NDA has always been dedicated to celebrating the digital industry and as the pandemic took hold we launched our Reasons to be Cheerful series. As we face an uncertain economic future, we’ll be hearing from leaders across our industry to discover what’s keeping them smiling as we enter 2023.
Next up is Ossie Bayram, UK Country Director, Ogury.
What are you most excited about in the digital industry in 2023?
As we head into the new year, there’s no doubt cookies and IDs will disappear from adtech ecosystems. Some players are already preparing for this paradigm shift, turning to first-party data, while others still rely on semantic and contextual insights to fuel their advertising – but these can only get you so far. Regulators and users alike are demanding better protection of their privacy online, and we will see greater action taken in this regard in 2023. Those players who refuse to acknowledge the advent of a cookieless and IDless world are only kicking the can down the road and delaying the inevitable.
Why are you most positive for your business in 2023?
Wholesale reinvention of the digital advertising industry is coming, and many users are now declining to have their digital lives tracked so thoroughly. This means the industry must look to a type of future-proof and sustainable technology that keeps digital advertising aligned with its mission – enabling brands to understand and connect with their audience.
One way of doing this is by leveraging personas rather than users’ identities, and the destinations where these personas consume content instead of the individual users themselves. This is known as personified advertising, and has been implemented for years by Ogury – with the company now the leader in this category and poised for a bright future.
How will the digital industry, and your company, help make life better for consumers or partners in 2023?
Beyond protecting consumer privacy, a concerning financial issue has also become apparent in the advertising industry. Due to the outdated standards and metrics that advertisers are currently settling for, some $10bn is being wasted each year on video ads that are partially in view. But brands, and the industry as a whole, should no longer accept having their investments generate such poor accountability.
Ogury not only offers partners the ability to deliver messages through non-intrusive fully on-screen ad formats – where 100% of the pixels are in view for the entire ad duration, and which can truly generate user attention – but can also measure campaign success with metrics that reflect the real impact of the ad – such as the “fully on-screen rate for 50% duration”, which measures the percentage of impressions where 100% of pixels are in-view for at least half of the video duration.”
What technologies have you been most impressed with this year and which will have the most impact in 2023?
Out of the plethora of solutions out there, grappling with the pressures from privacy-conscious consumers and regulators, only a few can leverage niche and essential insights on their chosen audience. Personalised, as well as contextual and semantic, targeting solutions, continue to miss the mark – and an entirely different alternative is required today. The only answer for the industry at the moment is personified advertising, giving brands actionable insights whilst still putting user privacy at its core.
What, if any, positive impacts on the digital industry could an economic downturn have?
The current macroeconomic and geopolitical situation has meant that brands have had to take stock of their budgets for 2023, at a time when the digital ad industry is moving away from ‘personalised’ advertising and looking for a better alternative.
A more consumer-friendly approach is “personified” advertising, which helps advertisers shift their focus to personas and the broad range of diverse content destinations associated with them, thus breaking intrusive user identity-targeting habits. This move will not require additional funding or resources, and will incur minimal pain points or adjustments.
What it will do however, is set the industry on a path that leads to a more prosperous and sustainable future, without cookies and IDs.
