Tom Valentine

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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Honored to be featured in The Media Leader UK! 🙌 A big thank you to Jack Benjamin for the great article highlighting how Opt Out Advertising is helping publishers thrive in a privacy-first world. Hope this sparks ideas for others navigating the future of digital advertising with privacy in mind 🛡️ #PrivacyFirst #DigitalAdvertising #TheMediaLeader #OptOut

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Despite the latest IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) Bellwether report showing a freeze in marketing budgets, Alex Cheeseman, our Head of Enterprise NE, sees potential in this moment. Brands that pivot to trusted publishers and invest in video content can build consumer trust and navigate economic uncertainty. With 91% of users craving more video content, this shift is crucial. Read more on Performance Marketing World. #IPABellwether #IPABellwether

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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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🚨Share of Voice Isn’t Dead – Yet 👇   👏 A famous case study shows how Lidl GB used excess SOV (eSOV) to grow their market share in the UK. As Mark Ritson of Marketing Week advises, “If you do buy excess share of voice, you do get growth. That’s a rule in marketing when everything’s very uncertain. Not being able to plug part of the ecosystem into it is a problem." eSOV is paramount to brand and activation. So why aren't we demanding better measurement?   📺 Unlike TV's BARB, digital suffers from an absence of a Joint Industry Committee to help advertisers understand campaign SOV. When linear TV accounts for less than 50% of today's advertising budget, TV SOV could be wildly different than total SOV of your advertising campaign, making optimum investment impossible to predict. As industry expert Dr Grace Kite explains, “Whereas on TV it’s possible to understand a brand’s share of voice through Barb’s viewing data, this is impossible on platforms like Google and Facebook due to a lack of transparency. This has become a more urgent problem now that TV’s role on the media plan has become more diminished over time.”   🤯 Should we ditch SOV altogether? Brian Jacobs believes so: “SOV is based on data from media forms that no longer represent anything like the majority of a brand’s communication focus. It doesn’t include most of the places where brands spend their budgets. Drawing conclusions from it can be highly misleading”.   📈 If we can only measure SOV in less than half of the media budget, Brian and Grace are right to be concerned. But before we lose one of the most powerful proven tools for increasing market share, is it possible to get better data from the walled gardens in a scalable and sustainable way?   💡 Recent technological advancements allow brands to get this data and understand their total SOV across offline and online (including the walled gardens) with great accuracy and granularity. There are a few ways to measure SOV - here's one of them 👉 https://lnkd.in/e_QRHJPG     What's the right approach to SOV? And how are you measuring it?   #advertising #advertisingROI #SOV #eSOV #attribution #data #marketing   

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I'm very much looking forward to Quirk's Media London tomorrow and Thursday. Clare Michelmore and I are first on the agenda at 10am in room 5 tomorrow presenting about "Scaling the why: How Kimberly Clark is using conversational AI to blend qual with quant". Kathy Cheng and I will be on the inca | Nexxt Intelligence stand (#706) for the duration of the event so if you're attending please come and say hello. #conversationalai #insights #marketresearch

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Attended an 'econometrics geekfest' at the IAB UK this morning. Not my words, but those of Mike Follett which I thought summed up the morning nicely! Some important themes discussed which I thought were worth calling out: Running tests is important to calibrate MMM, especially when media channels tend to run at the same time. Geo-experiments are your gold standard in testing. Quality of data inputs into MMM will always be one of the most important objectives. Think about the frequency of your data as often more granular can help to get to better outcomes. Also make sure you've captured everything that will explain your sales over time. Attention drives outcomes. Ads that score higher on attention, get higher click through rates. People don't like advertising and don't pay it a lot of notice, so sometimes it helps to show them the same ad a few times to get it to cut through, a frequency of 3-4 is optimal. And a nice reminder that in the current world of privacy regulations and cookie deprecation, more people are looking to MMM to help with their measurement, captured here nicely by google searches 😀

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Google’s defence strategy in its antitrust case is clear: they’re focusing entirely on legal arguments, not disputing the actual allegations. Their key points being... 1. "Open Web Display" Advertising Doesn’t Exist 🤯 Google claims that all digital ads with visuals—whether display, video, social, or native—are essentially the same. By broadening the definition, their market share appears smaller. 2. No Obligation to Work with Competitors 🔒 Google restricts access to ad inventory, tools and data giving them a distinct advantage – but that’s legal because they aren’t required to cooperate with competitors. 3. Legitimate Business Purposes 💲 Google maintains that its products enhance advertiser ROI, boost publisher revenue, and improve user experience—framing their actions as best practices, not monopolistic behaviour. Much of their defence hinges on how they define the market, downplaying their dominance by widening the scope of what constitutes “display advertising.” An interesting strategy! Joshua Lowcock, formerly of UM, took the stand for marketers and testified, “Native, in-app, video are not substitutes for display.” 💯 https://lnkd.in/gbcYFhF2

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I just put together this explainer, summarising the importance of sending the right conversion signals. With major channels like Google and Meta broadening their targeting, getting this right for optimisation has become more crucial than ever! If you need help with getting your paid channels optimised for the right signals, we would be happy to help!

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Is X’s future at risk? A new report from research firm Kantar shows that a record number of brands plan to reduce their ad spending on X in 2025. This is due to worries about extreme content and brand safety. This is bad news for X, which has already lost many advertisers since Elon Musk took over in 2022. Key points from the report: • 26% of marketers plan to cut their ad spending on X in 2025. This is the largest drop among major global ad platforms. • Only 4% of marketers feel X ads offer “brand safety.” • Consumers have a more positive view of ads on X because there are fewer of them. This suggests advertisers may be shifting their budgets to other platforms. • X didn’t make the top 10 for trust and innovation, showing it has work to do to regain marketers’ confidence. Musk’s efforts to win back advertisers, like his appearance at Cannes Lions in June, haven’t worked. His lawsuit against an ad industry group and his comments on X have also hurt the platform’s image. With brands exploring other options, X’s future is uncertain. Can it regain advertisers’ trust and turn things around? Are you still advertising on X? I personally see the emergence of new platforms and solutions for Digital Advertising. Traditional social networks have been getting it wrong for a while and X is just one of the examples. A sea change is coming... #brands #advertising #marketing #smm #adtech

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Talk about a trifecta ... talking about a trifecta ... 🎺 Rory Sadler, CEO at trumpet 🎺 Gareth H., AE at Seven20 Harry Hindess, Account Director at SalesScreen Join them next week to learn about how managers can use data, personalization and motivation to get their teams to end of quarter goal!

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100% Mark Ritson Creative testing is a no brainer. Thank you for supporting the biggest lever marketers have to pull, #CreativeEffectiveness. At DAIVID 🦩 we obviously agree but I'd go a step further. It's not just about pre testing hero assets but using scalable and affordable testing across all ads systematically to create a virtuous upward spiral of effectiveness. https://lnkd.in/epTP8kyy

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Sometimes, a little tilt can make a big impact! 🛠️ The Waitrose billboard in London, intentionally installed at a quirky angle to symbolize falling prices, sparked safety concerns, leading the local council to fence it off. What could have been a mishap turned into marketing magic, drawing even more attention and engagement. This is a masterclass in turning potential setbacks into golden opportunities. 🏆 #MarketingWin #Branding #Waitrose #marketing

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As someone carrying the battlescars of being a TV trader in the UK in the early '00s (IYKYK)... I have enormous empathy for anyone planning and activating a 'TV' campaign these days. Audience fragmentation, measurement complexity, new metrics to optimise toward and the emergence of more 'walled gardens' (hello Amazon) have created silos and convoluted the way we think about where and how we invest, let alone holistic campaign management. At our core.... simplifying the complex is what we do at The Trade Desk.... Making sense of the billions of ad impressions available across broadcasters, publishers and platforms to drive efficient and impactful outcomes is at the heart fo our day to day. Which is why Im stoked to share our recent partnership with Nexxen, bringing their scaled ACR data into our measurement marketplace to help brands intelligently optimise broadcast and BVOD together at scale. .... Couple that with our existing Samba TV integrations, Netflix joining our Australian inventory marketplace next month and early testing of VOZ Streaming from OzTAM Pty Ltd this month... no other DSP can offer the full suite of TV tools and integrations to meet the complexity of our evolving market. TV is hard... it's also incredibly powerful. We're proud to support our local broadcast industry to grow, and to build the tools to help brands invest with confidence and navigate the way we maximise ROI. #wearethetradedesk #bvod #svod #adtech

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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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Excellent talk about leveraging Google AI tools to go beyond measurement and predict media effectiveness, and how to unlock growth at board level. It even features the amazing Tom Greenhalgh! See here: https://lnkd.in/en7EkCvi

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Key trends shaping email performance in 2024. The DMA (Data & Marketing Association) UK Benchmarking report is now out. And for the first time launched with a summary and context of findings from Ian Gibbs as well as a really interesting panel discussion. ▶ B2B delivery rates have plummeted ▶ Open rates have a 'new normal' average with the impact of Apple's MPP ▶ B2C click rates have increased with utilities showing a significant spike As a member of the research hub for the Email Council, it's great to see this work published - and always nice to see your considerations agreed with by fellow members. To get a copy of the report go to dma(dot)org(dot)uk/research _________ 📧 Email is easy. Great email isn't 🏆 I help double CRM performance for brands (and their agencies) YoY ✔ Follow me to find out how

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🚨 New Report Alert 🚨 We partnered with American Express to bring hospitality businesses an in-depth report that uncovers the biggest challenges they're facing and, more importantly, how to overcome them 🎯 👉 Download the full report to learn: - How to use insights to optimise your business - Which tasks you can and should be automating - How to save time training and managing your staff https://lnkd.in/ez9ARRKN Props to the incredible Katie and Liliana for getting this out in the wild in both the UK and Spain. Vamos!

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Riding on Will McMahon coats tails as always ;) But a few thoughts from us on the future of SVOD advertising and of course how our brands may best use these new commercial opportunities. Give it a read and let us know your thoughts!

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