At Interact 2016, IAB Europe announced the winners of its 2016 Research Awards, notably IAB UK as the winner of the Consumer Devices category with their research project: Real_Living: How devices compete for attention in the living room.
The widely media touted research project generated a series of groundbreaking findings, such as data that showed for the first time that ad breaks during TV broadcasts don't necessarily correlate with device usage, effectively dethroning the TV as the dominant living room screen.
To browse through the research, click the document below to download it.
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.
IAB Europe has issued guidance to EU-based publishers on ad blocking detection following reports that such detection without the consent of users is illegal under the ePrivacy Directive (better known as the “Cookie Directive”).
We believe that publishers should be allowed to ask for compensation for their work and choose the form of their business model, e.g. advertising funded, subscription based, or both. We also believe that publishers are entitled to take reasonable measures to ensure that their audiences understand the implicit deal that takes place when they view advertising funded content online. The deal being that users do not have to pay for access to content in exchange for seeing advertising. We are convinced that EU privacy rules should not be interpreted as meaning that publishers are required to ask for permission from users before ascertaining whether the latter are indeed holding up their end of the bargain in this value exchange.
Nevertheless, to attenuate the risk that a publisher could be liable for breaching even an exceedingly strict interpretation of the directive, our guidance describes how user consent for ad blocking detection can be obtained. The guidance is intended to support publishers as long as the legal situation remains unclear.
IAB Europe has issued guidance to EU-based publishers on ad blocking detection following reports that such detection without the consent of users is illegal under the ePrivacy Directive (better known as the “Cookie Directive”).
We believe that publishers should be allowed to ask for compensation for their work and choose the form of their business model, e.g. advertising funded, subscription based, or both. We also believe that publishers are entitled to take reasonable measures to ensure that their audiences understand the implicit deal that takes place when they view advertising funded content online. The deal being that users don’t have to pay for access to content in exchange for seeing advertising. We are convinced that EU privacy rules should not be interpreted as meaning that publishers are required to ask for permission from users before ascertaining whether the latter are indeed holding up their end of the bargain in this value exchange.
Nevertheless, to attenuate the risk that a publisher could be liable for breaching even an exceedingly strict interpretation of the directive, our guidance describes how user consent for ad blocking detection can be obtained. The guidance is intended to support publishers as long as the legal situation remains unclear. Our hope is that the forthcoming ePrivacy Directive review will lead to deletion of the relevant article in light of the recent adoption of the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679), thereby addressing the problem definitively.
Universal scope. Huge implications.
The ePrivacy Directive requires that storage or access of information on a user’s device only take place with the informed consent of the user concerned, irrespective of whether there is an impact on user privacy or not.
A strict interpretation of the law would mean that, in principle, a user’s consent is required for almost any provision of content or services over the internet. Even where information is not persistently stored on a device, but merely temporarily stored in the Random Access Memory (RAM) of a user’s device for real time processing of that information. It follows that any code, such as HTML or JavaScript, in principle, would require the user's consent before it may be legally executed.
Likewise, consent would be required when information stored on the device is accessed. This, according to some, includes information actively shared by the device itself, or even where a mere inference is made about the device.
As ad blocker detection requires both running JavaScript, and making an educated guess about (inferring) the presence of an ad blocker, some argue that this means that users must give their consent before ad blocker detection may take place.
IAB Europe questions such a strict interpretation, which would essentially regulate every single activity taking place over the Internet with huge implications for Europe’s digital economy.
Ad blocking detection should benefit from an exemption. Maybe.
The ePrivacy Directive provides for two narrow exceptions to this consent requirement:
Where one of these exemptions applies, storage and access do not require the informed consent of the user. The Article 29 Working Party, the group of all EU data protection authorities, has issued an opinion on the application of the ePrivacy Directive to device fingerprinting, and in it considers the applicability of the two exemptions to certain cases.
The group argues that ascertaining the technical capabilities of a browser, such as detecting which video formats are supported, does not require the consent of the user, considering it strictly necessary. Notably, the opinion states that “the media types supported by a browser are often the same amongst many other users utilizing the same browser version. Therefore, when processed in isolation, these non-unique information elements do not generally present a data protection risk.”
IAB Europe believes that the expansion of the notion of strict necessity to the above scenario is arbitrary but applies the law in a more practical way. The same practicality must be applied to ascertaining the technical capability of a browser to display ads, which form part of the content, to adapt the content displayed based on that knowledge. Failing to do so would mean that the regulator deliberately and arbitrarily discriminates in how the notion of strict necessity is defined to benefit users but not the services they visit -- even though inferring non-unique information such as the presence of an ad blocker would not present a data protection risk by the regulator’s own admission.
Clean up this mess. Please.
The ePrivacy Directive is under formal review at the moment. IAB Europe urges the European Commission to critically assess this provision and consider its repeal or alignment with the lawfulness of processing under general data protection law. Particularly in light of its potential universal scope and the arbitrary interpretation and enforcement it lends itself to, even where there is an objective lack of risk for user privacy.
Bonus trivia
The consent banner, which data protection authorities advise publishers to use to request and obtain consent for the use of cookies, is built on JavaScript, the running of which would require consent under the strict interpretation above. As there is no exemption for storage or access for the sole purpose of complying with legal obligations, and compliance with the law is not strictly necessary for technical delivery of a service, the same interpretation of the law would mean that a website is breaking the law by asking for consent without having already obtained consent.
IAB Europe agrees that consumers may indeed participate in a value exchange when they access online services that are free at the point of consumption and that consumer protections need to be operative in the context of such exchange. However, in IAB Europe’s view, the paradigm of data as such as a counter-performance analogous to money is inappropriate, and would likely have unintended consequences that would disserve both consumers and suppliers if pursued in the current proposal. In addition, although the proposed Directive is intended to align to the GDPR, we note that with respect to the obligation on suppliers to return data to users in case of termination of a contract (an obligation that is analogous to the data portability right in the GDPR), the proposed directive goes much further than the GDPR, laying down requirements that would be disproportionately onerous for suppliers without providing any concomitant benefit to users.
As 2016 marketing strategies kick into high gear, there’s one word on everyone’s mind: programmatic. Global programmatic ad spend is expected to reach $21.6B in 2016, and account for 67% of all digital display ad sales(1).
Programmatic advertising allows brands to reach their audiences with messages tailored to their interests and mindsets in the crucial moments when decisions are made. As such, it’s not just changing how we buy and sell media—it’s also transforming the way we strategize, design, and develop creative.
Transitioning to a data-driven creative process has real rewards. For marketers, it can improve the effectiveness of their campaigns. Media agencies can offer a greater breadth of services to clients, while creative and production agencies can produce higher-quality creative and build more efficiencies into their creative process.
Yet how do we actually make the transition? At DoubleClick, we saw a need to define best practices for developing and implementing creative strategies for programmatic campaigns. In partnership with the digital creative studio, Fancy Pants Group, and the management consulting company, Accenture, we tested several approaches with three brands: Gilt Groupe, L’Oreal Vichy, and Royal Bank of Canada.
Over the course of these tests, we identified a more effective creative process for programmatic campaigns. Today, we’re unveiling that process and the research behind it in a comprehensive guide for marketers.
We identified three key mental shifts that can help marketers make the transition to data-driven creative:
Marketers may already be using data from CRM tools or market research to fuel campaigns. But a wealth of additional data signals are also available, from first-party analytics on company websites to third-party audience data to contextual inputs about device, location, or media type.
For instance, when we worked with L’Oreal on their programmatic campaign for their Vichy sunscreen products, we used location data, audience lists, and weather information as the data signals that informed the creative and gave us a solid basis for testing.
Too often, the creative agency and production shop are brought into the process after the big decisions have already been made. Instead, marketers need to work with agencies to build creative strategies that are based on data from the beginning of the project.
When developing a programmatic campaign with Royal Bank of Canada, we worked with the brand to gather all teams into a single room to build the creative brief. Together, we mapped out a strategy that resulted in a cross-agency team that was invested in the process and outcome from the start.
In today’s campaign creation process, each party completes their portion and hands it off to the next with little feedback. This prevents communication and transparency between media and creative. To ensure success, marketers should involve all agencies throughout the campaign process and ensure everyone is talking to one another.
When we worked with Gilt.com on a programmatic campaign to drive membership, we not only involved everyone from the beginning, but also continued to work together after the initial campaign ended. By doing so, the brand was able to tap the analytical capabilities of multiple stakeholders.
For a quick glimpse of the five phases in the campaign process and the roles and responsibilities of each party across that process, check out The creative process for programmatic infographic.
Brussels, 30 May 2016: The jury of the third round of the Ad Venture Student Competition, organised by the European Institute for Commercial Communications Education (edcom) and EACA, has announced that team Aedion from King’s College London (UK) has won the Ad Venture Competition with their campaign “Your Web Vote”.
Students in advertising and commercial communications from across Europe were asked to create a campaign to raise awareness of the consequences of the use of ad blocking technology. The topic is creating much debate in the industry and has been top of mind to advertisers and publishers, to whom it causes a real threat. The brief was to make internet users aware of how ad blocking technology restricts publishers’ ability to display high quality online content.
The winning team Aedion, represented by Wayne D’Cruz, Mu You, Chi Zhang and Petya Karagyozova competed against 75 other teams from 14 countries answering a brief developed in collaboration with a consortium of European media associations covering television, press and digital.
The three finalists – Aedion (King’s College London, UK), Xense (University of Leeds, UK) and What do you mean Agency (Pantheon University, France) - were selected during two initial judging rounds and were given the opportunity to present their campaign to the final jury and the edcom members during the 9th edcom May meeting at the College of Agora in Zagreb, Croatia.
Team Aedion’s campaign “Your Web Vote” is centered around an online vote wherein users have to pick between two options: ‘free internet with advertising’ or ‘paid internet with no advertising’. The campaign presents two fictional figureheads in Jack LeftSide and Max RightSide who lead their respective campaigns.
Get the slides here.
The King’s College London students were rewarded for their hard work with travel, accommodation and a ticket to the prestigious Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity which will take place in June 2016. “The experience of participating in a competition of this scale was both challenging and rewarding. The opportunity to not only meet some of the most esteemed names from the industry but also more importantly to pitch our ideas before them and receive elaborate feedback has been immensely valuable. Furthermore, it was quite enlightening and inspiring to see how other teams approached the same brief. Our biggest takeaway is definitely the ‘can-do’ attitude that this competition empowers you with which has truly motivated us for the future!” commented winning team Aedion.
“The experience of participating in a competition of this scale was both challenging and rewarding. The opportunity to not only meet some of the most esteemed names from the industry but also more importantly to pitch our ideas before them and receive elaborate feedback has been immensely valuable. Furthermore, it was quite enlightening and inspiring to see how other teams approached the same brief. Our biggest takeaway is definitely the ‘can-do’ attitude that this competition empowers you with which has truly motivated us for the future!” commented winning team Aedion.
The final jury, chaired by Marina Vnučec (Degordian), was composed of Townsend Feehan (IAB Europe), Angela Mills Wade (EPC), Luka Dubokovic (BBDO Zagreb), Jan Binar (McCann Prague), Arnoud Versluis (NHTV University) and Nenad Bogdanovic (College of Agora). Jury chair Marina Vnučec stated that “it was a privilege to be a part of the Ad Venture competition and to be among so many creative young minds. The jury was really impressed by all three top final solutions since each one of them was outstanding in its own way. Congratulations to all the teams, especially to the winner, King's College London!”
From the client’s side, EPC Executive Director Angela Mills Wade said: “I found the experience very inspiring, to see such talented young people working together to produce very high quality work. The brief was challenging but they got behind this controversial issue of ad blocking with highly imaginative ideas and workable executions. Their commitment and professionalism is to be commended.” Townsend Feehan, CEO of IAB Europe, added that “it was particularly encouraging to see with what conviction the group embraced the brief, although they are all right in the “millennials” age group that is leading in ad blocking usage. Seeing how they would motivate their peers to think twice was enlightening and shows that young people today can see the strategic stakes involved in supporting media independence.”
Registrations for the next Ad Venture Student Competition will open in autumn 2016.
Contact:
Claudia Ortiz-Reyero
European Education and Training Manager
EACA
+32 2 740 07 16
claudia.ortiz-reyero@eaca.eu
Tamara Daltroff
Director of EU Affairs
EACA
+32 2 740 07 15
tamara.daltroff@eaca.eu
edcom, The European Institute for Commercial Communications Education was founded to promote excellence in commercial communications education and research, enhance communication and cooperation between the European commercial communication sector and academic partners, to facilitate cross-border education, employment and exchange of commercial communications students and to promote knowledge and understanding of innovative advertising and communication techniques and new use of media and other public platforms.
EACA, the European Association of Communications Agencies represents more than 2 500 communications agencies and agency associations from 30 European countries that directly employ more than 120 000 people. EACA members include advertising, media, digital, branding and PR agencies. They create and place adverts and develop brand-building campaigns. EACA promotes honest, effective advertising, high professional standards and awareness of the contribution of advertising in a free market economy and encourages close co-operation between agencies, advertisers and media in European advertising bodies. EACA works closely with EU institutions to ensure freedom to advertise responsibly and creatively.
About Ad Venture Student Competition Ad Venture is the first Pan-European competition which gives students the chance to experience what it is like to work in an advertising agency. This international competition is open to students from the edcom academic members, as well as from other non-edcom members that teach communications studies. More information can be found at www.adventure-competition.eu.
Data-driven audience buying rapidly evolved in recent years: More and more media sales houses, agencies and advertisers create an own data management ecosystem and connect it to different programmatic platforms, in order to improve efficiency and impact of their campaigns. Delivering digital ads to specific target groups and consumer types based on factual intent data, real-time algorithms or classical behavioural information is becoming a much-valued standard for programmatic campaigns on desktop or mobile devices.
But besides the advantage of a growing variety of relevant audiences, there is another big chance in the flexibility of programmatic audience buying: it allows to easily manage and adjust advertising strategies based on specific data points, insights and real-time indicators. For programmatic trading and ad ops teams, this is a natural matter of course. But literally all people involved in the whole digital marketing process – from CMOs to creative teams in agencies – should be aware of the evolving opportunities. The minds of today’s “liquid consumers” are rapidly moving between different channels and experiences, online and offline – and it is more than ever important to reach them with tailored, truly relevant messages. Therefore, defining a data-driven strategy and developing the creative concept for the campaign must go hand in hand from the beginning on. An alignment of technical capabilities and creative ideas is essential. Brands that develop integrated, tailored strategies will gain competitive advantages in comparison to those who rely on one-dimensional approaches. The following case study from Norway shows an example of a marketer rethinking its classical digital marketing concept and who experiences remarkable campaign KPI uplifts.
A brand advertiser from the finance sector had run data-driven ad campaigns successfully in the past, but a recent campaign for loans based on conventional demographic data did not provide sufficient uplifts for the relevant KPIs. Together with the agency KO&CO, ABC Startsiden AS and nugg.ad, they decided to create a more comprehensive strategy for their loan product: The goal was to reach different target groups within one umbrella campaign based on intent, preferences and interests – with individual display ad creatives for each target group. Three different audience segments were defined:
Those audiences were addressed with data-driven skyscraper ads on ABC Startsiden’s premium websites. To validate the campaign effectiveness, a brand measurement based on market research was conducted to compare users from the target groups who have been exposed to the campaign with users without campaign contact.
The results: Approaching three different target groups with tailored, relevant ads paid off well: brand awareness, affinity and purchase intent for the loan product were increased in all target groups. An increase of up to +34% in brand awareness, +37% in brand affinity and +44% in purchase intent was measured within the target groups with campaign contact – in comparison to users from the target groups who were not exposed to the campaign. Besides the gains in effectiveness, advertisers benefit from granular audience insights: e.g. the highest uplift in brand awareness and affinity was measured in the target group “bank switchers”, while the highest increase in purchase intent was achieved in the target group of users who intend to travel.
19 May 2016, London – Adform’s RTB Trend Report Europe 2015 shows slower but sustained growth in programmatic trading across Europe. The major study shows that, from January to December 2015, spending climbed 121.35% across Europe, down from 250% growth in 2014, with that the bulk of the growth occurring throughout the 2015 Christmas holiday season.
Publishers continue to reap greater rewards for offering a wider range of inventory to the real-time markets, with the average CPM up nearly 100% over the year. Mobile spend continues to be a key trend to watch, with 2015 in-app spend jumping 83.55% between July and September.
Equally significant, programmatic technology offers growing rewards for marketers, as evidenced by escalating engagement rates. In the fourth quarter of 2015, consumers spent an average of 16 seconds engaging with ads. Spending on rich media and synchronised banners demonstrate marketers’ effective use of these formats to capture the consumer’s attention.
Spending
Programmatic spending continues to reflect the overall advertising market, climbing slowly but steadily in the first quarter, followed by modest declines (17%) during the summer holidays. Once back-to-school shopping began, programmatic spending started its upward trajectory, growing 765.9% by the end of the year. From January to December 2015, overall spending increased 121.35%.
Other key highlights:
“It’s gratifying to see the sustained growth in programmatic marketing and the positive benefits for both publishers and advertisers. Our report clearly demonstrates that publishers who offer premium inventory via private marketplaces and rich media brand formats are rewarded with better yields. Furthermore, while creativity challenges within the advertising industry dominated the news agenda in 2015, it’s clear that some advertisers are really getting it right in the programmatic space, using creativity to captivate consumers, as evidenced by the 16 second engagement rate - a remarkable achievement,” said Martin Stockfleth Larson, CMO of Adform.
Publisher Success
Publishers continue to reap greater rewards for offering inventory to the real-time markets. From January to December 2015, the overall CPM average rose by 99.15%, with much of that growth (73%) occurring during the all-important back-to-school and Christmas holiday shopping seasons. Comparing Q4 14 to Q4 15, CPMs rose 92% in October, 91% in November, and 85% in December. CPMs grew across all device types from Q4 14 to Q4 15, with desktop earning the largest boost (111%), followed by smartphones (57%) and tablets (28%).
In-app inventory stands out in the report, with a greater than 83% lift in CPM from April to December, and a 200% increase from Q3 2015 to Q4 2015. Interestingly, the average CPM for in-app tablet inventory was more than 2x that of smartphone in-app. The high price in-app inventory provides an incentive for publishers to invest in creating mobile apps.
Strong Campaign Performance
Campaign performance throughout 2015 was strong across all metrics tracked: engagement rate and time, CTR and CPC. Average engagement time increased from 11.67 seconds in Q3 15 to an impressive 16 seconds in Q4 15. The average engagement rate across Europe increased from 1.05% to 1.51% in the same timeframe.
The average CTR increased 25% in 2015, and by 9.96% from Q3 15 to Q4 15. Rich media banners and private marketplace deals helped to drive the increases. Overall CPC increased by 42.9% in 2015 due to the rising cost of inventory. That said, in Q4 15, the CPC for private marketplaces declined by 12%.
Saturdays received the lowest number of requests (13%) for ads, and the highest number of clicks, representing a missed opportunity for marketers to reach consumers when they’re most inclined to engage. Mondays and Tuesdays received the most requests – 15.22% and 14.76% respectfully – yet delivered the lowest CTR.
Viewability
Across the continent, viewability reached 58.40%, up 2.03% from Q3 15, demonstrating increasing publisher progress in optimising their sites to ensure ads are in view.
Click here for a copy of the full report. Adform will be discussing the findings in this report as well as future programmatic trends at Cannes Lions this year from Wednesday, June 22 through Thursday, June. Those interested in more information can schedule a meeting with the team here.
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About Adform
Adform is the independent and open full stack ad-tech platform that encompasses creativity, data and trading, servicing media agencies, trading desks, brands and publishers globally. All of our solutions are modular, and easily inter-operate with all major technologies used throughout the digital advertising ecosystem. Adform was founded in Denmark in 2002 and is among the world’s largest private and independent advertising technology companies. We have over 700 employees globally, with offices in 18 countries throughout Europe, North America and APAC.
Visit https://www.adform.com or https://join.adform.com for more information.
To inject more play into our lives, IKEA has launched Lattjo, a new collection for playing that includes board games, musical instruments and costumes of characters inspired by nature. IKEA wanted to raise awareness of its new Lattjo collection within the Belgian market and in two di fferent languages, Dutch and French. Moreover, the furniture giant needed to increase its web and app traff ic.
To encourage people of all ages to try this collection and share a fun experience, IKEA has teamed up with Adform and Cadreon, who developed the right mobile strategy for IKEA to reach its target audience by using rich-media units for mobiles and tablets for the ultimate impact.
Get the slides here.
In December 2015, IAB Europe submitted its response to the European Commission’s public consultation on the role of online platforms. The latter was launched in the context of a plan, announced in the Commission’s Digital Single Market Strategy, to carry out a comprehensive assessment of the role of online platforms and intermediaries, which would help the Commission to define its digital regulatory objectives. In its response, IAB Europe warns against the risks associated with encompassing different types of digital players into one single legal concept, what’s more in an environment that sees constant and rapid evolution driven by digital innovation. There are platforms of all kind and and each must be considered in all its diversity.
Brussels, 23 May 2016 – IAB Europe commends the Commission on its continuing strong interest in promoting Europe’s digital economy, as evidenced by the e-Commerce Package of 3 initiatives issued today alongside a Communication on online platforms and a Proposal to revise Directive 2010/13/EU on Audiovisual Media Services. But the Association also cautions against the risk of legislative indigestion.
“The Juncker Commission is continuing to drive a broad and energetic digital regulatory agenda, much of which affects online advertising, whether directly or indirectly”, noted Allan Sørensen, Chairman of IAB Europe’s Policy Committee. “While the EU’s focus on the economic opportunities brought by digital is certainly welcome, launching so many initiatives more or less in parallel means that Member States, companies and consumers do not have time to understand the implications of one set of changes to the rules, before a new set is contemplated.”
“The ink is barely dry on the recently-agreed General Data Protection Regulation – even the data protection authorities say they will need two years to figure out what it all means – yet the Commission has already launched a review of the e-Privacy Directive and predicts a proposal will be adopted by year’s end. To add to the lack of clarity, a draft Directive on digital contracts amalgamates money and data and introduces new legal concepts that temper with the GDPR.”
“Today’s Communication on online platforms adds to the legislative swirl by placing a set of fundamentally different digital actors – including advertising players – under the aegis of a new EU-level concept of ‘online platform’. Strikingly, platforms of user-generated content are also officially called out in the Proposal on Audiovisual Media Services, which thus far only applied to actors having editorial control over content. This opens the door to additional confusion in the market.”
An optimal single European Digital Market requires clear harmonised rules and the absence of technical barriers. Whether the current regulatory blitz will deliver the culture of innovation and dynamism that EU entrepreneurs and consumers need remains to be seen.
For more information, please contact Townsend Feehan, IAB Europe CEO (feehan@iabeurope.eu) or Allan Sørensen, Policy Committee Chairman (as@danskemedier.dk).
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About IAB Europe
IAB Europe is the leading European-level industry association for the online advertising ecosystem. Its mission is to promote the development of this innovative sector by shaping the regulatory environment, investing in research and education, and developing and facilitating the uptake of business standards. Together with its members – companies and national trade associations – IAB Europe represents over 5,500 organisations. The online advertising
Industry is estimated to account for over a million jobs in Europe and contribute over EUR 100 billion to European GDP, and acts as an incubator of high-end data analytics and other digital skills that can then be deployed in the wider economy[1].
In 2006, the value of the EU market stood at €6.6 billion, versus €36.2 billion in 2015. This is an increase in spend of €30.2 billion and translates into a compound annual growth rate of 20.5%, or an average €3.0 billion per year[2]. With a year-on-year growth rate of 13.1% in 2015[3] compared to a 1.8% increase in overall Eurozone GDP[4], the digital advertising sector continues to outperform the overall EU economy.
Website: www.iabeurope.eu
Twitter: @IABEurope
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[1] Report by IHS, November 2015, "Paving the Way: how online advertising enables the digital economy of the future".
[2] IAB Europe AdEx Benchmark report - the state of online advertising in Europe. 2014.
