6 Steps for Boosting Creativity in Your Team’s Next Virtual Meeting

33 mins ago

Just when you thought you have read every possible piece of working from home (WFH) advice these past few days, allow us to bring you a new acronym: BFH, or brainstorming from home. As teams work from home over the coming weeks, and face-to-face meetings get swapped for video chats, remote working poses a particular challenge for adland. It’s always been challenging to get people in different locations to participate at the same pace and enthusiasm as they do when in the same room. Now, with WFH as the new normal, here are some tips to get the most out of your team brainstorming sessions while working remotely.

The mighty moderator

Having a dedicated moderator will go a long way in encouraging introverts, helping to clarify ideas, spark further builds and even cutting short long-winded inputs. They should start each brainstorm with a well-articulated brief, then keep things engaging throughout. Make the objective short enough to be the meeting title and share the brief ahead of the scheduled meeting time. This puts the goal front and center for the duration of the brainstorm. The moderator should also keep an eye out for people who look like they want to share a thought, but can’t find a moment to do so.

The format

It’s no secret that video conferences are the way to go. While conference calls have their benefits, brainstorms need high engagement and focus. For that, video calls help keep everyone focused and accountable. A Myers Briggs study revealed that 50% of the U.S. population is made up of introverts, which can make online brainstorm sessions even more challenging. Once everyone has had a chance to digest the brief, the moderator should try to give each participant 60 seconds to share their thoughts and ideas.

Breaking the ice

Breaking the ice is particularly important for online brainstorms. It’s all too easy to be on mute for the duration of the call. Choose icebreakers that encourage people to verbalize ideas early and often. These are key because online brainstorms need to be well structured, but not so structured that it stifles spontaneity. Standing also tends to lift energy and participation, so try getting everyone on their feet from the start.

Mind mapping and note-taking

Mind mapping is a process where the thought is placed at the center, and participants are invited to build more ideas upon that central thought. Instead of relying on conversation, inject some creativity with visuals. Encourage everyone to have a notebook with them during the brainstorm, so they can jot down ideas and talk the group through the idea.

Apps like MindMeister and Mindomo create mind maps online. The best part about them is that they can be easily integrated into widely used office productivity platforms like Microsoft Teams. The level of productivity this allows is incredibly high, as everyone is building on ideas in real-time. It may also be useful to dedicate a scribe to keep notes in a shared document. If that’s not practical, platforms like Microsoft Teams can transcribe calls for you to refer to later (as long as everyone is OK with being recorded, of course).

Quietstorming

Every once in a while, the most productive moment of a brainstorm is when participants take a few minutes to write their ideas on a document and come back to share it with the team. Plan for this quiet moment by inviting all participants to contribute songs to a playlist on Spotify that you play over the conference call when everyone is noting their ideas. Online tools like Trello creates idea cards that serve as clusters for participants’ inputs.

Show and sell and roleplay

Show and sell is a prop-based ideation technique where individuals create an advertising pitch with props from their homes. This is an interesting way to get people on camera, have some laughs and, more importantly, generate creative ideas that would otherwise be hard to do over a call. This technique also brings a higher level of involvement as people show off their quirky personalities. Additionally, role-playing is an effective way to arrive at need gaps in the service industry, and video calls foster these brainstorms. In this technique, people imagine themselves in the role of a consumer whose experience relates to the marketing objective and act out a service experience on the call. The rest can note insights, challenges and pain points, which then get translated into insights and ideas in work sessions.

In the end, as any strategist would tell you, it always helps to have a structure for your brainstorms. Going into these virtual sessions with a clear plan will allow the participants to be spontaneous and deliver (virtual) creativity. Good luck, and happy BFH!

https://www.adweek.com/creativity/6-steps-for-boosting-creativity-in-your-teams-next-virtual-meeting/

What is speakable schema markup and how does it impact the future of SEO?

Google’s recent release of a new markup specification, the speakable schema, brings the digital technology to another leap. The term speakable currently points to the ability of Google Assistant and News to provide internet users with excellent results that fit their needs.

The new schema SEO is useful when asking for specific topics and news related to a particular brand or happening. The returned results are then read back by Google Assistant with speakable texts.

Google’s new feature is currently intended to provide users with a summary of a story’s key points but has a later possibility for expansion.

Available documentations from schema.org points out to the text to speech conversion of a news article and available online documentation supporting the new feature.

Documentation for schema.org

What is Google’s new speakable schema markup?

Current technology is heading towards speakable-friendly smartphones and gadgets supporting voice searches. Google’s speakable schema markup tool allows businesses to indicate content sections that support voice search technology.

This new Google algorithm will allow businesses to pick the most crucial information relating to their business, highlight such content, and give them better visibility to their intended audience.

This is similar to how featured snippets work only that the information is delivered via voice assistant that reads to your website content to the visitors.

The new Google speakable schema markup is currently in its beta version, which can only be accessed by news publishers. It also has a limited audience reach, exclusively servicing the US for now and only working with Google Home devices including the Google Assistant.

How does Google’s speakable schema markup work?

Similar to the traditional way we get our websites to rank, optimizing your voice searches require you to input significant information fragments featured in your SEO campaign.

It means sections of your campaign material can be optimized for voice search.

The schema helps Google’s algorithm determine the importance of your chosen content fragment with your specific niche, helping it rank in the SERP. Content that is found relevant by Google, Microsoft Cortana, and Google Home streamlines that information and finds a way of reading them back to your website’s intended audience.

The way Google pulls up that information is based on its sophisticated algorithm. News publishers, though, are solely responsible for selecting text fragments that they want Google to feature.

The search engine will determine how relevant the information is and how it relates to their user’s voice search queries before voicing it out.

The current setup of Google’s speakable schema is only accessible to news publishers, allowing them to highlight parts of a news feature in voice search optimization.

Though the technology is still in its early stages, news publishers have the option of presenting the most accurate answers to any internet user’s query.

In its initial state, Google’s speakable schema is a powerful way of obtaining information about recent news and current events.

There are several points to consider when having your content optimized for the speakable schema. Most of these requirements fall under the precepts of meeting the demands of current and possibly future inquiries.

The topic should focus on one subject and storyline with understandable and relevant writing
All the information presented in the publication must be accurate in all aspects and must be factual
The text should not contain ad campaigns
The content cannot contain vulgar words or hate speech directed towards a person or entity
The news should include the author’s information, including the publication data and contact details

Speakable content is available to businesses creating content but is currently limited to news publications. The points highlighted are just some of the specifications for the new Google schema to ensure all new information meets industry standards.

How will the speakable schema affect SEO?

The tech industry continually shapes itself with innovations like the speakable SEO feature of Google to accommodate existing and future demands.

The rise of voice-enabled searches primarily impacts the search engine optimization landscape, making it more demanding for businesses to ramp up their website performance.

Speakable is still in its beta form, and there are currently no effects on a website’s SEO performance. But as the industry adapts voice searches, we can see speakability becoming one of the forefronts of ranking in the Voice Assistant tools.

As such, the speakable schema will have a tremendous impact on how we use the internet and search for information. This predicament will also be another burden for some companies as they start figuring how to provide better services to their customers.

More and more companies will fine-tune their website content, so it adopts the voice-friendly features of Google. It entails restructuring current content and shifting their market options to include voice-search enabled gadgets and devices.

How to prepare your business for the speakable schema markup?

In the meantime, speakable is still in its early stages. The tech giant continually tests and further enhances its speakable schema markup to strengthen its capabilities. Nonetheless, it won’t take long before companies, and their website starts feeling its effects.

Getting ahead of Google’s SERP race will give your company a better chance of landing the top spots considering your site is at par with the latest algorithm demands of most search engines.

Here are the best practices to implement so your website content meets with the future SEO demands or hire an SEO agency to make it easier:

Create coherent and conversational statements on your website relevant to your business niche. This will help stay ahead with speakable-type technology and make it easy for you to determine which information effectively relays to your intended audience.
Using short and understandable sentences makes them acceptable to your website visitors. Remember that most people have only a minute of attention span, and you want to capture your audience in that small timeframe to get their interests.
Writing in a conversational voice tone is the best way to reach a broader scope of website visitors. You want your audience to get a full grasp of what you are offering, so a short, concise, and simple-worded statement will get them glued to what you are providing.

How do you use speakable markup?

To start using the TTS suitability of Google’s speakable schema, you need to follow four critical requirements set by the search engine.

Following all guidelines, including the technical side, content, webmaster, and structured data protocol, is the starting point of enabling the audio playback capabilities of your website texts
Include Google’s speakable structured data semantics into the code of your web page
Test and approve your chosen structured data
Submit the content for eligibility and onboarding process

What are the benefits of speakable schema markup?

There are a lot of undeniable benefits to using Google’s newest schema platform. Though the speakable SEO is available for an online publisher, for now, future expansions will include almost every business with a website.

Among some of the benefits of using the speakable schema include:

There are better opportunities for improving SERP ranking positions
A speakable schema improves brand recognition
It increases the click-through-rates of your website
Position your website for Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa’s voice search
Increase your website’s social media following
Provide your audience with a sneak peek of what your content offers without looking at their device screens

Depending on your market niche, Google’s upcoming speakable schema offers your business with industry-related benefits. This includes getting more views for your music and videos, getting more job applicants on your page, or increasing the popularity of a specific product or service.

But all these benefits are what we can foresee in the future. The fact is, Google’s speakable schema is still in its easy concepts, and it is not clear whether the tech giant would put the feature outright. The Beta version of the new algorithm already allows news publications to read featured information off a webpage.

Conclusion

The future of speakable markup depends on how the general population will receive it. Adaption of the new schema would mean expansion outside of its current scopes to include all aspects of the web. Additionally, industry acceptance of this new schema will only be derived depending on how universally the markup is put to use.

And as voice search becomes an accepted method of looking for information on the web, we might see Google pushing the new schema into its existing ecosystem. Regardless if these search engine changes are seen as a threat to existing methods or an opportunity for advancement, we can look at it as an answer to the changing needs of internet users.

Emily Browne is a web content enthusiast with three years of experience in SEO writing. She can be found on Twitter @Emilyrownee.

More about:

https://www.searchenginewatch.com/2020/03/25/speakable-schema-markup-and-its-impact-on-seo/

What is speakable schema markup and how does it impact the future of SEO?

The new schema SEO is useful when asking for specific topics and news related to a particular brand or happening. The returned results are then read back by Google Assistant with speakable texts.

Google’s new feature is currently intended to provide users with a summary of a story’s key points but has a later possibility for expansion.

Available documentations from schema.org points out to the text to speech conversion of a news article and available online documentation supporting the new feature.

Documentation for schema.org

What is Google’s new speakable schema markup?

This new Google algorithm will allow businesses to pick the most crucial information relating to their business, highlight such content, and give them better visibility to their intended audience.

This is similar to how featured snippets work only that the information is delivered via voice assistant that reads to your website content to the visitors.

How does Google’s speakable schema markup work?

Similar to the traditional way we get our websites to rank, optimizing your voice searches require you to input significant information fragments featured in your SEO campaign.

It means sections of your campaign material can be optimized for voice search.

The way Google pulls up that information is based on its sophisticated algorithm. News publishers, though, are solely responsible for selecting text fragments that they want Google to feature.

The search engine will determine how relevant the information is and how it relates to their user’s voice search queries before voicing it out.

The current setup of Google’s speakable schema is only accessible to news publishers, allowing them to highlight parts of a news feature in voice search optimization.

Though the technology is still in its early stages, news publishers have the option of presenting the most accurate answers to any internet user’s query.

In its initial state, Google’s speakable schema is a powerful way of obtaining information about recent news and current events.

The topic should focus on one subject and storyline with understandable and relevant writing
All the information presented in the publication must be accurate in all aspects and must be factual
The text should not contain ad campaigns
The content cannot contain vulgar words or hate speech directed towards a person or entity
The news should include the author’s information, including the publication data and contact details

How will the speakable schema affect SEO?

The tech industry continually shapes itself with innovations like the speakable SEO feature of Google to accommodate existing and future demands.

The rise of voice-enabled searches primarily impacts the search engine optimization landscape, making it more demanding for businesses to ramp up their website performance.

How to prepare your business for the speakable schema markup?

Getting ahead of Google’s SERP race will give your company a better chance of landing the top spots considering your site is at par with the latest algorithm demands of most search engines.

Here are the best practices to implement so your website content meets with the future SEO demands or hire an SEO agency to make it easier:

Create coherent and conversational statements on your website relevant to your business niche. This will help stay ahead with speakable-type technology and make it easy for you to determine which information effectively relays to your intended audience.
Using short and understandable sentences makes them acceptable to your website visitors. Remember that most people have only a minute of attention span, and you want to capture your audience in that small timeframe to get their interests.
Writing in a conversational voice tone is the best way to reach a broader scope of website visitors. You want your audience to get a full grasp of what you are offering, so a short, concise, and simple-worded statement will get them glued to what you are providing.

How do you use speakable markup?

To start using the TTS suitability of Google’s speakable schema, you need to follow four critical requirements set by the search engine.

Following all guidelines, including the technical side, content, webmaster, and structured data protocol, is the starting point of enabling the audio playback capabilities of your website texts
Include Google’s speakable structured data semantics into the code of your web page
Test and approve your chosen structured data
Submit the content for eligibility and onboarding process

What are the benefits of speakable schema markup?

Among some of the benefits of using the speakable schema include:

There are better opportunities for improving SERP ranking positions
A speakable schema improves brand recognition
It increases the click-through-rates of your website
Position your website for Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa’s voice search
Increase your website’s social media following
Provide your audience with a sneak peek of what your content offers without looking at their device screens

Conclusion

Emily Browne is a web content enthusiast with three years of experience in SEO writing. She can be found on Twitter @Emilyrownee.

More about:

https://www.searchenginewatch.com/2020/03/25/speakable-schema-markup-and-its-impact-on-seo/

3 Elements of Brand Partnerships That Can Boost Creativity

By Kinjil Mathur

50 mins ago

Partnerships are fairly straightforward, even for the non-marketer. At the most fundamental level, one brand partners with another to achieve a mutually beneficial goal. It could be a donation to raise awareness of a cause, or on the other end of the spectrum, a multi-channel, multi-year, multi-million-dollar endeavor.

The concept is simple enough, but what factors should be considered to ensure that a partnership is worthwhile for both partners?

Be authentic through value alignment

For what is perhaps the most important consideration in fostering brand partnerships, ensuring value alignment is surprisingly overlooked. Partnerships that may make sense in theory can fall flat when there is a lack of authenticity, and vice versa.

Partnerships that at first seem unusual make complete sense when you realize they are built around shared values. For example, Adidas and Ikea’s partnership that launched this summer. Ikea partners with many brands and artists, but the combination of a furniture store and fitness brand struck many as surprising or incongruous. That is, until you hear the aim: combining Ikea and Adidas’ respective expertise—home and fitness—to make it easier for people to work out at home.

The best partnerships make every dollar count, and the best partners will exchange more than just money.

Adidas believes that “through sport [it has] the power to change lives,” while Ikea aims to “help more people live a better life at home.” And so it becomes clear how these two companies fit as brand partners and how consumers will benefit from this creative collaboration.

Outline your goals

Ensuring value alignment is the first step and will make outlining goals even easier. There needs to be a reason to work with a partner that goes beyond how cool you think they are, and you need to align on goals early in the partnership. It’s also important to realize that not every partnership needs to be massive in scale in order to have an impact. Even without substantial scope, a partnership that results in expanded brand awareness is valuable. It’s also worthwhile to consider working with a smaller partner that has a highly engaged audience to focus on targeted conversion. There are no partnerships too big or too small to be considered in pushing you (and your partner’s) mission forward.

Decide on what is being exchanged

The best partnerships make every dollar count, and the best partners will exchange more than just money. This could be an exchange of goods, services or even brand equity. If your brand is small and doesn’t have the funds to offer money, think of ways you can leverage your unique brand offerings. Working with strategic partners that are smaller than your own brand affords you the perfect opportunity to test out different means of compensation and exchange, whether that means collaborating on custom content or expanding the channels of the partnership. Today’s technology affords us more ways than ever to be creative, which is something we should take advantage of and sometimes amplification can be just as valuable as monetary compensation.

Partnerships are about far more than shared demographics and innovative ideas. At the root of any successful partnership, you will always find aligned values and missions. Once you have those crucial details in place, you can—and should—be as creative as you want in pinpointing goals and ironing out what is being exchanged. By ensuring the proper framework, you might just find yourself exploring an unexpected partnership and reaching a whole new audience.

https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/3-elements-of-brand-partnerships-that-can-boost-creativity/

Media Needs to Start Preparing Now for the Post-Election Boom

By Andy Sippel

2 hours ago

For all the talk about the immediate effect of unprecedented political advertising in 2020—politicians crowding primetime, filling media coffers while edging out staple advertisers—there’s been little said about what happens after the party’s over. I see two ramifications with lasting impact on the media business where advertising is expected to slow down in 2021.

On one hand, 2020 will give a big boost to radio and out-of-home media as advertisers scramble to replace the TV reach that politicians have bought out and rediscovered their reliability and flexibility. On the other hand, TV networks and station groups must confront an unprecedented challenge: how to keep those advertisers displaced by the politicians engaged with their platforms while re-engaging with other media.

The upshot is that media selling won’t be the same again. TV networks won’t recover the non-political spend that got crowded out with the same old strategies, tactics and formats. And radio and out of home will have to create long-term opportunities that extend their newfound demand. Neither is automatic.

Research shows that many advertisers are already poised to take advantage of radio and out of home in 2020. To keep advertisers beyond next year, though, radio and out-of-home sellers will need to partner with advertisers at a new level.

The long-term opportunities depend on in-depth media planning using the media’s various assets in creative, sustainable ways. Specifically, they need to help advertisers understand which dayparts, content types, promotions and creative drive real business outcomes and translate that knowledge into precise, winning programs for brands.

As the TV audience configuration gets more complex, advertisers will need more help on two levels. First, how brands can balance advertising on linear, connected TV and a growing array of other digital assets. Second, how brands can best do this in the context of their overall media buys. Sellers will need to bring their insights teams forward to do this job.

TV sellers will also need to embrace test mode, with ad formats and with advertisers. The sales that define their futures increasingly won’t be the big buys, but will instead be cross-platform projects that start smaller and grow incrementally. That’s particularly true of DTC startups stretching into TV. New DTC advertisers will only commit to smaller initial buys and expand their investment rapidly when they see results.

An essential part of the test will be innovation in ad formats. For example, we’re seeing the beginnings of innovation in Hulu’s new binge-ad program. These kinds of tests need to become standard practice throughout TV to give advertisers new approaches to relevance, resonance and results. New still sells.

Media now sells into an advertiser community whipsawed by change. More than anything else, advertisers are weary. They don’t just want reliable; they need justifiable, and they need it easy. The biggest digital platforms do this, and the rest of the media ecosystem must follow. If legacy media sellers answer the call, they can again be embraced as a primary strategic marketing resource. But they’re going to have to make a complete, organizational commitment to do it.

https://www.adweek.com/digital/media-needs-to-start-preparing-now-for-the-post-election-boom/

Trends Observed at This Year’s CES and How Marketers Can Learn From Them

14 mins ago

As CES wraps up another year of hustle and bustle, it is clear that technology has not only impacted every aspect of our daily lives, but it is also expanding consumer access points beyond traditional media channels for brands to experiment and innovate around.

While some have lamented that CES 2020 offered nothing particularly new to see, a deeper look reveals some hidden trends emerging from the show floor this year that should intrigue brands and marketers alike.

The streaming wars expand beyond TV

The launch of Disney+ and Apple TV+ last fall marked the beginning of a new era for the streaming wars, and its escalation reverberated throughout CES.

Quibi, the upcoming short-form video subscription service, took the keynote stage on Wednesday to make a case for their mobile-native content strategy and video platform. For brands looking to advertising on Quibi, which has sold out its first year of ad inventory, it would be smart to wait and see if Quibi can overcome the adoption hurdle of convincing users to pay $5-$8 a month for premium short-form video, which has so far been widely available for free on platforms like YouTube and TikTok.

In this post-peak TV world, cross-category collaboration can help content stand out. For example, the team behind Avatar collaborated with Mercedes-Benz to develop a futuristic concept vehicle that embodies the unique aesthetics and eco-conscious message of the movie. The resulting earned media likely directed some Disney+ subscribers to rewatch the movie for the first time in a decade.

The streaming wars are also expanding into non-traditional media channels. We found out that Amazon’s Fire TV OS is being integrated into the backseat screen of BMW and FCA vehicles. Delta announced during its keynote they will be upgrading its in-flight entertainment system and will allow travelers to stream Delta-sourced content, which often includes movies before they’re available for streaming, from the moment they check into a flight. By extending the content window, Delta can leverage entertainment as a loss leader to drive consideration and capture value elsewhere in its ecosystem, which is a smart strategy that stands out against the ongoing trend of airlines scaling back on in-flight entertainment.

Ambient computing enters the spotlight

Connected devices are getting smarter, and soon they will be able to handle certain things without users having to be given explicit commands. Many connected home and IoT companies at CES experimented with ambient computing, which applies computer vision and predictive analytics powered by AI to anticipate the needs of users and act accordingly. Both Panasonic and Haier demoed smart home concepts that used presence detection technology to determine who is the room and what they may be doing and adjust lighting and room temperature automatically.

Beyond the smart home, hearables (computer-powered headphones) were also well represented at CES 2020. As AirPods continue to gain popularity, expect more lower-market competitors to expand the user base for voice-enabled wireless headphones, setting the stage for audio-based ambient computing on personal devices and potentially offering brands a new AI-driven access point.

The privacy debate gains nuance

Data privacy and protection continued to be a hot topic at CES. Compared to last year when the privacy discussion first gained momentum among panelists and attendees, this year’s conversation was a little quieter yet more nuanced. Ring, maker of home security cameras, came to CES not only to talk about their new products but also to unveil their new privacy dashboard feature. Even Apple, a company that famously avoided CES, sent its privacy chief to a roundtable panel to reaffirm their commitment to protecting user privacy. Privacy is no longer a talking point. It has become an operational necessity for all companies.

The fundamental question here is not if digital advertising is to blame, but rather how our data practices need to evolve in order to ensure it provides value to consumers without exploitation and manipulation. The impending rollout of the CCPA will likely prompt other states to follow suit with similar regulations, if not one at the federal level. At CES, there seemed to be strong motivation across the industry to get a consistent and transparent privacy law in place.

Overall, CES 2020 showed us that the right solution to the unintended consequences of technology is not to swear it off altogether, but to make it more suitable for us. The same user-first principle applies to brand marketing as well. Technologies only become innovations when they are successfully applied to serve your customers and deliver better brand experiences.

https://www.adweek.com/digital/trends-observed-at-this-years-ces-and-how-marketers-can-learn-from-them/

3 Ways to Navigate First-Price Auction Adoption

3 mins ago

For years, second-price auctions, with winning bids awarded on a showcase showdown model of a penny over the second highest bid, have been the standard way to buy digital ad inventory.

That’s about to change.

As Google Ad Manager adopts first-price auctions, the world’s largest ad management platform for publishers is causing suppliers to re-evaluate their ad exchanges and buyers to modify their bidding strategies.

Everybody has questions. Will the change increase transparency into inventory pricing? Will this help level the playing field between bidders? Will first-price hurt our ability to optimize media spend?

While it’s too early to gauge the full implications of the switch with any certainty, we do at least know where to look. And three major techniques will be key to successful navigation of digital supply in a post-first-price world.

Analyze historical cost data for deeper context

Google’s shift is indicative of a larger movement in the advertising industry, one embodied by the need for clarity and definitive value.

Cost per thousand impressions (CPM) will remain the most widely used metric for evaluating the soundness of a given buying strategy. In the coming pricing environment, smart marketers will analyze historical CPM averages at the publisher and campaign levels in search of patterns that may have been overlooked during the second-price era.

For example, media buyers may have been overbidding for low-performing inventory or underbidding for inventory associated with increased campaign performance. The new system alters the incentive structure, motivating buyers to look deeper into bid-side data and actively mitigating risks associated with CPM spikes.

Where should you be looking? Consider purchasing patterns, timing of CPM increases across verticals and fluctuations in winning percentages. These patterns set a baseline for recognizing unusual CPM yields, which can help inform bidding strategy and prices. A detailed understanding of the pricing context can also help marketers set more accurate CPM caps on line items and apply reporting software that can easily identify unusual changes in campaign CPM, impressions or win rate.

Implement supply path optimization (SPO)

SPO, a process that demand-side platforms use to streamline interactions with supply-side platforms, has gained traction even among second-price buyers in recent years. But its application might be even better suited to analyzing the first-price auction landscape.

That’s because SPO can consolidate inventory sources, identify duplicate inventory and unify bidding strategy metrics within a single buying path.

Header bidding isn’t going away due to Google Ad Manager’s shift to first-price auctions. The practice may actually take on an expanded role as publishers adjust. That’s why media buyers will need to rely on any tool—SPO most certainly included—that can help identify sellers across a fractured landscape that can offer the most favorable eCPMs and consolidate the supply path to apply smarter and more leveraged buying strategies.

Intensify collaboration with supply-side platforms

A closer relationship with SSPs will help first-price bidders gain transparency into ad buying and enable more effective campaign optimizations through bid-sharing technologies.

Any SSP relationship that can share log-level data will be especially helpful, but any contextual and behavioral data currently worked on by SSP partners will deepen your understanding of appropriate first-price valuations. At the very least, SSP partnerships can be vital in recognizing and leveraging a preferred position with specific publishers.

As with any major change, first-price auctioning is causing its share of freakouts.

The benefits of first-price auctions compared to second-price auctions may seem fewer and the limitations greater. Even if that’s ultimately the case, the new system can still work to the advantage of marketers.

Google’s shift is indicative of a larger movement in the advertising industry, one embodied by the need for clarity and definitive value. Putting the above techniques into practice will help marketers prepare for the industry’s progression and adjust to the new reality of first-price auctions.

https://www.adweek.com/programmatic/3-ways-to-navigate-first-price-auction-adoption/

Why Advertisers Need to Take a Risk and Be More Than Just Likable

4 hours ago

If you love Garfield, I hate to break it to you, but Garfield isn’t art. It’s not even a good comic strip.

Garfield was designed with the sole purpose of selling a boatload of merchandise, so it had to be intentionally inoffensive to appeal to the largest possible number of people. It’s not even supposed to be funny. It’s intended to be consistent, reliable and predictable, and that’s straight from the mouth of creator Jim Davis.

Now you might say, “But Garfield earns nearly a billion dollars each year. And advertising is supposed to sell stuff! Why are you badmouthing Garfield? Shouldn’t we be aiming for that kind of success?”

My response is to ask if you can remember a single good joke from 40 years of daily Garfield comic strips. One single memorable visual, anything other than the general idea that Garfield is lazy, loves lasagna and hates Mondays. Compare that with The Far Side, which has dozens upon dozens of specific panels that spring instantly to mind and exposes us to polarizing topics like death, infidelity, vomit, stupidity and child endangerment. Gary Larson was not aiming for the middle.

If our goal in making an ad is to strike the middle ground out of the fear of being disliked, then we will squander the potential to make something great.

There will always be those who seek out the mundane, the unchallenging, the pedestrian. There will always be people buying suction-cup-footed Garfield window plushies. But you can’t take the Garfield metrics of success and apply them to advertising because advertising isn’t sought out like a comic strip—it’s thrust upon people. As advertisers, we invade people’s homes, their phones, their TVs, their eyeballs and their earholes. Don’t we have a responsibility to make that experience as rewarding as possible?

People don’t like, trust or remember advertising. I think about this all the time. It’s at the top of our creative brief, and to me, it’s the most important part. Advertising is a door-to-door salesperson who interrupts your pleasant evening to sell you something. Have you ever opened the door and been delighted to listen to the sales pitch of the guy offering you a lower internet rate or roof repairs or a new religion?

So, how do we give the consumer something worthwhile? Something that respects and rewards their time; something that piques their interest and has value, not just because of the sales message it contains, but because it stands alone on its artistic merits.

That may sound too pie in the sky or pretentious, but I don’t think aiming for art is aiming too high. I think it’s the only way we succeed as an industry. I think we have to create great art in order to make great advertising.

The reason brand planners spend (if you listen to grumbling creatives) inordinate amounts of time figuring out an exact audience is precisely because we’re not trying to create something that appeals to all people. We’re trying to create something that is memorable for a specific, relatively small group. To succeed at that, we have to aim for greatness and accept the risk that some people won’t like what we make.

This leads to my final point: If our goal in making an ad is to strike the middle ground out of the fear of being disliked, then we will squander the potential to make something great. And we will fail. A natural result of making art that some people love is that some people will hate it. If we’re too concerned with eliminating the chance of anyone actively disliking our work, we’ll end up with ads that everyone can ignore.

If you want to appeal to everybody, you’ll end up with Garfield, and I don’t think that leads to effective advertising. Great art is, by nature, polarizing. It forces you to think; it challenges you, it upsets your rhythm; it delights; it saddens; it makes you feel something.

If you make an ad that everyone just kind of likes, then you haven’t done your job. Because if everyone just kind of likes it, that means no one loves it. And if no one loves your brand, then what’s the point?

People have to choose to engage with an ad. It has to be striking, engaging and memorable. Good enough just isn’t good enough. It has to be great. And if it’s great, then some people will love it, and some will hate it. And we—and our clients—have to be OK with that.

https://www.adweek.com/creativity/why-advertisers-need-to-take-a-risk-and-be-more-than-just-likable/

What impact will voice search have on SEO in 2020?

With every year seeing new technological developments that shift the boundaries of business, working to take advantage of the new opportunities can be a challenge in digital marketing. One of these transformations in the market has been caused by the widespread adoption of voice search technology and its effects on internet usage.

As a consequence, this has had an impact on search engine optimization, where following SEO best practices is essential for most businesses in the current era. Internet voice search could be set to disrupt SEO conventions, so businesses would be well-advised to stay informed of the changes and plan accordingly.

The rise of voice technology

The introduction of IBM’s Watson in 2010 paved the way for voice technology devices. Watson is a powerful voice recognition question-answer computer system that stunned the world as a super-intelligent, thinking, and speaking robot that was able to beat Trivia grandmasters on the TV quiz show, ‘Jeopardy’. In the following year, Google launched its Voice Search and Apple released Siri for the iPhone 4S, the first digital personal assistant.

This was followed in 2014 by Cortana from Microsoft and Amazon Echo, a voice speaker powered by the personal assistant, Alexa. Google Assistant was launched in 2016, as well as the smart speaker Google Home. Initial figures showed Amazon Alexa to be leading the market, though Google Home is forecast to take the lead by 2020. Other prominent digital assistants on the global stage include Alice from Yandex, and AliGenie from Alibaba.

Voice recognition technology has significantly improved since its inception. Google claims 95 percent accuracy, while the Chinese iFlytek speech recognition system has an accuracy of 98%.

Voice technology has also spread to devices that fall under the umbrella term, the Internet of Things (IoT), such as a smart TV, a smart thermostat or a home kit. While it may be possible, internet voice search doesn’t have direct applications for most of these devices yet, and by far the greatest share of searches are currently made on either a smartphone or a smart speaker.

Twenty percent of queries on Google’s mobile app and Android devices are made with voice, while 31% of smartphone users use voice at least once a week, according to Statistica.

Media analytics firm Comscore predicts that half of all online searches will be made through voice by 2020, while Gartner predicts that in the same year, 30% of online searches will be made on devices without a screen. This suggests an enormous rise in voice search, as well as the increased adoption of smart speakers. Earlier this year, Juniper Research predicted that 3.25 billion voice assistants were in use – a figure they forecast to reach eight billion by 2023.

The effects of voice on SEO

Voice is, therefore, transforming our approaches to technology and the internet, but what impact is it having on search engine optimization?

Natural language

With improved and reliable voice recognition systems, voice technology is well adapted to follow everyday language use, so users can give commands as if they were speaking to a human. For any areas of potential confusion, emerging technologies are seeking to improve the user experience. The 2018 Internet Trends Report by venture capitalist and internet trends specialist, Mary Meeker, found that 70% of English language voice searches were made in natural or conversational language.

Keyword length

Spoken language usually isn’t as concise as the written word, so queries will be longer than the three or four keyword searches more common to graphical user interfaces (GUI). Voice searches currently average 29 words in length, according to Backlinko. SEO strategists will need to adjust by using more long-tail keywords, with the added benefit that the longer the keyword phrases are, the higher the probability of conversion.

Source: Neilpatel.com

Question words

Voice searches will more frequently include the question words who, which, when, where, and how, that are usually omitted in written searches. Marketers need to ensure content can deliver accurate and relevant answers to voice search queries, and distinguish between simple questions and those that require more comprehensive answers. Queries that can be answered with very short responses typically won’t generate traffic to a website because Google will often provide the required information via featured search snippets.

According to SeoClarity, 20% of voice searches are triggered by just 25 keywords. These include question words and other commonly used verbs, such as make, do and can, as well as key nouns and adjectives, including a recipe, new, easy, types and home. These can be worked into SEO strategies, and question-form queries can show user intent to a higher degree. Marketers are therefore able to optimize content according to questions of a higher value.

Source: Brightlocal.com

Semantic search

As opposed to lexical searches that look for literal matches of keywords, semantic searches attempt to find the user’s intended meaning within the context of the terms used. This understanding can be aided by user search history, global search history, the location of the user and keyword spelling variations.

Google’s RankBrain is an artificial intelligence system designed to recognize words and phrases in order to improve internet search outcomes. This independent thinking quality of RankBrain helps it take query handling to a more sophisticated level. Hummingbird is another Google technology that helps natural language queries. It helps search result pages be more relevant based on context and intent, causing relevant pages to rank higher.

Local search

Voice technology has brought an increased emphasis on the use of local search. Consumers are three times more likely to search locally when searching by voice. Research carried out over the last year shows that 58% of consumers find local businesses using voice search, and 46 percent use voice technology to find information on local businesses daily. Marketing strategies should account for this change and optimize for “near me” queries.

SERPs

Around 75% of voice search results will rank in the top three positions in search engine results pages (SERPs). Most voice searches are answered by Rich Answer Boxes shown at the top of results pages. Featured snippets are included in 30 percent of Google queries. These are extracts from any website on the first page of SERPs, and brands are given credit in voice search as well as usual GUI searches. Brands only need to be on the first page to be used in featured snippets, rather than position zero.

Ecommerce

Ecommerce is especially impacted by voice, as consumers are much more likely to use voice to make purchases. Sixty-two percent of voice speaker owners have made purchases through their virtual assistant, and 40 percent of millennials use voice assistants before making online purchases. Digital assistants – and the best ways to optimize for them – should, therefore, be a priority for online retailers.

Adapting to voice search

With voice technology impacting SEO in various ways, here are a few recommended steps brands can take to adapt accordingly.

Google Voice prioritizes quick-loading websites, so brands should ensure images are optimized, files are compressed, response time is reduced, and the site is fully responsive.
Content should be optimized with long-tail keywords that reflect popular queries used in voice search. Focus on natural language.
Featured snippets are summary answers from web pages that may be used in position zero. To optimize content for this, include identifiable extracts to be featured and make content easier for Google to read by using H-tags and bullet points.
Structured data and schema markup provide more information about a brand and drive traffic. They help pages appear in rich snippets, which will increase the chances of being the first result delivered in voice searches.
Local information for your brand should be provided to meet the increased search volume for local businesses with voice – using Google My Business will help.
Increasing domain authority will help with search rankings – this can be improved by including high-quality links.

The impact of voice technology on SEO is certain. Given the huge rise in the adoption and use of voice, the impact on businesses will be considerable. Those brands that can anticipate and stay ahead of the changes before they happen will surely reap the benefits in years to come.

Roy Castleman is founder and managing director of EC-MSP Ltd., a London-based IT support organization focusing on small and medium-sized businesses.

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We Don’t Need a Ban on Political Ads—We Need a Foundation of Real News

6 hours ago

There’s been much speculation as to whether Facebook will follow Twitter and Google’s lead in restricting political ads. And, indeed, it feels like political advertising has tipped into particularly dangerous, manipulative territory hastened by microtargeting and real-time analytics.

But as many marketers have experienced, Facebook’s ad filters can be dangerously imprecise when labeling content “political.” A political ad ban would threaten to take away a powerful tool in the toolbox of not just campaigns, but advocacy organizations, nonprofits and purpose-driven marketers from across the spectrum.

Ultimately, here’s the thing: Facebook hasn’t altered the content of political advertising. Political ads have always been full of misleading claims, character smears and alternate partisan realities. They were just as toxic when they existed primarily on TV and in the mail.

As social feeds have become as central to our lives as the evening news once was, what’s needed is not the removal of political ads, but rather a foundation of real news.

What has changed is what surrounds political ads. Before social algorithms and cable news enabled us to create our own information echo chambers, political ads competed not just against one another but also shared space with largely unbiased, truth-based journalism in the form of the nightly news and strong, local newspapers.

In other words, fact-based journalism permeated our collective consciousness, whether we liked it or not. It was a shared lens through which our electorate was able to weigh and evaluate partisan claims. So, as social feeds have become as central to our lives as the evening news once was, what’s needed is not the removal of political ads, but rather a foundation of real news.

I call this “information offsetting” and liken it to the way in which carbon offsets enable polluters to help mitigate the harmful byproducts of their industries. Information offsetting would help mitigate the harmful effects of social algorithms on our electorate.

An information offsetting policy that Facebook could adopt would work like this: For every political ad served across Facebook and Instagram, those same users would be served an equal number of organic impressions from credible news sources on the key issues of the day. These offset impressions wouldn’t be responsive to the political content itself, and they wouldn’t be an attempt at fact checking. Rather, they would be chosen the way an editor chooses what goes on the front page of the morning paper.

This injection of news would help level the information playing field and force us all to at least be exposed to fact-based journalism in our daily lives. It’s an important step further than the News tab that was introduced on Facebook in October and is wholly separate from Facebook’s troubled attempts to moderate content.

Information offsetting would not require Silicon Valley innovation and could be implemented immediately. The mechanisms to accomplish this have powered the Fourth Estate since the dawn of our republic: editors and reporters with a singular mission to get to the truth, wherever it may lead. And luckily, against all odds, these organizations exist today. They include flagship news organizations like The New York Times and The Washington Post to startup news outlets including Vox to nonprofit journalistic organizations like ProPublica and The Texas Tribune. Content these outlets publish goes live on social media day in and day out. Sadly, it’s deprioritized by algorithms that reinforce our partisan beliefs and corporations that are slaves to the monetization of our attention.

I realize the very mention of the outlets above can elicit calls of fake news. But adults in the room must lock arms and affirm the integrity of these news organizations and the critical role they play in a healthy, informed electorate.

Is this solution perfect? Far from it. The climate-savvy will point out that carbon offsets are no panacea either. But just as carbon offsetting is one tool in a much broader toolbox to help us tackle global warming, information offsetting is a tangible tool that Facebook can implement today as part of its larger journey to reckon with the company’s enormous societal influence, and to better align marketing effectiveness with the greater good.

https://www.adweek.com/digital/we-dont-need-a-ban-on-political-ads-we-need-a-foundation-of-real-news/

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What is Google’s new speakable schema markup?

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How will the speakable schema affect SEO?

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How do you use speakable markup?

What are the benefits of speakable schema markup?

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What impact will voice search have on SEO in 2020?

The rise of voice technology

Whitepaper

The effects of voice on SEO

Natural language

Keyword length

Question words

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We Don’t Need a Ban on Political Ads—We Need a Foundation of Real News