Verve Group Acquires Mobile DSP Dataseat
Verve Group, a global consumer-first advertising suite and a subsidiary of Media Games Invest (MGI) acquired mobile DSP Dataseat. The latter is an adtech company that provides app developers with the ability to manage in-house mobile app campaigns.
Why Dataseat?
Philippson, CEO of Dataseat explains the company was founded on the thesis that digital advertising would become more privacy-compliant. Hence, they built the world’s first fully transparent user acquisition DSP based entirely on contextual signals, without any reliance on device IDs or user profiling. It gives advertisers full control, transparency, and adaptability over their campaigns in a world where identifiers such as IDFA are deprecated.
It provides app developers with tools and software to manage and control their own user acquisition, retargeting, and cross-promotion campaigns. Dataseat offers marketers a demand-side platform ( DSP) and unique bidding algorithms based on their customers’ first-party data.
As reported by Adexchanger, the rationale behind the acquisition is “Privacy”. Ionut Ciobotaru, co-CEO of Verve Group said,
“The future is less about identity and more about group measurement.”
ATOM and Beemray are Verve Group’s investments in privacy. Anonymous Targeting on Mobile, its first homegrown solution, creates cohorts using on-device data instead of identity-based targeting. Additionally, it acquired contextual targeting company Beemray last year.
Interesting Read: 6 Data Privacy Trends To Look Out For In 2022!
An accretive acquisition, accelerating the Flywheel
As part of MGI’s advertising software platform, the Dataseat DSP will have direct access to MGI’s strong first-party content and data, including a games portfolio with more than 800 million users and its SDK used in 20,000 apps with 2 billion users. Verve Group has access to an extensive SDK installation base. The alignment of Dataseat with Verve Group enhances Smaato and Hybid SDKs, which have huge global install bases.
In a privacy-first world, mobile DSPs are increasingly urging publishers to integrate their SDK because direct access is a strategic advantage. Adexchanger quoted Philippson, CEO of Dataseat,
“It used to be that whoever had the most data would win even if they had suboptimal creative, because you knew exactly what a person likes, so the creative didn’t matter as much.”
“But if you don’t know anything about the individual, creative becomes very important, and if you have control of the SDK you have ultimate control over the creative.”
Philipson noted that it was important for Dataseat to maintain independence and invest further in providing world-class solutions for its existing and new clients.
“We didn’t want to join a gaming company that would take our technology for their single use. Verve Group has a vast ecosystem with some of the world’s top names of advertising technology under its roof. We’re eager to demonstrate how we can help all of our clients leverage this opportunity to drive further growth.”
MGI stated that the acquisition will enable the company to empower its DSP segment which currently accounts for 7% of its total revenue. Sameer Sondhi, co-CEO of Verve Group said,
“Dataseat has exhibited bona fide expertise working with gaming companies, and that sweet spot dovetails with Verve Group’s growing strength of integrating the worlds of gaming and advertising, together. Working with Dataseat will allow us to accentuate this opportunity so our clients will benefit.”
The companies declined to disclose the financial terms of the deal. All 25 Dataseat’s employees, including co-founders David Philippson and Paul Hayton, will join Verve Group.
Interesting Read: 5 Ad Industry Trends That Are Likely To Unveil in 2022!
Marriott International : A Hotel or An Ad Tech Company?
Major international companies have entered the world of advertising to drive revenue for advertisers by leveraging their tech platforms and first-party data.
Does that seem like 90% of business for 2022?
Following on the heels of retail media success stories, Marriott, the world’s largest hotel group, launched a new advertising platform ‘Mariott Media Network.”. And this hotel juggernaut is more likely to succeed than not.
As Marriott put it,
“Marriott’s audience has intent, and travelers will be in the right mindset when receiving these offerings.”
Why Does It Matter?
Marriott Media Network is described as an “omnichannel cross-platform advertising solution for brand advertisers. Marriott can thus offer advertisers new ways to reach travelers – an audience often on the lookout for new experiences with discretionary funds available. An advertising network can also advertise products that travelers may be interested in besides future bookings. As part of this endeavor, Marriott has exclusively partnered with Yahoo.
First Party Data
Apple’s privacy effort has impacted travel marketing. App developers increasingly need users’ consent to track their online behavior. As consumers opt out in large numbers, brands, and ad sellers are increasingly looking to use “first-party data”. Data like customers’ profiles, search history, and reservations act as a first-party data source for advertisers. Marriott plans to tap into its treasure trove of first-party data
Reach
Marriott says it has 8,000 properties under 30 brands spanning 139 countries. Advertisers will have access to more than 164 million Marriott Bonvoy members and renowned loyalty programs. The program allows Marriott to know when its members are traveling, which means brands will likely be able to target travelers before their trip, and while they’re captive in Marriott’s quarters.
It is also planning to extend its reach to non-endemic advertiser categories, notably airline, ride-sharing, and restaurant bookings.
Revenues
In the ad tech world, advertisers are willing to spend money but do not have sufficient and reliable inventory. Considering Marriott’s CRM data and large reach, advertisers may see this as a viable alternative to Google and Facebook.
Interesting Read: Unlock The CTV Opportunity: What The Future Looks Like
Targeting
Marriott is being cautious about programmatic targeting and will not venture into audience network play. With leisure travel volumes returning to pre-pandemic levels, this is a good opportunity for those who want to target a specific segment of travelers.
The company serves ads for now across its owned channels, including display, mobile, video, email, and digital out-of-home (in-room TVs and digital screens in lobbies, gyms, and bars) once fully implemented.
It will show how a travel media network fits into a brand’s media strategy. For instance, an apparel company might identify customers traveling to a ski resort, while an entertainment company might advertise shows, events, or whatever fun things are available in a particular city.
In fact, even small (local) advertisers would get an opportunity to display their offerings. Marketers will be able to reach consumers who are looking for specific services, experiences, and entertainment options in the city or locale they are visiting.
CTV- a better option
CTV ad campaigns enjoy much higher engagement rates than traditional ads. It achieves high-performance results for brands – 94% viewer completion rate compared to just 74% and 69% on PC and mobile devices, respectively.
Advertisers now have a perfect platform to shine on the 42-inch TV in every Marriott room. There is no better way to link the TV screens in hotels with connected TV (CTV) than through programmatic advertising.
The streaming platforms Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, and others are looking into ways of monetizing viewers with CTV inventory. And Mariott adding a CTV inventory to its offering opens up a whole new viewing context, during travel.
Interesting Read: Connected TV Explained: The Essential Glossary Of CTV
Full stack
The Marriott Media Network uses Yahoo as an exclusive SSP. Yahoo’s supply side platform serves as a platform for advertisers to buy inventory. As a result, the Yahoo advertising team will manage demand generation and sales across Marriott paid media and the Marriott Media Network utilizing Yahoo’s demand-side platform. The Marriott supply can be measured and targeted holistically across all of Yahoo’s open web programmatic inventory.
Privacy
Legislation like GDPR in the EU and CCPA in the US, privacy changes by Apple, and the forecast demise of the third-party cookie have severely hampered advertisers’ ability to target customers. Brands are seeking new avenues to reach consumers.
Marriott’s media network is a “demand and supply solution for the cookieless world,” -Iván Markman, Chief business officer at Yahoo.
The media network will not share customers’ personally identifiable information (PII) with the advertisers. It will leverage anonymized customer data that will help to curate the content on behalf of the advertiser to display relevant ads to travelers.
Yahoo, the ad tech partner, will match anonymized customer data with advertisers’ data. Advertisers will shop for ad inventory via Yahoo’s portal and sales team.
Untapped ad prospects
The addition of a new layer of revenue is an amazing opportunity for Mariott. Though it has had an advertising business for more than a decade this is its first programmatic offering which has immense potential for growth.
Assuming an average occupancy rate of 75% in 2021 and at least 5 ads shown per day at $40-$50 CPM adding additional revenue to its bottom line. The reported revenue is $13.86 billion in 2021. Also, the partnership with Yahoo means a low cost of ad sales.
Presently, the most lucrative and growing market for Mariott International is China. It has 448 hotels spanning 23 brands across more than 110 cities in Greater China. The country with the highest population is the most brand loyal to the hotels. The largest consumer economy has the elite and affluent travelers. The pandemic has prompted them to explore destinations closer to home. An opportunity for Mariott too good to be missed!
Bottom Line
Through a partnership with Yahoo, Marriott is launching an advertising platform to better monetize its substantial customer base. It will support advertisers and publishers in unlocking the full value of their content, audiences, and marketing. Also, Mariott will not be hindered by varying regulations of any country, because it owns the first-party data (information on guests received from loyalty membership).
So next time, one can expect ads that might be potentially relevant on Marriott’s owned properties – website, app, or room TV screens as opposed to welcome messages. Marriott’s move is indicative of a larger trend within the travel industry. And why not? Brands can get around rising operating expenses and establish a new revenue stream with it. Till then Bon Voyage!
Interesting Read: 6 Data Privacy Trends To Look Out For In 2022!
Magnite Launches Programmatic Offering With Samsung Ads
Independent sell-side advertising platform Magnite today announced a collaboration with Samsung Ads in Australia. This will allow marketers to add Samsung CTV inventory to their programmatic media buy, which includes Samsung’s free ad-supported streaming service Samsung TV Plus.
Consumers in Australia will be able to access exciting and premium content immediately through Samsung TV Plus, an internet-based TV platform that was launched in November 2020. They can access 69 channels free live on their Samsung Smart TVs. The list of channels is growing every month. Samsung’s premium ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) service in Australia will now allow advertisers to access its connected TV inventory programmatically.
Connected TV is one of the fastest growing mediums in Australia with 11.9 million Australians having viewed content on having viewed internet content on a TV screen. IAB Australia’s Online Advertising Expenditure Report confirms that programmatic is the preferred buying method for content publishers’ video inventory as consumption to date has risen. Magnite already works with Samsung Ads in the US, EMEA, LATAM, and India.
Interesting Read: Samsung Ads Introduces Predictive Planner To Improve AVOD Ad Buys
That’s What They Said
James Young, MD of Australia at Magnite said,
“Programmatic CTV supply in Australia continues to grow at a rapid pace and Samsung will deliver a wider audience reach for buyers. We are delighted Samsung has selected Magnite to deliver a best-in-class advertising experience for their Samsung TV Plus product.”
Alexander Spurzem, General Manager for Samsung Ads Australia said,
“CTV has generally made TV advertising more accessible, affordable and accountable for advertisers, programmatic takes that one step further making it easier for advertisers to buy. The collaboration with Magnite will unlock programmatic inventory for advertisers on Samsung TV Plus and help fuel growth of CTV in the market.”
Interesting Read: AVOD strategy For Netflix Ahead: Should Advertisers Rejoice?
Vox Media Launches Own Concert SSP With The Trade Desk As An Exclusive Partner
Vox Media announced its own supply-side platform (SSP) for Concert, the company’s publisher-led marketplace, where the Trade Desk is also its exclusive demand-side platform (DSP) partner. With the launch of its own SSP, Concert will be easier than ever for programmatic buyers to deliver high-value brand advertising in brand-safe environments, driving efficiency and performance across the web’s most trusted marketplace.
Vox Media’s first-party data solution, Forte, will integrate the Trade Desk’s cookie alternative Unified ID 2.0 within the new SSP for attribution and targeting. This ensures Concert SSP campaigns can be evaluated holistically alongside other publishers. The SSP will give advertisers the ability to directly access and leverage the proprietary high-impact ad unit, Athena, across Vox Media’s editorial brands like Group Nine, The Verge, New York Magazine as well as from the premium publishers that make up the national and local ad marketplace, Concert. AJ Frucci, SVP of Media Revenue and Head of Concert at Vox Media said,
“Since launching in 2016, Concert has remained singularly focused on making it easy for brands to advertise across premium publishers effectively and with confidence, by delivering creative excellence, reach, relevance, performance, and trust. The Concert SSP delivers on this mission for programmatic buyers by providing a more direct and standardized path for activating Concert through automated channels.”
Interesting Read: AdTech Vs MarTech: Let’s Settle This Once For All!
Is Vox Media walking a tightrope?
It’s not just playing around with programmatic advertising. The company’s moving to cut out ad tech vendors that take fees only to impede the process of programmatic advertising. As part of its launch, it’s creating its own supply-side platform – something ad tech publishers use to maximize the value of impressions, but don’t own.
Concert has had a programmatic offering, but its primary focus has been managed services until now. The company also said it’s strengthening its role in the programmatic space with hopes of making it a larger share of its business. As quoted by Digiday, AJ Frucci said,
“Owning our technology allows us to be masters of our domain. Having a non-standard ad product that’s reliant on third-party technologies always puts our own product roadmap at risk.”
Recently, government bodies slammed tech giants like Google and Apple for misconduct on the part of their DSPs and SSPs as well as data misuse. Vox Media, however, believes it has an edge in the space where its SSP will offer a “more direct path” between the marketplace and the advertisers as most, if not all, of the ecosystem, is owned by third-party ad tech middlemen built to commoditize scale.
The Concert SSP will enhance the buying experience for programmatic advertisers, improving performance and efficiency. The SSP offers increased viewability controls, as well as a significant increase in access to scale across Concert’s marketplace, allowing advertisers to reach a broader set of their desired audience in one place.
Meanwhile, the Trade Desk Publisher Inventory Development Will Dorothy commented that brands will have the benefits of scale and efficiency that come with programmatic buying, while safely leveraging valuable first-party data anchored in Unified ID 2.0.
“Our partnership with Vox Media will provide advertisers access to premium content in a way that hasn’t been done before across Concert’s entire portfolio of trusted publishers, through the Concert SSP.”
Interesting Read: 5 Ad Industry Trends That Are Likely To Unveil in 2022!
Another threat to the duopoly: How is Vodafone Idea foraying into the adtech industry?
Vodafone Idea has launched its ad-tech platform called Vi Ads, driven by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), to give marketers an ROI-focused programmatic media buying platform. The telecom operator rolled out Vi Ads with the aim of participating as a major player in the multibillion-dollar Indian ad tech industry.
How will Vi Ads benefit?
It is a self-serve interface that helps marketers set up campaigns, track them, derive personalized insight, and enable targeted outreach. Vi Ads is built to achieve full-funnel campaign objectives from awareness to purchase.
Banking on Vi’s deep data science technology, Vi Ads will enable marketers to engage with the operator’s over 243 million subscribers through multiple channels like Vi-owned digital media — Vi App, Vi Movies, and TV App, and traditional channels like SMS, and IVR calls. The company highlighted the below aspects that distinguish Vi ads:
1. It offers precision targeting not only on the company’s digital assets but also on external third-party programmatic media.
2. It will not be media-specific and enable marketers to engage with Vi users on external media channels and publisher partners of Vi Ads.
3. Marketers can benefit from unique audience segments, interest groups, and targeting parameters derived from Vi’s deep consumer insights built on opt-in consumer data.
Avneesh Khosla, chief marketing officer, Vi said,
“With our programmatic platform – Vi Ads, we will address two of the biggest challenges faced by marketers today – authentic insights and enhanced reach.”
He further added,
“This is a simple, easy to use, and highly efficient solution for marketers to effectively reach out to the right target group with the most relevant messaging at any given point of time, while also providing a monetization opportunity to Vi as we aggressively build and scale our digital assets.”
Interesting Read: Is Google Joining The ONDC Bandwagon With Paytm And PhonePe In The Race?
Vi Ads collaboration
Vi Ads is developed in collaboration with TorcAi, a provider of audience infrastructure and programmatic solutions. It leverages advanced data sciences & machine learning to weave together legacy marketing and advertising technology platforms with new-breed tech. Rohit Verma, CEO TorcAi Digital said,
“This partnership, and the development of the Vi Ads platform, will enable Vi to connect their vast stores of customer insights with advertisers, and publishers, to deliver the right message, at the perfect time.”
Is the entry of telecom operators a threat to the duopoly in the digital advertising market?
In the fast-growing Indian digital advertising market, telecom operators Bharti Airtel, Jio, and Vodafone Idea have launched their own platforms to compete with tech and eCommerce giants like Google, Meta, Amazon, and Flipkart.
The combined revenue of Google and Meta grew to Rs 23,000 crore in FY21 whereas Amazon India and Flipkart generated cumulative advertising revenue of Rs 3900 crore. Digital advertising is sure to undergo a major change as the telcos are going all out to make advertising an additional revenue stream.
In early 2021, telecom provider Bharti Airtel launched its Adtech platform- Airtel Ads and Reliance Jio launched its JioAds later in the year. The three largest telecom operators have a huge opportunity in the digital ecosystem as they collectively own 1.16 billion users and have access to such vast data reserves. As Google plans to phase out third-party cookies by the end of 2023, they are best positioned to take advantage of the fact that they have access to authentic first-party data.
In the case of Airtel, brands can access its 350 million+ customers through various digital platforms via Airtel Ads. It also acquired a strategic stake in the startup Aqilliz to integrate the latter’s advanced blockchain technologies across its fast-growing offerings in Adtech, Digital Entertainment, and Digital Marketplace.
Similarly, JioAds offers advertisers access to reach 450 million+ users through online and offline media assets. The JioAds ecosystem offerings spread across Connectivity, Entertainment, and Commerce. A major selling point for advertisers of JioAds is its brand-safe omnichannel network.
A first-party platform is ideally suited for addressing the question of trust and privacy in digital advertising. Ad tech has seen significant growth and innovation in India due to the digital revolution, which has also led to a higher volume of investments in the industry. The Indian market will be interesting to see if the new entrants can overtake the duopoly and eCommerce companies.
Interesting Read: How Will Partnership With Criteo Benefit Flipkart’s AdTech Business?
Meta Slams Apple Over ATT, Google Hit By Second U.K Anti Trust Investigation
Meta airs grievances over Apple’s market power in the mobile app industry To FTIA.
When the Federal Telecommunications and Information Administration (FTIA) asked what technology companies thought about Apple, Meta enthusiastically responded. Apple’s new tracking prompt has cost Meta billions of dollars and made innovation impossibly hard for them. Meta mostly criticizes Apple throughout 19 pages of comments. Meta, which is itself the target of a federal antitrust suit, paints Apple as a behemoth that restricts its ability to expand. Meta wrote in the letter,
Despite having some of the most popular apps in the world, Meta’s ability to innovate on its products and services and even reach its customers is determined, and in some cases, significantly limited, by the most popular mobile operating systems, such as Apple’s iOS.
Meta also made a connection between Apple’s ad business which witnessed explosive growth and its challenges in the same market. Other relatively smaller tech companies (mostly app developers), and the Coalition for App Fairness, a group that represents companies including Epic Games, Match Group, and Spotify, filed a comment to the NTIA that also criticized Apple’s market power. They have called on Congress and the Biden administration to act against the power of dominant app store companies like Apple and Google.
Whether this branch would take action is unclear, but it will be interesting to see what approach they decide to take against a tech company.
Interesting Read: How Will Dubai’s Metaverse Sector Contribute To Its Economy By 2030?
Andrea Coscelli, the CMA’s Chief Executive said,
We’re worried that Google may be using its position in adtech to favor its own services to the detriment of its rivals, of its customers, and ultimately of consumers. Weakening competition in this area could reduce the ad revenues of publishers, who may be forced to compromise the quality of their content to cut costs or put their content behind paywalls. It may also be raising costs for advertisers which are passed on through higher prices for advertised goods and services.
Since the tech giant owns the largest service provider in three key parts of the chain. CMA investigation will examine Google’s dominance in the following parts:
Demand-side platforms (DSP) allow advertisers and media agencies to buy publishers’ available ad space from many sources.
Ad exchanges provide the tech to automate the sale of publishers’ ad inventory via real-time auctions by connecting to multiple DSPs and collecting bids for them.
Publisher ad servers that manage publisher inventory and determine which ad to show based on bids received from exchanges and/or direct deals between publishers and advertisers.
CMA advocates for greater regulatory authority for overseeing anti-competitive behavior from tech giants under the new regulator ‘Digital Markets Unit’. It is expected to be introduced in 2020, with the power to fine tech companies up to 10% of global revenues for breaching new digital rules. However, the government has not given the watchdog the authority to impose such fines.
Andrea Coscelli, the CMA’s Chief Executive-
This would be bad for the millions of people who enjoy access to a wealth of free information online every day. It’s vital that we continue to scrutinize the behavior of the tech firms which loom large over our lives and ensure the best outcomes for people and businesses throughout the UK.
In response, a Google spokesperson said,
We will continue to work with the CMA to answer their questions and share the details on how our systems work.
Interesting Read: AdTech Vs MarTech: Let’s Settle This Once For All!
How Will Partnership With Criteo Benefit Flipkart’s AdTech Business?
Flipkart and Criteo, a global technology company providing a Commerce Media Platform, have partnered up to use full funnel measurement capabilities for Product Performance Ads (PPA). As a result, Flipkart’s off-platform offerings are going to be strengthened, and advertisers across segments will have the opportunity to reach and engage high-intention customers.
Interesting Read: Everything The Quarterly Results Of The Tech Giants Have To Say
Growth Strategy For Flipkart’s Adtech Business
This launch is a part of the larger 2022 growth strategy for Flipkart’s Adtech business as it continues to innovate and unlock value for brands and sellers. Criteo’s commerce media capabilities will help Flipkart to serve advertisers of all sizes with their full-funnel marketing goals on the open web by leveraging its audience signals for highly relevant reach, resulting in higher campaign effectiveness. Advertisers will be able to drive marketing outcomes and build lifetime value across Flipkart’s 400+ million customers in India.
Advertisers will be able to run marketing campaigns while receiving full-funnel metrics with this solution. Flipkart’s PPA tool also includes Criteo’s Dynamic Creative Optimization+, which ensures that the right customer receives the right communication while improving performance.
And that’s what they said
Sankalp Mehrotra, Vice-President – Monetisation, Flipkart, said that commerce advertising is growing faster than the overall digital market. It will soon account for a sizable portion of the total digital pie.
“Flipkart Ads is focused on providing technology-led advertising solutions to ensure the most relevant experience and outcomes for advertisers and customers alike. In addition to our current suite of advertising options, the launch of PPA in partnership with Criteo will help address the needs of incumbent and insurgent brands across verticals to solve their full-funnel marketing objectives on the open internet.”
Taranjeet Singh, Managing Director, SEA and India, Criteo, added,
“We are happy to announce the partnership with Flipkart, India’s homegrown e-commerce platform, to further accelerate and utilise Criteo’s commerce media capability. By combining Criteo’s superior audience-first technology and Flipkart’s reach, we will be able to offer a remarkable capability to marketers and brands to achieve meaningful marketing outcomes on the open internet.”
Interesting Read: AVOD strategy For Netflix Ahead: Should Advertisers Rejoice?
Tubi’s Debuts More Than 100 Original Titles And Doubles On Adtech At NewFront
Tubi is doubling down on original programming and ad tech as part of its biggest year ever, two years after Fox Corporation purchased it.
A big news item that came out of the event is that Tubi will release more than 100 original titles over the next year. The company’s new programming will cover genres like Black Cinema, thrillers, horrors, sci-fi, romance, documentaries, and adult animation. The originals will join Tubi’s library of more than 40,000 premium movies and television titles, making it the largest library of free, ad-supported streaming.
Number-wise, Tubi highlighted 51 million monthly active users last quarter. The streamer also recorded 3.6 billion hours watched in 2021, a 40% year-over-year increase in total viewing time.
The platform reports double-digit growth in all audience segments over the past year, with the most growth among college-educated and affluent demos. The average age of Tubi’s streamers is 16+ years younger than that of non-streamers, covering a multitude of geographic, economic, and educational niches, and accounts for 40% of its user base.
Interesting Read: AVOD strategy For Netflix Ahead: Should Advertisers Rejoice?
By far the fastest-growing AVOD service based on consumer awareness, Tubi delivers massive and incremental audiences at a scale with messages of transparency, originals, and “explosive growth.”
Tubi will expand its linear offerings to complement the platform’s current lineup of more than 100+ local and live news and sports channels. It has been announced that Fox’s The Masked Singer, TMZ, and Gordon Ramsay will join Tubi originals and Tubi en Español and will be available on the platform soon. Mark Rotblat, Chief Revenue Officer at Tubi said,
“Tubi’s approach of personalization allows for content for every community, and our record growth shows it is working. We’re doubling down on this approach while delivering our brand partners transparency and an opportunity to reach incremental, diverse and highly engaged consumers.”
New Solutions For Advertisers
Tubi is investing in its ad technology in order to provide advertisers with a better way to reach these audiences.
The company recently released the “Campaign Insights” report, which shows how brands can target audiences and contexts in a way analogous to TV, but with the transparency and power of digital. Advertisers gain more visibility and contextual awareness regarding where their ads run and the type of content they run on with the initiative.
Tubi’s latest ad solutions for brands include insights across the marketing funnel, along with its Certified Measurement Program, which has partnered with leading measurement companies like TVSquared, Foursquare, and Kantar. With Tubi’s low ad load and Advanced Frequency Management tool, campaigns are capped at the campaign level regardless of the demand source. Furthermore, Tubi’s ad tech includes integrated marketing, organic in-app placements, and prime pod placements to complement the viewer experience and drive impact.
It recently announced that it will be working with Nielsen on the extension of its relationship through its Digital Ad Ratings product (DAR). One of the first AVOD services to provide measurement across its entire footprint of over 25 devices will better meet advertisers’ need for third-party measurement.
Interesting Read: Is Measurement Giant Nielsen $16Bn Buyout A Hope For Turnaround?
New Video Game Measurement Allows Brands To Evaluate The Impact Of The In-Game Ads
Recent years have seen an upsurge in video game advertising, as unprecedented numbers of consumers have turned to video games to keep entertained during the COVID-19 outbreak. However, advertisement measurement standards haven’t kept pace with this fast growth. The prevalence of in-game advertisements has led brands and marketers to look at different metrics to determine their effectiveness.
So, was Frank Redhot’s recent appearance in a sports video game well-received? McCormick’s Frank’s Redhot brand placed banner ads inside Basketball Battle, a free-to-play mobile 2D basketball game. The banner advertisements were prominently displayed below the scoreboard at the center court.
Frameplay, a global leader in enabling intrinsic in-game advertising tracked the duration of time the player saw the ad. It recently introduced the first-to-market attention metric called Intrinsic Time-in-View. Attention is a key indicator of where advertisers should spend ad dollars, but how can it be measured? An understanding of the research and data can provide valuable insight into the future of advertising.
What is Intrinsic Time-in-View?
The Intrinsic Time-in-View metric from Frameplay measures how long an ad impression is visible during the gameplay. An impression is only considered viewable if it meets Frameplay’s viewability standards.
The in-game advertising platform measures the viewability of in-game ads using computer vision. It evaluates the total amount of time the ads are viewed throughout the campaign and the average amount of time each ad campaign is viewed per player session.
Interesting Read: Your Ultimate Guide to Understanding Gaming Advertising
Game-changing findings
Frameplay has joined forces with Lumen and eye square independently to analyze and compare its Intrinsic Time-in-View calculation with their respective eye-tracking measurement. It will validate whether Frameplay’s Intrinsic Time-in-View measurement is a viable measure of attention or not. Dentsu International, McCormick’s agency, also took part in the research as part of its Attention Economy initiative, which seeks to understand attention in this new format.
In fact, both computer vision and eye-tracking tech yielded similar results, supporting Frameplay’s method of measuring attention in games. The test also studied the effectiveness of in-game ads.
In-game ads captured about 1.4 times more attention of the gamers vs the mobile display attention norm. It performed similarly to social in-feed video norms and outperformed every other social, web, and mobile format, including a social in-feed image. In fact, eye square’s eye-tracking measurement concluded that Intrinsic Time-in-View turned out to be very close to the true real-life value. The ad framework satisfies the changing commercial and cultural needs of advertisers, companies, and gamers.
Adexchanger reported that In-game ads generated an average of 2.4 attentive seconds per impression, on par with the attention generated from a social media video ad (even though the in-game ad was a static banner).
Joanne Leong, Dentsu’s VP and Director of Global Media Partnerships, stated that having a reliable metric to compare in-game ads vs social ads helps them decide where to spend the dollars.
“The average consumer sees over 4,000 ads in any given day, so it is imperative that advertisers start evaluating channels through the lens of attention metrics, which are more indicative of meaningful exposures. The results from these studies validate proven attention in Frameplay’s gaming inventory, and we will use this data in planning as we evaluate future intrinsic in-game opportunities.”
Interesting Read: InMobi And Anzu Partners To Bring Programmatic In-Game Ads To APAC Region
Setting up in-game advertising standards
Frameplay along with other players took a leadership position to update the guidelines with MRC and IAB so that intrinsic in-game advertising placements properly measure 3-D gaming environments. Ads are more difficult to measure than in other display formats because they are frequently obscured by game elements such as environmental features and player avatars.
Adexchanger quoted Frameplay Chief Strategy and Operations Officer Cary Tilds,
“When you calculate [in-game viewability], there’s a lot to consider, like the size of the ad on the screen at any given time, the skew or the angle of the ad at any given time, obstructions between the player perspective and the ad and how lighting affects viewability.”
He also stated that more should be accounted for in any industry-wide in-game measurement standard in addition to all those factors. Frameplay wants advertisers to look at overall attention instead of the only time in view, and change how the ad tech industry thinks about viewability in the gaming sphere.
Considering that in-game advertising is one of the pillars of many companies’ marketing strategies, statistics like these show that it can be a valuable investment for companies looking to reach customers where they prefer. The data gives marketers leverage to understand and compare gaming to other mainstream channels.
Interesting Read: 5 Ad Industry Trends That Are Likely To Unveil in 2022!
Brightcom Partners With Intent IQ To Strenghten Its Adtech Offering
Brightcom, a publisher-side platform, is partnering with Intent IQ, an identity verification company. This will allow Brightcom to take advantage of Intent IQ’s bid enhancement service. It aims to better identify IDs in a cookieless environment, leveraging and maximizing monetization for Brightcom’s publishers’ portfolio.
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Details: With this partnership, Brightcom Group intends to enhance its bidding capability in RTB and programmatic advertising environments. The loss of cookies in browsers makes it increasingly difficult to target online ads. Therefore Intent IQ’s identity device graph will aggregate Brightcom’s publisher SSP and DSP IDs into one Intent IQ Person ID. It will do this while returning partner SSP and DSP IDs when those are missing. CEO Etai Eitany stated that Brightcom is known for its ability to help site owners and applications generate revenue across a variety of devices and environments, such as display, audio, and video.
Intent IQ is a subsidiary of AlmondNet Group that holds 150 patents mostly related to ad targeting. The company currently uses first-party ID clustering as part of its targeting process. First-party IDs are grouped into interests, or mobile app IDs are grouped into devices visited by the browser. Intent IQ supports third-party cookie and cookieless environments, such as Safari and the future Chrome.
What’s ahead: eMarketer reports that US advertisers spent 41.2% more on programmatic display ads in 2021—the biggest annual increase since 2016. It is expected to reach $141.96 billion in 2023.
In spite of lingering uncertainty as third-party identifiers are slowly phased out, programmatic advertising is booming. It is expected to provide the required transparency to the marketers for their campaigns, especially in a cookieless environment. This works only if advertisers know where their ads are appearing and what kinds of audiences see them. Therefore, programmatic advertising can gain ground when advertisers, ad tech platforms, and publishers work together for a new normal.
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