Super Bowl Advertising: A Month-Long, Multi-Screen Event for Brands
PUBLISH DATE: 30 January 2023
For Americans, there are two events that they hyped for a whole year – Football season, and waiting for football season. Football remains highly popular among Americans, with searches for “NFL Draft” and viewership numbers showing an unwavering interest in the sport. According to Google Search data, football is more popular than any other sports league in the US. Despite the challenges faced by the sport this year, the NFL’s popularity continues to rise, with Nielsen data showing a steady increase in viewership over the past decade, outperforming the top 10 network shows.
The upcoming Super Bowl in February is expected to attract a large audience, making it an attractive opportunity for brands to invest in marketing. Historically, brands have focused on airing expensive commercials during the game, but as consumer behaviors change, the window of opportunity for brands has expanded. As a result, more brands are taking advantage of this opportunity to reach a larger audience.
Super Bowl Ad Cost History
The Academy Awards show is the only event that comes close to having the largest TV audience in the US, but the NFL’s Super Bowl remains the largest TV spectacle, both in sports and the country. Despite some decline in certain areas, the Super Bowl is still considered the ultimate advertising platform by brands and attracts many companies to showcase their products and services.
Reaching the Right Audience has Never Been Easier
As the Big Game approaches and signals the end of the NFL season, advertisers are eager to take advantage of one of the year’s largest TV events, attracting over 100 million viewers annually. Despite a decline in overall viewership last year, the game broke the record with 1 billion total streaming minutes, signaling a shift in the way people watch the event. The entire week presents a major opportunity for advertisers to reach a vast audience across all devices, balancing the reach of linear TV with the convenience of streaming.
Focus on the Task Ahead
Advertisers should take advantage of the fact that viewers don’t just watch the game, but spend the whole weekend consuming related content and updates. This includes the pre-game show, city festivities in Los Angeles, team interviews during media week, and more, providing multiple touchpoints for advertisers. With the extended amount of time, advertisers can reach their target market through various streaming channels, including phones and other devices, expanding beyond just TV viewership.
Achieve More with Less
Advertising during the Big Game is costly, with NBC reported to charge up to $6.5 million for a 30-second spot. However, businesses can still reach their target audience at a lower cost through CTV advertising. CTV ads can be targeted based on online behavior, allowing them to reach the intended audience even if they’re not watching the game.
Targeting Relevant Audiences with Geo-Fencing During the Big Game
Advertising during the Big Game offers a unique opportunity to target relevant audiences through geo-fencing. Advertisers can reach users who have taken action to be at locations such as the stadium, team hotels, host city, and other events related to the game. These audiences are highly engaged, and advertisers can retarget them during and after the game, even across all devices in their household. With granular reporting and attribution, brands can track online and offline conversions and see the impact of each individual geofence from the Big Game weekend.
CTV campaigns offer a chance for advertisers to reach relevant audiences with high-impact ad campaigns. During the big week, many advertisers struggle to stand out, but those using a programmatic platform are better equipped for success. The number of people streaming the game is rising, and fans will be using multiple devices, providing advertisers with opportunities to reach their desired audiences. Real-time reporting also provides insights into campaign performance, allowing advertisers to quickly adjust and allocate budgets to higher-performing channels and markets. Every advertiser has a chance to participate in TV’s biggest event.
Complete Guide to Reaching Audience with Cookieless Advertising
PUBLISH DATE: 19 January 2023
What’s your alternative game plan for effective cookieless advertising? Haven’t thought about it yet? The time is now!
Introduction
The complete year of 2022 was dedicated to cookies! Panic is setting in amongst marketers owing to mounting privacy laws and the ban on cookies, causing them to re-evaluate their strategies.
The year 2023 will be no different! New privacy legislation went into effect on January 1, 2023, in California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, and Utah. It is just a matter of time before further laws are enforced.
Google has announced that it will continue to phase out third-party cookies on Chrome by the end of 2024, ultimately putting an end to two decades of media and data-driven performance-focused advertising.
As the cookieless era looms on the horizon, it’s vital to be proactive in preparing for advertising in a cookieless world. Our comprehensive guide provides in-depth information on how to target your audience without the use of cookies effectively.
In this Guide we’ll Cover:
1. How Does an Ad Get to You?
2. Where do Third-Party Cookies Fit in this Ecosystem?
3. Reasons Behind the Phase-Out of Third-Party Cookies
4. Was the Ban on Third-Party Cookies a Good Decision?
5. What is Cookieless Advertising?
6. Things to Consider While Creating a Cookieless Advertising Strategy
7. What Makes Contextual Targeting an Effective Alternative to Cookieless Advertising?
8. Role of Mirrors’ Contextual Solutions in a Cookieless World?
How Does an Ad Get to You?
Have you ever wondered how an ad actually gets to you when you are:
- Watching a YouTube video
- Reading a news article online
- Playing games on an app
- Browsing through Instagram or Meta
Well, here we bring an end to your curiosity!
In the blink of an eye, the ad space on the page that hosts the platform (you opened) is provided to a network of hundreds of advertising technology companies to see who wants to buy the space at that time on your browser.
After analyzing the context of the page, (if you are reading FIFA-related news) the advertising partner understands from the context of the site that you like football.
Or maybe, it’s Indigo Airlines trying to reach you regarding a flight to Mumbai. They observed your browser searching for flights to Mumbai and shared that information with their advertising partner.
Those advertising partners define min/max bid requirements for their algorithms based on each advertiser’s willingness to pay. Then, depending on the specifications provided by the clients, their algorithms bid directly.
Also Read: Contextual Advertising: The Advertising Industry’s Next Big Step
Where do Third-Party Cookies Fit in this Ecosystem?
Before we go any further, it’s crucial to understand the basics of cookies and how third-party cookies differ from first-party cookies.
What are Cookies?
Cookies are data blocks (sometimes known as little text files) that are generated when a user views and navigates a website. These data blocks retain information in the user’s browser and can recognize the user on future visits.
What is the Use of Cookies?
Cookies enable advertisers to display personalized ads by storing users’ information.
What’s the Difference Between Third-Party and First-Party Cookies?
Third-party cookies are set on websites that come from somewhere else. Have you ever looked up a pair of shoes and then seen the same shoes in a few different ad positions on other websites?
This is a prime example of third-party cookies at work. Essentially, third-party cookies are used to track users across multiple sites and target them through ads.
They work in the same way as first-party cookies. They let a firm save a unique ID about the browser, allowing that company to keep track of items you like, have looked at, and so on. When the domain owner “invites” the firm to read or drop a cookie on that browser, this occurs.
First-party cookies, on the other hand, are cookies produced by the host domain and allow a business to enhance the user experience.
For example, first-party cookies store your items in your shopping cart and keep your login information so you don’t have to log in each time you visit a website.
The goal is to assign a unique ID to that browser so that the site owner may track things like:
1. Login Status
To make the site easier to use. Eg. Facebook keeps users signed in for up to 90 days.
2. Past Interests
Newspapers frequently alter sites to highlight essential information for certain users (for example, YouTube also puts music videos on top for me).
3. Purchase Histories
Indigo Airlines may keep track of the fact that you have been browsing for pricing on tickets to Mumbai and have Delhi as the destination filled in for you when you return in an effort to identify the sort of things you enjoy. These are all instances of data associated with first-party cookies, or cookies set directly by the site owner.
Reasons Behind Phase-Out of Third-Party Cookies
Privacy, please? This sentence has been repeated by users for a long time now.
According to data, 66% of consumers said that they were uncomfortable with businesses and brands tracking their browsing history to show them personalized ads.
Originally, third-party cookies were designed to store information under the control of end users anonymously. However, ad tech firms misused the opportunity to collect and link datasets for personalized targeting, leaving consumers worried about their privacy.
Brands use cookies to monitor website visitors, improve user experience, and gather data that allows brands to deliver ads to relevant audiences.
It’s also utilized to find what visitors look at while not on the brand’s websites.
Users will not compromise their privacy as we enter the next era of internet advertising. Their need for privacy and transparency into how their data is gathered and utilized has grown tremendously.
As a result, several major online browsers, including Mozilla Firefox and Safari, have already prohibited third-party cookies and Google will soon join them in this quest. Google has recently announced its Chrome’s Privacy Sandbox proposal.
Google has stated that it would not restrict third-party cookies on its browsers until the second half of 2024. This follows a few delays, mostly because Google wanted advertisers to have more time to change their advertising strategy and test new, less invasive targeted advertising technology.
“We do not believe these solutions will match expanding consumer privacy expectations, nor can they withstand fast shifting legislative limits, and hence are not a long-term investment. Our online products will instead be enabled by privacy-preserving APIs that prohibit individual monitoring while still delivering results to advertisers and publishers”, Google states.
Was the Ban on Third-Party Cookies a Good Decision?
Was the idea behind banning third-party cookies correct? Read the list of pros and cons and decide for yourself.
Pros
1. Google described the termination of third-party cookies as a vital step toward more privacy for online browsers, and it follows Apple’s April 2021 iOS update 14.5, which included a new permission mechanism dubbed App Tracking Transparency (ATT).
2. The phasing out of third-party cookies has shown how much of a publisher’s inventory is under-monetized. For example, cookieless income accounts for around 50% of a publisher’s revenue, yet many do not capitalize on it.
Cons
1. Processes for ad targeting, buying, and optimization will be disrupted and hampered, particularly for performance-based campaigns and specialized audiences.
2. As cookie data gaps weaken attribution and optimization, incrementality testing, and app-to-web tracking, current ad measurement, attribution, and optimization approaches will become peripheral or useless.
3. The phase-out has caught many advertisers, publishers, and marketers off guard. When the phase-out is formally implemented, a lack of planning might result in significant monetization concerns.
What is Cookieless Advertising?
Cookieless advertising indicates that marketers are relying less on third-party cookies. Cookieless does not imply completely cookieless. Cookies can still be tracked by digital marketing businesses in Singapore and web browsers like Google and Safari, but only with the user’s permission. As a result, the user has control over the privacy of their online data.
Things to Consider While Creating a Cookieless Advertising Strategy
Even if 2024 seems like a long time away, the race is on to develop viable replacements for third-party cookies. Following are some of the points that need to be kept in mind while creating a cookieless ads plan.
1. Plan your First-Party Data Strategy: If you haven’t already done so, begin inventorying and understanding where all of your first-party data resides across your organization so you can both understand gaps and assess which types of technology solutions can help you store, manage, analyze, and activate that data.
2. Plan for Greater Data Collection: Even in a cookie-free advertising future, you will need to acquire more information about your customers and prospects. Explain that when customers agree to share their data, it results in more relevant advertising and communication. You may experiment with new and intriguing data collection methods, such as quizzes, polls, QR codes, and newsletters.
3. Identify the Right Data Partnerships: You may complement your first-party data with partners that have both standard and unique data sets that you can utilize to improve your cookieless targeting. Location, weather, and buying purpose are examples of these.
4. Tailor your Targeting Strategy: By knowing the appropriate cookieless targeting criteria for the people you want to reach, you may better determine which categories to pursue and which to avoid based on safety, appropriateness, and emotion.
5. Tap into the Right Technology: There are solutions that can assist you in accessing pre-bid contextual categories to locate the best inventory to target and then activate across channels in your preferred DSP. The best is to utilize a technology that focuses on semantic comprehension, brand safety, and page quality to discover the ideal match for your ad. Know how Silverpush can help!
What Makes Contextual Targeting the Best Option to Advertise Without Cookieless?
Contextual targeting is fast becoming a future-proof, brand-safe, and successful cookieless targeting option. According to data, the global contextual advertising market is predicted to reach $376.2 Billion by 2027. Companies all across the world are redirecting their marketing resources toward developing a strong contextual strategy, as you can see from the image below.
Here is why should choose contextual advertising as the preferred alternative to third-party advertising.
Statistics proving the importance of contextual advertising:
- Context is so powerful that 49% of brand marketers are looking to contextual advertising to replace cookies.
- 79% of consumers are more comfortable seeing Contextual than behavioral ads.
- Between 2020 and 2027, contextual advertising spending is expected to grow 13.3 percent annually.
- 49% of US marketers surveyed are using contextual marketing today.
- In the UK, 32% of marketers use contextual marketing, while 36% use demographic targeting.
Also read: Is Contextual Advertising a Substitute for Cookie-based Targeted Advertising?
Role of Mirrors’ Contextual Solutions in a Cookieless World?
Third-party cookie deprecation certainly marks the end of an era. But the cookieless advertising future will be bright for those advertisers who pivot to contextual targeting to engage with users. Leverage Mirrors by Silvepush’s AI-powered solution to reach your relevant audience at the right time & place without meddling with user’s privacy. We ensure complete brand safety & suitability on YouTube, OpenWeb, and CTV.
To learn more about how Silverpush can help you prepare for the cookie-less world, fill out the form available and we’ll help you advertise in a cookie-free future with our cookie-less advertising solution.
Shifting Industry Priorities in 2023
PUBLISH DATE: 09 January 2023
This past year has brought a roller coaster of ad spending. To prepare for 2023, industry professionals must be curating media strategies in anticipation of increasing macroeconomic headwinds. Innovation is definitely a big player in 2023, with advertisers eager to lead disruption in new forms of audience engagement, like 3D ads, while also expanding their efforts in established formats, like CTV.
As 2022 winds down and the industry reflects on last year, let’s take a look into the trends and technology that will shape the next year in the Adtech industry.
Where Industry Experts are Spending in 2023?
Some of the top media priorities where experts are planning to expand their horizon in 2023 are –
- Digital audio – 54% of media experts are anticipating an accelerated shift from terrestrial radio to digital music and podcasts.
- Digital video – At least half of the media experts have planned to prioritize this format for their next campaigns. This may be due to the case of increase in consumption of CTV and growing options for ad-supported video streaming services.
- Social media – Social media platforms will continue to be on the priority list for many media experts – allowing them to take advantage of high rates of consumer usage, ad engagement, and rapid increase of influencer marketing.
- Mobile – Another environment on the key priority list is Mobile. Considering a safe environment, mobile ad spend in the United States is expected to rise 14% year-over-year to surpass $194 billion in 2023.
What are the Major Challenges for Media Experts in 2023?
The deprecation of third-party cookies will happen by early 2024 and has become one of the top challenges for ad buyers and ad tech in 2023. Many consumers are opting out of in-app data tracking, and privacy legislation.
This further comes along with another top challenge which is ad placement. This may include deploying ads either adjacent to risky content or misinformation and fake news.
Thus, these concerns about decreasing data access and ad context highlight an urgent need for solutions that allow advertisers to target audiences based on the content they are consuming (i.e contextual targeting), maximizing audience reach in a brand-safe & suitable environment.
As far as publishers are concerned, the sell-side is also expected to face media challenges, with decreasing access to consumer data/ cookies, choosing monetization with/ without social media platforms, etc.
Some common challenges that publishers are also likely to face are definitely less access to consumer data, identity system integration, maximizing yield, and monetizing first-party data.
Ads displayed next to irrelevant or unsafe content are also another challenge for publishers.
Which Media Type is Likely to Face More Challenges?
Experts have predicted that social media is most likely to face serious challenges in the coming year. Metaverse, as an emerging environment, shall also face challenges as media experts and even consumers have just begun to tap into it.
CTV, though has been on a successful rise, however, many media experts still shy away from spending their ad budget on CTV advertising. With growing demand, perceptions of challenges for this media type will see a rise too.
Digital Audio Builds Momentum in 2023
Digital audio—and digital audio advertising—is having a moment. More and more people are listening than ever before, and advertisers are rushing to join in on the fun. Media experts also agree that audio listeners will continue to migrate to digital formats. it is expected that digital audio ad spending is likely to grow 11% to surpass $7 billion next year.
With growing inventory and innovations in audio, industry experts also foresee risks a majority of experts are concerned about ad fraud, and more than half are about brand risk.
Due to these challenges in digital audio, experts see the value of third-party verification to ensure media quality.
The Future is CTV: Expanded Opportunities and Challenges
With most TV audiences streaming across several devices, it is crucial for brands and advertisers to invest in connected TV (CTV) & over-the-top (OTT) advertising as it will help them to reach viewers with premium inventory in a brand-safe environment.
One of the top concerns for CTV in the coming year is ad fraud, which is likely to be seen more of as ad inventory grows. Tracking CTV ad performance is also another issue. Since view-through rates (VTRs) are always high due to non-skippable inventory and click-through rates (CTRs) are irrelevant in this case as it’s not an option when streaming on TV or device, thus neither of these metrics are good performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of your ad.
To better track CTV ad performance – using pixels that are placed on the client’s website allows for internet protocol (IP) matching, and Cross-device targeting can be used.
Social Media to Remain Key Advertising Platform
Some things don’t change and that’s what happens with social media platforms as it remains to be key advertising platform, as per many media experts. Despite well-documented challenges with privacy, ownership, and its effect on public disclosure, the platform is hard to ignore with its unimaginable reach and engagement, especially when it comes to targeting Gen Z.
Looking forward, social media ad spend is expected to show a sustainable 9% year-over-year growth for the U.S. in 2023.
Mobile Consumption gives Rife Opportunities
Between consumers spending more time on their mobile devices watching videos and expanding 5G technology, 2023 is a year of innovation in the mobile space. In order to maintain high-quality media inventory, third-party verification will be an important factor, especially to protect brands against growing ad fraud.
Prioritizing Contextual Targeting in 2023
Contextual targeting has been in the game for a long time, however, with the deprecation of third-party cookies, many advertisers have started to shift their focus from audience/ behavioral targeting to contextual targeting. It’s a win-win for advertisers as they can reach their desired audiences at scale, without worrying about the cookies.