As socializing returns, marketers will ‘adopt a hybrid model ’ adding OOH, pop-ups back to the mix

In our most recent Marketing Briefing, senior marketing editor Kristina Monllos explored marketers' new media plans, which are now accounting for people’s changing behavior as vaccinations ramp up in the United States.

In this week's Media Buying Briefing, senior editor, media buying and planning Michael Bürgi looked at the renewed enthusiasm for attention metrics, used by some as the best way to better assess the complex and often inefficient digital advertising landscape.

Get a taste of the Marketing Briefing and Media Buying Briefing below and subscribe to Digiday+ for full access to all briefings as well as original research, reports and guides, tutorials, unlimited stories and much more.

Marketing Briefing: As socializing returns, marketers will ‘adopt a hybrid model’ adding OOH, pop-ups back to the mix

By Kristina Monllos

Marketers are starting to tweak their media plans — interest in out-of-home placements, as well as experiential pop-ups, are starting to crop up, for example — to account for people’s changing behavior as vaccinations ramp up in the United States.

That’s not to say marketers’ appetite for virtual events and live audio (a la apps Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces, etc.) has petered out altogether. On the contrary, marketers and media buyers say marketers will take a hybrid approach over the next few months as other marketing methods that had dipped (i.e. out-of-home and experiential) due to the pandemic make a comeback, along with new live and audio options.

“Humans crave the company of others, and after this long hiatus, everyone is anxious to jump back into normalcy,” said Kristy Gomez, director of communications planning at Chemistry. “But the smart move is to adopt a hybrid model — a mix of [in real life] and virtual events to cultivate the new audience share they’ve gained virtually, be safe and responsible in how they encourage the public to ‘re-enter’ in-person activities and be ready with something impressive when the public can engage with brands again.”

Even if marketers return to the tactics they used pre-pandemic, they aren’t likely to approach them the same way. When it comes to out-of-home, for example, the focus may be on areas where people may gather socially rather than on mass transit commuting as people aren’t yet going back to offices but are beginning to socialize in person and out of the house, explained Sarah Greenfield, executive director of strategy at creative boutique Episode Four.

Quote of the week

“Marketers should value pre-permission messaging just as highly as ad creative itself. It could prove possibly one of the strongest calls-to-action that advertisers can manufacture at the moment, because of the knock-on effects of having very low opt-in rates for advertisers, from reduced audience sizes to less informed optimization strategies.”

— Bruce Tissington, paid social lead at media agency Space & Time, told senior brands editor Seb Joseph of how marketers should approach Apple’s ATT consent issues.

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Media Buying Briefing: Attention metrics vie for the industry’s, well, attention. Will it take root?

By Michael Bürgi

Of the multitude of options available to media planners and strategists to make media buying more effective, efficient and less wasteful, attention metrics appear to be having a moment of sorts. Positioned by its proponents as a way of boosting classic reach & frequency modeling, it’s used by some as the best way to better assess the complex and often inefficient digital advertising landscape, while also cutting through the clutter of TV buying, both linear and digital/streaming/connected.

A handful of research and measurement firms have contributed to increasing the accuracy and effectiveness of attention metrics, from Moat and Adelaide to TVision (not to be confused with the defunct T-Mobile video unit) and RealEyes. But some influential and significant media executives on the brand side have been evangelizing its adoption — none more than Paolo Provinciali, head of media for Anheuser-Busch U.S.

Provinciali has been pushing the use of attention with his media agencies Dentsu and Code 3 for the last two years. “We’re working with the networks and all our media partners to figure out ways we can collaborate together and make attention a guarantee the same way I’m guaranteed in-demo reach,” said Provinciali. “And then making sure what I’m buying commands a certain level of viewable or attentive impression.”

A-B tested out attention in its planning with a fourth-quarter 2020 pilot flight on A&E, which Provinciali deemed “successful.” He said he and his agencies are in discussions with Warner Bros. and other major media companies about implementing it, and he’s working with the ANA and other advertisers to generate a snowball effect of adoption to make it an essential part of negotiations in the 2022 NewFronts/upfront marketplace. “If it proves successful this summer, people are going to start demanding it in 2022. At least that’s my hope,” he added.

Direct quote

“One, we’re going to get away from focusing on short-term ROI, which is where the industry has pivoted over the past two years, and we’re going to plant a flag in a much more sustainable approach to grow over the short-, mid- and long term. We’ve made sure that the data infrastructure and the analytics [approach] allowed every single market in the world to deliver on some version of that promise. Two, we are taking a full-funnel approach, as opposed to focusing maniacally on the bottom of the funnel, which is where the industry has over-rotated in the past couple of years and bringing definition to what full funnel means. As we think about 2021 on, we’re thinking about the full consumer experience, and we’re getting into content.”

— UM global CEO Eileen Kiernan, on two central pillars to the IPG agency’s “Futureproof” model of growth.

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