LoopMe place at no.42 in The Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100

We’re delighted to announce that LoopMe has been placed at #42 in the Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100.

This is the second time we’ve placed in the Tech Track.  Now in its 18th year, The Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100 league table ranks Britain’s private technology, media and telecoms (TMT) companies with the fastest-growing sales. Previous alumni include currency transfer provider TransferWise, employee engagement service Perkbox and Wonderbly who create personalised children books.

Steve McGerr, Head of Direct Commercial at Hiscox Insurance UK, commented: “Tech businesses in Britain are thriving thanks to the fearlessness and determination of those that run them. We have great admiration for the talented entrepreneurs that make up the companies on this year’s Tech Track 100”.

LoopMe’s tech offers brands solutions that close the loop on their advertising. This year we launched PurchaseLoop Sales Optimization and Audience Intelligence to expand our PurchaseLoop offering, solutions which have been rapidly adopted by the market.

Stephen Upstone, LoopMe CEO and Co-Founder commented, “Our product and data science teams have worked hard to provide new solutions for brands and make their advertising attributable, and I’m thrilled to see LoopMe place in the Tech Track 100 alongside Britain’s leading companies.”

Click here to view the full list of the Tech Track 100. Join in the conversation online with #TechTrack100.

If you want to find out how our products can fuel your marketing activations contact your local sales rep or email marketing@loopme.com

LoopMe Listens – Joseph Olewitz

We are excited to introduce our new blog interview series, LoopMe Listens, where we’ll be interviewing leading professionals in ad tech on relevant topics in the industry. Kicking off our series, we spoke with Joseph Olewitz, founder and CEO of Virtual Chief Revenue Officer, which provides revenue growth support to businesses of all sizes.

We were lucky enough for Joseph to break down the buzzword that is blockchain and it’s counterpart, cryptocurrency. In this blog Joseph will be covering misconceptions of blockchain, how it’s useful for marketers and advertisers, and what’s in store for this technology in 2019.

If you had to describe blockchain in 3 sentences in less, how would you describe it?
A blockchain is a permanent, encrypted record of information and transactions, distributed among a large number of diverse devices which approve and maintain the record by consensus.

Blockchain’s efficiency provides for cost and time savings in a trustable environment that will lead to transformative new ways of doing business and of handling critically important and sensitive aspects of our personal lives.
The technology is useful for storage and transfer of assets and information, it is different from existing systems because it uses algorithms and design to deal with trust instead of relying on external trusted third parties, plus the opportunities provided by the technology, including operational efficiencies and allowing access to underserved parties, are revolutionary.

What is cryptocurrency?
Cryptocurrency is a payment system based on complex mathematical formulas and puzzles designed to hide the solution from anyone who doesn’t have a unique key (cryptography). It works as a medium of exchange in lieu of commonly familiar checks, coins, paper currency and wire transfers.

In 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto, a still unidentified person or persons created the idea of cryptocurrency – a peer-to-peer digital cash system (no paper, no coins) that does not rely on the backing of a central entity like a government and a bank for transaction processing, and he designed it to be built on a blockchain.

Satoshi’s work was published in a relatively easy to digest nine-page white paper. As a result, Bitcoin became the first widely used application of blockchain technology in much the same way that email became the first widely used application of the internet.

How is blockchain useful for marketers and advertisers?
Blockchain will remove the middleman and give marketers direct access to consumers. This decentralization is a transformative event in promotion and advertising.

The ability to accurately track and report viewership, especially of video content, will greatly enhance understanding the ROI received from ad dollars spent. That same ability will empower agencies and application providers to prove ROI they are delivering to marketers, and to prove the targeted market is being reached, thus justifying campaign plans and subsequent results.
Fraud will be massively minimized and, in some cases, totally eradicated. Imagine completely stopping bots and other bad actors who misrepresent viewership in order to derail and redirect ad dollars.

Marketers will be able to build trust with consumers and be able to more accurately target the desired demographic without negative reactions. That will happen by requesting permission and sometimes by making payments directly to consumers for watching promotions (no middleman needed).

The blockchain will allow returning privacy and control of their personal data to consumers who will then be able to determine who gets to see which data about them and for how long. As a result, marketers may generate fewer leads and impressions. However, the ones they do generate will be stronger and of much higher quality.

What are the common misconceptions of blockchain?

  • Blockchain is a panacea to solve all problems – it’s not.
  • You need to understand blockchain to use it – I ask: do you understand how the internet works?
  • Blockchain and Bitcoin are the same thing. Nope. Blockchain is a distributed ledger providing security, privacy and transaction verification. Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency built on top of a blockchain that facilitates secure payment between two parties without an intermediary.
  • Blockchain is ready for primetime now – it’s not! It’s all happening at a dizzying pace but we’re still in the infancy of a new technology, similar to the internet in the 60s and 70s before the world wide web arrived in the 90s.
  • In the future one will need a blockchain to make simple payments to children in college or to a friend for the beer he bought at the bar last night. Not so. There will always be non-blockchain methods for direct payment between two parties when that is appropriate, maybe including fiat currency, IOUs, barter, and much more.

What are you most excited about in 2019 when it comes to this technology?
Disruptive technologies are developing and improving at a much more rapid pace than ever before. I believe that in 2019 we will see blockchain experience a significant leap forward in these arenas:

  • An increase in deployment of Enterprise applications of blockchain.
  • Costs related to blockchain will come down while transaction speed increases.
  • Business and personal life improvements created from the marriage of blockchain and Artificial Intelligence.
  • A reduction in hype and get-rich-quick schemes arising from the broad increase of knowledge and awareness around these new technologies.
  • A broad understanding of the value derived from separating blockchain and AI from cryptocurrency and fintech applications. Those currency and financial applications are extremely valuable and while blockchain is the foundation technology under almost all cryptocurrency applications, blockchain is also hard enough to understand as it is, and we get distracted from the potential business uses when we equate the two.
  • Beginning the establishment of standards that will work across platforms and across industries. Right now, because many blockchain actors are working independently and without standards the technology will not be able to scale.
  • Broad resolution of securities laws and development of practical considerations around ICOs and Token offerings (including liquidity, exchange, taxation, and much more.)
  • Someone developing the blockchain equivalent of the world wide web which in the mid-90s gave developers and consumers a path to easily develop for and use the internet. That development and consumer access allowed an explosion of uses and users of the technology. We need a similar “on-ramp” to demystify blockchain.

3 things to expect at IAB’s Nonference

This November sees IAB UK host its inaugural Nonference event, and LoopMe are proud to be part of it!

Join LoopMe for our session ‘An Englishman, Irishman & Scotsman walk into a bar (And nobody finds it funny)’ where we’ll be exploring unconscious bias in media and marketing and how to tackle it.

Here are other 3 things we think you should expect at IAB’s Nonference.

Turn your out of office on

It’s a whole day event, so make sure you take advantage of it. You’re encouraged to build your own agenda for a day of hands-on learning, whether its designing quizzes with BuzzFeed or how to become the next YouTube sensation.

On your feet

As you can probably tell by the name, Nonference isn’t your typical conference. Instead of the tried and tested structure of speakers taking the lead with PowerPoints, Nonference wants you to get off your seat and participate.

It’s all about collaboration, participation and conversation, with sessions hosted by the industry’s most innovative companies.

Inclusivity

Nonference is for everyone in the industry, whether you’re a grad at an Agency right up to the C-Suite. Expect to see hundreds of people at the Tobacco Docks

Click here to see a full list of sessions, and with more to be announced, sign up today to secure your spot!

 

 

LoopMe shortlist at The Drum’s Digital Trading Awards APAC with Marina Bay Sands

We’re proud to announce that LoopMe are finalists at The Drum’s Digital Trading Awards APAC for Best Mobile Campaign for our work with Marina Bay Sands.

Using a combination of mobile creative and Artificial Intelligence, LoopMe drove a market-first campaign for The Shoppes, which optimized both its Watch & Jewellery campaign and brand KPI, which drove consideration by 11.3%.

The Drum’s Digital Trading Awards celebrates the best work in the industry, judged by industry leaders including Josephine Tan, Global Media Director, McDonald’s, Phil Wade, CMO, Jetstar Airways and GroupM’s Chief Digital Officer, Regan Baillie.

The Campaign

Marina Bay Sands is Singapore’s most iconic building, with the world’s largest rooftop Infinity pool, award-winning dining and a wide range of shopping and entertainment options. The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands looked to increase awareness and consideration of the exclusive range of watch and jewellery offerings at The Shoppes. In the build-up to the Christmas period to promote this, Marina Bay Sands offered shoppers a SGD 150 shopping voucher with every SGD3000 spend.

The Shoppes had two main objectives – to achieve a high Click-Through-Rate (CTR) and brand consideration.

A combination of pre-roll, embedded video and rich media. Video helped drive branding and was used to engage consumers. Those who had engaged with the video or watched to completion were retargeted with further mobile rich media, encouraging them to click through to the campaign landing page. This ensured a high and consistent CTR.

To meet Marina Bay Sands Brand goal of consideration, LoopMe’s award-winning product, PurchaseLoop was deployed. PurchaseLoop’s artificial intelligence learns from consumer feedback to optimize mobile advertising in real time. Through effective creative and PurchaseLoop optimization, consideration increased by 11.3%.

To learn more about PurchaseLoop, check out our video here.

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View the rest of the shortlisted campaigns here. Winners will be announced at the ceremony on October 12th.

Alex Jakaitis | Employee Spotlight

Tell us a bit about yourself.
I was born and raised in the Chicago area, went to college in North Carolina, and moved to NYC right after graduation. I landed in this industry after studying Media Analytics and Economics, which led me to a few ad tech internships and ultimately LoopMe. Outside of work, I spend my time exploring Manhattan – discovering new restaurants, going to live music, shows, cultural events, and just generally trying to find my way around this crazy place (I’ve been here for almost two years, but directions aren’t my thing). Other than that, I love reading, cooking, running, watching hockey, and being outside as much as possible while it’s warm out.

Why did you decide to join LoopMe?
I graduated knowing that it was really important for me to work somewhere that I felt challenged on a daily basis, ideally at a company with an innovative product/culture that would keep me on my toes, LoopMe’s sweet spot of ad tech and AI fit that requirement perfectly. I loved the possibility of joining a quickly growing team (back when there were 8 of us in a WeWork) to build something exciting with a group of highly intelligent people who seemed genuinely fired up about LoopMe’s potential.

What’s your job role and day to day responsibilities?
I’m an Account Manager on the Client Services team, working closely with clients, partners and our sales team. I’m responsible for managing the planning, timing, and successful execution of everything involved the campaign lifecycle, from the pre-sale through to post-sale. This includes providing strategic guidance on media plans to attending client meetings to cultivate those relationships and grow successful partnerships. We want to ensure we’re providing the best possible value for our clients by making sure everything performs well to meet and exceed their KPIs.

What’s been the best moment at LoopMe?
There have been so many good moments over the past two years, it really is difficult to pick one. Watching the US Account Management team grow from 2 to 10, all team outings, getting a major office upgrade, and spending time in our global offices. To get sappy for a moment, it’s been having coworkers become friends, or Medieval Times.

Tell us a fun fact about yourself.
I took ballet for 16 years, and have taken 11 years of Latin classes.

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We’re hiring! Check out our open positions and apply here.