#RebateGate. The Advertiser-Agency Disconnect. Conflict of Interest. Part 2: Nature of Relationship

The 2016 research on media transparency in the US market by K2 Intelligence and the Association of National Advertisers was fundamental in shedding light on the status quo regarding how advertisers and agencies view their respective roles in their relationship. From the advertiser’s perspective, it seems quite natural to expect the agency to act in the advertiser’s best interests. In the first part of the article, we explored the non-transparent practices revealed by the investigation. As outlined in the “Transparency Guiding Principles of Conduct” issued by 4A’s in January 2016, “The default principle in all client/agency relationships where the agency is agent and the client is principal is full disclosure and full transparency in media planning and buying, unless there is an exception that the client has agreed to in advance and is covered by a separate agreement. Further, the client/agency agreement should specify that the client is the principal and the agency is the agent. However, the same Guiding Principles also make mention of the agency’s ability to also act as principal: “The agency should always ensure that the client clearly understands the nature, implications and benefits of any opt-in products and services, including disclosed and non-disclosed models. These… Read more »

RebateGate, transparency, ad agency, non-transparent media buying, CheckMedia solution, Marketing Mix Optimisation, ROMI increase

#RebateGate. The state of non-transparency. Part 1: the K2 Intelligence report.

In 2016 the marketing industry community was shaken by a major event with potentially massive and all-encompassing repercussions. Aptly named “RebateGate”, the cataclysm was caused by an eye-opening report on media transparency in the advertising industry. The independent research behind it was commissioned by the Association of National Advertisers (“ANA”) and conducted by K2 Intelligence LLC (“K2”), leading the fact-finding part of the study. Addressing the study’s results, Ebiquity/FirmDecisions (“Ebiquity”) partnered with K2 to develop specific applicable advice and recommendations to help advertisers adjust to this newfound information and address the potential blind spots. Throughout the process, K2 put out requests for interviews, reaching out to 281 sources, finally conducting 143 interviews with 150 separate sources, which amounted to a cross-section representation of how the United States’ media buying ecosystem operates. Throughout the study, all of the interviewed participants’ identities were kept secret from both the ANA and Ebiquity, including all the individuals and corporate entities named in the sources’ accounts. Additionally K2 held full authority over the methodologies the study team applied, also having editorial control over how the report was eventually presented. What K2 realized was that within that sample they studied, there were pervasive non-transparent business practices. Out of the 117 sources… Read more »

Visiting StartUp Day

StartUp Day is a major Baltic business event that unites the business community and the start-ups. Here, experts from various fields and emerging entrepreneurs can discuss business at its different stages. Visiting miscellaneous seminars, talks and workshops included in the event’s primary line-up allows young businesspeople to gain inspiration and experience from the strongest and most established companies. Investments, smart production, cutting-edge technology are all major topics discussed at StartUp Day. AdoptoMedia did not just take part in StartUp Day but ranked in top 10 best projects of the Baltic region. At the event’s final section, the company CEO Alexey Kuznetcov talked to international experts and investors from Finland and Estonia about AdoptoMedia’s flagship product, a software suite for allocating budgets among different advertising channels. It can calculate an optimum marketing budget depending on the client company’s goals or financial capacity, as well as the current economic situation. The talk briefly touched on  AdoptoMedia’s existing achievements, major clients, technology in-use and the upcoming plans. “2017 was all about preparing for expanding internationally, handling all that pertains to intellectual property, localizing the product and forming partnerships with representatives from Italy, Germany and Israel. Entering those markets will allow the company to increase capitalization… Read more »

marketing, ad, StartUp Day, business event, AdoptoMedia,

Visiting Content Israel

Content Israel is a conference aimed at researching content marketing technologies. Among its participants are international and local agencies, start-ups and major brands. The conference discusses various content marketing strategies, hosts workshops based around case study results and provides a venue for the best speakers from international companies such as SodaStream, The Guardian, Cisco, 3m and Linkedin, among others. Content Israel itself encourages participants from different countries, such as the US, Israel, the UK and others, to share in the experience and gain knowledge needed to expand their businesses. AdoptoMedia was also represented at Content Israel in the fall of 2017. AdoptoMedia is an international start-up company with branches in Israel and Estonia. The company’s primary area of expertise is advertising budget optimization based on various technologies that include attribution and econometric modeling. At the Content Israel round table, AdoptoMedia executives discussed with other participants the matters of content influencing overall advertising efficiency, and in particular, the impact of creative materials. The abovementioned econometric modeling approach employed by AdoptoMedia allows for baseline use of creatives as an efficiency-impacting factor. The influence of creatives is evaluated using specific metrics, focus groups and neuro kit-based research being the most popular. Focus groups are best applied when a creative approach is… Read more »

AdoptoMedia, Content Israel, content marketing, marketing, advertising budget optimization, advertising efficiency

Digital Out-of-Home Advertising for a Shopping Mall Network

Digital out-of-home advertising (DOOH) has long since become a part of the urban infrastructure. Having gone a long way from their humble beginnings as lightboxes to today’s interactive media, DOOH screens are now superstable. The owner of a network of shopping malls in Croatia wanted to expand his offer and strengthen the power and value of its coverage. To that end, it was essential to set up high-quality and low-end outdoor displays with the options of purchase cost estimation, comprehensive remote health status supervision and tech support. On the initial stage it was crucial to establish a critical-mass network of 23 large-format all-weather outdoor digital screens. Most of the units are double-face totems, while the rest are wall-mounted 75” screens. All of units were placed at the most frequent passerby areas all across the country, covering all major Croatian city centers. This was important to access ATL (Above the line) advertising budgets and attract big brand advertisers. Three different types of units were chosen to cover all the districts and satisfy the local municipalities — primarily double-side screens with ultra-high-brightness 2,500-nit LCD panels. These unique HVAC driven units were expected to deliver many years of high-quality performance and minimal downtime…. Read more »

DOOH, digital out-of-home advertising, AdoptoMedia,

Case Study: Automating the Work of an Ad Agency

Major ad agencies operate an extensive number of ad projects. A client’s single ad campaign can include upwards of 10,000 ad media. Large-scale campaigns require smart planning with account for all the nuances related to the purchase of ad inventory, and proper gathering of all reports and documents once the placements expire. Characteristics of a major ad agency How do major ad agencies operate, specifically? Many clients: the agency managers service over 100 clients; Ads are bought in more than 100,000 media units annually; The agency has about 70 employees; The agency works with more than 870 contractors; Ads are placed in more than 650 cities, while different employees handle the buying in different cities; The overall process of media planning, buying, placement and closing of an ad campaign involves employees from different departments: – client service managers handling client support; – buying managers handling the media buying; – the document control or accounting department responsible for the closing of deals. This results in the following difficulties: the approval process takes a long time, since all matters are discussed and handled via email, both internally and when operating with clients and contractors; the launch of an ad campaign consists of multiple… Read more »

Universal Pictures Finds the Best Ad Format for Films

Advertising is what drives commerce, prompting even the widely established companies to think about how better to communicate their new products to the audience. Good advertising is not necessarily expensive — even the simplest media can often have a strong impact. One of such is the poster. Universal Studios, also known as Universal Pictures, is a film-producing subsidiary of the NBC Universal media group and one of the largest and oldest US film studios. In 2013 and 2015, Universal Pictures promoted numerous feature films through a variety of channels. In order to establish the impact media has on film audiences, the media agency Mindshare compiled a comprehensive econometric modeling. The goal was to evaluate the influence of different media formats (poster, TV, online, print, infoscreen + public video, radio, ambient) on the number of viewers of the advertised Universal feature films, establish the efficiency of these ad formats and determine the return on investment (ROI). Advertising posters and billboards were placed on public streets, main passenger stations, motorways, the subway and its vicinity. The analysis was based on the following modeling approach: 1. Elaborate models for each specific film: verification of the dependency between Google's search index of various UPI films and media use. 2. Visitor count:… Read more »

AdoptoMedia, Universal Pictures, advertising, OOH advertising, poster,

Visiting SMAU Milano 2017

Smau is an International Exhibition of Information and Communication Technology that has been held since 1964. The idea behind it is to present cutting-edge solutions in digital technology to a wide audience. Smau Milano took place in October 2017. More than 250 innovative international companies presented their products in a space of 22,000 square feet. At Smau Milano 2017, AdoptoMedia was represented by CEO Alexey Kuznetcov and marketing director Kristina Pustovit. Kristina will now answer a few questions about the company, its field, and its participation in the exhibition. Kristina, good afternoon! First off, could you please tell us about the theme behind Smau Milano and the product you were presenting? Discussions at Smau Milano mainly had to do with marketing digitalization. The main issue with operating offline and online channels at the same time is how difficult it is to measure their performance together. Performing estimations for online advertising, on the one hand, is a rather streamlined process, since there are dedicated metrics and analysis tools. However, when working with offline ads, there is no one clear method for doing such measurements and estimating efficiency. An advanced solution, developed by AdoptoMedia, enables you to allocate budgets among advertising channels. Consolidating… Read more »

SMAU Milano 2017, SMAU. AdoptoMedia, CheckMedia Solution, advertising channels, marketing

Effective Targeting for Fashion and Beauty Brands

Thanks to Out-of-Home advertising, fashion and beauty brands are able to plan their campaigns using increasingly smart methods for reaching target audiences. Below are the select few of such methods. 1. Use data In 2016, Timberland launched a data-based digital OOH campaign that was targeted across the entire United Kingdom. The digital campaign, which employed screens installed in public transportation and high-traffic retail outlets, displayed how dynamically renewable creatives deliver relevant targeted content. The campaign not only helped define the most suitable locations for advertisements, but also estimated the distance in steps and meters, the supposed travel time and even the number of burnt calories. Timberland used the data cleverly to communicate the OOH message to the consumers at the locations where the former can and will be reached. 2. Use dynamic targeting New technology and digitization of data in OOH bring forth plenty of opportunity for innovative campaigns. Last year the skin care manufacturer Elizabeth Arden held a campaign at Oxford Circus, a London tube station. A digital panel that was installed there, displayed real-time local air pollution data. This information, supported by the displayed evidence, motivated the pedestrians to use Elizabeth Arden products to “cheat the city”. 3. Keep… Read more »

methods for reaching target audience, marketing, target, dynamic targeting, AdoptoMedia

Ford’s Research Reveals Effective Synergy in Their Media Mix

Nowadays, traditional advertising is being more and more often combined with online promotion, which is growing increasingly popular due to the mass use of the Internet. How are these two types of advertising related, and do they impact each other? Ford Motor Company is one of the world's largest automobile manufacturers. In Germany Ford enjoys substantial popularity: in 2015, 225 thousand new Ford cars were registered, placing the brand at place 6 in the top 10 best-selling cars in the country. In 2013-2014 Ford advertised its most successful Fiesta and Focus models using various ad media. Since a significant share of new car registrations was attributed to site traffic, this caused an interest in researching the impact of Out-of-Home advertising and other media channels on the number of hits at the two models' web sites. A media agency conducted an efficiency assessment of various media types, namely OOH, TV, radio, film and daily press. Regression analysis of the Jan 2012 – Oct 2015 visiting statistics at Ford.de was used to gather the necessary data. The researchers have concluded that in 2014, OOH advertising caused 52,553 visits at the Ford Focus web site. Meanwhile, the same resulted in 14,538 hits at the… Read more »

Out-of-Home Advertising, Ford Motor Company, AdoptoMedia, Ford Focus, OOH advertising