Technology companies including Apple and Google are giving people more ways to protect their online privacy, limiting the availability of consumer data that help advertisers reach target audiences. Contextual ad placements within quality content are making a comeback.<\/p>\n
\u201cContextual advertising feels a lot like \u2018back to the future\u2019 in the sense that we have been talking about it forever,\u201d Joshua Lowcock<\/a>, executive vice president and chief digital officer of UM Worldwide, said in this interview Beet.TV. \u201cWe pivoted to data-driven advertising and somewhat forgot about contextual until brand safety emerged as a challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n He is optimistic that artificial intelligence (AI) technology will improve contextual targeting while also respecting consumer privacy.<\/p>\n \u201cMy biggest hope for contextual is that it opens the door to people thinking more intelligently about the mindset certain people are in when they\u2019re consuming certain kinds of content,\u201d Lowcock said.<\/p>\n Lowcock recommends that publishers harness the first-party data collected directly from their audiences to boost the value of their advertising inventories by helping marketers reach targeted consumer groups.<\/p>\n \u201cPublishers are still the owners of first-party data and will be for the foreseeable future,\u201d he said. \u201cBlend contextual data with your first-party data, and that enables you to leverage the power of both contextual and first-party data for a better result at more efficient scale.\u201d<\/p>\n Brands must align their ad creative with the surrounding content to optimize the effectiveness of contextual targeting.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things we don\u2019t often talk about is from a purely media perspective is the creative message,\u201d he said. \u201cMost of the challenges that you have when contextual advertising goes wrong, it\u2019s because the ad messaging itself is not as respectful of the contextual environment.\u201d<\/p>\n AI technology can help to provide a more nuanced approach to contextual targeting that considers the reputation of a media company and the specific content it publishes. That approach is more effective than key-word blocking<\/a>\u00a0that can prevent ads from appearing alongside appropriate content.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the greatest failings that contextual had in the past was that it was a blunt-force object, and it really was key-word targeting,\u201d Lowcock said. \u201cIf we can move away from seeing key-word targeting as equaling contextual targeting, and use AI to mean semantic analysis, that\u2019s when AI becomes a powerful part of the contextual toolset.\u201d<\/p>\nPower of Publishers\u2019 First-Party Data<\/h3>\n
Strategies for Brands<\/h3>\n
Better Than Blocklisting<\/h3>\n