The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has released a report demonstrating how much COVID-19 has impacted advertising.
As the coronavirus pandemic began impacting businesses, advertising was one of the areas hardest hit. The IAB conducted a survey of 242 companies to see how the pandemic has changed advertising, and how it will continue to do so going into 2021.
In a bit of good news for the industry, the IAB projects that digital advertising will see an overall increase of 6% in 2020, compared to 2019. That’s where the good news ends, however, as overall advertising across all mediums is expected to drop by 8%. Traditional media advertising is to blame for the drop, experiencing as much as a 30% decline.
Looking ahead to 2021, as much as 70% of businesses have ballpark estimates of their budget at best, are not clear or have no idea how much they plan to spend. Those buyers that do have some idea of their 2021 budget, plan to spend 5.3% more than in 2020.
While the pandemic continues to take an obvious toll, one thing is clear: digital advertising is coming into its own as a result.
Like many businesses, Tommy John was launched out of a personal need to solve a problem. Tom Patterson, CEO of Tommy John, was inspired to start his now wildly successful clothing company Tommy John because he couldn’t understand why nobody was doing anything to fix the undershirt and underwear problem he was having.
My background is I’m a former medical device salesman. I was like Will Smith and The Pursuit of Happiness selling medical devices. As my suiting and dress shirting was becoming more fitted and tailored I couldn’t figure out why all the undershirts in the market were designed to be form-fitting for a UPS box. I’d have to tuck them into my underwear, I’d buy a size bigger so they’re longer and they’d bunch up and shrink and stretch out and turn yellow.
I ended up drawing a sketch with my limited art skills which took about an hour. Erin (Erin Fujimoto, co-founder) and I went to the garment district in downtown Los Angeles, bought some fabric, took it to a dry cleaner who had a tailor inside and said could you sew some prototypes together. Ten shirts later I sent them to friends and they loved them. We ended up making 200 shirts and then built a two-page PayPal checkout website in April of 2008 Tommy John was launched, really out of a problem that I had that I wanted to solve and then learned that many men suffer from the same issue.
I Didn’t Want to Be This Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda Guy
Launching Tommy John came from a personal need. I had lawn mowing businesses and snow blowing businesses that I had started before. Then I was watching The Big Idea, a TV show with Donny Deutsch, it was really Shark Tank before Shark Tank and a lot of entrepreneurs had ideas and I thought what’s my idea? This undershirt was the idea.
Fast forward to Fall of 2008, I was laid off my medical sales job and I read an article that there’s no better time to start a company than during a recession. I didn’t want to be this coulda, woulda, shoulda guy, ten years later having these regrets. What if I would have started this company, I had this idea, I wasn’t married yet, we didn’t have kids, didn’t own a home, and I thought there’s nothing really to lose. I can always go back and get another medical sales job but I didn’t want to have any regrets.
I called a buyer at Neiman Marcus. My background was strategic selling and I was trained on how to get to decision makers, but instead of selling a medical device I was now selling underwear. Obviously, not as scientific and not as life-saving, some argue it maybe is, and we were launched into Neiman Marcus in 2009.
Tommy John’s DNA is All About Comfort
I thought at some point a business idea would come to me and it happened to be when I was at a hospital doing a presentation and everything was tucked in, but my undershirt was up to here like a midriff. Why doesn’t anyone fix the undershirt problem? Then it led to my underwear riding up. Why doesn’t anyone make underwear that stays in place through movement? It really is all rooted in comfort and I think Tommy John’s DNA is all about comfort. I think what you see in the market today with women wearing leggings everywhere and flats taking over high heels people just want to be comfortable.
It’s the enabler and the catalyst of change, it is the glue that binds everything together. If you look at the most constant thing in our lives it’s our mobile phones. We’re sitting on a 95% mobile penetration rate and 60% smartphone penetration, according to We Are Social.
Your Digital Transformation
You need a strategy, you need optimization, measurement, tactics and time. All of these are very important for your digital transformation. I believe that through my many years of sitting with customers, and especially with marketers, we’re losing our way a bit. We are becoming obsessed with the new and we are overwhelmed by the pace and how quickly things are moving around us.
At the same time, we’re using tactics instead of strategy. We as marketers need to go back to the basics in order to get us future fit for tomorrow’s realities.
The Rise of the Connected Marketer
It’s not anything new, you probably should know this because it’s the underlying principles of marketing. The future marketer is going to be a conductor of Technology, creating seamless experiences, really a symphony of technology and experiences for our customers. This is going to be the future.
What is a connected marketer? The more connected devices we have in our lives the more constantly connected we are. The more constant connection we have, the more we go into a state of connectedness and the more we are in a state of connectedness the more our behavior is changing. That is what we call the connected individual. They are attracted to connected brands and this leads to the rise of the connected marketer.
We’re living in the age of ubiquitous connectivity where we’re always constantly connected. This is the reality of what’s happening today. As devices inside the homes become more prevalent and we embrace IoT, the Internet of Things, this is a big drive for the connected marketer. As we go about our lives we switch seamlessly from our digital selves to the physical world that we live along with.
Call it what you want, the Internet of Things, the Internet of intelligence, the Internet of me or the internet of everything, but as IoT starts growing and advances and is evenly distributed, we are going to collect so much data.
Our Mobility is Changing the Way We Think and Act
The knowledge that you are living in a state of a constant connectivity is more important than the means of connection. It’s not about the technology, it’s about the fact that you’re constantly connected as your digital self. If we look at our young generation, the younger the consumer the more digital connections they have. But we need to understand that there is no difference for them with physical and digital.
The smartest brands in the world know this to be true. It’s so true what Mark Pritchard said, “When 5 billion customers shift their habits, you shift with them.” When our behaviors change, we need to change with our customers.
Today, we have the ability to be a shopper, connected consumer, connected patient and connected passenger.
The Connected Marketer Meets the Needs of the Connected Individual
The most important thing to remember is that the connected marketer creates, develops and maintains a brand that understands and meets the needs of the connected individual and much more.
Three are four human dimensions of a connected marketer. They merge physical, digital, emotional, and sensorial brand experiences. The first one is building understanding. As marketers we know we need to build an understanding, but most of the businesses fail because they don’t understand their customers’ needs and what needs they need to fill.
Facebook is using technology to blend ads into their HTML, making ads indistinguishable to their content in order to prevent ad blocking. This only works when viewing the full HTML version of Facebook, not their mobile version or their mobile app.
In a rather soft sell approach, they mixed adding more intuitive and granular controls for Facebook users with the very bold step of blocking the ad blockers. Facebook is actually changing how ads appear in the code, giving ad blockers nothing to block.
“First, we’re expanding the tools we give people to control their advertising experience,” Andrew Bosworth, VP, Ads & Business Platform for Facebook announced. “Second, we’re providing an update on our approach to ad blocking on Facebook. As we offer people more powerful controls, we’ll also begin showing ads on Facebook desktop for people who currently use ad blocking software.”
Many users of ad blocking software may not be happy that ads are now appearing, but Facebook is counting on their new Ad Preference controls combined with their typically more relevant ads to counter this sentiment. After all, Facebook has an immense database on everything we do and say on their platform, they ought to be able to serve ads that appeal to our interests.
“For the past few years at Facebook we’ve worked to better understand people’s concerns with online ads,” says Bosworth. “What we’ve heard is that people don’t like to see ads that are irrelevant to them or that disrupt or break their experience. People also want to have control over the kinds of ads they see.” He says that Facebook ads “complement, rather than detract” from your online experience.
Facebook Refuses to Pay Ransom
“Some ad blocking companies accept money in exchange for showing ads that they previously blocked — a practice that is at best confusing to people and that reduces the funding needed to support the journalism and other free services that we enjoy on the web,” said Bosworth in slamming ad blocking extortionists. “Facebook is one of those free services, and ads support our mission of giving people the power to share and making the world more open and connected.”
One bit of news, Facebook has actually been approached by ad blocking companies according to Bosworth to pay what some consider a ransom in exchange for not blocking users who have installed their ad blocking software. “Rather than paying ad blocking companies to unblock the ads we show — as some of these companies have invited us to do in the past — we’re putting control in people’s hands with our updated ad preferences and our other advertising controls.”
“The truth is that adblocking is really a bunch of profiteers that are holding our industry for ransom,” explained Anna Hickey, Managing Director Maxus UK at the 2016 Shift conference. “What’s actually going on is they are going into our publishers and demanding a significant proportion of their revenues in order to be included in a white list.”
Finally, a major publishing platform is fighting back and this just may turn the tide against these ad blocking profiteers.
How Facebook is Blocking Ad Blockers
Unlike most publishers who rely on third-party ad serving companies where the ad code is relatively easy to identify and thus block, Facebook controls the serving of ads. It is making changes to its code so that its ads are indistinguishable between its other content. Facebook is able to bypass the ad blockers because they are doing everything in house. The content and ads get served at the same time and wrapped in the same tags so ad blockers don’t have a chance to filter them out.
It must have faced technical challenges because otherwise it would have done this much earlier.
For smaller publishers, there are a new batch of companies that have risen up to help them block the blockers. They include Secret Media, PageFair, Admiral, BlockAdblock, Yavli and Sourcepoint. Some of these companies have raised millions of dollars in the venture markets.
Facebooks adds Granular Ad Controls for Users
Using the carrot and stick approach, Facebook also announced more granular ad controls for users. They have improved Ad Preferences so that users can select not to view certain types of ads or ads from specific businesses.
“If you don’t want to see ads about a certain interest like travel or cats, you can remove the interest from your ad preferences,” says Bosworth. “We also heard that people want to be able to stop seeing ads from businesses or organizations who have added them to their customer lists, and so we are adding tools that allow people to do this.”
“These improvements are designed to give people even more control over how their data informs the ads they see,” he added.
Adblocking is a Serious Issue
Adblocking blocks 26% of all ads according to a recent IAB Report, and Facebook is a member of the IAB. However, over 41% of Millennials are blocking ads and those are the majority of Facebook users.
I hate the ad-block profiteers,” Randall Rothenberg told the audience at the opening keynote of the 2016 IAB Annual Leadership Meeting. Rothenberg is President & CEO at Interactive Advertising Bureau.
“The ad-block profiteers are building for-profit companies whose business models are premised on impeding the movement of commercial, political, and public-service communication between and among producers and consumers,” says Rothenberg. “They offer to lift their toll gates for those wealthy enough to pay them off, or who submit to their demands that they constrict their freedom of speech to fit the shackles of their revenue schemes.”
For more information on the state of ad blockers and how publishers are fighting back, read the report, Ad-pocalypse Now? I Think Not!
What is the appropriate way to compare the audiences of an online video series and a television series? This controversy can also be called… The Upfronts vs. the Newfronts!
The Upfronts is where ad agencies on behalf of advertisers buy TV ads in bulk and also get presented with pitches by the various networks. The Upfronts have been around since 1962. The Newfronts are the digital equivalent, mostly featuring premium online content such as made for YouTube professionally produced series. The Newfronts have been gaining steam over the last few years but actually began in 2008. The Newfronts and Upfronts were just held back to back in New York City.
What’s provoking jabs by TV execs such as CBS CEO Leslie Moonves, is that it’s becoming clear that the Newfronts and Upfronts are competing for the same ad dollars. The budgets from advertisers of premium online digital video is coming out of the original budgets for TV commercials. For instance, ad agency Magna Global announced at the Newfronts that they are shifting $250 million from TV to digital in 2016.
At an Upfront breakfast speech, Moonves told the audience, “When it comes to digital, “The bloom is off the rose and the lack of effect of digital advertising are “absolutely true.” According to Adweek he put it this way:
As for other networks highlighting their success in specific demographics during upfronts, Moonves noted, “different people brag about statistics that they just made up last week.”
Moonves joined the chorus of broadcasters who are swinging back this week at the debatable claims coming from digital companies. “There’s a lot of stats that aren’t true,” said Moonves. “We see [ad] money coming back to the network. The bloom is off the rose [for digital].”
The Wall Street Journal Thursday added fuel to the fire by questioning a comparison of the audience size of the TV show “Pretty Little Liars” and the YouTube show “How to Survive High School”. At the Newfronts Fullscreen said that the online show, “How to Survive High School” has amassed 36 million views since it launched last year, while in comparison “Pretty Little Liars” had 2 million viewers. This is a weak statistic, but it’s meant to illustrate the growing reach of premium online video content, not that the YouTube show is actually more popular than “Liars.” Per WSJ “Pretty Little Liars” has been averaging 2.5 million viewers an episode since January based on seven days of live and recorded viewing.
Statistically it’s an apples-to-oranges comparison because the TV show has 2.5 million viewers every week while the web video show had 36 million views over the course of its existence. But at least those numbers are indisputable, while TV viewing is still relying on Nielsen estimates that are extrapolated from diaries and homes that installed their box.
Another argument was made by a TV advertising trade group:
Via WSJ — “Sean Cunningham, chief executive of the Video Advertising Bureau, a TV-led trade group that has been making the argument that digital outlets are overstating their audiences, said that with Fullscreen’s comparison, “the basic media math falls apart here in every way.”
The VAB made the case that a better way to compare a Web video show with a TV show is to calculate the average audience at a given minute for both shows. The group found that since last August “Pretty Little Liars” averaged over 1.6 million viewers watching live at any given minute when on the air, while “How to Survive” averaged just 850 individual viewers during a given minute.”
That way of comparison is silly and starts to make the hyperbole of online video proponents look sane. Not a good idea if you really want to make the case that online video views are overstated.
By its nature TV shows are mostly viewed live or after being recorded while online video is viewed over a much longer period of time and the period of time right after they are uploaded is irrelevant. Measuring the audience of an online video at a given point in time instead of overall may apply to TV somewhat but obviously way understates the viewing audience of online video. “How to Survive High School” had 36 million views! That is in NFL playoff territory.
Are they all unique? No. But so what? TV viewership is not unique over a multi-week period of time and TV execs don’t seem to have a problem with that. They charge advertisers based on their total viewership for the episode, even if the advertiser is advertising every week where there is substantial overlap in their viewers over time.
Another aspect rarely noted is that digital ads are viewed preroll and cannot be bypassed, whereas TV ads are routinely fast-forwarded through or ignored (bathroom break!) and this is true of the younger age brackets especially. Of course with digital, unlike TV, there is usually only one ad per episode, but that’s likely to change over time.
The point is that online digital is catching and likely surpassing the viewership of traditional TV viewership and it is freaking TV execs out!
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced the release of a new HTML5 ad validator from its tech lab. It calls this a “first-of-its-kind” online tool for quick and easy testing of mobile and desktop creative. It tests against the IAB Display Creative Guidelines, which you can peruse here.
The tool takes multiple inputs (zipped ad packages or JavaScript ad tags) for validating ads and examines recommendations for guidelines for file weights, file requests, shared libraries, progressive video, and ad load (including sub-load criteria).
The tool also gives insights into what the IAB considers additional factors that are relevant to optimizing creative. These include things like file types in the creative (images, JavaScript, HTMLS, etc.); breakdown of file types by weight; all URLs accessed by the ad; snapshots of how the ad displays at one-second intervals (to show progression over time); click tags or links (to specific landing pages/redirects); and CPU usage.
“As the industry rallies around the need for optimal user experience, the HTML5 Ad Validator will play a vital role,” said Scott Cunningham, GM at the IAB Tech Lab. “Ads that are designed with load time, file weight and other key elements top-of-mind will break through the clutter across digital screens.”
“HTML5 is at the foundation of today’s cross-screen creative,” said Anna Bager, SVP and GM, Mobile and Video at the IAB. “The combination of the HTML5 Ad Validator and the update to the HTML5 for Digital Advertising paper will prove to be powerful assets for the industry, as consumers demand better user experience across screens and advertisers require seamless creative to support that demand.”
At the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Annual Leadership Meeting, AOL announced the launch of ONE by AOL: Publishers bringing together the company’s content and distribution capabilities.
The company says the offering will simplify “an overly complex ecosystem and provide holistic, tailored solutions for publishers.” It comes as the result of six years of AOL investing over $1 billion in publisher technologies. It includes audience engagement, analytics, content distribution, and revenue management elements.
“Publishers face many obstacles and challenges in navigating the complexities of today’s media environment, and the walled garden technology solutions available to them today is underservicing their needs to capitalize on the consumer shift to mobile and video,” said Tim Mahlman, President of Publisher Platforms at AOL. “With ONE by AOL: Publishers, AOL is drawing on world-class, publisher-minded teams and technology solutions to redefine monetization and empower publishers to capture the maximum value of their content.”
The product is “tightly connected” with the ONE by AOL buying platform, the programmatic platform AOL launched in 2014.
“It simplifies the number of platforms and partners needed to harness every type of advertising relationship and satisfy every ad buyer requirement, while eliminating much of the painful tech tax that publishers face with cobbling together point solutions,” the company says. “On average, publishers use four different supply-side platforms to sell inventory and receive less than 50 percent of the media spend advertisers are willing to pay due to the number of intermediaries.”
The company discusses data analysis and optimization, mobile-first, and video benefits here.
ONE by AOL: Publishers includes a new video activation solution aimed at helping publishers capitalize on people’s increasing consumption of mobile and video content. Publishers get access to a set of video management and curation tools and a new video content player, which provides deeper audience and performance data.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) says U.S. internet ad revenues hit $15 billion in the third quarter, which is the highest quarter on record.
This is the main finding of the latest IAB Internet Advertising Revenue report from the IAB and PwC US. The figure represents a 23% increase over Q3 last year, which was $12.2 billion. That itself was a record at the time.
It’s also a 5% increase from Q2 2015, which saw $14.3 billion.
“These landmark figures confirm marketers’ confidence in using digital to reach consumers,” said IAB President and CEO Randall Rothenberg.
“Brands and agencies are focusing ever more attention on interactive screens, following consumers as they flock to digital platforms to be entertained, engaged, and informed,” added Sherrill Mane, Senior Vice President, Research, Analytics, and Measurement at IAB.
“These numbers demonstrate that digital is a critical part of the marketing mix,” said David Silverman, a partner at PwC US. “Brands understand that interactive provides the type of rich, immersive experiences that attract today’s audiences, no matter the environment or time of day.”
IAB recently reported in a separate study that the digital ad industry stands to gain $8.2 billion a year by eliminating fraud and issues with the Internet supply chain. According to the study, fraudulent impressions, infringed content, and “malvertising” cost the industry that much annually. More on that here.
The digital ad industry stands to gain $8.2 billion a year by eliminating fraud and issues with the Internet supply chain, a new study from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and EY finds.
According to the study, fraudulent impressions, infringed content, and “malvertising” cost the industry that much annually. The solution, it posits, is to fix “badly designed business processes and repair obvious flaws” in the online advertising supply chain.
The research, conducted in collaboration with MediaLink, found that over half of the money wasted in the digital advertising ecosystem stems from “non-human traffic”. In other words, it’s coming from fake ad impressions that aren’t being generated by real advertisers or received by real consumers. Eliminating just this would save $4 billion a year, the findings suggest.
“No other report in the market today captures the full range and scope of the illicit activities identified and quantified in this study,” says Sherrill Mane, Senior Vice President, Research, Analytics, and Measurement, IAB. “Its findings should mobilize the entire ecosystem to rally around collective solutions that will protect businesses and consumers.”
The study identifies three main supply chain costs: invalid traffic, infringed content, and malvertising-related activities. The invalid traffic as mentioned prior is split into 72% desktop traffic and 28% mobile traffic.
Infringed content, such as stolen video programming, music, and other editorial content that is illegally distributed, accounts for $2.4 billion in lost revenue.
“Two billion dollars of that total is based on an estimate of approximately 21 million U.S. consumers’ willingness to spend $8 per month on what is currently classified as infringed content,” the researchers say. “The additional $456 million represents the loss of potential advertising dollars. The findings show that unless the industry takes significant steps, there is a likelihood that the number of people consuming stolen content on digital platforms will increase.”
Malvertising-related activities account for about $1.1 billion with $781 million of that coming from losses being generated from ad blocking instigated by security/malware concerns. $204 million comes from costs related to investigating, remediating, and documenting incidents of malicious ads.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced on Wednesday that it has appointed Dave Grimaldi as its new Executive Vice President, Public Policy, which means he’ll be in charge of the association’s lobbying efforts in Washington D.C.
These efforts, according to the IAB, will be focused on consumer privacy, data security, supply chain safety, advertising taxation, and other major regulatory and legislative issues.
Grimaldi is currently the Director of Public Affairs for Pandora where he has directed legislative and public affairs strategies. Before Pandora, he was Chief of Staff and Media Legal Advisor for the Office of FCC Commissioner (and later Acting Chair) Mignon L Clyburn, where he developed the Commissioner’s overall policy agenda and provided counsel.
He’ll join IAB next month, and according to the Bureau, will make sure IAB members’ voices are represented before Congress, the FTC, FCC, etc.
“Dave Grimaldi will build on IAB’s legacy as the most influential advocate for digital industry issues inside and outside Washington,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB. “He is a recognized leader on Capitol Hill, at the regulatory agencies, and in private industry – and in his 15 years in D.C., he has garnered a reputation for integrity, enthusiasm, judgment, and consensus-building.”
For its Washington efforts, IAB works with a Public Policy Council made up of over 200 executives from its 650 member companies.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released its new Digital Shopping Report finding that younger adults, ages 18 – 34, are more likely to favor smartphones for retail activities than any other age group.
“While overall, consumers are more likely to purchase using a tablet (35%) than a smartphone (28%), this younger generation is more inclined to make purchases using their smartphones (43% vs. 35% on a tablet),” a spokesperson for the IAB tells WebProNews. “In comparison, those 35-54 are more apt to use a tablet for their shopping needs and are more apt to make purchases on those devices (41% vs. 35% general population).”
The IAB shares the following findings:
– 18-34 year olds are more likely to read a product review on their smartphones (44% vs. 32% general population) and less likely to do so on tablets (32%). They’re also inclined to check prices on a smartphone (42% vs. 33% general population) and are less likely to do so on a tablet (32%).
– Those who are 35-54 are more prone to use tablets to read product reviews, locate stores, check store hours, and check product pricing (40% vs. 35% general population).
– Adults ages 55-64 are more than twice as likely to make a purchase on a tablet (34%) than on a smartphone (15%).
– Consumers 65+ are more than twice as likely to make a purchase on a tablet (26%) than on a smartphone (11%). They are also nearly twice as likely to read a product review on a tablet (31%) than on a smartphone (17%).
The IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) released its latest “IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report,” revealing that online ad revenues in the United States reached an all-time high of $27.5 billion in the first half of 2015.
That figure represents an impressive 19% increase over the first half of 2014 when the report showed ad revenues of $23.1 billion.
IAB SVP of Research, Analytics and Measurement Sherrill Mane said, “Internet ad revenue growth is being driven further than ever before, as advertisers continue to invest in new ways to reach consumers. Audiences have rapidly altered their media and purchasing habits and made digital media and mobile devices an integral part of their lives.”
As the IAB points out, growth is only accelerating with Q2 showing a 22.5% year-over-year increase to $14.3 billion, up from $11.7 billion in Q2 2014. That’s also an 8.5% increase from Q1.
IAB President and CEO Randall Rothenberg stated, “Advertisers are more committed than ever to connect with audiences on digital screens. Content is key to winning consumer attention – on mobile, in digital video, on desktop, and more – throughout the day.”
The report found that mobile revenues reached $8.2 billion in the first half of the year, up from just $5.3 billion for the same period last year. Mobile now accounts for 30%of the revenues generated by the entire online ad marketplace, it says. That’s up 23% year-over-year.
Here’s a year-to-year comparison for different ad types:
“We’re witnessing a seismic shift in consumer behavior to the always-on, connected consumer,” added David Silverman, partner of PwC US, which prepared the IAB report. “As a result, we’ve seen social continue to fuel the growth of digital, particularly with respect to mobile and video.”
Digital video reached $2 billion in the first half of the year, up 35% year-over-year. Meanwhile, search revenues surpassed $10 billion up 11% over $9 billion for the same period in 2014. Social reached $4.4 billion, up 51%.
Display revenues were $6.8 billion for the half-year, up 5% year-over-year. Display accounted for 25% of digital ad revenues overall.
As the IAB notes, the same top three advertising verticals (retail, financial services, and automotive) still account for roughly half of ad revenue.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released a new update to its HTML5 For Digital Advertising Guide to help ad designers understand how to effectively leverage the technology.
This couldn’t come soon enough. A recent study from Sizmek found that advertisers are still running a ridiculous amount of Flash ads despite the fact that they default to static displays on mobile device (which means fewer clicks).
The updated guide considers asset optimization, use of shared libraries, text and fonts, video details and recommendations, and expanded/detailed animation recommendations. The IAB says the entire guide has been streamlined for ad designers.
In addition to updates to the guide itself, its resource wiki also got some updates with more technical details. It includes a list of potential tools for using in aiding HTML5 ad development, info on browser compatibility, a list of shared libraries in common use, and links for evaluating the compatibility of specific ad creative components.
“The transition to HTML5 is paramount for improving user-experience online,” said Scott Cunningham, Senior Vice President, Technology and Ad Operations, IAB, and General Manager of the IAB Tech Lab. “The one-two punch of an overhaul to the ‘IAB Display Creative Guidelines,’ followed by this update to the ‘IAB HTML5 For Digital Advertising Guide,’ represents just the beginning of the IAB Tech Lab’s planned output on consumer experience solutions and standards – all designed to create an ad-supported digital landscape that people can enjoy without lengthy ad load times and clutter.”
“There is a reason that HTML5 has rapidly become the industry standard: It enables deeply immersive and responsive consumer marketing experiences that render gorgeously and easily across screens,” said Cory Hudson, Senior Director, Creative Technology, AOL, and Co-Chair of the IAB HTML5 for Digital Advertising Guidance Working Group. “Still, HTML5 is fairly new to a number of key stakeholders in the space, and this revision to the ‘IAB HTML5 For Digital Advertising Guide’ will be an important resource in providing best practices and helpful information, as ad designers and creative technologists maneuver their way and learn to take advantage of this powerful technology.”
You can review the updated HTML5 guide here. The public comment period will end on October 30.
The Media Rating Council (MRC) has released the results of the third phase of its viewability measurement reconciliation testing. It had conducted two prior phases, which identified requirements for vendors to follow in order to “minimize discrepancies in viewability measurement.”
This most recent phase is the final phase of testing. The MRC received data from campaigns accounting for about four billion served ad impressions across a wide range of site, placement, and creative types for both display and video ads. It found that for about two thirds of campaigns, differences between vendors’ viewable impression counts were within what was deemed an “acceptable” range. For the other campaigns, there were differences of more than 10%. They found more variability in smaller campaigns of less than 100,000 viewable impressions.
54% of the difference was a result of differing treatments of mobile viewable impressions in vendors’ reporting, the MRC says, adding that 28% of the difference resulted from vendors treating multi-ad units in different fashions for measurement and reporting purposes.13% of the difference was from differences in whether vendors opt to measure ad traffic served in a campaign by ad servers other than themselves. 2% was from differences noted in the application of certain ad verification processes and the reporting of viewable impressions within said processes, and 3% was from other causes, including issues that were previously identified in earlier testing phases.
The IAB gave us this statement:
From the moment that 3MS (Making Measurement Make Sense), a joint effort by the ANA, the 4As and the IAB, put forth guiding principles of measurement in 2011, the IAB has consistently advocated for viewable impression currency. Every ad should have the opportunity to be seen.
Today, many publishers, agencies and advertisers are employing the MRC standard for a viewable impression along with the IAB Viewability Transaction Principles. This is all good.
The findings from this most recent round of measurement reconciliation work by the MRC support the IAB Viewability Transaction Principles published at the end of 2014. In that document, we cited reasons why measurement and technology improvements would be required to get to 100% Viewability and stated that in 2015, a 70% Viewability threshold for campaigns was a reasonable goal.
In February 2015, at the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting, David Morris, Chief Revenue Officer, CBS Interactive and Chairman of the IAB Board of Directors, called for rapid improvement in the amount of media measured, the ability to measure all ad units and the need for standards and accurate measurement in mobile. Clearly, the MRC analysis demonstrates the need to move faster in solving for the root causes of measurement disparity and inadequacies. The IAB has maintained that 2015 is the year of transition. As long as we continue to make progress in isolating the causes of measurement inconsistency and remedying them, thus achieving accurate measurement, we believe that 2016 will be the year of even greater Viewability and measurability.
Now is the time to move from good to great. The path is mapped out for us: all vendors must follow the MRC recommendations to improve Viewability measurement and they must do so as rapidly as possible (lest they risk losing accreditation).
The IAB looks forward to working with all partners in this dynamic ecosystem to provide 100% viewability, based on accurate measurement, to our advertisers.
You can find an in-depth review of the study here.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has a new study out finding that long-form video is doing well on mobile screens. The study looks at data from 24 countries, and finds that 36% of smartphone users say they watch videos that are five minutes or longer on their phones on a daily basis if not more frequently. Many watch even longer videos, such as movies, on their mobile devices regularly.
In general, more and more smartphone users are watching more video of all lengths on their devices than they were a year ago. That includes 50% of those in the United States, 42% in Canada, 42% in New Zealand, 42% in South Africa, and 40% in the United Kingdom. According to the IAB, users are watching so much video on their mobile devices that it’s starting to have a significant impact on television viewing. This is especially the case in China and Singapore, where 37% and 35% of respondents respectively said they’re watching less TV due to streaming more on mobile. 22% across countries (excluding Japan) are regularly watching video on their phones even while watching TV.
“The popularity of digital video is evident across small screens the world over,” said Anna Bager, Senior Vice President Mobile and Video at the IAB, who is also General Manager of the IAB Digital Video and Mobile Marketing Centers of Excellence. “The fact that people are not only watching short snippets of programming, but committing to longer form content on their phones, opens doors for brands to be part of this impressive mobile engagement. However, the finding that viewers around the world are now video dual screening while watching TV, points to an emerging challenge for marketers: How do you grab a viewer’s attention when it’s divided between two simultaneous video feeds?”
The study found that 62% of users discover video on their phones via YouTube, while 33% discover it via social media platforms, 20% via search results, and 14% via advertising. Advertising has a higher incluence in the U.S. and Canada at 22% and 18% respectively.
Making an even bigger case for content providers to take advantage of Google’s App Indexing, apps are the “indisputably” the main method for viewing mobile video in all markets, according to the study. Nearly half said they only or mostly leverage mobile apps to stream video on their phones. Only 18% said they only or mostly use websites to view video.
28% of users said they frequently see ads on mobile video that they’ve already seen on TV. Over 80% in most markets expressed interest in tailored ads versus non-tailoring of ads. The IAB points to this as evidence of the need for relevance of ads to the video being watched, particularly in the U.S. and Canada.
“Audiences around the world are overwhelmingly open to mobile video advertisements that relate to their context and viewing patterns,” said Joe Laszlo, Senior Director of the IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence. “Clearly, this is a real boon to global marketers that want to ensure they reach the audience segments most likely to be interested in their products or services.”
In China, 33% of users indicated they’re willing to pay for video content streamed to their phones. The numbers are 25% for the U.K., 23% for Canada, 23% for the U.S., and 21% for Australia. Even still, 78% said they’d rather have free mobile video supported by ads.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released a new study conducted by Ovum looking at over 200 brand marketers and their perceptions of mobile advertising. It found that most (76%) perceive programmatic buying to be an important development in mobile advertising, but that few are currently buying programmatically.
According to the study, two in five (41%) marketers said mobile programmatic advertising would help them reach their target audiences, but only 27% are actually buying inventory that way. 18% use private exchanges and 17% use open exchanges. Some use both.
“It is clear that programmatic advertising is strongly embedded in the minds of many mobile marketers,” said Anna Bager, SVP, Mobile and Video at the IAB. “However, there is still much work to be done before mobile programmatic can reach its full potential. IAB is committed to educating mobile marketers about the benefits of this growing format and, towards that end, recently released a Mobile Programmatic Playbook. Our efforts on the mobile programmatic front have only just begun, and we look forward to increased adoption as familiarity improves.”
73% said they’re interested in connected TV advertising opportunities, while 69% are interested in opportunities in cars. 66% are interested in wearables. The IAB notes that mobile marketers that rate themselves as being “fairly or very experienced” at mobile see greater potential for these platforms (80% connected TVs, 78% connected cars, 75% wearables).
Here’s a look at buying habits:
The study found that 65% have been spending more on mobile over the past two years, and 9% have increased their mobile budget by over 50%. Budgets being affected by mobile ad substitution include PC/desktop digital (31%), TV (31%), Outdoor (20%), and Radio (18%).
87% of marketers say they’re satisfied or fairly satisfied with the performance of their mobile ads, while 8% say they’re completely satisfied. 14% expect their companies’ mobile ad budgets to increase by over half in the next two years. 57% they expect them to rise by under half.
Privacy concerns remain with 37% indicating privacy is a very important issue compared to 22% in 2013. Other concerns include device operating system fragmentation, lack of standardized metrics for measurement, lack of agency expertise in mobile, and there being too many different ways to source or buy mobile inventory.
“With mobile taking a more prominent role in consumers’ lives each year, an uptick in marketers’ potential concerns surrounding mobile privacy is no surprise,” said Mike Zaneis, EVP, Public Policy, and General Counsel at the IAB. “The IAB is in full support of the Digital Advertising Alliance’s work on this front. Its recent release of new user-friendly tools for mobile choice and transparency brings new level of consumer control to the fast-growing mobile medium.”
Here’s a word cloud looking at thoughts on the state of mobile advertising on one word:
As you know, the issue of ad viewability can be a contentious one among advertisers, agencies, and publishers, and we recently looked at this from various angles based on what such parties have been saying in the media.
Some of that contention is related to the industry standard that calls for desktop display ads to be considered viewable if 50% of their pixels are in view for a minimum of one second (for larger units it’s 30% for one second).
Ted Dhanik, CEO of digital advertising company engage:BDR shares some thoughts.
“The industry-accepted standard for viewability, set by the 3MS, is an important step in the pursuit of heightened ad quality across the board, and adoption of it is necessary for players in our space,” he tells WebProNews. “However, at engage:BDR, we don’t believe that the conversation ends there. We encourage advertisers and publishers to use this standard as a beginning, and transact on metrics that push for heightened engagement.”
He says the definitions set by organizations like the Marketing Research Council and the Interactive Advertising Bureau are a “good start” and are “much needed by the industry,” but that they aren’t a full solution, but rather “a good jumping off point.”
“The conversation needs to include what happens after a minimum standard is reached,” he says. “In our eyes, that minimum standard is great for establishing a human user. However, vendors need to offer solutions that answer needs past that- perhaps an advertiser wants to pay only for views exceeding five seconds, or perhaps they believe true engagement must include 100% of pixels.”
Dhanik doesn’t think pushing for a stricter standard is the right way to go, but rather that advertisers and publishers “need to address other factors in the conversation around viewability, so that whether or not an ad met the minimum standard is not the only measure of success.”
He thinks advertisers should push to buy ads at a higher threshold based on their creative.
“No one is going to fully consume the content of an ad at one second, and if they do, they certainly won’t recall it,” he says. “Advertisers should set the threshold based on the content of their creative. A simple creative might be great at a three-second minimum, but for a pharmaceutical brand, who has a lot of details to include, you might want to buy 20-second slots.”
According to Dhanik, publishers can optimize content to create ad engagement and monetize at a higher rate, even for below-the-fold placements.
“As we all know, content is king,” he says. “Publishers who provide high-quality content below the fold will be able to monetize those spaces better than ever before, since viewers will be spending time there, and we are now able to measure that and provide our publishers with appropriate rates.”
He says he has nothing but respect for the 3MS, noting that the association “established something groundbreaking in our industry.”
“I see a heavy push from advertisers and agencies asking for higher time thresholds, as well as full units on screen, but we wouldn’t even be having that conversation without the 3MS,” he adds.
One of the biggest issues about viewability is that there has been a lot of confusion surrounding it. We recently looked at an infographic from The Mobile Majority focusing on clarifying mobile viewability. Check that out here.
During Tuesday’s State of the Union Address, President Obama briefly touched on some proposals that may have an impact on the digital advertising industry. These include laws to combat cyber attacks and to protect the data of minors.
Here’s the full speech in case you didn’t watch it:
We are making sure our government integrates intelligence to combat cyber threats, just as we have done to combat terrorism. And tonight, I urge this Congress to finally pass the legislation we need to better meet the evolving threat of cyber-attacks, combat identity theft, and protect our children’s information. If we don’t act, we’ll leave our nation and our economy vulnerable. If we do, we can continue to protect the technologies that have unleashed untold opportunities for people around the globe.
The follows Obama’s proposal last week to require companies to notify customers of breaches within 30 days as a “single, strong national standard”. This is part of what’s known as the Personal Data Notification and Protection Act. The President says this will not only let consumers know when their info is stolen, but also make it easier for companies to deal with hacks.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau has some thoughts about the President’s proposals, and sent us a statement from Mike Zaneis, EVP, Public Policy & General Counsel.
“Among these ideas, were some extremely positive legislative vehicles that IAB wholeheartedly endorses,” he said. “The mission of securing the internet through stronger cybersecurity laws is vitally important. This is why the IAB created an Anti-Malware Working Group and formed an information partnership with the FBI in September of 2014. We also laud the President’s call for a single, national data breach notification standard. Having a patchwork of 46 disparate state laws does not adequately protect consumers’ identities. The President rightly called for new free trade agreements that would allow the internet to flourish. We also applaud the President in his effort to craft a new Federal law to secure students’ data when they are using innovative digital tools.”
“The President laid out many areas where there can be bipartisan cooperation to enact new consumer protections that also allow industry to continue to innovate and create new jobs. These are ideals shared by the IAB, so much so that the digital marketing industry has taken a lead role in ensuring that consumers have the ability to control their privacy online, creating the first ever comprehensive digital self regulatory program called the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA). The DAA was developed in coordination with the FTC and endorsed by this Administration in 2012.”
“We want to build upon these successes, but some of the President’s proposals could derail our collective efforts,” he added. “A push for controversial, European-style privacy restrictions, such as enactment of a ‘Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights,’ would make the U.S. less competitive in the global economy. This nebulous concept is ill-advised and could undermine the opportunities to deliver real results to the American public. ”
“We look forward to working with the Administration and the 114th Congress on their pro-growth agenda and to having the $50 billion U.S. digital advertising industry continue to lead our economy in the right direction.”
Not all of this was explicitly discussed in the State of the Union Address, but here’s the President’s speech about protecting consumers and families in the digital age from January 12:
And his speech on Cybersecurity the following day:
The White House Blog runs down the key takeaways from the privacy speech here.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PwC have released their latest figures on Internet advertising revenues, looking at the third quarter. According to their findings, U.S. revenues hit $12.4 billion, making it the the highest quarter on record.
Earlier this year, online ad revenues overtook TV ad revenues for the first time. The first half of the year saw digital ad revenues reach $231 billion.
The third quarter saw Internet advertising revenues in the U.S. reach an historic high of $12.4 billion. This compares to the previous record-setting $12.1 billion in Q4 2013, and represents a year-over-year increase of 17% compared with the $10.6 billion reported for the third quarter of 2013. The IAB also notes that the figures mark a 6.5% increase from Q2 2014, which totaled $11.7 billion.
“This milestone demonstrates marketers’ commitment to digital,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. “Brands are tapping into the ubiquity of digital screens, now an undeniable vital part of consumers’ lives, as they seamlessly move from smartphones to PCs to interactive televisions throughout the course of their day.”
“As marketing undergoes the rewards and challenges of the digital sea change, brands and agencies have clearly recognized that interactive advertising offers rich, immersive experiences that signal a new age in advertising,” said Sherrill Mane, the IAB’s Senior Vice President, Research, Analytics and Measurement.
“Interactive advertising is clearly maintaining its strong momentum,” added David Silverman, a partner at PwC US. “These figures directly reflect how brands are increasingly embracing digital as a must-have in their marketing mix.”
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released its “State of Viewability Transaction 2015″ report aimed at offering guidance on how to manage the “shift of digital media’s ‘audience currency’ to 100 percent viewability.”
Right now, it says, 100% viewability measurement simply isn’t possible. Instread, it recommends 70% as the best threshold for buyers and sellers. 2015, it says, will be a “year of transition.”
From the announcement:
The IAB statement heralds the collaboration among the digital trade association, the ANA, and the 4As that has stewarded the historic change in advertising measurement, but labels 2015 a “year of transition,” and calls on advertising agencies, publishers, marketers, and advertising technology companies to work together to assure the new currency can be implemented by all companies in the digital advertising ecosystem. The paper reiterates a statement made in October by the Media Rating Council (MRC), the organization charged by the industry with managing the Making Measurement Make Sense (3MS) processes, that it is “unreasonable for advertisers, agencies and publishers implementing viewable impressions as measurement currency to expect to observe viewable rates of 100% in analyses of their campaigns.”
“It’s time to set the record straight about what is technically and commercially feasible, in order to get ourselves on an effective road to 100 percent viewability and greater accountability for digital media,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB. “The MRC said it best – 100 percent is currently unreasonable. Why? Because, different ad units, browsers, ad placements, vendors and measurement methodologies yield wildly different viewability numbers. Publishers, agencies, marketers, and ad tech companies can resolve these differences by working collaboratively to make measurement make sense. We won’t do it by holding guns to each others’ heads.”
The IAB is offering up seven principles, which it says marketers, publishers, and agencies should adhere to:
Billing should be based on served impressions separated into measured and non-measured categories.
Measured Impressions should be held to a 70% viewability threshold.
If a campaign doesn’t achieve 70% for Measured Impressions, publishers should make good with additional Viewable Impressions until the threshold is met.
All make-goods should be in the form of additional Viewable Impressions, not cash, and should be delivered in a reasonable time frame. Make-good impressions should be both Viewable and generally consistent with inventory that was purchased in the original campaign. Determination of threshold achievement is based on total campaign impressions, not by each line item. In other words, some line items may not achieve threshold, but others can compensate.
For large format ads (242,500+ pixels), a Viewable Impression is counted if 30% of the pixels of the ad are viewable for a minimum of one continuous second.
All transactions between buyers and sellers should use MRC accredited vendors only.
A buyer and a seller should agree on a single measurement vendor ahead of time.
AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Yieldex have worked together on the new OpenDirect technical specification for programmatic ad sales, and have provided an early version to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), who has opened up public comment on it. Comments will be used to help spur wider industry adoption.
OpenDirect 1.0 is described as an automated, guaranteed API standard for programmatic selling and buying of premium inventory. According to the IAB, it delivers “greater efficiencies and reliability in the packaging, pricing, and delivering of reserved inventory for publishers.”
IAB VP of Technology and Ad Operations Scott Cunningham said, “OpenDirect 1.0 is valuable to the industry at-large and therefore is best served under the auspices of the IAB, where we have the resources and reach to ensure it becomes a global standard. Programmatic strategies have become a mainstay within our business and it is imperative to find solutions and technologies that will make these types of automated transactions more reliable and beneficial to all parties involved. This common set of API specifications sets the stage for direct programmatic ad sales and will allow buyers who want to access guaranteed inventory via automated processes avoid multiple, costly, custom integrations.”
Microsoft GM of Display Advertising Greg Nelson added, “Microsoft was founded on the belief that technology empowers people and organizations to do more and achieve more. Supporting the growth of programmatic premium aligns with this value as this technology alleviates points of friction that make it hard for advertisers and publishers to scale big brand buys on the internet. By removing these obstacles, programmatic users are given back valuable time to focus on what matters most to them. These new standards will serve as a catalyst to unlock pent-up demand for premium publisher offerings and help speed the migration of offline media spend to online, and ultimately empower others to achieve more.”
“Yahoo has been working hard to establish standards that will improve programmatic buying and make the process easier and more efficient for advertisers,” said Eric Lange, VP of Ad Products at Yahoo. “Common API specifications will help create a thriving digital ad ecosystem. Now, advertisers can confidently use programmatic to maximize the value of high-quality premium ad placements and get a higher return on their ad budgets.”
“This initiative and the capabilities it provides are in line with AOL’s open programmatic strategy and an extension of our AOP Programmatic Guaranteed offering,” added AOL Platforms CTO Seth Demsey. “Efficient transactions between multiple publishers and buying platforms have the potential to dramatically accelerate the growth of automated guaranteed buying.”
Benefits of the specification to agencies, according to the IAB, include liquidity of bigger pools of unique users, increased efficiency thanks to one API integration across multiple publishers, and the ability to book guaranteed delivery and access to media offerings not available on an exchange.
The public comment period will run through December 3. At that point, the IAB Digital Advertising Automation Task Force will evaluate comments, and make necessary adjustments before releasing the final version.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau has some thoughts about the President’s proposals, and sent us a statement from Mike Zaneis, EVP, Public Policy & General Counsel. 
