Opinion

Location-based businesses – including retailers and restaurants – have undergone more change in the last two years than in the previous 10. Now, as pandemic restrictions lift, these location-based businesses are looking at a hybrid future that will require them to embrace digital strategies that support their brick-and-mortar stores.

Advertisers often feel torn between linear and connected TV. They wonder which channel will give them the best ROI. But rather than choosing one or the other, an increasing number of brands are adopting a TV 360 approach, writes Maria Mryasova, director of product at DCMN. This not only means blending linear and CTV advertising to best reach their target audiences, but also integrating their TV efforts effectively across their marketing funnel.

Apple has stated, and in no uncertain terms, that it wants to kill fingerprinting with fire: But no one knows how and when Apple is going to move from an honor system to actual policy enforcement.

When it comes to targeting, the ad industry is in the process of effectively turning back the clock 20 years.

And that’s not a bad thing.

The simple fact is that the ad industry, on its first run-up to personalized marketing, made a number of missteps. The time has come for a course correction. And while the transition may be rocky at times, we now have the opportunity – and means – of laying a sustainable, data-driven foundation for the future.

Google’s new “reject all” cookies button is about to disrupt the entire ad tech ecosystem even more. The next era of ad tech is about user consent, not cookies, writes Joe Root, CEO of Permutive. And the age of opt-outs means publishers and advertisers need solutions to serve an ad without processing user data – and some are already making mistakes.

With additional browser- and device-based identifier restrictions dropping almost every other month, publishers are getting pitched a dozen addressability solutions every week – and we’re already seeing cases of buyer’s remorse: publishers not getting the value they expected from proposed solutions.

Two years of sweeping disruptions – supply-chain shortages, staffing challenges, fluctuating COVID regulations and looming inflation – were tough on consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketers and retailers. But consumers are eager to shop in stores again. As data across touch points converge, marketers have the power to elevate customer experience and increase conversions, writes Gila Wilensky, president of Xaxis US.

Transparency in audience measurement and ad sale pricing and has grown over time. But The need for greater transparency around the cacophony of growing advanced TV offerings is glaring, writes John Link, VP of sales at AdImpact. Compared to the linear TV market, digital ad transactions remain more opaque because the nature of the medium calls for more advanced targeting with more granular data.

As an advertising vehicle, podcasts have yet to reach their full potential due to a limited array of formats and a relatively small amount of inventory. To take full advantage of ad monetization, the podcasting industry will need to “rip up its playbook,” writes Paul Kelly, Chief Revenue Officer of A Million Ads. But there are ways the industry can bring podcasting revenue to its full potential.

A rare trifecta of factors influencing the marketplace today — political tension, a war in Europe, a continuing pandemic and high inflation — means this year’s midterms will be a bumpy ride, writes George Leon, Chief Strategy Officer at Hawthorne Advertising. Buyers who need to drive action around time-specific events will need to maintain a presence during the midterms, and they’ll have to plan on paying more to place inventory that receives lower response rates.

While the seemingly relentless passage of state data privacy legislation may seem daunting, most of these laws follow patterns. In short, if you’re gearing up for compliance with the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act, the Colorado Privacy Act or the California Privacy Rights Act, you’ll be well-positioned for the new Utah and Connecticut laws, too, according to Davis+Gilbert lawyers Richard Eisert and Zachary Klein.

Google announced it will add the Optimized Pricing feature to its current ad inventory pricing model, Unified Pricing Rules (UPR), for all publishers. The idea is to protect the value of publisher inventory by preventing buyers from purchasing it for less than what it’s worth, writes Kean Wang, VP of product and strategy at Intowow. But how will Google determine inventory worth when it provides services for both publishers and buyers?

We’re a year into Apple’s AppTrackingTransparency (ATT) framework, and it’s time for app marketers to reconsider their iOS budget and dust off their iOS retargeting campaigns. With opt-in rates and overall IDFA availability far above what most expected, data shows iOS users continuing to generate significant revenue and higher ROAS – adding up to an impossible-to-ignore opportunity.

Historically, the technology used to deliver TV programming and advertising to viewers has evolved much faster than the ability to measure it. Now that ads don’t travel with their programming the way they did in the old days of legacy linear, the key to efficiency in cross-platform TV advertising will be measuring ads and content separately, writes Vijoy Gopalakrishnan, Chief Research Officer at iSpot.

Personalization – paired with effective measurement – has enabled marketers to see and understand results, ultimately driving them to spend more. Madan Sundararaju, vice president of the M&E sector at Capgemini Americas, writes on how traditional media platforms can adapt to these trends and increase their share of ad revenue.

Go to any SSP or DSP website and you’re likely to see a mention of programmatic “premium.” But programmatic premium shouldn’t stop at inventory – ad tech companies should also be supplying premium service to make sure advertisers can actually optimize their buys by maximizing the value of that premium inventory, writes Steve Pelletier, SVP of strategic partnerships & corp development at FatTail.

Marketing typically depends on the thoughtful and strategic allocation of limited financial resources. Creative matters, but putting money behind the channels that will truly drive growth is the key to success, writes Cory Davis, VP of media and madtech at Infutor – which is why marketers will have to continue testing, learning and adjusting to new channels as they grow their businesses.

The erosion of third-party cookies and the fragmentation of identity have compelled publishers to rebuild their first-party data strategies. And the IAB Tech Lab’s Self-Defined Audiences (SDA) might be one of the most significant standards building toward a set of post-cookie digital advertising solutions that aggregate and normalize audience data points across publishers’ domains, writes Vlad Stesin, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Optable.

The old adage that consumers must hear an ad at least seven times in order for it to stick no longer rings true when over-serving ads costs brands billions (and ruins the viewing experience), writes Valerie Bischak, GM and head of growth at Amobee. Data enables advertisers to reach their desired viewers, but technology can help maximize reach and control frequency against these most desired audiences. 

The programmatic market continues to boom as marketers shift more of their budgets to digital channels. But despite the incredible scale of this ecosystem, the market is still maturing – and true price discovery and price setting at a level of granularity that reflects true marketplace dynamics can help fill some of those gaps, writes Andrew Casale, president and CEO of Index Exchange.

CTV is a no-brainer for political advertising today – viewership is up, it costs less, there’s more ad inventory, it’s addressable and it allows incremental reach on top of linear spend, writes Iván Markman, Yahoo’s chief business officer. The sooner political campaigns get serious about CTV, the sooner they can gain valuable insights about what their video strategy needs to look like in the future.

The advertising industry is taking a few hits these days. Legislators are looking hard at treating ad platforms like utilities. Nefarious state actors have hacked our political discourse and even our understanding of facts. But this isn’t the first time the ad industry is facing choppy waters. The ad world is in desperate need of a new position: the Chief Morality Officer, writes Marilois Snowman, CEO and founder of Mediastruction.

In the affiliate marketing world, publishers pursued the same goal retailers are pursuing today: to convert online intent into a shopper journey. Affiliate nets work with performance marketers, so retailers should branch out to digital-native marketers, writes Michael Jacobi, co-founder and CEO of Button.

Taking the “room” metaphor literally, the current clean room system is akin to a collection of stand-alone rooms existing outside the form and function of a house. That’s why the next level must look beyond clean rooms. It’s time to build a clean house using a method called distributed analytics, writes Marc Rossen, SVP investment and activation analytics at Omnicom Media Group.

As audiences across all demographics continue to shift from linear viewing toward long- and short-form digital video, the continued growth of streaming was front and center during this year’s upfront presentations. And major subscription-based platforms announced their plans to add an AVOD version to their offering.

TV is not dead, nor is it dying. It is in an evolutionary state. But for CTV and linear to remain relevant and co-exist, measurement needs to evolve, just like the TV product. And we should be applying the same audience-first approach to measuring impact across linear and CTV with one, equivalized currency for both, writes Michele Madaris, media director at Boathouse.

You get what you pay for. This adage is considered way too infrequently in the world of digital advertising, especially programmatic. There is so much pressure placed on gaining efficiency, both in execution and cost, that marketers have begun to prioritize “added value” impressions over meaningful business results, writes Elise Stieferman, director of marketing and business strategy at Coegi.

Netflix is joining the AVOD squad at an industry-wide inflection point. Despite exploding consumer and ad revenue growth, CTV also still has growing pains (you know, like the ad overload plaguing the viewing experience). But with a strong market presence – and “extremely attractive first-party data” – Netflix could help CTV turn the corner, writes Chris Keune, VP of data science and product at Kargo.

Without the email address of the person you’re targeting, your digital ad isn’t working as hard as it should. But consumers are getting wary. The advertising industry needs to give consumers back control over communication before machine-generated emails threaten inventory monetization just like ad blockers, writes Keith Petri, CEO & Founder of lockr.

The potential of data-driven marketing is entering a brave new world. But as complexity increases, marketers must look toward a solution that simplifies data-driven marketing: agile intelligence, writes Neej Gore, chief data officer of Zeta Global.