For its inaugural stakeholder conference in Saudi Arabia, OMG MENA brought the latest international marketing thought leadership and heavyweight speakers. Headlined by Prof. Scott Galloway and featuring OMG and industry experts, it was attended by close to 200 senior client, agency, media and research executives. Focused on the topic of attention, how to earn, measure, work with and convert it into brand and sales lift, “The Battle for Attention” looked at this other valuable yet depleting commodity from different perspectives.

Opening the proceedings, OMG MENA CEO Elda Choucair placed the event into the context of the holding group’s expansion into Saudi Arabia and its partnership with the country’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, specifically for its IGNITE program. The ambition is to share thought-leadership and best practice through events as well as building a digital talent pipeline through education and training.

In his keynote, his first speaking engagement in Saudi Arabia, Prof. Scott Galloway provided his own and unique take on the Attention Economy. He reminded the companies that make money from an internet built on advertising of their responsibilities. He argued that in the quest to monetise consumers’ attention, tech giants are producing a toxic emission of increased polarization, division and misinformation, leading to societal issues like teen depression. “Like with the climate, we need to take the temperature down on the internet,” he said. As well as regulations and age-gating, he urged the audience to rely on more ethical and positive ways when using consumer attention.

The world’s leading expert on attention and CEO of Amplified Intelligence, Prof. Karen Nelson-Field, told marketers to build strategies around the economic consequences of inattention in their businesses. She also advised a more respectful approach. “Think about your creative and how much attention you might need so that you plan and buy the right platform and only the right amount of attention,” she recommended.

OMD’s Managing Director-Product at OMD Worldwide, Jean-Paul Edwards, explained how they can now manage attention far more effectively in this fast-changing attention

landscape. It is not about just maximising attention but also maximising the number of impacts that deliver the attention needed to achieve the required business effect. “This means we can optimise channel placement and creative decisions to deliver growth and a more sustainable media experience for consumers, brands and content creators. With our Omni platform, OMG teams can deliver these improvements at scale,” he added. Joining Prof. Nelson-Field and Edwards in a panel discussion, Chris Solomi, Chief Digital Officer of OMG MENA, revealed some of the findings of the first GCC attention study and OMG’s roadmap for attention in the coming year.

Zooming out to consider the wider evolution of marketing, Luca Allam, CEO of PHD MENA, warned that the CMOs’ priorities (personalization capabilities, customer journey orchestration, balance between short- and long-term growth and restructure for operational effectiveness) is leading them to embrace a new mindset. “Marketers who adopt the Investor mindset, focused on intelligence-led growth, prioritise investment in five key human and technological capabilities to future proof their business for the next decade,” he said.

“16 years ago, Omnicom Media Group MENA created the first industry conference by an agency bringing world-class and global thought leaders to the stage for our partners, clients and staff. Our mission was to inspire progress, elevate standards and future-proof strategies. This year, we’ve gone one step further by decentralizing and taking this approach to Riyadh,” Elda Choucair, CEO of OMG MENA. Listening to the provocative Professor Galloway reminded me how much we need food for our minds, how much we grow by being challenged in our thoughts and how rewarding it is to take a break from our daily routine to be inspired and fractionally changed for ever. I’m delighted we brought so many partners together to discuss attention, a crucial metric and approach marketing that has the capacity of changing marketing and media radically.”

The event, held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Financial District. It was staged with SMC, the leading company in field of media and sports marketing, and its sister companies, Al Arabiya Outdoor Advertising Company and MBC Media Solutions (MMS), as strategic partners. They provide innovative and effective solutions in field of physical and digital media, sports investments, marketing, and entertainment, in Saudi Arabia and beyond.

Founded in Germany in 2008 as Trakken, the Analytics, Marketing & Cloud Technology consultancy has become one of the largest Google Marketing Platform (GMP) and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Reseller in Europe. It was acquired by OMG in 2015 and is now expanding around the world, growing from five European countries to 14 markets in APAC, Europe and North America. 

Under OMG’s ownership, TRKKN’s offering has expanded from Google reseller to also include a wide range of services to help clients manage their Google Marketing and Cloud stack, including digital analytics, ad tech, conversion optimisation, advanced analytics and AI, cloud engineering, training and support, advanced builds and full strategy planning across Google products. When more clients are initiating or developing their digital transformation, in-housing or hybrid media operations, TRKKN is responding to this shift in demand with a service model that offers greater flexibility.

“We’re thrilled to now bring the global TRKKN brand and its advanced offering to our markets, as it will help advertisers capitalise on the scale and scope of the Google Stack. With the launch of this established Google Marketing and Cloud partner, we will be even better placed to accelerate our clients’ digital transformation. Our mission is to help them build deeper consumer connections and increase their digital efficiency with technology,” Elda Choucair, CEO of Omnicom Media Group MENA, commented. “I am also delighted to welcome Vimal Badiani to OMG MENA as TRKKN’s managing director for the Middle East. His deep understanding of the marketing and technology landscape, combined with his passion for driving results, make him the perfect person to lead TRKKN and deliver value and agility to our clients.”

Vimal Badiani joins TRKKN from Merkle MENA where he held the same position. “As the digital ecosystem becomes increasingly fragmented, clients need expertise to effectively manage their Google Marketing infrastructure. We’re meeting this demand with our team of experts who are renowned for their ability to impart insightful clarity, deliver substantial value, and ensure complete transparency in their operations,” Badiani added. “Our google marketing platform and cloud platform specialist consultants provide a technological solution that strikes a balance between personalised marketing and data privacy control and adapt to the evolving attention patterns of consumers. In doing so, TRKKN meets the needs of both brands and agencies.”

As traditions pivot and platforms evolve, advertisers must revisit their assumptions and practices on social media, says OMG MENA’s Anthony Nghayoui.

As we head towards the third Ramadan since the global pandemic, and with most places in the world starting to get back to some sort of ‘normalcy’, it appears that Covid-19 won’t necessarily be a major disruptor to our day-to-day. Which means that this year we’re expecting in-person gatherings and last-minute in-store gift shopping. People will opt for online shopping due to its convenience, not because they have to. To many, social media will remain a pillar in their celebration, connecting with family and friends on Snapchat or expressing themselves creatively on TikTok. Brands that want to tap into the Ramadan conversation should stay on top of their social game and get even closer to their platforms by taking these three steps.

1. Study the users

Refamiliarise yourself with each platform’s users and their overlap with your target audience. Drop your assumptions, and don’t hesitate to dig into audience analytics for a demographic refresh. While youngsters are probable early adopters of emerging social networking apps, pay attention to how each has evolved to attract a broader demographic. For instance, more than 45 per cent of addressable TikTok users in the UAE today are 25-to-34-year-olds.

Look out for yearly Ramadan surveys, carried out by market researchers and social media companies, for fresh insights for the Holy Month on which to base your social media tactics. Aim to uncover those insights at least one month before Ramadan, as your audience expects to hear from you while they start getting into the mindset.

2. Craft the brand experience

People use social media to enhance their Ramadan experience; they become more open to connecting with brands and expect relevant and inclusive brand messages. According to a Meta survey, many people who observe Ramadan in Saudi Arabia dedicate the first part of the month to introspective activities like self-improvement and new routines. They become action-oriented, partaking in community service and shopping for Eid, later in the month. Such insights allow brands to demonstrate their authenticity and empathy as advertisers synchronise their campaigns with their audience’s state of mind and deliver timely messages.

Ramadan is a time of self-expression, and brands need to facilitate that on social. A Snapchat survey suggests that 33 per cent of Snapchat users increase their usage of AR lenses and filters during Ramadan. This, along with TikTok’s branded hashtag challenge, offers robust solutions for brands to create buzz and be part of the Ramadan conversation.

Social platforms are racing to broaden their ad offering and introducing formats where user numbers are multiplying. In 2021, we saw TikTok roll out Spark Ads and Dynamic Ads, and Meta pilot ads within IG Reels. Ad solutions like Twitter Amplify and Snapchat’s ads in the Discover section are an excellent way for brands to get associated with their audience’s favourite premium Ramadan publishers.

Pick the solutions that deliver your desired experience while ensuring that historical performance metrics  –  your CPMs and CTRs – meet your marketing goals. Ramadan is a period of fierce competition on digital advertising and the cost of ad delivery could rise way above the yearly average.

3. Master the operations

Platform expertise involves knowing the inner working of ads management tools. Understand the auction and how each platform optimises its delivery. Differentiate between rule-based and AI-based ad serving and break down or bundle up your audience segments accordingly. Get up to speed with the latest platform best practices to maximise your advantage in this competitive season.

Knowing each platform’s measurement solutions before launching a campaign can have considerable advantages. Measurement sets a feedback loop to inform real-time optimisation and helps derive learnings for future Ramadan media plans. Want to understand the impact of a campaign on brand favourability? Consider a BLS solution. Curious to know if your ads are being looked at? Work with measurement partners that can report on attention metrics. Want to record conversions in cookie-less environments? Look into platforms and measurement partners that support conversion APIs.

By taking these three steps, advertisers will recalibrate their social strategies for the upcoming Ramadan and stand out above their competition. This means seeing every step through with a deep dive into each platform’s specifics, keeping an eye out for trending topics that will emerge on social media throughout the month, and taking actions in a timely manner. Though it is convenient in this time of tradition to revert to previous approaches, advertisers must consider Ramadan with intellectual humility, forego assumptions and keep learning.

This article was first published in Campaign Middle East

To be successful, e-tailers must embrace new ways to commerce, says OMG Transact’s Farah Basmaji.

Ramadan is more than a moment. It’s a crucial season in brands’ calendars as well as consumers’. Allocating close to 40 per cent of their advertising budgets, the region’s retailers scramble to increase their volume or revenue share in those four weeks.

Yet, e-commerce advertising and media during the Holy Month often rely on traditional recipes and content, ignoring the latest trends in consumer shopping behaviour.

When Covid-19 pushed consumers and businesses to transact online, retailers had to adopt and adapt their online consumer acquisition strategies accordingly.

As Ramadan and Black Friday account for about 40 per cent of MENA’s e-tail, consumers, brands and platforms are starting to tailor their media behaviours and content strategies to each season. With this accelerating change, e-commerce consumer acquisition tactics need to embrace a number of trends and innovations to truly deliver on ROI.

This Ramadan, for example, we will see many advertisers deploying a mobile-first/app-first strategy. Here are some of the more advanced e-commerce marketing approaches brands can deploy to succeed this year.

1. Personalise communication

In today’s world, one size does not fit all. If brands want to capture people’s attention, they have to relate to them and their needs. With the benefit of adtech, brands can associate their products with specific keywords or target customer look-alikes and/or their competitors’ customers. Many players in the market now are offering adtech-based on-site solutions to cater to this demand.

2. Build online community with live commerce

With more than 60 per cent of online shoppers planning on increasing their spending across all sectors this upcoming Ramadan, brands must adapt to capitalise on the opportunities brought forth by having live commerce with their online community. Building an online community (usually via live influencer sessions) will keep followers updated about the newly available products. Promos that link to purchase directly from the e-commerce platform will encourage transactions. In Ramadan 2022, we expect more than 30 per cent of consumers will make last-minute impulse purchases online. Surprisingly, sales at 4am during Ramadan are 17 per cent higher than on an average day.

3. Collaborative ads and shops

This performance-marketing format enables brands that don’t have their e-commerce-enabled website to activate prospecting and remarketing campaigns in collaboration with leading retailers in the region like Noon, Carrefour, Tmart, etc. The brands can target audiences on Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat and drive them seamlessly to the point of purchase or facilitate the discovery of new products. PepsiCo’s Collaborative Ads boosted their e-commerce sales in Thailand, resulting in a 3.7 per cent increase in return on ad spend. What’s more, 28 per cent of people who viewed PepsiCo’s products on the retailer’s platform (Lazada) added those products to their cart.

4. Building a relationship with conversational commerce

Conversational commerce leverages communication channels such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Live Chat solutions to engage with consumers on a deeper level. This approach drives them through the funnel to purchase using AI or chatbot-powered tools and trained customer service agents. If done right, the results are immediate and phenomenal.

5. ‘Explore Now’ through shoppable media

Shoppable media formats in display and social media are set to become the fastest-growing advertising category. Shoppable media formats enable users to engage directly with the display or video advertisement and seamlessly add the advertised products to baskets. This reduces friction and shortens the path to purchase. Various brands leverage shoppable media solutions to create landing pages. Technology solutions like Adimo allow brands to launch shoppable commerce media with speed and accuracy.

Booming e-commerce, combined with a sense of optimism in 2022 in the Middle East, should deliver a positive Ramadan for consumers, platforms, and retailers alike. This Ramadan, online sales are projected to reach $2bn in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. By connecting experiences, such as social commerce and conversational commerce, linking discovery and purchase through targeted ads and collab ads, and joining voices in live commerce, brands will engage at a deeper level with consumers and create a winning advantage.

 

This article was first published in Campaign Middle East

Omnicom Media Group MENA, the holding company of OMD, PHD and Hearts & Science, has announced a new structure for its Investment Team. The move is designed to enhance the group and agencies’ competitiveness and their ability to deliver value and excellence.

Previously leading buying for OMD in the GCC as the media communications agency’s Head of Investments, Elie Bachaalani has been promoted to OMG MENA’s Executive Director-Investments, overseeing all its entities. At the group for close to 16 years, Bachaalani will now further strengthen its Investment product and its value to clients with his expertise, experience, approach to creative solutions and commercial acumen. He will report to Wissam Najjar, the holding group’s COO, who also leads the group’s investment function.

At agency level, Gaby Salame and Mohammad Majed will assume the role of Investment Lead at OMD and Hearts & Science respectively. Bachaalani will assume this responsibility at PHD until that position is filled. Agency Investment Leads will work closely with Bachaalani’s team on all commercial aspects and Roli Okoro, General Manager-Programmatic, Search & Social at OMG MENA, on all digital product-related tasks.

“This restructure is less about today and more about tomorrow. At OMG, we’ve always striven to be future-ready. In this rapidly changing marketing environment, where disruptive technologies create an increasingly complex landscape, future traders must always be ready to provide the optimal solution so that clients meet their business objectives,” commented Wissam Najjar, COO of OMG MENA. “Backed by technology, intelligence and automation, our traders will focus more on strategic considerations. As well as our tech stack, Elie will leverage our human stack, empowering our people to operate at their best and ahead of the curve.”

“There are exciting opportunities to enhance our speed, efficiency, and capability further. This restructure provides us with the clarity, vision and resources, be they talent or technology, to adapt and thrive in this rapidly changing environment,” added Elie Bachaalani, OMG MENA’s Executive Director-Investments. “My focus will be on harnessing the synergies that exist between all stakeholders to deliver speed-to-market and innovative investment solutions. We’re about delivering innovation and value. With this structure now in place we can go further in this mission.”

Karim ElGohary, e-commerce executive at OMG Transact eCommerce MENA lays out a roadmap to engage with online consumers.

Not long ago I was reading an eye-catching LinkedIn post from an old colleague of mine that highlighted three truisms of marketing: the basic concepts come from ancient civilisation; the discipline was born around the end of the year 800; the competencies are reshuffled every 10 years.

The first two points helped to highlight the third, which shows just how quickly things are now changing.

It’s hard to disagree with that, especially looking at the digital landscape of the last few years; do you remember the first display banner ever published online? The medal goes to AT&T, publishing a black banner on HotWired.com in 1994, bearing the words, “Have you ever clicked your mouse right here? You will.”

The mind boggles to remember that the click-through rate (percentage of clicks over-served ads) was above 45 per cent. This experiment proved the capabilities of generating brand awareness and driving interest (traffic was still a new and overlooked metric).

Today, digital services have multiplied, diversified and specialised. Global spending on digital advertising has been growing between 3 per cent and 11 per cent year-on-year. Across social media, video, search (paid and organic), affiliates etc. there are now full multiple-funnel solutions for all industries looking to connect with their consumers across the new and emerging touchpoints. As a result, the single person that launched a banner in 1994 is replaced by an army of highly skilled technical specialists.

Fast-forward 25 years and it is increasingly evident that digital can power a business in multiple ways, far beyond the humble banner or even traditional media or marketing functions.

But this comes with its own set of challenges. Mostly in actual network costs and talents. Compared with planning and activating traditional media, digital marketing and transformation initiatives tend to be more work-intensive; the daily interactions and tasks required to ensure campaigns are launched and constantly optimised in such a fast-paced environment are significant. The required skillsets have become more and more technical. And in many cases, the line between marketers and data scientists are blurred. When done well, data and technology merge to create the best-in-class user experience, designed to engage with people at all possible levels and power business transformation and growth.

As a result, media agencies are required to be more knowledgeable and agile than ever. And the change in working habits, accelerated by Covid-19, has helped to further develop decentralised and remote working as effective ways to reach previously untapped talents and skillsets. The legacy approach of having an entire team in one place is not only now debatable but also challenged from a financial standpoint by clients looking to optimise costs.

So, with access to global talent pools at the other end of a video call, remote offices (both off- and nearshore) and increasing reality, freelancers and the new agile skill sets they offer have never been as important as they are now.

At PHD, ‘Shift’ is our focus. As an industry, it is important that we try and get ahead of the change – and stop just responding to it. To think longer-term. To start building the future, today.

The simple truth is we keep reinventing and questioning ourselves. Not a single day passes without adding something new into the mix.

In our latest publication, titled Shift, we have explored the impact of these new challenges in the digital space on our talent. What are the skillsets of the future? Where will they be based? How will they be identified, developed, and empowered to succeed for our clients and their businesses?

We identified four cultural habits that are essential for answering these questions:

1. Hire for tomorrow (increase diversity, opening the filter on the talent acquisition process).

2. Encourage greater understanding of innate strengths (enable people to get into optimal swim lanes).

3. Set people free (empowered people empower people; develop a culture of empowerment and coaching).

4. Become a learning institution (that also happens to be a business). Einstein is reputed to have said: “Learning is experience. Everything else is just information.”

In such a decentralised world, connected but so disconnected at the same time, it’s imperative to protect and nurture the company’s culture, this is where becoming a learning institution is an absolute must: a culture is the sum total of thousands of small learnings, applied on a daily basis.

Or, as Steve Jobs said, “Innovation is the ability see change as an opportunity – not a threat.”

To learn more about PHD’s publication Shift, visit shiftbyphd.com.

This article was first published in Campaign Middle East

Social media. This could mean a million and one things depending on who you speak to, but the one thing that it cannot seem to escape is controversy. Whether it’s accountability in the wake of the Capitol riots, disruption to traditional media outlets or addressing the safety of younger users, social media has been a magnet for criticism and interrogation. However, the controversy surrounding social media in the past few years has done nothing to curtail its growth. With TikTok hitting 1 billion monthly active users, Twitch revenue crossing $2bn and Meta claiming ownership of four of the top six apps globally, it’s safe to say that the broad category we’ve labelled as ‘social media’ is only continuing to expand. eMarketer reports a continued increase in time spent online in 2021, with no decline in usage reported for any of the major social platforms.

In fact, we have seen new entrants to the field grow at an unprecedented pace. This should come as no surprise. Successful players in the space are recognising that whatever we do online, it’s more engaging when you add a layer of human interaction. The smartest advertisers are the ones who are recognising that fact and taking advantage of the new opportunities presented. So, in planning your social media investment, what do you need to do?

Let’s not talk about social media: Forget the concept of ‘social media’ as a portion of your ‘digital’ budget, and plan around your consumer. The ways that people interact with an influencer on Twitch, or share movie trailers and video essays on YouTube, could not be more different. It’s time to think about consumer mindsets. Are you looking for deep engagement in a lean-forward environment with users that are in the mindset to discover new things? Turn to Twitter or Facebook feeds. Are you looking to build brand recall with users who are in the mood for TV-style lean-back entertainment? Check out Snapchat Discover or YouTube. Consider what mental state you want your consumers in (and please, let’s stop repurposing the same TVC for both YouTube bumpers and Facebook lead-gen ads).

Look to holistic measurement: Given the overwhelming narrative of digital measurability, we’ve come to expect that we can map every dollar of spend to the bottom line. Tools like store visitation and offline conversions claim to bridge the gap between digital and physical presence. Realistically, most of these solutions are indicative at best, with quite significant blind spots. Taking this data as fact can lead marketers down the wrong path entirely. So what’s the solution? Look to marketing mix modelling, which has long been one of the best ways to measure the impact of media on revenue, and brand lift studies, which are an essential tool in understanding the building of a brand. What they have in common is the ability to view social media as part of a greater whole and its impact on a digital generation.

Build beyond the platform: While it is tempting to believe that the big tech players know best, the reality is that there are a number of bright start-ups and established businesses who have found ways to improve on what the Pages and Zuckerbergs of the world have built. It’s worth exploring some of the options that companies like Smartly.io, 4C, Skai and others have to offer. In a lot of cases, these companies will provide specialised solutions that can help to massively improve performance or provide a different perspective. One great example of this is attention measurement as a replacement for video views – 2-second and 3-second video views have long been one of the most controversial metrics in digital media. Attention measurement bridges that gap by looking at factors outside of just continuous view time to understand just how much impact your video advertising is having. This is a great example of a step that digital media needs to be taking in order to build robust yet flexible measurement frameworks.

In short, while social media may be drawing the wrong kind of attention in some circles, its growth has not been dampened at all. In fact, doors have even opened for new entrants in what many assumed to be a saturated market, and the digital platforms that we have labelled as social media have grown to take over more and more of our day-to-day lives. Good digital marketers will be finding ways to leverage the measurement capabilities of social platforms in order to drive solid return on investment. Great digital marketers will recognise that social media as a concept is too all-encompassing to be useful – it is integrated into every aspect of our lives, deserving much more of our attention than just a simple label.

This article was first published in Campaign Middle East

OMG MENA’s Director of Product, Diversified Services and Partnerships, Jessica Usenbor explains how to use social platforms to get started with effective brand commerce strategies.

Social commerce, or ‘s-commerce’, exposes consumers to a large variety of products based on their search queries, social interactions and content preference. In turn, it enables brands to reach their target audience more effectively, creating a mutually beneficial relationship between consumers and brands. According to Emarketer, s-commerce in the US is expected to grow by 34 per cent in 2021, earning $36.62bn this year and making e-commerce strategy even more relevant. Southeast Asia continues to lead in the social commerce space and has shown an overall growth of 116 per cent in social commerce orders in the first half of 2020, surpassing 2019 three times over.

As TikTok, Snapchat and Facebook are the top three social platforms in MENA, let’s take a more detailed look into their s-commerce capabilities.

TikTok

Live videos are used by brands and influencers to share product reviews, demos and other brand information. With Live shopping, brands and creators can include affiliate and checkout links to a TikTok Live, allowing the consumer to purchase in real-time. During the Live, you can check out while the live stream is playing in the background, creating an uninterrupted user experience. Shoppers also have the option to access the full list of items featured in a live stream at any time during or after a Live. This feature is currently being tested in other markets.

TikTok has also recently partnered with Shopify to further enrich its s-commerce offering. The integration between the two platforms means that brands present on Shopify are now able to seamlessly extend their reach to TikTok users and use TikTok and Shopify data to create s-commerce strategies, measure and optimise ads across platforms.

Facebook and Instagram Shops

As there is seamless data integration between the two platforms, measurability and targeting capabilities allow for more precise communication and relatable content.

The Facebook Shop and brand Instagram profile pages allow brands to create an online storefront that delivers an end-to-end shopping experience in one place. Consumers can browse catalogues, save products for later, share and immediately buy within the apps or on a brand’s website.

Facebook is constantly evolving its s-commerce with features that create a simple yet interactive digital shopping experience for both the brand and consumers. The just-released Drops feature connects online shoppers to the brands’ latest products and upcoming releases on the Shop tab in the app. Users can sign up for release notifications, save a Drop to their Instagram profile, share a Drop with friends and directly purchase products that they have ‘dropped’ within the app, using the Checkout feature.

Facebook has also newly released a Live Shopping feature, a more interactive forum for brands to communicate with their audience. With this release, brands and content creators will be able to link their lives to their Facebook shops and catalogues so consumers can click to learn more or purchase in real-time during the respective live video. In addition, Facebook is testing a new feature allowing brands to connect their loyalty programmes to their Facebook Shops.

Facebook s-commerce also includes WhatsApp and Messenger business suite and chatbot capabilities to mirror, track, and scale customer service. In the future, consumers will be able to purchase directly within these apps.

Snapchat

Snapchat has just recently entered into the s-commerce space with ‘Brand Profiles’. Currently, in beta, brands can create a Brand Hub within the app to connect their Brand AR Lenses, Brand Highlights and Story posts in one place. The Native Store feature included within Brand Hub exposes Snapchatters to a brand’s in-app storefront, where they can browse and purchase within the app.

Helpful tips for brands looking to get started on s-commerce:

1. Set up social store fronts and catalogues within the social platforms of choice. Whether you are driving consumers to your website or to the brand store within the app, you will be able to leverage enriched data from the platforms for use in your shoppable ads or other digital campaigns.

2. Understand local capabilities of social commerce platforms in your market, as limitations will exist by region. Often, new capabilities and features are piloted in more established markets or where the adoption rate is high.

3. Identify the right s-commerce platforms for your brand needs. Evaluate integrations with internal platforms, targeting capabilities and audience reach, etc. This will help you develop a tailored retail and marketing plan, inclusive of digital and organic strategy per platform.

4. When developing your activation plan, it’s important to identify the stage of your brand’s product in the marketing funnel. Based on the objective, different features such as call-to-action and messaging will need to be considered for optimal results.

5. Ensure the user checkout experience is seamless. Content should be created with the checkout process in mind. The first interaction with the brand should be straightforward and engaging, encouraging shoppers to a clear and swift checkout process.

6. As you enter the s-commerce space it’s ideal to invest in and test multiple social platforms as it will open up new audiences, capabilities, proprietary optimisation algorithms and more. 

This article was first published in Campaign Middle East.

Communicate asked Roli Okoro, General Manager – Programmatic, Search & Social of OMG MENA, to outline the ways in which programmatic advertising is evolving.

What are the most important trends in programmatic advertising today and the ones to pay attention to in the near future?

Data privacy: The recent data scandals on the misuse and mismanagement of billions of users’ data caused much concern and led to new regulations. Public outcry led to legislations like the EU’s GDPR and California’s CCPA , [as well as] tech updates like Google’s plans to stop supporting third-party cookies and Apple’s move to protect users’ privacy by limiting tracking.  As these have an impact on how we plan, buy, and assess our programmatic campaigns, we’ll keep working on alternative approaches.

Refocus on first-party data and contextual targeting: Without third-party cookies, brands will focus on their own customer base and first-party data to target audiences with relevant messages. They will also partner with publishers with quantifiable first-party data to serve relevant ads at scale. Contextual targeting, which places ads relative to the page’s content using page category, keywords, and semantics, will also be used as an alternative solution

AI and ML to improve bidding optimization: Both the pandemic and the digital privacy regulations have dramatically accelerated the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in programmatic advertising. Digital advertising exchanges and platforms all use AI to regulate the purchase and sale of advertising in real time, while advertisers rely on it to optimize campaigns. This will continue to grow, with AI analyzing customer behavior, mapping user data with ad viewing metrics, or identifying buyer patterns accurately to place ads and cut the cost of customer acquisition.

Growth of in-game advertising at scale: The gaming audience exploded during lockdowns and yet remains a largely untapped opportunity. Mobile gaming is growing faster than console or PC. It’s even outpacing TV as the media platform of choice. 5G will accelerate this further, thanks to a better experience. Non-skippable ads in mobile games are a great opportunity, with programmatic combining the high engagement rates of gaming with first-party data to provide targeted, effective advertising.

Addressable TV and audio ads: New media habits emerged during the lockdowns and with them new opportunities for advertisers. Addressable/programmatic TV allows brands to target households in real time using live data and deliver relevant advertisements via real-time bidding on cable, satellite, IP TV, or on-demand/catch up online OTT services.

The same is happening with audio ads, with apps like Spotify, Soundcloud, and Anghami seeing an increase in audiences. These can now be monetized programmatically with data and insights about listener demographics and behaviors. Advertisers can create and target ads that align with their objectives, lower production costs, and deliver at scale. Budgets for audio ads, particularly in podcasts, are on the rise.

What do you think is needed to accelerate the adoption of programmatic on emerging channels (DOOH, connected TV, and audio) in the region?

Supply cannot exist without demand and there is increasing demand for innovation and multi-moment targeted digital executions that continue the dialogue between brands and consumers seamlessly across screens and devices. This is coupled with demand for performance through automation, real-time bidding, audience targeting, reach, affinity, and real-time reporting that allow ads to be tailored to individual consumers and served on the right screen/device, in the right location, at the right moment. Suppliers will have to adapt their product offering to meet with new programmatic solutions.

What are the main challenges to programmatic today?

Privacy regulations make it harder to build profiles of users across different websites, apps, and devices, and therefore increasingly difficult to serve highly targeted ads to users online. This also has an impact on the way we attribute campaign performance to media channels and minimize wastage by applying frequency caps to our ad exposure.

Programmatic advertising is a $200 billion global marketplace that is rapidly growing. This has given rise to privacy abuses and fraud, particularly in emerging media forms like connected TV and mobile.

Both have solutions though.

How do you advise brands or organizations to prepare for the post-third-party cookies (P3PC) world?

Remain compliant at all times: Clients must stay up to date with regional government and tech regulations. This also applies to every vendor/platform’s individual approach to these changes. Clients must understand all the options and solutions available to ensure their marketing strategies stay effective.

Build, analyze, and activate your first-party data: In a P3PC world, first-party data is the key to targeting individuals. Advertisers can use this to get to know their customers and prospects better. Understanding their habits, behaviors, and preferences will generate insights that inform marketing strategies.

Collaborate with partners with first-party data at scale: Looking beyond aggregated campaign performance, advertisers need to identify which publishers drive performance for their brand and combine their first-party data with theirs to uncover insights.

Look beyond audience targeting: Contextual advertising can be used at every stage of the consumer journey, including to serve personalized ads. Targeting household characteristics, together with bid-stream data such as time of day, location, and device type, will still be possible in a P3PC world.

Programmatic advertising is now a staple of marketing strategies. How do you see it evolving?

Faced with regulations and restrictions to protect digital privacy, advertisers will focus on their first-party data and contextual targeting instead. As consumer data will only become addressable on publishers with a first-party data network, those without one will struggle and need to deploy solutions like single sign-on (SSO). This will strengthen the dominance of walled gardens such as Google, Facebook, or Amazon.

Programmatic will continue to play a key role in e-commerce ad strategies. Businesses will use their first-party data to deliver highly targeted messages at each stage of the marketing funnel and enhance their customer experience.

As digital out of home (DOOH), connected TV, audio/podcasts channels continue to grow, programmatic advertising will allow businesses to reach their consumers at the right time, on the right screen/device with the right message in these exciting emerging environments.

This article was first published in Communicate.