SMARTZER @ DEMEXCO 2019

Shoppable Video - The Fastest Growing Digital Ad Format

Last week, Smartzer took on DMEXCO, Europe’s largest congress trade fair for the digital industry and it was big, really big. With about 40,000 delegates attending, there was a vast amount of stands to see and talks to listen to. We just about managed to fit it all in.

To kick things off, the highlight of our trip was definitely presenting to the tour of WPP Delegates and VIP Clientele on the Unruly stand on Wednesday morning. During our presentation, we were able to demonstrate the true power of shoppable video and illustrate why it is one of the fastest-growing digital ad formats in 2019.

Special thanks to Unruly for hosting us in their amazing stand!

Aside from our own demonstration here are our key take-homes from the talks we managed to slip into:

Video Ads - time to get serious

One of the best talks we attended was definitely the ‘Video Ads - Time To Get Serious’ Panel hosted by David Berkowitz. David was joined by an all-star panel that included:

Norm Johnston, CEO at Unruly

Jannika Bock, Director Client Solutions, Central Europe at Google

Irina Petriceck-Steiner, General Manager Operations EMEA at SpotX @ smartclip

Patrick Fischer, Chief Business Officer at OneFootball

Jim Piercy, Group Creative Director at The Trust

The discussion was really flowing throughout the panel and the audience was met with a few heated debates.

Relevance is Key

Faced with the question of the state of Personalisation, the group collectively redefined the true meaning of Personalisation to the user as Relevance. From the Unruly perspective, delivering relevant ads to relevant people online has become a powerful solution for brands and agencies in order to drive effectiveness online.

However, bring that idea to YouTube and they would argue that not only do brands have to consider relevance to their users but also when adapting creative to formats. They have to be cautious not to force anything into the wrong place. With so many different formats available, it is hard to keep up and each format suits different types of messaging. For example, 6 second YouTube Ads might be effective for an extra piece of brand awareness but they would struggle on their own to drive more down the funnel campaign goals such as evaluation and purchase.

It is necessary for brands to think about where their content would be most relevant in order to achieve a powerful emotional reaction from their audience. However, they also need to think about what format best suits their creative. As a result, platforms and advertisers need to possess a clear understanding of what formats drive which outcomes.

Top 3 Quotes:

“85% of current online video ad consumption with is with sound off”

“Most people ignore ads as ads ignore most people”

“Tools don’t make bad creative good creative”

New Age of Digitisation - Henkel x Numberly

Clyde Araujo, Global Senior Manager Customer Experience and CRM at Henkel at HenkelX

Thibaut Munier, Co-founder and COO at Numberly

Integrating 1st party data with marketing strategies has been a challenge for brands in the past. However, nowadays, data is becoming easier to integrate within the marketing industry. When it comes to CRM, the current challenge lies with converting the value of the CRM data into data onboarding platforms, media platforms and retailers. Through utilising their CRM data with Numberly, Henkel has now made precision marketing a reality.

Data aside, one of the big take-homes from our perspective was Henkel’s fantastic approach to fostering relationships with start-ups and innovations in media. Clyde Araujo, Global Experience and CRM Strategist at HenkelX pointed out their process as follows:

Concept Development - 3 Months

Promising Concept Checkpoints:

• Value Creation Plan

• Fit for Henkel

• Fit for Market

• Competitive Pressure

Build MVP - 9 Months

Valid Proposition Checkpoints:

• Ability to go to market

• Clear monetisation plan

• Ability to be integrated with eCRM

Scale Up

Proven Demand Checkpoints:

• Growth in revenue contribution

• Growth in consumer base

• Growth in retention rates

Expand - 2 years

Winning Model Checkpoints:

• Expansion Plan

• Revenue Growth

• Net Profits

• Large Customer Base

This process enables Henkel to build, test and learn with organisational rigor and agility. Reflective of Smartzer's ethos, it is great to see tech start ups thrive.

DMEXCO was truly a blast. We met some fantastic companies and scores of talented professionals.

Until next year!

The best Bratwurst ever, @ Gildem Im Zim