This Week in Digital Advertising: Beauty, Privacy, & COVID Drones

This Week in Digital Advertising: Beauty, Privacy, & COVID Drones

Hello, Bidtellectuals!

Congratulations to Bidtellectual of the Week Lindsey Morgenthaler, whose clients and colleagues alike sing her praises!

All-Hands Goes Virtual

This week, Bidtellectuals have gathered “virtually” each afternoon for our annual All-Hands! Usually, the team gathers for a few days of fun in sunny South Florida, but this year looked a little different (i.e. through a Zoom camera). The theme of presentations has been “The Journey of an Ad:” how each department and platform capability contributes to the journey and successful placement and performance of an ad through Bidtellect’s platform. And check this: we broke into teams to come up with a fun “commercial” for Bidtellect. Take a peek at one team’s final product! Get ready to smile.

 

Beauty and the Coronavirus

Yes, the industry felt a hit at first, but a shift in popularity to skincare, the “affordable luxury” mentality, and the desire to feel good even in a crisis has helped the industry rebound and more. Expect a permanent shift to ecommerce or hybrid models for customers post-pandemic. Now is the time to build out content to inspire shopping online and expand those digital channels to reach more now. In the words of Elizabeth Taylor: “Pour yourself a drink, put on some lipstick, and pull yourself together.” And read this.

eMarketer: Identity 2020

If you’re looking for a good run-down of the changes to cookies, ad IDs, and any other regulations taking aim at tracking this year: this is it. Don’t worry, eMarketer also surveyed marketers across the country about how they’re handling it. Surprise: compliance and data regulation will be taking up most of their attention: 60% of respondents will increase spend/emphasis on use of first-party data (IAB via eMarketer). More concerning, though, is that fewer than one-third of data professionals in North America were actively testing and investing in new solutions as of May, per IAB via eMarketer. So we’re heading towards a cookieless future, but most of the industry is about to be like, “Sorry, the dog ate my homework.”

Drones: Covid Tests of the Future??

And on the Covid-testing front: those eager to ????y to Hawaii might be happy to hear that United Airlines passengers can take a rapid test at the San Francisco Airport starting on Oct. 15. Travelers who test negative will be able to skip Hawaii’s 14-day mandatory quarantine BUT will have to foot the $250 bill. (And those who test positive won’t be able to board.) Want to test at home? No problem! Walmart is offering at-home Covid-19 testing kits by drone thanks to a new partnership with Questa Diagnostics and DroneUp. There are a few caveats, but in a blog post, Walmart said it will begin trial deliveries of Covid-19 collection kits starting Sept. 22 in NorthLas Vegas, with Cheektowaga, N.Y., to follow in early October. And if you’re feeling really confident: Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Lines released new safety procedures and hope to set sail by October 31st!!!! No more buffets, but lots of testing.

Stay safe, friends,

Charlotte

Want more need-to-know info? Subscribe to our monthly Bidtellectual newsletter!


Charlotte Otremba is Sr. Manager of Communications and Marketing at Bidtellect.

Why You Should Factor Diversity Into Your Strategy This Black History Month

How and why you should make diversity your advertising priority.

Behind the Platform: Using Peer39 For Brand Safety & Keyword Targeting

Bidtellect VP of Product Arthur Hainline demonstrates the three key uses for the Peer39 integration in Bidtellect’s DSP, while offering helpful tips for traders and advertisers to get the most out of Bidtellect’s product.

Behind the Platform: Tracking Emissions With Bidtellect Scope3 Integration, Plus What to Know About Supply Path Emissions

Bidtellect VP of Product Arthur Hainline demonstrates the new Scope3 integration in Bidtellect’s platform, how you can take actionable steps to reduce carbon waste, and the current state of the industry’s wasteful supply path emissions.

This Week in Digital Advertising: Google Faces Senate Heat and the Political AdSpend Breakdown

This Week in Digital Advertising: Google Faces Senate Heat and the Political AdSpend Breakdown

Hello, Bidtellectuals!

Congratulations to Bidtellectual of the Week Lindsey Morgenthaler, whose clients and colleagues alike sing her praises!

The Senate is Cracking Down on Google, Who Still Says It Doesn’t Monopolize the Digital Ad Market

“Do you know of any other company that exercises this kind of concentration and dominance across every layer of the ad stack?” asked Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo, at the Senate on Tuesday. According to NPR, Donald Harrison, Google’s president of global partnerships and corporate development, faced a bipartisan grilling in the Senate on Tuesday over the company’s dominance in digital advertising. Findings from the United Kingdom’s antitrust regulator show that Google has dominant positions in various parts of the ad technology market, ranging from 40% to more than 90%. the Justice Department is reportedly getting ready to le a lawsuit against the company in the coming weeks.

Politics and Digital Advertising Spend

Each election cycle in recent years has seen a greater shift towards digital ad spend. So here’s how the respective parties are planning to spend, so far:

Last month the Biden Campaign announced a $280 million ad buy covering 15states of which 20% would be devoted to digital spending, Business Insider reported. The Biden campaign has spent more than $9 million a week on Facebook and Google since the middle of August. Before that, the campaign had not spent more than $6 million in a week, according to The Hill. In addition, outside groups such as StopRepublicans and Priorities USA have spent tens of millions of dollars on Facebook and Google this cycle. Priorities USA tracked its digital ads in Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and claims that the ads decreased Trump’s net approval rating in those states by 2.5 points between April and July.

The Trump Campaign is focusing on mobilizing its current support network and is currently spending more on digital ads. Since the beginning of August, the Trump campaign has outspent the Biden campaign by $20 million on Facebook and Google, according to The Hill. Other data says they’ve poured more than $170 million into aggressive marketing on Facebook and Google ads, compared to just $90 million from the Biden campaign. Around 20 percent of the Trump campaign’s digital spending, depending on the time frame, has been concentrated in Texas, California and New York, where many donors live.

While we’re focusing on digital, there’s also television: the Biden campaign has outpaced the Trump campaign by $30 million on the television airwaves, according to The Hill. And Mike Bloomberg’s $100 million television ad campaign to help JoeBiden win Florida – a key swing state – will show up on TV screens throughout the state on Friday, according to Sun Sentinel.

5 Ways B2Bs Can Adjust Digital Strategy & Brand Messaging Based on Coronavirus Impact

Facebook Cracks Down on Hate Speech in Groups

Meanwhile, ahead of the election, Facebook is attempting to clean up its reputation. Facebook will shut down all political ads on the site one week before the election to calm fears of nefarious outside meddling and the spread of hate speech and misinformation. The company announced yesterday that they removed more than 1million groups and 13.5 million pieces of content in groups for hate speech in the past year. These figures were released alongside new policies meant to “keep groups safe,” including a new commitment to limit the spread of health advice on the platform, according to Adweek.

Download our One Sheet on Social Media and Native Ads.

B2B Sales Is Still Going Strong, With a Golden Opportunity in Digital Advertising

In the US, B2B digital ad spending is growing 22.6% year over year amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to new data by eMarketer. Adapting to work-from-home, digital events, and ecommerce is key.

Download our one sheet on B2B trends and how to adjust messaging.

Good News: Fall Foliage

Leaves are changing soon?! Check out this Fall Foliage Prediction Map to plan your leaf-peeping trip! It’s the perfect social-distance activity. Bidtellectuals are counting down to our annual All-Hands gathering next week. It will be virtual this year, of course, but we’re pretty excited for some awesome bonding activities and pajama day!

Stay safe, friends,

Charlotte

Want more need-to-know info? Subscribe to our monthly Bidtellectual newsletter!


Charlotte Otremba is Sr. Manager of Communications and Marketing at Bidtellect.

Why You Should Factor Diversity Into Your Strategy This Black History Month

How and why you should make diversity your advertising priority.

Behind the Platform: Using Peer39 For Brand Safety & Keyword Targeting

Bidtellect VP of Product Arthur Hainline demonstrates the three key uses for the Peer39 integration in Bidtellect’s DSP, while offering helpful tips for traders and advertisers to get the most out of Bidtellect’s product.

Behind the Platform: Tracking Emissions With Bidtellect Scope3 Integration, Plus What to Know About Supply Path Emissions

Bidtellect VP of Product Arthur Hainline demonstrates the new Scope3 integration in Bidtellect’s platform, how you can take actionable steps to reduce carbon waste, and the current state of the industry’s wasteful supply path emissions.

This Week in Digital Advertising: September 11th, 2020

This Week in Digital Advertising: September 11th, 2020

Hello, Bidtellectuals!

Today is September 11th. We remember the men, women, firefighters, and rescue workers who lost their lives on this day in 2001. Tell someone how much you love them today.

Congratulations to Bidtellectual TEAM of the Week Kendra, Ashley, Kevin and Shannon! The client wrote an unprompted note praising the team for their personal attention to the campaigns along with withBidtellect’s platform technology. If this doesn’t make your heart glow…

Pharma’s COVID Recovery (And Then Some)

Health, healthcare, medicine: nothing like a global pandemic to revamp a vertical’s popularity. SO we dove into COVID-19’s impact on the health and pharma industry. While there was a brief dip in ad spend in March, by May medical and pharma ad spending was up 56% year over year. Trends to note: higher adoptions of telehealth, filling prescriptions from home, and a shift in spend to programmatic –especially video.

For this week’s Bidtellect Beat: Digital Edition, I spoke with Bidtellect Director of Sales Phil Marth on the unique challenges pharma marketers face, trends in the industry, and how native programmatic can deliver on the shift to more conscious, hopeful and helpful messaging. Give it a watch here.

PHARMA Marketing Challenges & Industry Changes Since COVID

 

 

 

Google States Obvious: Keyword Blocking of ‘Coronavirus’ Was Too Broad

Nice, Google. If you’ll recall, the industry made a major effort (see IAB) to call out the harm of such broad block brush strokes to news and publishers. Google’s marketing team conceded that it had been “too conservative” in including “coronavirus” on its list of blocked terms earlier this year, and pledged to spend $100 million in advertising to support news organizations this year. Feels a little late to me? Adweek interviewed VP of Marketing Joshua Spanier. Read it here.

eMarketer: CPG Crushing It

eMarketer’s latest report: Thanks to a boost in digital sales of essential goods and personal care products (purchased more frequently online during the pandemic) digital ad spending in the US consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry will increase 5.2% to $19.40 billion this year, making it the third-largest spender behind retail and financial services. Mobile spending will grow 11.4% and account for 73.2% of all CPGdigital ad spend – WOW. Competition with direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands, along with an uptick in ecommerce sales, has led to a higher focus on performance marketing. Hit us up.

Good News, Maybe: Pro Sports Are Coming Back

Tennis is underway at the U.S. Open sans fans. Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka and Tsvetana Pironkova made history on Labor Day at the USTA Billie Jean KingNational Tennis Center by becoming the first trio of mothers to reach the quarter finals of the same Grand Slam. Go Moms! One of them will face 2018 U.S.Open winner Naomi Osaka who reached the nal with her win over Jennifer Brady yesterday. The N.F.L. opened its season Thursday night with a game between the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans.

Stay safe, friends,

Charlotte

Want more need-to-know info? Subscribe to our monthly Bidtellectual newsletter!


Charlotte Otremba is Sr. Manager of Communications and Marketing at Bidtellect.

Why You Should Factor Diversity Into Your Strategy This Black History Month

How and why you should make diversity your advertising priority.

Behind the Platform: Using Peer39 For Brand Safety & Keyword Targeting

Bidtellect VP of Product Arthur Hainline demonstrates the three key uses for the Peer39 integration in Bidtellect’s DSP, while offering helpful tips for traders and advertisers to get the most out of Bidtellect’s product.

Behind the Platform: Tracking Emissions With Bidtellect Scope3 Integration, Plus What to Know About Supply Path Emissions

Bidtellect VP of Product Arthur Hainline demonstrates the new Scope3 integration in Bidtellect’s platform, how you can take actionable steps to reduce carbon waste, and the current state of the industry’s wasteful supply path emissions.

Beauty and the Coronavirus: eCommerce, ‘Affordable Luxury,’ & the Future

Beauty and the Coronavirus: eCommerce, ‘Affordable Luxury,’ & the Future

The global beauty industry generates $500 billion in sales a year and accounts for millions of jobs, directly and indirectly, according to McKinsey. For this largely brick-and-mortar industry, coronavirus certainly impacted sales, but the industry (and its customers) proved dynamic with its shift to ecommerce and booming skincare and “affordable luxury” products. For now and moving forward, expect a permanent shift to ecommerce or hybrid shopping models. Offer promotions and content to inspire shopping online. And, when in doubt, “Pour yourself a drink, put on some lipstick, and pull yourself together.”

Sales Are Still Expected to Grow in 2020

​Health and beauty sales will grow 6.9% to $556.30 billion (eMarketer)

China’s beauty industry rebound is a good indicator of what to expect in the U.S. in China, the industry’s February sales fell up to 80 percent compared with 2019. In March, the year-on-year decline was 20 percent-a rapid rebound under the circumstances, according to McKinsey.

A Return to Au Naturel? Makeup Sales Dropped, Skincare Grew

Sephora skincare outpaced makeup sales during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Sephora CEO Jean-André Rougeot. “Our skin-care business grew versus a year ago during the COVID-19 crisis,” he said (WWD)

Some of the growth in skincare sales may be attributed to a kind of “panic buying” or hoarding mentality – like toilet paper. Junior Pence, CMO and creative director at PeaceOut Skincare, reported customers have shifted to buying in bulk: larger orders with more products and buying the “jumbo” sizes instead of regular. “It was what we’ve been calling the “toilet paper effect,” where people started hoarding skincare.” (eMarketer)

  • 64.5% of US internet users are more likely to digitally purchase cosmetics and personal care during the coronavirus pandemic (Redpoints via eMarketer)

  • Cosmetics and personal care products were the category US internet users were most likely to buy online during the pandemic, coming in above food and beverage and household products. (Redpoints via eMarketer)

  • In Europe, there was a boom in pampering and self-care beauty categories, including candles, aromatherapy, and detox products; sales of skin-, nail-, and hair-care products were up 300 percent, year on year (Zalando via McKinsey)

Affordable Luxury: The Importance of ‘Treating Yourself’

As lock down dragged on, consumers found new ways to brighten their mood and “treat” themselves to everyday luxuries, such as high-quality soaps, haircare, and even perfume. Consumers across the globe are showing by their actions that they still and comfort in the simple pleasures of a “self-care Sunday” or a swipe of lipstick before a Zoom meeting. New small business owners who have started their own cosmetics eCommerce business have gained a lot from this. What tends to make it more alluring for the customers could be the utilization of a white label payment gateway which lets people from across the globe buy their products! With this massive spike in self care, there has been an influx of new businesses who want to capitalize on this for their benefit. That means, more and more e-commerce websites are popping up to fill this area. It may be more important than ever to have an online presence strategy or develop a website for your business if you want to survive in today’s digital world. You don’t always have to spend thousands of dollars on hiring experts to build a website. Several resources are available online, such as this YouTube channel here, that can serve as a guide to create your own professional website and help you keep up with the trend of selling your products online.

With the tremendous increase in the sales of cosmetics online, Leonard Lauder famously noticed and coined the “lipstick index” phenomenon during the 2001 recession. Consumers tend to spend on small products that add a bit of glamour to increase confidence or offer a reminder of better times. The principle is that people see lipstick as an affordable luxury, and sales, therefore, tend to stay strong, even in times of duress (McKinsey). Because of this there needs to be a good level of management as well as secure payment processing software with a high risk merchant account just in case of a breach, as many businesses will come up out of the blue to sell products meaning that customer protection is essential.

Sephora saw sales of fragrance grow up to double digits over the last six months. According to WWD, growth is coming from brands such as Chanel, Dior, YSL, and JoMalone, which Sephora CEO Jean-André Rougeot attributed to the demise of the department stores. “Department stores are struggling mightily,” he said.

  • Sales of luxury hand soap in France were up 800 percent the week of March 16, 2020, as the country went into lockdown (NPD via McKinsey)

  • DIY hair coloring, nail care, and care in other beauty categories are finding new customers. In the United States, Nielsen reported rises in the sales of hair dye and hair clippers by 23 and 166 percent, respectively, in the first week of April 2020 versus a year ago (McKinsey)

Promotions are Key

According to research, promotions are proving successful in bringing in new customers and clearing inventory. Several prestige brands are offering discounts online of up to 40percent, competing with specialty beauty-product and department stores to capture promotion-oriented consumers, and promotions also help move unsold seasonal inventory, according to McKinsey.

Remember, people are still trying new brands: More than 77 percent of Americans trying new shopping behaviors during the crisis (up from 76% in late July), including new methods, brands, and places, with the intention of sticking with them in the long-term (McKinsey).

Expect a Permanent Shift to eCommerce

Prior to the pandemic, beauty was still one of the verticals that relied heavily on in-store shopping experiences. Even online-savvy American millennials and Gen Zers (those born between 1980 and 1996) made close to 60 percent of their purchases in stores, according to McKinsey. But brands and retailers that rose to the ecommerce challenge benefited mightily. Incorporating content to aid customers in the experience – think online quizzes or recommendations – help close the gap. Now is the time to reassure consumers that shopping online is a worthy substitute for in-store shopping.

Brands that rallied their eCommerce efforts should expect this to stick around in the near- and long-term and give a hybrid experience as stores slowly reopen. My eCommerce stores do not give importance to Google My Business optimization for their online business websites. However, GMB shouldn’t be ignored for the lack of store address, because it can benefit your local SEO and product searches highly. Direct-to-consumer e-commerce, such as brands’ websites, shoppable social-media platforms, and marketplaces will become more important, and customers will expect a cohesive multi-channel experience. Beauty-industry players will need to prioritize digital channels to capture and convert the attention of existing and new customers and reassure customers about hygiene efforts (McKinsey).

  • Some beauty-product brands and retailers are reporting e-commerce sales twice as high as their pre-COVID-19 levels, according to McKinsey. Sephora’s US online sales are reportedly up 30 percent versus 2019 (McKinsey).

  • New research by Mastercard shows U.S. ecommerce sales were up 92.7% in May 2020, with more than $53 billion spent via ecommerce channels between April and May-the height of the pandemic. For scale, that’s more spent online than that last12 Cyber Mondays combined (DigitalCommerce360).

  • A cohesive customer experience matters, or so consumers say. Last year, 72% of internet users worldwide said a disconnected experience would make them change service providers or brands (MuleSoft and Opinium Research via eMarketer).

The Takeaways

  1. Emphasize skincare
  2. Promote “affordable luxuries” like lipstick before Zoom or a new high-end soap or perfume.
  3. Offer promotions and discounts to grab customers: loyalty is swaying.
  4. Incorporate content to inspire and make shopping online easier and more alluring.
  5. Expect ecommerce to stick around, so blow out those digital budgets and efforts now.
  6. Scale – always scale.

COVID’s Impact on BEAUTY: 5 Tips for MARKETERS

Want more need-to-know info? Subscribe to our monthly Bidtellectual newsletter!


Charlotte Otremba is Sr. Manager of Communications and Marketing at Bidtellect.

Why You Should Factor Diversity Into Your Strategy This Black History Month

How and why you should make diversity your advertising priority.

Behind the Platform: Using Peer39 For Brand Safety & Keyword Targeting

Bidtellect VP of Product Arthur Hainline demonstrates the three key uses for the Peer39 integration in Bidtellect’s DSP, while offering helpful tips for traders and advertisers to get the most out of Bidtellect’s product.

Behind the Platform: Tracking Emissions With Bidtellect Scope3 Integration, Plus What to Know About Supply Path Emissions

Bidtellect VP of Product Arthur Hainline demonstrates the new Scope3 integration in Bidtellect’s platform, how you can take actionable steps to reduce carbon waste, and the current state of the industry’s wasteful supply path emissions.

This Week in Digital Advertising: September 4th, 2020

This Week in Digital Advertising: September 4th, 2020

Hello, Bidtellectuals!

Congratulations to Bidtellectual of the Week Hui Liu – an absolute rock star. Can you believe it’s September already? We’ll keep this short since it’s a long weekend ahead!

Best Practices for Your Holiday Campaigns

Yes, we have more holiday content for you (!). Our Top 3 Holiday Best Practices for digital advertisers and Holiday Creatives Naughty and Nice List give you our top advice for maximum performance and return on your holiday campaign investment, including how to scale, which images to choose, and the device to focus on. This year will look a lot less like this and start a lot earlier. So get those campaigns (and sales) going.

5 Holiday Trends for Digital Advertisers 2020

How the Current Climate is Shaking Up the Fall Ad Marketplace

No traditional back-to-school season, ambiguity around the super bowl, earlier holiday shopping… Advertising (along with the world) is in flux, and it’s leading to real shake-ups at agencies. According to Digiday, it could be “doom and gloom” (I mean, U.S. TV advertising for back to school is down 70% so far this year compared to last year, according to Kantar) or it could lead to necessary changes, like accelerating creative messaging. Ads created six months ahead of time might not be relevant anymore. We discussed this very topic with Bidtellect SVP of Sales Terah Bocchi around brand safety and changes post-pandemic. Advertisers need to be ready to adjust messaging at a drop of a hat with how rapidly news and trends change.

A Conversation With Bidtellect SVP of Sales on Brand Safety, Virtual Sales, and Creative Pivots

eMarketer: US Ecommerce Sales Grew by Nearly a Third in Q2

eMarketer reported new data on US ecommerce sales; it’s both a good prediction for the holiday shopping season and, perhaps, a sigh of relief. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: ecommerce thrived during the pandemic. New sites popped up, some grew larger as time went on and tapped into the available resources like https://ecomitize.com/development/magento/ to build on their brand, there was a lot that happened online. Under stay-at-home orders, US consumers shopped heavily online: In Q2 2020, US retail ecommerce sales grew by almost a third (31.8%) from the previous quarter, or 44.5% year over year, per the USCensus Bureau of the Department of Commerce (DOC) (eMarketer). That’s $211.51billion in Q2 2020, up from $160.41 billion in Q1 2020. eMarketer estimates that ecommerce will make up 14.5% of US retail sales this year, up from 11.0% in 2019-the largest year-over-year increase since 2008. This is great for these businesses that have started online and have their customers fully in their minds to make impactful sales. Incorporating things like ecommerce logistics into the equation can also be seen as a beneficial addition as these sites will be able to distribute and track orders, helping their customers in the process.

Good News: It’s a long weekend.

Labor Day pays tribute to the contributions and achievements of American workers and is traditionally observed on the first Monday in September. It was created by the labor movement in the late 19th century and became a federal holiday in 1894. It often unofficially marks the “end of summer.” (But is this really the end of summer? What are seasons?) Enjoy!

Stay safe, friends,

Charlotte

Want more need-to-know info? Subscribe to our monthly Bidtellectual newsletter!


Charlotte Otremba is Sr. Manager of Communications and Marketing at Bidtellect.

Why You Should Factor Diversity Into Your Strategy This Black History Month

How and why you should make diversity your advertising priority.

Behind the Platform: Using Peer39 For Brand Safety & Keyword Targeting

Bidtellect VP of Product Arthur Hainline demonstrates the three key uses for the Peer39 integration in Bidtellect’s DSP, while offering helpful tips for traders and advertisers to get the most out of Bidtellect’s product.

Behind the Platform: Tracking Emissions With Bidtellect Scope3 Integration, Plus What to Know About Supply Path Emissions

Bidtellect VP of Product Arthur Hainline demonstrates the new Scope3 integration in Bidtellect’s platform, how you can take actionable steps to reduce carbon waste, and the current state of the industry’s wasteful supply path emissions.