Falling Video CPMs; Night Parting

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Falling Video CPMs

In a WSJ story last week, reporter Suzanne Vranica revisited the case of the falling video CPMs using new data from video ad network and exchange owner Bright Roll. The data fingers the usual suspect (programmatic buying). But there’s a silver lining — online video prices are now on par with TV. “And that could help fuel a shift of ad dollars to online video from television, industry executives say—the only way the online-video ad market will get big enough to sustain all the new entrants.” Read it.

Targeting At Night

Video demand-side platform and analytics company TubeMogul drops some stats on video ad impression and performance trends. Among the findings: video ads perform better on brand metrics during primetime. Viewers exposed to an ad between 8pm and midnight “remember a brand message 6.6% more than viewers that did not see an ad, more than double the day’s average (3.0%).” Bid more at night, y’all. More, plus bonus charts.

Dark Networks

Simulmedia CEO Dave Morgan comments on the limited scale of video ad inventory in a think piece on Ad Age. He says that the real opportunity is in TV and its “dark networks” – which also speaks to his company’s interests around addressable TV advertising. Morgan writes, “This [dark network,] massive, untapped pool of “digital video” is many, many times larger than YouTube and all other web video combined, chock-full of quality content, carrying normal ad loads, and all standardized to carry normal 15 and 30 second spots.” Read about the darkness.

Transformer Publishing

On Nieman Journalism Lab, Ken Doctor examines the Financial Times digital success and sees data – and people – at its center. He explains, “The data team has about 30 people, organized into three groups: Data Analytics & Campaigns, Data Product Development, and Data Technology. It’s a team that’s grown from about a dozen when the FT first started transforming its old-fashioned research group into a digital-forward team, and began hiring analysts from non-media consumer marketing backgrounds.” Read more.

Tying Online To Offline

Groupon Goods is enabling buyers of consumer products to pick-up in-store. Internet Retailer says that this unit expects $2 billion in gross revenues this year, and there’s a new mobile/local offering coming, too. Read more. The just-in-time pickup capability will likely drive media spend looking to “close” the bottom-of-the-funnel consumer. Amazon, Google and retailers are active in this online/offline delivery space, too. Attribution opportunities abound.

Retargeting Recency

In Marketing Land, CEO Frost Prioleau of search retargeting and demand-side platform Simpli.fi analyzes “recency” and its importance for effective advertising. Prioleau provides some use cases: “The key to bringing them back and getting them to convert is to be cognizant of where they’re at in the funnel. Are they doing basic research or simply browsing? Good. You’ve got some time. Did they abandon their shopping cart? You must get them back to your site fast before they forget why they put your product in their cart in the first place.” Read more.

More Viewabilty

Viewability of online advertising and its measurement is spawning new companies as well as growing existing ones. Ad verification companies like DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science along with Moat, Burt and comScore’s (formerly known as) AdXpose offer flavors of viewability measurement among others. Germany-based Meetrics said it would take its viewability product to the UK as ad trade The Drum reports, “Meetrics has suggested that about 30 per cent of online ads served are never visible. As a result, it has aimed to put itself at the forefront of the ‘ad visibility’ issue – helping marketers improve the visibility of their ads and reduce media spend costs.”

Google’s Goal

Frédéric Filloux, GM for digital operations at Les Echos Groupe, gives his take on Google Maps and the larger strategy in play in his “Monday Note.” Of course, data is at the center. He writes, “Google’s goal is building the most complete and reliable map system in the world. Gradually, the company replaces geo-data from third party suppliers with data collected by its own crews around the world.” Sound familiar? How if it was re-worded this way, “Google’s goal is building the most complete advertising system in the world. Gradually, the company replaces data from third party suppliers with data collected by its own advertising systems around the world.” Doesn’t seem too far off. Read Filloux’s take.

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