|
Fighting Back Against Ad Fraud |
|
|
| |
|
Hello CMOs. As more marketers look to bring aspects of their marketing in-house, CMOs have to find the talent.
This can be a struggle. Creative people may not want to be shackled to a single brand and many find that working for many clients across different industries helps get the creative juices flowing.
That’s certainly the view of John Hegarty, co-founder of BBH, who said at an event last week that anybody who chooses to go in-house will end up working alongside “the most boring creative people you will ever meet.”
Then came a classic Hegartyism: “You will spend your whole life working on f—ing baked beans,” he said. “Now, I like baked beans, but I don’t want to spend my whole life working on them—you need stimulation.” What, beans aren’t stimulating enough for you, Sir John?
|
|
|
|
|
| Woop-Woop! That’s the Sound of da Police |
|
|
|
The Justice Department charged eight people in an indictment unsealed Tuesday. PHOTO: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
|
|
|
One of the reasons ad fraud has been so prevalent, despite the industry’s efforts to thwart it, is that the perpetrators of such schemes have found it easy to cover their tracks and rack up thousands of fraudulent dollars from unwitting advertisers unpunished.
But a new development could make some of those so-called bad actors think again about looting the industry.
The Justice Department charged eight people, most of them in Eastern Europe, with operating two alleged ad fraud schemes. One was dubbed 3v; the other was the high-profile Methbot operation. The schemes, which used computers across the world and scores of faked websites, led advertisers to waste at least $29 million on ads seen by bots rather than humans.
Law enforcement has arrested three of the eight alleged perpetrators, while the others remain at large.
How did the Justice Department get there? With the help of the ad industry. Companies including Google, ad-fraud detection firm White Ops, Facebook and Oath joined forces in a secretive effort to unravel the costly scheme. See what can happen when everyone plays together nicely?
|
|
|
|
|
|
PHOTO: MIKE STEWART/ASSOCIATED PRESS
|
|
|
Ever more people use voice devices at home, but hardly any use them to buy things—despite marketers’ high hopes.
Amazon is hoping to change that with a healthy dose of co-operative marketing.
The e-commerce giant has reportedly been getting in touch with consumer-goods companies this year, asking them to include Alexa branding in their ads, along with the Alexa command that lets people add their products to their shopping baskets. Amazon is asking for “millions of dollars worth of advertising impressions and months’-long campaigns on non-Amazon platforms,” according to Recode.
In return, it will offer those brands reports on how their product is performing on Amazon.com, along with some advertising on its sites. Keep an eye on this year’s holiday ads to see which brands are on board.
|
|
|
|
PHOTO: IGOR GOLOVNIOV/SOPA IMAGES/ZUMA PRESS
|
|
|
The fierce bidding wars between Disney and Comcast for Fox and later Sky may be over, but it appears there’s still no love lost between the two companies.
Disney has agreed to use Google Ad Manager to manage its online ad campaigns, ending a long-standing relationship with Comcast’s FreeWheel, CMO Today’s Alexandra Bruell reports.
Comcast acquired FreeWheel, which works with several large media companies to serve their online ads, for $320 million in 2014. As the Journal reported at the time, some media executives were concerned the acquisition would give Comcast access to crucial data about their TV networks, such as what shows were being watched and by whom.
As for Google, the deal will be seen as an on-ramp for the company to start grabbing lucrative TV ad dollars as viewing becomes increasingly digital. One ad industry executive said the deal will bring Google tens of millions of dollars in revenue a year.
|
|
|
|
PHOTO: DADO RUVIC/REUTERS
|
|
|
In a sea of subscription-streaming options, offering digital TV packages that consumers will pay for is a challenge.
Just look at YouTube (yes, it’s a very Googly newsletter today). The online video platform is set to scale back its scripted output and make all its future originals free and ad-supported starting next year, rather than keeping them behind its $12-a-month YouTube Premium tier.
YouTube Chief Business Officer Robert Kyncl said the role of its originals over the past few years was to drive users to the ad-free YouTube Premium service. “But through experimentation, we've also learned that we can make a lot of the projects work incredibly well when we make them available free to users,” he said. As the Hollywood Reporter points out, YouTube’s originals budget, reportedly in the hundreds of millions, was always going to be overshadowed by the likes of Netflix and Amazon, which spends billions on programming every year. The strategy shift does now make you wonder how much of a shelf life YouTube Premium has left.
Meanwhile, Discovery has sunk its claws into Tiger Woods. He signed a multiyear agreement to create content for GolfTV, a planned “Netflix for golf” from Discovery and the PGA Tour. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. GolfTV will launch in markets around the world—but not the U.S.—in January. Discovery said it’s looking at how to distribute the content in the U.S., either on its own or in partnership with another media company. Keep your eye on the Tiger!
|
|
|
“The only way to remain in business is creating brands. The moment we stop creating brands then the e-retailers are going to rule...The moment people stop deciding they want a Coke then Amazon is going to decide the brand they have.”
| — Javier Meza, CMO of sparkling at Coca-Cola, speaking to Marketing Week |
|
|
|
|
165 Million |
The number of people in the U.S. who shopped in stores and online in the five shopping days between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday, according to the National Retail Federation. That’s down about 5% on the same period last year.
|
|
|
|
Disney is reportedly partnering with Audi to create a new type of media to entertain passengers in driverless cars. [CNET]
Consumer advocates from four European countries filed complaints alleging Google is in breach of GDPR for the way it tracks users’ locations, claiming the search giant does not give consumers “straightforward information” about what the tracking entails. Google rejects the accusation and says the tracking functionality is turned off by default and that consumers can change their settings at any time. [WSJ]
Forrester Research has said it will acquire research firm Sirius Decisions for $245 million in a move it hopes will help it better capture marketers’ budgets. [The Drum]
Everything you need to know about Facebook’s interrogation by international lawmakers in London on Tuesday. [Wired]
Facebook is nearing the completion of its Media Rating Council audit for third-party viewability measurement. [Media Post]
Parachute, a direct-to-consumer bedding and bath product marketer, wants to open 20 stores because digital can’t do everything it wants to. [Digiday]
Marketers’ waning interest in print ad pages is reshaping Vogue publisher Condé Nast, whose CEO Bob Sauerberg is stepping down. [WSJ]
|
|
|
|
|