Author: lpadmusr

In Marc Pritchard’s speech at the IAB’s Annual Leadership Meeting in January, he issued a clear call to the digital ad industry to clean up the supply chain.

It was there he announced that P&G are putting fraud at the heart of their clean-up efforts, and from now on would require all digital partners to participate in TAG’s ‘Certified Against Fraud’ program.

“At P&G, we decided this is an area for outside experts who have a much higher probability of staying ahead of the criminals than we ever will,” said Pritchard.

“We’re getting help from the Trustworthy Accountability Group, or TAG, a joint initiative of the ANA, 4As, and IAB. This is a powerful self-regulatory body aimed at eliminating fraudulent advertising and its partners in crime, such as sites that steal copyrighted content from our supply chain. We are insisting that any entity touching digital media must get TAG-certified during 2017 to help ensure they are free from fraud.”

TAG and LoopMe

It’s heartening to see a huge brand like P&G take a leading role and confirm their commitment to fraud free advertising. We believe that everyone in the digital advertising ecosystem should be working to the same goals. There’s no excuse for poor quality advertising and brands should be assured that with LoopMe, it is our top priority.

We are proud early adopters of TAG, when back in December 2016 we announced our approval by TAG as a participant in the TAG Registry, following a thorough background check and review process. We are also in the process of becoming TAG Certified Against Fraud, Piracy and Malware, as well as participating in TAG’s Inventory Quality Guidelines program.

We work to the highest possible standards to ensure brand safety and fraud free environments, and work with the likes of IAS, Moat and Forensiq to ensure third-party verification on our campaigns. As Marc Pritchard put it best: “We realize there is no sustainable advantage in a complicated, nontransparent, inefficient and fraudulent media supply chain.”

Find out more about TAG and our commitment to fraud free advertising: marketing@loopme.com

Written for GrowthBusiness – 17/1/17

With technology that can improve itself every 20 minutes, LoopMe works with eight of the top 10 global brands to use artificial intelligence and big data to improve brand advertising efforts. Stephen Upstone, chair of the UK Mobile Marketing Association’s Advisory Board and founder of LoopMe, talks about starting up, making it in the New York, and pushing for progress in UK’s fast-growth tech space.

What does your business do?

LoopMe has developed artificial intelligence software that self-learns which people will change their mind about products and services after seeing video advertising, and targets the moments that change their opinions.

We have reached over 2 billion different consumers on their mobile devices and process over 1 trillion data points every day, allowing the technology to learn fast, typically improving results by over 100% compared to manual human operated optimisation.

Where did the idea for your business come from?

The idea behind LoopMe was that the mobile data generated by each person should create a loop of data, which, when applied with artificial intelligence, could be used to optimise the user experience and improve advertiser results in real time.

How did you know there was a market for it?

​We had worked with artificial intelligence across major websites such as MSN, AOL, HSBC & Bank of America 10 years earlier, and observed the development of the mobile advertising market from its very early beginnings. It was clear to us that mobile would be the future of brand advertising, and that artificial intelligence would transform the entire advertising industry.

Read the rest of the article here.

Published about the iPhone in Campaign Magazine, 17/1/17

The iPhone may have secured its place in popular culture; but for marketers a decade of iPhone has failed to deliver on the promise of mobile marketing. From interruptive ads to clumsy display ads the drive to simply squeeze traditional advertising formats into the confines of the smartphone has created a highly unsatisfactory ecosystem for advertisers.

With this in mind, Campaign spoke to Stephen Upstone, chair of the Mobile Marketing Association UK, about the key lessons for brands from the broken promises of the last decade of the iPhone and what are the opportunities ahead.

Q: How has the iPhone changed advertising?

A: Despite the intense excitement surrounding the first iPhone’s announcement, the full implications of its arrival weren’t felt until the years following its release, and are still being felt now. In the last ten years, advertisers and creative teams have relished the iPhone’s (and other smartphones’) variety of opportunities for interactive, novel and engaging ad units. We are still in the middle of this development with live video, VR, AR, etc. – the smartphone, championed by the iPhone, is a piece of technology birthing a number of novel options for consuming media, and will no doubt continue to do so going forward.

Lastly, the iPhone was one of the first phones to develop the idea of attribution – advertisers now have the means of tracing and measuring the impact of ads in driving not only store footfall, but also physical purchases. For brands, having this specific ROI is key.

You only need to look at the original with its clunky design and thick, hard casing, to realise how far we’ve come.

Q: What lessons are there for marketers from the cult of the iPhone?

A: The rapid development and brand loyal nature of the iPhone cult is key. Consumer tastes can only have a certain lifespan, and companies like Apple are having to make sure they stay ahead of the game when it comes to their technology and the users buying their phones. Modern consumers don’t just love tech – they love having a top-of-the-range model with a premium brand image. Certainly, this message has been seen in other sectors, particularly fashion, but it is no more true than in the case of the iPhone.

Q: The TV industry attempted to label the smartphone the “second screen” but marketers were quick to recognise the central role of the smartphone. How has the iPhone revolutionised media consumption habits?

A: The way in which we now consume media is so much more snackable. Habits have changed. We now wake up in the middle of the night to check our messages, news or the scores of our favourite sports team. As a result, attention spans are at an all-time low (roughly 12-15 seconds as of the last count) and the advertising communications have become much shorter in response, giving way to successful ten-second mobile video ads for example

Read the full article here. 

 An audit revealed that just 0.00064% of impressions were affected at LoopMe

What happened?

In late December 2016, a sophisticated Russian hacking operation dubbed ‘Methbot’ was detected by ad fraud detection company White Ops. Cofounder and CEO, Michael Tiffany commented that ‘we’ve never seen anything like this. Methbot elevates ad fraud to a whole new level of sophistication and scale’. The figures being discussed reflect this, with White Ops predicting that it could cost publishers up to $5 million per day.

While this figure has been contested by the likes of AppNexus – their investigations found that they hosted under $500 in transactions on the fraudulent IP addresses – it has caused a huge stir in the industry and rightly so.

You can read more about how ‘Methbot’ operated on Business Insider and AdExchanger.

What are we doing?

An audit showed that just 0.00064% of impressions were served to compromised IPs in November.

We immediately took steps to blacklist the compromised ‘methbot’ IP’s into LoopMe’s system-wide pre-bid fraud filters and are blocking ads to all these IPs. We will not charge any client for impressions served to these IP’s.

At LoopMe, we are committed to fraud free advertising. We have pre-bid brand quality filters as well as manual ad spot quality vetting with banned categories for adult content, illegal activity and violence (among others). We also utilise URL and video keyword blocks to prevent your ads appearing against inappropriate content.

We work with all major third party fraud and viewability vendors, including Integral Ad Science, MOAT and Forensiq and received their highest classifications as viewable, brand safe and premium.

In addition, we recently joined the TAG Registry as early adopters to improve transparency in digital advertising. For this LoopMe’s inventory underwent a vigorous background check and review process powered by Dun & Bradstreet and approved by TAG.

We would like to reassure our customers that we are working towards the highest possible standards to ensure brand safety and fraud free environments. Please reach out if you have any further questions: marketing@loopme.com

Featuring speakers from Mondelez, LinkedIn and the IAB UK, LoopMe’s Industry Predictions Series plans to highlight key trends, successes and issues in the mobile advertising industry.

The last 12 months have seen variety, development and ingenious solutions to problems within the mobile space, and this forward thinking will hopefully continue to define mobile in 2017.

As the week goes on, we’ll be adding new interviews with figures from publisher, advertiser and brand perspectives, so that we’ll have a rich tapestry of opinions and concepts in prepartion for the twelve months ahead – stay tuned and keep up to date on our Facebook, Twitter and Blog for future updates!

Kicking things off is Matthew Stockbridge, Growth Analytics Manager at Mondelez International. Matthew’s variety of experiences in the digital space have come during a period of innovation for the company, with mobile now heading up a variety of the latest projects. With a particular reference to his experiences with the likes of Cadbury and Oreos, you can watch the full interview with Matthew Stockbridge below:

Next up is Pete O’Mara-Kane – VP International Sales, LoopMe, who has led and coordinated LoopMe’s mobile advertising solutions for global markets over the last 12 months. Particularly important was the development of brand metrics and criteria that go beyond the typical views and clicks, delivering key results to brands and agencies.

Our third video comes from Alex Kozloff, Director of Marketing and Industry Engagement at IAB UK. Alex has pioneered the recent integration of the IAB Mobile branch and is constantly championing new technologies and new approaches in the advertising space – nonetheleast the newest innovations in data or AI.

Fourth is Scott Curtis, who has championed digital and mobile innovation at Publicis. Publicis have been using mobile in a variety of ways, both internal and external, to improve marketing solution and guarantee brands are seen in the best possible environments.

Moving on now we’ve got Abi Gradel, Client Account Manager at MGOMD. Abi oversaw Renault’s recent mobile campaign that saw fantastic brand awareness uplift and innovative mobile solutions, resulting in award winning success at both the Effective Mobile Marketing and Mobile Marketing Association Awards.

We also got the chance to have a quick chat with Fredrik Borestrom, Agency Partner Lead EMEA at LinkedIn about his thoughts regarding the new year – check them out here: 

Finally, we get a fantastic focus on mobile creativity from Lolly Mason from Celtra – a company that has long been championing innovation on devices, providing premium experiences for audiences. You can watch the in-depth interview with Lolly below:

LoopMe partnered with Starcom Mediavest Group to deliver Samsung’s Hero campaign, promoting their latest high end handset, the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge.

Goals:

– To drive rational purchases of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge that were made due to the features of the phone rather than pre-existing brand loyalty or sentiment to Samsung

– Educate users on the phone’s unique and innovative features

KPIs

– Number of people improving their understanding of the phone via engagements (clicks, views and engagements) with the rich media ad unit

Audience

– All those in the market for premium smartphones

Solutions

– Samsung utilised LoopMe’s Data Management Platform (DMP) which then built a specific audience segment. Drawing across trillions of data points, the DMP was able to identify users with older handsets, between 19 – 24 months old, with a particular focus on users with a strong interest in technology. The audience was identified using data from location history, geo-location, online behaviour, demographic and device. In reviewing this, it was possible to determine which impressions were of most value to Starcom Mediavest and Samsung for this campaign and its KPI’s

– LoopMe’s creative team built a bespoke rich media HTML5 ad unit, which included descriptions of product features, a short video showcasing the handset and an interactive swipe bar allowing the user to explore features in more detail

– The ad was delivered across a range of verticals on both apps and mobile web. In doing this, it was possible to scale the campaign and reach users across multiple touchpoints

– Using Artificial Intelligence, it was possible to determine not only the users that fit Samsung and Starcom’s audience profile but which of these had the highest probability of engaging with the campaign

Results

– In utilising AI, LoopMe improved campaign results by 20% against the campaign’s own control group, improving both ROI and proving effectiveness.

– Prior to the campaign there was a poor understanding of the advantages that the Galaxy S7 Edge handset had to offer. By the end of the first phase, 43% of users had interacted with the ad in some way – clicking through to the site, watching the video or engaging with the interactive element of the ad unit

– 37% of users watched the video, the most informative and impactful part of the ad

– Therefore, 43% of people reached by the campaign can be said to have a better awareness and understanding of the handset, moving the consumer well along the purchase funnel towards a rational purchase.

Mobile was the perfect channel for engaging users as it delivers the huge scale needed to reach the breadth of the target audience, as well as highlighting the difference between the user’s current phone and the one they could own if they upgraded to the Samsung handset.

This campaign was awarded Silver at the MMA UK Smarties in the category ‘Mobile Video.’

Find out more about LoopMe’s AI powered advertising – contact@loopme.com

“On TV And Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in spending on programmatic TV and video.

Today’s column is written by Stephen Upstone, CEO and founder ofLoopMe.

Brand marketers hire media agencies to streamline the advertising process, remove barriers and deliver clear and measurable ROI. The recent news that the MRC suspended two DoubleClick For Publishers metrics and the controversy over Facebook’s measurement methodology suggest digital is not delivering on this promise.

As an industry, digital is maybe the worst culprit for creating an impenetrable environment, full of acronyms, viewability issues and performance analytics that are impossible for time-poor marketers to understand.

It doesn’t need to be this way. There’s no reason we can’t make digital clear, understandable and transparent across the board. That includes verification and the use of metrics and KPIs that help brands truly measure performance, particularly as newer formats gain popularity, such as video and virtual reality.

Third-party tracking for viewability and brand safety should always be in place. No matter how big or small, ad tech providers should be able to give evidence that their campaign delivered in view, in brand-safe environments, to human traffic.

Roughly 53% of campaigns are not viewable, despite the topic being at the top of conference agendas for at least two years. Only now after its recent measurement controversy is Facebook providing third-party viewability data for display campaigns, but it still won’t allow buyers to use their own trackers.

Read the full article here.

Black Friday is a notorious event for the retail industry – with big bucks and savings on offer. It’s hard to forget the videos of panic and overcrowding that are now so infamous that they’ve been parodied extensively on programmes like South Park. But for all the bustle and chaos, the biggest gains in Black Friday sales have gone from store to digital locations – especially mobile.

MediaPost was the first to report on this mcommerce ‘soar’ last week. Physical traffic declined, with shoppers less inclined to spend as much as 2014 – or, as MediaPost put it, ‘more of us love to shop in our pajamas’. Online sales also mean that shoppers don’t have to brave the queues of the superstores and malls across the US.  Overall ecommerce swelled by 18% – a trend surpassed only by purchases made on devices, which surpassed all expectations.

Mcommerce sales contributed $1.2bn sales according to Adobe’s Marketing Cloud, shattering estimates from the likes of Comscore and Nielsen who, though anticipating a break of the $1bn barrier, did not expect it to happen with such speed. This was around 36% of digital sales for the period, a large figure that has been growing year on year.

The key takeaway may not been simply how much money was made on the day however. MarketingLand was quick to report that, while consumers did make purchases predominantly over desktop, it was mobile devices that drove the greater portion of site traffic – 55% compared to the 45% on PC. The signs are clear – mobile provides a versatile, readily available opportunity for shoppers to research products and prices, beating the crowds and shopping on the go.

As Jordan Rost, Nielsen’s VP-Consumer Insights put it: “Mobile is making every moment a potential holiday shopping moment…You can sit on the couch with your family and still shop. You really can be two places at once.” Indeed, with bracing weather and the prospect of long queues, purchasing via mobile seems like a far more attractive option.

Adobe’s Marketing Cloud found further exciting news for mcommerce enthusiasts, as well as a signal for retailers, and, as a result, advertisers. Conversion rates on both mobile and tablet devices have doubled when compared with last year – going from 1.3 to 2.4%. Retailers have come to realise how pivotal it is to have mobile-optimised sites capable of handling transactions and research swiftly and conveniently – rather than simply seeing mobile sites as complementing a Desktop experience. With this omni-device approach proving increasingly effective in a time when High Street footfall isn’t guaranteed, no doubt this mcommerce trend will only continue.

“The marketers we talk to are focused on ROI,” said Scott Shulman, VP of North America sales at mobile video platform LoopMe. “They don’t really care about proxy metrics like video completion rate or clicks or even on-target impressions. That doesn’t grow anyone’s business.”

Read the full article here.

The Cartier Premium Brand image shines every Christmas, and 2016 is no exception. After multiple appearances over the last few years, their iconic Snow Leopard returns once more for another bout of festive cheer.

Creatively it’s a wonderful ad that relies almost exclusively on visual style – the colours exploding onto the screen and illuminating darkened cityscapes across New York and Paris. For those planning a digital strategy on mobile, the ad’s 40-second run time is appropriately brief and punchy, telling the story quickly and with creative flare. Further to this, the ad’s visuals and reliance on light over sound makes it perfect for mobile formats, where audio playback isn’t always guaranteed. A native placement or even a rich media ad where the user engages with the unit to ‘brighten up’ a darkened area may well work nicely in the run up to the festive season.

You can see the full ad here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-puwyLmdsKQ