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Pizza Hut, a national QSR chain, leveraged Basis Technologies’ Media Services and its owned and operated software Basis to assist with digital media planning and activation support for their field of franchises.
The franchises' marketing managers were new to digital, having focused marketing efforts historically in traditional media channels such as local spot radio and print. Basis Technologies needed to earn their trust before any scalable adoption of digital would be possible.
The Basis Technologies team provided their local media expertise to develop customized campaigns to drive efficiency in the areas of cost per order and return on ad spend (ROAS). Basis Technologies support looked like this:
Subject matter experts plan, buy, analyze, and activate customized campaigns across all digital channels & devices with Basis by Basis Technologies to generate better outcomes.
Leveraged $2MM of third-party research tools to access audience insights, competitive intel, and industry trends to better understand target audience and local markets.
Provide the necessary support directly to franchises allowing for one-to-one relationship building and campaign customization.
Develop bi-annual seminars to support a learning environment and share successful media and messaging strategies.
3X higher ROAS.
Basis Technologies is the only digital partner promoted to the franchises marketing team and has achieved:
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Marketing Director, Pizza Hut franchise
"Basis Technologies has become our go-to for all things digital. Their insights and clear explanations make us more comfortable with our digital advertising investment."
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An athletic apparel brand that established itself through social media growing a cult following via Instagram, attributes a lot of its early success to social advertising. Prior to working with Basis Technologies, the brand was hesitant to advertise in the windows between collection launches and on channels outside of Facebook/Instagram. At the same time, the brand was eager to expand its customer base to ultimately generate more e-commerce sales between and during collection launches.
Though the brand had a cult following from Instagram, their growth potential was inhibited because they were limited to sharing content and products with their own followers and their influencers’ audiences. The brand came to Basis Technologies seeking a way to grow its audience base while maintaining a high return on ad spend.
The Basis Technologies managed services team expanded the brand’s media mix from social-only to a mix of programmatic, paid social, and paid search with an always-on approach, therefore increasing the brand’s reach and customer base across each channel.
By expanding the brand’s reach and customer base, the Basis Technologies team was able to increase revenue and ROAS with each new collection launched.
Basis Technologies provided the expertise and buying power that resulted in 51.4MM impressions generating $5.3MM total campaign-driven revenue with an impressive $10.60 return on ad spend.
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If you’re looking to increase the volume, efficiency, and customization of your digital campaign’s display banners, your brand may consider utilizing dynamic creative optimization (DCO). Not only is DCO a streamlined tool that enhances a marketing team’s productivity—it's also a powerful creative serving and targeting method that can improve user engagement, when used properly.
When running a digital ad campaign, your team may feel limited by the number of live creatives the ad server can accommodate at once. Perhaps you’d prefer to run hundreds of different creative versions with custom copy, colors, and/or landing page URLs based on specific targeting criteria. While standard ads do not incorporate all of these features, DCO is an alternative rich media solution that can!
Dynamic creative optimization, otherwise known as DCO, creates a more customized banner ad experience for your audience. DCO ads are especially useful when a brand needs to run multiple variations of different features, such as calls to action, copy, background colors, or products, within a single ad layout.
One of the more alluring elements that draws marketers to DCO is its intersection of creative variation and targeting capabilities. Different ad versions can be served to users by tapping into features such as their geo-location or their proximity to a particular location, a brand’s audience data segments, site content, or even the time of day. The result is a more personalized and relevant banner ad showcasing a brand’s message and imagery.
Many of us have had first-hand experience with DCO ads as consumers. You have likely been on the receiving end of display banners containing images of products you were previously browsing on a website. This type of ad can leverage cookie data from the advertiser’s website to then serve ads based on the product pages previously viewed within a set span of days.
Despite the rise of third-party cookies being blocked across popular internet browsers, digital marketers can still look to DCO as a reliable creative serving method for their campaigns. Not all dynamic creative targeting strategies rely on third-party cookies, so DCO campaigns can still target users with customized banners based on other aspects, such as first-party data or publisher data.
A main reason marketers incorporate DCO into their creative strategy is the ability to manage a very large volume of ads using a spreadsheet or feed paired with a creative template. The spreadsheet contains all the content that informs the banner output, such as image file paths, ad copy, landing page URLs, and targeting data.
Feed content may be populated manually through a spreadsheet or from an XML feed. Some feeds may contain several thousand rows of data, resulting in thousands of different ad variations. For those campaigns that require a higher level of creative differentiation due to more granular testing or targeting needs, DCO is the best option to manage and serve ad content.
A dynamic creative template works in tandem with the dynamic feed. The creative template is necessary to determine the layout and logistical restrictions that the copy and imagery adhere to in the ad. For instance, the template can designate the background image and headline as changeable, dynamic elements in the ad, but these elements will always remain in the same area within the banner. Though the template standardizes the overall layout of the creative, the feed allows for the customization that marketers look for when using DCO.
While the dynamic feed and creative template drive the look and content of the DCO ad, the dynamic strategy will ultimately determine when, where, and to whom the ads will be served. There are a few different strategies that can be used individually or layered together to inform creative decisioning.
For instance, you may opt to target creative versions by a user’s zip code for a geotargeting strategy, or target versions by publisher keywords for a contextual strategy. Regardless of the strategy you select, ensure that the same targeting is applied in the vendor’s ad server to avoid serving default creatives. Default creatives are a technical requirement by dynamic ad servers to prevent DCO creative from serving to a user outside of the targeting criteria. Default ads will also serve if the rich media loads improperly in a browser.
While dynamic creative optimization is a multi-faceted tool that can enhance the performance and efficiency of a digital marketing campaign, it is not a go-to solution for all branding initiatives. Campaigns limited in budget, resources, scale, or time are not ideal candidates for DCO.
Because it is a rich media solution, dynamic creative involves a higher ad serving cost. There may also be additional production costs to consider in order to build the template, feed, and strategy, and maintain the ads throughout the life of the campaign. An additional line item on the budget may include a team member or agency that is equipped with a dynamic ad product and knowledgeable in building and managing DCO campaigns.
Time is also a crucial factor when introducing and carrying out a dynamic strategy. It’s ill-advised to use DCO for shorter-run campaigns of 3 months or less because production and approval timelines for the dynamic ads themselves may take up to a month. Given the high cost of running and building a DCO campaign, paired with a relatively longer production turnaround, most cost- and time-conscious marketers prefer to use DCO ads for longer-run campaigns lasting more than 3 months.
Basis DSP accepts various partners’ third-party tags serving dynamic creative. Reach out to learn more about how you can strengthen your dynamic creative optimization strategy with Basis DSP's powerful programmatic offerings.
There's no stopping the growth of native advertising: According to AdYouLike, global native spend is expected to increase by 372% from 2020 to 2025.
To learn more about the opportunities available to marketers, I reached out to native advertising expert Jonathan Kim of TripleLift. Read on for his insights into the space:
Ryan Manchee: What do advertisers get wrong about native advertising?
Jonathan Kim: Advertisers often bucket all native formats into a single category, but not all native is equal. The IAB’s Native 1.2 Spec was introduced in 2017 to provide guardrails and clarity around the identification of native ad types.
From in-feed and in-article, to peripheral and recommendation widget placements, these ad types vary dramatically by aesthetic, user experience, pricing, and performance—especially compared to a standard display or video placement.
RM: How has COVID-19 impacted native advertising?
JK: Brands have re-positioned their goals in a post-COVID world. Brand safety is of imperative importance, and companies will make sure their messages are running on brand-safe inventory and associated with news sources that provide relevant & trustworthy information.
Beyond inventory prioritization, companies have learned the importance of online presence as COVID accelerated all things digital.
RM: How will iOS14 and the loss of third-party cookies impact native advertising practices?
JK: The native ecosystem is prepared to move forward with minimal to no changes to the products. Native advertising is prepared to adopt all of the potential solutions ready to replace the third-party cookie (identity solutions, Google's Privacy Sandbox, packaged inventory deals, utilizing publishers' 1st party data, etc.), and will have a significant advantage in contextual solutions without compromising the formats that make native unique.
Learn more from Jonathan Kim in Native Advertising: Rising Above the Banner Noise.
When you are a specialty retailer and distributor of professional beauty supplies with more than 5,000 stores worldwide, a small bump in store sales can represent a large chunk of revenue. When the company decided to launch a national digital campaign to drive off-line sales and in-store traffic, it turned to Basis Technologies.
Our solution had to meet three key challenges:
The Basis Technologies media services team took a strategic approach while leveraging our owned & operated tech, Basis to generate better outcomes. The team utilized several cross-platform partnerships to drive awareness, cultivate consideration, and close the loop from ad exposure to visit and purchase.
Campaign parameters included target audiences of existing plus “look-alike” customers as well as KPIs of positive Return-on-investment and an increased click-through rate.
We also created a custom dashboard to monitor, optimize, and show success in an easy-to-digest format.
The client now has the ability to place retargeting and sales pixels, which has further increased real-time sales optimization opportunities to leverage its online audience, drive customer purchase intent, and impact in-store revenue.
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NRG Energy is a Fortune 500 company, operating in the United States and Canada. NRG is committed to delivering innovative solutions while advocating for competitive energy markets, customer choice, and working towards a sustainable energy future.
In 2020, like many leading brands, NRG was reevaluating their partner strategy with their agency of record, and the pandemic only moved the process forward. NRG selected Basis Technologies to lead their digital media efforts starting in early 2020. Basis Technologies provided the right combination of holistic digital media expertise, technology, and business solution to fit their growing needs.
Basis Technologies' media services team developed a full-funnel approach, utilizing site direct and programmatic buying methods for video, native display, search, and social channels to find key decision makers online to build awareness and drive high-quality leads. How Basis Technologies supported NRG Energy:
Basis Technologies' subject matter experts plan, buy, analyze and activate campaigns across all digital channels & devices.
Leverage owned & operated media planning and buying software Basis by Basis Technologies for better media performance.
Utilize $2MM third-party research tools to access audience, competitive, and industry insights trends to better target audiences.
Provide accurate real-time data reporting and analytics for a holistic view of all campaigns.
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Digital streaming dominance only continues to expand as consumers stream audio content at unprecedented rates. This new and lasting behavior is fueled by convenience, on-demand content, and the rise of connected devices. How can marketers take advantage of this shift, and what does the future hold for audio advertising?
In this Centro webinar, leaders from Pandora and SXM Media detail audio trends pre- and post-COVID, the rise of podcasting, and programmatic audio capabilities.
It’s the question that will drive the next 15-20 years of advertising: “how do we reach Gen Z?”
Generation Z—or those born between 1997 and 2012—has arrived on the scene, and marketers would be wise to start paying attention to this new generation. More racially and ethnically diverse than any previous generation, Gen Z is entering adulthood as digital natives, never truly knowing a world before the Internet, smartphones, or social media.
Projected to become America’s largest generation by 2034 and with an estimated spending power of over $140 billion per year (and growing), it’s critical that advertisers start developing the strategies they need to reach and appeal to this remarkable generation.
Most Gen Z consumers say they want brands to share their values, follow ethical standards, and do good for the world. More than two-thirds of Zoomers “expect brands to contribute to society,” and 61% say they would pay more for products that are produced in an ethical and sustainable way. This can’t just be window dressing-type stuff, either—it takes more than updating the banner image on your social media profile to, say, a Pride-themed logo every June to demonstrate your values. Gen Z is too digitally-savvy for anything that’s purely superficial, and they will call you out on our own feeds if they smell something inauthentic (or worse, if they can prove ideological inconsistencies or contradictions).
What’s more, demonstrating a commitment to these values will help your brand stand out from the crowd: a recent study found that only 39% of brands are trusted in North America and 71% of consumers have “little faith” that brands will deliver on their promises. At the same time, 64% of all consumers say they prefer buying from companies with a reputation for purpose as well as profit, and more than half are willing to pay more for a brand that takes a stand. Don’t just espouse values in ads and tweets—instead, demonstrate your commitment to them by taking action. Do that, and reap the benefits—especially with Gen Z.
Generally speaking, Gen Z isn’t crazy about sharing their personal information. Less than one-third of teens say they are comfortable disclosing anything other than contact information and purchase history. As the first generation of true digital natives, there is no naivety among Gen Z when it comes to data collection: they know you’re collecting it, and they know that you’re using it.
To the extent that they can, Gen Z users are taking control of their data and personal information, with a majority (58%) of individuals age 18-24 saying they have adjusted their social media privacy settings. Meanwhile, 61% said they would feel better about sharing personal information with brands if they could trust it was being protected and stored securely.
What can companies do to address these concerns? As it turns out, the real key to data privacy and Gen Z may just be as simple as transparency.
Nearly two-thirds (64%) of individuals ages 13-24 globally say it’s fine for companies to collect data about them as long as they are being transparent about what they’re doing. However, a remarkable 91% of Gen Z believes it’s a human right to know what information companies are holding about them. The last thing a brand should do is play games (or worse, be cavalier or careless) with something that virtually an entire generation of young adults believe to be a human right. The lesson: be upfront and transparent about your company’s data usage and respectful of the end user at every step of the data process.
When you think “Gen Z” and “Social Media,” your next thought is probably one word: TikTok.
Yes, the China-based app that survived near-banishment in the U.S. is indeed growing larger by the day, driven in no small part by its popularity among Gen Z. By the end of 2021, TikTok will pass Instagram in terms of U.S. Generation Z users, and it is expected to catch Snapchat as the favorite app of Zoomers by 2025.
Why does the micro-video app resonate so strongly with Gen Z? Perhaps due to its ability to create and sustain influencers, which is very much in line with this generation’s approach to the platform. Research shows that Gen Z tends to use social media to learn from influencers, not to showcase their own high-class lifestyles (à la Millennials), and 70% of Zoomers follow at least one influencer on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok.
The influencer effect has had a direct impact on spending. Nearly 40% of adult Zoomers (ages 18 to 23) say their purchasing decisions are most influenced by social media, while almost half (44%) the members of Generation Z have made a purchase decision based on a recommendation from a social influencer, compared to 26% of the general population. Clearly, incorporating influencer marketing into your overall social media advertising efforts could be a good way of reaching targeted Gen Z audiences.
Where does Gen Z turn to get its entertainment, and how can advertisers connect with them?
Among Gen Z, “playing video games” was their favorite entertainment activity (26%), followed by “listening to music” (14%), “browsing the internet” (12%), and “engaging on social platforms” (11%). Notably, only 10% of Generation Z said that “watching TV or movies at home”—the top choice of Boomers, Gen X and Millennials—was their favorite form of entertainment.
What brings together all of these activities? Yep: they’re all forms of digital media. And it’s not that they’re cord cutters, either—after all, for Gen Z, there were never even any cords to cut.
Across the spectrum of entertainment services—be it streaming video, music, or gaming—users said they were far more likely to cancel because of a price increase than an increase in the amount of advertising on the service. Among respondents to a recent survey, nearly half of all consumers said that low price was the most important factor in deciding to subscribe to a new paid streaming video service. As you might expect, this sensitivity to cost has prompted people to seek out more cheap/free ad-supported options, with 55% of survey respondents saying they use at least one free, ad-supported video service.
In this type of environment, ads (and advertisers/marketers) are a crucial part of keeping content/digital media accessible to streaming audiences—particularly for Gen Z. This is also likely to lead to more CTV and programmatic advertising opportunities for marketers, not to mention a huge opportunity in the world of video games/gaming.
Video Games/Gaming
Speaking of video games, according to a recent survey, 87% of Generation Z said they play video games at least once a week. It’s also more than just a form of entertainment—most Generation Z respondents said that during the pandemic, video games helped them stay connected to other people and get through difficult times.
Researchers estimate that U.S. mobile game ad revenues will increase 17% in 2021 to $4.79 billion, up from just $2.29 billion in 2018. U.S. Esports ad revenue is projected to increase by 12% to $215.9 million, up nearly 50% from 2018, and U.S. gaming video content ad revenues are estimated to grow an astonishing 32% this year to $2.27 billion, more than double where they were in 2018.
A recent report found that gamers are becoming more accepting of in-game ads, with sentiment toward banner ads and in-game video ads improving over the past year. Rewarded video ads—or ads that award players things like in-game currency or other items for watching—are even more popular, with 11% more U.S. gamers saying they “liked” these rewarded video ads compared with those who said they “can’t stand them.” And with Facebook announcing that it will soon begin running ads in VR games on its Oculus Quest headsets, the options for reaching this growing and coveted audience are only increasing.
Streaming Audio
The other dominant platform for Gen Z? Streaming music—one study showed that more than half of adults ages 18 to 29 listen to streaming music every day. Gen Z listens to an average of 18+ hours of audio a week, with much of that coming from streaming audio and podcasts. In the U.S., 27.8 million Zoomers listen to at least one podcast per month, with that number expected to surpass 40 million by 2024, and nearly 1/4 of all podcast consumers are now from Gen Z.
Comparable to how video games represent more to gamers than just entertainment, streaming audio means more to young adults than just background noise. A study found that 73% of Gen Z and Millennial Americans use audio to cope with stress and anxiety, and 54% of Zoomers say they’ve started listening to more podcasts to stay informed and entertained.
What does the world of audio advertising look like these days? Overall, U.S. digital audio ad spend is forecast to grow by 16% to hit $5.59 billion in 2021 and will grow to nearly $8 billion by 2025. Over $1 billion of those digital audio ad dollars will be via programmatic, accounting for nearly 20% of all digital radio ad spending, while programmatic digital audio ad spend is projected to hit $1.57 billion by 2023. As the number of Gen Z audio listeners continues to grow, so too (unsurprisingly) does the audio advertising market.
Gen Z is on multiple connected platforms and devices, and with their growing buying power it’s critical to reach them where they are. Advertisers will need to stay nimble with this ever-increasing array of entertainment options—not to mention the generation’s penchant for hopping from one streaming platform to another, based on wherever they can find the latest content or the best deal. Embracing the power of both programmatic advertising and advertising automation can help marketers reach their audiences wherever they might be, whenever they might be there.
Whether it’s display, streaming video, audio, gaming, CTV or elsewhere, leaning on programmatic advertising and using automation to help streamline and optimize advertising efforts are some of the best tools advertisers have to reach Gen Z consumers in the years ahead.
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Even with Google’s recent decision to delay the retirement of third party cookies in Chrome until 2023, the loss of numerous longstanding ad identifiers still looms large. While brands and advertisers may have more breathing room to figure out alternative solutions, the quest for finding those alternatives demands dedicated and ongoing attention in 2021.
Angelina Eng, VP of Addressability and Measurement at the IAB, shares her thoughts on the technical maneuvers that advertisers must take on to navigate a rapidly approaching future with far fewer reliable identifiers.