At the Digiday Agency Summit in Utah, we took to the stage to evangelize this message. Accompanied by Nielsen’s Andrew Feigenson, our VP of Sales Jeff Huter presented “Identify, Target, Measure: Closing the Loop on Data-Driven Ad Strategies.”

The bread and butter of the presentation is this: online data works. Marketers need to take advantage of big data, and we’ve outlined the best practices for doing so.

1. Identify your key audience. Use first party data to pinpoint similar attributes and overlay third party data to learn even more about these users.

2. Target these users. First and third party data combined with market data and modeled data (maX) can help you get your ad in front of the right audience.

3. Measure your audience. See if you’re achieving the most scale you can and reaching customers you can convert.

Start getting your ads in front of the right people. Download the presentation here.

Last June, Google acquired Admeld, the leading supply side platform, for $400M. In November, real-time information and analysis provider Neustar completed its acquisition of TARGUSinfo, the provider of the audience targeting solution AdAdvisor, for $650M. And earlier this month, the merger of media management companies MediaBank and Donovan Data Systems was approved; the resulting company, Mediaocean, has been valued at an estimated $1.5B. These huge acquisitions and mergers testify to the quality and integrity of Council member technologies.

Council members have also been recognized by venture capitalists and analysts for their industry leadership. This past February, AlwaysOn named Collective[i], eXelate, MediaMath, and Peer39 to its OnMedia 100, which identifies “the top 100 private companies that are disrupting the digital media and advertising world with new products and services, while at the same time creating high-growth businesses that offer huge upside potential for investors.” In addition, Lead411 named Admeld, AdSafe, eXelate, and MediaMath to their list of Hottest Companies in New York City and AudienceScience to their list of Hottest Companies in Seattle for having achieved either 100% increases in revenue or $5M in funding over the past 2 years.

How can we build on the success of 2011? The Council’s primary focus in 2012 will be on interoperability and creating a seamless experience for marketers. To that end, we’re developing standardized data integration guidelines and a universal API that makes it easy for technologies from different companies to interface with one another. We’re also in the process of reviewing applications to add new companies to our 12-member roster and will announce the results shortly. Adding companies who have passed our rigorous screening allows the Council to focus additional efforts on educating customers via original content and educational events.

I‘m thrilled with our members’ achievements in the Council’s first year. Their successes speak to the caliber of companies that belong to the Council, and we’re all looking forward to another year, which we know will bring great success as we continue working together.

Sincerely,

Stephen Messer
Chairman, Council for Accountable Advertising
Co-founder & Vice-Chairman, Collective[i]

If you would like to join us at any of our upcoming Council events or if you believe that your company has a best-of-breed technology and A-list vision and management team and should be considered for admission to the Council, please feel free to email us.

This survey was designed by the Council for Accountable Advertising as part of a research effort to collect completely anonymous feedback regarding the way receiving recommendations and targeted ads makes you feel. Absolutely no personally identifiable information will be saved or sold. Survey results will be used in aggregate form by the Council for Accountable Advertising, and may appear in published research.

The survey consists of 13 questions and should take about 2 – 3 minutes to complete. Click the image or click here to launch the survey. We appreciate your feedback!

The Festival of Media is the world’s first celebration of media creativity and innovation – uniting global media specialists with senior marketers, media owners and thought leaders, to do business and debate the many changes in media that are altering advertising landscapes worldwide. Now in its sixth year, the Festival will take place from April 15 – 17, 2012 in Montreux, Switzerland.

For those who have not yet purchased a ticket, we encourage you to do so.

The event promises to showcase interesting and inspirational speakers on a variety of macro subjects that have an impact across the entire industry – data and content-powered change, re-invention, the power of technology versus the human spirit – and to offer an exceptional opportunity to network and debate the many changes in media that are altering advertising landscapes worldwide. The Festival attracts over 750 c suite delegates from over 50 countries worldwide, and includes a 2 day conference, exhibition and awards ceremony.

We hope to see you there!



The topic of Big Data and the need for data scientists has recently received a lot of press coverage. Last year, McKinsey’s report on Big Data said that the United States needs 140,000 to 190,000 more workers with deep analytical expertise and 1.5 million more data-literate managers to be competitive in our changing economy. The need for data scientists will continue to grow, as new technologies are developed to apply data to solving problems in every industry from retail to healthcare. However, the role of data-scientists is not to replace salespeople, doctors, or even marketers – it’s to create the technology that enhances their ability to sell, to heal, to communicate.

Today, basic marketing questions like “How are different channels contributing to sales?” are impossible to answer accurately without the ability to create complex analytical models, which is a shortcoming of available technology – not of marketers. If technology is well designed, someone with limited analytical expertise should be able to derive significant insights from the application with ease, leaving the math and data processing to the technology. Marketers have to be analytical to the extent that they can incorporate these insights into their decisions and strategies; however, when marketers have powerful yet intuitive technology at their disposal, the depth of analytical proficiency required will be minimal. Focus can shift back to strategy and creativity.

Looking ahead, as technologies that automate the process of analyzing and understanding Big Data become more prevalent, most business processes will be commoditized. This has already happened in areas like operations and distribution. When that happens, it will be crucial for marketers to be strong creative, strategic thinkers: when everything else is a commodity, brand and customer service will be the most effective ways for companies to differentiate themselves. The challenges of extracting meaningful insights from the explosion of data have pushed creativity to the sidelines. But that will change with new technology, and when it does, marketers’ creativity will be more valuable – and more respected – than ever.

To contribute successfully to their companies’ bottom lines in the future, marketers need to aspire to become insight-driven Mad Men who incorporate what analyses tell them into compelling, original strategies. Data is essential to competing in the new economy, but focusing on data as opposed to insights and at the expense of creativity is a mistake. My bet is that those companies who fuse what they learn from their analyses with inspired and creative approaches to strategy will pull ahead.

Who wants to work when they’re tired? Apparently, not many people, as the study showed that entertainment-related searches on the Monday after the time change were up 3.1% from the previous Monday and 6.4% higher than the following Monday (based on data gathered in over 200 US metropolitan cities over a 5 year period).

We at eXelate found an 8.5% increase in entertainment searches on Monday the 12th versus the Monday the 5th.

So, should advertisers be taking advantage of all this extra web surfing by consumers?

Maybe not everyone should rush to get more display time on the Monday after Daylight Savings Time, but it is a reminder that marketers should always be thinking outside of the box when it comes to targeting ads. There will always be the holiday shopping rush online and  consumers searching for spring break deals in February, but there are certainly other times during the year that online display ads can get a lot of play. In such a forward-moving digital world, any small event could cause a shift in online behavior. Be sure you’re ready!