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IAB Takes Another Step Toward Standardizing Selling and Buying of Premium Online Ad Inventory

apiIf you advertise your brand online, then you’re familiar with the challenges in buying and selling premium online ad inventory for advertisers and publishers. Last year, Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo! and Yieldex started working on a standard API that would standardize buying and selling of premium inventory through programmatic technologies.

The group set a goal to shift more than 50% of inventory that was sold manually to programmatic trading. Ultimately, they hoped the shift would also cause a shift in how advertisers spend their budgets by moving offline advertising budget dollars to online advertising. On the publisher side, they hoped  the standardization would enable premium publishers to use programmatic technologies without damaging the premium perception of their own properties.

This week, a big step was taken in finalizing the standard API when the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released OpenDirect API Specification Version 1.0 for public comment.

Public comment will be open through December 3, 2014, so now is the time to read the 102-page document and have your say. Once the public comment period closes, the IAB Digital Advertising Automation Task Force will review all comments received and make any necessary revisions before a final version will be released.

According to the IAB, the goal of OpenDirect is to make automated transactions more reliable, which would benefit publishers through improved efficiency, reliability, pricing, and delivery. Scott Cunningham, Vice President of Technology and Ad Operations for IAB explained, “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 to avoid multiple, costly, custom integrations.”

Furthermore, agencies will benefit once publishers adopt OpenDirect through improved access to more unique users. They’ll also benefit from increased efficiency because they’ll only have to integrate one API across multiple platforms rather than integrating multiple APIs. Furthermore, agencies will be able to book guaranteed delivery to advertisers and provide access to media offerings that aren’t available through exchanges.

It’s important to note that OpenDirect prioritizes advertisers:

“The API takes an advertiser first approach. Both advertisers and agencies must sign up with the publisher and receive credentials. Advertisers may perform their own buys or provide consent to have an agency perform buys on their behalf; for an agency to perform buys on behalf of an advertiser, the advertiser must provide consent. The process of signing up and providing consent is publisher defined.”

What do you think of OpenDirect? Do you think it will gain wider industry adoption when the final API is released after the public comment and revision period ends? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts.

Image: Dan Craggs

Agile Executives Drive 25% Higher Profit Margins – Is Your CMO Agile?

agile executive mazeIs your Chief Marketing Officer (or Chief Brand Officer – or whatever title you use to refer to the executive who is responsible for your company’s brands) agile? If your CMO isn’t agile, you’re losing money.

That’s according to a new research report, The Agile Enterprise, from Korn Ferry, a leadership and talent consulting firm. According to the firm’s research, companies with highly agile executives have 25% higher profit margins compared with their peer companies.

That 25% is not a figure that should be ignored! However, the research found that agility isn’t one size fits all. Depending on the executive’s industry, the company’s micro- and macro-environment, and the company’s goals, the executive’s agility might have to be stronger in one area than another.

Specifically, Korn Ferry measured five areas of agility: self-awareness, mental, people, change, and results. An executive who is leading a company through new product and brand launches needs to be particularly strong in mental agility. They need to be innovators who can seize new ideas and opportunities. An executive who is working through developing a new brand architecture following a merger or acquisition needs to have strong people agility to bring disparate teams together and make the new brand architecture work.

Given the fast-changing business world, agility is a requirement today, and company’s that can’t get out of their own way eventually pay the price. Remember, business is cyclical. Companies merge and grow bigger and bigger until finally, they break apart again. Having an agile CMO is critical to brand growth, but unless the company culture prioritizes agility, even the most agile CMO will achieve limited success.

In other words, hiring agile executives comes second. First, companies need to commit to developing the processes and systems that will enable all employees, including executives, to be agile. It ties back to lean operations strategies where decisions are made for the customer and those decisions are pushed down to the lowest possible level. Employees are empowered to make the right decisions for the customer on a daily basis, and they have the flexibility to do so.

Remember, an agile person or an agile work style won’t help a company or brand if that agile person can’t truly act in an agile way on a daily basis. If the barriers to agility aren’t removed, even the most agile person will be stopped in their tracks. The companies that understand this will reap the rewards.

Image: Steven Goodwin

Email Marketing Open Rates are on the Rise

email marketing networkFor the past 14 years, MailerMailer has been conducting an annual email marketing study. This year’s Email Marketing Metrics Report, which was released this month, analyzed 1.18 billion email messages that were sent during 2013. Email marketing is still an extremely effective marketing tool, so brand marketers should pay attention to these findings.

The good news is that email marketing open rates increased in 2013. The bad news is that click rates decreased in 2013.

The analysts at MailerMailer suggest that the increased use of mobile devices to check email played a role in causing click rates to go down. It makes sense. People check their email far more frequently thanks to their smartphones and tablets, but taking the time to click through and read content is often delayed until they’re at a desktop computer (or completely forgotten).

Tips to Increase Email Marketing Success

Based on the findings in the Email Marketing Metrics Report, there are several things brand marketers can do to boost the return on investment for their email marketing programs. First, consider sending your email marketing messages on Mondays. This is the day of the week when open rates peaked in 2013. Furthermore, since email messages were found in this study to be opened most often in the first half of the day (most likely in chronological order), send your email marketing messages in the evening or during the night to get the highest open and click rates the next morning.

You should also pay attention to your subject lines. Email marketing messages with subject lines that were limited to just 4-15 characters had the highest open rates and click rates in 2013. However, even the best subject lines can’t fight bad timing.

Not only does the day of the week and time of day that you send your email messages have significant effects on your results, but the window of opportunity that you have to successfully connect with consumers via email marketing is very small. MailerMailer discovered that most email marketing messages are opened within just a few hours of delivery. However, open rates peak approximately one hour after an email marketing message is delivered.

Follow the link at the beginning of this article to read the complete report. It’s filled with interesting statistics that you can use to develop better email marketing campaigns during the fourth quarter of 2014 and in 2015. Most importantly, keep on testing your email marketing campaigns to determine what works best for your industry, your target customers, your offers, and your goals.  One size does not fit all when it comes to email marketing.

Image: Sergio Roberto Bichara

Good News for Mobile Advertising in Apps

money yes noMore than one out of two American mobile device users (58%) prefer to download mobile apps that are free but include in-app advertising than apps that cost money to download or require payment within the app later to access additional features. This data comes from October 2014 research by Zogby Analytics for the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA), which surveyed 1,015 U.S. adults who have downloaded mobile apps.

Just how much does charging for mobile apps affect consumers’ willingness to download? The research found that nearly one in two mobile users (46%) would not download all of their free apps again if they were required to pay for them, and only 8% said they would download all of their free apps again if they had to pay.

If you have a mobile app for your brand, it should be free to get the most people to download it. However, if you want your brand to get in front of mobile app users, then you should be pursuing highly relevant ad placement opportunities.

The research found that more than 65% of mobile users would not mind seeing relevant mobile ads within the apps they use as long as advertisers provide some type of proof that users’ privacy is well protected. Two out of three mobile users (66%) want opt-out choices (like they have on the web apps that they use on their desktop computers) and they want to be able to choose which brands can display ads to them.

Mobile users in the United States who download apps aren’t as advertising-averse as some would think. In fact, they prefer to see mobile ads that are highly relevant to them rather than pay for apps in any way by a very wide margin of five to one!

It’s important to note that transparency and privacy are not only valued by mobile app users, they also affect consumers’ perceptions of brands. Nearly 60% of respondents to this survey indicated that they would have a more positive perception of a company and brand if it provided a clearly visible and real-time tool that they can use to modify their ad choices at any moment. This way, the advertiser and the mobile app developer are giving the user control of his or her experience, which will undoubtedly lead to better results and overall ROI.

Whether you have a branded app or advertise within other mobile apps, this data is very important for you. Mobile marketing and monetization opportunities are out there. You just need to deliver what the mobile audience wants.

 Image: Svilen Milev

Which Brands Are Connecting with Millennials on Social Media?

millennialsBrands are consistently challenged when it comes to connecting with millennials on social media. This is an audience that isn’t quick to like a brand on Facebook, but there are some brands that are succeeding. In fact, some of those brands might surprise you.

According to a new study by Moosylvania, an advertising agency, millennials are willing to connect with brands on social media, but they’re very particular about the brands they let into their digital lives. Brands that offer high quality products are most likely to see millennials friending them and following them on social media. When asked what matters to them, 75% of the 1,500 millennials in the United States who responded to the survey indicated that high quality products matters most to them when considering which brands to connect with on social media.

Here is the complete breakdown:

  • High quality products = 75%
  • Would recommend = 61%
  • Fits their personality = 53%
  • Social responsibility = 40%
  • Shares similar interests = 39%
  • Says important things = 31%

Considering that the millennial audience in the United States includes 74.3 million people and represents $170 billion in purchases each year, the importance of this audience for brand marketers is undeniable. In comparison, Generation X includes only 65.7 million and represents just $125 billion while the Baby Boomer group includes 84 million people in the U.S. and represents $2.9 trillion in yearly purchases.

The spending power of Millennials is critical to the longevity of many brands, so learning how to connect with them on social media—where they spend a significant amount of time each day—is just as important.

The Top 10 Millennial Brands

The Millennials 2015 Favorite Brands Ranking Report includes 50 brands, so be sure to follow the preceding link to see the full list. The top 10 are:

  1. Nike
  2. Apple
  3. Samsung
  4. Sony
  5. Walmart
  6. Target
  7. Microsoft
  8. Coca-Cola
  9. Air Jordan
  10. Pepsi

Overall, the top 50 brands that made the list come from a variety of industries. Yes, there is a large number of technology brands (no surprise there), but there are also automotive brands, retail brands, consumer packaged goods brands, food and beverage brands, and more. There are low-end brands like Walmart and Target as well as high-end brands like Chanel. There are trendy brands that are commonly associated with the Millennial demographic like Forever21 as well as brands that Millennials grew up with and haven’t abandoned like Colgate and Kraft. There are even brands that you wouldn’t expect like Chevrolet and HP.

Some brands took big jumps on the list this year, and many of those improvements can be attributed to successful marketing campaigns that were targeted directly to millennial audiences. For example, Pepsi signed up Beyonce and Ford made a strong marketing push to raise awareness and purchasing by younger demographics. Other brands lost “points” in the minds of Millennials for a variety of reasons, but social and environmental issues played a key role in hurting some brands. Bottom-line, the value propositions of those brands no longer resonated with younger consumers. For example, Aeropostale moved to higher ticket fashions and teens moved to other brands.

Young consumers move quickly. They don’t have deep loyalty yet and can be fickle (weren’t we all at that age?). Brands need to be agile enough to change with them. Today, Millennials want high quality, but as Aeropostale learned, price needs to match the perceived quality as does the company’s commitment to social responsibility. Bottom-line, the Millennial audience isn’t buying what brands are selling unless they’re actually walking the walk to back up their brand messages and promises

Image: Daino_16 via Freeimages.com

The Marketing Technology, Data, Strategy and Results Gap

gap marketing businessThere is a gap between marketing technology, data, strategy and results. For marketers who are in the trenches marketing brands every day, this statement isn’t surprising. It’s simply a statement of fact. Yes, there are tons of tools available to integrate technology into marketing strategy, leverage massive amounts of data, and drive big results. However, actually using those tools to attain those big results is a hurdle that most marketers are still far from surmounting.

A new report from CMO Council and Tealium, Quantify How Well You Unify, shares input from 150 senior marketers in North America who were surveyed during the third quarter of 2014, and the results are very disappointing. While 67% of senior marketers believe that technology is critical to their businesses, only 44% have formal marketing technology (martech) strategies in place and only 16% reported that their martech strategies are well aligned with their business strategies.

What’s holding marketers back and keeping the gap from closing? There are three challenges that approximately one out of two respondents cited as obstacles to fully leveraging martech: selecting the right technologies, a lack of talent to manage, and centralizing fragmented data. You can see these statistics and more in the infographic below.

quantify-how-well-you-unify-infographic

Source: CMO Council

The data shows that these problems can be sourced back to strategy. More than one in two respondents indicated that they didn’t know if their martech investments created business value! There is so much data and there are so many tools that marketing executives are in data paralysis mode. Until a clear strategic focus related to martech is identified and marketers actually stick to that strategy rather than chasing the latest shiny martech toy, the gap between marketing, technology, data, strategy, and results will not close.

It’s particularly interesting to note the importance of marketing leadership in effectively leveraging martech to drive improved results. In a press release, CMO Council explained, “CMOs who own the marketing strategy have greater business impact than CMOs who delegate the responsibility.”

You can follow the link at the beginning of the page to learn how to purchase and download the full reports from CMO Council. Based on the data presented in the infographic, what do you think? Does your marketing leadership team own the martech strategy? Are you overwhelmed with data and not sure what tools you should be using and why? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts on the martech gap.

Image: Svilen Milev