Category: Blog

It’s that time of year again, dmexco 2017 is just around the corner, and we’re excited to be attending. This years event is shaping up to be better than ever, bringing together the world’s leading thought leaders, influencers and decision makers in the global digital industry. From Septmber 13^th – 14^th the hall will see a diverse range of businesses from start-ups to major brands discussing their views and best practices under the motto ‘Lightening the Age of Transformation’.  That in mind, we’ve picked out 5 things you simply can’t miss.

Human Touch: Men and Machine Transforming for The Better

There’s been a lot of debate and fear-mongering around how AI will affect humans in the future. Will computers eventually replace us? Who is going to regulate it? Elon Musk recently even commented that AI could be more dangerous than North Korea. Sonja Moosburger and Limor Schweitzer of Mediamrkstaturn Retail Group and RoboSavvy respectively will look to combat these claims, instead discussing how machine’s data analytical prowess and man’s creativity can work as one. As we move closer to a world in which all marketing will become data driven this seminar is a must attend.

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

Tom Punch (Chief Commercial & Creative Officer) at Vice Media and Kevin Allocca (Global Head of Culture & Trends) at YouTube will be 2 of a 4 panel line up which you can see here. This seminar which will be held in the new Experience Hall on day 2 is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated events. Tom and Kevin will be discussing the all things video, from new and emerging formats such as Gifs and live streams, to how a mobile first world, coupled with increased video consumption is changing the way that advertisers, creators and producers convey their message to their audience.

Preparing for GDPR: Embracing the inevitable regulations

2018 is a landmark for in terms of data protection, as the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will come into effect as of May 28th 2018. The new GDPR, put in place by the EU to regulate the use of personal data by business and entities is the biggest shake-up in data protection law in the last 20 years.

The ‘Preparing for GDPR: Embracing the inevitable regulations’ debate features Stephan Loerke of the World Federation of Advertisers and will look to analyse the key challenges facing the digital advertising industry. Companies are now required to have direct user consent before using an individual’s data and if they don’t could face huge fines of up to 4% of their worldwide turnover. Make sure you don’t miss this seminar in the debate hall from 14:05 to 14:35 PM on day 1.

Is mobile everything? Blurring boundaries VS. Channel specific thinking?

The big conundrum on every marketer’s lips: the mobile web V the stationary web. Should the modern marketer see these as two separate entities or one big ‘thing’. This talk will feature Maike Abel and Katja Reis from Nestle and Publicis Media is sure to be a thrilling debate as it looks to tackle this burning issue.

dmexco Video advertising VIP private networking event

Last, but certainly not the least of our must go to events at this year’s dmexco is the ‘video advertising VIP private networking’ event. This which will be held on day 1 will contain two exclusive sessions with main focus on video advertising.

In this session, the panel will be discussing where programmatic businesses should invest and the potential challenges it faces.

LoopMe are fortune enough to have four free tickets to this exclusive event, so if you’re attending dmexco this year and would like to attend this networking event, or similarly  would like to learn how our cutting-edge AI can boost your brand video campaigns. Click here to register your interest.

Last week, Facebook announced that it will be releasing a new feature called ‘Facebook Watch’, which will allow users to view videos both live and pre–recorded in a new tab titled ‘Watch’. Facebook has released the ‘watch’ tab to a small group of users in the US before releasing it globally.

Facebook’s latest innovation will be available cross–platform including on mobile and TV as the tech juggernauts look to share some of YouTube success. Earlier this year YouTube announced that people were watching a billion hours of video content on their website every day – and Facebook wants a piece of the pie. It makes sense – recent research from comScore found that mobile devices dominate the total minutes spent online. in the UK and USA, mobile’s share of total digital minutes is 61% and 71% respectively.

Facebook also announced that they’ll be partnering with several publishers from the likes of the NBA to NASA who will earn 55% of ad break revenue. It looks to be short and medium form original content in the lifestyle, reality and sports verticals. You can expect to see programmes called ‘Science @ Nasa’ which will explore topics in quick four to five-minute episodes, Gabby Berstein answering questions in live and recorded segments and a behind the scenes look at the Golden State Warriors’ NBA Championship 2016-17 season.  

This is major shift from Facebook as it joins the likes Snapchat, YouTube, Hulu and Netflix in assault to break the traditional TV model. This move by Facebook to enter the already cluttered video streaming market confirms that we’re moving to a mobile first world and video content is at the forefront.

At LoopMe, we’ve seen a huge appetite for mobile video as brands can convey their marketing message in a more engaging fashion. Mobile also gives multiple data points which allows Facebook and other partners the ability to provide more accurate targeting so brand budget isn’t wasted. Additionally Facebook’s focus on short-form content reflects the need for shorter content on smaller screens. Mobile screens require a different approach and strategy than solely desktop video and it’s great to see the industry waking up to this.

If you’re interested in seeing how we use data to provide targeted video advertising, check out our video of PurchaseLoop.

After registering with TAG in December 2016, we’re delighted that as of August, LoopMe have received TAG’s Certificate Against Fraud.

For those who aren’t familiar, TAG are a cross-industry accountability program, created for transparency in the digital ad industry. Its focus is in four areas: eliminating fraudulent digital ad traffic, combating malware, fighting ad-supported Internet piracy to promote brand integrity, and promoting brand safety through greater transparency.

The 2016 ANA/White Ops Bot Fraud study estimated that advertisers lose $7.2 billion per year globally to bot-generated, non-human traffic. This is a criminal enterprise and as a result, advertisers end up paying criminals who generate ad impressions that are never seen by humans. TAG’s Certification Against Fraud aims to combat this.

LoopMe are committed to quality advertising, with stringent internal and external brand safety measures used.

What does being Certified Against Fraud mean?

LoopMe’s team have worked to meet the following certification requirements, as outlined by TAG. 

Comply with Media Rating Council IVT (Invalid Traffic) Guidelines

Developed in 2015, this gives guidance on the filtering of invalid digital traffic. For this LoopMe have adopted the General Invalid Traffic guidelines which filters traffic through applications of lists and other parameter checks such as known data-center traffic, bots, spiders and other crawlers. This traffic is filtered and ads are not run through it.

Employ Domain list filtering

We have developed and are subscribing to a list of internet domains identified as ‘high risk’ for invalid traffic and invalid ad impressions, which are applied to all current and future transactions within LoopMe’s platform.

Employ Data Center IP list filtering

To reduce the volume of illegitimate ad inventory in order to avoid untrustworthy parties in the supply chain, we have developed and subscribe to a list of IP addresses that have been identified as the origin of invalid traffic and invalid ad impressions, which are also applied to all current and future transactions.

Implement the Payment ID Protocol

This is to reduce the volume of illegitimate ad inventory sold by buyers, to avoid untrustworthy parties and to take action if a party is supplying illegitimate inventory. This allows full transparency around who is buying and selling inventory, a major step towards limiting the impact of fraud in the ad ecosystem.

As part of our continued commitment to brand safety, all of the above are reassessed on a quarterly basis by our TAG Compliance Officer.

Next steps

We are working to finalize our other TAG certifications against Piracy, against Malware and in support of TAG’s Inventory Quality Guidelines, and we hope to have more milestones to announce soon.

Get in touch if you have any further questions around our brand safety measure and our work with TAG.

The Digital Revolution

We’re in the midst of a digital revolution; the mobile phone has transitioned from a device for voice calls to a handheld computer. With increased speed of data connection and availability of Wi-Fi, we’re seeing a monumental shift from people using their desktops to mobile.

Just as in the third industrial revolution with the transition from radio to television, we’re now seeing a similar pattern occur from stationary platforms such as TV and desktop to mobile devices, which has led to them becoming the primary digital tool.

This is backed by a piece of research conducted by comScore called ‘Mobile’s Hierachy of Needs’ which looks at mobile consumption across the globe showing that mobile devices dominate the total minutes spent online. As fig 1.1 shows, in the UK and USA, mobile’s share of total digital minutes is 61% and 71% respectively.

Fig 1.1
ComScore reports that in nine markets over 80% of the time spent on mobile is in-app due to increased storage, ease of usage and better user experience.

Content is king, but Context is core

The report establishes a link between Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory and consumer’s modern day motivation to use their mobile devices. Self-Actualisation, esteem, love/ belonging, safety and physiological are the fundamental reasons why we use our mobile devices.

Physiological needs are those which need to be met first and are traditionally the needs essential to human survival. Although we don’t rely on our mobile devices for air and water there has been a significant increase in consumers using mobile devices to order food.

Figure 2.1 shows how reliant consumers have become, applications such as Deliveroo and JustEat have experienced exponential growth due their overall convenience. Using apps such as these doesn’t only streamline the process but gives consumers the ability to track where their delivery in real time. Due to this ordering food has outpaced the growth of general mobile usage.

2016 total mobile minutes (as a percentage of January 2015 total)

Fig2.1

As the comScore report confirms, mobile is the go to destination for video viewers. Video is a powerful way for brands to convey a message to their audiences. We all know that content is king, but context is core. Through data and AI, advertisers can ensure their videos reach their audience in the moment they are mostly likely to engage, watch or change their opinion on their advert.

Our recent report found that using PurchaseLoop on mobile resulted in 2X better results than traditional advertising on brand outcomes, whether this was purchase intent, brand consideration, awareness or favourability. Download the full report to find out more.

We’re proud to say that we were awarded Bronze at Campaign’s inaugural Creative Tech Awards for our work with Goodstuff and Yorkshire Tea.

The campaign combined cutting edge AI technology with engaging creative to drive an ad campaign that optimised to the metric that mattered most to Yorkshire Tea – brand awareness.

LoopMe’s in-house creative team created a bespoke rich media unit, where users could zoom and colour in a woodland scene, click through to the campaign landing page and share their creation on social media. This interactive mobile experience complemented Yorkshire Tea’s existing advertising in print media. Supported by this impactful creative, PurchaseLoop was used to optimise to brand metrics using Artificial Intelligence. You can learn more about PurchaseLoop here.

Yorkshire Tea’s campaign exceeded all benchmarks, with engagement rate increased by 131% (compared to benchmark) and almost 10,000 users shared their masterpiece on social media. Most importantly, PurchaseLoop was able to boost brand awareness of Yorkshire Tea’s CSR goals by 50%, all through using Artificial Intelligence.

Gold was awarded to MEC for their work on Thames21. Using Environment Agency data, Thames21 and MEC built an algorithm that translated the information into three simple descriptors of the river’s health — ‘improving’, ‘stable’ and ‘declining’. It led to eight in ten Londoners agreeing that Thames Pulse had brought attention to a worthwhile cause, while one in three Londoners said they had heard of Thames Pulse as a result of the campaign – an amazing achievement.These were presented on an installation on the facade of Sea Containers building using lighting patterns designed by artist Jason Bruges’Thames Pulse’.

Congratulations to all the winners, we look forward to attending the Scrum and finding out more about the award winning campaigns.

80% of marketing leaders think Artificial Intelligence will revolutionize marketing,

but just 26% say they have a confident understanding of it

Today we launch AI: The Guide. We’re often asked by our clients and partners for more information about Artificial Intelligence. There’s a wealth of knowledge out there, but it can be hard to know where to start.

That’s why we developed this guide in collaboration with our data scientists. They have over 50 years of experience and have collaborated on projects like Google DeepMind and AlphaGo. They’re the experts.

AI’s application to marketing is incredibly exciting. Our guide aims to educate and inform so that marketers and agencies alike feel confident in discussing AI and its use cases.

It covers:

–       A brief history of AI. Important historical milestones from the 1930’s to present

–       Key words and definitions. All the terms you need to know, from algorithms to big data and chatbots

–       How to work with AI. Learn how to incorporate AI successfully into your advertising strategy

–       Questions to ask. The questions you should be asking your AI provider – and the answers you want to hear

All this and more is covered in our brand-new guide that you can download here. Feel free to contact us with any queries – marketing@loopme.com.

The invitation-only Luma Digital Media Summit hosts an audience comprised of solely CEOs from the most promising tech companies and senior execs from the industry’s largest acquirers, VC firms and advertisers.

LoopMe’s CEO, Stephen Upstone, flew to New York last week to attend the conference and shared with us some of his top takeaways:

– Measuring and optimizing to business outcomes

In digital, this is a shift aware from views and clicks and a move to more tangible results. This is something that we’ve been driving through PurchaseLoop.

– AI is still early. Intelligent software will eat software

Artificial Intelligence and its impact on digital are still in infancy. Further investment in AI will speed up the pace.

– Google and Amazon are AI first businesses

As opposed to mobile first. This has most recently been seen in Google’s latest launches like Google Lens, which uses AI to interprets its surroundings and take action on what it sees. One application of this mentioned in Google’s latest conference is connecting to wi-fi by simply taking a photo of the sticker on the router, and connect automatically.

– Old media and tech needs technology to define core business

New innovation and investment in tech is vital for a competitive edge

– Enterprise software is making big moves into marketing and advertising space

Just look to Oracle for a recent example – their Data Cloud is used by advertisers and publishers to better target ads, due to the amount of data available there. What’s more, its not tied to any other major advertising platform like Google or Facebook. Their recently purchase of Moat continues to support this argument.

As tech continues to advance at rapid pace, it looks like a busy and exciting few years to come!

This year, Campaign launched the Creative Tech Awards which celebrates the creative tech pioneers. It was designed to honour successful collaborators, celebrate their work and stimulate more great thinking across marketing, advertising and media.

We’re delighted to announce that LoopMe’s campaign with GoodStuff and Yorkshire Tea has been shortlisted in the category ‘Best Use of AI’.

The campaign combined cutting edge AI technology with engaging creative to drive an ad campaign that optimised to the metric that mattered most to Yorkshire Tea – brand awareness.

LoopMe’s in-house creative team created a bespoke rich media unit, where users could zoom and colour in a woodland scene, click through to the campaign landing page and share their creation on social media. This interactive mobile experience complemented Yorkshire Tea’s existing advertising in print media. Supported by this impactful creative, PurchaseLoop was used to optimise to brand metrics using Artificial Intelligence. You can learn more about PurchaseLoop here.

Yorkshire Tea’s campaign exceeded all benchmarks, with engagement rate increased by 131% (compared to benchmark) and almost 10,000 users shared their masterpiece on social media. Most importantly, PurchaseLoop was able to boost brand awareness of Yorkshire Tea’s CSR goals by 50%, all through using Artificial Intelligence.

Other shortlisted in our category include:

• Havas London for ITV News: “Eagle Ai”
• LoopMe for Yorkshire Tea: “How AI delivered for Yorkshire Tea”
• MEC UK for Thames21: “Thames Pulse”
• MullenLowe Profero for Diageo: “Diageo – Malts Bot”
• Zenith for Aviva: “Aviva AI”

The results will be announced on June 12^th at The Tower of London, and the winners will present their campaigns in a post-event scrum on July 5^th. Best of luck to all nominated!

View the full list of all shortlisted campaigns.

We were thrilled to take the prize for ‘Best Use of Video / Rich Media’ at the MOMA awards last night, in partnership with Birra Moretti and Publicis.

The MOMA’s celebrate the best marketing on mobile, looking for evidence of strategic thinking, innovation, effectiveness, tangible results and transparency. We were in a very competitive category, which included campaigns from Havas, Gameloft and News UK and so we’re delighted to have been awarded the top spot.

Congratulations to all the winners – you can view the full list here.

Compelling authenticity with Artificial Intelligence

We worked with Publicis and Birra Moretti to create a rich media and video format that would drive Birra Moretti’s authenticity as an Italian beer brand.

With a wealth of video content that Birra Moretti and Publicis wanted to distribute, LoopMe’s in-house team developed creative with clear calls to action for users to ‘Discover more’ and swipe between the three videos embedded in the rich media unit. This resulted in an impressive 13% engagement rate.

The campaign benefitted from our award-winning PurchaseLoop solution (patent pending), which uses artificial intelligence modelling to optimize campaigns to brand metrics like brand affinity, purchase intent or in this case – authenticity.

In using AI, LoopMe drove 53% higher CTR, increased brand authenticity by 30% and reduced their competitors by 20% – all through effective optimization using artificial intelligence.

We’ve also been shortlisted at The Drum’s Digital Trading Awards in the category ‘Best Use of Video’ for our work with The Story Labs and Microsoft. Keep your fingers crossed!