling when it comes to the new world of contextual targeting, and explore what trends are going on as we transition into this new marketing era.
Biased towards contextual? Yes of course, I do work for a contextual targeting and insights tool after all. Clever? Even more so, it was my chance to put my ears to the ground and get a true sense of what was going on across businesses throughout AdTech.
Bye, Bye Third-Party Cookie. It was, of course, no surprise that a large proportion of the discussions were exploring alternative solutions to the third-party cookie and third-party data narrative. This gave me hope, as with Google’s continuous push back of the eventual demise, it was great to see businesses and vendors exploring a brand new future for advertising – one that focused on the consumer and centred around privacy. No one singular solution particularly stood out, however, more so a combined approach was discussed, encouraging marketers to seriously consider: the focus on first-party data; the (re)introduction of contextual advancements; the exploration of unified IDs; and the introduction of clean rooms. There was certainly a sense that first-party data will indeed be the holy grail for marketers moving forward (we can all see why, right?). Yet, in order to reach scale in the wake of the humble cookie, advanced solutions such as contextual targeting were being scouted as the ones to watch out for. Amongst the cookie crumbling noise, was Google’s Privacy Sandbox. For those wondering “The Privacy Sandbox is a collaborative initiative to build new privacy-preserving technologies as an alternative to third-party cookies. The goal is to improve user privacy while preserving the vitality of the open web by supporting key marketing use cases for online businesses.” What was abundantly clear, however, was the building concerns from many surrounding the lack of transparency and flexibility this “initiative” allowed. In a world where privacy and transparency remain high on the agenda, it certainly provided some food for thought to those in the room – including me – on how this will actually start to look when the cookie does eventually fade.
A strange and gloomy world. Another underlying tone of the two day event was the inevitable reflection on the world we live in today, and the impact it is having not just on us as human beings, but our industry. With regular references to the ongoing war, the world coming out of a global pandemic, and the cost of living crisis, it was clear that these subjects, albeit depressing, were not to be ignored. The impact of all these external factors will have a domino effect on many facets of the AdTech world, and in particular, on marketing. Budgets will shrink, consumer habits will continue to rapidly change and resources may fall. What’s more, brands and agencies will need to look for more systematic solutions when it comes to data and tech, to help them with their overall efficiencies and ways of working. Whilst I want to move off this negative subject asap, it is worth bearing in mind the impact this will have on us all.
Giving back control. I don’t think there has been a single event that I have been to over the past decade that hasn’t included “control” as a key theme. Whether it is the control of the advertiser, the control of the publisher, or in this case, the control of the consumer. And lest we forget, one of the core reasons behind the third-party cookie demise, is down to the wide-spread consumer backlash against their privacy, and in turn the enforcement of global governmental regulations that have enforced this demand from consumers to gain more control. One striking theme that did stand out to me was that these discussions always pointed back to contextual in some form or other. Consumers want control? Contextual can help as it relies on no cookies whatsoever, focusing on the content they love. Advertisers want more scale in brand safe environments? Contextual can drive that with advanced technology and machine learning. Publishers want to increase their impression value through relevant advertising in good quality content? Guess what, contextual can do that too. You can imagine this made me a little smug, as I then proceeded to tell my next client prospect about the power of our 4D solution. More on that later. 😉
Everybody’s talking about video. Lastly, and by no means least, the world of video was once again one of the main discussion topics of the event. In particular, the incredible opportunity of CTV. While traditional TV ad spending may start to struggle for growth in the coming years, digital video and everything that encompasses it, will not. A portion of digital video spend will, of course, go to the CTV space, but traditional broadcasters are also developing their own streaming services—with broadcaster video-on-demand (BVOD) ad spend rising at a far faster rate than traditional TV spend. In my opinion, and an opinion I could sense I shared by many, is that overall the advertising opportunity for CTV remains small. That isn’t to say I am not hugely excited about it, quite the opposite. But, currently scale is an issue outside of the US market, and so we need to bear that in mind. Having said that, with the future of Netflix opening up to the AdTech world, things, in the words of D:Ream, can only get better.
To conclude: In short, my time in DMEXCO this year was nothing short of interesting, inspiring, and let’s be honest, bloody fantastic to be able to grab a beer with some legends throughout the industry. Events like these are so important to me – not just to learn and educate myself, but to get excited about the future, and build relationships with people I’ve only previously met over zoom or via email. My biggest takeaway? It’s time to build a new future. Old ways of working are no longer applicable, and so don’t delay the inevitable any longer:
- Explore alternative solutions now, not tomorrow.
- Consider changing marketing budgets and priorities in the wake of external factors
- Place the consumer at the heart of your strategy no matter where you sit within the AdTech ecosystem
- And, oh, why don’t you give advanced contextual solutions a try? I might just know the perfect solution for you. Drum roll please…….4D. Drop me a line today, for a free demo, and I’ll showcase why 4D is the perfect solution for you.
DMEXCO 2022: Let’s Progress Together
It’s that time of year again. Where thousands of (m)adtech professionals travel to Cologne for the two-day conference and exhibition show, DMEXCO. For me, this year is really special, as it will be my first DMEXCO visit since 2019, and I am VERY excited to see so many familiar, and new, faces!
The overall theme for DMEXCO 2022 is #WeProgressTogether. And I personally love this sentiment.
It has been a rollercoaster ride the past few years. Through the lens of (m)adtech, we’ve witnessed global government regulations such as GDPR enforcing tighter rules around data protection; we’ve been forced into the spotlight by consumer backlash and demands for privacy; and we’ve recently been holding on to Google’s final decision to discontinue the third-party cookie. Alongside all of that, our personal lives have witnessed unforeseen change; from an increasingly political world, a global pandemic that brought us to a standstill, the ever looming climate change situation and the growing energy crisis. It’s been challenging to say the least.
Sometimes, we just have to hit the pause button, reset and say “we can only progress together from here”. For me, this couldn’t be more true, as I return to work after maternity leave (and welcoming my beautiful daughter into the world). I will be leaning on my colleagues, learning from my peers and supporting our clients as we all step into our next chapter, together.
Whilst we look forward to DMEXCO to discover how we move forward from this point on, I have selected a few highlights from the show that I am excited to see – why don’t you come join me at a few of them:
(Wednesday, 11.15am, MC 7B Masterclass)
How can Publishers & Advertisers leverage an IoT based first party data platform to secure quality traffic and revenues?
What’s it all about: The advertising industry has the potential to rapidly evolve based on the exponential increase of the Internet. First-party data, personalisation, and ensuring user experience value exchange across all connected devices will play a pivotal role. In this session, discussions will explore how Publishers and Advertisers alike can start delivering an immersive Ad Experience within HUAWEI Ads mobile & IoT advertising platforms, and how to start reaching new audiences.
(Thursday, 12.00pm, MC 7B Masterclass)
Moving from Personalisation to Humanisation – Utilising AI to stay relevant for your customers
What’s it all about: Brands are judged primarily on the overall customer experience they deliver, and increasingly need to demonstrate a level of empathy, to create healthy long term customer relationships. Providing consistent, relevant and personalised experiences that treat customers as unique individuals without overreaching is the only way to succeed. Join this masterclass to explore the incredible advancements in technology to drive personalisation.
(Wednesday, 1.30pm, MC 7A Masterclass)
Data for agility in marketing
What’s it all about: Data can be overwhelming, particularly when there are so many potential sources for it. The North Face eCommerce merchandising team discusses how it is avoiding analysis paralysis by targeting one source of customer behaviour data to steer its experimentation, site development and helping to align its campaign rollout in a moveable and unpredictable market.
(Wednesday, 2.30pm, Red Stage Fire-side chat)
What we can do for clients in challenging times
Sir Martin Sorrell himself will, of course, be taking centre stage to discuss what we should be offering our clients during these challenging times. In recent years, Sorrel has discussed the importance of the s4Capital Holy Grail approach to Marketing: Data, Content and Technology. Will he be singing from the same song book? I’m excited to find out.
(Thursday, 11.20 am, Red Stage Panel)
Open Web: We need a new conception of data!
The digital advertising world has changed. Third-party cookies continue to lose relevance. The self-conception of a free web is constantly being discussed again by society. Now it is up to the relevant stakeholders to continue shaping this open web and simultaneously meet the high-quality demands of personalised advertising. First-party data and new data value creations are already opening up unimagined potential. It is up to us to scoop them up.
If you are heading to Cologne for the two-day event, I would love to meet you. Whether you join me at any of the sessions above, or we go for coffee, wine, or food. Get in touch with me today by dropping us an email with your name and availability, and our marketing team will schedule. Or, simply ping me a message via my LinkedIn. See you there!
Schedule some time: marketing@wearesilverbullet.com
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