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When a small private college decided that its digital media strategy wasn't making the grade, it sought a new digital partner with a fresh perspective. Centro's digital experts got right to work building a plan, and in three short months, the client experienced:
To find out how we achieved such a great report card, download our case study to read more.
Recently, the second-largest chemical manufacturer in the world faced a branding challenge. The goal was to spike brand awareness among thought leaders, and then arm them to position the brand as a premier solutions-based chemical and product company.
The company needed to find the right place for its ads, so that the desired audience would actually see their content. Yet without access to proper research, tools, and data, developing a solid strategy and verifying its effectiveness proved more difficult than expected.
That's when the company discovered Centro and reached out to fill the gaps in its digital content strategy.
Download our case study to read more.
Char-Griller is a small, family-owned maker of grills and smokers based in Sea Island, Georgia. The company's products are sold at big-box retailers. As a small manufacturer in a competitive market, Char-Griller built its brand making high-quality, affordable products and relying on traditional, low-cost marketing efforts like local print and mailers. To compete with big-name brands, the company needed a more powerful advertising medium. That's why it turned to Centro for digital expertise.
Char-Griller had three main objectives: to drive sales conversions at retail stores, engage and build audiences, and drive a baseline for advertising spend and results.
In addition, the company wanted to target an audience of men ages 25 to 54 with a household income between $50,000 and $75,000, as well as run a test with the Hispanic audience as a secondary focus. With these goals as fuel, Char-Griller and its agency partner, Daisy Media Company, decided to light a digital flame -- a fire they hoped would ignite increased sales and customer acquisition. Centro was the perfect match.
Download our case study to read more.
As digital video becomes increasingly popular, Centro talks to more and more clients that want to transition traditional TV assets to digital. Recently, a tier-two automotive dealership approached us with such a request.
The dealership had historically relied on broadcast television campaigns, but wanted a video-focused digital strategy for consistent messaging and resonance with its target audience of in-market auto consumers. This meant the solution needed to source video inventory and layer in targeting at scale. In order to measure the campaign's performance against traffic and awareness, the client selected CPC and CTR as the primary campaign KPIs.
Download our case study to read more.
When the terms "programmatic" and "private marketplace" burst onto the scene a few years ago, publishers had two choices: fear it, or embrace it.
Many publishers initially saw programmatic as a threat to their direct sales teams, and are only now just starting to realize how having a programmatic strategy can benefit them. Others, like Business Insider, chose to embrace programmatic and are now experiencing tremendous success with private marketplaces.
Our strategy since day one has been simple: go-to-market with both direct and indirect revenue streams. We've done this by leveraging our direct sales team to help drive demand for private marketplaces as part of our overall strategy.
And it's worked. With more than 200 private marketplaces currently in place, we've seen a strong ROI from our indirect efforts. The benefits of private marketplaces are endless, but here are the top five that have had the biggest impact on Business Insider's success:
Elimination of “Remnant” Inventory
We can offer customized inventory packages to our advertisers based on their needs and how they relate to our readers. The inventory within private marketplaces is valuable because it's providing advertisers with custom audiences at-scale.
Yield Optimization
Using private marketplaces, we’re able to optimize yield across both direct and indirect channels, since the prices in PMPs are higher than those on the open exchange.
More Limitation
We are able to invite a select number of partners to participate in PMPs, which allows us to build partnerships that often work in conjunction with direct buys.
Access to New Advertisers (And Audiences)
We have a lot of data about our readers, and private marketplaces give us the opportunity to expose our audience to a wider range of advertisers. This is mutually beneficial for advertisers, as they can access specific audience segments by leveraging our first-party data.
Access to New Budgets
Advertisers often have separate budgets for their direct and programmatic initiatives. By using PMPs, however, Business Insider has access to a wider variety of these budgets that are — in many cases — not a part of direct-buy budgets.
As the industry continues to charge ahead and programmatic selling becomes more widespread, publishers and advertisers alike can’t afford to be left behind. Using private marketplaces has been an important way for us to continue educating, adapting, and helping to set standards in an ever-evolving
Michelle Denhart is a sales development director at Business Insider.
Learn more about Programmatic Advertising with Centro.
Hey friends! Thanks to the short work week, Friday is already upon us! We are definitely fans of easing back to work after a holiday but that doesn’t mean we are short on exciting news to share with you.
So kick back, relax, and enjoy today’s edition of Five on Friday!
That’s our five on Friday! Happy reading and be sure to enjoy the hot weather before autumn creeps in!
It sometimes feels like the digital buying world is in constant flux. Programmatic (I define programmatic as buyers and sellers connected through technology infrastructure) has been the buzzword for the last two years. According to some reports, 22-25% of display is transacted in programmatic channels today. It may get to 30% by 2017. There’s no question the historical, labor-intensive method of buying media has been disrupted. Today, marketers don’t even need an IO or a relationship with a publisher, as they can log into a system to buy media in an automated fashion. However, programmatic video hasn’t quite evolved the way traditional display advertising has. Why? In a word, scarcity.
RTB (real-time bidding) is a classic example of market economics. An impressions value is defined by the market at a specific point in time. Publishers value scarcity because it implies greater value for the impression. Further, video inventory is naturally less available than display. For instance, a webpage may have four or five display ad slots available, but a video player only has one preroll available (mid-roll and post-roll are generally considered less desirable inventory). Additionally, publishers don’t want to increase the number of pre-roll spots for fear of alienating a user and harming the user experience. Since video inventory is naturally (more) scarce, publishers have an easier time monetizing inventory and feel less pressure to participate in auctions where there’s no quality or price guarantees.
The current IO-based, upfront business that guarantees delivery with premium rates is much more attractive to publishers. However, expect this to shift in the future. As more media is transacted in programmatic environments, publishers will need to participate in the arenas the advertisers and agencies want to participate in.
Additionally, while RTB has historically been closely aligned with lower funnel DR tactics, more publishers are making what’s been previously considered premium inventory available in programmatic channels. Add in private exchanges, which is another brand focused strategy, and there’s growing branding opportunities in programmatic environments. As this continues to grow and more varied inventory becomes available, video will naturally follow -- not to mention, programmatic television buying may soon be next. Since about 40% of households today have internet-enabled TVs, and historical television buying is not efficient or measureable, this area is ripe for innovation.
With declining print sales and the pressure to monetize digital, many newspaper websites have considered putting their content behind a paid or metered wall. A common theme is to bridge the gap between the two revenue streams. The potential of additional revenue via a paid subscription also comes with challenges; most notably a decline in advertising dollars. When a publisher places content behind a paywall, they risk losing readership, leading to less page views, and that means less ad space to be sold. Should online publishers take the plunge? For some online publishers, yes, but it might not the best route for everyone.
One of the most popular examples is that of the New York Times. It launched its paid digital subscription model two years ago and it has been exceptionally successful. So successful in fact, their paywall now accounts for more revenue than their digital advertising revenue. While this is a sure sign that their paid model is “working,” one might assume that their losses in advertising revenue continues to raise eyebrows. Furthermore, can the Times sustain and grow this paid revenue model? If not, there’s still a significant challenge: how to grow the advertising revenue behind a paywall.
For some newspaper companies, that is the exact question they are facing. Surprisingly, there are about 400 online U.S. newspapers that now use a paywall; and many more are flirting with the idea of forcing readers to pay for their content. With the success of the Times, why are these companies hesitating? Gannett, owner of USAToday, has also been able to successfully prove that readers are willing to pay for content – most readers being new subscribers, to boot. Being that not all newspapers are created equal, there is heightened apprehension around losing readership. Not all readers are willing to pay for content, especially with many other media outlets just a click away. Not to mention – the advertiser – do they want to be behind the paywall? If so, will the page views be there?
Big name sites like the Dallas Morning News, The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle and the Boston Globe have also implemented paid subscriptions within the past two years. For them, the results haven’t been as successful as the Times. The Post is still facing losses this year. The Globe is facing similar challenges, having only 39,000 subscribers as of June 30, 2013. The Dallas Morning News implemented a hard paywall (all content must be paid for vs. allowing some for free) in January 2011 but removed it altogether in October this year. Similarly, the Chronicle removed theirs after only four months. Simply put, paywalls did not make up for the losses in print revenue for these outlets.
A paywall might be a good fit for your online subscriptions – depending on your reader loyalty and marketplace position. Other publications have experienced a decline in traffic which leads to less ad space to be sold. For the advertiser, they are now next to a qualified reader – which is incredibly valuable. But for the publisher, the verdict is still out on whether or not they will be able to sustain the revenue growth from paid subscription models.
At Centro, we believe there are additional revenue streams that some publishers might be missing out on, namely unsold inventory, data protection, as well as our Affiliate program that provides additional lift beyond owned inventory. A paywall might not be the end all be all to bridging the revenue gap. There’s going to be a mix for everyone.
While digital place-based (DPB) media reaches on-the-go consumers throughout their day, the inability for consumers to directly engage with DPB screens leaves more to be desired from this medium. However, technological advances are giving DPB a significant role in cross-platform digital programs. Using push and pull messaging technologies via consumer mobile devices, the following methods drive engagement by putting DPB-initiated ads right into consumer’s hands.
Near Field Communication
Near Field Communication (NFC) uses a radio signal to send information from one NFC chip to another. In the case of DPB, one chip would be on the frame of the screen while the other is installed in the hardware of a smart phone. By bringing those chips within close proximity (usually only a few inches), the NFC-enabled device will read the signal and pull (download) content for the user.
There is much anticipation around NFC, mostly due to how tap-to-pay methods can improve the ease of retail transactions. However, only about 15% of mobile devices are currently enabled with this technology. Expectations are high that the next few years will see a significant increase in NFC-ready smartphones, and thus a significant increase in advertising executions featuring NFC.
QR Codes
Quick Response (QR) codes allow consumers to pull content to their devices by scanning the black and white codes with a camera. A QR-reader application allows the camera to decode the data. QR codes are also located on the frame of the DPB screen, and deliver more information.
QR codes have had a debatable start in the marketplace. Early excitement for the ability to combine mobile with other forms of media led to rampant use, but not enough early understanding on how they work (i.e. poor location placements on ads that could not be scanned – such as in tunnels underground with no data access). However, they are easy to execute. Until universal standards are set for NFC, QR codes are a solid option across the majority of mobile devices.
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capabilities are different from NFC and QR codes, as they push information out to consumers who have these options turned on. When the Bluetooth or Wi-Fi option is activated, the signal is recognized and a notification is submitted to device owners. Consumers can then click for more information which will lead to a video, mobile landing page, photos, coupons, etc.
Push notifications ignite concerns around interrupting the consumers. But Wi-Fi and Bluetooth deliver a unique opportunistic feature through location geo-fencing, connecting with consumers who enter a specific geographical zone. Marketers can create a branded experience with both mobile and DPB messaging within a predetermined atmosphere.
Here is a sample of tech platforms for DPB engagement extension programs.
Blue Bite (http://www.bluebite.com)
Blue Bite offers technological options including all those listed above. Blue Bite has also created permanent networks (Bluetooth and Wi-Fi networks built into malls) for DPB media owners that eliminate the need to install tech capabilities on a campaign-by-campaign basis.
Mobiquity (http://www.mobiquitynetworks.com)
Mobiquity has a tighter focus around Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capabilities. It is a great partner for clients who prefer push-notification options, and can build out capabilities to blanket an entire venue where DPB screens are located or localize to the screen itself.
Thinaire (http://www.thinaire.net)
Thinaire supports all technologies listed here, but its sweet spot is NFC. Its analytics platform can track and report NFC engagements in real time. It allows NFC advertisers to leverage their data for insights on mobile consumer engagements, helping to optimize their mobile and digital place-based campaigns.
The ability to couple digital place-based screens with NFC, QR codes, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi technology drives engagement with a hard-to-reach audience – on-the-go people who are busy outside of their homes, and who are low TV watchers. By giving advertisers the opportunity to interact with this audience, DPB maximizes the opportunity for right place, right time messaging – increasing recall and awareness through an extended experience.