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What The Biden Presidency Means For Privacy, Consumer Protection And Antitrust Shopping For Retail Media? Browse The Lessons Learned From Search Marketing First It’s Official: YouTube No Longer Accepts Third-Party Pixels Industry Preview: Getting Beyond The AI Buzzwords With David Jones Industry Preview: Why TikTok Will Dance Its Way Onto More Media Plans In 2021 Brand Safety Shouldn’t Be Reactionary – Advertisers Need To Do Better Advertiser Perceptions: Google Looms Large Over The ID Resolution Market, But Indies Are Also Making A Splash The Top 10 AdExchanger Stories of 2020 The Year in TV: A Major Shift To Streaming
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The Tail Of How A DTC Lobster Company Clawed To Growth

by Sarah Sluis  //  Posted on Wednesday, January 20th, 2021 at 5:00 am.

Get Maine Lobster marketer
In December 2020, Get Maine Lobster sold more lobsters in three weeks than it did in the entirety of 2019. And all this year, it’s often selling more lobster than Maine fisherman can catch.

The decade-old lobster-by-mail business experienced hockey-stick growth because CEO Mark Murrell took a big risk last March. As millions of Americans sheltered in place, business picked up. So Murrell decided to “pour gasoline on the fire” and spend money on advertising like never before.

“My directive to the agency was, ‘Here are the rules. As long as you can stick with the rules, you have no limit in how much you can spend,’” Murrell said.

The decision broke with tradition.

Until last year, the company was parsimonious with its marketing dollars, spending a little around holidays on Facebook and Google. It also used email marketing and worked with third-party sellers like Groupon and Gilt.

But like other direct-to-consumer companies, Get Maine Lobster had been investing in its data. Going into 2020, it already knew its customer acquisition cost (CAC) and long-term value (LTV) down to a tee.

So as long as its agency kept at or below the customer acquisition cost it needed to break even, Murrell allowed the agency to spend as much as it could.

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Why Ads.Txt Has Failed - And What To Do About It

by AdExchanger  //  Posted on Wednesday, January 20th, 2021 at 12:36 am.

“The Sell Sider" is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media.

Today’s column is written by Paul Roberts, founder and interim CEO of Kubient.

Ads.txt was an ambitious initiative spearheaded by the IAB to clean up the digital ad supply chain and help publishers list the platforms allowed to sell their inventory. Yet, it has failed to bring transparency to the industry.

Launched nearly four years ago, Ads.txt set out to combat fraud, detect hidden fees and deter ad resellers. Since being introduced, it’s estimated that 45% of the top 1,000 domains have adopted Ads.txt.

Despite the initial excitement and consistent use, it’s hard to find proof points for Ads.txt’s success or to validate its claims that it has made “significant in-roads.” In fact, Ads.txt hasn’t just plateaued - in 2019, adoption by the top 1,000 sites was declining, according to Pixelate’s Advertising Trends Report.

Behind closed doors, publishers are venting their frustration, upset that the watershed moment they’d hoped for, when they’d finally see their inventory used transparently, never came. Instead ad fraud costs continue rising.

The trouble with Ads.txt

So, where did Ads.txt lose its way, and how can it finally realize its ambitions?

  1. Hidden resellers still rule the roost:

Ads.txt set out to shine a light on inventory downstream sellers. Yet, if you look inside any publisher’s Ads.txt file between the “DIRECT” lines allowing primary sellers like OpenX, Rubicon or Criteo, you will also see dozens of “RESELLER” labels.

The trouble is that’s all you’ll ever know. Ads.txt never discloses which other DSPs these players are reselling that same traffic to - meaning blind reselling is still rampant. Take ESPN.com - 192 lines of its Ads.txt file, some 35%, are occupied by major ad platforms that are allowed to act as resellers. Each of those could, in turn, be reselling your traffic to a host of other players. And publishers are often reluctant to list only “DIRECT” sellers, threatened with lost revenue if they don’t allow resale. Once sold down the line a few times, Ads.txt’s goal of reducing resale becomes moot. 

  1. False sense of transparency and understanding:

Ads.txt comes from the leading industry trade body, giving executives the false security that this solution is foolproof.

Worse, while Ads.txt has managed to remove a lot of the media arbitrage from the system, the companies engaged in it have been pushed into the shadows, hidden under those “RESELLER” listings. What once was in the open is now obfuscated - making it harder to track and cast out nefarious players.

  1. Vulnerabilities:

Who would have thought a rudimentary public text file based on robots.txt would prove so weak?

Over the last couple of years, we have heard how botnets have jumped on Ads.txt to conduct huge fraud schemes. Techniques have included domain spoofing, fake and blank Ads.txt files, making buyers believe fake sites were authorized. Even human errors like typos in such a wonky setup can make for significant consequences. All told, Ads.txt requires significant up-keep - and with a platform or system that requires attention and upkeep it leaves room for error and ramifications.

A way forward

Don’t expect the IAB - partially-funded by the SSPs and DSPs themselves - to ride to the rescue with an upgrade. Ads.txt has reached its peak, but the status quo is not good enough, so now we’re left looking for our next ‘solution’.

  1. Demand transparency:

Publishers should realize the obfuscation that exists behind those “RESELLER” labels - and demand more data. Who is reseller “0129654”, really? Who are you authorizing to bid on your traffic?

The secondary and tertiary partners your platforms look toward should be fully disclosed as part of your relationship and vetting process.

  1. Go direct:

Bringing your true supply chain partners out in the open lets you work directly, rather than through resellers. The ability of players like Rubicon to aggregate publishers for advertisers was an asset seven years ago, but now those who spend ad dollars upfront can build their own in-house platforms in a couple of months. If ESPN knows it gets plugged into Xaxis on the other side, why should the pair not connect directly? The publisher could regain 25% in tech taxes, which in today’s media landscape is significant.

Going direct is particularly pertinent, because big-brand retailers are clamoring to build their own trading desks. They have two things publishers want - first-party data and budgets.

  1. Find fraud efficiently:

To eliminate ad fraud, you need more than an antiquated text file placed on a server. Modern ad trades happen in the billions and must take place in milliseconds. For that, a humble text doesn’t cut the mustard - you are going to need the big guns, like real-time AI.

It isn’t sufficient to find fraud after the fact and strip the offending source from your Ads.txt later, by then, the damage is done. As a solution, more publishers should rely on tools that can bring machine learning to bear on an ad bid as it is happening, choosing those which determine the likelihood of fraud fastest.

The future of fraud

Five years from now, people may credit Ads.txt with having played a part in cleaning up the supply chain. But it won’t be heralded as the savior.

Brands will drive change. They are realizing how ineffective their media is when their buys are going through all these hoops.

The world is shrinking. Soon, people won’t need to rely on Ads.txt’s rudimentary starting point. Quality brands and premium publishers will trust themselves to work directly, in a trusted relationship.

That, as it happens, is when Ads.txt’s ambition will finally be realized.

Follow Paul Roberts (@pauld_roberts) and AdExchanger (@adexchanger) on Twitter.

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Omnicom, Home Depot Push For Misinfo Probe; Simpli.fi Buys ERP Platform For $100M

by AdExchanger  //  Posted on Wednesday, January 20th, 2021 at 12:03 am.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.

Stop The Spread

Misinformation isn’t a virus – but it can spread like one. Election fraud paranoia, hate speech and online conspiracy theories were all roiling in the overheated atmosphere that contributed to the Jan. 6 siege of the US Capitol. And advertisers don’t want to touch it with a 10-foot pole attached to a second 10-foot pole. Shareholders in Home Depot and holdco Omnicom have filed resolutions asking the companies to investigate whether their ad dollars helped fuel hate online, and whether their advertising policies “contribute to the spread of hate speech, disinformation, white supremacist activity or voter suppression efforts,” according to The New York Times. The effort was organized by Open MIC, an organization that uses shareholder engagement to promote causes such as diversity and privacy. “The ad buyers and the big ad agencies are typically behind the scenes, and yet they have an enormous amount of influence on what happens in the media environment, particularly on social media,” Michael Connor, executive director of Open MIC, told The Wall Street Journal. The resolutions were filed in November but weren’t made public until this week.

Simpli M&A

Omnichannel DSP Simpli.fi has acquired The Advantage Software Company, a provider of enterprise-level software for advertising agencies and marketing companies. Read the release. The rationale is to help drive Simpli.fi’s vision of delivering more integrated omnichannel workflows that help ad buyers be more effective and efficient across planning, buying, tracking, accounting and reconciliation. Automating buying processes for both digital and traditional media is key as consumers shift more and more of their viewing to CTV, which CEO Frost Prioleau says is the fastest-growing medium on Simpli.fi’s platform. The combined company will serve over 1,000 agencies and media buying organizations with a headcount of nearly 400 employees. The deal was valued at more than $100 million, according to Adweek.

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What The Biden Presidency Means For Privacy, Consumer Protection And Antitrust

by Allison Schiff  //  Posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2021 at 3:38 pm.

Privacy and consumer protectionare will be top priorities for the incoming Boden administration. And there’s appetite for action on both sides of the aisle.

Soon-to-be-president Joe Biden has a full plate, from ramping up COVID-19 vaccine distribution and dealing with the economy to addressing the stark polarization of the Trump years.

So, don’t expect much movement on privacy and consumer protection during the first 100 days.

But both are top priorities for the incoming administration. And there’s appetite for action on both sides of the aisle and in the mainstream.

“Big tech has fallen out of favor with politicians and the masses due to the political climate,” said Bryan Karas, CEO and founder of performance agency Playbook Media. “Any issue that diminishes their power in the name of returning it to individuals is seen as favorable.”

Chess pieces in place

Data privacy legislation is one of the few areas where there’s actually bipartisan support, said Charles Farina, head of innovation at Google services partner Adswerve.

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Shopping For Retail Media? Browse The Lessons Learned From Search Marketing First

by AdExchanger  //  Posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2021 at 2:47 pm.

“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media.

Today’s column is written by Bryan Wiener, CEO at Profitero.

Hardly a material line item a year ago, retail media is the new black – capturing the attention of brand marketers, and getting them to open their wallets in numbers that were unimaginable this time last year.

The accelerator is more shopping online due to the pandemic. EMarketer has ecommerce advertising growing nearly 40% year over year in 2020, representing 12% of all digital ad spend. Further, nearly every major retailer has launched or announced the launch of an ad solution, the most recent being Walgreens in December.

And brands incorporating this new channel into their media mix can get a turbo boost by applying lessons learned from the early days of search. There are eerie similarities to many of the growth inhibitors faced in early stage search marketing, albeit with some new twists.

Two of the biggest challenges are ecosystem alignment and data connectivity. Solving for both could give retail an opportunity to take search marketing to heights that Google can’t.

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The Fight For Pay TV Subscribers Will Be Won On Online 

by AdExchanger  //  Posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2021 at 12:22 am.

"On TV And Video" is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video.

Today’s column is written by Denis Crushell, CRO at Tubular Labs.

With the maturity of social media platforms into audience attention juggernauts, companies like Netflix, ViacomCBS, Warner Media and NBCUniversal (among others) have all invested heavily in social video marketing efforts to boost TV tune-in and streaming service subscriptions. This trend accelerated in 2020 as the pandemic uprooted the pay TV business.  According to eMarketer, more than 6 million US households will cut cable this year – the most subscribers ever in a single year.

But while this attrition illustrates a poor picture for the future of the traditional pay TV business, more households still have a cable subscription than not.

Further, streaming services need to get more creative about how they acquire customers.

Netflix, long the industry leader, may have hit its ceiling for growth, signing up 2.2 million new paid subscribers in Q3 2020 – its weakest quarter since 2016. Meanwhile, Disney’s gone full bundle and NBCU’s Peacock rollout has been geared toward free with the potential to convert paid subscribers. HBO Max has gone so far as to include the would-be blockbuster Wonder Woman: 1984 free of charge for subscribers. It also plans to release its entire 2021 theatrical slate on the streaming service.

What does this all mean?

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SpotX Joins UID 2.0; Podcasts Aren't Paying Off For Spotify

by AdExchanger  //  Posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2021 at 12:03 am.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.

U & Me And UID 2.0

Welcome to the Unified ID 2.0 cocktail party, SpotX. The video SSP, which is owned by RTL, is the latest company to sign up in support of UID 2.0, the open source industry initiative originally spearheaded by The Trade Desk that aims to replace the third-party cookie with hashed or encrypted email addresses. Specifically, SpotX says that allowing media owners to access UID 2.0 will help them gain more control over their proprietary data and generate higher CPMs while maintaining trust with consumers, Adweek reports. Ah, the holy grail of an ad-supported value exchange. SpotX joins a long and ever-growing list of UID 2.0 supporters, including IRIS.TV , The Washington Post, OpenX, Neustar, Mediavine, PubMatic, Magnite, Index Exchange, Nielsen, Criteo and LiveRamp.

Don’t Believe The Hype?

For all the hype around podcasts these days – hello Amazon and Wondery – Spotify has to show investors the money. Shares of Spotify took a hit after Citi analysts downgraded the stock because, they said, the audio streaming giant hasn’t shown “any material benefit” from its $800 million plus investment in podcasting content and tech, per Variety. Spotify’s stock price closed down 6.6% on Friday to $319.82 per share, outpacing smaller declines in the broader market. In 2020, shares of the company more than doubled in value on investor enthusiasm for Spotify’s global expansion and business model, including its push into podcasts. The Citi analysts wrote that “our fear is that if podcasting doesn’t provide a way for Spotify to shift away from music label dependence, the Street may reassess the underlying value of the business. And, that would be bad for Spotify’s multiple and equity value.” Meanwhile, The Information reports that Apple – long considered the sleeping giant in the podcast space – is waking up as it plans to launch a new podcast subscription service that could be a threat to Spotify. 

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Viant Technology Files S-1 Ahead Of IPO

by Anthony Rifilato  //  Posted on Friday, January 15th, 2021 at 5:43 pm.

Ad software provider Viant Technology Inc. filed an S-1 on Friday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission ahead of an initial public offering as the company positions itself for future growth.

The company anticipates a boom in the growing programmatic advertising market, particularly across linear TV, CTV and mobile.

Viant, which was founded in in 1999 by Tim, Chris and Russ Vanderhook, did not disclose how much it aims to raise in the offering. Six banks are underwriting the deal, led by BofA Securities and UBS.

In its filing, Viant said it has a profitable business model and that as a self-service platform, it adds new customers and “as customers increase the use of our software, we are able to demonstrate strong operating leverage.”

For the year ending December 31, 2019, Viant saw $164.9 million in revenue – a 52% increase from 2018 – while net income was $9.9 million. However, revenue dropped 4% during the nine months ending September 30, 2020, to $108.8 million from the previous year, and net income was $7.8 million.

With the US programmatic advertising market expected to boom from $65 billion in 2018 to $140 billion in 2022 – representing nearly half of total US media spend, according to eMarketer – Viant said that its product suite will be in demand.

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ViacomCBS And Dish Media Deliver Addressable Ads In Live National Broadcast TV

by Anthony Rifilato  //  Posted on Friday, January 15th, 2021 at 5:07 pm.

Could addressable ads for live nationally broadcast linear TV be coming soon?

Incremental progress in that direction happened Thursday when ViacomCBS and DISH Media each said that they have successfully tested the first addressable campaign within a live national broadcast through an MVPD set-top box.

The companies partnered with TV ad tech company Adcuratio to power the activation on the CBS broadcast network with its signaling solution – developed in partnership with ViacomCBS and DISH. If an MVPD integrates with this signaling solution as well as the programmer’s and distributor’s infrastructure, it can make its ads addressable.

The parameters of the test were admittedly limited. When it launched in December, it executed addressable ad replacement on an unspecified number of live campaigns for a small number of advertisers across DISH's 9 million households in certain CBS-owned-and-operated markets.

Still, any progress toward enabling ad targeting in linear national broadcasts is notable.

“It’s incredibly important because national broadcast is still the largest tranche of TV viewership and the fact that that largest pod of TV viewership has been unable to receive the most relevant household-level targeted ads, it only received a national ad for the entire audience,” said Mike Dean, SVP of advanced advertising at ViacomCBS.

ViacomCBS worked with DISH, Adcuratio and addressable TV ad tech company INVIDI for over a year and a half on the technology. And the companies hope the solution can help addressable advertising scale so that it eventually becomes an industry standard.

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It’s Official: YouTube No Longer Accepts Third-Party Pixels

by Allison Schiff  //  Posted on Friday, January 15th, 2021 at 11:23 am.

As of Jan, 14, 2021, all campaigns on YouTube are required to enable Ads Data Hub linking in order to be eligible for third-party measurement.

As of Thursday, all campaigns on YouTube are required to enable Ads Data Hub linking in order to be eligible for third-party measurement.

Any campaign that doesn’t could experience disruptions to their third-party measurement going forward.

In line with Google’s planned timeline for ADH migration and pixel deprecation on YouTube, Google helped a crop of new third-party measurement partners finish migrating their vendor services to ADH.

Comscore, DoubleVerify, Kantar, Integral Ad Science, Nielsen, Oracle’s Moat and Dynata, will now only use ADH for reporting on YouTube campaigns, and their pixels will no longer serve on the YouTube platform.

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