Ben Young
Ben Young
September 14, 2018

 
Hey,
 
After an interlude for Labor Day – we’re back 🙂 And next week – we can expect a special Dmexco Edition.
 
We also have Ari from Nudge at the ANA on Data and Measurement. If you’re going to either let us know, have a drink on us.
 
This week Inbound/ContentMarketingWorld were on – meaning an influx of content about content. I’ve worked to narrow this to those that are most relevant at the intersection we’re interested in.
 
One big thing
Nike.
 
What a way to stitch together their 30th anniversary. And they kept it under wraps.
 
This reminds us, in a digital world, the idea matters. And if that idea captures hearts, everything else is just a delivery mechanism to spread that message.
 
Notable stories this week

  • MediaMath announces their native offering. Level setting with TTD. Powered by Sharethrough, TripleLift and Powerlinks. Nice one!
    • ^ This is a crucial step in the march towards mass adoption. More of this please.
  • How the Guardian overhauled its content studio to make it more streamlined. Content studio revenue has risen 66 percent in the first half of this year, compared to the first half of last year, according to the publisher. The average value of its larger deals, which are over £100,000 ($130,000) have also increased by 36 percent, according to the publisher. Client retention rates have also increased, though it wouldn’t give a a specific percentage.
  • [Long read] Here’s 23,000 ways that branded content is a shi*t show. Influencer marketing can’t grow as long as buyers and sellers remain disconnected.
  • Google introduces the Ad Strength metric, to help guide to responsive ads (ala native) performance.
  • The Native Institute started a podcast, give it a listen here.
  • Why salespeople are critically important to branded content via Fara.
  • How The Telegraph’s branded content arm Sparks is experimenting on Snapchat and Instagram.
  • Google and MasterCard cut a secret deal to link ads to offline purchases.
  • Roku launches a branded content hub for MillerCoors. Home tv is the new branded content real estate. It’s immensely measurable too. So a nice win/win.
  • Viacom opens international pubs to pump out short form content.
  • Zirca announces ContentiQ for the Indian market to help do content planning.

 
Campaign of the week


 
Smartest commentary

  • “What I’ve realized is that this conversation isn’t about the word “content” or “advertising,” but about the fact that there are many marketers out there who are exploiting the shift happening to peddle nonsense instead of sound strategy.” – Noah Brier, Percolate

 
Datapoints of note

  • Half of content marketers struggling determining the right KPIs to measure via DigiDay.

 
Events

  • DMEXCO – 9/12-9/13 in Cologne, Germany.
  • Native Institute is hosting Native Days this November in Berlin, Germany. Use code NAIFRIENDBEN to save.

 
If you’re in Cologne next week, flick me a note, be keen to meet. Failing that, we have an upcoming dinner in NY in October if you’d like to join.
 
-Ben


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