Como el evento de tecnología más grande y, posiblemente, más influyente del mundo, no podíamos dejar pasar la oportunidad de visitar el CES este año, y en esta ocasión vinimos con todo la familia, incluyendo a nuestra empresa hermana MightyHive y a nuestra empresa matriz S4Capital. Al comienzo de esta nueva década, el CES colocó a las industrias en una encrucijada, destacando los retos y las oportunidades que tienen enfrente.

El CES ha crecido tanto en los últimos años que ha dado lugar a varios eventos paralelos, incluyendo C Space: Marketing and Advertising (dedicado a tendencias disruptivas que dan forma al comportamiento de los consumidores y a los medios publicitarios) y la cumbre Brand Innovators’ Mega-Trends. MediaMonks estuvo presente en ambos eventos a lo largo de la semana, con Sir Martin Sorrell, Director Ejecutivo de S4Capital, llamando a Brand Innovators “un CES dentro de CES,” destacando su ambiente más íntimo. A continuación, veamos a fondo algunos de los insights que surgieron en ambos eventos.

El Surgimiento de la Mentalidad del Retador

Al inicio del año nuevo, Raja Rajamannar, CMO de MasterCard, dio algunos consejos en Brand Innovators: “Adáptense pronto, o corren el riesgo de quedarse atrás. Los mercadólogos deben ser siempre curiosos, tomar riesgos bien pensados y crecer con rapidez, ya que el ritmo de la tecnología y la innovación no se va reducir en el futuro cercano.”

Hablando del papel de los especialistas al imaginar la experiencia de marca infundida con tecnología, Silke Meixner (Partner, Digitial Business Strategy en IBM Global Business Services) destacó como “a medida que MediaMonks piensa cómo poner la emoción en la marca como socio, los mercadólogos también deben hacerlo,” señalando como la realidad aumentada presenta una oportunidad para lograrlo.

Ya sea ser más decidido en adoptar la mentalidad retadora, elevar la relevancia con la ayuda de nuevos modelos de socios, o construir valor en experiencias guiadas por las emociones, el CES de este año ofreció muchas oportunidades para las marcas de construir conexiones más fuertes con los consumidores a través de la tecnología. A medida que se embarcan en una nueva década, las discusiones en el CES parecen optimistas para las marcas, y no podemos esperar para ayudar a redefinir las grandes ideas y darles vida.

Es una mentalidad compartida por Kimberly Gardiner, VP y CMO de Mitsubishi, quien busca aprendizajes e inspiración fuera de su industria. En plática con Nick Fuller (SVP, Growth en MediaMonks) frente a una chimenea en la cumbre Brand Innovators, dijo “No buscamos inspiración en nuestros competidores de la industria automotriz, sino en compañías que van directo al consumidor. Queremos ser una marca que desafíe lo convencional.”

Este enfoque de desafío ha ayudado a Mitsubishi, que ha disfrutado su segundo año consecutivo como la marca automotriz asiática más rápida, a concentrarse en una audiencia dedicada. “No podemos gastar más que nuestra competencia, así que nos enfocamos en una audiencia muy específica y enfocada,” dijo Gardiner. “Queremos apuntar a personas que no son como todas los demás.”

En su propia charla junto a la chimenea con Wesley ter Haar, Fundador de MediaMonks, Sir Martin también adoptó la mentalidad disruptiva y retadora al crear una conexión entre la misión de S4Capital y el festival Burning Man. “Burning Man refleja una creatividad disyuntiva, se trata de crear algo y destruirlo cada año,” señaló.

Lograr Crecimiento y Personalización a Velocidad y Escala

Para desafiar convenciones con éxito y adaptarse al acelerado paso de la innovación tecnológica, las marcas deben tener las capacidades bien establecidas para escalar o dar giros con rapidez. Esto es de particular importancia si tomamos en cuenta el incremento de la hiperadopción del consumidor, es decir, la velocidad a la que cambian los comportamientos de los usuarios, y así desafiar aún más las métricas tradicionales de éxito.

En la sesión de storytelling the S4Capital en C Space, moderada por Marta Martínez (Directora de Plataformas de Marketing de Google), el liderazgo de S4 se reunió para discutir algunos de los principales retos y oportunidades que enfrentan las marcas al avanzar la nueva década. Louise Martens, Global Head of Embedded Production en MediaMonks, señaló cómo el aumento en la conversación social y en la adopción tecnológica ha acelerado el ritmo al que las marcas deben entregar resultados.

“En el pasado, podrías haber tenido cuatro grandes momentos en el año, pero ahora los mercadólogos tienen que entregar miles y miles de activos en diferentes formatos y canales.” ¿La solución? Nuevos modelos de sociedad que satisfagan la necesidad de las marcas de tener velocidad y escala. “Esa presión sobre las organizaciones ha generado nuevos modelos como la ubicación conjunta, el trabajo interno y la integración.”

Y a medida que las plataformas digitales se saturan cada vez más, la propiedad y la implementación de datos se vuelve clave para el éxito. “Para ganar, las marcas deben voltear a su ecosistema: medirlo, hacerle pruebas y enviar esos datos de vuelta hacia la creatividad,” dice Martens.

Al señalar que la personalización es una apuesta importante en 2020, Pete Kim, CEO de MightyHive, también mencionó la batalla por los datos ‘first-party’ e integrarlos de forma más cercana con la estrategia creativa de la marca. “Espero ver crecimiento continuo a medida que forjamos los procesos del futuro, poniendo el mensaje correcto y la creatividad adecuada frente a la persona indicada a escala.”

Reconociendo el Valor en la Tecnología Emergente

El piso de la sala de exposiciones en el CES ofrece una buena cantidad de aciertos y errores, lo que presenta a las marcas un recordatorio para asegurar que su inversión en tecnologías nuevas y emergentes otorgue un valor real, tanto para los negocios como para los consumidores. Olivier Koelemij, Managing Director d MediaMonks LA, participó en un panel como parte del tema Hollywood Digital en CES que buscaba destacar el valor que una de esas tecnologías, la realidad aumentada, puede ofrecer a las marcas. Títulado “La Experiencia de Realidad Aumentada/Mixta,” el panel incluyó a expertos de la industria como Magic Leap, Microsoft, IBM Global Business Services y más.

Uno de los retos clave para la realidad mixta que destacó el grupo, tal vez de manera contra intuitiva, es su acelerada madurez. Mientras que los saltos tecnológicos han facilitado el diseño y la implementación de experiencias digitales impresionantes, por ejemplo la adición de Depth API a ARCore, también elevan el listón de cómo se ve una experiencia verdaderamente de ayuda y valor agregado. Para marcas con una menor madurez digital, el panel destacó el papel que pueden jugar las alianzas para centrarse en ese factor de valor y transformar las ideas en realidad.

“Hay muchas formas de definir el valor,” dice Koelemij. Habló sobre el Dark Knight Dive, una experiencia de 4D VR que permite a los usuarios “volar” a través de una ciudad Gótica virtual mientras están suspendidos en un túnel de viento de paracaidismo, como un gran ejemplo de lo que pueden lograr las marcas al aventurarse con la realidad extendida. “Con este proyecto, pudimos conectar a AT&T con la IP de Batman que habían adquirido poco tiempo antes, y la prensa estaba fascinada. Los mercadólogos deben pensar sobre cómo medir y definir el éxito.”

As the world’s largest and arguably most influential tech trade show, you know we wouldn’t pass up the chance to visit CES this year—and this time we brought the whole family along, including our programmatic sister company MightyHive and parent company S4Capital. At the dawn of a new decade, this year’s CES placed industries at a crossroads, highlighting the challenges and opportunities that stand before them.

CES has become so big in recent years that it’s also sparked its fair share of side events, including C Space: Marketing and Advertising (devoted to disruptive trends that shape consumer behavior and advertising media) and the Brand Innovators’ Mega-Trends summit. MediaMonks had a presence at both events throughout the week, with S4Capital Executive Chairman Sir Martin Sorrell calling Brand Innovators “a CES within CES,” noting its more intimate feel. Below, let’s dive into some of the insights that surfaced across these events.

The Rise of the Challenger Mindset

At the start of the new year, MasterCard CMO Raja Rajamannar gave Brand Innovators some choice advice: “Adapt quickly, or you risk being left behind. Marketers need to stay constantly curious, take thoughtful risks and scale fast, as the pace of technology and innovation will not slow down anytime soon.”

Speaking of marketers’ role in envisioning the tech-infused brand experience, Silke Meixner (Partner, Digital Business Strategy at IBM Global Business Services) noted how “As MediaMonks thinks about putting emotion into the brand as a partner, marketers need to, too,” mentioning how AR presents an opportunity to achieve that.

Whether being more purposeful in adopting a challenger mindset, raising relevance with the aid of new partner models, or building value in emotion-driven experiences, this year’s CES offered ample opportunities for brands to build stronger connections with consumers through tech. As they embark on a new decade, the discussions at CES look optimistic for brands—and we can’t wait to help refine their big ideas and bring them to life.

It’s a mentality shared by Mitsubishi’s VP and CMO Kimberly Gardiner, who looks outside of her industry for learnings and inspiration. In conversation with Nick Fuller (SVP, Growth at MediaMonks) in a fireside chat at the Brand Innovators summit, she said, “We don’t look at auto competitors for inspiration—we look at DTC companies. We want to be a brand that challenges convention.”

This challenger approach has helped Mitsubishi—which enjoyed its second year in a row as the fastest Asian-owned auto brand—zero in on a dedicated audience. “We can’t outspend our competition, so we focus on a narrow, focused audience,” Gardiner said. “We want to target people that aren’t like everyone else.”

In his own fireside chat shared with MediaMonks Founder Wesley ter Haar, Sir Martin also embraced the disruptive, challenger mindset by building a connection between S4Capital’s mission and Burning Man. “Burning Man reflects creative disruption—it’s about creating something and destroying it every year,” he said.

Achieving Growth and Personalization at Speed and Scale

For brands to successfully challenge conventions and adapt to the quickening pace of technological innovation, they must have the capabilities in place to scale up or pivot with speed. This is especially important given the rise of consumer hyperadoption, or the speed at which consumer behaviors shift, and further challenges traditional metrics of success.

At the S4Capital Storytelling Session at C Space, moderated by Marta Martinez (Director of Google Marketing Platforms), S4 leadership met to discuss some of the reigning challenges and opportunities that brands face while moving into the new decade. Louise Martens, Global Head of Embedded Production at MediaMonks, mentioned how the uptick in social conversation and tech adoption has quickened the pace at which brands must deliver.

“In the past, you may have had four big moments in the year, but now marketers have to turn around thousands of thousands of assets across formats and channels.” The solution? New partner models that satiate brands’ need for speed and scale: “That pressure on organizations has sparked new models like co-location, in housing and embedding.”

And as digital platforms become increasingly saturated, ownership and implementation of data become critical to success. “To win, brands must look at their ecosystem: measure it, test it and feed that data back inside to the creative,” says Martens.

Noting that personalization is table stakes in 2020, MightyHive CEO Pete Kim also mentioned the battle for first-party data and integrating it more closely with a brand’s creative strategy. “I hope to see continued progress as we forge the processes of the future—putting the right message and the right creative in front of the right person at scale.”

Recognizing Value in Emerging Tech

The showroom floor at CES offers its fair share of hits and misses, which presents brands with a sober reminder to ensure their investment in new and emerging tech provides real value, both to the business and consumers alike. Olivier Koelemij, Managing Director of MediaMonks LA, participated in a panel as part of the Digital Hollywood track at CES that sought to highlight the value that one such technology—augmented reality—can offer to brands. Titled “The Augmented/Mixed Reality Experience,” the panel included industry experts such as Magic Leap, Microsoft, IBM Global Business Services and more.

One of the key challenges to mixed reality that the group highlighted, perhaps counter-intuitively, is its fast-growing maturity. While tech leaps have made it easier to design and implement impressive digital experiences—take Depth API’s addition to ARCore, for example—they also raise the bar on what a truly assistive, value-added experience looks like. For brands at a lower digital maturity, the panel highlighted the role that partnerships can play in homing in on that value factor and bringing ideas into reality.

“There are many ways to define value,” says Koelemij. He discussed the Dark Knight Dive, a 4D VR experience that lets users “fly” through a virtual Gotham City while suspended in a skydiving wind tunnel, as a best-in-class example of what brands can achieve when going big on extended reality. “With this project, we were able to connect AT&T with the Batman IP that they’d recently acquired, and the press was all over it. Marketers must think about how they measure and define success.”

In today’s landscape where personalization and relevance are critical, marketers are increasingly asked to understand both the creative and technical sides of the equation when it comes to delivering digital experiences to customers. S4Capital, a new-era model offering end-to-end advertising services to brands and organizations around the world, bridges that gap: “Data is at the center of what we do,” Sir Martin Sorrell, Founder and Executive Chairman of S4Capital, told IBC365 in a recent interview. “People that claim data destroys creativity or hinders it are talking nonsense. Good data and good insights inform creativity and makes it more effective.”

Achieving this requires close collaboration between MediaMonks, whose forte lies in creativity and enabling efficient production at scale, and MightyHive, who provides consulting and services in the areas of media operations and training, data strategy, and analytics. Emily Del Greco, President of the Americas at MightyHive, puts it succinctly: “MediaMonks is about taking the risk, and MightyHive comes quickly with feedback [backed by data.]”

We sat down with Myles Younger, Senior Director of Marketing at MightyHive, to discuss one of the biggest challenges that brands face when it comes to measuring performance and developing insights-driven content: privacy. From GDPR to the new California Consumer Privacy Act, privacy is going to become more challenging through 2020. For brands that struggle to look beyond the walled gardens of partner and platform data to gain a fuller view of their customers, Younger offers some advice: consider investing in a data clean room, which enables partners to develop new insights without compromising their audiences’ privacy. Younger walks us through what data clean rooms are, what you might consider before setting one up and more.

How would you explain data clean rooms?

Myles Younger: My analogy for how I would explain it is: imagine you have two data owners, ColorCo and FoodCo. ColorCo has data on its audience, including everyone’s favorite color. FoodCo has a similar audience to ColorCo, and knows their favorite food. ColorCo would like to know what the overlap is between their audiences, maybe identifying what the most popular combinations are in favorite color versus food—but neither wants to reveal to the other any personally identifiable information that could compromise the value of their data or the privacy of their audience.

A data clean room allows them to bring their data together in a neutral environment to figure out where the overlap is, meaning they might find that 300 people in their audience favor yellow and hotdogs—but neither ColorCo nor FoodCo know who those 300 people are, they just get the overlaps. That’s the special thing: you build new insights while protecting individual privacy.

Speaking of privacy, that’s a major concern for brands and their audiences. How do data clean rooms ensure brands still get a high quality of insights?

MY: Traditional methods of understanding the user are beginning to erode and brands are embracing first-party data that gives them a truer sense of who their audience is and what they need. What’s important to remember about data clean rooms is that they offer you access to insights gained from the first-party data of others.

As cookie-driven campaign measurement continues to become less reliable, brands are going to have to start looking elsewhere for insights on creative performance, reach and frequency, and attribution. Because data clean rooms generate insights from first-party data, they should be towards the top of every marketer’s list to at least become familiar with, if not start tinkering with.

At MediaMonks, we often discuss with clients the importance of delivering a total brand experience, applying insights and user data across a customer decision journey that extends beyond a single platform. Could data clean rooms aid in this process?

MY: Absolutely! Data clean rooms could aid in delivering the total brand experience in more meaningful ways than we’ve ever seen before. I know that sounds hyperbolic, but it’s justified.

Up until now, digital ad targeting, personalization, measurement and optimization have been based on what you might call the “total cookie experience.” Cookies and ad tech tracking IDs form a big universe, but it’s an isolated place. Even before things like GDPR and Safari ITP, it was very difficult to connect millions of ephemeral (and often fraudulent) browser cookies and third-party tracking IDs back to genuine business data (customers, products, transactions, loyalty and preference data, stores, apps, strategic partner data, etc). Given that clean rooms run on first-party databases and not cookies, brands gain the opportunity to tap into the totality of CX data sets when making analyses or optimizations. For marketers who have been used to making fuzzy inferences from nebulous, siloed cookie pools, I think working from actual business data is going to seem like a revelation.

What else would excite brands about data clean rooms?

MY: Data clean rooms are a big win for measuring performance and ROI. Let’s say you’re a CPG brand, meaning you’re likely selling your product through distributors and retailers. Traditionally, you might have to wait months for reportage on transaction data. But we have a CPG client who uses data clean rooms to interrogate or query a retailer’s POS data in almost real time.

Given the rapid access to insights that data clean rooms offer, what are some other ways that working with one would change my day-to-day as a marketer or strategist?

MY: There really is a promise for far more rapid access to data. Previously, many marketers’ approaches were cookie-driven, which adds latency and degrades fidelity of the data. Data clean rooms let you act on a more instantaneous basis.

And while data clean rooms inhibit ownership or direct access to others’ data, it really can bring you closer to it. That might sound counter-intuitive, but data clean rooms prompt you to shift your perspective a bit. We always ask our clients: what do you want, the data or the insights? You probably want the latter, and while data clean rooms might keep you an arm’s length from the data itself, they bring you closer to the insights.

How easy is it to partner with another brand or company to join data in a clean room? Do you think data clean rooms will usher in greater collaboration as brands discover overlaps between their audiences?

MY: This is clearly an area for early adopters right now, but MightyHive is seeing early success and we’re onboarding advertisers into clean rooms left and right. The momentum is clearly there.

A smart place to start with respect to inter-brand collaboration is with existing strategic brand partnerships. For example: whenever consumers travel, they’re inundated with sophisticated partner marketing programs across airlines, booking sites, hotels, loyalty programs and credit cards. These brand and audience partnerships already exist, and clean rooms are probably going to come into play more and more as a means to share audiences, CX touchpoints, measurement data and insights.

Get your hands dirty with data clean rooms.

This week, New York welcomed not only foreign leaders and dignitaries at the United Nations headquarters—the city also embraced some of the best and brightest in the world of advertising, marketing and technology. Yes, Advertising Week New York—one of six Advertising Week events held around the world—came to offer thought leadership, workshops and more with 1,216 speakers and over 290 different events.

There was much to ponder and celebrate throughout the week. At the Clio Awards, eight awards were distributed among three projects that we contributed to: the Uncensored Playlist, Mind the Gap and the geolocation-based revamp of the “Runaway Train” music video. We also made placement on Adweek’s 100 Fastest Growing Agencies list, and our VP of Marketing Kate Richling was shortlisted for Advertising Week’s Future is Female platform.

But that’s enough patting ourselves on the back. What were the brands up to in all the fray? Our recap explores three big topics from one of the biggest weeks in advertising—namely what’s driving the in-housing trend, how brands are working creatively with data and the new collaborative partnerships that are helping brands respond to both those opportunities.

Getting Closer to Consumers through In-Housing

One thing that’s become undoubtedly clear across the course of the week is that brands are seeking ways to take back control. For many, this has manifest in a trend to take their creative and media capabilities in-house. Often attributed to goals like lowering cost or time to market, there are in fact many reasons why brands feel they can do creative better on their own terms and turf, as explored at the Brand Innovators summit, which coincided with Advertising Week.

A major goal behind the in-housing trend is a need to get closer to the consumer. As traditional brands grow with widening product lines and more channels to communicate through, they risk losing coherence or consistency within the brand-consumer relationship.

At a panel on in-housing, Spencer Gordon of Anheuser-Busch discussed how going in-house ensured that a dedicated team in the brand would always be thinking about creative. This enabled them to pursue consumers with greater relevance and brand understanding. But Gordon noted that the initiative achieved big results by first starting small; with four employees focused on providing social assets solely for the Michelob Ultra product, the team has since scaled to 63 members that deliver for all of AB InBev’s brands.

In the same panel, Ryan Riess, Director of Social Strategy and Content at the Hershey Company, similarly discussed how supporting such a large variety of brands (15 of them!) drove them to become more consumer-centric. Hershey felt they could do creative better on their own—particularly in creating platform-specific content that would better connect with their customers. That’s a very specific way that brands can better drive relevance by maintaining an always-on relationship with their consumers, requiring brands to have a clear idea not only of themselves, but their consumers as well.

Purposeful Use of Data for Empathy and Impact

How brands can gain that understanding of the consumer was another major topic of discussion throughout the week. But businesses have come up with interesting ways to accomplish this; a notable example is Target’s internal media company Roundel. In the Advertising Week panel “Climbing Over Walls: Real People Data in an Automated World,” Roundel’s VP Dave Peterson noted: “The data is extremely important, but it’s as much on the human side as it is on the data. We call it the IQ side for data and the EQ for the human side of things.”

This purposeful interplay between both the technical and emotional sides of data provides Roundel with learnings they can use to strengthen the relationship between the retailer, their customers and the CPG partners whose products line the shelves. “Going back to our enterprise view at Target about putting our guests at the center of everything we do, our goal really is to enhance the shopping experience,” Peterson said. “Media works best when it’s in everyone’s benefit.”

And that’s a point that resonates well with MediaMonks founder Wesley ter Haar, who gave a keynote address at the Brand Innovators event on Tuesday afternoon. Exploring the challenge between what he calls “personalized pleasure versus personalized panic”—that delicate balance between consumers’ desire for relevance and concern for privacy—he honed in on the need for empathy to become a driving force in everything you do. “We can never stop prioritizing empathy,” he said. “Empathy and engineering must work hand-in-hand in the future.”

Closing the Creative and Data Divide

While Roundel is an interesting example of bridging together the intelligent and emotional quotients in data, they’re not alone: several brands noted the need for marketing and IT to come together to deliver unforgettable customer experiences that build brand love. On the panel “Rethinking TV: Driving Growth, Relationships and Experience Through Data,” Sir Martin Sorrell joined GM’s Global CMO Deborah Wahl, where the two examined how brands must look beyond the typical TVC approach for more scalable, personal and relevant creative.

Wahl gave her brand’s perspective on how impact and effectiveness are table stakes today, and how she works closely with data to achieve it. “We have a chief data officer at GM. We spend a lot of time together, really understanding: ‘What are you learning, what are the insights, how are we going after it?’” she said. “That helps you form better creative briefs so you get a big idea, and then really make sure we can execute that across different channels.”

It sounds like GM has a good rhythm going, but for many brands, closing that IT and creative gap can feel like a struggle. Showing teamwork in action, the S4 family—Sir Martin, ter Haar and Emily Del Greco (President of the Americas, MightyHive)—came together the following day to join Joana Coles (Founder and CCO, Boudica) in a panel discussion about the S4 Capital model and its place within the future of advertising. Coles set the scene for discussion: if you’re not a holding company, she asked, “What the hell are you then?”

The trio’s responses became a multi-faceted examination of collaboration and partnership. Sir Martin drew a line between how S4 operates versus holding companies that impose constraints around the businesses they contain. Instead, he suggested, S4 took inspiration from tech companies who are disruptive by nature. Ter Haar added: “With traditional work, there’s a conservatism that you can’t marry data with being creative.” It’s precisely that challenge that brands are grappling with now, driving that need for control examined above.

Del Greco noted how aligning data and creative so closely together enables brands to take more risks with confidence. “MediaMonks is about taking the risk, and MightyHive comes quickly with feedback [backed by data],” she said. As iteration and agility have become key to success in today’s always-on environment, this ability to experiment and take learnings will become crucial for future-focused brands.

As Advertising Week draws to a close, we’re energized by the creative wins that brands have have been able to share. Looking at the next year into the future, it will be interesting to see how the landscape further evolves—and how new partnerships will enable brands to achieve a more customer-led focus by closing the gap between data and creative.