Held in Milan on 23-24 May, IAB Europe’s Annual 2-day conference Interact 2018 will feature contributions from all stakeholders with a say in the future of the digital ecosystem, from advertisers to publishers, to ad tech businesses, politicians and regulators. Together they’ll examine the forces disrupting digital, how businesses can adapt to thrive, and how we can reinvent the digital ecosystem to provide a firm foundation for business growth in the future.
Ahead of her Keynote speech at Interact 2018, Anita Caras, Director, Sales Insights EMEA, Oath answered a few questions from IAB Europe. Read more:
IAB Europe: Why has Oath conducted a research study around Brand Love?
Anita Caras: When Oath launched last year it was accompanied by the mission statement that we at Oath build brands people love. This is a pretty bold statement - but what does it actually mean? We viscerally know that love is important but the data also stacks up. We used Kantars Brand Z database, arguably the most robust and reliable sources of brand health as it covers 100,000 brands, 400 categories across 50 markets, to isolate brand performance according to consumers affinity or love of a brand. We saw that the most highly loved brands in their database, have grown almost 3 times in value (+191%) over the 12 year period they have been tracking compared to a 32% growth for low love brands. This got us thinking - love is what takes a brand from good to great, from awareness to affinity, and from buyers to followers but how do you harness this knowledge to dig deep and comprehensively explore the drivers behind brand love? We embarked on this project to answer exactly that
IAB Europe: You are rolling out your first Brand Love Index, which reveals the key factors that drive consumers to love brands. What are the key insights that global digital brands should take note of, and does that change depending on the sector?
Anita Caras: We comprehensively explored the drivers of brand love, incorporating the views of 150,000 consumers across 13 countries which revealed that there are essentially 6 drivers of brand love. These are:
Although the 6 drivers are constant, the proportions of brand love each driver equates to does vary by demography, geography and industry. It is essential that you understand these nuances so you can align your brand focal points with consumer expectations. While the brands that are in the best shape perform well on all six measures, it’s clear, for example, that in Italy investment in innovation and exceeding consumers expectations pays disproportionately high dividends; equating to 58% of the brand love score. If a brand outperforms and over delivers, using innovation to improve the consumer experience, it can be loved for making life easier and perhaps a little more fun.
The same variances are true at an industry level. What makes travel unique is the importance of respecting people. It is over twice as important here than in other industries. This means that a brand with a strong persona will take a backseat to a travel brand that delivers on personal, consumer-first relationships – this explains why Italian cruise companies rate so highly as cruising orientates around the impeccable service it provides – MSC Cruises ranked the highest in Italy amongst the travel brands we measured.
IAB Europe: The debate continues that you cannot brand online – do you agree?
Anita Caras: The short answer is no, this research reinforces many other studies, in emphasising that brands need to reflect and enhance consumers lives wherever they are spending their time. In Italy, according to ZenithOptimedia, a quarter of all time spent with media is spent online and hence utilising online capabilities should be an integral part of a brands communication strategy for both brand building and direct response activities, ensuring we are evaluating the concepts in the right way to prove/learn from these approaches.
IAB Europe: What is your prediction for the next big thing for the digital advertising industry?
Anita Caras: Inclusion and diversity is in the spotlight, but I believe this light will shine brighter, in short, we should be leading the way for other sectors to follow. It has been a highly debated topic at many industry events this year but the talk needs to turn to action, becoming part of the DNA of every media organisation. Why? Because quite simply we have a commitment to reflect the people we are here to represent. Clients are also demanding it; they are starting to question how marketing and communications can resonate with the consumer if the people working on them are not reflective or representative of the people they are trying to reach. We saw through our Brand Love work that consumers are demanding it too.
We observed that consumers expect media brands to take the highest social stance - 13% higher than all other sectors, wanting us, as an industry, to openly show what true equality and diversity means. It is worth noting that when we talk about diversity we need to look at not only gender, but at class, race, sexual orientation, (dis)ability, neurodiversity, age - to truly make us self aware and as inclusive as possible as an industry
IAB Europe: Can you tell us more about the Oath’s initiatives for inclusion and gender equality?
Anita Caras: Commitment to inclusion is one of our eight core company values. We are still on a journey in our diversity and inclusion ambitions, but we have programmes and brands both internally and externally to drive this value as a company. Externally we have consumer brands such as Makers, Built By Girls and HuffPost (the only major news organisation whose editor-in-chief has always been female) that inspire and provide positive role models. Whilst internally we have launched voluntary Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) that compliment our leadership and HR initiatives offering a voice and support at all levels of the organisation. These groups cover neurodiversity, race, sexual orientation, gender, parenting and veterans.
The goal is to provide an environment where each and every one of Oath’s employees feels comfortable being themselves at work, feeling empowered to bring the richness and nuance of their unique experience to everything they do. This encourages us to foster more diverse perspectives both internally and externally.
We at Oath believe that inclusion leads to better communication, more fluid collaboration and stronger relationships–all of which translate into business success.
IAB Europe: We’ve started 2018 with most companies in the industry committing to change in their companies with regards to inclusion and diversity. What is your hope for the agency landscape by this time next year?
Anita Caras: That gender no longer needs to be on the agenda! Obviously diversity and inclusion by definition is far greater than gender as reflected in our various initiatives I have already spoken about, but I am a pragmatic person and believe we need to start somewhere, taking this step by step.
IAB Europe: What are the trends for native advertising for 2018?
Anita Caras: Native advertising continues to grow globally, including in Italy, because it is inherently mobile. Over 80% of the Italian population own a mobile phone (eMarketer, Jan 2018) so finding creative and engaging ways to reach them is obviously very important. Apps and mobile web native formats continue to get better and find new ways to engage users, including integrating new technologies into the formats like Augmented Reality, as Oath has done through its Yahoo Gemini platform. I think we’ll see that trend grow, with more advertisers happy to find new, fun ways to build their creative campaigns. As with your previous question, we see advertisers use native formats successfully for both brand building and direct response campaigns - some with a combination of both. The top priority remains for consumers to see the benefit to them in engaging with the ad, whether it be through its creativity, user experience or a promotional value, in the context of the content they are consuming around it.
Join us at INTERACT 2018 in Milan on 23-24 May 2018!
Held in Milan on 23-24 May, IAB Europe’s Annual 2-day conference Interact 2018 will feature contributions from all stakeholders with a say in the future of the digital ecosystem, from advertisers to publishers, to ad tech businesses, politicians and regulators. Together they’ll examine the forces disrupting digital, how businesses can adapt to thrive, and how we can reinvent the digital ecosystem to provide a firm foundation for business growth in the future.
Ahead of his keynote speech at Interact 2018, Randall Rothenberg, CEO, Interactive Advertising Bureau answered questions from IAB Europe Read more:
IAB Europe: You released results from the study “The Rise of the 21st century brand economy” at the IAB’s Annual Leadership Meeting at the beginning of this year. Now that people have had a chance to review this, what has been the response, from brands, IAB members and industry to the findings?
Randall Rothenberg: We had the sense that this was groundbreaking research, but I’ve now had the experience of presenting the study to a dozen or so of the world’s largest consumer brands and, to a woman and to a man, the executives all nod their heads and say it definitely reflects the new competitive dynamics in their industry – whatever their industry happens to be. The “direct brands” themselves – the upstarts that are successfully exploiting open-source supply chains and direct consumer connectivity to sell their goods and services – are excited by it. For most publishers, though, it is new news that the way brands are born, grow, and die is evolving.
IAB Europe: You’ve taken fire at the industry jargon of the terms “sell-side” and “buy-side” – and challenged brands to acknowledge the importance of first-party data to their relationship with their own consumers. You even made the stand, that without trust in the brand, there’s no data and no data means no company. Have you found that brands are taking more control of their data as a result?
Randall Rothenberg: Many of the “direct brands” optimize their messages, their strategies, even their product mixes at a rate that would make a brand manager from 1990’s head spin. This agility is, of course, fueled by first party data. Are all brands utilizing this data? Of course not. But many of the best big brands are – or, at least, they recognize they must. When done correctly, this data can build long-term relationships and trust between brands and consumers. It also builds loyalty, repeat customers, and dedicated brand advocates. Every company has at least one “data” deck. We, at IAB, are teaching and training brands and publishers how to be more responsibly data-centric and compete in this new economic frontier.
IAB Europe: On a simplistic level if IAB is extolling the virtues of brands taking charge of interacting directly with consumers (and disengaging from the capital-intensive supply chain) – what role do publishers, ad-tech companies and the whole digital eco-system have to play in this new “vertical commerce” world?
Randall Rothenberg: While we see a general blurring of lines that were established in the last century, with publishers transacting commerce on their platforms and brands publishing proprietary content, brands will rely upon their first-party data to increase their understanding of their customer. This view is innately limited, though. And that’s where publishers, agencies, researchers and creatives all can help these brands by delivering dimension to the picture. This customer is a person who exists beyond his or her relationship with the brand, and publishers can deliver the total customer, with depth, breadth and context.
Equally important, the new class of “direct brands” are very focused on story-telling, for great stories, well told, centered around their passions and missions are differentiating. And publishers are the world’s experts on story-telling. Their stories, crafted by wonderful writers, photographers, illustrators, investigators, and editors, will continue to introduce brands and their promise to consumers, and provide pathways for consumers to discover brands. The publishing marketplace, while changing, will not go away because of direct relationships, but it will change.
IAB Europe: Marc Pritchard, Chief Brand Officer at Procter & Gamble opened the IAB’s Annual Leadership Meeting last year and called out the greater need for transparency of digital advertising platforms (something the IAB has been championing globally). This year, Pritchard is reported as saying this movement is 80% complete. Has it disappointed or encouraged you that it has taken the likes of advertising leaders (including Keith Weed at Unilever) to get the digital industry to take these issues seriously?
Randall Rothenberg: I don’t think it was the digital publishing or technology industry that was the real audience for those presentations; it was other brand leaders. Because brands had a long history of kicking the mechanics of their advertising creation, procurement, pricing, placement, and optimization to their ad agencies, they remained technologically inadept for a very long time, and unable to work the details of the digital revolution themselves. Having executives of the stature of Pritchard and Weed put visible stakes in the ground around sets of best practices provided permission for other brands to follow suit. And with the brands providing consistent roadmaps, both publishers and tech companies now have clearer paths to follow – paths, by the way, that were carved and illuminated by IAB.
IAB Europe: What is your message to IAB members and indeed the digital advertising community in this new advertising world?
Randall Rothenberg: First, it’s not so new anymore. It’s 25 years since the introduction of the Mosaic browser kicked off the Internet era, so companies ought to be accustomed to the elements of this disruption by now. And the fundamentals are incredibly exciting. Suddenly our economy is not constrained by capital, by proximity, by supply chain accessibility. Brilliant ideas can flourish today in a way that was never ever possible. Risk taking isn’t as risky. Scale can come in stages. Success at a level that took hundreds of people years of work and millions of dollars is available without any of those hurdles. Whether at a publisher, a brand or an agency, if you have an idea, chase it. This is the time. The opportunity has never been better.
IAB Europe: What keeps you awake at night?
Randall Rothenberg: Usually this question refers to worries, concerns, fears. But right now, when I look at my phone and see it’s beyond midnight, it’s because my mind has been racing with the possibilities. Creative kids are making music and movies, and becoming superstars without the intervention of giant cultural gatekeepers. A generation of women CEOs are creating new brands of clothing, shoes, toothpastes, educational tools, health care products, and more with a couple of searches and clicks. I talk to a lot of people, and the feeling I get from almost all of them is optimism and hope. For all the discussion and noise about Fake News and the lack of diversified voices on some platforms, I see the internet delivering empathy and understanding across lines (geographic/economic/religious) like never before. This is such an exciting time to be alive and to be a part of this incredible revolution. There is so much good to be done, so many changes in the way brands and consumers interact, so many things that we haven’t even thought of yet. It’s not worry or fear that has me up at night, it’s view to the horizon that seems to go on forever.
Join us at INTERACT 2018 in Milan on 23-24 May 2018!
Available for 30-Day Public Comment, New Specs Will Enable Seamless Communication Among Publishers, Buyers, and Vendors on Approved Interactions and GDPR Settings & Provide Mobile In-App Support
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM & NEW YORK, NY (May 2, 2018) – On the heels of releasing the final technical specifications for the Transparency and Consent Framework last week to address user choice and other aspects of compliance with the notice, transparency, and choice requirements set forth in the GDPR (European General Data Protection Regulation), IAB Tech Lab and IAB Europe are introducing an additional supporting tech spec—pubvendors.json (a publisher’s list of vendors)—and the much awaited mobile in-app support for the Framework is also being released for public comment. Both tech specs build upon initial adoption of the Framework, with over 120 vendors registered on the Global Vendor List.
The pubvendors.json tech spec is intended to:
Mobile in-app enables app developers to access and honor the Framework’s consent and legitimate interest mechanisms as a supporting standard to assist with GDPR compliance. CMP API endpoints and app developer local storage are specified, which enables the mechanism of collecting and propagating consent, so third-party vendors can operate in respect of users’ and publishers’ choices. App developers continue to have flexibility in defining user experience for exposing purposes and controls, as per the Framework.
“The feedback from publishers since we launched the public consultation on the first version of the specs for the Transparency and Consent Framework included a couple of strong messages,” noted Townsend Feehan, CEO, IAB Europe. “First, publishers wanted even more control with respect to data processing purposes, notably to be able to authorise different partners to leverage different purposes. Second, they wanted more control over which legal bases their partners could adduce. The pubvendors.json solution is a rapid response to accommodate these requirements.”
“These additional tech specs are a direct reflection of our commitment to the flexibility and adaptability of the Transparency and Consent Framework, to ensure that it meets the needs of publishers and other parties in the supply chain,” said Dennis Buchheim, Senior Vice President and General Manager, IAB Tech Lab. “The continued dominance of apps in mobile environments made supporting tech specs on that front particularly vital, and we’re pleased that our working group moved quickly to close that gap.”
After public comment concludes on June 1, 2018, IAB Tech Lab and IAB Europe participants will evaluate and incorporate feedback received and release a final version of each of these specifications. Companies with urgent transparency goals are invited to adopt the pubvendors.json technology as a beta implementation, even before the specifications are finalized.
To review the proposed pubvendors.json technology specification and the mobile in-app specification, please visit here.Technical feedback can be sent to transparencyframework@iabtechlab.com and general feedback can be sent to feedback@advertisingconsent.eu.
About IAB Technology Laboratory
The IAB Technology Laboratory (“Tech Lab”) is a non-profit research and development consortium that produces and provides standards, software, and services to drive growth of an effective and sustainable global digital media ecosystem. Comprised of digital publishers and ad technology firms, as well as marketers, agencies, and other companies with interests in the interactive marketing arena, IAB Tech Lab aims to enable brand and media growth via a transparent, safe, effective supply chain, simpler and more consistent measurement, and better advertising experiences for consumers, with a focus on mobile and “TV”/digital video channel enablement. The IAB Tech Lab portfolio includes the DigiTrust real-time standardized identity service designed to improve the digital experience for consumers, publishers, advertisers, and third-party platforms. Board members include AppNexus, ExtremeReach, Google, GroupM, Hearst Digital Media, Integral Ad Science, Index Exchange, LinkedIn, MediaMath, Microsoft, Oracle’s Moat, Pandora, PubMatic, Quantcast, Telaria, The Trade Desk, and Yahoo! Japan. Established in 2014, the IAB Tech Lab is headquartered in New York City with an office in San Francisco and representation in Seattle and London.
About IAB Europe
IAB Europe is the leading European-level industry association for the digital advertising ecosystem. Its mission is to promote the development of this innovative sector and ensure its sustainability by shaping the regulatory environment, demonstrating the value digital advertising brings to Europe’s economy, to consumers and to the market, and developing and facilitating the uptake of harmonised business practices that take account of changing user expectations and enable digital brand advertising to scale in Europe.
Laura Goldberg - Phone: +1.347.683.1859 - Email: laura.goldberg@iab.com
Matthias Matthiesen - Phone: +32.4.96709294 - Email: matthiesen@iabeurope.eu
Townsend Feehan - Phone: +32.4.78.27.50.74 - Email: feehan@iabeurope.eu
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Brussels & New York City, April 25, 2018 — IAB Europe and IAB Technology Laboratory today released the market-ready technical specifications for the Transparency & Consent Framework (“Framework”) following a 30-day public consultation in March and April 2018.
The official release version of the standard reflects extensive feedback from publishers, agencies, and ad tech companies collected during the consultation period. As with all standards, it is expected that this standard will be iterated with new features and attributes in the future.
The Framework allows users to have full authority over their data.
The Framework is a cross-industry standard that supports online services and their partners in their efforts to provide transparency and choice mechanisms for their users. In accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), users can now be made aware of not only online services’ use of their users’ personal data, but also use of that data by third parties that assist online services in showing advertisements to their users and measure the effectiveness of those advertisements. The Framework is particularly relevant for “first parties” (publishers) and other suppliers of online services, who partner with “third parties” (vendors) to enable those third parties to process user data on one of the legal bases laid down by the Regulation (including both legitimate interests and consent, where applicable).
The GDPR will be enforced as from 25 May 2018. Fines for non-compliance with the new regulation could run as high as 4% of companies’ annual global turnover.
IAB Europe and IAB Tech Lab call for immediate and cross-industry support for, involvement in, and adoption of the Framework.
CEO IAB Europe, Townsend Feehan said: “GDPR will mean European users get more information about, and control over, who is processing their data. This should give them increased confidence online – that is the challenge and opportunity that the complex new EU law presents. The Transparency & Consent Framework will sit at the intersection of users, publishers, and the third-party partners (vendors) that support the publishers in monetising their content, giving both users and publishers more control and transparency in the new environment.”
How does the Framework operate?
The technology is based on a JavaScript API and enables the surfacing of the selected third parties’ information, the storage of a user’s choices related to those third parties and the passing of information about approved third parties, so that parties in the online advertising ecosystem understand which parties have been approved by publishers and surfaced to and approved (or consented to, where necessary) by their users. A key piece of the Framework is a unique registry known as the Global Vendor List, which is a list of registered and approved third parties that a publisher may, in connection with the processing of personal data on its digital properties, choose to allow to access information on its users’ devices or process its users’ data for specified purposes. The Framework also facilitates management of signals by Consent Management Providers (CMP) across participating organisations that meet specific and required criteria.
Robert Whelan, Chief Operating Officer at Emerse, a registered vendor said: “Emerse DSP is now enrolled in the Transparency & Consent Framework, an excellent initiative for the digital advertising industry.”
Publishers can take advantage of the Framework in the following ways:
Major European Publishers including Axel Springer and Schibsted Media Group recently endorsed the Framework:
“We believe a standardized industry framework is necessary to not only meet transparency and user choice requirements, but also to maintain a high-quality user experience for our audiences,” said Moritz Holzgraefe, Chief Operating Officer Corporate Digital Platforms at Axel Springer. “Closed or fragmented solutions don’t enable publishers to choose which technology providers they work with and don’t allow advertisers to operate effectively, which is critical to our business and to our users.”
“It is important to us to have a solution that can evolve as other publishers, advertisers, and technology providers work with regulators and end users to iterate over time,” said Ingvild Naess, Group Privacy Officer, Schibsted. “IAB Europe’s Transparency and Consent Framework is designed to be fine-tuned as best practices become clearer in the coming months and years.”
“The Framework we’ve developed establishes a way to communicate user choices about the processing of their data for advertising and other purposes,” said Alice Lincoln, VP – Data Policy & Governance, MediaMath, who chaired the initial IAB Europe Working Group on Consent that led to the creation of the Framework. “In addition, the Framework provides technical measures for publishers that help ensure their audience data is secure. We believe these two accomplishments will help the ecosystem adopt a consumer-first mindset in which data processing practices are in alignment with users’ rightful expectations of both privacy and better advertising experiences.”
The updated technical specifications for the GDPR Transparency and Consent Framework can be found HERE.
The specifications include:
An additional draft specification being made available for public comment within the coming week in conjunction with the release includes:
This additional draft specification will provide more robust support for vendors operating on different legal bases, secondary audit trails, and more granular controls for publishers over approved purposes for each of their approved vendors.
“When GDPR is enforced across Europe, publishers and vendors need not only a solution for today, but one that can evolve based on guidance from the regulatory community, internet users and companies relying on the framework for a standardised, supporting standard,” said Dennis Buchheim, Senior Vice President and General Manager, IAB Tech Lab. “The team at the IAB Tech Lab has taken on technical governance of the Framework to ensure that it meets policy needs, works with other relevant standards (such as OpenRTB), and is flexible enough to continue to evolve and to support future data-privacy-related needs.”
With the GDPR enforcement date fast approaching, publishers and their advertising partners are strongly encouraged to implement the Framework immediately. For publishers that wish to enlist a third-party CMP, a regularly-updated list of fully operational CMPs is available HERE.
In addition:
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About IAB Europe
IAB Europe is the leading European-level industry association for the digital advertising ecosystem. Its mission is to promote the development of this innovative sector and ensure its sustainability by shaping the regulatory environment, demonstrating the value digital advertising brings to Europe’s economy, to consumers and to the market, and developing and facilitating the uptake of harmonised business practices that take account of changing user expectations and enable digital brand advertising to scale in Europe.
About IAB Technology Laboratory
The IAB Technology Laboratory (“Tech Lab”) is a non-profit research and development consortium that produces and provides standards, software, and services to drive growth of an effective and sustainable global digital media ecosystem. Comprised of digital publishers and ad technology firms, as well as marketers, agencies, and other companies with interests in the interactive marketing arena, IAB Tech Lab aims to enable brand and media growth via a transparent, safe, effective supply chain, simpler and more consistent measurement, and better advertising experiences for consumers, with a focus on mobile and “TV”/digital video channel enablement. The IAB Tech Lab portfolio includes the DigiTrust real-time standardized identity service designed to improve the digital experience for consumers, publishers, advertisers, and third-party platforms. Board members include AppNexus, ExtremeReach, Google, GroupM, Hearst Digital Media, Integral Ad Science, Index Exchange, LinkedIn, MediaMath, Microsoft, Moat, Pandora, PubMatic, Quantcast, Telaria, The Trade Desk, and Yahoo! Japan. Established in 2014, the IAB Tech Lab is headquartered in New York City with an office in San Francisco and representation in Seattle and London
IAB Europe Media Contact
Matthias Matthiesen
+32 4 96709294
IAB Tech Lab Media Contact
Laura Goldberg
+1.347.683.1859
We are very pleased to announce the release of the technical specifications for IAB Europe’s Transparency & Consent Framework. This exciting cross-industry initiative will be a critical tool in helping publishers, technology vendors, agencies and advertisers meet the transparency and user choice requirements of the EU’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which comes into effect on 25th May 2018.
The Framework will ensure that online services give consumers full visibility and control over who is allowed to process their data in connection with advertising, and for what purposes.
The official release version of this open-source standard reflects extensive feedback from publishers, advertisers, and other important stakeholders who all participated in the final working group review of the following technical specifications
To support the technical specifications, there is a series of implementation guides for publishers, buyers (DSPs and agencies), CMPs and DMPs:
The technical specifications of the Framework will be maintained by an IAB Tech Lab working group. We will be working continuously with them to update the technical specifications to accommodate any changes in policy as well as feedback from the market. We look forward to hearing from you at advertisingconsent.eu.
This release swiftly follows our recent announcement that the registration process is now open for both Vendors and Consent Management Providers (CMPs) to apply for approved status in the context of IAB Europe’s Transparency & Consent Framework. Since the announcement, we are seeing an increasing number of Vendors and CMPs registering and gaining approval. For more information about the Framework, including a link to the registration portal for vendors wishing to participate, visit advertisingconsent.eu.
On Friday 20th April, we had a very successful Webinar with a panel of CMPs demonstrating their consent solution to over 300 participants. You can watch a recording of it here. We will repeat this webinar on Friday 27 April at 8am PDT / 11am EDT / 4pm BST/ 5pm CEST. If you are interested please check advertisingconsent.eu for details or register here.
Held in Milan on 23-24 May, IAB Europe’s Annual 2-day conference Interact 2018 will feature contributions from all stakeholders with a say in the future of the digital ecosystem, from advertisers to publishers, to ad tech businesses, politicians and regulators. Together they’ll examine the forces disrupting digital, how businesses can adapt to thrive, and how we can reinvent the digital ecosystem to provide a firm foundation for business growth in the future.
Ahead of her keynote speech at Interact 2018, we had a nice chat with Amelia Torode, Futurologist & Founder of The Fawnbrake Collective. Read more:
Amelia Torode is one of the UK’s best known strategic planners. Campaign magazine describe her as a “trailblazer in the advertising industry, a brilliant strategic thinker and leader.” She was one of the first WPP Marketing Fellows in 1997 and subsequently worked at agencies such as Naked Communications, OgilvyInteractive New York, VCCP and at TBWALondon as their Chief Strategy Officer. Amelia recently launched The Fawnbrake Collective, designed to be a new operating system for Brand Strategy & Experience Design using independent and freelance talent who have chosen to opt out of large agency structures. Amelia is a TEDx Talk-er on Brands On The Brain, a Part Time Power List winner, “Planner of The Year”.
IAB Europe: You talk about optimising talent and creativity – how does The Fawnbrake Collective achieve this?
Amelia Torode: The Fawnbrake Collective is our attempt to redesign the agency model to become faster, flatter, more flexible and better suited to the needs of 21st century brands and clients. Our industry is at a pivotal moment. We’ve been battered by waves of technological and cultural change and quite frankly the big old agencies just aren’t fit for purpose, they’re slow 20th century oil tankers when the world needs collectives of agile flotillas.
Last year Sera and I met at an IPA Excellence Diploma judging day. My mother had just passed away from cancer, Sera was on the point of relocating her family down from Scotland and exiting Material, the agency that she founded. We had both reached the point where we wanted something different. We had both looked at the agency landscape and both realised that nothing set our pulses racing with excitement. We’d have these conversations which went along the lines of - if you were going to start something today that delivered true strategic counsel and creative solutions to clients, what would it look like? It was so obvious that the one thing that it would not look like would be a traditional advertising or media agency.
We started off thinking hard about talent. We firmly believe that the best talent today want to work with others, not for others. We see smart talent leaving agencies to try and find a different way. We saw smart people leaving London because the costs of living couldn’t be met by the entry-level wages of agencies. These were great people who wanted out of the industry but wanted to stay in the game and the current shape of agencies couldn’t accommodate them.
So if the starting point is that it’s all about talent, how can you create a flexible structure that allows for clients to get best in class thinking and ideas, with project and value based pricing free from traditional overheads or time based deliverables and create a community of independent and freelance talent.
This is how we describe ourselves: “Fawnbrake is a loose, horizontal Collective of like-minded people who have chosen to opt out of large corporate structures but who still want to feel like part of a crew, part of something. Fawnbrake is populated by grown-ups (regardless of age) in so much as we are all self-sufficient. We are not children, we’re not waiting for leads. We’re happy hunting alone (and good at it) but know that often it's more enjoyable in a pack. Fawnbrake is a virtual and physical group where we can help each other, learn from each other, engage with each other and become smarter in the process ourselves. We operate on a principle of Karma Not Kickbacks.”
IAB Europe: How have brands/advertisers reacted to the operating model of The Fawnbrake Collective?
Amelia Torode: The reaction has been hugely positive. The new landscape is going to be populated by new organisations of all shapes and sizes and operating models, everybody knows that. Fawnbrake isn’t anti-agency, in fact one of our projects was helping a client find a global advertising network to work with to deliver their first global advertising campaign in 20 markets. We are however anti-bad agencies, anti-lazy agencies and anti-bloated agencies. We think that in 3 years’ time, half the traditional media and creative agencies in London will have had to close. Supply and demand are out of sync.
No client has ever asked to see our HQ, or an org chart of layers of personnel. As Marc Pritchard put it: “It’s time to disrupt archaic ‘Mad Men’ model, eliminating silos between creatives, clients & consumers, and stripping away anything that doesn’t add to creative output - excess management, buildings & overhead”.
Even Sir Martin at AdWeek 2018 called for new companies that are "more responsive, less bureaucratic... more agile, less layered... more principled." That’s Fawnbrake in a nutshell.
IAB Europe: Part of your new way of working includes no internal email – what is your preferred replacement internal comms channel?
Amelia Torode: Email works just fine for one way communications - like a newsletter, an announcement or for an initial contact like an inbound approach or an outbound proposal. Where is doesn’t work well is for internal communications or project-based work. We were finding that in our old jobs we were constantly firefighting emails, jumping up and responding to emails and that got in the way of actually doing the work.
For all internal communications we use the messaging app, Slack - it helps us to it helps us mobilize communication, fuel discussion and bring in 20 or 30 voices at a time on a project in a structured, productive way - in a way that email never could, it also works for small project groups. With clients we often find that customised WhatsApp groups actually work better than email.
IAB Europe: Last year you wrote that you “shouldn’t need to bleed to succeed”. Do you think - with the revelations, movements and call to action to change the industry over the past year - that the impetus towards (or actual) work/life balance of traditional agency/networks, has in fact changed?
Amelia Torode: The issues are that the traditional agencies are just 20th-century structures that are failing to adapt fast enough. That structural deficiency means that profits are down, margins are lower and there’s a frenzied need for continual pitching and new business. That makes for a working environment that we don’t think works for anyone.
We need to redesign this industry’s work structures and organisations to better suit the needs of creative workers or we will find that they will simply vote with their feet and walk away.
Our assets are our people, we all know that, but too often our industry uses people like cannon fodder and burns out those with families or who have commitments outside the office. We’re facing a talent dearth of our own making. All too often, it seems that to succeed in our industry you still have to bleed for your agency. If you’re not prepared to do that, then someone else coming up the ranks will. Goldman Sachs-style hours become an (unpaid) expectation rather than a personal choice. Bedtimes (ours or those of our children) are missed, gym sessions are skipped and dinner dates canceled. So we comfort ourselves in the belief that our ideas are making "dents in the universe" and that they are well worth the sacrifice, there has to be another way.
IAB Europe: What keeps you awake at night?
Amelia Torode: Making sure that the commercial, and the "social" elements, of our business work together in a way that works best for all Fawnbrakers.
IAB Europe: What should businesses leaders in the global digital advertising industry be addressing, for people, working in their companies?
Amelia Torode: People often say in our industry that it’s all about “the work, the work, the work” which is right but never forget that it’s people who do the work. How do you think your people work best? How can you ensure that young people don’t leave disillusioned, and older people leave burnt out? It should be about “people, people, people”. Happy people are fulfilled people and more productive people. Business leaders have a moral duty of care for the people who work for them, we have to get rid of short-term thinking.
Join us at INTERACT 2018 in Milan on 23-24 May 2018!
Speakers from trailblazing companies in the field of blockchain as well as adopters of these solutions took part in a session designed to better familiarise you with the inner workings of this intricate technology and its current and future impact on digital advertising.
Watch the recording here.
Moderator:
Tim Geenen, CEO & founder, Faktor
Tim Geenen is the CEO & founder of Faktor, a decentralized Identity Management platform for publishers, brands and consumers. Previously he held leadership roles at Bannerconnect (GroupM) and Improve Digital, responsible for strategy, innovation and partnerships. He also co-founded, and was the chairman of, the first programmatic IAB taskforce in Europe. Currently he serves as board member for IAB Netherlands. Tim knows the digital media and technology business inside out, and is just as comfortable in the commercial, operational and technical aspects of the industry.
Outside of his high-level roles, Tim is an avid supporter of innovation and education. He loves to help and inspire others and speaks regularly at events and gatherings throughout Europe. He also committed to mentoring talent at Startupbootcamp, an accelerator program for global startups.
Speakers:
Alanna Gombert, Global Chief Revenue Officer, MetaX
As MetaX Global CRO, industry veteran Alanna Gombert oversees MetaX product creation, strategy, and go to market including the adChain and adToken dApps. Prior to MetaX, Alanna served as SVP, Technology & Ad Operations, IAB, and General Manager, IAB Tech Lab. There she was integral in the development of the industry response to ad blocking with LEAN, OpenRTB 3.0, and played a significant role in the creation of ads.txt, which provides power to publishers to publicly declare legitimate inventory sellers. She also broadened the Tech Lab’s global reach with rapid growth in Japan, China, and Europe. Before the IAB Tech Lab, Alanna was General Manager, Digital Supply Investment, at Accuen/Omnicom Media Group. Previously she was Head of Digital Sales and Strategy at Condé Nast and founder of CatalystDesk, Condé Nast’s digital media trading platform. Gombert joined Condé Nast in March 2013 from Google by way of Admeld, where she ran the trading desk, agency, and demand - side platform relationships and helped grow RTB from an idea into an industry mainstay. Her early career included stints with Right Media (acquired by Yahoo in 2007), Nielsen, DoubleClick, and in the finance world with JP Morgan Chase and Commerzbank.
James Prudhomme, Head of International, Index Exchange
With more than 15 years of leadership experience in the digital media industry, James is applying his expertise towards the growth and expansion of Index Exchange’s offices and operations across Europe and new global markets.
Prior to joining Index, he was the CEO of Datacratic, a machine-learning and AI software start up. James has previously served as a consultant to large media companies including Yellow Pages Group, Rogers Digital Media and The Globe and Mail, where he worked with senior executives to establish competitive strategies leveraging the opportunities emerging from a shift to real-time, data-driven advertising. James is a successful angel investor and serves as an advisor to several leading digital media and e-commerce start ups.
Adam Hopkinson, Co-Founder and COO, TRUTH
Adam has spent 22 years in digital media, starting off building websites in 1996, through to now serving as Chief Operating Officer for Truth.
The years in between were spent at Capital Radio group, creating radio advertising solutions for brands. Adam also served at Target Media Group for 13 years before moving to build the commercial team for IGN Entertainment where he stayed with the business through its acquisition by Ziff Davis. Adam left Ziff in Q2 2016 to run AnyClip, an international video advertising business bringing contextual relevance to video advertising.
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IAB Europe welcomes the Manifesto for Online Data Transparency released by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) today.
We fully endorse the view that a sustainable digital advertising ecosystem requires the engagement and commitment of all stakeholders to practices that are seen to put consumers’ needs first, providing transparency, control and accountability. The ability for users to decide for themselves how they access online content and services – and, in turn, the continued availability of the content and services – depend on their being empowered to make informed choices in confidence.
IAB Europe’s Transparency & Consent Framework will be a critical tool in delivering on this promise. The Framework provides a cross-industry, open-source standard for publishers and suppliers of other online services to give consumers full visibility and control over who is allowed to process their data in connection with advertising, and for what purposes, in a way that meets the requirements of the EU’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). More information about the Framework, including a link to the registration portal for vendors wishing to participate, is available on www.advertisingconsent.eu.
We look forward to continuing to work with WFA to realise the important objectives laid out in the Manifesto.
Team Establishes Two New Divisions, Opens Offices in Sydney and Dusseldorf, Promotes Variety of Senior Leaders
TORONTO, April 11, 2018 --- Index Exchange today announced the promotion of executive team members as a result of rapid expansion and projected growth for 2018. The changes come at a time of unprecedented growth for the company as it looks to further establish its position as the leading independent global advertising exchange. Alex Gardner, former Senior Vice President, Partner Development, and long-time leader at Index, is elevated to Chief Revenue Officer. Gardner will oversee the now combined sales and services divisions and remain responsible for Index’s corporate revenue targets. Will Doherty will move from Vice President, Business Development to Senior Vice President, Global Marketplace Development to oversee strategy and execution for agency, marketer, and demand side platforms globally.
“Index has experienced incredible momentum over the past year, and our new leadership structure strategically positions our team to meet and exceed the needs of publishers,” said Andrew Casale, President & CEO of Index Exchange. “Over 200 new employees will join us globally over the course of 2018, and these promotions will allow our team to provide greater global insight and the highest level of service. Alex and Will’s combined experience and breadth of knowledge will continue to positively impact our publisher and buyer partners along with the industry at large.”
In addition to the promotions of Gardner and Doherty, Index Exchange promoted James Prudhomme from Managing Director, EMEA, to Head of International where he’ll oversee successful scaling of Index operations outside of North America, including Index’s newest offices in Sydney and Dusseldorf. In this role, Prudhomme will expand his duties beyond Europe and support country managers and regional managing directors in Europe and APAC while sourcing and building channels of business in new markets.
“I’ve had the pleasure of working with the entirety of Index’s executive team across borders over the past several years,” said Rich Caccappolo, Chief Operating Officer, MailOnline. “Index approaches programmatic advertising with a strategic and long lens, never rushing to produce a product or initiative without thoroughly vetting the idea both technically and commercially. I respect and trust the leadership team and look to them as a source of insight and ideas for MailOnline’s programmatic efforts. I’m excited to see them continue to expand into new horizons.”
Gardner, Doherty, Prudhomme along with the newly appointed sales and services leaders will oversee the success and growth of Index’s global publisher and buyer partnerships. They’ll also dedicate resources to the day-to-day education and strategic advisory for industry players looking to leverage the benefits of programmatic across a range of channels and locations.
About Index Exchange
Index Exchange is a global advertising marketplace where premium digital media companies sell their ad impressions transparently and in real-time. Built on the pillars of neutrality, openness, and the most reliable technology, Index is the ad exchange that media companies trust. With no other business interests to divide its attention, Index’s sole focus remains connecting media companies with premium demand at massive scale. Visit Index Exchange at www.indexexchange.com or @indexexchange.
The first Virtual Programmatic Day in 2018 took place on 19 April.
The Virtual Programmatic Day H1 is an online event that explored the key areas impacting programmatic trading including GDPR, auction dynamics and transparency and trust.
You can watch the recording HERE and browse the presentation HERE.
Speakers:
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Held in Milan on 23-24 May, IAB Europe’s Annual 2-day conference Interact 2018 will feature contributions from all stakeholders with a say in the future of the digital ecosystem, from advertisers to publishers, to ad tech businesses, politicians and regulators. Together they’ll examine the forces disrupting digital, how businesses can adapt to thrive, and how we can reinvent the digital ecosystem to provide a firm foundation for business growth in the future.
Ahead of his keynote speech at Interact 2018, we had a nice chat with Andrea Chiapponi, Chief Commercial Officer Large Account from Italiaonline.
IAB Europe: You have an impressive history with experience at Google and with startups – how has this helped you, as the new CCO Large Account of Italiaonline, the first Italian internet company?
Andrea Chiapponi: It helped me get the role of CCO of Italy’s first internet company, for a start. Digital is my cup of tea and being able to work for companies such as Google or Italiaonline has put me in a very privileged viewpoint of a continuously evolving industry, challenging like no other.
IAB Europe: Italiaonline has an impressive 54% market share of Italian consumers, and owns Libero, the national email account. As you are now one year into your role, what is the future for the business and the Italian media industry?
Andrea Chiapponi: We are very proud of our market share and we are always working to improve it. How do we do that: providing our Users and Customers quality contents and brand safety. Italy is catching up on the international internet scenario and we expect a further boost in the next months.
IAB Europe: Given your McKinsey experience do you take inspiration from marketing strategies in traditional advertising media sectors? If so, which ones?
Andrea Chiapponi: McKinsey is a great place to work and I do take inspiration in what I do from all the companies that I have worked for previously. The traditional advertising market is very different from the digital one: different KPIs, measurement is a key differentiator, the ads are displayed on very different media, the way we can target the audience is immensely different. I think digital marketing allows you to see and reach your target in such a precise way (and in so many different ways) making this business very challenging. It transformed working with data from boring to creative.
IAB Europe: Which brands (or business leaders) worldwide do you admire?
Andrea Chiapponi: Rather than specific people, I do admire the services (and thus their businesses) that some of the most known international brands provide such as Amazon, WeChat or Spotify. They all changed the way we did things.
IAB Europe: What keeps you awake at night?
Andrea Chiapponi: My kids, diving into our bed in the middle of the night. I think I will miss that when they’ll be in college, but I don’t quite enjoy it now.
IAB Europe: What is your prediction for the next big thing for the digital advertising industry?
Andrea Chiapponi: It’s a secret I can’t reveal and that will make me the richest man in the world. Just joking. I think the social media scenario will go through sharp turns and deep changes that will affect the whole digital market. New media are also coming into play and may turn our paradigms around. We will all need to be able to change as quickly in order to keep up with the future.
Join us at INTERACT 2018 on 23-24 May in Milan!
