The Unruly Blog
Stay ahead of the curve and at the forefront of ad tech with the Unruly blog, covering stories from across the Unrulyverse and beyond!
B is for Brand Safety
As part of our new A-Z of adtech series, we’ll bring you a story every week inspired by an industry term from each letter of the alphabet. Get set for articles, infographics, gifs, quizzes… maybe even the odd poem or short story. This week, B is for Brand safety… Brand safety issues like ad fraud, viewability, invalid traffic or non-premium environments have become the most talked about challenges in the ad industry. Here’s our deep (sea) dive into everything you need to know about brand safety. If you missed it click here to check out last week’s post on A is for App-ads.txt
A is for App-ads.txt
Welcome to the new A-Z of adtech series. We’ll bring you a story each week inspired by an industry term from each letter of the alphabet. Get set for articles, infographics, gifs, quizzes… maybe even the odd poem or short story. This week, A is for app-ads.txt… Watch out ad fraud! This week the boffins at the IAB Tech Lab released app-ads.txt in beta. This means the much-awaited app guidance that can increase the pool of authorized digital advertising inventory while reducing fraud is almost here! Available for public comment until February 4, 2019, app-ads.txt is an extension of the original ads.txt standard that provides a mechanism for content owners to declare who is authorized to sell their inventory. With demand side platforms (DSPs), it allows buyers to
Listen In: Thoughts from the buy side
Last month leading personalities from the buy side came together for our Trust Talks panel entitled exchanging views, thoughts from the buy side. The discussion revolved around the ever-changing programmatic landscape and the best practice examples from those on the buy side. It also addressed auction mechanics like bid caching and shading, and the emergence of new transaction models like programmatic guaranteed. They also looked at preferences for 1st versus 2nd price auctions, and how initiatives such as ads.txt have changed the way traders buy. So sit back, relax and listen to Vincent Flood, Editor at Video Ad News, Matt Bushby, Head of Programmatic at MediaCom, Charlie Glyn, Head of Programmatic at Havas Media Group, Simon Harris, Head of Programmatic at Activation Dentsu Aegis and Emily Macdonald, SVP Precision EMEA at Publicis
Small but mighty: making sense of 6 second video
Phil Townend, our Chief Commercial Officer APAC, speaks about the challenges and opportunities that the 6 second video presents, and how to do it right. Why 6 seconds? When YouTube introduced the 6 second video ad in 2016, it was a well-received response to the challenge of placing ads ahead of popular video content. Up until then, the ad industry, with the agility for which it is famous, had doggedly clung to its tried and tested 30-second format and wondered why people ignored or complained about brands intruding on their viewing experience. The 6 second ad promised to change all that. YouTube’s unskippable new format threw advertisers a lifeline when it came to engaging with the millennial attention span that was fine-tuned to respond to snack sized content.
Ken Suh on trust, emotions and making Unruly UNstoppable!
This week we sat down with Ken Suh from our New York office to talk about trust in advertising, the power of emotions, and what life is like as a COO at Unruly. Q: Hi, first of all, could you introduce yourself and tell a bit about what you do here at Unruly? I am the Global COO at Unruly and am based in New York. I have been with Unruly for four and a half years. Q: How did you find out about Unruly? I learned about Unruly online and also from colleagues in the industry. Back then, I met the co-founders and I knew this was a very special place as soon as I met them. Q: What notable roles did you hold prior to Unruly?
5 new technology stories that will change the world!
Our Futurist Elena Corchero has her eyes firmly set on the future. She is always on the lookout for new technology that will impact the way we play, work, travel and experience life. Check her top 5 stories that stood out this month. MIT invested $1 billion in AI! MIT recently announced that they’re investing a huge $1 billion into the future of AI. This means that they will cover the costs of anyone heading to the establishment to study AI. It also puts the US firmly in the lead in the race to develop and grow AI in the direction they want to take it. At the moment AI could go in any direction however MIT is focussing on keeping the human in mind and prioritising ethics
Case Study: Growing support for The Red Cross
In 2018, Unruly launched a pro bono charity ad campaign in Sweden to help The Red Cross, the global charity dedicated to supporting communities around the world when crisis strikes. The ad campaign was designed to generate awareness among donors, increase support of humanitarian causes and compassionate values. The charity also wanted the campaign to generate new leads to grow future donations. Harnessing the power of emotional data The Red Cross partnered with Unruly to harness the power of emotional data and targeting, to ensure the ad campaign was as effective as it could be. The charity produced three videos which evoked emotions of sadness, pride and warm-heartedness. Audiences also said they felt informed when watching the videos. The intended audience was urbanites aged 25 and over. In order to
Identity, the quest for an open and alternative digital ID continues
Our latest Trust Talks event took place on 6 November at the Hospital Club in London. The event was made up of four panels, all devoted to the wonderful world of programmatic! The event was a huge success and brought together influential figures from across the publishing and advertising industries for open and honest discussions about driving the industry forward. Below you can read highlights from the panel hosted by Unruly’s Programmatic Lead, Paul Gubbins. The panel looked at where we are as an industry in the quest for an alternative and open digital ID, and discussed the idea that life post-cookie will challenge visibility for both buyers and sellers, unless they operate within walled gardens, ID portability, and how initiatives from bodies such as the IAB Tech Lab
Through the looking glass: what’s in store for ‘madtech’?
What should the ‘madtech’ world be thinking about as we dust off 2018? The pending Identity wars Many column inches will once again be dedicated to the pros and cons of probabilistic versus deterministic IDs. Digital identity will become the new battleground, and those that own it will display little sympathy for those that don’t, as it increasingly becomes a USP to lock in media budgets. Device graphs will be trendy once again. Next year they will be the must-have accessories as consumer time fragments even further from desktop, mobile web, app, over the top (OTT) and increasingly the devices powered by the growing IoT’s infrastructure. ID coalitions and joint ventures will come and go. Some will focus on building a more efficient cookie to increase match rates
