Other headlines found in the latest digital advertising news: native, native, and more native
All roads lead to viewability. This is not digital advertising news for anyone paying attention.
Without it – or without a plan to establish it – publishers could be in some trouble, particularly on mobile.
Advertising Age examines the issue in a couple of recent articles, while ruminating on sponsored content in a couple of others. Bonus content: Some big news from USA Today.
Let’s dive in!
No Third-Party Verification Could Mean No Ad Buys From Major Brands
Compelling story in Ad Age on companies who are pushing back against big-time digital media platforms like Google and Facebook, and what it could mean for all players in the publishing industry.
Kellogg (from the likes of YouTube), Kraft, and other companies have cut off orders.
“One major marketer that is ranked as one of Ad Age’s top 100 brands by U.S. ad spend has reduced its spending on Facebook ads, in part, because the social network won’t permit independent viewability verification. That marketer has also cut its spending with one publisher that wouldn’t allow verification by double-digit millions of dollars and increased its spending with another publisher that did allow third-party viewability verification by double-digit millions of dollars, according to a person with knowledge of the matter,” writes Tim Peterson.
“It’s not just about third-party verification. More importantly to advertisers, those third-party companies would be able to use the same method for measuring ad viewability across different publishers – who may have their own disparate methods – and give advertisers a standardized look to compare how viewable their ads are on which sites and allocate their budgets accordingly.”
Nielsen Purchases Neuromarketing Research Company
In the most … interesting … news of the day, Nielsen has done its best to carve a pathway directly into consumer thought processes, Ad Age reports. With the acquisition of Boston company InnerScope, the media monitor apparently plans on putting to use technology that measures physical markers like “heart rate, skin conductance, and neural activity” to gain insights on reader activity and response.
And Nielsen is not alone, according to Ad Age. Campbell Soup, Procter & Gamble, and Turner Broadcasting are Innerscope clients.
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Politico Hires Stephanie Losee for Brand Journalism Effort
“Brands want traditional media to thrive – brands need traditional media to thrive,” Stephanie Losee said a year ago at the Content Marketing and Innovation Summit, making digital advertising news.
“Brands don’t really want to go whole hog into becoming publishers. We don’t want to hire dozens of writers and editors to try to do what publishers do. Brands don’t want to play in the investigative journalism sandbox, but people accuse us of doing that all the time. We want to publish our own content, but we need to rely on publishers to help us do that.”
Apparently, Politico liked the sound of this, since they have now hired Losee to lead Politico Focus, the latest in-house sponsored content studio, Ad Age reports.
How One Major Publisher Gets Visitors to Read Sponsored Content
That publisher is The Onion, and that method is making fun of advertisers and native advertising itself. The takeaway for publishers here? Transparency.
USA Today Talks End of Print Edition
Gannett property USA Today is talking an exit strategy from print. Editor-in-Chief David Callaway said it could happen in as soon as five years, albeit with some caveats, Ad Age reports.
What digital advertising news do you have to share? Let us know in the comments!
To read more digital advertising news, visit AdAge.com.
