Jonathan Rigby

Insightful deep dive into news mis/disinformation today at Google. As we navigate the largest election year in history, the importance of fact-checking, debunking, prebunking, and fostering media literacy across all ages is more critical than ever.

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How do you stay ahead of “mass mediocrity”? A good 'watch out' piece on AI highlights two major challenges: 1) Everyone's using the same LLMs, and it will show in the output—except for a few organisations that can afford their own models. 2) History repeating itself—if we keep going in the same direction, future output will resemble what we’ve already done. It's no surprise that humans will make the difference in the process. But more than that, it will be the innovators and risk-takers who apply AI to move the game forward—same as it ever was. Another way to safeguard against this sea of blandness is through testing. Much of the content we see isn’t awful*—it's just average. And that comes with a cost. If you haven’t seen The Cost of Dull research by Peter Field, it’s worth a look. With content increasing exponentially, the cost of dullness will rise—not because creating more digital landfill will drive up costs, but because effectiveness will drop off a cliff. As a result brands will need to push harder to create content that truly moves people and spend more on media to reach them. The ones we see succeeding understand which emotions work hardest for them—those that drive upper or lower funnel outcomes most effectively and grab attention and keep it. Or, they choose to explore a different emotional palette, stepping away from the norms and finding that "zig when they zag" moment. Ultimately, they’re using creative data to their advantage—not only to improve content but also to model it against actual sales data, predicting and improving hard metrics. *Recent research we conducted at DAIVID 🦩 revealed that a staggering 24% of content created by brands for TikTok is having a negative impact on consumers. https://lnkd.in/eJQxXptR

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I really loved this OpEd by Jim Spanfeller. Global media at scale behind holdcos, black boxes, walled gardens, or "AI" and MAX+ product names du jor is broken. A vestige of the past. It will always have some place to be sure, but it will no longer be the leader with advertisers who care about where the money goes and how it reaches consumers. The future of ad tech is local. Reigniting publisher and buyer relationships which have stood since before the internet, private equity, management consultants. Real people connecting real brands to humans with the power of technology, supporting real publishers and local communities. And having fun while we do it. 😎 This was my favorite part: "What are the chances that change will come and Google will actually be broken up? The likelihood is very high. Google has not been playing fairly for some time. It’s a classic case study for why we have strong guidelines around monopolies. And it’s not the only platform in need of reform. While a Google breakup could present short-term challenges for premium digital publishers, it would, at the end of the day, offer substantial opportunities for increased revenue, improved search traffic management and greater control over content distribution. Publishers will need to adapt, as always, to the changing landscape and explore new strategies. But most will undoubtedly come out in a much better place. As will marketers! Injecting government control into open markets is always dangerous … unless, of course, you are dealing with a monopoly. And the idea that Google is not a monopoly in search and advertising is farcical." Anything is POSSIBLE Obligatory tag Ali Manning Adam Heimlich Joe Marino Vinny Rinaldi Arielle Garcia Joshua Lowcock Kamran Asghar

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Fascinating chatting with Adrian on the invisible psychology barriers of snobbery … and its role in business! How much of a snob are you?! Take a look at the Forbes article below.

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"The cost of dullness" brilliantly summarized in two bullets: 1) Dull ads need 7% more ESOV to deliver results. That is serious $$$ down the drain. 2) Half of the ads tested are less interesting/engaging than watching a cow eat grass (literally). Now, I happen to like cows, but even so, beating "cows munching grass" must be the minimum benchmark for any ad from now on.

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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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Netflix streaming was one of Amazon Web Services (AWS) early success stories and proofs of concept (I'll drop a link in the comments). "Amy Reinhard, the company’s president of advertising, was clear: Netflix will roll out a proprietary ad tech platform by next year." Could Netflix in-house #adtech be the next Netflix <> AWS collab? There's history there and this could be a major win for proving the value of AWS for Advertising out in the wild... #adtech + #cloud = 🔥

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#HFSS is back with a new deadline for the UK, 1st October. TV and on-demand will have their post 9pm curfew for advertising (amongst other guidelines) with online advertising policies due to follow. http://bit.ly/4d3XWzB #TVAdvertising #CTV #BVOD #DigitalMedia #DigitalAds #LabourGovernment #AdsPolicies

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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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More than just media.

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As part of our research in the lead-up to this webinar, we partnered with Opinium to explore consumer perspectives on the use of humour in healthcare. Without giving too much away, our findings helped understand where humour can be effectively applied, the contexts in which it should be used, and which types of humour might best convey a brand's message. Register here to learn more: The Power of Humour in Healthcare - https://lnkd.in/eUn9ew4X #healthcare #comms #communications 

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This is a very well-informed and detailed examination of the complex and murky area of 'principal-based' media buying with particularly insightful comments from Ruben Schreurs It shows just how difficult it is for Advertisers to truly know what is going on in their name and with their money, so seeking independent advice, the tightest contractual terms and the most thorough audit rights are all vital to avoid the many elephant traps. But why has the world of media reached a point where the advertiser has to count their fingers after they've shaken hands with their media agency? Radical new approaches to accountability and transparency are needed, but these have to include a grown-up discussion about terms of business. We can't get to a point where fees are zero and all the margin is made on media trading, surely?

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The last Cog Blog post introduced what's become known as the 'Advertising: Who Cares?' initiative. Nick Manning who co-wrote the post and I have been surprised by the response - and so we are planning a number of follow-ups, culminating in an event on September 12th to try to do what we can to improve the advertising business and to remind us all that it's about the ads. Not the dubious numbers, nor strange concepts like the 'one-second battleground'. The blurring of lines between buyer and seller (as in principal-based buying, or as we used to call it, broking), the lack of transparency (remember the Jon Mandel affair from 2016) the ad fraud scandal, MFAs and so on all lead to one place - the diminution of great advertising, and of the industry. All are welcome to join our growing band of supporters, those who care about advertising. Message me here.

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This is an exciting moment… There’s a growing consensus that commercial effectiveness should be central to how we measure the impact of marketing. Brand Opus suggest in their summary of Cannes Lions 2024  that “commercial effectiveness has made a return to holy grail status” https://lnkd.in/eDRzYPaq Building on the approach outlined by Jenni Romaniuk in her brilliant book ‘Better Brand Health’ the following slides show how to link brand metrics to business outcomes.  #commercialeffectiveness #brandhealth #mentalavailability

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If you’re in the world of comms, you know that risk and reputation is a critical component of planning and no longer a check box. Ogilvy #influenceO helps any brand investing in influencer marketing at scale, to add an extra layer and make sure we all do better to protect our brands and their consumers as part of these collabs. #influeceShield is a product all big brands should be considering for large scale campaign and key industry sectors.

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Like a lot of people my age, I’d begun to wonder whether the BBC was becoming irrelevant. This new work pokes that belief in the eye. The BBC’s slide away from dominance could be explained by numerous headwinds: - an increasing resistance to establishment narratives coming off the back of COVID; - a proliferation of streaming sites and creators who didn’t see the need to charge a license fee. “If they can make great content without the fee, why should I pay it to the BBC?” - the much-discussed splintering of cultures driven by the algorithmic feed, which is rendering the idea of one ‘angle’ on current affairs less and less relevant… I could go on. And then this phenomenal new work by BBC Creative explodes onto my feed. What a great example of #pickafight - the oft-tried and oft-failed Challenger brand strategy. And what great self-awareness of the BBC to recognise that, yes, despite being effectively the state media of the UK and in many ways the epitome of an incumbent brand, they are now a Challenger brand. A brand less of proposition (the lovely things they stand for) and more of opposition (the monster of disinformation that they are uniquely designed to combat). As Richard Huntington put it, ‘they fight for truth and they fight for us, whether we choose to watch or not’. An excellent example of both in-house agencies getting it right (with the help of some excellent external help too), and also the importance of strategy first, tactics second. The BBC has the production capabilities to make anything beautiful, but to decide to tackle this issue head on shows real strategic grit, and I’m interested to see where it leads. —— I share stuff about Challenger brand strategy, and the Challenger mindset that big businesses can learn from. Follow me for more like this. #bbc #creativity #advertising #brand #strategy #challenger #challengerbrand #challengermindset

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Recent Jaguar ads are the result of hype getting in the way of core advertising principles. We are at the height of this problem where the packaging of the direction (eg purpose, cultural relevance etc..), and of many agencies’ approach to their work disregards the quality of the ads and the creative. The greatest modern artists understood ‘the basics’. Our business has a strong list of those principles from its deep and rich history. This effort is ‘hype’ without principles. I’m not even commenting on if it’s woke or not. Just not good advertising. Maintain basic principles AND be fresh. That’s the job and it’s not easy. #creativitymatters

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