Silverpush Partner Spotlight: Darren Hardeman, VP, Strategy, Media & AI, at PUSH

This week, the Silverpush team got a chance to talk with Darren Hardeman, the VP of Strategy, Media & AI, for Canada’s PUSH. PUSH is an indie agency that focuses on connecting media and creative in a new way, driving better results for each campaign and getting the most out of every touchpoint for clients. Darren shared his thoughts about context, the changes in the market, and how brands are successful. Read the full Silverpush Partner Spotlight Q&A below:

1. Tell us about your agency. What makes you stand out?

PUSH started from an idea that ‘wouldn’t everything work better if media and creative were always intertwined?’ So we built an agency model uniting media and creative from the very beginning, ensuring that every campaign message is conceived with purpose, delivered with impact, and measured to maximize outcomes. Feedback loops are built into the process, so all insights, both creative and media, are actioned immediately, maximizing performance today and in the future.

We make it simple and the way it should be: results-oriented, client-focused, and not agency-led or agenda-led.

2. What made you choose Silverpush as a contextual partner?

Anyone can find demographics, geo-targeting, or contextual targeting. Our advertiser partners need more hyper-personalized and addressable targeting. For example, we developed a strategy that used the Silverpush Mirrors product to scan videos to identify signals around the specific themes, brand safety, verifiable behaviors, and semantics of specific niche audiences.

For example, young adults are interested in STEM-related activities. By using Silverpush, we were able to find those specific audiences and align with contextual ad placements at scale. This partnership drove results that showed an increase in engagement and conversion rates because the quality of the audience was at a higher level than previous targeting methods.

3. Has the market changed recently? What are the biggest trends that you’ve seen with clients recently?

We are in a revolutionary period of change in marketing. In the Canadian market, we’re seeing:

1. Less easily available data through more informed and skeptical consumers, as well as government regulations.
2. More opportunities with increased media fragmentation across platforms.
3. A dramatic increase in AI in every aspect of our work, with a different adoption rate depending on each client. Some accept AI-generated work. Others believe in a ‘wait and see when it improves’ approach.

4. What are some stand-out campaigns that you've run this year? What made them work?

I would say there are three things that make a campaign stand out:

1. Being insight-led in the strategy and data-driven throughout your approach. By addressing objectives through insights about your audiences and using data to meet audiences where they are, we can create better, more meaningful connections for brands.
2. Be omnichannel in your selection and approach. Plan and execute across all channels in a connected manner, as that is how our audience(s) will consume them.
3. Be relevant in your placements and messaging. By being relevant, your audience will be more apt to relate, engage, recall, and/or respond.

We have used these principles to develop campaigns for our clients. One that comes to mind is a recent campaign for Humber where we developed a full funnel campaign that started with a video-neutral approach to drive awareness among direct and indirect student prospects through TV, CTV, OLV, and Social Video.

Surrounding all key audiences in Transit and DOOH. Then retargeting through display, social, and search channels to drive conversions. Each asset was relevant to the intended audience segment to increase the ad recall, engagement, and ultimately applications (the client’s business KPI).

5. Have you noticed the impact of AI over the past year? Where have you seen it being used the most?

Noticed it – yep, we use it every day. At PUSH, we use AI in almost every aspect of the process.

In media, it is in our advanced analytics like predictive modeling/MMM, our planning process, our buy optimizers (cross channel and within platforms), reporting, and insight generation.

For creativity, we can use it in our video, image, and text generation, allowing us to efficiently address ad fatigue and personalization.

Is it all 100% in all aspects? No, but every time we use it, it does get better.

6. What are the biggest ad challenges for brands? What are the biggest opportunities?

Here are four challenges that we hear from brands:

1. ID Signal loss and privacy regulations/restrictions. This leads to complexity and increased tech cost due to needing additional solutions like data clean rooms.
2. Overdependence on Walled Gardens. Too much emphasis on advertising on walled gardens drives prices up over time and leads to less transparency and competition in the long term.
3. ROI pressure in a Fragmented Landscape. CMOs have to prove their investment is driving incrementality, which means there is more pressure on measurement than ever before.
4. Standing out in a Saturated Market. Consumers are ignoring, blocking, and skipping ads. Brands are often wondering: ‘How can we stand out, get noticed, and be memorable?’

The first three challenges are easier to address: brands should increase their tech stack (when appropriate to drive incrementality and value), diversify spend, and implement advanced analytics like media mix modeling. The latter requires creativity, data-driven insights, and an experienced team that really wants to work alongside a marketer as a true partner.

7. What is your advertising hot take?

The world is full of uncertainty, and advertising is no different. But there are always opportunities in uncertain times, because it changes the way people usually respond to current situations. For example, during these uncertain economic times, marketers may see a down market and pull back investment. However, by taking this as an opportunity to invest and grow our share, we will come out ahead in the long term.

Uncertainty also forces us to continuously look for new opportunities and new partners to do more with less - and, of course, new opportunities to be more creative to gain attention, engagement, and conversions.