More than that, however, the change could have a destructive effect on sections of the overall economy, right when many businesses are suffering from the effects of COVID-19.
That is the assessment of a seasoned digital media deal-maker and trends-watcher.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, LUMA Partners CEO Terence Kawaja gave his assessment of Apple’s planned change to IDFA (Identity For Advertisers), which will be made opt-in only on the user end.
“I think there are so many losers with such a significant magnitude that this notion, this initiative, by Apple is going to cause so much destruction to people selling goods and services,” Kawaja says.
“Ten years ago, the app market, the digitally delivered goods and services market, was so small as a percentage of the economy and the ecosystem.
“But fast forward, today, so much of our lives are derived through our phones, through our apps, such that if this craters the ability for customer acquisition, for not just games, but all facets of the economy, which are driven through apps, including e-commerce, this is going to have a devastating economic effect.
“Presumably that message got through to Apple because they need to really rethink this.”
IDFA helps advertisers collect and unify user data from different apps.
Apple had planned to turn it off by default from iOS 14 this month. Now it says it will delay the change until early 2021.
“Everyone deriving their revenues from advertising sources today largely is doing so on the basis of targeted advertising,” Kawaja says.
“So I think you’re going to see a substantial hit across the board. There are many, many losers and the impact is significant so this is why Apple needs to rethink this.
Kawaja says Apple had not worked consensually enough with industry partners on the change, which it says it was making with consumer data privacy in mind.
“Google did the benefit for the industry of giving a two year pre-announcement such that people could work on replacement targeting identifiers,” Kawaja says.
“With IDFA, for Apple, the pushback from developers large and small … the messaging was this was happening too fast.”
He says, just like happened with the ongoing deprecation of third-party cookies, the reduction in usefulness of IDFA given diminishing user opt-ins may spur the growth in so-called “contextual” ad targeting.
That is ad targeting which uses adjacencies against particular content types, rather than targeting users necessarily.
Despite ad-tech deals shutting during early in the pandemic, Kawaja says conversations resumed, with several under way and a busy Q4 likely.
“The deal market is back,” he says. “That’s an extremely good and healthy sign for the markets. Not sure what 2021 will bring, but we’re positive about Q4.”
This video is from a Beet.TV series title Advertising in a Time of Privacy-Centricity presented by AppsFlyer. For more videos from the series, please visit this page.
]]>On the one hand, expert ad-tech deal-maker LUMA Partners CEO Terence Kawaja says GDPR will simply hasten changes that were already happening.
“I think of GDPR as an accelerant to some narratives and some trends that are happening otherwise,” Kawaja says in this video interview with Beet.TV.
“That was a trend in any event that was driving people away the anonymous tracking that we’d used cookies for that grew up in a desktop environment. We already saw that migration with the move to mobile where cookies don’t exist. And then, of course, that got reinforced with Apple and their ITP, their intelligent tracking prevention policies that are limiting people’s ability to track in mobile.”
The new GDPR updates prior consumer data protection rules in a significant way. Amongst other stipulations, measures include:
The implications seem profound for a marketing industry that has grown up around collecting user behavior data, often unseen, to better and better target messages.
The rules won’t just apply within Europe. They must be followed by any global company processing EU citizens’ data, with penalties of up to 4% of global turnover. Kawaja sees challenges.
“The rub comes with the consent requirements where the GDPR regulations spell out that it has to be explicit and direct from the consumer,” he says.
“For any publisher or anybody with a consumer-facing application, you basically own your supply chain. (But) every aspect along the ecosystem or the Lumascape essentially has to have their own sort of permission. That will be tricky to see in terms of implementation.”
This video is part of our series on the preparation and anticipated impact GDPR on the digital media world. The series is presented by Criteo. Please visit this page for additional segments.
]]>But, for other online retailers, all is not lost, according to one marketing industry expert.
LUMA Partners CEO Terence Kawaja says ad-tech firm Criteo’s acquisition of HookLogic last year offers hope that the long tail of rival retailers can compete on reaching audiences intelligently.
“That gives them a very unique set of data products, more of a closed loop in to who actually purchased the product, so you don’t end up with that annoying ad that’s retargeting you for something you already purchased,” says Kawaja, who advised HookLogic on its $250 million acquisition by Criteo, in this video interview with Beet.TV.
“There’s a huge opportunity for Criteo because of Amazon’s dominance in commerce. What HookLogic did and what Criteo can now do is to say to every other marketer that is not Amazon, ‘We can provide, via a data co-op where they contribute their information about customers … , the kind of tools and advantage that Amazon applies on its O-and-O marketplace.’
“I think it’s a huge opportunity for marketers to band together. They need to get the kind of scale that will be necessary to compete with a big giant like Amazon.”
Speaking with Beet.TV at the DMEXCO ad industry gathering in Germany, Kawaja added he sees the traditional distinction between “above-the-line” and “below-the-line” marketing spend blurring, as new technologies allow marketers to close the loop between online ad spending and attributing offline sales actions.
“Welcome to the Vibrant Future,” a video series of thought leadership from DMEXCO 2017 presented by Criteo. For more videos please visit this page.
]]>But one of the leading thinkers and M&A advisers in the space doesn’t want you to forget the sector’s positive underlying outlook.
In this video interview, LUMA Partners founder and CEO Terence Kawaja spoke with Beet.TV at LUMA’s own Digital Media Summit, where he delivered a State Of Digital Media address he said puts “the case for optimism”. That case is a three-pronged reason to smile:
“New entrants: We’re seeing large companies with massive capabilities and capitalisations coming in to the space, making investments, making acquisitions from a diverse group of buyers ranging from large CRM marketing clouds to big data companies, big media companies, telcos, even private equity. That ought to be a very strong ‘buy’ signal.”
“Deals: We are getting deals done at fantastic valuations, at great multiples that do not reflect the negativity associated with some of the publicly-traded companies.”
LUMA’s State Of Digital Media report shows a dip in venture funding to ad-tech companies. But, where VCs walk away, private equity is coming in – and Kawaja sees that as a sign of sector maturation.
What’s more – whilst many grumble about a duopoly of Facebook and Google in advertising, Kawaja tips Amazon to extend its cloud and voice-controlled device expertise in to digital ad services.
This segment is part of a series leading up to the 2017 TV Upfront. It is presented by FreeWheel. To find more videos from the series, please visit this page.
]]>But what humps are still in the road to an addressable future? In a panel on the topic, these executives discussed the topic…
Modi Media president Mike Bologna
“Almost 50%, 47 million households, of the United States now has the ability to insert an ad at the household level.
“Demand is where it gets a little bit tricky. To truly benefit … the advertiser needs to know who they really want to reach… a really granular segment. This requires advertisers to think about, ‘Do I want to reach drivers of a specific vehicle?’ That requires pooling together different data sources.”
Starcom MediaVest SVP Steve Murtos
“As we start to scale, we need more automation. Agencies need to help advertisers understand how to think about this, what the right sequencing of messaging is.”
AT&T AdWorks Rick Welday
“It’s such a different mindset from an agency perspective. This is very different (from traditional ad-buying). There’s an evolution that still has to occur within the agency space to help customers understand that we’re no longer purchasing premium content – we’re pursuing the audience; the audience becomes addressable.”
Citi senior media manager Kim O’ Connor
“On our end, people are way more excited about the idea of being targeted and addressable than the idea that you’re going to run spots in Big Bang Theory
“The challenge is, the space is a little bit fractured. Five different providers, you have to go to each provider to get individual cost, there are five different research studies.”
Programming Note: Murtos will be speaking at the Beet Retreat next month in Floridaabout this and related topics.
He was interviewed last month by LUMA Partners CEO Terence Kawaja, at an event about the future of addressable TV presented by AT&T AdWorks in association with Beet.TV Please find more videos here
]]>What does the deal mean? Media banker and adviser Terence Kawaja, whose company LUMA Partners advised Unruly in the transaction, gave three talking points to Beet.TV:
As co-founder Sarah Wood explained to Beet.TV in May, Unruly systems have analyzed viewing and sharing data for two trillion online video views. Using everything Unruly has learned about viral video, they can predict the likely shareability of given video content or themes, and also provide analytics to track virality.
Unruly will now report in to Rebekah Brooks, the CEO of News Corp’s News UK division, who was recently returned to the helm there following her acquittal of phone hacking charges last year and who also has oversight of Storyful.
This interview is part of a series of videos leading up to the DMEXCO conference in Cologne. The series is presented by 4C Insights + Teletrax.
]]>Terence Kawaja, founder and CEO of media M&A advisory LUMA Partners, says his firm is advising on several deals, due to be announced this year, that will likely bust the half a billion dollars mark.
“If you look at the next six to 12 months, you’re going to see an array of transactions being announced at scale,” Kawaja tells Beet.TV in this video interview. “We’re working on a number of very considerable transactions, a growing proportion of those are over $500 million.”
Kawaja says an increasingly diverse range of buyers is coming to the pot – including big internet firms, CRM vendors, Asian ecommerce conglomerates, telcos and media companies. That diversity is what’s driving the deals Kawaja says LUMA clients are gearing up for.
“Technology intermediaries are changing the way media is sold and ads are bought,” he adds. “One of the most interesting things about this sector currently is the growth and the depth of the robust strategic buyer pool.”
The prospects for IPO’s remains weak, he explains.
This interview is part of a series of videos leading up to the DMEXCO conference in Cologne. The series is presented by 4C + Teletrax.
]]>Kawaja is CEO of LUMA partners, a boutique investment bank in the adtech and media business. The firm’s “Lumascape” charts the intersection of various sectors of the industry.
He was interviewed last month at Cannes Lions at session on addressable TV hosted by AT&T AdWorks. Kawaja moderated the program. Please find videos from the event here.
]]>Renowned media and technology M&A advisor and banker Terence Kawaja of Luma Partners is releasing a report, “Back To Mad Men”, that paints a stark picture of the challenge. He says agencies have been “caught flat-footed” by recent technology developments.
“They don’t necessarily have the skillsets necessary to manage their complexity, nor the technical proficiency for that kind of world,” Kawaja tells Beet.TV in this video interview.
“Lately, we’ve seen a big squeeze on agencies, where all these marketing technology companies. The agency is under siege from all these sides.”
Kawaja credits WPP with having invested or acquired in data marketing capabilities and cites Publicis’ acquisition of Sapient as another example of how agencies are fighting back. But, he adds: “I’m not sure if it’ll be enough. There are competing interests for those kinds of capabilities from companies that are far more capable than ad agencies.”
More on the turmoil in agency reviews reported in the Wall Street Journal.
We interviewed him on at Cannes aboard yacht for a series on the future of TV presented by AT&T AdWorks. Please find more videos from the series here.
]]>
The discussion of addressable TV, and the emerging opportunities for advertisers to deliver targeted advertising to individual cable and satellite subscribers, will take place at a number locations at the Festival, including at a session hosted by AT&T AdWorks, produced in partnership with Beet.TV
Kawaja will moderate the event which will include Irwin Gotlieb, Chairman of GroupM; Mike Bologna, President of WPP’s Modi Media; Tracey Scheppach, EVP, Innovations Director at VivaKi Starcom MediaVest Group; and Mike Welch, President of AT& T AdWorks.
In the interview, Kawaja describes the essential value of Cannes for the adtech and media world.
Not just a highly regarded banker, Kawaja is known for his humorous videos including this widely shared one from last year’s Cannes, a takeoff on the hit “Happy.” Whether he is going to produce another June, he won’t say.
This video is part of a series The Road to Cannes presented by Coull. You can find more clips from the series here.
More Conversations about Advanced TV in Florida at Beet Retreat November 12-14
The topic of convergent TV will be the subject of two-day Beet.TV executive retreat at the W Fort Lauderdale on November 12-14. Mike Bologna and Tracey Scheppach will be part of that program as well. The event is limited to 35 participants.
]]>
We spoke with LUMA Partners Terence Kawaja about the conference. In his comments in this video, he sees an acceleration of M&A deals, many driven by new and unexpected buyers.
With today’s news, he sent along this comment on the Verizon/AOL news:
“This deal is a fantastic exclamation point to a superb strategy by Tim Armstrong to focus on the high growth, strategic areas of programmatic and video ad tech. Aol pursued an aggressive acquisition strategy to position the company in these growth areas which paid off in organic growth (successive quarters of above-market growth) and culminated in a strategic deal for the company.
What will be interesting to watch is where they go in terms of mobile ad tech where they lag other players. Also interesting will be what Verizon’s direct competitors Comcast and AT&T do in response. Stay tuned. This will get interesting!”
Beet.TV will cover the conference next week.
]]>
LUMA partners CEO Terence Kawaja says 2015 will see ongoing video tech momentum after the “inflection year” of 2014: “We’ve just seen 28 transactions across the video Lumascape, involving 13 over $100m, just since AOL-Adap.tv.”
But Kawaja says public investment in video ad tech firms has softened lately, because there is a “misunderstanding in public markets in terms of what some of these companies do”: “Sustainability … is not always clear because companies talk about their offerings in a very similar way, whether they’re on the media end of the spectrum or the technology end.
“There’s a maturation that needs to happen for public investors to get a better sense for distinguishing between companies in this space.”
He was interviewed by Beet.TV at the TV Of Tomorrow show in New York.
]]>We interviewed him last week at the DMEXCO show where he delivered a speech on the state of digital media and technology. He summarizes several elements of his presentation in this video.
This video is part of series from DMEXCO. Please find all of our interviews from the show right here. Beet.TV’s coverage of DMEXCO is sponsored by Videology.
]]>“A lot of the (advertising) approaches that worked in the digital world over the last 20 years are finally ready for application to TV,” Morgan tells Beet.TV.
“(Back then), we had this idea that this information superhighway was going to plug in to the back of the TV set. Then the web came along and brought the PC-based online world. That, to me, was a distraction.
“The most impactful, largest-reaching advertising medium by far is linear television.”
Morgan, whose Simulmedia helps TV advertisers buy targeted audiences even in linear channels, was speaking with Luma CEO Terence Kawaja during Beet.TV’s summit on the future of television advertising during the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Please find more Beet coverage of Cannes Lions here.
Disclaimer: Beet’s coverage of Cannes is sponsored by Simulmedia.
]]>
“A lot of people will talk about the GRP (Gross Rating Point) being dead,” he tells moderator Terence Kawaja at this Beet.TV leadership summit. “We have never argued it is the be-all and end-all – but (GRP’s) age and gender is a very good place to start. Take ‘soccer moms’ – there’s an implicit age and gender in there … that is both predictable and projectable.”
Hasker adds Nielsen’s GRPs are rounded out with CPMG purchase behavior data and data about 80% of US credit card transactions: “That enables us to move well beyond the GRP. We’re in no way beholden to the GRP.”
He also denies Nielsen, so long a leader in media measurement, is suffering from “innovator’s dilemma”, an inability to move forward to stay ahead of disruption.
“Nielsen has been as innovative over the last four or five years as anyone in the media space. There’s no innovator’s dilemma at Nielsen – we’re moving as fast as everyone else. I’d like us to move faster … but we are significantly more agile now than we were four or five years ago and we will get more agile.”
Hasker was a panelist on a Beet.TV leadership summit on the future of television advertising held during Cannes Lions. You can find more segments from the sessions here.
]]>“Fragmentation is here to stay – fragmentation happens,” Luma’s CEO and co-founder tells Beet.TV. “There is so much proliferation of companies … cheap venture financing … I’ve stopped calling for consolidation; it will actually never happen.
“There’s been some consolidation … but there’s more companies every year. Just get comfortable with the fact there’s going to be a lot of companies.”
Kawaja says the required skill is in identifying the relevant vendors from the growing array, with only 12 to 20 of the 300 to 400 names on each Lumascape proving to be real scaled dominators, he says.
He was speaking with Simulmedia CEO Dave Morgan
]]>
Luma Partners CEO Terence Kawaja says TV ad trading, historically reliant on broad demographic targeting, and digital trading, typically using laser-like scientific targeting, are “in two very different places”. So digital executives trying to unlock TV using programmatic mechanisms must treat TV buyers “in a manner that they’re used to”.
“In TV, that media buyer is 55 and he’s got a beautiful home in the Hamptons – they’re not necessarily going to be too tuned in to all these newfangled programmatic capabilities,” Kawaja tells Beet.TV. He recommends starting by up-selling digital and programmatic opportunities to TV buyers as part of a standard TV ad spot buy.
He was interviewed at the BrightRoll Video Summit. You can find more coverage of the BrightRoll summit here. Disclaimer: BrightRoll sponsored Beet.TV’s coverage of the event.
]]>“We’ve seen a change from media intermediation being an art to more of a science,” Luma Partners‘ Terence Kawaja tells Beet.TV. “You hear about the word ‘programmatic’… bringing software applications to find audiences, big data and audiences to target and optimise media buying.”
This wave has prompted big M&A interest from the likes of Adobe, Oracle and Salesforce – but Kawaja rejects the suggestion of a digital marketing technology “bubble”: “It’s vibrant and prices are full … we’ve got companies that are scaling rapidly and still a tremendous upside to this whole marketing technology world.”
We interviewed him at the 4A’s annual leadership meeting. See the rest of our coverage here.
]]>