Article: 5-min Read
The media industry is undergoing a huge transformation. We’re talking upend-the-Internet huge. And with this transformation come opportunities that all of us—advertisers, media agencies, and tech partners alike—must seize. Or risk being left in the dust.
So, what do we do? First, think about butterflies and their metamorphosis. This transformation is an opportunity to view things differently. And to make media work in everyone’s best interest.
Advertisers, ask yourselves this question: What kind of media campaign data have I been using to build my audiences?
If the answer is third-party cookies, the death of cookies (coming in 2022) should be hot on your radar. When Google pulls cookies out of their respective ecosystems, the traditional instrument you’ve used to track online behavior and digital footprints of potential buyers will be gone.
It’s time for advertisers to lift the hood and ask: Who are the new data providers that can not only fix the hole that has been created but also propel us forward with something better? The simple answer: retail media networks.
In the future of advertising, brands will work with retail media networks because of the way these networks can provide access to first-party data in privacy-safe environments. This approach enables advertisers to build their audiences from first-party, real-people data. As an industry, we’re moving from 20K respondent surveys to a database of millions of real people—a database built on actual transactions and behaviors. That’s a significant leap forward.
Excited for a media world based on real-people data? Great! But are you prepared for it?
There’s a crawl, walk, run approach to preparing for a world without cookies. Most advertisers are still in the crawl phase because they don’t have the talent, processes, or tools to execute media campaigns using first-party data yet. Advertisers’ and agencies’ first step: Acquire the right people with the right skills. It’s a simple mantra: People, process, and tools!
People: No matter how experienced or skilled a marketer or advertiser is, no one person can do everything. Even with the advent of programmatic advertising, in which math and machines are making more and more decisions, the outcome is only as good as the human beings providing the input and gleaning the insights. Moving forward, our media teams must be inclusive of all the skill sets required, such as consumer insights, media planning and buying, data analytics, and data science and modeling.
Process: We also need to re-imagine and restructure marketing and advertising teams in a way that incorporates the different range of skills across the life cycle of a campaign. Instead of leveraging your team’s expertise at the end to discover what happened and what worked, your team can make improvements and iterations from consumer insights down to activation.
Tools: By unlocking your team’s potential, you can build stronger campaigns and see better media outcomes. This cross-skilled dream team can harness the power of information and technology and apply it to create more humanly relevant empathic advertising experiences. The result: better advertising,better top-line sales, and better ROAS.
Think about where Target is with brand safety today. When working with Roundel™, advertisers can feel assured about brand safety because Roundel™ adheres to Target’s brand-positive standards.
At Roundel, we are agency people, brand marketers, and math nerds who have been working toward this industry transformation for a long time. We know you’re up against a lot, as we are too, so we’ve brought together all these solutions in one place, connecting hundreds of brands to an incredible guest base built on real-people data.
Designed for better relationships. Designed for bigger results.
At Roundel, we believe that relationships are key to getting more from retail media. That’s why in everything we do, we’re true to our Target guests and the brands we work with.
Through collaboration and an unparalleled understanding of the Target guest, we design considered, intuitive, and human media experiences that engage audiences on their terms. Which means every placement is more relevant and every connection more meaningful. So your brand can grow sales, right alongside lasting loyalty.
For more on our solutions — including CTV, display, influencer, video, programmatic, search, and social — contact us.
