Matthew Newcomb

'Cookies are gone, but audio targeting is better than ever’ was our tag line at Adwanted UK Future of Audio & Entertainment 🔊 Head of Agency, Isobel Langley at GroupM UK, joined the stage with Ridhi Jogia Implementation Director at EssenceMediacom UK, to discuss geo targeting and the success it is driving for clients. Combining GroupM's single point of entry solution with EssenceMediacom’s geo-graph planning and activation tool is proving to be a winning combination, not only for digital audio, but across the full addressable eco system. #AudioTargeting #GeoTargeting #FOAE

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Gen AI means more reputation risk Generative AI is revolutionising the process of creating communications content. And it's directly changing media consumption habits, accelerating the disintermediation of mainstream media and facilitating the rise of alternative content sources. Meanwhile the proliferation of synthetic media content has negative implications for trust and authenticity. AI-generated content is blurring the lines between reality and fabrication, challenging traditional media’s role as gatekeepers of trusted information.  In this short piece, I argue that 'Gen AI’ is therefore massively raising the threat level for brand reputation risk. All thoughts welcome. https://lnkd.in/dPNRiMiK

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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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Today's Q1 2024 @IPA Bellwether report showcases a resilient UK marketing landscape, with events and experiences remaining the standout performers with a record expansion. This resilience demonstrates businesses' strong desire to connect with customers, recognising the power of experiences to enable them to achieve this, as well as being a powerful tool to drive their bottom line. Long-term brand building should remain at the forefront amid rising promotional spending. Aligning brand experiences across the different touchpoints with core values and harnessing authentic content created from experiences fosters trust and engagement, and is crucial for navigating the dynamic marketing environment. Read the full report here: https://lnkd.in/eGTDPyN4 #ImaginationGLBL #IPABellwether #UKmarketing #brandexperience #experientialagency #creativeagency

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Lets QUALIFY quality media! This is def worth a read. An excellent and timely piece by Omar Oakes Editor in Chief of The Media Leader UK. Omar references Cal Newport's ‘quality pyramid’ in which minimally processed media — which he terms as “linguistic media” (books) — as placed at the bottom, TV and other mass/broadcast media are in the middle, and social media (the most ‘processed’ of all media types) is at the top to signify lowest quality. He uses two main criteria for what is ‘high quality’ versus ‘low quality’: >> The curation of media: How much skill and craft has been deployed to create content? >> The delivery of media: How much work a human has to do to consume media versus how much work is done for them by a machine to serve it to them? #BrandsDeserveBetterMedia #MediaForGrowth https://lnkd.in/g6WMYufW

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Download and read this now - if you care about which marketing $ is driving profit back into the business .. then start to focus on what ad is being looked at! "Simples"

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How to assess media coverage. Is all media coverage good? No. Unfortunately, much of the PR industry continues to be stuck on quantity over quality. For us, there are four very clear characteristics of a good piece: 1. The right placement. Will the piece be read or seen by the desired audience? Consumers of the right demographic; business procurers, investors, Government etc. 2. Brand Understanding. A brief brand mention is never enough. Good coverage explains what a business is, what it does, and why it is different. This should lead the audience to gain a better understanding of a brand. Not every piece of good earned media will fulfil every possible objective - but it should do more than simply mention your brand in passing. If it does, you have to question its value, especially based on the time and effort to gain this earned media piece. 3. Call to action. What should a reader or viewer do after seeing this piece? While a good CTA could be obvious, e.g. go to a shop or website, more subtle ones which demonstrate a clear benefit to ownership are equally as powerful. However, not having a clear call to action devalues a piece. 4. What's the point? You have to ask, what is the purpose of this communication? Is it to change opinions, create a deeper understanding of a business, sell more stuff? Coverage should be benchmarked against these to determine if good or bad. While some consider media coverage to be a numbers game, in our 21 years we found that it is the quality pieces that make measurable differences to businesses. Brand awareness, name checks or coverage for the sake of justifying budgets is never enough.

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In the latest episode of the IAB UK podcast, Dave S. sits down with Sophia Haynes and James Chandler to talk about the IAB's newly launched Environmental Sustainability FAQs, it's rationale, and how we at GroupM UK are using them day-to-day. Listen here 🎧 https://lnkd.in/eTDyKXGD #GroupMUK #Sustainability

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Travis Lusk Good to see you highlighting this report again. It needs to remain in the spotlight even at the risk of repetition for those already aware. Bill must be able to recite this blindfold. Yes, we need more advertisers adopting the extremely comprehensive playbooks in the report and hopefully they will. Education is the key. But more than anything we need the big agency groups to gradually wean themselves off the drug of easy money from programmatic trading, arbitrage and undisclosed margins. No agency group has supported the study and they won't, so advertisers have to make it clear that they won't allow this to continue and then work through new compensation methods that work for both parties. Trying to fix this problem without addressing fees and performance-led rewards is not going to shift the needle. Bill Duggan Association of National Advertisers

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Whatever your views are on the outcome of the US election, you should read this column by Carole Cadwalladr and especially if you care about the importance of advertising being a key source of funding for high quality, fact-based and impartial journalism. The idea that Social Media is now the most influential means of communication should concern us all, especially as it now generates much of the discourse in mainstream media. The 'eating dogs and cats' story originated in a Facebook post and then led to stories in hitherto respectable channels and was used as political argument. Advertisers should be aware that their spending patterns can and do enable this trend. https://lnkd.in/ekGi9Mrh

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Is the answer to the race to the bottom for agencies to become more consultative ? Excellent provocation as always from Omar Oakes who makes some great points about the lack of challenging behaviour in agency/client relationships today and the lack of growth in revenue leading to decline in agency fees. There’s a lot going on here. My tuppence worth from the purview of running a media agency group then setting up and growing a marketing consultancy for the last 4 years: * Holdco agencies lost their way when they 1) started to take a principle not agency approach to media buying 2) started to compromise the craft of planning * Creative thinking and innovation has suffered as a result - too much sameness in strategy and reliance on performance marketing * It’s not about brand/the big idea OR data driven activation, it’s about AND i.e finding the right balance and impact from both but most agencies are so siloed they can’t join this up * There’s a big difference between being “consultative” and being a consultant. The latter is focused on business outcomes and the levers that deliver revenue growth not all the noisy media and advertising metrics. This is as much about process and capabilities as it is about platforms and spend.. * Agencies in general commoditise their service and struggle to get paid fairly for the strategic and transformative work - this is largely client and not agency driven and marketers need to be prepared to pay accordingly for genuinely differentiating analytics, strategy and innovation.. * Consultancies scope precisely and instil a robust project management, gated approach to projects minimising scope creep and enabling value based pricing discussions Agencies are full of incredible talent who want to help their clients grow but too often the commercial constraints in the agency business get in the way of good work and partnership. When we consult we see great thinking and talent but it’s often the contractual constraints and the siloes that get in the way.. The major gap we see at CvE - Marketing Consultancy is between the high-level operating model and transformational thinking of the management consultants and the often narrow advertising/media/campaign thinking of most agencies. Brands need expert marketing and media practitioners to bridge this gap or else the promised revenue growth never materialises. This is an opportunity for everyone in the ecosystem but mostly those that lean in to client-led, business outcome focused thinking. Bravo Brian Jacobs & Nick Manning for continuing to bang this important drum and Omar for focusing on journalism focused on the issues that really matter..

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“Knowledge is Power”. Therefore, information holds the key to success - and we recognise this at Publisher Discovery. The affiliate marketing industry can be notoriously opaque, which means having an effective way to analyse data has to be a priority. We are that way, revealing data across networks, and showing you how your competitors are performing. As well as providing an in-depth analysis of your own performance. Think of it as taking off the blinkers, and opening your eyes to the bigger picture - going from data impotence to web omnipotence. We have expanded the data field, so you can take advantage.

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'Proprietary Media' (or 'Principal) is a hot potato in our industry right now. A new report from the Association of National Advertisers is a great, in-depth guide to the pros and cons, with very good recommendations for advertisers. Here I go into the cons and cons and argue that it is bad for everyone and ultimately the Media Agencies themselves. I call it 'unprincipled' media. As the WFA meets in Toronto for Global Marketer Week the health of the advertising industry should be on the agenda. Advertisers may not be able to solve issues such as climate change, but they can take actions with a more immediate impact on the well-being of the people who service their needs through how they spend their money. The news piece contains the ANA report can be found here https://lnkd.in/geKeFjBX All comments welcome, as ever.

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Ad budgets are tight and we are all being asked to “do more with less”. Impossible? Well, there are some things you can do. #Advertising #Marketing #Recession Maximising advertising effectiveness https://lnkd.in/embmaEUh

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Digital advertising spend is becoming more diverse. Podcast ads, social video and connected TV have made gains according to the 2023 IAB/PwC Digital Adspend report - though Search remains the bedrock. #IABUK #Digital #adspend

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The clean room partnerships announced by Netflix yesterday emphasise the global scale and standout capabilities of their 3 selected partners (Snowflake, LiveRamp, InfoSum). It also highlights the measurement use cases that are gaining the most traction across media: - Audience Overlap - Post Campaign Reach & Frequency - Last Touch Attribution What other measurement use cases are being widely adopted across #DataCleanRooms / #DataCollaboration Platforms? https://lnkd.in/eG_-PiQ8

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