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Tightening The Net
Netflix’s 15- or 30-second ads between TV-quality content is what CTV advertisers want from streaming media.
Peter Naylor, Netflix’s first-ever ad sales leader, touted differentiators in its pitch to ad buyers.
For one, some broadcasters mix streaming and linear, Naylor tells Ad Age, not to mention streamers with digital display, mobile video and other miscellanea, like ads on tiles in a CTV app home screen or on a channel that just plays a burning log.
Netflix also introduced a first-impression guarantee, which ensures that first eyeball of the day, and targeting to its Top 10 list, which means a brand might reach hundreds of thousands or millions of viewers in the same window of time. Streaming platforms often boast of high viewership numbers while not having high concurrent viewers, but there’s marketing power in reaching a disparate audience all at the same time.
Netflix can only effectively offer concurrency when it releases a new season of a hit show. But targeting the Netflix Top 10 for a day achieves a similar goal since viewers saw the same ad overnight and might talk about it the next day.
Data In Design
The world is full of brands that experienced wild boom-and-bust cycles in 2020 and 2021. Crocs turned its pandemic ecommerce momentum into durable growth.
Which is the setup to Crocs’ announcement of an ecommerce design product, Customize Your Crocs, that “is truly unique and is an incredible opportunity for personalization,” according to Adam Michaels, EVP and chief digital officer, in a release.
People upload or choose images, text and small charms to design their own shoes. Although, it’s not a true DTC product since the personalized shoes come in a minimum order of 24.
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Still, it’s a nice little B2B sales play for schools, teams and businesses – sure to be a hit on the conference merch circuit – and a strong first-party data vehicle for the brand.
Store-based consumer brands struggle to get customers to come to their site, let alone create accounts and share valuable data. Nike had a product called Nike iD, which is now Nike by You, built on customer profiles. There’s also a customized Oreo service called OREOiD.
Crocs is in rarefied air, it seems.
Prove It Or Lose It
The FTC has issued letters to 670 companies that sell pharmaceuticals, homeopathic medicine, dietary supplements and functional foods, warning them to prove claims made in their ads or risk a suit.
The decision to issue the letters was spurred by a recent Supreme Court ruling that revoked courts’ ability to seek monetary damages for consumers harmed by false ads, according to FTC chair Lina Khan. The loss of one enforcement tool prompted the FTC to revive its mandate to regulate unsubstantiated or deceptive claims.
The companies that received the letters aren’t accused of committing specific offenses but could be at risk of violating the FTC’s criteria, such as making false claims about health benefits or third-party endorsements.
Verification of third-party endorsements could particularly affect host-read podcast ads, since advertisers might have to guarantee that the spokesperson tried the product and saw the benefits claimed in the ad.
Offenders face civil penalties, including fines up to $50,120. But that’s a small sum compared to the budget for some campaigns, especially if a questionable tactic is working. It remains to be seen whether fines will be a deterrent or just another line item.
But Wait, There’s More!
An interview with Adobe Chief Strategy Officer Scott Belsky. [Stratechery]
Insider’s newsroom will start experimenting with AI to write articles. [Axios]
Forget milk and eggs: Supermarkets are having a fire sale on data about you. [The Markup]
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s 2022 letter to shareholders. [letter]
Google’s monopoly delayed innovations in search and AI such as ChatGPT, DOJ says. [Bloomberg]
