Keith Walker

There is a flurry of pink & yellow in feeds this week so I'm going to shake it up by announcing year 2 of Foresight by NewDigitalAge. Media planning for the next year doesn't start in December, neither does the need to keep up to date on the topics and trends that will impact our industry. Foresight will continue to deliver high quality keynotes, engaging panels and questions from a curated audience of agencies, brands and media owners. Last year saw LUMA Partners, GroupM , Deliveroo, Adform, Omnicom Media Group, Microsoft Advertising, Mumsnet, Wunderman Thompson, Outbrain, Tobii, Telegraph Media Group Holdings Limited, VCCP Media, GroupM Finecast, Index Exchange, Samsung Ads, Channel 4 and more discussing, presenting and educating our audience on what comes next. To get involved, ask any questions, find out this years topics or be a part of our 2024 formal launch drop me a note. You can also read the report covering last years session - link in comments. #AI #Adtech #Programmatic #Influencermarketing #media #digitalmedia #mediaagency #mediaowner #publisher

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📣 "I think all content isn't created equal; I think ads are becoming personalized experiences. The way that it's optimized can change and I'm excited about our Active Attention variable that helps advertisers and publishers get more attention from video content." Hear KERV CRO, Jay Wolff, talk about personalized advertising and our innovative Active Attention Index that's transforming how advertisers and publishers optimize video content in his interview with TVREV.

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All your latest #adtech news in 2 minutes from the MadTech Daily.

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As ever an insightful article in The Media Leader regarding the GB News and Ofcom situation from Ray Snoddy There is a possibility that GB News are actively undermining the right wing vote by adding to the split between the Conservatives and Reform, thus helping Labour. The presence on GB News of Nigel Farage, a vocal critic of the Conservatives, will reinforce this rift. If so, the losses that Ray refers to in the article will have been even less well-spent.

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Cision's annual State of Media report is always an interesting read, allowing us to get inside the heads of the journalists we pitch. This year's contains great insights on: 💡 The impact of independent journalism 💡 Opinions on AI 💡 Changing audience behaviour https://lnkd.in/eJHy9fsX

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There is both a democratic and business benefit for advertisers to support news brands in the lead up to a general election. When accuracy and fact-checked information is an absolute necessity, such as with a general election, news brands really come into their own, and it’s really important that advertisers support that. This is a cornerstone of democracy, and it costs money to provide it - can you imagine a world where deepfakes and influencers tell us how we should vote!? 👀 Not only is there a democratic need for advertisers to support trusted news brands, but there is also a huge business benefit as well in the shape of more attention. For example, The Spectator sees a 30% increase in audience numbers as we approach a general election, and the dwell time on an article pertaining to the election is also increased. In short, more people spend more time on our content, and I am sure other premium news brands see a similar trend. On top of that increase in audience and dwell time, there is a higher share of voice because the UK government, one of the biggest advertisers, stop activity in the run up to the election. I think that’s what they call a win-win? #ukelection #news #advertising

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We're UK Digital Growth Awards finalists 🎉✨ Our CRO team has been shortlisted for the Best use of Conversion Optimisation with @ageasuk! Fingers crossed for the results later this month 😁 Read more about our nomination and the impactful project https://hubs.li/Q02zqpkW0 #UKDGAwards #performance #conversionoptimisation #digitalmarketingagency #marketing #digitalmarketing

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When is strategy bullsh*t? And how do you make your strategy nonsense-free? If you're a fan of the work of Alex M H Smith - either through his LinkedIn posts, or his book 'No Bullsh*t Strategy', you'll enjoy our chat with him on the latest WARC pod. We talked: ⚡ Marketing strategy vs business strategy ⚡ The 'tells' of bullsh*t strategy - and some approaches that get you to better thinking ⚡ Why it's more important to be interesting than right Interesting part for me was when talking about finding space in a category, and how any advantage you gain may be eroded by competitors. The role of 'brand' in this model is to maintain your differentiation (in the eyes of customers) longer than is warranted by your actual difference in the market. So innovation and brand become a kind of cat-and-mouse game over time. Explains why Amazon started investing in advertising so hard, and why Tesla probably needs to. It's a bit longer than usual, but it turned out there was a lot to say! Links in comments.

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Really grateful to two market-leading Editors of subscription-led businesses and terrific ex-colleagues of mine, Catrin Griffiths and Alastair McLellan, for spending time with me last week on B2B content strategy. If you want to watch on-demand there is a link below. Highlights for me included: Impact on content strategy of the move to a paid subscription business model 17min46 Building a high value B2B content proposition 14min02, 23min05, & 31min29 How to motivate editors & editorial teams 29min42 & 50min47 Removing Print as a platform 45min02: https://lnkd.in/gbwftfwR

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Will the next government bring increased regulation for the UK advertising industry? The UK general election falls on the last day of MAD//FEST LONDON, so by the time Grace Carter gets on stage to start the party in E1, many of the votes for the political parties will have already been cast. One change that the new government could oversee is increased external regulation and governance of the advertising industry - would that be a good thing or a bad thing for you? Let's take AI for example. Katherine Viner, editor of the Guardian, recently called for AI regulation. She said, "Without quality journalism to train and ground large language models, these technologies would struggle to make sense of the world around them." Without quality, trusted data to train the AI models on, it is easy to see how we could get into a vicious circle of AI choking on its own exhaust fumes: 1 - Incorrect content published 2 - AI reads that incorrect content 3 - AI therefore writes incorrect content Crap in, crap out, as they say in the trade! ;-) I would also add that digital advertising relies on quality content that consumers spend time with, so that the advertising has a chance of having an impact. For example: The difference in dwell time on an MFA site, which uses GenAI to create the content and click-bait to get somebody there, to a page with 10 ads, is a world away from the experience of a subscriber to a premium publisher site, who logs on to consume the content they pay for and only sees a single ad next to that valued content. 💬 - What do you think - more government regulation or not? #ai #regulation #advertising

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Tomorrow the DMA is hosting a launch event for their Value of Measurement Report in central London. Having had a sneaky preview of the report (thanks to the author, Ian Gibbs), I'm very excited to hear Ian delve into the key takeaways including: what makes a meaning full KPI, the importance of consistent measurement frameworks, how to choose the right model for you, metrics reporting (does 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 stakeholder require reporting on 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 measurable metric?), and best practice solutions. Plus, we are so excited to have Jenny Biggam, Co-Founder of media agency the7stars, as the latest addition to our exciting line-up of speakers. Jenny’s wealth of expertise in building an agency from scratch with a client-first, transparent, and collaborative approach will be invaluable for anyone looking for some inspiration to innovate and create a culture of shared purpose. 📅 Date: Thursday, 6 June 🕒 Time: 09:00 - 11:00 AM (breakfast & inexhaustible amounts of tea & coffee included). 📍 Location: The Goldsmiths Centre, London. 🎟️ Ticket Cost: Members free, Non-members £50. You'll also be hearing from: Tony Miller, incoming Chair of the DMA (Data & Marketing Association) UK Iain Noakes, Marketing Effectiveness Lead at John Lewis Partnership Joy Talbot, Principal Economist at magic numbers Roy Patel, UK MD at Objective Platform It's not too late to get your ticket here: https://lnkd.in/eDsBFxFU #DMA #ValueofMeasurement #Report #Event #MarketingEffectiveness

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Interesting afternoon at #BrandSafetySummit London yesterday. The final session on Made For Advertising (MFA) sites really summed the need to have a refreshed conversation around inventory quality and media effectiveness, particularly in the era of programmatic * Much of the debate focused on defining hat qualified as a ‘MFA property’ but skirted around the crux of the issue - humans aren’t properly reviewing what is being bought and the effectiveness of the domain and / or format * Blame being placed on the technology (logistics, adaptability, pace of change). Inclusion and exclusion lists were the often the perceived ‘solution’ but came at the expense of investment in diverse voices and quality journalism * Per the ANA reports, a ‘race to the bottom’ terms of cheap CPMs and reach, which in turns drives the need to speed up or skip human reviews, driving a greater need for automation and increased risk of bad actors * Lack of clarity on what the KPI for ‘quality’ is, and how previous proxies like view-ability have made the problem worse Fascinating debate - but one that feels like the soltuion is always a technological one vs a human one… #BrandSafety #Programmatic #AdFraud Responsible Marketing Agency

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The whys of why we are building a radically new, trust based approach to Media Agencies with Re:Motive Media, kept BEDROCK - Humanised Intelligence and R&D separate from activation. Still, both being part of a broader community within the open innovation ecosystem at LA PIPA IS LA PIPA. #postdigitalmedia #modernmarketing #trustmatters

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Marketers are holding budget - just - right now. While the latest Gartner #CMO Spend Survey shows a global dip in #marketing budgets as a % of total company revenue, local leaders we spoke to say they're not seeing significant cuts as yet. They're also indicating #media spend remains ringfenced as it's critical to shorter-term growth (and everyone wants that right now). But there is no doubt significant scrutiny is going into every dollar spent to maximise efficiency, productivity and commercial value across the funnel. Responsible marketing is the name of the game, and demonstrating impact – ideally immediately – is imperative. Read more in this article I and my colleague Andrew Birmingham put together here: https://lnkd.in/guNWDixw #marketingstrategy #advertising #chiefmarketers #marketingleaders

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Some super interesting insights here - a must read for agency leaders!

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Another month, another Google update. My July column for PRmoment covers... 🆕 Google’s June 2024 Spam Update 🛁 Perplexity AI in hot water … And what they both mean for #DigitalPR and #SEO. If you're interested, give it a read below ⬇

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Omar Oakes in The Media Leader UK on the increasing gulf between the media that produce content with its attendant cost and risk versus those that take their content from users, without risk and where the 'cost' is revenue share (hardly the same thing). Advertising spend performs several functions including provision of the funding for high quality content to advertise in. Making good content is a risky business and if media owners don't get the ad revenues they need, they will rely more heavily on lower cost and less risky content. Or eventually disappear. Too much of advertisers' money goes into their extended supply-chains, intermediaries and media that has no content cost or risk and which is less effective at reaching audiences and delivering business. Time to reassess... https://lnkd.in/emDgMxQN

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