Last week, AdExchanger’s Programmatic I/O 2022 hit NYC during Advertising Week. The conference brought together data-driven marketing professionals for a high-level look into the world of programmatic buying, including hot-button topics such as privacy, the cookieless future, retail media, CTV trends, and much more. Let’s delve into some of the biggest trends discussed at the event.
While many attendees expressed disbelief at the fact that Google is going to actually sunset the third-party cookie, the savvy marketer is preparing for its deprecation. How? Many attendees and speakers, including Simon Goldrick, Senior Director of Programmatic Strategy for Everyday Health, mentioned they are testing cookie-resilient channels such as CTV and email. They are also looking for innovative ways to shore up their first-party data collection.
Heather Conneran, Director of Brand Experience Platforms at General Mills elaborated on the company’s strategy of collecting first-party data from their “Box Tops” program and by using value-adds, such as recipes, to encourage consumers to log-in and share critical first-party data such as email addresses.
It’s no secret that CTV is hot right now, especially as Netflix and Disney+ prepare to allow advertisements into their previously impenetrable platforms. At the conference, attendees discussed how to best leverage this channel and how to incorporate it into their current advertising strategy…and where to pull the budget from. Speakers from Spectrum Reach, TransUnion and Freewheel, discussed how to take a three-dimensional view of identity. From people, households and devices, and how that has led the shift to advertising in streaming media channels. They discussed how to use data to get key insighted into the identity of your audience, achieve scale, understand streaming media audiences, engage connected consumers and households precisely – and how to measure it. Mike Fisher, VP of Advanced TV at Essence, also discussed measurement, sharing GroupM’s research about the huge blind spots that have emerged in TV measurement in an impression-based TV world.
In both sessions, many had questions about the scarcity of inventory – and all the speakers believed there is enough room in this growing market for all of us, even if the biggest players are looking to snatch up as much inventory as possible. Want to get started in CTV or fine tune your existing strategy? Check out our Crawl, Walk, Run playbook.
As we head into the world of the “authenticated vs. unauthenticated” internet, contextual advertising is getting more and more buzz.
What is contextual advertising?
Contextual advertising is targeted advertising that groups advertisements together based on the content (aka context) of the advertisements. Generally, used for digital channels such as display, CTV, mobile, etc., contextual advertisements allows for companies to target based on similar linguistic elements in order to ensure they are reaching a relevant audience.
Why is contextual advertising beneficial?
Contextual advertising is a great strategy for companies who want to reduce their reliance on cookies as we move towards deprecation. It allows for advertisers to reach audiences who are interested in their products and services, even if they don’t know everything about them.
It also comes across as more organic, in a world were consumers value organic and (seemingly) effortless connections with brands that are aligned with their lifestyles and interests.
Identity resolution is both more important than ever, and about to get a lot more difficult. Attendees were worried that the current solutions available lack scale. A joint presentation led by Hearts & Science Marketing Technology lead Sarah Polli and Gannett’s ad innovation lead and Prebid.org board member Jeff Burkett attempted to address how companies can build a new identity infrastructure.
To throw in our two cents, having the ability to track users across devices is an important step towards successful identity resolution, so companies must invest in solutions that help them use deterministic and probabilistic data together to supplement and enhance the power of their ID resolution. Something to keep in mind – even if deterministic data and probabilistic data are used together successfully, without quality underlying data, the ID resolution gap will not be solved. Learn more about how to solve for identity resolution, including real-world examples, here.
Data Axle can help with identity resolution, so if this is your main conundrum, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Advertising is being transformed by commerce media. This new form of advertising closes the loop between media impressions and commerce transactions via instore and online measurement systems. It can deliver improved targeting, provide new audience insights, and provide more relevant and valuable shopping experiences for consumers. Which is why it’s no surprise it was a buzzed about topic at the event.
Speakers from Lyft, Marriott and Lowe’s One Roof Media Network were eager to get their points of view on this topic out into the audience. These speakers sparked a debate on whether retail media networks apply to grocery stores and retail trade marketers or all companies with logged-in or loyalty program customers and purchase data that can be turned into powerful first-party tools for advertisers. They discussed how they’re making programmatic inroads with advertisers and how their ad businesses fit in at non-advertising companies.
For more in commerce media and retail media networks, check out our in-depth article by our resident expert, Lisa Moore.
Can consumers opt-in to sharing their eye movements? According to Joanne Leong, Dentsu’s SVP of global partnerships and head of its Attention Economy initiative, the answer is yes. Leong discussed how advertisers can thrive in the new gaming/metaverse environment to measure the effectiveness of this channel. She covered everything from placement of ads to appear organic and catch players eyes to how to measure the success of your advertisements in this emerging, and compelling, channel.
Want to keep the conversation going? Contact one of our professionals and see how we can help you activate on these channels or put these new strategies and tactics into action.
As Content Marketing Manager, Natasia is responsible for helping strategize, produce and execute Data Axle's content. With a passion for writing and an enthusiasm for data management and technology, Natasia creates content that is designed to deliver nuggets of wisdom to help brands and individuals elevate their data governance policies. A native New Yorker, when Natasia is not at work she can be found enjoying New York’s food scene, at one of NYC’s many museums, or at one of the city’s many parks with her two teacup yorkies.