What I Saw Happen -- Q1 2018

Platforms -- the Facebook, Google and Amazon Triopoly

• Facebook has peaked, we hit the tipping point hurting society, monopoly -- see POV below

• Facebook should do a better job monetizing App inventory for publishers

• Amazon does the best job monetizing app inventory for publishers

• Snap made more revenue in Q4 by increasing ads 4X YoY

• Snap lost a key product person and Twitter lost COO -- not good for the second tier platforms

• Oath will never take on Google, Facebook and Amazon for advertising $'s, sorry

• Marketing – the move to Multi-touch attribution

• MTA, DDA -- multi touch attribution and data drive attribution are so critical for all marketers

• Marketers need to build top and bottom of funnel to survive long term

• For Display I may just buy retargeting and not prospecting just move all prospecting to Facebook

• How do I really measure video ad performance? What is the KPI for video?

• Some CPG companies like Neutrogena are starting to sell directly to the consumer alleviating the middle-man -- Amazon, Walmart, Target, Walgreens, etc..

• Marketing in your sales organization is your top selling sales person, if done right

• Would Android and Apple ever not allow the FB app in their respective ecosystem because it does not adhere the strict enough privacy policies? Just asking.

• Agencies & Consulting Houses -- yes, I am combing them

• Publishers should spend more time with consulting houses -- seeing how they operate and how they are helping marketers

• WPP stock down, again, now at 2013 levels

• Agency traders are typically buying the cheapest media possible at the highest margins sometimes neglecting the needs and wants of the advertiser

• Agencies still take the easiest way to run impressions and generate high margins -- even as marketers bring more buying in-house

• Publishers – trying to figure out GDPR & new streams of revenue

• Again, need to go beyond ad sales

• I still love PODCASTS, best stuff out there by FAR -- after a good podcast I walk away learning something

• Publishers need to eat their own dog food -- that is work on affiliate deals and learn what it takes to sell products online

• Publishers are not good at being creative agencies, they need to work together more often to figure out this new branded content business

• Captain obvious here, but front door traffic for publishers will always win in the long run

• A standardized publisher taxonomy may need to be important again, especially in light of GDPR

• SEO is popular again for publishers and Audio SEO is coming next

• Publishers who still have a strong Direct sale business need to do a better job of matching the advertisers KPI to ad products of the publisher

• Every publisher needs to hire more analysts, many more analysts

• Ad Tech – also trying to figure out GDPR

• Still waiting for the consolidation to happen, will the fallout of GDPR will make this consolidation happen faster

• Are we all now at a 1st price auction for everyone but ADX?

• I still love the identity consortium -- though they should use phone numbers as the link

• Blockchain may impact Nielsen first – decentralized database of TV viewing habits

• In a down market do companies stop payment of IAB etc. Does the IAB really do anything meaningful these days?

• I love the Brave Browser and what it could mean for the industry

• A pov on Facebook -- wrote this in mid-January

• Facebook is not good for the world. Facebook is too addictive with too many bad things happening on the platform. Russia, the election, fake news, etc.

• We need to make Facebook better for the world by decreasing the power of the company. Facebook is hurting society.

• Facebook should not wait till it gets worse or the government comes in and acts.

• Stock would go from $150 to $90 overnight, then rebound over time. Plus expenses would probably double bringing margins down substantially to more reasonable levels.

• The world would benefit from this in the long run.

• Here are some suggestions.

• verify all 6 million+ advertisers -- make them show up in person to sign up to advertiser on the platform

• use phone numbers as a verification tool not email address which are a dime a dozen

• review all ads for all 6 million+ advertisers always -- make advertiser pay to be in the front of the queue if they want

• limit the amount of data that FB 6 million+ advertisers can use; right now it is just too good and too granular and therefore too potentially dangerous

• limit usage to 2 hours per day per person on weekdays and 3 hours per person on weekends, especially if you are under 18

• allow the user to adjust the newsfeed algorithm person by person as they want it; go from centralized to decentralized

• allow a subscription of $4.99 per month that will have no ads and not allow FB to use my data

• admit the platform is additive, use TV advertising and show ways to curb usage

• voluntarily divest of Instagram and WhatsApp and promise no more acquisitions over the next 5 years

• hire an internal team of 100 people who kick the tires every day looking to exploit the platform

• 15 ideas/jobs for the future that are closely related to ad tech -- if you are trying to get out of ad tech, go to one of these

• Blockchain -- Po.et as an example, replace Nielsen, decentralized database, is Blockchain real and can you make a business out of it long term

• Podcasts -- Anything podcast related – ad insertion in particular, love the Pandora acquisition of AdsWizz

• DTC -- Any Direct to Consumer (DTC) business, razors, mattresses, video like Netflix or Hulu, food, etc. and the lifetime value of the customers for these companies

• Data warehousing or visualization – Domo, Looker, Tableau, GoodData, Qlik, Business Objects, etc.

• SEO -- Never going away still very relevant

• Voice engine search optimization -- will be important call it VSEO

• Multi-touch attribution – Neustar and GA360 , this critical for marketers, as last click overstates many marketing channels

• Voice device monetization – Siri, Alexa and Google – though how do advertisers use this new channel?

• Outsourced engineering resources – we all need more programmers, not touching the core product by tangential pieces of the business

• Benchmarking -- Across ad sales and other aspects of the business – how do I know if I am doing well?

• Triopoly -- Work for Facebook or Google or Amazon , especially Google these days :-)

• Consulting Houses -- Work for a top consulting house specializing in Tech, Adverting, Marketing, Systems, etc.

• Agency -- Work for an agency and help them survive, they need smart people more than ever

• Salesforce – Become an expert, never going every company will always need sales teams

• TV – Not going away for the big guys – CBS, NBC, Disney, Turner, Scripps, etc.