Ad Operations Online » Audience Targeting

ChoiceStream’s May Audience Cost Calendar Finds Travel Segments on Top in Online Advertising

Otilia Otlacan — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:00:08 +0000

BOSTON – ChoiceStream, the top choice for brand advertisers interested in advanced target optimization and programmatic buying, today announced the next installment of its Audience Cost Calendar — a monthly aggregation of impressions traded on digital ad exchanges. The Audience Cost Calendar was created to help media buyers and marketers understand trends in the cost of various online audiences. This month looks at April’s data and highlights the top traded audience segments, including Careers, Travel and Holidays & Events. Once again, Careers: Customer Service remains the top performing segment with a 40 percent increase above the average price for that targeted inventory.

“In previous Audience Cost Calendar reports it seemed that specific audience segments changed specific to cyclical trends”

Five of the top ten best performing segments based on month-over-month increased cost of the targeted inventory include:

• Travel: Italy – 11 percent increase in price since March

• Holiday & Events: Anniversary – 11 percent increase in price

• Travel: Greece – 8 percent increase in price

• Travel: Spain – 6 percent increase in price

• Travel: Europe – 6 percent increase in price

“In previous Audience Cost Calendar reports it seemed that specific audience segments changed specific to cyclical trends,” said Bill Guild, vice president, product management and marketing at ChoiceStream. “However, for the past two months, the top ranked segment, Careers: Customer Service, remained consistent. Hopefully this is yet another indication that the economy and job market are recovering. Another indication of a recession turn around is the increased interest in travel and destination specific inventory. Eight of the top ten segments were travel destinations with Italy and Greece in the number two and three spots, respectively.”

Vacation and Travel
With the summer travel season approaching, it’s not surprising to see that eight out of the top ten ranking segments in April were travel related. Leading the May Audience Cost Calendar in relative cost was Italy and Greece segments, followed by the South Pacific and Spain. Other spikes in the travel segment include warmer destinations including: Australia & New Zealand, Mexico and Central America.

Anniversary Segment Highlights Spring Wedding Season

The Holiday and Event: Anniversary segment jumped to the number eight spot on the list, potentially predicting an early shopping season for summer wedding gifts or a shift to earlier season weddings from the more common June time frame.

To view the full infographic, complete dataset and the most active categories for the month of April, take a look at ChoiceStream’s Audience Cost Calendar located on the company’s newly relaunched website that can be found here.

About ChoiceStream
ChoiceStream improves ad relevance and digital campaign performance by programmatically selecting optimum advertising opportunities based on a dynamic understanding of consumer’s active preferences. With an extensive first and third party data network enhanced by proprietary data, ChoiceStream can target and convert the most valuable consumers in real-time. ChoiceStream is headquartered in the Innovation District of Boston and works with industry leading brands and their agencies. For more information on ChoiceStream, please visit www.ChoiceStream.com.

OwnerIQ’s New Pre-Roll Capability Targets In-market Shoppers

Otilia Otlacan — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:00:28 +0000

New video capability is powered by unique retailer, manufacturer and e-commerce data

BOSTON - OwnerIQ, the inventor of Path to Purchase Media, has announced the launch of its new pre-roll product, which will enable advertisers to target shoppers from specific premium retailers and other top e-commerce websites with pre-roll impressions as they browse the web.

“Brands spend millions of dollars on national and local TV advertising to support their retail channel”

OwnerIQ’s unique targeting solutions enable advertisers to target online ad messages to consumers based on the products and brands that they are browsing on e-commerce and transactional websites. Early last year, the company launched its Retailer Branded Audience product, a targeting solution comprised of the website audiences of specific premium retailers – giving brands a unique way to drive sell-through in their retail channel with their online ad dollars. Through its in-house demand-side platform, OPTMS, OwnerIQ is now able to combine pre-roll inventory with targeting data based on consumers’ browsing behavior on their retail partners’ websites.

OwnerIQ believes this will be a game changer for many of their brand advertisers that sell products through retail. “Sight, sound and motion is still one of the most effective methods to deliver a brand message to consumers,” said OwnerIQ CEO and Cofounder Jay Habegger. “Today, brands that deploy video assets, whether through TV or digital, to support their retail channel have limited targeting options. We are offering these brands a way to get their video ad in front of consumers who have explicitly identified themselves as a shopper of a specific retailer.”

In addition to online video buyers, Nick Vallante, Media Director at Carat thinks these types of solutions will be attractive to TV buyers as well. “Brands spend millions of dollars on national and local TV advertising to support their retail channel,” said Vallante. “While it is still an effective medium, it can be very expensive and have a notable percentage of waste due to its targeting limits. Solutions like OwnerIQ’s pre-roll product are interesting because they can be a very efficient way to extend the reach of our TV campaigns against our retailers’ customers, making it a good complement to our TV buys.”

Habegger says that the company’s OPTMSplatform is integrated with the major video inventory platforms, which gives it access to approximately 90% of all pre-roll inventory available via RTB (real-time bidding) in the US and Canada.

This story appeared first in the E-Commerce Times.

About OwnerIQ

OwnerIQ is pioneering the concept of Path to Purchase Media. They transform consumers’ interactions with products and brands along the path to purchase into powerful new online advertising solutions and marketing channels.

The companies’ Path to Purchase targeting solutions are powered by their unique data and technology. Their data is directly sourced from over 300 data partners comprised of some of the most popular websites used by consumers along the path to purchase: Retailers, Manufacturers, Price Comparison Engines, Coupon Websites, and Product Support Sites.

OwnerIQ’s technology was designed specifically to maximize the performance of their unique Path to Purchase data in the world of programmatic buying. CoEx is their data management platform (DMP) which tags and catalogues over 1 billion consumer product and brand interactions per month. OPTMS is their demand side platform (DSP) which is integrated with every major inventory pool – seeing billions of pre-filtered advertising opportunities via real-time bid (RTB) daily.

Interview: Chris Mann, VP Product Management at Bizo, on Targeting Business Audiences

Otilia Otlacan — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:00:26 +0000

Otilia Otlacan: Bizo has recently announced the launch of Bizo Data Solutions, enabling B2B companies to efficiently engage their target audiences across an entire marketing funnel. Can you tell us more about the type of company benefiting most from Bizo Data Solutions?

Chris Mann: Bizo Data Solutions is designed to benefit brands and enterprise companies that have heavily invested in building out their existing “marketing technology stack,” including CRM, marketing automation, web analytics, content management, data management platforms, and media channels.

Otilia Otlacan: Social platforms are notoriously difficult to integrate with. How does Bizo Data Solutions work with social media campaigns, what have you found to be the most challenging?

Chris Mann: Social media continues to hold a lot of promise for today’s marketers as companies are discovering that their prospects and customers are increasingly on social channels not only at home, but also during the workday. The way marketers use Bizo Data Solutions in conjunction with social media channels will vary across companies depending on their specific business needs. We currently have one client who is exploring how to add Bizo data to its social link shortener in an effort to determine the business demographics of its social audience. Outside of Bizo Data Solutions, we have multiple customers who are using our social advertising capabilities to reach their target audiences on LinkedIn and Facebook. I think the main challenge with social media, and any other marketing channel for that matter, will be for marketers to determine how each channel fits within the larger attribution picture when it comes to determining the ROI driven by specific tactics and strategies.

Otilia Otlacan: What types of metrics and dashboards are available through Bizo Data Solutions? Could we see a screenshot of the reporting interface?

Chris Mann: Bizo Data Solutions integrates with marketing technologies including Adobe® AudienceManager, Salesforce, Eloqua, BlueKai, [x+1], Google Analytics, and more by powering them with our demographic data on more than 120 business professionals. As such, our customers will see the value in the analytics and dashboards that reside within these systems. However, when marketers combine Bizo Data Solutions with Bizo Advertising Solutions, which provides powerful, targeted display advertising, marketers can truly begin to reach their prospects anywhere on the Web. Through Bizo Advertising Solutions, marketers can use audience analytics to determine if they’re driving their target audiences to their websites, and trend display ad campaign performance over time. Below is a screenshot from Bizo’s own audience analytics dashboard demonstrating how we’ve been increasing traffic from our own target audience (marketers) to the Bizo website since the beginning of the year—a trend that validates that our programs are indeed reaching the right audience!

Otilia Otlacan: Bizo is currently focused on the much sought-after U.S. business audiences. Is there any plan to extend the reach outside the U.S.?

Chris Mann: In addition to the U.S., we have a strong presence in both Canada and the United Kingdom. Since many of the 600+ brands we support are leading, global brands, we’ll continue to keep a close watch on the needs of our clients to help prioritize as we expand internationally in the future.

Otilia Otlacan: What’s next for Bizo?

Chris Mann: Bizo will continue to strive to be the ultimate choice for B2B marketers when it comes to reaching their target audiences anywhere online and at every stage of the marketing funnel. Our focus has always been on providing unparalleled precision when it comes to B2B targeting, and in just the last twelve months, we’ve expanded our capabilities to support this effort with social ad targeting, CRM retargeting, company targeting, and more. As for Bizo Data Solutions, we will continue to focus our product development on Bizo’s role “behind the firewall,” partnering with other marketing technology providers who will join our mission to break down information siloes and empower marketers to use their data more effectively.

About Chris Mann, VP of Product Management at Bizo
Leading product management at Bizo Chris has a passion for building new businesses. With over 20 years product management and sales experience Chris comes to Bizo from Coremetrics where he is credited with building the market leading real time product recommendation business for e-commerce. Previous to Coremetrics he held multiple product management roles with IBM’s WebSphere business unit over a 10 year span. Chris is passionate about family and all things cycling. In his free time can be found on the roads and trails of Marin County.

About Bizo
Bizo is how B2B marketers identify and reach their target audiences online. Fueled by Bizo’s audience of more than 120 million professionals around the world, including more than 85% of the U.S. business population, the Bizo Marketing Platform can precisely target business people by specific business demographic criteria. Bizo’s customers use the platform’s data management and targeting capabilities to reach audiences anywhere they travel online and engage those that come to their websites, landing pages, and social channels. Bizo has earned the confidence of more than 600 SMB marketers and large global brands including AMEX, Mercedes Benz, Monster, Salesforce.com, Porsche, Microsoft, AT&T, and UPS who use Bizo to impact every stage of their sales and marketing funnels.

Precision Health Media & Spongecell Partner to Provide Powerful Online Video Ad Solution For Pharma Brands

Otilia Otlacan — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:00:24 +0000

NEW YORK - Precision Health Media, the leading source for digital health media with 61 million users a month (comScore) and Spongecell, a leader in interactive advertising solutions, have partnered to give pharma brands unparalleled targeting and engagement in brand-safe environments.

“We have heard from several media agencies that inventory for contextually relevant placements for Rx video ads is extremely limited. By combining the high engagement of Spongecell creative with PHM’s vast reach and contextual technology we are jointly delivering a very innovative video solution for Rx brands”

With Precision Health’s new video channel, pharma marketers can pair the massive reach of PHM and its laser-targeted ConditionMatch^® technology with engaging, easy-to-build Spongecell ad units.

ConditionMatch^® finds the top-performing content pages for a pharma brand’s video, while Spongecell’s technology presents the video in a highly engaging creative unit. The interactivity of Spongecell’s ads boosts consumer engagement by 154% over standard, static ads. Moreover, PHM’s Video Channel needs no special player to take advantage of any and all standard banner inventory.

Spongecell’s technology enables this across-the-web scalability by embedding video in a banner ad without going over the 40K file size restriction. And unlike other video solutions, which can be an interruption in the user experience, Spongecell’s in-banner video technology requires users to scroll over the banner to initiate the video ad.

With this new offering, pharma brands are able to leverage their TV campaigns and other video assets to deliver scale in contextually relevant environments online. This is key to expanding brand awareness. “We have heard from several media agencies that inventory for contextually relevant placements for Rx video ads is extremely limited. By combining the high engagement of Spongecell creative with PHM’s vast reach and contextual technology we are jointly delivering a very innovative video solution for Rx brands,” stated Bill Jennings, CEO, Precision Health.

“With engaging interactive features, like our user-initiated in-banner video player, and unparalleled ease-of-implementation, Spongecell has been fortunate enough to work with leading brands and ad agencies,” said Ben Kartzman, CEO, Spongecell. “We are very excited to partner with Precision Health to deliver our solution to their pharma clients. PHM understands the unique needs of the pharma industry and provides the kind of high-precision targeting that Pharmas need in order to maximize the impact of their interactive banner ads.”

Precision Health’s ConditionMatch® uses contextual technology and historical performance of health content (without cookies) to rank pages across its 220 site partners.

About Precision Health Media

New York-based Precision Health Media (formerly Good Health Media) delivers specific health condition audiences to pharma and consumer brands. The company is backed by Metamorphic Ventures, Cava Capital and several individual investors including Mike Perlis (CEO Forbes), Rick Thompson/Larry Braitman (Founders Adify, Flycast), Joe Apprendi (Founder Collective), Richard Forman (Health Venture Group), Geoff Judge (Partner iNovia), Bill Benedict (Alpine Meridian), Chris Young (Founder Digital Broadcasting Group). ConditionMatch is a trademark of Precision Health Media. For more information, visit www.precisionhealthmedia.com.

About Spongecell

Spongecell is an award-winning advertising technology company that transforms standard ads into dynamic, interactive ad experiences that run anywhere on the web. Spongecell’s data-driven ad solutions help brand advertisers and their creative and media agencies deliver more effective video and display campaigns and better analyze consumer engagement. An independent, privately owned company, Spongecell is headquartered in New York City and has offices across the United States and Europe. For more information, visit www.spongecell.com.

BlueKai Offers New Methodology For Ensuring Data Accuracy

Otilia Otlacan — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:19:09 +0000

Data Management Company Rolls Out Premium Demographic Data Using “Wisdom of the Data Experts” Validation Approach

Cupertino, Calif. – BlueKai, the only end-to-end SaaS solution for data management, analysis and activation, today announced a new methodology designed to provide brands and marketers with qualified third party data through a consensus approach to audience validation. By letting a cross-section of public data providers judge data as opposed to a single entity, BlueKai’s methodology offers a more transparent and accurate approach to assessing the quality of data segments.

BlueKai will be deploying this new methodology in various phases, with the first installment being applied to the validation of demographic data across the company’s data offering. Immediately available are BlueKai Premium Demographic categories for gender. Age groups and Household Income categories will be available before the end of June.

“In a world of limitless audience data, marketers have been clamoring for a more viable way to ensure they are targeting the right audiences,” said Pieter De Temmerman, SVP of Exchange and Global Business at BlueKai. “We feel that the single-expert methodology is a flawed approach. There is far too much data across the digital landscape for one data provider or company to be the unchecked arbiter. We see consensus across a diverse group of data experts as the best way to validate audience quality and accuracy.”

BlueKai’s methodology for data validation works as follows:

· “Consensus” testing was run across BlueKai’s publicly available branded and unbranded 3rd party data to understand where data sources agreed on the demographic profile of a user’s cookie.

· Attributes are assigned as medium or high confidence depending on how many data sources concur and only in the case where there is no conflicting opinion.

· Premium Demographic segments are tested regularly to continue to meet the specified standard of excellence in data quality.

“Audience data validation is definitely an industry challenge and V12 Group supports BlueKai’s new approach to surfacing valuable signals that is concurred across a large ecosystem of data experts”, says Kelly Leger SVP/GM of V12 Group Digital Solutions. “This is going to be a true value-add to marketers and publishers who are tapping into demographic targeting today.”

About BlueKai
BlueKai is the world’s first and only complete enterprise data activation solution for intelligent marketing. BlueKai offers its customers a system for managing and activating all their 1st, 2nd and 3rd party data in all marketing and customer engagements. BlueKai represents the only end-to-end SaaS solution for marketers and publishers looking to maximize their cross-channel marketing efforts and create a proprietary solution for unlocking reach, scale and efficiency using data. BlueKai leads the data-driven marketing space with the industry’s first, and most advanced, Data Management Platform as well as the industry’s first, and most well-connected, Data Exchange. BlueKai currently works with thousands of companies and is currently trusted by almost half the Fortune 30 brands to activate their data. In 2013 BlueKai was named to Forbes “50 Most Promising US Companies” list as well as Fast Company’s “10 Most Innovative Global Companies in Big Data”.

AOL, FreeWheel, and Mediaocean Partner to Connect Television Buyers with Digital Viewing

Otilia Otlacan — Tue, 14 May 2013 15:00:27 +0000

FreeWheel launches FourFronts to connect the $70 billion TV advertising business with the explosive growth of IP video consumption

SAN MATEO, Calif. - AOL, FreeWheel, and Mediaocean announced a partnership which, upon implementation, will allow AOL to enable marketers to extend their existing television buying workflow and systems to reach target audiences at scale across premium digital video inventory. The announcement was made on stage by AOL, FreeWheel and Mediaocean at AOL’s Digital Content NewFront in New York City.

“Large, cross-screen buying has been largely held back by the cumbersome process in which TV advertisers have had to find their audiences in a world of fragmented screens”

This is made possible by the launch of FourFronts, a solution powered by FreeWheel and Mediaocean that enables publishers to sell to TV media buying agencies through existing workflow and systems. FourFronts also provides extended audience scale and reach by aggregating MRC accredited, TV quality digital video inventory from suppliers that have signed on to participate in the initiative.

As the #1 premium curated video network on the web, AOL is committed to bridging the gap between premium digital video and TV. Partnering with FreeWheel and Mediaocean on this upcoming launch will make AOL’s on-demand video content offerings available to TV buyers looking to follow audiences that have extended their TV viewing to smartphones, tablets, video game consoles, and other over-the-top devices.

Through its original production, curated programming, and video distribution across partners and screens, AOL is creating a seamless, high-end video experience for advertisers and consumers. AOL is reinforcing this commitment by revealing its slate of powerhouse original series and industry-leading multi-screen syndication capabilities today.

Marketers will be able to see this inventory in their existing TV planning and buying interface, powered by Mediaocean, giving them the ability to buy their intended audience on premium video inventory across TV, tablets, and all connected screens.

“The device on which consumers view video no longer defines the type of content they’re watching; it’s purely a screen,” said Tim Armstrong, Chairman and CEO, AOL. “But until now, buyers have not had an apples-to-apples comparison when it comes to buying video on the Web and TV. The industry needs to adopt standards between traditional broadcasting and video streams on the Web to create more opportunities in the buying market. FourFronts addresses a pressing need in our industry and will place AOL at the forefront of this shifting tide, getting us one step closer to bridging the gap between premium digital video and TV.”

AOL will also be the first digital video publisher to directly manage relationships with TV buyers and execute transactions through FourFronts, such as TV upfront and scatter market buying, audience guarantees, gross and target audience buying, and TV invoicing against digital inventory.

“Whether you watch your favorite programming on a television or a tablet, it is still all just TV,” said Jon Heller, co-CEO of FreeWheel, the video advertising technology company serving enterprise-class entertainment companies. “FourFronts enables TV buyers and the advertisers they represent to more easily reach their intended audiences, at scale, wherever that audience is watching but in a single holistic plan and process. We’re excited to collaborate with Mediaocean and couldn’t be happier to have AOL onboard as our initial partner to help drive this initiative.”

“Large, cross-screen buying has been largely held back by the cumbersome process in which TV advertisers have had to find their audiences in a world of fragmented screens,” said John Bauschard, President of Mediaocean. “FourFronts, with its integration into Mediaocean systems, will allow advertisers to reacquire the reach of TV and engage with their audiences without having to reinvent the media planning and buying wheel every time a new device or platform is introduced into the market.”

FreeWheel’s FourFronts utilizes existing, well-established infrastructure from the company’s Monetization Rights Management® and Revenue and Payments Management technologies that integrates tightly into Mediaocean’s PRISMA and SPECTRA systems.

The FreeWheel-Mediaocean integration brings together two companies with extensive footprints in their respective industries. FreeWheel makes revenue decisions for 15 of the top 20 top-rated primetime broadcast and cable networks and a growing number of TV and digital video distributors. Mediaocean processes more than $130 billion in media spend every year.

To learn more about FourFronts, visit www.freewheel.tv/fourfronts. To learn more about Mediaocean’s technology, visit www.mediaocean.com/prisma and http://www.mediaocean.com/mediaocean-spectra/.

About AOL

AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) is a brand company, committed to continuously innovating, growing, and investing in brands and experiences that inform, entertain, and connect the world. The home of a world-class collection of premium brands, AOL creates original content that engages audiences on a local and global scale. We help marketers connect with these audiences through effective and engaging digital advertising solutions.

About FreeWheel

FreeWheel manages the economics of content for the enterprise-class world of entertainment, offering technical infrastructure for revenue rights management and business operations, wrapped in advisory services. Founded and led by a team of executives from the world’s leading technology companies, FreeWheel’s solutions have already armed companies like ABC, AOL, DIRECTV, ESPN, NBC Universal, Sky, Turner, and Viacom with the technology and services they need to profitably scale their professional content across devices and revenue models. For more information, visit www.freewheel.tv. Follow the company @FreeWheel.

About Mediaocean

Mediaocean empowers businesses and professionals across the global marketing ecosystem with intelligent automation, flexibility, and open platforms—letting its partners define their business and future, no matter where the landscape turns. With over 80,000 users conducting 7 million transactions daily and managing $130 billion annually through our systems—across all media channels, in areas from workflow to real time bidding—Mediaocean drives the marketing universe ahead. Learn more at www.Mediaocean.com.

AOL to Launch Video Audience Measurement, Powered by Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings

Otilia Otlacan — Tue, 14 May 2013 14:00:06 +0000

New Measurement to Help Advertisers Buy Across TV and AOL Digital Video

NEW YORK - AOL announced a collaboration with Nielsen to measure the audience viewing AOL’s library of over 620,000 premium videos. The custom AOL Video Reach (AVR), powered by Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings, will express audience measurement in the language of TV, enabling comparisons between the audience of AOL’s high-quality original programming and curated premium partner content to TV viewership. AOL’s Chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong and Nielsen’s President of Strategic Initiatives John Burbank made this announcement on stage at AOL’s Digital Content NewFront in New York City.

“We’re committed to offering media buyers and planners the tools they need to reach audiences in the most efficient way possible. Increasingly, this means facilitating comparisons between TV and digital video so that they can make more informed buying decisions”

Measuring audiences instead of just streams is a significant innovation. While the online industry has traditionally been able to measure the number of video streams, it has been difficult to accurately measure audiences at a meaningfully granular level. Meanwhile, brands are looking to reflect consumers’ multiscreen, screen-agnostic approach to viewing programming and make online content an integral part of their video buys.

AVR will be a custom solution powered by Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings that provides demographic breakouts with reach and frequency for each of AOL On’s content channels. Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings will run on all ads served through AOL and be used to produce audience reach numbers. This will provide comprehensive and granular audience measurement online.

In April 2012 Nielsen announced AOL as the first premium publisher to leverage Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings to offer gross rating points (GRPs) for ad campaigns run across its properties. Adding AVR will demonstrate AOL’s audience composition across viewership of all of AOL’s video. The announcement follows AOL’s recent partnership with FreeWheel and Mediaocean that enables marketers to extend their existing television buying workflow to reach scalable audiences across premium digital video inventory.

“Video is a huge focus for AOL, and we have consistently worked with industry leaders like Nielsen to pioneer initiatives that will bridge the gap between TV and premium digital video,” said Tim Armstrong, Chairman and CEO. “By facilitating comparisons between AOL’s massive audiences across high-quality original programming and curated premium partner content to TV, we’re showing marketers that the screen on which consumers watch is far less important than the quality of the content itself and the scale of the audience it reaches.”

“We’re committed to offering media buyers and planners the tools they need to reach audiences in the most efficient way possible. Increasingly, this means facilitating comparisons between TV and digital video so that they can make more informed buying decisions,” said Nielsen’s Burbank. “Our work with AOL expands upon the work we’ve done with Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings to create a framework for marketers to easily buy across both mediums. We are committed to continuing to evolve our measurement capabilities to deliver metrics that match the true multi-platform video eco-system.”

AOL is also participating in the pilot program, announced earlier today, for Nielsen Digital Program Ratings. Nielsen Digital Program Ratings will measure audiences for TV content viewed online, delivering overnight data, including unique audience and reach by age and gender.

The AOL On Network, the #1 premium curated video network on the web, is committed to bridging the gap between premium digital video and TV. Through its original production, curated programming, and video distribution across partners and screens, The AOL On Network is creating a seamless, high-end video experience for advertisers and consumers.

About AOL

About Nielsen

Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence, mobile measurement, trade shows and related properties. Nielsen has a presence in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA and Diemen, the Netherlands. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.

Xaxis Introduces Xaxis Premium Programmatic Buying Solution to Canadian Market

Otilia Otlacan — Mon, 13 May 2013 15:00:38 +0000

Product Provides Advertisers with Unparalleled Access to Premium, Brand-Safe Inventory Across More than One Hundred of Canada’s Top Media Properties

TORONTO - Xaxis, the world’s largest audience buying company, announced the launch of Xaxis Premium in the Canadian market. The new programmatic buying solution provides advertisers with unparalleled access to premium digital inventory across Canada’s top media properties, including preferred access to inventory addressable via the Canadian Premium Audience Exchange (CPAX). CPAX is a real-time-bidding (RTB) exchange jointly developed by Canada’s largest media owners that allows brands to programmatically buy premium digital inventory across more than one hundred of Canada’s most prestigious outlets. Participating CPAX publishers include Rogers Media, Shaw Media, CBC/Radio-Canada, Corus Entertainment, V, TeleQuebec, Astral Media and Cineplex Entertainment.

“As we approach the one year anniversary for CPAX, we can point to key partners like Xaxis as proof that we’re delivering on this commitment. Working together, we are contributing to the continued growth of premium, brand safe RTB and programmatic buying in Canada.”

Xaxis Premium offers in-market advertisers several distinct advantages for running brand-safe, programmatic campaigns in Canada. First, Xaxis provides preferential access to CPAX inventory, meaning that clients can consistently and reliably buy the most valuable placements in the system, such as homepages and above-the-fold ad units. Additionally, in making campaign buys, Xaxis allows clients to easily layer both first and third-party data resources on top of available inventory to ensure they are reaching only the most relevant audiences. And crucially, Xaxis Premium enables advertisers to seamlessly integrate programmatic buying into their broader digital initiatives. This means that clients can analyze the results of their programmatic campaigns in the context of their overall media buying programs.

“In the year since we launched the Xaxis Canada office, we’ve experienced extremely strong growth, with our client base expanding by more than 50 percent,” said Rodney Perry, managing director, Canada at Xaxis. “With Xaxis Premium we are able to further extend our leadership position in the digital space, offering clients the most effective means of running premium programmatic campaigns across Canada’s top outlets.”

Sites addressable through Xaxis Premium include more than one hundred of Canada’s most highly trafficked English and French-language digital destinations including Maclean’s, ESPN, InStyle, HGTV, BBC Canada, National Geographic and CBC Radio-Canada.

“When we launched CPAX, we made a commitment to work closely with the agency community to help shape the RTB space in Canada,” said Alan Dark, general manager, CBC Revenue Group. “As we approach the one year anniversary for CPAX, we can point to key partners like Xaxis as proof that we’re delivering on this commitment. Working together, we are contributing to the continued growth of premium, brand safe RTB and programmatic buying in Canada.”

About Xaxis

Xaxis is the world’s largest audience buying company. Through its proprietary platform, Xaxis offers advertisers a single, comprehensive resource from which to reach and engage with global audiences across the universe of digital media. Xaxis does this for its GroupM agency partners, Maxus, MEC, MediaCom, and Mindshare. Xaxis, a GroupM company that is part of WPP, has a presence in 20 countries across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information, please visit www.xaxis.com.

Xaxis | Digital Brilliance

About CPAX

Launched in May 2012, the Canadian Premium Audience Exchange (CPAX) is Canada’s largest brand safe environment for real time bidding (RTB) and programmatic buying. The CPAX exchange currently reaches more than 20 million Canadians online through an innovative agreement between CBC/Radio-Canada, Shaw Media, Rogers Media, Corus Entertainment, V, Télé-Québec, Astral Media and Cineplex Entertainment. CPAX is powered by technology developed by AppNexus, the world-leader in real-time advertising technology that serves the largest and most innovative buyers and sellers of online advertising. Additional information is available at www.cpaxrtb.ca.

3 Myths Sabotaging Your Hispanic Consumer Outreach

Zubair Talib — Wed, 08 May 2013 17:00:42 +0000

Hispanic-targeted marketing is the “Electric Car” of advertising challenges.

Like auto execs, we marketers will freely admit that our current methods are short-sighted (thanks, in our case, to a seismic shift in consumer demographics), and yet we’re hesitant to embark on a new, more future-focused path because the ROI picture remains cloudy.

Fortunately, there’s good news for fence-sitters: Hispanic-targeted marketing can be simple to implement, powerfully effective, and no more expensive than the status quo. We just haven’t been given the whole story… until now.

As with electric vehicles, there’s a host of misinformation about Hispanic consumers that’s been needlessly sabotaging our efforts. So to start, let’s debunk the three biggest misconceptions about the Hispanic market—and in the process, flesh out the contours of an “emissions free” Hispanic-targeted marketing strategy:

Myth #1: Online marketing doesn’t work well with Hispanic consumers

Proponents of this myth would have you believe that digital marketing strategies (such as Web marketing and mobile advertising) are less effective with Hispanic consumers than other demographics, when in reality the opposite is true.

On average, Hispanic Internet users spend 40% more time online than other users, and generate 50% more page views. In mobile, the numbers are even more striking: 45% of U.S. Hispanic mobile users have smartphones, compared with only 34% of the general U.S. market. Furthermore, a full 30% of U.S. Hispanics use their mobile phones as their primary access to the internet.

Hence, far from abandoning high-tech marketing methods like mobile, we should be expanding our digital efforts when targeting the growing U.S. Hispanic demographic.

Myth #2: Hispanic consumers don’t spend as much money as other demographics

This myth conveniently ignores the fact that U.S. Hispanics spent over $1T in 2011, at a growth rate twice as fast as the general economy’s. In addition, U.S. Hispanics spend, on average, more dollars than non-Hispanics on mobile products and services, while netting higher CPMs (Costs per Thousand Impressions) in online search marketing campaigns—which proves they’re more valuable than average consumers when viewing highly targeted communications.

Not only are Hispanics pouring into the middle class (e.g., 25% of the 2012 freshman college class was Hispanic), they’re quickly becoming the fastest growing and most coveted consumer group in the U.S.

As the coveted “new” customers, clients, and patients for local merchants and service providers, U.S. Hispanics represent the premier revenue growth opportunity for local businesses and national brands alike.

In other words, now is the time to be targeting this lucrative market effectively.

Myth #3: Hispanic-targeted content means regular content in Spanish

While it’s true that 80% of U.S. Hispanics still speak Spanish at home, successive generations are increasingly willing to consume Hispanic-targeted content in English.

So what do we mean by “Hispanic-targeted content”? Despite the above myth, translating content into Spanish does not make it Hispanic-targeted. Rather, both Spanish-speaking and English-speaking Hispanics want unique content with true cultural relevance.

Ultimately, this involves producing new, tailored content for Hispanic audiences, and then delivering that content in a fully bilingual fashion to satisfy both Spanish-speaking and English-speaking consumers.

Life After Myth

Now that we know some traps to avoid, let’s focus on the positive:

Because U.S. Hispanic consumers are more receptive than other demographics to social media marketing, “intent-based” inventory marketing, and especially targeted communications—there’s an enormous opportunity for advertisers to engage with Hispanic audiences in ways that maximize receptivity and ROI.

National advertisers like WalMart, 7-11, Tide and H&R Block are leading the charge on capturing and influencing U.S. Hispanic consumers. Meanwhile, online search destinations like YaSabe have found terrific receptivity from local businesses looking to target Hispanic consumers.

With more than 52 million Hispanics in the United States (and growing by more than 1M per year), the demographic shift is far too massive and widespread to treat with a status quo response. These incredibly desirable consumers account for 80% of U.S. population growth. (And a growing population coupled with rising purchasing power equals huge market opportunity.)

But don’t worry: Hispanic-targeted marketing doesn’t have to mean spending more—just spending more intelligently.

The key is focus—direct and strategic targeting. Digital marketing, search marketing, content marketing—these tactics all still apply. They just need to be tailored to meet the needs and preferences of a new market.

In other words: You don’t have to treat Hispanic consumers differently. You just have to treat them personally.

Aggregate Knowledge’s Q1 Media Intelligence Report Unlocks Key Media Buying Insights for Advertisers

Otilia Otlacan — Tue, 07 May 2013 15:00:12 +0000

SAN MATEO, CA – Aggregate Knowledge (AK), a media intelligence company that brings an exact science to the art of media buying, today released its Q1 Global Media Intelligence Report. Leveraging the AK Media Intelligence Platform that combines media and audience data, the latest report identifies seasonal trends and insights for Fortune 500 brands, advertisers and agencies to reach more customers and drive increased revenue.

“We’re witnessing the end of advertising as we know it,” said David Jakubowski, AK chief executive officer. “Brands are starting to realize the importance of digital marketing and using analytics to inform media buying decisions across all channels – these insights resulted in more than $120 million media buys in Q1 alone.”

According to Accenture Interactive’s latest survey, CMOs are beginning to address the gap in digital measurement and performance by making decisions based on actionable insights.

AK’s Global Media Intelligence Report analyzed more than 27 billion impressions across Q1 to uncover key insights into customer engagement and reach, such as why marketers should advertise on one digital channel over another. With this data, brands can increase the efficiency of their multimillion dollar media budgets, resulting in better reach and more sales.

The report looks at cost, reach efficiency, user quality and funnel attribution indices across the four most prevalent channels in the digital marketing world – exchanges, networks, portals and social. Key highlights for 2013 Q1 include:

• Exchanges continue to be cost effective. Coming off the high season of Q4, portals delivered the lowest cost at 2.5 times below the indexed industry average

• Portals and social continue to drive reach efficiency, with portals improving 5 times quarter over quarter

• Social continues to deliver the highest quality users, performing 65 percent better than the industry overall and 33 percent better than the next best channel

• Social influence in the attribution funnel increased 61 percent from Q4 highlighting its value when looking at all customer touch points

“AK’s quarterly report has illustrated the power of using Multiple Touch Attribution (MTA) as a measurement lens [over Last Touch Attribution],” said David Carrel, Senior Vice President at Digitas. “This is consistent with Digitas’ use of MTA enabling our clients with a competitive advantage in driving increased revenue.”

Download the full report and infographic here. Connect with AK on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

About Aggregate Knowledge
Aggregate Knowledge (AK) is the only media intelligence company that offers advertisers and agencies an exact science to pinpoint where to reach highest performing customers in a single platform. AK’s patented Media Intelligence Platform™ (MIP) is the only data management solution that combines both media and audience data, enabling marketers to most effectively allocate media dollars, resulting in increased reach, higher sales and dramatically improved media spend efficiency. To learn more, visit www.aggregateknowledge.com.

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