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Taboola: Doritos’ Online Readership Skyrocketed 85 Times on Super Sunday vs. Average Sunday

Doritos drove the "Old Town Road" to 85 times more online readership about its brand on Super Bowl Sunday than on the average Sunday, according to an analysis by native advertising platform Taboola. Taboola said the snack brand's dance-off between Lil Nas X and Sam Elliott led to domination in terms of online readership. Planters... from Adweek Feed https://ift.tt/31t7bpN

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How they shot all those awesome shots.

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Where tech is going and what marketers should know

The technology that marketers have to contend with is constantly changing. Not only do marketers have to make sure the right creative is delivered, they have to be sure it fits the best platform for reaching target audiences. 

During Advertising Week, we spoke with VaynerMedia’s Gary Vaynerchuk, Verizon Media’s Iván Markman and HitRecord’s Joseph Gordon-Levitt to understand where tech is going and what marketers should know about it. 

Watch the video above for more, or read on to delve into each topic. 

Gary Vaynerchuk on text and TikTok

Vaynerchuk, the outspoken CEO and founder of agency VaynerMedia, spoke to Ad Age about what tech is inspiring him these days. He says he’s paying close attention to two things in particular: text messaging and TikTok. (At  Advertising Week, Vaynerchuk interviewed TikTok VP Blake Chandlee.) TikTok is a social media platform that Vaynerchuk has already invested in, mostly because of its potential to reach Gen-Zers, who he says can influence other generations as well.  

“I always get excited when a platform starts hitting tens, if not hundreds of millions of users," he says. “Whether it becomes Vine or Social Code, or becomes Facebook or Instagram, I don’t know, but it’s hit the scale and consciousness that it now deserves attention.” 

Texting is another marketing vehicle Vaynerchuk adamantly stands by. He recently started a platform called WineText.com, which texts users daily wine offers, an extension of his family’s business Wine Library, and has invested in beverage brand Dirty Lemon, which allows consumers to order by text. 

“Over the last decade plus, we as humans have not let brands and companies into text. We let them into email, they ruined it, and we’ve been very cautious,” he says. “Over the last year, I’ve noticed more people are giving their phone number to be marketed to, to be sold to… It’s going to be a big topic in these halls in 24 months.” 

Why Verizon Media is poised for a 5G revolution 

5G is coming and advertisers are doing everything in their power to stay ahead. Verizon has already launched the technology in roughly one-third of the 30 cities earmarked for 5G by the end of the year. At Advertising Week, Ad Age met up with Iván Markman, chief business officer at Verizon Media, the telecom giant’s content subsidiary (previously known as Oath) to discuss the impact 5G is going to have on its ads business, such as how it’s powering the company’s updated augmented reality ads.  

“Think of any of these ads powered on steroids,” Markman says of the jump to 5G. “Essentially, you can do a lot more. It’s a lot more vivid, more instant … the type of experiences you can power are quite unique. We’re doing a bunch of experimentation.”

Verizon Media has its 5G Labs, which it uses to trial 5G concepts, and opened its RYOT 5G Studio in L.A. in April, which is where the “experimentation” with new products and media formats that Markman speaks about is playing out. The studio has a full-motion capture stage and a “5G node” which is being used for speeding up wireless data transfers.

Verizon is also placing emphasis on its AR ads; 5G especially helps enable the interactivity between AR and live events. The company is launching AR ads on its full-screen native Moments ad platform, which serves ads across Verizon’s Yahoo apps, including News, Weather, Sports and Finance. It follows Verizon’s rollout of AR ads on Yahoo Mail over the summer where Verizon Media saw average engagement times of more than 60 seconds.

New updates to the ads themselves include the option for users to flip the camera to take selfies within the AR experience, while new “Face Features” allow them to try-on AR products like makeup and clothes. Macy’s will be the first advertiser to run a campaign using the new features, says Markman. Home Depot and Pottery Barn have previously run campaigns using Verizon Media’s AR ads.

The focus on AR is rooted in belief that native advertising is only going to continue its rise, says the company, pointing to an eMarketer finding that states U.S. advertisers will spend almost $44 million on it in 2019.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt on his platform HitRecord

Actor and director Joseph Gordon-Levitt, known for his roles in “Inception” and “10 Things I hate About You,” founded HitRecord 10 years ago. Now the platform, where artists can collaborate on different projects, from music to videos to books, has grown to 600,000 users and has worked with a multitude of brands. 

What was once a production company and hobby for Gordon-Levitt has turned into a profitable company (in January, the platform raised a $6.4 million series A round) and works with the likes of LG, Samsung, Sony, Levi’s and nonprofits like the National Parks Foundation to generate revenue and turn out works of art. It’s latest partnership is with Zappos, where HitRecord artists will collaborate on an assignment featuring stories about holiday traditions around the world. At Advertising Week, Joseph Gordon-Levitt joined Zappos' Shelby Stilson on stage to discuss the new partnership, and Ad Age spoke with Stilson about the details.

Despite the platform’s growth and collaborative nature, Gordon-Levitt wouldn’t lump HitRecord in with other social media platforms. Speaking with Ad Age during Advertising Week, he says artists using HitRecord don’t have to “bring out their claws” and compete for followers to get monetized. It all comes down to the quality of work. 

“I think there’s fundamentally something different with how people treat each other. Most of the online platforms are not really about collaboration, they’re more competitive, they’re like a popularity contest,” he says. “Platforms like Instagram, YouTube, etc. get their users to compete with each other for attention, because attention is what ultimately makes money. That’s not how we make money.”

Since monetizing users for good work is a goal of the platform, how the platform handles users’ intellectual property is important.

“We don’t demand exclusive rights to people’s content at the point of contribution. That’s weird. People aren’t used to giving exclusive rights to something they’re putting on the internet, and I don’t think artists would really like that,” he says. “When you upload something to HitRecord, you’re giving a non-exclusive license for HitRecord to take the fruits of the collaborative process and if there’s monetization, people get paid.” 

from Latest News - AdAge https://ift.tt/2IvEnEW

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Outbrain and Taboola to Merge

Native advertising duo Outbrain and Taboola have announced their intention to merge in a deal billed by the companies' leadership as a bid to rival the likes of Amazon, Facebook and Google for ad spend. Taboola founder and CEO Adam Singolda will head up the proposed entity, which will operate under the Taboola name pending... from Adweek Feed https://ift.tt/2pELIvh

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Why Verizon Media is poised for a 5G ad revolution

5G is coming and advertisers are doing everything in their power to stay ahead. Verizon has already launched 5G in roughly one-third of the 30 cities it’s planning to by the end of the year. At Advertising Week, Ad Age met up with Iván Markman, chief business officer at Verizon Media, the telecom giant’s content subsidiary (previously known as Oath) to discuss the impact 5G is going to have on its ads business, such as how it’s powering the company’s updated augmented reality ads.  

“Think of any of these ads powered on steroids,” Markman says of the jump to 5G. “Essentially, you can do a lot more. It’s a lot more vivid, more instant … the type of experiences you can power are quite unique. We’re doing a bunch of experimentation.”

Verizon Media has its 5G Labs, which it uses to trial 5G concepts, and it opened its RYOT 5G Studio in L.A. in April, which is where the “experimentation” with new products and media formats that Markman speaks about is playing out. The studio has a full-motion capture stage and a “5G node” which is being used for speeding up wireless data transfers.

Verizon is also placing emphasis on its AR ads. 5G especially helps enable the interactivity between AR and live events. Verizon Media is launching AR ads on its full-screen native Moments ad platform, which serves ads across Verizon’s Yahoo apps, including News, Weather, Sports and Finance. It follows Verizon’s rollout of AR ads on Yahoo Mail over the summer where Verizon Media saw average engagement times of more than 60 seconds.

New updates to the ads themselves include the option for users to flip the camera to take selfies within the AR experience, while new “Face Features” allow them to try-on AR products like makeup and clothes. Macy’s will be the first advertiser to run a campaign using the new features, says Markman. Home Depot and Pottery Barn have previously run campaigns using Verizon Media’s AR ads.

The focus on AR is rooted in belief that native advertising is only going to continue its rise, says the company, pointing to an eMarketer finding that states U.S. advertisers will spend almost $44 million on it in 2019.

  from Latest News - AdAge https://ift.tt/2oyuuPN

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Now trending in ad tech: 4 things digital marketers should get smart about

At the end of 2018, Magna Global released its advertising forecast, which predicted that digital advertising will account for 50 percent of global ad spend in 2019. During my decade in the digital media space, part of which has been as the vice president of a digital media and ad tech marketing and sales company, I've seen that the list of what demands marketers’ attention has also grown and is ever-changing.

Keeping up on the trends and the products and how they shape digital marketers’ mindsets is a never-ending, uphill battle. Here are four things in digital I believe marketers should pay close attention to:

1. Marketers are producing video ads that last as long as the time it takes to read this heading.

That’s right, six-second ads are becoming the norm. I know what you’re thinking: “You can’t tell a story in six seconds.”

But, that's not necessarily true.

The digital video landscape is crowded, not to mention expensive for marketers. So, they’re doing all they can to make each second count, albeit with an extremely limited number of seconds. YouTube’s non-skippable, six-second “bumper ads” have ushered in a whole new format of digital advertising, and it often works. According to Google's Ads Blog, 90 percent of bumper ad campaigns drove a 30 percent increase in global ad recall. I've observed strong brands, such as Mercedes-Benz and Under Armour, have perfected the art of front-loading branding elements and cramming a compelling story into a tiny time slot.

And, lest you think digital video is “small potatoes,” eMarketer predicted that by 2021, the digital video advertising industry will exceed $22 billion.

2. Brands are trying to figure out the best format for social and native advertisements.

Although six seconds seems short in the YouTube world, it’s eons compared to the time marketers have to grab attention on scrollable social networks, such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Native advertising accounts for almost 60 percent of U.S. display spend, and of that spending, nearly 75 percent is allocated to social ads. Together with video advertising, social is a major factor in the growth of digital advertising.

Social ads have milliseconds to capture a user's attention. Marketers should consider how best to incorporate visual elements that will quickly grab consumers’ attention. You must also consider how to speak to users on those platforms, how to incorporate a strong call to action and, ultimately, how to spark consideration and action in an incredibly short amount of time.

So, how do you go about doing that? Many of the strongest social posts capture attention with a variety of techniques, but for the most part, I've observed they all include:

• Strong visuals, such as video or stunning photography.

• An authentic, relatable voice, which should be established early on and strengthened over time.

• Engagement by posing questions, soliciting feedback, commenting, challenging others to chime in, etc.

3. Content might be 'king,' but context is queen.

Data allows us to target the right user at the right time in the right place. That’s been game-changing. But, data doesn’t yet address two areas of increasing importance and concern: context and adjacency.

We’ve all heard the horror stories of iconic brands’ pre-roll videos running in front of or alongside extremist, inappropriate or non-brand-safe content. Mishaps like these have caused marketers to pay closer attention to the safety of their brands across digital ad placements. And though this certainly includes the content of the ad itself, it also has a lot to do with the digital neighborhood the ad lives in.

Here's the deal: Audience still matters, but audience plus context is key. Some proof? Procter & Gamble Co., one of the world’s largest advertisers, slashed ad spend by $200 million in 2017—after the company’s ads ran alongside "objectionable videos," according to The Wall Street Journal. As privacy laws impact marketers’ abilities to target audiences, I believe brand safety will only continue to gain importance.

How do you navigate these tricky waters? Work with quality, reputable publishers, agencies and programmatic partners. If rates, volumes, etc. seem too good to be true, they probably are. So, look at things from the point of view of your audience: If it's not content they'd consume, don't allow your ads to be placed there.

4. Human viewability counts more than bot traffic.

With companies shelling out a good chunk of marketing dollars on digital advertising, it stands to reason they would want to make sure their content is seen by real, live humans. Now, with nearly 30 percent of all web traffic showing "non-human signals," according to Adobe via The Wall Street Journal, advertisers want to make sure their ads are viewed by real people. Many digital ads are never seen by humans. Unfortunately, there’s no way to guarantee a user sees any given ad, but digital marketers can guarantee their ads are viewable in the digital ecosystem.

The increase of nonhuman activity on the web has caused marketers to take a closer look at their supply partners and publishers. In the past, you might have taken a hands-off approach to outsourced programmatic elements. But, now it's important to start reviewing campaign reporting data more closely and take black- and white-listing and boycotting seriously. Ask tougher questions to ensure metrics are based on valid traffic and viewability.

What's next?

As the digital marketing industry continues to grow and evolve, marketers will have to pay greater attention to elements that were once perhaps considered peripheral. And though some facets of digital marketing, such as social media and video content, are growing exponentially right now, at some point, their growth will slow and be replaced by new elements. Desktop disrupted traditional. Mobile disrupted desktop. What will disrupt mobile, and what will disrupt that? I wish I knew. But not knowing and being prepared to constantly pivot and learn is part of what makes all of this so exciting, isn’t it?

from Latest News - AdAge https://ift.tt/31y2PwN

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Outbrain to Buy Fellow Native Ad Specialist Ligatus

Outbrain has signed an agreement to purchase Germany-based native advertising company Ligatus for an undisclosed fee in the latest act of the ongoing consolidation of the ad-tech sector of the media business. The all-stock deal is subject to regulatory approval, but Outbrain reported that it expects the transaction to close in the second quarter of... from Adweek Feed https://ift.tt/2XpxXNl

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Verizon Media and Microsoft Ink Global Native Advertising Deal

Verizon Media has kicked off 2019 with the announcement of a global native advertising deal with Microsoft in a partnership it claims demonstrates its commitment to provide unique media inventory to advertisers, including an emphasis on emerging channels. The multiyear partnership offers media buyers access to 20 percent more native ad inventory through Oath Ad... from Adweek Feed http://bit.ly/2FjQPql

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Applying Hemingway’s ‘Iceberg Theory’ to Native Advertising Creates an Impossible to Ignore End Result

The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway's last work of fiction, is a slim and deceptively simple volume built with modest sentences. But beneath each letter is something that imbues the work with a deeper meaning. It's a force that carries you through the story, and you carry it with you once it's over.... from Adweek Feed http://bit.ly/2H3TYNQ

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It’s Time for Marketers to Get a Fresh Perspective on What Native Advertising Can Be

With the rise in complexity of digital media, the words "native advertising" have become watered down. Originally the name for content that feels harmonious and original to its environment that respects a user's time and attention, it is now a catch-all phrase for anything that resides in the feed and doesn't live on social platforms... from Adweek Feed https://ift.tt/2NH7iun