We sat down for a conversation with Nick Manning, Chief Strategy Officer at Ebiquity. We discussed his perspective on the current state of digital advertising and the issues that need to be addressed for a successful industry model.
What does Ebiquity do and what is your role there?
We are a global independent data analytics business which helps major advertisers to measure, understand and exploit the changing media environment – ultimately leading to better performance and return on investment. As Chief Strategy Officer I make sure that the products and services we offer are what advertisers need, both now and in the future – so I have my eyes firmly fixed on the media horizon.
What are the biggest issues that face advertisers in terms of accountability and measurement of their campaigns?
A fantastic range of opportunities for marketers has opened up as a result of the massive explosion in media channels– but with that come great challenges too, as advertisers struggle to identify the best channels to use to achieve their objectives, and in what combination. Part of the problem comes from the fact that brands are also working with too many agencies – often with one working on each channel they use. As a result, they have stacks of advice – but it’s not always objective advice as each agency has a vested interest in their own channel. But the biggest single issue is measurement. With so many channels on so many devices, getting the technology and analytics right is difficult, but vital.
The Lumascape shows an infamously complex digital advertising ecosystem – what impact does this have on advertisers and what should they be doing to simplify this? And why?
What they need to do is stop using it as it over-complicates the reality! Every advertiser has different needs and objectives so, rather than trying to work their way through the Lumascape, they need to take time and impartial advice to simplify their digital advertising process and understand how they can improve effectiveness, and in so doing improve cost-efficiency. They then need to properly brief their selected partners and ensure that they incentivise and remunerate them appropriately with clear and well thought-out contracts in place. Too often, advertisers pay their ad partners according to the volume of impressions they serve, rather than for any specific outcome and this actually drives down quality and drives up cost.
Is the recent drop in TV advertising spend a result of advertisers looking to spend their budget in more accountable, trackable media?
This fall in TV spend hides a number of different factors. In particular, traditional TV spend may well have declined but a proportion of this budget is highly likely to have been shifted into online video instead. However, it is difficult to track this shift as the measurement systems vary and online TV is harder to monitor. While the decline of print media is inexorable, I believe that TV is pretty resilient and will remain as one of the most effective channels for advertising, as our studies consistently prove. While programmatic TV is not yet a reality, significantly more TV will be delivered via the internet in the next five years. My hope is that programmatic technology will enable TV to become even more powerful as a result of making ads more addressable to their audience.
Does the programmatic power lie with the advertiser, agency or ad tech firm? Is it where it should be?
Far too much control still lies with agencies and ad tech firms with far too much of an advertiser’s spend disappearing into the supply chain across multiple, often unknown, intermediaries. This means that only $0.40 out of every $1.00 actually reaches the publisher, even before issues of non-human traffic and viewability come into play.
As more campaigns are delivered across multiple devices, what implication does this have for measuring digital advertising?
Campaign measurement is becoming an incredibly complex affair. It’s not just multiple campaigns across multiple devices that we need to think about but also campaigns across different channels, in different languages and also across online and offline. Advertisers need to have very good technical infrastructure to capture first party data in order to track customers across multiple channels. However, while agencies do a great job at understanding and reaching consumers, few have strengths in cross-device tracking. This means that advertisers are just not tracking across devices and channels – so they can’t do the analytics and make informed decisions. Advertisers need to capture as much data as possible and have the right tools in place to make sense of that data so that they can identify the important signals from amongst the noise. It is often in their interest to use an expert third party company to do this for them so that they can measure every channel and receive impartial advice and analysis. This is the only way that advertisers can be confident that each channel is represented and measured in the right way.
How much is ad verification an issue for advertisers (viewability, ad fraud, ad blocking)?
Ad blocking is what is making the headlines at the moment but it is not as big an issue to advertisers yet as non-human traffic and viewability. Together they are leading to 50% of online advertising being wasted (as identified by both Ebiquity, Google and other independent parties); that adds up to $100bn lost ad spend globally. Agencies that are placing millions of ad spend should be tracking and reporting on viewability and fraudulent impressions as that is the only way that the industry will be able to understand the scale of the problem and take the appropriate action. However, advertisers are not routinely being provided with data on how their campaigns are being affected, as it’s not in the agencies’ interests to do this, given that they get paid for all impressions, viewable or not. As advertisers demand more control, the agencies that champion better practice in this respect are likely to get kudos for doing so.
Ebiquity has been selected by the ANA to conduct an investigation into the US media market. As one of the two firms selected they will investigate the issues surrounding the industry with the view of improving the level of transparency for advertisers. As Mr. Manning illustrates above, this is a crucial issue that must be addressed, we look forward to the new media transparency principles and learnings that result from this effort.
