On Tuesday, May 8th we hosted dinner and conversation at 230 Fifth Rooftop in Manhattan. Digilant‘s Executive Chairman, Alan Osetek moderated an intimate dinner discussion on the next evolution in integrated digital marketing solutions with digital experts:
- Lauren Fisher, Principal Analyst at eMarketer
- Chris Tuleya, EVP, Global Innovation at Underscore
- Rob Freeman, Vice President at Venbrook.
As programmatic technology becomes a commodity that everyone is using and has access to, it’s even more important to have integrated teams and strategies to get ahead of the competition. Today’s CMO will be delivering a single media strategy that includes search, social and programmatic. They will be partnering with agencies and businesses that can help them strategize, implement and optimize their digital media across audiences, formats, screens and inventory to most effectively deliver on business goals and objectives.
Alan kicked off the event conversation by asking: What industry buzzwords or shifts do you think will impact digital marketing this year?
Chris from Underscore was the first to respond by saying that he went to SXSW in Austin this year and that Artificial Intelligence (AI) was the number one thing they were talking about. Other topics were automation of data and predicting what that’s going to look like. From a data perspective that’s what people are interested in, using data to predict how campaigns will perform is going to be key. Lauren at eMarketer agreed that AI is definitely big as well as the focus on machine learning and analytics for understanding customers and what that will look like. Other topics that will be important are transparency, GDPR, Customer Data Platforms, voice search and what that means for advertisers. Rob from Venbrook responded that from an insurance standpoint the industry is slow to move. The cutting edge people are having a field day with concepts like AI and other big buzzy words. Not a lot is happening in terms of the insurance space yet but in his opinion, if you are a B2C broker then you start looking for a job because you will be replaced by a robot. Alan summed up by saying that just like mobile, we were constantly hearing that this was the year of mobile, AI will probably take some time to really develop and there still a lot of value in people pulling the levers, but it will be interesting to see how long it will take to effect our day to day.
What consequences do think these shifts have had on the marketing organizations and the way they are structured or the type of people they need to hire?
When it comes to GDPR, companies are preparing as best they can, Lauren said, people are looking to external parties to help understand what the regulations actually mean for them, most people are starting off with looking into the privacy policy and consent piece, before trying to understand the data part, how do both those things work and connect together.
Are companies taking steps for connections to happen internally or is it the agency or the brand doing it for themselves?
Lauren continued by saying that brands are working in tandem with their agency or tech partners, they have to be responsible to the consumer. In order to do that they have to convey the message as best they can. Publishers are also being thoughtful about their technology partnerships, because they have an even bigger responsibility to be very clear to the consumer.According to Rob, the horse has left the barn, big data has gotten away from us. As a result I think we will see a shift back to the largest publishers controlling their data… like they did 20 years or so ago. Back then advertising was controlled by publishers. When advertising was more publisher driven, publishers had the advertiser relationships and would do the data analysis work themselves and then not share this audience data with anyone. An example is with big brands like the New York Times. I believe they will focus less on “mass marketing” and more on customer engagement. The Internet at its best is a one on one medium, not a mass medium. I think there will be greater attention paid to inbound strategies akin to Kevin Kelly’s “1,000 true fans” concept. Do big brands like the NY Times want to make an extra dollar on a CPM or do they want to sell something for a $100 to 1 million people? They don’t need to go to a third party to have the relationship that they want to with their consumers.
Do you think more companies are going to be investing in marketing attribution platforms and strategies and why yes or not?
So how do we collect the data? Chris responded. Instead of attribution, we should be asking, how is your marketing working for you. We can’t just look at a specific channel, otherwise attribution is something people are always going to chase. I have not run into someone that has a model I believe in. Lauren agreed with that response. Attribution is an understanding of the health of your org, whether it’s loyalty or sales, it has to a top level business moving KPI. I am more and more convinced that the biggest challenge for attribution is not technology but the organization, how people are compensated and ultimately how they work together that’s holding up the process.
So, how do you do it? Alan asked. Lauren continued, it’s a culture shift, you need people at the company who are advocates of attribution and collaboration, it starts at the top level of the organization and moves down.
Someone in the audience asked, what do you think the impact of the announcement that Google just made, about no longer being able to export DoubleClick IDs, will have on attribution?
Alan responded by saying that you should think about the other big networks like Facebook and Amazon who are closed, Google in comparison was more open. This move makes Google more like the other players while it also helps them be covered for privacy laws. If you are using a true third party attribution solution like Visual IQ it’s not going to affect you, but if you are only on the Google stack it’s going to be harder.
Chris also chimed in by saying that if you are not talking to the top level of the organization, then there is no point in trying to talk about attribution, as in the lower parts of the org they are not going to be able or want to share the data you need to make the attribution possible. Companies that have Chief digital Officers, a new role that teaches organizations about digital, have more chances to make attribution successful. Also, today we have moved further along, where more CMOs are digitally savvy, makes it easier to implement attribution.
Shifting topics, Do you think CMOs should be thinking about bringing programmatic in-house and why?
I have been at an ad agency my whole career, started Chris, you can make it work but the talent will get stagnant. My experience is that you need to work on different things to make your career and company grow. The challenge is to find the same quality of talent in-house, that you would get at an agency that has a variety of projects and talent. I’ve thought about it for myself, if I moved to the brand side I would be doing the same thing in 5 years, not able to improve or grow. Lauren added that she is hearing a lot about in-housing but what’s really behind the momentum might be the impression of cost savings but in reality it’s the data question. As more people use first party data there are implications of where you put that data. Thinking of a lot about the guaranteed buys, premium video, you don’t want to put your data on open market. The strategic piece is an edge a lot agencies have because they are in the marketplace and have access to all the best inventory even, if the buying does move in-house.
Chris added that it also comes down to the kind of talent you have, you are never going to be as cheap as the big guys, but we are going to be better, because it’s not a 22 year old running the business. Clients are investing in data and insights but not doing it alone, with the agency providing all our media data, they can apply it to the data on their side, letting them see a complete picture. In the past client and agency data were two separate data silos so they couldn’t put the picture together. The biggest shifts for agencies was to actually share their data to keep their clients from wanting to leave them.
Alan also added the at Digilant we noticed that people who are ramping up on our self-service platform nine out of ten times they don’t manage their actual campaigns and still need help to read and look at the data. On the other extreme companies are starting to hire data scientists who are experts at reading data. There is nothing really in the middle, you have to share the data. It’s a partnership, the technology and the agency are an extension of the brand. Brands are more willing to pay for data analyst than media buyers, according to Chris, even though the young people have no idea what they are doing, companies don’t see the immediate value of media buying experience. In the immediate future, brands want us to do the work and be pro-active on supporting them and telling them next steps, concluded Alan.
How are you defining transparency within your organization?
Transparency has been a huge battle for me internally for the last three years, said Chris. We are opening up the books now, data doesn’t lie and actually the opposite, it helps create a trust. It also puts other agencies on the spot if they don’t share their data with their clients. For Lauren there are several definitions for transparency, like tech tax, who is getting what cut, it’s a cool concept but for most companies if they actually had that data they wouldn’t know what to do with it. Most companies don’t have the right people who know what reporting should even look like. There are a lot of layers to it, but overall the vast majority, if they were given the info wouldn’t know what to do with it. For Rob there are two types of companies, ones who say they care about transparency but do nothing about it and others who are actually doing something.
As a last question Alan asked, what can marketers be doing with their display creative to enhance their media buys?
Chris said that cost is the number one challenge, our company doesn’t do creative, so how do you produce eight sets of banners, it’s too expensive. Creative makes the most sense to bring in-house, so that you get the ability to tell them what to do and don’t have to invest more money, that’s going to be the biggest challenge – taking a chance on a campaign though one creative. Lauren added that the sheer production of all the assets, and then the strategy is cumbersome, on top of what data am I using to power the campaign. For some it’s a legal thing, how do you get it all approved? For others, without understanding of the customer journey it becomes a gamble. Rob finished by saying that he agrees with Lauren and Chris, the customer segmentation process can be the holy grail or a nightmare, having an in-house creative team is a great idea and there are tons of creative people out there who want jobs.
Again, thank you to our wonderful panelists. We look forward to our next events in Seattle, June 5th, and Boston, June 12th. If you are interested in attending or speaking please reach out to us [email protected].