DIGITAL MEDIA DIGEST: MAY ‘19
A monthly look at the world of digital from NORTH’s point of view
The Fallout From Disney and Comcast’s Divorce
By Caroline Desmond, Director of Media Strategy
Well, this is annoying. Comcast announced this month that it will be breaking away from Hulu by 2024. This is part of an agreement reached by Disney and Comcast on the heels of Disney’s land grab within Hulu. To recap, back in March, Disney finalized a deal to buy most of 21st Century Fox including their share of Hulu making Disney a majority interest holder of Hulu.
Additionally, in April, Hulu LLC bought out AT&T Inc.’s 9.5 percent stake in the streaming service leaving only Disney and Comcast as the remaining owners (as you may recall from our April Digital Digest).
So here’s the rub — when Hulu originally launched, it featured a variety of programming brought to you by Fox, ABC (Disney), NBC (Comcast), and AT&T. As the previous co-owners have sold their ownership interests, they have simultaneously prepared to launch separate streaming platforms thereby fragmenting the programming options that used to be available in one place.
NBC has announced it plans to launch its own streaming video service 2020.
AT&T’s WarnerMedia will also launch its own streaming service later this year and has made moves to keep programming it has licensed to other services for itself (including Friends, which is currently on Netflix).
Even Disney has determined that it must have its own streaming service — Disney+ — and this is despite the fact that Disney will buy out Comcast’s Hulu stake making Hulu a wholly owned Disney platform.
Cord cutters who previously rejoiced at not having to pay expensive monthly cable bills could subscribe to Hulu Plus for ~$17 a month to see old and new episodes of their favorite shows across all of the major networks. Flash forward to the current landscape. Spinoff streaming services such as Disney+ and NBC Streaming have announced that they will charge between $7–$10 a month to access each platform respectively. This year, Netflix also announced a price increase that results in subscribers paying up to $15.99 per month. So now, in order to access all desired programming, a cord cutter may have to pay around $50 per month. For reference, this rivals some cable packages.
Moreover, companies like Comcast (NBC) are designing their “cord cutter” streaming platform to be less attractive than subscribing to cable (big surprise). According to CNBC, “NBC’s free streaming product will include live linear programming and same-season shows, but its cord-cutting product will not . . . .”
For brands, this could have a couple of practical effects on ad buying options. The influx of streaming options that will likely be ad-supported in some capacity will create competition among the media companies and could drive down CPMs. Alternatively, there is also a risk that consumers say to heck with this, and walk away from some currently ad-supported platforms (looking at you Hulu) to prioritize one or two platforms and cut down on their monthly streaming bill. If this happens, advertisers may have fewer options for ad supported streaming platforms.
That said, the true effects of this development in the streaming world will not likely be felt for another three to four years.
A Reflection On Digital Citizenship
By Izzy Kramer, Media Planner
I have noticed the term “digital citizenship” popping up more often in headlines, although the term was coined in the early 2010s. It is defined as “the continuously developing norms of appropriate, responsible, and empowered technology use.”
A majority of the articles I’ve read relate to how schools and parents can best equip and empower future generations for a future assuredly becoming more digital. In a 2017 Speak Up survey, “93-percent of district administrators said that ‘knowing how to be safe online and use safeguards to protect our information and ourselves’ is important for students.” It seems the conversation has switched from “Off and Away” in schools to how to best utilize technology and the internet to learn.
However, these headlines did not have me (an “adult”) feeling equipped and empowered in an already incredibly digital present. While it is great to be teaching the next gen (let’s keep that up), the conversation needs to go beyond just teaching children. After all, being a good “netizen” is about contributing to the good of society, with hopes to make it better for future generations. We can’t always put it on the shoulders of future generations to make everything better.
This is incredibly relevant to brands as well. Brands have a larger voice than any single individual and they have a larger, progressively more digital platform to speak from. Brands need to be that much more aware of their digital citizenship as their influence has a greater impact.
So, I’ve outlined a few key elements of good digital citizenship in collaboration with the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE):
Respect
- Etiquette: Citizens need to be aware of how their technology use affects others. Remember there is a person on the other end of their text, tweet, comment or post.
- Access: Not everyone has the same opportunities with technology, whether the issue is physical, socio-economic, or location. Those who have more access to technology need to help those who don’t.
- Law: The ease of using online tools has allowed some people to steal, harass and cause problems for others online. Citizens need to know they can’t take content without permission, or at least give credit to those who created it.
Educate
- Digital Literacy: Citizens need to understand technology, what it can do, and be willing to learn new skills so they can use it properly. The digital world is ever evolving, so is the digital citizen.
- Communication: Knowing when and where to use technology is important. Using email, text, or social media may not be the best method for interacting with someone. Citizens need to think about the message first, then the method, and decide if the manner and audience is appropriate.
- Commerce: Technology allows us to buy and sell across the globe. Citizens should be careful about sharing information and understand online commerce comes with risks.
Protect
- Rights and Responsibilities: Citizens should know who they are friends with on social networking sites so that they can remain safe online. Regardless of whether we get our information from friends, family or online, we need to be aware that it might not be correct and to use our common sense.
- Security: It is everyone’s responsibility to guard their tools and data by having software and applications that protect them from online intruders. When we are all connected, everyone is responsible for security.
- Health and wellness: There needs to be a balance between the online world and the real world. Citizens should establish limits with technology and spend quality face-to-face time with loved ones.
It seems pretty straight-forward, so much so that it probably already feels we are following these guidelines. But being kind, smart, and safe seems to be a lesson we all need reminding of every now and then.
How Programmatic Can You Go?
By Devon Brown, Performance Marketing Manager
Programmatic is the future, or so says many. According to Marketing Week, programmatic is defined as “buying digital advertising space automatically, with computers using data to decide which ads to buy and how much to pay for them.” So in other words, instead of managed buys, RFPs, and insertion orders, you buy in an auction based on real-time bidding.
Benefits
Reduce Overhead Costs
One of the key benefits of programmatic direct is the ability to reduce overhead costs associated with placing buys through a publisher or ad network. Publishers and ad networks provide a breadth of services as part of a managed buy including customized content production, buy consultation services, and ad trafficking quality assurance. These services require hours and effort on the part of the publisher or ad network that must be reflected in the cost of media. For some channels, it makes sense for an agency to go through a publisher (or it may even be required). For others, an agency can benefit from the cost savings associated with self-service programmatic buying platforms.
Large Quantity of Inventory
Another key benefit is that you may have access to a larger quantity of inventory. If a marketplace has access to multiple publishers, by buying directly you can access all placements on all sites. Depending on the marketplace, you may be able to access a much higher quantity of inventory that would be available through a managed buy.
More Control Over Inventory and Testing
Not only do you have access to a larger amount of inventory in many cases, but you also have better control over that inventory. This provides more opportunity to apply in-house historical knowledge of the brand and audience to test many different placements and strategies. Plus, instead of waiting for an account manager to send periodic reporting, you can pull real-time data and insights to make faster changes and optimizations,
Drawbacks
Steep Learning Curve
Programmatic buying platforms require a specialized skill set. Typically, this will be someone familiar with platforms like Google AdWords, Amazon Ads, and Facebook Ads Manager, etc. There are many levers a programmatic media buyer can pull, but with these myriad choices come with a steep learning curve associated with getting up to speed on the way to use each buying platform.
Moreover, self-service, real-time bidding platforms like those brought to us by Google, Amazon, and Facebook come with little in the way of technical support. Response times vary but can sometimes take at least 48-hours, whereas in a fully managed buy, a media planner/buyer can call or email their rep and get a response within minutes or hours.
No Safety Net
Agencies and in-house client programmatic media buyers bear the full risk of something going wrong on a self-serve buying platform. There are of course technical glitches that no one can predict and that the platform itself will be at fault for, but for everything else, the burden is on the buyer to make the right choices and to ensure that all of the correct safety measures are put into place.
For example, in a fully managed buy, a publisher is going to have standard operating procedures in place to ensure that brand content only appears in well-lit, brand-safe media environments. Whereas, in a self-serve, real-time bidding platform, the onus is on the programmatic media buyer to ensure that content quality controls are selecting in campaign settings so that brand content does not run next to explicit, offensive, or otherwise inappropriate subject matter.
In Conclusion
So what is the right mix between self-serve, programmatic and managed buys? The answer, I’m afraid, is not black and white. It really depends on the objective of the buy, whether a channel allows for self-service, programmatic buying (channels like OOH, print, and TV still do not), and the degree of expertise the agency or client is willing to invest in to bring self-serve, programmatic media buying in-house.
