Brussels, 24 June 2016. IAB Europe welcomes reports that Danish authorities consider that ad blocking detection does not require users’ permission as it is necessary to ensure the functioning of online services.
“It is very reassuring to hear that the Danish regulator has confirmed that publishers are acting within their rights when checking to see whether users are holding up their end of the bargain when accessing advertising-funded free services," said Townsend Feehan, CEO of IAB Europe.
"European publishers overwhelmingly depend on advertising revenues to finance their online offerings, so the ability to detect ad blocking and engage with users to educate them about the value exchange is crucial. We are confident that more European countries will share the views expressed by the Dutch and Danish governments.”
Brussels, 23 June 2016. IAB Europe welcomes the Dutch government’s confirmation that ad blocking detection is legal, and moreover exempted from any consent rules due to the practice having no or only miniscule effects on user privacy.
“The Dutch government’s interpretation is true to the spirit of the ePrivacy Directive”, said Townsend Feehan, CEO of IAB Europe, “and will ensure that Dutch publishers can continue educating users about the value of advertising. We are confident that other European countries will share the Dutch view.
Thanks to advertising, unprecedented amounts of free quality information and services are just a mouse click away for Internet users all over the world. IAB Europe remains committed to ensuring that the online ecosystem can continue to deliver its full potential to users, publishers, and advertisers alike.”
Media quality across Europe is in its best shape yet!
The Integral Ad Science (IAS) Q1 2016 UK Media Quality Report highlights the current state of media quality in online advertising, analysing trends in viewability, online brand safety risk and rates of ad fraud. IAS processes hundreds of billions of impressions quarterly and is thus able to analyse the industry on a broad and representative level, across multiple media quality metrics.
The latest report from IAS highlights that media quality has improved significantly over the past year throughout Europe. The Q1 2016 report reflects the positive impact that the increase in efforts made by joint industry bodies to address media quality challenges head on, are having on the industry. When comparing the findings from our Q1 2015 report, with the latest Q1 2016 report, it is clear to see that media quality is moving in the right direction.
Rates of viewability have improved internationally, with France seeing the largest increase with a huge 13.1% point increase reported, from 47.8% in Q1 2015, rising to 60.9% in Q1 2016. The second largest increase was from Germany with an 11.4% point increase, from 42.3% in Q1 2015 to 53.7% in Q1 2016. The third biggest improvement in viewability in Europe was followed by the UK, which showed a 5.2% point increase, from 51.8% in Q1 2015 to 57% in Q1 2016. These results reinforce that the industry as a whole is making a determined effort to increase viewability and ensure that digital advertising is having the desired impact.
When comparing the IAS Media Quality Reports from Q1 2015 to Q1 2016, it is clear to see that the risk to brand’s advertising in inappropriate context has decreased overall in Europe. The percentage of ad impressions in Germany seen as posing a significant risk to a brand’s advertising saw a 7.5% point decrease from 17.4% to 9.9%, and the rate of brand risk in France had a 3.7% point decrease from 10.6% to 6.9%. The UK had the lowest findings of brand risk with a 4.1% point decrease from 11.1% in Q1 2015 to 7% reported in Q1 2016. Alongside the decrease in brand risk, ad fraud has also seen improvement internationally when comparing the latest report against the Q1 2015 results. The UK saw the biggest reduction in ad fraud, with a 7.9% point decrease from 12.9% to 5%. Germany also saw a significant reduction in ad fraud with a 5.3% point decrease from 11.2% to 5.9%. France similarly saw its rate of ad fraud fall by a 2.7% point decrease from 10.4% to 7.7%.
IAS has introduced a new metric to measure ad clutter. Ad Clutter, which is unique to IAS, provides insight into the share of the voice on the page and ultimately ad effectiveness, determining whether there are too many ads on the page. A high to very high clutter page is defined as a page where six or more ads were served. The effects of ad clutter are currently felt the least in France, with only 2% of ads found on a page with 6 or more ads on the page. Germany then follows with 2.4% ad clutter, and the UK is most impacted with 3.2% of advertising appearing on pages with over 6 ad slots.
2016 has started with some promising results that highlight the positive changes in media quality that are being made across the Continent. This positive impact is partly due to the industry’s increased efforts to educate and raise awareness around viewability, brand safety and ad fraud. Whilst our Media Quality Report may show increased improvements, it is imperative that the industry continues to tackle these media quality issues head on. For example, the IAB Europe Quality Task Force has been set up to look at the different components of quality, which combine to create the digital advertising ecosystem and some of the challenges that stakeholders are currently facing. The group is delivering several initiatives to drive brand advertising investment into digital, including standards, certification and research and education. Overall, media quality has improved across Europe and beyond – with viewability found at its highest rate and brand risk and ad fraud at their lowest.
Download the document below to check it out.
The summer brings a series of major international sporting events to France, starting with the tennis French open at Roland-Garros. With millions of people around the world watching, discussing and sharing their passion for this Grand Slam, Social Media provided the perfect platform for instant reaction to the tournament. The learnings from user engagement with Roland-Garros deliver some clear lessons for other sporting events, but also for brands and advertisers to increase engagement and optimize strategy.
Brussels, 21st June 2016 – advertisers are experimenting with hybrid models but still relying on agencies whilst publishers are developing in-house models, the second IAB Europe Attitudes towards Programmatic Advertising survey1 reveals.
Based on a survey of more than 900 advertisers, agencies and publishers from across 29 markets, the study provides clarity on the current status of programmatic adoption and stakeholders’ perspectives on its potential for strategic competitive advantage.
With the majority of stakeholders in the digital advertising industry now undertaking some form of programmatic advertising (87% of advertisers, 92% of publishers and 93% of media agencies), it is interesting to note that there is a clear evolution of programmatic strategies across markets of different maturity levels.
Advertisers start out on their programmatic journey with an independent specialist, then move to an agency of DSP and then in mature markets adopt an agency or hybrid model. Similarly, publisher strategies are evolving; they start out with a hybrid model, then lean more heavily on their SSP and finally bring the expertise in-house. For agencies, the in-house agency trading desk remains dominant.
For some, the drivers for developing an in-house programmatic model are clear. Although less advertisers are considering in-house than last year, those that are, are looking to gain more control, increase transparency, integrate across channels and reduce cost. Agencies are increasingly driven by a need for audience insight to deliver more value for their clients and control. Publishers are driven by the ability to better monetise their inventory and efficiency in the sales process.
Meanwhile, hiring people with the right skill set and training people adequately is the biggest challenge for developing an in-house model.
Henrik Schulte, Media Strategy Manager EMEA at Schneider Electric said: "Bringing programmatic in-house means full control over what happens with our most valuable good: the data of our customers. Setting up an in-house solution first and foremost requires education on programmatic, in order to get the various functions that need to be involved on board. Once the set-up is complete, it is a great way to foster cross-functional collaboration while providing our customers with personalised advertising."
The research was initiated and designed by IAB Europe’s Programmatic Trading Committee. The Committee is a multi-stakeholder initiative helping publishers, agencies and advertisers increase their understanding of the programmatic ecosystem and the impact it is having on digital advertising. It is focused on producing educational white papers, thought-leadership webinars and blogs and industry insights.
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Media please contact:
Marie-Clare Puffett – puffett@iabeurope.eu
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1 IAB Europe Attitudes towards Programmatic Advertising survey
The survey illustrates the attitudes towards programmatic display advertising, current adoption and strategies, on both the buy-side and sell-side of the digital advertising industry. The 2015 report can be accessed here.
Nearly all stakeholders including strategists, planners, buyers and operational teams across the digital ecosystem are embracing programmatic advertising and building on its potential for value creation. With only 13% of advertisers, 8% of publishers and 7% of media agencies claiming that they are not using programmatic technology, the study shows that almost everybody in the industry is now deploying some form of programmatic advertising.
Respondents named a reduction of media wastage and greater cost and trading efficiencies as the most important impacts of programmatic. The research also highlights growing recognition among the industry that as programmatic matures, it contributes to key advertising objectives such as scaling mobile campaigns and reaching consumers more effectively with branding messages.
Greater integration with wider ad measurement models and increasing sophistication beyond the click are other two other key factors driving programmatic adoption.
With benefits clearly recognised and cited in the research, and emergence of proven models, programmatic adoption is likely to continue to grow. Indeed, all stakeholders remain optimistic about the outlook of programmatic with over 90% of them citing an increase in investment over the next 12 months.
But the benefits are accompanied by challenges, and significant barriers to adoption remain. The biggest bottleneck is finding the people with the right skills and experience to navigate this brave new world successfully.
For the first time the research looked at the operational models used to execute programmatic and there is a clear evolution of programmatic strategy across markets. Advertisers start out on their programmatic journey with an independent specialist, then move to an agency or DSP and then in mature markets adopt an agency or hybrid model, i.e. a combination of more than one strategy. Similarly, publisher strategies are evolving; they start out with a hybrid model, then lean more heavily on their SSP and finally bring the expertise in-house. For agencies, the in-house agency trading desk remains dominant.
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Recently I had the privilege to speak at IAB Europe Interact in Lisbon, where I reflected on the observations I made a year prior at IAB Europe Interact Berlin. Not too much has changed since then in terms of our industry’s challenges, only a growing consensus that programmatic is not delivering on its potential. On the one hand, our industry has brought scale and efficiency to digital marketing. The programmatic story over the last decade has been one of high excitement, rapid adoption and huge investment. But with so much emphasis on growth, there’s been little time for exploratory innovation and refinement.
Back during my Berlin speech in 2015, I emphasized that the money flowing into programmatic was not new or incremental budget, but rather shifted away from traditional digital. However, the rise of ad blocking suggests that everyone in the digital ecosystem played a part in overloading web pages with ads, slowing down the experience and annoying end-users.
I also cautioned a year ago that there is no “magic button” in ad tech and this is still true. Everyone wants a silver bullet, but many of the solutions out there are too one-dimensional. A majority of DSPs in 2016 are still optimised to the days of 2007, with media price and efficiency ranked above all other considerations. Even the most highly sophisticated companies with end-to-end solutions like AppNexus require world-class talent working exceptionally hard every day to execute a finely-honed, long-term winning strategy, and not everyone can make that commitment. Finally, I stressed the need for simplicity in an increasingly complex supply chain, and I’m sure there are few serious players left who would disagree.
So, what should the focus be as we adapt? I shared a quote from Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, who said “If you don’t have a competitive edge don’t compete” and it’s my strong belief that there are three areas of untapped potential: product, process, and people.
Product is the “what” – the media package, the data, the service. You should be asking yourselves “how can we deliver additional value that marginalises the competition?” It’s important to note that by product, you should be thinking in terms of platforms, not point solutions. Platforms that can power the entire market and don’t just address a singular challenge are rising to the top. The ecosystem is tired of stitching together a myriad of solutions – it’s just too inefficient and it’s too expensive. They want simplicity, efficiency, transparency, and most of all, an open market that provides broad choice and optionality.
After product, focus on your process. Process refers to the “how” – how you build your product, and how you deliver it. Process of course becomes more of a focus once your company grows out of the start-up phase into a bigger company, but don’t think of it as a depressing bureaucratic inevitability. I mean process with a purpose, one that can give you a sharp competitive edge.
My favourite example of improving processes with incredible results is the British Cycling team, led by GM Dave Brailsford, who won the Tour De France in 2012 and followed that by winning seven Olympic Gold medals in London. These amazing wins were widely credited to Dave’s concept of “the aggregation of marginal gains.” He believed that if the team improved in every area, not just those directly related to cycling by just one percent, then those small gains would add up to notable collective improvement—and he was right. Our industry could take a page from his playbook and focus on making incremental improvements across the board to better rise to the technological and strategic challenges we all face today.
The last, but far from least, is people, or the “who” behind it all. It’s a point that I frequently make: invest in your people. Nothing is possible without skilled, passionate, amazing people. There’s a common misconception that technology is there to replace people. I don’t believe that, but I do believe that the skills of the people inside tomorrow’s successful publisher, agency, and marketer business need to fundamentally change so that we can put the machines to work for us. We are in a new golden age of marketing and planning but only our best PEOPLE can truly help us harness machine learning and big data. And sometimes that means looking in new places for talent, the kind that can bring fresh perspective and different energy to the table. Drawing on the same type of talent from the same talent pools year after year might mean you’re destined to become a circular firing squad. Or preaching to the choir—pick your metaphor.
Differentiating your products, processes and people are more important than ever as we enter a new era, one that AppNexus CEO Brian O’Kelley was first to label “The Programmable Age” and a concept that I’ve written about as well. Think about the ways users consume content and media today and how fragmented the landscape is. They’re on their mobiles on the train, or their laptops while watching TV. They’re fluidly emailing, texting and on social media—and they’re in a different frame of mind for almost every use case. Ad formats are different on every device. Basically, the interaction between brands and consumers has grown immensely more complex.
Media buyers and sellers now have to move mountains to differentiate their products because the interaction between brands and consumers has grown immensely more complex and must be increasingly more personalised. Real-time data, learning algorithms, and a partner ecosystem will be hallmarks of the interconnected programmable age.
To recap: a) programmatic is now the norm but it’s not enough b) you have to differentiate to win across product, processes and people c) the future is programmable; don’t get left behind. The brands and advertisers that win will be those that make smart use of their own market insights and data, plugging these into their communications planning in a way that allows them to individualise and empower buyers to move with the confidence and agility required today.
[slideshare id=63171508&doc=marketmapeu2016web-160617110818]
Download the document below!
Join this webinar to gain insight into best practice in consumer behaviour research and media planning
Tuesday 5th July 3pm CEST
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This is the second of two webinars showcasing the winners of our 2016 Research Awards which recognise and celebrate the research projects and the contribution they have made to the development of the digital advertising industry.
This complimentary live webinar will share winning case studies of the Consumer Attitudes and Behaviour, Consumer devices and Research and Data Innovaton categories. You will have the opportunity to learn about advertising effectiveness, mobile advertising effectiveness and cross-device measurement and planning for effective campaigns
The winning case studies to be presented are:
Here is the recording of the webinar!
You can watch the recording of the first research awards webinar here which shares best practice on ad effectiveness and cross-device measurement
Watch the recordings of our recent Programmatic Buy-side and Programmatic Sell-side webinars.
There's a lot of confusion about what full programmatic TV will bring.
Last month, while I was at TV Connect London, I noticed that while programmatic TV was the big buzz word on everyone’s lips, there was a lot misunderstanding about what it actually means. On the advertising side, there’s equal buzz – and equal confusion – about what terms like IPTV and OTT TV mean.
As someone who straddles both industries in my job as Video Product Manager at Improve Digital, I wanted to take the opportunity to clear up some of the confusion and offer an idea of what the future will bring.
What does full programmatic TV mean? It is a method of automating the process of buying and delivering ads that maximizes the monetisation of video content. Full automation will mean a wholly user-targeted, content-integrated viewing experience.
But that’s the future. What’s the situation now? While we’re waiting for the advent of full programmatic TV, video content is currently delivered via two methods: traditional TV using a set-top box (IPTV) and online video (OTT TV). Each one offers distinct advantages and challenges to advertising sales.
So which should we focus on when thinking about the development of full programmatic TV? Both. That’s because both of these methods will grow towards each other and lend their strengths to creating the holistic, integrated programmatic advertising viewing experience of the future.
Traditional TV offers audience, online offers cross-device marketing
Traditional TV advertisement budgets are shifting to online. The European total online advertisement surpasses TV to record €36.2bn in 2015. Online video is 16.7% of the Display ad spend (€13.9 bn in 2015) (source: IAB Europe ©2016 IHS).
While the budgets are shifting traditional TV is where the audience still is. This guarantees brands wide audience exposure, while exposure on online video is fragmented because of the many different online video platforms.
But, although consumers often reach for the ease of accessing video content via their remote controls, they’re also accessing online video content anytime, anywhere. And with the amazing potential of user data and user tracking, online video offers the opportunity for the type of targeted, cross-device marketing that brands can only dream of now.
As we move towards programmatic TV, we should see the audience capabilities of traditional TV being applied to target more specific viewers. How?
By combining demographic targeting with online user data targeting
When we talk about demographic targeting in the traditional TV model, it means marketers look at programme category and timeslot to determine who in a household is likely watching. They might be guessing at a range of individuals, ages and other factors.
Obviously, this type of guess-work isn’t only lacking in precision, it also fails to reflect what is happening in real-time. As I’ve already mentioned, online video is able to track individual online behaviour in real-time, and track it over time to target users effectively.
Now think of combining information from both methods and you can start to imagine the targeting potential that full programmatic can unlock. We’re already seeing this in a few, select places in the industry, but we need to see more to create the personalized, frictionless ad experience of the future.
And we need a frictionless ad experience to monetize high-quality content
Quality is the last piece of the puzzle that should go into creating the future of programmatic TV.
In traditional TV, the two ground rules for maintaining viewers’ attention are “Content is King” and “Never Go Black”. That means that content providers and owners are skittish about ads being served up in real-time that they can’t view or test beforehand.
On the online video side, although there’s a lot of experience with the power of programmatic advertising, allowing ads to pay for high premium, long-form content isn’t built into business models, where subscriptions pay for content.
The solution to both these problems is to implement programmatic advertising in small steps and pilot projects, so that the results can be tested on both the traditional TV and online video side.
While TV has the biggest reach, the blueprint for programmatic TV has already been set by online video, so building further on that knowledge is the low-hanging fruit.
With all the strengths that both traditional TV and online video can bring to the ad ecosystem, they will slowly grow towards each other to form the kind of holistic, integrated viewing experience that consumers and advertisers want. When that happens the industry has to be ready to support the best of those two worlds – and the TV experience of the future.
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At Interact 2016, IAB Europe announced the winners of its 2016 Research Awards. Millward Brown received the "Highly Commended" accolades in the Digital Advertising Formats category with their research project: AdReaction: Video Creative in a Digital World.
AdReaction: Video Creative in a Digital World addresses key questions facing marketers, including:
• How are videos viewed by screen – and for how long?
• What do people think of video ads by screen?
• How can I create ads that consumers won’t skip?
Click below to download the document.
