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Oct 20th, 2021 at 14:37
The resurgence of contextual advertising is here and now, says Mark Bembridge, chief executive of Smartology
Ever since the mid-nineties when Netscape launched its Mosaic browser incorporating the first ‘cookies’, tracking user behaviour has been a key principle by which digital channels have sought to argue their efficacy over TV, out of home and audio for targeting. In the rush to ‘target’ behaviour and overlay demographic targeting, the quality of the data itself became a lesser important detail. No campaign was the same without it. But as brands started to explore the effectiveness of results in return for their ‘added value’, a different picture emerged. A 2018 study by Lotame found only one in five marketers were very confident in the accuracy of demographic data they purchased and only one in seven said their audience buys had been very successful. Yet only two thirds of those surveyed even considered the quality of the data before running campaigns. By 2019 Adexchanger was reporting “the accuracy of third-party data is overrated, and we have passed the point of diminishing returns on further modelling”. Worse still, when Carbon’s data science team analysed consented URL strings from large players in the space, 10–50% proved to be from sites with sensitive data, including child-oriented content, health, well-being related content and more. In the words of Professor Byron Sharp: “Targeting is something that marketers learn at school in their textbooks, that ‘thou shalt target’, and so it hasn’t been questioned. The lure of precision targeting has been massively oversold. The value of targeting small segments is far less than we would ever have thought.”
The Financial Times reported in March this year: “According to an internal Facebook memo included in a recently unsealed court filing, an unnamed product manager wrote in 2016 that ‘more than half the time we’re showing ads to someone other than the advertisers’ intended audience.”
After a 58% drop in media spend during 2020 due to COVID, Airbnb announced in March, that it still generates 95% of the same online traffic as a year earlier and will ditch performance marketing in favour of brand marketing. During the global COVID crisis and beyond, travel marketing brands have an opportunity to pull back and refocus on brand advertising. Budgets are naturally returning to basecamp with a simpler mission of keeping brands front of mind. This realignment also plays into the new climate of privacy first, compliant with the phasing out of third-party cookies and a move away from precision consumer targeting to broader reach. For marketing as a whole this is a healthy and timely shift. This does not mean that technology is taking a back seat. But how that technology is harnessed within marketing will continue to undergo real change. Next generation contextual advertising and its targeting can speak to users in the moment they are interested in a topic without inferring from past behaviour collected via user data. When combined with branded content, it links short-term, high impact brand value to longer term brand association. Story telling combines the best of creativity, core to advertising success and brand awareness. The travel industry is crammed full of inspirational, evocative and diverse content, which is rich and compelling. Enhancing repetition of a travel brand via quality stories amplified when and where they count, alongside contextually relevant articles on trusted leading publisher sites, is already delivering engagement rates far higher than traditional audience and behavioural targeting techniques. And rather than relying on questionable data from third-parties, contextual advertising strengthens top of the funnel brand awareness with genuinely engaged users. Context has always existed, but the resurgence of contextual advertising is timely given the move away from precision targeting alongside industry privacy challenges. At Smartology, we have always maintained that contextual innovation has a major part to play in reshaping the sector for the better to the benefit of brands, agencies, publishers and the wider public. Trending Articles

Guest Post: Context in marketing is on the rise as precision targeting wanes

Cleaning up Adtech
Mark is the founder and CEO of Smartology and has spent over a decade developing cutting edge semantic technology solutions within publishing, social media and advertising. Prior to Smartology he co-founded an executive search firm where he opened the company’s first London office and helped sell the business to Alexander Mann 4 years later. He went on to co-found Leiki closing deals with The Financial Times, BBC and Sun Microsystems before spinning off the UK business in 2010 and re-branding as Smartology. The UK’s online ad sector is worth over £13bn with digital ad spend accounting for the majority (57%) of all UK advertising. It’s the world’s third-largest digital ad market and Europe’s biggest with 19,000 people working in the sector. However, recently the UK’s Information Commissioner Office (ICO), the independent regulatory office in charge of upholding information rights, issued a warning to our industry and questioned the legality of real-time bidding (RTB) in programmatic advertising, writes, Mark Bembridge, Founder and CEO, Smartology. RTB is the programmatic selling and buying of online ad impressions through an auction process which happens when a webpage impression occurs. 65% of all UK spend on advertising in digital media is estimated to be traded programmatically. The use of third-party cookies to collect information about a user when they visit a site is a well-used ploy by marketers. It’s why you are followed around the internet by a company trying to sell you that gym membership you may have viewed last week or why you’ll see ads promoting a football match now the Premier League season has started again. However, consumers are tired of their data being disrespected in this way, and the ICO agrees. The UK’s Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said: “People’s personal data is just that - personal. When an organisation fails to protect it from loss, damage or theft, it is more than an inconvenience. That’s why the law is clear - when you are entrusted with personal data, you must look after it. Those that don’t will face scrutiny from my office to check they have taken appropriate steps to protect fundamental privacy rights.”
Right on cue, the ICO hit both British Airways and Marriot Hotels with significant fines for security data breaches. Given the use of data in Real-Time Buying (RTB) and the fact that the ICO has reacted with such hefty fines for British Airways and Marriott, RTB and programmatic players who are still processing personal data without consent should be worried. ICO has inferred that personal data is being widely used to buy adverts without user consent. It has given our industry six months to get our house in order before they start a more in-depth audit of activity. Contextual Advertising
As well as needing robust brand safety, marketers will increasingly need to explore tech innovations which deliver quality content to users without the use of third-party data. As a result, contextual advertising is being looked at afresh, where relevant ad experiences are delivered in real-time alongside content that people are reading. This offers several advantages to brands, publishers and of course, to end-users, which is key in the post-GDPR era - as it’s contextual, no user data is processed. A privacy solution which can drive higher engagement than traditional cookie-based targeting is a golden opportunity going forward. Moreover, with California, Maine and other US states following in the footsteps of Europe in protecting consumer data, the benefits of context are only set to rise. The rise of AI
People hate intrusive, annoying or disruptive ads, and this is why ad-blocking software continue to grow at a steady pace. This is where artificial intelligence comes in. AI helps solve a lot of these headaches. As brands work out fresh ways to reach consumers with the right content at the right time, Machine Learning and natural language processing will rise to the fore. These developments move far beyond simple keyword usage to ensure premium media placements are safely matched contextually; no more insurance ads being served next to pieces reporting natural disasters. Regaining trust
The marketing sector is facing huge challenges, including brand safety, transparency, ad fraud, viewability, and fake news. The number one issue, however, is consumer trust. According to the Advertising Association, Isba and Credos’ research consumer trust in advertising has hit a record low in 2019 with the ’industry’s reputation of being obtrusive, repetitive and unscrupulous. By refining the context and content of marketing campaigns, you can make sure that each prospective customer is suitably targeted. By delivering messages and insights in context, the brand becomes more helpful to its audience, in turn, driving engagement. If users know personal data such as race, sexuality, and political opinions, is not being shared with hundreds of organizations around the world in order to target them, then we have a critically important opportunity to redeem lost trust. Programmatic advertising and RTB have a lot to offer when done in the right way, keeping in mind the privacy of private data of consumers. However, if we don’t confront the issues of data, trust and privacy head-on to ensure we have a model that fits, then the future sustainability of our industry is at stake. Did you find this useful? Yes

Cleaning up Adtech

New Approach Ensures the Third Sector Can Target Articles Contextually with Relevant AD Messages
Smartology , the technology firm named as one of the top AI companies by the UK government, has launched a new media tool for charities allowing them to run contextual advertising campaigns on the world’s leading publishers. Charities are now able to buy media space contextually to benefit their fundraising drives. Premium publishers often struggle to sell media space next to “hard” news articles such as stories on extreme weather or conflicts. Many advertisers consider these placements not to be ‘brand-safe, and there have been recent high profile incidents which saw erroneous media placements after terrorist attacks. However, this space can be a way for charities to highlight their work and fundraising programmes. As contextual advertising campaigns often rely on the use of exclusion lists to determine which articles are deemed as safe, in the past charities have found it difficult to implement a communications and fundraising disaster response in a timely manner. In order to overcome these challenges, Smartology turned off their brand safety mechanism which usually safeguards their clients’ campaigns from ad misplacement. As such, charities are now able to use the SmartMatch tool to run contextual advertising campaigns, while publishers are able to benefit from increased revenues on previously unsold space. Commenting on the new service, Mark Bembridge , CEO of Smartology, comments: “While talking to those operating in the third sector it soon became clear how challenging they find it to run timely advertising campaigns to support their fundraising efforts. “By taking an innovative approach to how brand safety systems traditionally work, we have developed a solution where charities are able to deliver impactful contextual advertising campaigns in a cost effective way. It’s an exciting development and shows how machine learning and natural language processing can be harnessed as a force for good.”

Smartology Enables Charities to Develop Contextual Advertising Campaigns to Support Fundraising in Real Time

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Mark is the founder and CEO of Smartology and has spent over a decade developing cutting edge semantic technology solutions within publishing, social media and advertising. Prior to Smartology he co-founded an executive search firm where he opened the company’s first London office and helped sell the business to Alexander Mann 4 years later. He went on to co-found Leiki closing deals with The Financial Times, BBC and Sun Microsystems before spinning off the UK business in 2010 and re-branding as Smartology. We’re working on getting more articles from this author! We’re working on getting more articles from this author! Digital advertising has been the subject of intense scrutiny in recent months after a number of controversies hitting the headlines. Brands have found their content appearing alongside inappropriate content, negative news articles or unsuitable online material; frustrating marketers who want to take more control over their digital advertising campaigns. With the added problems of fake news and transparency, companies are being forced to rethink their strategy as any wrong placement has the potential to hamper their carefully curated image, writes, Mark Bembridge, CEO of Smartology. Brand safety has long been a pain point for advertisers and rightly so. A brand’s well-earned reputation can be damaged instantaneously with one wrong placement, while recent incidents continue to put a spotlight on the challenges faced with social media advertising. YouTube made the unsurprising revelation that it might never be 100 percent brand safe. Facebook is no different. Advertisers continue to be concerned by the safety challenges posed by its in-stream videos. This is leading to a shift where advertisers are looking at moving their digital spends back from social media to premium publications. Context is back in vogue too, and with technological advancements such as Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML), businesses can align their content where they want or are best suited to. Here are a few things to consider when creating a brand safe campaign:
Premium publishers
The benefits of working with premium publishers on advertising campaign are plenty. Publications such as Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Reuters, Bloomsburg and The Times offer a high-quality content environment, where people go to consume their day to day news. As such, these publications offer better campaign effectiveness and the reputational halo benefits. Advertisers should, therefore, take time to understand where their content will be placed to ensure they are hitting the right target audience. Recent research by World Media Group, the body representing the world’s top media brands, shows advertising in quality titles is better than MOAT (measurement of advertising) benchmarks. Think Context
We all know that content is king, but it is the context in which it is placed that puts the content into that position. Contextual campaigns, when compared with audience-targeted ones are more effective in delivering industry beating engagement rates. This is because they’re directly and immediately relevant to people. For example, if you are a mountain wear brand, think how much more impact your message would make if you are placed against content related to ‘the best mountain holidays in the world’. Contextual advertising offers many advantages to brands, publishers and of course to consumers. It is also key in the post-GDPR era as no user data is stored. Define your risks
Placing your content which is contextually aligned in a premium publication is not enough. Just deeming an environment is safe is not the solution for brands to address brand safety. Businesses still run the risk of getting placed alongside negative content such as in the case of the attack in New Zealand. Customized contextual solutions are the key here. As such, it is important to define your risk topics. What may be an off limit topic for one could be gold for another. For instance, if you are an insurance company, your branded content will be placed against an article about government policy on insurance. If natural disasters is not part of your ‘exclusion’ list of topics, your content may be placed against news on a topic which is potentially very damaging to your brand. Adopting technology
Another effective way of tackling brand safety issues in the media buying process is through the adoption of the latest technology. Artificial Intelligence in the form of machine learning and Natural Language Processing (NLP) is transforming media buying. NLP can help ensure that glaringly erroneous media buys don’t take place in a number of ways. Advertisers can adopt bespoke brand protection using a standard exclusion list mechanism customizable by brands to specify which content they don’t want to appear alongside. This semantic matching is done using NLP and applies algorithms to work on the premise that a news article comprises of a limited number of topics that describe what it is about. Be Transparent
Advertising and the media industry are symbiotically connected. One can’t succeed without the other. Being transparent with your publisher on how a campaign is performing helps. This will ensure that accountability for delivering results are shared and are held to the same standards as marketers, resulting in the development of stronger bonds. We have seen campaigns where post-click data has been shared with publishers, which has provided a useful feedback loop for both sides to look at how they can improve the campaign. The combination of adoption of technology, working with premium publishers and a focus on contextual advertising is crucial. It means marketers can focus not only on brand protection but also increase viewability, long-term incremental revenue streams and protection from ad blocking while in no way infringing on a user's privacy. This means that advertisers have complete control over their ads served at all times. A win-win-win for consumers, brands and publishers. Did you find this useful? Yes

How To Create A Brand Safe Campaign

Financial Times

Tim  Steel

Series A

Smartology is an advertising technology company offering programmatic and direct solutions to publishers and advertisers.

Date	1/8/2019
Round	Series A
Amount	$3.56M
Investors	Committed Capital
Valuation
Revenue	0 FY undefined
Sources	1

First funding	1/8/2019
Last Funding	1/8/2019
Investor	Committed Capital
Rounds	1 Series A
Board Seats	Tim Steel
Type	Private Equity
Location	United Kingdom

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