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Ever been house hunting and walked through a professionally staged home? You’d know one if you saw it. Every element inside is perfectly curated and placed– even the mudroom lacks the messiness and disarray you’d expect. Everything is organized. You’re able to see how each item in every room works together and flows seamlessly into the next – contributing and enhancing the overall value of the entire space. Paint colors, couches, accent tables, even tiny throw pillows play an important role in convincing you this is home.
Now, compare that to your own space. Most us don’t live like Martha Stewart -- so home is disorganized. Cluttered. Filled with the mess of everyday life. lt’s nearly impossible to find the time to step back and decipher what works, what doesn’t, what looks good, and what should have been thrown out 30 years ago. You can’t wrap your head around the enormous effort required to get from the chaos to command, so instead you buy another wicker basket, even though you have 23 already, and you’re not sure it’ll work, but it’s a quick fix – another way to hide the mounting mess.
As unrelated as it may seem, the digital media industry feels a lot like a house that hasn’t been staged. The digital landscape is cluttered and complex. And, combined with the different and disconnected systems we use in our everyday jobs, agencies haven’t found a controlled and effective way to do digital.
As the chaos in the industry continues to grow, details fall through the cracks, there’s little visibility into what is and isn’t working, work is rife with error, clean data and complete, end-to-end processes are difficult to come by, and people at every level of an agency clamor for the opportunity to be more of a strategic partner for their clients.
Chances are, your digital media operations ‘house’ is out of order and it’s time to take back control.
A great example of this chaos uncontrolled: Last summer, Morgan Stanley estimated there was about $26 billion in ad spending under agency review – from big marketers such as Procter & Gamble, Unilever, McDonald’s and Johnson & Johnson. Not only was this deemed unusual from a financial standpoint – that $26 billion total is more than the combined amount under review over the last three years – but it used to be rare for a marketer to put their business up for review, and now it’s become commonplace. As the traditional AOR business model goes by the wayside, marketers are beginning to pull the plug quicker on agency relationships and look to specialist agencies to handle smaller portions of their ad business.
Part of the reason for this? Agencies lack control, and don’t have a single system of record or platform that’s capable of running all these pieces of business and keeping it under control.
And that feeling of frustration from the lack of control can be felt at every level.
Media teams, responsible for planning and executing campaigns, are faced with too much grunt work and time-consuming manual tasks in order to get from point A to point B. They’ve got little time left to do the thoughtful work for their clients – making sure campaign plans are meeting client goals, analyzing campaign performance and data to decide what to do more of, what to do less of, and what to do next. They’re often left with no time to explore new partnerships – meaning they tend to work with the same 4-5 partners on rotation, which looks unappealing to clients and can result in lower quality insights and strategic work.
CEOs and CFOs, tasked with running and growing the business, lack visibility into the day-to-day operations of the business, and are often correcting the symptom; not the problem. They need to understand where to make a profit, what’s not working and how it can be fixed, who the right customers are, and when and where to hire. But, often facing information that’s inaccurate, there’s less opportunity for them to take control of the strategic and financial decisions the business requires.
Centro Platform is what control at a digital advertising agency looks like.
Centro Platform creates a series of automated checks and balances at every step of digital media operations management – from campaign conception to completion – empowering agencies and enabling them to gain operational control in one single platform.
With visibility at every layer of your digital media operations, you gain peace of mind knowing your teams are properly equipped, making decisions with context and confidence. Deep insights or a quick peek under the hood of your digital media ops whenever you want puts you in full and complete control – every step of the way. Feels like this could be home, doesn’t it?
Platform Features
Roles & Permissions
Bring structure to your teams and keep your data clean. Centro Platform offers the ability for team leadership to assign roles and set permissions, ensuring team members only perform actions for which they are allowed. And you’re able to support the privacy and effectiveness needed for your client, through assignment of users to a client/brand – resulting in a more focused product experience. This empowers team members to execute and track campaigns correctly from end-to-end, reducing time spent on setup – as well as costly errors – by 20% overall.
RFP Automation Feature
Digital media changes rapidly and it can be a challenge to get all the information you need. Centro Platform provides the framework to capture the who, what, where, when, and how of an ad being purchased and served – in a cleanly formatted and timely manner. Centro Platform generates RFPs for vendors, and welcomes them into using the system. As proposals are submitted, you can compare and contrast to see changes and revisions, ensuring all teams have the information they need.
Automate, document and store every step of the digital media buying process, so you have better leverage with publishers and greater transparency with clients.
Vendor Negotiation
With Centro Platform, both buyers and sellers use a single system to communicate and negotiate placements. With the platform, multiple plan versions can be created with different budgets or media mixes, based on changes from vendors and the needs of your client.
Never lose track of negotiation again, because all submissions and responses are stored for review. Assign appropriate media team members to your plan for them to see rates, communication, and tactic options.
Client Approval & IOs
Centro Platform automates the process of creating IOs and storing those contracts in the system for reference. Infuse organization into your client orders and subsequent vendor orders. Control and optimize campaigns smoothly – see data delivery against contracted line items and shift budget to reach your KPIs. Issue digital orders to vendor partners for speedy approval and implementation.
To learn more about Centro Platform or request a demo, visit centro.net or email [email protected].
Viewability has remained a hot topic for publishers, agencies, and marketers alike. The debates around measurement standards, challenges with mobile and video, and transaction models tend to dominate the conversation. Advertising campaigns cannot simply pause and wait for consensus while the issues are being sorted through, and campaign managers desperately need practical tactics to optimize campaigns and achieve viewability goals in the meantime.
With Centro DSP, we have the benefit of looking at data at a macro level, and our operations team noticed some interesting points while examining targeting and viewability results.
Let’s take a look:
Viewability is a challenge for buyers and sellers. Don’t just take our advice. Test, learn and let the data drive your decisions.
For more information on DSP technology or on Centro DSP, visit our website.
The digital media landscape is ever-evolving. New vendors, unique executions, and changing client goals makes it difficult for agencies to find the best approach when committing resources and structuring teams.
Even after those teams are built, there are a number of disconnected products and systems used to get campaigns from point A (research) to point B (billing). As the ecosystem expands and contracts, these legacy systems aren’t built to keep pace. The result: inefficient and inconsistent processes that are far too error-prone. Agencies are forced to figure out a way to align teams with new executions and old tools, and often struggle to make all of the pieces fit.
Snapshot: Too many disconnected, outdated systems make digital media operations slow and inefficient. The lack of workflow results in details falling through the cracks and a generally poor and confusing experience for planners, buyers, analysts, finance teams -- and even worse -- clients.
Real Concerns from Real Digital Media Professionals
Let’s look at this issue from a Media Team Director/Lead POV. For this role, to get from conception to completion of a digital media campaign, productivity is top of mind -- and there’s lots of room for improvement. Since this team tends to use at least 5 different systems to research, communicate internally and externally, evaluate campaigns, order IOs, and bill clients, the process is not as streamlined as it should be. When large-scale campaigns or highly innovative executions come down the pike, processes are adjusted so that the team can work within the systems provided – many of which are not built for digital. This constantly changing approach leaves the team with gaps in data and information, which leads to too many mistakes. It would be ideal if there was a way to be more organized and work in a flexible, connected platform. This would greatly reduce the daily stress on the team and make their effectiveness easier to evaluate.
The Solution: Centro Platform
A streamlined, holistic approach to digital media operations, Centro Platform is software that connects teams, so they no longer work in silos. Centro Platform allows you to centralize team members and selling partners into one system so that people, processes, and performance all exist in one place. Now you have a single system of record within the agency, providing an audit trail of all documents, plans, proposals, and communications. Your internal teams and sellers can easily collaborate, and communication is organized by campaign for reference. Information is easily accessed and shared so teams stay aligned and in-the-know. Centro Platform rapidly releases updates to ensure that it grows with the industry and with your business.
This is what organized digital media operations looks like. This is Centro Platform.
Platform Features
Vendor Relationship Management
Communication Center
Alerts & Notifications
Roles & Permissions
Platform Security
To learn more about Centro Platform or request a demo, visit centro.net or email [email protected].
Location, location, location.
It may be a cliché, but digital marketers only want to deliver ads in markets where their products and services are available – making the geographic location of a customer incredibly important.
National campaigns may seem straightforward, but how a campaign performs throughout the country is unpredictable. This makes deciding how to allocate and manage budget across different regions a major challenge.
But one of the benefits to buying media programmatically via a DSP is that marketers no longer need to guess. Adjustments can be made in real-time to direct budget to the locations that are most effective.
Centro DSP has always offered best-in-class geographic targeting and hyperlocal capabilities, and now we are pleased to introduce reporting by geography as an added feature. Geo Reports give views into campaign metrics at the country, region, and city level.
Because local markets no longer need to be set up separately to gain insight, the ability to analyze the geographic distribution of spend, impressions, and conversions makes campaign management more efficient and will free up time for optimization. By monitoring geo reports, you can find unexpected pockets of performance and prevent waste in areas that are not as responsive.
Over the coming months, we will be introducing even more metrics with metropolitan area and postal code reporting. To access Geo Reports, simply go to the Reports tab, select Geo Report, and choose the Dimensions.
At Centro, we know that keeping up with the trade pubs and latest trends can be tough and time-consuming. To make that easier, we’ve compiled all the articles, reports, and other bits of awesomeness you may have missed, but should definitely read. Enjoy our latest list below!
Facebook and Google: Most Powerful and Secretive Empires We've Ever Known
This Guardian article examines why we need a better way to describe these two technology companies that control the digital worlds we speak, play, and live in.
Snapchat, Facebook and Other Platforms Shedding the “Social” Label
In a similar vein, AdWeek questions whether the largest social networks have evolved past the simple definition of the word: a network of social interactions and personal relationships. With each of them playing a crucial role in shaping the modern digital media landscape, maybe it’s time to start thinking bigger when approaching social.
Snapchat Pushes Further into Digital Targeting
The mobile media app knows it must continue to court brands and advertisers in order to continue its meteoric rise. That means adding not just more scale, but relevancy. Cue a slew of new capabilities that digital buyers have come to expect, including CRM targeting and lookalike modeling.
Adobe Digital Insights Advertising Demand Report 2016: North America
This report looks at growth across the digital space, in terms of site growth, display ad opportunities, and the impact of ad blocking.
YouTube Becomes More Social with the Community Tab
Users have always been able to comment on videos, but that’s pretty much where engagement stopped. The new community tab is geared towards YouTube’s massive influencer base. It’s a way for them to engage with their fans (contests, live video, GIFs and more) without turning to other platforms.
Ad Age Social Media Facts 2016
What’s the trajectory for growth for social? Who is winning on mobile or among key demos? Ad Age Datacenter shows us the state of the market in nine simple graphs.
Google Launches Allo Smart Messaging App
Another major player throws its hat into the social messaging & AI app ring. Facebook, Snapchat, Apple … Watch out!
Android And iOS Rule Changes Could Spur New Inventory For Mobile Video Ads
With the recent mobile operating system updates, there is an opportunity for publishers to create new unique inventory with auto-play inline mobile web video. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the long term with the IAB’s recent recommendations to lessen more intrusive ads, including auto-play video outside of a video player.
Ad, TV, Video Trades Organize Around Tech Standards
The 4As, a joint venture between the ANA and its agency counterparts, sets out to create standards and best practices for better managing video assets in an increasingly non-linear world.
Nielsen Makes Major Announcements Related to Audience Measurement Solutions
The first about changes to local market ratings for in-home and out-of-home TV viewing, and the other about its new Total Content Ratings designed to combine TV and digital content ratings.
"Implementing a programmatic media function in-house seems like a no-brainer, but challenges abound. If you decide to make this a core function of your business, these steps will help increase ROI."
Read more from Centro's Dan Raffe in MediaPost.
At Centro, we know that keeping up with the trade pubs and latest trends can be tough and time consuming. To make that easier, we’ve compiled all the articles, reports, and other bits of awesomeness you may have missed, but should definitely read. Enjoy our latest list below!
FTC Cracking Down on Paid Celebrity Endorsements
Advertisers, not the influencers, will be the ones held accountable for making sure paid endorsements are clearly called out and labeled in all social posts.
Twitter Rolls out New Products
The social platform is working to draw in brands with a few new additions to their ad offering. The most interesting may be the “Instant Unlock” card. This allows users access to exclusive content in exchange for tweeting out branding messaging. In addition to the unlock ads, they’ve rolled out Promoted Stickers and additions to their Live Stream Video offerings.
There have been a flurry of social video updates with Pinterest’s debut of video ads, Facebook testing autoplay with audio, Instagram announcing their Events tab, and Twitter expanding their Amplify program.
Facebook Seizes Header Bidding to Challenge Google in Programmatic Ad Sales
Header bidding is the next battle between Facebook and Google, as they fight for ad dollars and employ new tactics to advance their bidding models.
Facebook’s Intro to Search Marketing
There are over 2 billion daily searches on Facebook. The company recently announced a three-step plan to improve search results for consumers, and then businesses, to ultimately drive a new advertising channel.
98 Personal Data Points that Facebook Uses to Target Ads to You
Have you ever wondered what Facebook knows about you? The Washington Post explores the variety of targeting options available through Facebook, and calls out Facebook’s efforts to be a bit more transparent in what it thinks about you and why you see the ads you see. Be sure to take some time to explore your “interests.”
WhatsApp to Start Sharing Marketing Data with Facebook
Once an anti-advertising platform, WhatsApp seems to be softening up on their “no brands allowed” stance. This isn’t surprising news since the app is now owned by Facebook. The sharing of data is a step in the direction of full-fledged advertising. It’s certainly a welcome shift for advertisers, since the messaging app boasts more than 1 billion monthly active users. Buckle up! Facebook’s share of the pie continues to grow.
The (Mobile) Video Viewability Challenge
The Media Rating Council has finally detailed what counts as a viewable video impression on mobile devices: 50% of pixels in view for two consecutive seconds. The current levels of VPAID inventory on mobile are limiting the usefulness of these characteristics, putting pressure on the industry as advertisers become concerned about whether their mobile advertising is delivering value.
Cable Industry’s ‘Ditch the Box’ Proposal Gains Ground
The ‘unlock the box’ vs. ‘ditch the box’ arguments are proof of shifting video viewership habits driving the need for industry change. It’s still not clear which proposal, if either, will become a reality.
Rethinking the Kitchen
Check out this interactive experience that examines the impact smartphones and smart kitchens have on how we purchase, how we consume, and how we cook.
The Next Big Mobile Platform is Your Car
Self-driving cars are coming sooner than you think, and have the potential to become the most expensive computer that consumers will own, so what does that mean for marketers?
We’re Living in the Matrix
In a recent report, Bank of America Merrill Lynch told (warned?) its clients there is a 20%-50% chance we're actually living inside an artificial simulation created by future civilizations. In the words of Keanu: “whoa.”
Smith & Beta recently released a report on the state of advertising talent, which details the gaps in talent development. It’s always been a dirty little secret of the digital advertising industry: Without knowledgeable humans behind the technology, the promise of innovation and efficiency is not delivered. With only 7% of agency respondents saying they think they exceed client expectations, there is clearly a huge opportunity for training and education.
Why has the industry not addressed the situation? Well, there are three factors at play:
Let’s talk about responsibility first. In order to be effective, education must be a joint effort between agencies and their external partners. Agencies have typically outsourced education to vendors who may have ulterior motives or a vested interest in the status quo. Agencies have started to develop programs internally, but to stay relevant and up-to-date in a fast-paced industry they need to call upon publishers, platforms, and other players. But, it requires careful vetting to separate the pitch from the knowledge.
Next, let’s define service, support, training, and education. Service is an overarching term for all the people and resources available to an agency. Support generally means maintenance of the platform and technical assistance. Training applies to the specifics of working with the partner, conceptual topics, and industry context. Education is bringing the knowledge together to create context and holistic understanding. Setting goals and measuring results for each is vital to understanding the impact.
Making time to learn and absorb the complex subjects is a challenge. Encouraging and rewarding behavior is key, but people need to understand the benefits and rewards of learning. It will help them become more efficient at their jobs, and it will make the work more interesting and innovative.
Centro prides itself on partnering with agencies for best-in-class service. Centro DSP in particular is focused on demystifying programmatic advertising and lowering the barriers to entry. We’ve developed three learning tracks to give you a comprehensive understanding of the industry, the platform, and how to make the most of it.
Don’t underestimate service when considering a platform. Even the best tools are ineffective without smart people operating them.
"The holiday shopping season is always right around the corner. Here are five tactics to best map out your digital-marketing strategy."
Read more from Centro's April Weeks in Entrepreneur.