IAB Engage is now in its 14th year, and has seen digital media rise from challenger upstart to the dominant media form of our age. Indeed, as Claire Enders showed, the UK leads the world in digital advertising (see chart) – but now digital is at a crossroads. The dominant theme for the day was ‘Moving Forwards’ – in reality however, the digital advertising community is scrabbling for respectability.
There was a paradox in older, experienced advertising heads telling younger millennials what digital looks like. There was an uncomfortable feeling that the audience knew more than those on stage at times. Lots of fear and trepidation was being spouted: “look, none of these brands existed before 2003” “communications are exploding” “there are more millennials than baby boomers now.” The sense I felt from the audience was that they know this stuff already. With a high number of twenty and thirty-somethings watching, the born-digital generation is now responsible for most media buying in agencies, if not necessarily ensconced in the boardroom.
Keith Weed, CMO for Unilever, seemed pleased with progress made in improving digital media’s outlaw tendencies since a “collapse in trust” in 2017. Against Keith’s ‘three Vs’ of Viewability, Verification and Value, real progress had been made. Unilever, alongside others, has been instrumental in pushing for better standards and accountability. Thanks to this pressure, the IAB Gold Standard has been developed, with agencies and media vendors signing up to be registered.
However, Keith had a different axe to grind, and bemoaned the speed of agency change. Unilever have set up their own people data centres around the world because agencies did not offer it as a service, or not at a price he was willing to pay. He did not pull his punches when discussing the progress of agencies adapting to the future of advertising and advertisers needs. “Not fit for purpose” he said.
Steve Bartlett, a serial entrepreneur and CEO of Social Chain, emphasised the need to make social media more than just a compelling conversation. It needed to be personalised and transactional. It was clear the best brands had worked out how to do this in a compelling, interesting way.
Simon Gosling, futurist for Unruly, was kind enough to introduce a whole host of fantastic case studies which opened eyes and got everyone scrabbling for details, as the whole room thought: “Here’s some great examples to brighten up my next dull status meeting!” Some highlights from Simon’s talk: Trainline’s AI chatbot is so smart you can rap your requests and it understands. Google Assistant can book you a haircut and the receptionist will never know they were talking to a machine. The average ASOS app user spends 80 minutes in the app on average each month. Pinterest are receiving 16m photo searches a week now. We all had a good chuckle at the demise of Google Glass, but in China, 70,000 smart glasses issued to the police identified 7 people on the serious crimes list in week one. Alexa is developing glasses further, and Simon speculated that perhaps glasses will indeed be the next step in mobile/wearables.
What all this means for us poor ad agency folk remains to be seen. It feels like Keith Weed is correct: the future of advertising depends on our abilities to change our roles and find a way to promote brands within a whole new playing field.
A final example which maybe demonstrates the power and also the understanding of the power of digital is Google’s Family Link app. It helps parents to parent. One of the key things it suggests is to turn off the phone and computer, and simply play with your children. Wise advice, from an unexpected source.
Search is currently going through a renaissance which has implications for agencies and brands. I went to IAB’s Search 2017: 24/7 Search conference last month to find out more about the latest thinking from a range of key industry players.
We began with Sam Fenton-Elstone, Chief Digital Media Officer at VCCP Media saying, “it’s a nice sunny day and we are inside a windowless room talking about Search.” The auditorium, situated in the middle of the building, had numerous TV screens on the walls and the ceiling was cloaked in strip lighting. I almost got the feeling that Batman might soon be returning to his lair after a night fighting crime.
Sam argued that Search is no longer a channel: it is an intrinsic human behaviour. He explained that Search is prolific and, as visualised in a Wheel of Search, some brands even become access points themselves – think ASOS, Skyscanner and Argos.
Clearly this dispels the notion that Google dominates Search. Search marketers all know the figures: Google has almost 95% of the search engine market share, depending on which source, but it does not own Search completely as people now search for information through various ways such as apps, social media and video content.
Conversely, Harry Davies, Marketing Leader at Google UK, not surprisingly stated that everything starts with Search. He began by saying more people now access the internet more often with 87% of them turning to Search in their first moment of need.
Key reasons people use Search
One of his main points, which was also reiterated several times throughout the day, was that the attention span of consumers has got shorter. Indeed, at least two presentations featured goldfish to drive home this point. Whilst 18% of people expect a website to load instantly, Google recommended that the top limit should be around 2 seconds. Most retail sites have an average 3.8 seconds wait time, so there is room for improvement.
After lunch we returned to the Batcave. For the afternoon session, Aaron McGrath, Sales Director at Bing Ads, covered the main ways that Search will evolve. Through predictive search, textless and screenless search, image searching, and face recognition, Search will become more personalised, immersive, situationally relevant and interactive.
When Microsoft HoloLens browsing is brought to physical reality consumers will potentially see how products, like furniture, can fit into their home. Moreover, the uptake in voice search will mean that 50% of all Search will come through voice by 2020 (Bing).
The final presentation was delivered by Scott Abbott, Head of Product for Paid Search at iProspect, describing how user behaviour has changed. The increase in searching on mobile and through voice search is clearly changing the way people search. For example, the number of ‘near me’ queries within retail has risen by 200% YoY.
He went on to suggest that as voice search becomes more prevalent it is important to keep in mind that these types of searches are generally more ‘long tail’. Quite a few people say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ to Siri!
Overall the three main themes across the presentations were the importance of speed for a website, adopting a strategy for voice/visual search and understanding how consumer behaviour is changing. Undoubtedly, it is imperative for us to be adaptive since Search is constantly evolving and is likely to look very different in five years time.
The IAB Europe AdEx Benchmark report is always a great opportunity to halt the permanent hyperloop we all work in and take stock of exactly what our industry has gone through.We can see that growth has stayed at a consistent level of around 12% year-on-year over the past 5 years as online media matures, accounting for €42bn of all media. However, the following are four areas from this year’s report that I feel have driven real change within the market:
- Polarisation within Europe: The larger markets have matured as the tech landscape has settled and programmatic is now a cemented part of online activity within the largest markets. This compares to the emerging markets, who are seeing rapid growth as the tech giants transfer the learnings from the mature markets’ earlier development and infrastructure. This has meant exponential growth for the likes of Romania and Slovenia, as the initial entrants into areas such as programmatic have been received positively, driving further confidence.
- The Organisation of Data: The accountability of online media has always been positive, but equally it has led to further complexity in the market. Not only has measurement begun to see some degree of standardisation, helping brands understand true effectiveness over time, but it has also allowed for more dynamic, real time decisions to become a standard practice. However, this organisation of data has not just allowed for clearer measurement. Publishers and platforms have segmented their audiences with more effect – the understanding of observed behavioural insights, as well as development of robust custom audiences has meant that targeting is paying back a stronger ROI and, as a result, increasing investment.
- The Integration of Media and Content: Building on the last point, and due to the complexity of formats that online media comes with, content is playing a tighter role within all media decisions. The term “mobile first” is overused in our industry and not because people don’t appreciate the importance that the device plays in people’s lives, but because brands would all too often put their TV ad straight onto a mobile placement. The insights we are getting from our ability to analyse data more effectively has meant that the content creation and production process is now more dynamic and increasingly relevant to the device, context and environment when served.
- The Growth of e-Commerce: The advancements of e-commerce from a platform experience (as well as improvements in distribution) have meant the consumer has more and more confidence in adopting this method of shopping. This has naturally has led to a rise in more direct performance media such as search. As content experience improves and the fact that the point of desire and traction can now happen in a matter of seconds, more immersive forms of online content has begun to prove direct attribution to sales.
There are still many opportunities across the industry to improve the experience that brands provide within online media, as well as simplifying the technical infrastructure that they operate in. However, there is a lot to be positive about as we enter the 3rd wave of disruption and the mass adoption of areas such as Artificial Intelligence and the internet of things.
The IAB Europe AdEx Benchmark report is always a great opportunity to halt the permanent hyperloop we all work in and take stock of exactly what our industry has gone through.We can see that growth has stayed at a consistent level of around 12% year-on-year over the past 5 years as online media matures, accounting for €42bn of all media. However, the following are four areas from this year’s report that I feel have driven real change within the market:
- Polarisation within Europe: The larger markets have matured as the tech landscape has settled and programmatic is now a cemented part of online activity within the largest markets. This compares to the emerging markets, who are seeing rapid growth as the tech giants transfer the learnings from the mature markets’ earlier development and infrastructure. This has meant exponential growth for the likes of Romania and Slovenia, as the initial entrants into areas such as programmatic have been received positively, driving further confidence.
- The Organisation of Data: The accountability of online media has always been positive, but equally it has led to further complexity in the market. Not only has measurement begun to see some degree of standardisation, helping brands understand true effectiveness over time, but it has also allowed for more dynamic, real time decisions to become a standard practice. However, this organisation of data has not just allowed for clearer measurement. Publishers and platforms have segmented their audiences with more effect – the understanding of observed behavioural insights, as well as development of robust custom audiences has meant that targeting is paying back a stronger ROI and, as a result, increasing investment.
- The Integration of Media and Content: Building on the last point, and due to the complexity of formats that online media comes with, content is playing a tighter role within all media decisions. The term “mobile first” is overused in our industry and not because people don’t appreciate the importance that the device plays in people’s lives, but because brands would all too often put their TV ad straight onto a mobile placement. The insights we are getting from our ability to analyse data more effectively has meant that the content creation and production process is now more dynamic and increasingly relevant to the device, context and environment when served.
- The Growth of e-Commerce: The advancements of e-commerce from a platform experience (as well as improvements in distribution) have meant the consumer has more and more confidence in adopting this method of shopping. This has naturally has led to a rise in more direct performance media such as search. As content experience improves and the fact that the point of desire and traction can now happen in a matter of seconds, more immersive forms of online content has begun to prove direct attribution to sales.
There are still many opportunities across the industry to improve the experience that brands provide within online media, as well as simplifying the technical infrastructure that they operate in. However, there is a lot to be positive about as we enter the 3rd wave of disruption and the mass adoption of areas such as Artificial Intelligence and the internet of things.
Hello and welcome to another weekly dose of OMD FWD, where most of our highlights come from the USA. As Trump continues to rock the world with his Muslin ban, tech giants including Google Microsoft and Facebook stand up for their existing employees and future talent. Meanwhile, Dove UK launch their #AlternativeFactsCampaign.
The Superbowl has also dominated recent headlines with Lady Gaga using 300 Intel-powered drones during halftime. With so much hype and exposure, it’s no wonder brands want to get a slice of the action, despite the $5M price tag! Don’t miss the best and worst from Superbowl TV ads in 2017.
HEADLINES
- Tech giants including Google, Microsoft and Facebook rally against Trump’s Muslim ban amidst fears for existing employees as well as the future of progressive thinking in the USA
- Instagram launches Snapchat-esque ‘disappearing’ photo and video functionality
- Dove UK brilliantly trolls the Trump administration’s attitude towards suspect information with their #AlternativeFacts campaign
INSIGHTS
COOL
DEEP READS
As ever, please tag and share anything you spot with #OMDFWD.
This week’s OMD FWD looks even further into the future as we explore the exciting prospect of self-driving Uber cars, the growing opportunities for brands as smart home devices integrate into our lives and the pros and cons of some over-zealous ‘BS Detector’ plug-ins protecting us from the scourge of fake news. Do not fear, we haven’t looked past Christmas and have thrown in a few of the best Christmas ads so far. From Manning Gottlieb’s activation of John Lewis’ #BusterTheBoxer and Waitrose’s #HomeFor Christmas to Burberry, Macy’s and Tiffany’s, we are sure they will get you into the festive spirit.
HEADLINES
INSIGHTS
COOL
DEEP READS
As ever, please tag and share anything you spot with #OMDFWD.
Until now Amazon has only sold its voice-controlled devices in the US. However, they have confirmed its virtual assistant Echo speakers are heading to the UK, Germany and Austria. The machines can answer questions, control other internet-connected devices, build shopping lists and link to dozens of third-party services including Spotify and Uber. Experts say they appeal to early adopters’ sense of curiosity but tend to be harder to sell to others, potentially due to the raised concerns about the use of listening technology. With an estimated five million speakers already sold and Google working on their own artificial-intelligence-powered speaker to be launched later this year, it appears the mass market is finally ready to bring such technology into the home. Currently the most common smart home device is the thermostat, so we’re excited to see how this product develops.
HEADLINES
INSIGHTS
COOL
DEEP READS
As ever, share what you spot using #OMDFWD