There are plenty of reasons marketers may be looking to in-house their programmatic media buying—increased transparency into media placement, better control over data, more efficient execution, improvement in workflow management, and consolidated analytics, to name just a few. But how do you know if the move makes sense for your organization, and how do you know when the time is right to initiate the process?
Well, we’re here to help! Download this handy quiz, answer 15 simple questions, tally up your score, and see where you fall on the readiness scale!
What should we watch tonight?
What used to be a simple question (it’s 8:30pm on a Thursday, so “Friends”—duh!), has gotten far more complicated in the past decade. For most TV watchers today, there’s a whole slew of follow-up questions that need to be addressed: Hulu, Netflix, or Paramount+? Series, doc, or movie?? And finally—which actual program to watch???
And while TV’s gotten complicated for everyone, the impact on marketers has been even more pronounced. With the invention and adoption of over-the-top (OTT) content, a staggering amount of increasingly fragmented inventory has become available.
Even still, CTV ad spend has skyrocketed recently, thanks to the powerful brand awareness, leads, and sales the format offers. At the same time, the space is so fragmented and complex that buyers say it’s “in shambles” (or “shambies,” for our Gen Z readers).
Today, we’ll explore how advertisers can create winning connected TV ads and campaigns. And for the agency and brand leaders wondering how to protect their teams from going to shambies themselves while navigating the complexity, we’ll discuss a solution that streamlines the process.
To kick things off, let’s do a quick overview of the CTV advertising landscape today.
Here are a few key figures to know:
Why the explosion? Well, CTV offers some hard-to-ignore marketing opportunities:
Now that we’ve covered some key facts and figures about this media channel, let’s dive a bit more into what distinguishes an average CTV ad from a great one.
Most people watch TV because they’re looking for a story—and this need for narrative extends to the ads viewers encounter while they watch.
That means there’s a huge opportunity to captivate audiences and tell your brand or product’s story through a compelling CTV ad. Not only that—41% of viewers feel that TV ads are an important part of the TV watching experience, so stakes are high for brands looking to connect with audiences.
To that end, we recommend considering the following questions as you plan and execute CTV ads:
Now, let’s talk about what makes a great strategy. For most brands and agencies, this means incorporating CTV as part of an omnichannel approach and focusing on reaching the right audience.
As we’ve discussed, while CTV advertising has many strengths, fragmentation is a notable challenge. Marketers can access inventory from many different sources—from smart TV providers, to programmatic ad exchanges, to streaming device makers, and more. Not only that—consumers can access OTT content in a variety of ways (not to mention the added obstacles of shared logins and multiple subscriptions within a single household).
The downside, as media buyers know, is that this fragmentation makes it difficult to track conversions. That said, marketers can use KPIs like video completion rate (VCR), impressions delivered, and cost per completed view (CPCV) to measure and report on the area that CTV ads excel in: brand awareness. Remember when we mentioned that standout CTV ads tell a compelling story about your brand? Good storytelling + a 100% viewable and non-skippable format = a huge opportunity to build or expand awareness of your product.
What this means for marketers is that CTV ads work best as part of a holistic omnichannel strategy. Within a campaign, customers might encounter a CTV ad that first makes them aware of a brand or product, and then get retargeted via paid search, mobile, display, or another channel. When used as part of an omnichannel strategy, advertisers can focus on boosting awareness through CTV, and then moving customers further down the purchase funnel through additional channels.
Another piece of an effective CTV strategy is identifying and targeting the right audience. Though fragmentation complicates this matter, a good DSP will allow you to layer both first- and third-party data to build audience segments based on demographics, interests, location data, site visits, and more.
And when buying CTV inventory programmatically? Contextual targeting parameters can further help marketers reach the right audience, in the right way. These segments allow for targeting based on content categories, broadcast types, and content types. Plus, with third-party cookie deprecation on the horizon—albeit a bit further down the line than it was a few months ago—getting familiar with privacy-friendly targeting methods is all the more important.
“This is all well and good,” you might be thinking, "but what about that ‘shambies’ bit? Won’t incorporating CTV advertisements into my campaigns just add to the complexity I’m already facing?”
If we’ve read your thoughts, you have a point: in a recent survey, most marketers reported using 9 different platforms for an average campaign. So, if you’re adding an entirely different platform to access CTV inventory? Yeah, it’s going to make things more complicated. But that isn’t the only way to tap into CTV.
By automating their CTV strategy through a single sign-on platform that allows for all-channel activation, marketers can streamline the process of building out omnichannel campaigns. Basis DSP, for example, is built to reduce complexity, via features like:
All in all? Leveraging automated tools and technologies for campaigns that involve CTV will minimize the chaos and allow agencies and brands to efficiently tap into CTV’s many opportunities.
It’s clear that CTV advertising is booming and holds many benefits for advertisers. But due to the fragmentation of the channel, incorporating CTV without using tools that alleviate its complexity might not be worth the trouble for some marketing organizations.
This is where advertising automation comes into play (or, should we say, into view!) By addressing media fragmentation with a variety of tools designed to streamline the entire media buying lifecycle, advertising automation empowers marketers to make the most of the CTV opportunity.
Looking for more? We do a deeper dive on all things automation here. And if learning more about CTV is what you’re looking for, we’ve got a guide for that too!
The 2022 US midterm elections are rapidly approaching, and political advertisers are looking for any edge they can get to boost their campaigns.
To get all the latest on the factors, trends, and projections shaping the political ad world, we spoke with political advertising expert Grace Briscoe, Basis Technologies’ SVP of Client Development.
Basis Technologies: It's grown pretty clear that 2022 is ramping up to be a major year in terms of ad spend‚—even for a midterm. What are some of the mitigating factors that digital advertisers should be aware when it comes to political ad buys in this year’s environment?
Grace Briscoe: It is absolutely forecast to be—and, so far, shaping up to be—a record-breaking year for spending. We're looking at political ad spends well ahead of what was spent in 2020, so we're looking at the first time where midterm spend is pacing to exceed a presidential year. We have been seeing spends just going up and up, so digital is for sure going to be breaking records.
In terms of big factors, the biggest is connected TV. There’s a ton of excitement around channel, and we’re seeing a significant chunk of dollars are shifting from traditional television into connected TV. Some forecasts I've seen show connected TV spends are likely to eclipse cable TV spends this year, which is wild—if you'd asked about this two years ago, nobody would have said it was likely to happen this fast. But I think we saw the pandemic accelerate some of that with media consumption habits, and so we're advising clients to be aware of competitiveness around video and especially connected TV.
As we get into October, you should expect to see some inventory tightness—especially in certain really competitive states—and clients are going to need to bid high and access a wide breadth of inventory sources to make sure they're able to get the kind of reach and scale they want in the weeks just before the election. My guess is that, because of auction dynamics, prices are going to go up more dramatically than in previous election cycles, and it’s going to be important for buyers to be thoughtful about bidding strategies to achieve their objectives.
BT: What should media buying professionals be aware of now to best prepare for that highly competitive environment? And, if the cost of CTV does indeed skyrocket, what are some viable alternatives that advertisers should consider if they’re looking to get the biggest bang for their buck?
GB: If you're not a political advertiser and you don't have to be present in some of those really competitive election states—or if it's not vital that you're advertising on connected TV in the last weeks of October and the first week of November—then you might want to sit things out and take a breather during that time. In other words, if it's not essential to your marketing that you have a presence on that channel, then it may be OK that you lose some bids and go a little quieter during that stretch. The volume may drop off on your connected TV for a couple of weeks, but then it's going to bounce right back, so you don't necessarily need to double your bids and spend a whole lot of money that isn't entirely essential. By being aware of this going into the fall, I think it’ll give some advertisers the chance to think through their approach and decide if they're OK with their volume dropping off in October without then overreacting.
For political advertisers, we're working with clients on making sure they've got access to a breadth of inventory sources, including both private marketplaces and open exchange, tapping into as many things as we can so that we can scale campaigns across different channels and platforms and devices. I do think running cross-platform OTT rather than focusing exclusively on connected TV devices—especially if it's not a must—will greatly help mitigate the pressure of increased competition and create opportunity to scale efficiently.
For clients that really want the most premium inventory and really want that very heavy, high frequency presence in October, we’re working with premium streaming providers and networks to make sure they’re reserving some inventory for those crucial weeks where it might otherwise be a little tougher to get really high volume. That can be a great complement to programmatic for certain campaigns.
BT: So CTV is clearly going to be the “it” channel during the 2022 campaign season. What are some other trends that you’re anticipating? Are there specific channels beyond CTV that are likely to be hotter than others?
GB: I think we are starting to see a little bit more adoption of streaming audio, though it is still fairly small. In 2020, I’d predicted “This is going to be the year where political clients like the availability of programmatic streaming audio, and it’s going to drive a lot of adoption!” But then only a fraction of a percent of ad spend went to programmatic audio—practically nil. So, I was wildly wrong then, but we are starting to see a little movement there now. It is ticking up—still only a single-digit percent of spend—but that’s a big increase from nothing!
But big-picture, I think we’re seeing clients interested in connected TV, then all other video, then display, and then pretty much everything else. Social is also in there, and search is always a must-have, but it's also always in the single digits of ad budgets.
BT: It's interesting that you bring up social. Obviously, the way that social has changed—not just from 2016 to today, but from 2020 to today—is pretty drastic. What should advertisers know about how political advertising on social has changed, and what can they do to ensure not just an effective presence on those platforms, but a safe presence on those platform (at least to the best of their abilities)?
GB: Outside of fundraising, where social is still very powerful, the role that social plays in political campaigns and in their media plans has definitely diminished. That’s at least in part because of all restrictions and hoops those platforms make political advertisers jump through. There are all these extra steps and extra headaches and “blackout periods,” and these things often are announced at the last minute with little-to-no warning. It's created a lot of uncertainty—and maybe even a lack of trust as well—between the advertisers and the platforms.
But at the same time, people use social—they're important channels, and campaigns want to reach voters there. Still, after 2020, clients really don’t feel like they can be overly reliant on any one platform because they could pull the plug on you tomorrow and say, “We're shutting down all political ads,” so political advertisers are really thinking about diversifying their strategy on social—even if, at this point, advertisers are kind of down to just Facebook and Snap.
BT: Have there been any states or any districts that have passed any legislation as it pertains to social media with advertising?
GB: Neither Facebook nor Google will take any ads for local or state elections in Washington state, and Google also doesn't take state, local or ballot measure ads in Maryland, Nevada, or New Jersey, because those states passed various transparency regulations. The Washington State Attorney General even sued Facebook and Google over political ads.
So yes, a handful of those state and local regulations emerged after 2016, with most of them coming in kind of a wave around 2018-2019. They add a new challenge for our clients who operate in those states or across multiple states, who need to make sure they're working with platforms that are able to ensure they are following all the rules.
BT: If you are working on a state or local election campaign, what capabilities do you really need to tap into to make the most of your spend—especially given that your budgets are likely much smaller than some of the bigger campaigns that are gobbling up high-priced inventory that you can't afford?
GB: Basis recently added state legislative district targeting, which is unique to our platform, and that's been really well received and has helped clients that need to make the most of those smaller budgets by letting them focus in on specific geographies. If you’re really strapped for cash, you can also try to minimize any extra layers of targeting that you're adding in, because those can both add to the expense and narrow the pool of potential voters you're talking to. So, say, if you're running for governor in Texas, then sure—micro-target your messaging to all sorts of different voter segments! But if you're running for a seat in Texas State House District 47, then don't over-target yourself into irrelevance and miss out on speaking to the voters you need to turn out.
BT: OK, last question! If you are a political marketer who’s looking for an adtech or media services partner in the coming midterm elections, what should you be looking out for?
GB: More than anything, I think it’s important to seek out someone who is experienced in the political advertising space and that has a dedicated, permanent political team. We’ve seen a lot of adtech companies that, for instance, will just hire a few DC-based salespeople during an election year, only to lay them off the week after the election and pay no attention to the whole political advertising world (and its particular needs) for another two years, when they start the whole cycle up again. And in a world where there are constant shifts of everything from redistricting to platform-based restrictions (or outright bans) on political ads, you need to make sure you don’t just have a vendor, but a trusted partner that you can lean on throughout the rigors of a campaign cycle.
And not to pat ourselves on the back too much, but while some DSPs were restricting political targeting (or eliminating political advertising altogether), Basis has actually added features and capabilities specifically for political advertisers just this year. We have a full-time Candidates and Causes staff of more than 40 experienced pros who understand the demands of an election cycle. We’ve been supporting political clients for over 15 years, so we’re able to provide the kind of relationships that are built on trust. And what do political advertisers want more than one less thing to worry about?
BT: Thanks so much, Grace!
GB: Anytime!
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Looking for more tips as the 2022 political advertising season heads into the homestretch? Check out our blog post on the challenges and opportunities around targeted political advertising in 2022. Or, if you’re interested in learning how you can best capitalize on all this information, reach out to our award-winning Candidates and Causes team here are Basis Technologies to see how you can make the most of your ad spend. Wishing you successful campaigns this fall—whether political or not!
Mobile usage is through the roof. Mobile ad spending continues to soar. Mobile gaming is off the charts. Mcommerce (or mobile commerce) keeps gobbling up marketing share.
Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets are becoming ever more embedded into digital infrastructure, with consumers turning to them for everything from news and communication to entertainment and shopping, and more. Indeed, as these handheld electronics grow increasingly ubiquitous around the globe, brands are embracing mobile advertising as a critical component of their marketing strategy. And now, with many of the mobile behaviors that consumers adopted toward the beginning of the pandemic looking like they are here to stay, marketers have an array of new possibilities to effectively and efficiently meet the needs, habits, and surroundings of their audience—and to build more trust-based, personalized relationships at scale.
So, just how much time are consumers spending on mobile? What is mobile’s share of digital ad spending? Where are mobile ad dollars going? And what technology threatens mobile’s dominance? Find answers to all those questions, and more, right here.
Mobile devices are quickly becoming an inextricable extension of the modern consumer—and, in turn, a core pillar of relationship marketing. The pandemic fast-tracked mobile proliferation and this trend looks set to continue evolving, as increased adoption of 5G and the constant emergence of advanced mobile technologies will likely provide an additional boost to mobile device usage.
It’s worth remembering that mobile advertising is a relatively new and rapidly evolving phenomenon—marketers are still discovering what’s possible on the medium, and the scope of mobile campaigns widens year after year. That said, mobile is already a tough channel to beat when it comes to the basics of digital advertising—i.e., massive audience reach, precise targeting, and personalization opportunities—and this is reflected by ad spend numbers. When it comes to programmatic, social, native, audio, video, and B2B spending on mobile, all the trend lines point north:
After mcommerce momentum picked up steam during the pandemic, signs indicate continued growth in the coming years, as new technologies like augmented reality (AR) and 5G converge with frictionless payment services like Apple Pay and Google Pay to help fuel the shift to mobile buying. For retailers, in particular, this presents a great opportunity to double down on building relationships with consumers via mobile media.
From casual games that require zero set up to fully developed immersive media experiences, mobile gaming today caters to a wide-ranging audience far beyond the stereotypical younger demographics. Indeed, the original generation of console gamers are now well into adulthood (it’s been over 40 years since the Atari was released!) and the share of adults who play digital games will almost certainly continue to rise. Mobile gaming is still fundamentally in its infancy as an entertainment outlet, but there is already big money in the industry—both in terms of investment and ad spend. And with a game and format out there for pretty much every brand (and consumer), it appears ready to explode.
It is quite clear that connected TV (CTV) is having a moment, reinvigorating TV and the wider video landscape. Virtual reality (VR), too, is now making its way into the mainstream with improved, more powerful headsets such as the Meta Quest 2 helping to increase adoption. Together, these technologies could bring consumers back to the living room sofa and siphon minutes and dollars away from smartphones and tablets.
With consumers spending more and more time absorbing content on their smartphones and tablets, mobile advertising is front and center, and there are ample opportunities for marketers to provide highly personalized touch-point experiences on those devices. The brands that get it right as part of their omnichannel marketing strategies can build deeper, more durable connections with their audiences that pave the way for long-term brand loyalty.
Want to optimize your mobile campaigns but don’t know where to start? Our Media Strategy & Activation team can point you in the right direction.
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 8/19/22 - 8/25/22 to stay ahead of the curve:
What’s new in the realms of paid search and social? Here's a master listicle of news, trends, and resources from the past month, including announcements and insights from Microsoft, Instagram, Snap, and TikTok.
As brands continue to grapple with inflation and economic uncertainty, more and more of them are having to raise prices just to stay afloat. How are marketers approaching inflation-borne challenges? Here, the New York Times explores the “new playbook” for weathering the storm.
As stronger data privacy laws put the squeeze on marketers and third-party cookie loss looms on the horizon (albeit a horizon that’s been pushed a bit further off...again...) more brands are “straight-up ask[ing]” customers for data in an effort to future-proof their data collection methods.
Data clean rooms are another privacy-friendly data collection method marketers have been considering as they plan for cookie deprecation—and one that’s gotten some serious hype. Here, Digiday gets down to brass tax. Our favorite line: “Most marketers wouldn’t know what to do with a data clean room if they had one.” Tell it like it is, Digiday!
It’s not the first time monthly streaming has exceeded broadcast in terms of viewership, but it is the first time that streaming has also surpassed cable. The downturn in both sports programming and new content on traditional television likely contributed to the shift. Just another day in the rise of OTT and CTV...
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Hi. How are you?
Are you feeling balanced, energetic, and content in your day-to-day life? Or are you, like three in five Americans, dealing with emotional exhaustion or the inability to put in more than minimal effort at work?
It’s been a rough several years, to say the least. We’ve watched a staggering number of tragedies unfold—the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, mass shootings in the US—as our daily lives have simultaneously been upended by economic hardships like inflation, supply chain crises, and food shortages.
As a leader at Basis Technologies, I’m constantly thinking about how to support our people in the context of global stress, trauma, and burnout. And as Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, I’m very aware that events like the pandemic or the civil and social unrest that have occurred over the past few years impact different populations in different ways.
I know a lot of leaders today are wondering how to support their workforces through times of turbulence, and how to broaden their leadership skills to support their employees who have experienced a tremendous amount of harm and hurt during these unprecedented times. It’s a journey we’re all on together, and there are no one-size-fits-all solutions. However, I’ve learned a few useful strategies in my time as a DEI leader, particularly in the last several years, and I'd like to share them with you:
If you’re a working professional, you likely already know the answer to this question. It may be a buzzword, but it’s a buzzword for a reason: I’m talking about burnout, a condition so widespread that even Beyonce is talking about it. If that isn’t a sign to pay attention, I don’t know what is!
According to the World Health Organization, burnout is defined as a combination of three factors:
Doesn’t sound like good news for professionals or organizations, does it? Unfortunately, burnout might be described as an epidemic unto itself—especially in the tech sector. Consider the following:
Put simply? Burnout is a serious threat to the wellbeing of our employees and to the success of our businesses.
At the same time, the research bears out what many of us already know from lived experience: that people with marginalized identities are impacted in different and more intense ways by both global turbulence and burnout. On top of the various upheavals in the world, certain groups are dealing with the daily burden of underlying stressors like racism, transphobia, and ableism, to name just a few.
Women, for example, by and large carry the burden of household caretaking responsibilities—whether that be for children, parents, or other relatives. And in 2020, many of the support systems that women relied on to support that caretaking (such as schools and daycares) shut down. Even today, those same systems can close unexpectedly due to COVID outbreaks.
Here’s another example: Research shows that Black and brown people are disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. My Black and brown coworkers have had to deal with more sickness and death in their communities than others in the past several years due to a plethora of factors caused by the history of anti-Black racism in the United States.
Are burdens like these going to impact how coworkers who belong to those communities show up to work? Of course it is. As leaders, is it our responsibility to make the process of showing up as easy as possible? That brings me to my next point...
In this moment, a lot of leaders want to “just get back to business.” And while I feel that desire as much as the next person, I also know that you can’t get back to business if everyone’s not 100% there.
Your people are your best asset: They’re the heart of any organization. You need them healthy and vibrant and committed. As leaders, if we don’t consider all the external stressors that are affecting our people and make sure we’re providing an environment that mitigates some of that harm, then our employees won’t be able to come in and focus on the job at hand.
To that end, I want to share a few of the things I know can make a difference to combat burnout during turbulent times:
Validating your teammates’ experiences is the first step to leading through turbulence, and it’s a crucial one. That’s why my first recommendation is to acknowledge what’s going on.
For those of you who haven’t seen the latest research on burnout, it may have felt incredibly validating to read my post thus far. Why? Because it legitimizes your personal experience. When leaders acknowledge that global turbulence inevitably impacts employee emotional and mental health, they open the door to communication, trust, and understanding between them and their people.
Of course, simply acknowledging that it’s been a rough several years isn’t enough to support your workforce through upheaval. Setting up systems of support and care is how leaders can actually mitigate burnout. If leaders do their best to create safe spaces where their people can access resources that bolster their mental, emotional, physical, and financial health, they’ll be giving employees the support they need to focus on their jobs.
Here are a few examples of the benefits, perks, and resources Basis Technologies offers our people to help nurture their wellbeing:
Even more, Basis Technologies offers resources that are geared specifically towards supporting members of marginalized communities. Here are a few examples:
While systems of care can help address the collective impact of turbulence and burnout, it’s also sometimes necessary to create tailor-made responses to specific events. For Basis Technologies, this came up around the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022—a decision that rolled back reproductive rights for a huge chunk of our workforce, creating significant barriers to essential healthcare services.
We responded by committing to cover travel expenses for employees and dependents on our medical plan to obtain abortions where they are legally available. It was a simple decision for our leadership team: We are committed to taking care of our people, and ensuring that all our employees can access reproductive healthcare is part of acting out that commitment.
This last one’s pretty simple: In the context of continuing global turbulence and high rates of burnout, sometimes you just need to give your people a break. For example, in the wake of the Highland Park mass shooting earlier this summer, Basis Technologies reached out to our people to let them know it was OK to take some time away from work to process and decompress. Additionally, a few months ago, we rolled out Flex Fridays, an initiative that gives our employees every summer Friday afternoon off to catch their breath, take care of themselves, spend time with loved ones, or take care of anything else they might not have had time for otherwise.
Here’s the bottom line: Good leadership today looks a lot different than good leadership pre-2020. People are trying to survive in a chaotic world, and that has an impact on how they show up to work. In order to both support our businesses and lead ethically, leaders need to embrace new practices that show our people we are evolving with the times.
The Great Resignation has shown us that professionals are leaving organizations because they want to work for leaders who are aligned with their values. They want to know what their leaders stand for—and it’s our job to show them.
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To learn more about Basis Technologies’ benefits and workplace culture, check out Life at Basis Technologies.
What’s new in the realms of paid search and social media? Basis’ Senior Vice President of Paid Search and Social compiles all the latest news, trends, and resources each month for easy access.
Google's latest insights briefing reveals how inflation and pent-up consumer demand have set the stage for conflicting priorities when it comes to consumer spending.
Earlier this month, Microsoft announced automotive ads, an audience network expansion and new ad formats for dynamic remarketing, expanded customer match capabilities, and a variety of other ad targeting and campaign types expanding to new markets outside of the US. While many of these features are already available through Google, they’re a welcome addition for advertisers looking to better reach Microsoft’s 724 million monthly active users.
According to eMarketer, 61% of consumers start their product searches on Amazon, while 49% begin on a search engine. Social media takes up a significant piece of the pie as well, with Facebook and Instagram accounting for 34%, and TikTok accounting for 11%.
As part of their initiative to provide better tools for businesses, Twitter's location spotlight feature lets brick-and-mortar businesses include maps to their addresses and up-to-date business hours at the top of their profiles.
New research from eMarketer highlights why advertising on YouTube is different from other platforms. The platform's differentiators may factor into why advertisers continue to see success by investing in the platform—case in point, eMarketer also recently shared that Youtube is the most trusted platform for social commerce.
As “the new era of entertainment” has taken hold, users are seeking always-on options for discovering new ideas, education, and content. With 46% of users engaging in the platform without distractions or multi-screening, the TikTok audience is often deeply attentive, engaged and tuned-in.
eMarketer’s Reimagining Retail podcast team weighs in on which communities they believe are having the greatest impact on commerce in the US. There are a few great examples here of advertisers connecting with these communities to become a part of conversations surrounding important topics.
New insights illustrate Snapchat's ability to power more meaningful connections between users and brands. Because Snap was built to allow close circles of friends to connect, their users are positioned to be more authentic (and happier!) than those engaging regularly with other platforms.
A new survey from Snapchat shows how users celebrate inclusion and how they would like to see brands show support. Nearly half of Snapchatters agree that brands engaging in the platform should reflect inclusion in a meaningful way, as Snapchatters are more likely to do their research to ensure that brands regularly share inclusive content, reflect it in their mission statement, and in their organization.
BeReal is rising in popularity with a simple concept: every day users have just a few minutes to take and post an unedited, unfiltered picture of themselves. Instagram has taken notice, and recently launched a “dual camera mode” feature that's very similar to BeReal’s UI. Here, Social Media Today speculates as to what this feature could mean for future updates in Instagram.
In a research study with the Boston Consulting Group, Meta found that 1 in 3 consumers in Asia Pacific said they chat with businesses at least once a week, and over 40% are messaging businesses more frequently than before the pandemic. This report includes some good tips on how brands can use Messaging to fuel a variety of goals and objectives through deeper consumer engagement.
Google asked industry experts, analysts, and content creators to hypothesize what the shift toward more virtual experiences in the metaverse could look like in the early days of adoption. The experts discussed three key areas where VR could easily become adopted in mainstream media consumption.
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 8/12/22 - 8/18/22 to stay ahead of the curve:
Between new bans on hyper-personal social ad targeting in the EU and proposed legislation to break up tech behemoths in the US, it's been a banner year for digital advertising regulation across the globe. The latest? Bipartisan lawmakers in D.C. are eyeing regulatory action around TikTok’s data practices. Get up to speed on all the latest.
Regulators’ concerns aside, you might consider putting that dance challenge you learned with your kids on your resume, because more and more agencies and brands are hiring folks whose sole focus is to create engaging content for TikTok. As one agency’s creative director said, “Hiring TikTok content creators isn’t the future, it’s the now.”
Amazon has struck a first-of-its-kind deal with Nielsen to provide panel-based ratings for NFL’s Thursday Night Football streaming broadcasts. The tech giant says it will combine demographic-based insights with access to sales, awareness and engagement data to give advertisers a “powerful combination of first and third-party measurement.” Still unknown: will Tony the Tiger provide commentary from his new Twitch channel?
Watch out, Amazon Prime: After previously considering agreements with Disney and Comcast, Walmart has announced a new deal that will bundle Paramount+ with its Walmart+ membership for no additional charge—this right on the heels of reporting strong Q2 eCommerce revenues and ad sales growth that surpassed Amazon. Will a Grubhub+/Food Network GO bundle be next? Only time will tell...
You may have heard that audio is digital advertising’s fastest growing category, but in order to invest effectively, advertisers can’t think of the format as a homogeneous bucket. See why it's critical for marketers to think about who is listening to different types of audio, and why. (Bonus: once you’ve got your audio ducks in a row, the World Cup could be the perfect opportunity to let them fly.)
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It’s a Tuesday afternoon, and you’re hopping online for your weekly team meeting. As you chat with your coworkers before the meeting officially starts, you notice that everyone on the call looks a bit…exhausted. Sound familiar?
Though every organization is different—and there are certainly those that prioritize rest and overall employee wellbeing—it’s no secret that tiredness and burnout are common in the marketing world, across all levels of employees (see: The Great Resignation).
There are many causes of burnout, but one thing’s for certain: in the context of economic upheaval, brands need to be firing on all cylinders. To that end, let’s explore a powerful solution for both minimizing burnout and maximizing efficiency: workflow automation.
Over the past several decades, media complexity has soared. We can’t be the only ones who remember the dark ages of only having to choose between Netflix and Hulu, as opposed to ten additional streaming TV platforms…(Right?...Bueller?)
Here’s an example of the factors media buyers had to juggle in 2000:
Annnnd now:
If we’re being honest, this doesn’t even scratch the surface. Consider the expansion of vendors, cost types, and buying and tracking methods—and once you sprinkle in the complexity around consumer data and privacy regulations? I mean, c’mon.
While many marketing organizations have embraced new technologies to help manage this fragmentation, those technologies are often disparate point solutions which, funnily enough, add to the complexity. In a recent survey, the majority of advertisers reported using 7 platforms in a typical day, and 9 for a typical ad campaign. On top of that (and likely because of it), advertising professionals reported spending an average of 6 hours per week on low value, repetitive tasks.
It's no wonder marketers are feeling tired.
In a marketing context, workflow automation is the use of processes and technologies to reduce redundancies and minimize time spent on duplicative, low-value tasks throughout the entire lifecycle of a campaign. Digital advertising workflow automation can look like:
Now that we’ve defined the elements of workflow automation in digital advertising, let’s dig into a few of its (many!) benefits
An effective omnichannel campaign has many moving parts. Now, imagine the added challenge for marketers that have to sign on to a different platform for each of those channels. And when it’s time to pull a report for that campaign? That’s a lot of different data sets to standardize and compile!
By uniting disparate channels, and all parts of the media buying process, into one platform, workflow automation can help mitigate the complexity of today’s digital media landscape.
Remember those 6 hours per week that advertisers are losing to low-value, manual work? Workflow automation can give those precious hours back to organizations by streamlining the campaign management process.
What does that streamlining process look like, beyond uniting channels and campaign functions into a single workflow? Leveraging advertising automation throughout the advertising workflow will also boost efficiency and reduce manual labor. For example, marketers can leverage AI-powered Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO) to automatically build thousands of digital ads that vary in real-time based on retargeting, creative personalization, audience segmentation, and more.
Remember when we mentioned the impact of The Great Resignation on the advertising industry? One solution to preventing turnover on your team is having an automated and standardized workflow. This allows your people to sidestep time-consuming, manual processes and focus on high-level, fulfilling tasks. Sounds like the kind of work most marketers want to spend their time on, right?
Beyond these benefits, an automated advertising workflow can empower multi-dimensional reporting, granular campaign optimizations, streamlined financial reconciliation processes, and more!
Advertising workflow management can feel like a daunting task—but it doesn’t have to be. In today’s complex digital landscape, brands and agencies can automate marketing workflows by embracing platforms that address the entire lifecycle of a campaign, rather than point solutions that only add to the complexity.
Basis, for example, helps users with all-channel activation, negotiation and contract management, real-time monitoring and campaign reporting, increased collaboration and communication, and much more—all through a single interface. It’s no surprise that 77% of Basis users report being able to move from planning to activation faster, and that 80% agree that it makes their job easier.
At the end of the day, isn’t that what most marketing teams strive for? To embrace tools and innovations that give them the time and energy to focus on creative, high-level work? That’s the promise of workflow automation: fulfilling work, efficient processes, and—best of all—happy teammates.
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For an even deeper dive into all things advertising automation, check out our guide.
