Agencies are making big promises with AI-driven advertising, but over reliance on automated ad-creation and media buying can backfire. And this was also discussed at Digiday’s recent Media Buying Summit.
Jeff Ratner, president of media, analytics, and data at Quigley-Simpson, said industry changes might give new relevance to old fashioned media buying. He highlighted that performance-driven advertising focuses on metrics like return on ad spend and traffic acquisition costs, while traditional planning looks into consumers’ interests and media consumption.
Ratner pointed out that traditional planning also uses traditional data sets like MRI data. It helps advertisers understand and work on budget allocations to plan and deliver. Will Ferguson, chief growth officer at Dentsu, said it’s important to put the right audiences into media-buying tools. He added that persuading advertisers to worry less about down-funnel metrics can make for a hard conversation.
Opportunities and Challenges
Aisha Khan, GroupM’s executive director of global commerce client acceleration, said retail media networks also face new opportunities and challenges. They provide first-party data, alternative advertising channels, and new ways to engage with customers. However, this also creates new challenges for measurement and budget allocations. Khan said there’s no such thing as brand-building or conversion any more.
Kristi Argyilan, SVP of Retail Media at Albertsons Media Collective, said retailers must focus on specific verticals and customer bases. She explained that over-focusing on metrics like sales or return on ad spend might also miss out on longer-term opportunities for brand-building and customer connections. Argyilan said that as a media buyer, one should understand what each retail media network’s vertical is like.
Kimmy Phan, senior director of measurement and analytics at Whalar, gave an insight into the booming creator economy. She highlighted inconsistent metrics across all the platforms. “We do things through unified reporting, which aggregates all of the data to ensure everything is more of an apples-to-apples comparison.”
Thirst for Content
Eric Dahan, founder of Mighty Ventures, highlighted that more creators are becoming their own brands – starting their own line of products or opening physical storefronts. He said creators monetized it through advertising. It was the easiest way to get paid upfront. Creators soon realized they could take risks and launch their own brands.
Owen Sidd, VP of brand partnerships at Captiv8, said the demand for content will also skyrocket. He pointed out that retailers have their placements and they need content for their catalogs.
There’s an endless need and demand for content.
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