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Digiday creates content, services and community that foster change in media and marketing.

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Advertising spending has seen unprecedented growth since the COVID-19 lockdown. Pre-pandemic e-commerce digital ad spending in the US amounted to $12.5 billion. In comparison, it is estimated to reach a staggering in 2024. $38 billion It might be hard to believe, but an average American is exposed to as many as daily. 4000 ads Most of the digital ads today are targeted and, in certain cases, even personalized. It is no surprise that, according to a recent , 86% of people feel growing concerns about their data privacy, and 78% worry about the amount of personal data being collected online. KPMG study These concerns don’t go unnoticed. Laws and regulations surrounding personal data are getting stricter while, at the same time, the reign of third-party cookies is quickly ending, with Google following in the steps of Apple and promising to phase them out this year. As advertising is hard-pressed on every side, serving personalized ads needs a new solution. Fortunately, it is already available and comes in the form of web scraping combined with artificial intelligence (AI). It Is All About Context For years, advertisers have relied on behavioral targeting, collecting consumer data through cookies or other means and deriving insights from it to predict buying behavior and consumer needs. Notorious for requiring massive amounts of data and capabilities to analyze it, behavioral targeting is expensive and often brings a questionable ROI. A showed that 45% of publishing companies’ execs saw no significant benefit from behavioral ads, and 23% said they actually caused a revenue decline. poll by Digiday Further complicated by GDPR and the demise of third-party cookies, behavioral targeting today keeps advertisers on their toes and exaggerates data management costs. Many advertisers started to shift their focus to first- and zero-party data. Some, however, decided to walk down a less-traveled but more rewarding path and invest in contextual targeting. Quite an old approach, contextual advertising serves creatives based not on the user’s past and present behavioral trends, but on the content of the media the user is browsing through. Google AdSense is probably the best-known example of contextual targeting – it analyzes page content and places commercials in front of audiences who are more likely to get interested in them. Analyzing context tells what users are interested in in real-time. Moreover, it can present more relevant insights into their most-pressing pains and needs than behavioral analysis. Imagine a relatable situation: you browse through several e-commerce shops looking for sneakers and finally buy them. The next day, you’re browsing, let’s say, vegan recipes, but you get sneaker ads even though you’re not interested in them anymore. They follow you for a while, and it’s annoying. This is behavioral advertising – sometimes, it works, but many times, it makes you desperately click on a ‘block’ button. Now, imagine that you read an article about a severe cyclone approaching and, in the right-hand corner, there’s an ad for wind- and water-proof functional outfits. It is an example of good contextual targeting. First, it creates a personalized experience without trespassing on the user’s feeling of privacy. Second, it opens new opportunities for businesses that can’t form long-term B2C relationships and gather proper behavioral data, such as single-product companies or infrequent service providers. Analyzing context allows advertisers to consider time-sensitive data – location, weather, and even the general emotion of the content that the customer is viewing. Such information opens new ways to influence consumer decisions. Moreover, it lets companies experiment with real-time dynamic pricing and respond to quickly changing market conditions. However, to serve up-to-date and personalized creatives in today’s multimedia environment, advertisers need to analyze all types of information – texts, visuals, and sounds. Furthermore, they have to target ‘sentiments’ like anger, joy, positivity, or anxiety. Such complex data analysis requires costly human resources. Fortunately, due to recent technological advancements in web scraping, artificial intelligence (AI), and its subset – machine learning (ML), contextual targeting has become easier and more cost-effective. AI and ML in Programmatic Advertising With the help of the newest AI technologies, advertisers can employ deep-learning algorithms to ‘understand’ and analyze text, images, or sounds. Also known as semantic contextual targeting, it mimics human behavior to interpret the given context and serve relevant ads. Powered by Natural Language Processing (NLP), AI can process human language patterns and perform deeper, more nuanced page analysis in real time. On the most basic level, the algorithm that serves ads is fed with specific keywords it must find and ‘negative’ keywords it must avoid. Negative keywords are necessary to avoid awkward or unethical situations – for example, advertising artisan chef knives in an article about street stabbings. The algorithm should also separate the homonyms, for example, Turkey (country) and turkey (bird), rose (flower) and rose (color), etc. To do this, it must analyze the surrounding context of the word. Using automatic language processing, the ML algorithm crawls the content of the page, taking into account the keywords, the sequence of words, their surrounding words, and their probable meaning. After this, the algorithm sorts the crawled pages into categories. Proper ML-powered software can categorize content at scale and combine it with media performance optimization and brand safety, putting the creatives straight into the most favorable context. For example, AI can analyze a catalog of over , covering more than 200 IAB categories and 500,000 topics and serving contextually relevant ads, in less than 100 milliseconds. 150 million videos The same technology not only decides how to serve creatives in the most efficient way but also optimizes the automatic bidding process. Challenges to Take Into Account It is estimated that investments in contextual targeting will reach . Studies also show that up to plan to increase their contextual targeting budgets, and 86% of media owners expect this approach to become prevalent. $376.2 billion by 2027 52% of UK and US advertisers However, contextual advertising is not without its own challenges. Probably the biggest challenge for companies seeking to employ contextual targeting is writing and maintaining custom scrapers for each website. Technically, it is quite difficult to ensure that scrapers adapt to constant changes in the sites’ structure. To keep the data flowing without interruptions and errors, the most efficient way is to use the services of reputable web intelligence providers. Yet, another significant contextualization challenge lies in developing ML algorithms for content categorization at scale. After crawling millions of sites in real time and applying granular classification, NLP algorithms must be able to categorize separate audiences that are interested in specific topics and serve them the most relevant ads. Such technological sophistication is still costly and hardly accessible for small and medium-size advertisers and publishers. Usually, those having smaller advertising budgets employ less-advanced keywords-based contextualization solutions. Final Thoughts Offering a personalized advertising experience while respecting privacy sounds like an oxymoron. However, there’s no indicator that privacy-related concerns will become less important in the near future. Therefore, AI-powered contextual advertising will probably prevail and develop as one of the best alternatives for marketers trying to make their promotions more engaging and less offensive. Currently, technological accessibility is the most pressing challenge for contextual targeting, keeping many businesses wary of this approach. However, with contextual marketing becoming more prevalent, the proliferation of contextual analysis tools will intensify, driving costs down. It is also possible that we will see an emergence of an open-source content mapping solution that will allow the industry to develop a more unified approach and make contextual advertising more accessible to SMEs.

Balancing Privacy and Personalization With ML-Powered Advertising Solutions 

During an economic downturn, everything is impacted, from the cost of food and fuel to consumers' discretionary spending budgets. As discretionary spending patterns shift, app monetization will be affected. The apps that can succeed during an economic downturn differ from those that thrive in upswings. As frivolous spending from users and investors dries up, . cockroaches become valuable, not unicorns Subscription apps that provide high value to a committed user base are hard to kill. Adjusting your app's mobile monetization to match the economic conditions will help you and your users weather the storm. While there is talk of subscription fatigue, data shows a continued evolution towards use-based subscriptions. Venture capitalists are now looking for revenue and coveted hockey stick growth. A solid and elegant mobile monetization strategy is key to providing the required payment to continue to woo investors while you seek long-term growth. Mobile Monetization Strategies Mobile monetization strategies need to shift to account for economic conditions. Think like your users as you calculate the impact of inflation. Can you be generous with your offering and promotions to drive a higher sales volume? Consider how hiring freezes and the most recent jobs report will impact your user base. Will this decrease their budget? Could it increase their session time? Can you offer a steeper discount on volume purchases? Is it possible to provide an introductory rate for your subscription offering? Answers to these questions will vary based on the unique user bases of individual apps. Additionally, unique cohorts within a single app's user base can answer these questions differently. Verticals Expected to Perform Well Subscriptions in verticals that help people navigate tough times will have staying power and perform better than verticals with other focuses. Apps with subscriptions focused on education, the gig economy, FinTech, HealthTech, and entertainment will experience better performance in this market. Let's examine each vertical and why it's expected to perform well. Education becomes a more significant focus as people are trying to level up or change the role or industry they work in. Subscription apps help people find new positions or grow their networks, like , , and . There will also be a higher demand for online education apps that help children K-12 to learn core STEM and college prep skills as parents look for cheaper alternatives to offline tutoring centers. Apps like , and are well positioned in this market. LinkedIn Learning Coursera BumbleBizz Tynker, Quizlet Elite While budgets are tight, more people are looking to increase money coming in via gigs and community-based monetization. Gig apps with subscriptions that provide work like DoorDash's , , and will be positioned well as desired by consumers and people looking to make extra money. DashPass Lyft Pink Instacart+ Community-based apps that help creators monetize, like and , help users create their revenue streams. As more and more people become content creators, community-based are becoming a widespread monetization strategy. Twitch recently increased the generosity of its offering by Patreon Twitch business models allowing multi-platform streaming. We will also see the increased popularity of fintech apps. These apps help people save money with deals and discounts and budget better. Apps that can ensure users better control their income and expenses, such as , will see growing success in this market. You Need A Budget (YNAB) Healthtech apps help people get more access to content and services that help them with mental health and wellness. Businesses that aim to help reduce stress and anxiety during uncertain times will see an influx of users. Apps that help connect patients with medical providers, such as and , will see more downloads. Meditation apps like and offering subscriptions to on-demand guided meditations will see an increase in demand as people look to navigate uncertain times. Lyra One Medical Calm Headspace Finally, we will see success for apps and services that help people escape and forget about inflation, such as Nintendo Online or Apple Arcade. The still holds in gaming. As seen by Netflix's first global subscriber loss in over ten years, there is room for new and scrappy video streaming services to enter the video entertainment space. power of subscription models Netflix's recent dip in earnings shows that users in the market are hungry for new content, and there is space for scrappy competitors to take subscribers away from the established streaming giants. Streaming services are attempting to step into this space with . various strategies Strategies for All Verticals The first cut made by many consumers when faced with budgetary constraints is their subscriptions. The subscription services most likely to survive this climate are the ones with low price points and high-value offerings. Adding a lower price point to your subscription can help retain users who would have otherwise churned. Increasing your app's value will incentivize users to stick around. When adjusting pricing, use the from First Round. What was optimal at 10,000 users won't be optimal at 100,000. Identifying a key user segment and applicable levers will help you make sustainable changes as you scale. Be generous when your unit economics allow for it. 4-Step Pricing Framework Subscription-based businesses that have additional monetization through microtransactions are a strong bet as it's easier for users to justify smaller purchases. Digiday reports that podcasters provide alongside subscriptions to help boost subscriber retention and joins. Offering microtransactions or exclusive content alongside your subscription will help capture more revenue. This is a best practice for mobile app monetization, no matter the economic conditions. exclusive and early access content Freemium business models that include a free version and paid upgrades will perform well. As users have more time, they will test out free apps and eventually convert to paying users as they become immersed in the app. Securing users will set your app up for success as the economy recovers and discretionary budgets return. Apps should lean on advertising options to keep entry price points low. Advertising will allow you to provide value to your users at a low cost while bringing in that much-needed revenue. is exploring at the $7 per month price point. Keep in mind that the mobile advertising landscape has changed in recent years. Be sure to . Netflix ad-supported subscriptions Update Your Subscription Monetization Strategy to Account for IDFA Changes Adjusting the mobile monetization strategy for your app during an economic downturn will help you retain payers and increase your staying power. Think like your users and work with your internal teams to make swift adjustments to match your monetization strategy to the economic conditions. Be ready to make adjustments again when the economic conditions improve. This article was co-authored by Lomit Patel and . Jenny Pollock

Monetization Strategies to Help Your App Weather the Economic Downturn

It is estimated that in 2019, digital advertising spending in the world amounted to a staggering This means that almost 50% of the total advertising budget worldwide was spent on digital advertising. As businesses realize the value of digital advertising, there is an increasing need to also understand the challenges that it brings. $333 billion. One such challenge is the difficulty to make sure that ads go in the right places and to the right audience. For instance, in 2015, were played right at the beginning of YouTube videos about ISIS and terrorist propaganda. Their mother companies, Johnson & Johnson and Anheuser-Busch, were not happy to find their ads alongside these extremist videos. Instead of boosting their brands, those digital ads ended up hurting their reputation. ads for Aveeno and Bud Light This issue has become a real concern for many businesses, which is why a strategy called brand safety is growing in popularity among marketers. defines brand safety as the set of measures that a business implements to make sure that their online advertisements are not published in places that might harm the company’s image. If your company runs but does not have a brand safety strategy yet, the following steps should help you create one. Forbes digital advertisements Define What Brand Safety Means to Your Business Although the concept of brand safety is universal, its meaning can vary from one business to another. If your brand sells lingerie, your brand safety measures will be different from brand safety measures taken by a toy company. If you are a lingerie company, it may not be advisable for you to run ads on videos where the primary audience are kids. If you are a toy company, however, those kinds of videos are exactly where you want to place your ads. According to DigiDay, there are which may hurt your brand online: 12 toxic areas Adult Death or Injury Military conflict Spam or harmful site Arms Online piracy Obscenity Terrorism Crime Hate speech Illegal drugs Tobacco Take the time to evaluate which of these toxic areas you want to avoid the most, and which ones may sometimes be acceptable for your brand to be associated with. If you are a brand like , for example, then you most likely will want to be associated with tobacco-related content. However, if you are a health-focused brand like , then you probably want to avoid websites related to tobacco and related vices. Marlboro Decathlon Use Ad Technology A shows that 20% of consumers prefer brands who advertise on credible websites, and that 19% of consumers will view a brand in a negative light if they see an advertisement in a non-credible website. With fake news and bots on the rise, it is becoming difficult to distinguish the trustworthy websites from untrustworthy ones. survey by Network Research For instance, in 2019, Procter and Gamble (P&G)’s Febreze brand was hailed as the . Analysis showed that 54% of engagement on its sponsored Instagram posts came from fake accounts. These bots wasted millions of P&G’s marketing budget. “most fooled” brand when it came to bots Thankfully, that can help your brand or your ad agency spot fake news. Utilize these technologies to reduce the time spent on finding the ideal online spaces to place your ads. There are also automated advertising tools that will let you know . there are powerful advertising technologies available how much of your online reach and engagement are from real humans as opposed to bots Add a Human Component to Your Ad Verification Process Although ad technology can help you weed out the bots and fake news, sometimes the context of ad placement is still best understood by humans. Whether your brand’s digital advertising is ran in-house or , there are human-centred processes you can put in place to verify that your advertisements are in safe and relevant places. outsourced to an external digital agency There are many cases where humans can understand the context of an advertisement better than can. For example, while ad technology may think that a news website is a credible place to place your ads on, humans are still better judgers of the appropriateness of news articles within that website. Artificial Intelligence See below about a teacher who was hit by a car outside a school. Toyota’s ad placement in that article definitely seems inappropriate.  A human was most likely not a part of Toyota’s verification process for this digital ad. If a human was present in the process, the ad would most likely not have made it in this article. the news article Establish a Takedown Policy Sometimes, regardless of the brand safety measures you put in place, your ads may still end up in the wrong place. When that happens, it is important to respond quickly. Establishing a takedown policy allows you to mitigate any potential negative impacts from the controversial ad placement. Whether you are running your own digital ads or have a third-party agency that does it for you, your contracts with publishers or digital agencies must clearly state that you have the right to take down any advertisement you want removed. It must specify the acceptable timeframe required for publishers to remove the ads quickly. Your contracts with agencies and publishers must also include consequences for them if they choose not to take down ads at your request. This gives you control over your advertising placements. The Impact of Brand Safety One misplaced ad could hurt your brand’s reputation for a long time and can seriously impact your company’s revenues. revealed that when consumers see brands alongside harmful content, their preference for that brand drops significantly. Furthermore, the study showed that consumers’ willingness to purchase from a brand whose ad was seen alongside a negative content dropped by 200%. A 2018 study Investing resources into an effective brand safety strategy can therefore generate great returns for your business. As digital advertising continues to grow, it is important to make sure that your business employs a holistic approach that uses both technology and human components to ensure that your ads are in appropriate places and are directed to relevant audiences.

Brand Safety and the Challenges of Digital Advertising

Retailers are always on a hunt for something that can help them connect better with the customers. And, this is the reason why the retail industry has seen such a massive transformation in previous years. There was a time when retail was solely dependent on marketing activities to drab customers attention but, things have changed. Now, the retail industry is dependent more on technology. Marketing is obviously important but, tech-oriented marketing is the future of this industry. Augmented reality, drone delivery, virtual reality are some of the techs used by modern retailers. These terms create a sci-fi kind of hype among the customers and trigger them to try on products that are being sold. So, let’s take a look at what the future of retail looks like and what are some of the latest technologies in the retail sector. Product Video Catalogs 52% of consumers say that watching product videos makes them feel more confident about going ahead and making a purchase. - Digiday With a combination of visuals and sound videos stand-out at grabbing the attention of consumers. People are bored with the usual e-commerce product listing which consists of image sliders and description at the end. These can be replaced with a short video which consists of the image as well as the description. This is a better way to showcase the product. And, video creation has become very simple with the upcoming video automation platforms like . Existing e-commerce listings can easily be converted into videos by using the existing images and copy. With this, we see video technology in the retail sector at its very best. You can see many such product videos on . StoryXpress target.com Virtual Reality Virtual reality is the use of computer technologies to provide a completely stimulating experience. In retail virtual reality is expected to reduce product returns and marketing cost. It is also predicted that it will provide efficient user analytics and data on a particular product. Some of the retail enthusiasts are seeing VR as the future of retail whereas the others think that it is just a trend that will pass by. Another reason why some retailers are interested in the tech is because of hype and sci-fi aspect it brings along which creates enthusiasm in the consumers. is an example to leverage VR for retail marketing and sales. Volvo used Google Cardboard to put up a virtual reality test drive for customers through their mobile phones. This app takes the person inside an SUV and makes them feel like they are sitting in one and driving through various landscapes. Other car companies like Lexus, Jaguar, Ford, are also similarly using VR headsets. Volvo Reality app Augmented Reality Augmented Reality(AR) is a cool tech which enables customers to decide which product suits them better. AR-enabled products are loved by people as it provides them with the option of trying on products without actually visiting the store or wasting money on them. Retailers are always on a try to stay ahead of the competition and provide a better shopping experience to their customers and, this is the main reason why more retailers are interested in the tech. Many retailers have already integrated AR-enabled applications and devices. With passing years this technology is becoming bigger and better. 2019 witnessed a lot more brands getting started with the AR technology to provide a better shopping experience to customers. is one of the latest luxury brands to start with AR technology. It recently added the AR feature to its application which enables users to ‘try on’ sneakers. Gucci <blockquote = > <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AR?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AR</a> <a href="https://t.co/Qsq4Oybjsf">https://t.co/Qsq4Oybjsf</a> <a href="https://t.co/ytXqJdQk4E">pic.twitter.com/ytXqJdQk4E</a> &mdash; Ricardo (@RicO2O) <a href= >June , < blockquote> class "twitter-tweet" Gucci’s new < = = > p lang "en" dir "ltr" try-on app is pretty cool </ > p "https://twitter.com/RicO2O/status/1144538565210079233?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" 28 2019 /a></ < = = > script async src "https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset "utf-8" </ > script Same-day Delivery with pick-up & pack companies Most of the retail companies are already providing next day delivery but, same-day delivery is becoming the next big thing. It has been observed that people are ready to pay more to get their product delivered faster. This may increase the cost for brands but, it also leads to more sales and gives an edge over competitors who do not provide the service. In years we have seen a grown number of delivery companies coming up. These companies act as a personal courier service for the retailers to get their product delivered to the customers. These have grown in popularity specially among the small e-commerce companies as it provides the same-day delivery which otherwise would not have been possible. Some of these companies are , , which provide same-day product delivery service to their partnered e-commerce companies. Shipito Shippo Delhivery Other than these delivery companies some of the e-commerce giants like Amazon claim to start product to provide same day delivery to its customers. delivery via drones Chatbots, Assistants & AI In 2019 and beyond, robots will invade all the online stores. That’s right, chatbots and AI-driven custom shopping experience for better search results according to individual choice and preference. AI assistants can handle multiple tasks assigned to human beings, all at once. These tasks may include managing inventory and, handling queries related to the product. These digital assistants can carry out various tasks, which will ultimately free-up time so that other important business matters can be taken care of. Chatbots can fulfill several customer service needs, from answering the common questions about a product to discussing some repetitive issues. Chatbots learn from customer conversations and come up to better assistance for a users personalized shopping experience. And people are also becoming more comfortable getting answers to their questions from a chatbot or a virtual assistant while shopping. And, adding bots has become easier than ever, there are many tools like available which allows bot creation for free. HubSpot's Chatbot Builder Just Walk Out Shopping These stores go by the caption “No Line. No Checkout”. These are super high-tech convenience stores which were introduced by Amazon in the year 2018 as . Customers scan their phone with the Amazon Go app at the entrance of the store and just grab the item they want to buy and leave. They get the receipt on their mobile phones, for which they can make online payments. Amazon Go This “Just Walk Out” technology by Amazon is powered by sensors, deep learning, and computer vision. This is just an amazing trend which shows how the future of physical retail will be. With already a few operational stores in the US, Amazon thinks of expanding this to other countries as well. Will other retail brands come up with such stores in the future? Well, many retail experts do believe that we might see many such stores coming up. So, that was all from the latest retail tech’s which we ought to see in 2019 and beyond. But, I am sure that with the current speed of retail expansion and use of technology in the sector we may soon witness something even more astonishing. Retail giants are expanding and are constantly trying to improve the shopping experience for customers and I believe that tech will drive the future of retail.

Tech-Trends to Drive the Future of Retail in 2019 and Beyond

is still on the rise and most people are asking the same question. If you are one of them then don’t worry because we got you covered! Influencer marketing So how much does it really cost, you say? To be honest, there is no clear answer to this dilemma, but there are guidelines you can follow that most agencies and even influencers use. There are even tools which you can use to determine how much cash to shell out for a particular influencer. We do know that having a brand and . Influential marketing simply removes the traditional marketing ads and instead became a huge contributor when it comes to social media strategies today. partnering with an influencer can really help boost your audience outreach, gain more brand awareness and can dramatically increase your total revenue First of all, you have got to consider these factors that will affect the cost of influencer marketing and understanding these guidelines will help you adjust your rates for both you and your preferred influencer. The preferred social media platform Timeline of your campaign Number of followers Brand or product Engagement Direct partnership or agency Photo by on Christian Wiediger Unsplash The Preferred Social Media Platform According to a recent from , rates vary depending on the social media platform you wanted to focus on. So in effect, how much should it cost you per platform? survey Digiday $1,000 per 100,000 followers Instagram: According to Chelsea Naftelberg, associate director of content and partnerships for social media agency Attention, estimates how much her team should pay an Instagram influencer based on $1,000 per 100,000 followers Starting at $500 per campaign in 24 hoursAs per the marketers in the UK they pay more for the Snapchat influencers according to these statistics. Snapchat: Roughly $2,000 per 100,000 followers YouTube: For YouTubers with more than 50,000 subscribers, marketers can add roughly , up until around 1 million subscribers, at which point a dedicated video could cost upwards of $25,000-$50,000, according to Langer. $2,000 per 100,000 followers per video Not all social networks are created equal, so I’ve done a little bit of research to see what is the best platform to deliver your content and passively monetize from it. has rounded up four : SproutSocial best platforms for social media influencers Active user count of 2.2 billion. I’ve checked Quora and somehow stumbled upon this user’s interesting point. Facebook: Facebook: you should never pay for a Facebook-only influencer. — thus it only makes sense to pay an influencer to post on Facebook if you are already paying her for content creation on one of her other channels. Facebook organic reach is notoriously bad, so there really is no value in paying a Facebook influencer no matter how large her reach is — unless you can get permission to boost the content (at which point it’s your own money anyways!) Facebook is a channel for content amplification Active user count of 800 million Active user count of 330 million. Another interesting thought about using this platform. Instagram: Twitter: Twitter — forget it, stop, turn around and RUN do not walk away. Unless you’re getting a free shoutout on Twitter, don’t even think about spending influencer dollars here. Twitter is a sinkhole for tossing any marketing dollars, much less influencer marketing. Active user count of 1.5 billion YouTube: Photo by on rawpixel Unsplash Timeline of your Campaign Which really depends on the time you are willing to spend on your brand, time consumes money so make sure you have enough resources to gas it up and keep it afloat in the social sphere. The number of posts you want from the influencer. The content you will be using (You or the influencer) Influencer cross-posting permission from different social media profiles. Will it be a permanent post coming from the influencer or have them take it down once the campaign ends? Photo by on rawpixel Unsplash Number of Followers Always consider the followers when picking an influencer to . The higher it is, the rate will increase as well. Just look at it this way, more followers means more people the brand could reach and according to a recent article from “The number of followers is still the gold standard for a social star’s “influence”. market your brand Digiday Photo by on Ja San Miguel Unsplash Brand or Product One of the key factors you should consider is the value of the product or brand you are trying to advertise. It affects as to how your preferred influencers will promote your brand. How big is the brand you are trying to put out there? Maybe it’s a car or a beverage, but keep in mind that you can’t expect to pay the same value on a very different set of products. Photo by on Elijah O'Donnell Unsplash Engagement Having true engagers to talk more about your brand should be a package when you consider to hire an influencer to do it for you. It’s easy to buy fake followers, but it’s harder to buy fake engagement out there. If that particular influencer, was able to deliver through social media posts then that campaign becomes more effective. The higher the engagement rate an influencer gets, so is the value of your campaign. organic engagement Photo by on rawpixel Unsplash Direct Partnership or Agency Whether you’re aiming to hire the influencer yourself or have a set it up for you is totally your call. There are advantages on both sides, I guess we could say that establishing a partnership yourself may cost less than hiring an agency, but you would have to do all the necessary research and calculate the cost on your own. When on the other hand, if you hire a marketing agency they will give you more options in terms of influencers to contact, marketing advice on how you should go about on your campaign and they will handle the collaboration for you to save you the trouble but all for an extra cost. It really depends on how your brand will benefit in the long run. marketing agency You may have an idea now on where to start, but there is no definite answer on how much you’re willing to pay a certain influencer since you have to consider all of these factors. Hopefully, our guidelines will help you out on hiring an influencer to market your brand successfully! Let us know what you think about our guidelines, have you ever hired a ? Then please share your thoughts in the comment section below! social media influencer

How much do social media influencers cost?

Download a PDF of the “ Map of Amazon and its impact on Modern Marketing ” here to zoom in “Amazon is like pornography…everywhere, hard to define, but you always know it when you see it.” is changing. In a time of , incredible , imaginative canvases, and serious cultural and social conflicts, marketers, suppliers and agencies face increasing complexity and competition. While the industry is ripe with different “thought leadership” conversations about “what’s next” offering simple magic solutions, the one consistent thing is that sooner or later someone will mention . Marketing data abundance technology Amazon Since its incorporation in 1994 and via a close escape from being called “Cadabra”, Amazon.com Inc, the US-based retail giant, has grown to become the world’s largest internet retailer despite an explosion of competition. It is only the second company to exceed a market capitalisation of $1 trillion in intra-day trading. Indeed Amazon’s scale now seems to be its . only threat As Amazon adds new categories and new businesses, it has rapidly become both the enemy at the gates and the new hope for doing business. But what is Amazon? At we have been having many conversations and working sessions with clients and colleagues that touch upon Amazon and its impact upon marketing. What is fascinating is that whether you are an Amazon expert, a customer, a Marketplace seller or even a media insider, everyone has a different perspective. Amazon is so vast, with so many subsidiaries, brands, verticals and products that you are rapidly reminded of the infamous “ ” parable. Digitas blind men and the elephant In the marketing industry there is often a tendency to project partial knowledge as whole truth, and perhaps only God or Jeff Bezos can truly know Amazon, but based on conversations, many articles in the trade and mainstream press, detailed reports and even some (public) internal Amazon material, we sort to lay down a primer, the basic starter knowledge if you will, of how Amazon is changing marketing. The world needs less PowerPoint. Instead of writing another report or slide deck we combined research and sources into a Concept Map similar to our previous . Only a little bit bigger. Map of Modern Brand Building “With a concept map, a viewer can see both the forest and individual trees. The big picture is clear because all the ideas are presented on one surface. At the same time, it’s easy to dive in and see details and how they relate.” Four nodes began to appear in the map. What is Amazon, its pillars and how it creates value across the globe. The increasing competitive impact for marketers in CPG, Auto, Fashion, IoT, Electronics, Home Services and Entertainment (both from Amazon and from 3rd Parties on Marketplace including those causing “the China Crisis”). The behind how Amazon is affecting and transforming the Customer Journey in terms of customer expectations. 5 Convenience Principles The growing Amazon Advertising and Media services that brands and sellers can make use of to build their brands and reach new audiences. This “ ” does not claim to be exhaustive and only covers one and half of Amazon’s three primary pillars (Prime, Webservices, Marketplace). It does not go deep into AWS, healthcare, AI or Finance. Map of Amazon and its impact on Modern Marketin g And yet it reveals two competitive forces that Amazon’s has unleashed to transform the marketing value chain: and . customer obsession Experiential Competition Perceptual Competition Despite Amazon’s disruptive ways to distribute products and change customer relationships, it’s the “real world” activations that often make its competitors most worried is about new, practical ways of selling. This type of competition promotes customer experiences that replace others or reposition them within the customer journey. It is about offering accessibility, simplicity, service convenience, personalisation, purchase convenience, and channel flexibility to improve sales activation, fulfilment, useage and repeat purchase. It is not just about “time well saved” but expectations met or exceeded. Experiential Competition New, newsworthy ways to access the Amazon ecosystem open unexpected ways to cross promote products and gather data to improve the experience As Benedict Evans observed, new customer journeys lead to new kinds of decisions that change what gets bought and then further change how it is sold. Experiential Competition is driving these changes. This can lead to Amazon famously selling more private-label batteries than Duracell or 55% of US consumers starting online product searches on Amazon rather than Google. And it can lead to infamously rigid industries like Automotive being forced to reimagine the purchase experience more around people than dealers when Hyundai opens a in Amazon Vehicles. virtual showroom While there are many “magic bullet” tips and tactics out there promising marketers short cuts to delivering great experiences, too few channel the Amazon Experiential Competition lesson of “ ”. sell something the customer wants to buy, at a price the customer wants to pay, with the service the customer expects In the meantime Amazon, in a repeat of its famous externalisation strategy, is to drive these experiential customer journeys — on and off platform. It is poacher, gamekeeper and the person selling the bullets. offering marketers and agencies a new toolkit and APIs But if you solve a customer problem with technology and tactics alone you’ll own that solution until someone improves the technology. If you solve the problem with a brand story it is untouchable. This is where Amazon is most dangerous. This is the power of Prime and . Perceptual Competition The Power of Prime: Amazon’s most important product is not a product but a membership that’s grown from shipping and offers to events and innovations changes customer expectations. It means you set the bar regardless of whether your product or service competes in the category in question. Building on great customer experience it creates a meaningful and distinctive brand with cultural relevance, esteem and saliency. Occasionally it can involve . The result is greater mental availability for your brand, driven by broad reach, emotions and associations — effectiveness not just efficiency. Perceptual Competition the odd Super Bowl ad Amazon’s position as a dominant Perceptual Competitor is reflected in its $1,000,000,000,000 market value and a brand value of $207.6 billion. It is a result of selling not just low priced products with excellent customer service, but “ .” Perceptual Competition means competing on and Touchpoints ROI Tracker studies show that this is increasingly a better indicator of market share success than spend or share of voice. the thing it has always sold the most — to investors, customers, the media — excitement brand experience rather than CX, Making shopping frictionless: Innovative ways to gain attention, scare the competition and position them as inferior and old fashioned The key proposition that enables Amazon to bring its brand, many products, experiments and channels together is Amazon Prime. Bezos said “ ”, but it is more than good value — it is a brand experience flywheel. we want Prime to be such a good value, you’d be irresponsible not to be a member Prime’s ability to funnel new ideas to loyal customers drives growth and innovation. Amazon’s first forays into scalable grocery delivery via AmazonFresh and AmazonPantry were only available to Prime members as was its hyperlocal 1–2 hr delivery service Prime Now. Prime’s flywheel unites personalised, efficient discovery with rewards, these generate momentum with more shoppers (and sellers) which helps reduce prices while cross subsidising content, that then further builds traffic, which increases discovery and improves the rewards etc… Perceptions of trust enable Amazon to develop a growing range of own brands, with services to help customers enjoy them and new ways to pay for them. It helps them succeed and helps Amazon move on if they don’t. By combining an aura of innovation and novelty with a simple subscription Amazon can generate more customer, investor and media excitement than a . Costco membership Building on the trust created by the value and convenience of Amazon’s core shopping services with compelling digital content from Prime Video, Amazon Studios, Music Unlimited, Twitch or Audible then provides a competitive moat for the Amazon business, increasing ecosystem reach and audience lock in. “Amazon Studios is making original content for Prime Video…from a business point of view for us, we get to monetize this content in an unusual way. Winning a Golden Globe helps us sell more shoes and it does that in a very direct way…. We’ve monitored that Prime Video customers renew [Prime] at higher rates, and they convert from free trials at higher rates.” Entertainment moves Amazon out of “just” the shopping journey, increases lock-in and offers opportunities to improve the customer experience with data insight The continuing quest to increase the power of Prime led to what for many CPG and retail businesses was : the $13.7bn takeover of Whole Foods, the multichannel grocery retailer with over 470 stores. Structural change happens in a category when >20% goes online. Even Amazon don’t believe this will happen in grocery, but instead phsyical retail can have a structural impact on digital propositions. The Whole Foods takeover offers Prime members better prices, more omnichannel opportunities to buy and pick-up, a stronger health assortment and a last mile delivery boost. It also offers non-Prime customers a very prominent real-world demonstration of what they are missing. the tipping point of “Amazon Anxiety” Already Amazon has cut prices on high volume stables by up to 43%, installed Amazon lockers and introduced Prime savings and in-store benefits. However, while a new efficiency-first ideology has increased sales it has also caused a “ ”, with . culture clash greater centralisation and lay-offs The “destroyer of physical retail” is a bigger name in bricks-and-mortar than Sears and JCPenny with new opportunities to increase the value of Prime and reward members Ultimately the forces of and that Amazon has unleashed on marketing and its value chain have helped create an “expectation economy” that brands and businesses must navigate to survive. experiential perceptual competition We may need a bigger (boat) . map If you’d like to explore Amazon, the changing marketing value chain and how customer journeys are evolving further, or join one of our upcoming workshop sessions, or even if you’d like the wall-sized version of the map, then contact us: amazonmap@digitas.com — — — — Sources: , Datamonitor, Amazon Shareholder Letters, Amazon Media Group, Bloomberg, CNN, Digiday, Feedvisor, Mintel, The Drum, BCG, Publicis Media, Warc, Global Web Index, New York Times, Techcrunch, Adweek…and others. CB Insights

A Map of Amazon and Modern Marketing

Facebook and Google are pushing for faster pages and fewer pop-ups. To what end? that it’s frustrating to click on a link that leads to a slow-loading webpage,” Facebook engineers on the company’s blog last week, adding that “as many as 40 percent of website visitors abandon a site after three seconds of delay.” “We’ve heard from people wrote So, Facebook is changing its algorithm yet again, this time to favour sites that will load quickly. “We’ll soon take into account the estimated load time of a webpage that someone clicks to from any link in News Feed on the mobile app,” they explained. “Factors such as the person’s current network connection and the general speed of the corresponding webpage will be considered. If signals indicate the webpage will load quickly, the link to that webpage might appear higher in your feed.” Speed is also behind recent moves by Google and Apple to control the ads that appear online. We will never escape email Google recently announced that it would introduce an ad-blocking version of its browser, Chrome. It will soon block any ads that aren’t compliant with the , which is a set of guidelines established by a group called the , of which both Google and Facebook are members (among many others). Better Ads Standards Coalition for Better Ads In a recent report, Google named 700 sites that, according to , were “warranting corrective action.” Those included a handful of news sites — the , the , the , the , , , and CBS News. As Digiday reported: “One aspect of [Google’s] plan that may raise alarms with publishers is that Google hasn’t ruled out filtering all of a failing site’s ads — not just the offending ads.” Digiday Jerusalem Post Baltimore Sun Chicago Tribune Independent Reader’s Digest New York Daily News by both Facebook and Google as improvements on user experience. For its part, Google that its goal, via Chrome, is to give “users the best possible experience browsing the web.” And no doubt users will welcome a new environment where they are less bothered by advertisements and pages that load at a crawl. The changes are being sold has stated But these shifts are also taking place at a time when the efficacy of online advertising is being questioned — by the advertisers. Earlier this year, there was much to-do about how shocked advertisers were after promotions for their products were appearing alongside unsavoury material on YouTube, but that was only part of an emerging story. discovering Why were Facebook, Google, and Amazon so quiet about net neutrality? The real issue was ‘programmatic’ ads — advertising placed on sites by machines to match the profile of the user, based on their browser cookies and other factors. Namely, the trouble is that, despite the boasting from Google and others, programmatic advertising doesn’t work as well as it sounds like it should. A earlier this year (via an ad firm) suggested that “29% of programmatic ads (ads sold through an automated process) resulted in invalid traffic, as opposed to 12% of ads sold directly by humans.” report Last week, the that Proctor and Gamble, which has the biggest ad budget in the world, is losing faith in digital ads more broadly. P&G’s quarterly report revealed that it revealed that it had drastically reduced its digital ad spending and observed that the move had no impact on revenue growth. Financial Times reported “So, the largest advertising spender in the world stopped spending money on digital ads, and apparently didn’t really notice a difference,” Alexandra Scaggs wrote at the FT. That’s a problem. People need to see ads. Advertisers need people to see ads, obviously. Facebook and Google need people to see ads. In short, people are not seeing online ads. So what do they do? Maybe they make sure people see the right ads in the right places. They direct users to their apps or browsers because they can better guarantee people will actually see the ads that are displayed. For Facebook, that means prompting sites that load slowly to adopt its quick-loading Instant Articles, where ads are displayed without interfering with the content and are interspersed in such a way that users have to scroll past — they will definitely see the ad. For Google, it means blocking bad advertisements, and threatening to block all ads unless sites with poor advertisements get their act together and adhere to Google’s guidelines for ‘good’ ads. As for publishers and website owners? Data analytics firm Parse.ly Facebook currently drives 44 per cent of referral traffic to its customers, which include Condé Nast (publisher of the , , and ), Slate, the , and HuffPost. Google accounts for 33 per cent. estimates New Yorker GQ Vanity Fair Telegraph In other words, all these new changes mean for publishers is the start of a new spin on the same old hellish eyeball-and-revenue-chasing cycle. It means they either adapt to the rules established by the tech platforms or… well, might as well shut it down.

The war against online ads is really the war for online ads

The venture capital space has been somewhat shaky lately due to general economic uncertainty, rising inflation, interest rate spikes, fears of recession, and volatile economic situations. Some obvious evidence of this can be seen in overall VC deal value from 2021 to 2022. More precisely, the overall VC funding fell from $713B in 2021 to $230B by Q2 of 2022. Interestingly, deal volume had a contrary spike of 4,567 to 15,652 deals in the same period. reported reasons for VC investment reservations as a refocus on business fundamentals amid the global economic downturn and a focus on profitability rather than growth. Analysts Image source: Pitchbook Crypto VC Fund Directions - More Web3 deals, less NFT & DeFi deals Similar to other high growth industries, overall VC deals across the blockchain industry have also declined this year, dropping 71% from Q1 to Q2. But more interestingly, the most active blockchain VCs have slowly tilted their portfolio towards Web3 solutions as opposed to DeFi and NFT, which were the biggest sectors to attract capital in 2021. As displayed in the diagram above, there were quite a number of significant raises by both traditional and crypto VCs throughout 2022. Industry titans such as Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) were particularly active, raising billions in funding to enhance the growth of Web3 ecosystems. Below is a highlight of the top crypto VC raises this year: Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) launches two billion-dollar crypto funds Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z, announced a $2.2 billion crypto fund in Q1 targeting infrastructure and Web3 projects. Later in Q2, this established American VC launched another $4.5 billion fund to support the ‘Golden Era of Web3’. Sequoia Capital actively expanded its crypto VC footprint Earlier in the year, Sequoia Capital raised $500 million to $600 million for a token fund to invest in popular DeFi protocols. Sequoia also featured prominently in Q2 with a $2 billion early-stage venture growth fund for the Indian market and $850 million Southeast Asia fund. FTX Ventures $2 billion fund Although now defunct, FTX exchange had launched a $2 billion crypto fund dubbed ‘FTX ventures’. The fund was designed to exist in parallel with FTX sister company Alameda Research, focusing on fintech, gaming and healthcare. Haun Ventures raises $1.5 billion Web3 fund Following Katie Haun’s departure from a16z, she started Haun ventures which managed to raise $1.5 billion during the first quarter of 2022. Haun ventures has been investing this capital towards Web3 startups and innovations that are building the next generation of the internet. World Innovation Lab (WiL) $1 billion fund features Web3 Innovations WiL is also jumping into the Web3 bandwagon, this U.S-Japan focused fund raised $1 billion in Q2 and noted that it would invest in the Web3 domain as well. Given their experience in B2B Saas investment rounds, the interest in funding Web3 projects comes as no surprise. Binance Labs $500 million investment fund Binance Labs, along with key partners DST Global and Breyer Capital, as well as other private equity, family offices, and limited partners, closed a $500 million investment fund in Q2. The fund spreads capital across different growth stages to promote the adoption of blockchain and Web3. Multicoin Capital debuts $430 million Venture Fund III Multicoin's $430 million Venture Fund III was one of the biggest raises in Q3. Venture Fund III targets to invest $500,000-$25 million in early-stage blockchain and Web3 startups, as well as companies in growth rounds that can benefit from $100 million or more in capital. Coinfund Ventures announces $300 million early stage Web3 Fund While the third quarter of 2022 saw a massive capital flight following the collapse of prominent crypto VCs like Three Arrows capital, CoinFund established a $300 million fund to support infrastructure development and Web3 companies that have a significant potential of market capitalization. Funding flow topped early in the year 2022 started with quite a bullish trajectory, VC interest was still very high as most digital assets had recorded all-time highs towards the end of 2021. The estimated funding invested across the cryptocurrency and blockchain space peaked at around $11 Billion in Q1 of 2022, a number that had been on a steady rise two years prior. However, in the wake of Q2, things took a different turn as the Fed started to tighten economic policy. Add on top an escalating situation between Russia and Ukraine and all of a sudden the environment became vastly more difficult for investors to be risk tolerant in than the months before. The crypto industry was extraordinarily plagued in this regard, as major actors such as TerraLuna and their stablecoin UST went bust, . setting off cascading effects in the industry Overall, Q2 of 2022 saw drawback in VC funding across the space, with the figure slightly dropping below $10 billion. On the brighter side, the cascading streak of insolvencies from the Terra Luna fiasco came with its lessons and wisdom for VCs, shaping new investment patterns in Q3. Even with the market turning bearish, crypto VCs continued to invest in Q3 particularly in the under-explored sub-niches. Cointelegraph’s venture capital database report revealed an unusual shift in individual deals towards Web3 projects with strong infrastructural leaning; examples are GameFi and metaverse-related infrastructure projects. Contrary to the trends seen in 2021, mostly DeFi and NFT-related, over 44% of individual deals are Web3 based. High Ticket Crypto Deals of 2022 Aptos raised $150 million in a Series A in July Launched by two former Meta developers, the Aptos project is a reincarnation of Meta’s 2019 Diem blockchain project. Aptos is an infrastructural web3 project with plans to build more efficient developer tools for Web3 solutions. The Aptos Series A round included investments from Andreessen Horowitz, Multicoin Capital, Circle Ventures, and others, which ended up at $150 Million. Limit Breakers, the creators of DigiDaigaku, raises $200Million Limit Breakers raised over $200 million in two funding rounds for its novel “free-to-own” gaming incentive model. The funding was led by Josh Buckley, the chair of Mino Games and investment firm Paradigm and Standard Crypto. Limits breakers Free to own model goes beyond virtual earnings to allow players to own their preferred gaming character, which cuts at the heart of gaming infrastructures over web3. Mytsten Lab raises $300 Million at a $2+ Billion valuation Mysten Lab is a web3 infrastructure project building their flagship project, the Sui blockchain protocol, which is targeted at optimizing web applications’ speed and cost possibilities over a blockchain. Some of the leading VCs who participated in this funding round include Binance Labs, Coinbase Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Circle Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Jump Crypto, Apollo, Franklin Templeton, Sino Global, and several others. Looking Into the Horizon It’s obvious that such a strong start of the venture capital sector for crypto this year that expectations were high for the remainder of the year. Needless to say, cheques got smaller and deals less frequent as the traditional economy started showing severe signs of instability. Q2 and Q3 in particular saw a sharp decline in funding volume across tech related sectors. In hindsight, it seems obvious that the venture space (much like the rest of crypto) was a bit  inflated and now we’re slowly awaiting for the risk willingness to return to the space. Although it is hard to predict when exactly the overall crypto markets will take off again, it is evident that crypto VCs are keeping close tabs on the developments especially in Web3 and that the large amount of funding available should come as a good reassurance that continued innovation will take place in the space.

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