How data is transforming the advertising landscape

By Ethan Wagner, Columbia University

Tobias Bennett of LMC data-driven advertising exchange, represents a network of 77 media companies, that together represent 2,200 local media outlets that receive 3.4 billion monthly page views and count 15.4 billion monthly impressions.  Overall, that makes LMC the 6^th largest news media organization in the United States, Bennett said.

Bennett reports that the network drives 165 million monthly impression.  But even this number doesn’t tell the full story, he added.  LMC connects with 165 million devices; his goal, he said, was to translate that figure into the number of people.

Bennett’s next presentation slide captured this sentiment in large, bold print: “Devices do NOT equal people,” it read.

“What we’ve found is advertisers want people-based marketing,” Bennett said.  In fact, LMC’s research indicates that most digital advertising professionals believe cookies will soon be a thing of the past.  32 percent of those polled believe that the industry will not rely on cookies within the next 12 months, and an additional 31 percent believe it will take 1-2 years to move away fully from cookies.  But the conclusion is clear, Bennett said.  “We must advertise to real people across their connected devices using registered user data.”

This is not an imperative driven by technology, but rather by results.  90 percent of marketers in LMC’s polling say they see improved performance with people-based marketing over cookies.

LMC is currently aiming for subscription-based models as its most effective method of retaining the attention of users.  Using data, Bennett views users in four stages, aiming to move them from casual readers, to loyal readers, to brand lovers, and finally to subscribers.  In conjunction with Google, LMC uses a project called FUSE look across more than 1,000 of its news sites and gather core analytical metrics to better understand its readers.  So too has Bennett found e-mail newsletters to be a highly valuable source of traffic, producing 3 times the value of social media on mobile platforms and more than twice the value on desktops.

FUSE has also revealed some key insights for user engagement:  put a subscribe button prominently on the home page.  Keep data forms simple.  The most important data to obtain is a user’s e-mail address—pre-populate the field if possible. Avoid pop-ups.  Avoid generic requests to “sign up for our newsletter”—get specific instead.

All told, Bennett concluded, LMC is playing the long game and he recommended that others do the same—build a solid foundation for long-term success in what is increasingly a people-based marketing ecosystem.