With NDA’s latest Trinity Lunch event just days away, we sat down with some of the event’s sponsors to ask why they have agreed to get involved, and what their thoughts are on the current state of the industry. Today, we speak to Alex Newberry, CRO, Content Ignite.
Why is your organisation sponsoring the Winter Trinity Lunch?
After the last few years we have had, it’s important that we get together as an industry at events like these. It is a great opportunity to mix with all areas of our industry, share ideas and make new connections.
We sponsored the drinks last year – both our team and clients really enjoyed the event! It was great to meet new potential clients and partners in a range of different areas in our market – it was a no-brainer to do it again this year!
What are the big priorities for your organisation in the new year?
Since our inception, Content Ignite has sought to bring transparency, trust and control to publishers via our platform. 2022 has been a big year in terms of developments with our technology, which has now put us in a position to become the “one stop shop” for all of a publisher’s ad tech needs.
Our priority this year has been to scale our technology, publisher base and our brand awareness, especially with the current data, economical and environmental pressures our clients are under.
What if…. with one tag on-page, you could increase your revenue, improve your employee efficiency and reduce your carbon emissions… this is what Content Ignite is achieving for our publishers and what has fuelled our 100% YOY revenue growth.
What are the biggest issues your clients/customers are facing right now?
We have found that our publishing partners are facing some pretty sizable issues, which makes it hard for them to be in control of their digital properties. There are far too many middle-men currently between the brand and the content creator, causing a reduction in revenue making its way to the publisher, which in-turn applies pressure on publishers to involve more middle men within their set up to try and increase their revenues.
Content Ignite is trying to solve this by offering key insights and suggestions to publishers to help them navigate their way through a very crowded and confusing ecosystem.
For years ad tech partners have been acquiring user and publisher data and repurposing it for themselves, with a whole section of publishers unable to access/activate their own data prevented by the high costs involved in doing this.
Content Ignite has developed our own Contextual Targeting features that allows publishers to gain access and insights on their audience. Our publishers then have the ability package and sell their inventory without paying large fees that DMP’s and other similar data partners charge.
Are your customers/partners testing ‘cookieless’ ad targeting and measurement solutions?
Absolutely! As I mentioned previously, Content Ignite has built our platform as a contextual-first platform. We have regular conversations with our publishers, brands and agencies and our capabilities around cookieless targeting are always one of the first areas our clients want to discuss.
Let’s not forget though, this isn’t just an issue forced upon us by Google. Large portions of a publisher’s inventory is already in cookieless environments, such as Safari. Therefore, it isn’t just a conversation for our publishers about how we are preparing for the future, but how we are currently improving their monetisation in these environments.
Are there any other noteworthy trends in your marketplace right now?
Yes, and I’m sure the trends I’m seeing are exactly the same for every person attending the Trinity Lunch. I haven’t had a conversation with the demand-side that hasn’t included attention in a long while, which I think, is really exciting and shows great promise that we may be finally planning a route away from “clicks” as a measurement of campaign/publisher success. It is certainly an area Content Ignite is prioritising and we will be making more developments, not only on attention but also attribution, in the future.
Sustainability is also at the forefront of every interaction we have as an industry and this is important. It’s a subject I had previously been naive about, but hearing Andrew Hayward Wright speak for the IAB put into perspective the true size of the impact our industry has on the environment and it is scary. Luckily, sustainability is at the forefront of what we are doing at Content Ignite, but it has definitely increased our focus on it this year – we are delighted to say our infrastructure is already predominantly carbon neutral.
From a personal perspective, is the advertising moving in the right direction?
I am a massive fan of our industry. The speed of innovation is astonishing, and in my roles to date, I have met some of the most interesting and intelligent people around. I think, there is drastic room for improvement, but as a whole, we are moving in the right direction for sure.
Sustainability is moving to the top of the conversation and our market is making real changes to their businesses. Rather than just ticking boxes (as we have seen with other initiatives in the past), it shows that this industry, collectively and individually, can also be a force for good.
