With NDA’s Summer ‘Trinity Lunch’ fast approaching, we caught up with the leaders of businesses sponsoring the event. Here, we meet John Tigg, GM, International at Yieldmo…
New Digital Age: What are the big priorities for Yieldmo this year?
John Tigg: In 2022 we are investing in 4 main areas. Firstly, enhancing inventory curation and activation – both with and without audience data – through machine learning and data science. Secondly, deepening publisher relationships and inventory access through self-service tooling, monetization, and insights. Thirdly, international expansion, starting in the UK. And, finally, next-gen creative formats including new formats and using machine learning optimise which formats we use in a given opportunity.
What are the biggest issues your clients are facing at the moment?
Everything we know about advertising has shifted in the past few years, and the rate of change is accelerating. For many, these changes have been articulated as constraints. Human attention is increasingly limited and fragmented. Consumer and government concerns about privacy means we have fewer ways to reach people with relevant advertising. There’s too little “good” content out there and too much “bad”. It’s too hard to create digital ads that are both delightful and engaging. At Yieldmo, we see these not as constraints but as opportunities, and we work to frame them this way to our clients and customers. We’re confident because we have spent the last ten years building technology and designing machine learning that continually gets smarter about how to create a better advertising experience for everyone – consumers, advertisers, and publishers.
Are your customers/partners prepared for the ‘cookieless’ marketing era?
I wouldn’t say prepared is the right word to describe our customers and partners, particularly in a way that implies the preparation is done, such as “I’ve prepared my ingredients for this recipe, now I’ll start baking.” The industry solutions, regulations, and the needs of buyers and sellers are too dynamic, and much is still unknown, to be fully prepared. However, I am confident that more partners and customers are leaned in to the problem, are willing to test possible solutions, and are preparing for significant change. Staying on the baking metaphor, at Yieldmo, we know we have high-quality ingredients and a world-class kitchen, some recipes that make delicious cakes now, and most importantly we know those ingredients are flexible and will still be the right ingredients moving forward as the environment continues to evolve.
Are there any lingering after-effects of the pandemic still influencing your marketplace?
Certainly. Consumer preferences have shifted. More content consumption, and commerce, takes place online than ever before – so finding high-quality inventory and presenting advertising in as engaging a way, but non-invasive, as possible. Supply chain constraints have affected prices and product availability. Additionally, the people who were cooped up in their homes for two years are starting to travel and explore the world. Advertising budgets are adjusting to take advantage of these trends, and vendors like us need to quickly adjust to support them.
In addition, Yieldmo is now a remote-first company which lets us recruit and retain the high-quality talent we’ll need to succeed moving forward.
Are there any other noteworthy trends in your marketplace right now?
The industry consolidation that started a few years ago is continuing. Consolidation, coupled with supply path optimisation, challenges vendors to show how they’re adding value. Yieldmo firmly believes that every vendor in the ad tech supply chain should be adding value to justify taking a piece of the advertiser’s media dollar.
From a personal perspective, is advertising getting better or worse?
Privacy laws and advances in consumer rights are making advertising better for all, despite the transitory hiccoughs these regulations cause. Studies show that when consumers are directly asked whether they want to pay more for a service or watch ads in exchange for free content, that in most cases they will opt to watch ads (we’ve reached peak subscription saturation). One of the best outcomes of these regulations in my view is that they make the transaction of free content in exchange for advertising more transparent to the consumer so they can make their own informed choices of what to consume and how. There is no reason to hide this from the consumer as long as we respect their experience and choices.
Yieldmo is a Smart Advertising Exchange with a real-time curation system that uses privacy-compliant contextual data, machine learning, and proprietary digital formats to increase the value of all ad inventory, with or without audience data.
