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CO2 emissions and climate change: Subjects typically reserved for discussions among the world’s politicians, environmentalist groups, the scientific community, non-governmental organizations, and multinational conglomerates. But are they relevant to the digital advertising industry? You bet—and more than that, they present an opportunity for marketers.
Many of the world’s largest brands are working to tout their green credentials and communicate their milestones—successes like innovating packaging to reduce waste or optimizing their supply chain to become net zero. But what about the environmental impact of serving ads highlighting those efforts throughout the online ecosystem? The carbon cost involved in that process is meaningful, and it has often been overlooked...until now.
Indeed, two drivers have nudged this issue into the marketing spotlight:
In other words, brands willing to tackle the issue head-on stand to gain a more positive brand perception and higher ROI on ad spend. Like nearly every facet of society, digital advertisers have a role to play in decarbonizing the economy to meet the goals outlined in the Paris Agreement, and there are great rewards available to marketing organizations that tap into growing green value pools and actively participate in the sustainability movement.
A seminal environmental impact assessment review of online advertising estimated that in 2016, one-tenth of all emissions emanating from the internet—between 20.38 to 282.75 terawatt-hours (TWh) of energy—were attributable to online advertising. That was seven years ago! In the time since then, digital advertising has exploded and evolved, then exploded and evolved some more—and all the while siphoning dollars away from traditional offline media (radio, print, and TV).
Of course, it’s difficult to grasp whether that percentage share has increased on an annual basis up to now—especially considering the emergence of other data-hungry internet-related systems like cryptocurrency, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and generative AI—but it would be difficult to argue that the total energy usage of digital advertising hasn’t grown considerably. Of the $370+ billion US marketers are forecast to spend on advertising this year, a shade under three-quarters of that (74.6%) will go to digital channels, up from just 37.6% back in 2016. And there are no signs of this trend slowing down anytime soon, with that share projected to continue climbing every year through at least 2027, indicating the industry’s carbon footprint is only likely to keep increasing.
According to Good-Loop’s online carbon calculator, a sample ad campaign comprised of a 100-megabyte video file that delivers 100,000 impressions in the UK equates to around 5.4 tons of carbon. For a little perspective, that’s the same as driving over 13,000 miles in an average gasoline-powered passenger vehicle. Sum all the millions of digital activations that brands are collectively running at any given time and the energy and emissions implications become clear.
At question here is the mechanism by which ads are delivered to audiences, particularly as it pertains to programmatic buying. In the nanoseconds it takes for an ad to load on a webpage, a plethora of technology companies (such as ad agencies, data-management platforms, data clean rooms, ad exchanges, ad servers, ad verification firms, demand-side platforms (DSPs), supply-side platforms (SSPs), and brand-safety vendors) take part in a bidding process to win the auction that puts the ad in front of the consumer. In the process, thousands of servers are springing into action, requiring electricity to realize each ad call.
In essence, there is a significant amount of computing firepower at the heart of digital advertising, and as the landscape expands and grows more complex and fragmented, leaders must take urgent steps to first curb, then reduce, the carbon cost of its operational infrastructure.
Consumers today care about more than just the products and services a business creates and provides—they increasingly want to see actions that demonstrate strong societal and cultural values. Brand purpose is emerging as a key decision criterion, and consumers across the generational spectrum are putting environmental impact at its center:
Of course, what’s top of mind for consumers must be top of mind for brands. After facing a digital transformation imperative in the wake of the pandemic, marketing organizations are now dealing with a sustainability transformation imperative. To ignore it is to risk reputational fallout…and to miss a seriously golden green opportunity.
Now here’s the interesting thing: Becoming a more climate friendly brand doesn’t have to mean spending more money—in fact, the opposite is true. By making small tweaks to campaign KPIs and optimizing the digital supply path, marketers can start to minimize their carbon emissions in a way that is also beneficial for overall campaign performance. What’s the saying? Two birds, one stone? Let’s explore:
Attention metrics are on the rise: A trend fueled by the idea that the old proxies for performance—the likes of viewability, reach, and frequency—are no longer optimal since they fail to provide an accurate measure as to whether target consumers actually see ads. Attention data technology works by filling that knowledge gap, providing more definitive insights into how audiences engage with a brand’s content on specific domains.
How does this relate to cutting carbon costs, you may ask?
One study found that by removing impressions that receive less than 0.5 seconds attention time, brands can reduce total emissions by 53% while increasing the average attention time per impression by nearly 40%. Or, to put it another way: advertisers that pull spend from publishers they know are offering little-to-no bang for their buck can weed out wasted spend and lower their carbon footprint in the process. Win-win.
Remember all those technology companies involved in the programmatic bidding process? Momentum is building toward a more streamlined—and, therefore, more efficient—network. Eliminating redundant auctions for the same inventory and optimizing the flow of data not only makes sense from a business perspective, but also reduces the amount of computing power needed to run the overall ad ecosystem. It also cuts costs by opting out of relationships that don’t provide value as part of this change and opting in to relationships that simplify the digital campaign workflow (be that centralizing planning processes, consolidating reporting, or reconciling financial data). And side note: With new data privacy laws coming into play requiring a more detailed understanding of who has access to consumer data throughout the bid stream, there has never been a better time to conduct a partner review. Win-win-win.
So, the carbon footprint of digital advertising is growing, consumers are invested in it, and incorporating climate friendly initiatives into larger business goals turns out to be not just a moral imperative but also a financial one.
What’s the hold-up, then, when it comes to greater action across the industry?
It boils down to these reasons: A lack of standardization, a lack of regulation, a lack of urgency, and a lack of education. Marketers are many things—creative thinkers, performance forecasters, data analysts, investigative journalists, and idea generators, to name a handful—but they are not climate experts. Only 24% of marketers say their company has set targets to address the carbon cost of online ad campaigns, and a negligible number say they have already reached net zero. Clearly, there is ample room for progress. But until the industry collectively garners a greater understanding of the issues at hand and agrees on common measurement methodologies, change will likely continue at a glacial pace.
Fortunately, though, help is on the way in the form of new tools and initiatives:
Then there are the stories of big brands already making proactive moves:
Without many global benchmarks and standards for marketers to follow, it is these stories and these actions that are sparking the conversation. More are bound to follow as the benefits of adopting sustainable digital practices come increasingly into view. Could 2023 be the tipping point? Only time will tell.
Advertisers and consumers alike are waking up to the carbon cost of digital advertising. Brands are facing myriad challenges in 2023 (most notably planning for the cookieless future and keeping up with all the latest regulations), but sustainability shouldn’t be deprioritized in planning discussions. As marketers start or continue their journey to become more sustainable, it’s important to focus on efficiency as a route to achieving success, and embracing greener digital ad buying efforts and shoring up the supply path are great places to begin. Those that do so now can gain the early mover advantage and set themselves up to foster greater brand loyalty and cost savings down the road.
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Looking for more tips to kickstart your sustainability transformation? Check out our blog post that dives into all the do’s and don’ts for digital marketers when it comes to climate change and sustainability advertising.
Welcome to Scout! Each week, our team tracks down the best digital marketing articles, POVs, and reports—so you don't have to. Here’s what to read from the week of 3/31/23 - 4/6/23 to stay ahead of the curve:
There’s a lot of hype around generative AI these days—but there’s also significant backlash from tech experts, regulators, and consumers alike. Despite these mixed reactions, tech companies don’t seem to be slowing down when it comes to developing their AI solutions, and demand for the technology remains high.
In the latest sign of regulation shaping the digital advertising landscape, Meta announced it would give EU users more control over the use of their personal data, allowing them to opt out of certain highly personalized ads, while also considering an all-out ban on political ads on Facebook and Instagram. Still unclear: whether the new capabilities will help the social giant stave off more GDPR-related fines (or ever make their way to the US).
Speaking of data: marketers are still coming to grips with how to navigate a cookieless future. This piece shares tangible tips marketing teams can use to adjust to increasing privacy regulations, ever-shifting policies from major tech companies, and evolving consumer sentiments.
Late last month, Iowa became the sixth state to pass consumer data privacy legislation—and it’s likely that others will follow suit. According to a new report, this patchwork approach to privacy legislation could eventually cost businesses $1 trillion over ten years. Here, panelists at the IAB Public Policy & Legal Summit discuss how marketers can comply with a patchwork of state data privacy legislation in the absence of a federal solution.
Show off your marketing chops with our question of the week. This week’s hot topic: connected TV advertising.
What percentage of US households are projected to own a connected TV device in 2023?
A. 67.9%
B. 78.8%
C. 85.3%
D. 91.2%
Click here for the answer, along with a holistic exploration of connected TV (CTV) and over-the-top (OTT) advertising (and the differences between them).
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86% of US consumers are concerned about data privacy, with a full 3 in 10 unwilling to share their personal data for any reason. Data privacy and security is such a hot topic, it’s at the heart of efforts to regulate—if not outright ban—TikTok: US and state governments alike fear that the platform, which has been under US scrutiny for nearly three years due to its ownership by a China-based company, “may put sensitive user data, like location information, into the hands of the Chinese government.”
As a result of widespread consumer disapproval of targeting tools such as third-party cookies—not to mention government privacy regulations and changing policies from tech giants like Apple and Google—advertisers must find new ways to market relevant content to willing audience segments.
To that end, here are five things marketers should keep in mind as we move toward a privacy-first future:
Creating a cookieless new normal isn’t going to happen overnight—it’s a marathon, not a race. And a “one-size-fits-all” solution is unlikely to address each marketer’s unique concerns, from media placement options to audience targeting to conversion tracking. Easy, quick alternatives are not the way to go.
As Basis Technologies’ VP of Media Innovations & Technology, Noor Naseer, wrote in a recent blog post:
“Though it might be tempting to wait around for someone to come up with [a one size-fits-all third-party cookie replacement], those who choose progress over procrastination when exploring privacy-friendly solutions will come out on top.”
The key here is to test a variety of solutions to evaluate what mix of available alternatives will work for you. Which leads us to our next two points…
Marketers can leverage targeting options like contextual, semantic, and machine learning without worrying about consumer privacy concerns. Geo-based targeting is another option that’s often privacy-friendly, as is buying via PMPs, which won’t be affected by cookie deprecation.
P.S. For more about contextual targeting—how it works, why it’s privacy-friendly, and the many benefits it offers—check out Why Contextual Targeting is Having a Moment in Digital Advertising.
Whether you’re a publisher or a marketer, collecting and leveraging first-party data from consumers will be key moving forward. Since users give this information freely, it’s privacy-compliant. Plus, personalization and targeting efforts fueled by first-party data are more likely to resonate and yield positive campaign results.
If you have access to email addresses, phone numbers, or any other consented data from your consumer base, you can layer that data into other types of targeting to differentiate audience groups. This can be done by creating targetable audience segments within a CRM, creating lookalike audiences, or layering first-party data with contextual targeting for highly relevant reach.
In addition to exploring options like contextual and making the most of their first-party data, marketers should stay informed on how heavy hitters in the ad industry are developing identity solutions that are both high-performing and privacy compliant. There’s the International Advertising Bureau’s Project Rearc with its encrypted identifiers and consumer controls, for example, or LiveRamp’s RampID and its ability to resolve hundreds of identifiers into one unique ID.
The bottom line? The industry is innovating quickly to account for the loss of third-party cookies, and it’s important that marketers are aware of all the options.
The customer-centricity of a clearly crafted data usage policy won’t go unnoticed: That earlier study about privacy concerns also highlights that “76% of survey respondents say they want more transparency around how their personal data is being used by companies, and 40% say they would willingly share their personal data if they knew exactly how it would be used.” However, a McKinsey study showed that “only around 33 percent of Americans believe that companies are using their personal data responsibly.”
So, while ensuring data security through the right partnerships and infrastructure is necessary, and leveraging opted-in data and privacy-first media is a smart use of your available tools, your consumers’ trust is the leg that keeps the rest of the stool standing. The more integrity with which you use their data, the sturdier your overall relationship will be—before, during, and after your campaigns.
Being aware of, empathetic to, and responsible with consumers’ data privacy concerns is only becoming more critical—to brand/customer relationships, to marketing campaign success, and to a business’ bottom line. Marketers who plan now for ethical data collection, governance, and deployment will be well positioned to avoid a huge mess when the cookie finally crumbles.
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Looking for more insights into the changing landscape of consumer privacy? Check out Beyond Third-Party Cookies: Your Guide to Overcoming the Identity Crisis.
Imagine you’re back in high school (rough time, we know. But stay with us!). Your teacher just handed back a recent test, and your palms are sweating as you scan their feedback.
There, at the top of page two, you see it: “Mostly correct, but…” Ah, partial credit. If you were like us, you’d probably find yourself wondering, “Isn’t being close good enough?”
Fast forward to “adult” life (yikes), and there are certainly instances in which being close is more than enough…but there are also times when precision is key. In a space as complex as digital marketing, for example, a lack of precision can lead to misunderstandings and costly errors.
Today, we’re digging into an area where it pays to be precise: differentiating between connected TV (CTV) and over-the-top (OTT) advertising. Though these terms are sometimes used interchangeably, there are important differences to be aware of. Knowing what each refers to and how they differ will ensure your team is utilizing these channels effectively, and prevent an awkward situation in which an ad intended to run on a TV device ends up displayed on someone’s phone instead.
Ready to dive into all things OTT vs. CTV? Let’s begin.
Before we can explore the differences and similarities between OTT and CTV, we need to define each term individually. First up? CTV.
A CTV is any television set that is connected to the internet. CTVs include smart TVs, as well as TV sets that can access the internet via an OTT device, a set-top box, or a gaming device that serves as an OTT device.
The term CTV describes the device on which viewers are watching video content. As such, it’s not possible for someone to watch CTV on their phone, laptop, desktop, tablet, or other digital device, since none of those devices are TVs.
(Psst: There are tons of other words and acronyms associated with CTV that you might want to know about. Check out our connected TV advertising glossary to learn more!)
Now that we’ve established what connected TV is (and what it is not), let’s move on to OTT.
Where the term CTV describes a specific device, OTT describes a way that video content is delivered to users. Specifically, OTT is a method of delivering video content to users through the internet, rather than via cable, broadcast, or satellite. A few well-known providers of OTT content include Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, and Disney+.
OTT advertising can happen just about anywhere. The same cannot be said of CTV (because, hey, how many people do you know that carry their TV sets around with them?)
Though there are ways in which CTV and OTT overlap, it’s important to note their key differences:
Though these terms are sometimes used synonymously, they are distinct. Just remember, all CTV is OTT, but not all OTT is CTV (kind of like how all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares).
“Okay, we get it,” some advertisers might say. “CTV and OTT are different. But why use them? What benefits do they offer?”
Well, more and more people are using CTV devices to watch video, and many people are turning to OTT content over traditional cable and broadcast providers. In short, both CTV and OTT offer advertisers the opportunity to connect with people when and where they’re watching video. Still not convinced? We’ll let the numbers speak for themselves:
With the explosion of people tuning into CTVs and tapping into OTT video content, it’s no surprise that ad spend has followed in kind. In 2022, US CTV ad spend grew by 23% year-over-year (YoY) and is projected to grow by 27.2% YoY in 2023 to $26.92 billion. And, subscription OTT ad spend is forecast to grow 50.5% YoY in 2023 and to reach $11.11 billion in ad spend in 2024.
Before we wrap things up, here’s a quick quiz to assess your knowledge on CTV vs. OTT:
Imagine you’re chatting with your coworker Larry. While discussing an upcoming campaign, Larry says, “Let’s include CTV ads in the mix! I saw one while watching the newest episode of ‘The Bachelor’ on my phone this morning, and it totally hooked me.” How do you respond?
If you chose answer B, congratulations! We can now officially dub you a CTV vs. OTT wizard: You know exactly what these terms mean, where they overlap, where they are distinct, and their top benefits.
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Looking to expand even further upon your OTT vs. CTV advertising expertise? Our Connected TV Advertising Guide can help! In it, we dig into how to make the most of the CTV opportunity, CTV best practices and strategies, how to optimize towards key KPIs, and more.
What’s new in the realms of paid search and social media? Basis’ Senior Vice President of Paid Search and Social Amy Rumpler compiles all the latest news, trends, and resources each month for easy access.
According to eMarketer, YouTube Shorts and Retail Media are well-positioned to benefit from a TikTok ban, along with Instagram, Netflix, and BeReal (although BeReal has yet to monetize its app). No matter what happens, social video ad budgets are forecast to weather the downturn in ad spending better than nonvideo formats.
While CPMs on some platforms (TikTok, for example) may be a steal, depth of engagement comes easier on platforms with innovative new offerings. Topping the list of boundary-pushers is Snapchat, but there’s plenty of potential for other platforms to innovate in the AR-driven e-commerce space as well.
One of the many joys of AR: Putting googly eyes on your cat.
Whereas in the UK and US people still view social networks as, well, social, in China they’re already synonymous with commerce, with nearly 40% of internet users also engaging in livestream shopping. Livestreaming is the next logical frontier for growth, especially for brands that cater to shoppers’ motivations and evolving habits.
Two new ad options are coming to the IG feed. The first, Reminder Ads, is designed to let users opt into alerts about specific events in the app, which helps brands build awareness, anticipation, and consideration for upcoming events. The second, in Instagram Search, allows ads to appear ahead of organic search results.
While it’s not a new concept in social media overall, “Watch mode”, which will provide a continuous feed of vertical video content, is certainly new to Reddit. Sound familiar? With more users spending more time on platforms like TikTok, it makes sense that Reddit is aligning with this trend.
This insights report discusses how leaned-in gaming audiences have headed to Reddit as their number-one source of information and recommendations. Reddit’s latest research shows that game launches aren’t the only hot topic: DLCs (that’s “downloadable characters,” for the n00bs out there), microtransactions, and subscriptions are also incredibly popular with the Reddit community. At every stage of the funnel, marketers have an opportunity to maximize retention and recognition with this niche, highly engaged audience.
Plus, Redditors know where to find all the hidden stuff in Super Mario Bros.
To help advertisers connect with users at every stage of the purchase journey, Pinterest shared some key tips and tricks that include how to align media objectives, measurement considerations, and more. One standout to take note of: “Video is the hero format for full-funnel impact…the average campaign should allocate 50-60% of budget toward video formats.”
According to Social Media Today, more users are opting to share updates via intimate circles and within DMs than ever before, due in part to the amount of divisive content in public feeds. That doesn’t mean social feeds aren’t still incredibly valuable placements for reaching audiences, but brands should consider how to leverage messaging to provide more ways to connect with customers directly.
This report covers a handful of key themes that all recruiting pros should take note of: how the role of recruiters continues to evolve, how the microeconomic picture will impact the workforce, the continued move for recruiters to focus on skills over pedigree, and key themes around employee learning and development. They also discuss what employees really want and how companies can convey that through culture.
Weirdest. Job interview. Ever.
As reported by a few sources now, Meta’s new platform (“P92”) will focus on text updates and incorporate decentralized user data usage and experiences. While this might help them avoid perceived issues around censorship, the real benefit could be in allowing different communities to set their own rules, and letting users take their data with them from one community to another. The complexity of a system like this might be a hard sell, however.
Lastly, there’s so much going on right now in the search and social space related to AI, I could literally have written an entirely separate post on the topic! Instead, here’s a list of links to catch you up on the latest:
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While many players in the advertising industry have reprioritized diversity, equity, and inclusion in the past few years, underrepresentation of historically marginalized communities in programmatic media inventory is an ongoing problem.
President of Advertising at Group Black, Kerel Cooper, is working to change that by building a publisher collective that aggregates programmatic inventory focused on reaching Black audiences. In this episode, Cooper discusses what advertisers and marketers can do to support the advancement of the Black media ecosystem.
Noor Naseer: 2020 was a year of colossal change for brands and advertisers, as many were finding their footing around sustainability, equity, social justice, and other topics they historically had taken less of a stance on. This social awakening impacted the digital media world by changing how brands plan their media investments, the variety of suppliers or publishers they work with, and the types of initiatives they support.
Our guest for this episode is Kerel Cooper, president of advertising at Group Black, a Black-owned media collective focused on creating a more sustainable and equitable media landscape. Kerel talks to me about what's been going on in the past few years since 2020, how brands and media buyers should be thinking about DEI when it comes to programmatic media buying, and how marketers and digital media professionals can do better as they plan to execute campaigns more inclusively. This episode with Kerel on programmatic buying with diversity and inclusion in mind starts right now.
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NN: First things first Kerel: Thanks for joining me to chat today.
Kerel Cooper: Absolutely, super excited about this conversation. I'm thrilled that we got a chance to meet in person for the first time a few months back at Ad Color. You were on my podcast two years ago, but we had actually never met in person until very recently. So that was awesome.
NN: It is very strange since I guess I met you amidst the pandemic and maybe I already knew you before. I think there is this shift in what it means to know somebody because I felt like I already knew you like I had already met you. I think that's just what living in this kind of post-pandemic world is like.
KC: Absolutely. I agree. There are so many people that I met, virtually, that I got a chance to know over the last two and a half years that meeting them for the first time in person was exciting. But it was also like we were just picking up conversations like old friends, because we've known each other for so long.
NN: I’m excited to do more of that and have some more of those conversations via the podcast as well. So I'm going to kick things off and ask you a little bit about where you work. You come from the legacy digital media and adtech space. And since then, you've moved over relatively recently to Group Black. So I'm going to frame my question specifically, because I know Group Black does a lot of different things. But can you spell out the offerings that are digital in nature, and the vital purposes they serve for brands and advertisers?
KC: Yeah, sure. So first, for those of you listening who don't know me, my name is Kerel Cooper, I'm President of Advertising at Group Black. If you're unfamiliar with Group Black, we are essentially a collective and accelerator focused on the advancement of the Black media ecosystem. And I know we'll sort of get more into what that means in this conversation.
In terms of our specific offerings, we're in the market today with three main opportunities. First, as a media opportunity. Today we work with, like I said, a collective of about 200 Black-owned media publishers, and are representing their inventory and market. So we've essentially consolidated their inventory and offer it as a scalable media solution and market. The specific products within that include standard display, video, audio, CTV, and digital out of home. So that all sort of encompasses our media offering.
We also have a content and creators offering as well. So really working with creators and content creators who are authentically telling great stories in the marketplace, we work with them on sort of amplification of their content and connecting them with the right agencies and brands who have a strategy around content or social offering as well. The third offering is focused on events. So in 2022, we worked very closely with Essence, partnering with them on sponsorships and activations at Essence Fest and Afropunk. But as we look at 2023, Group Black will be standing up for our own events in the market. And a couple of notable events are, we'll be doing something soon around web3 and NFT's and the sort of the education around that market, as well as programming around hip hop's 50th anniversary, which happens to be this year. And again, working with brands on sponsorships and activations at those events.
NN: You might have touched on some things I am probably going to ask you about, but we'll reframe them a little bit. I also want to just clarify what is the nature of the conversation that I'm looking to have today with Kerel and there is just this inclination and just this uprising of advertisers and marketers and brands out there that are looking to put together strategies to reach Black and Brown audiences and other types of marginalized audiences. And oftentimes, they're looking to do that in programmatic adtech oriented spaces. Everyone doesn't have a full-blown strategic team or AOR in place to make those strategies come into existence, but they've been tasked with making those buys come together and come together successfully. So we'll talk more about that. But I'm going to connect back again to Kerel’s history in the adtech and digital media space. How is your background distinguishing you for the purposes of Group Black?
KC: Yeah, it's a great question. I don't know if anyone's ever asked me that question before, you made me sort of think about my career, my career journey. I've been in the adtech and martech space for over 23 years now. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to work at some great companies, some really great organizations, and have had the opportunity to do a lot of different things within my career, right, you know, I would say the first 14 years of my career were mainly spent in ad operations. And coming up through sort of the ad operations funnel and running teams there and building out adtech stacks, so on and so forth. I then moved over to LiveIntent in 2014. So moving from the publisher side of the space to the adtech platform side of the space. And from there, I made a career switch to move into account management and ran the account management organization for a couple of years before again, pivoting into leading product marketing, and then ultimately all of marketing.
So my career in a snapshot has been across ad operations, account management, product marketing, and marketing. I think from the role that I'm in now, which consists of heading up an organization that consists of the sales team, account management and operations and insights and analytics, all of my previous experience, put me in a really good position to sort of lead an organization that covers so many different areas of revenue and operations.
Second to that I'm super passionate about diversity, equity and inclusion, as we've talked about, you know, I run my own podcast with my cohost, Erik Requidan, that we started in 2018, which focuses on diverse individuals within media, business and technology. And I've always been involved in my company and my organization's diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and social outreach initiatives. So if you combine my experience plus my passion around diversity, equity and inclusion and marry that with our mission and vision at Group Black, it's a really good fit for me. And I think for the company as well.
NN: To expand on that, I know you've given a little bit of background on Group Black and some of the activations or opportunities that they've stepped into some of the new things that we're anticipating for 2023. But I think a lot of people out there, who maybe they've worked in the adtech space, or programmatic media space, or just advertising in general, they're not as close as either you or I when it comes down to thinking about why it's so important to craft these more specialized organizations that are focusing on unique populations. So can you share some background to highlight why scaling Black media ownership is critical for programmatic and the digital media industry?
KC: Yeah, I mean, I think historically, Black-owned media and other diverse-owned media companies have not had the investment in them that other companies have had, or maybe that they should have had. So from that perspective, they haven't been able to have the financial resources to have the right technologies in place, or to maybe have the right media expertise on staff. And because their staffing is small, maybe they don't have the right connections at the agencies and brands to unlock more revenue. When you think of it from that perspective, that is one of the values that Group Black is providing to our collective. How do we make buying Black-owned media easier to do at scale? How do we create opportunities for our collective but also, how do we bring to them these additional areas of expertise, whether that be on the media side, the technology side, so on and so forth.
I think when you look at the Black-media ecosystem landscape, I still feel that there's a lot of untapped sources of inventory from a programmatic perspective, because there are hundreds of local Black news organizations across the country today. But because of the lack of investment, as we just talked about, and their localized nature, a lot of them are very small. So a lot of them get overlooked by bigger brands and agencies when they're spending dollars and if we from a Group Black perspective can pull together those inventory sources, those unique small inventory sources that are untapped to create a more scalable offering, I think that that is something that a lot of agencies and brands would be willing to tap into.
NN: Absolutely. I mean, that's where there's this incredible loss on both sides, right that, like you mentioned earlier, it's that the technology hasn't been tapped into, people don't have the awareness that the opportunities exist. And even when the opportunities exist, they really need, especially if we're talking about some of the bigger brands out there, they need to be glued together with a lot of the other inventory sources that are available.
KC: So right.
NN: Technology is key to that. So if you can also share how Group Black is helping to make Black-owned digital media companies more accessible, maybe in ways that go beyond some of what you already described in terms of like gluing some of the inventory sources together? Are there other things that are happening from a digital media perspective that you all are supporting?
KC: Yeah, I think in terms of making it more accessible, so I think it goes back to the technology piece. You know, from being in the adtech and programmatic space, connecting the pipes is so important. We love to say that in our space: “Are the pipes connected? Are we ready to do buying?” And so we've had to look at that as part of our solution for making inventory accessible, making it available, creating opportunities for maybe some of the smaller publishers who wouldn't normally have that opportunity. So opening the pipes and connecting programmatically is one thing.
The flip side of that is marketing. I think our marketing team, our brand team has done a fantastic job in the year and a half that Group Black has been around in sort of promoting who we are, what we're doing and making sure that the marketplace knows that we exist. And within that it's not just about the Group Black brand. It's about the 200-plus publishers that are part of our collective that we are helping promote. So part of it is technology, in terms of making sure pipes are connected. The other part of it is brand marketing.
NN: Why is the adtech industry so behind when it comes to having solid sources of inventory related to Black-owned real time biddable inventory?
KC: There's a couple of reasons for that. If you think about the black media ecosystem, landscape, and Black-owned media inventory, there isn't a lot out there, there aren't a lot of Black-owned media companies. Our mission at Group Black is to dramatically transform the face of media ownership and investment. As part of who we are and what we're trying to do we are trying to address that. So the first part is there isn't a lot of Black-owned media that exists. And there's a number of reasons for that. Investment is at the top of the list, so we need to address that.
The other side of it, I think, is the inherent way that buying has been done for so long creates some biases when it comes to Black-owned media and diverse-owned media as well. I'll give you an example. From a buying perspective there are companies that when they buy programmatically, they do keyword blocking for brand safety reasons. We've seen some examples where companies will block terms like “Black Lives Matter.” If you say you want to spend money with Black-owned media and you block a term like “Black Lives Matter,” you're automatically going to negate spending going to a lot of local news organizations, so on and so forth. “Obama” is another term that seems to get blocked as well, too. I think that that's more from a political perspective. Companies sometimes will block politics. How many years has it been since Obama's been in the White House? Most of the news today about him and about his wife and about his kids is more sort of lifestyle and educational type news. So I think going back and looking at how we buy today and making sure that the way we buy from a programmatic perspective in terms of keyword blocking, brand safety, the entire RFP process, I think is an exercise worthwhile for companies who are really serious about spending money with diverse-owned media companies.
NN: Kerel, I want to take our conversation back to what happened across the course of the pandemic, especially surrounding mid-2020. When there wasn't just an upheaval from a political standpoint, and from a social justice perspective, it definitely bled right into agency life and advertising and adtech culture of there being these proclamations of dedicating dollars and media investment to Black-owned businesses and Black-owned causes and things that we should be seeing the impact of. I wanted to ask you more about that. I imagine Group Black has a lot of visibility into whether or not that investment is actually occurring. So I just wanted to ask you a little bit about how those pledges and that commitment are coming along for advertisers and brands.
KC: Yeah, I think if you look at it on a case-by-case basis, some companies are doing better than others with their commitments, right. To your point, we speak to a lot of brands and agencies that have pledged to spend hundreds of millions of dollars supporting Black-owned media companies, supporting diverse-owned media companies, right. Obviously, I'm not going to get into the point of naming names or anything like that. But some are doing better than others. From a sales perspective it's our job at Group Black to continue to educate the market. From a sales perspective, it's our job to continue to show the power of running with diverse-owned media, Black-owned media. And that's the job that we're doing. We're making some headway there. But to answer your question, some are doing better than others.
NN: To the extent that you want to comment on this, I know, it's kind of a tricky question, what do you think is holding some of those organizations back? Are there legitimate reasons? Do they not understand the complexities, or is putting together the plans more challenging than they were anticipating? Can you share a little bit about what some of the general rationale might be?
KC: Yeah, I think you named some of the reasoning behind that. I think that there, maybe there were a little bit more complexities than some had anticipated. Some folks put out headlines a couple years ago, but they didn't really have any real intention of doing anything there. Right. And again, I think that's a small part. I want to make sure I'm not generalizing because I think a lot of, pretty much all, of the partners that we work with today are serious about their commitments. But it's more about making sure that they understand the complexities, we help them navigate some of that. And then also on our side, and I think we've done a good job of this over the last year or so is making sure that we've got the right product offering for the brands that want to spend dollars. At the end of the day, we're still running a business. So brands and agencies need to hit specific KPIs. So we need to make sure that we're delivering the right products and services, which I believe we are today.
NN: You mentioned that there are a lot of advertisers out there that are standing firm with their commitment. And those are the types of folks that you are looking to partner with, to elaborate on the types of clients that seek to partner with your organization.
KC: Over the course of the year and a half we've been in business, we've seen all different types of partners come our way, large publishers, mid publishers, and very small publishers. I think a couple of things stand out that are consistent across the board. One, publishers have inventory that they want to offer up and be a part of what we're doing. Two, they share very similar beliefs and values that we share at Group Black and want to be a part of this sort of movement that we've created. I think all of those exist with that sort of common thread across a lot of the collective members that we work with today.
NN: Where is the typical brand or agency behind when it comes to developing a thoughtful programmatic strategy to reach Black audiences?
KC: That's an interesting question in terms of behind, I think it goes back to what I was saying earlier about really looking at your buying tactics. Obviously, you're going to come up with the goals of your campaigns, you're going to come up with your KPIs for what you want to do. But do your buying tactics negate you from getting there and create more challenges and hurdles for you getting there? Right, like looking at your keyword list, looking at the domains that you're running on? I think that is an area where I still think from a programmatic perspective, there needs to be a reset and a little bit more sort of digging into and investigating.
NN: Yeah, I think I also asked the question because I think from the perspective of a buyer and I know you haven't been in a media planner, per se, role for a minute now, Kerel. When I think about the question, I think about somebody, in the event that you are just not knowledgeable about the type of inventory sources that you're looking to ideally source from, what are you turning to? You’re trying to turn to Comscore? Are you trying to turn to your neighbor in the workplace to ask you what types of suppliers or sources you should be turning to? Maybe everybody's turning to the one singular supplier, and I feel like that's definitely a hang up to saying, like, “We're not pulling from a diversified enough source.” Then also to your earlier point, there's only so much you can source from to begin with, and that's a part of what you guys are focusing on too. It's the short-term, but it's also the long-term strategy.
KC: Exactly, yeah, there's only so many places you can source from. And I think that if we don't operate the largest programmatic offering of Black-owned media, we are certainly towards the top of the list there. So from that perspective, I think we've done a good job of pulling together as much inventory out there as we can. We're always looking for more, we have a team that is dedicated to finding more sources of inventory that fit into what we're doing and trying to accomplish as Group Black.
NN: If there are brands or media buyers out there listening now, and they're thinking about their strategies and that they want to be doing better, what type of advice would you offer to them as far as embarking on a more thoughtful strategy to reach Black audiences across digital media platforms in 2023?
KC: Yeah, whenever anyone asked me about the question around advice for how people can do better, I think the first thing is figuring out where you're at in the process today, and why you actually haven't done better up until this point, looking internally and understanding what's held you back or stopped you from doing better up until this point, I think, is super important. That's the first thing.
Two, I think reaching out to suppliers, like Group Black, we're happy to chat with anyone out there that wants to talk about best practices for targeting Black-owned media, the best practices around targeting African American audiences as well. We can guide you and help you from that perspective, to accomplish your goals. Again, from our perspective, yes, programmatic and the digital media offering is important to what we do, but it's not the only thing we do. So if you want to spend dollars with Black-owned media, if you want to reach diverse audiences, we can help you really with an integrated approach, reaching your audience at scale.
NN: What are big goals you have your sights set on when it comes to reaching Black consumers and leveraging Black-owned programmatic sources?
KC: Yeah, I think first and foremost is continuing to drive scale. You know this just as well as I do. What marketers are always looking for is scale and performance. So continuing to drive that I think is super important for us to share. Continuing to educate the market, on who we are, what we do, best practices for buying Black-owned media, diverse owned media through us is important. And really looking at sort of larger, more integrated campaigns, as I mentioned a moment ago, I think is important for us as well, too. We feel like we have really an offer for any marketer that's out there that wants to work with diverse-owned media.
NN: I am feeling optimistic about the future, you know, just even seeing Group Black at Ad Color and so many of the initiatives that you're supporting and having this conversation now, it makes me feel good about what's to come because it is also a long journey.
KC: It is.
NN: You’ve made the serious commitment of leaving a former organization to become the president of a new one and keep things moving forward. So excited about the things that are coming next at Group Black and what you have coming next personally Kerel.
KC: Thanks, I appreciate it. We are excited about the year ahead we're going to continue to keep pushing our message in the market and doing the right things because if we succeed at what we're trying to do, which we will, it will have an impact from a social perspective for generations to come.
NN: Great. Looking forward to it. Thanks for the time, Kerel.
KC: Thank you. Appreciate it.
NN: Thanks to Kerel Cooper, President of Advertising at Group Black, for discussing the cross section between digital media buying and executing campaigns that better represent the diverse world we live in. There's going to be some uphill climbing required to see the type of change that organizations like Group Black are working towards. But the adtech industry is better off when we can all more effectively reach the audiences we seek to engage with. Kerel also has a great podcast where he features interviews with leaders of diverse backgrounds across the business, media and tech landscape called Minority Report. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. And while you're doing that, give more episodes of this podcast to listen and feel free to subscribe. I'm Noor Naseer, more AdTech Unfiltered coming up real soon.
For nearly two decades, brands and businesses across industries have relied on third-party cookies to generate billions of dollars of ad revenue. From selling products to driving college enrollment to collecting political donations, this small but mighty identifier made tracking and identifying specific audiences pretty easy. With cookies now expected to expire in 2024 and with 80% of advertisers still dependent on them, today’s marketer faces an identity crisis and is desperately trying to figure out what to do next.
At SXSW 2023, Basis Technologies' VP of Media Innovations + Technology, Noor Naseer, broke down everything we need to know—and what we need to do now—about an evolved web ecosystem that is increasingly privacy-centric while also expecting brands to reaching audiences with precision.
Not able to make it to make it to Austin this year? Never fear! We're here. Click below to watch a recording of Noor's presentation:
Want to dive further into the presentation and gain in-depth analysis of digital advertising's cookieless future? Click here to download slides from Noor’s talk, full of takeaways you can apply to your campaigns, plus a free copy of our guide “Beyond Third-Party Cookies: Your Guide to Overcoming the Identity Crisis.”
Unless you’ve been doing nothing nowhere all at once for the past, say, 10 months or so, you know that artificial intelligence (AI) and automation have seized the marketing limelight.
Most of the current buzz centers around the potential business impact of new tools within the field of generative AI. But even before this boom, agencies and brands have been increasingly leaning into automation and AI technologies to unlock efficiencies and improve collaboration. One study found that 90% of marketers are using them to strengthen customer interactions, 89% are using them to enhance data integration, and 88% are using them to personalize the customer journey across channels. Other use cases include resolving customer identity, driving best offers in real-time, and bridging online and offline experiences. Indeed, marketing organizations today have so much disparate data at their fingertips and so many disparate systems to manage throughout any given campaign lifecycle that leveraging automated technologies to save time and cut costs is critical to unlocking success.
Automation and AI are spurring brands’ digital transformations, igniting conversations, and capturing headlines…but what exactly do we mean when we talk about “automation” and “AI”? The terms are often used interchangeably, but in order to make smart decisions about how to invest in them and grasp their possible impact, it’s important to know how they differ and where they fit into the marketing and advertising ecosystem. Here, we unpack all that, and more.
The sometimes-synonymous use of these terms stems from the fact that automation is a broad category encompassing an entire class of technologies that includes AI itself. In advertising parlance, however, there are some key distinctions to be made.
The automation umbrella refers to a type of software that follows pre-programmed rules—it substitutes human labor across the campaign workflow, tapping into patterns to perform tasks that are repetitive and predictable. In the process, it enables scale that is virtually impossible to achieve without it.
AI, on the other hand, describes software designed to simulate human thinking—it is, as the name suggests, intelligent. Predicting outcomes under conditions of uncertainty is one of the most challenging aspects of digital advertising, and AI platforms can be a powerful ally in that fight by dynamically identifying and analyzing situations and crafting conclusions.
Simply put: automation works with data, while AI understands data.
Digital advertisers use basic automation in an assortment of ways—for example, in leveraging programmatic media buying or eliminating incomplete or redundant lead information. But it can also help brands and agencies manage the myriad new channels and platforms that have caused media complexity to soar while sapping marketers’ time. Media buyers can use automation to simplify workflows and increase agility as they build out adaptable cross-channel experiences.
From streamlining planning processes, to optimizing ad spend in real-time, to centralizing all reporting, to reconciling financial data, automation can help marketing organizations tame the fragmented markets and accomplish things they never could with manual processes alone. And side note: this powerful technology can also enrich the employee experience by significantly reducing redundant and tedious tasks in favor of more meaningful, higher-level strategic work.
Let’s move on to the topic of the moment.
It seems like barely a day passes without some marketing-related story about AI hitting front pages and homepages. The constant flurry—or, rather, blizzard—of new tools to hit the mainstream is whipping up an industry-wide frenzy.
OpenAI’s DALL-E 2 got the ball rolling when it burst onto the scene in late 2022. ChatGPT came next, gaining a million users in its first five days and reaching 100 million within just two months (making it the fastest-growing web platform ever). And GPT-4 has kept the hype going (and growing)—a tool proving adept at solving logic puzzles, building websites from a notebook sketch, creating business plans, telling jokes, and even passing bar exams. It’s also the technology powering Microsoft’s Bing Chat (you know, the one that went a bit crazy).
Of course, Mountain View was never going to sit back and let Redmond enjoy all the attention, so Google too has launched an API for its own language learning model (LLM), PaLM, alongside a number of other enterprise AI tools that it says will enable businesses to generate text, images, code, videos, and audio from simple natural language prompts. This includes Bard, Google’s chatbot, which runs on the company’s Language Model for Dialogue Applications (also known as LaMDA).
Big picture-wise, this is all game-changing stuff in the world of marketing. These new LLMs have accelerated the adoption of AI, and it’s easy to see where the advertising applications of these tools fit in. Brands and agencies are already reportedly using it to draft creative assets and brainstorm strategically, help refine consumer messaging based on online shopping habits, map out new marketing touchpoints, and scale their existing operations to do more with less.
It’s important to remember, though, that AI consists of so much more than just generative AI. Many aspects of digital advertising already leverage the technology to facilitate things marketers use regularly—think machine learning, behavioral marketing, contextual targeting, dynamic pricing, bid shading, and digital assistants.
Of all those areas, contextual targeting is probably the most widely adopted. Just over half (53%) of brand and agency marketers are currently using it, with another 33% planning to do so in the near future. This is no surprise considering the end of third-party cookies looms on the horizon. Since it doesn’t rely upon the use of personal data, contextual targeting neatly sidesteps identity issues, making it a sound (and cheaper) option for advertisers in this new privacy-forward future. It also adds an additional layer of filtering for page quality, helping to boost brand safety by avoiding lower-quality content and pages that don’t align with desired standards.
All said, the various applications of AI offer many of the same benefits as automation: They enable marketing organizations to build more robust actions that are regulation-compliant, all at a magnitude that would be implausible without them.
If you’re not already leveraging automation and AI, start your journey by assessing the opportunity for your organization and establishing high-impact use cases. Laying out the capability and governance groundwork ahead of time is critical to implementing and utilizing the technology successfully.
Identify where you can find quick wins with the highest automation potential and then branch out. In parallel, develop a long-term vision for more comprehensive transformation that features automation and AI in your workflow and operating model.
We’re still in the early days of generative AI and marketers can already use it to help with creative processes. But—and this is a big but—you must tread carefully. While the cost-savings this technology offers may be tempting, especially in today’s economic climate, advertisers that use it could find themselves embroiled in legal battles. Create guidelines around when, where, and how your organization adopts AI and ensure AI-generated content is always vetted by a human with relevant subject matter expertise.
The use of automation and AI can feel threatening to many marketers. But at least right now, the technology is at a stage where it’s there to help them do their jobs better and quicker. And who doesn’t want that? Marketing leaders should make sure they’re engaging their employees about how they’re using it and address any associated concerns they may have.
Developments in AI are poised to disrupt our industry. Changes will likely come slowly at first, but it’s essential to keep a close eye on them. Early adopters are more likely to reap the benefits down the line and late movers may struggle to keep up. Start testing and gain the advantage of early learning.
Automation and AI each have sweeping definitions that encompass a variety of complex technologies. Both are already indispensable tools for driving the kinds of large-scale, personalized, omnichannel advertising experiences that today’s consumers demand. It’s by no means essential for every marketer to be an expert in both, but looking into the future of digital media, it’s clear that automation and AI will have an enormous impact on our industry.
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If you’re interested in learning more about how to incorporate automation and AI into your marketing but unsure of where to start, reach out to our Media Strategy & Activation Team. You can also check out AdTech Academy, which offers courses that cover an array of automation and AI-based topics, including algorithmic optimization, behavioral targeting, contextual targeting, machine learning optimization, programmatic advertising, and many others.
Welcome to Scout! Each week, our team tracks down the best digital marketing articles, POVs, and reports—so you don't have to. Here’s what to read from the week of 3/16/23 - 3/23/23 to stay ahead of the curve:
More and more consumers are heading to visual platforms, such as YouTube, to watch podcasts. (What’s next, watching TikToks on Instagram? Oh, wait…) To adjust to this crossover, media buyers are figuring out next steps with podcast publishers, from how to buy—video, audio, or both—to how to define and attribute success.
It’s been a busy week for Big Tech on the regulatory front. TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew is testifying before a Congressional committee against threats that the US could ban the app. Meanwhile, industry group NetChoice launched a new litigation center to tackle issues ranging from state social media laws to antitrust suits.
The state of data privacy in advertising is a burning topic. With consumers and regulators alike pushing for change (and third-party cookie deprecation in Chrome rapidly approaching), advertising teams would be well-served to explore privacy-friendly solutions now. If you’re looking for a framework to set your team up for success in a privacy-focused future, this piece is for you.
After a somewhat rocky start to its advertising debut, Netflix’s recent series of moves demonstrate “they’re serious about the ads business.” This article breaks down the factors that contributed to the streaming service’s initial “bumpiness” for advertisers, as well as where things could go from here.
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