Author Archives: Yamini Gupta

41.6% of surveyed advertisers say programmatic is top of mind when designing a media plan


There’s no question that yesterday’s ad tech trend, programmatic buying, is here to stay. Programmatic spending is expected to reach $21B worldwide in 2014, according to Magna Global. To understand how the move toward programmatic buying is impacting the advertising industry, DoubleClick recently commissioned a study on the topic with Advertising Age. Here’s what we found.
  • More advertisers are demanding it:
    • 41.6% of surveyed advertisers (including marketers and agencies) indicated that programmatic is top of mind when designing a media plan. This is a marked shift from previous strategies, where it was primarily considered at the end of the media buying process.
    • 2 years from now, marketing departments will be the primary advocates for programmatic buying; currently, the media buying arms of agencies and marketers are responsible for it. 
    • Cross-platform reach is believed to be the primary benefit of programmatic buying for advertisers, followed by increased operational efficiency, and better relevance in messaging
  • Publishers are adapting for a programmatic world:
    • For nearly 25% of the publisher respondents in the survey, programmatic selling is top of mind when responding to RFPs
    • 72% of publishers surveyed would sell more inventory programmatically with stronger cross-platform support
    • Publishers expect an 11.17% rise in CPM growth rates in the next 2 years
  • The growth of programmatic is contingent upon the evolution of the advertising ecosystem:
    • Transparency is key to adoption by buyers and sellers
    • Inventory quality, ad fraud management and the move to programmatic premium will drive higher-value advertising
    • Cross-platform support will help marketers and sellers realize the true potential of one-to-one engagement
Want more information on the study? Here are three things you can do:
  • Read the full report, along with perspectives from industry leaders from Vivaki, UM, Fox News, New York Times. 
  • Get the high-level picture in the infographic supporting key findings
  • Stay tuned for details on a webinar featuring Kellogg’s Aaron Fetters, Director of Analytics and Insights to hear why and how they’re increasing their investment in programmatic technologies.
Posted by Yamini Gupta, Product Marketing Team

Advance Auto Parts takes AdX for a test drive – and finds a new source of revenue


Advance Auto Parts (AAP) is a leading retailer of automotive parts, accessories, batteries and maintenance items with over 3,900 physical stores as well as a thriving e-commerce business.

In late 2012 AAP began testing DoubleClick Ad Exchange (AdX) in order to offer ad placements on its e-commerce site. The aim was to derive additional revenue from non-converting traffic, and AdX proved a perfect fit:

More revenue, more conversions
AAP’s goal was to gain incremental revenue from the ads, but they were worried that existing conversion rates might be negatively affected. Fortunately, these fears were quickly overcome, as implementing ad units on the site in fact saw conversions increase.

Great tools equal happy customers
AAP was concerned about preserving brand safety as well a positive site experience for its users. Thanks to the robust set of tools and controls provided in AdX, AAP was able ensure ads from major competitors didn’t appear and that bounce rates remained unaffected.

E-commerce and ads: an ideal balance
“Working with AdX has taught us that online ads and e-commerce can certainly work together gracefully,” says Howard Blumenthal, AAP’s director of eBusiness platform solutions. “If you can get this balance right, you end up with the ideal situation.”

So what’s next? Howard reveals AAP has plans in place to use AdX to monetize the company’s mobile site, too. “We are always looking for ways to increase incremental revenue by optimizing AdX as much as possible.”

Read the full Advance Auto Parts story >>

Posted by Ian Cohan-Shapiro, Product Marketing Team

Redefining "Advertising": How 2013 Transformed Digital Marketing

It was a great year for digital advertising. New technologies took off, helping brands, agencies and publishers reach today’s constantly connected consumers more easily and effectively than ever before. With budgets no longer being siloed, 20% of organizations incorporated digital into each marketing function, per a study by Adobe.

We compiled a few of the bigger changes in marketing and digital advertising in 2013, to see how far the industry has come along. View the full infographic here or see a brief summary below.

Redefining “creative”
New creative formats took center stage in 2013. Marketers invested more in social media and TrueView skippable video ad formats continued to grow on the DoubleClick Ad Exchange.



Redefining “integrated”
The new 360 media plan cannot overlook digital and the sheer number of screens people interact with. In 2012, Google released some research indicating that people use 3 screen combinations a day. In 2013, this manifested itself in the form of increased investments in multi-screen campaigns.




Redefining “buying”
New(Up)fronts. Programmatic. 2013 changed the way digital media spend is committed.18 digital media companies presented at the Digital Content NewFronts. And programmatic buying gained significant traction with an expected ~74% growth, according to eMarketer. As brands took to programmatic and with the growth of programmatic video, CPMs on the DoubleClick Ad Exchange increased, and Preferred Deal impressions grew 250%. DoubleClick Bid Manager powered social media ads, joined FBX.


Redefining “success”
Earlier this year, AdAge released some research indicating that 50% of display ads are not viewed, making advertising viewability a hot industry topic. Google’s viewability measurement solution, ActiveView, got MRC-accredited. Last week, Google announced that it would enable viewability-based buys on the Google Display Network. Engagement Rate was another hot metric in 2013, with Cost per Engagement pay models enabled for ad formats like Engagement Ads on the Google Display Network.


View the full infographic here.

Posted by Yamini Gupta, Product Marketing Team

Smart Strategies for Multi-Screen Sites

Consumers today are ready to connect with you all day long on screens of all types. But is your website ready to serve those customers on small screens as well as on tablets and desktops?

Mobile screens are where it often gets tricky for business owners: How do I design for smartphones? What's the right technology? What are the big mistakes to avoid?
That's why we've created a new Multi-Screen Resources page. This site is loaded with help for anyone who wants to reach their customers on all kinds of devices. Resources include:
  • Any Place, Any Time, Any Device: Building Websites for the Multi-Screen Consumer. Download this new guide for a close look at the pros and cons of common mobile website configurations. You'll find tips and best practices for improving the layout, content and speed of your mobile site. This white paper will help you build a great experience for all your users.
  • Approved vendors. Find a list of website vendors who can help you design a site, build a site, tweak strategies and go multi-screen fast.
  • Success stories from others. Read how the Huffington Post boosted mobile visits by 37%, or how Beyond the Rack created a mobile site that now accounts for 44% of their sales.
  • Tools that work. Try the PageSpeed Insights tool — it can help boost your site performance.
Get ready to delight your mobile and multi-screen users: visit the Multi-Screen Resources site today.

Also, don't miss Building Multi-Screen Websites — our upcoming webinar on Tuesday, November 19th, at 1:00 EST.

Posted by Nabil Haschemie, Product Marketing Manager

Join us for "Digital Dialogues: Making Mobile Work with HTML5" – 10/24 @ 10am PT

Following the recent launch of our Mobile White Paper, “Unlocking the HTML5 Opportunity: What’s the Holdup?”, this week we’re continuing the conversation around unlocking the mobile opportunity with a Digital Dialogues Hangout-on-Air.

There's no question that people are spending more time across screens, and the opportunity to reach them there is huge. Advertisers, media and creative agencies are still trying to figure out the best way to leverage mobile in their campaigns, optimize for it and build engaging multi-screen creatives. Publishers continue to strategize on ways to deliver and monetize engaging cross-screen consumer experiences.

Join us for a conversation on how technologies and solutions like HTML5 can make cross-screen creative and mobile advertising more accessible for the industry.

Speakers:
What: Digital Dialogues Hangout on Air: Making Mobile Work with HTML5
When: Thursday, 10/24 @ 10am PT / 1pm ET
Where: Think With Google G+ page.

RSVP here.

While you’re waiting, here’s some background reading:
We hope you’ll be able to join us!

Posted by Becky Chappell, Product Marketing

Digital Video Creativity: A Conversation with Adam Good

A few months ago, we kicked off the Video in the Future content series featuring speakers like AOL’s Ran Harnevo, Meredith’s Liz Schimel, NewsCorp’s Rahul Chopra and AMC’s Kirk Linden, among others.

The next edition in this series will be from Australia, as we’ll speak with Adam Good, Director of Digital Media & Content, at Telstra.

From Telstra’s long history as a telco to now, a media empire - how is the company creating, promoting and monetizing digital video content to engage its audience? Adam will speak about Telstra’s digital video strategy in a conversation with Jason Pellegrino, Sales Director for Google Australia and New Zealand.

Join us live on September 24, 10:30AM Sydney time. RSVP here.

Posted by Yamini Gupta, Product Marketing Team

Introducing ‘The Programmatic Opportunity’

Automated buying. Machine-based buying. RTB. Call it what you may, there's no doubt that programmatic buying is changing (read: simplifying) the way media is bought and sold, in real-time. No wonder then, we’ve seen more daily transactions on the DoubleClick Ad Exchange than on the NYSE and NASDAQ combined, and a tripling of instream video ad impressions as brands adopt the technology. And eMarketer predicts that 1/3rd of all display advertising is going to be bought programmatically by 2017.

But what's the real opportunity here for advertisers and publishers? How is programmatic going to safely grow their businesses and deliver ROI? In our new collection of insights, ‘The Programmatic Opportunity’, hear how this technology is transforming the industry, what’s going to make it work and why it’s the way of the future, from senior advertising and media executives like The Weather Company’s Curt Hecht, CBS Interactive’s David Chiang, Digitas’ Joel Aranson and Xaxis’ Mike Finnegan. Get some tips from Washington Post Digital on leveraging programmatic to tap into new buyer segments, and to realize CPMs at par with direct rates.

In coming weeks, stay tuned for us to add new research, best practices and perspectives to the collection. In the meantime, catch up with Google executives across the globe to hear about the evolution of online advertising and the programmatic opportunity:
Posted by Yamini Gupta, Product Marketing Team

Live from AdMonsters OPS TV: Digital Dialogues – The Video Revolution

In a few minutes, we'll be going live at AdMonsters OPS TV with AMC's Vice President of Digital Partnerships & Operations, Kirk Linden, and News Corp's Vice President & Head of Video, Rahul Chopra to talk about their approaches to digital video.

You can watch the conversation here, if you're not at the event:


Posted by Yamini Gupta, Product Marketing Team

Sneak Preview: AMC’s Kirk Linden at AdMonsters OPS TV, July 18


As we announced yesterday, we're excited to host a live hangout on air from AdMonsters OPS Mobile & TV in New York next week, as part of our Video in the Future Digital Dialogues series. Joining us on stage are Rahul Chopra, VP and Head of Video at News Corp, and Kirk Linden, VP Digital Partnerships and Operations at AMC. We warmed up the microphone with a few questions for Rahul yesterday and caught up with Kirk today on the things he's excited to speak about at AdMonsters OPS TV.

We’re collecting more questions for both Kirk and Rahul, so tweet your questions to @doubleclick_pub with #digitaldialogues #opstv, and we’ll try to get to them on stage.

Tell us about AMC’s digital video focus, and what sets your digital video offering apart from your competitors?
As a content company, AMC is focused on delivering distinctive, high quality content no matter the platform, providing authenticated episodes online, award-winning Web series and our industry-leading second screen application, AMC Story Sync.

AMC has a lot at stake when it comes to TV ads, but what gets you excited about the future of digital video advertising?
I am most excited about the opportunity digital video advertising provides to support distribution of great content across multiple screens. AMC is an ad-supported network, and digital video advertising helps us to bring quality content to more screens and more devices.

What are some key things you'd like to discuss with participants at AdMonsters OPS on July 18th?
1. How can we better leverage data to deliver more efficient campaigns and stronger viewer experiences?
2. As an industry, we need to find a way to better streamline the delivery and stewardship of cross-platform campaigns.
Come join us in New York at AdMonsters OPS TV to continue the conversation. Are you unable to make it to New York, but want to participate? Contribute a question for Kirk, and we'll get back to you if we're able to host you during the Google+ hangout during the talk on July 18th, at 1:50 PM ET, 10:50 AM PT.

Posted by Mel Ann Chan, Product Marketing Team

Rahul Chopra from News Corp warms up for AdMonsters OPS TV, July 18th


We’re going to be at AdMonsters OPS Mobile and TV on July 18, hosting a live Hangout on Air interview as part of our Video in the Future Digital Dialogues series. Joining us will be Rahul Chopra, VP and Head of Video at News Corp, and Kirk Linden, VP Digital Partnerships and Operations at AMC.

We’d thought we’d warm up the mic with a few preliminary questions for Rahul, and follow up with a few for Kirk the next day. We’re collecting more questions for both our panelists, so tweet your questions to #digitaldialogues #opstv, and we’ll try to get to them on stage.

 What sets News Corp’s video offering apart?
News Corporation possesses some of the biggest brands in publishing today across the globe, covering every possible genre. By harnessing the power of more than five thousand journalists, we have the ability to activate a video network that will be live when our readers want us to be, in depth when they need us to be, everywhere and anywhere they are.

The Wall Street Journal, a News Corp brand, was the only news publisher invited to the Digital Newfronts. What’s been the response from advertisers?
The response has been fantastic as we were able to present a clear vision for how video is now an inseparable part of the Wall Street Journal experience. It was a great opportunity to talk about how WSJ Live provides more than four hours of live video each day and hundreds of hours of on-demand content every month distributed on 30 platforms globally with video streams increasing 370% during the 2012 calendar year to 35 million across all platforms.

What are some key things you'd like to discuss with participants at AdMonsters OPS on July 18th?
I would like to discuss where does the advertising industry go from pre-rolls and how advertisers view content on owned sites versus off-platform (eg YouTube).

Come join us in New York at AdMonsters OPS Mobile & TV. Unable to make it to New York, but want to participate? Tell us your burning question for Rahul, and we'll get back to you if we're able to accommodate you in the Google+ hangout during the talk on July 18th, at 1:50 PM ET, 10:50 AM PT.

Posted by Mel Ann Chan, Product Marketing Team