Laura Pattison

As the CTV landscape evolves, contextual AI is becoming essential for advertisers, addressing key challenges like targeting limitations, transparency issues, and lack of real-time insights. Jon Wallett, VP of Sales, East Coast at Seedtag, emphasizes that innovation in contextual targeting is crucial for future success. Seedtag's contextual AI, Liz, enables brands to develop effective audience strategies, enhance creative messaging, and gain valuable insights, all while adapting to real-time trends. Wallett argues that embracing these advancements will drive greater transparency and more inclusive, interest-based targeting, making contextual AI indispensable for modern advertising. Watch the full interview here to learn more 📺 : https://lnkd.in/eJ9Q3PDJ #ContextualAI #CTVAdvertising #InnovationInMarketing

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🚨 Shifting the cookie countdown to 2025 hasn’t changed the growing necessity for a new paradigm in digital advertising’s approach to data. Individual-level targeting might feel familiar, but change is coming, and clinging to the past will only become more costly, complex, and risky. In this piece, Marko Johns, UK Managing Director and International Head of Agency at Seedtag, explains how contextual approaches deliver effective and sustainable advertising aligned with the emerging privacy-first status quo. 🌱 Curious to learn more? 🔎 Read the full piece here: https://lnkd.in/etKk8vrR #SurveillanceAdvertising #Contextual #AI #PrivacyFirst #AdTech

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Instacart not having negative keywords as an option is the best example of what "machine learning" actually costs brands to support. The best solution I've found? Take their auto applied keywords and make their bid the lowest possible (30 cents). I built a really solid ads structure supporting each of our Target sku's and woke up to us bidding on "Ben and Jerry's" as a "optimized auto applied suggesition" for our Vanilla Ice Cream Whey. Gee, I wonder what sophisticated dev team decided "auto bid on product title". Yeah, in the world of CPG there could neeevvverrr be issues with that. Who leads this team and how much do you make. (Hint: too much). Happy Friday to everyone except overpaid leadership that don't actually understand what they're building and get paid boat loads of money for it.

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Hot take, AMC audiences in SP really is not exciting. At least not how Amazon has implemented it. Amazon's implementation via bid adjustments essentially allows brands to leverage audiences in a way that can more effectively spread a thin budget. For brands that don't have much money, you can drop base bids and apply a high multiplier for target audiences, assuming you are confident that audience will provide higher incrementality versus targeting all who search your target keyword. In a similar vein, you could selectively target NTB customers on branded search terms to avoid excessive cannibalization. I see very little strategic opportunity for brands where this becomes a strategy in addition to typical search targeting - i.e. this is not a chance for additional spend to add layered complexity to your SP strategy. I had hoped Amazon would use audiences for targeting, almost like PAT, where your ad serves whenever your target audience searches a term on which you are already indexed. Having a lever to help more effectively narrow your targeting strategy is fine for saving some dollars where a brand doesn't have a big budget. But this is nowhere near as exciting as some make it out to be.

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Walmart’s figured out what every other retailer is fumbling around trying to crack: if you’ve got the data, the eyeballs, and the checkout lanes, why not make a killing selling ads too? This quarter, Walmart Connect’s U.S. ad revenue shot up 26%, proving they’re not just a retail giant—they’re a media powerhouse with a side hustle so lucrative, it’s probably making Madison Avenue sweat. The secret sauce? Ads that don’t suck. Instead of bombarding shoppers with irrelevant noise, Walmart’s got brands paying up to slip into your shopping journey seamlessly. Need shampoo? Here’s the latest must-have. Shopping for cereal? Boom—there’s a new flavor you didn’t know you wanted. It’s like product discovery, but without the existential dread of scrolling TikTok for hours. This isn’t just about running ads; it’s about Walmart monetizing their entire ecosystem—from digital shelves to checkout clicks—and making it look easy. Meanwhile, other retailers are still trying to convince advertisers that their audiences are engaged enough to care. Newsflash: Walmart’s already cashing the checks. Retail media isn’t a cute side gig for Walmart; it’s a full-blown money-printing operation. If they keep this up, they won’t just be the place to grab eggs and toilet paper—they’ll be the kingpins of digital advertising, and the rest of the retail world will be left asking, “Can we copy your homework?” Spoiler: Walmart already handed it in.

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🧨 News Flash: Amazon's Designs on Selling Ad Tech to Retailers Amazon announced its intention to sell its ad tech to retailers offering new opportunities for revenue and insights -- but the move also raises questions about the long-term impact on autonomy and control in the retail ecosystem. AMZN already commands north of $40B in retail media. Read Kiri Masters's pros and cons article here in Forbes. #amazon #retail #media #commerce https://lnkd.in/gmAv_vcg

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Lots of action in CPG world right now. Many brands are experiencing volume declines as consumers respond to inflation. Private label competition is up. A lot. Smaller, digitally native DTC brands are chipping away at the share of legacy brands. And there's tremendous pressure to improve outcomes with smarter advertising and promotional strategies. Here's one: Don't forget about the stores. Most of them are now digitally enabled and you can access these massive audiences at scale as easily as any other digital channel - just without the fear of wasting impressions on shady MFA sites or other places where the audiences are less engaged in commerce activity at best, and not even human at worst 🤖 Take a look at the media plan. Anything looking stale? Could it make sense to reallocate some portion of that budget to get closer to people as they shop in the physical stores where 85%+ of your sales occur? Yes - Reach them while they watch TV on the couch. Yes - Reach them while they are scrolling social. Yes - Speak to them while they are walking the dog and listening to a podcast. Yes - Put your brand in front of them with sponsored product listings. But why go silent on them once they arrive at the actual store? Remind them. Get that additional imprint on their memory at the final moment of truth. It's getting complicated out there. But maybe taking advantage of digital in-store media is part of the solution? https://lnkd.in/eD6gHBV7

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Some good points are made by PubMatic’s Andrew Baron in AdExchanger’s latest Data-Driven Thinking column. Ironically, cookies were never that big of a problem in the first place—your humble, anonymous cookie is far less personal than a hashed email (which, as the FTC recently reminded us, is in fact still PII). But to the writer’s point, years of worrying about their impending deprecation have led to some very positive changes. First- and carefully curated and enhanced second- and third-party data will always yield better results, assuming you can protect the privacy of the consumers who produced it. And yes, whatever more personally identifiable data you’re working with—whether it’s sell-side targeting, modeled audiences, or contextual signals—alternative IDs have shown great promise in creating a layer of privacy protection. However, the real challenge arises when these identifiers traverse the bidstream and are shared with third parties. No matter how secure your encryption, once data leaves your control, it’s vulnerable to exploitation or reverse engineering. Anything can happen. The signals aren’t the problem—it’s the way we’re sharing them. We built Symitri to solve these inherent privacy challenges in adtech infrastructure. By ensuring that personally identifiable data never leaves the control of its owner, Symitri offers truly deterministic targeting without sacrificing privacy. With Symitri, you can achieve precision, performance, and privacy—no compromises necessary. #Symitri #Privacy #DataProtection #Trust #TRUSTX https://lnkd.in/eS9Aem8B

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Google's decision to delay its complete removal of third-party cookies has opened up new opportunities for retailers. Retailers are now seeing a longer lifespan for cookies than what was originally anticipated and retail media networks are now able to capitalize on it. What are your thoughts on what this means for the future of retail media? #Retail #AdTech #MarTech #RetailMediaNetworks

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As #thirdparty cookies near deprecation, ad tech companies are innovating to build audiences for media buyers. #Sellside curation is emerging as a key trend, where #firstparty customer data from buyers is matched with publishers' first-party audience data to create private marketplaces (#PMPs). This shift changes the traditional roles of #DSPs, #SSPs, and #DMPs, leading to new dynamics in the #programmatic ecosystem. Key Highlights: ✅ SSP Curation: SSPs now leverage first-party data from publishers, enabling large-scale activation of second- and third-party audiences without third-party cookies. ✅ Data Marketplaces: SSPs are partnering with third-party data providers to enhance audience matching, creating new data marketplaces. ✅ Real-Time Reporting: SSPs offer real-time data matching and reporting, improving transparency and efficiency. ✅ Flexibility and Control: Sell-side curation provides advertisers with more flexibility and control over audience identifiers, bypassing DSP limitations. ✅ Industry Impact: The evolving landscape is creating new opportunities and tensions, as SSPs gain prominence and DSPs adjust to reduced control. As the ad tech industry adapts to the loss of third-party cookies, sell-side curation is transforming how audiences are built and targeted, paving the way for a more connected and efficient advertising ecosystem. #sellsidecuration #programmatic #advertising

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Thanksgiving is still a key mile marker for many US consumers to kick off holiday shopping, but the shorter holiday season will likely mean that the leadup to Turkey Day is much more important for retailers than it was last year. In 2023, 41% of holiday shoppers surveyed by Tinuiti expected to do most or all of their holiday shopping between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. In 2024, that share was just 29%, and a higher percentage of respondents expect to kick off shopping before Thanksgiving than in 2023. As such, the next couple of weeks are going to be an important time for any business looking to carve out wallet share this holiday season. Read more about this and other key trends in our Cyber Five preread: https://lnkd.in/d59FUitF

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CPG/DTC friends: Brand vs. Direct-response marketing is such a silly debate. You can (and SHOULD) do both at the same time. A well-positioned brand will get direct response... AND set itself apart in the mind of the consumer. This is desired effect of 'brand building'. How can you do this? - Study your prospects (their needs, problems and/or desires) - Study your product (how it can fulfill the above) And then "position" 🎯 your product/service as the [SOLUTION] to your target audience's [PROBLEM] Or the [PRODUCT] for [TARGET AUDIENCE] Or the [FULFILLMENT] of your target audience's [DESIRE] If you have a DTC channel, you can test those new positioning angles in your ads, landing pages, etc. Oftentimes you'll find an angle that outsells the rest by a factor of 10:1... And that's your path to build a brand that sets itself apart in the mind of the consumer. Most successful brands did this. Brand building is NOT coincidental.

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More insights from our team: how shoppers are reacting to higher grocery prices (and what brands and retailers can do to meet evolving consumer demand)...

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Are Prime Video ads impacting Amazon's bottom line? 📺💰 In a recent earnings report, Amazon fell short of revenue expectations, sparking questions about the future of its ad revenue streams. While sponsored products remain key, the integration of ads in Prime Video reflects a broader trend in the convergence of retail media and connected TV advertising. Amazon aims to solidify brand loyalty by linking TV campaigns to e-commerce sales, leveraging advanced tracking technology for measurable results. However, as other retail media networks evolve and marketing budgets shift, the sustainability of this strategy remains uncertain. Stay tuned as Amazon navigates this evolving landscape, balancing traditional ad formats with innovative strategies to maintain its competitive edge. #Amazon #PrimeVideo #Advertising #Ecommerce #RetailMedia

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Are you maximizing your loyalty program to drive both customer acquisition and retention? If your program isn’t working to attract new customers, it’s only pulling half its weight. Ulta Beauty aims to do just that with its Ulta Beauty Rewards program. With over 40 million members and projections of 50 million by 2028, loyalty is a central growth lever, and Ulta is using the program to deepen engagement while attracting new customers in a highly competitive market. In a recent investor meeting, Ulta set cautious expectations for 2024, marking 2025 as a transition year. Despite major investments like Warren Buffett’s $200M stake and a collaboration with the movie Wicked, Ulta stock is down ~22% YTD, indicating that competition, particularly from Amazon’s expanding beauty category, is pressuring margins. Amazon's partnerships and Prime benefits make it an increasingly formidable rival in cosmetics. As Ulta rolls out Early Black Friday Deals, loyalty members gain exclusive benefits beyond discounts, providing an ideal opportunity to retain members and drive incremental sales. Ulta’s expansion plans for its stores and eCommerce will be critical in capturing market share. Still, the question remains: Can Ulta’s loyalty strategy sustain growth across its 600+ brands and 1,400 stores? Here are five standout loyalty benefits for members this holiday season: 1️⃣ Enhanced Points Multipliers: Ulta frequently offers bonus point multipliers during the holiday season, allowing members to earn points faster on their purchases. These promotions make it easier for shoppers to accumulate points for future discounts, turning holiday shopping into opportunities for even more savings. 2️⃣ Exclusive Gift Sets and Bundles: Ulta introduces special holiday gift sets at various price points, offering great value across categories like makeup, skincare, and fragrance. These curated sets are designed to maximize savings and are often exclusive to loyalty members, making them ideal for both gift-giving and self-care. 3️⃣ Gifts with Purchase: Ulta provides exclusive "gift with purchase" deals for loyalty members, where specific purchases come with additional items at no extra cost. These bonuses vary across product categories, adding a festive bonus to members’ holiday shopping. 4️⃣ Personalized Offers and Early Access: Platinum and Diamond members often receive early access to holiday sales and product launches, giving them the first pick on popular items before they sell out. Additionally, Ulta tailors its holiday promotions based on member preferences, ensuring relevant and personalized deals. 5️⃣ Revamped Birthday Gift Options: Although available year-round, Ulta’s birthday gifts have been revamped to offer more choices across various popular brands. Members can select from various options, adding a personalized touch to this benefit. #loyalty #rewards #marketing #retention #personalization

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From the rise of in-store digital media to the push for omnichannel measurement and multi-touch strategies, 2025 will see retail media evolve into a seamless, data-driven ecosystem that bridges physical and digital spaces while maximizing shopper engagement 🛍️📈 The future of retail media is looking bright for: - Zachary Weinberg, Zenith - Matt Lane, dentsu - Kelly Gerrard, Marshall Associates - Jacob Snelson, The Bluebird Group - Gemma Spence, VML

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I'll shout into the #PrimeDay void. The Bluebird Group clients are seeing something interesting this Prime Day vs. the last. 💡 ASPs for brands are trending up YoY 💡 Slightly lesser ad spend (to flat). 💡 Total sales not suffering Sure product mix, deep hero product performance, etc. can all contribute but I think this speaks to the fact that deep promo prices, on lesser desired products, continues to be a misfire. Focus *ALL YEAR* on your CVR related tactics. SEO, metadata excellence, content (visual), etc. Use your ad spend surgically and give people a reason to purchase items that have ranking, ratings or review validation. It will pay dividends come high traffic days like #PrimeDay, #BlackFriday and the balance of holiday. Open to objections here but my cart was full of items that I already knew I wanted or had crowed-sourced validation.

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Advertisers can now utilize Walmart's data for targeted ads on Hulu and Disney+ programmatically, enabling improved ad targeting and attribution insights. https://lnkd.in/gJMqWVSw #retailmedia #programmatic #datatargeting #attribution

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