Today's News

• TV ADS • ‘Pause Ads’ Boost Viewer Engagement

• THREADS • Invite-Only Creator Program Launched

• MEDIA BUYING • New Programmatic Transparency Tool

• X • Fewer Users, But the Ones Left Are Engaged

• VIDEO • Google’s Expanded Media Buying Tools

TV ADS • ‘Pause Ads’ Boost Viewer Engagement

New research suggests that pause ads, which pop up when streaming viewers take a break, might be a bigger opportunity than we thought.

According to a report from the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB), around 50% of streaming viewers have taken some action after seeing a pause ad.

Pause ads appear during breaks in viewing, like when a viewer steps away to grab a snack or handle other brief tasks. These ads have been adopted by various platforms like Max, Hulu, and Peacock, all members of the VAB, which includes heavyweights like Disney+, NBCUniversal, and Paramount+.

Women’s Sports Growing

The study also touched on other trends shaping the streaming landscape.

Notably, half of the 1,600 TV consumers surveyed have used subscription services to watch live sports over the past year. In particular, a viewership growth in women's sports, highlighted by recent record-breaking viewership for events like the Women's World Cup and women's March Madness.

Binge > Drip

Also, 73% of viewers prefer to have all episodes of a streaming show available at once, rather than released weekly.

Older viewers showed a preference for free, ad-supported streaming TV channels vs paying for a premium plan.

What Gets the Best Engagement

In terms of engagement, when it comes to interactive advertising, the study found ads that viewers can click on for more information via email or directly on their devices saw the highest engagement, with 67% interaction.

Explorable ads and direct purchase options also performed well, while QR codes lagged behind, with only 36% engagement.

THREADS • Invite-Only Creator Program Launched

The gloves are off. Threads has created a paid bonus program for creators.

The program sets targets for each invited creator based in the U.S., focusing on the performance of their posts, such as the number of views and frequency of posts. These creators must have a public Threads profile and, yes, it’s invite-only for now.

How to Get an Invite

To get an invite accounts need an average minimum of 2,500 views per post, there has to be some text in the post (i.e., not just images), no competing watermarks (from, like, TikTok or YouTube), and posts can’t be tied to brand partnerships.

What it Means for Marketers

This is, of course, the latest salvo in the war for Twitter refugees. Once the app rebranded to X, it started pushing harder on its creator compensation program.

If previous programs, like those done on TikTok and YouTube, are anything to go by, this move by Threads could very well bring in more eyeballs. More eyeballs should mean more options for ad placements (once Meta opens Threads up for ads) and if there’s enough inventory, we might even see a small drop in the CPM rates across Meta’s platforms.

MEDIA BUYING • New Programmatic Transparency Tool

The ad-tech consulting group DeepSee has unveiled a new tool aimed at improving transparency within the murky world of digital advertising.

The "Publisher Research Portal" helps advertisers and intermediaries assess the quality of web sites used for programmatic advertising.

A “Nutrition Label” for Web Sites

According to DeepSee, the platform functions like a "nutrition label" for digital publishers, providing insights into a website's ad load, presence of pirated content, and traffic stability. The company says unstable traffic might suggest the use of inorganic methods to inflate visitor numbers, which can be a critical indicator for advertisers.

A DeepSee executive said their goal is to become sort of a SimilarWeb for advertisers, with tools that cater not only to the buy side but also to supply-side platforms and ad exchanges. This allows these platforms to vet and monitor publishers continuously.

Response to Quality Concerns

This new initiative comes in response to findings like those from the Association of National Advertisers, which reported significant waste in ad spending due to fraudulent or low-quality sites. Despite efforts to establish guidelines for managing such issues, challenges in enforcement remain.

Big Names Sign On

The new platform has already attracted attention, with companies like The Trade Desk and TripleLift participating as beta testers.

X • Fewer Users, But the Ones Left Are Engaged

The European Union recently introduced legislation that forces social media platforms over a certain size to report stats — like the number of users, the number of moderators in each region, and so on.

Most of these platforms are, of course, public companies so these numbers are already sort of available. I say “sort of” because while companies have a fiduciary duty to report their top-line numbers, they can really do it whatever way they want. Are the daily actives down? Let’s report monthlies instead!

The E.U. Digital Services Act, however, requires platforms to use their metrics — all logged-in users, and all logged-out users.

X Loses Users in the EU

And according to those numbers, X lost just under a million active users in the region from last August to the end of January. In total, they have about 62 million “logged-in” users in Europe.

How does that compare to the rest of the world? Assuming we use “daily active users” as the closest comparison, the EU makes up about 25% of X’s global active user base.

EU averages: August 1st 2023 to January 31 2024

So while the platform isn’t seeing growth, nor is it anywhere near Elon Musk's ambitious target of 600 million users by next year, it isn't facing a steep drop-off in users either. X claims its existing user base is engaging more deeply with the platform.

Sports a Strong Area

VIDEO • Google’s Expanded Media Buying Tools

Google today announced some changes to its Display & Video 360 platform.

Until now, most of that platform focused on YouTube. But now, it’s moving more into placements on streaming TV.

Single Platform = Easier Management

The company brought executives from major players like Warner Bros. Discovery to talk about the better results they got from reduced frequency — that’s something you can manage across different surfaces if you’ve got them all in one place.

Additional Expanded/New Tools

Google also has expanded its instant deal tool, previously exclusive to YouTube, which now facilitates private auctions for premium publishers like Disney.

They’ve also got a new a commitment optimizer tool in DV360 that can give you more flexibility in inventory management and media planning.

Finally, on the privacy side, Google announced it had open-sourced its Publisher Advertiser Identity Reconciliation (PAIR) tech. This will help secure data transfer between advertisers and publishers without, Google claims, compromising user privacy.

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