Exclusive : Here is themarketingblog’s first big ‘brand ideas’ interview article of 2014.
It spotlights AdConnection’s CEO Catherine Becker and her thoughts etc. on the Health of Facebook, Content Buying, Harmonised Buying, Programmatic Buying etc. Plus trend questions for 2014 etc.
If you want to know more about Catherine in the meantime you will find the articles etc here. Here is her adconnection site.
1. Tell us about your progress with Content Buying with particular reference to video
This will be a big game changer in 2014. We will be able to seed branded content directly online through YouTube who will have increasingly high numbers of viewers through well-funded platforms. Advertisers should be aware of which devices consumers are watching the videos and tailor the advertising content and messages directly to them.
Where there are more lean forward devices like laptops, tablets and phones, shorter more responsive content will be valuable over the more entertainment and informative content that is watched on lean-back viewing from TV screens. It is important to also consider the effect of video within attribution modelling. Often video is given the same attribution impact as banners or skyscrapers when it is clearly more impactful when viewed. We have adjusted our attribution models to take this into account.
2. Your point about the growth of Programmatic Buying was well made. Please elaborate.
There is still a lot of phone to phone and face to face negotiation with all the people and negotiation skills that requires, but we are now moving to a more mathematical optimisation methodology, led by digital but will be spilling over to digital outdoor, press and eventually TV. I am therefore recruiting more mathematical and scientific skill sets who are more at home staring at a computer and working through algorithms to optimise our buying rather than getting on the phone to someone.
This is a very different and important skill set to recruit for as media moves this way. I believe we need to have more of these skills taught in schools and universities to adapt to this changing landscape which is much missing at the moment.
3. Team support at your company sounds well above average – Profit share, Incentive trips etc. How does it work?
Our team are the most important priority at adconnection and we want them to be motivated, happy and rewarded. They also have the tools and mentoring needed to progress their careers. The important edge we have as an independent agency is that everyone is able to benefit from the success of the company. We have profit share for all employees which on our staff survey was considered the most important motivator. They have visibility of the financial development of the agency at quarterly updates and a focussed target to achieve. We then share in those successes achieved. Feedback and the feeling everyone has a stake and say in the direction and growth in the agency is vital too. In the network agencies, people’s voices can go unheard and you feel like your contribution is not considered.
I have introduced a quarterly “Boss for the Day” where everyone gets to say the one thing they would do/change if they were running the company. We get many great ideas, and I give full feedback of what we are implementing and when we don’t, why not. We have monthly socials, quarterly trips and our annual conference in a different venue in Europe each year.
We also have spot rewards and quarterly rewards both financial and also including things like “duvet days” where you can wake up on the morning not feeling like coming into work and let us know then and there to take your rewarded day off (assuming no meetings etc). This is all so our team can feel rewarded and included in the direction and growth of the agency.
4. I was interested to hear about your unique Innovation Days for the media. Tell us about this success and your hospitality days.
We are keen to work closely with media owners and harness new innovations we have. Like the internal team, they are key stakeholders in the business and we aim to have close and profitable relationships with them as well as meeting socially.
5. How are you progressing Harmonised Buying?
It has worked very well following our initiative to be the first agency to implement this last February. We upload our TV or radio schedules into our adserving system, Jungo, which then serves online ads at the same time to maximise use of the dual screen viewing between TV and online/mobile devices. This generated three times higher response online than any other online format.
We now do this for 90% of our TV advertisers and is a core part of the schedule. We are now evolving this to harmonise TV and Facebook/twitter viewing and usage and it can work the other way so that increased activity on Facebook or Twitter is picked up and the TV/radio schedules adjusted to reflect this increased activity. Because we are looking at the results every day we can make fast changes in real time.
6. This is an opportunity to fly the adconnection’s flag about your Awards etc. Go for a good old fashioned plug.
Yes, we have had a good run with clients such as Lovestruck, Maplin and Vue Cinemas in creating standout solutions with challenger brand budgets. We also had media firsts with Harmonised buying and device planning. It is all about future-proofing our clients against the very fast changes in the media industry to ensure we’re placing them where the consumers are actively moving to and engaging in content and advertising to maximise the return.
With challenger brands, it’s not enough to do what the brand leaders are doing just at a lower weight, we have to cut through, innovate and get closer to our consumers than our competitors do to generate the effectiveness we are seeing.
7. Do you think Facebook will continue to be a game changer for your clients in 2014?
Facebook is actually working very well for many of our clients so we will continue to invest while it is working. However, there are indications that numbers are declining especially for the younger audience (down 25% for 13-17 year olds over last 3 years in US although up 80% for 55+.
We will continue to use it as it is commercially profitable and it will be a big channel for us this month, but by March or April it may be that Twitter or You Tube or the other channels that are growing fast become more important and we will need to evolve funds. The key is that as an independent agency we have the flexibility to move budgets at a fast pace to where activity is working.
AdConnection is an award winning independent media planning/buying agency
Our unique media planning approach connects insights, ideas and results to inspire desire and drive demand for your brand. In a connected world, our expertise will enable your campaigns to be delivered across all technical devices. We generate sales and deliver improved ROI’s..
- 86 – 88 Great Suffolk St
- SE1 0BE London, United Kingdom
Phone 020 7401 4830 contact@adconnection.co.uk Website http://www.adconnection.co.uk