Rhys Denny's Partner Spotlight
In order to glean better consumer insights, publishers should be harnessing the power of their own data to build a “sustainable mobile eco-system”, according to Rhys Denny, director of publisher development, Verve.
Mobile is an essential part of any advertiser’s or publisher’s strategy, opening the doors to untapped potential that cannot be found elsewhere.
What’s the one message that publishers should take on board with modern-day publishing?
When it comes to mobile, the ad-tech industry needs to understand that consumers are ‘number one’. Some of us question if today’s consumers are really engaging with mobile advertisements, but here at Verve, we have carried out research showing, if the young millennials of today have invested in a specific app, they are willing to engage and invest their time.
Publishers hold a lot of control that they perhaps don’t know how to monetise yet, as data can often seem somewhat daunting. They are sitting on top of a wealth of data and rather than letting it sit there and manifest, the message for publishers is that they could be increasing revenues and championing value; they could be part of building a sustainable mobile eco-system to help improve user experiences.
It seems simple; publisher’s own premium, first-party data and if they utilise this data cleverly, the advertiser will want to be advertising within their premium environment, to ensure they are talking to their target audience.
How do traditional publishing companies reinvent their publishing strategy so that they are thinking mobile first all the time?
Publishers are bombarded with strategy challenges every day, and with so many technologies promised to monetise their mobile business, it must be so hard to determine which vendors they should partner with. From battery draining to privacy concerns, these are just a few challenges among the publisher marketplace.
Privacy is and will become one of the hottest trends as we move into the GDPR preparation phase. Publishers need to ensure they work with a company they trust, to ensure they are working towards the latest regulations. More on this will follow.
Companies such as Verve can support them with many of their other concerns; de-mystifying the ‘web versus app’ dilemma, educating on the importance of content and location services and understanding the importance of accurate and precise data. Publisher apprehensions are frequent across our discussions with our publisher partners, so it’s paramount companies such as Verve keep ahead of the game through continuous education and industry learning.
Who are Verve and why should publishers take note of what you do?
At Verve, we are leading location platforms and are transforming the way location data is derived; through a software development kit (SDK) model. This is a bit of code that is inserted into a publisher app that allows first-party data to be extracted directly from the source. When consumers are asked if they would like to share their location data, Verve can use these insights to build more meaningful audience segments for advertisers to reach.
Once the user has given their consent, we can start to create wonderful stories around the data, overlay lots of other datasets and pull in intelligence such as CRM data, the point of interest data, household data and beacon data.
Understanding these movements helps us enhance consumer demographics. We have a saying here at Verve: Tell us where you go, and we’ll tell you what consumer you are.
In short, location intelligence is great for an advertiser, as they can gain access to richer audiences. For the publishers, they can start to increase the value of their inventory, and lead the way in improving the user experience.
How important is it to the industry to have conferences like Media Slap?
We find that a lot of publisher teams are quite small. If you go into agencies, you've got teams of 20/30. Publishers, however, have two or three heads who are battling with so many areas to monetise their mobile channel – it can often be mind-boggling.
These environments are not only good for them to hear from the experts they've perhaps not been that close to but bounce off each other as well. Especially when they are trying to fight against the big giants of the world like Facebook and Google.
Lots of smaller apps are sat in a very niche position where they can take back control through the power of audiences. The mobile device, and the premium app environments that sit within it, is becoming the identifier for real-world behaviours and on-to-offline experiences. These events are great for them not to feel alone and, so they can ask these questions in a secure environment, and feel supported as we step into the new world of mobile.
Media Slap looks at the media publishing business focusing on areas such as technology, audience, content, new products and other revenue models. Denny will speak amongst a panel of other industry experts on adopting a mobile-first strategy. You can purchase tickets now for the event on Friday 24 November.