Strategies for Reaching the ‘Liquid Audience’ in a Changing Digital Landscape Are Examined in IAB & Yume Whitepaper

Creative, Brand, Agency & Publishing Thought Leaders Share Their Insights On How To Navigate Consumers’ Complicated Pathways to Content

NEW YORK – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and YuMe released “Digital Advertising Audiences: The New ‘Liquid Consumer’ Paradigm,” a whitepaper that taps into top creative, brand, agency and publishing leadership for insights and guidance on navigating the new “liquid audiences” that discover content across a range of mediums, devices and platforms. Produced in cooperation with the IAB Agency Advisory Board, composed of 36 senior executives from across the creative and media-buying arenas, the report demonstrates that the need to reach the “liquid consumer” has strong and specific implications for the creation, organization, distribution, and measurement of content.

“Audiences are taking various routes to get to the content they crave”

Thought-leaders and industry pioneers providing observations on the phenomenon include:

  • Lincoln Bjorkman, Global Chief Creative Officer, Wunderman
  • Alexa Christon, Head of Media Innovation, GE
  • Brian DiLorenzo, CEO, Ming Utility and Entertainment Group
  • Brian Gilbert, Executive Director, Advertising Business Development, Pandora
  • Michael Lampert, Senior Vice President, New York Media and Account Management, 360i
  • Nick Law, Global Chief Creative Officer, R/GA
  • Michael Lebowitz, Founder and CEO, Big Spaceship
  • Alejandro Lopez, Executive Creative Director, Troika
  • Sophie Kelly, CEO, The Barbarian Group
  • Rich Routman, Global CRO, Perform Media
  • Jim Russell, Partner and Chief Digital Officer, McKinney
  • Larry Weitzman, Chief Content Officer and Chief of Operations, CineSport

The report highlights key ways that “liquid audiences” should impact content and marketing strategies. Among them:

  • Definitions of “audience” must evolve – currently-used gender/age definitions no longer suffice
  • “Social” and “mobile” are unsurprisingly crucial, but both embrace a wide array of meaning and nuance, which marketers must unpack to build successful strategies
  • Understanding how someone navigates to content can be critical to connecting with that consumer
  • The industry’s fixation on KPIs and standard metrics can distract from the more important goal of building fan-bases
  • The line between “marketing” and “content” continues to fade – it’s all storytelling

These valuable and practical findings from the paper will come to life during an on-stage session at the Cannes Lions Festival Creativity on June 24 at 3pm CET, when Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB, delves into the need for “liquid creativity” with Danielle Lee, Vice President, Commercial Marketing, Vevo, and Athan Stephanopoulos, Senior Vice President, Strategy and Partnerships, NowThisNews.

“The digital media and marketing industry is in the business of reaching audiences anywhere, anytime and any place,” said Rothenberg. “It is critical to have a deep understanding of how the ‘liquid consumer’ behaves in order to reach that audience effectively. I am excited to talk to Danielle Lee of Vevo and Athan Stephanopoulos of NowThisNews to see how they are rising to the challenges.”

“Audiences are taking various routes to get to the content they crave,” said Anna Bager, Senior Vice President, Mobile and Video, and General Manager of the IAB Digital Video and Mobile Marketing Centers of Excellence. “The media landscape has evolved into an incredibly complex ecosystem, with roads and paths that are hard to map – making it almost impossible to pin down today’s consumer.”

“Content – whether created by a publisher or a brand – is at the heart of the digital media industry,” said Stephanie Gaines, Vice President of Corporate Marketing at YuMe. “And audiences are finding new and exciting ways to consume the content they love. With so much data now at our disposal, it’s up to us to deliver it in nuanced, innovative ways that suit the contexts and the circumstances that audiences have come to expect, and this report is an important step in the right direction.”

The complete “Digital Advertising Audiences: The New ‘Liquid Consumer’ Paradigm” whitepaper is available for download at www.iab.net/liquidconsumer.

About YuMe

YuMe, Inc. (NYSE:YUME) is a leading provider of digital video brand advertising solutions. Its proprietary data science-driven technologies and large audience footprint drive inventory monetization and enable advertisers to reach targeted, brand receptive audiences across a wide range of Internet-connected devices. Designed to serve the specific needs of brand advertising, YuMe’s technology platform simplifies the complexities associated with delivering effective digital video advertising campaigns in today’s highly-fragmented market. YuMe is headquartered in Redwood City, CA with European headquarters in London and 17 additional offices worldwide. For more information, visit YuMe.com/pr, follow @YuMeVideo and like YuMe on Facebook. Current YuMe logos can be found at www.yume.com/news/logos. YuMe is a trademark of YuMe. All other brands, products or service names are or may be trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.

About the IAB

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) empowers the media and marketing industries to thrive in the digital economy. It is comprised of more than 650 leading media and technology companies that are responsible for selling, delivering, and optimizing digital advertising or marketing programs. Together, they account for 86 percent of online advertising in the United States. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. The organization is committed to professional development, elevating the knowledge, skills, and expertise of individuals across the digital marketing industry. The IAB also educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City.

via BusinessWire