Tuesday’s Topics . . .

September 26, 2017Uncategorizedgmtartaglia@aol.com

HOW’S YOUR PROXIMITY GAME?: Proximity is hot in digital media right now. The ability to track consumers’ whereabouts, serve ads when they’re at/near a specific location, and determine whether or not a mobile ad actually drove a consumer into a store is fast becoming table stakes in the mobile-first world we’re now living in. But the MarTech landscape for proximity still looks a bit like the Wild West. This demands fluency around the concept of triangulation instead of just lat/long geofencing to improve tracking accuracy. Or how about matching ads served on an individual mobile device to which stores that phone visited via its MAID? And don’t forget about beacons, which are like proximity tracking in reverse, because they start with an in-store visit and then use device data to map back to the shopper. Confused yet?!? To help sort this out AdWeek had published an insightful Slack panel in the attached link. Since the panelists come from a wide array of clients, agencies, publishers you really get a sense of how each stakeholder is approaching the opportunity (and challenge) of proximity. It’s a somewhat confusing but important conversation we all need to get versed in sooner than later.

ADWEEK’S TOP DIGITAL STATS: This week’s top digital stats in the attached AdWeek link run the gamut. It’s not surprising that Facebook and Google continue to dominate digital ad sales (#1) – the duopoly now commands 63% of US digital ad revenue. It is surprising that the foodie search site Yelp is actually out billing Snapchat this year (#2) – goes to show you how the “shiny new toy syndrome” can influence our perceptions. And least surprising of all is the disclosure that FB has turned over log files to Federal investigators pertaining to Russian groups who bought political ads during the Presidential election (#7) – hmmm . . . I wonder what those ads were trying to accomplish? Enjoy the list!

FACEBOOK’S VIDEO AMBITIONS: Today’s final article from AdAge starts as a story about Facebook’s new video platform called Watch, but ends up becoming so much more. It’s a meandering journey through FB’s corporate culture, the market dynamics around video content, and the paradox of trying to build a video content platform while still incentivizing 3^rd party publishers to put their content on the very same platform. The market position FB commands with its partnership-level clients (aka Advertisers With Benefits) is enviable to say the least. But it comes with some baggage. It creates a corporate expectation that they can simply dominate any market they invest in. That attitude of prioritize-to-conquest has definitely proven itself out with Mobile and Social, but TV might be a whole different ballgame. For starters, producing long-form episodic TV content is easier said than done. So do you just outbid the networks, Netflix, Hulu and every other OTT service out there for the good stuff? And how do you get the movie studios and production houses to put their content on your site when you demand a 45% rev share of all ads sold within their content? Not an easy equation to solve, to be sure. But there’s a huge prize waiting in the form of $85B in combined US TV/Cable/OLV annual ad revenue. The only question is whether or not FB can run the right play to grab that money.

Have a great Tuesday guys!