Despite Hurricane Irma passing through prior to the event, Digiday Publishing Summit Key Biscayne had an amazing turnout. Spirits were high amongst attendees as we came together as an industry to support Southern Florida and each other. Publishers, agencies, and brands openly discussed exciting advancements in ad formats, video, and creative ways journalists are enriching their content. Here a few of my takeaways.
Increasing Video Viewability
The focus of Digiday Key Biscayne was video. How publishers strategize their video content to target audiences across platforms was a hot topic. For instance, the same audience views video differently on Facebook than they do on Instagram or Snapchat. With so many users muting their video content, journalists are also finding creative ways of increasing viewability such as including phrases within video better ensures that content is absorbed.
Header Bidding For Video
Panelists suggested that “player bidding” should be the term for video header bidding because with video, the impressions go through the player and not the header of the page. While a majority of publishers mentioned seeing a lift in revenue after implementing header bidding display that same yield does not always transfer directly to video.
New Ad Formats
Publishers have been exploring new ad units; in particular the Interscroller, a mobile web unit that is revealed underneath the mobile web page content as the user scrolls down the page. Driven by the Better Ads Coalition and the IAB, the unit offers a rich media experience without being intrusive.
Overall, Digiday Publishing Summit Key Biscayne served as a wake up call to ad tech. In order to increase competition and drive higher CPMs and yield, publishers want to do away with the "duopoly" that is Google and Facebook. Industry guidelines and rules are being distributed by Google and Facebook and commanding the way publishers do business. To have a fair ecosystem, we need publishers to band together and become solution-driven.
