Employee Spotlight: Tom Hunter-Smith

Tell us a bit about yourself?

My name is Tom Hunter Smith, I am originally from the Scottish Highlands from a very small, very remote, very Scottish and very unheard of village called Aultbea. If anyone has heard of it please come and see me now. I’ve been working as a Data Scientist at LoopMe for just under 4 months.

Before joining LoopMe, I worked at the Office of National Statistics in Wales for 3 years. It was there I learnt my trade as a Data Scientist, working on outputs including Consumer Prices Index, Social Deprivation Statistics and perhaps more interestingly, on a research project analysing Twitter data as a proxy for measuring demographic change. They say that a career in government is either 3 years or 30 years so I hop, skipped and jumped down to the big smoke to work for PHD media where I worked on developing a set of tools for measuring digital journeys of consumers and evaluating campaign performance.

Why did you decide to join LoopMe?

Having already worked in digital media, I was looking for a place to work which was a bit more fast paced where I could be more involved in the growth and development of the company. LoopMe had been popping up in conversations at work more and more since first moved to London and already had a remarkably good reputation in the media world given the size of the company. The good words I heard spoken weren’t only that of the product (which is of course fantastic), it was also about the people who worked there. You guys all have a good rep – keep it up!

What’s your job role and day to day task at LoopMe?

Our Data Science team is roughly split up into 3 different parts; PurchaseLoop, Real Time and Device Matching. Me and a small team in Ukraine focus our time on the Device Matching – which is exactly what it says it is – matching together an individuals phones, tablets and laptops so that our targeting is more dynamic, relative and flexible. This involves a lot of coding – since we are attempting to match different kinds of device to each other, the models we train each have their subtle differences and require large volumes of data to be engineered to gain the desired level of precision.

What’s been the best moment at LoopMe so far?

Not to make it sound like it has been all downhill since then, but my first day was pretty spectacular when I was whisked out of the office to a posh manor house to eat, drink and play games for LoopMe’s 5th Birthday Party. It was also my birthday. It could well be the best first day that anyone has ever had ever.

Tell us a fun fact?

Last year I was the subject of a Channel 4 social experiment called “Life Stripped Bare” where they removed all material possessions from my life for 21 days.

 

 

 

LoopMe work with Moat to open trackable, viewable inventory

We’re pleased to announce that we are working with Moat, a SaaS analytics company and part of Oracle that is focused on delivering measurement to marketers and publishers. We are working with Moat on every campaign to measure their attention metrics through our integration with Moat’s SDK on both iOS and Android.

While mobile apps account for 85% of total mobile time spent, until recently, advertisers have been blind to the viewability of their in-app video. Through integration with Moat, viewability can now be measured across LoopMe’s publishers on our AI-optimized brand campaigns. (Source: eMarketer, April 2017).

Mobile accounts for more than a third of all ad spend in the UK and in the US it’s expected to surpass TV spend as early as 2019. However, marketers have rightly asked for more transparency around viewability on mobile, citing it as a core concern. LoopMe has pioneered new technology which delivers marketers results against real brand metrics such as purchase intent and brand affinity, working in partnership with Moat allows for greater accountability and is a solution that many in the market are still unable to offer.

‘Mobile advertising is bucking the trend in ad spend and continuing to grow worldwide,’ comments LoopMe’s CEO and Co-Founder, Stephen Upstone. ‘We believe that full transparency is vital to increase trust in the industry, which is why in the last year we’ve become TAG Registered, achieved the TAG Fraud Seal and integrated Moat’s tracking within our SDK. We’re really proud to be one of the first to integrate their SDK on both iOS and Android, and look forward to further partnership with Moat and other measurement companies.’

LoopMe clients can now buy in-app viewable inventory for their campaigns around the world. Get in touch with marketing@loopme.com or your local account rep to find out more.

What does iOS 11 mean for mobile marketers?

iOS 11 was released to all last week, which will accelerate Apple’s ‘long-held policy of elbowing the cookie into obsolescence.’

For marketers and agencies who are currently using cookies for tracking and optimising, this update puts them in a troubling position. The update restricts cookie application to 24 hours, and after 30 days (without a subsequent interaction) the cookies will be purged from the device.

This new development has not been without criticism, with the likes of the ANA, the 4A’s and the IAB have penned an open letter and called it ‘heavy-handed’. It’s worth noting that while adoption has been fast (currently sitting at around 20%), it wasn’t as fast as when iOS 10 was released and only time will tell the long-term impact.

For the moment though, there are two main steps that concerned mobile marketers can take to circumvent this issue.

 

Align yourself with app solutions

In the US, app time accounts for 86% of smartphone time (eMarketer, 2016) while in the UK it accounts for 82% (comScore, 2017).

With this the predominant way of accessing the internet, marketers should look to find mobile solution providers who can leverage the app time. Using apps also allows for further data collection via SDKs, allowing marketers a work around the new iOS developments.

 

Rely on other data sources

Cookies are now defunct for mobile marketing. Choose an attribution and delivery partner who don’t rely on cookies for optimising.

Our own robust device-ID heavy DMP has registered over 2 billion devices – no cookies required. In addition, our Artificial Intelligence, which takes into account hundreds of different data points which includes first-party data via surveying consumers allows us to optimize to metrics which really matter.

To find out more about our data-driven solutions, contact your local sales rep or email marketing@loopme.com

Auto & AI: ‘Wheel’ in the ROI of your campaigns

After the popularity of our last breakfast, ‘How to sleigh your Christmas campaigns’, and with several requests to host a similar event, we’re excited to launch our auto-specific learning session taking place in London on October 25th.

Join us for breakfast from 8.30am to discover how you can leverage Artificial Intelligence to meet your automotive brand metrics, whether its to achieve purchase intent, brand affinity or footfall.

We’ll be hearing from industry thought leaders to discuss tips and best practises as well as a deep-dive into some first-class automotive campaigns to explain how they stood out from the competition. Leveraging data from our DMP, attendees will also receive an exclusive first-look at our global analysis of automotive campaigns.

RSVP here to be the first to hear about speaker details.

Spaces are limited, so ensure you RSVP to avoid disappointment! Get in touch if you have any further questions: marketing-uk@loopme.com

We look forward to seeing you!

Highlights from dmexco 2017

Another September has nearly passed, which means the 8th annual dmexco is over! The theme this year was ‘Lightening: The Age of Transformation’ with a real focus on the tumultuous digital revolution that we’re currently in and what more marketers can do to keep up with this incredibly fast paced industry.

Dmexco 2017 proved to be another great event, with over 500 international speakers across 18 different stages and tens of thousands of industry leading experts in attendance. LoopMe also hosted one of our renowned ‘Innovation Dinners’, at the Chiltern Firehouse, a networking event for clients of LoopMe to discuss latest trends and best practices. We’d like to take this opportunity to big thank all those who were in attendance.

Luckily for those who couldn’t attend, dmexco upload all their keynotes online – here are three of the best.

AI – The Hidden Super Power Driving The Experience Business

One of the most memorable talks at dmexco was hearing from Suresh Vittal, (VP of Platform & Products, Adobe) who spoke about the impact that AI is having on the experience business. He believes that no matter what industry you’re in, or product you’re selling, we’re all in the business of ‘experience’, due to a shift in consumer mentality. He stated that “we see consumers everywhere, not just buying a product or service, but they also focus on the experience which accompanied with it”.

Hosted on day 2 of dmexco, Vittal described the 3 fundamental pillars needed to create a great customer experience which are ‘focused, adaptive and intelligent’, necessary so they appeal to the individual’s voices and needs the consumer has. He went on to pull out a statistic from Adobe’s work with the University of London stating that “50% of customers said that the regular use of innovative technology enhances the consumer experience” pointing towards how important AI will be to improve customer experience in the coming years. Click here to watch the full video.

With Data & Creativity Into The Consumer’s Heart

How to seamlessly combine creativity and data to create the ultimate marketing beast is a question that every brand is considering..

An all-star panel, which included reps from Spotify, Heineken and MasterCard addressed this burning issue. Robert Schwartz, (Global Leader of Agency Services, IBM) responded to the moderator Jim Cooper’s (Editorial Director at Ad  Week) who questioned how brands are underestimating the power of the consumer. Schwartz responded, “Building brands is building experiences, and that requires good data. You can’t stand on Mount Olympus and get them to believe what your brand is doing, you have to deliver an experience with them.”

Schwartz said that he didn’t view data and creativity as polar opposites, rather ‘there’s creativity everywhere, and there’s data everywhere and it’s how you deploy those things to build the best set of experience which is most important’. Click here to watch the full video.

Creating Digital Content – New Formats, New Platforms, New Storytelling

Last, but certainly not the least on our round up is the talk ‘Creating Digital Content – New Formats, New Platforms, New Storytelling’ which featured in our article ‘5 Things You Can’t Miss At This Year’s dmexco’. Hosted on day 2 Tom Punch (Chief Commercial & Creative Officer, Vice Media) and Kevin Allocca (Global Head of Culture & Trends, YouTube) took to the stage to explain how new platforms were impacting marketing.

One of the most interesting takeaways was when Tom discussed how Vice has changed over the last decade from a media company which produces documentaries in long format, (primarily on YouTube); to a company producing content on all platforms.

He described how the mindset of the company had to change to ‘multi-channel thinking’. When ideas are discussed for upcoming projects they now consider first and foremost ‘how can this translate onto other devices?’.

Its this change in mind-set that’s given Vice the ability to reinvent themselves and adapt to the industries rapidly changing environment, and why it remains so popular in media. Watch the talk in full here.

Prizes announced for LoopMe Awards London

LoopMe Partner with Campaign

With just six weeks to go until the inaugural LoopMe Awards, we’re a delighted to announce that LoopMe have partnered with Campaign Magazine to offer our winners an exclusive prize. Campaign is a leading publication in media, with over 1.2 million monthly page views and 450,000+ unique monthly users and we’re delighted to be working with them.

The winning agency and brand will feature in a bespoke piece of content which will look into the campaign and detail how it stood out from the other entries. The content will be promoted further via display ads running across Campaign’s site. In addition, the winning team will receive a unique experience with the LoopMe team to be determined after the ceremony.

LoopMe Awards

The LoopMe Awards looks to celebrate exceptional, AI optimized mobile advertising campaigns. To be in a chance of winning campaigns must have benefitted from our award-winning product PurchaseLoop. Both agencies and their brand clients will be eligible to enter if they’ve run a PurchaseLoop Campaign in the last year, with the winners being decided by your industry peers. Voting will begin on our website from October and further details will follow shortly. Download our one-pager to find our more.

What is PurchaseLoop?

PurchaseLoop is the world’s first brand uplift optimizer, using our AI and machine learning to help drive better results across the metrics that matter in real-time. PurchaseLoop is the only software in the market that goes beyond campaign metrics to deliver the metrics that really matter. Check our short video to learn more about how PurchaseLoop works.

Contact marketing@loopme.com for further information.

LoopMe’s Award-Winning PurchaseLoop – An Introduction from LoopMe on Vimeo.

No.20 in the Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100

We’re delighted that LoopMe has been ranked at Number 20 in the Sunday Time Hiscox Tech Track 100. This is our first year in the league table and we’re delighted to be recognised for our growth among some other great British-based companies.

The Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100 league table ranks Britain’s 100 private tech (TMT) companies with the fastest-growing sales over their latest three years. In recent years those making the Top 100 have included SkyScanner and FarFetch. Other notable alumni of the Tech Track 100 include Sophos, JustEat and Zoopla.

This year has seen incredible growth for LoopMe as we’ve opened new offices in Atlanta, Chicago and Singapore, while also celebrating our fifth birthday. In the last 12 months, we’ve launched PurchaseLoop, PurchaseLoop for Foot Traffic and a cross-screen solution. We’re pleased that our team has been recognised for their hard work in growing revenue for the company.

Much of our growth has been fuelled by PurchaseLoop, the brand optimisation product. This allows advertisers the opportunity to optimise beyond clicks to real brand metrics, whether its purchase intent, brand affinity or consideration.

An analysis of PurchaseLoop campaigns found that the average PurchaseLoop was 120% more effective than standard advertising optimization at delivering uplifts against a control. View our analysis here to learn more. To find out more about PurchaseLoop, watch this video or get in touch.

The full list of the Tech Track 100 will be available online and in-print on Sunday, so ensure you pick up your copy this weekend! Congratulations to all the winners – we look forward to joining you at the awards dinner to celebrate in November. Join in the conversation online with #TechTrack100.

LoopMe’s Fantasy Football League

Calling all Football Fans!

Whether your team is riding high at the top of the Premier League or languishing close to the regulation spots, sign up to LoopMe’s Fantasy Football League, create your virtual team and battle it out for a chance to win some stellar prizes. These include Barclay’s Premier League tickets, a FitBit, Football boots, luxury hampers and much more.

How to enter

To enter LoopMe’s monthly Fantasy Football competition, Click here and fill out this form. Once completed you’ll receive an email with the code to sign up and register your team.

Points will begin from Game Week 4 which means you have until 11:30am on 9th September to be included in this month’s competition. We will be handing out prizes for Monthly Points, Best Team Name and a LoopMe raffle.

Contact Fantasy_Football@LoopMe.com if you have any questions.

Good Luck!

Did you know?

87% of consumers use more than one device at a time while they’re watching TV? With an estimated 1.7 million* tuning in each week to watch live games, learn about where users spend their time and who the audiences are.

Download our Football One Pager to gain more insight on the football audience, preferred devices and more.