Event Recap: AdWeek—Programmatic Sophistication: Riding the Next Wave of Innovation

The IPG Media Lab kicked off Advertising Week bright and early on Monday, attending a panel on the future of programmatic featuring Matt Seiler, the Global CEO IPG Mediabrands; Vivek Shah, CEO and Chairman, IAB; Neil Vogel, CEO, About.com; and Tim Cadogan, CEO, OpenX; and moderated by Alex Kantrowitz of Ad Age.

Complementing, Not Competing

The hot button topic on everyone’s mind was Facebook’s announcement that it was relaunching the Atlas ad platform. Far from being concerned about a formidable competitor, the panelists believed that having access to more data would be better for everyone involved. As Shah noted, “If they can bring data that makes our inventory more valuable, I think publishers will line up.”

Context and the Audience

Far from mass standardization or “bulk buying” that the term implies, programmatic can actually serve to make advertising more personal and customized. “I loved the simplicity and honesty of a brief, but it always too broad of an audience, ” noted Seiler. “Now you can write those briefs to very specific audiences.” Most importantly, data can provide context to the consumer’s decision-making process. “If we can append data to how real people are behaving, that’s the future for us,” said Vogel.

The New Normal

Just as other marketplaces have shifted to more automated processes, the advertising industry will becoming increasingly programmatic. Yet these changes aren’t anything to fear—if anything, programmatic will simply be the way things are done. Within the next two to five years, in fact, Seigel predicted “session like this one won’t even happen.”

 

Online video ads get more attention

YuMe and IPG Media Lab, recently partnered on a research project to track relative attention level to video advertising in a lean forward PC experience vs. a lean back TV experience.  Specifically, we wanted to know:

  1. Do people pay attention to online video differently than they do when watching TV?
  2. If people have the option of avoiding advertising, will they, and how does it differ?
  3. If the experiences of watching TV and Online Video are different, should an online ad impression be valued the same way that TV ads are?

Continue reading “Online video ads get more attention”

A brief history of our brains and screens

Originally published in Media Magazine.

A screen is defined as a surface where pictures can be projected for viewing. This term is not just related to media, it defines it; the screen is the membrane that “mediates” or stands between, an image and the individual viewing it. What happens without a literal screen? That image simply pipes directly into our mind’s eye so that we can “see” it in the same way we “see” a dream.

Before we discuss the future of the brain, let’s look at the history of screens. Plato talked about “The Cave,” a thought experiment about ancient people projecting flickering shadows on the wall of a subterranean dwelling – although we should focus more on the past 100 years. At the beginning of the 20th century, cinema, in the form of nickelodeons began to replace live theater. By 1950, television screens had become predominant, ushering in the golden age of broadcasting yet still connecting many brains to a single story. Continue reading “A brief history of our brains and screens”

When all the world’s a screen

Obscura Digital's solution on display in San Francisco

One the most dramatic areas of media innovation is in digital out of home space.  The Lab appeared earlier this week at Mediapost’s DOOH Forum in New York to showcase the most exciting new DOOH technologies.  We brought our friends from Klip Collective and Obscura Digital.  The work was well recieved — prompting savvy industry pundit Joe Mandese to live blog that he was at a loss for words!  Check out the video of the event to see for yourself.

4 words that may change shopping forever

“I’m hungry.” “I’m bored.”

Groupon is building an entire experience around these four simple words with a unique little app called Groupon Now. The idea is that users open the Groupon Now mobile application and are presented with two buttons: “I’m hungy” and “I’m bored.” After selecting an option, the application presents users with a list of time-sensitive deals based on their location.

“It makes Google’s market look quite small if we get it right. It’s really tapping into the largest part of commerce in the U.S.—local,” says Groupon investor Harry Weller. Continue reading “4 words that may change shopping forever”

Serendipity Happens

As consumers increasingly personalize their media consumption there is no shortage of hand wringing about the implications from lack of shared cultural experiences.  Particularly in news, there is concern that consumer will choose to consume content that reinforces existing opinions hardening political discord.  Beyond news, one could argue that shared love for TV shows and pop songs have also provided the bonds that make citizens feel comfortable with one another.  Where will those bonds come from when TV ratings and record sales continue to slide?

This genuinely concerns those of us who feel we are doing the lord’s work assuring consumers access to free, ad-supported content.  Yet just when despair sets in, we get reminded that, somehow, content hits still spring up and capture the imagination of mass audiences. Continue reading “Serendipity Happens”

API-enabled ads pack more punch

The history of storytelling is as much about technology as it is about narrative. As humans have transitioned from the earliest cave scratches to the newest highly interactive digital experiences, the way stories are told have had a powerful influence on the stories themselves. As the number of media channels continue to blossom, marketers must not only become more familiar with existing tools, but stay relevant by seeking out competitive new platforms.

The IPG Media Lab‘s most recent Media Trial focused on one important new element of storytelling: data. Data sets are increasingly being structured and exposed via APIs so that third parties can grab and understand the data in real time. Weather, headlines, traffic, sports scores, tweets, videos, social data—the available data sets are only limited by your imagination. Marketers who can curate these streams in real time may be able to create more engaging and more impactful stories, with the results to match.

Continue reading “API-enabled ads pack more punch”

Mobile Apps Influence Shopping Experience

CNET and the IPG Media Lab recently partnered on a research project to uncover how mobile apps are being used by consumers to make purchase decisions. The research specifically tested the CNET Reviews app to explore opinions, influence and opportunities for both marketers and CNET. The findings are based on aggregated evaluations of thirty-six shoppers at a leading consumer electronics retailer, including pre and post-shopping interviews, in-store observation and physiological stimuli recording methods. Each participant was a well-informed consumer electronics shoppers and existing CNET user.

Continue reading “Mobile Apps Influence Shopping Experience”

Predicting Peak Media

At the IPG Media Lab one of the things we track intensely is the ways in which consumers adopt new media technology into their lives.  As consumers have more options to connect with content, we’ve noticed a trend towards fully mediated lives.  Just as the Rotarians eliminated Polio, the engineers of Silicon Valley have seemingly eliminated boredom.  Consumers are filling the dead zones in their lives with content—in the elevator, on the bus, in the bathroom!

There is a concept called “peak oil“  that attempts to predict when oil production will max out. Estimates vary, but it’s predicted that peak oil capacity will happen at some point between 2006 and 2020. These estimates are predicated within the boundaries of known reserves and man’s ability to extract them. Continue reading “Predicting Peak Media”