Category: News & Press

Concrete Steps to Prepare for a Cookieless Future

by Digilant VP of Product, Wes Faris, via Street Fight

Many digital advertisers breathed a huge sigh of relief when Google postponed its announced ban on third-party cookies from early 2022 to 2023, giving the industry more time to adapt.

But this was not a reprieve but a delay of the inevitable.

A largely cookieless digital future, at least on desktops, remains squarely on the horizon, and smart marketers should be using this gift of extra time to get a better handle on identity solutions and the other tools and strategies that will be needed to execute and measure campaigns without the real-time retargeting enabled by cookies.

No one has to make dramatic changes just yet. But allocating a five-15% budget now for cookieless programs can enable advertisers to determine the best choice for them among the identity solutions providers looking to offer cookie replacements.

Identity solutions coming from LiveRamp, Lotame, and Parrable, and a host of emerging startups can do some heavy lifting currently done by cookies. These identity solutions essentially serve the same tracking function as a cookie but are based on a hashed email or other anonymized identifiers.

Because they’ll almost certainly be opt-in, what these identity solutions won’t do, at least not initially, is scale.

The biggest change for digital marketers who’ve grown comfortable with cookies is realizing that the future may not be nearly as automated as it is now. Executing campaigns without cookies will require more hands-on strategizing and monitoring of campaigns, and it will force marketers to be proactive when it comes to culling third-party data providers and ad-tech partners that rely too heavily on cookies for their data and analytics.

 

Read the full piece here.

Expert Roundup: The Rise of First-Party Data

via Street Fight

Data privacy is perhaps the most prominent topic in the world of marketing, media, and commerce. There’s a combination of handwringing and opportunistic disruption as the door slams shut on the unfettered user tracking, targeting, and AdTech norms of the smartphone era. To see what this field of players is currently doing and thinking, Street Fight rounded up industry experts’ voices, including Digilant CEO, Raquel Rosenthal:

With consumer data privacy regulations on the rise, advertisers must rethink both data collection and audience targeting strategies. They can collect consumer data in many ways, but a common thread is the demand for transparency on what data is being collected, who is collecting it, and how it will be used. Apple’s pending iOS 15 update is a good example of how companies are making it easier for consumers to access this information. Today, advertisers are rushing toward the gold standard for consumer data – first-party data – as part of the sales transaction process, and perhaps more important, when capturing data from mid-to high-interest audiences. First-party data collection is consent-driven and inherently more transparent than other collection methods, and advertisers who can act on collected data will have a leg up against competitors and the fast-changing industry.

Beyond first-party data, it’s important for advertisers to get educated on (or reminded of) all of the other data that’s available to them, including contextual or content-based data, device-based data, and search-based data. It’s easy to get caught up in what we lose with new regulations and the depreciation of third-party cookies, but there is still ample data at our disposal that can fuel smart strategies that have longevity.

–Raquel Rosenthal, Digilant CEO

Read the full piece here.

The Pot Market Is Blazing New Trails

The marijuana space is growing considerably, as more and more states permit recreational use, but serious obstacles remain

by David Ward via ANA

With an increasing number of states moving toward legalizing recreational use of pot and publishers growing more accepting of cannabis-themed advertising, marijuana brands are headed for the mainstream. Recently, Digilant EVP of Media Operations, Shaun Gibbons spoke with David Ward regarding the shift in attitude toward marijuana consumption and how digital publishers are loosening or ending those advertising restrictions.

“Cannabis advertisers can build manual site lists of endemic publishers, but they can also get access to pre-approved PMP (private marketplace) inventory through companies like Acuity Ads. If the inventory quality is uncertain, layering on exclusion and inclusion lists and investing in PMP inventory is a great place to take back some control of where your ad creatives are running.”

–Shaun Gibbons, EVP Media Operations

Read the full piece here.

The way that healthcare and pharma consumers, both B2C and B2B, interact with brands is undergoing a massive shift. Consumers are spending more and more time on digital and consuming content on emerging channels like Connected TV (CTV) and digital audio. And healthcare and pharma brands are wanting to go beyond offline channels like TV to drive brand building and sales – and they are looking for data to do so as effectively as possible. Brands in healthcare and pharma are leveraging data not only to better communicate with consumers, but to learn more about them — not just as data points, but as patients and physicians — to deliver more personalized experiences.

The goal with data is to make it actionable. And for advertisers working with Digilant, actionable data is one of the most important tools that can be used to drive connectivity between consumers and brands. 

We’re excited to share that Digilant has partnered with Lasso, the world’s most comprehensive platform for healthcare marketing and analytics, to deepen our commitment to bringing smart, healthcare, and pharma digital marketing solutions to advertisers.

Today’s most successful healthcare and pharma digital marketing teams recognize that both patient-level and physician-level data is critical to driving brand awareness and growth. Harnessing the power of over 40 billion medical claims and RX transactions made available from data sources like DMD Connects and Purple Lab, healthcare and pharma brands can reach and engage highly targeted audiences across both traditional and emerging digital channels including programmatic, email, social, connected TV (CTV), and beyond. 

“Along with the fast-growing healthcare sector and focus on consumer privacy, the healthcare and pharma industries need access to accurate and privacy-safe data and insights more than ever,” said Raquel Rosenthal, CEO of Digilant. “We are thrilled to have found a partner like Lasso who is leading the charge for healthcare marketers and creating opportunities for impactful connections between brands, physicians, and patients.”

About Lasso 

Lasso is the world’s first and only omnichannel healthcare marketing and analytics platform that allows you to plan, activate, and measure your HCP and DTC campaigns across programmatic, social, email, and connected TV — all in one place. Learn more.

To read the full announcement click here. 

 

Digilant Appoints VP of Client Services to Further Accelerate Growth

Coming off of a year of significant growth, Sandra Abi-Rashed joins Digilant as VP of Client Services

via Digilant

Abi-Rashed joins the team to further accelerate Digilant’s growth during 2020 — driven by the rapid onboarding of new business and strengthening of existing client relationships. Additionally, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic brought with it an increased demand for omnichannel media strategy as emerging channels such as Connected TV (CTV) and Audio skyrocketed in popularity among consumers. In fact, eMarketer and Statista are projecting significant growth in CTV ($11.36 billion) and Audio ($3.1 billion) in 2021. Digilant has seen 2X growth for both CTV and digital audio or podcast spend among its clients in the last year.

“As we continue to dig in with our unified approach to use algorithms and machine learning to inform marketing decisions and grow our client portfolio, we’re thrilled to welcome Sandra to the team. I can think of no better leader to ensure our commitment to client service aligns with our business goals.”

-Raquel Rosenthal, Digilant CEO

Read the Full Piece Here.

How managed service can save your brand time and money

by Kristina Knight featuring Todd Heger

via BizReport

Managed services are not new in the digital space, but with the ever-growing amount of advertising and content options, more brands are looking into the benefits. Managed services can offer brands a wealth of information at a much-reduced cost. Digilant CRO, Todd Heger, weighs in on how these emerging channels are set to disrupt the online space.

“As the vendor landscape continues to grow, especially as we see new players in identity resolution, contextual data, CTV and audio, it’s important to find a partner that can and will do the heavy lifting for advertisers. An ideal managed service partner will be platform-agnostic and will push the boundaries on digital media strategy and execution — always with the advertiser’s goals in mind.”

Read the Full Piece Here.

By  Mike Addonizio via Street Fight Mag

Beginning with its iOS 14 update this week, Apple will require apps to ask users for permission (opt-in) to collect and share data on all Apple devices, most notably iPhones.

That’s just potentially one shoe dropping in the mobile advertising space. Google has yet to announce whether it will follow suit and make the Android Advertising ID (AAID) on Android devices opt-in as well at some point.

Because it has become so mobile-centric, how Facebook/Instagram adjusts to the lack of identifiers on Apple devices may provide a broad template for advertising on mobile devices, while also offering clues for how to execute desktop advertising once targeting becomes more challenging…

Mobile advertisers looking to continue to engage audiences on Apple devices should already be preparing for the post-IDFA world and beyond. But many of those broad lessons will need to be applied in the post-third-party cookie desktop world soon enough.

To learn more about the unknowns or Post-IDFA and options for advertisers, read the full piece here.

By  Sam Bradley via The Drum

New features recently added by Twitter, TikTok, and Reddit may help brands pre-emptively spike backlash, as the platforms now offer advertisers and creators the option to moderate user replies. Could such controls be the answer for safety-conscious advertisers, or are there other ways to prevent a post from blowing up in a brand’s face?

The Drum asked advertising experts their opinion in the latest edition of “How Do you solve a problem like…” Here’s what Digilant CEO, Raquel Rosenthal had to say:

“Absolutely, advertisers are always going to want greater control. We’ve seen major brands pull advertising from social platforms like Facebook due to limited control over hate speech and the moderation of defamatory comments. In the last year, we’ve seen advancements in AI-powered moderation built by social platforms themselves, and while it’s well-intentioned, it still has its flaws. I anticipate we’ll see an uptick of third-party tools and solutions offering comment moderation that will put more control in the hands of advertisers. Will it solve the moderation problem completely? We’ve yet to find out.”

–Raquel Rosenthal, Digilant CEO

Read the full piece here.

Predictions Roundup: Organic Search and Cookie Depreciation

via Street Fight

The team at Street Fight asked industry experts for their 2021 predictions around topics such as local commerce, media, and advertising. Digilant CEO, Raquel Rosenthal weighed in on the cookie depreciation and measurement:

“As advertisers settle into the new year and face the depreciation of third-party cookies, we’ll start to see other forms of measurement, like econometric or media mix modeling, rise in importance. Standard online measurement has been built around 1:1 measurement using a cookie or a device. With third-party cookies largely going away in the next year and the “walls” of walled gardens like Google and Facebook getting higher, the traditional forms of measurement will become more difficult.

We’ll see more measurement solutions that are underpinned by identity resolution come to market. The Trade Desk, LiveRamp, and MediaMath are some examples of companies jumping in on this. Similarly, we’ll see advertisers themselves making internal changes to their tech stacks and marketing programs to support identity resolution, whether that’s adopting a CDP, investing in a data onboarding partner, or running campaigns specifically designed for list building.”

–Raquel Rosenthal, Digilant CEO

Read the full piece here.

Targeted digital advertising campaign focused on specific goals help brands reach shoppers at home

By Elizabeth Crawfod

via Food Navigator

As consumers continue to gravitate to ecommerce for groceries and limit trips to retail stores, CPG companies will need to shift more of their advertising dollars to digital from traditional. Read about specific marketing tactics and sales strategies brands can use to ensure a strong ROI when making this switch. 

“I know this sounds really basic, but companies need ot take time to think of a strategic plan when it comes to digital. There are a lot of companies out the right now that are quickly shifting dollars to digital and taking a ‘let’s see what happens’ approach… a better approach is to first identify concrete objects and measurement of success that can be attributed to digital, and then identify the best channels and tactics to achieve those goals.”

–Mike Addonizio, Digilant VP of Paid Media

Read the full piece here.