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Earlier this month, droves of marketers and advertisers descended on Austin, Texas to soak in the sights and insights of SXSW 2024. Here are three insights from the notebooks of Basis’ Media Innovations & Technology team to help marketers keep 2024 moving in the right direction.
Podcasting increasingly stands as a contender in advertisers’ paid media strategies. That’s thanks to its unique ability to meet consumers where they are and building trust and affinity not just for podcasters, but for the brands that support them.
Despite the proven performance benefits, podcasting remains an under-invested channel for most brands. For marketers that are evaluating how to add podcast placements into media buys, start by forming a crawl, walk, run strategy approach. Messaging style is critical—after all, podcasting is, at its core, storytelling. Ad content should take on this same style to meet consumers in a mindset they’re already in. Brands should also cross-pollinate paid messaging into complementary channels like Instagram and TikTok to extend their presence, discover new audiences, and maximize their investment.
AI and machine learning will continue to improve podcasting’s capabilities—from content analysis, to niche audience segments, to creating content for advertisers and podcast producers.
Finally, advertisers should keep an eye on AI to potentially be applied as a measurement solution.
Data is the ultimate commodity in a cookieless world—particularly when it comes to effectively understanding and reaching audiences. One form of data that doesn’t get enough recognition in its ability to transform advertisers’ paid media strategies is causal data. At its heart, causal data is focused on measuring a brand’s ability to shift audience perceptions and beliefs about that brand.
Advertisers who want to leverage the power of causal data will need to get up close and personal with their audiences. This requires dedicated, qualitative audience research to understand who your audience is and what they care about—not just the tropes that have been created about them. Understanding the emotional drivers behind consumers’ decisions and perceptions of a brand can bridge data and art, transforming insight into creative messaging that resonates on a deeper level.
When it comes to measuring causal data outcomes, advertisers need to get curious and ask their audiences questions that dig into cause and effect. For example: “How did you feel about a brand before?” and “What touchpoints or communications led you to change your mind?”
Accessing the power of causal data involves a hands-on effort from advertisers, but the outcomes are invaluable, especially as consumers are increasingly loyal to the brands who can prove they truly understand who consumers are and what they need or care about.
The past few years have seen a continual churn of emerging technologies, hitting the scene with a healthy dose of hype. Marketers have been enchanted by the newness and novelty of these technologies (partially thanks to the brain’s novelty center), causing them to put discernment on the back burner.
However, hype and innovation often diverge, meaning marketers will need to override that novelty center to effectively evaluate new technologies based on the intrinsic value they present to a brand on an individual basis.
Marketers who ask questions of hyped-up solutions will be poised for successful deciphering of hype from reality. Consider questions like, “What value does this present to my organization?” “Is there an actual product available to us for use?” “What resources (personnel, investment, time) will be required?” And “What are the outcomes we can expect from using this solution?”
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Not able to make it to this year’s SXSW? Watch Noor Naseer’s session on navigating hype in advertising on demand and download the slides today.
“The tectonic plates of the industry are shifting.” – Andrew Susman, Institute for Advertising Ethics, Programmatic I/O 2022
By now, it’s no secret the ad industry is facing broad, foundational changes. Many of the fundamental processes with which we’re familiar— including audience identification and targeting, measuring and attributing performance across channels, and the laws governing day to day operations—are being upended.
Conversations at AdExchanger’s Programmatic I/O 2022 centered around these familiar industry woes, but it was the tone with which they were delivered that set them apart. Sessions were as much an educational moment as they were a rallying cry—and, often, a reality check.
Case in point? Research presented by Permutive found that digital advertisers can reach just 30% of consumers on the open web today via traditional targeting methods.
Rewriting the playbook on how you engage consumers and drive business objectives isn’t easy. However, the conversations held at Programmatic I/O provided great insight on how to get started by re-focusing on the fundamentals.
Here are four takeaways you can act on now:
Education holds a fundamental role in successfully navigating how ongoing industry shifts or incoming regulations impact your business needs or day-to-day operations. It’s also pivotal in evaluating new solutions—separating the smoke and mirrors from viable opportunities—and the resources you’ll need to effectively meet your business objectives. At Basis, we are doing our part to provide the latest info on our blog, in our webinars, and through our podcast, and consuming a diverse array of thought leadership will leave you best positioned for future success.
And it’s not just about self-education: it’s imperative to also educate and engage with your stakeholders on these industry trends and new opportunities. Building rapport with these key decision makers ensures you have the support needed to successfully test new industry solutions.
Partners across the advertising ecosystem have worked diligently on solutions that fill the gaps caused by signal loss. There’s been meaningful growth within capabilities like artificial intelligence and machine learning, publisher-defined audiences, automatic content recognition (ACR), and mixed media modeling. The real question is, do you trust these solutions enough to test them?
You can move forward with confidence by setting expectations for each test opportunity: What business needs does it meet? What is the expected audience scale or outcome? Where does it sit within your broader media strategy? How are you gauging success?
Leveraging an advertising automation platform empowers you to fluidly test a variety of solutions and determine the mix that’s right for you.
Digital marketers can maximize their media investments—and the efficacy of those investments—by adopting a greater level of care and intentionality within media planning and buying.
Panelists at Programmatic I/O emphasized the need for higher standards within the inventory supply chain. From a media buying perspective, customizing brand safety and ad fraud practices as well as optimizing away from bad actors creates an accessible layer of protection. Both the buy side and sell side can create greater accountability and transparency within the supply chain by practicing supply chain optimization and implementing frameworks like the IAB’s ads.txt.
In addition, be intentional about where and what you’re buying. The channels, sites, or ad formats you’re running within not only define the quality of media in which you’re investing, but the experience consumers have with your brand.
Optimize your investment by maintaining audience targets (ex: removing previous converters), seeking out premium inventory via private marketplace deals, and creating a better audience experience with high impact or rich media ad formats and quality creative.
Consumer perception and favorability toward your brand is derived heavily from the experiences they have with your brand—essentially, the experiences we create for them.
L’Oreal’s SVP and Head of Media, Shenan Reed, redirected the focus back to the consumer by reminding us to treat consumers the way we’d treat one another in real life, even giving a few cheeky examples like, “Would you repeatedly ask someone on a date after they’ve turned you down multiple times? Probably not.” So, why do we continue to bombard consumers with ads after they’ve communicated they’re not interested?
In an increasingly competitive, fragmented, and complex space, brands should consider how they can best orchestrate each channel, tactic, and creative asset to create a compelling and meaningful consumer experience.
Adapting to change can be daunting, but the message at Programmatic I/O was clear: it’s time to get moving. By taking the first steps, each of us contributes to the future of the industry itself.
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