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Monster is a global online employment solution for people seeking jobs and employers who need great people. With two sides of the equation, candidates looking for quality jobs and employers looking to fill open roles, Monster has many different targets and initiatives. They have expanded from their roots as a "job board" to a global provider of a full array of job seeking, career management, recruitment, and talent management products and services.
Early in the relationship, Basis Technologies provided media strategy & activation services support to the Monster media team. As Monster’s business strategically evolves, they’re on a longer-term path to self-service which will bring the media execution fully in-house. Both companies know it will take time and training to transition the work, but Basis Technologies encourages clients to do what is right for their business, including moving fluidly between solutions like managed services and self-service. Sr. Director of Global Media at Monster, Shaun Farrar said, “[Basis Technologies has] been really open in saying ‘when you’re ready, we’re ready. We’ll customize our approach with you.’”
“Basis has made a significant impact on my team’s ability to free up their time to focus on strategy and insights,” said Shaun Farrar, Sr. Director of Global Media at Monster.
Shaun and team specifically find significant value in the delivery integrations and reporting features. “Basis essentially consolidates multiple platforms so you don’t have to log into four or five different platforms to pull reports and aggregate them—Basis does it for you. Rather than spending so much time pulling reporting, Basis gets rid of that friction and wasted time and really allows you as a marketer to dig into to the data and come up with sound strategy. Basis enables you to better use your time."
Shaun Farrar, Monster’s Sr. Director of Global Media, said it best: “There really is not another Basis. You can work with any other DSP, but they are so limited in their scope that it becomes prohibitive. Basis not only has display and video capabilities and solutions, but also can help with social, search, and the entire digital ecosystem. That’s incredibly attractive to a brand that has a small team in-house that activates globally and across multiple channels. I put Basis in a category by themselves for that reason.”
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Shaun Farrar Sr. Director of Global Media Monster:
"Basis Technologies is an extension of our team. They improve how we work each and every day. We rely upon them immensely. They've got really smart people, very strategic, and very sound from an executional standpoint."
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To say that retail has changed in the past year would be…well, a grave understatement. Since the COVID-19 pandemic upended commerce as we knew it, retailers have had to pivot hard toward digital. Retail marketers, in turn, have had to double down on their digital marketing efforts, investing their time, money and creativity into taking full advantage of these channels.
Here are three things retail challenger brands should know if they want to make the most of their digital marketing efforts:
For most of us, social sits at the center of our online experience. It’s perhaps unsurprising, then, that we're seeing more and more shopping (and sales) taking place right within our social apps.
Social commerce has exploded since the start of the pandemic, and analysts say it will surpass $50 billion annually by 2023—an astonishing 100% growth from where those numbers were in 2020. All the major social apps now have some level of shopping enablement, and users can move from the discovery phase to the purchase phase the blink of an eye—especially for lower cost or aspirational items. The overall impact of this trend on a given retailer will, of course, depend on its target audience, but all retail brands should be looking to take advantage of these opportunities.
As challenger brands have innovated in the digital space, established retail brands have taken notice and begun to borrow some of their tricks. Nike, for instance, has refocused much of its energy on direct-to-consumer efforts, which now make up nearly a third of their sales. This is a huge uptick that has tremendous value both in terms of profitability and first party data, not to mention customer loyalty.
Challenger brands, in turn, should take note of what they can learn from the success of those larger companies when it comes to driving consumer behavior. One way to do this, notes Centro’s Page Kelley (Group VP of Client & Media Services, South), is introducing a subscribe and save-type model into your direct-to-consumer experience, which can be a great way to get “stickiness” with your customers. As category lines continue to blur and digital continues to level the playing field, the differences between challenger brands and established retailers will grow increasingly muddled as they borrow pages from each other's books.
When challenger brands are planning out their campaigns and media strategies, it’s important they stay agile and create multiple touch points—across multiple channels—along the customer journey. Modern consumers don’t tend to operate in just one space, so brands need to meet their consumers wherever they are and then make the ensuing buying process as easy as possible, removing as much friction as possible between the first discovery/impression and the actual add to cart. Taking such a holistic view of the customer journey can help challenger brands create a better customer experience and, ultimately, increase conversion rates.
Want more insights on what challenger retail brands can do to up their digital game? Check out our Centro Institute webinar: Vertical Viewpoint: Conquering Challenges as a Retail Brand.
Grace Briscoe is SVP of Candidates and Causes at Basis Technologies
The 2020 U.S. elections were the most unique of our generation -- bringing record turnout, billions of dollars in marketing and two intense runoffs for control of the U.S. Senate.
More than 400 campaigns for state, local and national races managed their digital ad buying through Basis' intelligent process automation platform, encompassing more than $100 million spent across display, video, native, search and social media.
Basis' experience in this category has been honed by more than a decade working with candidates and advocacy groups at all levels, from Presidential to local elections. Our activity in 2020 gives us a diversified view on how digital media was utilized and what trends have emerged.
This report is the second time Basis researched how U.S. elections spent on digital ads. The first report (https://basis.com/blog/blog-midterm-adtech-mvps) unveiled the digital MVPs that delivered winning strategies and tactics of the 2018 midterms. At the time, programmatic buying revealed itself as a tactic of choice offering speed and agility to launch campaigns, optimize on the fly, and reach audiences on high-performing media. Now with data from another cycle, the game-winning playbook seems to be set for aspiring 2022 midterm campaigns. This is fortunate because they’ve got less than a year to prepare.
Section 1: Programmatic Advertising Wins the Votes (Dollars) Again
The interest in programmatic advertising for political campaigns aligns with the general market trends across the industry—nearly two-thirds of digital ad inventory was sold programmatically in 2H 2020, according to eMarketer (subscription required).
Connected TV helped drive share gains for both programmatic and direct buying, as advertiser interest and inventory availability continually increased across the digital ecosystem. The share of social advertising declined, with Twitter’s political ban and YouTube’s restrictions having a major effect. Additionally, Facebook’s shifting policies and political ad ban immediately before Election Day (and then after) diverted a big chunk of spend to other channels, as campaigns showed immense ad activity in the final days before ballots were counted. The next election will likely see an even greater dominance of programmatic. The question is what other budget bucket will it take from?
Section 2: Challenger CTV Flexed Some Muscle; Watch Out in the Midterms
Basis' Spring 2020 political advertiser survey indicated that CTV was the most promising development among political marketers (63%), which bore out in spend. 2020 saw nearly a 3x increase in portion of overall programmatic spend allocated to CTV over 2018.
Among share of impressions, CTV only increased from 3% to 6% of overall impressions. The delta between spend and impressions share growth speaks to the premium that advertisers pay for quality CTV placements: eCPMs for CTV averaged 3.5X that of other platforms/devices. Advertisers have determined that the format – typically unskippable and on the “big screen” – is worth the premium, carrying the emotional power of TV combined with greater targetability.
Besides programmatic, the CTV surge also contributed to many larger trends in digital video and direct buying. Much of this interest from marketers aligns with the growing audience turning to this digital channel as they were stuck at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Section 3: Video Ads Gained Super Majority Control of All Ad Spend
Video receives the most digital ad investment from political campaigns. This is boosted by the usage growth trends for programmatic advertising and in CTV interest. Because most political campaigns already prioritize TV spot production as the central element of creative strategy, it’s natural to utilize those assets in digital channels. Transitioning a linear ad to CTV is a given. Doing the same for an ideal mobile or a desktop experience requires some extra work that can be a challenge for campaigns. The variances in screen-size and user mindset necessitate shorter video lengths for these digital channels. And often, less-highly produced “raw” video ads generate greater impact than repurposed :30 TV spots.
Section 4: Facebook and YouTube Restrict Political Ads, Yet Still Top Direct Vendors List
Direct buying provides unique value for campaigns, delivering guaranteed reserved inventory within in-demand content, and delivering ad experiences that are not available through biddable channels.
Direct buying takes on many forms, as demonstrated by the top three. Facebook delivers an automated self-serve experience, though it’s become less user-friendly for political buyers because of additional restrictions and multi-step ad approvals. Hulu provides a white glove experience through a salesperson and service team. YouTube offers a mix of both, though it was hampered by Google’s political targeting restrictions. Nevertheless, these three again showcased their command in political advertising for the past few years, despite their own restrictions.
The new entrants to the top 15 are another indication of CTV’s influence in political advertising. When considering the relatively limited amount of CTV inventory, factored by the massive amounts of spending leading up to election day, vendors offering these ad experiences capitalized on a time of high demand and low availability. Additionally, it’s fair to assume that these companies capitalized on the challenges of political ad targeting on YouTube.
Dropping out of the top 15 were notable publishing brands operating regional and local newspapers, such as McClatchy, Tribune, Gannett and Lee Enterprises.
Pandora’s drop (4th in 2018 to 15th in 2020) as well as Spotify’s complete political ad suspension illustrate the significant decline in digital audio for political campaigns.
Section 5: Unprecedented Elections = VERY Precedented Ad Spend Timing
Despite the noise and dialogue around early voting (in-person or mail-in ballots as much as a month before election day), half of ad budgets were used within 30 days before Election Day. Although many of those campaigns were driving turnout efforts, the fact that 25% of budgets were reserved for the last week of October showed the focus on last-minute GOTV (Get Out the Vote) impact. Considering the record turnout of voters overall, we conclude that many early voting efforts accomplished their objectives, and likely added to high turnout on Election Day.
The Georgia runoffs infused new spending and activity that was not accounted for in most pre-Election ad spend forecasts. Although it didn’t boost November spending heavily, the December spending levels ran very close to February numbers during the thick of the Democratic primary sprint to Super Tuesday.
The data suggests that during a time when the country is heavily polarized and individuals seem to have near certainty on who they would vote for, the biggest challenge for the political marketer is to ensure potential voters take action at the ballot box.
Section 6: Sound Digital Strategies Correlate with Winning Campaigns
With high advertising volume reserved for the ending stages of the elections (and the additional activation for the runoffs), Basis was able to process, before Election Day, 650 million programmatic ad impressions in the final 10 days and 225 million CTV impressions in the final four weeks.
Frequency, exposure, recency and precision were key to driving turnout -- leading to 70% winning outcomes for Basis' campaign partners.
What Basis Clients Say
“We’re able to run our own highly targeted digital advertising campaigns in Basis with speed and flexibility that keeps our clients coming back time and again. It has also cut the time we spend on billing and reconciliation by half.” – Managing Partner, Public Affairs Firm
“Basis' team provides incredible support and scale during the heat of election season - we couldn't have pulled it off without them.” -- Vice President, Democratic Political Consultant
“Basis gives us the ability to buy sophisticated digital tactics with speed and scale, and increased communication and collaboration across all areas of digital buying. If you’re not working with Basis, you are making a big mistake.” -- Managing Director, Republican Digital Buying Agency
Georgia Runoffs on Your Mind
The Georgia runoffs culminated Basis' political advertising work in 2020. We collaborated with our agency client to win a U.S. senate seat through a combination of activating voters early, deploying CTV advertising at scale, engaging social media audiences through alternative platforms, and reaching a diverse electorate. Georgia was the highest turnout for a senate runoff in the state’s history, with our Candidate being named one of the newest U.S. senators. According to the Fox News Voter analysis, a key factor was the increased turnout of Black voters, which made up 32% of the runoff votes.
About Basis' Candidates + Causes Group
For more than a decade, Basis' technology and services have been trusted by agencies and consultants in politics, public affairs, and advocacy. Basis' Candidates + Causes team has collectively worked with 1500+ political campaigns and independent expenditure committees, and 2000+ issue advocacy advertisers over the past 15 years. Our proficiency for driving perception in government, in the public sphere, or among specific audiences is a differentiated and valuable asset in this field. Basis is headquartered in Chicago with 44 offices covering North America, South America and Europe, including a Washington, D.C., hub for its Candidates + Causes team.
At Centro, we know that keeping up with the trade pubs and latest trends can be tough and time-consuming. To make that easier, we’ve compiled all the articles, reports, and other bits of awesomeness you may have missed, but should definitely read. Enjoy our latest list below!
Magna Predicts Faster Than Expected Rebound [:03]
Magna’s latest US ad spend forecast paints an optimistic picture for the ad industry. With a quicker-than-anticipated economic recovery, supported by a new stimulus package, a decline in COVID rates, and the return to normal sporting events, revenues are expected to increase 6.4% YoY to $240 billion. Digital will capture two thirds, or 67%, of total advertising sales.
U.S. Ad Economy Contracts 7.3% in February [:01]
The U.S. ad economy contracted for the second consecutive month in February, dropping 7.3% from February 2020, according to a MediaPost analysis of data from Standard Media Index's U.S. Ad Market Tracker. In terms of media, digital continues to be the most resilient, actually posting an 18% gain over February 2020, while the national TV advertising marketplace declined 26.7% year-over-year.
When Precision Meets Persuasion, It's Time To Rethink Marketing [:03]
Marketers have struggled to think about the combination of brand and performance as unifying the strategic intent of precision and persuasion marketing. For precision and persuasion to come together, the emotional needs, functional needs, and transactional requirements of shoppers/audiences must be addressed simultaneously. This has required agencies to retool their approach, while in-house agencies have moved nimbly in response to the customer lifecycle.
Finally Some Clarity Around Google Ads’ Latest Privacy Announcements {:08]
IAB Tech Lab breaks down the recent Google privacy announcements for Users, Publishers, Advertisers, and Non-Google Ad Tech, as key granular identifiers will soon disappear. Also, be sure to read Centro's official POV on Embracing the Identity Crisis, here.
In 2020, Two-Thirds of Google Searches Ended Without a Click [:05]
In further proof of Google’s dominance, last year the search giant had more than 91% of the global market share worldwide, and over 87% in the US. From January to December 2020, 64.82% of searches on Google (desktop and mobile combined) ended in the search results, without users clicking to another web property. It's also worth noting that Google controls more than 95% of search advertising and over 50% of display ads in the US.
The Infinite Dial 2021 [:04]
Edison Research’s latest report, which acts as a “barometer on digital audio and other digital media consumption,” shows huge strides in podcast listening with approximately eighty million Americans–28% of the U.S. 12+ population–now being weekly podcast listeners, a 17% increase over 2020. Other insights show the increase in smart speakers, with one-third (33%) of Americans 12+ (approximately 94 million people) now owning a smart speaker, an increase of 22% from last year.
Why Advertisers Are Spending More on Podcasts [:02]
Advertisers are increasingly investing in podcasts as the pandemic boosts their audience, according to a report from Advertiser Perceptions. Marketers feel the medium is safe and has strong target audience potential, with a survey showing 56% feeling the pandemic has made podcast advertising more important, and 63% listening to podcasts themselves at least once a week.
The Buzzy, Chatty, Out-of-Control Rise of Clubhouse [:32]
What do you know about Clubhouse, the invitation-only audio social network that's skyrocketed in use since its launch in April 2020? Learn all about the rise of this phenomenon in Wired.
An Open Letter to Targeted Online Advertisers [:03]
With the stress of a cookieless future looming before us, marketers need a dash of humor. This piece of satire is funny because it’s true (or at least we hope it is!).
Leading cannabis vaporizer brand PAX was looking for a partner to help navigate the ever-changing regulations, cannabis ad landscape, and new inventory opportunities.
To meet these needs, PAX teamed up with Basis Technologies as a Media Execution client. As a result, they get the best of both worlds—a full team of world class media experts and access to the Basis platform.
The expected cannabis targeting segments are getting crowded, so it is important for PAX to find and target new audiences.
Additionally, as a new entrant to digital advertising, PAX needed to test and learn ways to communicate (channels, formats, messaging, and more).
While maintaining brand image and equity:
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Data privacy is the topic on everyone's minds. As a cookieless future looms before us, brands want to know how they'll ensure their media is working without the ability to measure conversions. Similarly, agencies are wondering how they'll reach their targets without the tracking technologies they've used for decades.
No one has all the answers yet, but there are a few things we know for sure:
When consumers think of the advertising industry, its likely that data privacy is one of the first topics that comes to mind. 79% of adults feel concerned about how companies are using the data they collect about them, according to Pew Research.
This likely isn't news to marketers—we've known for years that, by and large, consumers don't approve of the tracking methodologies advertisers use to target them. They've called the data collection status quo into question, and it's our job to listen to their concerns.
Even if advertisers refused to listen to consumers' demands, they wouldn't be able to stop the changes coming to our industry. The UK has implemented GDPR, and California has implemented CCPA, both pieces of legislation that are aimed at enhancing consumer protection for residents.
Even more, Google has announced it will end support for cookies in Chrome as soon as early next year, and promises not to use other invasive ways of tracking as replacements.The writing's on the wall—the status quo is shifting, and advertisers must shift along with it.
There's no silver bullet to "fix" the issue of consumer privacy—at least, not yet. Alex Cone, head of Project Rearc at the IAB Tech Lab, recommends that agencies be prepared to deploy a range of new tactics, rather than just one.
And when you're evaluating which options to include in your portfolio strategy, keep this tip from Cone in mind: "Anything that smells like the status quo is likely to be attacked as vehemently as third-party cookies." In other words, make sure your tactics don't violate consumer privacy in the same ways as third-party cookies.
For more information about the future of data privacy, check out our Centro Institute webinar, Identity Crisis: Embracing the Future of Privacy.
With an onslaught of data privacy updates stemming from legislation and big tech, once-reliable targeting is rapidly diminishing. Marketers must consider the loss of cookies, and find new ways to target audiences.
Staying up-to-date on these developments isn't easy. But for Pedro Pavón, who oversees privacy, data policy, and advertising at Facebook, its a daily task. In this episode, Pavón shares his views on consumer privacy laws and how advertisers should be planning for a cookieless future.
To my industry friends, colleagues, and competitors,
This is not the end. It’s not doomsday. I believe this is an opportunity. We are an industry filled with innovators, optimists, and consumer-centric problem-solvers. Advertising was around long before the cookie and it will be here long after.
There’s no need to panic. Instead, let’s focus on the two sides of the equation, our industry’s main stakeholders: marketers and consumers.
For marketers and advertisers, the deprecation of third-party cookies brings questions, mostly surrounding targeting and performance. How will I reach my target? How will I know my media is working and measure conversions? I address these questions below, and our Embracing the Identity Crisis guide goes even further in depth into your options.
Consumers, on the other hand, are sending a message—they are telling us that privacy matters and they need to be in control. Many solutions being proposed and developed by organizations in the advertising industry are not respecting this—these solutions are just exploiting loopholes and replacing one problem with another. We need to honor the spirit of privacy and find a real solution.
It’s important to note that this challenge is not unique to Basis Technologies. We are a proud active participant in groups working toward a solution, specifically Project Rearc, the IAB’s working group addressing privacy changes (check out our blog post with IAB Tech Lab lead Alex Cone for more!)
I understand that the impending changes to cookies will probably arrive before a true identity solution can be built.
So, what now? What can we do in the near term? We have options for reliable targeting and alternative reporting options:
With improved efforts by brands and publishers to collect customer first-party data in order to create more customized user experiences, the question becomes how can each use that data to make smarter decisions outside the walls of their owned and operated properties. As a partner to both marketers and publishers, Basis Technologies is actively working on solutions that allow for anonymized overlap analysis between both parties. This will provide greater direction and more insight around composition and coverage based on the audience cohort actively being planned against.
Best in breed solutions will leverage machine learning technology that uses artificial intelligence and privacy-approved data across 30 parameters to decide if and how much to bid on an impression. This tactic can improve media performance all without the use of cookies or infringing on the target’s privacy.
Targeting has become synonymous with audiences over the years of programmatic buying, and much of the audience-buying world is cookie-based and deprecating. This doesn’t mean your targeting needs to suffer—you have many other compliant targeting options. Contextual targeting has come a long way over the last decade and now uses Natural Language Processing to understand semantics and tone. We've chosen to partner with semantic data providers such as comScore, DoubleVerify, Grapeshot, and Peer39. And guess what? Semantic data is more affordable than third-party audience data.
Expanding ingestion of anonymized data sources for improved fidelity of local data in aggregate is key to continuing to drive smarter decisioning in a post-cookie world. Utilizing sources of data such as US Census, American Community Survey and North American Industry Classification System provide a robustness to local insights, and allow for smarter decisioning (both machine learning and manual) to improve performance and eliminate wasted impressions.
Individually and as an industry, we are working on revamping our solution for performance tracking, particularly for actions taken on advertisers’ websites. In the short term, we will be updating conversion tracking to use cookieless conversions for click-through-conversions only. However, in the long term, the only reliable way will be through CDP (customer data platform) data, site analytics data, and brand lift studies. This is a shift from conversion tracking but can more fully and thoughtfully illustrate media performance.
And for that long-term vision mentioned earlier, this is an opportunity—an opportunity to address the real problem, an opportunity to tell stories, an opportunity to be better as an industry. Some companies are trying to find loopholes and circumvent the legislation.
Even if they find success, it will be short-lived. They are ignoring what consumers are saying. These players need to address the problem and create solutions that are good for our ecosystem and respect the rising concern for data privacy
With optimism and excitement,
Shawn Riegsecker
Founder & CEO | Basis Technologies
Download our comprehensive guide: Beyond Third-Party Cookies: Your Guide to Privacy-Friendly Advertising
Watch our webinar: Identity Crisis: Embracing the Future of Privacy (Featuring the IAB Tech Lab's Alex Cone and Basis Technologies Founder & CEO Shawn Riegsecker)
Part Four of the Vertical Viewpoint mini-series:
Retail | Healthcare | Finance | Cannabis
Nearly every business was hit hard during the pandemic, and for cannabis brands, this was no exception. How have the most successful of cannabis businesses adapted over the last year, and what can brands in this vertical do to optimize their advertising and business practices?
Centro’s Emily Steele will share how cannabis brands can conquer challenges related not just to their competition, but their industries, evolving consumer behaviors, and the changing media landscape.