I’m back, with a light tan courtesy of Bermuda!
I’m an avid reader – and got through a fair chunk, if you haven’t caught AntiFragile, Nassim Taleb digs into how things benefit from stressors. Pertinent reading for anyone in the industry.
^ Note, you probably only need to read the first 60% to get the key takeaways.
Notable Stories this Week
- Facebook testing moving non-promoted posts out of the news feed.
- How advertisers are circumventing publishers audiences via Facebook and influencers.
- GoFundMe opens a native studio, with view of helping brands attach to causes and in turn drive more donations. Win/Win.
- UK Content Marketing Association extends to South Africa, forming the Branded Content Marketing Association.
- Twitter launches #Fuel a new brand content studio.
- [From us] Native ad mistakes to avoid, via Contently.
- Twitter to launch a transparency center, highlighting who is advertising on Twitter.
- ShareThrough announces new integration with Adobe.
Deals/M&A
- Connatix raises $15m. Well done to David & Oren, they bootstrapped that business to $15m in revenue in under 3 years.
- Rubicon Project inks deal with DBM, allowing Google advertisers to their private marketplaces, notably FlipBoard & Spotify.
Campaign of the Week
- In celebration of fall (autumn) finally arriving in New York: The reason you love ice cream, Ben & Jerry’s on Eater.
- [A big fan of this product] RX Bars introduce a kids version, making their announcement with Fatherly.
- $1m is closer than you think, with Vanguard & T Brand Studio. I just like the straightforward storytelling, how close am I? What can I do to get there faster.
Smartest commentary
- “Branded content is only bad if we let it be. If it isn’t good on its own merits, then that’s ultimately on us as creators” –Graham Nelson, Creative Director at Vox
Datapoints of note
- FB Audience Network eCPMS increased 60% in the last year for The Atlantic.
- 72% of big publisher revenue is direct whereas for small publishers its 90%. Big defined as above $40m in revenue.
- Skoda saw a 41% uplift in the perception of its brand as inspiring and a 11% increase in purchase consideration after its content execution with News UK.
- Vidyard released their video benchmarks.
- Brands using programmatic dropped 2% YOY. Whilst minimal, it isn’t growth.
Events
- [Nov 7th, NY] Behind the creative curtain, branded content with Vox.
- Start getting ready for The Native Advertising Days, 8-10 November.
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