Through the support of leading integrated media company, Optimal Fusion, The Holiday Heroes are slated to reach over 25% more children and their families in 2018 than any of the previous years. As the premiere sponsor of the Los Angeles expansion efforts, Optimal Fusion has not only donated a significant sum of money but has made a commitment to contribute to fundraising efforts, provide volunteers at hospitals, and host production parties that encourage community participation.

Fueling this initiative is Joel Bess, CEO, and Zack Brown, VP, who are dedicating their efforts in loving memory of Eli Gradon. “While we are often powerless to alter the diagnoses, the course of treatments, the seemingly unending pain, and ultimately, sometimes, even the most tragic fate of these innocent children, we, in fact, have a great power to change mere moments in their journey through illness. The Holiday Heroes presented me with an opportunity to be a positive force that can bring a smile to the lips of a suffering child even during his very darkest days,” proclaims Bess.

“About a year and a half ago, my very dear friends sadly lost their 11-year-old son after a four-year battle with cancer. During those four years I learned that a quick visit, an unexpected gift and a genuine, loving smile may be exactly what a child with cancer/illness needs at that very moment. I love that The Holiday Heroes allows me to give as much as I can, even if it isn’t the solution I wish I could provide.”

In recognition of all his efforts, The Holiday Heroes presented Bess with the Heart of a Hero award in a formal presentation at their annual gala, Heroes of the Night on Thursday, June 21.

The Holiday Heroes Los Angeles chapter will be kicking off the party season in partnership with Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles on August 22 with a back-to-school themed celebration.

“This expansion means bringing joy and normalcy to more hospitalized children. With each additional child and each hospital partnership we are closer and closer to being a part of changing the hospital experience for critically, chronically, and terminally ill children,” says Bridgette Ferraro, Executive Director of The Holiday Heroes.

About The Holiday Heroes: 
The Holiday Heroes is a 501(c)3 organization which partners with hospitals, businesses, celebrities and others to give children who are hospitalized due to a critical or chronic illness, a well-needed and deserved dose of fun. Through a wide variety of themed parties and celebrations kids, their families, and caregivers some time to forget about the illnesses and medical procedures, by creating an experience that transports them to a joyous and hopeful place.

To learn more about The Holiday Heroes and how you can get involved, visit www.holiday-heroes.org or contact Bridgette Ferraro, Executive Director via e-mail (bridgette@holiday-heroes.org).

Contact: 
Bridgette Ferraro, Executive Director
The Holiday Heroes
765-404-9588
bridgette@holiday-heroes.org
www.holiday-heroes.org

This pricing model takes the advertiser’s goals into account before rates are developed, and predefined goals are contractually guaranteed prior to campaign launch.  If goals are not met for any reason, Optimal Fusion will credit back impressions to reach those goals with no questions asked.  Typically, brands and publishers will negotiate such make-goods, but with Fuze360’s dynamic pricing, these guarantees are contractual, and predefined before the campaign launch.  While goals vary, the most popular guarantees thus far range from above average click-through-rates, to specific numbers of page views, and post-click acquisitions or form fills. 

Vice President Zack Brown said, “Amazingly in 2017, we are still regularly asked for our rate card as a means to opening up a discussion with a brand for a possible campaign.  To us, the rate card was always irrelevant, the pricing is based entirely on the post impression goal as opposed to just selling an impression.  With this new pricing metric, we are working backwards from the objective, and putting our money where our mouth is by assuming all the advertisers’ risk.  If a media agency wants to back out to an effective cost per lead predefined by their client, we will guarantee they do, if the brand is looking for a minimum 1% CTR, we can guarantee that.” 

Objective based pricing was developed by Optimal Fusion to offer a minimal risk testing environment for brands to scale and fine tune their post impression goals.  With the shift towards programmatic platforms, frequently marketers are having trouble reaching the predefined goals with the scale they are promised and many times have to settle for one or the other.  While programmatic is efficient and easy to manage, Optimal Fusion’s research has shown that many brands have been forced to change their performance goals based on the current media climate and less customized approach.

CEO Joel Bess said, “While agencies like GroupM have been at this a while in terms of only paying for viewable impressions, we felt that didn’t go far enough, and that at the end of the day true performance must go further and guarantee more than just the possibility that an impression was viewed by a human.  We feel that true performance happens after the impression, even when we’re talking about branding.” 

About Optimal Fusion

Founded in 2005, Optimal Fusion is a Los Angeles based performance-driven integrated media company utilizing exclusive properties and platforms to link brands and consumers through targeted marketing solutions. Pairing proprietary audience targeting technology with first-party data, and a portfolio of proprietary properties and platforms, Optimal Fusion cultivates a brand-safe environment perfectly situated to target the most relevant consumers.www.optimalfusion.com

About Fuze360

Fuze360 is the recently launched signature offering from Optimal Fusion. The first-of-its-kind native-instream ad platform has effectively eliminated risk by contractually guaranteeing KPIs and backend results customized for each client in advance. In a short time, the platform has achieved unparalleled success for a wide range of small, mid-size and Fortune 500 clients including Disney, Microsoft, and Honest Company.

Fuze360 is reimaging the traditional “banner roadblock” with the ability to offer guaranteed viewability along with 100% share-of-voice instream utilizing multiple ad formats in a single execution. Fuze360 harnesses unique multi-screen ad formats, publisher tools to increase impression quality, and a whole new way to engage consumers through branded experiences. www.fuze360.com

MARTECHADVISOR.COM, JANUARY 27, 2017 -- Zack Brown, Vice President of Optimal Fusion discusses how many brands are kicking off the New Year with promoted content as the FTC is mulling new aggressive restrictions for bloggers. With increasing competition and new laws on the horizon, savvy brands are navigating this tricky environment with transparency and automation.

As we wrap up 2016, it is clear that the digital landscape has become akin to the wild west. Savvy brands are embarking on the gold rush while regulators try to keep consumers protected.

A Nielsen study shows that 92 percent of people trust recommendations from individuals -- even if they don’t know them -- over brands. This has led rise to influencer marketing campaigns and sponsored content which have helped brands reach consumers in a more natural way than traditional banner ads. Native advertising spends are expected to reach $21 billion in 2018, up from just $4.7 billion in 2013.

However, effective digital campaigns will be trickier to execute in 2017 for two reasons.

The first is increasing regulations. The Federal Trade Commission has been cracking down on word-of-mouth campaigns to make sure bloggers disclose paid relationships. Under their watchful eye, celebrity influencers have become well-policed. 

As such, brands have begun to rely on micro-bloggers, independent consumers who have smaller spheres of influence -- usually revolving around friends and family – but higher engagement rates. If past is prologue, brands that are prepared to adjust to regulations will have a leg up on the competition.  

The second issue for brands in 2017 will be fickle consumer sensibilities. While consumers, particularly Millennials, prefer sponsored content over banner ads, they do not want to feel tricked or baited.

Here are 5 tips to engage consumers with sponsored content in 2017 amidst increasing regulations and fickle consumer sensibilities: 

1. Do not try to outsmart the FTC: More sheriffs are policing the digital wild west than ever before and it is critical to play by the rules. Brands producing their own content in-house should view these FTC guidelines to make sure they are compliant. When advertisers partner with outside companies, we know the main priority is to discuss views and actions. But in order to be successful, you need a long-term digital strategy and it is critical to work with companies who understand the rapidly changing norms and regulations.

2. Be Transparent or suffer the consequences: Lack of transparency, when it comes to brands and online advertising, is the kiss of death. Both with consumers and now increasingly with regulators, it just doesn’t pay. In order to be transparent, brands should work with platforms to develop content templates that are pre-approved before they are deployed to blogs, publishers, and influencers. New platforms ensure transparency by wrapping content into DoubleClick tags with third-party validation. This protected brands utilizing display advertising for years and you should work with companies that offer the same protection with sponsored-content.

3. Rewatch the scene from Tommy boy and Tell a story: Before ‘Tommy’ lights the desk on fire, there is an important takeaway in the beginning of this scene. David Spade’s character tries to sell a break pad by saying, “The spectrometer read-out on the nickel-cadmium alloy mix…” To which the customer replied, “Whoa little fella, you are not speaking my language.” This lesson is equally applicable in sponsored-content. Do not overuse marketing jargon, sales terms or drone on about product features. This will lose the reader. Instead, focus on telling a good story about what the consumer will gain simply by clicking their mouse. Give the readers a reason to read the sponsored content until the very end and then act.

4. You don’t need Clickbait, be Creative: A native ad is supposed to be ingrained in the site where the user is currently consuming content. However, as the discipline has exploded, too many cooks have entered the kitchen that do not care about the user experience and are trying to lure consumers with clickbait. Don’t be that guy! Good sponsored content should not require a click to gain access to that content. It should ‘live’ on the intended site and the users should not be manipulated to leave the current article. By creating a creative and sophisticated sponsored content, you can engage consumers without irritating them. A consumer who feels tricked will not follow through with an action. 

5. Be an Early Adopter of programmatic sponsored content: Nearly all sponsored content platforms are available on a site-by-site manual basis. Brands must work directly with the publisher to create sponsored content, get approvals from the brand, and then finally launch. This is a slow process, and extremely difficult to optimize, A/B test, and track performance metrics with such a long time lag. New platforms offer programmatic sponsored content, which can launch a content-based campaign across more than 1,000 sites in a similar execution to a programmatic banner buy. The ability to deploy native sponsored-content programmatically is a game changer that is already giving brands an edge with speed and performance.

Zack Brown is the Vice President of Optimal Fusion, a Los Angeles-based integrated media company that launched in 2005.

In 1895, John Deere launched a magazine called The Furrow, which successfully offered non-intrusive tips for farmers.

In today’s marketing climate, consumers own 3.64 connected devices each. Advertisers must produce effective digital campaigns that can cut through the noise in a crowded industry.

Unfortunately, many face an uphill battle due to an increase in ad blockers, consumer weariness over intrusive banner ads, the devaluation of impressions as internet currency and rampant fraud.

Enter native advertising, which is expected to reach $21 billion in 2018. My organization's clients are succeeding with native advertising, but they’re not immune to issues including lack of scalability, inconsistent ROI measurement, overreliance on upfront impressions and the devaluation of high-quality content.

To achieve native advertising success, look at the early triumphs of a few familiar brands:

General Mills

When radio emerged, General Mills had success airing a radio show called “Jack Armstrong, the American Boy,” which didn’t mention their cereal, but positioned it alongside a fictional role-model. The concept was simple; if the kids want to be like the attractive Jack Armstrong, then they will want to eat the same cereal he does.

Procter & Gamble

P&G capitalized on the invention of television in the 1940s by producing what are now called “soap operas.” The organization produced a handful of shows as well as more than 50 TV-movies that boosted the brand’s image and market share.

In the digital age, marketers are spoiled with a perplexing number of tools, platforms and outlets for targeting consumers. Though a native approach is proving effective, there are still many pitfalls, which have led rise to the emergence of “true native” advertising.

What does a true native approach entail?

The primary difference between native and true native is boundaries. Boundaries can be any action that is required for a user to consume native content. The content should feel authentic and on brand with your current marketing approach.

Take print, for example. A true native ad would live on a page of the newspaper and require only that your eyes view the content. Nothing fancy, there.

WORKSHOP: Become your own media outlet and apply journalistic practices within your organization

When users move from one content site to another online, though, the publisher or brand is often paying for that visit. The brand has just executed a native ad experience before the click, so whatever image and text they used to bait the consumer becomes their actual native experience, rather than the content on the next page where they seek to drive the user.

Essentially, the only native aspect the brand received was on that initial click. Once a user crosses boundaries to engage, it’s no longer native. Generally, the bait never delivers on its promise, and the consumer often feels tricked or let down.

True native is ingrained in the site where the user is consuming content. It’s just another piece of content for them to engage with. There is no required click to gain access to that content, and the user doesn’t have to be buttered up to drive engagement.

Most true native platforms are manual and require working directly with the publisher to create sponsored content and get approvals from brand managers before launching. Although it might take time, the approach has proved wildly effective in terms of reaching consumers with genuine, high-quality content.

Zack Brown is the vice president of Optimal Fusion, an integrated media company. He's the creator of Fuze 360.

LA TechWatch spoke with the Optimal Fusion team about the compayn, discussed its latest Fuze360 offering, and where the company plans to go in the future.

Tell us about the product or service:

Fuze360 is the recently launched signature offering from Optimal Fusion. The first-of-its-kind native-instream ad platform has effectively eliminated risk for marketers by contractually guaranteeing KPIs and backend results customized for each client in advance. In a short time, the platform has achieved unparalleled success for a wide range of small, mid-size and Fortune 500 clients including Disney and Microsoft.

Fuze360 is reimaging native advertising with the ability to offer guaranteed viewability along with 100% share-of-voice instream utilizing multiple ad formats in a single execution. By creating new contextually relevant inventory through sponsored-content, Fuze360 increases ad rates for publishers while increasing ROI for advertisers. Fuze360 harnesses unique multi-screen ad formats, publisher tools to increase impression quality, and a whole new way to engage consumers through branded content experiences.

How is it different?

There are five major overwhelming differences between traditional ad platforms and Fuze360: scale, risk mitigation, pricing, ease of use, and performance. We have created unique ad products which are rarely packaged together in a single execution. Whereas previously, a brand would have to cobble together a number of vendors to deliver banners, sponsored content, video, and first party data collection, Fuze360 can offer advertisers a single unit with all of these tools at a flat rate along with KPI guarantees.

Essentially, we are offering brands a section or a microsite within a premium third-party site to show offer their wares. For example, we created tools like ContentCard after realizing that our clients’ struggles scaling content-based campaigns were widespread across the industry and could be addressed. Previously, if you wanted to reach thousands of sites and influencers with a sponsored article, it had to be done manually and through many vendors, or it had to be paid on a cost-per-click basis and driven to the brands’ site where the user can then access the content.  One of our major goals is to open up the sponsored-content sector similarly to what programmatic did for display banners, and so far its moved in that direction much quicker than we ever expected.

What market are you attacking and how big is it?

We are attacking the overall digital advertising space, specifically reaching media planners and media buyers at Tier 1 media agencies representing fortune 100 brands. Specifically, we are targeting marketers who are relying on programmatic advertising for the majority of their digital spend. This year, advertisers will spend over $22 billion through programmatic advertising platforms and we believe that native advertising spend will continue to grow as platforms modernize and move towards a programmatic setup.

What is the business model?

Unique native ad platform that contractually guarantees KPIs and backend results customized for each client in advance. With such little differentiation between legacy ad platforms, we are showing advertisers that they can expect more from these platforms in the way of guarantees and substantial risk mitigation. Competitors look at us like we’re crazy for offering our clients guarantees, but if you’re as confident as we are about our product, these guarantees shouldn’t keep you up at night. We regularly leave meetings with major brands who believe its too good to be true. Media buyers can smell fear and take advantage of it, so I always tell entrepreneurs in the digital media discipline to be confident and put their money where their mouth is. While it may be riskier to guarantee results as an adtech solution, purchasers of media generally take all of the risk in a media test buy. In any business, mitigating risk for your clients is by far the quickest way to get on the map.

Where do you think we go in the next 12 months in terms of native advertising fitting into the marketing mix?

Native will continue to grow, aggressively. Native ad spends are expected to reach $21 billion in 2018, up from just $4.7 billion in 2013. On Oct. 5, WSJ reported that the New York Times Shuns Banner Ads in Favor of Proprietary Ad Format. The article cites how the NYT is moving to native advertising, away from non-standard banners, and is making ads that work across all platforms. This speaks to the change happening across the industry.  Furthermore, with the advent of ad-blockers and the constant noise from aggressive banners, advertisers are shifting budgets to include more branded content. LinkedIn’s ad revenue grew by 29% in the first quarter of 2016 to $154.1 million, thanks to nearly 80% revenue growth from sponsored content.

One major issue with sponsored-content is that many perceive it to lack scalability as a means to target consumers because it requires too much customization to reach a large number of sites. Previously if you wanted to place a sponsored content campaign across thousands of sites, it would have to be done manually and setup individually, making scale brutal and slow to say the least. New platforms launched in 2016 such as Fuze360’s ContentCard are overcoming scalability issues and offering programmatic sponsored-content that will allow brands to reach a massive audience this holiday season with ease.

Tell us a little about your background and what inspired the business?

The company was founded in 2006 by Joel Bess, a veteran direct response marketer. I joined the company in 2009 as a partner and the Vice President of Optimal Fusion with the goal of building a disruptive ad platform. My background is varied, but was always based around providing a solution to clients in some capacity whether it be selling commercial real estate or representing actors in my previous life. In January 2016, I oversaw the launch of the company’s first-of-its-kind native instream ad product Fuze 360.

Tell us what building your company in LA has been like?

Over the course of the last few years we’ve really seen an explosion of interest in LA with the advent of Silicon Beach as a destination for adtech products and VC tech investors. We are self-funded, and have previously eschewed outside investment for the most part, so from our point of view it’s been an interesting few years watching the sector explode around us. We always held tight to our underlying foundation and morals as a cash flow positive business. Whereas that used to be the norm, we find ourselves as a unique animal these days as our contemporaries are grabbing whatever funds cross their desks.

What are the milestones that you plan to achieve within six months?

The launch of Fuze360 this past January was a substantial benchmark for us, and really the pinnacle of the last 3-5 years of pivoting from solely a media-based advertising brokerage and independent publisher to a full-fledged audience-based advertising technology platform. Previously our goal was to sell remnant ad inventory on behalf of third-party websites to Fortune 500 companies, moving forward we are focused on targeting specific audiences across thousands of sites which employ our platform as a means to increase ad inventory rates for publishers and to deliver targeted results-based advertising to our clients. Our immediate goal for the next 6 months is to tell our story to advertisers, the product is a success and sells itself once we get in the room, so the main objective is to share those results with our prospective clients and build upon the success of 2016.

If you could be put in touch with one investor in the community who would it be and why?

We’ve never been a company based around outside investment or chasing dollars, as I mentioned earlier, we just simply never factored that in as a means of growth until recently. I’d say we are in somewhat of a learning process right now in terms of considering investment, and so we are primarily trying to talk with smart people we feel have represented themselves in unique ways or who are leaders in specific verticals rather than followers. What I’ve learned so far is that it really doesn’t matter what the industry is, so we don’t get caught up in focusing only on investors who work in adtech; we focus on loyalty and integrity.

I’m always interested in what Peter Thiel is up to and guys like Geoff Lewis; investors who aren’t so concerned with outside opinions but rather have a feeling about something and get after it. I think in particular I’m fascinated by what’s starting to take shape with institutional investments into legal cannabis, and those guys were really early to the game with Privateer Holdings. I think California and specifically Los Angeles are going to be major components in the growth of legal cannabis, you can just kind of feel the excitement in this town about the prospect as its heating up.

What does being “Made in LA” mean to you and your company?

I think we are a unique breed in Los Angeles, and I think until recently we kind of looked at ourselves as outliers with the focus being on Silicon Valley and this being a “coal town” with entertainment being the driving force. You can really draw some interesting comparisons between the entertainment industry and adtech and the kinds of people who lean towards these sectors.

We’ve been in heart of the Hollywood Media District for 7 years. What used to be mostly dive bars and post-production lots has turned into a bustling cluster of interesting startups, and that’s not even considering what’s going on in Playa Vista, so in that regard we are still kind of outliers here in Hollywood. From an infrastructure and human capital standpoint, digital advertising and adtech has really been able to ride the coattails of a matured entertainment industry here in L.A. From the high speed wiring to the Hollywood/Vine Metro station, we’re able to hire a diverse group of employees from across the region as well as take advantage of some of the development zone tax incentives when available.

What else can be done to promote early stage entrepreneurship in Los Angeles?

I really think diversification of ideas is the key to promoting early stage business development particularly in the digital and adtech world. We constantly see parody, at least in our small section of the world. You’ll rarely see an idea that isn’t replicated by other entrepreneurs over and over with the thought that they can “do it better.” I respect that from a work ethic standpoint, but at the end of the day the uniqueness of ideas is what promotes entrepreneurship in general. As an example, look at Shark Tank, consumers are interested in new ideas and the sausage making process of building a business or an idea from scratch, and I think any platform where entrepreneurs can differentiate themselves naturally works as a mechanism for promotion.

Do you think LA will land the Olympics in 2024?

I sure hope not, I just don’t think we are currently logistically setup to handle that many people with such an urban sprawl. Just from a public transportation point of view, we are at the very beginning of building something viable for the people who live here. But then again, perhaps this is what will finally force us into developing a viable transportation grid. I’m also not sure if the ‘hollywoodzation’ of the Olympics is the best look for us. Are you ready to see the Kardashians in the front row of every sporting event for 2 straight weeks? I’m not sure the rest of the world is quite ready for that.

Trade groups like Public Citizen and Commercial Alert are pushing for stronger regulations ensuring that consumers can trust that paid advertisements are disclosed on Instagram, Facebook, and across blogs and other outlets where smaller bloggers have substantial influence among their friends and avid followers. While much of the same has been regulated for celebrity influencers as that side of the industry matured, there appears to be a lag or an outright lack of policing surrounding these paid reviews.

While regulating micro influencers and celebrity influencers seems similar, there is a major distinction, and likely why micro influencers are now under the microscope. Celebrities are visible and violations are much easier to detect, whereas micro bloggers lack the exposure and may only be influencing a small circle of friends and family making it impossible to regulate and police at scale. Sure, if you want to hire 3 bloggers to talk about your product, you can certainly check on them daily and ensure they are being complaint and that they are evangelizing your brand in the way you intended. But what happens when you're talking about 500+ sites, this is when manual becomes impossible.

Sponsored-Content is undergoing a renaissance similar to what occurred with display advertising over the last 10 years. Let's rewind back to the mid 2000's when DoubleClick was not serving 99% of fortune 100 brands' display advertising campaigns like they are now. This meant that publishers and networks were provided with a simple jpeg banner and a separate tracking link with the domain where the user would be sent upon clicking the banner. Since the banner and tracking URL were separate and not attached like a DoubleClick tag is today, an unscrupulous publisher could replace the approved banner with an unapproved creative and then simply direct the user to the landing page they were given and still receive credit for impressions or clicks.

As display advertising matured, third-party validation and attribution platforms sprang up and we began to see the industry norm move towards tags and creatives that could not be "broken," as well as a plethora of thirdparty safeguards in place to secure the brands' message. At this point, I can think of maybe 2-3 fortune 100 brands who do not serve their ads through DoubleClick or a similar protected platform.

So why aren't brands doing the same for sponsored-content and native content-based influencer camapigns, particularly when there is increased FTC pressure to comply with disclosers among other things?

Enter Fuze360, Optimal Fusion's native in-stream ad platform which was developed to solve these exact problems. Advertisers can now create content templates which are approved, locked, and then deployed across thousands of blogs, publishers, and influencers big and small. With the ability to wrap content into DoubleClick tags along with any thirdparty validation you could dream of, Fuze360 is opening up sponsored-content to allow for the same transparency, validation, and scale that display has enjoyed over the years.

In addition, advertisers can purchase inventory progrmatically just like they do for display advertising through DSPs and exchanges allowing for scale and increased targeting through Fuze360's ContentCard. Another exciting tool is the ability to collect data within the sponsored content post; users can opt for more information and supply their email address or phone number and begin a relationship with a brand without typical barriers like having to visit the brands' contact form. This is very much in line with the current trend towards platforms like google and Facebook aggressively keeping users within those native platforms to consume third-party content rather then clicking out to content websites. Products like Facebook's Instant Articles and Google's News results are proving the fact that users want quick nuggets of information without boundaries as mobile usage has skyrocketed and data fees followed.

Sponsored-content is having its renaissance moment but many brands are still unaware that there is a better way to deploy branded content. Many large legacy advertisers think they have to change their process, lose data points and kpis they rely on, and receive less transparency when jumping into sponsored-content. They are dead wrong, the transformation has begun and its just getting started.

With these numbers only projected to increase, brands are faced with the reality that reaching consumers with effective digital advertising campaigns over the next three months will have an unprecedented impact on the overall fiscal performance of their organization.

Given the speed at which the digital landscape has evolved since just last year, the stakes are higher than ever and the brands that understand the up-to-the-minute trends will have the best chance at success.

At Optimal Fusion, we have dedicated tremendous resources to prepare our clients for this moment based on the latest analytics and first-party data. Below are 7 digital advertising trends that will help you achieve record results this holiday season:

1) REACH HUMANS, NOT BOTS: According to the Association of National Advertisers, advertisers will lose $7.2 billion globally to bots and fraud in 2016. While fraud varies by buy type, programmatic buys had the greatest amount last year. Using technology to effectively target the right audience is critical, but an overreliance on automated advertising could lead to the squandering of resources during this critical fiscal quarter. To avoid this pitfall, diversify your media plan to include platforms that focus on engagement and that guarantee KPIs rooted in viewability and post-impression activities.

How does focusing on platforms that focus on engagement and that guarantee KPIs rooted in viewability and post-impression activities deter fraud?

Almost every campaign these days utilizes third party impression validation companies like DoubleVerify and Intergral Ad science who are gauging viewability and blocking fraud in real time. The problem is that each validation company utilizes a different metric.

For example, our platform only serves impressions when a user is currently in view, in that sense every impression should be viewabile. We frequently see three different viewability stats between these three platforms. What IAS quantifies as a viewable impression DoubleVerify may quantify as not viewable. Whereas these platforms are extremely useful for blocking fraud, the ultimate measure of viewability should also be gauged through post impression activities and KPIs.

A strong platform that is confident in their product will and should contractually guarantee post impression goals. With so much uncertainty as to which validation platform is most effective, our clients focus less on upfront viewability numbers, and more so on click rate, conversion rate, engagement rates, and ultimately sales or actions. As native is a current buzz word, there is a glut of native platforms out there these days promising the world to prospective advertisers during their pitch. There are very few results-based platforms, as it’s much easier to sell an impression rather than guaranteed results.

I would highly recommend that advertisers push for contractual KPI guarantees before proceeding with a new platform. 99% of the industry just rolled their eyes after reading that comment. We are not popular amongst our peers by suggesting that platforms should be alleviating media planners’ risk, but we feel that is where the industry is headed or should be.

2) CONTRACTUALLY NEGOTIATE RESULTS, NOT IMPRESSIONS: Impressions as an Internet currency have lost tremendous value. The Internet Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) Viewable Impressions Guidelines state that 50% of the pixels in a banner must be visible for one second to qualify as an impression. According to Google, 56% of impressions are not viewable. Many companies, including our own, now offer results-based digital advertising solutions that contractually guarantee results and reduce risk. The burning question over the last decade — how to convert impressions into dollars – has more solid answers in 2016 than ever before.

3) TELL A STORY WITH PROGRAMMATIC SPONSORED CONTENT: With the advent of ad-blockers and the constant noise from aggressive banners, advertisers are shifting budgets to include more sponsored content. LinkedIn’s ad revenue grew by 29% in the first quarter of 2016 to $154.1 million, thanks to nearly 80% revenue growth from sponsored content. One major issue with sponsored-content is that many consider it unscalable as a means to target consumers because it requires too much customization to reach a large number of sites. New platforms launched in 2016 such as ContentCard are overcoming scalability issues and offering programmatic sponsored content that will allow brands to reach a massive audience this holiday season.

4) USE NATIVE ADVERTISING TO WIN MILLENNIALS $1.3 TRILLION IN BUYING POWER: With 83 million members, Millennials have supplanted baby boomers as the largest segment of the population and according to the New York Times, Millennials have $1.3 trillion in annual buying power. Developing advertising campaigns to infiltrate the ‘Selfie Generation’ is no longer ancillary, it must be a core focus and priority. One particularly effective tactic is native advertising. Native ad spends are expected to reach $21 billion in 2018, up from just $4.7 billion in 2013.

Adweek notes that 46% of Millennials who read native ads consume the information; and according to the 2015 Reuters Institute Digital News Report, consumers ages 18-25 were the most welcoming age group for native ads. But…not all native ads are well done. They too can be intrusive, especially on mobile.

How do you create a native ad that draws consumers in?

I think we are in a transition period for Native advertising, very similar to what we saw with mobile over the last few years as it matured and somewhat peaked. There is very little true Native these days if you really boil it down.

Native should be just that, it should be native. It should fit in and feel as if its part of the site/content, and the user shouldn’t have to earn or choose to view or participate in Native content. We’ve seen companies in the content suggestion business like Taboola and Outbrain positioned as the pioneers of Native advertising. But should true Native advertising require a user to click a banner and visit another site or page just to view that content? Essentially, the ‘click-bait’ creative that the user decided to click on becomes the content and engagement rather then the actual content the brand is looking to promote.

From our point of view, native must live within sites, and marketers should be resistant to requiring users to leave a site or the current article they are reading. True Native should blend, look, and feel like the site and content the user is currently engaging with.

Consumers want instant gratification and quick news, notes, and nuggets. They want their content quick and easy, particularly in the mobile format. We are seeing this trend as Google and Facebook focus on keeping users within their platforms while consuming outside content as opposed to clicking out to thirdparty sites. This will continue and brands will need to get creative in how they engage readers with sponsored content or native ads. I believe that as this transition continues, we will see less clickbait as consumers are somewhat tired of being tempted with something that doesn’t deliver after the click.

5) REALIZE THAT DIGITAL CONSUMERS OWN 3.64 CONNECTED DEVICES EACH: In 2016, BI Intelligence reports that digital video will reach nearly $5 billion in ad revenue due to developing delivery channels. A GWI study found that digital consumers own 3.64 connected devices each. While mobile was all the rage the last few years, brands are recommended to develop digital ads that cut across all channels and platforms this holiday season.

6) GRANDMA IS LIVING LONGER, ACCEPT HER FACEBOOK REQUEST: Just a few short years ago, brands were targeting younger consumers online but still focused on reaching older consumers through traditional advertising. Then it happened, mom requested to be your friend on Facebook and as troubling as that was, grandma followed. The fact is, baby boomers make up 70% of the disposable income in the U.S. and are more tech savvy than they are given credit. A DMN3 study found that more than 90% of baby boomers use search engines, email and shop online. With life expectancy on the rise, developing an online strategy for older adults is now a long-term growth opportunity for brands.

7) TIMING IS EVERYTHING, START EARLIER: A multitude of studies show that online shopping has created a longer holiday buying period. Nielsen’s data showed that in 2015, 36% of Americans started their holiday gift shopping by the end of September; and AYTM Market Research found that 47% of Internet users said holiday promotions before November 4 were effective in getting them to make purchases. It is highly recommended to begin your efforts sooner rather than later.

By Zack Brown, Vice President, Optimal Fusion
SOURCE: Adotas.com

ContentCard is the newest feature of Fuze360, the company’s native advertising platform, which launched in January and has achieved strong results for Fortune 500 clients.

For the first time, advertisers will be able to easily reach thousands of websites and influencers with a contextually relevant sponsored article through a single platform.

 “We created ContentCard after realizing that our clients’ struggles were widespread across the industry and could be addressed,” said Vice President of Optimal Fusion Zack Brown.  “Currently, if you want to reach thousands of sites and influencers with a sponsored article, it has to be done manually and through many vendors or it has to be paid on a cost-per-click and driven to the brand’s site.  Our goal is to open up the sponsored content sector similarly to what programmatic did for display banners. “    

ContentCard combines traditional IAB ad units with custom advertorials and handpicked relevant content with scale.  This will appear between paragraphs instream or on side rails, giving brands the opportunity to tell a story along with their traditional banner units. 

ContentCard builds on the robust existing offerings of Fuze360 which was designed to drive conversions and post-view activities rather than simply delivering passive impressions. With the rapid growth and subsequent rebalancing of the programmatic ad buying landscape, Fuze360 fills a unique position with its ability to execute programmatic buys along with backend KPI guarantees, and unique customized ads.  

To guarantee performance and viewability, the platform offers advertisers guaranteed viewable impressions with its proprietary ViewCard technology only serving impressions when a reader is in-view. Pairing ViewCard technology with ContentCard, Fuze360 will delay the banner from loading until the user is currently in-view of the content taking things even further by guaranteeing both content and banner viewability for a single price.   

“When you’re in the business of guaranteeing results to your clients, and we are, you need to find unique ways to engage users that will lead to more clicks, more actions, and ultimately more conversions,” said President of Optimal Fusion Joel Bess. “Many of our publishers represent niche communities and content and the goal was to use this to our advantage in terms of proving to our clients that more can be expected of a platform then just impressions.” 

From a publishers’ standpoint, because advertisers are generally open to paying higher CPM rates for content-relevant placements, ContentCard increases average CPM rates substantially by creating targeted inventory within publishers’ sites.   

About Optimal Fusion

Founded in 2006, Optimal Fusion is a Los Angeles based performance-driven integrated media company utilizing exclusive properties and platforms to link brands and consumers through targeted marketing solutions. Pairing proprietary audience targeting technology with first-party data, and a portfolio of proprietary properties and platforms, Optimal Fusion cultivates a brand-safe environment perfectly situated to target the most relevant consumers.www.optimalfusion.com

About Fuze360

Fuze360 is the recently launched signature offering from Optimal Fusion. The first-of-its-kind native-instream ad platform has effectively eliminated risk by contractually guaranteeing KPIs and backend results customized for each client in advance. In a short time, the platform has achieved unparalleled success for a wide range of small, mid-size and Fortune 500 clients including Disney, Microsoft, and Honest Company.

Fuze360 is reimaging the traditional “banner roadblock” with the ability to offer guaranteed viewability along with 100% share-of-voice instream utilizing multiple ad formats in a single execution. Fuze360 harnesses unique multi-screen ad formats, publisher tools to increase impression quality, and a whole new way to engage consumers through branded experiences. www.fuze360.com

Fuze360 was designed to drive conversions rather than simply deliver passive impression views. With the rapid growth and subsequent rebalancing of the programmatic ad buying landscape, Fuze360 fills a unique position with its ability to execute programmatic buys along with custom high-impact roadblocks and takeovers which are traditionally unavailable in a programmatic setup.

“The goal is to deliver superior post-view actions based on aggressive advertiser goals, ”CEO Joel Bess said. “Fuze360 not only delivers increased viewabilty for marketers, but has also proven that engaging readers with multiple advertising formats instream leads to increased click-through-rates, conversions, and ultimately an ROI lift.”

Highlights for advertisers include:

Fuze360 Advertiser Benefits

• Guaranteed viewable impressions by design
• 100% instream SOV through unique in-content takeovers
• Multi-layer fraud protection
• First-party data targeting
• Premium publisher marketplace
• Proprietary fully-customizable ad formats
• Publisher hosted in-page data collection forms
• Easily integrated with programmatic platforms and buyers
• Fully responsive to all screens

Fuze360 has quietly been in beta since January, and preliminarily focused on promoting a number of high-profile entertainment, health, and CPG brands across inventory within blogs, niche communities, and independent publishers. More recently, the company began an aggressive rollout to premium publishers, while also opening the platform up to a handful of brands that have existing relationships with parent company Optimal Fusion.

Joe Fullmer, Director of Media and Acquisition at Dr. Oz founded ShareCare Inc., one of the first advertisers to take advantage of Fuze360 says: “Optimal Fusion’s Fuze360 platform has allowed our app install campaign to achieve a high level scalability and user engagement, while maintaining efficient cost metrics.” Fuze360 offers a variable pricing model based on marketers’ specific performance goals, resulting in the ability to price each engagement point at a different rate based on the brand’s ultimate goals.

The platform offers advertisers guaranteed viewable impressions with its proprietary ViewCard technology only serving when a reader is in-view. In addition, marketers have the choice of traditional IAB ad units, pre-roll or embedded video, CRM building in-page data forms, custom and rising star units, and the ultimate combination of these brand response tools billed as BrandBoost.

Zack Brown, Vice President of Optimal Fusion says: “The feedback we were getting from advertisers was that as much as they love executing programmatic buys because the process is so simple, they aren’t quite getting the backend metrics they are promised, and when they do, there’s just not enough scale. You may have an advertiser who is trying to drive awareness through video, but they are also looking to drive app installs, and build their CRM database along with driving sales as the ultimate goal.

With the push towards a programmatic-based landscape, media planners are frequently being pigeonholed into pricing all of these activities at the same rate and/or not having the flexibility to drive multiple touch points in a single campaign execution like they can with Fuze360.”

About Optimal Fusion

Founded in 2005, Optimal Fusion is a Los Angeles based performance-driven integrated media company utilizing exclusive properties and platforms to link brands and consumers through targeted marketing solutions. Pairing proprietary audience targeting technology with first-party data, and a portfolio of proprietary properties and platforms, Optimal Fusion cultivates a brand-safe environment perfectly situated to target the most relevant consumers. www.optimalfusion.com

About Fuze360

Launched in January 2016 as a unique instream ad platform, Fuze360 is reimaging the traditional “banner roadblock” with the ability to offer guaranteed viewability along with 100% share-of-voice instream utilizing multiple ad formats in a single execution. Fuze360 harnesses unique multi-screen ad formats, publisher tools to increase impression quality, and a whole new way to engage consumers through branded experiences. www.fuze360.com

LINK TO THE PRESS RELEASE

SOURCE: Optimal Fusion