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Category: Commentary

Commentary; our thought leadership, newsletter notes and long form pieces.

BuzzFeed's print edition
BuzzFeed's print edition

This Week in Native Ads 3/8

One big thing Will everything online move to a pure pay for performance model? It strikes me that as retargeting has taken a hit on publisher revenues it’s been buoyed by affiliate content drives. This precision reduces the take but will keep focus on what actually works. Notable stories this week Mark Zuckerberg penned quite the long piece on privacy. It is worth reading, to get it straight from the source. ^ Unrelated but at… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
March 8, 2019
What happened to Red Bull?
What happened to Red Bull?

This Week in Native Ads 3/1

The Ligatus acquisition might have snuck under your radar but this is notable consolidation in Europe. For American readers they are the TripleLift or ShareThrough of Europe (headcount of 180 vs 230) but they’d already been acquired by Bertelsmann the publishing/broadcasting group. This is much more common in Europe. The deal was for stock. So why would an already exited player onsell and for stock? Likely CPMs guarantees on deals were under pressure from ITP and fearing a more competitive… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
March 1, 2019

This Week in Native Ads 2/22

This week is a full on edition, so buckle in as it’s full of gems, from datapoints on Amazon, DrainerBot, to Apple acquiring a digital marketing firm. ? Notable stories this week This News Corp Australia story is interesting, the Outbrain vs Taboola showdown. Ultimately Taboola won this round. This is a battle which goes on every month. Hulu’s latest influencer marketing campaign should give you second thoughts about using one. Great… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
February 22, 2019
Don’t be a clickhead, IAB UK nudges the industry to move on.
Don’t be a clickhead, IAB UK nudges the industry to move on.

This Week in Native Ads 2/15

One big thing Lots of deals happening, acquisitions big and small. Two years ago we were noting the lack of deals, now we’re seeing a flurry of activity. I had a great chat with a journalist this week, who was asking, at this point – how does a brand justify not doing content? Would love to hear from readers what they think or have heard. Notable stories this week Facebook’s share of ad revenue… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
February 15, 2019

This Week in Native Ads 2/8

  One big thing I want to speak on the pace of change. Twitter this quarter is changing their reporting metric to mDAU, monetizeable daily active user. The market did not like it. Imagine if they had used this number a few years ago when Jack first came back. They would have been decimated. Were they measuring it? You can guarantee it. 3000 employees isn’t a ship you can turn overnight. Nor the expectations of millions of users. In… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
February 8, 2019
marketing metrics
marketing metrics

The measurement problem facing modern marketers

It is 2021, and measurement is more of a moving target than ever. The industry, platforms, and content are all in flux. Lets take a look at recent data points we’ve seen: – 87% of ad execs say they hold back spending on media and platforms due to poor measurement. – MediaPost – Half of the marketers in this survey discard at least half of their data. – eMarketer – Centralizing marketing data remains a top… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
February 4, 2019

This Week in Native Ads 2/1

Notable stories this week Facebook & Google market research. This does raise the threat of being disintermediated by the operating system itself, what happens if Apple bans the app? Apparently Facebook has prepared for such a scenario (shout out to @ow for pointing this out). Very curious turn of events, they’re playing with fire. I suspect there is a research firm who recruits… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
February 1, 2019
logos of some of the world's biggest brands
logos of some of the world's biggest brands

How Branded Content Drives Business Outcomes

The tldr; content that is consumed, disclosed and has calls to action will drive business outcomes. Getting to content that is consumed, is the hard part. More on that below. Before we indulge in this post, there are a few provisos I need to give. These are, level setting, branded content can easily drive business outcomes when you have effective measurement in place. If you don’t have that – you can and will lose money very… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
January 29, 2019
buzzfeed plans to lay off 15% of staff
buzzfeed plans to lay off 15% of staff

This Week in Native Ads 1/25

One big thing Marie Kondo is having her cultural moment, I read the book a few years ago – and subsequently went on a rampage through the house and my belongings ha. From a marketers perspective, it’s also a process worth doing, reviewing all the tools, systems, processes, partners and looking to simplify. In a world of growing spend, we’ve added more, simplifying helps everyone focus on the end result – better business outcomes. IF you haven’t caught… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
January 25, 2019
T Brand Studio to Produce Voice Skills for Advertisers
T Brand Studio to Produce Voice Skills for Advertisers

This Week in Native Ads 1/18

Before your snowy weekend here’s the latest in native and content. ❄️ One big thing Tim Cook called on the FTC to help tidy up the use of our data. “The Federal Trade Commission should establish a data-broker clearinghouse, requiring all data brokers to register, enabling consumers to track the transactions that have bundled and sold their data from place to place, and giving users the power to delete their data on demand,… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
January 18, 2019