IPG Lab + Zefr Release The Power of Relevance: Content, Context, and Emotions

The ad industry often uses people’s web behavior data to serve them ads. But, targeting based on demographic data could easily reach the wrong person with the wrong ad. Contextual targeting uses the video content people are watching to serve them the right ad at the right time.

Today IPG Media Lab, in partnership with Zefr, released their joint study on the effectiveness of running video ads alongside contextually relevant content on YouTube. The research includes almost 9,000 consumers, 5 different industry verticals and examines 4 different types of contextual targeting methods. The IPG Media Lab also employed next gen tools to track consumer attention while they watched the ads.

The study answers the following questions:

• Does contextual targeting improve the consumer experience?
• When consumers are in different mindsets, do their brains interpret the ad differently?
• Does placement alongside contextually relevant content make ads work harder against brand KPIs?
• What types of contextual targeting are most effective, if any?

Interested in learning more? Download the full report below to dive into the results. Or, you can follow a more visual narrative with the link below.

Download the full Power of Relevance deck here.

Or, walk through a visual narrative here.

Event Recap: Three Key Themes from AdClub’s Measurement: Now

On Thursday, the Lab attended the New York Ad Club’s Measurement: Now, a half-day event dedicated to data tracking and responding to the consumer journey. Three key themes emerged from the panels and keynote speeches:

Content and Context: Though the idea of a “consumer journey” isn’t new, brands are now acquiring the ability to target individuals in a specific context—time, physical location, device, point in the sales funnel, and so on—with an appropriate message. What this means is that marketers can develop more nuanced segmentation based on behavior and flesh out personas into real humans. This will increase brands’  relevancy, since as Audrey Hendley, Senior VP and GM, Acquisition & Prospect Engagement of American Express OPEN, noted, data must ultimately answer the question “what does our prospect want?”

Privacy and the Value Exchange: Ad technology is rapidly approaching the point where data from multiple devices (phones, television, and more) will be able to be tied to a unique, comprehensive consumer profile. While this has great potential for brands, “what thrills me as a marketer terrifies me as a citizen,” said Deborah Marquardt, SVP, Managing Director at MediaVest. In order to avoid what Kosta Skoulikaris, VP, Advertiser Solutions, Nielsen called the “icky factor,” brands must safeguard consumer data and provide value in return. 

Redefining ROI: As Aaron Fetters, Director of Insights and Analytics Solutions Center of the Kellogg Company, pointed out, marketers are increasingly accountable for budgets, making it imperative to get the “most of out of the money we spend.” But that doesn’t necessarily mean that brands should focus entirely on ROI—in fact, Shelley Zallis, CEO of Ipsos Open Thinking Exchange, suggested that ROE, or “return on engagement” may be a better metric.

Event Recap: AdWeek—Programmatic Sophistication: Riding the Next Wave of Innovation

The IPG Media Lab kicked off Advertising Week bright and early on Monday, attending a panel on the future of programmatic featuring Matt Seiler, the Global CEO IPG Mediabrands; Vivek Shah, CEO and Chairman, IAB; Neil Vogel, CEO, About.com; and Tim Cadogan, CEO, OpenX; and moderated by Alex Kantrowitz of Ad Age.

Complementing, Not Competing

The hot button topic on everyone’s mind was Facebook’s announcement that it was relaunching the Atlas ad platform. Far from being concerned about a formidable competitor, the panelists believed that having access to more data would be better for everyone involved. As Shah noted, “If they can bring data that makes our inventory more valuable, I think publishers will line up.”

Context and the Audience

Far from mass standardization or “bulk buying” that the term implies, programmatic can actually serve to make advertising more personal and customized. “I loved the simplicity and honesty of a brief, but it always too broad of an audience, ” noted Seiler. “Now you can write those briefs to very specific audiences.” Most importantly, data can provide context to the consumer’s decision-making process. “If we can append data to how real people are behaving, that’s the future for us,” said Vogel.

The New Normal

Just as other marketplaces have shifted to more automated processes, the advertising industry will becoming increasingly programmatic. Yet these changes aren’t anything to fear—if anything, programmatic will simply be the way things are done. Within the next two to five years, in fact, Seigel predicted “session like this one won’t even happen.”