Media Buying has grown tremendously in the past few years. As the ecosystem continues to expand, systems are becoming even more complex and difficult to understand for both agencies and advertisers.
In the not so distant past, media purchasing would take place between buyer and publisher until, ad networks came on scene which opened floodgates to mass inventory buying. Once marketers learned they could purchased bulk inventory through aggregators - real-time ad exchanges entered the arena, acting much like the financial markets, trading remnant impressions that publishers couldn't sell directly through in house sales teams.
This has ultimately led to automated or programmatic media buying - the large scale automation of inventory purchasing using real-time systems, machine based transactions and algorithmic intelligence.
So why exactly, is programmatic so effective?
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Now that 2013 is in the history books, marketers the world over are looking back at the previous year hoping to glean insight into what's to come. And there's certainly a lot to take into account. 2013 was a banner year as far as social media marketing is concerned, with Facebook reigning as supreme as ever. Although the teen demo bailed in record numbers, presumably to newer platforms that mom and dad have yet to discover.
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Up for some crystal balling? We reached out to several industry creative and strategy types to share with us what they see on the horizon for 2014. What will we see? Some predictable stuff like the continued growth of mobile and experiential. And some no so predictable...such as the proliferation of Emoji Economics. No, seriously.
Read on to see what's coming your way in 2014.
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When was the last time you were enthralled by B2B "content?"
If you're struggling to remember, or are having daymares about your own content, the first thing you need to do is stop thinking of content as just "filler," like packing peanuts or bubble wrap.
Visiting a website with filler content is a lot like walking into a living room and finding a coffee table book like "Extraordinary Chickens" or "United States Coinage: A Study By Type." As a visitor, you're under no obligation to read either book, but you have to question the judgment of the person who chose them. In other words, I would argue that bad content is worse than a lack of content.
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Happy Halloween! It's a time for costumes, spooks, candy, and branding lessons for small businesses. That's right, a time to take a look at what business branding lessons we can learn from Halloween characters. Take a guess at which character best represents an issue your brand is facing.
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I don't know. Commercializing a wedding? Even if it is handled as beautifully and as generously as Honda did for Mairead and Kevin's wedding? The brand brought cars, the couple's first date band, an Irish dance troupe (family is from Ireland)), $2,000 from Macy's, family messages from Ireland...and actual family from Ireland.
It was a grand gesture to a couple of brand aficionados. But isn't a wedding a sacred affair to be shared with family and friends? Not broadcast on YouTube to the ultimate benefit of Honda who in a sense, "used" Mairead and Kevin for their own publicity purposes?
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You don't require a TV to see a commercial these days. Thanks to the Internet, commercials can now be e-mailed, shared on Facebook and tweeted about - all potentially resulting in millions of additional views.
To receive more views and a lasting impression, companies are competing in this advertising arms race. Two tactics have risen to the top.
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Nothing loses an agency client faster than inefficient process and the frustration it causes. Not even Cannes-winning work can keep a client if the agency can't manage the relationship properly. Earlier, we wrote about the impact of industry consolidation and how it has affected the ability of the acquired agency and its holding company siblings to work smoothly and efficiently.
Here are seven tips you can put to use right now to ensure your agency is serving your clients swiftly, effectively and efficiently - like the proverbial well-oiled machine.
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You know you've made a staggeringly good film when the commercial director sitting in the audience sits slack jawed for almost the entirety of the thing.
That's Gravity, Alfonso Cuaron's 91-minute space blockbuster that everyone in the ad business needs to see, like, right now.
Like any good director, I've experienced hundreds of films in cinema, but as I sat in the 3D IMAX theatre, I struggled for a way to accurately and fully describe Gravity. "Spectacle" didn't quite cover the exceptional narrative tension. "Experience" just sounded understated.
In the end, I landed on "3D Cinematic Symphony."
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Email filtering is a hot topic right now. And it's not hard to understand why. We spend more time reading and sending emails than we do at almost anything else. How much time? The average person spends a mindboggling 28% of work time reading and responding to emails. No wonder we always feel like we can't get enough done.
The latest big headline comes from The New York Times, which recently ran an article about retailers who are freaking out about Gmail's new folder for promotional emails. The new feature automatically filters most branded emails into a separate folder but also places a "Promotions" tab atop the main in-box so that the quarantined emails are only a click away.
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