News and Analysis
Contextual Ads Power Sophisticated Content Strategies in Privacy Era
As the advertising industry turns back toward contextual, marketers will find a much more advanced technology than the one they may equate with the term. The privacy-safe ad method isn’t just serving up sneaker ads anymore; it’s powering sophisticated, content-based brand campaigns across multiple channels and target audiences.
Scorpion Expands Its Toolbox with Yelp Partnership
The digital marketing services provider Scorpion announced a new partnership with Yelp this morning, in a move that demonstrates just how important Yelp’s advertising platform has become to the local ecosystem. Scorpion clients will have access to Yelp tools like zip code targeting, campaign goals, negative keywords, and other pilot programs that take a granular and customized approach to ad delivery. They will also be able to optimize their Yelp presence and unlock new profile optimizations that weren’t previously available.
Commentary
The Blind Spot in Facebook’s Vision of Privacy
Insofar as Facebook’s pivot to privacy fails to reward its users for the data that has made it one of the world’s most powerful and profitable companies, I see it as a modest change that is more reactive than proactive, more inevitable than forward-thinking. It is likely that Facebook is only beginning to lay out its moves on privacy, and more ambitious changes may lie ahead. But for now, when it comes to the most pressing, fundamental ethical challenges that are inciting political fervor and increasing the likelihood that serious regulation of Big Tech is on the way, Zuckerberg is dragging his feet. With visionaries like Lanier and Zuboff raising public awareness about Facebook’s business model, the truth may just catch up with him.
Things Not Strings: Google’s New Hotel Profiles Exemplify Its Approach to Entities
Google’s Knowledge Graph ambitions are expanding to include obviating heavy reliance on secondary sources like Wikipedia and being able instead to classify and cross-reference information as a native, self-sustaining activity on web pages themselves. That’s what makes a recent patent filing different from the evidence of the Knowledge Graph we’ve already seen in the wild.
While this more ambitious way of surfacing information about entities is not yet standard, in researching Google’s new interface for hotels, I think I’m seeing evidence of a real-world example.
Latest Posts
Adxcel Rebrands as Artsai, Using AI to Consolidate the Marketing Stack
“We optimize the entire customer lifecycle journey,” says Artsai’s CRO Erik Lundberg. ” We may help someone acquire a new customer on Facebook, then reengage user on programmatic or RTB [real-time bidding], and then help drive the user to make a purchase inside the marketer’s mobile app or landing page.”
Looking at Location Signals, GroundTruth Looks at Ways to Predict Behavior
A recent study by the company focused on the foot traffic at mass merchandisers and grocery stores and airport traffic, and pointed to the NC city as the best choice for Amazon’s HQ2. “Being able to dig in to real world behaviors, it draws out real actionable recommendations,” says Sarah Ohle, VP of marketing insights.
Why TV Remains the Heartbeat of Local Connection