What are RTB, Programmatic Direct and Private Marketplaces?
Do you know the difference between Real-Time Bidding (RTB) vs. Programmatic Direct vs. Private Marketplace Advertising? Knowing what each of these terms means is crucial to your ad buying knowledge. These 3 elements of programmatic ad buying will up your game and make your advertising experience better. Each has its own place in the vast programmatic ecosystem! It’s no secret that programmatic ads are the real-time solution to your ad buying woes – automating the entire purchasing, placement, and optimization process for you, leaving you more time to focus on what matters most. By 2021, experts predict that 88% of all display ad dollars will transact programmatically. That’s huge! We have a full guide on “What is Programmatic Advertising” here. This post gives you a brief primer and then explains each of the 3 main ad-buying formats to you. Let’s get started. Programmatic Ad Buying: Overview Programmatic ad buying automates the process of targeting, segmenting and selling to your audience, according to age, gender, geography, and more. It happens in real-time, and delivers ads to your audience at the best time, at the best price. Why is this beneficial? Ad budgets need to be optimized so that you spend in the areas that give you the highest ROI, and cut back in the areas that aren’t doing as much for your business. Lean budgets work better. It’s different from traditional ad spending in that it’s tighter, more efficient, and saves you time and money. Based off a series of algorithms that work in real-time, it doesn’t rely on manual insertions and manual trading; the ad space is bought via the bidding system. Long story short–programmatic ad buying is here to stay, and now’s the best time to get the jump on it. How? By reading onwards, and getting the jump on 3 things: Real-Time Bidding (RTB) Programmatic Direct Private Marketplaces These are 3 elements of programmatic ad buying that most people completely overlook, and miss out on. you’ll nail the programmatic ad buying game, guaranteed. Real-Time Bidding (RTB): Explained Real-time Bidding (RTB) happens in a computer-run auction with real-time interactions – where the highest bid wins the impression. It’s hands-down the most cost-effective way of buying with access to the largest audience! The bidding is blind, and publishers offer their inventory for advertisers (you!) to bid on. You set the parameters for the bid price, network reach, and demographic segments. Then optimization happens at the impression level for the best bid possible on the best end result. Why RTB advertising? Jeff Green, CEO & Founder of The Trade Desk explains it best: “Real-Time Bidding means that every online ad impression can be evaluated, bought, and sold, all individually, and all instantaneously. It is the future of all online advertising and enables exchanges and buyers to work together to programmatically sell and place bids on ads.” It’s a win-win for publishers and advertisers alike. Programmatic Direct: Explained What about RTB vs. programmatic direct?Well, programmatic direct automates direct ad buys for specific campaigns. It’s different from real-time bidding in the sense that programmatic direct deals are a guaranteed ad buy that doesn’t involve an auction – it’s direct and to the point. The choice between the two depends on your industry, what your goals are, and how you’d like to go about it. RTB involves a lot more segmentation and control over your bidding choices, while programmatic direct is more, well…direct, with less control. Programmatic direct includes guaranteed and non-guaranteed contacts, and revolves around guaranteed buys. Private Marketplaces: Explained What about programmatic direct vs. private marketplaces? Private Marketplace (PMP) advertising gives the power to the advertiser, and you decide whether or not you want to choose specific inventory. Known as a private-auction or ‘invitation-only,’ PMP includes unreserved inventory among select buyers, chosen via a Whitelist/Blocklist. The biggest thing with private marketplace deals is transparency – publishers can choose to reveal specific pieces of information on inventory, and which sites ads will run on – in addition to the Deal ID’s issued. Deal ID: the unique identifier that represents the deal made between publisher and advertiser within the auction environment, allowing the advertiser to reach premium placements, on-demand, through your DSP platform. The best part? You can apply your first-party data to any and all placements made. Basically, all the success you’ve achieved in open exchanges can be applied here, across premium placements. PMP is premium access at the lowest price, without any time or money wasted. It’s efficient, transparent, and the tech can even replace the need for a direct sales team. You can apply your first-party data to any and all placements made. Basically, all the success you’ve achieved in open exchanges can be applied here, across premium placements. In Conclusion… These are your choices when you step into the programmatic ad buying space. Choose between RTB vs. programmatic direct vs. private marketplaces and find the one that best suits your campaign. Whether you choose to engage in open-auction, real-time bidding, within a private marketplace for premium access, or programmatic direct for less hassle – you’re on the winning side with programmatic ads. Let the bidding begin! Learn more about programmatic advertising services
Holiday Marketing Tips For 2020
As we enter the fall season, you can already sense that things are slowly shifting and settling into the “new normal”. Can you believe it’s already time to start planning for your holiday marketing campaigns for the upcoming season? We previously had a 3-part blog series on Navigating Marketing Through COVID-19. In case you missed them, you can catch up on them here: How COVID-19 is Changing Marketing Planning for Marketing During COVID-19 Post-COVID-19 Marketing – What to Expect? In this blog, we’ve done some research and organized insights and actionable tips to help you prepare your marketing strategy for this upcoming holiday season during this pandemic– holiday 2020 will surely be one to remember! The topics we will cover are: Demographics & Behavior Trends Uptick in Online Shopping Amongst Older Generation Preference For Mobile in Younger Generation Need For Online Customer Support Anticipate Varying Shopping Behavior Shoppers Gearing Up For Mega Sales Digital Holiday Marketing Tips Tweak Your Brand Message to Connect With People Consider Advertising Programmatically Get Your Target Audience Down Pat Festive Content To Complement Your Digital Marketing Plan In-Store Holiday Marketing Tips Be Active & Engaging on Social Media Turn Social Distancing into a Premium Experience Offer Online Shopping, Delivery & Curbside Pickup Bundle Products or Sell Holiday-Exclusive Items to Offer More Value TL;DR – What Have We Learned Photo by Samuel Holt on Unsplash Demographics & Behavior Trends Before we get into tips of holiday marketing, we should take a look at some demographic and behavioral trends to better understand our consumers’ mindset. With brick and mortar stores heavily impacted by the pandemic, the sales of online stores have skyrocketed, with people even ordering groceries online for delivery. Pinterest released a report on Holidays for 2020. They highlighted a statistic: Pinterest explains: “In the face of COVID-19 and stay-at-home orders, people are looking forward to looking forward. 2020 has been a hard year, and consumers are craving the comfort of the holidays. They want this season to feel more festive than ever before, and they’re asking for brands to help them get there.” With the COVID-19 pandemic not subsiding yet as we enter into the Fall season of 2020, we can certainly say that this holiday season is definitely going to be a bit different. People may not be able to travel and visit family to spend the holidays and so it’s easy to anticipate that we’ll see an uptick in online shopping. In fact, Facebook’s recent survey proves just that. Facebook Business conducted a survey to share with marketers around the world. They examined the 2019 holiday shopping behavior, COVID-19 consumer behavior as well as patterns from past economic recessions. We picked a few points that really stood out to us to share alongside our recommendations for winning this season of holiday marketing. Uptick in Online Shopping Amongst Older Generation Since COVID-19 started, 85% of consumers around the world have been shopping online. One of the interesting statistics that emerged from Facebook’s study was that 80% of Generation X and Baby Boomers shopping online!44% of Gen X and 30% of Boomers admitted to more time spent on online shopping.Almost half of the people surveyed in the study expressed that they would be inclined to shop online more frequently even after the outbreak is over. Because the demographics of Gen X and Baby Boomers are increasingly participating in online shopping, think about if any online campaigns can be specifically targeted towards them. Consider value proposition, messaging and tone. It’s important to convey sincerity, reliability and quality. Actionable Item: Gen X and Baby Boomers are online shopping more. Consider creating holiday marketing ads targeted towards them. Tweak your messaging and tone. Preference For Mobile in Younger Generation It’s neat to see older demographics adapting to the new landscape of shopping. The leading age groups for online shopping are Generation Z and Millennials. They are most likely to be active on their smartphones, so it’s recommended to have an optimized website for a better mobile experience. Look into Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) for quick load speed and easy navigation. Actionable Item: Gen Z and Millennials prefer mobile browsing and shopping. Ensure your website is mobile-friendly. Need For Online Customer Support Studies have shown that 75% of Millennials prefer text messaging over voice calls and to handle the influx of customer service inquiries for the holiday season, your business should have some type of messaging system in place aside from your customer service phone line. This could be a chat box on the homepage, Facebook messenger or automated texting apps. The convenience of this would be to pre-load frequently asked questions so questions/requests can be processed efficiently before being assigned to the right team members to solve. Actionable Item: It’s recommended to have an online customer service messaging system on top of your phone line. Anticipate Varying Shopping Behavior Shoppers have different behaviors during the holidays. Some prepare and get their gifts early and others may be last-minute shoppers. An interesting statistic from Facebook’s report was that across different countries, the opinion on whether COVID-19 had an economic impact on their own day-to-day lives was split almost 50/50. This data shows that people are still very likely to participate in shopping for themselves and friends and family when the holiday comes. This is reassuring news for businesses! Therefore, it’s a good idea to start planning out your holiday marketing campaigns by the end of September and running them by November. This will allow your brand to make its rounds to shoppers weeks ahead of time and be on their mind throughout the season. Actionable Item: People are still planning to buy gifts for themselves and loved ones. Plan your marketing campaign out ahead of time! Shoppers Gearing Up For Mega Sales Another insight from Facebook’s survey showed that over half of global shoppers have much higher purchase intent when mega sales occur. For example, Jonathan has his eyes set on the latest Go-Pro model since it came out earlier this year. But he is willing to wait for Black Friday,
How Amazon Dominates eCommerce
Amazon’s Prime Day is a usually mid-summer sales event people look forward to. However, this year, due to the pandemic, Amazon had pushed back their annual Prime Day from the usual mid-July to now October. Instead of it being a summer “Boxing Day,” this year, it will be a pre-game for Black Friday! There’s no doubt Amazon is the most significant player in the online marketplace. In our previous blogs, we’ve discussed how eCommerce has skyrocketed due to COVID-19, and we’re seeing even baby boomers engaging in more online shopping behavior. When we say the term “online shopping,” your mind probably thinks of Amazon, proof that they are a giant. It’s hard to believe Amazon.com started as a simple little website that sold books! Today, we’re taking a closer look at Amazon and its influence on the eCommerce industry. Here are the main points we’ll cover: Numbers Don’t Lie – Total Online Domination Tough Competition: Watch Out, Google! On the Way To Become the King of Delivery Amazon Prime Membership Amazon Visa Credit Cards Taking On the Groceries Games Amazon Ads Consumer insights & Data TL;DR – What Have We Learned? Photo by Bryan Angelo on Unsplash Numbers Don’t Lie – Total Online Domination A now-retired marketing analytics tool, Jumpshot collected data and shared digital insights into buyer journeys. Many of the data findings showcased just how monolithic Amazon’s presence is: On average, Amazon owns 74% of all digital transactions in the United States. From 2015 to 2018, Amazon amassed more product searches than Google. 90% of product views on Amazon come from their product search — not from online ads or aggregators. When researching a product, people search it up on Amazon directly before looking it up on Google. This could be due to Amazon’s robust product pages with customer reviews and related recommended items. 90% of buyers agree that they are more likely to purchase Amazon products than other eCommerce sites. Customer reviews are huge factors consumers take into consideration when looking for a product to purchase. They can compare and contrast different brands directly on Amazon, desktop, or mobile and read what real people have to say about the product. The reviews are honest and candid, even sometimes hilarious! Other big-box retailers are following in Amazon’s footsteps in investing efforts into eCommerce. They are all growing but still have ways to go to get to Amazon’s level. For example: Walmart: Amazon has 16 times the number of transactions. Target: Amazon has 54 times the number of transactions. Tough Competition: Watch Out, Google! Not only does Amazon have Google as a competitor when it comes to smart home devices (Amazon Echo VS Google Home), they compete on the eCommerce front too. Amazon’s most significant competitor would be Google. Google created “Google Shopping” to compete with Amazon directly. Both are complete eCommerce marketplaces for selling products online in a user-friendly, direct way. What gives Google Shopping an edge is that retailers who have brick and mortar stores options to list their products and drive local foot traffic into stores. Big brands like Sephora, Ulta, etc. have started listing on Google Shopping. On The Way To Become the King of Delivery For the entire year of 2019, Amazon shipped about 2.5 billion packages a year just in the United States. FedEx delivered 3 billion, and UPS delivered a whopping 4.7 million parcels. As an eCommerce giant, Amazon manages a good portion of their deliveries and delegates the rest to UPS, FedEx, USPS, Canada Post, and other postal services. Amazon has been rapidly expanding its delivery operations. Although they take on $40 billion a year on shipping costs, which impacts their gross profit, they understand that it is essential to their future growth and profitability. In July of 2020, Amazon had shipped 415 million packages. The monthly average between April and June was 389 million, so there was quite a jump in volume. Experts expect to see an increase in the volume of online orders as businesses and demand have been making a comeback. The experts did add that it should be anticipated that deliveries would see some delays due to the sheer volume and COVID-19 precautions in place. We definitely can expect to see Amazon taking a bigger bite of the package delivery game as they begin to automate their warehouse and operations. Photo by Simon Bak on Unsplash Amazon Prime Membership Amazon’s Prime program is an annual paid membership providing access to Amazon services such as free priority shipping, Prime Video, Music, eBooks, etc. There are 150 million Amazon Prime members around the world! The biggest perk of Amazon Prime is access to hundreds and thousands of items with free delivery, even free one-day deliveries. Mentioned in the point above, Amazon has been doubling down on its in-house delivery efforts. A big reason is because of Amazon Prime. One-Day-delivery is how Amazon upped its game from other eCommerce retailers. Not “Fast Shipping” or “Ships within 3 to 5 business days”. One-day delivery is included for a vast majority of products on Amazon, which is exclusive for Prime Members. Amazon’s CFO, Brian Oslavsky, says investing in 800 million dollars into amplifying the One Day Delivery structure is to increase convenience for consumers and “open a lot of potential purchases.” You got to spend big to win big! Amazon Visa Credit Cards To dominate in the eCommerce world, Amazon.com offers two exclusive visa credit cards. Both have great ratings amongst credit card selections. The two are Amazon Rewards Card and the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card. Both have no annual fees. Value Penguin breaks down the differences between the two: It’s quite a good deal as you enjoy these perks, not just on Amazon! Amazon gets to encourage more spending on their products and also for their company Whole Foods, which is a win-win situation for them. Aside from Amazon’s visa cards, there are many alternatives that you can use to enjoy shopping on Amazon and other eCommerce websites. The best credit cards for e-commerce offer many great rewards to their users. When you shop online on
How Does Programmatic Advertising Work?
So, how does programmatic advertising work anyway? It’s surprisingly easy once you’ve grasped the fundamentals. This handy introduction to how things work in the programmatic ad niche will take you from zero to in-the-know, super-fast. This is a pretty comprehensive guide for updating what you know. This is a great post for marketers who need clarity on some key inner-workings, or for brand advertisers who want to brush up on their programmatic terminology. It’s also perfect if you’ve never investigated programmatic marketing before, and your curiosity level is peaking like a whistling stovetop kettle from the sixties. Here’s your chance to get the authentic, no-holds-barred, clean and simple scoop on how programmatic advertising really works. Editor’s Note: We recommend reading our post, ‘What is Programmatic Advertising’ first, which details what it is, and why you should be excited about it. Otherwise, let’s streak ahead to the how. A Brief Introduction to Programmatic Advertising The Programmatic Advertising Process How Programmatic Advertising Works From Start to Finish The Elements of Programmatic Advertising Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Optimizing Your Campaigns With Real-Time Bidding Using Data in Programmatic Advertising Targeting and Relevance in Your Ad Campaigns The Creative Side of Programmatic Campaigns Achieving Campaign Goals With Programmatic Sharing How Programmatic Advertising Works TL;DR – What Have We Learned Photo by Headway on Unsplash A Brief Introduction to Programmatic Advertising Digital ads are everywhere. On connected TV, your favorite blog, your Facebook page, your search engine – they’re even in every app on your phone. Back in the 70’s, people were exposed to about 500 ads a day. These days, the average American sees between 4000-10,000 ads daily. That’s an ad every 15 seconds, if you’re counting. A lot of these ads don’t work. According to eMarketer, about one-fourth of all advertising budgets are wasted. As a result, marketers are constantly trying to optimize their ad spend. The most advanced way to do this is with programmatic advertising. Definition: Programmatic advertising is the automated buying and selling of digital ad space on the internet. In other words, digital ads are automatically traded through software. It’s mostly done in real-time using an auction-style system – but this varies. If you want more context, do head over to our first post, “What is Programmatic Advertising?“ The Programmatic Advertising Process In the sacred old days of digital advertising circa 2007, advertisers would approach publishers, and a contract would be negotiated for ad space on their website.A set amount of impressions would be promised to the advertiser – and everyone was happy. It was a time consuming and clunky process. As more and more people joined the online revolution, publishers selling ad space became a dime a dozen and a lot of them got stuck with unsold inventory. It was inevitable that a better system would be created to solve this issue. Photo by Jukan Tateisi on Unsplash How Programmatic Advertising Works From Start to Finish When clients are curious about how the process goes, they usually asksomething like – “How does programmatic advertising work… from the beginning? Let’s say I see an ad online…how did that happen from a programmatic perspective?” Here’s what typically happens: Target User The programmatic advertising process kicks off the moment a target user, or consumer, lands on a new website. What happens next is an automated process that takes mere milliseconds, in real time. Supply Side Platform The website that the target user has landed on is a publisher. Publishers are the sellers and media owners on the internet.Publishers use supply side platforms (SSPs) to offer their supply of advertising space (or inventory) to advertisers. These SSPs are automated software systems that use algorithms to communicate data to exchanges and Demand Side Platforms (DSPs). The publisher’s SSP recognizes that a new target user has landed on its website – it pings the ad exchange with a request for an ad to fill their available ad space. Ad Exchange An ad exchange is an independent digital marketplace that deals in ad space – and acts as the go-between for SSPs and DSPs. Often, both of these have ad servers they use to distribute their ads. The exchange receives the prompt from the publisher’s SSP, and sends a request for bids to a huge amount of registered demand side platforms (DSPs). *Ad exchanges aren’t the same as ad networks, but they do work together sometimes. Demand Side Platforms Demand Side Platforms (DSPs) represent the interests of advertisers. It’s their job to find the best possible placement for their client’s adverts. They do this using unique software that automates the process. Once the bid request is received by the DSPs, a real-time auction happens. Real-Time Auction During the real-time auction – which is also known as real-time bidding – the DSPs process a ton of metadata, which helps them understand the value of the ad placement, in relation to their clients targeted ad campaigns. Using their own proprietary algorithms, the DSPs will understand what the bid opportunity is worth to their clients. Their interest level is aggregated into a bid amount, which is then communicated to the ad exchange. Ad Exchange The ad exchange reviews the bids, and picks the highest one. Target User That advert is immediately placed in the open ad space on the website. The mission is for this highly targeted ad to achieve its advertising goal – catch the attention of the right user at the right moment. This entire programmatic advertising process happens in one tenth of a second. Wow! The programmatic ad process allows advertisers to control who sees their ads, lets publishers and their SSPs sell the exact amount of available inventory – and it puts super-relevant ads in front of the consumer. Photo by David Ballew on Unsplash The Elements of Programmatic Advertising Programmatic advertising is one of the most intelligent, evidence-based systems we’ve been able to create in the marketing niche so far. Using data and proprietary algorithms, we can drastically improve the impact of an advert – which increases sales. With programmatic technology, advertisers are
What is Programmatic Video Advertising?
So, you need a simple and easy-to-understand guide to programmatic video advertising. We’ve got just what you need. We will cover what programmatic video ads are and how they fit into a sprawling programmatic advertising landscape that never stops growing. There are many different types of programmatic advertising out there, and one of the most popular involves video. It’s different from other media types, with the same advertising technology. This post walks you through: What is Programmatic Video Advertising Is Programmatic Video a Big Deal? Why is Programmatic Video So Popular? Types of Programmatic Video Ads What are the Best Programmatic Video Platforms? Should You Invest in Programmatic Video Ads? Conclusion TL;DR – What Have We Learned Let’s get started! Photo by KAL VISUALS on Unsplash What is Programmatic Video Advertising? First of all, what is programmatic video advertising? Programmatic advertising is the practice of buying and selling ad space using data and machine learning technologies to automate the process online for faster, better results. In this instance, advertisers create video ads that are then programmatically traded. This is done using real-time bidding, programmatic direct or private marketplace deals. Is Programmatic Video a Big Deal? Advertisers have increased their investment in video ads moving in 2020. It’s clear that video is a big deal when it comes to ROI and programmatically trading ads. In 2019, advertisers spent around $29.24 billion dollars on programmatic video advertising, which is nearly half of all display ad spending in the US. Programmatic video advertising platforms like Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Snapchat advertising have influenced this boom, along with developments in smart TVs, over-the-top (OTT) video, and social advertising – not to mention the increasing growth of mobile. Emarketer is predicting that video will plateau for a few years, but it doesn’t diminish the reality that video is still the dominant media format for high-impact display ads online. With 81.2% of all digital video transacting programmatically, it’s fair to say that automated video is now the norm when creating and distributing digital video ads. Why is Programmatic Video So Popular? Video is a powerful medium, especially for advertising. There is no better ad format for brand storytelling, and capturing people’s attention than video. It’s hands-down the highest impact and versatile of all advertising media. Google recently told us that 60% of people would rather watch online videos than television. By 2022, 82% of all online consumer traffic will be from video. Video ads are also an especially versatile ad format. This could account for their rising popularity and the increasingly creative methods used when advertisers want to hyper-personalized ad messages. Types of Programmatic Video Advertising There are many different types of programmatic video advertising that are created today. Each allows for interesting creative opportunities. In-Stream Ads In-stream ads are part of a video’s linear structure, and they are placed either before, during or after the content in the video. If you’ve watched a Youtube video, you’ve come across them. Pre-roll ads: Play before the video starts Mid-roll ads: Play as the video is playing Post-roll ads: Play at the end of the video Out-Stream Ads Also called native video or in-read ads, these video ads differ from their in-stream counterparts. Outstream ads don’t play with other videos, instead they mainly appear in text content and autoplay as you’re scrolling by. These ads don’t disrupt existing video content like instream ads do. In-Display Ads In-Display adverts are rich-media videos that appear inside display ad units, at the top of your Youtube feed or in-banner on a page. They don’t play without being clicked on, so there’s an element of choice for the viewer. What are The Best Programmatic Video Platforms? According to a 2017 Emarketer report, there are several video platforms you will want to consider as a digital video marketer. These are the best platforms for your online campaigns. YouTube and Vevo – still the dominant platforms for video advertising Facebook, Snapchat. TikTok and Twitter – social networking sites come in second Video Demand Side Platforms (DSP) – for programmatic placement of your videos With 68% of respondents using social platforms to make an impact with video, a lot of opportunities still exists with programmatic display advertising as we glide into 2021. Facebook video advertising is especially important, with 100 million hours of video watched every day by the sites 2.3 billion active users. Should You Invest in Programmatic Video Ads? What is programmatic video advertising without a strong Return On Investment (ROI)!The reason why so many advertisers prefer video advertising, is because it has the ability to reach their audience and convert them more effectively than other ad types. There’s a good reason why 87% of marketing professionals use video as a marketing tool, and it’s because of bigger, better profits. An overwhelming majority of digital professionals are satisfied with the ROI they get from their video ads! What this means is that when you shift to using programmatic video ads, you convert the already powerful medium of video into a super resource for conversions – thanks to targeting, personalization and the budget control that comes with programmatic technology. In Conclusion… Hopefully this quick guide has answered all of your main questions on automated video and its value.Now you understand what programmatic video ads are, why they’re popular – and which types of ads are used most often. From the best platforms to the reasons why investing in video is a good idea, the next time someone says, ‘hey – what is programmatic video advertising?’ You’ll have the answers. What Have We Learned? Programmatic video advertising is when advertisers use automation technology to buy the best possible ad space from publishers for their video – within their predefined budgets and parameters. Video ads are dominating the digital advertising industry. Almost half of the Display Advertising spend in the US is on videos. Over 80% of video ads are traded programmatically. This ad format is so visual and versatile, which is excellent for brand storytelling and personalization. There are several types of Video Ads for the main categories are: In-Stream Ads, Outstream Ads, In-Display Ads There
Why War Room Is One Of The Most Pet-Friendly Offices in Vancouver
Update: August 2021We took in 5 kittens in the summer of 2021 at the wee age of 2 weeks old. Here’s them at 4-5 weeks! When you first think of War Room, you might be like, “Whoa, sounds like they get down to serious business!” Don’t get us wrong, our tribe of digiNerds do work hard on planning, strategizing, analyzing and optimizing our clients’ advertising needs. However, we are also a big family that adores furry friends. That’s why we pride ourselves on being one of the most pet-friendly offices in Vancouver! All of our team members are animal lovers and many of them are dog owners themselves. Take Mayo for example, one of the OG dogs to join our office. Her owner is Ariel, our Data Analyst. Mayo is a fluffy, adorable and sassy American Husky. Here she is being a good assistant: Bobo (@bobothelildoggo) (right) is the latest addition, a rescue mutt from Taiwan. He is sometimes anxious around people and cats, but he has been able to get out of his comfort zone and make new friends in the process! His mom is Charlene, our Content Marketing Coordinator. Lifelearn Animal Health highlights the benefits of having a pet-friendly workplace, which are: Employee stress gets reduced A great boost in office morale Believe it or not, it promotes productivity Aids in team building Promotes a more active lifestyle Facilitates communication and conversations No more lonely dogs stuck at home Studies show that dogs can actually aid in lowering stress levels in the office. These four-legged furry friends usually nap and occasionally wander around for some well-deserved cuddles. But you might say, okay, so what, most tech companies nowadays are dog-friendly!And of course, we can’t forget to include those who identify as a “cat person”! Well, well, well…can you name any other one that is cat-friendly? Our CEO, Mike Tyler has been fostering animals for over 15 years. With a big heart for animals and seeing the positive impact having pets in the workspace has elevated team spirit, he had an idea: why not foster kittens in the office too? Ever since then, War Room has become a long term partner with the BCSPCA and we foster cats! We dropped off some donuts for our hardworking friends at the BCSPCA in Vancouver this summer. During the time that the kittens are being fostered here in the War Room office, you not only see them grow (physically), but also get to admire their personalities and each of them are so unique. When they first arrive at our pet-friendly office, some of them are immediately brave adventurers and instantly adore cuddles and would splay out on the keyboard begging for belly rubs. Some are timider and take a longer time to warm up, so we have lots of corners and nooks for them to chill out and people watch. Over time, they grow more confident and become very well socialized sweethearts. As a collective foster parent for these animals, it’s hard not to grow fond of them as we form close bonds, spending time together every single day, so it’s always tough to say goodbye. But we are also so proud of them and excited that they have found their forever home with loving owners! They have come such a long way and deserve all the happiness, treats and cuddles. One of our favorite stories is about the kitten, Enzo.Enzo came to us as a teeny tiny kitten at the wee age of 4 weeks old. We had to teach him how to use the litter box (he was a quick learner)! War Room’s office was a jungle for him. He would hop onto desks and cuddle on your lap. He was also fearless with the office pups. He was also made popular cameos in our Zoom meeting calls with clients and loved all the attention he got from the virtual ooh-ing and ahh-ing at his cuteness. One of our clients, Mountain Biking Tourism Association ended up adopting him and now he roams and romps around their office! He was also made popular cameos in our Zoom meeting calls with clients and loved all the attention he got from the virtual ooh-ing and ahh-ing at his cuteness. One of our clients, Mountain Biking Tourism Association ended up adopting him and now he roams and romps around their office! Here’s a look at some of our other previous kittens we had the joy of fostering: The July 2020 “interns” were a mixed group of four rambunctious and sweet boys. From left to right: Luci, Midnight, Salem, and Alfie. Look how much they’ve grown in a matter of 3.5 weeks: Our interns hard at work: A few of our War Room office dogs are rescue dogs themselves and may struggle with anxiety. The pet-friendly office is a safe and relaxed environment for both the cats and dogs to get to know each other and grow confidence. An example of Mushu and Bobo hanging out in the kitchen with the kittens because they can all bond over treats (yes, our kitchen is stocked with snacks for humans and pets). Human, cat and dog friends galore! By mingling the kittens with dogs early on in their lives helps them get along with dogs, which is a quality that gets them adopted easier. At War Room, we’re all about increasing conversion rates, whether it be for our clients or foster kittens! Want to join War Room’s team? Do you also love dogs and cats? Then we want YOU! Check out our careers page Looking to adopt a War Room kitten?Email us at: [email protected] to see if we are fostering any at the moment.
What Is Programmatic Advertising?
Do you need programmatic advertising explained in clear and speedy terms? We’ve created this beginner’s guide to walk you through exactly what programmatic buying is, and why it’s the most important digital marketing initiative your business needs. From New York to Shanghai, programmatic display advertising is changing how brands advertise online. According to an Adobe Think Tank, by 2022, 80% of advertising processes will be automated. If you’ve been paying attention – that means the future is here. Table Of Contents What Does Programmatic Mean? According to the Oxford Dictionary, the word programmatic refers to the nature of a method, program or schedule. In an advertising context, programmatic simply means ‘automated.’ If someone refers to programmatic in marketing, they’re speaking about the nature of buying, selling and placing advertising using automation – or software – to do it. It may be a redundant phrase in the near future, as all advertising becomes programmatic. But hey, maybe digital marketers will keep the term, because it’s lofty and fun to say in team meetings. We’re excited for the day programmatic advertising just becomes ‘advertising.’ The future of advertising will be personalized, automated, immersive, experiential and measurable. It won’t feel like advertising. — Giselle Abramovich, Senior & Strategic Editor, CMO.com Programmatic advertising is also called programmatic buying or marketing – they all refer to the same thing. Here’s a good definition: “Programmatic advertising is the automated buying and selling of digital ad space. Software uses collected data to decide which adverts to use, and how much it costs. The goal for advertisers is to get their ad shown to the right person, at the right time, for the least cost. The goal for ad space sellers is to fill their inventory and make money.” A more simplified definition would be the process of using software to automatically buy and sell ads online. The Two Perspectives There are two perspectives when it comes to programmatic ad buying or selling. The Brand Perspective The Marketers Perspective It gets a little more complex if you lose track of which perspective you’re coming from. You need programmatic advertising explained from both of these points of view, for greater context. The Brand Perspective Brands think of programmatic advertising as a way to optimize their online ad spend. Programmatic advertising software focuses on targeting specific brand audiences so that the ads work better, and sell more products or services. For brands, approaching a company who has the right software and knows how to use it is key. This means finding an advertising company who has the best technology, and can effectively consolidate their ad spend across multiple channels. Programmatic marketing is what companies like War Room do. We connect brand advertisers to enormous ad networks, and help them pick the right type of ad, where it will go and who it will reach, in real time. The Marketing Perspective From a marketing perspective, there are ad buyers and ad sellers – and programmatic on both ends. Demand Side Platform (DSP) Demand Side Platforms focus on programmatic buying. They connect brand advertisers to available ad space online. War Room uses Kedet, a type of DSP, as mentioned above. DSP’s use technology to get the best deals and results for their clients. Supply Side Platform (SSP) Supply Side Platforms focus on programmatic selling. They’re connected to the same ad exchanges and networks, only to negotiate ad space for sale. This ad space is called inventory, and it’s their job to fill it with ads for profit. Ad buying and selling require the right algorithms so that placements are efficiently optimized. These often come in the form of AI or artificial intelligence systems. Kedet is War Room’s proprietary AI stack and is made up of sophisticated algorithms that automatically adjust ad bids in real-time – depending on who is using the web page at the time. It gives our clients access to the largest programmatic marketplace available online. Brands are looking to partner with the best possible programmatic buyer, and DSPs are charged with using their specific programmatic software to attract brand advertisers. Once aligned with a DSP, the brand’s adverts are automatically connected to massive ad networks and SSPs, where ultra-fast bidding takes place in real-time. A History of Programmatic Marketing The programmatic advertising industry is enormous! 65% of digital media ads were traded programmatically in 2019, according to Zenith’s Programmatic Marketing Forecast. And that number is only going to rise. But where did it come from?Here’s the history of programmatic marketing explained: It started with display advertising, all the way back in 1994 – when the very first display ad was published on Hotwired.com. A site you know today, as Wired.com. It looked like this: Back in the old-timey days of 1994, this display ad got a Click-Through-Rate of 40-50%! As the years rolled by, and more advertisers vied for clicks, those rates dropped dramatically. By the time the 2000s arrived, ad networks were springing up to get advertisers more reach, across multiple websites. Then came Google, and Adwords (now Google Ads). Google did some amazing things with online advertising, including coming up with the idea to define target segments. It was almost programmatic, but not quite. Other companies were developing methods of optimizing ad reach too – About.com, Sprinks, and Gator were building targeted ad networks. Like all fast-paced innovative growth, when you have multiple companies working to be the best, you can’t stop progress. Suddenly, real-time bidding software sprang to life. This Real-Time Bidding (RTB) software connected Demand Side and Supply Side platforms to ad networks – and focused on hyper-targeted ads using available data. It was the birth of programmatic advertising! So, programmatic originally came about to solve the real-time bidding issues related to remnant inventory. It has now grown into so much more than that. Many brands have still never used programmatic to its fullest potential. It’s taken years of innovation for us to reach this point. The industry has faced many challenges. But now, the difference between traditional advertising and programmatic
Is Byte the New TikTok?
You might have heard in the news that Trump is planning to ban the popular video app, TikTok. What is that all about? We also think that newcomer Byte might just be the next big thing.Read on and learn about the current situation with TikTok and more about Byte! Here’s what we will cover in this blog: What’s Happening to TikTok? What is Byte – Could It Be the Next Big Thing? What is War Room’s Take On This TL;DR – What Have We Learned? Photo by Solen Feyissa on Unsplash What’s Happening To TikTok? In early August of 2020, President of the United States, Donald Trump issued executive orders of banning the popular video app, TikTok and social platform, WeChat. What these two channels have in common is that they are both owned by Chinese technology companies (ByteDance and Tencent). Trump says that (TikTok) “may also be used for disinformation campaigns that benefit the Chinese Communist Party. The United States must take aggressive action against the owners of TikTok to protect our national security”. The reason for this is the fear of China potentially collecting vast amounts of personal data and information of Americans. The main issue is around data privacy and how it may interfere with the United States’ national security, foreign policy and economy. However, TikTok was taken aback by the executive order and has been denying all of the allegations. TikTok stated that the user data collected from the United States are stored in America and the backup is located in Singapore, both outside of China’s jurisdiction. Experts and politicians are still concerned that China could force Chinese companies like ByteDance to hand over the collected data to the Beijing government, due to their existing legislation. The deadline of the ban is September 15, 2020. Microsoft is in talks with ByteDance, expressing the interest to acquire TikTok in the countries of: United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Experts say that it wouldn’t really change anything of the app aside from it then being owned and operated by an American company, outside of the Chinese government’s control. Okay, let’s just keep the politics at that. What we are here to discuss is if TikTok does actually get banned in the United States, what happens next? Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash What is Byte – Could It Be the Next Big Thing? As an advertising agency that runs a variety of ads across different channels, like social (including TikTok), we are keeping a close eye on the shifting landscape. One platform that has stuck out to us is a new video social platform called, “Byte”. Yahoo stated that in August 2020, Byte has already surpassed TikTok in Apple Store downloads. New York Post reports that over 600,000 people had left TikTok and downloaded Byte. People are catching on and looking for alternatives already! The co-founder of Byte had previously founded Vine, the popular video app a few years back. This is a new project that launched on the Apple and Google Store in early 2020. What we all loved about Vine when it was around was the condensed consumption of media. The 6-second limit and loop allowed people to get creative, tell stories, serve punchlines quickly and effectively. The endless loops sometimes made us rewatch it 22 times because it was just that funny. Not everyone’s got time for filler, man! Byte is about going back back to basics. Byte currently has all the basics of a social platform. It comes with a newsfeed, notifications, profile pages and an explore page. The application is still new, so doesn’t have functions such as augmented reality filters that are popular on Instagram stories, Snapchat and TikTok. To bypass this for now, people can record videos on those other apps with the filters and upload to Byte. Byte also doesn’t have messaging features so no sliding into anyone’s DMs. It allows comments under each video and that’s it. So far, the users are really enjoying the app as it’s no frills and focuses more on quality of content versus quantity.SmartSocial did a quick breakdown of the Byte App versus TikTok, take a look at their video: Photo by NESA by Makers on Unsplash What is War Room’s Take On This? In a recent article, HubSpot reported that video content is not only dominating, but the consumption of video content is also evolving with every generation. In the past decade, with the introduction of smartphones and tablets, people have access to the internet and countless content at their fingertips. You don’t even need a video camera anymore to make a video. Because of the accessibility to view and record videos, we predict that Byte will be a social app that is extremely easy for users to download and navigate. We see a lot of influencers crossposting their video content across multiple platforms, for example reposting their TikTok dance video on Instagram Stories, prompting people to follow them on both platforms. We believe that that’s the reason why over half a million people have already switched over to Byte. They can promote their new Byte account on Instagram and Tiktok (when it’s still around) and get their followers to transfer over, making it an easy transition and not having to build their Byte following from nothing. There hasn’t been talks of advertising on the platform yet, in an interview with TechCrunch, Don Hofman said, “we’re looking at all of those (advertising), but we’ll be starting with a revenue share and supplementing with our own funds. We’ll have more details about exactly how the pilot program will work soon.” We predict that if there will be ad space for purchase on Byte in the future, visuals will be crucial for social display ads. We’ll be curious to see if they support In-stream ads. It’s still early on in predicting what Byte will become, but we are optimistic to see the emergence of a new player in the field of social media! What Have We Learned? President Trump signed an executive order to ban the social video app, TikTok because it’s owned by