Following DMEXCO’s post-COVID comeback, NDA spoke to Ellliot Hill, Chief Marketing Officer at VeraViews. A Member of the Chartered Institute for Public Relations, Elliot is an experienced blockchain and crypto communications professional, previously leading comms for the Cardano Foundation, and providing PR consultancy to Sygnum Bank, Chainlink, Mode, and many other protocols and projects. At VeraViews, he evangelizes all product verticals to a range of B2B and B2C audiences…
Hi Elliot. You’re just back from DMEXCO – what was the most talked about topic at the event?
A key topic of conversation was the metaverse, and how we’re all going to advertise within this new, exciting virtual world. If I’m honest, one of the things that has been most pertinent to VeraViews, as an invalid traffic (IVT) solution, is that we haven’t actually delivered to tools to solve IVT to all the players in traditional video advertising, yet we’ve now got this huge new platform in which to progress an IVT solution. So that’s definitely going to be a challenge for us, but one we’re absolutely relishing. We had some really interesting talks on the metaverse at DMEXCO which were very exciting, so I’m interested to see how it all develops within the industry.
Has anything struck you about the type of companies that attended DMEXCO this year, and how that affected the feel of the event?
That’s a really good question, and within VeraViews we’ve been talking about how many of the big brands decided to swerve DMEXCO this year, or at least have a reduced presence. Maybe that’s down to concerns regarding this being the first post-pandemic DMEXCO, but the result was that loads of small startups vying for visibility at the event – especially tech providers and companies of a similar size to us – have been able to get out there and really make an impact at the show, without being overshadowed by some of the big guns.
Tell us a little bit about what VeraViews is up to at the moment – how are you guys making an impact right now?
We’ve been extremely busy in the last couple of months, and I’m happy to report that we’ve recently passed the first stages of technological readiness. That means that we’ve proven our use cases in terms of preventing IVT, and research suggests that we prevent 2.5% more IVT than any of the current leading solutions in the market, which is a huge achievement for us. In other words, we’ve completed our testing period, and it was great at DMEXCO to let the industry know that we’re ready to onboard clients, brands and publishers who want to use our ad stack.
DMEXCO has a reputation as being an event where business gets done. Has that been the case for the VeraViews team this year?
It’s definitely the case for us, absolutely. This is actually my first DMEXCO, but we’re here to do business, we’re here to have meetings and to engage with people looking to use our ad stack and help prevent IVT.
And one final question, what’s your top tip or takeaway on how to make the best of the DMEXCO experience?
Well, judging by the state of my back and feet, I’d say get taxis or make use of the e-scooters they’ve got dotted around, because there’s a lot of walking!
