Monthly Brandtech Blend – June-July 2020

Home Blends & Trends 24 July 2020

At fifty-five, a great part of our work is about educating our clients and explaining the latest changes and trends that are shaping the digital marketing industry. As such, we would like to help you reflect on the stakes and goals of our jobs at a time of slow recovery and the end of lockdown.

So, while restaurants and stores are coming back to life, what’s happening in the tech ecosystem? Third-party advertising cookies are nearing their end while transparency is more and more in the spotlight. Facebook is suffering from advertisers’ boycott which gives TikTok an edge, and our ‘Milliseconds Make Millions’ report reveals the importance of site speed.

The accelerated end of third-party cookies: Google is ready to test its Privacy Sandbox, while the New York Times is phasing cookies out

The (not so) slow death of third-party cookies is still underway. Indeed, the New York Times has finally made the move to phase out third-party cookies, and will instead aim to provide advertisers with 45 user segments based on demographic data and personal interests.

As for Google, it has already begun testing some Privacy Sandbox proposals with ad exchanges and DSPs. This move marks another step in the firm’s two-year journey towards the end of third-party cookies, but marketers are still not included in strategy discussions on this topic, despite their input being critical in the construction of the new advertising era.

Read more about the NYT in Axios and about Google in Digiday.

The IAB Tech Lab shatters DigiTrust, as third-party cookies turn to dust

It’s the final chapter for DigiTrust, IAB Tech Lab’s non-profit SSP. The clock had been ticking for the service since web browsers began progressively removing third-party cookies over the past few years, and especially since Chrome’s recent announcement to remove all third-party cookies by 2022. The IAB Tech Lab is now focusing its efforts on Project Rearc, and trying to find answers for the future of the ad tech ecosystem.

Read more in AdExchanger or on IAB’s website.

The ISBA Report on Programmatic Supply Chain Transparency is out

This annual advertiser-funded report investigates the adtech supply chain and this year, it found that publishers receive an average of 51% of advertiser spend, while 15% of advertiser spend “could not be attributed”. Overall, there seems to be a chronic lack of transparency within the programmatic ecosystem and media owners are no longer benefiting from this system. Overall, the report points out the need for a balanced, diverse and high quality advertising ecosystem which relies on both media owners and advertisers.

Read more in AdExchanger and check out the full report here.

Advertisers continue to boycott Facebook… but not everyone

To protest against Facebook’s handling of hate speech and Mark Zuckerberg’s choice to leave President Trump’s untruthful and incendiary posts on the platform, the “Stop Hate for Profit” campaign was created by several associations including the Anti-Defamation League, Color of Change, and Free Press (among others). Their goal? Join forces with marketers and brands to boycott advertising on Facebook and aim for the Achilles heel, since advertising represents 98% of the social media giant’s revenue. Many brands have consequently pulled back from Facebook such as Patagonia, Adidas, Ben & Jerry’s, Coca-Cola, and Disney – but not every brand has this luxury. D2C brands depend mainly on Facebook and Instagram to drive revenue and are thus in a difficult position.

Read more in Digiday or The New York Times.

Meanwhile on planet Social Media, TikTok is coming for Facebook

While Facebook is facing a general ad boycott, the Chinese-owned gen-Z app launched its self-service advertising platform, kicking the Menlo Park fim while it’s down. Facebook’s CPM had fallen during the Covid-19 crisis, but it had come back up just before the “Stop Hate for Profit” boycott movement and TikTok offered an alternative on point to many D2Cs and SMBs seeking advertising opportunities.

And what’s more, the app is aggressively luring new advertisers by offering free ad credits. Although it is following other social media platforms’ playbook, the app’s product rollout has been much faster. TikTok is still facing a lot of challenges in its goal to be bigger than Facebook in the coming years, but it might just succeed.

The Milliseconds Make Millions report shows how site speed boosts brand revenue

fifty-five and Deloitte Digital were commissioned by Google to craft this report, which reveals the extent to which mobile site speed impacts users’ engagement and their willingness to spend money. Based on 30 million user sessions on mobile websites for a wide range of brands and industries, results showed that a mere 0.1 second can influence every step of the user journey. For instance, in the retail sector, a 0.1s speed improvement generates a 9.2% spend increase.

Read more in The Drum and download the full report here.