At SXSW on March 13 the ARF presented a one-day “Think Tank: Solving Problems in Cross-Platform Advertising” to address the cross-platform challenges confronting our industry. Renowned critical thinkers from agencies, media companies, measurement organizations and trade groups shared their perspectives, insights, and endeavors.
Privacy: Has Targeted Marketing Gone Too Far?
Does the dream of 1:1 marketing conflict with evolving standards of privacy? As the well-publicized scandals related to election manipulation show the downside for democracy of ad tech’s ever-more-narrow targeting, has targeting gone too far to be practical and beneficial to marketers? Yet, isn’t not targeting bad business? Treating people well by giving them something relevant at the right time is important. Using modified Oxford debate rules this session featured opposing views aired on GDPR, CCPA and similar efforts to rein in digital tracking.
Rick Bruner – CEO, Central Control & Vice Chair, USA, I-COM
Christine Bannan – Consumer Protection Counsel, EPIC
Moderator: Scott McDonald, Ph.D. – President & CEO, ARF
Building Trust, Transparency and Standards
How are industry leaders attacking fraud, BOTS and non-human traffic? What is the status of open-standard audio watermarks, universal tracking codes and advertising IDs? The speakers shared tools and standards they have created to solve problems related to cross-platform ad measurement. Should privacy regulation be one set of federal regulation and not 50 state regulations? Is there any movement on privacy and regulation?
Jane Clarke – CEO, Managing Director, CIMM
Dennis Buchheim – SVP and General Manager, IAB Tech Lab Chad Engelgau – CMO and Head of Strategy, Acxiom
Moderator: Paul Donato – Chief Research Officer, ARF
Can Brand Advertising Survive In the Era of 1:1 Marketing?
In this session, ad agency leaders discussed how they balance the needs of traditional brand advertising with the technical complexity of marketing to targeting audiences. With the need for agility to get to insights on a person by person level, the speakers will look at which companies are getting it right, why and how are these companies successful. What can direct-to-consumer brands and traditional brands learn from each other?
Margaret Coles – Associate Partner, Head of Data, Research & Analytics, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
Noël Paasch – Global Creative Experiments Lead, Unskippable Labs, Google
Kate Sirkin – EVP, Global Data Partnerships, Publicis Spine
Moderator: Amy Shea – Brand Experience Director, Ameritest
Taming the Flood of Data for Accurate Measurement
The explosion of digital and behavioral data and the fragmentation of media has made it essential to create new data measurement techniques. What new data sources are driving their methods and how are these sources impacting their results? What are the pros and cons of data-driven research? What will the future of measurement look like? How is this new data changing media buying and selling? What is the future of media, given the explosion of OTT? Is all this data helping or hurting brands? Leaders of major independent measurement companies revealed how to tame the flood of data.
Kelly Abcarian – General Manager, Advanced Video Advertising, Nielsen
Corey Jeffery – SVP, Global Product Leadership, Kantar Insights Moderator:
Paul Donato – Chief Research Officer, ARF
Can Content Media Catch-Up with Digital?
Media company leaders discuss their efforts to monetize quality content in an era of expanded distribution channels, ad resistance and maximum consumer choice. Digital has trained advertisers to demand proof of performance. What efforts are publishers making in accountability, attribution and performance marketing? How are they using advanced targeting, performance guarantees and other tools to prove ROI?
Gabe Bevilacqua – SVP of Product Management – EVP, Chief Research Officer, Viacom Media Networks
Britta Cleveland – SVP, Research Solutions, Meredith Corporation
Moderator: Scott McDonald, Ph.D. – President & CEO, ARF