Mediasmith Uses Technology To Drive Innovation

Enter The Media Tech Planner Mediasmith CEO David L. Smith spoke at Digiday on May 14 during Internet Week in NYC and was interviewed for an article published in Digiday about a new agency role. (Interview and story by Jack Marshall) The ad tech world can be a very confusing place.  As venture capital money flows into the space, and more logos are added to the increasing number of Lumascape slides, the hundreds of technologies beget more and more confusion. Simplicity doesn’t seem likely to arrive anytime soon. Even the Lumascape’s author himself has begun to decry the duplication problem, predicting a round of capitulation deals where well-funded ad tech firms’ investors take serious haircuts. This technology-crowded landscape is fueling the need for a new, critical agency function: the media technology planner. Mediasmith reached a tipping point in 2011. We now see more tech companies than media publishers to get our jobs done. To help, we created our agency’s tech stack which incorporates the services of over 40 vendors that we partner with.  Rather than have a one-size fits all black-box solution, our tech stack allows us to bundle solutions tailored to each client. To make it easier for us and our clients to keep these technologies straight, the tech stack puts vendors into different buckets so our clients can see what role technology might play in a custom solution. Sorting through the mess is a full-time job. The media tech planner will research and evaluate ad technologies while working with the media planning groups. He (or she) will build technology stacks tailored to the needs of each client or campaign. The role will focus on identifying and eliminating agency and client pain points, but the technology planner will ultimately work with teams executing and evaluating media plans. The rise of the media tech planner will echo that of the media planner in the 60’s. Until the advent of data such as those provided by Nielsen, Simmons and ARB, account executives and media directors made planning decisions based on crude estimations. Ultimately, the emergence of audience data birthed the standalone media planner role, just as the emergence of ad technology will pave the way for the media tech planner. Investment in this type of role will likely be underfunded at first, but Dave Smith suggested its importance will only become more prevalent as ad technologies continue to proliferate and fragment.

Mediasmith Morsel Learn more about the Mediasmith Tech Stack.

As always, ideas about an emerging position elicited some thoughtful responses. Bennett Zucker, SVP / GM Data Solutions at Ziff Davis, Inc., and a digital media & marketing pioneer, shared the following thoughts… Dave Smith has a well-informed view of the role an independent agency can play as a service organization with the expertise to apply a range of technologies and tools to solving its clients' marketing challenges. The stack and description seem a lot like an agency trading desk, and the media tech planner resembles a manager of tech partner relationships, specs and procurement more than it does a media planner. With so many moving parts and so many partners looking for more volume, more access to clients, more data, more everything, I wonder if this new agency job might evolve into a post that’s more territorial and bureaucratic than Strategic. A well made counter-point was also provided by Thierry Cornet, Associate Media Director at Mediasmith. Our (Mediasmith’s) perspective is that there won’t necessarily be a turf war created by this emerging specialty. Other specialties within media planning and buying (SEO, Social, Spot, etc.) thrive within agencies because they allow for higher levels of expertise to be gained within their respective disciplines. True, sometimes there are competing vertical interests; however, the client is the one that will always win by gaining incremental efficiencies due to specialists’ intimate knowledge of their respective area of expertise. Successful agencies will have generalists with enough knowledge to balance the well educated pros/cons presented by specialists. All of these points are all a natural evolution of agency roles from our perspective.

Mediasmith Morsel Consumers Turn To Digital Channels Even While Shopping At Brick and Mortar Stores MediaPost reported that according to a 2012 MultiChannel Shopping survey, the share of consumers that browse digital media while shopping in stores is increasing rapidly. The study found that: 19% reported browsing their mobile devise while in-store 66% do so to compare prices with others, using mobile to compare product choices 58% of those who have not purchased on mobile have looked at products on a device 39% of consumers reported making more purchases online than in-store Read the full article on MediaPost.

Mediasmith in MediaMath’s© Agency Spotlight Marcus Pratt, Mediasmith’s Director of Insights and Technologies explained why programmatic buying is the fastest growing medium at Mediasmith in 2012 to MediaMath’s Joseph Lee, on their MathMen blog. While insights and technologies are under the umbrella of programmatic buying, it‘s an ideal example of how multiple resources can be pooled together to provide optimum solutions for clients. Read more of Marcus’ interview with MediaMath below. 1.  How has programmatic buying helped you build your business? Programmatic buying is a core component of our story and a part of all new business pitches. Our approach to applying programmatic buying to specific needs and integrating with the planning process resonates with clients who may be sick of a “one size fits all” approach, are looking for greater levels of transparency, and would like a higher degree of control. For 2012 to date, this is the fastest-growing medium at our agency. 2.  What gains in efficiency does having a central buying platform create? Managing TerminalOne in-house, we are able to deliver more efficient media buys for our clients. Beyond just rates, tactics such as frequency capping across a campaign and excluding existing customers can significantly increase the efficiency we bring to our clients. In some cases we are buying relatively expensive inventory programmatically, yet the results delivered are more efficient than other buying avenues because we are buying the right impressions. 3.  Can you tell us about a campaign where you used technology to deliver the best of the ecosystem to your client and drive great results? We recently started working with an e-commerce client focused on customer acquisition. They had seen success in display on smaller levels but were unable to achieve efficiency at scale with their set of partners. Working with them on a technology foundation, we first made sure we were collecting the appropriate data from their site, customers, and our media efforts. Fueling our media buys with the right data, we are able to apply technology to find numerous pockets of effective inventory, bringing scale to the campaign at the required levels of efficiency. MediaMath and other technology partners provide a mix of several tactics including: site targeting, behavioral/lookalike targeting, contextual targeting and site retargeting. Our efforts through MediaMath now are the largest component of this media plan.  Mediasmith Morsel Digital Video Viewing Habits Beginning to Resemble TV Peaks Viewers expect entertainment regardless of space, time, networks, or creators according to a study released by Tremor Video in partnership with Frank N. Magid Associates.   Historically, digital video viewing has been confined to mobile behaviors with media and ad agencies creating plans to fit the mobile, digital and tablet platforms. A study by Tremor video uncovered that viewers are watching long and short form videos across all digital platforms and expect to have access to all formats of on all platforms.   Mike Vorhaus, president of Magid Advisors, a division of Frank N. Magid Associates said, “Advertisers need to think about video as video, whether viewers watch it on the subway, at home, or over-the-top of their basic TV service." This Morsel featured excerpts from The Magid I-Facts Newsletter, MarketWatch and USA Today. Study results courtesy of Tremor Video and Frank N. Magid Associates, Inc.  Contact Mediasmith, Inc.