VIADS

🌍 Sustainability & Ethics in Video Ads:
The Patagonia Impact 🌍
Ever heard of a brand telling you NOT to buy their product?
That’s exactly what Patagonia did with their bold "Don't Buy This Jacket" campaign, and it made waves in the advertising world. 🧥❌

On Black Friday, a day synonymous with overconsumption, Patagonia launched a video ad featuring one of their popular jackets with a simple yet powerful message: "Don’t Buy This Jacket." The campaign encouraged consumers to think twice about their purchases, promoting mindful consumption and highlighting the environmental impact of producing new goods.

💡 Why did it work? Instead of pushing sales, Patagonia aligned with their core values of sustainability, sparking conversations about responsible consumption and setting a new standard for ethical advertising. This brave move didn't hurt their bottom line—in fact, it reinforced customer loyalty and positioned Patagonia as a leader in eco-conscious fashion. 🌱

At viads.com, we believe that sustainability and ethics aren't just good for the planet—they're also good for business. Brands that embrace these principles in their video ads can create deeper connections with their audience and drive lasting success.

Ready to craft your next impactful, purpose-driven video ad? Let's turn ethics into earnings together! 💪✨

🌊 Exploring the Depths in Calpe!

Our team had an amazing experience with a diving baptism in Calpe, thanks to the excellent guidance from Club de buceo GISED in Alicante.

Here's a recap of our adventure:
📍 First, we visited the club to pick up all the necessary equipment. Then, we headed to the stunning El Racó cove in Calpe, where the excitement truly began.

📖The day started with an informative theory session, ensuring we were all well-prepared and confident for the dive. Following this, we embarked on our underwater journey, exploring the beautiful marine life 🐠 and breathtaking underwater landscapes.

👏 Huge thanks to the professionals at GISED for making this an unforgettable experience. We can't wait for our next dive!
🤿

Today we are revealing the secrets of the iconic Old Spice commercial. You know, the one where the charming man on a horse made you question your own reality? 🐎 Well, it didn’t just go viral by accident. It’s a masterclass in advertising, and we’re here to spill the tea! ☕️

🤯 Humor + Surrealism = Instant Hook
The ad took the ordinary and turned it on its head. Humor with a twist of the unexpected creates a memorable experience. Don’t just tell your audience about your product; entertain them!

🧠 Be Unforgettable
With the Old Spice ad, you weren’t just watching an ad—you were on an adventure! Every scene was packed with surprises, from a shower to a beach, to a horse, all in 30 seconds. When making your ad, ask yourself: is this something people will talk about? Share? Meme? If not, spice it up!

👀 Direct Audience Engagement
The ad spoke directly to the audience, breaking the fourth wall with that irresistible "Look at your man, now back to me" line. Engage your viewers as if you’re having a personal conversation. Make them feel seen, even in a commercial!

🗝Simplicity is Key
Despite its high energy, the message was clear: Old Spice = cool, confidence = irresistibility. Keep your core message simple and your visuals striking.

💪Strong Brand Personality
Old Spice leaned into a confident, humorous brand persona that resonated across demographics. When crafting your campaign, define your brand’s unique voice and make sure it shines through.

🎥High-Quality Production
Slick production values, seamless transitions, and a charismatic lead made this ad a feast for the eyes. Invest in quality—audiences can tell when you care about your craft.

So, what’s the takeaway for advertisers? Don’t just aim for the head—hit the funny bone, the imagination, and the heart. Be bold, be memorable, and most importantly, make sure your audience enjoys the ride! 🧼🐎

Stay tuned for more viral commercials explained!

🌟 Revolutionizing Digital Marketing with AI in iOS 18! 🌟

Hey everyone! 🌐 Have you heard about the incredible new features in iOS 18? Apple is taking digital marketing and advertising to the next level with advanced AI capabilities! Here’s how AI in iOS 18 is transforming the marketing landscape:

Enhanced Personalization: AI analyzes user behavior to deliver highly personalized content, boosting engagement and conversions! 📈✨

Improved Targeting: Reach the right audience with precision. AI's deep understanding of user data ensures your ads are seen by those who matter most. 🎯💡

Advanced Analytics: Get deeper insights into your campaigns. AI-driven analytics help you make data-driven decisions in real-time for maximum ROI. 📊🔍

Automation: Streamline your marketing tasks. From content creation to ad placement, AI handles the heavy lifting, letting you focus on creativity. 🤖🎨

Voice and Visual Search: Optimize your content for voice and visual searches. Engage users who prefer these innovative interaction methods. 🎙️📸

Privacy and Data Security: iOS 18 prioritizes user data security. Embrace transparent and ethical data practices to build consumer trust. 🔒🤝

AR and AI Integration: Create immersive advertising experiences with AR. Combine it with AI for innovative campaigns that captivate your audience. 🌍🚀

Predictive Analytics: Stay ahead of the curve. AI predicts consumer behavior and trends, allowing you to adapt your strategies proactively. 📅🔮

Dive into the future of marketing with iOS 18 and AI! 🚀💼 Start creating more engaging, personalized, and impactful campaigns today!

🚀 Exciting Opportunity Alert! 🚀

Viads.com is thrilled to announce a special internship program exclusively for students from top universities in Spain! 🇪🇸

At Viads.com, we're leading the way in video advertising, combining innovation, creativity and excellence. Our interns get unparalleled exposure to real-world projects, mentorship from industry experts, and a unique chance to be part of a visionary team.

This program is a testament to our commitment to nurturing young talents and shaping the future.
Join us for this amazing opportunity to grow and learn with Viads.com!

✨ Tag someone who would love to hear this! ✨

🚀 Breaking News: OpenAI Unveils SearchGPT! 🚀

OpenAI has launched SearchGPT, an AI-powered search engine designed to redefine online search and challenge Google's dominance.

🔍 What Makes SearchGPT Special?

Conversational Answers: No more traditional search results! Get fast, conversational responses that make finding information easier and more engaging.
Clear Source Attribution: Trustworthy answers with transparent sources.
Real-Time Integration: Stay updated with the latest trends and data seamlessly integrated.
Publisher Partnerships: Collaborations with publishers ensure responsible AI use and accurate content citation.
📈 A Game-Changer in the Search Market
Currently in prototype testing with 10,000 users, this marks OpenAI's bold entry into the search market, aiming to transform how we find and interact with online information.

🔗 What's Next?
OpenAI plans to integrate the best features of SearchGPT into ChatGPT, enhancing it with real-time assistance capabilities. This is a significant step towards a smarter, more responsive AI ecosystem.

Excited to see how SearchGPT will revolutionize our digital experience and set new standards for AI-driven search technology!

🌟 Big News from Google! 🌟

Google has decided not to eliminate cookies from Chrome just yet. This decision has a huge impact on digital marketing, user privacy, and our overall online experience.

🍪 Why It Matters:

Privacy First: Google is prioritizing privacy with new technologies like the Privacy Sandbox. This aims to protect user data while still supporting the digital ecosystem.
Smooth Transition: By not removing cookies immediately, Google is giving marketers and advertisers more time to adapt, ensuring a smoother transition to new tracking methods.
Better Experience: Keeping cookies for now means fewer disruptions in our browsing experience, with personalized content and ads staying intact.
🔍 What’s Coming?
Google plans to phase out third-party cookies gradually, aiming to complete this by 2024. The Privacy Sandbox initiative will help create privacy-friendly alternatives, leading to a more secure web environment.

Stay tuned for more updates as we navigate this exciting change and work towards a better online experience for everyone!

Meet our CEO, Valerio Leontiev!

We asked Valerio to share his thoughts and vision about the future of Viads.

- Can you share a story that encapsulates the company's spirit?

We are a small company, funded with private capital, dedicated to building products tailored to the needs of publishers. Leveraging my extensive experience, gained from over a decade of working closely with various types of publishers and being a publisher myself, we aim to make a significant impact. We believe that, we can overcome challenges and grow to surpass even the largest competitors. Although we are a small team, we possess a great deal of ambition and talent. Every day, we are fully committed to making our journey successful, creating more opportunities for our clients and employees. Our main goal is to remain open-minded to market shifts, which we believe consistently bring new opportunities.

- What has been the company's biggest challenge and how was it overcome?

One of our biggest challenges was assembling a robust tech team. Our products are highly customized for the specific needs of direct publishers and advertisers, so we couldn't find any market alternatives that we could use as white-label solutions. As a result, we had to develop everything from scratch, leveraging our experience and vision. Even our CRM system was built entirely in-house. The primary challenge, therefore, was creating a tech team capable of meeting our high standards and developing the complex, unique products that set us apart.

- How does your leadership style influence the company's direction?

My leadership style involves being an integral part of the team, actively listening to everyone’s input, and truly hearing their perspectives. My key strength as a leader lies in identifying the right people for various roles, effectively delegating tasks, and discovering and nurturing new talent. I focus on providing opportunities for personal growth and self-realization, which in turn adds value to our clients and drives company growth. The core principle of our team is inclusivity; there are no hierarchical bosses, just individuals eager to take on more responsibilities and contribute to our shared success!

Today we are ready to introduce our innovative "Story" format, also known as "Сontent recommendations". It allows us to showcase the site's news content within the player, making the users visit other pages of your website.
Here's why you'll love it:

✨ New Monetization Opportunities: With higher engagement comes the potential for increased ad revenue. Our format is designed to maximize your earnings without sacrificing user experience.

✨ Better SEO: With increased browsing depth and average time on site you get a significant boost in search engine optimisation!

✨ Personalized Recommendations: Our AI-driven platform ensures that each visitor sees the most relevant stories, increasing the time they spend on your site.

✨ Seamless Integration: The Content recommendations format blends perfectly with your website, providing a native experience that enhances, not interrupts, the user journey.

Contact your manager for more info and let Viads "Story" format take your website to the next level!

As promised, we are back with the proven best practices to elevate our advertisers’ strategy in 2024.

Check our carousel for the advice!

In 2024, the landscape of video advertising continues to evolve at a breakneck pace. According to the Advertising Bureau (IAB) report, the most groundbreaking trend is that digital video is projected to surpass linear TV in ad spend in 2024. Digital video is expected to generate $63 billion in ad spend, earning 52% of the total share versus linear TV. This shift represents a nearly 20 percentage point change from linear TV to digital video over the last four years.

For publishers, monetise their content with Viads video ad formats, this means that with the rise of interest among advertisers both fill rates and CPV will continue to grow year by year. Bringing more and more revenues for engaging high quality content.

For advertisers, the rapid growth of video ads industry indicates two things.
First is the necessity to increase the share of budget allocation towards digital video. It is quite obvious that to keep growing brand awareness and engagement, the budget distribution should be shifted towards video to reach the audience both in social media and, which is even more important, on a wide variety of websites. This helps create the necessary coverage to spread your word.

Second - the market becomes more competitive so you need to apply special tactics to get better results. We will dive deeper into Viads best practices for advertisers in our next post, so stay tuned!

Join Viads.com today and let’s propel your brand into the spotlight with traffic that converts! 🚀

Reflecting on our last weekend's team-building experience, we cherished the wonderful moments spent together amidst the snow, fostering friendship, engaging in sports, and strengthening our teamwork ⛷️🏂🏔️⛷️🏂🏔️🌨️.

Deep fake video ads pose a threat in the 2024 election year

The 2024 election is rigged by a deluge of high-quality, AI-generated lies. More than 100 deepfake video ads impersonating Prime Minister Rishi Sunak were paid to be promoted on the Meta platform last month, according to a study by London-based social media monitoring firm Fenimor Harper Communications. 2024 is a huge election year, with more than 4 billion people voting in 76 countries.

Over the past year, Fenimore Harper has observed the advancement of generative AI and how it can lead to misinformation. Since mid-2023, we’ve seen voice cloning, generative video AI tools, and Huge progress in deepfakes.

«With the advent of low-cost, easy-to-use voice and face cloning technology, it takes very little knowledge and expertise to use a person’s likeness for malicious purposes.» Unfortunately, this problem is exacerbated by lax regulatory policies when it comes to paid advertising. These ads violate multiple Facebook ad policies.

However, the ads we encounter are rarely removed,«the company said on AI fake videos stated in advertising research. The report said the fake video ads, which imitated Chancellor Rishi Sunak, may have reached an audience of more than 400,000 people, although they clearly violated several of Meta's advertising policies. 143 unique ads were discovered on the Meta platform, on which a whopping £12,929 was spent last month (December 8 to January 8 ).

They were posted through a seemingly extensive network of pages. Funding for the ads came from 23 different countries, including Turkey, Malaysia, the Philippines and the United States.

«This appears to be the first paid advertisement for a widely circulated false video of a British politician. It may be the first of many AI-driven misinformation campaigns in 2024, raising concerns about social media platforms’ ability to mitigate election interference at scale. doubts.»

«It is unclear whether the website owners are aware of the scam they are posting. Many of the websites promoting this scam appear to be legitimate businesses, such as Plural Brother Films, a São Paulo-based film production company, and Binimoy Printers, a Bangladesh-based printing company. This suggests their meta-advertising information may have been compromised.»

«Meta did not provide specific numbers on how many people the political ads reached, only estimates. According to them, the malicious ad may have reached as many as 462,000 people.»

«Most only reached a few thousand 'impressions', but some reached tens of thousands. The overall result was that Chancellor Rishi Sunak's false endorsements reached a lot of people.»

To prevent targeted attacks, the company recommends:

1) Invest in social media monitoring of public figures relevant to your organization.

2) Teach your organization how to recognize deepfakes. While the platform itself is obviously unable to detect fake content, humans can tell the difference between real people and bots pretty well.

3) Look for AI-driven tools in your workflow. Many popular event platforms, such as Adobe’s Creative Suite or Canva, have built-in artificial intelligence. It is important to ensure that your team members do not use this information to deceive the public. Make sure you define acceptable usage within your team.

Consumers should ditch social media, but embrace GenAI search results marketing findings

According to a survey by market research firm Gartner, 50% of consumers will stop or significantly limit their interaction with social media by 2025 because they believe the quality on the platform is declining. “By 2028, brands will see organic search traffic decline by 50% or more as consumers embrace AI-driven generative search.”

The company said a survey showed that 53% of consumers believe the current state of social media has worsened compared to last year or five years ago.

“The main reasons for this decline are the spread of misinformation, toxic user groups, and the proliferation of bots. There is significant concern about the impact of GenAI’s anticipated use on social media: More than 7 in 10 consumers believe GenAI’s further integration into social media will impact user experience.”

“Social media remains the top investment channel for digital marketing, but consumers are actively trying to limit its use,” said Emily Weiss, senior principal researcher at Gartner.

“A significant number say they share less about their lives and content than they did just a few years ago. As the nature of social media usage and platform experience changes, CMOs must recalibrate their customer acquisition and loyalty retention strategies to cope.”

72% of consumers believe AI-based content generators may spread false or misleading information.
“Distrust and lack of confidence in AI’s capabilities will lead some consumers to seek AI-free brands and interactions,” Weiss said.

“Some brands will eschew AI and focus on more human positioning. This concept of ‘acoustics’ is used to differentiate brands from the impersonal and homogeneous perception of AI-driven companies.”
“Using GenAI in creative teams’ day-to-day work gives them the freedom to develop ideas, test and analyze at a higher level and with greater impact. As a result, creativity will play a more important and visible role in driving business results. With measurement, CMOs will actually increase spending on creativity and content.”

Gartner says that by 2028, brands will see organic search traffic decline by 50% or more as consumers embrace AI-driven generative search.

A survey conducted by the company found that consumers are ready for AI-powered search, with 79% of respondents expecting to use it within the next year.

70% of consumers express at least some confidence in GenAI-powered search results.

“CMOs must prepare for the disruption GenAI-powered search will bring to their organic search strategies,” said Weiss. “Marketing leaders whose brands rely on SEO (search engine optimization) should consider investing resources in testing other channels to achieve Diversification.”

Gartner predicts that by 2026, 60% of CMOs will adopt content authenticity technology, enhanced monitoring, and brand-driven user-generated content (UGC) to protect their brands from GenAI deception.
“The rapid growth of GenAI has left companies lacking frameworks and best practices to ensure responsible use and mitigate risk. The development of dedicated content authenticity capabilities and brand guardrails will be a top priority for organizations.”

Despite tough economic conditions, brands plan to increase global media budgets

Big brands want to increase their marketing budgets. According to a report by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and media investment analytics firm Ebiquity, 60% of business representatives will increase global media budgets in 2024, with 14% seeing significant year-on-year increases. This increase comes despite 74% of respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing that their 2024 media budget decisions will be affected by the economic environment.

“With 60% of respondents planning to increase their advertising budgets, the level of confidence we are seeing seems at odds with the current economic outlook. Does this mean the economy will be better in 2024?” said Nick Waters, CEO of Ebiquity. The recovery begins in the middle of the year, as advertising is often seen as a leading indicator of the overall economy between two quarters.

"This is a relatively significant increase compared with this time last year, when only 29% of respondents said they expected annual budgets to increase," the report said.

The study was based on 92 companies surveyed, each spending an average of $700 million. According to the WFA, total ad spending across all respondents was approximately $500 billion.

WFA chief executive Stephan Loerke said: “Media spending is returning to a cautiously optimistic tone and, predictably, money is flowing to digital.”

“However, to achieve long-term growth in digital markets, we need to address key issues around quality, transparency, accountability, measurement and, most importantly, sustainability. We call on the industry to follow the steps set out in the WFA New Media Charter. To achieve this Lay the foundation for growth.”

Not surprisingly, the report cites digitalization as a major beneficiary of a likely increase in spending. 85% of Modern TV respondents and 83% of digital video companies expect budgets to increase. The biggest budget decline is expected to be in the printing area.

“It’s encouraging to see that respondents to this survey are making headway: 70% regularly review brand safety settings and lists. 27% are starting to diversify outside of big tech companies investment to cultivate a more diversified ecosystem.”

“Almost two-fifths of respondents (37%) also want to be able to measure and reduce CO2 emissions through media campaigns.”

Artificial intelligence is being used for sophisticated ad fraud

According to a report by US analytics firm Juniper Research, 22% ($84 billion) of all online ad spending will be lost to ad fraud by 2023, with the figure expected to reach more than $170 billion within five years. Fraudsters are leveraging artificial intelligence algorithms to create bots and malware that can mimic human behavior, the report said.

Key findings:
• 22% of all online ad spend will be lost to ad fraud in 2023
• 30% of mobile ad spend will be lost to ad fraud in 2023
• It’s estimated that ad fraud will cost $172 billion in lost ad spend by 2028
• $23 billion could be recovered annually by using anti-fraud platforms

“Data from popular ad platforms like Facebook and Google don't provide a complete picture of the success of ad campaigns,“ said Elisha Sudlow-Poole, senior research analyst at the firm.

“That is, these platforms provide optimistic estimates of campaign performance and are unable to distinguish how many clicks or views are from legitimate users versus click farms or fraudulent bots.“

Juniper Research predicts that within the next five years, search advertising will be the most fraudulent activity among the three online ad types studied. The report says online fraud is most likely to occur on browsers with lower market shares.

The focus on artificial intelligence is also evident in ad fraud reports:
“Fraudsters can leverage artificial intelligence by programming advanced algorithms using algorithms like ChatGPT to create bots and malware that can mimic human behavior.”

“By mimicking this behavior, fraudsters can steal advertisers’ ad spend by creating ad impressions and clicks that are not seen by real users. SIVT (Sophisticated Invalid Traffic) is more difficult to detect than GIVT (General Invalid Traffic) because the fraud Attackers will actively change their attack patterns to avoid detection.“

To that end, these fraudsters are investing in artificial intelligence that can not only mask their illegal behavior but also identify opportunities where they can spoof valid traffic, the report says.

“To combat SIVT, anti-fraud providers must also invest in AI analytics, providing multi-point verification to detect, identify and analyze this type of traffic. However, SIVT (Sophisticated Invalid Traffic) leverages AI to proactively circumvent AI-based anti-fraud detection of frames; it creates a cat-and-mouse game with adversarial AI, resulting in a lack of return on investment for advertisers.“

Global ad spend hits $1 trillion for the first time

Five companies—Alibaba, Alphabet, Amazon, ByteDance, and Meta—now attract more than half of global advertising investment and continue to strengthen their positions. Marketing firm WARC predicts global ad spending will grow by 4.4% this year and a further 8.2% in 2024, when spending will exceed $1 trillion for the first time.
Only five companies – Alibaba, Alphabet, Amazon, ByteDance and Meta – attracted more than half (50.7%) of global spending this year, cementing that position with a 51.9% share by 2024, the data showed.

"Ad revenue for this group is expected to grow 9.1% this year and 10.7% next year, while combined advertising revenue for all other media owners is expected to be flat this year.»
"A recovery in the social media market, which accounts for one-fifth of total spending, will drive growth through 2024, but emerging channels such as retail media and connected television (CTV) are also expected to see an increase in brand investment over the next 18 months. Increase."

James McDonald said: "High interest rates, rising inflation, military conflict and natural disasters have created a bitter cocktail over the past 12 months, but the latest earnings season shows that the ad market has weathered it. Turmoil, now coming out of the woods.", WARC Director of Data, Intelligence and Forecasting.

"Our new measure shows that the fate of just five companies is having a significant impact on the outlook for the industry as a whole, and that these companies will realize huge gains in the coming months."

"Our new measure shows that the fate of just five companies is having a significant impact on the outlook for the industry as a whole, and that these companies will realize huge gains in the coming months."

Also read: The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on the Advertising Business
"With the establishment of retail media as an effective advertising channel, the emergence of connected TV as the next evolution of traditional video consumption, and the continued growth of social media and search, we are once again seeing advertisers' interest in leveraging first-value-side data, To deliver the right message to the right person at the right time to the consumer.”

Key findings:

Global ad spending is forecast to grow 4.4% this year to $963.5 billion and 8.2% to $1.04 trillion in 2024; social media, retail media and CCTV will drive growth. Market growth in 2024 will be driven by the U.S. presidential campaign (global political spending is expected to reach $15.5 billion next year), sporting events such as the Olympics and the European Men’s Championships, and improving terms of trade, especially in China. crank.

Social media will be the fastest growing medium, with total spending rising to $227.2 billion next year, accounting for one-fifth (21.8%) of total spending. Meta — the owner of Instagram, Facebook and Whatsapp — controls nearly two-thirds (64.4%) of the social media market and is expected to generate $146.3 billion in ad revenue next year. This is followed by TikTok parent company ByteDance, although its 2024 ad revenue is expected to be $39.9 billion, accounting for a 17.6% share, about 3.5 times smaller than Meta.

Retail media will also be one of the fastest-growing advertising channels over the forecast period; spending is expected to grow 10.2% this year and 10.5% next year, totaling $141.7 billion, or 13.6% of total spending. Amazon is the dominant player, expected to account for 37.2% of all retail media spending, which equates to $52.7 billion next year. As Amazon gains share, Chinese veteran Alibaba is losing out to Pindoudou (which will account for 14.4% of global retail media spending next year), JD.com (9.9%) and Metaun (3.7%) in an increasingly competitive Chinese market.

Connected TV (CTV) is also expected to grow well this year (+11.4%) and next year (+12.1%), totaling $33 billion – just 3.2% of total spend, but 16.2% of premium video spend (CTV and) . linear TV combination).

Total search is expected to reach $229.2 billion by 2024, accounting for 22.0% of all ad spend at that time. Google will remain the dominant player in the search market by 2024, with its search market share rising from 82.6% in 2023 to 83.1%, with advertising revenue reaching $190.5 billion. Chinese company Baidu's advertising revenue is expected to grow slightly, but its share will drop to 6.5 percent next year, while Bing's share of the search market is expected to remain at 6 percent, despite $13.6 billion in revenue next year.

Out-of-home (+7.3%), cinema (+5.2%) and audio (+3.3%) are also likely to increase ad spend next year, but publishing media (-1.9%) are expected to post losses, including a 1.6% decline in news brands , the magazine brand fell 2.5%.
Financial services (+11.5%), technology and electronics (+11.3%), and pharmaceuticals and healthcare (+11.0%) are the fastest-growing consumer sectors next year. Political spending is expected to reach at least $15.5 billion in 2024.

The U.S. will account for nearly a third (31.3%) of global spending; the U.S. market is expected to grow 2.2% this year to $303.6 billion and grow another 7.6% to $326.7 billion in 2024. Overall, ad spend in North America is expected to grow 2.0% this year and 7.6% next year, with the largest market being the US.

Advertising spending in Europe is expected to grow by just 0.6% this year, but growth will accelerate to 3.6% in 2024 as economic headwinds ease. However, the outlook for Central and Eastern Europe is more difficult, while the UK - the region's largest single ad market with a 4.6% share - declined 1.0% this year in dollar terms. Spain (5.6% growth in 2023), Italy (3.2% growth) and Germany (2.7% growth) are expected to show growth this year and next.