CMO Report: Critical Marketing Data And Digital Concerns 2020
During October 2020, we conducted a focused study with 34 leading Chief Marketing Officers and Chief Digital Officers across industry verticals such as retail, FMCG, banking, insurance, and finance in the Australian market.
The aim of the study was to dive into the ‘now’ and understand how marketers are working through the complexities of today’s landscape – juggling marketing technologies, marketing teams, and day-to-day challenges.
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CMO Report: Critical Marketing Data And Digital Concerns 2020
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4D Contextual Targeting Platform Takes Online Advertising Beyond The Cookie
Since it was first introduced a quarter of a century ago, the simple cookie has helped online advertising capture more than half the world’s ad spend. But increased concern around privacy – as well as the dominance of mobile apps – is bringing the era of the third-party cookie to an end. Firefox and Safari already block them, while Chrome will do so by 2023.
But what about the people who spent that $325bn on online advertising in 2019? No third-party cookies mean no targeting, no personalization. And it also means much less reason to buy online advertising, right? Well, not necessarily. For the past few years, there has been a resurgence of interest in contextual approaches that would allow advertising to be targeted without raising hackles about privacy.
Learning From The Past
Contextual is the oldest form of ad targeting. It was the staple of all targeted display advertising before the advent of the internet and there have been frequent attempts to update it for digital media. Silverbullet is launching 4D, which it claims is a true omni-channel contextual targeting and brand suitability platform for digital media planning and buying.
According to Umberto Torrielli, Silverbullet’s Chief Strategy Officer, 4D allows advertisers and agencies to define the perfect context for their ads to appear against, and to apply that context across all addressable channels. At launch, it works across display, video and mobile, while programmatic audio, addressable TV and in-app are next on the roadmap.
To address contextual video, the team has developed an advanced computer vision-based solution that can identify objects, logos and nudity among various signals, allowing the platform to seamlessly offer sophisticated targeting and brand protection on this premium inventory.
“The philosophy behind 4D is that, as an advertiser, you shouldn’t have to worry about what medium a consumer will be seeing your brand in,” says Torrielli. “If they’re reading an article or if they’re watching a video, you shouldn’t have to worry about setting different rules and figuring out what platforms to set those rules in. Rather, you should be able to just set that brand suitability context once.”
Brand suitability isn’t just about the content you want to appear next to, of course. It’s also about the content you want to avoid. 4D’s contextual understanding allows brands to set safety rules, but also means the platform can suggest contexts where a brand may not want to appear.
Independent And Open
Torrielli says there are three further unique features of 4D. Firstly, it is an independent platform that’s able to ingest data from any other platform to form the basis of its contextual insights. “We’re taking first-party data from places like DMPs, CDPs and ad servers, and converting that data into actionable contextual insights that can be activated programmatically.”
Next, it has been built with an open architecture framework, so can form the basis of an adtech ecosystem as well as supporting many more media use-cases than just online advertising. And lastly, it has a powerful analytics capability.
“We have a cookie-less tag that can be deployed in media,” explains Torrielli. “That allows you to understand deterministically where ad impressions were seen from a contextual perspective, and you can see a breakdown of how the different contexts performed against each other and against the average.
“That’s really important, because it means you can plan your next campaign more accurately. But what’s even more interesting is that when you have our tag in a campaign, you can optimise that campaign in real time.”
New Dimensions In Brand Security
Another benefit of 4D’s open architecture is that it allows Silverbullet to invite third-party technologies and other partners into the ecosystem to provide extra levels of intelligence (or “dimensions”) that can inform the execution of ad campaigns.
One example is Factmata, a UK-based company that uses AI to vet content for political bias, hate speech, clickbait and other hard to detect signals. “Factmata’s core mission is to help make the internet a better place, and our clients can use it through 4D,” says Torrielli.
“Brands today need to feel they’re not just being protected against the usual terrorism, obscenities, adult content and so on, but that they’re protected against anything that has to do with racism, fake news, political bias. These things are super-prevalent and we’re the only platform today that can safeguard against them.”
Access All Areas
Torrielli is keen to stress the variety of ways in which advertisers can access the 4D platform, and how the technology is available to brands of all sizes. He expects the most common approach to be through agencies having the technology in place. However, for in-house use, he says the independent, open architecture approach is intended to allow 4D to ingest first-party data from whichever platform a company has in place, from DMPs and CDPs to DSPs and ad servers. Users can create bespoke contexts by entering keywords and building topics, or they can choose a context already curated by Silverbullet and apply it to their campaigns.
“If you’re doing any form of display advertising or video advertising on the open web and leveraging a DSP, then you’re a candidate for 4D,” concludes Torrielli.
WTF White-Paper: A World Without (Third-Party) Cookies
WTF Is A World Without (Third-Party) Cookies?
Businesses are navigating their way through data minefields, thanks to regulations such as GDPR in the UK and CCPA in the US. Add to that, anti-tracking policies prompted by Google, Apple, and Firefox that aim to block third-party cookies, and the challenges become numerous.
In the midst of these factors, in order to provide the ‘value exchange’ demanded by their audiences, businesses still need to harness huge volumes of data created by an increasing number of consumer touchpoints. Yet, putting this into practice and sourcing the skills in-house to activate these insights in real-time is no easy feat.
We joined forces with Digiday to write our latest Whitepaper, to uncover the future opportunities within a first-party data-led strategy.
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WTF Is A World Without (Third-Party) Cookies?
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Contextual Targeting: Back To The Future Of Marketing
We’re living in a global paradigm shift, where privacy concerns, coupled with the cookie’s demise, is placing pressure on marketers to deliver more personalized and empathetic campaigns in brand-safe environments. While this presents many challenges, it also presents many opportunities for marketers to unlock more intelligent contextual targeting tactics.
This guide will help you discover how to leverage data, machine learning, and AI to access more granular audience segments and market ‘in the moment’ with highly intelligent, contextual targeting.
Read this guide if you want to find out:
• What contextual marketing actually means and how it works
• Why contextual marketing is important now more than ever
• How to scale marketing efforts in a brand-safe environment
• The future of programmatic in a cookie-less world
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Back to the future of marketing.
A guide to contextual targeting beyond the cookie
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Thinking Caps Podcast With Cheetah Digital
SBDS Group Achieves Adobe Audience Manager Specialisation
July 2nd 2020 | Adobe Specialised Partners are acknowledged as the most skilled technical practitioners throughout the global partner ecosystem. Specialisations are earned after organisations achieve a level of certified expertise in an Adobe solution and have demonstrated multiple successful customer implementations.
A Bronze-level partner in the Adobe Solution Partner Program, Silverbullet is a data-smart marketing services provider designed to empower businesses to deliver their marketing better, faster and smarter through the application of technology.
“Congratulations to Silverbullet,” said Sarah Gunderson, Director of Partner Sales for UK, Nordics, Middle East and Africa at Adobe. “ Specialisations reflect a dedication to Adobe technology and a proven track record of customer success, commitment and technical skill. Welook forward to continuing to build on our partnership.”
CEO of Silverbullet, Ian James, said Silverbullet is extremely proud to be named an Adobe Specialised Partner, as it seeks to support global customers with their digital transformation journeys.
“Achieving this level of expertise is an incredible accomplishment, positioning us as one of the most-recognised partners throughout the region. Our specialised services empower businesses to deliver their marketing better, faster and smarter through the smart application of technology, and this distinction will only inspire us further.”
SVP of Partnerships at Silverbullet, Simon Theakston, said Silverbullet’s unique approach to supporting businesses to unlock the value of their data, allows the company to consult, analyse, implement, activate and generate intelligence for the new era of marketing.
“Silverbullet’s deep understanding across so many Adobe applications positions us as a great partner for any business looking to transform their data-driven marketing. Gaining Specialised status is a testament to the technical expertise, skill and commitment from our global team, and I am so proud of their achievement. This is just the beginning of our partnership journey, as we now move towards Adobe Experience Platform with real-time CDP.”
Silverbullet Launches 4D – A Contextual Intelligence Solution For The Post-Cookie Era
4D helps brands, agencies, publishers and ad platforms to survive in the post-cookie era, by ensuring ads are aligned with specific content and context across all channels. In fact, some studies suggest contextual targeting can increase purchase intent by 63% versus audience or channel level targeting.
With global turmoil surrounding political bias, diversity and equality top of mind at the moment, brand safety, contextual relevance, and data privacy are key as further pressure falls onto marketers to safeguard their brands. 4D allows marketers to classify content using text, video, audio, and images, resulting in better recommendations, and ensuring that marketers brand safety and targeting works in the environments that matter most.
4D also leverages valuable first-party data from any supported DMP, CDP, or Ad Server. This can be transformed into contextual iIntelligence to power the creation of actionable omnichannel contexts, saving time-poor marketers and advertisers considerable time and effort by creating and deploying the perfect context once. 4D then ensures the delivery of optimal messaging in a brand suitable environment across Display, Video, Native, Audio and Addressable TV.
SVP of Product at Silverbullet, Marco Godina, says he is thrilled to be launching 4D globally. “4D will help pave the future in a world without third-party cookies. Our unique ability to ingest data from a platform like a DMP or CDP allows us to provide first-party powered contextual intelligence, helping brands deliver targeted and brand safe advertisements across text, video, and audio content.”
4D includes several unique features, such as:
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Contextual video: Using state-of-the-art computer vision, 4D can provide targeting and brand safety within video advertising placements, ensuring advertising – and brand image – is not only in the right display and text context, but also within the right video environments.
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First-party data ingestion: 4D’s open platform can ingest first-party data from DMPs, CDPs, ad servers, and other sources, which once fed through its intelligence engine, draws out contextual insights to be applied in programmatic advertising.
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Contextual Marketplace: 4D has built an industry-first contextual marketplace that enables technology partners to plug in their algorithms and technology as additional intelligence and targeting layers. 4D partners, such as Factmata, offer brand protection from racist or toxic content and can be applied to ensure brand safety and suitability are managed correctly.
Co-founder and CSO of Silverbullet, Umberto Torrielli, says recent news has seen multiple advertisers pulling their ads from social channels in light of seemingly conflicting rules and inappropriate content.
“When we think about the sensitivity surrounding certain topics, we want to ensure that brands are aligning their image to the right setting. 4D’s unique features are set to provide brands with the utmost confidence in their marketing, ensuring they are always seen in the most relevant context, regardless of channel, and never associated with questionable topics or unsafe environments. Further, 4D insights are powered by a brand’s first-party data to help determine relevancy and gain deeper intelligence – this is at the core of what we excel at within the Silverbullet group.”
Content Owner Playbook: What’s The Value Of My Customer Data?
Our Playbook series focuses on core verticals and how they are utilizing data to supercharge their businesses.
Today, content owners are seeing a shift towards digital content; they now have the opportunity to engage with end users on a personal 1:1 level.
Our latest playbook edition delves into these opportunities, exploring how publishers, media owners, and broadcasters alike can take advantage of the data marketplace.
Download our playbook today, and discover the perfect blend of data, tech, and human expertise.
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What’s the value of my customer data?
Discovering the questions asked by so many media owners; what truly is the value of my data? How can I best monetise it to realise my full potential? How can I safeguard against the looming data threats?
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How Sports Organisations Can Be Data-Smart To Kickstart Success
As Australia moves slowly back to normal following lockdown, sporting clubs are getting back into the swing of things. Far from normal however, the 2020 season will be a season like no other before it, with changes to crowd capacities, training restrictions, and the consequent impacts on membership, sponsorship, and revenue, many sporting clubs are facing a year ahead with a devastating dent in their bottom line.
So what can you do if you are a club, and you want to minimize that revenue hole as much as possible? The answer is to laser-focus on driving a compelling dialogue with fans and to use that dialogue to power your fan engagement program like never before.
Focussing On Fans Post-Lockdown
Fan loyalty in Australia is second to none. Aussies avidly watch and attend games and want to interact with clubs and players. However, most clubs are struggling to capture data on these fans and their behaviours, and what data they do have is either not used or too ‘piecemeal’ to be effective. This presents a challenge as it means most clubs lack the ability to reach out to fans in a meaningful and personalised way and understand the negative effects of non-personalised communications over time.
Every club knows that an engaged fan is worth more to them than a peripherally engaged fan, and that a super-fan is worth more than that. Every club also knows that a large, highly engaged fan base also increases the number of sponsors wanting to invest. But without understanding the individual fan and their current level of engagement, clubs battle to take them on a journey from the periphery of the sport, to becoming passionate and high-value.
The reason for this situation is historical. Chief Commercial Officer at Melbourne Storm, Nick Haslam, says that clubs have traditionally relied on TV-driven metrics to sell sponsorships, so they’ve been a little slow on the uptake of data and analytics to move to a more personalised connection with fans to drive revenue.
“Moving forward, we see data and analytics as pivotal to the growth of our business. We see significant value in using data to grow consumer revenue by engaging existing ticket holders to spend more with us, through things like merchandising and memberships, by better understanding their journeys,” he said.
So given the collection and use of this data can make all the difference to sporting clubs, how can clubs and organisations kickstart becoming more data-smart?
Having A Clear View Of How Fans Build Their Loyalty Will Turbo-Charge Your Efforts
Fans go through a clear and predictable journey to becoming engaged. The key is to understand where your fan is in their engagement journey and deliver content and experiences that move them from one stage of that journey to the next. Each step on that journey means you know more about the fan, their turn-ons and turn-offs, and along with that increased knowledge, comes a greater opportunity to drive revenue and a greater value to sponsors.
Every Experience Is An Opportunity To Learn From Fans
Every experience that marketers create is an opportunity to gather insightful data about fans and drive further interactions. There is a wealth of information that you can discover such as demographics, living situation, sporting heroes, participation rates at games, favourite brands, merchandise purchases and more. But the key to gaining access to this data is the right ‘value exchange’ coupled with the right technology.
Clubs should be actively developing new and exclusive experiences and content to gather data, and then use that data to deepen understanding of their audience and build programs to amplify engagement. There are many ways to go about this. For example, a club might want to hold an exclusive competition, where fans willingly share their details for a chance to win. Apps are also becoming an increasingly popular way of harnessing fan data in exchange for exclusive experiences and content.
In our fan engagement model, we focus on collecting data on fans and their actions as early as possible. This is done through two primary tactics:
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Promotions, competitions, and content intended to elicit engagement and start building the digital picture of your team’s fans. This could be simple promotions or competitions like quizzes, or give-aways, social content designed to be spread the fun socially, or other mechanics designed to get fans to leave their details or spread. Or it could be content designed to bring home the drama of the season and help your peripheral fans get under the skin of the back-story of the players, and their weekly achievements, the highs and lows, the emotion of the game and the competition across clubs.
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Introduce a free membership tier. Currently paid memberships serve as a large barrier to overcome to start the data-driven and personalised communications program with fans. A free tier with light incentives should enable your team to rapidly amplify their knowledge of the club’s fans by giving them a reason to interact and allowing you to start targeting them with relevant and engaging content.
Driving Fan Engagement Through Data-Driven Strategies
Collecting data is only the first part of the strategy. Using data to understand the fans and where they are on their individual engagement journey is the key to maximising their lifetime value. The data collected provides signals and insights which the club can use to ‘nudge’ the fan from one stage to the next – moving them towards becoming passionate, high value, ‘super fans’.
This data can also be used to unlock deeper insights, such as how members and fans like to get involved, what content they consume, their demographics, or why they cease membership. Profiling with the power of data can also enable clubs to test and learn about how to best approach fans in the most relevant way.
All this information can be used to deliver personalised marketing messaging across multiple channels. Once a rhythm is established, it’s easier to scale marketing efforts off the back of learnings and successes – and this is where clubs will achieve return on data investment. Remember, the deeper you go, the more value you’ll get.
In our fan engagement model, as a fan becomes more engaged a few key things change:
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The financial value derived from each fan increases. This happens through membership fees, game attendance, attendance at member-only events, merchandise sales, and consumption of exclusive content.
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The mix of tactics employed to drive engagement slowly shift from digital/virtual to physical or real-world experiences. This is done in-line with a membership program that, like a frequent-flyer program, creates forward momentum through a combination of money-can’t-buy rewards that convey social status, and are anchored to a set of activities designed to drive value for clubs and members (game attendance, event attendance, merchandise sales, etc).
Expanding Your Data Efforts Also Drives Value For Sponsors
Beyond marketing and communicating to fans, better data opens up other key opportunities for clubs through their sponsor relationships. At a time when corporate sponsorship is difficult to obtain as businesses contract spending, a better data environment presents a superpowered value case for corporate sponsorship. Richer profiles of fans, and a better data-environment offer up two key opportunities for sponsors. Firstly, it enables profiled and targeted member-only offers, increasing relevance and affinity between the sponsor and the member and giving the sponsor an additional path to market. Secondly, it allows the club to provide an additional layer to the sponsors’ customer insight efforts, helping the sponsor understand their customers at a level and depth which would be unavailable otherwise and can power real and tangible value.
Key Tips To Getting Your Club Back On Track:
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Treat every interaction as an opportunity to collect data and learn. Leverage your website, apps, email program, events, games, social presence and content. Start by visualising your fan engagement from a bird’s eye view. Our comprehensive fan engagement poster will give you a clear starting point.
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Expand your marketing channels beyond traditional media to reach a modern, digital savvy and diverse audience. This has the added benefit of giving sponsors a richer insight into their customers and a more effective channel to market.
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Technology plays a critical role in enabling data collection and profiling. Speak to an expert about how to quickly deploy the right mix of Customer Data Platform, Digital Marketing Platform, and Data Insight platform. It is likely that you already have access to some of these and a professional can help you drive more value from them, or that access can be arranged at a budget to suit and it doesn’t have to be a long and complicated process.