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Snapchat’s New BFF: My AI Chatbot Joins the Conversation

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Adotat Staff
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Snapchat is introducing a chatbot named “My AI” that will be powered by OpenAI’s latest version of ChatGPT. The goal is to make the bot available to all of Snapchat’s 750 million monthly users, but initially, it will only be available to paying Snapchat Plus subscribers. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel believes that AI chatbots will become a part of everyday life for more people, and the messaging service is well-positioned to offer this feature.

My AI is essentially a fast mobile-friendly version of ChatGPT, but it is more restricted in what it can answer. Snap’s employees have trained it to adhere to the company’s trust and safety guidelines, and it cannot give responses that include swearing, violence, sexually explicit content, or opinions about politics. It has also been stripped of functionality that has already gotten ChatGPT banned in some schools. The company plans to keep tuning My AI as more people use it and report inappropriate answers.

Unlike OpenAI’s own ChatGPT interface, Snap’s My AI is treated more like a persona. Its profile page looks like any other Snapchat user’s profile, suggesting that My AI is meant to be another friend inside of Snapchat for users to hang out with, not a search engine. This approach could save Snap some headaches, as larger language models underpinning these chatbots can confidently give wrong answers or even be emotionally manipulative and mean.

Snap is one of the first clients of OpenAI’s new enterprise tier called Foundry, which lets companies run its latest GPT-3.5 model with dedicated compute designed for large workloads. Spiegel says Snap will likely incorporate LLMs from other vendors besides OpenAI over time, and it will use the data gathered from the chatbot to inform its broader AI efforts.

My AI will likely be a boost to the company’s paid subscriber numbers in the short term, and eventually, it could open up new ways for the company to make money. However, Spiegel is cagey about his plans. Snap has a large and young user base, but its business is struggling, and My AI is seen as a major investment area for the company. Ultimately, Snap is betting on a future where we’re all talking to AI like it’s a person, and My AI is just the beginning of its generative AI plans.

Lisa Chaikin and Awin: Experimenting with Success in Affiliate Marketing

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Adotat Staff
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Affiliate marketing has become a vital marketing tool for brands across various industries. Lisa Chaikin, the Group Marketing Director at Awin, a leading affiliate marketing platform, shares her insights on the benefits and importance of affiliate marketing channels. Awin has been a mainstay in the affiliate marketing industry since 2000 and has grown from 88 employees in the UK to over 1,400 worldwide.

The Awin platform provides an open marketplace for businesses to discover, manage, and measure any type of marketing partnership. From influencers to mass media houses, cashback and discount sites to B2B partners, advertisers selling products and services online can use Awin’s platform to easily coordinate these valuable partnerships. The Awin Group generated £12 billion in revenue for its advertisers and £920 million for its affiliate partners last year. Advertisers earned a £14 return for every £1 they invested in these partnerships via Awin.

Over the past five to ten years, the definition and scope of affiliate marketing has expanded. From a channel that was traditionally made up of loyalty and discount partners that existed at the last pre-purchase touchpoint in the customer journey, affiliate marketing is now an ecosystem of diverse partners that help brands to engage customers at every point in their purchase journey. Traditional affiliates, brand-to-brand, tech partners, influencer partnerships, fintech, mass media, and others are part of the affiliate marketing ecosystem.

According to a Performance Marketing Industry Study, affiliate marketing investment reached $9.1 billion in 2021, up from the previous year. The growth of the brand-to-brand partnership model allows complementary brands to partner and tap into one another’s customer base, increase brand affinity and loyalty, and achieve incremental revenue growth. Additionally, affiliate marketing offers increased recognition of affiliate traffic quality among senior marketing executives, expanding acceptance of pay-for-performance buying models among publishers, and strong ROAS for affiliate marketing versus other digital marketing channels.

For marketers and brands considering affiliate marketing programs for the first time, Lisa recommends choosing the right partners for their products and customer type. They can explore the scope and variety of partners available through the affiliate channel and map their partnerships against their sales funnel for enhanced performance. They can also take advantage of the sophisticated tracking suites on offer by their affiliate platform to get a holistic view of which partners are driving sales, where customers are being inspired to purchase, and to accurately measure which areas of their affiliate program deserve a bigger budget.

The beauty of the affiliate channel is its flexibility and configurability. Brands can create the partnership ecosystem that suits their business size, sector, budget, and goals once they have taken the above steps.

Martech has also played a significant role in the affiliate marketing ecosystem. It has made the affiliate channel more efficient, cost-effective, and flexible. Increased automation within affiliate platforms means less time-consuming manual work for advertisers and publishers. The use of machine learning algorithms can analyze customer behavior to identify the best partners for increased conversions. Additionally, martech tools can measure and track ROI more accurately and provide real-time reports, which allow advertisers to quickly adjust their marketing strategies.

The affiliate marketing industry is growing, and Awin is at the forefront of this growth. Lisa and her team have a global marketing department consisting of more than 35 team members across all marketing disciplines in ten countries. They are responsible for planning, developing, and implementing marketing strategies, communications, and PR activities, both internally and externally for the group. Lisa tries to explain her role to her five-year-old daughter as “experimenting with different activities to get as many people as possible to know who my company is and why it can help their business to be more successful and make more money.”

Javier Campopiano brings his limitless creativity to McCann Worldgroup’s global network

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Adotat Staff
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McCann Worldgroup, one of the world’s leading advertising agencies, has made a major move by announcing Javier Campopiano as their new global chief creative officer. With his extensive experience and numerous accolades, Campopiano is poised to take on the responsibility of driving McCann’s creative vision forward and creating some of the best work in the industry.

Campopiano is widely regarded as one of the industry’s most talented and innovative creative minds, with an impressive track record that includes groundbreaking work for major brands such as Coca-Cola, Pringles, and Walmart. He gained worldwide fame for creating the “It’s a Tide Ad” campaign in 2019, which swept the award shows and won multiple prestigious awards such as the Black Pencil at D&AD, a Titanium Lion, and the 2019 Grand Effie.

Most recently, he led the “Christmas Always Finds Its Way” short film trilogy for Coca-Cola in partnership with Amazon and Imagine Entertainment, showcasing his ability to push the boundaries of creative formats and tell compelling brand stories. His innovative approach to branded content has also resulted in his creation of short films for Walmart that centered around the arrival of the Walmart delivery box from three directors, Nancy Meyers, Dee Rees, and comedian Melissa McCarthy.

In his new role at McCann Worldgroup, Campopiano will be responsible for creative leadership across the agency’s global network, which spans over 100 countries and includes more than 16,000 employees. He will work closely with creative, strategy, and business leaders to ensure that the agency produces world-class creative work for its clients.

Daryl Lee, CEO of McCann Worldgroup and the McCann agency, expressed his excitement over the appointment of Campopiano. “His creativity has no boundaries, his work defies categories, and he has the recognition to prove it,” Lee said. “But most of all, he understands that a democratic culture of deep inclusion will define the next generation of creativity in our industry. I am delighted he will get to build on that culture at an epic scale here with us at McCann Worldgroup.”

Campopiano himself expressed his enthusiasm for the new opportunity, noting that he has been thinking about the “endless possibilities” of joining McCann Worldgroup since he met Lee and the team. He sees his new role as a chance to create excellence for the assignments he works on and to make the advertising industry a talent magnet again.

McCann Worldgroup’s decision to bring in Campopiano as its new global chief creative officer is the latest move in the agency’s efforts to align its expansive network of solutions with the creative powerhouse that is McCann. To that end, Campopiano will work closely with Suzanne Powers, who was recently promoted to chief product officer, McCann Worldgroup, to ensure that the entire organization is focused on making, nurturing, and evolving its collective creative product.

Campopiano’s extensive experience in the industry and his numerous accolades, combined with his innovative approach to creative work, make him an excellent fit for the role of global chief creative officer at McCann Worldgroup. His appointment is sure to create excitement in the industry and further cement McCann’s position as a leader in creative advertising.

The Metaverse’s Security Dilemma: Decentralized Ownership vs. Centralized Protection

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Adotat Staff
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Web3 is the evolution of the internet, where the centralized control mechanism is eliminated, and data ownership is given back to the users. The technology that underpins Web3 is blockchain, which is a distributed ledger that provides secure and immutable data storage. Web3 has been touted for its decentralization and user-centricity. However, when it comes to security and threat detection, Web3 is outgunned. Web3 has five main blockchain security threat vectors, including user vulnerabilities, API and Oracle vulnerabilities, off- and on-chain data vulnerabilities, smart contract vulnerabilities, and node vulnerabilities.

Therefore, organizations must consider post-deployment security. They must ask themselves, for example: “What happens when their protocol gets attacked due to an unknown vulnerability? Who gets notified? How are those attacks mitigated?” Moreover, end-users have been mostly left unsupported, and phishing and digital asset theft are prominent. In this article, we will explore what security in the metaverse may look like.

Web3 is considered the internet of value because it allows for the exchange of value, with users having ownership of their data and assets. This shift in ownership will change the way security is implemented in the future.

For example, in the current Web2 environment, organizations are responsible for securing user data, while in Web3, users will have to take responsibility for their security. Therefore, the key to security in the metaverse is to empower users to take control of their data and assets.

One of the ways to empower users is through decentralized identity constructs (DCI), which can be implemented using tokenization and self-hosted wallets. Decentralized systems remove the need for repeated identity proofing across services and support common authentication services by removing the need for multiple credentials. Avivah Litan, a Gartner distinguished VP analyst, predicts that by 2025, at least 10% of users under 20 years old will have a decentralized identity wallet on their mobile device for managing their identity attributes and making verifiable claims.

The use of blockchain technology in Web3 means that the data is cryptographically secured, but it does not mean that the data is always legitimate. There are several points of vulnerability in blockchain networks, including user vulnerabilities, API and Oracle vulnerabilities, off- and on-chain data vulnerabilities, smart contract vulnerabilities, and node vulnerabilities.

To address these vulnerabilities, potential solutions include identity proofing, endpoint protection, user authentication, decentralized consensus of data reads and writes, cross-checks on data validity, storing data off-chain, privacy-preserving protocols, user access control, code reviews, baseline smart contract execution, fine-grained smart contract access control, behavior anomaly detection, dynamic execution analysis during runtime, vulnerability scans, and forensic analysis.

Currently, protocols primarily rely on smart contract audits for their security. According to Forta research, funds lost in smart contract exploits rose from $215 million in 2020 to $2.7 billion in 2022. Therefore, organizations must consider post-deployment security. They must ask themselves, for example: “What happens when their protocol gets attacked due to an unknown vulnerability? Who gets notified? How are those attacks mitigated?” Moreover, end-users have been mostly left unsupported, and phishing and digital asset theft are prominent.

Web3’s decentralized structure means that traditional security measures such as firewalls and intrusion detection systems (IDS) may not be effective. Instead, security measures will have to be implemented at the application level.

The application itself must be secured, and the data transmitted between the application and the user must also be secured. This means that the security of Web3 applications will have to be built into the development process from the ground up.

One of the ways to implement security at the application level is through secure coding practices. Secure coding practices should be an essential component of the development process for any Web3 application. It involves following a set of guidelines and best practices to ensure that the code is free from vulnerabilities and that it adheres to industry-standard security practices. This includes using secure coding frameworks, performing static code analysis, performing dynamic testing, and implementing code review processes.

Another crucial component of Web3 security is the need for decentralized consensus. Web3 networks are built on a decentralized model, which means that there is no central authority to verify the accuracy of data. This is where decentralized consensus comes in. It involves multiple nodes on the network coming to a consensus on the accuracy of data through a process called mining. This process ensures that data on the network is verified by multiple nodes, making it difficult for attackers to manipulate the data.

Additionally, Web3 applications must implement user access control measures. This involves ensuring that only authorized users can access the application’s features and functionality. This can be achieved through the use of multi-factor authentication, biometric authentication, and other secure authentication methods.

Finally, organizations must consider post-deployment security measures, such as vulnerability scans and forensic analysis. These measures involve scanning the application for vulnerabilities and weaknesses regularly, and conducting forensic analysis to determine the root cause of any security incidents that occur. This can help organizations quickly identify and mitigate security threats before they become major issues.

Web3 represents a significant shift in the way we interact with the internet, enabling users to have more control over their data and assets. However, this decentralization also presents significant security challenges, with various points of vulnerability in blockchain networks. To address these challenges, organizations must adopt a comprehensive security strategy that includes empowering users through decentralized identity constructs, implementing secure coding practices, ensuring decentralized consensus, implementing user access control measures, and conducting regular vulnerability scans and forensic analysis.

As the metaverse becomes more integrated into our daily lives, it is crucial that we prioritize security to ensure that users can enjoy the benefits of Web3 without compromising their data and assets.

From Snow Crash to the Metaverse: Neal Stephenson’s Vision for the Future

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Adotat Staff
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Neal Stephenson, a renowned science-fiction author and co-founder of Lamina1, a blockchain-based start-up that aims to build an expansive metaverse, recently discussed his views on the metaverse with Tim Bradshaw, the FT’s global technology correspondent. Stephenson’s breakthrough 1992 novel Snow Crash predicted many technological advancements, such as cryptocurrency, Alexa, avatars, virtual-reality goggles, multiplayer online games, and destructive computer viruses, that are now part of our everyday experiences. The concept of the metaverse, which is a virtual universe where people interact with each other through audiovisual bodies called avatars, was also first introduced in his book.

According to Stephenson, the metaverse is a shared, fictional space where people have shared experiences in virtual reality. They can interact with others in real-time, regardless of their location. The different parts of the metaverse are created and maintained by different people, but they all share a common map that shows their location. Stephenson thinks that the gaming industry will be the foundation of the future metaverse, and the metaverse will be an economic engine for many businesses.

When asked if people know they are entering the metaverse while playing a video game, Stephenson stated that most people are just playing the game, but people who spend a lot of time playing multiplayer online games are becoming accustomed to the idea of moving around in shared three-dimensional spaces, which is the most basic idea of the metaverse.

Stephenson founded Lamina1, a blockchain-based start-up that creates a foundational layer for the metaverse, to build underlying infrastructure that helps metaverse builders create their own experiences in a way that is consistent with the vision in his book. Stephenson believes that creating a platform that enables others to build their own experiences is a smarter approach than building one experience that may not be successful. The value of a metaverse platform, such as Fortnite to Epic Games, is more than just the revenue generated by the game. It also provides a way to test their own technology and demonstrate its capabilities to others.

Stephenson believes that the foundational layer of the metaverse is about enabling and making things available, rather than deciding how things ought to be. He states that there are a number of basic capabilities that the metaverse has to have on an engineering level, and these capabilities are a necessary foundation for the metaverse to be built upon. Stephenson thinks that people can come along later to determine the rules of the road for the metaverse.

In response to a question about decentralisation, Stephenson believes that the principle of decentralisation is essential to the metaverse. People can create their own experiences in the metaverse without having to rely on a central authority or a single company. The decentralisation principle also applies to the blockchain technology used by Lamina1, which enables the creation of a trustless environment where people can transact without intermediaries.

When asked about his thoughts on Facebook’s metaverse plans, Stephenson thinks that it is a good thing that Facebook is showing an interest in the metaverse, but he is skeptical about their motivations. Stephenson believes that Facebook’s goal is to capture and monetise as much of the metaverse as possible, which would be contrary to the decentralisation principle of the metaverse. Stephenson thinks that it is essential to create an open and expansive metaverse where anyone can create their own experiences and transact without intermediaries.

Stephenson believes that the biggest challenge facing the development of the metaverse is creating a sense of presence. The metaverse needs to provide a sense of being in a shared space with others, and this sense of presence can be achieved through the use of haptic feedback and other sensory technologies. Stephenson thinks that the metaverse has the potential to be a transformative technology that can change the way we interact with each other and the world around us. It can enable people to connect and collaborate in ways that were previously impossible, regardless of their physical location. The metaverse can also provide new opportunities for businesses and entrepreneurs to create and monetise their own experiences.

However, the development of the metaverse also raises some important questions about privacy, security, and ethics. As the metaverse becomes more integrated into our daily lives, it will be essential to establish rules and regulations to protect individuals and their rights. The development of a decentralised metaverse that is not controlled by a single entity could help to mitigate some of these concerns.

Can We Use the Metaverse for Recruiting?

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Adotat Staff
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Recruiting in the Metaverse is revolutionizing the talent war, and it may well be the future of recruitment. The Metaverse is projected to become a trillion-dollar industry, and it is already streamlining recruitment and reinvigorating talent engagement through virtual reality (VR) job interviews. In 2020, Zoom fast replaced in-person interviews, and now businesses are opting for Metaverse platforms to meet candidates as it makes remote collaboration more personal and immersive than 2D.

With agencies looking to hire fewer permanent positions in 2023, many think Metaverse job interviews can ensure companies are more accurate in hiring the right candidate. Research shows that Metaverse participants are 3.7 times more emotionally connected to content and four times faster at consuming content versus traditional methods.

There are many Metaverse platforms, and cashed-up companies are racing to experiment in hopes their recruitment platform will be the norm in the future. For instance, Hyundai last year teamed up with South Korean platform Zepeto to create immersive employee inductions, and Samsung used Gather to match job seekers with the company’s HR managers and staff. The Chat-based hiring app Hirect in February last year hosted the world’s first metaverse jobs fair, allowing hundreds of job seekers to meet brands.

Hays was the first recruitment agency to develop an office space in the Metaverse, and although they are not currently recruiting in it, they plan to further evolve its recruitment processes as the technology develops. The metaverse offers a practical platform for hiring without borders, allowing organizations to open their job opportunities to a global workforce. Using avatars and interacting in virtual reality rooms could be used in situations where several managers from different locations need to come together to interview a candidate. There’s also the option for applicants to meet potential colleagues in the virtual world, gaining a greater sense of everyday life at the organization.

Global advertising agency Dentsu is close to launching its recruitment platform. Partnering with LinkedIn and Microsoft, The LinkedIn Lounge will support the entire lifecycle of a business’ employee right from the moment they meet in a Metaverse interview right through to onboarding and finding ways to upskill in ways people actually want to engage.

In the near future, The LinkedIn Lounge will be able to locally and globally connect candidates with brands for interviews through their professional LinkedIn identities in these cool virtual spaces. The tie-in with LinkedIn is super important as it allows candidates to share their personal data and companies to share protected information in a safe and controlled environment, but still give that 3D immersive experience. It almost makes submitting a traditional CV less relevant, making recruitment more streamlined.

When Dentsu does pull the trigger, The Lounge will be just one part of the immersive world, with the Dentsu Metaversity, an evolution of the agency’s University offering, and other interactions coming to the 3D.

Recruiting in the Metaverse offers several benefits. It allows companies to access a global workforce, and candidates can meet potential colleagues in the virtual world, gaining a greater sense of everyday life at the organization. It makes recruitment more streamlined and accurate in hiring the right candidate, and it almost makes submitting a traditional CV less relevant. Recruitment in the Metaverse is becoming the norm, and it will become an essential aspect of recruitment in the future.

However, there are also potential downsides to recruiting in the Metaverse. One of the major concerns is privacy and data security, as it involves sharing personal data in a virtual space. Companies must ensure that they have robust privacy policies and data security measures in place to protect candidates’ personal information.

Another concern is the potential for bias in the Metaverse, as avatars can present a different version of ourselves that may not accurately reflect who we are. Companies must ensure that they have policies in place to prevent discrimination based on appearance, and they should also train their recruiters and managers to be aware of their biases when conducting interviews in the Metaverse.

Additionally, not everyone has access to the necessary technology to participate in the Metaverse, which may limit the pool of candidates that companies can reach. This could create a digital divide and exacerbate existing inequalities in the job market.

Despite these challenges, recruiting in the Metaverse offers a promising new way for businesses to engage with candidates and hire the right talent for their organizations. As the technology continues to evolve and more companies experiment with Metaverse recruitment, we can expect to see new innovations and improvements that will make the process even more efficient and effective. The future of recruitment is in the Metaverse, and businesses that embrace this new paradigm will be well-positioned to compete for top talent in a rapidly changing world.

DanAds and McClatchy’s Dynamic Duo: The Latest Self-Service Ad Platform

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Adotat Staff
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DanAds, a prominent advertising technology firm, has joined forces with McClatchy, one of the largest media companies in the United States with over 80 million unique visitors, to unveil two new and exciting features on the McClatchy Ad Manager platform.

The collaboration introduces next-level options via this self-service campaign platform, giving advertisers access to purchase both email and programmatic inventory from McClatchy’s one-stop shop.

The McClatchy Ad Manager platform, a tool for small- and medium-sized businesses, has been enhanced with double opt-in email lists that ensure groups of users have opted to receive marketing notifications. This feature increases engagement and improves targeting data accuracy while offering the most space for creative copy of any digital advertising solution. With full control over the email content, advertisers can benefit from multiple opportunities for users to engage with an advertisement, as emails remain in the user’s inbox until they’re deleted.

Moreover, programmatic advertising has been added to the platform, with advertisers now able to place ads on a curated list of 55,000+ trusted publisher sites. Placements are manually reviewed, ensuring a positive user experience and reasonable numbers of ad placements per page. The addition of custom audience capabilities allows advertisers to target exclusive audiences based on a number of criteria, including online user behavior, visits to real-world locations, and subscribership. Audience targeting capabilities are improved by using segments from trusted data providers to reach new audiences, with programmatic advertising also offering the ability to serve native advertising, which mimics publisher content, leading to higher engagement than traditional display banner positions.

Peo Persson, co-founder and executive vice president of sales at DanAds, praised the team’s deep expertise in self-serve advertising and McClatchy’s portfolio of premium news titles, stating that they are perfectly suited to the new generation of contextual, brand-driven audience targeting. DanAds has previously launched self-serve platforms for other leading news brands, including The Washington Post, Bloomberg, The Atlantic, and Dow Jones. Last year, DanAds hosted the world’s first Self-Serve Summit.

Jane Howard, senior vice president of advertising at McClatchy, expressed pride in the team’s commitment to the platform and the pace of ongoing innovation surrounding this project in partnership with DanAds. The early feedback from customers has been positive, with the new additions further enhancing advertising capabilities for small- and medium-sized businesses.

The collaboration between DanAds and McClatchy highlights the significance of self-service platforms in the publishing industry, allowing advertisers to take control of their campaigns and improve their targeting strategies while maximizing their ad spend. With ongoing improvements planned for the platform, McClatchy Ad Manager is poised to continue its growth as a leading self-service tool in the industry and beyond.

WTF is Ad Maturity

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Adotat Staff
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Ad maturity refers to the state of readiness of advertising technology (adtech) and associated infrastructure. It is a critical factor in programmatic advertising, which uses algorithms and data to automate ad buying and delivery. Achieving ad maturity involves consolidating media, optimizing supply-side solutions, and building an ecosystem that facilitates seamless communication between stakeholders. In a roundtable organized by Xandr in partnership with Campaign Asia-Pacific, industry experts discussed the challenges of digital advertising, particularly in a cookieless world. Among the panellists were Sanket Sasane, director of paid media at Accor, Sunil Naryani, chief product officer at dentsu, Nishanth Raju, managing director at Lotame, and Tom Dover, director of video marketplaces at Xandr. The discussion highlighted key takeaways on how marketers and agencies are working towards solutions for audience fragmentation and accessibility.

The pandemic has accelerated the process of digitalization for both consumers and brand owners. However, the rapid increase in digitally-driven communication has brought complexity, even for categories with high degrees of adtech maturity, such as travel. As the industry booms buoyed by the ‘revenge travel’ phenomenon, a challenge for marketers like Accor is finding solutions that capture and create more demand. A highly fragmented audience has made this an even tougher task.

To tackle this challenge, Accor partners with dentsu and Xandr, which power a global marketplace for premium advertising, with a full ecosystem at play on the buy and sell sides. According to Sasane, “We have a framework based on different stages of the consumer journey, which helps dentsu’s approach to media planning. There are also supply-side solutions in place to improve the quality of our inventory and drive campaign performance.” Dentsu’s approach involves starting with an audit of the client’s current setup, including media mix, supply partners, and tech stack with emphasis on their first-party data. The aim is to assess the scale, quality, and structure of the data along with supply sources to mobilize a plan for improving their adtech maturity.

Dentsu has been pushing for adtech maturity for a couple of years now. According to Naryani, the agency has a robust set of best practices in place with demand-side platforms (DSPs) and for supply curation. However, he adds that “The understanding of the supply side, which accounts for the inventory deal types, quality of media, and the publisher ecosystem, is still not common knowledge. As practitioners, we need to educate our teams and the industry further so as to leverage the full potential of supply curation for marketing.”

The panel agreed that direct interaction with the publisher usually worked the best. Naryani said, “In the adtech supply chain, many intermediaries exist who may not necessarily add value but contribute to the tech tax and are inefficient over time.” However, where direct approaches are not feasible, dentsu works with partners like Xandr and Lotame who possess relevant, rich, scaled local data sources. An example of this is curated data marketplaces.

Explaining this phenomenon, Lotame’s Raju said, “It starts with curating a list of publishers scoped to specific verticals, markets, or regions – for example, finance, parenting, or automobiles in Asia. We then enable the creation of custom audience segments broken down by verticals and overlaid with demographics and intent along with branded datasets distributed via the marketplace such as spend data from Mastercard or consumer data from Nielsen. Agencies and brands can then activate these audience segments on curated inventory to reach the right users in the right places to help drive value at both the top and bottom of the funnel.”

The curation process at dentsu encompasses both inventory supply and audience sets. Naryani said, “It is critical to ensure that the audience data is clean, compliant, and enriched to derive maximum value. We also focus on building a closed loop feedback mechanism to optimize the campaign’s performance continuously.”

As the industry grapples with the impact of a cookieless world, the panel agreed that building a first-party data strategy was crucial for marketers. They discussed the importance of creating a value exchange with consumers, where they willingly share their data in exchange for personalized experiences. This approach would help brands build a loyal customer base while improving their adtech maturity.

Achieving ad maturity is critical for programmatic advertising success. It requires consolidating media, optimizing supply-side solutions, and building an ecosystem that facilitates seamless communication between stakeholders. While the pandemic has accelerated digital adoption, it has also brought complexity, particularly with the fragmentation of the audience. However, by partnering with companies like Xandr and Lotame, and through a data-driven approach like that of dentsu, marketers can work towards solutions that capture and create demand while improving their adtech maturity.

Who is Benjamin De Castro, CMO of Mixbook

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Adotat Staff
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Benjamin De Castro is a seasoned marketing executive with experience in various industries, including financial services, eBooks, and now, photo books. He recently joined Mixbook, a photo book brand, as the Chief Marketing Officer. De Castro believes that his expertise lies in companies and products that have an emotional backbone, which is why he was drawn to Mixbook. The company’s mission is to help people connect with the ones they love, which is a concept that resonates with De Castro.

Essentially, he aims to grow Mixbook, a category that is growing every year as people take more photos than ever. However, these photos are often trapped in devices and not experienced physically. Mixbook offers customers the chance to experience their photos again in a physical product, whether that’s a photo book, card, or calendar.

De Castro’s role is to get that message across to customers and differentiate Mixbook in a market that is becoming commoditized. He plans to use Mixbook’s strengths, such as the best editor software in the industry and the most and best creative options, to reach and engage customers across different segments, from Gen Zs to Boomers.

De Castro’s career has spanned several brands, including ING Direct and Kobo, where he led marketing efforts. He believes that his experience in these different industries has helped shape his perspective in his current role. For instance, at ING Direct, a financial services company, he learned how to market a brand with an emotional backbone, whereas at Kobo, an eBook company, he learned how to market a brand that relied on storytelling.

De Castro is also keen on the culture at Mixbook. He describes it as an environment where every opinion counts, and trust and accountability are at a high level. The culture has resulted in a fun and engaging workplace with high retention rates.

As De Castro aims to grow Mixbook, he recognizes the need to differentiate the brand in a market where competitors like Shutterfly offer deals all the time. He plans to find solutions to stand out from the competition and reach new customers. Additionally, he aims to leverage Mixbook’s strengths to drive engagement and retention.

One way Mixbook plans to differentiate itself is through its editor software, which is considered the best in the industry. Mixbook has won multiple awards for its software, and the company plans to leverage this strength in its marketing efforts. Additionally, Mixbook is working on new creative options to offer its customers, making it easier for them to create photo books and other products.

To reach customers across different segments, Mixbook plans to target those who recognize the value of physical products and want to relive the moments captured in their photos. De Castro recognizes that photos have further meaning beyond being trapped in devices, and he aims to help customers unleash the joy in their photos.

Overall, Benjamin De Castro’s role at Mixbook is to drive growth and differentiation in a market that is becoming increasingly commoditized. He plans to use his experience in emotional branding and storytelling to connect with customers across different segments and leverage Mixbook’s strengths to drive engagement and retention. With De Castro’s leadership, Mixbook is poised for growth and continued success in the photo book market.

Reeling in the Views: Instagram’s TikTok Rival Takes a Dive

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Adotat Staff
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For over two years, Instagram has been trying to compete with TikTok by promoting its short-form video format, Reels. However, in recent weeks, brands have noticed a significant drop in views on Reels posted on their accounts. This has led to questions about the reliability of social media algorithms and the difficulty of producing video content for platforms that are constantly changing.

The decrease in Reels views has come at a time when photo performance on Instagram has generally improved. This shift in algorithm highlights the challenges that brands and publishers face in publishing content to platforms that are likely to change without warning. Social media strategists have to work harder than ever to get their content seen by the audience they are trying to reach.

The cost of producing videos is also a major issue. Video production costs are generally more expensive than photo production, making it difficult to justify the expense to senior executives who may not be as up-to-date with algorithm changes. As a result, many brands are hesitant to invest in video content, even though it has the potential to drive engagement and revenue.

The decline in Reels views is particularly concerning because Instagram has been actively promoting the format as a way to compete with TikTok. TikTok has become the go-to platform for short-form video content, with over a billion active users worldwide. In contrast, Instagram has over a billion users but has struggled to keep up with TikTok’s popularity, particularly among younger users.

The decline in Reels views also highlights the importance of understanding social media algorithms. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok use complex algorithms to determine which content appears in users’ feeds. These algorithms take into account a variety of factors, including engagement, content type, and even the time of day. As a result, brands and publishers need to be constantly monitoring and adjusting their content strategies to ensure that their content is seen by their target audience.

Sarah Hodges Appointed as Chief Marketing Officer at Procore Technologies

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Adotat Staff
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Procore Technologies, a leading global provider of construction management software, has announced the appointment of Sarah Hodges as its Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). In her new role, Hodges will be responsible for developing the strategic marketing plan and overseeing all marketing activities worldwide in support of Procore’s financial and strategic business objectives.

Procore’s Founder, President, and CEO, Tooey Courtemanche, expressed his excitement about Hodges joining the team. He said that Hodges is a highly-experienced, talented marketing leader with a proven track record of building and expanding global SaaS brands. He added that Hodges’ customer-centric approach to marketing and her ability to lead and inspire teams make her the ideal fit for this role.

Hodges joins Procore after holding several leadership positions at Autodesk, where she led the strategy and marketing for the construction business line and product management for the media and entertainment business line. With over 20 years of experience at global SaaS companies, Hodges brings deep expertise in driving go-to-market strategies, managing business performance, and leading cross-functional teams.

Hodges is excited to elevate Procore’s vision of improving the lives of everyone in construction, and she expressed her enthusiasm for the role. “Procore’s potential is unlimited, and I look forward to working with the team to build the brand’s momentum globally,” she said.

Based in Boston, Hodges holds a joint marketing and communications business degree from Northeastern University. Hodges is also a Board Overseer for the Boston Children’s Museum and plays an active role in inspiring females in the construction industry.

Hodges’ appointment comes ahead of the Women in Construction week, which starts on March 6th. Procore is hosting a webinar called “The Data on Diversity and Women in Construction,” which is an opportunity to celebrate the progress made in the industry and explore why retention is key to a diverse workforce.

Procore is a leader in cloud-based construction management software, and its platform connects every project stakeholder to solutions that are built for the construction industry. The company’s mission is to improve the lives of everyone in construction by helping to build quality projects, safely, on time, and within budget. With Hodges’ appointment, Procore is expected to expand its reach further and enhance its strategic marketing initiatives globally.

The Price of Late: Late Payments Take Toll on Advertising Supply Chain

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Adotat Staff
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Late payments have become a growing issue in the advertising industry, according to a new report released by online ad-revenue exchange OAREX. The data, which tracks digital media payments made both manually and programmatically, indicates that all forms of media-buying payments have been slowing down for digital media, especially for manual payments. In fact, the percentage of late payments has grown to more than 40% of all digital ad buys tracked by OAREX in its report.

The report shows a significant difference between manual and programmatic payments, indicating that programmatic buys are more efficient in paying the media during times of economic volatility. The gap between manual and programmatic payments peaked at 13 points in June 2021 and has hovered between 8 and 10 points through the end of 2022. The difference can be attributed to the fact that programmatic payments are processed by programmatic middlemen, while manual payments are processed by ad agencies or clients themselves.

While the belief of many advertisers and agencies is that more of their ad budgets go into “working media” when they buy manually, there is a bottom-line impact for their suppliers, which are seeing slower payments. The trend is not delineated by specific agencies or clients but by major exchanges, DSPs, and SSPs tracked by OAREX.

Late payments are a problem for the advertising industry, as they impact not only the media but also the entire supply chain. Advertisers and agencies benefit from a faster payment system, as it helps build trust and relationships with their suppliers. In contrast, late payments strain those relationships and can hurt the supplier’s ability to deliver quality work on time.

Late payments can also affect cash flow and liquidity, which can be especially problematic for smaller suppliers. A delay in payment may force them to delay or even cancel their own payments, which can have a ripple effect throughout the industry.

The rise of programmatic advertising has brought some benefits to the industry, including greater efficiency and transparency. However, the issue of late payments highlights the need for a more standardized payment system. A standard payment system can help reduce friction and ensure that all parties are paid on time.

TikTok: Banned by Governments, Embraced by Brands

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Adotat Staff
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TikTok, the wildly popular short-form video app, continues to be banned by an increasing number of governmental bodies around the world, even as it’s embraced by major brands and over a billion consumers worldwide. This week, the contrast between the two was particularly stark as the European Commission (EC) banned the app due to concerns about cybersecurity threats, while Mercedes-Benz announced that TikTok, along with other popular apps, will be available in its new E-Class cars.

The EC, which employs about 30,000 people, issued a directive suspending the use of TikTok on all corporate and personal devices used for work purposes, citing concerns about cybersecurity. The EC also said that it will keep other social media platforms “under constant review.” The ban adds to the growing list of governmental bodies, including the UK Parliament and the US House of Representatives, that have banned TikTok due to concerns about data privacy and the app’s Chinese parent company ByteDance.

However, while TikTok may be facing bans from governments, it’s being embraced by major brands such as Mercedes-Benz. The automaker will become the first to feature TikTok in its cars, along with other apps like Zoom, Angry Birds, and the Vivaldi web browser. Drivers will be able to watch TikTok and other video apps when parked, thanks to the updated version of the MBUX infotainment system, which makes it easier to integrate third-party apps. Mercedes has also launched its own app store and plans to replace MBUX with its own MB.OS operating system by the middle of the decade.

Mercedes’ decision to include TikTok in its cars reflects the app’s growing popularity among younger consumers, who are increasingly using it to discover new products and engage with brands. By including TikTok in its cars, Mercedes is positioning itself as a brand that’s in touch with the latest trends and technologies. The move is also part of a broader effort by the automaker to create a more engaging in-car experience for drivers and passengers, which includes a long-term partnership with Google to offer YouTube, maps, and navigation capabilities.

TikTok’s popularity among consumers is also reflected in its investments in infrastructure, including building data centers in Europe. The app’s parent company ByteDance has been working to address concerns about data privacy and security, but it remains to be seen whether this will be enough to satisfy governments that have banned the app.

In the meantime, the contrast between TikTok’s bans by governments and its embrace by brands like Mercedes-Benz highlights the challenges that companies face in navigating the complex and rapidly changing digital landscape. While concerns about data privacy and security are legitimate, they must be balanced against the benefits of engaging with consumers in new and innovative ways. For now, it seems that brands are willing to take that risk, even as governments continue to ban the app.

Can the FTC Tackle Text Spam? Proposed Rules Say Yes

By
Adotat Staff
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Unsolicited text messages are a nuisance that many people have experienced, and they can even be harmful if they contain fraudulent or deceptive content. While the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has long been combating spam calls, the question remains whether they can do the same for text spam. The proposed rules by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to curb text spam are a promising development in this regard.

The proposed rules would require wireless companies to block text messages from numbers on a “do-not-originate” list, which would contain numbers linked to fraud.

This would ensure that consumers are protected from text spam that is associated with illegal activities. Additionally, the rules would prevent marketers from texting numbers on a “do-not-call” registry. This registry was established to protect consumers from unwanted telemarketing calls, and extending it to text messages would provide an added layer of protection.

Another proposed regulation would require providers to block texts from invalid, unallocated, or unused numbers. These types of numbers are often associated with illegal activities such as spoofing, which is a tactic used by scammers to make a text message appear to come from a different number.

By blocking these types of numbers, the proposed rules would prevent fraudulent and deceptive text messages from reaching consumers.

The proposal would also address the “lead generator loophole,” which is a tactic used by companies to deliver robocalls and text messages from numerous other marketers after obtaining a consumer’s consent to receive messages from one source. By prohibiting this practice, the proposed rules would ensure that consumers are not bombarded with spam messages from multiple sources.

The FCC’s proposal was backed by attorneys general and advocacy groups such as the National Consumer Law Center and Electronic Privacy Information Center.

These organizations recognized the need to protect consumers from unwanted and harmful text messages. However, wireless carriers opposed the proposal, arguing that a “one-size-fits-all” approach could not provide optimal consumer protection. They also expressed concerns about the compliance challenges and costs associated with implementing the proposed rules.

Despite the opposition, the proposed rules represent a significant step in the fight against text spam. The FCC’s proposal would provide a much-needed regulatory framework to protect consumers from fraudulent and deceptive text messages. If implemented, the proposed rules would require wireless companies to take proactive measures to block text messages from known fraudulent sources and prevent marketers from exploiting the “lead generator loophole.”

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