The digital advertising industry is a dynamic and rapidly evolving sector that plays a significant role in the modern economy. Here are some key points:
- Shift from Traditional Media: Digital advertising has been taking an increasingly larger share of the total advertising market, eclipsing traditional formats like print, radio, and television.
- Multiple Channels: The industry includes various forms of advertising such as search engine marketing, social media advertising, display ads, video ads, and native advertising.
- Programmatic Advertising: Automation and real-time bidding have transformed how advertising inventory is bought and sold, making the process more efficient.
- Big Data and Analytics: The use of data analytics allows advertisers to target audiences more precisely, leading to more effective ad campaigns.
- Mobile Dominance: With the rise of smartphones, mobile advertising has become a crucial component of digital advertising strategies.
- Privacy Concerns: Regulations like GDPR in Europe and CCPA in California are affecting how companies collect and use consumer data, impacting ad targeting.
- Ad Blocking: The growing use of ad blockers poses a challenge to the industry, forcing it to find new ways to reach audiences.
- Social Media Influence: Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have become major players in digital advertising, offering highly targeted ad options.
- Content Marketing: As consumers grow wary of overt advertising, content marketing, which aims to provide valuable content alongside promotional material, has gained prominence.
- E-commerce Synergy: Digital advertising often works hand-in-hand with e-commerce platforms, providing a seamless path from ad to purchase.
- ROI Measurement: One of the advantages of digital over traditional advertising is the ability to measure the return on investment (ROI) more accurately.
The industry is subject to fast-paced changes due to technological advancements and shifts in consumer behavior, making it essential for professionals to stay updated with the latest trends and tools. And the upshot is a wellspring of interesting investment opportunities. We take a look at some of the most interesting in the space below.
Magnite Inc (NASDAQ:MGNI) bills itself as the world’s largest independent sell-side advertising company. Publishers use its technology to monetize their content across all screens and formats including CTV, online video, display, and audio.
According to the company, the world’s leading agencies and brands trust the Magnite platform to access brand-safe, high-quality ad inventory and execute billions of advertising transactions each month.
Magnite Inc (NASDAQ:MGNI) recently introduced machine learning driven recommendations for A/B testing within its Demand Manager product. Built on Prebid technology, Demand Manager empowers leading publishers with the tools, insights, and connections to grow revenue across the ever-changing marketplace of ad exchanges, formats, and vendors. This launch marks the introduction of sophisticated machine learning algorithms packaged with existing industry-leading capabilities for publishers to manage their Prebid stack.
The new feature utilizes machine learning to provide automated Prebid optimization recommendations based on Prebid and ad server auction data and session data, with the goal of revenue lift. Publishers can now activate machine generated settings into an A/B test with a single click. Initial tests showed that 80% of wrappers that ran a machine-generated experiment saw an increase in revenue compared to the existing setting.
“Publishers are confronted with a seemingly endless number of daily choices that materially impact revenue. We developed this new feature to eliminate Prebid optimization guesswork while still giving publishers full control,” said Matt Tengler, VP of Product at Magnite. “Infusing A/B testing with machine learning makes it easy for publishers to measure revenue and page performance improvements. This continues to bring publishers innovative tools that focus on revenue and efficiency at the same time.”
While this is a clear factor, it has been incorporated into a trading tape characterized by a pretty dominant offer, which hasn’t been the type of action MGNI shareholders really want to see. In total, over the past five days, shares of the stock have dropped by roughly -5% on above average trading volume. All in all, not a particularly friendly tape, but one that may ultimately present some new opportunities.
Society Pass Inc (NASDAQ:SOPA) acquires fast growing e-commerce companies and expands its user base across a robust product and service ecosystem. SoPa integrates these complementary businesses through its signature Society Pass fintech platform and circulation of its universal loyalty points or Society Points, which has entered beta testing and is expected to launch broadly at the beginning of 2023. Society Pass loyalty program members earn and redeem Society Points and receive personalised promotions based on SoPa’s data capabilities and understanding of consumer shopping behavior. SoPa has amassed more than 3.6 million registered consumers and over 650,000 registered merchants and brands. It has invested 2+ years building proprietary IT architecture to effectively scale and support its consumers, merchants, and acquisitions.
Founded in 2010, Thoughtful Media Group is the leading digital advertising platform in SEA. Through its network of more than 10,000 talented creators across multiple industries in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Philippines, the company helps brands maximize marketing budgets and achieve business objectives through some of the most innovative marketing campaigns in the region.
Society Pass Inc (NASDAQ:SOPA) that it will commence sponsoring local live music events in SEA, resulting in creating unique marketing opportunities for advertisers.
Expected to launch its first concert in 4Q 2023 in Jakarta, Indonesia, TMG-sponsored concerts will focus on the local musicians with a tag line of “Lemburan”, which translates as “over-time”, aiming to create a distinctive space and time for music fans to gather and to enjoy the nostalgia of their favorite musicians. Streaming these concerts via TMG-affiliated social media channels, advertisers have the opportunity to collaborate with TMG-connected influencers in promoting these popular music events and reaching to their desired audiences.
Ilhamka Nizam, TMG Indonesia Country Head, explains, “Indonesians love music, and it comes as no surprise that TMG found an innovative way to tap into that expanding market segment. Across these live events, TMG aims to reach over 2.5 million over the course of the next year which will create significant sponsorship opportunities for advertisers and our 10,000-member influencer community here in Indonesia. We are planning to host 1 concert each month and is projected to earn $680K annually, and each year we are planning to host 1 big festival that is outside the monthly concerts we will be hosting. I am confident that over 2024, the Group will expand these initiatives across the rest of the TMG markets in Southeast Asia, significantly increasing the revenues for the Group”.
Criteo SA (NASDAQ:CRTO) is a global commerce media company that enables marketers and media owners to drive better commerce outcomes. Its industry leading Commerce Media Platform connects thousands of marketers and media owners to deliver richer consumer experiences from product discovery to purchase.
CRTO recently announced the general availability of its self-service demand-side platform (DSP), Commerce Max, giving brands and agencies a single point of entry to retail media inventory onsite and across premium publishers offsite. Complementing Commerce Max, Criteo is also expanding its retailer monetization solution suite, offering retailers the means to tap previously unattainable demand by paving the way for the integration of marketplace and in-store monetization technologies.
Retail media has proven extremely successful for retailers looking to grow additional revenue streams and brands and agencies looking to engage consumers actively in a buying mindset. Until now, however, fragmentation across the industry has held retailers, brands and agencies back from reaching their full potential with retail media.
“Our focus is enabling all commerce-driven companies to buy and sell audiences engaged in shopping. The process has to be frictionless, and it has to solve for fragmentation,” said Megan Clarken, CEO at Criteo. “With today’s launch, we’re equipping our clients with the right tools to cut through and connect in a more unified retail media ecosystem that ultimately creates more unity across the broader advertising marketplace.”
Even with that news, the action hasn’t really heated up in the stock, with shares moving net sideways over the past week.
Other key names in the digital ad space include: Trade Desk Inc (NASDAQ:TTD), PubMatic Inc (NASDAQ:PUBM), Alphabet Inc Class C (NASDAQ:GOOG), and Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META).
