Integral Ad Science Expands Brand Safety Partnership With TikTok
Integral Ad Science and TikTok, a global leader in digital media quality, has expanded their existing partnership with TikTok. In addition to the IAS, Brand Safety Solution launched last September, IAS will now be able to measure viewability, invalid traffic (IVT), and app-level brand safety, allowing brands and agencies globally to effectively monitor the quality of their media buys on TikTok’s platform.
The company said advertisers will now be able to verify the performance of their TikTok campaigns, with trusted third-party measurement powered by the Open Measurement Software Development Kit (OM SDK). The OM SDK is governed by IAB and designed to facilitate transparent third-party viewability and verification measurement for ads served to mobile apps and open web environments.
Additionally, IAS will provide advertisers with granular campaign performance reporting 24 x 7 via its ‘Signal UI’, which will assist them to take immediate action and remain informed on campaign performance in real-time. Third-party verification is key to ensuring advertisers are getting the most out of their campaigns. This facilitates planning, KPIs, and measurement.
Interesting Read: The New World Of TikTok Marketing, Everything You Need To Know!
And That’s What They Said
Lisa Utzschneider, CEO, IAS said,
“We are excited to offer marketers an increasingly comprehensive set of IAS Media Quality Solutions to manage their advertising campaigns on TikTok. It is more important than ever for marketers to engage with users on social platforms and ensure that their ads appear next to brand safe & suitable content on a global scale. We are thrilled to deliver a holistic solution on TikTok and provide new levels of transparency and precision for these campaigns.”
Melissa Yang, Head of Ecosystem Partnerships, TikTok added,
“We’re thrilled to build on our partnership with IAS and introduce new solutions that give brands the confidence to scale their businesses and audiences on TikTok. Through this expansion, brands and advertisers around the world will have access to IAS viewability and invalid traffic measurement tools to monitor the quality of their campaigns on our platform. We’re excited to see how this will usher in new levels of transparency and success for our clients.”
Interesting Read: 6 Data Privacy Trends To Look Out For In 2022!
Vizio Unveils Advertising Analytics Platform At First-In Person NewFronts
Smart TV maker unveiled a suite of analytics tools on a new platform aimed at helping advertisers build custom approaches to reaching connected TV audiences and measuring cross-screen engagement.
This is the second year in the NewFronts but the company’s VP of national ad sales, Adam Bergman told Adweek that while Vizio may have been the new kids on the block last year, the connected TV company has made “big waves” in the market.
Vizio designs its business around four asset environments: audience, platform, inventory and content, and data. Adweek was explained by Bergam that the most crucial aspect of the business is integrating hardware and software. The entire approach revolves around the consumer experience.
“From the UI, the design, the look and feel of our operating system, to the way we use data to consider content we want to program and how we promote it, ad products and targeting, all of that is built on the integrated hardware and software approach.”
Interesting Read: Here, There, Everywhere, It Is Cross-Screen Advertising!
Introducing Vizio Analytics
Vizio Analytics offers campaign tracking and optimization capabilities for pre-campaign planning, segmentation, and budget allocation as well as measurement and reporting. Through its Inscape TV research business, the platform utilizes ACR (automatic content recognition) data from 20 million owners of its smart TVs.
Advertisers can tap into cross-platform buying solutions from partner companies, including Neustar, Oracle, Experian, LiveRamp, Epsilon, Lotame, Acxiom, IRI, Upwave, Factual, and Kochava. Vizio Ads offers users the ability to measure incremental reach gained over linear TV, as well as assess and validate ad effectiveness against a variety of KPIs, such as brand awareness, perceptions, familiarity, favorability, and purchase intent. Additionally, VIZIO Analytics gives advertisers insight into bottom-of-the-funnel metrics such as location attribution, site attribution and conversion, offline sales lift, and foot traffic. Travis Hockersmith, VP of Vizio’s Platform + Business, in a statement,
“We’ve built a custom analytics platform that gives brands the ability to leverage our massive TV footprint and data infrastructure for cross-platform campaigns. This makes it easier to connect their customer management and measurement services of choice with our analytics support to achieve their goals. The result provides consumers with more relevant ads and gives clients outcome-based accountability with their investment decisions.”
Customers can also utilize third-party measurement support from partners such as Nielsen DAR, iSpot.tv, VideoAmp, and ComScore, all of which license the Inscape data for measurement use cases.
Interesting Read: Connected TV Explained: The Essential Glossary Of CTV
Innovative new ad offerings
Adweek reported that Vizio will debut its new advanced advertising product Jump View, a new offering described by the company as “consumer first.” Jump View is an interactive overlay that, after a consumer finishes watching an episode in a linear environment, offers the user to continue watching the show in a streaming environment.
A key theme of the NewFronts is the shift from traditional TV to smart TVs and streaming, and the need for ad dollars to catch up. Furthermore, Vizio also plans to introduce Vizio Enact, their linear addressable TV advertising solution that enables national advertising.
Content is the key
AVOD WatchFree+ has been completely overhauled since last year’s upfronts, and it now has more than 250 free live-streaming channels, as well as more than 5,000 titles in its on-demand library. Bergman said to Adweek,
“Not only have we rebuilt and recaptured the content programming side of it, that also means we’ve completely rebuilt the ad inventory access, which advertisers really respond to.”
Interesting Read: AVOD strategy For Netflix Ahead: Should Advertisers Rejoice?
Snap Partners With Cameo, Introduces Advertiser Program
Snap opened its NewFronts this week with the announcement of a new advertiser program and content initiatives – including a new partnership with celebrity video platform Cameo, a new advertising product called Snap Promote, and original programming.
Interesting Read: AVOD strategy For Netflix Ahead: Should Advertisers Rejoice?
Details
The ‘Snap x Cameo Advertiser Program’ will enable Snap advertisers to pay Cameo members to create short video ads for their Snap marketing campaigns. There are more than 45,000 personalities on Cameo, including actors, influencers, musicians, athletes, and more. With this partnership, advertisers will be able to directly reach Cameo’s celebrities to pitch their ads. As a result of this partnership, top creators could also potentially make money from the new advertiser program through Snapchat, following the launch of its Creator Marketplace last year.
Snap reported during its beta phase, bedding retailer Mattress Firm partnered with a range of Cameo talent for the new campaign “Junk Sleep”. The campaign drove an 8-point lift in ad awareness, which is 2 times the usual rate for the category. The Snap Ads portion of the campaign also had a video view rate that was 3 times the retail category average.
Furthermore, Snap will launch a new advertising program called Snap Promote, which will allow companies to sponsor shows and place advertisements directly within Discover’s news feed. Snap’s new ad product, which is available in the Ad Manager, was recently tested by the NFL, which resulted in 7 times more Snapchat users subscribing to NFL Stories than the average.
On Snap’s Stories page, advertising partners will have the chance to promote their Discover shows, as well as streamable shows known as Snap Originals. Snap reports that its Discover platform saw 25 percent growth year-on-year in Q1 2022 and that 80% of U.S. Gen-Z watched at least one Snap Original in 2021. Snap also announced a slew of new original programming content. There will be a new season of ‘Charli vs Dixie’, starring TikTok stars Charli and Dixie D’Amelio, and a new series with Olympic legend Simone Biles.
Snapchat extended its content agreements with the NFL, NBA, and WNBA following 205 million people watching sports content on the platform in 2021. NBA, NFL, and Snap will collaborate for the first time on Spotlight Challenges, Snapchat’s in-app TikTok competitor.
Interesting Read: 5 Ad Industry Trends That Are Likely To Unveil in 2022!
Why we care
Snap has 332 million daily active users, outranking Twitter, Reddit, and Pinterest, and last year, Cameo generated $125 million in revenue. It’s safe to say that the new partnership has the potential to be a success for Snap and its ad partners.
However, since the agreement was announced, Cameo has laid off over 25% of its employees as a result of the slowdown in business. Snapchat’s original programming continues to impress viewers. Younger audiences have enjoyed Discover content’s short, episodic format, which caters to their viewing and media consumption habits.
Interesting Read: New Video Game Measurement Allows Brands To Evaluate The Impact Of The In-Game Ads
How Will Partnership With Criteo Benefit Flipkart’s AdTech Business?
Flipkart and Criteo, a global technology company providing a Commerce Media Platform, have partnered up to use full funnel measurement capabilities for Product Performance Ads (PPA). As a result, Flipkart’s off-platform offerings are going to be strengthened, and advertisers across segments will have the opportunity to reach and engage high-intention customers.
Interesting Read: Everything The Quarterly Results Of The Tech Giants Have To Say
Growth Strategy For Flipkart’s Adtech Business
This launch is a part of the larger 2022 growth strategy for Flipkart’s Adtech business as it continues to innovate and unlock value for brands and sellers. Criteo’s commerce media capabilities will help Flipkart to serve advertisers of all sizes with their full-funnel marketing goals on the open web by leveraging its audience signals for highly relevant reach, resulting in higher campaign effectiveness. Advertisers will be able to drive marketing outcomes and build lifetime value across Flipkart’s 400+ million customers in India.
Advertisers will be able to run marketing campaigns while receiving full-funnel metrics with this solution. Flipkart’s PPA tool also includes Criteo’s Dynamic Creative Optimization+, which ensures that the right customer receives the right communication while improving performance.
And that’s what they said
Sankalp Mehrotra, Vice-President – Monetisation, Flipkart, said that commerce advertising is growing faster than the overall digital market. It will soon account for a sizable portion of the total digital pie.
“Flipkart Ads is focused on providing technology-led advertising solutions to ensure the most relevant experience and outcomes for advertisers and customers alike. In addition to our current suite of advertising options, the launch of PPA in partnership with Criteo will help address the needs of incumbent and insurgent brands across verticals to solve their full-funnel marketing objectives on the open internet.”
Taranjeet Singh, Managing Director, SEA and India, Criteo, added,
“We are happy to announce the partnership with Flipkart, India’s homegrown e-commerce platform, to further accelerate and utilise Criteo’s commerce media capability. By combining Criteo’s superior audience-first technology and Flipkart’s reach, we will be able to offer a remarkable capability to marketers and brands to achieve meaningful marketing outcomes on the open internet.”
Interesting Read: AVOD strategy For Netflix Ahead: Should Advertisers Rejoice?
Tubi’s Debuts More Than 100 Original Titles And Doubles On Adtech At NewFront
Tubi is doubling down on original programming and ad tech as part of its biggest year ever, two years after Fox Corporation purchased it.
A big news item that came out of the event is that Tubi will release more than 100 original titles over the next year. The company’s new programming will cover genres like Black Cinema, thrillers, horrors, sci-fi, romance, documentaries, and adult animation. The originals will join Tubi’s library of more than 40,000 premium movies and television titles, making it the largest library of free, ad-supported streaming.
Number-wise, Tubi highlighted 51 million monthly active users last quarter. The streamer also recorded 3.6 billion hours watched in 2021, a 40% year-over-year increase in total viewing time.
The platform reports double-digit growth in all audience segments over the past year, with the most growth among college-educated and affluent demos. The average age of Tubi’s streamers is 16+ years younger than that of non-streamers, covering a multitude of geographic, economic, and educational niches, and accounts for 40% of its user base.
Interesting Read: AVOD strategy For Netflix Ahead: Should Advertisers Rejoice?
By far the fastest-growing AVOD service based on consumer awareness, Tubi delivers massive and incremental audiences at a scale with messages of transparency, originals, and “explosive growth.”
Tubi will expand its linear offerings to complement the platform’s current lineup of more than 100+ local and live news and sports channels. It has been announced that Fox’s The Masked Singer, TMZ, and Gordon Ramsay will join Tubi originals and Tubi en Español and will be available on the platform soon. Mark Rotblat, Chief Revenue Officer at Tubi said,
“Tubi’s approach of personalization allows for content for every community, and our record growth shows it is working. We’re doubling down on this approach while delivering our brand partners transparency and an opportunity to reach incremental, diverse and highly engaged consumers.”
New Solutions For Advertisers
Tubi is investing in its ad technology in order to provide advertisers with a better way to reach these audiences.
The company recently released the “Campaign Insights” report, which shows how brands can target audiences and contexts in a way analogous to TV, but with the transparency and power of digital. Advertisers gain more visibility and contextual awareness regarding where their ads run and the type of content they run on with the initiative.
Tubi’s latest ad solutions for brands include insights across the marketing funnel, along with its Certified Measurement Program, which has partnered with leading measurement companies like TVSquared, Foursquare, and Kantar. With Tubi’s low ad load and Advanced Frequency Management tool, campaigns are capped at the campaign level regardless of the demand source. Furthermore, Tubi’s ad tech includes integrated marketing, organic in-app placements, and prime pod placements to complement the viewer experience and drive impact.
It recently announced that it will be working with Nielsen on the extension of its relationship through its Digital Ad Ratings product (DAR). One of the first AVOD services to provide measurement across its entire footprint of over 25 devices will better meet advertisers’ need for third-party measurement.
Interesting Read: Is Measurement Giant Nielsen $16Bn Buyout A Hope For Turnaround?
How Roku Plans To Enhance The Advertising Experience?
Roku revealed new advertising solutions to create a better TV advertising experience for marketers in the streaming decade during its upfront presentation. The company announced innovation across the Roku Channel, Roku Brand Studio, and OneView to help marketers accelerate the transition to TV streaming. Alison Levin, Vice President, Ad Revenue & Marketing Solutions said,
Marketers turn to Roku for data, commerce, and measurement tools that they can’t get anywhere else to accelerate the shift of ad dollars to TV streaming. This upfront, TV starts here.
The streaming company has announced a new advertising data partnership with Microsoft, as well as shoppable ads and a new video series that integrate products with content. Below are the highlights of Roku’s NewFront presentation.
Interesting Read: A Look Ahead: Convergence Of Linear TV And Digital TV Advertising
OneView streaming platform
In conjunction with Microsoft Audience Intelligence, Roku will link ad exposure with online searches and browsing through its OneView streaming advertising platform. Microsoft’s Audience Intelligence uses data from more than 7 billion Bing searches each month. The company has described the collaboration as ‘industry-first.’
A OneView’s new program for retailers will combine shoppable ads with Roku Pay so they can sell products right from ads on the TV screen.
During the NewFront presentation to TV ad buyers, the company announced new software that enables viewers to make purchases directly from ads, using their Roku remote controls. It will be rolled out on the entire platform and exclusively in One View. In an interview with Beet.TV, Kristina Shepard, Head of Agency Partnerships & National Brand Team Lead, Roku, said,
We actually know that Roku users are five times more likely to click on an ad via their remote than scan a QR code.
With the new software, viewers will no longer need to enter a card number or address to buy straight from the ad. Shepard explained to Beet.TV,
It’ll all be pre-populated. They could see a product, enter a product page, explore images, details and click the remote with all of their information already stored, get an email from that retailer with information confirmation for their purchase and go right back to streaming.
We’re aiming to make it a frictionless seamless experience for that consumer that will obviously benefit the retailer and the marketer as well.
Roku’s other recent advertising innovations have included the launch of dynamic linear ads, adding a clean room to facilitate the use of advertisers’ first-party data, and introducing Nielsen’s Digital Ad Ratings audience guarantees and a watermark that validates video ads on its platform.
Interesting Read: Unlock The CTV Opportunity: What The Future Looks Like
Roku Brand Studio
Roku announced its Roku Brand Studio, which was launched a year ago, as an integrated product offering at the upfronts.
Through its partnership with Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, “The Short List,” will feature 12 short-form films across the drama, comedy, documentary, and animation genres.
Roku Recommends is returning for a second season in September, this time in partnership with Variety to reveal top 10 lists plus Weekly Shows called The Pop-Off, In Case You Missed It, and Live And Let DIY.
Roku Channel
A Roku Channel is a home for free and premium entertainment on the Roku platform, which enhances the TV-watching experience. Roku Channel ranked amongst the top five channels on the Roku platform in the U.S. based on active account reach and streaming hour engagement in Q1 2022.
Roku unveiled a roster of new Roku Originals programming, including seven original series for The Roku Channel to be hosted by lifestyle/cooking celebrities Martha Stewart, Emeril Lagasse, Christopher Kimball, and more.
Other renewed upcoming titles will include “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” starring Daniel Radcliffe and Evan Rachel Wood; “SLIP,” starring Zoe Lister-Jones; “The Great American Baking Show,” starring Paul Hollywood, and Prue Leith; and “Honest Renovations,” starring Jessica Alba and Lizzy Mathis, and more.
Interesting Read: Clean Rooms Explained: How Marketers Can Prepare For Cookieless World
Everything The Quarterly Results Of The Tech Giants Have To Say
Big Tech giants have revealed their quarter financial performance and here are the key stats and takeaways for marketers.
Alphabet
Alphabet’s first quarter with revenue growth was led again by Search and Cloud. It reported revenue of $68 billion, up from $55.3 billion in Q1 2021. Zooming in on Google search, which accounted for 58% of Alphabet’s revenues.
Google’s Russian operations were greatly curtailed by the Ukraine invasion during the quarter. Google’s chief financial officer, Ruth Porat, said on the earnings call that about 1% of its revenues in 2021 were from Russia, largely from advertising. The growth rate of revenues in the European region, which also includes the Middle East and Africa, slowed to 19% in the first quarter from 33% a year ago. Advertisers in Europe significantly pulled back their spending on YouTube.
By Numbers
- Total Google advertising revenue is $54.7 billion $6.87 billion vs. $7.51 billion expected, according to StreetAccount.
- Google Search & other: $39.6 billion against $31.9 billion in the same period the last year.
- Google Network reported $8.2 billion up 20% vs. $6.8 billion in Q1 2021.
- YouTube revenue was $6.9 billion, a growth of 14%.
Response
Philipp Schindler, Alphabet’s Senior Vice President & Chief Business Officer said that Maps searches for were up 100% globally year-over-year.
YouTube is also testing ads on Shorts with products like app install and video action campaigns. Philipp Schindler said that they are encouraged with initial feedback and results from the advertisers.
“YouTube Shorts is now averaging over 30 billion daily views. That’s 4x as much as a year ago. In the first quarter, we added new capabilities to video editing, and we are continuing to invest in making Shorts a fantastic experience for creators and viewers alike.”
CFO Ruth Porat said on the analyst call that YouTube experienced “modest growth” mostly in direct response ads. However, they are excited to tap into the shift to streaming and reach new audiences in smarter and more efficient ways.
“Over 135 million people in the U.S. were reached via YouTube on connected TVs in December. We’ve recently rolled out new tools to help advertisers consistently plan and measure their CTV spend across platforms. And later this year, in partnership with Nielsen, we’ll help brands directly compare their YouTube reach to linear TV, including the ability to measure co-viewing.”
Meta (Facebook)
Meta is breathing a sigh of relief as its daily active users, which declined in the fourth quarter for the first time, bounced back a bit. The reported earnings for the first quarter topped analysts’ estimates even as revenue was disappointing. Meta’s quarterly revenue rose by 7%, missing analysts’ 7.8% expectation. As reported by Axios, with current growth levels, Zuckerberg said,
“We are now planning to slow the pace of some our investments.”
He further added the company would focus on growing revenue from its core business, social media and messaging, to help fuel investments in its virtual reality technologies moving forward.
Meta cited a decline in ad revenue due to the Russian war on Ukraine, in the same way, that its competitors Snapchat and YouTube did. Its increased DAUs and lower-than-expected ad revenue are due to Meta’s apps growing in Asian markets, where the cost of advertisements is lower than in the U.S. and Europe.
By Numbers
The results as reported by CNBC.
- Revenue: $27.91 billion vs $28.2 billion expected, according to Refinitiv
- Daily Active Users (DAUs): 1.96 billion vs 1.95 billion expected, according to StreetAccount
- Monthly Active Users (MAUs): 2.94 billion vs 2.97 billion expected, according to StreetAccount
- Average Revenue per User (ARPU): $9.54 vs. $9.50 expected, according to StreetAccount
- Ad impressions and price per ad – In the first quarter of 2022, ad impressions delivered across our Family of Apps increased by 15% year-over-year and the average price per ad decreased by 8% year-over-year.
Response
Late in the quarter, Horizon Worlds, Meta’s social VR app, began rolling out in-app purchases. This won’t impact the platform’s performance much if the platform doesn’t attract a significant number of users. Soon, Meta will roll out a web version of Horizon Worlds to make it easy for people to experience Metaverse without headsets. Zuckerberg said that “Horizon is the centerpiece of the company’s strategy to develop the metaverse.”
Meta faces competition from TikTok as it aims to overtake the platform as the leader in short-form video and the company plans to use artificial intelligence more actively to recommend content to users instead of just showing them posts by their friends and family.
The macroeconomic factors will also impact revenue. The company expects a sequential decline in MAUs in Europe in the next quarter because of the government ban in Russia. Also, recent changes in Apple’s iPhone operating systems and inflation could impact digital ads too.
On the earnings, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg explained their ad strategy.
“It’s focused on three main areas: one, growing video monetization, especially short-form video like Reels; two, evolving our ad systems to do more with less data; and three, investing in AI and machine learning to support our ads infrastructure.”
She also told the analysts that they have “been able to close a good part of the underreporting gap and shared that with advertisers, but the rest of the gap will take us longer to close.”
In the not too distant future, Twitter’s public company status will soon change to a private company run by Elon Musk. Meanwhile, it remains publicly traded, and the social media platform recently published its first-quarter earnings, showing a degree of transparency into its operation.
It also corrected previously reported mDAU numbers that overcounted some accounts from Q1 2019 through Q4 2021. In the quarter that was involved with the error, Twitter reported roughly 1.4 million to 1.9 million extra mDAUs per quarter. Twitter said the error was caused by a new feature that allows users to easily switch between their separate accounts. The company explained that as a result, during that period, all linked accounts were counted as mDAUs if their primary account took action.
Advertising is the major source of revenue for Twitter and this metric was designed to help advertisers know how many people on the platform could potentially be targeted with their marketing messages over a given period of time.
Image Credit: Twitter
By Numbers
- Revenue reached a total of $1.2 billion, up 16% from the revenue figures last year.
- Advertising revenue amounted to $1.1 billion, up 23% from last year.
- A one-time gain of $970 million from the sale of its stake in MoPub.
- Monetizable Daily Active Users (mDAUs): 229 million vs 226.9 million expected, according to StreetAccount
Response
In light of the acquisition, the company canceled the usual earnings conference and did not provide forward-looking guidance. It is expected that Musk’s deal to acquire Twitter to close this year.
Musk has indicated he wants to use Twitter’s ownership to promote openness, both in terms of transparency in its algorithms and processes and by being more tolerant of different viewpoints. As a result, advertisers have mixed reactions and are uncertain of the future post Musk takeover.
Twitter has assured advertisers that it will be a safe place post takeover too. Advertisers currently have adopted a ‘ wait and watch ’ policy.
Amazon
Amazon reported slow growth rates and gave a revenue forecast that trailed analysts’ estimates. Revenue in the first quarter increased 7% compared with a 44% expansion in the year-ago period. In a statement, CEO Andy Jassy said that the company is transforming itself to meet the ongoing challenges of supply chain pressures, inflation, or Ukraine invasion after rapidly growing during the early days of the pandemic.
“The pandemic and subsequent war in Ukraine have brought unusual growth and challenges. Today, as we’re no longer chasing physical or staffing capacity, our teams are squarely focused on improving productivity and cost efficiencies throughout our fulfillment network. ”
By Numbers
- Revenue: $116.44 billion vs. $116.3 billion expected, according to Refinitiv
- Amazon Web Services: $ 18.44 billion vs. $18.27 billion expected, according to StreetAccount
- Advertising: $7.88 billion vs.$6.4 billion a year earlier.
Response
Amazon’s ad business was another bright spot. Amazon’s Q1 ad revenue advertising revenue was up 25% year over year, and that’s a strong run rate compared to the revenue growth rate. Brian Olsavsky, Chief Financial Officer of Amazon said,
” So a strong quarter and continue to roll out new and new products for sellers to manage their advertising and increase the ability to analyze and calculate the payback on marketing investments with us.”
Adweek reported Amazon’s ad business appears to have eclipsed YouTube in overall size and nearly one-third the size of Facebook. Advertisers—even those who don’t sell products on Amazon—are wise to pay attention to Amazon Advertising offerings, including those related to streaming TV and its Freevee service.
Snap
“The first quarter of 2022 proved more challenging than we had expected,” said Snap CEO Evan Spiegel.
The company missed Wall Street’s expectations for profit and sales and forecast disappointing revenue growth in the current quarter. However, daily users grew 18% annually, more than expected. Revenue from Dynamic Ads more than tripled year-over-year, as more advertisers leverage their product catalogs to automatically create ads in real-time.
Spiegel attributed Snap’s problems during the quarter to macroeconomic conditions, as well as advertisers who canceled campaigns after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February.
By Numbers
Below are key numbers by CNBC
- Revenue: $1.06 billion versus $1.07 billion expected, according to Refinitiv
- Global Daily Active Users (DAUs): 332 million versus 330 million expected, according to StreetAccount, up 18% year-over-year
Average Revenue per User (ARPU): $3.20 versus $3.25 expected, according to StreetAccount, up 16.8% year-over-year
Response
Even though Snap’s revenue increased 38 percent year over year, the company reported a higher net loss and a less free cash flow during the quarter ended March. Snap CFO Derek Andersen said,
“In addition to these ongoing platform-related headwinds, supply chain shortages and labor disruptions, rising inflation, and geopolitical unrest, are presenting challenges for a wider array of industry verticals than in the prior quarter.”
He also added that they may continue to face the challenging situation in the future leading to further campaign pauses or advertiser budget reductions. Snap is also facing challenges related to Apple’s 2021 privacy change that makes it harder to target and measure ads on iPhones. In fact, Andreasen said that the company developed a tool to improve the issue that now accounts for 90% of direct response advertising income.
As for content, Snap reported that total time spent in Spotlight, a TikTok-style user-generated content area, rose 230% year-over-year in Q1. The company said six Discover media partners reached over 100 million global viewers each in the quarter and over 10 million viewers have watched “Breakwater,” its new original series that featured episodic AR Lenses sponsored by Verizon.
Microsoft
Microsoft released its Q3 earnings report. The company’s posted double-digit growth yet again. Microsoft’s revenue increased by 18% and the profit represents an 8 percent jump Y-o-Y. Search and news advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs increased by 23%. LinkedIn is experiencing dramatic growth. Microsoft is crediting a chunk of this quarter’s growth to its cloud segment.
Xbox hardware revenue was up 14 percent, with a 4 percent jump for Xbox content and services revenue. It is driven by growth in Xbox Game Pass subscriptions and first-party titles for an overall 6 percent boost for gaming revenue to $3.74 billion. In an earnings call, the company said 10 million people have now streamed games from Microsoft’s cloud.
By Numbers
- Microsoft reported revenue of $49.4 billion, vs. $49.05 billion as expected by analysts.
- Net income was $16.7 billion and increased 8% GAAP.
- The company combines search and news advertising. That revenue was $2.9 billion in Q3 2022 vs. $2.4 billion in Q3 2021.
- LinkedIn revenue grew to $3.4 billion, up 34% from $2.6 billion a year ago. LinkedIn advertising revenue was up 61% Y-o-Y
Response
These earnings didn’t indicate Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard, which will make it the world’s third-largest gaming company, behind Tencent and Sony – it won’t close until next year.
Next quarter, Microsoft says to expect more revenue growth — though now single-digit growth in some businesses and expect minimal impact on operating expenses from the war in Ukraine. Gaming revenue is expected to decline. Microsoft CFO Amy Hood warned that Chinese production shutdowns could affect future hardware sales, including “constrained console supply.”
Interesting Read: New Video Game Measurement Allows Brands To Evaluate The Impact Of The In-Game Ads
Samsung Ads Launches Total Media Solutions To Manage Cross-Platform Campaigns
Samsung Ads has rolled out a total media solution designed to manage and measure media buys across networks’ linear and digital streaming apps. The solution is a complement to traditional, linear upfront media buys by identifying unexposed audiences on CTV ultimately achieving total audience reach for advertisers. It will provide enhanced reporting capabilities in a single view that includes data on ad exposure in real-time that can be used to optimize reach and efficiency across the entire media buy.
Interesting Read: All You Need To Know About Connected TV Advertising!
What is BYOM? How does it work?
The new Total Media Solution allows advertisers to bring their own media in passing the torch to Samsung programmatic demand-side platform(DSP) to handle campaign management and reach and frequency optimization for streaming app inventory that has been negotiated directly with TV networks Samsung Ads calls the strategy “bring your own media” (BYOM) to support ad placements that employ automated content recognition (ACR) data to identify which ads appear on the screen of smart TVs. Joe Melaragno, head of platform sales and agency development at Samsung Ads, said in this interview with Beet.TV,
We wanted to offer a solution that takes into account not just the linear ads that they’re buying using Samsung’s proprietary ACR data from our smart TVs, but also all the inventory that they’re buying in all of the new streaming apps.
Interesting Read: A Look Ahead: Convergence Of Linear TV And Digital TV Advertising
One-Stop-Shop For The Marketers
Samsung Ads offers marketers a “one-stop-shop” for the management, measurement, and optimization of campaigns across multiple media channels and devices. Having a one-stop shop for cross-platform campaigns, like the Total Media Solution within Samsung Ads’ DSP, means a more efficient workflow. Several DSP partners, such as Adobe, Experian, and Merkle, also offer access to curated audiences in a simplified and privacy-safe manner. Melaragno told Beet.TV,
This can both help to drive business outcomes, but also achieve that total audience reach across your linear buy as well as your buy in all these new streaming apps. We’re going to help to optimize the inventory on your behalf and we’re going to make sure that you reach that optimal reach and frequency across your holistic video buy.
Samsung Ads developed new tools for media buyers in response to a significant shift in viewer behavior. There was a surge in streaming services following the pandemic in search of new programs. Meanwhile, media companies continued to offer ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) and free ad-supported TV apps (FAST) which contributed to audience fragmentation. Buyers will work with every media company and will negotiate the price with them on their own terms, Melaragno said,
We wanted to offer the solution that allows them to bring that media that they purchased, whether it’s through the upfront or through the scatter market, and for us to help them manage it across their total audience on Samsung smart TVs.
As quoted by Adexchanger, he also added that the pre-upfronts timing is intentional.
Advertisers are thinking about their next upfront cycle , and Samsung Ads can help them optimize across all buys they’re working on through current partners.
The company will exhibit its Total Media Solution at the IAB NewFronts presentation on May 3 at 9 a.m. ET. With Total Media Solution, Samsung Ads wants to assist advertisers in understanding and planning media budgets based on the shifting balance between linear and streaming audiences.
Interesting Read: AVOD strategy For Netflix Ahead: Should Advertisers Rejoice?
What BIGO Ads Has To Offer Brands Through Likee In The Mena Region
BIGO Ads, an emerging international marketing platform powered by BIGO, is gaining traction in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. BIGO Ads, a premium traffic aggregator of the short video creation app Likee, has already made a significant impact by providing professional video marketing solutions centered on Likee’s thriving content community.
Likee’s success in the MENA region has been exceptional over the last year. It encourages local creators to unleash their talent by producing diverse video content that is rich in creativity, allowing them to build communities that facilitate meaningful connections and engagements amongst one another.
While maintaining its positive momentum, Likee offers a significant opportunity for marketers throughout the MENA region. More brands are opening their minds to deeply engage users through Likee’s unique branding campaigns, which are serviced by the BIGO Ads team, as a result of Likee’s rising user traffic and entertaining interactive experience. In fact, by 2021, PUBG Mobile had already achieved unprecedented success multiple times with Likee.
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A successful collaboration with PUBG Mobile
In 2021, PUBG Mobile is one of the most successful collaborative partnerships with BIGO Ads. This popular mobile game launched three hashtag challenge campaigns in Likee, including a Halloween Campaign, a Reunion of Classic Modes Campaign, and a PUBG Mobile 3rd Anniversary Campaign.
The campaigns for PUBG Mobile were the best-performing in the MENA region, with over 276 million total impressions and 250 thousand video posts delivered. BIGO Ads created the campaign mechanism for Halloween 2021 in order to strike a good balance between the Halloween atmosphere and PUBG Mobile gaming elements. The campaign was a huge success, exceeding most of Likee’s MENA benchmarks. It increased the overall awareness of PUBG Mobile and aided in reaching out to younger audiences in order to attract more new players. Francis Tu, Director for BIGO Ad said,
“We are extremely proud of our collaboration with PUBG Mobile and be glad to achieve unprecedented levels of success on Likee. We reviewed the unique gamifying features of PUBG Mobile to brainstorm the key ideas after which the BIGO Ads team set up a series of marketing solutions to spark an impact for PUBG Mobile and engage more young netizens. The PUBG Mobile cooperation has definitely given us a chance to showcase our professionality and passion to the brands in MENA.”
Wick Wang, Operations Director for Likee MENA explained why short video platforms are an ideal marketing solution for brands,
“The significant traffic on Likee and short video platforms in general helps to build brand awareness. In-app exposure through splash screens, banners, hashtags list, in-app messages and more, together with customized effects with brand elements powered by the cutting-edge technology of Likee is powerful enough to create content with unlimited fun. This also encourages users to engage more with the marketing campaign through the relevant in-app activities.”
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AVOD strategy For Netflix Ahead: Should Advertisers Rejoice?
Netflix plans to add ads. Yes, you read it right and it is the moment advertisers have been waiting for.
Netflix has been resisting advertising on its streaming service for years, but now it says it is “open” to charging lower rates for ads. Reed Hastings, co-chief executive of Netflix, says the company is introducing ad-supported plans to give customers more options. The company recently reported a loss of 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter.
“Those who have followed Netflix know that I’ve been against the complexity of advertising and a big fan of the simplicity of subscription. But as much I’m a fan of that, I’m a bigger fan of consumer choice.”
The news that Netflix is considering ad-supported options is the antithesis of its very essence- not to embrace ads. With Netflix’s position as the world’s largest subscription service and its vast user data, the service will soon become one of the highest-valued advertising platforms. And this makes many wonder that is Netflix AVOD for real? Find out below.
Interesting Read: Here, There, Everywhere, It Is Cross-Screen Advertising!
AVOD, an evolving marketplace
Millions of Netflix users were delighted with Netflix’s ad-free experience. The platform gained subscribers, increased its content budget, attracted more users, and so on and so forth. The competition, however, has diverted customers and increased Netflix’s costs. In order to grow, the streaming giant has to explore other sources of income except for subscriptions. A new AVOD service can significantly contribute to Netflix’s growth.
Streaming fans are seeing their TV bills climb as they pay for separate platforms to watch hit shows, such as Disney+, Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix. Several streaming services offer different tiers of subscriptions. Viewers can choose to have their shows interrupted with ads for a small fee. Even before Netflix’s dismal subscriber news, the new survey data from Accenture shows that consumers “don’t mind” adverts.
- 63% of consumers think it’s too expensive to pay for all the entertainment subscriptions they want
- 73% of consumers said that they would not pay more to remove ads from their shows
- 88% of consumers plan “no change” or a “decrease” in their entertainment spending next year
For instance, Warner Bros. Discovery’s HBO Max offers a premium ad-free tier at $14.99 per month and a $9.99 tier with ads. Advertisers have viewed this opening as a turning point both for Netflix and the overall stance of the industry. Consumers are put in charge. Since they are paying less voluntarily, they accept the ads too. Netflix’s offering would be a plan layer like Hulu, meaning that if subscribers still want the ad-free option, they’d be able to have that along with a lower price plan for ad-tolerant consumers.
Consumers, marketers, ad tech, and Netflix stand to gain as the deal increases its bottom line by billions.
Interesting Read: All You Need To Know About Connected TV Advertising!
Is joining hands with adtech the right way?
Netflix is the last major game-changer in the market for ad-supported video on demand (AVOD). The streaming giant is yet to clarify how an ad-supported tier would operate; however, it would join competitors like Peacock, Hulu, HBO Max, and the recently announced Disney+.
Disney and NBCUniversal both hold ad tech events during their annual upfront sales season, continuing to demonstrate a convergence of video publishers and digital platforms. Even if Netflix is going to cave to AVOD’s forces, it should consider the CTV ad viewership experience and ensure it maintains high-quality content. Connected TV ad buying faces a host of challenges around privacy, fraud, and measurement.
In his Netflix earnings last week, CEO Reed Hastings hinted that the company might opt to outsource platform ad tech work to tech providers in the market. He said,
“In terms of the profit potential, definitely, the online ad market has advanced and now you don’t have to incorporate all the information about people that you used to. So we can be a great publisher and have other people do all the fancy ad-matching and integrate all the data about people … so we can stay out of that.”
In order to enter the AVOD marketplace, Netflix could face a major challenge in moving from a subscription model to an ad-supported model. Their focus was on creating awesome content and getting subscribers, which is completely different from selling ads in such a way that they add value to the consumers’ experiences.
Mike Shields explained in this blog that no matter who runs the ads, Netflix must create watchable ads – viewers won’t shrug off terrible ads as “just SSP’s fault.” To get AVOD right, Netflix needs to take ownership of its ad business and build out operations from the ground up, then hire outside help as Amazon does. Its ad business reached $31 billion after it integrated its programmatic advertising internally.
Interesting Read: Bridging The Gap: Is YouTube Unifying Linear And CTV Ad Buying?
And the road ahead
As AVOD gains traction in the CTV space, it could be perceived as not only a low-cost alternative for the less affluent but also a fiscally responsible option.
The data of Netflix’s longtime customers are attractive to brands and very valuable. In fact, some retailers, such as Lowe’s, The Gap, and even Walmart, have launched ad services to boost revenue. This data is the ad value, along with the brand’s ability to connect with customers.
Interesting Read: Bridging The Gap: Is YouTube Unifying Linear And CTV Ad Buying?
