When it comes to experimental marketing, some marketers say big spending might not actually yield better results compared with smart tests on stricter budgets.<\/p>\n
This topic and others shaped discussions<\/a> throughout Digiday\u2019s spring Media Buying Summit<\/a>, which took place this week in New Orleans. From progress on diversity and retention challenges to evolving platforms and a challenging economy, marketers said transparency from platforms and finding the right talent are two hurdles the industry must still overcome.<\/p>\n On stage and off, media buyers and brand marketers said digital platforms\u2019 changing data capabilities are giving mixed signals \u2014 and mixed results. To navigate weaker signals, Marvel and its agency, Direct Agents, have been leaning more on second-party data and first-party data from parent company Disney to find new ways of reaching consumers.<\/p>\n Speaking on stage on Tuesday, Jessica Malloy, vp of marketing at Marvel Entertainment, said Marvel\u2019s marketing team works with Direct Agents to conduct one experiment at a time while letting other campaigns across various platforms run as efficiently as possible. This requires becoming more comfortable with waiting longer to see how things pan out. But Malloy and Corey Levine, Direct Agents\u2019 vp of integrated media, said their biggest concern is a lack of transparency across the major social media platforms.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we don\u2019t understand how it works and they don\u2019t understand how it works,\u201d Malloy said. \u201cAnd half the time we talk to people at these companies that don\u2019t actually know how it works either. They\u2019re pulling on their menu of \u2018try this or try that.\u2019 They\u2019re not privy to the developer\u2019s secret sauce either, and from my perspective, that\u2019s very frustrating.\u201d<\/p>\n As platforms\u2019 changes cause match rates to dwindle, Levine said companies are focusing less on pixel data as the end-all-be-all and instead taking a more holistic view of customer acquisition costs when deciding whether a campaign was successful. He added that increased use of interest-based targeting with keywords on Pinterest and Twitter has also been successful.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re working with machine learning and AI, we\u2019re often finding brands and agencies are using yesterday\u2019s rules for today\u2019s success,\u201d Levine said. \u201cWe are no longer living in a manual bidding strategy where you can wake up and change a bid or a cost capper or something every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n Some media buyers said clients sometimes aren\u2019t even willing to share their business goals, which makes it harder to plan campaigns. There\u2019s also still a disconnect between companies\u2019 business goals and advertising expectations, which leads to inefficient marketing. This is something that analysts are also seeing. According to a new survey conducted by Gartner, 62% of respondents said sales and marketing teams define viable leads differently. The research firm, which releases the findings this week, siad the differences often lead to \u201cinefficient and ineffective customer engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n Measurement concerns still need to be solved by aligning on universal standards, according to Melissa Wisehart, svp of Media Monks, who also spoke with Digiday on stage on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the worst problems in digital advertising are also now showing up across the connected television space, she said, adding that part of fixing the issues includes focusing less chasing on short-term goals. When asked which \u201csacred cow\u201d hasn\u2019t been tackled yet, Wisehart mentioned CPMs still need to be ended.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause measuring outcomes, because getting to business goals still seems elusive to us, we shorthand to CPMs constantly,\u201d Wisehart said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s the only universal truth, and I think we can do better, so I\u2019d like to see us as an industry offer up a new alternative, something specific to our clients.\u201d<\/p>\n Ongoing economic uncertainty has continued to sway some marketers to be risk-averse. However, it can help to pick a tent pole campaign to go deep on while also keeping parameters tight, according to Claire Russell head of media at integrated agency Fitzco. During an on-stage talk on Wednesday about experimental processes, she added that it also helps to create a measurement framework and start to annualize what works in order to see the overall impact.<\/p>\n Experimentation doesn\u2019t have to be overly risky and can be something that feels \u201csmall, palatable, relatively de-risked,\u201d Russell said. That might look like testing on new platforms, moving into CTV, trying new ad tech partners that are minority-owned or using out-of-home advertising to bring relevance back post-pandemic.<\/p>\n Beyond data challenges, talent and diversity remain areas for improvement.<\/p>\n Diversity, equity and inclusion continues to be a top priority for agencies \u2014 yet many still feel like there is not enough progress in the industry. Media Buying Summit speaker Angela Seits, head of strategy and insights for PMG Digital Agency, pointed out some of the gaps across organizations, from a lack of women leaders to a lack of representation of different communities.<\/p>\n \u201cAs we look around at our organization, as we look around the world, we are lacking in equity in many different forms,\u201d Seits said. \u201cSo we\u2019re still not seeing enough racial equity at all levels of our companies, at our leadership level. We\u2019re still not seeing enough women within leadership roles across our organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n At PMG, Seits said employee resource groups have been a useful tool for building more DEI support. The firm also has a cross-functional diversity steering committee dedicated to representation across the company. But Seits added that it is also important not to reinvent the wheel, and to try to work with existing nonprofits and support initiatives that are already building DEI programs.<\/p>\n \u201cReally enabling those groups has been pivotal to our strategy, because especially if we look at ourselves \u2014 and we look at the fact that we have more work to do, we need more diverse leadership in our own company. Spreading it throughout the organization ensures that there\u2019s more equal representation of the different ideas that our groups have,\u201d Seits said.<\/p>\n Akash Sen, chief people officer of Guided For Good, touched on another aspect of the workforce \u2014 talent retention and the challenges around the Great Resignation at agencies. Asked which workers he sees leaving media agencies, he mentioned many of them are Gen Z and millennials. And as with many employee programs, retention is not \u201cone-size-fits-all,\u201d Sen added.<\/p>\n \u201cSalary benefits and financial incentives \u2026 are all great and important, but they don\u2019t have a lasting impact on retention,\u201d Sen said. \u201cYou have to find ways to provide a sense of community and belonging. You have to show them their purpose in the work, what they\u2019re doing essentially. How does that fit in with their individual purpose? With the organization\u2019s purpose?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nThe ongoing challenges of data<\/h2>\n
Talent retention and diversity efforts<\/h2>\n