Mediaboss Marketing

As part of our Salary and Career Survey, we interviewed people about their experiences in marketing. Today were talking to Kathleen Voboril who is now a consultant after many years in top marketing positions. Shes also figured out how to combine her first love, musical theater, with martech. (Interview edited for length and clarity.)

Q: How did you get started in marketing?

A: I actually went to school for musical theater and had a dream of being an actress on Broadway. So for my first few years out of college, I was in New York City trying to make it as an actress on Broadway. I was temping and the best kind of side jobs were in financial services.

I wound up in a private equity firm because they would give me health insurance and one thing led to another and they offered me a full-time job as a marketing associate. I did that for a year or two and then decided to go get my MBA at the University of Texas.

Q: In marketing?

A: I did not focus on marketing. I didnt love marketing. The classes and the coursework didnt light me up. I concentrated on entrepreneurship. I thought Id do the VC entrepreneur thing, but there was an opportunity to go to GE which had this experience commercial leadership program. I thought of it as a vocational MBA because it was two years of training. You do three, eight-month-long rotations in different GE business units. It was a great gig.

Dig deeper: MarTech Salary and Career Survey shows a profession coming into its own

Well at GE, pretty early on, I got the digital bug. My sponsors and mentors kind of thought it was a fad and like something for the interns and very marcom-y and not very strategic. But I was like, Well, were supposed to be like the future marketing and sales leaders of the company. And all of the data shows that users, whether theyre B2B buyers or B2C buyers, theyre increasingly spending time online. So, are we going to be relevant and understand that?

Q: You called it. That must have positioned you very nicely.

A: Yeah, I started becoming known for being a digital expert inside GE. When it was time to graduate from the program, GE was actually one of the first brands to spend more on digital ads than traditional ads. And Jeff Immelt, the CEO, had mandated that every business unit have a mid-to-senior-level digital leader. I kind of got to choose which unit to work with and I went and led digital for GE Transportation, which was a $5 billion business, but GEs smallest division.

Q: Sounds great, what made you leave?

A: What I was doing in transportation was great and really well received across the company, but I couldnt get bigger budgets. There was no CMO in that business and I was one of three marketers for the entire division. There were bigger business divisions that wanted me to come and do digital for them, but at GE at the time, the transportation business would have had to be willing to sell me to the energy business and they werent willing to do that.

Q: Where did you go from there?

I had a friend at a consumer packaged goods company called Central Garden and Pet, and they wanted a digital leader and it was in Atlanta. I was in Atlanta at the time and didnt want to leave. And I got really excited about the idea of it being a CPG and marketing was really in the drivers seat. They had a lot of classically trained CPG marketing leadership and they had this big vision for digital. I was going to come in and manage a digital agency, have big budgets, build a team, so I was excited.

My second week there they laid off the entire senior leadership team. I went from I was going to have a multimillion-dollar digital ad budget to getting $100,000, and you get to fire the agency because of how much they cost you. So we did content marketing, we did social. I replaced our agency with software companies. We also re-platformed all of our websites to Sitecore, like 50-60 sites, and did a lot of training and stuff like that.

Q: How did you go from Atlanta to Oregon?

A: I wanted to move back to Portland where I was born and raised and got offered a job at Oregon Tool, at the time it was called Blunt International. Up until that point, Id really only done digital marketing, I really hadnt done much with ecommerce. And the opportunity at Oregon Tool was 50/50 digital marketing and ecommerce. That was really intriguing.

Q: But there were problems?

I get there and theyre like, Weve spent all this money and hired all these people. And Im thinking, Oh my God, they bought the absolute wrong technology. And I think I can get this team to work together and theres some diamonds in the rough here, but this isnt the right skill set for what they say theyre trying to do. So I spent my first two years cleaning up and course-correcting.

I think most senior leadership teams, especially those of a certain age, dont want to admit that they dont understand this stuff. They feel like, Oh, by now I should sort of get that the Internet matters. The truth is they dont really know what kind of capabilities and resources they need, but they dont want to admit it.

I was there for about four-and-a-half years and built a global ecommerce business and grew revenue from $2.5 million to $30 million. We also developed a direct consumer fulfillment capability and were really starting to do some cool things, like re-platforming the websites. But it was bought by private equity owners. They took on a lot of debt and I was part of a mass layoff. I think unfortunately its probably only a matter of time till its a shell of its former self.

Q: What do you like about marketing?

A: I love how multidisciplinary it is. I love how the art meets the science and how its all just an ecosystem. Its the perfect blend between structure and creativity, between technology and art, between data and feeling. And I love how cross-functional it is, especially digital marketing.

Q: I have to ask, is there a Broadway musical hiding in digital marketing?

A: Funny you should ask that. I have started this side project that Im calling corporate karaoke. Im taking musical theater and pop songs and Im reperforming them with corporate context. My latest is Joni Mitchells A Case of You, but its about SAP and how SAP is the invasive vine in your tech stack that you just cant quit.

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(You can check out Kathleens other funny songs on her YouTube channel, @Corporate-Karaoke.)

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Salary and Career: Kathleen Voboril can make martech sing - MarTech

SCORE Chester and Delaware Counties has free SCORE spring programs, including webinars and workshops to help your small business find its potential.

On May 23, from 6:30 to 7:30 PM., learn strategies for building a viable Internet Marketing Plan for your business.

This presentation will discuss the business aspect of Internet marketing, including goal setting and how to structure an Internet marketing campaign for success. Also included are six core internet marketing strategies you can use to drive traffic to your website.

The presentation concludes with insights into how artificial intelligence (AI) will be applied to Internet marketing.

Attendees will come away with actionable insights they can use to build a viable Internet Marketing Plan for their business.

About the Presenter

Cary Baskinis the owner of the Marketing Department in Malvern, a website, SEO, and digital marketing agency dedicated to helping clients build their brand, connect with their target market and generate leads.

Since 2011, his marketing agency has helped solopreneurs and small and medium-sized businesses leverage the power of the Internet to market their business locally or nationally.

His career spans over 40 years where he developed and launched many products nationwide as well as global market development in Canada, Europe, SE Asia, and Japan while working for Fortune 100 companies and small local technology companies. Baskin has an MBA, Masters in Bioengineering a BSEE.

Click here to register.

On Tuesday, May 23, starting at 1 PM, this webinar, led by SCORE expert business mentor and retired Northrup Grumman executive Karen Williams and the Deputy Director for the SBAs Office of Government Contracting, Wallace D. Sermons II,will take you through the steps to sell to the federal government.

This is the second of two webinars in a series.

23+ percent of all prime government contract dollars are awarded to small businesses. If you are not already selling your product or service to the federal government, you may be missing out on a major market opportunity.

Youll learn:

If you are not already set up as a federal small business, you are encouraged to also attend the webinar: Registering to Sell to the Federal Government Market offered May 16.

Attendees will receive the presentation materials and a link to this webinar recording.

Click here to register.

On May 23, from 6:30 to 7:30 PM, at the Chester County Library & District Center, learnhow to use the1-page business plan template that helps you deconstruct your idea into its key assumptions.

Leanstack Canvas is a business plan template that helps you deconstruct your idea into its key assumptions. It replaces elaborate business plans with a single-page business model.

Business plans take too long to write, are seldom updated, and are almost never read by others, but documenting your hypotheses is key. Leanstack Canvas solves this problem using a 1-page business model that takes under 20 minutes to create.

Sign up now to create a business model that will be read by more people, be more easily updated, and let you focus on building your business faster.

This live workshop takes place at 450 Exton Square Parkway in Exton.

About the Presenter

John Hess is a SCORE mentorvolunteer and a professor at West ChesterUniversity where he teaches finance and entrepreneurship.

He has more than 25 years of experience driving transformational change in senior leadership roles with global responsibility at Fortune 50 banking companies.

Hess is a public speaker and consultant on banking and systems topics as well as a township planning commissioner.He has a BS degree from The Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from Rutgers University.

Click here to register.

Celebrate Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with SCORE and learn how to make your business stand out while staying true to your cultural identity.

A Thursday, May 25 webinar, starting at 1 PM, will feature the amazing business owner and SCORE volunteer Eva Chen. Shell reveal powerful strategies to make your business stand out and stay true to your cultural identity.

During this event, youll learn how to balance the expectations of your culture with your own personal goals and what it takes to achieve success in America.

Well also discuss:

Dont miss this opportunity to learn from a true expert and move your business forward.

Live attendees will receive free business resources and a link to this webinar recording.

Click here to register.

SCOREis the nations largest network ofvolunteer business experts. It is dedicated to helping small businesses get off the ground, grow and achieve their goals with a variety of SCORE new year tools like webinars and workshops.

Make a difference as a SCORE volunteer.

Since 1964, it has provided education and mentorship to more than 11 million entrepreneurs nationwide.

SCORE Chester and Delaware Counties has been operating since 1985. It has 100 dedicated volunteers today. They provide confidential mentoring at no charge. They offer business seminars, workshops, and SCORE webinars to benefit the local community.

SCORE is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and a resource partner of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).

Find out more about SCORE small business webinars

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Give Your Business a Boost with These May SCORE Programs - VISTA.Today

In the last few years, the canning world has been rocked by a combination of supply-chain shortages and a massive uptick in the number of people interested in home food preservation. The result, predictably, has been shortages of supplies, notably lids. Ive canned for decades, but always in the back of my mind was a concern: What if I ran out of canning lids? What if none were available at the store? Can disposable canning lids be reused?

Ive had some success with scalding and reusing disposable lids, but it goes without saying this tactic is not recommended. Disposable lids are manufactured for single use only, and going against manufacturer recommendations is just inviting failure.

Most canners are familiar with the disposable lids put out by Ball or Kerr. However, there are now alternatives on the market well worth considering, including reusable lids. This article compares four kinds of lids: Two brands of disposable (Ball/Kerr, Superb) and two reusable (Tattler, Harvest Guard). I put all four through their paces by canning up a large quantity of turkey stock.

I pressure-canned my turkey stock (because it has bits of meat in it) in pints at 14 lbs. pressure (for my elevation) for 75 minutes in two batches. The first batch was split between the brands of disposable lids, and the second batch was split between the brands of reusable lids.

All the jars sealed. Now, lets examine the merits of each type of lid.

These are the benchmarks for quality lids and have been used by canners for generations. Made with tin-coated steel with an epoxy coating and plastisol sealant, theyre easy to find, since most stores carry them in their kitchen section. Like everything else, these lids have increased in price through the years, but not unreasonably so.

Ball/Kerr lids are famous for the satisfying pop sound as they seal, music to the ears of any canner. If correctly processed and then properly stored, the contents of jars sealed with Ball/Kerr lids are safe for years. While not officially recommended, weve eaten 10-year-old food without a problem.

Ball/Kerr lids are the standard by which all other lids are measured.

A newcomer to the scene, the request for manufacturing canning lids came to Superb Industries from two separate (and desperate) retailers during the 2020 lid shortage.

During the product development phase, Superb Industries examined common problems canners face, such as when the lid distorts and doesnt seal properly (known as buckling). After much research and testing, they sent prototype lids to over 400 home canners across the country for feedback. The proto-lids were tested on more than 18,000 jars of food.

The result is lids with a thicker sealant to accommodate discrepancies in jar rims (some jar rims are wider, some are thinner, some are more rounded, etc.). This trademarked BluSeal is thicker and softer than the sealant found on Ball/Kerr lids. They also trademarked the PopLok sound the lids make when they seal.

When I first received these lids, the two immediate things I noticed were that theyre thicker than Ball/Kerr lids and the sealant (as the name implies) is a bright blue.

I tested Superb lids several times in both a water-bath (for applesauce) and a pressure canner (for turkey stock and green beans). In all instances, theyve lived up to their name.

The first time I pulled jars with Superb lids out of a water bath, I was mildly distressed to see the lids had not yet sealed. I put the jars on a towel and waited. And waited. And waited. Then THUNK. One after the other, they all popped and sealed. Interestingly, the pop was bass in tone, not treble a much deeper sound than a standard Ball/Kerr lid. (My husband joked, They have manly pops, not girly pops.) I suspect the short delay in sealing was due to the thicker nature of the lids. A similar delay with similar results happened from Superb lids coming out of the pressure canner.

I came away incredibly enthusiastic about Superb lids and can recommend them without hesitation. They are comparable in price to Ball/Kerr lids (in some instances cheaper, except shipping must be factored in) and are, in my opinion, superior in quality.

Modern reusable lids are a two-part deal: a food-grade plastic lid and a food-grade nitrile rubber gasket. The lids can be used indefinitely; the gaskets are said to last between 12 and 15 years before they should be replaced.

Tattlers are the original reusable lids. Their genesis came in 1976 when the sudden popularity of canning with the back-to-the-land hippies resulted in a severe lid shortage across the country. The Tattler Company responded to this crisis by developing a fully reusable lid, but the product didnt catch on. The company was resurrected in 2010 and, with the advantage of internet marketing, exploded across the canning worldwith good reason. Tattler lids live up to their expectations. I first tried Tattlers in 2010 and was so impressed I ordered a lifetime supply.

These are similar to Tattlers since the son of the original Tattler creator started the company. The son had a different vision for marketing the lids, so started his own business in 2019. Theyre of similar quality and price as Tattlers and have an excellent reputation.

Reusable lids (either Tattler or Harvest Guard) have a higher learning curve. The lidsand especially the gasketsneed to be scalded before use (boil water, turn the heat off, drop the lids/gaskets into the hot water, and leave them in the hot water until theyre ready to put on the jars). After canning, the jars should be removed from the canner, allowed to rest for five minutes, the rings tightened, and then left alone for about 12 to 18 hours to fully cool. The rings should not be removed during this cooling period. Only after the rings are removed from the fully cooled jars can the canner confirm the jars have sealed. Ive had a higher failure rate with reusable lids than with disposable lids; often, at least one jar per batch fails to seal. This failure rate, however, doesnt hinder my enthusiasm for the lids for reasons Ill explain in a moment.

Disturbingly, for some canners, both Tattler and Harvest Guard lids dont ping or pop when they seal. They cant; theyre made of rigid plastic, not metal. This incorrectly leads some canners to believe the sealed food isnt safe. However, Ive had excellent success with both Tattlers and Harvest Guards as long as the directions for use are followed exactly. Reusable lids have a higher up-front cost but will last for many years. For people who are frequent canners, this is an enormous advantage.

So, why do I retain my enthusiasm for them if reusable lids are trickier to use, more expensive up front, and have a higher failure rate? Its very simple: I never have to buy canning lids again. Im a heavy canner and routinely put-up hundreds of jars of food each season. For that reason, having enough lids is an enormous concern. With my supply of reusable lids, I never have to worry about shortages again. As someone who prefers canning to all other food preservation methods, I cant even begin to express the sense of security having a lifetime supply of canning lids provides. The occasional failure to seal is a small price to pay for this peace of mind.

Out of the four kinds of lids mentioned in this article, what are my recommendations?

If youre an inexperienced canner just learning the particulars of food preservation, begin with disposable types. Theyre easier and more dependable. To be honest, I now prefer the Superb lids to the Ball/Kerr brand.

For more experienced canners, I cant recommend the reusable lids highly enough. Accept that they have a learning curve and set yourself to learn how they work. Then you can sit back and relish the thought that these lids will likely last a lifetime. I can unhesitatingly recommend either Tattler or Harvest Guard with equal enthusiasm.

Now that Im well-stocked in both kinds of lids, heres my canning strategy: If a product is expensive (such as meats), Ill use disposable lids to ensure all the jars seal. If a product is cheaper and more abundant (such as produce from our garden), Ill use reusable lids and accept that one or two jars may fail to seal.

Remember that all four of these brands of lids have been through years of testing, tweaking, adjusting, and improving. All four brands perform their function beautifully.

One final thought: For both novice and experienced canners, the quality of home-canned food is generally far superior to highly processed foods available in the grocery store. As we look to a future with rising food prices and shortages, canning skills will be invaluable. Having an abundant supply of jars and lids ensures youll be in a better position to keep your pantry stocked in the years ahead. Something to think about.

Patrice Lewis is a wife, mother, homesteader, homeschooler, author, blogger, columnist, and speaker. An advocate of simple living and self-sufficiency, she has practiced and written about self-reliance and preparedness for almost 30 years. Patrice is experienced in homestead animal husbandry and small-scale dairy production, food preservation and canning, country relocation, home-based businesses, homeschooling, personal money management, and food self-sufficiency. Follow her website http://www.PatriceLewis.com or blog http://www.Rural-Revolution.com.

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Comparing Different Types of Canning Lids Mother Earth News - Mother Earth News

As of today (May 25), the General Data Protection Regulation has been in force for five years across the European Union. A period in which the data privacy law has been lightly enforced by regulators, left ad execs confused over what is and isnt permissible and overshadowed by platforms.

Theres no other way to explain why theres been so little enforcement of the law. Indeed, most (64%) of the 159 enforcement measures by late 2022 were merely reprimands, according to the Irish Council for Civil Liberties study of the European Data Protection Boards register of final decisions.

Maybe this is the nature of bureaucracy in all its glory.

When it launched in 2018 the GDPR was hailed as a privacy superhero of sorts. It set the rules for how companies handle personal data, making sure they couldnt just grab it without someones permission.

But those rules were written in a way that left a lot open to interpretation. And that shouldve been fine. Regulators said they would educate the market and only enforce where they believe the most harm was being caused. This happened, but not always in ways that have changed the ad market for the better. Efforts to educate were often reduced to guidance notes that some ad execs deemed indecipherable see the thriving cottage industry of so-called GDPR consultants as proof while enforcement has been patchy at best.

Johnny Ryan, senior fellow at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, was more blunt with his assessment: He said the GDPR has not been enforced in any significant way. The crux of his argument can be read in a post he shared with the Economist. Other industry voices have been equally underwhelmed by the impact (or lack thereof) of the GDPR. The platforms never really changed their practices, said one agency exec speaking on the condition of anonymity.

In short, the story of the last five years is one of missed opportunities, minimal reforms and lots of privacy consultants.

That assessment, while overly simplified, is at least directionally right, and the recent record-breaking 1.2 billion fine dished out to Facebook owner Meta only augments the argument.

It was issued by Irelands Data Protection Commission earlier this week (May 26) after it concluded that the tech company had ferried troves of personal data of its users in Europe to the U.S. without sufficient safeguards in place against its misuse. The breakdown can be found here, but this is the abridged version: the fine itself doesnt really matter (Meta made a net profit of more than $23 billion last year): what does matter, however, is the requirement for Meta to stop the storage of personal data on European users in the U.S. where contraband Meta says this is about a clash of EU and U.S. law rather than data being at risk. This is basically true.

Needless to say, the implications of this ruling will take a while to shake out.

Keep in mind that Meta will probably appeal. Then theres the possibility that lawmakers in Europe and the U.S. can agree on a mechanism known as the Data Privacy Framework that will let Meta and other companies to legally transfer the data of EU individuals to the U.S. In the meantime, any company which needs to transfer personal data to the U.S. will remain utterly confused.

This is the GDPR in a nutshell: a delicate dance where every step forward feels like three steps back. The wide deviation from the anticipated outcomes for advertising starts to make more sense.

Facebook, media agencies, programmatic advertising were all meant to be among the biggest losers in the fallout, and yet they came through it relatively unscathed. Even dodgy cookie consent, which was a big bugbear of regulators in the run up to the GDPR, are in rude health. Advertisers still dont know how cookies the mechanism that houses the data they use to power programmatic advertisers are obtained. It turns out pretty sneakily on occasion.

Thats not to say, the GDPR was a walk in the park for the ad industry. The scars are there for all to see.

Remember Drawbridge, the cross-device vendor? It had to exit Europe entirely thanks to the GDPR. Verve did similar as did countless smaller ad tech vendors who didnt have the resource or knowledge to deal with the GDPR. Larger companies also struggled. Criteos stock price seemed to be in a permanent state of flux in those final few months before the regulation arrived. Oh, and dont forget Googles Doubleclick ID. The thing agencies relied on for cross-device attribution across the web got restricted due to the wide-ranging data privacy law.

Still, these flashpoints were rare and the consequences of them were limited.

The same cant be said for Transparency & Consent Framework (read those cookie notice pop-up that gets in the way of reading online articles).

This was the industrys attempt to standardize how businesses publishers and ad tech vendors predominantly, but also agencies can continue running programmatic advertising on the open exchange in a way that is compliant with GDPR. Surprisingly (or maybe unsurprisingly), it didnt.

The IAB Europe is working to fix the TCF it orchestrated with the rest of the market. However, those efforts may not be enough. Thats a matter for the EUs Court of Justice to settle.

Until then, the TCFs fate and more broadly the fate of buying ads from the open exchange, where prices are decided in real-time through an auction, hang in the balance. Cue lots of concerned ad execs the foundations of a large part of their industry could crumble.

The information-and-choice paradigm that the GDPR incarnates is undoubtedly the best way to empower users to decide which online content and services they pay for with money and which they wish to access against their willingness to receive advertising, said Townsend Feehan, CEO of IAB Europe. But having produced a global gold standard for data protection regulation, Europe needs to ensure the supervisory authorities have the knowledge and other resources to ensure the Regulation delivers all the benefits to users and to Europes digital economy that it can.

In many ways, the fracas over TCF is symptomatic of how much the ad industry, especially the buy-side, has adapted to the GDPR. Where possible those stakeholders have tried to replace or even rewrite cornerstones of how personal data is sourced, processed and stored but rarely have they tried to rewrite them entirely. Thats changing now, to be fair, but thats more due to second order effects of the GDPR than a direct causation of it.

A lot of this is because data privacy regulation is starting to become much more comprehensive and as a result its becoming customer centric, said Jon Suarez-Davis, chief commercial officer at data control business Ketch, who was leading Kelloggs digital strategy when the regulation came into effect. Pre-GDPR you had a handful of people who were stewarding billions of dollars of media and data investment at companies. Today, that aperture has widened: legal counsel, data scientists and other specialists are being brought into the fold a lot more when it comes to these discussions.

Trying to figure out what the GDPR has added up to over the last five years is really a process of addition by subtraction. The demonstration of what it hasnt achieved illuminates what it has. And what it has achieved is public awareness. Nowadays, people are a lot more aware of their personal privacy online than they were in 2018. True, they already were aware in markets like Germany, Italy and Spain, not so much in places like the U.K.

One in six people in the U.K. say they clear their internet browsing history and cookie cache daily and 18% say that they opt out of websites tracking cookies on a daily basis, per a study of 2,000 respondents by ad tech firm Nano Interactive. These arent overwhelming numbers by any means, but they do show an interest in data privacy issues,

We can complain about the level of enforcement or the fact that its [compliance] is too complicated but without the GDPR individuals would be in a far worse place than they are today, said Nigel Jones, co-founder of Privacy Compliance Hub. Were well set up for the future because of it.

What he means is what the GDPR has lacked in enforcement chops it made up for in terms of influence.

Over the last five years, it has become the base for many privacy regulations beyond the EU, from the California Consumer Privacy Act in the U.S to Brazils General Data Protection Law. Even recent calls for a federal privacy law in the U.S. can be traced back to the GDPR. And thats not even considering the broader impact it could have on cross-border data flows as the Meta fine shows.

Perhaps, this is the more enduring effect of the GDPR. It was the start of a more nuanced, focused debate over data privacy. And if nothing else, those conversations have forced ad execs to think a bit more about the provenance of the data they used, whether consent equated to compliance with the law, and confront aspects of an ad industry that are unethical at best and unlawful at worst. No, this didnt always lead to reform for the better, and yes marketers have got complacent in some regards. But no one marketer or otherwise can say they arent aware of these issues now.

Thats a good thing, said Ben Kartzman, chief operating officer at Mediaocean. Its really important that the ad industry gives people choice over how they share their data and are clear with them on what happens to it if they do. If GDPR has accomplished anything over the last five years it has heightened awareness of the importance of privacy and the need to protect that.

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Five years in, the GDPR has had a double-edged impact on the ad ... - Digiday

The third-party cookie is going away (eventually, probably), but cookieless identifiers remain somewhat half-baked. First-party data has become increasingly important, but privacy concerns and privacy regulations have also increased. Personalization is a priority for many advertisers, but it comes with added costs. Ad tech firms are becoming much more capable, but this is making the programmatic supply chain a bit more complicated.

These were among the top topics discussed by brand and agency executives during a pair of closed-door sessions at the Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit, which kicked off on May 22 in Palm Springs, California. The conversations were held under the Chatham House Rule, so Digiday could share was said while maintaining the executives anonymity. Here is a sampling of the conversations.

I need one scalable, proven method thats not Google. I need it 100% scalable, ubiquitous.

When youre working with different DSPs, can they work with this [cookieless identifer]? Theres this yes and no and then I can work with this, but I cant work with that. So youve got to find a workaround, and the workaround is this pain in the ass.

We work a lot with LiveRamp. Its a big headache in terms of standardizing how were pushing our data and getting it back. Theres always a lot of friction in terms of match rate, how many cookies were putting in and getting back.

All these different solutions and some of them could work but because theres so many competing interests right now, one or two of them could work but theyre trying to do the same thing or competing so we have to test them and they dont go anywhere.

Theyre just too new.

To use an analogy, who here has been to The Cheesecake Factory? Who here hasnt been able to decide what to order? Thats the problem.

It has to be ubiquitous. Everybody has to adopt the same thing and then everybodys testing off of this menu and you get like a little piece here and you get a little piece there. And then competing interests means that someone might try to close off. So if Im integrated with this supply, Im baked into that specific site list. It needs to be something where its very clear that the data companies and the supply side are on the same page. Its not fully scalable to the place where it can actually replace anything.

Advertisers are now really protective of their first-party data. So if theyve already chosen a place that theyre gonna house their data, theyre real picky about letting it flow somewhere else. Its difficult to find the right place. And LiveRamp has a really nice place in the industry to begin with because they were already trusted.

I think that we tend to actually want a monolithic solution and yet were terrified of a monolithic solution. And I think that that is something thats really getting in the way of it because we say, OK, well is it LiveRamp? Is it The Trade Desk? Is it UID 2.0? Is it whatever Googles trying to do with grouping people together? The problem is that we would all prefer to choose one so that we dont have interoperability issues.

Being able to take what Fortune 500s have already figured out, they all have their own platforms, theyre not waiting for a unified solution. Theyve already built it; it exists on their servers. Were hoping for a solution cuz our brands may or may not have that budget depending on who they are. So were kind of sitting in the middle like whats next?

No one can actually control [the programmatic advertising supply chain] to create this new ubiquitous experience. Its likely gonna become an intermediary that we have to work with between multiple data platforms. Itll complicate all of our work. My question would be: What clients will pay for it?

I mean theres definitely urgency [to move away from the third-party cookie]. I just think that Google is stretching it out and theres not a lot of trust that theyre actually gonna complete the migration this year.

Ive been laughing a lot. Every time we hear something its definite. And now not so much.

O.G. ad networks introduced ad exchanges to unite them all. We need an ad exchange for identity, thats a neutral third party. The problem with The Trade Desk is theyre not neutral. They represent the demand side, and who actually holds most of the first-party [data] keys? The publishers.

In [The Trade Desks] defense, they tried to stay neutral. But then other people, like Google, owns part of the supply. Whenever you try to trade value, like youre trying to make a JVP with The Trade Desk, they dont have as many tokens to trade with.

Everythings too divided again. Who has the relationships The Trade Desk has? Yahoos probably divesting their supply but also probably doing the same thing. What do you go to Magnite for? Magnite calls me and say, Were the CTV shop. But The Trade Desk has already kind of established that.

Theyre all [claiming theyre] the CTV shops.

Everythings creating more complexity as a way to get closer to supply.

How can we work with both the SSPs and DSPs to get what we want? I think part of it starts with figuring out what that want actually is.

I think everyone in this room is OK with regulation. The problem is that we dont have the right parties in the room for the regulation side.

Its almost like there just needs to be a better consortium of the conversation as to what needs to be decided what becomes regulation.

There has to be some standardization.

Theres all these breakouts within IAB to different groups, but there needs to be a newer wave that goes up to the Fed. You watch those [congressional hearings], and you see the questions theyre asking, and its like, Ah crap.

All of the conversations that were hearing, its because the consumer has lost trust. Not just in terms of where their data is going or how its being used. But its also how its being collected.

If were going to develop regulation, its tough because its coordinating the sell side, the data teams, the buy side. Its a lot of monkeys in that circus to get everybody in the same direction.

The trend were seeing is the larger brands are ready to go with personalization, as opposed to the medium and small brands that its more dragging them across the finish line.

Our CPG client is actually pushing personalization. We are going from these bigger strategic audiences to, I want to know the ones that are interested in sports, in traveling, and theyre each going to get a different ad thats more tailored to their interest. So our clients are pushing that personalization, but were also testing, Is that actually necessary? Do we really need to dig into these peoples data like that? Do we need to also pay more for it because its doubled our CPMs?

Content is personalized. Period. We just happen to be advertising. Like, people expect personalization. Theres not a publisher I know thats any decent size that doesnt personalize the shit out of your landing experience. Theres not a retailer I know that doesnt personalize the shit out of your landing experience.

I work on the upper funnel a lot, and Im like, Why are we personalizing this much?

I would argue, if you dont personalize, you could also run the risk of pushing people away.

Not to break it down to the most obvious thing, but its how much money you have to put into personalization. Is it even worth it for a campaign?

What if we consider the consumer instead of trying to solve the data needs on the backend? [What if] we basically just say, Yeah, were going to pay you for your information.

[Wheres that money coming from?]

In my mind, it would be whoever is housing the ads, so the publishers.

In order to make a reward very meaningful, it has to be a big number. But when we talk about [the prices advertisers pay per ad], its not going to be convincing enough for someone to share that data to the advertisers.

Is the new normal you go to a website and youve got to give an email address to even view the content? And its like, Oh, you didnt want to opt in to our CDP? Well, then you dont get to see anything. Is that the replacement we all have to go to and brands want to go to because theyre not willing to survive without data?

If you look at England, you basically cant see content until you opt in. So its just as bad, in my opinion. At the end of the day, users are either being forced into something. So I think theres a happier middle ground where users can control what they want to see and brands have to adapt.

Nothing is user-focused at all, actually. Like in the U.K., its like, OK, accept, and now I can read what I was going to read.

There needs to be a conversation with consumers where we dont talk down to them. Its kind of like what they did on Twitch where streamers have to choose if they wanted to have sponsored ads. Its like, if you want this content, this is how you support it. I feel like we need to educate the general public.

People have just gotten so used to getting everything for free. As a consumer, I get so angry when I really want to read this article and theres a paywall. Im totally willing, in that instance, just to get to that place of, Yes, Im going to log in, youre going to know everything about me, and then I can find that article. It is about educating people the value exchange that the internet has been free and, if something is free, then youre the product.

I got a cool paywall the other day. I was reading a local newspaper and hit the point where youve got to log in. But then it said, You can sign in or you could answer questions. It was some sort of study. Im like, Wait, thats cool. And then I got to read the article after that. So they got what they needed, and I got to read the content without having to do the login process, and it was a smooth experience.

Part of the problem with all this is that we try to sell this story of, We want you to have this experience and this value exchange, but I think to the average person while we think they dont think its bullshit sorry, they do.

I work in pharma. We want to manage frequency, the cadence of messages, the sequence. We want to make sure were not pressing too much or too hard. You dont want to remind somebody that they have cancer 17 times. However, it is important that you get in front of the person with something that can actually help them, but not to the point where its upsetting.

We have to take ourselves out of the advertising mindset for a moment and into the mindset of the person consuming the data. In a lot of the programmatic conversation, its more about appeasing the client.

See the article here:
'We need an ad exchange for identity': Overheard at the Digiday ... - Digiday